“Faithful amid unfaithfulness,
'Mid darkness, only Light;
Thou didst Thy Father's name confess,
And in His will delight."
2 Kings 22, 23:1-30; 2 Chron. 34, 35.
2KI 22, 23:1-302CH 34, 35THE bright line of kingly promise had passed on from father to son through seven more kings after Joash, and then Josiah came to the throne of Judah. He was, like Joash, a child-king, for he was but eight years old when he began to reign. He had been born while Manasseh, his grandfather, was yet reigning, and he was about six years old when his father, Amon, one of those many wicked kings who stained the royal line of Judah, succeeded Manasseh.
Manasseh had sinned grievously, but in the end he had humbled himself, and had found mercy from God. Amon had followed the evil ways of his father, "And humbled not himself before the Lord as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but Amon trespassed more and more."
It comforts our hearts, after these sad words, to read at once of the young Josiah. “He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left."
How came this son of a father, hardened in wickedness, thus to learn and to follow the way of David, the man after God's own heart?
We are not told; God has wonderful secrets, wonderful ways of making Himself known, even to the heart of a child. Perhaps his mother, Jedidah, may have taught her little son. Perhaps, while Amon was spending his days in wickedness, the child may have learned from the lips of the sorrowful, humbled old man, his grandfather, something of the bitterness of sin, and the brightness of mercy.
The Lord is “wonderful in counsel and excellent in working."
God worked in His own way to bring Josiah to the knowledge of Himself and to fit him for the place which he was to fill as a servant of God.
For Josiah, though a king, was to be a servant, and it would be the highest glory of any king to be a servant of God; it has also been the privilege of some of the least exalted among men to be servants of God. To be a servant of God is a special place, and though it is not quite that of a child, yet a child may learn what that place requires, and what it offers. There are ways, too, in which the Lord will use a child, though we shall see more of this in another chapter.
Besides this, we all have in this world of wants to serve one another, and a child may learn to be a very faithful and useful little servant to many; the spirit of service is a lovely spirit, and when it has been learned from Him who, while down here, could say, though Lord of all, "I am among you as one that serveth," it becomes a sweet fragrance to God.
The Tender Care and the Subject Place, the Rule and the Renewed Heart, all have their part in preparing the Faithful Servant, and though Josiah was not born in a home of faith like Moses, and had not the blessing of a God-fearing father such as Elkanah, though even no priestly uncle like Jehoiada appears in his history, yet he was in God's own way fitted for his place and his work. And every servant of God must be fitted by God. No preparation but God's preparation will do for God's work.
God's resources are infinite; His power can always make a way for the display of His goodness. None can stay His hand, or say to Him, "What doest thou?" And many a little child from many a neglected spot, from behind many a barrier of the world's sin and folly; shall yet be seen in glory, a joyful testimony to the wonderful resources of God.
Do you understand this word—Resources?
Did you ever see a spring coming out from the side of a hill? Oh, how the water rushed forth! How fast it ran away! and yet more and more and more came bubbling up from that little crevice in the hillside. Could you not stand and see it all run down? Would it not soon all have come out? Oh, no! There is a source hidden deep in the hill, and if you could stand all day and all night, and many, many days and nights, still the water would corn e springing out-more and more and more.
In God there is a hidden store
Of grace: He gives, yet giveth more,
And of His fullness all receive,
Who in His precious word believe.
Though thousand needs were met before,
Though thousands yet surround the door,
God giveth ever more and more;
Grace upon grace doth ceaseless pour.
The home of Josiah was, like that of Joash, in Jerusalem. This city was in the south of the land which, after the heathen had been conquered or driven away from it, was known as the land of Israel; it is a land that has had many names; in Heb. 11:99By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: (Hebrews 11:9), it is called the Land of Promise; it is often known now as Palestine, also (because Christ dwelt in it) it has received the name of the Holy Land, but in the times of David and Josiah it was generally spoken of as the Land of Israel.
