HOMILETICS. Ve1·s. 16-18.--,-The people'a answer. Thie passage can only be interpreted of Jesus, of whom Joshua. was the type. Implicit obedience is no longer due to any human leader, nor. has. been since Joshua's death. Even a St. Paul ce.n say, "I spea.k as to wise men, judge ye what I say." (1 Cor.. x. 15). And St. Peter urges the clergy to remember that they are not "lords over God's heritage" (1 Pet. v. 3). And this because we each "have access by one Spirit to the Father by the faith of Jesus Christ" (Eph. ii. 18; iii. 12). We may remark- I. THAT EVERY CHRISTIAN IS BOUND BY A vow OF OBEDIENCE. Jesus is the Cap- tain of our salvation. He leads us in the wa.rfe.re age.inst every kind of evil. To disobey is to mutiny, and mutiny in every army is a capital crime. Yet here we may remark on the forbearance of ow· Joshua.. All his troops a.re more or less guilty of this crime. Yet (1) He p11rdons it, and (2) with His mutinous troops He has a.chievecl, and will achieve, many a glorious victory. But there is a limit to His patience (see below). Though we sin often we must take heed to repent as often, and strive to do better for the future. "If any man ha.ve not the Spirit of Christ," at least in such a. manner !1.S to make him strive sedulously after obedience, "he is none of his" (Rom. viii. 9). The best we can do is to ask Him to "renew our will from clay to day," that so, after each of our frequent falls, we may brnce ourselves up to a. renewed obedience. And thus, by ,·irtue of His merits, not of our own, shall we be recognised as faithful soldiers of the true J oshue.-J esus Christ. II. THAT THE LAW IS STILL "OUR SCHOOLMASTER TO BRING US TO CHRIST." \Ve must still "hea.rken to Moses" before we ca.n hea.r the voice of Christ. Still in our childhood must we be subject to fow, be under tutors a.nd governors, have duties prescribed for us, obey precepts " conta.ined in ordinances,'' before we 1·ea.~h the ." glorious liberty of the children of Goel," before we find the la.w "written Ill our he11rts," and II power existing within us prompting us to II spontaneous obetlience. 24 TB'.El BOOK OF JOSB'.UA. (cit, I.16-18,
We musl all know the period of struggle, when, "after the inwo,rd mo,n," we "de• light in the law of God" (Rom. vii. 22, 28), but find another lo,w in our members at conflict with it. So must we learn to find the only delivero,nce from " the body of this death,'' in Jesus Christ our Lord, just o,s to follow Joshua, wo,s the only escape from the wilderness. And if we live up to the law tho,t is set before us, we shall find through it a po,thway to a better land, the lo,nd of promise (Gnl. iii. 18). ~or " the law is not agninst the promises of God, God forbid" (Gal. iii. 21). It 1s " holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good " (Rom. vii. 12). But its object was to show us " the exceeding sinfulness of sin," and the terrible reality of our bondage to it, that we might learn the infinite vo,lue of the reconciliation which has been effected for us in the Person and work of Jesus Cilrist. III. "THE WAGES OF SIN 1s DEATH." This is recognised as a fact by the fol- lowers of J osilua. So the followers of Jesus must acknowledge the fact that to sin against Him, to refuse to obey His words, leads to destruction. And they must separate ~hemseh·es from all that " walk disorderly " (2 Thess. iii. 6 ; 1 Tim. vi. 6 ; 2 Tim. iii. 5). For they only who do His commandments "have right to the tree of life." All they that do otherwise are "without," shut out from the. joys of eternal life, and condemned to the" second death" (Rev. :xxi. 8; uii. 14, 16).