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Daniel Chapter
Twelve
Daniel 12
Chapter Contents
The conclusion of the vision of the Scriptures of truth.
(1-4) The times of the continuance of these events. (5-13)
Commentary on Daniel 12:1-4.
(Read Daniel 12:1-4.)
Michael signifies, "Who is like God," and his
name, with the title of "the great Prince," points out the Divine
Saviour. Christ stood for the children of our people in their stead as a
sacrifice, bore the curse for them, to bear it from them. He stands for them in
pleading for them at the throne of grace. And after the destruction of
antichrist, the Lord Jesus shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and He
shall appear for the complete redemption of all his people. When God works
deliverance from persecution for them, it is as life from the dead. When his
gospel is preached, many who sleep in the dust, both Jews and Gentiles, shall
be awakened by it out of their heathenism of Judaism. And in the end the
multitude that sleep in the dust shall awake; many shall arise to life, and
many to shame. There is glory reserved for all the saints in the future state,
for all that are wise, wise for their souls and eternity. Those who turn many
to righteousness, who turn sinners from the errors of their ways, and help to
save their souls from death, James 5:20, will share in the glory of those
they have helped to heaven, which will add to their own glory.
Commentary on Daniel 12:5-13
(Read Daniel 12:5-13)
One of the angels asking how long it should be to the end
of these wonders, a solemn reply is made, that it would be for a time, times,
and a half, the period mentioned 25, and in the Revelation. It signifies 1260 prophetic
days or years, beginning from the time when the power of the holy people should
be scattered. The imposture of Mohammed, and the papal usurpation, began about
the same time; and these were a twofold attack upon the church of God. But all
will end well at last. All opposing rule, principality, and power, shall be put
down, and holiness and love will triumph, and be in honour, to eternity. The
end, this end, shall come. What an amazing prophecy is this, of so many varied
events, and extending through so many successive ages, even to the general
resurrection! Daniel must comfort himself with the pleasing prospect of his own
happiness in death, in judgment, and to eternity. It is good for us all to
think much of going away from this world. That must be our way; but it is our
comfort that we shall not go till God calls us to another world, and till he
has done with us in this world; till he says, Go thou thy way, thou hast done
thy work, therefore now, go thy way, and leave it to others to take thy place.
It was a comfort to Daniel, and is a comfort to all the saints, that whatever
their lot is in the days of their lives, they shall have a happy lot in the end
of the days. And it ought to be the great care and concern of every one of us
to secure this. Then we may well be content with our present lot, and welcome
the will of God. Believers are happy at all times; they rest in God by faith
now, and a rest is reserved for them in heaven at last.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Daniel》
Daniel 12
Verse 1
[1] And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great
prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time
of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time:
and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found
written in the book.
For the children — The meaning seems to
be, as after the death of Antiochus the Jews had some deliverance, so there
will be yet a greater deliverance to the people of God, when Michael your
prince, the Messiah shall appear for your salvation.
A time of trouble — A the siege of
Jerusalem, before the final judgment. The phrase at that time, probably
includes all the time of Christ, from his first, to his last coming.
Verse 4
[4] But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the
book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge
shall be increased.
Seal the book — The book was command to be
sealed, because it would be long before the words would be fulfilled, whereas
those that were shortly to be fulfilled, were forbidden to be sealed.
Shall run — Shall diligently search these
prophecies; and they shall know the signs of the times, and wait upon God in
the way of his judgments: he means chiefly in gospel-times.
Verse 5
[5] Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other
two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side
of the bank of the river.
Other two — Two angels waiting on Christ.
Verse 6
[6] And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon
the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
To the man — To Christ, who seemed to stand in
the air above the waters, or upon them.
Verse 7
[7] And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the
waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto
heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time,
times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of
the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
He held up his right hand — He held up both hands
to heaven, for the more sure and solemn confirmation of it; and to denote the
unchangeableness of God's decrees both for good to the church, and for evil to
her enemies.
By him — By God the father, and by himself that liveth for
ever, to shew the eternal God only knew that decreed it, and would bring it to
pass.
And an half — That is, a year, two years and
half a year. We meet with this in the revelation, under the title, some times
of three days and an half, put for three years and an half, sometimes, forty
two months, sometimes, twelve hundred and sixty days.
Shall be finished — Which reaches to the
calling of the Jews upon the destruction of antichrist.
Verse 8
[8] And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my
Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
What shall be the end — What is the meaning
of all this?
Verse 9
[9] And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed
up and sealed till the time of the end.
And sealed — They shall not be clearly
understood, 'till the event make them good.
Verse 10
[10] Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but
the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the
wise shall understand.
And tried — The afflictions of the church are
to prepare them, by taking away their filth, for the bridegroom, as gold and
silver are tried and refined.
Verse 13
[13] But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt
rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.
But go thou — I have revealed to thee these
things, that thou and thy people, might be prepared for sufferings, and yet not
without hope of a glorious deliverance.
For thou shalt rest — In which hope thou
shalt die, and rest from trouble, 'till the resurrection of the just. It ought
to be the great concern of every one of us, to secure a happy lot in the end of
the days, and then we may well be content with our present lot, welcoming the
will of God.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Daniel》
The Vision Of The Time Of The End - III (11:36-12:13)
INTRODUCTION
1. We have been studying the final vision recorded in the book of Daniel... a. Depicting what will affect Daniel's people (i.e., Israel 10:14
b. Describing events "in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come" - Dan 10:14 c. Its words were closed and sealed "till the time of the end" - Dan12:9
-- For such reasons this vision has been called "The Vision Of TheTime Of The End"
2. In the introductory remarks of the vision, there is a glimpse of spiritual warfare... a. Angelic forces withstanding each other - Dan 10:13a ,20 b. Angelic forces helping each other - Dan 10:13b,21; 11:1 -- Such forces affecting the nations of Persia and Greece 3. As the vision unfolds, a series of future conflicts involving nations is described... a. Between the Persians and the Greeks - Dan 11:2-4 b. Between kings of the South (Egypt ) and kings of the North (Syria - Dan 11:5-35 1) In this conflict, Israel 2) Israel (Antiochus Epiphanes) 4. Beginning with Dan 11:36, there is a large diversity of opinion... a. Regarding the identity of the king described in Dan 11:36-45 b. The time in which events described in Dan 11:36-12:13 would be fulfilled [As with any difficult portion of Scripture, especially one involvingprophecy, dogmatism should be avoided. In this study, our final one inthis series of lessons on the Book of Daniel, I shall offer what Ibelieve is a plausible explanation of the text...] I. THE IDENTITY OF THE KING AND HIS TIMES
A. THREE DIFFERENT VIEWS... 1. The king is Antiochus Epiphanes of Syria a. The vile and blasphemous ruler described in Dan 11:21-35 b. The time of his persecution would therefore be 169-167 B.C. c. The time of the Maccabean revolt -- This view is espoused by Albert Barnes in his commentary 2. The king represents the Roman emperors a. Who persecuted Christians in the early years of the church b. The time of this persecution would therefore be 60-313 A .D. -- This view is proposed by Robert Harkrider in his workbook 3. The king represents the Anti-Christ a. A future ruler still to come b. The time of this persecution would be shortly before the return of Christ -- This view is held by pre-millennialists, but also by some amillennialists (e.g., Edward Young) B. ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES SEEMS A LIKELY CHOICE... 1. The allusion in previous verses is undoubtedly to Antiochus Epiphanes 2. There is no indication in the prophetic narrative of any change; notice... a. "Then the king shall do..." - Dan 11:36 b. "At the time of the end the king of South shall attack him..." - Dan 11:40 c. "At that time Michael..." - Dan 12:1 d. "And at that time your people shall be delivered..." - Dan12:1
3. A sudden transition, with no given indication, is not in accordance with what is usually found in prophetic writings (Barnes) 4. The word "king" is never applied to Antichrist (if there in fact be "the Antichrist", as the Bible speaks of many antichrists - 1 Jn 2:18,22; 4:3; 2 Jn 7) 5. The description that follows can easily be applied to the person and times of Antiochus Epiphanes [This is not imply there is no difficulty with applying this passage toAntiochus Epiphanes and his times, but I believe it possesses fewerdifficulties than alternative views. Now let's consider what isdescribed to come...] II. THE EVENTS AT "THE TIME OF THE END"
A. THE BLASPHEMY OF THIS KING... 1. He shall magnify himself above every god - Dan 11:36-37 a. Speaking blasphemies against the God of gods b. Prospering till the wrath that has been determined is done (suggesting that this was allowed by God as part of divine judgment against Israel of Assyria and Israel c. He shall not regard the god of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor any god 2. He shall honor a god of fortresses - Dan 11:38-39 a. A god which his fathers did not know (some suggest the Roman god Mars, or Jupiter) b. He shall act against the strongest fortresses with this foreign god, rule over many and divide the land for gain -- In his commentary, Albert Barnes explains how this could apply to Antiochus B. THE CONQUESTS AND END OF THIS KING... 1. The king of the South (Egypt a. Note that this will occur "at the time of the end" b. This may help pinpoint the meaning of the "latter days" of Dan 10:14 2. The king of the North (Antiochus Epiphanes) will respond and overwhelm the countries - Dan 11:40-43 a. Entering the "Glorious Land" (Israel b. Overthrowing many, while Edom , Moab c. Egypt submit 3. He shall come to his end - Dan 11:44-45 a. News from the east and north will trouble him (from Persia b. He shall proceed to destroy and annihilate many, planting his tents between the seas and the glorious holy mountain (Mt. Zion , Jerusalem c. Yet he shall come to his end, no one helping him (Antiochus died in 163 B.C. of a terrible disease) -- Again, Barnes relates in detail how these events could refer to Antiochus C. THE ULTIMATE VICTORY OF DANIEL'S PEOPLE... 1. To occur "at that time" - Dan 12:1 a. To be assisted by "Michael...the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people" - cf. Dan 10:13,21 b. In a time of a trouble not seen before c. Deliverance of Daniel's people "at that time" 1) I.e., the time just previously described 2) I.e., the time of the conflict involving Antiochus Epiphanes 2. Many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake - Dan 12:2 a. Some to everlasting life b. Some to shame and everlasting contempt -- Note that this is not likely the physical resurrection of the dead, for then "all" (not "many") shall be raised - Jn 5:28,29 3. Those who will shine at this time - Dan 12:3 a. The wise will shine like the brightness of the firmament b. Those who turn many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever -- Using the figure of the resurrection, this may depict the Maccabean revolt when the Jews came out of caves and mountain hideouts to resist Antiochus - cf. Dan 11:33-35 D. FINAL INSTRUCTIONS AND ANSWERS GIVEN TO DANIEL... 1. Shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end - Dan 12:4 a. Perhaps what is meant is to stop writing, and secure what he has written b. Compare this with Dan 8:17,19,26 1) Both visions (Dan 8, 10-12) were to be sealed up 2) Both pertained to many days in the future 3) Yet both visions were fulfilled within 200-400 years c. Contrast this with Rev 22:10 1) The vision of the Revelation was not to be sealed, for the time was at hand 2) How then the explanation of some that the events of Revelation have yet to begin, nearly 2000 years later? 2. Two final questions answered a. One question overheard by Daniel - Dan 12:5-7 1) Daniel saw two others, one on each side of a river bank 2) One asked the man clothed in linen (cf. Dan 10:5-6) above the river: "How long shall the fulfillment of these wonders be?" 3) The answer: "...a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished." a) The "time, times, and half a time" (3 and a half years, 42 months, 1260 days) is commonly used to describe a definite, marked, period of tribulation - cf. Dan 7:25; Re 11:2,3; 12:6,13-14; 13:5 b) When the persecution has accomplished its purpose, then the things described will take place b. The question asked by Daniel - Dan 12:8-13 1) Not understanding, Daniel asks: "...what shall be the end of these things?" 2) Daniel is first told: a) To go, for the words are closed and sealed till the time of the end b) That many shall be purified, and the wise shall understand - cf. Dan 11:33-35 c) That the wicked shall do wickedly, and not understand - cf. Dan 11:32 d) That there will be a period of "1290 days" beginning from: 1/ The time the daily sacrifice is taken away - cf. Dan 11:31 2/ The abomination of desolation is set up - cf. Dan11:31
e) Those who wait and come to "1335 days" will be blessed -- Whether literal or figurative, these numbered days appear to apply to the period of the Antiochian persecution (ca. 168 B.C.) 3) Daniel is then told: a) To go his way till the end b) For he shall rest and arise to his inheritance at the end of the days -- This "end" or "end of the days" may refer to the actual resurrection on the day of Judgment, not "the time of the end" spoken of throughout this vision CONCLUSION
1. We have seen that "The Vision Of The Time Of The End" describes events that would... a Affect Daniel's people (i.e., Israel b. Take place "in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come" - Dan 10:14 c. Occur in "the time of the end" - Dan 11:35,40; 12:4,9 2. From the context, "the time of the end" likely refers to the closing days of God's dealings with Israel a. The inter-testamental period between Malachi and Matthew b. The period involving the Greek-Persian and Egyptian-Syrian conflicts -- Which is how the phrase is used in "The Vision Of The Ram and TheGoat" that depicts many of the same events - cf. Dan 8:1-27
(esp. 17,26) 3. As we conclude our study of the Book of Daniel, we have found it to be a book that... a. Strengthens faith in God and His Word through its fulfilled prophecies 1) Describing the rise and fall of world empires - Dan 2,4-5 2) Foretelling the establishment of God's everlasting kingdom - Dan 2,7,9 3) Depicting the events to befall the people of Israel 10-12
b. Inspires faithfulness to God through its examples of dedicated faith and service 1) Of Daniel - Dan 1,6 2) Of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego - Dan 3 While there is certainly much in this book that challenges ourunderstanding, may we never neglect to mine its spiritual treasurespreserved for the people of God: "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of theScriptures might have hope." - Ro 15:4
－－《Executable
Outlines》
12 Chapter 12
Verses 1-13
And at that time shall Michael stand up.
The Great Consummation
It is a little unfortunate that this chapter has been severed from
what immediately precedes it. Here we learn:
1. That the time of the Antichrist will be a time of unexampled
distress. The trouble will be more or less upon all people then living upon the
earth.
2. The time of the Antichrist is the time when Michael, the great
prince over the Children of the prophet’s people, shall stand up in their
behalf. Some think this is the Lord Jesus himself.
3. The time of the Antichrist is also a time of blessed resurrection.
4. Then shall men receive their eternal rewards. (Joseph A. Seiss,
D. D.)
Verse 1
Every one that shall be found written in the book.
Divine Registration, the Pledge of Deliverance in Times of Trouble
The whole history of the Church of God bears one unbroken
testimony to the fact that her distinction from the world is essential to her,
real prosperity; and the more tenaciously that distinction has been maintained
the more conspicuous has been her glory, and the more her experimental joys
have abounded. Four things in the text.
I. A DISTINGUISHED PEOPLE.
Two distinct families are uniformly set forth in the sacred oracles, from the
very opening to the closing of the book of God. The seed of the woman and the
seed of the serpent. Inquire into the origin and descent of the family of God,
the distinguished people. Their origin is in the eternal counsel. They were
chosen in Christ as their covenant head. Note some of the family peculiarities
of this distinguished people, especially that royal dignity which characterises
them all. The Christian is born of God, with a nature capable of enjoying God.
II. THE REGISTER OF DANIEL’S FAMILY. They are said
to be written in a book. The book of covenant decrees, entitled “The Lamb’s
Book of Life.”
