Part 48
the world and have stood like rocks in the midst of foaming billows when all men were against us. Another week has seen us flying away, after denying our Master, because like Peter, we were afraid of some little maid, or of our own shadow. After coming out of a great trouble, we have resolutely declared "I can never doubt God again," but the next cloud that has swept the sky has darkened all our faith. We have been variable in our faith.
And have you not also, at times, my Friends, felt variable in your love? Sweet Master, King of Heaven, fairest of a thousand fairs!
My heart is knit to You–my soul melts at the mention of Your name. My heart bubbles up with a good matter when I speak of the things which I have made touching the King–
"The strings that bind around my heart,
Tortures and racks may tear them off.
But they can never, never part,
The hold I have of Christ, my love."
Surely, I could die for You and think it better than to live, if so I might honor You. This is the sweet manner of our spirit when our love is burning and fervent–but soon we neglect the fire, it becomes dim and we have to rake among the ashes even for a spark, crying–
"'Tis a point I long to know,
Oft it causes anxious thought,
Do I love the Lord or no?
Am I His, or am I not?"
How unstable we are! At one time we are quite certain we are the Lord's. Though an angel from Heaven should deny our election, or our adoption, we would reply that we have the witness of the Spirit that we are born of God. But perhaps within two minutes we shall not be able to say that we ever had one spiritual feeling. We shall perhaps think that we never repented aright, never fled to Christ aright and did never believe to the saving of the soul. Oh, it is no wonder that we do not excel when we are such unstable creatures!
Alas, my Brethren, I might enlarge on the inconsistencies of the mass of Christians. How unfaithful we have been to our dedication vows! How negligent of close communion! How unlike we have been to holy Enoch!
How much more like Peter, when he followed afar off! I might tell how one day, like the mariner, we mounted up to Heaven and how the next moment we have gone to the lowest depths when the waves of God's grace have ceased to lift us up. I wonder at David, at Jacob and at every instance we have in Scripture of excellent men. Marvel, O you angels, that God should ever make such bright stars out of such black blots as we are! How can it ever be that man, so fickle, so inconstant, should nevertheless be a pillar in the house of his God and should be made to stand "steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord"?
How is it, O our God, that You could have steered a vessel so safely to its port which was so easily driven by every wind and carried away by every wave? He is a good marksman who can shoot so crooked an arrow straight to its target. Marvel not that we do not excel–marvel that we do excel in anything unstable as we are.
II. And now leaving these general remarks I have to single out a certain class of persons. I believe them to be TRUE CHRISTIANS but they are Christians of a singular sort. I would not be so harsh as to condemn them, though I must certainly condemn the error with which I am about to find fault. I doubt not that they have been converted in a genuine manner but still they are often a mystery to me and I should think they are a mystery to themselves.
How many Christians have we in our Churches that are unstable as water! I suppose they were born so. They are just as unstable in business as they are in religion. They open a grocer's shop and shut it in three months and turn drapers and when they have been drapers long enough to become almost bankrupts, they leave that and try something else. When they were boys they could never play a game through–they must always be having something fresh and now they are just as childish as when they were children.
Look at them in doctrine–you never know where to find them.
You meet them one day and they are very full of some superlapsarian doctrine. They have been to some strong Calvinist place and nothing will suit them except the very highest doctrine and that must be spiced with a little of the gall of bitterness or they cannot think it is the genuine thing. Very likely next week they will be Arminians. They will give up all idea of a fixed fate and talk of free will and man's responsibility like the most earnest Primitive
Methodist. Then they steer another way. "Nothing is right but the Church of England. Is it not established by Law? Ought not every
Christian to go to his parish Church?"
Ah, let them alone, they will be at the most gross schismatic shop in the metropolis before long. Or if they do not change their denomination they are always changing their minister. A new minister starts up. There is no one, since the Apostles, like he. They take a seat and join the Church. He is everything to them. In three months they have done with him, another minister rises up some distance off and these people are not particular how far they walk– so they go hear him. He is the great man of the age. He will see every man's candle out and his will burn on. But a little trouble comes on the Church and they leave him. They have no attachment to anything. They are merely feathers in the wind or corks onthe wave.
They hear a sermon preached and they say, "I think it did me good" but they do not venture to be sure till they speak to some great man who is a member of the Church and he says "Oh! there was nothing in it." "Ah! just so," they say and cannot make up their minds whether it was a good sermon or not. They are unstable.
They could easily be talked into anything or out of anything. They never had any brains in their head, I suppose. Or if they ever had any they gave them to somebody else to muddle as he liked. They believe the last man they hear and are easily guided and led by him.
Now, if the matter ended there it would not be so bad. But these poor people are just the same with regard to any religious enterprise they take in hand. There is a Sunday-School–they are enchanted with the thought. What a lovely thing it must be to sit on a form and try to teach half-a-dozen boys the way to Heaven. They go to the Sunday-School and are alarmed the very first day when they hear all the boys talking louder than the teachers. After about ten minutes they think it is not quite so nice as they thought.
Perhaps they think it is that particular school they do not like and they try another. But at last they give up all Sunday-School teaching and make up their minds that it is not a good thing, at least not for them.
Then there is a Ragged-School. What a Divine enterprise! They will be Ragged-School teachers and off they go with their hearts full of fire and their eyes full of tears over these poor children they are going to teach. Ah, how soon is their zeal withered and all their glory departed! Hear them talk about Ragged-Schools a month afterwards–they shake their heads and say it is a very arduous enterprise. They do not think they had a call to it–they will try something else and so they keep on to the end of the chapter–they are "everything by turns and nothing long." There are some
Brethren in the ministry very much of the same sort. They never preach in one pulpit long, (though some say they preach there too long, for they ought never to have preached there at all).
But I sometimes think that if they had had a little more courage and bore a little more of the brunt of the battle, they might have done good to some of the villages where they were placed. But they are unstable as water and everybody sees that they cannot excel.
The same instability men will carry out in their friendships. They meet a person one day and are as friendly as possible with him.
They meet him the next day–he does not know what he has done to offend them but they turn their head another way. And some carry their instability a little farther, they carry it into their moral character.
