False Securities: An Exposure and a Challenge

Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee: thou shalt not he able to put it off; and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know. Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall bum them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the fiame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee. — Isaiah xlvii. 11-15.

Can you find a solitary instance in which God approved iniquity? Was ever his sword sheathed in presence of evil ?. From the beginning until now has not the Holy ne thundered against sin and have not His lightnings been launched against the kingdom of darkness? This constancy of judgment upon corrupt ways is itself an argument. One act of moral hesitation would have destroyed God! Evermore has His frown rested upon sin: evermore has His smile descended upon virtue. The solemn words of the text, directed against Babylon and Chaldea, might — such is the constancy of Divine anger against sin — have been spoken yesterday against presumptuous and corrupt London. Time cannot modify Divine judgments. What was wrong in Babylon is wrong here: what was right in the most ancient time will be right on the world’s last day. We should remind ourselves of these elementary principles; for their very simplicity may cause us to neglect their claims. It is because of these first principles and universal applications that the Bible is for ever a new book to us: it is the voice of God addressed to the men of to-day, — it has a message to us, if so be the ear of our heart be open. We shall regard the solemn denunciations of the text as if spoken to our own cit3 Suppose the language to have been dictated to me this morning by the Living One, Father and Judge of all men, and that I have been entrusted to speak it to ourselves: this will give appalling vividness and point to the words, and we shall be the better for so close an approach to God. Forget Babylon and Chaldea, yea, forget all that is beyond the walls by which we are now enclosed — and let us feel that God is speaking to us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come. Truly, this will be the house of God; and truly, by shame of heart on account of sin, and by faith in the saving Christ, it will presently become beautiful as the gate of heaven.

I. Look at this picture of utter and most painful BEWiLDEEMENT. “Evil shall como upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.” There are times when the wind seems to be blowing from all quarters at once. There are times when all things seem to have a controversy with us. We set down our feet, and, lo, they are fastened to the ground: we put forth our hand, and an invisible weapon smites it: we look round, and behold the path is ploughed up, so that there is no way of retreat. We lose our own sagacity. Our wit fails us. Once our mind was quick, now it is dead or helpless. We lose confidence in ourselves; substances become shadows; the strongest of our fortresses melt away; and in our friend’s face there are discovered lines of suspicion or of mortal hate. This is the necessary and inevitable result of sin.

(1) We have been warned of it.

(2) A way of escape has been made.

II. Hear the Divine challenge addressed to the

EALSE POWERS IN WHICH WE HAVE TRUSTED. Stand

now with thine enchantments and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail,” Think that we are now called upon to set out in order the false securities in which we have trusted! Set them forth! Put them in a hideous row. Let us count them. There is one, — Money: there is two, — Chance: there is three, — Self-confidence: there is four, — Atheistic speculation.

Now let them do for us all they can. God has challenged them! (1) They ought to be most useful when most needed; (2) They should show their sufficiency by their fearlessness.

Come now! It is a challenge. I heard the whirlwind coming, — get out your money. You thought something would happen — something is happening, — God’s judgment is descending; where is your god Chance? You have confidence in yourself; be it so; make bare your arm, — see, it is but lightning, — it is but flood upon flood, — it is but world dashing against world; etc. ^’Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.’’ (1) There is to be a great collision.

(2) In that collision only the true can stand.

III. See the doom of false securities. “Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.”

(1) Let no man complain of want of opportunity of estimating the value of his moral securities.

(2) Let no man complain of having been allowed to live umvarned.

(3) Think of so living that at last a man shall be left without a coal at which to warm himself! This is the end of sin, — this the worthlessness of false gods!

So far as we have had experience of life, we have seen the terrible failure of all false things. We have seen the judgment of God in ].mrts. It is not all left to be revealed. We are entitled to reason from the past to the future; and when our own experience has, as a matter of fact, confirmed the revelation of God, we may know that future to be a terrible one to the servants of unrighteousness. What is the duty of man as dictated by mere common sense? It is to seek and trust that which is tr2ie. (State the Gospel plan.) In looking to the future: — (1) We cannot esca’^e the trial of our securities.

(2) If we set ourselves against God we challenge all the forces of His creation re wind, flood, “pestilence, etc. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,”’