Part 5 (1/2)
What a volume of truth is contained in the sentence which we have just penned! It is one of those comprehensive and suggestive pa.s.sages which lie scattered up and down the divine volume, and which seize, with peculiar power, upon the heart, and open up a vast field of most precious truth. It sets forth, in plain and forcible language, the blessed purpose of the Lord G.o.d of Israel to have His people completely delivered from Egypt and separated unto Himself, in order that they might feast with Him in the wilderness. Nothing could satisfy His heart, in reference to them, but their entire emanc.i.p.ation from the land of death and darkness. He would free them not only from Egypt's brick-kilns and task-masters, but from its temples and its altars, and from all its habits and all its a.s.sociations, from its principles, its maxims, and its fas.h.i.+ons. In a word, they must be a thoroughly separated people, ere they could hold a feast to Him in the wilderness.
Thus it was with Israel, and thus it is with us. We, too, must be a fully and consciously delivered people ere we can properly serve, wors.h.i.+p, or walk with G.o.d. We must not only know the forgiveness of our sins, and our entire freedom from guilt, wrath, judgment, and condemnation; but also our complete deliverance from this present evil world and all its belongings, ere we can intelligently serve the Lord.
The world is to the Christian what Egypt was to Israel; only, of course, our separation from the world is not local or physical, but moral and spiritual. Israel left Egypt in person; we leave the world in spirit and principle. Israel left Egypt in fact; we leave the world in faith. It was a real, out-and-out, thorough separation for them, and it is the same for us. ”Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.”
1. To this rigid separation, as we very well know, Satan had and still has many objections. His first objection was set forth in the following words, spoken by the lips of Pharaoh, ”Go ye, _and sacrifice to your G.o.d in the land_.” These were subtle words--words well calculated to ensnare a heart that was not in communion with the mind of G.o.d. For it might with great plausibility and apparent force be argued, Is it not uncommonly liberal on the part of the king of Egypt to offer you toleration for your peculiar mode of wors.h.i.+p? Is it not a great stretch of liberality to offer your religion a place on the public platform? Surely you can carry on your religion as well as other people. There is room for all. Why this demand for separation?
Why not take common ground with your neighbors? There is no need surely for such extreme narrowness.
All this might seem very reasonable. But then, mark Jehovah's high and holy standard! Hearken to the plain and positive declaration, ”Let My people go!” There is no mistaking this. It is impossible, in the face of such a statement, to remain in Egypt. The most plausible reasonings that ever could be advanced vanish into thin air in the presence of the authoritative demand of the Lord G.o.d of Israel. If He says, ”Let My people go,” then go we must, spite of all the opposing power of earth and h.e.l.l, men and devils. There is no use in reasoning, disputing, or discussing. We must obey. Egyptians may think for themselves; Jehovah must think for Israel; the sequel will prove who is right.
And here let us just offer our readers a word, in pa.s.sing, as to the subject of ”narrowness,” about which we hear so much now-a-days. The real question is, ”Who is to fix the boundaries of the Christian's faith? Is it man or G.o.d--human opinion or divine revelation?” When this question is answered, the whole matter is easily settled. There are some minds terribly scared by the bugbear of ”narrow-mindedness.”
But then we have to inquire what _is_ narrowness, and what breadth of mind? Now, what we understand by a narrow mind is simply a mind which refuses to take in and be governed by the whole truth of G.o.d. A mind governed by human opinions, human reasonings, worldly maxims, selfish interests, self-will--this we unhesitatingly p.r.o.nounce to be a narrow mind.
On the other hand, a mind beautifully subject to the authority of Christ--a mind that bows with reverent submission to the voice of Holy Scripture--a mind that sternly refuses to go beyond the written Word--that absolutely rejects what is not based upon ”Thus saith the Lord,”--this is what we call a broad, elevated mind.
