“Who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” (Heb. 6: 18; Josh. 20.)

This chapter describes the arrangements in ancient Israel for the protection of persons accused of murder or manslaughter. It was no unusual thing in ancient times to provide asylums for such persons. It is said that the city of Rome was originally peopled by refugees from all countries, who were promised immunity by Romulus, and who came to the asylum established for them, and afterward became citizens of Rome.

The arrangements made by God through Moses and Joshua were of a much wiser and more righteous character. It is very significant that God should so emphasize His care for the sinner in this book, which is so specially devoted to typify the principles of the higher Christian life.

GOD’S LOVE FOR SINNERS

At the very threshold of the land we meet Rahab, of Jericho, a woman representing the very worst class of society, and we find her not only saved, by the grace of God, but introduced into the ancestral line of David and of Christ Himself, and one of the mothers of the royal family of the eternal ages. And here at the close of the book, in the most careful provision which Jehovah made for the protection of the manslayer, we see a very emphatic hint of God’s gracious care for the sinful and the lost.

Surely, it is meant to teach us that the higher we rise in the experience of God’s grace, the lower we will stoop in the exercise of His mercy toward the fallen, and the more will we labor and care for the recovery of the lost. Let us never get so sanctified that we shall be out of reach of poor sinners, or lose our sympathy for them, and theirs for us. The nearer we come to our Master, the more frequently will we be found by His side in the company of publicans and sinners.

I should greatly suspect my sanctification if it led me to lose my interest in the salvation of men, and my love for the souls of the lost and the unworthy. Thank God that in these days the men and women that are going deepest into the slums and searching farthest for the sheep that have gone astray, are those who believe in the fulness of Christ, and live in His abiding love, and in all the higher things which we have been studying in this wondrous Book!

In this connection it is very noteworthy that all the cities of refuge were placed under the care of the Levites, and, in fact, were Levitical cities. The Levites, as we know, were the types of the highest consecration; and the lesson is, that God has given the sinful world in trust to His true Levites, and as His consecrated people fulfil the mission of the Levites they will be found seeking and saving the souls that have gone astray.

In the ancient cites of refuge there is a beautiful type of God’s provision in the Gospel for the salvation of men.

A LEGAL AND DIVINE PROVISION

It was guarded and sanctioned by divine enactment, and it was as secure as the will and power of God could make it. If the law of the land stands behind you, you are stronger in your humble home, with a simple thread to hold the door, than you would be in a fortified castle, if you were contrary to the law. Entrenched behind the right, you can fold your arms and defy all the power of man to disturb you. But against the law, and in a position of wrong, you may be barricaded and defended by walls of adamant and bastions of steel; but the law will break through your defenses, drag you from your hiding-place, and consign you to the dungeon of a criminal in spite of all your fancied security.

The protection which God gave to the ancient manslayer was a legal and divine protection. Asylums were provided under special laws, to which he might flee and defy the avenger to touch him. Within that sacred enclosure it would be a crime to shed his blood, and every law and power in the land were bound to protect him.

And so the salvation which God offers to the sinner is not a mere adventitious escape from punishment, but a security so divinely arranged, so justly secured, so eternally guaranteed, that “we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before us.”

If you accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you will have all the power of God back of you to defend you; all the will of God on your side; all the justice and righteousness of God pledged to your defense, as well as all the infinite love and mercy of God to welcome and bless you. It is not a mere caprice of conditional clemency, which He may change at will, but an everlasting protection, based upon the principles of right, and immovable as the throne of God.

Every debt is not merely forgiven, but paid absolutely and forever by a just equivalent fully accepted by the offended party. The atonement of Jesus Christ has met every requirement of justice, and it would be wrong on the part of God to punish one who has availed himself of this divine provision. Therefore, we are told that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

He is bound by the very attributes of justice to save the soul that accepts the atonement of Jesus, and His word is pledged as one that cannot lie, to save and keep the trusting heart.

Oh, sinner, if you come within this enclosure you are as safe as though you were in heaven! That word — “Him that comes unto Me, I will in no wise cast out,” will be a wall of adamant against your guilty conscience, and all your foes. That mighty promise — “I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand,” will hold you as “an anchor both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil.”

A JUST AND RIGHTEOUS PROVISION

It was not indiscriminate immunity from punishment for all classes of criminals, but it was a place of safety for the man who had accidentally, or without intent of evil, taken the life of his neighbor, and he was sheltered and guarded until his case could be investigated, and if he were found to be innocent of any intent of evil, he was allowed to remain in safety in this refuge until the death of the high priest.

And so the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a premium on vice, or an excuse for license. It does not say to man, “commit all the sin you please, and you shall have plenary indulgence.” But it is God’s provision for men who sincerely desire to be delivered from sin, and be right with God and man.

If you really want to be saved and cleansed, and to live a right and true life, and will honestly choose it, the blood of Christ and the grace of the Holy Spirit will instantly and fully save you, no matter who you are, or what you have been or done.

But if you do not want to do right, if your intention is to commit sin; if your purpose is to do evil, and you only want the Gospel to shelter you in it, you shall find it the most terrible place beneath the heavens for a false heart to stand. No man dare trifle with the precious blood of Christ. It says to the sinner, “Neither do I condemn you”; but it says just as solemnly, “Go, and sin no more.” “There is forgiveness with God,” not that He may be trifled with, but “that He may be feared.”

THE DEATH OF CHRIST

The manslayer abode in the city of refuge until after the death of the high priest; then he was free to return to his home.

This very significantly points to the death of Jesus Christ, as the ground of our deliverance from guilt and sin, and our acceptance into the favor of God and the liberty of His sons. More specifically it points, perhaps, to the difference between the Old Testament saints and those under the Gospel. Under the Old Testament, the sins of believers were forgiven, and they were accepted into the favor of God, in anticipation of the redemption which was to be accomplished in the future, but they did not enter into heaven, but were held up to the Ascension of Christ, under a certain reserve, in Hades, or Paradise. But after Christ’s resurrection they ascended with Him into heaven, and now the souls of believers at their death immediately pass into His glory, and enjoy the fulness of the purchase of His blood, as those of the past dispensation did not. Therefore, we find “David gathered to his fathers,” but Stephen “beholding the heavens opened, and Jesus Christ standing on the right hand of God,” as he enters His immediate presence. Lazarus is carried, not into the bosom of Jesus, but “into Abraham’s bosom,” with the Old Testament saints. But Paul expects to “be with Christ, and the spirits of just men made perfect.”

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ have discharged us from every claim, and given to us the glorious liberty of the sons of God in this world, and the heirs of His glory in the world to come.

ACCESSIBLE TO ALL

The ancient cities of refuge were accessible from all places, and to all classes. There were no less than six of them distributed throughout the land; three of them on the west side of the Jordan, about equal distances apart, and three on the east side; and none farther than a day’s run from any point in the land. The roads that led to them were always kept in good repair, at the expense of the government. The way was always open, both day and night, for any fugitive that should fly to the asylum. The gates of the city were continually open, and persons there to welcome the fugitive the moment he might arrive, and to provide him with every necessary of life. No one was allowed to obstruct his progress on his journey. Everybody made way for him, and there was no possibility of mistaking the way, for at every crossing, and often along the way, were mile posts and inscriptions, pointing in the right direction, and the word “Refuge” written on each post, so that he could read even while he ran. This is the meaning of that expression: “He that runs may read.”

So the way to Christ and the salvation of the Gospel is just as open and just as plain. Christ is accessible to every sinner that wants Him, and the gates of mercy are never farther than a day’s run — no, a moment’s look — from the most hopeless heart. The way of salvation is so plain that it is impossible for an honest inquirer to mistake it. There may be differences of opinion about doctrines. There may be variations about Sanctification, Healing, the Lord’s Coming, and the doctrines of theology, but they are all one about the way of salvation. In the missions and in the inquiry meeting there is but one Gospel and one salvation; and you could never find out, if you tried, what church that Christian worker belongs to, when he is pointing souls to Christ.

Praise God for the simplicity of the Gospel. No man need ever be lost through ambiguity or uncertainty about this. God has left the highway always open; the gates are never closed; and He wants us to keep all obstacles out of the way of the sinner, and speed him on his way to the hope set before him. Oh come and enter in!

SAFE

The fugitive was perfectly safe in the city of refuge, and all his wants were supplied at the public expense. There was not even a weapon of war to be found within its gates, and there was no lack of anything which he needed for his comfort or maintenance.

And so with the provisions of the Gospel. We are eternally secure and amply supplied. “We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.” God has provided in Christ for the supply of all our needs. There is grace for our daily cleansing and constant keeping, and our God has declared that He will supply all our needs “according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” ; and of “His fulness, we have received even grace for grace.”

FLY

There were two things which the manslayer must do, and which the sinner must also do. The first was to fly, and never to stop until he got within the precincts of the refuge. The second was to stay, and never venture beyond those precincts until he was publicly released.

And so for us there is a refuge, there is salvation, there is abundant grace; but we must fly to it. We must claim it. We must take it, or we shall perish. There is no safety on the way. There is no safety, almost there. The manslayer could have perished even on the very steps of its portals. And so we must not linger or delay a moment until we have crossed its threshold and are safe within its doors.

God’s words are awfully urgent. “Flee from the wrath to come.” “Lay hold on eternal life.” “Tarry not in all the plain.” “Behold, now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.” Outside of Christ, everything in heaven and earth is against the sinner. Destruction pursues him in every breath, element and force about him. His only safety is to fly to Christ without a moment’s delay, and then when you enter that sacred refuge, stay there.

STAY

There was a small circle around its walls within which the inmates could have freedom, and it was large enough to give them all the freedom they needed; but beyond that there was no safety.

And so God has circumscribed our refuge. Within its precincts, within the Holy Bible we are absolutely safe; but beyond His Word there is danger, and there may be destruction. Let us abide in Him and under His commandments, and we shall be safe and happy in His infinite protection and everlasting love.

The ancient cities of refuge also set forth the fulness of Christ’s salvation for the sinner. It is not enough to be merely saved. God has a boundless progression of blessing through which He wants to lead us, and as we press forward into the fulness of Christ, we are not only safe and secure, but we are guarded from falling, and led on to all the heights of His grace and glory. A wise Christian worker will never be content with simply leading a soul to Christ, and will never rest until he has introduced him to the fulness of His grace, the baptism of His Spirit, and the blessings of a consecrated life. All this is finely set forth in the ancient cities of refuge. There were six of them, and their names are significant of the fulness of Christ.

SIGNIFICANT NAMES

The first was Kedesh, in the northwest, signifying “righteousness.” The second was Shechem, in Central Palestine, west of the Jordan. This name signifies “a shoulder,” and will stand for strength. The third was Hebron, in Southwestern Palestine; and this, we know, means “friendship and love.” On the other side of the Jordan was Bezer, signifying “security.” Next is Ramoth, which means “heights.” And Golan, the last, means “a circle,” and of course signifies the everlasting things.

Now, these six names, with their beautiful significance, furnish a glorious progression in the blessings of the Gospel and the grace of God.