Every child of God, every heir of glory, is found written in that
book, as an object of everlasting life. Daniel’s people are like himself in
four particulars
1. As the children of a covenant head, the true circumcision.
2. As praying souls.
3. As characterised by integrity.
4. As in high favour with God.
III. THE ORDEALS THROUGH WHICH THIS PEOPLE
HAVE TO PASS. They are a tried people--in family experience and
outward persecutions. (Joseph Irons.)
Verses 1-13
And at that time shall Michael stand up.
The Great Consummation
It is a little unfortunate that this chapter has been severed from
what immediately precedes it. Here we learn:
1. That the time of the Antichrist will be a time of unexampled
distress. The trouble will be more or less upon all people then living upon the
earth.
2. The time of the Antichrist is the time when Michael, the great
prince over the Children of the prophet’s people, shall stand up in their
behalf. Some think this is the Lord Jesus himself.
3. The time of the Antichrist is also a time of blessed resurrection.
4. Then shall men receive their eternal rewards. (Joseph A. Seiss,
D. D.)
Verse 2
Some to everlasting life, and some to shame.
Unto Life or Death--Which?
Death is not annihilation; the grave is not the end of man. Two
facts are indisputable among those who receive the Scriptures.
1. The fact of a general resurrection anterior to the Judgment Day.
2. The righteous will be raised to life eternal; the wicked to
“damnation.” The point in the lesson we would enforce--and it is a tremendous
point in the matter of personal interest--is embraced in one word “which?” One
or the other of these experiences lie before each and every child of Adam. Do
what we will, and neglect what we will, we shall have a part in this resurrection;
we shall “hear the voice of the Son of God” then, whether we hear it now or
not; and we “shall live,” and “come forth” either to be caught up into Heaven,
or be banished to hell! In that hour of infinite power and display there will
be no place of retreat, no possible concealment of evasion. In the dazzling
light of the resurrection day it will be made clear as the noonday sun that
there are but two characters, two ways, two destinies in God’s universe, and
that an eternal “gulf” divides them, and on whichsoever side of that abyss we
find ourselves then and there, there we shall remain as long as the throne of
the Almighty endures. “Which?” O my soul! “Which?” (J. M.
Sherwood, D.D.)
The Resurrection and its Consequences
I. THE GENERAL RESURRECTION.
“Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.” The word
“many,” in view of other Scriptures, must he understood as meaning “all,” or
“the many,” the whole collective body of mankind. Our corrupted bodies may, to
all human appearance, be lost among their kindred dust; but God hath declared
that “those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.” The churchyard
that surrounds us is filled with earth that once had breath and life. It seems,
when you walk among the graves, as if eternal night had closed over them; as if
they would never he seen or heard of again. But wait awhile. Their night will
have an end. Death itself must at last be swallowed up in victory. If we should
inquire no further, this grand promise of fire resurrection might seem to he a
doctrine of unmixed comfort and satisfaction. But Consider:
II. THE CERTAIN AND IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES
OF THE GENERAL RESURRECTION. The final issue is, everlasting life
to some; shame and everlasting contempt to others.
1. Some shall awake to everlasting life. What is that life? Does it
merely mean that their bodies will revive, and never die again? That cannot be
the exclusive meaning of the word Life. It is the life of which St. Paul
speaks, “Your life is hid with Christ in God.” Everlasting life is not first
begun when the Christian wakes from the grave; it begins here upon earth. The
Holy Ghost, who is “the Lord and Giver of life,” implants it in the heart of
every believer at his conversion. Heaven is but a completion of that state into
which a Christian is first brought while here below. All mankind are by nature
dead--“dead in trespasses and sins.” When the heart is softened and humbled,
the spirit becomes broken and contrite, and the will subdued and compliant, you
are passing from death unto life. You become, by faith, united to Jesus Christ,
as the branch is united to the vine, and in consequence of this blessed union
you partake of the nature of the tree on which you are engrafted. Being a
branch in Him, bring forth good fruit.
2. Some shall awake to shame and everlasting contempt. These words
describe the end of the wicked and ungodly. But this description does not give,
by any means, a full account of their future misery. The wicked man rises from
the grave, and the first objects which be meets are shame and everlasting
contempt. These are the consequences of the resurrection to him. Even in this
life, sinners are extremely anxious to escape the shame which naturally attends
upon transgression. In this, by the help of Satan, they partly succeed. But,
how will they appear when, at the resurrection, they awake up from their long
sleep? Then the secrets of all hearts will be revealed, and that by One who has
seen your life from the beginning to the end. The shame of the wicked will be
still further increased by a clear discovery of the mercies which they might
have obtained by a penitent faith in Christ. Men pretend that true piety could
have no effect but to make them miserable. But when that eternal day shall
dawn, the truth will burst upon them at once, and they will learn that
“godliness is great again; having the promise of the life that now is, and of
that which is to come.” And he will awake to “everlasting contempt.” Nothing
but an assurance of God’s favour and love can fully reconcile a man to the
contempt and sneers of the world. Is the contempt of an avenging Judge the
whole of what sinners must look for in that day? No; the saints of God will
also unite with Him in condemning His enemies. (J. Jowett, MA.)
Eternal Life
Describe the familiar picture of St. Augustine and his mother
Monica. It depicts two beings aspiring in heart and soul after eternal life,
and thinking for a moment that they have hold upon it. These two human
beings--outward bound, as they say; bent on a voyage, preparing to cross the
sea, to reach an earthly home, and, meanwhile, preparing for another voyage,
across that other sea, whose further shore no living human being has ever
seen--how does this illustrate our own position on the road to eternal life? We
all are preparing to cross the sea. All who have realised the voyage that is to
be, begin to ask themselves what there is on the other side. Treat these two
points of Scripture.
1. There is eternal life. There is no distinction between the two
words, eternal and everlasting; the original word that each of them translates
is exactly the same. The text in Daniel is the first in the Bible in which the
words “everlasting life” occur. There are only three other passages in the Old
Testament where the same meaning, if not quite the same words, is to be found.
That is all, so far as I can find, that the Old Testament contains about
everlasting life. In the New Testament, everlasting life is everywhere. It is
the whole purport of the Gospel to make it possible for human beings to reach
“life eternal.” That was the good news for them.
2. What is eternal life? “To know thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent.” Christ is the life eternal, the spring and source
of it to others, the essence and substance of it in Himself. How is it
obtained? “He that believeth on the Son hath life eternal.” The gift is spoken
of in the present tense. As soon as the water that Christ gives reaches a human
heart, in it the spring of living water bursts forth and flows. Eternal lifo
begins here. It consists in the union of the soul through Christ with God. A
life in union with God--the selfish will submitted to His will--loving the
things that He loves--hating the things that He hates--this wrought by faith in
Christ, and the spirit that He has sent--this is what I imagine to be eternal
life according to the Scripture idea. (Canon Rawstorne, M.A.)
Moral Distinctions Emphasised at the Resurrection
Men will be sorted yonder. Gravitation will come into play
undisturbed; and the pebbles will be ranged according to their weights on the
great shore where the sea has cast them up, as they are upon Chesil beach down
there in the English Channel, and many another coast besides; all the big ones
together and sized off to the smaller ones, regularly and steadily laid out. (A.
Maclaren, D.D.)
Resurrection--the Embodiment of Mind
There be two principles at work in the resurrection of the dead.
The glorified body is not the physical outcome of the material body here; but
is the issue and manifestation, in visible form, of the perfect and Christ-like
spirit. Some shall rise to glory and immortality, some to shame and everlasting
contempt. If we are to stand at the last, with the body of our humiliation
changed into a body of glory, we must begin by being changed in the spirit of
our mind. As the mind is, so will the body be one day.
Future Permanence of Character
You and I write out our lives as if on one of those manifold
writers which you use. A thin, filmy sheet here, a bit of black paper below it;
but the writing goes through upon the next page. And when the blackness that
divides the two worlds is swept away there the history of each life, written by
ourselves, remains legible in eternity. (A. Maclaren.)
Verse 3
And they that be wise.
Shining as the Stars
The word prudent or wise means endued with intellect. Some take it
transitively, and in this passage their opinion is probably correct, because
the office of justifying will soon be assigned to these prudent ones. It is
better, however, to take it as meaning those who are endued with understanding.
The angel says that the “teachers,” or those who excel in understanding, “shall
shine forth as the light of Heaven.” The angel contrasts the profane who
proudly and contemptuously rage against God, and the faithful whose whole
wisdom it is to submit themselves to God, and to worship Him with the purest
affection of their minds. Those who retained sincere piety should be like “the
light of the firmament”; meaning, they shall be heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven,
where they shall enjoy that glory which surpasses all the splendour of the
world . . . It is the common duty of the children of God to promote the
salvation of their brethren. By this word “justifying,” the angel means, not
that it is in the power of one man to justify another, but the property of God
is here transferred to His ministers. Meanwhile, we are as clearly justified by
any teaching which brings faith within our reach as we are justified by the
faith that springs from the teaching. Why is our justification ever ascribed to
faith? Because our faith directs us to Christ, in whom is the complete
perfection of justification, and thus our justification may be ascribed equally
to the faith taught and to the doctrine which teaches it. And those who bring
before us this teaching are the ministers of our justification. The assertion
of the angel is this--The sons of God, who, being devoted entirely to God, and ruled
by the spirit of prudence, point out the way of life to others, shall not only
be saved themselves, but shall possess surpassing glory far beyond anything
which exists in this world. This is the complete explanation. (John Calvin.)
Wise Workers
I. THE CHARACTERS HERE MENTIONED,
There are two. “They that be wise.” “They that turn many to righteousness.”
1. “Wise,” that is, instructors, or teachers. By this character of
wise is meant all good men, who have a real, a warm concern to know their duty
and to put it in practice, who take delight in serving God and doing good. It
is religion that teaches what must be known, and done, to make us happy for
ever. We have souls, and we have bodies. These constitute the man. Both deserve
and demand our care, but not both in the same degree.
2. “Turn many to righteousness.” Some say--If I am good myself, that
is enough. Let every man look to himself. But, surely, it is every man’s
province, every man’s duty, and it will be every man’s satisfaction, his crown
of glory as well as rejoicing, to do all the good that he can. By righteousness
is meant in the text, what it usually signifies in holy Scripture, virtue and
piety, our duty to God and one another, and a due government of our appetites
and passions.
II. IN WHAT MANNER, AND BY WHAT METHODS, MAY THE CONVICTION AND REFORMATION OF
SINNERS BE MOST PRUDENTLY ATTEMPTED, AND PROBABLY EFFECTED? Some natures are so
corrupted, some wills so obstinate, some wicked habits so strong, that counsel,
how good soever, signifies nothing. The most natural and effectual methods to
excite a sense of religion, to reclaim those to the paths of piety and virtue
who have forsaken and run from them are:
1. Let them be instructed in the knowledge of true religion.
2. Recommend a serious consideration of what they do know.
3. Represent the great encouragement which the word of God gives to
enter upon a new and bettor life.
4. Warn them of the dreadful consequences of living and dying in an
unpenitent and unpardoned state.
5. We should not fail to enforce a due care of and attendance upon
the appointed means of religion.
III. THE ENCOURAGEMENT CONTAINED IN THE
TEXT. The glory promised to good men is unfading and everlasting.
(Ed. Sandercock.)
The High Reward of Those Who Turn Many to Righteousness
I. THERE IS A REWARD OF GRACE AWAITING
ALL GOD’S FAITHFUL SERVANTS.
The general character of God’s servants is hero exhibited under the attribute
of wisdom.
1. In what does this wisdom consist? In the experimental knowledge of
all that is essential to salvation. The wisdom thus obtained has not been
wasted in fruitless speculation, or suffered to lie as a dormant or inactive
principle in the heart. Without this wisdom all is folly; and with it, men of
humblest name shall surpass, in a future world, the proudest sons of that
perishable science, which has been confined in its operations within the narrow
limits of time.
2. Whence is this wisdom derived, and by whom is it sustained? Is it
a distinction originating in the sinful creature, or in the boundless
sovereignty of Divine grace? This wisdom is undoubtedly from above. Wherever it
is possessed, it is God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
3. The blessed consequences to which such wisdom conducts in
eternity. It is difficult to conceive of a reward where no merit can exist. Who
can tell what it is to “shine as the brightness of the firmament”? The most
splendid objects in Nature are the chosen emblems of Heaven to express the high
dignity and the unspeakable felicity of those who have become wise unto
salvation. Their eternal sphere is one in which all the elements of light, and
glory, and peace, and sanctity, combine.
II. THERE ARE SPECIAL RESERVATIONS OF
GLORY AWAITING THOSE WHO HAVE TURNED MANY TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. The
personal possession of true wisdom is distinguished, in the text, from the act
of turning many to righteousness. The latter shall be exalted to spheres of
peculiar honour and blessedness. There are various degrees of glory in Heaven.
All are with Christ, and all like to Him; and the awards of infinite wisdom and
grace awaken no envy, and call forth no unworthy jealousy. The principle on
which all are accepted is faith in the Son of God; and the degree of service
rendered to Christ in the present life wilt bear an exact proportion to the
degree in which the justifying principle was brought into exercise. On the
great day, saint and sinner will receive according to the deeds done in the
body. The office of ministers is one of extraordinary responsibility, and one
which involves peculiar trials. They need great consolations, and great
excitements in their arduous work. They have the glorious prospect of gracious
and abundant rewards. (John, Morison, D.D.)
Heaven and Earth Reconciled
I. THE WORK.
1. The subject we must exercise our skill on are men, tempered of the
same mould, having a soul inspired from the breath of the same God, as dear to
Him as ourselves, bought with no worse blood than His Son’s, guarded with
angels, protected by the same Providence, and compassed about with the same
mercies that we are. This subject is set down indefinitely, “many.” The power
of God is here perspicuous, that designs a few to convert many.
2. The predicate we work; men, is righteousness. Righteousness is so
fair an object that a man would think there needs no great solicitation to it.
The end of the ministry is to bring men to righteousness. It is the cunning of
all cunning to govern souls. It is no easy work to make men righteous.
3. The copulatives. The persons whom God hath deputed to atone these
two contrary natures, sinful men and righteousness, are the ministers.
II. THE REWARD. Our bliss,
our heaven. Ministers are said to be stars in five respects.
1. In name.
2. In substance. A star-like and substantial light, not a flash of lightning.
3. In situation. The stars are placed in their orb, and finish their
course in a determined space of time.
4. The motion is four-fold--circular, incessant, swift, and orderly.
Orderly.
5. The last
similitude consists in the effects. Our influence, our light, our delight. Then
despise not, afflict not, impoverish not your stars. (T. Adams.)
Becoming Stars
You know what the “firmament” is, you young people. It is the blue
vault of Heaven above as. And, you know what the stars are. A little girl described
their appearance by saying, “They are gimlet holes in the floor of Heaven, to
let some of the light shine through.” Of course they are not. They are great
worlds, some of them bigger than the world we live in.
1. Let us see that
we understand this verse. By “those that are wise,” are here meant those who
are “wise unto salvation”--those who have the wisdom to hear God’s voice and
have been led to trust it and obey Him. The New Testament speaks of believers
as a great “cloud” of witnesses. Here they are compared to the “firmament”
itself--vault of God’s great spiritual temple, His purified and glorified
Church, far more gloriously “beautiful than the resplendent dome of the sky. By
“those that turn many to righteousness” are meant these who are not only wise
for themselves, but have wisdom, patience, and love in seeking to bring others
also to the love and fear of God. Is not that the noblest kind of life? If you
have found the true wisdom yourself, to seek that others may have it too? That
is a poor soul who is only careful for himself. The truly noble life is the
life which, in gratitude to God, is laid out for the good of others. People
often seek to be thought wise among men--to get credit for knowing a great deal
more than other people. Be it yours to be accounted wise by God, in knowing
Him, and loving Him. For that is the true Wisdom. (C. A. Salmond,
M.A.)