Reader, is it not--must it not be so? Is not G.o.d's word--His mind, infinitely more comprehensive, wide, and full than the mind and ways of man? Is there not infinitely greater breadth in the Holy Scriptures than in all the human writings under the sun? Does it not argue more largeness of heart, and devotion of soul to be governed by the thoughts of G.o.d than by our own thoughts or the thoughts of our fellows? It seems to us there can be but one reply to these questions; and hence the entire subject of narrowness resolves itself into this simple but very telling motto, ”We must be as narrow as Christ, and as broad as Christ.”
We must view everything from this blessed standpoint, and then our entire range of vision will be correct, and our conclusions thoroughly sound. But if Christ be not our standpoint, but self, or man, or the world, then our entire range of vision is false, and our conclusions thoroughly unsound.
All this is as clear as a sunbeam to a single eye and an honest and loyal heart. And, really, if the eye be not single, and the heart true to Christ, and the conscience subject to the Word, it is a complete loss of time to argue or discuss. Of what possible use can it be to argue with a man who, instead of obeying the word of G.o.d, is only seeking to turn aside its edge? None whatever. It is a hopeless task to reason with one who has never taken in the mighty moral import of that most precious word--obey.
We must now return to our immediate theme. There is something uncommonly fine in Moses' reply to Satan's first objection, ”It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our G.o.d: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our G.o.d, as He shall command us” (Ex. viii. 26).
There would have been a lack of moral fitness in presenting to Jehovah, in sacrifice, the object of Egyptian wors.h.i.+p. But, more than this, Egypt was not the place in which to erect an altar to the true G.o.d. Abraham had no altar when he turned aside into Egypt. He abandoned his wors.h.i.+p and his strangers.h.i.+p when he went down thither; and if Abraham could not wors.h.i.+p there, neither could his seed. An Egyptian might ask, Why? But it is one thing to ask a question, and another thing to understand the answer. How could the Egyptian mind enter into the reasons of a true Israelite's conduct? Impossible. What could such an one know of the meaning of a ”three days'” Absolutely nothing. ”Beloved, the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.”
The motives which actuate, and the objects which animate, the true believer lie far beyond the world's range of vision; and we may rest a.s.sured that in the exact proportion in which the world can enter into and appreciate a Christian's motives the Christian must be unfaithful to his Lord.
We speak, of course, of proper Christian _motives_. No doubt there is much in a Christian's life that the world can admire and value.
Integrity, honesty, truthfulness, disinterested kindness, care for the poor, self-denial--all these things may be understood and appreciated; but, admitting all this, we return to the apostolic statement that ”The world knoweth us not:” and if we want to walk with G.o.d--if we would hold a feast unto Him--if it is our heart's true and earnest desire to run a consistent heavenly course, we must break with the world altogether, and break with _self_ also, and take our stand outside the camp, with a world-rejected, heaven-accepted Christ. May we do so, with fixed purpose of heart, to the glory of His own precious and peerless name!
2. Satan's second objection is very near akin to his first. If he cannot succeed in keeping Israel in Egypt, he will at least try to keep them as near to it as possible. ”I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your G.o.d in the wilderness; only _ye shall not go very far away_” (chap. viii. 28).
There is more damage done to the cause of Christ by an apparent, partial, half-hearted giving up of the world, than by remaining in it altogether. Wavering, undecided, half-and-half professors injure the testimony of the Lord more than out-and-out worldlings. And, further, we may say, there is a very wide difference indeed between giving up certain worldly things, and giving up the world itself. A person may lay aside certain forms of worldliness, and, all the while, retain the world deep down in the heart. We may give up the theatre, the ball-room, the race-course, the billiard-table, etc., yet cling to the world all the same. We may lop off some of the branches, and yet cling with tenacity to the old trunk.
