The laughter of God and other sermons (expository)

Front matter

^ PRINCETON, N. J. <S^

The, laughter of

God and

Contents

I The Laughter of God .... 7

II The Voice in the Storm ... 16

III The Traveller's Guide ... 25

II

"Give unto the Lord, O ye sons of the mighty, Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters!

The God of glory thundereth,

Even the Lord upon many waters.

The voice of the Lord is powerful ;

The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars;

Yea, the Lord breaketh in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

He maketh them also to skip like a calf;

Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild-ox.

The voice of the Lord cleaveth the flames of fire.

The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness;

The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve,

And strippeth the forests bare:

And in his temple everything saith, Glory!

The Lord sat as king at the Flood;

Yea, the Lord sitteth as king for ever.

The Lord will give strength unto his people;

The Lord will bless his people with peace."

Psalm 29.

"Fm I JHERE are no songs like the songs of Zion." So said John Milton, himself the sweetest -*- of uninspired poets; and all reverent students of the Scriptures agree with him.

We have here one of the most sublime of these songs of Zion. Its title is " The Voice in the Storm."

It begins with a Gloria and ends with a Pax Vobiscum. It is divided into three strophes.

In the first the storm is represented as gathering in the North. The clouds assemble over Mount Hermon ; there are ominous mutterings as before a battle.

In the second the gale comes sweeping toward the South. The sky is rent with vivid lightnings and reverberates with peals of thunder. The flood-gates are open; the cedars of the forest are crashing; the mountains are trembling.

In the third, the storm moves over the Wilderness of Kadesh with lessening violence and dies away in silence toward the Great Sea.

It is a wonderful Psalm; and should be read, as Spurgeon says, " beneath the black wing of the tempest; its verses marching to the tune of thunderbolts." God is everywhere conspicuous. The earth is hushed by the majesty of his presence. There are voices on every hand ; but his voice is over all.

We have here the inspired conception of Nature as a temple in which " everything saith, Glory ! " that is, everything in heaven above and earth beneath does homage to the Creator and Sovereign, crying, " Glory to God!"

The ascription of a voice to Nature is distinctly poetic. In fact nature has no voice : she gives forth only inarticulate sounds. Yet Bryant rightly says,

"To him who, in the love of Nature, holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language."

In like manner David sings in a spirit of rapt adoration,

"The heavens declare the glory of God, And the firmament showeth his handiwork: Day unto day uttereth speech, And night unto night showeth knowledge."

This thought is amplified by Addison in his mystic hymn :

"The spacious firmament on high, With all the blue, ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim.

The unwearied sun, from day to day, Does his Creator's powers display, And publishes to every land The work of an almighty hand.

" Soon as the evening shades prevail The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And nightly to the listening earth Repeats the story of her birth ; Whilst all the stars that round her burn, And all the planets in their turn, Confirm the tidings as they roll, And spread the truth from pole to pole.

"What though in solemn silence all Move round the dark terrestrial ball? What though no real voice nor sound Amidst their radiant orbs be found? In reason's ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice, Forever singing as they shine, 'The Hand that made us is divine !'"

In like manner the poet Coleridge, in his " Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamonix," invokes all Nature to awake and utter praise :

"Ye ice falls, ye that from the mountain's brow Adown enormous ravines slope amain ; Motionless torrents, silent cataracts! Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven Beneath the keen full moon? Who bade the sun Clothe you with rainbows? Who, with living flowers Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet? God! Let the torrents like a shout of nations Answer; and let the ice plains echo, God! God ! Sing ye meadow streams with gladsome voice ! Ye pine groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds! And they, too, have a voice, yon piles of snow, And in their perilous fall shall thunder God ! "

It is important, however, that we should distinguish between the voice of nature and the Voice which is beyond nature and above it. In these days there is a tendency to identify God with his creation, which is simple pantheism, and pantheism is only another name for atheism. To say that " God is everything " is practically to say that God is nothing. To identify him with creation is to affirm that the elements sweep by like a godless rabble on their automatic way. This is not so. " He sitteth above the waters ! " His Voice is over them all.