Jerusalem became the capital or chief city of the land after David had taken it away from the heathen Jebusites; it was built upon hills, and hills were round it. You have perhaps read the verse in Psa. 125 that says, “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even forever." The highest hill in Jerusalem was Mount Zion, near it was Mount Moriah; at one time a valley had run between Mount Moriah and Mount Zion, but, as years passed on, this valley became filled up, and the two hills were counted as one, and were together known as Mount Zion. This is, perhaps, why we read so much of Mount Zion and so little of Mount Moriah, and why it might seem that the Temple, in some places, is spoken of as standing upon Mount Zion; though in 2 Chron. 3:11Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. (2 Chronicles 3:1) we read, — "Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah."
Perhaps no Israelite, who looked at the bare steep hill of Moriah, on the top of which he could see only the humble threshing floor of Araunah or Oman, the Jebusite, would have supposed that it would have been the place chosen for the magnificent Temple of God: but the Lord had long before made known something of His resources upon this Mountain. It was on Mount Moriah that, more than 800 years before, "A ram" had been "caught in a thicket by his horns," with which God had answered the faith of Abraham, who had "not withheld his son, his only son," and who, as he walked up the Mount with Isaac, whom he loved, had said, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering." And later on when, because of David's sin in numbering the people, God sent a pestilence upon Israel, "the angel of the Lord was by the threshing place of Araunah the Jebusite," when this messenger of judgment was stopped with the word, "It is enough; stay now thine hand."
So steep was Mount Moriah that there was not on its summit level space enough for the Temple and its courts. It was not, therefore, an easy place for the building, but it was the place which God chose, and that was everything to the man after God's own heart.
God does not leave to man to choose where or how he will worship Him. God chooses.
When God “forsook Shiloh” He "chose...the Mount Zion which he loved," and you know that Moriah is included in this name Zion. If Solomon had used his own wisdom, and had built a Temple on some more convenient spot, perhaps the fruitful plain of Sharon, it might have been a beautiful building, and convenient for the people to get to, and some might have been very pleased with it, but no true Israelite could have found his heart satisfied in such a place, because it was "in Zion" that God was great; it was "out of Zion, the perfection of beauty," that God would shine. The dew “descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing."
When God commanded that the Temple should be built upon the summit of steep Moriah, He gave wisdom to do this, though it was difficult, and it stood more firmly upon the little level than it would have done on any plain of man's choosing.
The Temple itself was a small building, but the courts around, and there were several of them, for priests, for men, and for women, occupied a large space, and all together were often called the Temple; thus we read in Luke 18:1010Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. (Luke 18:10), “two men went up into the Temple to pray." The beautiful building of cedar wood, and gold and precious stones, and carved work, was entered only by the priests and those of the Levites who had to minister and serve about the holy things; "their office was to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the Lord in the courts and in the chambers, and in the purifying of all holy things, and the work of the service of the house of God. Both for the shewbread and for the fine flour for meat offering and for the unleavened cakes.... and to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and likewise at even, and to offer all burnt sacrifices unto the Lord.... according to the order commanded unto them."
Even the small building was divided into two parts, and into the most holy place, the Oracle, none might enter except the high priest. Just on one day, when the Ark was brought into the Temple, the priest carried it “to the oracle of the house into the most holy place, even under the wings of the Cherubims." The two small golden Cherubims were still on each side of the mercy seat, but besides these there were two large Cherubims overlaid with gold, reaching from one end to the other of the most holy place, above where the Ark was put.
Then, as it stood in the Oracle, “there was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put therein at Horeb," that is the two tables of the Commandments. We are not told what had become of the golden pot that had Manna and Aaron's rod, that budded: The Ark of shittim wood overlaid with gold, with its lid or covering of pure gold, was a figure ever before God of Christ, the One only perfectly Faithful Servant who could say, "I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart."
There was nothing in the Ark besides the two tables. There was nothing in the heart of Christ apart from the will of God. The little verse which you see at the beginning of the chapter speaks of this Perfect Servant; such words could not be said of Josiah, though he was a faithful servant, and a bright light amid the ruin and corruption of his people.
