First, the Spirit convinced Isaiah of sin. He made him feel that the state of his country was wrong. And He made him feel why it was wrong; namely, because the men in it were wrong; because they were thinking wrong notions, feeling wrong feelings, doing wrong things; and that wrong was sin; and that sin was falling short of being what a man was made, and what every man ought to be, namely, the likeness and glory of G.o.d; and that so his countrymen the Jews, one and all, had sinned and come short of the glory of G.o.d.
Next, He convinced Isaiah of righteousness. He made Isaiah feel and be sure that G.o.d was righteous; that G.o.d was no unjust Lord, like the wicked king of the Jews; that such evil doings as are going on were hateful to Him; that all that covetousness, oppression, taking of bribes, drunkenness, deceit, ignorance, stupid rashness and folly, of which the land was full, were hateful to G.o.d. He must hate them, for He was a righteous and a good G.o.d. They ought not to be there. For man, every man from the king on his throne to the poor labourer in the field, was meant to be righteous and good as G.o.d is. "But how will it be altered?" thought Isaiah to himself. "What hope for this poor miserable sinful world? People are meant to be righteous and good: but who will make them so? The king and his princes are meant to be righteous and good, but who will set them a pattern? When will there be a really good king, who will be an example to all in authority; who will teach men to do right, and compel and force them not to do wrong?"
And then the Holy Spirit of G.o.d answered that anxious question of Isaiah"s, and convinced him of judgment.
Yes, he felt sure; he did not know why he felt so sure: but he did feel sure; G.o.d"s Spirit in his heart made him feel sure, that in some way or other, some day or other, the Lord G.o.d would come to judgment, to judge the wicked princes and rulers of this world, and cast them out. It must be so. G.o.d was a righteous G.o.d. He would not endure these unrighteous doings for ever. He was not careless about this poor sinful world, and about all the sinful down-trodden ignorant men, and women, and children in it. He would take the matter into His own hands. He would show that He was Lord and Master. If kings would not reign in righteousness, He would come and reign in righteousness Himself. He would appoint princes under Him, who would rule in judgment. And He would show men what true righteousness was; what the pattern of a true ruler was; namely, to be able to feel for the poor, and the afflicted, and the needy, to understand the wants, and sorrows, and doubts, and fears of the lowest and the meanest; in short, to be a man, a true, perfect man, with a man"s heart, a man"s pity, a man"s fellow-feeling in Him. Yes. The Lord G.o.d would show Himself. He would set His righteous King to govern. And yet Isaiah did not know how, but he saw plainly that it must be so, that same righteous King, who was to set the world right, would be a MAN. It would be a man who was to be a hiding-place from the storm and a covert from the tempest. A man who would understand man, and teach men their duty.
Then the eyes of the blind would see, and the ears of those who heard should hearken; for they would hear a loving human voice, the voice of One who knew what was in man, who could tell them just what they wanted to know, and put His teaching into the shape in which it would sink most easily and deeply into their hearts. And then the hearts of the rash would understand knowledge; and the tongue of the stammerers would speak plainly. There will be no more confused cries from poor ignorant brutish oppressed people, like the cries of dumb beasts in pain; for He who was coming would give them words to utter their sorrows in. He would teach them how to speak to man and G.o.d.
He would teach them how to pray, and when they prayed to say, "Our Father which art in heaven."
Then the vile person would be no more called bountiful, or the churl called liberal: flattery and cringing to the evil great would be at an end. The people would have sense to see the truth about right and wrong, and courage to speak it. Men would then be held for what they really were, and honoured and despised according to their true merits. Yes, said Isaiah, we shall be delivered from our wicked king and princes, from the heathen a.s.syrian armies, who fancy that they are going to sweep us out of our own land with fire and sword; from our own sins, and ignorance, and infidelity, and rashness. We shall be delivered from them all, for The righteous King is coming. Nay, He is here already, if we could but see. His goings-forth have been from everlasting. He is ruling us now--this wondrous Child, this Son of G.o.d. Unto us a Child is born already, unto us a Son is given already. But one day or other He will be revealed, and made manifest, and shown to men as a man; and then all the people shall know who He is; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty G.o.d, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Ah, my friends, Isaiah saw all this but dimly and afar off. He saw as through a gla.s.s darkly. He perhaps thought at times--indeed we can have little doubt that he thought--that the good young Prince Hezekiah, "The might of G.o.d," as his name means, who was growing up in his day to be a deliverer and a righteous king over the Jews, was to set the world right. No doubt he had Hezekiah in his mind when he said that a Child was born to the Jews, and a Son given to them; just as, of course, he meant his own son, who was born to him by the virgin prophetess, when he called his name Emmanuel, that is to say, G.o.d with us. But he felt that there was more in both things than that. He felt that his young wife"s conceiving and bearing a son, was a sign to him that some day or other a more blessed virgin would conceive and bear a mightier Son. And so he felt that whether or not Hezekiah delivered the Jews from their sin, and misery, and ignorance, G.o.d Himself would deliver them. He knew, by the Spirit of G.o.d, that his prophecy would come true, and remain true for ever.