The first thing Christ brings to us is righteousness, making us right with God, right with our own selves, and right with everybody else. This is Kedesh.

Next, He gives us His strength to keep us and help us, carrying us upon His shoulders, helping us in our helplessness, and bearing our burdens, and us as well. This is Shechem.

The next is Hebron, where He brings us into the experience of His love, and unfolds to us the fulness of His grace and the love-life of the Lord, filling us with His love for others, and binding us to Himself forever.

Then we come to Bezer, the place of establishing, settling, and security, where we are confirmed in our faith and hope, and established in our life and love immovably.

Now we are ready to make a further advance, and so we come to Ramoth, and all the heights of His grace and glory; the resurrection and ascension life of Christ; the place where we dwell on high, and seek the things that are above, and look on all things from the heaven-side and the throne-life.

And, finally, the series closes with Golan, the circle that never ends; the way everlasting; where we have the faith that falters not, the love that changes not, the peace that abides, the health that is divine, the joy that remains in us — in short, the indwelling Christ, who is in us, “the same yesterday, today and forever”; an experience in which we anticipate even now the glory which is to come, and enjoy a foretaste of what awaits us in its fulness at His blessed coming.

Beloved, have we come along the whole of this glorious progression? Have we His righteousness, His strength, His love, His security, His heights of grace and glory, and do we know His everlasting way?

If not, the doors are all open. Perhaps you have entered Kedesh, but you may enter Shechem, too, and Hebron waits to welcome you, and Bezer to establish you, and Ramoth to exalt you, and Golan to bring you into the life eternal in which we may live, even before we reach eternity. Oh, let us enter and dwell there!

There safe shall we abide,
There sweet shall be our rest;
And, every longing satisfied,
With full salvation blest.

“I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Rom. 12: 1.)

The twenty-first chapter of Joshua gives us an account of the inheritance of the Levites. They were the official tribe in ancient Israel, and entrusted with all the services of the sanctuary, the work of education, and the religious culture of all the tribes. They were the types of Christian service, and represented the principles of true consecration.

REDEMPTION

They represented the principle of redemption as the basis of consecration. In the eighth chapter of Numbers and the seventeenth and eighteenth verses, we read, “For all the first-born of the children of Israel are Mine, both man and beast; on the day that I smote every first-born in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for Myself. And I have taken the Levites for all the first-born of the children of Israel.”

They were thus substituted for the first-born who had been doomed to death, and saved by the blood of the Paschal lamb. The Levites stood for these, and thus represented the idea of redemption. They were as men who had been bought with a price and whose lives were not their own. But God did not require their death, but took their life instead.

Our service as consecrated Christians and our consecration should likewise spring from the redemption of Christ’s blood. This is the basis which the Apostle presents as the ground of our surrender to God. “You are not your own, for you are bought with a price; therefore glorify God with your body, which is God’s.”

There is no credit or merit in our consecrating ourselves to God, because we already belong to Him and have no right to retain ourselves. He has purchased every power of our being and every possibility of our existence, and when we yield ourselves to Him, we simply recognize the fact that we are already His, and that He has a right to all that we can give or be.

“When you have done all, say we are unprofitable servants, for we have done what was our duty to do.” Let no man think, therefore, that because he has made a complete surrender of himself to God, he has put God in any sense in his debt, or has aught whereof to glory. He has simply paid his honest debts and taken his true place in the divine economy, that is all. And he may well say with David, “Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of You, and of Your own have we given You.”

SEPARATION

The Levites represented the principle of separation as the element of consecration. We read again in Numbers 8:14, “You shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be Mine.”

Our consecration separates us from the world and sin, and brings us out from our natural life to be exclusively the Lord’s. Therefore, we read in the twelfth chapter of Romans immediately after the command, to present our bodies a living sacrifice, “Be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” It is not merely an outward separation, but a separation which transforms us by a new spirit and a disposition which separates itself from evil, by natural detachment.

The Pharisees separated themselves outwardly from sinners, but in spirit they were identical. Christ Jesus mingled with sinners, but in spirit, He was as distinct from them as from darkness, and oil from water. The little plant may grow out of a manure heap, and be surrounded by filth, and covered very often with the floating dust that is borne upon the breeze, but its white roots are separated from the unclean soil, and its leaves and flowers have no affinity with the dust that settles upon them; and after a shower of summer rain they throw off every particle of defilement, and look up as fresh and spotless as before, for their intrinsic nature cannot have any part with these defiling things.

This is the separation which Christ requires and which He gives. There is no merit in my staying from the theater if I want to go. There is no value in my abstaining from the foolish novel or the intoxicating cup, if I am all the time wishing I could have them. My heart is there, and my soul is defiled by the desire for evil things. It is not the world that stains us, but the love of the world. The true Levite is separated from the desire for earthly things, and even if he could, he would not have the forbidden pleasures which others prize.

DEDICATION

The Levites represented the principle of dedication, as the essence of consecration. The Levites were presented to the Lord by Moses as a living sacrifice. “You shall set the Levites before Aaron and before his sons, and offer them for an offering unto the Lord. You shall cleanse them, and offer them for an offering. For they are wholly given unto Me, from among the children of Israel.” (Num. 8: 13, 15, 16.) And again, Numbers 3: 6, 13: “Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister unto him. Mine shall they be. I am the Lord.”

And so it is required of us, as God’s spiritual Levites, that we shall present our bodies a living sacrifice. We are already the Lord’s by right of purchase, but now we must acknowledge that right and make a personal surrender, and when we do this He is pleased to accept it from us. It should be unconditional, unreserved and irrevocable, giving Him the right to own us and control us as He shall see best, and renouncing the right to self-control and self-ownership forever. And not only so, but we must do it gladly, and without regret or apprehension.

What would you think of a girl who was shrinking and hesitating whether to commit her life to the man she loves, and saying: “How can I leave my mother and go with this man?” If she loves him, she is only too glad to go with him. She loves to put herself entirely under his control, and trust all her happiness to his keeping, for she knows that he will only seek her good, and she feels safer in his hands than in her own, if he really has her affection.

And so God requires of us not only perfect surrender, but joyful surrender. If we hold anything back in our spirit, He will not accept us. He does not need us. He could create a million souls in a minute that would serve Him better. He only takes us because of what He can do for us. He only wants us unreservedly, so that He can be able more fully to bless us, and true consecration counts it an honor and a privilege to be able to give all and receive all in return.

It is because He wants to do so much for us that He demands the absolute control of all our being, as the foster-parent who adopts a child insists on having it take his name, and give him its full control, because he wants to make it the heir to his fortune. So God demands that we shall be His, and His alone, and then He gives to us as wholeheartedly as He expects us to give to Him.

Have we accepted this claim? Have we responded to His call? Have we made this unreserved, unconditional surrender? Have we presented our bodies a living sacrifice, our reasonable service?

SERVICE

The Levites represented service as the fruit of consecration.

The ministry of the Levites is thus described: “I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the tabernacle of the congregation.”

They were divided into several families; the sons of Gershon, Kohath and Merari. The Gershonites had charge of the tabernacle, the tent, the covering, the hangings, the curtains and the cords. The Kohathites had a still more sacred ministry; they had charge of the ark, and the table, and the candlestick, and the altars and the vessels of the sanctuary, the most sacred things. The Merarites had charge of the boards of the tabernacle and the bars, the pillars, the sockets, and,the vessels thereof. These ancient Levites set up the tabernacle, took it down, carried it from place to place and guarded it and waited upon the priests in their ministry. Later they were the teachers of the people, and looked after all the educational and social work of the tribes, and especially had charge of the cities of refuge and the reception and protection of the manslayer that fled from the avenger.

Thus they represented our Christian service in all its varieties as we are called to build up the spiritual house of the Lord, and to carry forward His Kingdom in all places and among all nations, bearing the burdens of His sanctuary and ministering in sacred things. The high inscription on the crest of many a noble family consists of the two words, “I serve.” No nobler dignity can be conferred on a man than to make him a servant. The minister of the Gospel is just a servant, and this is the true meaning of the word.

James and Paul loved to call themselves “the servants of the Lord, and your servants, for Jesus’ sake.” Moses and Joshua were servants in the Lord’s house, and David “served his generation by the will of God.” The general commanding the army is but the servant of his country and his sovereign. The statesman bears the insignia of public service. The Lord Jesus Himself loved to say, “I am among you as he that serves”; and God is ever ministering to the whole creation.

We are called to be the servants of God, and our ministry is to set up the true sanctuary, and to wait at the unseen altar whose incense reaches within the veil. In the ages to come, we shall have still higher service. The present is but an apprenticeship for the more glorious future, and God is but schooling us for higher and nobler employments in the new earth and new heaven that are to come. This is the purpose of our consecration, that God may use us, and that we may be a blessing. It never was intended that one tribe out of twelve should do all the service of the house of God. They were but types of all the rest, and today, under the Gospel, we should all be Levites. “He has made us kings and priests unto God.” There are no proxies in this army, and no substitutes accepted in this draft, but each must take his place, and God expects service and fruit from every follower of Christ. “Herein is My Father glorified,” He has said to every one of us, “that you bear much fruit. So shall you be” — wonderful disciples? No; but shall be “My disciples.” We have no reason to consider ourselves His disciples, unless we are bearing “much fruit.”

There are great varieties in the service of God. A few are called — like the Kohathites to enter the sanctuary, and bear the more sacred vessels of the Lord, to take the holy ark and touch the sacred symbols of the mystic Cherubim. Theirs is the ministry of prevailing prayer, and theirs is to hear the secret of the Lord, to know His highest thought, and catch the very whisper of His will. Others are called to bear the boards and the rougher and heavier burdens. But to all it is enough to know that they are bearing the burdens of the sanctuary, and ministering to Him upon whom the angels wait, and at whose bidding the heavens hasten to obey.

“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teaches, on teaching; or he that exhorts, on exhortation; he that gives, let him do it with simplicity; he that rules, with diligence; he that shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

PRACTICAL WORK

The Levites represented the principle of practical service in all the ordinary walks of life.

They were not shut up in Jerusalem in the tabernacle, but we find them distributed throughout every portion of the land, for the obvious purpose of diffusing the principles which they represented among all sections of the people. Beautifully this represents the application of the principles of consecration to all the ordinary occupations and walks of life. God does not want consecration bound up with our prayer book, folded away in our Bagster Bible, left in our pew between Sabbaths, or brought out for an airing at the weekly prayer meeting. He does not want our religious phrases and tones for holy days and special times. He wants every place sacred, every time Sabbatic, and everything inscribed, “Holiness to the Lord.” He wants us to sit at our dinner table, and eat and drink to the glory of God, to talk with our families in simple happy fellowship, having our speech always “seasoned with salt.” He wants all our life to be as holy as our communion services, and even our buying and selling to be like a sacrament of sweetness and sanctity.

In the coming age, every pot will be inscribed with “Holiness to the Lord,” every cooking utensil will cook for Christ, and even the bells on the horses will chime out Glory to Immanuel’s name.

