Revelation
Pergamos: the church united
with the World (Rev. ii. 12 - 17.)
WE have seen, then, two main steps in the Churchs
outward decline, after the loss of first love had made any departure possible.
First of all, the divine idea of the Church was lost. Instead of its being a
body of people having, in the full and proper sense, eternal life and
salvation, children of God, members of Christ, and called out of the world as
not belonging to it, it became a mere "gathering together" of those for whom,
indeed, the old names might in part remain, but who were, in fact, the world
itself with true Christian people scattered through it. Children of God, no
doubt, they might be by baptism, and by it have forgiveness of sins also, but
that was no settlement for eternity at all. They were confessedly under trial,
uncertain as to how things would finally turn out, - a ground which all the
world could understand and adopt, with sacraments and means of grace to help
them on, and prevent them realizing the awfulness of their position.
Of
course this immense change from Church to synagogue was not at once effected.
Yet the church, historically known to us outside of the New Testament, is but
in fact essentially the synagogue. The fire of persecution combined with the
fidelity of a remnant to prevent for awhile the extreme result, and to separate
mere professors from the confessors of Christ. Still, through it all, the
leaven of Judaism did its deadly work; and no sooner was the persecution
stopped than the worlds overtures for peace and alliance were eagerly
listened to, and with Constantine, for many, the millennium seemed to have
arrived. Could the Church of the apostles have fallen into the worlds
arms so? Their voice would have rebuked the thought as of Satan, as indeed it
was. "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the
world is enmity with God?"
The second step we saw in the rise of a
clergy, a special priestly class, replacing the true Christian ministry, the
free exercise of the various gifts resulting from the various position of the
members in the body of Christ. The clerical assumption displaced the body of
Christian people, - now a true laity, - as at least less spiritual and near to
God: a place, alas! easily accepted where Christ had lost what the world had
gained in value with His own. As Judaism prevailed, and the world came in
through the wider-opening door, the distance between the two classes increased,
and more and more the clergy became the channels of all blessing to all the
rest. Practically, and in the end almost openly, they became the church; and
the Church became, from a company of those already saved, a channel for
conveying a sacramental and hypothetical salvation.
We now come to look
at the issue of all this when circumstances favored. In Pergamos, the change in
the Lords position is noteworthy and characteristic. He presents Himself
no longer in the tender and compassionate way which He exhibits toward His
suffering ones in Smyrna. It is "These things saith He which hath the sharp
sword with two edges." His word is a word of penetrating and decisive judgment.
It is with this two-edged sword that He by and by smites the nattions (chap.
xix.), so that there can be no question to its meaning. And while it is of
course true it is not His own at Pergamos who are smitten with it, yet it is
those whom He charges them with having in their midst (v. i6).
The
characteristic thing in Pergamos is that they are dwelling where Satans
throne is. "Throne," not merely "seat," is the true word, though our
translators, as it would seem, because of the strength the expression, shrank
from using it. To what is referred in the actual city, no commentator can tell
us. Trench remarks, "Why it should have thus deserved the name of
Satans throne, so emphatically repeated a second time at the
end of this verse - "where Satan dwelleth," must remain one of the unsolved
riddles of these epistles." But did the Lord bid him that hath an ear to hear
what must remain an unsolved riddle? Assuredly not. It is one of the
characteristics of the prophetic view in these epistles, that it delivers one
from the necessity of waiting until some archeologist shall be found who can
explain such things, and gives us one for our profit both clear and
satisfactory, derived from Scripture itself. But not only so. The actual worth
of the archeologic rendering would very likely little, if it could be gained.
Of what value would it be if we believed with Grotius that is expression had
reference to the worship of Aescu1apius, whose symbol was a serpent?
Surely very little. Whereas the prophetic view flashes light upon the whole
condition.
Satan reigns in hell, according to the popular belief; and
Miltons picture, while it reflects this, has done much to confirm and
make it vivid. But hell is a place of punishment, and Scripture is quite plain
that he is not confined there. Then he must have broken loose, is the idea.
Gods prison was not strong enough! One might ask, How do we know, then,
it will ever be? Think of the government which allows the chief malefactor to
reign in his prison over those less evil than himself, and to break prison, and
roam freely where he will! Gods government is not chargeable with this.
