FORGETTING

FORGETTING

"Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forget him" Gen. 40:23

There once was a quaint and forceful preacher, Thomas Champness in England, who read this chapter as a Lesson. Through the reading he made no comment, but as he finished this verse he closed his Bible, and said: "And his name isn't always Butler!" It was an unconventional, humorous, almost startling remark, but it left an impression upon all who heard which will never depart. It has helped me often to remember. This forgetfulness on the part of this man cost Joseph two more years of prison. It is perfectly true that he was safe in the will of God, and quietly preserved for the hour when he would be needed to be the deliverer; but that does not excuse the butler. How true the words which we have often quoted are: "Evil is wrought by want of thought, As well as want of heart!"

We bear no malice; we really desire to help; but we forget. Our own good fortune drives out of mind the evil fortunes of those whom we would serve, and sometimes those to whom we have pledged our word. It is wholly wrong. To forget may be as evil in its effects upon others as the doing of some posi­tive harm to them. Good intentions and sincere promises are of no value until they are carried out, fulfilled. There are many things we have done today. Have we forgotten something?

ALL SEEING EYES

ALL SEEING EYES

"The eyes of Jehovah are in every place, keeping watch upon the evil and the good" Prov. 15:3

Let us never forget this, or fail to derive from the fact its comfort and its saving strength. The word employed describes a very active and purposeful seeing. The statement is far more than that God sees; it is that He is investigating, observing, or, in the most satisfactory rendering of the Revised, "keeping watch." He is keeping watch upon the evil. It is never out of His sight. It loves the darkness rather than the light, but He sees as well in the darkness as in the light. The endeavor of evil is to accomplish its purpose secretly, before it can be discovered at its work. It is often successful, so far as men are concerned. It is never so, so far as God is concerned. He keeps watch; knows the hour, the place, the method, and the intention. He is keeping watch upon the good. He never fails to see it. Men often do. It struggles behind appearances, and often behind actions which are denials of it. Human eyes fail to detect it. Not so the eyes of Jehovah. They discern it, approve it, and reckon with it. The comfort of this truth is created by the character of God. He is the God of unsullied purity; His watching of evil is always with the intention of limiting it, and ultimately destroying it. He is the God of unfathomable grace; His watching of good is in order to develop it, and make it finally victorious. To remember this truth is to be halted whenever we are tempted to evil. It is to find new courage in all our efforts after the high and noble. He is never deceived as to our badness or our goodness. Therefore to live in His fear is wisdom.

GOSPEL HARDENED

GOSPEL HARDENED

"Cease, my son, to hear instruction, only to err from the words of knowledge" Prov. 19:27

This is a proverbial appeal. The voice is that of a father deliberately counselling his son not to listen to instruction unless he intends to obey. The truth involved is, that it is better not to know, than, knowing, to fail to do. This cuts at the root of that most pernicious heresy, which yet is so largely held, that knowledge is in itself power. It is not so in any realm of life—scientific, economic, artistic, or moral. KNOWLEDGE IS ONLY POWERFUL WHEN IT IS THE INSPIRATION OF ACTIVITY IN HARMONY WITH ITSELF. The application of the truth in this proverb is in the realm of wisdom, and so of things moral and spiritual. The advice is good, because it is not only true that to know is of no avail apart from the doing which it demands—it is also true that UNLESS KNOWLEDGE IS OBEYED, in process of time it ceases to appeal. This means that knowledge of the way of right, which is merely intellectual, exerts a hardening effect upon the finer things of the soul. In that sense familiarity breeds contempt, or indifference, which is, after all, the subtlest form, of contempt. There is an old phrase, which some of us heard our fathers use. They spoke of some people as being "Gospel-hardened." A human being may become so accustomed to the Gospel message that it ceases to make any appeal to mind or heart or will. It is this grave peril which gives warrant to this appeal. If we are purposed to error from the words of knowledge, it is better to cease to hear instruction.

TELL NO MAN THAT HE WAS THE CHRIST

TELL NO MAN THAT HE WAS THE CHRIST

"I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake love, until it please" Song of Songs 8:4

Let us go back and read 2:7 and 3:5. The similarity to this verse is at once recognized. In each case I omit in reading the "my" which is suggested by translators, and adopt the marginal reading "it” instead of “he.” In each case there is identity in the call; the only difference is that in this last occurrence the illustrative words "By the roes, and by the hinds of the field" are omitted. When this great Song is carefully set out, it is found to consist in the main of words of the Bride and Bridegroom. To these are added certain words of the virgins addressed to Bride or Bridegroom. But on these three occasions it is yet another voice. This is the voice of Wisdom, uttering a warning, which is needed, and which is made powerful by the matchless love-story. What is this warning? That love is so sacred a thing that it must not be trifled with. It is not to be sought. It stirs and awakens of itself. To trifle with the capacity for it, is to destroy that very capacity. This is the evil of all philandering, would that these words could be sung into the deepest soul of all youths and young girls. The tragedies of disobedience to the warnings are everywhere. Is there any application of these words possible in that higher realm which we have had in mind throughout our reading? I think there is. They warn us against the peril of endeavoring to FORCE AN EXPERIENCE OF LOVE to Christ and God in others. Our privilege is to introduce our loved ones, our children, our friends, everybody, to Christ; but they must fall in love with Him for themselves. Was not this in His mind, when He told His disciples to TELL NO MAN THAT HE WAS THE CHRIST (Matt. 16:20)? As He had said to Peter, that revelation comes, not of flesh and blood, but of the Father (Matt. 16:17). We wrong the souls of the young, and indeed of any, when we endeavor to force an experience. Let us lead them to Him. HE WILL AWAKEN LOVE.

