I have already looked at Horeb, " the Mount of God," as the witness of grace and glory, or, of redemption and the kingdom, being the spot where the Lord of Israel first showed himself in the burning bush, the symbol of grace or salvation, and afterward displayed the glories and joys of the kingdom in the intercourses of Jethro and the ransomed tribes of Israel.
But though all this has passed, the congregation are still in the same place; and the place, as we shall now see, is still giving us to read its title to be called " the Mount of God."
In the opening of our present chapters, we reach the third month since the Exodus. A new era is thus noticed by the Spirit, and accordingly new scenes and new thoughts will be found to unfold themselves. The heart of the people is here called into exercise. Moses the mediator passes and re-passes between them and the Lord, and all this tests the mind that was in them, and ends in proving the security of the natural man, and his confidence in himself to do all that the Lord shall command (19)
But this their way was their folly. They had been brought out of Egypt by him who dwelt in the bush, " the God of grace," the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the same hand had led them through the desert up to the mount where " the God of glory" had, in figure, shown his kingdom and joy to them. But now, as soon as the Lord, having thus shown what he was, turns, as it were, to inquire what they were, and whether they would now trust in themselves rather than in him, the ground of the heart is discovered, man is found to be self-confident and boastful, ready to enter upon terms with God, rather than be simply debtor to him for grace and glory.
Accordingly this mount, where all so lately was the peace and honor of the kingdom in the presence of Jethro, now on the departure of that mysterious stranger, becomes the fiery mount. It puts on new attributes altogether. It is preparing itself to consume the sinner, a mount of blackness and darkness and tempest, where the voice of God is heard in righteousness, where the ten words, or the covenant of the law of works, putting man to the trial which he had too confidently submitted to, are now to be published.
But what will such trial end in? It must leave all their comeliness as rottenness. The burning mount of the law here gives them at once to know the terribleness of that righteousness which they had challenged, and they can but cry out in the fear of it (20)
This however, so far was as it should be. This cry of fear was the proper, seasonable fruit of the ground on which Israel now stood, as the Lord himself afterward says (Deut. 5:1818Neither shalt thou commit adultery. (Deuteronomy 5:18)) And according to this fear they stand afar off. But the mediator draws near to the thick darkness where God was, and there, as between the Lord of Israel and his people, he receives the statutes of the kingdom which were to make Israel the Lord's nation,-a separated people who were to have the Lord for their God and King, bearing his image and superscription upon them. And he is promised also an angel to go before him, presiding, as it were, over this covenant of the nation, in whom the name of the Lord of Israel was to be; so that if they obeyed him they should be blest, but if they refused he would not pardon their transgressions (21-23)
The mediator having thus received the book of the statutes of the realm, and the promise of the angel of the covenant, the covenant itself is solemnly sealed. It is dedicated with blood (Heb. 9:18, 1918Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. 19For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, (Hebrews 9:18‑19)). The altar and the twelve pillars are raised, and the altar is sprinkled. Then the book of the covenant is read; and on the people undertaking obedience, they are sprinkled likewise. Thus Jehovah and Israel are joined in the conditional covenant, the blessing of which rested on their allegiance, and the representatives of the nation are called up to eat and drink in the presence of the God of Israel.
For all as yet is reconciliation, the blood of the covenant being upon. them, and no trespass as yet committed. It was the sight of " the God of Israel" they now get. They may look unhurt, and unalarmed. There is no danger of gazing here, as there had been when the law of the ten words was delivered (xix. 21). It may last but for a short moment, but this is a sample of that day when the God of Jeshurun shall be known as riding on the heavens for Israel's help, and in his excellency on the sky (Deut. 33); when the king shall be seen in his beauty, when Zion shall be a quiet habitation, a city of solemnities, and the glorious Lord shall be there, lawgiver, judge and king (Isa. 33) The glory did not make them afraid, the hand of such an one was not heavy upon them. There he was in all his honor, but they could eat and drink before him (24)
Thus the covenant in which the nation was now to stand is settled, the parties to it bound, and the whole avouched and concluded. Moses is then called to take up another position. And this is done with due solemnity also. His minister Joshua accompanies him a certain stage, but he goes upward to the mount where the Lord was. The glory was still there, as devouring fire in the eyes of the children of Israel, but the cloud covers it for six days. Then on the seventh (expressive it may be of the rest into which Moses was now about to be conducted beyond all the terror of the fiery mount), the voice of the Lord out of the cloud calls him, and Moses goes up into the midst of it and gets him into the mount. Hitherto he had been either on a level with the people, while the ten commandments, the moral law, was delivered, or a little separated from them as the mediator of the nation, while the statutes of the realm were published. But now he enters into further intimacies with the Lord. He is called to the top of the hill, beyond the region of darkness and thunder altogether. The heads of the nation are left in the camp,-the vision of the God of Israel is folded up, and he is called to the very midst of the cloud, where the Lord was dwelling and shining.