I shall not deny their Christianity but they are a strange sort of Christians. For these people will sometimes, at least, stretch the cords of godliness a little too far and though they certainly do act in the main conscientiously, yet their conscience is a large one and it admits a great many things which tender-hearted people would think were wrong. We cannot find out any crime for which we could excommunicate them, yet in our hearts we often say, "Dear me, what a sad disgrace So-and-So is to the cause. We could do far better without him than with him, for he casts such a slur on the name of Christ."
Now, do not think I am drawing a fancy picture. I beg to inform you I am not. There are persons here who are furnishing me with the model. And if they choose to think me personal I shall be obliged to them, for I intend to be. These persons are to be found in all Churches and among all denominations. You have met them everywhere. They are as unstable as water. They do not excel.
Now, let me address these persons very earnestly. My Brothers and Sisters, I would be far from dealing in a censorious manner with you for I am inclined to think that your instability is a little owing to some latent insanity. We are no doubt all of us insane to a degree. There is some little thing in us which if we saw in another we should regard as being a little madness. I would therefore, my Brethren, deal very leniently with you but at the same time let me very solemnly address you as a Christian minister speaking to a professedly Christian man.
My Brethren, how much moral weight you lose in the Church and in the world by your perpetual instability. No one ever attaches any importance to your opinion because your opinion has no importance in it–seeing that you yourself will contradict it in a very short time. You see many persons growing up in the Church who have an influence over their neighbor for good. You sometimes wish that you, too, could strengthen the young convert, or reclaim and guide the wanderer. My Brethren you cannot do it, because of your inconsistency. Now is it not a fearful thing that you should be throwing away the whole force and weight of your character, simply because of this insane habit of yours of being always unstable?
I beseech you, my Brothers and Sisters, recollect that you are responsible to God for your influence. And if you can have influence and do not get it you are as sinful as if, having influence, you had misused it. Do not, I beseech you, suffer this instability to continue, lest you should become like the chaff which the wind drives away–of no account to the world at all. Remember, my Brethren, how your instability ruins your usefulness. You never continue long enough in an enterprise to do good. What would you think of the farmer who should farm just long enough to plow his ground and sow his wheat but not long enough to get a harvest?
You would think him foolish. But just so foolish are you. You begin time enough to be overworked before you have well commenced. My Brothers and Sisters, review your history. What have you done? You have made hundreds of futile attempts to do something but a list of failures must be the only record of your labors. What do you think will be your distress of mind when you come to die, when you look back upon your life and see it all the way through a host of blunders? Do you not think it will stuff the pillow of your dying bed with thorns to think that you were so wayward in disposition, so unstable in heart that you were unable to accomplish anything for your Master?
When you lay your crown at His feet you will have to say, "There is my crown, my Master but it has not a solitary star in it for I never worked long enough for You in any enterprise to win a soul. I only did enough to fail and to be laughed at by all." And I would have you think also, my Brothers and Sisters, how can you be a growing
Christian and yet be so changeable as you are? If a gardener should plant a tree today and take it up in the course of a month and transfer it to another place, what crop would he have when autumn came? He would not have much to repay his toil. The continual changing of the tree would put it into such a weakly condition that if it did not actually die, it would certainly produce nothing.
And how can you expect to grow in knowledge when you have no steadfast principle? The man who espouses one form of doctrine and does it honestly, will, though it is a mistaken form, at least understand it. But you do not know enough of Calvinism to defend it from its opponents, or enough of Arminianism to defend it from the Calvinists. You are not wise in anything. You are a rolling stone, you gather no moss. You stay in one school only long enough to read through the curriculum but you learn nothing. I see you are smiling. And yet some of those who smiled are just the men we smile at. They are here. But alas–I have noticed one sad thing respecting these people–they are generally the most conceited in all the world.
They think they are excellent men. They are at home everywhere.
If they are in error they know they can get right tomorrow. And then if someone else will again convince them they are in error, they know no difference between error and truth, except the difference which other people like to point out to them. O you unstable Christians, hear the word of the Lord! "Unstable as water you shall not excel." Your life shall have little of the cream of happiness upon it–you shall not walk in the midst of the king's highway, in which no lion shall be found. You shall walk on the edge of the way, where you shall encounter every danger, feel every hardship and endure every ill.
You shall have enough of God's comfort to keep you alive but not enough to give you joy in your spirit and consolation in your heart.
Oh, I beseech you, ponder a little. Study the Word more–know what is right and defend what is right. Study the Law more–know what is right and do what is right. Study God's will more–know what He would have you do and then do it. For an unstable
Christian never can excel.
III. But now there is another class of persons whom we dare not, in the spirit of the widest charity, admit to be true Christians. They are PROFESSORS. They have been baptized. They receive the Lord's Supper. They attend Prayer Meetings, Church meetings and everything else that belongs to the order of Christians with which they are connected. They are never behindhand in religious performances. They are the most devout hypocrites. They are the most pious formalists that could be discovered the wide world over.
Their religion on the Sabbath-Day is of the most superfine order.
Their godliness, when they are in their pews, cannot be exceeded.
They sing with the most eloquent praise. They pray the longest and most hypocritical prayer that man could utter. They are just up to the mark in every religious point of view except on the point which looks to the heart. As far as the externals of godliness go there is nothing to be desired.They tithe the anise, the mint and the cummin. They fast twice in the week. Or if they do not fast, they are quite as religious in not fasting and are just as godly in not doing it, as if they did it.
But these people are unstable as water in the worst sense. For while they sing Watt's hymns on Sunday, they sing other songs on Monday. And while they drink sacramental cups on Sabbath evenings, there are other cups of which they drink too deep on other nights. And though they pray most marvelously, there is a pun on that word pray and they knowhow to exercise it upon their customers in business. They have a great affection for everything that is pious and devout. But alas, like Balaam, they take the reward of wickedness and they perish in the gainsaying of Core.
"These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds–trees whose fruit withers, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. Wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever."
