The most dismal picture of Old Testament history, is that of the kingdom of Israel. From the time of Jeroboam to the carrying away of Israel captive by Assyria, we read of nothing but the extirpation of family after family as they successively filled Israel's wicked throne. All this is in direct contrast with the kingdom of Judah, where all went on in orderly succession, because the Lord had spoken to David "of his house for a great while to come" (2 Sam. 7:1919And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord God? (2 Samuel 7:19)). So that the Lord could say by his prophet, "Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints (Hos. 11:1212Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints. (Hosea 11:12))."
The darkest period of the house of Israel was during the dynasty of the house of Omri. A new feature of apostasy was then introduced into Israel by Ahab, the second king of that house. "Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him; and it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshipped him; and he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria; and Ahab made a grove, and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him (1 Kings 16:30-3330And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. 31And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. 32And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. 33And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. (1 Kings 16:30‑33))."
This fearful exhibition of evil served to bring out in a remarkable manner the patient grace of God, even at the very moment He was announcing the most tremendous judgment awaiting the house of this king so fearfully pre-eminent in wickedness. "There was none like unto Ahab, who did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up." Such is the way of our gracious God, that when judgment is near to approach, then testimony is multiplied. And it affords a kind of relief to this dark history, to find it the period of the extraordinary ministry of those "men of God," Elijah and Elisha. God had His witnesses and His hidden ones; and if there was iniquity so abounding as to make the heart faint, there was a superabounding energy of God's Spirit to testify against it, and to sustain the soul of faith by the largest expectations. It was Elijah who delivered to Ahab the message of God's judgment on his house, averted from himself personally by his immediate humiliation. The man of God was indeed bold in testimony to the very face of the willful king; but it is not in the man of God, but in God Himself to know the resources of grace, and to say by a fresh revelation, "Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? Because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil on his house (1 Kings 21:2929Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house. (1 Kings 21:29))." If even in such a case as this there was grace and respite, what blessing might not those obtain who are now awakening to the sense of what it is to have added the sin of their own generation to the sin of their fathers, if they were really humbled before the Lord? "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble."
But to return. Elisha, by the hand of one of the sons of the prophets, anoints Jehu to be king over Israel, and to execute the judgment on the house of Ahab threatened by Elijah (2 Kings 9). This was his commission, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. I have anointed thee king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel, and thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord at the hands of Jezebel, &c. &c. (vv. 7-10)." Never was a more fitted instrument for the work whereunto he was appointed than Jehu. Jehoram the son of Ahab falls by his hand, and Ahaziah king of Judah, by the hand of his servants, for he also "walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the Lord as did the house of Ahab: for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab (2 Kings 8:2727And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, as did the house of Ahab: for he was the son in law of the house of Ahab. (2 Kings 8:27))." Through this connection was the wickedness of Israel introduced into Judah; and the word of the prophet came to Judah as well as to Israel. "For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels: that I should make thee a desolation and the inhabitants thereof a hissing (Mic. 6:1616For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people. (Micah 6:16))." But the hand of vengeance had not yet fulfilled God's purpose. Jezebel was trodden under foot by Jehu in the street of Jezreel. Ahab's seventy sons were slain by the elders of Samaria; and, on seeing their heads in two heaps at the gate of Jezreel, Jehu says, "Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spake concerning the house of Ahab; for the Lord hath done that which he spake by his servant Elijah. So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men and his kinsfolk and his priests, until he left him none remaining {XXX}." Nor did his vengeance end here. The family of David was all but cut off, and the kingly power left in the hands of a woman of the family of Ahab Such was Judah's portion in having joined affinity with Ahab. Such ever the sorrowful portion in having fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness! "Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judah, and said, Who are ye? