THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH

[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
IX.  FASTS TURNED INTO FEASTS
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

But the captivity altered everything. They entered it deeply imbued with polytheism, and left it the strictest monotheists the world has ever seen. Their sorrows gave birth to some of their noblest Scriptures, and made their hold on the sacred Canon more tenacious than ever. Cast out by man, they fled to the bosom of God. Divorced from the outward rites of the Temple, they were driven to cling to the spiritual realities, of which the Levitical institutions were only transient types. Israel owes all the influence she has wielded in the world to the anguish which culminated in the conflagration of the Temple; and, if she were wise, she would evermore keep those ancient anniversaries of despair as birthdays of her power. Until March, the farmer may regard with regret the days in which he empties his barns of their precious contents to cast seed into the soil; but when April comes, and all the furrows are covered with the green spires of the young corn, he reviews those dark winter days with congratulation, and dates from them his glorious heritage.

From this historical review, we are led to apprehend the working of an eternal principle, which is thus enunciated elsewhere by the Holy Spirit: "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness with them that are exercised thereby."

We have all had our dark, sad days. The day when God said "No" to some eagerly pressed request; or when life was overcast by a dread announcement concerning our own life, or the life of one dearer to us than life; or when our trust in man's faith rocked to ruin. We have put a black mark against those days in our calendar, and are apt, as these anniversaries occur, to give ourselves to unrestrained sorrow. It is natural, and God does not blame the tears which are salt with rebellious repining. It is natural and human, as we sit by the crags on which the sea breaks heavily, to regret the tender grave of a day that is dead, and to long for the sound of a voice that is still, and to borrow from Job's magnificent soliloquy:

Let that day be darkness;
Let not God regard it from above,
Neither let the light shine upon it.

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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
IX.  FASTS TURNED INTO FEASTS
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. But this will not be our final verdict. Probably in the golden sunset of our life, when we can see its true meaning and perspective, when its various parts are fitted together like the variously-shaped pieces of our childhood's puzzles, we shall see reason to thank God most for our darkest days, so long as they are not days of sin, and to keep them as feasts in the eternal noon of heaven. We shall perceive that out of the darkness light was born; out of the anguish joy was born; out of the trial we entered into God's blessed peace.

That day, when God said "No" to your hot desires, was the day of your weaning from the babe life into the strength and growth of an independent existence. That day, when a dark cloud settled on all your hopes, was the beginning of your new appreciation of the eternal constellations, shining unnoticed in your sky. That day, when your Joseph was torn from you, was really necessary to those seventeen years of prosperity in the sunshine of Egypt's favour. That day of captivity, which snatched you from your busy life, to share Paul's four years' imprisonment at Caesarea and Rome, gave birth to deeper views of the nature of Jesus; so that, whereas you had only known Him as the Divine Substitute, you came to know Him in his heavenly glory, seated at the right hand of God; and your discoveries not only comforted your stricken heart, but made for the enrichment of the world.

Dare to believe this; dare to anticipate the far-off interest of tears; dare to live in the day which is after to-morrow. As Dante said, "In God's will is our peace." He loves us infinitely. No good thing will He withhold. He must lay deep in tears the foundations that shall upbeat our eternal weight of glory:

Thus hath He done, and shall we not adore Him?
This shall He do, and can we still despair?
Come, let us quickly fling ourselves before Him --
Cast at his feet the burden of our care.

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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
X.  GOOD NEWS FOR PRISONERS OF HOPE
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

(Zechariah 9.)

THERE is a change in the phraseology of the remaining chapters of this book. Not now the word of the Lord, but the burden of the word of the Lord. By this term we are prepared for tidings of sorrow and disaster, which are about to fall on the nations addressed. These burdens lay heavily on the soul of the prophet, who was probably already advanced in years when he announced them. There is, at least, a remarkable contrast between the visions of the earlier, and the predictions of the later chapters. The difference has even led some critics to suppose that they were added by another hand; but this view, founded rather on internal evidence, cannot be maintained in the face of the strong external testimony for the unity of the authorship of this book.

