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PREFACE

To all who love and relish the simple gospel of the grace of God, I would earnestly recommend the following "Notes on the Book of Genesis." They are characterized by a deep-toned evangelical spirit. Having had the privilege of reading them in MS., I can speak as one who has found profit therefrom. Man's complete ruin in sin, and God's perfect remedy in Christ, are fully, clearly, and often strikingly, presented, especially in the earlier chapters.

Whenever this blessed truth is learnt from God's own word, and maintained in the soul by faith, through the power of the Holy Ghost, all is peace, joy, and victory. It takes the believer completely away from himself, from his doubts, fears, and questions. And his eye now gazes on ONE who, by his finished work, has laid the foundation of divine and everlasting righteousness, and who is now at the right hand of the Majesty in the highest, as the perfect definition of every true believer. With him, with him alone, the believer's heart is now to be occupied.

Jesus, having thus fully accomplished the work that was given him to do, and gone up on high, the Holy Ghost came down as a witness to us that redemption was finished, the believer "perfected forever" and Christ glorified in heaven.

But I must now refer my reader to the "Notes" themselves, where he will find this most blessed subject fully, frequently, and pointedly stated, and many other subjects of deep practical importance; such as the distinctive position and perfect unity of the Church of God; real saintship; practical discipleship; sonship; &c., &c.

With the exception of the four gospels, I suppose there is no book in the Bible more deeply interesting than the Book of Genesis. It comes to us with all the freshness of God's first book to his people. The contents are varied, highly instructive, and most precious to the student of God's entire book.

PREFATORY NOTE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

I cannot suffer this Fourth Edition to go forth without an expression of heartfelt thankfulness to the Lord for his goodness in making use of such a feeble instrumentality for the profit of souls and the spread of his own simple truth.

It is an unspeakable privilege to be permitted in any small degree to minister to the souls of those who are so precious to Christ. "Lovest thou me?... Feed my sheep." Such were the touching words of the departing Shepherd; and, assuredly, when they fall powerfully upon the heart, they must rouse all the energies of one's moral being to carry out, in every possible way, the gracious desire breathed therein. To gather and to feed the lambs and sheep of the flock of Christ are the most exalted services in which any one can be engaged. Not a single honest effort put forth for the achievement of such noble ends will be forgotten in that day "when the Chief Shepherd shall appear."

NOTES

THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

There is something peculiarly striking in the manner in which the Holy Ghost opens this sublime book. He introduces us, at once, to God, in the essential fulness of his being, and the solitariness of his acting. All prefatory matter is omitted. It is to God we are brought. We hear him, as it were, breaking earth's silence, and shining in upon earth's darkness, for the purpose of developing a sphere in which he might display his eternal power and Godhead.

There is nothing here on which idle curiosity may feed,--nothing on which the poor human mind may speculate. There is the sublimity and reality of DIVINE TRUTH, in its moral power to act on the heart, and on the understanding. It could never come within the range of the Spirit of God to gratify idle curiosity by the presentation of curious theories. Geologists may explore the bowels of the earth, and draw forth from thence materials from which to add to, and, in some instances, to contradict, the Divine record. They may speculate upon fossil remains; but the disciple hangs, with sacred delight, over the page of inspiration. He reads, believes, and worships. In this spirit may we pursue our study of the profound book which now lies open before us. May we know what it is to "inquire in the temple." May our investigations of the precious contents of holy scripture be ever prosecuted in the true spirit of worship.

"And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Here was, in good truth, a scene in which God alone could act. Man, in the pride of his heart, has since proved himself but too ready to interfere with God in other and far higher spheres of action; but, in the scene before us, man had no place until, indeed, he became, like all the rest, the subject of creative power. God was alone in creation. He looked forth from his eternal dwelling-place of light upon the wild waste, and there beheld the sphere in which his wondrous plans and counsels were yet to be unfolded and brought out--where the Second Person of the Eternal Trinity was yet to live, and labor, and testify, and bleed, and die, in order to display, in the view of wondering worlds, the glorious perfections of the Godhead. All was darkness and chaos; but God is the God of light and order. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." Darkness and confusion cannot live in his presence, whether we look at it in a physical, moral, intellectual, or spiritual point of view.

