“Therefore also now, saith the Lord, Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God.”—JOEL ii. 12-14.
WE are not told in this book when Joel began to prophesy, or how long he was employed in that work. But we may infer from the nature of the message he was divinely commissioned to deliver that it was—like our own day—a time of great declension in the Church and in the nation. The first part of his prophesy contains awful denunciations of impending judgments on the people for their sins. Of these judgments the prophet was commanded to give due warning to the people, and to call them to repentance. He was to blow the trumpet in Sion and to sound an alarm in God’s holy mountain. It is the duty of ministers to give warning to their people when God threatens to pour out his judgments upon them for their sins. Our text is a call to repentance. In endeavouring to speak from the words of the text, as the Lord may enable me, I shall direct your attention to four things:
I.—The reason for the call.
II.—The call itself.
III.—The encouragement to obey the call; and
IV.—The door of hope that is here set before us.
The Lord was threatening to come forth with an army to punish the people for their sins. His army was composed of two kinds of soldiers: (1) insects to destroy the fruits of the earth; (2) wicked men to oppress and kill the people. In these two ways the Lord had often punished the people of Israel and Judah for their sins—especially the sin of idolatry, to which they were prone, and into which they had so frequently fallen. Famine and sword were scourges He often used to speak to them when they refused to hearken to His word through His prophets.
The people to whom the message in our text was originally addressed have been removed to the world of eternity long ago, and it speaks to us now; and we are commanded to blow the trumpet of warning in Sion, and to sound an alarm in the holy mount, as sure as Joel was commanded to do so in his own day. Does the Lord threaten to punish us as a Church and as a nation? Yes, and for the same reason for which He threatened to punish the people of Israel—for our forsaking of Him, the fountain of living waters, and hewing out to ourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. We have committed these two great evils. We, as a Church and as a nation, are guilty in the sight of God, and are deserving the righteous judgment of the Most High. Notwithstanding that, some leaders in the Church, who are under the influence of spiritual blindness, say that religion was never purer and never more prosperous than it is at the present time. It can be proved that religion, as taught in the most of churches, was never more corrupt and of less influence for good on the lives of men since the Reformation than it is at the present day. The same may be said of our nation. “From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness.” In their legislation our rulers have no regard for the Word of God, and the people as a rule follow their evil example. Therefore we cannot, without repentance, expect to escape the judgment which the Lord threatens to pour upon us as a Church and nation.
What are the instruments that are likely to be used by the Lord to punish us for our iniquities? When He punished the people of Israel He employed, as the rod of His anger, outside enemies—the Babylonians and others. He may take the same way to punish our nation. There are great preparations being made for a European war, and Britain is looked at with an envious eye by the other Powers. But although our nation should not be attacked by outside enemies, there are many enemies within our borders who are plotting for our destruction. Among these are those who call themselves Socialists. There are forty-two of these Members of Parliament, and they have agents in the Army, Navy, Schools, Churches, etc., who are doing their utmost to win to their side from these different sources recruits to strengthen them to overthrow our monarchy when the fit opportunity comes. That this is their intention may be proved by their own public utterances. J. Keir Hardie, M.P., is reported to have said: “There are differences of opinion about the wisdom or unwisdom of having a King. I have no doubt whatever in my mind on the subject. I regard the existence of a King as a proof of lunacy among the people. A sane people would insist on ruling themselves; but for the moment we have a King. Those who assume the people of this country are intensely loyal are making a profound mistake.”—(Daily Express, 25th July, 1910.) This is treason! In the Socialist organ of the Socialist Labour Party, April, 1908, the following statement to the same effect is found: “There is no reason why a Socialist Labour Party man should take an oath of loyalty to King Edward the Seventh and heirs for ever, and swear to uphold the constitution we are out to destroy.” That extreme Socialism is bound up with the grossest infidelity may be seen in the following statement that appeared in the Clarion, 23rd September, 1904:—”I deny the existence of a Heavenly Father. I deny the efficacy of prayer. I deny the Providence of God. I deny the truth of the Old Testament and the New Testament. I deny the truth of the Gospels. I do not believe that any miracle was ever performed. I do not believe that Christ was divine. I do not believe that Christ died for man; I do not believe that He ever rose from the dead; I am strongly inclined to believe that he never existed at all.”—(R. Blatchford.)
