The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 49

be t-0 destroy the educations.I progress of man.kind, or, in other words, to eliminate the moral element from hist-Ory. Study of the past is generally our best, sometimes our only, guide to understand- ing and using the prese11t. But the study must be reverent and pCLtient, or it will be misleading. The question is not what God must do (according to our precon- ceived notions), but what He does; and "His thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor His ways as our ways." Bea.ring this in mind, we shall find much comfort and guidance in dealing with the difficulties which confront Christians CLnd Churchmen in 0U1· own day by studying those which beset the chosen people and the chosen tribe three thousand years ago. This much at least has been demonstrated by all the experience of Israel-that belief in a Persona.I God, who has given men a law to live by, and to whom they must give account, is of all influences that have ever been tried, the only one that can tame and ennoble the fallen nature of man. In spite of the hopeless failure of Solomon, and the ruin of Israel and Judah, we are again being t-Old that cultw·e may be made a substitute for conscience, and that responsibility has no higher meaning than self-respect In spite of the indelible stigma which Scripture has written as the epitaph of Jeroboam, "who ma.de Israel to sin," and the steady degradation of the kings and the kingdom of Israel, we are still assured that schism is a valuable expression of liberty, and that unity of doc- trine and of worship means tyranny or narrowness of mind. There are errors in quite another direction also, for which the historical books of the Old Testament contain a cure. There are Christians who are staggered at the slow progress which the Gospel has made after eighteen centuries of preaching, at the slow progress which, with all its enormous advantages, it continues to make still. Were the prospects of truth, especially when seen in the light of the past, more hopeful, when Jeremiah uttered his solemn protests in Egypt, or Ezekiel his unflinching rebukes in the land of the Chaldreans? The Divine light, instead of spreading, however slowly, seemed on the eve of being utterly extinguished. And yet, all the while, the road for the Gospel was being surely though darkly prepared. Again, there are Churchmen who are chafed and irritated, even if they are not utterly perplexed, at finding the Church as it now exists so wofully unlike the ideal which they find in Scripture, or which they have constructed for themselves. Some men in their uneasiness shift from one branch of the Church to another, often with the result of finding their disquietude increased rather than allayed: others, in despair, go out of their own communion and enter no other; so intolerable do external interferences or internal scandals appear to them, so incompatible with their idea of a true Church. When we are disposed to think " the tyranny of the state," whether it comes from " secular courts," or from a "non-Christian parliament," to be fatal to the very existence of a church, let us think of Manasseh's infamous persecution, and be patient. Perhaps there never has been an age when the Church, whether Jewish or Christian, has not had much to be'";· f: , □ the powers that be. And why should she not ? Why should she in this fare better than her Divine Head ? And why should this age claim to be exempt? Again, when some grievous scandal, whether of simony or sacrilege, or false doctrine openly taught, makes men inquira whether a communion in which such things are possible can be a branch of the Church at all, let us remember the idolatrous erections of Solomon, tolerated within sight ol the temple for four hundred years, ,and again be patient. But just as there are persons who take pride in making out that their own particular maladies or troubles are in excess of those of their neighbours, so each generation flatters itself that it  JOSHUA TO NEHEMIAit'. lvii -~------·---------------------·-- --- is po,ssing through a, greq.t crisis, and that society, or religion, or the Cbnrch, was never in such peril before. It is never our duty, of course, to blind ourselves as to the existence of evil; but there are co.sea in which to ignore evil is less disastrous than to exaggerate it. The one need not interfere with the accomplishment of a. greo.t deal of good ; the other by causing a panic is almost certain to clo so. "In •• quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." At the close of this historical section of the Pulpit Commentary it may perhaps be permitted to offer a suggestion for the consideration of preachers. It is in the historical portion of Holy Scripture that the most generally useful material for the preacher's purpose may be found : yet on the whole it is very much neglected, greatly to the loss of congregations ; especially of uneducated congregations. There are many who cannot understand-or, if they understand, take but a languid interest in-abstract theology, or abstract morality, who yet will listen with intelli- gence and eagerness when the doctrine or the morality are clothed in flesh and blood. The variety of character and incident given us in Holy Scripture is practically unlimited ; and there is perhaps scarcely a doctrinal truth or ethical precept that could not be illustrated from some event or biography in the sacred narrative. The example of Scripture itself would seem to give us a guide in this matter: the historical element greatly predominates over the didactic in the Old Testament a11.d somewhat predominates in the New. Or, to take higher ground still, that which is given us in the Gospel for our instruction and guidance is not so much a code, or a creed, as a life; a. life involving both definite rules and definite beliefs, no doubt; but still it is the pattern life that comes first. " Though ye believe not Me, believe the works" (John x. 38): that is the first step. And the second is on the same ground: "Believe Me for the very works' sake" (eh. xiv. 11). It is with what Christ does, that is, with His life, that we must begin. And this applies in a lower degree to all the lives that a.re set before us in Scripture for instruction and warning. It is but an illustration of the well-worn saying, that " example is better than precept." People can comprehend and will listen to the encouragements and cautions to be derived from the doings and sufferings of men and women like them- selves, who would carry nothing away from eloquent dissertations on virtue and vice. The co=and, "Go, and clo thou likewise,'' the home-thrust, "Thou art the man," will go direct to the heart in many a case in which the Decalogue, or any part of it, would never pass beyond the ear. The following tables, drawn from the portion of the Old Testament which we have been considering, will illustrate the suggestion just made. They could be greatly enlarged even within the limits of this portion of Scripture. Of course, if the whole of the sacred history were placed under contribution, the illustrations might be increased and improved to a very large extent. But a strouger case is made out by showing how much ·may be done with no more than the section of the Bible im?1ecliately before us. THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES.