LIBRARY^ CONGRESS. 

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8helt\^S\Zo5' 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



FROM 



SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 



THE STORY OF THE TWO HEBREW 
KINGDOMS. 



BY 



1/ 

REV. DAVID GREGG, D. D., 



AND 



REV. LEWIS W.'^IUDGE, D. D. 






DEC Ic j^; 



AMERICAN TRA CT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. . 



\ 



,G7 



COPYRIGHT, 389a 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



o 

2: CONTENTS. 

r- 

VJ — * — 

> 

<" OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TWO KINGDOMS. D. G 7 

THE KINGDOM DIVIDED. D. G. 19 

"To 5'our tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David." 
I Kings 12:16. 

IDOLATRY IN ISRAEL; OR THE SIN OF JEROBOAM. 

D. G. -_, ' 33 

''Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." i Kings 
22:52. 

ELIJAH THE TISHBITE. — THE FIRST CHAPTER OF 

HIS REFORMATION WORK. D. G. 46 

" Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead." 
I Kings 17:1. 

ELIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL; OR THE RE- 
LIGION OF GOD TESTED AND FOUND TRUE. 
D. G 60 

"And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and 
they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God." 
I Kings 18:39. 

THE DISCOURAGED PROPHET; OR ELIJAH AT HOREB. 

D. G. y6 

"And Elijah went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came 
and sat down under a juniper-tree ; and he requested for himself 
that he might die." i Kings 19:4. 

AHAB'S COVETOUSNESS ; OR RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE. 

D. G. 87 

" Thus saith the Lord, In the place where dogs licked the blood 
of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine." i Kings 21:19. 



4 CONTENTS. 

ELIJAH TRANSLATED: A REVELATION OF THE BE- 
LIEVER'S FUTURE. D. G. loo 

*' Behold there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and 
Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." 2 Kings 2:11. 

THE GODLY SUCCESSION; OR ELIJAH, THEN ELISHA. 

D. G. 112 

''And he took up the mantle of Elijah that fell from him." 
"And when the sons of the prophets saw him they said, The spirit 
of Elijah doth rest upon Elisha." 2 Kings 2:14, 15. 

THE SHUNAMMITE'S SON. D. G 125 

" And the child opened his eyes." 2 Kings 4:35. 

NAAMAN'S RASH ANGER; OR THE PLAY OF TEMPER 

IN HUMAN LIFE. D. G 136 

"But Naaman was wroth and went away, and said, Behold, I 
thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the 
name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and 
recover the leper." "So he turned and went away in a rage." 
2 Kings 5:11, 12. 

GEHAZI PUNISHED. L. W. M. 147 

" Be sure your sin will find you out." Num. 32:23. 

ELISHA AT DOTHAN; OR THE SUPERNATURAL PRO- 
TECTION OF THE CHILD OF GOD. D. G. 154 

"And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his e,ves, 
that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, 
and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and char- 
iots of fire round about Elisha." 2 Kings 6:17. 

SAVED FROM FAMINE. L. W. M 165 

" Oh that men w^ould praise the Lord for his goodness, and for 
his wonderful works to the children of men !" Psalm 107:8. 

JEHU; OR RELIGIOUS ZEAL. D. G I74 

" Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord." 2 Kings 10: 16. 



CONTENTS. " 5 

JONAH COMMISSIONED TO PREACH IN NINEVEH. 

D. G. 185 

*' Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it." 
Jonah 1:2. 

EFFECT OF JONAH'S PREACHING. D. G. 196 

*'So the people of Nineveh believed God." Jonah ^:6. 

ISRAEL OFTEN REPROVED. L. W. M ^ 207 

'' He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall sud- 
denly be destroyed, and that without remedy." Prov. 29: i. 

ISRAEL'S OVERTHROW FORETOLD. L. W. M 220 

" Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which 
he seemeth to have." Luke 8: 18. 

SIN THE CAUSE OF SORROW. L. W. M 230 

''Your iniquities have separated between you and 3^our God." 
Isaiah 59:2. 

CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL. L. W. M 240 

" Because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken 
you." 2 Chron. 24:20. 

THE TEMPLE REPAIRED. L. W. M 249 

*'God loveth a cheerful giver." 2 Cor. 9:7. 

HEZEKIAH, THE GOOD KING. L. W. M. 259 

" Them that honor Me I will honor." i Sam. 2:30. 

JOSIAH AND THE BOOK OF THE LORD. D. G. 273 

" Go inquire of the Lord for me." 2 Chron. 34:21. 

CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH. D. G .._ 283 

'' And the city was besieged." 2 Kings 25:2. 



FROM 

SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY, 



OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE TWO 
KINGDOMS. 

As we open the historic page we find the He- 
brew nation in the acme of its magnificence. It is 
the growth of centuries. It embodies the living of 
the grandest men of time. It is the incorporation 
of the best thoughts and purposes of Deity. It is 
the expression of God's matchless love, and God's 
fidelity in covenant-keeping, and God's forbearance 
and forgiveness. The life of Moses is in it — his 
talents, toils, prayers, holy character, and self-sur- 
render. Joshua is in it — his heroism, war-genius, 
and loyalty. Samuel is in it — his prophetic life 
and his faculty for organization. David is in it — 
his sword and his harp, and his spirit of praise 
which keeps alive the soul-nature of the Hebrew 
citizen. It is a pity that this magnificent nation 
must be broken into two, but it is, and the divi- 
sion is deep and bitter and broad. As we are to 
study the histories of the two kingdoms made 
from this one, let us in the very start take a bird's- 
eye-view as a preparation for entering into details. 



8 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

The ten tribes formed the northern kingdom, 
which was known as Israel ; the other two tribes 
formed the southern kingdom, known as judah. 

I. ISRAEL. 

Israel had more than five times the population 
and territory of Judah. Its territory out-ranked 
that of Judah in almost everything. With the ex- 
ception of Jerusalem and Hebron, it had in it all 
the sites that were dear to the Hebrew, the places 
of memory and of tender association. It far sur- 
passed the territory of Judah for richness of fertil- 
ity and for grandeur of scenery. Jeroboam might 
well be proud of his kingdom when elected to it by 
the national assembly at Shechem. Judging with 
human eyes, and as men judge, any one would 
have chosen the northern kingdom in preference 
to the southern. But the future does not bear out 
the opening prospect. 

If we were asked to give in a single phrase a 
characteristic description of the kingdom of the 
ten tribes, we would say, // was a military monarchy. 
It was such from the beginning of its career to the 
close. A military monarchy suggests the idea of 
unrest, change, revolution. Its dynasties rose and 
fell at short intervals, most of them in the second 
generation: only one continued to the fifth gen- 
eration. In two centuries and a half it had no less 
than nineteen kings. Judah in the same period 
had only twelve, and these were all in the line of 
the one house of David. The kings of the ten 
tribes were in the lines of many houses. Many of 



THE TWO KINGDOMS. 9 

them were usurpers who were put upon the throne 
by treason and blood. They were nearly all tyran- 
nical, acting upon the principle that might makes 
right. There is a dismal monotony about the 
reign of these kings. The invariable formula used 
to delineate their character is this : '* He did evil in 
the sight of the Lordy In the nineteen kings we 
have nine different dynasties, four of which ended 
with the conspirators who founded them. Among 
the whole nineteen there was '' not one calling upon 
the najne of the Lord'' (Hos. 7 : 7). Of these nine- 
teen there were only three who could, from a 
worldly standpoint, be called successful. They 
were Jehu and his descendant Jeroboam II., 
and Hoshea, the last king, under whose reign the 
kingdom passed out of existence. 

The reason the ten tribes passed out of exist- 
ence as a nation was their disloyalty to God. 
They first attempted to worship the true God in a 
false and idolatrous way, under the lead of Jer- 
oboam their first king, and from this they leaped 
into out-and-out idolatry under Ahab. For this 
disloyalty and treason God gave them into the 
hands of the Assyrians. But why did not God 
destroy their nationality at once? There was a 
reason. It was not found in their corrupt kings, 
but it was found in their holy prophets. It was 
the prophet-power that warded off destruction for 
250 years. Judah, as we will see, had more proph- 
ets who found a larger individual place in the 
Bible than the prophets of the ten tribes ; but Is- 
rael, for a time at least, had a far greater number 

I* 



lO FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

of prophets than Judah. In Israel the prophets 
could be counted by the fifty. Obadiah, the gov- 
ernor of king Ahab's house, hid fifty. The ten 
tribes had true prophets of God, and this was so 
from the beginning to the final Captivity. They 
had such prophets as Elijah and Elisha and Jo- 
nah and Hosea and Amos. These all endeavored 
to keep the nation true to God. 

We know the result of the prophet-power which 
made for righteousness in Elijah's day. There 
were 7,000 in the ten tribes who had not bowed 
the knee to Baal. We are acquainted with the 
reformation which Elijah inaugurated. Hosea 
was working v/ith all his might at the time of the 
Captivity. This is enough to show us that there 
was a prophet-power in the nation, just as there 
was a king-power and a priest-power. 

But you may ask. Why did not the prophet- 
power prevail to the saving of the naticfn? The 
answer is this: the king on the throne opposed 
the prophet of God, and where it was possible 
silenced him by slaying him. You know how 
Ahab persecuted Elijah. Ahab kept him from 
doing the work in the kingdom which was in his 
heart to do. If the prophet-power had not been 
interfered with by the king-power and priest- 
power, it would have preserved the nation of the 
ten tribes unto the coming of Christ. 

At the end of 250 years the ten tribes were car- 
ried captive by the king of Assyria. We are not 
to imagine, however, that they were all carried 
captive at once. The kingdom was invaded by 



THE TWO KINGDOMS. II 

three or four successive kings of Assyria. In 
tlie year 750 B. C. Tiglath-Pileser carried away 
the Trans-Jordanic tribes and the inhabitants of 
Galilee. Then during the twenty years that fol- 
lowed Shalmaneser twice invaded the land. On 
the last invasion he besieged Samaria, and after 
three years captured it, and took all that remained 
of the nation to Assyria. 

Carried into Assyria, the nation of the ten tribes 
passed out of sight. The imagination of both Jew 
and Christian has tried in vain to pierce the veil 
which history has drawn over their ultimate fate. 
The black Jews of Malabar, the red Indians of 
North America, the Afghan tribes, have all been 
set forth as the lost tribes. The latest theory is 
that the inhabitants of Great Britain are the lost 
tribes. But where these tribes are no one can tell. 
A few may have escaped and returned to their 
native land, or a few may have returned with the 
Jews from Babylon and have been merged into 
Judah; but further than this conjecture is idle. 
The preservation of the ten tribes was not neces- 
sary to God or to the covenant of redemption. It 
was through Judah that the promised Messiah was 
to come, and it was Judah that God preserved. 
The training of the ten tribes was calculated to in- 
sure their dispersion and complete loss as it did. 
During the 250 years of their national life they 
had lived in idolatry, and they were ready now, 
when carried into a heathen land, to marry and 
inter-marry with idolaters and thus pass out of 
sight as a nationality. 



12 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

II. JUDAH. 

In physical advantages the kingdom of Judah 
was much inferior to Israel. It had only a frac- 
tion of Israel's population. Its territory did not 
compare with Israel's either for size, for fertility, or 
for beauty. Yet the career of Judah as a nation was 
away beyond the career of Israel. It was longer 
and more brilliant. Unlike Israel, it lived through 
its captivity. It returned to its native land and 
reorganized, and continued in Palestine until 
seventy years after the birth of Christ. Although 
it has no Government nor country, but is scattered 
to the ends of the world, the nation of Judah lives 
to-day, the wonder of the nineteenth century. No 
nation on the earth is so unified and compact. 

The kings of this nation were unlike the kings 
of Israel. Among them were many good and 
holy men, men who feared God, and who inaugu- 
rated and carried forward thorough reforms. They 
were such as Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jotham, Hezekiah, 
and Josiah. 

There were at least three influences at work in 
Judah which were beneficial. 

(a) // had Jerusalem with its holy and thrilling 
memories. 

This influence for good can scarcely be over- 
rated. Here was the Temple, which was a witness 
for God. It constantly issued a call to loyalty to 
God. It was a unifier of the nation. In Jerusa- 
lem David and Solomon reigned. The splendor of 
their reigns kept the nation loyal to the house of 



THE TWO KINGDOMS. 1 3 

David for centuries. The writings of these kings 
were still with the people, , and they stirred the 
people. The memories of David and Solomon 
fired the hearts of the Jews with patriotism and 
stimulated them to great deeds. 

(b) It had the power of the priesthood, 

Jeroboam alienated from him the priests and 
Levites, who were living in the cities throughout 
the land, and they went in a body to Judah and 
dwelt in Jerusalem. To them in a great measure 
were confined the education and refinement of the 
people. They were the representatives of art and 
law and religion and general knowledge. They 
were loyal to God and to his Temple. They kept 
the sacrifices burning on the altars and secured 
the defence of prayer. They cultivated and 
strengthened the spirit of worship in the people 
and kept them in living contact with the true God. 

(c). // had the prophetpozver. 

The function of the prophet was to reveal the 
will of God to the nation. The prophet was God's 
witness. His protests and commendations were 
powers. The people realized that their God spoke 
through him. Most faithful were the prophets of 
Judah. They lived in the presence of God and 
acted always as those who v/ere in his sight. This 
was the reason they did not see nor fear man in 
the discharge of their duty. They rebuked sin at 
the hazard of their lives. In Judah the kings did 
not antagonize the prophets as the kings of Israel 
did. There were some of the kings of Judah who 
did, but these were the exceptions. On this ac- 



14 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

count the prophets had more freedom, spoke out 
more freely, and did more effective service in 
Judah than in Israel. On this account we have 
more books and writings belonging to the proph- 
ets of Judah than to the prophets of Israel. Of 
the prophets of Israel we have only the writings 
of Hosea, Jonah, and Amos ; and Amos belonged 
to Judah, although he prophesied to Israel. But 
of the prophets of Judah we have the writings of 
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, 
Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Haggai, 
and Daniel. The prophets continued a power in 
Judah until the Captivity, they were a power all 
through the Captivity, and they were a power 
after the Captivity. The works of Haggai and 
Zechariah show this. During this period it was 
they who kept the knowledge of the true God 
alive and rekindled the fires of patriotism in the 
souls of the captives. God lifted one of the proph- 
ets to the highest seat in the nation in which they 
were captives and exiles, viz., the prophet Daniel. 
He was great and in the chief place under the 
reigns of Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Cyrus, and 
Darius. 

Notwithstanding these three mighty influences 
which were at work in the kingdom of Judah, still 
heathenism made inroads and idolatry largely pre- 
vailed. For the sin of idolatry God gave Judah 
into the hands of the King of Babylon, just as he 
had given Israel into the hands of the King of 
Assyria, and he carried it captive. Judah should 
have learned a lesson from the captivity of Israel, 



THE TWO KINGDOMS. 1 5 

and it did. But the lesson was not so deeply in- 
wrought as it should have been. It was soon for- 
gotten. Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Josiah learned 
wisdom from the awful judgment of the sister na- 
tion, but the later kings lived so far from the event 
that it made but little impression upon them, and 
the captivity of Judah came. It took place during 
the reign of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. 

We are not to suppose that the whole nation 
was taken captive at once and transported to Bab- 
ylon. As in the case of Israel, there were several 
deportations. Two deportations are mentioned in 
2 Kings, one in 2 Chron. 36 : 20, and three in the 
prophecy of Jeremiah. There were at least two 
large deportations : the first when Jehoiachin and 
all the soldiers and artificers were carried away; 
the second and last when the Temple was destroyed 
and Zedekiah was conquered. All of these depor- 
tations took place under Nebuchadnezzar the King 
of Babylon. 

I imagine you ask for some account of the 
great and powerful nations which carried Israel 
and Judah captive, and also for a word of explana- 
tion concerning the return of Judah. 

Israel was carried captive by the Assyrian na- 
tion ; Judah was carried captive by the Babylonian 
nation. What was the difference between these 
two conquering nations? When Israel was car- 
ried captive these nations were one. Babylon was 
a province of the Assyrian nation. Shortly after 
Israel was carried captive the Assyrian nation, 
having accomplished the mission which God had 



l6 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

for it, viz., to act as God's scourge in carrying 
Israel captive, passed away. The Medes and Per- 
sians made an invasion into Assyria and con- 
quered it. Nabopolassar, who was the general of 
the Assyrian army, proved traitor to the King of 
Assyria and joined the Medes and Persians. His 
master sent him to defend Babylon, but the Medes 
and Persians met him and made a bargain with 
him. The treasonable bargain was this: the 
Medes and Persians were to keep the upper part 
of the empire with Nineveh as the capital, and 
Nabopolassar was to be king over the southern 
part which had the city of Babylon ^s its capital. 
Thus the Assyrian nation was broken in two and 
Babylon became independent under Nabopolassar. 
The son of Nabopolassar, and his successor, was 
Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon who carried 
Judah captive. It was he who took Daniel a cap- 
tive from Judaea and first made him great in 
Babylon. When the Babylonish Empire carried 
Judah captive, it would seem that it had accom- 
plished the mission which God had for it, viz., to 
be his scourge in chastising Judah, so it soon 
passed away, and on this wise : Immediately after 
the captivity of Judah, the same Medo- Persian 
army which destroyed Assyria and gave Babylon 
to Nabopolassar marched down into Babylon and 
took it. Cyrus was the leader of the Medo-Per- 
sians. In religion Cyrus was a follower of the 
great Zoroaster. The Zoroastrians were the only 
religionists of the world, besides the descendants 
of Abraham, who worshipped but one God and 



THE TWO KINGDOMS. I J 

who hated polytheism, the worship of many gods. 
When Cyrus took the Babylonian Empire, he was 
surprised and delighted to find there, in the cap- 
tive Jews, a people who like himself worshipped 
only one God. This accotints in part for the great 
interest which he took in the Jews, and for the 
favors which he heaped upon Daniel, the great 
man of the Jews. He continued Daniel in the first 
place of the land. 

What was stranger still, in the writings of the 
Hebrew prophets Cyrus was named by name. 
Isaiah foretold that he would set the captive Jews 
free, and "even described the method of taking 
Babylon which the genius of Cyrus invented. 
'You can imagine how this prophecy stirred the 
soul of Cyrus when it was unrolled before him. 
No wonder he interested himself in the Jews, and 
in the name of the Lord God of heaven issued the 
decree for their return. 

, The return disappoints us. Only 50,000 mar- 
shalled under the leadership of Zerubbabel. It is 
true that there were two other returns, one under 
Ezra and one under Nehemiah, but the total 
number that returned only made a fraction of the 
nation. But God saw to it that this fraction car- 
ried in it the family in which Jesus Christ was to 
be born, and that was the principal necessity of 
history. That was the one fact that Providence 
had to guard. 

Such is an outline sketch of the two kingdoms 
whose histories we are about to study. The pros- 
pect which this outline presents is not dull. We 

Solomon to the Captivity, 



1 8 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

see before us some of the grandest characters of 
the Holy Book and some of the most thrilling 
events of time. Let ns enter upon our work with 
hope ! Let us above all seek the illumination 
of the divine Spirit who indited these histories, 
that the books and chapters to be studied may 
glow with new meaning and flash with attractive 
and saving truths. 

Oh, thou Spirit of Truth, give spiritual eye- 
sight to thy servants so that they may see divine 
realities clearly, sharply, vividly. Let thy revela- 
tions live before them and in them, so that they 
may always be like glories seen for the first time. 
Grant that they may ever retain their freshness 
and interest and influence. Help thy servants 
to incarnate them and set them before others in 
colors that burn; and thy grace shall have the 
glory. 



THE KINGDOM DIVIDED. I9 



THE KINGDOM DIVIDED. 

'*TO YOUR TENTS, O ISRAEL: NOW SEE TO THINE OWN HOUSE, 

David." i Kings 12:16. 

The product of ages was thrown into wreck by 
the rough words of a single youth. Rehoboam, a 
young man, empty-headed, puffed up with pride, 
devoid of common sense at forty-one, a king only 
by accident of birth, rent the nation in twain, 
and the rent was never healed. In one moment 
he shattered the ideal of Moses and brought to 
naught the labors of centuries. Oh, the unlimited 
power of man for destruction ! The power of one 
weak man to pull down and lay in ashes outbal- 
ances the power of a hundred strong men to build 
up. A single rap of the clumsy maid shivers 
the crystal vase, the exponent of much money 
and skill. The tiny hands of the child tear in 
pieces the beautiful flower which it took a year to 
make and paint. The destructive force of the 
shallow-headed, short-sighted Rehoboam is more 
than a match for the united constructive force of 
all the great men who preceded in Israel. When 
we realize how great is the destructive power of 
the weakest of men, we see our need of the con- 
stant protection of the omnipotent God. God 
must stand between us and danger, between the 
church and danger, between the nation and dan- 
ger. There is no sure defence short of Omnipo- 
tence. 



20 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

As we take up the story of the schism of the 
tribes we must notice that Scripture sets it before 
us in a two-fold Avay : as the zuork of man and as the 
zvork of God, Both of these facts are true, and they 
are both needed in order to completeness. The 
division of the Hebrew nation was the natural out- 
come of human action, the result of certain social 
laws; and at the same time it was the result of 
God's overrule, the infliction of his judgment for 
the violation of his revealed will. 

I. THE HUMAN ELEMENT IN THE DIVISION. 

(a.) One cause was tribal jealousy. This existed 
especially between Judah and Ephraim. They 
were both powerful tribes, and were rivals. Eph- 
raim was envious of the honor centred in Judah. 
This appears as far back as the times of Judges. 
When in the days of the Judges the other tribes 
carried on war without him, he grew angry and 
claimed that he had been insulted by being ig- 
nored. This was not true. The other tribes asked 
him to join them in the war, but because he had 
not originated and planned the war he said, '' No, 
I will not join you." He thought to humble the 
tribes. He thought that they would fail without 
him, and in this way magnify his importance. But 
they won, and this brought him the humiliating 
revelation that he was not essential. This revela- 
tion stung him to the quick. He declared war 
against the tribes. But in this war he was defeat- 
ed, and his pride had another fall. What fools 
pride and jealousy make of men ! How many 



THE KINGDOM DIVIDED. 21 

Ephraims there are, men who think they are es. 
sential ! They are too ill-natured to do duty, and 
they become fearfully mad when others at great 
cost do it without their help. It is true that Eph. 
raim was united in civil life with the other tribes, 
under the reign of David and Solomon, but their 
allegiance was nothing like so hearty as that of the 
other tribes. Seven years were allowed to pass be- 
fore David was owned as king, and Ephraim was 
the last to welcome him back when the rebellion 
of Absalom was crushed. It was Ephraim's jeal- 
ousy that made Absalom's rebellion a possibility. 
The succession of Rehoboam to the throne brought 
it a new occasion for action. We must emphasize 
the jealousy of Ephraim, or the human causes of 
the division of the Hebrew nation will not be un- 
derstood. Ephraim was sore. The covenant of 
God confirmed the throne of the nation to Judah, 
through the house of David, and this struck 
against his royal ambition. The sanctuary was 
removed from his territory, from Shiloh, where it 
had been for over three hundred years, and this 
robbed him of another prized honor. Ephraim 
felt that altogether too little was made of Ephraim 
in the nation, and he was ready for any move- 
ment which looked towards his exaltation. 

(b.) A^iother cause of the division was the oppres- 
sion under the reign of Solomon, The reign of Solo- 
mon was the golden age of the Hebrew nation. It 
was devoted to the upbuilding of internal interests. 
Famous cities were reared, and other cities were 
inclosed with defences. The royal court was en- 



22 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

larged, and famous and extravagant palaces were 
erected. All this cost labor and money. These 
things meant heavy taxation, and heavy taxation 
meant cruelty. We of this nineteenth century 
wonder at the pyramids and the ruins of the vast 
temples of the past, and we talk of the enterprise 
and skill of the ages gone by, and of the lost arts ; 
but do not let us forget that these works which call 
out our wonder are monuments of Oriental tyran- 
ny, cruel slavery, enforced labor, and of unneces- 
sary and unjust taxation. According to Pliny 360,- 
000 men had to work twenty years at one pyramid. 
In the construction of the canal by Mehemet Ali 
over 300,000 laborers were compelled to work un- 
der the lash. Many thousands of these perished 
through fatigue and hardship. From the reply of 
Rehoboam to the people in which he said that he 
would substitute scorpions, i. e., lashes tipped with 
steel, for his father's simple whips, it would seem 
that he had reference to the enforced labor by 
which renowned works were carried forward. The 
works of Solomon were such as gave the nation re- 
nown; but the price at which these works were 
carried forward was too much for the people. It 
made Solomon's reign oppressive and tyrannical. 
When Rehoboam came to the throne the people 
determined that this system of oppression should 
be stopped. 

(c.) The cause which brought the division to a cli- 
max was the insolent and tyrannical spirit of Reho- 
boam, In dealing with Rehoboam the people fell 
back on the original power which God gave the 



THE KINGDOM DIVIDED. 23 

king when he inaugurated the monarchy. This 
power was limited by a constitution. This consti- 
tution protected the rights of the people against 
oppression. Acting according to the original con- 
stitution, which Samuel had written out in a book, 
the people determined to restrict the sway of the 
king, or else refuse allegiance. With this plan be- 
fore them, they prepared their Bill of Rights and 
drew up their petition, and sent for the king to 
come to Shechem, the chief city of Ephraim. There 
they presented their petition to Rehoboam, and 
told him that his coronation over the ten tribes 
depended upon the granting of it. It would seem 
that Rehoboam was already recognized as king in 
the tribe of Judah. Without indorsing the jeal^ 
ousy of Ephraim, our sympathies are wholly with 
the people. According to our mind they asked 
only their rights. Theirs was the cause of liberty. 
They were humane in their method. They re- 
sorted to honorable arbitration rather than to the 
sword. They made fair proposals. They asked 
for honest and needed reforms and for Scriptural 
liberties. Some blame them for their revolt ; but 
how could they have acted otherwise ? If they had 
submitted to the insolent Rehoboam, who in after 
times would have had any respect for their man- 
hood ? We look upon the answer which they gave 
the insulting and enslaving tyrant as a force 
which has helped the world to its present civil 
liberty and its present treatment of tyrannical 
rulers. 

There are moments that face us with a sudden 



24 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

demand, and they manifest the spirit of which we 
are made and they make or mar our future. Such 
was the present moment to Rehoboam. He lis- 
tened to the people and then took their petition 
under advisement, and told them to come to him 
at the end of three days for an answer. If he had 
been a wise man he would have granted the peti- 
tion on the spot. 

The three days were spent by Rehoboam in 
taking counsel. First he called the old men, who 
had been sharers in the administration of govern- 
ment with his father. These counselled him wise- 
ly. They reasoned from a wide experience. They 
knew the people, their temper, their rights. They 
knew how to deal with men. They had been 
brought up on the wise proverbs of Solom^on, and 
remembered that ''a soft answer turneth away 
wrath." They counselled that Rehoboam accede 
at once to the petition, humble himself, and be 
what a king ought to be, viz., the servant of the 
people. Dissatisfied with their counsel, Rehoboam 
turned from them to his youthful companions, to 
those who were one with him. It is human nature 
to go to our sympathizers for counsel. We natu- 
rally like those who think as we do. It bolsters 
self-conceit, and we are all self-conceited. But 
sympathizers are poor counsellors ; they are one- 
sided and partial. A man will get more hard facts 
from his enemies. One enemy, if you can get his 
true mind, is worth half a dozen friends as a means 
of seeing yourself as others see you. Like Reho- 
boam, his young comrades were mere theorists. 



THE KINGDOM DIVIDED. 25 

They were without a grain of experience. It is 
the most ignorant people who are the most mulish. 
They spoke according to his own mind. They 
talked with contempt about the masses. They 
grew indignant at their presumption in daring to 
dictate to him who was born king. They saw in 
their petition a foreshadowing of future insolence. 
There would be no end to dictation, if they were 
not dealt with severely and made to know their 
places. The young comrades inflamed the feel- 
ings of Rehoboam against the people ; and so Vvdth 
the sense of an injured man he met them on the 
third day and gave them a stern reply. 

So far as we know, notwithstanding the one 
thousand wives and concubines of Solomon, Reho- 
boam was the only son of Solomon. As the only 
son he was a spoiled child. Brought up in the lap 
of luxury, he was wholly untractable. Educated 
as the heir to the throne and accustomed to look 
down upon the common people, he believed that 
the people existed to serve the king, instead of the 
king existing to serve the people. He had not 
learned the philosophy of ruling, viz., serving. 
Napoleon rules with a rod of iron — Jesus Christ 
serves, even to the giving up of his life. Hence 
Napoleon was soon without a kingdom ; but the 
kingdom of Christ is growing towards universality. 

What was the result of Relioboams tyranriieal 
reply ? 

The ten tribes immediately set up a govern^ 
ment of their own and crowned Jeroboam, a for- 
mer servant of Solomon. 

2 



26 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

He was a man of the people and possessed 
great skill. He had once been the collector of the 
tribute from the tribes of Ephraim and had cham- 
pioned the rights of the people. 

The ten tribes carried with them the .great 
part of the territory and the best of it. The rocky 
and hilly country only was left to Judah. With 
the ten tribes were the great multitudes; with 
Judah was only a small minority. But Judah had 
this advantage over the ten tribes, it had the 
prestige of the reign of David and Solomon, which 
kept the heart of the little nation aflame with 
heroic memories and which inspired it to great 
things. It had also the Temple and the holy city 
of Jerusalem. These proved mighty powers in the 
future. Besides this, the whole tribe of Levi, 
which was scattered in the cities throughout the 
land, came over to Judah. To the Levites in a 
great measure had been confined the education 
and refinement of the whole nation : they were 
therefore a mighty power and a great addition. 

II. THE DIVINE ELEMENT IN THE DIVISION. 

The division was the work of man. It was 
also called the work of God. When God dissuaded 
the army of Judah from going to war with the 
ten tribes, at the call of Rehoboam, he said to 
them through the prophet Shemaiah, '' This thing 
is done of me. War not against your brethren.'* 
If we turn back to the days of Solomon, we shall 
find that God told Solomon that he would divide 
the kingdom, just as it was now divided. He said 



THE KINGDOM DIVIDED. 2/ 

that only one tribe should remain with his son 
Rehoboam. Again, if we tnrn to the biography of 
Jeroboam, the servant of Solomon, we shall find 
that Ahijah, the prophet of the Lord, made known 
to Jeroboam the scenes of this day and predicted 
his coronation over the ten tribes. God many 
years before gave Solomon the philosophy of the 
division. It had a moral cause : it was a judg- 
ment upon his sin of idolatry. The one true God 
kept the nation one so long as he was loyally 
served ; but when strange gods were introduced 
into the nation elements of division were intro- 
duced. God told Solomon all about the division. 
The knowledge of it was part of the punishment 
of his sin. He was tormented with the vision of 
the wreck of his life-work. The words of God, 
** Only one tribe for your son ; the rest for your 
servant,'' sounded day and night in his soul. Solo- 
mon grieved that he sent his son into life fettered 
and doomed because of his sin. Rehoboam could 
no more put down Jeroboam, the servant of his 
father, than Saul could put down David, the Lord's 
anointed. God was at work in the lamented divi- 
sion of the nation. He was vindicating his honor 
and putting his stamp of disapprobation upon the 
heinous crime of idolatry. He was exercising his 
judgment in the righteous punishment of sin. 
Yet all the while he was not in any way interfer- 
ing with the free agency of man. Man was acting 
out his own will, but at the same time acting out 
God's predicted purposes. 

The part which God took in the division of the 



28 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

Hebrew nation reveals this fact which is over- 
looked by men, viz., God is the greatest factor in 
history, and his ivill is the greatest known pozver, ' He 
walks among the golden candlesticks and rules in 
the church which he has divinely ordained to be 
the light of the world ; and he moves among the 
nations and dashes them together like potsherds, 
and sweeps them aside when it is his will, as easily 
as a man sweeps the dust from the scales when he 
is about to weigh. When his law is not honored 
upon the part of man by willing obedience, he 
honors it himself by the infliction of his penalties. 
He regulates every man's life, from the highest to 
the lowest, from the king to the peasant ; and he 
sees to it that his law is honored in every life by 
reward or by penalty, according to the character of 
each life. He will follow sin to the bitter end, 
even though by so doing he may be compelled to 
rive in twain magnificent kingdoms. He stands 
before the world and says concerning the division 
of the Hebrew nation, '' This thing is of me. It is 
the operation of my justice. It is the evidence 
that I am on the throne of the universe. It is my 
beacon of warning to the nations of the earth." 

In laying down the history of the Hebrews at 
this point, let us gather up some of the lessons 
contained in these facts which have been before 
us. 

PRACTICAL DEDUCTIONS. 
I. Parents make an entail upon their posterity. 
This is seen in the heritage which Solomon 
leaves to Rehoboam. We need to take this fact 



THE KINGDOM DIVIDED. 29 

and frequently hold it before ns. It will make ns 
careful. We are not only living for ourselves, but 
we are living for the generations that come after 
us. Our children with their futures are wrapped 
up in our lives. The reputation which we make 
for ourselves will affect them. Our sins will affect 
them. Our fidelity to the truth will affect them. 
The principles which we hold will affect them. 
The God we worship, and the way in which we 
worship, will affect them. What we tolerate and 
countenance will affect them. All these things 
descend from us to them as their heritage. The 
story of Solomon in his relation to Rehoboam 
should stir us to question ourselves as to the entail 
which we are preparing for our children. It 
should incite us to leave them unswerving loyalty 
to the one living and true God, a pure worship, 
a pure and Scriptural system of doctrines, earnest 
prayers, and an estate free from any curse of God. 
If parents are true to God in every relation of life, 
if they follow after those things which are Christ- 
like, they will leave only blessings to their chil- 
dren. The father who leaves to his children sim- 
ply a rich faith in God does better by his children 
than he whose ambition is to leave his family a 
large earthly fortune, accumulated irrespective of 
what is right and honorable. Ill-gotten, question- 
able fortunes carry a curse in them which works 
itself out in the lives of those who are the heirs. 
They are like Solomon's kingdom with idolatry 
in it. 

Pliny tells this story of the erection of an obe- 



30 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

lisk in ancient times, which is in point just here. 
The great stone was to be lifted by the aid of 20,- 
000 workmen. There were fearful risks involved 
in its erection. The king, at whose instance it was 
raised, was very anxious about it. He adopted 
this expedient for securing the attention and in^ 
terest of the engineer who had the task in hand : 
he commanded that the son of the engineer 
should be bound to the apex of the obelisk. The 
safety of the obelisk meant the safety of his son. 
The day of erection was an anxious day for the 
engineer. He carried the life of his boy on his 
heart during its long hours. This led him to look 
into every detail. The result of his exceeding 
care was this: he raised his son to life, for he 
lifted the obelisk to its place with perfect safety. 

Even so God has bound our children to every 
act of ours, and everything we do tells for their 
weal or woe. Let the care of the ancient engineer 
characterize all of our living in its relation to 
them. 

2. // is iinportaiit to have right counsellors and to 
hearken to them, 

Rehoboam*s career illustrates this point. He 
followed the counsel of the inexperienced. He 
consulted the old men only for appearance' sake. 
If he had followed the counsel which they gave 
him, his destiny and the destiny of Israel would 
have been changed. In seeking counsel he went 
to those who he knew would echo his own ideas. 
That is not to seek counsel and light ; that is only 
to shut out the light, and to confirm ourselves in 



THE KINGDOM DIVIDED. 3 1 

our own prejudices. In seeking counsel we should 
go to those who are capable of giving it. We 
should weigh their words irrespective of our preju- 
dices. We should endeavor to look at things with 
their eyes and from their standpoint. Many a life 
would have been saved from wreck if it had fol- 
lowed this course. Living by right counsel is 
sailing the sea by right charts. It means safety, 
success, right influence, and honor. It is a good 
thing to have a Jeremiah for a friend : if we fol- 
low his advice, we shall escape the Babylonish 
captivity. It is a good thing to have a Nathan for 
a guide : if we follow his directions, we shall find 
restoration to the paths of righteousness and de- 
liverance from our sinful wanderings. Let us 
use the light. Let us seek counsellors who will tell 
us the truth, whether it be palatable or distasteful. 

3. There is a pozver in gentle words, 

"A soft answer turneth away wrath.'* Bitter 
w^ords are like blows in the face. Like cruel dag- 
gers, they pierce the heart. More than once in 
history bitter and hasty words have revolutionized 
kingdoms and inaugurated bloody wars. A few 
hot words spoken by Rehoboam rent the Hebrew 
nation. A few unadvised words spoken by Moses 
called forth from God his sentence of exclusion 
from the land of promise. Hot words beget hot 
feelings and alienate from us the affections of our 
friends. On the other hand gentle words soothe 
them, kindle affection within them, and call forth 
that which is best in their nature. Kindly and 
gentle words are thus effective and powerful for 



32 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

good, because they indicate a right and good 
heart. '' Out of the abundance of the heart the 
mouth speaketh." Our words set our innermost 
nature in the light, and this is the reason they tell 
with others. Right speaking is indicative of high 
attainments. An inspired vmter says, " If any 
man offend not in word, the same is a perfect 
man, and able also to bridle the whole body.'* 

4. // is necessary for us to prove ourselves worthy of 
trust before ineu will comrnit to us great i7tterests. 

The Hebrews at Shechem were proving Reho- 
boam. If he had stood the test,. they would have 
committed the interests of the ten tribes to him. 
But he did not stand the test. He acted upon the 
presumption that because he was the son of Solo- 
mon, he Yv^as entitled to the reins of government 
and the position of trust. That Y^as his mistake. 
It is the mistake of many another young man. It 
makes no difference whose son you are, if you are 
not worthy in yourself. God requires personal life 
in order to position and high commissions, and so 
does man. What you are in the church and in so- 
ciety depends upon what you are in yourself. The 
men y^Iio are personally v/orthy Ydll always be 
honored. To them God will give an undivided 
kingdom, ^nd so will the tribes. NotY^thstanding 
all the revelations of time, and all the sins and fol- 
lies and mistakes of the world, history shows us 
that true character and holy and right living Ydn 
the confidence of men and the blessing of God. 



IDOLATRY IN ISRAEL. 33 



IDOLATRY IN ISRAEL; OR THE SIN OF 
JEROBOAM. 

*'JeROBOAM the son of NeBAT, who MADE ISRAEL TO SIN." 
I Kings 22 : 52. 

This twenty-second chapter of i Kings gives us 
the history of Jeroboam in two forms : in epitome 
and in detail. 

I. THE HISTORY IN EPITOME. 

Ten words! Yes, that is all. ''Jeroboam the son 
of Nebat, who made Israel to sm'' This epitome 
suggests several instructive things. 

(a) It sets forth the brevity with which Scripture 
sums tip human character. 

You have seen the charcoal artist making his 
sketches before a public audience. By a few 
strokes of his crayon he makes a face stand out 
from the canvas. Six or seven strokes carry in 
them the outline characteristics of the face, and 
you recognize at once Butler with his drooping 
e5^elid, or Washington with his look of benignity. 
As the artist uses a few strokes of his crayon, the 
Holy Spirit uses a few words, and with these sets 
before us, not a man's face, but his character. 
He sums up the personality and net influence of 
a man in a single sentence. This sentence is an 
illustration in point : '' Jeroboam the son of Nebat, 
who made Israel to sin." We have other illustra- 

From Solomon to the Capthity. o^ 



34 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

tions in the Bible. They are vStich as these : *' Ba- 
laam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of un- 
righteousness.'' '' David, the man after God's own 
heart.*' ''John, the disciple whom Jesus loved." 
"Judas, who Vv^as guide to them that took Jesus.'* 

(b) It illustrates also the fearless courage of the 
Scripture in telling the truth about a man whcfz it 
sums up his character. 

In this it teaches us to estimate character right- 
ly. It thus inspires us to call a man's sins by their 
right names, and to honor a man's virtues even 
though they may be unpopular. The correct es- 
timate of character is essential to the reign of 
truth. The right judgment of a man's life is 
vital to a healthful moral state in society. When 
John has lived a life especially pleasing to Christ, 
when he has cultivated a disposition approved by 
the Son of God, let these things be declared, that 
the John-type of life may be sought by men and 
held in estimation. When Judas proves a traitor 
to his Master and acts as a guide to his Master's 
place of prayer and discovers him to his murder- 
breathing enemies, let Judas be lifted up in his 
true character before the community, lest men be 
led to think that there is no difference between the 
Judas-type of life and the John-type of life in point 
of morality and worth. 

Wrong and cowardly estimates of character de- 
moralize and corrupt the community. They shield 
a false life from deserved odium, and they cheapen 
the life which has been built up at the cost of self- 
sacrifice and hard-fought battles. 



IDOLATRY IN ISRAEL. 35 

(c) // illustrates how the Word of God holds the 
family responsible for the character of its individual 
me^nbers. 

It holds the parent responsible for the trend 
and disposition and life of the child. Nebat, the 
father of Jeroboam, is linked with his sinning son 
in a dark earthly immortality. When parents 
neglect the trusts relative to their children, and 
allow them to turn out badly, there is something 
judicial in the association of their children's name 
with their name. The name of Nebat suffers and 
is lifted into bad eminence by its association with 
the name of Jeroboam. Each home has a person- 
ality and a reputation, and these can be guarded 
only by taking care of each member of the home. 
At every wicked Jeroboam the community points 
the finger of condemnation and cries, '' The son of 
Nebat." Young man, -when you sin you not only 
disgrace yourself, you disgrace your father and 
your father's home. 

II. THE HISTORY IN DETAIL. 

We will bring before us the detailed life of 
Jeroboam by means of a few queries. We will 
question the narrative. 

Question L Hozv did Jeroboam become a candidate 
for the throne of the ten tribes ? 

This question leads us to look into his early 
history. He was a young man of fine endow- 
ments. He was naturally gifted. He had an am- 
bition to distinguish himself. He was brave and 
enterprising, and not afraid of w^ork. He took 



36 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

any place and any work as a starting-point and as 
an opportunity for proving himself essential. He 
soon attracted the attention of King Solomon, who 
advanced him to the head of the house of Joseph. 
It was his duty to see that the house of Joseph 
contributed its share to the national Government. 
As the collector of tribute, Jeroboam sympathized 
with the people. He even offered to join them in 
inaugurating measures for the reduction of taxes. 
This gave him a place in the confidence and heart 
of the people. It was about this time that Ahijah, 
the prophet of Shiloh, came to Jeroboam, at the di- 
rection of the Lord, and rent a new cloak which 
he wore into twelve shreds and gave ten of the 
shreds to Jeroboam, and told him that God would 
divide the Hebrew nation and would give him ten 
of the tribes as a kingdom. This prophecy acted 
like a blazing coal to the already kindled ambition 
of Jeroboam. It set it all aflame. The result of 
his burning ambition was, he outran the provi- 
dence of God by inaugurating a secession to divide 
the Hebrew nation before God's time. God told 
him that the division should not take place until 
the death of Solomon, but he thought to produce 
it in Solomon's day. God's time must be awaited 
in everything. There is no use in trying to run 
ahead of it or to push it. He will not let even a 
Moses anticipate it. Moses may try to secure the 
liberty of the Hebrevv'S from the cruel bondage of 
Pharaoh, but if he be forty years ahead of God's 
time his effort will amount to nothing. He will 
have to flee to Midian for his life. God will no 



IDOLATRY IN ISRAEL. 3/ 

more allow Jeroboam to anticipate his providence 
than he will Moses. The outcome of the prema- 
ture movement of Jeroboam w^as his temporary 
banishment from Israel. He had to flee to Egypt 
from the wrath of Solomon. When Solomon died, 
Jeroboam returned and was immediately accepted 
as leader by the dissatisfied tribes. He led the peo- 
ple when they made their just and righteous de- 
mands upon Rehoboam, and he raised the cry of 
revolt when Rehoboam publicly announced his de- 
termination to trample the people down as a horde 
of slaves. 

Immediately after the revolt of the ten tribes 
from the rule of the house of David, Jeroboam 
was enthroned as king and began his rule. His 
first efforts were to strengthen and organize his 
kingdom. His first step in this line was to select 
and build a capital for the nation and there con- 
struct his court. He selected Shechem, a place 
already crowmed with precious memories, and built 
it into a strong city, and made it a civil and mili- 
tary rallying-place. Having provided a metropolis 
for the nation, Jeroboam next gave his attention 
to the religion of the nation. The religion of the 
nation is the most important thing connected with 
its life and prosperity, and this Jeroboam realized 
at the very beginning of his reign. Up to this 
point he . has succeeded fairly well ; novv^ we have 
reached the crisis of his sinful career. 

Question II, What was the sin of Jeroboam ? 

If we are asked to answer the question in a sin- 
gle phrase, w^e answer, // was the sin of heresy. 



38 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

The original meaning of the word ''heresy'' is 
''selection." Heresy has been defined to be the 
arbitrary selection of doctrines and practices. It 
is a dictational choosing, instead of a dutiful accept- 
ing that which God has enjoined. It shows a 
heart in which God is not supreme. In regulating 
the religion of the nation Jeroboam chose for 
himself instead of accepting what God chose. He 
put his will in the place of God's will. He inau- 
gurated will-worship in Israel. He sinned in this 
way in four particulars, and they are mentioned in 
this Scripture. 

(a) He changed the place of divine worship. 

Twice God reminded him in the message of 
Ahijah that Jerusalem was the one place of the 
earth where He had chosen to dwell. But Jero- 
boam said to the people, " You shall not go up to 
Jerusalem to worship.'' We know why God chose 
Jerusalem : he was preparing the world for the cru- 
cifixion of Christ at Jerusalem. Anything there- 
fore which diverted the minds and hearts of God's 
people from Jerusalem was in a measure a stroke 
against God's great plan of redemption. To put 
another place in rivalry with it as a place of wor- 
ship was to distract the minds of men and lessen 
the interest of the world in the prophecies and pur- 
poses of God which centred in Jerusalem. Now 
Jeroboam put two places in rivalry with Jerusalem, 
Dan and Bethel. He decreed these as the centres 
of worship for the ten tribes. Thus he strove to 
blot Jerusalem out of their thoughts and affections. 
He did this in order to make the rent between his 



IDOLATRY IN ISRAEL. 39 

kingdom and the kingdom of Rehoboam irrepara- 
ble. 

(b.) He changed the sy7nbol of the true God, 
This was a step in advance in sin. He made 
two golden calves, and put one in Dan and the 
other in Bethel, and said, '' These be thy gods, O 
Israel, that brought thee up from Egypt.'* It is 
utterly impossible to make a similitude of the un- 
seen God, and the divine law has always forbid- 
den the attempt. The whole of the Second Com- 
mandment is aimed against it. Perhaps you re- 
ply, '' The cherubim upon the mercy-seat were a 
similitude of God.*' No, they were not. They 
were simply a symbol of the redeemed universe 
among whom God dwells. The Shechinah, which 
dwelt above the cherubim, was the vSynibol of God. 
This was the workmanship of God ; it came from 
heaven. It was full of unearthly splendor, and as 
such was suggestive of the grandest thoughts con- 
cerning God. A calf was a human-made symbol 
and carried with it low ideas of God. At best it 
was only a symbol of mere power, brute-force. It 
suggested not the ethical and spiritual attributes 
of God ; these were completely thrown into the 
background. 

