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Ezekiel Chapter
Forty-three
Ezekiel 43
Chapter Summary
After Ezekiel had surveyed the temple of God,
he had a vision of the glory of God. When Christ crucified, and the things
freely given to us of God, through Him, are shown to us by the Holy Ghost, they
make us ashamed for our sins. This frame of mind prepares us for fuller
discoveries of the mysteries of redeeming love; and the whole of the Scriptures
should be opened and applied, that men may see their sins, and repent of them.
We are not now to offer any atoning sacrifices, for by one offering Christ has
perfected for ever those that are sanctified, Hebrews 10:14; but the sprinkling of his blood
is needful in all our approaches to God the Father. Our best services can be
accepted only as sprinkled with the blood which cleanses from all sin.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ezekiel》
Ezekiel 43
Verse 2
[2] And,
behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his
voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory.
Came —
When the glory departed, it went eastward, and now it returns, it comes from
the east.
And his voice —
Though by the voice of God, thunder is sometimes meant, yet here it was an
articulate voice.
Verse 3
[3] And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even
according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city: and the
visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my
face.
And it —
This glory of the God of Israel.
To destroy — To
declare, that their sins would ruin their city, chap. 9:3,4.
I fell —
Overwhelmed, and as it were swallowed up.
Verse 4
[4] And
the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect
is toward the east.
Came —
The sins of Israel caused the glory of the Lord to go out of his house, now the
repentance of Israel is blest with the return of this glory.
Verse 6
[6] And
I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me.
The man —
Christ.
Stood — To
encourage, and strengthen him.
Verse 7
[7] And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of
the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel
for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither
they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in
their high places.
He — The glorious God of
Israel.
My throne —
The throne of his grace is in his temple; in the dispensations of grace, God
manifests himself a king.
My feet —
Speaking after the manner of men, and expressing his abode and rest, in his
temple, as the type, in his church, as the antitype.
In their high places — Perhaps some kings were buried in the temples of their idols, near the
idols they worshipped.
Verse 8
[8] In
their setting of their threshold by my thresholds, and their post by my posts,
and the wall between me and them, they have even defiled my holy name by their
abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine
anger.
Their threshold —
The kings of Judah and Israel, built temples and altars for their idols, and
these are called their thresholds. They erected these in the courts, or near
the courts of the temple.
Abominations —
Idolatries, and wickednesses not to be named.
Verse 9
[9] Now
let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me,
and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever.
Far from me —
From my temple.
Verse 10
[10] Thou
son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of
their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern.
Son of man —
Ezekiel, who is called thus above eighty times in this book.
Shew —
Describe it to them in all the parts.
To the house — To
the rulers, prophets, and priests especially, not excluding others.
Their iniquities —
When they shall blush to see what glory their iniquities had ruined.
Verse 12
[12] This
is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof
round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.
The law —
This is the first comprehensive rule: holiness becomes God's house; and this
relative holiness referred to personal and real holiness.
The top —
The whole circuit of this mountain shall be holy, but the top of it on which
the temple stands, shall be most holy.
Verse 13
[13] And
these are the measures of the altar after the cubits: The cubit is a cubit and
an hand breadth; even the bottom shall be a cubit, and the breadth a cubit, and
the border thereof by the edge thereof round about shall be a span: and this
shall be the higher place of the altar.
The altar — Of
burnt-offerings.
And an hand-breath —
The sacred cubit, three inches longer than the common cubit.
The bottom —
The ledge or settle, fastened to the altar on all sides at the bottom, shall be
a cubit in height.
The breadth —
From the edge of this bench on the outside to the edge where it joined the body
of the altar, a cubit, and this the breadth, twenty one inches, broad enough
for the priests to walk on.
Border — A
ledge going round on all the squares.
The edge — On
the outer edge of this settle a span high.
The back — As
the back bears burdens, so this was to bear the weight of the whole altar.
Verse 14
[14] And
from the bottom upon the ground even to the lower settle shall be two cubits,
and the breadth one cubit; and from the lesser settle even to the greater
settle shall be four cubits, and the breadth one cubit.
From the bottom —
From the first ledge, which was a cubit broad, and a cubit high from the
ground.
To the lower — To
the top of that square settle, which is called lower, because another settle is
raised upon it.
Two cubits — In
height.
The lesser —
From the highest edge of the uppermost settle, down to the cubit broad ledge
about the lower settle.
The greater — So
called, because it exceeded the upper settle a cubit in breadth.
Four cubits — ln
height.
Verse 15
[15] So
the altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar and upward shall be four
horns.
Four cubits — In
height.
From the altar —
From the top of the altar.
Verse 17
[17] And
the settle shall be fourteen cubits long and fourteen broad in the four squares
thereof; and the border about it shall be half a cubit; and the bottom thereof
shall be a cubit about; and his stairs shall look toward the east.
Stairs — Or
steps, for such they needed, (probably each stair about one fourth of a cubit,)
to carry them, up to the first and second settles.
Verse 19
[19] And
thou shalt give to the priests the Levites that be of the seed of Zadok, which
approach unto me, to minister unto me, saith the Lord GOD, a young bullock for
a sin offering.
Give —
Direct, or command that it be given.
Verse 20
[20] And
thou shalt take of the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it, and on
the four corners of the settle, and upon the border round about: thus shalt
thou cleanse and purge it.
Shalt take —
Appoint it to be taken.
Verse 21
[21] Thou
shalt take the bullock also of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the
appointed place of the house, without the sanctuary.
He — The priest.
In the appointed place — That is, in the court of the house, and on the altar appointed; this is
the first day's sacrifice.
Verse 22
[22] And
on the second day thou shalt offer a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin
offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they did cleanse it with the
bullock.
They —
The priests in attendance.
Verse 23
[23] When
thou hast made an end of cleansing it, thou shalt offer a young bullock without
blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish.
Shalt offer — On
the third day, and so on, through seven days.
Verse 24
[24] And
thou shalt offer them before the LORD, and the priests shall cast salt upon
them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering unto the LORD.
Shalt offer —
Direct them to offer.
Salt — It
may allude to the perpetuity of the covenant thus made by sacrifice.
Verse 26
[26]
Seven days shall they purge the altar and purify it; and they shall consecrate
themselves.
They —
The priests in course.
Verse 27
[27] And
when these days are expired, it shall be, that upon the eighth day, and so
forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your
peace offerings; and I will accept you, saith the Lord GOD.
I will accept you —
Those that give themselves to God, shall be accepted of God, their persons
first, and then their performances, through the mediator.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Ezekiel》
43 Chapter 43
Verses 1-27
Let them measure the pattern.
Measuring the pattern
A correct exhibition of God’s spiritual building was to be the
means of awakening the Israelites to a sense of their own deficiencies. The
prophet was to hold up the pattern showed in the mount, the temple as it
existed in the excellence of its majesty, in order that measuring the present
by the past, the national mind might be enlightened as to its true condition.
I. The principle
here laid down, in its application to us as members of a national Church. Now
there are two errors to which the human mind is prone in estimating moral
progress, the one is that of overrating the present, the other that of clothing
the past in unreal excellence. It is hard to say which of these forms of error
is most injurious to healthy exertion. The man who casts unmixed scorn upon the
attainments and practices of his forefathers; who will see nothing admirable in
their habits of thought and feeling, is almost certain to end in being
intolerant in his judgment, shallow and narrow minded in his counsels. And
again, the man who is always taking the lowest view of the present, is almost
equally sure to grow apathetic and idle. Now let us apply these thoughts to the
state of our own part of Christ’s Catholic Church. Who has not himself come in
contact with both the illusions of which we have spoken--the illusion of
overrating and underrating the present? What is that will worship with which we
have to struggle in reference to points of faith, but the offspring of the
feeling that this generation is so wise and enlightened that it may safely cut
asunder all the moorings which bind it to the past, and launch forth upon the
dim waters of the future, with its own shrewdness and intellect as its sole
pilot and guide? And contrariwise; we have in ourselves and in those who are
actually sensible of the evils of the present, to guard against the imagination
that the Church is now in a state of hopeless decay; that it is vain to bestir
ourselves for a falling fabric; that the most which we can do is to assist in
saving individual souls; but that the national disease is beyond the reach of
the national Christianity. This latter error is, after all, perhaps the most
injurious, because it is that to which the purest and most faithful souls are
liable; and is, therefore, if allowed to have place, the greatest obstacle to
improvement. And now what is the remedy for this two-fold temptation which we
have described? Indeed the remedy is set forth in the text. That which has
grown so important a duty for all, clergy and laity, is the duty of calmly,
soberly, dispassionately reviewing our position, our advantages and
disadvantages, our weaknesses and our strength. What the Church of Christ is,
in its original ideal, as designed in the counsels of the Eternal mind; what
the Church has been, at every stage of its long sojourn upon earth--the Church
of revelation and the Church of history; how much it has ever been corrupted
with worldly influences; how far it must concede to, at what point it must
resist, the spirit of the age; to what degree it has been really successful in
coercing human lusts; these are points most essential for us to form a definite
conception of, if we would go forth to our labour with a good heart. Every
century has its set task, every lifetime its own office in the majestic march
of God’s designs. What if it be the very work of our generation, to certify
them that come after; by our failures and discomfitures to acquire and deliver
down a clearer knowledge of our standing before God than we received, and so to
prepare the way for a revival of faith and obedience which others shall
perfect. What if to us, especially in the very difficulties which beset us, in
the very perplexities which we encounter, it be given to sweep clear the scene
for nobler achievements, so that we may hear our peculiar vocation sketched out
in the solemn charge: “Thou son of man, shew the house,” etc.
II. A striking
declaration of our proper duties as priests of God. The charge is a charge to
exhibit to the people the sacred edifice, to place before them the Church; and
it is implied that the sight of the mystic structure will itself go far to make
them ashamed of their own backslidings. Now we learn hence that it is one of
our functions, each in his own parish, to exhibit the Church in all the
integrity of its provisions for overcoming the world, with the belief that this
showing it to the people will have a vast moral effect upon them. The carrying
out of the Church system does not depend for its results upon the number of
those who use the privileges offered; the simple exhibition of the Church in a
parish is calculated to produce immense moral effect. The Church is a Divine
instrument for regenerating the people. And the Church is known to the masses,
not by definitions of theology, but by its perpetual worship, services, and
sacraments, its fast days and festivals, its Lent and its Easter. And there is,
we contend, in this Divine instrument fairly exhibited, a power over men’s
hearts which we are apt to forget. It was the loveliness of the Church catholic
which bowed the hearts of the nations in her infancy. Amidst jarring
idolatries, the Christian Church stood forth the fairest among ten thousand. It
was not more by active preaching, than by the passive exhibition, so to speak,
of Christianity as practised by themselves, that the old saints attracted to
the Cross the barbarian tribes of ancient Europe. The melody of perpetual
prayer and praise rung out through the aisles of primeval forests by night and
day, in sweet accord with ascetic lives and heroic exertions, and the
institution of practices which preternaturally harmonised with human need; and
rough spirits yielded to the constraining Deity. And now, we are persuaded that
there is no form of religion which so commends itself to men’s hearts, which so
enlists the affections, as the Church when thoroughly exhibited. Only in the
Church will you find all things at once; the unwearied Litany, the high-wrought
exhortation, the didactic catechising, the frequent commemoration of Christ’s
death. “Shew the house to the house of Israel.” O! it is a noble burden here
laid upon us. To be, each in his own parish, like Solomon the king. In
quietness and stillness, in peace and gentleness, no sound of axe or hammer
being heard, to make to rise up before our people, in all its unearthly beauty,
the house of the Lord; to lead hungry souls through the mystic arcade of the
seven pillars, and show them the feast of good things which wisdom has
prepared; to point out the victories of faith which overcomes the world; the
might of prayer which vanquishes God; the omnipotence of love which endureth
all things; to cause that upon every cottage home shall rest the shadow of a
holier building;--this is our office as doorkeepers of the house of the Lord.
