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Deuteronomy Chapter
Thirty
Deuteronomy 30
Chapter Contents
Mercies promised to the repentant. (1-10) The commandment
manifest. (11-14) Death and life set before them. (15-20)
Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:1-10
(Read Deuteronomy 30:1-10)
In this chapter is a plain intimation of the mercy God
has in store for Israel in the latter days. This passage refers to the
prophetic warnings of the last two chapters, which have been mainly fulfilled
in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and in their dispersion to the
present day; and there can be no doubt that the prophetic promise contained in
these verses yet remain to come to pass. The Jewish nation shall in some future
period, perhaps not very distant, be converted to the faith of Christ; and,
many think, again settled in the land of Canaan. The language here used is in a
great measure absolute promises; not merely a conditional engagement, but
declaring an event assuredly to take place. For the Lord himself here engages
to "circumcise their hearts;" and when regenerating grace has removed
corrupt nature, and Divine love has supplanted the love of sin, they certainly
will reflect, repent, return to God, and obey him; and he will rejoice in doing
them good. The change that will be wrought upon them will not be only outward,
or consisting in mere opinions; it will reach to their souls. It will produce
in them an utter hatred of all sin, and a fervent love to God, as their
reconciled God in Christ Jesus; they will love him with all their hearts, and
with all their soul. They are very far from this state of mind at present, but
so were the murderers of the Lord Jesus, on the day of Pentecost; who yet in
one hour were converted unto God. So shall it be in the day of God's power; a
nation shall be born in a day; the Lord will hasten it in his time. As a conditional
promise this passage belongs to all persons and all people, not to Israel only;
it assures us that the greatest sinners, if they repent and are converted,
shall have their sins pardoned, and be restored to God's favour.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:11-14
(Read Deuteronomy 30:11-14)
The law is not too high for thee. It is not only known
afar off; it is not confined to men of learning. It is written in thy books,
made plain, so that he who runs may read it. It is in thy mouth, in the tongue
commonly used by thee, in which thou mayest hear it read, and talk of it among
thy children. It is delivered so that it is level to the understanding of the
meanest. This is especially true of the gospel of Christ, to which the apostle
applies it. But the word is nigh us, and Christ in that word; so that if we
believe with the heart, that the promises of the Messiah are fulfilled in our
Lord Jesus, and confess them with our mouth, we then have Christ with us.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 30:15-20
(Read Deuteronomy 30:15-20)
What could be said more moving, and more likely to make
deep and lasting impressions? Every man wishes to obtain life and good, and to
escape death and evil; he desires happiness, and dreads misery. So great is the
compassion of the Lord, that he has favoured men, by his word, with such a
knowledge of good and evil as will make them for ever happy, if it be not their
own fault. Let us hear the sum of the whole matter. If they and theirs would
love God, and serve him, they should live and be happy. If they or theirs
should turn from God, desert his service, and worship other gods, that would certainly
be their ruin. There never was, since the fall of man, more than one way to
heaven; which is marked out in both Testaments, though not with equal
clearness. Moses meant that same way of acceptance, which Paul more plainly
described; and Paul's words mean the same obedience, on which Moses more fully
treated. In both Testaments the good and right way is brought near, and plainly
revealed to us.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Deuteronomy》
Deuteronomy 30
Verse 1
[1] And
it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing
and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind
among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,
The blessing —
When thou art obedient.
The curse —
When thou becomest rebellious.
Verse 6
[6] And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy
seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul,
that thou mayest live.
And the Lord —
Or, For the Lord will circumcise thine heart, will by his word and spirit
change and purge thy heart from all thine idolatry and wickedness, and incline
thy heart to love him. God will first convert and sanctify them, the fruit
whereof shall be, that they shall return and obey God's commandments, Deuteronomy 30:8, and then shall prosper in all
things, Deuteronomy 30:9. This promise principally respects
the times of the gospel, and the grace which was to be then imparted to all
Israel by Christ.
Verse 9
[9] And
the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the
fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy
land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he
rejoiced over thy fathers:
For good —
Whereas thou did formerly receive these mercies for thy hurt, now thou shalt
have them for thy good, thy heart shall be so changed that thou shalt not now
abuse them, but employ them to the service of God the giver.
Over thee for good — To
do thee good; as he did rejoice to destroy thee.
Verse 10
[10] If
thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments
and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn
unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.
If thou wilt hearken — This is added to warn them that they should not receive the grace of God
in vain, and to teach them that the grace of God doth not discharge man's
obligation to his duty, nor excuse him for the neglect of it. It is observable,
that Moses calls God, the Lord thy God twelve times in these ten verses. In the
threatnings of the former chapter, he is all along called the Lord, a God of
power, and the judge of all. But in the promises of this chapter, the Lord thy
God, a God of grace, and in covenant with thee.
Verse 11
[11] For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from
thee, neither is it far off.
This commandment —
The great command of loving and obeying God, which is the sum of the law, of
which yet he doth not here speak, as it is in itself, but as it is molified and
accompanied with the grace of the gospel. The meaning is, that tho' the
practice of God's laws be now far from us, and above our strength, yet,
considering the advantage of gospel grace, whereby God enables us to do our
duty, it is near and easy to us, who believe. And so this well agrees with Romans 10:6, etc. where St. Paul applies this
place to the righteousness of faith.
Is not hidden —
Heb. Is not too wonderful for thee, not too hard for thee to know and do. The
will of God, which is but darkly manifested to other nations, Acts 17:27, is clearly and fully revealed unto
thee: thou canst not pretend ignorance or invincible difficulty.
Verse 12
[12] It
is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven,
and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?
In heaven —
Shut up there, but it hath been thence delivered and published in thy hearing.
Verse 13
[13]
Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the
sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?
Neither beyond the sea — The knowledge of this commandment is not to be fetched from far distant
places, to which divers of the wise Heathens travelled for their wisdom; but it
was brought to thy very doors and ears, and declared to thee in this
wilderness.
Verse 14
[14] But
the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou
mayest do it.
In thy mouth —
Thou knowest it so well, that it is the matter of thy common discourse.
In thy heart — In
thy mind, (as the heart is very commonly taken) to understand and believe it.
In a word, the Law is plain and easy: but the gospel is much more so.
Verse 19
[19] I
call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before
you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou
and thy seed may live:
Chuse life —
They shall have life that chuse it: they that chuse the favour of God, and
communion with him, shall have what they chuse. They that come short of life
and happiness, must thank themselves only. They had had them, if they had
chosen them, when they were put to their choice: but they die, because they
will die.
Verse 20
[20] That
thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and
that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy
days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers,
to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
That thou mayest love the Lord thy God — Here he shews them in short, what their duty is; To love God as the
Lord, a being most amiable, and as their God, a God in covenant with them: as
an evidence of their love, to obey his voice in every thing, and by constancy
in this love and obedience, to cleave to him all their days. And what
encouragement had they to do this? For he is thy life and the length of thy
days - He gives life, preserves life, restores life, and prolongs it, by his
power, tho' it be a frail life, and by his presence, tho' it be a forfeited
life. He sweetens life by his comforts, and compleats all in life everlasting.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Deuteronomy》
30 Chapter 30
Verse 2
And shalt return unto the Lord thy God.
The proper signs of repentance
Moses is here dealing with the signs of “repentance,” which
begin in the humiliation of the heart, and end in the reformation of the life.
In the New Testament there two words translated by our English word
“repentance”: one of them conveys specially the notion of changing one’s mind
as to things--seeing things in a different light, and then shaping one’s
conduct accordingly. But it is necessary for us to distinguish even between
sorrow for sin and repentance. Sorrow has two results; it may end in spiritual
life or in spiritual death; and, in themselves, one of these is as natural as
the other. Sorrow may produce two kinds of reformation--a transient or a
permanent one. Sorrow is in itself, therefore, a thing neither good nor bad;
its value depends on the spirit of the person on whom it falls. Fire will
inflame straw, soften iron, or harden clay; its effects are determined by the
object with which it comes in contact. Warmth develops the energies of life, or
helps the progress of decay. It is a great power in the hothouse, a great power
also in the coffin; it expands the leaf, matures the fruit, adds precocious
vigour to vegetable life; and warmth, too, develops with tenfold rapidity the
weltering process of dissolution. So too with sorrow. There are spirits in
which it develops the seminal principle of life; there are others in which it
prematurely hastens the consummation of irreparable decay. Repentance is a
state of mind and heart, but it may be merely a cherished sentiment, in which,
as a mere sentiment, the man hopes to find his satisfaction. Such repentance
is, and it always must be, ineffective. It is self-centred; it is disguised
pride. By its fruits you must know it. The repentance that does nothing is
nothing. This is our constant difficulty--men are perpetually trying to sever
sentiment from con-duet. They want to keep the two spheres separate, and hope
to be right towards God in heart, and to do what they like in their life. This
self-delusion God’s Word persistently resists. Religion cannot keep only in the
heart sphere. It must come out and show itself in the life. It will be white
and frail as a plant growing in a dungeon if it be kept wholly within. Every
element of the religious life must act, must speak. Shut it up and it will fade
away. And now let us see if we can trace the stages of the Divine dealing
still, with individuals, in Moses’ foreshadowings of God’s dealings with His
people Israel.
1. God’s will, as He has been pleased to reveal it, controls heart
and conduct; and enables each man to judge and appraise himself. When Job came
into the full sense of God, what could he do but exclaim, “I abhor myself, and
repent in dust and ashes.”
2. Man’s self-will, resisting the Divine will, brings man into sin.
Pollok pictures, in his poem, the misery of lost souls as this, that they see
the words wherever they turn, “Ye knew your duty, and ye did it not.” That is
sin.
3. Sinful man comes under Divine discipline, which may take the
ordinary forms of the natural consequences of transgression, or which may be
special afflictive Divine dispensations. The prodigal son only came into the
sufferings and humiliations that always follow a life of vice.
4. The aim sought to be reached by Divine discipline is the
conviction of sin, self-humiliation on account of sin, and the earnest desire
to recover from sin. The sufferings following sin may bring remorse, but that
is no holy feeling. God would work the godly sorrow of repentance. Remorse
keeps a man away from God, hugging to himself his bitterness. Repentance leads
a man to God, dissolves him in the tears of confession, and yet kindles a new
hope in the soul. And now--
5. We come to the point of our text. When a penitent comes back to
God, He looks for the signs of the penitence. He finds them partly in that very
return to seek His forgiveness; but He looks for it also in the steadfast
endeavour of the penitent henceforth to obey. (The Weekly Pulpit.)
Repentance necessary
We have heard much of the Gospel containing comfort for the mere
sinner, and if by the mere sinner be meant one that has nothing to plead but
the mercy of God, through the atonement, like the publican in the parable, it
is for such, and only such, that the Gospel contains consolation. But if by the
mere sinner be meant the impenitent, though distressed sinner, it has no
comfort for such in their present state. Repentance is necessary to
forgiveness, in the same sense as faith is necessary to justification; for it
is not possible for a sinner either to embrace the Saviour, or prize the
consolations of the Gospel, while insensible to the evil of sin. There is no
grace in the Gospel, but upon the supposition that God is in the right, and
that sin is exceedingly sinful, and, consequently, none to be perceived or
prized. (Andrew Fuller.)
