THIRTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY

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Morning

THE JEWS' RETURN FROM EXILE

Passage to be read: Ezra i. 1-11.

O king more impressed himself on the imagination of the East than Cyrus, with whose name our chapter opens. Strange legends had gathered round his childhood; even in his boyish sports (when he was thought to be a herdsman's son) there was the flashing out of a true kingly spirit; and in all his brilliant and victorious career there is a blending of military genius, and true devotion, and tolerance, and largehearted wisdom, that marks out Cyrus as one of the world's greatest men. Our lesson opens with one of his famous hours. It was the hour of his conquest of Babylonia. It was then for the first time that he became a power in the life and fortunes of the exiled Jews. Many a time they had heard of him before; there was never an evening, when they met by the waters of Babylon, but the name of Cyrus would come into their talk. But now the distant and much-rumoured conqueror was actually marching on their city, and you can imagine how that would thrill them all. First came his general, leading in the army. Then followed, in royal state, Cyrus himself. And amid the crowds that lined the conqueror's march, there was many an eager and expectant Jew. Was this the man of whom their prophets had spoken? Was this the Cyrus who was to be God's

servant? Was the day dawning of which they had so often heard, when their long exile would be over? There was little sleep in many a Jewish home on the night when Cyrus entered Babylon.

NOW Cyrus would not be long in Babylon before he

would come into touch with Daniel. And Daniel had a strange power of impressing kings, like (and yet unlike) the power of John Knox. It may have been, then, through the agency of Daniel, that God wrought upon the spirit of Cyrus. It may have been that Cyrus was powerfully impressed with such words as we now read in Isaiah (Isa. xliv. 28). But whatever the secondary and immediate cause, Cyrus sent out a proclamation through his kingdom. It gave the Jews liberty to return, and to build again the Temple at Jerusalem. Whether Cyrus (as the words might lead us to infer) invoked the name of Jehovah in his edict, or whether it ran in the name of the god Merodach, and had been misinterpreted in translation, is a question that has been much discussed. However it be, God was at work in it; it was the fulfilment of His promised word; the hour had come that He was pledged to bring. Nor was the return to be accomplished meanly. When God fulfils, He fulfils in royal fashion. Liberal gifts were given to the exiles. The vessels of the Temple were restored. And our chapter closes with enumerating these vessels, some of them of gold, and some of them of silver, which Zerubbabel (here called Sheshbazzar) brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem.

THE

HE first lesson we should learn from this chapter is that divine delays do not imply forgetfulness. Seventy years had passed away since the Jews had been carried off into captivity. The old men had died in Babylonia; the children of the year of exile were grey-haired. There

were men and women in the prime of life to whom Jerusalem and the Temple were but names. Some of them doubtless had forgotten God, and many thought that God had forgotten them. But God had not forgotten, though He delayed. With Him a thousand years are as one day. When the fulness of time came, and purposes were ripe, the long-promised deliverance did not fail. Can we remember other divine delays? There are many notable instances in Scripture. When our Saviour heard that Lazarus was sick, He delayed His coming to Bethany for two days. We must never seek to enforce our times on God. We must learn to wait for Him, no less than to work for Him. Sometimes He anticipates our desires, and fills our cup the moment we hold it out. But other times, to school us into patience, He comes long after the season of our hope.

THE

'HE next lesson that is written here is that divine encouragement is given for difficult duty. We are not to think of all these exiled Israelites as hungering for Jerusalem again. Except in some of the purer and nobler souls, the longing to return had died away. The word of the prophet quickened them at times, and providences touched the chords of memory, but for long periods the exiles forgot home; they were busy, and tolerably happy and contented. Then came the summons of Cyrus to return. The hour of restoration had arrived. Perhaps they never fully realised till then how comfortable their lot had been in Babylon. What! were they to leave this haven of rest for the hard journey to a ruined church? I should not have wondered had they refused to go. It is then that we read how God raised up their spirits (v. 5). Divine encouragement was given for duty. They were stirred, they knew not how, with holy discontent; the smouldering passion for their land revived. Obstacles, that might have seemed insuperable, were broken down in the tide of their enthusi

asm, and the Bible tells us it was all of God. Now I want my readers to remember that. We are so apt to forget God in glowing hours. When hope and enthusiasm are strong within us, it is not then that we are readiest to see God. But God is more than the succour of our dark days; He is the source of all the sunshine of our bright ones. He is not alone the bearer of our burdens; He is the secret of our more glorious hours. great thing to think of God when we are sick.

It is a

But it

is greater, when our spirits are exuberant, to know that our spirit hath been raised by God.

AND the last lesson I wish you to remark is that divine fulfilment exceeds our expectation. When any of the exiles dreamed of their return, they pictured it as a very sorry pilgrimage. If they got free with their wives and children, and had to leave all their belongings behind them, it was the most that they could reasonably expect. But instead of that, on the day of their departure, the neighbours flocked into the Jewish homes; and gold and silver and goods and horses and cattle were gifted in great plenty to the emigrants (v. 4). And then the Temple vessels? They thought them lost for ever. But here was a vast array of them in convoy. I am certain that often on their homeward journey they would tell how God had exceeded all their hopes. Do you not think that Jacob felt that, too, when he got Joseph back in stately dignity? The most he ever could expect was to have him creeping to the tent to die. And do you not think the prodigal felt that, when he got the ring and the shoes and the best coat in the wardrobe? He would have been happy by the kitchen fire. God is a king, and when He gives, gives royally. When He fulfils, He exceeds our expectation. He is always able, and He is always waiting, to do far above what we can ask or think.

THIRTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY

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Evening

JESUS BEFORE PILATE

Passage to be read: Matt. xxvii. 1-28.

Y the Jewish law no sentence of death could be passed by night, and therefore, when the morning dawned (v. 1), a second meeting of the priests and elders was convened. It was then that their formal sentence of death was passed on Jesus, and it was then that they deliberated how they should best present their case to Pilate, so as to ensure that Jesus would not escape. We know very little about Pilate, save from the Gospel story. He was a typical Roman, self-centred and self-seeking, not devoid of the Roman love of justice. But his love of self outweighed his love of justice; and his shameful past had so eaten the heart out of him, that in the great crisis of his life he went to ruin. He was the last man in the world to manage Jews. He had outraged their feelings in the most wanton manner. We do not wonder to read in an old historian that Pilate fell into disgrace in after years, and, wearied with misfortunes, killed himself. Those who have read Scott's story, Anne of Geierstein, will know the legend of Mount Pilatus-the mountain with the bare and jagged peaks, opposite the Rigi, at the west end of the Lake of Lucerne. The legend is that Pilate spent years of torturing remorse on that mountain, and at last drowned himself in the lake; and 'a form,' says Scott, 'is often seen to emerge from the water, and to go through the form of one washing his hands.'

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