Ezekiel 47:9 And it shall come to pass, that every thing that lives, which moves, wherever the rivers shall come, shall live… What this figure suggests is, that everything may be, is to be, made holy by the touch of the Divine Word. Business is to be freed from the tendency which ever causes it to degenerate into mere money grubbing; recreation is to be purified from influences which would turn to purposes of dissipation and vice; the demon of ambition is to be expelled from the world of politics; in general, the selfishness which corrupts all that is most pure and debases all that is most noble, is to be brought under such restraint, that it shall become a power for good and not for evil. Under this gracious and quickening influence, everything that has in it any element of real endurance shall be made yet stronger. Things that are worthy to live are to be endued with new life. Here, then, is the ideal of Christianity — an ideal toward which all the power that the Gospel exercises in the world is certainly working. Its promise is, that there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, in which shall dwell righteousness, and, so far as its power has been felt, the promise has been fulfilled. Not yet do we see all things put under Christ, or already earth would have been exchanged for heaven. But we do see advances made toward this end. The process is so advancing that we may, if we will, carefully trace its growth. We see it in individuals, in the conversion and the sanctification of those who are led to submit themselves, and who, in their turn, become instruments for the extension of His gracious rule. But we see it also in the extension of what may be called the indirect power of the Gospel — a power less noticed but still real and full of significance. All men, even those who scoff and blaspheme, share in the grace which God has manifested to man; or, to narrow the range of observation and put it in a more concrete form — England is a wiser, better, happier England because Jesus Christ came into the world, and because to us, as a people, has the Word of His salvation come. The presence of Christians — that is, of men honestly seeking to do the will of Christ — must itself be a blessing to any nation. So far as they can succeed in their holy endeavour, they are as the salt by which society is preserved from the corrupting influences which are ever active in the world. They are a power for truth, righteousness, and goodness. They not only have power on earth, but have power in heaven. Unbelief, indeed, will laugh to scorn the suggestion, that for the wisdom which inspires and guides the hearts of her statesmen, and the strength which nerves the hands of her workers; for the patriotism which, in times of great emergency and peril, stirs the heart of the nation so that it beats as the heart of one man; for extraordinary deliverances from peril; for equally remarkable manifestations of public virtue or worldwide sympathy, the nation is indebted to God and His grace, and that God Himself has been moved by the prayers of His servants. There seems to be no point of the Church's faith and hope on which a scoffing scepticism has made more impression than this. Science, misunderstanding the nature of the doctrine as to the efficacy of prayer, laughs it to scorn as a piece of worn-out superstition. To the Christian it is of the very essence of religion. Its primary truth is, that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, and it is a primary duty, that as the Master has Himself taught us, men ought always to pray and not to faint. The effectual, fervent prayer of one righteous man availeth much. What must be the power of the prayers of all the saints who plead with God for the redemption of humanity? But prayers are the consecration, the stay, the support of holy lives. Christians not only offer prayers of faith, but live in the nation as witnesses of God and workers for His truth. So far as they carry out the principles of the Gospel, they are setting before men a higher ideal of character and of life: an ideal in which, to a degree, the will of God is represented. Lives in which the spirit of selfish ambition is crushed out, or, at least, subordinated to purer and nobler aims; which draw their inspiration from the Cross, and their support from the words that come from the mouth of God; in which the law of the Divine righteousness is supreme, and whose motive force is that love to God which expresses itself in sympathetic and active love to man; lives of those who, in a sense, are the world's redeemers, since they are spent in carrying on that loving search after sinners, for which the Saviour lived and died, must influence the lives with which they are brought into contact. They may be often subjects of ridicule and scorn, their motives may be misrepresented, and their conduct misconstrued; but they impress men. Yet even this does not exhaust the influence of Christianity upon a nation. Both by its own teaching, and by the examples of its subjects, it purifies and elevates the tone of thought and feeling in a community. It creates an atmosphere of its own, in which it is difficult for selfishness to flourish, and in which, if it flourishes, it is restrained in the indulgence of its desires. It lays down great truths, which give men a new conception of their relations to each other — a conception which was never more needed than in such days as ours, when men are congregated in great societies, and the competition of life becomes keener and more intense. Mark, for example, the difference between one of the favourite ideas of science — the survival of the fittest — and the root-conception of Christianity, the value of every man, and the brotherhood of all. Christ has taught us that lesson which, when rightly learned, must change the atmosphere of all society — that man in his lowest degradation, in his deepest misery, in his most extreme alienation from the Heavenly Father, is still infinitely precious in His sight. A very little one he may be, but it is not the will of the Father that one of these little ones should perish. We are led up thus to another thought, which stands out conspicuous as distinctive of the Gospel — the blessedness of self-sacrifice. By the death of the one are the many to be made righteous. That is the keynote of the Revelation everywhere. Selfishness is to be expelled by the power of love; the sinner redeemed by the death of the Saviour; the highest joy which the universe knows, reached by the endurance of sorrow for the good of others. (J. G. Rogers.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh. |
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