1. Is an abnormal state of the soul. Antecedently it is impossible to believe that the God of infinite goodness would create beings to dread Him, and the revelations of His love and loveliness in nature prove that they are made to admire and adore Him. Whence came this dread, then? It springs from a sense of guilt.

2. Explains atheism. A desire to ignore and forget and destroy if possible the being we dread is natural. Because men dread God they do not like to retain Him in their thoughts.

3. Is the source of all blasphemous theologies. The being we dread, by the law of mind, we invest with the attributes of a monster. Much of our popular theology presents a God before whom the human heart cowers with horror and recoils with alarm.

4. Keeps the soul away from Him. We shrink from the object we dread, we turn our backs from such an one and hasten from his very shadow.

5. Reveals the necessity of Christ's mission. With this dread in the human soul virtue and happiness are impossible. But how can it be removed? Only by such an appearance of God to the soul as we have in the all-loving tenderness of Christ. In Him God comes to man and says, "It is I, be not afraid."

II. A CHEERING HOPE. The woman's hope was based upon an interpretation of God's dealing with them, and this indeed is a certain ground of hope. How has God dealt with us? "If the Lord were pleased to kill us" —

1. Would He have in our natures endowed us with such powers for enjoyment, and placed us in a world so full of blessedness and beauty?

2. Would He have continued our existence so long in such a world, notwithstanding all our transgressions?

3. Would He have sent His only begotten Son into the world to effect our salvation?

4. Would He have given us the gospel, the ministry, and all the morally restorative influences at work within us?

(Homilist.)

II. PARENTS MAY LEARN THE RIGHT METHOD OF TRAINING THEIR CHILDREN FOR FUTURE SERVICE IN THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD (ver. 8). God's teaching is necessary for the great and difficult work; and God's teaching should be asked for and followed.

III. WE MAY LEARN THAT EMINENT SERVICE FOR GOD IS ALLIED TO EMINENT CONSECRATION TO GOD. We must become Nazarites in the spiritual sense; and the measure of our usefulness will depend on the measure of our consecration.

IV. WE MAY LEARN THE DUTY OF HOPEFULNESS IN THE MIDST OF ALL DARKNESS AND PERPLEXITY (ver. 23). The bright hopefulness of Manoah's wife rested on a solid foundation. But as believers in Christ we have even better grounds for looking with bright hopefulness in reference to every threatening visitation of Divine Providence. God has given to us richer tokens of His love (Romans 8:32).

(Thomas Kirk.)

1. Training combines both instruction and government. Its field is both the mind and the body. To train a child requires patience, faith, courage, perseverance, and Divine assistance.

2. To bring up a child in "the nurture and admonition of the Lord," instruction and example are essential. It is the nature of a child to imitate what is around it. Influences educate the child long before it is large enough to be sent from home to school. Let the home be for amusement, pleasure, knowledge, and religion as attractive as possible.

3. In the bringing up of children prayer, deep, earnest, believing prayer is essential. After all our solicitude and painstaking, and watching, and heart-bleeding, we have to trust them to God.

(W. A. Scott, D. D.)

I. In respect of money, how shall we order the child — THE LITTLE CHILD? How can you lecture an infant either on the proper value of money, or on the preposterous value that is often foolishly attached to it? Everything in its own place and time. Impress thereon a bias against the danger. Begin early to influence the infant mind. Show the child early the use of money — its use in obtaining necessaries, and in promoting works of benevolence. Train the child in the right direction as to the estimate of money, as to its use, and as to the objects on which it should be expended. In after life he will have much to do with it — teach him betimes to handle it aright. The infant is the germ of the man. The infant's habits, and likings, and actings, are the rivulet, already settling its direction, which will soon swell into the strong stream of life.

