Joshua 21:45

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass." Jos 21:45

Personal testimony is better than literary argument. Of this testimony Biblical religion can always avail itself. Of this testimony Christianity can still more pointedly make account It is no mean indication of the power of Christianity, that it constrains its disciples to bear witness to the power of Christ in the soul. The Bible writers are always particular to maintain that the word of the Lord never failed. Failure there would have been fatal to the whole idea of divine providence as disclosed in the Bible. The ancient writers are, if possible, more particular to notice that the good things promised of God were assuredly given rather than that his threatenings were realised. There seems to be a subtle willingness to overlook the infliction of punishment in view of the daily and abundant manifestation of divine goodness. We soon forget the darkness when the light shines. The day whose wind and rain gives us discomfort is speedily forgotten when the summer broods over the land and turns it into one garden of flowers. A very marvellous thing it is, that in health we soon forget our sickness; there may be in this some indication of that which will take place in higher states of being; in heaven we shall forget every trouble of earth. A text of this kind seems to challenge the reader to contradict it. If it were a mere question of argument, one disputant might be outwitted by another; but where it is a question of direct personal witness, the character of the witness must be taken as equivalent to an argument. The good things of God seem to grow in number and in magnitude in proportion as we look upon them from the point of advancing age. We do not see them in their true magnitude at first, or at the moment of their introduction; we are then too near them to see exactly their bearing and colour; a man at fifty knows more of the riches and blessedness of life than it was possible for him to know when but half that age. The testimony in this case is most precise and inclusive. It is not a general commendation of the faithfulness of God, but a critical declaration that not one thing failed of all which God had spoken. The argument of history is one of the most solid arguments in theology. Doctrine is attested by providence. We judge men by the manner in which they have kept their word to us, and where the word has been faithfully realised, honour is accorded and trust is increased. It should be so in our relations to the Creator and Ruler of life.