II.
Character.
What stands next to the idea of worship, is a description of the moral character of the worshippers. “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?” “He that hath clean hands and a pure heart: who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” This description is very brief, but it is very comprehensive. Each clause may be considered as representing a distinct and large department of duty; and the whole, taken together, as demanding or enforcing universal virtue. “Clean hands” stand as a figure for all outward and visible excellence. Every thing that the man does, is done in consistency with the rule of rectitude. He is a just, equitable, fair-dealing man. Confidence may be placed in his honour and uprightness, his incorruptible integrity, his contempt of meanness, and intolerance of wrong. Everything that belongs to a sound, solid, practical worth,—a pure, and even a fastidious, virtue,—a virtue beyond doubt or suspicion,—may be supposed to attach to the man who is said, by emphasis, to have “clean hands.” “Not to swear deceitfully,”—whatever may be its precise shade of meaning in the psalm,—may fairly be interpreted, in a discussion like this, as standing for honest and sincere speech, and as the type of the virtuous use of the tongue. It excludes from the idea of the character, deceit and falsehood, concealment and equivocation, with everything approaching to the designed conveyance of a wrong impression by word or look. In buying and selling, in barter or bargain, in converse or correspondence,—in respect to whatever business he transacts, and in relation to every medium for thought—there is supposed to be, in the man before us, scrupulous propriety of language,—the utmost transparency of meaning and purpose. He is simple, straightforward, without the shadow of deceit or guile. Then, “a pure heart,” in addition to habitual “cleanness of hands,” and the maintenance of entire integrity of tongue, is intended to express, the co-existence of an upright inward life, with the outward appearances of practical goodness. It would not only imply, however, the harmony of a man’s thoughts with his words,—and the correctness of the motives of his visible acts,—it would include in it, in its scriptural import, the government of the passions,—the control of the imagination,—sincerity and depth of religious feeling;—every thing not only chaste but devout, the whole soul liberated from gross and corrupting affections,—free from the drag and degradation of the flesh,—and fairly detached from the adhesions of earth, in all senses in which they would imply bondage to the sensual or the secular. “Not to lift up the soul unto vanity,” is intended to express the freedom of the man from idol-worship. The “vanities” of the heathen were the idols or deities whom the heathen adored; to whom they “lifted up their souls,”—or, in other words, to whom they rendered religious reverence, and before whom they appeared in worship. “Cleanness of hands,” then, “sincerity of speech,” “purity of heart,” with all that they include, in their seminal comprehensiveness, of outward and inward practical virtue, are thus connected with regard to the true God. The man has not only both morality and religion, but his religion is of the right kind. It is as proper as to its object, as it is sincere in itself. The man neither worships idols as Gods,—nor idols with God,—nor God through idols. “He has not lifted up his soul unto vanity.” He has not been seduced by the sun in his splendour, nor by the moon in her brightness; he has not “kissed his hand,” nor “offered sacrifices,” to “the queen of heaven:” he has not “bowed his knee to the image of Baal,” nor “fallen down to the stock of a tree.” The language descriptive of his feeling and practice would be that of David in relation to himself,—“Unto THEE, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.”
It is easy to see, how this demand of character in his worshippers adds to the proof of the personality of God. Worship of any kind, to have any meaning, implies personality;—but the demand for worshippers of a certain sort, implies, along with this, the possession, by Him whom they are to approach and please, of personal properties the same in kind with those of the worshippers. Where there is virtue, there must be thought;—where there are moral attributes, there must be personal intelligence; and where there is the necessity for these, as a pre-requisite for worship,—the Being worshipped must be supposed to be distinguished by moral attributes as well as by intelligence, as thus, only, could he properly appreciate, or consistently demand, them. A God may be imagined to be better than his worshippers,—he cannot rationally be supposed to be worse. To have a perception of goodness, and a sympathy with the good, and to permit none but the latter to stand before him, or to come into his presence, God must not only be a person, but one whose own character, must itself be pre-eminently distinguished by goodness. It may be worth observing, that moral ideas associated with worship, operate in more ways than one. They take a direction both upwards and downwards, each action illustrating the other. The character regarded with complacency in the worshippers, indicates that of the God they worship;—the character associated with the God they worship, moulds and fashions that of the worshippers. The deities of a people will naturally influence their moral notions and their moral behaviour. The object of worship becomes the standard of virtue;—men will imitate what they are taught to adore. If there be no God, there need be no worship;—if worship is rendered to unintelligent force, it can be of no consequence, so far as it is concerned, what the moral character of the worshippers is;—if the God be conceived of as sensual or malignant, lascivious or bloody, his image may be expected to be mirrored in his worshippers;—but if in all that approach him, he peremptorily demands “clean hands” and “a pure heart,”—with all that these include of universal virtue,—he must of necessity be considered to be holy Himself, while the habitual worship of such a being must be regarded as conducive to holiness in his servants. These latter ideas are precisely those which the Biblical idea of Deity illustrates. He is always described, in the loftiest terms, as invested with every attribute of excellence; as infinitely removed from evil; as looking on the good with delight; as permitting such only to approach him; as bidding the bad far from his presence; as detecting and denouncing hypocrisy and formality; and as exposing the uselessness of ritual acts and external observances taken by themselves, and insisting on an inward and earnest sympathy with his own love of the holy and the pure.
In consistency with the course which more than once we have already followed, we shall here introduce a series of passages from the Holy Scriptures illustrative of the statements which have just been made.
“The holy one of Israel.” “He is the Rock, his work is perfect;—a God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he.” “The Lord is in his holy temple;”—“worship him in the beauty of holiness.” “For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.” “Unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?—Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee and set them (thy doings) in order before thine eyes.” “Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness; neither shall evil dwell with thee.” “Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols. For thou Lord art high above all the earth; thou art exalted far above all gods. Ye that love the Lord, hate evil. Rejoice in the Lord ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth,—but their heart is far from me;” “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, seek ye me, and ye shall live;—seek good and not evil, that ye may live.” “Hate the evil and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate that ye may live.” “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?” “When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.” “When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well.” “Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity. Examine me, prove me, try my reins and my heart. I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked. I will wash mine hands in innocency, and so will I compass thine altar, O Lord.” “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned, but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.”
III.
Christ.
These representations lead to the consideration of a third and last thing, which is essential to the complete illustration of the subject.
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” There is a God; God is to be worshipped; none but the good can acceptably worship him. So far all is plain. But men are not good. Throughout the race there is a consciousness to the contrary. In spite of the operation of many amiable instincts, and in spite of a large amount of passable virtue, it is quite understood that there is a terrible mass of iniquity in the world;—that there are the grossnesses of brutal lust, and the refinements of a fastidious licentiousness;—that there are falsehood, and fraud, and lying, and theft,—all the modes of open or secret dishonesty by which men attempt, or contrive, to overreach each other;—that there is the stupid animalism of rural ignorance, and the arts, and appliances, and accomplishments of crime, that abound in the recesses of great cities;—it is well known that corruption and depravity, in all these forms, have made terrible havoc in all lands; and, what is still more to the purpose, that among the classes the freest from crime, there is so much moral defect, and so many things having the character of sin,—so much, especially, of the want of religious faith, and of indifference to God, if not of conscious and positive enmity against him,—so much, in fact, of what constitutes the opposite of all that must be meant by the term “holiness,” and of what is demanded in those who can calmly “ascend into the hill of the Lord,” and acceptably “stand in his holy place;” that it would almost seem, on the admission of the statements and principles advanced, as if the worship of God must be given up as hopeless, in a world like this, from the utter impossibility of finding a sufficient number to make up for him an assembly of fitting worshippers.