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SUBJECT: 01 SERMONS IN STONES
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SERMONS IN STONES
THERE is a great deal of difficulty in treating a subject like this, and turning,
stones into “bread,” for a lecture, on account of the vast number of stones
there are. Everywhere we meet with stones: stones in the streets, which are
paved with them; stones in the fields, which are strewn with them; stones
on the sea-shore; stones deep down in the earth; everywhere stones,
stones, stones.
Sermons in stones? Why, there are volumes of sermons in stones. Nobody
knows where to begin to quarry; and he who is dexterous may bring forth
stones enough to build a temple as glorious as that of Solomon:, and yet
only use a very small portion of the available material.
You have the whole history of the world in stones. Long before there were
human eyes to read it, God had written it in a great stone book. Even now
we can only, as it were, guess at the meaning, rather than read with
absolute certainty the real history of the old world ere Adam fell in
Paradise.
We turn to the great stone book of the history of the world, and we find
that once this earth must have been under the influence of mighty fires. We
find rock entirely devoid of all signs of life, where everything seems to
have passed through a great furnace. Here we find granite that must have
been in a liquid state, such was the intense heat. Some have supposed that
the world was once all gas, which gradually cooled down and became
condensed.
The stone book tells us that in the course of time there came a great
change, when water dominated over fire. Then the great seas began their
deposits, and new rocks were formed. At first we find only minute traces
of life; then traces of life so uncertain that we can scarcely distinguish the
animal from the vegetable. So the growth went on, until by-and, by we
meet with reptiles, a state in which huge saurians paddled or waded in the
oozy waters, and creatures now quite extinct and unknown lived on the
earth. This world must have been a strange place then, and very different
from what it is now; for everything was below the feet; there were no trees
upon its surface.
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Next comes the period of ferns and all kinds of plants, which was followed
after a time by the period of quadrupeds, when animals like the mammoth
and other immense creatures lived upon the earth.
The stone book has preserved traces of all these things, and a very
wonderful book it is, and marvelously illustrated too; for in it you have the
great teeth of elephants, and side by side with them the tiniest ferns and
fishes; and what is even more remarkable, the very raindrops have. been
recorded on its pages. He who carefully and thoughtfully studies the
history of our world as it is written in the stone book, will be a wiser man
and a better man for what he has read therein.
It is not my intention, however, to take you into the: depths of geology,
but to take up another book by the same Author as the stone history of the
material world, and ask you to run through with me the Biblical History of
Stones.
Although the Book does not tell us how early in his life’s history Adam felt
the need of angels to bear him up in their hands lest he should dash his foot
against a stone; nevertheless, I doubt not, the necessity very soon arose.
Was Abel killed with a stone, f1 or did his brother brain him with a club?
Doubtless both Cain and Abel worked with stone, and their father too; and
“builded altars of stones:” it was these altars that first led these brothers to
differ. Certain it is that the sons of Cain have been great handlers of stones
ever since they “took up stones to stone Him” f2 whose blood “speaketh
better things than that of Abel.” f3
Stones are mentioned in connection with that very venturesome building
speculation, the Tower of Babel. f4 The builders planned their city and
tower that they might not be scattered; but how easily did the Lord bring
their scheme to nought! Their big building was such a mere trifle that it is
written, “The Lord came down to see it.” It seemed emblematic of the
frailty of their work, that they did not build with stones; but “they had brick
for stone, and slime had they for mortar.” They who seek to reach heaven
by their own works may well build roughly; for all their work will certainly
totter to its fall.
Stones must: have been very familiar things to Abraham. You remember
the account of the Lord appearing unto him at Sichem, and that “there
builded he an altar unto the Lord.” f5 And again, in the plain of Mamre he
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dwelt, “and built there an altar unto the Lord.” We may fairly conclude that
these altars were of great stones.
There was one stone towards which, we may be sure, the patriarch turned
with many a lingering look as he left the relics of his beloved Sarah in the
cave of Machpelah. f6 Gustave Dore’ represents Isaac and Ishmael urging
him to leave the place where he had buried the wife of his bosom. O ye
who have known what it is to be led from the couch of some beloved one,
remember that those who are gone before are not lost: they are only
housed in the treasury of God, and you shall soon see them again.
That was a memorable stone which Jacob found the first night after leaving
his father’s house. f7 Jacob knew something of that feeling of desolation
and sadness which you and I experienced when first we went away from
home, to take our places as servants or apprentices wherever our lot was
cast. Jacob wanted to sleep, but there was no covering for him; yet he
found a tent, and, as some old preacher has put it, “he had the heavens for
his canopy, the clouds; for his curtains” (though I doubt whether there
were any clouds), “and a stone for a pillow,” which stone he also set up for
a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it, and vowed a vow unto God,
who had appeared unto him in that place, and made it Bethel, “the house of
God.”
