Imatges de pàgina
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governing righteousness, it is certainly without "knowledge." How much love runs in this direction in this age of snobbery and flunkeyism! "That your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment," you should esteem men, whether rich or poor, in proportion to the amount of moral truth that is in their hearts, and comes out in their daily lives.

Paul wishes for his Philippian brethren

II. More SPIRITUAL DISCRIMINATION. "That ye may approve things that are excellent." Or, as the margin gives it, "try things that differ." The things that are really excellent are often so hidden, so disguised, so mixed up with things that are nonexcellent and even vile, that the faculty of spiritual discernment is highly necessary. For the lack of this, how Christians everywhere confound things that differ. They confound (1) Moral vicariousness with legal substitution. To suffer for others by loving sympathy and voluntary sacrifices, is essentially different to suffering for them as legal substitutes, enduring the full penalty of their crimes. They confound (2) The pursuit of holiness with the pursuit of heaven. Vast and eternal is the distinction between a desire for goodness and a desire for happiness. The one is

sacred, the other is selfish; the one is virtuous, the other is vile. The man who searches after heaven as an end, will never find holiness, nor indeed heaven either. Whereas the man who searches after holiness as an end, will find it and heaven too. Yet, strange to say, Christians speak of the desire for heaven as a holy thing. They confound (3) conventional Christianity with a Christly character. Men utterly destitute of the selfsacrificing spirit of Christ are, because they attend church and chapel, preach the gospel, and sing psalms, confounded with those who, like Paul, wished himself "accursed for his brethren and companions' sake." Compare the royal and ecclesiastical heads of the English Church with the character of Him who made "Himself of no reputation,' took on Himself the "form of a servant," etc., etc. They confound (4) The spiritual prosperity of a people with numerical increase. Where a large congregation is gathered, people say the cause is prosperous, and

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the whereas it may turn out that there is more real prosperity in an assembly of ten, than in an assembly of ten thousand.

It will be seen from these hints, that one of the greatest wants of the age is spiritual discrimination-a power to see through shams, an eye to peer

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into the moral heart of things,
a vision to try spirits.
Paul wishes for his Philip-
pian brethren-

III. More GENUINE SIN-
That ye may be

CERITY.

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sincere and without offence." Sincerity includes two things.

First: Being what you appear to be. Let the lip and life agree exactly with the reigning principles and passions of the heart. So far as there is any disagreement between what we appear to be and what we are, there is insincerity, and insincerity is one of the foulest of sins.

Secondly: Being what you ought to be. A man may appear to be what he is, and yet his sincerity may be a sin. He certainly would not be "without offence." Some men, because they speak out all that is in them, because they endeavour to shape their outward conduct by their inner principles, boast themselves of their straightforwardness, and regard themselves as virtuously sincere. But they are not. If a man is bad within, he is not the less bad for showing it in his conduct. Virtuous sincerity consists not only in being what we appear to be, but being what we ought to be. This is the sincerity Paul undoubt

edly wishes for the Philippians.

Paul wished for his Philippian brethren

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IV. More MORAL FRUITFULNESS. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." Moral rectitude: this is the great need of man, and the great end of all God's dispensations with him. To be made right, right in ourselves and right in all our relations, is our salvation, our dignity, and blessedness. Paul speaks of this righteousness here

First: As coming through Christ. "Which are by Jesus Christ." The end of His work with man is, "that the righteousness of the law be fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh but after. the spirit."

Secondly: As redounding to the glory of the Eternal. "Unto the glory and praise of God." In all, the divine perfections are so manifested that they command wider and deeper admiration,

CONCLUSION: Let us breathe on behalf of our fellow-men such wishes as Paul breathed! These were prayers, and they contemplate man's highest good.

Seeds of Sermons from the Minor

Prophets.

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. LXX.

Subject: THE PERSECUTION OF
GOOD MEN.

"For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. -JOEL iii. 1, 2.

