The Pulpit Commentary — Joel — Section 66

nre co-workers with him, we must experience the Divine slowness. A farmer cannot hnsten his harvest, but must wait for the due season. He can do littlu more than watch H; for 88 he sleeps and rises night and clay, the seed springs up, he knows not how. He must wait and trust. 2. Let us not be diacowragtd ah011,t oursel-ues, though the new life witliin us does seem immature. Let us not fear the storms of temptation, weak though we are in ourselves; for God-can care for the feeble blade as well a.s for the mighty oak. Nor should we, in our impatience, try to force spiritual growth by unwholesome excitement. "In due season we shall reap, if we faint not." CoNOLUBION. 1. Even in this life the law of retrioution <Vnd reward makes itself felt. The old proverb truly sirys, "He that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him." Haman_ plotted his own destruction. His vaulting ambition overleaped itself. The men of Babel meant to form a social combination which should bid defiance to God, but only brought about their scattering. The Pharisees crucified the Son of God, but they made his cross the pivot of the world's history. Our own observation and experience can give many examples of folly and sin bringing dire results even in this world. Popular proverbs embody this universal expectation : e.g. "Ashes fly in tbe face of him that throws them ; " " Harm watch, harm catch; " " He that sows thorns, let him not walk barefoot;" "Even as I have, seen, they that plough iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same." 2. The law of retribution, of which we see glimpses here, will be revealed in the experience of all men hereafter. On earth we see, as it were, an ,ear or two ripening to show what the crop will be like; but the harvest is yet to come, and none ca.n hinder it or alter it. Let us not delay the sowing of good seed until the mandate is heard, "Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe."-A. R. Vere. 1-8.-The persecution of goocl men. "For, behold, in those days," etc. "In this chapter the prophet returns from the parenthetic view which he had exhibited of the commencement of the Christian dispensation and the'. overthrow of the Jewish polity, to deliver predictions respecting events that were to transpire subsequent to the Ba.bylonish captivity, and fill 1,1p the space which should intervene between the restora- _tion of the Jews and ,.the first advent of Christ. He announces tbe judgment to be holden on their enemies after their return to Juwea." (Henderson). And in these two , verses , he specifies the reason why they were to be pnnished. Our subject is tlie persecution o/ good men on earth. , I. THERE JU VE EVER BEEN GOOD MEN ON EARTH. Corrupt as the world has been for sixty centuries; there have always been in every generation some men whose characters iu the main have been, good, and in whom the great Governor of the world has ma.ni- ,fested a special interest. These a.re in the holy book called by a large variety of names. They a.re. called here: 1. "My people." They are his. (1) They have sarrendered themselves to his will. All others a.re controlled by a va.liety of laws, they evermore by his will. Whatever they do, in word or deed, they a.re inspired by a loving loyalty to his will. - They are his faithful servants, his loyal subjects, his loving children begotten a.gain by his will. (2) He has pledged them his loving guardianship. He is their Shepherd. "He leads them by still waters." He is their Father. "As a. father pitieth his children." He makes for them all necessary provision, both for this life and for the life that is to come. 2. "My heritage." In Exod. xix. 5 you have these words, "Now therefore if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me a.hove all people: for all the earth is mine." He who owns the universe, esteems holy souls as the most valuable of his possessions. The vast universe of matter is in his estimation worth nothing in comparison with one truly virtuous spirit. II. TIIESE GOOD MEJ:i[ ON EABTII HAVE GENERALLY BEEN SUBJECT TO PERSECUTION. "Whom they have scattered among the natious, and parted my land." The faithful and the true amongst the Jews had, sub.sequent to their restoration from Ba.byloni8h captivity, been driven by violence amongst the nations. The indignities and cruelties to which they were subject are specified in the subsequent verses. "Persecution," says an old writer, " is the reigning sin of the world." The enmity between the seed of the woman and the serpent has shown itself from the beginning. "Marvel not," Baid Christ," that the world hato you." There is a persecution that, whilst it does not invoho bonds, imprisonments, and physical violences, involves the malice ol' hell, and f.4 TITE nooK OF JOEL. [en. m.1-21,