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah; and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen. And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of the shearing house, even two and forty men; neither left he any of them (2 Kings 10:13, 1413Jehu met with the brethren of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are ye? And they answered, We are the brethren of Ahaziah; and we go down to salute the children of the king and the children of the queen. 14And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of the shearing house, even two and forty men; neither left he any of them. (2 Kings 10:13‑14))." It was after blotting out all that remained of Ahab in Jezreel, and nearly extirpating the family of Jehoshaphat (the queen mother destroying all the seed royal but one rescued infant), that Jehu invites the companionship of Jehonadab to be witness of his zeal for the Lord. "Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. So they made him ride in his chariot. And when be came to Samaria, he slew all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed him, according to the saying of the Lord, which He spake to Elijah {XXX}." It was no part of the commission received from the Lord by Jehu to destroy the worshipers of Baal. To this he was led by his own zeal, which ended in his destroying Baal out of Israel: -a mighty achievement indeed. Such as has not been wrought by either of God's faithful witnesses, Elijah or Elisha. But was it zeal for the Lord, or was it policy cloaked under this fair name? The family of Ahab had established the worship of Baal, and doubtless Ahab's partizans in the kingdom would have followed the king's religion: policy, therefore, would have required the suppression of Baal's worship as much as godly zeal. And how constantly do we find the policy of mere worldlings used by God, either in judgment on corruption, or for the deliverance of His remnant. This, man sees, and to this only he looks, as the spring of all the movement in the Church of God; and hence is he emboldened to think himself as competent to order God's household as to order the world. And the principle of convenience is that which he carries into his reformations, instead of the holiness of God. Now whatever Jehu himself might think of his zeal, whether he acted in dissimulation or self-deception, it is certain that the Lord did not own it. If there be an intelligent zeal for the Lord, it cannot stop short of the Lord's end: but of this Jehu did stop short, and in this was proved the defectiveness of his zeal. He was zealous for God so far as it served his purpose, but the moment it came to interfere with himself, and to have gone further would have involved self-sacrifice, then Jehu stopped. "Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan {XXX}." How different was this zeal in its character and in the judgment of God, from that which actuated Elijah. His was zeal according to knowledge, but ignorance of God characterized the zeal of Jehu. To the eye of man, Jehu was much more zealous than Elijah, and accomplished a far greater work. But not so before God, who regards the honor of His own name in all that we do, and sets more by the feeblest consistent testimony for Him, than the greatest outward reformation which stops at man's need. "And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him: and he repaired the altar of the Lord, that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name: and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. ... And it came to pass, that at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again (1 Kings 18)." In Jehu's zeal for the Lord, it was that Jehu might be known; in Elijah's, that Jehovah might be acknowledged.
It was Jehu that destroyed Baal out of Israel: -this sufficed him. But the zeal of Elijah, disappointed indeed at the time, could not stop short of all the purpose of God with respect to Israel. He saw the earnest to the answer of his prayer, when the people, falling on their faces, cried out, "the Lord, He is the God, the Lord, He is the God." Jehu, like a wily politician, rested satisfied with that reformation which satisfied the exigencies of the times; but Elijah, the real reformer (for he shall restore all things {XXX}), must have the altar of Jehovah raised as the center of Israel's unity -of the twelve tribes and not of the ten, -and the heart of the children turned back to the fathers. Jehu, as a reformer, attacks the immediate evil and is satisfied with removing this; not looking back to the covenant of Jehovah with the fathers, nor forward to the purpose of God as to Israel, not in its divided state, but in its oneness; for the object of the faith of Israel as to blessing is "our twelve tribes." And any measure of reformation which did not take in that object as its guide, would always stop short of God's measure. It does not appear from the Scripture that the Lord at all owned the zeal of Jehu, however mighty the work he achieved, "And the Lord said unto Jehu, because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel {XXX}." Surely God is a God of Judgment, and by Him actions are weighed; and He will own all that He can in that which any do, but they shall have the reward which they seek. It sufficed Jehu to know the security of himself and family on the throne of Israel. He had his reward. "But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam which made Israel to sin {XXX}." Now I believe that we may draw very solemn and seasonable instruction from this which has been written for our admonition. The value of the Scriptures of the Old Testament in this light, has not been sufficiently attended to. God is not now exhibiting His ways in action, but they are recorded for our instruction.