"The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." He sat brooding over the scene of his future operations. A dark scene, truly; and one in which there was ample room for the God of light and life to act. He alone could enlighten the darkness, cause life to spring up, substitute order for chaos, open an expanse between the waters, where life might display itself without fear of death. These were operations worthy of God.

"And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night." Here we have the two great symbols so largely employed throughout the Word. The presence of light makes the day; the absence thereof makes the night. Thus it is in the history of souls. There are "the sons of light" and "the sons of darkness." This is a most marked and solemn distinction. All upon whom the light of Life has shone,--all who have been effectually visited by the Day-spring from on high,--all who have received the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,--all such, whoever and wherever they may be, belong to the first class, are "the sons of light, and the sons of the day."

On the other hand, all who are still in nature's darkness, nature's blindness, nature's unbelief,--all who have not yet received into their hearts, by faith, the cheering beams of the Sun of righteousness, all such are still wrapped in the shades of spiritual night, are "the sons of darkness," "the sons of the night."

Reader, pause and ask yourself, in the presence of the Searcher of hearts, to which of these two classes do you, at this moment, belong. That you belong to either the one or the other is beyond all question. You may be poor, despised, unlettered; but if, through grace, there is a link connecting you with the Son of God, "the Light of the world," then you are, in very deed, a son of the day, and destined, ere long, to shine in that celestial sphere, that region of glory, of which "the slain Lamb" will be the central sun, forever. This is not your own doing. It is the result of the counsel and operation of God himself, who has given you light and life, joy and peace, in Jesus, and his accomplished sacrifice. But if you are a total stranger to the hallowed action and influence of divine light, if your eyes have not been opened to behold any beauty in the Son of God, then, though you had all the learning of a Newton, though you were enriched with all the treasures of human philosophy, though you had drunk in with avidity all the streams of human science, though your name were adorned with all the learned titles which the schools and universities of this world could bestow, yet are you "a son of the night," "a son of darkness;" and, if you die in your present condition you will be involved in the blackness and horror of an eternal night. Do not, therefore, my friend, read another page, until you have fully satisfied yourself as to whether you belong to the "day" or the "night."

The next point on which I would dwell is the creation of lights. "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also."

The sun is the great centre of light, and the centre of our system. Round him the lesser orbs revolve. From him, too, they derive their light. Hence, he may, very legitimately, be viewed as an apt symbol of Him, who is soon to arise with healing in His wings, to gladden the hearts of those that fear the Lord. The aptness and beauty of the symbol would fully appear to one who, having spent the night in watching, beholds the rising sun gilding, with his bright beams, the eastern sky. The mists and shades of night are all dispersed, and the whole creation seems to hail the returning orb of light. Thus will it be, by and by, when the Sun of righteousness arises. The shadows of night shall flee away, and the whole creation shall be gladdened by the dawning of "a morning without clouds,"--the opening of a bright and never-ending day of glory.

The moon, being in herself opaque, derives all her light from the sun. She always reflects the sun's light, save when earth and its influences intervene. No sooner has the sun sunk beneath our horizon than the moon presents herself to receive his beams and reflect them back upon a dark world; or should she be visible during the day, she always exhibits a pale light, the necessary result of appearing in the presence of superior brightness. True it is, as has been remarked, the world sometimes intervenes; dark clouds, thick mists, and chilling vapors, too, arise from earth's surface, and hide from our view her silvery light.

Now, as the sun is a beautiful and an appropriate symbol of Christ, so the moon strikingly reminds us of the Church. The fountain of her light is hidden from view. The world seeth him not, but she sees him; and she is responsible to reflect his beams upon a benighted world. The world has no other way in which to learn any thing of Christ but by the Church. "Ye," says the inspired apostle, "are our epistle, ... known and read of all men." And again, "Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ."

The stars are distant lights. They shine in other spheres, and have little connection with this system, save that their twinkling can be seen. "One star differeth from another star in glory." Thus will it be in the coming kingdom of the Son. He will shine forth in living and everlasting lustre. His body, the Church, will faithfully reflect his beams on all around; while the saints individually shall shine in those spheres which a righteous Judge shall allot to them, as a reward of faithful service during the dark night of his absence. This thought should animate us to a more ardent and vigorous pursuit after conformity to our absent Lord.

