God's Loud Call to a Sleeping World
“0 earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.” — Jer. xxii. 29,
On our rugged and water-worn shores you may often see a black wall of stone, as regular as if it had been built by human hands, running across the tide-mark from the terrestrial vegetation down to the lip of the water at its lowest. It is a trap dyke, forced up when its matter was molten, through a fissure in the overlying strata, and appearing now a narrow band of rock, totally distinct both in colour and in kind from the surrounding surface. These protruding portions show that the material of which they consist lies in vast masses underneath. -’ — vJ
So the thin line of our text seems to protrude above a broad field of mingled prophecy and fact. It is a narrow band of unique material running athwart a surface of common, hard, rugged Jewish life in the later and corrupter period of the commonwealth. But this outburst of divine compassion, making its way through the provocations of Israel, shows that divine compassion, in measure infinite, is fiowing underneath; while the surface of the Scriptures is necessarily almost all occupied with histories and doctrines, prophecies and ordinances, these tender, eager, burning outbreaks traverse the whole field in every direction. Whithersoever we turn, some well-defined example crosses our path and arrests our attention.
They lie thickest and stand highest on the track of Jesus, while he exercised his ministry in the world. See, for instance, the mass of love, cooled and congealed now to last all time, that welled at first liquid and warm from its fountain in Emmanuel’s breast: “0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not I” (Matt, xxiii. S7.) Who shall measure the compassion out of which that strong cry was projected? These specimens are thrown up and left outstanding, evidence of infinite love beneath. The pages of the Bible and the present experience of men constitute a superficial crust, conglomerate of various materials, but all lying over unfathomable depths of mercy. Whether thou art reading the Bible or labouring for daily bread, “the place where thou standest is holy ground.” In him we live, and move, and have our being; and he is love.
The manner of this cry conveys a reproof to men; and
Its matter displays the mercy of God.
I. The manner of this cry. In form it is obviously and intensely peculiar. When the awakener utters such a piercing cry, you may conclude that the sleep of the sleeper is deep. You may measure the danger which a monitor apprehends by the sharpness of the alarm which he gives. This is such a call as the compassionate angel may have addressed to Lot and his family, lingering among their stuff, when the day of Sodom’s doom was already dawning over the mountains of Moab. The two elements, multiplied into each other, which swell into a peal so loud, are the mercy that glows in the warner’s breast, and the danger to which the sleeper lies exposed. In the mercy of God and the misery of men, both elements stand at the highest point, and the result accordingly is the loudest, keenest call, that can be addressed to human ears: “0 earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord,”
The earth itself, and all the creatures on it under man, have a quick ear for their Maker’s voice, and, never needing, never get a call so urgent. The alacrity of the creatures that lie either above or beneath him in the scale of creation brings out in higher relief the disobedience of man.
Physically, earth is wide awake and watchful. It courses through the heavens without halting for rest, and threads its way among other stars without collision. With equal constancy it spins round upon itself, causing the day to chase the night, and the night to chase the day across all time, as wave chases wave across the ocean. The tide keeps its time and place. The rivers roll toward the sea, and the clouds fly on wings like eagles, hastening to pour their burdens into the rivers’ springheads, that though ever flowing they may be ever full. The earth is a diligent worker; it is not the sluggard who needs a three-fold call to awake and begin. Equally alert are the various orders of life that crowd the world’s surface. It is when in the ascending scale of creation you come to man that you first find a breach of order.” Hear, O heavens; and give ear, 0 earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider’ (Isa. i. 2, 3).
Above our own place, too, angel spirits are like flames of fire in the quickness, and like stormy winds in the power, with which they serve their Maker. The cry of this text is meant for man; he needs it, and he only.
On a superficial consideration of the subject, you might suppose that the criminal whose guilt is greatest and most easily proved, would be the first to hear the approaching footsteps of the judge; but a more exact inquiry into the facts and laws of the case reveals the terrible truth that sin, in proportion to its amount, makes its subject insensible of danger. Guessing results in the absence of experience, we would be ready to say, the greater the cold to which a man is exposed the less will be his tendency to sleep. In point of fact the law is the reverse of that supposition. When the polar winter threatens to freeze the navigator’s blood, rendering constant and violent exercise necessary to keep the currents moving, then it is that the men feel the greatest drowsiness. It is only by the vigilance of experienced chiefs that they are prevented from sinking into a sleep from which there is no awakening. This fact, and the law which rules it, constitute in the moral region the saddest feature in the condition of the world. They sleep most soundly who have most need to be wakeful. The cold which is ready to congeal life in its fountains, arrests the activity which is necessary to preserve life.. The serpent charms into stillness the bird that he is about to devour.
The guilt which brings upon a man God’s displeasure, so stupifies the senses of the man, that he is not aware of danger, and does not try to escape.
The mystery of God’s mercy to man is, we know, one thing into which unfallen angels desire to look; the mystery of man’s heedlessness of God must be another. Angels, our elder brothers, must wonder both at our deep sleep, and at God’s long, loud awakening cry. Both mysteries lie beyond their view.
The spiritual awakening which has lately visited portions both of America and of our own land, in connection with the interest which it has excited, bears incidental but emphatic testimony to the deafness of a slumbering world. Among the millions of the population a few thousands have started up, and begun to cry, What must we do to be saved? Among the millions who make this world their portion, a few thousands have begun to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Among the millions who are living in miscellaneous wickedness, a few thousands, weary of sin, are walking with Christ in newness of life. At this phenomenon the whole world wonders. Some speak against it as evil; many rejoice in it as good; and many are unable to form a judgment or take a side; but all are amazed. Alas, that the spectacle is so rare! If conversions were more frequent they would not be noticed so much. A rocket which would arrest a thousand eyes if it arose red into the air over the city at midnight, might rise and fall unseen by day. The crowd that gathers to gaze on sparks of light is evidence enough that the sun is beneath the horizon.
We wonder now when any awake at God’s call, and seek his mercy; may the time soon come wdien we shall wonder if any do not.
II. The matter of this cry.
1. The speaker, — the Lord.
2. The thing spoken, — the word of the Lord.
3. The injunction to regard it, — hear the word of the Lord.
1. The speaker is the only living and true God. It is essential that our belief in the first principle of religion should be well-defined and real. “He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb. xi. 6). Keligion may be faint and feckless, for want of a foundation in an actual belief that God is. I am well aware that abstract demonstrations regarding the being and attributes of God are not suitable as first lessons in religion for savages or children. Explain first that part of the building which experience shows to be most easily apprehended, but the learner must as soon as possible come to know what the foundation is on which the whole structure stands. I do not prescribe the order of a Christian education, but the Christian education is fatally defective which does not leave upon the mind and conscience a practical sense of God’s being and presence, as the first principle of all truth and all duty. Sarah’s Egyptian handmaid, driven from home by her own high spirit, and the high look of her mistress, wandering in the desert alone, helpless when human help is needed most, was better grounded in true religion than many who enjoy more light. Oh, for more of Hagar’s short but pregnant creed, the genuine utterance of a lone woman’s heart, “Thou, God, seest me.”
2. The thing spoken is the Word of the Lord. It is not enough for us that God is near. He was not far from the men of Athens in the days of Paul, and yet he was to them “the unknown God.” He has broken the silence; he has revealed his will. The word of the Lord lies in the Scriptures. There the Creator and the creature meet and converse. How precious is the record of the interview! Its enemies seem to know its worth better than some of its friends. The zeal of Protestants to get the Bible brought into human hearts and homes, does not favourably compare with the zeal of Romanists to keep it out. A free Bible is the symptom and the cause of true freedom in any land. “They are freemen whom the truth makes free, and all are slaves beside.”
The word of the Lord in the Scriptures is Mercy. If the message brought only vengeance, we could at least understand the voluntary deafness of the world. But it is strange that men vfill not listen to their best friend; strange that the lost should shut their ears against a voice which publishes salvation. In the Scriptures, alternating with the whispers of mercy, the thunders of judgment resound. The terrors of the Lord are as thickly strewn on the surface of the word as his invitations; but it would be an inexcusable and fatal misreading of the Spirit’s mind to combine these two, so that they should neutralize each other, and leave upon a human heart the vague impression that there is in the Bible about as much to drive us back as to draw us near. There are in the word kind, encouraging invitations; so far, you will acknowledge. But there are also many stern denunciations, and those you think greatly modify the mercy of other parts. No; these greatly enhance the mercy of other parts. These are the crowning marks of mercy. A shepherd, foreseeing a snow-storm that will drift deep in the hollows of the hill, where the silly sheep seeking refuge would find a grave, prepares shelter in a safe’’ spot, and opens its door. Then he sends his dog after the wandering flock to frighten them into the fold. The bark of the dog behind them is a terror to the timid sheep; but it is at once the sure means of their safety, and the mark of the shepherd’s care. Without it the prepared fold and the open entrance might have proved of no avail. The terror which the shepherd sent into the flock gave the finishing touch to his tender care, and efiect to all that had gone before it. Such precisely in design and efiect are the terrible things of God’s word; not one of them indicates that he is unwilling to receive sinners. They are the overflowings of divine compassion. They are sent by the good Shepherd to surround triflers on the brink of perdition, and compel them to come into the provided refuge ere its door be shut. The terrors of the Lord are not the salvation of men; but they have driven many to the Saviour. No part of the Bible could be wanted; a man shall live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Still further, and more particularly, “the word of the Lord” is Christ. “God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son” (Heb. i. 1, 2). “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John i. 1, 1 4). “The word of God is living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Heb. iv. 12, 13).
The use of the Scriptures is to reveal Christ; if we reject him, they cannot give us life.
8. The injunction to regard that Word, “0 earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.’’ The eternal Word has come into the world to show us the Father: “Hear ye him.”
Saul of Tarsus handled the Scriptures much as a Pharisee and doctor of the law; but the letter, in his hands dead, did not give him life. Christ the life of men, whom the Scriptures held, and held forth, he had hitherto resisted. At last, on the journey to Damascus, that Word compassing him about like air, and shining in his face with a light above the brightness of the sun, cast him to the ground, entered his heart, and took possession of its throne. “Who art thou. Lord?” said the astonished captive, and surrendered without conditions. That rock rent, that grave gave up its dead at the dying of the Lord Jesus. Earth then, in its hardest, deafest bit, heard the word of the Lord.
At the present day not a few of the sleepers are hearing the voice of the Son of God and coming forth, seeming in their sudden resurrection, both to themselves and their neighbours, as strange as Lazarus in his grave-clothes standing in the sun-light. Out of a cave as dark, and from a death as deep, many have come of late at the call of the same Jesus.
Several aspects of this shrill warning cry remain for consideration, each containing a practical lesson for our time and place.
1. The earth so summoned, has already, in a sense most interesting and important, heard the word of the Lord. Christ’s kingdom is even now more powerful on the earth than any other kingdom. The Christian nations, so called, rule the world; and the true Christianity which they contain is the source of the power which they wield. Government, commerce, and science, are secondary and subordinate to the moral element which revealed truth contains and supplies. The power that lives in the conscience and links itself to God is, in point of fact, the most persistent and effective of all the powers which mould the character and history of the human race. It is great, is growing greater, and will yet be supreme.
2. The earth through all its bounds will one day hear and obey the word of the Lord. Saving truth lying in the hearts of saved men has a self-propagating power.
The kingdom of God within its subjects is like leaven hid in the meal. Already it has penetrated far into the mass. The mission of the gospel among the nations is, “Overtm-n, overturn, overturn, until He come whose right it is” (Ezek. xxi. 27). The earth, in our day, is fast falling into the hands of those who have the word of God, and permit it to circulate among the people as freely as the air of heaven. When the preparatory providences have run their course, — when the sixth long day’s work is done, and the seventh angel has sounded, great voices will be heard in heaven, and their burden will be the anthem of a millennial Sabbath: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ” (Rev. xi. 15). 3. When the earth hears its Lord’s word, forthwith it calls upon the Lord. They who do not hear cannot speak. The deafness is the cause of the dumbness. Those who do not hear what God says to them, have nothing to say to God. As with an individual, so with the earth at large,- — when it ceases to be deaf, it ceases also to be dumb. As soon as it hears, it begins to speak. As soon as a voice from heaven touches the earth, an echo answers up from earth to heaven. Those who sail in air-ships among the clouds, as others sail on the sea, tell us that every cry which they Utter on high is answered by an echo from the earth beneath. When the earth, spiritually susceptible, receives from heaven the sound, “0 earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord,’’ another cry forthwith arises, “0 heaven, heaven, heaven, hear the petition of sinful men upon the earth.” God delights in that cry. He loves it as it rises, the reduplication of his own. God speaks to us by preaching; we speak to him in prayer. When preaching is not followed by praying, he counts that his word has been wasted in the air, and never reached its destination. Prayer ascending is evidence to him that his word has touched and told on human hearts. When the Atlantic telegraph was laid, and the two extremities of one iron line were made fast to the shores of opposite and far separated continents, a path seemed open for the reciprocal interchange of sentiment between the old world and the new. Great was the disappointment when a message sent from this side called no response from the other. The absence of the answer showed that the message had not reached. Some fatal fault affects the channel on its passage through the severing sea. So, when no prayer comes up to heaven in answer to his call, God counts that the earth has not heard his word. Be assured, brother, when he speaks to us, he means that we should speak to him.
4. Earth — that is, men in the body — should hear the word of the Lord, for to them it brings a message of mercy. There may be open ears, when the winning words are done. Hear him, earth; hell will hear without such urgent exhortations, but will hear no welcome voice. Now is the accepted time; this is the place of hope.
Steamships, not a few of late years, teeming with human life, have left one shore of the Atlantic and never reached the other. Although no messenger escaped with tidings, their fate is now known too well. The huge mass is rushing through the waters at midnight with the speed of a horseman who bears the news of battle to his chief, when it stops and rebounds with a crash like thunder, and five hundred sleepers start awake with five hundred commingling screams. They have heard — these swarming, shrieking passengers — they have heard, and awakened from their sleep at the cry, but no word of hope reaches their open, straining ears. They hear, but do not live.
0 earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord while he holds open the gate of life and calls on the perishing to come in. Beware lest the sound that first awakens you be the crash of the gate when it shuts!
5. Earth — the dust of the dead in Christ — shall hear the word of the Lord, and shall come forth. At the mouth of a grave where a dead brother lay, Jesus said to the sorrowing survivors, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that belie veth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” Oh for the blessed hope of immortahty, burning bright within a disciple’s heart, and shining through his countenance! The resurrection of the dead is a precious, present truth. “Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief” This body for which Christ died, and for which he now lives and reigns, — this body, when it is dust, shall hear his voice, and come forth glorious like his own.
Not hewn stone, and carved cedar, and beaten gold, but earth is the temple in which God gets true worship, and loves to dwell. Partially now, perfectly soon, the body of a believer is a consecrated temple of the living
God. To belie’e, to know, to feel this, would do two things for me: With such faith I would not admit the unclean into this temple, for Jesus has bought and claims it as his own; with such faith I would not, when the time comes, and the messenger approaches, be frightened to let this temple be taken down, for God will raise it up again. It is his, and none shall be able to take it, or keep it, out of his hands.