In one of John Calvin's sermons he says, " If any one who wished to know a man should take no notice of his face but fix his eyes only on the points of his nails, his folly would justly be derided; but far greater is the folly of those philosophers who out of mediate and proximate causes weave for themselves veils, lest they should be compelled to acknowledge the hand which manifestly displays itself in the works of God."

In the early life of St. Augustine, led away by his study of the Greek philosophies, he became a pantheist. But he was unhappy because his soul was at sea. At length, unable to escape from the memory of his mother's prayers and finding no comfort in his vain wanderings, he was driven to his knees. In his " Confessions " he tells the story thus : " In my search for God I asked the earth, and it said ' I am not he/ I asked the sun and the depths, and they answered ' We are not God : look above and beyond us ! ' I asked the winds and the tempests, and they replied ' No ! Anexamenes is wrong; there is something deeper yet ! ' I asked the stars of heaven and they, too, said ' We are not your God.' I addressed all the living things that surround the doors of my fleshly senses, ' Ye have said that ye are not God ; tell me somewhat about him ' ; and with a great voice they answered, with one accord, ' He made us ! ' "

The distinction we are making between God and nature, or between the voice of the tempest and the Voice that speaks through it, is important by reason of certain inferences which flow from it.

The first of these inferences is Providence. It clears the atmosphere to realize that the world we are living in is not a fortuitous concourse of atoms, an organism without an organizer, but that One sitteth enthroned, as Law-giver and Executive, sustaining and controlling all.

God rules in the physical world. The stars of heaven sweep round in their orbits obedient to his will. He rules in infinities and infinitesimals alike. He directs the wandering of the minutest vagrant of earth and sea. " Who provideth for the raven his food ? When his young ones wander for lack of meat, they cry unto God."

He rales in history. The wars of nations are not beyond his ken ; he maketh their wrath to praise him. It is impossible to read history aright except as one is able to read Providence between the lines. u Come, Philip," said Luther to his friend Melancthon in the darkest days of the Reformation, " come, let us sing the forty-sixth Psalm: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble ; therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea ! "

He rules in the experience of individual men. If he is not unmindful of the lilies of the field and the fowls of the air, how much more shall he care for you, O ye of little faith ? " A blessed a fortiori that ! " How much more shall he care for you ! " The voice in the storm is, therefore, a voice of comfort and strength.

"The Lord our God is clothed with might;

The winds obey his will.

He speaks and, in his heavenly height,

The rolling sun stands still.

Rebel, ye waves, and o'er the land

With threatening aspect roar ; The Lord uplifts his awful hand

And chains you to the shore!

Howl winds of night, your force combine;

Without his high behest, Ye shall not, in the mountain pine,

His voice sublime is heard afar ;

In distant peals it dies ; He yokes the whirlwind to his car,

And sweeps the howling skies!

Ye nations, bend; in reverence bend!

Ye monarchs, wait his nod; And bid the choral song ascend

To celebrate our God ! "

'A second inference which follows from the contemplation of the Voice above the Storm is the doctrine of Grace.

If it be true that there is a God who controls the elements; and if it be further true that this God is our Father; then it follows inevitably that he would not suffer his sinful and suffering children to abide without hope. He would not leave us adrift, on a rudderless raft, upon a boundless sea. Is there no eye to pity, no arm to save? Is there no relief from " this certain fearful looking for Judgment " ? Is there no remedy for sin?

The Voice in the storm proclaims him the Mighty to save. He will make bare his arm in our behalf. He does make bare his arm! Behold it on Calvary! The arm of the Lord is there made bare, as when a workman rolls back his sleeve to address himself to a mighty task. The Lord thus stretches forth his omnipotent hand to deliver us.