When Zechariah wrote this prophecy, the early troubles of the returned remnant in the reconstruction of Temple, City, and State, were at an end; but they were hemmed in and pressed by Tyre on the north, and by Ashkelon, Gaza, and Ekron on the south. It was for their encouragement, therefore, that he foretold an approaching invasion, before which their strong and hostile neighbours would be swept away. Though Tyre had built herself a stronghold on an apparently impregnable island, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets; and though her counsellors were famous for their wisdom -- the Lord would dispossess her, smiting her power in the sea, and devouring her palaces with fire. And the devastation which would befall Damascus and Hadrach (a part of Syria), would extend southwards till the worst fears of Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron would be realized in their utter destruction. Philistia would be as a young lion deprived of its prey, whilst the chosen city would be defended by unseen angel forces. "I will encamp about mine house as a garrison, that none pass through or return; and no oppressor shall pass through them any more; for now have I seen with mine eyes."

All these predictions were literally fulfilled within a few years by the invasion of the third of the great world conquerors, Alexander the Great. Syria, New Tyre, and the old seaboard, including the cities of Philistia, fell under his arms; but both in going and returning, he spared Jerusalem, being much impressed by a dream, in which he was warned not to approach the city, and by a solemn procession of priests and Levites, headed by Jaddua, the high priest.
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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
X.  GOOD NEWS FOR PRISONERS OF HOPE
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

Then a stream of exalted prediction ensues, sweet as the refrain of an angel's hymn, which, as the Evangelist tells us, was fulfilled when, in lowly triumph, Jesus entered Jerusalem at the beginning of the week in which He died. "This came to pass, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass." What sublimity there is in the prophet's words, in which stress is laid on the fact that the King who saves is lowly; that his steed is not the richly-caparisoned war-horse, but the humble ass; and that He needs neither chariot nor battle-bow for the overthrow of his foes; but speaks peace unto the nations, as though waving his hands in priestly benediction over the troubled waters; and lo, there is a great calm (Zechariah 9:9-10).

Then follows the remarkable promise alluded to in the heading of this chapter. "As for thee also, because of the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope; even to-day do I declare that I will render double unto thee."

In eastern lands, liable to long spells of drought, it is customary to hew cisterns out of the solid rock for the storage of water, that provision may be made against the failure of the rains. These abound in Palestine. "They hewed out for themselves cisterns." When these were empty, they might be used for other purposes, and at all times provided a useful retreat, or hiding-place, from the Philistines or other hostile neighbours, who periodically poured up through the valleys, carrying fire and sword to the peaceful pastoral and agricultural hamlets. Such use of the rock-hewn cisterns is referred to in these words. It seemed to the prophet as though Israel might be compared to a terrified peasantry, sheltering in some dark, dry, mountain cistern, far up from the valleys, dreading every day lest their hiding-place might be discovered, and themselves dragged forth to dye with their blood the green sward.

Thus, in every age God's people have been imprisoned. You may have been caught in the snare of this world's evil. You have no sympathy with it, yet somehow you have become involved in the snares and toils of malign combinations. As the wild thing of the forest, bounding carelessly down the glade, suddenly finds itself at the bottom of the dark pit prepared and hidden by the hunter; so you, who began life so guilelessly, and passed your early days so blithely, have awoke to discover yourself involved with people and things, from which you cannot disassociate yourself. You have no desire for them -- they chafe and try you -- but you cannot get off. It seems as though some evil spirit has lassoed you, not indeed in your soul, but in your home and circumstances.
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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
X.  GOOD NEWS FOR PRISONERS OF HOPE
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

Or, perhaps, you have been led captive by the devil at his will. There is no doubt about your sonship; in your better moments, God's Spirit witnesses clearly with yours that you have been born again; you have strong yearnings after the souls of others, and at times are marvellously used for their awakening and comfort: and yet, during long and sad periods of experience, you seem the bound slave of the great enemy of souls; swept before strong gusts of passion; careening in the dock; water-logged until progress in the divine life seems impossible, and you can only drift helplessly to and fro on the tides.

