VIII.

CURSE YE MEROZ.

PREACHED AT HALIFAX, NOV. 10, 1813, AFTER THE FIRST METHODIST MISSIONARY MEETING HELD IN THAT TOWN.

AWAKE, AWAKE, DEBORAH: AWAKE, AWAKE, UTTER A SONG: ARISE, BARAK, AND LEAD THY CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE, THOU SON OF ABINOAM: ETC.-Judges v, 12-23.

"HISTORY is philosophy teaching by example." This wellknown remark of Xenophon is especially applicable to sacred history in general, and to the history of the Israelites in particular. In the authentic records of God's ancient people we behold a practical exhibition of those great principles which Jehovah has been pleased to adopt as the standing rules of his moral government, and by which he regulates, in all ages of the world, his providential administration. On this ground I make no apology for selecting from an historical book of the Old Testament the text which is to furnish the subject of an exhortation on behalf of Christian missions. Though it was at first interesting chiefly to the Israelites, and though it relates to events which occurred three thousand years ago, we may deduce from it lessons of instruction and admonition applicable to Christians so long as the work of God shall continue to be carried on by the instrumentality of human exertions; that is, probably, till the end of time.

The text is part of the song of Deborah; a Hebrew ode, which, for poetic beauty and sublimity, has been reckoned by eminent critics equal, if not superior, to the most admired productions of Greece and Rome. The subject is a remarkable victory obtained by the Israelites, under Barak, over the army of Jabin, king of Canaan; which victory was followed by the death of Sisera, the general of the Canaanites, and by the

deliverance of Israel from an oppressive and cruel yoke, under which they had labored for a period of twenty years. It was by the express appointment of God that Deborah, a prophetess, had stimulated the people to resist the tyranny under which they groaned, and called them to assert their liberties by force of arms. The God of battles smiled on their attempt; and Deborah here celebrates the result in strains of pious gratitude and patriotic joy.

Though I have read a very long text, I do not intend that you should hear a very long sermon. I shall not, therefore, take particular notice of every topic which the passage would suggest, nor detain you by a critical explanation of all the figurative expressions and local allusions with which it abounds; but simply call your attention to four practical observations, which lie, as it were, on its very surface, and may be made to bear, fairly and properly, on the great object which we are now assembled to promote.

I. That the cause of religion is the cause of God.

Such was the cause which Deborah celebrated, and for which Barak and the Israelites had fought. For,

1. It had the sanction of God's express command. In all the circumstances of the case, nothing less than the solemnity of a divine injunction could have justified the wars of Israel against the inhabitants of Canaan. And, certainly, such an injunction alone could be a sufficient warrant for some of the means by which, as in the instance now before us, those wars were prosecuted to a successful termination. But the will of God was revealed in a way so clear, and so peremptory, as to leave his people no alternative but that of obedience or of open rebellion against the supreme Potentate. "And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun; and I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin's

army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand?" (Judges iv, 4, 6, 7.) From an expression which occurs in our text it appears that Deborah, whose character was now well known, and who was generally reverenced as a prophetess, had received extraordinary communications respecting this expedition from one who is termed "the Angel of the Lord." "Curse ye Meroz, said the Angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." The same "Angel of the Lord," who was none other than THE ANGEL JEHOVAH, the then unincarnate Ruler of the ancient Church, had probably made it known to her, as the mind of God, that Israel should at that period attack the enemy of their nation and of their religion. I say, of their religion: for, as their cause had the sanction of God's command, so, we may further remark,

2. God's glory was greatly concerned in it. Israel was in that age the visible Church of God, and, as such, the principal depository of religious truth; the candlestick on which the light of divine knowledge was conspicuously displayed for the illumination of a benighted world. The political existence bestowed upon that people, and the victories which they were permitted to gain, were not granted for their own sakes merely, but with a view to the promotion of the true religion, of which they were the chosen witnesses in the midst of surrounding impiety and superstition. For this purpose they were originally raised up. For this they received a right to occupy the land of Canaan, of which its former tenants were dispossessed by God the great Proprietor, on the express ground of their obstinate and incurable idolatries. And for this various miraculous interpositions were vouchsafed in their favor, that the heathen might be convinced that the gods of paganism were vanities, and that Jehovah, whom Israel worshiped, was the only proper object of adoration. Their cause, then, was the cause of genuine religion against idolatry, of truth against error, and of piety against superstition and sin. Had the Canaanites conquered, their victory would have been considered as a triumph, not merely over Israel, but over Israel's

God, and it would have confirmed the nations in their false. worship, and in those licentious and bloody vices with which a false worship has ever been found associated.

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3. God's hand and blessing were with the cause of Israel. This the event sufficiently proved. The Lord delivers Sisera into the hand of Barak. In a manner contrary to all human probability, "He made him that remained have dominion over the nobles among the people." The heathen kings, indeed, came and fought," and their armies extended from Taanach even to the waters of Megiddo. Their numbers, and their ordinary means of victory, far exceeded those of Israel. But Israel was strong in the alliance of God, and thereby mightier than the mighty. The Lord had "gone out before" them. Now, all things are his servants; and he employed on this occasion the elements of inanimate nature to discomfit the foes of his truth and of his people. "The stars in their courses fought againt Sisera;" an allusion, probably, to violent storms and tempests, accompanied with lightnings and thunders, by which God pleaded his own cause; the consequence being, that the river near which the heathens were encamped, or which they were obliged to cross, was greatly swollen, and so became the means of their destruction.

On all the foregoing accounts, the cause of Israel was the cause of God. Hence, such as refused to aid it are accused of withholding their help from the Lord. So, too, on a former occasion, when some of the Israelites had worshiped a golden calf, Moses called on the advocates of pure and primitive religion to separate themselves from the idolaters, by exclaiming, "Who is on the Lord's side?" And, at a later period, Elijah truly stated the point at issue between himself and the priests of Baal to be none other than this, Whether Jehovah be God or not?

And now, my brethren, permit me to apply what has been said to the particular occasion on which I am called to address you. We have in view, in common with other missionary societies, THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. And what you have heard in the public meeting this day must have fully prepared you for the assertion, that the cause which we

have thus espoused is, in the strictest and noblest sense, the cause of God.

1. God has commanded that the evangelization of the world should be attempted. When Jesus Christ gave his last solemn instructions to his apostles, and through them to all their successors in the Christian ministry, he said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." And he has left on record, for the direction of his Church, this standing intimation of his will: "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house." Never does the Church fulfill her high vocation but when she makes attempts for the conversion of the whole world.

2. God's honor is greatly concerned in the ultimate success of the attempt. Idolatry and sin, in all their hateful forms, are a direct invasion of God's rights, a direct attack upon his sovereignty. All souls are his; he is "the God of the spirits of all flesh." He has not only made, but redeemed, mankind at large. Jesus, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man; so that the whole race, being bought with a price, are the property of God, and ought to glorify him in their body, and in their spirit, which are his. He has a just claim to their exclusive worship, love, and service. But let us look at facts. Behold, with deep concern, how different are things as they are from things as they ought to be. Hundreds of millions of our immortal and blood-bought fellow-creatures are totally alienated from God, their Creator, Redeemer, and rightful Owner, and under the power of Satan, the basest of usurpers, the most cruel of tyrants, who leads them captive at his will, and insults on their account the throne of the Most High. Instead of retaining and obeying the truth of God, they have changed it into a lie, substituting for it the most absurd and injurious fables. The vilest affections occupy and rule those hearts which ought to be the spiritual temple of Jehovah. Their houses are habitations of cruelty, and their practice, even when they profess to be engaged in religious services, is a routine of senseless and oftentimes immoral observances,