I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, Sermons I. BECAUSE THE MIND RECOGNIZES THEIR PRESENCE AS WITNESSES OF ITS TRANSACTIONS. It projects its own consciousness on its surroundings, and feels as if earth and sky, sun, moon, rock, river, tree, mountain, were not inanimate but animate and sympathetic witnesses of its doings. It attaches its own thoughts to the outward objects. In presence of the scene of any great transaction, it feels as if the place retained its memory; still spoke to it of the past; thought, felt, rejoiced, accused, praised, according to the nature of the deed. Define as we will this feeling of a "Presence" in nature - this "sense of something far more deeply interfused," which we inevitably carry with us into our relations with the outward universe - it is a fact in consciousness, and furnishes a basis for such appeals as those of Moses. II. BECAUSE GOD IS PRESENT IN HEAVEN AND EARTH AS A WITNESS OF WHAT IS DONE. (Cf. Matthew 5:34, 35.) Heaven is his throne; earth, his footstool. He is present in them, upholding them by the word of his power, and through them is a true witness of all we say and do. III. BECAUSE HEAVEN AND EARTH ARE CREATURES THEMSELVES CONSPICUOUSLY FULFILLING THE ENDS OF THEIR CREATION. The universe as a whole is thus a standing protest against the apostasy and self-willedness of the sinner (Isaiah 1:1, 2). It bears witness against him by its very fidelity to its Creator. "They continue this clay according to thine ordinances, for all are thy servants" (Psalm 119:91). IV. BECAUSE HEAVEN AND EARTH ARE SIGNAL MONUMENTS OF THE DIVINE FAITHFULNESS AND IMMUTABILITY. (Psalm 119:89, 90.) They testify to the reign of law, to God's constancy of purpose, to the uniformity and inflexibility of his rule. They dash the sinner's hopes of his Word failing, of his threatenings not being put in force. V. BECAUSE HEAVEN AND EARTH RETAIN AN ACTUAL RECORD OF WHAT IS DONE IN THEIR PRESENCE - a record which may admit of being produced. This is simple truth of science. VI. BECAUSE HEAVEN AND EARTH ARE INTERESTED SPECTATORS OF WHAT IS BEING DONE. They have shared in the consequences of man's transgression; they will share in the glory of the manifestation of the sons of God. They wait the day of their redemption with earnest expectation (Romans 8:19-23). That Moses, in connection with his appeal to the people, summoned heaven and earth to witness, was an evidence: 1. Of the solemnity of this appeal. It must be a matter of momentous importance when the universe is called in to witness it. 2. Of the rationality of this appeal. Nature and nature's God were on his side. He had the universe with him, though a foolish people might reject his counsel. 3. Of the enduringness of the issues which depended on this appeal. Neither the blessing nor the curse would work themselves out in a day. It needed lasting witnesses to take account of the fulfillment of God's words. - J.O.
I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil. 1. The matter propounded. Life as the end, good as the means leading to life; or else, life, that is, the enjoyment of God; and good, the felicity following it.2. The manner of proposing. Here is good and evil, life and death, put together, that we may embrace the one and eschew the other. As the poets feign of Hercules when he was young, virtue and vice came to woo and make court to him; virtue, like a sober chaste virgin, offering him labours with praise and renown; vice, like a painted harlot, wooing him with the blandishments of pleasure. The word exciting attention, "See"; I have done this in order to choice; for so it is, ver. 19, "Choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live." It is the duty of the faithful servants of the Lord in a lively manner to set before the people life and death as the fruit of good and evil. Our work, the matter of it, and the manner in which we are to propound it to you. I. THE MATTER: WE MUST SET BEFORE THE PEOPLE — 1. Life and good. 2. Death and evil. This I shall open in these propositions — First, that there is a distinction between good and evil, vice and virtue. He that doth not acknowledge it is unworthy the name, not only of a Christian, but of a man. Secondly, the matching these two, death and evil, life and good. And here I shall speak — (1) (2) (3) II. THE MANNER HOW THIS IS TO BE DONE. It must be set forth with all evidence and conviction as to the reason of men, with all earnestness and affectionate importunity to awaken their affections. Use of exhortation. 1. Suffer us to discharge our duty in this kind (Hebrews 13:22). Would you have us compound with you, and deceive your souls with a false hope, which will leave you ashamed when you most need the comfort of it? Men would live with the carnal, die with the sincere; therefore suffer us to be earnest with you. 2. The next thing that we exhort you to is to believe the certainty, consider the weight and importance of these truths, that there is a difference between good and evil, that the fruit of the one is death, of the other life; and consider how irrational it is for a man to love death and refuse life. No man in his right wits can make a doubt which to choose. ( T. Manton, D. D..) 1. A choice must be made. Death decides for us when it comes (Luke 16:22, 23; Hebrews 9:27), and it may come in an hour (Mark 13:35, 37). 2. The undecided are really decided against God: therefore against "life and good" (John 5:40; John 3:19; 2 Timothy 3:4, 5; Proverbs 1:24-27). 3. The choice, however made, is final and eternal. On the one hand life, love, and happiness for evermore (John 10:28). On the other death and evil eternally (1 Samuel 2:9; Matthew 5:41). II. THE RESULT OF DECISION FOR GOD (Hebrews 6:18-20; 1 Timothy 6:12). 1. Life (ver. 19). First temporal, as under the law (Exodus 20:12); then life eternal (John 10:10; John 14:19; Hebrews 7:16); for Christ, "who is our life," is eternal (Colossians 3:4). 