God entere a man he looke upon difficulties with a. new resolution. It enables him " to take arms ngainet n sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them." Ill. RENDEillNG THEM WILLING TO ACCEPT THE LEADER Goo SHALL INDICATE. It is no lusting after n king now. The only King is Jehovah. But a. leader and judge is sought. So the true Christian will reverence a.nd follow a.11 who are inspired a.nd appointed by God.-M. Ver. 10.-From God to Baal. I. MAN MUST HAVE SOME RELIGION. If God is forsaken, Baal ie followed. The soul cannot endure a. void. This temple must always have some deity in it. If the higher religion is rejected, a lower superstition will take the place of it. The decay of the national religion of old Rome was accom- panied by the adoption of etrange Oriental cults, and by the spread of a religion of magic. Modern scepticism gives birth to extraordinary forms of euperstition- religione of nature, of humanity, of spiritualism, Accordingly, the effort to attain freedom by eecaping from the restraints of Christianity is a delusion, and ends only in the bondage of some lower influence. The soul must have some master, and if it rebels against God it will serve Baal, mammon, the world, the flesh, or the devil. True liberty is only found in willing obedience, in the submiesion of love, in sym- pathy with the mind of God, in delighting in hie law. Perfect freedom of will arises from perfect harmony between our will and God's will, eo that we gladly desire what he requires (Pa. xl. 8). II. Sm BAS TWO LEADING FEATURES, A POSITIVE AND A NEGATIVE. It is forsaking God and serving Baa.Jim ; omission and commission. The tendency is to regard one of these two much to the neglect of the other. Over-scrupulous people are very sensitive about the minutest act of positive wrong, but sometimes indifferent in regard to the neglect of duty. Energetic people often make the opposite mistake, and show great anxiety to do good service, while they are not sufficiently careful to avoid hasty acts of a questionable character. These two sides of sin are clrsely con- nected. Devotion to God is the great safeguard to purity ; when this grows cold the soul is open to the attack of temptation, leading to direct transgression. On the other hand, positive sin is poison to religious faith. The commission of evil deeds inclines us to the omission of duties. Impurity paralyses zeal. '\Ve cannot serve God while we are serving Bualim. III. CONDUCT ALWAYS TENDS TO RUN INTO EXTREMES. We serve God or Baalim, light or darkness, good or evil. There is no middle course. There appears to be more variety, gradation, and mixed character in life than is allowed for in Scripture (e. g. 1 John iii. 8-10). But life is only yet beginning to develop, its true nature will be seen in eternity. Two seeds may look much alike, and the first sprouts from them may not be very dissimilar, yet the gardener who knows the natural history of the plants, judging by their whole growth, may pronounce them to be very different. In this early growth of the soul's life on earth, the great question is, '\Vhat tendencies does it show? The twilight of sunrise looks very like the twilight of sunset, yet the one is the prophecy of day and the other the portent of night. Two streams which flow from one watershed are at first near together, yet if one is running east a.nd the other west, they may come at last to be divided by a whole continent, and to end in two separate oceans. We must be moving in one or other of two directions. The question is, Are we going to the light or from the light, to God or from God ? The tendency determines the character of the life, and this must be justly estimated by the full issues involved in the tendency, not by the present early stages of it. Thus we are all children of the light or children of the darkness, ripening into saintly servants of God or corrupting into wretched slaves of sin.-A. Vers. 13, 14.-The test of trouble. I. WE ALL NEED A REFUGE FOR TROUBLE, Life is so mixed that even to the happiest it is full of disappointments a.nd anxieties. Though it may be smooth at present, we know that it cannot continue so for ever. The storm must fall at BOAle time on every soul that is making the voyage of life. 11 Ma.n is born to trouble" (Job v. 7). The self-assurance that suffices us in prosperity wil: not be enough when the tribulation comes. Some refuge every soul must then 100k. 118 THE BOOK OF JUDGES. [orr. x. 6-18.
II. THE GREAT REF{TGE FOR TROUBLE IS IN RELIGION. Thie is not the eole function of religion. It is also a light, an inspiration, an authority. But all men who have a religion turn to it as their supreme haven when the storms drive. We are naturally religious. Instinctively we look up-if not to the light, then to the darkness, the mystery, the unknown abo,e us. III. THE VALUE Ol' RELIGION IS TESTED DY ITS EFFICACY AS A REFUGE IN TROUBLE. The. ~rea~water ie tested b:)' the storm; the ar_mouy is tried by the combat; the med1cme 1s proved _br the _chsease; the co~solation is revealed by the distress. If the lamp of ou: religion will 9nly burn _wh!le_ the sun of prosperity shines, and goes out when the _mght 5lf adver~1ty <;loses m, 1t is worthless. Men make gods of their pleasures, their busmess, their science. \Vhat can the husk of old pleasures do in the "winter of discontent,'' when no new pleasure can be evoked? \Vhat will the idols money, fame, knowledge ~vail in the agony of the wreck of a life's hopes, in the mystery of death and eternity? How foolish to be engrossed in pursuits which will leave us destitute in the-hour of our greatest need I IV. IF WE HA VE NOT SUBMITTED TO 'l'HE TRUE RELIGION IN PROSPERITY WE lIA VE NO RIGHT TO EXPECT TO ENJOY THE REFUGE OF IT IN ADVERSITY. There are men who postpone attention to the claims of Christ till the time of trouble and find no wa;r to him when they m_os~ need him. They will "make their peace ~ith God" on the1r death-bed. But tins 1s not so easy as they suppose. Apart from the wicked- ~css and insult to God wh~ch such ~onduct implies, it is also the height of folly, and 1s based on a _compl~te m1scon?ept10n of the first elements of true religion. It is true that God 1s willmg to receive us whenever we honestly return to him in repent- ance; but (1) the selfish terror of approaching calamity is not repentance; (2) genuine repentance, involving a change of desire, is not easily created by selfish fear; (3) it is not well that men should too readily escape from all the consequences of their sins.-A.