Bible Commentaries

The Hell of Death—Church Usages—Every Man In His Place

1 Chronicles 7:9. The ability is noticeable in connection with its definite exercise. We do not read of ability in some merely general way, but of ability specially directed to the house of God. It is often supposed that ability is necessary in a larger way everywhere than in the sanctuary. It is not uncommon to imagine that the son who has least mental power, may be able to serve in the Church. All this will be changed just in proportion as right conceptions of the Church of God prevail. If that Church is simply managed by mechanical regulations, by the starting of wheels, the turning of taps, the management of congregational machinery, then an automaton may some day be invented, that will conduct the whole process without intelligence or feeling. But if the Church of God is humanity in its best aspect, and humanity engaged in its most beneficent activities; if it is humanity intent upon bringing all races and grades of men into sympathy, and conducting them towards a worthy destiny, then is the Church a place for statesmanship, genius, and more than soldier-like discipline and authority. The Church does not exist for the purpose of retaining dogmas that are dead, no more than society is an institution for the preservation of barbarisms which civilisation has superseded. The Church as to its forms, usages, and methods must adapt itself to all variations of progress. In its quest after God, in its love of truth, in its consecration to the cross of Christ, in its sense of responsibility, it must remain the same through all the ages; we thus have in the Christian Church what may be termed the permanent and the changeable—the eternal truth, and the variable instrumentality.

In the nineteenth verse men are referred to as being over the work of the service, keepers of the gates of the tabernacle. Here there is no reference to special genius. The men were what we should call churchwardens, attending to outward things, to necessary but not supreme arrangements connected with the tabernacle or temple. But it is just here that Christianity in some of its rarest qualities is revealed. We must never forget that there are men unknown for genius or large capacity who can be entrusted with the lighting of the lamps or the keeping of the gate better than many poets or philosophers. The question should always be, what is the thing to be done and who is the best man to do it? There is quite as much responsibility in its own degree resting upon the door-keeper as upon the high priest. It does not look so within our narrow limits of judgment, yet it may be really so in the estimation and criticism of God. But the distance is not always between the high priest and the keepers of the gates of the tabernacle; it is often between the high priest and the man who stands next to him in dignity; it is often between two men who are so nearly equal as scarcely to be measurable in influence as between one another; it is where responsibility seems to lessen its claims as it goes down from office to office that men must be particularly careful lest they suppose that the office determines the responsibility. If a man can only keep a gate, then in keeping a gate he rises to the very highest degree of responsibility or obligation. Very often the highest work of the Church fails in the attainment of its object because it is not adequately supported by the secondary order of officers. When the keeper of the gate feels that he is as responsible for the success of the temple service as is the high priest himself, the institution will be equally vital at every point and exquisitely adapted to the ends proposed by its creation. Zechariah according to the twenty-first verse was porter of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, that is to say, he was the door-keeper of the tent of meeting. Door-keeping was no sinecure in the olden days. There were two hundred and twelve porters or door-keepers according to the twenty-second verse. Nehemiah speaks of the total of the porters as one hundred and seventy-two. Ezra reckoned the number as one hundred and thirty-nine. Under David the number of warders was ninety-three. David and Samuel had ordained the door-keepers in their office of trust. It has been pointed out that no mention is made elsewhere of Samuel's part in arranging the Levitical service; but tradition associated him with David in the work of religious reform, and the statement of the text may be true in spirit though not in form. It is interesting to notice according to the best authorities that the families of the temple warders, like those of the singers, lived on their farms in the villages round about Jerusalem, and came up for their duties every seventh day. There is always much work to be done which the supreme men of the Church—as priests, prophets, interpreters,—cannot do so well as it can be done by intellectually inferior men. The rule should be every man in his place, and a place for every man.