Faithfulness Richly Rewarded
1. In these words we have first a general description of all the
righteous without exception--they are wise. This description in its highest
sense belongs only to the people of God. They only are truly wise, because wise
unto salvation. Wisdom was originally the outstanding conspicuous
characteristic of man as distinguished from the inferior animals. Wisdom was
God’s image in the mind, as holiness was His image in the soul of man unfallen,
but the words of our text show that they are no longer characteristic of the
race at large, but the distinction of the people of God. True wisdom includes:
2. The distinction belonging to some of the godly--that of turning
many to righteousness. Some are specially diligent and successful in this work.
It was said of Richard Baxter that he “never preached without being the means
of awakening, convincing, or converting some sinner.” But the work of turning
sinners to righteousness seems to refer more specially to personal effort in
private.
3. The reward. There are two distinct ideas in this promise, a less
glorious, and a more glorious, reward. The brightness of the firmament means the
star-sown sky by night, and it implies that all glorified saints will shine as
stars, with different degrees of brightness. There will be different degrees of
glory among the saints in Heaven, depending upon the qualifies acquired by
them, and the character formed in them while they were on earth. What are these
stars to which glorified saints are compare? They are suns, conveying light and
genial warmth to separate worlds, or whole systems of worlds, as in the case of
our own sun. The describing of John Baptist, a “burning and shining light,”
applies to all who follow John’s example in influencing graciously the minds
and hearts of men. The “seven churches of
Asia” were lights shining in a dark place, slowly dispersing the
surrounding darkness of heathenism. So it was with our Culdee forefathers. When
each college of twelve holy men, with their presiding abbot, went forth from
Iona, and settled down in some dark region of heathen England, or half-heathen
Scotland, they were so many star clusters, who, by the blessing of God, spread
the light of Gospel truth more rapidly and more thoroughly than any ether
missionaries have done since the time of the Apostles. These missions may be
described as star clusters, and so every well organised congregation at home,
even now, shines with Heavenly light amid surrounding darkness. It seems an
appropriate reward that those who are burning and shining lights on earth
should continue to burn and shine when transferred to a higher sphere. (C.
G. Scott.)
The Peculiar Excellency and Reward of Supporting Schools of
Charity
I. THE PERSONS TO WHOM THIS
DISTINGUISHING REWARD AND GLORY IN THE NEXT WORLD IS PROMISED.
Those, in general, who apply themselves to the most probable and effectual
methods of instructing mankind in their duty, and turning them into the paths
of righteousness. The text describes them as “wise,” or “teachers,” they who
have instructed themselves in the laws of God, and make it their business to
see others instructed. A work belonging especially, but by no means
exclusively, to ministers. The text also describes them as “turning many to
righteousness.” In this work ministers may be greatly aided by a due exercise
of authority on the parts of parents, of masters, and of magistrates. It
includes bending the minds of children, while they are tender and young, to the
ways of goodness and righteousness.
II. THE PARTICULAR EXCELLENCIES OF
TRAINING UP MANKIND TO THE KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE OF THEIR DUTY.
The care, especially, of the poorer sort of children is peculiarly acceptable
to God.
1. As it is charity.
2. As it is charity to the soul.
3. As it is a charity proceeding from the noblest motives.
4. As it is a charity employed to the best advantage.
5. As it is a charity, extending not only to the present age, but
also to posterity. (Bishop Edmund Gibson.)
The Work and Recompense of Christ’s Ministering Servants
I. THE PERSONS TO WHOM THESE GLORIOUS
PROMISES ARE MADE. Teachers or preachers of God’s word. The
primary duty of a minister of the church is to teach and to instruct the
people. But the mere circumstance of being a teacher cannot ensure the promised
reward. There may be false teachers. The reward is only for those who “turn
many to righteousness.”
II. THE DESIGN OF THEIR OFFICE.
In the word of God we are constantly and emphatically told of man’s utter ruin
by sin. Having become by the fall not only inclined to sin, but actual
transgressors, there must necessarily be a change wrought in us thorough
reformation of the inner man--or we cannot be saved. He that has no conviction
of sin cannot understand or appreciate the atonement of Christ. This is the
turning-point in the life of every child of God, When he comes to himself,
bewails his folly, flies to his Father, and seeks forgiveness. How can sinners
be turned to righteousness? The shed blood of Christ has procured pardon for
any sinner who will accept its benefits. The sinner is not justified because of
his faith, but because Christ died. But as faith is the procuring cause, it is
important to ascertain where it is to be found, and how it is to be obtained.
III. THE REWARD ATTACHED. The
souls of faithful ministers shall be raised in the state of glory to an
elevated position among the “spirits of the just made perfect:.” An eternity of
uninterrupted joy at God’s right hand awaits them, when they shall be crowned
with an immortal diadem. (Isaac D. Winslow.)
Soul-Saving and its Reward
Those engaged in soul-saving are prosecuting a work of eminent
wisdom. Cultivated pagans regarded the wise as men of profound knowledge and
great attainments in learning; men whose erudition swept a vast compass; men of
deep and solid information in philosophy. Daniel held aloof a nobler species of
wisdom. “He that winneth souls is wise.” The worth of the soul manifests the wisdom
of the work of soul-saving. The, dying Lyman Beecher said, “Theology is great,
controversy is great, but the greatest of all things is saving souls.” In
turning many to righteousness it is important that we understand the forces by
which we can successfully save souls. We can save them by the power of a holy
example. In this centre the alms of life must converge. A holy man or woman is
a perpetual sermon. The conduct of professed Christians formulates the creeds
of the masses. In example we are holding the invisible reins by which we are
guiding souls to Heaven or hell. Another force in soul-saving is the power of
prayer. Another is earnest and repeated counsel. Advise, and repeat advice. Be
not discouraged. Wait God’s time and speak to souls. Faithfully admonish with
faith in God, and success will crown your efforts. Where can we best work for
the saving of souls? In the home circle. Home is the place of confidence, How
glorious the reward celestial! How magnificently the stars shine over old
Babylon where Daniel lived! Stars shine in their individuality of beauty. We
shall not lose our personal identity in the Kingdom of God. The stars shine in
constellations. When the stars all grow dark we shall shine for ever and ever.
(S. V. Lech.)
Wisdom Connected with its Reward
The idea contained in this verse is that the reward of wisdom
corresponds to the nature of the ends that are sought.
I. WISDOM IN ITS ESSENCE.
1. Wisdom has a wide horizon; therefore its reward is wide as the
firmament. We are placed on earth, but we have not the contracted horizon that
other creatures on earth have. We are like those who study the stars; earth is
only the station from which we look out to the Infinite. In looking away from
self to God, we can feel free and joyous in a boundless scope which is given to
our life. And wisdom requires that we should take the whole width of horizon
that there is. If we have God as our reward we can never feel shut in.
2. Wisdom has a bright horizon; therefore its reward is bright as the
firmament. The great object placed before us is Christ. He is the brightness of
the Father’s glory. It is He who has made our horizon bright, taking away the
darkness caused by our sin, and bringing forth a righteousness for us like the
light. It is He who is the brightness of that world into which He has gone. We
are, then, to take Him as the end of our being. Christ will be in us as the
brightness of the firmament, His splendid sapphire will appear in our bodies
and in our souls.
3. Wisdom has a lasting horizon; therefore its reward is lasting as
the firmament. We are but of yesterday, and yet we are linked to eternity. We
can plan for future years, we can look away beyond death, we can look out into
the boundlessness of time. And wisdom requires that we should take in the whole
extent that there is, and not a section merely. Our temptation is to think of
the present, and not of what the future has to toll the present. If we look to
the things which are eternal, then we are promised eternity in our reward.
II. WISDOM IN ITS AGGRESSIVE AND
CONQUERING ASPECT. “He that winneth souls is wise.”
1. The results of this aggressive wisdom are of the highest kind;
therefore the reward is high. By nature all are turned away from righteousness,
and toward sin. If we have seen what is for our own highest good, we will not
see it for ourselves alone. For the end which we have in and His Kingdom
embraces others as well as ourselves. Our wisdom will be directed to this, to
gain men from sin to righteousness, from Satan to God. The Gospel is the wisdom
of God for this end. And they are wise who can appreciate its wisdom as a
means. If we are instrumental in producing results of so high a kind as this,
then our reward shall be correspondingly high. They that turn men to righteousness
shall he as the stars. There is no object on earth which can set forth the
height of the reward. We need to turn to the sky above us.
2. It has results to individuals; therefore its reward is individual
and varied as the stars. “Many.” Numbers are of great consequence when so high
a result is involved. Joy is in Heaven over one sinner. There is no saving in
the mass; and there will be no rewarding in the mass.
3. It accomplishes lasting results; therefore its reward is as the
stars for ever and ever. To turn men to righteousness is to do them lasting
good. It is doing what will be felt to all eternity. Who are the star-souls?
They are not necessarily the highly gifted, those who have left a name on
earth. They shine out of the nebulous mass of humanity, out of the
indistinguishable multitude. They shall keep their light, it shall never go
out. Because Christ shines they shall shine also. (R. Finlayson B.A.)
Righteousness
Righteousness was the idea of the ancient hierarchy. Righteousness
is the result of the work of the Christian Church. What is the power of
righteousness, what is the source of righteousness, what is the
instrumentality?
1. Righteousness means right in all departments of our being, the
brain, the heart, the lips, the life. Righteousness is a power that conquers
Time; a power that turns life, not into the victim of the passing day, but in
the highest sense into life everlasting.
2. Take another measurement of righteousness. The best, the greatest,
the purest, the most loving, are the subjects of imperfection. Andeas del Sarto
when he went to look at Raphael’s pictures granted that the drawing was
imperfect. He said, “I dare not touch it, because it is marvellous, but
certainly it is wrong.” Then the higher genius, the most saintly life, may be
the victim of imperfection. Now righteousness conquers that. It changes now.
3. Take another measure. Take friendship, which is one of the
dignities of humanity. One thing cuts the tie that binds soul to soul; it is
inconstancy, the weakness of will, of heart, of perception, that separates
souls. Righteousness conquers it. What is the source of righteousness? It is
the glory of God. The glory of God means the sum total, the collection, the
complete centre of life, the central point on which we can rest. Righteousness
of the soul is the result of God’s power. Our last thought upon God’s glory is
the fact that God loves us. (Canon W. J. Knox-Little, M.A.)
Glory in Reserve
The sky is a magnificent object. This magnificent feature of
creation has furnished the prophet with an illustration of the glory which
awaits a certain part of the human race. The text has a climactic description
of Heaven.
I. PIETY ALONE IS HONOURED IN HEAVEN.
Men are removed to that blessed land only as a reward of piety.
1. Being in Heaven is itself the reward of piety, as it is an
expression of God’s approbation. To be there, is proof of being fit to be
there. And, besides expressing fitness, it will be an honour conferred, a
reward of service. To be there is to receive the reward of faith, integrity,
courage, and patience.
2. The beauty of holiness will be there seen to constitute man’s true
glory. Everything else God has made is perfect in its kind and place; and when
man shall recover his lost beauty there will be great splendour. There will be
the perfectly restored image of God. Each one will look like Jesus. His beauty
will be the beauty of holiness; which is love in place of selfishness.
II. THE PIETY MOST HONOURED IN HEAVEN WILL COME FROM THIS EARTH.
It is God’s purpose that where sin abounded grace shall superabound.
1. Their glory is a reward indirectly to them, directly to Christ.
His suffering and mediation all have their recompense in man’s salvation.
Nothing is done directly on their own account. Thee piety will have in itself
no peculiar excellence above that of angels; but it will have peculiar
relations to the person and work of Christ.
2. They will appear in a peculiar lustre, as conquerors. The angels
are represented as fighting; but they never fought an enemy within their own
being. They never so taxed the resources of grace as we have.
III. USEFUL PIETY FROM EARTH WILL BE THE
BRIGHTEST CREATED OBJECT IN HEAVEN.
1. Usefulness is the highest form of piety. There are two extremes in
sincere believers. There may be an excessive cultivation of personal piety; and
there may be too much outward activity; that is, disproportioned to personal
cultivation. The height of all cultivation is to grow into useful piety. Love
is the crowning grace. It has two phases, complacency and beneficence. Love has
its perfection in exercise. Self-denial will be honoured in Heaven. The
exercise of sentimental love and theoretical love does not disturb our
selfishness. They flatter our conceit without taxing our self-love. Practical
love develops the highest form of strength.
2. Their own blessedness, too, will be the greatest. The useful will
shine in brightness of a peculiar happiness. Theirs will be the joy of seeing
those saved for whom they cared. What treasures of joy is every weeping laboured
now laying up in Heaven! Theirs is the joy of receiving the love and gratitude
of those whom they have saved. Learn:
The Glorious Reward of the Righteous
In the writings of the prophets we generally find that after
predictions of calamitous events consolatory promises are added for the support
of the true people of God under them. Daniel is here instructed by the angel to
deliver such promises as were adapted to sustain the faith, and console the
minds, of the children of God.
I. THE TWO DESCRIPTIONS OF PERSONS SPOKEN
OF BY THE ANGEL TO DANIEL. “They that be wise.” “They that turn many to
righteousness.” By the wise is not meant the learned, or the subtle, or the
worldly-wise, or the politic, but simply those that are godly, or righteous, or
that possess genuine religion. True religion is wisdom. It removes the source
whence arise most of the follies of mankind. It improves whatever is excellent
in human attainments and actions. It fills the mind with tranquility and peace;
a kind of wisdom which few rich, great, or learned men attain. Righteousness
includes the justification of men’s persons, the renovation of their nature,
and a practical obedience to God in heart and life flowing therefrom. The angel
does not speak of turning men from one opinion, or mode of worship, or sect and
party to another, but to righteousness, true, genuine, Scriptural
righteousness. No wonder that the angel should single out the character of
those who “turn many to righteousness,” and lay such stress upon it. For by their
zeal and labours men escape a misery unspeakable and eternal, and obtain a
happiness that has neither measure nor end. The two characters are not opposed
to each other. All that are wise will endeavour to turn others to
righteousness.
II. THE PROMISES MADE TO SUCH CHARACTERS.
“Shine,” as the unclouded sky. They shone on earth by their holy example and
conversation. Then every obstruction to their shining will be removed. They
shall be as conspicuous and brilliant stem in the right hand of the Creator. (J.
Benson.)
Wise and Useful Men will Shine in Glory
I. THE WORK OF THE WISE.
1. They turn many to righteousness. This work is truly good, being a
work of mercy to the souls of men. It is a work of vast importance, uniting in
its objects the glory of God and the salvation of souls from death.
2. The means which wise men use are calculated to promote the desired
end. The weapons of their “warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to
the pulling down of strongholds.” They use wine instruction, earnest prayer to
God, and a good example.
3. The ends accomplished are valuable beyond description. God is
honoured and glorified in their salvation; truth prevails over error; virtue
triumphs over vice; and these miserable sinners are made holy and happy. This
work is not confined to ministers. Many obscure saints have been happy
instruments of saving souls.
II. THEIR FUTURE REWARD.
1. They shall shine as the firmament. The vast expanse around us,
illuminated by the sun, moon; and stars, shines with a bright lustre.
2. But the glory of the stars is particularly noticed. The glory of
the sun resembles the glory of our Lord, who is the Sun of righteousness. But
the glory of the moon and stars resembles the glory of wise and useful men,
especially in this particular--they will shine by reflection.
