not; whether Deborah and Barak, in uttering this song, spake as the prophet and prophetess of God, or as the victorious and rejoicing leaders of a people whom they had just rescued from slavery. So far as our conduct is concerned, this inquiry is wholly superfluous. If she whom they blessed was blessed then in truth, yet we know with perfect assurance that whosoever of us were now to do likewise would not be blessed but cursed. There is absolutely nothing in the tone and feeling of this song of Deborah and Barak with reference to their triumph over the Canaanites, which we ought, nay, which we might dare to imitate. Thus much is plain, without a moment's hesitation, that the lesson for this evening's service contains in these points no direct instruction in righteousness.

But what then is its instruction, what its use? It has much of both, but of a kind not easily to be gained, nor by every one, and therefore it may well be doubted how far such portions of the Scripture have been wisely chosen to form a part of our public service. Certainly if scarcely any lessons have been taken out of the book of Revelation, because of their difficulty; if so few in comparison have been chosen from the Prophets, probably for the same reason; much more cause was there why they should not have been taken from the books of Joshua and Judges. For the difficulty in the Revelation and in the Prophets is chiefly of a kind which

would give to ignorant persons no notions at all; but here there is a worse danger, lest they should fancy that they understand, and go away with notions absolutely false and mischievous. The instruction furnished by these chapters of Judges is indeed great for those who can receive it; but it is not obvious, nor can it be gained without much thought and knowledge. Most instructive is it to see such a state of moral ignorance prevailing as would absolutely have been injured rather than benefited, had all truth been then presented to it. Most awfully does it set forth the toil of our nature, and how great is the struggle, if I may be allowed so to speak, of God's light in breaking into the darkness of our hearts, that they who were disposed to serve God knew not how to serve Him worthily; that they who wished to do good, and to advance the cause of good, had not yet learnt that great law of faith, that good must be left undone, and the cause of good trusted humbly to the hands of God, if we can only do it, or promote its interest, by means unholy and forbidden.

Yet this blessing pronounced on Jael, when taken in its true spirit, is in perfect accordance with God's universal dealings with mankind. I would not blame those, who, as a matter of criticism, were to contend that we have no grounds whatever for supposing the song of Deborah and Barak to be recorded as an inspired hymn; that is a question

not to be answered in the foolish and hasty way in

which some persons are apt to settle it; but on which this is not the place to enter. But be this as it may, we need not lose the benefit of the words of the text; they may be true, though not inspired. Their spirit is, that God does allow largely for ignorance where He finds sincerity; that they who serve Him honestly up to the measure of their knowledge, are according to the general course of His providence encouraged and blessed; that they whose eyes and hearts are still fixed upwards, on duty not on self, are precisely that smoking flax which He will not quench, but cherish rather, till the smoke be blown into a flame. So it was with Christ's own apostles. Amidst how much of ignorance, how much, according to His own very words, of incapability to receive His full truth, did He yet receive them into communion with Him, and give them the blessed name of His friends, and pronounce them, with one exception, to be all clean. And turn to a later period, to some of those scenes in the Christian Church which most resemble the case of Jael; to some of those stories of persecution, where good men, alas the while for human nature! were both the victims and the executioners. When we read some of those sad yet glorious martyrdoms, amidst all our unmixed admiration for the sufferers, may we not in some instances hope and believe that the persecutors were moved with a most

earnest, though an ignorant zeal, and that like Jael, they sought really to please God, although like her they essayed to do it by means which Christ's Spirit condemns? If this be not so, what shall we say of two of the purest and brightest names of their day, of Calvin and of Cranmer? Can we doubt that it was a sincere, though ignorant zeal for God's glory, which led Cranmer in particular-a man constitutionally the very reverse of hard or cruel-to urge the young King Edward VI., in spite of all his reluctance, to condemn a heretic to the flames? And what if it be said, as is most true, that there is a great deal of ignorance which is not excusable but sinful; that men can and do often deceive themselves, and fancy that they are serving God, while they are really serving their own evil passions. All this, indeed, is most important to us in judging of ourselves, in leading us for ever to suspect our own hearts, lest they call that ignorance or honest error, which is in reality falsehood and sin; but yet it does not interfere with that other truth, which is very useful towards softening our judgments of others, that if there be a sinful ignorance there is an innocent ignorance also; that God the Judge of all will infallibly decide which is the one and which the other; but that if it be innocent ignorance, there the sincere faith and desire to please God shall be blessed, notwithstanding its lack of knowledge. And for ourselves, how great is the lesson here given us of

the necessity of a sincere obedience. For if the single-minded man be accepted, even amid much moral ignorance, what becomes of those who are double-minded amidst abundant knowledge? What will be said of us, if being taught all divine truth, if being able to see, which she could not see, that Jael's act was evil, we have yet nothing of her zeal, which, if joined with our knowledge, would burn indeed with a heavenly flame? What inheritance can we expect in her blessing, who without any of her excuses for evil are full of evil; who with far more than her reasons for serving and loving God, will yet neither serve Him nor love Him? Right and good is it that we should condemn the acts of many of those recorded in the Old Testament; for we have seen what prophets and righteous men for many an age were not permitted to see; but no less right and needful is it, that we should imitate their fearless and earnest zeal, without which we in our knowledge are without excuse, with which they, by reason of their unavoidable ignorance, were even in evil deeds blessed.

RUGBY CHAPEL,

June 8th, 1834.