e and office of Israel when planted in its own land, or when
dispersed among the nations. For, as you see, he speaks of 'the remnant
of Jacob' as if he was thinking of the survivors of some great calamity
which had swept away the greater portion of the nation. Both things are
true. When settled in its own land, Israel's office was to teach the
nations God; when dispersed among the Gentiles, its office ought to have
been the same. But be that as it may, the conception here set forth is
as true to-day as ever it was. For the prophetic teachings, rooted
though they may be in the transitory circumstances of a tiny nation, are
'not for an age, but for all time,' and we get a great deal nearer the
heart of them when we grasp the permanent truths that underlie them,
than when we learnedly exhume the dead history which was their
occasion.

Micah's message comes to all Christians, and very eminently to English
Christians. The subject of Christian missions is before us to-day, and
some thoughts in the line of this great text may not be inappropriate.

We have here, then,

I. The function of each Christian in his place.

'The remnant of Jacob shall be as a dew from the Lord in the midst of
many nations.' What made Israel 'as a dew'? One thing only; its
religion, its knowledge of God, and its consequent purer morality. It
could teach Greece no philosophy, no art, no refinement, no
sensitiveness to the beautiful. It could teach Rome no lessons of policy
or government. It could bring no wisdom to Egypt, no power or wealth to
Assyria. But God lit His candle and set it on a candlestick, that it
'might give light to all that were in the house.' The same thing is true
about Christian people. We cannot teach the world science, we cannot
teach it philosophy or art, but we can teach it God. Now the possibility
brings with it the obligation. The personal experience of Jesus Christ
in our hearts, as the dew that brings to us life and fertility, carries
with it a commission as distinct and imperative as if it had been pealed
into each single ear by a voice from heaven. That which made Israel the
'dew amidst many nations,' parched for want of it, makes Christian men
and women fit to fill the analogous office, and calls upon them to
discharge the same functions. For--in regard to all our possessions, and
therefore most eminently and imperatively in regard to the best--that
which we have, we have as stewards, and the Gospel, as the Apostle
fo