629. JER 31:33, JER 31:34. MEANS OF THE WORLD’S CONVERSION
Jer_31:33, Jer_31:34. Means of the World’s Conversion
By Rev. Charles Hall.
One of the Secretaries of the American Home Missionary Society, New York.
"After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord."’97Jer_31:33, Jer_31:34.
The happy period predicted in this passage has been the desire and the expectation of the church in every age. It has been the burden of prophecy and of prayer. Thousands of the noblest spirits that ever walked the earth, as they beheld this consummation in distant prospect, have kindled into rapture; and, to hasten its approach, have tasked their utmost energies. The delay of this wished-for redemption of the world has ever been a subject of the church’s lamentation. As we look backward over her history, we see her, in every period, prostrate before God, and crying, "Thy kingdom come!" while a long line of "patriarchs, prophets, and saints, moving in sad procession, lift their tearful eyes, and stretch out their supplicating hands, saying, Why do thy chariot-wheels so long delay?
Who is there among us, having any sympathy with Christ, that has not shared in this feeling, and uttered this cry? How is it possible for a Christian to look out upon the world’97to contemplate our race grovelling in sensuality, and ravening with malevolence, until earth groans with suffering, and heaven weeps in pity’97and not pray that the days of darkness may be shortened? Who has not often inquired, with inexpressible desire, for some more expeditious mode of evangelizing the earth? Who has not asked, If there be not, in the resources of Omnipotence, some more potent means than have ever yet been employed, to bring men back to God?
Such passages of inspiration as our text are adapted to quiet our impatient solicitude, not only by furnishing an assurance of the ultimate accomplishment of our highest hopes; but also by intimating the mode in which God’s wisdom will operate to produce the glorious result.
I. Let us inquire what instrument will be employed to bring about the blessed condition of the human family predicted in the text.
This instrument is Divine truth, most expressively called in the text, Knowledge of the Lord: that is, the exhibition of the Divine character, more than any other truth, before all consciences, is to be the mighty engine, by which heaven will work out the moral revolution of the world. Do any, at first view, imagine that this is a means too simple to accomplish so vast a result? But what is it to "know the Lord?" or, rather, what is it not? All moral truth, every conceivable motive to goodness, is involved in knowing him’97in a true idea of the holy Lord God. To know the Lord’97to have the true conception of the real God’97is the most perfect law which a man can have before his conscience. What is the moral law itself, but God’s character’97a catalogue of his perfections, written out in the form of precepts? The soul that knows what God is, sees intuitively what itself ought to be. He has only to present himself, as he is, forever before the mental view, in order to keep men under perpetual admonition of right and wrong.
You see, at once, why paganism is a system of wretchedness, even for the life that now is; and why Christianity restrains and blesses even those whom it does not convert, by continually holding up before them at least some dim portraiture of the true God. The power of the Divine character and example, as a persuasive to virtue, and preventive of sin, is immeasurably great. Such a conception as that of a perfect, almighty Being’97the Upholder and Governor of all things, is the grandest of which the mind is capable. The idea of a present God, a real, living, all-knowing, all-pervading Spirit, having an infinite aversion to sin, and love of goodness, is a thought that bows down the soul in utter abasement, and sways over it an infinite authority. In proportion to the clearness with which this idea is apprehended by men, are they brought under the control of moral motives. It is, therefore, with a most beautiful propriety, that the Scriptures use the phrase, "knowledge of the Lord," as a comprehensive term for all truth and goodness. To know him, is to know his character, his government, his rights, his claims on us, and our duties to him. It is to know his plan of mercy,’97his Son, and his Spirit’97his pardoning and sanctifying grace. Let us now ask,
II. By what methods and agency is this grand instrument to he applied to the renovation of the world? How is this knowledge of the Lord to be spread all over the earth, and to be brought in contact with every human heart?
In reply to this deeply-interesting inquiry, we remark, that the Holy Scriptures, all along, throughout the whole line of promise and prophecy, speak in such a way as to imply two different and distinct eras under the new dispensation; and they very plainly teach, that the truth will be spread in a different manner in each of these eras. One of these is spoken of as coming after a certain state of things. Thus, in the text, "After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts," etc. When the period thus indicated shall arrive, we are taught to expect a larger measure of the Divine influence’97a measure quite above and beyond that which now accompanies the preaching of the gospel. This special influence will probably differ in degree, rather than in kind, from that which is ordinarily enjoyed. It will act more directly and more efficiently on the hearts of men. It will not be independent of all use of means; but there will be in it so much of God’97the effects will be so speedy and so great, that means will be comparatively unobservable. Thus, in the text, this great moral revolution is ascribed to an immediate agency of God himself. The Lord saith, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts."