But he is not long there before we learn the secrets of that holy place, and how it was that he got there, and in what that virtue lay that could enable him to pass, as it were, all the devouring. fire unharmed: He is there in company with Christ. That is the secret. The shadows of good things to come there pass before him, and one by one tell out this glorious truth-that God can be a just God and yet a Savior,-that he can conduct a sinner safely up the fiery mount, without the smell of it passing on him. For Christ is the end of the law to every one that believeth. God's claims in righteousness are all answered in the Person and obedience of Jesus. The brazen altar, with all that intervened from that to the mercy seat itself in the holiest, is shown here to Moses. All pass in review before him. And the minister of the sanctuary, in his mystic garments, is shown to him also. And thus he learns Christ in his fullness; and learning that, he learned how he could stand in such peaceful communion with God beyond the summit of the fiery mount. He saw in him that mercy could rejoice against judgment; that provision was made in him and by him for the discharge of sin, for the magnifying of the law, for the acceptance of the sinner, and for the letting out the full flow of boundless and unmingled goodness to save and to bless us (25-31)
All this, however, was to Moses only. The people were still within view of the mount as a mount of devouring fire (24:17). And they speedily show themselves to be material fit for such fire, vessels fitted to destruction, incurring the vengeance of that holy place, by refusing the very first voice that had issued from it. For instead of having none other gods than the Lord who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, they take a golden calf, which their own hands had made, to be their god. This was entire forfeiture of all blessing under that covenant; and in token of that, Moses, on returning down the hill, breaks the tables of the law to pieces, and never puts them into their hands to keep and to do them (32)
This was a great moment for the discovery of what man was. O how differently the path of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had ended, the God of grace and salvation, who dwelt in the bush. He had led them forth in entire safety out of Egypt, the place of the taskmasters; not a dog had wagged its tail against them, not a hoof was left behind, not a feeble person was among their tribes, all harnessed and full-handed they had gone forth, and he never left them, as we saw just now in our previous paper, never forsook them through the droughty desert, till he had planted them in the joy and glory of "the Mount of God." But they then trusted in themselves and took their own way, and all now is closed in disaster and ruin, the very pledges of their covenant, the ground of their confidence, being shattered to pieces. This was sad and shameful indeed. But while we thus mark their sin, we are called to see their repentance also. They mourn on hearing the word and anger of the Lord. They put off their ornaments. They go outside the camp, as conscious that the place of convicted sinners or unclean lepers became them. They watch the ways of the mediator and stand adoring: And may I not add that they feel unable to stand before the bright light of righteousness, so that Moses has to vail his face (33-34)
All this was repentance, the way of poor convicted, self-condemned sinners. And while they are thus, the Lord is preparing something blessedly suited to them. He makes known to them his secret. Moses delivers the patterns of heavenly things to them. And all that they have to do for their full comfort, is to follow by faith this unfolding of God's counsels concerning them. They have only to do according to the patterns, and they shall soon read their title to unmixed blessing. Just like Noah. He had only to build an ark according to God's command, and he should soon find that he was building something for his own safety. Obedience was his blessing. And so here. They have but to render the obedience of faith, by just giving forms and substances to the patterns as Moses commands, and then they will see in the sanctuary a refuge and relief for guilty sinners destroyed by the thunders of Sinai, as they now were.
And so they do. Blessedly are they here seen rendering the obedience of faith and of a changed mind. They do all for the tabernacle, as Moses commands, and that too with willing hearts, so that he has to restrain their zeal and devotedness. And with all this willingness, there was no willfulness, for they are careful to follow the patterns in all things, that all may be according to God's purpose, though rendered willingly by them.