But it was not the bright light of a Jehoiada, a Hezekiah, or a Josiah, that could enable the Holy God of Israel to endure so long the perverse wickedness of the chosen nation. There was nothing in the Ark save the two tables, but there was something upon the mercy seat above the Ark, on which the eye of God always rested; it was the sprinkled blood; though the Ark, with the two tables, spoke ever to the heart of God of Christ, the Perfect Servant in whom His soul delighted, it was the blood-sprinkled mercy seat speaking ever of Christ, the Perfect Sacrifice, on account of which alone God could bear in long-suffering, and yet in righteousness, with the sin of the people.
When the Temple had been finished, and the priests had placed the Ark within the Oracle, there remained yet one precious thing which was to be in that most holy place. It was what no priest could carry in there; it would have been found in no place of man's choosing or man's invention. The priests who had borne the Ark came out through the golden doors of the Oracle, "Also the Levites which were the singers...with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals, and psalteries, and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets; it came even to pass as the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord saying, For he is good, for his mercy endureth forever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God." The cloud of glory abode in that most holy place above the mercy seat.
Sad indeed were the changes which had taken place in that Temple during the three hundred years that had passed from the day of its glorious acceptance by God until the day of Josiah, the Faithful Servant; his was a day of very special service, for, more than two hundred years before the child appeared, his work had been spoken of and his name mentioned. You may read of this in 1 Kings 13
But before Josiah's work began, we read that "while he was yet young he began to seek after the God of David his father," and we may be sure that he, like many others, proved the truth of the gracious word, “Those that seek me early shall find me."
The servant must first know the Lord before he can serve Him.
Josiah's was not at first the happy service which the God who had brought Israel into that " land flowing with milk and honey " would have ordered, had the people been obedient to Him: many idols and idolatrous altars had to be destroyed; former kings had brought in much evil, and Josiah, according to the word spoken concerning him, burned the bones of the wicked priests upon their own altars, and destroyed the groves and images which had been made throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem; his desire now was to repair and to set in order the house of the Lord. God stirred up the hearts of the people, for God always works with His faithful servant; Hilkiah the priest was ready, and the workmen did the work faithfully.
Just at this time a discovery was made which, while it showed the gracious care of God over the young servant-king Josiah, yet was a great disgrace to all the people: “Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses." No wonder that Josiah had found so many altars of Baalim to break down; no wonder that graves of idolatrous priests could be strewn with the dust of carved images and molten images, when the law of the Lord could be handed by Hilkiah the priest to Shaphan the scribe as " a book that he had found."
I have heard of a story called "The Dusty Bible," and of the woman who rejoiced at finding, among the leaves of her Bible, the silver spoon which she had "lost for years;" perhaps you, too, have heard some such sad stories which remind us of the dark days of Josiah, when the book of the law lay lost and forgotten in a corner of the Temple of God.
Sad was the carelessness of the people of Judah in thus going on without the law, which had been given for their guidance; but great was the mercy of the God of Israel in permitting it now to be found.
Shaphan carried the book to the king.
You must not fancy the book a neatly bound, printed volume like your Bible; it was probably a parchment roll, and written throughout by hand; printing, the wonderful invention which by machinery makes ready a thousand books for a thousand readers in less time than it would take to write one by hand, was not known until 1449 years after Christ, and this book was found 610 years before Christ; so still, for more than two thousand years, scribes were to be engaged in copying the few precious books which men possessed.