Suffer yet one word more. We may not forget that, in measuring the pattern of
the Church, men will measure ourselves; how far, as individuals, we fall short
of the mark. The people cannot see the house without seeing us who have the
charge of it. Let us try, then, to inflame our own souls with the love of the
house which we have to show. Whatever we have done, surely we may do more. (Bishop
Woodford.)
If they be ashamed of all that they have done.
True penitence
I. The character of
true penitents. “If they be ashamed of all that they have done.” Every
principle of corrupted nature lies in direct opposition to penitential shame.
Ignorance, pride, deceit, hostility against God, and self-righteousness,
combine their influence in hardening the heart against the humiliation of
sincere repentance.
1. The shame here spoken of is the effect of a mighty, Divine
influence, which entirely changes the views and dispositions of the soul.
2. The radical effect of God’s renewing grace, in this respect,
consists in an abiding, gracious disposition of the heart towards penitential
exercises. It discovers itself in a peculiar anguish under that darkness and
hardness,--a high esteem of repentance for its own intrinsic beauty,--an
ingenuity, diligence, and earnestness, in laying open the conscience to Divine
light, and in imploring those breathings of the Almighty Spirit, which are
effectual to thaw and dissolve the frozen heart.
3. This gracious disposition obtains its aim, and comes forth to its
desired exercises, through supernatural discoveries of Divine truth, attended
with a heart-melting and heart-turning power.
4. We are led by the text to fix our attention on one particular
ingredient of these penitential sensations, namely, shame. This shame is a
generous recoiling of the soul from itself, as having once embraced and
perpetrated what it now perceives to be unspeakably vile in the sight of God
and His holy creatures. It implies in it a sense of the detestable deformity of
sin, in its own nature; a recollection of our former love and practice of it; a
consideration of our remaining depravity, and want of the perfect beauty of our
nature.
5. The text teaches us particularly to take notice of the universal
extent of this gracious shame: “If they be ashamed of all,” etc. Impenitent
sinners are disposed to palliate and defend the vilest enormities of their
conduct. But whatever may be said of occasional slips, they suppose the general
tenor of their lives to be at least harmless. It is far otherwise, when the
Spirit effectually breaks in upon the conscience. The true penitent is ashamed,
more or less, of his whole life, of all that he hath formerly been, thought,
and done. He sees himself to have been opposite to the law of God, in every
motion of his heart, in every article of his conduct.
6. This deep-felt shame renders the heart more and more soft, tender,
submissive to the authority of God, and ready to receive the impression of
every part of His revealed will.
II. What is
comprehended in the instruction here described, by such an accumulation of
expressions. “Shew them the form of the house,” etc.
1. This gracious instruction includes peculiar discoveries of the
ultimate end, designed by the Author of these ordinances, and to be pursued
after in the observance of them. This is the end, for which such a frame of
ordinances is divinely created, and for which men are collected into a society
for the observance of them; that therein Jehovah may display His own glory,
communicate His love, and exalt men to a heavenly communion with Himself and
with each other. The glory, importance, and certainty of this sublime end are,
to true penitents, manifested in a peculiar manner. Hence they are strongly
attached to Divine ordinances, and to the instituted order of God’s house. And
hence their attachment to these things differs widely from the random
rhapsodies of enthusiasm, superstition, or bigotry.
2. This instruction relates to the authorised methods of acquiring,
cherishing, and increasing that holy inward frame of spirit which is necessary
in the worshippers of God. This is a capital part of what is here spiritually
signified by the goings out, and comings in, and laws of the house. The
instructions and counsels of the inspired prophets and apostles, and of Jesus
Christ, whose name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, will, through the grace of
the Spirit, be effectual for these purposes.
3. The instruction described in the text hath a direct reference to
the institutions of God, respecting the external ordinances, order, and
government of His Church. (John Love, D. D.)
This is the law of the house.
The law of the house
A Church to be rightly constituted must be scriptural. It must be
formed and fashioned after the pattern of the true temple--founded not on the
authority of man--not on the traditions of the elders--not on the opinions of
the fathers--not on the decrees of princes or of popes--not on the acts and
statutes of the realm, but on prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ Himself being
the chief cornerstone. It follows from the very nature, institute, and objects
of a Christian Church. Its nature--that is spiritual. Its institute--that is
Divine. Its ends--glory to God in the advancement of the immortal interests of
man. It must be the Bible--the Bible only--the Bible wholly, which must form
the basis of our Church and of our creed. Laying our hand upon this volume, and
recognising in it a revelation of the mind of God, we must say, “This is the
law of the house. Behold, this is the law of the house.” That point proved, we
press the obvious inference, that in Scripture we must find the warrant, and
from Scripture we must plead the rule. The rites and institutes of men, however
wise, expedient, or politic, will not suffice. In vain shall we teach for
doctrines the commandments of men--in vain appeal to the traditions of the
elders, if we cannot appeal to the “law and to the prophets.” In vain shall we
assert the authority of the fathers, if we cannot allege the “oracles of God.”
I. The outer order
of the sanctuary. The solemnity, reverence, decorum, requisite in everything
connected with the service of the temple. Our comings to, attendance on, and
goings from the house of God--even these may not be overlooked. Among the
lesser sanctities, if I may use the term, they have their place and their
importance, assisting, as they do, to solemnise the mind, and give to our
assemblies the air and the behaviour of “meetings of the saints.” The Church on
earth should be as though it were the miniature of that which is in heaven; and
men, on coming in and looking round, struck with the sacred aspect of the
scene, should be constrained to say, “Surely God is in this place. This is none
other than the house of God. It is the gate of heaven.”