II. In respect of money, how shall we order the YOUTH as to the choice and opening up of his path in life? The wary seaman will give an undefined sunken rock a good offing. He will take care to err on the safe side. The general rule is, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added." If this law were faithfully carried into practice, we would be safe. Deal honestly with yourselves when the prospect of an advantageous settlement appears. Judge righteous judgment, first as to the facts of the case, whether the money interest and the soul's interest be in opposition. Then, secondly, if so, judge which of the two should be allowed to go to the wall. Does the soul's safety overrule the prospect of wealth? or does the prospect of wealth silence your anxieties about the soul's safety? I do not ask any parent to bind his son to a poor trade, if a more profitable one is within his reach; but I demand of every parent, as he owes allegiance to the King of kings, that he have and manifest a supreme concern for the spiritual life of his children, and that, under the guidance of this ruling passion, he frame his plans and make his arrangements for their outset in the world. Under the head of provision made for an outset in life, the subject of matrimonial alliance deserves special notice. To marry for the sake of money is a degradation of the human being, and a prostitution of the good ordinance of God. It is fraught with danger to present peace and future salvation.

III. How shall we order the child in respect to the acquisition and accumulation of MONEY TO BE BEQUEATHED AS HIS PORTION? Beware of tacitly, acting on the supposition that the more money you leave to them, the more good you will do to them. We cannot specify a sum, and say it is lawful for a Christian parent to bequeath so much to his child, but unlawful to exceed it. But it does not follow from this that a Christian is at liberty to scrape together as much money as he can during his life, and simply bequeath it to his children when he comes to die. Although no specific rule can be laid down, some useful suggestions may be given. A man of wealth should consider well before he leaves a large fortune to his son. It may in some cases be safely done; but it is not to be done as a thing of course. You would not spread a press of sail on a ship unless you had previously satisfied yourself that it had been rendered steady by a sufficient weight of ballast. So should parents consider the character and capacity of their children, and not be instrumental in causing their shipwreck by giving them more than they can manage. And as to the cruelty of leaving large fortunes to unprotected orphan girls, it is difficult to speak of it with coolness. It is like spreading rank carrion round the defenceless lamb, to attract the vultures to their prey. The example of a judicious but generous expenditure of money by a parent is a more precious legacy to his child than all the accumulations that parsimony and pride could bequeath. Finally, a good rule for Christian parents is to let prayer and pains always go together. In so far as he labours to provide for the education and the comfort of his children, especially those who are not likely to be able to gain their own livelihood, a father is at liberty to ask God's blessing on his efforts. But when one has already amassed many thousands, and is striving to amass more and more, to be left as a portion to his children, he would do well to add prayer to his pains. Let us remember that we and our children are under law to Christ, and on our way to the judgment. Let us act under the power of a world to come. Regarding money, like other talents, the command of the Lord is, not acquire and bequeath, but occupy. To use his money out well during his own life, is at once the best service to God which a parent can get of money, and the most valuable legacy which he can transmit to his child.

(W. Arnot.)

(Wm. Ewen, B. D.)

1. Locally proximate.

2. Relationally proximate.

3. Sympathetically proximate.

II. FROM THIS SPIRIT WORLD MEN SOMETIMES RECEIVE PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS.

III. THE SAME COMMUNICATIONS AFFECT DIFFERENT PEOPLE IN DIFFERENT WAYS.

(Homilist.)

II. THE DIFFERENCE THERE IS IN THE KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE OF THE LORD'S PEOPLE. What opposite conclusions do Manoah and his wife draw from the same event! He infers wrath; she, mercy. The former looks for destruction; the latter for salvation. Thus, there are degrees in grace. There is hope, and the full assurance of hope. Some have little faith; others are "strong in faith," "rich in faith." And this difference is not always to be judged of by the order of nature, or external advantages. We find here the weaker vessel the stronger believer.

III. THE PROFIT THAT IS TO BE DERIVED FROM A PIOUS COMPANION. Man is formed for society, and religion indulges and sanctifies the social principle. And if a man be concerned for his spiritual welfare, he will be glad to meet with those who are travelling the same road, and are partakers of the same hopes and fears: he will be thankful to have one near him who will watch over him, and admonish him; who by seasonable counsel will fix him when wavering, embolden him when timid, and comfort him when cast down. And it is to be observed, that in spiritual distress we are often suspicious of our own reasonings and conclusions: we know the deceitfulness of our own hearts, and are afraid lest while they encourage they should ensnare. We can depend with more confidence upon the declarations of our fellow Christians.

