I'EACE AND JOY AMID CHASTISEMENT.
HIS is a senthnent which often occurs in Scril)ture, whether exl)ressed in words or implied in the conduct of good men. It is founded on the belief that God is our sole strength, out sole refuge; tht if good is in any way in store for us, it lies with God; if it is attainable, it is attained by coming to God. Though we be in evfl case even after comiug to Him, we are sure to be in still worse, if we keep away. If He will but allow sinners such as we are to al)l)roach Him, for that is the only question, then it is out wisdom to al)proach Hhn at once in such a way as He alToints or apl)ears to al)prove. At all events, there is no one else we can go to; so that ff He refuses to receive us, we are undone. And on the other hand, if He does receive us, then we must be ready to submit to His will, whatever it is towards us, l)leasant or l)ainful. Vhether He l)unishes us or hot, or how far l)ardons, or how far restores, or what gifts He bestows, tests with Him; and it is our lart to take good or bad, as He gives it.
This is the general feeling which St. l'eter seems to express in one v;ay, when he cries out, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." It is the feeling under different circmnstances and in a different tone, of the ]?rodigal Son, when He said, "I will arise, and go to my Father, and will say unto Him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and ara no more worthy tobe called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants." It shows itself under the form of peace and joy in the words of David: '" ]ea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I wfll fear no evil, for Thou art with me;" and it speaks in the text by the mouth of the heavfly afflicted and sorely perplexed Job, "Though He slay me, yet will [ trnst in tIim." Inluirers seeking the truth, prodigals repentant, saints rejoicing in the light, saints walking in darkness, all of them have one word on their lips, one creed in their hearts,—to "trust in the Lord for ever, for with the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strengIh. Thère is another case different froln all of these, in which it is equally our duty and wisdom thus to stay ourselves upon God; that of out being actually under punishment for our sins. Job maintained his innocence, whieh his fi'iends denied, as thinkhg his afflictions were a judgment upon solne secret wickedness now coming to light. He, on the other hand, being conscious of his integrity and sincerity in thne wst, could but wait in the darkness ti]l God revealed why He chastised as a. sinner, one who had been "perfect and upright, one that feared Goal and eschewed eviU" But men may often be Job i. 1.
eonseious that they hve ineurred God's displeasure, and eonseious that thcy are suffering it; and theu their duty is still to trust in God, to acquiesce or rather to eoneur in His ehastiselnents, as if they were a selfinflicted penance, and not the strokes of His rod. For God is out mereiful Father, and when He aiets His sons, yet itis hOt willingly; and though in one sense it is in judgment, yet in another and higher, it is in mercy. He provides that what is in itself an evil shm,ld beeome a good; and, whil t[e does hot supersede the original law of His just govermnent, that suffering should fi»ll«w sin, He overrnles it tobe a healing medieine as well as a punishment. Thus, " in wat.h" He " remembers merey." Thus St. Paul decides, quoting the words of Solomon, " My son, despise hot thou the ehastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rcbuked of I[im; fi»r whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and seourgeth every son whom He receiveth. '' You see he eaHs i¢ a "ehastisement" and a "rebuke," but still it is in "love;" and it is out duty to take it as sueh, and to bless and praise Him under it. And Seripture affords us some remarkable instances of persons glorifying, or ealled on to glorify God, when under His hand, some of which it may be well here to lnention. One which desmes especial notice is Joshua's exhorration to Achan, who was about to be put to death for secreting a portion of the spoils of Jericho, and was thns dying apparently under the very rod, and (if any man ever), without encouragement to trust in God, or hope of Heb. xii. 5, 6.
profit in serving Him. « My son," Joshua says fo lim, "give, I pray thee, glo W to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto Him." Thus he began; yet ohserve, his next words were as severe as if no duty, no consolation, were lefg fo the offender, despair only. He continues thus sternly, " Why bast thon troubled us the Lord shall redouble thee this day." "And all Israel stoned him with stones, and lmrned them with tire," him "and his sons and his daughters," "after they 1,ad stned them with stones. ''s Another rcmarkablc instance is given us in the history of Jonah; I mean, in his address to Almighy Goal of thë fish's bclly. It illusrates most alpositely the case of a rue, thou erring servant of God, chastised, yet llessing God under the chastisement, and submitting himself even without any cleaa: lrospect how he was fo escpe from it." I cried," be says, "by reason of my aiction uno the Lol, and He heard me; out of the bel]y of hell cried I, and Thou heardest my voice. For Thou hadst ct me ito the deep, in the midst çf the seas, and tire floods compassed me about; all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I ara cast çut of Thy sght; yet I will look again toward Thy Holy Temple..... When my soul fainted within ne, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came in uato Thee, into Thine Ho]y Temple. They that obse-e lying vanities forsake their own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto Thee with tire voice of thanksgiving; I wfll 1,ay thut that I have vowed. Sa-lvation is çf the Lord." Josh. vii. 19, 24, 25. Jonah ii. 2-4, 7-9.