All this was further fruit of repentance. I do not knew that in any period of their history we see them in a healthier, happier condition of soul than now, during their making of the tabernacle. The materials were supplied by the willing offerings of the people, and the silver half-shekels which they had paid as atonement-money. These materials were then fashioned by workmen divinely skilled, according to patterns divinely exhibited. And when all was finished, they brought it to Moses; and Moses had but to say of it, that it was all good, all according to God, and to bless them. Judgment they reaped before (32:28), but, now blessing (39:43). Then after all had been finished-for the sanctuary in this obedience of faith, the mediator presents the whole in due form to God, compacted, as it were, and fitly framed together; and then the Lord has only to crown and quicken it all with his presence. The cloud rests on it, and the glory enters into it (35-40)
And other fruit of repentance continues to be produced, while they remain round "the Mount of God." Thus their waiting on the consecration of Aaron (Lev. 8:99And he put the mitre upon his head; also upon the mitre, even upon his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown; as the Lord commanded Moses. (Leviticus 8:9))-their clearing of themselves of the blasphemer (24)-their dedication of the altar (Num. 7) -their surrender of their brethren, the Levites, to the service of the house of God (8)-their keeping of the passover (9)-and finally their quitting of the mount in holy order, the light and approval of the Lord resting in full satisfaction upon them (10)-all this evidences their state of faith and obedience. And there is no public trespass committed from the day of the golden calf till they leave Horeb. They maintain their place and allegiance all through, and finally move onward to the land of promise under the unfurled banner of the Lord -God of Israel.
Thus it is indeed that the Lord now meets them; not as obedient servants, but as pardoned sinners. As debtors to obedience under the burning mount, they did not stand for a moment; but in his own grace the Lord provides a sanctuary of salvation for them, and there they rejoice as pardoned sinners, debtors to mercy. And how truly blessed their new standing is. They come into vision of things altogether differing from the fire on the hill. The form of something that Moses himself had seen in regions far higher than that of the lightning and thunder, now fills their vision also. They now get into his secret. If he then stood in peace beyond all the reach and terror of the law, so may they now. Christ in his fullness and grace, and not the law in its judgments, was here. Here was an- altar shown to them that could attract the fire from the mount, and let it spend itself on the victim that was there, not on the people around. Here was provision in God himself for all, the mischief which man had wrought, and all the penalty he had incurred: Mercy was here heard to rejoice over judgment.
This is what "the Mount of God" now tells us; and thus telling of God himself and his ways, it shows us again its title to be honored with such a name. Here God first showed himself in the burnings and thunders of this mount, to tell us of the terribleness of righteousness; but then here he showed himself also in the shadowy tabernacle pitched at the foot of it, to tell us of his provision in Jesus to let mercy rejoice over judgment. And thus he is still declared here. His name is still written on this holy hill, the name of the just God and yet the Savior. The tables of testimony, as we find here (see also Deut. 10:1-51At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. 2And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. 3And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. 4And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them unto me. 5And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me. (Deuteronomy 10:1‑5)), are now laid up in the ark, that is magnified and made honorable in the person of the Lord of the temple, while sinners who come up to worship, see only provision for their sins in the various furniture of this sanctuary. And if sinners now (as the tribes might have read their names on the priests breast-plate) will by faith only see themselves borne on the heart of Jesus before God, they may know at the same time, to the full repose of their consciences, that the law is there before them. As he says, thy law is within my heart." So that the sinner's blessing and salvation is thus kept in closest intimacy and company with God's fullest praise and honor in righteousness. The sinner is borne on that heart in which God's law has been kept and treasured up. These tales of redeeming grace, which are here told out at this mystic mount, are indeed wonderful, beloved. The glory now changes its place. It had seated itself, as we have seen, like devouring fire on the top of the hill (Ex. 24:1717And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. (Exodus 24:17)), but now it comes down to fill the tabernacle that was pitched at the foot of it. In its first place, it was death to approach it. If so much as a beast did then but touch the border of it, it was to be stoned or thrust through. But now, it is life to come up to it. If a poor trembling sinner now do but touch the hem of it, she shall be made whole. And we may well know the readiness with which the glory thus changes its place. It was its own delight to do so. As our hymn says, beloved, " 'Tis his great delight to bless us-O how he loves." To quit the fiery mount and seat itself in the sanctuary; to put the place of judgment behind it, and to fill the place of grace; this was its happy path. As afterward, when it came to occupy the house which Solomon built for it, it took its throne there with full complacency. " Arise into thy resting-place," said Solomon-" this is my rest forever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it," answered the Lord. It was the good pleasure, the desire of the glory to fill the place. And so when it does come down actually (as we see here and also in 2 Chron. 5) it spreads itself, if I may so speak; it stretches itself out as though it felt itself at home. The holy and most holy places are filled, and its train so flows forth into the courts that neither Moses now, nor the priests then, could stand to minister.