3. The stars are of different magnitudes. This conveys the idea that
some will shine with a brighter lustre than others in the world of glory; and
this must be the case if everyone be rewarded according to his works.
4. The glory of Heaven will endure. Holy and useful men shall shine
there as the stare, for ever. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
The Christian Minister Turning Many to Righteousness
1. “They that be wise.” Who are they? Two kinds of wisdom are
contrasted. Those whom the world counts wise, but who reject the word of the
Lord. Those who are wise, because they are willing to come to God to be taught.
The true wisdom is treasured up in the word of God.
2. “Turn many to righteousness.” Many who possess worldly wisdom feel
no desire to communicate it to others. They are proud of the possession of it,
and either keep it to themselves or else impart it to others for selfish
considerations; but he who is possessed of true wisdom invariably feels an
earnest desire to make others partakers of it. God has been pleased specially
to assign the work of turning many to righteousness to His ministers.
How must the Christian minister fulfil his office?
1. He must point out to men the necessity of being turned and
converted.
2. He must point out the righteousness of God, and show how men may
attain to it.
3. He must lead people to Christ; teach them to renounce their own
righteousness, and accept the free offers of the righteousness of Christ made
in the Gospel. What result may be expected from such a ministry? (E. Jones.)
As the Stars for Ever
1. How may we turn many to righteousness?
2. What will be our reward for so doing? “Shall shine as the stars.”
The Distinction of the Wise in Glory
I. THE NATURE OF THAT WISDOM OF WHICH THE
PROPHET SPEAKS. It cannot consist in that natural sagacity of
which some men are possessed in a much higher degree than others. Nor are we to
understand that cunning, or political craftiness, which is sometimes to be
found in the most vicious and degraded characters, and is generally the object
of fear, rather than of esteem. Neither dons it signify that worldly-acquired
wisdom, of which Solomon says, that “in much wisdom is much grief; and he that
increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” True wisdom originates in the “fear of
the Lord,” which imports the correct knowledge and supreme love of His
character, combined with an esteem of His favour as our chief happiness. With
regard to the influence of this wisdom, it leads to a conformity to the will of
God in heart and life, to liberality, to patience under affliction, love to our
neighbour, and the exercise of every Christian grace; so that it includes both
the principles and practice of all true godliness. It is affirmed of this
wisdom that “her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace,”
Now, it is of the utmost importance to be thoroughly convinced of this. Many
will admit that the ways of true religion may conduct to happiness at the end;
but they imagine that all the way thither is a most cheerless, melancholy, and
unpleasant path. There cannot be a greater mistake than this. Wisdom’s ways are
now “ways of pleasantness” to these who walk in them.
II. THE DUTY OF IMPARTING THIS HEAVENLY WISDOM TO OTHERS.
The word translated “wise” is in the margin “teachers.” This points out the
plain duty of instructing the ignorant, and the quality of the instruction to
be imparted. It is one of the essentials of the Sacred Book that it leads men
to holiness. Scriptures become the instrument of a moral elevation. In every
departure of human learning religion must be the basis upon which the
superstructure is reared. We cannot commence our Christian, efforts at too
early an age.
III. THE REWARD PROMISED TO THOSE WHO ARE
DILIGENTLY EMPLOYED IN THE WORK OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION. What can the most
ambitious desire beyond what is here shadowed forth in figurative language? The
words evidently denote some high degree of distinction in a future state of
existence, but it is not within the power of man to say precisely in what it
shall consist. This happiness is not to be only realised hereafter, for true
wisdom has in it the elements of present peace and joy, and is at once a
foretaste and a pledge of future blessedness. There is, in the wisdom of which we
speak, a principle of satisfaction not to be discovered in any mere worldly
possession. It brings men into intimate communion with God, as the source of
life and salvation through Christ Jesus. Whilst a glorious reward awaits those
who are “wise unto salvation,” a peculiar promise is made to those who “turn
many to righteousness,” and this should stimulate our most active exertions in
the great cause of Christian education. (Edward Pizey, B.A.)
The Supreme Reward of a Devoted Life
These words recognise a broad distinction between being saved and
saving others. They that are “wise,” i.e., personally believe and
accept Christ, “shall shine as the brightness of the firmament”--like the sky
illuminated by the sun; but “they that turn many to righteousness as the stars
for ever and ever”--as suns in the everlasting kingdom! it is is impossible to
conceive of a mere glorious reward than this. Let us glance:
I. AT THE SERVICE. “They
that turn many to righteousness;” It is not sufficient to be wise in our own
behalf to get into the kingdom ourselves. The Christian life is a “calling,” a
“service,” in which and by which we are to honour Christ, and walk in His
footsteps and strive to save our fellow-sinners, and spend and be spent for the
salvation of the world. To live for self, even if it includes our own
salvation, is to dishonour our Master, to live contrary to the spirit and
teachings of the Gospel
II. AT THE REWARD. Shall
shine “as the stars for ever and ever.”
1. The reward of faithful Christian service is sure. It is one of the
fundamental principles of Christ’s Kingdom. It was for the glory set before Him
that Christ endured and suffered. And He holds out the same motive to His
disciples. He does not call us to service without the assurance of a corresponding
reward.
2. The reward is a discriminating and proportionate reward. Christ,
the final Judge, wilt know the kind and measure and effectiveness of every
man’s service, and this reward hereafter will be in strict accordance
therewith, Now, it is otherwise. The rule is mot applied here. Each individual
is not singled out and the exact results of his life set off to him and the
reward rendered.
3. The reward will be one of light and glory unspeakable. There is
nothing in nature so glorious as the stars, the centres and illuminating power
of vast systems in the stellar universe. And what these are in God’s vast
material universe, they that turn many to righteousness will be in the
spiritual kingdom of the future.
4. The reward will
be enduring; “as the stars for ever and ever.” Never will their lights go out.
Never will they cease to roll on in their majestic orbits. (J. M.
Sherwood, D.D.)
How to Win a Soul
Dr. Torrey gave us two main thoughts:
(a) accessible to you--someone in Manchester, not someone in Shangai;
(b) approachable by you--someone of, your own sex, own age, own plane
in social life.
(a) by prayer;
(b) by personal work;
(c) by letter;
(d) by tract.
How to Win Souls
One of the mightiest soul-winners I knew was Colonel Clarke, of
Chicago. He is in Heaven now. He worked his business six days every week, and
he kept his mission, open, which he supported out of his own pocket, seven
nights every week. He had a wonderful crowd of five or six hundred men every
night in the year--drunkards, thieves, pickpockets, gamblers, and everything
that was hopeless. I used to go and hear Colonel Clarke talk, and he was one of
the dullest talkers I ever heard in my life. Yet, while Colonel Clarke was
talking, these men would lean over and listen to him, spellbound. Some of the
greatest preachers in Chicago used to go down to help Colonel Clarke, but the
men would not listen to them as they did to Colonel Clarke. When he was
speaking they would listen and be converted by the score, Why? Because they
knew that Colonel Clarke loved them. I heard this story. I don’t know whether
he told me or his wife. Colonel Clarke said: “In the early part of this mission
I used to weep a great deal for these men who came in, until at last I got
ashamed of my tears. Then I steeled my heart, and stopped crying. I lost in
power. Then I prayed to God, ‘O God give me hack my tears!’ And God gave me
back my tears, and gave me wonderful power over these men.” (R.A.
Torrey.)
How to Win Souls
Dr. Theodore Cuyler once said concerning the 3,000 souls he had
received into the Church during his ministry, “I have handled every stone.” A
lot of men were imprisoned in a coal-mine, as the result of an accident. Great
crowds gathered to help to clear away the earth and rescue the men. An old,
grey-headed man cane running up, and, seizing a shovel, began to work with the
strength of ten men. Someone offered to relieve the old man. “Get out of the
way!” he cried. “I have two boys down there!” Nothing but love for the souls of
the unsaved can help to provide a way of escape for them. Five things the
personal worker needs: A converted heart, a Scripture-stored mind, a love for
souls, a prayerful life, the Spirit of God. Dr. Talmage Once said: “Brethren,
do not go fishing for souls with a crawfish for bait, a log-chain for a line, a
weaver’s beam for a pole, and then scream, ‘Bite, or be lost for ever!’”
Spurgeon wisely says: “If a man is to be a soul-winner, there must be in him
intensity of emotion as well as sincerity of heart. You may repeat the most affectionate
exhortations in such a half-hearted manner that no one will be moved either by
love or fear. I believe that for soul-winning there is more in this matter than
in almost anything else.”
The Work and the Destiny of a True Preacher
I. The WORK of a true
preacher. What is it? To “turn many to righteousness.” To “righteousness.”
1. Not to creeds.
2. Not to sects.
3. Not to ritualisms. “Circumcision or uncircumcision availeth
nothing.”
But turn them to righteousness.
1. This is the true evangelical work. “Christ came to establish
judgment (rectitude) on the earth.” Righteousness was the grand theme of His
ministry. He came to make men righteous in their characters, relations, and
engagements. Righteous towards God, towards themselves, and towards the
universe. Righteous in commerce, polities, literature, and religion.
2. This is the most difficult work. It is comparatively easy to turn
men to theological opinions, to superstitious feelings, to conventional
churches, and sensuous ceremonies.
3. This is the most urgent work. Unless you “turn” men to
“righteousness,” you do them no real good.
II. The DESTINY of a true
preacher. Shall shine “as the stars for ever and ever.” How glorious are the
stars!
“Whoever gazed upon them shining And turned to earth without
repining, And longed for wings to fly away And mix in their eternal day?”
How do stars shine?
1. They shine in the brightness of the sun. They revolve round one
centre; from that centre they borrow the light which they reflect. So that the
glory of the true preacher will come from Christ.
2. They shine in endless variety. They differ in size, bulk, and
brilliancy.
3. They shine with an imperishable lustre. All the stars perhaps that
now shine on this earth are as bright to-night as they were when they shed
their radiance on the bowers of Eden. Redeemed spirits will in Heaven neither
fall from their orbits nor grow dim. Nay, they will grow brighter with the
ages.
4. They shine with an utter unconsciousness of their glory. How
indifferent are the stars to the upturned eyes of admiring generations! It is
characteristic of a great man that he is unconscious of his greatness; of a
glorious soul, that it does not feel its lustre. (Homilist.)
Verse 4
Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Capital and Labour
One of the most striking features of the history of the race has
been the want of continuity or conformity in the progress of mankind. Nations
have apparently shot up as toadstools do, in a night, and perished like them.
Now and then a single nation has made an era. The Jewish people developed a
great moral power. They were not preeminently a moral people; yet they gave
birth to great natures that understood and gave form and expression to those
moralities which have become the common proper of all the people of the earth,
and that is about all they did. Faulty in a thousand things, they were employed
simply to develop one single element--one letter of that sentence which shall
spell final Christian civilisation. Then they subsided, but their work was
garnered. The Grecian civilisation developed the intellectual, but in the
direction of philosophy and art--not in the direction of domesticity. They had
not moral power enough to cohere and maintain a permanent government. Then came
the Roman civilisation. It developed itself in engineering; in the science of
government pre-eminently. Its literature was a pale reflection of the Grecian.
Then came the world’s great plumber; and when mankind aroused out of this, they
began that career of knowledge of which our text speaks. It is my purpose to
show that it is that the spread of knowledge--real knowledge--among the whole
of the peoples of different nations, is bringing forth fruit. The transcendent
advance of intellect seems to be confined to the Western world. Still the
Orient slumbers. In all previous developments the knowledge that was developed
resided in the top of society. It caught only the philosophers, the men of
genius, the educated men, the commercialists, the natural rulers of mankind;
for where intelligence is, there rule will be. The people were yet left in deep
darkness, and were held in contempt. Modern intelligence, unlike any that has preceded
it, has neither been provincial nor class intelligence. The causes that have
been operating are obvious, by which knowledge that begins at the top
penetrates clear to the bottom. The progress of knowledge in science has been
astounding. The Beconian philosophy is bearing fruit everywhere. All the more
elemental sciences have sprung into existence within one hundred years--I mean,
with anything like florescence and fruit. The two great discoveries that
underlie or direct almost all others are evolution and the persistence of
force. All knowledge has, taken on, or has tended to take on, a practical form.
Plato, and the Platonic school, are tainted with the heresy that knowledge
should be possessed simply for the love of knowledge, and that a man who wants
knowledge for the sake of doing something with it is vulgar. The Baconian
philosophy has revolutionised that. The knowledge that is diffusing itself
through the world, and infusing the under classes of mankind, is largely
concerned, with scientific inductions, and with the realisation of scientific
discoveries in the industries: of the world. All knowledge has taken on a
practical application, and thus it has aroused and educated the working men of
the world. Great Britain may be called an empire of machines. It has been a
great benefit, but at the same time it is more or less an injury. Putting
machines against men is a dangerous operation. One machine will do more than
thirty men. To a large extent machinery is working against opportunities. There
has been a steady setting in from the individual industry toward the gigantic
machine industry of the land. Where machinery is largely employed, it is
generally because capital has organised itself. Where you concentrate
capitalists into manufacturers you increase the producing power of material,
and diminish the diffusing industry of individuals throughout, the community.
You improve goods and deteriorate men. Organised capital is itself a tremendous
element of civilisation; but organised capital has not yet learned the gospel.
It is capital that is protected--not the working man. It is not my purpose here
to enter into any criticism of the rude methods of the workmen who have
combined for a greater advantage. I simply consider the effect of growing
intelligence upon the conditions of industry and social life in the civilised
nations of the earth. It is said that a little knowledge is dangerous. I say
there is nothing more dangerous than blindness; an ignorant man is a blind man.
Every step of knowledge that a man can get is so much guaranteed that he will
be more virtuous and more patriotic Patience, then, Hope,Courage,
Justice--these should be our watchwords. We can see partial, imperfect,
fulfilments, and can wait. We shall see the fulfilment of the designs of God.
Society will grade itself. But there will be a just distribution of influences
and results, and there will be peace and good fellowship. (Henry Ward
Beecher.)
Science, the Intellectual Gospel
It is not necessary to decide to what period of the world’s
history the text has reference. There have been several crises in human affairs
at which it has found at least a partial fulfilment. We may apply the
prediction to our Own age with the fullest propriety. There was never so much
going and coming, and never so vast a growth of knowledge. Deal with that
special form of Knowledge which is called science. Science may be described as
the knowledge of nature reduced to system. It examines facts, arranges or
classifies them, and tries to detect their hidden law. Science is a fact of
modern growth. It has sprung forth full armed in these latter days. The world
of Greece and Rome was wonderful in its way, but it had no science, in our
modern sense of the word. Science dates very much from Bacon. Not entirely.
There were other men of science before him. And science has grown wonderfully.
It has amazingly enriched human life. It has quickened, too, all the neutral
powers. What is there that we do not tabulate and catalogue? To this progress
of science we can make no objection. People who object against science in
reality do not know what they mean. “What’s the use of screaming at the calm
facts of creation?” said the wise American. If fact is on one side, and our
dislikes or prejudices, or narrow theories, are on the other, it requires no
prophet to tell which shall win. For fact proves itself. I do not admit that
there is any inconsistency or opposition between religion and science. They may
look at the same facts from different points of view. Yet, though perfectly at
one, science and religion are not quite the same thing. Science is related to
religion as one sister is to another. There are many questions of which you can
scarcely tell whether they are properly scientific or religious. Yet religion
is more than science. You may be steeped up to the lips and the eyes in
science, and be without religion altogether. Science has a message which, as
far as it goes, is a true gospel, a real good news. It promises a great
increase of human convenience and comfort. The world is not nearly so pleasant
a place to live in as it might be. It promises to give us subjects of thought
and investigation which will add greatly to the interest of life. And nobly is
the promise fulfilled. It promises a vast enlargement of our view of the world.