IV. HOW MUCH THERE IS IN THE LORD'S DEALINGS WITH HIS PEOPLE TO ENCOURAGE THEM AT ALL TIMES, IF THEY HAVE SKILL ENOUGH TO DISCERN IT. How well did this woman reason! How naturally, yet how forcibly! "Nay — let us not turn that against us, which is really for us. Surely the tokens of His favour are not the pledges of His wrath." Her conclusion is drawn from two things. First, the acceptance of their sacrifice. It is not His manner to accept the offering, and reject the person. Secondly, the secrets with which He had favoured them. This regards the birth of their son, his education, his deliverance of their country — if the accomplishment of this be certain, our destruction is impossible. Let us leave Manoah and his wife, and think of ourselves. It is a dreadful thing for God to kill us. What is the loss of property, of health, or even of life, to the loss of the soul? Hence it becomes unspeakably important to know how He means to deal with us. And there are satisfactory evidences that He is not our enemy, but our friend, and concerned for our welfare. Surely, He does not excite expectations to disappoint us; or desires, to torment us. Surely, He does not produce a new taste, a new appetite, without meaning to indulge, to relieve it. What He begins, He is able to finish; and when He begins, He designs to finish.

(W. Jay.)

II. THE WOMAN REPRESENTING HUMAN NATURE WHEN CHEERED WITH A SIGN OF MERCY. She correctly interpreted the signs of God's propitiation, and received the consolatory assurance of deliverance from death. Comforted herself, she could comfort her husband with the assurances of mercy, and refer him for satisfaction and a good hope to the auspicious sign of reconciliation. Yet her signs of peace were not like yours, and her words but a poor interpretation of the gospel of your reconciliation. An angel in the flame ascending to heaven! — You see Christ in your own nature ascending to His Father. A kid for a burnt-offering! — You have a brother giving himself for you, a sacrifice and an offering of a sweet-smelling savour to God. Manoah chose the kid from his own flock. God found, not a lamb of His own fold, but the Son of His own bosom, and freely gave Him up for us all. With every qualification this sacrifice was endowed — "a Lamb without spot or blemish" — "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."

(R. Halley, D. D.)

2. Very frequently deep prostration of spirit is the forerunner of some remarkable blessing. Take it as a general rule that dull skies foretell a shower of mercy. Expect sweet favour when you experience sharp affliction. Blessed be God for rough winds. They have blown home many a barque which else had sailed to destruction. Blessed be our Master for the fire: it has burnt away the dross. Blessed be our Master for the file: it has taken off the rust.

3. Great faith is in many instances subject to fits. Do not judge a man by any solitary word or act, for if you do you will surely mistake him. Trembling Manoah was so outspoken, honest, and sincere that he expressed his feelings, which a more politic person might have concealed.

4. It is a great mercy to have a Christian companion to go to for counsel and comfort whenever your soul is depressed. Manoah had married a capital wife. She was the better one of the two in sound judgment. She had three strings to her bow, good woman. One was — The Lord does not mean to kill us, because He has accepted our sacrifices. The second was — He does not mean to kill us, or else He would not have shown us all these things. And the third was — He will not kill us, or else He would not, as at this time, have told us such things as these. So the three strings to her bow were accepted sacrifices, gracious revelations, and precious promises. Let us dwell upon each of them.