Thoroughness in repentance
In the War Cry there was a picture of a man kneeling at a
table and praying, “Lord, make a good job of me.” The words are rough enough,
but the meaning is, in many respects, admirable. The poor man feels that he is
a failure, and that he needs new making. His feeling is that none but the Lord
can accomplish the necessary renewal. His fear is lest he should not have the
full work wrought upon him, and that his conversion should not be thorough and
complete. He has no need to fear that the Lord would not operate effectively,
for the great Worker never leaves His work half done. Still, the very fear of
being but partly sanctified shows his earnestness and his desire to be truly
and fully converted from the error of his ways. Lifeless, questionable religion
is poor stuff. Oh, that the Lord would make a good job of us. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Repentance
Repentance is neither base nor bitter, it is good rising up out of
evil. It is the turning of the soul from the way of midnight to the point of
the coming sun. Darkness drops from the face, and silver light dawns upon it.
True regret for wrong never weakens, but always strengthens the heart. As some
plants of the bitterest root have the whitest and sweetest blossoms, so the
bitterest wrong has the sweetest repentance, which, indeed, is only the soul
blossoming back to its better nature.
Whole-heartedness in religion
A dealer in pictures who makes it his business to find as many new
painters as possible, both in this country and abroad, was asked recently in
regard to his methods of selecting pictures to buy. He was very frank in his
talk, and one thing which he said is shrewd enough to be worth quoting. “Of
course,” he said, “with my experience I am able to judge whether there is
promise in a painter’s work, but I never buy with any idea of putting the
painter on my list until I have seen the man and talked with him myself. I
always watch him closely, and I never buy his pictures unless his eye lights up
when I talk to him about his work and about his profession.” The artist whose heart
was really in his work could not discuss it without kindling, and the man who
did not paint from the heart was not the one whose pictures the dealer wanted.
And so God desires whole-hearted obedience to His commands.
Verse 6
Circumcise thine heart.
Circumcision
Circumcision was the sign of the covenant God made with Abraham,
mention of which we have in Genesis 17:1-27, and which the first
martyr, St. Stephen, quoted in that remarkable address in Acts 7:8, where he said, “And He gave him
the Covenant of Circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him
the eighth day.” And St. Paul in writing to the Romans 4:11, speaking of Abraham, says,
“And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the
faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all
them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be
imputed unto them also.” This sign was also made with Abraham’s seed--that is,
Christ--as St. Paul tells us in Galatians 3:16. This was then the
Covenant of Grace, the Gospel which preceded the law. To Israel this covenant
was an outward sign that God would give them rest in Canaan; and to all of us
it is a sign continued in Christian baptism, and a seal that “God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city.” This
rite of circumcision was performed by the cutting off of the flesh of the
foreskin; this was cut off and cast away, to show that the body of the sins of
the flesh must be put off; a list of what some of these are we have in Colossians 3:5. On this account we are
told in Deuteronomy 10:16, “Circumcise the
foreskin of your hearts,” and in the text, “Circumcise thine heart.” Ishmael
was circumcised although the covenant was made with Abraham and Isaac, for the
children of believing parents must be sealed with its seal for the reasons
given by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:14. The act of
circumcising the male child was a painful ceremony, and was full of meaning,
suggesting then what the New Testament teaches now, “Your body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost.” This rite of circumcision was administered to a child who
could know nothing except pain. What good was it? How unreasonable! and how
cruel--we would be prompted to ask. Following our own reason, no child would
have received the rite; but we should remember what Locke says, “Whatever is
Divine revelation ought to overrule all our opinions, prejudices, and interests,
and hath a right to be received with full assent. Such a submission as this of
our reason to faith, takes not away the landmarks of knowledge, this shakes not
the foundations of reason, but leaves us that use of our faculties for which
they were given us.” But God’s commands upon this subject far outstrip man’s
reason and man’s feelings upon the subject. For there was a penalty attached to
disobedience; the child not circumcised was to be cut off from his people, he
was to die. In Colossians 2:11-12, we are told this of
baptism, which now answers to the rite of circumcision, “In whom also ye are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of
the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Buried with Him in
baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him, through the faith of the operation
of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.” This rite of baptism is equally for
babes as well as for those of mature years, even for those only a few weeks
old. Parents ought to see that their children receive it. I shall now endeavour
to show you in what two points circumcision differs from baptism.
1. Baptism in its literal sense, taken as an outward rite, is of
universal and continual obligation, that is, as long as this dispensation (the
dispensation of the Spirit) lasts, though it is only in the first of these that
it differs from circumcision.
2. Taken in its literal sense, circumcision was the initiatory rite
of the old covenant, as baptism is of the new; both are placed at the threshold
of church privileges. In circumcision a man was pledged to keep the whole law (Galatians 5:3), whereas in baptism a man
is pledged to put on Christ. The case of the Ethiopian eunuch.
As there are two points of difference between circumcision and
baptism, there are on the other hand three points of resemblance.
1. In a spiritual sense both have the same signification, both point
to the renewal of the heart, which is required of all.
2. Neither circumcision, nor baptism, are of value as mere rites,
unaccompanied, by the spiritual grace which they typify; “For in Christ Jesus,
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which
worketh by love.”
3. “Baptism doth also save us (not the putting away of the filth of
the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God) by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ.” Above all, the Spirit of God is all essential. The truths
which circumcision teach us, and the blessings of which it was the pledge, are
the birthright of every real child of God. It taught what baptism now teaches
us, the total depravity of the human nature, its inability to please God, and
its unfitness to partake of His mercy. Circumcision was also like our
initiatory sacrament baptism--a sign and pledge of the remedy which infinite
love has devised for the depravity of the heart. “A new heart will I give you,
and a new spirit will I put within you.” “I will be their God, and they shall
be My people.” All these blessings are now communicated to every genuine member
of the Christian Church. Our blessed Lord therefore submitted to the rite of
circumcision. It was right that He should bear the evidence of being a
descendant of Abraham according to the flesh. Although He had no personal
pollution to put off, yet His submitting to circumcision was an essential part
of His humiliation, and of the obedience by which He fulfilled all righteousness.
It was also one of those sacred actions in which He sustained the character of
the representative of His people. Now, what are we to learn from all this, and
more especially those that are parents and guardians? As circumcision was
originally an admission unto covenant relationship with God, Jesus, the Son of
the Highest, submitted to it the eighth day, when Joseph exercised his parental
right over Jesus, as man, in giving. Him His name, and by His baptism by St.
John, He fulfilled the law by obedience. From the manger at Bethlehem to the
Cross on Calvary, He did the will of God till it was finished. What an example
for us all to follow in His blessed steps. In order to do so, we must see that
our hearts are circumcised. In like manner baptism as the covenant of grace, of
which it is the symbol, is higher than that of the law, with greater privileges
and blessings. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? The last
act of grace is, as the promise under our consideration implies, ensured by the
first act of grace. The primary change of heart effected by the operation of
the Holy Spirit, is the pledge of the final accomplishment of the purposes of
sovereign love. “The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart that thou mayest
live.” (C. T. Buchanan.)
The circumcision of the heart: a description of true religion
I. The purity of
its character: “The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart,” etc.
Circumcision was originally instituted to ratify the covenant which the Lord
made with Abraham His faithful servant (Genesis 17:10-11). It subsequently became
a distinguishing and standing rite in the Jewish Church. It was an outward and
typical sign of an internal and spiritual grace. Hence we read of “the
circumcision of the flesh made with hands,” and also of “the heart made without
hands,” by Jesus Christ. Circumcision, therefore, of the heart implies--
1. The renovation of its moral powers. Human nature is totally
depraved, and every man’s heart is “desperately wicked.” Hence we must be
spiritually circumcised and made holy, or we cannot enter into the kingdom of
heaven (Hebrews 12:14). This inward circumcision
includes a deliverance from the power and pollution of sin, and an actual
participation of the Divine nature.
2. The special result of Divine operation. “The Lord thy God will,
etc., and the heart of the seed,” who shall believe in His name. He only is
able to achieve this great and glorious change.
II. The excellency
of its principle: “To love the Lord thy God,” etc. Purity of heart is
invariably accompanied with the principle of Divine love. When grace becomes
predominant, it sways the whole empire of the soul, and reigns through
righteousness unto eternal life. The object which the believer’s love embraces,
“The Lord thy God.”
1. His essential character demands our love. He is the Lord--the
uncreated, infinite, and eternal Jehovah.
2. His relative character also demands our love. He is thy God--not
only Creator, Legislator, Benefactor, but also Redeemer, Saviour, Portion.
Thine by innumerable obligations, relations, and endearments: by right, by
purchase, by covenant, by adoption, by enjoyment, by profession, and by
anticipation.
3. The degree to which the believers love extends. “With all thy
heart, and with all thy soul.”
III. The felicity of
its subjects. “That thou mayest live.” This assertion affords both instruction
and encouragement. It plainly intimates the destructive tendency of sin, and
the quickening and saving efficacy of Divine grace.
1. The misery of the impenitent is fairly implied. Life’s opposite is
death: and those who lose the former must endure the latter. The wicked are
already legally dead by the condemning sentence of the law, are spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins; and except they speedily repent, they will
eternally perish.
2. The reward of the righteous is Divinely promised: “That thou
mayest live.” This gracious promise is very comprehensive. It not merely
includes a negative deliverance from a death of sin, but is also expressive of
the peculiar excellency and perpetuity of religion as a principle of spiritual
and eternal life.
We may conclude by observing--
1. The necessity of personal purity, without which the external
ordinances of Christianity are insufficient and unprofitable. And--
2. The exalted character and blessedness of the pious, as
participants of saving grace, and heirs of the glorious “inheritance of the saints
in light.” (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
Circumcision of heart
I. The blessing to
be bestowed--circumcision of heart.
1. The truths which circumcision taught, and the blessings of which
it was the pledge, are the birthright of every real child of God.
2. All these blessings are communicated to every genuine member of
the Christian Church through Christ. A circumcised Saviour affords a pledge
of--
3. God, as sovereign, retains to Himself the application of these
blessings.
4. Their extension to the seed of those who partake of this spiritual
circumcision is a further illustration of God’s sovereignty and benignity
towards His people.
II. Its immediate
result: love to God.
1. The source of this love: God Himself.
2. The ground on which He lays claim to it--
3. Its extent and intensity. We must love God with all our heart.
III. Its ultimate
issue; everlasting life. A life of--
1. Enjoyment.
2. Activity.
3. Growth.
4. Permanency.
Learn--
1. The due distinction between the symbolical and spiritual.
2. The blessed character of true religion. (J. Hill, M. A.)
The true circumcision
I. The author of
it. “The Lord thy God.” He alone can deal effectively with our heart, and take
away its carnality and pollution.
II. Where it is
wrought. It is not of the flesh, but of the spirit. It is the essential mark of
the covenant of grace.
III. The result.
“That thou mayest live.” To be carnally minded is death. In the overcoming of
the flesh we find life and peace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verses 11-14
This commandment, is not hidden.
Three characteristics of salvation
I. Clearness.
“With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.” “Ah,” you say, “there it
comes in again. Whenever we go elsewhere the intellect is exalted.” And then
you feel that the Church is to be condemned. But a man’s brains are not the
wisest part of him; there is a great deal about a man that is wiser than his
brains. Thank God for that! He has insights, intuitions, sympathies, that are
as reliable as the testimony of the senses or the inferences of logic. We
cannot know God intellectually. “God is great,” as Job says, “and we know Him
not.” Are we then to be Agnostics? Oh, no! There is another way of interpretation.