Now, one should think, nothing could be more silnple to understand than the state of mind dcscribed, however ha.rd itbe fo realize; I mean the combined feeling txat God loves us yetpUlfishes us, tha we are in ltis fiwour, ye are under, or lnay be blvugh under His rod; the feeling of mingled hope and fear, of suspense, of hot seeing our way, ye having a general conviction tha.t God will bring us on it if we trustfo Him. And this the more so, because very few indeed, or raiher lmne a all, butlnus be conscious, if they ge themselves fo think, that they have grievously oflnded God at various times, in spire of all He has donc for them; and that, for what. they know, Christs lnerits may hot be so impued fo them as o exemp t.hem from some punishment, which will delnand in thenl the feelings I have been describing. Yet soit is, at lea.st in this day, men find a difficulty in conceiing how Christians can have hope without certainty, sorrow and pain without gloom, suspense with cahnness and confidence; how they can believe that in one sense they are in the light of God's countenance, and that in another sense they have forfeited it. I proceed then to describe a state of mind which if seems fo me no one ought fo misunderstand; itis so much a marrer of COlnmon sense. We wiH say, a man fs a serious Christian, for of such I am speaking. He is in the habit of prayer; and he tries to serve God, and he has, through God's mercy, the reward of such a religious course of life. He bas a consciousness that God has hot given him up; he has a good hope of heaven. I aih hot speaking of the strength of it, but more or less good hope. He does hot indeed often realize the circumstances of the future, he does hot dwell upon what is fo becolne of hiln; but I mean he does hot look forward anxiously, feeling, as he does, around him the proofs, in which he cannot be deceived, of God's present love towards him. His 1)eing allowed to attend God's ordinances, his being enabled in a measure to do his duty, his perception of Gosl)el truth, his being able to accept, adnfire, and love high and holy views of thilgs, all conspire to prove t.hat af prescrit, without going on to specultte or to cak.ulte how he shall fare af Christ's judglnent seat, af 1,resent he is in a certain truc sense ia God's favour. The feeling may vary from a mere tremlfling guess, a mere dawning and doubtful h,pe, to a calm though subdued confidence; still, something of this kind is the state of nind of all s.erious men. They are hot in a state of imlnediate alarm, for the day of judgment is future; and for the prescrit they are conscious somehow they are in God's hands as yet, and are t.hereby supported. But now suppose a man (and this is the case of most Christians), who is conscious of some deliberate sin or sins in rime past, some course of sin, or in later life bas detected himself in some secret and subtle sin. Supposing if breaks on a man that he has been au overindflging father, and his children have suffered from it; or that he bas been harsh, and so has alienated those -ho ought to have confided in him; or that he has ])een over-fond of worldly goods, and now is suddenly overtaken with some 'ievous fall in consequenee;. or that he has on any particular occasions allowed sin in ot.hers, when he might bave warned them, and they are dead aud gone, and the rime of retrieving matters is pst; or that he has taken some fitlse step in life, forme connexions irreligiously or the like:—what will b his stte when the convctiou of his sin, whtever it is, breaks upon him? Will he think himself uttefly out of God's fitvour? I think hot; he bas the consciousness of his present prvailing habits of obedience, in spite of his uot being so careful as he ought to be; he knows he hs served Goal on tle whole; he knows he has really desired to do God's will, though he has hot striven as he ouglt to have done, or has been negligent i some particulu's iu ascertining what that will was. Much as he may be shocked at and condemn and hate himself, much as he will hmuble himself, yet I do hot suppose he wfll ordinarily dcsl»air. But on the other hand, will he take up a notion that God has forgiven him? I think hot either; I will hot believe he has so little humility, and so much presumption. I ara uot speaking of ordinary men, who have no fixe,l princilde, who take up ad lay down religion as it may happen, but of scrim«s men; and I will hot light.ly impute it to any such man tht he takes up the notiou of his haviug been absolutely forgiven for the sius of his past lire. Who is to forgive him? how is he to know it? No; I see no ceïtainty for him; he -ill be convinced indeed that God has hot cast him out of His sight, whatever his sins lmve been; for he will argue, "If I were utterly reprobate, I could have no holy wish at all, or coultl even attempt any good work." His outward privfleges, his general frame and habit of mind, assure him of so much as this; but as surely his memory tells him that he has had sins upon his