It is a bad sign of the system of Socialism when it is opposed to religion in any form. But while it seeks to rob man of his religion, it aims also at depriving him of his worldly substance, which he acquired in an honest way by his industry. Socialism holds that no man should be richer than his fellow. God did not find fault with Job for being richer than his neighbours. But Satan came forward as a Socialist leader, and stirred up the Sabeans to rob the man of God of his wealth. This is what Socialism seeks to do. In prosecuting their work of spoilation, Socialists say that they must begin with the middle class. E. Belford Bax, in an essay on Socialism, says, “The small middle class in its various sections is the great obstacle which will have to be suppressed before we can see even the inauguration of a consciously Socialist policy. It must be destroyed or materially crippled as a class before real progress can be made.” If men of this class in Scotland, and in the Highlands of Scotland, who support Socialists by their vote, understood that they were helping to deprive themselves of their worldly goods, they would not act so foolishly against their own interest. When the Socialists succeed in crippling or destroying the middle class, they shall proceed to attack the richer class, of whom some are millionaires, and reduce them to the level of the poor or labouring class. The only rich class shall be the Socialists themselves! The Socialists profess to work for the benefit of the labouring class, but they only make a tool of these in order to accomplish their own selfish ends. They know that without the aid of the labouring class they cannot accomplish their own revolutionary plot. The labouring class would be content with their lot if their leaders would not interfere with them. Their leaders keep up the agitation, not to benefit the labouring class, but to cause a general revolution in the country. This is evident from the fact that no sooner one strike is settled than another begins. Indeed, the Socialists do not conceal their intention. They say, “We are accused of preaching discontent and stirring up actual conflict. We do preach discontent, and we mean to preach discontent, and we mean, if we can, to stir up actual conflict.”—(H. M. Hyndman.)
To accomplish their evil design they are prepared to use force and violence should milder means fail. H. Quelch is reported to have said in October, 1893, “We are prepared to use any means, any weapon, from the ballot box to the bomb; from organised voting to organised revolt; from Parliamentary contests to political assassination—which opportunity offers, and which will help on the end we have in view. Let this be understood, we have absolutely no scruples as to the means to be employed.”
Now, this deplorable state of matters in our once Christian land is a plain indication that we as a Church and as a nation have fallen from the high position to which God had raised us by means of the Gospel, and that He is now threatening to punish us for our apostacy. Surely this is a reason why we should humble ourselves in the dust before the Most High, and seek grace to return to Him with repentance, confession of sin, and earnest prayer, in response to His gracious call addressed to us in our text.
II.—The call to repentance.—On this head we shall notice :—
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The persons exhorted to engage in this necessary duty. We learn from the context that all persons in the Church and in the nation—from the new-born child to the oldest man and woman—were called to repent. The divine command was: “Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests—the ministers of the Lord—weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: Wherefore should they say, among the people, Where is their God?” The duty of repentance was enjoined on all the people without exception. National sin deserves national judgment, and calls for national repentance. It is to be observed that those in authority in Church and State were to take the lead in this work, as probably they were ringleaders in the apostacy. The Elders and the Priests—the ministers of the Lord—are mentioned in particular. It is well known by readers of the Old Testament that almost every declension in the Church began with the teachers of the people, and that when an ungodly king ruled, the nation relapsed to idolatry. This is the cause of the deplorable declension in the Church and the State in our own day. It cannot be denied that the present ministers in the Church are responsible for much of the idolatry and infidelity that are rampant among the rising generation; and the rulers of our nation—from the king downward—have been, and are still, co-operating with the backsliding Church in leading the people to idolatry. The Popish altar gifted by the King to Crathie Parish Church is one instance of this. Therefore, as these have taken the lead in causing the people to forsake the Lord, His Word and worship, they ought to be the first to obey the call to repentance. If they were to do so, their good example would be followed by the people. But whether they do so or not, it is our duty to declare to them what the Lord commands them to do in order to avert the threatened calamity.
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The manner in which the duty is to be performed. The first thing is to turn unto the Lord: “Turn ye even to me.” This implies that those addressed had forsaken the Lord. He had chosen them from among all other nations in the world, brought them nigh to Himself, delivered them out of the bondage of Egypt, led them through the wilderness into the good land that flowed with milk and honey, set up His tabernacle among them; and they entered into a solemn covenant with Him, and promised that they would continue in His covenant and never forsake Him. But they broke the covenant; forsook the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and began to worship idols—gods that could not save them or do them any good. Their sin was great—greater than that of the heathen—and yet He calls them to turn unto Him, and promises to receive them into His favour, notwithstanding the aggravation of their sin. Oh, how good God is! But did they return to Him and accept of His gracious offer? No; for we see that they were soon after reaping the fruit of their sin and folly in captivity, where they had been left till they were brought to repentance.
