And when the journey is finished, all glorious things shall burst into higher forms and glow in richer colours. Think of the vintage of the righteous when they shall drink the wine new with their Lord in the kingdom of the Father! VI MARCHING ORDERS These shall first set forth.-NUM. ii. 9. And they shall set forth in the second rank. Ver. 16. S O God determined the order of the marching of the Israelites through the wilderness. The camp of Judah took the lead, followed by Reuben and Ephraim, whilst Dan brought up the rear. The tribes were not to travel as a rabble, but as a disciplined host under its several standards. A similar law prevails in society through all the generations, assigning to each individual his place and service, and resolving the multitude into great classes. These distinctive sections exist, they persist from age to age, and are not likely to be effaced. All attempts to abolish social gradations, to reduce society to a uniform mass, have hitherto proved abortive, whether those efforts were of a political, philosophical, or an ecclesiastical character. As by a great law society resolves itself into separate and graduated groups; and no attempts to annul that law have succeeded, or are likely to succeed, for mainly the distinctions of society are first distinctions in nature. I. THESE SOCIAL DISTINCTIONS MUST BE ACCEPTED BROADLY AS DETERMINATIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. Looking away from men, and contemplating the universe at large, we have no difficulty in recognizing and accepting the superiority and precedence, the inferiority and dependence, everywhere displayed. "“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory." In each department of creation the same law demonstrates itself in the diverse volume and virtue of whatever has been made; all things and creatures vary in magnitude, energy, and splendour. God's shaping, sovereign hand is equally manifest in society. Consider those who occupy the front by virtue of extraordinary genius, and we are compelled to recognize the divine election. Few who acknowledge God at all but will admit that He determined the power and place of these intellectual princes. How entirely was this the case with Shakespeare! Like Melchizedec, he had neither father nor mother: he owed nothing to society, universities, or parliaments. Heaven endowed him, placed him in the front rank, and there his stately figure shines until marching days are done. Handel is another conspicuous instance of the same sovereign ordination. As J. A. Symonds describes him: “Irritable and greedy, coarse and garrulous, fond of beer, destitute of affection, without a single intellectual taste. He never received any education. He had no experience. Yet he could interpret the deepest psychological secrets; he could express the feelings of mighty nations, and speak with the voice of angels more effectually than even Milton; he could give life to passion, and in a few changes of his melody lead love through all its variations from despair to triumph-there was nothing that he did not know. We shall never comprehend the mysteries of genius. It is a God-sent clairvoyance, inexplicable." The mighty musician with golden trumpet by right divine not to be gainsaid took his place with the foremost, and for ever animates the host by his glorious music. Turner is an example of this marked election to greatness. Born of the poorest parents, reared in a squalid court, without scholastic or other advantage, he forthwith dipped his pencil into the radiances of nature, and left us those gorgeous gems of colour which astonish and delight as do the splendours of the world. These marvellous masters received their gifts and glory directly and solely from God, as certainly as that He created the greater light to rule the day. Acknowledging in the intellectual realm the sovereign Disposer, we cannot deny His authority in the political. President or king is a necessity of social organization, and the believer in the divine government must recognize its sway in dynasties and rulership. We cannot study revelation or history without discerning that God reigns in the political world equally with the intellectual; ordaining presidents as well as painters, princes as well as philosophers and poets. The wisest and noblest of mankind confess the mystic sanctity of the throne. If we are to affirm the absolute will of God in the solitary grandeur of Homer and Plato, of Shakespeare and Goethe, must we not concede the same supreme fiat in the royalty of Alexander and Cæsar, of Napoleon and Washington? He who assigns the magical pen or pencil to one, entrusts the sceptre or diadem to the other. We are free to admit that princes are not seldom in some sense sorry creatures; but that does not disprove divine calling and office: the monarchs of the intellectual world have also been in certain respects unworthy, yet their royal gifts and vocation were indisputable for all that. How the anointed servants of God use their splendid prerogatives is another matter; but that certain men are elected to majestic faculty and estate by Him who governs all things is undeniable by those who recognize the divine government. Allowing the sovereignty of God in intellect and rank, we cannot exclude it from the province of wealth. It is the fashion of our day to decry the very rich as necessarily enemies to the body politic; and if this were true, it would be impossible to consider them as servants of God, for God has no servants who are not also servants of humanity; but it is not true, and such an estimate of the status of the very rich is false. |