To-day also, as in the ancient days, "My righteous one shall live by faith." Personally that is true. If a man is to have the victory of the righteous life he must win it by faith, by accepting God's standard of holiness, by abandoning the life to the government of God's will. Then and then only, will he achieve victory in God's power. It is equally true relatively. To exercise a righteous influence, and to produce the result of righteous conditions, we must have faith in God. Blot God out of your propaganda, refuse to have His name and the name of His Christ mentioned, when you gather together to discuss the amelioration of social conditions, and confusion is written across your assembly. It is only as God is recognized in His holiness, and obeyed in His law, that righteous conditions can obtain in personal, or social, or national life May we hear the message, and answer it with all our hearts to the glory of His name.

THE MESSAGE OF JUDGES

T

HE central division in the lecture on the

content of this book gives the history of the Hebrew people from Joshua to

Samson, in a series of seven cycles.

Each one runs the same course of sin, of punishment, of deliverance.

The permanent values must be deduced from this division. That is not to undervalue the introduction or the appendix. These are necessary for the complete picture, but for our present purpose we shall confine ourselves to these seven cycles.

The permanent values may be summarized under two heads. The book reveals to us first, the deterioration of the nation; and secondly, the administration of God.

In considering the book of Joshua, we found that its first revelation was summarized in that ancient declaration "Jehovah is a Man of war," and we saw God in perpetual conflict with sin; while its second value was expressed in the statement "the just shall live by faith," faith being

the acceptance of God's standard of holiness, abandonment to the government of God's will, and achievement in the strength of God's might. In dealing with the first of these values, we saw that the hostility of God to sin was manifested not only to the sin of the people who were to be exterminated, but also to the sin of the people who were to be the instruments of that extermination. That fact is brought out into clear relief in this book. Here we see God in constant conflict with the sin of these people, and yet as constantly working for their deliverance.

The lessons of this book, then, may be summarized by the quotation of two Scriptures,

and,

"Righteousness exalteth a nation :
But si is a reproach to any people,"

"Jehovah executeth righteous acts,

And judgments for all that are oppressed."

Take the first, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: But sin is a reproach to any people." The meaning of the first half of the verse is plain— "Righteousness exalteth," lifteth up, setteth on high. The meaning of the second part has been somewhat obscured by the use of the word "re

proach." The Hebrew word is nowhere else so translated. Its usual translation seems to suggest no possible connection with reproach. In the refrain of Psalm cxxxvi., "His mercy endureth forever," the word "mercy" is the same as that translated "reproach" in this text. I am not suggesting that we should read this text "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a mercy to any people." I have rather drawn attention to the peculiarity of the word in order to say that I believe there is the profoundest sig nificance in its use. The word is derived from a root which means to bow or bend the neck. It is a pictorial word, and its meaning must always be interpreted by the setting in which it is found. The neck may be bent in condescension, the bending of superiority to inferiority. It may be done in courtesy, the bending of a friend to a friend. It may be done in submission, the bending of a slave to the yoke. I believe that when this word was written by Solomon, he employed it for its root value, rather than for its generally accepted value. The thought then would be, Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin bends the neck of any people. Thus the word stands in direct contrast to the word exalteth "