LVIII. THE FIRST LIE.

"_Ye shall not surely die_."--GENESIS iii. 4.

I.--WHO WAS THE FIRST LIAR?

The old serpent, the devil, called elsewhere "the father of lies." But he had not always been a liar; he had fallen from a position very eminent, teaching us not to measure our safety by our condition. The higher we are elevated, the more dreadful the fall. Some of the most degraded vagrants were cradled in comfort, and have wandered from homes of splendour. Perhaps the vilest of the vile once were ministers of the Gospel. In a village, the other day, I was told of a man, once a Sunday- school teacher, but now a professional gambler, and, in a coal-pit I know in the North of England, the foulest-mouthed blasphemer was once a Methodist local preacher.

Who would have expected that one of G.o.d's angels would ever have turned tempter, and that one who had lived with G.o.d would have the bottomless pit dug for him and his companions? "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

How skilfully this lie was told! It was not to Adam the serpent spoke; he was not cheated (1 Tim. ii. 14.) It would have been useless to have spoken to him on the subject; but Eve had not heard the commandment. It would be well if, when we are tempted, we said, "Why do you come to me?

Is there no one else who understands this question more than I do?" If Eve had only thought, "Why is not my husband spoken to first?" Perhaps she was glad to accept responsibility she had no right to. Was ambition possible to her? We often see that evil succeeds by using that to pave the way. Lies do not overcome when contentment rules in Eden, but ambition is an incipient h.e.l.l!

Satan has not ceased to lie. He does not improve with old age! He still seeks whom he may devour. The most popular lie ever told is at present deceiving many of those who little think where their ideas were born. It is said over and over again in many circles that G.o.d will not punish sin.

What is this but giving the Divine Being the lie? And there are some ministers who have taken upon them to contradict the Bible, and try to persuade their hearers, who too often want but little persuasion, that we may hope when G.o.d has said "Despair!" What is this but hatching the old serpent's eggs in the pulpit?

II.--WHAT WERE THE RESULTS OF THIS LIE?

1. They are very numerous, and we can only find s.p.a.ce to say a few words on each. There was _guiltiness_. Eve believed the devil instead of G.o.d, and took the forbidden fruit, making herself a sinner. Her excuse was, "The serpent beguiled me." But she coveted that which G.o.d kept back. How many Edens are lost because we desire that which is forbidden! Is not this the spring of the so-called social evil? We may say what we like against seduction, and our words cannot be too strong, but the woman desiring when G.o.d had said, "Thou shalt not," is the true reason of many falls.

2. The next step downwards is the tempting of another and a loved one.

Sometimes we have found ourselves wishing Eve had died with the fruit in her mouth, instead of living to do the devil's work, and lure her loved husband to the same ruin. Let me say here and with all emphasis, _Never fear so much as when the hand of affection offers you that which G.o.d forbids_.

3. Now comes Death. The parents of the human race were separated from G.o.d. Environment is a condition of life. They have learned to do evil, they have to share the lot of those who had not kept their first estate.

Heaven was an impossible climate to the apostate angels, and Eden was only possible to those who obey. It is easy to see that the garden was not now Paradise. Adam and his wife hid themselves among the trees from the presence of the Lord! Those trees were not created for that purpose.

Alas for sin! it poisons food and taints air. We cannot insist upon this with too much force. It was true then as now. "He that believeth not shall not see life." Adam and Eve were poisoned by the forbidden fruit.

Is it not yet true that Innocence, Chast.i.ty, Modesty, are dead in some who are thought to live? We wonder afterwards to see them cast out, but it is, after all, the separation of the dead from the living.

4. And now comes Suffering. They must hear the curse p.r.o.nounced, and then depart into the world which has begun to grow thorns for them. Yes, sufferings after death. What is history but the story of punishment?

When men scoff at what is called eternal punishment they forget, or, perhaps, have never given it a thought, that the punishment of the first crime is going on at the present moment. Thorns and briars are but parables. They are real, it is true. Man must wrestle with his mother earth for every bit he eats. She does not feed him willingly; she produces that which he cannot eat. He must lacerate her bosom with his spade ere she will yield him bread, and he must sweat with toil before she will give him his crust!

Yet this is but the shadow of something terribly worse. The non-producer will live, whatever becomes of those who toil. What is war but one of the many things which rob man of his bread? The soldier is a consumer, not a producer. I do not say he is not a necessity. He is all that, but he must be fed. What matters it to him what is the price of meat; he will have his three-quarters of a pound of meat every day. Aye, and he earns it too! Who would grudge the brave fellows in Egypt the stores we send out? None of us. Yet we cannot but feel that the sword and bayonet, like the thorn hedge, take up soil which might grow corn, and the higher it grows the greater the shadow, and therefore the poorer the crops which are nighest to it. It is a necessity, but it is an expense.