II. The ordinances
of the house. By these, you will understand the appointments of the Lord the
King, relative to the rites and ceremonies of our religious worship. They are
of two kinds, viewed in reference to the common or the Christian world. Common
they are in reference to the first; sealing they are in reference to the
second. Under the former, we enumerate praise, prayer, the reading of the Word,
the preaching of the Word; under the latter, we enumerate the sacraments of
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Looking to the record, it is enacted and
ordained, that “the people praise Him--that all the people praise Him--kings of
the earth, and all people--princes of the earth, and all judges--young men and maidens,
old men and children--that they praise the Lord.” And, finding it thus written
in the law, we must enter His gates with “praise,” His temple with
thanksgiving, and mingle all grateful and all earthly honours with the nobler
strains which swell the sanctuary above. Again, looking to the record, we find
it written, “Ask, and ye shall receive, seek, and ye shall find.” “I will that
men pray everywhere.” “O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh
come” And acting on the letter of the law, we must around the altar of the
sanctuary bow the knee of our hearts unto the God and Father of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, and, from this our house of prayer, send up in concert
with the saints, each Sabbath day, the voice of supplication in sweet memorial
before the throne of God. And thus, on reading in the law, I find it written to
the same effect of all the other ordinances. Of one and all of them, it may be
said that they are enacted and ordained, and ought in consequence to be
acknowledged, honoured, and obeyed.
III. The laws of
Christ’s house. These are His statutes and decrees in reference to the rule and
government thereof. They may be considered either in regard to Christ, His
royalties and rights as King, or to ourselves, our powers and privilege as
freemen of the Lord. And first of all, it is enacted and ordained, that Christ
shall be the King and Head of His own house. I look into the law and find it
written, “The government shall be upon His shoulders.” It is His, and His
alone, to order, institute, ordain--to give the law, in short, respecting
everything connected with the doctrine, discipline, worship, government of His
own Church. Again, it is enacted and ordained in reference to ourselves, that
every man is answerable to Christ for his religious belief. I look into the
record, and I find it ruled, “Call no one master upon earth. One is your
Master, even Christ.” I look again, and find it written, “Prove all things.
Hold fast that which is good.” “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own
mind.” I look again, “So, then, everyone shall give account of himself to God.”
On the force of these authorities, I am clear to say, this is a law of the
house, that every man think for himself, judge for himself, decide for himself,
in matters of religious belief. Let there be perfect liberty, fullest freedom,
influence, or interference--none beyond the influence of reason, righteousness,
and truth. (H. M. Brown.)
Most holy.--
Holiness
Separation is the root idea of holiness in the Old Testament, and Ezekiel
insists that the separation between the holy and the profane shall be more
sharp and emphatic. All the profane things are to be put farther away. Indeed,
the object of the whole system of ritual that is brought forward in the
concluding chapters of this book--the aim was to put all profane things outside
the sphere of Jehovah’s worship. As you know, this was ceremonial, ritualistic.
But the deep significance of the arrangement cannot escape you--you know that
all this has been fulfilled in its largest signification in Christ and in His
Gospel. Christ has come, the Lord of righteousness, to bring many sons unto
glory, and He will never rest until He has brought multitudes to the splendid
perfection of His own spirit and example.
1. In the first place, Christianity insists upon holiness of
character--most holy--the man is to be that. Christianity commences with the
spirit of the man, the will, the mind, the conscience, the disposition, with
the very essence of the personality. Jesus Christ begins with “Marvel not that
I said unto you, Ye must be born again.” The first conception of holiness in
character is that a man gets a clean heart, and that there is renewed within
him a right spirit. Christ said, being clean within, profoundly spiritual, and
righteous in mind, you go outside and work that out in all the complex
relationships and multiplied responsibilities of practical and daily life. That
is another splendid phase of Christian ethics. It gives us executive force and
skill to carry out splendid ideas and noble patterns. I was reading the other
day of a critic who had just returned from the Continent criticising one of the
Spanish cathedrals. He said it was the embodiment of splendid ideas, but the
ideas were everywhere poorly carried out. There was blundering in the fine
lines, and the rich ornamentation was tawdry and vulgar. When I read that, it
struck me that the race had failed in morals in a similar fashion. The ancients
had splendid conceptions and ideas. When Jesus Christ came into the world there
was the majestic morality of Sinai. When He came into the world there was the
exact and masterly jurisprudence of the Roman, but everywhere great ideas were
carried out poorly, fine lines were blunderingly touched, and noble maxims were
reduced to triviality and vulgarity in practical life. What did Jesus Christ
do? He gave the race eternal and invincible energy, by which, in practice, they
could bring to pass the purest and loftiest ideals. “What the law could not
do”--the law of the Jew, the law of the Roman--“what the law could not do, in
that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.” And so we in Christ are first cleansed, exalted, made to catch the
loveliness of our Lord, and then He sends us forth with a strange, indwelling
Spirit, by which we accomplish the virtues that we see lamentably impossible to
the natural man. And, mind, you are all to be holy, most holy. The conception
of Ezekiel is that this is not for a few, but for all. “This is the law of the
house, that the whole limit thereof shall be most holy.”
2. And then we come to the other point, “the extended range, the
whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy.” There had been, as Ezekiel
says, only a wall in Solomon’s temple between God and profane things, but in
the new temple there was to be a larger area. Profane things were to be pushed
farther back and farther back still, until they went over the brink of the
world. From every quarter of the universe they should be driven. There is no
fulfilment of this conception except for the whole planet, everyone in it, and
of every law and every nature. “The whole limit thereof round about shall be
most holy.” What does the religion of Jesus Christ say? Make everything in
God’s great world to be true, just, beautiful--commerce, art, science,
government, fashion, amusements, gold, friendships. Let the natural world
stand, lout bring into it great ideas, and take care that you make these ideas
prevail, until science, commerce, literature, and entertainments, wealth, and
government, all become as fine gold, like unto transparent glass. Don’t narrow us.
