Where is the close, earnest, diligent looking after individual souls day by day? Very often it happens that the public teaching shoots completely over the head; it is the house to house teaching that is sure to come home to the heart. How frequently it happens that something uttered in public is entirely misunderstood and misapplied, until the loving pastoral visit during the week supplies the true meaning and just application.
Nor is this all. How much there is in a pastor"s range that the public teacher never can compa.s.s! No doubt public teaching is most important; would that we had many times more of it than we have. The teacher"s work is invaluable, and when mellowed by the deep and tender affection of a pastor"s heart, can go a great way indeed in meeting the soul"s manifold necessities. But the loving pastor who earnestly, prayerfully, and faithfully goes from house to house, can get at the deep exercises of the soul, the sorrows of the heart, the puzzling questions of the mind, the grave difficulties of the conscience. He can enter, in the profound sympathy of an affectionate heart, into the thousand little circ.u.mstances and sorrows of the path. He can kneel down with the tried, the tempted, the crushed, and the sorrowing one before the mercy-seat, and they can pour out their hearts together, and draw down sweet consolation from the G.o.d of all grace and the Father of mercies.
The public teacher cannot do this. No doubt, if, as we have said, he has something of the pastoral element in him, he can antic.i.p.ate in his public address a great deal of the soul"s private exercises, sorrows, and difficulties. But he cannot fully meet the soul"s individual need.
This is the pastor"s holy work. It seems to us that a pastor is to the soul what a doctor is to the body. He must understand disease and medicine. He must be able to tell what is the matter. He must be able to discern the spiritual condition to apply the true remedy. Ah, how few are these pastors! It is one thing to take the t.i.tle, and another thing to do the work.
Christian reader, we earnestly entreat you to join us in fervent believing prayer to G.o.d to raise up true pastors amongst us. We are in sad need of them. The sheep of Christ are not fed and cared for. We are occupied so much with our own affairs, that we have not time to look after the beloved flock of Christ. And even on these occasions, when the Lord"s people a.s.semble in public, how little there is for their precious souls! What long barren pauses and silence of poverty!
What aimless hymns and prayers we hear! How little leading of the flock through the green pastures of Holy Scripture, and by the still waters of divine love! And then, all through the week, few loving pastoral calls, few tender solicitous inquiries after soul or body.
There seems to be no time. Every moment is swallowed up in the business of providing for ourselves and our families. It is, alas! the old sad story; "All seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ"s." How different it was with the blessed apostle. He found time to make tents, and also to "teach publicly and from house to house." He was not only the earnest evangelist, ranging over continents and planting churches, but he was also the loving pastor, the tender nurse, the skilful spiritual physician. He had a heart for Christ and for His body, the Church, and for every member of that body. Here lies the real secret of the matter. It is wonderful what a loving heart can accomplish. If I really love the Church, I shall desire its blessing and progress, and seek to promote these according to my ability.
May the Lord raise up in the midst of His people pastors and teachers after His own heart--men filled with His Spirit, and animated by a genuine love for His Church--men competent and ready to teach--"_publicly and from house to house_."
ISRAEL AND THE NATIONS
Read Psalm lxvii
It would greatly tend to give clearness and definiteness to missionary effort to keep fully before our minds G.o.d"s original purpose in sending the gospel to the Gentiles, or nations. This we have stated in the most distinct manner in Acts xv. "Simeon hath declared," says James, "how G.o.d at the first did visit the Gentiles, _to take out of them_ a people for His name."
It gives no warrant for the idea, so persistently held by the professing Church, that the whole world is to be converted by the preaching of the gospel. To convert the world is one thing; to take out of the nations a people is quite another.
The latter, and not the former, is G.o.d"s present work. It is what He has been doing since the day that Simon Peter opened the kingdom of heaven to the Gentile in Acts x; and it is what He will continue to do until the moment so rapidly approaching, in which the last elect one is gathered out, and our Lord shall come to receive His people unto Himself.
Let all missionaries remember this. They may rest a.s.sured it will not clip their wings, or cripple their energies; it will only guide their movements, by giving them a divine aim and object. Of what possible use can it be for a man to propose as the end of his labors something wholly different from that which is before the mind of G.o.d? Ought not a servant to seek to do his master"s will? Can he expect to please his master by pursuing other than his clearly expressed object?