But what comfort this is to the poor sinner, that the Lord delights to take those paths which thus bring him into the midst of his people in grace and with blessing. They are not strange or uneasy to him. And what have we sinners to do, but to let the blessed Lord take his own way of grace with us. It is true that we have, like Israel, by our golden calves, sinned away all right to blessing. But it is as true that the Lord has spread out before us his golden sanctuary furnished with its altars, its laver, and its mercy-seat, to tell us of his abounding grace, and Christ's victory for sinners. I learn salvation in Jesus, from that same word which tells me I have destroyed myself. And there is not a thing in God's sanctuary that does not tell of mercy through Jesus. No trace, no voice of judgment or of death is there. And we have to shout, like Israel, at the door of this sanctuary (Lev. 9:2424And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces. (Leviticus 9:24)). And this is faith. Love may bring services afterward to testify obedience, but faith first tells God of his goodness. The glory has taken its path from the fiery top of the hill to the mercy-seat in the sanctuary; and we have only by faith to follow it-to follow it as simply as it has moved willingly, and thus to meet our God not in the fires of judgment, but in the dwellings of love and peace.
This we get here, in these chapters, and thus read, though in other lines, the title of this mount, to be called "the Mount of God." For here God is thus still revealing himself. Grace and glory had passed before us on this hill in the previous chapters as we saw,-grace in the burning bush, and glory in the assembly of the strangers and Israel. Judgment, and mercy rejoicing over it, have now, in their turn, passed also before us at the same place,- judgment in the fire at the top of the hill, mercy in the tabernacle at the foot of it. And thus the Lord, in these ways, and at this place, makes himself known to us, and Horeb is indeed " the Mount of God."
Thus I have, with desire, surveyed this holy hill. But I cannot finally leave it till I have another little meditation at the foot of it.
All that we have here seen is REVELATION of God. This hill is the place for God's showing himself. Now our obedience to revelation is faith. If God reveal himself, faith is man's obedient response. And on faith I would now in closing say a little.
There is a peculiar character of excellence in faith, and no wonder the scriptures so much speak of it. It glorifies God above everything, just because it takes God's account of himself, and lets him do his pleasure,-" He that cometh to God must believe that he is." Adam ought to have been a believer, for God to him was a revealer. God had revealed himself in a warning, and Adam should have had faith. But Adam failed in that; and through unbelief or making God a liar, he sinned and fell.
We now, in like manner, are called to have faith in God, for God has revealed himself to us also. In another way it is true; but still God is a revealer of himself to us sinners now, and we have now to render the obedience of faith. And " without faith it is impossible to please him." Just as with Adam. All his joy in the garden was worship. If Adam delighted in the flavor of its fruit, the scent of its flowers, or the singing of the birds there, all that enjoyment was worship. But Adam should have believed also, and his faith would have been the highest act of worship. For the heart would have rendered its service to God by faith or confidence in his word, while the eye and the ear and other senses would have been exercising themselves in the garden of God as in the holy places of a temple.
Thus Adam was called to faith, and faith would have been his best service and worship. Sin having entered does not at all change this. Faith still renders the best service and performs the highest acts of worship. Only we sinners have other objects proposed to faith than untainted Adam had. Necessarily so. One threat of death was revealed to him. Promise of life in union with the Son of God, and all its consequent glory and joy, is made known to us. Our circumstances give opportunity of returning to God larger ser-vice and worship, through faith, than Adam's did. If faith gives to God his highest glory from the creature, we, by our circumstances as sinners, being called to larger exercise of faith, have competency to yield larger praise. There is more, much more, in our condition, than there was in Adam's, to exercise faith. Sin and its necessities and sorrows have induced this. This world is the very place for the largest possible exercise of faith in the blessed God; and if we indeed desired God's praise, we should rejoice in such opportunities of giving him the worship and honor of faith.
And such an one in this world of ours was Jesus. Without sin, he was made sin. He came into this world of sinners. And how did he carry himself here? " I have put my trust in him," says he. All through he was rendering to God the obedience and worship of faith. He trusted him, and trusted in him. He believed and was confident. Nothing weakened or disturbed his cleaving by faith to the living God. He had laid hold on him, and nothing slacked his hand. With all against him, he trusted in God This was glorifying God beyond all glory that God had ever received. The life of faith which the man Christ Jesus led in this world, was constant worship of the highest order. Angels could never have so glorified him, or rendered such worship. But that was worship and praise indeed which was brought by the faith of this " wondrous man," in scenes which our fallen world alone could have afforded. For " faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." It deals with such things as are neither enjoyed nor visible. And it is our circumstances in this world that admit of such most abundantly. Adam had present things to which he might give himself, and through the joy of which he might glorify God, and only one warning or threat revealed to his faith. Angels too have their full visible present delights. But the saint is in a world where all that is present is more or less astray from God and against him, so that he must go forth from them by faith towards things hoped for and unseen. This calls faith into the most varied and constant exercise, and this makes the saint a competent worshipper of God in the highest order of worship. And Jesus valued this opportunity of worshipping him, for he loved God perfectly. He waited in such a temple continually. But we (with sorrow may we learn to say it) want a heart to value God and his praise.