(c.) He changed the divinely-appointed ministry. 
He threw the Levites out of the priesthood and 
filled their places with men of every tribe who 
brought the sacrifice which he prescribed. God 
chose the house of Aaron for the priesthood and 
confirmed the choice by the budding of Aaron's 
rod and the destruction of a vast company who 



40 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

sought to ustirp the functions of the priesthood. 
Appointed by the Lord, the Aaronic priesthood 
felt their responsibility to God, lived in the pres- 
ence of God, and performed their services as to 
God. This made them a mighty power for God in 
the land. When Jeroboam rejected the Aaronic 
priesthood and substituted men of his own choice, 
you see what a change he made in the nation. 
He took away from it at one stroke a vast power 
for God, a power calculated to keep the people in 
the true faith. A Jeroboam-appointed ministry 
felt themselves responsible only to Jeroboam. 
They contrasted with a God-appointed ministry, 
who felt themselves responsible only to God. Jer- 
oboam knew this. He wanted the control of the 
priesthood, and that was the reason he filled it 
with persons of his own choice. Controlling the 
priesthood, he felt that he could maintain a firmer 
grip upon the nation. 

(d.) He changed the time of celebrating the most i^n- 
port ant feast of the nation. 

In this he usurped the authority of God. God 
had instituted this feast and had appointed the 
time of its celebration. Jeroboam changed the 
time of the celebration until a month later. This 
he did in order to divide the feelings of the two 
nations, and to keep the feast from calling the 
people of the two kingdoms together. He would 
not even have them think about the same sacred 
things at the same time. 

It does not take much discernment to dis- 
cover the result of these religious changes which 



IDOLATRY IN ISRAEL. 4I 

Jeroboam introduced. They were such as these : 
The hold of the people upon the true God was 
loosened ; their conceptions of God were lowered 
and degraded ; their sense of obligation to God 
was lessened ; the sacredness of God's institutions 
was destroyed ; the authority of God's explicit 
commandments was nullified ; they were educated 
to believe that the human will had as much au- 
thority in worship as the divine will. The course 
of Jeroboam was subversive of all divine authority 
in the worship of God. It put worship at the mer- 
cy of the caprice of man. It opened the way for 
any and every change which the successors of Jer- 
oboam might see fit to make. It prepared the na- 
tion for accepting the gross idolatry which was af- 
terwards introduced by the wicked Ahab. 

Question IIL What was the origin of Jeroboam s 
sin ? 

This is a practical question because its answer 
helps us to understand the working of the human 
heart; it helps us to self-knowledge. Jeroboam's 
heart, out of which sprang Jeroboam's sin, was a 
heart like ours. 

(a.) His sin sprang out of selfism. 

He looked at things from the standpoint of 
self. He talked thus: ''If I allow the ten tribes 
to go to Jerusalem, the city of God, for worship, if 
I allow them to be under the same priesthood that 
the children of Judah are under, the people will 
come together again and re-unite in one nation as 
of old ; then I shall lose my kingdom and also 
my life. I shall be the first one upon whom Re- 



42 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

hoboam will take vengeance/* Jeroboam did not 
ask, " What is the right thing to do ? '' He asked, 
^' How can I best secure myself on the throne of Is- 
rael? '* With him, in all that he did, it was nothing 
but self. If he had loved the right more than self, 
he would have acted differently. He would have 
ordered the nation to worship God in the old and 
divinely-appointed way. He would at least have 
sent for the prophets of God and have asked coun- 
sel from heaven. Self-seeking is to this day the 
origin of two-thirds of all the sin committed by 
men. We live and act altogether too much from 
the standpoint of self. 

(b.) His sin sprang from want of faith. 

He could not trust the God who gave him his 
throne, so he acted independently of God. His 
kingdom had a covenant basis. He had as good 
a claim as David ever had. God had promised to 
establish him on the throne and to build him a 
house. If he had only been true to the institutions 
of worship which God with the greatest care had 
appointed, God would have made the worship of 
the people a source of blessing and a means of 
building up of the kingdom. There are men just 
like Jeroboam in our day. They cannot trust 
God's simple gospel and God's ordained methods 
of Christian work ; they undertake to improve up- 
on God's methods. They take religion into their 
own hands and add to it and subtract from it and 
popularize the things of religion. They substitute 
men of genius for men of character in the sacred 
office ; they preach smooth things which are dio 



IDOLATRY IN ISRAEL. 43 

tated by the human heart in the stead of the 
heaven-announced doctrines which strike at the 
very root of evil. And what is the result ? They 
have crowds but not conversions. They have re- 
fined fleshly entertainments, but not God-accepted 
worship. They have concert rooms, but not 
churches. There is nothing like simple faith in 
God. There is no true life without it. Faith 
which will accept all God's appointments with- 
out debating them or wishing to change them is 
the basis of a life which hates sin. 

THE CHIEF LESSON OF THE CHAPTER. 

It is this : Our worship should be regulated solely 
by the appointment of God. 

There is nothing in life so important as the 
worship of God. It makes us what we are. It 
regulates our conceptions of God. Now to be ac- 
cepted in heaven worship must accord with God. 
It is an absolute necessity that it be exactly what 
God wishes. How can we know what God wishes 
unless he tells us ? How can we rest satisfied that 
we are acceptable to God unless we worship him 
in a way which he has appointed? Jeroboam 
worshipped God ; but he worshipped him in a way 
different from that which God had appointed, and 
the result was disaster. 

In deciding upon the conduct of worship, the 
question is not what men think, but what God 
thinks. We are not worshipping men, but God. 
The question is not what is pleasing and entertain- 
ing to man, but what is acceptable and pleasing to 



44 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

God. Worship is calculated to carry otir thoughts 
avv^ay from self and give them to God. Worship 
is intended to impress great and sanctifying and 
uplifting truths upon us and to bring us into con- 
tact with God's character. Whatever therefore 
centres our mind and attention upon the preacher 
or upon the choir or upon the church edifice is a 
hindrance to worship in that it puts something be- 
tween God and us. It sends us away from the 
church service pleased w4th something human 
rather than with some attribute of the divine. 

I sometimes try to make worship appear to my 
mind what it ought to be by striving to imagine 
worship as it is in heaven. I ask myself, ''When 
the saints assemble for worship in heaven do they 
talk as the saints do here ? Do they carry with 
them to the assembly the purposes and thoughts 
which we do ? Is entertainment their chief idea ? 
Are they swayed simply by the artistic? From 
what do their thrilling songs of praise spring? 
What originates those soaring and throne-reach- 
ing aspirations and adorations?'' The answers to 
these questions are known. We know what is up- 
permost in their souls. The glory of God is the 
chief thing with them. The atoning work of 
Christ is the uppermost thought. They praise and 
worship as they do because they are absorbed 
with the divine. There is no will-worship there. 
There is nothing of the spirit of Jeroboam. The 
highest pleasure of the highest and most cultured 
of heaven's worshippers is the acceptance of the 
appointments of God. 



IDOLATRY IN ISRAEL. 45 

We may not equal the worship of heaven, but 
let us do what we can. We can make it our pat- 
tern and inspiration. In our worship we can strive 
that on earth the will of God may be done as it 
is done in heaven. We can give ourselves up to 
God in large absorption, and let his glory be first 
in our souls and the atoning work of his Son 
chief in our thoughts. We can adhere so truly in 
our worship to his own appointments, as they are 
revealed in his Word, that our worship, though 
offered on earth, shall harmonize with the worship 
offered in heaven and merge into it as crystal 
water merges into crystal water without a stain. 
When the worship of the church on earth is con- 
ducted according to God's mind, there is no reason 
why it should not join the worship of our glorified 
friends. 



46 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 



ELIJAH THE TISHBITE. — THE FJRST 

CHAPTER OF HIS REFORMATION 

WORK. 

" Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gil- 
EAD." — I Kings ly.i. 

Among the grandest of men, Elijah stands in 
the front rank. He was the greatest prophet in 
Israel, and he was the peer of any prophet in 
Jndah. He was majestic and sublime in deeds as 
Isaiah was majestic and sublime in words. His 
story has in it the charm of a romance. Poets 
have come to it for themes, and artists have found 
in it scenes for the canvas. Even the musician 
has come to it to find scope for his genius. Men- 
delssohn's '' Elijah" adds to the fame of that Ger- 
man composer, and shows how much there was of 
the plaintive and the pathetic and the sublime in 
the character of the prophet and in the stirring 
scenes through which he passed. ' The many ref- 
erences made to him in both Testaments show the 
estimation in which he was held. He was the 
ideal of greatness among the Hebrew people. 
^'Tke spirit and power of Elijair was a synonym for 
the highest possible endowments. When John 
the Baptist reached the zenith of his career, the 
chief men of the nation came to him with the 
question, ''Art thou Elijah f The question of iden- 
tity with Elijah was raised with regard to Christ 
when his wonderful miracles and words stirred 
the national heart. Some accounted for his divine 



ELIJAH THE TISHBITE. 47 

power by the assertion that he was Elijah. From 
the after reputation of this prophet and from the 
later Scripture references, one would expect a full 
and exhaustive history of the man. One would 
expect to find his biography filling many pages of 
the Old Testament. But such is not the case. 
Not half the space is given him that is given 
Abraham or Joseph or Moses. We are aston- 
ished to find that so few of his words are recorded, 
and to see how few are the days in which he 
stands forth in prominence. His history is but 
broken and fragmentary. He speaks for a hur- 
ried moment, and then is silent for three years 
and a half. He is prominent for a day on Carmel, 
and then passes out of sight. He comes into view 
again for a day in the wilderness under the juni- 
per-tree, and then we see him no more until the 
scenes of Horeb, and the rebuke of Ahab, and the 
call of Elisha, and the ride through the skies in 
the chariot of fire. 

In this study we are to see Elijah as he appears in 
the opening chapter of his great reformation work. In 
this chapter he is presented in three aspects : 

I. ELIJAH THE HERALD OF COMING JUDGMENT. 

**And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the in- 
habitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord 
God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there 
shall not be dew nor rain these years but ac- 
cording to my word." This is the way Elijah is 
introduced to the world. There is not a word 
about his family, his youth, his education. We 



48 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

see him for the first time a full-grown man, with 
his convictions formed and burning, his iron will 
acting, his career in life chosen, and his character 
fully developed. His first appearance upon the 
Scripture page is like a full sunburst. He leaps 
upon the stage of action as a mighty hero, a cham- 
pion of the rights of God, a reformer of his nation, 
a terror to the wicked Ahab, and the most loyal 
patriot in Israel. His very first act shows him to be 
brave and fearless and straightforward, self-sacri- 
ficing, wedded to the highest interests of his coun- 
try, and thoroughly loyal to God. While nothing 
is said of his early and previous life, are we wholly 
without knowledge concerning it ? We are not. 
His name gives us a glimpse into his early life. 
It is a compound of two of the names of God, 
and it means '' Jehovah is my God," or '' Jehovah is 
my strength." Scripture nam.es are significant. 
Sometimes they are a memorial ; sometimes they 
are indicative of a characteristic ; som^etimes they 
carry a divine promise or assurance ; sometimes 
they sound the key-note of a man's life. The name 
of Elijah sounded the key-note of his life. He 
lived for God, and perfected his weakness in God's 
strength. His name sets forth his character. If 
this be so, we can see that his previous life was a 
religious life. It had to do with God. 

The place to which he belonged iiistrticts us. 

He was a citizen of Gilead. Gilead was a wild, 

mountainous country. The physical geography of 

the region where we are reared and educated enters 

into the construction of our character. There is a 



ELIJAH THE TISHBITE. 49 

difference between the man broiiglit up on the 
fertile and luxuriant plain, where the fields when 
tickled by the^ plough laugh harvests, and the 
man brought up among the barren hills, where 
the storms play and the lightnings fork and the 
thunder-peals chase each other from mountain-top 
to mountain - top, where the fields are storm- 
washed and barren, and where harvests come 
scantily after long and laborious coaxing. The 
mountain-bred man is the man of iron endurance. 
He is fearless in the storms of life. He is a man 
of disciplined appetites and of severe simplicity. 
He knows hovv^ to say No to self, and he knows 
how to be in want. He is a man used to isolation 
and solitude. Elijah was a mountain-bred man ; 
he was a child of the wilderness. When we know 
this we can picture his early life. It was one of 
simplicity and severity, hard work and exposure. 
His early life accounts for his official severity, his 
pure grit, and his undaunted enterprise. He was 
in harmony with the solitude of the mountain 
with which he was familiar from youth when 
solitary and alone he inaugurated the reformation 
of Israel, and when Athanasius-like it could be 
said of him, '' Elijah against the world." 

T/ie first words which fell frord his lips open to 
vieiv his previous character and habit of life. 

This is the form^ula w4th which he introduces 
himself to the wicked Ahab : ''As the Lord God of 
Israel liveth, before whom I stand.'* These v/ords 
show that he was no stranger to God. They indi- 
cate that he had studied the claims of God and Baal, 

Solomon to the Captivity. ,, 



50 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

and that he had come to the conclusion that Baal 
was a fiction, a dead non-existent, a farce ; but Je- 
hovah, the covenant God of Israel, was the true 
God, the Author of all, and the sole and supreme 
Sovereign of the universe. His words show that 
it had been the habit of his life to act in the sight 
of God and from a regard to his glory. His life 
had all along been instinct with a sense of respon- 
sibility to God, and he is now acting under a com- 
mission from God. God has sent him to Ahab 
with a merciful warning and with a needed re- 
buke. Divine judgment is about to seize the land 
and crush its glory and life, and it is but right 
that Ahab should be instructed as to the philosophy 
of the judgment. The first words of Elijah, full 
of the solemnity of an oath, and instinct with the 
consciousness of the authority and omnipotence 
and omniscience and omnipresence of God, tell us 
how much of a God-man Elijah had been. When 
we hear a scholar deliver a polished oration, we do 
not need to be told of his education and early 
training. His oration is the embodiment of these. 
When we hear Abraham, at the age of one hun- 
dred years, offer his matchless prayer on behalf of 
Sodom, we do not need to be told that he has been 
disciplined for years and years in the art of prayer. 
The prayer which he offers embodies in it his 
past discipline, and we see it. Elijah, making his 
first appearance before Ahab as the herald of com- 
ing judgment, is his own history. The whole of 
his early life is embodied in that scene. It is the 
fruitage of his past sowing. 



ELIJAH THE TISHBITE. 5 1 

Look at the prophet of God as he suddenly con- 
fronts Ahab and utters that message which makes 
the ears of Israel tingle. He is a man sinewy 
and bronzed, a hero of the backwoods, a Nazarite 
with long hair, a dust-worn traveller with a long 
sheep-skin mantle or cloak. The way he meets 
Ahab seems rude and startling and unparliament- 
ary, and it was ; for it was intended to shock and 
alarm Ahab, the hardened sinner, the daring God- 
defier. Only some such method of approaching 
him would strike him. He needed that the word 
of judgment should strike him suddenly like a 
thunderbolt. This was the thunderbolt : *' As the 
Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, 
there shall not be dew nor rain these years but 
according to my word.'* 

Was not this a severe judgment ? It was. A 
severe judgment was the need of the hour. Noth- 
ing else would be effective in inaugurating a refor- 
mation. Only a severe judgment would harmo- 
nize with the gross sin which abounded in the 
land. Baalism, which deifies the powers of nature, 
is the religion of the land, and the true God is 
ignored and dishonored. The wealth of the land 
is being given to an idol. A Vv^icked, idolatrous, 
God-hating woman is allowed to be the power 
behind the throne. The foulest rites of idolatry 
are practised. The altars of God are levelled to 
the ground, and altars to Baal are substituted in 
their places. God's prophets are hunted down 
like wild beasts upon the mountains, and his peo- 
ple are slaughtered by the sword. 



52 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

Did it not take daring faith on the part of 
^Elijah to utter his prediction? It did. The 
brooks and rills and springs of the land all 
' laughed at the prediction and made mock. So 
did the misty and snow-covered mountains. So 
did the waving harvests and the rustling forests. 
So did the bejewelled morning. Each pearly 
dewdrop that hung as a pendant on the countless 
blades of grass joined in the laugh of derision. 
But Elijah had for his assurance God's word, and 
that was enough for his faith. He was as sure of 
the famine as he Vv^as of God's existence. By his 
faith he saw the invisible, and he spoke of it to 
Ahab. Ahab doubtless looked upon him as a re- 
ligious crank, a hot-headed fanatic ; for this reason 
Elijah was allowed to utter his message and leave 
the royal presence untouched and unhindered. 
Let Ahab esteem Elijah as he pleases, the prophet 
has done his duty heroically and has shown him- 
self a man of moral might. By-and-by Ahab and 
all Israel will find that he is no fanatic, no dreamer, 
but the representative of God, acquainted with the 
divine laws which govern the universe, and ad- 
mitted into God's secrets. 

II. ELIJAH AS THE FUGITIVE OF CHERITH. 

The incident of Cherith is one of the thrilling 
miracles of the Bible. When the famine overtook 
the land, when dewless night followed dewless 
night, Ahab in alarm believed in the message of 
the uncouth -looking man who predicted the 
drought. When the cry of distress rang in his 



ELIJAH THE TISHBITE. 53 

ears, he asked, Where is Elijah ? He would have 
him stay the famine and bring back the fertilizing> 
dew and rain. But the judgment must run its 
full course. If it be cut short the people will not; 
realize the av/fulness of their sin or reach lasting 
and genuine repentance. This leads God to put 
Elijah out of reach. He chooses a hiding-place 
for him in one of the deep ravines through which 
the brook Cherith flows. Here Elijah lives for a 
whole year with a thicket for his home and a turf- 
plot for his bed. The brook supplies him with 
drink, and the ravens, at the command of God, 
bring him a meal every morning and every even^ 
ing. Ahab's detectives were everywhere in the 
land searching for him. Into this wild retreat 
they never thought of entering. They reasoned 
that a man would starve among the rocks of such 
a ravine. They knew nothing of the ravens as 
messengers of God and servants of Elijah. In 
this retreat Elijah was secure from the wrath of 
Ahab. Here he was afforded new evidence of 
God's care and power and supremacy. By com- 
munion with God he was fitted for the trying 
future. We wonder at the great faith of Elijah ; 
we are here taught that it was#a growth. It was 
like the faith of other men : it was the product of 
much fellowship with God. Elijah, while he was 
thus secluded, was not left in ignorance as to the 
progress of the drought. The brook from which 
he drank brought him the news. The drought 
struck even it. It was full when he first saw it, 
but now it has narrowed to a little silver thread. 



54 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

This thread of water soon breaks and leaves only 
a pool here and there. Soon the pool sinks out of 
sight, and the bed of the brook is hot and burning. 
This compelled Elijah to leave his forest home. 

III. ELIJAH AS THE GUEST OF THE WIDOW OF 
ZAREPHATH. 

The Lord who commanded him to go to the 
ravine commanded him to go into the land of 
Sidon. This command tested the faith of the 
prophet, for Sidon was the land of Jezebel, the 
woman who ruled Ahab and defiled Israel. Her 
father was king of this land. Elijah's faith was 
equal to the command. He felt that God, who 
had fed him and kept him in a miraculous way 
for the past year, could keep him anywhere. Be- 
sides this, his very daring was his safety. Who 
would think of looking for the fugitive prophet in 
the land of Sidon, the home of Jezebel, and the 
seat of Baalism which he antagonized ? 

When Elijah reaches the home of the widow 
who was to sustain him during the remainder of 
the famine, he meets with absolute poverty. The 
provisions of her house have been reduced to a 
handful of meal in the stone crock and a little oil 
in the small cruse. Already there are two hungry 
persons to live on the scrapings of the barrel, and 
he makes a third hungry person. When Elijah 
meets the widow of Zarephath she is out gather- 
ing sticks to cook the last meal. But Elijah's life 
is one of faith. The God who fed the fathers 
with manna will multiply the meal and the oil. 



ELIJAH THE TISHBITE. 55 

Such is the first chapter of the published life of 
Elijah the prophet. Now that we have its facts 
before us let us look at it as a revelation of perma- 
nent principles which we should work into the 
fabric of our lives. 

PERMANENT PRINCIPLES. 

I. It is God in a mans life that makes it great, 
Elijah was a man of God. If this had not been 
the case, he would have died unknown. God was 
to his life what the vital sap is to the life of the 
tree. The tree when filled with vital sap is robed 
in leafy glory and is crowned with desirable fruit ; 
but when the vital current is taken out of it, it be- 
comes black and barren and crumbles away. Put 
God into a man's life and he becomes a Paul, a 
Stephen, an Augustine, a Luther, a Calvin, a Knox. 
What men in history can compare with these men 
of God or with their kindred in the different ages ? 
God alone is great, and there is no greatness 
apart from him. Elijah was great, but he was 
made great through his relation with God. From 
God he got his ideals. It was trust in God that 
carried him through the most momentous scenes. 
It was living in the sight of God that kept him 
from sin. It was the fear of God that kept out of 
his heart the fear of everything else. God was a 
reality to him. Loyalty to God was his motto, 
obedience to God was his leading characteristic. 
He never lost sight of this fact : '' I am a separated 
man, chosen of God and devoted to him. My life 
must be made subordinate to m^y calling.'* 



S6 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

2. God is a constant provider and man is absolutely 
dependent on him. 

To the wicked, this is a distressing fact, but to 
God's own people it is a joyous fact. They have 
confidence in God's character and love and un- 
changeableness. Dependence upon him has in it 
greater rest and security than dependence upon 
self. The dependence of man upon God is stri- 
kingly set forth in Elijah by the brook Cherith 
and in the widow of Zarephath. It is perfectly 
clear that God sent the ravens and that he multi- 
plied the meal and oil. Now both of these inci- 
dents are types. They stand for permanent facts. 
They teach us that we are as dependent upon God 
as Elijah and the widow were. The ways in which 
he provides for us are just as wonderful and as 
demonstrative of supremacy and power as the 
ways in which he provided for them. Every har- 
vest is his multiplication of the meal ; the supply 
of every olive-tree is God filling up the cruse of 
oil. The miracles of Cherith and Zarephath only 
set forth God as the constant miracle-worker and 
the constant provider. We need to see him once 
in a while working in a striking way in order to 
make us recognize and appreciate his constant 
faithfulness. 

There is an Eastern fable of a boy having chal- 
lenged his teacher to prove to him the existence of 
God by working a miracle. The teacher, who was 
a priest, got a large vessel filled with earth, where- 
in he deposited seed and bade the boy pay atten- 
tion. In the place where the seed was planted a 



ELIJAH THE TISHBITE. 57 

green shoot suddenly appeared ; the shoot became 
a stem ; the stem put forth leaves and branches, 
which soon spread over the whole apartment. It 
then budded with blossoms, which dropped off and 
left golden fruit. In the short space of one hour 
there stood a noble tree in the stead of the little 
seed. The youth, overcome with amazement, ex- 
claimed, '' Now I know that there is a God, for I 
have seen his power." The priest smiled at him 
and said, '' Simple child, do you only now believe ? 
Does not what you have just beheld take place in 
innumerable instances year after year, only by a 
slower process ? But is it less marvellous on that 
account?" Year by year Cherith and Zarephath 
have been repeated. It is God who saves us year 
by year from famine. It is God that gives us 
every particle of food that keeps us alive. Our 
cereal crops are the crumbs from his bountiful 
table. There is no escape from the necessity of 
trust in him. The rich man Ahab is as dependent 
upon him as is the poor man Elijah. The poor 
man Elijah is as well off as the rich man Ahab. 

3. T/ie limited worldly possessions of the poor do not 
debar them from noble service for God. 

For the most part God has always used the 
poor of this world but rich in faith. Elijah was 
poor ; few men in Israel owned less than he. But 
mark the commission which God 'gave him and 
the glorious work which God did through him. 
The widow of Zarephath was poor, but she was 
liberal ; she gave all that she had to God and his 
servant. Like the widow of the two mutes at the 



58 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

treasury of the Temple in the days of Christ, she 
became famous in history. She helped the cause 
of the Hebrew Reformation by helping Elijah the 
reformer. 

The record of this Scripture does not stand 
alone in declaring the possibilities of the poor. 
All history is one with it. It was not men from 
the mansions of Palestine that carried forward the 
gospel of Jesus Christ : it was the fishermen of 
Galilee. It was not King Charles that inaugurated 
the Protestant Reformation : it was Martin Lu- 
ther, the son of a Saxon miner. It was not a 
statesman or a prince that wrote the most useful 
of uninspired books : it was Bunyan, the Bedford 
tinker. No man can plead lowly circumstances as 
a reason for not rendering service to God. If a 
man have faith, lowly circumstances are no barrier 
to service. The essentials to service which will 
bless the world are faith, purity of character, con- 
siwStency of conduct, surrender of self to God, the 
possession of the truth, and ability to sacrifice and 
suffer for the cause of God. Every honest, truth- 
ful, kind, generous poor man is a hero of God, and 
a laborer together with God in building up the 
kingdom of righteousness. 

4. There are some things of which we may be as 
certain as zve are of the existence of God, 

To Elijah the judgment of wicked Israel was as 
certain as the existence of God. Hence he could 
say, '' As the Lord God of Israel liveth, there shall 
not be dew nor rain these years but according to 
my word.*' There are certainties in our religion, 



ELIJAH THE TISHBITE. 59 

and we ought to realize this. The truth of every 
declaration and every threatening and every prom^ 
ise and every word of God is as certain as the 
existence of God. " We should build our faith and 
hope and conduct upon these as upon sure founda-- 
tions. The covenant of God is as certain as the 
existence of God. We should count upon it and 
upon its blessings. The coming of the kingdom of 
God in its millennial splendor and fulness is as 
certain as the existence of God. We should there- 
fore enter into the kingdom and labor persistently 
for its upbuilding, that we may share its honors 
for ever and ever. Heaven and hell are as cer- 
tain as the existence of God. We should flee from 
the one, and we should seek the other. We should 
now enter into heavenly associations, build up 
heavenly characters, and live heavenly lives. 
God's care of his children is as certain as God's 
existence. Let us therefore trust his fatherhood 
and rest in his care. Our Father carries the key 
of the storehouse of the universe, and he will not 
let us lack. 



6o FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 



ELIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL; 

OR THE -RELIGION OF GOD TESTED 

AND FOUND TRUE. 

*'AnD when all the people SAW IT, THEY FELL ON THEIR 
faces: AND THEY SAID, THE LoRD, HE IS THE GOD ; THE 

Lord, he is the God." — i Ki?ig.s 18:39. 

You know the antecedent history. Ahab the 
King of Israel married a wicked woman named 
Jezebel. She was a Phoenician idolater, a worship- 
per of Baal. She was an ancient Lady Macbeth. 
She was Lucretia Borgia and Catharine de' Medici 
in one. Through her slaughter of the prophets of 
God the true religion was dethroned in Israel, and 
the corrupt, licentious religion of Baal was substi- 
tuted in its place. It was not to be expected that 
the reigning God, Jehovah, who made Israel a na- 
tion, would submit to this. He had better things 
for Israel, and by righteous judgments he deter- 
mined to bring his chosen people into these better 
things. He sent a famine into the land which 
lasted three years and a half. During all that 
time the sun blazed in the heavens like a ball of 
fire ; the atmosphere quivered like the air in a 
heated furnace ; there was scarcely a moist rock or 
a rill or a spring of water in all the land. Dismay 
fills every heart and consternation sits on every 
face. The cattle are drooping, the children are 
crying, and men and w^omen are fast becoming 
walking skeletons. As we try to reach an adequate 
idea of the scene we recall Mendelssohn *s oratorio, 



ELIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL. 6 1 

''Elijah/* It opens with a wondrous passage, 
which tries to represent the despair of a whole na- 
tion perishing from thirst. After giving the des- 
pair vent at first in sullen, restless murmurings, it 
pictures it as gathering at length a terrible cumu- 
lative strength which bursts forth in appalling 
cries of heart-rending, importunate agony. Only 
the genius of a Mendelssohn, v/ho had at his com- 
mand the world of sound, dare try to picture a na- 
tion in the agonies of thirst. 

When judgment had wrought its perfect work, 
and when the nation was ready to enter with 
downright earnestness into a search after a knov/1- 
edge of the true God, Elijah the prophet proposed 
a convocation and designated Carmel as the meet- 
ing-place. When the day of meeting came he 
bravely stepped upon the scene and opened his 
address with a searching question, which contained 
in it a charge of indecision and disloyalty and a 
lack of common sense. Edmund Burke said he 
did not know how to draw up an indictment 
against a whole nation ; but Elijah did. Here is 
his indictment : '' How long halt ye between two 
opinions ? If Baal be God, follow him ; but if Je- 
hovah be God, follow him.'' Under the prophet's 
charge of indecision and disloyalty the Israelites 
were dumb. They were speechless from con- 
science ; they were silent from guilt. Thus it 
ahvays is. Indecision and disloyalty in religion 
have no defence. God has constructed us with 
faculties which make decision a law of our very 
nature. On any important and essential thing in- 



62 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

decision is unrest and torment to a thinking, rea- 
soning, conscientious man. I am talking to your 
inner life. 

But how shall Israel know who is the true 
God? That is the question, and Elijah suggests a 
method of arbitration for his answer. He suggests 
a test of works. The tree is to be known by its 
fruit ; a man is to be known by his character ; God 
is to be known by his works. God-like acts prove 
deity. Elijah makes this proposition: "I stand 
alone as the prophet of Jehovah. Here are four 
hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, a mighty 
prayer-power, if Baal be a prayer-hearing god. 
Let them slay and dress a victim and put it on 
their altar, and I will slay and dress a victim and 
put it on God's altar. We will not put any fire 
under the sacrifice. They may call upon Baal to 
send fire down from the sky to consume their 
sacrifice, and I will call upon Jehovah to send 
down fire from the sky and consume my sacrifice. 
All this shall be done openly in your presence, and 
the God that answereth by fire, he shall be God." 
This proposition seemed so fair that the people ac- 
cepted of it at once. They said, '' It is well spoken.** 
And it was well spoken. You would have accept- 
ed of this method of arbitration and so would I. 
Everything is now ready for the contest between 
Elijah, the prophet of God, and the 450 prophets 
of Baal ; and the people are present as a jury. 

As we look at Elijah throwing down the gaunt- 
let, we see in him a hero full of magnificent faith 
and boldness. But is he not too venturesome? 



ELIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL. 63 

Is he not guilty of presumption? Does he not 
take risks that are too awful? Is it not an un- 
heard-of thing for God to hurl fire from the skies ? 
To a man of little faith it would seem as though 
Elijah were putting the credit of Jehovah's wor- 
ship into fearful risk and imperilling everything ; 
but to Elijah's strong faith nothing was imperilled 
except Baalism. The Prophet of Fire was not sur- 
prised to see fire leap from the sky. He would 
have been surprised if God had withheld fire. He 
was not treading in an unwarranted way. He was 
not expecting God to do an unprecedented thing. 
God often had hurled fire from the skies. He 
rained a storm of fire upon the cities of the plain. 
He threw fire around the bush of the desert and 
talked from out of it with Moses. By fire he an- 
swered the transgressions of Nadab and Abihu, 
by fire he burnt up rebellious Korah and his com- 
pany ; by fire he answered Solomon at the dedica^ 
tion of the Temple. Elijah knew all this. Jehovah 
had shown himself to be the God who answers by 
fire, and Elijah had precedent upon which to base 
his strong faith and grand venture. Besides this, 
according to his own words, he was acting in all 
these matters under the bidding of God. He who 
follows a commandment of God runs no risk. It 
is no risk for Gideon's three hundred to hurl 
themselves against the countless hosts of Midian. 
It is no risk for the Israelites to attack the massive 
walls of Jericho with ram's horns. It is no risk 
for the mother of Moses, in the exercise of her 
faith, to put her babe upon the waters of the Nile. 



64 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

When the decrees of God stand between us and 
danger we are safe as God himself, 

I am not going to tell the story of the failure of 
the prophets of Baal ; I stop only to say that they 
failed, and failed ignobly. In the end every false 
thing fails. This is one of the axioms in the 
mathematics of history, one of the certainties of 
the universe. A false face, a false character, a 
false credit, a false religion, will always prove val- 
ueless in the day of testing and scrutiny. 

We see Elijah now at his best. He rises to the 
occasion ; he is conscious of his solitariness, but 
that does not intimidate him ; he knows that he is 
alone, a single man against the political and reli- 
gious power of the nation, but he acts heedless of 
the fact that the majority is against him. His 
motto is. One -man Vvdth God is a majority. Care- 
fully and reverently he gathers together the frag- 
ments of the broken-down altar of Jehovah, and 
v*5electing twelve stones, he rebuilds it in due 
form. As these actions were symbolical, he spoke 
to the people through them. By the twelve stones, 
which represented the twelve tribes of Israel, he 
declared to the people that God*s children should 
everywhere be one in their worship ; by the altar 
itself, which was a parable in stone, he rebuked 
Israel for worshipping any God save Jehovah ; by 
repairing the old altar, instead of building a new 
one, he declared to the people that he was the re- 
storer of the law and of the true and ancient wor- 
ship of the fathers. Having finished the altar, he 
dug a trench around it ; then he slew a bullock and 



ELIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL. 65 

dressed it and laid it on the altar. After this, to 
make the miracle of igniting the sacrifice all the 
greater, and to put faith to the greatest strain, he 
had strong men carry large water-jars full of water 
and pour on the altar and on the sacrifice. They 
poured jarful after jarful until the trench was 
overflowing and until everything was saturated 
and dripping. 

When this was done Elijah quietly knelt by 
the unlit altar and made his appeal to Jehovah in 
prayer. He talked with God as a child would 
talk with his father. His prayer was earnest. The 
whole fire and fervor of his great soul was in it ; 
still it was not frantic, like the prayer of one who 
fears that he may not be heard. It was instinct 
with the glory of God and the good of Israel. 
There was no wild gesture about it, no multiplied 
cries, no vain repetitions ; it was full of faith and 
experience, it was brief and to the point. He 
asked God to manifest his existence and to claim 
the homage that was his due ; he asked God to cer- 
tify him as His prophet, and in this way win back 
the hearts of the people. Clear and distinct his 
voice was heard, and this was the prayer that fell 
upon the ears of the attentive throng: '' Lord God 
of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known 
this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am 
thy servant, and that I have done all these things 
at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this 
people may know that thou art the Lord God, and 
that thou hast turned their hearts back again." 
As the prayer ascended, the fire fell. A bolt 

From Solomon to the Captivity. 



66 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

charged with intense burning flashed through the 
sky. Every eye saw it and every soul felt the 
darting brightness of its Shechinah-like blaze. A 
Vv^ave of heat which followed it swept over the mul- 
titudes and sensibly struck every cheek. When 
the heavenly bolt smote the altar there was a loud 
hiss as the fire and water met ; then a swift cloud 
of vapor floated up and out into the air ; then a 
thick cloud of smoke, into which the victim had 
been transformed, rolled heavenward ; and then 
the usual odor of burnt sacrifice filled the atmos- 
phere. All this transpired in less time than it 
takes to put the description of it into words. When 
smoke and vapor passed away nothing was seen 
but the kneeling prophet of God. There was 
neither sacrifice nor altar visible. Everything had 
been consumed by the piercing, intense heat of 
the divine fire which fell red-hot from the clouds 
less sky. The very altar had been pulverized; 
the very stones had volatilized and disappeared. 
God's work was a complete work, and the vindica- 
tion of Elijah's religion was a complete vindica- 
tion. Grandly was Elijah's faith crowned, and 
that in the presence of the people and to their 
complete satisfaction. 

It is easy to forecast the effect of this wondrous 
miracle. The court and the priesthood trembled ; 
conflicting emotions shot and reshot through the 
souls of the countless spectators ; the vast crowds 
were overawed ; instantaneous conviction took 
hold of the great majority. The people were 
deeply impressed and a revulsion of feeling swept 



ELIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL. 6/ 

over them and through them ; they felt that the 
grand old days of the fathers had come back to 
their nation. For a moment the silence of the 
grave hung over Carmel ; it was a portentous 
silence like that before a storm-blast. It seemed 
a long, long silence, for there was terror in it, but 
it was soon broken, and broken instantaneously. 
For the convicted and converted people, swayed 
by emotions which were bound to express them^ 
selves, as one man lifted up their voices and cried, 
'' Jehovah, he is God ! Jehovah, he is God ! " 
That glad cry of faith rent the air and echoed 
from summit to summit along the mountain range 
of Carmel, and peak after peak caught up the 
words of the cry and threw them back — '' Jehovah, 
he is God ! Jehovah, he is God ! '* 

Such is the history which gives us our theme ; 
the eternal facts embodied in the history are these : 

I. god's RELIGION WILL BEAR TESTING. 

Elijah tested it when he put Jehovah and Baal 
side by side. Comparative theology is testing it 
to-day. As the followers of Jesus Christ we can 
put Christianity side by side with any of the 
ethnic religions without fear. It is our privilege 
to prove God and his truth at any time, and we 
cannot test him in his own way without receiving 
an answer which will lift from the depths of our 
heart the cry, " The Lord, he is God ! The Lord, 
he is God!" 

Our religion appeals to man as a rational being. 
It invites testing and scrutiny. But in testing and 



68 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

scmtinizing it, it is only fair and reasonable that 
we should be honest and should have high aims. 
We must be earnest seekers of the truth. God 
gives no promise to triflers, and why should he ? 
Men do not declare and defend their grandest pur- 
poses and principles before triflers. Nobody in 
heaven or on earth has any respect for a trifler. 
If an architect of Boston were building a house on 
one of our streets, he would not open his plans 
and specifications to a curious lounger who hap- 
pened to have time upon his hands to vv^hile away. 
Why should he ? But let a student of architecture, 
a young man with a worthy object before him, or 
let a man who is in search of some one who may 
build him just such a house, come to him, asking a 
true insight into the plans and specifications, and 
the architect gives his whole mind and energy to 
the task of opening up everything. Christ deals 
with inquirers in a manner similar to this. The 
Pharisees, heaping contempt upon what he has 
said and done, come to him and ask a sign from 
heaven. They are triflers. They do not come to 
him in the right spirit. They ignore the many 
and convincing signs which are all around them, 
and because of this Jesus says to them, ''There 
shall be no sign given you. Your spirit is wrong, 
your intention is wrong, you are trifling with me." 
While he denies them, see how he treats humble 
followers and seekers after the truth ! Contrast 
his treatment of the embassy which comes from 
John the Baptist with his treatment of the proud 
and haughty Pharisees. He gives this embassy 



ELIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL, 6g 

sign after sign. He multiplies miracles before 
their eyes ; he heals the sick, he gives sight to the 
blind, he cleanses the leper, he even raises the 
dead, and thus overpowers them v/ith proofs of his 
deity and of his identity with the promised Mes- 
siah. In the testing of God and his religion men 
must be honest if their testing is to prove effective 
and profitable. 

II. IT IS EVERY man's DUTY TO TEST GOD'S 
RELIGION, 

Religion will bear the test ; that is one point. 
It is every man's duty to test religion honestly ; 
that is another point. Have we all tested it? 
Have we dealt fairly and candidly and honestly 
with Christianity ? Has the Christian religion 
received the thought and study which are its due 
and which the interests of the immortal nature of 
man demand? If you are not an out-and-out 
Christian, so far as you are concerned it has not. 
If you are not an active member of the Christian 
Church, so far as you are concerned it has not. 
The great duty of your life is yet before you, and 
to that duty I call you, as Elijah called Israel, 
Test the religion of God. 

(a.) Tes^ Christianity s Christ. 

Christ is Christianity. He embodied his teach- 
ings and principles in his own life. He lived his 
religion. He was truth. He was light. He was 
love. He was honesty. 

You have been dealing with his disciples ; deal 
with him. His disciples often misrepresent him. 



70 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

By their imperfections, honest as their intentions 
may be, they obscure his glory and alter the tone 
of his religion. Even the very best of his disci- 
ples do so. A simple story from his biography 
will illustrate this. On one occasion mothers 
brought their children to have him take them up 
in his arms and bless them. But his leading dis- 
ciples stood between Christ and the mothers, say- 
ing, ^^ Trouble him not; take the children away." 
What a misrepresentation of Christ's interest in 
children! Had that misrepresentation of Christ 
prevailed it would have changed the whole des- 
tiny of the Christian religion. But Christ did not 
let it prevail ; he corrected it on the spot. He 
uttered these precious w^ords which have broad- 
ened his kingdom and enthroned him in the home, 
'' Suffer the little children to come unto me, and 
forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of 
heaven." If you want to know Christianity, deal 
with it first hand ; deal with its Christ. He stands 
as the great power and defence of our religion. 
Infidelity may build fortresses against Christian- 
ity out of the inconsistencies of Christians ; it 
may even spike the guns of apologists ; but the 
holy and perfect character of Christ is a bulwark 
against which it dashes itself in pieces every time 
it clashes with it. I have all confidence in Christ. 
There is not a man who will deal with him hon- 
estly and thoroughly but will feel the thrill that is 
in his life and will be humbled before the majesty 
and purity and love of his unspotted nature. If 
you are not an open Christ-man, the reason is 3^ou 



ELIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL. 7 1 

do not know Christ ; yon have never pnt yourself 
under his transforming influence. 

(b.) Test Christianity s zvorks. 

See what Christianity has done and is still 
doing in the world. Compare Christian lands with 
pagan lands. Ask yourself in which lands you 
would prefer to live and which civilization of all 
civilizations you would choose. Facts are lamps 
by which we see Christ and his religion. You 
choose the products which Christ and his religion 
have given the world. Why not choose the causes 
of these ? Can you give an intelligent reason why 
not ? Standing in the nineteenth century we can 
confidently appeal to the products of the gospel as 
a proof of the worth of the gospel and as an estab- 
lishment of its claims. 

This is the way intelligent and fair-minded 
men judge it. Let me quote just two instances ; 
let m.e present the words of living men who stand 
high in our own land. I am glad of their testi- 
mony, for it is the testimony of candid stu- 
dents. 

I quote from the words of Chauncey Depew, 
who so nobly answered Julian Hawthorne at one 
of the meetings of the Nineteenth Century Club 
in New York. These are his words : 

'' I confess I do not understand these evangels 
of free thought, who claim to do so much for the 
wide world through their scientific and sociologi^ 
cal associations. London has these associations, 
but the poor and needy and lost of London know 
nothing about them. But they do know some- 



T2 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

thing about the churches of Christ. These evan- 
gels of free thought use a language of strange 
terms and beautiful generalities which convey no 
meaning to me. They would tumble down my 
church and bury my Bible and destroy all the 
foundations of faith, but they would offer only in 
return words and terminologies as mixed as chaos 
and as vague as space. I understand my Bible. I 
understand Christian charity and Christian educa- 
tion. I understand the doctrine of fears and re- 
wards, and how it arouses and keeps in exercise a 
healthy conscience. I know what Christianity has 
done and what it is doing. I know what the 
Christian religion has been to this nation, and 
what civilization it produces when it is allowed a 
sway. A better society never has been and never 
will exist than that in New England for its first 
one hundred and fifty years, when the whole life 
was dominated by the family Bible." ^ 

Here is a candid man testing Christianity by 
its works, and his verdict is, '' The Lord, he is 
God." 

I quote next the words of our late Minister to 
England, James Russell Lowell. Being called 
upon to make an after-dinner speech, it fell to his 
lot to follow one who had indulged in flings at 
Calvinism and the Bible. He was brave enough 
to utter these words : 

''Whatever defects and imperfections may 
attach to a few points of the doctrinal system of 
Calvin, the bulk of which is simply what all Chris- 
tians believe, it will be found that Calvinism, or 



ELIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL. 73 

any other ism that claims an open Bible and a 
crucified and risen Christ, is infinitely ipreferable 
to any form of polite and polished skepticism 
which gathers as its votaries the degenerate sons 
of heroic ancestors who, having been trained in a 
society and educated in schools the foundations of 
which were laid by men of faith and piety, now 
turn and knock down the ladder by which they 
have climbed up, and persuade men to live with- 
out God and leave them to die without hope. 
When the microscope of skepticism, having hunt- 
ed the heavens and sounded the seas to disprove 
the existence of a Creator, shall have turned its 
attention to human society and found a place ten 
miles square where a decent man can live in de- 
cency, comfort, and security, supporting and edu- 
cating his children unspoiled and unpolluted, a 
place where age is reverenced, infancy apprecia- 
ted, manhood respected, womanhood honored, and 
human life held in due regard — when skeptics can 
find such a place ten miles square on this globe 
where the gospel of Christ has not gone and 
cleared the way and laid the foundation and made 
decency and security possible, it will then be in 
order for the skeptical literati to move thither and 
there ventilate their views. But so long as these 
very men are dependent upon the religion which 
they discard for every privilege they enjoy, they 
may well hesitate a little before they seek to rob 
the Christian of his hopes and humanity of its 
faith in that Saviour who alone has given to man 
the hope of life eternal, which makes this life tol- 

4 



74 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

erable and society possible, and robs death of its 
terrors and the grave of its gloom." 

Here is another leader of thought testing Chris- 
tianity by its works, and his verdict is, '' The Lord, 
he is God." 

III. WHEN MEN, BY HONEST TESTING, FIND THE 
RELIGION OF GOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS THEIR 
DUTY OPENLY AND FEARLESSLY TO CONFESS 
THIS TO THE WORLD. 

There should be no delay in this duty. It 
should be performed at once. Elijah worked for 
instantaneous conversion and instantaneous con- 
fession. This is apparently so, and yet what 
seems instantaneous here was not after all instan- 
taneous. In reality this conversion of Israel was 
the result of long years. The memories of the 
past were in it. Years of reasoning and of appeal 
were in it. Men often say, during excitements of 
religious fervor, that actions committed in haste 
will be repented of at leisure ; that it is not fair 
dealing with great multitudes to ply them with 
hymns and prayers and preaching, and compel 
them to determine before they leave the house 
that they w411 live a Christian life. They claim 
that it is a precipitancy from which there will be 
a rebound. In the great majority of cases it is 
not precipitancy. It is simply bringing the man 
to do what all along he has felt it to be his duty 
to do. In an instant the heart and conscience and 
the whole moral sense of the people went out to 
the prophet ; but it Vv^ould not have been so if 



ELIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL. 75 

Israel had not had its past history and training. 
Elijah did not precipitate things when he led the 
people into faith and into a public confession of 
their faith during a single religious service. 