conscience; he has no warrant that they are hOt there still; and what has corne, what is to conm of them, what future consequenees they imply, is unknown fo him. Thus he is under two feelings at once, not at all hmonsistent with eaeh other,—one of present enjoyment, another of unde- ned apprehension; and on looking ou fo the Day of Judgn, ent, hope and fear both fise within him. Furt.her, let us suppose sueh an one aetually brought int.o trouble, and that evidently resulting Dom the sin in question.:For instance: supposing he bas been passimate and violent, or unjttst, and suppose some serious annoyanee in eonseluenee befals him from the injured part.y; or supposing he has negleeted some obvious duty, and now the eonsequenees of that negleet eome upon him; or supposing he has in former years been imprudent in money transactions, and is under the embarrasslnents whieh they have oeeasioned. ow here he eertainly experienees, with a clearness whieh he eannot explain away, a double aslaeet of God's providence towards him; for he sees His love and fatherly affeet.ion l_,lainly eoug'h, in the oplam'tunity he still has of attending God's ordinanees, and in the inwm-d evidenees of that faith, obedienee, and peaee, whieh ean eome Dom God only; on the other hand, he secs His displeasure as plainly in the visitation whieh cornes upon him from without. I know if is sometimes said, that sueh trials are to the t.rue Christian not judgments but eora'eetions; rather they are judgments azd eorreetions; surely they are merciful correetions, but hey are judgments too. It is ianpossible but a man nmst consider
(for example)nndutiful children a punishment on him fi)r having once neglected them, or pemry,q judgment on him ibr past extravagance, whaever may be his present attaimnent.s in obedience, greater or less; wha- ever his hope tha God is sill gracions to him in spire of pas sin; whatever be his duty a.nd his ability 6 turn if into a blessing. I is agains common sense to sey otherwise. In spire, then, of le doctrine now popular, that "as fo past sin, if is over, God has forgiven if," really I do not think any truly serious lowly Christian of himself will think so, will of himself say so, though many are betrayed into snch a way of speaking from wan of seriousness, and many because others indulge in i. God has no absolutely forgiven the sfi pas; here is a proof He has not,—He is punishing if. If will be said, He bas forgiven if as fo ifs eternu] consequences. W-here is the proof of this? all v«e see is, tha He is punislfing i. If we argue from wha we see, He has hot fi)rgiven i af all. Here a man will say, "Hov can He be gracions fo me in other ways, unless He has been gracioas so as to forgive? Is no forgiveness the firs step in gmce?" It OE;as when we were baptized; whether if is so since nms be decided from Scripture. Certafifly, if we go by what or reason tells tts (and I insist on what reason would say, hot as if I though Scripture spoke differently, but because persons offert seem to have a great diffictlty in understanding what is mea.n by sa.ying that God should both be gracimts fo us, yet no have absolutely forgiven us), I say nothing is more compatible with reason, judghg from our experience of life, than that we shotfld bave God's lresent favom" and help withont full
6.Pcacc ad 7oy pardon for the past. Supposing, for instance, a child bas disobeyed us, and in disobeying has met with an accident. Ï)o we at once eall hiln t.o aeeount? and hot rather wait a while, till he is in a fit state to be spoken to, and when we ean better deeide whether or no what bas bcNllen him be a suffieient punishment? We pass t.he fmdt over for the prescnt, and aet t.owards him as if we had no cause t.o be displeased. This is one instance out of a thonsand whieh oeeur in daily lire of out treating ldndly, lmy loving pcrsons, with wholn we are dissatisfied, and mcan one day fo expostulate. Surely, t.hen, the two ideas are quite separate, of putting aside what is past and of showing kildness at prescrit.. Of course, the instance referred fo is hot an exact pmllel fo out own state in God's sight; no exact parallel ean be found. We do hot even know what is meant by saying that God, who secs the end from the beginning, pardons atone rime rather t.han af another. We ean but take divine truth as itis given us. We know there is one time at least when ge pardons persons, whom He foresees wiii afterwards fall away and perish; I mean, the rime of II, aptism. He desires the salration of those who ultimately eome short of it. It does hot follow, then, heeause He is st.iii graeious to us, enables ris to sei-e Hiln, and makes us love Him, that t.herefore we hure no arrears of obedienee, no debt of punishment, tobe brought into aeeount against us, when He visits. And so far from its being strange that we are in this double state in His sight, and ought to bave these rningled feelings towards Him, rat, her itis too reasonable for us hot fo assent toit unless Seripture says the contrary.