ETERNAL SIN

ETERNAL SIN

"The man and his wife hid them­selves from the presence of Jehovah God amongst the trees of the garden" Gen. 3:8

That is the first revelation of the sense of the soul towards God, resulting from distrust and rebellion. It is the sense of sin. They hid because they were AFRAID. Their FEAR was not the outcome of any change in God. The change was in themselves. They had yet to learn that there can be NO HIDING from God. And, moreover, they had yet to learn that their only chance of restoration lay in that fact that there could be NO HIDING from Him. They had cut themselves off from the possibility of COMMUNION with Him, but they had NOT ESCAPED either from His law or His love. These are the highest revela­tions of this account. How true all human experience is to this first picture! The fear of God which prompts men to de­sire to escape Him, and to hide from Him, is as potent today as ever. The hiding may take the form of denial of His existence, of rebellion against His law, of indifference to His claim. It is always the same, a dislike of God, born of fear; and it is always caused, not by what God is, but because of what MAN IS. The fear of God is always a witness to the holiness of God, even though it is a proof of IGNORANCE OF HIS LOVE. In so far, therefore, it is a principle of real value. In that sense the fear of the Lord is the BEGINNING OF WISDOM as the Psalms and Proverbs teach (Psa. 111:10; Prov. 1:7; 9:10). But it is only the beginning. If when, in spite of our hiding, He find us and make known to us His love, we yet per­sist in fleeing His presence, and refusing His claims, then we commit the sin that has NO PARDON, nor can have. That is what Jesus described as ETERNAL SIN. The only safe hiding-place from the holy wrath of God is in the wounded heart of God. There is a Tree which will hide us, but that is the Tree where we find God in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.

REMEMBRANCES

REMEMBRANCES

"He hath remembered His covenant forever" Psa. 105:8

This song has close connection with the next, with which the fourth Book of Psalms closes. In this, the theme is that of God's faithfulness; in the next, it is that of Israel's infidelity. The burden of this song is expressed in these words. This is the fact which inspired the praise. Whatever the story of His people may be, God has never forgotten His covenant; and WITH GOD, TO REMEMBER IS TO ACT. The song is an illustration of this fact by selections from the history of the people, which prove it. The covenant was made with Abraham, ratified by oath to Isaac, and confirmed to Jacob, and so to Israel. He remembered it, and preserved them while they wandered among the nations, possessing no land, in the earlier days of their history. He remembered it in the days of famine, and prepared for their security through Joseph. He remembered it when they came to be oppressed in Egypt, and sent Moses to deliver them. He remembered it when they found themselves free, but in a wilderness, and guided them by cloud and fire, supplying all their wants. He remembered it amid the discipline of the years of wilderness wandering, and at last brought them out therefrom, and into the land promised. A review of history, personal or national, always becomes a revelation of the persistent faithfulness of God to His covenants with man and especially with Israel. He will remember them in the two-weeks of tribulation with the last week called great tribulation. (Matt. 24:21; Rev. 7:14)

Rev. 7:14

"And I said unto him, Sir, thou know. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

GOD LOOKS AND REMEMBERS

GOD LOOKS AND REMEMBERS

"I do set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth" Gen. 9:13

Thus God selected one of the already existing and most beautiful of natural phenomena, and made it the abiding sign of the covenant that He had made with man. Apart from clouds and rain there can be no rainbow. But the rainbow is never seen on the clouds except when the sun is shining. In view of the instrument of the judgment through which the earth had just passed, that of the rain and the flood, this was an exquisitely fitting symbol of that covenant made with man by the God of mercy and of grace. The context shows us the use to be made of it. Necessarily when seen in the cloud it would speak to man of this covenant, and without any doubt that was within the mind of God. But that is not the purpose for its adoption as a sign which is stated in the account. It is rather that God said: "The bow shall be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant" (vv. 14, 15); and that is still further emphasized by the words, "The bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it that I may remember" (vs. 16). The full value of the rainbow in the cloud, then, was not so much that when man looked at it he remembered the covenant; but rather that he remembered that GOD WAS LOOKING AND REMEMBERING. That touches a deeper note, and creates a profounder sense of peace. When next we see the rainbow, let us remind ourselves that we are looking at something at which GOD IS LOOKING, and that as He looks He REMEMBERS.