They bring a disgrace upon the cause which they profess–not the vilest profane swearer brings more dishonor on God's holy name than they do. They can find fault with everything in the Church while they commit all manner of wickedness and are, as the Apostle said, even weeping "enemies of the Cross of Christ, for their God is their belly and they glory in their shame." O hypocrite!
You think that you shall excel because the minister has been duped and gives you credit for a deep experience. Because the deacons have been entrapped and think you to be eminently godly. Because the Church members receive you to their houses and think you a dear child of God, too! Poor Soul!
You may go to your grave with the delusion in your brain that all is right with you. But remember, though like a sheep you are laid in your grave, Death will find you out. He will say to you, Off with your mask, Man! Away with all your robes! Up with that whitewashed sepulcher! Take off that green turf. Let the worms be seen. Out with the body. Let us see the reeking corruption! And what will you say when your abominably corrupt and filthy heart shall be opened before the sun and men and angels hear your lies and hypocrisies laid bare before them? Will you play the hypocrite then? Soul, come and sing God's praises in the Day of Judgment with false lips! Tell Him now, while a widow's house is in your throat, tell Him that you love Him!
Come, now, you that devour the fatherless, you that rob, you that do uncleanness! Tell Him now that you did make your boast in the Lord! Tell Him that you did preach His Word, tell Him that you did walk in His streets! Tell Him you did make it known that you were one of the excellent of the earth! What? Man, is your babbling tongue silent for once? What is the matter with you? You were never slow to talk of your godliness. Speak out and say, "I took the sacramental cup. I was a professor." Oh how changed! The whitewashed sepulcher has become white in another sense–he is white with horror.
Look! The talkative has become dumb. The boaster is silent. The formalist's garb is rent to rags, the moth has devoured their beauty.
Their gold has become tarnished and their silver cankered. Ah, it must be so with every man who has thus belied God and his own conscience. The stripping Day of Judgment will reveal him to God and to himself. And how awful shall be the damnation of the hypocrite! If I knew that I must be damned, one of my prayers should be, "Lord, let me not be damned with hypocrites." For surely to be damned with them is to be damned twice over.
Conceive of a hypocrite going into Hell. You know how one of the Prophets depicted the advent of a great monarch into Hell, when all the kings that had been his slaves rose up and said, "Are you become like one of us?"
Do you not think you see the godly Christian deacon, so godly that he was a liar all his life? Do you not think you see the eminent
Christian member that kept a bank, took the chair at public meetings, swindled all he could and died in despair? Do you not think you see him coming into the pit? There is one man there that was a drunkard all his life. Hear his speech, " Ah, you were a sober man! You used to talk to me and tell me that drunkards could not inherit the kingdom of Heaven. Aha, and are you become like one of us About a month ago, when we were on earth, you met me and rebuked me for profane swearing and told me that all swearers should have their portion in the lake. Ah, there is not much to choose between you and me now, is there?"
And the profane man laughs as well as he can laugh in misery at his desperately religious adviser. " Oh," says another–and they look round at one another with demoniac mirth. As much mockery of joy as Hell can afford–" Theparson here? Now preach us a sermon.
Now pray us a long prayer! Plenty of time to do it inthere is no widow's house to eat here and he only prayed on the strength of the widow's house."
This is a hard scene for me to describe. But I doubt not of its truthfulness. It may be given to you in rough language but it needs far rougher to make you know the dread reality. And what a solemn thought it is! There is not one man nor one woman in this place who has not need to ask, "Is it so with me?" Many have been deceived–I may be–you may be, my Hearer. "I am not deceived," says one, "I am a minister." My Brethren, there are many of us who are preachers who are like Noah's carpenters. We may help to build an ark and never get in it ourselves.
Says another, "I shall not endure such language as that. I am a deacon." You may be all that and yet, after having ministered, instead of earning to yourself a good degree, you may be cast from the presence of God. "No," says another, "but I have been a Christian professor these last forty years and nobody has found fault with me." Ah, I have known many a rotten bough to have stopped on a tree forty years and you may be rotten and yet stand all that time. But the winds of judgment will crack you at last and down you will fall. "No," says another. "I know I am not insincere.
I am sure I am right." I am glad that you think so but I would not like you to say it. "Let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."
There have been many great bubbles that have burst before this and your piety may be one of them. "Let not him that puts on the harness boast as though he put it off." It will be time enough for you to be quite sure when you are quite safe. Yet blessed be God, we hope we can say, "O Lord, if not awfully deceived, we have given our hearts to You! Lord You know all things. You know that we love You and if we do not, Lord You know we pray this prayer from our hearts–'Search me, O God and try my ways, prove me and know my heart and see if there are any evil ways in me and lead me in the way everlasting.'" May God the Holy Spirit strengthen and settle each of us.
IV. And now I have the last word to address to those who MAKE
NO PRETENSION TO RELIGION whatever. I have heard hundreds of persons in my short life excuse their sin by saying, "Well, I make no profession," and I have always thought it one of the strangest excuses–one of the most wild vagaries of apology to which the human mind could ever resort.
Take an illustration, which I have used before. Tomorrow morning, when the Lord Mayor is sitting, there are two men brought up before him for robbery. One of them says he is not guilty. He declares that he is a good character and he is an honest man in general though he was guilty in this case. He is punished.
The other one says, "Well, your worship, I make no profession. I'm a down right thorough thief and I don't make any profession of being honest at all."
Why you can suppose how much more severe the sentence would be upon such a man. Now, when you say I do not make any profession of being religious, what does that mean? It means that you are a despiser of God and of God's Law. It means that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. You that boast of making no profession of religion–you are boasting you know not what of. You would think it a strange thing for a man to boast that he made no profession of being a gentleman, or no profession of being honest, or no profession of being sober, or no profession of being chaste.
You would shun a man at once who did this. And you who make no pretensions to religion just make your trial the more easy–for there will be no need for any dispute concerning you. When the scales of justice are lifted up at last you will be found to be light weight and that upon your own confession. I cannot imagine you urging such a plea as that when God shall judge you. "My Lord, I made no profession." "What?" says the King, "Did My subject make no profession of obedience?" "O Lord, I made no profession." "What?" says the Creator, "Make no profession of acknowledging My rights?" "I made no profession of religion."