It is blessedly true, that all the earth shall yet be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. There is no question as to this. All Scripture bears witness to it. To quote the pa.s.sages would literally fill a volume. All Christians are agreed on this point, and hence there is no need to adduce evidence.
But the question is, how is this grand and glorious result to be brought about? Is it the purpose of G.o.d to use the professing Church as His agent, or a preached gospel as His instrument, in the conversion of the world? Scripture says No; with a clearness which ought to sweep away every doubt.
And here let it be distinctly understood that we delight in all true missionary effort. We heartily wish G.o.d"s speed to every true missionary--to every one who has left home, and kindred, and friends, and all the comforts and privileges of civilized life, in order to carry the glad tidings of salvation into the dark places of the earth.
We desire to render hearty thanks to G.o.d for all that has been accomplished in the fields of foreign missions; though we cannot approve some modes by which the work is carried on. We consider there is a lack of simple faith in G.o.d, and of subjection to the authority of Christ, and the guidance of the Holy Ghost. There is too much of human machinery, and looking to the world for aid.
But all this is not our present object. The point with which we are occupied in this brief paper is this--_will_ G.o.d make use of the professing Church to convert the nations? We ask not, _has_ He done so? for, were we to put the question thus, we could only receive an unqualified negative; for the professing Church has been at work for eighteen long centuries; and what is the result? Let the reader take a glance at a missionary map, and he will see in a moment. Look at those large patches of black, designed to set forth the dismal regions over which heathenism bears sway. Look at the red, the green, the yellow, setting forth popery, the Greek church, and Mohammedanism. And where is--we say not true Christianity, but even nominal Protestantism? That is indicated by those spots of blue which, if all put together, make but a small fraction indeed. And as to what even this Protestantism is we need not now stop to inquire.
What, then, say the Scriptures on the great question of the conversion of the nations? Take, for example, the lovely psalm that stands at the head of this paper. It is but one proof among a thousand, but, we need hardly say, perfectly harmonizes with the testimony of all Scripture.
We give it in full to the reader.
"_G.o.d be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause His face to shine upon us; that Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations._ Let the people praise Thee, O G.o.d; let all the people praise Thee. O let the nations be glad, and sing for joy: for Thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth.
Let the people praise Thee, O G.o.d, let all the people praise Thee.
Then shall the earth yield her increase; and G.o.d, even our own G.o.d, shall bless us. _G.o.d shall bless us_; and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him."
Here, then, the simple truth shines before us. It is when G.o.d shall have mercy upon Israel--when He shall cause His light to shine upon Zion--then will His way be known upon earth, His saving health among all nations. It is through _Israel_, not through the professing Church, that G.o.d will yet bless the nations.
That the "us" of the foregoing psalm refers to Israel, no intelligent reader of Scripture needs to be told. Indeed, as we all know, the great burden of the Psalms, the Prophets, and the entire Old Testament, is Israel. There is not a syllable about the Church in the Old Testament. Types and shadows there are in which--now that we have the light of the New Testament--we can see the truth of the Church prefigured. But without that light no one could, by any possibility, find the truth of the Church in Old Testament Scripture. That great mystery was, as the inspired apostle tells us, "_hid_"--not in the Scriptures (for whatever is contained in the Scriptures is no longer hid, but revealed) but it was "hid in G.o.d;" and was not, and could not, be revealed until Christ, being rejected by Israel, was crucified and raised from the dead. So long as the testimony to Israel was pending, the doctrine of the Church could not be unfolded. Hence, although at the day of Pentecost we have the _beginning of the Church_, yet it was not until Israel had rejected the testimony of the Holy Ghost in Stephen that a special witness was called out in the person of Paul, to whom _the doctrine of the Church_ was committed. We must distinguish between the fact and the doctrine; indeed it is not until we reach the last chapter of the Acts that the curtain finally drops upon Israel; and Paul, the prisoner at Rome, fully unfolds the grand mystery of the Church which from ages and generations had been hid in G.o.d, but was now made manifest. Let the reader ponder Romans xvi. 25, 26; Ephesians iii. 1-11; Colossians i. 24-27.
