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No. CCLXXI.

Man's Moral Mission to the World.

"I WILL STAND UPON MY WATCH, AND SET ME UPON THE TOWER, AND WILL WATCH TO SEE WHAT HE WILL SAY UNTO ME, AND WHAT I SHALL ANSWER WHEN I AM REPROVED. AND THE LORD ANSWERED ME, AND SAID, WRITE THE VISION, AND MAKE IT PLAIN UPON TABLES, THAT HE MAY RUN THAT READETH IT. FOR THE VISION IS YET FOR AN APPOINTED TIME, BUT AT THE END IT SHALL SPEAK, AND NOT LIE: THOUGH TARRY, WAIT FOR IT; BECAUSE WILL SURELY COME, IT WILL NOT TARRY."-Hab. ii. 1-3.

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THE prophet, after his supplicatory cry, receives a Divine command to write the oracle in plain characters, because it was certain, although it would not be immediately fulfilled. The first verse is a kind of monologue. The prophet holds conversation with himself; and he resolves to ascend his watch-tower, and look out for a Divine revelation. Some think that the watch-tower is not to be regarded as something external, some lofty place commanding an extensive view and profound silence, but the recesses of his own mind, into which he would withdraw himself by devout contemplation.

I shall use the words of the text to illustrate man's moral mission to the world. Wherefore are we in this world? Both the theories and the practical conduct of men give different answers to this allimportant problem. I shall take the answer from the text and observe,

I. Our mission here is, to RECEIVE Communications from the Eternal Mind. "I will

stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me." That man is constituted for and required to receive communications from the Infinite Mind, and that he cannot realize his destiny without this, appears evident from the following considerations.

First: From his nature as a spiritual being. (1) He has an instinct for it. He naturally calls out for the living God. As truly as the eye is made to receive light, the soul is made to receive thought from God. (2) He has a capacity for it. Unlike the lower creatures around us, we can receive the ideas of God. (3) He has a necessity for it. God's ideas are the quickening powers of the soul. This appears,

Secondly: From his condi tion as a fallen being. Sin has shut out God from the soul, created a dense cloud between us and Him. This appears,—

Thirdly From the purpose of Christ's mediation. Why did Christ come into the world? To bring the human soul and God together, that the Lord might "dwell amongst men." This appears,

Fourthly: From the special manifestations of God for the purpose. I say special, for nature, history, heart, and conscience are the natural orders of communication between the human and the Divine. But we have something more than these the Bible; this is special. Here He speaks to man at sundry times and in divers manners, etc. This appears,— Fifthly From the general teaching of the Bible. Come now, let us reason together," etc.

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Behold, I stand at the door," etc. But how shall we receive these communications? We must ascend the "tower" of quiet, earnest, devout, thought, and there must "watch to see what He will say." We learn that,

II. Our mission here is to IMPART communications from the Eternal Mind. "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." From this we may conclude that writing is both an ancient and Divinely sanctioned art. Thank God for books! That we have to impart as well as to receive, is evident,

First: From the tendency of Divine thoughts to express themselves. It is of the nature of religious ideas, that they struggle for utterance. What we have seen and heard we cannot but speak.

Secondly: From the universal adaptation of Divine thoughts. Thoughts from God are not for certain individuals or classes, but for all the race in all generations.

Thirdly: From the spiritual dependence of man upon man. It is God's plan, that man shall be the spiritual teacher of man.

Fourthly: From the general teaching of the Bible. What the prophets and apostles received from God they communicated, "When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me. immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood," etc.

We learn that,

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in our daily life, practically to work out.

Here then is our moral mission. We are here, brothers, for these three purposes, not for one, but for all. God is to be everything to us, He is to fill up the whole sphere of our being, our "all in all." We are to be His auditors, hearing His voice in everything. We are to be His organ, conveying to others what He has conveyed to us; we are to be His representatives, manifesting Him in every act of our life. All we say and do, our looks and mien, are to be rays reflected from the Father of lights.

CONCLUSION.-From this subject we may learn,

First: The reasonableness of religion. What is it ? Simply to receive, propagate, and develop communications from the Infinite Mind. What can be more sublimely reasonable than this? Learn,

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Secondly The grandeur of a religious life. What is it? The narrowness, the intolerance, the bigotry, the selfishness of many religionists lead sceptics to look at religion with derision. But what is it? To be a disciple of the all-knowing God, a minister of the allruling God, a representative of the all-glorious God. Is there anything grander ?

Thirdly: The function of Christianity. What is it? To induce, to qualify, and enable men to receive, communicate, and to live the great thoughts of God.*

* For a further development of the leading thought see Homilist, Series I., vol. vii., page 73.

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LIFTED UP IS NOT UPRIGHT IN HIM: BUT THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY HIS FAITH."-Hab. ii. 4.

WHETHER the man whose soul here is represented as "lifted up," refers to the unbelieving Jew, or to the Babylonian, is an unsettled question amongst Biblical critics; and a question of but little practical moment.

We take the words as a portraiture of a good man.