It will widen the boundaries of thought as to the facts of this wonderful
universe; by revealing both the infinitely little and the infinitely great. It
promises a great amelioration of our social arrangements. I accept to the full
the gospel of science. But no science can fill the place of the Saviour.
Science is only for time; it has no gospel as to eternity. Science has no
gospel for the sinful and suffering millions. Science has no power of moral
inspiration, no spiritual force which can lift the soul of a tempted, sinful
man to goodness, holiness, purity. Do not oppose science, but go beyond
science, enter the spiritual world. Draw near to God and to His Christ, and
then, when knowledge shall vanish away, you may be found doing the will of God,
and so may abide for ever. (J. F. Stevenson, LL.D.)
Results of the Exploring Spirit of the Age
One of the most remarkable characteristics in these late times is
a moving, roving disposition of mankind. A very great proportion of human
beings are seen actuated by a restless impulse to go hither and thither.
Impatience of the sameness of life, business, friendship, curiosity, the spirit
of enterprise, religious zeal, are carrying multitudes in all directions. This
consequence has necessarily followed--a very great increase of knowledge. We
are not to regard this as wholly an improvement in the character of these our
times. How many do it from no motive of seeking wisdom, or solid good of any
kind! Some seem to “run to and fro” for the very purpose of attracting into
themselves all the diversified vices and vanities anywhere to be found. A
strong magnetism for the attrition of all congenial evil. But turn to the more
favourable view of the subject. There has resulted a vast increase of
knowledge, which may be of immense value and instruction.
1. Knowledge of the natural world, the whole order of nature on this
globe.
2. The remains and monuments of ancient times. We have now a much
more comprehensive information of the actual state and quality of the human
race. We find that man is everywhere the same; but the human nature is
miserably and horribly perverted and depraved.
3. Every extension of our geographical knowledge has enlarged and
aggravated the hideous account of what we are to call religion among the human race.
All this displays what man is. His reason is as perverted as his moral
dispositions.
4. Knowledge reveals the sameness in all parts of the world of the
operation in the mind of the converting Christian truth. Our increasing
knowledge of this wide world should reader us more fit to live to good purpose
in it, and at length to leave it. (The Evangelist.)
The Spread of Knowledge and Scientific Discovery
These words bring before us a great increase of knowledge as one
main feature of the last times announced to us in the close of this remarkable
prophecy.
I. THE PREDICTION ITSELF IS MOST
REMARKABLE. Only two of the prophets were named by our Saviour in
His teachings. Esaias and Daniel. Our Lord Himself exhorts His people to pay
particular attention to the prophecy Daniel has given. Daniel’s last prophecy
closes with the words of the text.
1. What is meant by “the time of the end?” The last times, in
contrast to some earlier period. It may apply to three periods.
II. THE NOTORIOUS AND STRIKING FACT WHICH
CORRESPONDS IN OUR DAYS TO THIS INSPIRED PREDICTION.
1. The means of intercourse were never so abundant as in the present
age. It is marked above all others for multiplying the means of rapid
communication. The motives for intercourse have been increased in the same
proportion. The whole world has been thrown open to our researches. The
Colonial empire of our own country is a remarkable feature of the present age.
The whole earth is in a manner at our feet, and thus there is a political
necessity for our people to be in rapid intercourse with all the countries on
the face of the globe. These two things have completely changed the whole
character of the age in which we live. The inspired prediction also says,
“knowledge shall be increased.”
1. Natural knowledge shall be increased. This seems necessarily to be
implied. True, there was some increase of knowledge in the Augustan age. In the
days when the Gospel was first preached there were discoveries in science and
art of no mean importance. There was a great increase in natural knowledge in
the time of the Reformation, when printing and gunpowder, and the telescope and
microscope, were first invented. But of all ages, beyond all comparison, Our
own age is that in which natural knowledge has been most increased. Look at the
grand compartments of human science, and see what an immense development every
one of them has received.
The words also apply to historical science, the knowledge of the
world’s history, including natural knowledge, political knowledge, spiritual or
Christian knowledge. Such is the wonderful fact spread before our eyes, what
practical lessons then may be gathered from the words of the text?
We are in the midst of wonderful events already past, the
precursors of something still more wonderful and glorious, the coming of
Christ, and the establishment of that Kingdom which is “righteousness, and
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” (T. R. Birks, M.A.)
The Advancement of Knowledge, the Fulfilment of Prophecy
These words lie in the very midst of a portion of Daniel’s
prophecy, which reiterates the glories of the Saviour’s triumph over sin and
Satan, and which proclaims the ineffable blessedness of the redeemed, as
participating in the victory of the “Lord God Omnipotent,” who shall then
reign, His name being one, and His people one.
1. “Many shall run to and fro.” At the time when the prophet uttered
these words, the intercourse between men and nations was circumscribed to an
extent, of which we, in these modern days, can have no conception. With Greece
and Rome, as civilization advanced, the change became more marked and definite.
Long after Christianity had prevailed, the transit from country to country was
confined to the magnates of the earth. Who that estimates aright these times
can fail to perceive that the literal accomplishment of Daniel’s prophecy has
begun? The untravelled man is now the exception to the rest of his fellows.
2. “Knowledge shall be increased.” Much of the knowledge which now
prevails upon comparatively indifferent subjects was enjoyed by the ancients,
and made the subject of their ardent inquiry. Few in the present day are
capable of closer reasoning than the learned of Greece and Rome; in literature
they were certainly our equals, if not our superiors, and in their writings,
still extant, we trace talents of the most transcendent order. But in all these
instances, knowledge was confined to the few. And, after all, what was the
knowledge even these possessed? It was “of the earth, earthy”; it was
circumscribed and bounded by the trammels of time; it soared no higher than the
sensual and the intellectual; it elevated no one to a perfect acquaintance with
himself; it taught not the attributes of the one true God. The truths of the
Gospel had to struggle for acceptance up to the fifteenth century. Since then
the prophecy of Daniel has been remarkably fulfilled. While knowledge is
increasing upon the earth, it ought not to be forgotten that God uses men as
instruments for its diffusion. (John Edmond Cox, M.A.)
The Missionary Movement of the Age
I. THE MISSIONARY MOVEMENT IN PROGRESS.
The knowledge that is to be increased is to “turn many to righteousness.” This
by imparting knowledge from God’s Word and the Gospel of Christ. This is the
work, the errand, of faithful missionaries abroad, this their message to Jew
and. Gentile. Wherever men are turned to Christ, they will proceed to turn with
abhorrence from the love and the practice of all unrighteousness and sin. Note
their number; they are “many.” Observe their activity; they “run.” They are
labourers, not loiterers. The promise of the text is not confined to ministers
or missionaries. All friends and servants of Christ are included.
II. THE SUCCESS OF THE MOVEMENT.
“Knowledge shall be increased.” The knowledge by which “many shall be
purified,” etc. There shall be good success in the missionary movement
faithfully made. Those “sent of God” shall not run in vain, nor labour in vain;
though they may sometimes be discouraged. The prophecy is a promise, and like
all the promises of God in Christ Jesus, it is true. (John Hambleton, M.A.)
An Ever-growing Argument for Evangelism
Our age realises the scene here predicted. This generation is
pre-eminently migratory; men are everywhere on the move; a restless impulse has
seized the world; and the fixed habits which bound our ancestors to their
hearth are giving way. Different principles stimulate men in this incessant
migration. The intellectual result of all these intermigrations is knowledge.
Knowledge increases as men journey to distances and mingle with foreigners.
Their knowledge of the physical world increases. Their knowledge of man
increases. I shall use this necessary augmentation of knowledge as an argument
for the necessity of propagating the Gospel.
I. THE MORE SECULAR KNOWLEDGE THE WORLD
HAS, THE MORE
NEED IT HAS OF THE GOSPEL.
1. Mere knowledge effects no radical change in the great principles
of human character. The sources of all action are in the heart. Our likes and
dislikes are our controlling impulses. Now does secular knowledge change the
heart? Does it make a dishonest man honest, a selfish man generous, and a
sensual man spiritual? Let the history of intelligent nations answer. Greece,
Rome. Knowledge may induce and qualify a man to act out the evil principles of
his heart in a more refined and less offensive manner. But you may multiply
schools on every hand, fill the nation with secular knowledge, and still the
springs of morals may remain as polluted as ever. Nothing but the Gospel can
act upon the heart.
2. The more knowledge, the greater will be the power for evil. As the
world grows in knowledge, it grows in power to trample upon the laws of God, to
poison the fountains of influence, and to rebel against the interest of the
universe. The power of the Devil is the power of knowledge.
3. The more knowledge, the larger the amount of responsibility. Here,
then, is my argument. If secular knowledge is destined to increase, if this
knowledge has not the power to change the heart, whilst it increases man’s
power to do evil, and enhances his responsibility, ought not our earnestness in
the propagation of the Gospel to rise with the increase of general
intelligence?
II. THE MORE KNOWLEDGE THE WORLD HAS,
THE MELEE LIKELY IS IT TO
RECEIVE THE GOSPEL.
We rejoice in the fact that the Gospel is suited to man in the lowest stage of
development, but we contend that the more intelligent a man is the more
favourable his condition for Gospel influence.
1. The more intelligent a man is the more evidence he will have to
convince him of the truth of the Gospel.
2. The more illustrations he will have of the power of the Gospel.
3. The more indications he will see for the necessity of the Gospel.
4. The more fitted he will be to appreciate the discoveries of the
Gospel. The more knowledge he has, the better will he be able to appreciate the
wisdom of the scheme, the righteousness of the claims, and the adaptation of
the provisions of the Gospel.
Knowledge Increased by Many Running To and Fro
I. AN END TO BE ACCOMPLISHED.
“Knowledge shall be increased.” The prophetical parts of Scripture describe a
happier state of the world than has yet been witnessed; and this shall be
introduced by an increase of knowledge.
1. The faculty which man has for acquiring knowledge forms the most
obvious distinction of our species.
2. It is to the credit of the Christian religion that it is founded
on knowledge.
3. The knowledge of God shall be increased. God is partially known by
His works, but fully described in His Word. Experimental knowledge is necessary.
This will lead us to love God; it will produce confidence in Him, and also
obedience.
4. The knowledge of God will lead to the acquisition of useful
knowledge of every kind. Religion enlarges the mind, illuminates the
understanding, rectifies the judgment, and teaches men to think more clearly
and more comprehensively on subjects of general science.
II. MEANS USED FOR ITS ACCOMPLISHMENT.
“Many shall run to and fro.” God works by agents and instruments.
1. The number of gospel ministers. In some periods of the world the
advocates of truth have been reduced to a very small number; now they are many.
2. The prompt activity of ministers. Preaching is figured to us as
running.
3. The sphere of ministers’ operation. The world. Inferences:
Verses 5-13
Then I, Daniel, looked.
The Epilogue to the Vision
Hitherto the angel has prophesied the development of history,
without adding any remark or exhortation. Here, however, he concludes his
predictions by adding the strongest possible incitement to faithful
perseverance; an incitement which must have had all the stronger effect since,
though it is occasionally referred to in earlier prophets, the resurrection had
never been brought forward so distinctly and powerfully, and especially had
never been shown in its connection with retribution. Turning to the history of
the period referred to we learn that the hope of resurrection to eternal life
did sustain the sufferers of the Maccabean times, under the infliction of the
most dreadful cruelties. Fitly, too, does the allusion to the resurrection at
the last bring the whole series of predictions to a close, and lead the angel
to say, “Shut up the words, and seal the book, oven unto the time of the end.”
Viewed in connection with the final judgment, the doctrine of the resurrection
of the dead is not only a support to those who are suffering wrongfully, but
also a warning to all who are dealing unrighteously with God and His people.
The present life is connected most intimately and inseparably with that which
is to come. Now is for every one of us the germ of hereafter. With what
importance does this invest the present life! Observe, also, the reward of the
working saint. Probably the two clauses, “They that be wise,” “They that turn,”
etc., form one parallelism, after the manner of the Hebrew poets. They who turn
many to righteousness shall be honoured with bright and particular glory in the
Heavenly state. Here is the grand aim toward which Christian ambition should be
directed. Finally, we have here the rest of the waiting saint. Do not disquiet
yourself about the future. Leave that in God’s hands. You shall rest in Him
during the remainder of your life on earth; and when that shall end, you shall
rest with Him. (William M. Taylor, D. D.)
Verse 6
How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
The Philosophy of Wonders
There are many things at which we need not wonder. There are
marvellous things in the kingdom of nature at which we continue to wonder. Man
himself, as fearfully and wonderfully made, is as much a source of wonder to
the greatest of modern philosophers as he was to the sages of Greece. But what
are all the wonders of the material universe in comparison with the more
sublime and complicated wonders of Divine grace and providence? These are
especially the wonders that will never cease. No man can read the Bible without
seeing a very large number of strange historical facts in it, and coincidences.
1. Wonders have an educational value. Coleridge says, “In wonder all
philosophy began, in wonder it ends, and admiration fills up the interspace;
but the first wonder is the offspring of ignorance, and the last is the parent
of devotion. To a child everything is wonderful. Its sense of wonder is the
spring of its desire to know. If it be possible to find a man, or a community,
who has ceased to wonder, then you have a man--or a community--in a state of
mental decay or mortification, for without the sense of wonder and the desire
to know, mental, moral, and spiritual progress is impossible.
2. Wonders are God’s voice in man’s soul against materialism. They
speak to us of things unseen and eternal. They rouse us to thought and action.
Wonders for the mind and heart are as much needed as bread and water for our
bodies.
3. Wonders are a kind of protest against rationalism. We are helped
by reason in a thousand different ways. But there is something above and beyond
reason. Reason has its limits as well as its laws.
4. Wonders are helps to faith. We may wonder at that chemistry in the
field of nature by which God gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater, or
how He makes the grass to grow for the cattle; but enough that we know whom we
have believed, and can pray as children, “Give us this day our daily bread.” (J.
Kerr Campbell.)
Verse 8
And I heard, but I understood not.
The Aspect of the Times
I. CONTEMPLATE SOME OF THESE WONDERS--THE
CALAMITIES OF THE CHURCH.
1. It is a wonder that the Church of God should be exposed to
calamity.
2. That they should sometimes be so great and overwhelming.
3. That they have come visibly from the hand of God, and are
accompanied with evident tokens of His displeasure.
4. The duration of the calamity is often another wonder.
5. And it is a wonder that the Church’s calamities produce so little
effect. Now proceed to specify some particulars in our present situation which
furnish ground for anxious wonder.
II. THE EXERCISE AND CONDUCT BECOMING TO
US IN CONTEMPLATING AND ENQUIRING INTO THESE WONDERS.
1. Such enquiries should be conducted with holy adoration of the
doings of God.
2. With deep humility.
3. In the exercise of fervent prayer.
4. With firm faith in the preservation of the interests of religion,
and the deliverance of the Church. (T. M’Crie D.D.)
The Reservations of God
Who can be so perplexing as God? “It is the glory of God to
conceal a thing.” We think we have got an answer when we have got a reply.
There is a great sound of thunder in the air, but what it all means not even
Daniel can tell Yet the thunder is very useful; the thunder is the minister of
God. There are mountains that have never been climbed; if they had been climbed
they had been vulgarised. The pinnacles of the church were not made to be stood
upon. Daniel asked a question and received all these words in reply, and no man
knows what they mean. There they are, and they are useful every one of them.