We cannot attempt to go fully into this glorious subject here; indeed, to refer to it at all is a digression from our present line. But we deem it needful just to say thus much, in order that the reader may fully see that psalm lxvii. refers to Israel; and, seeing this, the whole truth will flow into his soul, that the conversion of the nations stands connected with Israel, and not with the Church. It is through Israel, and not through the Church, that G.o.d will yet bless the nations. It is His eternal purpose that the seed of Abraham, His friend, shall yet be pre-eminent in the earth, and that all nations shall be blessed in and through them. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, In those days it shall come to pa.s.s, that ten men shall take hold, _out of all languages of the nations_, even shall take hold of _the skirt of him that is a Jew_, saying, _We_ will go _with you_; for we have heard that G.o.d is with you" (Zech. viii. 23).
It would be an easy and a delightful task to prove from the New Testament, that, previous to the restoration and blessing of Israel, and therefore previous to the conversion of the nations, the true Church of G.o.d, the body of Christ, shall have been taken up to be for ever with the Lord, in the full and ineffable communion of the Father"s house; so that the Church will not be G.o.d"s agency in the conversion of the Jews as a nation, any more than in that of the Gentiles. But we do not desire at this time to do more than establish the two points above stated, which we deem of importance.
LANDMARKS AND STUMBLINGBLOCKS
"Thou shalt not remove thy neighbor"s landmark, which they of old have set in thine inheritance" (Deut. xix. 14).
"Take up the stumblingblock out of the way of My people"
(Isa. lvii. 14).
What tender care, what gracious considerateness, breathe in the above pa.s.sages! The ancient landmarks were not to be removed; but the stumblingblocks were to be taken up. The inheritance of G.o.d"s people was to stand entire and unchanged, while the stumblingblocks were to be sedulously removed out of their pathway. Such was the grace and care of G.o.d for His people! The portion which G.o.d had given to each was to be enjoyed, while, at the same time, the path in which each was called to walk should be kept free from every occasion of stumbling.
Now, judging from recent communications, we believe we are called upon to give attention to the spirit of those ancient enactments. Some of our friends have, in their letters to us, opened their minds very freely as to their spiritual condition. They have told us of their doubts and fears, their difficulties and dangers, their conflicts and exercises. We are truly grateful for such confidence; and it is our earnest desire to be used of G.o.d to help our readers by pointing out the landmarks which He, by His Spirit, has set up, and thus remove the stumblingblocks which the enemy diligently flings in their path.
In pondering the cases which have lately been submitted to us, we have found some in which the enemy was manifestly using as a stumblingblock the doctrine of election _misplaced_. The doctrine of election, in its right place, instead of being a stumblingblock in the pathway of anxious inquirers, will be found to be a landmark set by them of old time, even by the inspired apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in the inheritance of G.o.d"s spiritual Israel. But we all know that _misplaced_ truth is more dangerous than positive error. If a man were to stand up, and boldly declare that the doctrine of election is false, we should without hesitation reject his words; but we might not be quite so well prepared to meet one who, while admitting the doctrine to be true and important, puts it out of its divinely appointed place. This latter is the very thing which is so constantly done, to the damaging of the truth of G.o.d, and the darkening of the souls of men.
What, then, is the true place of the doctrine of election? Its true, its divinely appointed place, is for those within the house--for the establishment of true _believers_. Instead of this, the enemy puts it _outside_ the house, for the stumbling of anxious _inquirers_. Hearken to the following language of a deeply exercised soul: "If I only knew that I was one of the elect I should be quite happy, inasmuch as I could then confidently apply to myself the benefits of the death of Christ."
Doubtless, this would be the language of many, were they only to tell out the feelings of their hearts. They are making a wrong use of the doctrine of election--a doctrine blessedly true in itself--a most valuable "landmark," but made a "stumblingblock" by the enemy. It is very needful for the anxious inquirer to bear in mind that it is _as a lost sinner_, and not as "one of the elect," that he can apply to himself the benefits of the death of Christ.