So the voice of Revelation answers to the Voice in the storm. The New Testament answers to the Old. The Gospel responds to prophecy : " God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life/*

Yes, the Voice of the Lord is upon the waters ; and behold, he comes this way. He walks upon the boisterous sea! He has seen us toiling hopelessly at the oars. Alas, that any should fail to recognize him. See John and Peter and Andrew, looking into each other's faces fearfully and whispering, " It is a spectre ! " He speaks : his voice is the same that David heard above the thunders of Kadesh; the same that Job heard out of the whirlwind, the same that came to Daniel when the four winds of heaven strove upon the Great Sea ; " Be not afraid ; it is I ! "

Wherefore let all who worship in his temple say "Glory!" Let them rejoice, because this God is the God of salvation.

Open your ears, O men and women toiling at the futile oars of self-reliance and despairing of help! He speaks ; and his benediction is " Peace be unto you." See that ye be not as those who, when he spake through the open heavens, said, " Behold it thundereth! " The sounds of nature are inarticulate; but the Voice of nature's God is eloquent of hope and pardon and eternal life.

And here is the joy of living. To him who can distinguish between the sound of thunder and the voice of the God that thundereth, life is no longer a vain battling against infinite odds. The Almighty has come into his philosophy; and he finds himself not a mere creature of circumstance, but a beloved and cared-for child of God.

So ends the storm. There is a great calm; and the Voice that was heard through the warring elements now speaks in the silence of the trysting place.

It is recorded of Elijah that, when his soul was weary amid the troubles that befell him in the evil reign of Ahab, " he went a day's journey into the wilderness and sat down under a juniper tree." There the weariness of life overcame him: so that he cried " It is enough ; O Lord, take me ! " Then he betook himself to a cave ; where he still lamented, " I have been very jealous for thee, O Lord: and they have slain thy prophets and I only am left. Be pleased to take me ! " He went forth and stood before the cave ; and behold, the Lord passed by and a mighty wind arose and rent the mountains ; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind there came an earthquake, so that the ground rocked beneath his feet; but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire; so that the forests were crackling all about him; but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still, small Voice. And the Voice spoke comfort and peace.

The Voice of the storm and the Voice of the silence are one. God, who rules above the convulsions of Nature and the confused noise of nations at strife, is the same God who bids us enter into the secret place of his pavilion and commune with him. And wherever he speaks, he speaks a benediction.

The God who sitteth above the waters is come near to us in the person of Christ, who said to his disciples in the upper room, " Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth give I unto you : let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Thus, to one who reverently hears and heeds, comes the peace that passeth all understanding; peace that floweth like a river in the soul; " peace eternal, sacred, sure"; the very peace of God.

Ill

THE TRAVELLER'S GUIDE (A New Year's Sermon)

" I to the hills will lift mine eyes,

from whence doth come mine aid.

My safety cometh from the Lord,

who heav'n and earth hath made.

Thy foot he'll not let slide, nor will

he slumber that thee keeps.

Behold, he that keeps Israel,

he slumbers not, nor sleeps.

The Lord thee keeps ; the Lord thy shade

on thy right hand doth stay: The moon by night thee shall not smite,

nor yet the sun by day.

The Lord shall keep thy soul; he shall

preserve thee from all ill.

Henceforth thy going out and in

God keep for ever will."

Psalm 121: (Old Version).

IT is a mystery to me why so many people want to make a noise on New Year's eve instead of calmly contemplating the past and girding their loins for the race that is set before them.

There are various ways of " seeing the old year out." One is that of the revellers who betake themselves to the cabarets and dance-halls, for no conceivable reason unless it be in the hope of drowning the memory of the mislived past. A better way is that of our Methodist friends who keep " watchnight " in their churches. They spend the passing hours in prayer and thanksgiving until the clock strikes midnight, when all unite in " Wrestling Jacob/' that most picturesque of Wesley's hymns:

" Come, O thou Traveller unknown, Whom still I hold, but cannot see; My company before is gone, And I am left alone with thee ; With thee all night I mean to stay, And wrestle till the break of day.

" I need not tell thee who I am ; My sin and misery declare; Thyself hast called me by my name; Look on thy hands, and read it there : But who, I ask thee, who art thou?

