Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

of fine flour, and a bottle of wine (v. 24). There will be inward meditation, inward devotion, and converse with the Lord, when the new birth has taken place, so that a full conscience, a goodly inner man is formed, and then he is presented visible to others in the Lord's church, with the offering of three bullocks, an ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine. These offerings represent the perfect obedience the child of the Lord desires to render ; represented by the three bullocks by which the infant Samuel was accompanied to the temple: the one they slew is the acknowledgment that we should have no self-righteousness in this holy obedience we yield to our Heavenly Father and Friend, the contrite heart is truly his gift.

The ephah of flour means inward charity, called by our Lord the full corn in the ear (Mark iv. 28), and by the Divine Spirit in the Psalms the finest of wheat (lxxxi. 16), while the bottle of wine is the emblem of that cheering inner wisdom which gushes from the thankful heart when it is happy in conjunction with the Lord. New wine is put into the new bottle of a regenerated mind, the cup is felt to be running over, and the soul gratefully exclaims, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. The soul humbled in itself to the dust by a sense of grateful love, yet rejoicing in the divine mercy that has diffused into it a radiant glory full of heaven, exultingly exclaims with the words of Hannah's song, "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory." What a wondrous, what a glorious change is wrought in the soul when the new man is born! He who was poor indeed, becomes eternally rich. He who was a slave of sin, becomes divinely free. He who could look only to degradation and insanity, now knows that he will flourish in increasing wisdom and everlasting youth. He who was an incipient fiend becomes a beautiful angel. For the turbulence of a troubled mind, he attains the golden peace of heaven. O let us "give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever."

SERMON II.

BAD PRIESTS AND GOOD PRIESTS.

"And this shall be a sign unto thee, that shall come upon thy two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both of them.

"And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in my heart, and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine Anointed for ever."-I SAM. ii. 34, 35.

THE Lord administers His blessings to men through the instrumentality of men. He is really the giver of all things, the all in all but for man's happiness, and that man may receive somewhat of the Divine joy He has in giving, He imparts His gifts largely through the thousand offices of use for which He fits all human beings by their varied tastes, aptitudes, training, and circumstances. The labourer and the farmer, the mechanic and his employer, the seaman and the merchant, the artist and the scholar, the literary man and the philosopher, the legislator and the sovereign, all alike receive from the Divine Universal Father gifts in their daily callings to impart to their fellow-children of the Most High; and as each faithfully and lovingly does his duty in the vocation the Lord has given him, He imparts also His blessing in present peace and in continual progress. He who does his work well from love to the Lord is doing the work of religion, and contributing to the universal good.

He

The Lord gives the harvest through the farmer, the ploughman, and the sower. The Lord diffuses His blessings over the world by the merchant, the shipbuilder, and the seaman. imparts the desire and the skill, and man co-operates in the execution. The Lord creates and multiplies objects of art and beauty; but the artist receives the impulse and the enlightenment, and develops these in the glorious picture, the lovely ør the noble statue, or the brilliant gem. The Lord ministers to men by the appliances of machinery; but the engineer and

the mechanic receive the skill, the power, and the patience which bring about the goodly results that facilitate human labour, and multiply the comforts of life for all. The Lord administers order and safety to a state by means of legislators and their officers, judges and expounders of justice and law; but these must first receive into themselves His good and perfect gifts, and thus become channels of blessing to their fellow

men.

The Lord blesses men through men in all the operations of life; and that men may be more perfect instruments of His Divine Love, yet in harmony with their freedom, He disposes some to devote themselves chiefly to one career of usefulness, and some to another. By thus devoting themselves pre-eminently and constantly to one class of avocation, universal experience has taught that greater usefulness, greater perfection, and greater success are attained.

Hence have arisen the different ranks

and arrangements of men in society, grades in government and literature, in trade, commerce, and business.

Among these the ministry of the Word is not the least important.

God gave His Word through men. He opens it and diffuses it through men. Hence He has appointed and continued in all ages a class of men who have been trained and set apart to administer the blessings of religion; and when they have been truly inspired by the Giver of all good, their influence has been deeply felt. The uses the Word of God has to accomplish among men are so great, varied, and important, that it has ever been felt that the office of the minister of religion is one whose faithful and worthy fulfilment is fraught with extensive blessings to mankind. Unworthy men are an affliction anywhere and in anything; but in the ministry they are intolerable.