I. A good man is a HUMBLE man. This is implied. His soul is not "lifted up." Pride is not only no part of moral goodness, but is essentially

inimical to it. It is said that St. Augustine, being asked, "What is the first article in the Christian religion? replied, Humility. What is the second? Humility. And the third? Humility." A proud Christian is a solecism. Jonathan Edwards describes a Christian as being such a "little flower as we see in the spring of the year, low and humble in the ground, opening its bosom for the beams of the sun, rejoicing in

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calm rapture, suffusing around sweet fragrance, and

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II. A good man is a JUST "The just shall live by his faith." To be good, is nothing more than to be just. (1) Just to self. Doing the right thing to one's own faculties and affections as the offsprings of God. (2) Just to others. Doing unto others what we would that they should do unto us. (3) Just to God. The kindest Being thanking the most, the best Being loving the most, the greatest Being reverencing the most. To be just to self, society, and God, this is religion.

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III. A good man is a CONFIDHe lives "by his faith." This passage is quoted by Paul in Rom. i. 17; Gal. iii. 11; it is also quoted in the Epistle to the Hebrews (chap. x. 38). What is faith? Can you get a better definition than the writer of the Hebrews has given in the eleventh chapter and first verse ?-" Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." This definition implies three things:-(1) That the things to which faith is directed are invisible. "Things not

seen."

These things include things that are contingently unseeable and things that are essentially unseeable, such as thought, mind, God. The defini

standing peacefully and lowly, tion implies, (2) That some of

in the midst of other flowers." Pride is an obstruction to all progress and knowledge and virtue, and is abhorrent to the Holy One. He resisteth the proud, but gives grace to the humble."

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Fling away ambition, By that sin fell the angels; how can man then,

The image of his Maker, hope to win by 't?"—Shakspeare.

the invisible things are objects of hope. "Things hoped for." The invisible has much that is desirable to us, the society very of holy souls, the presence of the Blessed Christ, the manifestations of the Infinite Father, etc. The definition implies, (3) That these invisible things, faith makes real in the present life. "The substance of things

hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The realization of the hopeable.* Now it is only by this faith that man can live a just life in

this world; the man who lives by sight must be unjust. To be just, he must see Him who is invisible.

Biblical Criticism.

The Three Groups of Phrases used in the New Testament to express the Efficacy of Christ's Death-IAAΣMO'Σ, ̓ΑΠΟΛΥΤΡΩΣΙΣ, ΚΑΤΑΛΛΑΓΗ.

I. ‘IAAΣMO'Σ—Propitiation. If the central idea of this first group can be unfolded, the second and third groups will present no difficulty. It is the first group of words, all circling round the idea of propitiation, that carry us at once into the very heart of the mystery. What is propitiation? And first, what was the heathen meaning of the word? Among the heathen the notion was, that by the offer of some compensation God might be made willing to forgive sin. They knew that God was offended by sin; and, having a very imperfect idea of His holiness, they thought He might be induced by compensation to relax His law, and so far lower His standard as to condone the sin. Totally different from this is the Scriptural idea of propitiation. In Holy Scripture God's perfect holiness and perfect love are revealed, and revealed (be it observed), not as opposed, but as in harmony one with the other:-"Long suffering and of great mercy

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mercy with Thee, therefore shalt Thou be feared; is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." These are phrases that no heathen could have used. God's mercy is not like man's, mere indulgence or relaxation of law, but something far more awful. By an inherent necessity of His nature, God cannot forgive without a satisfaction of the law of holiness: when the

* See Homilist, Series II., vol. ii., page 587.

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law of holiness is satisfied, He is faithful and just to forgive us. Now, what is this law of holiness which must be satisfied? "The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”

“In the day that thou

“The wages of sin is

eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” death.” And what is the meaning of this law? It means this: that there is an absolute incompatibility between God and what is sinful. Therefore the sinner must either die unto God, or die unto sin. If he remain sinful, he dies unto God, dies eternally. If he die unto sin, he ceases to be sinful, and may live unto God. It may be well to pause a moment on these phrases, dying in the sense of ceasing to live unto God, and dying unto sin. They are profoundly significant. They seem to imply that a man can only pass from one kind of life into another kind of life by dying,-by going through a process of dying. If he pass from his higher kind of life (in communion with God) into his lower kind of life (cut off from the communion), he dies in the sense of ceasing to live unto God. If he is to pass from that lower life (which is out of communion) into the higher life (which is in communion with God), it must also be by dying—dying unto sin. There is, so to speak, a dying downward, and there is a dying upward. Death-of the one kind or of the other kind-there must be: for the law of holiness is absolute:-there can be no communion between God and what is sinful. Death of the first kind is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as inflicted by God's wrath, by which is meant that it is necessitated by His awful holiness. Death of the latter kind seems to fulfil the Scriptural idea of propitiation or expiation, averting wrath by satisfying the law of holiness in that only other way in which it can be satisfied. Thus we seem to arrive at a definition of the Scriptural idea of propitiation. It is such a dying unto sin as shall satisfy the law of holiness, and enable God to forgive the sinner. We may now go on a step farther. If propitiation require a dying unto sin, can we in our own strength thus propitiate God? Will repentance suffice? Repentance can only lead to effort against sin for the future: it cannot undo what is once done, or destroy our responsibility for it.

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