The lower orders of creation are next introduced. The sea and the earth are made to teem with life. Some may feel warranted in regarding the operations of each successive day, as foreshadowing the various dispensations, and their great characteristic principles of action. I would only remark, as to this, that there is great need, when handling the word in this way, to watch, with holy jealousy, the working of imagination; and also to pay strict attention to the general analogy of scripture, else we may make sad mistakes. I do not feel at liberty to enter upon such a line of interpretation; I shall therefore confine myself to what I believe to be the plain sense of the sacred text.

Let us, now, look at the manner in which Eve was brought into being, though, in so doing, we shall have to anticipate part of the contents of the next chapter. Throughout all the orders of creation there was not found an help meet for Adam. "A deep sleep" must fall on him, and a partner be formed, out of himself, to share his dominion and his blessedness. "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof." And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, builded he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.

Looking at Adam and Eve as a type of Christ and the Church, as scripture fully warrants us to do, we see how that the death of Christ needed to be an accomplished fact, ere the Church could be set up; though, in the purpose of God, she was looked at, and chosen in Christ, before the foundation of the world. There is, however, a vast difference between the secret purpose of God and the revelation and accomplishment thereof. Before the divine purpose could be actualized in reference to the constituent parts of the Church, it was necessary that the Son should be rejected and crucified,--that he should take his seat on high,--that he should send down the Holy Ghost to baptize believers into one body. It is not that souls were not quickened and saved, previous to the death of Christ. They assuredly were. Adam was saved, and thousands of others, from age to age, in virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, though that sacrifice was not yet accomplished. But the salvation of individual souls is one thing; and the formation of the Church, as a distinctive thing, by the Holy Ghost, is quite another.

This distinction is not sufficiently attended to; and even where it is in theory maintained, it is accompanied with but little of those practical results which might naturally be expected to flow from a truth so stupendous. The Church's unique place,--her special relationship to "the Second Man, the Lord from heaven,"--her distinctive privileges and dignities,--all these things would, if entered into by the power of the Holy Ghost, produce the richest, the rarest, and the most fragrant fruits.

May the Holy Ghost unfold these things, more fully and powerfully, to our hearts, that so we may have a deeper sense of the conduct and character which are worthy of the high vocation wherewith we are called. "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all."

FOOTNOTES:

It is an interesting fact that the moon, as viewed through a powerful telescope, presents the appearance of one vast ruin of nature.

This chapter introduces to our notice two prominent subjects, namely, "the seventh day" and "the river." The first of these demands special attention.

Whatever answer may be given to these questions, the word of God teaches us that God has had no sabbath, as yet, save the one which the 2d of Genesis records. "The seventh day," and none other, was the sabbath. It showed forth the completeness of creation-work; but creation-work is marred, and the seventh-day rest interrupted; and thus, from the fall to the incarnation, God was working; from the incarnation to the cross, God the Son was working; and from Pentecost until now, God the Holy Ghost has been working.

But some will say, "the day has been changed, while all the principles belonging to it remain the same." I do not believe that scripture furnishes any foundation for such an idea. Where is the divine warrant for such a statement? Surely if there is scripture authority, nothing can be easier than to produce it. But the fact is, there is none; on the contrary, the distinction is most fully maintained in the New Testament. Take one remarkable passage, in proof: "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week." There is, evidently, no mention here of the seventh day being changed to the first day; nor yet of any transfer of the Sabbath from the one to the other. The first day of the week is not the Sabbath changed, but altogether a new day. It is the first day of a new period, and not the last day of an old. The seventh day stands connected with earth and earthly rest: the first day of the week, on the contrary, introduces us to heaven and heavenly rest.

It is quite impossible to over-estimate the value and importance of the Lord's day, as the first day of the week is termed, in the first chapter of the Apocalypse. Being the day on which Christ rose from the dead, it sets forth not the completion of creation, but the full and glorious triumph of redemption. Nor should we regard the celebration of the first day of the week as a matter of bondage, or as a yoke put on the neck of a Christian. It is his delight to celebrate that happy day. Hence we find that the first day of the week was pre-eminently the day on which the early Christians came together to break bread; and at that period of the Church's history, the distinction between the sabbath and the first day of the week was fully maintained. The Jews celebrated the former, by assembling in their synagogues to read "the law and the prophets;" the Christians celebrated the latter, by assembling to break bread. There is not so much as a single passage of scripture in which the first day of the week is called the sabbath day; whereas there is the most abundant proof of their entire distinctness.

