Part 17 (1/2)
My friends, consider this; the key of the whole psalm; the gospel and good news, for the sake of which the psalm has been preserved in Holy Scripture, and handed down to us.
G.o.d is to be feared, because He is merciful. It is worth while to fear Him, because He is merciful, and of great kindness, and hateth nothing that He hath made; and willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live.
Superst.i.tious people, in all ages, heathens always, and sometimes, I am sorry to say, Christians likewise, have had a very different reason, an opposite reason, for fearing G.o.d.
They have said: Not--there is mercy: but there is anger with G.o.d: therefore shall He be feared. They have said--We must fear G.o.d, because He is wrathful, and terrible, and ready to punish; and is extreme to mark what is done amiss, and willeth the death of a sinner: and therefore they have not believed, when Holy Scripture told them, that G.o.d was love, and that G.o.d so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, and sent Him to visit the world in great humility, that the world through Him might be saved.
G.o.d has seemed to them only a proud, stern, and formidable being; a condemning judge, and not a merciful Father; and therefore, when they have found themselves in the deep of misery, they have cried out of it to saints, angels, the Virgin Mary; or even to sun, moon, and stars, and all the powers of nature; or even, again--what is more foolish still,--to astrologers, wizards, mediums, and quacks of every shape and hue; to any one and any thing, rather than to G.o.d.
But do not you do so, my friends. Fix it in your hearts and minds; and fix it now, before you fall into the deep, as most are apt to do before they die; lest, when the dark day comes, you have no time to learn in adversity the lesson which you should have learnt in prosperity. Fix in your hearts and minds the blessed Gospel and good news--”There is mercy with Thee, O G.o.d; therefore shall Thou be feared.” There is mercy with Him, pity, tenderness, sympathy; a heart which can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; which knoweth what is in man; which despiseth not the work of His own hands; which remembereth our weak frame, and knoweth that we are but dust: else the spirit would fail before Him, and the souls which He has made. Think of G.o.d as that which He is--a compa.s.sionate G.o.d, a long-suffering G.o.d, a generous G.o.d, a magnanimous G.o.d, a truly royal G.o.d; in one word, a Perfect G.o.d; who causeth His sun to s.h.i.+ne on the evil and on the good, and sendeth His rain on the just and on the unjust; a G.o.d who cannot despise, cannot neglect, cannot lose His patience with any poor soul of man; who sets Himself against none but the insolent, the proud, the malicious, the mean, the wilfully stupid and ignorant and frivolous. Against those who exalt themselves, whether as terrible tyrants or merely contemptible boasters, He exalts Himself; and will shew them, sooner or later, whether He or they be the stronger; whether He or they be the wiser. But for the poor soul who is abased, who is down, and in the depth; who feels his own weakness, folly, ignorance, sinfulness, and out of that deep cries to G.o.d as a lost child crying after its father--even a lost lamb bleating after the ewe--of that poor soul, be his prayers never so confused, stupid and ill-expressed--of him it is written: ”The Lord helpeth them that fall, and lifteth up all those that are down. He is nigh to all that call on Him, yea, to all that call upon Him faithfully. He will fulfil the desire of those that fear Him, He also will hear their cry and will help them.”
Yes. To all such does G.o.d the Father, G.o.d who made heaven and earth, hold up, as it were, His only-begotten Son, Christ, hanging on the Cross for us; and say: Behold thy G.o.d. Behold the brightness of G.o.d's glory, and the express image of G.o.d's person. Behold what G.o.d gave for thee, even His only-begotten Son. Behold that in which G.o.d the Father was well pleased: in His Son; not condemning you, not destroying you, but humbling Himself, dying Himself awhile, that you may live for ever. Look; and by seeing the Son, see the Father also--your Father, and the Father of the spirits of all flesh; and know that His essence and His name is--Love.
Therefore, when you are in the deep of sorrow, whatever that depth may be, cry to G.o.d. To G.o.d Himself; and to none but G.o.d. If you can go to the pure fountain-head, why drink of the stream, which must have gathered something of defilement as it flows? If you can get light from the sun itself, why take lamp or candle in place of his clear rays? If you can go to G.o.d Himself, why go to any of G.o.d's creatures, however holy pure, and loving? Go to G.o.d, who is light of light, and life of life; the source of all light, the source of all life, all love, all goodness, all mercy. From Him all goodness flows. All goodness which ever has been, shall be, or can be, is His alone, the fruit of His Spirit. Go then to Him Himself. Out of the depth, however deep, cry unto G.o.d and G.o.d Himself. If David, the Jew of old, could do so, much more can we, who are baptized into Christ; much more can we, who have access by one Spirit to the Father; much more can we, who--if we know who we are and where we are--should come boldly to the throne of grace, to find mercy and grace to help us in the time of need.
