Israel's going forth from Egypt a pattern to oppressed Churches.
Churches are sometimes enslaved and oppressed by the civil power. In unsuspecting confidence they have accepted the State's protection, and entered into certain relations with it, supposed to be mutually advantageous. But, as time has gone on, the terms of the original arrangement have been disregarded; the civil power has made encroachments; has narrowed the Church's liberties, has behaved oppressively towards it, has reduced it to actual slavery. A time comes at last when the bondage is felt to be intolerable; and the Church demands its liberty, claims to go out from under the yoke of the oppressor. Under such circumstances the following analogies are noticeable:
I. THE OPPRESSED CHURCH, LONG REFUSED THE LIBERTY WHICH IT HAS BEEN DRIVEN TO CLAIM, IS APT AT LAST TO BE "THRUST OUT" BY ITS OPPRESSOR. The early efforts of a down-trodden church after freedom are strenuously opposed, denounced as at once wrongful, foolish, and futile, sometimes punished by an increase in the oppression. The Church is set to "make bricks without straw." If this process fails, and the demand for freedom continues, the claims made are perhaps at the next stage derided. (See Exodus 5:2.) They are then for a long time determinedly and persistently refused. If occasionally a seeming concession is made, it is scarcely made before it is retracted. If still the Church will not give way, but continues the struggle, a crisis arrives. The State finds itself in difficulties. One inconvenience after another befals is in consequence of the prolonged conflict. At length it comes to be felt that the inconveniences of the struggle exceed the benefits of the connection; and a sudden change of policy takes place. The Church is sent adrift; cut away like an encumbering mass of wreck; bidden to shift for itself, and trouble the State no more. The State is glad to be rid of it.
II. THE EMANCIPATED CHURCH FINDS ITSELF, ON EMANCIPATION, SURROUNDED BY DIFFICULTIES AND PERPLEXITIES. In the first place, the attitude of the State towards it is apt to be hostile; and an attempt may even be made to coerce it and force it to resume its old position. Apart from this, it labours under many disadvantages. It has recollections of the "flesh-pots of Egypt," which offer a strong contrast to the fare whereto it is reduced. It has to enter on a dull and wearisome course; to plod forward toilsomely, painfully. It finds its movements hampered by encumbrances. All these things are against it. But if the nerves be braced to bear, if the will be resolute to turn away from all thought of the "flesh-pots," if the fact of freedom be kept before the mind's eye and the old ills of slavery held in recollection, the difficulties of the early journey will pass away, the presence of God will be revealed, and after forty years of trial, the wilderness will have been passed through, and there will be a triumphant entrance into Canaan.
III. THE EMANCIPATED CHURCH HAS A RIGHT TO TAKE WITH IT ALL ITS OWN PROPERTY, AND IS ENTITLED, IF OCCASION ARISE, TO "SPOIL THE EGYPTIANS." Moses and Aaron would not stir without their flocks and herds—the main wealth of a pastoral nation. "Not a hoof," they said, "should be left behind" (Exodus 10:26). So the emancipated Church should take with her whatever is her own into the wilderness. She must not relinquish her property to the oppressor. It is really not hers, but God's: she is trustee to God for it. She is entitled to say that she "knows not with what she must serve the Lord till she is come out." And she is entitled to ask for parting gifts when she is about to quit a known shelter and to confront the perils and dangers of an unknown future. If God gives her favour in the eyes of those whom she is leaving, she will do well to require of them their silver and their gold and their raiment—all that they have most precious—and take it with her, not as "borrowed" wealth, but as endowment freely "given," intentionally made over for a permanence, out of goodwill and affection, or out of compassion and pity. She will find a proper use for all that is most rich and most rare in the service of the sanctuary.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR