SERMON XXV.

THE DEATH OF ABSALOM.

"Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak, and ten young men that bare Joab's armour compassed about and smote Absalom, and slew him."-2 SAM. xviii. 14, 15.

THE moment we have accepted the grand principle that David was the type of the Lord Jesus in his combats with, and victories over the powers of darkness, first in the universe in general as our Redeemer, and then in each soul as its Redeemer, we have received a principle fertile in the power of opening the Word of God. It may well be called the Key of David. The eldest son, Absalom, we then may see represents piety in the external man, the way in which religion first appears in a man, very beautiful, very attractive, and obedient for a time, but sometimes when religion stops at that, made into an idol, and turning the hearts of the people from the Lord, His Word, and His government, as Absalom turned many of the Israelites against his king and father.

Worship is a beautiful thing. It springs from the veneration. which is the offspring of love. It is universal. Men always have worshipped, and always will worship. The atheist is a self-worshipper, and he worships himself as devoutly and as constantly as the Christian worships Him in whom we live and move and have our being. To worship is the deference which a sense of weakness inspires for the Omnipotent who can help. Worship is adoration which gratitude for past mercies awakens, and the utterance of loving trust for the future.

But worship always requires truth to guide it. Without truth, worship will attach itself to superstition and strange habits, which lead from heaven as much as they are supposed to lead to heaven.

To be without truth is to pass life in a dense fog. It is to

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make no progress; for nothing grows in the dark. Who can doubt that many nations continue in their darkness and their evils, because their consciences are benumbed by an imposing formulary, which they conceive to be satisfactory to God. They have a name that they live, and so they are satisfied. The bandit goes to church, and believes he has appeased God. The murderer makes up for his crimes by many prayers, and some gifts. Religiousness is an enemy to religion when it consists of reverence without enlightenment. They think they do God service by injuring His children. Persecutors are generally very religious in their way, but they are without truth and without charity. The stronghold of error and unspeakable mischiefs is the bigotry which is engendered by worship with no desire for enlightenment. No obstinacy is so difficult to break through as that which arises from fanaticism, in which all old abuses are sustained under the notion of doing God service, as if God could possibly be pleased, by the rejection of that truth which is the brightness of His own nature; that truth which in its essence is Himself.

Worship combined with evil is thus designated in the Divine Word: "When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me: the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with IT IS INIQUITY THE SOLEMN MEETING." It is strange that the worship of God can be made unpleasing to God, yet so it is. Never have atrocities been so awful as those which have been done in the name of God, and been sanctified by Te Deums. Many a carnival of villainy has been hallowed by religious ceremonies, as if anything could make a whited sepulchre other than abhorred in the sight of the All-Pure and All-Merciful One, who sees it full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.

The Lord desires us to have mercy and truth, goodness and truth, integrity and truth, light and truth, worship and truth. Worship without these inner virtues is an opiate, which benumbs the conscience, the gilding of rotten wood, a Dead Sea apple, fair to look upon, but putrid at the core.

Such a state of formal religion, worshipping without light and love, is that represented by Absalom in his war against his father David, and in the chapter before us its character, condemnation, and overthrow are depicted.

The whole Jewish Church had become such an Absalom

before the Lord's coming into the world, and often it is addressed in language very similar to the tender expressions of David respecting Absalom. Thus we read, "Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord" (Jer. xxxi. 20). "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt" (Hos. xi. 1).

Absalom with his host represents perverted worship as we have described, with all the ideas, sentiments, and arguments which support such a frame of mind. David represents the Lord in the soul, with supporting truths in abundance, especially such as relate to charity, faith, and good works. The army of David was divided into three parts, each under its appropriate leader.

The wood of Ephraim, where the conflict took place, was a few miles from the Jordan, in the district of Gad.

The battle which took place there represents the struggle in the mind between goodness and truth, on the one side; and evil and falsity on the other. The two hosts marshalled against each other, represent the opposing principles in full antagonism in the soul: mere barren ceremonials on the one side, and Divine Truth, sustaining charity, righteousness, and wisdom on the other. David having retired into the tribe of Gad, outside the Jordan represents Divine Truth resting upon the necessity of a good and virtuous life, both for earth and for heaven.

Gad being strictly out of the land of Canaan represents good work, or the life of love in the world. David's being in the tribe of Gad represents to the mind the Divine Truth, saying, "All religion has relation to life, and the life of religion is to do good." The wood of Ephraim represents all the perceptions of the natural mind in perfect harmony with the teachings of the Word, and all shewing the importance of religion to life, and of life to religion. Trees grow up from seeds, and they signify the perceptions of the mind which grow up from knowledge, by meditation and reflection. The interior perceptions respecting the grander principles of innocence, love, faith, and the inner states of the soul, are represented by the more valuable trees, the olive, the vine, the palm, and others. The plainer and commoner views of rational, moral, social, and civil life are represented by the timber trees, the cedar, the oak, and others. Respecting these, we read, "I will set in the desert

the fir-tree, the pine, and the box-tree together: that they may see and know, and consider and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it" (Isa. iv. 19, 20). The principles of social, political, and scientific truth, where they exist, are like trees of the forest belting the soul, and in guarding all its external faculties they are as serviceable for spiritual illustration and defence, as the trees of the wood are for the conveniences of existence in the world.

The wood of Ephraim, in the tribe of Gad, would represent the intellectual and scientific considerations of every kind which tend to support virtue, and sustain the necessity of good works. These are the trees of the field, of which it is said, "Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and ALL THE TREES OF THE FIELD SHALL CLAP THEIR HANDS." When we have a true view and a true practice of the great principles of religion, all moral, political, and scientific principles harmonize with it. We have got as it were the key of the universe. Heavenly order is also earthly order. All things harmonize. In the beautiful language of the prophet, there is a covenant of peace made with us: the evil beasts are caused to cease out of the land: we dwell safely "in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods" (Ezek. xxxiv. 25).

But Absalom and his men came to assail David's army in the wood of Ephraim, and he rode upon a mule. The horse and the ass are often mentioned in Scripture as symbols, and sometimes, though not so frequently, the mule. These animals serve to aid man in his earthly journeys, and they correspond to the faculties which assist his progress in his mental journeys. The horse corresponds to the intellect for advancing in spiritual states of intelligence. Hence we read of the Christian in the best times of the Church, being likened to one riding on a white horse, with a bow in his hand and going forth conquering and to conquer (Rev. vi. 1). The angels, too, are said to follow the Lord in heaven "on white horses." White horses mentally are intellects brightened by truth, which is white like the light. The ass represents the intellectual faculty for advancing in natural truth. Hence, we read that Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens (Gen. xlix. 14). The judges of Israel rode on white asses (Judges v. 10), and when Israel became disobedient, and forgetful of heavenly wisdom, it is called "a wild ass, alone by himself" (Hosea viii. 9).

The mule, which is partly horse and partly ass, represents the rational faculty, which interests itself equally in spiritual and in natural considerations, to forward them when friendly to, and to oppose them when resisting, the ruling principle in the mind, which is the rider. The man who sets his reasoning powers to sustain his perverse inclinations by false arguments, persistently making wrong appear right, by all manner of ingenious twistings, is like Absalom riding on his mule. A perverse mule is a very obstinate animal and a very vicious one. There is a remarkable passage in the Psalms, indicative of this: "Be ye not as the horse and the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee" (xxxii. 9). The powers of the rational faculty turned against higher truths, and opposing right, are more perverse than any other powers of the mind; they become supremely extravagant; they have no understanding. Absalom riding on his mule against the servants of David, would represent one persevering in a false course by the aid of false reasoning. Such a one would plead antiquity, custom, dread of innovation: he would confound his ceremonies with religion itself; his burdensome ritual with the worship of the heart. He would go on until he would be caught by his hair in the branches of the oak; or, in other words, he would be manifestly condemned by the perceptions of common sense.

Hair, being the most external part of the body, represents the most external things of religion. The hair of Absalom represents the very externals of a burdensome, perverse, and unmeaning ritual. Like the hair of Absalom, ceremony becomes very abundant when it has become an end, and is no longer considered a means, to elevate the mind and sanctify the heart. The oak tree, with its massive trunk, and sturdy, twisting branches, is representative of the perceptions of common sense. The clear discernment of a sincere mind is like a grand oak tree, and induces the inquiry, What is the good of your prayers without intelligence, of your worship without enlightenment, of your religion without righteousness in daily act? Has devotion without truth saved the Rome of to-day, or of past centuries, from being one of the vilest and one of the stupidest cities in the world? Are men heard for their much speaking and vain repetitions now, any more than when our Lord denounced them? Of what use is a religion of mumbled services, and senseless prayers, however numerous or however diligently performed? The blandishments of the finest music, the splendour