Prayer

Almighty God, let thy morning be unto us as an opening into heaven. We are tired of the earth. We look upon it in itself; it began so little and so cold, and so full of disappointment: a garden of bitterness, a vineyard in which we seek wine and find nothing but sourness: but when we see its connection with heaven it becomes beautiful, a worthy habitation for a little while, a vital opportunity. So may we regard it at this moment. Let the light which is above the brightness of the sun make our souls glad; let our poor voices be taken up on high, purified of all dissonance, and made to harmonise with the music of the angels. Give us to feel how near the earth is to heaven, and how at any moment heaven may open and take us into its light and peace. Thus may we rejoice with exceeding joy, and thus may the peace we possess pass all understanding—an infinite depth, a tranquillity that cannot be perturbed. Great peace have they that love thy law; they are blessed with the calm of heaven; though the earth be removed and though the mountains be cast into the midst of the sea: a strong rock is our God, a hiding-place not to be violated. When we think of ourselves, and trust to our own little strength, then the day becomes night, and the night becomes sevenfold in darkness; but when we think of God, there is no more sea, no more death, no more night, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor any pain. May we be filled with God; may we be the subjects of spiritual ecstasy, gracious transport, the holy enthusiasm which lifts the soul above all detail of care, and anxiety, and darkness, and leads it into the liberty of heaven. For occasional blessedness we are grateful: but having tasted that the Lord is gracious we would eat and drink abundantly of his goodness. Lord, excite our hunger, and then satisfy it; afflict us with a gracious thirst, and then quench it with the river of life. Is not all time an opportunity for the display of thy goodness? We have lived, and therefore we believe. Dead men cannot praise thee, but conscious men feel that thou mayest be, and the wisest of them dare not deny thee. But to some thou art ever coming as a light of heaven, a glory ineffable; and they assert thine existence, and declare thy providence, and vindicate thy righteousness. Because we have lived we believe; we see what thou hast done in the days that are gone, and all thy doing has become a noble argument, conclusive by its very persuasion. For all thy love how shall we bless thee? It falls out of every pore of the sky. Thy goodness endureth for ever—now beautiful, now solemn, now a great blessing, now an immeasurable bereavement, now a cradle, now a grave; but it is the same God that worketh in all. Thine acts are full of tenderness, thy dispensations of affliction are full of mercy. Why will we not let thee alone? Why will we criticise our Father, whose right hand is power, whose left hand is mercy, whose head is 1 Chronicles 9:13.

Religious ability is marked by its own peculiarity.—Men are able in various directions and in various senses.—A man may be a brilliant musician, but a useless ploughman; or he may be great as a ploughman, and utterly useless in the matter of exposition and eloquence.—There is a religious genius, a faculty which knows what Israel ought to do, which notes all circumstances and combinations of circumstances, and knows exactly when the blow should be delivered; there is a genius which knows when to halt, when to move, when to lift the voice into a commanding tone, and when to whisper as if afraid to add pain to the soreness of the heart.—We are not called to ecclesiastical statesmanship in this verse; we are called to the kind of work which we can do best.—There are very able doorkeepers, as well as very able preachers; there are very able administrators, as well as very able expositors: the one cannot do without the other, they are members one of another, and together they constitute the complete body of Christ.—What a gift some men have for the fascination and instruction of young minds!—Children know them, and hail them, and love them, giving their little hearts to them with all confidence and thankfulness.—Other men cannot teach the children, but they can address men and women in terms that stir the heart and rouse the energy to its highest endeavours.—What we do want in the house of God is ability, that is to say, faculty that can utilise all other men, penetrate into the meaning of all passing events, and tell exactly when work is to be done, and when it is not to be attempted.—Many are willing who are not able; many are able in nine particulars, but fail in the tenth.—Sometimes a whole number of talents is thrust away because of one talent, the talent of using the others is wanting.—We have heard of some men who had not the talent to know how to use their talents.—So there is continually going on great waste in society, and great waste in the Church.—We should call attention to the waste, because in so doing we may be beginning a process remedial.—Probably every man is more or less open to this charge of impairing his own ability.—His vanity defeats his power; his love of praise throws a doubt upon the genuineness of his prayers; his infirmity is magnified above his ability.—Here is another ground on which may be conducted with highest use the process of self-examination.—Men should not be discouraged because of their one point of weakness, but being warned of it they should address themselves to its fortification.