"What?" says the Judge, "Did I send My Son into the world to die and did this man make no profession of casting his soul upon Him?
What? Did he make no profession of his need of mercy? Then he shall have none. Does he dare tell Me to My face that he never made any profession of faith in Christ and never had anything to do with the Savior? Then insomuch as he despised My Son and despised His Cross and rejected His salvation, let him die the death." And what that death is with its everlasting wailings and gnashing of teeth, eternity alone can tell.
O Sinner! You have some part and lot in my text. You are "unstable as water." Let me remind you that though you make no profession of religion now, there was a time when you did. Strong man! You are laughing now–I repeat it–there was a time when you did talk about religion. It is not quite gone from your memory yet.
You lay sick with fever for six weeks–do you recollect when the delirium came on and they all thought that you must die? Do you recollect when your poor brain was right for a moment how you asked the physician whether there was any hope for you and he would not exactly say "No," but he looked so blank at you, that you understood what it meant?
Do you recollect the agony with which you looked forward to death? Do you recollect how you groaned in your spirit and said, "O God, have mercy upon me"? Do you recollect that you got a little better and you told your friends that if you lived you would serve God? "Oh! it is all over now," you say you were a fool! Yes, you were a fool, that is true–you were a fool to have said what you did not mean and to have lied before God. You do not profess religion! But you remember the last time the terrific thunder and lightning came. You were out in the storm. A flash came very near you. You are a bold man but not so bold as you pretend to be.
You shook from head to foot and when the thunder clap succeeded, you were almost down on your knees and before you knew it you were in prayer. "Please, God, get me home tonight," you said, "I shall not take Your name in vain again!" But you have done it. You are unstable as water. You went sometime ago to a Church or a Chapel–I care not which–the minister told you plainly where you were going. You stood there and trembled. Tears ran down your cheeks. You did not beat your wife that Sunday. You were a great deal more sober that week and when your companion said you looked squeamish, you denied it and said you had no such thoughts as they imagined. "Unstable as water."
Oh, there are some of you worse than that still–for not once, nor twice but scores of times you have been driven under a faithful minister to the very verge of what you thought repentance and then, just when something said in your heart, "This is a turning point," you have started back. You have chosen the wages of unrighteousness and have again wandered into the world. Soul! My heart yearns for you! "Unstable as water you shall not excel." No, but I pray the Lord to work in you something that will be stable.
For we all believe–and what I say is not a matter of fiction but a thing that you believe in your own hearts to be true–we all believe that we must stand before the judgment bar of God and before long give account of the things done in the body, whether they be good or whether they be evil.
Friend, what account will you give of your broken vows, of your perjured soul? What will you have to say why judgment should not be pronounced against you? Ah, Sinner, you will want Christ then!
What would you give then for one drop of His blood? "Oh, for the hem of His garment! Oh, that I might but look to Him and be lightened. Oh, would to God that I might hear the Gospel once again!" I hear you wailing when God has said, "Depart you cursed!" And this is the burden of your song, "Fool that I was, to have despised Jesus, who was my only hope, to have broken my promise and gone back to the poor vain world that deluded me, after all!"
And now I hear Him say "I called but you refused. I stretched out
My hand but no man regarded. Now I will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear comes." I always think those two last sentences the most awful in the Bible. "I will laugh at your calamity." The laugh of the Almighty over men that have rebelled against Him, that have despised Him and trod His Gospel underfoot! "I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear comes." Rail at that if you like, it is sure, Sirs.
Remember that all your kicking at God's laughter will not make
Him leave it off–remember that all your rebellious speeches against
Him shall be avenged in that day–unless you repent. But if you despise Him your blasphemy cannot quench the flames of Hell.
Nor will your jeers slay the sword of vengeance–fall it must and it will fall on you all the more heavily because you did despise it.
Hear the Gospel and then farewell. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, was born of the Virgin Mary and became a man. He lived on earth a life of holiness and suffering. At last He was nailed to the Cross and in deep woe He died. He was buried. He rose again from the deed, He ascended into Heaven. And now God "commands all men everywhere to repent." And He tells them this–"Whosoever believes on the Son of God shall not perish but have eternal life." And this is His Gospel. If you this day feel yourself to be a sinner, if that is a feeling worked in you by the Holy Spirit and not a casual thought flashing across the soul–then
Christ was punished for your sins.
And you cannot be punished. For God will not punish twice for one offense. Believe in Christ–cast your soul on the atonement that He made. And although black as Hell in sin, you may this day find yourself, through the efficacious blood of Christ, whiter than snow.
The Lord help you, poor Soul, to believe that the Man who died on Calvary was God and that He took the sin of all Believers upon Himself–that you, being a sinner and a Believer–He has taken your sins and that therefore you are free. Thus believe and by faith you will have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom also we have received the atonement. Adapted from The C. H.
Spurgeon Collection, Version 1.0, Ages Software, 1.800.297.4307PRAY THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL USE THIS
SERMONTO BRING MANY TO A SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF
JESUS CHRIST.
Ge 49:8 • Praise for Jesus
ERMON 3296
Praise For Jesus
"Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise."
Genesis 49:8
THESE words were spoken by the Patriarch Jacob when he blessed his sons as he lay a-dying. But before he finished Judah's blessing, the good old man seemed to forget his son and to turn his thoughts to Jesus, our Lord, of whom Judah was a very significant type. Jacob compared Judah to a lion and a lion's whelp–and in the Revelation we read that one of the elders said to John, "The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loosen the seven seals thereof." In the 10 th verse of this Chapter we have Jacob's notable prophecy concerning the comingof Christ, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be."
I intend only to speak about Judah so far as he is a type of Christ, and I trust that I shall, by the Holy Spirit's gracious guidance, move all the brethren of the Lord Jesus Christ to praise Him, so that I shall be able to reverently say to Him, "Jesus, You are He whom Your brothers shall praise." So I shall speak, first, concerning the praise of Judah andthe praise of Jesus.
First, then, let us think about THE PRAISE OF JUDAH AND THE PRAISE OF JESUS.
Jacob said to Judah, "You are he who your brothers shall praise."
