Exodus 12:38

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"And a mixed multitude went up also with them." Exodus 12:38 .

This may be taken as a sign of mercy. God permits men to work along the line of their impulses, even when they cannot justify those impulses by natural right or by technical argument Impulses to go with the people of God ought never to be repelled; out of those impulses something better may come. We must not be too curious in inquiring into the metaphysical reasons of human action. When that action points in the right direction, we should accept it, and afterwards begin and continue the work of spiritual education. In the meantime it ought to be accounted a sign of hopefulness that men are inclined to go to church, to listen to preaching, or take any interest in spiritual activities.

This may also be taken in mitigation of judgment of a severe kind often passed upon the Church. They are not all Israel that are called Israel; neither are they all Christians that follow the Christian standard. We must always distinguish between the true Israel and the mixed multitude. Time will separate them by teaching them. It is of the nature of evil that it must destroy itself, and it is of the nature of life, rooted in God, that it must grow and bloom eternally. Men are not judges. Wherever a man proves himself to be bad and to be acting the bad man's part, he unchurches himself without any formal and penal excommunication.

There is a sense in which the Church itself is a mixed multitude. Take it, for example, in the light of spiritual attainments. We are not all upon one level. In the Church there are great scholars and poor learners; some are far advanced and others are toiling at the alphabet. Take it in the matter of disposition. It is not equally easy for all men to be religious. It is not equally easy for all men to be generous. Where the difficulty is greatest, the sincerity may be of a very pure kind. Take it in the matter of individual action. Probably no human action is free from some kind of suspicious motive. Our motives are a mixed multitude. We often have to go by majorities, even in our personal considerations and decisions; we have to marshal a mixed multitude of thoughts, feelings, hopes, and fears. Herein is the delicacy of life, and herein the necessity for a discerning judgment and a sound discipline.