In hell, Satan will be, not king, but lowest and most miserable there; and once
committed to it, no escape will be permitted. But this will not be till after
the millennium, as Rev. xx. assures us.
But this idea permits people to
escape from the thought - an appalling one, no doubt, - that he is still what
the Lord designates him - "prince of this world:" "the prince of this world
cometh, and hath nothing in Me."
True, He does speak so, some one may
suggest; but does He not also say, when predicting the effect of His cross,
"Now shall the prince of this world be cast out"? has he not, then, been cast
out of his kingdom? and are we not "translated into the kingdom of our Lord
Jesus Christ"? The latter is true; but as to the former, the Lord only predicts
the certain effect of the cross, and the "now" simply declares it to be the
effect. Here one startling expression of the apostle Paul, going beyond even
that which the Lord uses, is decisive as to the matter; he calls the devil -
long after the cross - "the god of this world" (2 Cor. iv. 4).
And
indeed the expression is stronger even than this. For the margin of the
Revised Version is assuredly right, and it is the word "age," not world," which
the apostle uses. "The god of this age" is surely a very solemn title to be
given to Satan after the Christian dispensation, as we call it, had already
begun. Yet there it stands; and scripture cannot be broken."
Yes, it is
over the world, and in these Christian times, that Satan exercises this
terrible sway, and this is what makes the expression here, "dwelling here
Satans throne is," so sadly significant.
For "dwelling in the
world" is another thing than being in it. We are in the world perforce, and no
wise responsible for that, but to be a dweller it is a moral state: it is to be
a citizen of it, the condition which the apostle speaks of in Philippians
obtaining among professing Christians: "For many walk, of whom I have told you
before, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross
of Christ; whose god is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind
earthly things: for our citizenship is in heaven, from whence we look for the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ."
Their characteristic is that they are
enemies, not Christ personally, but of the cross - that cross by which we are
crucified to the world and the world us. Their hearts were on earthly things,
which, not satisfying them, as earthly things cannot, made their god to be
their belly; their inward craving came their master, and made them drudge in
its service. The Christians citizenship is in heaven. That delivers him
from the unsatisfying pursuit of earthly things. But little indeed is this
understood now. Even where people can talk and sing of the world being a
wilderness, you will find that in general the idea is rather of the sorrows and
trials of which the world is full, and which Christians are exposed to like the
men of the world themselves. "Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward;"
and pilgrimage in their minds is a thing perforce. The world passes away, and
they cannot keep it; so they are glad to think that heaven is at the end. In
the meanwhile, they go on trying (honestly, no doubt, if you can call such a
thing honest in a Christian,) to get as much of it as they can, or at least as
much as will make them comfortable in it. But a pilgrim is not one whom the
world is leaving, but who is leaving it. Otherwise the whole world would be
pilgrims, as indeed they talk about the "pilgrimage of life." But this is the
abuse of the term, and not its use. We can be pilgrims in this sense, and find
all the world companions; and such, in fact, had got to be the idea of
pilgrimage in the Pergamos state of the Church. They talked of it, no doubt,
and built their houses the more solidly to stand the rough weather. God said
they were dwelling where Satans throne was.
It was the history of
old Babel repeating itself. You may find the vivid type of it in Gen. xi.,
where men "journeyed," indeed, but not as pilgrims, or only as that till they
could find some smooth spot to settle down in. They "journeyed," as colonists
or immigrants on the look-out for land; from the rough hills beyond the flood,
where human life began; "from the east " - with their backs, that is, toward
the blessed dawn; "and they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt
there." Such was, alas! the Churchs progress - from the rough heights of
martyrdom down to the level plain where there were no difficulties to deter the
most timid souls. There the Church multiplied, ~nd there they began to "build a
city, and a tower whose top should reach to heaven." But "a city" was not
Jerusalem, but Jerusalems constant enemy; not the "possession of peace,"
but a city of "confusion" - Babel. Yet it prospered: they built well. True,
they were away from the quarries of the hills, and could not build with the
"stone" they had there been used to. They did what they could with the clay
which was native in that lower land. "They had bricks for stone, and bitumen
for mortar." We seen some of this work already. It looks well, and lasts in the
fine climate of these regions quite a long time: human material, not divine, -
" bricks," mans manufacture, "for stones," Gods material. They
cannot build great Babylon with the "living stones" of Gods producing.