I heard the other day, of a company of Christians who came together for a season of waiting upon the Lord, in which they would not allow any of the party to talk on any ordinary subject, or go out to purchase any article in the stores, or to engage in any business which could be avoided. Every moment was supposed to be set apart for some sacred exercise. This is essentially the idea of monasticism, and it is unwholesome. It is just as holy to laugh as to cry, and to use your handsaw as your prayer book. We can bring Christ into common things as fully as into what we call religious services. Indeed, it is the highest and hardest application of divine grace, to bring it down to the ordinary matters of life, and therefore God is far more honored in this than even in things that are more specially sacred.

Therefore, in this wonderful chapter of Romans which is the manual of practical consecration, just after the passage that speaks of ministering in sacred things the Apostle comes at once to the common, social and secular affairs into which we are to bring our consecration principles. We read :”Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.”

God wants the Levites scattered all over the cities of Israel. He wants your workshop, factory, kitchen, nursery, editor’s room and printing office, as much as your pulpit and closet. He wants you to be just as holy at high noon on Monday or Wednesday as in the sanctuary on Sabbath morning, and to have your consecration as much in Wall Street’s whirlpool of trade and business, as in the Cathedral aisle or the quiet closet.

May God give to us this holy priesthood, and make us the light of the world and the salt of the earth!

ALL IN GOD

The Levites represented the principle of finding all our resources in God Himself.

In the thirteenth chapter and thirty-third verse of Joshua we read: “Unto the tribe of Levi, Moses gave not any inheritance; the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as He said unto them.” This is very significant, God gave the land to the other tribes but He gave Himself to the Levites. There is such a thing in Christian life as having an inheritance from the Lord, and there is such a thing as having the Lord Himself for our inheritance.

Some people get a sanctification from the Lord which is of much value, but which is variable, and often impermanent. Others have learned the higher lesson of taking the Lord Himself to be their Keeper and their Sanctity, and abiding in Him they are kept above the vicissitudes of their own states and feelings. Some get from the Lord large measures of joy and blessing, and times of refreshing from His presence that are very gracious. Others, again, learn to take the Lord Himself as their Joy; and then it is true, as He promised: “That My joy shall remain in you and that your joy might be full.” Some people are content to have peace with God, but others have taken “the peace of God that passes all understanding, to keep the hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Some have faith in God, while others have the faith of God. Some have many touches of healing from God, others, again, have learned to live in the very health of God Himself, and to say: “We which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh.” Some are always wanting to be strengthened and helped by the Lord, others have learned to take the Lord Himself as their strength, and to find His strength made perfect in their weakness. Some are trying to serve God and to use His Holy Spirit as their Helper and Strength for service. Others have so yielded themselves up to God that He just uses them, and they are the channels and vessels of His life and strength.

Such a life leads us constantly to the end of ourselves, and as we grow less He increases and becomes our All in All. True Levitical service is to be lost in God, and find in Him our wisdom, our faith, our love, our power, our peace, our joy, our portion, and our all. Such a life lifts us above surrounding circumstances, and even inner states, and connects us with the Infinite Source of all supplies, the heart of God Himself, and we are like the old Norwegian knight, who drank from a horn that was never dry, because a little tube connected it with the river, and as fast as he drank it kept full from its unfailing source. Happy they who can sing:

I have come to the Fountain of life,
A fountain that never is dry;
A life that never can die;
And I drink of the boundless supply
In God, my Fountain of life.

GOD IN ALL

The Levites represented the principle of finding God in all. We read in one place that they had no inheritance, and yet we read in the twenty-first chapter of Joshua, that God gave them the choice cities among all the twelve tribes. They gave up all, and they received more than any of the tribes.

Ephraim had but one inheritance, Judah had but one; but Levi had the choice cities in every one of Israel’s estates. This is very wonderful and instructive. The tribe that let all go, and chose God alone, received in return the fairest cities in every corner of the land. Hebron, in the tribe of Judah ; Gibeon and Anathoth, in Benjamin; Shechem and Bethhoron, in the tribe of Ephraim; Aijalon, in Dan; Taanach and Golan in Manasseh ; Kishon and Jarmuth in Issachar ; Rehob in distant Asher, Kedesh out of Naphtali, Jokneam and Kartah in Zebulun, Bezer and Kedemoth in Reuben, Ramoth, Heshbon, Mahanaim and Jazer in Gad, and many others in the north and the south, the east and the west — forty-eight in all — of the choicest cities of the land, including all the cities of refuge, were given to the tribe of Levi. Who will say that they lost by giving up all for God?

Yes, Lot can have his choice. Take the best, Lot, even all the valley of the Jordan. But wait! “Lift up now your eyes, Abraham, and look from the place where you are northward and southward; look to all the valley of the Jordan, too, Lot’s chosen inheritance. Abraham, it shall all be yours. All the land which you see, to you will I give it.” Because you gave it up for God you shall have it back in God, and more.

Ah, friends, it is a great thing to learn to take God first, and then He can afford to give us everything else, without the fear of its hurting us. As long as you want anything very much, especially more than you want God, it is an idol. But when you become satisfied with God, everything else so loses its charm that He can give it to you without harm, and then you can take just as much as you choose, and use it for His glory.

There is no harm whatever in having money, houses, lands, friends and dearest children, if you do not value these things for themselves. If you have been separated from them in spirit, and become satisfied with God Himself, then they will become to you channels to be filled with God to bring Him nearer to you. Then every little lamb around your household will be a tender cord to bind you to the Shepherd’s heart. Then every affection will be a little golden cup filled with the wine of His love. Then every bank stock and investment will be but a channel through which you can pour out His beneficence and extend His gifts.

The day is coming when God will “add all these things unto you,” and you shall have the riches of the universe at your feet, and perhaps be able to create a world, in the power of Christ; but you would not exchange for all the glory of your kingdom one throb of His loving heart or one glance of His countenance.

Yes, “all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come,” on one condition — not that Christ is yours, but that you first belong to Him. “You are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.”

Beloved, shall we learn the twofold lesson, and ask God to translate it into every moment of the coming days and years; first, to have ALL IN GOD and then to have GOD IN ALL!

“Therefore, judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God.” (1 Cor. 4: 5.)

Joshua 22: 1-34.

This chapter adds a very striking picture to the incidents which preceded in the conquest of the land of promise and the division of Israel’s inheritance. We have already referred to the inheritance of the two and a half tribes on the east side of Jordan, and to the mistake that they made in choosing their portion on the world-side of the land of promise. In this, undoubtedly, they were types of those who make a similar mistake in the present day, in choosing their portion too near the edge of the world. At the same time, there are such beautiful lessons connected with their example, that we can but rejoice at the compensations which the sacred story has placed over against their error. If they did not have the highest inheritance in the land, they had the spirit of the land in themselves, at least, and in the beautiful disposition of which this chapter is such a fine example.

UNSELFISH SERVICE

We see in them an example of the most unselfish service and sacrifice. They had just spent seven years in helping their brethren of the other tribes to pursue their inheritance on the west side of Jordan. Indeed, they had gone before them in the hardest places and the hottest battles, and had been the real pioneers in all these long campaigns.

The command had been, “You shall pass before your brethren, armed, all the mightiest men of valor, and help them until the Lord has given your brethren rest as He has given you, and they also have possessed the land which the Lord your God gives them. Then shall you return unto the land of your possession and enjoy it.”

They had faithfully obeyed this command, and kept themselves. They had fought the battles of their brethren and won for them their heritages of blessing. They had marched around Jericho, stormed the heights of Beth-Horon, pursued in the long day at Gibeon, triumphed by the waters of Merom, and been valiant and true until all the thirty-one kings had been subdued, and the whole land had been won for the Lord of Israel.

It was entirely disinterested; not one stroke had they done for themselves. There is no nobler example in all the Book of Joshua than their high and unselfish devotion. This is the noblest quality and the rarest among Christian workers. How pathetically the Apostle Paul exclaims, “I have no man like-minded who will care for your state, for all care for their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ’s”!

The world instinctively does homage to unselfish love. A little fellow was boasting the other day about his wages. “I get two dollars a week,” he said, “and I run errands. My father works in the factory and he gets two dollars a day. My brother works in the office, and he gets five dollars a week, and mother, she gets up in the morning about five o’clock, makes the fire, gets breakfast for father and us, and does the work of the house all day, gets our supper at night, and after we go to bed she does the darning, mends our clothes and fixes up things generally.”

“Yes, and what does mother get?” “Oh mother — well — why — she does not get anything. She does all the jobs of the house, but you know there is no money in it.”

It was a boy’s thoughtless testimony to the noblest heroism of common life. Hundreds of such heroines are suffering and toiling unmarked and unhonored.

But this is true of Him who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life as a ransom for many, and of whom it has been said that “when He was reviled, He reviled not again; when He suffered He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously.” Therefore, “whosoever will be great among you, shall be your servant; and whosoever of you will be the chief, shall be servant of all.”

RECOMPENSE

The day of recompense comes at last to the unselfish worker. These brave men at length received their rich reward. The long weary marches were over at last, and as they stood before their Commander, it repaid them for all, to hear Him say, “You have kept all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded you, and you have obeyed My voice in all that I commanded you. You have not left your brethren these many days unto this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord your God, and now the Lord your God has given rest unto your brethren, as He promised them. Therefore now return you, and get you into your tents, and unto the land of your possession.” And then he added, “Return with much riches unto your tents, and with very much cattle, with silver, and with gold, and brass, and with iron, and with very much raiment. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren.”

It was reward enough to have the “Well done”of the captain, but there was much more. There was the rich inheritance, the ample spoil, and the glad homecoming to the children, wives and friends so dearly loved. Then as we hear the “Well done” of our faithful Master, we shall not regret one tear or toil, but many would give the whole world for the privilege of going back once more to win the crown by earthly sacrifice and service.

But it is not only at the end of life that this glad recompense awaits the faithful servant, but even here God has His compensations and rewards for the self-denying and the pure-hearted. There is a day of toil and sacrifice, and waiting, and there is a day when the harvest is gathered in, and we bring our sheaves with rejoicing and wonder at the full reversions that have followed the years of tearful sowing, and what seemed hopeless waiting.

But even in the days of recompense we must not forget the old spirit of self-denying love. As they came to their inheritance, they were to divide the spoil with their brethren. There is to be no selfish hoarding. They are still to live the same life of love, even in their inheritance and home.

There are Christian workers who begin in the spirit of self-denial and win their success by sacrifice and noble heroism, and then, later in life, when their work is crowned with success, they fall into the snare of selfishness and ease, and allow the very reward, which God gave them, to benumb their holy energies, and turn aside the edge of their consecration and power. It requires much more grace to know how to abound than to know how to be abased. Even when we reach our millennial glory it is not to be a selfish life. The highest aspiration of a noble spirit is to rise to a higher service in the life beyond, of unceasing ministries. This is the life of God, and it is the only heaven that God can give.

GOD FIRST

We see in these two tribes and a half, a beautiful example of putting God first before their own inheritance.