To all who read this page I would say, '' Decide 
for Christ now.'' Do not say, "This is pushing 
things too rapidly and calling for a too hasty de- 
cision.'' Hasty decision ! It is not possible for a 
single reader to make a hasty decision. Some of 
you have been revolving this decision for five 
years ; some of you have been revolving it for ten 
years; some of you have been revolving it for 
fifteen, twenty, twenty-five years. If you should 
decide here and now, this very moment, it would 
only be bringing the thought and purpose and 
conviction of a long past to a legitimate and a 
grand climax. A decision for God and Christ and 
the church on your part, here and now, a hasty 
decision ! The thought is the suggestion of the 
arch-enemy of souls. Such a decision on your 
part, here and now, would be the most deliberate 
act of your life. O immortal soul, Christ has been 
waiting for you to own him these many and long 
years. You have thought the matter over and 
over, and there is not one thing to be gained by 
thinking it over any longer. By the absolute sur- 
render of yourself to Christ, join this very hour 
the multitude of his convinced ones, and vfith the 
sacramental hosts of God's elect send out your cry 
into the dome of humanity, '' The Lord, he is the 
God ! The Lord, he is the God !" 



76 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 



THE DISCOURAGED PROPHET; OR ELI- 
JAH AT HOREB. 

" And Elijah went a day's journey into the wilderness, and 

CAME and sat down UNDER A JUNIPER-TREE ; AND HE RE- 
QUESTED for; himself that HE MIGHT DIE." I Kings 19:4. 

The story is a dark surprise. The man who 
has up to this point walked through history a great 
craggy soul, is now prone on his back, a moral and 
spiritual collapse. His mind is overshadowed by 
grief and his whole personality is shaken by a 
paroxysm of despair. The sight is sad, but it is in- 
structive. It shows that Elijah was a man of like 
passions with ourselves. It teaches that this man 
who has overawed us by the ventures of his faith 
was built up by the Spirit of God out of just such 
spiritual stuff as we are. 

There are two things upon which we wish to 
dwell in dealing with this relapse of the prophet. 
These are: 

I. THE REASONS FOR HIS D OWN-HE ARTEDNESS. 

His relapse is usually attributed to the m^urder- 
ous threat of Jezebel. 

When Ahab returned to the palace from the 
thrilling scenes of Carmel, he had to submit to a 
cross-examination by his wife. He went out 
with 450 priests : he returned alone. She asked, 
'' Where are my four hundred and fifty prophets 
who went forth with you?'' When he had told 



THE DISCOURAGED PROPHET. 77 

her all, instead of believing in Jehovah, who had 
wrought wonders that day, she denounced the mi- 
raculous fire from heaven as a wily trick of the 
subtle old Elijah, and called her husband a silly 
dupe. The story of her husband, instead of con- 
verting her, exasperated her, and when he told her 
how Elijah slew her priests she could contain her- 
self no longer. 

In their slaughter she heard the cry, ''Down 
with Baalism /" In it she saw that Jehovah would 
not tolerate her nor her ancestral faith, so she 
determined she would not tolerate Jehovah nor 
his prophet. Her only thought was one of re- 
venge. Reckless and desperate, she shrieked out 
her diabolic purpose against Elijah, and sent him 
this red-hot message \ '' So let the gods do to me^ and 
more also, if I make 7tot thy life as the life of 07te of 
them by to-morrow about this time I' ' 

It was a very imprudent thing for Jezebel to 
forewarn Elijah; but she was too furious to be 
wise. Her anger was so hot and so full that to 
threaten was a temporary relief, and relief she 
must have. It is a good thing that some people 
get so beside themselves, for they give themselves 
away and defeat their wicked purposes, like Jeze- 
bel, and they let out their plans by their threats. 

While it is customary to say that the threat of 
Jezebel was the cause of Elijah's depression and 
flight, we must guard against mistake. We must 
not ascribe too much to Jezebel's threat. She had 
often threatened, but Elijah did not flee nor 
give way to dejection. We shall not understand 



78 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

the origin of Elijah*s dejection unless we look 
deeper than Jezebel's threat. The causes were 
in Elijah himself. They were such as these : 

(i.) Physical and jiervous exhaustion. 

The man was worked down. The strain of 
Carmel made a heavy draft upon his nervous sys- 
tem. He rebounded from overstrain into collapse. 
He was in a physical and nervous condition famil- 
iar to all who know what it is to be completely and 
utterly tired. The slightest noise is a shock. The 
shutting of a door is like the report of a cannon. 
Every little annoyance rasps the nerves. The nat- 
ural equipoise has been lost. In the heat of devo- 
tion Elijah did not notice his fatigue. He was not 
conscious of the wear to which he was subjecting 
himself in his all-day work at Carmel and in his 
evening twelve-mile race before Ahab's chariot. 
The fact is that when he reached the deepest point 
of his dejection he was ignorant of its cause. He 
did not see that the cause was more physical than 
spiritual. He supposed that it was altogether 
spiritual. The relation between body and soul is 
mysterious, but real, and it must be regarded. 
The body affects the mind and darkens the spirit- 
ual firmament of the soul. It sometimes happens, 
therefore, that we need the physician's prescrip- 
tion more than vv^e do sermons and prayers. 

(2.) TJie result of reaction. 

The believer's greatest peril often meets him 
when he passes from one experience to another, 
and especially when he passes from his highest 
privileges and honors. Elijah had been highly 



THE DISCOURAGED PROPHET. 79 

honored on Carmel the day before. As a reward 
for his fidelity he had been lifted to the highest 
point on the mountain of fame. There are risks in 
coming down the mountain to the plain of every- 
day living. There is quite a difference between 
the shout, "Jehovah, he is the God!" and the 
threat of Jezebel. If he had not been the victor of 
Carmel, he would not have felt the difference. If 
the threat had fallen upon him three years be- 
fore, when he was the fugitive of Cherith, it would 
not have cost him a moment's anxiety. When 
passing from high and notable experiences of the 
religious life, the child of God needs to be espe- 
cially guarded and careful, else like Noah he will 
pass from the ark into drunkenness ; else like 
Peter he will pass from bold and earnest confes- 
sion and from the Lord's table into aggravated de- 
nial of Christ ; or else like Elijah he will pass from 
Carmel to the juniper-tree. Many a believer, like 
Paul after his trip to the third heaven, needs a 
thorn in the flesh to save him from spiritual dis- 
aster. 

(3.) Want ofzvork and want of sympathy. 

The task of Carmel was over, and Elijah was 
like a man out of employment. For this reason 
his purposes were not steadfast like those of a man 
whose energies are all centred in a God-given 
mission. Nothing could have forced Elijah to 
flee when he had the convocation of Carmel upon 
his hands. 

Besides being out of work, he was lonely. He 
needed companionship. He had the heartache 



8o FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

which comes from the want of sympathy. '' His 
whole mission was a heavy secret lying like ice 
upon his heart." He needed some friend to think 
for him in his present state and to join with 
him in prayer. Such a companion would have 
saved him from the juniper-tree. He was like 
Peter without his John, like Luther without his 
Melanchthon, like Calvin without his Beza. 

Companionship, with its refreshing fellowship 
and invigorating sympathy, is the demand of hu- 
man nature. No man is above it. The great 
Paul was not. The friendships which he form^ed 
with Timothy and Titus strengthened him. Je- 
sus, the perfect man, was not. He had his bosom 
friend and those whom he kept close to him. He 
could neither go to his transfiguration glory nor to 
his Gethsemane agony without taking with him 
his chosen three. When we remember the cra- 
ving of human nature for sympathy, and when we 
recall the loneliness of Elijah, we see in his loneli- 
ness one of the causes of his depression. 

II. THE ESCAPE FROM HIS DOWN-HEARTEDNESS. 

God came to the prophet's rescue. He cared 
for him as tenderly as a mother cares for her 
afflicted child. Elijah fled, but God followed him. 
God knows where all his children are : Jacob at 
Bethel, Jonah on the sea, Moses at Midian, John 
in Patmos, and Elijah under the juniper-tree. He 
knows everything about them. Not a thought or 
mood of theirs can escape him. If God watches 
our moods, we should watch them too and guard 



THE DISCOURAGED PROPHET. 8l 

them. They affect our lives and tell in the mould- 
ing of our characters. We should watch them, 
because we can control them and discipline them. 
When our moods are rightly disciplined we shall 
be brave-hearted and able to meet ridicule and 
scorn and threats and undervaluation and loneli- 
ness and temptation to dejection. 

This history brings out the tenderness 'of God 
and his wonderful care over his dejected prophet. 
He treated him as a skilful physican treats his 
patient. He diagnosed his case and prescribed 
accordingly. The medicine which he adminis- 
tered suited exactly. It reached the disease. 

How does God lift Elijah out of spiritual de- 
pression? He removes the cause. 

(i.) He recuperates the exhausted body. 

He begins with the physical man. He gives 
him deep and refreshing sleep, and in this way 
restores the equilibrium of the nervous system. 
After this he sends him two full meals by the 
hand of his angel, and he so blesses these meals 
that they nourish the prophet for forty days. It is 
God's blessing which makes our food sustaining 
and nutritious. His curse can turn the richest 
viands into poison and death, but his blessing can 
make the crust a life-sustaining force. God treat- 
ed Elijah with a compassion like that which Jesus 
showed to the multitudes in the wilderness. He 
refused to send them away fasting after a day of 
earnest listening to his holy teachings, lest they 
might faint by the way, and lest bodily exhaust- 
ion might destroy the effect of spiritual teaching. 

Solomon to the Captivity. j^* 



82 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

Even the Son of God himself will fail as a preacher 
if the bodily conditions of his congregation be not 
right and healthful. 

(2.) He brings the prophet to a sense of his respon- 
sibility by means of a searching question. 

When the body is made right God deals with 
the mind. He brings the prophet to himself. He 
compels him to think. He puts him upon his de- 
fence. He shows him that he is not where he 
ought to be and that he has no divine warrant for 
his present course. By this simple question, 
'' What doest thou here, Elijah ?'* he compels the 
prophet to deal with himself, to justify himself or 
to rebuke himself. 

(3.) He gives him a new view of God, 

He grants him the theophany of Horeb. By a 
vision he opens the divine nature and gives him 
an insight into the divine method of procedure. 
He treats him as he treated Moses when, discour- 
aged by the sins of Israel, he cried, '' I beseech 
thee show me thy glory.'* 

The scenes which he witnessed at Horeb were 
a magnificent '' object lesson.'' He was instructed 
by the symbolism of nature. The scenes were an 
acted parable which he wxll understood. This was 
the drama of the wilderness, 

A hurricane came shrieking through the ra- 
vines of the mountains, leaping through the gor- 
ges, and tearing off huge fragments on every side. 
Then followed the crash of an earthquake, making 
the mighty peaks and mountain-tops sway and rock 
on their foundations. After this came the peals 



THE DISCOURAGED PROPHET. 83 

of an awful thunderstorm, which reverberated 
through the mountain defiles. After all this, and 
in contrast with it, came an impressive silence, 
and out of the silence there came '' a still small 
voice,'' which Elijah felt to be the voice of God. 
To him there was more of God in that still small 
voice than there was in the awe-inspiring phe- 
nomena of hurricane and earthquake and light- 
ning, and there was. There is more of God in 
the whispering of conscience in the stillness and 
darkness of midnight than there is in the thunders 
of war or in the sweep of desolating judgments. 

The lesson which Elijah was taught was this : 
Do not trust in the things which stun and bewil- 
der ; do not expect God to work always after the 
Carmel type. This is not the most effective 
way of working. This is not the way in which 
God chooses to work as a rule. '' Judgment is 
his strange work." Be content to adopt quieter 
means. Let the mercy of God, seen in the re- 
freshing rains and returning harvests, work for 
Jehovah among the people and declare that he is 
God. Be content now to lay aside the thunder- 
bolts of judgment and use the words of promise 
and mercy in dealing with Israel. Draw them to 
God from this time on instead of trying to drive 
them to God. You yourself have felt the pov/er 
of the still small voice ; use it in the conversion of 
Israel. Now that the wonders of Carmel have 
arrested the attention of the nation, deal with it in 
the persuasive words of love. 

God showed Elijah that he expected too much 



84 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

from excitement and from the terrifying. It is 
the quiet influences that tell — the quiet, earnest, 
godly, consistent character in the Christian life, 
the quiet, still dew and the silent sun-ray in na- 
ture. It is as God taught Elijah. The silent 
power is the effective and lasting power. It is the 
earnest, quiet, divine love of the cross that is to 
regenerate the world and bring it into subjection 
to God, and not judgment nor sweeping pestilence 
nor the bloody sword. 

(4.) He aitswers the prop he fs craving for sympa- 
thy and commissions him to further service. 

The prophet felt that he was alone ; so God 
gave him Elisha as a companion, and told him of 
the seven thousand who hated Baal and who were 
one with him in loyalty to Jehovah. These seven 
thousand Vv^ere praising God every day for the 
heroic consistency and leadership of Elijah. Eli- 
jah was reproducing himself in them. God hid 
them away from the wrath of Jezebel just as he 
hid away the Waldensians among the crags of the 
Alps. 

Elijah was out of work, so God gave him a 
new task. He told him to go and anoint Hazael 
king of Syria in the stead of Ben-hadad, and Jehu 
king of Israel in the stead of Ahab, and Elisha 
prophet in Israel as his own successor. Thus by 
work he protected him against brooding over what 
he called his failure. The work which God gave 
him to do also opened to him the future. There 
was a future for Israel and for God's purposes with 
regard to Israel. All this was uplifting to Elijah. 



THE DISCOURAGED PROPHET. 85 

It made a new man of him, and when next he 
appears in history he is the old fearless hero of 
God, facing royalty and denouncing sin in the pal- 
ace. 

LESSONS. 

I. The care and culture of the physical man is a 
religious duty. 

God teaches us this by caring for the physical 
man of his prophet. The body is the temple of 
God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, 
and we are to keep it from being defiled or mal- 
treated or neglected. We are to keep it in tem- 
perance, soberness, chastity, from the heat of lust, 
and from the w^ear of over-exertion. Our fitness 
for the worship of God is in large measure bodily 
fitness, and we are verily derelict before God when 
we do not secure that fitness. What saint's rest is 
there for a man in the agony of dyspepsia which 
he has carelessly brought upon himself by irreg- 
ular and unwholesome diet? To say nothing of 
material food, v/hat gospel can that man relish or 
what gospel can he preach ? Viewed from any 
standpoint, the neglect of sanitary laws is an out- 
and-out sin. Hygiene is an angel of God both to 
the soul and to the body of man. It aids health 
of body and spirituality of soul. 

2. There is a power in ho7iest^ God-appointed work. 
So long as Elijah kept at work he was strong 
and happy. There is a quaint legend about the 
apostle Thomas which illustrates this. The legend 
runs : He fell to doubting again about the resur- 
rection of Jesus. In the agony of his doubts he 



86 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

went to his fellow-apostles to pour his story into 
their ears ; but they interrupted him and said, 
*' Thomas, we are sorry for you, but we are so busy 
that we have no time to give you/* He went next 
to the believing women. He said to himself, 
*' They are more tender-hearted than the men ; 
they will listen to me and discuss with me my 
trouble.'* He opened himself up to them with 
much greater fulness. But even they, tender- 
hearted as they were, stopped him in the midst of 
his story and excused themselves from hearing 
him to the end by declaring that pressing duties 
called. And the man was left alone with no Chris- 
tian to whom he could unburden himself. Com- 
pelled to talk with himself and to comfort himself, 
he struck upon this line of thought as he mused : 
" Perhaps the reason these people have no doubts 
to harass them as my doubts harass me may be 
just this which I see with mine own eyes : they 
are so busy." Acting upon the hint, he immedi- 
ately went to Parthia and began the work of 
preaching the gospel, and he found that his con- 
jecture was true. Hard work kept him from ever 
doubting again. The story is a legend, but it con- 
tains a fact for all time, namely, the busy man 
makes the best Christian. 



ahab's covetousness. 87 



ARAB'S COVETOUSNESS ; OR RETRIBU- 
TIVE JUSTICE. 

*' Thus saith the Lord, In the place where dogs licked the 

BLOOD OF NABOTH SHALL DOGS LICK THY BLOOD, EVEN THINE." 

I Kings 21 :i9. 

The story of Naboth reminds us of some of 
the tragedies and characters of Shakespeare. If 
Ahab and Jezebel had never been given a place in 
the Bible, we question whether Shakespeare would 
ever have constructed his Macbeth and Lady Mac- 
beth. History is bolder and more startling than 
fiction. Human nature is more wicked than any 
character constructed by the dramatist or novelist. 
The human heart is deceitful above all things and 
desperately wicked. This is what is illustrated in 
the biographies of Ahab and Jezebel and the 
judges of Jezreel. 

No blacker crime than that which they com- 
mitted is recorded in criminal annals. If we 
should give way to imagination, and fill up the 
story which is simply outlined and give it in de- 
tail as Shakespeare gives his stories, if we should 
read betvv^een the lines, as it is lawful to read, as it 
is intended we should read, the story would have 
in it enormities of such cold blood as would thrill 
us with horror. But why are we compelled to 
search such a narrative through and through ? It 
is part of the Scriptures, and its close study is en- 
joined by the command, '' Search the Scriptures!" 



88 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

Why are we compelled to look upon wickedness of 
such enormous growth and of such hideous devel- 
opment? The reason is, we need these extrava- 
gant exhibitions that we may feel the reality of 
the sins depicted, and may be stirred up to hate 
them in every form and degree. As we read the 
story of Naboth, we exclaim, What avarice ! What 
covetousness ! What childishness of behavior! 
What misery in the midst of luxury ! What for- 
getfulness of untold plenty in the endeavor to 
grasp a mere bawble ! What unmanliness and un- 
royalty ! What daring disregard for God ! What 
presumptuous provocation of his retributive jus- 
tice ! What contempt for human rights, and what 
audacious trampling of these rights under foot! 
What deadness of conscience ! What insensibil- 
ity to all of the finer feelings of human nature ! 
What sacrifice of honor and of justice and of 
life to gratify selfishness ! What deliberate and 
awful murder ! These evils are set before us in 
their extreme forms, and we are made to recoil 
from them as part of our schooling and discipline. 
By them we are instructed concerning the evils 
that are in our life. Our invasion of the rights of 
others, our discontents and jealousies, the hard 
thoughts which we think against others, the de- 
ceptions of which we are guilty, our forgetfulness 
of the omniscient eye of God, our possession and 
enjoyment of ill-gotten gains — what are these? 
They are evils of the same kind as those which 
look us in the face when we read the story of Na- 
both. We are timid Ahabs, and timid Jezebels, 



ahab's covetousness. 89 

The story of Naboth is told us that we may be 
aroused to eradicate from our lives every Ahab-like 
and Jezebel-like thing, lest we become altogether 
like them. 

I. THE STORY. 

Naboth was a resident of Jezreel. It was here 
that Ahab had his ivory palace. Naboth owned in 
this place a vineyard adjoining the grounds of 
Ahab. We do not know how it lay with regard to 
Ahab's estate. It may have formed an ugly angle 
as it jutted into the palatial grounds. Be that as it 
may, Ahab saw what seemed to him good reasons 
for desiring its annexation. One reason is stated 
here, he wanted to turn it into a kitchen garden. 
Swayed by his desire he said to himself, '' I want 
that vineyard.'' The desire grew upon him every 
time he saw it, until it became absolute covetous- 
ness. He could not be happy without it. With 
this feeling he went to Naboth and offered to buy 
it or make an exchange. But Naboth refused 
point-blank to part with his vineyard or to enter 
into any negotiation with Ahab. What ? Refuse 
to sell when rich Ahab, the king, felt that it was 
essential for him to purchase ? This is the ques- 
tion which the shrewd American asks in genuine 
surprise. 

The first thing in the story which lifts Naboth to 
a high place in our estimation is this : he did not 
overreach Ahab when he might have done so. He 
was none of your modern note-shavers or chattel 
mortgage men. He did not make his money by 
taking advantage of men's necessities, or by crowd- 



90 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

ing a business-partner into a corner and custom- 
ers against the wall. He was the type of a man I 
like to see in the membership of the church. 
But why did Naboth refuse to sell? It was not 
merely because his homestead was full of holy 
memories. He was bound to the place by senti- 
ment, and sentiment when it is pure and right is 
among the grandest things in a man's life. It is a 
mighty power. Nothing is said about sentiment 
in the narrative, although sentiment would hold 
him to the old homestead, the cradle of his earliest 
recollections and the place of his fathers' tombs. 
It was not dogged obstinacy nor boorish discour- 
tesy: it was principle and loyalty to God's law 
that led Naboth to refuse to part with his patrimo- 
nial acres. Naboth put God back of his refusal to 
sell. '' And Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord for- 
bid it, that I should give the inheritance of my 
fathers unto thee." He was a Jehovah-ite. In all 
probability he was one of the seven thousand who 
refused to own and serve Baal. But why did he 
reply to Ahab, " The Lord forbid " ? Because, un- 
der the laws which governed real estate in Israel, 
which had been formulated by the Lord himself, 
God forbade such a sale or exchange as proposed 
by Ahab. This was the law : '' The land shall not 
be sold for ever, for the land is mine." The sale 
of the land was permissible only when necessitated 
by debt ; and then it was not sold for ever ; it was 
sold on condition that the original owner could re- 
deem it at any time ; or, if not redeemed, that it 
should return again to the original family at the 



ARAB'S COVETOUSNESS. 9I 

Jubilee. This was a merciful law. It was a law 
against land monopolists. It was a law which 
tended to equalize wealth in the nation, and give 
the weak and unfortunate in business a good, fresh 
start. Ahab, as a Baal-ite, had no regard for this 
law of God. Naboth, as a Jehovah~ite, had. He 
grounded his refusal to sell upon this law. Ahab 
had raised a question of religion between him and 
Naboth, and Naboth refused to truckle to power 
and patronage, but stood firm in his religion. 
When he died as a consequence of his loyalty to 
God, he died as a religious martyr. It was the 
religion in Naboth's refusal that so affected Ahab 
and moved him so deeply. He felt Naboth's refu- 
sal to be a rebuke from God. He writhed under 
the rebuke. His pride and dignity were wounded. 
**And Ahab came into his house heavy and dis- 
pleased, and he laid him down upon his bed, and 
turned away his face, and v/ould eat no bread." 

We write down Ahab very low when we look 
upon his puerile conduct as he whines and frets. 
But is not Ahab human? Are not men thrown 
into this mood to-day? Are there not business 
men who come home at night ill-natured and sul- 
len, casting a shadow over the household ? Are 
there not housekeepers worrying over little things ? 
Are there not men in the church who mope and 
sigh and wear a face as gloomy and as foreboding 
and as far from a smile as though the ten plagues 
hurled at Egypt had missed Egypt and struck 
them ? Yes. And the only reason for such a face 
is, they are not able to have everything their own 



92 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

way. They have run square against some Naboth, 
with a mind of his own, with personal rights, and 
with courage to stand up for them. But we must 
not even do Ahab injustice. There is a favorable 
way of looking at his royal pout. It is this : he was 
open and free from hypocrisy in his pouting. 
Many a man to-day, who is exactly the same inter- 
nally as Ahab was, puts on a different external 
and passes for a saint. He misses no meals. He 
smiles to order. But there is a lie in every smile. 
There is a positive untruth in the assumption of 
feeling that is false and foreign. One thing can 
be said for Ahab, he appeared and acted just as he 
felt. If men did so to-day, the invisible and active 
Ahab in us would be made visible. 

Ahab was the most miserable man in all the 
kingdom. His external circumstances were most 
desirable. He had a throne and palaces and miles 
of acreage and luxury of every kind. But he was 
unhappy, and the reason is found in the state of 
his soul. The soul of man must be made right, if 
he is ever to be satisfied and happy. Ahab with a 
kingdom will mourn because he has not Naboth's 
vineyard. Haman, second to the king, with all 
Persia at his feet, will be tormented and vexed be- 
yond endurance because Mordecai, a Hebrew por- 
ter at the gate, will not bow to him and cringe like 
a dog. Alexander, with a conquered world pros- 
trate before him, will weep because there are not 
more worlds to conquer. It is the state of the 
heart that determines the happiness of man. 

Jezebel now comes into the story. The ser- 



AHAB S COVETOUSNESS. 93 

vants come and tell her of the condition of her 
royal husband. In deep solicitude and with much 
apprehension she seeks him. What can be wrong ? 
Can he be smitten with mortal sickness ? Has he 
discovered some plot of treason ? Has he received 
news of an invading enemy, and are the horrors of 
war about to break out in the land? Dreading 
some awful discovery, she coaxes from him the 
cause of his depression. With a sense of relief 
she exclaimed, ''Is that all?" She then twitted 
him for forgetting that he was king and could do 
as he pleased, and comforted him in a wifely fash- 
ion with the promise that she would give him what 
he wanted. All she asked from Ahab was the 
royal seal, which carried with it the authority of 
the throne. This Ahab gave her. This was his 
sin. This constituted her his agent, and made him 
responsible for her murderous act. He knew her 
Satanic character. He knew that there was no 
honest way of securing that vineyard. He was 
therefore prospectively guilty the moment he re- 
fused to restrain Jezebel. The motto of Jezebel 
was that of the unjust judge, '' I fear not God 
neither regard man." Bribery, murder, theft, per- 
jury, intimidation, these were to her trifles as light 
as air. She was as cunning and as cold-blooded 
and as subtle as Herodias. She belonged to a 
murder-committing family. Secular history tells us 
that her father murdered his own brother and 
seized his throne ; and sacred history tells us that 
her daughter Athaliah murdered the whole royal 
family of Judah, that she might sit upon the 



94 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

throne, Joash only being saved by Jehoiadah, who 
was the cause of her final ruin. 

The plan of Jezebel was to murder Naboth. 
She determined to do this judicially. She em- 
ployed the judges and princes of Jezreel to carry 
out her purpose. She directed them to proclaim a 
religious fast, as though some awful calamity was 
about to overtake the place. The object of this 
fast was to avert the impending doom, and to 
search out the sin which occasioned the coming 
calamity, that it might be removed and the sinner 
put out of the way. Some think that she directed 
them to honor Naboth by putting him at the head 
of the convocation. This would look like good- 
will towards Naboth. It would make the perpe- 
trator of the crime conspicuous, and the shock of 
exposure all the greater. At the opportune mo- 
ment false witnesses were to come forward and 
swear that Naboth blasphemed God and the king. 
The charge was then to be sustained, and Naboth 
was to be sentenced and executed under the law 
that punished blasphemy. 

The elders and nobles of Jezreel now come into 
the story. Their blood may have curdled as they 
read the letters of the queen sealed with the royal 
stamp ; but Jezebel knew her men, and they did as 
she commanded. They had not the spirit to re- 
sist. They stoned Naboth and his sons, and added 
insult to injury by leaving their bodies unburied, 
to be devoured by dogs and vultures. They then 
sent word to Jezebel, ''Naboth is stoned and is 
dead." Jezebel immediately found Ahab and bade 



ahab's covetousness. 95 

him arise and take, without money or exchange, 
the vineyard that once belonged to Naboth, for 
Naboth had died a criminal. The law deeded the 
property of the criminal to the crown. 

Elijah now comes into the story. When Jeze^ 
bel announced to Ahab that the vineyard of Na- 
both was his, he at once arose, entered his chariot, 
and started to Jezreel to enjoy his new-gained pos- 
session. He took with him Jehu and Bidkar, two 
of his courtiers. He uttered no w^ord of condem- 
nation against the awful conspiracy. He deter- 
mined at once to enjoy the fruits of Jezebers 
crime. Thus by deliberately approving her crime 
he made himself the partner of her guilt. Talking 
with his courtiers about the use which he intended 
to make of the ground, he entered the vineyard of 
Naboth. Just then, unannounced, and in his me- 
teor-like way, Elijah, the prophet of doom, started 
up before him. With a tongue of fire he spake 
out, in the hearing of all, the dreadful doom of 
retribution which God had commissioned him to 
pronounce : '' Hast thou killed and also taken pos- 
s"ession ? Thus saith the Lord, In the place where 
dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy 
blood, even thine.'* Filled with terror by this 
awful sentence, Ahab, sick at heart, gasped, '' Hast 
thou found me, O mine enemy?" Elijah replied, 
'' I have found thee because thou hast sold thyself 
to work evil." Then pronouncing a like doom 
against Jezebel, he left the terror-stricken king to 
his fears. The sentence came like a thunder-clap, 
but Ahab knew that the man who uttered it v^as 



96 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

cognizant of his crime, and that he was not the 
man to beat the air and ntter vain words. He felt 
the justice of the sentence and at once began to 
reap the consequences of his sin. 

What advantage did Ahab acquire from his 
stolen vineyard? That is the question. What 
good accrues to any man from ill-gotten gains? 
Ill-gotten gains turn into gall, they become a 
thorn in the side, they result in torment of con- 
science, and they stand forth condemning wit- 
nesses in the day of judgment. What were the 
thirty pieces of silver to Judas Iscariot ? What 
red-hot, molten drops of metal are on bare nerves, 
those pieces of silver were to the awakened con- 
science of Judas. No man need expect to get 
more from his ill-gotten silver than Judas got 
from his thirty pieces. 

The sentence of Ahab — was it executed ? His 
whole family was extirpated root and branch, and 
he fell in a way which called attention to the fact 
that God wrought his death. While he led Israel 
in a battle against Syria a certain man drew his 
bow at a venture, and without aiming at anybody 
or anything, let the arrow fly. A human arm 
put strength into the bow, but it was the eye of 
God that sighted the arrow. It struck Ahab be- 
tween the joints of his armor and made a mortal 
wound. The charioteer drove the wounded Ahab 
to Jezreel, where he Vv-as buried. The chariot, 
dripping with his blood, was taken to the town 
pool to be washed, and the street dogs were seen 
licking up the dead man's blood. 



ahab's covetousxess. 97 

Jezebel's death was as tragic as that of Ahab. 
Jehu, the courtier of her husband, made war 
against the dynasty of her house and cut it down 
with great slaughter. As he passed victoriously 
by the castle of Jezebel, she cried out of the win- 
dow at him and hurled a keen taunt. This roused 
the anger of Jehu, and looking up he shouted, 
'' Are any of you in the castle on my side?" Two 
or three eunuchs replied, '' We are f' for Jezebel 
was hated even in the palace. Then Jehu cried, 
"Throw her out of the window!" This they at 
once did, and she lay mangled and broken on the 
ground at Jehu's feet. In another instant the 
wheels of his chariot crashed over her as he rode 
on. In a little while after, when his anger cooled, 
Jehu commanded, *' Let them go out and bury the 
cursed woman, for after all she is a king's daugli^ 
ter." ''And they went to bury her; but they 
found no more of her than the skull and the feet 
and the palms of her hands." The street dogs had 
eaten her. Horror! But thus it was predicted. 
This was her sentence from the Lord. This was 
retributive justice. Jehu, who was with Ahab 
when Elijah met him in Naboth's vineyard and 
pronounced his doom, recognized it as such. And 
he said, '' This is the word of the Lord, which he 
spake by his servant Elijah." 

II. THE LESSONS. 

I. // IS a co7nmon mistake to look upon oiir consci- 
entious reprovers as enemies, 

" Hast thou found me, O mine enemy T Thus 

Solomon to the Captivity. C 



98 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

Ahab hissed at Elijah, when Elijah reproved him 
for sin. The prophets were all reprovers of vices 
and sins, and for this reason they were hated. 
Jeremiah was put into a miry pit, and Isaiah was 
sawn asunder. Christ was hated because he re- 
buked men by his holy life and uttered scathing 
words against the sins of his day. We are not bet- 
ter than our fathers in our disposition towards 
those who rebuke us and expose our sins. We do 
not like a preacher who is personal in his preach- 
ing. He may lay the lash upon Adam and upon 
the rest of the Bible sinners, but when he lays the 
lash upon our guilty backs, we rise in arms against 
him. Let us correct our estimates. An honest, 
God-fearing reprover is an Elijah. He stands to 
us in the stead of God. 

2. We are responsible for our name arid influence, 
Jezebel planned the murder of Naboth, but 

God held Ahab equally responsible, because he 
allowed his name and seal to be set upon the plans. 
This gave them authority. Pilate thought to wash 
his hands free from the stains of the blood of 
Jesus. This he could not do, because his name 
and influence carried Christ to the cross. " Christ 
crucified by Pontius Pilate," is the current phrase 
of the age. Let us look at our responsibility as 
God looks at it. 

3. The discipline of our desires is a duty. 

This is where Ahab failed. This is where half 
of the world fails. Desires are the springs of life ; 
if we keep the springs under control, we keep life 
under control. Ahab earnestly desired the vine- 



ahab's covetousness. 99 

yard of Naboth and Naboth refused to give it to 
him. There was no lawful way to get it. What 
would we have Ahab do? Do without it. We 
should learn from Ahab's mistake. We should 
learn to take refusals in life. We should attain 
the power of doing without what we cannot legiti- 
mately secure. We should deny ourselves. 

4. There is such a thing as righteous retribution. 

The heathen believe this. The fable of '' The 
Furies " following the criminal is the outgrowth of 
such a belief. Adoni-bezek attributed the loss of 
his thumbs and great toes to retributive justice. 
(Judges 1 : 7). To the child of God the fact is an 
absolute certainty. He sees it upon every page of 
history. God stands back of his law and vindi- 
cates it and keeps men from trifling with it. Cain 
and Ahab and Jezebel are all striking embodi- 
ments of the operation of retributive justice. So is 
the doom which overtook the city w^hich crucified 
Jesus of Nazareth. We hear its citizens cry, *^ His 
blood be upon us and upon our children \' and it is 
upon them and theirs to this very day. '' Be not 
deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap." 



lOO FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 



ELIJAH TRANSLATED: A REVELATION 
OF THE BELIEVER'S FUTURE. 

^' Behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of 
FIRE, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." 
2 Kings 2:11. 

The story of the ascension of Elijah makes an 
impression upon the soul which lives and burns 
and thrills. And yet when you come to analyze 
the narrative, and look narrowly into its w^ords 
and phrases, you are surprised how much silence 
it maintains and how little it tells. 

Still the story holds an infinitely large place in 
my aspirations and conceptions. Each friend that 
goes enlarges it. But notice the story as it is in 
the Word of God. It does not cover a single 
page. No. It does not cover a single chapter. 
No. It is told in a single verse — one verse and no 
more. There are a thousand questions which you 
w^ould like to have answ^ered, but they are not 
answered. There is wisdom in all this; there is 
wisdom in refraining from a detailed description 
of a great event. When the details are left to the 
play of a regenerated imagination they become 
full of solemnity and sublimity, but the moment 
you try to put them into words and give them vis- 
ibility, you limit their majesty and their power. 
Better not work up the translation of Elijah ; bet- 
ter allow each imagination, as it comes to it, to 
work it up for itself from the richness and ful- 



ELIJAH TRANSLATED. lOI 

ness of its own life. Better to follow the spirit of 
inspiration and treat it as inexpressible. The in- 
expressible is the same thing as the iimneasurable. 

But there are details of some kind connected 
with the story, are there not ? There are. There 
are the details of w^hat precedes and what suc- 
ceeds. We are told of the journeys to Gilgal and 
Bethel and Jericho. We are told that it was 
known in the schools of the prophets that Elijah 
was going. We are told how the two prophets 
journeyed and talked. The orphan-cry which 
leaped from the heart of Elisha when he found 
himself alone is given. The history of the fallen 
mantle is recorded. And we are told that the 
sons of the prophets accepted Elisha as the suc- 
cessor of Elijah when they saw the power of 
God working through him as it had worked 
through his master. All these details are given 
us; and then right in the midst of these details 
occurs the one verse which narrates the ascension 
of the Prophet of Fire. The ascension of Elijah 
is put right in the midst of verities and facts that 
it might be looked upon as a verity and a fact — 
as much of a fact as the going to Jericho, as 
the orphan-cr}^ as the falling of the mantle, as 
the climbing of the terraces by the fifty sons of 
the prophets that they might witness what was 
about to take place. It is no more possible to 
explain it away than it is to explain away the 
straightforward facts in the midst of which its 
story is imbedded. 



I02 -FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 
I. THE ASCENSION. 

This is the story as it enlarges itself before my 
mind. It was while the two prophets talked and 
held sweet communion that the triumphant exit 
took place. A brightness like the ruby splendor 
of the evening sky suddenly filled the dome of 
heaven and the roar of a mighty storm rolled 
through the atmosphere. A whirlwind came, 
cleaving the fields of space, and stopped not until 
it struck the spot where Elisha was. Speedily it 
enfolded him. As Elisha saw it there was in the 
centre of the whirlwind a chariot -and horses of 
fire. Into the chariot Elijah was lifted and the 
glowing sight went up and still up, past Orion, 
past the Pleiades, up to the gates of pearl, and then 
along the streets of gold to the palace of God : 

*' The drivers were angels on horses of whiteness, 
And the burning wheels turned upon axles of brightness; 
A seraph unfolded its doors bright and shining, 
All dazzling like gold of the seventh refining; 
On the arch of the rainbow the chariot is gliding, 
Through the paths of the thunder the horses are riding." 

As flesh and blood cannot enter heaven, and 
as Elijah appears on the Mountain of Transfigura- 
tion with a body full of glory, the body of Elijah 
in the ascension was no doubt spiritualized and 
fitted for its new state of being. Just as the radi- 
ance of light smites the falling raindrops and in 
an instant turns them into the many-hued bow, 
so the resurrection power of God laid hold of the 
body of Elijah and in an atom of time transfigured 



ELIJAH TRANSLATED. I03 

and glorified it. Corruption put on incorruption, 
the mortal put on immortality, dishonor gave way 
to glory, and the natural or fleshly body became a 
spiritual body. 

The change which took place in Elijah illus- 
trates the w^ords of Paul. It may be also that it 
suggested his words, '^ Behold, I show you a mys- 
tery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all 
be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an 
eye, at the last trump." 

IL THE PURPORT OF THE TRANSLATION. 

It is meant to teach us that there is a future 
life and that it is determined by the present life. 
For men who are grand and good here, there is 
a grand and good immortality in that place to 
which Elijah ascended. There is an Elijah-life 
and an Elijah-immortality. There is an Ahab-life 
and an Ahab-immortality. All men are immortal, 
but the immortality of all men is not alike. It is 
awfully different. There may be a cloud in the 
sky, but there is a great difference between that 
cloud filled with inky blackness and that cloud 
transfused and transfigured by the glorious light 
of the sun. The future existence of the Vvdcked 
is a cloud filled with inky blackness. The future 
existence of the righteous is a cloud filled with 
light. In the immortality of the righteous there 
will be no sin, no unbalanced passion, no crippled 
faculty, no mental or moral or spiritual infirmity. 
His life will be like the life of God, full of joy, 
peace, purity, knowledge, and. satisfaction. 



I04 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

We need to have ourselves and our possibili- 
ties made knov/n to us, and to answer this need 
is the design of the narrative. Man is like a seed. 
We cannot see all that is in a seed ; we must be 
instructed as to what is in it. Some one must 
take the acorn, for example, and plant it and nur- 
ture it and evolve from it the oak and then the 
forest, before we can know how much there is in 
the acorn. Even so before we can know how 
much is in man God must take a man, as he takes 
Elijah, and evolve from him his grand and heroic 
life and translate him to heaven, and in this way- 
unfold his immortality. God means Elijah to be 
a revelation of man to man. As by his life he 
teaches us what principle to plant in our hearts, 
by his translation he teaches us that life on earth 
is not all of a man's life ; there is a continuance of 
personal existence and identity beyond. 

We might reason this out in a dim way. The 
imagination as a seer proclaims it. Conscience as 
a prophet predicts it. Our thoughts and feelings 
spire heavenward and are like fingers pointing to 
a world out of sight. There is something wathin 
us which corresponds to and answers to some- 
thing above, just as there is something in this 
earth of ours which links it to the flashing worlds 
which crowed the ethereal plain and makes it one 
with them in rhythmic tread. While all this is 
true, and while w^e can reason thus, God knew 
that it would not satisfy man ; that man craves 
certainties; that he wants something more than 
the conclusions of an unenlightened guessing rea- 



ELIJAH TRANSLATED. I05 

son, something more than the analogies of nature 
and the inductions of philosophy. God knew that 
man wanted facts and visible proofs. So he gave 
him what he demanded by giving him the trans- 
lation of Elijah. Here was immortality asserting 
itself and carrying man to the immortal world. 
Here was a man passing over the pathway be- 
tween earth and heaven, and by that act proving 
beyond contradiction that there is such a pathway 
connecting the two worlds. Elijah, soaring up to 
heaven in majestic flight, gave definiteness and 
tangibleness to the doctrines of eternity and im- 
mortality and heaven. The story of his transla- 
tion closes his life in a way that makes it a thrill- 
ing power and gives symmetry to his striking 
and brilliant career. It closes it with an appro- 
priateness and a beauty like that seen in the biog- 
raphy of Jesus. It would not do to close the biog- 
raphy of Jesus with the sealed tomb. The closing 
picture in his biography must be the living and 
ascended Christ, reigning amid the majesty of 
heaven. This makes Jesus Christ a present real- 
ity and a present power. It would not do to close 
the biography of Elijah with the flight to Cherith, 
or with the collapse under the juniper-tree, or 
even with the heroism of Carmel. He must be 
seen riding to heaven in the chariot of fire, the 
equipage of royalty. This gives completeness and 
uniqueness to his history as the Prophet of Fire 
and shows the reward of a true life. 

How his translation must have stirred Elisha 
and the schools of the prophets, and called out a 

5* 



I06 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

fresh discussion and a new and broader restate- 
ment of the doctrine of the future life of man ! 
When once it was rediscussed in the schools, the 
doctrine would find fresh advocacy in the com- 
munity ; for the sons of the prophets, all on fire 
with it, would blaze it abroad and emphasize it by 
the wondrous story of Elijah's ride to glory. We 
reason that this departure of Elijah would act as 
the departure of our friends acts. We may live in- 
different to the other life and to the future des- 
tiny of the human race so long as our loved ones 
are with us here ; but when our esteemed and 
intimate and godly associates leave us and there 
is an aching void in our lives, questions like 
these seize us and clamor for an answer. Do they 
still live ? Where are they ? What are they do- 
ing ? We turn over the leaves of the Bible which 
they were accustomed to read and we peruse the 
thumb-worn, tear-marked pages which contain the 
fourteenth chapter of John and the twenty-first 
and twenty-second chapters of Revelation. We 
remember how these chapters lived in them and 
filled their souls with peace and joy and glowing 
hope, and the question crowds into our minds, 
Are they for ever through with these glorious 
chapters? Are there no mansions? Is there no 
Father's house, no crystal river, no tree of life, no 
city of gold for them now? And does not our 
soul instinctively answer, These were never so 
much of a reality to them as they are now ? Some 
one has told us of a man who lived upon the 
banks of a broad river, who was so much absorbed 



ELIJAH TRANSLATED. lO/ 

with the work of his farm that he never once 
thought of inquiring as to what was on the other 
side. Thus it was for years and years. But in 
the course of time his eldest son crossed the river, 
married there, and made the land his home. A 
daughter followed and did likewise. Then an in- 
terest was at once awakened in the father's heart 
as to what was on the other side of the river. 
The story may be used as a parable. The flow- 
ing river is the Jordan which separates this world 
from the heavenly Canaan. The man of the story 
is the type of a class who are indifferent agnostics 
with regard to the future of man and the doc- 
trine of the heavenly life. The crossing of the 
son and daughter is the departure of loved ones 
who leave us in death. The inquiries of the fa- 
ther, and his desire to be with his children, set 
forth the anxious search to which we are stirred 
by the death of our friends, that we may assure 
ourselves that there is a heaven with its endless 
perfection and with its eternal life and soul-sat- 
isfying joys. The translation of Elijah was a 
mighty power in those days, setting forth the con- 
tiguity of heaven to earth, illustrating the reward 
of the good, and asserting the immortality of man. 
It was a teaching, a confirming fact. It set forth 
the grand certainties of the future in visible, com- 
prehensible form. This was its mission. 

Elijah is introduced by the story as acquainted 
with the fact that God was about to take him up 
to heaven, and that in a short time. From his 
answer to Elisha's request it would appear also 



I08 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

that he had some idea as to the method of his 
departure. While this is true, we believe that he 
had no adequate idea of the degree of glory which 
awaited him. While m.uch was revealed, there 
was much that was veiled. We are only able to 
comprehend a certain measure of heaven's glory. 
Besides this too much insight into heaven would 
demoralize our earthly life. We should be so en- 
raptured of heaven that we would forget and neg- 
lect the things of earth. We find this incident in 
the annals of navigation which serves us as an 
illustration. The crew of a gallant ship forgot 
their duty on board by reason of a vision of their 
native hills. Many long years had passed over 
them since they had left the fatherland. As soon 
as one of their number caught sight of home 
scenes from his outlook on the topmast, he raised 
a shout, '' Yonder it is ! Yonder it is !'' That 
shout shot like electricity through every heart on 
board. All sought to catch the same glance. 
Some climbed the masts and some took the tele- 
scopes. Every eye was on it. All thoughts of 
the vessel were lost in the strong and strange 
excitement. The vessel might have sprung aleak 
or run ashore or sunk to the bottom for aught 
they thought about her. Present duties were ut- 
terly neglected. Somewhat thus would it be with 
us were the particulars of the heavenly world made 
clear and palpable to our hearts. The veil of secrecy 
drawn over them is woven by the hand of mercy. 

Enough of the coming glory was revealed to 
Elijah to quicken him and make hope beat high, 



ELIJAH TRANSLATED. 109 

but not enough to paralyze his energies. He con- 
tinues his earthly work up to the last moment. 
He visits the schools of the prophets at Gilgal and 
Bethel and Jericho under the impulse which he 
got from the knowledge of his coming translation. 
He had reviewed and probably reorganized these 
centres of religious knowledge and enterprise, and 
now that he must leave them, he is anxious to 
correct anything amiss in them and to put new 
life and fidelity into them by his parting words. 
The men of these schools, as well as Elisha, knew 
of the near separation, and the words of Elijah had 
to them all the power of farewell words. Elijah, 
busy to the very last, teaches us that there are no 
spare hours in an earnest man's life. He enter- 
tains no dream of idleness; he looks forward to 
no season when his work shall be considered done 
and he can rest and wait for the coming transla- 
tion. With him life is crowded to the very last 
moment. The earnest man is a man like John 
Wesley, who said that if he knew he were going 
to die to-morrow morning at early dawn, he would 
meet the remaining appointments of the day just 
as he had made them, and work as he intended 
to work up until near midnight, and then go to 
bed in the usual Vv^ay and fall asleep on earth and 
waken in glory. Elijah teaches us that so long 
as God gives us ability to work he means us to 
work. 

III. DEDUCTIONS. 

I . There is a coronation for true character. 

Its own graces are a grand crown. We admire 



no FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

Elijah himself. His whole career was a stepping 
heavenward. Public approbation is a crown. If 
the present generation will not honor a true char- 
acter, after generations will attend to its corona- 
tion. But apart from these things, there is a re- 
ward which God directly gives in the exercise of 
his righteous justice. Paul speaks of it as *'a 
crown of righteousness which the Lord, the right- 
eous Judge, shall give at that day.'' Elijah's trans- 
lation was Elijah's coronation. The believer's 
acquittal and reception into heaven will be the 
believer's coronation. 