But while we thus look at the principle of faith, grieving that we know it so poorly, we may also look at the object of faith, and there we shall find abundant cause for joy. For God is good, unspeakably good. God is love. His delight is in mercy, and accordingly that which he reveals to our hearts, or that which he proposes as the great object of faith in this fallen world, is salvation. He offers that to our faith, that our hearts may at once rejoice before him. The Apostle says, " we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle." A strong testimony to God's salvation, or the object of the sinner's faith. The servants or worshippers in the tabernacle were not made perfect in the conscience. The very place bore witness that the way to God was not then made manifest; and the sacrifices with which the worshippers dealt continually, kept their sin in remembrance (Heb. 9:1010Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. (Hebrews 9:10)) For such sacrifices could never dispose of sin. There was no such blood in them as could ever, let it be applied again and again, take it away. But now the saint has a purged conscience, because on his altar he sees blood which has obtained eternal redemption. His altar witnesses remission, and not remembrance of sin.
This is the mighty distance between them. This keeps the worshippers in the tabernacle and the attendants on the New Testament altar, as the Apostle tells us, asunder. The one cannot stand in company with the other. To understand the virtue of the altar is of necessity to quit the tabernacle. Assurance of heart in the remission of sins, or a purged conscience, is the due attribute of him who waits on the one, constant sense of sin the due condition of him who serves or worships (λατρευοντες, Heb. 13:1010We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. (Hebrews 13:10)) in the other. And this being so, what offering is that which the worshipper at the altar brings? Having apprehended the virtue of the blood there, what sacrifice does he in return pay? The answer comes, " by him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually" (verse 15). Praise is the due fruit of a heart that has learned salvation or the value of the altar.. Not prayer, but praise. A sinner has not prayer to make, but praise to render. A saint has many and many a prayer, it is true; daily weakness and short-coming and necessity leads him that way. But a sinner in prayer, denies the value of the altar. Praise suits salvation, and it is as God the Savior that our altar reveals God to faith.
And what has faith to do but to let the blessed God take his own way, and show himself in his goodness and glory? The heart that believes is silent before him, while he passes by. He is pleased by this altar which he has raised and revealed, to provide for sinners; and who are we that we should stay his hand, or narrow the flow of his rich mercies? Let him do his pleasure-he is the Lord. If the gospel propose to let us sinners see him in the exercise of unspeakable goodness, it is the duty of the sinner just to look at him,-it is the way of faith to do nothing else. Faith thus in filthy Joshua allowed change of raiment without a question. He never broke silence, but just accepted the blessing and the glory (Zech. 3) Faith in the convicted adulteress was silent while Jesus passed by in the still small voice, writing the memorial of her shame as on a sandy floor, which the next breeze would efface forever (John 8) Faith in the camp of Israel, as we have now seen, after they had sinned away all their blessing by the golden calf, followed the patterns which were one after another unfolding the pledges of God's salvation in the golden sanctuary (Ex. 35-40) All this was faith, which ever lets, the Lord take his own way with the sinner, taking his own blessed revelation of himself without a question, and thus honoring him above everything, allowing that he has a right to bless even sinners if he please, and us ourselves as well as other sinners.
And this was the voice of the basket of first-fruits (see Deut. 26) On the nation being settled in the land, they were to fill a basket with the various fruit thereof, and offer it before God's altar; acknowledging at the same time, that all his promises had been made good, that he had accomplished all the goodness and mercy of which he had spoken to them, of which this mystic basket was now the witness and sample. And then they were to rejoice before the Lord their God, the nation thus simply owning all that he had done for them,"and all that he had been to them, and that they, poor perishing Syrians in themselves, could indeed rejoice in him.