When they reached the fords of the Jordan, they paused awhile before turning to their home, and built a great altar there as a tower of witness and an altar of worship. They feared that in coming days their children would forget the service of the true God, and might let their isolation on the further side of Jordan separate them from the common faith. Therefore, to keep in remembrance, and to bind their children to the same faith and worship, they reared this altar of witness. It would have been natural for them to have hastened home. Long years had passed since they had looked in the faces of those they loved. Throbbing hearts were drawing them to their loved ones, but they paused and remembered God first, and set up this memorial that coming generations might remember His name and maintain His honor and worship.

This is, indeed, a bright and beautiful example. This is the true secret of all blessing and happiness. God first, should be the watchword and keynote of every plan and purpose and enterprise, in the consecrated life. Then He will delight in all our service and blessing, and will love to think of us as generously as we have thought of Him.

MISUNDERSTANDING

And now we see a very beautiful act misunderstood and misjudged.

We read with astonishment that “when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh, to go up to war against them.” They seem at once to have begun to think they knew all about it. It was an act of treason and rebellion, and that it must be promptly and severely put down. Very fortunately, they sent a delegation before proceeding to actual hostilities, to charge them with their crime, and at once began to upbraid them for their trespass.

“Thus says the whole congregation of the Lord, What trespass is this that you have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the Lord, in that you have built for yourselves an altar, that you might rebel this day against the Lord?
“Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleansed until this day, although there was a plague in the congregation of the Lord,
“But that you must turn away this day from following the Lord? And it will be, seeing you rebel today against the Lord, that tomorrow He will be wroth with the whole congregation of Israel.
“Notwithstanding, if the land of your possession be unclean, then pass over unto the land of the possession of the Lord, wherein the Lord’s tabernacle dwells, and take possession among us; but rebel not against the Lord, nor rebel against us, in building for yourselves an altar of the Lord our God.
“Did not Achan, the son of Zerah, commit a trespass in the accursed thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel, and that man perished not alone in his iniquity?”

This is truly very humbling, and very much like the rest of us. How often we have passed these hasty judgments upon our brethren! How many have been alienated for years by some rash conclusion, and found at last that they had misunderstood the friend and misjudged the act which, if they had only understood, they would have honored its motives and spirit, and recognized it as worthy of all praise.

Therefore, the Master has said:”Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come,”and then He will not only look at the act, but “He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the heart, and then shall every man praise God.” All that can be recognized He will cherish, and all that He can forget, He will love to leave in oblivion.

MEEKNESS

We see, at the same time, a beautiful example of meekness on the part of the Reubenites and their brethren. They did not fire up and resent the cruel misjudgment. They did not retaliate with vindictive words and bitter strife, but they meekly and gently assured their brethren of their innocency and honest intent, and their loyal devotion to the common faith and the sacred altar of the Lord, in the tabernacle.

How much grace it requires to bear a misunderstanding rightly, and to receive an unkind judgment in holy sweetness! Nothing tests a Christian character more than to have some evil thing said about you. This is the file that soon proves whether we are gold-plated or solid gold. If we could only know the blessings that lie hidden in our wrongs, we would say, like David, when Shimei cursed him, “Let him curse; it may be the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day.”

Some people get easily turned aside from the grandeur of their life-work by pursuing their own grievances and enemies, until their life gets turned into one little petty whirl of warfare. It is like a nest of hornets. You may disperse the hornets, but you will probably get terribly stung, and get nothing for your pains, for even their honey is not worth the search.

Wiser and happier they who, like old Nehemiah, say to all the Sanballats, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease, whilst I leave it and come down to you?”

The gentleness and meekness of the Reubenites and their brethren averted a great catastrophe, and turned a curse into a blessing. So, “a soft answer ever turns away wrath,” and a spirit of gentleness will avert many a sorrow.

May God give us more of His Spirit, who, when reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously.

MISUNDERSTANDING HEALED

We see a very beautiful example of a misunderstanding healed, and a curse turned into a blessing.

Instead of a fratricidal war, there is reconciliation and love, and they joyfully exclaim: “This day we perceive that the Lord is among us, because you have not committed this trespass against the Lord.” There is no greater evidence of the presence of the Lord in His people than the spirit of love and there is no sweeter testimony to God and His glorious grace than the reconciliation of strife and the healing of mutual wrongs. “Behold, how good a thing it is, and how pleasant, for brethren to dwell together in unity; for there the Lord commands a blessing, even life forevermore.”

When the Lord wants to make an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off, this is the way He does it: “Instead of the thorn, shall come up the fir tree; and instead of the brier, shall come up the myrtle tree.” God’s sweetest memorial is the transformed thorn, and the thistle blooming with flowers of peace and sweetness, where once grew recriminations and maledictions.

Beloved, God is waiting to make just such memorials in your life, out of the things that are hurting you most today. Take the grievances, the separations, the strained friendships, and the broken ties which have been the sorrow and heartbreak of your life, and let God heal them, and give you grace to make you right with all with whom you may be wrong, and you will wonder at the joy and blessing that will come out of the things that have caused you nothing but regret and pain.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” The everlasting employment of our blessed Redeemer is to reconcile the guilty and the estranged from God, and the highest and most Christlike work that we can do is, to be like Him in this regard.

Shall we go forth to dry the tears of a sorrowing world, to heal the brokenhearted, to bind up the wounds of human lives, and to unite heart to heart, and earth to heaven?

Joshua 24.

This chapter contains the parting charges of Joshua to Israel at Shechem. He reviews the faithfulness of God, and all His gracious promises and leadings, and then solemnly pledges them to fidelity to Him and His holy covenant. And when they respond to His appeal and promise to serve the Lord with faithfulness, he reminds them that they are unable to serve Him in their own strength, and then reiterates his own determination for him and his household to serve the Lord, whatsoever others may do. The chapter closes with a very humbling statement that the children of Israel served the Lord faithfully during all the days of Joshua and the elders who survived him, and the generation that had known the works of the Lord in Canaan, but we learn from the later Book of Judges, that before the third generation they were sunk in apostasy and captivity, and the glory of their early victories had been exchanged for a declension and degradation far more terrible than the story of Israel’s wanderings for forty years in the wilderness.

For us there is the solemn lesson that, notwithstanding all the promises of the Gospel and the abundant grace of Christ, there is need of the humblest vigilance and the closest abiding, even in the highest places of our Christian life. The greater the height, the greater the fall, and the deeper the degradation. Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness after they came out of Egypt lasted only forty years, but Israel’s declension and degradation, under the Judges, lasted over four hundred years.

For an ordinary Christian to go back from God is a very serious thing; but for one who has known Him in all the fulness of His grace, to turn aside from the higher pathway of a life of consecration, is a far more serious and dangerous thing; and the Word of God is full of the most faithful and solemn warnings and admonitions to even those who have entered into the fulness of Jesus, to watch and stand fast, lest, being led away by the error of the wicked, they fall from their own steadfastness. While on the one hand, we have the most gracious promises of our Father keeping us, yet at the same time, we have the most faithful warnings to abide and obey.

The echoes of this chapter ring through the New Testament, and especially those chapters that speak of our higher Christian life. When John tells us, “The anointing you have received of Him abides in you,” he also adds, “And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He shall appear we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” While Paul says, “I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day”; yet he also adds, “That good thing which was committed unto you keep by the Holy Ghost which dwells in us.” While in one breath, the Spirit says, “There has no temptation befallen you, but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted beyond that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it,” He also adds, “Wherefore, let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

God’s Word is not a cast-iron system of theology, proclaiming infallible security for any man, irrespective of his own attitude, but it is the wise and loving touch of a mother’s hand, on the side of our spiritual life that needs adjustment, whether it be encouragement to lift us up, or admonition and warning to hold us back from presumption and disobedience. It would have been as cruel and unwise to encourage David, in the time of his disobedience, as to have discouraged Simon Peter, when his heart was breaking with remorse and sorrow. The one needed stern rebuke, to let him see his sin, and the other needed hope and comfort, to reveal to him his Savior’s mercy. Therefore, let us not think it strange, if at one time we hear the Holy Scriptures saying, “They shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand”; and at another time, “If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch that is withered.” The very warning is designed to prevent the peril to which it refers.

What were some of the causes of Israel’s declension?

DEPENDENCE ON OTHERS

1. The first was, perhaps, their undue dependence upon Joshua and the fathers who had brought them into the land. “They served the Lord during the days of Joshua and the elders that survived him and who had seen the works of the Lord,” but when these had passed away and they were thrown upon their own strength, resources and character, they did not have those elements of stability, principle and permanence, which were sufficient to preserve them from the unholy influence of the surrounding nations, and so they gradually sank back again into heathenism.

There are many persons whose religious character is a reflection of the influence of others. Like young Josiah, who served the Lord during the days of Jehoiadah, his adopted father, and turned back to evil when he was gone, so these persons manifest much sympathetic goodness under the influence of favorite teachers and high examples, and in seasons of deep religious excitement, they may even seem to pass through an experience of great spiritual life, exhibiting many of its emotions and some of its fruits; but when these influences are withdrawn, it becomes evident that there was no real conviction of purpose and will, and no radical transformation of character.

The test will come to all such souls; they will find these favorable influences withdrawn, and these helpful surroundings changed, and they will be compelled to fall back on their own resources and their own direct knowledge of God and His sustaining grace. And when no longer pressed forward by stronger spirits and upheld by helpful hands, but met by opposition, misunderstanding, uncongenial associations, and, perhaps, direct persecution, they will soon find whether their purpose is rooted in God, and their spirit united to the living Christ and abiding in Him as the source of their strength and service. If this, indeed, be so, they will continue even in isolation and opposition, and Jeremiah’s picture of the man “whose hope the Lord is” shall be gloriously fulfilled in them. “He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”

The secret of Joshua’s victory was that he had long before this learned to stand alone. To him the day had come, more than half a century before, when the unfaithful spies and the whole congregation turned against him, refusing to follow him, and even threatening to destroy him, while he and his faithful companion stood fast to their principles at Kadesh Barnea. His purpose was not affected by the failure of the multitude to follow him. It was not much more affected by the enthusiasm of the second generation to enter with him the land of promise. And even now, as he stood on the high and glorious elevation of an accomplished and victorious life, he was still as ready as ever to stand alone, and his lofty independence expresses itself in the heroic words: “Choose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

This must ever be the secret of steadfastness in the consecrated life. You must know the truth of the Lord for yourself, and commit yourself to it and to Him, even if you have to stand alone. You must be so persuaded of it that you cannot surrender it even if you die, and you must know the Lord so definitely for yourself, and not for another, that even if all the Christians in the world should fail, and all your friends forsake you, you must still stand and exclaim, “Here I stand; I can do no other, so help me God.”

Stronger than all the power of Babylon is the spirit of the men who stand in the fiery furnace, and say, “We are not careful to answer you in this matter, O king. If it be so, our God is able to deliver us out of the fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king; but if not, be it known unto you that we will not serve your gods nor worship the golden image which you have set up.”