Let the horizon of sanctity be as wide as the horizon of nature. Let ethics
grow, and civilisation grow. That is the great conception of this work. You
know that a good many men object to morality; they say it is so dull, that
there is no growth in morality. If you get natural science, there is growth and
development; but if you come to the Ten Commandments, the only thing is going
on repeating them from one generation to another; you never get any further.
You might just as well object to the multiplication table. I tell you in some
ways there is no advance in morality; it is quite correct. It is not by an
enlarged decalogue that there is to be an expansion of ethics. I tell you
another thing. There is going to be no discovery of any new principle of ethics.
Addington Symonds says the future of the world depends on the method of morals.
He goes on to say, this world would be put on centuries if we could discover in
the field of morals some new principle like the law of gravitation discovered
by Newton, and so, if there should be any ethical Newton, to discover a new
principle, it would put the world on by generations. Brethren, the life of God
in Jesus Christ is the constraining law in morals, as the law of gravitation is
the master law in the field of nature, and there is nothing more in our opinion
to be discovered. So in the principle “the love of Christ constraineth us,” and
after that there is no new law to be discovered in the range of ethics. Where
is the improvement to take place in the limit round about us? Where is it? In
making the extraordinary sanctity of the few the sanctity of the mass, in
bringing noble ideals to bear on the lowliest things, in making personal
morality to be public morality. The time is coming when a man will put his soul
into a convict’s sackcloth because he cherished a sullied imagination. The time
is coming when there will be no more wife beating, when a man will put himself
upon the treadmill for a month for having given her an ugly look. The time is
coming when a capitalist, a lady, would rather put on the cast-off garments of
a leper than put on a purple that was stained by a workman’s tear or blood. The
time is coming when a man would rather pick his master’s pocket than waste his
time. There shall be such a spirit of magnanimity and charity, that a man will
stand in the church porch and do penance for having in a moment of meanness
given a three penny bit at the collection. “Oh,” you may say, “that is a touch
of the grotesque.” I give you that, that you may remember it. Just as during
the last fifty years the best thing of all is that the conscience of the race
has grown, in the next fifty years the conscience of the race will continue to
grow, and there shall be a code of morals, character, and etiquette more superb
and delicate than any that we know today. Now, I say that is exactly the
direction in which you have to work. Take your Christian conscience and perfect
it by fellowship with the Great Ideal, and when you have done that take it into
the world with you. Don’t let any of the bad things continue. They must all go;
all the bad things, however cunningly disguised, you must detest them. Precious
in many ways as they seem to be to society, you must damn them. There must be
no pleading for anything that is base and vile. It must go though appreciated
by every age. Drop it into Gehenna. Mean that all common things shall be lifted
up, that common things shall be transfigured. In visiting an art gallery the
other day, I noticed that some of the greatest pictures had not a splendid
thing in them. The ordinary artist, when he wants to be effective, paints a
breadth of golden harvest, or he gets a kingfisher in, or he imagines some
iridescent bird or other, some bird of paradise, or he paints a tree in
blossom, or the captivating rainbow. But if you notice, some of the greatest
painters that ever lived never touched these things. I noticed one of the
pictures there. It was a railway object into it but the black earth, the
cutting, a ploughed field. They got no brown earth, the red earth, but they
touched it with that supreme touch that you can see the blossom in the dust,
and the rainbow shine out of the cloud, and the picture without a brilliant
thing in it was altogether bathed in imagination, poetry, and beauty you want
to give everything in your life the transfiguring touch of righteousness. Then
you don’t want a few great things to make it admirable and spectacular. (W.
L. Watkinson.)
Holiness, the law of God’s house
I. Let us expound
the law of the house. Note the text carefully. It begins and ends with the same
words: “This is the law of the house: upon the top of the mountain the whole
limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the
house.” These words make a frame for the statute; or a sort of hand on each
side pointing to it. And what is this law of the house? Why, that everything
about it is holy. All things in the church must be pure, clean, right,
gracious, commendable, God-like. Observe that this law of the house is not only
intense, reaching to the superlative degree of holiness, but it is most
sweeping and encompassing: for we read, “Upon the top of the mountain the whole
limit thereof round about shall be most holy.” Holiness should be far-reaching,
and cover the whole ground of a Christian’s life. He should be sanctified,
“spirit, soul, and body,” and in all things he should bear evidence of having
been set apart unto the Lord. We notice, once again, that this holiness was to
be conspicuous. The church is not as a house sequestered in a valley, or hidden
away in a wood, but it is as the temple, which was set upon the top of a
mountain, where it could be seen from afar. The whole of that mountain was
holy. We should be a peculiar people, distinguished by this as a race dwelling
alone, that cannot be numbered among the nations. We might instructively divide
holiness into four things, and the first would be its negative side, separation
from the world. There may be morality, but there can be no holiness in a
worldling. Holiness next consists very largely in consecration. The holy things
of the sanctuary were holy because they were dedicated to God. You tell me of
your generosity, your goodness, and your pious intentions--what of these? Are
you consecrated, for if you are not consecrated to God you know nothing of
holiness. But this does not complete the idea of holiness unless you add to it
conformity, to the will and character of God. If we are God’s servants we must
follow God’s commands: we must be ready to do as our Master bids us, because He
is the Lord, and must be obeyed. I must add, however, to make up the idea of
holiness, that there must be a close communion between the soul and God; for if
a man could be, which is not possible, conformed to the likeness of God, and
consecrated to God, yet ii he never had any communication with God, the idea of
holiness would not be complete.