I. ACCEPTED SACRIFICES. This being interpreted into the gospel is just this — Have we not seen the Lord Jesus Christ fastened to the Cross? Because the fire of Jehovah's wrath has spent itself on Him we shall not die. He has died instead of us. But, if you notice, in the case of Manoah, they had offered a burnt-sacrifice and a meat-offering too. Well, now, in addition to the great sacrifice of Christ, which is our trust, we have offered other sacrifices to God, and in consequence of His acceptance of such sacrifices we cannot imagine that He intends to destroy us. First, let me conduct your thoughts back to the offering of prayer which you have presented. I will speak for myself. I am as sure that my requests have been heard as ever Manoah could have been sure that his sacrifice was consumed upon the rock. May I not infer from this that the Lord does not mean to destroy me? Again, you brought to Him, years ago, not only your prayers but yourself. You gave yourself over to Christ, "Lord, I am not my own, but I am bought with a price." You have at this very moment a lively recollection of the sweet sense of acceptance you had at that time. Now, would the Lord have accepted the offering of yourself to Him if He meant to destroy you? That cannot be. Some of us can recollect how, growing out of this last sacrifice, there have been others. The Lord has accepted our offerings at other times, too, for our works, faith, and labours of love have been owned of His Spirit. "Therefore He does not mean to kill us." "Who said He did?" says somebody. Well, the devil has said that numbers of times. He is a liar from the beginning, and he does not improve a bit. Reply to him, if he is worth replying to at all, in the language of our text.

II. GRACIOUS REVELATIONS.

1. First, the Lord has shown you — your sin. A deep sense of sin will not save you, but it is a pledge that there is something begun in your soul which may lead to salvation; for that deep sense of sin does as good as say, "The Lord is laying bare the disease that He may cure it. He is letting you see the foulness of that underground cellar of your corruption, because He means to cleanse it for you."

2. But He has shown us more than this, for He has made us see the hollowness and emptiness of the world. Do you think that, if the Lord had meant to kill us, He would have taught us this? Why, no; He would have said, "Let them alone, they are given unto idols. They are only going to have one world in which they can rejoice; let them enjoy it."

3. But He has taught us something better than this — namely, the preciousness of Christ. Unless we are awfully deceived we have known what it is to lose the burden of our sin at the foot of the Cross. We have known what it is to see the suitability and all-sufficiency of the merit of our dear Redeemer, and we have rejoiced in Him with joy unspeakable and full of glory. If He had meant to destroy us He would not have shown us Christ.

4. Sometimes also we have strong desires after God! What pinings after communion with Him have we felt! What longings to be delivered from sin! Now these longings, cravings, do you think the Lord would have put them into our hearts if He had meant to destroy us?

III. MANY PRECIOUS PROMISES. "Nor would He have told us such things as these." "If the Lord had meant to kill us He would not have made us such a promise as this."

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

I. Take, first, the thought of CHARACTER. This includes the entire world of conduct and action — the question of law and authority, the right or wrong quality of a man's motives and his deeds. How are we to regard all this? Is there such a thing as absolute right and truth? Would it exist anywhere if man did not exist? Is it from a God, a Being whose lines have gone out into all the world? Is this power which makes for righteousness, as Matthew Arnold calls it, a motion, an impulse from a seat and source of law, or is it only like some wild, driving gale whose conflicting winds have no definite whence and are seeking no final whither? The Manoah type of mind declares, here are glimpses of some power "working wondrously" in the midst of life; but we can make nothing out of them. We have seen strange sights in the history of humanity and in the experience of our own souls; but we can see nothing but despair and death before us. The other, the religious type of mind, pleads with the wiser wife and mother, would we have all these visions and intimations if there was not a reason for them? Would the Lord have received our offerings, and have told us all these things if He were only pleased to kill us?

II. Look at the fact of LIFE, with all its laws, physical, mental, and social. Look at this wondrous organism of ours, with its complex and far-reaching functions. We move through the world as the planets whirl on through space, each soul being a world of its own, with its own laws, and tendencies, and orbit. Is it any wonder that philosophers are forever investigating its meaning and giving us new views of the relationship between the working principle in life and the working principle in death? One side declares we have seen all these wonders, therefore we, too, must die; life is only the bubbling up of a few moments' consciousness, like the evanescent spray in the leap of Niagara's plunge, and then all is deep and quiet again. The other class says, No; this existence is not a mere guess; there is law, and Providence, and love in it; if the Lord were pleased to kill us He would not have told us such things as these.