Oh, young men! the place of your early difficulties, where obstacles
seemed to be all around you, shall, if you put those difficulties into God’s
hands, become in very truth a Bethel to you.
Quarles, in his “Divine Fancies,” thus quaintly versifies the wonderful
story: —
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“ON JACOB’S PILLOW”
“The bed, was earth; the raised pillow, stones,
Whereon poor Jacob rests his head, his bones;
Heav’n was his canopy; the shades of night
Were his drawn curtains, to exclude the light.
Poor state for Isaac’s heir! It seems to me,
His cattle found as soft a bed, as he:
Yet God appeared there, his joy, his crown;
God is not always seen in beds of down:
Oh, if that God small please to make my bed,
I care not where I rest my bones, my head:
With Thee, my wants can never prove extreme;
With Jacob’s pillow, give me Jacob’s dream.”
There was another stone very precious to Jacob, the stone which he set up
over his beloved Rachel’s grave; f8 the first record, if I mistake not, of a
tombstone. How often would his thoughts turn to that place, and his heart
go up in thankfulness to Heaven, that he had had her company through life
for so many years.
That was a memorable, expression which good old Jacob used when he lay
a-dying. In blessing: Joseph he said, “From thence is the shepherd, the
stone of Israel,” f9 as his prophetic eye looked forward to the coming of the
Redeemer.
When Israel passed through the Red Sea, and the returning waters engulfed
the Egyptians, we are told that “They sank into the bottom as a stone.”
And again’ “By the greatness of Thine arm they shall be as still as a stone;
till Thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over, which Thou
hast purchased.” f10 And so may it be with us when we come to die: let us
hope that we shall find the enemy “as still as a stone,” as we sing the
praises of our God who triumphs gloriously.
I shall have to show you some very remarkable stones f11 in connection
with the wanderings of the children of Israel. It is believed that: these
stones mark the place where the people ate the quails. f12 It is noteworthy
that, as the Holy Land is more carefully explored and its history
investigated, we continue to disinter records which prove the truth of Holy
Scripture f13 A man who, living in the present day, avows himself an infidel,
must also be a fool; for how can he dare to deny the truth of the Holy
Word with such testimony before him?
12
From the Red Sea and the triumphant song of Moses and the children of
Israel, we pass on to Rephidim, where Joshua fought with Amalek in the
valley, while Moses stood on the top of the hill with the rod of God in his
hand. We read that “it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that
Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But
Moses’ hands were heavy, and they took a stone, and put it under him, and
he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one
side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the
going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people
with the edge of the sword.” f14
We may say what we will, but it is true that God does bless all by one. But
every man, however much God may have helped him in the past, will grow
weary, unless he be upheld by the loving sympathies and earnest prayers of
those around him. I thank God for my Aarons and Hurs. I have heard of a
minister, some of the members of whose congregation complained to him
that his sermons of late had not been so good as aforetime. “Well,” said the
good man, ‘there’s but too much truth in the charge; but this is how it is,
I’ve lost my prayer book.” “But,” said they, “we did not know you used a
book for prayers.” “No,” said the minister, “but my prayer-book is in your
hearts, and I’ve lost your prayers.” I am sure the quality of a sermon often
depends upon the prayers of the congregation.
Passing on to the Book of Joshua, those were memorable stones which
Joshua set up “in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the
priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood,” until “all the people
were clean passed over.” And even more notable were those, other twelve
stones, which were taken by the twelve chosen representatives of the tribes
out of the midst of Jordan, from the same spot where the priests’ feet
stood firm, and carried to the place on the other side where they lodged
that night. “Those twelve stones ….did Joshua pitch in Gilgal, f15 to show
where the Israelites entered the promised land.
I shall never forget the memorials I set up when passing through conviction
of sin; and I know that all of you remember the twelve stones you set up
on the “happy day” when you found the Savior.
Stones were used to slay Achan the traitor in the camp, who took of the
spoils of Jericho, “a goodly Babylonish garment, two hundred shekels of
silver and a wedge of gold,” and hid them in the earth, and caused the
anger of the Lord to be kindled against all the children of Israel. God grant
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that we may none of us be Achans, and “commit a trespass in the accursed
thing.” f16
In the tenth chapter of this same Book of Joshua, we have the: account of
Joshua and the men of Israel going to the help of the Gibeonites against the
five kings of the Amorites, and how “the Lord cast down great stones from
heaven upon them,” as they fled from before Israel. Well, the five kings
were “found hid in a cave at Makkedah.” And Joshua commanded the
people to “roll great stones upon the mouth of the cave, and set men by it
for to keep them” until his return.
Let us take example from this. Perhaps your failing is a bad, hasty temper.