Or, perhaps, you have fallen into deep despondency, partly as the result of ill-health, and partly because you have looked off the face of Christ to the winds and waves. The clear-shining of his love is obscured, and at times it is difficult to believe in anything but the pressure of your own dark thoughts. Some of God's children seem to choose the valley of the shadow of death as the site of their dwelling, and then employ doubt, dread, and despondency, to design and build the house, which is sadly like a gaol. They affect the sombre tint, and the despairful tone; and -- strange anomaly! -- appear happiest when abandoned to the pro-foundest melancholy.

All such are prisoners, but they are prisoners of hope.

There is a sure and certain hope of their deliverance. Out of their prisons they shall ultimately emerge, as Peter, angel-led, from his. The clouds might more easily succeed in imprisoning the sun than any of these dark conditions permanently hold one of God's children. They belong to the light and day; and, though they see it not, Hope, as God's angel, is standing near, only waiting his signal to open the prison door. The prisoner, on whom the sentence of capital punishment has been passed, and who has no strong, wise friends to interfere on his behalf, may well abandon hope as he passes within the massive wails of the fortress, and hears the heavy gates, one after another, slammed and locked behind him. But where justice and truth are on his side, when he has been the victim of craft and guile, if there be a good wife and strong friends to espouse his cause, though he be incarcerated, bound with chains on the Devil's Island, and though the weary years pass lover him, yet he is a prisoner of hope, and shall come forth again into the light of day. All God's children are prisoners of hope.
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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
X.  GOOD NEWS FOR PRISONERS OF HOPE
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

Their hope rests on the Blood of the Covenant. "Because of the blood of thy covenant, I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit." When God entered into covenant-relationship with Abraham, the sacred compact was ratified by the mingled blood of an heifer of three years old, a she-goat of three years old, a ram of three years old, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. And, in after years, when beneath the beetling cliffs of Sinai, Moses acted as mediator between God and the children of Israel, he sent young men, because the order of priesthood was not established, which offered burnt-offerings and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen unto the Lord. Then Moses took the blood and sprinkled part on the altar, and part on the people, saying, "Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words" (Genesis 15:9; Exodus 24:7-8 ).

Similarly, when the new covenant -- the provisions of which are enumerated in Hebrews 8:1-13. -- was ratified, it was in the blood of Jesus. As He took the cup, He said: "This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many unto the remission of sins." "And for this cause He is the Mediator of a new covenant." The shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God indicates that God has entered into a covenant relationship with Him, and all whom He represents, who are, by faith, members of his mystical body, the Church. On his side, He promises to be a God to us, and to take us to be his people; on our side, Christ promises, on our behalf, that we shall be a people for his own possession, zealous of good works. This covenant embraces all who have believed, shall believe, and do believe in Jesus. It embraces thee, if thou dost at this moment simply believe in Him as thine, and art willing to be evermore his. And in placing the cup to thy lips at the Holy Supper, thou dost visibly and solemnly attest thy belief that there is a special relationship between God and thee, not in virtue of thy worthiness, but for the sake of his Son, that great Shepherd, who, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant, was brought again from the dead.
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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
X.  GOOD NEWS FOR PRISONERS OF HOPE
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

Because of the Blood of the Covenant, God will send forth each of his imprisoned ones out of the pit. That blood binds Him to interpose on their behalf. Wherever they are, and however thick-ribbed the walls of their prison, God must deliver them. That they might have strong consolation, He has confirmed his word by an oath. He will bow the heavens and come down, will ride upon a cherub and fly, will certainly rescue from the entanglements and complications of evil.

Suppose two men were bound in the closest, tenderest friendship, not needing to exchange blood from each other's veins, as the manner of some is, because heart had already exchanged with heart; and suppose one of these, travelling in Calabria or Anatolia, was captured by brigands and carried into some mountain fastness, threatened with death unless ransomed by an immense sum of money: can you imagine his friend at home, in the enjoyment of opulence and liberty, settling down in circumstances of ease, and allowing his brother to suffer his miserable fate, with no effort for his deliverance? It is impossible to imagine such a thing! With tireless perseverance, he would leave no stone unturned, and the captive might rely on every possible effort being made for his deliverance. So it is with God. Whatever be the sad combination of disaster which has overtaken us, He is bound by the Holy Covenant, sealed by the blood of Jesus, to spare no effort till our soul is escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowler, until the snare is broken, and we are escaped.