The good minister is always presented in the Word itself as a great blessing. Thus we read, "And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding" (Jer. iii. 15.) Our Lord called the good minister the good shepherd, who would know his sheep by name, and whose voice the sheep would hear and follow (John x. 3, 4.) The apostle Peter sets forth both the duties of a minister and his reward very clearly in his first epistle. "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief

Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away" (v. 2-4).

If we consider for a moment the rich harvest of blessings the truths of the Word of God have to diffuse among men, and reflect that it is only when those truths are explained and understood that their transcendent benefits can be fully experienced, we shall be impressed with the importance of the ministerial office, and the invaluable uses which are attendant on the labours of men who are called by the Lord, chosen, sincere, and faithful. They are watchmen who warn; they are soldiers who defend; they are shepherds who lead, guard, and feed the sheep and lambs; they are elder brothers who encourage; they are physicians under the Great Physician of souls; they are sowers of angel seed; they are standard bearers of heaven; they are ensamples of what they preach.

The truths of the Word which faithful apostles proclaim call men to repentance, and manifest to them the heinous nature of their sins. The truths of the Word have to evoke and strengthen love to the Lord, and charity to our neighbour, filling with the spirit of heaven every employment and office in which we are engaged. The truths of the Word are the means by which virtuous principles are formed and sustained; by them we are strengthened in the hour of trial, and consoled and encouraged in periods of darkness and distress. The truths of the Word impart freedom to men; they lead them in the regenerate life, and unfold in them beauty and order. The truths of the Word lighten up the gloom and aid us to bear the anguish of affliction, and they irradiate the scene of death with the dawn of eternal light and peace. "By the Word of the Lord are the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth" is as true of the Word as it operates in human souls, as it ever was of the Eternal Word or Wisdom by which the created universe was formed and is sustained. The work of the ministry is to exhibit and strengthen the foundations of human society, and irradiate the path of life with beams from heaven. Ministers of the Word are to raise up the golden candlestick, and diffuse over the dark pathways of existence a golden and a radiant gleam. The faithful priest has been well described by Cowper, as"Much impressed

Himself, as conscious of his awful charge,
And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds
May feel it too: affectionate in look,
And tender in address, as well becomes

A messenger of grace to guilty men.

But if we turn from the contemplation of what the ministry. ought to be, to regard the account given of Hophni and Phinehas, what a spectacle of degradation do we find! Being sons of the high priest, their conduct was more than commonly disgraceful and nefarious. They oppressed the people; seizing with insolence more than their due, and taking by force what was intended to be the offering of willing hearts. They disgusted the people with divine worship, instead of commending it by their purity, their wisdom, and their holiness. "Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord: for men abhorred the offering of the Lord" (ii. 17.) There is no greater harm that one man can do to another than to misrepresent religion to him by unfaithfulness, and dishearten him by a bad example.

But these unhappy priests went further. They degraded themselves by the most shameless conduct at the very door of the tabernacle. The evils most directly and interiorly opposed to the purity of heaven, they paraded in open defiance of the Lord, as if in mockery of their father, of their office, and of decency. The whole scene was that of an expiring church. The people wicked, the priests false to their vocation, the reins in the hands of feeble rulers, ruin at the door.

Such epochs of general decay always portend general disaster, and soon it certainly came. The Philistines invaded the country and carried all before them; the ark, the very centre of their worship and the glory of their dispensation, was taken; and the light of Israel was almost entirely extinguished. No more complete illustration can be afforded of what Cowper so justly described, than this period of the high-priesthood of Eli :

"When nations are to perish in their sins,
'Tis in the Church the leprosy begins.
The priest whose office is with zeal sincere
To watch the fountain, and preserve it clear,
Carelessly nods, and sleeps upon the brink,

While others poison what the flock must drink :
Or, waking at the call of lust alone,

Infuses lies and errors of his own.

His unsuspecting flock believe it pure,
And, tainted by the very means of cure,

Catch from each other a contagious spot,

The foul forerunner of a general rot.

The Church is the salt of the earth, when it is pure; it is the curse of the earth when it is depraved. Hence the Lord watches over the Church with jealous and tender care, and provides in every time of its decay the means of its restoration.

« НазадПродовжити »