There is nothing more fair and plausible than the desire of reformation; but there is no desire which more often cloaks the selfishness of the human heart. A zeal against public wrongs is found a most convenient screen for the blemishes of private character. And it is far more easy with the eagle-eye of self-interest to detect and expose a thousand faults, than for a man in any one thing to deny himself. In a day like the present, when the spirit of improvement is so widely and so busily stirring, it is no wonder that the same spirit should have arisen in the Church, and have manifested itself in schemes for its reformation. And this especially when the Church's inconsistencies with its pretensions and profession are so glaring as to be the taunt and jest of the infidel, and when many real Christians are groaning under the burthens imposed on them by human traditions. It is "good indeed to be zealously affected always in a good thing"; but unless the zeal be according to knowledge, it will just end where the zeal of Jehu ended, in cutting off, it may be, many things which are outwardly offensive, but in leaving entirely untouched the root of the evil, the selfish wisdom of man; for it is this whence has sprung all the disorder in the Church of God. But reformation in the Church is not that which answers the purpose of God. If there were the most awakened zeal, the most decided energy, and the most sincere desire of heart largely engaged in the reformation of the Church, this would not be effectual because it is not according to the mind of God. In the first place, the very notion of attempting such a reformation is not the confession of our sin and of our failure, but is rather an assumption of our own competence to remedy the Church's failure. But secondly, reformation, simply as reformation, has never been the plan which God has pursued, and it is not the plan which God will pursue. God has never brought back anything that has fallen to the standing from whence it fell. He has indeed taken the occasion from the failure to magnify His own grace, and to introduce something far more blessed. Now man naturally looks back to some point as the point of attainment, while God is looking forward; and hence, supposing it possible that the reformer attains his object (which the revealed wisdom of God forbids us to suppose), he would not attain the object of God. Yet it is to that object, that the Holy Spirit constantly leads, witnessing that in that alone there will be no failure. Hence it comes to pass that the power of real reformation in the Church is not only by the most just apprehension of the Church's original principles, but by acquaintance with the purpose of God as to that which is before it. The effect of attempting to work our way back simply by the apprehension of what the Church once was, would be such disappointment as to constrain us either to give up the attempt as hopeless, or to stop short in some little circumscribed association, and thus to merge into the worst form of sectarianism, or perhaps to assume pretended powers as successionally derived or anew received, and thus to set up official claims as the Church, and effectually to destroy the distinction between the Church and the world. For this has invariably been the effect of the assumption of power, standing in office, and not in the energy of the Spirit. We see in the case of Jehu an instance of reformation, very great indeed in its immediate result, and carried on by an energy which promised permanent blessing: but whatever apparent zeal for God there was in the matter, the very first element of godly zeal was wanting, and that is the fear of the Lord. There was no humbling of himself before God for his own sins and the sins of the people: there was no recurrence at all to the law of Moses, so as to learn the real extent of their departure from the Lord: there was no acting on faith. The evil was before him, and it was remedied. Baal was destroyed; but the national sin, that which hung over Israel, and awaited the Lord's judgment, the calves of Bethel, was unthought of. It had been tolerated; it had become venerable; so that it had ceased to affect the conscience at all: and the bringing back of the people from Baal to this worship, was quite sufficient to satisfy this great reformer in Israel, and to make him boast of his zeal for the Lord.
The zeal of the prophets of the Lord was a zeal according to knowledge. They themselves were brought to see the sin and the evil in which the nation was, and to be in their own souls so exercised as became the condition in which they saw the nation to be. However personally exempt from the fearful evils around them, they were led to humiliation and confession of sin, as being themselves part of the guilty body (Dan. 9; Isa. 6; 63;.64). This was zeal for the Lord because He had been dishonored in Israel. We do not find therefore any self-complacency in exposing or denouncing evil; but while doing this in faithfulness to the Lord, committing their judgment unto Him, and appealing to Him as knowing the desire of their hearts for Israel, that it might he saved. Such was the spirit of the sorrowful prophet, living in the midst of apostasy and commissioned to declare God's judgment on it; and this spirit brought him into constant trial from his own countrymen. Yet he could turn to God and say, "Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them (Jer. 18:2020Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them. (Jeremiah 18:20))."
