Woollen and Linen - Present Truth Publishers

WOOLLEN AND LINEN

"Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as oftiwoollen and linen together."—DΕτττ. xXIL 11.

LONDON:

G. MORRISH, 20, PATERNOSTER SQUARE.

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THE path of the church of God is a narrowpath, such a one that the mere moral sensewill continually mistake it. But this shouldbe welcome to us, because it tells us thatthe Lord looks that His skints be exercisedin His truth and ways, unlearning the mereright and wrong of human thoughts thatthey may be filled with the mind of Christ.

The case of Elijah judging the captainsof the king of Israel, referred to as it is inthe course of the gospels, brings these thoughtsto mind. (See Luke ix. 52-56.) The Lordhad steadily set His face toward Jerusalemunder the sense of this, that " he should bereceived up." Something of the thought ofglory and of the kingdom was stirring inHis soul. I believe the consciousness of Hispersonal dignity and of His high destiny,as we speak among men, was filling Him asHe began His journey toward Jerusalem."It came to pass, when the time was comethat he should be received up, he stedfastlyset his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent


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messengers before his face." The expressionof conscious dignity breaks forth from thisand gives character to the moment, and thedisciples feel it. They appear to catch thetone of His mind, and therefore, when thevery first village through which the path oftheir ascending Lord lay refused Him en-trance they resent it, and would fain likeElijah in other days destroy these insultingcaptains of Israel.

This was nature, the natural sense also of rightand wrong. Why then did the Lord rebukeit ? It was not wanting in either righteous-ness or affection. The day will come whenthe enemies of Christ, who would not thatHe should reign over them, shall be slainbefore Him. There was nothing unrighteousin the demand, "Wilt thou that we commandfire to come down from heaven, and consumethem, even as Elias did ? " if we but thinkfor a moment of the person and rights ofHim who was thus wronged and insulted.Nor was there a wrong affection in this motionof the heart. Jealousy for their divine Masterstirred it ; this motion may be honoured,the moral sense may justify it fully ; butChrist rebukes it : " Ve know not whatmanner of spirit ye are of," said the Lordto them.

But why, again I ask, this rebuke ? Was


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it because they were exacting beyond theclaims of Him whom they sought to avenge?No, as we have said, for such claims willhave their day ; but the disciples were notin the spiritual intelligence of the momentthrough which they were passing. Theyhad nοt " the mind of Christ " ; they didnot discern the time so as to know whatIsrael ought to do (1 Chron. xii.) ; they were

• not distinguishing things that differ ; theywere not rightly dividing the word of truth.This was their error: " Ye know not whatmanner of spirit ye are of. For the Sοιι ofman is not come to destroy men's lives,but to save them." It was not a wrong prin-ciple of moral action which the Lord discoversin their souls, but ignorance of the real ordivine character of the moment throughwhich they were passing. They did not per-ceive—what thousands (disciples of this day,as they were of that day) do nοt yet perceive—that the path of Christ to glory does notlie through the judgment of the world, butthrough the surrender of it ; not throughself-vindication, but through self -renuncia-tion. This was . their mistake, and this iswhat the Lord rebuked. They naturallythought that this indignity must be recog-nised; that, if the prospect of glory was fillingthe mind of their Master, and if they them-


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selves, in the spirit of such a moment, hadgone before His face to prepare His way,whatever stands in the way must surely beset aside. Nature judged thus ; and naturethus judging would be justified by the moralsense of man.

But the mind of Christ has its peculiarway, and nothing guides the saint fully butthat : analogy will not do, there must bethe spiritual mind to try and challenge evenanalogies. Certain correspondences wereremarkable here : Elijah was but a stage ortwo from the glory, just going onward to be"received up," when he smote again andagain the captains and their fifties. He wason a hill, full of great anticipations, we maysay, and the chariots and horsemen of Israeland his heavenly journey were lying but alittle before him in vision. The soul of theirMaster appeared to the disciples on thisoccasion to be much in company with thatof Elijah. But analogies will not do, andthe use of them here was confounding every-thing, taking the Lord Jesus out of His dayof grace into the time of His judgments ;inviting Him or urging Him to act in thespirit of the times of , Revelation xi. whenHe was in the hour of Luke iv. The witnessesof Revelation xi. may go to heaven throughthe destruction of their enemies, fire going


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out of their mouth to consume them thathurt them, as after the pattern of Elijah;but analogies are not the rule. They mustbe challenged by that "mid of Christ "which distinguishes things that differ, andwhich teaches in the light of the word thatJesus goes to heaven through the salvationand not the destruction of men ; throughHis renunciation of the world and not Hisjudgment of it. Elijah avenged himself onthe insulting captains and then went toheaven; the witnesses will ascend to heaven,and their enemies shall behold them : butJesus takes the form of a servant, and isobedient unto death, and then God highlyexalts Him. And so the saint : so the church."Ye are they which have continued with mein my temptations. I appoint unto you akingdom, as my Father hath appointed me."

Here was the mistake: here was the notknowing what manner of spirit they were of.Analogy strongly favoured the motion oftheir minds. The moral sense, which judgesaccording to man's thoughts and not in thelight of God's mysteries, justified it. But Hewho divinely distinguishes things that differrebuked it : "Ye know not what manner ofspirit ye are of." The way of the discipleshere would have disturbed everything, counter-acting all the purpose of God.


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They remind me of the servants in theparable of the tare-field. The disciples wereright according to man, and so were thoseservants. Isit not fitting to weed the wheat ?Are not tares a hindrance, sharing the strengthof the soil with the good seed, while theythemselves are good for nothing? The com-mon sense of man, the right moral judgment,would say all this, but the mind of Christsays the very contrary: " Let both growtogether until the harvest." Christ judgedonly according to divine mysteries. That iswhat formed the mind in the Master, perfectas it was; and that is what must form thelike mind in the saint. God had purposesrespecting the field. A harvest was to comeand angels were to be sent to reap it, andthen a fire was to be kindled for the bundledand separated tares; but as yet, in the hourof Matthew xiii., there were no angels attheir harvest-work in the field, nor fire kindledfor the weeds, but all was the patient graceof the Master. The Lord will have the fielduncleared for the present. The mysteries ofGod, the counselled thoughts and purposesof heaven, precious and glorious beyond allmeasure, demand this ; and nothing is rightbut the path that is taken in the light of theLord, in the knowledge of the mysteries ofthe kingdom of heaven.



Nor is the church to go to heaven througha purified or regulated or adorned world,any more than Christ would have gone toheaven through a judged world. This is tobe well weighed; for what is Christendomabout ? Just practically gainsaying all this.Christendom affects to regulate the world,to keep the field clean, to make the path toheaven and glory lie through a well-orderedand ornamented world. It has put the swordinto the hand of the followers of Christ. Itwill not wait for the harτest, nor will it gointo " another village." It avenges wrongsinstead of suffering them. It orders the churchon the principles of a well-regulated nationand not on the pattern of an earth-rejectedJesus. It is full of the falsest thoughts,judging according to the moral sense of manand not in the light of the mysteries of God.It is wise in its own conceits.

1 know full well there beat in the midst ofit a thousand hearts. true . in their love toChrist ; but they know not what manner ofspirit they are of. I know that zeal, if it befor Christ, though misdirected, is better thana chill at the heart or indifference as to Hisrights or His wrongs. But still, the only per-fect path is that which is taken in the sightof the Lord in the understanding of themysteries of God, and the call of God, and


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the directions of the energy of the Spirit,and not merely after the fashion or dictates ofthe morals and thoughts of men. And thecall of God now demands that the tare-fieldbe left unpurged, that the indignity of theSamaritans be left unavenged, that the re-sources and strength of the flesh and of theworld be refused rather than used, and thatthe church should reach the heavens, notthrough the judgment of the world by herhands, but through the renunciation of it byher heart and separation from it in companywith a rejected Master.

"He that gathereth not with me scat-tereth " (Luke xi. 23), that is, he that doesnot work according to Christ's purpose is reallymaking bad worse. It is not enough to workwith the name of Christ ; no saint wouldconsent to work without that, but if he donot work according to the purpose of Christhe is scattering abroad. Many a saint is nowengaged in rectifying and adorning the world—getting Christendom as a swept and garnishedhouse ; but this not being Christ's purposeit is aiding and furthering the advance ofevil. Christ has not expelled the uncleanspirit out of the world. He has no such presentpurpose. The enemy may change his way,but he is as much " the god" and "prince ofthis world" as ever he was. The house is



his still, as in the parable. (See Luke xi. 24-26.)Tie unclean sprit had gone out, that wasall ; he had not been sent out by the strongerMan so that his title to it is clear ; and hereturns, and all that he finds there had onlymade it more an object with him. He findsit clean and ornamented; so that he returnswith many a kindred spirit and thus makesits last state worse than its first.

Mistakes of this kind are very old mistakes.David was erring this way when he purposedto build a house for the Lord; but it was anerror, though committed with a right desireof the heart. The time had not come forbuilding the Lord a house because the Lordhad not yet built David a house. The landwas still defiled with blood ; and till it wascleansed there was no place for the rest andkingdom of the Lord. David therefore greatlyerred, yet not through double-mindednessbut through ignorance. David's error was,this, that the Lord could take His throne inthe earth before the earth was purged. Theservants in the parable erred on the otherhand in this, that the church was made theinstrument of purging the earth or the world.

I might say , inn the language of the Leviticalordinance, that David was about to put ona garment of " divers sorts," but the Lordprevented it. The motion of his heart—as


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far as it was expressive of himself—was accept-able with the Lord, but still it was hinderedand disappointed. Something to tell us howjealous the Lord is that His own principlesbe observed and the position in which Hehas set His servants and witnesses be main-tained ; nay, that even the most affectionateand jealous desire of the saint, though it bevalued by the Lord and get its personalreward or acceptance, can never reconcilethe mind of the Lord to an abandonmentof His thoughts and purposes. All would beconfusion. David's thoughts, however inno-cent and in some sense to be approved ofGod, would have confused everything, bringingabout this strange result—the Lord takingHis throne in an uncleansed kingdom andallowing His servant to give Him rest beforeHe had given His servant rest ! What con-fusion this would have been ! What an eviltestimony these mixed principles would haveproduced! Who could have read ire theresult, had it been allowed, either the graceor the glory of the God of Israel ?

