Abraham was told to
make haste and leave his father's house; when Jacob was bid remember and
pay the vow he had made when his trouble was upon him; as also when
Joseph had to flee for what was better than life; and on that memorable
occasion when David sent Joab out against Rabbah, but David tarried still
at Jerusalem. On all these essential, first-class, and difficult
occasions the old serpent brought up Ill-pause. As also when our Lord
was in the wilderness; when He set His face to go up to Jerusalem; when
He saw certain Greeks among them that came up to the passover; as also
again and again in the Garden. As also on crucial occasions in your own
life. As when you had been told not to eat, not to touch, and not even
to look at the forbidden fruit, then Ill-pause, the devil's orator, came
to you and said that it was a tree to be desired. And, you shall not
surely die. As also when you were moved to terror and to tears under a
Sabbath, or under a sermon, or at some death-bed, or on your own sick-
bed--Ill-pause got you to put off till a more convenient season your
admitted need of repentance and reformation and peace with God. On such
difficult occasions as these the devil took Ill-pause to help him with
you, and the result, from the devil's point of view, has justified his
confidence in his orator. When Ill-pause gets his new honours paid him
in hell; when there is a new joy in hell over another sinner that has not
yet repented, your name will be heard sounding among the infernal cheers.
Just think of your baptismal name and your pet name at home giving them
joy to-night at their supper in hell! And yet one would not at first
sight think that such triumphs and such toasts, such medals, and clasps,
and garters were to be won on earth or in hell just by saying such simple-
sounding and such commonplace things as those are for which Ill-pause
receives his decorations. 'Take time,' he says. 'Yes,' he admits, 'but
there is no such hurry; to-morrow will do; next year will do; after you
are old will do quite as well. The darkness shall cover you, and your
sin will not find you out. Christ died for sin, and it is a faithful
saying that His blood will cleanse you later on from all this sin.'
Everyday and well-known words, indeed, but a true orator is seen in
nothing more than in this, that he can take up what everybody knows and
says, and put it so as to carry everybody captive. One of Quintilian's
own orators has