2. Life and its close usually correspond. 
There was a harmony between Elijah's life 
and Elijah's departure. His was a tempest-tossed 
life, and it ended in a whirlwind of glory. He 
was a man of fire, and he went up to heaven in a 
chariot of fire. Bunyan sets forth this point in 
portraying the life and death of his characters. 
''Faithful," whose life was a triumph, found that 
death was not so much death as a translation. 
*' Fearing" went shuddering into the valley of 
shadows. '' Hopeful " felt a firm footing and a 
good bottom in the river. In the Bible heroes we 
find the same correspondence. Moses lived in sol- 
itude. In spiritual life and service he towered out 
of sight of his age. There was none who could 
fully sympathize with him, not even his wife, not 
even Aaron. Now this man of solitude died in 
solitude. Christ lived a life of self-sacrifice, and 
fittingly died on the cross. By our daily living we 
are shaping the close of our life. 



ELIJAH TRANSLATED. Ill 

3. The Bible gives a large place to the after lifeo 
The Book sets before us heavenly principles^ 
characteristics, habitudes, but it does more. Be- 
.sides portraying the heaven-life which we should 
live on earth, it sets forth that into which it leads. 
It sets forth heaven itself and the eternal exist- 
ence of man. It gives scene after scene which 
makes us realize that there is another and better 
. world above, and that it is related to this world, 
and that its inhabitants are interested in this 
world. It flashes the light of this heaven-world 
over earth's plains by the story of the shepherds 
of Bethlehem. It gives us some of its songs. 
It fills some chapters with discourses upon the 
change which will take place in us as a prepara- 
tion for that world, and it fills other chapters with 
descriptions of the world itself. And for what 
purpose? Paul gives the purpose in the closing 
words of his long and mxagnificent treatise on the 
resurrection. It is this: Be stirred up to make 
the most of this present life, for this present life 
is carried into and makes the after life. '' There- 
fore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmov- 
able, always abounding in the w^ork of the Lord, 
forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in 
vain in the Lord.'' 



112 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 



THE GODLY SUCCESSION ; OR ELIJAH, 
THEN ELISHA. 

"And he took up the mantle of Elijah that fell from 
HIM." " And when the sOns of the prophets saw him 
THEY SAID, The spirit of Elijah doth rest upon Eli- 
SHA." — 2 Kings 2:14, 15. 

We are taking our last earthly walk with 
many of God's people. They have been with the 
church for years and are its pillars. They have 
planned and prayed and contributed and sacrificed 
and counselled and worked. The church is the 
embodiment of their thought and their substance 
and their very life. But they are on their way 
to eternity, and have almost reached the bor- 
der-line. The seamed face, the tottering step, 
the silver locks, the weak vital organ laboriously 
struggling to perform its functions, are the '' sons 
of the prophets " saying unto us, '' Knowest thou 
that the Lord will take away thy master from thy 
head to-day?" 

And concerning many of our friends in Christ 
the earthly walk has already ended. Their re- 
vered faces and forms are no more. All that we 
have is the mantle which fell from their ascension 
chariot and fluttered to the ground. 

As we stand by the fallen mantle our souls are 
stirred with earnest thoughts and deep problems 
and burning questions, and these must be serious- 
ly and thoroughly dealt with. They centre around 
the church which the ascended ones have left. 



THE GODLY SUCCESSION. II3 

How can Israel exist without Elijah? Will not 
his going prove the end? Who will rebuke and 
love and sacrifice and lead? Elijah's holy char- 
acter was mightier than a standing army, and his 
divine principles were a more certain defence than 
the most approved batteries, and his prayers were 
forces absolutely irresistible. His bodily presence 
in Israel meant national righteousness, respect for 
individual rights, growth of magnificent institu- 
tions, waving harvests, universal plenty, and the 
inspiring presence of Almighty God. Thus it is : 
the good and the great and the devoted in the 
ranks of the church are the human instrumental- 
ities which work out the glorious destinies of the 
church. When they fall, the church, from a hu- 
man point of view, strikes a crisis. The problem 
is, How can the crisis be tided over? 

It is well with those who have ascended. But 
what of the church which they have left ? What of 
the church of God out of whose life so many grand 
personalities have gone and are going ? That is 
the present, the perplexing, and the all-absorbing 
question. The same Scripture which tells us that 
it is well with those who have gone tells us that it 
is' well with the church which remains. It comes 
to us and proclaims this doctrine : There shall 
always be a succession of the godly. O trembling 
and mourning church of God, this is the great 
fact wherewith thy King and Head would comfort 
thee and strengthen thee and fill thee with courage 
for the future. Write the fact before thine eyes 
in letters of faith and confidence as large and as 

Solomon to the Captivity. 



114 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

bright as the burning constellations of space which 
thy God uses as an alphabet in writing upon the 
manuscript of the skies. 

There is a succession of the good ! There is 
no fact more largely proclaimed in God's universe. 
God has thousands of bells arranged into number- 
less chimes, and every chime is ringing out the 
fact. The chimes of God are ringing all through 
nature to teach the doctrine of succession. Tlie 
night proclaims it, and so does the day. 

Let me illustrate. Last night you stood under 
the broad expanse and saw the sky jewelled with 
worlds. The sight was grand. The silence and 
the shade and the silver beams and the vast depths 
of the heavenly dome talked to your soul and 
thrilled you through and through with the sense 
of infinity and immensity and grandeur and 
beauty. You felt to the inmost recesses of your 
soul the awful presence of the great and majestic 
God. After the night came the day. It opened 
into magnificence and splendor out of the night, 
just as the beautiful spring flower opens, a glad 
surprise, out of the dark heart of the bud. As you 
enjoyed the night, as you enjoyed the da)^ was 
there the faintest stirring of a fear within you lest 
there should never be another night or day ? • No. 
Why ? Because God has imbedded in to-day the 
prophecy of to-morrow. 

The entire vegetable world is a proclamation 
of the doctrine. I found the doctrine ye^sterday 
out yonder in the Boston Public Garden. It has 
put on again its far-famed robes of beauty, on 



THE GODLY SUCCESSION. II5 

the right hand and on the left and along the out- 
branching walks. As I walked these paths I was 
reminded of a walk in the same place last year 
with a brother who a few days ago left earth to go 
to God. When I recalled our conversation, and 
thought of him above the stars and of myself still 
walking the earth, this was the question that was 
uppermost in my mind : When we all have passed 
from the season of time into the season of eternity 
shall there be a succession of ourselves there and 
of our friends there? i. e., shall there be the same 
loves, the same fellowships? I was in the best 
possible place to ask that question, for right before 
my eyes was the fac-simile of the olden glory of a 
former spring. Around me were the flowers of. 
this year, God's chimes, ringing out the glad fact, 
There shall always be a succession of the true and 
the beautiful and the good and the helpful and 
the delightsome and the desirable and the ap- 
preciated. Mrs. Whitney expresses our thought 
touchingly : 

" God does not send strange flowers every year. 
When the spring winds blow o'er the pleasant places, 
The same dear things lift up the same fair faces : 
The violet is here. 

" It all comes back, the odor, grace, and hue, 
Each sweet relation of its life repeated. 
No blank is left, no looking-for is cheated : 
It is the thing we knew. 

" So after the death-winter it must be ; 
God will not put strange signs in the heavenly places, 
The old love shall look out from the old faces : 
Veilcken^ I shall have thee." 



Il6 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

The spring of last year has been succeeded by 
the spring- of this year, and the successor is not one 
whit less grand than the predecessor. With the 
voices of spring ringing in my ears, I say to your 
soul as I say to my own soul, '' As it is with the 
flowers, so it is with men." When Elijah rides 
through the skies in a grand way, fitting his grand 
life, there is no need to despair for Israel. No, 
Elijah is only a prophetic bell of God ringing out 
the message to Israel, '^ There shall be an Elisha." 

As I have spoken of nature, so I might speak of 
history. History turns men and women into the 
chimes of God to toll the same fact. Elijah must 
drop the mantle before Elisha can take it up. 
Aaron must disrobe on the mountain-top before 
Eleazar can robe. It is Elijah, then Elisha ; Aaron 
then Eleazar ; Bacon, then Newton ; it is the Pu- 
ritan, then the Pilgrim. The sum and substance of 
the coming and going of men and women is this : 
There shall always be an army of God, and there 
shall always be a Tenth Legion in that army. 
From Adam to Christ there was a succession, a line 
of covenant men, and from Christ to our day there 
has been a succession, a line of gospel-workers. 
In the Old Testament Moses was followed by Josh- 
ua, and strange to say, Joshua, the successor, was 
born during the darkest hour of Moses' career, the 
hour when his first attempt to befriend the He- 
brews proved an utter failure. The cause of free- 
dom was hopeless to Moses, but not to God, for 
that very moment God brought Joshua upon the 
stage of being and began working for a period 



THE GODLY SUCCESSION. II7 

eighty years in the future. In the New Testa- 
ment Stephen was followed by Paul, and strange 
to say, Paul, the persecutor of Stephen, took up 
that particular department of work which was 
dear to Stephen, and which he outlined in the 
address which made him a martyr. 

Such is history as it pertains to the church of 
God, and it demonstrates to the certainty of an 
axiom that He who walks ^ among the golden can- 
dlesticks holds the stars of the church in His om- 
nipotent and provident right hand. If we broaden 
our research in the field of history, we shall find the 
same doctrine in all the departments of life. The 
work of reform did not stop when Huss and Zwin- 
gle and Luther died ; other men took up the work 
at the point where they left it. Reform in Eng- 
land was not quenched when Latimer and Ridley 
were burned. Rather was it true, as they said on 
that day, there was a fire kindled in England that 
should never be put out. The progress of scien- 
tific discovery did not cease when Newton's brain 
grew tired and lay down to rest ; a thousand men 
have stood on Newton's highest heights, and have 
reached out farther than he was able to reach. 

But I am asked at this point, Why are you so 
confident of the succession of the godly ? Why do 
you expect church- work and reform-work to go on, 
while on every side reformers are dying and the 
church is losing its most efficient workers ? I re- 
ply, I am confident because the God of reform and 
the God of the church lives. He buries the work- 
man, but not the work. He allov/s the priest to 



Il8 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

die, but not the priesthood. He allows the king to 
fall, but not the throne. He allows the prophet to 
pass away, but not so the office of the prophet. 
God abides. That is what this Scripture says ; and 
it says it that we may believe that his cause will 
abide. 

We are too apt to say. The former times w^ere 
better than these, and to imagine that former 
greatness cannot be grown now. We act as 
though the grandeur of thought and the saintli- 
ness and the courage of yore would nevermore 
dignify the human race, as though the special 
grace vouchsafed to the patriarchs and the proph- 
ets and the apostles had evaporated. Churchmen 
look back to the fathers, Dissenters to the Reform- 
ers. Now the martyrs of ancient days, now the 
stalwart heroes of the Puritans, are gilded by rev- 
erent memory ; and then this pensive thought 
throws a chilling darkness over all our inner life 
and clouds our faith and hope, '' The day of grace 
will never return." But what is the truth in the 
matter ? This : God comes to us as he came to 
Joshua when he took up the great work of Moses, 
and he says to us as he said to him, '' Fear not : 
fear not ; for as I was with Moses, so will I be 
with thee." With God's words before me, I say to 
the men and women of this historic church of 
God, '' Revere the saintly past, but do not forget to 
recognize the divine present. While great ones 
have gone, He who made them great remains, and 
he will make you great in proportion to your sur- 
render to him and your willingness to serve him." 



THE GODLY SUCCESSION. II9 

If what I say be true, then it is essential to our 
faith and our hope and *our enterprise and our 
self-surrender and our future that we know who 
this abiding God is. How can we know? We can 
know him through the names given him in the 
Holy Book. Take this Scripture which gives us 
our text. God is here called ''the God of Elijah." 
When Elisha returned from the spot where Elijah 
ascended and stood upon the bank of the Jordan, 
he smote the waters with the mantle and cried, 
''Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" and the wa- 
ters parted and he crossed dry-shod. " The Lord 
God of Elijah." That means the ability to make a 
man equal to the bequeathed work of Elijah. 
That means the reproduction of Carmel if the 
good of Israel require. Tha,t means the power to 
divide the Jordan, to cleave a way through every 
difficulty. Other names are given to God. He is 
called "the Most High," for he out-soars every 
human and finite altitude. He is spoken of as 
" the God who inhabiteth eternity," for the ages 
have no effect upon him. Men pass away, but he 
does not. He outlines his work through the cen- 
turies, and carries it on from generation to genera- 
tion. He is called " the omnipotent One," for the 
peculiarities of the nineteenth century do not en- 
feeble him. He is "the God of hosts," for all 
ranks of existence and entities are open to him 
and obey his call. When he orders it, a Saul 
becomes a Paul and leaves the captaincy of the 
hosts of evil and takes the captaincy of the hosts 
of the good. 



I20 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

I have spoken of the certainty of the succession 
of the good because of the play of the divine. But 
the play of the divine is not all. There is the play 
of the human. God has his part and Elijah has 
his part and Elisha has his part. Let us give our 
thoughts to the play of the human. 

I begin with Elijah. Elijah not only did his 
personal work, but he worked towards a successor. 
Do not forget Abel-meholah. He made a special 
journey to Abel-meholah, that he might find 
young Elisha and cast his mantle over him. He 
kept the young man constantly with him, let him 
into his work, consulted him, disciplined him, lived 
before him an intense God-filled life, impressed 
himself upon him, breathed his soul into him, 
and brought him to his w^ay of thinking. When 
he had done this, he was willing to be superse- 
ded. In addition to this, he nurtured the schools 
of the prophets, and prepared the young men in 
these schools for following their coming leader. 
His last hours on earth were spent in commu- 
nion with the young men. They had a recog- 
nition in his life. He made them feel that the 
future was in their hands, and that he was sat- 
isfied to leave it there. He felt that the future 
was as safe in their hands as though he were 
ahvays to be in the midst of Israel to guide affairs. 
Hence his great calmness in going. It took disci- 
pline of self upon his part to lift him up to this 
calmness and satisfaction; but the calmness and 
satisfaction were worth all the cost of discipline. 

In his satisfaction in leaving Israel in other 



THE GODLY SUCCESSION. 121 

hands, Elijah reminds me of the workmen who 
began the building of the Cathedral of Cologne. 
It was back in the thirteenth century when they 
began to build. They knew they could not finish 
it. It took six hundred years to do that. It was 
necessary that the men of the thirteenth century 
should join hands with the men of the nineteenth 
century. Yet the men of the thirteenth century 
were perfectly satisfied to quit w^ork when their 
day of labor reached its evening. They knew that 
the Vv^ork would go on, and that the architect's 
ideal would stand before the world, a Psalm of 
Praise in stone — crystallized music. They knew 
that by doing well their work they would interest 
others in the grand architectural purpose and in- 
spire them to lend a helping hand and continue 
the labor. 

Like Elijah, we should be making our success- 
ors. But how can we make our successors ? By 
living an earnest all-on-fire life for God. By stand- 
ing by the truth. By linking our efforts and pur- 
poses to everlasting principles. By building up 
characters worthy of a reproduction. By espousing 
immortal causes. By impressing ourselves upon 
the coming men. By recognizing the merits of 
the younger men and admitting them to compan- 
ionship and counsel and work and responsibility. 
It is a slur upon the fathers to say there are no 
men who can succeed them, and who, in the spirit 
of the fathers, can meet and can carry to triumph 
the issues of the day. 

A word in closing about Elisha. 

6 



122 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

Only for a little while did he give way to the 
paralyzing convulsions of grief. He entered as 
soon as possible on the only pathway of comfort, 
which is the pathway of work. He buried his 
grief in his endeavor to be a replica of his master. 
He felt that if his master was taken away for a 
purpose, he was spared for a purpose. We may 
not sit and mourn over our beloved dead ; we are 
to arise and take up their work. To carry it on is 
a sweet consolation, and to enlarge it, and to make 
it a hundred-fold wider and deeper and vaster, is a 
sweeter consolation still. We feel ourselves linked 
with the departed as we trace their blessed foot- 
steps and deepen the furrows they have already 
made. It brings us into closer fellowship with 
them. Bereaved as he was, and robbed of a great 
and loving fellowship, the after-life of Elisha was 
one of much joy and peace. The work which he 
took up unfolded his powers and made him to 
Israel what his master had been. It was not a 
strange coincidence, but a natural outcome and a 
legitimate product of the course which he fol- 
lowed, that when he died, Joash the king of Israel 
cried over his departure as he had cried over the 
departure of Elijah, uttering the very same la- 
ment, '* My father, my father ! the chariot of Israel 
and the horsemen thereof !" 

I am in search to-day for Elishas. I am seek- 
ing for men who are willing to stand with the 
church of God in its struQ-orles and enter with it 
into its rewards. I am after men who will be hon- 
est and true ; men out and out for Christ ; lovers 



THE GODLY SUCCESSION. I23 

of the truth, fearless in the presence of opposition, 
free from the spirit of time-serving; bold men, 
lovable men, affable men, but men who will not 
yield a single inch when principle is at stake ; men 
who are swift of foot, liberal of hand, loyal of 
heart ; men who are able to count it an honor to 
stand alone, with God, when their generation 
turns its back upon God ; men who will be a walk- 
ing conscience in the community ; men who will 
give the church of God a large place in their 
lives. Only men of this type are worthy to be the 
successors of the fathers. I am pleading for the 
succession of the godly, and I am urging you 
to do your part to secure it. Who will fill the 
vacant places and wear the fallen mantles ? Will 
you ? 

Do I hear you say, I am not the man to take up 
the work of the worker ascended, I am so unlike 
him in all my circumstances? I respond. There 
was no man in all Israel more unlike Elijah than 
Elisha. But he had the spirit of his master. Have 
you the spirit of those who have ascended ? Then 
you have all the equipment requisite. Do I hear 
you say, I cannot equal the departed worker ; his 
deeds were beyond anything I can do ? I respond. 
That is honest talking. But you are thinking of 
his maturer services. Think of what he was when 
he began. Think of his growth and expect a like 
growth. Why should Christian men need to be 
urged and argued with in order that they may 
be induced to take up the work of God which 
other human hands have laid down ? Their lives 



124 FROM SOLOMON TO THE Cx\PTIVITY. 

have been spared that they may do this very 
thing, and upon the doing of this very thing de- 
pends their fellowship with the good and the 
great. I might say that upon the doing of this 
very thing depends the existence of spiritual life 
in their own sonls. My Christian brethren, God 
wants yon all to step at once into active service. 
He wants every fallen mantle in the chiirch to be 
speedily taken up and put to use. Therefore 
away with all timidity and hesitancy and evasion. 
Therefore welcome trust in God, holy boldness, 
lofty ambition, wide purposes, large ideals, the full 
incoming of the spirit of the departed good, and 
such a fervent and earnest desire to reproduce 
them as will lead to a complete and irrevocable 
surrender to the service of Christ and of his 
church. 



THE SHUNAMMITE'S SON. 125 

THE SHUNAMMITE'S SON. 

''And the child opened his eyes." — 2 TsTz^^^^ 4:35. 
I. THE NARRATIVE. 

The narrative is beautifully told. Its chief char- 
acteristics are simplicity, naturalness, and pathos. 
It sets before us a household drama. It empha- 
sizes many traits which make a home happy and 
pure. In many respects the home of Shunem was 
an ideal home. Although the story is short, it 
introduces us to many characters. Each of these 
is a study, and indicates something to be emulated 
or something to be shunned. 

The chief actor in this story is the woman of 
Shunem. It is her graces that are set forth. Her 
hospitality, her grief, her faith, her activity and 
execution are the marked things in the story. 
The wonderful resurrection of her child comes as 
the reward of her faith and life. If she had not 
been v/hat she was, this page would not have had 
a place in the Bible. Like many other characters 
in the Book, her name is not given : she is known 
only as ''the Shunammite." So it is with the 
widow of the two mites, the old prophet, the w^o- 
man of Syrophoenicia. These all are nameless, 
because through them human nature is pictured. 
Their virtues may be reached by any one. 

The story of the lesson is as follows: Elisha, 
on his way to Mt. Carmel from Samaria where he 
lived, passed through Shunem. This journey he 



126 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

made frequently. In Shtinem there lived a cer- 
tain woman, the wife of one of the rich men of 
the town. Being kindly disposed, she entertained 
the prophet at her home. She was given to hos- 
pitality. In her, goodness adorned gold. As Eli- 
sha stopped very often in Shtinem, she proposed 
to her husband that they furnish a room for him 
in their home so that he might feel that he was 
a member of their family and always have a wel- 
come. This they did. They prepared a prophet^s 
chamber. Such generosity could not go unre- 
warded. " He that receiveth a prophet in the 
name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's re- 
ward." This woman's mansion was a childless 
mansion. So God blessed her by sending a child 
into her home. Her reward was a child from 
God, a child to break the monotony of the house- 
hold, a child to love her, to renew her child- 
hood, to perpetuate her name. In the gift of a 
child God gave the woman of Shunem a magnifi- 
cent reward. Truly godliness is profitable. 

The touching and thrilling part of the narra- 
tive comes after the glad reception of this child of 
reward into the Shunammite home. The baby 
grew into a boy. It attained backbone enough to 
stand its father's rough tossing, and then father as 
well as mother made it a companion. 

A strain of sorrow comes into the story just 
here. One day the little boy went out with his 
father to the harvest field. It was a burning hot 
day and the child was struck by the sun and over- 
powered by the heat. It was a fatal sunstroke. 



THE SHUNAMMITE'S SON. 12/ 

For when the child was carried to his mother's 
knee, the infant's hospital, he died in her arms. 
That was a cruel blow. In that dead child much 
of her life lay dead. The suddenness and unex- 
pectedness of the stroke made it all the more 
stunning. The death-angel flew so swiftly that 
no shadow gave warning of his approach. No 
one can tell what may happen to his home be- 
tween morning and noon. In the morning the 
child was full of glee and life ; at noon it was a 
corpse. 

The great calamity centres the heart of the 
Shunammite in God and in his prophet. Her grief 
is a paroxysm, an agony; but her faith in God 
comes to her help. It says, '' It is not like God to 
wrench my heart by tearing for ever from it that 
around which it has entwined all its affections; 
surely he can give him back to me as he gave 
back to the widow of Zarephath her son when 
Elijah prayed him to do so. I will go and ask 
Elisha to pray for me, that my son may be given 
back. Why was the dull content of my childless 
state changed to a mother's joy if that joy was to 
be thus brief? Why was not the night left un- 
broken by the flash ? I believe God does not in- 
tend this bereavement to be permanent. His gift 
would not be a complete gift if thus taken away." 
Under the impulse of a faith which spoke thus, 
she kept the death of the boy concealed from her 
husband, and hasted to the prophet Elisha to have 
her faith in God realized and crowned. If she 
had told her husband, he would have looked upon 



128 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

her faith as madness, and have said that she was 
insane from grief and needed to be restrained. 
He would have made the funeral preparations. 
But she would have no funeral preparations, for 
her faith would not admit of a funeral. 

The prophet Elisha, as he looked down from 
the heights of Carmel, saw her coming, and he 
divined that all was not well. So he sent Gehazi, 
his servant, to greet her. But such was her eager- 
ness to see the final issue of her faith that she 
pushed past the servant with a single word and 
came into the presence of the master. Throwing 
herself at the feet of Elisha and clasping them, 
she expressed the intensity of her grief by this 
mute action. When the first flood of grief was 
over, her vexed soul addressed two brief questions 
to Elisha, '' Did I desire a son of my lord ? Did 
not I say, Do not deceive me?" And then Elisha 
knew the whole trouble, that her boy was dead. 
And then he knew too the demand of her faith, 
that she wanted him back again, and that she 
would consider the gift incomplete until he was 
restored. 

Just here the greatness of the prophet comes 
in. The faith of this woman touched his and 
awakened it into life. His faith caught the fire 
and zeal of her faith. He at once determined the 
restoration of "the child. As Elijah's successor he 
determined to do Elijah-like deeds. The power 
of God shall be shown at Shunem as it was shown 
at Zarephath. 

He at first determined the restoration of the 



THE SHUNAMMITE S SON. 129 

child by means of his official staff. He told Ge- 
hazi, his servant, to carry his staff and lay it upon 
the child. But this did not satisfy the craving of 
the mother's heart. Nothing but the prophet's 
presence in the chamber of death will answer the 
demands of her nature. 

There is a lesson here for all who would do 
good. There must be the personal presence of 
the worker in doing good. '' There is no doing of 
God's work at arm's length." If Elisha thought 
that his staff would do his work he was greatly 
mistaken. But there are a great many men who 
make the same mistake. A wealthy Christian is 
asked to take a class in the Sabbath-school. He 
answers, '' I cannot do that, but I will send a con- 
tribution into your school treasury. Money is my 
support. Lay my staff upon the face of the chil- 
dren." A Sabbath-school teacher who is not ready 
to find time to visit a sick scholar sends a note 
or a bouquet or a book, which may be very well 
in its place, but it is the teacher's staff and not 
the teacher. A minister who sends one of his 
best sermons or a tract he has written to an in- 
quiring soul instead of going himself to talk and 
pray with the anxious one, certainly does no bet- 
ter than • Elisha when he sent his staff. A staff is 
a very good thing, but a man of God is better. 

When Elisha went to the prophet's chamber 
he found the dead child upon his bed where the 
mother's faith had laid him. As his staff had not 
awakened the dead boy, he gave himself to the 
task of calling the power of God into exercise by 

Fiom Solomon to the Captivity. ^* 



130 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

means of believing prayer. Only the power of 
God can raise the dead. He closed the door of 
his room and gave himself up to prayer. '' There 
were present only the dead child and the living 
Lord. He prayed against death to One who was 
greater than death." It is true that he stretched 
himself upon the child as though his warm life 
could transfuse itself into the dead child, but this 
action was only the expression of his faith that 
the child would be again filled with warm life. It 
was his way of acting out his earnestness. It was 
believing prayer offered to God by actions. He 
prayed in deeds as well as in words. 

And was the prayer of the prophet answered ? 
It was. The gates of the spirit-world opened 
earthward and the soul of the child came back 
and reanimated the cold clay. The child arose 
from the bed of death in perfect life and health. 
The pain in the head had gone, and he v/as deliv- 
ered by Elisha to his mother thoroughly well. 
There was a depth of gladness now in the heart 
which an hour before had known only the depth 
of sorrow. '' And the child opened his eyes. And 
Elisha called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunam- 
mite. So he called her. And when she was come 
in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. Then 
she went in and fell at his feet and bowed herself 
to the ground, and took up her son and went out." 
Thus the narrative closes in a simple and a divine- 
like way. There is no surprise. There is no 
pouring forth of rapture. There is nothing of the 
sensational story-writer. God's own Spirit guides 



THE SHUNAMMITES SON. I31 

the pen from wliicli the narrative flows, and that 
Spirit, knowing that what has been done is simply 
a God-like thing, writes the story as a mere matter 
of course. The story carries inherent evidence of 
its divine origin. Has it come from the Spirit of 
God ? Then it must be full of instruction and of 
practical value for all ages. 

II. THE USES OF THE NARRATIVE. 

1 . // is of use to illustrate the influence and honor 
conferred by the Lord upon good men. 

Behold ! he uses good men as the medium of 
his miraculous agency. They are his organs of 
work. Who does not have his views of human 
nature raised and solemnized as he reads the won- 
derful miracles which the iVlmighty wrought of 
old through the agency of good m_en like Elisha? 
It serves to foreshadow the wonderful power 
which good men when perfected in eternity may 
possess. If men like Elisha, and all miracle-work- 
ers, were privileged by the Lord to achieve divine 
marvels when here in a corrupt world, and they 
also imperfect, what may we not hope they will 
do in the world above, when they shall be the 
perfect organs of the divine will ! I take it that 
the grandest miracles here are only types and 
symbols of their splendid achievements there. 
We know not how great are the deeds Vv^hich we 
shall be commissioned to do in the other and 
higher life. 

2. // is of use to illustrate the fact that even chil- 
dren may die. 



132 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

I would not cast a shadow over young life, but 
here is a fact which should not be kept from our 
boys and girls. Children die. If they die they 
should be ready for death. Trusting Christ, who 
is the resurrection and life, is readiness for death. 
He is the Good Shepherd who leads his lambs 
safely through the valley and shadow of death. 
When his rod and his staff are the stay of chil- 
dren they need fear no evil. Children die. There 
are graves of a span long in our cemeteries. A 
soul passes into death at every tick of the clock, 
and every other soul is the soul of a child. Half 
the human race die in childhood. There is only 
one MethUwSelah mentioned in the Bible. Old 
people are scarce. David's child dies a mere babe. 
The daughter of Jairus was only twelve when she 
died. Here is the dead boy of the Shunammite. 
Children die. Therefore let children early seek 
the Lord. ''Remember now thy Creator in the 
days of thy youth." 

3. // is of use to illustrate tJie existence a7id safety 
of children when taken from us by death. 

The mourning parent says, ''This mother re- 
ceived her child back from death ; I cannot get 
mine back. Her story mocks me." It does not 
mock you. It is true you cannot get your child 
back from death ; but it is just as true that you 
may get comfort from the story. Did this woman 
get her son back from the dead ? Then death did 
not blot her child out of existence. Her child in 
death Vv^as safe with God. Its coming back proves 
all this. Its coming back has a grand mission. It 



THE SHUNAMMITE'S SON. 1 33 

has comforted bereaved parents ever since. It 
has assured them that their children in death still 
exist and are in the hands of God. They could 
come back if it were best for them to do so. This 
woman's child came back, and so did the child of 
the widow of Zarephath, that there might be two 
witnesses to prove that our children in death still 
exist and are safe ; now that this fact has been 
established, there is no need for others to return, 
so our children stay with God in the upper home. 
They go from us because the Saviour says, ''Suffer 
little children to come unto me, for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven.*' 

" Around the throne of God in heaven 
Thousands of children stand, 
Children whose sins are all forgiven, 
A holy, happy band, 
Singing Glory, glory, glory !'' 

All this is comforting to those who mourn for 
their departed children, and God means it to be 
so. For this end was the story written. Does 
any one say, '' But it is sad to part with one's chil- 
dren. Why does God take them from us?" We 
answer. He takes them to himself that our hearts 
may be drawn along with them. He houses our 
treasures in heaven, that our hearts may be housed 
there. Some one has said, '' God never takes chil- 
dren except when their going is designed as a 
means of grace." I almost believe the saying. I 
heard a minister say that he had one little book 
in his library which he puts into the hands of 
bereaved parents. That book is usually effective. 



134 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

It interprets their sorrow. It is a book of three 
pictures. The first picture is that of a little child, 
the pride of the home, sick in its mother's arms. 
Anxiety stands out on the faces of its parents. 
The second picture is that of a coffined form, with 
the parents bowed in despair and crushed with 
grief. The third picture is that of the angel form 
of the child at the gates of glory looking earth- 
ward and beckoning to its parents to come to 
heaven. Has God taken from you your children, 
let this little book teach you. 

4. // is of use to illustrate tlie daring of faith. 

The daring of the Shunammite's faith was 
magnificent. So was Elisha's. It is doubtless to the 
faith of the Shunammite that reference is made 
in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews where it is 
said that "by faith women received their dead 
raised to life again." She believed that God could 
raise her son. He had done a like deed. She 
based her faith on the power of God. He had 
given her this son, and the gift displayed a power 
like that seen in the resurrection. Given the 
almighty power of God, and the resurrection is 
assured provided God wills. Paul based his argu- 
ment for the resurrection upon the power of God : 
''Why should it be thought a thing incredible 
that God should raise the dead?" Her faith rea- 
soned on this order : God has shown himself equal 
to raising the dead ; he can if he will. There is 
more of divine power seen in rolling the sun in its 
sphere from age to age than in causing it to pause 
an hour in its march ; there is more divine power 



THE SHUNAMMITE'S SON. 1 35 

vseen in the golden fields of every harvest than in 
the multiplication of the loaves and fishes ; there 
is more of God seen in the myriads of existences 
that come fresh every day from his hand than in 
the raising of one poor child to life. Let ns bring 
our faith into the presence of the faith of the Shu- 
nammite, that it may learn to reason and to ven- 
ture. With the omnipotence of God as an instru- 
mentality with which to work, what may not our 
faith do ? 

5. // is of use to illustrate God's ability to usher 
in the grand resurrection day predicted by the Book, 

Taken with the other instances of recorded 
resurrections, it forms part of the cumulative tes- 
timony looking forward to the general resurrec- 
tion. It justifies hope that this foretold day will 
dawn. What a day that will be let your regen- 
erated imagination picture. The glad reunions of 
that day let the reunion between this mother and 
boy typify. It was not in vain that the Shunam- 
mite lived her trying life. From out of her expe- 
rience comes one of the strong arguments for the 
general resurrection day. When we see her and 
her son on that day we shall freely admit this. 



136 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 



NAAMAN'S RASH ANGER; OR. THE PLAY 
OF TEMPER IN HUMAN LIFE. 

" But Naaman was wroth and went away, and said, Behold, 
I thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand 
and call on the name of the Lord his God, and 
strike his hand over the place, and recover the 

leper." "So HE TURNED AND WENT AWAY IN A RAGE." 
— 2 Kings 5:11, 12. 

No story in the divine Book is more manifold 
in its lessons than the story of Naaman the Syrian. 
It comes into the history of the Hebrews as a 
magnificent parenthesis. It is like a sparkling 
diamond in the midst of sparkling amethysts. It 
reminds m,e of the poet's description of the daisy 
which leaps as if by magic from between the roots 
of the green grass and whitens our meadows. 
The poet describes the daisy as a beautiful wheel 
with golden axle and silver spokes. The thrilling 
facts of this story forni a golden axle, and the 
many practical lessons issuing from these facts 
are the silver spokes which branch out on all sides. 
Let me enumerate: The story teaches us the 
great breadth of the mercy and power of our God. 
His power is omnipotent. The most virulent of 
diseases are as nothing before it. It can cure lep- 
rosy without means, by a simple volition. It was 
not the water of the Jordan that cured Naaman, it 
was the volition of the God of Israel. The Jordan 
separated from God was utterly useless. God s 
power is grand, but the story tells us that his 



naaman's rash anger. 137 

mercy is just as grand. His mercy reaches even un- 
to the heathen. It works wonders for the heathen. 

The story teaches the awful results of the sin 
of coveteousness. Look at Gehazi, as white as 
snow with leprosy! Covetousness contaminates 
and defiles and rots the whole moral man. 

The story teaches the wide and salutary influ- 
ence of a religious child. It was a little Hebrew 
maid, exercising her religious faith in the heathen 
land to which she had been carried captive, that 
introduced Naaman to Elisha. 

The story teaches the impressive power of re- 
ligion in a holy life. To the mind of the little 
maid Elisha, the man of God, was the embodi- 
ment of true religion, and she believed in Elisha. 
She could never forget the prophet of the true 
God. He was God's living epistle. Religion in 
human life, that is what the world needs. That 
is religion vitalized. That is religion in a form 
that takes hold of and that sways the human mind 
and soul. That is religion in a form in which it 
can never be forgotten. Give the community 
such men as Elisha, who are religion in flesh and 
blood, and even the children will be won to God. 

The story teaches the madness and folly of al- 
lowing life to be controlled by an unlawful out- 
burst and play of temper. 

The latter lesson is the lesson with which we 
are concerned in this study. We are to use Naa- 
man the Syrian, who is under a momentary spell 
of unreasonable wrath, as an object lesson showing 
the ill effects of rash anger. 



138 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 



THE MAN AND THE SCENE. 

We have always admired Naaman. He was 
a great man. It is natural to admire that which is 
great, whether it be animate or inanimate — a great 
mountain, a great river, a great cataract, a great 
tree, a great ocean, a great man. We are so con- 
stituted that greatness in itself calls out admiration. 
Naaman was a man among men. He sacrificed self 
for country. He was patriotic. He led the armies 
of the nation. He was the Gen. Grant of Syria. 

We not only admire Naaman, we sympathize 
with him. Just think of it ! he was a leper. That 
means no further service for the State. That 
means a future filled with untold agony. Do you 
know what it is to be a leper ? A leper, when his 
disease is fully under headway, is a walking corpse. 
He is ghastly and of a deathly pallor. His bones 
are full of decay. His beautiful countenance is 
changed and made horrid ; the nostrils swell, the 
eyelids drop off, the lips are eaten away, joint 
after joint rots and falls. When the disease is at 
its height the man is nothing but a horrible mass 
of animated rubbish. As Naaman comes to the 
door of Elisha's house there is only one foul spot 
in his body, but that one foul spot is leprosy, and 
it carries in it an awful future. This Naaman 
knows. No wonder that he followed even the 
pointing of a child to the prophet's house. He 
would have gone to the ends of the earth for a 
cure. 

And yet how nearly he missed the cure ! That 



naaman's rash anger. 139 

is the point before us. A fit of rash anger almost 
robbed him of that for which he would have given 
all his wealth. An outburst of passion so blinded 
hin that he was unable to see the cure when he 
stood face to face with it. We are surprised as we 
see Naaman storming before the home of Elisha. 
We are surprised, because usually a man who is 
successful in commanding men as Naaman was is 
a man who first of all commands himself. But 
thus it is : men often fail in their strongest points. 
Moses, who is noted for his meekness, loses his 
temper. Elijah, noted for his daring, flees dis- 
couraged at the threat of a woman, and throws 
himself down under a juniper-tree and asks to die. 
John, the disciple of love, cries to Jesus, '' Com- 
mand fire to fall from the sky and destroy these 
Samaritan villages.'* Naaman failed at his strong 
point. 

But let us be just to Naaman ! The way he re- 
covered from anger, I think, shows that anger was 
not the leading characteristic of the man. Reason 
was dethroned but for a moment. It immediately 
regained itself and recognized an argument, even 
when that was presented by an underling. '' My 
father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great 
thing wouldst thou not have done it ? How much 
rather then when he saith to thee. Wash and be 
clean !" That was a wise servant, and he put 
his thought to his master in a wise way. He put 
it in the form of a question. There is nothing 
like a question to reach and sway the mind and, 
set it in normal operation. But this was a pe- 



I40 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

culiarly strong question. It was not dictatorial. 
It was a humble question. It was a question 
which introduced mad Naaman to the calm and 
self-controlled Naaman. It was an appeal from 
Naaman drunk with rage to Naaman sobered by 
reason and common-sense. Gen. Naaman lost the 
battle which was fought in his soul that day ; but 
his servant retrieved it and won the final victory 
for him between irritated passion and reason. 

Naaman's anger arose from wrong causes. It 
arose from pride, that deep root from which grows 
many a crime. He was .mortified. His native 
land had been insulted. The insignificant Jordan, 
which never turned a wheel and which ran into 
the Dead Sea, had been rated above the far-famed 
rivers Abana and Pharpar. But Naaman had not 
come into Judaea to match rivers, neither had he 
come to receive honors from men ; he had come 
for a cure. Yet he forgot all this in his outburst 
of passion. Bad temper always forgets to reason. 

Mark the growth in the unlawful anger of Naa- 
man. It is first said that he was wroth ; then 
finally it is said that he was in a rage. Rage is 
wrath storming. It is wrath worked up to the 
highest pitch. It is the wind of passion in a hurri- 
cane. What caused this growth ? Naaman's words. 
If he had mufiied his wrath in silence he might 
the more easily have controlled it ; but he did not. 
He let his wrath pour itself out in words, and his 
hot words made his feelings hotter and hotter, 
until words and feelings incorporated themselves 
into deeds. He wheeled his cavalcade right about 



NAAMAN'S RASH ANGER. 141 

and at a furious pace pushed back Syria-ward. 
See the madman ! He should leave his leprosy 
here in Jud^a, but he is taking it back with him 
to Syria. This is a full exhibit of unreasonable 
anger. Unlawful and unreasonable anger, when 
it is allowed full play in a man's life, means death, 
the death of a man's reputation, the death of a 
man's influence, the death of a man's happiness. 
When you are tempted to give way to rage and 
irritability and unreasonable passion, think, of 
Naaman the Syrian and remember his narrow 
escape from an awful doom. 

But we have spent long enough time with 
Naaman's rage and its fatal trend. We have 
learned from him this one thing, the indispen- 
sableness of disciplining temper. A man may 
have all the other gifts and yet fail because he has 
not the gift of self-control. Without self-control 
Naaman will lose his journey from Syria to Judaea, 
he will lose the one golden opportunity of his life, 
he will lose his very life itself. But with self-con- 
trol Naaman will reach deliverance from his lep- 
rosy, will retain his place as the great general of 
his nation, and will step out in a golden future a 
new man full of health and bounding hope and 
robust life. 

But let us not be too sweeping in the denuncia- 
tion of anger. All anger is not sinful. 

Anger is sinful only when it springs from self- 
ishness and malevolence, or when it is causeless, 
or when it is beyond its cause, or when it is ex- 
pressed by unhallowed words and actions. It is 



142 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

right or wrong according to the object to which 
it is directed, or according to its degree, or accord- 
ing to its duration. It should always be governed 
and restrained by the laws of truth, justice, and 
benevolence, which teach when and how to be 
angry. 

All of us have instances before our minds in 
which anger was real nobility. We may have at- 
tended indignation meetings which were positive 
means of grace and which were spiritually re- 
freshing. One case of righteous anger stands out 
very vividly in my mind among recollections of 
the past : it took place upon the streets of New 
York, and was in connection with the Orange- 
men*s riot in 1871. Block upon block of the city 
was crowded for a mile or more; cannon com^ 
manded the streets. The Seventh Regiment, New 
York's pride, was marching up Eighth Avenue 
at the double-quick. Within a few feet of me 
there was a little child standing and looking at the 
moving regiment. She came from an Orange- 
man's home, for she had a bow of orange ribbon 
in her hair. A brute of a man seeing it, a man 
who wore the green, was so stirred with feelings 
of bitterness that he put his revolver back of the 
innocent child's head and fired a fatal bullet 
through her brain. In a moment she lay before 
him a corpse. That shot sent a thrill of righteous 
wrath and indignation through every man in the 
marching regiment, and before the echo of the 
shot ceased to ring in the air a hundred rifles 
belched forth their fire of death and with a voice 



NAAMAN S RASH ANGER. I43 

like that of thunder pronounced the wretch's 
doom. The man as I looked upon him was lit- 
erally riddled. But that was not all ; the ten thou- 
sand on-lookers applauded the act of the regiment, 
and the whole country at large said Amen ! Was 
that outburst of anger sinful ? Nay. It was the 
justice of God, and the justice of humanity, talk- 
ing through loyal bullets. There is something 
majestic and divine in righteous anger. There is 
something in it that speaks to the very soul of 
man. Horace Smith calls anger '' the protective 
power in man," and he thus illustrates his thought. 
He writes : '' Without any other armor than an 
offended frown, an indignant eye, and a rebuking 
voice, decrepit age, timid womanhood, and the 
weakest of our species may daunt the most daring ; 
for there is something most formidable in the 
mere sight of wrath, even when it is incapable of 
inflicting any chastisement on its provoker. It is 
a moral power which tends *o repair the inequality 
of physical pov/er and to approximate the strong 
and the weak towards the same level.*' 

A PRACTICAL QUESTION. 

It is with rash anger that we are now dealing, 
and the question is. How can we keep ourselves 
from it ? 

I. Use the power of reflection, 

(a.) Reflect upon this fact : No man can undo 
the evil he inflicts while in his angry mood. For 
example, in anger you speak words against your 
neighbor's reputation which are as keen as the sting 



144 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

of fire. They are slanderous words, as v/ords sug- 
gested by unlawful anger usually are. You may in 
your cool moments repent of these words, but can 
you recall them ? Or can you undo the evil which 
they have originated ? No. You cannot undo them, 
neither can you stop their pernicious consequences. 
A little word dropped by you against your brother 
is like a pistol shot fired among the mountains. 
The sharp report is caught up and intensified and 
echoed by rocks and caves till it emulates the 
thunder. The moment the word is spoken it is 
beyond recall. It passes from mouth to mouth 
and receives fresh exaggeration as it goes. In 
sorrow you may try to stop its consequences: you 
may publicly prove its falsehood, explain it, anni- 
hilate it, and yet years after you thought it had 
been disposed of for ever, the mention of a name 
wakes up associations in the mind of some one 
who heard it, and he gives it a new circulation. 

(b.) Reflect upon this fact : kindness in dealing 
with men is more powerful and more Godlike 
than anger. The finest illustration of this occurs 
in Victor Hugo's justly celebrated novel, and it 
deserves to be written in letters of gold. You re- 
member how Jean Valjean, who had been known 
to himself and others for nineteen years as No. 
5623, and who had at last been dismissed from the 
galleys on a ticket-of-leave, found no reception 
from men and no place to rest. He was even 
ejected from a dog -kennel into which he had 
crawled one night for shelter. He went despair- 
ingly on through dust and heat, saying, '' I am not 



145 

even a dog !" But by-and-by he comes to the 
house of the good old Bishop Myriel. He knocks 
and enters and tells his story. The bishop, to the 
great discomfiture of his housekeeper and to the 
wonderment of Valjean, orders a bedroom to be 
prepared for him, and invites him in the mean- 
time to take a seat at the supper table. After sup- 
per the bishop conducts him to his room, and the 
poor man lies down and falls asleep. 

In the middle of the night he awakes and 
begins to think ; and the result of his thinking is, 
that he will get up and make off with the silver 
dishes which he had seen on the table the previous 
evening. He does so, and is soon captured by the 
police and brought back. The bishop dismisses 
the police, pretending that he had made the man a 
present of the silver, and asking why he had not 
taken the candlesticks as well. When they v/ere 
left alone, he says to the astonishment of the thief, 
''Jean Valjean, my brother, never forget that you 
have promised to employ this silver, which I have 
given you, in becoming an honest man. You be- 
long no more to evil, but to good. I have bought 
your soul. I reclaim it from black thoughts and 
the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.'' You 
know the result. From that day Valjean was a 
changed naan. He became one of the noblest 
characters in the whole range of the world's fic- 
tion. Fiction ? Yes ; but fiction that is true to 
fact. Reflection often shows us that we can do 
more for God, and for our fellow-man, by deferring 
our anger and by putting gentleness into its place. 

SoloTTion to the Captivitj; ,m. 



146 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

2. Keep filling up the Christian personality with 
love. 

Love is of God, and when we keep our souls 
filled with it, it assimilates to God and makes us 
Godlike in all our ways. The tendency of love is 
to make us perfect. Now good temper comes from 
a perfect state of soul. I use the word perfect of 
course with large modification. The good temper 
of the soul is produced just as the good temper of 
the body is produced, by a right balance. The 
body is in good temper when? When the ner- 
vous system and the circulating system and the 
nutritive system are well balanced. Even so the 
soul is in good temper when the reason and the 
conscience and the will and the desires are prop- 
erly balanced. What can balance them? Love, 
and only love. The soul is like a harp with many 
strings. That the harp may be in perfect accord, 
all the strings of the harp need to be tuned. Bad 
temper is cured as the musician cures discord in 
his harp. Love is the only power that can prop- 
erly tune all the chords of the heart. Love is the 
musician in the spiritual realm. 