The rebuke of Peter at Antioch was moreperemptory ; for Peter erred, not like David,through ignorance, but through the occasionalfear of man, which, as we are taught and aswe experience, " bringeth a snare " ; and itwas something worse than confusion, it was



perversion (in Deut. xx. 19, 20 we have anordinance against perversion, or turning thingsto a wrong use). But still, even if it amountonly to confusion, and that by the hand of thedearest and most loved servant, it is not tobe allowed, as this case of David shews ;as also in his other act of bearing the arkfrom Kirjath-jearim. The confusion therewas not made excusable by all the true-heartedness and religious joy that attendedit (1 Chron. xiii.) : it could not be. Place bysubjection was not to be given to it for anhour, and, however acceptable with God themotion of David's heart was, these waysmust be withstood, because the way, andpurpose, and counsel, and thoughts of theLord are precious in His sight and are tostand for ever.

It is not that David and Peter were men ofmixed principles, as the word is, or werewearing, as the ordinance speaks, garments ofwoollen and linen, but these instances in theirhistory illustrate a serious truth, which ismuch to be remembered, that the Lord willvindicate His own principles in the face ofeven His dearest servants, that He will andHe must withstand the motions of theirhearts if they go to obscure or disturb Hispurpose and His testimony, even thoughsuch motions have much of a personal, moral


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character in them which He can accept anddelight in.

But, beside these cases of David and ofPeter, and of the disciples in Luke ix., who,in mistaken, misapplied zeal for the Lordwhom they loved, would have avenged Hiswrongs with a true and righteous affection,there is a generation who are seen apart fromthe way of God through double-mindedness.Such a generation may be tracked all throughscripture, a people of mixed principles, aswe say, who wear garments of woollen andlinen contrary to the call of God and the pureordinances of His house. It may be humblingto oneself more than to most others to lookat such a generation, but it has its profitfor the soul and its seasonableness in thishour.

Lot was associated with the call of God.Like Abram, his uncle, he left Mesopotamia,and then after the death of Terah, his grand-father, he came with Abram into Canaan,and he was a righteous man, there was nopalpable blot upon him. Abram betrayedthe way of nature, again and again recoveringhimself, with shame too, from the snare ofEgypt and of Abimelech. But Lot was notso rebuked all the time he sojourned in Sodom.We only read of him that his righteous soulwas vexed with the filthy conversatioii of



the wicked. But withal, he was sadly of thegeneration I am now speaking of.

If Abram's garment was soiled now andagain it was not "a garment of divers sorts,"but Lot's garment was "woollen and linen."He was untrue to the call of God; he becamea citizen when he ought to have been only asojourner, choosing well-watered plains andtaking a house in a city when God's witnesswas going over the face of the country fromtent to 'tent, and from one tabernacle toanother. Fewer mistakes are recorded ofhim ; but what then ? He was a man ofmixed principles all his days, wkkile Abrahamall his days was true to the call of God. Andhis life of false principles leads him into sor-rows that are his shame, and that is the realmisery of sorrow.

He was taken captive while he lived in theplains of Sodom, and was nigh unto destruc-tion after he had removed to the city ofSodom ; and he is still, and ever has been inthe church, the witness of one, saved it istrue, but "so as by fire." He had no com-fort in his soul ; his righteous soul was vexedday by day. This is told of him, but nobrightness is there ; no joy, no strength, notriumph of spirit is told of him. The angelsheld much reserve towards him, while theLord of angels was in nearness and intimacy



with Abraham. He had to escape with hislife as a prey when Abraham was on highbeholding the judgment afar off. And, whatis full of meaning, we observe that after hehad taken his own course and become a manof mixed principles, departing from the trackwhere the call of God would have kept him, heand Abraham had no communion. Abrahamwill run to his help in the day when his prin-ciples were bringing him into jeopardy; butthere is no communion between them. Theycould not meet in spirit. The saint of Godwill own him as his kinsman, and do him thekinsman's service ; but there is no presentcommunion between them. And this is nouncommon case to this day.

Such was Lot. Instead of making hiscalling and election sure, he is one whomthe people of God receive on the extraordinarytestimony of the Holy Ghost, rather th έn onthe necessary and blessed credit of his assuredcall of God, or as one of that people of whomPaul could say, "Knowing, brethren beloved,your election of God."

Nature prevails sadly and variously in allthe recorded saints of God; in some more,in some less, just as the fruitfulness of theSpirit is seen in them in affections and ser-vices ; in some thirtyf old, in some sixty,and in some an hundred. But this is a different



thing from being men of mixed principles.It was so with David. Nature prevailed inhim at times, but he was never a man of mixedprinciples. He never deliberately sat downin a connection which was untrue to the callof God under which he had to act. His cha-racter was formed by that call and his wayswere according to it ; but it was not so withhis friend Jonathan; his life was not formedby the call of God, and the energy of theSpirit working in the rule of that call. Heacted nobly and graciously at times, but stillhe was not the separated man. He was nottrue to the pure principles of God made mani-fest in that day. He was a man of faith, andof many endearing spiritual affections, suchas give him, without reserve, a place in therecollections of the saints. But withal he wasnot where the call of God would have hadhim.

Saul's court was a defiled, even an apostate,place then. God was with David then. Theglory was in the wilderness with him ; thedens and caves of the earth hid it in that day.The ephod was with David, the priest, thesword of God's strength, the witness of vic-tory. The flower and promise of the land werewith him also, those who gain a name inthe cave of Adullam, or in the day of ven-geance at Ziklag. Such sons of Israel as these,

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such as shine afterwards in the court andcamp of the kingdom, were all with Davidthen.

The call of God was then to the caves anddens of the earth with the son of Jesse, andthe energy of the Spirit worked there ; butJonathan was not there. That is the sadstory. Jonathan was not where the glorywas, where the priest with the ephod was,where the rejected man after God's own heartwas, where all the promise of the coming king-dom was. That is the sad story. Jonathanwas lovely individually, he had done somenoble deeds and was breathing some heavenlyaffections ; and to the end we may be sureDavid lived in his heart, and many mis-givings about his own father we may be equallysure that same heart was troubled with.He never personally gave David anythingbut joy; while we know those who corn-panied with him, even in his afflictions, werebetimes both a shame and a sorrow to him.But still his position was not true to the callof God in that day. It kept him apart fromall that was of God then, though he had theLbrd with himself personally. Till he fallson Mount Gilboa, he is with the camp andthe court that fall with him there, dishonouredand defeated as they were, having ere thenlost the glory, and all that was of God nationally



departed from them. A common case heillustrates. Was it ignorance of the call ofGod, or double-mindedness? We will notsay ; but still in this our day there is, likeJonathan, many a saint dear to one's heart,and outshining in personal graces the largernumber of the day, who is found apart fromthe place where the energy of the Spirit,according to the rule of the dispensation,works. Noble and generous deeds are doneby them individually, but their connectionis their dishonour, as it was Jonathan's—linked with a world which is speedily to meetthe judgment, and in courts and camps whichare to lie in the midst of the uncircumcised,with them that be slain with the sword."Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in thestreets of Askelon." Jonathan illustratesthis, and this is known abundantly to thishour.

But Jonathan cannot sanction the place;Jonathan's presence did not make Saul'scamp or court other than it was. The onlyimpression the soul has of Lot in Sodom isthat of a tainted Lot and •not of a sanctified,purified Sodom. According to the word inHaggai, " If one bear holy flesh in the skirtof his garment, and with his skirt do touchbread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat,shall it be holy? And the priests answered



and said, No." But "If one that is uncleanby a dead body touch any of these, shall itbe unclean? And the priests answered andsaid, It shall be unclean."

There are, however, " things that differ,"and the soul exercised of God is to distinguishthem. There is a soiled garment which is, how-ever, at the same time not a mixed garment, agarment of "divers sorts," of " woollen andlinen." Our way under the Spirit is to keep ourgarments undefiled ; and anything other or lessthan that is not the way of communion withthe Lord. But still, a .soiled garment is nota mixed garment ; nor is a garment with athread now and again of another sort to bemistaken for one whose texture is wrought onthe very principle of " woollen and linen."Scripture, ever fruitful and perfect, exhibitscharacters formed by what has been termed" mixed principles" and characters whichoccasionally become tainted by such, butare not throughout formed by them. Thelife of Lot, as we have been seeing, was formedof mixed principles throughout. There wasdouble-mindedness in Lot; I say not thesame with the same clearness of Jonathan;but still the life of each of them from theoutset to the close, when the scene of tempta-tion set in, was tainted by connection withevil. Lot, though associated with the call



of God, was a man of the earth; Jonathan,though witnessing the sorrows and the wrongsof David, continued in the interests of thepersecutor unto the end. Their life was thusformed by connections which were untrueto the way of God and the presence of theglory all through. The garment upon each ofthem was made of divers sorts, of woollenand linen. But look at Jacob in contrast,and in him we find one of another generation;he was a cautious man who had his worldlyfears and schemes and calculations ; andthey greatly disfigure several passages of hislife. His building of a house at Succoth, hisbuying of a piece of ground at Shechem,were things untrue to the pilgrim life, thetent life, which a son of Abraham was calledto know. But Jacob is not to be put withLot; his life was not formed by Succoth andShechem, though we thus see him there andout of character there, but he was a strangerwith God in the earth. And in the closingdays of his pilgrimage, when he was in Egypt,though with many a circumstance around himthere to tempt him to have it otherwise, wehave many a beautiful witness of the healthfuland recovered state of his soul.

The days, for instance, of Ahab king ofIsrael, king of the ten tribes, were fruitfulin illustrations of this kind. There were in


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those days an Elijah and a Micaiah, a Jehosha-phat and an Obadiah, beside seven thousandwho had not bowed the knee to the image ofBaal ; and all these in the midst of the foulestdeparture from the ways of God, the times^οfJezebel and her abominations.

But aH these are not to be classed together.To use the language of " woollen and linen,"or "garments of divers sorts,". I might saythere was no mistaking the cloth of Elijahand Micaiah. The leathern girdle of the oneand the prison bands of the other tell uswhat men they were and bespeak their com-plete separation.

The seven thousand we cannot speak ofparticularly ; we knew them only under thehand of God as "a remnant according to theelection of grace," and that in an evil daythey "had net bowed the knee to the imageof Baal." But Obadiah was not Elijah, andagain, as between him and Jehoshaphat, weare still to distinguish ; such was the moralvariety illustrated for our admonition inthese days.

Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, of the houseand lineage of David, was a separate man,but a man who at times, and that too prettylargely, is found in defiling connection. Hewas of Jacob's generation, though it may bemore faulty than Jocob in that generation.



Vanity betrayed him again and again, asworldly policy betrayed the patriarch. Je-hoshaphat joined affinity with Ahab. In theday of the battle he put on the royal apparel,a garment sadly and shamefully of "diverssorts " ; and it was near costing him his life,as the same clothing nearly cost Lot his lifein the city of Sodom. He acted there interrible inconsistency with the sanctity andseparateness of the house of David. But,though all this is so, I am not disposed to putJehoshaphat in company with Lot. His lifewas not one of mixed principles; his garmentwas not advisedly wrought of " woollen andlinen " together, though sadly and shame-fully untrue to the testimony which becamea son of David and a king in Jerusalem. Verynoble deeds were done by his hands, and verydear affections were breathed by his spirit,and the God of his father owned him; but,like Jacob, and to a more painful extent, hewas betrayed; he was betrayed into connections which make his testimony a very mixed,imperfect thing. It was not merely natureprevailing at times—that may be seen in all,in those of the best generation, in Abraham,and in David. It was not merely a soiledgarment whose blot is palpable, but a gar-ment the texture of which is scarcely dis-cernible, whether indeed it be of one sort or



a condemned garment of " woollen and linen " ;so shamefully do the "divers sorts " appearin it at times, but not throughout.

But the garment which Obadiah wore inthose days cannot be mistaken. It needs noclose inspection to make out what it is. The" divers sorts" of woollen and linen are tobe seen in it from head to foot. His life wasof that texture. It was not that he was be-trayed at times merely, nor was it that hisway was stained at times, but his whole lifeevinces a man of mixed principles. He wasa godly man, but his ways were not accordingto the energy of the Spirit in that day. Hehad respect to the aftiictions of the prophets,hiding them in caves from the persecutionand feeding them there ; but all the whilehe was the adviser, the companion, and theminister of king Ahab, in whose kingdomthe iniquity was practised. The " linen andwoollen" thus formed the garment that hewore all his days: It was not the leatherngirdle of Elijah; and when they come to-gether this difference is preserved and ex-pressed most strikingly. Obadiah is at someeffort to conciliate the mind of Elijah. Hereminds him of what he had done for thepersecuted prophets of God in the day of theirtrouble and tells him that he feared the Lord;but Elijah moves but slowly and coldly to-



wards him. Painful all this between two saintsof God, but it is far from being rarely ex-perienced; it is a common thing, I wouldsay, but much more commonly felt thanowned. (1 Kings xviii.)

There could have been no blending of thespirits of Abraham and Lot after Lot tookthe way of his eye and of his heart and con-tinued in that direction—a citizen of Sodom.We are not told this, it is true, in the history ;but we find from the history, as I observedbefore, that they 'never meet after that, andwe may easily know why. Because suchthings are real and living things still. TheAbrahams and the Lots of this day do notmeet ; or if they meet it is not communion.They do not enjoy refreshment in the bowels ofChrist. Abraham rescued Lot from the handsof the king Chedorlaomer, but this was nomeeting of saints; they could not blend.And if the people of God cannot come to-gether in character they had better be asunder.In spirit they are already severed.

So was it in a far more vivid expression ofit in Elijah and Obadiah. The man with theleathern girdle—God's stranger in the landin the days of Ahab--could not be foundmuch in company with the governor of Ahab'shouse. But they meet in an evil day, a daywhich may remind us of the day of the valley


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of the slime pits, the day of Lot's captivity.Ahab his master had divided the land withObadiah to search for water in the day ofdrought. The Lord his God had put the swordof His servant Elijah over the land to giveit neither rain nor dew; and in an hour ofObadiah's perplexity and of Elijah's com-mission under God they meet.

The occasion is one of interest and meaningand has lessons for our souls.

There is effort on the part of Obadiah andreserve with Elijah. This is naturally andnecessarily so. Obadiah seeks to combinewith Elijah, but Elijah resents the effort.Obadiah calls Elijah his lord, but Elijahreminds him that Ahab is his lord. For thiswill not do. We are not to be serving theworld and going on in the course of it behindeach other's backs and then, when we cometogether, assume that we meet as saints.This will not do; but the attempt to haveit so is very natural, nay, it is very commonto this hour. But Elijah acted in character,faithful to his brother •now as he had beento his Lord before ; and beautiful this is,and precious it ought to be whenever we getit. Obadiah had been walking with the worldin Elijah's absence, and Elijah cannot lethim now assume that he was one with himthough in his presence.


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Obadiah pleads: "What have I sinned ? "says he. But why this ? Elijah had notaccused him of sinning. Why this alarmand perturbation of spirit? Elijah was nothazarding his life or safety, or any of hisinterests ; he was disturbing nothing thatbelonged to him. Why this alarm and takingrefuge in the thought of finding his plea inthe fact that he had not sinned ? It is apoor, low state of soul when a saint has onlythe consciousness of this, that he has notsinned. Is that enough to enjoy the com-munion or understand the mind of an Elijah?Had not Obadiah been in Ahab's palacewhen Elijah was by the brook Cherith ?That is the question, and not the questionwhether he had sinned or not. Had Obadiahbeen with him over the barrel of meal orthe cruse of oil? Elijah had not told him thathe had been sinning ; he need not shelterhimself or commend himself thus. But E]i-jah cannot but let him know that their spiritswere not blending ; for they had met fromdifferent quarters. "Was it not told my lordwhat I did when Jezebel slew the prophets ? "What was all this to the point ? Elijah hadnot been going over his past history; itwas better to leave the most of it untold;and it is a miserable thing for a saint of Godto be trading after this manner on his cha-


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racter or his past ways. This is no title, nosufficient title, for the present communionof the saints, nor competency for eith.€r.

And these are Obadiah's thoughts andrefuges and pleadings now that he is in thepresence of a faithful witness of Christ. Hehad not sinned, and in days past he had doneservice. What a low sense of the commoncalling of the people of God the soul musthave that can think it can be maintainedand that saints can go on together on sucha title and competency as this ! If the worldbe served when we are behind each other'sback, though we may not have sinned, aspeople speak, and though we may have hadcharacter and done services in past days,we are not fit for each other's presence assaints of God.

Have we been in heaven or in Ahab'scourt ? Have we been making provision forthe flesh or desiring the things of Christ ?There are other things than pleading "wehave not sinned," or trading on establishedcharacter and past services. These are whatalone fit us for the true communion of saints.Obadiah was governor over Ahab's house;how could such a one as Elijah be comfort-able or at ease with him ? He felt reserve,and he expressed it in manner if iiot in words.Obadiah is the man of words on the occasion



—that was natural also, and is the ordinarystyle of such occasions or of such intercoursesbetween Elijahs and Obadiahs to this hour.For indeed it is not communion when thereis effort on the one side and reserve on theother. This is surely not the communion ofsaints. But it all has a voice in it, and iscommon enough now-a-days. They were notin company with each other; that wasthe fact. Their spirits could not blend. Thegarment of divers sorts, of woollen and oflinen, which a saint of God could not butwear in Ahab's court, ill-matched the leatherngirdle of a separated, suffering witness ofChrist. We see this saint of God thus in hisparty-coloured dress but once; but thisvoice is thus full of holy, serious meaningto us. The poor widow of Zarephath, whomElijah had lately left, enjoyed the full flowof Elijah's sympathies; and that humble,distant homestead, with its barrel of mealand its cruse of oil, had witnessed living com-munion between kindred spirits, and pre-sented a scene which had its spring and itsreward with God. But Elijah and Obadiahwere not thus in company with each other.Elijah is too true to let Obadiah come nearto him in spirit or to answer the effort hewas making to conciliate him.

There is character in all this I am fully



sure. Abraham and Lot never met, as wehave said, after they parted on Lot's liftingup his eyes on the well-watered plains ofSodom. There was moral distance quitesufficient to keep them asunder, though asabbath day's journey might have broughtthem together. Very significant evidencethat is ! And so Elijah and Obadiah: theirmeeting was no meeting. As well mightAbraham's rescue of Lot out of the hands ofChedorloamer be called a meeting. This wasnot " the communion of saints." This wasnot refreshment of bowels in the Lord. Butall this repeats for the heart an oft-told tale.

Ebed-melech, in the days of another Eli-jah, was a man of this Obadiah generation,not, however, so strongly marked as his elderbrother. Like him he loved the prophet ofGod, acid in the face of an injurious and in-sulting court, and hindered by the timidpolicy of the king, pleaded for Jeremiah andserved him with gracious personal service.But he was not a witness as the prophet was.He was afraid of the Chaldean (Jer. xxxix.17), the sword of the Lord's anger, and suchwas not the condition of the Lord's witness.But his weakness was not despised in therich grace of God. His measure received itsmeasure again, and in the day of the judgmentof the Lord Ebed-melech got his life for a



prey when Jeremiah was had in honour.Ebed-melech was saved then, but that wasall ; the prophet was rewarded.

Thus have we seen a generation in otherdays who, though the people of the Lord,shew themselves sadly apart from the placeto which the call of God would have led them.Such was Lot and such was Jonathan, andsuch. were Obadiah and Ebed-melech. Itwas more or less double-mindedness in themor love of the world in greater or smallerpower in their souls. But such a generationis abundant to this hour. Saints are seen insituations and connections from which thecall of God would separate them just as surelyas it would have kept Lot out of Sodom.But this may be added with equal surenessin a multitude of cases : this impure con-nection arises from ignorance or want ofhearts instructed in the kingdom of God.They have not listened to the voice of themysteries of the kingdom but conferred withflesh and blood. They have not heard theShepherd's voice calling them outside. Theyhave not understood the church as a heavenlystranger on the earth, and that connection—religious connection—with the world is Lotin Sodom, or an Israelite with a garment of" divers sorts, as of woollen and linen."

The world is marked for judgment even



more surely than Sodom was; ten righteouswould have spared the cities of the plain,but nothing can cancel the judgment of" this present evil world."

