Seeds of Sermons from If the Bible as a whole is inspired, it is of vast importance that all its Divine ideas should be brought to bear upon the living world of men. Though the pulpit is the organ Divinely intended for this work, it has been doing it hitherto in a miserably partial and restricted method. It selects isolated passages, and leaves whole chapters and books for the most part untouched. Its conduct to the Minor Prophets may be taken as a case in point. How seldom are they resorted to for texts! and yet they abound with splendid passages throbbing with Divine ideas. It is our purpose to go through this section of the Holy Word; selecting, however, only such verses in each chapter and book as seem the most suggestive of truths of the most vital interest and universal application. Having gone through HOSEA, we now proceed on the same principle to the treatment of JOEL. The remembrance of the following facts concerning JOEL may serve to throw some light on his utterances. Neither the Bible nor tradition gives us much information concerning him. The first verse of the first chapter tells us he was the son of Pethuel. It is inferred from his writings that he lived in Judah not later than the reign of Uzziah, which extended from B.C. 810 to B.C. 793. His writings show that he lived in a time when the people of Judah had sunk deeply into depravity, so that there came upon them a heavy and terrible chastisement. He was contemporary with Hosea and Amos. They addressed Israel: he addresses Judah. There are many striking coincidences between the utterances of Joel and Amos. He was evidently a man of culture and trained in a prophetic school, for his Hebrew is of the purest kind. His style is easy, flowing, eloquent. No prophet surpasses him in vividness and splendour of description. The immediate occasion of his prophecy is a double plague of drought and locusts which invaded the land, working terrible desolation. No. LXIII. OF INFLUENCE "O Lord, to Thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field." "The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness."-JOEL i. 19, 20. In the verses extending from the sixth to the eighteenth, the prophet described with great vividness and force the attributes of these "locusts" and the terrible devastations they would effect, and he called upon various members of the community to attend to the calam the ity. The old men and young people, the drunkards and the farmers, the priests and the laity, all are summoned to reflection, penitence, and reform. Here he cries out to the Lord Himself on account of the calamity, which he describes with remarkable force. "The fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field." It is a question whether the fire and flame are to be taken literally as burning the grass, which often happens in extreme heat, or whether they are used figuratively. The reference, I think, is to the burning heat in drought which consumes the meadows, scorches the trees, and dries up the water brooks. Our subject is the influence of national calamities on the mind of the good. The effect on Joel was to excite him to prayer, to compel him to lay the case before the Lord. Having called the attention of all classes of the community to the terrible judgments, he turns his soul in a devout supplication to Almighty God. I. This was RIGHT. "In everything by prayer and supplication we should make known our wants to God." Prayer is right First: God requires it. “For all these things will I be required.” “Ask, and ye shall receive," etc. It is right Secondly: Christ engaged in it. He prayed, prayed often, prayed earnestly, prayed "without ceasing." He is our example. II. This was WISE. Who else could remove the calamity and restore the ruin? None. All men were utterly helpless. When all earthly resources fail, where else can we go but to Him who originates all that is good, and controls all that is evil? True prayer is always wise because (1st) It seeks the highest good, (2) By the best means. III. This was NATURAL. "The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee." "The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God." "What better," says an old author, "are they than beasts, who never cry to God but for corn and wine, and complain of nothing but the wants of sense." CONCLUSION: It is well when our trials lead us in prayer to God. The greatest calamities are termed the greatest blessings when they act thus. Hail the tempests, if they drive our bark into the quiet haven of prayer. "There's a power which man can wield, When mortal aid is vain, That eye, that arm, that love to reach, That listening ear to gain: That power is prayer, which soars on high, And feeds on bliss beyond the sky." No. LXIV. Subject: THE MINISTRY OF "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion," etc.-JOEL ii. 1-11. Zion was the meeting-place for the people of God, and may be fairly taken as a type of the true Church in all ages. We may take these verses as setting forth one aspect of the Church's ministry; namely, the ministry of alarm. I. It has to announce a judgment that is TERRIBLE. How graphically and appallingly does the prophet set forth the tremendousness of the calamity that was about being inflicted on Judah! It was a day of "darkness and gloominess," a day of clouds "and of "thick darkness," etc. 66 We have here (1) The Executors of the judgment. Who did the Almighty Governor of the world now em ploy to execute His judgments ? The magnates of the earth, or the illustrous legions of heaven? No; locusts. He brings them out by millions, and marshals them as His battalions, to fight against sin and crush the sinner. So dense are their crowds, that they darken the R sun and conceal the stars. So rapid their movement, and so closely do they jostle together, that their noise is like "the noise of chariots on the top of the mountains." The sunbeam falleth on their glazed wings, so that they appear as a "fire that falleth before them, and behind them as a flame that burneth." They move with such order and force that their appearance is like "horses" and "horsemen." The