Why, therefore, contend for that which has no foundation in the Word? Love, honor, and celebrate the Lord's day as much as possible; seek, like the apostle, to be "in the Spirit" thereon; let your retirement from secular matters be as profound as ever you can make it; but while you do all this, call it by its proper name; give it its proper place; understand its proper principles; attach to it its proper characteristics; and, above all, do not bind down the Christian, as with an iron rule, to observe the seventh day, when it is his high and holy privilege to observe the first. Do not bring him down from heaven, where he can rest, to a cursed and bloodstained earth, where he cannot. Do not ask him to keep a day which his Master spent in the tomb, instead of that blessed day on which he left it.

But let it not be supposed that we lose sight of the important fact that the sabbath will again be celebrated, in the land of Israel, and over the whole creation. It assuredly will. "There remaineth a rest for the people of God." When the Son of Abraham, Son of David, and Son of Man, shall assume his position of government over the whole earth, there will be a glorious sabbath,--a rest which sin shall never interrupt. But now, he is rejected, and all who know and love him are called to take their place with him in his rejection; they are called to "go forth to him without the camp bearing his reproach." If earth could keep a sabbath, there would be no reproach; but the very fact of the professing church's seeking to make the first day of the week the sabbath, reveals a deep principle. It is but the effort to get back to an earthly standing, and to an earthly code of morals.

Many may not see this. Many true Christians may, most conscientiously, observe the sabbath day, as such; and we are bound to honor their consciences, though we are perfectly warranted in asking them to furnish a scriptural basis for their conscientious convictions. We would not stumble or wound their conscience, but we would seek to instruct it. However, we are not now occupied with conscience or its convictions, but only with the principle which lies at the root of what may be termed the sabbath question; and I would only put the question to the Christian reader, which is more consonant with the entire scope and spirit of the New Testament, the celebration of the seventh day or sabbath, or the celebration of the first day of the week or the Lord's day?

We shall now consider the connection between the sabbath, and the river flowing out of Eden. There is much interest in this. It is the first notice we get of "the river of God," which is, here, introduced in connection with God's rest. When God was resting in his works, the whole world felt the blessing and refreshment thereof. It was impossible for God to keep a sabbath, and earth not to feel its sacred influence. But, alas! the streams which flowed forth from Eden--the scene of earthly rest--were speedily interrupted, because the rest of creation was marred by sin.

Yet, blessed be God, sin did not put a stop to his activities, but only gave them a new sphere; and wherever he is seen acting, the river is seen flowing. Thus, when we find him, with a strong hand, and an outstretched arm, conducting his ransomed hosts across the sterile sand of the desert, there we see the stream flowing forth, not from Eden, but from the smitten Rock,--apt and beautiful expression of the ground on which sovereign grace ministers to the need of sinners! This was redemption, and not merely creation. "That rock was Christ," Christ smitten to meet his people's need. The smitten Rock was connected with Jehovah's place in the tabernacle; and truly there was moral beauty in the connection. God dwelling in curtains, and Israel drinking from a smitten rock, had a voice for every opened ear, and a deep lesson for every circumcised heart.

Passing onward, in the history of God's ways, we find the river flowing in another channel. "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood, and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Here, then, we find the river emanating from another source, and flowing through another channel; though, in one sense, the source of the river was ever the same, being God himself; but, then, it was God, known in a new relationship and upon a new principle. Thus in the passage just quoted, the Lord Jesus was taking his place, in spirit, outside of the whole existing order of things, and presenting himself as the source of the river of living water, of which river the person of the believer was to be the channel. Eden, of old, was constituted a debtor to the whole earth, to send forth the fertilizing streams. And in the desert, the rock, when smitten, became a debtor to Israel's thirsty hosts. Just so, now, every one who believes in Jesus, is a debtor to the scene around him, to allow the streams of refreshment to flow forth from him.

The Christian should regard himself as the channel through which the manifold grace of Christ may flow out to a needy world; and the more freely he communicates, the more freely will he receive, "for there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty." This places the believer in a place of sweetest privileges, and, at the same time, of the most solemn responsibility. He is called to be the constant witness and exhibiter of the grace of him on whom he believes.

