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Men of the Bible

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MEN OF THE BIBLE; SOME LESSER-KNOWN CHARACTERS by GEORGE MILLIGAN, D.D. J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A. ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B. PRINCIPAL WALTER F. ADENEY, D.D. J. MORGAN GIBBON. H. ELVET LEWIS. PRINCIPAL D. ROWLANDS, B.A. W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D. 1904 CONTENTS 1. ENOCH By W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D. 2. ELDAD AND MEDAD By ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B. 3. BARZILLAI By GEORGE MILLIGAN, D.D. 4. ADONIJAH By ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B. 5. HIRAM By W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D. 6. JEROBOAM By ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B. 7. ASA By ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B. 8. AHAZIAH By J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A. 9. GEHAZI By J. MORGAN GIBBON 10. HAZAEL By J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A. 11. MANASSEH By J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A. 12. AMAZIAH By J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A. 13. JABEZ By J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A. 14. SIMEON By H. ELVET LEWIS 15. PONTIUS PILATE By Principal WALTER F. ADENEY, D.D. 16. BARABBAS By J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A. 17. JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA By ALFRED ROWLAND, D.D., LL.B. 18. PHILIP, THE EVANGELIST By GEORGE MILLIGAN, D.D. 19. ANANIAS AND SAPPHIRA By GEORGE MILLIGAN, D.D. 20. DEMAS By Principal D. ROWLANDS, B.A. ENOCH, THE DEATHLESS BY REV. W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D. Enoch was the bright particular star of the patriarchal epoch. His record is short, but eloquent. It is crowded into a few words, but every word, when placed under examination, expands indefinitely. Every virtue may be read into them; every eulogium possible to a human character shines from them. He was a devout man, a fearless preacher of righteousness, an intimate friend of God, and the only man of his dispensation who did not see death. He sheds a lustre on the antediluvian age, and he shines still as an example to all generations of steady and lofty piety. It is difficult to realise the exact environment of the early patriarchs. Human society was then in its making. There were giants in those days, both physically and intellectually. They lived long, and unfolded a vigorous manhood, by which civilisation was developed in every direction. Some of them, also, were tenderly responsive to supernatural influences, and thus rose to a spiritual stature which enables them to bulk largely in sacred history. The guiding lines of Enoch's biography are clear though few. "_He walked with God_"; "_he pleased God_"; "_he was translated that he should not see death_." These are the pregnant remnants of his history, from which we may construct a character and career of striking eminence. I. "He walked with God." Therefore he knew God. The articles of his creed were not many, but he was fixed on this foundation-truth of all religion. Further than this, he knew God as taking a living interest in His creatures, as one who could be approached by them in prayer and communion, and who was sympathetically responsive to their needs. He somehow knew God, also, as being righteous and holy, and he must have had a rudimentary idea of the Christ, as it unfolded itself in the great promise of a deliverer from evil made to our first parents in Paradise. However scanty in number were the articles of his creed, they were not scanty in results. They produced a great life and a great name. The results were that "he walked with God." Walking is the habitual exercise of a man's life. A man runs sometimes. Under great strain, or the demand of special circumstances, he runs, but finds that exhaustion follows; or if he runs too frequently, total collapse is the inevitable consequence. Two of the most eminent ministers of our times recently died owing to overstrain and over-exertion. But we have some now living who have done signal service for the Church during a ministry of fifty years, and who are still hale and having a green old age. To walk at a steady pace, fulfilling life's responsibilities and the demands of duty, is to fulfil the will of God and serve our generation. This rule refers to man's religious and spiritual life. To walk onward and upward in the highest things is to grow in excellence and grace. As man is a social being, he must walk with someone in life. Perpetual solitude dries up the springs of existence, and true manhood is shrivelled up. Solitary confinement is the saddest and cruellest punishment that can be inflicted by man on his fellow. The prisoner in the Bastille, when his reason reeled through prolonged silence and loneliness, was saved from mental collapse by the friendship of a rat; and a similar story is told of an English prisoner, who, under similar circumstances, found solace in the company of a pigeon. man craves for fellowship and friendship. Happiest is he who has the noblest companion. God alone fills the deep craving of the heart for a congenial and helpful presence, and Enoch "_walked with God_." The words imply regular, unbroken, well-sustained communion with Him. With a sublime and lofty aspiration Enoch had risen above shadows, idols, and pretences, and with simple, manly faith had grasped the unseen substance and reality, the personal God, the Father of us all. This "_walking with God_" may be fairly inferred to have been carried out in all the affairs of life. The statement has no exceptions in it. Other saints have their failings and sins recorded with an admirable candour, but we are left to conclude that this was a saint of pure life and character. In tending his flocks and herds, in carrying out the barter of the markets in the early world, in commanding his children and ordering his household, in preaching righteousness and foretelling judgment, the great law of his life was here, "_walking with God_." When such unbroken intercourse with God is maintained, all duty and labour have a new meaning, and are suffused with a new glory. Every occupation or profession becomes a transparency by which divine truth and purity are translated to the world. No man is then a menial or a slave, but a free man, living in love and by love. He becomes an evangel, who, by words of holiness and deeds of sacrifice, adorns the doctrine of God and Christ in all things. Nothing is common, nothing is unclean; all life is sanctified and beautiful; the man is a temple consecrated by and for God alone.

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