2. Love (ver. 20; 1 John 4:8, 16). "God is love," therefore if God's life be in us, as John 10:28, then God's love must also be in us. 3. Obedience, "that thou mayest obey His voice" (ver. 20). Yielding to our Father the obedience of love (2 Thessalonians 1:8; Romans 1:5; 1 Peter 1:2; James 1:23). 4. To dwell in the land of promise (ver. 20). A shadow of a better land — of an inheritance that fadeth not (John 14:1, 2; 1 Peter 1:4, 5). All these blessings resulting from decision for God and good are not for ourselves only, but also for our children (ver. 19; Acts 2:39). III. THE POWER OF THIS NEW LIFE. "He is thy life" (ver. 20). He is "the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25, 26). He is "the Prince of Life" (Acts 3:15). With Him is "the fountain of life." Hence Christ Himself is the power of the new life (1 John 5:12). He alone can by His Spirit quicken (John 5:26). If therefore we desire the life that never fails, that cannot be dissolved (Hebrews 7:16), we must come to Him, that, like St. Paul, we too may say, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:19, 20; John 14:6; Hebrews 10:19, 20; see also vers. 11-14, and Romans 10:4-9). (H. Linton, M. A.) I. THIS DAILY ENDEAVOUR TO BE HOLY, TO BE LIKE CHRIST, WILL BE A SPRING OF INTEREST WHICH WILL NEVER FAIL, WHEN OTHER INTERESTS FAIL WITH OUR FAILING SELVES. II. If we choose well, WE MUST END WELL. If we grow here fit for a better place, pure, kind, hardworking, unselfish, we cannot be a failure. III. It is not for ourselves only, either here or hereafter, that God bids us choose good. WE HAVE GOT IN OUR KEEPING THE WORLDLY PEACE OF OTHERS. IV. LOVE TO THE REDEEMER, WHO DIED FOR US AND LIVES FOR US, IS THE GREAT SPRING OF ALL RIGHT-DOING. Only by the grace of God can we choose good. (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.) I. AS A MATTER OF INFORMATION, TO SHOW US THE REAL DIFFERENCE THAT IS BETWEEN THEM, AND THE DIFFERENT CONSEQUENCES WHICH THEY PRODUCE.1. The Word of God sets before us this difference, in so plain convincing terms that, though we may be perverted by evil, yet it is hard for us to be mistaken. Though God has sent us into this wilderness of a world, where there are many intricate passages to perplex us, and much variety of objects to distract our thoughts, yet He has not left us without a guide, nor Himself without a witness. He has given us His Word, as a perfect rule, by which we shall certainly be tried at last: and therefore by this rule we ought to try our own actions now. 2. Conscience, when it comes to speak for itself, as it will sometimes do, is as convincing as any revelation, and as obliging as any law; it is a witness that will not be silenced, and a judge that cannot be suborned. It is this that makes us look upon some actions with abhorrence, and upon others with delight; and according to this inward relish or disgust so we learn to discover the difference between good and evil, and find that every action of man has an indelible character stamped upon it, by which its value is easy to be known. II. As AN OBJECT OF YOUR CHOICE. When things of so very different natures are set before us, one would think it an easy matter to be determined. If our notions of good and evil are too weak to work upon us, and hold our minds for some time in suspense; yet surely life and death admit of no dispute. One is the sole delight, and the other the utter abhorrence of our nature, and a powerful instinct within us always inclines us to the better part. What indefatigable pains do we take to gratify our foolish lusts, when with half the pains we might learn to live much happier without them. What violence do we use upon ourselves, to lay our souls and consciences asleep, for fear the beautiful prospect of life should tempt us to be virtuous, or the dismal apparitions of death should affright us from our vice, when half that force employed against our vanities and corruptions would suffice to take heaven itself by violence, and make us forever happy. (C. Hickman, D. D.) The central thought of the text lies in the word choose. The Israelites are on the point of entering the promised land, and Moses entreats them to choose between idolatry and the religion of Jehovah. A similar alternative is before us now.I. THE CHOICE IS PERSONAL AND FREE. These words which were addressed to Israel as a people, applied to each individual in particular; for the individual alone is free and responsible. To each human being the command is given, "Choose." The power of making such a choice is ours, else the words of the text had in them no meaning. It has been said that religion enthralls conscience and thought, and that it must be rejected in the name of liberty. That is false. The Bible, on the contrary, reveals and holds out to us that glorious liberty of the children of God which is inseparable from holiness; and freedom of choice is affirmed in its pages as the primary condition and starting point of our enfranchisement. There can be no more energetic appeal than that contained in the word "Choose!" But the Bible never separates the idea of liberty from that of responsibility. The liberty of which it tells is that which takes the Divine law as its binding yet not coercive rule. Such a religion is, more than any other, fitted to form strong characters and free nations. Together with human liberty, the Bible teaches that mutual dependence which unites all the sons of Adam, and which we call human solidarity. A thousand influences, over which we have no control, act upon us; yet, however numerous and powerful these may be, they do not affect our liberty. We can resist them, and it is our duty to do so. Again, the Bible speaks of supernatural powers that are brought to bear upon our will, but without enchaining or destroying it. There is an enemy that prowls around you; but if you resist him he will flee from you. You have a God who loves you, but He will not save you against your will. You have a Saviour, but if you will not open your hearts to Him, He will not enter them by force. In relation to God and in relation to Satan, you are free. There is one