Man-made Christians, compacted together, not by the cementing of the Spirit for
eternity, but by the human motives and influences whereby the masses are
affected, but which the fire of God will one day try. So is great Babylon
built.
Now it is remarkable that the word "Pergamos" has a double
significance. In the plural form, it is used for the "citadel of a town," while
it is at least near akin to purgos, "a tower." Again, divide it into the two
words into which it naturally separates, and you have per, "although," a
particle which "usually serves to call attention to something which is objected
to" (Liddell & Scott), and garnos, "marriage." Pergamos, - " a marriage
though." It was indeed by the marriage of the Church and the world that the
"city and tower" of Babylon the Great was raised; and such are the times we are
now to contemplate.
Before we proceed, however, let us to this double
proof unite another, that the threefold cord may not be broken. The parallel
between the first addresses to the churches and the first four parables of the
kingdom in Matthew xiii. I have referred to before, The first parable gives the
partial failure of the good seed, as Ephesus gives the initial failure of the
true Church. The second parable gives the direct work of the enemy - the tares
sown among the wheat, as the address to Smyrna does the "synagogue of Satan."
But the tares and wheat are separate, and the view is, in the first two
parables, an individual one; the third parable is entirely different in this
respect. One seed stands here for the whole sowing, and what is seen is now the
aspect of the whole together. The little mustard-seed produces, strange to say,
a tree, in which the birds of the heaven lodge, and the tree is a type of
worldly power. Turn to the fourth chapter of Daniel, and you will find in
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, such a tree. Surely it is significant that in
every direction in which we look from here there is a finger-post which points
to Babylon! And here in Pergamos, as in the mustard-tree, it is the Church as a
whole which is spoken of. It is established, as men triumphantly say: it is
fallen is the lament from heaven.
For this is not the Churchs
establishment upon its Rock-foundation, where the gates of hades cannot prevail
against it, but in the worlds favour; and Satan be the prince of this
world, what must be the price of this?
As a consequence, we find not
only Nicolaitanism fully accepted, but the doctrine of Balaam also. They are
still what is called "orthodox." "Thou holdest fast My name, and hast not
denied My faith, in in those days wherein Antipas was My faithfull witness, who
was slain among you where Satan dwelleth." For these are the Nicene times, the
time of the first Christian council called (at Nicea) a Roman emperor, and
which maintained the deity of Christ against Arianism. It was a sight, they
said, to see at the council the marks of the confession of Christ in those who
had endured the late persecutions. The Nicene period was that of two, at least,
of the creeds substantially acknowledged by the faith of Christians every where
since. But theirs was an orthodoxy which, while maintaining (thank God!) the
doctrine of the Trinity, could be and was very far astray as to the application
of Christs blessed work to the salvation of men. Orthodox as to Christ,
it was yet most unorthodox as to the gospel.
Where in the
Apostles Creed, so called, do you find the gospel. "The forgiveness of
sins" is an article of belief, no doubt, but how and when? In the Nicene creed
is acknowledged "one baptism for be remission of sins," but there is entire
silence as any other. In the Athanasian, it is owned Christ suffered for our
salvation," but how we are to obtain the salvation for which He suffered is
again omitted. Practidally, the belief of the times was in be efficacy of
baptism, and so painful and uncertain ras the way of forgiveness for sins
committed afterward, that multitudes deferred baptism to a dying bed, that the
sins of a lifetime might be more easily washed away together.
The Lord
goes on to say, "But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there
them which hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a trap before
the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit
fornication."
Balaam, the destroyer of the people, is a new graft upon
Nicolaitanism. A prophet, in outward nearness to the Lord, while his heart went
after its own covetousness, - a man having no personal grudge against the
people, but whose god was his belly, and so would curse them if his god bade: -
one whose doctrine was to seduce Israel from their separateness into guilty
mixture with the nations and their idolatry round about. The type is easily
read, and the examples of it distressingly numerous. When the Church and the
world become on good terms with one another, and the Church has the things of
the world with which to attract the natural heart, the hireling prophet is a
matter of course, who for his own ends will seek to destroy whatever remains of
godly separateness.