GEHAZI PUNISHED. I47 

GEHAZI PUNISHED. 

'*Be sure your sin will find you out." — Num. .^2:23. 

The Bible frequently sets truth and error in 
strong light by contrasts. There is a passage in 
the New Testament in some respects parallel to 
the story of Gehazi's sin, which, though marred 
by the arbitrary division into chapters and verses, 
will serve as an illustration. In connection with 
the community of goods in the early church the 
record is made of Barnabas, -who ''having land, 
sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the 
apostles' feet:'' and immediately following is the 
contrast, '' But a certain man named Ananias, with 
Sapphira his wife, sold a possession and kept back 
part of the price.'* So having studied the won- 
derful story of the faith and healing of Naaman 
the Syrian, we turn to the sad picture of the sin 
and punishment of Gehazi, that the lessons of 
both may be the more deeply fixed in our hearts. 

V/hen Naaman came up from the Jordan mirac- 
ulously healed, the natural tendency of his joy 
would have been homeward. But nobler impulses 
influenced him, and he returns to the ''man of 
God " with two things in mind : (i) to renounce the 
fundamental error of heathenism, that every na- 
tion had its own god, to acknowledge that "there 
is no God in all the earth but in Israel," and to 
crave a little of the soil of the land on which he 
may sacrifice to Jehovah. (2) Out of his abund- 



148 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

ance to manifest his gratitude in paying well for 
the healing of the leprosy. Peremptorily and per- 
sistently the prophet refuses the gift in the hear- 
ing of his servant, who up to this time seems to 
have borne a good reputation, and destined possi- 
bly to succeed his master as Elisha succeeded 
Elijah ; but the devil enters his heart and prompts 
the sin that proved his ruin. 

I. Let us consider Gehazi's sin. There was 
covetousness in it. He had heard the offer of the 
grateful Syrian and Elisha's refusal, and the de- 
sire to obtain a portion of this princely gift over- 
came him. No doubt he quieted conscience with 
the thought that Naaman was rich enough to give 
what he asked without missing it, and generous 
enough to feel gratified rather than robbed by this 
disposal of his wealth. Besides had he not had 
some part in the healing of the leper ? Was he 
not the servant of the prophet ? Surely he might 
ask and obtain a servant's portion, and of the ten 
talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold 
he would desire but one talent and but two of the 
ten changes of raiment. Wealth is a comparative 
term, and the amount a man covets is .ever in pro- 
portion to his previous experience. How mighty 
are the inborn lusts of the human heart ! Even 
in the case of those who have enjoyed exceptional 
advantages in the society of the followers of 
Christ, who have heard and read the Word of God 
daily, and who have had the example of holy con- 
duct constantly before their eyes, lusts arise, take 
possession of them, and carry them away captive. 



GEHAZI PUNISHED. I49 

(James i : 13-15 ; Matt. 15 : 19. ) Most incompre- 
hensible, most depraved, most terrible of all de- 
ceits, and yet perhaps, especially in our own 
country, most common, is the deceit of riches, 
(i Tim. 6:9-12.) 

There was theft in it. He took that which was 
not his own, received it for a certain named pur- 
pose with intent to appropriate it to himself. 
This is added guilt, for it is not always true that 
the covetous man is also dishonest. But it is 
true, as in this case and in the long list of defalca- 
tions, betrayal of trusts, open robberies, with 
which we are too familiar, that the man who 
covets and allows his desire to become his master, 
places himself under temptation to satisfy that 
desire without scruples as to means. Covetous- 
ness is the root of all evil. It is not necessary to 
go to the Old Testament to learn this lesson. 
Alas ! there is hardly a community in cur land that 
does not furnish its examples. 

There was falseJicod in it. Not one, but re- 
peated falsehoods. The story he told to Naaman 
as his excuse, or rather the prophet's, for taking a 
portion of the offered present was totally false, 
and his answer to the searching question of Elisha 
was equally so. This is the curse that rests upon 
a lie, that the man who speaks a falsehood in- 
volves himself more and more in new lies, becom- 
ing the abject slave of '' him who, when he speak- 
eth a lie, speaketh of his own." But this repeated 
untruthfulness was not the extent of Gehazi's sin. 
It was not ordinary deceit that he practised. The 



I50 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

words that Peter used of Ananias were true of 
him : '' Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto 
God." His sin was far more reaching than he 
thought, and while he intended simply a clever 
device to increase his own worldly goods, he had 
cast a foul blot upon the words of his master and 
the work God had wrought upon a heathen. 
Menken says truly, ''A thousand deceits and dis- 
honesties might have been committed, by all of 
which not one of the dear and holy interests would 
have been injured which in this case were in 
danger, and which, by this act, were criminally 
and fruitlessly betrayed." 

There was hypocrisy in it. Hypocrisy is false- 
hood in manner, as a lie is falsehood in speech. 
He must carry out his deceit in action, and so 
having bestowed his ill-gotten' gain in his house, 
and dismissed the servants of Naaman at the 
tower or hill which interrupted the view from the 
dwelling of Elisha, he comes with unconcerned 
and indifferent manner into the presence of the 
prophet, expecting by this hypocrisy to disarm 
suspicion and conceal the fact of his absence. 

But his sin was known. The Psalmist speaks 
of secret sins, but in fact there are no secret sins. 
Men may not know of them, but they are all 
naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom 
we have to do. There are witnesses within and 
witnesses without, and the day shall declare it. 
The eyes of God are in every place, beholding the 
evil and the good. There is no better illustration 
of this heart-searching truth than that told of the 



GEHAZI PUNISHED. 15I 

astronomer Mitchell. Being engaged in making 
some observations on the snn, and watching it as 
it descended to the limits of the western horizon, 
suddenly there came into the field of the telescope 
the top of a hill some seven miles distant. On 
this hill was an apple orchard, and in one of the 
trees were two boys engaged in stealing the fruit. 
One was gathering the apples, while his compan- 
ion, keeping watch, was enjoying the confidence 
that their act w^as undiscovered. But there sat 
the astronomer, seven miles away, through the 
powerful eye of his great telescope seeing and 
noting every movement as plainly as if he had 
been concealed behind one of the trees of the 
orchard. Gehazi's sin was carefully planned and 
skilfully executed. Others with equal cunning 
have kept their iniquity longer hid, but every sin 
is known and every sin will be brought to light. 
If God himself arms his prophets with the gift to 
be witnesses of hidden sin and to bring it to the 
light, as Nathan in David's case, and Elisha in 
Gehazi^s, and Peter in that of Ananias, how much 
more will He, before whose judgment seat we 
must all appear, bring that to light which now lies 
hidden in darkness and reveal the secret counsels 
of the heart ! 

2. Let us now consider the punishment of 
Gehazi. 

It was swift. It comes upon us with startling 
suddenness in the record. The conversation be- 
tween the prophet and the guilty servant was 
brfef, as such conversations usually are, and then 



152 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

immediately comes the sentence, '' The leprosy of 
Naaman shall cleave unto thee and nnto thy seed 
for ever. And he went out from his presence a 
leper as white as snow." 

It was public. This was befitting. He had 
done his wrong secretly. In the departure of 
Naaman and his retinue to a far-distant land, and 
by his own cunning, he expected himself to be the 
sole custodian of the knowledge of his sin, and 
therefore God brought it out before Israel and 
before the sun. God set his mark upon him, so 
that wherever he went he would bear the visible 
tokens of his sin and of the divine justice. His 
punishment, severe as it was, was not therefore 
arbitrarily chosen, but proceeded out of his trans- 
gression and corresponded to it. The leprosy of 
Naaman became the leprosy of Gehazi, and as 
Naaman was a living monument of the saving 
might and grace of Jehovah, so Gehazi became a 
solemn warning of his retributive justice. Similar 
examples are not wanting in our own day. The 
wicked often reap that which they sow of evil and 
justly are made to eat the fruit of their own de- 
vices. It is very true many men seem to sin with 
impunity, and '' because sentence against an evil 
work is not executed speedily, therefore the 
heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to 
do evil." Eccl. 8:ii. God manifestly punishes 
some sins in this life lest men should deny his 
justice, and yet he does not punish every sin here 
lest men should deny a hereafter with its rewards 
and punishments. 



GEHAZI PUNISHED. 



153 



His punishment involved others besides him- 
self. Some forms of leprosy at least are heredi- 
tary, and in this case it was so by divine appoint- 
ment. Travellers have not failed to notice 
the numbers of miserable lepers which are found 
to this day in the vicinity of Sebustieh and at 
Nablus. This district is well known to be the 
present home of all the Samaritans, and these mis- 
erable beings may be the heirs of that heritage of 
Gehazi, the fearful doom that should cleave to his 
seed for ever. God is merciful and gracious ; of 
this the evidence is everywhere, and nowhere 
more than in his abounding grace ; but God is just. 
We are social beings, and none of us can sin and 
bear the results alone. 

This is a sad lesson. It would not have been 
recorded, however, unless the study of it were 
profitable. We have alluded already to covetous- 
ness as one of the crying evils of the times. There 
is a greed of gold which bids fair to bring in its 
train and for its gratification a multitude of temp- 
tations. Let us not forget that there is also a lep- 
rosy of riches. There is a curse which cleaves to 
wealth when it is ill-gotten or ill-used. Its bitter 
fruit is often eaten also by the children. Of how 
many may it be said, '' Thou hast gotten thee gold, 
but leprosy shall cleave to thee and to thy seed 
for ever !" 



7* 



154 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 



ELISHA AT DOTHAN; OR THE SUPER- 

NATURAL PROTECTION OF THE 

CHILD OF GOD, 

"And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his 

EYES, THAT HE MAY SEE. AND THE LORD OPENED THE EYES 
OF THE YOUNG MAN, AND HE SAW: AND, BEHOLD, THE MOUN- 
TAIN WAS FULL OF HORSES AND CHARIOTS OF FIRE ROUND 

ABOUT Elisha." — 2 Kings 6: 17. 

Syria took the aggressive : Ben-hadad, its king, 
made frequent incursions into the territory of Is- 
rael for the sake of carrying off plunder. These 
raids were planned with the greatest care. Par- 
ticular places were chosen, and the forces of Syria 
were concentrated and hurled against these par- 
ticular places. But it happened whenever an 
attack was made that the spot stormed Vv^as forti- 
fied, and the might of Israel defeated the might 
of Syria. Ben-hadad was out-generaled at every 
point. So accurately were his purposes foreknown 
by Jehoram, the king of Israel, that he could ex- 
plain this foreknowledge only upon this hypothe- 
sis : *' Some one in my confidence acts the traitor 
and gives away my secrets.'' 

Taking for granted that he was betrayed by 
some traitor in the camp, Ben-hadad called his 
generals together and held a council of war. 
When the council v/as convened he startled his 
generals with the blunt question, ''Who is the 
traitor of this company?" When he put the ques- 
tion, I can imagine that his eye swept the faces of 



ELISHA AT DOTHAN. 1 55 

those present with a detective's skill, that it might 
pick out the surprised and perturbed traitor. But 
if the traitor was there, the sudden and piercing 
question did not throw him off his guard. There 
was no traitor in the camp. One of Ben-hadad's 
servants rises in the council of war and says, '' Hear 
me ! Elisha, the man of God, he it is who tells 
Jehoram what our plans are. The God of this 
prophet gives him such power that he can look 
upon the king in the deepest secrecy of his ha- 
rem.'' How this servant knew about the prophet 
Elisha we are not told. Conjecture has it that he 
was one of the staff of Gen. Naaman whom Eli- 
sha cured of leprosy. In that cure he gave evi- 
dence of his power to see unseen and future 
things. However the man knew Elisha, his the- 
ory was the correct one. It was Elisha who told 
Jehoram the purposes of Ben-hadad and who ad- 
vised him what to do. He saw Ben-hadad's plans 
as clearly as Ben-hadad himself saw them, and he 
reported them as accurately as Ben-hadad could 
have reported them. 

When the king of Syria discovered the source 
of Jehoram's foreknowledge, he determined to 
capture Elisha and keep him from helping Jeho- 
ram. He spied out where he was, in Dothan, and 
hemmed in the town by what he considered a 
complete siege, a siege from which there could 
be no possible escape. It seems strange that it 
did not occur to Ben-hadad that Elisha could see 
all the plans which he formed against him. Such 
was the protection of the prophet of God that it 



156 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

was impossible for any human agency to capture 
him. The effort to put Elisha out of the way was 
like the effort to put Christ out of the way by 
sealing him in a tomb and putting the Roman 
army around his gravp as a guard. It was as fu- 
tile as the effort of Herod to imprison Peter. This 
Ben-hadad soon discovered. 

The story of the siege is very interesting. Ere 
the men of Dothan were aware, the town was 
completely surrounded by the warriors of Syria. 
When EliwSha awoke he looked out upon hosts of 
armed men. But the sight troubled him not one 
whit. It was different, however, with his new 
and young servant. The sight struck horror into 
his soul, and with terror in his voice he cried, 
*' Alas! my master, what shall we do?" The ter- 
rified servant sets off by contrast the unmoved 
prophet. In the two men we have illustrations of 
unbelief and belief, vv^alking by faith and walk- 
ing by sight. What is the explanation of the 
difference between the states of mind of the 
prophet and of his servant? Did not Elisha see 
the mighty forces arrayed against him, did he 
not recognize the danger? He did. But while 
he recognized the danger he recognized his pro- 
tection. He heard the tramp of the Syrian horse 
and the rumble of the Syrian chariot, but at the 
same time he heard and saw the horses and char- 
iots from the celestial world. His faith made this 
real to him. Hence the reply which he gave his 
servant when he was paralyzed by fear. '^ Fear 
not : for they that be with us are more than they 



ELISHA AT DOTHAN. 1 57 

that be with them/' At first the words of the 
prophet would appear but vain words to the ser- 
vant. They were absurdity itself. They were a 
contradiction of what he saw. The prophet saw 
all this expressed in his servant's face, and this 
led him to pray that God would open his eyes. 

His prayer was at once answ^ered. The eyes 
of the young man were opened and he saw the 
invincible troops of God between him and the 
foe. He saw that the matchless and resistless 
armies of heaven were fighting for the prophet. 
He saw that he was surrounded by a supernatural 
body-guard. ''And the Lord opened the eyes 
of the young man, and he saw: and behold, the 
mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire 
round about Elisha." 

In his picture, ''the Sistine Madonna," the 
artist Raphael has represented the air around the 
virgin and child as filled with angelic faces. The 
conception is true. There are invisible guards 
around all of the good. This is what Elisha saw 
and what his young servant saw. The sight which 
met the young man when the eyes of his soul 
were opened was the angelic host taking the 
form or appearance of horses and chariots of fire, 
because this form w^as best suited to allay his 
fears and to assure him of safety against his pres- 
ent danger. This is not the only place in the 
Scriptures where angels are presented under the 
figure of chariots, the symbols of protecting power. 
The Psalmist sings in the sixty-eighth Psalm, " The 
chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thou- 



158 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

sands of angels! the Lord is among them." By 
the power which God bestowed, Elisha and his 
servant looked out upon the spiritual universe 
with the eyes of their soul, as we shall look out 
upon it when we enter heaven. They were grant- 
ed a heavenly vision before its time, just as Paul 
was when he was caught up into the third heaven 
and saw the things which the redeemed see. God 
allowed them to see what they saw, that they 
might be w^itnesses to us, testifying to the reality 
of the supernatural protection of the child of God. 
The privilege granted them was a miracle which 
has blessed the world ever since. God virtually 
gave the servant of Elisha a repetition of the vis- 
ion of Jacob at Mahanaim, when the patriarch saw 
a double army of angels encamped around him. 

When Elisha had secured quietness and cour- 
age for his servant he gave his' attention to the 
besieging army of Syria. God smote them so 
that they were dazed and bewildered, and Elisha 
led them to Samaria, the walled capital of Israel. 
He there prayed to God to give them sight again, 
and when they saw again they found themselves 
the prisoners of Jehoram. When Jehoram was 
about to slay them, Elisha directed that mercy be 
shown them, that they be spared and feasted and 
sent in safety to their king. All that Elisha re- 
quired was done, and this incident becomes an ob- 
ject lesson illustrating and confirming the value 
and truth of the New Testament precept, ''If 
thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give 
him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals 



ELISHA AT DOTHAN. 159 

of fire on his head.'' The working of the precept 
is set forth by the words with which the history- 
closes : '' So the bands of Syria came no more into 
tlie land of Israel." 

PRACTICAL POINTS. 

I. There are beings in the tmiverse superior to 
man^ and these beings live in helpful relations with 
the children of God, 

They are the angels who have kept their first 
estate. The angelic beings are strong in their 
uprightness and in their allegiance to God. Do 
you say that the angels are invisible and therefore 
you will not believe in their existence? Their 
invisibility is no reason for your unbelief. God is 
invisible, but you believe in his existence. Your 
soul is invisible, but you believe in its existence. 
You see the works of God, you see the works of 
your soul. Works prove their existence. Works 
prove the existence and power of angels. Look at 
their works spread out on the page of Scripture : 
Elisha guarded against intended captivity ; 185,000 
Assyrians dead before the besieged Jerusalem; 
the first-born lifeless in every home of Egypt. 
No one . saw the angel pierce with his meteor 
sword or run his awful course, but here were the 
dead of Assyria and of Egypt, and these were 
enough to prove the angel's existence notwith- 
standing his invisibility. The fact is, science 
teaches us that unseen powers exist and that they 
are the greatest powers. Electric essences, though 
unseen, are mightier than the densest rocks and 



l6o FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

metals which are seen. It is scientific to believe 
in the invisible. 

Do you assert that yon have no interest in the 
subject of angels, and that therefore you are an 
agnostic on the existence of angels? This defence 
will not serve you. Your agnosticism is your sin. 
Elisha was no agnostic, neither was his enlightened 
servant. Bible writers were not agnostics. No 
less than fifteen of them discourse of angels and 
describe them and their work. One desio^n of this 
Scripture before us is to lift the curtain of the in- 
visible world and give us a look at the ministry of 
angels, that we may recognize them as allies in the 
battle of life and feel secure in their friendship. 
The Scripture teaches us that the angels serve God 
by serving us. 

That we may know that these narratives of far- 
away ministries of angels are for our comfort, and 
that they depict the angelic blessings of the pres- 
ent day, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
tells us that one of the glories of the New Testa- 
ment dispensation is this, '' We have come to an 
innumerable company of angels,*' and they are 
servants of all those who are the heirs of salvation. 
We cannot coolly close the book of angelic lore 
and leave it unread without robbing ourselves of 
blessedness, and without remaining in ignorance 
of our greatest friends, who embody the great- 
est forces in the universe. They give counsel 
to the children of God; an angel counselled Ha- 
gar. They cheer the heart ; a company of angels 
met Jacob and cheered him. They bring answers 



ELISHA AT DOTHAN. l6l 

to prayer ; Gabriel brought Daniel the answer to 
his prayer. They carry our spirit to heaven at 
death ; angels carried Lazarus to Abraham's bosom. 
They act in the great realm of providence and, ac- 
cording to the book of Revelation, turn the great 
wheels of God's providential government. They 
burst the seals, kindle the lightnings, roll the thun< 
ders of eternal justice, and hold the storms in their 
hands and let them not go until the righteous of 
God are made safe. We owe the angels more than 
we imagine. We all need to be visited by the 
dream of a noted child of God. He dreamed that 
he had died and had gone up to the gates of 
heaven. Before admission he was compelled, how- 
ever, to tarry a while in a picture-room. He looked 
from scene to scene upon the canvas there, and all 
appeared familiar to him. At last he recognized 
the scenes as from his own life, and in each pre- 
sentation he was in peril of some kind ; but angels 
sent of God were guarding or directing him. The 
disclosure thus made put his whole life into a new 
light and filled his heart with gratitude. A wider 
recognition of our invisible guards would fill us 
with gratitude and give us higher and truer ideas 
of life. It would transfigure our life. 

2. There is nothing more certain than the security 
of God's people and of Gods cause. 

More and m_ightier are the forces in alliance 
with them than the forces banded against them. 
God is on their side. '' If God be for us, who can 
be against us?" Alliance with God means ma- 
jority and might and victory. For a man or for a 



1 62 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

cause to be bound up in the purposes of infinite 
love, and to be girt about by the arms of Almighty 
power, means a strong defence. There are angels 
for every saint ; even the beggar Lazarus is served 
by angels. There are angels for every danger. 
For every Syrian horse there is a duplicate horse 
of fire, and for every Syrian chariot there is a du- 
plicate chariot of fire. Satan has many allies and 
forces, but God*s allies and forces overmatch them. 
When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit 
of God is able to lift up a standard against him. 

3. The greatest need of man is the power of spirit^ 
ual sight to discern the blessings which are his. 

It was the possession of this power that lifted 
Elisha so far above his servant. The servant 
trembled and was pierced with an anguish of fear ; 
but Elisha, seeing the invisible, was calm and self- 
contained and courageous and equable in spirit. 
Do we stand before him and say, " O solitary and 
besieged man of God, what is the secret of thy 
peace and confidence and heroism?'' The prophet 
replies, '* God has opened the eyes of my soul, so 
that I see the great invisible realities and my alli- 
ance Vvdth them." Seeing the invisible, or the 
open spiritual eye, this is w^hat makes men of the 
type of Elisha. It is this that creates Moses and 
the prophets and the apostles and the reformers 
and martyrs. It is this that fills the soul with 
courage and enterprise and joy and the peace of 
God which passeth all understanding. 

There are degrees of spiritual vision ; we should 
seek the highest degrees. It is true that we may 



ELISHA AT DOTHAN. 163 

be safe although we have not the high degrees of 
vision ; it is true that the celestial horses and char- 
iots were at Dothan even while the young ser- 
vant's eyes are closed ; but this must be noticed, 
the comfort of feeling safe is lost. There may be 
safety when the spiritual eyes are closed or dim, 
but the soul may be racked and tortured with 
agony because we do not see our safety. A Union 
soldier escaped from the Confederate prison. He 
wandered for days seeking the Union lines. In 
the dusk of twilight he ran across what he sup- 
posed was a Confederate camp. He was sur- 
rounded and captured. He suffered agonies at 
the thought of being a prisoner again. When he 
was brought by his captors to a place where he 
could see, comfort and joy took the place of agony, 
for his eyes made it plain to him that his captors 
wore the blue uniform and not the gray. His ex- 
perience is a type of the experience of the child 
of God while the eyes of his soul remain unopen. 
He is full of fear and apprehension because he is 
not able to recognize the strong guard of friends 
which God has thrown around him. Our comfort 
in life demands the opening of the eyes of the 
soul. 

If the opening of the eyes of the soul be such a 
possession, the practical question which clamors 
for an answer is, How can the opening of the eyes 
of the soul be secured ? Does this Scripture give 
us any help towards an answer ? It does. It gives 
us the 'whole answer ; it tells us how. The open- 
ing of the eyes of the soul is the work of God ; and 



164 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

we may secure it by means of prayer. The men 
of prayer are the men of large spiritual vision. 
Elisha was a man of large spiritual vision, and he 
vv^as a man of prayer. By prayer he not only 
secured spiritual vision for himself, he secured it 
also for his unbelieving and dismayed servant. 
He might have reasoned with his servant, but he 
did not ; he prayed. There are times when pray- 
ing will do for our friends and neighbors what 
reasoning cannot do. Parent, you have failed to 
secure spiritual vision for your child by means of 
reasoning, pray for your child. Ask God to give it 
the vision of faith. Be an Elisha to it. Sabbath- 
school teachers. Christian workers, do ye also learn 
from Elisha. Pray your scholars and friends into 
the mysteries of the kingdom of Christ. Dan- 
iel was a man of large spiritual vision, and he 
was a man of prayer. It was when he and his 
three companions had prayed that God opened 
his eyes so that he saw the hidden things in the 
dream of the king. It was when he prayed that 
God sent visions of the future kingdom of Christ 
and explained these visions. Pray to God for 
knowledge, and he will send you knowledge. Pray 
to God for protection, and '' he will give his angels 
charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.'* 
Pray to God to make the great spiritual realities 
near and felt things to you, and he will give you 
the eyes of faith to see them. 



SAVED FROM FAMINE. 165 



SAVED FROM FAMINE. 

*' Oh that men would praise the lord for his goodness, and 

FOR HIS WONDERFUL WORKS TO THE CHILDREN OF MEN!" — 

Psalm 107:8. 

Damascus is possibly the oldest city in the 
world ; it certainly has had the longest and most 
persistent existence. We read of it first in the 
brief account of Abraham's pursuit of Chedor- 
laomer. (Gen. 14:15.) Eight hundred and sev- 
enty-five years afterward we meet with it again 
when, in the reign of David, '' the Syrians of Da- 
mascus '' " came to succor Hadadezer, king of 
Zobah" and David slew of the Syrians two and 
twenty thousand men, and '' put garrisons in Syria 
of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to 
David and brought gifts." When Solomon came 
to the throne the Syrians shook off the yoke, and 
after the revolt of the ten tribes, Ben-hadad L and 
Asa made a league, and Ben-hadad sent his cap- 
tains ''against the cities of Israel." From i Kings 
20 : 34 we learn that this same king again invaded 
Israel and took many cities, and his son Ben- 
hadad II., during the reign of Ahab, ''gathered all 
his host together : and there were thirty and tv/o 
kings with him, and horses and chariots : and he 
went up and besieged Samaria." His demands 
and their rejection by Ahab, the account of the 
battle and the great slaughter of the Syrians, are 
given in the twentieth chapter of i Kings. The 



l66 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

next year the contest is renewed, resulting in the 
slaughter of a hundred thousand footmen of the 
Syrians, the surrender and submission of Ben- 
hadad and Damascus. Three years after Ahab 
becomes the aggressor, and the encounter, with the 
fatal result to the king of Israel, is graphically 
described in the last chapter of the first book of 
the Kings. Then followed a period of peace, dur- 
ing which the beautiful story of Naaman's journey 
from Damascus and the healing of his leprosy 
occurs. 

This cessation of hostilities however w^as not of 
long continuance. Again Ben-hadad invades Israel, 
intent on capturing the prophet Elisha ; but the 
host become the captive of the prophet, and, smit- 
ten with blindness, are led by him at his will. 
*'After this Ben-hadad gathered all his host, and 
went up and besieged Samaria." Then occurred 
that great and remarkable famine when an '^ ass's 
head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver," and 
in their extremity of hunger parents ate their own 
children. This brings us to the portion of Scrip- 
ture before us. The city in its dire condition was 
saved by divine interposition, for '' the Lord had 
made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of 
chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a 
great host : and they said one to another, Lo, the 
king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of 
the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to 
come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in 
the twilight, and left their tents and their horses 
and their asses, even the camp as it Vv^as, and fled 



SAVED FROM FAMINE. 167 

for their life.'* In this connection we have an 
interesting illustration of the confirmation of the 
accuracy of Scripture by modern science and re- 
search, all the more strong and satisfactory from 
the vehemence with which the foes of the Word 
have insisted upon its historical errors, and the 
readiness with which some of the friends of the 
Word have acknowledged inaccuracy. A compar- 
atively recent commentator says that ''the men- 
tion of the kings of the Hittites is very strange. 
No such nation as the Hittites any longer existed, 
and the kings of Egypt did not interfere in 
Asiatic affairs throughout this entire period." 
But more recent investigations explain fully the 
reason for the panic and the precipitate flight of 
Ben-hadad's army, and make the rumor which 
caused the panic a natural one. The Hittite con- 
federacy was one of the most powerful military 
organizations in Western Asia, and at that very 
time is now known to have been in alliance with 
the Egyptians. 

No doubt the chief design of this remarkable 
deliverance was in the interest of his own servant 
Elisha, as is clear from the connection. The ob- 
ject of the story is to show that there was a 
prophet in Israel, that God was specially present 
in the midst of them in the person of his prophets, 
and that their history and fortunes, their calami- 
ties and chastisements, their mercies and deliver- 
ances, all were connected with the great plan of 
redemption. The day of prophets and special 
messengers is past, but God is still immanent in 



l68 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

the world ; he is still working-, bringing about the 
fulness of times when his Spirit shall be poured 
out upon all flesh and all flesh shall see his salva- 
tion ; and were the history of our own nation to be 
v/ritten, as was that of Israel, by inspired pens, we 
should recognize both his presence and his plan. 
But aside from, or rather in connection vnth, this 
object of the story there are many profitable 
truths. 

What weak and contemptible instritmeyits God 
chooses for his great zvorks, '' God hath chosen the 
foolish things of the world to confound the wise; 
and God hath chosen the weak things of the world 
to confound the things which are mighty ; and 
base things of the world and things which are 
despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which 
are not, to bring to naught things that are : that 
no flesh should glory in his presence." So here 
the four leprous men, outcast from the city and 
despised by the Syrians, were, in the providence 
of God, the messengers of his grace, announcing to 
their beleaguered countrymen in the very crisis of 
their danger the wonderful interposition of Je- 
hovah. Fishermen and publicans were likewise 
chosen as witnesses of the resurrection of Christ 
and the proclaimers of the good news of the gos- 
pel to the world. And it is a delightful aspect of 
the Christian faith that it opens so sure a prospect 
of doing good, to all who are in humble condition 
or whose talents are too feeble to act in what are 
called the more public spheres of enterprise and 
duty. We have reason, all of us, for living to 



SAVED FROM FxVMIXE. l6g 

God in every sphere of life. If there were none 
of these unpretending but beautiful examples, 
blooming in depression, sweetening affliction by 
their Christian patience, adorning poverty by their 
high integrity, and dying in the Christian lieroism 
of faith — if there were no such examples making 
their impressions of the dignity and truth of the 
gospel, who shall prove that our great men who 
are supposed to accomplish so much by their elo- 
quence, their notable sacrifices and far-reaching 
plans, would not utterly fail in them ? 

Again, hozv easily God^ in his own tiirie and in his 
own way, can accomplish his purposes of mercy and 
grace. This is true of earthly mercies. He can 
bring days of plenty close upon days of famine 
and want. The deliverance of Samaria was cer- 
tainly supernatural and revealed God's presence 
and interposition, but it is not necessary to regard 
it as miraculous. In different dispensations God 
keeps his word with his people in different ways, 
and his promised succor and deliverance are just as 
sure to us in the time of need as to his people of 
old. Therefore we should not despair, but trust in 
God even when the night is darkest and the difficul- 
ties apparently insurmountable. Above all is this 
true in the contest between the Church of God and 
the hosts of evil. In the dark region of moral an- 
tipathies there is no parallel to the enmity of the 
carnal mind against God. There are no difficul- 
ties equal to those which the ignorance, prejudice, 
and depraved passions of men offer to the gospel. 
It is entirely superfluous for the unbeliever to set 



I/O FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

in array these elements of hostility. Christianity 
frankly confesses its weakness, foolishness, noth- 
ingness, according to all the ordinary calculations 
of human motive and volition. But so much the 
more does it fall back upon another influence 
which is enlisted in its behalf. Its motto is, '' Not 
by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith 
the Lord of hosts," and thus the strength of the 
church, like the placing of the key-stone in the 
otherwise insecure arch, is all the greater for its 
apparent weakness. This supernatural force every 
Christian believes to be supplied by the agency of 
the Holy Ghost, so that the impossible becomes 
possible, and the action of Christian truth is ex- 
alted to a kind of omnipotence. Moreover the 
existence of this spiritual influence is not a theory 
but a fact. The Christian Church is its embodi- 
ment. The triumphs of the gospel in a grand and 
ever enlarging series of experiments are the 
monument but not the limit of this power. How 
wonderful have been the manifestations of divine 
power in the history of the church and its mis- 
sions! so wonderful that an incessant work of 
conversion spread over all the world has ceased to 
attract notice, and only the sprifig tide movements 
of the wave, in powerful revivals, are remarked. 
And so to all misgivings within the church, to all 
skepticism without it as to the deliverance of the 
church in every hour of peril and as to the final 
and complete overthrow of the powers of dark- 
ness, the Christian has one reply, '' I believe in the 
Holy Ghost !" 



SAVED FROM FAMINE. 171 

Men may talk also of the numbers still stont- 
hearted and far from righteousness. It is easy to 
calculate the numbers of the world's inhabitants 
not even nominally Christian, and the long series of 
years or centuries Vv^hich, according to the present 
employment of men and money or the past suc- 
cess, it will take to Christianize them. Such sta- 
tistics are useful, and we thank their authors, if 
they may but excite us to greater liberality and 
prayer. But here is a povv'er above statistics, as it 
was a power above statistics which suddenly en- 
larged the infant church from a hundred and 
twenty to hundreds of thousands and brought all 
their gold into one treasury, as it was a power 
above statistics which in so short a period rescued 
the half of Europe from a more tenacious gripe 
than that of any armed host with all its enginery 
of war. Let this power go forth and it is like sun- 
shine which lightens all lands and melts a thousand 
snows at once. '' This is the purpose that is pur- 
posed upon the whole earth, and this is the hand 
that is stretched out upon all the nations ; for the 
Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disan- 
nul it? and his hand is stretched out, and v/ho 
shall turn it back ?" 

Again we have the power of prayer. From the 
promise of deliverance spoken by Elisha and his 
judgment pronounced upon the unbelieving lord, 
indeed from the whole run of the story, we cannot 
doubt that the prophet had been in close commu- 
nion with God and that the deliverance finally 
accomplished was the fruit of his intercession. 



172 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

And this mighty power of the Holy Spirit of 
which we have spoken is not committed indeed to 
human hands, but the doctrine of prayer, with 
which that of the Holy Ghost is inseparably con- 
nected, supplies a practical basis for men to pro- 
ceed and the limitation that arises from the sove- 
reignty of God is only a check to his pride but not 
a restraint to his exertion. Prayer is the grandest 
power in the entire universe ; it has a more omnip- 
otent force than electricity, gravitation, or any other 
of the secret forces of nature. The question is not. 
What can it do? but. What has it not done ? It has 
divided the sea, quenched the violence of fire, 
stayed the rain from the heavens, and again 
brought rain, shut the mouths of lions, turned to 
flight the armies of the aliens, and opened the 
gates of Paradise. Does it not seem an amazing 
thing to have such a power in one's hands as to be 
able to pray ? We have heard or read of men who 
pretended to have a weird and mystic might by 
which they could call up spirits from the deep, by 
which they could scare away disease or bring a 
curse upon one's person or his property, secure 
happiness or blight with woe. It was all a figment 
of the fancy, but, were it true, the Christian is a 
greater magician still. If he has but faith in God 
what is there impossible to him ? He shall be 
delivered out of the deepest waters ; he shall be 
rescued out of the sorest troubles ; he shall be fed 
in famiine, and in pestilence he shall go unscathed ; 
in war he shall be shielded, and in the day of bat- 
tle delivered from his enemies, while upon count- 



SAVED FROM FAMINE. 1 73 

less tnultittides he shall bring the blessings of 
heaven. There is nothing, we repeat it, there is 
no force so tremendous, no energy so marvellous, 
no power so resistless as the power with which 
God has endowed every believer who can prevail 
with him in prayer. 

But we must have faith in this, and so once 
more we see the sm of doubt and distrust in God's 
promises. We are not straitened in God, but in our 
own weakness of faith. We have not, because we 
ask not or ask amiss. Our fault lies in a criminal 
distrust of God's power or his promises ; we doubt 
his ability to keep his word or the sincerity of the 
word on which he has caused us to hope. No 
prayer is more needful than that of the disciples 
of Jesus, '' Lord, increase our faith." The Israel. 
itish ''lord on whose hand the king leaned'' has 
his representatives in every age even among 
Christians — men who are ready to confer with 
flesh and blood, to count numbers, to magnify dif- 
ficulties, to exaggerate opposing forces. In form, 
if not in words, the expression of their unbelief is, 
'' Behold, if the Lord would make windows in 
heaven might this thing be?" And yet did we 
ever think that this is the very thing which God, 
in the fulness of his condescension and grace, has 
promised ? '' Bring ye all the tithes into the store- 
house, that there may be meat in mine house, and 
prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if 
I will not open you the windows of heaven^ and pour 
you out a blessing that there shall not be room 
enough to receive it." 



1/4 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

JEHU; OR RELIGIOUS ZEAL. 

" Come with me and see my zeal for the 'Lord. ''— 2 J^rno-s 10: 16. 

Our aim will be to set before ns the false zeal 
of Jehu, and then to gather from it some lessons 
concerning true zeal, which it suggests by way of 
contrast. 

I. THE FALSE ZEAL OF JEHU. 

Jehu was the tenth king of Israel. The order 
of the kings of Israel up to this day w^as as fol- 
lows: Rehoboam, Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, 
Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehoram, and Jehu. This 
is not the first time that we have met with Jehu. 
Nearly twenty years prior to this we saw him, 
in the days of Elijah. 

Jehu reigned some twenty -eight years, but 
history records only the doings of the first year of 
his reign. The remainder of his reign seems to 
have been uneventful. His zeal for the Lord 
blazed and burned itself out like a shaving. There 
was only one year of blaze and brightness ; but 
there were twenty-seven years of cold dead ashes. 
He was like some whom we see to-day outside the 
church; their piety is confined to their youth. 
He was like men whom we have seen in the 
church. They rise up suddenly from obscurity, 
talk an immense amount of orthodoxy for a pur- 
pose, give one or two large subscriptions on the 
most public occasions, have the notice of these 



JEHU; OR RELIGIOUS ZEAL. 175 

printed and reprinted, copied and recopied in the 
newspapers and magazines of the church until 
they have won the reputation of being extremely 
liberal in the things of the Lord, and then they 
rest on their laurels and allov/ others to contribute 
while they take all the credit. They take for 
granted that the deceived public does not know 
them. O ye subtle old Jehus! Both God and 
man understand your zeal. Your zeal is a false 
zeal, and time will surely unmask you. 

The page of history given to the life of Jehu 
exalts one characteristic of the man. That char- 
acteristic is zeal. This seems to have been the 
leading characteristic of Jehu. His character is 
indicated by his public reputation. He had a rep- 
utation in Israel as a furious and fast driver. The 
moment he stepped into the chariot and took the 
reins in his hand, the horses knew that nothing 
but a break-neck speed would satisfy. He dashed 
along the highways of Israel as though he meant 
to ride over everybody he met or overtook. He 
was a noted soldier, full of im^petuosity and inten- 
city and dash and shrewdness and fiery energy. 
By physical constitution he was a man of zeal, and 
God, when he made him king, bade him use his 
zeal in divine service. There is no morality in 
mere zeal itself. The purpose for which we use 
our zeal determines its character. It is by the 
motive of Jehu that we are to determine Jehu's zeal. 
He claimed that the glory of the Lord was the aim 
of his zeal, but its limit and its trend and its source 
declare that the interest of Jehu was its aim. 



176 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

In pursuing our study we are compelled to 
take up this question : What did Jehu do lutder the 
impulse of liis zeal? 

HE ANNIHILATED THE HOUSE OF AHAB AND DE- 
STROYED THE BAAL-WORSHIPPERS THROUGH- 
OUT THE LAND. 

In planning the destruction of the Baal-wor- 
shippers Jehu joined with him Jehonadab the son 
of Rechab. The family of Rechab belonged to the 
Kenites. It was from the tribe of the Kenites 
that Moses took his wife. The tribe was Arabian. 
It continues even to this distant day. It formed a 
friendship with Israel during the wanderings in 
the wilderness and settled with them in Palestine. 
Jehonadab was the head of this tribe. He formed 
them into a community, and gave them peculiar 
rules of life. He forbade them to live in houses, 
allowing them only tents ; and he forbade them to 
possess vineyards or to drink wine. As this man 
was noted for his piety, Jehu rejoiced in his com- 
pany. It was to him that he said, '' Come with me 
and see my zeal for the Lord." He caused him to 
ride with him in his chariot. He thus got him 
publicly to put the stamp of his indorsement upon 
hiiTi. He used him to give character to the meas- 
ure which he planned and executed. We like the 
indorsement of those who stand high in the com- 
munity. The approbation of such men is next to 
the approbation of conscience. The conscience of 
Charles IX. was quieted for a time by the Te 
Dennis which the Church of Rome sang in honor 



JEHU; OR RELIGIOUS ZEAL. I// 

of his massacre of the Huguenots. The conscience 
of the liquor-seller is quieted by the respectability 
of some of his customers. He reasons that it is 
just as honorable to sell liquor as it is to drink it. 

The zeal of Jehu against Baalism was com-^ 
mendable in its object, but not in its motive and 
spirit. These were false. So far as I can judge, 
no moralist can stand up for his methods. He ex- 
terminated the worshippers of Baal by falsehood 
and treachery. Objectively he was right, sub- 
jectively he was wrong. He was aiming at right 
things, but he was doing them in wrong ways. 
For that which was right God commended him 
and rewarded him ; for that which was wrong God 
condemned him and pronounced sentence upon 
him. 

The plan which Jehu adopted in the slaughter 
of the Baalites was this : He proclaimed himself a 
worshipper of Baal. He then proclaimed a feast 
to Baal, and invited all Baalites. All the Baalites 
in the kingdom came. When the temple of Baal 
was packed, he ordered his armed guard to slay 
every Avorshipper. This they did. When every 
Baalite was slain, he broke the image of the false 
god and turned the magnificent temple into a 
place for refuse. Thus he stamped out the wor- 
ship of Baal from Israel. 

The first year of Jehu'c reign is certainly a 
chapter of blood. But we should not allow it to 
suggest hard thoughts concerning God, as some 
do. We should rem^ember that in the nation of 
Israel Baalism was a treason. We should re- 

Solomon to the Captivity. 3^ 



1/8 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

member that the dynasty of Ahab was in rebellion 
against Jehovah, the true King of Israel. It was the 
nicer on the body politic, and God decreed that it 
shonld be cnt off because it would kill the body. 
We should remember that the God who was so 
just and so full of infinite love that he gave 
his only-begotten Son to the cross, has proven by 
that gift that he cannot be unjust and that he can- 
not be unkind. If hard thoughts enter into our 
mind as we study the history of his doings, the 
reason is, either we do not have a full history or 
we misunderstand what is written. If we could 
see as far into the future as God saw, we would 
see that it Vv^as expedient, and a saving of life, 
to despatch the whole house of Ahab. They 
were a murder-breathing family, and if they had 
been allowed to live would have slain double 
or treble their number. For an illustration of 
what we mean let us go to the history of Louis 
XIV. of France. The king revoked the Edict of 
Nantes, which allowed religious liberty in France. 
What foUov/ed this revocation? All manner of 
persecution. Persecution raged until between 
two and three hundred thousand of the truest sons 
and daughters of France perished. Now if some 
one as God's executioner had annihilated Louis 
XIV. and his family before he revoked the Edict 
of Nantes and inaugurated the awful persecution, 
would not the world call that mercy instead of 
severity ? Who would utter a syllable against such 
an execution ? The execution of the household of 
Ahab was an execution after this order. It kept 



JEHU; OR RELIGIOUS ZEAL. I/Q 

murderers from committing further murder. If 
we could look through and through the dealing of 
our God, love would be found to be the basis and 
origin and spirit of all that he does. The execu- 
tion of judgment is the exercise of love to the in- 
nocent and the exposed. God is responsible only 
for the decree of execution issued against the 
family of Ahab, not for that which was cruel and 
false in the manner of its execution. The cruel 
and false belong to the zeal of Jehu. 

II. LESSONS CONCERNING TRUE ZEAL. 

Jehu teaches us by contrast. Our zeal must be 
the opposite of his zeal. We may learn from fail- 
ures as well as from successes. We may learn from 
the false Judas as well as from the true John. If 
true zeal must be the opposite of the zeal of Jehu, 
then we may predicate the following things con- 
cerning true zeal : 

(i.) True zeal is characterized by right motives, 
Jehu did not give himself to the sway of right 
motives ; we should. An analysis of his zeal shows 
it to be both selfish and boastful. He slew the 
house of Ahab which had dishonored God. True. 
But self-interest said, " If you are to take the 
throne of Ahab, you must kill every one of his 
heirs, or else they will inaugurate rebellion and 
dethrone you.'' He annihilated Baalism, the false 
religion which dishonored God's religion. True. 
But Baalism was the institution of Ahab, and self- 
interest said, '' If you allow it to stand, its devotees 
will avenge your attack on Ahab." The worship 



l8o FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

of the golden calves was God-dishonoring: why 
did not Jehu destroy that ? The sin of Jeroboam 
insulted God and ignored his law as surely as did 
the sin of Ahab : why did not Jehu banish that 
from the land ?* Self stood in the way. He 
thought that if he destroyed the calf-worship, the 
people would go to Jerusalem to worship, and in 
the course of time the two kingdoms w^ould be re- 
united, and he would be left without a throne. 
Apparently he was working for God, but really he 
was working for Jehu. There are many men like 
him. They use the subscription paper, the pulpit, 
the church, religion itself, for the glory of self. 
True zeal makes the glory of God its inspiration 
and its intention. Jehu's zeal was boastful. It 
published a programme. And Jehu said to Jona- 
dab, ''Come with me and see my zeal for the 
Lord." His words do not have the right ring. 
They do not promise much to the experienced. 
Jehu accentuated the word '' my " in such a way as 
to show God's indebtedness to Jehu. '' My zeal 
for the Lord." How hard it is to keep down self. 
When Jesus was talking about his coming agony 
on Calvary his disciples were discussing who should 
be the greatest. Jehu was not a man who could dig 
cellars and lay foundations, but he was a man who 
delighted to lay cope-stones amid the shouts of the 
people. True zeal is not like his. It does not ad- 
vertise itself. It does not let its right hand know 
what its left hand is doing. It believes in putting 
forward the w^ork and not the worker. When 
Saul the Pharisee becomes Paul the Christian, he 



JEHU; OR RELIGIOUS ZEAL. l8l 

buries the ego in him and crowns the Christ. His 
own words are, ''It is no longer I that do it, but 
Christ who liveth in me." 