John Bunyan had a blind daughter. She lived much with him; he was very fond of
her. They said he would not let the wind blow on her. She never saw Bunyan; it
was impossible for her to comprehend his genius; she was pathetically incapable
of reading his books. But will anybody in this place tell me that that blind
girl did not know Bunyan? She did not know him visually, did not know him
historically or technically, but she knew Bunyan; she knew the man, and looked
into his heart. With the heart man knows God. And so Paul says it is by the
heart that you are to understand the redemption that is in Christ. You are not
to follow it out as a scholar, not to master it as a reasoner, but with the
instinct of the soul you are to grasp the love of God in Christ Jesus. “Ah,”
you say, “it is the old thing over again. Whenever we go to a school, to an
institution, it is the old intellect, it is science; but as soon as ever we
come here, it is sympathy.” What! you understand nature by science? You
understand nature a long while before you are a scientist, and a great many
people have a wonderful delight in nature who have never had a tincture of
science. A little child gets at it, and the poet, the painter, without any
technical knowledge or mastery whatever. I tell you, there are thousands of
people in this country who enjoy the sunshine--when they get it--but they do
not know anything about astronomy. Their heart leaps up when they behold a
rainbow in the sky, but they do not know anything about optics. And just as it
is with your apprehension of nature, so it is with your apprehension of God, of
Christ, of the mercies that have been declared in Christ Jesus to perishing
men. Why, there is no greater mistake than for a man to preach Christianity
philosophically and theologically. When I look at the sky I can see it is the
sky; there is the sun, the moon, and the stars, it is superb. But when I take
an astronomical book down and look at the sky they have covered the page with
strange figures. There is the Ship, and the Whale, and the Swan, and the Little
Bear, and the Great Bear, and a good many other things, and I should not know
it was the sky if they were not to write underneath, “This is the sky.”
II. Nearness. All
the best things are near us, as your poet tells you,--a man’s best things are
nearest to him, close about his feet. The things that you cannot get are the
things you do not need. I do like that idea of the country people, to the
effect that if there is any disease in a neighbourhood there is sure to be a remedy
if you have only the wit to find it. They say that the bane and the antidote
always go together. Whether it is a marshy district, a mountain side or a
flowing river, they say that the plant always grows close by that cures the
diseases peculiar to the district. Some of our scholars of late years have
given a good deal of attention to the sacred books of the Orientals--the Hindu,
the Greek, and the Persian--and I daresay have done it with great advantage,
but mind you, there is no necessity for us to go to any Oriental oracle for
God’s last words on the greatest questions. I noticed that a traveller who had
been in Algiers said the other day that the natives of the Sahara have a
curious idea that Europe is a waterless waste, and the reason why travellers go
to the Sahara is that they may find a spring of water. Of course, if they had
lived here a little lately they would have known better! What with our flowing
rivers, our weeping skies, and our brimming reservoirs, we do not need to go to
Algerian deserts for a spring of water. And I tell you that whatever purpose
may be served by our great scholars going to Oriental countries, we need not go
there for the vital truth that saves; for, blessed be God, here, close by us,
is a Fountain of living water, of which, if a man shall drink, he shall never
thirst again. You know that when the bad weather comes all our rich people
leave us. They go for the good of their health, let us hope, and if you are
rich you are pretty nearly sure to have bad health, and then leave us! They go
to Algiers, they go to Egypt, they go to Malta, they go to the Nile, they go to
the South of France, and they leave us to the fogs of London, and we have to
get on as best we may. We have not the leisure nor the resources to go away. But
what a lovely thing it is when we come to need a spiritual specific, when we
need a remedy for the wrong of our spirits, that we need not cross the sea, for
it is here. “Lo, God is here, and I knew it not.” He has been talking to you
for years, persuading you to a nobler life. Your great difficulty has not been
to find Christ, your great difficulty has been to keep Him out. Did you not
notice when I read the lesson that the apostle speaks of men who go about
seeking to establish their own righteousness, go about restless, dissatisfied,
wandering? You never knew a flower go a-gypsying to find the sun. A flower
never goes on a voyage of circumnavigation to look after a bee or a butterfly.
It never strikes its tent and wanders about looking for the dew: Everything
comes to it, and all that the flower has to do is to open its heart and take in
the sweet influences of the sky, and everything that you want, the light to
illuminate, the grace to save, the power to perfect, the peace that passeth all
understanding, the hope that is full of glory--everything is near to you, and
all that you have to do at this very moment is to open your heart and take it
in.
III. Freeness. (W.
L. Watkinson.)
The basis of belief
The writer of this book--the second giving of the law--declares,
then, that the law is primarily in the heart of man. It is not outside of
him--brought to him; it is within him. As the printer takes the white sheet of
paper, on which nothing is written, and presses it against the bosom of the
type and lifts it off, and there is written what was on the type, so the heart
of man is pressed against the bosom of Almighty God, and on the heart of
humanity itself is written the Divine law transferred thereto. And what is true
of the law of God is true of the Gospel of God and of all religious truth. Not
all the truth that is educed from religion, but all religious truth, is in the
heart of humanity, and brought out from the heart of humanity by the
providence, the influence, or the ministry of God. We know some things by
reason of our external observation. They are not proved to us, they are brought
to us by our senses. But all that science can do is to examine, to classify, to
investigate, to arranged to study the phenomena that are thus brought to us by
our observation. Our eyes bring to us the trees and the flowers: out of them
science makes botany. Our observation brings to us the stars: out of them
science educes astronomy. In an analogous method, the soul’s eyes bring to us
knowledge of great, transcendent facts which lie in the inner world. Theology
(which is the science of religion) cannot create them, any more than natural
science can create natural phenomena. All that theology can do is to examine,
to investigate. We know the facts of the inner life by the inner testimony, as
we know the facts of the outer life by the outer testimony. If we do not know,
it is because we are dead. If a man does not know there are trees and flowers,
he is blind. What he wants is not argument, but an oculist. All that the
logical faculty can do is to deal with the facts which the observation without
or the observation within brings to our cognisance. It is thus that we know
that there is a difference between right and wrong. We know that there is
righteousness and unrighteousness, as we know that there is the beautiful and
the ugly, the true and the false. This is a fundamental fact. It is not brought
to us by any external revelation; it is not in the heaven above and brought
down to us; it is not across the sea and brought over to us; it is within the
soul and heart of man--he knows it. Knowing this, he may analyse, he may study,
the nature of the difference. This is the anchor ground of religion--we know
that there is righteousness. It is the foundation on which everything else is
built. In precisely the same way, the great majority of men have some inward
consciousness of God. They have some inward consciousness of a help on which
they can lay hold and by which they can be aided. This consciousness does not
define God to them. This consciousness of God within us we analyse, we examine,
and the result of our investigations, we call theology. It is our creed. It may
be right. It may be wrong. As a tree is something different from a definition
of a tree, and a flower is something different from a definition of a flower,
and a star is something different from the description of a star, so God is
different from our theological definitions of God. And we have not to go back
four thousand years to get the testimony of Moses that there was a God. Our
belief in Christ is something more than a historical or theological belief. We
believe in righteousness, and when we read this life of Christ we see there
righteousness luminous and eloquent. We believe in God, and as we read this
life we see the masked God withdrawing His mask, and letting His own face shine
through. The world thought power was Divine, majesty was Divine, justice was
Divine, greatness was Divine; and then there came One upon the earth, without
power, and without external majesty, and without the signs and symbols of
greatness; but He was patient, gentle, heroic, sympathetic--nay, more, rejoiced
to bear not only the sorrows but the sins of others. And when that life was
held up before humanity, humanity said, That is the Divinest yet; there is more
majesty in love than in power, there is more strength in patience than in
force. The heart of humanity answered to the portraiture of Christ, and
responded to it. If, when that life is held up before a man, he says, “I do not
see anything beautiful in that life; there is nothing in it that attracts me. I
would have liked Him better if He had made a fortune; I would have thought more
of Him if Be had organised an army; I should have some admiration for Him if He
had lived the life of a statesman; I do not care for Christ; give me Napoleon
Bonaparte,” you cannot argue with him. In him is lacking moral life, not
understanding. There are not a few in our time who are asking for the evidence
of immortality. They study nature, and evolution, and the Scriptures, and
buttress, by these methods, a frail faith in immortality. The witness is in
ourselves. Not a witness that we are going to live forever. That is not
immortality. The witness is in ourselves that we are something more than the
physical organisation which we inhabit. What is the fundamental evidence of
immortality? To live a life that is worth being immortal. If we are living in
the sphere of the immortal, we know where we are living. We know what we are if
we are living in the realm of faith, and hope, and love. We know that this
spiritual life does not depend on the physical organisation. So our faith in
the Bible, in its foundation, is this: There is that in us which answers to
that which is in the Bible. If there is nothing in us which answers to that
which is in the Bible, we shall not get a faith in the Bible by argument. We
need a new life. The moral life in us responds to the record of the moral life
in this Old Testament and this New Testament; and if there is nothing in us
which does respond, it is life that is lacking. We are not to go up into the
heavens to bring down the message, nor to cross the sea to search for it. In
our own hearts we are to find the witness of God. (Lyman Abbott, D. D.)
The Bible in itself
The Bible is more acknowledged than believed; and where it is
believed, in the ordinary acceptation of the word, it seldom gives that
decision to our purposes, that spring to our actions, which it ought to give.
I. First, then, as
to the closeness with which it addresses the soul, and the paternal familiarity
of its style. Why is it that sensible persons rejoice in having a pious,
well-informed and accessible neighbour? It seems almost childish to ask. But
the answer is, “Because his word is very nigh unto them” because they have the
benefit of his counsel, his stock of knowledge, which is freely and
benevolently open to them, and they are sure that at all times he will be
influenced by upright and conscientious motives in advising them. But there is
more than this in it. They look to his example--to his thoughts and sayings
carried out in his actions. They are conscious of its influence on themselves
and those around them; and they value it. And the nearer it is to them--the
more available it also is to them and the more influential; yes, even when
through perversity they struggle against its influence. Now, the Word of God is
such a neighbour, only of infinite instead of finite, of Divine instead of
human wisdom, goodness, and power of exhortation. It is, as the text says,
“very nigh unto us.” I do not take the words figuratively. I moan that it is,
by its very cast and structure, by its very form and style, nigh to us, at hand
to our hearts and minds, to our understandings and feelings. It is nigh as a
teacher: it is nigh as a counsellor: it is nigh as a setter forth of example.
Consider how largely, too, God speaks in the Bible to man by man; I do not mean
merely through the pen of man, for that, of course, is true of all Scripture,
but by the speech of man as man, partaking of all our natural views, feelings,
hopes, fears. What a familiar tone, without lowering any of its dignity, does
the Word of God thus take with us! How “very nigh” it comes to us!
II. The second I
would take occasion to illustrate from the words “in thy mouth”: “The Word is
very nigh thee, in thy mouth.” It was said that this indicates that the Word of
God was to be avowedly our counsellor. We were intended to cite it as
commandment and promise to us, as our law and Gospel. This is clearly laid down
and exemplified. It will be remembered how emphatically it was charged Joshua:
“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth” (Joshua 1:8; Psalms 119:46). What was the conviction
which sustained the martyrs of old in their freedom of speech, in bonds, and at
the stake? Was it not this, that it was not their own word, but the Word of
God, which they had in their mouths?