What are the so called dangerous cla.s.ses? They live, they do not starve; they live on honest people. Judges, police, and jailers are fed by those who never trouble them. Crime is like a leech on the body, it will have blood. The wrongdoers are not the thorn hedge which we need for our protection, but the thistle, which has rare powers of reproduction, and uses the wind as its chariot to ride to other lands. Is it any wonder that wickedness is so difficult to eradicate? Those of us who have tried to keep our gardens free have sorrowed many a time when we have thought that the rain, so welcome to our newly-born flowers, will call into vigour the enemy that tries to strangle them. And this is but a figure of the terrible truth that prosperity to a nation always means a growth of crime, and that any event, even a public holiday, which should refresh and recuperate, means the resurrection of violence and an increase of suffering.

5. The first lie dug the first grave, and has never ceased to dig others. We have often imagined the scene when Abel was missed--when his mother questioned his murderer as to where he had last seen his brother.

How they would listen for his step, until suspense could be no longer borne, and the father would go out, only to find the corpse of his beloved child! Can we not hear the mother cry out, as she touches the cold clay--"Would to G.o.d I had died the day I believed the lie!" What a picture for a painter like Rembrandt would that first funeral be! And what are churchyards and cemeteries but the proofs that the devil lied?

Have you a grave? Does the clay cover the form once dearer than life to you? Let it plead with you to believe G.o.d and his word, rather than to trust to the old serpent.

Let us be thankful that the seed of the woman is the Saviour of Men. Eden is not all shadow, even after the loss of purity. There is a promise yet to be fulfilled. "'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' saith the Lord."

The devil is to be cast into the bottomless pit, and even those whom he has deceived may go to a paradise where the trail of the serpent shall be no more seen. "The Son of G.o.d was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil," and the time is coming when war, slavery, ignorance, tyranny, hunger, and sin shall be among the dark clouds that roll away, as the sun which shall never set rises above the horizon to make glad the children of men. Then shall the prophecy of the poet become history--

"In Him the tribes of Adam boast More blessings than their father lost."

LIX. WHAT WAS LEARNED IN G.o.d'S HOUSE.

ISAIAH vi.

NOT SEEN BY EVERYONE THERE.--Isaiah had his eyes opened. The same awful Person had been present before, but had not been seen, and He is still there, but how few of us are conscious of His presence. How differently the church and chapel-goers would look next Sunday morning as they come home, if only they realised what had been going on in the place where they had spent the last hour.

I. A LESSON FROM HISTORY.--"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord." The King of Judah was dead, but the King of Saints lives for ever. Whatever changes go on, whatever crown shifts to another head, G.o.d remains the same. In no battle is our General slain. In no national disgrace is He humbled. Uzziah had died a leper, his brilliant history ended in disgrace. Not so with Him whom we delight to honour. Of Him it is more true than of anyone else, "The path of THE JUST shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

II. A LESSON IN WORSHIP.--We see how the angels behave when in G.o.d's house. "Covered his face." Contrast this with the way the average church-goer acts. To look at the listless faces, the slovenly way in which men and women pray, the want of reverence, often in choirs, and sometimes in pulpits, makes us think there must be either a want of intellect or a lack of faith. If these people believe there is a G.o.d, how limited their power to conceive what He is like! But, knowing many of them to be shrewd in business or personal matters, we are led to think there is often more infidelity in places of worship than is thought for.

The conduct of the Seraphims makes us blush for many services we have attended. If the thoughts of our hearts were spoken during our prayers, what a revelation there would be! Let us not forget that they are taken down, and are already in print, ready for the day of trial, when the books shall be opened!

III. A LESSON IN MORALS.--Words defile us! "I am a man of unclean lips." And it is a question if even swearing defiles a man's mouth more than words of prayer which are not meant. Would not any one of us rather be abused than cajoled? Who likes to think that men are lying when they praise us? Must we not pray for a watch to be set on our lips? If there could be a physical effect caused, as there is a moral, would not there be a sad disfigurement? Men and women with lips blacker than coal! It is a wise prayer, "Let the words of my mouth be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord." Deceit, flattery, formalism in prayer are abominable to G.o.d. It would be well if, when in church or chapel, we could see it in plain letters, "The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain."