Here let me add, however, that the dis-tinction of Lot and of Jonathan may be seenin many a soul now-a-days. Lot had nothingto sanction Sodom to him ; all that he knewto be of God was outside; and even naturehad no plea to plead for Sodom. Abrahamand Sarah were outside, the witnesses of thecall and presence of God, and his kindred inthe flesh. All that was sacred in religion ornature were outside ; and providences pleadedwith him to the same end, for the plains ofSodom had already brought him into jeo-pardy of life and liberty, and warned him todread the city. It was the world and nothingelse that was heard in Lot's heart: in favour ofSodom. But with Jonathan nature had aplea. All that was of God, it is true, was inthat day outside Saul's court and camp ;but the claims of kindred, the voice of nature,nay, the authority of nature, were knownand felt from within. The father and thefamily were there though David and Godwere not.

And so now-a-days. There is many a thingthat pleads from within. Nature, thingsmoral and religious, plead there ; oppor-



tunities of service and testimony, obedienceto authority, maintenance of order, • thedangers and evils threatened to the socialwell-being, the peace of families, and exampleto children and servants: these things arepleaded, and they all come from within,and put in various claims for the course ofthe world.

But these, and all such put together, cannever speak to the saint or plead with him withthe authority of the call of God. If the churchbe a heaverily stranger on the earth alliancewith the world defiles her, nay, ruins her asa witness for God; and to defile after thismanlier, to seduce from the place of testi-mony, is the enemy's purpose and has beenso from the beginning. Was not the serpentin the garden seducing Adam from the placethe Lord God had set him in ? Nay, earliereven than that, are we not told about theangels that sinned that they kept not theirfirst estate ?

So afterwards with Israel, "Ye are my wit-nesses," says the Lord of them ; but theenemy prevailed till the testimony was gone."His house shall be called a house of prayer,but ye have made it a den of thieves." Herewere successful attempts of the enemy todrag from the place in which God had setHis witness. It is not merely that there was

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a soil, or a blemish, or a rupture, but a revolt,a departure, a yielding up to the enemy thegreat purpose or thought of God.

The contrary effect precisely, in the pre-cisely like attempt, as has been observed byanother, is seen in Jesus. "If thou be theSon of God," said the tempter. His designwas to lead Him to the abandonment of Hisplace, His place of perfect and entire sub-jection which knows only God's will. But allwas perfection and victory in Jesus, hut inJesus only, whether before Him or afterHim ; for the witness of this dispensationhas been as corrupted as others. That whichwas set to be a heavenly stranger on earth,the companion of the rejected Christ, hasfaithlessly allied herself with the rejectingworld; and what ruin can be more completethan this ?

The "man of God" who was deceived bythe old prophet would have had securityin the divine principles had his soul been aliveto them. The word received, it is most sure,would have secured him ; for it expresslyforbade his eating and drinking in that place.But divine principles would have been hisshelter also. The word he had received whenhe set out on his journey was founded uponthem, as we may easily perceive. For how,I ask, could the Lord employ an unclean



vessel ? The old prophet had been clearlylaid. aside as unfit for the Master's use. Hewas dwelling in the very city where the Lordhad a business to be done, but he was passed .by. The Lord had gone down to Judah toget a witness against the altar at Bethel,though a saint of His own was living on thevery spot. How could " the man of God"think that the Lord could employ the prophetof Bethel as His vessel? He had alreadypassed him by. He had already after thismanner treated him as unfit for His useaccording to the principles of His own housethat an unpurged vessel is not fit for service.(2 Tim. ii.) How could the man from Judahbe careless about all this ? The word he hadreceived was enough to tell him how this prin-ciple of God's honour was at that moment, soto speak, alive in God's thoughts, because hewas enjoined neither to eat not to drink inthat unclean place, nor was he to return bythe way that he came : so particular was thecommandment in keeping him apart from allfellowship with that against which He wasemploying him to testify. And yet " theman of God" is beguiled to receive a messageas from the Lord by the hand of one whowas in contact and communion with theunclean thing against which he has beenbrought all the way from Judah to testify!



Strange forgetfulness ! sad and shameful care-lessness about the principles of the house ofGod. A saint as he was, and servant as hewas, faithful too in the face of the offers ofa king—his carcase is not to come to thesepulchre of his fathers. (1 Kings xiii.)

When the eye is single the whole body isfull of light. There is consistency and har-mony in the action when the moving prin-ciple is maintained single and unmixed.Micaiah's action in 2 Chronicles xviii . was ofsuch a nature, but Jehoshaphat's body wasthen anything but " full of light." In thehour when he left Micaiah to go to the prisonof the king of Israel while he himself accom-panied that same king of Israel to the battle,who would have known him to be a saint ofGod? Where was the body "full of light "then ? It was the clouding and overcasting ofall the illumination which he really partookof. There was no harmony, there was nopure and cloudless noonday marking thepathway of Jehoshaphat then ; no makingof " his calling and election sure,'= as theapostle speaks.

It is happy to follow that dear man a stagefarther. (2 Chron. xx.) For in the days ofAmmon, Moab and Mount Seir, Jehoshaphat'sbody is again " full of light." He acts asa son of David ought to act; he seeks the



Lord and the Lord only; and all is faithand victory and jby. But when in the earlierday Micaiah was sent to the prison of Ahaband he himself went to the battle of Ahab,where was the son of David then ? The wholebody was full όf darkness.

The captives, returned from Babylon tothe land aid city of their fathers, in likemanner read us an instructive lesson oil thissubject of the garment of " divers sorts" ;acid their history affords both encouragementand warning. They do not refuse to acceptthe punishment of the nation's sill, and there-fore they take their place in subjection to the •Gentile power whom God had set over themfor their sins. They accept the favour ofCyrus, of Darius, and of Artaxerxes, in thespirit of the injunction " honour to whomhonour, fear to whom fear." They speak ofa Geiitile power as " the great and nobleAsnapper," and evidently feel grateful forthe kindness shewn to them by one afteranother of these powers, blessing God becauseof them, and ready-hearted, I am sure, topray for the life of the king and of his sons.But with all this they were a separated people.Their refusal of samaritan connection wasas earnest as their acceptance of the favoursof the Gentiles.

The zeal and revenge, and clearing of them-



selves of the mixed principle and of theabomination of bringing Greeks into thetemple to pollute that holy place, was assimple and firm as it would have been in thedays of Joshua or of David. They refusedthe garments of divers sorts. If they wouldhave worn that livery, it might have savedthem much trouble in the progress of the workof their hands, which was also the work ofthe Lord ; but they could not and would not.The thing was not according to the ordinances,and they would not.

Paul might have saved himself a prisoIlif he had accepted the testimony of the damselat Philippi ; but it was Samaritan help again,or something worse, and he could not; andthe man who on that occasion refused thegarment of woollen and linen must thereforefor his faithfulness have his feet made fastin the stocks and wear prison bands. But allis right in the end whether with Paul or thereturned captives. Their God pleads theircause.

Here, however, some new and serious pointsof instruction on the matter of mixed principlesoccur. I feel I can pursue this with a senseof personal need and application. The furtherhistory of the captives from Babylon warnsus as well as instructs us. They refuse thestrange alliance, they will not wear the gar-



rent of divers sorts, but then they weartheir own garments without a girdle ; thatis the moral of the story. They go to buildtheir own houses when the Samaritan enmity .stops their building of the Lord's. This iswarning to us, as it was shame to them, andthe Spirit of the Lord has to awaken them asfrom sleep and intoxication. They servedthemselves when the service of the Lord wasinterrupted. Ease and indulgence and self-pleasing take the place which had now beenleft vacant. Haggai and Zechariah have tocall them to the girding of their loins arid thetrimming of their lamps. By no means dothey send them back to make terms with theSamaritans. They do not tell them thatthey erred in refusing the garment of diverssorts, they only call on them to gird up thepure garments they were wearing, to do theLord's work in the Lord's way though Sa-maritans might again withstand them.

All this is full of meaning for us. The Spiritof God, let the exigency be what it may, willnever have the saint iri "woollen and linen " ;but at the same time He would have the puregarment girded. An ungirded garment thoughpure is not after His mind, and often does Hefind that wanting, as in the days of Haggaiand. Zechariah, and this is our deep rebuke—a pure position kept with little spiritual grace.



The returned captives were in the rightpositiόn. Their place was a better place thanthat of their brethren who dwelt still in thedistant cities of the uncircumcised, and theydid well, as Í have been saying, when theyrefused alliance with the Samaritans; suchalliance would be but the wearing of garmentsof divers sorts, of "woollen and linen."This they did not do; but those who standsuch a trial fail under another. Though theythus refuse to wear mixed clothing theirgarments, as we have seen, were not girded,and even worse than that they were sadlydoing much worse than their brethren who weresoled and spotted. These returned Jews wereoil in the distant lands of the heathen. Theirways in the Holy Land were deeply rebukedby the ways of their brethren among theGentiles.

The Jews abroad had redeemed their breth-ren from the heathen to whom they had beensold, while the Jews at home or ,the captivesreturned to Jerusalem were selling theirbrethren for debt. (Neh. v.) What a sadsight ! What a humbling and searching fact!Is there not much that is miserably kindredwith this to be known still ? This is some-thing like "form without power." "Thekingdom of God is not in word but in power."Position may be quite according to God, but



the practical, godly grace with which it isfilled and occupied may be scanty and poor.And how should this warn us not to count onthe virtue of a merely pure and separatedposition! If it be trusted in, or held with anunjudged and unwatched heart, even theyamong the uncircumcised may rebuke us.Much love and service is often to be foundwithin, as I have been speaking, while littleof the power of holiness and of the mind ofheaven accompanies those who go outside.What I nean is this, that there is often lessgrace and moral power in the purer positionthan there is in the defiled connection. Aswith Jonathan, David loved him dearly andyet he was not David's companion. Butthe compaiiions of David's temptations wereat times a trial to him, talking on one occasionof even stoning him, while Jonathan per-sonally was always pleasant to him. Whatan outside and an inside was this ! And yetDavid's outside place was the place of theglory then, and his compaiiions were in theright position. But what exhibitions are allthese ! And yet we see the same around us atthis hour. There is no lesson I would morepress on the attention of my own soul thanthis, and I think I can say I value it : Positionwithout power, principles beyond practice,jealousy about orthodoxy, and truth and


42 WOOLLEN AND LΙΝΣΝ.

mysteries with little personal communionwith the Lord—all these the soul stands inconstant fear of and in equal judgment andrefusal.