(2.) True zeal is characterized by the use of right 
instrumentalities, 

Jehti used deceit and treachery and cruelty. 
His commission did not warrant the use of these 
things. His zeal was not according to a knowl- 
edge of God's moralities. He was like King Olaf 
of Norway who persecuted the heathen, maiming 
bodies, burning homes, plundering property. He 
called robbers to his aid, requiring only that they 
be baptized in the name of Christ, and justified 
himself by saying, '' I have the honor of God to 
defend." God does not authorize either deceit or 
cruelty in the execution of his decrees. He did 
not tell Jehu to have the heads of Ahab's descend- 
ants carted about the country in baskets. He did 
not tell Rebekah to dress Jacob up into a lying 
cheat in order to keep the blessing from going to 
Esau. The popular phrase, ''Tlie end justifies the 
means," was not coined in God's mint. God tells 
us distinctly that we must not do evil that good 
may come. In the cause of religion it is wrong to 
use false arguments or to make incorrect state- 
ments or to suggest or to appeal to base motives. 
The zeal that does so is not true. When the dying 
Scotchman asked his minister if the Lord would 
accept of him if he gave a thousand pounds to the 
church, the minister did wrong when, in his anxi- 
ety to secure money for the church, he replied, '' It 
is weel worth the trying, mon." It was not worth 



1 82 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

the trying. A man and his money will find no ac- 
ceptance with God save as the man comes to God 
through the blood of Jesns Christ. 

(3.) True zeal is characterized by the completeness 
of its purpose. 

The zeal of Jehn did not have a complete pur- 
pose. A complete purpose would have required 
him to annihilate the worship of the golden calves 
as well as the worship of Baal. Because of the 
incompleteness of purpose his zeal was defective 
and false. In pronouncing upon a man's zeal we 
must look at what he builds up as well as what he 
pulls down. It takes very little genius to pull 
a house down ; it takes more to put one up. Con- 
struction, and not destruction, is power. You may 
be a very bitter and keen and persistent critic 
of national reformers and temperance reformers, 
and yet be a very poor reformer yourself in these 
departments of God's work. Jehu's zeal should 
have built up the worship of Jehovah in Israel. 

III. AN EXHORTATION. 

The study of this Scripture would not be com- 
plete if it did not include a practical exhortation. 
The exhortation which should be pressed is this : 
Living in the midst of zeal that is false, '' seek en- 
thusiasm and truth in your religious zeal." 

There is a place in religion for men of the 
Simon Peter type. Such men with their zeal and 
enthusiasm are great powers when they are regu- 
lated. They have their occasions, and no one else 
can fill them. Who but Peter could preach Christ 



JEHU; OR RELIGIOUS ZEAL. 183 

on the day of Pentecost ; or who but Peter could 
or would go to the house of Cornelius? The 
church needs human impulse married to divine 
guidance. Do you need reasons enforcing this 
exhortation? This is one reason, viz.: the non- 
enthusiastic never succeed in any great work. 
This is another reason : as followers of Christ we 
have to combat against the zeal of the wicked. 
Luther used to picture the zeal of the devil, 
against which we' have to contend, in this way : 
He said Satan once held a council to hear reports 
from his emissaries. One demon reported, '' I let 
loose the wild beasts on a whole caravan of Chris- 
tian travellers, and their bones bleach in the des- 
ert." 

''What of that!" cried the devil; ''their souls 
were all saved." 

Another demon reported, " I used the east wind 
against a shipload of missionaries, and they are in 
the depths of the sea." 

"What of that!" cried the devil; "their souls 
were all saved." 

Another demon reported, " I tried to put a sin- 
gle Christian to sleep, and it took ten years, full 
years of zeal and energy, but I succeeded at last 
and I left him fast asleep." At this the devil 
shouted, and every son of hell sang for joy. 

This is another reason: zeal is explicitly en- 
joined. " It is good to be zealously affected in a 
good thing." God commended Phinehas for his 
zeal and Paul commended the Corinthians for 
their zeal. He said that it was admired by others, 



1 84 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

and that it stirred them up to duty. Zeal is every- 
where admired. Who, for example, does not ad- 
mire the zeal of the Pilgrim fathers who came for 
the purposes of religious liberty to these shores of 
ours ? Look at them as they see the '' Mayflower** 
go back to the land whence they came. The ship 
is ready to return and has spread its sails. In 
groups the pilgrims, emaciated by famine and 
fever and decimated by savages and climate, stand 
about the beach watching it as it passes out of 
sight. 

*' Oh strong hearts and true ! Not one went back in the 
'Mayflower;' 
No; not one looked back who had set his hand to the 
ploughing." 

Zeal is admired. It thrills men ; therefore let 
us secure its influence in winning men to Christ 
and his cause. 

• From heaven Christ speaks to his church and 
says, " Be zealous." Rev. 3:19. ''Be zealous;** 
this is the law for the service of God, whether it 
be carried forward upon earth or in heaven. Zeal 
and enthusiasm are things which we will take 
with us across the boundary line. They are eter- 
nal things. In heaven there are zeal and enthusi- 
asm, burst of praise follows burst of praise and 
alleluia follows alleluia. 



JONAH COMMISSIONED TO PREACH. 1 85 



JONAH COMMISSIONED TO PREACH IN 
NINEVEH. 

*' Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against 
IT." Jonah 1:2. 

PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS. 

(l.) What is the classification of the book of 
Jonah ? 

It is classified with the books of prophecy. It 
seems strange that it should be. It has only one 
prediction in it, and that was not fulfilled. It 
prophesied that Nineveh should be destroyed in 
forty days, but it was not. How can the book be 
classified with prophecy ? For the answer of this 
question we must go to Jesus Christ. He teaches 
the men of his day that Jonah was a type of Him, 
and that the wonderful miracle of Jonah's life was 
a symbol ; that the facts in Jonah's experience, 
when he was plunged into the sea and delivered, 
contained in them a concealed prophecy of His 
three days' burial and His resurrection on the 
morning of the third day. This explanation gives 
grandeur and point and character to the little 
book, which otherwise seems fragmentary and 
broken and missionless. The book is a symbolical 
prophecy of the thrilling and grand in the coming 
Christ. (Luke ii : 29, 30.) For this reason it can 
claim its place among the books of prophecy. 



1 86 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

(2.) Are the events recorded in the book real his- 
tory ? 

The question is raised because infidels have 
made themselves merry over the miracle which it 
contains, and rationalists have pronounced it un- 
historic. German critics treat it as a fiction, a 
myth, a legend. Some regard it as a dream. 
They say that the prophet Jonah dreamed in Gath- 
hepher, as Joseph dreamed when he was a lad in 
the fields with his brethren. No sheaves came 
round about the lad's sheaf ; the sun and moon 
and stars made no obeisance to him. Others make 
it a historical allegory, or a parable, the meaning 
of which was well understood in his day. To my 
mind there is only one theory : The book is literal 
history. Every Bible reader knows a dream or a 
parable or an allegory when he comes upon such. 
They are plainly indicated. There is nothing to 
indicate that this book is not honest, straight- 
forward history. The reasons we accept of it as 
history are : (a.) It was never questioned in the 
Jewish synagogue, (b.) The correctness of its 
geographical and historical allusions and state- 
ments, (c.) Christ treats it as true history. As a 
historical character he made no difference between 
Jonah and Abraham. He believed the whole story 
of Jonah just as we have it. Was Jesus mistaken 
in a whole series of alleged historical facts, think- 
ing and saying that such and such things hap- 
pened, when they were nothing more than fables 
or dreams ? Or did he deliberately represent them 
to be history when he knew they were not ? If so, 



JONAH COMMISSIONED TO PREACH. 18/ 

where is our foundation of trust in Christ? What- 
ever touches Christ, his wisdom, his veracity, 
touches Christianity. 

( 3 . ) Where did Jonah live ? 

At Gath-hepher. (2 Kings 14:25.) This vil- 
lage was in the tribe of Zebulun, a few miles from 
Nazareth. Christ, who referred to Jonah, you see, 
lived in Nazareth near to Jonah's birthplace. This 
may have been planned of God for the purpose of 
giving the human mind of Christ a greater grip 
on Jonah's character and mission. Living in the 
place where the memories of Jonah lingered, he 
was in a place to learn of Jonah. 

(4.) What is the significance of the prophet's name ? 

The name ''Jonah " means ''the dove.'* The 
dove is noted for its " mourning love." " Mourn- 
ing love " is the characteristic of Jonah. His his- 
tory, as recorded in this book, does not look like it, 
but this little book is only a page from his history, 
and gives the exception of his life and not its even 
tenor. This book was written by himself and for 
the glory of God, and the man is purposely exhib- 
ited in his worst light, that the contrast between 
him and God may exalt the merciful character of 
God. He does not think of himself. There is no 
rounding of hard angles, no careful explanation, 
and no softening of wrong things. God is every- 
thing, and the unloveliness of the man is made 
prominent to the glory of God. There is another 
scene recorded in the Old Testament in v/hich 
Jonah's character appears as the true exponent of 
his name, " the dove-like." 



l88 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

HISTORIC OUTLINE. 

Jonah received a commtinication from God. 
God directed him to go to Nineveh, the capital of 
heathendom. He was sent to Nineveh to be an 
enlightening conscience unto and to cry against it. 
His words were to be terrible words, like a wind 
which rends the mountain, like a hammer which 
breaks the rock in pieces. The iniquity of Nine- 
veh is now full, and something startling must be 
used to rouse it to repentance, or else judgment 
will drive it out of existence. God sends it the 
startling cry of a prophet, '' Yet forty days and 
Nineveh shall be destroyed." The great crime of 
Nineveh, according to the prophecy of Nahum, 
was violence and oppression. 

Jonah at first refused to carry out the divine 
commission. He fled from his prophet-presence 
before God. God said. Go east ; but he went west. 
He took a ship to Tarshish. Why did Jonah re- 
fuse to go to Nineveh and proclaim the message 
of the Lord ? Some say fear, others the length 
of the journey, others the difficulty of the task. 
None of these answers are correct. We must go 
to the words of Jonah himself for the answer, 
chapter 4 : 2. He refused to go to Nineveh lest 
the character of God should be compromised. He 
felt morally certain that Nineveh would be saved 
upon repenting. Then where would be the truth- 
fulness of God who told Jaim to cry, ''Yet forty 
days and Nineveh shall be destroyed" ? His faith 
in God had not brought his imagination and 



JONx\H COMMISSIONED TO PREACH. 1 89 

reason into subjection, and when he took cotinsel 
of them, he forsook the first principle of religion, 
viz., subjection to the word of God. 

The flight from duty was not a success. God 
met Jonah on the sea in the form of a storm. The 
sailors looked upon the storm as a judgment from 
heaven. They cast the lot to find the criminal 
with whom God was angry, and Jonah was taken. 
This led Jonah to confess, and to advise the sea- 
men to cast him overboard as a culprit. There 
was an immense amount of the true man in Jonah, 
else he would not have given such advice. It was 
a generous thing to do, and the sailors felt it to be 
so. At first they refused to obey, and strove hard 
to row the ship to shore. It was only as a last 
resort that they cast the prophet into the deep. 

Just here we meet with the wonderful miracle. 
God prepared a great fish, which swallowed Jonah 
and carried him to the shore and ejected him. Do 
I believe this miracle ? Yes. I so firmly believe 
it that I do not attempt to explain it. A question 
has been raised at this point of the history: If 
Jonah be the writer of this book, how did he know 
the action of the crew after he had been thrown 
overboard? The question calls imagination into 
play and suggests probabilities. Would the ship 
be likely to continue its trip to Tarshish now that 
its cargo was in the bottom of the deep ? Would 
it not go back to Joppa ? Would the sea-monster 
which took charge of Jonah carry him away 
from Nineveh or carry him back? What if the 
first man whom the crew saw on the wharf, as 



190 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

they steered their ship into Joppa, should be 
Jonah? What a time they would have talking 
over the storm ! Such a meeting would give Jonah 
all the facts recorded here. 

EMPHATIC POINTS. 

(i .) God's plan of salvation includes the Ge7itile world, 
Israel forgot this. They believed that it in- 
cluded only them. Only in times which produced 
such Psalms as the sixty-seventh did they recog- 
nize the rights of the Gentiles. The covenant of 
God with Abraham included the Gentiles. '' In 
thy seed shall all the nations of the world be 
blessed ;" the covenant made Israel the custodians 
of the things of grace only for a time, and. that for 
the benefit of the Gentiles. When the fulness of 
time came, God intended the custodians to open 
the treasures and distribute them world-vfide. 
God never intended that they should be localized ; 
he always meant, '^ Whosoever zvill, let him comeT 
The book of Jonah is in the Old Testament like a 
flash of lightning, which reveals for a moment that 
which is seen continually in the noontide splendor 
of the gospel dispensation. It shows the out-reach- 
ing of God's mercy and the wide circle of the plan 
of redemption. The book of Jonah has a place in 
what is called ''the development of religion/' 
i. e., the unfolding of God's purposes. It is a min- 
iature of the mission of Christ, " who was a light 
to lighten the Gentiles," as well "as the glory of 
his people Israel." It reveals Jehovah's moral gov- 
ernment over all kingdoms. 



JONAH COMMISSIONED TO PREACH. I9I 

(2.) God uses one people that he may instruct and 
influence another, 

God saved Nineveh because he meant to reach 
Israel through it. ' By sending his prophet to the 
capital of heathendom he intended to rebuke and 
rouse and pique Israel. Suppose a father of wealth 
had children who refused to improve their advan- 
tages, sons who would not study or apply them- 
selves to business openings, sons who persisted in 
being mere nobodies. Suppose that father, to 
show his sons their folly, picked up a street boy 
and gave him a son's advantages and made a 
scholar of him or a successful business man. 
Such a case would be an illustration of God's 
method here. He gave Nineveh the privileges 
of Israel for a time. He gave it Israel's prophet. 
He gave it Himself. Nineveh, upon whom Israel 
looked with comtempt religiously, accepted and 
used the offered privileges, and this rebuked neg- 
lectful Israel. How often are we rebuked and 
instructed by those who are below us in advan- 
tages ! 

(3.) God zvill chastise his ozvn people. 

If Jonah had not been his prophet, God would 
not likely have followed him in the storm. See 
God in Jesus, how he treated Peter. The severest 
words which Jesus ever uttered were those which 
he uttered in correcting his fault, " Get tJiee behiitd 
vie, Satan!' These were stronger words than those 
w^hich he used to the Pharisees. Peter stood be- 
tv/een him and the cross, by which only he could 
redeem the world. That is just what Satan did in 



192 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

the temptation of the wilderness. So Christ saw 
Satan in Peter. His love for Peter led him to 
speak harsh words to him, for the elimination of 
eveiv^hing that was Satan-like in him. Fatherly 
love compels God to rebuke and chasten for the 
faults of his children. *' You only have I known 
of all the families of the earth, therefore will I 
punish you for all your iniquities." .-..us >:2. 
Divine chastisement is the blessed heritage of the 
people of God. 

(4.) God uses the world in making and in kcepiiig 
his people true to hiviself. 

He used the ship captain in arousing Jonah. 
This is not the only instance recorded in the Scrip- 
tures of Gentile heathen repro^-ing the errors of 
God's servant and uttering appropriate truth. 
Pharaoh rebuked Abraham, the Father of the Faith- 
ful, for his faithlessness and duplicity. Abimelech 
ser\'ed Isaac in the same way. God often uses in- 
struments which seem to us to be very unlikely. 
For example : it was not a minister of the gospel 
to whom John Bunyan owed his awakening, but 
a wicked woman, who rebuked him for his dread- 
ful profanity. The thought that such a woman 
could be shocked at his wickedness startled him. 
God has separated us from the world ; he has set 
it about us as a guard. He has made it an enemy 
watching and wishing for our halting, and ready 
to utter the sneer and raise the shout of triumph 
over our inconsistencies. That sneer or shout 
often helps us to see ourselves and drives us to 
God for grace for holy living. 



JONAH COMMISSIONED TO PREACH. I93 

(5.) Fleeing fro7n duty is unreasonable even in the 
eyes of the world. 

Believing and disobeying, like Jonah ! Sncli 
conduct is indefensible upon any principle. The 
heathen, when they heard of Jonah's God and of 
Jonah's professed relation to God, thought his con- 
duct in fleeing from duty inexplicable. All they 
could do. was to ask him, " Why hast thou done 
this?" The question was a piercing one. It was 
an unanswerable reproof. The same question is 
addressed to us by the world whenever we are 
derelict in the Christian life. With such a God as 
we have, such a Saviour, such a glorious heaven 
in prospect, such a Holy Spirit to inhabit us, cold- 
ness, unbelief, positive disobedience are all un- 
reasonable. The only reasonable things are strict 
obedience, whole-hearted devotion, and self-deny- 
ing zeal. 

(6.) Like begets like. 

This is an admitted principle in nature. We 
expect wheat from wheat, thorns from thorns. 
This ought to be an admitted principle in the 
social and spiritual world. It reigns there. Jonah's 
nobleness reproduced itself in nobleness in the 
sailors. When he offered to sacrifice himself for 
them, they were willing to toil and sacrifice that 
they might save him. The principle gives us 
great hope. Christ's character will beget like 
character in us. It w411 reproduce itself. This 
principle gives us great hope in Christian w^ork. 
Our faith and love, like seeds, will grow in other 
lives. 

Solomon to the Caplivity. q 



194 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

(7.) We cannot do zvrong without injuring others. 

No fact stands out more prominently than this in 
the opening of Jonah's history. This fact increases 
our sense of responsibility. It makes us feel that 
we cannot do as we please, either with our own 
persons or with what God has given us. See yon- 
der precious freight in the depths of the sea ! 
Look at yon empty ship! This destruction of 
property is traceable to the sin of Jonah. Our 
lives touch the lives of others just as Jonah's did. 
We are affecting the destiny of all with whom we 
deal. How many are the arguments which God 
has given us to prove that we should do right and 
only right ! Hovv' strongly has he bound us to 
duty ! Every friend is a chain, every human be- 
ing is an argument. 

SUGGESTED EXERCISES. 

I . Cultivate the disposition of seeing God in your 
lives. 

The modern meteorologist would not have seen 
God in the storm which overtook Jonah. He 
would have seen only impersonal law. He would 
have explained it by science. There are methods 
of obtaining truth other than the scientific. There 
are instruments other than the telescope and mi- 
croscope. There are processes other than the 
chemical or the spectrum analysis. There are 
truths which cannot be seen or smelled — truths of 
history, of mental philosophy, and of spiritual ex- 
perience. These teach us that the moral world has 
a governor, and that God's will is felt in all spheres. 



JONAH COMMISSIONED TO PREACH. I95 

God is in all nature. God is in all the events of 
our lives. 

2. Study the conflicts of others. 

When we study the prayer which Jonah offered 
for deliverance, we see how the experience of 
others helped him. His prayer was made up 
largely from the Psalms which were born of dis- 
tress. When Jonah was in the depths of distress, 
and unfitted to think for himself, these came to his 
help. Out of the conflict of others he built up his 
prayer of faith which brought deliverance. God 
has put the w^ealth of life into the experience of 
others, and he means that we shall make it ours. 
If we make it ours, we may purchase many a de- 
liverance from pain and distress and fatigue. 

3. Expect a blessing through every affliction. 
Jonah was made a new man by his affliction. 

Or, rather, affliction brought out the true man 
which was in him. The true man was sleeping ; 
affliction awakened him. Affliction is likened by 
the Holy Spirit to a furnace in which the dross is 
burned out of the gold and the gold made as 
bright as a mirror. In affliction sin is burned out 
of the soul and it is made to shine in holiness. 
Affliction burned disobedience out of the soul of 
Jonah. 



196 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

EFFECT OF JONAH'S PREACHING. 

"So THE PEOPLE OF NiNEVEH BELIEVED GOD." — J07iah y.^y. 

HISTORICAL POINTS. 

This Scripture is the significant point of the 
second half of the history of the prophet Jonah. 
Like the first half it begins with a commission 
from God directing Jonah to Nineveh. God is 
persistent in the execution of his purposes. He 
has decreed that Nineveh shall be warned, and his 
decree must be executed. If Jonah will not act as 
the instrument of execution at the first bidding of 
God, God will chastise him for his disobedience 
and command him a second time. This second 
commission is significant. It shows that God's 
work of discipline is complete. Discipline is al- 
ways a perfect work with God. He is as true to 
his own nature in it as he is in his other works. 
When he puts the gold in the furnace for purifica- 
tion he keeps it there until it is so pure that he 
can see his own image reflected. Jonah reflects 
God's will. He does what God bids him. This 
second commission shows therefore the effective- 
ness of the discipline to which God subjected 
him. It sets forth a second thing — the restor- 
ing grace of God. He will not let one sin destroy 
the usefulness of his servant. He re-commissions 
Jonah. He uses the reclaimed Noah to utter 
anew the blessings of the covenant. He inspires 



EFFECT OF JONAH S PREACHING. I97 

the reclaimed David to write the penitential 
Psalms. He directs the penitent Peter to feed 
his lambs and to lead in apostolic work. Here 
he restores the disciplined Jonah to the work of a 
prophet. 

No sooner was the second commission given to 
Jonah than he rendered prompt obedience. '' He 
arose and went to Nineveh according to the word 
of the Lord." We should like to know how he 
reached Nineveh — his mode of travel, the route 
taken, his companions in travel. But upon these 
things the sacred record keeps silence. It tells us 
he reached Nineveh, and then proceeds to describe 
the way in w^hich he delivered his message and its 
effect upon the doomed city. 

In describing the way in which Jonah executed 
his commission, the history incidentally sets forth 
the greatness of Nineveh. Its greatness was one 
reason why it should be delivered from sin. It was 
a powerful centre of corruption. It gave sin an 
impulse throughout the whole empire. Its great- 
ness is concisely put. It would take three days of 
hard travel to journey around it and one day to 
go straight through it. The modern excavation 
of this city verifies the description here given, and 
also proves the fulfilment of the prophecies of Na- 
hum and Zephaniah with respect to it. Nineveh 
disentombed is to-day one of God's powerful wit- 
nesses. God has many others yet buried in the 
earth, and one by one these will rise from their 
graves as others have done before them, and they 
will speak on behalf of God and his inspired Book. 



198 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

I believe that the spirit of exploration in Oriental 
lands is of God, and that he will guide those who 
seek the truth to those things of sacred memory 
and of sacred history which have been buried for 
some wise purpose of his. God when he buried 
these decreed for them a resurrection day. 

When Jonah reached Nineveh he began his 
work at once. How graphically the scenes which 
ensue are depicted ! We see the great city with its 
magnificent distances. We see a lone man walk- 
ing along its streets. We hear him cry one shrill 
sentence, '^ Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be de- 
stroyed I " As he moves on again and again that 
cry rings loud and clear. The people are startled, 
for they say to one another, '' This is the prophet 
of the great God. This is the man of wonderful 
experience who was thrown into the deep because 
he refused when first directed by the Lord to come 
and proclaim his message. How terrible his mes- 
sage! Only forty days are given us. We must 
either repent or meet our doom." Jonah's sermon 
was a short one and free from all equivocation, so 
that those who heard it both understood it and re- 
membered it. It was repeated and discussed in 
every household before the day was over. Before 
another day had passed the whole city was in sack- 
cloth and ashes and was penitent before God. 
The quick repentance of Nineveh shows us that 
what God has predicted for the future is not an 
impossibility with him, viz., ''nations shall be 
born into the spiritual kingdom of his Son in a 
day." The sackcloth and ashes of the people were 



THE EFFECT OF JONAH S PREx\CHING. I99 

the external expression of internal feeling. They 
spoke of a sense of danger on account of sin. 
They were a confession of guilt. They were an 
appeal to God's mercy. 

The repentance of Nineveh was thorough. It 
included a turning away from sin and a turning 
unto God. When God looked down from heaven 
he saw that the people had given up their sins 
and were following the opposite virtues. This 
sight called forth his mercy, and he issued a de- 
cree of pardon and averted the threatened doom. 
This filled the city with songs of praise to Jehovah. 
Thus in that far-away day of the past we have a 
pictorial gospel before the fulness of time. 

But what of Jonah after the delivery of his ap- 
palling message? After he had proclaimed the 
message of God he went out of the city and 
climbed an elevation and threw himself down to 
watch for results. He built himself a booth and 
dwelt there, we suppose, at least forty days. But 
no army marches against Nineveh, no pestilence 
depletes it, no fire from the skies smites it to ashes, 
no earthquake rends its foundation. It stands un- 
harmed because God has accepted of its repentance 
and reformation. This was a great grief to Jonah 
and filled him with perplexity. He thought that 
God's truth had been compromised; he thought 
that his claims as a true prophet had been de- 
stroyed ; he thought that the interests of his coun- 
try had been imperilled, for the kingdom which 
had been saved had long been considered the 
enemy of Israel. Oppressed by these black pic- 



200 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

tures which his imagination had painted, he asked 
God to take away his life. 

Just here we are introduced to the tenderness 
of God. He takes cognizance of the moods and 
feelings and errors of Jonah and mercifully cor- 
rects them and patiently deals with his pettish- 
ness. He deals with him verbally and symbolic- 
ally. He starts him thinking in the right direc- 
tion by means of questions, and then by means of 
the gourd, over the untimely destruction of v/hich 
Jonah mourns, he vindicates the divine conduct 
towards Nineveh and shows that it is analogous to 
that which is highest and best in Jonah's better 
and spiritual nature. 

The book closes abruptly. It closes with God*s 
question ringing in Jonah's ears. While it closes 
abruptly, it gives us all the information we need. 
It leaves God and Jonah before us in a favorable 
light. God is vindicated, and Jonah is bowing in 
acquiescence before the glorious character of God. 

DEDUCTIONS. 

I. Faith is an operative force and should be care* 
fully cultivated. 

Faith was the spring of action in the reforma- 
tion of Nineveh. It is said, '' So the people of 
Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast.'* 
Their faith made the truth a power. Thus it 
always is. Here are two men with the one Bible 
open before them. The one is so moved by the 
truth that he renounces sin and aims at a higher 
and truer life. Both time and eternity are great 



THE EFFECT OF JONAH S PREACHING. 201 

realities to him because of what the Book tells 
him. The other is unmoved. Time and eternity 
are mere fictions to him. Why the difference ? 
One believes God, but the other does not. To one 
the Book is God's Book, and every word in it is as 
true as his own existence. To the other the Book 
is only a collection from mythology. What we 
need most of all is faith. 

Faith works in different ways. It works ac- 
cording to the nature of that which it believes. 
For example, when faith looks to the love of God, 
it works by love. '' We love him because he first 
loved us." ¥/hen it looks to the infinite wrath of 
God, it works by fear, and '' we flee for refuge to 
the hope set before us." When it looks at the 
agony of Christ bearing the cross, it works by 
grief. ^' We look to him whom we have pierced, 
and mourn." The faith of the Ninevites worked 
by fear. It saw the destruction that was at the end 
of forty days. Let us bring to our faith that by 
which we want it to work. Let us bring to it the 
things which are calculated to build it up in the 
noblest characteristics. We can feed our faith just 
as we feed our brain and our body. Hence we are 
responsible for the character and strength of our 
faith. 

2. Our past experience is not lost. 

The history of Jonah proves that our past ex- 
perience is both helpful to ourselves and to others. 

(a.) Jonah's experience was helpful to himself. It 
was educational. I remember hearing a father in 
the ministry, who is noted for his quaint way of 

9* 



202 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

putting things, compare Jonah's education with 
Paul's. He said Paul was educated at Jerusalem 
Seminary, in the midst of refinement, at the feet of 
Dr. Gamaliel. But Jonah was educated at Whale 
Theological Seminary. The accommodations were 
not of the most refined order, but the instruc- 
tion was very practical and forcible, for God him- 
self was the Professor. Jonah learned some very 
important doctrines in the deep — doctrines which 
ought to bear directly upon human life and 
make it grand and noble. He learned there the 
great doctrine of God's absolute sovereignty. He 
learned there the doctrine of free grace. He 
gave utterance to both of these doctrines when 
he said, ''Salvation is of the Lord." Jonah came 
forth from his wonderful and strange experience 
a better educated man. His theology was more 
emphatic and more to God's mind. His faith was 
clearer, his gratitude stronger, and his humility 
deeper. 

(b.) Jonalis experience was helpful to others. By 
it God held up telling facts before Nineveh. 
These made his message impressive. Jonah's 
experience exhibited four of God's attributes. It 
lifted up his omniscience. Jonah tried to flee 
from his presence, but God laid his omniscient 
hand upon him in the waters of the ocean. He 
virtually said to him, '' I dwell here ; you cannot 
flee from my presence." It lifted up his justice. 
He severely chastised his disobedient, self-willed 
prophet. If he spared not his own servant, the 
men of Nineveh would see that his nature would 



THE EFFECT OF JONAH S PREACHING. 203 

not permit him to allow them to escape. It lifted 
up his omnipotence. God called out the great 
forces of nature in inflicting chastisement upon his 
prophet. He threw the ocean into a terrific storm ; 
then he put forth his omnipotent hand and pressed 
its mountain billows into a dead level. It lifted 
up his infinite mercy. God heard the cry of his 
prophet and saved him, and wrought a miracle to 
save him. He accepted of his repentance and 
turned away deserved wrath. Now the display of 
these attributes of God before the men of Nine- 
veh gave the message of Jonah great force and 
led the wicked city to repentance. I imagine you 
ask, But what authority have you for teaching that 
the Ninevites knew the experience of Jonah? 
Christ is our authority. He says ''Jonah was a sign 
to the Ninevites'' He virtually says, '' Jonah's won- 
derful experience, with its exhibit of divine au- 
thority, was put back of his short, crisp sermon, 
and this is what made it a converting power in 
Nineveh." God allovv^s no experience of his peo- 
ple to be lost. It is all made subservient to the 
good of self or of others. 

3. If sinners are to be converted^ God's messengers 
must deliver God's own words, 

God said unto Jonah, '' Preach the preaching 
that I bid thee." He obeyed God, and it was the 
simple word of God that moved the great city. 
When we can put before our message this prefix, 
''Thus saith the Lord," we may expect it to strike 
the consciences of men and move them to duty. 
Oh, for more faith in the Word of God ! Oh, for 



204 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

the confidence in the Word which God has! 
When we give it the confidence which it de- 
serves, we shall substitute it in the place of our 
own vagaries and theories and prejudices. The 
more we preach the Word, the more conversions 
will there be. 

4. Tlie representations of God in the Bible are 
just what they ought to be, and do not conflict u^hen 
kept in their places. 

When God saw Nineveh in sackcloth and ashes, 
it is said, ''he repented." Some who read the 
Word of God solely with the intellect, and not at 
all with the heart, have raised a theological dis- 
pute here. They ask, Is not this change in God 
contradictory to what is said of God elsewhere in 
the Bible? Elsewhere it is written, '' He is of one 
mind and w^ho can turn him ?" '' I am Jehovah, I 
change not." I find no difficulty with passages 
like these, or with other passages which seem con- 
tradictory. Why? Because I take these passages 
just where I find them, and interpret them accord- 
ing to the use which the Holy Spirit intends to 
make of them. Now the Holy Spirit does not put 
one Scripture in conflict with another; neither 
should we. The Holy Spirit has placed every say- 
ing in the Bible precisely where it ought to be 
placed. The trouble is, theologians take these out 
of their places, and arrange them into orders and 
lines and plans according to their own mind, and 
the inevitable result is conflict. The Lord be 
praised that such is the result. The placing of the 
truths and facts of the Word is an essential and 



THE EFFECT OF JONAH S PREACHING. 20$ 

important thing. An illustration will serve us 
here. A few years ago artists competed with one 
another in painting a portrait of the Czar of Rus- 
sia. When the judges met to decide what pic- 
tures should be admitted to competition, they un- 
ceremoniously rejected a certain picture. They 
claimed that it carried rejection on its face. The 
artist demanded the exercise of his rights before 
submitting to its rejection. He claimed the right 
of placing his painting, because the place which it 
was to occupy was part of his design. He put it at 
a studied distance from the spectators, and it won 
the admiration of all and secured the prize. The 
placing of each truth in the Bible is part of God's 
plan in giving his revelations to man. We are 
guilty of wresting the Scriptures when we take 
truths out of their God-appointed places. I do not 
feel bound to reconcile texts which clash when 
taken from their places and pitted against one an- 
other. I put them back in their places, and they 
are thoroughly peaceful. I take them one at a 
time, and I find that they speak the right thing in 
the right place. When God says that he will de- 
stroy Nineveh in forty days, that is the right thing 
to say. Nineveh deserved to be destroyed. When 
God says he has repented and will therefore spare 
Nineveh, that is the right thing to say, for a differ- 
ent Nineveh is before him. 

DUTIES. 
I. Cry against sin, 
God means his people to be a conscience for 



206 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

the men of the world. Every act of theirs should 
be a light among the deeds of men revealing the 
contrasts of evil. Their whole life should be one 
protest against wickedness. If there were more 
crying against sin, there would be more to feel 
their sin ; there would be more Ninevehs con- 
verted. 

2. Do not carry ajty unnecessary burdens, 
Jonah's burden was an unnecessary burden ; 

yet it was intolerable for its weight. It was God's 
burden that he was attempting to carry. He took 
upon him God's responsibility. We are like Jonah 
in a measure. We go into the future and borrow 
trouble. We worry over the providence of God. 
We exercise ourselves about results, while God 
commands us to exercise ourselves only about duty 
and leave results with him. 

3. Do not make Nineveh a witness against you. 

If we do not equal it in the readiness with 
which we improve our privileges and opportuni- 
ties, it will condemn us in the judgment. Christ 
says so ; and Christ is the judge before whom all 
men must stand. 



ISRAEL OFTEN REPROVED. 20/ 



ISRAEL OFTEN REPROVED. 

** He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall 
suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." — 
Prov. 29 : 1 . 

Amos was a prophet of the country, was so by 
nature, and in this respect in marked contrast 
with Joel, who was a prophet of the city. Not 
that living in the country made Amos such : his 
home was only twelve miles south of Jerusalem 
and the tops of Olivet were always visible. Cir- 
cumstances cannot create a genius, but they may 
preserve and mature it, and this the surroundings 
did for the prophet of Tekoa. Of his manner of 
life before his call to prophesy, beyond what we 
can imagine from his occupation, we know noth- 
ing; nor of the causes, if any secondary causes 
there were, that induced him to cross the border 
and testify against the northern kingdom. He 
was '' one of the herdmen,'* probably a keeper of 
flocks not his own, and he was a ''gatherer of 
sycamore fruit," a kind of food used only by the 
poorest of the people. He was therefore a man of 
the lowest rank, and an example of the freeness of 
the grace that called to the prophetic office. But 
though from humble station, he was a man of fine 
genius and by no means ignorant. He shows 
great familiarity with the Pentateuch and quotes 
verbally Joel his predecessor in the prophetical 
office. He also has a broadness of view incon- 



208 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

sistent with mental poverty. An example of this 
is the wide view he takes of a universal provi- 
dence, there being neither with him nor with 
the other Old Testament prophets, notwithstand- 
ing the common belief to the contrary, anything 
of narrow particularism and Jewishness. 

What was the prophet's history subsequent to 
his appearing at Bethel we are not told. It can 
hardly be supposed that having fulfilled his pro- 
phetic office, he returned again to his flocks. And 
there may be truth in the tradition that he crossed 
his own border only to die. There is a legend, 
ill-authenticated it is true, that Amaziah, the priest 
of Bethel, went the length of violence to stop the 
prophet's mouth, and that the priest's son drove a 
nail through his temples, or struck him on the 
temple with a club, and that he had strength left 
only to reach home and to die. But all this is 
little probable. 

The time of his prophecy is full of interest. 
The northern kingdom reached its highest splen- 
dor under the second Jeroboam. His long reign 
of forty years gave his great talents scope and 
afforded time for his enterprises to consolidate. 
Along with great energy and courage he had also 
self-control. It is said that "he did evil in the 
sight of the Lord ;" but men of great talents are 
not usually altogether destitute of reverence for the 
truth, and, whatever his motives were, he does not 
seem to have allowed himself to be drawn by the 
outcries of his priest at Bethel to take any meas- 
ures against Amos. He can hardly have thought 



ISRAEL OFTEN REPROVED. 209 

the matter too light a thing to attend to, for it 
concerned the constitution of the country. The 
schism of the north did not originate in a religious 
divergence, but a difference of religion entered into 
the essence of its constitution ; and if this differ- 
ence had disappeared, the political schism might 
have come to an end. It was always part of the 
policy of these northern kings who vv^ere wise 
enough, and not too wicked to have any policy, to 
work the religious element of the constitution. 
They prohibited pilgrimages to Jerusalem and 
established a splendid cultus of their own. 

The precise nature of the religion of the north- 
ern kingdom is sometimes misunderstood. It was 
not of course pure worship of Jehovah, but it was 
not sheer idolatry. It was the worship of Jehovah 
under sensuous forms. They did not adore the 
calf ; they adored Jehovah under the symbol of a 
calf ; much probably as Roman-catholics of Italy 
and Spain, if not other countries, worship Christ 
under the symbols of the babe or the crucifix. 
But this fact that the worship of the north was 
only a corrupt worship of Jehovah explains how 
Israel was still held part of the nation and visited 
by prophets and spoken to by God. They were 
the ''nominal Christians" of the day. It also ex- 
plains how the nation for a long time throve un- 
der this calf-worship, and how, though such proph- 
ets as Amos and Hosea denounced it, they did not 
altogether break with the nation nor carry on that 
war of extermination against it which Elijah 
waged against the worship of Baal of his day. 



2IO FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

The latter was pure idolatry and a foreign im- 
portation ; the calf-worship was but a corruption of 
the true religion, and was of native growth. And 
we can imagine, from the example of corrupt 
churches of our own time, how much real virtue 
and true piety there may have been in individuals 
along with all its corruptions in the northern 
kingdom. Although religious opinions be the 
food upon which religious life is supported, the 
latter has, like the natural life, the power of assimi- 
lating the true and rejecting what is hurtful. We 
have all perhaps met with Roman - catholics on 
whom the corrupt doctrines of their church 
seemed to have exerted but little deteriorating in- 
fluence, who had the root of the matter in them 
and brought forth good fruit in speech and be- 
havior. Corruptions that grow up in the native 
soil of a people are generally connected with forms 
of truth that modify their influence. In process 
of time, of course, the evil did overmaster and ex- 
tinguish the counteracting good, as is its manner, 
and gradually society became too corrupt to hold 
together. And the lesson read to churches and 
nations by this history of the northern kingdom 
is even more to be pondered when it is seen how 
political annihilation so surely followed what was 
but a corruption of the true worship of God. 

There are not wanting illustrations of this 
truth in later years. The political bondage of the 
early Christian nations of the East to whom we 
send our missionaries, the constant political unrest 
and ever-changing geography of some of the States 



ISRAEL OFTEN REPROVED. 2-1 1 

of Central and South America, where a corrupt 
religion was forced upon an idolatrous people and 
made still more corrupt by the mixture, are ex- 
amples, and we may believe that like results would 
have followed in Southern Europe but for the 
support given to those States by neighboring 
nations. 

The speculative tendencies of modern philoso- 
phy are also tempting men to a breach of the First 
Commandment quite as effectually as did the 
''high places" and ''pleasant groves" of Israel. 
Indeed there probably has never been an age in 
which so many have worshipped gods of their 
own making as in this conceited nineteenth cen- 
tury, and that too with no higher wisdom than 
was manifested by the framers of golden calves. 
We can even analyze the manufacture of these 
philosophic divinities, and discover what elements 
men have chosen in the composition of their 
deity and what they have rejected. The charac- 
teristics ascribed to these gods are found to be 
exact indices of the taste and education of their 
devotees, and not unfrequently also of the place 
of their education. As there were gods of the 
Philistines and gods of the Zidonians and gods 
of the Egyptians, between which the affections of 
the Israelites oscillated^ so now there are Gerriian 
species with American and English varieties. 

On the other hand we sometimes find Ameri- 
can self-reliance and independence manifested in 
this work of idol -making. Some half -fledged 
theologian, some "progressive" Christian, carry- 



212 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

ing the spirit of ''Young America'' into his faith, 
fashions his deity to suit himself — this or that trait 
in the God of the Bible is not to his liking, and 
therefore he makes his own god. This school of 
idol-makers is well represented by Bunyan's Mr. 
Anything. ^'Men," say they, ''do not worship 
each a different and therefore false god, because 
they intend only one and true God. He did not 
make men to differ in every conceivable respect, 
and not allow them variety in theology as well." 
Such are the sentiments of these "liberalists." 
Such heterogeneous vagaries, the work of men's 
minds, are no better divinities than the idols made 
with hands. Against these, no less than the out- 
ward representations of divinity, is addressed the 
command " Thou shalt have no other gods before 
me." Was this spoken to the Jews only .^ Where- 
in is a god the work of men's minds any less real 
than the work of men 's hands ? 

Let us now return to the state of the northern 
kingdom when Amos addressed to it the words 
of Jehovah. The time was one of great outward 
prosperity. The arms of Jeroboam had been suc- 
cessful everywhere, and the old enemies of Israel 
had been, as it seemed, finally defeated and the 
old boundaries of the kingdom permanently re- 
stored. Peace reigned, and with peace security. 
Distant rumors of a mighty and active power 
operating on the Euphrates, and threatening to 
come into collision on the east with Syria, were 
too vague to cause alarm in the fortress of Sa- 
maria. Men were at ease in Zion. The country, 



ISRAEL OFTEN REPROVED. 213 

too, was very religious. Jeroboam I. had, as a 
matter of policy, set up an altar at Bethel to pre- 
vent communication with Jerusalem, and then, as 
a matter of faith, given to some extent the wor- 
ship of Jehovah a visible object. For convenience* 
sake, or under a feeling of reverence for the spots 
made sacred by the history of the patriarchs, par- 
ticularly where God had visited them, altars were 
set up at Gilgal for the tribes by the Jordan, and 
at Beersheba for dependents lying in the south. 
Like tendencies of corrupt faith we notice in 
more modern days in the multiplication of sacred 
places and objects, and in the erection of shrines 
upon spots which Christ or his apostles are 
knov/n or are thought to have hallowed by their 
presence. 

Amos tells us that this worship was very sedu- 
lously carried on ; and, what is very interesting, 
we learn, from the enumeration of customs he 
gives us, that the Mosaic ritual was to a large ex- 
tent in use in the northern kingdom, though of 
course perverted. The kingdom was still part of 
the nation, still had its faith, still worshipped the 
God of Israel, still was visited by the prophets of 
God from Judaea, and still existed under the mirac- 
ulous tutelage of God, its theocratic ruler. The 
worship of the Lord, at the places stated, was very 
regular and with much outward impressiveness 
and eagerness on the part of the worshippers. 
Men were ready with free-will offerings in addi- 
tion to what the law required. Amos ironically 
invites the people to new urgency in their wor- 



214 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

ship : '* Come to Bethel and transgress ; at Gilgal 
multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices 
every morning, and your tithes after three years : 
and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, 
and proclaim and publish the free offerings : for 
this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the 
Lord God." (4:4, 5.) And then with sudden 
transition he holds up before them what they gain 
by it all, and what the Lord's action is on his side : 
*^ And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in 
all your cities, and want of bread in all your 
places : yet have ye not returned unto me, saith 
the Lord.'* (4:6.) The stated feasts were kept 
regularly. The Lord says, '' I despise your feast 
days, and I will not smell in your solemn assem- 
blies.'* (5 : 21.) The worship, as at Jerusalem, was 
accompanied with sacred music : '' Take thou away 
from me the noise of thy songs ; for I will not hear 
the melody of thy viols." (5:23.) Everything 
was done to make the service similar to that at 
Jerusalem, and this may not have been altogether 
policy ; but some pious hands helped to rear these 
altars and some devout hearts worshipped before 
them. Religious men sometimes suffer restraint 
from political exigencies. But they are not all 
bad men who are members of an impure church, 
and much true work of God has been done in 
churches corrupted by political or ecclesiastical in- 
terference. 

History again repeats itself. The increase of 
corruption is always accompanied by an excess of 
religiousness. The Pharisees of our Lord's time 



ISRAEL OFTEN REPROVED. 21$ 

made void the commandments of God by their 
traditions, and multiplied observances. They 
tithed mint and anise and cummin, made broad 
their phylacteries, and performed their religious 
acts with ostentatious publicity. The history of 
the corrupt Greek and Latin churches adds further 
illustration. The two sacraments of the Word have 
become seven and the simplicity of their observ- 
ance has been changed into a pompous ritual. 
The sacred days have been multiplied, and more 
honor is paid to these human institutions than 
to the divinely appointed ordinances. Indeed by 
human interpretations and additions there is noth- 
ing connected with the worship of God which has 
not been changed to minister to the pride and 
vanity of the heart of man. 

The sure progress of all this is towards dissolu- 
tion. In the midst of its most splendid prosperity 
Israel was declining. Its prosperity helped towards 
its decline because the luxuriousness common to 
such a state advanced unchecked by any high mo- 
rality. Amos constantly harps upon their ''pal- 
aces ; " he sneers at their effeminacy in lying " on 
the ends of couches and on damask beds " (3:12), 
'' that lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves 
on couches " (6 : 4), and threatens with ruin " their 
winter house with the summer house ; and the 
houses of ivory shall perish " (3 : 15). 

But the boundary between luxury and sensual- 
ity is never well defined, and the last was already 
too visible where it is most offensive — among the 
women of the country, whom Am.os describes as 



2l6 FROM SOLOxMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

" COWS of Bashan/' full-fed, wanton, saying to their 
lords, '' Bring and let us drink.'* That licentious- 
ness continued to prevail in Samaria until our 
Lord's time we cannot doubt with the story of the 
woman of Samaria before us, and the name of the 
town he visited suggests a kindred vice empha- 
sized by Amos, the vice of drunkenness. Andrews 
and Stanley both say the name was changed from 
Sichem to S5'Xhar, the toper city, in allusion to the 
drunkenness of the inhabitants. Naturally we re- 
call the words of Isaiah, '' Woe to the crown of 
pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious 
beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of 
the fat valleys of them that are overcome with 
wine.'* 

It is a law traced with awful distinctness by 
Paul in the first chapter of Romans that ungodli- 
ness is the fountain of all evils ; that men first cor- 
rupt the idea of God, and then pass down towards 
complete debasing of themselves and then further 
to such enmity and strife that in their feebleness 
from vice the bonds of society can no longer hold 
it together. This law is very visible in the history 
of the northern kingdom. The sins which Amos 
reproves are, first, this corrupt worship of God, 
then sensual corruption, and then, lastl}^ there 
was such social oppression and deceit and war of 
class against class that it scarcely needed a 
prophet to see that the nation must speedily 
break up. 

It becomes an interesting and important ques- 
tion how the real state of society in Israel com- 



ISRAEL OFTEN REPROVED. 21/ 

pared with our own social condition. There can 
be no doubt that the vices stigmatized by Amos 
prevail among ourselves and that sermons equally 
severe could be preached to us. Was the state of 
society in Samaria worse than it is in some modern 
capitals? The absence of law in the East made 
oppression much easier than with us, but otherwise, 
perhaps, Samaria fell from a state of things not 
greatly more gross than prevails in portions of our 
great cities. The upper classes were, in Amos* 
days, becoming wholly irreligious. This irreligious- 
ness showed itself in various ways ; for example, 
in an overmastering devotion to trade and great 
frauds in the prosecution of it, '' saying, when will 
the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn ? and 
the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making 
the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsify- 
ing the balances by deceit.'' (8 : 5.) Of course the 
usual adulteration of what was sold to the helpless 
poor followed, "selling the refuse of the grain." 
Even in a more decided way the spirit of ungodli- 
ness came out in the shape of bold and contemptu- 
ous impiety, in turning to the uses of revelry the 
sacred vessels: *^They lay themselves down upon 
clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they 
drink the wine of the condemned in the house of 
their god." (2:8.) But they had even gone far- 
ther. They were not only driven by evil passions, 
but they became calculating in their wickedness. 
They went about beforehand to remove obstacles 
to their end. They sought to suppress the grace 
of God when it was a reproof to them : '' Ye gave 

10 



2l8 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

the Nazarites wine to drink, and commanded the 
prophets, saying, Prophesy not." (2 : 12.) 