Judah was preeminent above his brethren in several things for which he deserved to be praised. The first was the eloquence and prevalence of his intercession. Judahseems to have been the gifted one out of the 12 sons of Jacob, and his pleading prevailed with his father when all others were powerless. When "the lord of the land" of Egypt, whom his brothers failed to recognize although he knew them, said to them, "You shall not see my face, except your brother be with you," they went back home with heavy hearts and their father stoutly refused to allow Benjamin to go down into Egypt.
But when all their corn was eaten up, and they were obliged to go again to buy more, it was Judah who persuaded Jacob to let
Benjamin go with them. Reuben and Levi were obliged to be silent in that critical period, for they had lost their rightful position in the family by their transgressions, and Simeon was a hostage in the hands of Joseph–but Judah was able to step into the breach and his intercession prevailed.
We, Brothers and Sisters, are by nature like those sinful sons of Jacob. We have offended our Father who is in Heaven, and it is in vain for us to attempt to approach Him as sinners without an intercessor. But our Judah-Jesus, if I may so call Him, stands before His Father's face–and whatever our desire or our request may be, provided it is a right one–it is sure to be granted when Jesus pleads for us before the Throne of God! "If any man sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous."
Turn your eyes upward, Beloved, and see our Great High Priest appearing there in the Presence of God for us! And as He points to the print of the nails in His hands and feet, and to the scar of the soldier's spear in His side, and pleads our cause, be certain that His plea must prevail with His Father! Remember the argument of the Apostle when writing concerning the Melchisedec priesthood of Christ, "this Man, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He always lives to make intercession for them." If Judah was praised because his intercession prevailed with Jacob, much more shall Jesus be praised because His intercession prevails with Jehovah! Clap your hands, O you saints, at the remembrance of His prevalence on your behalf when you sought Him out of the depths of your despair! And praise Him that He still lives to carry on His people's cause above!
Have you any burden on your mind at this moment? Is there anything that distresses you? Have you been much in prayer without getting answers to your supplications? Then put your case into the hands of Christ–He has never lost a suit yet–and that is more than the best of earthly advocates can say about the cases entrusted to them! Therefore praise Him, you who have committed yourselves into His hands! And as for you who are going to do so now, begin to praise Him, for your most sanguine anticipations of blessing shall not be disappointed!
That was a wonderful scene when Joseph said that Benjamin should not go back with his brothers, but should remain in Egypt as his servant because the silver cup had been found in his sack, and Judah pleaded with Joseph, not knowing that "the lord of the land" was his own brother! You remember how he pictured their old father at home, who would certainly die of a broken heart if Benjamin did not return to him in safety and how, at last, he offered to be a bondman to Joseph if he would but let Benjamin go free.
You see, he pleaded for substitution, and he also told Joseph how he becamesurety for the lad unto his father–and his plea was so effectual that Joseph could refrain himself no longer, but bursting into tears declared that he was their long-lost brother! So, dear
Friends, if the great Lord of Heaven and earth seems angry with you because of your sins–"and He is angry with the wicked every day"–put your case into the hands of the sinners' Advocate, Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, and when He stands up to plead with His Father for you, He will soon bring a smile of forgiveness upon the righteously severe Countenance of His Father and you shall gladly say, "Jesus, You are He whom Your brethren shall praise because of Your almighty power in pleading for them."
We find that at a later period, the tribe of Judah was foremost in wisdom and skill. If you turn to Exodus 35:30, youwill see that when the tabernacle was to be erected in the wilderness, "Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, the Lord has called by name
Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship; and to devise curious works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in the cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of wood, to make any manner of cunning work." And, surely, I may metaphorically apply this description to our Judah-
Jesus! What wisdom there is in Him and what skill! What is there that He cannot do? Bezaleel could cut, polish, and set precious stones–but Jesus can take the worthless pebbles of the brook and transmute them into diamonds! Jesus takes "base things of the world, and things which are despised," and works such marvelous changes in them that the Lord of Hosts says concerning them, "They shall be Mine in that day when I make up My jewels." He is a wonderful Lapidary! Some of us have been upon the wheel under His hand for a long time–and we are apt to think that He has cut us most cruelly–but the cutting is intended to bring out our brilliance and to make us fit to shine in the diadem of the King in due time!
Bezaleel was also a worker in wood–and our great Judah-Jesus came to us when we were growing wild in the forest of sin. It was His axe of conviction that cut us down and it has been His hand of skill that has been fashioning and carving us to make us worthy to be pillars in His Temple!
What is there that Jesus cannot do? Has He not worked out for us a work which required far more skill than the erecting of the Tabernacle in the wilderness and the making of the Ark of the Covenant, the veil which hung before the Most Holy Place, the high priest's garments of glory and beauty and all the cunning work devised by Bezaleel and his helpers? Did He not spend His whole life in working out for us a matchless robe of righteousness in which we may even dare to stand before the all-seeing eyes of God? Angels will keep on wondering throughout eternity at the wisdom of their Lord and ours! The wisdom of His teaching is Divine. "Never man spoke like this Man." The wisdom with which He deals with each individual case that is brought to Him is matchless! He is the Great Physician and there is no earthly doctor who has such skill as He has. Let Bezaleel, of the tribe of Judah, have all due praise, but let Jesus, the Son of God, have far more!
All wisdom is to be found in Him! His very name is "Wisdom."
Solomon calls Him by that name. The wisest of men was not at all wise in comparison with Incarnate Wisdom, the Wisdom of God as manifested in Jesus Christ. Jesus, we bless You, You who have worked out a perfect righteousness for us, You who make us into living stones and then build us, stone by stone, into the marvelous edifice of Your Church! Jesus, You are He whom Your brethren shall praise for Your wondrous wisdom and skill!
