Part 3 (1/2)
The Bible is full of such statements. There is no need of multiplying them. And I am sure I have no heart in repeating any more of them. But I bring you these two for a purpose. This purpose: of asking you one question--whose fault is it? Who is to blame? Some one is at fault.
There is blame somewhere. This thing is all wrong. It is no part of G.o.d's plan, and when things go wrong, some one is to blame. Now I ask you: _Who_ is to blame?
A Mother-Heart.
Well, there are just four persons, or groups of persons concerned. There is G.o.d; and Satan; and these friends we are talking about; and, ourselves, who are not a bit better in ourselves than they--not a bit--but who are trusting some One else to see us through. Somewhere within the lines of those four we must find the blame of this awful state of affairs. Well, we can say very promptly that Satan is to blame.
He is at the bottom of it all. And that certainly is true, though it is not all of the truth. Then it can be added, and added in a softer voice because the thing is so serious, and these friends are dear to us, that these people themselves are to blame. And that is true, too. Because they _choose_ to remain out of touch with Him who died that it might not be so. For there is no sin charged where there is no choice made. Sin follows choice. Only where one has known the wrong and has chosen it is there sin charged.
But that this awful condition goes on unchanged, that those two ugly words remain true of our dear friends, day after day, while we meet them, and live with them, is there still blame? There are just two left out of the four: G.o.d, and ourselves who trust Him. Let me ask very reverently, but very plainly: Is it G.o.d's fault? You and I have both heard such a thing hinted at, and sometimes openly said. I believe it is a good thing with reverence to ask, and attempt to find the answer, to such a question as that. And for answer let me first bring to you a picture of the G.o.d of the Old Testament whom some people think of as being just, but severe and stern.
Away back in the earliest time, in the first book, Genesis, the sixth chapter, and down in verses five and six are these words: ”And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and”--listen to these words--”that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
What an arraignment! ”Every imagination,” ”evil,” ”_only_ evil;” no mixture of good at all; ”only evil _continually_,” no occasional spurts of good even--the whole fabric bad, and bad clear through, and all the time. Is not that a terrific arraignment? But listen further: ”And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and”--listen to these last pathetic words--”_it grieved Him at His heart_.”
Will you please remember that ”grieve” is always a love word? There can be no grief except where there is love. You may annoy a neighbor, or vex a partner, or anger an acquaintance, but you cannot grieve except where there is love, and you cannot be grieved except wherein you love.
I have sometimes, more often than I could wish, seen a case like this. A young man of good family sent away to college. He gets in with the wrong crowd, for they are not all angels in colleges yet, quite. Gets to smoking and drinking and gambling, improper hours, bad companions, and all that. His real friends try to advise him, but without effect. By and by the college authorities remonstrate with him, and he tries to improve, but without much success after the first pull. And after a while, very reluctantly, he is suspended, and sent home in disgrace. He feels very bad, and makes good resolutions and earnest promises, and when he returns he does do much better for a time. But it does not last long. Soon he is in with the old crowd again, the old round of habits and dissipations, only now it gets worse than before; the pace is faster. And the upshot of it all is that he is called up before the authorities and expelled, sent home in utter disgrace, not to return.
And here is his chum who roomed with him, ate with him, lived with him.
He says, ”Well, I declare, I am all broken up over Jim. It's too bad! He was ”hail-fellow, well met,” and now he has gone like that. I'm awfully sorry. It's too bad! too bad!!” And by and by he forgets about it except as an unpleasant memory roused up now and then. And here is one of his professors who knew him best perhaps, and liked him. ”Well,” he says, ”it is too bad about young Collins. Strange, too, he came of good family; good blood in his veins; and yet he seems to have gone right down with the ragtag. It's too bad! too bad!! I am so sorry.” And the matter pa.s.ses from his mind in the press of duties and is remembered only occasionally as one of the disagreeable things to be regretted, and perhaps philosophized over.
And there is the boy's father's partner, down in the home town. ”Well,”
he soliloquizes, ”it is too bad about Collins' boy. He is all broken up over it, and no wonder. Doesn't it seem queer? That boy has as good blood as there is: good father, lovely mother, and yet gone clean to the bad, and so young. It is too bad! I am awfully sorry for Collins.” And in the busy round of life he forgets, save as a bad dream which will come back now and then.
But down in that boy's home there is a woman--a mother, heart-broken--secretly bleeding her heart out through her eyes. She goes quietly, faithfully about her round of life, but her hair gets thinner, and the gray streaks it plainer, her form bends over more, and the lines become more deeply bitten in her face, as the days come and go. And if you talk with her, and she will talk with you, she will say, ”Oh, yes, I know other mothers' boys go wrong; some of them going wrong all the time; but to think of _my Jim_--that I've nursed, and loved so, and done everything for--to think that my Jim--” and her voice chokes in her throat, and she refuses to be comforted. _She grieves at her heart._ Ah!
that is the picture of G.o.d in that Genesis chapter. He saw that the world He had made and lavished all the wealth of His love upon had gone wrong, and it grieved Him at His heart.
This world is G.o.d's prodigal son, and He is heartbroken over it. And what has He done about it. Ah! what has He done! Turn to Mark's twelfth chapter, and see there Jesus' own picture of His Father as He knew Him.
In the form of a parable He tells how His Father felt about things here.
