A Troubled Life
The form of what is denominated “the sermon” appears to be so thoroughly settled amongst all sections of the church, that not a little danger would attend any attempt at a fundamental change. Perhaps the utterance of a mere wish may excite alarm among those who have been taught to look for three heads, three sub-heads, and three heads of application (all the heads generally being small, bald, and empty) in every discourse. I duly feel the horror of the risk. I forehear the gentle protest of the timid, and the piercing yell of the obstinate, and yet, with my eyes wide open, I make headway to the forbidden land. I mean to say that we want some change (I purposely avail myself of a general expression) in the time-worn mould of the English sermon. It has been in practice so long, that it has become a pillow for somnolent heads. The sermon, in too many cases, has come to be endured rather than to be enjoyed. It is too often more of a sedative than a stimulant. The suggestion of many changes is not difficult, but at this time I prefer to adopt rather than propose; and therefore, instead of announcing a few words as a text, I invite you to regard yourselves as constituted into an immense Bible class, and to accompany me with your eye, as well as with your ear, in an attempt to interpret part of the thirty-seventh chapter of the book of Genesis. Let us begin at the eighteenth verse : —
“‘ And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.”
Sooner or later bad men will find an opportunity of injuring the good. Ir the revolutions of the wheel of Providence, the bad man’s turn is sure to come. Determine to slay any man, and the very determination will create its own ways and means. It is a very touching picture which finds expression in this verse. Look at it; in the gray distance you may see a lad, seventeen years of age, beautiful beyond any of his contemporaries, — so beautiful that in after years he formed the subject of poet and artist; he comes with messages from his father’s lips; his first word is intended to be one of love; already his own kiss is upon his lip, prepared to seal the cheek of his brethren; close at hand you have nine men gladdening each other with the thought that they have the hated one in their own power; quickly their conspiracies are completed, and the*savagest of their hearts is even now thirsting for blood. Nearer and nearer the unsuspecting child, wearing the abominated garment, comes — comes to face intending murderers. It is a hint of the manner ir which truth advances into danger.
Verse 19. ‘And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh.”
Prejudice is tyrannous. It’shuts you up to one view of a man, These murderous brethren might have employed many other designations, yet their hatred blinded them to every aspect of their brother but one, viz., “this dreamer.” Whenever they saw him, that angle was sure to be first noticed — indeed, nothing else was seen. ‘Terrible is the offence even of dreaming a wrong dream.
Society cannot consent to crown a man who has acted so badly as to encourage a vision which did not flatter it. Why did not he bury so hateful a dream in the bottomless sepulchre of oblivion? It was bad enough to dream such a dream, but it was unpardonable to tell it. No; society will not forgive a man who even dreams the wrong way. He may be a brother — a younger brother; he may carry the very best messages to society; he may be adorned with the choicest vesture which his Father, God, can give — but it is nought ! — did not he once dream a dream? Aye! that dream will be for ever associated with his name, and will prevent that name, in the meantime, making much headway in the vulgar and unthinking world. Is not the same spirit with us to this day? Lift up your eyes, and mark yonder man approaching you; he has produced a great poem, a sublime picture, or has excogitated an idea which he deems worthy of your regard. Were he a stranger, you might look at his offerings, or listen to his messages; but he is a brother, and you instantaneously remember that he once dreamed an offensive dream, or founded an obnoxious institution, or defended an unpopular cause, and that, and that alone, is the aspect which you see; and though he be charged with a Father’s messages, you meditate the easiest method of extermination.
Verse 20. ‘Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.”
You may slay the dreamer, but you cannot slay the dream. In this verse you mark the operation of this divine law, men kill bodies but cannot kill ideas. In this determination you see at once the strength and the weakness of man — his strength, “let us slay him;’ his weakness, “we shall see what will become of his dreams.” ‘True, they spoke these latter words in scorn; but they knew not what they said — they apprehended not that subtle law which keeps the spiritual from the grasp of the murderer’s hand. The dream was a, fact. It was a beam of light shot from the higher spheres, and one day must be found again; or it was a seed dropped from an angel’s hand, at the bidding of God, and, even if baptized with the dreamer’s blood, would somehow spring up and bear fruit. Yes; the spiritual is ever going on; its footprint may be either a grave or a cradle; it advances as well in the darkness as in the crowned day; its progress is as steady as the march of death, yet joyous as the boundings of unailing life.