And so he died in faith, not having received the promises, G.o.d having prepared some better King for us, and having fulfilled the words of His prophet in a way of which, as far as we can see, he never dreamed.
Yes. Hezekiah failed to save the nation of the Jews. Instead of being the "father of an everlasting age," and having "no end of his family on the throne of David," his great-grandchildren and the whole nation of the Jews were swept away into captivity by the Babylonians, and no man of his house, as Jeremiah prophesied, has ever since prospered or sat on the throne of David. But still Isaiah"s prophecy was true. True for us who are a.s.sembled here this day.
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; even the Babe of Bethlehem, Jesus Christ the Lord. The government shall indeed be upon His shoulder; for it has been there always. For the Father has committed all things to the Son, that he may be King of kings and Lord of lords for ever. His name is indeed Wonderful; for what more wondrous thing was ever seen in heaven or in earth, than that great love with which He loved us? He is not merely called "The might of G.o.d," as Hezekiah was,--for a sign and a prophecy; for He is the mighty G.o.d Himself. He is indeed the Counsellor; for He is the light who lighteth every man who comes into the world. He is "the Father of an everlasting age." There were hopes that Hezekiah would be so; that he would raise the nation of the Jews again to a reform from which it would never fall away: but these hopes were disappointed; and the only one who fulfilled the prophecy is He who has founded His Church for ever on the rock of everlasting ages, and the gates of h.e.l.l shall not prevail against it. Hezekiah was to be the prince of peace for a few short years only. But the Child who is born to us, the Son who is given to us, is He who gave eternal peace to all who will accept it; peace which this world can neither give nor take away; and who will make that peace grow and spread over the whole earth, till men shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, and the nations shall not learn war any more. Of the increase of His government and of His peace there shall be no end, till the earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea, and the spirit of G.o.d be poured out on all flesh, to teach kings to reign in righteousness, after the pattern of the King of kings, the Babe of Bethlehem; to make the rich and powerful do justice, to teach the ignorant, to give the rich wisdom, to free the oppressed, to comfort the afflicted, to proclaim to all mankind the good news of Christmas Day, the good news that there was a man born into the world on this day who will be a hiding-place from the storm, a covert from the tempest, like rivers of water in a dry place, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land; even the man Christ Jesus, who is able and willing to save to the uttermost those who come to G.o.d through Him, seeing that he has been tempted in all things like as we are, yet without sin.
Yes, my friends, on that holy table stands the everlasting sign that Isaiah"s prophecy has been fulfilled to the uttermost. That bread and that wine declare to us, that to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given. They declare to us, in a word, that on this blessed day G.o.d was made man, and dwelt among men, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Oh, come to that table this day, and there claim your share in the most precious body and blood of the Divine Child of Bethlehem. Come and ask Him to pour out on you His Spirit, the Spirit which He poured on Hezekiah of old, "that he might fulfil his own name and live in the might of G.o.d." So will you live in the might of G.o.d. So you will be able to govern yourselves, and your own appet.i.tes, in righteousness and freedom, and rule your own households, or whatsoever G.o.d has set you to do, in judgment. So you will see things in their true light, as G.o.d sees them, and be ready and willing to hear good advice, and understand your way in this life, and be able to speak your hearts out in prayer to G.o.d, as to a loving and merciful Father. And in all your afflictions, let them be what they will, you will have a comfort, and a sure hope, and a wellspring of peace, and a hiding-place from the tempest, even The Man Christ Jesus, who said: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you; let not your heart be troubled, neither be ye afraid." The Man Christ Jesus, at whose birth the angels sang: "Glory to G.o.d in the Highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men."
Now to Him who on this day was born of the blessed virgin, man of the substance of His mother, yet G.o.d the Son of G.o.d, be ascribed, with the Father and the Spirit, all power, glory, majesty, and dominion, both now and for ever. Amen.
x.x.xV--NEW YEAR"S DAY
(1853.)
But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou pa.s.sest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy G.o.d, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and peoples for thy life.--ISAIAH xliii. 1-4.