There is a remarkable illustration of this in the story of the conquest of Canaan. By guile, the men of Ai betrayed Israel into making a covenant with them. Three days after their lie was exposed; but the princes said, "We have sworn unto them by the Lord, the God of Israel; now, therefore, we will not touch them." And when Ai was besieged by neighbouring kings, out of pure revenge, and an appeal was made for help, it was at once furnished, because of Israel's troth. So, child of God, if you have made Jesus your King, He is sure to succour you. Behold, thy King cometh, O prisoner of hope! He is just, and therefore he has salvation.

Is not this the reason why some of us are not delivered? We should be glad enough to accept deliverance, but are not prepared to pay the price. We have not observed the divine order, and crowned Jesus King of our hearts and lives. We are wishful that He should be our Saviour, but not altogether prepared to accept Him as King. This is our mistake; God hath exalted Him to be a Prince and a Saviour; He is first King of Righteousness, before He is Priest after the order of Melchizedek: and it is only when we confess with our mouths Jesus as Lord, that we shall be saved.
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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
X.  GOOD NEWS FOR PRISONERS OF HOPE
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

But do not fear Him. His footfall is very soft. He is lowly, and rides upon a colt, the foal of an ass. No prancing steed, no banner flaunting in the breeze, no long train of warriors. Soft as the summer breeze; irresistible as the summer sunshine, before which great tubular 'bridges bend. Lowly as a child -- thy King, thy King is here! And before his advent the bars are broken, as though ice were thawing drop by drop in spring, and letting the imprisoned ship through the close-set floes.

The King speaks peace; but He uses his emancipated ones as weapons in the great fight. "I have bent Judah for me" (as a man might bend his bow); "I have filled my bow with Ephraim" (as with an arrow). This, in the first instance, refers to the struggle of the Maccabees against Alexander's successor  --  Antiochus  --  as appears in the following words: "I will stir up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and will make thee as the sword of a mighty man." But there is a deeper meaning, which applies to us all -- Jesus first saves us, and then we become as arrows in the hand of a mighty man.

O prisoners of hope, lift up your heads! your salvation is come out of Zion. Turn you to the stronghold! The enemy has been driven from his position. There is no more fear of his attack. Take up your abode in the stronghold of God's care and love, in the fortress of his Righteousness, in the keep of his Covenant.

As we turn from this chapter, we cannot but feel that it contains unexplored depths, which no previous fulfilment has exhausted; and which are probably awaiting further developments, which, at present, we cannot prognosticate. When the closing verses tell us of what God will do for his people, "seen over them," "defending them," "saving them, as the stones of a crown glittering on high over his land "; when our attention is called to the greatness of his goodness and beauty reflected on the people of his choice -- we cannot but feel that days are coming in which He shall yet more conspicuously and victoriously interpose on their behalf, and when, literally, his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. And if such a surmise be true, this chapter is closely related to the scenes which are delineated in the last chapters of this book, and which probably lie just in front of us, waiting for the withdrawal of the veiling curtain, which often appears to move with preparations for the events behind it.

TO BE CONTINUED...
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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
XI.  JUDGEMENTS ON SURROUNDING NATIONS
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

(Zechariah 10.)


TO the superficial eye there is no difference in the distance from our earth of the planets and the fixed stars; but, as a matter of fact, between the one and the other there is a vast intervening space of millions of miles. So in regard to these predictions. The prophet searches "what manner of time" the Spirit of Christ which is in him signifies. He describes the great facts revealed to him; but it is not within his province to announce the times and seasons which the Father hath kept in his own power. He sees the mighty mountain ranges; but it is left for us to discover that deep and far-stretching valleys lie between the nearer and the further, between the first and second advents of Christ. We shall find, therefore, the prophet passing from the one to the other, and grouping on the foreground of his picture incidents which really belong to different ages in the world's history. Such a method of workmanship was necessary, if prophecy was to be an incentive to faith and patience.