:But, if may be said, Scripture does say the contrary; if declares t.hat all who repent shall be forgiven. 1Doubtless; but what is repenta.nce? is repentance the work of day? is ita mere word? is it enou,gh to say, " I aih sorry?" Consider the diflbrent frames of mind we are in hour by hour; how much we feel atone time which we do hot at auother. What degree or kind of feeling is enough? C(msidering how our heurts deceive us, is even the most passiouate feeling t,o be trusted? Did not the Son in the Para.lle say, "I go sir," and went notl Do you suppose tha.t he meant to go, or did hot lnean whcn he so promised? did he hot think he ws in earnest when he was hot? If indeed we feel distress at having sinned, let us give God the I,rise; it shows that He is pleading with our hearts, it shows that Ite wishes us to repent, that He is bringing ts to repentance: but it does not show that we have duly repented, and that He uctua.lly has forgiven us. But it may be said, that Scripture says that faith will al)ply to us the lnerits of Christ, and thus becolne the instrulnent of washing away sins. I do hot know where Scripture so says; but even if if did, I suppose if would not speak of every kind of faith, but of living faith. But how is living faith ascertained? by works who will maintain that his works can be such as fo bring home to him an undoubting assurance, that he has a faith able to do this great thing? But again, a lerson may say, "I have a conviction I have this faith; I feel I have; I feel I cuit appropriate the merits of Christ." Or again, "I bave an assurance that I ara forgiven." Tae: but where does Scril)tm.e
28 Pcace and.7oy tell us tlmt such an assurance, without gxounds for it beyond our feeling iL cornes from God? where is it pnmised? ri11 ig is round there, we must be content not fo be sure, and to fear anti hope about ourselves at once. But it may le said again, that we are told, "Ask, and ye shall receive;" if then we ask for pardon, we are pa.rdoned. It is truc; ]out where is it said that we shall gain it by once asking? on the contrary, are we hOt expressly told that we nmst cone again and again, that we nmst "wait on the Lord," that we must "continue in pryer," that we must "pr,y,nd hot faint," that we must be importunate in our supplications, though God seems as though Ite hears us hot? It is quite truc that if we persevere in prayer for pardon through our lives, that in spire of God's hot sensibly answering, we shall at length obtain it; but this is the very state of mingled hope and fear, of peace and anxiety, of gr,ce and of hsecurity, wlfich I have been describing. Surely, no words can express hetter such u waiting and persevering temper, than the words of the text, "though He slay me, yet wiil I trust in Him." Once more, it may be said, and this is a far better answer than any that I lmve hitherto noticed, that the Scrament of the Lord's Supper imparts fo us forgiveness, and assures us of it. The benefits imparted fo our souls by this Holy Sacrament are indeed most high and manifold; but tha the absolute forgiveness of our past sins is hot one of them, is plain in oto" Church's judgment from the Confession in the Service, indeed from ai1 out Confessions. We there say, that "the remembrance of out sins is grievous, and the bm'den intoleruble;"—now does oto"
"remembrance" only carry us back to those sins which we lmve committed since we last came to this llessed ordinance, and not rather those into which we have fallen from our earliest years? a.nd if so, is hot this to confess that we are hot sure of their pardon? else wby are they a "burden?" Again. "for Thy Son out Lord Jesus Christ's sake forgive us ail that is past;" our past sins then are hot forgiveu when we thus pra.y: &es hot that "past" extend back through out wh de li le up to infancy? If so, up to the day of out death, up to the last awfltl celebmtion of this Blessed Sacrament in out sick cireraber, we confess that our sins all through out lire are unforgiven, wlmtever be the effect, which we know cammt be little, of the grace of that Ordinance and the Absolution therein pronounced over us. To these consider,ations I will add one other. We are to be judgcd at the Last Day, and "receive the things done in the body, whether they be good or bad. ''» Our sins will then be had in remembrance; therefore they are hot forgven here. IL seems clear, then, that the sins which we commit here, are hot put away here,—are not put away absolutely and once for all, but are in one sense upon us till the Judgment. There is indeed one putting away of sins expressly described in Scripture, which we all received from God's mercy, when though "born in siu and the children of wrath," we were "ruade the children of grace." This was in Baptism, which accordingly is called in le Creed, the "One Ba.ptism for the remission of sins." And of this great absolution Scripture speaks in many 2 Cor. v. 10. IV] I