The New Year has now begun; and I am bound to wish you all a happy New Year. But I am sent here to do more than that; to teach you how you may make your own New Year a happy one; or, if not altogether a happy one--for sorrows may and must come in their turn--yet still something better than a happy year, namely, a blessed year; a year on which you will be able to look back this day twelvemonths, and thank G.o.d for it; thank G.o.d for the tears which you have shed in it, as well as for the joy which you have felt; thank G.o.d for the dark days as well as for the light; thank G.o.d for what you have lost, as well as what you have found; and be able to say, "Well, this last year, if it has not been a happy year for me, at least it has been a blessed one for me. It has left me a stronger, soberer, wiser, G.o.dlier, better man than it found me."
How, then, can you make the New Year a blessed one for yourselves? I know but one way, my friends. The ancient way. The Bible way. The way by which Abraham, and Jacob, and David, and all the holy men of old, and all the saints, and martyrs, and righteous and G.o.dly among men, made their lives blessed among themselves, in spite of sorrow, and misfortune, and distress, and persecution, and torture, and death itself; the one only old way of being blessed, which was from the beginning, and will last for ever and ever, through all worlds and eternities; the way of the old saints, which St. Paul sets forth in the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews; and that is, FAITH. Faith, which is the substance of what we hope for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith, of which it is written, that the just shall live by his faith.
But how can faith give you a blessed New Year? In the same way in which it gave the old saints blessed years all their lives through, and is giving them a blessed eternity now and for ever before the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, to which may G.o.d in His mercy bring us all likewise.
They trusted in G.o.d. They had faith, not in themselves, like too many; not in their own good works, like too many; not in their own faith, in their own frames, and feelings, and a.s.surances, like too many; but they had faith in G.o.d. It was faith in G.o.d which made one of them, the great prophet Isaiah, write the glorious words which I have chosen for my text this day, to show his countrymen the Jews, even while they were in the very lowest depths of shame, and poverty, and misfortune, that G.o.d had not forgotten them; that for those who trusted in Him, a blessed time was surely coming.
And it was faith in G.o.d, too, which put it into the minds of the good men who choose these Sunday lessons out of the Bible, to appoint such chapters as these to be read year by year, at the coming in of the new year, for ever. Faith in G.o.d, I say, put that into their minds.
For those good men trusted in G.o.d, that He would not change; that hundreds and thousands of years would make no difference in His love; that the promises made by His Holy Spirit to Isaiah the prophet would stand true for ever and ever. And they trusted in G.o.d, too, that what He had spoken by the mouth of His holy apostles was true; that after the blessed Lord came down on earth, there was to be no difference between Jews and Gentiles; that the great and precious promises made by G.o.d to the Jews were made also to all the nations of the earth; that all things written in the Old Testament, from the first chapter of Genesis to the last of Malachi, were written not for the Jews only, but for English, French, Italians, Germans, Russians-- for all the nations of the world; that we English were G.o.d"s people now, just as much, ay, far more, than the old Jews were, and that, therefore, the Old Testament promises, as well as the New Testament ones, were part of our inheritance as members of Christ"s Church.
And therefore they appointed Old Testament lessons to be read in church, to show us English what our privileges were, what G.o.d"s covenant and promise to us were. We, as much as the Jews, are called by the name of the Lord who created us. Were we not baptised into His name at that font? Has He not loved us? Has He not heaped us English, for hundreds of years past, with blessings such as He never bestowed on any nation? Has He not given men for us, and nations for our life? While all the nations of the world have been at war, slaying and being slain, has He not kept this fair land of England free and safe from foreign invaders for more than eight hundred years? Since the world was made, perhaps, such a thing was never heard of, such a mercy shown to any nation; that a great and rich country like this should be preserved for eight hundred years from invasion of foreign armies, and all the horrors and miseries of war, which have swept, from time to time, every other nation in the world with the besom of desolation.
