Il, Preoavrions sueerstep. It is not the duty of Christians more than of non- Christians to rush unnecessarily into peril any more than into temptation; we are not to endanger life and limb recklessly and negligently. Our first duty is self-preservation when no principle is compromised and no matter of spiritual moment is at stake; we are required to use all legitimate means for the preservation of our own lives and the lives of others. Confessors, indeed, have taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods, and martyrs have cheerfully shed their blood, rather than surrender a jot of truth or renounce their allegiance to the Saviour; but there are special occasions and particular circumstances when our duty is to escape from, not court,danger. The disciples, when persecuted in one city, were to flee to another. Our Lord himself, passing through the midst of the wicked Nazarenes, went his way, when they had led him to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, and would have cast him down headlong. And now he gives directions beforehand for his followers not to imperil their lives needlessly and uselessly, when, by signs of which he forewarns them, they should know that the ruin of Jerusalem was imminent and inevitable, and when the wrath of God was about to be poured out on their unbelieving countrymen. The methods of escape were various. Those who found themselves in Judza were to flee to the mountains. These, with caves and rocky fastnesses, were favourite places of refuge in time of danger in the land of Palestine; thus, Lot was urgently pressed by the angel to flee to the mountain: ‘“ Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed ;” David was hunted by Saul as “a partridge in the mountains.” Such ag were already on the house-top, or could readily reach it by the steps outside, were not to return into the house to carry off with them any article of property, however prized or valuable, but to hasten their flight with all speed along the flat roofs of the houses till they reached the city walls, and thence make good their escape. Persons engaged in field labour, at which the outer garment (Jmériov) was usually stripped off and laid aside, were not to act so indiscreetly as to run the risk of life itself by returning for the sake of saving an article of raiment probably of no great value.
Tl. THE THIRD GREAT MOBAL LEsson. ‘This, as we have already stated, is prayer- fulness. Our Lord, after the particular directions enumerated, bethought himself of other cases to which those directions were inapplicable owing to the inability of the persons concerned to comply with them. With tender females in such circumstances of delicacy as precluded the possibility of flight, and with nursing mothers whose womanly affections forbade the thought of abandoning their offspring—with persons thus unfitted for flight, so encumbered ag to retard it except through an impossible sacrifice—our Lord expresses the deepest sympathy and tenderest compassion. If, however, we may trace the sequence of thought in the mind of the Saviour as in the human mind in general, the thought of weakness by the law of contrast suggests a power which the weakest can wield and the strongest cannot dispense with, and which in the most untoward circumstances commands success. ‘And pray ye,” says
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222 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. (on. xm. 1—37.
our blessed Lord, “ that your flight be not in the winter. ” St. Matthew adds, “ neither on the sabbath day.” The same God who has appointed the end has appointed the means that conduce to that end. One great means is prayer. The end and means are connected as links of the same chain. Other means of escape had been prescribed, and even urged on such as could employ those means; some there would be who, from ircumstances already indicated, would be precluded from availing themselves of those means; besides, both these classes must, in the dark outlook into the future, anticipate circumstances over which they could have no possible control, such as the season of the year, or the day of the week when the predicted calamities might suddenly burst over them, What, then, was the course to be pursued? Where means were available, prayer was a leverage which imparted to the means a potency multiplied manifold ; where the means were not available, prayer was the only element of power that could be employed; while in both cases there were certain obstacles which human power could not overcome, and certain circumstances with which it was incompetent to grapple. It was only by prayer that difficulties of this sort could be vanquished. The subject-matter of the prayers our Lord graciously condescends to suggest. They were to pray for the avoidance of the winter, when its cold and inclemency woule greatly aggravate the general distress, or when its heavy rains, swollen streams, and winter torrents might render flight or escape impossible. They were to pray that they might not be necessitated to infringe the sanctity of the sabbath, on which a lawful journey did not exceed a mile; and when, the city gates being closed, would either shut them in or shut them out, and in either case cut them off from a place of safety; or when they might expose themselves to punishment from the cruelty of fanatics for a breach of the sabbath law. Our Lord suggested to them such topics of supplication, putting desires into their hearts and words on their lips.
IV. Gop’s GoopNess To HI8 cHOsEN. “ For the elect’s sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.” His elect are his chosen—chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, chosen of God and precious, a chosen generation, called, chosen, and faithful. The privileges of God’s people are very many and very great. God avenges his own elect; nothing shall be laid to the charge of God’s elect; he will gather them at last from the four winds; while here we learn that those days of direst disasters and unspeakable horrors were shortened for their sake. How great the blessedness of being children of Goi! The psalmist had affirmed the blessedness of such centuries before ; he had affirmed it on the highest authority and for the best of reasons. “ Blessed,” he said, “is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. ... By terrible things in righteousnesa wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation.”