thing, however, that you are not free to do: you cannot refuse to make your choice. And this choice, whether good or bad, is the one essential business of life. II. THIS CHOICE IS TO BE MADE BETWEEN TWO OPPOSITE COURSES. "I have set before you life and death." Jesus Christ speaks of the broad and of the narrow way: no middle course or third way. This classification does not exclude certain differences of degree which morally exist between men. In the broad as well as the narrow way various stages may have been reached; but there are only two courses leading to two opposite ends. At this hour you are standing at the Junction of these two ways, but henceforth you shall be walking in one or the other of them. Your destinies will vary infinitely, but all outward diversities are as nothing in comparison of the moral difference which shall result from your personal choice. Each day you will take a step further in either of these two paths; the greater your progress, the riper shall you be for salvation or for condemnation. Whilst this choice is still possible and comparatively easy, choose life! III. THIS CHOICE MUST BE MADE TODAY. In the life of individuals as well as in that of nations there are certain decisive moments that determine their future. Such a time was it when Adam was subjected to the trial that involved issues of such moment for the human family. He chose. He disobeyed, and by the disobedience of one man sin entered into the world. We find such another hour in the life of Jesus. He is tempted in the wilderness. He chooses, and by the obedience of one man we have eternal life. Would you know what a moment of blind folly may cost a family, an individual, a nation? Remember Lot casting a covetous eye on the plain of Sodom; Esau selling his birthright; the Jews shouting: "Not this man, but Barabbas"; Felix putting off his conversion, "Go thy way, and when I have," etc. Would you know, on the contrary, how fruitful in blessing may a moment of fidelity be? Remember Abraham obeying the Divine call; Moses preferring the affliction of his people to the delights of sin; Solomon praying for wisdom; the disciples of Jesus leaving all to follow Him. Will you follow the first of these examples or the last? Choose. IV. THE WITNESSES OF YOUR CHOICE. "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day." The witnesses that surround you are not against you but for you. They are parents, pastors, the Church, the angels. And who can tell if among the invisible witnesses there are not some for whom you mourn! These witnesses might one day rise up against you and exclaim: "We were present on such a day, at such an hour, in such a place; the exhortations of the preacher were pressing; the Christian life presented itself to this young man, with its duties, its joys, its sorrows; Jesus was there, ready to forgive the past and — that young man WOULD NOT!" To this outward testimony will be added that of your own conscience: "That is true," it will say; "you might have decided for God." Oh! how overpowering shall be the confusion of the hardened sinner! There is but one way of escaping it. Choose life today. V. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THIS CHOICE. "Blessing or cursing, life or death." Many will find these words too stern. They are Divine. They are logical. The sinner cannot be blessed, else God would cease to be holy. There are two ways open before you. If you choose the straight way you shall be blest in your youth, in your manhood, in your profession, in your family, in your days of joy and of sorrow, in eternity. If you choose the broad way, whatever be your lot here below, you shall not be blest. What shall you become when Christ shall say to you: "I know you not!" Choose life! (Bonnefon.) I. THE SERVICE OF GOD IS EVER A MATTER OF FREE PERSONAL CHOICE. Surely irresistible grace is contrary to Scripture and experience. It reduces religious service to mechanism, and destroys that free-willingness which gives worth to all religious actions. True, that exemption from compulsion is not release from obligation, and that it is man's bounden duty to serve God. To man God's grace should be indeed irresistible. Yet if man turn from God the responsibility is with man, and not God.II. Further, the address of Moses demonstrated that the SERVICE OF GOD IS BASED UPON REASONABLE CONSIDERATIONS. If they turned from God, then upon them would fall His judgments, but if they cleaved unto Him they would know His blessing. Religion is "our reasonable service," and careful thought ever leads to the conclusion that to choose God is — 1. To obey conscience; 2. To follow wisdom.(1) To choose God is to obey conscience. Woe be to man if the voice of conscience he disregards.(2) To choose God is to follow wisdom. That is demonstrated in the history of Israel, and of every nation and individual. If self is served, server and served are ruined (Proverbs 3:17).(3) To choose God is to express the gratitude we should feel towards Him. III. Lastly, the address of Moses was MADE FORCEFUL BY HIS NOBLE PERSONAL EXAMPLE. No desire to please the people led him to qualify his words. The experience of a long life spent in the service of God had convinced him of the glory of God's service, and from that conviction he would not swerve. (C. E. Walters.) I. THE SOLEMN ALTERNATIVE WHICH IS OFFERED TO EVERY SOUL. Now, young people come into life, and as you look forward, it has roseate tints, and there is a natural buoyancy in living by impulse, which is one of God's best gifts to you, and which I would be the last man to try to darken; but what I would press on you is that life, as it is opening before you, is no pleasure ground, still less a factory, or a shop, or a warehouse, least of all a place for dissipation. But that it is set before every one of you — a tremendous "either...or," which you have to deal with whether you will or no. You have the alternative of, on the one hand, a life of sense, and on the other hand a life of spirit. Is it to be sense, or is it to be