We have already had an illustration of this in the previous chapter, when the advent of the Christ on his lowly steed, the struggle of the Maccabees, and the deliverance of Israel in the last years of this dispensation, are classed together as though pertaining to the same epoch. There is nothing surprising in such grouping, if we remember that our Lord inserts the whole Christian dispensation in the break of a single comma (compare Isaiah 61:5, and Luke 4:19).

In this chapter and the next, taken as one, we detect the same fact. We are bidden, in the first verse, to ask for the latter rain, that Pentecost which is to close the present age, and which the apostle Peter describes as "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord." These are to be expected, he tells us, when the Jewish people repent and turn again to God, and will inaugurate the time of restitution of all things, whereof God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began. And the rest of the chapter may be interpreted as referring to the same events. But the next deals with the destruction of the second temple by Titus, and the rejection of Shepherd. In the thirteenth chapter there is a similar rapid transition from the final cleansing of the chosen people to the awaking of the sword against the Shepherd, who is also the fellow of the Lord of Hosts. And probably there is no satisfactory clue to the comprehension of the Lord's closing utterances about the fall of Jerusalem, which does not recognise the same principle. He passes from the close of the one age to that of the other, describing both in the same sentences; and only in a passing phrase, as when He speaks of the fulfilment of the times of the Gentiles, does He open to our view the mighty gulf of time which was destined to intervene.
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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
XI.  JUDGEMENTS ON SURROUNDING NATIONS
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

If these thoughts are borne in mind, there will be no obstacle to our deriving help and teaching from these chapters; and in the last days of this dispensation we shall be able, with tolerable accuracy, to assign the various paragraphs to their respective place on the great chart of God's providential government.

From the summons to ask for the latter rain, coupled as it is with the Divine promise of a gracious hearing, we are led to a graphic description of what God will make of his people -- a description which was partially realized in the successful stand made by Judas Maccabaeus and his brethren against Antiochus. "Judah was as his goodly horse in the battle. From him came forth the corner-stone, from him the nail, from him the battle-bow, from him every exactor together." The following description of their successes against their foes, treading them down in the battle as mire in the streets, was fully verified during that brief but glorious period, when for a little the waning splendour of the Hebrew people shone out in its pristine beauty. But when the prophet goes on to class Joseph with Judah; and to speak of the people being brought again from the ends of the earth, the mightiest nations being humbled for their sake; and the promised land, though inhabited to Lebanon on the north, and to Gilead on the east, being too small for them: we feel that there looms before his vision something greater than has taken place, or shall take place, till God summons his people from all the world to inhabit their own land -- as the bee-farmer hisses for his bees, scattered in search of honey throughout meadows and garden (Zechariah 10:8 ).

In the meanwhile, during the present age, we may view the Jewish race as so much buried seed. "I will sow them among the people: and they shall remember Me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and shall return."

At the end of the seventy years' captivity the people of God's ancient choice were distributed through Parthia, Media, Persia, Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya and Rome, Crete and Arabia. Everywhere, throughout the great Roman Empire, they fell into the ground to die. So far as their natural life was concerned, they seemed on the point of being obliterated among the nations of the world; but you might as well talk of the obliteration of the seed which the husbandman casts into the autumn furrows. They built their synagogues, throve in the quarters assigned to them in the great cities, and disseminated new conceptions of God, high ethical standards, a fresh religious speech, destined to be of incalculable service to the early preachers of Christ's Evangel.
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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
XI.  JUDGEMENTS ON SURROUNDING NATIONS
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

