for what is good and true, for the sake of what is good and true. They who love much, are fitted for the higher degrees of blessedness; those who love little, for the lower. Those who are subordinate spirits in their choice of humble virtues will have lower degrees of blessedness; they will be hired servants in the kingdom of our heavenly Father; but the hired servants have bread enough and to spare. They will be hewers of wood and drawers of water. Wood is the symbol of goodness of a low kind, but still goodness. There is not much life in wood, but it is externally serviceable for many of the purposes of life. To hew wood spiritually, is to shape life from a steady sense of duty, not from high enlightenment, nor from deep feeling, but from duty. If some men will not strive to attain high principle, but they will steadily do good, the Lord says, "Let them live.' Such will not be seraphs glowing with love, nor cherubs guarding with grand truths, but they will be of those who are round about the throne. "Let them live. They may not be desirous of enjoying great draughts of the water of life, but they may be very useful in drawing water for others. In various ways, then, they may assist in the acquisition of truth and its diffusion among men, under the direction of the princes of the congregation. them live." "Let It is said, the Israelites took of the men's bread, and asked not counsel of the Lord when they made the agreement with them at first; but, subsequently, notwithstanding their more accurate knowledge the covenant was confirmed. The partaking of the mens' bread would imply no very nice discrimination on the part of the Israelites themselves. And in the position of spiritual progress represented, it will probably imply a want of nice thought, and quick sensibility in joining in exercises of worship, with those who are in ancient error. To do this induces dulness of mind. We should in all things ask counsel of the Lord. In all things seek for light from heaven. And though we shall still say of those in less pure and perfect states, "Let them live," it will not be from dulness to discriminate, but from a desire to elevate and to bless. Let them not impose upon us their tattered garments as sacred things; but let us say with the Poet, "Old opinions, rags and tatters; We have found a mental raiment Purer, whiter, to put on. Old opinions! rags and tatters! SERMON LIX. THE BATTLE WITH THE FIVE KINGS, AND THE SUN AND MOON STANDING STILL. "Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for Israel."-Joshua x. 12-14. It is an important reflection that presents itself to the mind, when we compare the quiet life in the wilderness which the Israelites had led for many years before the death of Moses, with the great activity that followed the appointment of Joshua, and the entrance of the Israelitish host into Canaan. No sooner is the Jordan passed, than we read of the storming of Jericho, and then the stirring events involved in the struggle with Ai; and now we have before us the crisis of the great struggle between advancing Israel and the corrupt nations which existed as a moral pest-the worst portion of the human race enslaved in sin --an organized mass of the foulest polluters which blighted the hopes, and defiled the career of man. The friendly adhesion of the Gibeonites to Israel was evidently an alarming circumstance to the mountain kings, the Amorites, who ruled each over his fastness and its fair but formidable territory. They determined at once to punish those whom they regarded as betraying the country to the dreaded strangers. The king of Jerusalem, with four others, "gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it."- -ver. 5. The men of Gibeon were filled with consternation, and sent pressingly to Joshua for instant help. "Slack not thy hand from thy servants," they said; "come up to us quickly and save us, and help PP us, for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us." The Israelites were at Gilgal, which appears to have been for some time their head quarters. Joshua prayed to the Lord for direction, and was answered, "Fear them not, for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee." A night march of nearly thirty miles was determined upon, while the defiles in the mountains were open; and before their astonished enemies could have supposed the army in motion, they were appalled by the impetuous attack of the now dreaded men of Israel. The hosts of the kings were defeated with great slaughter. The panic-struck multitude fled up the mountain road to Beth-horon the upper, chased by their victorious pursuers, and over the mountain range to Beth-horon the lower; the Amorite power was broken, and Israel fairly established in the land. While the hurrying foe was passing between the two Beth-horons, a terrible storm of hail-stones added to their disasters, so that more died with hail-stones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. The valorous leader of the Israelites felt the unspeakable importance of the victory then being achieved, and full of intensest energy, he sought to make the blow inflicted upon his opponents as complete as possible; and as he pressed on with his brave followers he cried out in the sight of Israel, "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou Moon, in the valley of Ajalon." And by divine arrangement of the atmosphere, not difficult to conceive, the light of the sun was prolonged, and the moon appeared to remain still, until the rout of the Amorites was accomplished, and no power remained capable of defeating this people, once slaves, but now trained, encouraged, and directed by the Lord. Many decisive battles have made lasting impressions on the