II. Let us examine
ourselves by this law. Ask yourself questions, founded on what I have already
said. Do I so live as to be separated? Is there in my business a difference
between me and those with whom I trade? Are my thoughts different? Next, let
each one ask, Am I consecrated? Am I living to God with my body, with my soul,
with my spirit? Am I using my substance, my talents, my time, my voice, my
thoughts for God’s glory? Next, ask the question, Am I living in conformity to
the mind of the holy God? Am I living as Christ would have lived in my place?
Then, again, do I live in communion with God? I cannot be holy and yet have a
wall of division between me and God.
III. What are the
bearings of this law of the house? Those bearings of the law to which I now
refer are these:--If the Church of God shall be most holy, it will have as the
result of it the greatest possible degree of the smile and favour of God. A
holy Church has God in the midst of her. Where there is holiness God comes, and
there is sure to be love, for love is of the very essence of holiness. The
fruit of the Spirit is love, both to God and man. That love begets union of
heart, brotherly kindness, sympathy, and affection, and these bring peace and
happiness. This, of course, leads to success in all the church’s efforts, and a
consequent increase. Her prayers are intense., and they bring down a blessing,
for they are holy and acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ: her labours are
abundant, and they secure an abundant harvest, for God will not forget her
labour of love.
IV. Let us take
order to secure obedience to the law of the house. I believe that Jesus is
always working in His own way for the purity of every true Church. His fan is
in His hand,”--see it moving continually,--“and He will thoroughly purge His
floor.” God’s melting fire is not in the world, where the dross contains no
gold, but “His fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.” “The Lord will
judge His people.” Church members are under peculiar discipline, as it is
written, “You only have I known of all the nations of the earth, therefore I
will punish you for your iniquities.” If churches are not holy they cannot be
prosperous, for God afflicts those who break the law of His house. Now, cannot
we give earnest heed that this law is regarded among us? Let us set to this
work at once. Here is the first exercise for us: let us repent of past failures
in holiness. We shall never overcome sin till we are conscious of it and
ashamed of it. Having owned our error, let us next make the law of God’s house
our earnest study, that we may avoid offences in the future. Let the inspired
page be your standard. Never mind what your minister tells you, observe what
the spirit of God tells you. When you have studied the law of the house, then
next be intensely real in your endeavour to observe it. Then let us cry for a
sincere and growing faith in God concerning this matter of holiness. And then,
lastly, let us pray to be set on fire with an intense zeal for God. I do not
believe that there is such a thing as cold holiness in the world. Get rid of
zeal from the church, and you have removed one of the most purifying elements,
for God intends to purge Jerusalem by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit
of burning. Oh, to be baptised into the Holy Ghost and into fire. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
These are the measures of the altar after the cubits.
The altar measurable and immeasurable
There is nothing held to be insignificant in the Book of God that
pertains to the Divine altar or the holy house. Everything is of consequence;
perhaps it would be more than paradoxical to say that everything is of supreme
consequence. “These are the measures of the altar after the cubits.” That is to
say, if you look upon the thing geometrically, here it is, so long, so broad,
so high, thus, and thus, and no other way. Such is the Divine specification;
the altar is measurable, it is a question of cubits; make the cubits right, and
you make the geometric altar right. Beyond that, the measuring man can do
nothing. But when you have given the cubits you have given nothing. The altar,
as a mechanical structure, is measurable; as a spiritual symbol, it is without
measure. There are persons who imagine that if they have read the book called
the Bible through, they have read God’s revelation completely. It is the same
sophism. There are men who think if they have told you how far it is from Dan
to Beersheba they have been preaching. They have not begun to preach in the
name and spirit of Christ. All this is mere secular instruction. There are what
are called ecclesiastical antiquarians. They occupy a respectable position in
society. They are often pensive-looking men; they are men of most studious
habits. If you wanted to know the meaning of any ecclesiastical term, they
would find it for you; they can go back century after century, and tell you the
measure of every part, and the colour of every robe, and the significance of
every line; and they can press matters down to the centuries of corruption,
when all these original meanings were lost or perverted; then they can proceed
to the centuries of restoration, and tell you all concerning the reconstruction
of matters that had been overthrown, perverted, or neglected. All this they can
do without ever praying. A man may build a cathedral and never pray. Remember,
in dealing with the altar we are not dealing with a merely geometrical figure.
The altar has its finite side, yet it has also its infinite aspect. What does
the altar do? The altar looks towards the Unknown. If we might personify the
altar, we should think of it as having eyes that wander through eternity. The
altar would be saying in its silence, There is another home; this is but a
stepping stone to something higher, this is but the dawn of the coming day,
this is but the seed time--the golden harvest is not yet: I look beyond all
these white sapphires that make the midnight rich with their jewellery, and I
see beyond, and still beyond, God’s measured sanctuary. It ought to be a grand
thing to have amongst us an altar that talks thus. We want some sublimating
influences. The tabernacle of God is with men upon the earth. Our houses are
sanctified by the presence of the holy place. The walls of the sanctuary give
security to the city; not its banks and festive chambers, but its sanctuaries
are the glory of the town. We do not know what the sanctuary is doing in any
city. It may be the humblest place viewed architecturally and geometrically,
but seen in its spiritual significance and relationship it may be the poor
little despised church or conventicle that is keeping the city out of hell. Do
not, therefore, despise anything that has spiritual significance in it. We
cannot tell how far its influence reaches. Little noise it makes; the kingdom
of heaven cometh not with observation: when the morning dawns there is no crash
of wheels upon the hills; the dawn is glorified silence. What is true of the
public sanctuary is true of the home sanctuary: it is your family altar which
keeps your house together. It may not be a formal altar, but the spirit of
prayer that is in your house makes your bread sweet, and keeps all the windows
towards the south, though geometrically they may stand square north. It is the
Spirit of God, the altar, the Divine genius that makes the house warm in
January and glorious in June. See what other words occur in connection with the
term altar. You never find that word alone. Some men could not read this
description of the altar. They are too sensitive; there are men so
super-refined that they could not read this description of God’s altar. Thou
shalt “sprinkle blood thereon,” etc. Beware of that insensate sensitiveness
which cannot pronounce the word “blood” in its religious and spiritual
signification. Do not imagine yourselves refined and sensitive because you can
talk about the example of Christ but not about the blood of Christ. You can debase
any word; you can pronounce the word “music” so as to take all melody and all
harmony and rhythm out of it; you can pronounce the word “gospel” so that it
shall be but a common word of two syllables; you can shrink from anything: but
you can so pronounce music and blood and Cross and Christ as to give those who
hear you to feel that you have caught some inner and upper meaning which had
hitherto escaped your own attention. Then how do we stand in this matter? You
are Bible readers, are you students of revelation? You can quote all the
dimensions of the altar, have you ever entered into its spirit? We are called
to spirituality, not to carnality; to profoundest wisdom, not mere literal
information; to an altar not made with hands, and not merely and exclusively to
the altar built even upon the terms of a Divine specification. Holy Spirit,
baptise us as with fire! Spirit of the altar, teach us how to suffer, how to
pray! (J. Parker, D. D.)