IMPERFECT WORK

2. The second cause of Israel’s declension was their failure to do thorough work, especially in separating from and exterminating their enemies. We read in the beginning of the Book of Judges of many of the tribes of Canaan, whom they should have thoroughly subjugated, that the children of Judah could not drive out of the valley, Judg. 1: 19; and that the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem, Judg.1: 21; nor did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Beth-Shean and her towns, but the Canaanites would dwell in the land, Judg. 1: 27; nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them, and so of many of the other tribes. Not only so, but Israel, in some cases, put the Canaanites to tribute, Judg. 1: 28-30; making it even a profitable business, and a source of income to have them remain, when the Lord had commanded their utter extermination.

And still worse, we find them even entering into forbidden alliances with them, and also intermarrying among their sons and daughters, Judg. 3: 5, 6. God’s command to them had been, “You shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land, you shall throw down their altars; you shall smite them and utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them, nor shall you make marriages with them; your daughter you shall not give unto his son, nor his daughter shall you take unto your son.”

But here we read, “The children dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites; and they took their daughters to be their wives; and they gave their daughters to their sons, and they served their gods.” Israel had become content with the victories which had subdued their more formidable foes, and given them the chief strongholds of the land, but in a thousand little places the enemy still lurked and lingered, and gradually became tolerated. The danger of their continuance did not seem very great, and the trouble and cost of their extermination seemed greater than the courage and patience of Israel. Thus they were suffered to remain, half conquered, and for the time, wholly subordinate. In a little while it became a source of profit to collect tribute from these bold giants, and so, many of them were made tributary to Israel, contrary to the divine command.

A little later, relations of friendship and fellowship began to be established, and before long they were intermarrying with the tribes of Israel and raising a mongrel race in which the true seed would soon be wholly extinguished; and to crown all, they naturally began to serve the idols of their heathen friends, and to mingle in all the abominations of their unholy religion; thus becoming in the end, really apostate from the worship of the true God altogether.

This is the sad story of the development of evil in many a life, which once seemed wholly consecrated. Little sins are left unsubdued. Like Saul they destroy the Amalekites, but they spare Agag, their king, for some good purpose, as they suppose, and keep the best of the spoil with the idea that they are going to sacrifice it unto the Lord. They have not the courage to deal bravely and firmly with evil. After awhile they begin to turn it to profitable account and tolerate certain forms of sin and worldliness because of advantage. Their business interests would be ruined by too rigid a conscientiousness, for some of their investments are not wholly separated from forbidden associations; the profits, at least, will be divided with the Lord, and the end will sanctify the means. A thousand specious and plausible excuses are made for things that ought to be thoroughly put aside and which, like the Canaanites, they put under tribute, and try to justify because of some advantage that can be brought out of them.

By and by, the social element is introduced. Families that were separated from unholy friendships and ungodly alliances, become mixed with the world in the social reception, the promiscuous dance, or perhaps, in the milder form of the church entertainment. If the old people still retain their separation, yet they let their sons and daughters mingle with the Canaanites, and they do not shrink from even permitting the marriage of a Christian girl with the godless man, or receiving into this consecrated home, as the bride of a son, devoted in infancy to God, some bright and fascinating daughter of fashion, who soon succeeds in subverting all the separation to God that has been left, until it is not far now to the last step of the worship of idolatry, the unrestrained career of worldly amusement, covetousness which is idolatry, and the carnival of godless selfishness and pleasure.

Dr. Livingstone tells of a singular creature which he found in Africa, called the ant-lion. It attacked and destroyed the strongest victims by a masterful piece of strategy. Excavating a little pit in the form of an inverted cone, running to a point at the bottom, it sits down at the base of its little pitfall and waits for some unsuspecting beetle or insect to tread too near the edge of the crumbling sand. The unhappy victim at last approaches, and perhaps prompted by curiosity, looks over the edge of this strange excavation, and lo! in a moment he has lost his balance and rolls down the side of the little pit where the ant-lion waits for his prey. Not, however, directly and instantly does the destroyer attack his victim; this might be too unequal a contest for the little strategist, but he suddenly opens his sharp little mouth, formed like a pair of powerful scissors, and with one quick movement he cuts off a limb from the unsuspecting victim and then disappears out of sight. Slowly the mutilated creature recovers itself, and climbs up the slippery side of the pit; but just as he reaches the summit his footing slips again and he tumbles once more into the jaws of the little monster. Another quick movement and another limb is gone; and again the wounded insect gathers up his remaining strength and makes another ascent of the side of this death trap, but the result is the same as before; again he sinks to receive a fresh blow, and the process is repeated until at length he is so dismembered that he has not strength enough even to attempt to escape, but sinks, a bleeding, suffering mass, into the hands of his enemy, who devours at leisure the antagonist that he would not have dared to approach directly.

This, alas! is the story of many a defeated and ruined life. Some little adversary that was not even dreaded, has been the final destroyer, not by only one bold attack, but by a thousand little wounds that, at last, have left the victim helpless to resist or to return.

Saul’s career is a sad example of a noble beginning, ending in mournful disaster; and the saddest part of it is the very smallness of the cause where the pathway of declension and ruin began. It was simply in this very thing of refusing to deal firmly with the enemies of God. The reason of his failure was because of his deeper fear to deal firmly with the sin and self-will of his own heart. Saul’s failure to slay Agag and his soft dealings with the Amalekite chief, were but the outward type of his tolerance of a greater giant in his own heart, even his own self-will, and the spirit of disobedience which, Samuel tells him, was expressed by his conduct in this case, and was the ground of his rejection and the secret of his final ruin. But not all at once did Saul go down; for nearly ten years did he still sit upon Israel’s throne and work out the dreadful proceeds of sin’s development, leading from step to step, until at last a branded murderer, a slave of blind and furious passion, and an awful instrument of Satan’s very possession, he closed his wretched life in tragedy almost as dark as the story of Judas.

Oh! let us beware how we tolerate a single sin, how we leave an enemy in the land, how we make terms with any forbidden thing, how to enter into alliance with the world, or let its spirit touch our fondest affections. “We cannot serve God and mammon.” We cannot compromise with any evil thing and remain in the Land of Promise. We cannot abide in His love without keeping His commandments. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

SELF-CONFIDENCE

3. Perhaps the most serious cause of their failure was their inability to understand their own weakness. It was the spirit of self-sufficiency and self-confidence that brought about their ruin. There was a deep meaning in the words of Joshua which they could not understand. “You cannot serve the Lord,” said their faithful leader. He knew better than they the weakness of their own hearts. They were ready enough to promise and to purpose, but they knew not how certain they were to go back again to the forbidden sin. Their fathers at Sinai had been as ready to answer, under the terrors of the mount, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do,” but before the month was ended they were dancing around the golden calf. Peter was ready enough to promise, “Though all men should deny you, yet will not I,” and yet, before the next noon-day, Peter was among the enemies of his Lord, a blaspheming, broken-hearted man.

The deepest need of our spiritual life is to know our utter helplessness, weakness and liability to err. Then we shall lean on His stronger arm, and in self-distrust abide in Him, knowing that apart from Him we can do nothing. This was the great lesson of the Old Testament discipline. “The law made nothing perfect, but,” praise the Lord, “the bringing in of a better hope did.” “What the law could not do, because it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” “For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death.” “If we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.”

The secret of victory is the profound consciousness of our utter inability and helpless nothingness. Our insufficiency is measured by His all-sufficiency, and as we decrease, He must increase. Most of our failures are meant to teach us our inability and worthlessness, that we may learn that apart from Him we can do nothing.

GOD’S FAITHFULNESS

4. The review of God’s faithfulness and grace is fitted to establish us and encourage us in fidelity and steadfastness. Joshua led them back over the history of the past, and recalled to their mind the marvelous dealings of Jehovah with them and their fathers and then reminded them of the good land into which He had brought them, and all the blessings with which He had surrounded them, and by all these considerations He called them and bound them to remember their covenant obligations, and be true to their faithful God.

And so, God holds us to Himself by the memory of His grace and love. What marvelous promises He has given us, and how vast are the prospects and the recompenses that He has in store for us! By all these things, let us be true to our covenant and faithful to our heavenly Friend.

God would awaken us to a sense of our true dignity and our glorious future, that we might “walk worthy of our high vocation.” Behind us there lies a high and heavenly calling and a past full of His faithful love. Before us is a kingdom of incomparable and everlasting glory, and both are calling us to be “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

“And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which He swore to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that He swore unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.” ( Josh. 21: 43-45.)

What a glorious collection of majestic and magnificent alls! Four alls, four glorious alls! all the land, all the rest, all the victory, and all the promises.

ALL THE LAND

All the land of their inheritance. The Lord gave them all their inheritance. Has He given it all to you? Have you got all of your inheritance? Have you accepted it? And when the close comes shall you be able to look back and say, “I have had all that the Lord meant to give me, all that He created me for, all that He redeemed me for, all that He sanctified me for, all that was purchased for me in Christ, all that was revealed by the Spirit, all that He ever made me think of, long for, expect and claim, all that was meant for me to be. I have had all. That thing which even my brothers could not be, that thing which was specifically my part in the Redemption of Christ. God gave it all to me, not mutilated, not abridged, not in the slightest diminished; but like the full orbed sun, largest at its setting, my sun is going down a perfect sphere. I have had all my inheritance.” That is what God wants for you. That is what God meant for you. Are you going to have it? Have you got it all now? Your sun may go down today, there is no time to waste in dreaming. Haste to make sure of that higher calling to which you are chosen. The calling which He has set His heart upon for you, more than you have yourself. Have you got all your land?

Your land is not mine, remember. There is something for each — your own inheritance. There is something for you nobody else can fill. No garment will fit you but your own. You have a service which no one can perform but you. There is a joy no one can have but you. There is a white stone with your name written on it. Are you going to have it? That is what God wants for you. He wants to give you the land. He has taken you up to the mount of vision and shown it to you. Will you take it?

ALL THE REST

Then He speaks of all the rest, according to which He swore unto their fathers. Have you got the rest? Have you got that perfect peace which the Lord says He will keep him in whose mind is set on Him? The peace of God which passes all understanding — rest round about, as well as rest inside. The whole horizon clear, the whole sweep of life free from an anxious thought. The “great peace which nothing can offend.” That is what God means by the Land of Promise, the type of perfect rest.

There are some things good, without being perfect. You don’t need to have a whole regiment cannonading outside your room to keep you awake. It is quite enough that your little alarm clock rings its little bell. It is not necessary to fret about everything, it is quite enough if the devil gets your mind rasped with one little worry, one little thought which destroys your perfect peace. It is like the polish on a mirror, or an exquisite toilet table, one scratch will destroy it; and the finer it is the smaller the scratch that will deface it. And so your rest can be destroyed by a very little thing. Perhaps you have trusted in God about your future salvation; but have you about your present business or earthly cares, your money and your family, your reputation, your own spiritual keeping, or your future in this life? God wants you to take the perfect peace He gives.

