The Saviour says, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me." To suffer the will of God is likewise a meat on which, under affliction, our inner man may feed from day to day. Yes, my soul, mark well the word-it is meat to suffer the will of God. If, then, with enfeebled limbs thou be stretched upon a sick-bed, or, with fetters on thy hand, immured in a prisonif men have pushed thee aside so that thou canst not do, as thou wouldst wish, the will of God, by advancing His kingdom, see here a task which thou hast still power to execute for His sake: thou canst suffer His will, and suffer it patiently, so as to find in it a meat for thy inner man. The love-born zeal of thy God is the hidden manna of affliction; but neither dost Thou on Thy part, O my God and Father, afflict Thy human offspring willingly; and it is because Thou wouldst rather bless than buffet them that Thou chastenest them in measure. 1 Love, mercy, patience to display, That is the reason why Thou correctest with measure and refrainest to smite, the moment Thy son Ephraim has come to a right mind and blushed and repented. "The Lord killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up." How well also does the history of Thy people teach this consolatory lesson: "I will allure her," Thou sayest, "and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her." 2 Here, then, we learn that it is not to destroy that Thou bringest us into the wilderness, but to speak comfortably to our hearts. In the day of our prosperity, when we are enjoying the pleasures of life, the tumult about us is so great that we cannot hear Thy voice; whereas every affliction is a wilderness, in which solitude and silence reign, so that we can better understand what Thou sayest, according as it is written, "Affliction teacheth us to give heed to Thy word." In every 3 Isa. xxviii. 19-Luther's vers. 1 1 Sam. ii. 6. I 2 Hos. ii. 14. case it is, as it were, a night to the soul. Noisy is the day, and we then hear only the voices of men; but silence comes with darkness, and when the human voices cease, the voice of God begins to speak. Never, then, thou faithful God and Shepherd, never will I refuse, when Thou seest fit to lead me away from the green pastures into the lonesome wilderness, there to hold sacred converse with my soul. I know that I have still a place in Thy heart, according to Thine own word: "Though I spoke against my son Ephraim, I do earnestly remember him still." I know that Thy son Ephraim, even when Thou art obliged to send him captive to Babylon, still continues to be to Thee a dear son and a pleasant child; and hence, though I may bemoan myself when thou chastenest me, I do not yield to despair. For me, too, the hour shall come when it shall be said, "Refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded." Thou art still the God of Thy people as Thou wert of old. The promise to turn again their captivity, if they would but repent, which Thou madest to ancient Israel, Thy people after the flesh, Thou wilt not break to Thine Israel after the spirit. No; all the revelations of Thy severity as of Thy loving-kindness, which Thou didst once. vouchsafe in the congregation of Thine ancient people, will be made in still greater plenitude and glory in the midst of Thine elect of the New Testament. Behold, O Lord, my heart has been opened unto Thee, and in Thee my soul rejoices in the midst of its tribulation. With heart and tongue attuned, to Thee Because inviolate to me, Thou keep'st the covenant of Thy grace. And when from duty's path declined, M Or if in shame and misery I reap of my self-will the fruit, Until, with many a bitter tear, My folly I bewail, and then In my dark soul, its gloom to cheer, Thou shedd'st Thy heavenly light again. 31. Before I was afflicted E went astray. Full many a devil from the heart The rod of Christ must drive, Ere rooted, and in every part Well PRUNED, the VINE will thrive. Yet doubtless upon none of all PSALM CXix. 67. "Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept Thy word." DAN. iv. 37. “I praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment and those that walk in pride He is able to abase." N°T OTHING creeps so easily into the heart of a man after conversion as pride. No doubt a heart which Christ has once beautified with His graces, will never admit this devil if he continue as ill-mannered as before. In a house so tastefully decorated he must appear genteelly, and be upon his good behaviour. No longer must pride take up with such paltry things as money or lands. It was not by pride like that that Satan fell. For this reason, the devil of which we speak now clothes himself in white and affects spiritual things. The man aspires to eminence in the kingdom of God, and claims consideration on account of his gifts and experiences: regarding himself as a light of no common brightness, he desiderates a lofty candlestick from which to emit his rays. It is as a queen that Pride stalks forth, and therefore she brings with her a suite of courtiers. If into the heart of which Christ dispossessed her at conversion she be again allowed to enter, we may certainly expect His word to take effect, and that the unclean spirit which was cast out, on finding the house swept and garnished, will return and bring with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, so that the last state of that man will be worse than the first.1 Only make room for pride, and gradually will envy, selfishness, malice, and discontent steal in along with it; for, as Sirach says, "Pride is the beginning of sin, and he that hath it shall pour out abomination.” 2 The cause of so miserable an infatuation is this, that when converted we really in some points are better than other men. For instance, we may perhaps have become more indifferent to the good things of the world; but distance from the earth is not necessarily proximity to the sun. Besides, it is easy to delude one's self into the supposition that to be much occupied with spiritual things is to be spiritually minded, and that because our thoughts often soar on high, our conversation also is in heaven. The usual consequence is, that we indulge in pride towards the children of the world. Their good qualities are overlooked and the word of the Saviour is forgotten, "Is thine eye evil because I am good?" 3 The eye which had far better be turned inwards is turned outwards, and more and more takes that direction. This kind of pride, when it regains the dominion of a Christian's heart, scarcely ever fails to enter into fellowship with antipathy to the Cross. But ill does it fare with the soul when it begins afresh to take offence at that which is the sacred symbol of the kingdom of God; and in an evil case is the Christian who forgets the many fair and fragrant flowers which 1 Matt. xii. 43. 2 Ecclus. x. 13. 3 Matt. xx. 15. spring and blossom around the Cross, and nowhere else. He then takes umbrage, if he be made so much as to feel the rod of the heavenly Father, though St Peter exhorts, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you." 1 He will have miracles wrought rather than that he should receive one of those bloody marks which yet all the saints of God have borne. Poor man! If the Saviour whom thou lovest, and who is the Son of God, wore a crown of thorns, what right hast thou to adorn thy head with a chaplet of roses ? Of all the suckers on His vine there are none which the heavenly Husbandman endeavours with so intent an aim to prune away as those of pride, for He knows that into them the whole strength of the stock is most apt to run, wasting the generous sap, and thereby marring the goodly fruit. And hence the more the wilful heart rebels under the first little cross, and attempts to shake it off, the sooner does the Lord impose a second and then a third, until the lesson of submission has been learned. Under this discipline we are at first very blind, and cannot conceive what it means; nay, we may be so bold as, like Job, to expostulate with God and say, "Do not condemn me; show me wherefore Thou contendest with me."2 Think not, however, that the heavenly Husbandman will falter in His purpose. Oh no! Well did He know by what means to constrain a Job, who had been unreasonably zealous to confess, "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." 3 And no less to abase a Nebuchadnezzar who had insulted Him and said, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, and for the honour of my majesty?"—forcing him to bless the Most High, and to praise and honour Him that liveth for ever. But do not for that reason give way to apprehension, or think that He will now frown upon thee in His anger. No, dear reader-after having thoroughly buffeted a man, how gracious He becomes, and how liberally does He pour forth His gifts! 11 Peter, iv. 12. 2 Job, x. 2. 3 Job, xlii. 6. |