Are we, as a nation, of whom better things might be expected, better than they? We are not. We are as guilty in the sight of God as they were. When our forefathers were “sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death,” the Lord caused a great light to arise unto them. He sent to them the glorious Gospel, which they left as the best legacy to their posterity. It was the Gospel that made our nation great, powerful, and prosperous. It exalted us far above the other nations of the world in respect of religion, civilization, and true virtue. But what are we now? We have, like Israel, forsaken the Lord; we are fallen from the high position to which the Lord had raised us. We have turned away from the living and true God to worship idols. Yea, many in our nation have sunk into deeper degradation than the heathen, inasmuch as they deny the existence of God—a state in which no heathen people have ever been found in any part of the world. They are worshippers of some god or gods, and they acknowledge one Supreme Spirit, though, without the Word of the Gospel, they do not know who that glorious Being is. To deny the existence of God is the lowest state of degradation to which man, possessed of a moral nature, can come. Into this state many in our much-privileged nation have fallen. But in our text we hear the voice of the Lord crying unto them, “Turn ye even to me.” Oh, that they would obey the gracious call!
(1) It must be a hearty turning. There may be a turning to the Lord by profession without a change of heart. But where there is a sincere turning it has its spring in the heart. The back-sliding began in the heart, the turning to the Lord begins there too. So it was in the case of the prodigal. The resolution to return to his father was formed in his mind or heart before he took the first step homeward, “I will arise,” etc. The whole heart must be in this work: “Turn ye even to me with all your heart.” The Lord seeks the whole heart—”Son, give me thine heart.” A heart divided between the Lord and the world, between Christ and Belial, will not be accepted. The people of Israel were charged with turning feignedly to the Lord. They flattered Him with their lips while their heart was not right with Him. Before there can be a true turning to the Lord a “new heart” is given—a new creation is made by the Holy Spirit by means of the Word of Scripture. This is the Lord’s work, but it is the sinner so changed that turns to the Lord. It will then be a hearty turning, a turning with all the heart without any reserve.
(2) With fasting. The ministers of the Church were commanded to sanctify a fast, that is, to set apart a day or more, and gather the people, young and old, rich and poor, and of all ranks, to humble themselves before the Lord, to confess their sins, and to pray for mercy and pardon. This is the kind of fasting that is acceptable to God. In this exercise they were to deny themselves to some extent of food and drink, lawful on other occasions. A time of fasting is not a time of feasting. We have several instances in Scripture of literal fasting when the Lord threatened to pour out His wrath on the people for their sins. When He threatened to destroy the people of Nineveh they believed His word through His prophet, humbled themselves, fasted, and turned from their evil ways, and the Lord owned their exercise, and spared them because of their repentance. Although outward obedience to God’s command by unconverted men, or even converted men, does not merit eternal life, yet it prevents temporal judgments, from which otherwise there would be no escape. When King Ahab, though a wicked man, humbled himself, the Lord took notice of it, and delayed to cut him off for his idolatry. If the people of our nation rendered even outward obedience to His command, which is within their power to do as reasonable creatures, the judgment which is ready to fall upon us would be averted.
(3) “With weeping and with mourning”—weeping more for our sins than for the many miseries to which sin made us liable. The cause of misery—even eternal punishment—is a greater evil than its effects. Sin is an unrighteous thing. The punishment of sin is just. If you do not weep more for your sins than for your miseries, your weeping is not that of God’s people. Many weep for their miseries who never wept for their sins. In true repentance there is mourning as well as weeping. There is some difference between weeping and mourning, as they are spoken of here as distinct, though connected. The difference is this: mourning is more lasting than weeping. The Lord’s people are not always shedding tears, but they are mourning all their days in the wilderness. Even their rejoicing is mixed or accompanied with mourning so long as they are in this world. They are characterised by Christ as “they that mourn”—(Matthew v. 4). Those who never weep for their sins now shall be weeping for ever in eternity.
(4) With rending of heart: “Rend your heart and not your garments.” In Old Testament times rending their garments was practised by penitents as a visible sign of inward grief for their sins against God. But this was so easy a thing to do that others might do it without any true sense of sin or any real grief of heart for it. Therefore they were commanded to rend their heart and not their garments. When God turns sinners to Himself, He rends their heart by conviction of sin, and they themselves begin to rend their heart too. And when He stops to rend their heart by pardoning their sins and speaking peace to them through the blood of Christ, they shall not stop that work. They shall continue it during their course in the world till death. Then they shall not rend their heart any more for ever. The broken heart is then completely healed. But those who do not rend their heart in time shall be rending it throughout eternity; their worm shall not die, and the fire that torments them shall never be quenched. Oh, careless sinner, begin to rend your heart now!
(5) With turning unto the Lord: “And turn unto the Lord your God.” The call to repentance begins with this exhortation and closes with it. The people were so far gone astray, and so tied to their idols, that they needed “precept upon precept” to bring them back to the living and true God. Although they would perform all the other duties enjoined on them, unless they turned to the Lord, all would be in vain. The threatened judgment would fall upon them, and they would perish in their sins. “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Repentance is a continual exercise of the believer in turning from sin to God, till he is made perfect in holiness at death. Then it ceases for ever; there is no repentance after death.
