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." The judgment is only the harvest; hell is only sin ripened into fruit. that DISPLAYED. 66 "In valley those that have sowed to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; those that have sowed to the spirit shall of the spirit reap everlasting life." No one, then, will have any just reason to complain. It is mere reaping of what they have sown, it is the mere result of their own labours. IV. The greatest AWFULNESS The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake." He shall "roar." Now He speaks in the still small voice of mercy, then He shall roar like a lion, striking terror into all ungodly hearts. "At His voice the heavens and the earth shall shake." The idea is, First, He will appear on that day in such a way as to strike terror into the hearts of His enemies; and, Secondly, to inspire hope in the hearts of His people."The Lord will be the hope of His people.” Should the material universe be frightened into nothingness at His approach, even then His people will still have a strong hope in Him. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble." Let us learn calmly to await the judgment. "God's ways seem dark, but soon or late They touch the shining hills of day; The evil cannot brook delay, The good can well afford to wait." No. LXXII. Subject: THE MILLENNIUM ERA. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed for the Lord dwelleth in Zion."-JOEL iii. 18-21. This passage begins with a splendid representation of the glorious prosperity which shall attend the people of God after the destruction of all their enemies. Whatever their application to the Jews at any period of their history, they certainly bear an application to that period foretold by prophets and sung by poets,-the millennial period. Giving it this application, observe I. It will be an era of PLENTI FUL PROVISION. "And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim." Fertilizing streams will irrigate the land. The vineyards on the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the well-fed cattle shall yield abundance of milk. The idea is, in that age there will be a profusion of all necessary to supply the needs and gratify the desires of men. The time, I verily believe, will come when pauperism will be banished from the earth, when indigence, squalor, and want will be evils existing only in the history of the past. Even now it does not require the earth to be more fruitful than it is, to yield mankind ample supplies. What is wanted is men less avaricious, indolent, extravagant, intemperate, and wasteful. II. It will be an era of COMPLETE CONQUEST. "Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.” Egypt and Edom, the old and inveterate enemies of the Jews, are here represented as crushed into utter desolation. Error and sin are the Egypt and Edom of the world. These will be crushed one day. The Great moral Deliverer will bruise Satan under our feet, will put down all rule and authority, will make mankind more than conquerors. There is a period of moral conquest and moral kingship that will dawn upon souls before the history of the world is over. III. It is an era of ABIDING PROSPERITY. "Judah shall dwell for ever and Jerusalem from generation to generation." So long as the earth endures the righteous shall continue. They will endure throughout all generations, and happiness will attend them. The kingdom of truth, purity, love, and peace, which Christ is now building np, and which one day He will make commensurate with the world, will continue from generation to generation, it will have no end. IV. It is an era of MORAL PURITY. "For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed." That is, I will radically cleanse them. Their very blood, which has been a current of moral pollution, I will make pure in every particle. I will cleanse, not merely their skin, or their external parts, but the whole current of their life. Such is the era which the passage anyhow suggests; such is the era that awaits the earth. Would that it had dawned! Haste, ye circling seasons, and bring it on-or rather haste, ye servants of Christ, to disseminate those principles of the Gospel over the earth in whose mature development consists the blessed era! "The time shall come when every evil thing From being and remembrance both shall die; The world one solid temple of pure gold." -FESTUS. Homiletical Breviaries. No. CXXII. Subject: REVIVAL. "And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts: I will go also."