Greed of gain, luxuriousness, bitter oppression 
to the poor, irreverence that sinned openly even in 
the holy places, ungodliness that would, if possible, 
befool the grace of God — these were the vices of 
men in this time. Are they not the crying sins of 
our ovvm time? Surely an Amos would not be 
without an occupation in this nineteenth century, 
and the much-despised Old Testament still fur- 
nishes instructions and warnings as appropriate as 
if today uttered by the prophet at the command of 
God in the streets of many a metropolis. 

Thus this stern solitary shepherd from the 
south was the man chosen of God to denounce sins 
and foreshadow his certain judgments upon them. 
No fitter instrument could be found. The disease 
needed a desperate remedy, if, indeed, any remedy 
could be found. And his early training and his 
love of nature furnished him with powerful figures 
in fulfilling his mission. And Jehovah shall press 
down Israel '' as a wagon full of sheaves presses 
what is under it/' a graphic figure of crushing 
calamity. And the remnant of Israel shall be '' as 
when a shepherd saves from the mouth of a lion 
two feet or a piece of an ear " — all else devoured. 
And to the oracular sentence borrowed from Joel, 
*' The Lord shall roar out of Zion,'* he adds his 
own observation, '' Will the lion roar except he 
have caught a prey?" And with these bare, sharp 
doctrines he set out to preach to the sinful nation ; 
and the texts he uses are these : '' The Lord shall 



ISRAEL OFTEN REPROVED. 2ig 

roar out of Zion/* and " Prepare to meet thy God !" 
but adding a great promise to all his denuncia- 
tions, '' In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of 
David that is fallen, and close up the breaches 
thereof ; and I will raise up his ruins : and I will 
build it as in the days of old." (9 : 11.) 



220 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 



ISRAEL'S OVERTHROW FORETOLD. 

** Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that 

WHICH HE SEEMETH TO HAVE." — Luke 8 : l8. 

The golden text associated with the passage of 
Scripture before us furnishes a suitable starting- 
point for our thoughts. It is one of the proverbs 
of the kingdom. We -have not time to trace its 
meaning and value in the natural history of man, 
but must follow it as it rises to his spiritual his- 
tory, and even here must confine ourselves largely 
to the latter part of the law as announced. And 
here we have great need to keep in mind that dis- 
tinction to which the words of our Lord expressly 
call our attention, namely, that which exists be- 
tween the having and the seeming to have. One 
even trembles to think what is the amount of this 
apparent but unreal possession of the things of 
Christ. With what facility, under the influence 
of circumstances or from contact with others, do 
people adopt what they call their views and opin- 
ions ! They find everything ready to their hand 
by the labor and experiences, the conflicts and 
controversies of those who went before them ; and 
that which in the possession of others might have 
represented a whole history of mental toil and fer- 
vent affections, may in their case represent only 
the outward influences by which their form of 
opinion was determined, or the party predilections 
which invest it for them with a fictitious value. 



ISRAEL'S OVERTHROW FORETOLD. 221 

We see at a glance how different is the reality of 
possession in the one case and in the other, though 
the same words are repeated and the same doc- 
trines held. Numberless are the degrees and in- 
definable the shades of this difference as we pass 
from the fullest ''having " to the merest "seeming 
to have." The remembrance of this is all that is 
necessary in order to convert many apparent ex- 
ceptions to our proverb into its most genuine and 
conspicuous examples. 

The practical use of such a proverb scarcely 
needs to be suggested. How plainly does it teach 
us to meet every method of divine teaching and 
every opportunity of divine gifts with the best we 
can bring. More strongly still does it admonish 
us to look to the reality of our apparent posses- 
sions, to see that they do not lie on the surface of 
our existence as things external to our real selves, 
but that they are taken down deeply into our 
hearts and wrought into our lives, apprehended 
by experience and tested by use. Use indeed does 
more than test ; it confirms, it realizes possession. 
That knowledge of Christ, that strength of the 
spirit, those special gifts which we are using for 
the good of others or for the purposes and the 
glory of the Lord, we are at the same time making 
more truly our own than they were before ; while 
the talent laid up in a napkin, the money buried 
in the earth, scarcely seems to be his who treats it 
as if he had it not. 

In what has been said we have dwelt upon the 
saying with special reference to the first occasion 



222 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

of its use (Matt. 13:12; Mark 4:25; Luke 8: 18), 
where it stands before us as a law of the continu- 
ous government of the kingdom of God ; yet we 
should not fail to remember its later use in the 
parable of the talents (Matt. 25 : 29), and in that of 
the pounds (Luke 19:26), where it is announced 
as a principle of the final judgment in which that 
government is consummated. On this latter ap- 
plication of the proverb it would not be easy to 
expatiate. Enough that it turns the law, which 
was silently and progressively executed before, 
into a public, a sudden, and an irreversible sen- 
tence. Enough that it declares the total and final 
removal of neglected gifts from those whose time 
for their possible employment is now concluded, 
and at the same time the continuance and aug- 
mentation of all spiritual attainments to those who 
now enter on larger scenes of activity and to serve 
before the Lord for ever. 

In all history there is no more striking illustra- 
tion of the workings of this law than is to be found 
in the history of the northern kingdom. How 
wonderfully they had been blessed of God, what a 
wealth of talents was committed to their keeping ! 
The Lord chose them a special people. They 
were Israelites, to whom pertained '' the adoption 
and the glory and the covenants and the giving 
of the law and the service of God and the prom- 
ises." These blessings they had and yet they had 
them not ; neither prizing nor using them, they 
lost that which they seemed to have. They re- 
ceived these advantages as an inheritance from 



ISRAEL'S OVERTHROW FORETOLD. 223 

their fathers, but they were never so wrought into 
their lives as to become a part of their experience, 
and so they lost their inheritance. And now the 
same law becomes a principle of final judgment, 
and the prophet is sent to foretell their doom in 
the complete and final overthrow of their nation. 

This sad result of their apostasy may be viewed 
in various lights, all of which are replete with 
warning and instruction. Notwithstanding nu- 
merous kindnesses, distinguished privileges, and 
long forbearance with their iniquities, Israel had 
affronted God, broken their covenants with him, 
given themselves to a worship continually more 
corrupt and idolatrous, and yet still they expected 
God's favor. It was in view of the inevitable re- 
sult of this estrangement that Amos put to Israel 
the unanswered question, '' Can two walk together 
except they be agreed?" When the Bible gives 
these unanswered questions, it intends that each 
hearer shall sit down and, by the analogy of faith 
applied to his own experience, or the reverent 
searching of the Scriptures, w^ork out an answer 
for himself. And the answer to this question is of 
eternal significance. 

There is a disagreement between God's law 
and man's conscience. God's law is his mani- 
fested will for the regulation of his creatures, the 
rule of life. It is the very reflection of his holi- 
ness cast down from heaven. Like himself it is 
holy, just, and good. It is as perfect as its author, 
and cannot be otherwise unless God himself 
change. Therefore it knows of no compromise. 



224 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

It cannot bend by a hair's breadth to keep a whole 
world of human beings from sinking into ever- 
lasting perdition. The ocean is tinder law to God, 
and by that law it would engulf the whole human 
race without swerving from its even course, if 
that race were cast upon it for protection. This is 
God's law, and his laws are all sure. They are not 
yea, 5^ea, and nay, nay. His moral law ruling 
spirits is as inexorable as his physical law ruling 
matter. It knows of no yielding and no compunc- 
tion. The ocean would submerge a million of 
men, and the next moment its waves would roll 
and play on in the same regular succession as 
before. There would be no staggering of resolu- 
tion and no change of purpose. He who made 
the sea may miraculously walk its waves and 
stretch out his hand to the perishing, but the sea's 
law is pitiless. Such also is God's law for moral 
beings. His law denouncing sin and demanding 
holiness has no yielding, no mercy for our in- 
dulged sins, our corrupt heart. It meets us like 
the ocean: ''the soul that sinneth it shall die." 
It never changes, it never repents. The law never 
saved a sinner. If it did it would no longer be 
law. If it yields at any one point it is absolutely 
annulled. It is so with human law, it must be so 
with the divine law. 

Let us now turn to man. The conscience is 
that part of man which perceives right or wrong 
in actions, approves or disapproves of them, and 
anticipates their consequences under the moral 
administration of God. It therefore comes into 



ISRAEL'S OVERTHROW FORETOLD. 225 

closest contact with God's law. They touch at all 
points, neither the one nor the other being able to 
avoid the contact. Certainly there is need of 
peace in so close a union, but there is no peace. 
The first exclamation of an awakened conscience 
on the discovery of the law is, '' Hast thou found 
me, O mine enemy !'' '' The commandment came, 
sin revived, and I died." The law's enmity 
against a guilty moral being is intense and total ; 
it cannot be otherwise. The enmity of a guilty 
moral being against the holy law that condemns 
him is intense and total, and it cannot be other- 
wise. 

And now what is the effect of this disagree- 
ment? They cannot walk together. Enmity 
tends to separation and separation to distance. 
The law indeed remains where it was and what it 
was. The conscience unreconciled pushes itself 
away into ever-growing indifference, and dreading 
the contact of a condemning law, is glad of the 
comparative relief. Now when we add to this not 
only what the law has said, but also what it will 
do, that it will appear as witness and accuser, it 
needs no Amos to foretell the final overthrow, the 
sad and inevitable doom of every enemy of God. 

We are not to forget the other side. As the 
prophets of old mingled the tenderness of God's 
love with his denunciations of sin, as they besought 
while they warned, entreated while they con- 
demned, so the law and the gospel ever go together 
in the full presentation of the truth. Christ is our 
peace, making both one. The distance is the sin- 

Solomon to the Captivity. I Q 



226 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

tier's act ; he is his own destroyer ; for '' God was in 
Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not impu- 
ting their trespasses unto them : and hath com- 
mitted tmto lis the word of reconciliation. Now 
then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God 
did beseech you by us ; we pray you in Christ *s 
stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made 
him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we 
might be made the righteousness of God in him.** 
(2 Cor. 5:19-21.) Nevertheless the lesson from 
the prophecy of Amos remains in all its terrible- 
ness that '^ two cannot walk together except they 
be agreed \' and this separation of sin persisted 
in must result in the destruction of the sinner. 
''It is hard to kick against the pricks.*' 

Or the teaching of this portion of Scripture 
may be regarded in another light, affording illus- 
tration of the truth of another weighty sentence 
that fell from the Saviour's lips : '' No man can 
serve two masters : for either he will hate the one 
and love the other, or else he will hold to the one 
and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and 
mammon." (Luke 16: 13.) It was the attempt at 
this impossible double service that proved the ruin 
of Israel. Like the mixed race with which the 
king of Assyria peopled Samaria after the captiv- 
ity of Israel, and to whom he sent a captive priest 
to teach them how they should fear the Lord, 
*' they feared the Lord and served their own 
gods" (2 Kings 17:33), and this corrupt religion, 
this union of the true worship and idolatry, brought 
about its inevitable result if persisted in. 



ISRAEL'S OVERTHROW FORETOLD. 22^ 

In the great conflict of time, beginning with 
the Fall and ending with Christ's second coming, 
there are only two antagonistic principles, two 
high contending powers. Whatever may be the 
shade or the shape of subordinate combatants in 
particular parts of the broad battlefield, they are 
merely varieties of good and evil, of holiness and 
sin. The divine Chief who rules supreme in the 
hosts of the holy has himself given a short and 
simxple test to determine any one's side — '' He that 
is not with me is against me." All that remains 
at enmity against God must be registered on one 
side, whatever may be the specific varieties of evil. 
Whether it go by the name of mammon or the 
devil or the world or the flesh, it serves one master 
and wins one wage. 

True religion is therefore exclusive. It not 
merely calls men to believe in itself, but to reject 
every other faith. It not merely claims to be 
right and true, but it boldly says that every other 
faith is wrong and false. The God of the Bible 
not merely com_mands us to worship him ; he com- 
mands us to worship no one else. His very first 
commandment is, '' Thou shalt have no other gods 
before me." In short the great characteristic of 
Christianity, as well as of Judaism, is that it is an 
exclusive religion. Christianity is a faith which 
admits of no rivals, no competitors ; it demands to 
stand alone. The men of Athens might believe 
that there were other gods than theirs in Rome, 
but the true God is not the God of this land or 
that land ; he is the God of all the earth. 



228 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

We see, therefore, the inconsistency, the folly, 
the self-contradiction, the sin of the course pnrstied 
by Jeroboam I. and his successors and the people 
of the northern kingdom. And we see the folly 
and sin of those in our days who vainly strive to 
unite the service of God and mammon, the men or 
women who '' fear the Lord " and at the same time 
think to '^ serve their own gods*' — wealth, pleas- 
ure, fashion, or ambition. Not that this view 
should be pushed to any fanatical extreme. Not 
that Christianity requires of us to set no value 
upon earthly good or to refuse to give to those we 
love any affection at all. That is asceticism, mo- 
nasticism ; it is not Christianity. What Christian- 
ity requires is that God should be supreme in the 
heart, that nothing else should ever be put on a 
level with him, that he should reign in the soul as 
he does in the universe, alone, with all things else 
at an immeasurable distance beneath his feet — in 
a word, that he should be Master. 

And the result of this inconsistent worship, 
this double service, is a constant decline to the fall. 
So was it with Israel. Ever waning religion, ever 
increasing idolatry ; a service of God and acknowl- 
edgment of him from the dreaded ill of his judg- 
ments, and a more hearty service of their own gods 
until Ephraim was joined to his idols and the com- 
mand went forth, *' Let him alone." So if men seek 
to combine the worship of God and mammon they 
will soon find that any worship they give to the 
true God is the child of fear, and that this worship 
in growing degree is chilly and heartless when 



ISRAEL'S OVERTHROW FORETOLD. 229 

compared with the service of their worldly idol. 
They know quite well that if they were free to act 
as inclination led them they would openly give 
their worship where they have already given their 
heart. It is a fact about which there can be no 
doubt that if a man tries to worship God and mam- 
mon together, mammon will always have the ad- 
vantage, mammon will always have the preemi- 
nence and the chief share of service ; and in the 
long run their own gods will get all their service 
and the Lord Jesus Christ will get none. 



230 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 



SIN THE CAUSE OF SORROW. 

''Your iniquities have separated between you and your 
God." ha. 59:2. 

^' He walked in the ways of Jeroboam, son of 
Nebat, who made Israel to sin." "• Howbeit, from 
the ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who 
made Israel to sin, he departed not." '' He did 
that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and 
walked in the ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, 
who made Israel to sin." '' For his sins which he 
sinned in doing evil in the sight of the Lord, in 
walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin 
which he did, to make Israel to sin." '' For he 
walked in all the way of Jeroboam, the son of Ne- 
bat, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to 
sin, to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger 
with their vanities." So ringing the changes on 
'' Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to 
sin," runs the guilty history of successive kings of 
Israel. Like ruler, like people; and the ten tribes, 
following the leadership of their rulers, apostatized 
from God and turned to the calves with idolatrous 
worship. Judgment succeeded judgment. One 
trouble after another followed in quick succession, 
and the land had no rest. The nation sank be- 
neath the weight of its idolatry, their iniquities 
separated between them and their God, until the 
kingdom was rent asunder. Though they have 



SIN THE CAUSE OF SORROW. 23 1 

been sought for north and south and east and 
west, all the wide world over, no proved remnant of 
the ten tribes is to be found on the earth. Driven 
into captivity, their land bare and desolate, over 
the broken remains of their cities and the moss- 
covered shrines of their idolatrous worship might 
be heard the word of God by his prophet Hosea, 
'* Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off." (Hosea 

8:5.) 

Sooner or later iniquity brings sorrow and 
sudden destruction. '' Be not deceived ; God is not 
mocked ; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall 
he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall 
of the flesh reap corruption." (Gal. 6:7, 8.) This is 
the truth that combes to us from the history we 
have been studying. The man to whom the les- 
son is applicable now-a-days is the man who 
moulds his life and character, his spirit and con- 
science, not by the high ideals of God and heaven, 
but by the objects and pursuits of the world, by 
things that are lower than his own nature. And 
this worldly conformity leads speedily, in most 
instances, to a low moral standard and to a weak 
and corrupt form of religion, and produces the 
same sad and humiliating results which flowed 
from the idolatry of ancient times. Even as they 
do not like to retain God in their knowledge, God 
gives them over to a reprobate mind to do those 
things which are not convenient. They are vnth- 
out God, therefore, necessarily, without hope in 
the world. The burdens, cares, and toils, the con- 
stant changing of plans and places, the perpetual 



232 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY, 

irritations, the fits of anger, envy, jealousy, and 
remorse, the many carking anxieties, the vanity 
and vexation of spirit which disturb and distract 
their lives — oh, what bitter lamentations are heard 
from these poor idolaters who pursue wealth, fame, 
pleasure, fashion ! They wonder at the meanness 
and destitution of life ; they fret and fume at the 
dispensations of Providence ; renewed pursuit suc- 
ceeds deplored deception ; however well they get 
on, they are never satisfied, confessing all the time 
that they fail even when in form they succeed, and 
showing by their symptoms of disappointment and 
dissatisfaction that their objects, whether gained 
or lost, have no relation to their wants. They 
spend money for that which is not bread and 
labor for that which satisfieth not. And sooner or 
later their sin becomes their punishment, their 
idols their scourges. Their calves have cast 
them off. 

The sentiment is true of those people who put 
riches in the place of God. The love of money is 
the aberration of a nature that was made for God 
and is still unconsciously seeking after him. Mam- 
mon-worship is the semblance or counterfeit of 
God-worship. It presents some faint features of 
resemblance to him. It seems omnipotent, able 
to do all things ; omnipresent, showing signs of 
itself everywhere ; beneficent, supplying our pres- 
ent wants, providing for our future, procuring for 
us an endless variety of blessings, and giving us 
almost all that our hearts can desire ; and because 
it presents these superficial resemblances to God, 



SIN THE CAUSE OF SORROW. 233 

because it thus mimics his infinitude, it becomes a 
religion to many, a worship loud in praise and as- 
piration as any that ever filled a church. Money, 
no doubt, has power, but power that has a welL 
defined limit. Money will buy plenty, but not 
peace ; it will furnish your table with luxuries, 
but not with the appetite to enjoy them ; it will 
surround your sick-bed with physicians, but not 
restore health to your enfeebled body ; it will en- 
compass you with a crowd of flatterers and bring 
you the attention of obsequious servants, but never 
procure for you one true friend ; it will pay some 
debts, but not one, not the least of your debts to 
the law of God ; it will last it may be for time, but 
is not carried into eternity. And when, as is often 
seen even in this life, riches take to themselves 
wings and fly away, or in that hour when the sum- 
mons comes, '' Thou fool, this night thy soul shall 
be required of thee," this voice also seems to come 
sounding from the throne of God, '' Thy calf has 
cast thee off.'* 

The same thought may be applied to those 
whose idol god is pleasure in any of its many 
forms — fashion, excitement, the lusts of the flesh, 
the lusts of the eye, or the pleasures of sin in 
grosser forms. What is this idolatry but the 
soul, in its re^stless pursuit of happiness, mista- 
king the true object of which it is in quest? God 
made man upright, seeking his portion and frui- 
tion in Him only, relishing nothing so much as 
union and communion with Him. But deceived 
by sin, man sought out many inventions, pre- 



234 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

pared many idols, invented many pleasures which 
should be to him substitutes for God and which 
= should appease the deep longings for God. And 
thus the very wants and miseries, the very woes 
and vices of man proclaim the greatness of his 
nature, indicate that he is too mighty a being for 
this perishable world, show that God and God 
alone is sufficient for the happiness of the spirit 
which in his own image he has made. 

Take drunkenness. What is it ? Analyzed and 
traced to its source and motive, we find that this 
vice, so foul, so degrading, originates in a craving 
of the soul after a supreme good. It is only by 
drinking the poisonous cup that the man thinks 
he can reach the pleasure or escape from- the 
miseries of life and live for a brief interval in an 
ideal world. This is the motive, at least at first, 
although afterwards the vice becomes a passion, 
and is indulged in for its own sake. And when 
the idolatry has run its length, despised by those 
who for the sake of his dangerous accomplish- 
ments once courted his society, driven from his 
drunken haunts by the very men who had been 
building up their accursed fortunes out of the 
wreck of that poor man's body, soul, peace, char- 
acter, home, or all that is dear and precious on 
earth, beggared, broken, despised, forsaken, the 
voice of God seems to sound forth the same bitter 
and terrible irony, '' Thy calf has cast thee off.'' 

Too often the same sad results follow the pur- 
suit of fame. There is no more fickle goddess. 
All history, sacred and profane, ancient and mod- 



SIN THE CAUSE OF SORROW. 235 

ern, shows on what a precarious footing he stands 
who is a popular idol, what a capricious divinity 
he worships who courts the applause of men. See 
David in the day of his triumph, hailed by the ac- 
clamations of the multitudes, surrounded by the 
crowd of maidens with harps and garlands, singing, 
*' Saul hath slain his thousands, but David his tens 
of thousands." Our Saviour himself furnishes an 
illustration. He had his triumphal entry into Je- 
rusalem and was crowned with unsought honors. 
The steeps of Olivet were crowded with the host 
who went before him shouting, '' Hosanna to the 
son of David !'* But how soon the same crowd 
were crying, •* Away with him ! away with him ! 
Crucify him ! crucify him !" 

The wSame sentiments can be applied also to 
unbelief. The effect of skepticism upon those 
who cherish it is not such as should recommend it. 
Even those whose morals are not relaxed by the 
absence of religious safeguards, are yet made to 
feel that the loss of faith in the religion of Christ 
is a loss irremediable. There is no substitute for 
it. Skepticism is joyless. It robs the soul of all 
sure hope in the life beyond this world. When 
that hope is retained, it is on no grounds of evi- 
dence, it is sustained by no solid reasons, and 
hence is destitute of every element of security. 
But the most earnest and resolute looking for im- 
mortality that is supported by no authentic prom- 
ise of God has to contend with doubts and mxis- 
givings, and not seldom dies in the unequal strug- 
gle. The future state is, at the h^^l, 2. perhaps ; the 



236 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

only refuge against despair is a strenuous optim- 
ism, a determined assertion that everything will 
be right. This is no mere fancy sketch. The 
actual experience of skeptics, as testified by them- 
selves, and even by those who would fain make 
their unbelief attractive, is that of unrest and un- 
happiness. 

But we cannot stop here. God deals with na- 
tions in time. In the case of individuals idolatry 
seems successful during life, and the full truth of 
our subject comes out only as we take eternity 
into view. The separation made by iniquity be- 
tween the soul and God, unless that iniquity be 
pardoned, is eternal ; the harvest of the sowing to 
the flesh is largely reaped in another world. The 
sorrow of sin is endless. We do not propose con- 
sidering at length the eternity of future punish- 
ment, the abandonment of the lost sonl even by 
the idols of the present life, but will present 
simply some of the grounds on which this doctrine 
rests securely. 

I. There are the numerous passages of Scrip- 
ture which place the future states of men in con- 
trast: ''The hope of the righteous shall be glad- 
ness, but the expectation of the wicked shall 
perish." " Gather ye first the tares, and bind 
them in bundles and burn them ; but gather the 
wheat into my barn/' ^' Well done, good and 
faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy 
Lord. But cast ye the unprofitable servant into 
outer darkness ; there shall be weeping and gnash- 
ing of teeth." '' Then shall the King say to them 



SIN THE CAUSE OF SORROW. 237 

on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world: then shall he also say 
unto them on the left hand. Depart from me, ye 
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil 
and his angels." ''And these shall go away into 
everlasting punishment, but the righteous into 
life eternal.'' 

These, and many like passages, show if the 
state of the righteous be final, the contrasted state 
of the wicked must likewise be final. They also 
are not only silent as to any other state following 
that of destruction, but the phraseology is incon- 
sistent with such a state. 

2. There are the passages which speak of future 
punishment as everlasting, eternal, for ever, and 
for ever and ever: ''Some to shame and everlast- 
ing contempt." "And these shall go away into 
everlasting punishment." " To whom is reserved 
the blackness of darkness for ever." " The smoke 
of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." 
*^Who shall be punished with everlasting de- 
struction from the presence of the Lord and the 
glory of his power," etc. 

3. There are the passages which express the 
duration of future punishment by implication: 
" He hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of 
eternal damnation." Let there be what certainty 
there may in the word eternal here, the meaning 
of it is fixed by the other expression, " hath 
never forgiveness." " Between us and you there 
is a great gulf fixed, so that they who would pass 



238 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass 
to ns who would come from thence." An impass- 
able gulf fixed between the blessed and the ac- 
cursed equally militates against the recovery of 
the one and the relapse of the other. '' Their 
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.'* 
Whatever may be the precise idea of the '' fire '' 
and the ''worm,'' there can be no doubt of their 
expressing the punishment of the wicked ; and its 
being declared of the one that it dieth not, and 
of the other that it is not quenched, is the same 
thing as their being declared to be endless. It 
will astonish any careful reader of the Bible to see 
how such passages can be multiplied, how many 
are without force and meaningless except as the 
doom of the finally impenitent be endless. 

4. There are those passages which teach that 
preparation for heaven is confined to this life : 
'' Seek ye the Lord while he may be found ; call 
ye upon him while he is near." '' Because I have 
called, and ye refused ; I have stretched out my 
hand and no man regarded, ... I also will laugh at 
your calamity ; I will mock when your fear com- 
eth ; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your 
destruction cometh as a whirlwind ; when distress 
and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they 
call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall 
seek me early, but they shall not find me." '' Then 
said one unto him. Lord, are there few that shall 
be saved ? And he said unto them. Strive to enter 
in at the strait gate ; for many shall seek to 
enter in, but shall not be able." '' Except a man 



SIN THE CAUSE OF SORROW. 239 

be born again lie cannot see the kingdom of God/' 
'' He that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; and he 
which is filthy, let him be filthy still ; and he that is 
righteous, let him be righteous still ; and he that is 
holy, let him be holy still/' 

This eternity of future punishments is a terri- 
ble doctrine, but it is true and is profitable. Of 
none can it be said more truly than of the hard- 
ened, impenitent sinner, " Thy calf has cast thee 
off." But there is One who never fails those who 
put their trust in him. An English statesman as 
he lay dying, having experienced the bitterness 
of the truth we have considered, is reported to 
have said, '' If I had served my God as faithfully 
as I have served my king, he would not cast me 
off now." How true! ''They that trust in the 
Lord shall be as Mt. Zion that cannot be moved." 
'' I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." 
'' When thou passest through the waters, I will 
be with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall 
not overflow thee." '' He is not man, that he 
should lie, nor the son of man, that he should 
repent." '' So shall we ever be with the Lord." 



240 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY, 



CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL. 

*' Because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also for- 
saken YOU." — 2 Chron. 24:20. 

There are three leading thoughts which im- 
press themselves in connection with this passage. 
The first is the long-suffering of God. This slow- 
ness to anger, this forbearance on God's part to- 
wards those who provoke him every day and in 
the face of all their provocations, is emphasized 
throughout the Bible. Not only is the word used 
frequently, but the passages which are equivalent 
in meaning are very numerous, and this long-suf- 
fering is set before us as a part of his excellent 
greatness. 

This is so, for one thing, because it declares his 
power. He has no need to hasten his work lest he 
may not be able to execute a sentence at all. 
There can be no fugitive from his justice who fills 
heaven and earth, to whom all the ages and all 
the worlds belong. What he does not punish now, 
he can punish by-and-by ; what he does not punish 
here, he can punish there ; and what not in this 
world, in the next. He may well defer his anger 
who has all time and all eternity in which to work 
out the counsels of his will, and whom none can 
escape. 

But this long-suffering declares also his love, 
not willing that any should perish, but that all 
should come to repentance. Here is the true 



CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL. 241 

secret of the divine forbearance. He knows what 
powers of the world to come are at work in his 
church for the conversion of sinners, and being 
converted, for their full and final redemption. 
He knows the efficacy of the blood shed from the 
foundation of the world and the prevailing might 
of the intercession before the throne. He knoAvs 
the effectual operation of the Holy Spirit in quick- 
ening those who were dead in trespasses and sins, 
how the man who to-day is most obstinately 
against him, may to-morrow cease his rebellion 
and suffer himself to be led, like Paul, a trophy 
and captive of the divine power and love. 

And even when this is not so, when the riches 
of that grace and long-suffering appear to have 
been spent in vain, still the manifestations of that 
grace and long-suffering shall not therefore have 
been for naught. They shall have served their 
purpose, and if not that purpose which was nearest 
his heart, that of bringing men to repentance and 
to life, then another, that of clearing the righteous- 
ness of God. For God in his infinite condescen- 
sion is not content with merely being just and 
righteous in all his ways ; he desires to approve 
himself such, and that his justice and righteous- 
ness and goodness should so plainly appear to all 
the world that none should be able to call it in 
question. And thus in regard to the final con- 
demnation and sentence of the wicked he w^ill be 
clear when he is judged; every mouth shall be 
stopped. No one shall be able to say that the 
long-suffering of God had not v/aited for him. 

Solomon to tl;e Captivity, I I 



242 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

And so everywhere in Scripttire nothing is 
more remarkable than the slow advent of the 
divine judgments. If God brings a flood on the 
world of the ungodly, it is only after his long- 
suffering has waited for them while the ark was 
preparing (i Peter 3:20); and though his Spirit 
should not always strive with man, '' yet his days,'^ 
that is his days of grace, ''shall be a hundred and 
twenty years." Again, '' the iniquity of the Amor- 
ites is not yet full" (Gen. 15 : 16); therefore they 
are allowed to dwell in the land, and judgment is 
deferred for centuries until they had filled up the 
measure of their sins. The guilty cities of Sodom 
and Gomorrah cannot perish before God has gone 
down and seen whether they had done altogether 
according to the cry of it (Gen. 18:21); words 
spoken after the manner of men, yet with a 
blessed truth behind them, namely that of the ex- 
treme deliberation with w^hich the divine judg- 
ments proceed. 

But there is no more conspicuous illustration of 
the long-suft^ering of God, unless it be the offer of 
salvation to the crucifiers of Christ and the perse- 
cutors of the early church, than that found in the 
history of the northern kingdom. The kingdom 
lasted upwards of two hundred and fifty years, and 
during that time had nineteen kings belonging to 
nine different families. It is very singular that 
not one of these kings was a godly man, while 
among the people corruption grew and wicked- 
ness abounded more and more. The yearnings 
of God's heart towards his people, bent on back- 



CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL. 243 

sliding from him, are the most touching words in 
all literature, the Old Testament parallel to the 
tears of Christ over Jerusalem. His fidelity in 
warning and entreaty is marked throughout the 
dark history, and in nothing more than in the long 
list of prophets sent in his name. They are 
worthy of record: Jehu, Ahijah, Elijah, Micaiah, 
Elisha, Jonah, Oded, Amos, Hosea, Shemaiah, Iddo, 
Azariah, Hanani, Jahaziel, Eliezer, Zechariah the 
son of Jehoiada, another Zechariah, Joel, Micah, 
Isaiah, besides several whose names are not 
known. '' The Lord testified against Israel and 
against Judah by all the prophets and by all the 
seers, saying. Turn ye from your evil ways, and 

keep my commandments and my statutes 

Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hard- 
ened their necks like to the neck of their fathers, 
that did not believe in the Lord their God. And 

they rejected his statutes and his covenant 

Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel 
and removed them out of his sight.'' {2, Kings 
17:13-18.) 

Thus God's long-suffering, this patience, this 
deliberation, are, if possible, for the salvation of 
men ; and, if not for this, if one is resolute to perish, 
if he has made a covenant with death and hell 
which he will not break, then for the vindication 
of God, that He may be justified in his doings and 
clear when he is judged. 

Our second thought has reference to the sin of 
Israel. We must remember that this sin was not 
simply idolatry, but apostasy. Apostasy is a word 



244 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

frequent in the language and literature of the 
church. It began to be used in the early days 
when Roman proconsuls besought Christians to 
abandon their faith, and brands the forehead of 
that emperor who, after the Roman world had 
outwardly submitted itself to Christ, cast off alle- 
giance to the Galilean. But the original meaning 
of the word is not generally known, and is inter- 
esting and instructive. 

It seems to be derived, as so many important 
New Testament phrases are, from the system of 
ancient slavery. A Greek slave was the absolute 
chattel of his master, a ''living working-tool and 
possession,*' as Aristotle says. There was only one 
way of escape — his master might set him free. 
In this case, though a freeman, that he owed his 
former master the highest gratitude was enforced 
not only by public sentiment but by the law. The 
master was now his ''patron" and he "his freed- 
man." Any failure of attachment on his part to 
his emancipator was technically called apostasy^ 
and any flagrant instance of it, especially the of- 
fence of choosing another patron, was punished in 
an action called apostasiou dike. By this action the 
freedman was condemned to return to his original 
state and was publicly sold into slavery. 

How graphically these stern public laws of 
Greece illustrate the nature of apostasy ! Whom 
the Son makes free are free indeed : the only yoke 
is the yoke of love. And this yoke the true- 
hearted freedman of Christ delights to wear ; even 
as Paul, who so often boasts of his liberty, delights 



CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL. 245 

to commence his epistles as '' Paul, the slave of 
Jestis Christ." Our Lord who has absolute power 
over us by creation, and a double title by redemp- 
tion, says, '' Henceforth I call you not servants 
(slaves), but friends," but the response of the 
emancipated heart is, ''O Lord, truly I am thy 
servant, thy servant and the son of thy handmaid ; 
thou hast loosed my bonds." I am thy servant 
though thou hast loosed my bonds, thy servant 
because thou hast loosed my bonds. Notice too 
how faithfully to those thoughts the sin of Israel 
is declared : '' For so it was that the children of 
Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, 
which had brought them up out of the land of 
Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of 
Egypt, and had feared other gods." (2 Kings 
17:7.) This was apostasy pure and simple, re- 
nouncing their " patron " and choosing another. 

Bunyan also, though he could hardly have 
known the Greek law, had the true conception of 
apostasy : '' Then said Apollyon, Thou hast done 
in this according to the proverb, changed a bad 
for a worse ; but it is ordinary for those that have 
professed themselves his servants, after a while to 
give him the slip and return again to me." The 
father of lies spoke a bitter truth. There are 
those who weary of the service which is perfect 
freedom ; those who, like Israel, go from the ser- 
vice of God to the service of corruption. No 
change of creed, no separation from the church, 
no inconsistencies of conduct, can properly be 
branded as apostasy unless in the judgment of 



246 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

charity they amount to this — a public breaking 
with the Lord Jesus Christ as Master and Lord, 
and taking up a position over against him among 
the ranks of darkness. But there are those who 
do thus even publicly break away from Christ and 
becorne liable even among men, like those Greek 
freedmen, to the indictment of apostasy. And 
there are those whose apostasy is of heart, known 
only to God and to their own conscience. 

And how truly does this Greek metaphor of 
'' apostasy '' represent not only the nature of the 
crime but the nature of the punishment : '' While 
they promise them liberty,'* says the apostle Peter, 
*^ they themselves are the servants of corruption ; 
for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he 
brought into bondage. For if after they have 
escaped the pollutions of the world through the 
knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 
they are again entangled therein and overcome, 
the latter end is worse with them than the begin- 
ning. For it had been better for them not to 
have known the way of righteousness, than, after 
they have known it, to turn from the holy com- 
mandment delivered unto them." Better for them, 
for now, aiming at liberty from Christ's easy yoke, 
they become more than ever the bond-slaves of 
evil. Thus was it with Israel ; they were given 
over to reap the bitter fruit of their own devices. 
More than two hundred years of idolatry and final 
apostasy have been followed by more than two 
thousand years of dispersion and alienation. 

We have reached the end of the history of 



CAPTIVITY OF ISRAEL. 247 

Israel, and now it behooves us to stop and think 
and enter upon a comparison between the people 
of God of that time and of this, and make appli- 
cation of the lessons of history. In this com- 
parison we need to remember that the responsi- 
bility to-day is greater, for they were called to 
righteousness under the old Law, we under the 
gospel of free grace. It has often been a question 
with historians and thoughtful men : '^ What will 
America's history and destiny be?'* Will her 
glory also pass away ? Will the course of empire 
flow east or west, north or south from our shores ? 

Different answers have been given according 
to the view^s or predilections of the individual. 
Some, with a blind and thoughtless partiality 
which they seem to think is a necessary part of 
true patriotism, have rejected the very idea of 
waning glory or decaying power in her. Then 
there are others who have cherished a vision from 
childhood, the vision of these United States grow- 
ing not only in numbers and in strength, but in 
Christian power, till its brightness melts away 
into millennial glory. This is a Christian view and 
should be a matter of prayer as well as hope. 

Then there are still others who have thought 
that it is of the substance of God's plan for the 
whole world to change his instruments in succes- 
sive parts of the progress in order that no race or 
people should glory in his presence. But this is 
a problem far too vast and complicated for our 
handling. God will answer the question in his 
providence w^hen the time shall come. He will 



248 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

answer it actually by the conflicts of the nations 
and by the voice of the ages. 

Meanwhile there is an answer sufficiently defi- 
nite and sufficiently solemn in the history which 
it has been our privilege to review. If we fail in 
our generation to work in the high and holy task 
which God has as evidently assigned to us for the 
world's good as he committed his oracles and 
worship to the children ^of Israel ; if through 
mammon-worship in any of its numerous forms, 
or through a corrupt religion, we apostatize from 
God, nothing can save us for very long; "the 
idols he shall utterly abolish" and ''we and our 
father's house shall be destroyed." And then the 
very things which now constitute our security 
and our boast will become the instruments and 
illustrations of our fall and shame. Our knowl- 
edge will gleam like lightning among ruins. Our 
art refinements will be like the decorations of a 
sepulchre. Our failing commerce will summon 
all nations with which it has been carried on to 
behold the fate of the most gigantic folly the 
world has ever seen, while the very gales that 
pass over our desolated land will seem to wail 
and shudder with the pathos of the divine la- 
ment : '' If thou hadst known, even thou, at least 
in this thy day, the things which belong to thy 
peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes." 



THE TEMPLE REPAIRED. 249 

THE TEMPLE REPAIRED. 

^* God loveth a cheerful giver." — 2 Cor. 9:7. 

When the beloved disciple was about to close 
his wonderful Gospel, replete with the discourses 
of the Master, he added these words, '' There are 
also many other things which Jesus did,'' and 
words of course also which he spoke, ''the which if 
they should be written every one, I suppose that 
even the world itself could not contain the books 
v\^hich should be written." Who has not longed to 
see and to read more of the wonderful words that 
fell from the lips of him who spake as never man 
spake ? However, the Lord knew how much the 
church needed. But the fact is that of all these 
volumes and libraries that could have been written, 
the Holy Ghost, guiding the writers of the New 
Testament canon, has chosen to give us, aside 
from the four Gospels, but one short sentence. 
This, however, is very precious and comes in very 
appropriately here in connection with the revived 
Old Testament church and its gifts. Meeting 
with the elders of the church at Ephesus, bidding 
them farewell to see their face no more, the apos- 
tle Paul thus closes his memorable address,''! 
have showed you all things, how that so laboring 
ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the 
words of the Lord Jesus, how he said. It is more 
blessed to give than to receive." (Acts 20: 35.) 

Similarly in the eighth and ninth chapters of 



250 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

his second letter to the Corinthians Paul exhorts 
Christians to the grace of liberality, using not the 
words indeed but giving the example of Christ. 
'' For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he be- 
came poor, that ye through his poverty might be 
rich." And he sums up his instructions in part as 
follows : '' But this I say. He that soweth sparing- 
ly shall reap also sparingly ; and he that soweth 
bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every 
man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let 
him give ; not grudgingly or of necessity : for 
God loveth a cheerful giver." 

These sayings ought to be written in our 
hearts ; they should be very precious to us — espe- 
cially the one sentence rescued from oblivion, and 
which might be written as the motto of our Lord s 
whole life — and exemplified in our lives ; we should 
make it manifest that, in our practical and specu- 
lative judgments alike, we also account it '' more 
blessed to give than to receive." Let us see, if we 
can, why this grace of cheerful giving is so heart- 
ily commended and insures to its possessor the 
love and favor of God. 

For one thing, it is like God. The glorious 
God is ever giving. He opens his hand and satis- 
fies the desire of every living thing. He gives to 
the beast his food and to the young ravens when 
they cry. He gives to all life and breath and all 
things. He gives us richly all things to enjoy. 
He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. 
But preeminent among his endless gifts is the un- 



THE TEMPLE REPAIRED. 25 I 

speakable gift. God so loved the world that he 
gave his Only-begotten ; and you remember the 
unanswerable argument of the apostle Paul, '' He 
that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up 
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely 
give us all things ?" Hear His words, '' I will give 
thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the 
Gentiles;'' ''A new heart will I give you;'' ''I 
will give you a heart of flesh ;" " I will give them 
one heart and one way, that they may fear me for 
ever, for the good of them and of their children 
after them." Yea, he ever gives himself. *' I will 
be to you a God and ye shall be to me a people." 
Hence these words of Jesus : '' I say unto you, 
Love your enemies ; bless them that curse you ; 
do good to them that hate you ; and pray for them 
which despitefully use you and persecute you, ^/lat 
ye may be the children " — that is, may by your like- 
ness to him manifest yourselves to be the chil- 
dren — '' of your Father which is in heaven ; for he 
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, 
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." 
Therefore one reason why God loves a cheerful 
giver and why for us it is more blessed to give 
than to receive is that it is like God. 

For a second thing, it is more like Christ. It 
is true that Christ did not decline to be a receiver. 
Certain women ministered to him of their sub- 
stance, and he was constantly dependent for shel- 
ter and for food upon his followers and friends. 
But it is remarkable how his very receiving some- 
how ran into a much more abundant giving. He 



252 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

asked drink of the woman of Samaria, but it was 
to prepare for the word, '' If thou knewest the gift 
of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to 
drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he 
would have given thee living water." And those 
'* certain women " are distinctly stated to be those 
" which had been healed of evil spirits and infirm- 
ities." 

The whole life of Christ was a scattering of 
blessings. " He went about doing good and heal- 
ing all that were oppressed with the devil." 
*' Whithersoever he entered, into villages or cities 
or country, they laid the ^ick in the streets and 
besought him that they might touch if it were but 
the border of his garment ; and as many as touched 
him were made whole." And how the word is 
ever occurring in his discourses, *^ The meat that I 
'will^-ive is my flesh, which I will g-ive for the life 
of the world." '' The meat which endure th unto 
everlasting life, which the Son of man shall £^ive 
unto you." '' Come unto me, and I will £-we you 
rest." '' My peace I £-ive unto you." '' I ^-ive unto 
my sheep eternal life, and they shall never per- 
ish." Ascended on high he has received gifts for 
men, and still his welcome voice is heard : '' I will 
give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the 
water of life freely." '' I will give you a crown of 
life." " To him that overcometh will I give to eat 
of the tree of life ;" '' give to eat of the hidden 
manna." And so another reason why God loves a 
cheerful giver, and why it is more blessed to give 
than to receive, is that it is Christlike. 



THE TEMPLE REPAIRED. 253 

Then, for a third thing, there is the receiving 
by giving. Some one said in answer to an in- 
quiry how to gain information on a certain subject, 
''Write a book upon it." To speak less specifi- 
cally, we may express the principle by saying that 
the best way to gain knowledge is to impart it to 
others. An active Sabbath-school teacher wdll 
gain more biblical knowledge than another person 
of equal natural talents will acquire in a long life- 
time of hearing the ablest sermons. There are 
several reasons for this. The mind of the earnest 
teacher is wide avv^ake ; his zeal is an active stimu- 
lus to study and thought. It is especially true that 
the effort to communicate truth to others makes 
our owm notion of it clearer. Then also growth 
in knowledge secured in this way will be likely to 
be accompanied by growth in grace. '' Knowl- 
edge," without the exercise of Christian love, '' puf- 
feth up ;" but when sought and wrought upon by 
the mind for the purpose of doing good it becomes 
a means of spiritual blessing. If we would be wa- 
tered ourselves, we must water others. Especially 
is it true of the gospel and everything connected 
with it, that we must spend it or lose it. The 
more we give the more we have. God makes all 
its grace abound towards us, that we,, having all- 
sufficiency in all things, may abound to every 
good work. Yes, this is the law : we work and 
grow strong ; we give and grow rich ; we speak 
because we believe, and then believe more firmly 
because we have spoken. And because God taketh 
pleasure in them that hope in his mercy and de- 



254 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

sires our increasing sanctification, he loves the 
cheerful giver, while we in the fulness of our own 
increasing spiritual wealth learn how much more 
blessed it is to give than to receive. 

A fourth reason may be found in the present 
happiness and the future reward of our liberality. 
The truth is that Christian giving of all kinds — 
of property, sympathy, counsel; prayer — flows out 
of a certain affluence of peace and happiness. 
Paul says of the Macedonian Christians that the 
*' abundance of their joy and their deep poverty 
abounded unto the riches of their liberality.*' On 
the other hand, we call the mere receiver, the cov- 
etous, the illiberal a miser, a wretched one. No 
worker for Christ but knows the joy of his ser- 
vice ; and did not our Saviour feel the same ? He 
did ask drink of the woman of Samaria, but the 
Bible does not tell us that he obtained it. Is it 
not possible that his thirst was forgotten in the 
joy of saving another lost one? And when his 
disciples returned from the city and said to him, 
'* Master, eat," he answered, '' I have meat to eat 
that ye know not of ;" and they said, " Hath any 
man brought him aught to eat?" Jesus said unto 
them, '' My meat is to do the will of him that sent 
me and to finish his work." 

And then there is the future reward, for " who- 
soever shall give to drink unto one of these little 
ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a dis- 
ciple, verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose 
his reward." " He that hath pity upon the poor 
lendeth unto the Lord ; and that which he hath 



THE TEMPLE REPAIRED. 255 

given will He pay him again." " God is not un- 
righteous to forget your work and labor of love 
which ye have showed towards his name in that 
ye have ministered to the saints and do minister.'* 
And what a marvellous reward! Hear our Sa- 
viour again : '' Then shall the King say unto them 
on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world ; for I was a-hungered, 
and ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave 
me drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me in ; 
naked, and ye clothed me ; I was sick, and ye vis- 
ited me ; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. . . . 
Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these 
my brethren, ye have done it unto me." A king- 
dom for a little bread or a cup of cold water or 
some easily spared garments ! In this amazing rec- 
ompense, this astonishing reward, God shovv's the 
love he has for the cheerful giver ; and through 
all eternity we will know how in this life, as we 
sought to honor our Master and do good as we had 
opportunity, it was more blessed to give than to 
receive. 