And this is just the pattern of a perishing sinner's faith, be he Syrian, Greek, or Jew. We have to lay out our basket before the Lord. This is faith. Conscience may confess sins that we have done; love may bring services and obedience; but faith tells what God is and what he has done, in a rich and varied and overflowing witness. Liberty of conscience, joy in God, assurance and ease of heart, hope, largeness of desire, with other exercises suited to a soul consciously brought home to God, these should be the holy fruit to fill our baskets before the Lord. Affections, such as our altar may well awaken, should fill the heart and run over; affections that become pardoned sinners, the due fruit of that land to which the Savior brings us. This is our " first love," our basket of first-fruits. Ephesus lost it. The fruit in the basket there had withered a little. For let whatever other sacrifices may come into God's house, this first offering should be always there in its freshness. Faith should always rejoice in what God has done, that thus the first love may be ever young and lively.
But this is far from being the way of the natural heart of man. His mind is not of this order. He clings to the law. Grace is too great and generous a thought for him. Works rather than faith is his master-principle. And this separates between his mind and God's mind. And this principle in man shows itself, at times, in God's choicest servants. For it is of the flesh, which is in us all. Look at David in 1 Chron. 17 He thought to do something for the Lord. But in that he wronged God. He did not think so, or mean so, but so it was, by that he was wronging God's love. For shall David be before the Lord in kindness? Shall David be better than God? Will David think of building God a house, before the Lord has built him a house? That must not be. God will be God in his love as in everything. He will be better as well as greater than we. And therefore that very night, as though he could not rest under such a thing, the Lord tells Nathan to go and stop this purpose of David's heart. God's love had been wronged by it. The Lord would build him a house first, and then David or his son (in this sense the same), might build the Lord a house. And when David hears this through Nathan, the whole temper and current of his soul is changed. He at once sits before the Lord as a receiver, and does not act for the Lord as a giver. He does not talk any more of building a house for God, but rejoices in the thought of the Lord building a house for him. He leaves Martha's place, and takes Mary's more excellent place (Luke 10:3838Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. (Luke 10:38)).
And this was faith again,-faith that ever allows God to take his way and show himself. What right has man to stop the way of the Lord? Shall he say to the Lord, when the Lord rises to unseal the sources of the river of life, "hitherto shalt thou come and no further? If goodness will glorify itself, shall unbelief dare to dim it? Who shall close the hand of the Lord of the vineyard, if he be pleased to give the penny? If they talk of law, is it not lawful for him to do what he will with his own? God is the Lord of the well of life, and may he not turn its streams, if he please, to water the dreariest lands? He owns the springs themselves, and therefore let his rights as such owner be weighed and tried even in the balances of law, and it will be found that it is lawful for him to use them as he may,-he has a right to bless sinners if it please him.
Faith simply gives him his rights, and allows the lawfulness of God acting in grace to us. Yea, even to ourselves as well as to other sinners like us. For the less is blessed of the better; and as God justly claims for himself the place of the better, faith fully owns the claim and receives the blessing from him, even the richest blessing, the blessing of eternal salvation, life and glory.
Thus it is faith which chiefly glorifies God, for it sets him in the place of " the better." Service renders to God, faith receives from him, and thus faith honors him in the holiest place that he graciously fills for us. In a sinner walking before him in the artless liberty and confidence of faith, God is especially honored. For " God is love," and to glorify such an one we must be free and happy in him. Love can be satisfied by nothing less than that. Of course love knows how to " comfort the feeble-minded;" and where there is "little faith," it can well come and "support the weak," for it tells us to do so. But still our joy in him is his will and even his commandment. The bread of mourners was not to be eaten in the sanctuary; it would have defiled the presence of God, as the offering of an unclean heart would have defiled it. For if holiness become God's house, so do liberty and joy. And it is faith that brings in this liberty and joy, for it apprehends the altar of which I have spoken; it apprehends God engaged for the sinner in a love that is perfect, so as to have nothing in the soul inconsistent with itself, as the bread of mourners would be. It casts out fear, and fills the temple within with its own clear, free, and refreshing element.
May our faith then, beloved, grow exceedingly. May we know the repose of heart, the silence of conscience, the triumph of hope, and the song of praise in the spirit, which it gives, more and more! The revelation which our God has made of himself is so blessed, that it is only such a faith that can duly honor it. Ο that in connection with our subject, we were, beloved, more in harmony with the spirit of those sweet words which we sometimes have sung together:-
"Look forward to that happy place,
Beyond the bounds of time and space,
The saints' secure abode:-
On faith's strong eagle-pinions rise,
And force your passage to the sides,
And scale the Mount of God!"
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