At this present hour the Jews lie sown among all the nations of the earth. But they still live, or exist, with their children, and shall one day return. There shall be spring:! time, earring, and harvest. The sea of affliction has too long rolled over them, with the thunder of its mighty billows. Its wide expanse has stretched out between them and their great destiny; but their Almighty Friend shall yet pass through it, smiting its waves and drying up its depths achieving a national deliverance, so that they may reoccupy the land given in covenant to their fathers. It was thus with the first believers. By the rough hand of the persecutor, the rich wheat of Pentecost, which had laid too long in the bin of the mother Church, was scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria. "They therefore that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the Word." "They therefore that were scattered abroad, upon the tribulation that arose about Stephen, travelled as far as Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch." These spring sowings yielded a marvellous return. There was such a crop of churches and converts as multiplied the original number of the Church a hundredfold. Though there was a diminution of the numbers at Jerusalem, there were sheaves of golden corn throughout the world's acreage. How many illustrations have existed, throughout the entire history of the Church, of the effect of God's sowings! "My Father is the Husbandman," said our Lord. With both hands He has prosecuted his work of sowing. In the persecutions of Nero, Decius, and Diocletianus, the precious seed of the Kingdom was sown deep in the dark graves of agony and death. Surely the great Sower went forth weeping, as He bore the precious seed to its destined ministry. It was buried in the voracious animals of the arena, in the labyrinths of the catacombs, in the dens and caves the earth; but it lived again in millions of converts that so filled the earth as to appal and silence their persecutors.

The emperors at last gave up the work of slaughter, because martyrdoms only served to root Christianity deeper in the empire. The blood of the martyrs became the seed of the Church.

There was a grand quality in the corn of the Waldensian Valleys, in the Paulicians, the Hussites, the Lollards, which was sown by the Master in the dungeons of the Inquisition, in mockings and scourgings, in bonds and imprisonment, in the fires of martyrdom, and in the current of swiftly-flowing rivers. But what harvests it all yielded! There was, for instance, the harvest of the Reformation in Germany, of the Huguenots in France, and of the Puritans in England. It would be impossible to compute the vast hosts of the true disciples of Jesus through the dreary Middle Ages, because the apostate Church has concealed their number and misrepresented their influence. But many pages of the Lamb's Book of Life must be filled with their names. "A great multitude which no man can number, of every nation, and tribe, and people."
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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
XI.  JUDGEMENTS ON SURROUNDING NATIONS
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

So in later days. The martyrs of Uganda have yielded today three hundred Christian churches. The devoted labours of saintly missionaries in India, Burma, China, and Africa, who fell into the ground of obscurity, and loneliness, and disappointment, and died among strangers, many of them prematurely or violently -- have resulted in the salvation of myriads. There was a handful of corn in the tops of mountains, in the ledges, where the earth was deep and rich enough to admit of a grave being dug, and the fruit thereof has shaken like Lebanon.

In all probability many of the children of Gad who read these lines know what sowing means. They, too, have fallen into the ground to die. That obscure village in which your friends say you are buried; that humble position in which your powers are cramped and limited by neglect and confinement; that bed of suffering and weakness; that incessant demand to undertake menial and lowly drudging;' that summons to leave home and friends, and sphere of successful labour, to become the companion of savage and illiterate people -- all this is the grave, with its darkness and silence, in which God sows his people; not that they should abide there for ever, but that they should bring forth much fruit. You shall live through other lives. Your prayers and alms shall be a memorial before God, and the day shall reveal the wonderful ways in which you have no longer abode alone.

Listen to the complaint of the buried seed: "Lord, in trouble have we visited Thee. We have poured out our prayer when thy chastening was upon us. We have been with child; we have been in pain; we have, as it were, brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen." And here is the Divine response: "Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead."
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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
XI.  JUDGEMENTS ON SURROUNDING NATIONS
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

Sowing means death. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die . . ." We must be prepared to die, not only to sins, and weights, and self-indulgences, but to our own notions of pleasing God, to our emotional life, to our self-congratulation at the results of Christian service, to the energy and enthusiasm of our devotion. The little corn of wheat must feel very disconsolate when it finds itself attacked by chemical agents lurking in the soil, that begin to tear at its integument's and strike their rapiers at its heart. It is sad at having to surrender its beauty of form, its sprightly nimbleness, its secret soul. Dying is not easy work. And when the process is prolonged, when the disintegration of the self-energy takes place by slow degrees, it is bitter to bear.