III. The next clause
in our text descends to where that power centres and fixes itself. “And in thy
heart,” Again the Psalmist is our expounder: “Thy Word have I hid in my heart”
(Psalms 119:11); “Thy law is within my
heart” (Psalms 40:8). The patriarch Job had
counselled this: “Lay up God’s words in thy heart” (Job 22:22). And here seems to be the
place in which we may aptly refer to the application of our text by the same
apostle writing to the Romans (Romans 10:6-10). Yes, it is to be heart
work--the Word “in the heart”--else it will be of no purpose that it be in the
mouth. But is it so constituted as to speak to the heart, to go to the heart?
That is the question to our present purpose. It is; after an inimitable manner,
and with inimitable force. So then is the Word of inspiration framed to be
embraced by affections though they may be debased, and to dwell in them though
they be yet enslaved.
IV. Now, in the
last place, the emphatical passage which is guiding our reflections asserts
that “the Word is very nigh unto us that we may do it.” This pronounces
obedience to it to be the necessary proof of a believing reception of it. Most
amply is this test elsewhere recognised in it. “Ye have seen that I have talked
with you from heaven” (Exodus 20:22), said the Lord to the
children of Israel: “Ye shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments” (Leviticus 18:5). And they said, “All that
the Lord hath spoken we will do (Exodus 19:8). “Be ye doers of the Word,
and not hearers only” (James 1:22), is a precept as ancient as
the Word itself. But our inquiry is, whether it be invested with any
impressiveness, exclusively its own, of a practical tendency. For, if so, in
this most important respect, too, the Bible will be its own witness. The answer
is, Come and see! Who indeed is he that overcometh the world, but he that
believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:5.) Now “faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). I have thus endeavoured to
show that the Bible in itself, being an inspired composition, is thereby endued
with an influential bearing, close and direct, upon the affections and conduct,
as well as on the profession, of all who really study it, or listen to it with
any willingness, even a passive willingness, to profit by it. The Bible, as
those who are most grateful for it will most readily own, is but the instrument
of God’s Holy Spirit. And it is not an instrument that will act mechanically on
the soul: there must be prayer, continual prayer, as the Bible itself teaches,
for its progressive operation upon us. (W. Dalby, M. A.)
Plain Gospel for plain people
What is meant by these words is this--that the way of salvation is
plain and clear; it is not concealed among the mysteries of heaven. But the way
of salvation is brought home to us, given to us in a handy form, and laid
within grasp of our understanding. It is a household treasure, not a foreign
rarity. It is not so remote from us that only they can know it who travel far
to make discoveries, neither is it so sublimely difficult that only they can grasp
it who have soared to heaven and ransacked the secrets of the book sealed with
seven seals. It is brought to our doors like the manna, and flows at our feet
like the water from the rock.
I. The way of
salvation is plain and simple. As saith Moses in the last verse of the previous
chapter: “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things
which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.”
1. I think we might have expected this if we consider the nature of
God, who has made this wonderful revelation. When God speaks to a man with a
view to his salvation, it is but natural that in His wisdom He should so speak
as to be understood. God, who is infinitely wise, would not give to us a
revelation upon the vital point of salvation, and then leave it so much in the
dark that it was impossible for common minds to Comprehend it if they desired
to do so. God adapts means to ends, and does not allow men to miss of heaven
from lack of plainness on His part. We expect a plain and simple revelation,
because God has made a revelation perfectly adapted for its end, upon which no
improvement can be made. You might have expected this from God, because of His
gracious condescension. When He deigns to speak with a trembling seeker, it is
not after the manner of the incomprehensible doctor, but after the manner of a
father with his child, desirous that his child should at once know his father’s
mind. He breaks down His great thoughts to our narrow capacities: He has
compassion on the ignorant, and He becomes the Teacher of babes.
2. We might also expect simplicity when we remember the design of the
plan of salvation. God aims distinctly by the Gospel at the salvation of men.
It had need be a simple Gospel if it is to be preached to every creature.
Moreover, we might expect the Gospel to be very plain, because of the many
feeble minds which else would be unable to receive it. What, think you, would
become of the dying if the Gospel were intricate and complex? How would even
the saints derive consolation in death from a labyrinth of mysteries? We should
expect, therefore, from the design of the Gospel to save the many, and to save
even the least intelligent of men, that it should be very simple; and so we
find it.
3. Furthermore, we see that it is so, if we look at its results.
God’s chosen are usually a people of honest and candid mind, who are willing
rather to believe than to dispute. The Holy Spirit has opened their hearts; He
has not made them subtle and quibbling.
4. But I need not argue from what we expect or see; I bid you look at
the revelation itself, and see if it be not nigh unto us. Even in the days of
Moses, how plain some things were! It must have been plain to every Israelite
that man is a sinner, else why the sacrifice, why the purgations and the
cleansings? Not a day passed without its morning and evening lambs. Equally
clear it must have been to every Israelite that the faith which brings the
benefit of the great sacrifice is a practical and operative faith which affects
the life and character. Continually were they exhorted to serve the Lord with
their whole heart. So that, dim as the dispensation may be considered to have
been as compared with the Gospel day, yet actually and positively it was
sufficiently clear. Even then “the word was nigh” to them, “in their mouth and
in their heart.”
5. If I may say this much of the Mosaic dispensation, I may boldly
assert that in the Gospel of Christ the truth is now made more abundantly
manifest. Moses brought the moonlight, but in Jesus the sun has risen, and we
rejoice in His meridian beams.
II. The Word has
come very near to us. To us all the Gospel has come very near: to the
inhabitants of these favoured isles it is emphatically so. If you perish it is
not for want of plain speaking. The Word is on your tongue. Moses also added,
“and in thy heart.” By the heart, with the Hebrews, is not meant the
affections, but the inward parts, including the understanding. You can
understand the Gospel. That whosoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall
be saved, is not a dark saying.
III. The design of
this simplicity and nearness of the Gospel is that we should receive it.
Observe bow the text expressly words it--“The Word is very nigh unto thee, in
thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.”
1. The Gospel is not sent to men to gratify their curiosity, by
letting them see how other people get to heaven. Christ did not come to amuse
us, but to redeem us. His Word is not written for our astonishment, but, “These
are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the, Christ, the Son of God; and
that believing, ye may have life through His name.” Ever has the Gospel a
present, urgent, practical errand. It says to each man, “I have a message from
God unto thee”. Observe again how the text puts its last address in the
singular. You can hear it in the plural--“That we may hear it, and do it”; but
the actual doing is always in the singular--“That thou mayest do it.”
2. As the Word of the Lord is not sent to gratify curiosity, so also
it is not sent coolly to inform you of a fact which you may lay by on the shelf
for future use. God does not send you an anchor to hang up in your boathouse;
but, as you are already at sea, He puts the anchor on board for present use.
The Gospel is sent us as manna for today, to be eaten at once. It is to be our
spending money as well as our treasure.
3. It is not sent to thee merely to make thee orthodox in opinion as
to religious matters, although many persons seem to think that this is the one
thing needful. Remember that perdition for the orthodox will be quite as
horrible as eternal ruin for the heterodox. It will be a dreadful thing to go
to hell with a sound head and a rotten heart. Alas! I fear that some of you
will only increase your own misery as you increase your knowledge of the truth,
because you do not practise what you know. “That thou mayest do it!” What is to
be done? There are two things to be done.
Avow thyself to be a believer in Jesus, and a follower of Him. But
let thy confession be sincere; do not lie unto the Lord. Confess that thou art
His follower, because thou art indeed so; and henceforth all thy life bear thou
His Cross and follow Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Very nigh unto thee.
Personal religion
Much is said of the importance of personal religion, as what alone
is pleasing to God, or can secure human salvation. We should know the precise
meaning intended in this expression; and my object will be to define it. And,
first, an idea is given in the text and the circumstances connected with
it--the idea that religion consists in nothing external and formal, nor in any
sudden impressions made from without upon the mind. Great revivals may bear
away thousands on a torrent of sympathy; but it is all in vain, if men do not
retire from the tumult to the silent culture of every right disposition and the
quiet practice of every duty; unless they hear a still voice in the soul, and
retain a steady warmth there when the noise has ceased and the flames have died
away, as on the ancient mount of revelation. But there is yet a stricter meaning
in the phrase, “personal religion.” Our duties may be divided into two great
classes; those belonging to social connections, and those included in the mind
itself. To the latter, personal religion has primary respect. But there is a
third and still closer view of religion, as a personal thing, to which I invite
your thoughts. I believe it is the Creator’s design, that religion should be in
every soul a peculiar acquisition, and have a solitary, unborrowed character;
so that Christians should not be, as we commonly suppose them, mere copies of
each other, but possess each one an original character. As the principle of
beauty in nature shows itself in no monotonous succession of similar objects,
but is displayed in a thousand colours and through unnumbered forms, so should
the principle of piety ever clothe itself in some fresh trait and aspect. I say
this is the Creator’s design. The view I offer may be made more clear by
considering some of the proofs of this design.
1. The first proof that each individual should reach a peculiar
excellence is, that each has received a peculiar constitution. Use faithfully
the materials put into year bands. Despise not nor faint before what in them
may seem rugged and unpromising. You shall find nothing in them so rough and
hard, that patient toil will not transform it into shapes of wondrous beauty.
The house built of light materials, though soon erected, will not stand the
blast like that of marble, hewn with long, exhausting labour. Obey the maxim on
the ancient oracle, “ Know thyself,” and you will not fail of that personal
religion for which you were made.
2. But again: God’s design, that every spirit should reach a peculiar
excellence, is seen in the dispensations of Providence, as well as in the facts
of creation. While the general fortunes of humanity are the same, every man
receives his peculiar discipline from the hand of God. Whatever your state,
sickness or health, prosperity or misfortune, view it with no atheistic eye,
but accept and use it in the culture of that personal religion for which you
were made.
3. Once more: God’s design, that every soul should reach a peculiar
and unborrowed excellence, appears in the fact that all spiritual exercises, to
be genuine, must have a peculiar character. No man can perform any exercise for
another in religion. Who, then, in view of these considerations, has made
religion a personal thing? He only who knows his own nature, and brings all its
powers and dispositions to contribute to the building up of a good character. He
only who makes all the dispensations of Providence, all events of joy and
grief, conspire to guide him towards his perfection. He only whose spiritual
exercises are genuine and sincere, consisting not in profession or appearance,
but expressing real convictions springing from a strong consciousness of want,
and moving the deep places of the soul. The man who has formed these habits
will continually make progress in strong, unborrowed excellence; and when his
time to depart shall come, while earth loses a precious possession, it is not
too much to say that heaven itself shall gain a new treasure, inasmuch as it
will receive a character of fresh, original strength and beauty. But what is
the reliance of those multitudes that make their propagation for another world
in no such strict and solemn way as I have described? Everyone must die by
himself and go to the great bar alone; and there all the excellence of friends,
all the fame of forefathers, will avail him nothing. The traveller in a
foreign land often feels sorely the loss of that character given him by
accidental relations at home. Everything adventitious being stripped off, he is
thrown back upon his personal qualities, and must stand or fall, according to
the judgment passed upon those. Now, how much more surely must such things
forsake us, when we proceed, each one in his own time, attended by no
companion, leaning on no arm of flesh, a solitary pilgrim, on our last journey
to the skies! The heir of rich estates shall leave behind the splendour of wealth
and the flattery of retainers. Thus for everyone the question at last will be,
not of outward connections, but of personal character; not merely what
religious institutions have you supported, but how far have you made religion
itself a personal thing. (C. A. Bartol.)
