Tj Here the angel bears witness — that the power of God alone is sufficient to preserve the Church, and there is no need of other helps. For he sets the Spirit of God in opposition to all earthly aids ; and thus he proves that God borrows no help for the pre- servation of His Church, because He abounds in all blessings to enrich it. Farther, by the word Spirit we know is meant His power, as though He had said, " God designs to ascribe to Himself alone the safety of His Church ; and though the Church may need many things there is no reason why it should turn its eyes here and there, or seek this or that help from men ; for all abundance of blessings may be supplied by God alone."
When therefore we now see things in a despairing condition,
ZECHARIAH iv. 6 433
let this vision come to our minds — that God is sufficiently able by His own power to help us, when there is no aid from any other ; for His Spirit will be to us for lamps, for pourers, and for olive- trees, so that experience will at length show that we have been preserved in a wonderful manner by His hand alone.1
1. The text teaches the central thought of religion — the supremacy of the spiritual over the material. There is no dis- pensing with the material, but the spiritual is supreme through the material. Here, in a single vision, is the relationship of life to organization, the relationship of the spiritual to the material ; the material candlestick necessary to support the light, but the supply of the living flame coming, as it must come, from some- thing which has life and continuance in itself, from the living olive trees.
The supremacy of the spiritual over the material — no truth is more difficult really to grasp as a practical belief than this. The world is so real, its forces are so powerful ; not only the natural forces which we capture and tame and bend to our uses, the power of air and water and gravitation, the power of steam and electricity and explosives, but those other powers, the power of social position, the power of money, the power of combi- nation, the power of custom, even the power of fact. We are so controlled by forces all around us that we are apt to forget that as Christians we walk by faith, not by sight. Eeligion consists in emancipation from the deadening slavery of things seen. It teaches us that behind this outward and visible framework there lives and moves a great spiritual Power with whom we may be united, that this universe which we see is but the clothing of God Himself, that the soul is a more wonderful thing than the body, that eating and drinking are not the chief concerns of the citizens of God's Kingdom, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, that the mightiest machine in the world is not to be compared with the humblest flower that grows, that Christianity is above riches, that love is stronger than death. In a word, religion teaches us the supremacy of the spiritual over the material.
1 Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets, v. 109. JER.-MAL. — 28
434 THE SUPREMACY OF THE SPIRITUAL
2. There is a remarkable fascination about mere might and power. The tramp of armed men makes the city thrill with pride ; the display of wealth and resources makes the nation glory in its enterprise and industrial capacity. Some men never tire of looking at that mighty proof of power, the locomotive, as it tears its way at express speed from one end of the land to the other, bearing its heavy freight as lightly as if it were a plaything of the nursery. How our eyes follow the mighty ocean liner as it draws itself quickly out of sight, and is soon lost to view over the horizon ! How imposing as an illustration of power is a great fleet of war ships ! Lines upon lines of mighty vessels ; a huge collection of engines of destruction; a great display of human resource and ingenuity ; a splendid proof of a nation's might and power upon the seas. All are attracted by these things. The dullest, the most self-centred, those with the smallest grasp of things secular and material, will be drawn out somewhat to the world of wonder and awe by the attractiveness of might and power.
Yet not a day passes but we see what a fitful and feeble thing at the best is human power. We cannot open a newspaper but we notice what veritable weaklings are man's mightiest works in the hands of the Creator. The wind rises in hurricane, and our strong creations are dashed in pieces like cockleshells. What of the ruined emblems of man's power to be found in ancient Greece and Rome — stupendous works like the Pyramids and Sphinx of Egypt, the temples of Assyria and India ? Where is the might of these mighty empires to-day ? Once they held sway over the known world. Once Egypt and Assyria made every neighbouring nation tremble at the mention of their name. Once upon a time the eagles of Rome flew from the farthest east to the farthest west. But where is their might to-day ? Who would have prophesied the time when their power should be shattered, and all that was left of them should be the ruins of temple and palace, fit theme for poet to sing about and moralist to discourse upon ?