III.
The Listening God.
1. "The Lord hearkened, and heard" them. He knew for what purpose they were convened. He smiled on their con- ferences and took note of their wishes, and, if they did not succeed in stemming the tide of apostasy, they had the comfort that in doing their best the Unseen Eecorder of their counsels would countenance their labours and reward them according to their faithfulness.
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It is not merely " The Lord heard," but " the Lord hearkened, and heard." The watchfulness of God is represented as strained, as it were, to its utmost tension in order to hear everything. It is the attitude of jealous guardianship. It is the attitude of the mother as she lovingly listens to her children's voices, and is quick to note the slightest cry of distress, and to run to assist in the instant of need. It is the highest kind of guardianship, not the guardianship of covenants, though God's covenant cannot be broken. But this is a higher guardianship than that of covenants. It is the guardianship of love and delight, the guardianship of a delightful treasure, to lose which would be to make a void in the raptures of infinite joy.
2. God hears our conversation. Are we always aware of this ? If there are any who can think with comfort of that record of words spoken in His love and fear, must not others tremble when they think of their words ? Who has been the better, let each of us ask ourselves, for our possessing the gift of speech ? Has it been used by us for the communication of good or for the communication of evil ? Will there be no one who may rise up in the judgment to declare that, but for us, he might have remained ignorant of evil, that at least by our help he might have been enabled to escape it, and that we withheld that help, if we did not communicate that knowledge ? Let us judge ourselves, one and all, for indeed we have cause to do so, if perhaps, in God's great mercy, we may not be judged. Let us remember who said that for every idle word which men should speak they should give account in the day of judgment. Of all the sayings written down from His lips in the Book of God, none surely is so terrible in its sound as that which declares, " By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."
3. It is striking to notice the prophet's picture of the minute- ness of the interest which God takes in this God-fearing society. Literally, the words of the prophet are : " Then they that feared the Lord spake — a man to his friend." Even their private conversation, the word by the wayside, God was hearkening for, and attending to. Every word out of this spiritual community, though it were only a casual word, would reflect the spirit of the
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community, and so be precious to God. The whole circle of such a life would become sacred to the Father of all who watches over it from centre to circumference. We are reminded of the words of the greater Teacher, which these in some measure anticipate : " Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father : but the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Whenever they that feared the Lord spoke, a man to his friend, the Lord hearkened and heard it all with loving interest and with infinite sympathy.
If When the spring comes, the oak-tree with its thousands upon thousands of leaves blossoms all over. The great heart of the oak-tree remembers every remotest tip of every farthest branch, and sends to each the message and the power of new life. And yet we do not think of the heart of the oak-tree as if it were burdened with such multitudinous remembrance. It is simply the thrill of the common life translated into these million forms. . . . Somewhat in that way it seems to me that we may think of God's remembrance of His million children. . . . That patient sufferer, that toilsome worker, are far-off leaves on the great tree of His life ; far-off, and yet as near to the beating of His heart as any leaf on all the tree. He remembers them as the heart remembers the finger-tips to which it sends the blood. ... If any doubt about Him, issuing from them, stops up the channel so that He cannot get to them, He waits behind the hindrance, behind the doubt, and tries to get it away, and feels the withering of the unbelieving, unfed leaf as if a true part of Himself were dying. And when the obstacle gives way, and the doubt is broken, and the path is once more open, it is almost with a shout which we can hear that the life-blood leaps to its work again.1
IV.
The Book of Kemembrance.
1. Not only did God hearken and hear, but " a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name." This writing in the book of remembrance involves not only preservation, but preservation grounded on the Divine approbation. Every word that the Lord heard was to be written in this book, and preserved for the future.