In physics, in morals, in religion, reality has no respect for those who have no regard for truth and fact. Abused nature, undeterred by rank, plies her scourge on all the votaries of sin. Reality does not in moral matters seem to many so honest and severe. Fancy and imagining hold here a completer sway. Men propose to sip the sensual sweet and decline the sensual bitter. In religion, reality might seem to reign without a rival, for here is no dreamland for fancy, but the field of revelation for the activities of mind and heart. Some make religion their mirror, in which they see themselves the end of their whole devotion. Some overact their part in the temple, the more easily to overreach their brethren in the market. Some forge the name of God to the cheque of a sanctified deportment and present it for golden profits at the bank of Christian confidence. These are the hypocrites who trust that God will not expose them this side the grave; but their hope shall be cut off; “their trust is as a spider’s web,” which, while very beautiful in its structure, is equally fragile as to its texture, and, though adequate to the builder’s purposes, yet, being self-spun, self-built, is destined to be swept away.
I. Beautiful as to its structure. Admirable is the fairy architecture of the spider’s web. This tracery of insect art, on hawthorn or holly fence, seen before the sun grows hot, strung with beads of dew, asks no painter’s skill, no poet’s eulogy; its beauty, like the sun’s glory, is its own evidence. Beautiful, too, is the hypocrite’s trust, and the religion that trust inspires. The hypocrite’s religion satisfies the eye; it is the bright cloud which for the moment passes for the sun itself; it is the sacrifice without spot or blemish in the skin; an argument constraining charity to hope it is pure and right in heart. To men’s sight the hypocrite’s religion is like the spider’s web, beautiful in its structure, but when tried it is found to be--
II. Very fragile in its texture. This is no disparagement to the web. For such a tiny weaver, it is strong and wonderful. Were man as insignificant as the spider, his paltry trust would be no indignity; being but little lower than the angels, a hypocritical trust merits the comparison. God hangs great weights on small wires; the hypocrite hangs them all upon the semblance of them. There is nothing real but his wickedness, nothing true but his deception.
III. It is adequate to the owner’s purposes and successful in securing them. The hypocrite, wanting to fly with the doves to their windows, decks himself with their feathers. All of the true prophet is his hairy garment. His success often equals the completeness of his disguise. Charity hopes that under the leaves there is fruit; that behind the smile there is the loving heart; that the fragrance of profession steals from the true flower of grace within. It is adequate to his purposes, and too often successful in securing them. The spider ensnares his prey; the hypocrite does make a gain of godliness, and a ladder of religion.
IV. Their trust, being false, shall, with all that rests upon it, be utterly swept away. The truth, holiness, and honour of God require it. Hypocrisy! It is a tomb with the lettered porch and golden dome of a temple. It is deception sublimed to a science. The hypocrite takes the precious name of Christ as an angler does a worm, and, thrusting it on the hook of his crooked purposes, angles for suffrages or lucre. But the pious dissembler will exhaust his last resource, and wear out his last disguise. This human spider may take hold with his hands, and pursue his close-couched schemes in the great King’s palace, but coming judgment will sweep him and them away. The anger of the Lord will smoke against the hypocrite. No sacrifice can be presented without salt; no service can be accepted without sincerity. (W. G. Jones.)
False and true hope
(with Heb_6:19):--The world is full of hope of various kinds. Alike in the dreams of childhood, the resolves of youth, the purposes of manhood, and the more chastened anticipations of old age, we may see its power displayed. The faculty of hope is a great motive force of human action.
I. False hope is as a spider’s web. Because--
1. Not altogether destitute of beauty. Such webs are often beautiful, especially those kinds which in summer time we see spread upon the hedgerows, or festooned between the garden trees. They attract our admiration as we behold them sparkling in the sunlight. Fair, in external appearance, are the hopes which even the impenitent cherish. The power of hope will often enable a man, who is entirely destitute of the grace of God, to paint the future in roseate hues, to dream dreams of possible excellence, and call up visions of the glory of heaven, which, though unsubstantial as gossamer, are not without their attractive features.
