LECTURE 1415.

The prospect of a holy universal church.

The Prophet Amos saw the Lord standing on the altar, the idolatrous altar set up by Jeroboam in Samaria, and heard Him issue the divine directions for the destruction of the building, and utter the awful sentence of his irresistible purpose to overtake the idolaters, whithersoever they might fly, with a swift and sure destruction. Is there any object that we idolize? any creature of God that we prefer in our affections to Himself? Let us endeavour by faith to see the Lord standing upon the altar of our idolatry, and to hear Him decreeing its overthrow, and warning those who so rob Him of his honour, that no flight shall save them, no mountain height, nor ocean depth, not hell beneath, nor heaven above, shall hide them from his all searching eye, or deliver them from his almighty hand. Earth melts at his touch; heaven was constructed at his bidding; all creation is subject to his pleasure, and is ready to execute his judgments. "The LORD is his name." And He is the Lord not of one people but of all, not of one world but of the whole universe. How vain then is the thought that we can escape his wrath! How mad must we be to persist in disobeying his commandments!

But though the Lord is God every where, and his eyes are in every place, He would have his chosen people know, that his view is especially fixt on them, and fixt on them in displeasure by reason of their sins. His "sinful kingdom," doubly sinful inasmuch as it was his, must be utterly destroyed from off the face of the earth; the kingdom, and yet not the whole house of Jacob. Destruction and preservation are to go hand in hand. The house of Israel, every where dispersed, shall be every where kept separate, against a day of signal restoration. And whilst the presumptuous sinners amongst them must assuredly perish, God will raise up again the fallen tabernacle of David, repair its ruins, and rebuild it in all its former glory, the glory of his favour and protection. Wide extent of dominion, fruitfulness in all good things, and permanent enjoyment of God's good gifts, such are the blessings heaped together in these precious promises, with which the prophecies of Amos conclude. What a comfort to the devout Israelite, as he viewed in consternation the ruin impending on his country, to see, however dimly, in the prospect of the future, a hope of better things! What a confirmation of our hopes in the Gospel, to find so much of what is here foretold fulfilled in our present privileges, and in those of our Christian brethren throughout the world! See Acts 15. 17. Soon may God accomplish all! Soon may the day arrive, when Jew and Gentile, all Jews, all Gentiles, every where, unite to form one holy universal church, wide as the world, fruitful in every good word and work, and lasting as eternity!

PART VIII. O. T.

T t

The destruction of Edom is foretold.
by slaughter.

1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.

2 Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.

3 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?

4 Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD.

5 If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes? 6 How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!

7 All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.

8 Shall I not in that day, saith the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, andunderstanding out of the mount of Esau?

9 And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off

10 For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.

11 In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.

12 But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.

13 Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity;

14 Neither shouldest thou have stood in the causeway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.

15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

16 For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall‍all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.

LECTURE 1416.

Of regarding all men as brethren.

This prophecy against Edom foreshews the entire overthrow of the nation, the spoiling of the country, and the slaughter of its inhabitants. And this is announced with solemnity by 66 a rumour from the Lord," as though an ambassador were sent by Him among the heathen, to summon them to Edom's desolation. Pride is one

of the sins laid to the charge of the Edomites, pride and a vainglorious trust in their strong inaccessible dwellings; which being formed out of the solid rock, in the heights of the mountains, or in narrow and trackless clefts, seemed to bid defiance to the invasion of an enemy. But the Lord here warns them, that they shall notwithstanding be overtaken, and defeated, and slain, and spoiled, even by a nation which had been of their confederacy. The wisdom of their wise men shall be baffled, and the spirit of their mighty men dismayed. And their enemies, having once been their friends, would better know the way to their strong holds, and would be better able to beguile them to the destruction here denounced. Their principal sin was bearing malice against their brethren the Israelites. The instances of this malice here mentioned are their aiding and abetting when Jerusalem was besieged and taken, their looking on with indifference, nay even triumphing and exulting, when the people of the Lord went into captivity; and their going into the fallen city to partake of the spoil, and lying in wait to cut off those who fled, and delivering up those whom they had taken. For all these things they are warned, that as they had done, so should it be done unto them, as they had triumphed over Jerusalem in its fall, so should they, and all their heathen confederates, fall never to rise.