You cannot, maybe, quite get rid of it. You try hard to overcome it, but
you have not as yet been able to “hang it up before the Lord.” f17 Well, roll
a great stone upon the mouth of the cave. I have heard it said that when
you are angry the best thing to do is to “repeat at least a hundred words
before you speak.” Another very good way is to hold hot water in your
mouth until it gets cold. These are but different ways of rolling great stones
upon the mouth of the cave.
About a year or so before his death, Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel
to Shechem, and reminded them of all the Lord’s goodness that He had
made to pass before them; and he made a covenant with the people in the
name of the Lord; “and took a great stone, and set it up there under an
oak, that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said unto all the
people, Behold this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the
words of the Lord which He spake unto us: it shall be, therefore, a witness
unto you, lest ye deny your God.” f18
Thus, even the beam out of the timber, and the stone out of the wall will be
witnesses against us if we sin.
I pass on to notice how Abimelech, the wicked son of Gideon, met his
death by a stone. Upon the death of his father, he persuaded the men of
Shechem to make him king. He immediately put to death all his seventy
brothers “upon one stone,” except Jotham, the youngest, who had hidden
himself His subjects very soon revolted; and in the warfare that followed,
he took the city of Thebez. “But there was a strong tower within the city,
and thither fled all they of the city, and shut it to them, and gat them up to
the top of the tower. And Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought
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against it. .And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon
Abimelech’s head, and all to break his skull.” f19
The inspired record goes on to tell that “he called hastily” to his
armorbearer to draw his sword and slay him, that it might not be said a
woman slew him. Thus his wickedness returned upon his own head, and his
violent dealing upon his own pate. f20
You remember Samuel f21 setting up the stone of Ebenezer, “the stone of
help,” recording: the goodness of God. You have, perhaps, heard of the
old woman who said she had so many Ebenezers, that they formed a wall
on both sides of her all her journey through life. Each of us should be able
to say the same. “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us:” it is indeed a great
wall of memorials of the loving kindness of God.
Then there is the stone with which David slew Goliath f22 I have here a
smooth stone, just such an one as was sent at the head of the giant. I do
not say that this is the stone; though I might say so with as much truth as
some people employ when they speak of a Church possessing “a feather
from the wing of the angel Gabriel,” or say that such “a relic” is “a lock of
the Virgin Mary’s hair”; for this stone in my hand was taken out of the
same brook from which David took his famous stone.
I would have you note that David used a smooth stone. Why? Because it
would fly further and better. We :should always use a smooth stone,
though at the same time we must put our trust in God. When one of his
followers said to Mahomet, “I am going to let loose my camel in the
desert, and trust in God that: I shall find him again,” Mahomet replied,
“You should first tie up your camel, and then trust in God.” Yes; so it is:
we must trust in God, but we must be careful to “keep our powder dry.”
David was a wise man, I think, to use a sling. Humanly speaking, the giant
would have settled him off before David could have got near enough to
touch him. He certainly must have been accustomed to the use of a sling
[holding up a sling], and herein he showed his wisdom in choosing those
weapons in the use of which he was expert. In this let us take pattern from
David, and always go to work in a
common-sense way, trusting in Providence, who will surely take care of
those who walk uprightly.
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We must not omit mention of the memorable scene at Mount Carmel,
where “Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of
the sons of Jacob, and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the
Lord.” f23 Nor must we forget the repulse of the Moabites by the Israelites,
when “they beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land cast
every man his stone, and filled it; and stopped all the wells of water.” f24
Of quite another sort were the stones of which Solomon’s Temple was
built. They are called great stones,” and “costly stones,” and “hewn
stones.” f25 Those of which the walls were composed were of enormous
size. Josephus mentions a length of 40 cubits, or about 60 feet. I believe it
is still a problem how they could have been transported from the distant
quarries to their place on the summit of Mount Moriah.
That stone “cut out of the mountain without hands,” f26 which “became a
great mountain, and filled the whole earth,” which troubled
Nebuchadnezzar so much, is another Biblical stone; as is also the stone that
had seven eyes, f27 indicating that all eyes are fixed on Christ.
Then there is “the stone which the builders refused,” but which became
“the head stone of the corner.” f28
In connection with this there is a legend which, at any rate, ought: to be
true, whether it is or not; for it exemplifies Scripture in a remarkable
manner. It is said that when the Temple was being built, every stone was
sent from the quarries to the builders accurately marked; so that all they
had to do was to put each one into its place. But there was one stone of
such a peculiar shape, that the builders could find no place for it. They tried
to fit it in everywhere, but always failed. It was often hoisted to the wall,
and as often lowered; for no suitable position could be found for it. At last
it was cast aside among the rubbish, and it became a byword among the
builders. When anything was useless or unsuitable, the workmen used to
say that it was “just like that stone among the rubbish.” But it came to
pass, when Solomon’s Temple was finished, and the last stone, “the head
stone,” was to be brought forth and hoisted to its place, with shoutings of
“Grace, grace, unto it!” for gratias were to be given to the workmen, the:
corner stone could nowhere be found; and the workmen had almost made
up their minds that it had been forgotten, and not sent with the rest.