The earnestness about many, and many aright thing that was found at Ephesus, thestir and activity even of a religious naturethat prevailed in Sardis, and the orthodoxyof Laodicea, were all challenged by theLord, and we deeply justify the challenge.(Rev. ii., iii.) The tithing of mint and anisewhen judgment and mercy were passed by,was exposed by the divine mind of Christ ;and iii the Spirit the saint joins in the ex-posure, " Either make the tree good, and itsfruit good or make the tree corrupt and itsfruit corrupt."

We refuse position without power as wewould principles without practice; or truthand mysteries and knowledge without ChristHimself and personal communion with Him.But in the stainless, perfect page of the wordwe find all honoured, and nothing thoroughlyaccording to God but where each and all isin its place and measure honoured. As Hesays Himself, "These ought ye to have done,and iiot to leave the other undone." Buthere I will turn aside for a moment to whatis sweet relief to the soul : that to know Himin grace is His praise and our joy. We in-


'VOOLLEN AND LINEN. 43

stinctively think of Him as One that exactsobedience and looks for service. But faithowns Him as the One that communicates ;that speaks to us of the privileges rather thanof the duties ; of the love, and the liberty,and the blessings of our relationship to Himrather than of the corresponding returnsfront us.

This is truth, beloved, we need also now-a-days, though it may be a little beside myleading thought just now.

The call of God separates us, but we needthe Spirit of God to occupy the place accord-ing to God, and the loving devoted mind." Salt is good," the divine principle is thegood thing. But salt may lose its saltness.The right position or the divine principlemay be understood and avowed, but theremay be no power of life in it.

What variety of moral instruction is thusprovided for the soul in the words of theLord! But let us still listen and we shallstill learn, for the mine is never exhausted.

The history of the two tribes and a halfhas its peculiar instruction for us. They donot stand in company with the Lot of thedays of Abraham, though ire some respectsthey may remind us of him. For, as I havejust said, it is wonderful what a variety ofmoral character and of christian experience



puts itself before the soul in the historiesof scripture ; the lights and shades are tobe traced as well as the leading features.This strikes us forcibly in the history of thispeople. They are not Lot but they remindus of him. Like him their history begins bytheir eyeing well-watered plains for cattle.While yet on the wilderness side of the Jordanthey think of their cattle: Abraham theirfather had never been on that side ofthe river. Moses had said nothing to themrespecting those plains of Gilead. Nor didtheir expectations when called out from Egyptstop short of the land of Canaan. But Reuben,Gad and Manasseh had cattle, and they suefor an inheritance there on the eastern orwilderness borders of the river, for therecattle might graze to advantage.

They had no thought whatever of revolting,of sacrificing the portion of Israel, or ofseparating themselves or their interests fromthe call of God. But their cattle would benicely provided for in Gilead and there theydesired to tarry, though, of course, only asIsraelites under the call of God. How natural!how common! They hold to the hope of thepeople of God though not walking in thesuited place of that hope. In power of cha-racter and conduct they were not a: dead andrisen people but they are one in faith with


WOOLLEN AND LΙΝΣΝ. 45

such. They would declare their alliance withthe tribes which were to pass the Jordanthough they would remain on the wildernessside of it themselves. They were not, likeLot, a people of mixed principles who de-liberately form their lives by something in-consistent with the call of God; but theywere a generation who, owning that call andprizing it, and resenting the thought of anyhope but what was connected with it, arenot in the power of it. Again I say, howcommon ! This is a large generation. We knowourselves too well to wonder at this.

Moses is made uneasy by this movementand he expresses his uneasiness with muchdecision. He tells this people that they bringto his remembrance the conduct of the spieswhom he had sent out years before fromKadesh-barnea, and whose way had dis-couraged their brethren and occasioned fortyyears' pilgrimage in the wilderness. Therewas something so unlike the call of God outof Egypt in the hope of Canaan thus to lingerin any part of the road, and Moses resentsit. And it is bad when this is produced, whenthe first instinctive thought of a saint walkingin the power of the resurrection of Christ isthat of alarm at what he sees in, or hearsfrom, a brother: and yet how common!Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh



have to explain themselves and to give freshpledges that they by no means separate them-selves from the fellowship and interests oftheir brethren ; and they do this with zealand with integrity too. In this they are notlike Lot. They would not have taken theeastern Gilead had this been the forfeitureof their identity with those who were going tothe western Canaan.

But Moses cannot let them go as Abrahamparts with Lot; they are not to be treatedin that way. Neither does the judgment ofGod visit them as it did the unbelieving spieswho brought up an evil report of the land.But Moses eyes them and fears for them andhas his thoughts anxiously and uneasilyoccupied about them. What shades of dif-ference do we find in these different illustra-tions of character! What various texturesmay we inspect in these woollens and linens !Different classes among the people of Godand shades of difference in the same class.We have Abraham and Moses and Davidwe have Lot and Jonathan and the tribes inGilead; we have Jehoshaphat and Obadiah—and yet these are the people of God. Sodomwas Lot's place, Saul's court was Jonathan'splace, and the palace of Ahab was Obadiah's ;while Abraham dwelt in a tent, David in acave of the earth, and Elijah with the pro-



visions of God at the brook Cherith or inthe Gentile Sarepta. Here were distances !And so as between Jonathan and others, forJonathan was (strictly speaking or dis-tinguishing) neither Lot nor Obadiah, thoughwe generally set them together as a class.Neither was Obadiah Lot exactly. And asbetween Lot, Jonathan and Obadiah on theone side, and Moses, Abraham and Elijahand such like on the other, we see the Reu-benites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh:a generation who will not admit the thoughtof their separation from the call and thepeople of God, but who betray in moralaction that which is inconsistent with thatcall.

And this is indeed a common class; nay,this is the common class. (See Num. xxxii.)One's own heart knows it full well. Joshua,who had the spirit of Moses, holds this samepeople in some fear and suspicion, just asMoses had done before. He calls them tohim and he addresses to them a special wordof exhortation and warning when the timeof action in the camp of God begins. (Josh. _i.) Little things of scripture are at timesvery symptomatic. It is so, I doubt not, inJoshua i. As to the tribes generally, Joshuahas but to say, "Prepare you victuals, forwithin three days ye shall pass over this



Jordan to go in to possess the land whichthe Lord your God giveth you to possess it."They were free ; they were in travellingorder; they had but to know the hour ofdeparture. Like Noah all was ready for thevoyage into another world and he neededonly time to put himself and his family intothe vessel. The two tribes and a half werenot so equipped in travelling order. Theywere encumbered, and instinctively, as itwere, Joshua acted towards them as towardsa heavy baggage in the hour of decamping.He had to challenge them—at least he felt hehad—to remind them of their pledges toIsrael, for they were not rnider his eye as ifthey had been altogether Israel themselves.In measure he is to them what the angel whocame to Sodom was to Lot.

So mark this same people again in Joshuaxxii. The ark had gone over, the feet of thepriests bearing it had divided the waters ofthe Jordan, and the ark had gone over con-ducting and sheltering the Israel of God;and it is true that Reuben, Gad, and Manassehhad gone over too. But Israel and the arkremained there and the two tribes and ahalf return, return to settle where theirbrethren had but wandered ; return to presentthis questionable and strange sight : Israelitesfinding their place and their interests outside


WOOLLEN AND LΙNEN. 49

the natural boundary of their promised in-heritance, finding a home where the ark hadnever rested.

Ere they set out on the return Joshuaseems to feel this and specially warns andexhorts them ; and as soon as they makethe passage and but touch the place whichthey had chosen they begin to feel it also.They are not quite at ease in their souls,and they raise au altar. This is full of lan-guage in our ears. An Israelite in the land ofGilead at this living day of ours understands it.

Jehoshaphat was after this manner un-easy when he found himself on the thronewith Ahab, and under the pressure of thatuneasiness (which attends on the heart ofa true Israelite inn an uncircumcised place)he asks fora prophet of the Lord. This isthe language of the renewed mind in a foreign]aiid. The two tribes and a half raise an altarand call it " Ed." It was a witness, as theypurposed, of this : that Israel's God was theirGod; that they had part in the hopes andcalling of the Israel of God. But why allthis ? Had they taken up their portion inCanaan they would not have needed this ;they would have had the original and not areflection. Their souls would have had thewitness within, and "Ed" would not havebeen needed without. But they were not in

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50 ' WOOLLEN AND LΙNEλΤ.

Canaan but in Gilead. Shiloh was not inview and_ they had to give themselves someartificial, some secondary help, to prop uptheir confidence by some crutch of their owndevising, that it might be known that theyand the Israel of God were one.

All this is full of meaning and is muchexperienced to this day. Some witness ofwhat we are and who we are as saints is cravedby the soul and called for by others when weget into a position in the world with whichthe call of God does not fully combine.Some artificial or secondary testimony isfelt desirable ; the countenance or acceptanceof others, the examination of our own per-sonal condition, with many a restless actionof the soul, reasonings with ourselves aboutit all, remembrances of better days invokednow and again. Something of this secondarycharacter like the altar at Ed is needed wherethe soul is not fully simple and faithful:all this is still known, and all this I judge isthe writing on this pillar in the land of Gilead.Lot's wife, the pillar of salt, has a writingupon it which the divine Master Himselfhas deciphered for us ; and I doubt not theHoly Ghost, the Spirit of truth, would haveus under His anointing read and learn thewriting on this pillar which Israelites outsidethe natural bounds of the promised inheri-



tanee once reared. It may warn our souls, ifwe love quietness and assurance of heartand deep peace of soul, not to return and finda settlement where the church of God hasduly found a pilgrimage. Does my soul readthis writing ? Every heart knows its ownhumiliation. These disturbances of spirit,this demand of Jehoshaphat for a prophet ofJehovah, this altar of Ed, witness both for andagainst us. They bespeak the saintly or renewedmind, but they bespeak it in such conditions,such exercises and experiences, as a moresingle-eyed and full-hearted love to Christwould have spared it.

Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh are challenged asecond time. Joshua and the tribes in Canaanhave to challenge them now as Moses had todo before. Their altar in Gilead awakenssuspicions now as their desire to settle inGilead had awakened suspicions then. Thisis all natural and common, and all sympto-matic. Saints in Gilead are not such as " maketheir calling and election sure "to the hearts oftheir brethren, at least without some inquiry.