Of all the heathen enemies of the Israelites, the Edomites had the most to answer for, because of their kindred origin. Descended as they were from Esau, they ought to have felt a brotherly relationship, and to have cherished a brotherly affection, towards their neighbours the children of Jacob. And the feud which had once existed between their parents, having been happily healed, ought to have been a perpetual warning and memorial to them both; a warning against mutual enmity, a memorial of mutual reconciliation. To such considerations they appear to have been wholly deaf; perhaps because of the distance of time, and the many generations intervening, since the death of Jacob and Esau. This however could not alter the fact, that they were all made of one blood. Neither ought any length of time, or any multitude of intervening generations, ever induce us to forget, that this is true also of ourselves as respects all the rest of mankind. All are brethren; all made of one blood. Let us watch then that we bear no malice one towards another. Let this be one consideration, amongst many, to make us kind, tender hearted and forgiving, namely, that we can say truly to every man we meet with, in any rank, or station, community, or clime, Thou art my brother.

The house of Jacob shall be delivered and restored.

17 But upon mount Zion shall they of the plain the Philisbe deliverance, and there shall tines: and they shall possess be holiness; and the house of the fields of Ephraim, and the Jacob shall possess their posses- fields of Samaria: and Benjasions. min shall possess Gilead.

18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it.

19 And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and

20 And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south.

21 And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD's.

LECTURE 1417.

Of kindling faith and love in each other.

The destruction awaiting Edom is here forcibly contrasted with the renewed prosperity and glory in store for the house of Jacob. In some slight measure this prophecy may have been fulfilled on the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. For by that time the country of Edom had been overrun, spoiled, and laid waste, by the armies of the Babylonians. And after that period the Jews themselves fought against the remnant of the children of Esau, and defeated them with a great overthrow. See 1 Macc. 5. 3-5, 65. Then was there some measure of "deliverance on mount Zion, and "holiness" to a certain extent; and the house of Jacob then in part regained possession of their lost territories. The captives restored from Babylon reoccupied the land, which had been before allotted to the captives redeemed out of Egypt. And they who in after times judged "the mount of Esau," who led the Jews to the defeat of the Idumeans, were valiant men who in a great emergency had been the means of saving their own country.

But there are expressions in this prophecy which may be justly thought to point to other times than these, and to a restoration of a very different kind, which God in his mercy here promises to the captive house of Jacob. "Upon mount Zion shall be deliverance." What can this be, short of the salvation wrought by God for his people, through Christ Jesus dying on the cross? "And there shall be holiness." This surely means somewhat more than that separation from the heathen, and refraining from the superstitions of idolatry, by which the Jews were distinguished on their return from the captivity of Babylon. What can it mean less, than the

character which God requires in all who shall be saved through Jesus Christ, namely, to be holy as He is holy, and pure as He is pure?" And the kingdom shall be the Lord's." To fulfil this, it was not enough, that the Jews, after the captivity, had no kings but only rulers and high priests. Do not the words rather lead us to the new dispensation of the kingdom of heaven; Christ crucified, and dead, and buried, and having risen from the grave, and ascended into heaven, being thenceforth King of saints, ruling by faith in the hearts of all, in all ages and all nations, who are really and truly his?

Yes, this is the kingdom here foretold, this the holiness here proclaimed, this the deliverance here promised, open alike to Jew and Gentile, to all the house of Jacob, to all the Israel of God. And if it be also stated that God's chosen people shall be a fire and a flame to burn up and to consume those whom He rejected, we may apply this to the zeal, with which true Christians every where exert themselves to make others alike faithful and devout. The progress of the Christian faith is represented in Scripture by a variety of images, all concurring to represent it as a work of gradual conversion, wrought under God's blessing by the agency of those, who have first themselves undergone the blessed change. The leaven, hidden in the meal, works first on the part next to it, and that again on the surrounding particles. The grain of mustard seed, that grows into a tree, puts forth at first but a small shoot, whence another springs upward, and another thence, until the whole tree is formed. A fire may spread speedily or slowly, according to the vigour of the flames and the nature of the materials they meet with. But in any case, as it spreads, the material first lighted causes that which is next kindled to produce the like flame and heat, and to be a means of kindling in like manner any fuel that lies within its reach. Such has been the progress of the Gospel; swift when the flame of faith and love burnt vigorously, slow when the embers of devotion in the church have seemed all but cold and dead. Who shall say, how rapidly the good work might spread, if it should please God to communicate a spark from heaven to the dispersed tribes of his ancient people, and to make them, as we have reason for thinking that He will, the means of communicating to the churches of the Gentiles, "life from the dead?" Rom. 11. 15. Who can doubt that the most obstinate must yield, and the most cold kindle, at such a revival of faith and love, as would then glow in all quarters of the world?

Oh may God light up in our hearts that fervour of devotion, which is fitted to communicate light and heat to all who dwell around us; which promotes at once our own happiness, and the welfare of our brethren, and the glory of our Lord!