Now, the more he enters into the privilege, the more will he answer the responsibility. If he is habitually feeding upon Christ, he cannot avoid exhibiting him. The more the Holy Spirit keeps the Christian's eye fixed on Jesus, the more will his heart be occupied with his adorable Person, and his life and character bear unequivocal testimony to his grace. Faith is, at once, the power of ministry, the power of testimony, and the power of worship. If we are not living "by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for us," we shall neither be effectual servants, faithful witnesses, nor true worshippers. We may be doing a great deal; but it will not be service to Christ. We may be saying a great deal, but it will not be testimony for Christ. We may exhibit a great deal of piety and devotion; but it will not be spiritual and true worship.

The blood of the Lamb cleanses the conscience from every speck and stain of sin, and sets it, in perfect freedom, in the presence of a holiness which cannot tolerate sin. In the cross, all the claims of divine holiness were perfectly answered; so that the more I understand the latter, the more I appreciate the former. The higher our estimate of holiness, the higher will be our estimate of the work of the cross. "Grace reigns, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." Hence the Psalmist calls on the saints to give thanks at the remembrance of God's holiness. This is a precious fruit of a perfect redemption. Before ever a sinner can give thanks at the remembrance of God's holiness, he must look at it by faith, from the resurrection side of the cross.

My beloved reader, if you have not yet heartily believed the divine record, let me beseech you to allow "the voice of the Lord" to prevail above the hiss of the serpent. "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."

FOOTNOTES:

This subject will, if the Lord permit, come before us again in the twentieth chapter of Exodus; but I would, here, observe, that very much of the offence and misunderstanding connected with the important subject of the sabbath, may be justly traced to the inconsiderate and injudicious conduct of some who, in their zeal for what they termed Christian liberty, in reference to the sabbath, rather lose sight of the claims of honest consciences; and also of the place which the Lord's day occupies in the New Testament. Some have been known to enter on their weekly avocations, simply to show their liberty, and thus they caused much needless offence. Such acting could never have been suggested by the Spirit of Christ. If I am ever so clear and free in my own mind, I should respect the consciences of my brethren; and, moreover, I do not believe that those who so carry themselves, really understand the true and precious privileges connected with the Lord's day. We should only be too thankful to be rid of all secular occupation and distraction, to think of having recourse to them for the purpose of showing our liberty. The good providence of our God has so arranged for his people throughout the British Empire that they can, without pecuniary loss, enjoy the rest of the Lord's day, inasmuch as all are obliged to abstain from business. This must be regarded by every well-regulated mind as a mercy; for, if it were not thus ordered, we know how man's covetous heart would, if possible, rob the Christian of the sweet privilege of attending the assembly on the Lord's day. And who can tell what would be the deadening effect of uninterrupted engagement with this world's traffic? Those Christians who, from Monday morning to Saturday night, breathe the dense atmosphere of the mart, the market, and the manufactory, can form some idea of it.

It cannot be regarded as a good sign to find men introducing measures for the public profanation of the Lord's day. It assuredly marks the progress of infidelity and French influence.

But there are some who teach that the expression , which is rightly enough translated, "the Lord's day," refers to "the day of the Lord," and that the exiled apostle found himself carried forward, as it were, into the Spirit of the day of the Lord. I do not believe the original would bear such an interpretation; and, besides, we have in 1 Thess. v. 2, and 2 Peter iii. 10, the exact words, "the day of the Lord," the original of which is quite different from the expression above referred to, being not , but . This entirely settles the matter, so far as the mere criticism is concerned; and as to interpretation, it is plain that by far the greater portion of the Apocalypse is occupied, not with "the day of the Lord," but with events prior thereto.

Compare, also, Ezekiel xlvii. 1-12; and Zech. xiv. 8.

This section of our book sets before us the breaking up of the whole scene on which we have been dwelling. It abounds in very weighty principles; and has, very justly, been, in all ages, resorted to as a most fruitful theme for those who desired to set forth the truth as to man's ruin and God's remedy. The serpent enters, with a bold question as to divine revelation,--terrible model and forerunner of all infidel questions since raised by those who have, alas! too faithfully served the serpent's cause in the world,--questions which are only to be met by the supreme authority and divine majesty of Holy Scripture.

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