Sowing means darkness. Through long months the seed lies in darkness and has no light. Madame Guyon tells of prolonged seasons in which she lost all the joy of God, that she might be led to God Himself. It is a strange experience: "God removes all conscious experience of his grace, all power to work for Him, and the very beauty of the Divine virtues." The soul does not fall away from God, because He is beside it whilst it treads the dark valley; but it goes ever deeper into the grave of Jesus -- no song on its lips, no rapture at its heart, no ray of sunlight from the former sources of hope and consolation.

Sowing means loneliness. The corn of wheat falls into the ground to die, that it may not abide alone; but this dying is necessarily a long experience. Each man is born alone, and alone he dies. God will perhaps touch your friends, and you will be separated from them by misunderstandings; your home life, so that your dearest will be called from your side; your church relationships, and you will have to go forth without the camp, bearing his reproach. But there is no one who has left brethren, or sister, or father, or mother, or children, for Christ's sake, that shall not receive a hundredfold in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children; and in the age to come eternal life.

But God does not forget the buried seed. Can a woman forget her sucking child? Can a farmer forget the seed which at so much pains he flung abroad on the brown furrows? Can God forget those who have not counted their lives dear unto themselves, but for his sake have been killed all the day long, and counted as sheep for the slaughter? They shall be his, in the day that He shall make even his peculiar treasure.
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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
XI.  JUDGEMENTS ON SURROUNDING NATIONS
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

In that wonderful ladder or scale of ascending prayer, of which we are informed in Hosea, we hear the heaven calling to God, the earth calling to heaven, and the corn, wine, and oil calling to the earth, and Jezreel (the sown) calling to the corn, wine, and oil. And as the result of these appeals, ringing through earth and heaven, He who had sown his people in the earth, has mercy on them, and says, Thou art my people; and they say unto Him, Thou art our God. "Doubtless Thou art our Father, though Abraham knoweth us not, and Israel doth not acknowledge us: Thou,-O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer from everlasting."

When the destined hour has come the buried seed hears the call of spring to arise and come forth from her cell. The voice that bade Lazarus come forth is heard deep down in the recesses of the earth. That which was in the grave hears the voice of the Word of God, and comes forth. How beautifully the words of the prophet's vision lend themselves to the metamorphosis of the spring: "So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army."

Yes, buried ones, God does not forget your work and the love which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to his saints, and still minister, though your ministries be hidden from the admiration of the great world. Your resurrection is guaranteed. You may not be able to discover the body of usefulness with which you will be clothed. God will give you your body as it pleases Him, and to each its own. But your death shall be swallowed up in the victory of life, and

God shall wipe all
tears from your eyes.

And that new lift will be God's. "They shall remember Me, .... and they shall live." Jesus said that he who believed in Him, though he were dead, yet should he live. Now, to believe is to receive. Evidently, then, the life which comes after death is by the reception into our spirit of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life. We obtain by union with Jesus, and direct from God, all that we had previously sought in his service, his gifts, his people.
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[nChrist]

THE PROPHET OF HOPE - STUDIES IN ZECHARIAH
XI.  JUDGEMENTS ON SURROUNDING NATIONS
BY F.B. MEYER, B.A.

"The soul lives no longer, works no longer of itself. It is God (by the Holy Spirit) who lives, works, operates within it. This goes on increasingly, so that it becomes rich with his riches. It is also enriched and revivified by degrees as it was stripped by degrees (2 Corinthians 3:18 ). The soul lives with the life of God. He being the principle of life, it cannot want for anything. It has lost the created for the Creator; nothingness for all things. All is given to it in God, not to possess, but to be possessed" (2 Corinthians 6:10; Colossians 2:9).

You have, as it were, been buried in Egypt; but God is going before you, smiting the waves of the sea and drying up the depths of the mighty river, which had seemed an impassable barrier. He will strengthen you to follow Him: only dare to step out in faith, and you shall walk up and down in his name (Zechariah 10:12).

Who shall estimate the results? One head of corn may have fifty seed-corns, and each of these fifty, and each of these again fifty. At this rate, we may soon arrive at tens of thousands. Behold the revenue of your tears, and prayers, and anguish. God will richly compensate. Lift up thine eyes and see. They gather themselves together, they come to thee; thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters borne in arms. The little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation, because the Lord will hasten it in his time.
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