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Archibald Nisbet, St. Stephen's Ch. Working Classes and their Literature, 10, 37, Glasgow, 257.

123, 179.

THE

EDINBURGH CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE.

Sermon.

By the REV. R. J. JOHNSTONE, M.A., Minister of Logie.

"I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."
MALACHI iii, 6.

To perceive the singular force of this announcement as made specially to the posterity of Abraham, we must attend for a moment to the relation which subsisted between them and the Almighty.

heaven as was at that period peculiar to himself. Thus Abraham lived; and we are assured that he "died in faith, not having received the promises." But although he to whom they were originally made was thus not destined to enjoy them, yet these promises were to be fulfilled, for "He was faithful who had promised." And accordingly we find the same love and favour which had been shewn to Abraham transferred to his posterity, after he had been gathered to his fathers. The history of Isaac presents us with evidence the most conclusive of the special guidance of the Most High,

The circumstances in which they had all along been placed were altogether peculiar to themselves, and distinct from those of any other people. In the unsearchable riches of His wisdom, and in furtherance of His great and benevolent designs towards the whole family of Adam, Jehovah had selected them as a seed to serve Him, and as the depositaries of His mind and will. To their great and illustrious progenitor, who-and that of Jacob and his family, from was distinguished for the liveliness and strength of his faith, He had given the assurance that He would make of him "a great nation, and that He would bless him and make his name great, and that in him should all families of the earth be blessed." In fulfilment of that promise, we are afterwards informed that God was always with Abraham,-that goodness and mercy were made to follow him all the days of his life, and that he was specially blessed with many important divine communications, and with such a knowledge of the doings and designs of 1.-VIII.

the time that he became the servant of Laban, till he died in Egypt, surrounded by a long line of descendants, affords a most illustrious confirmation of the words: "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great." From this period we can no longer recognise individuals, or a particular family, as heirs of the promise, because that part of it had so far received its accomplishment: "I will make of thee a great nation." For the descendants of Jacob, or of Israel, as he afterwards was called, increased so abundantly, and mul

tiplied, and waxed so exceeding mighty and previous to their final departure in the land of Egypt, that in Abraham's from Egypt, I shall not pretend to seed, and the inheritors of Abraham's speak. They are far too numerous to be blessing, we have now to contemplate, reckoned up, but in every one of them not the members of a single family, but an example is afforded us of His strict the collected members of a great nation, and steadfast adherence to the word even mightier than those among whom which He hath spoken to His servant they sojourned. In this capacity, we Abraham. For this cause Pharaoh was still find that Jehovah was with them, afflicted, and his country made desolate, that the lapse of ages had produced no and its rivers turned into blood, while change upon His purposes,-but that He the land of Goshen, where Israel dwelt, still continued faithful to His word, that was flourishing in all its wonted fertility. "blessing He would bless them." And For this, the first-born of Egypt were of this He afforded the strongest proofs, slain, and every house filled with lamenunder otherwise disastrous circumstances. tation, while the babes of Israel reWith their need His exertions were in-mained unhurt. For this was a pascreased, and for constant displays of His affection towards them, nothing but occasions ever were awanting. For while they were thus prospering in Egypt, so that even "the land was filled with them," there arose a new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph. Now had the time of their trial come, and had not God remembered and been faithful to His promise, now also had been the time of their extinction. But although reduced to the capacity of slaves, and subjected to more than slavish endurance,—although a worse motive than avarice actuated those who maintained for a season the dominion over them, and induced them to demand an impracticable service, although the most inhuman means were resorted to prevent their increase, and put a stop to their growing power, yet do we find that the more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied, and so presented in these, as in other circumstances, an evidence of the faithfulness of Him who had promised, hundreds of years before: "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and I will bless them that bless thee," &c.

sage opened through the deep, and the sea was made dry, and the waters were as walls on the right and on the left of the chosen heritage; and to shew that this passage was for them alone, the waters closed on the Egyptians who pursued them, and "covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh, so that there remained not so much as one of them."

But for the full performance of His word, it was now requisite that the children of Israel should leave the place of their temporary sojourn, and take possession of that land whereof God had said to Abraham: "Unto thy seed will I give this land." Of the amazing interpositions of His power on their behalf, which they received upon this occasion,

Thus, during the first age of their history did Jehovah fulfil, in innumerable instances, that which He had spoken unto their father Abraham: "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee," &c.

But we now come to a period in the history of Israel, at which Jehovah's faithfulness as a covenant keeping God was even more remarkably and strikingly exhibited. Not that He was more steadfast to His word than He had been before, for that was not possible; His dealings from the very first having shewn, that with Him there was "no variableness, neither shadow of turning;" but that He continued to be so under other circumstances, and under such circumstances as in human estimation would have amply justified a different procedure.

During all the preceding period-from the days of Abraham till the departure from Egypt,-we are not made aware of any course of conduct on the part of Abraham's posterity, fitted so to provoke