The proper stand-point from which to get a saving view of the death of Christ is not election, but _the consciousness of our ruin_. This is an unspeakable mercy, inasmuch as I _know_ I am a lost sinner; but I do _not_ know that I am one of the elect, until I have received, through the Spirit"s testimony and teaching, the glad tidings of salvation through the blood of the Lamb. Salvation--free as the sunbeams, full as the ocean, permanent as the throne of the eternal G.o.d--is _preached_ to me, _not_ as one of the elect, but as one _utterly lost_, guilty, and undone; and when I have received this salvation there is conclusive evidence of my election. "Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of G.o.d; for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much a.s.surance" (1 Thess. i. 4, 5). Election is not my warrant for accepting salvation; but the reception of salvation is the proof of election. For how is any sinner to know that he is one of the elect?
Where is he to find it? It must be a matter of divine revelation, else it cannot be a matter of faith. But where is it revealed? Where is the knowledge of election made an indispensable prerequisite, an essential preliminary, to the acceptance of salvation? Nowhere, in the word of G.o.d. My only t.i.tle to salvation is, that I am a poor guilty, h.e.l.l-deserving sinner. If I wait for any other t.i.tle, I am only removing a most valuable landmark from its proper place, and putting it as a stumblingblock in my way. This, to say the least of it, is very unwise.
But it is more than unwise. It is positive opposition to the word of G.o.d; not only to the quotations which stand at the head of this paper, but to the spirit and teaching of the entire volume. Hearken to the risen Saviour"s commission to His first heralds: "Go ye into _all_ the world, and preach the gospel to _every_ creature" (Mark xvi. 15). Is there so much as a single point, in these words, on which to base a question about election? Is any one, to whom this glorious gospel is preached, called to settle a prior question about his election?
a.s.suredly not. "All the world" and "every creature" are expressions which set aside every difficulty, and render salvation as free as the air, and as wide as the human family. It is not said, "Go ye into a given section of the world, and preach the gospel to a certain number." No; this would not be in keeping with that grace which was to be proclaimed to the wide, wide world. When the law was in question, it was addressed to a certain number, in a given section; but when the gospel was to be proclaimed, its mighty range was to be, "All the world," and its object, "Every creature."
Again, hear what the Holy Ghost saith, by the apostle Paul: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of _all_ acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save _sinners_" (1 Tim. i. 15). Is there any room here for raising a question as to one"s t.i.tle to salvation? None whatever. If Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and if I am a sinner, then I am ent.i.tled to apply to my own soul the benefits of His precious sacrifice. Ere I can possibly exclude myself therefrom I must be something else than a sinner. If it were anywhere declared in Scripture that Christ Jesus came to save only the elect, then clearly I should, in some way or another, prove myself one of that number, ere I could make my own the benefits of His death. But, thanks be to G.o.d, there is nothing the least like this in the whole gospel scheme. "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was _lost_" (Luke xix. 10). And is not that just what I am? Truly so. Well then, is it not from the standpoint of a lost one that I am to look at the death of Christ? Doubtless. And can I not, while contemplating that precious mystery from thence, adopt the language of faith, and say, "He loved _me_, and gave Himself for _me_?" Yes, as unreservedly and unconditionally as though I were the only sinner on the surface of the globe.
Nothing can be more soothing and tranquillizing to the spirit of an anxious inquirer than to mark the way in which salvation is brought to him in the very condition in which he is, and on the very ground which he occupies. There is not so much as a single stumblingblock along the entire path leading to the glorious inheritance of the saints--an inheritance settled by landmarks which neither men nor devils can ever remove. The G.o.d of all grace has left nothing undone, nothing unsaid, which could possibly give rest, a.s.surance, and perfect satisfaction to the soul. He has set forth the very condition and character of those for whom Christ died, in such terms as to leave no room for any demur or hesitation. Listen to the following glowing words: "For when we were yet _without strength_, in due time Christ died _for the unG.o.dly_." "But G.o.d commendeth His love toward us, in that _while we were yet sinners_, Christ died for us." "For if, _when we were enemies_, we were reconciled to G.o.d by the death of His Son," &c.
(Rom. v. 6, 8, 10).