IV.--A LESSON IN GRACE.--Sin may be forgiven and guilt removed, and this to the certain knowledge of the penitent. One of the devil's lies is that either you are too wicked to be saved, or, if saved, you cannot hope to know it in this life; the one drives men to despair, the other prevents enjoyment of salvation. Isaiah knew that his sins were forgiven, and we have yet to learn that the cross of Jesus has made it less possible for us. It was from the altar the coal came that touched the lips. It is still true that it is sacrifice that takes away guilt.

We have an altar, a sacrifice, a benediction such as Isaiah never knew for himself; we understand his sayings as he could not. "By His stripes we are healed." Reader, do you long for pardon, for conscious forgiveness? Wait on the Lord! Think of what He suffered, and why He suffered, and you shall sing with joyous lips--

My pardon I claim, For a sinner I am, A sinner believing in Jesu's name.

He purchased the grace, Which now I embrace; O Father, thou knowest He hath died in my place.

V.--A LESSON IN THEOLOGY.--"I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, 'Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?' What does this mean? Is it bad grammar or good theology? It sounds like "And G.o.d said, Let Us make man in our image?" "And the Lord G.o.d said, Behold the man is become as one of Us." In John xii, 40, 41, we find that the Son of G.o.d, Jesus of Nazareth, was the Lord who spoke the words we read in verses 9 and 10. In Acts xxviii. 25 we are told it was the Holy Ghost who spake by Isaiah.

What does this mean but that the Divine Three in One and One in Three was the Lord whom the prophet saw?

VI.--A LESSON TO WORKERS.--When iniquity is purged away there is a willingness to be sent on G.o.d's errands. The lips that had been touched said, "Here am I, send me." If we are not willing to go, it is because there is still need of cleansing. Let those of us who find our feet slow to move on G.o.d's errands come again to the place of burning. We shall do well to say with Charles Wesley, in one of his less known poems--

Ah! woe is me, immerst in sin, A man of lips and life unclean!

How shall I with Thy message run, Or preach the pardoning G.o.d unknown?

Unless my G.o.d vouchsafe to cheer His guilty, trembling messenger, My fears disperse, my sins remove, And purge me by the fire of love!

O wouldst Thou teach my lips once more, The comfort of Thy grace restore; a.s.sure me, Lord, that mine Thou art, And stamp forgiveness on my heart; Then should I, in my Jesu's name, Glad tidings of great joy proclaim: Of grace, which every soul may find, And glory, bought for all mankind.

CHRISTIAN, YOUR GREATEST DIFFICULTIES WILL COME FROM YOUR OWN SIDE. IT WAS NOT PHAROAH WHO KEPT MOSES OUT OF CANAAN.

LX. PAUL AT SEA.

ACTS xxvii. 22-25.

"There's no hope," said the captain, "the ship cannot live in such a storm." "There's no hope," said the military officer, "we shall never see Rome." "There's no hope," said the prisoners, "we shall die at sea instead of on the scaffold." One prisoner, however, had hope, and in the long run made all his companions to hope. Paul cried out,

"BE OF GOOD CHEER, FOR THERE STOOD BY ME THIS NIGHT THE ANGEL OF G.o.d, WHOSE I AM, AND WHOM I SERVE, SAYING, FEAR NOT, PAUL, THOU MUST BE BROUGHT BEFORE CAESAR, AND LO, G.o.d HATH GIVEN THEE ALL THEM THAT SAIL WITH THEE."

What a ring there is in the words, "Whose I am, and whom I serve." How Paul delighted in the fact that he was the servant of G.o.d. Often he used to say, "Paul, a servant of G.o.d," or rather "Slave of G.o.d," for that is what it means. And is it not still true that

SERVICE IS THE BADGE OF SONSHIP?

A man has no right to call himself a child of G.o.d who does not work for Him. Was it not so with Christ himself? Did He not, even when a boy, say, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" and the work of G.o.d is the delight of the heir of G.o.d. We do not join the church merely for what we can get, but for what we can do. How is it with you?

Do you say, "What can I do?" That's the way Paul began--"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" Too many of us think--How can I enjoy myself? What can I do to increase my happiness? If we would prove that we are the legitimate children of G.o.d, we must find out the best way of carrying out the wishes of G.o.d. If we set Christ before us as our example--and after all He was the best servant His Father ever had, for while He was in this world He went about doing good, and we could have tracked His footsteps by the cessation of suffering, and the increase of comfort--let us set about the same work. It is our business, if we would live G.o.dly, to dry up tears, and make smiles take the place of groans. If you are not at this glorious employment, begin to doubt if after all you are one of the elect. There are numbers of low-spirited Christians who would soon be among those who dance for joy if only they would look out for the one nearest to them who is sad, and who requires sympathy and help.