At last it was suggested that perhaps it was that odd stone which could not
be made to fit in anywhere. So the stone was taken out from among the
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rubbish, and, lo! “the stone which the builders refused” and rejected, the
same became “the head of the corner.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ certainly is to us and to His Church “the head stone
of the corner.” “All hail the power of Jesus’ name!”
Some make of our Lord” a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense :”
such “shall stumble, and fall, and be broken.” f29 But woe unto the man on
whom this stone shall fall, for “it will grind him to powder;” as sometimes a
rock falls upon the unwary traveler, crushing him to death. Let the man
who provokes Christ to anger remember these words: “On whomsoever it
shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” f30
Frequently in the Evangelists’ accounts of our Lord’s life:, and in other
parts of the New Testament, we meet with mention of stones. The Devil
said unto our Lord, in the wilderness,” Command that these stones be
made bread.” f31 There were stones in that part like cakes of bread; and I
think that our Lord referred to just such stones when He said, “What man
is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?” f32
The stones might be like bread, but they would be no good to a hungry
child.
You will remember that when on one occasion HIS disciples called His
attention to the buildings of the Temple, He said unto them, “There shall
not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” f33
That saying of our Lord, — “God is able of these stones to raise up
children unto Abraham,” f34 is a very beautiful picture of the power of God,
spoken by One who saw the pebbles in the bed of the river, and
immediately turned them into an illustration.
Then there was; that memorable stone that lay so heavy on the heart of the
women on that early morn ,as they were nearing the sepulcher, and said
among themselves, “Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the
sepulcher?” f35 But when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled
away. So with us: our difficulties loom large and insurmountable in the
distance, but they vanish as we come nearer to them.
The day cometh when “every man’s work shall be made manifest., it shall
be revealed by fire.” f36 If it be wood, hay, or stubble, it shall be burned; for
only gold, silver, and precious stones will stand the test.
17
The New Jerusalem hath foundations of all manner of precious stones, and
is all glorious with the riches of God and the splendor of His presence;
“and her light is like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone,
clear as crystal.” f37
A lecture might be made out of stones in connection with English history;
but I have not the time to do this.
Stones lead us back to the days of old, when our countrymen worshipped
all kinds of idols and false gods. Their earliest sacrifices seem to have been
presented upon altars made of large unhewn stones. The cromlechs f38 or
dolmens f39 which are to be seen in Devon, Cornwall, and other parts, are
supposed to be such Druidical altars. We know that stones, and series of
stones, were set up and. set apart by our forefathers for what was to our
Pagan progenitors sacred service. f40
At Kingston-on-Thames you may see the stone on which seven of our
Saxon kings were crowned. f41 Then there is the stone in the New Forest
near the spot where King Rufus f42 was shot, and the stone taken from
Scone f43 in Scotland, whereon the kings were crowned. There are stone
steps in Canterbury Cathedral worn in hollows by the knees of pilgrims
going up and down for penance. Speaking of Canterbury, I always think
they must have been very hard up for saints when they made a man like
Thomas a Becket one. Innumerable stone relics of the monastery may be
picked up here.
I should be delighted to make “ducks and drakes” of the finest carvings of
the finest monastery in the world; for I think we shall never get rid of the
crows till we pull down their nests. It was a proud day for us when, all
over England, the crosses were pulled down: they set it down to Oliver
Cromwell, as usual. I was once taken into a church where, it was said,
Oliver Cromwell had knocked off the heads of all the statues. The best way
to deal with these things:, when they are defiled by superstition, is to touch
them with Cromwell’s hammer. When he saw the twelve Apostles in solid
silver, every one said, “Surely, you will reverence these statues: you would
not spoil these beautiful things!” Cromwell said, “Yes, I’ll melt them down,
and send them about the country doing good.”
People talk about “the good old times.” Well, those “old times” may have
been all very well; but how would they like to go back to those “good old
times”? In those “good old days,” if people could not pay their rent, or
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committed some trivial offense, they were made “a foot shorter,” or
sometimes even “a head shorter.” I don’t believe in “the good old times,”
for Time was never so old as he is now; so let us rejoice in “the good old
times” in which we are now living.
When we come to the dissolving views, I shall have to show you quite a
series of stone memorials of English history.
SERMONS IN STONES
ft1 Gen_4:8.
ft2Joh_8:59; Joh_10:31.
ft3 Heb_12:24.
ft4 Gen_11:3-5.
ft5 Gen_12:7; Gen_13:18