spirit? Is it to be the lower needs of your nature gratified, and the higher ones starved? Is it to be licence or self-control, — which? To gather it all into one, the choice which every son of man has to make is between self and God. Now, mind! it is an alternative; that is to say, you cannot ride the two horses at once. There are plenty of us that try to do that. If we have religion at all it must be the uppermost thing in us, and must rule us. If it does not, we do not really possess it in any measure. Further, let me remind you of the issues which are wrapped up in this sharp alternative. Remember my text: "life or death, blessing or cursing," said Moses. You say, "Oh, I surely may indulge in these natural requirements of my corporeal nature." Yes! But in electing whether you will live for sense or spirit, for self or God, make clear to yourself that the one is life, the other is death; the one is blessed, the other is cursed. Eternal issues of the gravest sort hang upon your relation to Jesus Christ, and you cannot alter that fact.II. THE NEED FOR A DELIBERATE ACT OF DECISION. An enormous number of us do not live by the deliberate choice of our wills, but are content to take our colour from circumstances, like some lake that, when the sky above it is blue, is all sparkling and sunny, and when the great clouds are drawn over the azure is all dull and sad. So hosts of us have never once deliberately sat down to look realities in the face, or said to ourselves, in regard to the deepest things of our lives, "I see these alternatives before me, and here I now, deliberately, make my choice, and take this, and reject that." Circumstances rule us. There are fishes that change the hue of their spots according to the colour of the bed of the stream. How many of you owe your innocence simply to not having been tempted? How many of you are respectable people for no other reason than because you have always lived amongst such, and it is the fashion of your circle to be like that? Now, you cannot get away from the influence of your surroundings, and it is no use trying, but you can determine your attitude to your surroundings. And you can only do that by bringing a resolved will to bear upon them as the result of a deliberate choice. Now, remember that any man who lives by anything else than deliberate choice and resolve is degrading himself by the act. Have you not got reason, judgment, common sense — call it what you like — which is meant to be your pilot? And have you not got a conscience which is meant to be your compass? And what becomes of the ship if the pilot goes to sleep and lashes the helm right away up on one side, and puts a cover over the binnacle where the compass is, and never looks at the chart? Let me remind you, still further, that unless you make for the great things of life, the deliberate choice of the better, part, you have in effect made the disastrous choice of the worse. The policy of drift always ends in ruin for a nation, for an army, for an individual. To go down stream is easy, but there is a Niagara at the far end. You choose the worse when you do not deliberately choose the better. I do not suppose that any of you have deliberately said to yourselves, "I do not mean to have anything to do with Jesus Christ," but you have drifted. You have not resolved that you will have something to do with Him. Not choosing, you have chosen. It is that widespread indifference, and not either intellectual or any other kind of opposition to Christianity, that I for one am afraid of, and into which so many of you have fallen. And so there is need for decision. "If the Lord be God, follow Him; and if Baal, then follow him." III. SOME REASONS WHY THAT DECISION SHOULD BE MADE NOW. 1. I pray you to make choice of Jesus Christ for your Saviour and your King now, because this is your plastic, formative time. The metal is running fluid, as it were, out of the furnace when you are young. Its gets hardened into heavy bars when you get a little older, and it needs a great deal of hammering in order to bring it into other shape than that which it has taken. 2. Let me remind you, too, of another reason for immediate decision — that you need a Guide. Your desires, longings, passions are strong. They were meant to be. Your experience is little. You need a Guide; you will never need Him more. Take Him now. 3. Another reason is, because you will save yourselves from a great deal of pain, and sorrow, and disappointment, and perhaps remorse, if you now begin your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ. 4. And the last reason that I suggest to you is this, that every moment that you put off decision, and every appeal which you leave unobeyed, will make it harder for you if over you do choose Jesus Christ. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) What an awful alternative — if it were true! Who, where are they who would not choose life, if the choice were really offered them? The martyr has chosen death, but we shudder at the cruel times which have demanded such self-sacrifice; the devotee has chosen death, and chooses it today, but we pity his fanatic faith; the maniac has chosen death, but only because bereft of reason; the suicide is the remaining exception — and his example "proves the rule." But this alternative is not true. Life and death, in this physical sense, are not matters of rational choice. We are started on our journey, and spontaneously and rightly we do all that we can to keep in the way until the bodily machinery either breaks down at some weak point, or wears out generally, and all our endeavours are at an end. Duty and instinct compel us in the same direction; there is no choice here. Let us pass from the physical to the spiritual, which is also the scriptural sense. I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose the inner life of goodness on which the blessing is pronounced, and not the inward deadness which destroys your true being. And again we say — What an alternative, if it were true! What a crowning