Shaphan was a scribe; how it could be that the law of the Lord had been so forgotten I cannot explain, it does not seem that Shaphan and the other scribes could have attended well to their business, or that Josiah, when at eight years old he was crowned, could, like the seven years old Joash, have had the book of the testimony put into his hand or could, by Hilkiah the priest, have been instructed in his royal duty of making for himself a copy that he might read therein day by day; for when Shaphan read the book before Josiah, its contents so surprised him that, having rent his clothes in sorrow of heart at the thought of all the sin and forgetfulness, of which he and the people had been guilty, and of the terrible judgments of God which, on that account, were about to fall upon them, the king sent Hilkiah and Shaphan, and a servant of his own, named Asaiah, with two other persons, to inquire whether all the punishments proclaimed in the law against idolaters were really to fall upon him and his people.
There was one person in Jerusalem who knew more of the mind of God than all the priests or the king, this was a prophetess who lived in a college in Jerusalem. Her name was Huldah, and to her the king's messengers went. It was a disgrace to Israel, and a sign of the weakness and disorder which their sin had caused, to have to learn the mind of God through a woman, but she knew at once how to answer all the king's questions.
It was a terrible message which Huldah had to send back to Josiah. All the curses which he had read in the book were really coming on the unfaithful people, but Josiah himself was not to share in the dreadful punishments.
Why was Josiah thus spared?
It was not because he was a king, for “God is no respecter of persons."
It was not because he had broken down idols and put idol worshippers to death, for no good doings can wipe out evil doings.
Josiah was spared, because his heart was tender; because he humbled himself before God; because he believed the message, and owned how justly he and the people deserved the wrath of God. Josiah owned that he could find no reason why the punishment should not come upon him, and he got a message of mercy.
But all the sad things told in the book were true, and Josiah must make known the word of God; there was a great and solemn gathering of the people; those who lived in Jerusalem were there, the priests and the Levites were there, and all the people great and SMALL. Yes, God saw and speaks of the SMALL who were at that solemn gathering, and they had to listen to the word as much as the great.
The king “stood in his place;” perhaps by the pillar at the porch of the Temple, where kings stood to be crowned; the people, no doubt, stood closely packed in the courts around. This word of God contained much that might well make the hearts of this careless, God-forsaking people to tremble; but if there were, as we may hope, some others whose hearts, like Josiah's were "tender," perhaps among the SMALL of that company, there was a word that spoke of mercy and mercy's provision for the needy.
After the solemn reading of the law, the day of a blessed feast arrived; great preparations had to be made, for so dreadful was the disorder of the Temple that even the holy Ark had to be "put" into its place; it was not found beneath the great cherubim within the golden doors of the Oracle. Then the people kept the Passover.
God was very gracious to them even in that day of ruin: "there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem." (2 Chron. 35:1818And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 35:18).)
Perhaps, among the hundreds of people who ate of the roasted Passover, and remembered the night of judgment in Egypt, when God had sheltered His people under the blood of the slain lamb, there were some, besides Josiah, who turned with all their heart to the God whose mercy endureth forever.
For seven days the feast lasted, and it must have been a time of thankfulness and rejoicing to Josiah, but there were many other days besides those seven, which must have been days of sorrow and difficulty to the Faithful Servant, for trials are among the things found in the servant's place, but plenteous deliverance is found there too. Josiah was a king, and the king in Israel was one whose word no one thought of disputing, his trials therefore were perhaps more those of the heart than of outward opposition, but many servants of God, before and since the day of Josiah, in almost all lands and all times, have suffered in faithfulness to the Master.
I will not tell you now about the dreadful wickedness of those who persecuted and slew, nor about the deaths of servants of God, but I think you would like to hear a little story of one in trial, and how the Lord graciously provided for his wants at a time when he was in great poverty, but when also God's resources were as full as ever. He has said, “All the beasts of the forest are mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills."
This man, though he had once been well off, had lost all his money in faithfulness to his duty as a servant of God; so great was his poverty that often he knew not where the next meal would come from for his family. He had several children, and it must have been a real trial to him to see them in want. Besides being a faithful servant, he also had a faithful servant: her name was Martha, and though her master had now no money, either to give her wages or to supply her with the comforts to which she had once been accustomed in his service, she would not leave him, but preferred to share his poverty, and to do what she could to help him in his difficulties.
