Vers. 19, 20.-TrO'lllJle kads to prayer. When Scripture depicts human misery and destitution, it does not leave the matter, as though there were nothing further to say. Always a way of escape is pointed out; always a gleam of light is let in upon the darkness· always a remedy is offered for the disease whose symptoms are described. I. THl CHY TO wmcH TROUBLE LEADS IS A OBY OF CONFESSION. God has not afflicted the greatest sufferer beyond his deserts. The dist~essed ~oul gives utterance to the ackoowledgment, " Against thee, thee only, have I smned.1 II. TllE CBY WHICH TROUBLE PROMPTS IS A OBY OF HELPLESSNESS. The .soul may have called upon others, and in vain. There is n_o answer, no deliverance, when help is sought from man. Perhaps the soul addresses itself l.a.st to the Helper who 11hould have been sought first, before all IIL TBE OBY WHICH TROUBLE PROMPTS IB A OBY OF FAITH. God hae said, "Call :upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee." The promise is remembered, acted upon, and pleaded. Believing the Divine aBBurance, the afflicted liCts up his eyes [Wlto the hills whence cometh help. nn. r. 1-20.] THE BOOK OF JOEL. 13
IV. 'fllfll ORY WJIICJH TROUBl,E PROMPTR 18 A ORY WHTOR IR HEARD AND ANRWERIW. God dolighte to hellr the euppliant's entreaty, the sinner's confeeeion, the earncHt peti- tion of interceding friends. Buch criea come up into the ear of God. The sacrifice is accoptocl; the sin is forgiven; the grace is accorded; the chastisement is removed; tho blessing is bestowed.-T. Ver. 1.-TJui Ufe-work of tm obscure prophet. The literary style of this book deserve.'! the consideration of every student of Scripture. With the exception of Isaiah and (as some think) of He.bakkuk, Joel surp&11ses all his brethren in sublimity. His pictures of the disasters followin,:( upon sin are marvellously vivid, and hie promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit was etill living in the memory of the ,Jews when Peter, on the day of Pentecost, declared that its fulfilment had come. The first ha.If of the book describes the Divine judgmente which were at hand, and the second half (beginning with the eighteenth verse of eh. ii.) unfolds the promise of Divine favour. !ts readers pass from darkness to light, from grief to joy, from estrangement to recon- ciliation ; and in this book, as in experience, the transition hinges on the penitential prayer to which it was the prophet's mission to summon the people. We know scarcely more of Joel than the fact that he was the son of Pethuel. Bnt the meaning of hie name-" Jehovah is God "-was suggestive ; for it was none other than the cry of the people on Carmel, when fire came down Crom heaven in answer to Elijah'e prayer, and would therefore serve as a reminder to his auditors of their solemn acknowledgment of ,Jehovah's supremacy and claims. I. THE PREPARATION WHIOll JOEL BEOEIVED FOR WORK is described in the single phrase," The word of the Lord ea.me to Joel." This was the one fact necessary to authenticate his message. If God was speaking through him, then-whoever he might be-the world was bound to listen to him; his word was a declaration from the Unseen. There is now a general forgetfulness of the possibility of such revelation. It is accepted by some as an axiom that the God who created the world and set it going cannot interfere further with his own handiwork ; that if he exists at all, he lives at an infinite remove from mundane affairs, as did the god of Epicurus. If we speak of works done which cannot at present be accounted for by the laws we have deduced from observed ordinary phenomena., and urge that men have had glimpses of an outlying sphere of energy which surrounds what is visible, we are regarded as credulous enthu- siasts. But in an earlier age there were men whom scientists would be the first to condemn, who, having never seen a comet blazing in the sky, nor heard of such a phenomenon, would have laughed to scorn its possibility. Yet the world now not only believes in the existence of comets, but has found out the law of their return, and has assigned them their own places in the planetary system with which once they appeared to have nothing in common. Is it not possible that the same process will take place in reitard to what we now call supernatural? There a.re psychical pheno- mena still awaiting explanation which have convinced us that we have influence over each other, apart from physical contact; and if one human spirit can affect another, surely it is not incredible that the Father of spirits was able to touch the springs of thought and feeling in those ancient prophets. Indeed, this was not peculiar to them; it is an experience of to-day among the devout and prayerful, who obey the command of their Lord, "What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light." II. 'l'HE OBBCUBITY OF WORK with which Joel was content. His was the spirit of John the Baptist, who was willing to remain only the "voice n of God. 'l'he world little thinks how much it owes to its silent workers in literature, in politics, and in religion. Many are living in quiet homes, or in poor lodgings, whose names are never heard, whose duties are not suspected, who by their pens a.re leading the nation in ways of righteousness. God's most faithful servants are sometimes personally obscure. Some are patiently plodding away at monotonous work, and bear in the spirit of their Master many Ml injustice and cruel slight. Others in business stretch out the helping hand to weaker brethren who, but for such timely a.id, would sink in a vortex of ruin. And ministering angels still venture into haunts of vice to seek and to se.ve those who are lost. The Father who seeth in secret will hereafter bestow some of the highest places in his kingdom on those who a.11 their life long have been without honour or applause. 14 THE :ROOK OF JOEL. [OR, I, 1--20,