HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 10-15.-Bricks without straw. Tyrants seldom lack subordinates, as cruel as themselves, to execute their hateful mandates. Not only are these subordinates gene- rally ready to curry favour with their lord by executing his orders with punctilious rigour, but, when they get to know that particular persons are in disfavour, they find a positive delight in bullying and insulting the unhappy victims, and in subjecting them to every species of vexatious interference. The callous taskmasters entered heartily into Pharaoh's plans-withheld from the Israelites_ the straw, while re9~ing of them the full tale of bricks, and then mercilessly beating the officers for failing to get tho people to accomplish the impossible. View in their behaviour- !. A PIOTURE OF THE NOT INFREQUENT TREATMENT OF MAN BY HIS FELLOW-MAN. Society abounds in tyrants, who, like Pharaoh's taskmasters- -1. Demand the umca.son- EXODU~ K 1;30 THE BOOK OF EXODUS. CH, V, 10--15.
nble. 2. Expect the impossible. And the unreasonable in extreme cases is one with the impossible. 3. Are insolent and violent in enforcing their unreasonable demands. '!.'he workman, e.g., is scolded because he cannot, in a given time, produce work of given quantity and quality, though production to the extent required is shown to involve a physical impossibility. The public servant is abused berouse he has not wrouuht miracles in his particular department, though perhaps he has received neither the material nor the moral support to which he was entitled. The clergyman is blamed for deficiency in pulpit power, while endless calls are made upon him for work of other kinds, which dissipate his energies, and eat into his time for study. The wife is rated by her husband, because comforts and luxuries are not forthcoming, which his wasteful expenditure in other directions prevents her from obtaining. With like unreasonable- ness, buyers in co=ercial houses are rated because•they cannot buy, and sellers because they cannot sell; and it is broadly hinted to the latter that if means a.re not discovered for effecting sales, and disposing of perhaps worthless goods, the penalty will be dis- missal. And there are worse tyrannies behind. Most iniquitous of all is the system of exacting work from the necessitous, which imposes an unnatural and injurious strain upon their bodily and mental powers, while renumerating it by a pittance barely suffi- cient to keep soul and body together. The straw of which these bricks a.re made is the flesh and blood of living human beings-the fibre of despairing hearts. In short, bricks without straw a.re asked wherever work is required which overtaxes the strength and capability of thos~ fi:om y,h:om it _is sou~ht, or where the time, means, or assistance necesgary for accomplishing It IS deIDed. 'i'o rage, scold, threaten, or punish, because feats which border on the impossible are not accomplished, is simply to play over again the pa.rt of Pha.raoh's taskmasters. II. A COJITRAST TO THE TREATME1''"T WHICH MAN RECEIVES FROM GoD. Unbelief and slothfulness, indeed, would fain persuade us of the opposite. Their voice is, " I knew thee that thou art a ha.rd man, reaping where thou hast not sown," etc. (Matt. x.xv. 24). And it may be pleaded in support of this that God's demands in respect of obedience go far beyond the sinner's powers. He inherits a depraved nature, yet he is held guilty for its actings, and the demand sumds unchanged, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," etc. (Deut. vi 5). The standard by which he is judged is that of absolute holiness, while yet it is admitted that he is naturally incapable of a single holy thought or resolve. But in this way of putting matters various things a.re forgotten. 1. The law of duty is a fixed quantity, and even God, by an act of will, cannot remove a sinner from under its obligations. 2. There is an obvious distinction between natural and moral inability. The hardened thief cannot plead his incorrigible thievish- ness as an excuse for non-fulfilment of the duties of honesty. It is his sin that he is thievish. 3. Depraved beings are condemned for being what they are (evil-disposed, cruel. lustful, selfish, etc.), and for the bad things which they do, not for the good things which they ought to do, but are now incapable of doing. The devil, e.g., is condemned because he is a devil, and acts devilishly; not because it is still expected of him that he will love God with all his heart, etc., and because he fails to do this. But the true answer, a.s respects God's treatment of man.kind, is a very different one. The sinner is net to be allowed to forget that if he has fallen and destroyed himself, God has brought him help. The very God against whom he has sinned desires his recovery, and has provided for it. He has made provision in Christ for the atonement (covering) of his sins. He asks nothing from him of a spiritual nature which his grace is not promised to enable him to accomplish. God presents himself in the Gospel, not as the sinner's e1B.Ctinu taskmaster~ but as his friend and Saviour, ready, however multiplied and ag~vated his offences-though th~y be as scarlet 3:nd red like crimson-to make them a.s the snow and wool (ls. 1. 18). True, the smner cannot renew his own heart, but surely he is answerable for the response he makes to the outward word, and to the teachings and drawings of the Spirit, who, given his sub- mission, will willingly rene,., it for him. True also he cannot, even in the gracious state, render perfect obedience, but over and against this is to be put the truth that perfect obedience is not required of any in order to justification, and that, if only he is faithful, his imperfections will, for Christ's ~ake, b~ grac!ously ~orgiv~n him. And the. sa~e junt and gracious principles rule in Gods act1ngs with his servants. Service 1s OB, V, 15-19,] THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 131
a~pted .'.'. according to w~at a i:nan h~th, and not according to that he bath not" (2 Cor. vm, 12). No makmg bncks without straw here. The servant with the two talonts is held only responsible for the two, not for five (Matt. xxv. 23). Justice tempered by grace, is the rule for all.-J. 0. '