Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 1.pdf/285

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

book of Jasher?" The book of Jasher is a prophetical book of the ancient Word, now lost, or not in our Bible. Another extract from this book is given respecting teaching the children of Judah the use of the bow. (2 Sam. i. 18) This passage in Joshua is, however, not the only place in Revelation where the sun and moon are said to stand still. In Hab. iii. 11, we read, "the sun and moon stood still in their habitation," and if these two are to be explained literally, we ought to observe the same method in explaining "the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion." (Isa. xxiv. 23.) It is the spiritual or religious instruction involved in Joshua's command that is of real importance to the Christian, for this concerns his present and eternal good.

The Sun is mentioned in Scripture, not only in reference to our orb, but to the Lord himself; for He is the Sun of Righteousness, whose beams of love and wisdom eternally shine forth to bless and strengthen the families of mankind. Joshua, the leader of the Israelites to the land of promise, was fighting with the Amorites, who were idolators and worshippers of false gods, and as such, denote those false persuasions and evil lusts of the mind, which ever stand opposed to the Christian's progress in the regeneration, and to his consequent attainment of that inward state of purity and truth denoted by Canaan, the land of promise. If heaven is to be gained, the Amorites, representing those inward foes, the falsities and evil affections which darken the understanding and pollute the life, must be met, fought against, and overcome: without this, the heaven of the soul, the land of promise,