HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-4.-The provvng of Israel. The general lesson of the Book of Judges is here repeated. There is shown to have been a Divine providence prevailing through and above the defections of Isrnel. God uses the consequences of their neglect aR a means of grace. The nntions that had not been rooted out became in turn their tempters and their tyrants; n.nd thus they outlive their minority, and are prepared for the great place they have to take in the history of the kingdom of God. I. IT WAS A RESULT OF PARENTAL NEGLECT. The fathers had left much of their task undone. A determined attitude on their part, and vigorous measures, would have rid the land of the nuisance. One generation may <lo much good or evil to its successors. We never reap all the results of our own misdoing; a great portion is left for the children of after generations. The neglect of the laws of health, of the canons of a moral life, of educational institutions, social and political progress, may entail grievous disadvantage upon those who come after us; as much that comes in this way, comes in this way alone, and ()annot be produced suddenly. And so it is with the growth of theological truth, and the habits and usages of the spiritual life. II. BuT THE CHILDREN TOO WERE TO BLAME. The oracle of God at Shiloh could have been consulted still. God's will could easily have been ascertained. Thorough and absolute trust in Jehovah, and devotion to his service, would have rid them of their enemies. They were therefore the children of their fathers in this also, viz., that they were not wholly given to God's service and the desire after righteousness. How much of human guilt consists in mere letting alone, or in supinely submitting to evils as if they were inevitable or incurable I Ill. IT WAS AN INSTANCE OF EVIL DIVINELY UTILISED. A probation. To call forth the courage and faith of the new generation. To prevent them accepting the situation as a final one, or calmly submitting to and acquiescing in the wicked customs and idolatries of their neighbours. Some natures find the way of transgression harder than others. They are finer, more susceptible, have more deeply-set longings after good- ness. They feel the inherent contradictions of evil more acutely; its penalties press more heavily upon them. This is not an injustice on the part of their Maker ; it is a mark of his goodness and mercy. Be would have them fenced in by the sanctions of righteousness ; driven back into his fold. Be has meant them for a better life. So it was with his elect people then. They and their heathen neighbours were upon a different footing. It was the destiny of Israel not to be let alone. A later experi- ence in order to the comprehension of an earlier experience. One of the most valuable uses of experience-to throw light backward. It reveals the truii value of an inherit- ance, and renders precious things more precious. Otherwise the younger Israelites who entered into the conquests of the first warriors would not have known the severity of their toils, or the mighty hand of God which wrought their deliverance. There are some lessons every man must learn for himself. A true appreciation of God's saving grace is a. personal and, for the most part, an incommunicable thing. "To teach tliem war," i. e. to inure them to it as a necessary discipline, and as the pre- liminary work that had to be done ere the kingdom of God could be brought in ; and, as above, to show them how much spiritual privileges cost, !I.Ild how difficult and yet how honourable it was to defend and secure them. Still it was- IV. AN INSTANCE OF A PROVISIONAL ALLOWANCE OF COMPARATIVE IMMORALITY. The world was not ripe for the morality of Jesus. The self-contradiction of a continual state of warfare was to be their schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. The state of peace is not of itself more moral than that of war. It is " the things that make for peace," the spirit of brotherhood and Christian charity, that are the aim of the righteous mind. The world must first be righteous ere it can be peaceful.-M, Vere. 5-7.-Thefwbidden covenant. When Israel entered the land it was on the express cor.dition that no terms of marriage or intercommunion should be entered into with the aboriginal tribes of Canaan (Deut. vii.1-3). This seems either to have been forgotten or deliberately ignored. '£he consequences predicted came to pass, :md the hearts of the people were led away from the worship of the true God. J. THE LIMITS OF COMMUNION DETWEEN THE CTIILDRF.N OF GOD Al'IU THE \Y0RLD. 30 THE BOOK O.F JUDGES. [CH. III. 1-G.
The lnw of rxterminat.ion prescribed to Israel made the path of duty very clear. It was God's purpose to disontangle the nationfl.1 and individual life of his people from the perversions, corruptions, and self-contradictions of idolatrous worship. He desired to separate them entirely to himself. Severe and uncharitable RB this rule might at first Rppear, it was true mercy to the world RB yet unborn, and to the future that wRs to be redeemed to God. Some comforts and conveniences, a few really valuable fruits of pseudo-civilisation and the contact with the currents of thought and life in the great world of men, had to be sacrificed, but the advantage wus more than worth them all. The same problem presents itself to-day to the Christian. How far is it allowable for the life of a child of God and a child of this world to intermingle? \Vhat relations of this life are to be kept apart from the world, and to subsist only between ChriRtians, and what relations may be shared with the world? The letter of the &ncient prescript is of course obsolete, but the spirit must still be binding. Evidently, however, the relations of what are strictly religious communion~ can only be sustained between true Christians. And many of the higher relations of our natural life, as, for instance, marriage, can only be worthily sustained by Christians. The spirit of the old law ~-as, immediately, severe, but, ultimately and more largely, merciful. So ought the disposition of the Christian to be. Of course the extent and direction in which we observe this law of heavenly prudence must be left to every man's conscience in the sight of God. It ought to be remembered that often when it seems to act against others it is really for their good. II. How INTIMATE ASSOCIATION WITH THE WORLD AFFECTS THE TONE AND QUALITY or THE SPIR11'UAL LIFE. 1. Habit blunts the conscience to unlawful customs. 2. Personal attachments and friendships lend attraction to social and religious observ- ances which are really unrighteous. 3. The relations of civil life create entanglement and perplexity. 4. The peculiar, intimate, and profound relations of marriage add to the force of all influences that affect the religious nature and the spiritual life.-M.