SERMONS 
 
 ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH 
 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT 
 
SERMONS 
 
 ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH 
 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT 
 
 S. R.' DRIVER, D.D. 
 
 a-.GirS PROFESSOR OF HEBREW, AiSD CANON OF CHRISTCHURCH, OX'FOKr 
 
 EXAMINING CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD BISHOl' OF SOUTHWELL 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERATURP: OF THE OLD TESTAMi:\T " 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 I6( 
 
 VJ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Of the Sermons collected in the present volume, the first 
 five and the seventh were preached before the University of 
 Oxford, the sixth was preached before the University of 
 Cambridge, the last five were preached in the Cathedral at 
 Christchurch.i 1 he volume (the idea of which is due to 
 the suggestion of a friend) may be regarded as supplement- 
 ary, to a certain extent, to my Introduction to the Litet'ature 
 of the Old Testament^ published in 1891. Although, as I 
 hope, that work contained sufficiently clear indications that 
 I was not indifferent to the theological aspect of the Old 
 Testament, or to the permanent value attaching to the moral 
 and religious teaching conveyed in it, the plan prescribed to 
 me precluded my touching upon these subjects otherwise 
 than incidentally ; and the present volume, though not, 
 of course, a systematic treatise, will, I trust, illustrate more 
 completely how I view them, and in what directions I con- 
 ceive that the Old Testament may be fruitfully and intel- 
 ligently studied, and be made practically useful at the 
 present day. It appears to be sometimes supposed that a 
 critical view of the literature and history of the Old Testament 
 is incompatible with any real sense for the spiritual and 
 moral teaching which it contains : it is my hope and wish 
 that the pages which follow may suffice to show how very far 
 
 ^ The first seven Sermons have been printed before, at the time 
 when they were delivered, in the Oxford University Herald, the Oxford 
 Reviciv, the Oxford Magazine, or (No. 6) the Cambridge Revirw, Nos. 
 I and 5 also in the CJiiireh of England Pulpit and Ecclesiastical Revicxo. 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 this is from being the case. As I have said elsewhere, the 
 adoption of critical conclusions, such as those which I have 
 expressed myself, "implies no change in respect to the 
 Divine attributes revealed in the Old Testament ; no change 
 in the lessons of human duty to be derived from it ; no change 
 as to the general position (apart from the interpretation of 
 particular passages) that the Old Testament points forward 
 prophetically to Christ." ^ The present collection of 
 Sermons will, I hope, serve to illustrate, from different points 
 of view, the truth of the positions here affirmed. It only 
 remains to add that the last five sermons are of simpler 
 structure than the rest, and are, in the main, more directly 
 exegetical : my aim in publishing them has been to show 
 more particularly how "the specific lessons of the Old 
 Testament" may be enforced, and its "providential pur- 
 pose " recognized,^ without interpreting its words in a sense 
 alien to their original meaning or context, or otherwise 
 deviating from a strict application of critical and exegetical 
 canons. 
 
 As an introduction, I have prefixed a Paper, read at the 
 Church Congress at Folkestone, October 6, 1892, on the 
 permanent moral and devotional value of the Old Testament 
 for the Christian Church. 
 
 ' Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, p. xv (ed. 4, 
 p. xvi). 
 
 - Com p. Prof. A. F. Kirkpatrick's Divine Library of the Old Testa- 
 ment (1891), p. 118. 
 
 ADDENDUM. 
 
 P.ige 27, note. — The series of papers by Professor Ryle, here referred 
 to, have been re-published in a single volume, under the title, The 
 Early Narratives of Genesis (1892). 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 ON THE PERMANENT MORAL AND DEVOTIONAL 
 VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT FOR THE 
 CHRISTIAN CHURCH 
 
 SERMON 
 
 I. EVOLUTION COMPATIBLE WITH FAITH 
 
 II. ISAIAH'S VISION 
 
 III. THE IDEALS OF THE PROPHETS 
 
 IV. GROWTH OF BELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE 
 V. THE HEBREW PROPHETS 
 
 VI. THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 
 
 VII. INSPIRATION 
 
 VIII. THE FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS 
 
 IX. THE WARRIOR FROM EDOM 
 
 X. THE SIXTY-EIGHTH PSALM 
 
 XI. THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS 
 
 XII. MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE 
 
 IX 
 
 I 
 
 28 
 
 50 
 72 
 
 99 
 119 
 
 143 
 163 
 179 
 190 
 204 
 217 
 
THE PERMANENT MORAL AND DEVOTIONAL 
 
 VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT FOR THE 
 
 CHRISTL\N CHURCH.i 
 
 The subject on which I have been invited to read is one, 
 I need hardly say, which it is impossible to treat with any 
 approach to completeness in the limited space of twenty 
 minutes. All that I can do is to illustrate briefly some of 
 its more salient aspects, conscious all the time that I am 
 leaving much unsaid, and fortunate in the thought that 
 thoie who follow me will have the opportunity of supplying 
 my omissions. Without in any degree derogating from the 
 absolute ideal of life and conduct presented in the New 
 Testament, I shall endeavour to show, in the time at my 
 disposal, that the Old Testament possesses distinctive 
 characteristics of its own, which must ever secure for it a 
 paramount position and influence in the Church. 
 
 In the first place, then, and generally, the Old Testament 
 has a value, peculiar to itself, from the fact that the truths 
 which it inculcates are set forth with great variety of 
 external form, and with superlative grace of imagery and 
 diction. These features, though it is true they are but 
 external ones, must not be under-rated in our estimate of 
 the Old Testament as a whole. The preacher, not less 
 than the poet or the orator, makes it his aim to impress, 
 
 ^ A paper read at the Church Congress at Folkestone, October 6, 
 1892. 
 
X PERMANENT MORAL AND DEVOTIONAL 
 
 by a choice and appropriate literary style, those whom he 
 addresses; and had the truths which the Bible enunciates 
 been presented in an unformed, uncultured literary garb, 
 without tlic melody of rhythm and diction which actually 
 accompanies them, we may be sure that its influence upon 
 mankind would have been very much less than it has been. 
 The variety of form, and the literary excellence, displayed in 
 the Old Testament are both surprising. There is history, 
 and biography, both penetrated, more or less visibly, by 
 ethical and religious ideas ; there is the oratory of Deuter- 
 onomy and the prophets, the aim of w^hich is to enforce 
 more directly the same truths ; there is poetry, of varied 
 types, lyrical, elegiac, and even — in a rudimentary form — 
 dramatic, in which the emotions, fired by religious ardour, 
 or suffused (Song of Songs) by a warm moral glow, find 
 deep and pure expression. And each of these literary forms 
 possesses, all but uniformly, that peculiar charm and grace 
 of style, which entitles it to be ranked as " classical." 
 History, oratory, poetry, each is of a type which, in its 
 kind, cannot be surpassed : the bright and picturesque 
 narrative of the historical books, the grand and impressive 
 oratory of the prophets, the delicacy and brightness of the 
 Hebrew lyric, vie alternately with one another in fascinating 
 the reader, and compelling his admiration and regard. 
 
 But it is time to turn from the form of the literature of the 
 Old Testament to its substance. And here it must at the 
 outset be observed, that the provinces of morality and re- 
 ligion are in the Old Testament so closely associated that it 
 is difficult to separate absolutely its moral and devotional 
 aspects, and to treat them independently ; moral duties are, 
 for instance, often inculcated or exemplified in a manner 
 which directly stimulates the devotional impulses ; but as 
 far as possible, I will deal with the two aspects of my subject 
 successively. 
 
VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. XI 
 
 (i.) I. The Old Testament is of permanent value on 
 account of the clearness and emphasis with which it insists on 
 the primary moral duties, obligatory upon man as man ; and 
 not only on what may be termed the more private or indi- 
 vidual virtues, but also on the great domestic and civic 
 virtues, upon which the happiness of the family, and the 
 welfare of the community, alike depend. Truthfulness, 
 honesty, sincerity, justice, humanity, philanthropy, generosity^ 
 disinterestedness, neighbourly regard, sympathy with the 
 unfortunate or the oppressed, the refusal to injure another 
 by word or deed, cleanness of hands, purity of thought and 
 action, elevation of motive, singleness of purpose — these, 
 and such as these, are the virtues which, as we know, have 
 ever evoked the moral admiration of mankind, and they 
 are the virtues which, again and again, in eloquent and burning 
 words, are commended and inculcated in the pages of the 
 Old Testament. And corresponding to this high apprecia- 
 tion of moral qualities, there is its correlative — a hatred of 
 wrong-doing, and a profound sense of sin, which is stamped, 
 if possible, yet more conspicuously upon the literature of 
 ancient Israel. I wish I had time to quote illustrations ; 
 but after all they would be superfluous ; for those who hear 
 me will, I am sure, be conscious already of familiar echoes 
 sounding in their ears and substantiating what I have said. 
 I will only observe, that such teaching is to be found in all 
 parts of the Old Testament. Indirectly, for example, the 
 moral value of qualities such as I have named is frequently 
 illustrated in the historical books. The prophets devote 
 their finest and most impressive periods to asserting the 
 claims of the moral law upon the obedience of mankind, 
 and to the rebuke of vice and sin. In the poetical writings, 
 the Book of Proverbs abounds in similar moral teaching ; 
 while in the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Job, for 
 instance, the agonies of a burdened conscience, and in 
 
xii PERMANENT MORAL AND DEVOTIONAL 
 
 the thirty-first cliapter of the same book the portrait of a 
 noble and elevated character, untainted even in secret by 
 unworthy thouglits or evil desires, are drawn with surprising 
 clearness and force of moral insight. Not only, however, 
 are moral duties inculcated as such ; the intimate connection 
 of religion with morality is also strongly emphasized. The 
 essential association of the religious character with the 
 moral law is never lost from sight ; and the moral con- 
 ditions of pleasing God are repeatedly and unambiguously 
 insisted on. Although the particular form in which this 
 truth was commonly forgotten in ancient times, viz., the 
 idea that God's favour could be propitiated by abundant 
 sacrifices, irrespectively of the spiritual temper and moral 
 dispositions of the worshipper, is no longer prevalent, yet 
 there is still danger of its being overlooked in other ways. 
 But in the Old Testament its importance is fully recognized ; 
 and the prophets, in passages glowing with warm and 
 impassioned eloquence, set it forth with peculiar directness 
 and force. 
 
 2. The Old Testament affords examples of faith and 
 conduct, of character and principle, in many varied 
 circumstances of life, which we may in different ways adopt 
 as our models, and strive to emulate. It is not of course 
 pretended that the characters of the Old Testament are 
 devoid of flaws or blameless : some are limited by the moral 
 and spiritual conditions of the age in which they lived, others 
 exhibit personal shortcomings peculiar to themselves : but 
 these faults are generally discoverable as such by the light 
 of the principles laid down in the Old Testament itself, 
 and none ought to be mistaken for virtues by members of the 
 Christian Church, who alone on the present occasion come 
 into consideration. In the historical books such virtues as 
 kindness and fidelity, modesty and simplicity, courtliness of 
 action and demeanour (implying self-discipline and repres- 
 
VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. XIU 
 
 sion), patriotic feeling, domestic affection and friendship, are 
 abundantly exemplified. In the narratives of events belonging 
 to a distant past, from which precise historical reminiscences 
 cannot reasonably be supposed to have been preserved, and 
 in which therefore an ideal element may naturally be inferred 
 to be present, the characters are so delineated as to be 
 typically significant : the outlines supplied by tradition are 
 so filled in by the inspired narrators with a living vesture of 
 circumstance, expression, and character, that the heroic 
 figures of antiquity become patterns to succeeding gener- 
 ations. The nobility, the dignity, the disinterestedness, the 
 affection and love for his people, which mark the character 
 of Moses, cannot but impress every reader. In the books 
 of Samuel, in spite of faults, sometimes grave ones, we can 
 trace, in the character of David, the softening and elevating 
 influence of his religion ; we can see that, both in his 
 private and in his public capacity, he stood on a very 
 different level from the heathen monarchs of antiquity. In 
 a book like Ruth we can observe the religious spirit 
 sanctifying and ennobling the ordinary duties of life : the 
 fact that the scenes and conversations are doubtless to some 
 extent idealized, and owe their form to the literary skill of 
 the writer, does not detract from their didactic value ; the 
 picture, even if in particular features it reproduces the 
 narrator's ideal rather than the actual and literal facts, is not 
 less significant, not less instructive, as an example of life 
 and manners, to ourselves. In the biographies of the 
 prophets we see exemplified, partly in such details of their 
 lives as have come down to us, partly, and more fully, in 
 their discourses, sincerity of purpose, uncompromising 
 opposition to vice and sin, devotion to principle, sympathy 
 with suffering, national feeling, and generally a high and 
 disinterested standard of moral action, maintained under 
 many different circumstances, and in many varied situations 
 
xiv PERMANENT MORAL AND DEVOTIONAL 
 
 of both public and private life, with a consistency and 
 unflinching dev^otion which must command the admiration, 
 and arouse the emulation, of all time. 
 
 3. The Old Testament is of permanent value on account 
 of the great ideals of human life and society which it holds 
 up before the eyes of its readers. I allude in particular to 
 those ideal pictures of a renovated human nature, and 
 transformed social state, which the prophets loved to 
 delineate — the pictures of human nature, freed from the 
 imperfections and corruptions which actually beset it, in- 
 spired by an innate devotion to God and right, and ruled not 
 by law as a command dictated from without, but by moral 
 impulses springing up instinctively within the breast : the 
 pictures of human society, no longer harassed by the strife 
 of opposing interests and parties, or honey-combed by 
 oppressions and abuses, but held together by the bonds of 
 love and friendship, each eager to advance his neighbour's 
 welfare, and the nations of the earth united in a federation 
 of peace under the suzerainty of the God of Israel. 
 These ideals have, alas ! not yet been reaHzed so completely 
 as the prophets anticipated : the passions and wilfulness of 
 human nature have proved in too many cases obstacles 
 insuperable even by the influences of Christianity ; but 
 progress, we may trust, has been made ; and meanwhile 
 these ideals remain, the wonder and the delight of the 
 ages, to kindle our aspirations, to brace our efforts, to point 
 out to us the goal which human endeavour should exert 
 itself to realize, and which human society may one day hope 
 to attain. 
 
 4. The Old Testament must always share with the New 
 Testament the position of forming a standard of pure and 
 spiritual religion, in contradistinction to all formalism or 
 abstract systems. The parts of the Old Testament which 
 might lend themselves, and in the late period of Jewish 
 
VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. XV 
 
 history did lend themselves, to exaggeration or perversion, 
 in the direction of outward ceremonialism, are just those 
 which were abrogated by the coming of Christ ; and for 
 those who do not live under the Levitical dispensation, 
 the danger from this source has consequently passed away. 
 The more directly moral and spiritual parts of the Old 
 Testament display still the freshness and the power which 
 they possessed when they were first written. The pure 
 moral perceptions of the prophets, the unadulterated 
 spiritual intuitions of the psalmists, must ever form a 
 standard of faith and action, recalling men, when in peril 
 of being led astray to trust in the external rites of religion, or 
 to forget the true nature of spiritual service, to a sense of the 
 real demands which God makes of His worshippers, and 
 of the character and conduct in which He truly delights. 
 
 (ii.) I turn to consider the value of the Old Testament 
 for devotional purposes. And here our thoughts move 
 naturally, in the first instance, towards the Book of Psalms, 
 in which the ripest fruits of Israel's spiritual experience 
 are gathered together, and the religious affections find 
 their richest and completest expression. It is difficult, 
 within the compass of a few words, to characterize the 
 Psalter with any adequacy. In the Psalter the religious 
 affections manifest themselves without restraint, and the 
 soul is displayed in converse with God, disclosing to Him, 
 in sweet and melodious accents, its manifold emotions, its 
 hopes and its fears, its desires and its aspirations. In the 
 Psalms we hear the voice of penitence and contrition, of 
 resignation and trust, of confidence and faith, of yearning 
 for God's presence and the spiritual privilege of communion 
 with Him, of reverential joy and jubilation, of thanksgiving 
 and exultation, of confession and supplication, of adoration 
 and praise; we hear meditations on tlie great attributes of 
 the Creator, on His hand as seen in nature or in history, on 
 
xvi TERMANENT MORAL AND DEVOTIONAL 
 
 the problems of humm life, and on the pathos of human 
 existence ; and we hear all these varied notes uttered with a 
 depth, an intensity, and a purity, which stand unparalleled 
 in religious literature, and which the poets and hymn-writers 
 of subsequent ages have been content to look up to as to 
 an unapproachable model. Love, and trust, and faith, and 
 such-like sacred affections, are set before us in the Book of 
 Psalms, not as commanded, or enjoined as a duty from 
 without, but as exercised, as the practical response offered 
 by the believing soul to the claims laid upon it by its 
 Maker, as the spontaneous outcome of the heart stirred by 
 god-like emotions. The historical critic may question, and 
 question justly, whether the Psalms are so largely as is 
 commonly supposed a product of the earlier period of 
 Israel's history : he will not question the justice of Dean 
 Church's judgment when, in His well-known essay on the 
 Psalms,^ he claims that they lift us into an atmosphere of 
 religious thought and feeling, which is the highest that man 
 has ever reached, and that for their faith in the unseen, their 
 perception of the character of God, and the manifold forms 
 in which their affections expand and unfold themselves 
 towards Him, their authors stand above the religious 
 poets of every other age or clime, and enjoy a pre-eminence 
 from which they can never be dethroned. As a devotional 
 manual, as a manual displaying the soul in closest and yet 
 freest and most manifold converse with God, the Book of 
 Psalms must retain permanently in the Church the unique, 
 unapproachable position which it has ever held. 
 
 Although, however, the devotional spirit finds its highest 
 as well as its most familiar expression in the Psalter, it is by 
 no means confined to this part of the Old Testament. As 
 I remarked before, there are many parts of the Old Testa- 
 ment — for instance, the descriptions by the prophets of tlie 
 
 1 In The Gifts of Civilisation (iSSo), p. 391 ff. 
 
VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. xvii 
 
 marvellous attributes of the Deity, His glory, and majesty, 
 and mighty acts — which, though not directly designed for 
 devotional purposes, nevertheless arouse the emotions of 
 adoration and wonder, and stir the devotional instincts. 
 Thus the Book of Job, especially if read with the aid of a 
 sympathetic commentary, such as that of Prof. A. B. 
 Davidson (in the Ca??ibridge Bible for Schools), will be 
 found to contain, side by side with outbursts of defiant 
 boldness, passages of supreme poetic delicacy, and instinct 
 with devotional feeling, the sense of God's omnipresence 
 and vastness, the moral significance of suffering, the pathetic 
 yearning of the patriarch's soul to hear the voice of the 
 Creator calling him again to His fellowship after the long 
 period of seeming estrangement. The exilic chapters of the 
 Book of Isaiah also contain frequent passages of the highest 
 devotional suggestiveness and beauty : I may instance, 
 in particular, the beautiful thanksgiving, confession, and 
 supplication, contained in Is. Ixiii. 7 — Ixiv. 12. There are 
 besides numerous ideas, corresponding to different aspects 
 of the devotional temper, which are presented with unique 
 clearness and emphasis in the Old Testament. Consider, for 
 instance, the warmth with which, in Deuteronomy, the love 
 of God is insisted on as the primary motive of human action ; ^ 
 how in the same book (nine times), and in writings influenced 
 by it, the devotion of the whole being to God is expressed 
 by the significant phrase, to search after, to serve, or to love 
 Him, '' with all the heart and with all the soul ; " - how, also 
 in the same book, the injunction is reiterated, to "rejoice 
 
 ^ Deut. vi. 5, X. 12, xi. i, 13, 22, xiii. 3, xix. 9, xxx. 6, 16, 20. 
 
 2 Deut. iv. 29, vi. 5, x. 12, xi. 13, xiii. 3, xxvi. 16, xxx. 2, 6, 10 ; Josh, 
 xxii. 5, xxiii. 14 ; I Kinys ii. 4, viii. 48 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 3, 25 ; 2 Chron. xv. 
 12 (comp. the writer's Introduction, pp. 73, 94, 97, 190}. The heart \% 
 mentioned as the organ, according to ancient Hebrew psychology, of 
 tlie intellect (cf. Jer. v. 21 ; Hos. vii. ii, R. V. inars;.), the soie/ o.s the 
 organ of the desires and affections (cf. Dcut. xii, 20, xiv. 25, xxiv. 1 5 
 [Hi. '* lifteth up his sou/ towards it"], Ps. xxv. I, L^. xxvi. 9, Jer. xxii. 
 27, R. V. marg., Mic, vii. i). 
 
xviii PERMANENT MORAL AND DEVOTIONAL 
 
 before God " (viz. at a sacrificial meal) with a grateful and 
 generous heart ; ^ how in other books — for time compels me 
 to speak generally — the fear of God, the observance of the 
 ways, the commandments, the precepts of God, the resolu- 
 tion to obey Him and hearken to His voice, the desire to 
 seek and to find Him, the determination to do His pleasure 
 and to know Him, the privilege of the righteous to have 
 access to God and to call upon Him at all times, 2 the 
 blessedness of rejoicing, and even of delighting, in Him,^ 
 the joyousness of His service, the grateful sense of His 
 protection or of His regard, are again and again expressed, 
 and dwelt upon with an ardour which is never satisfied, 
 with an enthusiasm which is unrestrained, with a devotion 
 which knows no bounds. And it is, too, the high merit of 
 the devotion of the Old Testament that it is always a manly 
 devotion : in contrast to the tone of some modern writers, 
 who have sought unwisely to surpass their models, the 
 sentiment is never effeminate, the pathos never exaggerated 
 or morbid. It is no small achievement, it may be observed 
 in passing, to have framed what may almost be termed a 
 complete devotional nomenclature, which formulates tersely 
 and forcibly the great duties and offices of a spiritual 
 religion, and which, moreover, with surprising elasticity, 
 lends itself readily to adoption by another language. This, 
 however, is what the religious teachers of ancient Israel 
 have achieved. The illustrations which I have taken are but 
 a few of the many devotional ideas with which the pages of 
 the Old Testament abound, and which from the freshness, 
 the force, and the reality, with which they are there set 
 forth, must ensure for it undying vitality, and ever prevent 
 it from becoming obsolete, or devoid of worth. 
 
 1 Deut. xii. 12, 18, xvi. 11, xxvii, 7 (cf. xii. 7, xiv. 26, xvi. 14, 
 XX vi. 11): conip. Lev. xxiii. 40, 
 
 2 Jobxiii. 16, xxvii. 10, Ps. V. 7 (" can " or "do " : not "will"). 
 
 3 Is. Ixii. 10, &c. ; Is. Iviii. 14, Job xxii. 26, xxvii. 10, Ps. xxxvii. 4. 
 
VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. xlx 
 
 I hold, then, that the moral and devotional value of the 
 Old Testament — as indeed its religious value generally — is 
 unafifected by critical questions respecting the authorship or 
 date of its various parts. And if, in conclusion, I were to sum 
 up briefly the grounds on which the moral and devotional 
 value of the Old Testament seems to me to be perman- 
 ently assured, I should say that these were partly its fine 
 literary form, partly the great variety of mode and occasion 
 by which the creed and practice of its best men are exempli- 
 fied, partly the intensity of spirit by which its teaching is 
 penetrated and sustained. As a purely literary work, the 
 Old Testament combines the rare merits of including passages 
 of high moral and spiritual worth, at once attractive and 
 intelligible to the simplest capacities, and of being written 
 in a style which must ever command the respect and 
 appreciation of the most cultured. Then, secondly, the 
 truths which it contains are not presented in an abstract 
 garb, as a collection of moral or religious maxims to be 
 apprehended merely by the intellect ; they are presented 
 under every variety of circumstance and form, as part of the 
 actual life, and practice, and belief, of men representing a 
 nation through the entire course of its chequered history. 
 And they are presented, lastly, with a spirituality of motive, 
 an intensity of conviction, a warmth and inwardness of 
 feeling, and a singleness of aim, which cannot but impress 
 deeply every reader, and evoke corresponding impulses in 
 his own breast. Upon these grounds, it seems to me that 
 so long as human nature continues, endowed intellectually 
 as it now^ is, the Old Testament must remain an ever- 
 fresh fountain-head of living truth, able to invigorate and 
 restore, to purify and refine, to ennoble and enrich, the 
 moral and spiritual being of man. 
 
SERMON I.i 
 
 EVOLUTION COMPATIBLE WITH FAITH. 
 
 Gen. ii. 7 : "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the 
 ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and 
 man became a living soul." 
 
 These words are taken from the opening section of 
 the second of the two main documents, which have 
 been interwoven with rare skill in our present Penta- 
 teuch, and which can be traced side by side to the 
 close of the Book of Joshua. Both in scope and style, 
 the two narratives differ widely ; the one deals with 
 the antiquities of the Jewish nation, the origin of its 
 sacred law, and its ceremonial observances, the other 
 consists of a series of cameos of the patriarchal and 
 Mosaic age, each exhibiting with singular perfection 
 of literary form some theological or ethical truth. 
 The portion which extends from the fourth verse of 
 the second chapter to the close of the third chapter, 
 is plainly a continuous whole, which appropriately 
 follows the preceding section, because while that deals 
 with creation as a whole, this places in the forefront 
 the formation of man, and by detailing the story of 
 
 1 Preached at St. Mary's, Oxford, before the University, on 
 Sunday, Oct. 21, 1883. 
 
 B 
 
2 SERMON I. 
 
 the Fall forms the introduction to the subsequent 
 history. The narrative, while not discrepant theologi- 
 cally from chapter i., is independent of it, and pre- 
 supposes (as it would seem) a different view of the 
 order of creation. Consider its opening words : — 
 " No plant in the field was yet in the earth, and no 
 herb of the field had yet sprung up ; " (and the reason 
 follows) " for Jehovah God had not caused it to rain 
 upon the earth, and there was no man to till the 
 ground." The surface of the earth is represented as 
 desolate and bare : it is watered only by a mist. 
 Upon the earth, thus bare, man is placed ; a garden 
 is prepared for his reception, and provided with trees 
 necessary for his support. As yet he is alone in the 
 world ; and if the Hebrew of verse 19 is to be under- 
 stood in its ordinary and natural sense, it implies that 
 the animals were still non-existent — " And Jehovah 
 God proceeded to fonn^ out of the ground every beast 
 of the field, and every fowl of the heaven ; and 
 brought them unto the man to see what he would call 
 them." They pass before him in order, but amongst 
 them all there is found no help " meet for him " — i.e. 
 no help, corresponding, or adapted to him — in a single 
 word, no consort. Only an origin most closely asso- 
 ciated with himself can provide man with the social 
 and intellectual complement which his nature lacks : 
 he recognizes woman's equality with himself, and the 
 work of creation is complete. The third chapter de- 
 
 1 Such is the force of the Hebrew tense employed. Comjp. 
 the writer's Hebrew Tenses, § 76 Obs. (ed. 3, 1892, p. 88). 
 
EVOLUTION COMPATIBLE WITH FAITH. 3 
 
 scribes how man's happiness was lost, and the contest 
 with evil was begun, while intimating for him, in dark 
 and enigmatic terms, the prospect of victory in the end. 
 How is this striking and impressive narrative to be 
 viewed ? Have we before us history, or what, for want 
 of a better word, may be described as symbol or 
 allegory ? Have we before us a record of incidents 
 occurring literally as they are related, or the embodi- 
 ment, in a concrete, material dress, of theological 
 verities, whose truth is to be sought in their substance, 
 not in the form in which they are invested ? There 
 are more reasons than one which force this question 
 upon us. Firstly, as we have seen, the narrative in 
 the second chapter appears to be, not merely an ex- 
 pansion, or development, of that in the first chapter, 
 but to deviate from it in detail. And secondly, the 
 Hebrew records, when studied by the side of those 
 belonging to other ancient nations, are seen to exhibit 
 features which the current interpretation seems not 
 sufficiently to explain ; while recent years have shown 
 that the Hebrew people were accessible to influences 
 formerly unsuspected. It is now known, for instance, 
 how wide was the diffusion of influences having their 
 home in Babylonia ; and there are features in these 
 chapters of Genesis which (though, doubtless, not 
 adequate to a demonstration) awaken in many minds 
 a strong impression that some of their details are 
 derived from that quarter. Is the admission of such 
 a fact consistent with a belief in their inspiration .-* 
 Or, should it prove to be v/ell-founded, does it deprive 
 
4 SERMON I. 
 
 the narrative of all value and authorit}^ ? Many ex- 
 positors have viewed the third chapter as allegorical ; 
 and when we consider the close connection subsisting 
 between that chapter and the second, and the strong 
 anthropomorphic colouring which pervades them both, 
 it is not, it may be pleaded, unreasonable to interpret 
 the former chapter as well upon the same principle. 
 We can, at least, no longer shrink from estimating it 
 afresh in the new light now^ thrown upon it ; and if we 
 have the interests of theology at heart, it will be our 
 endeavour to show that a modified view of it is not 
 irreconcilable with the just claims of our faith. 
 
 Is a literal history, then, the only form of narrative 
 consonant with truth ? Probably only custom has 
 induced the common supposition that it is. And yet 
 the Bible, it is obvious, avails itself, with the utmost 
 freedom, of varieties of literary form. Poetry and 
 parable, oratory and allegory, argument and feeling, 
 appear there, as they appear in the literature of other 
 civilized nations ; the difference is that they are made, 
 in a singular degree, the expression of the religious 
 spirit, and the vehicle of religious truth. Human 
 genius, not suppressed but quickened, not diverted 
 from its natural lines of development, but directed 
 in them, appears everywhere as the organ of the 
 Divine Spirit. Should we not, then, by analogy 
 expect to find the historians dealing similarly, not 
 contenting themselves with a realistic treatment of 
 history, but handling their subject, when its nature 
 permitted it, with independence, and accommodating 
 
EVOLUTION COMPATIBLE WITH FAITH. 5 
 
 it to the purpose which they had in view ? It is 
 remarkable what a subordinate place the plain, 
 unadorned chronicle holds in the Old Testament. If 
 now it had been the object of the inspired writer to 
 construct a picture of the beginnings of history, to 
 which no traditions reached back, from which no 
 records were handed down, and which is introduced, 
 be it remembered, by no formula implying that it is 
 an exph'cit revelation, what method can we suppose 
 him to have followed, and what would be in harmony 
 with his procedure elsewhere.'* The Biblical historians, 
 it is plain, were dependent for their materials upon 
 ordinary human sources; their inspiration shows itself 
 in the application which they made of them, and the 
 spirit with which they infused them. If the author 
 of this part of Genesis had sought to give expression 
 to certain truths respecting the nature of man and his 
 relation to God, which he knew must have had an 
 historical origin in the past, though the origin itself 
 was concealed from him, what more appropriate 
 method could he have adopted than that of throw- 
 ing them into a quasi-historical form, selecting his 
 materials from the sources available to him, and 
 disposing them according to the principles which 
 governed his entire work ? If some of these materials 
 were borrowed from an Assyrian or Babylonian 
 source, others derived from the author's own reflec- 
 tion, only a limited and superficial view of the 
 functions of the Biblical writers would conclude that 
 the value or authority of his work was thereby 
 
6 SERMON I. 
 
 impaired ; its authority depends upon the place it 
 occupies in the entire canon, its value upon the theo- 
 logical truths which it embodies, and which exhypothesi 
 are intact. And the test of the writer's inspiration is 
 to be found in the depth and spirituality of his 
 thoughts, and in the insight and discrimination \vith 
 which, if such were actually his method, he wove his 
 materials into a whole, adapted to take its place in 
 the sacred canon. He did not, we may suppose, if 
 this view be correct, receive a revelation respecting 
 events long past ; but a Divine intuition guided his 
 thoughts, and enabled him to construct a picture, 
 true ideally, and witnessing unmistakably to his In- 
 spiration, of the beginnings of man upon earth. But 
 whatever its resemblance to Babylonian and other 
 myths, be it greater or less than has been supposed, 
 we may be sure that it concerns only the external 
 dress. The more minutely Israelitish institutions and 
 ideas are compared with those of their neighbours, 
 the more conspicuous, among much that is similar, 
 are the diversities, and the more plainly do we 
 perceive that purer light v/hich shone in their midst. 
 This difference, fundamental though it is, does not 
 exclude the use of forms of narrativ^e analogous to, 
 or even adapted from, those current in other countries ; 
 it only demands that, if adapted, they should be made 
 subservient to truth, and be animated with the spirit of 
 revelation.^ And this, as we shall see, is here the case. 
 
 1 Comp. Lenormant, Les Origities de rHistoire, i., pp. xviii, 
 xix, 106-7 (ed. 1880) : ii., pp. 263-269 (1882). 
 
EVOLUTION COMPATIBLE WITH FAITH. / 
 
 Let us, however, return to the text and inquire 
 what it teaches us. Probably many readers suppose 
 the significant term to be the expression living soul. 
 This, however, is incorrect ; for the Hebrew idiom 
 uses soul more widely than we do, and applies it to 
 any form of sentient life. In the first chapter, the 
 same expression is used of the lowly organisms which 
 move in the waters, and is rendered living creature} 
 In the verse before us, it means, then, that man be- 
 came a living creature; implying, indeed, that he was 
 possessed of his proper personality, but without de- 
 fining its nature, or connoting any distinctive charac- 
 teristic. Nor does the stress lie in the phrase, breath 
 of life ; this cannot differ essentially from the spirit 
 of life ^ or the breath of the spirit of life which, in the 
 seventh chapter,^ appears as an attribute of animals 
 in general. Does the author, then, recognize no 
 pre-eminence appertaining to man } The subsequent 
 narrative excludes such a supposition. No sooner 
 does man find himself in presence of the other animals 
 than his superiority is at once manifest ; he evinces 
 the faculty of reason ; he gives names to them. 
 Clearly the stress lies on the distinction drawn 
 between man's corporeal frame, and those higher 
 
 ^ Gen. i. 20 (lit. "let the waters swarm ^ith swarming things, 
 even living souls"), 21 (lit. "all the living soul that creepeth, 
 wherewith the waters swarm"). Similarly Lev. xi. 10,46, Ezek. 
 xlvii. 9 ; and of terrestrial animals. Gen. i. 24, 30 (" wherein 
 there is a living soul ") ; ix. 10, 12, 15, 16. " Creature," Mhere it 
 occurs in these passages, is literally soul. 
 
 ^ Verses 15 and 22. 
 
8 SERMON I. 
 
 faculties imparted by a special act, symbolized in the 
 word " breathed " — " breathed into his nostrils the 
 breath of life." The animals are formed otherwise, 
 in laree and indiscriminate masses : man is formed 
 as an individual, with direct personal relations with 
 the Creator. The text declares that a spirit sent 
 from God, and penetrating the material framework 
 of the body, is both the source of life, and creates the 
 human personality. The unique nature of man is its 
 essential teaching. 
 
 But to this view, we hear it said, the facts are 
 altogether fatal. Man did not come into being as a 
 special creation, and has no such unique endowments 
 as are here implied. He arose in accordance with 
 well-defined laws of natural development out of an- 
 thropoid ancestors ; and his pedigree is even carried 
 further back, till its primitive source is discovered in 
 a humble organism inhabiting the deep. Let us not 
 recoil or lose our self-possession in face of such a 
 contention. It is impossible for a man of average 
 education to open a modern work on comparative 
 biology without being aware of the flood of light 
 which the conceptions of modern biologists have shed 
 upon their science. Structures and organisms which 
 seemed to be isolated, are shown unexpectedly to be 
 connected with others, and in virtue of the connection 
 are constituted parts of an intelligible whole. And 
 though, from his imperfect acquaintance with the 
 details, he may be unable to estimate the facts alleged 
 at their true worth, he cannot fail to be impressed by 
 
EVOLUTION COMPATIBLE WITH FAITH. 9 
 
 the breadth and grandeur of the conception which 
 gives a physical continuity to animate nature, and 
 traces the innumerable living forms which teem upon 
 the globe, to slow variation from a primitive stock. 
 Gigantic as is the task imposed upon his imagination 
 of realizing the course of development, it is lessened 
 by the reflection that it has been spread over an 
 inconceivable duration of time ; and apart from 
 difficulties that may present themselves from other 
 quarters, the theory is so satisfying to his scientific 
 instincts, so complete as a logical explanation of 
 what appeared inexplicable, that he easily silences 
 the objections which possibly occur to him. And 
 those who have studied the subject intimately assure 
 liim, with daily growing confidence, that he need 
 entertain no misgivings that the growth of species by 
 a process of slow development (through the operation 
 of causes which it is unnecessary now to dwell upon)^ 
 is an established fact. What position is the theo- 
 logian here to assume ^ Is he to pass judgment 
 upon the theory as not pi'oven ? Is he to point to the 
 imperfections in the evidence, or to the assumptions 
 which in his eyes appear unwarrantable .? If he does 
 so, he is in danger of not being listened to. In the 
 first place, he is not conversant with the details ; 
 hence, the evidence upon which the theory is based 
 docs not come before him in its full cogency. The 
 theory has, moreover, an intrinsic plausibility and 
 
 ^ But see J. B. Mozley, Essays Historical and Tlicotogicat, ii., 
 pp. 399-402. 
 
lO SERMON I. 
 
 reasonableness sufficient to compensate for some 
 admitted deficiencies in its proof. And, secondly, he 
 will lay himself open to the suspicion that he is 
 opposing it at bottom, not upon logical or scientific 
 grounds, but upon grounds of theology, and if 
 this be the case, the contest upon which he enters 
 is an uneven one ; we may feel sure that, like 
 questions of astronomy or geology in past days, the 
 question of biology will be decided ultimately upon 
 scientific grounds, and upon these alone. 
 
 Let me consider briefly the principal points at 
 which theology and science come, or appear to come, 
 into collision. 
 
 I. Science disputes with great earnestness and 
 persistency the doctrine of special creations. She 
 declares that the evidence in favour of dev^elopment 
 is incontrovertible, and that the facts of geology 
 imply, on the assumption that species were created 
 separately, an arbitrary method of procedure, devoid 
 of principle or rule.^ It must be conceded that the 
 theory of special creations exempts the origin of 
 species from the operation of natural law. It can 
 cause no surprise that science opposes this limitation 
 of her prerogative, and resents the prohibition of 
 speculation upon matters which lie evidently within 
 her legitimate domain. I cannot think that theology 
 has here a right to interfere. The issue is not whether 
 the growth of species by the operation of natural 
 processes be accepted as a fact or not ; not whether 
 ^ T. H. Huxley, Lay Scnnons, pp. 280-3 (ed. 1874). 
 
EVOLUTION COMPATIBLE WITH FAITH. II 
 
 you or I are personally convinced of its truth ; but 
 whether, as theologians, we can demur to it. The 
 two issues are sometimes confused ; but it is of the 
 first importance to keep them distinct. The theory, 
 thus far, affirms nothing as to the origin of life, or 
 as to the power by which its development may be 
 guided ; it affirms merely that it has developed ac- 
 cording to physical laws, of the working and nature 
 of which it declares itself to be cognizant. There 
 is nothing here for theology to shrink from. Or is 
 such a theory to be met by ,'an appeal to the first 
 chapter of Genesis ? It appears to be certain that 
 the progression laid down in that chapter is at 
 variance, in some particulars, not with the hypotheses 
 of biologists, but with the facts of palaeontology ; and 
 this circumstance is an indication that to use it for 
 that purpose is to mistake its import, and to mis- 
 understand its position in the Old Testament Canon. 
 The object of that chapter is not to give an authori- 
 tative record of the history of the globe, but to show, 
 by a series of representative pictures, that alike in its 
 origin and in the stages through which it has passed it 
 has been dependent upon the presence, and has given 
 effect to the purposes, of Almighty God.^ Science, 
 as such, cannot deny this ; she only says, and says 
 quite truly, that it is a question with which she is 
 not concerned. But the theologian, instead of 
 cavilling at the theory, ought rather to be grateful to 
 science for having enabled him to fill in the outline 
 
 ^ See more fully below, Sermon vii. 
 
12 SERMON I. 
 
 sketched in Genesis with such glorious colours, and 
 for having opened his mind to comprehend the 
 magnificent scheme of continuity which dominates 
 nature, which binds together with this earth the 
 remotest heavens, and which it has been the labour 
 of untold ages even partially to unfold. Or has he 
 forgotten the memorable words by which, with almost 
 prophetic intuition, his own revered teacher solved in 
 anticipation the difficulty which future years would 
 bring : " Men are impatient and for precipitating 
 things, but the Author of nature appears deliberate 
 throughout His operations, accomplishing His natural 
 ends by slow successive steps " ? ^ 
 
 2. Let me pass to a second question. The quarrel 
 with final causes is an old one ; and the sound of 
 strife has not ceased yet. Doubtless, Bacon was 
 right ; doubtless, the final cause has been prematurely 
 and superficially resorted to, to the injury of true 
 science ; doubtless, there is ground for the bitterness 
 of spirit with which, in the books of some modern 
 physicists, the subject Is alluded to. The explan- 
 ation of an organ or structure as being designed to 
 fulfil some function, is discarded ; the organ has not 
 been designed in order to perform its function ; it 
 owes its existence to the fact that it has performed 
 its function, and performed it well, in the past ; a 
 useful variation has survived, and been improved ; 
 others, which proved themselves useless, perished. 
 The explanation by mechanical or physical causes Is, 
 ^ Butler, Analogy, Part II., chap. iv. (towards the end). 
 
EVOLUTION COMPATIBLE WITH FAITH. 1 3 
 
 therefore, it is urged, sufficient. No room or need is 
 left for the final cause. And some satisfaction is 
 evinced in pointing to structures, which are not 
 frequent in nature, useless, or worse than useless, to 
 their possessors. The examples are grouped under 
 a special rubric, bearing the significant name of 
 dysteleology. But again, it must be clearly under- 
 stood what the issue is. Theology is not concerned 
 with the explanation of particular organs or struc- 
 tures : all that she desires to know is, whether their 
 explanation collectively^ whether the explanation of 
 the totality of phenomena constituting the organic 
 world, by means of physical or mechanical laws, is 
 incompatible with the belief in a presiding purpose. 
 Rudimentary organs, she declares, do not trouble 
 her ; she is aware that God works by general laws, 
 which may be expected sometimes to result in such 
 phenomena. She does not seek to discover directly 
 the purpose of each structure, but she has a behef 
 that nature, as a whole, is the embodiment of a 
 purpose. Is she at liberty to retain this belief.'* 
 She is willing to concede that the explanation of 
 nature by mechanical principles (so far as it b.as been 
 carried) docs not necessitate that belief; but are these 
 principles compatible with it ? Do they exclude it 1 
 It is said, for instance,^ that "just the most difficult 
 problems, which once teleology alone seemed capable 
 of solving, arc those wdiich have now been solved 
 mechanically by the theory of descent. Everywhere 
 ^ Haeckel, Evolution 0/ Ma?t^ i., p. 16. 
 
14 SERMON I. 
 
 we are enabled to subitltute unconscious causes 
 acting from necessity, for conscious causes, involving 
 a purpose." The antithesis, thus crudely stated, 
 is an unreal one ; but let that pass. We may be 
 enabled to make this substitution ; the question 
 which interests us is, Are we obliged ? It nowhere 
 appears that we are. Men of science are jealous of 
 the introduction of the idea of the final cause at 
 particular points in the organic series. They think, 
 and justly, that to admit it is to abnegate one of their 
 most valued rights ; but to those who, for reasons 
 not within the cognizance of science, choose to view 
 the entire series as the manifestation of a purpose, 
 they have nothing to oppose.^ As before, they may 
 personally disbelieve it, but all that they can logically 
 object is, that the subject lies beyond their province, 
 and that, as students of science, they profess no 
 opinion upon it. It is tlie vainest and shallowest of 
 illusions to imagine that by discovering causality, 
 v/e are disowning purpose, or displacing mind. We 
 are but disclosing the methods through which mind 
 works, and purpose is displayed.^ There is, of course, 
 a larger question, whether, namely, the mechanical 
 explanation of the facts of organic nature has left 
 intact the proof, drawn therefrom, of the existence of 
 a Designer ; but with this question, though much 
 might be said upon it, I am not concerned to-day. 
 
 ^ Huxley, Critiques and Addresses (1883), p. 307. 
 
 - Sec J. Maitineau, "^Modern Materialism, its Attitude towards 
 Theology," in the Conteinporaiy Rcviezu, xxvii., p. 542, reprinted 
 in Essays^ Keviews^ and Addresses (1891), vol. iv. p. 257. 
 
EVOLUTION COMPATIBLE WITH FAITH. I 5 
 
 Here also, then, if we rightly define the lines of 
 demarcation, there is no real antagonism between 
 theology and science : on the contrary, the discovery 
 of the physical cause is essential, unless our idea of 
 the final cause is to be an empty one, and its use a 
 cloalc for ignorance. 
 
 3. The issue becomes a graver one when the theory 
 is applied to man. Nevertheless, it is argued, the 
 facts are so strong, that it is impossible to exclude 
 him from its operation : he is but the last and highest 
 stage in the long evolutionary series ;^ nor, it is added, 
 do his intellectual faculties differ, except in degree, 
 from those of the brute creation.^ The latter asser- 
 tion need not now detain fus : the premises upon 
 which it depends are not, properly speaking, data 
 of science ; and philosophy unconditionally refuses 
 its assent.-^ The first assertion, understood strictly, 
 affirm.s no more than that man's bodily frame has 
 been developed in the manner described ; only in his 
 bodily frame are the analogies detected which de- 
 cisively connect him with other creatures, and only 
 this is the subject of scientific observation. Individual 
 men of science sometimes deny to him the existence 
 
 1 Huxley, Man's Place in Nature, p. 108 ; Hacckel, History 
 of Creation, ii., p. 360 f. 
 
 2 Lay Sermons, p. 339 ; Haeckel, Generate Mofphologie, ii , p. 
 430 f. 
 
 "^Edinburgh Review, April 1883, pp. 452-7— a masterly 
 criticism, in an essay entitled '' Modern Ethics,'' since owned 
 by W. L. Courtney, and reprinted by him in Constructive Etl lies 
 (1886) ; see pp. 270-377. 
 
l6 SERMON I. 
 
 of a soul ; but, when pressed, they commonly allow 
 their meaning to be that they can find no evidence 
 of a soul, that their methods of inquiry do not lead 
 them to it ; that its existence is no scientific pos- 
 tulate.^ This, however, is something very different 
 from the assertion that science leaves no room for it, 
 and is, indeed, so obvious as to be scarcely better 
 than a truism. 
 
 Does it seem possible that we can, as theologians, 
 accept this theory of the origin of our race ? There 
 might be no conclusive objection against accepting 
 it as an explanation of man's bodily frame ; - but can 
 we separate the material organism from the im- 
 material soul ? Or will the reality and independence 
 of the latter, which is affirmed (it is important to 
 remember) not by theology only, but by the impartial 
 judgment of philosophy, be prejudiced by the ad- 
 mission ? We should be better able to answer these 
 questions, were we more fully acquainted than we are 
 with the nature of the immaterial principle in man, of 
 that which we recognize in ourselves as the seat of 
 consciousness, as the feeling and thinking self. Alas ! 
 we can discover and analyse the laws by which its 
 acts and functions are regulated ; we can trace, in a 
 thousand instances, its wonderful correlation with the 
 structure of the brain ; but of its origin or nature we 
 
 ^ Comp. Bishop Cotterill, Docs Science aid Faith? (1883), pp. 
 158, 195 bottom, 199. 
 
 2 Comp. the citation in Drummond, Nat n'al Law in the 
 Spiritual Worlds p. 225. 
 
EVOLUTION COMPATIBLE WITH FAITH. 1 7 
 
 can add nothing to what the text declares, " And 
 Jehovah God breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
 life, and man became a living soul." The question 
 which w^as asked by Lucretius, Nata sit an contra 
 nascentibus insinnetui% was left unanswered by Augus- 
 tine ; and remains unanswered still. We can only 
 say that it has pleased Almighty God by some law, 
 hitherto undiscovered and perhaps undiscoverable, to 
 unite, under certain conditions, a material organism 
 with an immaterial soul. We are in presence of a 
 mystery w^hich defies explanation at the hand of man, 
 which says, " Thus far shalt thou come, and no further." 
 We arrive at something super-sensual, at something 
 whi'^h imagination cannot figure, nor reason com- 
 prehend, something which asserts its presence while 
 it eludes our grasp, and which, if we seek relief from 
 our perplexity by dein'ing its existence, rises up 
 against us and overwhelms us with confusion of face. 
 Nevertheless, a recognition of this fact in the in- 
 dividual may not be without its service when we pass 
 to the wider problem presented by the race. Let it 
 be admitted that physical causes explain in the 
 individual the growth of his bodily frame ; they throw 
 no light on the origin of the soul. What if the case 
 should be similar when the first man appeared upon 
 this earth .? What if, with the race then, as with the 
 individual now. Almighty God ordained the completion 
 of the bodily structure by the same laws which he 
 has imposed upon all organic nature, until the un- 
 known conditions were satisfied, in virtue of which 
 
 C 
 
l8 SERMON I. 
 
 the dawning intelligence was manifested in it ? In 
 this case what science postulates is granted. All 
 that an observer, supposed to be present, would have 
 traced, would be in accordance with those laws, whose 
 uniform and unvarying operation science everywhere 
 discerns. Only the super-sensual fact, over which 
 she asserts no rights, would have been beyond his 
 reach. 
 
 For, if we think to expel the super-sensual from 
 nature, we embark upon a hopeless task. There are 
 phenomena which will not be explained by the 
 premises of materialism. There are facts which 
 cannot by any intelligible process of thought be con- 
 nected with the data of sense. There is, within each 
 one of us, a permanent and undying witness to the 
 reality of the super-sensual — the fact of conscious- 
 ness. While human consciousness survives, philosophy 
 has an unassailable basis on which to assert for mind, 
 whencesoever derived, its independence and suprem- 
 acy. Here is a fact which no theory of the origin 
 of human consciousness can get rid of, and which any 
 theory having a claim to validity must preserve intact. 
 
 Is such a view of the union of soul and body un- 
 scientific } Does it introduce a secret flaw into the 
 symmetry of nature, and break down the hardly-won 
 conception of her unity ? It can do so in the eyes 
 of those alone who, implicitly if not ostensibly, hold 
 that the senses are the measure of reality. Strange 
 illusion ! We may ascertain the laws and conditions 
 under which one body acts upon another ; we may 
 
EVOLUTION COMPATIBLE WITH FAITH. 1 9 
 
 watch, under a microscope, the change and growth 
 of a living organism ; but how it is at all, that one 
 material particle is influenced by another, or what 
 the hidden agency is, which causes the organism to 
 develop, is beyond our grasp.^ The widest observa- 
 tion brings the mystery no nearer : we understand 
 the surface better ; we do not penetrate beneath it. 
 The admission that this is the case is often made 
 verbally ; ^ but it carries with it some important 
 consequences. It removes the antecedent objection 
 that there is no mystery in nature, nothing inscrutable, 
 nothing in the full sense of the word inexplicable. 
 If there is one mystery, tliere may be more. If 
 comprehension fails us in one direction, it may fail 
 us in another. Now, science is satisfied, if we grant 
 continuity in the development of living things ; it 
 admits that on the origin of life, it has no information 
 to offer ^ — it only asks that, the germs being given, 
 we should hand over their development to the opera- 
 tion of fixed laws. How these laws were fixed, 
 whence matter acquired the properties with which, 
 as we know it, it is invested, it does not presume to 
 say ; it leaves us free to make what assumptions we 
 choose, provided we do not claim cither to derive 
 them from science, or to impose them upon it. Here 
 then we leave science : it is admitted on both sides, 
 that science, as such, teaches nothing respecting 
 
 1 Lotze, Mikrokosnius, i., p. 310 f. 
 
 2 Haeckel, Generate Mo7'phologie, i., p. 105 ; Huxley, Lay 
 Sermons^ p. 341, Critiques and Addresses^ p. 285. 
 
 2 Encyctopcsdia Britannica^ 9th ed,, vol. viii. (1878), p. 746. 
 
20 SERMON I. 
 
 super-sensual entities, and as such, therefore, possesses 
 no knowledc^e of God or of the soul. If we have 
 knowledge of these realities, as we believ^e them to 
 be, from other sources, we are at liberty to make use 
 of it, provided we in no way infringe the continuity 
 and fixity which science so jealously guards. As we 
 are not dealing here with what in the technical sense 
 of the term are described as " miracles," we shall not 
 do so. We are at liberty, then, to believe, for ex- 
 ample, what is taught by all deeper philosophy, that 
 the world as known can only subsist in a mind that 
 thinks it. Or, again, we are at liberty to hold the 
 belief that the personal Creator of the world is also 
 its ever-present Sustainer, and by means known to 
 Him, but unimaginable by us, ordains those effects 
 of which our senses discern but the outside form. 
 This fact is one which of course no theist will dispute ; 
 I ha\-e not made use of it before, because it was not 
 required by the argument. It lies, indeed, outside 
 the scope of science, and we freely admit that it 
 cannot be demonstrated by science. It is not, how- 
 ever, on this account in antagonism to it : for science 
 only asks for fixed laws ; and it has long been a 
 commonplace of theology that fixed laws are the 
 form through which, as a rule, the Creator has been 
 pleased to carry out His purposes. 
 
 But if we realize the truth that Almighty God is 
 everj^w/iere presQnt, everywhere manifesting His power, 
 not merely on those occasions which we distinguish 
 as miraculous, but in the normal and regular processes 
 
EVOLUTION COMPATIBLE WITH FAITH. 21 
 
 of nature, the gain is great and our view becomes at 
 once clearer. The fear is seen more distinctly to be 
 groundless, lest by conceding a scheme of evolution 
 we are prejudicing the Divine supremacy. We are 
 conceding merely a change in the mode by which it 
 is manifested. As regards the question which here 
 concerns us, we are not bound to maintain a particular 
 theory. On the one hand, if it be true — to quote the 
 words of one whom Oxford has not yet ceased to 
 mourn — if it be true that " countless generations 
 passed, durhig which a transmitted organism was 
 progressively modified till an eternal consciousness 
 could realize, or reproduce itself in it, then this might 
 add to the wonder with which the consideration of 
 what we do, and are, must always fill us, but it could 
 not alter the results of that consideration." ^ It could 
 not, that is, alter the view which we had reached, 
 upon independent grounds, of the nature of human 
 intelligence. If, by an act inscrutable to us, the 
 foundations of human personality were laid in the 
 remote past, it would but add one to the many 
 mysteries by which our being is surrounded, it would 
 but be a fresh illustration of the adorable wisdom of 
 God. It is not demanded of us that we should 
 abandon what is certain for the sake of assumed 
 inferences from that which is uncertain. If, on the 
 other hand, supposing the alternative to be a real 
 one, we hold that intelligence supervenes in each 
 
 ^ T. H. Green, P)olcgo}ncna to Ethics^ p. 87 f. Comp. Lotze, 
 U.S., i., p. 13S (srded.). 
 
22 SERMON I. 
 
 individual case, as it were separately and from with- 
 out, then a recognition of the same truth of God's 
 continual presence may help us to understand how 
 this is no arbitrary interference. It ceases to be an 
 assumption void of presumption or analogy, that in 
 the midst of the processes observable by the senses, 
 He may manifest Himself in other ways not so 
 observable, and only traceable inferentially. Mere 
 visibility cannot surely, as appears sometimes to be 
 tacitly assumed, constitute the criterion of God's 
 operation. The operation of His power, we may 
 rest assured, is not unregulated by law, though the 
 law which regulates it may involve factors v/hich our 
 faculties are not adequate to discover. It is no 
 longer, if the familiar illustration may be permitted, 
 a Deus ex macJiind to which we have recourse ; it is 
 rather, to retain the metaphor, a Dens in scend, whose 
 glory, filling heaven and earth, bursts upon our opened 
 eyes. To be sure, such reasonings will be rejected as 
 futile by materialism ; but they come into no collision 
 with science. Science does not frame a theory of 
 the universe as a whole, it deals only with the laws 
 which govern the material part of it : a theory of the 
 whole must find room for other facts, other pheno- 
 mena, other laws, not less than for those which form 
 the subject-matter of science. 
 
 Let theology, then, offer no hindrance to at least a 
 provisional acceptance of this theory of the origin of 
 man. More than a provisional acceptance cannot, I 
 venture to think, be at present demanded of those 
 
"J 
 
 who are not experts. The admission, if made, will 
 not, after what I have said, be misconstrued. We 
 would gladly know more respecting the influences 
 to which specifically man's origin is due, and of his 
 condition, and thoughts, when he first awoke to self- 
 consciousness. But science is here silent. What, 
 then, is the relation of the two records with which 
 the Bible opens, to this, or other physical theories } 
 They are not a substitute for science ; they do not 
 speak where she is silent. They do not pretend to 
 supersede science, or to impede a sympathetic interest 
 in her progress, and a cordial acceptance of her 
 discoveries. They guide us upon different principles. 
 They afford us certain clues, which without their aid 
 we might not have discovered, and assuredly should 
 not have grasped so firmly. They recall to our mind 
 truths to which science could never lead us. Their 
 purport is theological, not historical ; hence, they 
 speak by pictures which are true substantially if not 
 in detail, which appeal powerfully to the imagination, 
 and impress themselves readily upon the memory. 
 The first record teaches us that God is a Spiritual 
 Being, prior to the world, and independent of it, that 
 the world arrived at the form in which we know it by 
 a series of stages, each the embodiment of a Divine 
 purpose, and the whole the realization of a Divine 
 plan ; that man, in particular, among the other 
 animals, is endowed with a distinctive pre-eminence, 
 signified by the term "the image of God." These 
 are fundauieutal thoughts, which science cannot 
 
24 SERMON I. 
 
 dispute, and which experience testifies. How clearly 
 and distinctly the narrator sets them before us ! Let 
 it not be forgotten that in the Babylonian cosmogony 
 to which I alluded/ these truths are entirely lost sight 
 of, gods and world being there evolved together, with 
 naive impartiality, out of the same abysmal chaos.^ 
 The second record teaches us the double nature of 
 man — his earthly frame, and the spirit communicated 
 to him from the Creator, enabling him to apprehend 
 intellectual and religious truth. It seizes a fact, 
 which may have taken actually long ages to accom- 
 plish, and represents it under a forcible, concrete 
 image which all can understand. It tells us how the 
 earth is fitted for his abode, and designed to supply 
 him with maintenance. It tells us how he first used 
 his reason by the creation of language, distinguishing 
 objects from one another, and from himself. It tells 
 us how, by some mysterious process, which even 
 science can scarcely hope to define with precision, 
 the bifurcation of the sexes was effected, and how the 
 difference between them has a deep ethical and social 
 significance. It tells us, by a dim allegory, which 
 speaks, however, only too distinctly to every child of 
 Adam, how man became conscious of a moral law, 
 and how upon the first temptation he broke it. 
 These are truths of man's natural life ; it will be seen 
 
 ^ It may be read in.Schrader's Cicneifonn Inscriptions of the 
 Old TestaDicnt (1883), on Gen. i. i, 14, 20; or in Records of the 
 Pasty second series, i. (188S), p. 133 ff. (in a different version, 
 p. 149 ff.). 
 
 - Sec the references >rivcn boiow in the course of Sermon vii. 
 
EVOLUTION COMPATIBLE WITH FAITH. 25 
 
 at once that thougli the style of representation is 
 different, they agree in conception with what we read 
 in chapter i., and are indeed mostly involved in the 
 gift or capacity there denoted by the " image of God." 
 Here, then, is their inherent, inalienable value — a 
 value which is unassailable by criticism, and which is 
 superior to all questions of authorship or date. I do 
 not, for example, seek to reconcile the first chapter of 
 Genesis with palaeontology or astronomy, for it seems 
 to me that in some particulars they are not reconcil- 
 able : but this very fact teaches me a truer estimate 
 of its import ; and I claim it as the foundation of a 
 religious contemplation of nature. Science warns us 
 that we have been wrong in insisting upon a strictly 
 literal interpretation ; historical criticism comes for- 
 ward and shows us how, without prejudice to theology, 
 we may abandon it.^ It shows as how what was 
 once treated as historical, may be regarded as sym- 
 bolical ; and how, as thus understood, the theological 
 teaching of Genesis accords v/ith what a progres- 
 sive revelation might be expected, from analogy, to 
 contain. 
 
 A readjustment of the relations subsisting between 
 theology on the one hand, and criticism and science 
 on the other, is beginning to be recognized as one of 
 the pressing needs of the time. A first step towards 
 
 ^ Comp. a Sermon by the Rev. C. Gore, Vice-Principal of the 
 Theological College, Cuddesden (now Principal of the Piisey 
 House, Oxford), printed in tlie Oxyvrd Ala^azifie, Nov. 28, 1883, 
 p. 419. 
 
26 SERMON I. 
 
 this readjustment is a more precise definition of the 
 border-line between them. And a second step is a 
 just recognition of the hmits at which knowledge fails 
 us. Among the conclusions at which criticism and 
 science claim to have arrived, are many which, when 
 impartially examined, are found to have no relation 
 with Christian truth, and which, therefore, the Christian 
 believer is free to estimate upon their intrinsic merits. 
 The antagonism lies not with the scientific fact, not 
 even with the scientific theory, but with a philosophic 
 creed, which forms no part of them, is in no way 
 involved in them, and with which they are temporarily 
 associated only through the prepossessions of par- 
 ticular advocates.^ In the minds of many, by an 
 unfortunate but intelligible confusion, the plausibility 
 of the theory becomes evidence for the plausibility of 
 the creed. Ought it not to be the aim of those who 
 can see more distinctly to aid in removing this con- 
 fusion, by owning the theory while discarding the 
 creed ? Christian thinkers, by too often holding 
 aloof, lend support to the false identification of 
 scientific speculation with pantheism or atheism, and 
 place in their opponents' hands a weapon, the strength 
 of which they seem singularly to ignore. But a 
 movement, full of promise and hope, has shown itself 
 recently in a different direction. May the Source 
 and Author of Truth not abandon the creatures 
 whom He has made ; may He dispel from their eyes 
 the mists of error, and bid the light shine within their 
 ' Comp. Bishop Cotterill, u.s., pp. 104, 212. 
 
 
EVOLUTION COMPATIBLE WITH FAITH. 2/ 
 
 hearts, till they attain more perfectly the knowledge 
 of His ways !^ 
 
 ^ See now, further, in support of the general line taken in the 
 preceding Sermon, the able treatment of the same subject by the 
 late Aubrey L. Moore in Science and the Faith (1889), pp. xi — 
 xlvii, pp. 162-221 (a reprint of three articles on " Darwinism and 
 the Christian Faith," published originally in the Guardian^ Jan. 
 and Feb. 1888), and pp. 222-235 (" Recent Advances in Natural 
 Science in their relation to the Christian Faith," a paper read 
 at the Reading Church Congress, Oct. 1883). See likewise A. 
 M. Fairbairn, '^ Theism and Science," in The City of God, pp. 
 35-74 (ed. ii., 1886). And on the early narratives of Genesis 
 comp. Prof. H. E. Ryle in the Expository Times (T. & T. 
 Clark, Edinburgh), April, June, Sept., Dec, 1891, Feb. 1892. 
 
SERMON 11} 
 
 ISAIAH'S VISION. 
 
 Isaiah vi. 3 : " And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, Hoi}'-, 
 Holy, is th3 LORD of Hosts : the whole earth is full of his 
 
 glory." 
 
 The chapter from which these words are taken 
 forms the first lesson for this morning's service. It 
 would be difficult to find a more appropriate chapter 
 for the day on which we celebrate the highest 
 mystery of the Christian faith than the one in which 
 Isaiah, admitted in spirit behind the veil which severs 
 the visible from the invisible world, describes in 
 dignified and impressive language, the vision pre- 
 sented to his eyes. As in other cases, the framework 
 of the vision is formed by the objects with which the 
 prophet was familiar ; and the vision is itself con- 
 ditioned by his mental power and spiritual capacity. 
 The grandeur and richness of Isaiah's imagination 
 pre-eminently fits him to be the recipient of a vision 
 which transcends those of Amos, Jeremiah, or 
 Ezekiel, and indeed stands unique in the Old Testa- 
 
 ^ Preached in the Chapel of New College, Oxford, before the 
 University, on Trinity Sunday, May 31, 1885. 
 
ISAIAH'S VISION. 29 
 
 ment. The scene, then, which Isaiah beholds, is the 
 heavenly palace of Jehovah's sovereignty, modelled 
 upon, but not a copy of, His earthly Temple at 
 Jerusalem : " I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, 
 high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple." 
 The comparatively small adyton of the Temple on Zion 
 is indefinitely expanded, the lofty throne takes the 
 place of the mercy-seat, the skirts of the royal mantle, 
 falling in ample folds, fill the space about and below 
 the throne, and conceal from the beholder, standing 
 beneath, the unapproachable Form seated upon it. 
 The two colossal cherubim, whose extended wings 
 overshadowed the ark in the Holy of Holies, are 
 absent, and there appears instead a choir of living 
 creatures encircling the throne : " Seraphim, stood 
 above him : each one had six wings ; with twain he 
 covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, 
 and with tv/ain he did fly." The seraphim are not 
 mentioned elsewhere, and the origin and meaning of 
 the name can only be supplied by conjecture. It 
 must suffice to say that they appear here as the 
 most exalted ministers of the Divine Being, in imme- 
 diate proximity to Himself, and give expression to 
 the adoration and reverence unceasingly due from 
 the highest of created intelligences to the Creator. 
 Possessed apparently of human form, and in an erect 
 posture, they form a circle — or perhaps rather a 
 double choir — about the throne, each with two of his 
 wings seeming to support himself upon the air, with 
 two covering his face. In reverence, that he might not 
 
30 SERMON II. 
 
 gaze directly upon the Divine glory, and with two 
 his own person, in humility, not deigning to meet 
 directly the Divine glance. Can the scene be more 
 aptly or more worthily reproduced than in our own 
 poet's noble lines ? — 
 
 " Fountain of light, thyself invisible, 
 Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sitt'st, 
 Throned inaccessible, but when thou shad'st 
 The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud 
 Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine 
 Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear, 
 Yet dazzle heaven, that brightest Seraphim 
 Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes." ^ 
 
 Isaiah, standing as it were by the doorway, hears the 
 seraphs' hymn of adoration ; and as the sound of their 
 united voices — such is the force of the expression in 
 verse 4 — reverberated through the vast expanse 
 above, the pillars of the door shook to their found- 
 ation, and the space around was filled with smoke, 
 symbolizing, as it would seem, the manifestation of 
 God in act or word. Isaiah, overpowered for the 
 time by the vision, as he recovers self-possession, is 
 conscious only of his unworthiness to be where he is. 
 Unlike the seraphs, he is a man of unclean lips : his 
 connection with his nation cannot save him, for it is 
 unclean likewise : " Woe is me," he exclaims, " I am 
 undone." But an altar is there, with a fire burning 
 upon it, the fire, apparently, which as it consumes the 
 incense cast upon it, betokens the Divine acceptance ; 
 and one of the seraphs, taking from it a burning coal, 
 ^ Milton, Paradise Los/, iii. 375 ff 
 
ISAIAHS VISION. 31 
 
 touches the prophet's h'ps with it, and pronounces him 
 absolved. Only then is he reassured and ready, when 
 he hears the invitation, '' Who will go for us } " with 
 generous ardour, knowing not whither the call may 
 carry him, regardless of the sacrifice which it may 
 cost, to offer himself for the work. It may be re- 
 gretted, upon general grounds, that the authors of our 
 Lectionary, by omitting the three last verses in the 
 narrative, have deprived the lesson of its true conclu- 
 sion ; but the verse which I have selected will afford 
 more than sufficient materials for our purpose to-day. 
 Two of the Divine attributes form the theme of the 
 seraphs' hymn — God's holiness as inherent in Himself, 
 His glory as manifested in the earth. Holiness, 
 the first ^of these, denotes fundamentally a state of 
 freedom from all imperfection, specially from all 
 moral imperfection ; a state, moreover, realized with 
 such intensity as to imply not only the absence of 
 evil, but antagonism to it. It is more than goodness, 
 more than purity, more than righteousness : it em- 
 braces all these in their ideal completeness, but it 
 expresses besides the recoil from everything which 
 is their opposite. This is the sense which the word 
 bears throughout Scripture. Israel is to be a holy 
 nation ; it is separated from the other nations of the 
 earth, in order that it may reflect in idea the same 
 ethical exclusiveness which is inherent in its God.i 
 The " Holy One of Israel," that fine designation, 
 which is first used by Isaiah, and was probably indeed 
 ^ Ex. xix. 6, Lev xy. 26, Deut. vii. 6, xxvi. 19. 
 
32 SERMON IT. 
 
 framed by him as the permanent embodiment of the 
 truth so vividly impressed upon him in this vision, is 
 a title which would remind the Israelite as he heard it 
 of this distinctive attribute of his God, and arouse him 
 to the duty of aiming after holiness himself. Holi- 
 ness, again, is the attribute which in virtue of the tie 
 uniting Jehovah and His people, prophets saw vin- 
 dicated in their deliverance from tyranny or oppres- 
 sion : " The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in 
 the eyes of all the nations " ^ ; or " And the heathen 
 shall knovv^ that I am the LORD, v/hen I shall show 
 myself holy - in you before their eyes." And so it is 
 to God's holiness that the Psalmist, persecuted but 
 conscious of innocence, who has cried day and night 
 without respite, appeals : " And thou art holy, who 
 inhabitest the praises of Israel." ^^ Passages from the 
 New Testament I need not here quote. The seraphs 
 celebrate God not as the All-righteous,, not as the 
 All-powerful, or the All-wise ; they celebrate Him 
 under a title which expresses H's essence more pro- 
 foundly than an}^ of these, and which marks more 
 significantly the gulf which severs Him from all finite 
 beings : they celebrate Him as the All-holy. 
 
 But not only does the seraphic hymn celebrate the 
 Divine nature in its own transcendent purity and 
 
 ^ Is.i. lii. lo. 
 
 - Or, "get me holiness " (cf. "get me glory," Ex. xiv. 4, where 
 the conjugation in the Hebrew is the same), /. e. get myself 
 recognized as holy. Comp. A. B. Davidson's Ezekiel in the 
 Ca7nbridge Bible for Schools, pp. xxxix, xl, 279. 
 
 ' Ezek. xxvvi. 23. ^ Ps, xxii. 3. 
 
ISAIAH'S VISION. 33 
 
 perfection : it celebrates it as it is manifested in the 
 material world — " The fulness of the whole earth is 
 his glory." By " glory " we mean the outward show 
 or state attendant upon dignity or rank : the glory, 
 then, of which Isaiah speaks, is the outward expression 
 of the Divine nature : pictured as visible splendour 
 it may impress the eye of flesh ; but any other 
 worthy manifestation of the Being of God may be not 
 less truly termed His glory. It is more than the 
 particular attribute of power or wisdom ; it is the 
 entire fulness of the Godhead, visible to the eye of 
 faith, if not to the eye of sense, in the concrete works of 
 nature, arresting the spectator and claiming from him 
 the tribute of praise and homage. It is that which 
 in giant strokes is imprinted upon the mechanism of 
 the heavens, and which, in the bold conception of the 
 poet, " One day telleth another, and one night de- 
 clareth to another," so far as the empire of heaven 
 extends.^ It is that which, as another poet writes, in 
 the thunderstorm, when the clouds seem to part and 
 disclose the dazzling brightness within, wrings from 
 the denizens of God's heavenly palace the cry of ador- 
 ing wonder.2 Conceived, again, as an ideal form of 
 splendour, it is set by Isaiah before the Israelites as 
 that which should be the object of their reverence, but 
 which has been too often the object of their shame - 
 lessness and scorn — " For their tongue and their doings 
 are against the LORD, to defy the eyes of his glory." ^ 
 It is the attribute which is disclosed when those who 
 
 ^ Ps. xix. I, 4. 2 ps^ xxix. 9. ^ Isa. iii. 8, 
 
 D 
 
34 SERMON II. 
 
 are the enemies of truth and right are overcome, and 
 the kingdom of God extended upon earth.^ " Be 
 thou exalted, O God, above the heavens : be thy 
 glory over all the earth," prays the Psalmist : ^ let 
 Thy majesty be acknowledged more widely, more 
 worthily, than it now is, amongst the nations of the 
 world. The movements of history, in so far as they 
 affect the welfare of Israel and promote God's 
 purposes of salvation, are a progressive revelation of 
 His glory : " Every valley shall be exalted, and every 
 mountain and hill shall be brought low," before the 
 nation returning from its exile, " and the glory of the 
 Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it 
 together." ^ 
 
 The text, however, speaks without any limitation : 
 *' The fulness of the whole earth is his glory." Do 
 the words relate to the present only, or do they 
 embrace as well the ideal consummation which was 
 then — as it is now — still future ? We cannot say. 
 We must be content to understand the meaninsf to be 
 
 o 
 
 that the glory is objectively there already ; though it 
 is consonant with what other prophets express to 
 suppose that, as history advanced, it would be both 
 more effectively manifested, and more adequately 
 recognized. At all times it is only an eye, capable of 
 apprehending more than is conveyed by the channels 
 of sense, that is able to discern it. 
 
 1 Ps. xxiv. 7, Isa. xxvi. 15. 2 p^ j^^j^ ^^ ^j^ 
 
 ^ Isa. xl. 4, 5: add lix. 19, Ixvi. 18'^, 19b, Ezek. xxxix. 13 
 ("get me glory'"), 21. 
 
ISAIAHS VISION. 35 
 
 Wherein, then, we may ask, does the world so 
 reflect the Being of God as to be the expression of 
 His glory? It is visible, firstly, in the fact, as such, 
 of creation. I am not unaware of the debated 
 ground which I am here touching. I am familiar 
 with the maxim which beyond question is justified 
 by all that experience teaches. Ex niJiilo niJiil fit ; 
 I recognize, moreover, that the idea cannot be 
 conceived as a possible object of human science. 
 But the very purport of Kant's celebrated treatment 
 of the antinomies was to demonstrate, that human 
 reason, abandoned to itself, could but oscillate 
 between two equally inconceivable alternatives, and 
 that to claim as possible an experiential knowledge 
 of either was self-delusion. A belief, however, not 
 derived from experience, or claimed as verifiable by 
 it, is not excluded by the argument of Kant, even if 
 that thinker do not expressly affirm it.^ It may, 
 therefore, in this connection, be not presumptuous to 
 question the finality of the verdict of experience. If 
 a Divine mind exist at all, the conditions of its 
 operation must differ infinitely from any which we 
 arc able to imagine ; the endeavour, therefore, to 
 limit it, either by the apparent necessities of human 
 thought, or by the conditions of human experience, 
 would seem to be illegitimate. The only limitations 
 to whicli it can be conceived to be subject are the 
 moral and logical limitations, which have been ever 
 
 1 Kritik der Rciiieii VcrniDift, p. 467 Hartenstein (= ii. 597 f. 
 Max Miiller). See also Caird's Kant, p. 661 f. (cf p. 587 f). 
 
36 SERMON II. 
 
 recognized by theology, and which are inherent in its 
 own nature and are not imposed from without.^ Those 
 at least, who while not venturing to define the mode, 
 are content to accept the fact, of the dependence of 
 the visible universe upon a Divine Mind, may see in 
 it the exercise of an august and sovereign preroga- 
 tive, differentiating Him absolutely from the highest 
 of His creatures, a manifestation of His nature not 
 indeed adequate to, but worthy of, Himself. For we 
 have no right to assume that a given created system 
 is either absolutely perfect, or a fully adequate ex- 
 pression of the Divine Nature ; since 
 
 '' Colui, che volse il sesto 
 Alio stremo del moncio, e dentro ad esso 
 Distinse tanto occulto e manifesto, 
 
 Non poteo suo valor si fare impresso 
 In tutto I'universo, che il suo verbo 
 Non rimanesse in infinite eccesso.^ 
 
 But with this limitation we may see in creation a 
 signal and palmary exhibition of supreme goodness ; 
 and, while not presuming to scrutinize or discover in 
 their totality the motives by which it was prompted, 
 may trace in it the operation of that generous love which 
 sought to communicate to other beings fragments of 
 its own Divine life, and to call into existence creatures, 
 some with capacities to enjoy the gift of life, others 
 able to apprehend and reciprocate the love. 
 
 If, leaving the fact of creation, we contemplate, so 
 
 ^ Comp. Pearson, On the Crccd^ Art. vi., on the Avord "Al- 
 mighty" {TvavTohvva\io<^^ fol. 286-9, 
 ^ Paradiso^ xix. 40-45. 
 
ISAIAH S VISION. 37 
 
 far as we are able, the means by which an abode has 
 been prepared for the reception of Hfe and intelH- 
 gence, is it the majestic scale upon which the process 
 has been conceived and carried out, or the rare and 
 subtle mechanism which sustains the world in every 
 part, or the intrinsic adequacy and beauty of the 
 results, which impresses us as the most commensurate 
 expression of the Divine glory ? Do we speculate, as 
 our philosophers have done, upon the structure of 
 the material elements of which the fabric of created 
 things is built ? Strange and surprising conclusions 
 are obtained, which compel our wonder, and force us 
 to admit how deeply and securely, in regions to which 
 no microscope can penetrate, the foundations of the 
 world have been laid.^ Do we ask the nature of the 
 process by which this earth has been fitted for the 
 habitation of man ? We no longer suppose, with our 
 forefathers, that it was created substantially as we know 
 it some 6000 years ago.^ We can realize, however 
 inadequately, the gigantic nature of the movements 
 involved. We can understand how in its formation 
 every star which we gaze upon in the firmament may 
 have co-operated ; the immeasurable vista opens to 
 
 1 See Tait, Recent Advances in Physical Science (ed. 3, 1885), 
 lectures xii. and xiii., "The Structure of Matter" (esp. pp. 319 
 f., 329) ; and (more recently) Sir William Thomson, Popular 
 Lectni'es and Addresses^ vol. i. (ed. 2, 1891), "The Constitution 
 of Matter," p. 220 ff. (and elsewhere). 
 
 " So, for instance, Pearson, On the Creed, Art. i. at the end (fol. 
 68), affirms the creation of the world to have taken place •' most 
 certainly within not more than six, or at farthest seven, thousand 
 years.'' 
 
38 SERMON II. 
 
 our eyes ; we travel back through the unnumbered 
 and innumerable ages, and though the brain reels and 
 imagination fails, can discern, at least dimly, the 
 mighty lathe revolving in the skies, and see, now and 
 again, the mass of glowing vapour flung off which is 
 to become some future sun, and v/atch it slowly 
 changing shape, slowly aggregating, and afterwards 
 casting off in its turn smaller masses, each destined 
 to become in time a planet. And then, as our 
 interest centres on one of these planets, we perceive 
 it slowly cooling ; the circumambient vapours con- 
 dense and form a sea ; barren and bleak for aeons, we 
 at length observe that the rocks under the waters are 
 clad with lowly foliage, and lowly animals swarm in 
 the ^deep ; we look again, and the land is covered 
 with things creeping innumerable ; soon afterwards, 
 for centuries, mighty forests come and go over the 
 globe in seemingly endless succession, huge reptiles 
 are stirring everywhere, and birds of varied song 
 move in the air ; we look again, and the earth begins 
 to wear the appearance with vv^hich in its wilder parts 
 we are even now familiar, animals and trees and 
 flowers much as we know them are visible ; at length, 
 — but who shall say Where ? or When ? — man 
 appears, and the drama in the midst — or shall we say 
 at the beginning .? — of which v/e are actors ourselves 
 begins to unfold itself before us. The magnitude and 
 duration of the movements which have resulted in the 
 formation of our earth, no ima^jination can <7raso ; 
 the multitudinous variety of living organisms which 
 
ISAIAH'S VISION. 39 
 
 in the ?eons that have passed have peopled it, no 
 tongue can describe ; the prodigality of resource 
 which has endowed this life with the capacity of 
 adapting, or, if you will, of transforming itself, in 
 harmony with the varying conditions of its environ- 
 ment, no science can presume to gauge. Hardly 
 more than twenty-five years ago one of our foremost 
 naturalists ^ ventured to define for the ocean a zero of 
 life, below which, as he supposed, living forms could 
 not subsist ; but since then the secrets of the deep 
 have been disclosed, and its furthest recesses are 
 known now to be astir v/ith living creatures who find 
 in its gloomy caverns a congenial home. I am not 
 engaged to-day in arguing upwards, by any of the 
 well-known methods, from the phenom.ena of nature 
 to the existence of a Creator ; but few will have the 
 courage to deny that, if our belief in creation be well- 
 founded, that which I have here faintly adumbrated 
 would be a noble and worthy manifestation of the 
 Creator's Being. 
 
 But this life, of which I have spoken, whence is it ? 
 what is it ? Our definitions do but define the con- 
 ditions which are observed to accompany it ; they do 
 not unlock the secret of that subtle combination of a 
 few simple elements from which it results, or unveil 
 the mystery of the unifying principle, which correlates, 
 as mechanical or chemical forces do not correlate, 
 
 ^ Professor Edward Forbes. Sec Wyville Thomson's Depths 
 of the Sea, pp. 5, 17 f . ; or the Report of the Challenger^ with 
 the plates, esp. vol. i. pp. 33-50. 
 
40 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 the several parts of a living organism, and welds them 
 into a self-contained whole. Life without sensation, 
 as we may presume it to exist in plants, is marvellous ; 
 life with sensation, implying the presence of some- 
 thing which can translate the physical vibration 
 coursing along the substance of a nerve into a felt 
 pleasure or pain, is yet more so ; though the climax, 
 most marvellous of all, is only reached when life is 
 the exponent of a self-conscious personality, able not 
 to feel only but to reflect, not to rest immersed in the 
 needs or sensations of the moment, but to inquire, 
 to speculate, to originate, to design ; not bounded by 
 the present, but conscious that it stands related to a 
 prodigious past, to an incalculable future ; possessing 
 power to conceive and project ideals transcending 
 every limitation of sense, proclaiming with a per- 
 sistency that will not be denied the hidden links 
 connecting it with a supersensuous world. In the 
 formation, not of a dead material universe, but of a 
 universe adapted, in at least one stage of its history, 
 to support living forms, organized with this lavish 
 profusion, and gifted with all the varied capacities 
 which life implies, is it an illusion to see reflected that 
 intense and inexpressible life which with undiminished 
 potency and fulness energizes eternally in the Divine 
 Mind ? 
 
 But there is beauty in nature. True, beauty is a 
 relative term : the symmetry which we admire in a 
 leaflet or flower, the delicate gradations of tint to 
 which a landscape owes its charm, alike imply the 
 
ISAIAHS VISION. 41 
 
 presence of an eye able to recognize and admire. 
 Nevertheless, beauty exists for us ; and we, who 
 discern it, cannot pass it by. True, again, the 
 harmonious disposition of form and colour which we 
 term beauty, is not something superadded to nature : 
 it is inherent in it. The iridescent colours on this 
 insect's wing, the exquisite delicacy of that tiny 
 bloom, the graceful convolutions of this fragile shell, 
 the glittering brightness with which a winter's morning 
 decks the forest, the changing hues which mark the 
 steps of the declining year, the flood of splendour 
 which in time of summer lights up the springing 
 verdure in fields and meadows, and presently, as 
 night approaches, suffuses the sky with a crimson 
 glow — are, doubtless, one and all, the necessary conse- 
 quences of a few optical and other physical laws. 
 That is true : but it is not the entire truth. In 
 nature, as in art, the more perfect the beauty, the 
 more complex the means by which it is produced. 
 The simplest form of natural beauty implies the 
 co-operation of an indefinite multitude of distinct 
 factors. Beauty, on its physical side, is an adjustment, 
 a resultant from the combination of a practically 
 infinite number of minute elements, effected by 
 mechanism the most delicate, by agencies the most 
 subtle, an adjustment of which the determining 
 conditions were fixed in the bosom of eternity. If 
 there be any truth in the teachings of science, the 
 beauty which entrances our gaze to-day was implicit 
 in the substance of the earth, as it was formed in the 
 
42 SERMON II. 
 
 remote and incalculable past. That the disposition 
 of natural substances and agencies which have been 
 subservient to the maintenance and development of 
 life upon the earth should in producing these effects 
 have also produced what gratifies and impresses an 
 intelligence contemplating them, is a remarkable and 
 astonishing result. With admirable art, the mechanism 
 of nature weaves, as it works, a web of beauty ; and 
 the curtain which it might have been feared would 
 hide her rarest works of skill, in fact displays them. 
 Nature is a picture which speaks to all, but most 
 effectively, perhaps, to those who have reflected 
 somewhat upon the secret processes of which her 
 works are the visible result. Her resplendent colours, 
 her rich and noble tapestry, are a vesture worthy of 
 Him, whose form is hidden from mortal eyes, but 
 whose presence is declared, as in Isaiah's vision, by 
 the robe of state pendant from the heavenly throne. 
 
 But can we trace any evidence of the moral 
 character of God ^ or is the earth full merely of the 
 tokens of His power? Surely we cannot be mistaken 
 in tracing evidence of the former in the constitution 
 of human nature, in the affections and aspirations 
 which it displays, in the conditions upon which social 
 life is observed to depend. However it may be 
 accounted for, it remains as a fact that human beings, 
 organized as societies, have developed instincts for 
 goodness, have practised and esteemed such virtues 
 as kindness, benevolence, disinterestedness, justice. 
 Partial and rudimentary within the narrow circle of 
 
ISAIAH'S VISION. 43 
 
 the tribe, these affections expand and are confirmed 
 as more settled habits are attained ; Hmited here to 
 one particular race, they are elsewhere extended to 
 embrace mankind at large. We cannot ignore the 
 fact of Christianity, even while we make no assump- 
 tions as to its origin or claims. Did we do so, that 
 majestic '' ethical monotheism," which has been 
 assigned by the most searching of critics as the 
 minimum of the prophets' teaching, would rise up 
 and condemn us.^ It is difficult to think that any 
 theory of the origin of these sentiments, except 
 indeed such as either merely restate in abstract but 
 imposing phraseology the problem to be solved, or 
 virtually deny that there are phenomena to be ex- 
 plained at all, can affect the evidence which they 
 afford. Do we see in them, for example, an expansion 
 and generalization of the "sympathetic desires" 
 entertained by primitive man for his family, his 
 friends, his clan ? Then in the primitive human 
 heart there was still implicit the same sentiment, 
 under simpler conditions, of which we are conscious 
 as active in ourselves. Do we see in our impulses to 
 goodness the transformed instincts of self-preservation 
 which we inherit from the ages during which our race 
 was slowly maturing ? Then it is implied, unless the 
 dangerous metaphor of transformation deceives us, 
 t'nat human nature is not solely receptive, but 
 superadds to a certain class of judgments an element 
 
 ^ Kuencn, T/ie Prophets and Prophecy m Israel (1877), p. 589 
 {{. ; cf. the s:\inc auth r's Hibbert Lectures^ 1882, pp. 1 14-125. 
 
44 SERMON II. 
 
 not derived from experience. In either case, our 
 moral preference is real, it is not merely a disguised 
 self-interest ; and its evidence is unimpeachable. It 
 will not be out of harmony with the general order of 
 nature, if our moral sensibilities have been gradually 
 quickened ; we only demand that the factors required 
 to produce the results should be conceded explicitly 
 at the beginning, and not surreptitiously introduced 
 at some point or other of the process by which a moral 
 and intelligible world is conceived to have arisen, and 
 afterwards repudiated.^ Until it has been shown, 
 more conclusively than has yet been done, that when 
 we seem to be exercising a virtue we are actually 
 obeying an unreasoning necessity, or are entangled in 
 the ruses of an Unconscious Will,'-^ we must see in our 
 moral judgments a reflection of the character of Him 
 to whom the faculty by which we form them is itself 
 due. He who has inspired human nature with true 
 impulses of justice and generosity, of sympathy and 
 love, with admiration for the heroic and the noble, 
 with scorn for the ignoble and the mean, cannot but 
 be possessed of a kindred character Himself.^ He 
 could not have constituted an intelligence that should 
 admire, and strive to realize, attributes not inherent 
 in Himself. Be it that conscience in certain savage 
 tribes has remained undeveloped, be it that in other 
 
 ^ On the theories of ethics just referred to, comp. W. L. 
 Courtney, Constructive Ethics (1886), pp. 228-277. 
 
 - Comp. ibid. pp. 278-318. 
 
 ^ Comp. Dr. Chahiiers, Bridgewater Treatise^ part i., chap, x., 
 § II { = Natural Theology^ book iv., chap, vi., § 11. 
 
ISAIAHS VISION. 45 
 
 cases it is moulded by the habits, or reflects the 
 temper, of society around, it is the capacity to acquire 
 a conscience at all, whose decisions tend uniform.ly in 
 one direction, which is the " witness of the soul " to 
 God, speaking not less eloquently now than when, 
 long ago, it was invoked by the African apologist 
 against the polytheism and materialism of antiquity. 
 Though the rays are broken, and the image is 
 obscured, the moral glory of the Creator shines in 
 the world : it is reflected in the verdict of the 
 individual conscience ; it is latent in the ethical 
 sanctions upon which the permanence and welfare of 
 society depends. 
 
 But these, it will be said, are the illusions of a 
 superficial optimism. There are facts which neutralize 
 the conclusions thus confidently drawn. Nature 
 herself is inconsiderate and cruel. The life of one 
 creature means the death, perhaps the painful death, 
 of many others. Human existence has its ills, not 
 less than its pleasures. Suffering surrounds us upon 
 all sides. Here it is some disease which creeps 
 insidiously into the frame, prostrates it for years upon 
 a couch of pain, or cuts it off in the prime of youth 
 and promise. There it is some deed of treachery 
 or wrong, which deprives the weak of their right, and 
 embitters the^ cup of life. Once it may have been 
 the arbitrary will of a despot, or hard and barbaric 
 habits of life : now it may be some galling link in the 
 chain of social slavery, or the inexorable tyranny of 
 competition. The question thus opened can here, it 
 
46 SERMON II. 
 
 is evident, be touched on but cursorily. Doubtless 
 
 the difficulty which such facts occasion can only be 
 
 partially removed. Such facts excite our compassion : 
 
 they move our pity : they kindle our resentment : 
 
 they stimulate in us the very feelings to whose 
 
 evidence we have just been appealing : they cannot 
 
 silence the witness that we have already found. As 
 
 regards moral evil it will be sufficient for the present 
 
 argument to say that it has its source in the human 
 
 will, operating admittedly in antagonism to the will 
 
 of God, and in abuse of its gift of freedom. The 
 
 whole mystery of pain cannot be solved : death, and 
 
 violent death, was active upon this globe ages before 
 
 our race was seen upon it. But looking at the brute 
 
 creation by itself, we cannot say that the capacity for 
 
 pain is not a necessary condition of the physical 
 
 structure which animals possess, and of the capacity 
 
 for enjoyment which in their case, as seems probable^ 
 
 immeasurably preponderates over pain, A thousand 
 
 ties of interest or affection bind us to life, a thousand 
 
 fears bid us shrink from death: of all these the 
 
 animal creation is unconscious : v/hat to it is the 
 
 poignancy and bitterness of the grave .? Nor, again, 
 
 is pain wholly an evil : it is a means to an end : to 
 
 the individual it is a preservative from danger : it has 
 
 been an instrument in the formation and improvement 
 
 of the race.^ If, again, we consider the lower animals 
 
 ^ Comp. further on this subject, F. A. Dixey, " The Necessity 
 of Pain," in No. xix. of the Oxford House Papers (Rivingtons, 
 London, 1888) ; and the third Essay in Lux Mumil o\\ ''The 
 Problem of Pain," by J. R. Ilhngworth. 
 
ISAIAH'S VISION. 47 
 
 as affected by the intervention of man, undoubtedly 
 their sufferings have been increased thereby ; but 
 while the use made of them is legitimate, it is not 
 more than an extension of that economy Ijy which 
 one part of nature is dependent upon another : where 
 it is not legitimate, it results from an abuse of human 
 power, and stands upon the same ground as other 
 wrongs which have their source in a depraved human 
 will. 
 
 If, lastly, we look at society, the ills which are 
 indeed sadly patent in it must be admitted, even by 
 an opponent, to be due largely to causes, the operation 
 of which might be at once neutralized by the most 
 ordinary exercise of forethought and thrift. Labour, 
 exertion is not an evil : it braces and strengthens the 
 character: to be relieved of the necessity of labour, 
 either mental or bodily, though sometimes anticipated 
 as the highest of blessings, is more often nothing less 
 than a curse. In other cases physical evil is a result 
 of human wrong-doing ; and in so far as it has tlius 
 a tendency to prevent or punish sin, is a declaration 
 that God is not merely benevolent, but that His 
 benevolence is limited and guided by righteousness. 
 Suffering which cannot be regarded as a consequence 
 of sin, whether it comes in the form of accident or 
 disease, or in one of the countless ways in which the 
 innocent are entangled in the misdoings of the guilty, 
 may partly have a moral, disciplinary value, and 
 partly results from the operation of general laws, the 
 suspension of which in individual cases could not 
 
48 SERMON II. 
 
 be reasonably demanded, and would involve, if it 
 were permitted, irremediable disorder. Nor, if the 
 teaching of Christianity be true, can it be objected 
 that the Creator watches with indifference either 
 misery or sin. We can but suggest, with hesitation 
 and trembling, partial alleviations of the difficulty. 
 Either no reason higher than our own exists in the 
 universe, in which case the facts of human reason 
 itself are inexplicable ; or there is a reason higher 
 than our own, and in this case it seems incredible 
 that the moral susceptibilities of the creature can be 
 keener or truer than those of its Maker. The 
 inference to which the dilemma points is that the 
 source of the difficulty lies in our imperfect appre- 
 hension of the entire plan of creation. And yet, 
 until we have apprehended this, and then found that 
 the difficulty admits of no rational explanation, the 
 positive evidence which we have obtained is not to be 
 gainsaid. The result of modern scientific research 
 has been indefinitely to enlarge and strengthen our 
 conception of the solidarity of nature. In the 
 interdependence here, in the correlation there, of 
 widely separated parts, we trace unmistakably the 
 expression of a comprehensive and deeply laid plan. 
 If these arc the characteristics of nature, viewed 
 under its physical aspect, it is not unreasonable to 
 expect similar characteristics in the phenomena of 
 conscious life. There is much that we still see darkly 
 and imperfectly : wisdom counsels us to trust, as 
 analogy persuades us to believe, that in the light cf a 
 
ISAIAH'S VISION. 49 
 
 truer perspective, the anomalies which perplex us 
 would disappear. Let us be grateful to those Hebrew 
 prophets, whose visions have shown us glimpses of 
 an unseen world, and whose intuitions have pierced 
 where reason could never have hoped to reach. They 
 have left reason abundant scope for speculation ; but 
 they have ennobled for us nature and history : they 
 have irradiated the darkness that must otherwise have 
 hung about our steps. Let us appropriate and seek 
 to realize the few but pregnant words of the seraph's 
 hymn, whose echoes are so familiar to us, and let our 
 own voices unite with the celestial chorus, " Holy, 
 Holy, Holy, is the LORD of Hosts : the fulness of the 
 whole earth is his glory." 
 
 E 
 
SERMON III.^ 
 
 THE IDEALS OF THE PROPHETS. 
 
 Gen. xii. 3 : "And I ^Yill bless them that bless thee, and him 
 that curseth thee will I curse : and through thee shall all 
 the families of the earth be bhssed." 
 
 A DOUBLE stream of narrative runs through the first 
 four Books of the Pentateuch. One of these, from 
 the interest which it displays in the ceremonial 
 institutions of Israel, may be conveniently termed the 
 Priestly narrative ; the other, conspicuous for its 
 spiritual affinities with the writings of the canonical 
 prophets, may be suitably described as the Prophetical 
 narrative. In accordance with the mode of com- 
 position often followed by the Hebrew historical 
 writers, the two narratives have been combined in our 
 present Pentateuch : but the lines of demarcation 
 between them are clearly definable ; for in spirit, not 
 less than in phraseology and style, they differ materi- 
 ally. The Priestly narrative culminates in the com- 
 prehensive view of the theocratic institutions, the 
 Tabernacle, the priesthood, the sacrificial system, 
 
 ^ Preached at St. Mary's, before the University, on Sunday, 
 Oct. 25, 1885. 
 
THE IDEALS OF THE PROPHETS. 5 1 
 
 contained in the three middle Books of the Pentateuch ; 
 
 in the preceding history only important occurrences, 
 
 such as the Creation, or the covenants with Noah 
 
 and Abraham, are described with minuteness, the 
 
 narrative in other respects being brief, and hmited to 
 
 such details as v/ould naturally be included in a 
 
 historical introduction to the author's main subject. 
 
 The Prophetical narrative, from which the popular 
 
 view of the pr.triarchal and Mosaic period is mostly 
 
 derived, exhibits to us the lives and doings of tlie 
 
 patriarchs and their descendants, in a series of 
 
 pictures, graphic in delineation, inimitable in literary 
 
 form, and evincing a delicacy of touch and expression, 
 
 a warmth of religious symipath}^, and a keenness of 
 
 moral and psychological perception, unsurpassed in 
 
 the v/ritings of the Old Testament. Expanded, 
 
 elevated, and deepened, the spirit which animates 
 
 the Prophetical narrative reappears in the noble and 
 
 impressive eloquence of Deuteronomy. The theme 
 
 of Deuteronomy is the observance, not as a law 
 
 imposed from without, but as an intelligent and 
 
 spontaneous expression of the heart, of the Decalogue 
 
 and the Book of the Covenant which form an integral 
 
 part of the Prophetical narrative in Exodus.^ 
 
 ^ In support of the statements contained in the preceding 
 paragraph, the writer may be permitted no'.f to refer to his 
 Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testaiiiejit (ed. 3, 
 1892), especially pp. 109-114, 118 122, and (on Deuteronomy, 
 and its relation to Ex. xx.-xxiii.), pp. 70-74, 91. The Decalogue 
 (Ex. XX. 2-17) and " Book of the Covenant" (Ex. xx. 22— xxiii. 
 33 [see xxiv. 7] ; cf xxxiv. 10-26) form the foundation upon 
 which the Deuteronomic legislation is constructed. 
 
52 SERMON III. 
 
 The text sets before us one of the characteristic 
 features of the Prophetical narrative, that conscious- 
 ness of the ideal destiny of Israel, which developed 
 afterwards into the definite hope, commonly termed 
 Messianic. Unfettered by the political and material 
 limitations of his age, and looking beyond the horizon 
 of his own time, the narrator discerns in dim outline the 
 far-off goal of Israel's history, and enables his reader, 
 with increasing clearness of vision, to discern it with 
 him. Let me survey, rapidly, the stages in which he 
 does this. The first is the familiar Protevangelion of 
 the third chapter,^ where hope already steps in to 
 brighten the dark prospect, and alleviate the effects 
 of the Fall, and where, though the struggle reserved 
 for man may bring with it suffering and danger, and 
 be protracted through uncounted generations, the 
 issue, it is hinted, is not doubtful, but the seed of the 
 woman will, in the end, prevail. Antagonism to evil 
 is decreed to be the law of humanity ; and though 
 the nature of the influences prompting man to resist 
 it, the course which the contest would take, and the 
 manner in which the triumph would be finally secured, 
 are not even remotely indicated, the outlook is one 
 of promise and hope. We pass on, and come to 
 Noah, the representative of the new humanity after 
 the Flood, and his three sons typifying, the three great 
 divisions of the human race with which the Hebrews 
 were acquainted. The significance of the epoch is 
 seized by the narrator ; the broad differences of 
 
 1 Gen. iii. 15. 
 
THE IDEALS OF THE PROPHETS. 53 
 
 character stamped upon these nationah'ties are referred 
 to the spell of the patriarchal blessing.^ Obscure 
 though the words are^ we seem to see prefigured the 
 expansive energy and many-sidedness of the nations 
 of Europe, the political dependence and moral degra- 
 dation of the populations of Canaan, and the blessed- 
 ness of the people descended from Shem, on account 
 of the light of religious truth shining in its midst. 
 "Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Shem!" thus, ex- 
 pressively, is Shem designated as the most fortunate 
 of the patriarch's sons ; and it is within the limits of 
 Shem's descendants that the seed of the woman must, 
 if it is to be successful, carry on the conflict. 
 
 There follows the passage which I read as my text. 
 It is typical of many, addressed sometimes to Abra- 
 ham, sometimes to one of the other patriarchs. All 
 breathe the same spirit ; most are expressed nearly 
 in the same words.^ In part, the promises relate 
 only to the nation of which the patriarchs are to be 
 the ancestors ; its numbers, as the stars of heaven, or 
 as the sand which is upon the sea-shore ; the certainty 
 with which it will enter into possession of Canaan, 
 even to the ideal limits reached by the dominion of 
 Solomon ; ^ the blessings of external prosperity 
 which will flow to it. Elsewhere, a wider prospect is 
 
 1 Gen. ix. 25-27. 
 
 2 Gen. xii. 2-3, xiii. 14-17, xv. 5, 18, xviii. 18, xxii. 15-18 
 (Abraham); xxvi. 2-5, 24 (Isaac); xxvii. 27-29, xxviii. 13-15 
 (Jacob) ; xlix. 10 (Judah). 
 
 3 Gen. XV. 18, cf. Ex. xxiii. 31; and see i Kings i\^ 21. 
 These passages explain the terms of the promise in Is. xxvii. 12. 
 
54 SERMON III. 
 
 Opened, and the nations of the earth are brought 
 within the sphere of Israel's influence. Three times, 
 it is said,i throuc^h the patriarchs (or their seed) shall 
 the families of the earth be blessed ; twice,- in passages 
 due perhaps to another hand, it is said that they will 
 bless themselves by it, i. e. will own it as a source of 
 good, and desire for themselves the blessings proceed- 
 ing from it. Objectively, in other words, the truth 
 of which Israel is the organ and channel is to become 
 a blessing to the world ; and subjectively, it is to be 
 recognized by the world as such.^ The thought in the 
 latter case is one whicli becomes explicit in Isaiah, 
 and may be illustrated from his vision of the nations 
 urging one another to take part in the pilgrimage to 
 Zion : ** Come, and let us go up to the mountain of 
 the Lord, for he will teacli us out of his wa}'s, and 
 we will walk in liis paths ; for out of Zion shall go 
 forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from 
 Jerusalem." ^ The promises belonging to the Priestly 
 narrative do not look so far. The Priestly narrative 
 dwells upon important truths ; it analyses the internal 
 
 1 Gen. xii. 3, xviii. 18, xxviii. 14. 
 
 2 Gen. xxii. 18, xxvi. 4. 
 
 2 Co'.np. Riebtn, Messianic Prophecy (ed. 2, Edinburgh, 1891 ), 
 p. 97 f., %vho, however, interprets differently the three passages 
 first cited, treating them — it must be admitted, in agreement 
 with most modern s:holars — as expressing the same sense as 
 the two last quoted. Too much stress must not, therefore, be 
 laid upon the distinction expressed in the text ; though the fact 
 of a different conjugation being used in the two sets of passages 
 would seem to create a presumption in its favour. In illustration 
 of the expression "bless by^'' see Gen. xlviii. 20 (R.V. viarg.). 
 
 "* Is. ii. 3. 
 
THE IDEALS OF THE PROPHETS. 55 
 
 organization of the theocracy ; it shows the signifi- 
 cance of its ceremonial institutions ; it formulates a 
 conception of priesthood and sacrifice, destined to 
 assume a central position in the ultimate phase of 
 Israel's religion. In accordance with this, its general 
 scope, the promises embodied in it are limited to 
 Israel itself.^ They emphasize the perpetuity of the 
 relationship to be established between Israel and its 
 God, and bring this into connection with their pos- 
 session of the land of Canaan ; but they nowhere 
 contemplate the exertion by Israel of an influence 
 upon the v/orld without. On the other hand, the 
 Prophetical narrative of the Pentateuch is inspired 
 by that consciousness of a w^oi Id-wide mission for 
 Israel, which finds afterwards its more distinct and 
 definite expression in the prophets. 
 
 What, we may ask, is the source of this conception 
 of the ideal destiny of Israel, which thus prevails' 
 in so many parts of the Old Testament ? Without 
 committing ourselves to any theory of the growth of 
 Hebrew historical literature, it seems possible to 
 point to certain fundamental ideas, presupposed 
 already in what h?Lve every appearance of being the 
 oldest sources of the history, which may help us to 
 answer the question. The song of Moses in Exodus 
 XV., and that of Deborah in Judges v., attest for a 
 period more ancient than that of the narrative in 
 
 ^ Gen. xvii. 6-8, xxxv. 11- 12, Ex. vi. 2-8, xxix. 43-46. The 
 two series of proaiises deserve to be compared with each other 
 in detail. 
 
56 ' SERMON III. 
 
 which they are embedded/ the close relationship 
 already regarded as subsisting between Israel and its 
 God. They speak of the " people " of Jehovah, the 
 people "claimed" and "purchased" by Him from 
 bondage in Egypt, the people by whose deliverance 
 the God of their ancestors had shown Himself to be 
 the '' strength and salvation " of their descendants.^ 
 Other ancient designations are the inheritance,^ the 
 possession,^ the house -^ of Jehovah ; or, in a more 
 personal sense, His firstborn.'^ The idea of which 
 different aspects are denoted under these figures is, 
 doubtless, expressed most simply in the phrase first 
 quoted, the people of Jehovah. At first, probably, 
 it was not distinctly perceived that the God Who 
 thus owned Israel's allegiance was also the Lord of 
 the whole earth. Israel had its God, as other nations 
 had their gods, whose real existence was scarcely 
 denied.'^ But gradually it was seen what the ex- 
 pression involved, and when analysed, it was found 
 to mean that the God of heaven and earth had really 
 become Israel's God, had separated for Himself a 
 particular nation in which to manifest His presence, 
 and accomplish His purposes for mankind. Two 
 passages in the Prophetical narrative of the Pentateuch 
 exhibit this truth clearly. The first is the declaration 
 
 ^ See the writer's Ifitrodicction, pp. 27, 114, 161 f. 
 2 Ex. XV. 2, 13 (''redeemed," more exactly ''reclaimed"), 
 16*'; Judg. V. 11^ cf. 23^ 
 ' Ex. XV. 17, I Sam. xxvi. 19, 2 Sam. xiv. 16, xx. 19. 
 * Ex. xix. 5. s Num. xii. 7. ^ Ex. iv. 22. 
 
 ^ Ex. XV. II, I Sam. xxvi. 19, Judg. xi. 24. 
 
THE IDEALS OF THE PROPHETS. 5/ 
 
 to Abraham, so strangely and unfortunately mis- 
 rendered in the Authorized Version/ " Shall I hide 
 from Abraham that which I do . . . For I have 
 known him, to the end that he may command his 
 children and household after him, that they may 
 keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judg- 
 ment ? " Jehovah declares here that He has entered 
 into a special relation with Abraham, in order to 
 convey to him a fuller knowledge of His ways, which 
 he may pass on to his descendants. The other 
 passage is in the description of the consecration of 
 the nation at Sinai : ^ " Now, therefore, if ye will 
 obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then 
 yc shall be a peculiar treasure to me from among 
 all peoples ; for all the earth is mine ; and ye shall 
 be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation." 
 Because the whole earth is Jehovah's, and His choice, 
 therefore, is unrestricted, Israel is chosen by Him out 
 of, and in preference to, all other nations, to enjoy the 
 privilege of His ownership and protection ; as we 
 may venture to suppose, chosen not arbitrarily, but 
 because in genius and temper it v/as best fitted to 
 realize God's purposes towards man, to be the channel 
 of His grace, and to develop, through many failures, 
 an ideal of godliness and faith. Only, as is obvious, 
 since Jehovah is a jealous God, and makes moral 
 demands of His worshippers, this relation involves 
 reciprocal obligations and responsibilities, on which, 
 however, I have no occasion at present to dwell. 
 1 Gen. xviii. 17, 19. - Ex. xix. 5-6. 
 
58 SERMON III. 
 
 Israel is the people of God; here is the fruitful germ 
 of their entire future. The whole earth is the Lord's ; 
 and therefore, as the same prophetical narrator antici- 
 pates, it must in the end " be filled with his glory," ^ 
 and through Israel's intervention all flesh shall be 
 brought to the knowledge of His salvation. We see 
 the prophets of Israel, almost from the earliest times, 
 in possession of ideas which are, so to speak, naturally 
 expansive, which point to realities beyond themselves, 
 and which imply logically the removal of the limita- 
 tions which for the time confine them. The earliest 
 records of the Old Testament are Dresrnant with the 
 
 J. o 
 
 auguries of a noble future ; they are inspired by the 
 consciousness of an ideal at first discerned dimly and 
 in outline, afterwards defined more accurately, an 
 ideal moreover which, as history proceeded, so far 
 from proving itself an illusion, or an impracticable 
 vision, was actually, more or less completely, realized. 
 Let us follow, in some of its more salieiit aspects, its 
 development. 
 
 The establishment of the monarchy forms an epoch 
 in Israelitish history. The monarchy created in 
 Israel a sense of national unity, and gave a new 
 impulse to national feeling, which though soon indeed 
 ruptured, never ceased to be remembered, and left its 
 mark upon the whole subsequent history. David 
 and Solomon secured for Judah, in particular, a 
 prestige and a pre-eminence which never afterwards 
 forsook it. The nation culminated in its monarch ; 
 
 ^ Num. xiv. 21. 
 
THE IDEALS OF THE PROPHETS. 59 
 
 its aims and aspirations became his ; he was the 
 permanent centre by which its different parts were 
 held together, and tlic welfare of the whole was main- 
 tained. Instituted under the favour and approval of 
 God/ his earliest title is " Jehovah's Anointed one " ; ^ 
 his position is unique ; in defending his country's 
 cause he fights the "battles of Jehovah" ; ^ his person 
 is sacred — '* Who will put forth his hand against the 
 Lord's Anointed, and be guiltless ? " ^ As representa- 
 tive of the nation, the hopes fixed upon the nation 
 are transferred to him ; prophets announce to him a 
 glorious future, poets make him their theme ; his 
 figure is idealized, and the portrait of the Messianic 
 King is before us. This, however, was only attained 
 gradually; let us trace the steps in detail. The 
 substance, if not the exact words, of the momentous 
 announcement made to David by Nathan^ is doubt- 
 less correctly preserved. To his successor, Israel's 
 own title of son is solemnly attached ;^ the perpetuity 
 of his dynasty is promised ; though temporarily dis- 
 graced it will not be permanently set aside ; the 
 future of Israel's existence is definitely associated 
 with Israel's king." The thought is repeated in 
 David's beautiful " Last Words," ^ in which, after 
 
 ^ I Sam. ix. 15 f., x. i. 
 
 2 I Sam. xvi. 6, xxiv. 6, 10, xxvi. 9, 16, 2 Sam, xix. 22. 
 
 ^ I Sam. xviii. 17, xxv. 28. 
 
 ^ I Sam. xxvi. 9 ; cf. xxiv. 6, 2 Sam. i. 14, 16. 
 
 ^ 2 Sam. vii. 4-16. 
 
 ^ 2 Sam. vii. 14 (cf. the quotation in Ps. Ixxxix. 26 f.) : see Ex. 
 iv. 22 f., Hos. xi. I. 
 
 " 2 Sam. vii. 14-16. ^2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7. 
 
6o SERMON III. 
 
 dwelling on the blessings of a just rule, he expresses 
 his confidence in the future reserved for his own 
 house. In these passages are drawn the first linea- 
 ments of the features which were afterwards more 
 fully developed in the Messianic Psalms. 
 
 The great prophets amplify in different directions 
 the thought of Israel's ideal future. 1 will select three 
 typical illustrations of this. Amos prophesied in the 
 Northern Kingdom towards the middle of the 8th 
 century B.C., and was the first, so far as we know, to 
 point out to his countrymen the determining influence 
 soon to be exerted by the Assyrians upon the history 
 of Western Asia.^ Amos rudely shatters the illusions 
 of security cherished by the proud citizens of Samaria.^ 
 Appropriating the words of the prophetical narrator 
 of Genesis, he gives them an unexpected and startling 
 application : " You only have I known of all the 
 families of the earth : therefore will I visit upon you 
 all your iniquities." ^ But while declaring the certainty 
 of approaching evil and disgrace, his prophecy does not 
 close without a reservation ; the chosen people cannot 
 be entirely cast off; the nation, though the vision of 
 woe seemed to threaten it with extinction, is only 
 sifted, so that no sound grain falls to the earth.^ The 
 breach which the empire of David had lately sustained 
 will be healed,'' and its power re-established to its 
 
 ^ Amos vi. 14. 
 
 2 See Amos v. 18-20, vi. 1-7, 13, ix. lo^ 
 
 ^ Amos iii. 2 ; see Gen. xviii. 18, 19. 
 
 ^ Amos ix. 8-10. 
 
 ^ Amos ix. II ; see 2 Kings xiv. 13. 
 
THE IDEALS OF THE PROPHETS. 6l 
 
 old limits.! Amos substantially renews and re-asserts 
 the promise of Nathan ; the re-elevation of David's 
 weakened house, the restoration to Israel of material 
 prosperity, are the aspects of the future upon which 
 his thoughts rest. 
 
 We come to Isaiah, who in the prophecies inspired 
 by the great crises through which he saw his country 
 pass, gives brilliant and distinct expression to Israel's 
 hope. He develops it in three directions. First, he 
 anticipates for his people the speedy advent of an 
 ideal future, when the nation, purified, regenerated, 
 transformed, will be true to its ideal character, and 
 realize its ideal aims. In Exodus we read, "And 
 ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an 
 holy nation " : ^ Isaiah writes, '' And he that is left 
 in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall 
 be called holy " ; and in imagery drawn from the 
 narrative of the Pentateuch, he depicts the super- 
 natural splendour which will rest as a canopy and 
 defence over the sacred city." Again and again is 
 the thought, with a wealth and variety of imagery, 
 which only Isaiah can command,, reiterated ; again 
 
 1 Amos ix. 12. The allusion is to the nations which David 
 had subjugated (2 Sam. viii.), and " over which," in consequence, 
 Jehovah's " name had been called'' in token of ownership (see, 
 in illustration of this expression, 2 Sam. xii. 28, R.V. inarg.^ 
 Ucut. xxviii. 10, I Kings viii. 43, Jcr. vii. 10, 11, xxv. 29. 
 In the English Bible the phrase is usually rendered, obscurely 
 and inexactly, ''called by my name," but the correct rendering 
 is sometimes given on the margin of the Revised Version, e.g. 
 in Jer. vii. 10). 
 
 2 Ex. xix. 6. ^ Is. iv. 3, 5, 6. 
 
62 SERMON III. 
 
 and again do we linger on those marvellous pictures 
 of serenity, purity, and peace, which are the creations 
 of his inspired imagination.^ And it is not solely, or 
 even primarily, the return of material prosperity 
 upon which his interest is fixed ; it is the future in 
 its spiritual aspects, the regeneration of the people, 
 its conformity to its ideal character, which is the 
 conspicuous and central feature in nearly every 
 picture which he draws. 
 
 Here, then, is one aspect of the future, as conceived 
 by Isaiah. A second aspect is connected directly 
 with the promise of Nathan. In lieu of the mere 
 permanence of the Davidic dynasty, in lieu of the 
 abstract figure of David, under v/hom Hosea declares 
 that the broken unity of the nation will be repaired,^ 
 Isaiah sets before us the concrete personality of the 
 Messianic King. We can follow the stages by v/hich 
 the idea took shape in his mind. First, on occasion 
 of that memorable interview with Ahaz, when, after 
 the sullen repulse of his offer by the king, there rises 
 before his mental eye, as it would seem without pre- 
 meditation, the vision of the maiden, soon to give 
 birth to the child, who, in spite of the destitution 
 through which his country must first pass, is still the 
 mysterious pledge and symbol of its deliverance.^ 
 
 ^ See, for instance, Is. i. 26-27, xxx. 19-26, xxxii. 1-8, 15-18, 
 xxxiii. 20, 21. 
 
 2 Hos. iii. 5. 
 
 ^ Is. vii. 14-16. The destitution is indicated by the simple 
 fare of "curdled milk and honey," to which the child (vii. 15) 
 not less than the people generally (vii. 21 f.), will be reduced. 
 
THE IDEALS OF THE PROPHETS. 63 
 
 A year or more passes by : ^ again the prophet is 
 discoursing on the political prospects of his country ; 
 he is watching the torrent of Assyrian invasion, as it 
 inundates the Northern Kingdom ; he sees it sweep- 
 ing impetuously onward into Judah ; it threatens to 
 submerge all ; it has already risen to the neck — " and 
 the stretchinp- out of his winsfs shall fill the breadth 
 of thy land, O Immanuel ! " No sooner does the 
 magic word escape the prophet's lips, than his tone 
 instantly changes ; the torrent melts away : he 
 challenges, defiantly, the combined nations, distant 
 or near, and with a burst of triumph, announces their 
 overthrow.- Can clearer proof be needed, how vividly 
 the prophet realizes the unborn child of his imagin- 
 ation, or with what august attributes he conceives 
 him to be endowed ? And at the end of the same 
 section, when the clouds which darken the political 
 horizon have finally lifted, and a morning of hope 
 and joy breaks upon the restored people, we see the 
 child, invested with every attribute of an ideal prince, 
 ruling in David's seat, and inaugurating a reign of 
 peace : " For all the arm.our of the armed men in the 
 tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall be 
 for burnin^r, for fuel of fire. For a child is born unto 
 us, a son is given unto us ; and the government is 
 upon his shoulder ; and his na.n\c. is called, Wonderful 
 Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince 
 of Peace." 2 Nor is this all. Twenty, or, more 
 
 ^ Is. viii. 1-4. ^ Is. viii. 7-10. 
 
 ^ Is. ix. 5-7 (the end of the section which begins at viii. 5). 
 
64 SERMON III. 
 
 probably, thirty^ years afterwards, when the army of 
 Sennacherib, having reduced, one after another, his 
 rebeUious vassals in Phoenicia, is starting southwards 
 to wreak upon Jerusalem a like fate, the prophet, 
 having in a passage of unsurpassed irony and power 2 
 declared his failure, proceeds to that unique delinea- 
 tion of the Messianic age,^ which has been pronounced, 
 not unjustly,^ to be perhaps the most remarkable 
 creation of pre-Christian times. Again the prince of 
 David's line is set before us, endowed by the spirit of 
 Jehovah with a threefold gift, with the faculty of 
 quick and true perception, with strength alike in 
 deliberation and action, with profound religious 
 intuitions, delicate and acute in discrimination, saga- 
 cious in judgment, effecting by the breath of his 
 mouth — a wonderful image — what ordinary rulers 
 would only accomplish by physical coercion, trans- 
 forming the wild passions of human nature, and 
 finally, by the moral attractiveness of his own 
 personality, riveting the attention and interest of the 
 
 ^ The capture of Damascus, foretold in Is. viii. 4, is fixed by 
 the Inscriptions for B.C. 732 ; and the deportation of the in- 
 habitants of ZebuUm, Naphtah, &c. (2 Kings xv. 29), alluded to 
 in Is. ix. I, took place B.C. 734 : the date of vii. i — ix. 7 will thus 
 be c. B.C. 735-34. Sennacherib's invasion, to the period of which 
 X. 5 — xii. seems to the present writer to belong, took place in 
 B.C. 701 : even, however, should this prophecy, as Dillmann, 
 for instance, supposes, belong to the reign of Sargon, it will 
 still be subsequent to B.C. 722, and thus many years later than 
 vii. I — ix. 7. 
 
 2 Is. X. 28-34. ^ Is. xi. I- 10. 
 
 ^ Duhm, Theologie dcr Prophdcn (1875), p. 168. 
 
THE IDEALS OF THE PROPHETS. 6$ 
 
 world. It is important to bear in mind the chron- 
 o\ogy (where it can be ascertained) of Isaiah's pro- 
 phecies ; for it assists us to understand the true 
 nature of his ideas. It shows us that though attached 
 in one sense to contemporary occurrences, they are 
 in another sense independent of time. They reappear 
 in a new and more developed form after the occasion 
 out of which they arose had passed by : they form 
 part of his permanent intellectual creed ; though he 
 seems to expect for them an immediate realization, 
 the postponement, so far from destroying his hopes, 
 invigorates and renews them. From the prospect of 
 his nation's ideal future, sometimes with, sometimes 
 without, the central figure of the ideal King, he draws, 
 in the days of his country's sorest trial, consolation 
 and strength.'^ 
 
 A third feature in Isaiah's conception of the future 
 attaches itself immediately to the thought expressed 
 in the text. He has a vivid consciousness of the 
 position to be ultimately assumed in the world by 
 the religion of Israel. He contemplates, not merely, 
 like Amos, the enforced subjection of the neighbour- 
 ing nations to David's successors ; he contemplates 
 the homage and allegiance offered by them spon- 
 taneously to Israel's faith. In the passage from one 
 of his earliest prophecies which I have already quoted, 
 he represents to us the nations streaming to Zion as 
 their spiritual metropolis ; and later he views in 
 succession one nation after another, Moab, Ethiopia, 
 
 ^ E.^q^. Is. ix. 1-7, xxix. 20-24, >^>^>^- 19-26, xxxiii. 5, 6, 13-24. 
 
 F 
 
66 SERMON III. 
 
 Egypt, Tyre,^ incorporated in the future kingdom of 
 God. The thought is most distinctly expressed in 
 his prophecy on Egypt : not only are the symbols 
 of Jehovah's worship established in that country, but 
 there is a highway between Egypt and Assyria, and 
 the two nations, engaged then in deadly hostility, 
 pass freely together along it, doing homage with 
 Israel itself to Israel's God.^ 
 
 Such are the three principal developments which 
 the truth of Israel's future received in Isaiah's hands. 
 He delineates with a distinctness and emphasis un- 
 known before its ethical characteristics ; he exhibits 
 in its completeness (for subsequent prophets added 
 but little to it) the portrait of the ideal King ; and he 
 insists, with a generous and far-seeing catholicity, 
 upon the essential universalism of the national faith. 
 
 My third typical illustration is drawn from the 
 great prophecy of Israel's restoration, which occupies 
 the last twenty-seven chapters of the Book of Isaiah. 
 Here Israel's future is conceived under an entirely 
 new aspect. The figure of the Messianic King is 
 absent, and there appears instead the figure of the 
 ideal nation. Israel, no longer viewed as an aggregate 
 of isolated members, but grasped as a whole, is drama- 
 tized as an individual, in whom the essential charac- 
 teristics of the people are concentrated, and who 
 stands before us realizing in his own person its 
 purposes and aims. The basis of the personification 
 
 ^ Is. ii. 2-4, xvi. 4-5, xviii. 7, xix. 19-25, xxiii. 18. 
 '^ Is. xix, 23. 
 
THE IDEALS OF THE PROPHETS. 6/ 
 
 is the prophetic office of the nation. Israel has been 
 called of God in its ancestor Abraham, has received 
 from Him a definite commission and work, and is now 
 honoured by Him with the title, implying- trust and 
 confidence on the one side, devotion and loyalty on 
 the other, of His servant.^ The conception thus 
 formed is not, however, limited to the representation 
 of Israel, as it was in the past ; it is invested by the 
 prophet with an independent being, and projected by 
 him, as a truly ideal form, upon the future. And so 
 vivid is the personification, that it assumes the char- 
 acter of an Individual, who reproduces in his own 
 person the salient characteristics of the nation. This 
 individual has a mission, not to his own people merely, 
 but to the world : " It is a small thing that thou 
 shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of 
 Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel ; I will 
 also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that my 
 salvation may be even unto the ends of the earth." - 
 He is thus the instrument for communicating the 
 truth possessed by Israel to the world. In his work 
 as prophet, he will encounter contumely and oppo- 
 sition : but he will not flinch; the mystery of suffering 
 must be exemplified in him ; and though innocent 
 himself, he will sacrifice his life for the relief and 
 benefit of others. But this is not the end. He lives 
 again, a new and glorified life, in which the travail of 
 his soul is no longer unrewarded ; his work prospers 
 
 \ Is. xli. 8-IO, xliii. 1-2, xliv. i, 2. 
 2 Is, xlix. 6 (cf. xlii. 6-7). 
 
6S SERMON III. 
 
 in his hands ; he takes his place beside the great ones 
 of the earth, and whereas before all were shocked at 
 the sight of his humiliation, the world itself will now 
 stand amazed at the spectacle of his exaltation.^ 
 Israel, as the recipient of prophetic illumination, and 
 the bearer of a message to mankind, is here concen- 
 trated in an ideal figure, who exhibits in their per- 
 fection the typical excellences of the nation, and 
 realizes in their integrity its ideal aims. Nor is it an 
 abstract character which the prophet thus depicts ; 
 his own warmth of feeling and imaginative sympathy 
 are reflected in it ; it is human in its completeness ; 
 it speaks in accents of sweetness and pathos; it shows 
 no deficiency in strength and decision,^ yet the at- 
 tributes of sympathy, tenderness, and resignation 
 predominate;^ for a moment it is disheartened, but 
 is quickly re-assured ; ^ unobtrusively but surely it 
 accomplishes its ends.^ Such is the personality upon 
 which, in the mind of the great prophet of the exile, 
 the future alike of Israel and the world depends.'^ 
 These, then, are a few of those auguries of the 
 
 1 Is. xlii. 1-7, xlix. 1-9, 1. 4-9, lii. 13 — liii. 12. 
 
 2 Is. 1. 7 f. 2 l^^i_ I — 2, liii. 7. * xlix. 4. ^ xlii. 2-4. 
 
 ^ The thoughts expressed in this and the preceding paragraphs 
 have been developed by the writer more fully in his volume, 
 Isaz'a/i, his life and tivies^ and the writings which bear his riame^ 
 in the series entitled Men of the Bible: comp. pp. 40-42, 94 f., 
 110-114, 175-180. On the figure of Jehovah's ideal servant 
 (of which it is not easy to gain a perfectly consistent picture), 
 much that is helpful and suggestive will be found in A. B. 
 Davidson's study in the Expositor, 1884, Nov. p. 350 ff., Dec. p. 
 430 ff.; comp. also the remarks of Dillmann, in his commentary 
 on Isaiah (1890), p. 472 f. 
 
THE IDEALS OF THE PROPHETS. 69 
 
 future, which are the unique creation of the Hebrew 
 prophets, and which through a succession of ages 
 ministered to the consolation, and sustained the faith, 
 of the Israehtish nation. Have they failed of their 
 accomplishment ? We, whose privilege it is to be 
 born in the Messianic age, are witnesses of, at least, 
 the initial stages of their fulfilment. In the Gospel 
 the principles determining the history of Israel are 
 unfolded and matured : it is upon this larger and 
 firmer ground, and not by the fragile aid of doubtful 
 or mistranslated texts, that the unity of the two 
 Testaments is to be maintained. In the empire 
 exercised by Christ over the minds of men, we re- 
 cognize the transfigured kingdom of David. In the 
 new life conferred by union with Him, in the gifts of 
 the Spirit, as eloquently summed up by St. PauV we 
 recognize that transformation of the individual char- 
 acter and of society, which formed Isaiah's inspiring 
 ideal. By the diffusion of the faith of Christ through- 
 out the world, the catholicity of the prophets' visic^ns 
 receives its justification. The very words of the 
 commission addressed to St. Paul in the Acts, are 
 borrowed from those in which the world-wide mission 
 of the individualized people is described in the second 
 part of Isaiah ; ^ for in the work inaugurated by the 
 Apostle of the Gentiles the " Righteous Servant" first 
 accomplishes this part of his office. In His own life 
 and sufferings, the Redeemer realizes the character 
 
 1 Gal. iii. 22, 23, Col. iii. 12-14. 
 
 2 Acts xiii. 47 ; Is. xlix. 6. 
 
70 SERMON III. 
 
 sketched, as I have endeavoured to show, with such 
 completeness and power, in the same chapters ; and 
 the portrait which on the one hand reflects, as in a 
 miniature, the best and truest features of the Israeh'tish 
 nation, is, on the other hand, found to be a prefigure- 
 ment of the human personahty of Christ. In the 
 fuifihiient it was seen how the two characters, that 
 of the ideal King, or Messiah, and that of the ideal 
 Prophet or Sufferer — which are distinct, and never 
 approximate, in the Old Testament, — could be com- 
 bined in one person.^ In Christ as King, and Christ 
 as Prophet, the Founder and Head of a new social 
 state — for the aspects of His work as Priest would 
 carry me too far to-day — the hope of Israel, which 
 but for His advent, had been as an illusion or a dream, 
 finds its consummation and its reward. 
 
 But the change was neither so rapid nor so 
 complete as the prophets themselves seem to have 
 expected. Long centuries passed, and Israel seemed 
 on the verge of extinction, before the Child who, as 
 Isaiah and Micah represent, was to save his country 
 from Assyria,, appeared. In particular the transform- 
 ation of human life remains still a potentiality not 
 realized. Even where the wheat appears to abound, 
 the tares are mingled with it. Whether indeed it 
 will ever be different while the present order of 
 things continues upon earth we cannot say ; the most 
 dazzling visions of the prophets are indeed localized 
 upon this earth ; their centre is the earthly, though 
 ^ Comp. the writer's Isaiah^ p. i8o. 
 
THE IDEALS OF THE PROPHETS. 7 1 
 
 glorified, Zion : ^ but in the New Testament the vista 
 ends elsewhere ; and there only, perchance, their final 
 consummation is to be souglit. Let us endeavour by 
 the grace of Christ, and in the light of His example, 
 to realize the ideal as completely as we are able in 
 ourselves. Let us, by maintaining and promoting, 
 as well in the secular as the religious life — for both 
 are comprehended in the Messianic ideal — an elevated 
 standard of action, contribute as we can towards dif- 
 fusing in the world the blessings which flow from the 
 inheritance of Abraham. 
 
 ^ See, for instance, Is. iv. 3, 5, xxv. 6-8 ('in this mountain"), 
 xxxiii. 20, 21, liv. 11-14, Ix. 1-22, Ixii. i, Jer. iii, 14 f., xxxiii. 16, 
 Ezek. xlviii. ;^S} ^^- Comp. Prof. A. B, Davidson's Esekiel, pp. 
 288-90. 
 
SERMON IV.i 
 
 GROWTH OF BELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE. 
 
 2 Tim. i. lo : " Who abolished death, and brought life and 
 incoiTuption to light through the Gospel.'' 
 
 I PROPOSE to take as my subject this afternoon the 
 doctrine of a future state, as it was current in Jewish 
 circles, before, and immediately following, the 
 Christian era. I shall, firstly, exhibit, as time will 
 permit, the eschatology of our main pre-Christian 
 authority, the apocryphal Book of Enoch : I shall, 
 secondly, exemplify the eschatological interpretation 
 of the Old Testament, from the Jewibh Targums ; 
 and, in conclusion, I shall consider briefly the results 
 thus obtained in their bearing upon the teaching of 
 the New Testament. 
 
 I may be permitted to premise shortly, what I 
 should have been glad to develop at length, the 
 stages through which the doctrine had passed before 
 the close of the Old Testament canon. The ordinary 
 
 1 Preached at St. Mary's, on Sunday, March 6, 1887, being 
 one of the sermons, preached annually before the University, 
 on the foundation of the late Dr. Macbride, Principal of 
 Magdalen Hall, and Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic, upon 
 " The Jewish Interpretation of Prophecy." 
 
GROWTH OF BELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE. y ^ 
 
 belief on the subject of a future life, shared by 'the 
 ancient Hebrews, was not that the spirit after death 
 ceased to exist/ but that it passed into the under- 
 world, Sheol, the " meeting-place," as Job describes it, 
 " for all living," ^ as well for the tyrant King of 
 Babylon, at whose downfall the earth rejoiced,-^ as for 
 Jacob, or Samuel, or David,^ where it entered upon a 
 shadowy, half-conscious existence, devoid of interest 
 and occupation, and not worthy of the name of 
 " life " ^ : — " For Shcol cannot praise thee, death cannot 
 celebrate thee : they that go down into the pit cannot 
 hope for thy faithfulness." ^ But the darkness which 
 thus shrouded man's hereafter was not unbroken in 
 the Old Testament ; and there are three lines along 
 which the way is prepared for the fuller revelation 
 brotlg+rt by the Gospel. There is, firstly, the limit- 
 ation of the power of death set forth by the prophets, 
 in their visions of a glorified, but yet earthly, Zion of 
 the future : " For as the days of a tree shall be the 
 days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy 
 the work of their hands." ^ There is, second ly, the 
 conviction uttered by individual Psalmists that their 
 close fellowship with God implies and demands that 
 
 ^ See, e.g. i Sam. xxviii. 15. ^ Job xxx. 23. 
 
 3 Is. xiv. 8, 9, 15 : comp. Ezek. xxxii. 18-32: also Job iii. 13-19. 
 
 ^ Gen. xxxvii. 35 (sec R.V. 7narg., and cf. xliv. 29), i Sam. 
 xxviii. 15, 2 Sam. xii. 23. 
 
 ^ See Note A (p. 95). 
 
 ^ Is. xxxviii. 18 (Hezekiah's song) : similarly Ps. vi. 5, xxx. 9, 
 Ixxxviii. 10-12, cxv. 17 ("The dead pr.iise not Jah, neither any 
 that go down into silence" : with '' silence," comp. Ps. xciv. 17). 
 
 7 See iNote 13 (p. 95). 
 
74 SERMON IV. 
 
 they will themselves personally be superior to death : 
 " My flesh and my heart faileth ; but God is the 
 strength of my heart and my portion for ever." ^ 
 And, thirdly, we meet with the idea of a resurrection, 
 though rather at first as a hope than as a dogma, and 
 with the limitation that it is restricted to Israel. 
 " Let thy dead live ! let my dead bodies arise ! " cries 
 the dwindled nation in its extremity ; and the 
 prophet forthwith utters the jubilant response : 
 "Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust ; for thy 
 dew is as the dew of lights, and the earth shall cast 
 forth the Shades."^ But the hope thus triumphantly 
 expressed is limited by the context to Israel ; ^ and 
 the same limitation is apparent in the vision of the 
 dry bones in Ezekiel xxxvii."* Even in Dan. xii. 2, 
 the passage which speaks most distinctly, and teaches 
 also a resurrection of the wicked, the terms are still 
 not universal : " And many of them that sleep in the 
 dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting 
 life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." ^ 
 But t his ve rse adds, for the first time, the idea of a 
 f uture, retribution, which also may be signified by the 
 
 ^ Ps. Ixxiii. 26 (comp. v. 24^) ; cf. xvi. 10 f. (R.V,), xvii. 15, 
 xlix. 15 ; Job xix. 26. See the Commentary of Delitzsch on the 
 passages from the Psalms, or Kirkpatrick, The Psahns {Book /.), 
 in the Cambridge Bible for Schools, p. Ixxvii f ; and A. B. 
 Davidson's Commentary on Job (in the same series) ^?^//^^.,and 
 p. 291 ii. 
 
 2 Is. xxvi. 19 (post-exilic). See Note C (p. 96). 
 
 3 Observe that the foes of Israel are without hope of a 
 resurrection {z>. 14) : comp. Jer. 11. 39, 57. 
 
 ^ See V. \\. ^ See Note D (p. 96). 
 
GROWTH OF P.ELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE. 75 
 
 ^'judgment," to which the Preacher, in Ecclesiastes, 
 more than once solemnly alludes.^ 
 
 Such is the point at which the Old Testament 
 leaves the doctrine of a future life. I proceed to trace 
 the main developments which the doctrine underwent 
 at the hands of the Jews before the time of Christ. 
 One feature which at once strikes us is that it is 
 brought into an intimate connection with the de- 
 veloped doctrine of the Messiah, to which the same 
 period gave birth. There is no passage in the Old 
 Testament, in which such a connection is asserted, 
 at least explicitly.^ But in the centuries immediately 
 preceding the Christian era, the Messianic idea 
 assumed a new prominence, and was presented under 
 fresh forms, among which were some professing an 
 eschatological significance. When Judah fell under 
 Greek influences, and morally as well as politically 
 the supremacy of Hellenism began to assert itself, 
 those who still remained faithful to the religion of 
 their fathers found themselves engaged in a new 
 struggle, now with aggressive irreligion without, now 
 with religious indifferentism within.^ Their hearts 
 pondered over the ancient prophecies, so strangely 
 unfulfilled, of Israel's future greatness and glory : 
 from the sufferings and disappointments of the 
 present, they turned to the prospects of their 
 realization in the future ; or sought for compensation 
 in the hope of a glorified life hereafter. The Book of 
 
 1 See Note E (p. 96). 2 See Note F (p. 97). 
 3 See I Mace. i. 10-64. 
 
"J^ SERMON IV. 
 
 Daniel is the first known literary work in which 
 reflections such as these took shape : ^ but in the 
 hands of subsequent writers the same mode of 
 representation was developed in far greater detail. 
 Taking as their basis the well-known prophecy of 
 Daniel, which unites the figure of a super-human 
 Messiah with the promise of a kingdom conferred 
 upon the saints of the Most High,^ these writers 
 combined with it elements derived from other, more 
 ancient, prophecies of the ideal future of their 
 nation ; they imagined the time when the heatlien 
 domination under which they laboured would be 
 overthrown, and the power which it now wielded 
 transferred to the people of God : under concrete 
 images of wonderful attractiveness and force, they 
 pictured the Messiah triumphing with His people over 
 their foes, or presiding, as the vice-gerent of the 
 Almighty, at the judgment of quick and dead. The 
 germs of that mode of representation, known as the 
 ** Apocalyptic," ^ appear in the writings of the earlier 
 post-exilic prophets;"* but set forth upon a scale 
 designed to meet effectively the needs of the time, 
 and to provide a satisfaction in the future for the 
 hopes and expectations unaccomplished in the present, 
 
 ^ See, in particular, Dan. ii. 35, 44-45, cb. vii., viii., x.-xii. 
 The book of Daniel appears to date from the beginning of the 
 persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes : comp. the writer's Intro- 
 duction^ ch. ix., and, on its purport and aim, pp. 477-4S1. 
 
 2 Dan. vii. 13 (R.V.), 14, 22, 27. 
 
 3 See Note G (p. 97). 
 
 ^ Comp. Zcch. i.-viii., xii.-xiv., Joel iii. 
 
GROWTH OF BELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE. 7/ 
 
 it belongs essentially, as has been explained, to a later 
 age. 
 
 The most remarkable and, next to the book of 
 Daniel, the earliest example of this type of literature 
 is the Apocalypse of Enoch. The Book of Enoch, 
 as a whole, is known only through the medium of an 
 Ethiopic version ; ^ it is accessible now to English 
 readers in the useful edition of Prof Schodde.^ Into 
 critical questions connected with its structure, there is 
 no occasion for me to enter : if it be not all the work 
 of one hand, it breathes throughout the same spirit ; 
 and the elements composing it are assigned by the 
 great majority of critics to the second and first 
 centuries B.C.^ Enoch, it is said, " walked with God " ; 
 and the book consists of a series of visions, or 
 revelations, supposed to have been received by the 
 patriarch, and opening to him the mysteries of the 
 invisible world. The general scope of the book, the 
 announcement, viz. of future judgment, is declared 
 in the opening chapter, constructed largely upon 
 
 ' Published first by Archbishop L-iurence, from a MS. in the 
 Bodleian Library, in 1838 ; and again, with a collation of other 
 MSS., by Dillmann in 1851. 
 
 2 Andover, U.S.A. (1882), with introduction and notes, based 
 (naturally) upon what the author justly terms the standard 
 edition (in German) of Uillmann (Leipzig, 1853). Laurence's 
 transhtion (recently re-printed) is not always trustworthy. A 
 new translation, with notes, embodying many various readings, 
 from MSS. not known at the time when Dillmann's edition was 
 published, is understood to be in preparation by the Rev. R. H. 
 Charles. 
 
 ^ Schiirer, Gesch. dcs Jiid. Volkes im Zcitalter Jesu Christi^ 
 ii. (1886), p. 620 f. 
 
yS SERMON IV. 
 
 reminiscences of the prophets, and containing the 
 passage cited in the Epistle of Jude.i There follows 
 an account of the first great act of judgment, executed 
 upon the rebel angels who seduced the daughters of 
 men, and introduced upon earth the knowledge of 
 corrupt arts. After this, Enoch, under the guidance 
 of an angel, travels over various regions of the earth, 
 and learns the secrets of nature, particularly such as 
 stand related to the moral government of the world. 
 The central part of the book, chapters 37 — 71, 
 contain the sections which deal most directly with the 
 final Messianic judgment, and describe the person 
 and office of the Judge. In the closing chapters of 
 the book, after a long allegorical description of the 
 history of Israel, the author, addressing his con- 
 temporaries, sums up, in tones of fervour and moral 
 earnestness, the practical lessons which his revelations 
 suggest. This application of the belief in a future 
 state, as a motive to action, marks the more advanced 
 stage which the doctrine has reached. Nothing of 
 the kind occurs in the pages of the Old Testament. 
 
 I may now describe the eschatology of the book. 
 In the first part, we read chiefly of the fallen angels, 
 and of their punishment ; in accordance with the 
 
 1 Jude 14-15. See Enoch i. 9: "And behold he cometh 
 with ten thousands of holy ones, to execute judgment upon 
 them ; and he will destroy the ungodly, and contend with all 
 flesh concerning all that the sinners and the godless have done 
 against him and committed." Comp., for the elements on which 
 the representation is based, Dcut. xxxiii. 2, Jer. xxv. 31, Is. xvi. 
 16, Dan. vii. 10. 
 
GROWTH OF BELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE. 79 
 
 allusion in Jude/ they are represented as bound in 
 chains and darkness, awaiting the judgment of the 
 Great Day.^ But we hear likewise of the abode in 
 which the spirits of the departed pass the intermediate 
 state ; and in the far West, Enoch visits in his travels 
 the fair and secluded resting-places reserved for the 
 spirits of the righteous ; and not far thence beholds 
 those other places in which the souls of the wicked, 
 in pain and woe, expect their final judgment.^ Else- 
 where, allusion is made to a " garden of righteousness," 
 or " of the righteous,"^ situate in the East, the relation 
 of which to the abodes just described is not distinctly 
 indicated, but which appears to be the prototype of 
 what was afterwards known as the " Garden of Eden " 
 (or " Paradise "), the abode of the faithful departed. 
 Resuming his travels, Enoch is brought to the Holy 
 City, Jerusalem, and notices beside it a deep and 
 sterile valley. He inquires what it is, and what 
 purpose it subserves. It is the valley of Hinnom, 
 Gchinnom, better known under its Graecized name, 
 Gehenna. " This," said the angel Uriel,^ " this 
 accursed valley is for those who will be accursed to 
 eternity, and here will be assembled all those who 
 have uttered with their mouths unseemly words 
 against God, and spoken insolently of his glory ; here 
 will they be assembled, and here will be their judg- 
 ment. And in the last days will the spectacle of a 
 just judgment upon them be exhibited before the 
 
 1 Jude 6. 2 X. 5-6, 12-14. ^ Ch. xxii. 
 
 '» xxxii. 3, Ixxvii. 3, Ix. 8, 23, Ixi. I2. ^ Ch. xxvii. 
 
8o SERMON IV. 
 
 righteous/ for ever and ever ; and for this, will those 
 who have obtained mercy bless the Lord of Glory, 
 the Eternal King." Such is the earliest description 
 of Gehenna, as a place of torment. The locality is 
 not idealized : it is the actual valley beside Jerusalem ; 
 and the idea of the writer appears to be that while 
 the Holy City will be the capital of the Messianic 
 kingdom, the valley close at hand will be the 
 perpetual scene of the punishment of the wicked. 
 This idea is probably an extension of the thought 
 expressed in the last verse of the book of Isaiah.^ 
 
 The resurrection and future judgment are described 
 principally in the visions in the central part of the 
 book. I will quote some of the most characteristic 
 passages. The resurrection is no longer confined to 
 Israel, it is universal — "And^ in those days Sheol 
 will give back them that are entrusted to it, and 
 Destruction will restore that which it owes. And he 
 will choose from among them the just and the holy : 
 for the day has come when they shall be delivered. 
 And the Chosen One " — such is the title bestowed upon 
 the Messiah— "in those days will sit upon his throne, 
 and all the hidden things of wisdom will proceed from 
 the thoughts of his mouth : for the Lord of spirits 
 
 ^ Cf. xlviii, 9, lo, Ixii. 12. 
 
 2 "And they (the pilgrims from all nations, visiting Jerusalem, 
 V. 23) shall go fonh, and look upon the carcases of the men 
 that have transgressed against me : for their worm shall not die, 
 neither shall their fire be quenched \ and they shall be an 
 abhorring unto all flesh." 
 
 3 li. 1-3. 
 
GROWTH OP^ BELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE. 8 1 
 
 has given it to him, and glcrificd him." " And ^ I 
 saw one who had a head of days " — i. e. a head 
 betokening age — "and his head was white hke w^ool : 
 and with him was another, whose countenance was 
 as the appearance of a man, and his countenance was 
 full of grace, as one of the holy angels. And I asked 
 one of the angels who went with me, and who showed 
 me all the hidden things concerning this son of man, 
 who he was, and whence he came, and why he goeth 
 with the Head of Days t And he answered and said 
 unto me : This is the son of man, who hath justice, 
 with whom righteousness dwells, and who reveals the 
 treasures of all that is hidden, because the Lord of 
 spirits hath chosen him, and whose portion before the 
 Lord of spirits exceedeth all, by reason of righteous- 
 ness, unto eternity. And this son of man, whom 
 thou hast seen, will arouse kings and mighty men 
 from their couches, and the strong from their thrones, 
 and will loosen the bands of the strong, and break 
 the teeth of the sinners. . . . And he will thrust 
 aside the face of the strong, and shame shall cover 
 them : darkness shall be their dwelling-place, and 
 worms shall be their couch ; neither shall they have 
 any hope of arising from their couches, because they 
 exalt not the name of the Lord of spirits." The 
 deeds done in the flesh are inscribed in books,^ which 
 are opened on the day of final judgment — the "day 
 of the great judgment," as it is termed "^ — before God 
 
 1 xlvi. 1-3, 5-6. ^ xcviii. 7, 8. 
 
 3 l.xxxiv. 4, xciv. 9, xcviii. 10, xcix. 15, civ. 5; also "the great 
 
 G 
 
S2 SERMON IV. 
 
 and Mis Messiah : " And ^ he sat upon the throne of 
 his glory, and the sum of the judgment was given 
 unto him, unto the son of man ; and he causes the 
 sinners to be destroyed, and to perish from the face 
 of the earth, and those also which have seduced 
 the world : they shall be bound with chains, and 
 imprisoned in their assembling place of destruction. 
 And all evil shall vanish before him and depart : but 
 the word of that son of man shall abide before the 
 Lord of spirits." And so the tyrant kings, who, 
 when it is too late, begin to profess repentance, are 
 driven forth from the judge's presence, his sword not 
 departing from their midst.^ 
 
 As regards the future lot of the redeemed, the 
 representations contained in the central part of the 
 book appear as the most elevated. In the first part 
 their condition is conceived rather as one of material 
 blessing : it is a state of felicity upon earth ; nature 
 is generous with her gifts ; not immortality, but long 
 life, secured for the "elect," after the final judgment, 
 by the fruit of the Tree of Life, and undisturbed by 
 sorrow, or mourning, or pain, is the prospect held out 
 by the seer to the faithful.^ In the central part of 
 
 day of judgment," X. 6, xxii. i r, or " the great day," liv. 6. " The 
 great judgment " is also mentioned xvi. i, xix. i, xxii, 4, xxv. 4, 
 c. 4, ciii. 8. 
 
 1 Ixix. 27, 29. 2 ixiii. I, II. 
 
 ^ xxiv. 3-5, xxv. 1-5. The source of such representations 
 may be seen in Gen. ii. 9, iii. 22, Is. xxxv. 10, Ixv. 19-23. 
 With the "tree of hfe " comp. also 4 Ezra (Engl. 2 Ezra) viii. 
 52, Rev. ii. 7, xxii. 2 (Ezck. xlvii. 12), 14, 19. 
 
GKOWTII OF BELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE. S^ 
 
 the book, the ideal is higher and more spiritual. 
 Heaven is no longer separate from earth ; tluy are 
 merged, and form the home of one great community, 
 with God and the Messiah in their midst : " And ^ here 
 saw I another vision : the dwellings of the just, and 
 the resting-places of the holy. . . . And I saw their 
 dwellings under the wings of the Lord of spirits ; 
 and all the just and the elect before him are adorned 
 with the light of fire, and their mouths are filled with 
 praise, and their lips adore the name of the Lord of 
 spirits, and righteousness ceaseth not before him." 
 Again, " And ^ in that day will I cause my Chosen 
 One (the Messiah) to dwell among them, and I will 
 change the heaven and make it a blessing and a light 
 for ever, and I will change the earth and make it a 
 blessing, and cause mine elect to dwell upon it ; but 
 they that commit sin and wrong shall not tread 
 therein." *' And ^ the Lord of spirits will dwell over 
 them ; and they shall dwell together with that son of 
 man, and shall eat, and lie down, and rise up with 
 him to all eternity." " And^ the just shall be in the 
 light of the sun, and the elect in the light of eternal 
 life ; and there shall be no end to the days of their 
 life, and the days of the holy shall be without num- 
 ber." The phrase " eternal life " ^ may be borrowed 
 from Dan. xii. 2: the "age (or woM) to come,"'' 
 
 1 xxxix. 4, 7. - xlv. 4, 5. 2 Ixii. 14. ^ h'iii. 3. 
 
 ' Also xxxvii. 4, xl. 9. 
 
 •^ The common post-Biblical Jewish expression for the future 
 state (t^BT DViyn, or, in Aramaic, ^^.^'^. ^^?J^) : so for instance 
 in the Mishnah, frequently. See also below, pp. 91, 92, 95, 
 
84 SERMON IV. 
 
 occurs for the first time in the passage I am about to 
 quote, addressed to Enoch in another vision. "He^ 
 calls Peace to thee in the name of the age to come ; 
 for thence proceeds peace since the creation of the 
 world; and thus will it be unto thee into eternity, and 
 from eternity unto eternity. And all who in future 
 walk in thy path (thou whom righteousness forsaketh 
 not for ever), their dwelling-places will be with thee, 
 and they will not be separated from thee in eternity, 
 and from eternity to eternity.'' 
 
 On the other hand, the punishment allotted to the 
 wicked after judgment is thus described : — " Hence- 
 forth ^ know ye that all your violence which ye do 
 is written down every day until the day of your 
 judgment." " Woe ^ to you, sinners, when ye vex the 
 righteous, on the day of sharp pain, and burn them 
 with fire ; it shall be recompensed to you according 
 to your works. Woe to you, ye perverse of heart, ye 
 that are vigilant to devise evil : fear shall come upon 
 you, and there shall be none to save you. Woe to 
 you, ye sinners, for on account of the words of your 
 mouth, and the works of your hands, which ye have 
 done in godlessness, ye shall burn in a lake of fiery 
 flames." And elsewhere, the punishment of the 
 wicked is described as a killing of their souls — a 
 phrase which does not, however, imply annihilation : 
 " Their ^ names shall be blotted out of the books of 
 the holy, and their seed shall perish for ever ; and 
 
 ^ Ixxi. 15-16. 2 xcviii. 8. ' c. 7-9. 
 
 * cviii. 3 : cf. xxii. 13, xcix. 11 ; also liii. 5, Ixii. 2^ Ixiii. 9, 11. 
 
GROWTH OF BELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE. 85 
 
 their souls shall be killed : and they shall cry aloud 
 and lament in a desolate waste, and shall burn in fire." 
 
 Time will not permit me to dwell upon the teach- 
 ing of other writings belonging to the same period. 
 Their examination, however, would not add any 
 substantial feature to the picture already obtained 
 from the Book of Enoch. Most of them, indeed, are 
 far less explicit. It must suffice, then, to remark 
 that while the Book of Jesus, the son of Sirach, 
 occupies still the same standpoint as the Old Testa- 
 ment generally,^ and regards death as the limit of all 
 existence worthy of the name of "life," the philosophic 
 author of the Book of Wisdom teaches expressly the 
 immortality of the soul, and a future state of reward 
 and punishment,- and that the so-called Psalms of 
 Solomon,^ written in Palestine when the Jews were 
 smarting under the humiliation which they suffered 
 at the hands of Pompey, affirm distinctly a resurrec- 
 tion : "The destruction of the sinner is for ever. . . . 
 But they that fear the Lord shall rise again unto 
 eternal life : and their life shall be in the light of the 
 Lord, and it shall fail no more," ^ 
 
 The Jewish Targums, to which I now proceed, are 
 
 ^ Cf. Ecckis. xiv. 16, xvii. 27 f. (see p. y2>'> Note 6),xxii. 11, xlvi. 
 19 (coinp. Jer. li. 39, 57), 20 (comp. i S:im. xxviii, 15 IT.), xlviii. 
 5. In xlviii. 1 1 the text and sense are both uncertain. 
 
 2 ii. 23, iii. 1-4 ("The souls of the ri^^hteous are in the hand 
 of God,'' &c.), vi. 18, 20, viii. 17, xv. 3. 
 
 ^ See Ryle and James, Psalms of the Pharisees^ co/nnionly 
 called tlic Psalms of Solouion ( 1 89 1 ). 
 
 ^ iii. 13-16 ; cf. xiii. 9-10, xiv. 2, 6, 7, xv. 13-15. Comp. 
 Ryle and James, p. li, Iii. 
 
S6 SERMON IV. 
 
 Aramaic versions of the Old Testament, made for 
 the use of the Jews when Hebrew had ceased to be 
 in general use as a spoken language. They were not, 
 indeed, committed to writing until some time subse- 
 quently to the Christian era ; but they embody inter- 
 pretations which, no doubt, originated in many cases 
 at a much earlier period. Their style varies. In 
 historical narrative, it is, as a rule, literal. In the 
 Prophets and Psalms, it is commonly (though not 
 uniformly) more or less paraphrastic, sometimes, in- 
 deed, even to the perversion of the sense. Still, even 
 when it is paraphrastic, if the Targum be read as an 
 application or adaptation of the text, rather than 
 as a strict interpretation of it, it will often be found 
 to contain a just and suggestive thought. In the 
 passages which I shall quote, it will be impossible to 
 consider in each instance how far the interpretation 
 is a just one or not ; it must suffice to premise gener- 
 ally that in most cases the reference to a future life 
 does not apparently lie within the scope of the text. 
 It may be observed that the conceptions which in the 
 Book of Enoch appear in the process of formation, 
 and not always free from indistinctness, appear in the 
 Targums as more complete, and clearly defined. It 
 should be added, that there are grounds for regarding 
 the Tarorums on the HajjioGfraoha as later than those 
 of either Onkelos on the Pentateuch, or of Jonathan 
 on the Prophets.^ 
 
 ^ The last two probably assumed their present form in the 
 third or fourth century A.u. 
 
GROWTH OF BELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE. 8/ 
 
 The resurrection is mentioned — Hos, vi. 2 : " He 
 will quicken us for the days of consolation which are 
 to come : in the day when the dead are quickened he 
 will raise us up, and we shall live before him." xiv. 
 7 (Heb. 8) : " They shall be gathered from among 
 their captivities ; they shall dwell under the shadow of 
 their Messiah : the dead shall live, and prosperity 
 shall be multiplied in the land." Isaiah xxvi. 19 
 (the passage already quoted as actually containing 
 the idea) is thus paraphrased : " Thou art he that 
 quickeneth the dead ; the bones of their corpses thou 
 raisest up ; all that are cast down in the dust shall live 
 to praise thee : for thy dew is a dew of light to them 
 that observe the law ; but the wicked, unto whom 
 thou hast given might, but who have transgressed 
 thy word, thou shalt deliver to Gehenna." xlii. 1 1 : 
 " Let the wilderness utter praise, the villages that 
 inhabit the wilderness of the Arabians ; let the dead 
 utter praise, when they come forth from their long 
 homes, from the tops of the rocks let them lift up 
 their voice." xlv. 8 : " Let the heavens do service 
 above, and the clouds pour forth abundance : let 
 the earth open, and the dead live, and righteousness 
 be revealed together." And from the Targum on 
 Zech. xiv. 4 : "At that time the Lord shall take in 
 his hand a great trumpet, and shall blow with it ten 
 blasts to revive the dead : and he shall be revealed at 
 that time in his might on the Mount of Olives, which 
 is before Jerusalem, on the East, and the Mount of 
 Olives shall be cleft in the midst thereof toward the 
 
88 SERMON IV. 
 
 East and toward the West." The sequel may be 
 stated in the words of a later Targum, on Cant. viii. 
 5 : "When the dead shall live, the Mount of Olives 
 shall be divided, and all the dead of Israel shall come 
 forth from beneath it." 
 
 The future judgment is alluded to (though not 
 often explicitly) by the same title as in the Book of 
 Enoch, the " great judgment " or the " great day." Ps. 
 1. 3 : " The righteous wilt say in the day of the great 
 judgment, Our God shall come and not keep silence." 
 Josh. vii. 25 :^ ''The Lord trouble thee this day; but 
 in the day of the great judgment thou shalt escape 
 and be acquitted." 2 Sam. xxiii. 7 : " Their punish- 
 ment is not by the hand of man, but they will be 
 burnt with fire : they will be burnt when the tribunal 
 of the great judgment shall be revealed, to sit upon 
 the throne of judgment, to judge the world." 
 
 The second death (as in Rev. ii. 11, xx. 6, 14, xxi. 
 8), corresponding to the death of the soul in Enoch, 
 is named, Deut. xxxiii. 6 : " Let Reuben live in the 
 life of eternity, and not die the second death." Is. 
 Ixv. 15 : "And ye shall leave your name for a curse 
 unto my chosen, and the Lord shall kill you with 
 the second death." Jer. li. 39, 57, where the prophet 
 promises that Israel's foes shall sleep a perpetual 
 sleep, and not awake: ''And they shall die the 
 second death, and not live for the age to come." ^ 
 
 ^ In the fragment of a "Jerusalem" Targum, cited on the 
 margin of the Reucblin Codex, and published by Lagarde, 
 Propheiae Chaldaice (1872), p. vi, lines 28-29. 
 
 ^ Add Is. xxii. 14 Targ.: "Surely this iniquity shall not be 
 
GROWTH OF BELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE. 89 
 
 Mention is made not unfrequently of Gehenna, and 
 sometimes the opposite lots of the righteous and 
 wicked are contrasted. Hosca xiv. 9 (Heb. 10) : 
 " The righteous, who walk " in the ways of God, 
 " shall live in them in eternal life ; but the wicked 
 who walk not in them shall be delivered to Gehenna." ^ 
 Nahum i. 8 end: "And his enemies he will deliver to 
 Gehenna." 2 Ps. xlix. 9 (Heb. 10) : '' That he should 
 live again unto eternal life, and not behold the 
 judgment of Gehenna." Ps. cxl. 10: "Let hot burning 
 coals alight upon them from heaven ; let him cast 
 them into the fire of Gehenna with glowing sparks, 
 that they rise not again unto eternal life." ^ Is. 
 xxxiii. 17: "The glory of the Shekhinah of the 
 eternal King in his majesty shall thine eyes behold ; 
 thou shalt see and behold them that go down to the 
 land of Gehenna," where the Hebrew says simply, 
 " They shall see a land of distances " (/. e. a far- 
 stretching land). Isa. Ivii. 20 : " But the wicked shall 
 be tossed about in Gehenna, like the troubled sea. 
 
 forgiven you, until ye die the second death"; Is. Ixv. 6 Targ.: 
 " Behold it is written before me : I will not give you a respite in 
 life, but I will render to you the vengeance of your sins, and I 
 will deliver your bodies to the second death." See also Ps. xlix. 
 10 (Heb. 11) in the Antwerp Polyglott of 1569 : " For he will see 
 the wise ones of wickedness that they die the second death, and 
 are judged in Gehenna." 
 
 1 Hebrew text: "The just shall walk in them; but trans- 
 gressors shall fall therein." 
 
 ^ Hebrew text: "Will pursue his enemies into darkness" 
 (of the people of Nineveh). 
 
 ^ See Note II (p. 97). 
 
90 SERMON IV. 
 
 which seeketh to be at rest, but is not able." And in 
 the last verse of Isaiah, where, by a Rabbinical device, 
 of which other examples might be quoted,^ the Hebrew 
 word rendered "abhorring" is divided into two, which 
 arc interpreted to mean ''sufficiency of seeing": "And 
 they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the 
 guilty men who have rebelled against my word, be- 
 cause their souls shall not die, and their fire shall not 
 be quenched ; but the wicked shall be judged in 
 Gehenna, until the righteous shall say concerning 
 them. We have seen enough." 
 
 Paradise, or, to use the Aram.aic expression,^ 
 the " Garden of Eden," is but seldom named in 
 the Targums. It will be sufficient to cite two 
 passages, one from a Targum ^ (not the ordinary 
 one) on Isa. xlv. 7 (" I form the light and create 
 darkness ") : " I ordain the light of life eternal for the 
 righteous in the Garden of Eden, and create the 
 darkness of Gehenna for the wicked " ; the other 
 from that on the Song of Songs, where the "gar en 
 enclosed" (Cant. iv. 12) is interpreted of the " Garden 
 of Eden, into which no one hath authority to enter 
 save the righteous, whose souls are conveyed thither 
 by the hand of angels." More commonly the Tar- 
 gumists are content to give expression to their belief 
 in a life of future blessedness, by the introduction, 
 where the context was suitable, of the phrase " in the 
 
 ^ See Note I (p. 97). 
 2 Sec Note J (p. 90). 
 
 ^ From the same margin of the Reuchlin Codex mentioned 
 above : Lagarde, /. c. p. xxxi, lines 22-23. 
 
GROWTH OF BELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE. 9 1 
 
 age (^r world) to come," or "eternal life," sometimes 
 contrasting with it " this age {or world)." Thus Lev. 
 xviii. 5 : " And ye shall keep my statutes and my 
 judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in the 
 life eternal." i Sam. xxv. 29 : " Let the soul of my 
 lord be hidden in the treasury of eternal life before 
 the Lord thy God." Isa. iv. 3 : " And it shall be that 
 he that is left shall return to Zion, and he that 
 observeth the law shall be established in Jerusalem ; 
 he shall be called holy ; every one that is v/ritten 
 down for life eternal shall see the consolation of 
 Jerusalem." Isa. Iviii. 11 : " And the Lord shall 
 guide thee continually, and shall satisfy thy soul in 
 years of drought, and quicken thy body in life eternal." ^ 
 More frequently in the later Targums, as in that on 
 the Psalms : for instance, Ps. xviii. 28 (Heb. 29) : 
 " The Lord my God will bring me forth from darkness 
 into light, he will let me look upon the consolation of 
 the age that is to come for the righteous." Ps. xxx. 5 
 (Heb. 6) : Because his wrath is for a moment ; life 
 eternal is his favour." Ps. xxxix. 5 (Heb. 6): "But 
 all are counted as nought ; but all the righteous endure 
 to life eternal."^ Ps. Ixiii. 3 (Heb. 4) : ** For better is 
 thy mercy which thou wilt show to the righteous in 
 the age to come, than the life that thou hast given to 
 
 ^ Cf. 2 Sam. vii. 19, where "for a great while to come" (lit. 
 afar off) is represented in the Targ. by " for the world to 
 come." 
 
 ^ The Hebrew words of the text being taken as if they could 
 mean " (They are) all vanity ; every man standeth firm/' and 
 then being further paraphrased. 
 
92 SERMON IV. 
 
 the wicked in this age." ^ Ps. xcii. lo : " Lo thine 
 enemies, O Lord, lo thine enemies shall perish in the 
 world to come." Ps. cxxxix. i8 : " If I should count 
 them in this world, they are more in number than the 
 sand ; when I awake in the world to come, I am still 
 with thee." 
 
 Sometimes, lastly, a possible misconception is 
 guarded a;^ainst by the limitation of the text to the 
 present world. Thus, Isa. v. 20 : " Woe unto those 
 that say to the wicked who prosper in this world, Ye 
 are good." Ps. Ixxiii. 12 : " Lo, such are the wicked 
 who dwell at ease in this world ; they obtain riches 
 and acquire substance." Eccl. vi. 8 : " What advan- 
 tage hath the wise in this world more than the fool ? " 
 But in the Targuni to this book, the contrast between 
 the two worlds is throughout made exceptionally 
 prominent, as though with the object of guarding 
 against sceptical inferences which might otherwise 
 appear capable of being deduced from the text.^ 
 
 That the Jews, meditating upon the writings of the 
 Old Testament, should thus have arrived at the 
 clearly-defined hope of a future life, cannot form 
 occasion for surprise. For, indeed, the immortality 
 of the human soul, its eternal relation to the Creator 
 
 ^ Cf. V. 4 (Heb. 5) : " So Mill I bless thee while I live in this 
 world : in the name of thy Word will I spread out my hands in 
 prayer in the world to come " ; Ixvi. 9 : " Who placed our souls in 
 the life of the world to come " ; also xvii. 14 : " But the righteous 
 who deliver their souls for thy sake unto death upon earth, 
 their portion is in life eternal." 
 
 ^ See Note K (p. 9S). 
 
GROWTH OF BELIEF IN A FUTURE STATE. 93 
 
 who has called it into being, is presupposed in the 
 Old Testament revelation ; and there are passages 
 in which the idea is on the verge of expression, or, 
 as our Lord showed on a celebrated occasion, latent, 
 even though it be only enunciated explicitly in the 
 later writings of the Old Testament canon. The in- 
 timations of a future life, more or less distinct, thus 
 contained in the Old Testament, were developed, on 
 the basis of prophetic representations of the future 
 triumph of the kingdom of God, in the manner which 
 I have sought to-day to indicate. These develop- 
 ments were such that, in certain cases, and interpreted 
 probably in a more spiritual sense than belonged to 
 their original intention, they could be accepted and 
 appropriated by the first teachers of the Christian 
 faith. In its eschatology, as in its Christology, the 
 Book of Enoch is based essentially upon the Old 
 Testament ; it is an imaginative development and 
 elaboration of elementsderived thence. Of distinctively 
 Christian truth, of the truths, that is, which centre in, 
 or radiate from, the doctrine of the Incarnation, it 
 does not exhibit a trace. Its resemblance to the 
 writings of the New Testament is limited to externals. 
 The utmost that can be said of it, in this respect, is 
 that it may have lent to the Apostles, perhaps even 
 to our Lord, certain figures and expressions in which 
 they could suitably and conveniently clothe their 
 ideas. But this is no more than what happened in 
 numberless other instances, in which the teaching of 
 both Christ and Ilis disciples is cast in the mould of 
 
94 SERMON IV. 
 
 contemporary Jewish thought. Even where the re- 
 semblance appears to be the closest, a careful com- 
 parison will disclose significant features of difference. 
 The originality of the fundamental conceptions of 
 Christianity is not impaired by the acknowledgment 
 that Jewish thought, reflecting upon the Old Testa- 
 ment, may have provided symbols for their expression, 
 or, in the case of less distinctive ideas, may have even 
 reached them in anticipation. It remains that, in its 
 full significance, the doctrine of a future life was first 
 enunciated in the Gospel ; and that it was He who 
 " abolished death," who also was the first to bring 
 " life and incorruption to light." 
 
ADDITIONAL NOTES TO SERMON IV. 
 
 Note A. 
 
 See Job x. 20—21 (Ps. xxxix. 13), 22, xiv. 21, Eccl. ix, 5, 10. 
 " Sheol," in general conception, corresponds to the Greek Hades, 
 and must be carefully distinguished from " the grave." The dis- 
 tinction is rightly preserved in the Revised Version. It is true, 
 there are particular phrases, as "to go down to Sheol," the 
 general sense of which is sufficiently represented by the English 
 idiomatic expression '' to go down to the grave" ; and this has 
 accordingly been retained in the Revised Version : but "Sheol '' 
 in such cases stands on the margin {e. ^. i Sam. ii. 6, Is. xxxviii. 
 10), and elsewhere it is used in the text. Occasionally "hell" 
 has been retained from the Authorised Version (Is. v. 14, xiv. 9, 
 15) : this, it need scarcely be said, is used (as in the Creed) in 
 the old sense of the term, and not in that of a place of torment. 
 The ordinary Hebrew belief was conscious of no distinction in 
 the future lot of the righteous and the wicked. The impossi- 
 bility of a return, or resurrection, from Sheol was also strongly 
 felt (Job vii. 9 f., xiv. 7-12, Jer. li. 39, 57, Is. xxvii. 14) : the 
 possibility of another life entrances Job (Job xiv. 14 f., RA^.), 
 but he rejects it as incredible {vv. 16-22). Comp. A. F. 
 Kirkpatrick, The Psahns {Book /.), in the Cambridge Bible for 
 Sc/ioo/s, pp. Ixxv-lxxvii ; and see also the Essay on " Jewish 
 and Heathen conceptions of a Future State" in the late Dr. 
 Mozley's Lectures and other Theological Papers (1883), p. 26 ff. 
 
 Note B. 
 
 Is. Ixv. 22. The view of the prophet is that in the future 
 which he here depicts, the ordinary occupations of life will still 
 be pursued (7/. 21), but there will be a cessation of the drawbacks 
 
96 ADDITIONAL NOTES TO SERMON IV. 
 
 and disappointments by which they are commonly accompanied 
 {vv. 20, 22% 23), and the power of death will be limited {v. 22'') : 
 cf- V- 20 (death at the a;je of 100 years will be counted 
 premature). In xxv. 8 the power of death is represented as 
 abolished altogether. 
 
 Note C. 
 
 The word here rendered ''Shades" is rephaini (lit., as it 
 seems, 7-elaxcd, weak ones), which occurs besides in v. 14, Job 
 xxvi. 5. Ps. Ixxxviii. 10 (Heb. 11), Prov. ii. 18, ix. 18, xxi. 16. 
 The same term was in use among the Phoenicians ; thus, in the 
 sepulchral inscription of Tabnich {c. 300 B.C.), found near Sidon, 
 there is a prayer that any one who disturbs the tomb may find 
 no "resting-place with the Shades" (see the writer's Notes 07t 
 the Hebrew text of Samuel, 1890, pp. xxvii, xxix). 
 
 Note D. 
 
 The word rendered "contempt" (R.V. viarg. "abhorrence") 
 is a peculiar one, and is in all probability borrowed from Is. 
 Ixvi. 24 (the only other passage in which it occurs), where it is 
 applied to the putrefying carcases of the "transgressors" — 
 /. e. in particular, the disbelieving, renegade Israelites (see 
 xlvi. 8, Ixv. 2-5, II, Ixvi. 5, 17) — whom the prophet represents 
 as destroyed by a sudden Divine intervention (Ixvi. 17-19), 
 and whose dead bodies, exposed in one of the valleys near Jeru- 
 salem, will be a continual spectacle of horror to the pilgrims 
 visiting the Holy City {vv. 23, 24). 
 
 Note E. 
 
 Eccl. iii. 17, xi. 9, xii. 14. But the interpretation of these 
 passages is doubtful ; and in view of the uncertainty expressed 
 generally in the book with respect to a future life (see especially 
 iii. 19-21, R.V., where the doctrine is treated avowedly as 
 unproven), it is more probable that the reference is to temporal 
 judgments. Comp. the writer's Introduction, p. 448. Dr. 
 Mozley, /. <:. p. 51, has been misled by the Authorised Version 
 of Eccl. iii. 21, the punctuation which this implies giving 
 rise to an unidiomatic and, indeed, an impossible Hebrew 
 sentence, while that expressed by the R.V. is natural and 
 regular. 
 
ADDITIONAL NOTES TO SERMON IV. 97 
 
 Note F. 
 
 It should however be noted that in the Book of Daniel the 
 period immediately following the death of Antiochus Epiphanes, 
 and end of his persecutions (Dan, xi. 31-45), which is marked 
 by the resurrection of Israelites (xii. i, 2), appears to be identical 
 with that to which the advent of the Messiah, and triumph of 
 the saints, are assigned (vii. 11-14, 18-27). 
 
 Note G. 
 
 On the characteristics of " Apocalyptic Literature," comp. 
 J. Drummond, The Jewish Messiah (1877), pp. 1-132 ; J. E. H. 
 Thomson, Books which itifliienced otir Lord a?id His Apostles 
 (1891 ), p. 193 fif. ; and the references in the writer's Introduction, 
 p. 482. 
 
 Note H. 
 
 See also the Targ. on Ps. xxi. 9 (Heb. 10) : "Jehovah shall 
 devour them in his anger, and the burning of Gehenna will 
 consume them" ; xxxvii, 20 (on "they consume in smoke, they 
 consume away") : ''The wicked shall come to an end, and be 
 consumed in the smoke of Gehenna " ; xHx. 10 (Heb. 11): " For 
 the wise will see the wicked judged in Gehenna" ; i4(Hcb. 15) 
 "Their bodies shall waste a.vay in Gehenna"; 15 (Heb. 16) 
 "But God will save my soul from the judgment of Gehenna" 
 Iv. 23 (Heb. 24) (for " the pit of depression") ; Ixix. 15 (Heb. 
 16) (for " the pit ") ; Ixxxiv. 6 (Heb. 7) : " The wicked who pass 
 over to the depths of Gehenna, weeping with weepings, make 
 it like a spring"; Ixxxviii. 12 (Heb. 13) ("the darkness of 
 Gehenna"); ciii. 4 (for "the pit"); cxx. 4 ("with coals of 
 broom, kindled in Gehenna beneath "), &:c. 
 
 Note I. 
 
 See the writer's Notes on the Hebrew text of Samuel, p. 
 Ixxxiv, or (from Aquila, who followed Rabbinical principles 
 of exegesis) the Preface to Field's Hexapla, p. xxii f. Jerome^ 
 who was guided sometimes by Jewish teachers and trans- 
 lators, has the same interpretation of the Hebrew word in 
 Is. Ixvi. 24, " et erunt usqite ad satictatcin 7'isionis omni carni '' 
 
 H 
 
98 ADDITIONAL NOTES TO SERMON IV. 
 
 (z. e. jii^")"!! read as PX"! '•'il). " Scape-goat " is an example of a 
 rendering based ultimately upon a similar exegetical device, 
 which has preserved its place in the Authorised Version to the 
 present day c'?^^!?^ " Azazel," read as ^TN* tr, z. e. " the departing 
 goat," Symmachus rpdyoq cnrtpx^H-^^f^^} Aquila Timyog dnoXvufitvog, 
 Jerome caj>er emissarius). 
 
 Note J. 
 
 The word "paradise" (which is of Persian origin), though it 
 is found in the Targums, is never used there in the sense which 
 it has acquired in Christian literature from Luke xxiii. 43, but only 
 in the general sense (which it has also in Hebrew, Cant. iv. 3, 
 Neh. ii. 8, Eccl. ii. 5) cti orchard ox park. 
 
 Note K. 
 
 Thus on Eccl. i. 3 (" What profit hath man of all his labour 
 ■wherein he laboureih under the sun?") the Targum has: 
 What profit hath a man after he dies of all his labour wherein 
 he laboureth under the sun in this world, except he occupy 
 himself in the law, that he may receive a perfect reward unto 
 the world to come before the Lord of the world ? i. 9, And 
 there is no new thing in this "world under the sun. iii. 22, And 
 I saw that there is nothing better in this world than that a man 
 should rejoice in his good works, and eat, and drink, and 
 gladden his heart ; for that is his good portion in this world to 
 purchase with it the world to come. vii. 15, There is a just 
 man that perisheth in his righteousness in this world, but his 
 justice ((9r merit) is preserved for him for the world to come ; and 
 there is a wicked man that prolongeth his days in his sins, and 
 the reckoning of his evil deeds is reserved for him for the 
 world to come, that vengeance may be taken of him in the day of 
 the great judgment. And frequently besides. The expression 
 "that world " (Luke xx. 35) is also used of the age to come in 
 the same Targum (on v. 15, vi. 4, 9, vii. 14, viii. 15, x. 19). 
 
SERMON V/ 
 
 THE HEBREW PROPHETS. 
 
 Amos ii. 11-12 : "And I raised up of your sons for prophets, 
 and of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not even thus, 
 O ye children of Israel? saith the Lord. But ye gave the 
 Nazirites -wine to drink ; and commanded the prophets, 
 saying, Prophesy not." 
 
 The Book of Amos, brief though it is, offers much 
 to engage the reader's attention. With the doubtful 
 exception of Joel, Amos is the earliest of the prophets 
 whose writings arc incorporated in the Old Testament 
 canon. Himself a native of Judah, he receives a 
 commission to preach in the Northern Kingdom ; and 
 ap[)ears at the royal sanctuary of Bethel, towards the 
 end of the long reign of Jeroboam 1 1.,' about 750 years 
 before Christ. In the case of the earlier prophets, 
 owing to the habit of the Hebrew historians to re-cast 
 and amplify, in the sense of their own times, the say- 
 ings transmitted to them from an earlier age, it is 
 often difficult to feel assured that the prophecies 
 reported in the historical books are before us in their 
 original colouring and dress ; in the case of Amos, 
 
 1 Preached at St. Mary's, before the University, on Sunday, 
 Oct. 16, 1887. 
 
 2 B.C. c. 786—746. Co.nparc the table in the writer's Isaiah, 
 
 P- 13. 
 
100 SERMON V. 
 
 \vc have the witness of a contemporary, a keen and 
 acute observer, furnishinc^ us himself with a picture of 
 the beHefs and institutions of his day, describing to 
 us, directly or by allusion, the condition of life and 
 society in Northern Israel, declaring, freely and un- 
 restrainedly, the impression which they produced 
 upon him, and the motives impelling him to pass 
 judgment upon them. In the text, he alludes to two 
 classes of God-directed men, one the Nazirites, men 
 who by a life of abstinence protested against the 
 sensuality and indulgence prevalent about them, and 
 who, from the nature of the allusion, must have 
 formed a conspicuous element in society ; the other, 
 the prophets. It is as giving us a personal record of 
 the work, and aims, and convictions of a prophet at 
 this early date, that the Book of Amos acquires 
 peculiar interest. Thus the authority which a prophet 
 of that day claimed is expressed by him in the 
 memorable words : — " Surely the Lord Jehovah will 
 do nothing, but he revealeth his secret to his servants 
 the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not 
 fear ? The Lord Jehovah hath spoken, who can but 
 prophesy ? " ^ The prophet came forward as the 
 spokesman and representative of his God ; and the 
 impulse prompting him to deliver the message which 
 he had received was an irresistible one. Hosea, the 
 younger contemporary of Amos, speaks of the prophet 
 in similar terms. Thus alluding both to the promi- 
 nent position which they took, and to their authority, 
 
 1 Amos iii. y, 8. 
 
THE HEBREW PROPHETS. 10 1 
 
 he writes : — '' I have also spoken unto the prophets, 
 and I have multipHed visions ; and by the hand of 
 the prophets have I used simihtudes." ^ And just as 
 Amos in the text imphes that their preaching was 
 apt to be unpalatable to the people, so Hosea alludes 
 to the resentment which his own observation had 
 shown him that it provoked : " As for the prophet, 
 a fowler's snare is in all his ways, and enmity in the 
 house of his God." ^ 
 
 The history of Israel, it has been said, is a history 
 of prophecy. It is a history in which men of pro- 
 phetic rank and name stand at the great turning- 
 points of the people's life and direct the movements. 
 It is a history, further, in which the inner progress of 
 the nation was largely determined by the prophets, 
 who sustained or intensified the religious life of the 
 community, and stood superior to their contempor- 
 aries, as the exponents and representatives of ethical 
 and theological truth. I propose this morning to 
 offer a few illustrations of their ^vork in the two 
 spheres of politics and morals. The insight and 
 independence possessed by the prophets fitted them, 
 in a singular degree, to be the political advisers of 
 their nation. They were in closer sympathy than 
 most of their fellow-countrymen with the needs of 
 the time ; they apprehended more quickly and 
 accurately what the situation of the nation demanded ; 
 they saw beyond the seeming interests of the moment, 
 and were regardless either of popular favour, or of 
 ^ Hos. xii. lo. 2 Hos. ix. 8. 
 
102 SERMON V. 
 
 interests of party. Surveying the nations around, the 
 prophets descry in advance the tendencies and im- 
 pulses hidden from ordinary eyes, and lay down the 
 principles by which, as the course of history shapes 
 itself, the welfare of their own nation demands that 
 it should be guided. They denounce the popular 
 statesmanship of the day, and expose the fallacies 
 which underlie it. They attack the national sins and 
 shortcomings, showing how they must inevitably work 
 out their natural results, in a deterioration of national 
 character and a growing inability to meet danger 
 calmly. Amos sees society in the Northern Kingdom, 
 in spite of the brilliancy and long prosperity of Jero- 
 boam's reign, morally vitiated and corrupt. The 
 nobles of Samaria, so far from evincing anxiety for 
 the public weal, " put far the evil day," and are aban- 
 doned to self-indulgence and luxury ;i the heathen 
 themselves are invited to testify to the violence and 
 disorder prevalent in the capital ; ^ and each section 
 of his prophecy ends with a dark vision of approach- 
 ing disaster and misfortune.^ In the plaintive, halting 
 rhythm of the Hebrew elegiac,"^ he sings :— 
 
 The virgin of Israel is fallen ; she shall no more rise : 
 
 She lieth forsaken upon her land ; there is none to raise her up. 
 
 He speaks again, even more significantly and 
 
 directly : " Behold, I raise up against you, O house 
 
 of Israel, saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, a nation ; 
 
 ^ Amos vi. 3-6. ^ Amos iii. 9. 
 
 ^ Amos ii. 14-16 ; iii. 14 f. ; v. 26 (R.V. nuug.), 27 ; vi. 14; 
 vii. 17, &c. 
 
 ■* See the writer's Iniroduciion^ p. 429 f. ^ Amos v. -2. 
 
THE HEBREW PROPHETS. I03 
 
 and they shall afflict you from the enter'ng in of 
 Hamath unto the brook of the Arabah/'^ The 
 limits here indicated are exactly those to which, 
 according to the history, the then reigning monarch 
 had just successfully restored the dominion of Israel.^ 
 The words of Amos were soon to be verified. Within 
 sixteen years the inhabitants of the north-eastern 
 districts were deported by Tiglath-Pileser to Assyria:^ 
 within thirty years the Northern Kingdom had ceased 
 to exist.^ The prophet had interpreted but too truly 
 the signs of the times. He had seen in advance the 
 formidable influence which Assyria was destined soon 
 to exercise upon the fortunes of Palestine : he per- 
 ceived how little fitted the political leaders of Samaria 
 were to guide their state safely through the approach- 
 ing crisis ; he set before them the course which there 
 was hope might at least partially, if it was not too 
 late, avert the ruin ;^ but he saw, not the less clearly, 
 what the final issue would be. 
 
 Other illustrations of the same faculty possessed by M, 
 the prophets are not far to seek. The prophets who j 
 were popular with the people were those who, while 
 finding nothing in their conduct to censure, held out 
 to them visions of felicity and peace, to be realized 
 in the immediate future, without any such antecedent 
 period of discipline or probation as is always postu- 
 lated by the canonical prophets. Such prophets are 
 
 ^ Amos vi. 14. ^ Sec 2 Kings xiv. 25. ^ B.C. 734. 
 
 * The capture of Samaria followed almost immediately after 
 the accession of Sargon, B.C. 722. ^ Amos v. 1 5. 
 
I04 SERMON V. 
 
 often alluded to, for instance, by MIcah, Isaiah, and 
 I Jeremiah : they are described as merely echoing the 
 superficial sentiment of the masses, or as being 
 " prophets of their own hearts." ^ In Jeremiah's time, 
 when the invader was at the door, they persistently 
 promised peace ; ^ and after the Chaldaeans had carried 
 away the vessels of the Temple to Babylon, they 
 promised their restoration, and the return of the 
 exiled King, Jehoiachin, " within two years." ^ Jere- 
 miah's eye had seen more truly. Not only had he 
 foreseen the ruin which the policy of the last kings of 
 Judah was accelerating ; he foresaw besides, in its 
 true magnitude, the dimensions which the empire of 
 Nebuchadnezzar was destined to attain. With an 
 unfaltering hand, in bold and clear strokes, he con- 
 structs the future. No sooner had Nebuchadnezzar, 
 in 604 B.C., gained his crucial victory over Pharaoh- 
 Necho at Carchemish, than the prophet grasps the 
 idea that the empire of the then known world is to 
 be his : he greets the conqueror with the ode of 
 triumph, preserved in chapter xlvi., promising him 
 further successes ; he styles him "Jehovah's servant," ^ 
 and declares that the safety of Judah is to be found 
 in submission to his sway.^ For seventy years the 
 Chaldcean supremacy should be maintained. At the 
 
 1 Mic ii. II, iii. 5, 11 ; Is. xxx. 10; Jcr. v. 12, 13, xxiii. 16, 
 26 ; Ezek. xiii, 2, 10. 
 
 2 Jer. vi. 14, xiv. 13-15, xxiii. 16 f. ^ jg^. xxviii. 3 f. 
 
 ^ Jer. XXV. 9 : so some ei^^ht years afterwards, xxvii. 6 ; and 
 ac^ain after the fall of Jcrusaleiii, xliii. 10. 
 ■"' Jer. xxv. 8-1 1, xxvii. 12-14. 
 
THE HEBREW PROPHETS. IO5 
 
 end of that period, the exiled Jews should be visited 
 and restored to their place.^ The prophets, as is 
 natural, accommodate their views to the changing 
 movements which sway the political world. A century 
 before, Isaiah had promised that the tide of Assyrian 
 aggression should be rolled back from the rock of 
 Zion, and leave the Jewish state, not indeed untouched 
 by the fury of the waves, but still standing and secure. 
 Now, Jeremiah saw that the hand of Nebuchadnezzar 
 was destined to prevail, and taught that the safety 
 of the city lay in its acceptance of the inevitable. 
 He was persecuted by political opponents, he was 
 charged with lack of patriotism and courage, but the 
 issue showed that he had seen aright. Fifty or sixty 
 years afterwards another crucial moment arrived in 
 the history of the chosen people. Was Judah to lose 
 its individuality in the land of its exile, to be gradually 
 assimilated, like its brethren of the ten tribes, to the 
 nations among whom it dwelt ? Or was it to return 
 to its ancient home, and complete the destined course 
 of its history ? There were many who had followed 
 the advice given by Jeremiah to the first exiles ; - they 
 had settled down and found their ease in their adopted 
 home. They were content to remain where they 
 were ; they had no high aspirations for the future ; 
 the magnificence of Babylonian idolatry overawed 
 them ; the strength and resources of the proud im- 
 perial city were able, they felt assured, to repel every 
 assailant.^ There was a prophet who saw otherwise 
 
 ^ Jcr. xxix. 10. ^ Jer. xxix. 5-7. 
 
 ^ See the expressions of despair, which the prophet proceeds 
 
I06 SERMON V. 
 
 — the author of the great series of discourses, which 
 now form the last twenty-seven chapters of the Book 
 of Isaiah. Did they deem it impossible that the 
 power of the Chald^eans could be shaken ? The 
 prophet meets their doubts in the profound and 
 pregnant words : " All flesh is grass, and all the 
 goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. . . . 
 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth ; but the word 
 of our God shall stand for ever." ^ Did they point to 
 tlie pomp and splendour of the Babylonian idols ? 
 He aims against them the keen shafts of irony and 
 satire.- Cyrus is Jehovah's appointed agent, and 
 though his triumphal progress may throw the nations 
 of Asia into consternation and drive them in terror 
 to their idol-gods,^ Israel has no ground for fear : 
 a noble and august future is still before it.-^ Did they, 
 still unconvinced, allege that the facts refuted the 
 prophet's too sanguine view.-* He replies: "For 
 my thouglits are not as your thoughts, neither are 
 your ways my ways, saith Jehovah : " your estimate 
 of the facts is a false one ; the word spoken cannot 
 be recalled ; and the joy with which, ere long, you 
 will leave Babylon behind you, will be your in- 
 voluntary attestation of its truth.^ 
 
 to controvert, in Is. xl. 27, xlix. 14, 24 (to be read with the 
 second part of the margin of the Revised Version) ; also xliv. 21 
 {Israel bidden to take to heart the folly of attaching any im- 
 portance to the idols of Babylon, satirized in xliv. 10-20). 
 
 1 Is. xl. 6-8. 
 
 ^ Is. xli. 5-7 (the nations of the earth manufacturing new 
 idols, in the hope of arresting the progress of Cyrus) ; xliv. 9-20; 
 xlvi. 1-2 ; cf. xlvii. 9-15. 
 