Tell me thy name, and tell me now.

" I know thee, Saviour, who thou art, Jesus, the feeble sinner's Friend; Nor wilt thou with the night depart, But stay and love me to the end : Thy mercies never shall remove, Thy nature, and thy name is Love."

I am frank to say, however, that I did not " watch the old year out." I went to bed as usual, but I could not sleep; the anticipation of the midnight uproar was on my nerves. In the borderland of semi-consciousness I seemed to see a man sitting before an open ledger, his face greatly troubled because the record was against him. Then I saw a Hand reaching over his shoulder, and as it moved across the page it left a red stain which obliterated all his liabilities; and a Voice said, " Son, thy sins be forgiven thee ! " The man looked up as if to express his thanks; but just then a whistle blew and bells began to ring, and I awoke, across the border of the year. Then above the noise and uproar I seemed to hear a great congregation singing the last lines of Wrestling Jacob:

"Thy mercies never shall remove, Thy nature, and thy name is Love."

It has been my usual custom to select some portion of Scripture as a sort of oriflamme, or red-letter epigraph for the year. The choice for the incoming year is the One hundred and twenty-first Psalm.

This is known familiarly as " The Traveller's Psalm," and will therefore be appropriate. For what are we but travellers ? Here we have no abiding city : we are strangers and sojourners, looking for a better country, even an heavenly, and for a city that hath foundations whose builder and maker is God.

"Gently, Lord, O gently lead us, Pilgrims in this vale of tears, Through the trials yet decreed us, Till our last great change appears : And when mortal life is ended, Bid us in thine arms to rest, Till, by angels bands attended, We awake among the blest ! "

In the superscription of this Psalm it is called a " Song of Degrees." It is one of fifteen, from CXX to CXXXIV inclusive, which were so called probably because they were sung by pilgrims on their way to the annual feasts at Jerusalem. On such occasions the roads were thronged with travellers from every part of Jewry. This particular Psalm was sung in all probability when they caught sight of the Sacred City, " beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth." How grateful to the eyes of the travel-worn pilgrims was the dome of the Temple, which to them was the ancestral centre of the worship of the true God.

The Psalm is constructed on a perfect rhythmical plan. It consists of four stanzas or strophes, in which are set forth the three incommunicable attributes of God ; and these are finally summed up in his providence, or constant care.

The first stanza celebrates the divine Omnipotence. / will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

You may think it makes little difference, so far as practical piety is concerned, whether the world came to pass by the calm process of natural law or by a creative fiat.

It made a great difference to Job, however, when, in the midst of suffering which was due in large measure to self-will and intellectual pride, he was rebuked by the Voice out of the whirlwind saying, " Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up thy loins now like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

It made a great difference to Moses, also, when he climbed the steeps of Nebo singing his farewell song: " Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before these mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God ! "

And it makes a great difference to all who are trusting in Christ for their salvation ; since the Maker of heaven and earth is also the Saviour of men. He who sat upon the circle of the universe and called into existence things that are out of those that were not is none other than Christ, as it is written : " All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made." He who created is mighty to save ! Nothing is too hard for him. He is able to save, even unto the uttermost, all that come unto him.

The second stanza sets forth the divine Omniscience. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

A sentinel may sleep at his post as the enemy draws near: a pilot may sleep at the wheel as the vessel speeds toward the reef; a weary mother may sleep with an ailing infant in her arms ; but he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. " Hast thou not known; hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not neither is weary? " There is no searching of his understanding."

Ours is the God of the ever-open eyes. O those eyes of the Lord, that " run to and fro through all the earth to behold the evil and the good ! " Are we afraid of them?

When Lafayette was a prisoner, during the Revolutionary War, he was distressed beyond measure by the fact that a guard was continually watching him through an aperture in the door of his cell. But those were the eyes of an enemy. Well may the Omniscience of God be terrible to those who are not on friendly terms with him.