career of nations, and given a certain character to their progress throughout their whole subsequent history. The victory at Poitiers which drove back Mahometan power in Europe, and our own battle of Hastings: Lutzen, Leipsic, and Naseby were of this kind; but more than these in their consequences was this great struggle at Beth-horon. It was the Marathon of Israel. Victory there secured the settlement of Canaan by the twelve tribes, the existence of the temple, the psalms of David, the line of prophets, and the vast consequences to man's spiritual history which have flowed from these. Devoutly, therefore, should we trace the footsteps of Divine Providence in history, and feel how, by links only manifest to meditation, and fully known only to the All-wise, all the generations of men are connected together, and depend upon each other so as to form one vast network of events and circumstances leading on the progression of all mankind, all conducted by Infinite Mercy, all tending to the highest attainable good. Hence, the Psalmist exclaims, "O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever. To him who smote great kings, for his mercy endureth for ever: and slew famous kings, for his mercy endureth for ever." We have already remarked how great is the contrast between the comparative quiet of Israel's history for many years before the death of Moses, as compared with the rapid and decided actions which followed the march over the Jordan, under the command of Joshua. When we remember the broad distinction between Israel on the outside of the Jordan, as representing religion in its external work of reforming our lives, and Israel on the inside of the Jordan, or within the promised land, as representative of religion when it is regenerating the heart, we shall perceive the important bearing of this fact on the Christian's spiritual history. After the agitations of decided conversion to God, and the struggles attendant upon a steady forsaking of outward sin, there comes a considerable period, not marked with vivid incidents. We do not fall back, but we are not aware of striking advancement. We go on in the usual way, learning and living as ordinary Christians do, but with nothing very progressive in our experience. We are encamped at the foot of Sinai, acquiring a knowledge of laws, statutes, and judgments in daily life. We are not tried much nor do we triumph much. We are for a long time in a somewhat monotonous state. We scarcely know whether we are advancing or not, and sometimes we suspect we are not. On the whole our lives and states are uneventful, but Divine Mercy is doing wonders for us within, and preparing us for that hidden work of religion represented by the labours of Joshua. Divine Mercy now discloses to us, that no bitterness of temper must be allowed to remain, nor secret pride. A thousand things we have not detected in ourselves, are revealed to us, and those magnificent words said to Israel are realized to "The Eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, destroy them." us, This revealing of our hidden foes to us, this disclosing of ourselves to ourselves, accompanied by the conviction that all wrong principles must perish from our hearts, and sins of feeling and sins of sentiment must be expelled as faithfully as formerly were sins of action, is a divine work. These disclosures within, of hidden hates, of hidden envies, vanities, and pride, of hidden passions, of hidden lusts, of secret fires and impurities, those foes of a man's own heart and household is shewing us the Amorites of the soul, and their extermination is the work of Israel under Joshua. A shallow religion says it cannot be done. All true religion says, it MUST be done. Only the pure in heart can see God. The difference between a true genuine divine religion and a spurious religion is not so much in the outside life, and not so much in outside worship, as in the inward dispositions, sentiments, and feelings of the heart. The pharisee is as strict in outward shew as the man of true religion, but he loves the sin he dares not do, and hates those who do not favour him with deadlier animosity and more persevering rancour than many a worldling does. The crimes flowing from the hates of men professing religion form the darkest pages of the sad annals of human crime and misery. These secret evils true religion will root out; a spurious religion either passes them over unnoticed, or if it cannot ignore them, declares they cannot be overcome, and insists that the essence of salvation is believing some dogmatic sentiment, made all-important by the vehement maintainers of it; or in the diligent practice of the ceremonies of the Church. Every old religion has thus its traditions which make the commandments of God of none effect. Every time that true religion is re-asserted from heaven, its golden burden is the same. "Make you a new heart and a right spirit, for why will ye die, O house of Israel." Every impurity is within the heart until it is regenerated. No outward conformity to worship suffices to prepare the soul for heaven. Except the inward hell is transformed into a little heaven by the labours of heart-work under the leadership of the Divine Joshua, the Lord Jesus within, who can and will overcome our Amorites, there is no peace. The Canaanites were the centre of a decayed Church, an ancient system once true and immensely extensive, but long formed into a strange mixture of worship and vileness. That ancient religion had acknowledged a Sacred Volume consisting of three great portions, the book of the Wars of Jehovah, the Prophecies, and the Book of Jasher, probably poems or psalms, for the references to this book are all poetic. All over Canaan |