Further, the tribe of Judah had precedence in presenting offerings unto the Lord. In Numbers 7:12, we read, "Hethat offered his offering the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah." The Lord had said to Moses, "They shall offer their offering, each prince on his day, for the dedicating of the altar," and the prince of the tribe of Judah, therefore, led the way by bringing his offering on the first day. We know that our Lord sprang out of Judah, so he was first with his offering. "No," says someone, "Abel was first with his offering." Yes, apparently He was in the order of time, but Christ's offering was much more ancient than his, for He was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." In the Divine Purpose, His sacrifice was offered long before the great tragedy on Calvary! And the merit of His Atonement was reckoned to His people's account long before man was created–but certainly in order of precedence Christ's offering comes first. Christ brought for His offering His own most precious body and blood and we, by faith, present the same offering when we come to God in the name of Jesus. What sacrifice could we bring if Judah's Prince had not first brought His one offering by which He has perfected forever them that are sanctified? Did I say just now that Christ's offering had precedence? I must correct myself, for it is first, it is last, it is midst, it is the only Sacrifice that canput away sin and make us acceptable unto God! And there is no sacrifice either of prayer or of praise that we can present to God unless we being it by virtue of Christ's one great Sacrifice. Let us, therefore, praise our Judah-
Jesus! Let us give Him our loudest hallelujahs, for He comes first to the altar, and we afterwards approach it through Him. Jesus, You are He whom Your brethren shall praise for Your wondrous atoning
Sacrifice!
Yet again, Judah had the singular precedence of always leading the van when the tribes were on the march. In Numbers 10:14 we read that, when the fiery-cloudy pillar moved, "in the first place went the standard of the camp of the children of Judah according to their armies." First in the encampment, first on the march, first everywhere was Judah's lion! The tribe of Dan brought up the rear, but the tribe of Judah always went in front. And here again let Jesus
Christ be praised, for He always leads the way! If I descend into the Valley of Humiliation, I shall see His footprints all down the slippery steeps. If I pass through the Enchanted Ground where so many fall asleep, I shall see the track of the Wakeful One all along that dangerous way. If up the Hill Difficulty I have to scramble on my hands and knees, I shall see the marks of the blood drops where His hands were torn by the thorns and His feet were cut by the flints as He, too, climbed there! And when I go down to the river, I shall still see His footprints–and up the other side I shall see the track of my risen Lord! All up the eternal hills I shall but follow where He leads the way! Yes, and up to the very Throne of God He has gone before us, clearing a way for His people and leading them along it.
Yet once more, Judah afterwards attained to the sovereignty, for David, of the tribe of Judah, was in due time proclaimed king over all Israel. We also have a King of the line of Judah, one who is mightier than David, and wiser than Solomon–and happy are we in having such a King to reign over us! Who among us that loves
Christ would not set Him up upon a high throne? Oh, that we could continually exalt Him yet more and more! Let your sweetest songs be all in His praise! Let your most daring deeds be done for Him.
Give Him, you gracious women, your alabaster boxes full of precious ointment! Prepare your feasts, you wealthy men, and invite Him to preside at the table! Come, you children, and strew branches in the way while He rides along triumphantly! Let, "Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna!" be the joyful strain which comes from every lip and heart because Jesus reigns over us, the King of kings and Lord of lords! Do praise Him, do extol Him this very moment, lift up your hearts and your voices while we sing this familiar strain–
"Jesus is worthy to receive
Honor and power Divine.
And blessings more than we can give
Be, Lord, forever Thine."
(The congregation joined in singing, and then the preacher continued his sermon).
II. The second part of our subject was to be THE GLORIES OF
JUDAH AS SETTING FORTH THE GLORIES OF JESUS. They
are illustrated in the sentence concerning Judah that follow our text.
The first of them mentions the victories of Judah–"Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies." You knowwhat it means when a man seizes his enemy by the throat, or when a lion gets its prey by the neck and shakes the very life out of it. Thus has Jesus
Christ done with all the enemies of His people. Shall I tell you again the grand old story? 'Twas one dark night when the Great
Shepherd was watching His flock that He heard the roaring which told Him that the old lion of the pit was about to leap into the fold to tear the sheep in pieces. Then the Shepherd whispered to Himself, "This is the dreadful hour and the power of darkness."
Taking His place in the midst of His blood-bought flock, He waited for the next terrific roar. And as the lion sprang into the fold, He received him upon His bare bosom, and began at once to grapple with Him. He was wounded in His hands, in His feet, and in His side–and in the desperate struggle "His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground." It was a dreadful fight which had been foreseen before the world was made, and which shall be the theme of grateful song when the world has ceased to be! But in the end the Shepherd tore the lion as though it had been a kid and, crying, "It is finished," He Himself fell prostrate over His foe, slain, but dying only to rise again and live in everlasting triumph! In that dread combat, His hand was, indeed, on the neck of His enemy–and now He has gone to Glory, leading captivity captive! You who have been delivered by Him from the old lion of the pit may well exclaim, "Jesus, You are He whom Your brethren shall praise."
The next thing for which Judah was to be praised was Jacob's prophecy, " Your father's children shall bow down before you."
Now, who in this house is a child of God? You will not be long in answering that question when I put to you another, "Do you bow down before the Lord Jesus Christ?" Here we are, a vast multitude assembled in this Tabernacle, but we are not all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. We cannot all truly say, "Our Father, who are in Heaven." Our text gives us the means of knowing who are the children of God, for the great Father says to His Son, "Your Father's children shall bow down before You." Do you bow down before the Lord Jesus Christ? Is He your only trust? Do you rest your whole weight upon Him? Do you depend for time and eternity upon Judah-Jesus whom God has anointed and appointed to be the only Savior of sinners? If so, you have proved your sonship by bowing down before your great elder Brother!
The third Glory of Judah was his lion-like power. Jacob said, "Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you are gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?" This seems to be a picture, first of Judah, and then of the Lord Jesus Christ. As a young lion, He has gone up and tore His prey in pieces. Sin, death and Hell He has torn asunder! And now that He is like a mighty, full-grown lion, woe be unto those who provoke Him to anger–but blessed are they who have Him on their side! Many of you have seen that beautiful engraving of Una, the type of innocence, riding upon a lion's back.