Proportions of altar unintelligible
“And these are the measures of the altar.” That was the point at
which I became excited. Whilst he was measuring gates and posts and porches I
cared little, but when he began to measure the altar, who could but pause? And
then came this disappointment, “after the cubits.” I thought he was going to
measure the altar. And what is a cubit? said
I. And he mocked
me with this reply: “A cubit is a cubit, and a hand breadth.” Ah! that
undefined hand breadth; that plus quantity that is in everything. “And from the
bottom upon the ground even to the lower settle shall be two cubits, and the
breadth one cubit, and from the lesser settle even to the greater settle shall
be four cubits and the breadth one cubit. So the altar shall be four cubits;
and from the altar and upward shall be four horns. And the altar shall be
twelve cubits long, twelve broad, square in the four squares thereof.” Do you
understand that? No man ever understood the altar. Remember that and be calm.
The altar is not to be understood. There are some places at which we can only pray,
and wonder, and weep, and wait. It is the man with the foot rule in the church
that I dread! He tells me, forsooth, how long I preached. Can any man preach
with that person in the audience? The use of the measureable is to point to the
immeasurable. The measureable is algebraic, symbolic, indicative. The foot rule
means the sky, the sky, God. At first we are greatly taken by bulk, by
magnitude, and we talk of the great mountains and the great seas. It fits our
age well, we shall outgrow it. Great mountains! Why, a child, give him time,
can climb to the top of any one of them, and wave a banner there. No height at
least can keep a child back; there may be ruggedness of way, but of that we are
not speaking, but of mere height, mere greatness. How great you used to think
those houses down in your village--you did! I did! We passed the great house,
ivy-covered, with a kind of suppressed but not wholly unconscious awe. Then you
came to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, London, and went back, and you said,
“Where is that great house?” Ay, where? “That is it!” “No.” “It is!” “No, no!”
“Certainly that is the house!” “I thought, it was so large and had so many
windows in it, and that it reared itself among all the other houses, very
important and almost majestic.” That is it--come down. Why? Because of the
greater sights you have seen, the greater houses that have passed before your
vision. And thus all life goes down in that sense and yet up in another. The
man who has communed with God fears no opponent. Goliath looked so huge when I
saw him from the human standpoint, but after five minutes with God I sought him
and he could not be found. So you tabernacle with God, live and move and have
your being in God, walk in the heavenlies, then when you come down to earth, with
its battle and stress and cross and pain and need, you will understand what the
Apostle meant when he said, “If you look at affliction from one point it seems
intolerable, often beyond words and imagination, but if you look at it from
another point you will say, ‘Our light affliction is but for a moment.’” How
so? Why, we look not at the things that are seen; not at the cubits, but at the
altar; not at time, but at eternity; not at the present, but at the future. It
is heaven that must one day explain the earth. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The cross is beyond measurement
We see the cross no more after its cubit measures. The cross was
measurable, the Roman foot rule was laid upon it--so much vertical, so much
horizontal, so much in weight--was that the cross? No! That was the Roman
gallows, that was not the cross. Oh! why do we not preach the cross, the
eternal cross, whose shadow lies even over the light of summer? Men need the
cross so interpreted. But have we not made a gallows of the cross, the model of
the Atonement? Who can measure the word “atone”? There are those who are the
victims of definition idolatry. They want to know what you mean by this term
and that. There are indefinable terms, there are terms that have no equivalent
in other symbols. “Atonement” may be one of those terms. I have seen it once. A
man may only see the cross in its truest sense once, but that once spreads
itself through all the days. A man may only take, mayhap, the ordinance of the
Lord’s Supper once. Have you taken it so? For convenience, for expedience, for
merely ecclesiastical purposes, end for occasional spiritual helps, it may be
necessary to have it every Lord’s day, or every month, or every year, at
certain periodic intervals. No doubt, but the soul cannot drink that Blood more
than once! Do you suppose that the cross can be measured in cubits? Where was
the atonement rendered? In eternity! Do you suppose that Christ was born in
Bethlehem in any other than a merely visible and temporal and earthly sense? He
was never born in Bethlehem! When did He die? He is the Lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world. Before the sin was done the atonement was made!