meanest insect is God's messenger; the little locust He employs as an officer of His justice. We have here (2) The effects of the judgment. "The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them as a desolate wilderness." Note the power of combination. These little insects singly were comparatively powerless; in combination they moved with a resistless energy. Unity is strength. This terrible judgment, however, is but a faint shadow of that more terrible judgment that awaits this wicked world, when the Son of Man shall come in all His glory with His holy angels,' etc. "I saw, and, behold, a great white throne," etc., etc. a II. It had to announce judgment that was APPROACHING: "The day of the Lord cometh; it is nigh at hand." This terrible army of insects was now in the course of formation, and was gathering together for the fearful work of destruction. The Church now has to give warning of a judgment that is coming. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away," etc., etc. Yes, it is com 66 Observe here three things in relation to soul reformation. I. Its PROCESS. Turning to the Lord. "Turn ye unto the Lord your God." The unre generate man is an alien from God. Like the prodigal son, he has left his Father's house and gone into the "far country' of carnality and sin. Reform is turning and directing his steps back to God. Soul reformation is not turning from one doctrine, or Church, or habit to another, but turning to God, going back with all its deepest love to Him. But in turning there is deep moral contrition; there is " fasting," and "weeping," and "mourning," and the "rending of the heart." Soul reformation begins in genuine repentance for past sins. "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in Thy sight." "There II. Its URGENCY. fore also now, saith the Lord." Yes, now is the time; there is nothing more urgent; everything must make way for this; until this is done, nothing is done properly. Now, (1) Because the work is of the most paramount importance. Now, (2) Because the time for accomplishing it is very short. Whatever other work you adjourn to a future time, for your soul's sake adjourn not this for a single hour. III. Its ENCOURAGEMENT. "For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil." The word deprecateth would be better than 66 repenteth." The inflicting of sufferings on His creatures is repugnant to His nature. "He desireth not the death of the sinner." What an encouragement it is to the sinner to turn to the Lord, to be assured that he will be welcomed with all the love and tender sympathy of an affectionate Father. No. LXVI. Subject: AN URGENTLY DE MANDED MEETING. "Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?"-JOEL 15-17. Men are constantly assembling themselves together for one purpose or another,-political, commercial, scientific, entertaining. But of all the meetings, none are so urgent as the one indicated in the text. as I. It is a Meeting CALLED ON ACCOUNT OF COMMON SIN. All the people of Judah had sinned grievously, and they were now summoned together on that account. No subject is of such urgent importance this. Sin, this was the root of all the miseries of their country. It behoved them to meet together in order to deliberate how best to tear up this upas, how best to dry up this pestiferous fountain of all their calamities. II. It is a Meeting COMPOSED OF ALL CLASSES. The young and the old were there; the sad and the jubilant ; even the bridal pair; the priests and the people. The subject concerned them all; all were vitally interested in it. Sin is no class subject. It concerns the man in imperial purple as well as the man in pauper's rags. III. It is a Meeting for HU MILIATION AND PRAYER. "Let the priests and the ministers weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O Lord." It was not a meeting for debate or discussion, for mere social intercourse and entertainment; but for profound humiliation before God. CONCLUSION: No meeting in England is more urgently demanded to-day than such a one as this. of Israel. Then the internal disorders that had been allowed to exist and grow, like festering sores among the flock themselves the selfishness and fraud and violence which had so greatly marred the mutual flow and interchange of good, and aggravated every evil, these were now to be rooted out, for the persons indulging in such unrighteousness were to be judged by God, and henceforth denied a place in the kingdom. Then again, instead of the false shepherds, there was One to be raised up-the pre-eminently Good Shepherd, Who by His wise and faithful administration should prevent such disorder and misrule from again arising, and should establish through the whole land, even to the wilderness and the forest, perfect security and peace. Then, finally, in fit correspondence with all this happy state of internal order and settled righteousness, all was to be prosperous and smiling inwardly, all exhibiting the delightful spectacle of a flock pastured by God Himself.” And the representative of that God would be one who would come in the Davidic line. Whilst this refers primarily to the Jewish people, there are good reasons even in the inadequacy of anything that has happened or could happen as a fulfilment of the prediction to the Jews only, to regard the whole vision in its universal and permanent teaching. I. THAT ALL RULERS HAVE GREAT RESPONSIBILITIES. Wherever they govern, all governors are bound to be protectors of the governed. They are " shepherds." II. THE FAILURE OF RULERS IS EVER A GREAT MISFORTUNE TO SUBJECTS. This is true if the rulers are self-seeking despots, then they rob the people. This is true if they are profligates, then they neglect the people. And such misrule ever tends to internal disorder, for the strong among the people oppress the weak. Class interests, and even brute force, will then prevail. Such disorganization makes the people defenceless against external enemies. This has been true in nations, Churches, homes. III. ALL MISRULE WILL ONLY COME TO AN END IN THE PROPORTION THAT GOD HIMSELF REIGNS OVER A PEOPLE. And answers |
