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I. THE LESSON OF SELF-CONTROL. "Ye shall not shout" was perhaps a hard order to the enthusiastic young soldiers of Joshua. Yet by putting the seal on their lips and withholding arrow and missle they became victors. How grandly do the annals of biography illustrate this duty of controlling one's spirit! Under the clouds of aspersion, maligning of motive, slanders, and jeers that darken the sun of truth, a good man is often called to fight in the shade, to walk wearily and monotonously the round of duty in silence and in patience. He who endures the contradictions against himself is like the disciplined soldier who stands in the ranks, seeing the cowardly ruffian approach, pistol in hand; he receives death calmly rather than break ranks, fire without orders, or disobey commands. There are trying positions in life when we must wait silently till we see the whites of the enemy's eyes, or hold the linstock from the touch-hole even while the hostile broadsides crash through our ship's timbers. This hard and severe discipline makes noble characters and turns the common man into a hero. It infuses in the soul the right kind of fear — fear for the noblest, fear lest we fail in obedience to what ought to be obeyed.

II. THE LESSON OF PERSEVERANCE. Jericho, the walled and apparently impregnable fortress, is but a symbol of foes in the heart and evils in the world. The conflict is lifelong. God calls us to what seems slow, tedious, patient methods. Sometimes He seems to shock all worldly sense and maxims by His providences, which make even His children, for a time, a by-word, a shaking of the head and wagging of the tongue to the ungodly. The intrenched evil spirits laugh. Sometimes there is a kind of enemy that cometh not forth but by prayer and by fasting. Abstinence and silence are laid upon us. Behold the Jericho in us — habitual faults, hereditary vices, bosom sins. Behold in the Christian's warfare-opposition of science, falsely so called, in philosophy, in criticism, in infidelity, in war, in intemperance, in vice, these are Jerichos that appear impregnable. The difficulties seem walled up to heaven. Nevertheless, we are well able, with God's help, to possess the land and to take every city.

III. THE POWER OF FAITH AND ITS GAIN BY EXERCISE. This tax on Israel's courage — compelling men of war, whose yell in charging is part of their offensive power, to make silence a weapon — was laid on them for the strengthening of their faith. The whole affair appeared irrational. But to those loyally obedient to the command of a leader inspired of God, their act was in the finest strain of reason. The method selected, the means employed, were those of the wisest and bravest; for Joshua, their leader, was a tried man. Nor, without neglecting means, are we to think that the same means employed by others, even mighty men of old, will serve us without faith.

(W. E. Griffis.)

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KJV: And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD.

WEB: Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of Yahweh.