It is one step only in the general, persistent
departure from God never retraced and never repented of. Solemn to say, however
much individuals may be delivered, such decline is never recovered from by the
body as such. At every step downward, the progress down is only accelerated.
"Have ye offered Me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in
the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your
god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them; and I will carry you away
beyond Babylon. There were many reformations afterward, more or less partial,
but no fresh start.
So with the Church. Men talk of another Pentecost.
There never was another. And the first lasted for how brief a season! "Unto
thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be
cut off."
From Constantines day to the present, world and Church have
been united in christendom at large; and wherever this is found, there in truth
is Babylon, though Rome be the head of Babylon, as indeed she is.
Let
us look about us with the lamp the Lord has given us, and see whereabouts we
are with regard to these things. How far are we individually keeping the Church
and the world separate? How far are we really refusing that yoke with
unbelievers which the passage in 2 Cor. vi. so emphatically condemns? Our
associations are judged of God as surely as any other part of our practical
conduct; and "Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers" is His word. He
cannot, He declares, be to us a Father as He would, except we come out and be
separate! Solemn, solemn words in the midst of the multiplicity of such
confederacies in the present day! Can we bear to be ourselves searched out by
them, beloved brethren? Oh, if we value our true place as sons with God, shall
we not beonly glad to see things as they are?
Now this "yoke" forbidden
has various applications. It applies to any thing in which we voluntarily unite
with others to attain a common object. Among social relations, marriage is such
a yoke; in business relations, partnerships and such like; and in the foremost
rank of all would come ecclesiastical associations.
To take these
latter, now: There are certain systems which, as we have already seen, mix up
the Church and the world in the most thorough way possible. All forms of
ritualism do: - forms wherein a person is made by baptism "a member of Christ
and a child of God." Where that is asserted, separation is impossible; for no
amount of charity, and no extravagance of theological fiction, can make the
mass of these baptized people other than the world. All national churches in
the same way mix them up by the very fact that they are national churches. You
cannot by the force of will or act of parliament make a nation Christian. You
can give them a name to live, while they are dead. You can make them formalists
and hypocrites, but nothing more. You can do your best to hide from them their
true condition, and leave them under an awful delusion, from which eternity
alone may wake them up. That is much to do indeed, and it is all in this way
possible.
All systems Jewish in character mix them up of necessity.
Where all are probationers together, it is not possible to do otherwise. All
systems in which the church is made a means to salvation, instead of the
company of the saved, necessarily do so. When people join churches in order to
be saved, as is the terrible fashion of the day, these churches become of
course the common receptacle of sinners and saints alike. And wherever
assurance of salvation is not maintained, the same thing must needs result.
Systems such as these naturally acquire, and rapidly, adherents, money, and
worldly influence; and among such, the doctrine of Balaam does its deadly work.
The world, not even disguised in the garb of Christianity, is sought, for the
sake of material support. Men that have not given themselves to the Lord are
taught that they can give their money. It is openly proclaimed that God is not
sufficient as His peoples portion. His cause requires help, and that so
much, that He will accept it from the hands of His very enemies. There is an
idolatry of means abroad. Money will help the destitute; money will aid to
circulate the Scripture; money will send missionaries to foreign parts; money
will supply a hundred wants, and get over a host of difficulties. We are going
to put it to so good a use, we must not be over-scrupulous as to the mode of
getting it. The church has to be maintained, the minister to be paid. They do
not like the principles that "the end sanctifies the means" - but still, what
are they to do? God is in theory of course sufficient, but they must use the
means, and the nineteenth century no longer expects miracles.
But why
go over the dreary round of such godless and faithless arguments? Is it a
wonder that infidelity bursts out into a triumphant laugh as Christians
maintain the impotence of their God, and violate His precepts to save His cause
from ruin? Nay, do you not in fact proclaim it ruined - irredeemably,
irrecoverably ruined, when His ear is already too dull to hear, and His arm
shortened that it cannot save?