That lion, according to Spenser, protecting her from all ill. That is how every penitent soul rides, by the Grace of God! The Lion of the tribe of Judah is the Guardian of every believing heart. You have but to trust yourself to Jesus and He will see to it that you are never destroyed. He will preserve and deliver you from all evil of every kind and, at last, shall safely bring you where you shall see
His face and rejoice in Him forever and ever! But woe to any of you who reject Him! Woe to you who deny His Deity! Woe to you who break His Sabbaths, abhor His Word and despise His Cross! In that last tremendous Day, His anger against the wicked shall be so terrible that they shall say to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sits on the Throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" Oh, bow before Him, accept His Grace, trust in His atoning Sacrifice and then the very power which should make you now tremble will be exerted on your behalf and cause you to rejoice forever!
Further, Jesus is to be extolled for His perpetual Sovereignty.
"The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between His feet until Shiloh comes." Judah's sovereignty came to an end, but Jesus always reigns. His kingdom here on earth has often seemed as if it were in jeopardy, but it has never been overthrown and it never will be. In the martyr days, they sewed the Christians up in the skins of wild beasts and cast them to the dogs.
They dragged them at the heels of horses. They burned them at the stake. They stripped off their clothes and tortured then with hot irons on every part of their body. I dare not mention all the cruelties that were practiced on the followers of Jesus, but nothing availed to shake their allegiance to their King! In all these trials they were more than conquerors through Him who loved them and who gave them the Grace to endure all these things for His sake! Neither tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword could separate them from the love of Christ!
And thus His Kingdom was perpetuated during even the darkest ages of its history–which in another sense were also the brightest because of the Glory that the faithfulness of His followers brought to their King! His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom–"of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His Kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever."
Now we get clear of Judah and come to Shiloh, of whom Jacob says, " unto Him shall the gathering of the peoplebe." Ah, Beloved, there are no gatherings of the people anywhere else like those who come to Christ! It is no small thing that, all these years, the multitudes have gathered in this house, Sabbath by Sabbath, and why do they come? I confidently affirm that the only reason why such crowds gather here is because the preacher's theme is Christ!
Feebly as he sometime preaches, his unvarying theme is the Cross, the precious blood, the all-sufficient Sacrifice of Christ offered once for all on Calvary! This is a theme which never palls upon the ear! This is a subject which never grows stale. "We preach Christ
Crucified," for this is the magnet that draws the people to Him.
Jesus Himself said, "I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me. This He said, signifying what death He should die."
The crowds that come here are nothing in comparison with the multitudes that have been and are still being drawn to Christ by the magnet of His death! I see His Cross standing on yonder hill and I see the people gathering to it from every quarter. There was a little stream at first, but it grew, and none of us can tell how many have already been drawn to Christ–and still they come! While I have been speaking to you, they have kept on coming to Him, and so they shall until "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth." "Yes all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him." "To Him shall the gathering of the people be." They may seem to us to be long in coming, but they must come. The vision may tarry, but it is sure– and at the appointed time there shall be heard a great shout from the dwellers in the land, and from those far off upon the sea and from the glorified in Heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ: and He shall reign forever and ever."
At the last, good old Jacob seems to have had his eyes opened, and to have seen a very singular vision of Judah'sKing–"Binding
His foal unto the vine, and His ass's colt unto the choice vine." Yes, 'tis He, the very same of whom the Prophet wrote, "Behold, your King comes unto you, meek and sitting upon an ass, and a colt, the foal of an ass." This is Judah-Jesus! He is a King, but He goes not down to Egypt for horses. He is meek and lowly, so He is content to ride upon the humble ass in His triumphal entry into Jerusalem!
The mention of "the vine" and "the choice vine" naturally turns our thoughts to His most instructive parable of the Vine and the branches. And as the ass's colt was bound to the vine, so is the Church of God bound to Him who said, "I am the true Vine, and
My Father is the Husbandman."
Jacob's next words are also very suggestive–"He washed His garments in wine, and His clothes in the blood of grapes." You know the meaning of the allegory. Jesus went to Gethsemane and there "the blood of grapes" upon the true Vine–I mean, the bloody sweat that exuded from every pore of His sacred body–was so copious as to make His garments appear as though they had been washed in wine! They took Him to Gabbatha and there they scourged Him so cruelly that again His clothes looked as if they had been washed in the blood of grapes. And so He passed on through the streets of Jerusalem until He came to Golgotha. Can you bear to see Him taking His last bloodbath on Calvary?– "His dying crimson, like a robe, Spreads o'er His body on the tree."
After that terrible bloodbath, how does He look? What aspect does He bear? Jacob said, "His eyes shall be red with wine, and His teeth white with milk." His eyes were red with wine, but again it was the red wine of His own most precious blood flowing down from His thorn-crowned brow! And the white teeth seem to suggest the spotless purity of the Son of God even when He who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Oh, we must praise our blessed Judah-Jesus, for He was still fairest of the fair even when His face was marred more than the face of any man! Let us humbly bow before Him. Let us gratefully adore Him as we remember that, "being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross." But that was not the end of Him, for He was buried–but the third day He rose again and, after tarrying a while with His disciples, He ascended to His Father and our Father, to His God and ours! And He is coming back again, one of these days, "to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe" in Him!
Long ago, Isaiah asked, "Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in His apparel, travelling in the greatness of His strength?" And the answer came at once, "I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." Then the Prophet asked, "Why are You red in Your apparel, and Your garments like he that treads in the wine vat?" And He answered, "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with Me: for I will tread them in My anger, and trample then in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment. For the day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed is come." To all who trust Him, our great Judah-Jesus is still "mighty to save." All blood-bedewed from Calvary, He cries, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." To every sincere penitent, He still speaks in righteousness and says, "I washed My garments in wine, and My clothes in the blood of grapes when I trod the winepress of Jehovah's wrath for Your sake; when there was none to help, My own arm brought salvation unto Me, but it was for you that I suffered." Oh, believe Him, sinner! Trust Him and so become a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus, and then go forth to serve
Him and to praise Him all your days–and to glorify Him forever.
Let us all go our way still singing the praises of our blessed Lord and Master–
"Let Him be crowned with majesty
Who bowed His head to death;
And be His honors sounded high
By all things that have breath!
Jesus, our Lord, how wondrous great
Is your exalted name!