the displeasure of Jehovah, as to induce shew that indeed they were Abraham's Him to forsake them-retract what He children, and heirs of the promise? had promised, and cast them off for ever. Did they evidence a spirit different from That there was sin even then among that of the deluded nations from which them, and that it did prevail, without in- they had been separated, and shew that termission and without exception, from they were fit to value the knowledge of Abraham, to those who departed in the Most High, and be announced to surtriumph from the land of bondage, there rounding nations as the chosen of the can be no question; but yet, it was not Lord? Had such been their demeanour sin like unto that which they afterwards then could we not have wondered that committed; for we have no reason to the "sons of Jacob" were "not consuppose that they ever had forsaken the sumed "--because their God was "the God of their fathers, forgotten the duty Lord who changeth not," but to them which they owed to Him, or given and to their children, we should have that worship which was His to the idols confidently looked for the fulfilment of and vanities of Egypt. No! as Abra- all that was promised unto Abraham ham's children, they had remained the when this language was addressed to servants of Abraham's God, and what- him: "I will make of thee a great ever were their shortcomings, their nation, and I will bless thee and make follies or their crimes, assuredly they thy name great, and I will bless them had not been aggravated by giving that that bless thee, and curse him that glory which was due to the Creator of curseth thee, and in thee shall all famithe universe alone, to the senseless works lies of the earth be blessed." But of their own hands. But when we follow Israel, borne as on eagle's wings, went them from Egypt, trace their wanderings out of Egypt, and what was the result? through the desert, and finally contem- They went after the idols of the heathen, plate them put in possession of the land and worshipped the works of their own of promise, we behold a state of things hands! They forsook the Lord who very different. The sons of Jacob are had bought them, who had broken their miserably changed, and, in human judg- bands asunder, and made the oppressed ment, more than sufficient grounds are to go free! Although the Lord went afforded for the withdrawment of heaven's before them in a pillar of cloud by day, protection, and for the forfeiture, of every to lead them in the way, and in a pillar promised blessing. For after the good- of fire by night, to give them light, yet ness and mercy which had followed them, in their deep infatuation they thus re-after their deliverance from the jaws solved among themselves: "Let us make of famine by the providential interference us gods who may go before us;" and of Jehovah,—after the Lord had caused although the Lord had miraculously them to increase and multiply exceed-shewn himself to be their God and ingly, and made them, who had been but Saviour, yet did they make unto thema despised remnant, a mighty nation,- selves a calf, and they worshipped it, and after He had carried them victorious and sacrificed thereunto, and said: "These triumphant beyond the power and malice be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought of their enemies, reversing even, on their thee out of the land of Egypt!" And behalf, the laws by which He governed did the Lord now forsake them, when the universe, after all these proofs, and they had so shamefully forsaken Him? many more than these of the love where- Did His wrath wax very hot against with He loved them, and the scrupulous, them, to consume them even from off unyielding steadfastness with which the earth? Was His love turned into He held to the word that He had hatred, as well it might, and the blesspassed, that "blessing He would blessings wherewith He had blessed them, them," how did they act, or what followed with a righteous and eternal, proof did they afford of their attach- curse ?-Ought it not to have been so ment and their gratitude? Did they if He is unchangeable, for is not sin

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which is scattered over the face of the earth, but which still continues a separate and distinct, though a broken nation, without a country or fatherland. When we think of the troubles through which they have passed, but always have survived. When we find that of the mightiest of their contemporary nations there remains not a wreck behind,that Babylon, by whose rivers poor captive Israel once sat and wept, while they

unchangeably hateful to Him, and has He not declared that they who commit it shall not escape? Might He not justly have withdrawn His promise, or could His faithfulness for doing so have been called in question? By us it might not. But the love of God is stronger than men, and the faithfulness of God is greater than men. "Behold He is of one mind, and who can turn him? the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Israel had turned and gone away back-hung their tuneless harps upon the wilward, but for that His word did not fail! Though they had sinned, He was not "man that He should lie, or the son of man that He should repent." Although they had forsaken Him, yet them He would not, He could not forsake. Although Him they had forgotten, yet them He could not forget, for they were engraven upon the palms of His hands," | their walls were continually before Him! Other gods they desired, but He desired not another people, for on them He had set His love, and them He had taken for His heritage! Their iniquity He punished, and the death of the idol-recognise the posterity of Abraham—disaters proclaimed His displeasure at their sin, but a full end of them He would not make. He remembered the word which He had spoken unto Abraham: "I will-cast down, but not destroyed! When make of thee a great nation, &c.," and because it was impossible that one jot or tittle should pass from His word, because He was "the Lord that changeth not, the sons of Jacob were not consumed."

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low; that this Babylon has fallen, and left no trace of its government or people!— that Rome, which claimed the empire of the world, and for long regarded Judea as her tributary, can now only be said to have once existed! when on the surface of the globe, we can find neither Roman nor Assyrian, nor one to claim a Babylonish origin; while on the other hand, amid the fall of nations, and the convulsion of empires, and the change of dynasties, and all the revolutions which have shaken thrones, and made the slaves of to-day the victors of to-morrow, we still

tinct and secure amid the wreck of ages! enfeebled, it is true, but still like unto themselves; persecuted, but not forsaken

thus we find Israel to be Israel still, and as a separate, peculiar people, as much so as ever, do we not feel most impressively the truth of what is stated in the text, that "the sons of Jacob are not consumed," because their God is "the Lord that changeth not," and apprehend, as perchance we never did before, the sense of those deeply-interesting words:

thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee; in a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy upon thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer."

But while in the past history of Israel this truth is so remarkably exemplified, is not their condition at the present day as clear an illustration of it, as we could possibly desire! God is still the Lord" For a small moment have I forsaken who changeth not, and therefore Israel is not consumed. Their sins have caused Him to forsake them for a season, but His truth and faithfulness remain the same! They are still the heirs of the promise, and to them the promise is yet to be fulfilled. For although Jehovah has punished, yet a full end He has never made, and though "blindness in part hath happened unto Israel," it is only till "the fulness of the Gentiles be brought in." And when we contemplate that poor, despised, and persecuted remnant Christ."-Leighton.

"He that aims high, shoots the higher for it, though he shoots not so high as he aims. This is what ennobles the spirit of a Christian, this propounding of this our high pattern, the example of Jesus

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