A great stir is made among the tribes_ whowere now in Canaan and within the consciouspossession of Shiloh and of God's tabernaclethere, and an embassage is formed to inquireinto this matter. Something, they know notwhat, struck their eye which appeared to be



at variance with the common call of Israel ;and it must at least be explained. What aliving picture this is. We are surely at homein such a spot as this and know the customsof the place. I believe the apostle in theEpistles to the Corinthians is very much,in the New Testament form, a Phinehas, ason of Eleazar the priest, crossing the river toinquire after the pillar in the land of Gilead.There were things at Corinth which alarmedPaul, symptoms of sad departure from thecommon call of the heavenly saints. Theyseemed to be " among the princes of thisworld," to be " reigning as kings on the earth."His ministry in the meekness and gentlenessof Christ was getting to be despised and otherswere getting to be valued because of theirplace and advantages in the world. Theway of the schools, the way of wisdom ofmien, was regaining its authority, and saintsseemed as though they were returning tosettle where the church was to be but au un-known stranger. In the zeal of Joshua xxii.Paul crosses the river, and whatever the dis-covery may be the action is a painful one andthe need of it a scandal in the history of thechurch. The tribes of Gilead may satisfyPhinehas and his brethren more than the Corin-thian saints satisfy the apostles ; all suchdifferences and varieties in the conditions



of the people of God are known at this hour,but there is this connmon sorrow and humblingthat the calling and election is not made sure,and we have either to take journeys or tooccasion journeys that our ways, our Ed,our altars, our pillars, the bleating of ourflocks in the plains of Gilead, may be in-spected and inquired after instead of ourresting and feeding together, αnd togethergathering around αnd learning the secrets ofthe tabernacle and altar at Shiloh.

In the New Testament the church at Corinth'vas the Israelite on the wilderness side ofthe river. The apostle's fears respecting thesaints there were not respecting Judaisinginfluences ; nor were they on account ofthe working of liberty of thought and infidelspeculations, at least at the time of the secondepistle ; nor were they respecting the turningof grace into lasciviousness. These fearsoccupy the mind of the Spirit in addressingother saints and churches : but at Corinthit was worldliness that was dreaded. A certainman appears to have gained attention fromthe saints there ; he was one who had, bothfrom nature αnd from circumstances, some-thing to attract the mere worldly heart ofman. He was, I believe, as modern languagespeaks, a gentleman. He had a fine personαnd an independent fortune, and the C'οrin-


54 ΑΥΟΟLLEN AND LINEN.

thian saints had evidently to a great extentgot under his influence. To some extentthey were beguiled. They had begun to lookon things after the outward appearance ;they were suffering a man to vaunt himselfand to take occasion to be somebody amongthem, simply from the advantage he hadfrom nature and from circumstances.

Such a bad condition of things the apostlehad to withstand. Affection and confidencetowards himself bad been withdrawn inmeasure because he had no such advantagesto boast which they were thus beginning toprize. And surely he was purposed not toaffect such things at al], And though hehad certain things " in the flesh " of whichhe might glory, still he would glory rather iiihis infirmities. He would be "weak in Christ."The natural or worldly advantages whichthis man had and used among the saintsour apostle exposed, as Moses would exposethe woollen and linen garment or other mix-tures. "Be ye not unequally yoked togetherwith unbelievers," says he to the saints now,as Moses had said of old to Israel, " Thoushalt not plow with an ox and an ass to-gether. Thou shalt not wear a garment ofdivers sorts, as of woollen and linen to-gether." But Paul himself was not thusyoked and clothed ; indeed he was not. lie



was among the foremost of the tribe of Judahin crossing the river.

Surely I may say all these things illustrateprofitable lessons for us. We are not to bemixed up with that from which the call ofGod separates us ; we are not to wear thegarment of divers sorts. But if we refuse itand put on only the pure clothing, take theplace and be found in the connection to whichthe call of God leads, we are to be there witha girded as well as with an unmixed garment,and to watch, too, that it be unspotted. Theworld is that, not to the improvement ofwhich Christ calls us, but to separation fromwhich He calls us. But if, beloved, in formwe take the separated place, let us seek thegrace and the power which alone can adornand furnish that place for the Lord!

And such is the character of the hour weare now passing through. The god and princeof this world is aΠοwίng the citizens to sweepand garnish his house, and they are led toflatter themselves that it is by no meansthe same house that it once was. But thisdelusion is solemn ; it is as much the homeof the unclean spirit as ever it was, and onlythe more suitable for him because it is sweptand garnished, and ere long he will use allthese operations of the citizens for his finaland most awful purposes. " He that gathereth


5β WOOLLEN AND LINEN.

not with me scattereth." Is our labour ac-cording to the purpose of Christ ? Is it bythe rule of His weights and measures ? Ifit be not, though we may labour in His mimewe are but doing what the enemy will soonturn to his own account. In the parable thesweeping and the garnishing turn out at thelast to have been all for the unclean spiritto whom the house as much belonged as everit did, though it be true he had left it for aseason. Whatever is done for the improve-ment of the house is done for the master ofthe house, and Satan is the god of the worldas much as ever he was, and will be till thejudgment of it by the Rider on the whitehorse takes place.

The lengthened peace of the nations whichEurope so long and till lately enjoyed gaveabundant occasion to the sweeping and gar-nishing of the house. In man's way the swordwas turned into a ploughshare. The earthand its resources, man and his skill, have beenproduced and cultivated beyoIid all that everwas known, and the house looks different fromwhat it was now that. it is under these clean s-

jug and ornamenting labours of its servants.Advancement inn letters, morals, refinement, anndreligion is immense ; peace societies, temperancesocieties, literature for the million, and musicfor the million, with the general confederacy


WOOLLEN AND LINEN. 5'7

of the nations, loudly tell all this, as do theboasts in the age which are heard every hour.But this diligence is according to the mindof the real master of the house, or the god ofthis world. This is serious truth : " He thatgathereth uot with me scattereth." This isa serious word : "Be ye not unequally yokedtogether with unbelievers." It is confusion.It is the illicit weaving of woollen and linentogether. But, beloved, while one says this,the heart owns it and would be humbled bythe confession of it, that many a dear, honest-hearted servant of Christ who is labouringwith a mistaken purpose, and working (notby the weights and measures that are accord-ing to the standard of the sanctuary) with atrue affection and zeal, may be before othersof us who have clearly discerned their mistake.

I dread indifference more than mixture.I would shun Laodicea more than Sardis.May we learn the lesson in both its features—Sardis, with its religious bustle which gaveit a name to live, will not do: Laodicea,with its selfish, cold-hearted ease and satis-faction, will not do. Let us be diligent butin pure service ; occupying talents but occu-pying them for a rejected Master; lookingfor nothing from the world that has cast Himout, but counting on everything in His ownpresence by-and-by.


FAMILY CHARACTER AND FAMILYRELIGION.

FAMILY CHARACTER.

(GEN. χΙ. 28.)

rfHERE was, as we know, a day of visitationof the house of Terah. The family of Shemhad become very corrupt, and in the days ofTerαh, the sixth or seventh from Shem, they-were serving false gods. But the power ofthe Spirit and the call of the God of gloryvisited the ear and the heart of Abram, theson of Terah, and separated him from thatcorruption.

We also know that a godly influence ex-tended itself from this in the family. Teralithe father, Sarah the wife, and Lot the nephewjoin Abram in this, and they all leave the landof Mesopotamia together.

Nahor, however, another of Terah's sons,did not come within this influence. He wascomfortably settled at hone with his wife,and at home they remained, when Terah.Abram, Sarah, and Lot took their departurefrom the land of their fathers. (Chap. xi.)


FAMILY CHARACTER AND FAMILY RELIGION. 59

This is to be much observed, for the likeof it we may witness every day. One of thefamily becomes the first subject of divinepower, arid then family religion, or the know-ledge of the Lord. Jesus in the household,spreads itself, but some remain uninfluenced.

Of course we know that each quickenedsoul must be equally the object of the hidden.effectual drawings and teachings of the Father.(See John vi. 44, 45.) But I speak of the his-tory or manifested character of the scene.And, as we have seen in the history of thishousehold, Nahor remains unmoved in thisday of visitation. He and his wife continuein Mesopotamia, and they thrive there. Chil-dren are born to them ; goods and propertyincrease. They pursue an easy and respect-able journey across the world ; but they donot grow in the knowledge of rod, and bearno testimony, or at least small and indistincttestimony to His name.

The character of Nahor's family was thusformed. They were not in gross darknesslike the people of Canaan, descendants ofHam, among whom Abram had now gone.to sojourn. They had a measure of lightderived from their connection with Terahand Abram, and as descendants of Shem ; butall that was sadly dimmed by the cherishedprinciples of the wοrld from which they hadwww.presenttruthpublishers.com

()O FAMILY CHARACTER AND FAMILY RELIGION.

refused to separate themselves. And a familycharacter and standing were thus formed.

This is serious—and all the principle ofthis is of daily occurrence among us, and ofconstant application to our consciences.

We lose sight of this family for a time al-together, for of course they are not the directohject of the Spirit's notice, but being con-nected with Abram may naturally comewithin view ; and accordingly, in process oftime, tidings about them do reach Abram inthe distant place of his pilgrimage. (Chap.xxii. )

Bethuel was the son of Nahor—one of hismany sons rather, and the one most broughtinto view. He had flourished in. the world,and though perhaps a man of little energy orcharacter himself, had a son named Laban,who most evidently knew how to manage hisafia.irs exceedingly well, and to advance him-self and all who belonged to him very ad-vantageously in life. Be seems, as we say,to have known the value of money ; for thesight of gold could open his mouth with avery hearty and religious welcome even toa stranger. (Chap. xxiv.) Here, however,we reach a period in the history of this family .which is chiefly to be considered.