III.—The encouragement to obey the call.
There is nothing in those called that can be the least ground of encouragement to obey the call. On the contrary, everything in them, and done by them in departing from the Lord is enough to keep them for ever away from Him, if they are dealt with according to their ill desert. But there is every encouragement in Him that calls them. “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.”
(1) Are they so impressed with the heinousness of their sins, as against light and privileges, that they are now afraid that they put themselves beyond the possibility of forgiveness? To meet their desperate case, the prophet tells them that the Lord against whom they had so grievously sinned, is gracious. He is gracious in His nature, and is naturally disposed to deal graciously with offenders, who come to Him repenting, confessing their sins, and praying for pardon and acceptance. They cannot plead merit or worthiness. But grace in God does not look for merit in the guilty sinner. It flows out freely to the guilty, through and on the ground of the merit of Jesus Christ, and on that ground alone. This was the ground of forgiveness under the Old Testament, and it is the ground under the New. Not only forgiveness, but the whole of salvation from beginning to end is by the grace of God. “By grace are ye saved” (Eph. ii. 8).
(2) “He is merciful.” Are they miserable, as all men are by nature? The prophet brings the remedy before them. The Lord is merciful, yea, He is rich in mercy, so that they cannot have sunk into such a state of misery but God’s mercy can deliver them, and raise them up out of the fearful pit, and out of the miry clay, and set their feet on the firm rock—Christ. Yea, He can change their mournful complaint of misery into the joyful song of praise!
(3) “He is slow to anger.” They cannot say that He was too hasty to mark iniquity against them, and visit them with tokens of His wrath. No, He bore long with them in their sinful course; and even now, after all their provocations, He is ready to turn away His anger from them, if they only turn to Him. What more could they reasonably expect?
(4) “He is of great kindness.” If they turn to Him even now, He will meet them with open arms, and treat them with the greatest kindness, as if they had never offended Him. Their sins and iniquities He will remember no more. O, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”
(5) “He repenteth of the evil.” That is, He will change His manner of dealing with them. He will not change His mind—as the word repentance means. He is of one mind. But He changes His way of dealing with those who return to Him at His reproof. He will not execute His threatenings against them. His threatenings were conditional on their obedience or disobedience to His call to repentance, just as His threatening to destroy Nineveh was. This leaves the responsibility at the door of those to whom the divine message comes. They are thus left without any excuse. Every barrier is removed out of the way on the part of the Lord. If they perish, they must blame themselves, and justify the Lord in punishing them in time and in eternity.
IV.—The door of hope that is here set before them.
“Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him ; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God.” Here is a door of hope. It may look small ; yet it is an open door, however small. The prophet cannot meantime open a wider door for them. He did not yet know whether the Lord would return and leave a blessing behind Him or not. That depended on their turning unto Him. “Turn ye unto me and I will turn unto you,” is the divine order in this matter. If they returned unto the Lord there is no doubt but He would return unto them, for He has given His word for it. And if He returned unto them He would leave a blessing behind Him—a temporal and spiritual blessing. On account of their sins they were, it would seem, deprived already of the fruit of the earth by the insects mentioned in the first chapter and fourth verse, to such an extent that they had not wherewith to offer a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord. Just as in our own day the Churches that forsook the Lord confess that they are not able to provide the people with Gospel ordinances for want of money. The meat offering and drink offering are withheld in judgment for their apostacy. The only cure for this deficiency is to return unto the Lord ; then He would be as good as His word. He would supply them with sufficient funds to carry on His work in their several spheres of labour, as He has wonderfully done and is still doing to those who, in the midst of the general declension, “kept the faith,” and are determined, through grace, to keep it to the end and to hand it down pure and entire to coming generations, as the faithful Reformers left it to us. If they returned unto the Lord He would give them greater, richer, and more lasting blessings than these. He would pour out His Spirit upon them and make them partakers of Christ and of the benefits of His redemption—even eternal life !
The call to repentance contained in our text may be the last call to us as a Church and as a nation till the threatened judgment is poured out ; and nothing can prevent the catastrophe but a sincere turning from our evil ways unto the Lord in the manner described by Himself, which we have endeavoured to point out. In connection with repentance let there be earnest prayer and intercession by His own people, and let His public messengers take the lead in this necessary work, according to His own command : ” Let the ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them : Wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God ?”
Omission from Synod Report.—We regret that we overlooked to report among other apologies for absence from ministers, that of the Rev. Alexander Macrae, Portree. We expect (D.V.) to have in next issue the Synod Sermon by the Moderator, the Rev. D. MacKenzie, Gairloch.