choice — if it were indeed ours! But actual life — spiritual life — this true inward life, cannot be chosen or cast aside at once and forever, with our eyes wide open, and our minds made up, and our wills prepared to take all the consequences — the blessing or the curse. For us life does not concentrate its chances and hazard all its prospects at one only point; it is not even a series of points, at each of which this chance is renewed. It is not a single, nor yet an occasional, game of "touch and go." Rather is it an ever-varying, many-winding river, its course now this way, now that; its waters muddy or clear, shallow or deep, at one time swollen and turgid, at another peacefully gliding through quietest scenes — but never at rest, always advancing resistlessly on, and often luring us by its motion into drowsy content. We wend our way through "the everydayness of this weekday world" attended by associations, painful or pleasant, which touch us at every point, surrounded by interests of varying import, and more numerous than we can name, with our plans in one direction, then new hopes in another — before, behind, on either side is this ever-shifting scenery, this crowded landscape of circumstance, through which we float for evermore — this is what life means to us. Where is there space, or chance, or stopping point for that single choice between two things only, as though all the rest would vanish at a word? This is a very plausible plea, especially for busy men. But however admissible in a general sense, there are several cases which it does not cover. There are times in human experience when the vast difference between these two only things is brought so bluntly before men — when that unlovely blank between what has been and what might be seems to cover so completely their whole horizon, that they are impelled to "pull up," to face a choice of two conditions, and to decide abidingly for one or the other. Then the single, final alternative — "life or death" — is placed before them, and it is, moreover, felt to be absolute and exclusive. When Paul heard the voice say, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" and straightway transformed himself from persecutor to preacher; when was stayed by the childlike tones chanting, "Tolle, lege," and opened at words which to him were salvation; when Bunyan was suddenly stopped at his game by the warning appeal in his heart, "Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven, or have thy sins and go to hell?" this difference was realised, this alternative accepted. But if these times, in which we are compelled to face an inner alternative, are rare, there are other times, happily less rare, when we are not compelled, but quietly prompted to face our choice. We are not forced, but asked, to look into our hearts. Our better self makes a secret suggestion that all there is not as it might be, that the lower self is allowed far too much prerogative, that one can only triumph by the other's fall, and that, in fact, we must know our own mind and say deliberately which it shall be. "Choose," whispers the secret voice: "shake off all seeming, put away your coloured spectacles of prejudice, strip yourself of every proud thought, whether of wealth or position or ability, lay aside your little worldly triumphs, pray to be shown your transgressions as they truly are; and then look at yourself in the light of heaven, as a child of God." Such a time, surely, is the opening of a New Year. It is no mere return of habit, but a resistless instinct that invests this time with a special significance. A New Year, if it means anything beyond an altered almanac, means new life to everyone amongst us, but it will mean that only so far as we are faithful to our inner light. It may mean, and ought to mean, the awakening of holier desires, the birth of higher ideals, the death or defeat of a whole army of little sins and shallow ways, the oft-convicted traitors to our true being. It may be — let it be — "a secret anniversary of the heart" on which we take stock of ourselves, clear our accounts if we can, and start afresh. It is indeed a charge upon our weak wills that we need such outward promptings to attempt utterly the thing that is in us to be. The true Christlike life is an even progress towards perfection, not a series of jumps, or starts, or sudden ascents. But so long as our very weakness itself cries out for these helps, so long as these times of renewal are offered to us, let us not pass them by without hearing their message. "Take them lest the chain be broken, ere thy pilgrimage be done."(F. K. Freeston.) Two orders of men are generally fatalists — the eminently successful and the supereminently unfortunate. The former regard themselves as the children of destiny, for whom a place in the temple of the ages has been prepared, and without whom its glory would be incomplete. To this class belong the Caesars, the Napoleons, and Mahomets, whose wonderful abilities were only equalled by their complacent confidence in their own guiding star. In the ranks of the second are to be found many of those unhappy ones who have failed in life's battle, with whom everything has fallen out badly, and who have steadily gone from loss to loss, or from crime to crime. Such people seem to derive comfort from the belief that they are the victims of fate; that they too would have succeeded if the Supreme Power had only been propitious; and that, consequently, circumstances or something else beyond their control, and not themselves, are to blame for the disasters attending their career. It is not to be denied that there is much in the philosophical speculations and the religious creeds of mankind to encourage such opinions. In India, in Greece, in Arabia, as well as among Western nations, the most ancient faiths affirmed the doctrine of necessity. Back of gods and men, and above them, in the Greek mythology reigned the unspeakable and unchangeable Fates, to whom the oppressed, like Prometheus, could appeal, and on whose