One day, Martha was called by her master; they had no food in the house, and he had not so much as a sixpence with which to procure anything; but it had come into his mind to send Martha to a neighboring town, called Halifax, where she was to go to a shopkeeper, Mr. N., and see if he would be willing to give them any help.
"The Lord give you good speed," said the master to Martha, “and we, while you are gone, will make known our requests to Him who feedeth the young ravens when they cry." Martha set off upon her errand, and you may be sure that she went not like "the sluggard," who is "as smoke to the eyes of them that send him;" she would remember the sorrowful master and the hungry little children at home, and make haste to the town.
At last she reached Mr. N.'s house, but suddenly her courage failed her, it seemed to her such a strange thing to have to go and beg for her master; so she walked on past the door, then back again: she knew not what to do. Perhaps the Lord put this hesitation into her heart, for though He may allow His servants to see want, and may keep them waiting, which is the trying of their faith, He does not send His servants to beg.
The Lord saw the hungry children and the praying father, and Martha walking up and down outside the door. Mr. N. was in his shop, and what do you think was in his mind just then? While Martha was waiting outside, he was waiting inside and thinking, "I wish I could see somebody belonging to Mr. H."—that was Martha's master. At that moment he turned his head, and he saw Martha; so he ran out to her.
Oh! how glad she must have been now that she had waited, and perhaps while she had waited she had been asking of God instead of asking of man, said the Lord was sending Mr. N. out with the answer which had been ready long before Martha had begun waiting at the door, for God is always before man; we are to make our requests known, and God answers; but it is not our requests that put mercy into His heart for us.
So out ran Mr. N., and soon he stopped Martha, who was walking past the door again.
“I am glad to see you," said he, “are you not Mr. H.'s servant? Some one came a little while ago and left five guineas for your master, and I was just wondering how I could send them."
Poor Martha burst into tears; she told Mr. N. why she had come to Halifax, and all that she had felt when she had reached his door. Soon she filled her basket with food for the hungry family, and you may think how quickly she returned home, and how glad she was, when the little children ran eagerly to meet her, that she had brought them all they needed, and while they were peeping at the good things in the basket the master listened to her story, and said, "The Lord hath not forgotten to be gracious; they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing."
Josiah, or Mr. H., or any servant of God may always say to himself in the moment of trial, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" but at the same time the spirit of the true servant must be that of Paul, "None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself."
The word which had so touched the heart of Josiah had also guided and comforted the heart of Mr. H., for the word of the Lord must ever be the guide and support of the
Faithful Servant, and it is as true for us to-day as it was for Mr. H. two hundred years ago, or for Josiah two thousand years ago. It is sad to think how Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, treated the word of God when it was read to him, only twenty years later. I cannot now tell you all the dreadful story, but you may read it for yourselves in the 36th chapter of Jeremiah, and while the piety of Josiah, the son of the wicked Amon, speaks to us of the resources of the grace of God, the wickedness of Jehoiakim, the son of faithful Josiah, solemnly reminds us that a father cannot touch the heart of his son; it was not Lydia's father, or Paul the apostle, but the Lord who opened the heart of Lydia, so that she attended to the things spoken; and alas, for the one whose heart does not bow to the word of God! whoever or whatever his father may be; the wicked father will be no excuse, and the faithful father can be no shelter in that day, of which God tells us in Proverbs: "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord." (Prov. 1:24-2924Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 29For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: (Proverbs 1:24‑29).)
We read little of the childhood of Josiah because, as I said before, the special place of the Servant is not a child's place; yet the Lord sees if even a child has the desire to serve Him, and one thing will mark such a child, it is the mark of the child-servant as of the elder: he will seek to be faithful in little things. The little thing entrusted to us is just as important as the great thing, because, little or great, it is a trust from God.