“We will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him.” Sin generates sin. An isolated iniquity is an impossibility. The murderer’s heart is ever connected with the murderer’s tongue. “Let us slay, and we will say,” is the rapid course of diabolic policy. And there is more in this arrangement than may at first sight appear; there is a hint here that men must account for their deeds. They know that the doing-time will certainly be followed by the questioning-time, and they must be prepared with a story that will explain circumstances. Ah! we cannot get far without coming into contact with the law which says, You must one day tell how things happened!
Verse 22. “And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.”
God thus divides the counsels of the wicked. Is there unanimity even in hell? God has often saved His church by throwing into confusion the discussions of her enemies. He works in thought as well as in matter. He can turn an idea round, and show aspects which astonish the craftiest tactician. Instead of scattering the bodies, He scatters the thoughts of the evil, and, whether by this way or that, He assuredly builds the immoveable throne of righteousness.
Verses 26,27. ‘‘And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content.”
This is the casuistry of devils. Not murder, say they, but slavery; not into heaven by one blow, but round to it through endless miseries; not murder, by which we shall gain nothing, but merchandise, by which we shall realize two shekels per head! And this was regarded as a branchlet plucked from the tree of mercy! True enough, “the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” This spirit, too, is yet abroad: first of all an‘idea of terrible import seizes the mind of a gang of persecutors ;, their counsels are divided; then the victim is handed off in a manner which saves their skirts from visible blood, and puts something into their hands — say two shekels’ worth of applause, or honour, or commendation. A compromise this, over which the very least sagacious devil might grin in triumph. Compromises are the velvet coverings of ruin. These lucky ideas of the diplomatists baffle and disgrace the church. This bastard mercy is but a poor apology for plain murder done in the plain daylight.
Verse 28. ‘Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.”
This is one of the unexpected turns which life is
ever taking. Men start for Dothan to bring their brethren, but they go down to Egypt in the company of their enemies. Poor lad! as he turned his back upon the children of the same father, the sight might have broken their hearts; but you cannot break hearts which are covered with the armour-plate of tyrannic prejudice. Yet it was right; there are many ways to elevation, and Joseph was now in one of them. A man may enter a city as a slave, but if he mark his opportunities he may leave it more than a king.
Verses 29, 30. “And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his - clothes. And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?”
These Reubens are too common in the church. They are the men of good intentions; the men who say, “Don’t do that, but do this;” all the while having some benevolent idea which they hope ultimately to realize. Such men often defeat themselves. Had they courageously proclaimed their convictions, and firmly resisted the proposals of the enemy, they might have done something in life worth doing, but they kept their purpose wrapped up in silence, and, in the hour of fancied triumph, discovered that the ground had been struck from beneath their feet!
Man! having a conviction, announce it, expound it, cling to it, never desert the ground. While thou art away, thy great purpose may be handed over to a band of Ishmeelites for twenty shekels.
Verses 31, 32. “And they took Joseph’s coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; and they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son’s coat or no.”
What is this? It is the lie trying to make itself like the truth. Could a lie get along the world’s highway if it were quite naked and openfaced, and so garrulous as to tell everybody exactly what it is? Has it not always to undergo a process? Does it not trust to an opportunity to attach itself somehow to the “sun-skirts” of truth, and make an impression by its veracious appearance? These men were well enough acquainted with human nature to know that bad things of all kinds require preparation. If twelve men intend to tell the truth concerning any object they have seen, they have no lesson to learn beforehand — there is not to be a choice of phrases; the whole is left to the simplicity and transparency of unsophisticated nature: but when a lie is to be driven into any ear, then men must study their several parts; they must plot and arrange so as not to contradict each other; all the story must be rehearsed in secret congress, so that, when the time of action comes, there’ may not be a harsh and fatal discord.
The truth always gives man less trouble than a lie. Mark that!
Verses 33, 34. “And he knew it, and said, It is my son’s coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.”