Let us now consider the giving itself which God 
loves and which is so blessed. It is threefold : the 
giving of our means, the giving of our sympathy, 
help, counsel, and the giving of our prayers. 

I. It is the giving of our means, and this, as 
the words of Christ we have just quoted plainly 
indicate, either for the relief of temporal distress 
or need, or for the advancement of the cause and 
kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the world. 



256 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

It is neither possible to give the space nor is it 
necessary to dwell at length upon the multitude of 
ways in which this form of Christian charity may 
manifest itself. Rather let us notice that when 
many claims are made upon our means we should 
bid them all welcome. Not that we ought to give 
to all, for we may not be able to do that ; but first 
we ought to regret only our inability, and not 
regret the calls, which are only so many opportu- 
nities of happiness to ourselves and others, and 
then we shall find that we can give something 
at least to many more objects than we dreamed 
possible, and find also, as to those to which we 
contribute, that we shall do it with hearty good, 
wall, in the spirit of the Macedonian Christians, 
who '' to their power, yea, and beyond their power, 
were willing of themselves, praying Paul with 
much entreaty that he would receive the gift and 
take upon him the fellowship of the ministering 
to the saints." 

2. We spoke of the giving of our sympathy, 
aid, counsel : sympathy in distress, help in weak- 
ness, counsel in perplexity. Paul's giving must 
have been very largely of this kind, and so also 
must Peter^s, for to the importunate beggar at the 
Beautiful Gate of the Temple he said, '' Silver and 
gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee." 
Of course, if a brother or sister be naked or desti- 
tute of food and we give them not, having them to 
give, the things which are needful to the body, 
offered sympathy and counsel were but a mockery 
of their distress. 



THE TEMPLE REPAIRED. 257 

But how precious is true sympathy, either with 
or without material aid, when either it is not need- 
ed, or if needed, is not within our power. '' David 
saw that Saul was come out to seek his life ; and 
David vv^as in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood. 
And Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to David 
into the wood and strengthened his hand in God.'* 
We are not surprised at David's love for Jonathan 
after this proof of friendship. So Job was able to 
say, " I was eyes to the blind and feet was I to the 
lame ;" that is — eyes, counsel to the blind in per- 
plexity ; feet, help to the lame in weakness. 

Last of all, there is the giving of our prayers. 
This is a very, precious kind of giving for two spe- 
cial reasons ; first, because we can all give thus ; 
and secondly, because we can thus give to all. 
We can all give thus. We may have no pecuniary 
means or may be restricted in the number of ob- 
jects to which we can contribute our money, or we 
m^ay think from our position or social relations or 
lack of education, or from some other reason suffi- 
cient in our mind, that we have no counsel, help, 
or sympathy to give the distressed, and yet we 
can bear them in the arms of our faith to Him 
who is a very present help in trouble. And we 
can thus give to all. We are by no means limited 
to those within the circle of our acquaintance or 
influence ; we are not even limited to those who 
in other places may receive the support of our 
gifts in their labors of love. No rank or station, 
high or low, no distance of place, is any obstacle. 
Those in high places of honor and trust, and those 



258 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

in the depths of degradation and wickedness ; 
those close to us not only in residence but in the 
bonds of affection and kinship, and the far-distant 
and unknown heathen in the jungles of India or 
the still unexplored wilds of Africa, are within the 
wide scope of our intercession at the throne of 
grace. Therefore let it be our high and holy en- 
deavor, as we abound in everything, in faith and 
utterance and knowledge, to see that we abound 
in this grace also. 



HEZEKIAH, THE GOOD KING. 259 

HEZEKIAH, THE GOOD KING. 

"Them that honor Me I will honor." — i Sam. 2:30. 

Remembering that the kingdom of Judah was 
a theocracy, its political history becomes intelligi- 
ble only as we study its religions history. And it 
is remarkable how closely the religious character 
of the several periods corresponded to that of the 
monarchs who sat npon the throne : in a reli- 
gious point of view the history of the southern 
kingdom may be divided into four periods: the 
first extending through eighty-six years, and em- 
bracing the first religious decline and first reli- 
gious revival under Jehoshaphat ; the second in- 
cluding about 207 years, and marked by a second 
decline and a second revival under Hezekiah ; the 
third continuing about eighty-eight years, with a 
third religious decline and a third revival under 
Josiah ; and the fourth rapid decline of twenty- 
three years ending in the Captivity. 

In this connection it is interesting to notice 
that three of the four chapters in Second Chroni- 
cles given to the reign of Hezekiah are devoted 
to the record of the wonderful revival and refor- 
mation which took place under his leadership, and 
we shall find it profitable to review the teachings 
of the Word on this important subject. 

What are the elements of a revival? And 
when we use the word revival we take it in its 
popular signification, as a time of general awa- 



26o FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

kening. To ascertain these elements we might 
follow either of two processes. We could take 
the deductive method and from the accepted doc- 
trines of evangelical truth could deduce what 
must necessarily be the conditions and the con- 
stituents of a true work of grace. Or we might 
take the inductive method and arrive at the same 
result from an investigation of the characteristics 
of revivals as recorded in history. Let us com- 
bine the two, using the one or the other as it may 
serve our purpose. We start then with the idea 
that the elements of a revival are precisely those 
that enter into the work of grace in the heart of a 
sinner. 

A work of grace in the heart and a work of 
grace in the church are alike as to their antecedents, 
(i) in the condition of the subjects. The sinner is in 
a state of death ; his condition is one of absolute 
exigency. No illustrations of weakness, igno- 
rance, helplessness, exaggerate this state of the ser- 
vant of the world and Satan. The church also is 
in a condition of decadence, of spiritual declen- 
sion. Such is the state in which Vv^e find the 
church in every record of revival given in the 
Bible. The first of these blessed seasons is prob- 
ably recorded in the twenty-sixth verse of the 
fourth chapter of Genesis : '' Then began men to 
call on the name of the Lord." This remarkable 
event occurred about 240 years after the creation 
of Adam. The progress of moral evil in the 
antediluvian world, the sad departure of the early 
race of men, was manifested in fratricide, in going 



HEZEKIAH, THE GOOD KING. 261 

out from the presence of the Lord, in personal 
violence, and in polygamy. The passage quoted is 
undoubtedly vague, but seems to point to a won- 
derful epoch, and to record the first marked dis- 
play of God's power and grace to stay the tide of 
evil and to gather to himself a seed serving him. 
The name of Jehoyah was certainly known and 
used before. Abel had prayed before and offered 
acceptable sacrifice. It was the first time they so 
prayed. The word ''began" is a Hebraism, sig- 
nifying the first of like things, used elsewhere of 
the first in a line of kings. 

The second revival occurred in the time of 
Joshua, in the young congregation after the old 
generation had wasted away. Their fathers had 
greatly neglected the w^orship of God. Those 
long thirty-eight years of wandering appear to 
have been a period of extreme religious apostasy. 
Circumcision and the Passover were neglected; 
though the Levites may have clung to the taber- 
nacle and its worship, the people were defiled with 
the iniquities of Baal-peor. Joshua calls an im- 
posing and solemn convocation, and makes a re- 
markable address, closing with the charge, '' Now, 
therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity 
and truth, and put away the gods which your 
fathers served on the other side of the flood and 
in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord." The appeal 
was overwhelming. It melted down the w^hole of 
that vast assembly, and it is added, " The people 
served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the 
days of the elders that overlived Joshua, who had 



262 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

seen all the great works of the Lord that he did 
for Israel." 

Then follows a great falling away again under 
the Judges, which, with partial recoveries, lasted 
down the centuries under the Kings, when the 
times were marked by shameless idolatries, high-, 
handed sins, and by terrible prophetic warnings 
and denunciations. Then Jehoshaphat comes to 
the throne, and one of his first undertakings as 
king was a great home missionary enterprise in 
which the princes took part with the Levites in 
teaching the people. Later on the king seems to 
have made a missionary tour over the whole 
kingdom for the purpose of stirring up the re- 
ligious spirit of his subjects. This third revival 
under Jehoshaphat was decided and complete. 

Jehoram succeeded his father, and under the 
pernicious influence of his wife Athaliah, the 
daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, idolatry was again 
encouraged and the people vv^ere trained to its 
abominable practices. After him came Ahaziah, 
Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, and Jotham, whose 
reigns showed some feeble and short-lived at- 
tempts at reformation, until in the reign of Ahaz 
the moral darkness was thicker than ever. Altars 
and high places consecrated to idolatry were not 
enough, and the king crowned his wickedness by 
burning his children in the Valley of Hinnom. , 
Then came the fourth great revival under Heze- 
kiah, as recorded in the twenty-ninth, thirtieth, 
and thirty-first chapters of Second Chronicles. 
The great doors of the Temple, which had been 



HEZEKIAH, THE GOOD KING. 263 

for a long time clowsed, were thrown open, and the 
kings, the Levites, and the princes joined in the 
ceremonial of a vast sacrifice offered in expiation 
of the national guilt: "And Hezekiah rejoiced, 
and all the people, that God had prospered the 
people: for the thing was done suddenly." Im- 
mediately upon this followed the celebration of 
the Passover, of which no celebration had been 
recorded since the time of Joshua. This was 
commemorated by the addition of a second week 
of rejoicing. Not only the whole population of 
the southern kingdom attended, but some even of 
the most northern parts of the apostate ten tribes. 
** So,'' says the record, '' there was great joy in 
Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son 
of David, king of Israel, there was not the like in 
Jerusalem. Then the priests, the Levites, arose 
and blessed the people, and their voice was heard, 
and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling- 
place, even unto heaven.*' 

Another period of apostasy and deep spiritual 
dearth followed until we come to the fifth, that 
most remarkable revival in the reign of Josiah. 
Hilkiah, the high-priest, found in the archives of 
the Temple the long-neglected book of the Law. 
He brought it out, and when it was read in the 
ears of the king, he rent his clothes and trembled 
under its denunciations. Without delay he issues 
his proclamation for a general gathering of the 
people, and then, leaning against the pillar of the 
Temple at the entrance of the inner court, he reads 
in the ears of the immense concourse all the words 



264 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

of the book of the covenant. It was an august 
assembly and a most solemn occasion. Josiah 
next made a tour of the kingdom, destroying all 
the places of idolatrous worship, burning the 
images of wood, and grinding to powder the 
images of metal and stone. A terrible vengeance 
followed those who had ministered at these 
shrines, being executed on their own altars. 
Then the people were commanded to keep the 
Passover ; they hastened to obey, and the sacred 
historian adds : '' There was not held such a 
passover from the days of the judges that judged 
Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel." 

But again there was an alarming decline which 
continued to increase for one hundred years till 
the Captivity, and extending through it to the 
days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Again the book of 
the law of Moses is brought, and Ezra reads from 
morning till midday, '' and the ears of all the people 
were attentive unto the book of the law." And 
when he /)pened the book in the sight of all the 
people, they all stood up. And when he blessed 
the Lord, the great God, ''all the people answered 
Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands, and they 
bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with 
their faces to the ground." The sincerity of this 
revival was abundantly proved by the works that 
followed. 

This is the last revival recorded in the Old 
Testament. We hear no more at least of idolatry, 
but the condition of the Jewish Church is well 
described by our Saviour in the days of his mis- 



HEZEKIAH, THE GOOD KING. 265 

sion on the earth, formal, corrupt, hypocritical, 
and so it lasted, another great declension, until 
the day of Pentecost was fully come, the seventh 
revival of the Bible, transcending all that pre- 
ceded it in its power, its fruits, and as an earnest 
of what may be expected under the faithful 
preaching of the gospel. We need not give in 
detail this well-known record : the three thousand 
on the day of Pentecost, the five thousand that 
believed, in the fourth of Acts, and in the sixth 
chapter how '' the number of the disciples multi- 
plied in Jerusalem greatly,'* and *'a great com- 
pany of the priests was obedient to the faith ; '* 
and in the eighth chapter, the disciples " went 
everywhere preaching the Word ;'' and in the 
ninth chapter, *' all that dwelt in Lydda and 
Saron turned to the Lord;" and so the glorious 
record goes on. 

Thus we see that these revivals were all extraor- 
dinary manifestations of the Spirit for the pres- 
ervation or extension of the truth. They came in 
times of great spiritual need, when to human eyes 
the cause of God was broken, gone, lost. Such is 
the truth of revivals as related to the condition of 
the subjects. 

The same is true as to the occasional antecedents. 
In both the sinner and the church there are cer- 
tain human elements that frequently become the 
occasion, not the cause, of a revival. There are 
in the constitution of man certain elements that 
God uses for the carrying out of his gracious pur- 
poses, as for example, curiosity, imitativeness, 

12 



266 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

sympathy. Curiosity was the occasion of the con- 
version of Zacchaeus ; the same is true of the multi- 
tudes that 'Svent out to see" John the Baptist. 
Attracted by his wild and weird aspect they heard 
one greater than a prophet, and the doctrine of 
repentance became the ploughshare preparing the 
soil for the seed of the gospel. So the fellow- 
tovvTnsmen of the Samaritan woman, attracted to 
see the man that had told her all things that ever 
she did, afterwards heard for themselves and be- 
lieved. Examples of imitativeness and sympathy 
are also abundant. God used these same elements 
in the work of the apostles. Their miracles, 
tongues, prophesyings, were all novel modes. 
They awakened curiosity, they brought the crowds 
to the hearing of the truth. There is a sense in 
which the apostles were sensational preachers. 
They were so in a divine sense. These same ele- 
ments are seen in modern revivals. They need 
safeguards, but they are by no m^eans to be 
despised. 

Then there is the antecedent instrumentality. 
This by God's plan is human. Philip calls Na- 
thanael, Andrew invites Peter, Philip teaches the 
eunuch, Peter is sent to Cornelius, It is just here 
that men must plan and pray and work ; not that 
God cannot work the wonders of his grace without 
man, but because God has ordained '' by the fool- 
ishness of preaching to save them that believe." 
So Hezekiah is himself first prepared by the terri- 
ble denunciations of God's wrath by the prophet 
Micah. When he is consecrated and his own heart 



HEZEKIAH, THE GOOD KING. 267 

is on fire, he communicates like enthusiasm among 
the priests and then among the rulers of the city, 
and then the great multitude is reached. 

The efficient cmise in conversion and revival is 
the sovereig7t purpose of God by tlie efficiency of the 
Holy Ghost through the Word, "• It is not by might 
nor by power.'' The apostles waited until they 
were '' endued with power from on high." It was 
confessedly not by their own power ; God had shed 
down that which was seen and heard. Two great 
practical questions here meet us: (i.) In view of 
God's sovereignty can God's people by prayer and 
labor do anything in obtaining or extending a 
work of grace ? Most certainly. God will be in- 
quired of. He has chosen us and ordained us that 
we should go and bring forth fruit and that our 
fruit should remain. Philip is commanded to the 
desert, and Paul in a vision hears the Macedonian 
cry. The whole history of the church proves that 
God not only honors the prayers of his people and 
owns their labors, but when appealed to he pre- 
pares his servants to fulfil his answer to his wait- 
ing church. Pentecost was in answer to the ten 
days' supplication that preceded it. 

The other question, whether the prayers of a 
certain number of God's people in a church or a 
community necessitate a revival, we answer as 
frankly, No. The Holy Ghost is a person, and 
therefore has intelligence and will. He is infi- 
nitely wise, and in the divine plan of redemption 
has his own purposes, his own times, his own 
ways. The question then arises, Has the economy 



268 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

of grace been so revealed to us, or can it be so in- 
terpreted from experience, that we may determine 
the principles on which the Spirit exercises his 
sovereign pleasure in the bestowment of his influ- 
ences? Perhaps we should say, No, not fully. 
^' The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hear- 
est the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it 
Cometh or w^hither it goeth." Still much may be 
said, and we may be sure that the Holy Ghost will 
reveal himself in keeping with his liatred of sin. 
So there may be an Achan in the camp, and Israel 
may war in vain until the accursed thing is re- 
moved. The church may be entangled with the 
world like the camp in the wilderness with the 
Midianites, and God's judgments may fall upon 
her. 

The Spirit also will honor his appointments. 
There is a church, a ministry, and means of grace, 
and to them he has committed the word of recon- 
ciliation. The whole history of the church proves 
this. In vain will Israel cry for the opened heav- 
ens and the gift of the Spirit when they are rob- 
bing God in tithes and offerings. We may wish 
that all God's people were prophets, but they are 
not, and the Holy Ghost says now as of old, '' Sep- 
arate me Barnabas and Saul for the work." 

Again, in all his operations the Spirit will honor 
'Wv^^ promises. This thought links itself with what 
has gone before. The gift of his influence is con- 
ditioned. - Men must pray, must plan, must work. 
God will be inquired of, and while there may be 
occasions in history when God apparently has 



HEZEKIAH, THE GOOD KING. 269 

showered his grace upon a lifeless and indifferent 
people, it may have been only apparently. Elijah 
knew not that seven thousand men in Israel had 
not bowed the knee to Baal. 

Again, the Spirit will honor his threatenings. 
If his promises are yea and amen, so are his de- 
nunciations. He hates sin and will not suffer it to 
go unrebuked even among his people. Israel a 
hissing and byword, though once the chosen na- 
tion and beloved of God ; the seven churches of 
Asia with only a name in history, though once 
the joy and crown of the apostles; the first tri- 
umphs of the ascended Jesus are at once an illus- 
tration of this truth and a standing warning to all 
ages. Even Paul, the faithful, inspired apostle, is 
called to Macedonia while he is dragged as one 
dead from Lystra; meets with wonderful success 
in one city, but shakes off the dust of his feet 
against another. God sometimes calls faithful 
ministers and churches to spend a life of prayer 
and toil without what we call success, as witnesses 
in judgment against a corrupt church or a stiff- 
necked community. 

And in all this the Spirit will honor himself, 
will still be sovereign, and will so work that the 
glory shall be his. There are miracles of grace as 
well as of nature, and the Holy Ghost at times 
may manifest his sovereignty over his own laws. 

Another question now arises. What means then 
should the church adopt, if any, to secure from 
God an ingathering of souls ? We believe it be- 
comes both the duty and the privilege of the 



270 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

church, having removed all hindrances, to use all 
appointed means — prayer, praise, effort. The 
church should go to the world, and in the midst 
even of rebuff, scorn, derision, or persecution, 
should ever manifest the patience, forbearance, 
love, self-sacrifice, and desire of her Saviour and 
Husband. A revival should always be near the 
heart. We believe that the verv doctrine of the 
sovereignty of the Spirit in these days of the dis- 
pensation of -the Holy Ghost furnishes the only 
true, substantial ground for faithful prayer and 
effort. As the church of old, in the prayers and 
aspirations left on record, appears in the position 
of earnest, anxious longing for the coming of the 
Messiah, so should the church of these days, with 
its heritage of prophecy and promise, show the 
same earnest, anxious longing for that outpouring 
of the Spirit which shall bring all nations to the 
foot of the cross. 

We must still examine the cojtstitiients of a re- 
vival. From beginning to end it is a work of 
grace. Grace manifestly begins the work, and 
grace must carry it on to completion, until the top- 
stone be placed with cries of '' Grace, grace unto 
it.'' There is however something to be added as 
to the accompanying characteristics of revivals. In 
the first instance, prayer is honored in the record. 
'' Then began men to call upon the name of the 
Lord." In the second r^ViNdX personal consecration 
is emphasized, and long afterwards Jeremiah (2:1), 
in alluding to this time, speaks of ''the kindness 
of thy youth, the love of thy espousals, when Israel 



HEZEKIAH, THE GOOD KING. 2/1 

was holiness to the Lord." Under Jehoshaphat 
and Hezekiah personal effort is prominent ; under 
Hezekiah and Isaiah the honoring of the divinety 
appointed ordinances and sacrifices of worship; 
under Jehoshaphat and Ezra and Nehemiah Scrip- 
ture alludes especially to faithful preaching, or to 
speak more correctly, in Old Testament language, 
the reading and teaching of the Law. 

At Pentecost and the wonderful revival which 
followed all these accompanying characteristics 
are noted, possibly only because the record is full. 
First prayer preceded and pervaded the whole 
movement. No one can overlook this agency 
who reads the history of the ten days between the 
ascension and the morning of the Pentecostal Sab- 
bath. Afterwards, we read, '' the disciples contin- 
ued in supplication and in the apostles' doctrine 
and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and 
prayer." Accompanying this there was in every 
case faithful preaching, " Peter, standing up with 
the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them." 
'' Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria 
and preached Christ unto them." ''They which 
were scattered abroad travelled as far as Antioch 
and spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord 
Jesus." Again the whole church was engaged in 
personal effort. The different words translated 
preaching in our version include not only what we 
understand by the formal discourse of the pulpit, 
but also the more familiar exhortation, and even 
the word spoken by the wayside. It was a man- 
to-man and heart-to-heart movement. Then there 



2y2 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

was personal consecration. All talents were laid 
on the altar and all powers consecrated, and every 
man used that of the Spirit which was given to 
him to profit withal. So should it be always, and 
so will it be when the fulness of time shall come 
and the Spirit shall be poured out without meas- 
ure. We need no application to this chapter. Our 
own hearts will make it. 



JOSIAH AND THE BOOK OF THE LORD. 2/3 

JOSIAH AND THE BOOK OF THE LORD. 

" Go INQUIRE OF THE LORD FOR ME." — 2 Chron. 34:21. 

In Josiah we have a beautiful character. In 
him we have an ancient Luther springing out of 
the dark and shining like a bright burning light. 
He is introduced into Bible history to show the 
human race what are the possibilities of a single 
holy life. He is an inspiration both to boys and to 
men. He is an incentive both to early piety and 
to mature piety. In setting his history before us 
the Scripture gives us these two points from his 
biography. 

I. JOSIAH REMEMBERED HIS GOD IN EARLY YOUTH. 

There is a right and favorable time to begin the 
religions life. It is the season of youth. 

It is something to know what God wants, what 
pleases him best. This is what all those who 
mean to live for him wish to know. Through 
Josiah God tells us that he is best pleased with 
early piety. He wants the opening bud of life. 
He wants the dew of youth. '^Remember thy 
Creator in the days of thy youth." He wants Sam- 
uel and Timothy when they are boys. Youth is 
the formative period of life. It is the seed-time. 
What is sown in youth will come to fruit in ma- 
ture years. Youth is the twig which can be bent 
and sharped and trained. Age is the tree which 
has taken on its character and incline and perma- 

Solomon to the C3pti\it7. 12^ 



274 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

nency. God will not reject those who come to 
him in any season of life, but he says, ''Youth is 
the best time to come." 

When life is given tip to God in youth to be 
shaped and trained and inclined, it will be saved 
from bad habits which bind like chains, and from 
errors which eat like a canker, and from regrets 
which pierce the soul through and through with 
unutterable agony. It will have right and clear 
views of God from the start. Its faith and love 
will have a long time to grow. It will accumulate 
precious memories. It will bind men to the true 
and right and good by inclination and by habit, 
which will become a second nature. If the crystal 
vase be broken it may be mended ; its broken pie- 
ces may be joined together, and it may still be a 
vase, but it is full of scars and seams. God says, 
'' Give me the crystal vase of life ere the blow of 
sin shiver it, and I will keep it whole and un- 
seamed. Give me your youth-time, and I will 
carry you down through life with an unsullied 
reputation and keep your character free from spot. 
This of itself will make you a power for good 
among your fellow-men." The days of youth are 
men's susceptible days. Impressions ma'de then 
are deep and lasting. They are like the footprints 
made in the rock before it crystallizes. The wear 
of ages cannot obliterate them. The days of youth 
are the days in which character is formed. Now 
the formation of character is the chief business of 
life. Character is eternal. It is the one thing 
which we carry with us beyond the grave. . From 



JOSIAH AND THE BOOK OF THE LORD. 2/5 

this it is evident that our youth blesses or curses 
all of the subsequent periods of our being. Put 
saving religion into youth, and religion will be an 
influence through manhood, through old age, 
through eternity. Grant that religion is a good 
thing, and you grant at the same time that the 
sooner a man is religious the better it is for him. 
Religion is like health, and irreligion is like dis- 
ease. We guard the child against disease, for a 
diseased childhood means a weak and exhausted 
manhood. A healthy childhood means a strong 
and vigorous manhood. It is as foolish to give 
childhood over to irreligion as it is to give it over 
to disease. A pious youth is in the spiritual life 
what a healthy youth is in the physical life. A 
young man or a young woman witK ruddy cheeks, 
glowing eyes, and elastic step is a really fascina- 
ting picture. It is a prophecy of magnificent man- 
hood or womanhood. A young man or a young 
woman thoroughly consecrated to God, this too is 
a picture. It is a prophecy of a spiritual manhood 
like that of Elijah or John the Baptist or Paul ; it 
is a prophecy of a spiritual womanhood like that of 
Hannah or Deborah or Mary or Elisabeth. There 
are reasons enforcing early piety set before us by 
the story of Josiah. They are such as these : 

(a.) God^ who created tcSy has a right to the whole 
of our lives. There are rights of Creatorship, and 
these come in here. Every day spent apart from 
God is not only a dead loss to man, but it is a rob- 
bery of God. The works of the artist are bound 
to serve the artist. Their mission is to make him 



2^6 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

known to men, to tell of his skill and genius. God 
has the same claim npon his works. He has the 
claim of a Creator. From all eternity he carried 
in himself the archetypes of all the things which 
are. He determined their existence. They are 
all bound therefore to serve him. For the most 
part they do. ^^ The heavens declare his glory/' 
the seasons proclaim his covenant faithfulness. 
If man does not serve him from the very begin- 
ning of his life, he is the only rebel in the material 
creation. If a rebel, God must deal with him as 
such. If the vessel does not answer the design of 
the potter, if it reflects upon his character and rep- 
utation, it must be broken in pieces. Let the clay 
remember that it is honored when the potter 
shapes it into a beautiful vessel to be used in the 
king's household. Let young Joseph and young 
Josiah and young Daniel remember that they are 
glorified by being accepted by their Creator-God 
and used in advancing the interests of his cause on 
earth. To be claimed and used by the Lord, this 
is our highest honor. 

(b.) A religious youth leads to a grand old age, 
." The hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found 
in the way of righteousness." There is a grand 
old age, and it is possible to reach it. It bears the 
same relation to life that the ripe golden fruit 
bears to the seasons. Ripe golden fruit is the joy 
and the crown of the seasons. The seasons are 
proud of it. Religion has produced such old age. 
We have looked upon it with our own eyes. It 
was full of settled faith, mature judgment, en- 



JOSIAH AND THE BOOK OF THE LORD. 2// 

larged experience, pleasant memories, palm-tree 
fruitfulness, golden prospects, and heavenly-mind- 
edness. It was spent in tlie land of Beulah, on the 
mountain Delectable which overlooks the river of 
Death and the country on the other side. Of such 
an old age we might say, '' The hoary head was a 
crown of glory and the arm-chair of its repose a 
throne of power.'* Old age of this character has 
a special promise from God. He says, '' In the 
evening-time it shall be light." Children of the 
church and of the Sabbath-school, choose the high- 
est type of life, and choose early. Avoid the dis- 
traction and the mental storm and the retributive 
justice which crowd the lives of such men as Ba- 
laam and Manasseh and Solomon. Choose the life 
of Josiah, with its Bible-reading and temple-build- 
ing and reformation. Choose the life of David, 
with its songs of the Spirit. Choose the life of 
John, with its love and with the bosom of Christ 
as its resting-place. Choose the life of Paul, with 
its manly faith and courage and with its crown of 
righteousness which fadeth not away. Choose 
early. 

II. JOSIAH LIVED BY GOD'S BOOK. 

Grand as was the life which Josiah lived before 
the Book of the Law was found, it Vv' as greatly im- 
proved by the finding of that Book. God's Book 
broadened his view of duty and deepened his con- 
viction of sin and gave new enthusiasm to his 
reform. The study of the law brought a revival 
of religion. The whole incident of the finding of 
the Book of the Law, together with its results, was 



2/8 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

a prototype of the finding of the lost Bible by Lu- 
ther and its results. The two histories are paral- 
lel. Josiah and Luther were the men they were 
because they let the Bible make and rule them. 
Their reformations were the fruits of Bible seeds. 
Their lives were built up according to the com- 
mandments of God. If we are to have like lives 
we must render like obedience to God's law. 

Consider the grandeur and glory of the life 
that is lived by the Bible. The commandments 
are thoughts and purposes from the mind of God. 
They are great with his love and foresight. They 
deal with the heart and discern its thoughts and 
intents. They command the obedience of our 
mental conceptions and purposes. They claim 
authority over all our words and acts. Practical 
work is the best kind of argument. Let architec- 
ture build its cathedrals and palaces and bridges, 
and you will at once see the capability of its laws. 
Let the tree drop its ripe fruit into your hand, and 
you will know its value and nature. Let the com- 
mandment point out the lives which it has built, 
and that will be conclusive. It bids us study the 
lives of such men as Enoch and Elijah. They are 
not made by circumstances nor by society, but by 
obedience to God's law. It is true that there are 
blemishes upon the lives of God's heroes, but these 
blemishes are the result of departure from the 
precepts of God, and are therefore negative argu- 
ments in favor of the commandments. The com- 
mandments make ready for the life above. Obe- 
dience to them gradually assimilates us to the holy 



JOSIAH AND THE BOOK OF THE LORD. 279 

character of God, so that we are translated, as a 
natural result, into the perfect life of heaven. The 
heaven-life may seem a wonderful and sudden 
transition, but it is not sudden as a general thing. 
Preparation for it has long been going forward. 
At the sacred seasons in Rome the workmen en- 
gage for days in arranging the lines of lamps over 
the vast dome and portico of St. Peter's. When 
the appointed hour strikes, suddenly the whole 
structure bursts into flame and flashes in splendor. 
This flashing of hundreds of lights is not as sud- 
den as it seems. It is the result of preparation. 
Even so there is great preparation for the heaven- 
life here, preparation of love and obedience. The 
final transition, with its complete incoming of God, 
only reveals the preparation of the past. 

If we would see the ability of the command- 
ments to build the grandest possible life, we must 
stand before the life of the man Christ Jesus and 
contemplate it. His life was a working out of the 
law, the putting of the commandments into a visi- 
ble form. His life sustains the same relation to the 
commandments of God that the beautiful building 
sustains to the plans and specifications of the de- 
signer. The building is the plans and specifica- 
tions put into marble and wood. Christ's life is 
the commandments put into deeds. He says, '^ I 
come to do the will of Him that sent me." ''My 
meat is to do the will of Him that sent me." ''As 
the Father gave me commandment, even so I do." 
If we had the power of analyzing every thought 
to which he gave lodgement, every plan which he 



28o FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

aniiotinced, every deed which, he wrought, we 
would find in them as their very soul the substance 
of God's commandments. All the spirituality and 
beauty and reach of the commandments are in his 
life, which stands before us on the page of inspira- 
tion as the true liitman life, 

III. THE LESSONS. 

1. Determine early to make the most of life. 
This will secure you against waste. This will 

obviate the necessity of shedding bitter tears in 
after life over the errors of youth. Life at best is 
not too long when every moment is rightly used. 
The words of Dr. Bonar are true and impressive : 

*' 'T is not for man to trifle ! Life is brief 

And sin is here. 
Our age is but the falling of a leaf, 

A dropping tear. 
We have no time to sport away the hours : 
All must be earnest in a world like ours. 
Not many lives, but only one, have we — 

One, only one ! 
How sacred should that one life ever be, 

That narrow span ! 
Day after day filled up with blessed toil, 
Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil!'* 

2. The young and old should associate together for 
mutual benefit, 

..Young Josiah had mature associates. There is 
in his history quite a catalogue of honorable names 
both of godly men and women : Jedidah, his mo- 
ther ; Shaphan, the scribe ; Hilkiah, the priest ; 
Huldah, the prophetess. These were all helps to 



JOSIAH AND THE BOOK OF THE LORD. 28 1 

him ; they were like powerful right hands. They 
seconded his efforts and executed his will. With- 
out them Josiah would not have been the man nor 
the reformer which he was. No matter how strong 
we may be morally in ourselves, we are made 
stronger by the presence and prayers and counsel 
of pious friends. This is true of both old and 
young. God has associated the young and the old 
together, and they need each other's society and 
fellowship. The aged need the daring and hope 
and poetry and cheer of the warm young heart. 
The young have need of the wisdom and conser- 
vatism and forethought and practicality of the in- 
structed heart. The one balances the other. 
Wherever we see such association we see mutual 
benefit. We have beautiful illustrations of such 
association in the Bible : Eli and Samuel, Naomi 
and Ruth, Elijah and Elisha. Aged Christians 
should seek the young in the Christian life, whom 
they can help by their experience ; and young 
Christians should seek those advanced, whose life 
they can freshen by their vivacity and cheer. 
3. We should value and use the Scriptures, 
The Bible is a complete book, and it is intend- 
ed to make complete men. It is able to train and 
teach every part of our nature. It is able to round 
the Christian man's character on every side. The 
reason we are so lean morally and spiritually is, 
we do not use the Bible. The reason we are lop- 
sided and deformed, with one grace little and 
another large, is because we use the Bible par- 
tially. We do not use it in the discipline of our 



282 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

complete life. We make it a rule in some things 
and reject it in others. Bible men are Christian 
mxcn of large growth. Let it be settled that the 
Bible is God's book, and that it is the highest au- 
thority on earth in things moral and spiritual, and 
the character and destiny of the whole world will 
be changed. What use are we making of the 
Bible? What honor are we putting upon it? 
What is our testimony before men with regard to 
it ? What do we expect from it ? It contains revi- 
vals and reformations. Let us bring these out of 
it and make them realities in our church and na- 
tion. It is the book for personal life and church 
life and national life. 

** The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul : 
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple : 
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: 
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes : 
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever : 
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous alto- 
gether. 
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine 

gold ; 
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb ; 
Moreover, by them is thy servant warned." 



CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH. 283 

CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH. 

"And the city was besieged." — 2 Kings 2y. 2. 
I. THE STORY. 

The history is thrilling with horror to an im- 
agination which pictures its details. Demonized 
passions inflict all manner of atrocities. A great 
nation goes down in blood ; and the workmanship 
of centuries, which embodies the genius of art 
and the accumulated wealth of the past, is reduced 
to ashes by the torch of a merciless victor. Is 
this hour of doom an unexpected and an unfore- 
seen hour? No. The prophet of God, Jeremiah, 
had been announcing its coming for forty long 
years. But because God in his mercy delayed its 
coming, that Judah might have time to repent, 
men became careless and hardened and unimpres- 
sible, and laughed to scorn the predictions of Jere- 
miah. '' Because sentence against an evil work is 
not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the 
sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.'* 

The fall of Jerusalem came only wider the compul- 
sion of man ^ and not of God's option. 

Infidels have harshly criticised God for the 
fall of Jerusalem. I am not ashamed of our God 
as he is revealed in this terrible page. Man is 
responsible for these dark scenes and not God. 
They are the legitimate results of Judah 's treason 
against the King of kings. It is the criminal that 
is responsible for the jail and the whipping-post 



284 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

and the gallows, and not our courts of justice. 
God in all this history will compare with the high- 
est humanity of which his critics boast. Is there 
a single earthly power that would bear forty years 
with traitors ? We see God in Jeremiah, his rep- 
resentative. The nation imprisoned Jeremiah be- 
cause of his faithful words, but he stood true to 
it and acted the part of a friend. They cut his 
prophecy in pieces with a pen-knife, but he re- 
wrote it. The nation cruelly laughed at Jeremiah, 
but for cruel laughter he gave the nation tears of 
loyal pity and love. The weeping Jeremiah is a 
picture of our God v/hose omnipotent arm hurls 
his thunder-bolt of judgment. 

The full of Jerusalem did 7iot come unannoit7iced, 
Jeremiah gave graphic pictures of it years in 
advance. For forty years he kept predicting it. 
It was virtually foretold by the laws under which 
Jehovah put the nation when he organized it. 
For ten years Ezekiel, on the banks of the river 
Chebar, sent his warnings from Babylonia to Jeru- 
salem. God put a warning into the captivity of 
the sister nation, Israel. By this event the voice 
of history said, '' Let Judah beware lest her treason 
against God bring her the fate of Israel.'' But 
God brought the warning closer home even than 
this. Prophetic captivities took place right in the 
streets of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar had already 
devastated the land and marched in the streets of 
Jerusalem. Twice he had done so. Each time 
he had carried away captives to Babylon. The 
first captivity took place under the reign of Jehoi- 



CAl^TIVITY OF JUDAH. 285 

achin. It was then that the lad Daniel and other 
young princes were carried captive to Babylon. 
The second captivity took place under the reign 
of the son of Jehoiachin. It was then that Eze- 
kiel and the great-grandfather of Mordecai were 
carried away captive. These captivities were ad- 
monitory and prophetic. They proclaimed what 
would become of the whole nation if it did not 
repent. These warnings set God forth in a most 
favorable light. 

The fall of Jerusalem was complete, 

God's work of judgment is just as complete as 
any of his works. He is a complete worker in 
every department. The stubborn resistance of the 
Jews rendered extreme measures necessary, or 
rather carried things to extremities. Jeremiah ad- 
vised them to surrender at once and thus save 
themselves from the horrors of a siege and from 
the destruction of life and property which usually 
accompanies a siege. This advice was looked upon 
as treason. They stubbornly held out against the 
army of Babylon ; and many of the terrors of the 
siege are to be attributed to their stubbornness. 
The siege brought famine, and famine brought 
pestilence. The cry of starvation pierced the air 
everywhere. The men and women and children 
who walked the streets were only living skeletons. 
Mad with hunger the people ate one another as 
food. Parents breakfasted upon children and chil- 
dren made their dinner out of the flesh of their 
parents. Horror of horrors ! Bitter are the fruits 
plucked from the tree of sin ! 



286 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

When the city of Jerusalem was reduced to 
great and indescribable straits, then came the end. 
The battering-rams of Babylon crushed through 
the walls and the fierce Chaldean troops poured 
through the breaches thus made and buried their 
keen swords in the hearts of the famished men 
and women and children. The streets ran blood, 
and heaps of dead, gashed bodies blocked the 
highways. King Zedekiah was pursued in his 
flight and captured. He was taken to Nebuchad- 
nezzar and at once sentenced to a blind life. Be- 
fore this sentence was executed his sons were 
slain before his eyes and then his own eyes were 
put out and he was hopelessly imprisoned in dark- 
ness. The last scenes of life which his eyes pho- 
tographed upon his mind were the agonized faces 
and mutilated forms of his dying sons. With his 
mind full of anguish and his body profaned, he 
was led a captive in heavy chains to Babylon. 
Again we exclaim, Horror of horrors ! Surely the 
way of the transgressor is hard. A iow months 
after the city was taken, Nebuzar-adan, a Baby- 
lonian general, came and burned the Temple and 
the houses of the nobles, and took the people who 
remained as captives to Babylon. He only left 
the poor of the land to till it, and a few others like 
Jeremiah, who had advised the surrender of the 
city to Nebuchadnezzar. The poor were now 
avenged on their rich oppressors who had en- 
slaved them. They were left possessors of the 
land while their old task-masters were now slaves. 
If we wish to see Jerusalem in its awful desolation 



CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH. 28/ 

as left by the Babylonian army, we have only to 
open and read the book of Jeremiah's Lamenta- 
tions, It is filled with funeral dirges over the 
nation. It is filled with pen-pictures of Jerusalem 
in its ruins. Jeremiah lamenting is the represen- 
tative of God. 

The fall of Jerusalem was a means to an end. 
It meant the regeneration of the nation. It 
meant the elimination of idolatry from the nation. 
The Babylonian captivity was the furnace of God 
in which he put the Hebrew gold for purification. 
He did not mean the captivity to be the end of the 
national existence. He had a future for Judah. 
Jerusalem was still to be the city of God. The 
Temple was destined to rise from its ashes. There 
was a glory in store for the coming Temple that 
far surpassed the glory of Solomon's Temple. 
Jesus Christ, the true Shechinah, will enter it and 
shed there the light of divine truth. The Son of 
God will walk the streets of the holy city. The 
prophet who predicted the doom of Jerusalem 
predicted also the upbuilding. He sent letters to 
the captives carried to Babylon during the prior 
captivities and encouraged their hearts. He told 
them that their exile would not last beyond seven- 
ty years. When the Babylonians were besieging 
Jerusalem for the last time he was am^ong his 
countrymen as a comforter, giving cheer. He un- 
rolled a shining future in the blackness and gloom 
of the despairing present. 

It is said that when the dreaded Hannibal 
massed his forces around the city of Rome, a cer- 



288 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

tain Roman, in order to iDreathe fresh patriotism 
and courage into his fellow-Romans, bought at its 
full price the ground on which Hannibal had 
pitched his tent. That Roman was only following 
in the footsteps of the heroic and patriotic Jere- 
miah. While the captivity was a fixed certainty, 
with seventy years between him and its end, Jere- 
miah bought at its full value a piece of ground and 
had the deed registered. The act was intended to 
make known the purpose of God to restore Judah, 
and to beget faith in that purpose. Jeremiah 
acted as though God's purpose were a reality. It 
did become a reality, and that purchased property 
was enjoyed by the family of Jeremiah. The cap- 
tivity wrought its mission. God kept the faith and 
patriotism of the people alive by means of his 
prophets who lived among the captives, and some 
of whom 'he raised to the highest positions of 
power in the victorious nation. The exaltation of 
men from their homes revealed to them that God 
was with them, and v/orking for them and carry- 
ing them on to the fulfilment of his declared pur- 
pose. When the hour struck for the captivity to 
cease, God had Hebrew men in high places to lead 
back to Jerusalem those who were true enough to 
go, and Hebrew men with sufficient influence to 
secure from the throne an edict of release. The 
captivity ended as God said it would, and there re- 
turned to Jerusalem a little nation, chaste and 
loyal and consecrated to God. The Captivity was 
a means to a glorious end, and the glorious end 
was reached. 



CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH. 289 

II. LESSONS. 

T . We are taught confidenee in the over-rule of our 
God, 

How supreme this history makes God ! There 
is nothing that can surprise him. He sees the end 
from the beginning. Nothing can take place con- 
trary to his will. The kingdom which it has 
taken generations to build up is dashed to pieces 
by a foreign power, but he calmly says, '' I have 
used this foreign power as my rod." He points 
to his predictions of years past which foretell it. 
He brings forward messages of by-gone years in 
which he calls Nebuchadnezzar ''my servant." 
God is so completely master of all time and of all 
creatures and of all elements that he casts his 
thoughts hundreds and thousands of years into the 
future, and at the predicted moment, at the indica- 
tion of the sun-dial or stroke of the clock, they be- 
come visible realities. God is supreme. He han- 
dles mighty armies and colossal nations and em- 
pires and vast planets, and they are in his hands 
no more than fragile toys in the hands of a robust 
child. He has one great purpose in time, and he 
makes all things work towards that purpose. That 
purpose is the cross of Christ. When the hour 
comes, for its erection he has all things ready. He 
uses nations in making ready. The Hebrew na- 
tion gives the Christ for the cross. The Greek na- 
tion gives a universal language for the gospel of 
Christ, by which it is able to reach all kingdoms. 
The Roman nation gives public highways into 
every kingdom, along which the messengers of ' 

Solomon to the Captivity I '2 



290 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTIVITY. 

the gospel can run, and it gives universal protec- 
tion, that they may the better deliver their decla- 
ration of the truth of Christ. In the past God's 
over-rule looked towards and centred in the cross 
of Christ ; now his over-rule looks forward towards 
and centres in the throne of Christ. Events are 
now shaped by the hand of God so as to make the 
sceptre of Christ universal. God's providential 
hands are now busy tuning the harps of the na- 
tions for the outbur sting song of the coronation to 
come: ''Hallelujah! The Lord God omnipotent 
reigneth. The kingdoms of this world have be- 
come the kingdoms of our Lord and of his 
Christ!" 

2. We should bless God for the holy prophets. 

We need not only the glorious company of the 
apostles, but we need also the goodly fellowship 
of the prophets. We need both to strengthen us 
in our faith. What helps the prophets were to 
the men of old ! They were among the grandest 
men in the Old Testament times. No class of 
men did so much for the covenant people of God. 
They fearlessly denounced sin. They generously 
fostered and applauded righteousness. They hero- 
ically threw themselves between the nation and 
danger. The people of God could not have done 
without them. Even though their witness was not 
received, yet they were essential. They vindica- 
ted the righteousness of God in the severe judg- 
ment which he executed against Judah. Their 
faithful words were not in vain, for when the cap- 
tivity came they explained its philosophy and in- 



CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH. 29 1 

dicated the way out of it. The prophets made the 
return of Judah a possibility. 

The prophets have not yet ceased to serve the 
world. By their writings they live among us and 
inspire us. We feel their faith and heroism and 
loyalty. They shame our timid treasons. They 
teach us how to be true witnesses. They put into 
our hands forged thunderbolts to hurl against the 
strongholds of sin and Satan. They give us fit- 
ting words with which to administer needed re- 
buke. Their characters stand before us to-day as 
the embodiment of everything that is grand and 
praiseworthy. The prophet-power will be a power 
as long as the world stands. 

3. We should make much of the evidential value of 
prophecy in establishing the inspiration of the Bible, 

History verifies what was written in the open- 
ing part of the prophecy of Jeremiah, and also the 
predictions of Ezekiel. We have one remarkable 
instance in connection with king Zedekiah, the 
chief person in this Scripture. In the book of 
Jeremiah it is said, '' Zedekiah king of Judah shall 
not escape out of the hands of the Chaldaeans, but 
shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king 
of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to 
mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes ; and he 
shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall 
be until I visit him." In Ezekiel it is said, *' I wSi 
bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldae- 
ans, yet shall he not see it, though he shall be 
there.'* There seems to be a contradiction here. 
Jeremiah says he shall see ; and Ezekiel says he 



292 FROM SOLOMON TO THE CAPTI\ ITV. 

shall not see. The history harmonizes the two 
prophecies and records the minute fulfilment of 
both. He saw the king of Babylon at Riblah, in 
the valley of the Orontes. But there his eyes 
were put out. So that when he was led into Baby- 
lon, a prisoner in chains, he was blind and saw not. 
He saw, as Jeremiah said he should. He saw not, 
as Ezekiel said he should not. Now whence this 
minute knowledge of things in the future, if God 
spake not through the men who wrote the Bible ? 
If God spoke through them, then the Bible is what 
it claims to be, the Word of God. Accept of this 
as a fact, and consistency will require you to give 
the Bible the supreme place in your life ; consis- 
tency will compel you to make it the standard of 
your faith and conduct. 



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