There was once a servant of God who, from his great age, had become almost as feeble as a child, At one time he had preached to crowds of Indians, but now his voice was low, he could not be beard in a multitude; his body was weak, he could not take great journeys; his mind, too had not the power of former days, he could not do great things; but he was still ready to do little things. His friends came in one day and said to him, “Oh, rest yourself now, you are not fit for any more work," Beside the aged man a little Indian child was standing. "I cannot do great things," said this Faithful Servant, " I can no longer preach, but I can teach this child his alphabet, so that he may learn to read God's message for himself."
There was a child, too, who had never done great things, but she had a wish to serve, and how do you think she began? She began with a little duty which is close at hand to every one of you; she always tried to give up to the other little ones in the nursery. Every servant must learn the lesson of self-forgetfulness. Selfishness can never be a servant. And as we saw in the Subject place the one who would be ready to answer a call from God is now ready to hear a call from his or her parents; so with the Faithful Servant; the one ready to serve God will be ready, by the way, to serve others in little things.
I have known many dear little servants; if you were going out they would run to get your hat, or your shawl, or your parasol, or whatever you might want; if you came in, they would jump up from their book or their work to get you a chair; for chairs, although they have legs and sometimes arms, never have hearts, so they cannot think of running forward to see if they are wanted, as the dear little servants can.
It needs a willing heart, as well as legs and arms, to make a ready servant.
I know a window from which I can see over a large field; one corner of this field is a village play-ground, and here one class of the “little servants " can often be seen; they are those who are sent out in charge of the baby brother or sister.
Oh I what a precious trust the little child is!
Each little child is alike precious; but are all the little care-takers alike faithful?
No; very different little care-takers may be seen: some will lead the little one, or will roll the perambulator carefully in a sunny part, and will pick little flowers, or sticks, or stones for the baby, and I am sure they are well paid with the little one's pleasure and love; but some seem to think it is quite enough to leave the little carriage where it will not be likely to be run over; no matter how cold it may be for the baby under the damp hedge, away goes the unfaithful servant to his or to her own play; the poor baby may cry, but that cannot be heard, they are having so much noise and fun in the sunny field.
I suppose the play is very enticing, and it may be dull to stay so much by the baby, or to have either to go slowly for his tiny feet, or to carry him, when he is more than half as long as you are, and perhaps nearly twice as broad.
But there is one kind of servant for whom I can make no excuse. A few chapters ago I spoke of some hard-hearted or thoughtless children, who appear to find pleasure in the pain of donkeys, dogs, cats, flies, and other harmless creatures; but what can be said of brothers and sisters who take pleasure in making the poor confiding baby, whom mother has trusted to them, cry with terror, by leading him up to a barking dog and then running away! Many other unkind tricks these same bad servants will do, but I do not wish to write, and you would not wish to read, more about them.
Can such children ever have heard of Him who went about doing good, and who took the little children up in His arms? If they have heard of Him, I fear they have thought but little of Him. Perhaps these bad servants may say it is a little thing and they mean no harm; but "he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much."
While we are talking of nurses, perhaps you would like to hear a story of a faithful Scotch nurse.
In order to be this faithful nurse, she had not only to give up her own pleasure, but to risk her life for the sake of her little charge; she lived many many years ago, at a time when Scotland was not the peaceable and pleasant country it now is: the Highlanders, or inhabitants of northern Scotland, were very ready to fight and to plunder one another. A certain Highlander, being more quiet than the rest, had obtained the name of the Peaceful Laird of Invernahyle, and an unruly neighbor of his took advantage of his quietness to surprise his house, and kill him and his family. Such is the wickedness of man, and such was the lawlessness of those times. One tiny infant alone was saved by his nurse; she attempted to run away with him, but finding this impossible, she still would not forsake her charge, and hid him in a little cleft or fissure of a rock, though by doing this she lost her own chance of escape, and was taken prisoner. The wicked robbers knew that one child had escaped, and they threatened to kill the poor nurse if she would not tell where she had hidden him, but she kept her secret, even though at the risk of her life; after two days the men grew tired of talking with the nurse, or else they thought that she really did not know where the baby was; for such cruel selfish men could not perhaps even suppose what a faithful servant would endure, and they sent her away. What do you think she did then? Did she think about going to her own home? Or getting away as fast as possible from the robbers I No; she thought of the poor baby. Could it have lived all through those two days alone in that little cleft? She had had no proper food to give it, all she could do was to tie a piece of bacon to a string round its neck, and she hoped that the wonderful instinct which is given to the helpless would make the child keep itself alive, even with this disagreeable food. Still, it was with an anxious heart that the loving nurse went to the hole in the rock where she had left the baby. I fear this poor woman had no thought of the Tender Care of God, which might have comforted her. In those lonely mountains, wolves and wild cats, and all sorts of great, hungry birds of prey were prowling and hovering about, so she had little hope of seeing anything except what these fierce creatures might have left of the child's body.
