The Pulpit Commentary — Obadiah — Section 26

distress." The tongue was in the transgression. We are told in Ps. cxxxvii. how tho ohildren of Edom cried, "Down with it, down with it, even to the ground!" "Thou ehouldeet not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their cala.mity." Their feet were in the transgression. Like those whose picture the psalmist dre,w, "their feet were swift to shed blood." And as their thoughts, their emotions, and their words were evil, so were their deeds. They were all wrong. "Thon should est not ho.ve looked on their affliction. Thou ehouldest not have la.id hand on their substance. Thou shouldest not have stood in the crosewa.y, to cut off their escape. Thou shouldest not have delivered np thy brother a captive to his enemies." A solemn series of charges. One unbrotherly act after another. "Thou sbouldeet not;" "Thou ehouldest not;" "Thou shouldest not." Contrast all these condemning words, "Thou shouldest not;"" Thou sbouldest not," with the reiterated words of St. John in his First Epistle, " Let us love one anothor, for love is of God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." We must surely feel that we want more of the spirit that St. John inculcates. Love does not flourish in the Church's garden as it ought. Envy, hatred, and malice are ever springing up, marring the plants of the Lord's own plan ting. What shall we think of the elder brother whose character is described in Luke xv.? le not that unfra.ternal, unsympathetic, unloving elder brother yet a.live? Or the priest and Levite of Luke x., a.re they not still amongst us? And where wounded misery lies bleeding, are not the priest and Levite found passing a.way on the other side? Nay, is not Edom-Edom red with blood, Edom cruel as the grave, Edom fierce and untamed as a leopard-is not Edom still a.live? Who will say that the religion of Christ would not make more progress in heathendom were the whole of Christendom more under its beneficent power? We read in Numb. xx. of Edom with- standing Israel in their march to Cana.an. There is much of this antagonism to the progress of truth now. Then comes the reminder of relationship, and its consequent obligations: "Thus saith thy brother Israel, Let us pass to Canaan through thy borders." But Edom opposes : "Thou sha.lt not pass through." Hatred instead of good will, resistance instead of assistance, antipathy instead of sympathy, the spirit of Edom instead of the spirit of love,-these are the baleful hindrances to the Church's progress. Contra.at this character of Edom with that of Christ. In Heb. iv. 15 we a.re told of the fraternal sympathy of our High Priest-sympathy with our infirmities, sympathy with our sorrows, sympathy with our conflicts, sympathy with our struggles, loving, tender, brotherly sympathy. In Prov. xvii. he is called "the Brother born for adversity"- bom for it. The gospel is throughout a story of a Brother born to sympathize with adversity. Young man, he bas sympathy with you. Child of poverty, he bas sympathy with you. Bereaved one, he has sympathy with yolL Tempted one, be has sympathy with you. He is the great Sympathizer. In the ages past he was "afflicted in all their afflictions;" and now we have not e. High Priest who cannot sympathize with us. See how he is presented to us in the Gospels. See him going a.bout doing good; see him drying the widows' tears; see him healing poor lepers; see him blessing little children; see him opening blind eyes; see him raising the fallen ; see him feeding the hungry ; see him teaching the ignorant; see him ea.sting out devils; see him blessing the wretched; see him ·saving the lost. Oh, what sympathy! Oh, what a" Brother born for adversity" I Let us follow in his steps. It must not be enough that we are unlike Nero, who sent Christians to the lions. It must not be enough that we are unlike Edom, who hated his brother Jacob. It must not be enough that we are unlike per- secuting Rome in the time when God's faithful martyrs were made to seal their testi- mony in fire and blood. We are to be Christ-like. We are to take as our example the loving, the for_givi11:g, the tender, the compassionate, the meek, the long-suffering Christ. Instead of bemg hke Edom, whose every power went out in unfmternal cruelty, we must bring our powers, our faculties, our emotions, our hearts, our lives, to be sanctified, controlled, and governed by the Holy Spirit of Ohrist.-A. C. T.