Money will build churches, will buy
Bibles, will Support ministers, - true. Will it buy a new Pentecost? or bring
in the millennium? Will you bribe the blessed Spirit to work for you thus? or
make sheer will and animal energy do without Him? Alas! you pray for power, and
dishonour Him who is the only source of power!
But what is the result
of this solicitation of the world? Can you go to it with the Bibles you have
bought with its own money, and tell it the truth as to its own condition? Can
you tell them that "the whole world lieth in wickedness "? - that "all that is
in the world - the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life - is not of the Father, but is of the world"? Can you maintain the
separate place that God has given you, and the sharp edge of the truth that
"they that are in the flesh cannot please God"? Of course you cannot. They will
turn round upon you and say, "Why, then, do you come to us for our money? You
ask us to give, and tell us it will not please Him our giving! It is not
reasonable: we do not believe it, and you cannot believe it
yourselves!"
No: the world does not believe in giving something for
nothing. Whatever the Word of God may say, whatever you may think of it in your
heart, you must compromise in some way. You must not maintain the rigid line of
separation. Balaam must be your prophet. You must mix with the world, and let
it mix with you; how else will you do it good? You must cushion your
church-seats, and invite it in. You must make your building and your services
attractive: you must not frighten people away, but allure them in. You must be
all things to all men; and as you cannot expect to get them up to your
standard, you must get down to theirs. Do I speak too strongly? Oh, words can
hardly exaggerate the state of things that may be everywhere found, not in some
far-off land, but here all around us in the present day. I would not dare to
tell you what deeds are done in name of Christ by His professing people. They
will hire singers to sing His praises for admiration, and to draw a crowd. They
will provide worldly entertainments, and sit down and be entertained company.
And as more and more they sink down to the worlds level, they persuade
themselves the world is rising up to theirs; while God saying, as of His people
of old, "Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people: Ephraim is cake not
turned. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not, - yea,
gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth it not. And the pride of
Israel testifieth to his face; and they do not return to the Lord their God,
nor seek Him for all this" (Hos. vii. 8 - 10).
It is a downward course,
and being trod at an ever-increasing pace. Competition is aroused, and is who
can be the most successful candidate for the worlds favours. The example
of one emboldens another. Emulation, envy, ambition, and a host of unholy
motives are aroused; and Scripture, the honour of Christ, the jealous eyes of a
holy, holy God - ah, you are antiquated and pharisaic if you think of these.
There is one feature in this melancholy picture I cannot pass by briefly thus.
The ministry, or what stands before mens eyes as such, how is it affected
by all this? I have already said that scripture does not recognize the thought
of a minister and his people. Upon this I do not intend to dwell again. But
what, after all, in the present day has got to be the strength of the tie
between a church and its ministry? Who that looks around can question that
money has here a controlling influence? The seal of the compact is the salary.
A rich church with an ample purse, can it not make reasonably sure of
attracting the man it wants? The poor church, however rich in piety, is it not
conscious of its deficiency? People naturally do not like to own it. They
persuade themselves, successfully enough, no doubt, that it is a wider and more
promising field of labour that attracts them. But the world notoriously does
not believe this; and it has but too good reason for its unbelief. The contract
is ordinarily for so much money. If the money is not forthcoming, the contract
is dissolved. But more, the money consideration decides in another way the
character of man they wish to secure. It is ordinarily a successful man that is
wanted, after the fashionable idea of what is success. They want a man who will
fill the church, perhaps help to pay off the debt upon it. Very likely the
payment of his own salary depends upon this. He will not be likely most to
please who is not influenced by suck motives; and thus it will be only
Gods mercy if Balaams doctrine does not secure a Balaam to carry it
out. But even if a godly man is obtained, he is put under the influence of the
strongest personal temptation to soften down the truth, which, if fully
preached, may deprive him of not only influence, but perhaps even
subsistence.
Will the most godly man be the most popular man? No; for
godliness is not what the world seeks. It can appreciate genius, no doubt, and
eloquence, and amiability, and benevolence, and utilitarianism; but godliness
is something different from union of even all of these. If the world can
appreciate godliness, I will own indeed it is no longer the world. But as long
as the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life
characterize it, it is not of the Father, nor the Father of it. And then, why
in that passage does apostle say "the Father"? Is it not because in thinking of
the Fathers relation to the world, we must needs think of the Son? As he
says again in another place, "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that
believeth that Jesus is the Son God.?" And why? Because it is the Son of God
the world has crucified and cast out; and that cross, which was the
worlds judgment of the son of God, is, for faith, Gods judgment of
the world.
