Page images
PDF
EPUB

we may be led at the same time to seek for a higher health, a health which no diseases will assail or undermine. If we give up our hearts too entirely to an earthly object of love, He takes the loved one away from us, that we may be led to follow him with our hearts beyond the grave, and to behold him as he stands in the presence of God, and to lift up our eyes and hearts from him to his God and Saviour. Thus every affliction that befalls us is meant, as it were, to take a scale from before our eyes. Above all it is with the conscience of sin that God smites the soul and shakes it, with the terrours and reproaches of sin, with its weakness and shame, with its clinging claws and palsying venom. These thoughts will crowd in dreadful array before the soul of the awakened sinner: he will feel, it may be, as though the gates of hell were thrown open before his eyes, and he were constrained to look through them. But, when this shaking is from God, it is in order that the sinner may behold the Saviour closing the gates of hell, and opening the gates of heaven before him,—that he may behold the Desire of all nations, and the inmost Desire of his own sin-crusht soul,-that the Desire of all nations may come to him, and fill his soul with His glory. Remember what the text says: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the earth and the heavens; and I will shake all nations; and the Desire of all nations shall The Lord of Hosts will do this once: He will do it in a little while; and then the Desire of all nations shall

come.

come to you. Be not cast down therefore, my brethren, any of you, when God is shaking you with the consciousness of your sins: let not this consciousness drive you to despair. He will only shake you a little while, and not with the purpose of destroying you, but with the

purpose that the Desire of all nations may come to you. Whatever may be the affliction with which God mercifully visits you, His Spirit will always have a remedy suited for it. Out of the treasure of Christ, He will take the very remedy which you want. When you are on the bed of sickness, the Spirit will lead you to the Physician who has power to heal every disease of the body and heart and mind. When you are sorrowing for the loss of a friend, He will lift up your hearts to Him who has vouchsafed to call you friends, and who has promist to abide with you for ever. When you are shaken by the consciousness of your sins, He will open your eyes to behold Him who died on the Cross for your sins, and who has called you to lay your burthen at His feet; He will open your eyes to behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. At other times these words may come with little power to your hearts: but, when you are shaken with the consciousness of your sins, they shine out like stars from which the clouds have just been swept away; and they become precious above all other words, healing and life-giving.

This then is one great lesson which we may learn from our text, that they whom God shakes, if the Spirit of God remains with them, will not fear; because they know that through this shaking the Desire of all nations will come to them, and fill their souls with His glory. They are not to fear. Who then are to fear? They who are not shaken. They whom God suffers to abide undisturbed in their worldlymindedness, in their carelessness, in their sins; they who are sleeping on while the flames are gathering around them, and the smoke is stifling them; they who are sliding merrily along on the brittle crust of

hell, which is ready to crack under their feet. Tremble, says another of the Lord's prophets, ye that are at ease; be troubled ye thoughtless ones. So too another prophet cries, Wo to them that are at ease in Zion! Are there any of you, my brethren, whose hearts have never been shaken? who have never known sorrow, care, distress, sickness, trouble of heart and mind? Το you I say, Fear for to you also the time will come when this ease of yours will be at an end. To you also, and to the whole world, thus saith the Lord of Hosts: Yet a little while, and I will shake the earth and the heavens, and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all nations: and then too the Desire of all nations will come, to fill the whole world with His glory, and to reign for ever and ever. Then also they with whom His Spirit has remained, and who have recognised Him to be their Desire in this world, shall not fear. When the heavens are rejoicing, and the earth is glad, and the sea with its fulness is roaring, and the field is joyful, and all the trees of the forest are rejoicing before the Lord, at His coming to judge the earth, then His saints, who have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice, who have given up their hearts and souls to Him, shall be gathered into His presence; and He will deliver them; and they shall glorify Him. But to those who have neglected Him, and disregarded His mercies, and sinned against His commandments, His coming will be as a devouring fire; and there will be none to deliver them. Therefore fear now, ye who have never known fear, lest ye have to dwell as the slaves of fear for ever. Pray to God, that He will shake you now, ye who have never been shaken, lest, when the day of his last shaking comes, ye be cast out of the Kingdom of Life, into the pit of everlasting Death.

SERMON VI.

THE SUPERIORITY OF THE LATTER HOUSE.

HAGGAI II. 8, 9.

The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts. The glory of this latter House shall be greater than of the former; and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts.

little to be emThe Israelites on

FROM the earlier verses of this chapter, we learnt that the Israelites, who were employed in building the second Temple after their return out of the Captivity, were cast down and dispirited by the thought how poor and mean their work was, compared with the glory of the former Temple. That Temple had been built by Solomon, at the summit of his wealth and power; and he rightly thought that all his riches was but too ployed in adorning the House of God. the other hand, who returned from Babylon, were poor and feeble: they had no gold and silver to deck the Temple with, or to buy other costly materials: and they probably said one to another, Our labour profits little: after the utmost we can do, still the Temple will be poor and mean in comparison with that in which our fathers worshipt. Hence, when the prophet had encouraged the Israelites to proceed in their work by the assurance that God was with them, and by the promise that anon, in a little while, after the earth and the heavens and the nations had been shaken, the Desire of all nations, He for whom their fathers, and all mankind had been looking with earnest expectation,

would come to them, and would fill the Temple with glory, he went on to tell them that God did not need their silver and gold for the adorning of His House. So far from it, they were all His: the silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts.

These words were doubtless meant chiefly to comfort the Israelites under their despondency. The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, says the Lord. It is Mine already, wheresoever it may be found; whether it be spread out on the walls of My Temple, and piled up around My altar,or whether it be stored in the treasuries of princes, or whether it be still lying in its native chambers in the womb of the earth,—it is all Mine. Although ye are unable to adorn My Temple therewith, it is still Mine: yea, it is Mine, even though it should be clencht in the hand that would withhold it from Me. Therefore be not cast down: think not that I desire silver and gold: think not that I shall be dissatisfied, if I do not obtain it at your hands. Give Me that which ye have; give it cheerfully; and that which ye have not I will not require of you. Even if you had all the treasures of Solomon and of Hiram to give Me, what addition would they make to the riches of Him, whose they are already, and to whom all the silver and gold in the whole earth belongs, who alone give it according to My will, and who take it away whensoever it seems good to Me?

The silver is Mine; and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord. These words were spoken to comfort the Israelites who were building the Lord's House at Jerusalem; and they may in like manner administer comfort to all who are engaged in building the Lord's House, in whatever manner, whether in their own souls, or in the world around. them. They who give themselves heartily to either of these

« PreviousContinue »