The hardest lesson for men to learn is that of willing service. Under compulsion, most men work—the compulsion of hunger, of pride, of fear; but for the most part, they seek to barter their labor for the utmost of money, of privilege, of pleasure. It is the world's way, and it always will be. The Christian's way is a reversal of all this —a reversal not of process, but of motive. Upon the Christian, as upon every man, rests still the law of survival given at the fall: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." It makes all the difference, however, what one's attitude is toward this law. Regarded as a curse, evaded, resisted, it comes down upon the offender with all the weight of eternal truth, and makes him a drudge, a parasite, or an outlaw—a slave in any case.
But the sane man finds work a joy and a blessing. The mechanism of his body and of his mind requires exercise; and notinal life is made up of well-apportioned work. If, however, the purpose of this work be selfish, if it be to gain for one's self rather than to give to others, it becomes abnormal; for giving is the law of life, cooperation is the breath of society. It is a lesson that love teaches, in marriage, in parenthood, in social relations, that only he who gives his all can receive fullness of life.
Of all men to the present time, no others have had so great opportunity to learn this lesson as had the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. They were His constant companions in the days of ministry, when there went out from Him virtue and power to heal the sick of body, mind, and soul. In great degree, they learned the lesson, though slow and halting in their progress. From self-seeking politicians, they became unselfish servants to their fellow men's necessities. Three years and a half they walked with the Master Teacher; and thereafter, for their longer or shorter lives, they were the ministers of grace, willing to give and giving of the life that in abundance flowed to them and through them.
The Heads of the Tribes
The greatest teachers are the most perfect servants. And to these fellow servants of Him who "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister," it was given to become the great leaders and teachers of eternity. "In the regeneration," said Jesus to them, "when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Matthew 19:28. Not as judges between right and wrong, for in the kingdom of glory there will be no evil; but as the early judges of Israel were the leaders and teachers of their people, so the twelve apostles will sit as the heads of the twelve great divisions of the new earth's inhabitants.
We are not told to which tribe any one of them will be assigned; yet as character no doubt determines their assignment, and as we know more or less of their characters, we may hazard a guess as to their places. Thomas, perhaps, the hesitating and doubtful, may head the tribe of Reuben. Simon Zelotes, who came from that Jewish party, the Zealots, who by passionate word and deed demanded what they claimed as rights—Simon may judge Simeon. And who but John, first a "son of thunder," who would call fire from heaven to avenge an insult, but who became transformed into the great teacher of the church —who but John may typify the transformation of Levi? James his brother seems to have many of the qualities of Judah, and there we may place him. Zebulun should have a businessman at its head, and him we see in Matthew the publican. And to Issachar we may assign that slow but faithful "brother of our Lord" called James the Less, who through the days of schooling is hidden away under the burdens of service, but who in the later days becomes one of the "pillars of the church."
Now we come to the sons of trial, from whom we may learn lessons of greatest value in our Christian warfare. One we shall follow as he goes down, down, down, finally to perdition; with the other, we shall go forward through trials and defeats, with faith and courage unfaltering, to final success and glory.
Dan
In the roll call of the tribes which we find in Revelation 7, that last muster of the army of God on earth, are named all the tribes of Israel but one. Reuben is there, having conquered his weakness; Simeon and Levi are transformed; Judah is reconciled to his brethren; Issachar and Zebulun are in their places. Gad, Asher, Naphtali respond, with Manasseh and little Benjamin. We may miss the name of Ephraim; and some, following this suggestion, would have it that Ephraim, because of persistent apostasy, is dropped from the roster. And they refer to Hosea 4:17, which reads, "Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone." But it takes only slight knowledge of the times of Hosea to know that "Ephraim" here refers not to the single tribe, but to the kingdom of Israel, the "ten tribes," of which Ephraim was the leader; just as "Judah" stood for the other division of Israel, which included two tribes and the greater part of one or two others. In the roll call of Revelation 7, Ephraim is present under the name of Joseph, his father; because Ephraim, having received the birthright, was the titular head of the house, and the names are interchangeable. Not Ephraim alone, but the whole house of Israel, was "joined to idols;" yet God rescued His people.