final decisions everything from Olympus down to Hades absolutely depended. Buddha, also, and with him the wisest Eastern sages, regarded the race as practically in bondage to a Sovereign Soul, and as sweeping along a preordained course to its final goal. He had no logical place in his system for will-freedom, and was as far from doing justice to its phenomena as Spinoza or Mr. Buckle. This, however, is not the doctrine of the Scriptures. The Bible not only directly affirms the moral liberty of God's intelligent creatures, but its entire revelation proceeds on the assumption that they are free to choose. Eden's garden and the Fall lose their significance unless Adam was free. So when we come to study redemption the Bible does not hesitate to teach that its efficacy depends on the volition of the sinner, and that he is really able to accept or reject eternal life. On what other hypothesis can such passages as these be explained: "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil." The material universe which He has made cannot but obey His law. From age to age, and through all dispensations, the sun rises and sets, the stars peep out at night, the seasons come and go in their order, and the tides of the sea throb and surge with an exactness and regularity which precludes the possibility of derangement. Not one of these ponderous orbs or these Titanic forces has chosen the service which it renders. Blind, unknowing, uncaring, winds and waves below, and planet and constellation above, apply themselves to their allotted work. No wonder that a heart like the heart of God, full of fatherhood and brotherhood, should yearn to develop, among these enthralled masses an order of service different from theirs — a service that should be freely offered and which should be preferred beyond all others. The guilty must choose to be saved, and must choose to be saved in the way acceptable to the Almighty. Doubtless this interpretation of the Bible will to some minds be regarded as incompatible with what it seems to teach concerning God's sovereignty. Unquestionably there is an appearance of contradiction; and yet I do not think it is as serious as many suppose. We know that even among men a great many wills come into play, and that frequently they coincide without infringing on each other; and why may not the same be possible on the part of the Creator and the creature? But when we meditate on this subject we should remember that we tread the borderland of two worlds — the natural and the supernatural — and that, like all other domains, it is next to impossible to tell how and where they flow into each other. Scientists find it difficult to trace the exact boundaries between the vegetable and animal kingdoms; they cannot tell exactly where the one ends and the other begins, and neither can they explain how and why they interpenetrate each other. Psychologists are equally perplexed. They are constrained to admit the relations between mind and brain to be inexplorable. No one can successfully deny the movement of history in which the Divine has been manifest in the human — as in the Incarnation, the founding of Christianity, and in those surprising providences which have vindicated right and confounded wrong — and yet no one can explain their harmony with the human, or prove that they in any way intrenched upon its freedom. The meeting place is veiled from us. Neither can we see in the application of redemption where these twain meet, how they interact on each other, and how they do so without limiting the power of the one or controlling the freedom of the other. Contact and interpenetration here is like contact and interpenetration in other departments of God's wonderful cosmos, an unsearchable mystery, a mist-covered ocean, where only wreck awaits us if we insist on braving its darkness. Were not the Scriptures as decisive as they are on this general subject, I should be inclined to the doctrine already set forth by considerations of the weightiest character. What these are I shall briefly set before you, that you may be delivered from the illusions of modern fatalism, if unhappily you have been caught in their wiles. I would first of all remind you that some of the profoundest philosophers, such as Kant, Jacobi, and Hamilton, contend that consciousness is the most reliable witness of what we are, and that it testifies to our moral freedom. Analyse your own nature, and see whether it does not confirm the report which these thinkers give of its dignity. Do you not find that it discriminates between the voluntary and the involuntary, and that it attaches responsibility to the one and irresponsibility to the other? Let any man look within himself, and he will hear many voices declaring that he is free. Conscience, as it reproves him for wrong-doing, says, or there is no meaning in its voice, "Thou art free"; Remorse, dogging his footsteps and driving him from place to place, thunders in his ear, or his terror is absurd, "Thou art free"; Deliberation, as it ponders two paths and balances the reasons in favour of each, whispers distinctly, or this care and forethought are superfluous, "Thou art free"; and Desire, as it sways him and develops in his soul fierce contests with convictions of right or of prudence, proclaims above the battle, "Thou art free!" Thus he has the witness in himself, and if he doubts its reliability he may easily satisfy it by appealing from within to without. What says society, what say its leaders, what its members? Hegel, having taken a comprehensive view of humanity as revealed in history, gives utterance to the profound sentiment: "Freedom is the essence of spirit, as gravitation is the essence of matter." That is, there could be no spirit without freedom, even as there could be no matter without gravitation. Society is organised on this principle. Its laws, its duties, its penalties, its censures and its praises, all centre in and derive their significance from the firm belief that whatever else man may or may not be, he is free. And the