2. Self-derived. It is well known that spiders produce from their own bodies the, glutinous fluid with which they form their webs. Even so the hopes in which the wicked indulge are self-produced. They are merely the creations of their own fancy.
3. Exceedingly frail. How slight and strengthless is the spider’s web: The fall of a leaf will destroy it, a gust of wind will sweep it away. Significant emblem in this respect of the weakness of false hope!
II. True hope is as the anchor of the soul. Because--
1. It connects its possessor with an unseen world. When an anchor is cast overboard from a vessel, it drops out of sight, beneath the blue waves, which act as a kind of veil to hide it from view. The sailor sees it not, though he knows and feels that it is there. He perceives that his ship is anchored, though the secrets of the anchoring ground are concealed from his gaze. Even so the apostle describes the Christian’s hope, “as entering into that within the veil.”
2. It possesses enduring strength. When once the anchor is embedded in the ground, with what a firm grasp does it hold fast the largest vessel! An emblem this of the strength of true hope! It is both “sure and steadfast,” for it rests not upon the broken promises of man, but the unchanging promises of God; it clings not to the sand of human support, but to the rock of Divine strength.
3. It gives the soul calmness and security amid the storms of life. Though the gale may blow fiercely, the ship rides safely in the bay. Held firmly by the friendly anchor, it scarcely moves from its moorings. Even so, the soul that anchors itself in the Divine power and the Divine love abides calm and secure through every tempest of trial. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,” etc. (George John Allen, B. A.)
Hope as a spider’s web
A similitude of great elegance and significance. We may observe a great analogy between the spider’s web and that in a double respect.
1. In respect of the curious subtilty and the fine artificial composure of it. The spider in every web shows itself an artist: so the hypocrite spins his hope with a great deal of art, in a thin, fine thread. This and that good duty, this good thought, this opposing of some gross sin, are all interwoven together to the making up a covering for his hypocrisy. And as the spider draws all out of its own bowels, so the hypocrite weaves all his confidence out of his own inventions and imaginations.
2. It resembles it in respect of its weakness--it is too fine spun to be strong. After the spider has used all its art and labour in framing a web, yet how easily is it broken, how quickly is it swept down! So, after the hypocrite has wrought out a hope with much cost, art, and industry, it is yet but a weak, slender, pitiful thing. He does indeed by this get some name, and room amongst professors; he does, as it were, hang his hopes upon the beams of God’s house. But when God shall come to cleanse, and, as it were, to sweep His sanctuary, such cobwebs are sure to be fetched down. Thus the hypocrite, like the spider, by all his artifice and labour, only disfigures God’s house. A hypocrite in a church is like a cobweb in a palace--all that he is or does, serving only to annoy and misbecome the place and station that he would adorn. (R. South.)
The hope of the hypocrite
I.The character of the hypocrite. He hides wickedness under a cloak of goodness. He derives his honour from his birth; the child of God from his new birth. He serves God with that which costs him nothing. He is only disposed to some virtues. He puts reason in the place of religion. His virtues are only shining vices. He hears the Word without real benefit. He is the “stony ground.” Sometimes he trembles under the Word, but he shifts it off. He is a seeming friend, but a secret foe, to the Gospel. If he pray, it is with his tongue, not with his heart. He acts according to his wishes. He is wavering and double minded.
II. The hope of the hypocrite.
1. The trust, or hope, of the hypocrite is a spider’s web, because he forms it, as it were, out of his own bowels.
2. Because the profession and all the works of the hypocrite are weak and unstable. There is some curiosity in the spider’s web, but there is neither strength nor stability.
3. The spider makes her web to catch and ensnare. So the hypocrite ensnares the simple; he makes gain of godliness.
4. The hypocrite, like the spider, thinks himself perfectly safe; when once lodged in his profession he apprehends no danger.
5. In the issue the hope shall perish as does a spider’s web. When the house is swept, down go the spiders’ webs. (T. Hannam.)