Who would be without the mystery? Who would have an earth without the sky? it
would not be worth having. Yet the earth is underfoot and comparatively
manageable; we can dig it, plough it, put stones into it with a view of putting
up a house which the earth will always try to cast out; for the earth does not
like masonry, the earth does not like to be violated. But the sky no man has
touched. The sky is the best part of us. We get all our vegetables out of the
sky, though we think we do not. All the flowers are out of the sun, though we
think we planted them. So easily may we be misled by half-truths and by mere
aspects of facts! Yet we cannot do without astronomy. We may have it as a
science, it is not every mouth that can pronounce long words, but we must have
it as a sovereign and gracious effect. What, then, have we to do? We have to do
three things. First we have to attend to the practical. Many men have been
trying to make out the meaning of the twelve hundred and ninety days who have
never kept one of the commandments. If we are to understand the apocalypse we
must first keep the commandments. If we would enter Heaven we must keep the
commandments first. Do the little which you do know. “What doth the Lord
require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with
thy God?” O thou foolish soul, trying to make out the meaning of the twelve
hundred and ninety days, and forgetting to pay the wages of the hireling,
forgetting to cool the brow of fever. Then, secondly, we are not to deny the
mysterious. The Bible will always be the most mysterious of books. Why shall it
always be the most mysterious of writings? Because it contains God. No man can
find out the Almighty unto perfection. He cannot be searched or comprehended or
weighed in a balance or set forth in words and figures. So long as the Bible
tabernacles God it will be an awful sanctuary. Then, in the third place, we
have to learn patience. Personally, I am waiting for God’s comment upon God’s
words. There are many persons who have handled the Bible indiscreetly. They
have been keen in finding discrepancies and contradictions; they have busied
themselves about signatures, they have asked whether Moses signed this, and
David signed that, and Daniel signed the other; and they have got up a post
hoc case in favour of the Bible. On the whole they have come to think that
possibly bits of it may be inspired. I have not reached any such conclusion.
All I know of it, in the mater of conduct, and elevation of soul, and prospect
of salvation, is inspired enough for me; and as for the parts I do not
understand I am waiting, and perhaps when God comes to read it to me I shall
find that, not God, but the critics have been wrong. (Joseph Parker, D.D.)
Searching into the Deep Things of God
I once heard Mr. George Muller say that he liked be read his Bible
through again and again, and he liked specially to read those portions of the
Bible which he did not understand. That seems rather a singular thing to say,
does it not? For what profit can come to us if we do not understand what we
read? The good man put it to me like this: he said, “There is a little boy who
is with his father, and there is a good deal of what his father says that he
comprehends, and he takes it in, and he is very pleased to hear his father
talk. But sometimes his father speaks of things that are quite beyond him, yet
the boy likes to listen; he learns a little here and there, and by-and-by, when
he has listened year after year, he begins to understand what his father says
as he never would have done if he had run away whenever his father began to
talk beyond his comprehension.” So is it with the prophecies, and other deep
parts of God’s Word. If you read them once or twice, but do not comprehend
them, still study them, give your heart to them, for, by-and-by, the precious
truth will permeate your spirit, and you will insensibly drink wisdom which
otherwise you never would have received. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 9
For the words are closed
The Sealed Book
Daniel, having heard of the great troubles and afflictions
that the Church was to meet with in the last days, was desirous to know how
long they should continue, and to have some more particular information
concerning the issue of them.
The angel said, “Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up and sealed
till the time of the end”. As if it had been said, Daniel, what hath been
revealed to you already is enough to support your faith and hope, and the faith
and hope of my people in future ages, amidst all the troubles and trials that
they may be exercised with, and this you must be contented with in the
meantime; for a full explication of the mysteries of Divine providence, of
God’s dispensations towards the Church made her members, such an explication of
them as will leave no darkness, doubt, or difficulty remaining, is not to be
expected during the present state of things. In these words We have:
I. A SEASONABLE ADMONITION.
“Go thy way, Daniel.” Mind your own business; apply yourself to the performance
of your present duty.
1. A needful caution. Not to indulge an unwarrantable curiosity of
prying into those things which God hath not seen meet to reveal, into the
secrets of His government and providence.
2. A. suitable exhortation. To apply himself to his present work, and
set about the performance of present duty, leaving events to the Lord.
II. THE REASON FOR THE ADMONITION.
“For the words are sealed up,” etc. There was something intricate and
mysterious in the prophecy concerning the Church’s troubles and deliverance
that would not be fully unfolded until it was accomplished. By “the time of the
end” may be understood the time when the several predictions concerning the
troubles and trials that the Church was to meet with should be fulfilled. In
every future period new discoveries would be made of the gracious designs and
mystery of Providence respecting the Church till all were finished and unfolded.
The end of time may be meant. A seal denotes security, as well as secrecy or
concealment. When, therefore, it is said that the words were sealed till the
time of the end, it might imply that there would be an exact accomplishment of
all God’s promises concerning the Church, whatever difficulties appeared to be
in the way.
1. Let us observe some things in general concerning those discoveries
that God is pleased to make of His mind and will to His people in this world.
2. Some of the discoveries which God makes to His people, which are
sufficient to direct them in the way of duty. These discoveries may concern the
people of God themselves. That He loves them. That the covenant He has made is
ordered in all things and sure, immutable and everlasting. That there is a
fulness of grace deposited in Christ as the Mediator of the New Covenant. That
He will never leave them. That all dispensations shall turn to their advantage.
These discoveries may concern the Church in general. Such as that all future
troubles of the Church were foreknown and appointed by God. That they would
only continue for a limited time. That all the promises would certainly be
accomplished. That all the Church’s sufferings would have a glorious issue.
3. Many things are still dark to God’s people, and must remain so as
long as they continue in the world. There are still things dark in the Church’s
troubles, in the promises of God concerning His Church. Believers have but
imperfect views of the privileges conferred upon them; and of the truths and
doctrines taught in the Word of God. There is mystery in that gracious work
which God has begun, and is carrying on, in souls. There is a veil upon that
glory and happiness reserved for them in the other world. There are reasons why
we should attend to present day, and not pry into the unrevealed.
Verse 10
And none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall
understand.
A Virtuous Mind the Best Help to Understand True Religion
To seek a man’s true and final interest, by parting with some
present and inconsiderable advantages for the sake of more and much greater
ones to come, is the proper act of wisdom; and the general character of folly
is the purchasing of soma trivial present benefit at the hazard of much better
and more valuable things in reversion. Folly is but another name for sin. To
“understand” may be taken in two senses. Either the understanding of particular
providences, or the understanding the true nature of religion in general.
Consider the text, according to the latter interpretation. The proposition they
contain is this--A virtuous disposition of mind is the beat help, and a vicious
inclination the greatest hindrance, to a right understanding of the doctrine of
true religion. What is there in the nature of things themselves, and what there
is in the positive appointment of God, which makes a virtuous disposition so
great a help, and a vicious inclination so great a hindrance, to a right understanding
in matters of religion.
1. There is something in the nature of things themselves, something
in the very frame and constitution of the mind of man, something in the nature
and tendency of all religious truths, which helps to verify the general proposition.
In a mind virtuously disposed, there is a native agreeableness to the
principles of true religion; in like manner as in a healthful body the organs
are fitted to their proper objects; and as in the frame of the material world,
everything is suited to its proper use and employment. In the study of every
human science there is some particular previous temper, some certain
predisposition of mind, which makes men fit for that particular study, and apt
to understand it with easiness and delight; generally and specially, a love to
that particular science, and a high esteem of its value and usefulness. The
same holds true in proportion in religious matters likewise. A general love of
virtue, an equitable, fair, and charitable spirit, and a just sense of the
necessity and reasonableness of obeying God’s commands, is the first principle
and beginning of religion. Practice and experience in the course of a virtuous
life, and in the obedience of God’s commands, is in continuance the best
information and perpetual improvement of a man’s understanding and judgment in
the knowledge of Divine truths. “He that keepeth the law of the Lord, getteth
the understanding thereof,” says the wise Son of Sirach. He that practises what
he knows, improves his knowledge continually by that practice. “By actions,
even more than by speculation and study, is the understanding of practical
truths enlarged. There is a spirit and a life in the discourse of a righteous
man, proceeding from the sincerity of an upright heart, which no skill or art
can imitate. In religion, there is no man truly wise and knowing but he that
has lived like a Christian, instead of disputing about it. On the other hand, a
vicious disposition blinds men’s eyes, corrupts their principles, and subverts
their judgments. It prejudices men against the truth, and causes them even to
hate it, and become professed enemies to it. Now we consider what there is in
the positive appointment and constitution of God, by which we are assured that
none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise (righteous) shall understand.
1. In general, God will take care that righteous and piously-disposed
persons shall attain to so much understanding as is necessary for their own
particular salvation.
2. By the secret influence and assistance of His Holy Spirit, God
will peculiarly direct and enlighten those that are truly sincere. But where
there is a vicious inclination, and an affection to wickedness, there men’s
minds are not only blinded by the natural consequence of such a disposition,
but God moreover withdraws His Spirit from them, and the Holy Ghost will not
dwell in a heart that takes pleasure in unrighteousness. Indeed,, God justly
permits wicked men, when they obstinately refuse to hear Him, to be deceived by
the Evil One to their own destruction. From what has been said, we may infer:
Ability to Understand Moral rather than an Intellectual Quality
This passage seems to warrant three inferences of importance.
Verse 13
But go thou thy way till the end be.
Go Thou Thy Way
I. GOD HAS A SPECIAL WAR FOR EACH MAN,
AND A GENERAL WAY COMMON TO ALL.
1. The special way. Christianity teaches that God is a Being of
infinite love and wisdom, who will guide every man into his special way of
thought if we seek to do His will. We have neither the right to complain of,
nor to attempt to force the belief of other persons who conscientiously follow
their own way of thinking and acting, providing their action be within the
lines of morality. The text says, “Go thou”--not our way--“Go thou in thy way.”
Let men honestly doubt, if they like; it will do them good. I like the idea
that each man has a special way appointed for him. Each man is simply a part of
God’s plan. The Heavenly Father is the Architect, Sculptor, Modeller of
humanity, and He is leading us aright and guiding the world in the proper path.
Let each one of us dare to believe that our life is a plan of God.
2. The general way in which God asks all of us to go. Is it not the
way of the cross? Until a man takes up his cross, and guides himself by the
example of Jesus, it is impossible for him to attain the highest manhood; for
the most divine life on earth is that which bears a cross for the benefit of another.
Is not the way in which we are all called to go the way of repentance? Is not
this also a way that must be approved by every sound thinking man? Though it is
a hard way, it is a safe way; for repentance is the passage from death to life.
And is not the general way for all of us that we should be religiously decided?
We are not to hesitate and turn about, but be decided, making a bold plunge in
our determination to be Christ’s, and to live to do good. Let us go in the
general way appointed for all--the way of love. In all our doings with our
fellow-men, let us go and come in the way of forbearance and compassion and
love; and let us go in these ways because God is our Father and men our
brethren.
II. GOD EXHORTS US TO GO IN THE APPOINTED
WAY. “Go thou thy way till the end be.” It is easy to find fault
with another; it is marvellously difficult to do right one’s sell Thou shalt
stand in thy lot, the lot that you are now making, the end you are now
preparing. Lord Beaconsfield gave this advice to Greece--“Your country has a
great future; therefore be patient and wait.” This advice he carried out in his
own life. Defeated, he learned to wait. While he waited, he worked. Many men
fail because, though they wait, they do nothing. These are the Micawber class
of men, who wait for something to turn up instead of setting to work and
turning up something. Let us get into the right way, and resolve with a
resolution which will carry you on to the end.. Be determined, be resolute. The
text says, “Go thou thy way.” The way God has appointed for you. Our Lord’s way
is the safest and best. (W. Birch.)
Good Men and the Future
The cry: “ Oh, my Lord, what shall the end of these things be?” is
often wrung from the lips of the sufferer about his pains, the friend about the
woes of friends, the patriot about the turmoils of his country, the
philanthropist about the state of the world.
I. THE BEWILDERMENT OF GOOD MEN
CONCERNING THE FUTURE. As we have already hinted, there is
frequently this bewilderment:
1. About the future of the world. How shall Christianity conquer
heathendom! So also about:
2. The future of individuals. Recalling the unexpected events in our
own past, and the surprises we have seen in the biographies of others, what may
not befall us? We are led to reflect upon
II. THE EPOCH WHEN THIS BEWILDERMENT WILL
TERMINATE. The “end” will come. This is:
1. The anticipation of universal conscience.
2. The prediction of Scripture.
3. The necessity of the present state of things. Chaos cries out for
cosmos, as winter does for spring. This “end” may come to the individual at
death, to the race at the great “day of the Lord.”
III. THE DUTY OF GOOD MEN WITH REGARD TO
THAT EPOCH. There is not only:
1. Hopeful expectation of it, though that is clearly taught; but:
2. Progress towards it. “Go thy way n; not simply drift through the
time-spaces that intervene.
IV. THE DESTINY OF GOOD MEN AT THAT EPOCH.
1. Personal existence is implied. “Thou shalt stand in thy lot.”
2. Right condition is assured, “thy lot.”
3. Perfect blessedness is promised. “Thou shalt rest.” With such a
prediction the good man is fortified for all the pilgrimage, battles, storms,
that are his present experience. (Homilist.)
Our Way and its End
The opening words of the verse do not me much speak of the a end,”
as of what shall be “till the end.” Till the end it will be said to each man
separately and individually, “Go thy way.”
I. THE SOLEMNITY OF THIS MESSAGE.
In turning your thought from “the end of all things,” and fixing them on the
separate and successive deaths of individual men, I lose much that is solemn
and impressive in grandeur, but I gain in the solemnity and impressiveness of
personal interest. Let us realise it. God shall one day speak thus to you and
to me--“Go thou thy way.” In the individuality and solitariness of our dying
hour we see its solemnity.
II. ITS CERTAINTY. The “end
of all things” can be made the subject of doubt, and it influences but few. But
we feel that if there is one thing surer than another, it is that “it is appointed
for all men once to die.”
III. THE MEANING OF THIS MESSAGE.
When we are called to “go our way,” it is implied that this life is not the end
of our being, that death does not put an end to our active existence. At death
we only go away from time into eternity, from the world that is seen into the
world that is not seen. At death we enter into an eternity of conscious and
continued activity. The message that calls us away indicates the direction in
which we are to go. “Thy way”--the way in which thou art walking. The way in
which thou now art walking is now irrevocably, eternally, unalterably, “thy
way”--the way which thou hast chosen, and in which thou must go on for ever.
Onward and onward, at death, each shall go in his own way. Sinners and saints shall
continue to go on in their respective ways. Perpetuity is implied in this going
our own way, perpetual progression; and perhaps also is implied accelerating
speed. Are we, then, now walking in the way in which we would wish to go on for
ever? (W. Grant.)
A New Year’s Message
Daniel had been receiving partial insight into the future by the
visions recorded in previous chapters. He sought for clearer knowledge, and was
told that the book of the future was sealed and closed, so that no further
enlightenment was possible for him. He is bidden back to the common duties of
life, and is enjoined to pursue his patient course with an eye on the end to
which it conducts, and to leave the unknown future to unfold itself as it may.