III. There is the question of THE FUTURE. It is very strange to think how theological theories and opinions go in sets and groups. It is impossible to have them separated or to hold them singly. One view leads on to another and draws it after it by a logical necessity. If you deny a personal immortality, you will find that locked up with this negation is your disbelief in a God; or, if you deny a God, you will find that immortality goes with this fundamental denial. Grant the premises of hope or of despair, and the conclusions will haunt you just as your shadow plays round your hurrying form under the successive street lights of a city in the darkness of night. At one moment it follows, at another it precedes your step, but it is always about you, because a shadow, after all, is only the deprivation of light due to a body. And so, with reference to the future, there is no standing-ground between the creed of despair and the creed of hope; between a blind force working in the smoke of our best sacrifices, and a messenger from God working wondrously, as the flame of our truest love ascends and is accepted. And thus we should value the revelation Christ has made, when once we feel from what that Saviour rescues us!

(W. W. Newton.)

1. But, it seems from our text, that the strongest faith has its seasons of wavering. Most of those eminent saints, who are mentioned in Scripture as exhibiting faith in its greatness, appear to have sometimes showed the white flag of unbelief. Good Lord! of what small account are the best of men apart from Thee! How high they go when Thou liftest them up! How low they fall if Thou withdraw Thine hand!

2. Some of these greatest aberrations of faith have. occurred just after the brightest seasons of enjoyment. Some of us have learned to be afraid of joy. Sadness is often the herald of satisfaction; but bliss is ofttimes the harbinger of pain.

3. It is a very happy thing if, when one believer's down, there is another near to lift him up. In this case Manoah found in his wife a help-meet. If wife and husband had both been down at one time, they might have been long in getting up. But seeing that when he fell she was there strong in faith to give him a helping hand, it was but a slight fall, and they went on their way rejoicing. If thou art strong, help thy weak brother. If thou seest any bowed down, take them on thy shoulders, help to carry them.

4. The text suggests certain consolations which ought to be laid hold of by believers in Christ in their time of sore trouble. You are chastened every morning, and you are troubled all day long, and Satan whispered to you last Saturday night, when you were putting up the shutters as tired as you could be, "It is no use going to the house of God to-morrow. There is nothing there for you. God has forsaken you, and your enemies are persecuting you on every side." Well, now, it would be a very curious thing if it were true; but it is not true, for the reasons which Manoah's wife gave. Recollect, first, the Lord has in your case accepted a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at your hand. Would He have accepted your faith and saved you in Christ, if He had meant to destroy you? What! can you trust Him with your soul, and not trust Him with your shop? Can you leave eternity with Him, and not leave time? What! trust the immortal spirit, and not this poor decaying, mouldering, flesh and blood? Man, shame on thee! But, you say, He will forsake you in this trouble. Remember what things He has shown to you. Why, what has your past life been? Has not it been a wonder? You have been in as bad a plight as you are in to-night scores of times, and you have got out of it. Besides this, Manoah's wife gave a third reason, "Nor would He at this time have told us such things as these." She meant that He would not have given them such prophecies of the future as He had done, if He meant to kill them. It stood to reason, she seemed to say, "If I am to bear a son, we are not going to die." And so, remember, God has made one or two promises which are true, and if they be true, it stands to reason He won't leave you. Let us have one of them. "No good thing will I withhold from them that walk uprightly." But suppose, next, that you are in some spiritual trouble. "Oh," say you, "this is worse than temporal trial," and indeed it is. Touch a man in his house, and he can bear it: but touch him in his soul, and in his faith, and then it is hard to lay hold on God, and trust Him still. The enemy had thrust sore at Manoah to vex him and make him fret. There may be some here whose spiritual enemy has set upon them dreadfully of late, and he has been howling in your ears, "It's all over with you; you are cast off, God has rejected you." I tell thee, soul, if the Lord had ever meant to destroy thee, He would never have permitted thee to know a precious Christ, or to put thy trust in Him. Besides, fallen though you now are, through sore and travail, yet was there not a time when you saw the beauty of God in His temple? To conclude the argument of Manoah's wife, what promises God has made even to you! What has He said of His people? "I will surely bring them in." "I give unto My sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand." And what does Christ say again? — "Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am."

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

(J. Parker, D. D.)