Instruction nigh at hand
A blacksmith’s wife in Tennessee recently handed to a physician of
the village where she lived a diamond ring, worth £300, which her husband had
found in the hoof of the doctor’s horse. In paring down the hoof to prepare it
for a new shoe his knife touched something hard, which, on being dislodged,
proved to be a ring, and the honest man sent his wife with it to the owner of
the horse. It appeared that the doctor’s daughter had dropped the ring while
out riding, and it had lodged between the horse’s hoof and the shoe, and had
remained there. She had ridden to and fro many times over the road searching
for the lost gem, yet it had been near her all the time. The search reminds us
of men who go hither and thither consulting priests, and who read theological
treatises to find the way to heaven, when all the time instruction is nigh at
hand.
Moral teaching nigh at hand
In the original constitution of things, it is wisely ordered that
happiness should be found everywhere about us. We do not need to have a rock
smitten to supply the thirst of the soul; it is not a distant good; it exists
in everything above, around, and beneath our feet; and all we want is an eye to
discern, and a heart to feel it. Let anyone fix his attention on a moral truth,
and it spreads out and enlarges its dimensions beneath his view, till what
seemed at first as barren a proposition as words could express, appears like an
interesting and glorious truth, momentous in its bearings on the destinies of
men. And so it is with every material thing; let the mind be intently fixed
upon it, and hold it in the light of science, and it gradually unfolds new
wonders. The flower grows even more beautiful than when it first opened its
golden urn and breathed its incense on the morning air; the tree, which was
before thought of only as a thing to be cut down and cast into the fire,
becomes majestic, as it holds its broad shield before the summer sun, or when
it stands like a ship, with its sails furled, and all made fast about it, in
preparation for the winter storm. (North American Review.)
Verses 15-20
I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil.
Life and good, death and evil
1. The matter propounded. Life as the end, good as the means leading
to life; or else, life, that is, the enjoyment of God; and good, the felicity
following it.
2. The manner of proposing. Here is good and evil, life and death, put
together, that we may embrace the one and eschew the other. As the poets feign
of Hercules when he was young, virtue and vice came to woo and make court to
him; virtue, like a sober chaste virgin, offering him labours with praise and
renown; vice, like a painted harlot, wooing him with the blandishments of
pleasure. The word exciting attention, “See”; I have done this in order to
choice; for so it is, Deuteronomy 30:19, “Choose life, that
both thou and thy seed may live.” It is the duty of the faithful servants of
the Lord in a lively manner to set before the people life and death as the
fruit of good and evil. Our work, the matter of it, and the manner in which we
are to propound it to you.
I. The matter: we
must set before the people--
1. Life and good.
2. Death and evil. This I shall open in these propositions--First,
that there is a distinction between good and evil, vice and virtue. He that
doth not acknowledge it is unworthy the name, not only of a Christian, but of a
man. Secondly, the matching these two, death and evil, life and good. And here
I shall speak--
II. The manner how
this is to be done. It must be set forth with all evidence and conviction as to
the reason of men, with all earnestness and affectionate importunity to awaken
their affections. Use of exhortation.
1. Suffer us to discharge our duty in this kind (Hebrews 13:22). Would you have us compound
with you, and deceive your souls with a false hope, which will leave you
ashamed when you most need the comfort of it? Men would live with the carnal,
die with the sincere; therefore suffer us to be earnest with you.
2. The next thing that we exhort you to is to believe the certainty,
consider the weight and importance of these truths, that there is a difference
between good and evil, that the fruit of the one is death, of the other life;
and consider how irrational it is for a man to love death and refuse life. No
man in his right wits can make a doubt which to choose. (T. Manton, D. D.)
Life or death
I. The alternative
placed before all men. Life or death--good or evil (Psalms 106:4-5; 1 Corinthians 2:9; John 14:1-2; Isaiah 35:10).
1. A choice must be made. Death decides for us when it comes (Luke 16:22-23; Hebrews 9:27), and it may come in an hour
(Mark 13:35; Mark 13:37).
2. The undecided are really decided against God: therefore against
“life and good” (John 5:40; John 3:19; 2 Timothy 3:4-5; Proverbs 1:24-27).
3. The choice, however made, is final and eternal. On the one hand
life, love, and happiness for evermore (John 10:28). On the other death and evil
eternally (1 Samuel 2:9; Matthew 5:41).
II. The result of
decision for God (Hebrews 6:18-20; 1 Timothy 6:12).
1. Life (Deuteronomy 30:19). First temporal, as
under the law (Exodus 20:12); then life eternal (John 10:10; John 14:19; Hebrews 7:16); for Christ, “who is our
life,” is eternal (Colossians 3:4).
2. Love (Deuteronomy 30:20; 1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16). “God is love,”
therefore if God’s life be in us, as John 10:28, then God’s love must also be
in us.
3. Obedience, “that thou mayest obey His voice” (verse 20). Yielding
to our Father the obedience of love (2 Thessalonians 1:8; Romans 1:5; 1 Peter 1:2; James 1:23).
4. To dwell in the land of promise (verse 20). A shadow of a better
land--of an inheritance that fadeth not (John 14:1-2; 1 Peter 1:4-5). All these blessings
resulting from decision for God and good are not for ourselves only, but also
for our children (verse 19; Acts 2:39).
III. The power of
this new life. “He is thy life” (verse 20). He is “the resurrection and the
life” (John 11:25-26). He is “the Prince of
Life” (Acts 3:15). With Him is “the fountain of
life.” Hence Christ Himself is the power of the new life (1 John 5:12). He alone can by His
Spirit quicken (John 5:26). If therefore we desire the
life that never fails, that cannot be dissolved (Hebrews 7:16), we must come to Him, that,
like St. Paul, we too may say, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I
live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:19-20; John 14:6; Hebrews 10:19-20; see also verses 11-14,
and Romans 10:4-9). (H. Linton, M. A.)
The good choice
Moses said these words first to Israel. But God says them
to each of us, to everyone who has a conscience, a sense of right and wrong,
and sense to see he ought to do right and shun wrong. I have heard a great man
call this the granite on which all other spiritual beliefs rest, and so it is.
It is taken for granted and built, on in all God’s revelation, in all Christ’s
atoning work, in all the Holy Spirit’s operation. This is a choice we must each
make, not, like the fabled one, for once, but day by day, continually. It is
the resultant of all our life.
I. This daily
endeavour to be holy, to be like Christ, will be a spring of interest which
will never fail, when other interests fail with our failing selves.
II. If we choose
well, we must end well. If we grow here fit for a better place, pure, kind,
hardworking, unselfish, we cannot be a failure.
III. It is not for
ourselves only, either here or hereafter, that God bids us choose good. We have
got in our keeping the worldly peace of others.
IV. Love to the
Redeemer, who died for us and lives for us, is the great spring of all
right-doing. Only by the grace of God can we choose good. (A. K. H. Boyd, D.
D.)
The law of God sets before us good and evil
I. As a matter of
information, to show us the real difference that is between them, and the
different consequences which they produce.
1. The Word of God sets before us this difference, in so plain
convincing terms that, though we may be perverted by evil, yet it is hard for
us to be mistaken. Though God has sent us into this wilderness of a world,
where there are many intricate passages to perplex us, and much variety of
objects to distract our thoughts, yet He has not left us without a guide, nor
Himself without a witness. He has given us His Word, as a perfect rule, by
which we shall certainly be tried at last: and therefore by this rule we ought
to try our own actions now.
2. Conscience, when it comes to speak for itself, as it will
sometimes do, is as convincing as any revelation, and as obliging as any law;
it is a witness that will not be silenced, and a judge that cannot be suborned.
It is this that makes us look upon some actions with abhorrence, and upon
others with delight; and according to this inward relish or disgust so we learn
to discover the difference between good and evil, and find that every action of
man has an indelible character stamped upon it, by which its value is easy to
be known.
II. As an object of
your choice. When things of so very different natures are set before us, one
would think it an easy matter to be determined. If our notions of good and evil
are too weak to work upon us, and hold our minds for some time in suspense; yet
surely life and death admit of no dispute. One is the sole delight, and the
other the utter abhorrence of our nature, and a powerful instinct within us
always inclines us to the better part. What indefatigable pains do we take to
gratify our foolish lusts, when with half the pains we might learn to live much
happier without them. What violence do we use upon ourselves, to lay our souls
and consciences asleep, for fear the beautiful prospect of life should tempt us
to be virtuous, or the dismal apparitions of death should affright us from our
vice, when half that force employed against our vanities and corruptions would
suffice to take heaven itself by violence, and make us forever happy. (C.
Hickman, D. D.)
Choose death or life.
The central thought of the text lies in the word choose.
The Israelites are on the point of entering the promised land, and Moses
entreats them to choose between idolatry and the religion of Jehovah. A similar
alternative is before us now.
I. The choice is
personal and free. These words which were addressed to Israel as a people,
applied to each individual in particular; for the individual alone is free and
responsible. To each human being the command is given, “Choose.” The power of
making such a choice is ours, else the words of the text had in them no
meaning. It has been said that religion enthralls conscience and thought, and
that it must be rejected in the name of liberty. That is false. The Bible, on
the contrary, reveals and holds out to us that glorious liberty of the children
of God which is inseparable from holiness; and freedom of choice is affirmed in
its pages as the primary condition and starting point of our enfranchisement.
There can be no more energetic appeal than that contained in the word “Choose!”
But the Bible never separates the idea of liberty from that of responsibility.
The liberty of which it tells is that which takes the Divine law as its binding
yet not coercive rule. Such a religion is, more than any other, fitted to form
strong characters and free nations. Together with human liberty, the Bible
teaches that mutual dependence which unites all the sons of Adam, and which we
call human solidarity. A thousand influences, over which we have no control,
act upon us; yet, however numerous and powerful these may be, they do not
affect our liberty. We can resist them, and it is our duty to do so. Again, the
Bible speaks of supernatural powers that are brought to bear upon our will, but
without enchaining or destroying it. There is an enemy that prowls around you;
but if you resist him he will flee from you. You have a God who loves you, but
He will not save you against your will. You have a Saviour, but if you will not
open your hearts to Him, He will not enter them by force. In relation to God
and in relation to Satan, you are free. There is one thing, however, that you
are not free to do: you cannot refuse to make your choice. And this choice,
whether good or bad, is the one essential business of life.
II. This choice is
to be made between two opposite courses. “I have set before you life and
death.” Jesus Christ speaks of the broad and of the narrow way: no middle
course or third way. This classification does not exclude certain differences
of degree which morally exist between men. In the broad as well as the narrow
way various stages may have been reached; but there are only two courses
leading to two opposite ends. At this hour you are standing at the Junction of
these two ways, but henceforth you shall be walking in one or the other of
them. Your destinies will vary infinitely, but all outward diversities are as
nothing in comparison of the moral difference which shall result from your
personal choice. Each day you will take a step further in either of these two
paths; the greater your progress, the riper shall you be for salvation or for
condemnation. Whilst this choice is still possible and comparatively easy,
choose life!