Here is grief arising out of ignorance; and this is precisely what is transpiring every day, — men not seeing farther than the rags which they grasp; men mistaking rags for ruin. Jacob would, indeed, have grieved had he known the actual state of the case; still his sorrow would have arisen from his ignorance — ignorance of God’s full-orbed purpose. He could have seen at most but the faintest rim of that purpose, and that would have portended sore evil. Jacob grieved over a fancied woe, the heart leaped at: once to the worst conclusion, hope’s ray was quenched, and the weeper poured floods upon the unbroken darkness. It is the same with weepers now; they see “part of His ways,” and cry in bitterness: when they see all, the light will strike their tears into gems of glory.
You will observe that in this purposely thin-edged innovation upon the form of the stereotyped sermon the constant endeavour has been to turn facts into principles. I have not cared to trouble you with an analysis of the “spicery, balm, and myrrh” which the Ishmeelites were carrying down.. to Egypt, nor to indicate the latitude and longitude of Gilead, nor to present a genealogical table by which you can trace out the pedigree of the Midianites. I dare not say that it would be uninteresting to many hearers to have a packet of the “spicery” handed round for examination, or to
-look at a handful of the soil of Gilead, or to dwell with curious wonder upon the embalmed limb of a Midianite. For none of those things dol care. I am in quest of the principles which belong to all time, the doctrines that comprehend all latitudes, and appeal to every heart for a home. When I gaze upon the piled mountains that tower in sublimest scorn away from man’s smoking cities, and that are scarfed with drapery that the lightnings might have woven, I care not to read the little label which the godfathers and godmothers of geography may have written upon them. The geographers have carried their baptismal font all over the globe, and given a name to every hill, and river, and lake, and plain, and stream. The name has its uses, most truly; but I want to inhale the poetry that is breathing around the royal mountains, and to grow in majesty while appreciating the pomp and communing with the spirit of nature. Many a technicalist can remember all the geographical names of the scenes through which he has passed, who does not bring out of them a thought -to thrill or a recollection to cheer. He is a mere memorist; not an Abraham to whom God raises up children from the very stones. And as with technical travellers, so with technical readers of the immortal volume. Of what avail is it that we have seen the manger at Bethlehem, if the Saviour who was laid in it has not been born in our hearts? What if we have touched the very cross itself with our physical hands, if the great truth which it represents has not become the central power in our personal history? Knowledge must be turned into wisdom. You know that Christ was crucified on Calvary, yet that knowledge will be but as a millstone round your neck, unless through it you feel the necessity of being crucified with Him. Men cannot climb to heaven upon the ladder of facts. While, therefore, we are zealous in mastering the technicalities of the Bible, we should with an intenser zeal seek to know Jesus, by whom the sins of the world are taken away.
I shall hope that this method of reading history will be accepted and improved by those of you who yet have most of your reading to do. Penetrate to principles. Open the door of facts, and enter the inner chamber of thought. He is a shallow historian who registers only the undulations of the social, political, and ecclesiastical surface. As a student of the universe, I wish to know not only the stupendous palpable existences, — such as sun, moon, stars, seas, and mountains, — but I wish to know their birth-forces. I would retrace them, as far as mortals are permitted to walk the mysterious path, until I see them as creative syllables rolling from the lips of Omnipotence, — nay, more, if possible, see them while they slumber as purposes in the Infinite Heart. He who takes me to the earliest germ of social or national life, is to me the true historian; but he who finds that earliest germ in anything short of divine ‘volition, is unfit to guide me through the black ravines, or the temple corridors, or the mountain grandeurs of the world’s entrancing story. In all Bible history we find God upon the circle. There is no page dedicated to Atheism. God is always there in shining person, or guiding eye, or directing voice, or celestial effluence; that holy book — hear me! I speak with filial reverence — is, so far as one world is concerned, the very biography of God! Ay, God himself is the central character, and as He sweeps in majesty over our tiny globe, age by age, we see kings, and thrones, and empires, and nations attached to His flaming chariot. This sublimest of all historical books is not a mere registry of facts or dates — it is not a mere accumulation of meteorological tables, showing the variations of political or moral climate, or representing the tide-marks of national advancement or recession; it is a chronicle of the one heart of God, and the one heart of humanity, and thus it is the blended story of the heavens and the earth! Take heed how ye read that all-eclipsing story.