^ L. A. Banks, in ffomUetio Review, xxxix. p. 337. 2 Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 189. 5 L. March Phillips, In the Desert, p. 137.
154 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
like a worm. We look for the interest of life, he says, not from them but from their opposites, from the man who owns no rigid service to duty and who lightly tosses off all his burdens. What is wanting ? Is it more levity ? No, he says, it is more pro- foundness. Is it less seriousness ? No, it is more. These people are too good for the life of butterflies, but the secret of their dreariness is that they are still not good enough. They have not reached the central seriousness of living, wherein is joy and brightness and perpetual enthusiasm.
What of the Night?
Literature.
Burrell (D. J.), Morning Cometh, 1.
„ Wayfarers of the Bible, 207.
Butler (A.), Sermons, ii. 339. Campbell (J. M.), Bible Questions, 204. Cox (S.), Expositions, iv. 336.
„ Expositor's Notebook, 201. Crosthwait (E. G. S.), Heavenward Steps, 7.
Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women, and Children, 3rd Ser., 263. Gray (W. A.), Laws and Landmarks of the Spiritual Life, 185. Hunt (W. H.), Preachers from the Pew, 174. Hutton (R. E.), The Crown of Christ, i. 19. M'Kim (R. H.), The Gospel in the Christian Year, 72. Magee (W. C), Growth in Grace, 25. Mantle (J. G.), God's To-morrow, 185. Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, i. 385. Robinson (S.), Discourses of Redemption, 380. Thomas (J.), Myrtle Street Pulpit, iv. 67.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xxiv. No. 1266 ; xxvi. No. 1308. Wilmot Buxton (H. J.), Mission Sermons for a Year, 14. TJie Cross and the Dice Box, 217 (D. Rowlands). Sermons by American Rabbis, i. (D. Philipson). CJiristian Age, xxxi. 356 (Talmage). Christian World Pulpit, iii. 193 (Statham) ; vi. 213 (Currie) ; xiv. 152
(Robjobns) ; xxxv. 85 (Pearson) ; xlvii. 17 (Farrar) ; 133 (Landels) ;
Ixiv. 409 (Milne) ; Ixvi. 40 (Campbell Morgan). Church of England Pulpit, xxxi. 157 (Henrey); xxxix. 205 (Farrar).
What of the Night?
The burden of Dumah. One calleth unto me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night ? Watchman, what of the night ? The watchman said : The morning cometh, and also the night : if ye will inquire, inquire ye : turn ye, come. — xxi. ii, 12.
The Oracle of Dumah. I. The Situation.
1. " Abrupt in form, enigmatical in meaning, this oracle has nevertheless a certain grandeur and sublimity even for those to whom its sense is obscure." So says Samuel Cox, introducing one of the best sermons ever preached upon it. And he proceeds to recall Mendelssohn's use of the oracle : " He who has heard Mendelssohn's * Hymn of Praise ' has at least one proof of its power to excite the imagination and rouse emotion. In that fine work of art, the tenor soloist demands, in sharp, ascending minors, ' Watchman, will the night soon pass ? ' and replies, ' Though the morning come, the night will come also.' The demand is thrice repeated in the same sequence of notes, but each time it is raised a whole tone in the scale, to denote the growing intensity and urgency of the inquirer ; thrice the answer is given in the same sequence, but for the sake of added emphasis it also is raised a tone the second time ; while in reply to the third repetition of the inquirer, the soprano breaks in with the joyful proclamation, ' The night is departing,' and the chorus take up and swell and prolong the glad news. As we listen, we feel that the music, splendid as it is in itself, owes no little of its sublimity to the splendid dramatic force of the words to which it is set."^
2. The key to the passage is to be found in its historical cir-
^ S. Cox, An Expositor's Note Boole, p. 201. 157
158 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
cumstances. The period was that of the Assyrian oppression, an oppression which not only harassed and depeopled Judah, but affected the nations around. Sharing in their neighbour's sin, these nations shared in their neighbour's punishment, and, like the primary sufferer, were downcast and desponding, asking wearily and anxiously, " How long ? " One by one they present themselves to the prophet's vision — Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia ; and now he is speaking of Edom, or, as it is here called, " Dumah," Judah's nearest neighbour as well as its oldest and most inveterate foe. " The burden of Dumah," he says, " What I have to say concerning its present state, what I have to say concerning its future destiny."
3. The prophet is standing in vision on the border. He has planted himself on the ridge between Judah and Edom — night to right of him, night to left of him ; night on the dwellings of Judah, night on the dwellings of Edom, Judah's ancient foe ; the same pall of darkness hangs low over both. And as he waits, the stillness is broken by a solitary cry. It is the voice of some unseen inquirer — not, you observe, in Judah, but in Edom. " Watchman, what of the night ? " he says. " Is it nearly over ? Are there any streaks of light yet ? Do you see the morning star ? " And the watchman answers cautiously. He does not commit himself. " I will tell you this much," he says, " The morning cometh, and also the night."