Homilist Joshua 24:26-27 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak… Solemnity of occasion. Joshua, dying, calls upon the nation to "choose whom you will serve." Here we have — 1. A wise effort to impress and perpetuate religious resolutions. 2. A fine impersonation of material nature. I. THE IMPORTANCE OF RELIGIOUS RESOLUTIONS. They are worthy of perpetual remembrance. The world has monuments of earthquakes, wars, deaths; but how few of devout resolutions! II. THE HIGHEST USE OF MATERIAL OBJECTS. Without actually setting up material objects, nature might be appropriated in her different manifestations as types of God's character, and as mementos of events in the religious history of an individual or a family. III. THE MOST SOLEMN ASPECTS OF NATURE. Who dares to say that nature cannot hear or speak? Who shall say, at the last, what nature, after her long silence, shall reveal? Take heed what you do and say: stones may hear without a Joshua's invocation. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. |
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