This must be carefully seen to. We feel persuaded that what mult.i.tudes of professing Christians need is to make a clean break with the world--that very comprehensive word. It is utterly impossible to make a proper start, much less to make any progress, while the heart is playing fast and loose with the holy claims of Christ. We do not hesitate to express it as our settled conviction that, in thousands of cases, where souls complain of doubts and fears, ups and downs, darkness and heaviness, lack of a.s.surance and comfort, of light, liberty, joy, peace, and vivid realization, it is owing to the simple fact that they have not really broken with the world. They either seek to hold a feast to the Lord in Egypt, or they remain so near as to be easily drawn back again; so near that they are neither one thing nor the other.
How can such people be happy? How can their peace flow as a river? How can they possibly walk in the light of a Father's countenance, or in the joy of a Saviour's presence? How can the blessed beams of that sun that s.h.i.+nes in the new creation reach them through the murky atmosphere that envelopes the land of death and darkness? Impossible!
They must break with the world, and make a clear, decided, whole-hearted surrender of themselves to Christ. There must be a full Christ for the heart, and a full heart for Christ.
Here, we may rest a.s.sured, lies the grand secret of Christian progress. We must make a proper start before ever we can get on; and in order to make a proper start we must break our links with the world, or, rather, we must believe and practically carry out the fact that G.o.d has broken them for us in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The cross has separated us for ever from this present evil world. It has not merely delivered us from the eternal consequences of our sins, but from the present power of sin, and from the principles, maxims, and fas.h.i.+ons of a world that lieth in the hands of the wicked one.
It is one of Satan's masterpieces to lead professing Christians to rest satisfied with looking to the Cross for salvation while remaining in the world, or occupying a border position--”not going very far away.” This is a terrible snare, against which we most solemnly warn the Christian reader. What is the remedy? True heart-devotedness to and fellows.h.i.+p with a rejected and glorified Christ. To walk with Christ, to delight in Him, to feed upon Him, we must be apart from the G.o.dless, Christless, wicked world--apart from it in the spirit of our minds and in the affections of our hearts--apart from it, not merely in its gross forms of moral pravity, or the wild extravagance of its folly and gaiety, but apart from its religion, its politics, and its philanthropy--apart from the world in all that goes to make up that comprehensive phrase.
But here we may be asked, ”Is Christianity merely a stripping, an emptying, a giving up? Does it only consist of prohibition and negation?” We answer, with hearty and blissful emphasis, _No!_ A thousand times, _No!_ Christianity is preeminently positive--intensely real--divinely satisfying. What does it give us in lieu of what it takes from us? It gives us ”unsearchable riches” in place of ”dung and dross.” It gives us ”an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and unfading, reserved in heaven,” instead of a poor pa.s.sing bubble on the stream of time. It gives us Christ, the joy of the heart of G.o.d, the object of heaven's wors.h.i.+p, the theme of angels' song, the eternal sunlight of the new creation, in lieu of a few moments of sinful gratification and guilty pleasure. And, finally, it gives us an eternity of ineffable bliss and glory in the Father's house above, instead of an eternity in the awful flames of h.e.l.l.
Reader, what sayest thou to these things? Is not this a good exchange?
Can we not find here the most cogent reasons for giving up the world?
It sometimes happens that men favor us with their reasons for resigning this, that, and the other branch of worldliness; but it strikes us that all such reasons might be summed up in one, and that one be thus enunciated: ”The reason for resigning the world--_I have found Christ_.” This is the real way to put the matter. Men do not find it very hard to give up cinders for diamonds, ashes for pearls, dross for gold. No, reader; and in the same way, when one has tasted the preciousness of Christ, there is no difficulty in giving up the world. If Christ fills the heart, the world is not only driven out, but kept out. We not only turn our back upon Egypt, but we go far enough away from it never to return. And for what? To do nothing? To have nothing? To be gloomy, morose, melancholy, sour, or cynical? No; but to ”hold _a feast_ to the Lord.” True, it is ”in the wilderness”; but then the wilderness is heaven begun, when we have Christ there with us. He is our heaven, blessed be His name--the light of our eyes, the joy of our hearts, the food of our souls; for even heaven would be no heaven without Him, and the wilderness itself is turned into a heaven by His dear, bright, soul-satisfying presence.