The glories of Your heavenly state
Let the whole earth proclaim!"
Ge 49:10 • Shiloh
ERMON 1157
Shiloh
"Until Shiloh comes; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be."
Genesis 49:10
THE dying Patriarch was speaking of his own son, Judah, but while speaking of Judah, he had a special eye to our Lord, who sprang from the tribe of Judah. Everything, therefore, which he says of Judah, the type, he means with regard to our greater Judah, the Antitype, our Lord Jesus Christ. You will remember how Jacob gathered his 12 sons around his bed and, addressing them individually as representatives of the 12 tribes that bear their names, uttered different predictions, and gave to each a special blessing. After first addressing Reuben, Simeon and Levi, he proceeds to salute Judah in words full of majesty–"Judah, you are he whom your brethren shall praise." A happy expression, for the word, "Judah," signifies "praise." The name was given to him by his mother as expressing her gratitude to God at his birth.
It is now confirmed to him by his father, who discerns in it a presage of his character and his destiny. And verily this is true of Jesus. If the virgin mother hailed His advent, how much more do His grateful Brethren laud His career! Do not His Brethren recognize in Him a Leader and Commander, a Savior and a Friend?
Is it not here, on earth, our sweetest employment, and will it not be in Heaven our highest delight to praise His name? The praise we bestow on men is mere flattery–the praise we receive from men is insincere. But Jesus has a peerless name and His Brethren derive from Him priceless benefits.
In Jesus are fulfilled the dreams of Joseph. The sun and the moon and the 11 stars all bow before Him! All the sheaves make obeisance unto His sheaf. Let Him be crowned with majesty who bowed His head to death is the common verdict of all the Brotherhood of the House of God. "Your hands shall be at the neck of Your enemies." As one that gets his hands upon the neck of his prey, stops its breath and destroys it–or as one who seizes his enemy by the throat and flings him down to death. How true has this been of Jesus! He has laid His hands upon the neck of His enemies. When He came to the Cross, fought foot to foot with the old Serpent, and there vanquished sin and death and Hell for us, it was a terrible battle, but it ended in a splendid victory, of which we shall never cease to sing!
Nor do we doubt but the hands of Jesus Christ are at this moment on the neck of His enemies. They may be very rebellious, and, for a time, they may seem to get the ascendancy–but He has got the upper and as surely as Truth and righteousness must flourish and prevail–as surely as Jehovah is the living God, the kingdom of Christ will yet break in pieces all the powers that resist it. "He shall break them as with a rod of iron: He shall dash them in pieces like potters' vessels." "Your father's children shall bow down before you."
To the descendants of Judah in the persons of David and Solomon the whole nation gave allegiance. But worship of a higher order, homage of deeper significance and adoration from a wider circle pertain to Him, for whom our Father in Heaven demands of all His faithful children love, honor, and obedience. "Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, you are gone up." And how does this describe the Savior–that "Lion of the tribe of Judah"–that strong and mighty Lion who entered into conflict with the lion of the Pit and overcame him! From the prey He has gone up again, up into His Glory–gone up beyond the stars, up to the right hand of the Infinite Majesty–there to sit in perpetual peaceful triumph.
"He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion." The lion may have been an emblem that befitted the son of Jesse. The lion couching might have been fitly chosen for his heraldic device, when the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and of Saul. Yet with how much more propriety may this emblem be emblazoned on the arms of Prince Emmanuel! Did He not stoop down? Was ever such a stoop as His? Let Him be crowned with majesty who bowed His head to death! It is for this that He deserves to conquer, because He was willing to submit to shame and death, itself, for the sake of His people. How glorious is it to think that He has gone up, seeing that He once came down! Who should deserve such honors but He who laid such honors aside for a while?
"Who shall rouse Him up?" A grand question! Who shall rouse up the Lion of the tribe of Judah? Who dare do it? Who can stand against Him? He is a Lamb, gentle and tender. "A bruised reed He will not break, and the smoking flax He will not quench." But let
Him be provoked–then fiercer than a lion that roars from the forest will He be upon His foes! So shall it come to pass on that tremendous day when He will ease Himself of His adversaries and shake Himself clear of all His enemies. Do you not remember these terrible words of His–"Beware, you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there are none to deliver"? "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come."
The sovereignty remained with Judah. It continued to be the royal tribe till the prophetic epoch. When other tribes lost their peculiar position and their positive distinctiveness, Judah still remained–and it survives in the common appellation of the Hebrew people to this day. The Israelites are more commonly called Jews than by any other name. Jesus, the tribe of Judah, is the King of the Jews, even though they reject Him. Over His head upon the Cross was written the indelible Truth in letters of Hebrew, Greek and Latin, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." Yes, He is King of all faithful Jews and of all believing Gentiles at this hour–with a sovereignty wider than that of emperors–yes, as wide as the dwelling places of all mankind! He is "King of kings, and Lord of lords."
Of Shiloh it is the Patriarch speaks when, with the vision of a Seer, he describes the grand climax. Before the dim organs of his sight he saw all his 12 sons gathered to take leave of their dying sire. Before the beaming eyes of his faith he beheld the gathering of all their distant posterity, or perhaps of all the kindreds of the earth to greet with glad acclaim the everlasting King, of whose kingdom there shall be no end! "Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be." This simply and pointedly does Jacob refer to the Lord Jesus
Christ by the name of Shiloh. Of that name and of that prophecy I shall try to speak.
First, let the title, "SHILOH," and secondly the TESTIMONY, "To Him shall the gathering of the people be," engage our attention. The title, "SHILOH." What an old word it is! What an old world word! I should not wonder if it was one of Jacob's own coining. A pet name is often the product of peculiar love. Tender affection takes this kindly turn. Those whom we fondly regard, we familiarly call by some other name than chance has bequeathed or choice bestowed. Not content with the names that others understand or use, there is often a new mode of recognition between two who love each other, as much as to say, "You are to me what you are to none upon earth beside me."
Even God gives to His people new names–and I do not wonder if they give to Him new names. Well may Believers have each a favorite name for Jesus. Which name of your Lord do you love the best? If the question were passed round, perhaps some would say–