1. Is it no token of God's favour that you have been kept alive to your calling? that you were not suffered to drop into hell before you had any knowledge of the way to heaven?

2. It is a token of distinguishing favour that thou hast not received the gospel of "the grace of God in vain" (2 Corinthians 6:1). The gospel has been welcomed not only to thy house, but to thine heart.

3. It is a token of distinguishing favour that thou hast at any time seen the truth of thy own grace. As thy God hath His hiding times, so there are also times of finding (Psalm 32:6). Many a prayer begun in distress has ended in delight. Thy God has raised thee out of thy depths, and set thee on thy high places.

4. It is a token of distinguishing, favour that thou hast been kept from falling by temptations, or that thou hast been recovered when fallen. Afflictions have purged thy dross, and brightened thy gold. Unruly thoughts have been often quieted by Divine consolations.

5. It is a token of distinguishing favour that thou hast been kept close to the appointed ways and means of comfort, under all thy complaints for want of comfort. To be out of the way of duty is to be out of the way of comfort. It is a mark of distinguishing mercy to be kept in the way of comfort.

II. WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS WHICH GOD IS EVEN NOW SHOWING THE CHRISTIAN UNDER ALL HIS DARKNESS AND FEARS?

1. Believers see a loveliness in Christ's person, when they cannot discern interest in His love.

2. Believers have strong desires after the truth of grace when they most complain under the want of it. Sorrow and godly mourning flow from love, as well as joy and praise.

3. When believers cannot find sin mortified, it is their desire and prayer that it may be rooted out. It is more on account of indwelling sin, than any worldly affliction and sorrow, that you hear the Christian crying with David (Psalm 55:6). It is by flight doves secure themselves, not by fright. A believer's aim is levelled at the root of sin.

4. Weak as his hope is, a believer dare not cast it away in its darkest seasons. It is the language of his heart, "Yea, though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him." If he cannot go to the throne as sanctified in Christ and called, he will fall down at the footstool as a perishing sinner.

III. WHY SUCH WHO HAVE BEEN, AND ARE, BLESSED WITH SUCH TOKENS OF GOD'S FAVOUR SHALL NEVER DIE UNDER HIS WRATH.

1. This would argue God to be wavering and imperfect like ourselves. The great God may alter His way, but He never changes His heart.

2. Were God to accept thy offering, and destroy thy person, what becomes of His faithfulness to Christ the Mediator? Christ purchased, and He intercedes for the weakest grace.

3. Should God kill us, after such grace shown us, one in whom the Spirit inhabits would be lost.

4. God would lose the triumphs of His own grace: "Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life." Grace in us is a creature, but it is kept alive by the grace in God's heart, which is infinite and everlasting.

Use 1. See what use you are to make of past experiences. Carry them about with you by faith, that you may turn to them in time of need.

Use 2. Be humbled for the weakness of faith, in so great a multitude of experiences.

Use 3. Labour to encourage sinners by your taste and experiences of mercy. You were not rejected in your suit for mercy; why then should they doubt in their desires for the same blessing? "With the Lord there is plenteous redemption."

Some lessons of catastrophes: — It seems inevitable that some persons will continue to regard all disastrous occurrences as marks of God's displeasure with His human creatures. The pietist reads of a terrible fire in some city particularly noted for the irreligion of its masses of people, and he believes it to be the judgment of God upon the sinful ones. Morbid Christians too are ever disposed to regard the mischances of their own temporal experience as the punishment God is laying upon them for their sins; and sometimes they are fain to cry out, as in indignation, "What have I done so wickedly as to deserve such retribution as this?" Our Lord neither suffers us thus to assign His judgments to particular instances of offending, nor yet to assume that we ourselves do not deserve quite as much as we ever hear of others bearing (Luke 13:1-5).

I. IT IS TRUE THAT THE MOST OF APPALLING DISASTERS FALL IMPARTIALLY UPON THE GOD-FEARING AND IMPIOUS ALIKE.

II. MEN WHO DWELL MUCH UPON THE DISASTERS WHICH ASSAIL IN SO MANY DIRECTIONS OUR SOCIAL LIFE GROW SUPERSTITIOUS ABOUT THEM. Every supernatural manifestation, or what seems to be supernatural, inspires fear. No doubt this is because of the consciousness of sin in our lives.