-ZECH. viii. 21. Suggesting the benefits of a spiritual revival. I. That the possession of religious life awakens interest in others-" And the inhabitants," etc., "shall go," etc. II. That a revived religious life sets value on prayer-"Let us go to pray before the Lord." III. This revived life realizes the importance and value of time— "Let us go speedily," etc. IV. Revived life constrains us to seek companionship-"Let us go." Christians are gregarious. V. Revived Spiritual life ensures a powerful influence over our companions. They said, "We will go with you," verse 23. J. H. SNELL. No. CXXIII. Subject: CONVENTIONAL CHRISTIANS. "They profess that they know God; but in works they deny Him."TITUS i. 16. These words are used in relation to those who not only had a theoretical knowledge of Divine truth, but who made a profession of godliness. They apply to nominal or conventional Christians everywhere. I. Conventional Christians are PROFESSIONAL THEISTS. "They profess-or confess-that they know God." A conventional Christian shudders at the appearance of an Atheist, de nounces Atheism with the utmost vehemence, declares in church every Sunday, in the midst of the great congregation, "I believe in God the Father," etc. In theory he is a Theist, he believes in one God, he argues for one God, he preaches one God. II. Conventional Christians are PRACTICAL ATHEISTS. "In works they deny Him." First: They deny His authority in their everyday life; they ignore the claims that He has upon their existence, powers, possessions-all they have and are. They live as if no God existed. In their calculations they do not take Him into account; in their plans they do not consult Him; they do not say, If the Lord will, we will do this or that. Practically, God is not in all their thoughts. Secondly: They deny His teaching. Through Christ He teaches doctrines which they deny in their daily life. He teaches that spiritual interests are supreme. They declare in their daily life that temporal interests are paramount. He teaches that no man should live to himself, but should be inspired by that benevolence that will promote the common weal. But they practically declare that self interests are supreme, that every man should work for himself, regardless of the common good. He teaches that war is an abominable crime. They practically declare that of all professions it is the most honourable, of all institutions the most glorious. He teaches to honour all men-that men should be honoured on account of what they are. They declare that those only are to be honoured who are endowed with wealth, and move in the pageantry of worldly pomp and power. Sad is the confession; yet truth requires that it should be made, that Conventional Christianity is practical Atheism, and practical Atheism is a thousand times worse than speculative. This is an Atheism we cannot touch by argument, an Atheism nourished by Churches, fostered even by our "lords spiritual," as well as by our "lords temporal," in sooth by all types and classes of man. No. CXXIV. Subject: PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY. "These things are good and profitable unto men."-TITUS iii. 8. The subject of the whole of this verse is practical Christianity. Paul says, "These things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works." I. Practical Christianity is "good" IN ITSELF. "These things are good." What things? The good works in the preceding clause. Practical Christianity is Christliness, and Christliness is essentially and absolutely good. It is intrinsically excellent. First: It accords with the will of God. His will is the standard of all good. Secondly: It is an object of moral approbation to all minds. All consciences everywhere are bound by their constitution to admire spiritual excellence. These things are good then. II. Practical Christianity is "good" in its INFLUENCE. "And profitable unto men." On this earth nothing is so useful to men as a Christly life. It is the preserving" salt," the refreshing stream, the lifegiving light. One real Christly life is of more. value to mankind than all the speculations of philosophy, all the enactments of legislation, all the achievements of war. No. CXXV. Subject: GOD IN THE HISTORY OF INDIVIDUAL MEN. "If the Lord permit."-1 COR. xvi. 7. The great truth implied in this expression of Paul's is, that God is in the history of individual men. He is not merely in the great material universe, in angelic hierarchies, in human empires, communities, churches, families, but in the individual man himself. He is (1) Not too absorbed in the vast for this. (2) Not too great for this. In Paul's words we have this fact, I. Practically RECOGNISED. "If the Lord permit." The expression implies the belief that God was (1) interested in him personally. No man had a grander conception of God than Paul. Read his sermon to the Athenians. Yet he believed that the Great One took cognizance of him, felt an interest in him. This expression implies that God (2) arranged for him personally. "If the Lord permit." As if he had said, He has a plan concerning my movements. Constantly do we find him expressing the same idea. Thus, in leaving Ephesus (Acts xviii. 21), he said: “I will return to you again if the Lord will." And then to the Corinthians he says: "I will come to you shortly if the Lord will." There is something sublime, bracing, and ennobling in the thought that God knows me, cares for me, arranges for me. In Paul's words we have this fact, II. Practically ACQUIESCED in. "If the Lord permit." This means, I have no will of my own. As if he had said, personally, consulting merely my own will, I should like to winter with you, my Corinthian friends; but I subordinate my will to the will of my God. I feel myself in His hands, and am ready to act in everything according to His arrangements. |