But to those who love him his unceasing watchfulness must be a source of unspeakable joy. The bond-woman who fled from oppression in Abraham's tent and betook herself to the wilderness was bowed down in utter loneliness and desolation until the Angel of the Covenant spoke to her. Then, filled with wonder and gratitude, she called the name of the place Beer-lahai-roi, that is, " Thou God seest me."

The third stanza celebrates the divine Omnipresence. The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night.

If the Lord is our keeper, who shall harm us? The donjon of the castle is called " the keep/' because it is a safe retreat. How much safer is the fortress of the divine presence ; for as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so is the Lord around about them that fear him.

To those who are at odds with the Father it is a dreadful thought that he is " never far from any one of us." It was under the sense of flagrant sin that David cried, " Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to thee!"

So it was with Jacob, when, fleeing from the spectre of an unforgiven sin, he dreamed the golden ladder and awaking cried, " Verily, the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not ! /^ But many a man, under like circumstances, finding comfort beyond words in the thought of the divine Presence, has resumed his journey with the song,

"Though like a wanderer,

The sun gone down, Darkness be over me,

My rest a stone; Yet in my dreams I'd be

Nearer, my God to thee, Nearer to thee."

In the fourth stanza the divine Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence are all summed up in Providence. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Our life is made up of goings out and comings in. It begins with a coming in and ends with a going out ; and all between is naught but going out in the morning and coming in at nightfall. And during this monotonous round we are ever under the watchcare of the 11 Divinity that shapes our ends."

The man in " Pilgrim's Progress," who started out from the City of Destruction, was never without a Voice to direct him. In the Valley of Humiliation, climbing the Hill Difficulty, passing through Vanity

Fair, crossing the Enchanted Ground, and onward to the Delectable Mountains and the Land of Beulah, his Guide was always with him. As he forded the deep river and came in view of the Celestial City the gates rolled back, and, amid the ringing of the city's bells, he passed in to behold the King in his beauty.

O blessed Providence that never forsakes us ! O wonderful promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end ! "

" I have a friend so precious So very dear to me; He loves me with such tender love, Loves me so faithfully; I could not live apart from him ; I long to feel him nigh; And so we dwell together, My Lord and I."

So shall this Song of Degrees be a strong staff to lean upon in this New Year. As it is written : " Commit thy ways unto the Lord ; trust in him and he shall bring it to pass."

What shall he " bring to pass ? " Every dream of conquest over sin ; every hope of salvation " worked out" into character and usefulness; every aspiration toward a holy life; every ambition to make our energies tell for the glory of God. Has he not promised that all things shall work together for good to them that love him?

Who shall say what the future has in store for us? " I know not what awaits me ; God kindly veils mine eyes." Thanks for my blindness! To-morrow is in better hands than mine.

" So on I go, not knowing : I would not if I might.

I'd rather walk in the dark with him Than go alone in the light; I'd rather walk by faith in him Than go alone by sight."

The Omnipotent is able to care for me. The Omniscient knows my every need. The Omnipresent will " never, no never, no never forsake me."

" I know not where His islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care."

So do I fare forth into the New Year, like an explorer crossing the border of an unknown land. No one has ever before been this way. Therefore, I must needs walk by faith, hand in hand with him.

One thing I know, beyond all doubt and peradventure : " I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."

IV

"I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together : Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, Unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto

the name of the Lord.

For there are set thrones of judgment, The thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: N They shall prosper that love thee.

Peace be within thy walls,

And prosperity within thy palaces.

For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good."

Psalm 122.

WE act, as a rule, without conscious motives. Habit is second nature. We work, and play, and eat and sleep as a matter of course. We are wound up at night like a music box, and in the morning we proceed to play the tunes set for us. When the Sabbath comes (If we have any; for, alas, there are people to whom a real Sabbath never comes) we put on a -different habit with our Sunday clothes. The bell rings and we go to church, as a horse goes to the manger after his work in the tread-mill, because it is a part of the routine of life. But if church attendance is worth while we ought to be able to give a reason for it.