I. THE JOURNEY. This is a
threadbare metaphor for life. The figure implies perpetual change. The
landscape glides by us, and we travel on through it. If life is truly
represented under the figure of a journey, nothing is more certain than that we
sleep in a fresh hospice every night, and leave behind us every day scenes that
we shall never traverse again. What madness, then, to be putting out eager
hands to clutch what must be left, and so to contradict the very law under
which we live. Another of the commonplaces that spring from this image is that
life is continuous. There are no convulsions in life. To-morrow is the child of
to-day, and yesterday was the father of this day. What we are springs from what
we have been, and settles what we shall be. We make our characters by the
continuity of our small actions. Let no man think of his life as if it were a
heap of unconnected points. It is a chain of links that are forged together
inseparably. Therefore, we ought to see to it that the direction in which our
life runs is one that conscience and God can approve. The metaphor further
suggests that no life runs its fitting course unless there is continuous
effort. There will be crises when we have to run with panting breath and
strained muscles. There will be long stretches of commonplace where speed is
not needed, but pegging away is, where the one duty is persistent
continuousness in a course. Mark the emphasis of the text, “Go thy way till the
end.” You older men, do not fancy that in the deepest aspect any life has ever
a period in it which a man may “take it easy.” You may do that in regard of
outward things, but in regard to all the deepest things of life no man may ever
lessen his diligence until he has attained the goal. Until the end is reached
we have to use all our power, and to labour as earnestly, and guard ourselves
as carefully, as at any period before. And not only “till the end,” but go thy
way “to the end.” Let the thought that the road has a termination be ever
present with us all. There is a great deal of so-called devout contemplation of
death which is anything but wholesome. It is more unwholesome still never to
let the contemplation of that end come into our calculations of the future. Is
it not strange that the purest thing is the thing that we forget most of all.
II. THE RESTING-PLACE. “Thou shalt
rest.” This is a gracious way of speaking about death. It is a thought which
takes away a great deal of the grimness and terror with which men generally
invest the close. It is a thought the force of which is very different in
different stages and conditions of life. Few, if any, however, but have some
burden to carry, and know what weariness means. The final cessation of work has
a double character. The only way to turn death into the opening of the gate of
our resting-place is setting our heart’s desires and our spirit’s trust on the
Lord Jesus.
III. THE HOME. “Stand “--that
is Daniel’s way of preaching the doctrine of the Resurrection. “Thy lot.” Image
from the security of the Israelites in Canaan. Humanity has not attained its
perfection until the perfected spirit is mated with a perfect body. God is the
true inheritance. In that perfect land each person has precisely as much of God
as he is capable of possessing. What determines our lot is how we went our way
till that other end, the end of life. Destiny is character worked out.
Therefore, tremendous importance attaches to the fugitive moment. Each act that
we do is weighted with eternal consequences. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The Path and End of the Upright Man
Daniel’s career was neither smooth nor easy. But the course he
chose was so sure and true that this text, the last recorded voice to him from
Heaven, bade him pursue it patiently, in sure expectation of a happy eternity.
I. HIS WAY.
1. The way of resolute consecration to God.
2. The way d steadfast faith in Divine friendship.
3. The way of regular private devotion and BibLe study.
II. THE END PROMISED HIM.
“The end of that man is peace.”
1. Repose in Hades.
2. A personal share, at the resurrection, of Christ’s Kingdom.
3. An inheritance for ever. Let the Heavenly word which closes the
book of Daniel
The Servant of God Dismissed and Rewarded
1. We are all, like Daniel, servants of God, and charged with the
performance of that work which He has respectively assigned us, arising out of
our situation in life, and the various duties and engagements connected with
it.
2. In the text we have an important intimation of the termination of
all things. “Go thy way till the end be.” There will be an end--an “end of all
things.” Strangely, we feel little interest in contemplating the end of all
things.
3. An interesting view of the state of the pious dead between death
and the end of all things. “Thou shalt rest.” It cannot mean annihilation, nor
a loss of consciousness between death and the termination of all things. This
rest is the composure and settled triumph of the spirit, escaped from wind,
tempest, battle, danger, and at home with God. Rest from religious labours, and
from religious fears.
4. Instruction in the closing part of the angel’s address to Daniel.
Allusion is to the manner in which the tribes were settled in Canaan.
The Servant of God Dismissed and Rewarded
These are the words in which the angel Gabriel dismissed the
prophet after delivering his message to him. The book of Daniel is interesting
for the length of time it covers; the eventful period to which it relates; the
nature of the prophecy it contains; and the character of the man who wrote it.
In intellect he was a giant; in morals he was a model.
1. Daniel’s death or dismissal. “Go thou thy way.” This may be
regarded as the God-sent summons for him to depart this life. The way we have
walked through life is the way we must walk in death. Death is only finishing
the journey; it is but the last step in the life-trodden way. Daniel could not
have been less than ninety years old when he received this angel’s visit. He
was full of years and honours. If we are in our sins unreconciled to God, death
can only come as the “King of terrors.” If we are at peace with God through
Jesus Christ, then death will come to us, as he came to Daniel, in the form of
an angel of light; as a blessing, as a friend, as “the servant Jesus sends to
call in to His arms.”
2. Notice what the angel said to Daniel about his condition after
death. “For thou shalt rest.” A condition of conscious happiness in the
presence of the glorified Redeemer. A rest, not of sleep, but of conscious
enjoyment. A satisfying rest, but yet a rest that does not bring with it the
full reward of final blessedness.
3. How long is this state to continue? “Till the end be.” “In the end
of the days.” This end must be the end of the present dispensation; the end of
the kingdom of this world. The end of the days means the morning of the
resurrection. Then the rest will enter on a new stage of development that will
go on in widening and deepening channels of glory and blessedness for ever.
4. Note what the angel said about Daniel’s final state, when the end
comes. “Thou shalt stand in thy lot.” (R. Newton, D.D.)
The Christian in Life, in the Grave, and in Heaven
That is a dark leaf in the book of God’s providence which, on
account of one man’s disobedience, made it necessary that death should pass
upon all men. Partakers of Adam’s fall, we share in Adam’s penalty. The prophet
Daniel is the most faultless human character on record. To the young, he is an
example of humble and self-denying piety; to those of mature years, of stern
and unbending uprightness; to the aged, of holy and triumphant faith in the
promises of a covenant, keeping God. Daniel was a life-preacher. His influence
is to be found in his daily life. His acts were a commentary on the purity of
his creed, and himself a temple to his Maker’s praise. Yet all this could not
revoke the sentence of the angel, “Thou shalt rest.”
I. TO EVERY MAN THERE IS APPOINTED SOME
USEFUL SPHERE OF LABOUR. Usefulness is one of the ends for which
our Maker has formed us. No man can boast a charter for idleness. There is a
restlessness about the mind of man which must be employed about something--a
perpetual elasticity which must have occupation--whether it be to guide the
plough or frame our laws. But if man scorns all useful and good occupations,
Satan is sure to provide him with a bad one. Man has not a greater foe than
sloth. There is no exemption from appointed labour for those whom Providence
has enriched with “all manner of store,” and released from the necessity of
toil. Our work must not be confined to the duties which belong to us either as
citizens or as men. We call ourselves by the name of Christ; and, if we are
wise, we shall not rest till we have made that calling sure. We must, like our
Master, “be about our Father’s business”
II. A TIME IS COMING WHEN THE SERVANT OF GOD SHALL BE DISMISSED AND REPOSE FROM
HIS LABOURS. The state of the soul between death and judgment has
always been a favourite subject of speculation. The state of the soul after
death is entirely a matter of revelation. Admitting that the soul will have a
conscious existence immediately it leaves the body, our enquiry is, What will
that condition be? It is not its most perfect fruition. That is not till “the
end of the day.” And yet it must be fruition, or it would not be gain to die.
The angel calls it a state of rest. It shall be the first stage in that moral
progress in which the soul is changed from glory to glory; never completing the
number of its perfections in finding that it can attain no more.
III. THE PERIOD WHEN THE SERVANT OF GOD SHALL RECEIVE HIS ETERNAL
RECOMPENSE. Days and months and years are milestones along the
road of life. But there shall be an end of these days. Our joys will be always
beginning then; one unceasing now of a space that shall never terminate. The
soul of the righteous shall “stand” when all else have fallen, erect in the confidence
of its own immortality, and waiting for its “lot at the end of the days.” What
shall the lot be? Will it be the same for all? Who, then, will be contented to
shine as a star when there is another glory, “the glory of the sun,” within his
reach? Can we overlook the danger that if we are seeking only the poorest “lot
at the end of the days,” it may turn out that we shall find no lot at all; that
having sown with a niggard hand we shall find no fruit but bitterness. Forget
not that we have every one of us a work to do, and a work in which every day we
live must bear its part. (Daniel Moore, M.A.)
The Lot at the End of the Days
These words contain undoubtedly the dismission of Daniel from his
whole life work, and may, therefore, be applied to anyone who has been working
well for God, and has now gone to rest. The text, taken in its connections, may
bring to our view:
I. THE MAJESTY AND GREATNESS OF THE
PROVIDENCE OF GOD.
There is no subject perhaps which we are so apt to dwarf and belittle in our
ordinary conceptions as the subject of the world-providence of God..We require
to place ourselves, so to say, in a petition to see it. This book of Daniel is
a magnificent climbing-ground. It gives us a succession of far-reaching views.
It shows us the continuity of history, the connecting of one thing out of
another, the plan of God in it all. God says not only to individuals, but to
communities of men, and witnesses for the truth; to churches and to
generations, “Go thy way.” What power of will and thought is His which can
develop itself in fulness only through all the worlds and along all the ages!
How vast is His providence, by which the whole is wrought out. Everything is
ruled and used for the accomplishment of His ultimate and perfect will.
II. HOW LITTLE IS INDIVIDUAL MAN.
Insignificant as man is, God is mindful of him. A fly is more than a cathedral,
for it is living, organised, capable of motion, and of a kind of thought, and
is, therefore, more in the scale of being than any form or size of inanimate matter.
A man, living, intelligent, immortal, is more than the whole providence of God.
It, therefore, may be expected that God will look to and tenderly regard the
sons of men. We may trust Him to gather up the fragments of our life activity,
so that nothing at all shall be lost. God says to every one of His dying
children, “Go thy way. Thy day’s work is done. I have watched thee at it all
the day long. I alone know what thy work has been. I have known thy secret
purpose, and I have reckoned that in thy work. Thy work is done. Go in
trustfulness. Go in peace.”
III. “THOU SHALT REST.” To go
from earthly labour for God is to go to Heavenly rest. Even the earthly part
rests in the grave. But the better part is carried to the waiting yet happy and
restful company of sainted souls. Some interpret “sleeping in Jesus” literally.
There is nothing unphilosophical in this theory. The practical extinction of
time is not difficult to imagine. No length of time is anything when compared
with eternal duration. He that falls asleep in Jesus may sleep safely through
all the remaining ages of time, and still have undiminished eternity to live
in. But it seems that to sleep in Jesus is not to be unconscious. It is to be
in Paradise; and that must mean, to be patient, percipient, happy. The meaning
seems to be, “Thou shalt rest,” and know that thou art resting. Of course, this
rest after the work of life will be more or less to each, according to the
labours that have preceded it. He who does what his hand findeth to do with his
might through life’s working day, will go to his Heavenly rest with a
satisfaction and a zest which loiterer and laggard can never know.
IV. THE REST AT DEATH IS PREPARATORY TO
SOMETHING FAR MORE COMPLETE AT THE “END OF THE DAYS.” Then--when the whole vast
system of earthly providence is wound up--then shall each man, woman, and child
stand in their “own lot.” The reference here is chiefly to the righteous. The
term “stand” expresses the completeness, and above all the permanence of the
new life. And it will be our own lot. We shall stand then in that which we are
making now. We shall claim that which by our faith we claimed before, and in a
measure possessed by our love and hope. (Alex. Raleigh, D.D.)
The Labouring Saint’s Dismissal to Rest
1. The person dismissed, Daniel. Note:
2. The dismission itself. Singly, relating to his employment only. In
reference to his life also. The Lord dischargeth Daniel from his farther
attendance on Him in the way of receiving visions and revelations. And there is
also intimation that he must shortly lay down his mortality. Three things may
be intended in the word “end.” The end of his life. The end of the world. Or
the end of the things whereof the Holy Ghost is peculiarly dealing with Daniel.
God oftentimes suffers not His servants to see the issue and accomplishment of
these glorious things, wherein themselves have been most eminently engaged.
Observe that the condition of a dismissed saint is one of rest. Rest holds out
two things to us. A freedom from what is opposite thereunto, wherein those that
are at rest have been exercised. And something which suits them, and satisfies
their nature in the condition wherein they are. What is it the saints are at
rest from? Sin, and labour, and travail. What is it that they are at rest in?
In the bosom of God, because in the fruition and enjoyment of Him they are
everlastingly satisfied, as having attained the utmost end whereto they were
created, all the blessedness whereof they are capable. Every man stands in a
threefold capacity, natural, civil, and religious. And there are distinct
qualifications that are suited unto these several capacities. (J.
Owen, D.D.)
The Assurance of Rest and Future Glory given to Daniel
Many extraordinary discoveries had been made to Daniel of the
principal events that were to happen to the Church and world to the end of
time. Some hints were given him as to the times when these events should
happen. The prophet did not understand them, and, therefore, desired to be more
particularly informed concerning them. He is told that they would not be fully
understood “till the accomplishment” explained them. He is cut short with the
assurance that whatever was the state of the Church and the world, his own
state should be happy. He must, therefore, attend to his duty, wait God’s time,
and comfort himself with these pleasing prospects.
I. THE CHARGE GIVEN TO DANIEL. “Go thy way till
the end be.” Some understand this as a dismission from life. Prefer to
understand it as, “attend to your proper business, the duties of your station
and age, till the end of life comes.” It may be a discharge from his public of
office as prophet. It may be a general admonition not to be too inquisitive
about prophetic matters. The Greek version renders, “Go thy way, and be at
rest”; be content with that station and condition to which God hath appointed
thee. Go on faithfully and cheerfully through that portion of life which yet
remaineth unto thee.
II. THE GRACIOUS ENCOURAGEMENT SET BEFORE
HIM. Three things are promised.
1. A peaceful rest in the grave. Thou shalt die in peace, and enter
upon a state of rest. This implies that the present is a state of trouble and
disquietude. Little rest is to be expected here. Good men, and good ministers
in particular, have their peculiar troubles. Their bodies shall rest in the
grave, and their souls shall rest with God. The former is a kind of negative
happiness. The latter is the rest of a being who is still existing, a rational,
active spirit. It wants something suited to its nature, that will satisfy and
fill its desires; and this it finds in God, to whom it returns, as to its rest,
portion, and happiness.
2. Daniel is promised a glorious resurrection from the grave. His
rest in the grave was to continue to the end of the days, and that he was then
to stand in his lot. The end of the days refers to the resurrection. Observe,
then, that days shall have an end. The revolution of seasons shall cease. Then
Daniel, with the rest of God’s faithful servants, shall arise and stand upon
the earth.
3. Daniel is promised a happy portion in the Heavenly world. The
expression in the text intimates that there shall be a day of judgment, when
every man shall be tried, and have his lot publicly assigned to him. It may
also intimate that good men shall stand in that judgment, and not, like the
wicked, flee to hide themselves from the presence of the Judge. The expression
intimates that there shall be different lots or portions assigned to good men,
according to the degree of their holiness and usefulness here. Application:
A Divine Course for Every Man
All human affairs are under God’s dominion, and must develop the
wisdom of His rule and the glory of His counsel. Daniel’s visions perplexed his
soul. He longed for more light, but to his eager cry there came the calming
direction, and the consoling assurance, of the text.
I. THERE IS AN APPOINTED COURSE FOR EVERY
MAN. With all our similarities, we are made to feel our
separateness. “Thou.” “Thy way.”
1. Having a separate existence we have a separate way. This is set forth
in Scripture, and evident by observation. (Hebrews 11:1-40 for illustrations.)
