The Apostle having instructed the Hebrews in the true nature and end of their sufferings, suggests some further considerations,
II. For their direction and guidance —
These also we shall consider as addressed to us ; and in correspondence with them we would say to all sufferers of the present day,
1. Yield not to dejection — [Troubles, whether felt or feared, are apt to depress the spirits, and to enervate the whole man. This we see depicted in strong colours in the Prophet Ezekiel. " Sigh," says God to him, " Sigh, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins, and with bitterness sigh before their eyes. And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou ? that thou shalt answer. For the tidings : because it cometh : and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water'^." But it should not be thus with us, whatever be the trials with which we have been visited, or with which we may be menaced : for they all are ordered by a wise and gracious God, who con- trouls and limits all according to his own sovereign will, and without whose permission not a hair of our head can be
n Col. i. 11, 12. o 1 Tim. iv. 12. P Matt. v. 16.
q Col. iv. 9. r Ezek. xxi. 7.
touched. Our enemies, unconscious of their dependence on him, plot and threaten our destruction. But see what the Psahnist says concerning them : " The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth : but the Lord shall laugh at him%" as a poor, impotent, and malignant worm, that exists only through his forbearance and tender mercy. Now, I ask, shall God laugh at him, and we cry ? Shall we not rather set the poor impotent worm at defiance? But see what the Psalmist further adds : " The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation," And what is the issue of all this? "Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their hows shall be broken^" " Say ye not then, A confederacy, like those who are crying out, A confederacy ; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid : but sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread : and he shall be to you for a sanc- tuary"." And when others would alarm you with the sup- posed power of your persecutors, let your answer be, " The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord's throne is in heaven^." The greatest of all your adversaries, even Satan himself, could not so much as enter into the swine without permission : how then shall he, or any of his confederates, hurt a child of God without permission^? You may laugh them all to scorn, and shake your head at them^: for, with God on your side, there are a million times " more for you than against you." Only " be strong in the Lord%" and you will be more than con- queror over all.]
2. Swerve not from the path of duty —
[Fear, and unbelief, and impatience " will make our ways crooked^:" and the contrivances to which under their influence we shall have recourse for the purpose of avoiding difficulties, will augment our difliculties an hundred-fold. The way to " make straight paths for our feet," is simply to fulfil the will of God, and leave events to him. If Daniel and the Hebrew Youths had set themselves to consider how they might avoid the trials with which they were threatened, they might have attained their end, it is true ; but they would have involved their souls in the deepest guilt. They followed the straight- forward path : not moving to the right hand nor to the left, to avoid the fiery furnace, or a den of lions. This was right