A fresh energy of the Spirit is about tovisit it. As I have already observed, this


FAMILY CHARACTER AND FAΜΙLY RELIGION. 61

family is not in the gross darkness of theCanaanites, nor in the simple idolatrous con-dition of Terah's house (see Josh. xxiv.),we may assume, when the God of glory calledAbram. They had been brought into a certainmeasure of light, and within a certain standingby profession as Abram's act and word seemedto allow. (Chap. xxiv. 4.) But this being so.this being a professing household in some senseapart from the dark state of the men of theworld, it becomes serious to notice the natureof that visitation which the Spirit makes toit, for it will be found to be a separatingpower or visitation. As the call of the Godof glory had before disturbed the state ofthings in Terah's house, so now the missionof Eliezer disturbed the state of things inBethuel's house : Abram had then beenseparated from home arid kindred, and sois Rebecca now to be, all this leaving behindit this serious impression, that a respectableprofessing family may need to be visitedby the very same energy of the Spirit as a

more worldly or idolatrous family.This is a serious thought. It is a disturbing

or separating power of God which now comesinto this family, and not simply a comfortingor edifying power. This has meaning, I be-lieve. The ministry of Eliezer, God's servantas well as Abram's, came to Bethuel's house-


62 FAMILY CHARACTER AND FAMILY RELIGION.

to draw Rebecca out of it, and to lead onthat very journey which, two generationsbefore, the call of the God of glory had borneAbram. I do indeed judge that there is alesson in this which is much to be pondered.A professing decent family have to be aroused,and a fresh act of separation produced in themidst of it.

But there is another lesson in the historystill.

Rebecca, we know, comes forth at this call.But her character has been already formed,as it is with us all, more or less, before weare converted. The moment of quickeningarrives. The separating call and power ofthe Lord is answered. But it finds us of acertain character, a certain shape and com-plexion of mind. It finds us, it may be Cretians(Titus i.), or brothers and sisters , of Laban,or the like, and the " Cretians are alwayliars." Character and mind derived fromnature, from education, or from family habits,we shall take with us, after we have beenborn of the Spirit, and carry it iυ us acrossthe desert from Mesopotamia to the house ofAbram.

This too is serious. Ít is serious, as I ob-served before, that a respectable professingfamily is visited by a separating, and notmerely by an edifying, energy of the Spirit ;



and it is serious, as I now have been tracing,that with the quickening or converting powerof the Spirit, nature, or the force of early

. habits and education, or of family character,will cling still. And these serious lessons thestory of Rebecca reads to us.

For I need only briefly speak of what herway was in the further stages of it. It is awell-known story among us, and well knowntoo as very sadly betraying what we may callthe family character. Laban, her brotherwith whom she had grown up and who wasevidently the active stirring one in his father'shouse, was a subtle, knowing, worldly man.And the only great action in which Rebeccawas called to take part gives occasion to herexercising the same principles. In the pro-curing of the blessing for her son Jacob wesee this Laban-leaven working mightily. Thefamily character sadly breaks out then. Thereadiness of nature to act and take its wayshews itself very busily. A mind she hadtoo little accustomed to repose in the suffi-ciency of God, and too much addicted tocalculate and to lean its hopes on its owninventions.

What have we to do then but to watchagainst the peculiar tendency and habit ofour own mind--to rebuke nature sharply, thatwe may be sound or morally healthful in.



the faith (Titus i. 3) ; not to excuse it becauseit is nature, but rather the more to suspectit therefore, and to mortify it for His sakewho has given us another nature.

These lessons we get from the story of thisdistinguished woman. Beyond this her way-is not much tracked by the Spirit. Was itthat He was grieved with her and leaves herunnoticed ? At any rate she reaps nothingbut disappointment from the seed she hadsown. loo good comes of her schemes andcontrivances, but the reverse. the loses herfavourite, Jacob, and never sees him afterthe long exile to which her own schemes andcontrivances had ended in sending him.

But there is this further to tell : Jacobgot his mind formed by the same earliestinfluence. He was all his days a slow-hearted,calculating man. His plan in getting thebirthright first and then the blessing ; hisconfidence iii his own arrangements, ratherthan in the Lord's promise, when he methis brother Esau ; and his lingering at She-chem, and settling there instead of pursuinga pilgrim's life through the land like his fathersall this betrays nature and the working ofthe old family character.

What need have we to watch the earlyseed sown in . the heart—yea, and to watch

• the early or late seed which we are helping


FAIRLY CHARACTER AND FAMILY RELIGION. 65

to sow in others' hearts ! For the fuller de-tails of this history warn us of such thingsstill.

The birth of Esau and Jacob is given usat the close of chapter xxv., and as they growup to be boys, occasion arises to let us lookin at the family scene ; but it is, as we shallfind, truly humbling.

This was one of the families of God then onthe earth, nay, by far the most distinguished,where lay the hopes of all blessing to the wholeearth, and where the Lord, eminently aboveall, had recorded His name.

But what do we see ? Isaac the father haddropped into the stream of human desires ;he loved his son Esau because lie ate of hisvenison ! We need not stop to consider Esauhimself. As a child of the family he wasentitled to the care and provision of the house—that is most true—and Isaac and Rebeccashould surely have given him all that, to-gether with their parental love and diligence ;but for Isaac to make him his favourite be-cause he ate of his venison, this was sad andevil indeed. Even in this, however, do we notsee some further illustration of our subject ?Isaac had been reared tenderly. He hadnever been away from the side of his mother,the child of whose old age he was. But hiseducation perhaps had relaxed him too much,

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66 FAMILY CHΑRΑCΤL R AND FAMILY RELIGION.

and he appears before , us as a soft and self-indulgent man.

But, oh, what sad mischief, what grievousdefilement, opens here to our view in all thisfamily scene ! Are we saying too much, thatone parent was helping to comfort one of thechildren and the other the other ? Indeedthere is something like it here, and groundfor fears so terrible. Isaac's love of venisonmay have encouraged Esau in the chase, asRebecca's cleverness, got and brought fromher brother's house in Paran, seems to haveformed the mind and character of her favouriteJacob.

Oh, what sorrow and cause of humiliation

is here ! Is this a household of faith ? Is thisa God-fearing family ? Yes. Children ofpromise and heirs of His kingdom are these :Isaac, Rebecca, and Jacob. Looked at inother actions they would delight and edifyyou. See Isaac in the greater part of chapterxxvi., and his conduct is beautiful, altogetherworthy of , a heavenly stranger on the earth :suffering, he threatens not, but commits him-self to Him who judges righteously. He suffers,and takes it patiently ; and his altar and histent witness his holy, unearthly character.So see Rebecca in chapter xxiv. In faithshe consents to cross the desert alone witha stranger, because her heart was set upon



the heir of the promises, leaving home amidkindred, forgetting her father and her father'shouse. But here looked at (in chap. xxvii.),what shame fills the scene, and how shouldwe blush and be confounded that heirs ofpromise and children of God could so carrythemselves!

But shall we gο on to expose this even more ?I feel that I could; for the heart is not onlybase and corrupt, but it is so daring also asto take its naughtiness even into the sanc-tuary, as the close of this story shews me.

The word to Aaron, long after this, was,"Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou,nor thy sons with thee, when ye g ο into thetabernacle of the congregation." (Lev. x. 9.)

For nature was not to be animated in orderto wait on the service of God ; nature wasnot to be raised, or set in action, by its ownproper food, for the fulfilling of the dutiesof the sanctuary ; strong drink might ex-hilarate and give ebullition to animal spirits,but this was uot the qualification of a priest.

But even into such a mischief as this, Isaacseems to have been betrayed. "Take, I praythee," said he to Esau, "thy weapons, thyquiver and thy bow, and go out to the field,and take me some venison ; and make mesavoury meat, such as I love, and bring itto me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless



thee before I die." He was going to do thelast religious act of a patriarchal priest, andhe calls as for wine and strong drink, thefood of mere nature, to animate and fill himfor the service of the temple ! Terribleabomination ! "Whose god is their belly,"it might be almost said, thus to deliberateon the venison. We may all be conscioushow much of nature soils our holy things,how much of the excitement of the flesh maybe mistaken for the easy and strong currentof the Spirit. We may be aware of this iiithe places of communion, but this is to beour sorrow ; we confess it as evil, and weak-ness, and watch against it ; but to preparefor this, thus carefully to mix the wine andthe strong drink, thus advisedly to take ahearty draught after this manner—surely thisis sad abomination !

We all know full well the guile that Re-becca and Jacob practised in this scene. 1need not rehearse it. As I have said before,it is a well-known story. But the holinessof the Lord consumes every bit of all this.Nothing comes of this subtlety and flesh-liness. The holiness of the Lord lays it allin ashes. Isaac loses his Esau, Rebeccanever sees Jacob again, for her promisedfew days were an exile of twenty years,and the calculating supplanter finds him-



self in the midst of toils and an alienfrom his father's house for that long anddreary season. Nothing comes of all this,whether we look at the carnal policy ofthe one party or the fleshly favouritism ofthe other: all is disappointment, and rebukedby the holiness of the Lord.

Serious, but most precious lesson! Precioussurely it is to see the Lord thus resenting theuncleanness of even His dearest, choicestservants.

But it remains for us to see grace assumingits high, triumphant place and attitude. Itsholiness is established thus by the Lordwith great decision, setting aside all advan-tages which sin had promised itself, andthen grace reigns.

In the great mystery of redemption, gracetakes its triumphant place in the promisethat the Seed of the woman shall bruisethe serpent's head ; but there is also thefull execution of all the decrees of holinessagainst the sin—for death came in as wasthreatened, and penalties fell on the man,and on the woman, and a curse upon theserpent. So here : Isaac loses his purposetouching Esau, Rebecca has to part withJacob, and Jacob himself, instead of gettingin his own way the birthright and the blessing,has to go forth a penniless exile from the



place of his inheritance, and the scene of allhis promised enjoyments. For the onby wagesof sin is death. But then grace takes its highplace and bearing. Way is made for it, by allthis burning holiness, to ascend its throne,and there it shines, delighting in the splen-dour of its own glory. (Chap. xxxviii.)

And it is glorious. Even the misery to whichhis sin had reduced the object of all this graceonly sets οff its glory. When even the servantof the house had of old gone forth on a likeerrand (chap. xxiv.) he had his camels andattendants, and all entertainment to makehis journey across this very desert honour-able and pleasant. But now the son and heir,the promised bridegroom himself, for whomthe honour of the house and the joys of themarriage were preparing, has to lie downalone, unfriended, uncared-for, unsheltered,the stones of the place his only pillow. Butgrace, which turns the shadow of death intothe morning, is preparing a glorious rest forhim ; he listens to the voice of wondrouslove, and he is shewn worlds of light in thisplace of solitude and darkness. He dreams,and sees the high heavens linked with thatvery dark and barren spot on which he thenlay, and with unwearied feet the heavenlypeople keeping up the happy intercourse; andhe hears the Lord of heaven Himself, at the


FAMILY CHARACTER AND FAMILY RELTGIOr . 71

top of • this mystic scene, speaking to him iuwords of promise, and of promise only. Hesees himself, though so erring, so poor, andso vile, thus associated with an all-pervadingglory, and heirs of his own present mercies,and consolations, till all this glory were readyto appear. The holiness of grace still leaveshim a wanderer; but the riches of grace willtell him of present consolation and of futuresure glories. And this is surely so. But it hasborne me a little beyond my immediate subject.