(a) Then we should take our case to God, and our course from God.
“Wait on the Lord”--consult Him, trust Him, give attention to Divine
requirements. “Wait for the Lord “--for the indications of His will within, and
the movement of His hand without. “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for
Him.”
(b) We should render obedience. “To every man his work.” We are not
compelled to “go” by a fixed fate. Man is moral, and, therefore, free to
disobey. The element in obedience that pleases God is willingness. Christian
principles, right motives, untiring service, will make our days bright with
Heavenly light. Is the course you are taking one that God and conscience can
approve? “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man”--but what about the end
thereof?
2. Providential mysteries ought not to interfere with duty. There are
hidden things in creation, secrets in God’s dealings, and mysteries in the
Scriptures. Shall all obligation be superseded until these are fully known?
There is nothing dark about duty. (Micah 6:8.) O troubled soul, cease
repining; weak heart, take courage; depressed, baffled spirit, repose in God!
Inactivity brings no solution; fretfulness removes no obscurities. Trust and
toil, and life will be a diversity of discoveries. With a separate existence
and a peculiar way--do thine individual duty. “ Go thou thy way.” A commonplace
but impressive fact is next inculcated.
II. THAT THERE IS AN END TO MAN’S COURSE ON EARTH.
“Till the end be.” When, where, or how Daniel passed away, we know not. The end
came, “and he died.”
1. Think of the inevitable end
(a) to business engagements;
(b) to Sabbath enjoyments;
(c) present sufferings;
(d) earthly relationships;
(e) our connection with time.
2. The end is under God’s control. “Man’s days are determined, the
number of his months are with Thee; ‘Thou hast appointed his bounds that he
cannot pass.”
3. The end of this life is the beginning of another. To abide in our
calling, strive after conformity to Christ’s image, daily to renew our acts of
trust and service, and faithfully discharge the stewardship of life, will help
us to finish our course with joy, and prepare us for the world to come. The
words to Daniel give:
III. THE PROMISE OF AN ALLOTTED FUTURE.
“For thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.”
1. A pledge of rest. God’s promised rest is not the calm of unfeeling
apathy, nor the rest of the grave; but the rest of perfect satisfaction. Revelation 17:13-17; Revelation 21:3-4.)
2. The assurance of a personal portion. The way in which the land of
promise was divided to tribes and families supplies the figure. A better
inheritance than a few acres of land is assured to the man, Daniel; an
individual portion, peculiar and permanent. “Thou shalt stand in thy lot at the
end of the days.” At the end of the days will come the day of days--judgment.
Then the possession of some shall be “everlasting life,” and the doom of others
a shame and everlasting contempt.” (Verses 1-3.) Let us carry away these
related and suggestive thoughts--an individual life and path, the burden of
singular duties, a separate judgment, and a personal reward. Listen to the
voice of your God. He tells you to walk resolutely in the path of His choosing;
He reminds you of the end of your earthly course; and predicts, for the
obedient, untroubled rest and an enduring portion. “Go thou thy way till the
end be; for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.” (Matthew
Braithwaite.)
Daniel, His Example and Reward
These words reveal to Daniel three things important to be known.
How God’s servants leave of their life-work here. What happens to them
immediately it is over. What is their final condition. We have all of us work
to do here. Some have to labour, others to direct; some to teach, others to
learn; some to rule, others to obey. But whatever our place is, God has put us
in it. God gives us our duties in it. Daniel’s had been a long and difficult
life. Having a good record, it was a happy day at last when his warfare was
accomplished, and he got the message of his dismissal, “Go thy way; faithful
servant, thy work is done.” That the end we wish for those we love and live
for. At the eventide of our time, God will say to each labourer in his turn,
“Go thy way.” What, then, is our intermediate state? Does the Scripture inform
us where we are to be, what we are to do, until the end come? Thou shalt
“rest”--not in death, or unconsciousness. But this rest will not be then
complete. The triumph of the Church, though assured, will not yet be
consummated. When the resurrection trumpet of the great jubilee shall sound,
then the people of God shall enter each upon the full enjoyment of their inheritance,
long ordained and set apart; and to each it shall be true, “Thou shalt stand in
thy lot.” You know the reality of life is not in life’s uncertain goods, but in
the hopes and promises of God; and those are happy who, walking through the
wilderness, use them for a well, and the pools are filled with water. The child
of God, walking in an honest, simple faith, may have to face many trials, but
never the trial of hearing, like the king, “Thy hope is at an end, thy kingdom
is departed from thee.” The longer he works on the brighter grows his promise,
and though he go his way and take his rest, he will stand again in his lot at
the end of days. (T. F. Crosse, D. C. L.)
The Duty of a Good Man in Time of Trouble
I. A GOOD MAN’S LIFE IS OFTEN PASSED IN THE MIDST
OF GREAT EVENTS. This was the case with Daniel.
II. A GOOD MAN’S SOUL IS OFTEN PERPLEXED BY THE
VARIETY AND MYSTERIOUSNESS OF THESE GREAT EVENTS. These words of
the text show that Daniel was greatly perplexed. How is it that we are so
perplexed with the operations of God’s providence.
1. We have not the capacity to judge. The events of time are remote
in their causes, and complicate in their details, and vast in their
consequences. We cannot understand God, nor find out the Almighty to perfection;
therefore, let us be resigned.
2. We are not fit to judge. We love Daniel because we see he was just
as weak, and just as foolish, as we are, at times.
III. A GOOD MAN’S DUTY IN THE TIME OF TROUBLE IS TO
WAIT THE END OF THESE PERPLEXITIES, RATHER THAN TO TRY AND EXPLAIN THEM. There
will be an end. Let us wait till then. We are to stand by as spectators in the
great drama of life in which God is all in all. Not careless or uninterested
spectators; far from that, but devout and reverent beholders of the great
mystery. Nor yet idle spectators either. We are to go and stand in our lot till
the end of the days; to go and occupy our place, and fill our niche, and do our
work, and be willing, after having served our generation, to die in harness,
having accomplished our mission. (W. G. Barrett.)
The Christian’s Path, and its Glorious Termination
We see the wisdom of God in surrounding prophecy generally with
obscurity; we see His wisdom in involving it in comparative darkness, because,
as men are to be the instruments in executing the Divine purpose and
accomplishing the Divine counsels, if prophecy were very clear, the
responsibility of these agents would be certainly compromised, and the process
of Divine moral government would be certainly interfered with. But in the
prophecies of Daniel we see that he was carried far above the ordinary range of
prophetic vision. His eye swept down the whole stream of time. He saw the
establishment of Messiah’s Kingdom, which is to comprehend all kingdoms. In
this verse he comes before us to receive his dismissal; prophetic work was
done. We are here taught some very important truths.
1. That every child of God has his own way marked out and appointed
by Heaven, in which it is his duty, through all the trials and afflictions of
his life, faithfully to persevere, till death, the end, has come. The prophet
is commanded to go his way, his own special way. I cannot go in another man’s
way, neither can another man go in my way. We are born into this world under
certain laws and conditions, which determine our fitness for certain situations
and employments, and have each a certain path of usefulness and honourable
activity marked out for us. These differences in our constitutions, these
differences as to peculiar adaptations, these differences as to faculties and
susceptibilities--why, they are the very foundation of human society, for what
one man is not meet for, another man is. This, kept in mind, will make us more
patient and charitable and forbearing towards our fellow-men. No man can tell
what it is that his brother man has to contend against; no man can tell what it
is that his brother has to do battle with in his own breast, or, it may be,
through bodily disorder.
2. Whatever our gifts may be, we should bear in mind that they came
from God at first, who gives to every man according to His wisdom and grace.
The poor man should remember that his poverty is not dishonourable. He may be
as honourable before God as any man can be, and have his rank in the sight of
Heaven equally with the prince and the peer. There is nothing dishonourable but
sin. Since our way is marked out by God, it would not contribute to our
happiness if we could get out of that way. It is not change of situation in
this world that can make a man happy.
II. AFTER DEATH THE SOUL OF THE SERVANT OF
GOD SHALL ENTER
ON A STATE OF REST. The rest of the soul after death is not
unconsciousness. Men found this opinion upon a certain philosophic creed.
Dreams foreshadow the great truth that the soul of man can exist, yea, be
conscious of action, when separated from the body. The Christian enters upon a
state which, while it is called rest, is full of unspeakable blessedness. It is
rest in contradistinction to the toil and labour and trial, and disappointment
and pain, in this mortal world, a state where the mind will be invigorated and
exalted to the loftiest degree.
III. THERE WILL BE A RESURRECTION.
1. This is to take place at the “ end of the days.” The great cycles
of Providence will come to their termination. There will be an end to the days
of grace, an end of Sabbaths, and ministry, and ordinances.
2. There will be the resurrection of the good. Mark the attitude
“stand.” Mark the attitude, mark the dignity, mark the nobility, of it.
3. “Thou shalt stand in thy lot.” Israel had, in Canaan, each his own
lot. So in the resurrection, each one shall have his own place, and his own
inheritance; exactly suited to his intellectual, moral, and spiritual
capabilities. We shall find, each of us, that we have got as much given to us
as we are capable of receiving. Is not this an encouraging and inspiring
prospect? (J. Kernahan, B. A.)
On the Prospect of Heaven
To afford the pained heart desired relief, the prospects of
futurity, which the gospel of Jesus Christ affords, are especially suitable and
useful.
1. The servants of God shall enjoy rest after death. While their
mortal part reposes in the grave, their spirit rests in the embraces of their
Lord. We are taught to look on our present life as the season of trouble and
exertion. The remembrance of what life is may keep us from idolising present
comforts, from making a god of this world. The word “rest,” applied to the
future destination of the believer, teaches us also to conceive of the life
that precedes it, as one of labour. We are now called to the labour of duty, to
improve the spring-time of life, by sowing to ourselves righteousness, that we
may reap in mercy. Now we are called to the labour of self-denial, and the
labour of watchfulness. Amidst the labours and cares of life, be it our aim to
secure, through the Saviour, this place of rest for ourselves.
2. The servant of God shall possess an inheritance in the Heavenly
Canaan. The angel said unto Daniel that he should “stand in his lot.” Joshua
made the tribes cast lots for their respective portions. When the land was thus
divided, they possessed the lot appointed them by Jehovah. That Canaan was type
of a better. That better country the God of all grace shall divide amongst His
faithful people, and each disciple of Christ shall have his share. This will be
larger or smaller, according as believers have, by Divine grace, been made to
excel in every Christian virtue, in usefulness in their generation. This place
is called an inheritance, to show them that they have not procured a right to
it by the purchase of their own works,. but as a legacy left them by a friend.
It is upon account of their connection with Christ as their elder brother that
they have any right to it--that they shall ever possess it. The promise, “Thou
shalt rest,” refers to exemption from evil; the promise, “Thou shalt stand in
thy lot,” to the enjoyment of good. By the first, the good man had the prospect
of deliverance from pains, and sorrows, and cares, and sins. By the second, his
hopes were raised to the possession of a great portion, an inheritance in
eternity.
3. This inheritance of the servant of God shall be lasting. “At the
end of the days.” At the end of all days. The conviction of the uncertainty of
what we have here, casts a damp on the enjoyment of it; but the lot in Heaven,
the portion of the Christian, is abiding, is lasting, is for ever.
4. The prospect of this rest, and inheritance, supports the soul in
the view of the approaching calamities. The same prospect is the believer’s
support in the view of personal trials. We are all taught the uncertainty that
hangs over all our present comforts, but with the view of Heaven as his
approaching rest the Christian shall never be entirely destitute--never be left
without the cheering light of hope.
5. The enjoyment of Heaven will make up the loss of the comforts the
Christian possesses below.
6. In Heaven, the glorified saints shall hear of the triumphs of the
Church on earth. And
7. We are here taught that the hopes of futurity should impel to present
duty, Daniel was not to spend his time in indolent contemplation of those
glorious events, but to go on his way in the path of duty. From these remarks
learn:
The Christian’s Lot
“Thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot.” Such shall be the word to
all who cast in their lot with God. They shall have the sweet assurance, ere
they pass through the dark river of Jordan, that they are passing on to their
rest. Daniel knew God himself. Many identify knowing of God with knowing God. A
man reads about God, hears about God, thinks about God, sees God in nature,
traces Him in providence, admires Him in revelation, and then he thinks--I know
God. He only knows of God. To know God is much closer and more personal. It is
to have heard Him speaking to us as none other ever has spoken to us. It is to
have come into spiritual contact with God. And what is our joy in Christ? It is
this, that Christ knows not of us, but that he knows us. He knows all about
you, and your heaven on earth is that you know Him. (F. Whitfield, M.A.)
Human Life
I. THE PERPLEXITY. How much
in the history of human life there is to perplex! The origin of sin. The reign
of wrong. The prosperity of the wicked. The afflictions of the good. The tardy
march of the Gospel, etc. These events often make men pessimists, who declare
that life is not worth living.
II. THY CRISIS. “Till the
end be.” There is a great crisis awaiting the life of mankind.
1. Analogy suggests this.
2. So does science.
3. So does the moral sentiment.
4. So does Scripture. See Matthew 25:1-46; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 20:11-15, etc.
III. THE DUTY. “Go thou thy
way.”
1. There is a divinely-appointed way for every man to pursue.
2. It must be pursued, however great the difficulties. Wait calmly
and courageously for the end.
IV. THE ULTIMATE DESTINY.
1. “Thou shalt stand,” personally. Thou, not another for thee. Thine
individuality will never be amalgamated, thine identity never be lost.
2. “Thou shalt stand,” appropriately. What is the true lot of man? A
correspondence of his circumstances with his character. A man’s moral character
must ultimately, under the government of a righteous God, determine his
position.
3. “Thou shalt stand,” peacefully. “Thou shalt rest.” The moral
universe, agitated by the storms of successive ages, shall be hushed, every godly
man shall rest. Conclusion. “Go thou thy way till the end be,” brother. The
portentous clouds will not always roll over thy sky, nor will confounding
whirlwinds always bewilder thee on thy path. There is an end, in that end thou
shalt rest, rest in holy faith and love, and shalt have “thy lot.” A sphere
suited for thy moral aspirations and faculties, a sphere that will give scope
to thy every power, satisfy thy every want, and transcend thy highest
expectations. (David Thomas, D.D.)
No Rest Till the End is Reached
“Go thy way till the end.” You, my contemporaries, you older men,
do not fancy that in the deepest aspect any life has ever a period in it in
which a man may “take it easy.” You may do that in regard of outward things,
and it is the hope and the reward of faithfulness in youth and middle age that
when the grey hairs come to be upon us we may slack off a little in regard to
outward activity. But in regard of all the deepest things of life no man may
ever lessen his diligence until he has attained the goal. Some of you will
remember how, in a stormy October night years ago, the Royal Charter went
down three hours from Liverpool, when the passengers had met in the saloon and
voted a testimonial to the captain because he had brought them across the ocean
in safety. Until the anchor is down and we are inside the harbour we may be
shipwrecked if we are careless in our navigation. “Go thou thy way until the
end.” And remember, you older people, that until that end is reached you have
to use all your power, and to labour as earnestly, and guard yourselves as
carefully, as at any period before. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
In View of the End
According to Calvin, he was to be content with his lot, and expect
no more visions. Bullinger understands the words as an exhortation to
persevere, and continue to the end. According to Junius, he was to set all
things in order, and make himself ready for his end, without curiously
searching further into these things. Brightman understands the words as
intimating that what the Lord might have further to reveal, He would do it by
other prophets, as He did by Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. (T. Robinson,
D.D.)
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