The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 420

HOMILETICS. /ere. 29-88.-The en~ of the work. We now reach the conclusion of the ,a.native. Like every other biography, it ends with death. Well were it for us all If death came at the conclusion of a well-spent life like J oshua'e. I. A GOOD MAN'S END. We read in the Book of the Revelation, " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord . . . their works do follow them." Few ha,e been privileged to be" followed" by their works like Joshua.. He led the Israelites into the promised land, and left them there. For many hundred years-the sevrnty years' captivity excepted-they dwelt there. For their rejection of Him of whom Joshua was the type they were cast out. But even now they nmain a distinct people, and entertain hopes of a return to the land which, humanly speaking, Joshua gave them. If we ask the cause of this great success, whose results lia,e lasted even to our own day, it is to be found in the unique character of the con- queror. Simple, straightforward adhesion to duty, intense moral earnestness, earnest piety, prompt and unquestioning obedience to God, the highest public spirit, the utter absence of all self-seeking and ambition, mark a character altogether without parallel in the history of conquest. Conquest generally is asrnciatecl with fraud and wrong. It has its origin in the greed and ambition of the conqueror ; it is carried out amid injustice and oppression ; it leaves its evil results behind it, ancl is avenged by the hatred of the oppressed, and by the sure and often swift collapse of a power founded in wrong. Cruel, according to Olll' modern ideas, J oslma ,ras, no doubt. But he was centuries in advance of his age ; bis cruelty was the result of a moral purpose. And we must remember that for our modern notions of cruelty we are indebted to Jesus Christ. It is a fact that God did permit (whether He ought to have done so is a question we cannot discuss here) men to live for thousands of years in ignorance of the true law of mercy. It is not strange, then, if Joshua was not in this respect conformed to an ideal which was not permitted to exist until Christ revealed it. In all other respects, be was the model of wl.iat a co=ander should be, and hence the dUl'ability of his work. We cannot hope to become so famous. Yet if we imitate J osbua's obedience, earnestness, piety, unselfishness, we, too, may achieve results as dUl'able, though it may nenr b& known to whom they are owing. For a good deed never dies. It associates itself with the other good influences at work in the world, each of these producing goocl results on others, and thus steadily working on to the great consu=a.tion of all things. What Joshua was it is shame to us if we are not, accorcbng to our opportunities. For the Spirit of God is now freely shed forth in all the worlcl, and given to them that ask it. II. THE MEMORY OF THE JUST IS BLESSED. Joseph's bones were interred in Sbechem. Thus we learn (a) that patriarch's affectionate love for his breth1·en, in that he desired in death to be among them, and would have bis memory che1·ished as an encouragement to serve God faithfully. And (b) we learn the duty of com- memo1·ating God's saints. The extravagant veneration paid to saints ancl ruartyrs by those of another communion has caused us to be somewhat too neglectful of their memory, The martyrs of the Reformation are not co=omorated among us. We publish biographies of our good men, and straightway forget all about them. Yet surely we might be greatly clieered and encouraged on onr way by the recol- lection of the triumphs of God's Spirit in our fellow-sinners .. Surely the pulses of the spiritual life may lawfully be quickened by a sympathy w1_th the great an'.l good who have gone before. Surely all noble examples, all holy hves, are a part of the heritage of the saints designed to adv.auce God'~ caus~. The victories of God's Spirit over the devil, the world, aud the flesh, Ill various ages, a,mong vanous  THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. [oH, XXIV, 29-88