He sent man after man to try and win us back, but without effect, except that things got worse. Then Jesus represents G.o.d talking with Himself.
”What _shall_ I do next, to win them back?--there is My son--My only boy--Jesus--I believe--yes, I believe I'll send Him--then they'll _see_ how badly I feel, and how much I love them; that'll touch them surely; I'll do it.” You remember just how that sixth verse goes, ”He had yet one, a beloved Son; He sent Him _last_ unto them, saying, they will _reverence_ my Son.” And you know how they treated G.o.d's Son, His love gift. And I want to remind you to-night that, speaking in our human way--the only way we can speak--G.o.d suffered more in seeing His Son suffer than though He might have suffered Himself. Ask any mother here: Would you not gladly suffer pain in place of your child suffering if you could? And every mother-heart answers quickly, ”Aye, ten times over, if the child could be spared pain.” Where did you get that marvelous mother-heart and mother-love? Ah, that mother-heart is a bit of the G.o.d-heart transferred. That is what G.o.d is like. Let me repeat very reverently that G.o.d suffered more in giving His Son to suffer than though He had Himself suffered. And that is the G.o.d of the Old Testament! Let me ask: Is _He_ to blame? Has He not done His best?
Let it be said as softly as you will, and yet very plainly, that those awful words, ”d.a.m.ned” and ”cursed,” whatever their meaning may be, are true of your friends. Then add: It is not so because of G.o.d's will in the matter, but in spite of His will. Remember that G.o.d exhausted all the wealth of His resource when He gave His Son. There can come nothing more after that.
Your Personality Needed.
Then there is a second question from G.o.d's side to ask about those ugly words: thoughtfully, and yet plainly--Is it the fault of Jesus, the Son of G.o.d? And let anyone here listen to Him speaking in that tenth chapter of John. ”I lay down My life for the sheep. No man taketh it from Me. I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down and power to take it again.” And then go out yonder to that scene just outside the Jerusalem wall. There hangs Jesus upon that cross, suspended by nails through hands and feet. He is only thirty-three. He is intensely human. Life was just as sweet to Him that day as it is to you and me to-night. Aye, more sweet: for sin had not taken the edge off his relish of life. Plainly He could have prevented them. For many a time had He held the murderous mob in check by the sheer power of His presence alone. Yet there He hangs from nine until noon and until three--six long hours. And He said He did it for you, for me. Do not ask me to tell _how_ His dying for us saves.
I do not know. No one statement seems to tell all the truth. When I study into it I always get clear beyond my depth. In a tremendous way it tells a double story; of the d.a.m.nable blackness of sin; and of the intensity of love. I do know that _He said_ He did it for us, and for our salvation, and that it had to be done. But as we look to-day on that scene, again the question: does any of the blame of the awful statements this book makes regarding your friends belong to Him, do you think? And I think I hear your hearts say ”surely not.”
Well, the Father has done His best. No blame surely attaches there. The Son has gone to the utmost limit. No fault can be found there. There is just one other left up yonder, of the divine partners.h.i.+p--the Holy Spirit. What about Him. Listen. Just as soon as the Son went back home with face and form all scarred from His brief stay upon the earth, He and the Father said, ”now We will send down the last one of Us, the Holy Spirit, and He will do His best to woo men back,” and so it was done.
The last supreme effort to win men back was begun. The Holy Spirit came down for the specific purpose of telling the world about Jesus. His work down here is to convict men of their terrible wrong in rejecting Jesus, and of His righteousness, and of the judgment pa.s.sed upon Satan. Only He can convince men's minds and consciences. A thousand preachers with the logic of a Paul and the eloquence of an Isaiah could not convince one man of sin. Only the Spirit can do that. But listen to me as I say very thoughtfully--and this is the one truth I pray G.o.d to _burn_ into our hearts to-night--that to do His work among men _He needs to use men_. He needs you. ”Oh!” you say, ”it is hardly possible that you mean that: I am not a minister: I have no special ability for christian work: I am just an obscure, humble christian: I have no gift in that direction.”
Listen with your heart while I remind you that He needs not your special abilities or gifts, though He will use all you have, and the more the better, but _He needs your personality as a human channel_ through which to touch the men you touch. And I want to say just as kindly and tenderly as I can and yet with great plainness that if you are refusing to let Him use you as He chooses--shall I say the unpleasant truth?--the practical blame for those ugly words, and the uglier truth back of them come straight home to _you_.
That is a very serious thing to say, and so I must add a few words to make it still more clear and plain. The Spirit of G.o.d in working among men seeks embodiment _in men_, through whom He acts. The amazing truth is that not only is He willing to enter into and fill you with His very presence, but He seeks for, He wants, yes, _He needs your personality_ as a channel or medium, that living in you He may be able to do His work among the men you touch even though you may not be conscious of much that He is doing through you. Is not that startling? He wants to live in your body, and speak through your lips, and look out of your eyes, and use your hands, really, actually. Have you turned your personality over to Him as completely as that?
Remember the law of G.o.d's communication with men; namely, He speaks _to_ men _through_ men. Run carefully through the Bible, and you will find that since the Cain disaster, which divided all men into two great groups, whenever G.o.d has a message for a man or a nation out in the world He chooses and uses a man in touch with Himself as His messenger.