And God opening his eyes, he begins to tell even about the coming of Christ, and he says, “I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not near.” And then he winds up his speech by saying — “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!” And you will say of that man, he is a hopeful character. Wait until he has come off the brow of the hill, and you will hear him give the most diabolical advice to the king of Moab which it was ever possible for Satan himself to suggest. He said to the king, “You cannot overthrow these people in battle, for God is with them; try and entice them from their God.” And you know how with depraved lusts they of Moab tried to entice the children of Israel from allegiance to Jehovah; so that this man seemed to have the voice of an angel at one time, and yet the very soul of a devil in his heart. He was a terrible character; he was a man of two things, a man who went all the way with two things to a very great extent. I know the Scripture says, “No man can serve two masters.” Now this is often misunderstood. Some read it, “No man can serve two masters.” Yes he can, he can serve three or four. The way to read it is this: “No man can serve two masters.” They cannot both be masters. He can serve two, but they cannot both be his master. A man can serve two who are not his masters, or even twenty; he may live for twenty different purposes, but he cannot live for more than one master purpose — there can only be one master purpose in his soul. But Balaam laboured to serve two; it was like the people of whom it was said, “They feared the Lord, and served other gods.” Or like Rufus, who was a loaf of the same leaven; for you know our old King Rufus {b} painted God on one side of his shield, and the devil on the other, and had underneath, the motto: “Ready for both; catch who can.” There are many such, who are ready for both. They meet a minister, and how pious and holy they are; on Sunday they are the most respectable and upright people in the world, as you would think; indeed they effect a drawling in their speech, which they think to be eminently religious. But on a weekday, if you want to find the greatest rogues and cheats, they are some of those men who are so sanctimonious in their piety. Now, rest assured, my hearers, that no confession of sin can be genuine, unless it is a whole hearted one. It is of no use for you to say, “I have sinned,” and then keep on sinning. “I have sinned,” you say, and it is a fair, fair face you show; but, alas, alas! for the sin you will go away and commit. Some men seem to be born with two characters. I remarked when in the library at Trinity College, Cambridge, about a very fine statue of Lord Byron. The librarian said to me, “Stand here, sir.” I looked, and I said, “What a fine intellectual countenance! What a grand genius he was!” “Come here,” he said, “to the other side.” “Ah! what a demon! There stands the man who could defy the deity.” He seemed to have such a scowl and such a dreadful leer on his face; even as Milton would have painted Satan when he said — “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.” I turned away and said to the librarian, “Do you think the artist intended to do this?” “Yes,” he said, “he wished to picture the two characters — the great, the grand, the almost superhuman genius that he possessed, and yet the enormous mass of sin that was in his soul.” There are some men here of the same sort. I dare say, like Balaam, they would overthrow everything in argument with their enchantments, they could work miracles; and yet at the same time there is something about them which betrays a horrid character of sin, as great as what would appear to be their character for righteousness. Balaam, you know, offered sacrifices to God upon the altar of Baal: that was just the type of his character. So many do; they offer sacrifices to God on the shrine of Mammon; and while they will give to the building of a church, and distribute to the poor, they will at the other door of their counting house grind the poor for bread, and press the very blood out of the widow, that they may enrich themselves. Ah! it is idle and useless for you to say, “I have sinned,” unless you mean it from your heart. That double minded man’s confession is of no avail.
The Insincere Man
Saul — I have sinned. {1 Samuel 15:24}
8. III. And now a third character, and a third text. In 1 Samuel 15:24: “And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned.”
9. Here is the insincere man — the man who is not like Balaam, to a certain extent sincere in two things; but the man who is just the opposite — who has no prominent point in his character at all, but is moulded everlastingly by the circumstances that are passing over his head. Such a man was Saul. Samuel reproved him, and he said, “I have sinned.” But he did not mean what he said: for if you read the whole verse you will find him saying, “I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and your words; because I feared the people”: which was a lying excuse. Saul never feared anyone; he was always ready enough to do his own will — he was the despot. And just before he had pleaded another excuse, that he had saved the bulls and lambs to offer to Jehovah, and therefore both excuses could not have been true. You remember, my friends, that the most prominent feature in the character of Saul was his insincerity. One day he fetched David from his bed, as he thought, to put him to death in his house. Another I time he declares, “God forbid that I should do anything against you, my son David.” One day, because David saved his life, he said, “You are more righteous than I; I will do so no more.” The day before he had gone out to fight against his own son-in-law, in order to kill him. Sometimes Saul was among the prophets, easily turned into a prophet, and then afterwards among the witches; sometimes in one place, and then another, and insincere in everything. How many such we have in every Christian assembly; men who are very easily moulded! Say what you please to them, they always agree with you. They have affectionate dispositions, very likely a tender conscience; but then the conscience is so remarkably tender, that when touched it seems to give, and you are afraid to probe deeper, — it heals as soon it is wounded. I think I used the very singular comparison once before, which I must use again: there are some men who seem to have Indian rubber hearts. If you only touch them, there is an impression made at once; but then it is of no use, it soon restores itself to its original character. You may press them whatever way you wish, they are so elastic you can always effect your purpose; but then they are not fixed in their character, and soon return to be what they were before. Oh sirs, too many of you have done the same; you have bowed your heads in church, and said, “We have erred and strayed from your ways”; and you did not mean what you said. You have come to your minister; you have said, “I repent of my sins”; you did not then feel you were a sinner; you only said it to please him. And now you attend the house of God; no one is more impressionable than you; the tear will run down your cheek in a moment, but yet, notwithstanding all that, the tear is dried as quickly as it is brought forth, and you remain to all intents and purposes the same as you were before. To say, “I have sinned,” in an unmeaning manner, is worse than worthless, for it is a mockery of God thus to confess with insincerity of heart.
10. I have been brief upon this character; for it seemed to touch upon that of Balaam; though any thinking man will at once see there was a real contrast between Saul and Balaam, even though there is an affinity between the two. Balaam was the great bad man, great in all he did; Saul was little in everything except in stature — little in his good and little in his vice, and he was too much of a fool to be desperately bad, though too wicked to be at any time good: while Balaam was great in both: the man who could at one time defy Jehovah, and yet at another time could say, “If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more.”
The Doubtful Penitent
Achan — I have sinned. {Joshua 7:20}
11. IV. And now I have to introduce to you a very interesting case; it is the case of the doubtful penitent, the case of Achan, in Joshua 7:20: “And Achan answered Joshua, indeed I have sinned.”
12. You know that Achan stole some of the prey from the city of Jericho — that he was discovered by lot, and put to death. I have singled this case out as the representative of some whose characters are doubtful on their deathbeds; who do repent apparently, but of whom the most we can say is, that we hope their souls are saved at last, but indeed we cannot tell. Achan, you are aware, was stoned with stones, for defiling Israel. But I find in the Mishnah, an old Jewish