What is meant by the peace that passes all understanding? It does not mean a peace no one can comprehend. It means a peace that no amount of reasoning will bring. You cannot get it by thinking. There may be a perfect bewilderment and perplexity all round the horizon, but yet your heart can rest in perfect security because He knows, He loves, He leads, He fills your heart with His own perfect love, with His infinite peace. He gives perfect rest round about.

According to all which He swore to give them. Have you ever noticed that? God not only promised, but swore. God’s mighty oath is pledged to give it. His honor is involved in its fulfilment, and though heaven and earth pass away He will fulfil it. How condescending! He binds Himself to show that He will not evade the responsibility of keeping His great word to us and giving His mighty blessing to those that will hold Him to it.

He gave them the land which He swore, the rest which He swore to give unto their fathers. Do you realize, beloved, what this means: Many of you are accustomed to think this is a sort of extra for a privileged few, and that once in a while some one else may get rest. But it is not so. God has bound Himself to sanctify and fully save every soul that will claim salvation and rest through Jesus Christ. He has bound Himself to do more than merely forgive you your sins. The oath which He swore unto Abraham is expressed so beautifully in that chapter in Luke, that He would grant us, that we, being delivered from all our enemies and the hand of all that hate us, “might serve Him without fear in righteousness and holiness before Him all the days of our life.” God has sworn that He will give this inheritance of rest to all who claim it.

ALL THE ENEMIES

Then we come to that other “all” — victory. One by one their enemies were permitted to confront them that Israel might gain a great victory. There was no other way of bringing them into the fulness of their conquest. Thirty-one kings had to be successively subdued, the most difficult citadels, fortresses and fastnesses of the land had to fall into their hands. But not a place could resist them, victory floated on their banners until they waved triumphantly over all the land and the whole of Canaan lay at their feet. Not one of their enemies remained, the mighty Hittites, the giant Anaks, the Amorites and the people of the Heshbon. He never once failed them when they were right with Him. Once they were beaten, but the failure of Ai was due to His absence, and
the scar of the single failure was more than wiped out.

And so, beloved, God calls us to victory. Have any of you given up the conflict, have you surrendered? Have you said, “This thing is too much”? Have you said, “I can give up anything else but this”? If you have, you are not in the land of promise. God means you should accept every difficult thing that comes in your life. He has started with you, knowing every difficulty. And if you dare to let Him, He will carry you through not only to be conquerors, but “more than conquerors.” Are you looking for all the victory?

God gives His children strength for the battle and watches over them with a fond enthusiasm. He longs to fold you to His arms and say to you, “I have seen your conflict, I have watched your trials, I have rejoiced in your victory; you have honored Me.” Not in one place was there a failure; there stood not a man of all their enemies. You remember what He told Joshua at the beginning, “There shall not any man be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so shall I be with you, I will not fail you, nor forsake you.” And again He says to us, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness, and they that were incensed against you shall be ashamed and confounded.”

He wants to give you victory, victory over yourself, over your own heart; we must all begin there. You must conquer yourself first. God wants victory over your heart; not a victory that will crush you, I don’t mean that; but a victory, a triumph through Jesus Christ. There are three great victories that God wants to give to every one of us. The first is victory over ourselves; the second, victory over our circumstances; and the third, victory over our enemies and all those who rise up against us.

Look at Joseph, the type of all these. It was not easy for him to turn away from his father and his home, to go into the kitchen as a slave, and then to be thrown into a prison as a criminal, unjustly charged with the sin of another and forced to languish there for long months, with no one to plead for him until the iron entered into his soul, and it seemed as if God had forsaken him. But Joseph endured all this, quietly learning the secret of victory over himself. Then came the victory over his trying circumstances, and all the difficulties that had surrounded him soon passed away, and he forgot even his sorrow, and rose as high as his descent had been deep and low. Then came the victory over others. God brought his brothers who had wronged him to his feet, and gave him the power — if he had wanted it — to have sweet revenge. Oh, how natural it would have been to have reminded them of their cruel crime and made them feel the bitterness they had caused him long days before! But no, Joseph had a greater victory. He would not even allow them to feel too keenly the sense of their wrong, but longed to forgive them and make them feel his love, and throw his arms about them with all a brother’s forgiving tenderness.

Ah! that is the victory that satisfies a Christlike heart. It is heaping coals of fire on the heads of those who have wronged us. And yet there is a way of putting coals of fire on others’ heads that has more meanness in it than an open revenge. There is a way of doing another a kindness in such a manner as to make him feel that we are doing it just to make him feel badly. Sweeter by far is the revenge which God has promised to the overcomer: “I will make them to come and worship at your feet and to know that I have loved you,” and to acknowledge you as the instrument of the highest spiritual blessing.

Beloved, God is bringing all these things into your life, in order to give you an opportunity of making eternal history. There is a day coming, when your biography will be written in the Bible of the eternal ages the same as Joseph’s; that is to say, if it is worth writing. Ages to come will read the story of your trials and your triumphs, and glorify your Savior for what He has done in you.

ALL THE PROMISES

The last “all” includes all God’s promises. “There failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord has spoken to the house of Israel; all came to pass.” Blessed be His name for that glorious promise! How it sweeps out to the far horizon, and reaches the length and breadth of meaning beyond all that we can ask or think! How it speaks of a finished life, of an accomplished career, of a homecoming for us, too, that will have no regret in it, and no abatement from all His highest, greatest will! It is the spirit with which God wants each of us to finish our earthly career. When life’s battle is over, and life’s mystery about to end, oh, that each of us may look back from the closing portals of the past and say: “There failed not aught of any good thing that God had spoken; all came to pass.”

It is so blessed to feel and to know that God wants to give us this. We are not holding a reluctant heart to an enforced obligation, but we are simply cooperating with our truest Friend to bring about that on which He has set His own heart for us.

Beloved, there is not a promise in your catalogue of promises, there is not a thought of blessing in your inmost heart, there is not a purpose of victory in your soul, which did not originate with Him. You can depend upon His love and His loyalty. His great heart is set upon blessing you, if you will only let Him; no, we may almost say, in blessing you in spite of yourself. I do not know that there is a more inspiring study than to trust the exact fulfilment of the very words of God. There is nothing more wonderful than to take the ancient prophecies of this Book and read them along with the parallel columns of human history and see how they correspond in their minutest details.

Take, for example, the first chapter of Genesis and the story of the creation. Four thousand years ago Moses wrote the record that light was created on the first day, and the sun on the fourth day. The scientists used to love to laugh at that incongruous statement and say that it was impossible to believe the story of creation, and the existence of light before the sun. They had their day and their laugh, and then — it was God’s turn. A few years ago, science discovered the solar spectrum, and the fact was declared, on scientific authority, that light could exist apart from the sun, and Moses’ record was shown to be scientifically true as well as divinely in advance of the times in which it was written. The Word of God was right, after all, and even more right than all the modern ideas of the age, perhaps even before the days of Moses.

Job in one of his sublime flights, spoke about “the sweet influences of the Pleiades, and the bands of Orion.” Until very recently no one could imagine what was meant by “the sweet influences of the Pleiades,” but modern astronomy has discovered the fact that the Pleiades are probably the physical center of the whole universe, and that all the stars and constellations are perpetually moving around that distant spot in far immensity, where mighty Alcyone, the chief of the Pleiades, twelve thousand times larger than our own sun, reaches out his tremendous force of gravitation, and holds all these constellations in their orbits.

Again, we read in ancient prophecy, two strangely contradictory announcements regarding Zedekiah, — the last of Judah’s kings, — one to the effect that he would go to Babylon, and the other to the effect that he would never see Babylon. They looked like contradictions until the fact was brought out, in the fulfilment, that after the fall of Jerusalem, Zedekiah’s eyes were blinded by the cruelty of Nebuchadnezzar, and he was carried in chains to Babylon, but he never saw it, although he ended his days in one of its dreary dungeons.

Thus every jot and tittle of this faithful word shall stand, and the day will come when wondering angels and saints will exclaim again, “There failed not aught of anything which He had spoken; all came to pass.”

Even His very judgments are an evidence of the faithfulness of His everlasting word. Two Hebrew Rabbis were standing on Mount Zion, looking at the desolations of Jerusalem, and the very foxes that ran on the ruined walls. One of the old men wept, and his brother smiled. Then they looked at each other, and one asked, “How can you weep?”and the other asked, “How can you smile?” One answered, “I weep because I see how God has fulfilled His word, spoken by the mouth of the ancient prophet, that `the foxes shall run upon the wall of Zion.'” “Ah,” said the other, “that is just why I smile, because the same prophet has said, `Zion shall be restored,’ and I know therefore, that as one word has been fulfilled, the other shall also come to pass.”

How true this promise has been, and will yet be to Israel as a nation! True, they have hindered God in the fulfilment of His promises, and forced Him to interpose many a long delay in the accomplishment of His purpose, but every word shall yet be entirely fulfilled. “The gifts and calling of God to Israel are without repentance,” and the seed of Abraham shall yet gather on the heights of Zion, and join in the chorus of the millennial world, “There failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord has spoken to the house of Israel; all came to pass.”

Rabinowitch has told us that the ancient Hebrew Bible has the letters Alpha and Omega, just after the prophecy in Zechariah, “They shall look on Him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn.” For long ages, Israel’s Rabbis could not understand that Alpha and Omega; but even those two little words were not in vain, and if you turn to the Book of Revelation, you will find John recalling the prophecy and applying it to Christ: “Behold He comes with clouds and every eye shall see Him, they also who pierced Him,” and then Christ, applying it to Himself, and saying: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” No! not a single yod, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, shall pass away until all be fulfilled.

And so, beloved, it has been fulfilled and yet will be fulfilled in your own heart and life. You may trust His faithful promises. He will bring it all to pass. You can send up the prayer of David, and say: “Remember Your word unto Your servant upon which You have caused me to hope.” Yes, if He has even caused you to hope in it, He will not disappoint you.

His heart is so true that He will not let you trust a misleading word. With infinite delicacy and confidence He says : “If it were not so, I would have told you.” You may not understand all the promises or their fulfilment; you may not understand all the trials of the way; you may not quite understand all the meaning of His words. They may mean to you what they mean to no one else; they may speak to your thoughts and hopes, what your own circumstances suggest; but all that He has meant for you and all that He has let you claim in the spirit of humble trust, He will weave into the pattern of your life; He will work out in the claim of His providence, and He will cause you to say, with rejoicing heart as you look back from the heights of eternal recompense, “There failed not aught of any good thing that He has spoken unto my heart; all came to pass.”

What He said to Jacob of old, on the stony pillow, He will fulfil to your trusting heart: “I will not leave you until I have done all that I have spoken to you.”

Yes, He will be faithful even to the erring. “If his children forsake My law, then will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquities with stripes; nevertheless I will not utterly take My mercy from them, nor suffer My faithfulness to fail,”

Even your faith may sometimes falter and seem to fail, but, above all your sighs and tears, the promise will often come ringing back: “If we believe not, yet He abides faithful; He cannot deny Himself.”