It is another whose presence we wholly miss, and that is Dan. In the Old Testament, the last of the prophets who calls the roll of the tribes, Ezekiel, includes Dan (Ezekiel 48:1); but between his time and that of John, something had happened which made Dan transcend in wickedness his weak and sinful fellows, to the point where he was cast out from among his brethren. He became the one irretrievably "lost tribe of Israel." Let us see what his sin was.
Jacob said, "Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel." Genesis 49: 16. Strong commendation this is, the statement of a great endowment. To be a judge takes no small ability. It requires keen insight into human nature, a true perception of right and wrong, sound judgment, decisive character. No Reuben is here, no passionate Simeon, no slow-witted Issachar. Dan stands forth, keen, virile, alert, judicious. Such was the endowment, such the opportunity, of Dan. He might have become the helper of his brethren, a mighty force for good in Israel.
But what was the trouble? Oh, we have it in the words that follow: "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward." Verse 17.
The figure is that of a rider on horseback, coming along the grass-bordered path; and there, hiding, is a snake. He waits until the horse is just past, then he slips out and nips the horse's heels, making him rear up and throw his rider over backward, injuring him, perhaps killing him.
Did you ever hear of a backbiter? What is a backbiter?—He is one who goes behind your back, telling evil about you. He is the talebearer, the scandalmonger, the faultfinder, the criticizer. You know; he stops a friend on the corner, and speaks on this wise: "Have you heard what Deacon Brown has done? I thought that man was a pillar of the church. He has held enough offices to make any man a saint, I should say. But last month, so I'm told, he ...
And his boys, they . . . And his wife says . . . Of course, it's a great scandal to the church, and we've got to have a meeting and clear it up, and clear him out." That's Brother Dan! Brother Dan, the backbiter!
Or perhaps it's Mrs. Dan: "I've just run over for a minute, Sister Snoop. No; I haven't time to stay for dinner; I left my preserves stewing on the stove. But I just felt I had to tell somebody. You know Sister Black, what a good woman we all thought she was—Sabbath school teacher, head of the Dorcas Society, and all that. Why, you'd never think that woman could do an evil thing. But do you know what I heard this morning? I never would have believed it possible. Now if I tell you, I don't want you to tell anybody else. It's terrible, it's awful, it's disgraceful; but you must not lay it up against her."
And Sister Snoop doesn't lay it up: she carries it right on to the next neighbor before she has done her breakfast dishes. And so the evil thing—and it may have been an evil thing—grows, and it expands, and it flourishes in the backbiting minds of the Danites, until it disrupts the church, and throws out of the Christian race, the way of salvation, this one and that one and the other, the poor, weak, struggling sheep who need a shepherd and not a snake.
Do you know that this temptation to criticize and find fault comes most strongly to the keen-visioned and high-purposed men and women of the church? It is not the dolt, the sleepy-headed swallower of sermons, that feels it most; it is the alert, highly sensitized disciple who wants progress, to whom with peculiar force comes the temptation to criticize. We all have the tendency and the temptation. In this, as in other faults and good qualities, all the tribes share; but the distinguishing characteristic of each tribe is that trait which in it predominates. And in Dan, the trait is judgment debased to criticism.
Now there is a constructive criticism which builds up instead of tearing down. This is what Dan was meant to show. As we are instructed in Matthew 18:15-17 and Galatians 6:1, the faults of our brethren are to be taken to them directly, with the love and the humility that the Spirit of Christ gives us; and in wise personal labor, we are to help them over their trouble. In this work, Dan might have excelled. But he chose . . . to find fault, to backbite.
And he has that airy, insouciant way of doing it that says, more strongly than words: "You poor fool, what can you be thinking of, to measure your wit with mine? Take care of your steps, or you'll get in even worse than you are now." Those Danites who robbed Micah the Ephraimite of his images and enticed his priest away, leaned on their arms as Micah and his fellow townsmen came hotfoot in pursuit, and innocently inquired, "What aileth thee, that thou comest with such a company?" And the injured man cried, "Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away: and what have I more? and what is this that ye say unto me, What aileth thee?" "Oh, don't be so loud," say the Danites. "Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows run upon thee, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household." And they stalk serenely on their way. (Judges 18:2326.) The Danite is perfectly conscious of his own probity and uprightness, no matter though he has robbed his neighbor of his very religion. He has the satisfaction of outtalking, outarguing, outwitting the weaker, the more defenseless; and he strides on his victorious way, well pleased with himself.
(To be continued)