I3o Pcacc atd.ïeoy ways, ealling on those who ha.ve noç reeeived iç o "arise, and be baptized, and wash away their sins;" deelaring there is "a fountain opened to the house of David, and fo the inhalfitants of Jcrusalem, for sin and for uncleanness;" and lWOmising that "' though their sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as SHOW; though they be red like crimson, they sha be as wo& '' This all we have received long since; and none knows but God and IIis Angels,nay, I will say, mme knows but God IIimself and tIis Only St, n, and lIis Spirit who then is present, how much IIoly Baptism does secretly fçr our souls, what hidden wounds it heals, and what inbred coïultion it allays; but this is past long since. We have sinned in spire of graee then given; many of us grievously; and the question now is, where do we stand, and hmv are we fo gain a second pardon? I answer, we stand in God's presence, we are in His Church, in His favour, in the way of His grace, in the way fo be pardoned; and this is our great comfort on the very first view of the nmtter. We are hot in a desperate state, we are hot cast out of out Father's house; we have still privfleges, aids, powers, from Him; out persons are stiH accepçable fo Him. And this being t.he case, through God's great mercy, it is quite clear what our duty is, even if Scripture gave us no insight into it. Even if Scripture said nothing of the duty of importunate pra.yer and patient waiting, in order to obtail that whieh we need so nmeh, yet out na.tural sense must suggest it t:o us. See what out condition is;a.t present most happfiy eireumst.aneed, in fle bosom of God's ehoieest « Acts xxii. 16. Zeeh. xiii. 1. Isaiah i. 18.
gifts; but with evil behind us, and that through onr frailty ever increasing, and a judgment. 1)cri)re us. Why, itis plahfly out dnty to make the most of our rime of graee; tobe earnest and constant in depreeating (lod's wrath; to do M1 we tan to please Him; fo bring Him of our best, not as if it had any intHnsic merit, but. 1)ecause itis oto" best; t.o endeavour so t,o eherish and 1)ring to ff'uit t, he gifts of His grace witbin us, that "wh(,n we f;fil, they may receive us into everla.st.ing habitations;" and, since He at present condescen(ls to work in us "to will and to do," to aire, as St. Paul directs, at "working out out own salvation wit.h fear and trenfi)ling," working while it. is day, "belote the nig'ht, cometh," fi)r " now is the aceepted rime, nc)w is the day of salvation." Though we be at present punished for our sins, though we be under judgment, or, if it be in prospect, though we be mmertain more or less how things will be with us, though the adversary of our souls accuse us belote God, though his threatening voice sound in out ears year after year, though we feel the load of out sins and cmmot throw them fl-om out memory, nay, though it should 1)e God's will that even to the I)ay of Judgment, no assurance should he given us, stfll, wherever we are, and whatever we are, like,lonah "in the belly of hell," with,lob among the ashes, wit.h Jeremiah in the dungeon, or like the Holy Cildren in t.he rames,let us glorify out Lord (lod, and t,rust in Him, and praise Him, and magnify Him for ever. Let us take in good pa.rt whatever sorrow He inflicts in His providence, or however long. Let. us "glorify the Lord in the rires;" they ma)- eircle us, but 7 Isaiah xxiv. 15.
13 2 Peace amid C/lastiscmctt. they cannot really touch us; they may threaten, but, they are as ye restrained. "Ilitherto hafl the Lord helped us." We will sri N and praise His Naine. When two or three are gathered together, an interior temple, a holy shrine is fia'med for them, whieh nothing without ean destroy. We will hot cease fo rejoice in wbat God has given, beeause He has hot as yet promised us every thing. For will we on the other hand fcaget out past sins, because IIe allows us peace and joy in spite of them. We will remember them tha He may hot remember them; we will rel,ent ,f t.hem a.gain and again, tha He may tbrgive them; we will rejoiee in the punishment of them if He punishes, thinking it better to be punished in this liIç than in the nex; and if hot yet punished, we wfll be prepared for the chance of it. He wN give us graee aeeording to out day, aeeording to His graeious promise: "Fear hot, fr I bave redeemed thee; I have eaEed thee by fliy naine; thon art Mine. When thou passest through he waters, I wiE be with thee; and through the rivers, they shaE hot overflow thee; when thou walkest through the tire, thon shalt hot be burnt, neither sha the flame kindle upon thee. ''s