course of history, which influenced the thought of Hegel, confirms this judgment. It is seen that no mechanical theory, no doctrine of averages and of hard necessity, can be reconciled with its singular and eccentric movements, or its surprising and revolutionary changes. This Mr. Froude has clearly and admirably set forth in a paper reviewing Mr. Buckle. In opposition to that gentleman's so called "Science of History," Froude reminds us that the first result of real science is the power of foresight, that when knowledge on any subject is systematised we can as accurately speak of its future as of its past. Thus, because astronomy is a true science, we can calculate eclipses and anticipate the most striking occurrences. But, he argues, when we come to the field of human endeavour certainty disappears, and we cannot tell what man will do tomorrow. He insists that such phenomena as Buddhism and Mohammedanism could not have been foretold, and he adds: "Could Tacitus have looked forward nine centuries to the Rome of Gregory VII, could he have beheld the representative of the majesty of all the Caesars holding the stirrup of the Pontiff of that vile and execrated sect, the spectacle would scarcely have appeared to him the fulfilment of a rational expectation or an intelligible result of the causes in operation around him." We cannot anticipate the future of the world. Our soberest calculations may be deranged in a moment, and some unforeseen circumstances may frustrate all our expectations. Why? Why can we not as accurately predict the social convulsion that may be as the eclipse which cannot fail to be? Because in the domain of the stars there is no volition, while in that of history liberty of will is a controlling force. The freedom of man's will is vitally associated with the idea of morality. They are inseparable. Kant has exerted himself to show that they stand or fall together, and enters with so much zeal upon his task that he sometimes makes them appear synonymous. He says, "We have now reduced the Idea of Morality to that of Freedom of Will," and in another place he writes, "Autonomy of Will is the alone foundation of Morality." Hamilton likewise, following the sage of Koningsberg, declares that "virtue involves liberty"; "that the possibility of morality depends on the possibility of liberty; for if man be not a free agent he is not the author of his actions, and has therefore no responsibility - nor moral responsibility - at all." In opposition to this position we find Spencer ((G. Lorimer, D. D.) I. THE TWO COURSES SPECIFIED. "Life and good, and death and evil." We shall take the latter first; that is, "death and evil." Now, we observe —1. That this is the course in which all men are involved by nature and practice. 2. This state is one of extreme wretchedness and misery. 3. It is only the shadow of the woes which await the sinner in the eternal world. Now, that is the dark side of the text.Let us look at the other course specified, "life and good." 1. Life is presented to us. For we are already dead, and life is the first essential blessing we need. Now, the life offered to us is — (1) (2) 2. Good is also presented to us. The favour of God the chief good; the love of God in the soul; the good providence of God; the good promises of God; the good enjoyments of God; and last of all, in eternity, pure unmixed good forever and ever — fulness of joy. II. THESE THINGS ARE SET BEFORE US. 1. Where are they set before us? (1) (2) (3) 2. For what are they set before us? (1) (2) 1. The way of life and good is easy and free to you all. Repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God is the willing Saviour of all men 2. None can perish but those who willingly choose death and evil. Every lost soul has destroyed itself. 3. The necessity of now choosing life and good. Did you ever know the diseased man to choose death; the condemned man, the shipwrecked man, etc.? (J. Burns, D. D.) 1. The life spoken of here is three fold. (1) (2) (3) 2. God alone is the Author of this life, for — (1) (2) (3) II. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THIS LIFE? 1. Knowledge. 2. Feeling. 3. Tasting. 4. Movement. 5. Speech. 6. Hearing. All faculties exercised in God's service. III. HOW ARE WE TO OBTAIN SPIRITUAL AND ETERNAL LIFE? 1. Through Jesus Christ. 2. Patient continuance in well-doing, watching, praying, fasting, etc. (W. Stevens.) (C. Kingsley, M. A.) II. FREE AND PERSONAL CHOICE IS BETWEEN TWO PARTIES, BETWEEN TWO OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS. Two, said I; not three, nor a greater number. "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing." Thus also the Lord Jesus speaks of two ways, the narrow way and the broad way; and in the picture He draws of the last judgment He calls some "blessed," and the others "cursed"; nowhere does He speak of an intermediate class. This moral dualism runs through the whole of Scripture. III. NOW IS THE TIME TO CHOOSE. Would you know how much an hour of blindness, of impiety, may involve of malediction for an individual, a family, a nation? — Remember Esau selling his birthright, and afterwards shedding useless and bitter tears on the consequences of his shameful bargain; the Jews crying in blind fury, "Not this man, but Barabbas"; the governor Felix, placed by providence in contact with St. Paul, and putting a stop to conversation which troubles him, by the plea in bar so common and fatal, "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee." Would you know, on the contrary, how fruitful in blessings may be one hour of fidelity, one generous and heroic choice? — Remember Abraham, obedient to the Divine calling and deserving to be called "the father of the faithful"; Moses, "choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." The decisive hour has come. IV. THE WITNESSES OF THE CHOICE. Our text tells us of witnesses, sublime though speechless, heaven and earth: "I call heaven and earth to record against you," says the Lord. Faithful to the Spirit of the New Covenant, we shall tell you that the witnesses you are surrounded by are not against you, but for you. Those witnesses are, in the first place, parents who ardently desire to see their children walk faithfully in the ways of the Lord; ministers, whose greatest joy would be to see you walking in the ways of piety and truth; the Church that presents you to God as its fondest hope; the holy angels who rejoice over every sinner who repents and gives himself truly to God. V. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE CHOICE. "Blessing or cursing; life or death." If you choose life you shall be blessed. You shall be blessed in your youth and in your manhood; blessed in your career, be it long or short, obscure or brilliant; blessed in your family, present and future; blessed in your successes and in your reverses; blessed in your joys and in your griefs. At the end Christ will place you amongst those to whom He will say, "Come, ye blessed of My Father," etc. If you do not choose life, I know not what may be your lot on earth. One thing is certain — you shall not be blessed. What will you do when, to all those who will not have done the will of His Father, He will say, "I know you not"? It does not behove me to decide what will be the end of such a way, the result of such a choice, but you have heard those two words of my text, "Cursing! Death!" Choose life! (C. Babut, B. D.) II. But Moses says, "I HAVE SET BEFORE THEE LIFE AND DEATH," etc. There is no hint given to the Israelite upon which he can build a dream of security; he is warned in the most fearful language against forgetting the things his eyes had seen. But all the terrible warnings and prophecies of what he and his descendants may do hereafter imply that he is in a blessed condition, and that they will be. III. And therefore he goes on, "CHOOSE LIFE." Say deliberately to thyself, "I do not mean to give up the ground on which I am standing. God has placed me on it; all that is contrary to God will not prevail against God, and therefore need not prevail against me." "Choose life" is still the command at all times. IV. The great reward of choosing life is, "THAT THOU MAYEST LOVE THE LORD THY GOD," etc. The growth of love and knowledge is always proclaimed in Scripture as the reward and prize of a man who walks in the way in which God has set him to walk, who chooses life, and not death. V. "THAT IT MAY GO WELL WITH THEE AND WITH THY SEED AFTER THEE." The great lesson that the fathers are to teach their children is, that God will be the present and living Guide of each succeeding race as much as He has been of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.) 1. God gives life. He is the Author and Fountain of our being. All living creatures have their life from God (Acts 17:25; Psalm 104:30); but especially man (Isaiah 42:5), who is the object of His peculiar care. 2. God maintains life. Life in man is like a lamp kindled, which wastes and consumes, and will be soon extinguished, without fresh supplies of oil. And this supply is from God, who doth not only light the lamp at first, but keeps it burning. How liberal is God to the benefit and comfort of man; other creatures die that we may live. 3. God preserves life. He doth not only maintain and keep it from inward wasting, by daily supplies, but doth also preserve and keep it from outward dangers in daily protections. He holdeth our soul in life (Psalm 66:9). His daily visitation preserveth our spirits (Job 10:12). 4. God sweetens life. We have not only life from Him, but all the comforts of life, which tend to make life pleasant and delightful; and without which it would be little better than a continuing death. 5. God prolongs life. Long life is very frequently in Scripture spoken of as a special gift of God. 6. God restores life. Elijah, Elisha, Christ, and His apostles, have done it. And He will do it for all mankind at the general resurrection at the great day (John 11:25; 1 Corinthians 15:42; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; John 5:26-28). 7. God is the sovereign Lord of life. The life of all the creatures is entirely at the disposal of the living God. II. THE EXPLICATION and illustration of such truths as those doth all aim at the application of them. What fruit, then, may we gather from this tree of life? 1. The greatness and goodness of God. If God be our life, then He is a great God. 2. The wisdom and happiness of the saints. Their wisdom, to choose this God to be theirs, and to be solicitous to keep themselves in His favour. 3. The evil of sin, and misery of sinners.Exhortation — 1. Own and acknowledge your dependence upon God. 2. Make God your friend, and be very careful also to keep yourself in His love. (Matthew Henry.). 4055 heaven and earth 4937 fate, fatalism 8625 worship, acceptable attitudes 8315 orthodoxy, in OT The Spirit of the Law The Love of God Its Own Reward The Blessing and the Curse. The Jewish World in the Days of Christ - the Jewish Dispersion in the East. Distinction Between Exterior and Interior Actions --Those of the Soul in this Condition are Interior, but Habitual, Continued, Direct, Profound, Simple, and Imperceptible --Being a Continual The Prophet Amos. According to which principle or hypothesis all the objections against the universality of Christ's death are easily solved Entering the Covenant: with all the Heart Sanctification. "He is the Rock, his Work is Perfect, for all his Ways are Judgment, a God of Truth, and Without Iniquity, Just and Right is He. The Disciple, -- Master, what are Heaven and Hell... The Everlasting Covenant of the Spirit Covenanting Confers Obligation. "Now the End of the Commandment is Charity Out of a Pure Heart, and a Good Conscience, and Faith Unfeigned. " a survey of the third and closing discourse of the prophet Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant. The Blessings of Noah Upon Shem and Japheth. (Gen. Ix. 18-27. ) The Right Understanding of the Law Commerce Deuteronomy |
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