Blessed be His name for all the faithful words He has kept to us hitherto, but He will lift up the vision of our faith to the greater things which He has yet in store for us. His eye is upon the glorious ending. He wants to have you enter in, saying: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.”

Some day, even you, trembling, faltering one, shall stand upon those heights and look back upon all you have passed through, all you have narrowly escaped, all the perils through which He guided you, the stumblings through which He guarded you, and the sins from which He saved you; and you shall shout, with a meaning you cannot understand now, “Salvation unto Him who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” Some day He will sit down with us in that glorious home, and we shall have all the ages in which to understand the story of our lives. And He will read over again this old marked Bible with us, He will show us how He kept all these promises, He will explain to us the mysteries that we could not understand, He will recall to our memory the things we have long forgotten, He will go over again with us the book of life, He will recall all the finished story, and I am sure we will often cry: “Blessed Christ! You have been so true, You have been so good! Was there ever love like this?” And then the great chorus will be repeated once more — “There failed not aught of any good thing that He has spoken; all came to pass.”

Beloved, will you take these old promises afresh? Will you make an edition of your Bible not printed by the Bible Society nor the Oxford Press, but a Bible written by the Holy Ghost upon your heart, and translated into the version of your life? And some day He will let us write upon its last page, this glorious inscription — “There failed not aught of any good thing which He spoke unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.”

“And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me, in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matt. 28: 18-20.)

The whole story of the Book of Joshua may be applied, in a broader sense, to the people of God collectively, and especially to the New Testament church. In an important sense the whole body of Christians may be called the spiritual Israel. And the history of God’s ancient people is full of interesting parallels and lessons for us, even if they may mot be exact types in this respect.

ISRAEL’S FAILURE

1.The failure of Israel to enter into the land of promise through unbelief, had its parallel in the rejection of Christ by His own countrymen, and the consequent rejection of the Jewish people from the privileges of the Gospel. But as for ancient Israel there was still a period of probation and longsuffering, which lasted for forty years, affording individuals the opportunity of entering into the spiritual blessings of God’s covenant, so there intervened a similar period after Christ’s rejection by His own people, before the final destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Jews. And as there were some of even the first generation of Israel who believed, so there were exceptions in the ministry of Christ and His disciples, from among even that unbelieving nation, who gladly accepted their Messiah, and entered into their spiritual inheritance.

APOSTOLIC TRIUMPHS

2. The glorious career of Joshua, the crossing f the Jordan, the conquest of Canaan, and the dividing of the inheritance among the tribes of Israel, find their striking parallel likewise, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, and the triumphs of Christianity, when the Church, to a very great extent, claimed her inheritance of power, purity and blessing, and entered upon the conquest of the world for Christ, until there was scarcely a region of the globe where the Gospel was not at least planted and the strongholds of Satan challenged and shaken.

The crossing of the Jordan may well illustrate the Cross of Calvary, and the experience of death and resurrection which was so emphasized in primitive Christianity. The new covenant has its counterpart in the coming of the Holy Ghost, and the Gospel of full and free salvation. The death of Moses and the advent of Joshua, whose very name is suggestive of Jesus, suggest the transition which then actually came, from the law to the Gospel. The victories of Canaan had their counterpart in the triumphs of Christianity. Dividing the inheritance foreshadowed the various gifts of the Holy Ghost distributed to the Church.

The supernatural element which runs through the entire story of the conquest Palestine, was more than realized in the final centuries of Christianity in the manifestations of the divine presence and power, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. And the choice possessions won by Caleb, Othniel, Achsah and others, remind us of the transcendent examples of piety, faith, love, knowledge, and holy power and usefulness, which adorned the annals of the early Church.

FAILURE OF THE CHURCH

3. The failure of Israel to enter promptly and fully into their whole inheritance, also finds its counterpart in the church of the New Testament. With all its fresh beauty and divine glory, still there was much of human imperfection and melancholy failure. The old cry, “There remains much land yet to be possessed,” “How long are you slack to go up and possess all the land which the Lord your God has given you!” is echoed back in more than one of Paul’s sorrowful admonitions to the churches he loved; and still more strongly in the appeals and warnings of the Son of God to the seven churches of Asia, through the last messages of the Holy Ghost, sixty years after His ascension. There we find Him saying to the strongest of these churches, “I have somewhat against you, because you have left your first love. Therefore, be watchful and strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.” And to another, “You have a name that you live, and are dead.” And yet again, “You say, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked.”

Already, even in the lifetime of Paul and John, the primitive church had allied itself sufficiently with the world to open the door for many of the errors which afterwards entered and overwhelmed the purity of the early Church.

THE DARK AGES

4. The fearful declension of ancient Israel, leading ere long to the dark chapter of the Book of Judges, and their shameful compromise with the heathen world and subjugation to its power, is more than paralleled in the story of the dark ages of medieval Christianity, through the same cause, namely, the failure of God’s people to separate themselves from sin and worldliness, and to enter into their full inheritance. The purity and strength of apostolic Christianity were speedily lost in the unspeakable corruptions of an apostate church, with all the errors and abominations of that anti-Christian system which took the place of the Church of God for twelve hundred years, and has been well called a “baptized heathenism.”

Many of the pictures of the Book of Judges might find a vivid counterpart in the story of the Middle Ages. The graphic picture of Micah and his mother, with its strange intermingling of dishonesty, religion, and ritualism, almost seems like a parable of much of the religious life of such a period, and, indeed, is not without its parallels in our own days. Like Micah’s sanctuary, many a formalist has folded his arms in the midst of violence and sin, and said, “Now the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to be my priest.”

Notwithstanding these there were many exceptions in ancient Israel — a wise and patriotic Deborah, a brave and faithful Barak, a divinely-called Gideon, a single-hearted Jephthah, and a mighty Samson. And so, even in the darkest ages of Christianity there have not been wanting those who have not defiled their garments, and who at times have dared to rise up for God against those that did wickedly, and shed a divine luster on their times and names. Such were the noble army of the martyrs, and confessors — a Waldo, a Wickliffe, a Huss, a Savonarola, a Bernard and a Bede.

At length the time of reformation came to ancient Israel, when Samuel, the prophet, arose to recall his people to their ancient faith and prepare them for the coming kingdom. Such a ministry of our own time was that of Luther and the Reformation, calling back the Church of God to her ancient faith, and arousing her to claim her lost inheritance. But, as even Samuel’s mighty work was in a measure ineffectual, and was followed for a time by the counterfeit kingdom of Saul, and the false and worldly aims of his countrymen, which led them into a separation from God that left its effects for half a century, so even the revived Christianity of the Reformation has not been perfect; and, like ancient Israel, the Church, delivered from her immediate foe, has given herself up, to a great degree, to a spirit of worldliness, and to look for her kingdom in a forbidden world.

There is much today of the spirit of Saul in nominal Christianity; the pride that finds its satisfaction in earthly gifts, talents and successes, and fails to recognize the true King, who, like the rejected David, waits for His throne as the “despised and rejected of men.” The kingdom of David seems to prefigure the true triumphs of our coming King, and the ushering in of His dominion in the final victory of Christianity.

MILLENNIAL VISIONS

5. The peaceful and splendid throne of Solomon completes the picture of the millennial glory which is to be the consummation of the Christian age. Then will come the full inheritance of grace and glory, both for God’s ancient people and the Church and the Bride of the Lamb.

What, then, for us, in the Church of God today, is the teaching of this ancient Book?

(a) It summons her to her glorious crusade of conquest against the enemies of Christ. Never was there an age more full of encouragement for the good fight of faith and the conquest of the world for Christ. The whole land is before us; every avenue of influence at home, every missionary field abroad, is open for the Church’s zeal and holy enterprise. The triumphs of the Gospel in the past fifty years have not been unworthy of comparison with Pentecost, or even with Joshua’s campaign. True, it has been but a small section of the Church that has dared to claim these victories, but the recompense has been sufficient to call forth far higher achievements and aspirations. Especially should the near prospect of the coming kingdom arouse us to go forth and win for our glorious Captain the crown of all the world, until every citadel of heathendom, and every stronghold of sin shall have become a monument of His grace and power.

More emphatically still, let the tender lesson of Rahab in the beginning, and the Cities of Refuge at the close, remind us that our supreme conflict is for the souls of sinful men. And beyond all the questions of dogmas, and the discussion of principles, and the undermining of systems of error and iniquity, let our objective point be individual men and women, and our highest and brightest trophies, the transformed lives of the most helpless and degraded of our race.

(b) Let us, like Joshua and Israel, go in and possess all our inheritance. The Church has been slack to do this, and is still slack. She has not claimed her full inheritance of knowledge and truth, nor entered into all the fulness of God’s precious promises.

She has not entered into her full inheritance of holiness, but has been content to look upon a life of sanctity and devotedness as an exceptional exhibition of individual temperament rather than as the duty and privilege of every child of God.

She has not entered into her full inheritance of faith, nor recognized the power that lies latent in taking God at His Word and daring to claim all that He has spoken. A life of becoming faith and remarkable answers to prayer is regarded as something special and wonderful, a sort of peculiar calling on the part of some individual of exalted piety.

She has not entered into her full inheritance of love and unity, but has been rent with strifes, divisions, jealousies and controversies, which have left Hebron in the hands of the Anakim and her Lord “wounded in the house of His friends.”

And she has failed to enter into her full inheritance of supernatural power. The gifts of Pentecost have never been recalled, but have only been imperfectly claimed, and natural talent, human learning and worldly influence have been their weak and insufficient substitutes. Let us go in and possess all the land. All power is given unto our Joshua in heaven and in earth, and lo! He is with us always. “God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound mind.” Let us, therefore, “stir up the gift of God that is in us”; let Zion hear her Master crying. “Awake, awake, put on your strength, your beautiful garments”; “Arise and shine, for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.”

The Almighty Presence of our risen Lord is sufficient for any obedient service which we will dare to attempt in His strength and name. Let us put on the whole armor of the Lord, “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,” and clothed in all the fulness of the unchanging Paraclete, let the Church of God go forth to the last campaign of the great conflict.

(c) Let the Church remember the necessity of separation from sin and the world if she would overcome her enemies and possess her full inheritance. She must cross the Jordan and let its unbridged torrents roll between her and the world. She must know the true meaning of circumcision and let Gilgal roll away the reproach of Egypt from her spirit and person. She must watch against the sin of Achan, and not let the accursed thing touch her spotless hands. She must take no tribute from the Canaanites, nor lean upon the world in the slightest measure for her support.

She must separate from forbidden alliance with the ungodly, and stand “fresh as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.” Alas, this is the secret of her weakness and failure; she has gone, like Israel, into a forbidden league with the tribes of the land. She has put her head, like Samson, in Delilah’s lap, and her locks are shorn, and all her shaking of herself will not renew her strength until she has taken the place of the Nazarite and separated herself from a defiling and hostile world. “Come out of her, My people,” is the Master’s call; and as the Church obeys it, will she stand forth in her primitive purity and power and draw all men unto her Lord.

“Whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” (Heb. 12: 26-28.)

Christian hope has always loved to link the land of promise with our heavenly inheritance. The sacred poetry of the past is full of this sweet imagery. Jordan is the swelling flood of death, and the sweet fields beyond are the images of that heavenly land,

“Where everlasting spring abides,
And never withering flowers,
And death, the narrow stream, divides
That heavenly land from ours.”

The vital objection to this theory is that heaven essentially differs from the earthly Canaan in most of the features which chiefly distinguished the latter. That was a land of conflict and hard-won victory, while heaven shall have no foes to overcome, and all its crowns shall be those of accomplished triumph and peaceful recompense. Heaven will have no Jericho, no valley of Achor, nor failure such as that of Achan, and no sad declension such as that which followed Israel’s entry into Canaan.

And yet, there are some points in which the misinterpretation is not without its lessons. Canaan was Israel’s home, their place of rest after the conflicts in the wilderness, and the realization of long-deferred hopes and promises. And so, there remains a rest for the people of God on the heaven side of the grave, where they shall be at home, and “shall rest from their labors while their works do follow them”; and where the long-deferred hopes and expectations of life shall be realized at length, and all their wanderings and trials shall forever cease. God forbid that we should abate aught of the blessed meaning of heaven, where all the ransomed wait in unspeakable felicity for the greater inheritance that lies still farther beyond!

It is of this better inheritance that the ancient Canaan was really the type; for there is a better inheritance even than heaven. Christian hope is always connected in the New Testament Scriptures, not with death and the state of the departed, but with the second coming of the Lord Jesus, and the millennial glory which is then to be ushered in. Even the earthly Canaan itself was but the transient home of the seed of Abraham; it looked forward both in type and promise to a future age when Israel shall inherit their full patrimony, and when all the children of faith shall possess, through the age of glory, their true Land of Promise.

CHRIST WILL BRING IT IN

1. Like the ancient Canaan, it is to be introduced by the true Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no millennium promised in the Scriptures apart from His personal coming. The heavens have received Him, according to the language of the apostles, “until the times of restitution of all things”; but He is coming again, and His appearing and His kingdom will be simultaneous.

There came a day, in Scotland, when the great heart of the Reformers went out to John Knox. They felt it was he whom they needed, and his coming would settle every question. When at last the tidings went abroad, over hill and valley, and hamlet and city, “John Knox has come!” all hearts were thrilled with confidence that the crisis was passed, and strong men gathered at the rallying-places, and tyrants trembled on their thrones; for they knew that his single presence was worth the combined strength of all their armies. And so, the need of our people is not institutions, and organizations, and people, but the coming of the King Himself.

2. Like the ancient Canaan, only the children of faith and obedience will possess this inheritance. Perhaps many of the ancient Israelites were saved who never entered the Land of Promise; and so it is possible to belong to the people of God and yet lose much of the glory and recompense connected with the hope of His appearing. “Unto them that look for Him will he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” “They that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.”

There is a faith that brings salvation, but there is a faith that will bring the recompense promised at His coming, and there will yet be a generation whose faith will keep them from the power of death, and bring them the translation glory.

Often have we seen the children of God struggling through some tremendous trial of soul or body, and it seemed as if their faith did not quite win the victory here. But it was sweet to believe that what they had missed in this world would be given as the recompense of their faith, at His coming. Not one single grain of true faith is ever lost, and although it may seem to have missed its mark on this side, it is all reserved for His coming, and many a soul that has wept and wondered will wonder yet more, when it beholds the crown laid up for it there when the tears shall have long ago been forgotten.

But obedience is as necessary as faith. They who are to be among the first fruits of His appearing have followed the Lamb whithersoever He goes. “You are My friends.” He says, “if you do whatsoever I command you.”

MUST BE WON

3. The Millennium, like Canaan, must be conquered, too. Not without resistance shall He enter upon His kingdom. The world’s greatest conflict will just precede its millennial Sabbath. The mighty Captain of the millennial armies sits upon a white horse with garments dyed in blood, and a name upon His vesture and upon His thigh, King of kings, and Lord of lords; and comes forth as a mighty Conqueror, treading under His feet the hosts of Antichrist and the powers of hell, and scattering His enemies at the feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s image, like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; for “He must reign until He put all enemies under His feet.” The battles of Joshua and the conquests of David are the living types of the advent struggles, and the Armageddon war.

The promises of His coming are all given to the overcomer. God is not going to throw away His crowns and thrones on those who have lived for earthly rewards. He has a “little flock” to whom He will “give the kingdom,” and He is picking them out every day, through the tests that come to them and the victories which they win.

Gideon started with thirty thousand men, but God only took three hundred of all that army. They were not only picked, but they were picked again and again. The first thirty thousand were taken out of Israel, then ten thousand were taken out of the thirty thousand, and then three hundred were taken out of the ten thousand, and with these three hundred the victory was won.

Day by day, each of us is meeting the enemies who come to prove whether we can be trusted with a crown.

UNIVERSAL VICTORY

4. The Lord’s coming will bring not only conflict, but victory. Joshua’s campaign was an uninterrupted and complete triumph until it was finished. There was no king in all the Hittite confederacy that had not been overthrown; and so our Lord is to put down all authority and opposition and reign without a rival over the millennial earth. The day is surely corning when every evil thing that lifts its head in proud defiance shall be laid prostrate at His feet. Not forever shall right be on the scaffold and wrong upon the throne. “He will avenge His own elect.”

Error shall at length cease to delude, selfishness to prey on holiness, and injustice, vice and crime to defile and destroy the creation of God. The hour is coming when the adversaries of the Church and of the soul shall be remembered only as a vanished dream. We shall seek for them and they shall not be found. The proud empires of the world, the blasphemous and defiant power of Antichrist, and even Satan himself shall be given to the saints of God and the Prince of Peace. The conquests of Canaan were not a truce with the adversary, nor an attempt to transform their adversaries to peaceful friends; but their utter extinction.

And so the coming of the Lord is to involve the destruction of His enemies. The Gospel age is the time for evangelization and the day for the world’s peaceful submission and conversion, but when the Master comes it will be to “consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and to destroy with the brightness of His coming, everything that exalted itself against the obedience of Christ.”

OUR INHERITANCE

5. His coming will bring us to our inheritance. Then will Abraham and David possess the literal fulness of their ancient covenants, and the land on which their feet rested for a time shall be their own and the home of their offspring. Then shall the disciples who followed Jesus in His days of rejection, “sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Then shall we possess our complete redemption, spirit, soul and body, perfectly restored to the image of God, and our lost dominion over the earth given back through our exalted Head. Then shall the saints of God receive the recompense of their lives of service and suffering, and those who have overcome shall wear the crowns of victory and glory which He has promised to the faithful and triumphant. Then shall each soul find its perfect sphere and enter upon the service for which its earthly training has qualified it; and doubtless there will be a Hebron of exalted fellowship and love for every brave Caleb; a Kirjath-Sepher of boundless knowledge for every conquering Othniel; a fountain of life, with its upper and nether springs, for every true Achsah who has dared to claim her full inheritance; a double inheritance for every true Ephraimite that has dared to conquer it in the days of earthly battle; a city of honor and service for every Levite who has been true to his consecration, and a Timnath-Serah of everlasting light and glory for every faithful Joshua.

Our full inheritance is yet to come. All we know of Jesus in His indwelling fulness and victorious life is but the type of the glory that awaits us at His advent. All we know of truth here is but through glass darkly, then “shall we know even as we are known!” All we know of holiness here is but a shadow of that hour when “we shall be like Him,” as we see Him as He is. All we know of physical redemption is but a prophetic foretaste of the glorious life that will thrill every frame with the resurrection joy. All we know of service for the Master is but the blundering attempt of the schoolboy as he learns the mere alphabet of knowledge, compared with the mighty faith and divine power with which we shall be workers together with Him, in the transformation of the millennial earth, at the inauguration of His glorious kingdom.

He is educating us to bear a far “more exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory.” Let us be apt learners and by and by we shall look back with amazement to our earthly childhood and scarcely recognize the trembling and blundering beginner who once struggled through the years of time, and claimed the inheritance that was to be so much more vast and transcendent than his brightest earthly dream.

HIMSELF

6. And best of all, He will be Himself our Eternal Inheritance. “Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men and God Himself shall be with them and be their God.” How much is meant by the presence of Jesus! How much it used to mean in the old apostolic times! What a difference it made to that little company when suddenly He stood in their midst, and thrilled their hearts with the sweet words, “Peace be unto you.” “Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.”

Only four or five times did that wondrous Presence appear to Paul, but oh, the power of one such moment upon his life! What cared he, that day, as he rode into Damascus, for any earthly or heavenly power? What to Him was the name of Jesus? But suddenly, like a flash of lightning from a clear sky, the face of Jesus blazed out from the glory, the voice of Jesus spake to him, and Paul was prostrated upon the ground broken and subdued, and crying, “Lord, what will You have me to do?” One moment with Jesus had transformed the mightiest will of the age.

Look at him again, crushed and discouraged, in that dungeon in Jerusalem, wondering if he had made a fatal mistake, and sinking, doubtless, in deep depression. But suddenly the Master appears, and with one word assures him. “You have testified for Me at Jerusalem, you must bear witness for Me at Rome.” Instantly Paul’s heart was on the heights of glory, even as the one flash the sailor gets from the sky and the one observation he takes of the sun, will carry him through long weeks of clouds and storms. Look again at that little company on the stormy Adriatic. For days the ship has tossed on the wild Euroclydon, but, suddenly, Jesus appears to Paul. One single message is all: “Fear not, you must be brought before Caesar; I have given you all these that sail with you.” Paul is a victor again, and standing on that tossing vessel, he inspires with his own courage the sinking hearts of the men with him. They reach the shore, and by and by, the capital of the world.

Oh, what will it be to have that wondrous Presence with us forever, and every moment be able to look into His face, to hear His voice, to have Him with us, and to be “even as He”? Thank God that blessed Coming is near at hand! God is saying to many hearts today, as He has said so often in His Word: “Yet once more (it is a little while) I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. Yes, I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come.”

Surely, He is shaking the nations today. Surely this terrible financial trouble that is distressing all the world, making hundreds of thousands of paupers, bringing distress of nations and perplexity, surely this is one of the harbingers of the coming of the Son of man, and the quaking earth is keeping time to the tread of the heavenly march. Only a few days ago, tidings reached us from across the ocean and the continent, that the very heart of Asia had been shaken by the most significant earthquake of modern times. Surely, if there is one place on earth that is the seat of heathenism and the very citadel of its strength, it is Thibet, and that great monastery, where thousands of priests surround the Grand Llama of Buddhism, the Pope of five millions of Asiatic people; and yet, a few weeks ago, that very spot was shaken by the hand of God, that great monastery crumbled into a heap of ruins, and the Grand Llama himself has disappeared, with hundreds of others, and filled the minds of his followers with consternation.

God help us to understand the meaning of our times, and to hear Him saying to us, “How do you know but that you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”