But the Care which she knew not had been there, and the devotion of the faithful nurse was well repaid when she found the little child alive and well in its strange little home; though it was time she came to the little one, for the bacon was nearly all gone.
Little messengers are another class of servants, and I am sure we have all seen, and most of us have often been of, this class. The window I know of shows a number of little messengers; through rain and sunshine they hurry along, some carrying the basket to the shop, some taking home the welcome loaf, some, and these are very important little people, taking the basket mother has packed so carefully with father's dinner or father's tea; they must take care not to run so fast as to slip on some unexpected stone, and not to leave the charge for a moment's play, for it would be sad indeed if father, who is working so hard for them, should lose his dinner or his tea through their carelessness.
Not long ago, I read about one these little messengers, and a faithful messenger she was; she lived in a large, busy town, and her father, who was doing some work at a distance, could not spare time to return to his dinner, so every day his little daughter had to carry it to him. One day, the mother had filled the basin as usual, and the little girl (after many cautions, I dare say) started on her errand. It was summer, and the weather was hot, very hot indeed that day at the men's dinner hour, but no blue sky or summer sunshine could be seen: a terrible black cloud hung lower and lower over the whole town. The mother had looked anxiously from the door, as she watched her little messenger go down the street; a few great drops of rain were already falling, and rumbling thunder could be heard, but father must have his dinner, so the little feet must keep on, step after step, down the street, across the square, into the lane.
The raindrops had changed now into great big hailstones; bright flashes of lightning came blindingly across her eyes, the wind did its best to blow her down at every corner, but the little girl held her basin as tight as she could with both hands, and walked bravely on; suddenly, however, such a shower of such great hailstones came down, with such wind and lightning and thunder that all who were in that part of the street, at that busy hour, ran for shelter into a small covered passage, and the little girl ran in with them; for even big men could not stand against the violence of the storm, and you may think what it was for a child of scarcely eight years old to be exposed to it. The passage, however, was little better than the street; during the next peal of thunder, which was not long in coming, something struck the entrance, and stones and rubbish of all sorts fell around!
Who could tell if the whole passage, in this crowded old corner of the town, were not about to fall upon them?
The poor little messenger was half stunned and half bewildered with the surprise and noise.
She was not much hurt; and soon the storm cleared off, and people came to move away the rubbish, and to help those who were in the midst of it; and when the little girl was picked up, what do you think, in the midst of all the darkness and fright and confusion, were her first words?
Was she ready to cry? or to think about a few little bruises or scratches she had got, or about her wet clothes? No, indeed! She was thinking about her trust, and instead of being anxious to get out of the passage as fast as possible and home to her mother, her first words were, “Oh! where's my basin?"
So the rubbish had to be looked into as well as the darkness would allow, and there was the basin, covered in its cloth and unbroken. What had become of father all this time, or how he got his dinner that day I cannot tell you; but I dare say he thought a great deal less of himself and his dinner than of his faithful little messenger.
Self-forgetfulness and devotedness may be shown, like carelessness or selfishness, in very little things; for “he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much." Every child gets trusted in something, sometimes; it may be to carry a message, or to carry a little parcel; or it may be, trusted to remember and to obey in some little thing, or trusted to learn a lesson; what you are trusted in makes no difference, all the difference is this: Are you Faithful or are you Unfaithful?
