Historical Negatives

And after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years. And Jair died, and was buried in Camon. Tbzan of Bethlehem judged Israel seven years. And after him Elon, a Zebulonite, judged Israel ten years. And after him Abdon judged Israel eight years. — Judges x. and xii.

I. Geeat deeds do not always go with great NAMES. All these names are the names of Judges, great men for the time being in Israel and yet we read next to nothing of them except the number of their children, the length of their administration and the place of their bm’ial. It is not a good sign when a mans name is the greatest part of him. The office may be greater than the officer. Kingship may be merely honorary and ornamental. It is but a poor thing to relate of any man of high degree how many

T days in the week lie spent in shooting, wliicli theatre he attended on Saturday and what minister lie listened to on Sunday. The same doctrine applies to heads of houses to pastors and office-bearers of churches,, and to all men in positions of trust and honour.

II. It does not follow that because deeds aeb

NOT GEEAT. THEREFOEE THEY AEE NOT USEFUL. Tola,

Jair, Ibzan, and other judges of the same obscurity may have been amongst the most useful of all the leaders of Israel. The danger is that some of us may sacrifice the useful to the impracticable and the romantic. Fighting is far more tempting than sowing, but the sower has his work as well as the soldier. We cannot live on romance. But for the great breadths of commonplace in our daily course, human life would be too much for some of us. Wellington would find Waterloo a little too strong for him if he had to repeat his excitement there once a week. The world would soon come to ruin if it had nothing in it but heroes and heroisms of the earthquake and volcano type; it needs the quieter heroisms of patience, self-denial, and homely loves and industries, to make it steady and reliably strong. Tola has no name, and Ibzan is a stranger in the earth, but who can tell what mischief they jprevented and what broad acres they surprised into verdure and fruifcfulness? My young friend, do you want to be a hero? First try to be a man.

III. Human history when looked at in great

BREADTHS IS SEEN TO HAVE A PLAN AND TO BE UNDER THE MOST BENEFICENT CONTROL. Who COuld judge

anything of the shape of the earth from a single handful of mould? Give me licence of speech in this matter, and you will see my meaning. I will take a handful of mould into another world, the world where the angels are, and show them what the earth is like: or a tree; or even a mountain; what would they know of our world from any such specimen? But could I invite them to a point whence they could catch one glimpse of its movement round the sun, how instantly would they know it to be of the family of stars in the household of their Father! So with human life. We know nothing of it from any one day or year: we must look at it broadly if we would see the shaping hand of Glod amid all its confusion. Look at Tola, Jair, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, and you will say how spiritless and commonplace must have been the history of Israel! From those judges alone you would draw utterly mistaken conclusions respecting the whole history of the people. Even in the period of the Judges there could be found poetry and parable,

t2 statesmanship and fighting, of no mean order. Deborah sang an immortal hymn amongst the people whom she judged: Gideon smote the Midianites as one man r Jephthah, the soldier of the mountains, has made the very pathos of history; as for Samson, his name is the property of the world, — and what shall we say of Eli and Samuel but that they kept the very door of heaven. We must look at the whole of the fifteen judges if we would be just to the period which lies between the ministry of Moses and the kingdom of Saul. We see hill and dale: war and husbandry: straight lines of work and sharply turned curves of mystery. In our own lives there are events which stand up like mountains, and there are also quiet periods beautiful as an orchard or a wheatfield. Look at life in its connections and relationships, and see how God is shaping it into a sanctuary for his own Presence.

IV. Do NOT SHRINK FEOM DUTY BECAUSE YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW AN ILLUSTRIOUS PREDECESSOR. Who

would like to follow Gideon, or Jephthah, or Samson ?• The judgeship in Israel was not hereditary. Who, then, would voluntarily be nominated to an office which had been glorified by the services of such mighty men? Look to Godi for the grace which is strength. Illustrious talents are not intended to be stumbling-blocks but encouragements even to the Iiumblest. It is not good for us to live always upon the same food. A change of ministry is good for the €hurch. The people may have had eloquence long enough; a little plain common sense may now be useful: they may have had share enough of prose, they will be the better for an infusion of poetry: they may have had sufficient experience of the staircase of sentences that are all steps and no landings; it is time that somebody should take them into a room and offer them rest. Art thou called to service? Do thy best, for God is thy strength and thy defence.

Y. Greatness will be abused if it be taken as a

DISCOUEAGEMENT OP HUMBLE USEFUL SERVICE. It SeemS

a pleasant thing to be Gideon, to have the strength of Samson, or to be as famous as Jephthah, but where there was so much honour there was corresponding temptation. So with statesmen, with philanthropists, with preachers. Great gifts mean great trials. Art thou but a doorkeeper? Keep the door well. Dost thou but light the lamps of the sanctuary? The congregation could not do without such service. Dost thou but play the bellows of the organ? How could the organist make music were the raw material not supplied by the bellows?

Are these reflections very remote from the supreme topic of the Christian ministry, — the Cross of Atonement and Reconciliation? Not one step! Because

(1) there we learn that the greatest name is servant;

(2) there we learn that the humblest deed will be rewarded; (3) there we learn that submission must precede exaltation; and (4) there we learn that self-denial is necessary to the growth of the best life. Q Cross of Jesus, without thee life is a crime and success a blunder; but through the atonement, which is best expressed by thy name, men find the pardon which is the beginning of purity, and the holiness which is the gate of heaven.