You cannot anticipate God. You cannot surprise the Eternal. He does not
conceive of the cross as an after device; He does not attempt to make a Roman
model into a living atonement. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The greatest things measurable
Let us look at this law of altar cubits a little while, for it
admits of divers and useful illustrations. Take the alphabet, your English
alphabet. There are some six-and-twenty letters in it. That is the measure of
the alphabet after the cubits. Now pronounce the alphabet. You cannot! You have
got all the letters in one huge mouthful, and cannot pronounce them. And most
of the letters are themselves dumb, waiting for the vowels to touch them to
music and into life. But suppose a man should say that was the English
language--there you have the English literature, there you have the Paradise
Lost and the Principia and Hamlet and all the poetry that has
ever been written, and all the philosophy that has ever been reamed or
published, you have it all in so far as the whole is expressed in the English
language. In a sense, yes; in another sense, no. And yet without the alphabet
where should we be? Who could move? Who could express themselves in the English
tongue? Are you content with the alphabet? Yes; when it comes to the higher
things you are. You smile at the notion of being contented with the alphabet
when I refer to letters, to literature, to poetry, and to philosophy, but how
many are there who have been in the Church forty years and are in the cradle
still--in the alphabet still--and who, when they go to church, want to hear the
alphabet pronounced. I wait! But unless you say A, B, and right down to Y, Z,
there are some measurers, not sent from heaven, who say you have not preached
the Gospel. The Gospel is a sky, a wind, a pathos, a spirit, as well as an
alphabet. It has its writings, it can hand them to you, but ask for its
inspiration, it breathes through all the centuries and makes a man live
according to its kind. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The measurement of the altar
Manton says: “The satisfaction must carry proportion with the
merit of the offence. A debt of a thousand pounds is not discharged by two or
three brass farthings. Creatures are finite, their acts of obedience are
already due to God, and their sufferings for one another, if they had been
allowed, would have been of limited influence.” Jesus alone, as the Son of God,
could present a substitution sufficient to meet the case of men condemned for
their iniquities. The majesty of His nature, His freedom from personal
obligation to the law, and the intensity of His griefs, all give to His
atonement a virtue which elsewhere can never be discovered. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Measuring by orbits
God is a great measurer. God has a reed, a line, a pole. God makes
His cities four-square, and He will not see the law of the square violated. It
is His method! God is a great geometer. All your little Euclids are cut out of
the Deity! It is said that He stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and that
He spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. It is reported of Him that He
meteth out the heavens with a span. He weighs the mountains in scales, and the
hills in a balance. And no man can steal one atom of dust, and no little pebble
can flee away! It is all measured! The bounds of our habitation are fixed!
There are bounds that cannot be measured. What is your house? Tell me about it;
I like to hear about houses. Well? “It is large.” How large? “Three rooms on
the ground floor.” There may be certain minds who have no peace with less than
four rooms on the ground floor. One is enough for me--but I am not everybody.
Well, then, upstairs? “Rooms so many.” Lofty? “Very.” What are your
proportions? “Thirty feet by twenty-five feet.” And the garden? “Two hundred
feet by one hundred and thirty-two feet.” Is that all? I do not want to hear
these things! I do not want an auctioneer to speak to me in my higher moods! He
has his place, but there are levels to which I go where he in his professional
capacity is nobody, and where he cannot speak in my native language. You can
lay a line upon the house. Now lay me a line upon the home! No man can do that!
But is not the house the same as the home? Ah, there you ask a question which
is infinitely ridiculous, so destitute of sentiment, of poetry, of high
spiritual sensitiveness and ideality! The house is one thing. The home is
another! You may have a house and not a home! You may be in the Church, but not
in the Sanctuary! You may have a book, and not a revelation! Why do we not
distinguish between things that differ, and get the right values and
proportions of them? Coleridge says: “I for one am not content to call the soil
under my feet my country.” Certainly not! The country is not an affair of soil.
He says: “The religion, the language, the home life, these constitute all that
is best in your country.” That is what I am labouring to say. We want
soil--something to stand upon; but it is nothing until we have crowned it with
those happy associations to watch I have just referred. The life that has no
home in it, no interior sanctuary, no altar, no cross, no hope--we cannot call
it life. Call it the second death! What I want to show you, therefore, needs a
little repetition in order to deepen and settle the best impressions. You see
there is a measurable quantity, and you see there is an immeasurable quantity;
and the measurable is of no use to me except it signify and indicate the immeasurable.
The measurable is only a kind of ladder by which I climb to see the
immeasurable. This is the spirit in which we have to do our work. This is the
spirit, the influence, the spiritual immeasurable inwardness of what we are
doing! A certain kind of man--I wonder who made him?--once wrote in the
newspapers something about our missionaries, and he thought he had made them
quite ridiculous. Many men have thought that; but “The horse and his rider wilt
the Lord throw into the sea.” He said the income of the Society--perhaps it was
your Society or the London Missionary Society--I do not know which--the income
of the Society was so many thousands; the number of conversions reported, so
many hundreds; dividing the thousands by the hundreds we find that each conversion
cost the Society, say, a thousand pounds. What a man that would have been for
measuring altars! How very ingenious this application of a foot rule! He
thought he made us all look ridiculous because he showed us, by arithmetic and
statistical processes, that each conversion cost an almost fabulous amount.
That is the measure of the altar by cubits! Now, the measure of the soul! the
measure of the character! the measure of the influence! There is a foot rule.
Lay it on light, on gravitation. on the fragrance, on the influence, on the
effluence! The poor man has come to the end of his tether. If one conversion
cost the total income of your Society, it was worth it! That is the right way
of looking at it!
“Knowest
thou the importance of a soul immortal,
Behold
the midnight glory, world on world,
Amazing
pomp: redouble this amaze.
Ten
thousand add and twice ten thousand more.
One
soul outweighs them all, and calls
The
astonishing magnificence of unintelligent creation poor!”
Unless
we work in that spirit we shall give up all our efforts and confuse all our
enterprises. I have given up seeking after the results of my ministry. I have
asked God in many a high hour of converse to enable me to do my work as
lovingly, earnestly, and capably as I can, and I have asked Him to look after
the results, and He promised me He would do so. (J. Parker, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》