But there is another thing. We do not find in them any contentedness with any reformation which their own ministry might have wrought: for the same spirit of Christ, which had shown to them the extent of the evil, testified also unto God's remedy for it, and that was in Christ, who alone would be able to bring the nation into righteousness, and to sustain them in it. It was by the power of this hope, that their ministry became efficient in sustaining the souls of the feeble remnant amidst abounding evil, and bringing them more and more back to what God had originally constituted. Reconstitution was hopeless: and the spirit of faithful individuals must have sunk within them, had the blessing been suspended on reformation. But it was held out to them in hope: there was no uncertainty in that: neither was it a thing to be compassed by their own powers. Hence in the worst of days, whether of idolatry or of formality, any single individual walking in the ordinances of God would have been sustained, and encouraged to separate from that which was not of God. Such do we find to have been the sustaining power to the very feeble remnant at the period of the coming of Messiah. "And there was one Anna a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel... She was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day; and she coming in that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of Him to all who looked for redemption in Jerusalem (Luke 2:36, 3836And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; (Luke 2:36)
38And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. (Luke 2:38))." The looking for redemption was the power of present acceptable worship to the Lord. The people were content with outward reformation (and such it was compared with former times) and decency of order, and it was most fair; but the Spirit of Christ in the prophetess could not be satisfied with this; she was looking for redemption, and consequently, aloof from the mass, she spent all her time in the temple in fastings and prayers. God was calling the people to this; but there was no real zeal for Him, but "joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine" (Isa. 22:12, 1312And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth: 13And behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine: let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die. (Isaiah 22:12‑13)).
In Josiah king of Judah, we find one zealous indeed for the Lord, and whose conduct is a remarkable contrast with that of Jehu. The discovery of a copy of the law in repairing the temple, led this young king to a farther discovery, and that was the departure of his fathers and all the people from the commandments and statutes of the Lord. "When the king heard the words of the law, he rent his clothes, for great, said he, is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this book {XXX}." Here was the very first element in real godly zeal -no self-sufficient strength or wisdom to set all right, but deep self-abasement and confession of sin. His next step was to inquire of the Lord; and although the word of the Lord was His determinate purpose to bring "all the curses that were written in the book" upon Jerusalem and its inhabitants, yet to the king himself the message is, "Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest His words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes and weep before me, I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord. Behold I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace; neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same {XXX}." Here then was the occasion for showing a zeal for the Lord; the judgment on the nation was determined, and the blessing to be taken away from the evil to come, was promised to the king. Surely here was the occasion for saying, as the people did say to Jeremiah, who prophesied at this period. "There is no hope; I have loved strangers, and after them will I go (Jer. 2:2525Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. (Jeremiah 2:25))." But without the ostentatious display of zeal for the Lord; the king, immediately on receiving the message from the prophetess, "assembled the elders of Judah and Jerusalem and all the people, small and great, and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord. And the king stood in his place, -and made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments, and his testimonies, and His statutes, with all his heart and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book. And he caused all that were present to stand to it {XXX}." Here was zeal for the Lord. No reformation short of the standard of the word of God, would satisfy one awakened to the sense of the dishonor cast on the name of the Lord. He must go back to the original constituted blessing of Israel, however hopeless he might be of attaining it. Something much short of this might have satisfied others, and have been regarded as a great reformation, yea, so as to become the pattern for others to refer to. He might well have referred to the reformation of his pious ancestor Hezekiah; but he had the word of God to refer to, and he could own no other standard of reference. Doubtless the king was encouraged in his testimony against evil, and in the sure prospect of blessing for Israel, notwithstanding present failure, by the word of the Lord by Jeremiah the prophet. He looked to the hope set before him, even that day in which "Jerusalem should be called the throne of the Lord; and all the nations should be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem; neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart {XXX}." Sustained by this certain promise, he could say, "Behold we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains; truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel... We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God (Jer. 3: cp. vv. 14-19 with vv. 22-25)." With the word of the Lord for his guide, and the certainty of the final glory of Israel before him, the king would not stop short of all the blessing which present obedience might procure. "And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the Lord in Jerusalem (2 Kings 23)."