Was Christ popular, beloved friends? Could He, with divine
power in His hands and ministering it freely for the manifold need appealing to
Him on every side, - could He commend Himself to men, His creatures? No,
assuredly. But you think perhaps those peculiarly evil times: they understand
Him better now, you think. Take, then, His dear name with you to mens
places of business and to their homes today, to the workshop and the
counting-houses, and the public places - do you doubt what response you would
get?
"In the churches?" Oh, yes, they have agreed to tolerate Him
there. The churches have been carefully arranged to please the world.
Comfortable, fashionable, the poor packed in convenient corners, eye and ear
and intellect provided for: that is a different thing. And then it helps to
quiet conscience when it will sometimes stir. But oh, beloved, is there much
sign of His presence whose own sign was, "To the poor the gospel is preached"?
Enough of this, however; it will be neither pleasure nor profit to pursue it
further. But to those with whom the love of Christ is more than a profession,
and the honour of Christ a reality to be maintained, I would solemnly put it
how they can go on with what systematically tramples His honour underfoot, yea,
under the worlds foot, - falsifies His gospel, and helps to deceive to
their own destruction the souls for whom He died. The doctrine of Balaam is
everywhere: its end is judgment upon the world, and judgment too upon the
people of God. If ministers cannot be supported, if churches cannot be kept up
without this, the honestest, manliest, only Christian course is, let the thing
go down! If Christians cannot get on without the world, they will find at least
that the world can get on without them. They cannot persuade it that
disobedience is such a serious thing when they see the light-hearted, flippant
disobedience of which it is so easy to convict the great mass of professors,
while it is so utterly impossible to deter them from it. "Money" is the cry;
"well, but we want the money." Aye, though Christs honour is betrayed by
it, and infidels sneer, and souls perish. Brethren, the very Pharisees of old
were wiser! "We may not put it into the treasury," they whispered, "because it
is the price of blood."
It will be a relief to turn to Scripture, and
to examine what we have there upon this subject. It is very simple. There was
no organized machinery for supporting churches; none for paying ministers; no
promise, no contract upon the peoples part, as to any sum they were to
receive at all. There were necessities, of course, many, to be provided for,
and it was understood that there was to be provision. The saints themselves had
to meet all. They had not taken up with a cheap religion. Having often to lay
down their lives for it, they did not think much of their goods. The principle
was this: "Every man as he is disposed in his heart, so let him give; not
grudgingly, or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver." It was to be to
God, and before God. There was to be no blazoning it out to brethren, still
less before the world. He that gave was not to let his left thand know what his
right hand was doing.
It is true there were solemn motives to enforce
it. On the one side, "he that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and
he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully;" but on the other side,
most powerful, most influential of all, was this "Ye know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for your sakes became poor, that ye
through His poverty might become rich."
Such was the principle, such
was to be the motive. There was no compulsory method of extraction if this
failed. If there was not heart to give, it was no use to extract. So as to the
labourer in the Word, - it was very clearly announced, and that as what God had
ordained, that "they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel," and
that "the labourer is worthy of his hire." But although here also God used the
willing hands of His people, it was not understood that they "hired" him, or
that he was their labourer. What they gave, it was to God they gave it, and his
privilege was to be Christs servant. His responsibility was to the Lord,
and theirs also. They did not understand that they were to get so much work for
so much money. They did not pay, but "offered." There is a wonderful
difference; for you cannot "pay" God, and you do not "offer" (in this sense of
offering,) to man. The moment you pay, God is out of the question. Do you think
this is perhaps a little unfair on both sides? that it is right that there
should be something more of an equivalent for the labour he bestows, - for the
money you give? That is good law, bad gospel. What better than simony is it to
suppose after this fashion - " that the gift of God can be purchased with
money"? Would you rather make your own bargain than trust Christs grace
to minister to your need? or is it hard for him that he who ministers the Word
should show his practical trust in the Word by looking to the Lord for his
support? Ah, to whom could he look so well? and how much better off would he be
for losing the sweet experience of His care?