Can aught be plainer or more pointed than these pa.s.sages? Is there a single term made use of which could possibly raise a question in the heart of any sinner as to his full and undisputed t.i.tle to the benefits of the death of Christ? Not one. Am I "unG.o.dly?" It was for such Christ died. Am I "a sinner?" It is to such that G.o.d commendeth His love. Am I "an enemy?" It is such G.o.d reconciles by the death of His Son. Thus all is made as plain as a sunbeam; and as for the theological stumblingblock caused by misplacing the doctrine of election, it is entirely removed. It is as a sinner I get the benefit of Christ"s death. It is as a lost one I get a salvation which is as free as it is permanent, and as permanent as it is free. All I want, in order to apply to myself the value of the blood of Jesus, is to know myself a guilty _sinner_. It would not help me the least in this matter to be told that I am one of the elect, inasmuch as it is not in that character G.o.d addresses me in the gospel, but in another character altogether, even as a _lost_ sinner.
But then, some may feel disposed to ask, "Do you want to set aside the doctrine of election?" G.o.d forbid. We only want to see it in its right place. We want it as a landmark, not as a stumblingblock. We believe the evangelist has no business to _preach_ election. Paul never preached election. He _taught_ election, but He preached Christ. This makes all the difference. We believe that no one can be a proper evangelist who is, in any wise, hampered by the doctrine of election misplaced. We have seen serious damage done to two cla.s.ses of people by preaching election instead of preaching Christ. Careless sinners are made more careless still, while anxious souls have had their anxiety intensified.
These, surely, are sad results, and they ought to be sufficient to awaken very serious thoughts in the minds of all who desire to be successful preachers of that free and full salvation which shines in the gospel of Christ, and leaves all who hear it without a shadow of an excuse. The grand business of the evangelist is to set forth, in his preaching, the perfect love of G.o.d, the efficacy of the blood of Christ, and the faithful record of the Holy Ghost. His spirit should be entirely untrammelled, and his gospel unclouded. He should preach a present salvation, free to all, and stable as the pillars which support the throne of G.o.d. The gospel is the unfolding of the heart of G.o.d as expressed in the death of His Son, recorded by the Holy Spirit.
Were this more carefully attended to, there would be more power in replying to the oft-repeated objection of the careless, as well as in hushing the deep anxieties of exercised and burdened souls. The former would have no just ground of objection; the latter, no reason to fear.
When persons reject the gospel on the ground of G.o.d"s eternal decrees, they are rejecting what is _revealed_ on the ground of what is _hidden_. What can they possibly know about G.o.d"s decrees? Just nothing. How then can that which is secret be urged as a reason for rejecting what is revealed? Why refuse what _can_ be known, on the ground of what _cannot_? It is obvious that men do not act thus in cases where they wish to believe a matter. Only let a man be willing to believe a thing, and you will not find him anxiously looking for a ground of objection. But alas! men do not want to believe G.o.d. They reject His precious testimony which is as clear as the sun in meridian brightness, and urge, as their plea for so doing, His decrees which are wrapped in impenetrable darkness. What folly! What blindness! What guilt!
And then as to anxious souls who hara.s.s themselves with questions about election, we long to show them that it is not in accordance with the divine mind that they should raise any such difficulty. G.o.d addresses them in the exact state in which He sees them and in which they can see themselves. He addresses them as _sinners_, and this is exactly what they are. _There is nothing but salvation for_ ANY _sinner, the moment he takes his true place as a sinner._ This is simple enough for any simple soul. To raise questions about election is sheer unbelief. It is, in another way, to reject what is revealed on the ground of what is hidden; it is to refuse what I _can_ know, on the ground of what I _cannot_. G.o.d has revealed Himself in the face of Jesus Christ, so that we may know Him and trust Him. Moreover, He has made full provision in the atonement of the cross for all our need and all our guilt. Hence, therefore instead of perplexing myself with the question, "Am I one of the elect?" it is my happy privilege to rest in the perfect love of G.o.d, the all-sufficiency of Christ, and the faithful record of the Holy Ghost.
We must here close, though there are other stumblingblocks which we long to see removed out of the way of G.o.d"s people, as well as landmarks which are sadly lost sight of.