III. This choice
must be made today. In the life of individuals as well as in that of nations
there are certain decisive moments that determine their future. Such a time was
it when Adam was subjected to the trial that involved issues of such moment for
the human family. He chose. He disobeyed, and by the disobedience of one man
sin entered into the world. We find such another hour in the life of Jesus. He
is tempted in the wilderness. He chooses, and by the obedience of one man we have
eternal life. Would you know what a moment of blind folly may cost a family, an
individual, a nation? Remember Lot casting a covetous eye on the plain of
Sodom; Esau selling his birthright; the Jews shouting: “Not this man, but
Barabbas”; Felix putting off his conversion, “Go thy way, and when I have,”
etc. Would you know, on the contrary, how fruitful in blessing may a moment of
fidelity be? Remember Abraham obeying the Divine call; Moses preferring the
affliction of his people to the delights of sin; Solomon praying for wisdom;
the disciples of Jesus leaving all to follow Him. Will you follow the first of
these examples or the last? Choose.
IV. The witnesses
of your choice. “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day.” The
witnesses that surround you are not against you but for you. They are parents,
pastors, the Church, the angels. And who can tell if among the invisible
witnesses there are not some for whom you mourn! These witnesses might one day
rise up against you and exclaim: “We were present on such a day, at such an
hour, in such a place; the exhortations of the preacher were pressing; the
Christian life presented itself to this young man, with its duties, its joys,
its sorrows; Jesus was there, ready to forgive the past and--that young man
would not!” To this outward testimony will be added that of your own
conscience: “That is true,” it will say; “you might have decided for God.” Oh!
how overpowering shall be the confusion of the hardened sinner! There is but
one way of escaping it. Choose life today.
V. The
consequences of this choice. “Blessing or cursing, life or death.” Many will
find these words too stern. They are Divine. They are logical. The sinner
cannot be blessed, else God would cease to be holy. There are two ways open before
you. If you choose the straight way you shall be blest in your youth, in your
manhood, in your profession, in your family, in your days of joy and of sorrow,
in eternity. If you choose the broad way, whatever be your lot here below, you
shall not be blest. What shall you become when Christ shall say to you: “I know
you not!” Choose life! (Bonnefon.)
The service of God chosen
I. The service of
God is ever a matter of free personal choice. Surely irresistible grace is
contrary to Scripture and experience. It reduces religious service to
mechanism, and destroys that free-willingness which gives worth to all
religious actions. True, that exemption from compulsion is not release from
obligation, and that it is man’s bounden duty to serve God. To man God’s grace
should be indeed irresistible. Yet if man turn from God the responsibility is
with man, and not God.
II. Further, the
address of Moses demonstrated that the service of God is based upon reasonable
considerations. If they turned from God, then upon them would fall His
judgments, but if they cleaved unto Him they would know His blessing. Religion
is “our reasonable service,” and careful thought ever leads to the conclusion
that to choose God is--
1. To obey conscience;
2. To follow wisdom.
III. Lastly, the
address of Moses was made forceful by his noble personal example. No desire to
please the people led him to qualify his words. The experience of a long life
spent in the service of God had convinced him of the glory of God’s service,
and from that conviction he would not swerve. (C. E. Walters.)
Choosing life
I. The solemn
alternative which is offered to every soul. Now, young people come into life,
and as you look forward, it has roseate tints, and there is a natural buoyancy
in living by impulse, which is one of God’s best gifts to you, and which I
would be the last man to try to darken; but what I would press on you is that
life, as it is opening before you, is no pleasure ground, still less a factory,
or a shop, or a warehouse, least of all a place for dissipation. But that it is
set before every one of you--a tremendous “either . . . or,” which you have to
deal with whether you will or no. You have the alternative of, on the one hand,
a life of sense, and on the other hand a life of spirit. Is it to be sense, or
is it to be spirit? Is it to be the lower needs of your nature gratified, and
the higher ones starved? Is it to be licence or self-control,--which? To gather
it all into one, the choice which every son of man has to make is between self
and God. Now, mind! it is an alternative; that is to say, you cannot ride the
two horses at once. There are plenty of us that try to do that. If we have
religion at all it must be the uppermost thing in us, and must rule us. If it
does not, we do not really possess it in any measure. Further, let me remind
you of the issues which are wrapped up in this sharp alternative. Remember my
text: “life or death, blessing or cursing,” said Moses. You say, “Oh, I surely
may indulge in these natural requirements of my corporeal nature.” Yes! But in
electing whether you will live for sense or spirit, for self or God, make clear
to yourself that the one is life, the other is death; the one is blessed, the
other is cursed. Eternal issues of the gravest sort hang upon your relation to
Jesus Christ, and you cannot alter that fact.
II. The need for a
deliberate act of decision. An enormous number of us do not live by the
deliberate choice of our wills, but are content to take our colour from
circumstances, like some lake that, when the sky above it is blue, is all
sparkling and sunny, and when the great clouds are drawn over the azure is all
dull and sad. So hosts of us have never once deliberately sat down to look
realities in the face, or said to ourselves, in regard to the deepest things of
our lives, “I see these alternatives before me, and here I now, deliberately,
make my choice, and take this, and reject that.” Circumstances rule us. There
are fishes that change the hue of their spots according to the colour of the
bed of the stream. How many of you owe your innocence simply to not having been
tempted? How many of you are respectable people for no other reason than
because you have always lived amongst such, and it is the fashion of your
circle to be like that? Now, you cannot get away from the influence of your
surroundings, and it is no use trying, but you can determine your attitude to
your surroundings. And you can only do that by bringing a resolved will to bear
upon them as the result of a deliberate choice. Now, remember that any man who
lives by anything else than deliberate choice and resolve is degrading himself
by the act. Have you not got reason, judgment, common sense--call it what you
like--which is meant to be your pilot? And have you not got a conscience which
is meant to be your compass? And what becomes of the ship if the pilot goes to
sleep and lashes the helm right away up on one side, and puts a cover over the
binnacle where the compass is, and never looks at the chart? Let me remind you,
still further, that unless you make for the great things of life, the
deliberate choice of the better, part, you have in effect made the disastrous
choice of the worse. The policy of drift always ends in ruin for a nation, for
an army, for an individual. To go down stream is easy, but there is a Niagara
at the far end. You choose the worse when you do not deliberately choose the
better. I do not suppose that any of you have deliberately said to yourselves,
“I do not mean to have anything to do with Jesus Christ,” but you have drifted.
You have not resolved that you will have something to do with Him. Not
choosing, you have chosen. It is that widespread indifference, and not either
intellectual or any other kind of opposition to Christianity, that I for one am
afraid of, and into which so many of you have fallen. And so there is need for
decision. “If the Lord be God, follow Him; and if Baal, then follow him.”
III. Some reasons
why that decision should be made now.
1. I pray you to make choice of Jesus Christ for your Saviour and your
King now, because this is your plastic, formative time. The metal is running
fluid, as it were, out of the furnace when you are young. Its gets hardened
into heavy bars when you get a little older, and it needs a great deal of
hammering in order to bring it into other shape than that which it has taken.
2. Let me remind you, too, of another reason for immediate
decision--that you need a Guide. Your desires, longings, passions are strong.
They were meant to be. Your experience is little. You need a Guide; you will
never need Him more. Take Him now.
3. Another reason is, because you will save yourselves from a great
deal of pain, and sorrow, and disappointment, and perhaps remorse, if you now
begin your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
4. And the last reason that I suggest to you is this, that every
moment that you put off decision, and every appeal which you leave unobeyed,
will make it harder for you if over you do choose Jesus Christ. (A.
Maclaren, D. D.)
The choice of life
What an awful alternative--if it were true! Who, where are they
who would not choose life, if the choice were really offered them? The martyr
has chosen death, but we shudder at the cruel times which have demanded such
self-sacrifice; the devotee has chosen death, and chooses it today, but we pity
his fanatic faith; the maniac has chosen death, but only because bereft of
reason; the suicide is the remaining exception--and his example “proves the
rule.” But this alternative is not true. Life and death, in this physical
sense, are not matters of rational choice. We are started on our journey, and
spontaneously and rightly we do all that we can to keep in the way until the
bodily machinery either breaks down at some weak point, or wears out generally,
and all our endeavours are at an end. Duty and instinct compel us in the same
direction; there is no choice here. Let us pass from the physical to the
spiritual, which is also the scriptural sense. I have set before thee this day
life and good, and death and evil, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose
the inner life of goodness on which the blessing is pronounced, and not the
inward deadness which destroys your true being. And again we say--What an
alternative, if it were true! What a crowning choice--if it were indeed ours!
But actual life--spiritual life--this true inward life, cannot be chosen or
cast aside at once and forever, with our eyes wide open, and our minds made up,
and our wills prepared to take all the consequences--the blessing or the curse.
For us life does not concentrate its chances and hazard all its prospects at
one only point; it is not even a series of points, at each of which this chance
is renewed. It is not a single, nor yet an occasional, game of “touch and go.”
Rather is it an ever-varying, many-winding river, its course now this way, now
that; its waters muddy or clear, shallow or deep, at one time swollen and
turgid, at another peacefully gliding through quietest scenes--but never at
rest, always advancing resistlessly on, and often luring us by its motion into
drowsy content. We wend our way through “the everydayness of this weekday
world” attended by associations, painful or pleasant, which touch us at every
point, surrounded by interests of varying import, and more numerous than we can
name, with our plans in one direction, then new hopes in another--before,
behind, on either side is this ever-shifting scenery, this crowded landscape of
circumstance, through which we float for evermore--this is what life means to
us. Where is there space, or chance, or stopping point for that single choice
between two things only, as though all the rest would vanish at a word? This is
a very plausible plea, especially for busy men. But however admissible in a
general sense, there are several cases which it does not cover. There are times
in human experience when the vast difference between these two only things is
brought so bluntly before men--when that unlovely blank between what has been
and what might be seems to cover so completely their whole horizon, that they
are impelled to “pull up,” to face a choice of two conditions, and to decide
abidingly for one or the other. Then the single, final alternative--“life or
death”--is placed before them, and it is, moreover, felt to be absolute and
exclusive. When Paul heard the voice say, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
Me?” and straightway transformed himself from persecutor to preacher; when
Augustine was stayed by the childlike tones chanting, “Tolle, lege,” and opened
at words which to him were salvation; when Bunyan was suddenly stopped at his
game by the warning appeal in his heart, “Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to
heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell?” this difference was realised, this
alternative accepted. But if these times, in which we are compelled to face an
inner alternative, are rare, there are other times, happily less rare, when we
are not compelled, but quietly prompted to face our choice. We are not forced,
but asked, to look into our hearts. Our better self makes a secret suggestion
that all there is not as it might be, that the lower self is allowed far too
much prerogative, that one can only triumph by the other’s fall, and that, in
fact, we must know our own mind and say deliberately which it shall be.
“Choose,” whispers the secret voice: “shake off all seeming, put away your
coloured spectacles of prejudice, strip yourself of every proud thought,
whether of wealth or position or ability, lay aside your little worldly
triumphs, pray to be shown your transgressions as they truly are; and then look
at yourself in the light of heaven, as a child of God.” Such a time, surely, is
the opening of a New Year. It is no mere return of habit, but a resistless
instinct that invests this time with a special significance. A New Year, if it
means anything beyond an altered almanac, means new life to everyone amongst
us, but it will mean that only so far as we are faithful to our inner light. It
may mean, and ought to mean, the awakening of holier desires, the birth of
higher ideals, the death or defeat of a whole army of little sins and shallow
ways, the oft-convicted traitors to our true being. It may be--let it be--“a
secret anniversary of the heart” on which we take stock of ourselves, clear our
accounts if we can, and start afresh. It is indeed a charge upon our weak wills
that we need such outward promptings to attempt utterly the thing that is in us
to be. The true Christlike life is an even progress towards perfection, not a
series of jumps, or starts, or sudden ascents. But so long as our very weakness
itself cries out for these helps, so long as these times of renewal are offered
to us, let us not pass them by without hearing their message. “Take them lest
the chain be broken, ere thy pilgrimage be done.” (F. K. Freeston.)
Freedom of man’s will; or, the great decision
Two orders of men are generally fatalists--the eminently
successful and the supereminently unfortunate. The former regard themselves as
the children of destiny, for whom a place in the temple of the ages has been
prepared, and without whom its glory would be incomplete. To this class belong
the Caesars, the Napoleons, and Mahomets, whose wonderful abilities were only
equalled by their complacent confidence in their own guiding star. In the ranks
of the second are to be found many of those unhappy ones who have failed in
life’s battle, with whom everything has fallen out badly, and who have steadily
gone from loss to loss, or from crime to crime. Such people seem to derive
comfort from the belief that they are the victims of fate; that they too would
have succeeded if the Supreme Power had only been propitious; and that,
consequently, circumstances or something else beyond their control, and not
themselves, are to blame for the disasters attending their career. It is not to
be denied that there is much in the philosophical speculations and the
religious creeds of mankind to encourage such opinions. In India, in Greece, in
Arabia, as well as among Western nations, the most ancient faiths affirmed the
doctrine of necessity. Back of gods and men, and above them, in the Greek
mythology reigned the unspeakable and unchangeable Fates, to whom the
oppressed, like Prometheus, could appeal, and on whose final decisions
everything from Olympus down to Hades absolutely depended. Buddha, also, and
with him the wisest Eastern sages, regarded the race as practically in bondage
to a Sovereign Soul, and as sweeping along a preordained course to its final
goal. He had no logical place in his system for will-freedom, and was as far
from doing justice to its phenomena as Spinoza or Mr. Buckle. This, however, is
not the doctrine of the Scriptures. The Bible not only directly affirms the
moral liberty of God’s intelligent creatures, but its entire revelation
proceeds on the assumption that they are free to choose. Eden’s garden and the
Fall lose their significance unless Adam was free. So when we come to study
redemption the Bible does not hesitate to teach that its efficacy depends on
the volition of the sinner, and that he is really able to accept or reject
eternal life. On what other hypothesis can such passages as these be explained:
“See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil.” The
material universe which He has made cannot but obey His law. From age to age,
and through all dispensations, the sun rises and sets, the stars peep out at
night, the seasons come and go in their order, and the tides of the sea throb
and surge with an exactness and regularity which precludes the possibility of
derangement. Not one of these ponderous orbs or these Titanic forces has chosen
the service which it renders. Blind, unknowing, uncaring, winds and waves
below, and planet and constellation above, apply themselves to their allotted
work. No wonder that a heart like the heart of God, full of fatherhood and
brotherhood, should yearn to develop, among these enthralled masses an order of
service different from theirs--a service that should be freely offered and
which should be preferred beyond all others. The guilty must choose to be
saved, and must choose to be saved in the way acceptable to the Almighty.
Doubtless this interpretation of the Bible will to some minds be regarded as
incompatible with what it seems to teach concerning God’s sovereignty.
Unquestionably there is an appearance of contradiction; and yet I do not think
it is as serious as many suppose. We know that even among men a great many
wills come into play, and that frequently they coincide without infringing on
each other; and why may not the same be possible on the part of the Creator and
the creature? But when we meditate on this subject we should remember that we
tread the borderland of two worlds--the natural and the supernatural--and that,
like all other domains, it is next to impossible to tell how and where they
flow into each other. Scientists find it difficult to trace the exact
boundaries between the vegetable and animal kingdoms; they cannot tell exactly
where the one ends and the other begins, and neither can they explain how and
why they interpenetrate each other. Psychologists are equally perplexed. They
are constrained to admit the relations between mind and brain to be
inexplorable. No one can successfully deny the movement of history in which the
Divine has been manifest in the human--as in the Incarnation, the founding of
Christianity, and in those surprising providences which have vindicated right
and confounded wrong--and yet no one can explain their harmony with the human,
or prove that they in any way intrenched upon its freedom. The meeting place is
veiled from us. Neither can we see in the application of redemption where these
twain meet, how they interact on each other, and how they do so without
limiting the power of the one or controlling the freedom of the other. Contact
and interpenetration here is like contact and interpenetration in other
departments of God’s wonderful cosmos, an unsearchable mystery, a mist-covered
ocean, where only wreck awaits us if we insist on braving its darkness. Were
not the Scriptures as decisive as they are on this general subject, I should be
inclined to the doctrine already set forth by considerations of the weightiest
character. What these are I shall briefly set before you, that you may be
delivered from the illusions of modern fatalism, if unhappily you have been
caught in their wiles. I would first of all remind you that some of the
profoundest philosophers, such as Kant, Jacobi, and Hamilton, contend that
consciousness is the most reliable witness of what we are, and that it
testifies to our moral freedom. Analyse your own nature, and see whether it
does not confirm the report which these thinkers give of its dignity. Do you
not find that it discriminates between the voluntary and the involuntary, and
that it attaches responsibility to the one and irresponsibility to the other?
Let any man look within himself, and he will hear many voices declaring that he
is free. Conscience, as it reproves him for wrong-doing, says, or there is no
meaning in its voice, “Thou art free”; Remorse, dogging his footsteps and
driving him from place to place, thunders in his ear, or his terror is absurd,
“Thou art free”; Deliberation, as it ponders two paths and balances the reasons
in favour of each, whispers distinctly, or this care and forethought are
superfluous, “Thou art free”; and Desire, as it sways him and develops in his soul
fierce contests with convictions of right or of prudence, proclaims above the
battle, “Thou art free!” Thus he has the witness in himself, and if he doubts
its reliability he may easily satisfy it by appealing from within to without.
What says society, what say its leaders, what its members? Hegel, having taken
a comprehensive view of humanity as revealed in history, gives utterance to the
profound sentiment: “Freedom is the essence of spirit, as gravitation is the
essence of matter.” That is, there could be no spirit without freedom, even as
there could be no matter without gravitation. Society is organised on this
principle. Its laws, its duties, its penalties, its censures and its praises,
all centre in and derive their significance from the firm belief that whatever
else man may or may not be, he is free. And the course of history, which
influenced the thought of Hegel, confirms this judgment. It is seen that no
mechanical theory, no doctrine of averages and of hard necessity, can be
reconciled with its singular and eccentric movements, or its surprising and
revolutionary changes. This Mr. Froude has clearly and admirably set forth in a
paper reviewing Mr. Buckle. In opposition to that gentleman’s so called
“Science of History,” Froude reminds us that the first result of real science
is the power of foresight, that when knowledge on any subject is systematised
we can as accurately speak of its future as of its past. Thus, because
astronomy is a true science, we can calculate eclipses and anticipate the most
striking occurrences. But, he argues, when we come to the field of human
endeavour certainty disappears, and we cannot tell what man will do tomorrow.
He insists that such phenomena as Buddhism and Mohammedanism could not have
been foretold, and he adds: “Could Tacitus have looked forward nine centuries
to the Rome of Gregory VII, could he have beheld the representative of the
majesty of all the Caesars holding the stirrup of the Pontiff of that vile and
execrated sect, the spectacle would scarcely have appeared to him the
fulfilment of a rational expectation or an intelligible result of the causes in
operation around him.” We cannot anticipate the future of the world. Our
soberest calculations may be deranged in a moment, and some unforeseen circumstances
may frustrate all our expectations. Why? Why can we not as accurately predict
the social convulsion that may be as the eclipse which cannot fail to be?
Because in the domain of the stars there is no volition, while in that of
history liberty of will is a controlling force. The freedom of man’s will is
vitally associated with the idea of morality. They are inseparable. Kant has
exerted himself to show that they stand or fall together, and enters with so
much zeal upon his task that he sometimes makes them appear synonymous. He
says, “We have now reduced the Idea of Morality to that of Freedom of Will,”
and in another place he writes, “Autonomy of Will is the alone foundation of
Morality.” Hamilton likewise, following the sage of Koningsberg, declares that
“virtue involves liberty”; “that the possibility of morality depends on the
possibility of liberty; for if man be not a free agent he is not the author of
his actions, and has therefore no responsibility - nor moral responsibility -
at all.” In opposition to this position we find Spencer (Data of
Ethics, p. 127)
asserting that “the sense of duty or moral obligation is transitory”; and he
has certainly allowed no permanent place for it in his system. Now, I agree
that we find here one of the strongest reasons for upholding the doctrine of
free will. Under the declining sense of its truthfulness the colour and meaning
are disappearing from the idea of duty. Indeed, we rarely hear a word now about
“duty” but endless talk about rights. We are ready to fight and contend for
“rights”; but, alas! our zeal for “duties” groweth cold. I insist on this
doctrine, as it is the key to man’s greatness. It shows that he is endowed with
a wonderful and real power of conquering what to the faint hearted seems the
unconquerable. Hamilton teaches that man “is capable of carrying the law of
duty into effect in opposition to solicitations, the impulsions of his material
nature”; and he declares that liberty is “capable of resisting and conquering
the counteraction of our animal nature.” Kant likewise says: “The instincts of
man’s physical nature give birth to obstacles which hinder and impede him in
the execution of his duty. They are, in fact, mighty opposing forces which he
has to go forth and encounter.” What a grand conception is here presented of
the will striving with inner enemies and overcoming their hostility. And if it
can subdue inner foes, can it not resist and repel outer antagonists? I do not
claim that your volition can change your nature, but I do claim that you are accountable
for it, as your volition decides whether your nature shall be brought within
the influence of heaven’s grace or not. Mere volition never built a ship, or a
house, won a battle, or accomplished a voyage; and neither did it ever sanctify
a soul. There is a difference between “will” and “power.” The “will” to be
saved is of man, “the power” is of God. But whosoever wills cannot fail to find
the power; for He has promised to confer on all such the water of life freely.
For your choice, then, you are accountable, and your eternal destinies hang on
your volition. (G. Lorimer, D. D.)
The offer of life and death
I. The two courses
specified. “Life and good, and death and evil.” We shall take the latter first;
that is, “death and evil.” Now, we observe--
1. That this is the course in which all men are involved by nature
and practice.
2. This state is one of extreme wretchedness and misery.
3. It is only the shadow of the woes which await the sinner in the
eternal world. Now, that is the dark side of the text.
Let us look at the other course specified, “life and good.”
1. Life is presented to us. For we are already dead, and life is the
first essential blessing we need. Now, the life offered to us is--
2. Good is also presented to us. The favour of God the chief good;
the love of God in the soul; the good providence of God; the good promises of
God; the good enjoyments of God; and last of all, in eternity, pure unmixed
good forever and ever--fulness of joy.
II. These things
are set before us.
1. Where are they set before us?
2. For what are they set before us?
Application--
1. The way of life and good is easy and free to you all. Repentance
towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God is the willing Saviour of
all men
2. None can perish but those who willingly choose death and evil.
Every lost soul has destroyed itself.
3. The necessity of now choosing life and good. Did you ever know the
diseased man to choose death; the condemned man, the shipwrecked man, etc.? (J.
Burns, D. D.)
Life
I. What is life and
who is the author of it?
1. The life spoken of here is three fold.
2. God alone is the Author of this life, for--
II. What is implied
in this life?
1. Knowledge.
2. Feeling.
3. Tasting.
4. Movement.
5. Speech.
6. Hearing. All faculties exercised in God’s service.
III. How are we to
obtain spiritual and eternal life?
1. Through Jesus Christ.
2. Patient continuance in well-doing, watching, praying, fasting,
etc. (W. Stevens.)
The blessing and the curse
These words were spoken by Moses to all the Israelites shortly
before his death. He had told them that they owed all to God Himself; that God
had delivered them out of slavery in Egypt; God had led them to the land of
Canaan; God had given them just laws and right statutes, which if they kept
they would live long in their new home, and become a great and mighty nation.
Then he calls heaven and earth to witness that he had set before them life and
death, blessing and cursing. If they trusted in the one true God, and served
Him, and lived as men should, then a blessing would come on them and their
children, on their flocks and herds, on their land and all in it. But if they
forgot God, and began to worship the sun and the moon, then they would die;
they would grow superstitious, cowardly, lazy, and profligate, and therefore
weak and miserable, like the wretched Canaanites whom they were going to drive
out; and then they would die. Then he says--I call heaven and earth to witness
against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and
cursing. He called heaven and earth to witness. That was no empty figure of
speech. If you will recollect the story of the Israelites you will see plainly
enough what Moses meant. The heaven would witness against them. The same stars
which would look down on their freedom and prosperity in Canaan had looked down
on all their slavery and misery in Egypt, hundreds of years before. They would
seem to say--Just as the heavens above you are the same, wherever you go, and
whatever you are like, so is the God who dwells above the heaven: unchangeable,
everlasting, faithful, and true, full of light and love, from whom comes down
every good and perfect gift, in whom is neither variableness nor shadow of
turning. Do you turn to Him continually, and as often as you turn away from
Him: and you shall find Him still the same; governing you by unchangeable law,
keeping His promise forever. And the earth would witness against them. That
fair land of Canaan whither they were going, with its streams and wells
spreading freshness and health around; its rich corn valleys, its uplands
covered with vines, its sweet mountain pastures, a very garden of the Lord, cut
off and defended from all the countries round by sandy deserts and dreary
wildernesses; that land would be a witness to them, at their daily work, of
God’s love and mercy to their forefathers. The ruins of the old Canaanite
cities would be a witness to them, and say--Because of their sins the Lord
drove out these old heathens from before you. Copy their sins, and you will
share their ruin. Does not the heaven above our heads, and the earth beneath
our feet, witness against us here? Do they not say to us--God has given you
life and blessing? If you throw that away, and choose instead death and a
curse, it is your own fault, not God’s. Look at the heaven above us. Does not
that witness against us? Has it not seen, for now fifteen hundred years and
more, God’s goodness to us, and to our forefathers? All things have changed:
language, manners, customs, religion. We have changed our place, as the
Israelites did; and dwell in a different land from our forefathers: but that
sky abides forever. The same sun, that moon, those stars shone down upon our
heathen forefathers, when the Lord chose them, and brought them out of the
German forests into this good land of England, that they might learn to worship
no more the sun, and the moon, and the storm, and the thunder cloud, but to
worship Him, the living God, who made all heaven and earth. And shall not the
earth witness against us? Look round upon this noble English land. Why is it
net, as many a land far richer in soil and climate is now, a desolate
wilderness; the land lying waste, and few men left in it, and those who are
left robbing and murdering each other, every man’s hand against his fellow,
till the wild beasts of the field increase upon them? Why but because the Lord
set before our forefathers life and death, blessing and cursing; and our
forefathers chose life, and lived; and it was well with them in the land which
God gave to them, because they chose blessing, and God blessed them
accordingly? In spite of many mistakes and shortcomings--for they were sinful
mortal men, as we are--they chose life and a blessing; and clave unto the Lord
their God, and kept His covenant; and they left behind, for us their children,
these churches, these cathedrals, for an everlasting sign that the Lord was
with us, as He had been with them, and would be with our children after us. And
then when one reads the history of England; when one thinks over the history of
any one city, even one country parish; above all, when one looks into the
history of one’s own foolish heart: one sees how often, though God has given us
freely life and blessing, we have been on the point of choosing death and the
curse instead; of saying--We will go our own way, and not God’s way. The land
is ours, not God’s; our souls are our own, not God’s. We are masters, and who
is master over us? That is the way to choose death, and the curse, shame and
poverty and ruin; and how often we have been on the point of choosing it? What
has saved us from ruin? I know not, unless it be for this one reason, that into
that heaven which witnesses against us the merciful and loving Christ is
ascended; that He is ever making intercession for us. Yes. He ascended on high,
that He might send down His Holy Spirit; and that Spirit is among us, working
patiently and lovingly in many hearts--would that I could say in all--giving
men right judgment; putting good desires into their hearts, and enabling them
to put them into good practice. (C. Kingsley, M. A.)
Choosing life or death
I. The personal
and free character of the choice to be made. The religion of the Bible is the
religion of liberty. I know of no bolder affirmation of the free will than that
which is contained in my text. But the Bible never separates the idea of
liberty from that of responsibility; the liberty of which it speaks is that
which takes the law of God as its rule, not coercive but obligatory, and of
which we shall have to give an account on the judgment day.
II. Free and
personal choice is between two parties, between two opposite directions. Two,
said I not three, nor a greater number. “I have set before you life and death,
blessing and cursing.” Thus also the Lord Jesus speaks of two ways, the narrow
way and the broad way; and in the picture He draws of the last judgment He
calls some “blessed,” and the others “cursed”; nowhere does He speak of an
intermediate class. This moral dualism runs through the whole of Scripture.
III. Now is the time
to choose. Would you know how much an hour of blindness, of impiety, may
involve of malediction for an individual, a family, a nation?--Remember Esau
selling his birthright, and afterwards shedding useless and bitter tears on the
consequences of his shameful bargain; the Jews crying in blind fury, “Not this
man, but Barabbas”; the governor Felix, placed by providence in contact with
St. Paul, and putting a stop to conversation which troubles him, by the plea in
bar so common and fatal, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient
season I will call for thee.” Would you know, on the contrary, how fruitful in
blessings may be one hour of fidelity, one generous and heroic
choice?--Remember Abraham, obedient to the Divine calling and deserving to be
called “the father of the faithful”; Moses, “choosing rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a
season.” The decisive hour has come.
IV. The witnesses
of the choice. Our text tells us of witnesses, sublime though speechless,
heaven and earth: “I call heaven and earth to record against you,” says the
Lord. Faithful to the Spirit of the New Covenant, we shall tell you that the
witnesses you are surrounded by are not against you, but for you. Those
witnesses are, in the first place, parents who ardently desire to see their
children walk faithfully in the ways of the Lord; ministers, whose greatest joy
would be to see you walking in the ways of piety and truth; the Church that
presents you to God as its fondest hope; the holy angels who rejoice over every
sinner who repents and gives himself truly to God.
V. The
consequences of the choice. “Blessing or cursing; life or death.” If you choose
life you shall be blessed. You shall be blessed in your youth and in your manhood;
blessed in your career, be it long or short, obscure or brilliant; blessed in
your family, present and future; blessed in your successes and in your
reverses; blessed in your joys and in your griefs. At the end Christ will place
you amongst those to whom He will say, “Come, ye blessed of My Father,” etc. If
you do not choose life, I know not what may be your lot on earth. One thing is
certain--you shall not be blessed. What will you do when, to all those who will
not have done the will of His Father, He will say, “I know you not”? It does
not behove me to decide what will be the end of such a way, the result of such
a choice, but you have heard those two words of my text, “Cursing! Death!”
Choose life! (C. Babut, B. D.)
The decisive choice
I. “I call heaven
and earth to record against you,” says Moses. This was no idle rhetorical
formula. The open sky over his head was the witness and pledge of permanence,
the sign that in the midst of perpetual change there is that which abides. The
earth at his feet had been given to man that he might dress it and keep it, and
bring food for his race out of it. The one said to man, “Thou art meant to look
above thyself. Only in doing so canst thou find endurance, illumination, life.”
The other said, “Thou art meant to work here. Thou must put forth an energy
which is not in me, or I will not yield thee my fruits.”
II. But Moses says,
“I have set before thee life and death,” etc. There is no hint given to the
Israelite upon which he can build a dream of security; he is warned in the most
fearful language against forgetting the things his eyes had seen. But all the
terrible warnings and prophecies of what he and his descendants may do
hereafter imply that he is in a blessed condition, and that they will be.
III. And therefore
he goes on, “choose life.” Say deliberately to thyself, “I do not mean to give
up the ground on which I am standing. God has placed me on it; all that is
contrary to God will not prevail against God, and therefore need not prevail
against me.” “Choose life” is still the command at all times.
IV. The great
reward of choosing life is, “that thou mayest love the Lord thy God,” etc. The
growth of love and knowledge is always proclaimed in Scripture as the reward
and prize of a man who walks in the way in which God has set him to walk, who
chooses life, and not death.
V. “That it may go
well with thee and with thy seed after thee.” The great lesson that the fathers
are to teach their children is, that God will be the present and living Guide
of each succeeding race as much as He has been of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (F.
D. Maurice, M. A.)
For He is thy life, and
the length of thy days.
The God of our life
I. Upon what
account is God said to be our life?
1. God gives life. He is the Author and Fountain of our being. All
living creatures have their life from God (Acts 17:25; Psalms 104:30); but especially man (Isaiah 42:5), who is the object of His
peculiar care.
2. God maintains life. Life in man is like a lamp kindled, which
wastes and consumes, and will be soon extinguished, without fresh supplies of
oil. And this supply is from God, who doth not only light the lamp at first,
but keeps it burning. How liberal is God to the benefit and comfort of man;
other creatures die that we may live.
3. God preserves life. He doth not only maintain and keep it from
inward wasting, by daily supplies, but doth also preserve and keep it from
outward dangers in daily protections. He holdeth our soul in life (Psalms 66:9). His daily visitation preserveth
our spirits (Job 10:12).
4. God sweetens life. We have not only life from Him, but all the
comforts of life, which tend to make life pleasant and delightful; and without
which it would be little better than a continuing death.
5. God prolongs life. Long life is very frequently in Scripture
spoken of as a special gift of God.
6. God restores life. Elijah, Elisha, Christ, and His apostles, have
done it. And He will do it for all mankind at the general resurrection at the
great day (John 11:25; 1 Corinthians 15:42; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; John 5:26-28).
7. God is the sovereign Lord of life. The life of all the creatures
is entirely at the disposal of the living God.
II. The explication
and illustration of such truths as those doth all aim at the application of
them. What fruit, then, may we gather from this tree of life?
1. The greatness and goodness of God. If God be our life, then He is
a great God.
2. The wisdom and happiness of the saints. Their wisdom, to choose
this God to be theirs, and to be solicitous to keep themselves in His favour.
3. The evil of sin, and misery of sinners.
Exhortation--
1. Own and acknowledge your dependence upon God.
2. Make God your friend, and be very careful also to keep yourself in
His love. (Matthew Henry.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》