Nothing is more disheartening, if we must believe it to be true, than the language in which some persons talk of the difficulties of the Scriptures, and the absolute certainty that different men will ever continue to understand them differently. It seems desirable that every student of Scripture should know as well as may be, what the exact state of this question is; for if the subject of his studies is really so hopelessly uncertain, it is scarcely possible that his zeal in studying it should not be abated.
I. We read many books written in dead languages, most of them more ancient than any part of the New Testament, some of them older than several books of the old. We know well enough that these ancient books are not without their difficulties; that time and thought and knowledge, are required to master them; but still we do not doubt that with the exception of particular passages here and there, the true meaning of these books may be discovered with undoubted certainty. When we come to passages which cannot be interpreted or understood, we leave them at once as a blank, but we enjoy no less, and understand with no less certainty, the greatest portions of the book which contain them. And this experience with regard to the works of heathen antiquity, makes it a startling proposition at the outset, when we are told that, with the works of Christian antiquity the case is otherwise.
II. The differences between Christian and Christian by no means arise generally from the difficulty of understanding the Scripture aright, but from disagreement as to some other point, quite independent of the interpretation of the Scriptures, or it may be considerations of another kind, as to the inherent reasonableness of a doctrine. One of the greatest men of our time has declared that in the early part of his life he did not believe in the Divinity of our Lord; but he has stated expressly that he never for a moment persuaded himself that St. Paul or St. John did not believe it; their language he thought was clear enough upon the point, but the notion appeared to him so unreasonable in itself, that he disbelieved it in spite of their authority. The same pains which enable us to understand heathen writings, whose meaning is of infinitely less value to us, will enable us, with God's blessing, to understand the Scriptures also. Supposing us to seek honestly to know God's will, and to pray devoutly for His help to guide us to it, then our study is not vain nor uncertain: the mind of Scripture may be discovered: we may distinguish plainly between what is clear and what is not clear; what is not clear will be found far less in amount, and infinitely less in importance, than what is clear.
T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. iv., p. 281.
I. There are two objections that men of the world make to the preacher; they object to two kinds of religious speech; the speech of religious doctrine, and the speech of religious experience. The Christian creed contains mysterious words, and these are parables both to those who believe and those who do not. Christian experience expresses itself also in mysterious words that are only understood by Christians. It speaks of conversion, faith, assurance, perseverance, justification, sanctification; and men who have not experienced these states of mind call these words unmeaning; they class them together under the head of cant.What the age specially dislikes in the teaching of the Church are these two things: dogma and cant, mystery and unreality. As regards the objection to mystery in religion, perhaps the simplest way of considering this would be to ask whether it is possible to comply with it; whether it is possible to teach any kind of religion which shall be entirely free from mystery. When you bring together these two great mysteries God and man, the Creator and the creature; the Creator with His Almighty will, and the creature with his mysterious and awful power of rebelling against that will; the Almighty love that wills our happiness and yet that seems ever to will it in vain, and the desperate recklessness of the creature that seems ever bent upon his own destruction; the living and the loving God who heareth prayer, and the changeless, terrible law to which all prayer seems spoken in vain: we find ourselves all surrounded with mysteries; they rise up like mists out of the earth, and gather round the meeting-place where men would draw nigh to God. The mysteries of Christianity are mysteries of all time and all humanity. Those cant phrases that men so dislike, we cannot give them up for just the same reason; they express, not notions, but facts. If a fact be a peculiar one, then the name of it must be peculiar too. Every science, every profession, every art has its own canthas its own technical expressions which are only understood by those who know the science or practise the art. Religion is a science; it is the knowledge of God. Religion is an art; it is the art of holy living, and of happy dying; it must therefore have its cantwords.
II. But though we may not give up our dogmas, there is a request that all men have a right to make of us, and that we should do well to ponder when they make it. You hearers have a right to say to us teachers, "Take care what parables you give us. Take care how you add your words to God's, and then call both of them His word. Give us God's message. Give us allGod's message. Give us nothing butGod's message." You have the right to bid us take good heed that those peculiar religious expressions which we use shall be real and living on our lips; that they shall not be merely words.
Bishop Magee, The Gospel and the Age,p. 139.
I. Those to whom Ezekiel ministered were not the only beings who have returned this reply to the Divine message this mocking taunt of unbelief, which to my mind is one of the saddest features of any age in which it may find an expression. In the very first temptation, the father of lies struck out the monster scheme that he and his since then in thousands of instances have adopted to the detriment and destruction of those who have yielded to his influence, and have responded to his power. We find it so today. Men scorn the Gospel, presuming to tell us that it is a cunningly devised fable, laughing its threatenings to scorn, and trampling its Divine provisions under foot; or they profess to believe it, and pay no practical regard to it at the same time, they allow it to have no influence upon their minds to exert no power upon their spirits.
II. The words of Divine truth are no parables in this sense of the text. It is true that the Gospel is full of parables parables that are inspired by the Divine purpose and enriched by the Divine love, but not in the sense in which the reproach was implied and the words were uttered in the case of the text. The truths of the Bible are not parables, but eternal realities, Divine revelations for us all.
III. There are truths in which every soul has an interest that involve the destruction or salvation of every spirit to whom they are addressed. They are truths whose lightest whisper is weighted by Divine meaning and commended by Divine truthfulness; and heaven and earth may pass away, but not a jot or tittle of these till all shall be fulfilled. As you see the wicked pass from the left hand of the Judge into everlasting death you feel that it is no parable. As you hear the crowd of those who call on the rocks and mountains to fall on them, and, though they crush them, to hide them from the presence of Him who sits upon the throne, you feel that it is no parable. And as you see at last the separation of the righteous and the wicked, and those ascending with their Saviour and these departing to reap the dreadful harvest of their own folly, you feel that there is stern truth no parable there; but that which demands your careful attention and is worthy of your most devout regard.
J. P. Chown, Penny Pulpit,No. 580.
References: Ezekiel 20:49. H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons,p. 377; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 158; Preacher's Monthly,vol. x., p. 210; D. Moore, Penny Pulpit,No. 3155; Bishop Magee, Old Testament Outlines,p. 252.Ezekiel 21:27. J. Foster, Lectures,2nd series, p. 78. Ezekiel 21:31. Fountain,May 5th, 1881.Ezekiel 24:15-18. A. Mackennal, Homiletic Magazine,vol. xii., p. 45.Ezekiel 24:16. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xi., p. 145.Ezekiel 24:19. S. Cox, Expositions,1st series, p. 442.Ezekiel 27:3. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 64.Ezekiel 28:14. Homiletic Magazine,vol. ix., p. 361.Ezekiel 29 P. Thomson, Expositor,1st series, vol. x., p. 397. Ezekiel 32:31; Ezekiel 32:32. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 327. Ezekiel 33:5. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. iv., No. 165.Ezekiel 33:6. S. Cox, Expositions,3rd series, p. 16.