There is then such a thing as family char-acter ; and the recollection of this, whenwe are dealing with ourselves, should makeus watchful and jealous over all our peculiarhabits and tendencies ; and when we aredealing with others should make us con-siderate and of an interceding spirit, dis-posing us to plead this fact that there is familycharacter, or force of early habit and educa-tion, working more or less in all of us.

The remembrance of this nay in theseways be healthful. But I would not forgetto add, that if we are more than likely togather a certain character from the family,or the hέbits with which birth and characterhave already connected us, so are we debtorsto exhibit that character with which ourbirth and education in the heavenly familyhave since connected us.



In John viii. the Lord reasons upon thisground that our sonship or birth, or fancilyconnections, is to be determined by our char-acter or doings. " If ye were Abraham'schildren, ye would do the works of Abra-ham." This He says, and more of the samekind. And thus we see the necessity of ourbearing the family character.

But we are exhorted also to the same thing—to take after our Father, as we might say.In the cultivation of all charities and un-selfish, unrequited kindness, the Lord says,"Be ye perfect " ; and the apostle takesup the same thought in pressing the dutyof love and forgiveness, "]3e ye thereforeimitators of God, as beloved children."

Oh then that we may be set on the culti-vation of family character ! let the old mango down in us, and the new man rise and asserthis place inn us ! let the character, be it whatit may, which we have gathered from naturalties or natural habits be watched against;and the character of our heavenly birth becherished and expressed to His praise whohas begotten us again as alive to and withHimself from the death in which we lay.



FAMILY RELIGION.

(GEN. ΧΙ.)

THIS is a history which will be found, I believe,to suggest much occasion for the searchingof the heart. I desire grace to handle it wiselyand to profit.

Shem, among the sons of Noah, was thesacred branch. Religion was connected withhim rather than with his brothers, and fromhim came the separated people.

In the progress of a few generations, how-ever, this religious family became corrupt;for in less than three hundred years, and weknow not how much earlier, we find themserving other gods. (Josh. xxiv. 2.)

This is a commoii history even to this day.Families as well as churches are seen in a sadlydegenerate and corrupt condition, thoughonce they were known for their zeal andservice.

The Spirit of God, however, in the sover-eignty of grace, visits a son of Terah, whowas removed eight generations from Shem.The call of the God of glory came to Abramand separated him from those corruptions,and from country, and from kindred, and fromfather's house, to fashion him as a new pieceof workmanship for the Lord. (Acts vii. 2.)

Abram, it appears, made this call known towww.presenttruthpublishers.com


his family, and as is often seen to this dayamong ourselves, this communication has acertain influence among them. Family reli-gion springs from this. The power of thegospel is known at first by one member,and from thence it spreads. And the Lordwould have it so. It is a bad symptom, aswe may see presently, where this does nottake place.

So here. Terah the father gets ready. Na-hor, one of his sons, from the whole narrative,we may presume, was not much under thisinfluence ; for he, his wife, and children, allabide where they were. But Abram andAbram's wife, and Lot, the son of . Terah'sdeceased son Haran, set out on the divinelyappointed journey, and Torah the fatherapparently takes the lead. (Chap. xi.)

But ere I go farther with this narrativeI would ask, was all this entirely right onAbram's part ? The call had been to him,.On him the energy of the Spirit had come.Within the range of that energy or influencethe family, it is true, may be brought ; butstill, did it not belong to Abram to fill thatplace which this energy had manifestly as-signed him ? Was there not some conferringwith flesh and blood on Abram's part ereTorah could have been allowed to take thelead in this great movement under the Spirit



of God ? There may have been. And I ratherjudge that there was, and that this has toaccount fοr the delay at Haran aiid for thedeath of Terah there, and fοr the puttingforth of a second energy from the Lord iiicalling Abram from Haran. (Chap. xi. 31-xii. 1.)

This is all admonitory to us. Family reli-gion is beautiful ; but family order or humanclaims are not to assume the rights of theSpirit. Beautiful to see Cornelius, or anyother in like circumstances, bringing hisfriends and kindred within that influencewhich was visiting his house ; but if fleshand blood, or human relationship, disturbthe sovereign progress of the Spirit, we mayexpect a halt at Haran or at the half-wayhouse again, and the need of a second call(in some sense a second) to set the soul inthe path of God afresh.

We may mark and distinguish these thingsfοr profit and admonition. However, underthis renewed energy of the Spirit Abramrenews his journey, and Sarah his wife andLot his orphan nephew accompany him. Itis a scene of family religion still. And in Lotwe see one who was within the verge of thegeneral or family influence. We read of nudistinct call on him, or of any sacrifice fromhim. Not that lie represents a mere professor.



or one who attaches himself for some end tothe people of God. No; he was a righteousman and had a living soul that could be andwas vexed with the wickedness of the wicked.(2 Peter ii.) But his entrance into the house-hold of faith expresses no energy. It waseffected in a family way, as I have been ob-serving—as a thousand cases in our own day.And good such things are. Happy when Sarahthe wife, or Terah the father, or Lot the ne-phew, of these latter days will go along withour Abrams. This would not be, we know,without the drawing and teaching of theFather. And Lot was as surely an elect oneas Abram. But the energy of the call ofGod is not manifested in him as in Abram—distinctions which we cannot fail to markcontinually. It was a personal thing character-istically with Abram ; it was a , family thingcharacteristically with Lot. And accordingto all this, in the very first scene in whichLot was called to act in an independent waywe see his weakness.

Abram gives him the choice of the land.And he makes a choice. Now it is not merelyin his choosing the goodliest that our heartscondemn him, but in his making a choice atall. In every respect Abram had title to havethe first choice, as we speak. He was the elderboth iii years and relationship. He was prin-



cipal in all that action which had drawn themto this distant land, and Lot was but, as itwere, attached to him. He was noble andgenerous in surrendering his right to hisyounger. But Lot was insensible to all this,and he undertakes to make the choice, andthen (naturally in the course of such a be-ginning) he chooses on an entirely worldlyprinciple. He takes the well-watered plainfor his flocks and his herds, though that tookhimself near the defiled city. (Chap. xiii.)

This first trial of Lot is thus a painful wit-ness against him. It argues the weakness inwhich faith or the kingdom of God had beenbrought forth in his soul. Abram's way wasvery different, for the voice of the God ofglory had been powerfully heard by him,detaching him from that world to which Lotwas still adhering. And 411 this has languagein our ears.

It is soon discovered what a disappointingworld Lot was choosing. The well-wateredplain soon becomes a field of battle ; and hadit not been for Abram, or Abram's God, Lotwould have lost his liberty there and all hispossessions.

But it is still more sad to have to tell it,that this first disappointment does not freehis heart from its unholy attachment. Hetakes up Sodom a second time till he is forced



to remove by the hand of God Himself. Ifwhen the watered plain became a field ofslaughter Lot refused to learn its characterand to leave it, he shall learn it by its becom-ing burning heaps in the day of the Lord.

Melancholy catastrophe ! shameful end ofan earthly-minded believer ! What a voicefor us all this has ! Here was a saving so asby fire, a running out of a house in flames,an inglorious departure from the world!We may lay the admonition to heart andwatch against the first look toward the wateredplains of Sodom. (Chaps. χiv.–χiχ.)

In the whole of this, indeed, we get greatlessons, whether of comfort or of warning.It tells us that family religion is a beautifulthing, and that true godliness may beginin that way as in Abram's house. But itadmonishes us that each one inn the sceneshould take good care to cultivate the powerof godliness in a very personal way, lest ourreligion betray the weakness of a mere generalοτ family influence, and in a little seasonleave not a trace behind it.

Under Abram family religion, as I wasobserving, did spread, but not under Lot;for his wife continued with the mind of Sodomin her and is made a beacon-light to warnpassengers on their way to this hour. Histwo daughters defile themselves and become



the parents of. two such corrupt seeds as aredenied, under special prohibition (Dent. xxiii.2), any place in God's house; and his sons-in-law, when he spoke to them of judgment,profanely thought that he was a trifler ora fool.

Here surely is serious matter for our soulsto deal with ! If our religion or professionof Christ have sprung up under the influenceof a family atmosphere, we have warninghere to watch and cultivate a deep and per-sonal power of godliness, in holy fear andsuspicion of the weakness of the root of sucha plant.

But again, if our profession of Christ havenot more or less, as in the case of Abram,spread an influence in the family, we havegreat reason to be humbled and to fear thatit is so because like Lot we have not in ourown persons exhibited faith in its separatingand victorious power.

Lessons of serious and holy importance onthe subject of family religion are in that wayread to us by this little history. It tells us,as I have said, that we ought to be the meansof spreading it, but that if we ourselves arethe subject of its influence, we should watchspecially as those who have special reasonto suspect their weakness. For it is equallysaid by the same perfect, unerring Spirit,


80 FAMILY CHARACTER AND FA ΜΙLY RELIGION.

" Let every man prove his own work, andthen shall he have rejoicing in himself alone,and not in another " ; and again, " Ye fathers,provoke not your children to wrath, but bringthem up in the nurture and admonition ofthe Lord." Family religion is thus honouredby the Lord, but the thorough and the per-sonal power of it is also assisted. The fathersto the children are to make known the truth(Isa. xxxviii.), but each man must be bornagain or he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Beautiful to see the " unfeigned faith "dwelling in one generatioii after another ofthe same family, as in the grandmother Lois,the mother Eunice, and the child Timothy ;but it is beautiful also to read in the thirdof those family generations the tears and theaffections which draw up the full persuasionsthat their religion is not imitative or educa-tional, or the mere catching of a family in-fluence, but the precious inwrought powerof a kingdom which God Himself has set upin the soul.

" What we have heard and known, and ourfathers have told us, we will not hide from theirchildren, sheaving to the generation to come thepraises of the Lord, and his strength, and hiswonderful works that he hath done." (Psa.lxxviii. 3, 4.) J. G. Β.

Loudon: G. MORRISH. 20, Paternoster Square, E.C.


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