So many things are needed even to make the faithful servant for little every-day wants; he must be able to bear trials, he must be self-forgetful and devoted, he must have the willing heart. All these things are likewise needful in the faithful servant of God.
And if you read the description given in Isa. 42:1-31Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 2He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 3A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. (Isaiah 42:1‑3) of Christ, the Perfect Servant, you will find another quality especially marked in Him. It was gentleness. How truly the little verse, which perhaps you have learned, speaks of Him as “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild." The spirit of the servant must be got from Christ to be acceptable to God, so of the servant who is to follow Christ, we read in 2 Tim. 2:2424And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, (2 Timothy 2:24): “The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient." Is there not here something which even the child, who cannot do great things, may seek to learn from Him who said, “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart"? The blessed servant Paul said, "I was gentle among you as a nurse cherisheth her children." But between the servant of man and the servant of God there is this great difference: we serve one another because we see one another in need. In serving God it is not so; we serve God because we are His. When we serve Him we can only say as David did, "All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee." (1 Chron. 29:1414But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. (1 Chronicles 29:14).) God is not "worshipped with men's, hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things." To be a servant of God is a precious privilege. “If any man serve me, him will my Father honor." “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am there shall also my servant be." And in the bright day of eternal blessing, it is said, “His servants shall serve him, and his name shall be on their foreheads."
Do you wish to serve Him?
In order to follow Christ as the Faithful Servant we must know Christ as the Gracious Servant, who “came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." When we know this Gracious Servant we can say, “He loved me and gave himself for me."
We only read one thing of Josiah, the child, and it is this: “While he was yet young he began to seek after the God of David his father." Yes, to walk in the ways of David he must know the God of David; and we, if we would walk in the ways of the Servant who was greater than David, must know Him. “This is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou halt sent."
Josiah could not know "Jesus Christ," for in his day "Jesus Christ” had not been “sent." Josiah had to seek; there was no new and living way opened by which Josiah could draw near; but
“I have not now to seek Him,
In love He sought for me."
“The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." If we feel obliged to seek, is because we have gone astray like lost sheep. It is not because He is far off.
We may say, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep: seek thy servant." And what a blessed answer we get! “The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost," and "He that seeketh findeth,"
There was a tale told, long ago,
And yet, most strange to say,
The story is as sweetly true
For you and me to-day.
And yet not strange, for Tie who spoke
Forever is the same
And all His words are life and grace,
Unchanging as His name.
A Shepherd, so the story tells,
Went forth to seek lost sheep,
To save the little helpless ones,
Who were in danger deep.
Far, far He journey'd in His search,
Words fail how far to tell;
And yet He turn'd not back, because
He loved the lost so well.
Hungry, at times; and wearied oft,
By rough ways wounded sore;
It cost Him much to search, but yet
He thought the sheep worth more.
Hour after hour that way He trod,
So rough, so dark, so long;
And yet He halted not, because
His love was deep and strong.
At last He found the lost one; where,
The story does not say;
But marks upon the Shepherd told
The dangers of the way.
His brow was wounded, as by thorns,
And pierced was His side;
And many deep deep scars He bore
On hands and feet beside.
Yet brightest triumph, love, and joy,
Shine all His features o'er;
The once lost helpless sheep is found,
And shall be lost no more.
Who loved us when we knew Him not?
Who came the lost to save?
Who, to redeem the helpless sheep,
His precious life-blood gave?
Jesus, the well-loved Son of God;
Jesus, oh none but He
Himself, God's holy spotless Lamb,
Could our "Good Shepherd " be.
Such love! He left the glory bright,
Our poor lost souls to save.
Such power! Though for our sins He died,
He triumph'd o'er the grave.
He rose; and, in the Father's house,
Those who here learn His love,
Forever with Himself shall share
God's cloudless rest above.