Boldness. That is a bold word: but it is St Paul's, not mine. And by shewing that boldness, we shall shew that we indeed fear G.o.d. We shall shew that we reverence G.o.d. We shall shew that we trust G.o.d. For so, and so only, we shall obey G.o.d. If a sovereign or a sage should bid you come to him, would you shew reverence by staying away? Would you shew reverence by refusing his condescension? You may shew that you are afraid of him; that you do not trust him: but that is not to shew reverence, but irreverence.
If G.o.d calls, you are bound by reverence to come, however unworthy. If He bids you, you must obey, however much afraid. You must trust Him; you must take Him at His word; you must confide in His goodness, in His justice, in His wisdom: and since He bids you, go boldly to His throne, and find Him what He is, a gracious Lord.
My friends, to you, every one of you--however weak, however ignorant, ay, however sinful, if you desire to be delivered from those sins--this grace is given; liberty to cry out of the depth to G.o.d Himself, who made sun and stars, all heaven and earth; liberty to stand face to face with the Father of the spirits of all flesh, and cling to the one Being who can never fail nor change; even to the one immortal eternal G.o.d, of whom it is written, ”Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure. They all shall wax old, like a garment, and as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed. But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.”
But it is written again, ”My soul waits for the Lord.” Yes, if you can trust in the G.o.d who cannot change, you can afford to wait; you need not be impatient; as it is written--”Fret not thyself, lest thou be moved to do evil;” and again--”He that believeth shall not make haste.” For G.o.d, in whom you trust, is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should repent. Hath He promised, and shall He not do it? His word is like the rain and dew, which fall from heaven, and return not to it again useless, but give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So is every man that trusteth in Him. His kingdom, says the Lord, is as if a man should put seed into the ground, and sleep and wake, and the seed should grow up, he knoweth not how. So the seed which we sow--the seed of repentance, the seed of humility, the seed of sorrowful prayers for help--it too shall take root, and grow, and bring forth fruit, we know not how, in the good time of G.o.d, who cannot change. We may be sad; we may be weary; our eyes may wait and watch for the Lord as the Psalmist says; more than they that watch for the morning: but it must be as those who watch for the morning, for the morning which must and will come, for the sun which will surely rise, and the day which will surely dawn, and the Saviour who will surely deliver, and the G.o.d who is merciful in this--that He rewardeth every man according to his work.
”Oh trust in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption; and He shall deliver His people from all their sins.”
From their sins. Not merely from the punishment of their sins; not always from the punishment of their sins in this life: but, what is better far, from the sins themselves; from the sins which bring them into fresh and needless troubles; and which make the old troubles, which cannot now be escaped, intolerable.
From all their sins. Not only from the great sins, which, if persisted in, will surely destroy both body and soul in h.e.l.l: but from the little sins which do so easily beset us; from little bad habits, tempers, lazinesses, weaknesses, ignorances, which hamper and hinder us all every day when we try to do our duty. From all these will the Lord deliver us, by the blood of Christ, and by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit, that we may be able at last to say to children and friends, and all whom we love and leave behind us--
”Oh taste and see that the Lord is gracious. Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.”
Yes. This at least we may do--Trust in our G.o.d, and thank G.o.d that we may do it; for if men may not do that, then is that true of them which Homer said of old--that man is more miserable than all the beasts of the field. For the animals look neither forward nor back. They live but for the present moment; and pain and grief, being but for the moment, fall lightly upon them. But we--we who have the fearful power of looking back, and looking forward--we who can feel regret and remorse for the past, anxiety and terror for the future--to us at times life would be scarce worth having, if we had not a right to cry with all our hearts--
”O G.o.d, in Thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded.”
SERMON XXIV. THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE.
Preached on Whit-Sunday.
DEUT. x.x.x. 19, 20.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest love the Lord thy G.o.d, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
These words, the book of Deuteronomy says, were spoken by Moses to all the Israelites shortly before his death. He had led them out of Egypt, and through the wilderness. They were in sight of the rich land of Canaan, where they were to settle and to dwell for many hundred years.
Moses, the book says, went over again with them all the Law, the admirable and divine Law, which they were to obey, and by which they were to govern and order themselves in the land of Canaan. He had told them that they owed all to G.o.d Himself; that G.o.d had delivered them out of slavery in Egypt; G.o.d had led them to the land of Canaan; G.o.d had given them just laws and right statutes, which if they kept, they would live long in their new home, and become a great and mighty nation. Then he calls heaven and earth to witness that he had set before them life and death, blessing and cursing. If they trusted in the one true G.o.d, and served Him, and lived as men should, who believed that a just and loving G.o.d cared for them, then they would live; then a blessing would come on them, and their children, on their flocks and herds, on their land and all in it. But if they forgot G.o.d, and began to wors.h.i.+p the sun, and the moon, and the stars, the earth and the weather, like the nations round them, then they would die; they would grow superst.i.tious, cowardly, lazy, and profligate, and therefore weak and miserable, like the wretched Canaanites whom they were going to drive out; and then they would die.
Their souls would die in them, and they would become less than men, and at last--as the Canaanites had become--worse than brutes, till their numbers would diminish, and they would be left, Moses says, few in number and at last perish out of the good land which G.o.d had given them.