III. GOD HAS WILLED TO BE A FEAR-INSPIRING GOD TO HIS SINFUL CREATURES BECAUSE THERE IS NO BETTER WAY THAN THIS WHEREBY TO IMPRESS UPON THEM HIS SUPREMACY, THE ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY AND RIGHT WHICH HE HAS OVER THEM. We do not like to think of our humanity as degraded, yet all sound philosophy insists upon this. Then God interferes with His awe-inspiring visitations, compelling us to remember that there is a greater existence outside the realm of familiar nature, and a Ruler of the universe whom one cannot disobey with impunity.

IV. Notwithstanding this truth, THERE ARE QUESTIONS WHICH ARISE, WHICH MUST ARISE, IN MEN'S MINDS CONCERNING THE TREMENDOUS DISASTERS SO OFTEN EXPERIENCED IN LIFE. Granting that no one is free from sin, that no one deserves favour or blessing at God's hands, nevertheless there are many who are loyal at heart and are striving to be good disciples of the gentle Christ. Why does He, who is so good, allow these to be subjected to such terrifying possibilities as Nature's catastrophes so frequently suggest?

1. It may be that He displays His mighty judgments, menacing to the faithful as well as to the irreligious, in order to keep us ever mindful of our unpreparedness for His coming to call us to account. Who is there that is ready at this moment to die?

2. There is nothing which is so well calculated to make us realise the evanescent character of the circumstances which now surround us, as the irresistible breaking in upon the harmony of these circumstances by startling catastrophes and terror-inspiring disasters. Such things awe wise-hearted men, and set them to thinking; and when they think seriously they are sure the invisible and eternal things are more worthy to be considered than the visible and transitory things.

V. At this point the question suggests itself, WHY IN DECLARING HIS SUPERNATURAL RULE OVER OUR AFFAIRS BY MEANS OF TREMENDOUS DISTURBANCES OF OUR ORDINARY COURSE OF LIFE DOES GOD CAUSE THE INNOCENT TO SUFFER WITH THE GUILTY, or rather, in view of what I have just said, those who are trying to do His will and to use profitably the lessons He would teach them, as well as the hardened and the despisers of His judgments.

1. As to that let it be noted that while we naturally look upon death as almost the gravest of disasters the individual can experience, from the Christian point of view it cannot be in the least a disaster for him who is prepared to meet his God. The blow of death falls upon those who are left behind, the mourners, the relations and friends of the departed; but for him, if he be Christ's, the passing of the soul is its entrance into the land of life where no further temptation can try it, nor any power of the Evil One cause it to fall from God. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord: even so saith the Spirit; for they rest from their labours."

2. So far as the unrighteous are concerned, the sinful, the careless, the impenitent, who have never feared God nor troubled themselves to do His will, we may be sure of this, the bolt of the Divine wrath does not strike them until they have made it abundantly clear to the heavenly eyes that they will never repent, never choose the right.

VI. AFTER ALL, THEN, IN SPITE OF THE APPALLING CATASTROPHES LIFE IS SO ABUNDANTLY CHEQUERED WITH, IT IS CERTAIN THAT GOD'S PITY EVER SWAYS HIS WRATH, SO LONG AS PITY CAN AVAIL. From Manoah's word of terror we turn to the wiser saying of his wife. We are to find the assurance of the mercifulness of our Heavenly Father in the good things provided for us in our religion, which are not to be accounted for at all except on the hypothesis of His kindness towards the children of men.

1. "Would He, if He were pleased to kill us, have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands?" Aye, would He, for this is plainly the meaning of that long-ago sacrifice of the pious parents of Samson, have sent His only-begotten Son into the world to die for us the shameful death of the Cross?

2. "Neither," continues Manoah's wife, "would He have showed us all these things." Would God, indeed, if He were hard and relentless in His dealings with mankind have caused to be written for our learning and unceasing consolation the exquisite story of the gospel — all the pathetic details of the human life of the Lord Christ?

