The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 116

.1md m_o.rrio.ge, the birth of children, the acquisition or loss of property, affect prmmr1ly our temporo.l esto.te. But these same results have also a heavenward side • they tell upon the higher life within, and help to work out our eternal destinies'. 'fheir true intention is to develop our higher life, and to establish within us the reign of righteousness, of which the ark of the covenant was the emblem to the Israelites. II. It is not enough that we believe in this realisation of our higher destiny through the events of life; WE MUST OU!lSELVES DIRECTLY AID IN ITS FULFILllENT. ·we must make this our first consideration, and rally round the ark of the covenant in order to fight the battles of the Lord. This is our duty, as members, or, to speak more truly, as soldiers of the Church. The same obligation rests upon us in our individual life. Through all its varied phases it should be our aim to hold high our sacred banner, and to conduct ourselves valiantly under all circumstances a;s the soldiers of Christ. Let us carry into all our life the thought of immortality. Let us be ever watchmg, ever fighting, and let the ark of the covenant be that around which centres all our public and private life.-,E DE P. Ver. 5.-God'a wonders. "Sanctify yourselves, for to-morrow the Lord will do wonders among you. These words admirably express the conditions of all blessing for the people of God. Those conditions are at once Divine and human. The Divine is the essential ; the human can only be realised through it. I. Goo WILL DO WONDERS. This is a true description of all God's works of deliverance, and primarily of His great miracle of pardon. For, of all the mar- vellous things which He does, the most amazing is that He should have pity upon us, and should come back to us after we have forsaken Hirn. Grace is the crown- ing miracle. Never discouraged, it is perpetually triumphing over all obstacles, breaking down all that opposes its designs, bidding the mountain to become a plain, and magnifying itself in our infirmities. There are periods in the history of the race, and in that of individuals, when this miracle of constant recurrence is made yet more emphatic, as though to hasten on the purpose of eternal love. So was it at the time of the conflict between Israel and the Canaanitish nations. So was it at the birth of Christiauity. So is,it at the time of the beginning of the new life in tl,ie individual soul. The free and sovereign grace which does wonders is thus the necessary, antecedent Divine condition. II. THE. BUMAN CONDITION IS CLEA!lLY EXPRESSED IN THESE WORDS OF JOSHUA, "Sanctify yourselves." We repeat, this condition cannot be fulfilled unless Divine grace have renewed our heart, and given us strength to sanctify ourselves. But our duty is none the less positive, imperative, sacred. God does not treat us as passive, inert beings, but as free agents made in His likeness. It behoves us, then, to respond to His grace. Hence the necessity to sanctify ourselves, in order that we mo.y be partakers in the wonders He will work. This is all the more necessary since God will not work these wonders without us, but, by us and with us, calling us to be fellow-workers with Hirn. Israel must prepare itself for victory by sanctifying itself. To sanctify ourselves is to put away all that is alien to the Divine life; to consecrate ourselves unreservedly to God; to give ourselves to Him; to ?ring Him our heart that He may fill it. It is to yield ourselves to Him as willing mstruments in His hand; so that we are never better workers with Hirn than when we allow Hirn to work in us. To let Him work, this is our best way of serving. Do we desire that He should again " do wonders " in our age, in these days of fino.l conflict between the gospel and antichrist? Let us, then, sanctify ourselves, like the childn,n of !5rael on the eve of battle with the Canaanites, and so will be fol• filled the twofold condition of all spiritual blessing so well set forth by St. Paul in the words: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. ii. 12, 13).-· E. DE P. 62 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. [err. m. 7-17.