 3 Is. xli. 2-7. 4 Is. xh. 8-20. 5 Is, iv. 8 12. 
 
THE HEBREW PROrHETS. 10/ 
 
 An attentive study of their writings shows that 
 the prophets are prinnarily the teachers of their own 
 generation. It is the pohtical mistakes, the social 
 abuses, the moral shortcomings, of their own age 
 which they set themselves to correct. To be sure, 
 they assert principles which are of universal validity, 
 and capable, therefore, of application in new and 
 altered circumstances ; but the special forms which 
 these principles assume in their hands show that they 
 have been deliberately adopted to meet the needs of 
 their own time. Prophecy subserved moral purposes: 
 and its primary scope was the practical guidance, 
 in life and thought, of those amongst whom the 
 prophet lived. This fact affords us a criterion for 
 estimating the temporal predictions of the prophets. 
 The predictive element in th3 prophets is not so great 
 as, perhaps, is sometimes supposed. Not only do 
 the prophets deal with their actual present much 
 more largely than is popularly imagined to be the 
 case, but even in their announcements relative to the 
 future, the amount of exact and minute prediction 
 is less, probably, than might antecedently have been 
 expected. The prophet's theme is developed with 
 an artist's hand. He constructs a picture for the 
 purpose of representing it in its completeness, and 
 his genius supplies him with images of surprising 
 beauty and force. But the imagery is merely the 
 external dress in which the idea is clothed ; and it 
 is a vain and false literalism that would demand a 
 place for its details in the fulfilment. There has been 
 no highway such as Isaiah pictured for the return of 
 
I08 SERMON V. 
 
 the banished Israelites from Assyria : ^ no pillar, or 
 obelisk, reminds the traveller entering Egypt, that 
 the country is devoted to the worship of the true 
 God :'" Sennacherib perished by the sword in his own 
 land ; and the vast funeral pyre which the same 
 prophet conceived as prepared for him, and which 
 he saw in imagination already being kindled by 
 Jehovah's breath,^ is but the form under which he 
 depicts the completeness of the Assyrians' ruin. So, 
 again, Isaiah's sense of the weakness of Egyptian 
 nationality, and its inability to resist any determined 
 assailant, finds expression in a prophecy in which he 
 expands this thought, and with a keen appreciation 
 of national characteristics, applies it over the entire 
 area of Egyptian civilization.^ Their figures, there- 
 fore, as this example shows, though not to be under- 
 stood too literally, are not idly chosen ; they stand 
 in a real relation to the thought to be expressed, and 
 will be found, if properly studied, to be its suitable 
 and adequate exponent. Other prophecies, again, 
 relating to the future, are rather of the nature of 
 solemn denunciation than prediction in the strict 
 sense of the term ; they indicate the issue to which a 
 policy, or course of action, may naturally be expected 
 to lead, without claiming to announce it categorically 
 as a prediction. Other predictions, as is expressly 
 taught by Jeremiah,'' are nullified by a change super- 
 vening in the moral situation : uttered conditionally, 
 and on the basis of a particular combination of 
 
 1 Is. xi, 16. 2 ig xix. 19, 20. 
 
 3 Is. XXX. ^2- * Is. xix. 1-17. ^ Jer. xviii. 7-10. 
 
THE HEBREW PROPHETS. IO9 
 
 circumstances, when the circumstances alter, the 
 issue, it is evident, may change also, and the pre- 
 diction be thus no longer applicable. And of others, 
 sometimes remarkably definite, we do not know 
 whether they were fulfilled or not, as for example, 
 Isaiah's declaration of the humiliation of Moab within 
 three years, or of Kedar within one year, or of the 
 banishment of Shebna.^ 
 
 But when the necessary deductions have been 
 made upon grounds such as these, there remain un- 
 doubted and remarkable examples of true predictions ; 
 not, indeed, predictions relating to a remote future, 
 without interest or significance for the prophet's own 
 contemporaries, but predictions declaring the issue 
 of a present political complication, or announcing 
 beforehand a coming event, especially events having 
 a bearing on the progress of the Kingdom of God. 
 Instances of such prediction, verified within the limit 
 of a few years, have been quoted already. Jeremiah's 
 prophecy of the expiration of the Chaldsean supremacy 
 after seventy years, is no exception to this rule ; the 
 restoration which then followed was but the termin- 
 ation of the same phase of history, of which Jeremiah's 
 contemporaries in 604 were witnessing the com- 
 mencement. Two or three other examples may be 
 worth referring to. One of the boldest, and also one 
 
 1 Is. xvi. 14 ; xxi. 16 f. ; xxii. 18. Shebna is mentioned after- 
 wards, in 701 E.G. (Is. xxxvi. 3 ; xxxvii. 2), as no longer holding 
 the important office of Governor of the Palace (which is filled 
 now, in accordance with Isaiah's promise, xxii. 20 f., by Eliakim) ; 
 but he has not— at least prior to that year— been banished : he 
 still retains a place, as "scribe," among the king's ministers. 
 
no SERMON V. 
 
 of the clearest, is afforded by the Book of Isaiah. 
 Isaiah, a year bjfore the event, predicted, not the 
 siege merely of Jerusalem by the Assyrian armies 
 (which, in our ignorance of the precise circumstances, 
 we are unable to affirm might not conceivably 
 have been reached by political calculation), but the 
 termination of the siege by a sudden and unexpected 
 disaster dispersing the attacking forces. " Ah, Ariel, 
 Ariel, the city where David encamped ! add ye a year 
 to the year, let the feasts run their round ; then will 
 I distress Ariel, and there shall be mourning and 
 lamentation. And I will camp against thee round 
 about, and will lay siege against thee with a fort, and 
 I will raise siege works against thee. But the multi- 
 tude of thy foes shall be like small dust, and the 
 multitude of the terrible ones as the chaff that passeth 
 away ; and it shall be at an instant, suddenly." ^ So 
 different did the prospect appear to the people of the 
 city, that they could att:ich no meaning to the 
 prophet's words, and stared at him as he spoke in 
 blank astonishment and incredulity.^ But Isaiah is 
 confident, and does not shrink from repeating his 
 assurances. The passage I have quoted is but the first 
 of a scries of utterances, in all of which he describes 
 under varying imagery a sudden and mysterious 
 disaster, which will annihilate Judah's foes. Thus 
 shortly afterwards we read : " As birds flying, so will 
 Jehovah of Hosts protect Jerusalem ; he will protect 
 and deliver it, he will pass over and preserve it. 
 And the Assyrian shall fall with the sword, not of 
 ^ Is. xxix. 1-3, 5. - Is. xxix. 9. 
 
THE HEBREW rROPHETS. Ill 
 
 man ; and the sword, not of man, shall devour him : 
 and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men 
 shall be set to task work." ^ And, a little later, 
 probably while the troops of Sennacherib were mass- 
 ing close at hand in the Philistine territory: "The 
 nations rush like the rushinj of many waters, but he 
 shall rebuke them, and they shall flee afar off, and 
 shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before 
 the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm. 
 At eventide behold confusion : before the morning 
 he is not ! " - And, still later, \vhen the last hope of 
 escape seemed almost to have been cut off, and the 
 fate of the city, to human eyes, must have appeared 
 to be scaled : " At the noise of the tumult, the peoples 
 are fled ; at the lifting up of thyself the nations are 
 scattered." ^ The vagueness or obscurity which some- 
 times appears to hang over the prophet's words, can 
 often be removed, when it is possible to throw upon 
 them the light of history. On a bas-relief now in tl:e 
 British Museum there is the representation of a 
 warrior king seated upon his throne of state : around 
 are seen chariots and armed attendants ; in front 
 there advances a train of crouching captives ; an 
 inscription above exhibits the words, " Sennacherib, 
 king of multitudes, king of Assyria, seated on a lofty 
 throne, receives the spoil of the city of Lachish." ^ A 
 
 1 Is. xxxi. 5, 8. ^ Is. xvii. 13-14. ^ jg xxx. iii. 3. 
 
 * See Schrader, CiDieiform Inscriptiois cmd the Old Testament^ 
 p. 287 (Engl. Tr., i. p. 280). Photographs of this interesting bas- 
 relief are published by Messrs. Mansell, 2 Percy Street, Rath- 
 bone Place, London (Nos. 433, 434, 436 of the Assyrian series). 
 
112 SERMON V. 
 
 voice has risen out of the ruins of Kouyunjik to 
 interpret the Hebrew prophet to this generation. 
 Isaiah continues, apostrophizing the enemy: "And 
 your spoil shall be gathered as the caterpillar gather- 
 eth ; as locusts leap, shall they leap upon it." i The 
 varying imagery which the prophet employs warns 
 us that we must, as before, be on our guard against 
 undue literalism in interpretation ; but the funda- 
 mental thought which throughout underlies it, is in 
 entire agreement with the event ; and whether it was 
 a pestilence, or some other agency, that caused the 
 destruction of the Assyrian host, its occurrence at the 
 time required for the salvation of the city, was a 
 coincidence beyond the reach of human prevision or 
 calculation. Other instances, if not so brilliant, yet 
 not less convincing, might readily be found. Dam- 
 ascus capitulated to Tiglath-Pileser, literally within 
 the limits of time anticipated by Isaiah,- and the fall 
 of Samaria was not postponed many years beyond it. 
 It would have been particularly interesting to notice 
 Jeremiah's announcement of the spot in Tahpanhes 
 on which Nebuchadnezzar, upon entering Egypt, 
 should erect his royal throne.^ Until recently, no 
 independent evidence of an invasion of Egypt by 
 Nebuchadnezzar, was known to exist ; but two inscrip- 
 tions lately discovered now attest it,^ and cylinders 
 
 1 Is. xxxiii. 4. See more fully, on the passages referred to, the 
 Avriter's volume on Isaiah, in the " Men of the Bible " series, 
 chap. vii. p. 66 ff. 
 
 '^ Is. viii. 4. 3 jgj. xYui. 10, 
 
 * See Wiedemann, Acgyptischc Zeitschrift, 1878, pp. 2-6, 87-89, 
 
THE HEBREW PROPHETS. 1 13 
 
 inscribed with his name have been disinterred ahnost 
 upon the very site indicated by Jeremiah. ^ An 
 impartial criticism, while, on the one hand, owning 
 that temporal predictions exist which have been 
 apparently unfulfilled, and admitting the probability 
 that in the case of such as refer to a distant future, 
 they have been incorrectly dated, or not transmitted 
 to us in their original form, will, on the other hand, 
 frankly acknowledge such as are beyond reasonable 
 doubt or suspicion, and will not seek to eliminate 
 them, or minimize their significance, by special 
 pleading. 
 
 Ethically, the prophets play the role of what we 
 should term social reformers. They attack the abuses 
 always conspicuous in an Eastern aristocracy ; they 
 assert with uncompromising persistency the claims 
 of honesty, justice, philanthropy, and mercy. Cer- 
 tainly, the most ancient Hebrew legislation known 
 to us, the Decalogue and Book of the Covenant,^ had 
 placed such claims in the forefront ; and the prophets 
 do not, in this respect, so much advance theoretically 
 as apply old principles to new situations, and re-assert 
 them with fresh emphasis and energy. To purify 
 justice, to reform religion, to fight against inconsist- 
 ency, to redress social wrongs, are the aims common 
 to all the prophets. Amos, introducing the main 
 
 Gesch, Aegyptcns vo?i Psatn7)ietich I. lis aiif AlcxiDider deti 
 Grossen, 1880, p. 167-169 ; Schrader, Cunciforjn Inscriptions 
 and the O. T., on 2 Kings xxiv. i (p. 363 f.). 
 
 ^ See the Academy, 1884, vol. xxv., p. 51. 
 
 ^ Ex. xx.-xxiii. 
 
 I 
 
 ^^ 
 
114 SERMON V. 
 
 theme of his prophecy, shows both originality and 
 breadth of view. Casting his eye upon the nations 
 around, Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, 
 he fastens upon some act of cruelty or inhumanity of 
 which each has been guilty, and declares the judg- 
 ment impending upon it.^ Israel might listen thus 
 far with equanimity : but the prophet ends by apply- 
 ing to the privileged nation the same standard : — 
 " Thus saith Jehovah : For three transgressions of 
 Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punish- 
 ment thereof, because they sold the righteous for silver, 
 and the poor for the sake of a pair of shoes ; that 
 pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the 
 poor, and turn aside the way of the meek." ^ What 
 a picture do these few words suggest to us of society 
 in the Northern Kingdom, 750 years before Christ, and 
 of the faculty for keen and comprehensive criticism 
 possessed by the herdman from Tekoa ! Amos, the 
 first of the canonical prophets, transcends the bounds 
 of Jewish particularism : he never, it has been noticed, 
 describes Jehovah as the God of Israel ; he describes 
 him as the " God of Hosts," which, whatever the 
 origin of the phrase may have been,^ becomes prac- 
 tically equivalent to the Omnipotent : and here he 
 represents Him as meting out equal justice,, alike to 
 Israel and the Gentiles, not for the neglect of religious 
 rites, not even for their adhesion to unspiritual service, 
 
 1 Amos i. 2 — ii. 5. 2 Amos ii. 6-7. 
 
 ^ Comp. E. Kautzsch, in Herzog's Real-Eiicyklopiidie (ed. 2), 
 art. Zebaotli (1886) ; and in Stade's Zeitschrijt fiir die alttesta- 
 uientliche lVisse?tscha/t, 1886, p, 17 ff. 
 
THE HEBREW PROPHETS. II5 
 
 but for their repudiation of the duties and offices 
 imposed upon all by their common humanity. Amos' 
 keen sense of justice appears again and again in the 
 course of his prophecy. Thrice does Jehovah swear : 1 
 and each time the oath is eh'cited by some deed 
 of selfishness, or indifference, or dishonesty : " Hear 
 this, ye that would swallow up the needy, and make 
 the poor of the land to fail ; saying, When will the 
 new moon be gone, that we may sell corn ? and the 
 Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat ? making tlie 
 ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the 
 balances by deceit. . . . Jehovah hath sworn by the 
 excellency of Jacob : Surely I will never forget any 
 of their works."- And noting the inconsistency of 
 elaborate religious observances conjoined with a dis- 
 regard of the moral principles of which they should 
 be the accompaniment and the expression, he exclaims, 
 speaking still in Jehovah's name : " I hate, I reject 
 your pilgrimages ; and I will take no delight in your 
 solemn assemblies. Take thou away from me the 
 noise of thy songs ; for I will not hear the melody 
 of thy viols. But let judgment roll down as waters, 
 and righteousness as an ever-flowing stream." ^ 
 
 In Isaiah, consistently with the more permanent 
 and influential position enjoyed by the prophet in 
 Jerusalem, the indictment is n^.ore detailed, and covers 
 a Avider area than is the case in Amos. His fifth 
 
 1 Amo5 iv. 2, vi. 8, viii. 7. 2 Amos viii. 4-7. 
 
 3 Amos V. 21, 23, 24. Comp., on the prophetic work of Amos, 
 the excellent account contained in W. R. Smith's Pi'ophcts of 
 Israel^ p. 1 20 If, 
 
Il6 SERMON V. 
 
 chapter may be taken as a representative one. Open- 
 ing with the parable of the vineyard, the prophet 
 shows how, in spite of the advantages lavished 
 profusely upon it, Israel has disappointed its Owner, 
 and not repaid the care bestowed upon it : — " He 
 hoped for justice, but behold bloodshed ; for righteous- 
 ness, but behold a cry." And then one by one the 
 national sins are summed up.i The inordinate desire 
 for the possession of large estates which now asserted 
 itself, accompanied, no doubt, by the unfair or violent 
 ejectment of less fortunate possessors ^ ; the immoder- 
 ate indulgence in pleasures of the table, leaving, in the 
 minds of many, no room for more serious thought ; ^ 
 the devotion to sin for sin's sake, attended by a 
 scoffing and defiant unbelief* ; the confusion of moral 
 distinctions, blinding men to the true nature and 
 issue of the course which they were pursuing ; the 
 self-satisfied astuteness of the leading politicians, who 
 were confident in the wisdom of their plans, and 
 conceived that their projects for the welfare of the 
 
 1 Is. V. 8-23. 2 Comp. Mic. ii. 2. 
 
 ^ Is, V. 12'' : the "work of the Lord" and the "operation of 
 his hands " (cf. Ps. xxviii. 5), z. e. the purpose of God, realizing 
 itself in history, and by means of the laws which govern the 
 ■welfare of nations. These laws, the leaders of the nation do not 
 regard or understand : the consequence is, that the people suffer 
 
 (^- 13)- 
 
 * Is. V. 18: "Who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and 
 sin as it were with a cart rope," i. e. who are so devoted to sin 
 that they chain themselves by cords of illusion, i.e. by worth- 
 less considerations to which they attach a fictitious import- 
 ance, and drag it after them as though they were beasts of 
 burden. 
 
THE HEBREW PROPHETS. 11/ 
 
 State were above criticism ; ^ the systematized corrup- 
 tion of the administrators of justice — these are the 
 sins which Isaiah denounces in his long invective, 
 showing how in truth they were already working 
 their normal effects in the deterioration of the national 
 life,2 incapacitating it for dealing effectually with the 
 difficulties which the age brought with it. And if we 
 read the volume of his prophecies as a whole, we see 
 how no class in the community is exempted from his 
 censure. The men of rank and authority, who 
 ignored the responsibilities of office or position ; ^ the 
 leaders of opinion, who possessed weight in the 
 Government, or gave a tone to society ;^ the advocates 
 of a plausible but short-sighted policy, who possessed 
 the art of securing the ear of the people ; ^ a power- 
 ful minister whose influence he perceived was oper- 
 ating to the jeopardy of the State ; ^ the masses 
 whom he saw sunk in indifference or formalism ; '' the 
 King himself, whether it were Ahaz in his wilfulness 
 
 ^ Is. V. 21. In illustration of the "wisdom" here alkided to, 
 comp. xxix. 14^^ ; xxxi. 2^ : " He also — z. e. Jehovah, not less than 
 the politicians — is wise, and doth not recall his words," &c. 
 
 ^ Is. V. 24. Notice the figures employed. The image is that of 
 a tree, rotting where it stands : the " root," which ought to be 
 the channel of nutriment, becomes rottenness, and the " blossom," 
 •which ought to be fresh and healthy, vanishes in the air as 
 dust. And so the collapsing strength of the nation is compared 
 by the prophet to a mass of hay sinking down and disappearing 
 rapidly in the flames. 
 
 ^ i. 23 ; iii. 14-15 ; xxviii. 7 f. ; xxix. 20 f. * iii. 12. 
 
 ^ xxviii. 14-22 ; xxix. 14.^, 15 f. ; xxx. 1-3, 7 ((. ; xxxi. i f. 
 
 ^ xxii. 15 fif. 
 
 ' i. 4, 10 ff. ; ii. 6 ff. ; xxix. 13 f. ; xxx. 8-1 1 ; xxxii. 9 ((. 
 
IlS SERMON V. 
 
 and insincerity, or Hezekiah listening incautioush' to 
 the overtures of a foreign potentate ^ — all in turn 
 receive the prophet's bold and fearless rebuke. In 
 Isaiah, we have an example of the prophet, upon a 
 more conspicuous and broader platform than that on 
 which Amos stood, engaged in a lifelong conflict with 
 the dominant tendencies of his age. 
 
 I have sought to illustrate, under two aspects, the 
 historical significance of the prophets. History, we 
 see, elucidates the prophecy ; prophecy interprets the 
 history. If we would understand the prophecy rightly, 
 we must throw ourselves back to the time at which 
 it was uttered, and realize the social and political 
 situation to which it was addressed. Then, in its 
 turn, prophecy illumines, and even directs, the history. 
 May the Spirit which quickened and exalted the 
 genius of the prophets help us, as we read their 
 writings, to take the lessons which they teach to 
 ourselves ! May He inspire us, if it be possible, with 
 the same generous and disinterested impulses, the 
 same lofty aspirations, the same admiration of nobility 
 in thought and deed, the same honesty and love of 
 truth ! 
 
 ^ vii, lo (C. ; xxxix. 3 ff. 
 
SERMON VI} 
 
 THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 Heb. i. 1-2 : "God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers 
 in the prophets, by divers portions and in divers manners, 
 hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son." 
 
 The Epistle to the Hebrews opens In the Greek with 
 two significant adverbs, 7To\vfj.€pw<i and TroAurpoTrcoj, 
 which the writer uses for the purpose of character- 
 izing the revelation contained in the Old Testament 
 The first of these adverbs is one which it is difficult 
 to reproduce in our language at once forcibly and 
 idiomatically. Perhaps the sense expressed by it wdll 
 be best understood if we recollect that It is opposed 
 to a/itepo)?, which would denote singly^ luidividedly ; 
 and that It thus conveys the idea of what, instead of 
 being single and undivided, is broken into many parts. 
 If we might Illustrate the Apostle's meaning by a 
 metaphor, we might say that he represents God's 
 former revelation as not concentrated in a single 
 volume, or mediated by a single agent, but as dis- 
 tributed through many channels, and mediated by a 
 
 1 Preached at Great St. Mary's, Cambridge, before the Uni- 
 versity, on Sunday, April 27, 1890. 
 
120 SERMON VI. 
 
 succession of different agents. In the use of the 
 term it is, moreover, indirectly involved that the 
 individual agents in whom God thus severally spake, 
 received but a partial — we might almost say a frag- 
 mentary — revelation of His will. rTo^urpoTro)?, the 
 other adverb which the writer of the Epistle uses, is 
 explained more readily : it indicates simply diversity 
 of manner, " in many modes." The same two adverbs 
 are used, as it happens, in combination by Clement of 
 Alexandria,^ in illustration of the epithet TroXviroiKikos 
 applied by St. Paul to the wisdom of God in Eph. 
 iii. 10, which displays itself, this father says, "for our 
 advantage ' in many parts and in many modes,' in 
 art, in knowledge, in faith, in prophecy." It is the 
 manifold and multiform manifestation of God, received 
 of old by the fathers through the prophets, which the 
 Apostle here describes, and with which he contrasts 
 the single and supreme revelation made " at the end 
 of these days," in One who was no prophet, or other 
 subordinate minister, but " a son." 
 
 I propose to offer for your consideration to-day 
 some reflections, suggested by these words of the 
 Apostle, on the variety of form and circumstance 
 and occasion, with which, as recorded in the Old 
 Testament, God revealed Himself to the fathers. 
 And first and foremost He revealed Himself to them 
 in the prophets properly so called. With but few 
 exceptions, it is only the prophets who make the 
 claim to announce God's " word," to enunciate a 
 ^ Quoted by Dr. Wcstcott, in his note ad. loc. 
 
THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 121 
 
 message which they have received from Him. The 
 prophet is in a peculiar sense the organ of Jehovah's 
 will. He has listened in the council of the Almighty ; ^ 
 he has stood, in vision, in the presence-chamber of 
 the Most High, and heard there words which thrilled 
 through his inmost being ; ^ he has felt within him 
 the impulse, before which he quailed as at the lion's 
 roar, or which consumed his bones as a hidden fire ; ^ 
 he knows that Jehovah "doeth nothing but he re- 
 vealeth his secret to his servants the prophets ; " ^ 
 ever and anon, as he speaks, it is " Thus saith 
 Jehovah," " Hear ye the word of Jehovah," " 'Tis the 
 oracle of Jehovah." If there are degrees of inspiration, 
 the highest degree must surely be sought in those 
 who thus constantly and unwaveringly declare the 
 plenitude of their inspiration, and claim to bring 
 directly to men the message of the Most High. But 
 the prophets did not always receive this message 
 through the same activity of their mental organism. 
 Sometimes they became conscious of it in_a vision ; ^ 
 more frequently, as it would seem, by an impulse or 
 direction given to their waking thoughts, or by a 
 quickening of their natural faculties of intuition or 
 reflection. And their message, when received, was com- 
 municated to men in many different forms. Some- 
 times it was expressed in plain, direct language ; 
 
 1 Jer. xxiii. i8, 22. 2 jg yi j-i^. 
 
 2 Amos iii. 8, Jer. xx. 9. ^ Amos iii. 7. 
 
 ^ I Kings xxii. 19-22, Amos vii. 1-9, viii. 1-3, ix. 1-4, Hos. 
 xii. 12, Is. vi., Jer. !., xxiv. 1-3, Ezek. i,, Sec. 
 
122 SERMON VI. 
 
 sometimes it was made palpable in a significant act ; ^ 
 more often it was clothed by the prophet's imagination 
 in the gorgeous dress of poetic symbolism. In genius 
 and character the individual prophets differ widely : 
 but they all possess, in a rare degree, the power of 
 presenting their thought in an attractive literary garb. 
 The flowing periods of Amos, the condensed vehe- 
 mence of Hosea, the majestic oratory of Isaiah, the 
 artless pathos of Jeremiah, the studied pictures of 
 Ezekiel, the w^arm and impassioned eloquence of the 
 great prophet of the exile — all, in different ways, 
 while they reflect the diversified individuality of their 
 authors, at the same time excite profoundly the 
 reader's interest and attention. 
 
 Nor are the topics with which the prophets deal 
 
 less varied than their styles. The prophets come to 
 
 the forefront in many capacities. They move with 
 
 ' the times, and are the representatives of the best 
 
 thought and of the best culture which the Israelitish 
 
 nation could produce. Politically, they are their 
 
 nation's truest counsellors at the critical moments of 
 
 its history. In earlier times they are influential in 
 
 setting up or dethroning dynasties : at a later time 
 
 they stand beside the king to admonish or advise. 
 
 They saw more clearly than their contemporaries, as 
 
 the result repeatedly showed, the bearing upon Israel 
 
 I of the movements and tendencies operative about 
 
 \ them : they interpreted beforehand the signs of the 
 
 ^ £.£: Is. XX., Jer. xiii. i-ii, xix. lo f., xxvii. 2, xxviii. 10, H. 
 59-64, Ezek. xii. i (f., xxxvii. 15-20. 
 
THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 1 23 
 
 times, and warned their countrymen how to face the 
 future. With what clear insight do Amos and Hosea 
 detect the germs of dissolution in the fabric of the 
 Northern Kingdom! How confidently and how un- 
 erringly does Isaiah declare, first the failure of Syria 
 and Ephraim, then the failure of those more formid- 
 able aggressors, the Assyrians, in their projects for 
 the ruin of Jutlah ! With what a just instinct docs he 
 plant his finger upon the hollowness of Egyptim 
 promises ! 1 And how truly a century afterwards 
 does Jeremiah, apparently in direct antagonism to 
 the line pursued by his great predecessor, foresee the 
 success of the Chald^eans, and divine the purpose of 
 Providence to crown Nebuchadnezzar as the monarch 
 of Western Asia ! ^ And yet another prophet, still 
 in advance of his contemporaries, when the appointed 
 term of the Babylonian empire was approaching, 
 heralded the advent of the conqueror who was to 
 overthrow it,^ sustained with glowing promises the 
 failing spirits of his countrymen, and sketched in 
 grand, imposing outline his nation's future destiny. 
 Erom the time of Moses onwards, at every important 
 epoch in the history of Israel, it was a prophet who 
 assumed the place of authority, and taught his people 
 the duty which the age required of it. 
 
 But the prophets were more than political coun- 
 sellors : they were the chief upholders of morality 
 
 1 Is. XX. 5, 6, XXX. 5, 7, xxxi. 3. 
 
 ^ Jer. XXV. 8-1 1, 15-29, xxvii. 6, 8-1 1 : comp. above, p. lo4f. 
 
 2 Is. xli. 2, 25, xliv. 28, xlv. 1-4, 13, &:c. 
 
124 SERMON VI. 
 
 and religion. Not only did they uphold generally, 
 in accents of solemn earnestness which can never 
 lose their spell, the claims of righteousness, philan- 
 thropy, equity, and other social virtues — so apt in all 
 countries, but especially in Eastern countries, to be 
 disregarded — and the claims of Jehovah as against 
 other gods whose worship possessed often such a 
 strange attractiveness for the less spiritually minded 
 Israelites ; but they taught also many special lessons. 
 Amos, for instance, teaches the impartiality with 
 which God views all nations, and shows that he 
 demands of Israel precisely the same standard of 
 equity and right which he exacts of other nations.^ 
 Hosea, the prophet of religious emotion, teaches the 
 love with which Jehovah regards Israel, and while 
 reproaching Israel for the imperfect manner in which 
 His love was requited by it, deduces the lesson that 
 the individual Israelite who seeks to participate in 
 God's love, must show love, on his own part, to his 
 brother man.^ Isaiah, in imagery of which he alone 
 is master, sets forth the majesty of Jehovah's God- 
 head, declares the triumph of righteousness and true 
 religion in the overthrow of the Assyrian, and holds 
 up before his nation the inspiring ideals of a reno- 
 vated human nature, a purified and transformed 
 society.^ Ezekiel, while watching from his distant 
 
 1 Amos ii. 6-8 (cf. i. 3— ii. 5), ix. 7-10. Comp. pp. 114-116, 
 
 2 Ho3. xi. 1-4; ii, 2-5, 8, iii. i, iv. i, 2, vi. 4-7, xii. 6. 
 
 3 Is. X. 5-23 5 i. 26, ii. 2-4, iv. 3-4, xxix. 17-24, xxx. 20-22, 
 xxxii. 1-8, 15-18, xxxiii. 5-6, 24. 
 
THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 1 25 
 
 exile's home the toils closing around Jerusalem/ 
 asserts, in uncompromising stringency, the doctrine 
 of individual responsibility,- and vindicates — though 
 in a very different manner from Isaiah — the majesty 
 of Jehovah, which might seem to have been dis- 
 paraged by the disastrous ruin of the city of His 
 choice.^ And the prophet to whom I have already 
 alluded as heralding the advent of Cyrus, preaches, 
 in language more exalted and impressive than is to 
 be found in any other part of the Bible, the transcend- 
 ence, the omnipotence, the infinitude of Israel's God, 
 His incomparable and incommunicable Being, and 
 withal His purposes of salvation, which, though they 
 are directed with special affection towards Israel, com- 
 prehend within their ultimate scope all the kindreds 
 of the earth.^ In the approaching restoration of the 
 exiled nation, he sees, what Ezekiel did not see, an 
 event of crucial significance in the history of the 
 world, and one adapted in the end to create a revo- 
 lution in the religious feelings of mankind.^ In the 
 case of every prophet, the message, which it is dis- 
 tinctively his to bring, is correlated partly with his 
 individual character and genius, partly with the cir- 
 cumstances and history of his age. And thus in 
 
 1 Ezek. i,-xxiv. 
 
 ^ Ezek. xviii. 
 
 3 Ezek. xxxvi, 20-24, 36, xxxviii. 23, xxxix. 7, 21-24, Comp. 
 Prof. A. B. Davidson's Ezekiel, in the Cambridge Bible for 
 Schools, pp. xxxix- xlii. 
 
 ■* Is. xliv. 5, xlv. 14, 23, lii. 10. 
 
 ^ Is. xl. 5, xlii. 1'^ ("judgment" = religion), 3^, 4^ xlv. 6, xlix. 
 6, li. 4, Ivi. 7, 8, Ixvi. 23 (comp. the writer's Isaiah, p. 16S il). 
 
126 SERMON VI. 
 
 many parts and in many modes did God speak to the 
 fathers in the prophets. 
 
 The historical books describe another aspect of 
 God's deahngs with His people ; they narrate from 
 different points of view, and with different degrees of 
 historical precision, Israel's chequered history,— the 
 story how from small beginnings and through many 
 vicissitudes it rose to be an organized nation, able to 
 hold its own among its neighbours, shorn of part of 
 its glory by the Assyrians, but succumbing finally 
 only to the Chaldaeans, and then wonderfully restored 
 to its ancient home in order to complete its destined 
 course of history. Providence watched over Israel's 
 path, and guided the hands of its leading men. And 
 the history, as it is told, is penetrated from the 
 beginning with religious ideas. The narrative of the 
 Creation sets forth, in a series of dignified and im- 
 pressive pictures, the sovereignty of God ; His priority 
 to, and separation from, all finite, material nature ; 
 His purpose to constitute an ordered cosmos ; His 
 endowment of man with the peculiar, unique posses- 
 sion of self-conscious reason, in virtue of which he 
 becomes capable of intellectual and moral life, and is 
 even able to hold communion with his Maker. The 
 story of the Fall shows how human wilfulness thwarted 
 God's purpose in regard to the future of man, and 
 introduced into the world moral disorder. The 
 account of the Flood becomes a typical illustration 
 of God's anger against sin, as the covenant formed 
 by him with Noah evinces the gracious regard with 
 
THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 12/ 
 
 A\ hich, if they would but respond, He views the whole 
 race of mankind. In the narratives which follow, 
 although it is probable that we have mostly traditions 
 rather than the testimony of eye-witnesses, both the 
 contents and the animating spirit are not less remark- 
 able. In the history of the patriarchs we have the 
 picture of men, who, in that distant age, are witnesses 
 and examples of a lively faith to those of other 
 nations with whom they come in contact, and who, 
 while moving about with their flocks and their herds, 
 and though drawn by their wives and children and 
 family connexions into various entanglements, are 
 still the founders of a religious community : " For I 
 have known him, to the end that he may command 
 his children and his household after him, that they 
 may keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and 
 judgment." ^ The patriarchs are engaged in founding 
 not one of the empires of the world, but a kingdom 
 of which righteousness is to be the rule. The ideal 
 character and aims of the people of God are prefigured 
 in their history. It is the religious colouring of the 
 narrative which impresses us, the didactic aim which, 
 apparently unsought for, nevertheless attaches to it. 
 The story of Israel's ancestors might have been told 
 very differently. The religious spirit might have 
 been absent from it altogether. As it is, the patriarchs 
 are types of religious characters ; and their lives 
 abound with lessons for ourselves. 
 
 Nor is the case different afterwards. In the IMosaic 
 ^ Gen. xviii. 19. 
 
128 SERMON VI. 
 
 age the conspicuous figure is the character of Moses 
 himself. The character of Moses is sketched with 
 pecuHar vividness and force : he is represented as 
 endowed, in a pre-eminent degree, with singleness of 
 aim, with nobility of mind, with unwearied and self- 
 sacrificing devotion for the welfare of his people, and 
 with that modesty both of word and demeanour which 
 is observable in all the best characters of Old Testa- 
 ment history. Hosea styles him a prophet ^ : prophetic 
 insight and foresight are ascribed to him in the 
 Pentateuch : Jehovah is represented as holding con- 
 verse with him not by a vision or a dream, but with 
 some special and distinctive clearness, "as a man 
 spcaketh unto his friend." ^ To the period while 
 Israel was at Sinai, there is referred the re-affirmation 
 of the aim of Israel's national existence, which was 
 foreshadowed in the history of Abraham : ** Now, 
 therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep 
 my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure to 
 me above all peoples : for all the earth is mine : and 
 ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an 
 holy nation." ^ To Moses, in a supreme moment of 
 his life, is vouchsafed the manifestation of Jehovah's 
 gracious character, which dominates Israel's history, 
 and which prophets and psalmists, one after another, 
 re-echo : " And the LORD passed by before him, and 
 proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and 
 
 ^ Hos. xii. 13. 
 
 2 Ex. xxxiii. II ; cf. Num. xii. 8, Deut. xxxiv. 10. 
 
 ^ Ex. xix. 5-6. 
 
THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 1 29 
 
 gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and 
 faithfulness ; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving 
 iniquity and transgression and sin : and that will by 
 no means clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of 
 the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's 
 children, upon the third and upon the fourth gener- 
 ation. And Moses made haste, and bowed his head 
 toward the earth and worshipped."^ To Moses are 
 attributed the words which with a burst of grateful 
 enthusiasm celebrate the theocratic privileges of the 
 Chosen People : " There is none like unto God, O 
 Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven as thy help 
 and in his majesty on the skies . . . Happy art thou, 
 O Israel : who is like unto thee, a people saved by 
 the Lord, the shield of thy help, and that is the 
 sword of thy majesty ! and thine enemies shall submit 
 themselves unto thee ; and thou shall tread upon 
 their high places." ^ Upon all the pictures which we 
 possess of the Mosaic age, there is impressed a pro- 
 found consciousness of Israel's vocation, of the duties 
 imposed upon it, and of the privileges which it 
 enjoys. 
 
 In the Law of Moses, God speaks in different ways ; 
 and we hear His voice accommodating itself to the 
 needs of different ages, and of different classes of 
 men. In one group of laws^ the needs of a simple, 
 comparatively immature, agricultural society appear 
 to be held in view. While the Decalogue '* embodies 
 
 1 Ex. xxxiv. 6-8. ^ Dent, xxxiii. 26-29. 
 
 •^ Ex. XX. 23— xxiii. 33. * Ex. xx. 1-17. 
 
 K 
 
130 SERMON VI. 
 
 the fundamental maxims of man's duty towards God 
 and his neighbour, such as are vaHd while human 
 nature remains the same, the group of laws following 
 it regulates such subjects as slavery, the rights of 
 neighbours possessing contiguous fields and pastures, 
 compensation for injury to life or limb, cases of 
 damage to property ; and prescribe ^ rudimentary 
 principles of sacrifice and religious worship. One 
 or two of the provisions strike us as harsh ; and 
 certainly, when applied literally, in ages deficient in 
 the historical instinct, to altered conditions of society, 
 these have sometimes led to disastrous consequences ; 
 but side by side with them we are sensible of an 
 atmosphere of true philanthropy, and in one instance, 
 note the anticipation, in a form suited to the time, 
 of a genuinely Christian spirit, in the injunction, viz., 
 not to refuse help to an enemy in his need — " If thou 
 meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou 
 shalt surely bring it back to him again. If thou see 
 the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden 
 thou shalt forbear to leave it to him alone ; thou shalt 
 surely loosen it with him." 2 In another group of 
 laws, those embodied in Deuteronomy, the require- 
 ments of a more advanced society are contemplated : 
 the provisions of the code embrace more complicated 
 relations of life ; great stress is laid upon the moral 
 and religious motives which should prompt obedience 
 
 ^ Ex. XX. 23-26, xxii. 20, xxiii. 13, 14-19, 24; cf. the rcpcLi- 
 tion of many of these laws in Ex xxxiv. 10-26. 
 2 Ex. xxiii. 4-5. 
 
THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. I3I 
 
 to them ; the spiritual teaching is higher and more 
 definite. In yet another group,^ the hohness which 
 should determine and pervade the Israelite's life is 
 emphasized ; and the principle is made the basis of 
 a series of important moral and social obligations. 
 And a fourth and larger group ^ regulates with some 
 minuteness the ceremonial institutions, which as 
 time advanced became more and more distinctly the 
 formal expression of Israel's faith. The ceremonial 
 system of ancient Israel has played an important 
 function in the religious education of mankind. It 
 enforced and deepened the sense of sin. It declared the 
 need of restoration and forgiveness. It developed — 
 perhaps gradually — in the form of institutions the 
 great principles which regulate man's converse with 
 God. It emphasized the significance of sacrifice 
 under its different aspects, as eucharistic, dedicatory, 
 propitiatory. It taught more and more distinctly 
 that an atoning rite must precede the acceptance of 
 the worshipper by God. It thus established the 
 principles which in the fulness of time were to receive 
 their supreme and final application in the sacrifice of 
 Christ. In all its stages, the Mosaic law held before 
 the eyes of Israel an ideal of duty to be observed, of 
 
 ^ Lev. xvii.-xxvi., — called often, by modern critics,'on account 
 of the motive which principally dominates it, the " Law of Holi- 
 ness." See the writer's Introduction^ pp. 43, 44, 47. 
 
 2 The laws forming the main stock of the ''Priests' Code," 
 and contained chiefly in Ex. xii. 1-20, 40-51, xiii. 1-2, xxv.-xxxi.^ 
 Lev. i.-xvi., xxvii., Numb, v., vi., xv., xviii., xix., xxvii., xxviii.- 
 xxix., xxx,, xx.w., xxxvi. 
 
132 SERMON VI. 
 
 laws to be obeyed, of principles to be maintained ; 
 it taught them that human nature needed to be 
 restrained ; it impressed upon them the necessity of 
 discipline. And in an age when disintegrating in- 
 fluences might have operated disastrously upon the 
 nation, the institutions of the law bound together the 
 majority of its members in a religious society, strong 
 enough to resist the forces which threatened to 
 dissolve it. In many parts and in many modes did 
 God, through the ordinances of the law, speak to His 
 people, training it till it should be able to dispense 
 with their aid, and be ready to assimilate the higher 
 teaching of Christ. But the imperfect and provisional 
 character of the law is, in principle, expressly recog- 
 nized by our Lord, who says of one enactment that 
 it was written " for the hardness of your hearts," and 
 who even propounds a higher standard of action than 
 is presented in the Decalogue itself. It thus affords 
 a conspicuous example of God speaking to His people 
 in language that had only a relative value, and was 
 suited only to the needs of a particular people, and of 
 particular times. 
 
 God spake again to the fathers through poetry, the 
 language of the emotions, the language in which every 
 nation has uttered some of the deepest thoughts of its 
 heart. The poetry of the Old Testament is surpassed 
 in its kind by none : who is insensible to the charm 
 of its light and graceful movement, its balanced, 
 responsive rhythm, so grateful to the ear even in a 
 translation, the truth and force with which the scenery 
 
THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 1 33 
 
 of nature or human life and character are dehneatcd 
 in it ? It is moreover singularly varied in its themes ; 
 the Hebrew poets speak in many strains and in 
 many moods. We hear fragments of the martial lyrics 
 in which national victories or the deeds of national 
 heroes were celebrated by the nation's poets ;i and 
 more than one triumphal ode in which the nation or 
 an individual renders thanks for the deliverance 
 vouchsafed by Jehovah has been preserved complete.^ 
 We have the dramatic poem, in which by the inter- 
 change of argument a great problem of human life is 
 illustrated on its different sides, and the reader is 
 thus gradually led up to the truth which the poet 
 desires finally to unfold. We have, at least in a 
 rudimentary form, the drama itself, in the Song of 
 Songs, where with rare dehcacy of language, and 
 beauty of figure and of thought, there is represented 
 the triumph of faithful love over the blandishments 
 of a monarch and the attractions of a gilded court. 
 We have the elegy, in which the poet in accents of 
 tenderness bewails his lost friend,^ or speaking on 
 behalf of his nation dwells pathetically upon its 
 sufferings, appeals beseechingly to the Divine com- 
 passion, and ends with the assurance of restoration 
 to come.^ We have gnomic poetry, founded, as it 
 seems, by the wise king Solomon, cultivated after 
 
 1 Numb. xxi. 14 f., 27-30, Josh. x. 12^^-13'^; cf. Ps. Ixviii. 11- 
 14; also I Sam. xviii. 7 (cf. xxi. 11). 
 - Ex. XV. I- 1 8, JudLj. V. 
 3 2 Sam. i. 19-27; iii. 33-34- ^ L^'^"^- l-"^'- 
 
134 SERMON VI. 
 
 him by others of those shrewd observers of Hfe and 
 character whom Israel produced, in which the wisdom 
 of many generations is stored up for the instruction 
 of future ages. In the Psalter all voices of the 
 human soul are heard. There is despondency un- 
 relieved by any gleam of light ; there is grief ending 
 in hope, or even in a strain of thanksgiving, in con- 
 fident anticipation of coming deliverance ; there is 
 distress and anguish, sometimes caused by perse- 
 cuting foes, sometimes by a faithless friend, some- 
 times resulting from sickness, sometimes produced 
 by the consciousness of sin ; there are psalms of faith 
 and resignation, of rejoicing and jubilation, of yearn- 
 ing for God's presence, and the spiritual privilege of 
 communion with Him ; there are didactic psalms, 
 psalms deducing lessons from the past, or meditating 
 on the problems and contradictions of the present ; 
 there are psalms echoing national calamities or 
 successes ; there is the cry of penitence wrung from 
 the nation's heart by the bitter experiences of exile ; 
 there is its new-born consciousness of a wider and 
 more glorious future in store for it, in the psalms 
 which declare that "Jehovah reigneth";i there are 
 prophetic outlooks into the future ; ^ there are medi- 
 
 ^ Ps. xciii., xcvi., xcvii., xcix. ; cf. Ps. xlvii., xcviii. All these 
 Psalms breathe the same spirit, and may be regarded as the 
 lyric echo of Is. xl.-lxvi. With "Jehovah reigneth" com p. 
 Is. lii. 7''. Comp. further Ps. xciii. i with Is. li. 9; xcvi. i, 11 
 with Is. xlii. 10, xlix. 13 ; xcviii. 1-4 with Is. xHi. 10, lii. 10, Ixiii 
 5, 7, xliv. 23 ; xcviii. 7, 8 with Is. xhi. 10, Iv, 12, (S:c, 
 
 2 Cf. Ps. xxii. 22-31, xlvii. 9, Ixv. 2, Ixviii. 2S-35, Ixxxvi. 9, 
 cii. 21-22. 
 
THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 1 35 
 
 tations on the power and goodness of God as shown 
 in creation, in history, in His dealings with the 
 human race and with Israel. In the Psalms the 
 devotional element of the religious character finds 
 its completest expression ; and the soul is displayed 
 in converse with God, disclosing to Him its manifold 
 emotions, desires, aspirations. It is the surprising 
 variety of mood, and subject, and occasion in the 
 Psalms, which gives them their catholicity, and fits 
 them to be the hymn-book not of the second Temple 
 only, but of the Christian Church. In the Psalms we 
 hear the voices of many different men, possessed of 
 different temperaments, moving in the midst of 
 different circumstances, and living at very different 
 periods of the nation's life. But national history was 
 the instrument which in God's hand struck the key- 
 note of the deepest utterances of the psalmist, not 
 less than of the prophet, in ancient Israel. 
 
 And thus in many parts and many modes did the \ 
 voice of God speak unto the fathers in the prophets. [ 
 Yet we must not suppose that it spoke in them 
 mechanically : the prophet was not, what the Greek 
 (MavTis was imagined to be, the unintelligent medium 
 through which truth from another world was com- 
 municated to man. The psychical conditions under 
 which God spoke in them, the nature and operation 
 of the initial impulse which brought them to the 
 consciousness of Divine truth, may belong to those 
 secrets of man's inner life which God has reserved to 
 Himself: but by w^iatever means this consciousness I 
 
136 SERMON VI. 
 
 was aroused, the Divine clement which it contained 
 j was assimilated by the prophet, and thus appears 
 \blended with the elements that were the expression 
 :of his own character and genius. The Divine thought 
 takes shape in the soul of the prophet, and is pre- 
 sented to us, so to speak, in the garb and imagery 
 with which he has invested it ; it is expressed in 
 j terms which bear the external marks of his own 
 j individuality, and reflect the circumstances of time 
 I and place and other similar conditions, under which 
 it was first propounded. Divine truth is always 
 presented through the human organ ; it is always 
 though doubtless not always to the same degree, 
 coloured by the medium through which it has been 
 transmitted. The Divine and the human elements 
 are inseparably blended, and not, as it would seem, 
 in every part of the Old Testament in precisely the 
 same proportions. The material data contained in 
 the historical books lay no claim to be derived from 
 other than human sources ; and there are at least 
 portions of the same books, the spiritual value of 
 which is not as great as that of the Prophets or the 
 Psalms. Nor can it be denied that there are parts 
 of the Old Testament in which a personal, or national, 
 temper asserts itself in a spirit which is not that of 
 Christ. And if, moreover, it be true that in the 
 religion of Israel that which is perfect is not yet at- 
 tained, but is only in process of being reached, then, as 
 the venerable Dclitzsch has remarked in his last work,^ 
 ^ McssiiViiscJic Wcissaguiigcn (1890), p. 20. 
 
THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 1 37 
 
 it ought not to offend us even should the Old | 
 Testament Scriptures prove to contain more elements ! 
 that are relatively imperfect than has hitherto been 
 supposed to be the case. 
 
 But viewed generally the human element, whether p 
 it be present in a larger or smaller proportion, is 
 interpenetrated and suffused by an element higher j 
 than itself; it is illumined, elevated, and refined by i 
 a peculiar and unique operation of the Spirit of God. 
 True and noble thoughts gleam like flashes of light 
 from the pages of the great thinkers of ancient 
 Greece ; the labours of modern scholars have dis- 
 closed to us the forms of those searchers after truth, 
 who in a remote past, and in distant climes, felt after 
 God, and in part also found Him (for " he left not 
 himself without witness" among men) : but the voices 
 of these men are dim and faltering, as compared with 
 the clear and vivid consciousness of truth which is 
 reflected in every part of the Old Testament ; and 
 the truths which they reached contrast strongly, in 
 respect of fulness, warmth, and richness, with those 
 which arc enunciated by the prophets and poets of 
 ancient Israel. These writers speak from a soul that I 
 has been touched, and a heart that has been warmed, \ 
 by the Spirit of the living God. And that the 
 religion of Israel, though subject in its growth to 
 historical conditions, is not to be explained as arising 
 solely out of them, is not, in other words, to be 
 treated as a natural product of the genius of the 
 people, appears besides from the fact that it stands 
 
133 SERMON VI. 
 
 from the beginning above the ordinary level that was 
 reached by the nation generally :\ throughout its 
 history the people are represented as needing to be 
 taught by others, as declining from truth by which 
 they ouglit to have been guided, as falling short of 
 the ideal propounded to them. The natural ten- 
 dencies of the nation did not move in the direction 
 of spiritual religion. There is no ground to suppose 
 that, apart from the special illumination vouchsafed 
 / to the great teachers who originated, or sustained, 
 the principles of its faith, the religious history of 
 Israel would have differed materially from that of the 
 kindred nations by which it was surrounded. 
 
 I close with some thoughts, suggested by what has 
 been said, on the permanent importance of the Old 
 Testament. It is important in the first place, on 
 f account of the revelation which it contains of the 
 ' character of God, Who is represented in it as a 
 personal Being, Who, though depicted under the 
 most vivid anthropomorphic imagery, is nevertheless 
 conceived always as purely spiritual, is never confused 
 either with the world or with material emblems of 
 His presence ; Who possesses a definite moral 
 character, all-holy, all-just, all-wise ; Who condescends 
 to enter into relations of c^race with His intellisi-ent 
 creatures ; Who loves man and will in turn be loved 
 by him ; Whose anger is aroused by sin, but Who 
 is gracious to the repentant sinner ; Who manifests 
 Himself in His reJemptive purpose to Israel, and 
 designs in the future to manifest Himself to other 
 
THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 1 39 
 
 nations as well ; Who leads His nation step by step, 
 
 as with a father's hand, through joy and sorrow, 
 
 through success and disappointment, through victory 
 
 and defeat, to know Him better, and to learn His 
 
 character more clearly. 
 
 Secondly, the Old Testament sets before us an ] 
 
 j 
 ideal of human character ; it stimulates us by many ' 
 
 a noble example of faith and action. Of course the 
 characters which it brings before us are not faultless ; j 
 some are held up as warnings; in the case of others, 
 it is evident, their faults are fewer and less grave than 
 they would have been, had they lived where the 
 purifying and mellowing influence of the religion of 
 Israel could not have reached them. Even in the pre- 
 historic and patriarchal ages the principal characters 
 are so delineated as to be typically significant ; they 
 constitute examples to be either imitated or shunned. 
 In a later age we see a man like David, endowed 
 with high personal qualities, amiable, generous, dis- 
 interested, loyal, " a born ruler of men," in spite of 
 the occasion of his great fall, and in spite also of 
 some other occasions on which he was not superior 
 to the spirit of his age — manifesting in his demeanour 
 and actions generally the softening influence of his 
 religion.^ We see in a book like Ruth religion opera- 
 tive in a lowlier sphere, sanctifying and elevating the 
 
 1 On the character of Uavid, comp. the ju^t and appreciative 
 remarks of Prof. W. R. Smith in the Encyclopccdia B?iia?ifnca^ 
 art. '' David" (1877), p. 841 ; and Prof. T. K. Cheyne, Aids to 
 tlie Devojit Study of Criticism (1892), j p. 16-73 (esp. pp. 67-70). 
 
140 SERMON VT. 
 
 ordinary duties of life. Wc see exemplified in the 
 prophets sincerity of purpose, uncompromising oppo- 
 sition to vice and sin, constant devotion to principle, 
 firm faith in a higher power. We see, as I have 
 ah'eady said, the devotional temper, under many 
 different aspects, exemplified in the Book of Psalms. 
 The religion of the Old Testament produced a type 
 of character which, though it may have lacked the 
 finer graces which the teaching and example of 
 Christ produced, is one which we may all strive to 
 imitate. Naturally our judgment upon individuals 
 must be controlled by the absolute principles of 
 conduct recognized by the Old Testament itself; nor 
 must wc forget that in some respects the circumstances 
 of ancient Israel were different from ours, so that 
 maxims of action beyond the pale of what is moral 
 and spiritual, cannot be transferred immediately to 
 ourselves : but in its predominant features human 
 nature is the same in all ages ; so that the lesson as 
 a rule can be applied directly. 
 
 Thirdly, the Old Testament has an intimate and 
 important bearing upon the Christian faith. As a 
 matter of history, Judaism was the cradle of Christi- 
 anity. Viewed humanly, Christianity in its origin 
 took the form of a reaction against the paralyzing 
 influences of Rabbinism, a reaction resting primarily 
 upon a return to the more spiritual religion of the 
 prophets — a call of which the first note was struck 
 by John the Baptist, the " heir of the prophets," I 
 am speaking of it in its initial stage : of course many 
 
THE VOICE OF GOD IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 141 
 
 fresh elements were added afterwards. But although 
 Christianity was thus a reaction against the un- 
 spiritual developments of the later legalism, it does 
 not need to be pointed out how deeply its roots were 
 laid in the ancient faith of Israel, what vital doctrines 
 it appropriated from Israel's teaching, and took for 
 granted ; or how the long and gradual preparation of 
 history fitted the soil for its growth. Of the elements 
 forming the preparation in history for Christ, while 
 some, it is true, were contributed from other quarters, 
 those of central and material importance were supplied 
 by the religion of the Old Testament. 
 
 The -Old Testament is also of importance, for us, 
 evidentially. When all deductions which exegetical 
 and critical honesty demands have been made, it is 
 impossible to overlook or deny the correspondence 
 subsisting between the anticipations and ideals of 
 Israel and their fulfilment in Christ. It is remarkable 
 how, while most nations placed their visions of per- 
 fection in the past and looked back sorrowfully to a 
 golden age which had passed for ever away, the Jews 
 uniformly looked forward : how their most repre- 
 sentative men expressed expectations which nothing 
 in their own age satisfied ; how they held out, and 
 adhered to, ideals which remained unrealized ; how, 
 heedless of the irony of history, they still projected 
 the image of a changed social state ; how they pro- 
 claimed the advent of a Prophet and of a King, who 
 by the supreme graces of his person, and the super- 
 human qualities of his rule, should transform and 
 
142 SERMON VI. 
 
 ref^enerate human nature ; how they announced 
 confidently the future abolition of restrictions which 
 the principles of their own religion appeared to treat 
 as permanently valid. The prophets shadow forth a 
 smnnmm bonum, transcending experience, in which 
 the Gentiles are to participate equally with the 
 Chosen People, and which they believe is destined 
 assuredly to be realized. And when we look more 
 closely we perceive that distinct lines of prophecy 
 and type converge upon Christ, and He fulfils them. 
 In Him the ideals, flung forth with magnificent 
 profusion upon the pages of the Old Testament, are 
 gathered up and realized. Special predictions are 
 indeed sometimes doubtful exegetically, sometimes 
 capable of being otherwise explained ; but there is 
 one truth writ too large in the Bible to be obliterated 
 or debated, that the Old Testament exhibits the 
 development, by successive stages, of a grand redemp- 
 tive purpose, and that the New Testament records 
 its completion. In the Gospel the principles inchoate 
 in the Old Testament are matured ; in the kingdom 
 which Christ has founded the aims and aspirations of 
 the great teachers of Israel are satisfied and fulfilled. 
 
SERMON VU} 
 
 INS PI R A TION. 
 
 Tim. iii. 16-17 : " Every scripture inspired of God is also profit- 
 able for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction 
 which is in righteousness : that the man of God may be 
 complete, furnished completely unto every good v/ork." 
 
 These words apply primarily to the Old Testament. 
 This appears not only from the fact that at the time 
 when they were written the New Testament was still 
 incomplete, and the writings which existed could 
 hardly have acquired the recognized authority implied 
 in this connection by the Greek term ypacjin, but also 
 from considerations arising out of the context. In 
 the preceding verses the Apostle urges Timothy to 
 abide in the things which he has learned, and been 
 assured of, knowing of whom he has learned them, 
 that " from a babe thou hast known the sacred writ- 
 ings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation 
 through faith which is in Christ Jesus." The Scrip- 
 tures which Timothy, " the son of a Jewess which 
 believed," whom Taul " took and circumcised " at 
 
 ^ Preached at St, Mary's, before the University, on Sunday, 
 Nov. I, 1 891. 
 
144 SERMON VII. 
 
 Lystra,^ had known from a babe, could only have 
 been those of the Old Covenant ; and it is for the 
 purpose of enforcing or illustrating the statement that 
 these Scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation, 
 that the Apostle proceeds with the words that I 
 have taken as my text : " Every scripture inspired 
 of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for 
 correction, for instruction w^hich is in righteousness ; 
 that the man of God may be complete, furnished 
 completely unto every good work." 
 
 The subject suggested by my text is one on which 
 it is difficult to say anything which has not been said 
 before. I can only invite your attention this morning 
 to some aspects of it which, though they have been 
 often pointed to, are still sometimes overlooked, and 
 which it seems important to bear in mind at the 
 present day. 
 
 " Every Scripture inspired of God." What does 
 this expression signify .? We inquire in vain for any 
 authoritative answer. The use of the word will not 
 guide us, for no other Biblical writer employs it. 
 Scripture itself supplies no material assistance ; for 
 though the Biblical writers often assert the Divine 
 origin of particular declarations made by them, there 
 is no parallel statement, speaking wath greater dis- 
 tinctness, respecting the origin of the Bible as a whole. 
 Our Church in its formularies treats the Scriptures 
 as the authoritative rule of faith, and is careful to 
 emphasize their sufficiency unto salvation : but it has 
 
 ^ Acts xvi. I, 3. 
 
INSPIRATION. 145 
 
 given no definition of inspiration ; and the books 
 
 constituting Holy Scripture are described solely by 
 
 the external mark of being canonical, not by any 
 
 internal character or quality affirmed to inhere in 
 
 them. Nevertheless men have assumed that they 
 
 knew, as it were, intuitively what inspiration meant, 
 
 and what it involved : they have framed theories of 
 
 its nature accordingly, and have demanded that the 
 
 Bible should conform to them. Some, for instance, 
 
 have imagined inspiration to imply the complete 
 
 suspension of the human personality, so that the 
 
 inspired agent resembled a flute in the hands of a 
 
 player. Others, not going quite so far as this, have 
 
 still not been able to conceive of inspiration, except 
 
 as determining the very words and letters of the 
 
 Bible. Everything, these divines have said, written 
 
 under inspiration is in every particular and in every 
 
 relation infallible. " The affirmations of Scripture of 
 
 all kinds, whether of spiritual doctrine or duty, or of 
 
 physical or historical fact, or of psychological or 
 
 philosophical principle, are without any error wdien 
 
 the ipsissima verba of the original autographs are 
 
 ascertained and interpreted in their natural and 
 
 intended sense." " A proved error in Scripture 
 
 contradicts not only our doctrine but the Scripture 
 
 claims, and therefore its inspiration in making these 
 
 claims." ^ The sentences which I have quoted are 
 
 1 Drs. Hodge and Warfield, in a joint article in the Presby- 
 terian Review^ 1881, pp. 238, 245. Quoted by LI. J. Evans and 
 H. P. Smith, Biblical Scholarship and Inspiration (Cincinnati, 
 1 891), pp. 10, 12,92 f. 
 
146 SERMON VIT. 
 
 not indeed from the pen of an Anglican Divine ; but 
 they hardly do more than give pointed expression to 
 a feeling which probably has often been shared by 
 members of our own communion. It is important to 
 observe that for the statements contained in them 
 there is no warrant either in the Bible itself, or in the 
 formularies of our Church. They are the speculations 
 of individual theologians, framed upon the basis of 
 a priori conceptions respecting what an inspired book 
 must be, the more serious consideration, what its 
 claims and characteristics actually are, being left out 
 of sight altogether. It cannot be too often repeated 
 that the only legitimate method of determining what 
 is involved in the idea of inspiration, or under what 
 conditions it manifests itself, is by an examination of 
 the books that are described as inspired, and an 
 impartial study of the facts presented by them. The 
 Scriptures nowhere make the claim of absolute and 
 universal inerrancy. And the characteristics of the 
 books comprising them are in many cases very 
 different from those which would naturally be inferred 
 from the first of the statements which I have just 
 read. 
 
 Without pretending to define inspiration, or to 
 determine the mystery of its operation, we may, I 
 suppose, say that what we mean by it is an influence 
 which gave to those who received it a unique and 
 extraordinary spiritual insigJit^ enabling them thereby, 
 without superseding or suppressing the human facul- 
 ties, but rather using them as its instruments, to declare 
 
INSPIRATION. 147 
 
 in different degrees, and in accordance with the needs 
 or circumstances of particular ages or particular 
 occasions, the mind and purpose of God. Every 
 true and noble thought of man is indeed, in a sense, 
 inspired of God ; but with the Biblical writers the 
 purifying and illumining Spirit must have been 
 present in some special and exceptional measure. 
 Nevertheless, in the words of the prophet, or other 
 inspired writer, there is a human element, not less 
 than a Divine element, and neither of these must be 
 ignored. I need not pause in this place for the 
 purpose of emphasizing the Divine element in 
 Scripture : it is manifest to all. The " heavenliness 
 of the matter" — to use the expressive phrase of the 
 Westminster Confession — speaks in it with a clear- 
 ness which none can mistake, and strikes a responsive 
 chord in every heart that is open to receive a message 
 from above. In the Old Testament we read how God 
 awakened in His ancient people of Israel the con- 
 sciousness of Himself: and we hear one writer after 
 another unfolding different aspects of His nature, and 
 disclosing with increasing distinctness His gracious 
 purposes towards man. In the pages of the prophets 
 there shine forth, with ineffaceable lustre, those 
 sublime declarations of truth and righteousness and 
 judgment which have impressed all readers, to what- 
 ever age or clime or creed they have belonged. In 
 the Psalms we hear the meditations of the believing 
 soul, contemplating with adoring wonder the mani- 
 fold operations of Providence, or pouring forth its 
 
148 SERMON VII. 
 
 emotions in converse with God. The historians set 
 before us, from different points of view, the successive 
 stages in the Divine education of the race. They 
 show us how its natural tendencies to polytheism 
 were gradually overcome. They show us how Israel 
 was more and more separated from its neighbours, in 
 order to be the effectual witness and keeper of Divine 
 truth. Sin is indeed so deeply rooted in human 
 nature that its extirpation upon this earth is not to 
 be expected ; but the writers of the Old Testament 
 explain to us how the ordinances of Israel were 
 adapted to counteract its influence, and to maintain a 
 right attitude of the heart towards God. And they 
 interpret further their nation's history : they show us 
 how a providential purpose dominates it ; how it is 
 subservient to God's aims ; how the past leads on to 
 better possibilities in the present ; how the present 
 points to still better possibilities in the future. And 
 the crown and consummation of Israel's long and 
 chequered past is set before us in the pages of the 
 New Testament. In order to realize what the Bible 
 is, we have but to imagine what the literature of 
 Israel would have been, had not those to whom we 
 owe it been illumined in some special measure by the 
 light from heaven : even though its external history 
 had been approximately the same, its historians, its 
 statesmen, its essayists, its poets, would assuredly 
 ^ J have written in a very different strain. 
 
 But though the greatness and the spiritual import- 
 ance of the Divine clement in Scripture has often 
 
INSPIRATION. 149 
 
 and rightly engrossed men's attention, still, in order 
 properly to estimate the character of the book which 
 is termed inspired, or the revelation as we actually 
 possess it, the human element must not be overlooked. 
 Not only is Divine truth always presented through 
 the human organ, and is thus, so to say, coloured by 
 the individuality of the inspired agent by whom it is 
 enunciated, but it is impossible to close our eyes to the 
 fact that its enunciations are sometimes relative rather 
 than absolute ; they are adapted to the circumstances 
 of particular ages, they may even be limited by the 
 spiritual capacity of the particular writer, or, in the 
 case of his being a historian, by the materials or 
 sources of information which he had at his disposal. 
 The revelation of the Old Testament is avowedly 
 progressive : the teaching in its earlier parts may 
 naturally therefore be expected to be imperfect as 
 compared with that which is given in its later parts, 
 or which is to be found in the New Testament. We 
 cannot take at random a passage from the inspired 
 volume and say, without qualification or comparison 
 with other passages, that it is absolute truth, or the 
 pure word of God, or an infallible guide to conduct 
 or character. 
 
 One or two illustrations will explain what I have in 
 view. In the Book of Job we have a picture of the 
 trial of the pious sufferer. Job, the patriarch of 
 integrity and piety, is subjected to an unexampled 
 succession of calamities. Under the weight of them 
 he bursts forth into passionate imprecations, complain- 
 
150 SERMON VII. 
 
 ing bitterly of the misery of his lot. His friends, 
 whose theory of life can only account for suffering as 
 caused by some antecedent sin, accuse him wrong- 
 fully of grave offences against God and man. The 
 patriarch, goaded to desperation by the combined 
 severity of h's sufferings and the cruel taunts of his 
 friends, loses control of himself : he charges the 
 Almighty with persecuting him maliciously, with 
 treating him wilfully as guilty while He knows him 
 to be innocent,^ with even governing the world at 
 large as an arbitrary and unjust despot.^ Clearly we 
 cannot here treat the misapplied truths placed in the 
 mouths of the friends, or the impious sentences hurled 
 by Job against the Almighty, as the absolute word or 
 teaching of God. The parts of the Book of Job must 
 be read in the light supplied by the whole : the in- 
 spiration of the poem is to be found in the manner in 
 which the theme chosen by the poet is developed, and 
 in the lessons which are deducible from the work as a 
 whole. The Book of Job, treated as a whole, declares 
 more than one great truth of God's government of the 
 world, but it contains many particular statements, of 
 which inerrancy cannot, in any reasonable sense of 
 the term, be predicated. 
 
 The relativity of inspiration is observable again 
 very noticeably in the Book of Ecclesiastes. The 
 melancholy conclusion to which the author's moral- 
 izings lead him is, that life under all its aspects is 
 dissatisfying and disappointing ; the best that can be 
 ^ Job X. 6, 7. 2 Job ix. 22-24 ; ch. xxi. 
 
INSPIRATION. 151 
 
 done with it is to enjoy, while it lasts, such pleasures 
 as it brings with it. " There is nothing better for a 
 man than that he should eat and drink, and make his 
 soul enjoy good in his labour." ^ How strangely these 
 words fall upon our ears ! How unlike the soaring 
 aspirations of the Psalmists, or the spirit of generous 
 philanthropy which breathes so often in the discourses 
 of the great prophets or the exhortations of the law ! 
 The teaching of Ecclesiastes, if followed consistently, 
 could only result in paralyzing human effort, and 
 stifling every impulse of an ennobling or unselfish 
 kind. The author's theory of life is imperfect ; unto- 
 ward and depressing circumstances, as it seems, 
 embittered his spirit, and concealed from him a fuller 
 and more satisfying view of the sphere of human 
 activity.^ His conclusions possess only a relative 
 value. It is upon life not absolutely, but as he 
 witnessed and experienced it, that he passes his 
 relentless verdict, *' All is vanity." It was the par- 
 ticular age with which he was himself acquainted that 
 prompted him to judge as he did of the uselessness of 
 human endeavour ; and his maxims, at least so far as 
 they possess a negative aspect, cannot be applied to 
 a different age without material qualiflcation and 
 reserve. 
 
 Even in the Psalms the same fact strikes us. Pro- 
 
 ^ Eccl. ii. 24. Comp. iii. 12, v. 18, viii. 15, where the con- 
 clu=;ion expressed is substantially the same. 
 
 '^ Coinp. Dean Bradley's helpful and su^f^estive Lectures on 
 Ecclesiastes^ 1885 (delivered originally in Westminster Abbey), 
 p. 25 f. 
 
152 SERMON VII. 
 
 found as the spirituality of the Psalms commonly is, 
 and adequate as their language nearly at all times is 
 to give words to the deepest religious emotions of the 
 devout Christian, it is undeniable that passages occur 
 in the Psalter which seem to him to strike a discord- 
 ant note. It is not my intention this morning to 
 dilate upon the so-called imprecatory Psalms, or to 
 review the various explanations and excuses which 
 have been offered for their presence in the Psalter : 
 after all has been said, it must be acknowledged, in 
 the words of the most recent commentator on the 
 Psalms, that these utterances " belong to the spirit ot 
 the Old Testament, and not of the New Testament, 
 and by it they must be judged." ^ Nor, though this is 
 sometimes overlooked, do they stand alone in the Old 
 Testament : Jeremiah more than once breaks out 
 into invocations of vengeance against his personal 
 enemies, which differ in no substantial respect from 
 those which we read in the Book of Psalms.^ And 
 exquisite as is the pathos which breathes in the 137th 
 Psalm, as the poet contrasts the land of his exile 
 with his beloved ancestral home, do we not all feel 
 the difference between his closing verse, " Happy 
 shall he be that taketh thy little ones and dasheth 
 them against the stones," and the words of that other 
 Psalmist who wrote, " I will make mention of Rahab 
 and Babylon as them that know me".?^ It is plain 
 
 ^ Prof. A. F. Kirkpatrick, The Psalms {Book /,), in the Cam- 
 bridge Bible fo?' Scliools and Colleges, p. Ixxv. 
 2 Cf. Jor. xviii. 21-23 i ^Iso xi. 20, xv. 15, xvii. iS. 
 2 Ps. Ixxxvii. 4. 
 
INSPIRATION. 153 
 
 that there exist declarations in the Bible which are 
 not free from the tinge of human infirmity and human 
 passion. But abundant as are the evidences of the 
 elevating and sanctifying work of the Spirit of God 
 upon the writers in both Testaments, we have no 
 antecedent right to suppose that every writer is in 
 precisely the same degree subordinated to it. 
 Neither Scripture itself, nor the judgment of the 
 Church, authorizes us to affirm that every statement, 
 or even every book, stands upon the same moral or 
 religious plane, or is in the same measure the expres- 
 sion of the Divine mind : the influences of time and 
 place, of circumstances and situation, of scope and 
 aim, of temper and opportunity, must all be taken 
 into account, before we can rightly judge of the 
 precise sense in which parts of Scripture are to be 
 regarded as the word of God, and of the precise 
 degree in which they individually claim to be 
 authoritative. 
 
 So also there are phenomena in the historical books 
 which are inconsistent with a priori theories of inspir- 
 ation, as well as with hard and fast definitions of the 
 Word of God. If there is a subject on which precision 
 of statement might antecedently have been expected, 
 it is surely in the record of the discourses of Christ. 
 Yet here, while there are ample independent reasons 
 (on which I cannot now dwell) for holding that in all 
 essentials they have been transmitted to us faithfully, 
 in matters of verbal exactitude no small freedom has 
 been permitted. In the Synoptic Gospels, sayings of 
 
154 SERMON VII. 
 
 our Lord, in origin and occasion manifestly the same, 
 are often presented in a more or less divergent 
 literary form : St. Luke in particular appears to have 
 been apt to partially recast both the narratives and 
 tlie discourses which reached him, and to accommo- 
 date them to his own style. In the disposition of 
 their materials also the Evangelists sometimes differ 
 remarkably : matter, and to all appearance the same 
 matter, which in one Gospel is aggregated, in another 
 is found dispersed. The combination of resemblances 
 and differences in the Synoptic Gospels is a most 
 singularly literary feature ; and its explanation con- 
 stitutes a problem of great perplexity, in which, though 
 certain fixed points appear to have been gained, much 
 still remains uncertain. But whatever solution be 
 adopted, or even though the problem be insoluble, 
 it is manifest that some editorial modification and 
 adjustment of the material has taken place in each. 
 And in the Fourth Gospel, a comparison with the 
 Synoptics on the one hand, and with the Epistles of 
 St. John on the other, makes it impossible to doubt 
 that the actual words of Christ have often been 
 transfused into the individuality of the Evangelist, 
 and re-shaped in his own phraseology.^ So far, even 
 
 ^ Comp. Archdeacon Watkins' Bampton Lectures (1890), p. 
 426 f. ; Sanday, The Fourth Gospel, pp. 73 f, 128-130, 222 f,; 
 and in The Co7iteinporary Review^ Oct. 1 891, pp. 536, 538 f., and 
 The Expositor^ Nov. 1891, p. ■})'}y'}y ff., May 1892, p. 390 : " We 
 are dealing [in the case of St. John] with a strong, creative per- 
 sonality which could not help acting upon the deposit committed 
 to it, not a mere neutral medium through which it might pass 
 without alteration,'' 
 
INSPIRATION. 155 
 
 in the most sacred parts of Scripture, is the truthful- 
 ness of the picture, as a whole, dissociated from the 
 mechanical correctness of its individual parts, and 
 made independent either of the chronological pre- 
 cision of the annalist, or of the verbal exactitude of 
 the stenographist. 
 
 Nor does the Old Testament teach a different 
 lesson. Compilation, diversity of origin, variety of 
 motive and standpoint, are the characteristics which 
 disclose themselves when the historical books are 
 examined with sufficient minuteness and care. 
 Traditions, shaped partly by oral transmission, partly 
 by the hand of the narrator, rather than the imme- 
 diate testimony of eye-witnesses, are what, it is diffi- 
 cult to doubt, are here sometimes presented to us. 
 Dramatic personification, which in a more or less 
 mature form has held such a prominent and often 
 such an important place in the literature of the world, 
 is seen also to be not unrepresented in the Old Testa- 
 ment. Why should it not be so ? Why should 
 modes and styles of composition which, except by 
 extreme Puritans, have always been recognized as 
 the legitimate vehicle of human thought, as well as 
 a powerful instrument of education, be excluded from 
 the consecrating influence of the Spirit of God ? If 
 the imagination be a faculty granted by God to man, 
 and capable, as all must allow, of being employed in 
 instruction and edification, why, where no fact, con- 
 ditioning a theological verity, is concerned, may it 
 nut have been subordinated to the Divine plan for 
 
156 SERMON VII. 
 
 the Spiritual advancement of the race? Where 
 nothing is defined as to the nature or the limits of 
 the inspiring Spirit's work, with what justice are 
 particular spheres to be excluded, as it were upon 
 principle, from the range of its operation ? Do not the 
 opening words of the Epistle to the Hebrews authorize 
 us to expect variety of degree, not less than variety 
 of form, in the manifestation of Himself which God 
 made through the writers of the older dispensation ? 
 Through the history of Israel as a nation, through 
 the lives of its representative men, and through the 
 varied forms of its national literature, God has 
 revealed Himself to the world. But this revelation 
 was not made in its completeness at a single moment : 
 it was subjected externally to the conditions which 
 govern human history ; it advanced progressively ; 
 and it is not more than consonant with the idea of 
 progress that at each stage it should be regulated by 
 the opportunities, and adapted to the capabilities, of 
 those to whom it was primarily addressed. 
 
 Nothing is more destructive of the just claims of 
 Christianity than a false theory of inspiration : nothing 
 has led to more fatal shipwrecks of faith than the 
 acceptance in youth of a priori views of what an 
 inspired book must be, which the study of maturer 
 years has demonstrated only too cogently to be 
 untrue to fact. It needs, indeed, less than the 
 " proved error " to confute " our doctrine " : how wide 
 an interval separates that doctrine from the " Scrip- 
 ture claims" with which it has been so complacently 
 
INSPIRATION. 157 
 
 and yet so naively identified, is not, alas ! always 
 perceived. Let us, while we adhere firmly to thc/^^/ 
 of inspiration, refrain from defining, and especially 
 from limiting-, the range or mode of its operation, 
 until we have familiarized ourselves, as well as may 
 be, with the varied contents, and w^ith the often 
 remarkable relations subsisting between the different 
 parts, of the volume which we term inspired. When 
 we have done this, it will hardly fail but that our 
 conception of its scope will be broadened and en- 
 larged. It seems, indeed, to be sometimes appre- 
 hended that if any modification be allowed in the 
 popular conception of an inspired w^ork, men's respect 
 for the Bible will be impaired. The apprehension, 
 though the feeling which prompts it may be sympa- 
 thized with and appreciated, is surely a mistaken one. 
 Men's respect for the Bible will be most securely won, 
 and its authority most effectually established, by the 
 truth about it being set before them, and by claims 
 not being raised on its behalf which it does not raise 
 itself. Men's respect for it, it is to be feared, is some- 
 times sadly diminished by the forced and unnatural 
 expedients to which apologists have resorted, for the 
 purpose of reconciling the facts which the Bible 
 actually presents wdth those which, according to their 
 own theory of its origin and contents, ought to be 
 found in it. Shall we not do well to remember 
 Hooker's caution: "As incredible praises given to 
 men do often abate and impair the credit of the 
 deserved commendation, so we must likewise take 
 
158 SERMON VII. 
 
 great heed lest by attributing to Scripture more than 
 it can have, the incredibihty of that do cause even 
 those things which indeed it hath abundantly to be 
 less reverently esteemed " ? 1 
 
 It may be doubted from this point of view whether 
 the common use of the expression, " Word of God," 
 as a term descriptive of the entire Bible, does not 
 sometimes give rise to misunderstanding. To say 
 nothing of the uncertainties of transmission, trans- 
 lation, and interpretation, involved in many passages, 
 the identification of both, which it virtually implies, 
 leaves out of sight that important aspect of the whole 
 truth that the message from God which the Bible 
 brings to man is always mediated through a human 
 channel : it tends to generate a confusion between 
 the Divine thought and the human imagery, or 
 human form of composition, under which it is pre- 
 sented. The figurative language of the prophets, 
 or the imaginative presentation of a great truth 
 in a book like the poem of Job, will illustrate what 
 I mean. Applied to the Bible, as a whole, the 
 expression, " Word of God," seems to savour of the 
 old theory of inspiration, which no one now cares to 
 maintain, according to which the Holy Ghost dictated 
 to the Biblical writers the very terms which they were 
 to use : it seems to place every part of the Bible upon 
 precisely the same spiritual level : it seems to imply 
 an absoluteness, a finality, a perfection, which, as the 
 instances that I have referred to sufficiently show, do 
 1 EccL Pol., II. viii. 7. 
 
INSPIRATION. 159 
 
 not inhere in every particular statement which Scrip- 
 ture contains. No doubt the term could be so defined 
 as to make it co-extensive with the whole Bible ; but 
 there would always be the danger of the technical 
 definition being forgotten, and the popular acceptation 
 being substituted for it. And it should be carefully 
 remembered that this use of the term is not Biblical. 
 In the Old Testament the term ** Word of God" is 
 applied chiefly to particular declarations of the 
 purposes or promises of God, especially to those 
 made by the prophets : in the New Testament it 
 denotes commonly the gospel message, the tidings of 
 salvation proclaimed first upon the lips of the Saviour, 
 carried afterwards by His apostles to different quarters 
 of the globe.^ But it is never applied to the historical 
 books (of either Testament), or to the Wisdom- 
 literature, or even to the Psalms. We are thus not 
 in a position to say whether the Biblical writers 
 themselves would have so applied it. It is certiin 
 that no historical writer claims to draw his informa- 
 tion from a supernatural source ; ^ and it is at least 
 worthy of consideration whether the record of a 
 revelation, though legitimately termed " inspired," 
 is itself legitimately regarded as identical with the 
 
 1 E. g. Luke V. I ; Acts vi. 7, viii. 14, 25, xi. i, xii. 24, xiii. 5, 7, 
 46, &c. ; I Thess. i. 8, ii. 13 ; 2 Thess. iii. i ; 2 Cor. ii. 17, iv. 2. 
 
 2 Note especially, in this connection, the preface to St. Luke's 
 Gospel. The Evangelist, as Prof. Sand ay remarks {The Oracles 
 of God, p. 72), assumes no supernatural direction, he claims 
 merely to have used the care and research that would be expected 
 of a conscientious and painstaking historian. 
 
l6o SERMON Vll. 
 
 " Word of God." In the official formularies of our 
 Church there is an elasticity in the use of the ex- 
 pression, in strict conformity with Biblical usage — as 
 when the priest is described not by the mechanical 
 term of reader^ but as the Dispenser or Preacher of 
 God's word — which shows that it must not be treated 
 as if it denoted solely or principally a given collection 
 of written statements, but that it properly denotes 
 the message sent by God to man, which may be 
 translated into very different forms, and modified, in 
 external representation, to suit the needs of different 
 occasions. I venture to think that, especially in 
 dealing with persons of limited education, it would be 
 judicious to exercise some reserve in the use of this 
 term, and to prefer modes of expression which, while 
 not less just to fact, might be less open to miscon- 
 struction.^ 
 
 But I have left unnoticed what is really the primary 
 affirmation of my text. The context in any case, 
 
 ^ It ought perhaps to be stated distinctly, for the purpose of 
 obviating misconception, that the remarks on the text are not 
 intended to apply to a description of the Scriptures as *'the 
 Word of God," if accompanied by some suitable qualification 
 such as "the Word of God, 7nediated by a hinnan agency. ^^ Nor 
 does the formula, which was often heard in the controversies of 
 a past generation, "The Bible is not the Word of God, it only 
 contains it," correspond with, or express, the writer's view. 
 The only sense in which he regards the Scriptures as "contain- 
 ing'' the Word of God, is that in which — if he may be allowed 
 to adopt the .simile of an old Divine, quoted by Prof. C. A. 
 Briggs, The Bible, the Church, and the Reason (1892), p. loi — 
 the lantern "contains " the light, transmitting some rays more 
 purely and completely than others. 
 
INSPIRATION. l6l 
 
 and, if the Revised Version be adopted, the terms of 
 the text itself, shows ihat the point which the Apostle 
 desires to emphasize is not the particular sense in 
 which he held the Old Testament Scriptures to be 
 inspired, but the practical teaching to be derived 
 from them. " But abide thou in the things that thou 
 hast learned, knowing . . . that from a babe thou 
 hast known the sacred writings, which are able to 
 make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is 
 in Christ Jesus. Every Scripture inspired of God is 
 also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, 
 for instruction which is in righteousness ; that the 
 man of God may be complete, completely furnished 
 unto every good work." The practical value of the 
 Old Testament is not dependent upon a theory of 
 the sense in which it is inspired; and those who judge 
 the literature of Israel from what may be termed a 
 critical as opposed to a traditional standpoint must 
 dispute the claim, which representatives of the latter 
 seem sometimes to make, that they alone are con- 
 scious of the worth of the Old Testament. The Old 
 Testament Scriptures enshrine truths of permanent and 
 universal validity. Motives, precepts, lessons, as serv- 
 iceable now as they were in a distant past, start up 
 out of its pages. In spite of the special and, it might 
 even be said, narrowing circumstances under which 
 they were nearly all written, in spite of the national 
 sentiment which was a natural, and indeed a necessary, 
 condition of the history of Israel, its great writers 
 continually rise above all the limiting influences of 
 
 M 
 
1 62 SERMON VII. 
 
 time or place, and proclaim truths respecting God 
 and man, which, as they constituted the foundation 
 upon wliich the Christian faith was reared, so they 
 have now been made the priceless and inalienable 
 possession of humanity. We hear in the Old Testa- 
 ment exhortations to righteousness, and the rebuke 
 of sin. We have set before us types for our imitation, 
 and examples for our warning. We learn truths from 
 it which we might in vain seek to discover for ourselves, 
 the counsels of our Heavenly Father for the guidance 
 of His children, the temper and frame of mind by 
 which He would have them respond to His call. In 
 manifold tones the Voice of God speaks to us from 
 its pages. The Scriptures of the Old Testament are 
 the record of a revelation, having the practical aim of 
 raising men's thoughts towards heaven, and prompting 
 them to righteousness and holiness of life, "that the 
 man of God may be complete, completely furnished 
 unto every good work." They may not exhibit tb.e 
 characteristics which theologians have sometimes 
 pictured them as possessing ; but if we go to them 
 in search of the word of God, we shall infallibly find 
 it. May we so read them that they may exert upon 
 us the effect for which St. Paul impressed the study 
 of them upon Timothy ! May they help to furnish 
 us completely unto every good work, and to make us 
 wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ 
 Jesus ! 
 
SERMON VIII.i 
 
 THE FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS. 
 
 Job xxxviii. 4: "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations 
 of the earth ? declare, if thou hast understanding." 
 
 The thoughts of the writers of the Old Testament 
 turn often to the contemplation of Nature. Besides 
 drawing from it frequent illustrations in the way 
 of analogy or metaphor, they contemplate it more 
 directly: they regard it sometimes in the mystery 
 of its origin, sometimes as an ever-present declaration 
 of the great attributes of the Creator. One writer, 
 in the familiar chapter with which the Bible opens, 
 prefixes to his history of the antiquities of his nation 
 a view of the stages by which this earth was adapted 
 to become the habitation of man. Another writer, 
 in that unique chapter of the Book of Job from 
 which my text is taken, meets a great moral difficulty 
 by pointing to our imperfect acquaintance with the 
 secrets of the physical universe, as analogrus to our 
 imperfect comprehension of the moral government 
 cf the world. The author of Psalm xix., in words 
 
 ^ Preached in the Cathedral, Christchurch, on Sunday, Nov. 
 29, 1885. 
 
164 SERMON VIII. 
 
 which the music of Haydn has made doubly familiar 
 to us, points to the spectacle of the heavens by night 
 as a continual witness to the work of the Divine 
 artificer, speaking the same silent but expressive 
 language wherever the canopy of the skies extends.^ 
 In Psalm civ. — that " Poem of Creation," as it has 
 been termed — we are led to contemplate the provi- 
 dence by which the wants of small and great are 
 supplied, the purposes which different objects sub- 
 serve ; while the countless forms of animal life are 
 set before us as a manifestation of the Divine Spirit 
 — " Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled ; thou 
 gatherest in their breath, they die, and return to their 
 dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created ; 
 and thou renewest the face of the earth." 
 
 Each of these aspects of nature would supply 
 material for reflexion ; but I propose to confine myself 
 to-day to some thoughts suggested by the first 
 chapter of Genesis. I need not quote its words ; for 
 in its general outline it will be familiar to all who 
 hear me. Much has been written and said upon it — 
 so much, indeed, that the materials for profitable 
 consideration might well appear to be exhausted. 
 But the subject is one of those in which every age 
 finds a fresh interest, and by the study of which every 
 
 ^ V. 4 : " Their line (/. e. the measuring-line circumscribing 
 their domain) is gone out through all the earth, and their words 
 unto the end of the world." The form of the comparison is as in 
 Prov. XXV. 3, 20, 25, xxvi. 3, 14 and elsewhere (in the Hebrew, 
 the form of all these resembles that of xxv. 3, xxvi. 3 in the 
 English Version). 
 
THE FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS. 1 65 
 
 generation has something to learn. Let me therefore 
 invite your attention to two questions connected with 
 it. Let us inquire, firstly, Does the picture which it 
 affords of the past history of the world agree with 
 that which is disclosed by science ? and, secondly, if it 
 should prove that this question must be answered in 
 the negative, What is the true value and import of the 
 narrative .-* At the outset, we are met with a question 
 of interpretation. In what sense are the six " days " 
 spoken of in the narrative to be understood ? For- 
 merly, no difficulty arose upon this point. Although, 
 by a few, the term was understood not of actual 
 days, but figuratively, still, as the real antiquity of 
 the earth was not suspected, no one who accepted 
 the general teaching of Christian theology found 
 any difficulty in believing that the visible universe 
 was created by the Almighty in six literal days, 
 about 4000 years before the birth of Christ.^ But 
 knowledge has advanced, and this position is no longer 
 tenable. Geology has become a science, and has 
 disclosed to us, upon evidence which cannot be 
 gainsaid, the immeasurable antiquity of our globe, 
 the great physical changes which its surface has 
 undergone, the innumerable multitude of living forms 
 by which in ascending progression, from the lowly 
 marine organisms which mark the dawn of life, it 
 has been successively peopled. Those white cliffs 
 which tower out of the sea in m;iny parts of our 
 southern coasts arc built up from the sliclls of minute 
 1 See, for instance, the passage quoted above, p. 37. 
 
l66 SERMON VIII. 
 
 creatures, deposited, at the rate of a few inches a 
 century, at the bottom of the ocean, and afterwards 
 by some mighty upheaval of the earth's crust raised 
 aloft above the waves. Our coal measures are the 
 remains of mighty forests, astir with a multitudinous 
 insect life, which through untold centuries have come 
 and gone, storing up the energy poured forth by the 
 sun for our consumption and enjoyment. These are 
 but two of the many instances which might be given, 
 demonstrating the immense antiquity of our globe. 
 Our earth bears within itself the marks of a past 
 history reaching back to an age incalculably anterior 
 to that at which man first appeared upon it. If now 
 the term day is to be understood literally, it is clear 
 that the narrative of Genesis cannot accord with the 
 teaching of geology : are we at liberty, then, to under- 
 stand it in any other way } 
 
 This question must be answered, not by a discussion 
 as to the proper meaning of the Hebrew term em- 
 ployed (respecting which there is no doubt), but by 
 inquiring whether or not it may have been used by 
 the writer metaphorically. Although there are no 
 precise parallels in the Old Testament for such a 
 metaphorical use of the word, it seems, on the whole, 
 reasonable to concede it here. The author, it may 
 be supposed, while conscious that the Divine opera- 
 tion could not be measured by human standards of 
 time, nevertheless was desirous of accommodating 
 artificially the period of creation to the divisions of 
 the week ; and hence adopted the term day in a 
 
THE FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS. 1 6/ 
 
 figurative sense. If this view be correct, the term 
 will have been used by him consciously, as a metaphor, 
 for the purpose of his representation, it being really 
 his intention to designate by it a period of time. The 
 several " days," with their " mornings " and " evenings," 
 will thus be the form under which the work is repre- 
 sented as taking place ; they will not constitute part 
 of the reality.^ When, however, it has been granted, 
 as at least a possible interpretation, that the " days " 
 may represent periods, has the required end been 
 attained ? Does the order in which the different 
 parts of the visible universe were produced, as stated 
 in the narrative of Genesis, accord with the order 
 which is taught by science ? The answer, though it 
 may cause surprise to some, must be given explicitly 
 and frankly. They do 7iot accord. Not only do 
 they not accord, but the disagreements are of a nature 
 which it is hazardous and precarious to count upon 
 future discovery removing. Even if we shrink from 
 affirming that they cannot so be removed, we must 
 admit that they are of a character which makes it 
 prudent not to rely upon such a contingency. Prac- 
 tically, in other words, we must reckon with them 
 now. It will be sufficient if I point out briefly the 
 two principal discrepancies. According to the Book 
 of Genesis, the earth was clothed with vegetation two 
 days, or periods, before animal life appeared upon it. 
 According to the evidence of the rocks, plant life, from 
 the beginning, in its earliest and humblest forms, was 
 1 See Note A (p. 177). 
 
l68 SERMON viir. 
 
 accompanied by similar humble types of animal life : 
 and the two advanced gradually together, side by 
 side, till the higher and more complete types of each 
 were attained. Secondly, the formation of the heavenly 
 bodies not merely after the creation of the earth, but 
 after the appearance upon it of vegetation, is incon- 
 sistent with the entire conception of the solar system 
 as revealed by science, not less than with the pro- 
 cess by which that system itself is supposed to have 
 come into being. Both the stars in their far-distant 
 courses, and the planetary system with which this 
 globe is more immediately connected, form a vast and 
 wonderfully constituted order, so marked by correla- 
 tion of structure and unity of design as to forbid the 
 supposition that a particular body, such as this earth, 
 was created prior to the whole of which it is a single 
 and subordinate part. Nor is this all. The commonly 
 accepted theory of the formation of the solar system 
 does not permit the consolidation of the earth, and 
 the appearance upon it of seas and vegetation at a 
 time while the substance of which the sun was 
 composed was still in a diffused state. Not to enter 
 here into further details, the conclusion, whether we 
 will it or not, is forced upon us that both geology 
 and astronomy directly contradict the narrative of 
 Genesis.^ 
 
 In face of these discrepancies (which are not all 
 that might be mentioned), what attitude are we to 
 assume ? Are we, with one class of thinkers, to con- 
 1 Sec Note B (p. 177). 
 
THE FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS. 169 
 
 elude that their presence is fatal to the entire revelation 
 of which apparently they form part? This would be 
 a hasty and ill-considered conclusion. Or are we to 
 imitate others, and, doing violence now to the testi- 
 mony of science, now to the express words of Genesis, 
 to seek to reconcile what — however reluctantly we 
 may make the admission — is irreconcilable ? We 
 embark then upon an enterprise doomed to failure. 
 Or is the presence of these discrepancies an indication 
 that we must modify our conception of the scope of 
 the narrative, and consider whether we have not 
 misapprehended its true purport ; whether its true 
 purport is not to be sought in a different direction 
 alto^rether from that which we had imagined ? It is 
 difficult not to think that the last is the wise and 
 right alternative to adopt. These very discrepancies 
 are an indication that the real object of the narrative 
 in Genesis is not to teach scientific truth, but to teach 
 religions truth. If this, its true purport, be kept in 
 view, it will be seen neither to come into collision 
 with science, nor to need reconciliation with it. It 
 moves in a different plane altogether. From this point 
 of view, as we shall sec, its teaching has an inde- 
 pendent value of its own, and can never become 
 antiquated or obsolete. Let me indicate, in its main 
 features, what this teaching is. 
 
 One object of the narrative will be evident at once : 
 it is to show, in opposition to the crude conceptions 
 current in m;my parts of the ancient world, that the 
 world is not self-originated ; that it was called into 
 
I/O SERMON VIII. 
 
 existence, and brought gradually into its present 
 state, at the will of a Spiritual Being, prior to it, 
 independent of it, deliberately planning each stage 
 of its development. The dignified and sublime 
 representation which it gives is in marked contrast 
 to the self-contradictory, grotesque speculations which 
 form the usual staple of the ancient cosmogonies. 
 This feature is to be the more insisted on, because 
 it is the one which distinguishes it essentially from 
 that Chaldaian account of the Creation, recovered a 
 few years ago from the ruins of Nineveh, with which 
 it has been sometimes compared.^ There exists 
 indeed a similarity of outline, sufficient to suggest 
 the inference that in their broader features both may 
 be derived from some common source : but here the 
 resemblance ends. In other respects the Babylonian 
 scheme is entirely polytheistic : chaos is anterior to 
 deity ; and as the earth gradually assumes shape, the 
 gods of the Assyrian pantheon emerge at the same 
 time from the surging deep.^ How different is the 
 representation in Genesis ! The absolute supremacy 
 of the Deity, His power to mould and dispose all 
 things to His own purpose, the perfect realization 
 
 ^ The Chaldaean account may be read in Schrader's Onieiforni 
 Inscriptioiis and the Old Testament (1883), on Gen. i. i, 14, 20 ; 
 or in Records of the Past, second series, i. (1888) p. 133 ii. (in a 
 different version, p. 149 ff.). 
 
 2 See lines 7-12 of the first tablet (Schrader, p. 2 ; Records of 
 the Past, p. 133). The two translations differ in some details, 
 ])ut not substantially. That of Schrader forms the basis of the 
 extract in the Exposito?', Jan. 18S6, p. 39. 
 
TIIK FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS. I /I 
 
 of His design, marking the entire work, and noted by 
 the recurring formula, "And God saw that it was 
 good," could not be more distinctly or more em- 
 phatically expressed. It is the record of the unique 
 relation in which every part of the world stands to 
 its Maker, a relation in which (as the usage of the 
 word rendered create appears to imply i) it stands to 
 none besides. The/^r/ of a creator is the fundamental 
 teaching of the cosmogony of Genesis : to that fact 
 it was a witness in the ancient world, in times when 
 it was ill-apprehended or obscured, and to that fact 
 it is a witness still. For the fact is one, it should be 
 recollected, which no scientific progress can affect or 
 disprove : science may instruct us indefinitely in the 
 hidden processes of Nature ; theology tells us what 
 science, as such, cannot tell us, that these processes 
 arc not ultimate, that they are arranged and ordered 
 by a Divine Mind. Much confusion and controversy 
 would be avoided, could this distinction be firmly ap- 
 prehended. Rightly understood, science and theology 
 are not antagonistic, but siipplevientary. Science 
 discloses merely the mechanical and physical pro- 
 cesses of which the course of nature consists : except 
 when it passes beyond its province, it affirms nothing 
 — but it also denies nothing— respecting that invisible 
 Power by which, as we believe, they have been con- 
 certed and regulated. Here, then, is one characteristic 
 feature in the teaching of the first chapter of Genesis. 
 Secondly, we must conclude, the chapter is not 
 1 Sec Note C (p. 178). 
 
J 72 SERiNION VIII. 
 
 meant to teach authoritatively the actual past history 
 of the earth. It is not a revelation of what may 
 be discoverable by natural methods ; and it is mis- 
 taking- its purport altogether either, on the one hand, 
 to hold it up as contradicting modern scientific 
 discoveries, or on the other, to repeat the well- 
 intentioned, but vain, endeavour to reconcile it with 
 them. Its object is to afford a view true in concep- 
 tion, if not in detail, of the origin of the earth as we 
 know it, and to embody this not in an abstract or 
 confused form which may soon be forgotten, but in 
 a series of representative pictures which may impress 
 themselves upon the imagination, and in each one of 
 wh'ch the truth is insisted on, that the stage which 
 it represents is no product of chance, or of mere 
 mechanical forces, but that it is an act of the 
 Divine will. It teaches, in terms which all can 
 understand, the same truth which is the outcome of 
 the wisest philosophy, that the world in which we 
 live, and have our being, cannot be comprehended, 
 cannot be an intelligible object of knowledge, except 
 as dependent on a supreme Mind. With this view it 
 divides artificially the periods of the earth's formation. 
 It groups the living creatures upon its surface under 
 the great subdivisions which appeal to the eye, and 
 declares each to have been produced in accordance 
 with the Divine Will, each to owe its being to the 
 Divine intention. It states the fact of their creation : 
 it is silent on the secondary causes through which, in 
 particular cases, or even more generally, they may 
 
THE FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS. 1/3 
 
 have been developed. Within the two great groups 
 of vegetable and animal life it imposes no veto on 
 the action of natural causes in the production of 
 species. Their production by the persistent accumu- 
 lation of minute variations may or may not be true 
 scientifically — upon that question I have no right to 
 pronounce an opinion — but, in so far as it is true, it 
 involves no derogation from the supremacy of the 
 Creator, no denial of His ever-present operation and 
 providence. The doctrine of the gradual formation 
 of species will be but the exhibition in detail of those 
 processes which the writer of this chapter of Genesis 
 sums up into a single phrase, and apparently com- 
 presses into a single moment, for the purpose of 
 declaring their dependence on the Divine Will. A 
 third point on which the record insists is the distinc- 
 tive pre-eminence belonging to man. " Let us make 
 man in our image, after our likeness." Let us not 
 deceive ourselves. The structural similarity between 
 man and some of the higher animals is no conclusive 
 proof that he does not possess powers differing in 
 kind, and not in degree only, from theirs. A true 
 estimate of human nature will take account of it as 
 a whole ; it will not view it from its lower side alone. 
 What, then, do we suppose to be meant when it is said 
 that man was made in the " image of God " ? It is 
 meant that he has been endowed with that highest 
 and noblest of gifts, the gift of self-conscious reason. 
 In all that is implied by this : in the various intel- 
 lectual faculties possessed by him ; in that creative and 
 
1/4 SERMON VIII. 
 
 originative power, which we all possess in greater or 
 less degree, but which is the pre-eminent character- 
 istic of genius ; in the power of rising superior to the 
 impulses of sense, of subduing and transforming them, 
 and, while we know both, of choosing the good and 
 refusing the evil ; in the ability to pass beyond our- 
 selves, and enter into new relations with our fellow- 
 men, relations of sympathy, affection, compassion, 
 and love ; in that capacity for a character, with which 
 our happiness is so strangely linked ; in the power, 
 lastly, of knowing and loving God partially here, as 
 we hope to know and love Him more completely 
 hereafter — is not man in all these respects an 
 adumbration, however faint, a reflex, however dimmed 
 by obscuring shadows, of the supreme perfection 
 of the Creator ? Are not these the features in 
 which he differs, and differs essentially, from the 
 beasts that perish ? Are they not those in virtue of 
 which God can make Himself known to him, can 
 reveal to him His purposes of grace, and grant him 
 the promise of eternal life ? 
 
 Such are some of the chief theological doctrines 
 implied in the Cosmogony of Genesis. It teaches the 
 absolute supremacy of the Creator in His work of 
 Creation : it exhibits to us, in a series of represeyitative 
 pictures, how every stage of His work was dependent 
 upon His will and realized His purpose : it empha- 
 sizes the distinctive pre-eminence belonging to man. 
 These are theological truths, not truths of science.^ 
 1 See Note D (p. 178). 
 
THE FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS. If 5 
 
 It is imperative that the Christian teacher should 
 distinguish what can, and what cannot, be claimed 
 for the narrative of Genesis. He should not wait 
 for the admission to be extorted from him by an 
 opponent : he should be beforehand himself with 
 a theory, which, recognizing alike the claims of 
 theology and science, will be just to each, and 
 render each its due. The interpretation of the first 
 chapter of Genesis has never been fixed by the Church, 
 and forms no article in the Christian Creed. It is the 
 duty of the Christian teacher, on the one hand, to 
 state frankly that such discrepancies as have been 
 alluded to exist, and on the other to point out that 
 their recognition is no derogation to* the Christian 
 revelation, and in no respect imperils the Christian 
 faith. There are many minds acute enough to per- 
 ceive the truth of the first of these propositions, but 
 not able with equal clearness to discern the truth of 
 the second. The unreality of the reconciliations 
 sometimes proposed by commentators is detected at 
 once by those who are at the pains to examine the 
 subject for themselves. Above all things, it is the 
 duty of those at the present day who see more clearly 
 to express themselves in terms which cannot be 
 misunderstood.! 
 
 But to return in conclusion for a few moments to 
 
 the words with which I began. " Where wast thou 
 
 when I laid the foundations of the world ?" Science 
 
 studied rightly, promotes, not the pride of intellect, 
 
 1 See Note E (p. 178). 
 
1/6 SERMON VIII. 
 
 but humility. Year by year, as fresh conquests are 
 gained, now in some remote corner of the universe, 
 now in the structure of some minute organism scarcely 
 visible to the eye, we acquire new and unexpected 
 insight into the operations of Divine Wisdom ; we 
 are impressed more and more with the magnitude 
 and profundity of the design which is stamped upon 
 the physical creation. But Job's answer to the 
 question put to him must also be ours. We may 
 follow back in imagination, to their earliest beginnings, 
 the long succession of living forms which have peopled 
 our earth, we may infer somewhat respecting the 
 gigantic movements which took place when the founda- 
 tions of this world were being laid ; but when we have 
 gone thus far, a vaster unknown than Job could even 
 imagine looms through the darkness beyond. In what- 
 ever direction we turn our eye, it can descry no traces 
 of an end : on the contrary, it discovers more and 
 more which we cannot account for or explain. After 
 twenty-five centuries, as we survey the physical 
 universe, we must confess with Job himself, in another 
 place : " Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways," 
 and *' the whisper of a word " is still all that " we hear 
 of him." 1 
 
 1 Job XXV i. 14. 
 
ADDITIONAL NOTES TO SERMON VIII. 
 
 Note A. 
 
 It must be admitted, however, that this interpretation of 
 " day " is uncertain, and that the distinction which is regularly 
 made between "evening" and "morning'' is opposed to it. 
 There is force also in Dr. Ladd's remarks : " It would be a 
 mistake to suppose that six entire days are taken for creation 
 because God needs time in order that His will and wisdom may 
 reach their result. To the Hebrew mind the majesty of Jehovah 
 consists in His having His will done without any intervening time. 
 Of the long geological periods, and slow, involved processes, 
 and patient, everlasting evolution of results by building one 
 stage upon the preceding stage, which modern physical science 
 emphasizes, the Hebrew mind had not the least conception as a 
 necessity or fact of creation. It is divine to speak, and have 
 the word at once accomplished [Ps. xxxiii. 9]. The six days of 
 creation are none of them to be regarded as in any s^nstjilled up 
 with the Divine work. To think of Jehovah as engaged all day 
 in getting accomplished the task appropriate to each period 
 would doubtless have seemed to the sacred writer degrading to 
 His majesty" {What is the Bible? New York, 1890, p. 137 f.). 
 
 Note B. 
 
 For the grounds of the statements contained in this para- 
 graph, the writer may be permitted to refer to an article on " The 
 Cosmogony of Genesis," contributed by him to the Expositor, 
 Jan. 1886, pp. 23-45, where also some account is given of the 
 principal schemes of reconciliation which have been proposed. 
 
 N 
 
1/8 ADDITIONAL NOTES TO SKRMON VIII. 
 
 On the violent methods of interpretation by which the eminent 
 geologist, Prof. Dana, thinks it possible to harmonize the narra- 
 tive of Genesis with the teachings of science, see the Andover 
 (U. S. A.) Review, Dec, 1887, p. 641 ff. It surely is not legiti- 
 mate or reasonable, for instance, to understand "earth" and 
 "waters" in Gen. i. 2 as denoting nothing resembling what 
 these words ordinarily signify in Hebrew, but matter in that 
 unimaginable condition when it was not yet endowed with force, 
 and the power of molecular action ; or to suppose that ''waters " 
 in Gen. i. 6 is a term descriptive of the attenuated substance of 
 the universe while yet diffused, in a nebulous or vaporous form, 
 through space. 
 
 Note C. 
 
 The word means properly, as it seems, to cut or shape (in the 
 intensive conjugation, it is used in Josh. xvii. 17 of cutting 
 down trees ; and in Phoenician — see the Co?'pus hiscriptioniun 
 Semiticaruni, Tom. i. No. 347 — it denotes the employment of 
 some kind of artificer) ; but in the simple conjugation it is used 
 in the Old Testament exclusively of God. 
 
 Note D. 
 
 Human nature, as a whole, becomes the subject-matter of 
 science, only in so far as the functions of the brain are treated as 
 exclusively physiological. This treatment of them will not 
 however be conceded by philosophy to include the whole truth. 
 Consciousness is co7tditio7ied — so ftir as our experience enables 
 us to judge — by a physical organism, but cannot be resolved into 
 a w^^i? function of it. 
 
 Note E. 
 
 Very just views on the nature and purpose of the Biblical 
 narrative are to be found in Dr. Ladd's volume, quoted in Note 
 A, chap, v., p. 126 ff. 
 
SERMON IX.^ 
 
 THE WARRIOR FROM EDOM. 
 
 Is. Ixiii. I : *' Who is this that cometh from Edom, Avith dyed 
 garments from Bozrah ? this that is glorious in his apparel, 
 travelling in the greatness of his strength ? " 
 
 The first six verses of the portion of the Book of 
 Isaiah appointed to be read for the Epistle in this 
 morning's service, constitute a whole, distinguished 
 aHke in subject and in tone from the part which 
 follows. The imaginative power, which in the great 
 prophecy beginning with the fortieth chapter, and 
 extending to the end of the book, so often kindles 
 our admiration, has produced in these few verses one 
 of its most striking creations. Let us study it 
 to-night with a view of ascertaining its import and 
 significance. The last twenty-seven chapters of the 
 Book of Isaiah were designed primarily for the reassur- 
 ance and encouragement of the Jewish exiles, who, 
 after the city and temple had been captured by the 
 troops of Nebuchadnezzar, were removed in a body to 
 Babylon. That this is the situation of those whom 
 
 1 Preached in the Cathedral, on the evening of Monday in 
 Holy Week, 1884. 
 
l8o SERMON IX. 
 
 the prophet is addressing, is apparent from many 
 indications — amongst others from the words occurring 
 in the chapter which next follows, descriptive of that 
 same terrible and overwhelming disaster, to the 
 pathetic description of which we have been listening 
 in the First Lesson this evening : — *' Thy holy cities 
 are become a wilderness ; Zion is become a wilder- 
 ness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and beautiful 
 house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned with 
 fire ; and all our pleasant things are laid waste." ^ 
 The captivity in Babylon lasted for long : Jeremiah 
 had warned the exiles that they must look for no 
 speedy return ; he had bidden them build houses and 
 plant vineyards in their foreign home ; - for, from the 
 date of Nebuchadnezzar's first conquests, seventy 
 years, he declared, would elapse before the banished 
 people were restored.^ The exiles, it would seem, 
 obeyed Jeremiah's directions : the life, at first so 
 strange, grew familiar to them, so that among their 
 children, in the next generation, there were many 
 content with the conditions in which they found 
 themselves, and in no way eager for a change. Thus, 
 when the promised limit drew nigh, and the deliverer, 
 Cyrus, appeared in the distance, there were some who 
 viewed the prospect of a return to their ancient 
 country with unconcern ; while others, whose temper 
 
 ^ Is. Ixiv. lo-ii. Cf. Lam. ii. 13-22. 
 
 2 Jer. xxviii., xxix. 4-10. 
 
 3 Jer. XXV. II f (belonging to the year in which Nebuchad- 
 nezzar defeated the troops of Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish, 
 B.C. 604). 
 
THE WARRIOR FROM EDOM. iSl 
 
 was different, were despondent or incredulous, not 
 
 believing that the promised deliverance would be 
 
 effected.^ On the return of the nation to Judaea 
 
 great issues, indeed, were staked : but the mass of 
 
 the people did not, perhaps could not, realize what 
 
 they were ; and the Babylonian monarchy seemed to 
 
 be so firmly established, that it was deemed doubtful 
 
 if any power could break its strength. To overcome 
 
 such indifference and want of faith is the main scope 
 
 of this group of chapters ; and the prophet elaborates 
 
 his theme with unrivalled dramatic and rhetorical 
 
 force. Again and again, each time under a new and 
 
 telling figure, he assures his people that their God, 
 
 who presides over nature, and directs the movements 
 
 of history, will so shape its course now, that Israel's 
 
 release will be effected, and the nation be thus 
 
 enabled to complete its future destiny. Its enemies 
 
 will be powerless, their efforts foiled : " no weapon," 
 
 he exclaims, "that is formed against thee shall 
 
 prosper." ^ 
 
 This now is the thought which, with singular 
 grandeur of conception, is set before us in the short 
 section which I ask you to consider with me to-night. 
 Let me first explain briefly the details. 
 
 Who is this that cometh from Edom, 
 With dyed garments from Bozrah ? 
 This that is glorious in his apparel, 
 Marching in the greatness of his strength ? 
 
 1 Comp. Is. xl. 27, xlvi. 12 (the "stout-hearted," who reUise 
 to credit the prophet's announcement), xlix. 14. 
 ^ xh. 15 f., xHx. 25 f., 1. 22 f., Hv. 17, &c. 
 
1 82 SERMON IX. 
 
 The prophet sees a figure, as of a Conqueror, with 
 crimsoned garments, advancing, proudly and ma- 
 jestically, from the direction of Edom. The Edomites 
 were olJ and embittered enemies of Israel ; and the 
 writings of the prophets contain many allusions to the 
 rivalry and unfriendly feeling subsisting between the 
 two nations.^ In particular, we learn from Ezekiel 
 that they had evinced special delight on the occasion 
 when Jerusalem was captured by the Chald.neans, 
 which seemed to them a proof that the Chosen People 
 were no better than the heathen.^ The appearance 
 of the Conqueror from Edom, then, implies that one 
 of Israel's most inveterate foes has been humiliated. 
 The prophet, affecting ignorance, inquires who he is : 
 he hears in reply the words — 
 
 I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save, 
 
 or, as we might paraphrase, I who have announced a 
 just and righteous purpose of deliverance,^ and am 
 able to give it effect. The answer does not satisfy 
 the inquirer : it does not explain the crimsoned 
 
 1 Amos i. II, Jer. xlix. 12, Ob. 10-16, Lam. iv. 21 f., Ezek. xxxv. 
 5 (a "perpetual enmity"). Is. xxxiv., Joel iii. 19, Mai. i. 2-4. 
 
 2 Ezek. xxxv. 5 (" Because thou hast had a perpetual enmity, 
 and hast given over the children of Israel to the power of the 
 sword in the day of their calamity"), 10 ("Because thou hast 
 said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, 
 and we will possess it"), 12 (" I the Lord have heard all thy 
 blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of 
 Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given u^ to 
 devour"). Comp. Ezek. xxv. 12, Ps. cxxxvii. 7, and Is. xxxiv. 8 
 (the " quarrel of Zion," viz. with Edom). 
 
 ^ Comp. for tlic expression xlv. 19. 
 
THE WARRIOR FROM EDOM. 1 83 
 
 garments which first attracted his attention. The 
 
 prophet, therefore, asks again more directly — 
 
 Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, 
 
 And thy garments like him that treadeth the wine-press ? 
 
 The answer follows — 
 
 The wine-press I have trodden alone ; 
 And of the peoples, no man was with me : 
 
 among all the nations of the earth, no one assisted 
 
 Him— 
 
 And I have trodden them in mine anger, and trampled 
 
 them in my fury ; 
 And their hfe-stream is sprinkled upon my garments, 
 And I have stained all my raiment. 
 
 Not Edom only, but the other nations as well, hostile 
 
 to God and to His people, have been trodden down 
 
 and subdued — 
 
 For the day of vengeance was in my heart ; 
 And the year of my redeemed was come : 
 
 the time had arrived for My people to be delivered, 
 and My purpose was one of vengeance on their foes. 
 
 And I looked, but there was none to help. 
 And I M^as amazed that there was none to uphold : 
 Therefore mine own arm brought salvation to me ; 
 And my fury, it upheld me. 
 
 No one, the meaning is, willingly and consciously 
 
 offered to help forward the work : nevertheless, God's 
 
 purpose accomplished itself, human means, in so far 
 
 as they were used by Him, being His instruments 
 
 unconsciously. 
 
 And I trod down the peoples in mine anger, 
 
 And brake them in pieces in my fury. 
 
 And I brought down their life-stream to the earth. 
 
1 84 SERMON IX. 
 
 At this point the subject chan^^es ; and in the rest 
 of the chapter, as in chapter Ixiv., the prophet no 
 longer questions Jehovah in dialogue, he addresses 
 Jehovah as a suppHant, speaking in his people's name, 
 and entreating Him for a renewal of the mercies 
 shown to Israel in the past. 
 
 It is obvious that the expressions used in this 
 passage are not to be interpreted literally. They do 
 not describe any event in history, as it actually 
 occurred. The prophets seize the great principles of 
 God's government of the world, and set them forth in 
 a sym.bolical, or imaginative, dress ; and we must 
 penetrate through this symbolism of form, if we wish 
 to discover the fundamental truth, or truths, to 
 which it gives expression.^ Here it is plain that the 
 fundamental thought is the impotence of the nations 
 to arrest God's purposes at a critical moment in the 
 history of His people. That is the truth which was of 
 immediate, practical interest to the prophet. It is the 
 truth which, as I have remarked before, it is his aim 
 effectually to bring home to his readers, and by which 
 he seeks to encourage and re-assure them in face of 
 the obstacles which at least many amongst them 
 imagined to beset their nation's future. And it is 
 manifest how much more impressive the prophet's 
 representation is, how much better adapted to secure 
 the end desired, than an abstract verbal enunciation 
 would have been. It is one of those applications of 
 figurative language, the product of the imaginative 
 ^ Cf. above, p. io8. 
 
THE WxVRRIOR FROM EDOM. 1 85 
 
 faculty, which the higher style of human composition 
 is always ready to employ, which appealed with 
 peculiar force to an Eastern people, and which recur, 
 under one form or another, in many different parts of 
 the Bible. 
 
 In what connexion, however, does the passage 
 stand with the events which we commemorate at 
 this sacred season ? It is not possible to understand 
 it as referring directly to the passion or triumph of 
 our Blessed Lord : in the prophecy, the conqueror 
 is bestained not with his own blood, but with that of 
 his victims, and his enemies are not spiritual foes, 
 but the nations of the world. The language is too 
 express to leave any doubt on this point. But though 
 not a direct prediction of the Agony of Christ, it 
 may be brought very naturally into connexion with 
 it. We may regard it as a type, or emblematic 
 representation, of that triumph of God over the 
 enemies opposed to Him, which is re-enacted again 
 and again in the course of history, but which in its 
 completest form, and with far-reaching results, was 
 accomplished in the Passion and Death of our 
 Blessed Lord. In itself, it was designed as an en- 
 couragement to the Jewish exiles in Babylon, showing 
 them, by a signal example, how the most determined 
 opposition to the welfare of God's people would be 
 overcome ; but this opposition, as we know both 
 from history and from individual experience, has not 
 been confined to one occasion only; it is repeated in 
 history, under many different circumstances, and in 
 
1 86 SERMON IX. 
 
 many different forms. And the greatest triumph 
 achieved over it, was the triumph gained by Christ. 
 Our Church, then, to-day directs our thoughts to the 
 grand conception drawn by the prophet's inspired 
 imagination : and though every detail does not 
 correspond with exactness, bids us see in it a type, or 
 figure, of that greater conflict, in which the enemies 
 overcome were not the nations of the earth, but the 
 powers of darkness, and of which the issue was not 
 the temporal restoration of the Chosen People, but 
 the restitution from spiritual bondage of fallen 
 humanity. The truth that man's opposition cannot 
 thwart God's saving purposes, that He will, if need 
 be, carry them through unaided, is signally and 
 wonderfully exemplified in the closing events of our 
 Lord's life upon earth. The Warrior in the prophecy 
 is a Divine One, just as the Victor in the New 
 Testament is the God-man. Certainly to the outward 
 eye, His course during that last week seemed to be 
 one of humiliation and reverse, the blood with which 
 His garments were stained was His own life-blood, 
 and death, not victory, seemed to be the close. But 
 in the spiritual conflict, the Passion was itself a 
 triumph ; and the blood was the symbol not of 
 defeat, but of victory. The Passion and Death of 
 Christ brought to nought him that had the power of 
 death, and inaugurated the "year of" Jehovah's 
 " redeemed." And this is the point of view from which 
 the Cross is alluded to by the Apostle. In his Epistle 
 to the Colossians, St. Paul says that Christ, " having 
 
THE WARRIOR FROM EDOM. 1 8/ 
 
 stripped off from himself the principalities and the 
 powers,"/.^, having released Himself from the evil 
 assailants which clung round Him and strove to 
 bring Him down, "made a show of them openly, 
 triumphing over them upon it." ^ The Cross, that is, 
 is regarded ideally by the Apostle as the scene of a 
 triumph, the triumph of Christ, the Head and repre- 
 sentative of humanity, over the power of sin and evil. 
 There is, however, in the New Testament an 
 allusion to the prophecy which we have been con- 
 sidering, which deserves to be noticed in the present 
 connexion. The seer of the Apocalypse, in one of his 
 later visions, sees one having the name of the Word of 
 God, clad, like the warrior of the prophet, with a 
 vesture sprinkled in blood, who smites the nations 
 with a sharp sword, and treads the winepress of the 
 fierce wrath of Almighty God.^ Dark and mysterious 
 as the Apocalypse must always largely remain, it 
 seemiS at least to be clear that what is contemplated 
 in this vision is the final consummation of that which 
 is at present only inchoate, the subjugation of sin 
 and evil, when Christ shall have put all things under 
 His feet, and judgment shall have been finally 
 executed upon His enemies. The Divine warrior, 
 as before, accomplishes His work alone: and He 
 treads the wine-press, as the agent of God's wrath, 
 against the representatives of sin and evil. It is the 
 completion, as a fact, of the work already completed 
 potentially upon Golgotha. 
 
 ^ Col. ii. 15. - Rev. xi\'. 13-16. 
 
1 88 SERMON IX. 
 
 But let us return to the passage with which we 
 started. A comment on the spirit in which we should 
 read it is afforded by the passage which immedi- 
 ately follows.! There the prophet addresses Jehovah 
 in his people's name ; and in the assured conviction 
 that the redemption, guaranteed by His triumph, 
 will be accomplished, supplies faithful Israel with a 
 hymn of thanksgiving, supplication, and confession, 
 expressive of the frame of mind worthy to receive 
 it. In words of surpassing eloquence and beauty, 
 he celebrates the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and 
 the great goodness bestowed by Him upon the house 
 of Israel, recalling how in His love and in His pity 
 He redeemed them in the days of old from Egypt, 
 and how afterwards they had rebelled and vexed His 
 Holy Spirit, until He was turned to be their enemy, 
 and fought against them. Then follows the appeal, 
 heard in this section for the first and only time in the 
 Old Testament, to the Fatherhood of God, — " Doubt- 
 less thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant 
 of us, and Israel acknowledge us not ; thou, O LORD, 
 art our father ; our redeemer from of old is thy name. 
 O Lord, why dost thou cause us to err from thy 
 ways, and hardenest our heart from thy fear ^ Return 
 for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thy inheritance." 
 The pure and intense emotion with which the prophet 
 contemplates the benefits conferred upon his people, 
 the confession of their own unworthiness, his faith in 
 God's fatherly care for His people, and the assurance 
 ^ Is. Ixiii. 7 — Ixiv. 12. 
 
THE WARRIOR FROM EDOM. 1 89 
 
 with which he looks forward to the promised 
 restoration, are models of the attitude of mind which 
 we also may make our own, and in which we may in 
 particular meditate on the deliverance effected for us 
 by the sufferings of Christ. Benefits and mercies 
 greater than those of which Israel partook have been 
 bestowed upon us : let us bear in thankful re- 
 membrance the sufferings and the triumph, not our 
 own, which secured them for us. Let us fix our eyes 
 in devout contemplation on the events which day by 
 day at this season are set before us ; and endeavour, 
 by God's help, in the spirit which the prophet has 
 taught us, to receive and to use worthily the bless- 
 ings derived therefrom, of which we have been made 
 the inheritors. 
 
SERMON X.^ 
 
 THE SIXTY-EIGHTH PSALM. 
 
 Ps. Ixviii. i8 : " Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led (thy) 
 captivity captive ; thou hast received gifts among men, yea, 
 among the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell 
 (there)." 
 
 These words form part of the Psalm, the sixty-eighth, 
 which we have heard in this morning's service. 
 The period of history to which the Psalm belongs is 
 uncertain ; some parts wear the appearance of being 
 ancient, others present features which point with 
 some cogency towards a later date. The Old Tes- 
 tament affords many examples of a writer incor- 
 porating, and adapting to his own use, phrases, and 
 even entire verses, originally written, on an altogether 
 different occasion, by another hand ; ^ and it is possible 
 that this is the solution of the pha^nomena which the 
 Psalm presents. Certainly, two verses are quoted, 
 
 1 Preached in the Cathedral on Sunday, Nov. 13, 1887. 
 
 ^ Comp. for example, Is. ii. 2-4 with Mic. iv. 1-3 ; Jer. xlviii. 
 with Is. xv.-xvi. (see the margin of the former, in the Revised 
 Version); Jer. xlix. 9-10, 14-16 with Obad. 56, 1-4; Is. xxiv. 
 17-18 with Jer. xlviii. 43-44 ; Ps. xcvi. 7, 8% 9* with Ps. xxix. 
 1-2 ; Ps, xcviii. 1% 3** with Is. xlii. 10, iii. 10, &;c. (In some 
 of the instances the phraseology is slightly varied.) 
 
THE SIXTY-EIGHTH PSALM. I9I 
 
 nearly word for word, from the Song of Deborah, in 
 the fifth chapter of the Book of Judges ^ ; and this 
 being so, it is quite conceivable that other verses 
 may be quoted from some earlier sources extant at 
 the time when the Psalm was composed, but now 
 lost. When we read in the fourth verse — not, " Mag- 
 nify him that rideth upon the heavens as it were 
 upon an horse," but, as we ought to read, and as 
 in the Revised Version we do read, " Cast up a high- 
 way for him that rideth through the deserts," we are 
 reminded involuntarily of the words in which the 
 prophet bids a path be made ready in the wilderness, 
 for the people soon to be restored from its exile in 
 Babylon — " In the wilderness prepare ye the way of 
 the Lord ; make straight in the desert a highway 
 for our God." ^ This verse is the only parallel to the 
 one in the Psalm which the Old Testament affords : 
 and the similarity is so striking that we can hardly 
 be wrong, especially when we find it confirmed by 
 other indications, in being guided by it in fixing a 
 date for the Psalm. The Psalm will in any case not 
 be earlier than the closing years of the Babylonian 
 captivity ; and it is a reasonable conjecture that it 
 was written in view of the approaching return of the 
 exiled nation to Palestine, and of God's re-entry 
 into His ancient sanctuary on Zion. The Psalmist 
 views the coming deliverance as a great manifestation 
 
 ^ Ps. Ixviii. 7-8 ; romp. Jud. v. 4-5. 
 
 ^ Is. xl. 3 : comp. Ivii. 14, Ixii. 10, where the same expression 
 cast tip a way — viz. for the returning nation — is used. 
 
192 SERMON X. 
 
 of Jehovah's power, and a triumph over Israel's foes : 
 and so he opens in tones of hope and exultation, 
 almost quoting the words of the old war-cry, which 
 was used when the Ark was moved — ^ 
 
 Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered, 
 And let them that hate him flee before him. 
 
 Throughout the Psalm is pitched in the same tri- 
 umphant key : it is the most buoyant, the most ani- 
 mated, the most powerful which is to be found in the 
 Psalter. At least, the only Psalm which could contest 
 with it this description would be that other not less 
 noble one, the eighteenth. His jubilant exordium 
 ended, the Psalmist turns to reviev/ the former 
 history of his nation. The prospect of the immediate 
 return to Palestine kindles his imagination, and ani- 
 mates his pen : under vivid and impressive figures he 
 describes the journey of Israel through the wilderness, 
 and its triumphant occupation of the land of Canaan, 
 culminating in the choice of Zion as the abode of 
 God, and His solemn entry into it ; for he sees in 
 these glories of the past a type, or pledge, of the 
 people's speedy deliverance now, and of their restor- 
 ation to their ancient home. In this review of the 
 
 * Nmn, X. 35. The change of '' Jehovah " to " God " is due, in 
 all probability, not to the author of the Psalm, but to the 
 collector \yho compiled Book 11. of the Psalms (Ps. xlii.-lxxii.), 
 and Avho, like the compiler of Ps. Ixxiii.-lxxxiii., sought to avoid, 
 as far as possible, the use of the former term, replacing it usually 
 by the latter (comp. especially Ps. liii. with Ps. xiv., and Ps. 
 Ixx. with Ps. xl. 13-17). See Prof. Kirkpatrick's The Psaluis 
 {Book /.), pp. xli, xlii ; or the wxxitts Introduction^ pp. 349-351. 
 
THE SIXTY-EIGHTH PSALM. I93 
 
 past, the Song of Deborah is the chie to the 
 Psalmist's thought. Quoting from it, almost verbally, 
 he first notices the departure from Sinai — • 
 
 O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, 
 When thou niarchedst through the wilderness, 
 The earth trembled, the heavens also dropped before God, 
 Yon Sinai trembled at the presence of God, the God of 
 Israel.^ 
 
 Passing on, he recalls the memory of the gifts and 
 benefits with which God visited His people in the 
 wilderness — ■ 
 
 A bounteous rain, O God, thou didst shower down : 
 When thine inheriiance was weary, thou diust confirm it. 
 
 Next he glances at the successes won by Israel, 
 during its early occupation of Palestine : no sooner 
 was the signal, or command, uttered., than victory 
 followed immediately, and the maidens ^ of Israel 
 flocked forth to greet the victor and proclaim the 
 news — 
 
 The Lord gave the word : 
 
 The woaien that brought the tidings were a great host. 
 
 He quotes fragments from an ancient battle-song, 
 sung by the women on such an occasion — 
 
 Kings of armies do flee, do flee : 
 
 And she that tarrieth at home dividcth the spoil. 
 
 He passes to narrate the choice of Zion, after David's 
 conquest of it from the Jebusites, as the abode of 
 God, and His solemn entry into it. Here, first of all, 
 
 1 Comp. Jud. V. 4-5. 
 
 2 Comp. I Sam. xviii. 7 ; 2 Sam. i. 20 (daughters). 
 
 O 
 
194 SERMON X. 
 
 he poetically imagines other mountains, especially 
 the huge and massive range of Bashan, on the east of 
 Jordan, as viewing with ill-disguised envy the honour 
 bestowed upon the comparatively insignificant hill 
 of Zion, and claiming to be not less worthy of it 
 themselves — 
 
 A mountain of God^ is the mountain of Bashan ; 
 A mountain of many heights is the mountain of Bashan. 
 Why look ye askance, ye mountains of many heights. 
 At the mountain which God hath desired for his abode ? 
 Yea, Jehovah will dwell in it for ever. 
 
 Next, he describes, under figures borrowed from 
 the triumph of an earthly conqueror, God's entry 
 into the abode thus chosen for Himself: at the head 
 of armies of angels He enters the sanctuary on Zion — 
 
 The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands 
 
 redoubled : 
 The Lord is come from ^ Sinai into the sanctuary. 
 Thou hast ascended on high, 
 Thou hast led (thy) captivity captive ; 
 Thou hast received gifts among men. 
 Yea, among the refractory also, that Jah God might dwell 
 
 (there). 
 
 The Psalmist pictures to himself a triumphal pro- 
 cession, winding up the newly-conquered hill of Zion, 
 the figure being that of a victor, taking possession of 
 
 1 /. ^. a mountain Avorthy of God, a noble mountain. 
 
 2 The Hebrew text has "■ is among them," which in connexion 
 with what follows yields such an imperfect sense that it is 
 necessary to suppose an error in the reading. The correction 
 here adopted only involves the addition of a single letter 
 {*^y^D72 M3 for "^^''D HI}), and has been approved by Nowack, 
 Clicyne, and others. Similarly also Bishop Perowne. 
 
THE SIXTY-EIGHTH PSALM. 1 95 
 
 the enemy's citadel, and with his train of captives 
 and spoil following him in the triumph. One of the 
 phrases, here used, is sometimes misunderstood. The 
 expression " led captivity captive " is sometimes 
 taken to mean, " led captive and subdued the power 
 which enthralled others," the word " captivity" being 
 almost personified. But in fact, captivity is simply 
 an abstract term denoting captives^ as is at once 
 shown by the passage from the Song of Deborah, 
 from which the expression here used is evidently 
 borrowed ^ — " Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity 
 captive, thou son of Abinoam." Thus the phrase just 
 means, '* Hast led in triumph the captives which thou 
 hast taken." In the words following, " Hast received 
 gifts among men^^ the Psalmist alludes to the tribute 
 offered either by the vanquished foes themselves, or by 
 others who come forward spontaneously to own the 
 victor, and secure his favour. And, he adds, even 
 those who have held out most obstinately, even the 
 stubborn or refractory ones, are now ready to offer 
 homage, that " Jah God may dwell (there)," in the 
 home which He has chosen, with none to dispute 
 His possession of it. Here the climax of the Psalm 
 is reached. David's occupation of Jerusalem and the 
 entry of God into the Tent prepared for Him there,- 
 are the pledge and symbol of the coming re-occupation 
 of the Holy City, and the re-entry of God into the 
 Temple soon to be restored. Hence in the rest of 
 
 1 Jud. V. 12. 
 
 ^ 2 Sam. vi. 17 ; cf vii. 2. 
 
196 SERMON X. 
 
 the Psalm, the Psalmist leaves the past, and contem- 
 plates exclusively the present or the future. He calls 
 upon Israel to praise God as their Benefactor and 
 Deliverer, and as the God who has promised them 
 vengeance upon their enemies.^ Next he draws an 
 ideal picture of the festal processions with which, 
 before long, the Temple will be re-dedicated, — ■ 
 Zebulun and Naphtali, the two tribes which Deborah 
 had singled out for special honour in her Song, being 
 named as representing the ten tribes, whom he views, 
 like the prophets,^ as sharing ideally in the restor- 
 ation. Lastly, also in agreement with the prophets, 
 he anticipates the day when, Jehovah having shown 
 Himself "strong" for Israel, and "scattered the 
 peoples who delight in war," the nations of the 
 earth will acknowledge Israel's religion, and render 
 homage to the God whose throne is on Zion — 
 
 Command ^ thy strength, O God ; 
 
 Show thyself strong, O God, thou who hast wrought for 
 
 us * out of thy temple. 
 Unto Jerusalem shall kings bring presents unto thee. 
 
 -He mentions, in particular, as Isaiah had done before 
 
 ^ Vv. 19-23. 
 
 2 E.g. Hos. iii. 5, Jer. iii. 18, xxvi. 4-6, 18-20, Ezek. xxxvii. 15 ff., 
 xlviii. I ff. See a different explanation in Cheyne's note ad loc. 
 
 ^ So, with a change of punctuation, many ancient versions 
 and modern commentators. "J7I3'^n^ in v. 29 (Heb. 30) is difficult. 
 The rendering " Because of thy temple " being not very natural, 
 it is easiest, perhaps, to connect the word with the preceding 
 verse (so R. V. viar(^.) : for the idea, cf. xiv. 7% xx. 3, cxxviii. 
 5. With "to work for," comp. Is. Ixiv. 4 (Heb. 3). 
 
 "* Viz. in the past : the perfect tense as Ps. xxxi. 19, xl. 5, &c. 
 
THE SIXTY-EIGIITII PSALM. 1 9/ 
 
 him,^ Egypt and Ethiopia, as examples of powerful 
 and wealthy nations, hastening forward with tokens 
 of allei^iance — 
 
 Princes shall come out of Egypt, 
 
 Ethiopia shall hasten to stretch forth her hands unto God. 
 
 And he closes with a summons, addressed not to 
 Israel only, but to " all the kingdoms of the earth," to 
 honour duly God, who is throned on high in the 
 heavens, but who manifests Himself also with power 
 upon earth as the Protector and Redeemer of His 
 people — 
 
 Ascribe ye strength unto God : 
 
 Whose majesty is over Israel, and his strength is in the 
 skies. 
 
 God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places : 
 
 The God of Israel, he giveth strength and power unto the 
 
 people. 
 Blessed be God. 
 
 The verse which I have taken for my text is quoted 
 by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians, in a 
 somewhat different form. Speaking of the various 
 gifts conferred upon members of the Church, he 
 writes,'- "But unto each one of us was the grace 
 given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 
 Wherefore he saith. When he ascended on higii, he 
 led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." St. 
 Paul is not here following the genuine text of the 
 Psalm, but is in all probability guided by an old 
 Jewish interpretation with which he was familiar, and 
 
 1 Is. xviii. 7, xix. iS-25. ^ Eph. iv. 7-8. 
 
198 SERMON X. 
 
 which instead of " received gifts among men," para- 
 phrased " gave gifts to men." ^ It must not be 
 supposed that St. Paul quotes the text in proof oi the 
 Ascension of our Lord — which it would clearly be in- 
 adequate and unsuitable to establish : but, speaking of 
 the gifts bestowed by Christ upon the Church, he recalls 
 a passage which, in the form in which he was familiar 
 with it, described a bestowal of gifts on man ; and 
 he cites it as an illustration of what he is saying. 
 St. Paul quotes the Old Testament in the manner 
 common to his age, and not always with that exact 
 regard to the original sense of the passage quoted, 
 which we should expect him to show : he follows, 
 where it suits his purpose, an interpretation current 
 among the Jews, without stopping to inquire whether 
 it was consonant with the sense strictly attaching to 
 the passage in its original connexion. That he does 
 not appeal to the text here as a proof passage, ap- 
 pears further from the fact that there is no indication 
 that the Psalm was treated as a Messianic one, or 
 supposed to have a Messianic sense, by the Jews ; and 
 
 1 This interpretation, at least in the form in 'which we know 
 it, regarded the verse as referring to Moses. The Targum on 
 the Psalms (above, p. 86)-renders : "Thou ascendedst up to the 
 firmament, O prophet Moses, thou tookest captives captive, 
 thou didst teach the words of the law, thou gavest them as 
 gifts to the children of men ; but the rebellious ones, who 
 become proselytes, turning in penitence, upon them resteth 
 the Shechinah of the glory of Jehovah God." The Syriac 
 Version, the Peshitto, which is also sometimes influenced by 
 Jewish exegesis, has "gave" for "received.'' The LXX here 
 agrees with the Hebrew. 
 
THE SIXTY-EIGHTH PSALM. 1 99 
 
 yet, unless this were antecedently clear, no argument 
 could be based upon it. But St. Paul, in fact, merely 
 quotes the passage, because he sees in it, as under- 
 stood by the Jews of his own day, an anticipation of 
 a particular truth of Christianity. 
 
 The verse, then, in the Psalm is descriptive of d. past 
 fact ; it describes the historical ascent of God into the 
 " tent" prepared for Him by David upon Zion : it is 
 no prediction of the Ascension of our Lord ; it has 
 no reference to the future. At the same time, it is 
 true that, as a signal and conspicuous event in the 
 history of the Old Covenant, it may be viewed as a 
 foreshadowing, or, as it is sometimes termed, a type^ 
 of the great Ascent and Triumph of Christ, the King, 
 to heaven. And this, no doubt, is the light in which 
 St. Paul really regarded it. The ascent of the Ark, in 
 which God was present, into Zion, prefigured the 
 Ascent of Christ into heaven. The captives and 
 spoil, presupposed in the very fact of David's con- 
 quest of the stronghold of Zion — though the figure, as 
 used by the Psalmist, must not be interpreted too 
 minutely — and imagined poetically to form part of 
 the procession, prefigured the evil powers vanquished 
 by Christ, and, as it were, led visibly in triumph by 
 Him, on the occasion of His return to heaven. Such 
 a view of the work of Christ, as a triumph, is in 
 harmony with St. Paul's thought elsewhere ; for 
 instance, with the passage in which he describes Him 
 as stripping the powers of evil from off Him, and 
 making a show of them openly, triumphing over 
 
200 SERMON X. 
 
 thcni upon the Cross.^ But the gifts received 
 among men cannot, without great artificiahty, be 
 taken as prefiguring anything except the tokens 
 of homage rendered by men to their ascended Lord. 
 Here St. Paul substitutes a different sense altogether ; 
 for material gifts received from men, he substitutes 
 spiritual gifts given to men. In so doing, however, 
 as his been said, it is probable that he followed a 
 current interpretation, or paraphrase, of the verse, 
 which made it suitable for quotation in a context in 
 which he is speaking of the manifold gifts conferred 
 by Christ upon His Church. 
 
 The Psalm breathes the national spirit of ancient 
 Israel. It is a Psalm in which a strain of genuine 
 religious feeling is mingled with notes of battle and 
 victory and vengeance. With Israel's foes in his 
 mind, the Psalmist writes — 
 
 The Lord said, I will bring- back from Bashan, 
 I will bring them back from the depths of the sea : 
 That thou mayest dip thy foot in blood ; 
 That the tongue of thy dogs may have its portion from the 
 enemy. 
 
 So the most evangelical of the prophets does not 
 shrink from describing Israel as a " sharp threshing 
 instrument having teeth," able to beat small and to 
 disperse the powers opposed to it : he does not 
 shrink from threatening Israel's opponents with 
 deadly internecine strife — "And I will feed them that 
 oppress thee with their own flesh ; and they shall be 
 
 ^ Col. ii. 15. Cf. above, p. 189. 
 
THE SIXTY-EIGHTH PSALM. 201 
 
 drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine." ^ 
 It could not be otherwise at a time when God's truth 
 was confined within the limits of a particular nation. 
 National and religious interests were inseparably 
 associated ; and the continued existence of the nation, 
 its success against its earthly foes, w^as the condition 
 on which depended the preservation of the truth 
 committed to it. The long invective against Babylon, 
 which now occupies the greater part of the fiftieth and 
 fifty-first chapters of the Book of Jeremiah,^ shows how 
 intensely national feeling was aroused, at the prospect 
 of the approaching fall of the great oppressing power. 
 It was just the occasion to call forth such a Psalm 
 as the sixty-eighth, — a triumph-song inspired by the 
 memories of the past, and exultant with the expect- 
 ation of the future. It was just the occasion also to 
 stir the poet's religious imagination, to suggest to 
 him visions of a future by which the past should be 
 eclipsed. And so he draws his ideal picture of worship 
 in the restored Temple, representing kings as appear- 
 ing there with offerings, and distant nations as press- 
 ing forward to assist. The unnamed poet's triumph- 
 sung has become the inheritance of the Christian 
 Church ; and the hopes and aspirations of many hearts, 
 and many times, have found expression in his jubilant, 
 soul-inspiring words. The desire which his opening 
 verses embody is one which we can at all times echo, 
 without the smallest reserve : the majestic ascription 
 
 1 Is. xli. 15-16 ; xlix. 26. 
 '^ Jcr. 1. 2— li. 58. 
 
202 SERMON X. 
 
 of thanksgiving and praise, with which he closes, can 
 never lose its impressiveness, or become inappro- 
 priate. Tlie blessings bestowed on Israel, to which 
 the Psalm so abundantly alludes, may be regarded as 
 a figure of the blessings bestowed upon the Church ; 
 and hence its suitability as one of the special Psalms 
 for Whitsunday. The triumph of Israel, which it 
 describes or anticipates, may be understood naturally 
 as a figure of the triumph of the Church in its contest 
 with the world, a triumph in part accomplished, in 
 part yet future. Only, in adopting this view of the 
 Psalm, we must be content with the general parallel, 
 we must not, at the risk of indulging in fantastic and 
 arbitrary combinations, seek to accommodate it to 
 minute details. And so, as we recite the Psalm, 
 month by month, and year by year, it may lend 
 words, far nobler than any which we could supply, 
 to the thoughts and feelings appropriate to our- 
 selves ; the Psalmist's grateful commemoration of the 
 past, and his joyous anticipations of the future, we 
 may alike transfer to our own lips ; his enthusiasm 
 may evoke an echo within our own breasts ; our 
 emotions maybe stirred, our hearts moved to respond, 
 by the spirit which still swells and throbs in the 
 words of his song.^ 
 
 1 The writer, in the preceding exposition, has adopted, in 
 doubtful cases, those interpretations which appear to him to be 
 the most probable, though without at all wishing to deny that 
 the Psalm contains passages in which the Hebrew is ambiguous 
 or obscure, and of which a diflcrent explanation may conse- 
 
THE SIXTY-EIGHTH PSALM. 203 
 
 quently be legitimately held. Such variations in detail, how- 
 ever, hardly affect the general sense of the Psalm, as a whole. 
 Even, moreover, should the Psalm, as has been supposed — and 
 there are circumstances not unfavourable to the supposition — 
 be the work of a later age than that to which it has here been 
 referred, the goieral interpretation will still remain the same : 
 it will have been prompted by some occasion siniilar to that 
 which has here been postulated for it : it will remain the expression 
 of the poet's grateful recollections of the past, and of his hopeful 
 anticipations for the future (comp. Cheyne, Bainpto?i Lectures, 
 pp. 112 f., 124 f. ; Aids to the Devout Study of Criticism^ ^892, 
 p. 323 ff. ; W. R. Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish 
 Church, ed. 2, pp. 221, 439 f.). Although for historical purposes 
 it is sometimes impjrtant to determine, if possible, the date of 
 a Psalm, or other writing, for exegetical purposes it is often 
 sufficient if we are able to re-construct, from the allusions which 
 it contains, the kind of occasion out of which it may have 
 sprung, and the situation in which its author may have been 
 placed. Where we can do this, even though it be but approxi- 
 mately, it contributes materially to our comprehension of its 
 contents and scope. 
 