Surely, Brethren, we have watchfully to guard against such zeal, as Jehu exhibited. There is nothing easier than to detect inconsistencies, and to inveigh against them; and this can be done by the light of our own understandings, quite apart from the Spirit of Christ. It is not the way of His Spirit merely to expose evil, or to draw away from evil by exposing it, but by the setting forth of the attractiveness of good. Nothing is more injurious to our own souls, than the habit of searching out and exposing evil in the Church, and then in self-complacency attempting to remedy it. It always leads to a false estimate of ourselves, by making us forget that we have been implicated in the evil, and that it is chargeable on ourselves as well as on others; for the body of Christ cannot suffer as a whole, without our being affected by it. The word therefore is, Be zealous and repent. The Church of God is not to be brought into a better condition by the most wise and judicious arrangements; yea, I would say, not even by the most scriptural reconstruction, for there would be no repentance in setting about such a work as that. God can dwell in the humble and contrite heart, and it will be just in proportion as the souls of the saints are made sensible of from whence they have fallen, and are exercised before God on that account, that they will be blessed. No measure short of God's measure will satisfy Christ and the Spirit of Christ in the Church. Jesus has prayed that those who believe in Him might be one; and his heart's desire shall be given Him, and the request of His lips not withholden. But when shall this be? -even when the Church shall be manifested in the glory which Jesus has given to it, and the world shall know that the Father has loved the Church, even as He loved Jesus. This therefore, can be our only legitimate end. The Father and the Son are working hitherto unto this, and we wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. It is not reformation, but glory, which is the end of God. And if the saints of God are looking backward for the pattern after which they are working, instead of forward unto the glory for which God is working; however honest and zealous they may be, yet since their zeal will not be according to knowledge, it will only make the disappointment greater by having excited larger expectations. It is most needful to look back to God's perfect work in the Church, in order to humble us, and this indeed is repentance: but this cannot animate us, nor indeed, can anything which is not taken entirely out of our hands, and which does not rest simply in the hands of God. It is this which makes the hope of the Lord's coming so blessed and so practical. There can be no failure in it, and therefore we can rejoice in it. There must be disappointment all the way of reformation, but there is none here: this hope maketh not ashamed; the hope of our calling is nothing short of God's purpose in the glory of the Church. If that purpose had been to bring the Church to its original standing, then, most properly, would that be our object and the pattern too after which we are to work. But it is not so: and therefore, if it were possible to retrace our steps, so that the Church could be planted again in its Pentecostal power, still we should have to say, "not as though we had attained." The glory would still be before us, and therefore we should have to forget the things behind us. The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ realized to the soul, will be that alone which will prevent the saints from settling down into contentedness with a reformation in the Church, which meets their own desires, in stead of God's end. That end is glory. "And He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God." There can be no missing it. Here are we encouraged to go on in the path of faithfulness! we may be convinced of failure in ourselves; we may be disappointed in others; but there is no failure with God. He fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of His under-standing. But He hath also given us the earnest of His Spirit; and what is the desire of the Spirit, but that Jesus may now be glorified in the saints, even as He will be in that day. Hence the present power of this hope is to bring into the place of real worship and acceptable service. The Spirit witnesses unto the coming glory of Christ, and works in the saints according to that which He witnesses, for He is the Spirit of truth.
It will not therefore, be ever so great a zeal or an awakened energy for reformation, which will answer God's end, or the need of the Church; but a zeal according to knowledge. The very first element in that must be a remembrance from whence the Church is fallen -a recurrence to nothing short of God's original, as presented to us in the word. This, as we have seen, was that which gave its character to the Passover in the days of Josiah. Everything was done according to the word; whereas even in the days of Hezekiah the thing was done suddenly.
