PART I.

T

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT

DISSENT.

bring, then, this matter to the test of God's Holy Word. If on one side or the other can be pleaded those authoritative words, "It is written," uttered by our Lord Himself, from which there is no appeal, then with that side let the issue remain.

Let us first open our Bible at the Old Testament; and in case any one should think lightly of the Old Testament, as the manner of some is, let us remind him that those were the only Scriptures which our Master used. It was those He quoted, those He bade His disciples search, for they testified of Him. The Old Testament has, on this account, been aptly called "the Saviour's Bible." Not one jot or one tittle of those Scriptures but has its lesson for us, "for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning" (Rom. xv. 4). Let us, then, search for the will of God on this matter in the Old Testament.

i.-The sin of Feroboam the Son of Nebat.

There is one record that occurs again and again in the history of the kingdom of Israel. Indeed, from the

days of the separation of the kingdom of Israel to its final captivity by the Assyrians, the stages of its downfall are traced back to "Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." As king after king arose and passed away we come upon this record, "He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin, wherewith he made Israel to sin." Now, what was this sin so strongly denounced by the Holy Spirit?

Was it rebellion? No; for God Himself gave the ten tribes to Jeroboam, signifying it by the mouth of His prophet; and, on Rehoboam gathering an army to recover his inheritance, He interposed, saying, "Return every man to his house; for this thing is from Me" (1 Kings xi. 29-31; xii. 24),

Was it the worship of false gods? No; for Solomon, not Jeroboam, was the first to introduce the worship of the false gods of the surrounding nations. "Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem; and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon" (1 Kings xi. 5, 7, 33). And, further, the sin of Jeroboam is more than once contrasted with the worship of Baal.

"It came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that.. he (Ahab) went and served Baal, and worshipped him" (1 Kings xvi. 31). And of Jehoram, his son, it is recorded, "he wrought evil in the sight of the Lord; but not like his father, and like his mother: for

he put away the image of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless he cleaved unto the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not therefrom" (2 Kings iii. 2, 3).

Whatever the sin in question was, it is evident that it was peculiar to the kingdom of Israel, for it is never attributed to the kingdom of Judah, though more than one of its kings was guilty of apostacy. The sin, too, is invariably specified as the sin of Jeroboam, though adopted by all his successors. It may be argued from this that all its essentials are to be found in this its first stage, and are not to be sought in any later development of gross idolatry.

It was not rebellion, it was not the worship of false gods, it was a distinct sin. Idolatrous Schism1 was the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. This will be apparent if we consult the Scriptural account.

As soon as Jeroboam had been made king over the ten tribes of Israel he foresaw a danger: "Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee

1 Schism is derived from the same word as scissors, and signifies division.

2 "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem." How often the first plea of religious division-not opposition in this stage,

up out of the land of Egypt. And he set up the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi" (1 Kings xii. 26-31).

Now let us not suppose that Jeroboam cast off the worship of Jehovah. That was not his object. He distinctly says, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." If that means anything, it means that they should still worship the same gods (Elohim, the very word used for the Triune God in the Book of Genesis) without the trouble of going up to Jerusalem. He offers them at Dan and at Bethel all they had enjoyed heretofore at the Temple of Jerusalem.

Neither let us think that they worshipped the golden calves.1 It should be observed that the calves acquire no distinctive title. They are never styled anything

but accommodation! How often, too, it has in it a political element !

'The theory that they were borrowed representations of the two ox-idols of the Egyptians, Apis and Mnevis, is improbable, as in that case there would be some indication of the calves being regarded as two gods. Of this there is no trace.

It is possible, as has been suggested, that the calves were intended to represent the two golden Cherubim of the Ark of the Covenant, which, like the "living creatures" in Ezekiel's vision, may have been in the shape of winged calves (Ezek. i. 6-11; x. 14; Rev. iv. 7; 1 Kings vii. 29. See learned notes on 66 Cherubim " in Smith's Dictionary, and the "Speaker's Commentary," vol. i. p. 49). If so, the setting them up at the two

but calves. They are not overthrown as Dagon was. The Divine judgment almost seems to ignore them, and is launched rather against the altar and the worshippers. Evidently they were intended to be the symbol of the God of Israel, the Same which brought them up out of the land of Egypt. Consequently the Ten Tribes worshipped Jehovah under that form. They broke the second, not the first commandment. Just as Aaron in the wilderness "changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass," so at this time, to use the Apostle's words, "the glory of the incorruptible God was changed;" not, let us note, abjured, but "changed into an image made like four-footed beasts" (Ps. cvi. 20; Rom. i. 23).

The special significance of Jeroboam's act can only be seen by a careful examination of God's message to him by the mouth of the prophet Ahijah (1 Kings xi. 31-39). In that message Jerusalem is spoken of as "the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel" (v. 32): the city which I have chosen Me to put My Name there" (36).

There can be no mistaking the reference. It was an injunction of the Mosaic Law to Israel, "Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest; but in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes," "which the Lord thy God shall choose to set His Name there" 1

extremities of the kingdom was, perhaps, to suggest that it was the true ark of God.—Prof. Rawlinson.

1 The above formula is repeated twenty-one times in the Book of Deuteronomy.

A supposed attempt on the part of the two and a half tribes