SERMON XI.^ 
 
 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 Jer. xxiii. 6 : " In his days Jiidah shall be saved, and Israel 
 shall dwell safely : and this is his name whereby he shall be 
 called, The Lord is our righteousness." 
 
 The Church's year is drawing to a close, and the last 
 of the Sundays after Trinity has from ancient times 
 been celebrated as a kind of eve to Advent. In the 
 lessons appointed for the day, our Church either, as 
 in the First Lesson this morning,^ views the close of 
 the Christian year as symbolizing the close of human 
 life, or, as in the alternative First Lessons for the 
 afternoon,^ bids us direct our thoughts towards the 
 coming of Christ. In the Collect we pray God to 
 stir up the wills of His faitliful people, and revive 
 them to an energy of service such as we may natur- 
 ally feel to be needed at a time when we are about 
 
 1 Preached in the Cathedral on the last Sunday after Trinity, 
 1888. 
 
 ^ Eccl. xi.-xii. 
 
 ^ Hag. ii. 1-9 ; Mai. iii.-iv. On Hag. ii. 7, see the rendering 
 of the Revised Version ; and in illustration of the thought, comp. 
 Is. Ix. 5 end, G\ 7^ 11'', 13^ 
 
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 205 
 
 to enter upon a new year of Christian life. And in 
 lieu of a passage from an Epistle, our Church, as it 
 does upon exceptional occasions, sets before us a 
 passage from one of the prophets which likewise 
 points our attention to the advent of Christ. 
 
 Something is sometimes lost Avhen a passage of 
 Scripture is severed from its original connexion. 
 The first eight verses of the twenty -third chapter of 
 Jeremiah form really the conclusion to the twenty- 
 second chapter, and should be read closely in con- 
 nexion with it. Jeremiah lived towards the close 
 of the monarchy of Judah, and he passed through 
 experiences more tragic and varied than, so far as 
 we are aware, fell to the lot of any other prophet. 
 His youth was passed in the golden years of Josiah ; 
 he lived to see Jerusalem sacked, the Temple burnt, 
 himself an exile in Egypt. But Jeremiah did not 
 merely suffer with his nation, at the hand of external 
 foes, he suffered personally at the hand of his fellow- 
 countrymen. Both his denunciations of his people's 
 sins, and the line which he adopted politically,^ made 
 him unpopular ; his life was often in peril ; on one 
 occasion the men of his own native place conspired 
 to slay him; ^ on another he was rescued with difficulty 
 from an attempt made in Jerusalem to adjudge him 
 worthy of death ; ^ while under Zedekiah the princes of 
 
 ^ The policy of submitting to the yoke of the Chalch\:ans : see 
 (under Jehoiakim, R.C. 604) xxv. 9-12; (under Zedekiah) xxvii. 
 4-13, and later, during the siege, xxi. 8-10, xxxviii. 2. 
 
 ^ Jer. xi. 18-23 (cf. xv. 15, xviii. 18, xx. 7 ^i). 
 
 3 Jer. xxvi. 
 
206 SERMON XI. 
 
 Judah secured his imprisonment in a loathsome 
 dungeon, from which he was only released through 
 the intercession of a foreigner, who interested himself 
 in his behalf.^ 
 
 In the section of his book which is closed by the 
 passage selected for the Epistle, Jeremiah reviews the 
 lives and characters of three of the last kings of 
 Judah. " Go down to the house of the king of 
 Judah, and speak there this word, and say, Hear 
 the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest 
 upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, 
 and thy people that enter in by these gates. Thus 
 saith the LoRD : Execute ye judgment and righteous- 
 ness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the 
 oppressor : and do no wrong to the stranger, the 
 fatherless, and the widow, neither shed innocent blood 
 in this place. For if ye do this thing indeed, then 
 shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings 
 sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots 
 and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. 
 But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, 
 saith the LORD, that this house shall become a deso- 
 lation." ^ The judgment on Jehoahaz, who reigned 
 but three months, being at the end of this time de- 
 posed by the Egyptians, is a short one : it is confined 
 to the declaration that he shall not return to Jeru- 
 salem any more, but "shall die in the place whither 
 they have led him captive, and shall see this land 
 
 ^ Jer. xxxvii.-xxxviii. ^ Jer. xxii. 1-5. 
 
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 20/ 
 
 no more." ^ It is otherwise with Jehoiakim, whose 
 reign of eleven years was marked by covetousness, 
 and oppression, and judicial murders. Jehoiakim 
 was the vassal of Egypt ; he both taxed the people 
 for the purpose of meeting the demands of the 
 Pharaoh,"^ and having a passion for costly buildings, 
 oppressed them further in order to gratify his tastes. 
 " Woe to him that buildeth his house by unrighteous- 
 ness, and his chambers with injustice ; that useth his 
 neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him 
 not his hire ; that saith, I will build me a wide house 
 and spacious chambers, and cutteth him out his 
 windows, ceiling it with cedar, and painting it with 
 vermilion.^ wShalt thou reign, because thou strivest 
 to excel in cedar? did not thy father" — the noble- 
 minded Josiah — " eat and drink, and do judgment 
 and justice ? then it was well with him. He judged 
 the cause of the poor and needy ; then it was well. 
 Was not this to know me, saith the LORD ? But thine 
 eyes and thine heart are set only upon thy dishonest 
 gain, and to shed innocent blood, and upon oppres- 
 sion, and upon violence, for to do it." '^ Josiah, when 
 he died, had been missed and regretted ;^ but Jehoia- 
 kim, his son, the prophet adds, shall be " buried with 
 
 1 Jer. xxii. 10-12 : see 2 Kings xxiii. 33, 34^ 
 
 2 2 Kings xxiii. 34% 35. 
 
 3 Dividing two words differently, and slightly changing the 
 punctuation, on graniuiatical grounds, with Hilzig, Payne Smith, 
 Orelli, and others. 
 
 * Jer. xxii. 13-17- 
 
 ^ 2 Kings xxiii. 30'^, 2 Chron. xxxv. 24-25. 
 
208 SERMON XI. 
 
 the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the 
 gates of Jerusalem." 
 
 The prophet in tones of pathos begins again : " Go 
 up to Lebanon, and cry ; and lift up thy voice in 
 Bashan : and cry from Abarim ; for all thy lovers are 
 destroyed." It is the people of Judah who are ad- 
 dressed, personified as a woman,^ and bidden thus to 
 lament over the mournful destiny in store for them. 
 " I spake unto thee in tliy prosperity ; but thou saidst, 
 I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from 
 thy youth, that thou hast not listened to my voice." 
 And soon he turns to contemplate in particular, with 
 feelings, as it seems, of sympathy and regret, the 
 fate of the third king, Jehoiachin, who after a reign 
 of a hundred days was carried away to Babylon, 
 and languished for thirty years in a Babylonian 
 dungeon. " Is this man Coniah a despised broken 
 vessel ? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure } where- 
 fore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast 
 into the land which they know not }"^ And then, at 
 
 ^ The pronouns in the original are feminine. Such personifi- 
 cations are frequent in the prophets : comp., for instance, Jer. 
 vii. 29, X. 17, xlvi. 1 1. Abarim is named as a height whence the 
 whole land mi^ht be viewed (Numb, xxvii. 12). The " lovers " 
 are the nations whose favour Judah had courted (Jer. iv. 30': cf. 
 Ez. xvi. 33, 37), but who will now have to submit to Nebuchad- 
 nezzar's yoke, and be powerless to assist her. 
 
 ^ xxii. 28. Observe the form of the sentence (a double in- 
 terrogation, followed by a question introduced by Wherefore. . ..?) 
 expressive of mingled pathos and surprise, which is peculiar to 
 Jeremiah (ii. 14, 31, viii. 4-5, 19, 22, xiv. 19, xlix. i, cf. xxx. 6). 
 It is implied that the first two interrogations are to be answered 
 in a negative sense. 
 
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 209 
 
 the beginning of the twenty-third chapter, he sums 
 up his verdict upon the kings and rulers of his day 
 in general, under the figure of shepherds who have 
 destroyed and scattered the sheep entrusted to them. 
 The troubles which befel Judah, and led ultimately 
 to its ruin, are traced by Jeremiah to the shortsighted- 
 ness and studied neglect of those who were its re- 
 sponsible giudes. '* Ye have scattered my fleck and 
 driven them away, and have not visited them : behold, 
 I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the 
 Lord. And I will gather the remnant of my flock 
 out of all the countries whither I have driven them, 
 and will bring them again to their folds ; and they 
 shall be fruitful and multiply. And I will set up 
 shepherds over them, which shall feed them ; and 
 they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither 
 shall any be lacking, saith the LORD." The un- 
 righteous rulers will be deposed : wise and just ones,^ 
 in the happier future which Jeremiah now begins to 
 contemplate, will take their place. There follows the 
 passage from which the text is taken : " Behold, the 
 days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise up unto 
 David a righteous Sprout,- and he shall reign as king, 
 
 1 Comp. (for the plural) Jer. iii. 15, Is. i. 26% xxxii. i^ Mic. 
 
 V. S^' 
 
 ^ Tzcmach is not "a branch" (like nefser, Is. xi. i) ; it is 
 shooting foliage generally. The term is mostly used collectively, 
 as Gen. xix. 25, ^^iht growth of the ground," Ps. Ixv. 10 (Heb. 
 11), "Thou blessest the springing {i.e. the young growth) 
 thereof," Ezek. xvi. 7 (R. V. "bud"), xvii. 9, "the leaves of 
 its growth" Is. iv. 2 (sec R. V. inarg., and Orelli's Old Testament 
 
 P 
 
210 SERMON XI. 
 
 and deal wisely, and shall execute judgment and 
 justice in the land. In his days Judah shall be 
 saved, and Israel shall dwell safely ; and this is his 
 name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah is our 
 righteousness." The righteous king whose portrait 
 Jeremiah sketches is the counterpart to the imperfect 
 rulers of his own time. In pointed opposition to 
 Jehoiakim, it is said of him that he will ''deal wisely" 
 — deal with such wisdom as shall ensure success^ — 
 and "execute judgment and justice in the land." 
 Then Israel, no longer the prey of foreign invaders, 
 no longer liable at any moment to be driven into 
 exile, will "dwell safely," under the guardianship of 
 its ideal king. 
 
 But in what sense are we to understand the name 
 "Jehovah is our righteousness".'* In order to 
 answer this question we must turn to a parallel 
 passage in the prophecies of Jeremiah, where the 
 same expression recurs. Jeremiah is somewhat apt 
 to repeat passages of his prophecies with slight vari- 
 ations of phraseology 2 ; and one very similar to this 
 recurs in the great group of prophecies contained in 
 chaps. XXX. — xxxiii., and comprising the compara- 
 tively few words of consolation which it was given 
 
 Prophecy^ p. 262), Ixi. 10 (R. V. " bud ") ; but it acquires here 
 an individual sense in virtue of the context. The use in Zech. 
 ill. 8, iv. 12^ is based upon this passage. 
 
 ^ The force of the word used in the Hebrew. See the margin 
 of the Revised Version : and comp. Josh. i. 7, i Sam. xviii. 5, Is. 
 lii. 13 (text and margin Hkewise). 
 
 ^ See the citations in the writer's Introduction, p. 259. 
 
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 211 
 
 him to address to his people. We there read: " In 
 those days, and at that time, will I cause a Sprout 
 of righteousness to grow up unto David ; and he shall 
 execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In 
 those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall 
 dwell safely : and this is (the name) whereby she shall 
 be called, Jehovah is our righteousness." ^ The 
 name which is applied to the ideal kin^ in chap, 
 xxiii. is applied to the ideal city in chap, xxxiii. : 
 both alike are to be called by the same significant 
 title, " Jehovah is our righteousness." There is some- 
 thing strange, to our ears, in a name thus formed ; 
 but it is in analogy with Hebrew usage. It was 
 the custom of the ancient Israelites to form proper 
 names compounded with one or other of the sacred 
 names more freely than we should do. Thus they 
 gave their children such names as " Jehovah (or 
 God) heareth," or " remembereth," or " judgeth" ;^ or 
 " Jehovah is a help," or " is opulence " ; ^ or again, 
 " Jehovah is perfect," or "exalted," or " great."* And 
 so we find places named similarly : thus we read of 
 an altar called " Jehovah is my banner," and of another 
 called "Jehovah is peace." ^ Names thus formed were 
 felt, no doubt, to be words of good omen ; or they 
 
 1 Jer. xxxiii. 15 f. 
 
 2 Shemaiah (or Elishama), Zechariah, Shephatiah, and Jebo- 
 shaphat. 
 
 3 Joezer, Joshua (see Job xxxvi. 19, Hcb. and R. V.; and cf. 
 xxxiv. 19). 
 
 * Jotham, Jehoram, Gedaliah. 
 ^ Ex. xvii. 15 ; Jud. vi. 24. 
 
2 12 SERMON XI. 
 
 were intended to mark wliat either was, or was hoped 
 to be a reality. The prophets, by an extension of 
 this usage, not unfrequently employ the name as the 
 mark of a cliaracter, to be given to a person or place 
 because the idea which it expressed was really in- 
 herent in him or it. Thus Isaiah, speaking of the 
 ideal Zion of the future, says : "Afterward thou shalt 
 be called The city of righteousness, the faithful city"^ 
 — called so, namely, because the qualities of righteous- 
 ness and faithfulness, so sadly lacking in the existing 
 city, will be conspicuous in it. And Ezekiel, speak- 
 ing of the restored Zion, says, in the last verse of 
 his book : " And the name of the city from that day 
 shall be, Jehovah is there" ; he imagines, that is, a sym- 
 bolical title, summing up in a brief and forcible manner 
 the characteristic state or condition of the city.^ 
 
 The case is similar in Jeremiah. The city bears a 
 name indicating the character of its inhabitants : God 
 is the source and ground of their righteousness. 
 Jerusalem is to become the home and abode of 
 righteousness, through the gracious operation of her 
 God. Here a similar name is given to the ideal king, 
 or Messiah. He is the pledge and symbol to Israel 
 that their righteousness was to have its source in 
 God. Just as Isaiah, when Judah was sorely tried 
 by external foes, had given his ideal king the sym- 
 bolical name of God is zvith iis^ as a guarantee that 
 
 ^ Is. i. 26. 
 
 ^ Ez. xlviii. 35. For other examples of the same usage see 
 Is. iv. 3, XXX. 7, Ixii. 2, 4, 12; Jer. xx. 3, Hos. i. 10^, etc. 
 3 Is. vii. 14^' (see R. V. niarg.') ; comp. viii. 8'', lo^ 
 
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 213 
 
 the Divine help would be assured to them ; so 
 Jeremiah, at a time when the character of the people 
 had largely deteriorated, gives him the symbolical 
 name of JeJiovah is our righteousness^ significant of 
 the fact that the nation's righteousness can only be 
 assured by God.^ The ideal ruler whom Jeremiah 
 foresees will govern his nation with wisdom and 
 success ; and under his gracious administration, the 
 divinely imparted character of righteousness will be 
 realized by the nation. 
 
 Jeremiah does not state in the passage hoiu he 
 conceives this state of righteousness to be brought 
 about; he does not even connect it distinctly with 
 the work of the ideal ruler. Jeremiah pictures the 
 Messiah as the author of civic righteousness ; ^ but 
 the question how far this pre-supposes righteousness 
 in the heart of the individual, or how far the latter 
 is to be conceived as involved in the Messiah's work, 
 does not seem to have been present to his mind. To 
 a certain extent the passage may be supplemented 
 by another, in which, speaking of the New Covenant 
 
 ^ The analogy of other compound proper names shows th.it 
 this is the correct rendering of the name (so R. V.), not that of 
 A. v., ''The Lord our righteousness," as OrolH (/. c. p. 334 f) 
 rightly observes. The significance of the name lies not in the 
 fact that the Messiah would be termed "Jehovah our righteous- 
 ness," but in its expressing, like Immanuel (" God is with us," 
 not " God with us"), the relation of God to His Church. Simi- 
 larly Keil, in his Commentary, ii^i loc. 
 
 ^ " Shall do judgment and justice in the land " : the same 
 phrase is used of David, 2 Sam. viii. 15 ; of Solomon, i Kings 
 X. 9 ; of Josiah, Jer. xxii. 15. 
 
214 SERMON XI. 
 
 to be concluded in the future with the people, he 
 says : " After those days, saith the LORD, I will put 
 my law in their inward parts, and write it in their 
 hearts ; and I will be their God, and they shall be my 
 people. And they shall teach no more every man his 
 neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know 
 the Lord : for they shall all know me, from the least 
 of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD : 
 for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I 
 remember no more." ^ Here Jeremiah promises the 
 advent of an ideal state, in which the sin of the 
 people is forgiven, and its nature transformed ; in 
 which Israel shall be no longer subject to law as a 
 command imposed from without, but shall be ruled 
 by impulses to good, acting upon the heart as a 
 principle operative from within. In other words, 
 Jeremiah anticipates what St. Paul terms a " new 
 creature," — the re-creation by a Divine act of man's 
 inner nature. But in neither passage does Jeremiah 
 explain how, or by what mediate agency, he con- 
 ceived human nature to be thus turned to righteous- 
 ness — the more complete delineation of the picture 
 was reserved for the future. Nevertheless, as has 
 been said,^ these two passages of the prophet contain 
 in mice the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel. 1 he 
 New Covenant is to be a state of righteousness in the 
 Church, effected by a Divine act of grace, having its 
 source in God, constituted and guaranteed by Him. 
 " Jehovah is our righteousness," says the prophet, 
 ^ Jer. xxxi. 33-34. 2 Orclli, /. c. p. 335 f- 
 
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 215 
 
 usin^y a pregnant Hebrew idiom, expressing that He 
 is the ground and source and guarantee of our 
 righteousness — ^just as we read in Ps. Ixviii., for in- 
 stance, that "God is our salvation";^ but the re- 
 lation in which Jeremiah conceived his righteous 
 king to stand towards the individual IsraeHte is not 
 distinctly expressed ; and hence we are left in un- 
 certainty whether he so far anticipated the teaching 
 of the New Testament as to view this righteousness 
 as conferred through the agency of the same ideal 
 ruler, whose name is designed as the symbol of the 
 fact. The terms in which he speaks, however, do 
 not suggest that he conceived him as the author of 
 justification, in the theological sense of the term ; 
 they imply rather that he pictured him as ensuring, 
 by his wise and just administration, the conditions 
 under which righteousness of life might be maintained 
 effectually among the people. 
 
 This, then, is the aspect under which we may view 
 the prophecy of Jeremiah. Interpreting his words in 
 the light of the future, and translating them into 
 Christian phraseology, we may say that they teach 
 us to look to God, as the source of our righteousness 
 through Christ, and to the Church as the sphere in 
 which, by the means which He has appointed, this 
 righteousness may be obtained. And so the lesson 
 comes suitably as an introduction to the season of 
 Advent. It suggests to us one of the most funda- 
 
 1 Ps. Ixviii. 19 (Heb. 20). Sec the Revised \'crsion. The 
 rcnderin<r of the Authorized Version is inexact. 
 
2l6 SERMON XI. 
 
 mental principles of our Christian faith. It points 
 us to the ideal of human life, to the ground on which 
 it rests, to the Advent of Christ, as providing the 
 means for effectually realizing it. It bids us con- 
 template Him as the just and perfect ruler of men, 
 and as the ever-present embodiment of the truth 
 that " The LORD is our righteousness." True, the 
 ideal state foreshadowed by Jeremiah has not yet 
 been realized : the law of God is not yet written so 
 indelibly upon the hearts of men, that all can be 
 said to act upon it instinctively, or that we can yet 
 afford, as some strange sectaries have imagined that 
 we could afford, to dispense with teachers and in- 
 structors, and other methods of reminding us what 
 that law is. But it is upon a profound sense of the 
 requirements of human nature that the prophet's 
 declaration is based ; and it is one of the most far- 
 reaching and comprehensive anticipations of the 
 ultimate destiny of human history which are to be 
 found in the Old Testament Scriptures. It sets 
 vividly before us what should be the aim of our 
 endeavours, and the goal of our aspiration. And so, 
 every time that, in our public services, the Decalogue 
 is recited, it is followed by the petition, expressed in 
 the very words of the prophet, that the laws of 
 which it is the sum may be " written in our hearts." 
 May God's laws, as we thus pray, be written in our 
 hearts ; and may we realize effectively for ourselves 
 the truth that " The LORD is our righteousness " ! 
 
SERMON XII. 1 
 
 MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE. 
 
 Ho5. vi. 6 : " For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and the 
 knowledge of God more than burnt offerhigs." 
 
 Such are the words — familiar to us from their 
 quotation on two occasions by our Blessed Lord — 
 with which the prophet Hosea recalls his contempor- 
 aries to a true sense of what God demands from His 
 worshippers. Hosea prophesied in the Northern 
 Kingdom, and the greater part of his prophetical 
 book " dates from the troubled and anxious years, 
 about the middle of the eighth century, B.C., through 
 which the kingdom of Ephraim was hastening to its 
 doom.3 The dynasty founded by Jehu had reached its 
 term : party spirit, which there was now no strong 
 hand to curb, reigned unchecked ; short-lived kings 
 arose, who were able to retain their position for only 
 a few months or years ; rival factions, at issue with 
 
 1 Preached in the Cathedral, on the loth Sunday after Trinity, 
 1889. 
 
 2 Viz. chaps, iv.-xiv. 
 
 3 Chaps, iv.-xiv. were probal^ly written during the reign of 
 Menahem (see 2 Kings xv. 17-22, cf. 14-16), ac. 745-737- Samaria 
 was captured by Sargon, King of Assyria, i;.c. 722. 
 
2lS SERMON XII. 
 
 each other, invoked alternately the aid of Egypt and 
 Assyria, hoping thereby to secure themselves, if not 
 to save the State at the same time, from ruin.^ Their 
 efforts were of no avail. Hoshea, the last king, who 
 owed his throne to the assistance of the Assyrians,^ 
 broke with them, and opened treasonable negotiations 
 with Egypt ; the result was that the Assyrians laid 
 siege to Samaria, and after three years took it, trans- 
 porting many of its inhabitants to different parts 
 of the Assyrian empire, and bringing thereby the 
 history of the Northern Kingdom to its close. 
 
 Hosea, however, prophesied before the catastrophe 
 actually arrived, though he saw with sufficient dis- 
 tinctness the disaster that was imminent^ He saw 
 that the political and social disorder in Ephraim had 
 advanced too far to be retrieved ; and his pages, few 
 though they are, present a vivid picture of the self- 
 indulgence of the leaders of the nation, resulting in 
 the degradation of public life, and decay of the 
 nation's strength.* The consequences of Israel's evil 
 conduct and policy are summed up by him in the 
 epigrammatic phrase, which speaks with terrible 
 suggestiveness : " For they sow the wind, and they 
 shall reap the whirlwind," adding, with a change of 
 
 1 Comp. Hos. V. 13, vii. 11, viii. 9, xii. i. 
 
 ^ " Pekah, their king, 1 slew : Hoshea (to rule) over them 
 I appointed," says Tiglath-Pilescr in an inscription of B.C. 734 
 (Schrader, Cuneiform Liscriptioiis a7td the Old Testa)neiit^ p. 
 255 f.). This fact is not mentioned in the narrative of Kings. 
 
 2 E.g. Hos. V. 14, vii. 16, viii. 14, ix. 6, 11-17, x- H'^S- 
 * E.g. Hos. vii. 3-7. 
 
MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE. 219 
 
 figure, as if to cut off even the last desperate chance 
 of escape : " It hath no stalk : the blade shall yield 
 no meal ; if so be it yield, strangers shall swallow it 
 up." ^ Nor is Israel morally what it should be : the 
 picture that he draws is darker than would have been 
 thought possible. " Hear the word of the Lord, ye 
 children of Israel : for the LoRD hath a controversy 
 with the inhabitants of the land : there is no faithful- 
 ness,^ nor kindness, nor knowledge of God in the 
 land. There is nought but swearing and breaking 
 faith, and killing, and stealing, and committing 
 adultery : they break through (every bond), and blood 
 toucheth blood " ^ — forming, as it were, a continuous 
 stream. The priests, whose duty it was to teach the 
 people the moral precepts of God, were not the least 
 offenders : they " feed on the sin of my people, and 
 set their heart on their iniquity," i. e. instead of striving 
 to check iniquity, they long to see it abound, in order 
 that their own perquisites, derived from the people's 
 offerings, may be the greater.^ They even went 
 further than this : they outraged the law openly : they 
 formed bands for the purpose of intercepting and 
 murdering pilgrims journeying to the sanctuaries.^ 
 The king and princes are represented as taking a 
 delight in schemes of lawlessness and wrong.*^ Thus 
 
 1 Hos. viii. 7. 
 
 2 /. c. honesty, integrity : in his dealings ^vith his neighbour 
 no one can be depended upon. The meaning of the term a\ ill 
 be apparent from 2 Kings xii. 15 [Ileb. 16], xxii. 7. 
 
 3 Hos. iv. 1-2 : cf. vi. 7-10, vii. 1-2. ^ Hos. iv. 6-9, esp. 8. 
 * Hos. vi. 9. ^ Hos. vii. 3. 
 
220 SERMON XII. 
 
 anarchy and civil war, combined with an unspiritual 
 rehgion and lax moraHty, are bringing Northern 
 Israel to the verge of ruin. And Ephraim, though ad- 
 versity or disappointment may impel him to call upon 
 Jehovah with his lips, or seek to propitiate Him with 
 his sacrifices,^ shows no sign of genuine repentance. 
 
 Hence the prophet, speaking in Jehovah's name, 
 exclaims : " O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee ? 
 
 Judah, what shall I do unto thee ? for your good- 
 ness is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth 
 early away." ^ The '* goodness " — i. e. dutiful affection 
 and love, whether towards God or man — which Israel 
 affects, is superficial and evanescent. " Therefore 
 have I hewed them by the prophets ; I have slain 
 them by the words of my mouth : and my judgment 
 goeth forth as the light." ^ Israel's persistent disregard 
 of Jehovah's fundamental demands has provoked His 
 interference : He has warned them, in unsparing 
 words, of the fatal issue of their conduct ; and now 
 His judgment is prepared to issue forth, as con- 
 spicuous to all as the light of the rising dawn. " For 
 
 1 desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and knowledge of 
 God more than burnt offerings." The word rendered 
 'tnercy in this verse is the same as that rendered good- 
 ness in verse 4, — a fact made evident in the Revised 
 Version by the same marginal alternative," Or, kind- 
 ness I' attached to both. " Mercy " is in fact too narrow 
 a rendering : mercy — as Portia's famous speech in the 
 
 1 Comp. Hos. ii, 7^', v. 6, vii. 14, viii. 2. 
 
 ^ Hos. vi. 4. 2 Hos. vi. 5 (R. V. niarg.). 
 
MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE. 221 
 
 Merchant of Venice may remind us — is the quality 
 by which a person abstains, out of motives of benevo- 
 lence or compassion, from exercising his legitimate 
 rights against one who stands towards him at a dis- 
 advantage — as when a person, for instance, who has 
 been injured, renounces his right to exact vengeance 
 or punishment of the offender : but the quality here 
 intended by Hosea is wider than this ; it is a quality 
 exercised mutually amongst equals ; it is the regard 
 and consideration in intercourse with one another, 
 which, when observed in society generally, makes life 
 tolerable, and forms the bond by which the whole 
 community is knit together.^ It is that kindliness 
 of feeling, which Hosea had previously deplored as 
 lacking among the Israelites, and the absence of 
 which was accompanied by such a flagrant disregard 
 of their duty towards their neighbour.- It is the 
 same virtue which Hosea demands elsewhere : ^ " And 
 thou, turn thou to thy God : keep mercy and judgment, 
 and wait on thy God continually," — turn unto God, 
 and prove the reality of thy penitence by dealing 
 towards men with blended kindness and justice, 
 and cherishing towards God a spirit of trustful 
 
 1 The sense of TDP) appears perhaps most plainly from its use 
 in the common phrase, "to do cJu'sed and faithfulness with a 
 person," Gen. xxiv. 49 (R. V., "deal kindly and truly with") 
 xlvii. 29; Josh. ii. 14; 2 Sam. ii. 6. (R. V., " shew kindness and 
 truth to '') i. e. to show towards one the kindness and faithfulness 
 of a true friend (comp. Ex. xxxiv. 6, of Jehovah, "plenteous in 
 kindness and faithfulness"; also '•kindness" alone. Gen. xxiv. 
 12, 14, xl. 14 ; 2 Sam. ii. 5, ix. i, 3, 7, &c.). 
 
 2 Hos. iv. i'\ •* Ilos. xii. 6. 
 
222 SERMON XII. 
 
 faith. It is an aspect of that quality of lovc^ which, as 
 the bond uniting God and His people, as well as the 
 individual Israelites to each other, is a fundamental 
 element in Hosea's teaching. Hosea conceives the 
 relation of Jehovah to His people as a moral union^ 
 marked by affection and regard on the one side, and 
 demanding a corresponding affection and regard on 
 the other. In the first three chapters of his prophecy, 
 the figure of the marriage-tie is beautifully and touch- 
 ingly applied for the purpose of symbolizing this : we 
 have set before us successively the choice and affec- 
 tion of the husband, the reciprocal fidelity and loyalty 
 and love, which for a while ensued, then the faith- 
 lessness and the breach ^ ; after this, finally, not the 
 husband's permanent alienation, but, after the neces- 
 sary discipline, His willingness, if she shows herself 
 to be sincerely penitent, to renew His past relations 
 with His erring spouse, and even to make the bond 
 between them closer and dearer than it had been 
 before.^ Elsewhere, another type of domestic affec- 
 tion supplies the figure under which the same prophet 
 exemplifies the patient and loving regard which had 
 from the first been displayed by Jehovah towards His 
 people. " When Israel was a child, then I loved 
 him, and called my son out of Egypt." But Israels 
 response was imperfect : " The more they " — i. e. 
 God's messengers — " called them, the more they went 
 from them : they sacrificed unto the Baals,^ and burnt 
 
 ^ Hos. ii. 2-13. 2 Hq3 ii 14-23, esp. 19-20. 
 
 ^ /. c. the various local, or special, Baals, worshipped at differ- 
 
MERCY, AND NOT SACKIFICE. 223 
 
 incense to graven images. And yet I had taught 
 Ephraim to go, taking them on my arms ^ ; but they 
 knew not that I healed them " ; they were unconscious 
 of the providence watching over their welfare, and 
 assisting in the development of their national strength. 
 " I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of 
 love ; and I was to them as they that take off the 
 yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them." '^ 
 Not with violence, but gently, with tender indulgence 
 and consideration, had they been treated ; Jehovah 
 had shown towards them the love and regard of a 
 father. But Israel, as an ideal community, is Jehovah's 
 spouse ; and Israel, as an aggregate of individual 
 persons, is Jehovah's family ; and between the 
 members of a family governed by such a Head, 
 mutual loyalty and kindness, mutual consideration 
 and regard, ought instinctively to prevail, and form 
 a natural bond regulating the intercourse of each 
 with his fellow-man.^ 
 
 ent places, or under particular titles. On Phoenician inscriptions 
 we read, for instance, of Baal of Tyre, Baal of Lebanon, Baal of 
 Tarsus, Baal of Heaven, Baal Hamman (z'.6'., the Solar Baal), 
 &:c. Comp. the writer's Notes on the Hebrew Text of Samuel 
 (1890), p. 50 f. 
 
 1 Slightly emending the existing Hebrew text (^riyilT Vy Dn||^), 
 
 2 Hos. xi. 1-4; comp. iii. i,and (in the promise for the future) 
 xiv. 4. Cofds of a ina/i, i. e. " not with the violence suited to an 
 unruly heifer (cf. x. 11), but with the 'cords of men' (z. e. such 
 as men can bear), did Jehovah win His people's obedience" 
 (Chcyne, ad toe). 
 
 3 On the characteristic teaching of Hosea, sec more fully the 
 excellent chapter on Hosea in W. R. Smith's Prophets of 
 Israel, p. 154 ff. ; or the Introduction to Prof. Cheync's useful 
 
224 SERMON XII. 
 
 " For I desire kindness, and not sacrifice, and the 
 knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." By 
 " knowledge of God," Hosea here means not a merely 
 intellectual apprehension of His nature, but a know- 
 ledge displaying itself in conduct, a knowledge of His 
 power. His influence, and His character, resting upon 
 spiritual experience, and resulting in moral practice. 
 A passage of Jeremiah explains the sense in which 
 the expression is to be understood. Speaking of the 
 just and virtuous Josiah, and contrasting him with 
 his degenerate son Jehoiakim, Jeremiah says : " He 
 judged the cause of the poor and the needy, then 
 it was well (with him). IVas not this to hiow me? 
 saith the Lord. But thine eyes and thine heart 
 are set only upon thy dishonest gain, and to shed 
 innocent blood, and upon oppression, and upon 
 violence, for to do it." The " knowledge " of God 
 is identified here with equity, justice, unselfishness, 
 philanthropy — in a word, with the due observance of 
 those moral duties which the society in which we live, 
 and our relation to other men, impose upon us — the 
 very opposite of the violence, and oppression, and 
 self-assertion of which Jehoiakim was guilty, and 
 
 and sympathetic Commentary on this prophet in the Cambridge 
 Bible for Schools and Colleges, pp. 15 ff., 22 ff. The truth that 
 Jehovah loves Israel (Hos. iii. i, ix. 15, xi. i, 4, xiv. 4), if the date 
 assigned by critics to Deuteronomy be right (for it is found in 
 that book, Deut. vii. 8, 13, x. 15, xxiii. 5), is a new idea in the 
 religious conceptions of Israel. In subsequent prophets the idea 
 recurs — Jer, xxxi. 3 ; Is. xliii. 4 ; Ixiii. 9 ; Mai. i. 2 ; and of the 
 future, Zeph. iii. 17. 
 
MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE. 225 
 
 which were rife in Hosca's day in the kingdom of 
 Israel. The IsraeHtes, Hosea says, had misappre- 
 hended the nature of Jehovah's demands : they 
 were prompt, and even punctiHous, in the performance 
 of outward rehgious ceremonies, supposing that this 
 would satisfy His requirements ; but what He delighted 
 in was conduct governed consistently by a moral 
 purpose, and a life regulated by a cheerful regard 
 for the rights and needs of other men : sacrifice was 
 offered properly as the expression of a right state of 
 heart, but it could not be accepted in lieu of it ; it 
 was valueless unless accompanied by sincerity of 
 purpose and integrity of life. 
 
 Mankind have in all ages shown a readiness to 
 conform with the external forms and offices of re- 
 ligion, while heedless of its spiritual precepts, and 
 of the claim which it makes to regulate their conduct 
 and their life. The faults that have been thus in- 
 dulged in under the cloke of religion have differed : 
 sometimes they have been worldliness, ambition, 
 sensual indulgence ; sometimes they have been in- 
 justice, oppression, hard-heartedness, and the many 
 other modes in which a love of dishonest gain 
 manifests itself ; sometimes they have consisted in 
 spiritual pride, vanity, and exclusiveness ; and it has 
 been the aim of every great religious reform, and of 
 every great spiritual teacher, to awaken in men a 
 sense of what the profession of a religion really 
 involves, and to bring them to understand the virtue 
 
 of consistency. 
 
 Q 
 
226 SERMON XII. 
 
 Thus the teaching of Hosea is not different from 
 that of the other great prophets on the same subject. 
 Amos, writing a few years earHer, represents God as 
 repudiating indignantly the offerings and services of 
 the Israehtes : '* I hate, I reject your pilgrimages, 
 and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies. . . 
 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs : for 
 I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let 
 judgment roll down as waters, and righteousness as 
 an ever-flowing stream." ^ And Isaiah, a few years 
 later, speaks in the same strain, alluding contemptu- 
 ously to the formal observance of religious services, 
 or, as we should say, of Church-going, as Temple- 
 treading 2 : " To what purpose is the multitude of 
 your sacrifices unto me } saith the LORD : I am full 
 of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed 
 beasts ; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, 
 or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to 
 appear before me, who hath required this at your 
 hand, to trample my courts ? . . . Your new moons 
 and your appointed feasts my soul hateth : they are a 
 cumbrance unto me ; I am weary to bear them. . . 
 Wash you, make you clean ; put away the evil of 
 your doings from before my eyes ; cease to do evil : 
 learn to do well ; seek judgment, set right the 
 oppressor, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." ^ 
 
 1 Amos V. 21, 23, 24. 
 
 - G. A. Smith, The Book of Isaiah in the " Expositor's Bible," 
 vol. i. (1888), p. 7. 
 ^^ Is. i. II, 12, 14, 16, 17. 
 
00 7 
 
 MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE. s^/ 
 
 And another prophet, writing probably in the dark 
 days of Manasseh, having represented the people as 
 asking : " Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, 
 and bow myself before the high God ? shall I come 
 before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year 
 old ? Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of 
 rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? shall 
 I give my firstborn for my transgression, the 
 fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? " meets 
 their question with the humiliating reply : " He hath 
 shewed thee, O man, what is good ; and what doth 
 Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love 
 kindness^ and to walk humbly with thy God ? " ^ 
 
 In the days of Christ, the temper manifested by the 
 Israelites of an earlier age had become intensified, and 
 the practices which were the expression of it hiad been 
 reduced to system. The spirit of legalism had be- 
 come all-powerful ; and those who were not absorbed 
 in worldly interests, and indifferent to religion al- 
 together, were spell-bound under its influence. The 
 aim of the teachers of the day, in their own language, 
 was to set a " fence " about the law - — to guard the 
 letter of the law against violation by surrounding it 
 
 1 Mic. vi. 6-8. Comp. also Jer. vi. 20, vii. 1-15. 
 
 2 " Make a fence about the law," is one of the maxims, quoted 
 from the teachers of a former generation, with which the treatise 
 of the Mishnah called Pirkc AbJioth opens. See C. Tayloi-'s 
 edition, published under the title Sayings of the Jewish Fathers 
 (1877), p. 26 ; also Ewald, History of Israel, v. p. 195 ; Kuencn, 
 Religion of Israel, iii. pp. 2, 15 ; Edcrshcim, Life and Times of 
 Jesus, i. pp. 95, 98, 100 f. 
 
228 SERMON XII, 
 
 with by-rules, which increased in minuteness and 
 complexity until they threatened to cover the whole 
 field of human conduct. This multiplication of rules 
 naturally gave rise, firstly, to contrivances for evading 
 them when they became intolerably burdensome ; and 
 secondly, to the neglect of the very system which 
 they were intended to guard, by the attention being 
 unduly concentrated upon outward conformity with 
 the rule. The consequence was that a ceremonialism 
 arose far in excess of that combated by Hosea or 
 Isaiah, from which followed inevitably the spiritual 
 vices of ostentation, vanity, and self-complacency, on 
 the part of those who were obedient to the letter of 
 the law, combined with censoriousness towards any 
 of their neighbours who evinced a disregard for such 
 observances. These are the faults of the Pharisees, 
 as they stand before us in the pages of the Gospels. 
 The importance attached to the newly-devised rules, 
 the so-called " fence " about the law, forming a burden 
 to the shoulders, heavy to be borne ^ ; the sophistical 
 evasions, as, for instance, that by which a man escaped 
 the duty of providing for his parents ^ ; the scrupu- 
 lousness with which the tithe on mint, and anise, and 
 cummin was paid, while justice, mercy, and faith 
 were unheeded ; the cup and the platter clean with- 
 out, but within full of extortion and excess ; the 
 prayers said at street corners, and alms proclaimed 
 with the trumpet ; the thanks rendered for being an 
 exemplar of virtue and piety, and the contempt of 
 ^ Matthew xxiii. 4. ^ Matthew xv. 5 ; Mark vii. 1 1. 
 
MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE. 229 
 
 publicans, and all base wicked people ^ — these are the 
 habits and principles which characterize the Pharisees, 
 in whom the religion of the Old Testament became 
 finally de-spiritualized, and the hoUowness and un- 
 reality of whose pretensions were exposed in the 
 denunciations uttered against them by Christ. It is 
 natural that, in doing this, our Lord should revert to 
 the purer spiritual perceptions possessed by the older 
 prophets, and point His hearers to writings, the 
 authority of which they would recognize themselves. 
 The verse from Hosea is quoted by Him twice.^ 
 Once when the Pharisees complained that He took 
 meals with publicans and sinners, and He replied : 
 " They that are whole have no need of a physician 
 but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what 
 this meaneth, * I desire mercy, and not sacrifice ' : 
 for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." 
 The attitude of mind which shrank from consorting 
 with the " publicans," or tax-gatherers, whom the 
 Pharisees abhorred, and the " sinners," whom they 
 viewed with lofty disdain, is here shown by Christ 
 to be incompatible with the spirit of charity and 
 affectionate regard towards our fellow-creatures, in- 
 culcated by the prophet of old. The other occasion 
 was when His disciples began to pluck and eat the 
 ears of corn on the Sabbath. The legalists of Christ's 
 day regarded desecration of the Sabbath, even in the 
 minutest particular, as a most heinous offence, and 
 
 1 Matthew xxiii. 23, 25 ; vi. 2, 5 ; Luke xviii. 11 f. 
 ''^ Matthew ix. 13 ; xii. 7. 
 
230 SERMON Xll. 
 
 extraordinary provisions were framed by them with 
 the object of securing its due observance. To pluck, 
 and, as St. Luke adds,^ to rub ears of corn in the 
 hand, were, respectively, species of reaping and thresh- 
 ing ; they were accordingly declared unlawful^; and 
 being indulged in by the disciples, they at once 
 elicited from the Pharisees the unfriendly comment : 
 " Behold thy disciples do that which it is not lawful 
 to do upon the Sabbath day." Our Lord, after re- 
 ferring His objectors to the example of David, and 
 the regular practice of the priests, adds : " But if ye 
 had known what this meaneth, ' I desire mercy, and 
 not sacrifice,' ye would not have condemned the 
 guiltless." That is, their condemnation of the disciples 
 proceeded from a perverted sentiment. Ceremonial 
 observances constituted in their eyes the whole of 
 religion : hence they passed a harsh, inconsiderate 
 judgment on the manner in which on the Sabbath 
 day the disciples had satisfied the cravings of hunger : 
 they had not learnt the lesson which their own 
 prophet taught, and had condemned in consequence 
 men who were innocent. 
 
 Mercy, and not sacrifice ! The knowledge of God, 
 rather than burnt oft'erings ! The saying is one of 
 those pregnant ones which abound in the writings of 
 the prophets, and which, expanded and generalized, 
 became the basis of the teaching of Christ. Christ 
 emancipated His contemporaries, and through them 
 
 1 Luke vi. i. 
 
 ■^ Comp. Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus, ii. pp. 56, 780. 
 
MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE. 23 1 
 
 the generations to come, from the bondage of the letter ; 
 and though the lesson which He taught has sometimes 
 been obscured, sometimes been on the point of fading 
 from the memory of His Church, He has left an 
 example and a method which could not be mistaken, 
 and to which reformers in successive ages might turn 
 as to a beacon in the gloom. Christ enforced anew, 
 more comprehensively than could be done by the 
 prophets who lived while the older Dispensation was 
 still in force, and who had no thought of overthrowing 
 it, the true character of religion, the true righteous- 
 ness of the Kingdom of Heaven. True religion had 
 its seat in the heart ; it did not consist in conformity 
 with rules. Religious observances had their value for 
 the purpose of preserving the spiritual life, for giving 
 expression to feelings of gratitude or devotion, for 
 addressing petitions to the Most High, or as being the 
 appointed channels for the reception of Divine grace : 
 it was an abuse to take those institutions, which were 
 most completely of a formal and ceremonial character 
 to make them an end in themselves, and to treat their 
 observance as constituting the whole duty of man. 
 Of one of the most sacred institutions of the older 
 Dispensation Christ did not shrink from saying : 
 " The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for 
 the Sabbath." The citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven 
 was recognized, not by external marks, but by God- 
 like dispositions, by humility, meekness, the aspiration 
 after goodness, simplicit)'. The law of charity, of 
 forgiveness, of philanthropy, of mercy, took the place 
 
232 SERMON XII. 
 
 of the law of works and ceremonial observances. 
 And thus Christ was enabled also to teach a new 
 doctrine as to man. Those whom the Jews at large 
 viewed as aliens — though here too He had the prophets 
 as His predecessors ^ — He invited into His fold : 
 those whom the Pharisees treated as outcasts, He 
 befriended. He taught the worth of the individual 
 man, irrespectively of possessions, position, or char- 
 acter ; and He did this practically by loving the 
 neglected, the people of no social account. He 
 taught, further, a larger conception of God, a con- 
 ception of God not only as the Father of the Hebrew 
 nation,^ or its royal Head, but as the Father of the 
 individual and of the race, as One who bestows His 
 gifts of nature equally upon all, who is ready to enter 
 with all into relations of grace, and who turns the 
 eye of His favour rather towards the penitent publican 
 than towards the self-satisfied and exclusive religionist. 
 And thus the moral teachings of the prophets, broad- 
 ened, deepened, enlarged, merge in Christ's doctrine 
 of the true righteousness of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 1 E.g. Is. ii. 2-3, xix. 23-5; Jer. iii. 17 ; Zeph. iii. 9; Is. xlii. 
 i^, 4,^ xlix. 6^, li. 4^, Ivi. 6-7, &c. 
 
 2 Is. Ixiii. 16, Ixiv. 8 (above, p. 190) ; comp. Deut. xxxii. 6; 
 Jer. iii. 19, xxxi. 9; Mai. ii. 10; also Ps. Ixviii. 5, ciii. 13. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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