No; it is all unbelief in
divine power and love, and machinery brought in to make up for the want of it.
And yet if there is not this, what profit is there of keeping up the empty
profession of it? If God can fail, let the whole thing go together; if He
cannot, then your skillful contrivances are only the exhibition of rank
unbelief. And what do you accomplish by it? You bring in the Canaanite (the
merchantman) into the house of the Lord. You offer a premium to the trader in
divine things, - the man who most values your money and least cares for your
souls. You cannot but be aware how naturally those two extremes associate
together, and you cannot but own that if you took the Lords plan, and
left His labourers to to Him for their support, you would do more weed out such
traffickers than by all your careful labour otherwise. Stop the hire, and you
will banish the hirelings, and the blessed ministry of brist will be freed from
an incubus and a reproach which your contracts and bargainings are largely
responsible for. And if Christs servants cannot after all trust tim, let
them seek out some honest occupation where they may gain their bread without
scandal. The fifteenth century before Christ, God brought a whole nation out of
Egypt, and maintained them forty years in the wilderness. Did He? or did He
not? Is He as competent as ever? Alas! you dare to say those were the days of
His and these of His decrepitude?
So serious are these questions. But
the unbelief that exists now existed then. Do you remember what the people did
when they had lost Moses on mount awhile and lacked a leader? They made God of
the gold which they had brought out of Egypt took them, and fell down and
worshipped the work of own hands. History repeats itself. Who can deny that we
have been looking on the counterpart of that?
Is there any measure, it may
be well to ask here, of the Christians giving, for one who would be right
with God about it?
The notion of the tithe or tenth has been revived, or
with some two tithes, as that which was the measure of an Israelites
giving. Jacob has been propounded to us as an example, as he stood before God
in the morning after that wonderful night at Bethel, when God had engaged to be
with him and be his God, and to multiply his seed, and bring him again into the
land from which he was departing. "If God will be with me," he says, "and will
keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put
on, so that I come again to my fathers house in peace; then the Lord
shall be my God; and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be
Gods house, and of all that Thou shalt give me, I will surely give the
tenth unto Thee."
Gods ways are so little like our ways, His
thoughts so little like our thoughts, it is not very wonderful man does not
understand them. But surely Jacob does not here enter into the blessedness of
Gods thoughts.
I need not dwell now upon his case, but only notice it
to say that for a Christian at least the whole principle is a mistake. You are
not to ransom nine-tenths from God by giving one. You are bought with a price -
you and yours. In a double way, by creation and redemption too, you belong,
with all you have, to God. Many people are acting upon the perfectly wrong idea
that whether as to time, money, or whatever else, God is to have His share, and
the rest is their own. They misunderstand the legal types, and do not realize
the immense difference that accomplished redemption has brought in with
it.
Before "Ye are bought with a price" could yet be said, it was
impossible to deduce the consequences that result from this. Grace goes beyond
law, which made nothing, and could make nothing, perfect. The very essence of
the surrender of the life to God is that it must be a voluntary one. Like the
vow of the Nazarite, which was a vow of separation to the Lord, and which
reads, "When one will vow the vow of a Nazarite," that surrender must be of the
heart, or it is none. Nor is it a contradiction to this that there were born
Nazarites - Nazarites from the womb, as Samson and the Baptist. We are all born
(new-born) to Nazariteship, which is implied and necessitated (in a true ense)
by the life which we receive from God. But the necessity is not one externally
impressed upon - it is an internal one "A new heart will I give you," says the
Lord; but the new heart given is a heart which chooses freely the service of
its Master. A legal requirement of the whole then would have been unavailing,
and a mere bondage "Not grudgingly, or of necessity," is, as we have seen,
Scripture rule. But that does not at all mean that people characterize as
"cheap religion" It does not mean that God will accept the "mites" of a niggard
as the Lord did those of the woman in the Gospels. Christ does not say now,
Give as much or as little as you please: it is all one. No: He expects
intelligent, free surrender of all to as on the part of one who recognizes that
all is really His.
Continued in next chapter
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