not you lead the hosts of Israel? Did not you marshal their thousands for battle, and like a mighty commander lead them through the depths? Is there not a word for you? Not one. The whole strain of the song is, “I will sing to the Lord,” from beginning to end. It is all praise of Jehovah; there is not one word about Moses, nor a single word in praise of the children of Israel. Dear friends, the last song in this world, the song of triumph, shall be full of God, and of no one else. Here you praise the instrument; today you look on this man and on that, and you say, “Thank God for this minister, and for this man.” Today you say, “Blessed be God for Luther, who shook the Vatican, and thank God for Whitfield, who stirred up a slumbering church”; but in that day you shall not sing of Luther, nor of Whitfield, nor of any of the mighty ones of God’s hosts; forgotten shall their names be for a season, even as the stars refuse to shine when the sun himself appears. The song shall be to Jehovah, and Jehovah only; we shall not have a word to say for preachers nor bishops, not a syllable to say for good men and true; but the whole song from first to last shall be, “To him who loved us, and has washed us from our sins in his own blood, to him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
11. And next will you please to note, that this song celebrated something of the fierceness of the enemy. Do you observe how, when the songster describes the attack of Pharaoh, he says, “The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.” A song is made out of the wrath of Pharaoh. And it shall be so at the last. The wrath of a man shall praise God. I believe the last song of the redeemed, when they shall ultimately triumph, will celebrate in heavenly stanzas the wrath of man overcome by God. Sometimes after great battles, monuments are raised to the memory of the fight; of what are they composed? They are composed of weapons of death and of instruments of war which have been taken from the enemy. Now, to use that illustration as I think it may be properly used, the day is coming when fury, and wrath, and hatred, and strife, shall all be woven into a song; and the weapons of our enemies, when taken from them, shall serve to make monuments to the praise of God. Rail on, rail on, blasphemer! Strike on, strike on, tyrant! Lift your heavy hand, oh despot; crush the truth, which yet you cannot crush; knock from his head the crown — the crown that is far above your reach — poor puny impotent mortal as you are! Go on, go on! But all you do shall only increase his glories. For all we care, we bid you still proceed with all your wrath and malice. Though it shall be worse for you, it shall be more glorious for our Master; the greater your preparations for war, the more splendid shall be his triumphal chariot, when he shall ride through the streets of heaven in pompous array. The more mighty your preparations for battle, the more rich the spoil which he shall divide with the strong. Oh! Christian, fear not the foe! Remember the harder his blows, the sweeter your song; the greater his wrath, the more splendid your triumph; the more he rages, the more shall Christ be honoured in the day of his appearing. They sang the song of Moses and the Lamb.
12. And then will you note, in the next place, how they sang the total overthrow of the enemy. There is one expression in this song, which ought to be and I believe is, when set to music, very frequently repeated. It is that part of the song, as recorded in the Psalms, where it is declared that the whole host of Pharaoh were utterly destroyed, and there was not one of them left. When that great song was sung by the side of the Red Sea, there was, no doubt, a special emphasis laid upon that expression, “not one.” I think I hear the hosts of Israel. When the words were known by them, they began and they proceeded thus — “There is not one of them left”; and then in various parts the words were repeated, “Not one, not one.” And then the women with their sweet voices sang, “Not one, not one.” I believe that at the last, a part of our triumph will be the fact, that there is not one left. We shall look abroad throughout the earth, and see it all a level sea; and not one enemy pursuing us — “not one, not one!” Raise yourself ever so high, oh you deceiver, you cannot live; for not one shall escape. Lift your head ever so proudly, oh despot, you cannot live; for not one shall escape. Oh heir of heaven, not one sin shall cross the Jordan after you; not one shall pass the Red Sea to overtake you; but this shall be the summit of your triumph — “Not one, not one! not one of them is left.”
13. Just let us note again, and I will not detain you too long, lest I weary you. One part of the song of Moses consisted in praising the ease with which God destroyed his enemies. “You did blow with your wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.” If we had gone to work to destroy the hosts of Pharaoh, what a multitude of engines of death we would have required. If the work had been committed to us, to cut off the hosts, what marvellous preparations, what thunder, what noise, what great activity there would have been. But notice the grandeur of the expression. God did not even lift himself from his throne to do it: he saw Pharaoh coming; he seemed to look upon him with a placid smile; he only blew with his lips, and the sea covered them. You and I will marvel at the last how easy it has been to overthrow the enemies of the Lord. We have been tugging and toiling all our lifetime to be the means of overthrowing systems of error: it will astonish the church when her Master shall come to see how, as the ice dissolves before the fire, all error and sin shall be utterly destroyed in the coming of the Most High. We must have our societies and our machinery, our preachers and our gatherings, and rightly too; but God will not require them at the last. The destruction of his enemies shall be as easy to him as the making of a world. In passive silence unmoved he sat; and he only broke the silence with “Let there be light; and light was.” So shall he at the last, when his enemies are raging furiously, blow with his winds, and they shall be scattered; they shall melt even as wax, and shall be burned like tow; they shall be as the fat of rams; into smoke shall they consume, yes, into smoke shall they consume away.
14. Furthermore, in this song of Moses you will notice, there is one peculiar beauty. Moses not only rejoiced for what had been done, but for the future consequences of it. He says — “The people of Canaan, whom we are about to attack, will now be seized with sudden fear; by the greatness of your arm they shall be as still as a stone.” Oh! I think I hear them singing that too, sweetly and softly — “as still as a stone.” How would the words come full, like gentle thunder heard in the distance — “as still as a stone!” And when we shall get on the other side the flood, see the triumph over our enemies, and behold our Master reigning, this will form a part of our song — that they must henceforth be “as still as a stone.” There will be a hell, but it will not be a hell of roaring demons, as it now is. They shall be “as still as a stone.” There will be legions of fallen angels, but they shall no longer have courage to attack us or to defy God: they shall be “as still as a stone.” Oh! how grand will that sound, when the hosts of God’s redeemed, looking down on the demons chained, bound, silenced, struck dumb with terror, shall sing exultingly over them! They must be as still as a stone; and there they must lie, and bite their iron bands. The fierce despiser of Christ can no more spit in his face; the proud tyrant can no more lift his hands to oppress the saints; even Satan can no more attempt to destroy. They shall be “as still as a stone.”
15. And last of all, the song concludes by noticing the eternity of God’s reign; and this will always make a part of the triumphant song. They sang — “The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.” Then I can suppose the whole band broke out into their loudest strains of music. “The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.” Part of the melody of heaven will be “The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.” That song has cheered us here. — “The Lord reigns; blessed be my rock!” And that song shall be our exultation there. “The Lord reigns for ever and ever.” When we shall see the placid sea of providence, when we shall behold the world all fair and lovely, when we shall see our enemies destroyed, and God Almighty triumphant, then we shall shout the song —
Hallelujah! for the Lord
God Omnipotent shall reign;
Hallelujah! let the word
Echo round the earth and main.
Oh! may we be there to sing it!
16.