3. Once more the spiritually minded woman cries: "Nor would He at this time have told us such things as these." Ask yourself, Christian soul, what are you living for — what is your hope? Is it merely that you may escape eternal fire, or is it rather, and much more a great deal, that you may come to the unspeakable joys? Would God, if He did not love us supremely, have revealed to us all those glorious things of which St. John writes in the Apocalypse — the story of the land full of beauty, of all-satisfying delights?

(Arthur Ritchie.)

1. "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not have received a burnt-offering at our hands." Have not burnt-offerings from our households gone up to God, — lambs without fault or stain, not indeed selected by ourselves, but chosen by the Most High, — taken wholly from us, consumed, lost to the outward sight, — their unseen spirits mounting to the upper heaven, as the smoke from the ancient altars rose to the sky? These bereavements have left blessings in their train. When met and borne in faith they have given us new experience of spiritual joy. They have opened new fountains of inward life. They have bound us by new and stronger ties to the unseen world. Our sorrows have cut short our sins, nurtured our faith, given vividness to our hope, and made our love more and more like that of the Universal Father. In new sorrows, then, from which we have not had time to gather in and count the happy fruits, we will hear from like scenes that are past the call to trust and gratitude. Did it please God to destroy us, He would not have accepted our burnt-offerings.

2. Nor yet our meat-offerings. Have those alms gone forth which may sanctify all the rest? If offered God has accepted and blessed them. And whether we have rendered or withholden them, how many are the favours, the deliverances, the peculiar mercies of our homes, to which we should look back, when in any hour of doubt or sorrow a murmuring spirit would arraign the Divine goodness!

3. To pursue the order of the text — "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, neither would He have showed us all these things." What has He showed us? What is He daily showing us? How much is there in every scene and form of outward nature to rebuke distrust, to quell fear, and to make us feel that the world we live in is indeed our Father's! From the first song of the birds to the last ray of mellow twilight, whether in sunshine, beneath sheltering clouds, or fresh from the baptism of the midday shower, the whole scene is full of the present and the loving God. He sustains the wayfaring sparrow. He gives the raven his food. He clothes the frail field-flower with beauty. In our seasons of doubt, darkness, and sorrow have not these miracles of Divine care and love a message from God for us?

4. Manoah's wife added, "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have told us such things as these." She referred to promised temporal mercies in her own household. God has told us yet more, infinitely more. In the revelation by Jesus Christ He has revealed to us truths and given us promises which, received in faith, must put to flight all hopeless despondency and gloom. In His teachings and in the record of His pilgrimage we learn all that we can need to know of the mysterious dealings of Providence. To interpret them fully we cannot expect or hope. But we do learn, and are left without a remaining doubt, that, when the most severe, they are sent in love — are hidden mercies, designed to discipline our faith, to spiritualise our affections, and to draw us into closer fellowship with our Saviour's sufferings, that we may afterwards become partakers of His glory.

(A. P. Peabody.)

(W. A. Scott, D. D.)

     5526   shibboleth

Judges 12:1-7

     7266   tribes of Israel

The Essential Unity of the Kingdom.
"Elect from every nation, Yet One o'er all the earth; Her charter of salvation, One Lord, One Faith, One Birth." If it is true that our Lord came to found a real Kingdom, and if the Church described in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles is this Kingdom, it is clear that the quality of Unity or Oneness is essential to it. It must belong to the nature of the Church that it should be One; because we cannot conceive in our minds, in any practical sense, the idea of two Kingdoms of Heaven. This truth …
Edward Burbidge—The Kingdom of Heaven; What is it?

Judges
For the understanding of the early history and religion of Israel, the book of Judges, which covers the period from the death of Joshua to the beginning of the struggle with the Philistines, is of inestimable importance; and it is very fortunate that the elements contributed by the later editors are so easily separated from the ancient stories whose moral they seek to point. That moral is most elaborately stated in ii. 6-iii. 6, which is a sort of programme or preface to iii. 7-xvi. 31, which constitutes …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament