The Silver Trumpet

What a deep and precious mine of Gospel truth is God’s most blessed Word! It has pleased Him in giving this perfect and glorious revelation of His mind and will to man that the richest veins should lie far below the surface. In other words with a view of guarding us against a superficial acquaintance with the Scriptures, and to encourage and reward our profound and prayerful research, some of the sublimest revelations of Himself, some of the most glorious exhibiticms of Jesus, and some of the most instructive and admonitory, comforting and sanctifying truths are deeply veiled in the types or dimly shadowed in the ceremonies of the Old Testament economy. Beheld with a Jewish eye, their significance and their beauty are but partially and imperfectly seen. But viewed throxis lk»& glass of the Gospel — the wondrous telescope which brings out from their hidden glory the numerous and bright constellations of that twilight dispensation — they at once appear rich with the truth and resplendent with the glory of Immanuel, whom to see is to love, and ‘* whom to know is life eternal.” In the former dispensation we find frequent and marked allusion made to the employment of trumpets in the service and worship of God by the Jews. The occasions on which they were used were various and interesting. Trumpets directed the marchings of the Israelites — sounded the onset to battlesannounced the tidings and proclaimed the joys of victory — and summoned to the solemn assemblies. There was the feast of tnimpets,” observed on the first day of the civil year, when, from the morning until the evening, they sounded over the sacrifices thus ushering in that important period amid circumstances of great and imposing solemnity. We may also refer to “the trumpet of the jubilee,” as marking a most interesting and deeply significant occasion on which they were employed. Eveiy fiftieth year, the “acceptable year of the Lord,”* on the day of atonement, and while the people were engaged in fasting and afflicting themselves 1 Isaiah lxi. 2. before God, this trumpet sounded throughout all the land, announcmg, at every blast, tidings the most joyous and welcome. It proclaimed relaxation from all servile work, the earth during that period needing no culture, but spontaneously and abundantly yielding its increase, of which all alike were allowed freely to partake. It announced, too, the discharge of every insolvent debtor — the release of every bond servant — the restoration of property, and the universal enjojonent of harmony and rest. Defective indeed must be that eye, veiled that mind that sees not in all this, that which was typical of a far more* glorious jubilee proclaimed through all the world — the glad tidings, the J03rful sound of the Gospel proclaiming the discharge of the great debt to Divine Justice, our releasement from the bondage of sin and Satan, heaven restored, and joy and peace and rest succeeding, all flowing to us, through the cross of God’s dear Son.

From the various uses of the trumpet among the Jews, we have selected a single one, as afibrding an illustration, if not a type, of the ‘’glorious Gospel of the blessed God,” deeply significant and instructive. Dismissing any further allusion to the primary ends for which these trumpets were employed, we proceed now to a solemn. b2

of the spiritual truth which this particular one is intended to convey. There are two points before us worthy of our regard: the spiritual import, first, of the trumpets, and then of the occasions on which they were blown.

Let us first direct our attention to the trumpets themselves. You will observe in the very outset the fact from which the subject derives its dignity and solemnity, viz. these trumpets were of Divine construction and appointment. They originated not with Moses, placed though he was at the head and appointed as the legislator of Israel. They were not to stand indebted to human coitception or skill. The Lord himself was to have the glory of their origin. “And the Lord spake unto Moses.” It is a circumstance worthy of our especial remark, that of every thing constructed by the instrumentality of his servants, and designed by God as a type of Gospel blessings. He has invariably retained to Himself the glory of having originated the idea and provided the model, llius to Noah, God gave the plan of the Ark, to Moses that of the Tabernacle, and to Solomon that of the Temple. Nothing was left for their ingenuity to suggest, or their afterthought to supply. Not a beam, nor a nail, nor a tbraadj but God provided, adjusting it, in His infinite mind to its proper place. ‘’ See,” saith he to Moses, “that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the Mount.” For the spiritual meaning of this remarkable fact in Jewish history, turn to Paul’s epistle to the Galatians: ‘’ I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The great and distinctive truth thus so broadly, emphatically, and impressively stated, is, the J>ivinity of the Gospel — a truth, in the firm and practical belief of which the church of God needs to be established. The Gospel is the master-work of Jehovah, presenting the greatest display of His ^’manifold wisdom,” and the most costly exhibition of the riches of His grace. In constructing it. He would seem to have summoned to His aid all the resources of His own infinity — His fathomless mind. His boundless love. His illimitable grace. His infinite power. His spotless holiness — all contributed their glory and conspired to present it to the universe as the most consummate piece of divine workmanship. It carries with it its own evidence. The revelations it makes, the facts it records, the doctrines it propounds, the efiects it produces, speak it to be no ‘’ cunningly devised fable” of human invention and frauds but what it truly is, the “revelation of Jesus Christ,” the “glorious Gospel of the blessed God.” What but a heart of infinite love could have conceived the desire of saving sinners P And by what but an infinite mind could the expedient have been devised of saving them in such a way — the incarnation, obedience, and death of His own beloved Son? — Salvation from first to last is of the Lord. Here we occupy high vantage ground. Our feet stand upon an everlasting rock. We feel that we press to our heart that which is truth — that we have staked our souls upon that which is divine — that Deity is the basis on which we build, and that the hope which the belief of the truth has inspired will never make ashamed. O how comforting, how sanctifying, is the conviction that the Bible is God’s Word, that the Gospel is Christ’s revelation, and that all that it declares is as true as Jehovah Him-* self is true. What a stable foundation for our souls is this! We live encircled by shadows. Our friends are shadows — our comforts are shadows — our resources are shadows — our defences are shadows — our pursuits are shadows — and we ourselves are shadows passing away. “For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.” But in the precious Gospel we have substance we have reality we have that which remains with us when all other

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