Other expressions, denoting sovereign acts of the Deity, are also employed: such as "pouring out my spirit upon all flesh," Joe_2:8. "He shall come down like rain on the mown grass: as showers that water the earth."’97"Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven," Psa_72:6; Psa_85:11. Such, then, is the way in which the knowledge of the Lord will be diffused in the latter day. God will, by his providence and Spirit, with amazing rapidity and grandeur, accomplish the renovation of the world. We know not how soon this happy period shall arrive, but come it surely will. The day is on the wing, when the empire of sin in this world shall be overthrown, and the crash of its fall shall reverberate afar through the dominions of God.
But ere that time arrives, there is another era’97an era in which the truth is to be spread mainly through the instrumentality of the church. It is in this period that we are placed. The time has not yet come, in which God will specially interpose for the immediate triumph of holiness. He observes, and requires his people to observe, an established connection between means and ends. For all the good he will bestow,
"Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them," Eze_36:37. They shall reap only as they sow. If they desire his kingdom to come, they must deny themselves, and labor for that object. If they wish men to be saved, they must place truth before them, and press its claims upon the conscience. The language of the text teaches this’97In that day, saith the Lord, "they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother," etc. Observe, it shall then be no longer needful’97implying, that till then it is needful to teach men, individually, to know the Lord. Here, then, we have the mode in which God wills that the great instrumentality for converting the world shall now be applied: it is by the direct efforts of his people to spread the truth. For the present, the command of God leaves this great work in the hands of his people. "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations," etc., Mat_28:19, Mat_28:20. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," Mar_16:15. "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be sent?" Rom_10:11.
In this stage of the church’s history at least, it is evidently the Divine arrangement that men shall be themselves the instruments of saving their own race. That this is the way to do a great work, we learn from the analogies of the natural world. How are the coral isles of the ocean made? Not by being upheaved by some great convulsion, from the bosom of the deep; but by the ceaseless labors of little insects, each of which works in its own place, and adds its mite to the accumulated mass. It stops not to form combinations and lay plans, but labors in its sphere. How is the huge globe watered, and made productive? Not by great seas, but by little streams, or, rather, by single drops of rain and dew, each refreshing a single leaf, or blade of grass. How is bread produced for the millions of mankind? Each stalk of corn becomes responsible for a limited number of grains. And, in the moral world, we see the same results produced in the same way. How is it that vice is propagated? How are drunkards, gamblers, and infidels made? Not by wholesale, but by individual contact. One corrupt heart infects some other heart: one polluted soul taints some other soul with the infection of its own depravity; and thus recruits are ever multiplied for the host of Satan. Let it be so in the work of salvation. Let each Christian labor to rescue his neighbor and his brother, and how soon will the world "be filled with the knowledge of the Lord!" Nor will such benevolence be restricted to its own immediate circle. A genuine concern for the salvation of one soul, is of the nature of the most enlarged philanthropy. Thus it has ever been. The men who have done the greatest good in the world, and most command our veneration for the sublimity of their benevolence, have begun their career of well-doing by blessing their own immediate circle. Some of our most devoted missionaries, were first missionaries in their own families and in their own villages. Thus it was with Martyn, and Brainerd, and Gordon Hall’97this was the spirit of Harlan Page. Thus it has been with some beloved living examples. Ere they went abroad to foreign fields, they were living epistles among us, known and read of all with whom they came in contact. This is what must abound, ere the world will be converted’97personal holiness, as the vital principle; personal labor, as the mode of effort; and individual persons, as the subjects.
Application
From this subject we learn,
1. The true remedy for all our social and political evils. It is, by spreading the knowledge of the Lord. We must "teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother." Every Christian must bring the power of the character and law of God to bear upon some one or more consciences. Then, private friendship, truth, and righteousness, and public faith, and the majesty of law, will reign in our land! the Sabbath will be honored; the Holy Spirit will dwell among us; God will be our God, and we shall be his people.
2. We also learn the excellence of those methods of doing good, which exercise the conscience on questions of personal duty. Hence the excellence of all those forms of effort in which teaching is employed: the mother amid her children’97the teacher of a Sabbath-school, or Bible-class’97the faithful distributer of tracts’97and, preeminently, the pastor and the missionary.
3. Finally. This subject illustrates the mode in which revivals of religion may be promoted. A revival that shall penetrate the mass of the community, must be carried into it by the living agents, who are accustomed to mingle with the mass; and who will go hither and thither, attaching themselves to individuals.
Henceforth, let our course be the simple plan, not to wait for others, but each one do the first good thing that offers, and then the next’97and the next; and thus proceed, filling up our lives with a succession of individual acts of usefulness.
Autor: JABEZ BURNS