"In this chapter the prophet returns from the parenthetic view which he had exhibited of the commencement of the Christian Dispensation and the overthrow of the Jewish polity, to deliver predictions respecting events that were to transpire subsequent to the Babylonish

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Captivity, and fill up the space which should intervene between the restoration of the Jews and the first advent of Christ. announces the judgment to be holden on their enemies after their return to Judea."-Henderson.

And in these two verses he specifies the reason why they were to be punished.

Our subject is the persecution of good men on earth.

1. THERE HAVE EVER BEEN GOOD MEN ON EARTH. Corrupt as the world has been for sixty centuries, there have always been in every generation some men whose characters in the main have been good, and in whom the great Governor of the world has manifested a special interest. These are in the holy book called by a large

variety of names. They are called here, First: "My people." They are His (1) They have surrendered themselves to His will. All others are controlled by a variety of laws, they evermore by His will. Whatever they do, in word or deed, they are inspired by a loving loyalty to His will. They are His faithful servants, His loyal subjects, His loving children begotten again by His will. They are His (2) He has pledged them His loving guardianship. He is their Shepherd. "He leads them by still waters.' He is their Father. "As a father pitieth his children." He makes for them all necessary provision, both for this life and for the life that is to come. They are called here, Secondly: "My heritage." In Exod. xix. 5 you have these words, "Now therefore if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people, for all the earth is mine." He who owns the universe, esteems holy souls as the most valuable of His possessions. The vast universe of matter is in His estimation worth nothing in comparison with one truly virtuous spirit.

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II. These good men earth have GENERALLY BEEN SUBJECT

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PERSECUTION.

"Whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land." The faithful and the true amongst the Jews had, subsequent to their restoration from Babylonish captivity, been driven by violence amongst the nations. The indignities and cruelties to which they were subject, are

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specified in the subsequent verses. "Persecution," says an old writer, "is the reigning sin of the world." The enmity between the seed of the woman and the serpent, has shown itself from the beginning. "Marvel not," said Christ, "that the world hate you." There is a persecution that, whilst it does not involve bonds, imprisonments, and physical violences, involves the malice of hell, and inflicts grievous injury. There is social calumny, scorn, degradation, and various disabilities. The good must ever suffer in a world like this for conscience sake.

III, Their persecution

WILL BE AVENGED BY HEAVEN.

"I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there, for My people and for My heritage Israel."

It is not necessary to suppose that the valley of Jehoshaphat here, means the vale through which the Kedron flows, lying between the city of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives; or the valley of blessings mentioned in 2 Chron. XX., or any other particular place. Its literal meaning is, the valley where God judgeth; it means here the scene where God would deal out retribution upon the nations that persecuted His people. It was in the valley of Jehoshaphat that in all probability the army of Sennacherib was slain by Heaven's avenging angel. Ah! the time hastens when persecutors of all types and ages will have full retribution dealt out to them in some great valley of Jehoshaphat.

No. LXXI.
Subject: RETRIBUTION.

"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be awakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain : then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.-JOEL iii. 9-17.

Here is the first startling boom of the righteous retribution. Some think the reference is to the approach of Sennacherib, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Antiochus; but the language seems strong and grand enough to represent the approach of the last day. In this retributive scene there are several things observable.

I. The greatest RISISTANCE

ABSOLUTELY FUTILE. "Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause the mighty ones to come down, O Lord." The idea is, let all the enemies of God do their utmost to ward off this judgment. It means, Do your utmost, muster all your strength, "wake up the mighty men,' let them turn their agricultural implements into weapons of war, swords and spears; all will be futile. Heaven bids defiance to all such opposition. "The heathen may and the people imagine a rage vain thing, but He that sitteth in the heaven laughs them to scorn." We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." Wicked spirits will fight to the utmost but will fail.

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II. The GREATEST MULTITUDES ASSEMBLED TOGETHER. "Assemble yourselves and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about.

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision." Oh this valley of decision, this valley of Jehoshaphat, this scene of Judg ment! what untold multitudes are summoned to appear therein! All the men of all generations will be there, and the Judge will appear also, and all the holy angels too, etc. Here we have:

III. The greatest PROPRIETY DISPLAYED IN THE WHOLE. "Put

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