Now the same word which shows what the Church was, most plainly testifies of coming judgment on that which bears the name of the kingdom of heaven; and therefore reformation is not the question, but how to be separated from those things which are about to be judged. "The day of the Lord is upon everything that is high and lifted up." Hence it becomes a simple matter of obedience to the ascertained will of God. Judgment on the vine of the earth is God's settled purpose; therefore cease to do evil -learn to do well. But again the same word comforts all who tremble at it, by the assurance that it shall be well with the righteous, and that when the Lord comes to be exalted in judgment, He is, at the same time, to be glorified in the saints. Hence their zeal must be regulated by all these considerations; and then it will he zeal according to knowledge -zeal for the Lord; for they will not be proposing to themselves an object of attainment, because that is the hope of the glory, but only how the name of the Lord may be magnified. There is the one hope of our calling to be realized in God's own time But the present power of that hope is to draw the saints together, because it is an unselfish hope. It leaves no room for rivalry or emulation, neither for our plans or our wisdom; it is a thing settled in God's purpose. And the saints having now the Spirit, are enabled to wait for the hope of righteousness through faith. Acting on this hope, they would not be elated by any apparent success, nor he cast down under any sense of failure. They are not acting for a present object of attainment, but only seeking to be found in that path which the Lord will bless.
The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is thus a truth of the greatest practical power; so that it would be vain to expect to see the Church brought into a standing more according with the mind of God, without the steady apprehension of it in the souls of the saints. It rests on the sure warrant of God's word, and thus throws those who have been led to receive it, on that word alone for their guide. So that prayer with the understanding, and prayer with the Spirit, appear to be almost impossible where this truth is not recognized. The prayer will be guided by man's judgment, instead of God's revealed mind; and it is written, if we ask anything according to His will, that God gives it unto us. Hence the worship of the Church, its confession, and its petition, will draw their character from the object which is before it. If this object be the removal of any existing evils, this will characterize our prayer, and a great deal of apparent zeal for the Lord may be stirred up; but there will be no relinquishing of the constitutional sin of the Church, nor confession of it, in that it has departed from the ways of God, and followed its own ways. The sin of the Church has been to substitute human arrangement and official appointment, for the order and energy of the Holy Ghost. And until this be relinquished, anything like real reformation in the Church cannot be looked for. The lopping off of a few of the excrescences, and the introduction of the spirit of the age into the things of God, will be all that will be effected; and the end of all zeal for reformation, will end where the zeal of Jehu ended -in self-satisfaction, and an unhumbled heart. It is very hard indeed to see how the real blessing of the Church is made to depend on individual faithfulness and obedience. "He that hath an ear." "To him that overcometh." It is much. more according to the slothfulness of our hearts to be very zealous for some corporate reformation, than to walk in the trying path of individual responsibility.
But the wisdom of God has ordered it otherwise. He calls individuals to hear the voice of the Shepherd, and to follow Him. He sets before them the hope of the glory, and there are they attracted together. And thus being gathered into unity by God Himself, and not by any self-willed association, as it is a unity of truth and not of convenience, there is blessing. And among many other blessings there is this one, to consider one another, to provoke unto love and good works, and to exhort one another, and so much the more as they see the day approaching. They are bound together by obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, with an open door before them, so that their is no hindrance for their walking on in the path of obedience when they have ascertained it. They have settled nothing but to believe, to obey, to follow, and to rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is their liberty -the liberty of serving Him and following Him in His ways. This liberty, human arrangement invariably hinders; and the trials of a great many very dear saints arise from this, that rules of human prescription prevent their obedience to Christ, as much as the calves at Bethel and Dan prevented those of the Kingdom of Israel from obeying and worshiping God.
It is not the zeal of the reformer which is needed, but the humble and contrite spirit, trembling at God's word. It is not the ability to detect and expose inconsistencies in others, but the spirit which maketh quick of understanding in the fear of the Lord, which really worketh unto profit. It is not to attack the evil which exists, with ever so fervid a zeal, but an object to look to sustaining and purifying the soul, which leads into profitable service. Alas! after the most zealous protest against Popery or any other corrupt system, either by individuals or a body; the spirit of truth will often have to testify, "they took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord with all their heart." When there has been much separation from evil, how often will the' testimony be that there has been a stopping short, and the original sin of the dispensation may remain untouched. God will bless all He can -but He cannot bless self-complacency or lukewarmness. Surely the word to us is, "as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me {Rev. 3}."
The Christian Witness 5:398-414 (1838).
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