The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 375

HOMILETICS. Yers. 1-34.--Rrnben and Gad amd the halj-trwe of Manasseh at home. Three points are especially noticeable in this chapter. First, the reward of those who ban htboured 011 behalf of their brethren; next, the duty of claiming our privileges as Christians when severed from om- brethren; and lastly, the necessity of zeal for the puri(~- of religion. I. SELF-DENIAL SHALL HAYE ITS REWARD. Our Lord tells us that he who gives n cnp of cold water to his brother shall not lose his reward. Wo find a similar statement in l\Iat.t.. x. 41. The reward includes this life as well as the next (Mark x. 3/ll. ,Toshun blessed the two tribes a,nd a half, and sent them to their inherit- n11re. So cloes J esns say to those who ha,ve laboured in His cause, "Well done, thou goo,I 11nd feith_fnl servant, enter thou into the joy of the Lord." And as the Renbemtes and then- brethren were blessed with sih-er and gold and a multitude of earth!~- possessions, so the Christian enjoys riches which a.re far above what earth can girn. e\'en the riches of the glory of God's inheritance among the saints. If he lea Yes home and friends for the work of the Gospel; if he devotes himself to a long and weary w11rfare against sin, the time will come when the true Joshua will dismiss him to his inheritance, across the Jordan-stream of death. II. \YE b!CST NOT LET ISOLATION DEPBIVE US OF THE PRIVILEGES OF THE covENAST. l\Iany au Englishman is in the p0sition of the two tribes and a half. Re Emigrates to dist11nt lauds, and he often forgets to assert his oneness with those whom he !ms left behind. So did the members of the Church of England neglect in America to reproduce the organization of their native land. So continually do men (a) cast off all religious profession wha,tever, or (b) neglect to keep up sufficient connection with their brethren at home, and thus to keep up the solidarity and mutual brotherhood of Christian churches. Of late this evil has been much dim.ini.shed. The " great altar t-0 see to" is visible on all sides. Those who leave us for the colonies, or for foreign lands, are not left without the ministrations of their own nation and faith. Christians deprived of the superintendence of the miuisters of religion assemble for prayer and reading of the Scriptures. Thus a witness is set up before God and man that they have both part and. lot in the Christian brotherhood. It is the one worship of the one God. There is no desire to set up altar against altar, to break the bonds of Christian love and fellowship. The new co=union has its own laws and regulations, suited to its own peculiar needs, for the gospel practically forbids us to set up one hard and fast rule for all races and regions alike. But the one faith and the one Church exists throughout, unit-ed, not in the unity of external rules and rites, and organization and tribunals, but in the holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity. III. ,YE MOST BE ZEALOUS FOR THE CAUSE OF TRUE RELIGION. Had the Jews continued to display the same zeal for God which they showed in this instance, they would have escaped the fall which afterwards befel them. So, had Christians W&intained their :first zeal and purity and mutual love, the Christian Church would have been spared much of its sad history, and so large a p_ortion of ~he world would not have reWAined heathen. But as the Jews allowed mixed marriages and intercourse with heathen tribes to undermine their attachment to God and His law, so has familiarity with the world deadened the zeal for true religion among Christians. The zeal which was displayed in early Christian times concerned faith more than morals. The zeal shown now concerns morals rather than faith. Bnt a true Christian spirit will care for both. Faith is the salt that keeps practice from corruption, and e. carelessness or tendency to compromise in matterB affecting the fundamental principles of Christian truth or worship is as •Ginful as would have J,.,.,n the conduct of the Israelites had they suffered the erection of the altar of witnEoss to pass without explanation. Such a spirit of compromise is the dan_ger of our own day. It is Olll' duty (a) to decide for ourselves what are the essent~n,ls of Christianity, and (b) when we have decided it, to declare perpetual war a~amst I.hose who would deny them. While we are 'careful not to insist upon e.nytlung as OB, XXII, 1-84.] THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 323