Ay, and but sixty years ago, in the time of the French war, when almost every other nation in Europe was made desolate with fire, and sword, and war, did not G.o.d preserve this land of England, as He never preserved country before, from all the miseries which were sweeping over other nations? Oh, strange and wonderful mercy of G.o.d, that at the very time that the gospel was dying out all over Europe, it was being lighted again in England; and that while the knowledge of G.o.d was failing elsewhere, it was increasing here! Oh, strange and wonderful mercy of G.o.d, who has given to us English, now for one hundred and sixty years and more, those very equal laws, and freedom, and rights of conscience, for which so many other nations of Europe are still crying and struggling in vain, amid slavery, and oppression, and injustice, and heavy burdens, such as we here in England should not endure a week! Oh, strange and wonderful mercy of G.o.d, who but three years ago, when all the other nations of Europe were shaken with wars, and riots, and seditions, every man"s hand against his neighbour, kept this land of England in perfect peace and quiet by those just laws and government, proving to us the truth of His own promises, that those who seek peace by righteous dealings, shall find it, and that, as Isaiah says, the fruit of justice is quietness and a.s.surance for ever! And last, but not least, my friends, is it not a sign, a sign not to be mistaken, of G.o.d"s good- will and mercy to us, that now, at this very time of all others, when almost every country in Europe is going to wrack and ruin through the folly and wickedness of their kings and rulers, He should have given us here in England a Queen who is a pattern of goodness and purity, in ruling not only the nation, but her own household, to every wife and mother, from the highest to the lowest; and a Prince whose whole heart seems set on doing good, and on helping the poor, and improving the condition of the labourers? My friends, I say that we are unthankful and unfaithful. We do not thank G.o.d a hundredth part enough for the blessings which He has given us. We do not trust Him a hundredth part enough for the blessings which He has in store for us. If some of us here could but see and feel for a single month how people are off abroad; if they could change places with a French, an Italian, a Russian labourer, it would teach them a lesson about G.o.d"s goodness to England which they would not soon forget. May G.o.d grant that we may never have to learn that lesson in that way! G.o.d grant that we may never, to cure us of our unthankfulness and want of faith, and G.o.dless and unmanly grumbling and complaining, be brought, for a single week, into the same state as some hundred millions of our fellow-creatures are in foreign parts! Oh, my friends, let us thank G.o.d for the mercies of the past year! Most truly He has fulfilled to England his promise given by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah: "When thou pa.s.sest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. For I am the Lord thy G.o.d, the Holy One, thy Saviour. Thou hast been precious in my sight, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and peoples for thy life."
Away, then, with discontent and anxiety for the coming year. Or rather, let us be only discontented with ourselves. Let us only be anxious about our own conduct. G.o.d cannot change. If anything goes wrong, it will be not because He has left us, but because we have left Him. Is it not written that all things work together for good to those who love G.o.d? Then if things do not work together for good in this coming year, it will be because we do not love G.o.d. Do not let us say, "I am righteous, but my neighbours are wicked, and therefore I must be miserable;" neither let us lay the blame of our misfortunes on our rulers; let us lay it on ourselves.
What was the word of the Lord to the Jews in a like case: "What means this proverb which you take up, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children"s teeth are set on edge? It is not so, O house of Israel. The son shall not die for the iniquity of his father, nor the father for the iniquity of the son. The soul that sinneth, it shall die, saith the Lord."
Oh, my friends, take this to heart solemnly, in the year to come.
Our troubles, more of them at least than we fancy, are our own fault, and not our neighbours", or the government"s, or anyone"s else. And those which are not our own fault directly are so in this way, that they are sent as sharp and wholesome lessons to us; and if we were what we ought to be, we should not want those lessons. Do not fancy that that is a sad and doleful thought to begin the new year with.
G.o.d forbid! It would be doleful and sad indeed if any one of us, in spite of all his right-doing, might be plunged into any hopeless misery, through the fault of other people, over whom he has no control. But thanks be to the Lord, it is not so. We are His children, and He cares for each and every one of us separately. Each and every one of us has to answer for himself alone, face to face with his G.o.d, day by day; every man must bear his own burden; and to every one of us who love G.o.d, all things will work together for good.
It is, and was, and always will be, as Abraham well knew, far from G.o.d to punish the righteous with the wicked. The Judge of all the earth will do right. None of us who repents and turns from the sins he sees round him and in him; none of us who prays for the light and guiding of G.o.d"s Spirit; none of us who struggles day by day to keep himself unspotted from this evil world, and live as G.o.d"s son, without scandal or ill-name in the midst of a sinful and perverse generation; none of us who does that, but G.o.d"s blessing will rest on him. What ruins others will only teach and strengthen him; what brings others to shame, will only bring him to honour, and make his righteousness plain to be seen by all, that G.o.d may be glorified in His people. Let the coming year be what it may; to the holy, the humble, the upright, the G.o.dly, it will be a blessed year, fulfilling the blessed promises of the Lord, that those who trust in Him shall never be confounded.
Oh, my friends, consider but this one thing, that the Almighty G.o.d, who made all heaven and earth, has bid us trust in Him. And when He bids us, is it not a sin, an insult to Him, not to trust Him--not to believe His words to us? "Put thou thy trust in the Lord, and be doing good; dwell in the land," working where He has set thee, "and verily thou shalt be fed." "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day. A thousand shall fall by thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord thy refuge, no plague shall come nigh thy dwelling. Thou shalt call upon me, I will answer thee. Because thou hast set thy love on me, I will deliver thee; with long life will I satisfy thee, and show thee my salvation."
My friends, these words are in the book of Psalms. Either they are the most cruel words that ever were spoken on earth to tempt poor wretches into vain security and fearful disappointment, or they are-- what are they?--the sure and everlasting promise of our Father in heaven to us His children. We have only to ask for them, and we shall receive them; to claim them, and they will be fulfilled to us.
"For He who spared not His own Son, but freely gave Him for us, will He not with Him likewise freely give us all things," and make, by His fatherly care, and providence, and education, all our new years blessed new years, whether or not they are happy ones?
x.x.xVI--THE DELUGE
My spirit shall not always strive with man.--GENESIS vi. 3.
Last Sunday we read in the first lesson of the fall. This Sunday we read of the flood, the first-fruits of the fall.
It is an awful and a fearful story. And yet, if we will look at it by faith in G.o.d, it is a most cheerful and hopeful story--a gospel--a good news of salvation--like every other word in the Bible, from beginning to end. Ay, and to my mind, the most hopeful words of all in it, are the very ones which at first sight look most terrible, the words with which my text begins: "And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man."
For is it not good news--the good news of all news--the news which every poor soul who is hungering and thirsting after righteousness, longs to hear; and when they hear it, feel it to be the good news-- the only news which can give comfort to fallen and sorrowful men, tied and bound with the chain of their sins, that G.o.d"s Spirit does strive at all with man? That G.o.d is looking after men? That G.o.d is yearning over sinners, as the heart of a father yearns over his rebellious child, as the heart of a faithful and loving husband yearns after an unfaithful wife? That G.o.d does not take a disgust at us for all our unworthiness, but wills that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance? Oh joyful news! Man may be, as the text says that he was in the time of Noah, so low fallen that he is but flesh like the brutes that perish; the imaginations of his heart may be only evil continually; his spirit may be dead within him, given up to all low and fleshly appet.i.tes and pa.s.sions, anger, and greediness, and filth; and yet the pure and holy Spirit of G.o.d condescends to strive and struggle with him, to convince him of sin, and make him discontented and ashamed at his own brutishness, and shake and terrify his soul with the wholesome thought: "I am a sinner--I am wrong--I am living such a life as G.o.d never meant me to live--I am not what I ought to be--I have fallen short of what G.o.d intended me to be. Surely some evil will come to me from this."
Then the Holy Spirit convinces man of righteousness. He shows man that what he has fallen short of is the glory of G.o.d; that man was meant to be, as St. Paul says, the likeness and glory of G.o.d; to show forth G.o.d"s glory, and beauty, and righteousness, and love in his own daily life; as a looking-gla.s.s, though it is not the sun, still gives an image and likeness of the sun, when the sun shines on it, and shows forth the glory of the sunbeams which are reflected on it.
And then, the Holy Spirit convinces man of judgment. He shows man that G.o.d cannot suffer men, or angels, or any other rational spirits and immortal souls, to be unlike Himself; that because He is the only and perfect good, whatsoever is unlike Him must be bad; because He is the only and perfect love, who wills blessings and good to all, whatsoever is unlike Him must be unloving, hating, and hateful--a curse and evil to all around it; because He is the only perfect Maker and Preserver, whatsoever is unlike Him must be in its very nature hurtful, destroying, deadly--a disease which injures this good world, and which He will therefore cut out, burn up, destroy in some way or other, if it will not submit to be cured. For this, my friends, is the meaning of G.o.d"s judgments on sinners; this is why He sent a flood to drown the world of the unG.o.dly; this is why He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah; this is why He swept away the nations of Canaan; this is why He destroyed Jerusalem, His own beloved city, and scattered the Jews over the face of the whole earth unto this day; this is why He destroyed heathen Rome of old, and why He has destroyed, from time to time, in every age and country, great nations and mighty cities by earthquake, and famine, and pestilence, and the sword; because He knows that sin is ruin and misery to all; that it is a disease which spreads by infection among fallen men; and that He must cut off the corrupt nation for the sake of preserving mankind, as the surgeon cuts off a diseased limb, that his patient"s whole body may not die. But the surgeon will not cut off the limb as long as there is a chance of saving it: he will not cut it off till it is mortified and dead, and certain to infect the whole body with the same death, or till it is so inflamed that it will inflame the whole body also, and burn up the patient"s life with fever. Till then he tends it in hope; tries by all means to cure it. And so does the Lord, the Lord Jesus, the great Physician, whom His Father has appointed to heal and cure this poor fallen world. As long as there is hope of curing any man, any nation, any generation of men, so long will his Spirit strive lovingly and hopefully with man. For see the blessed words of the text: "My Spirit shall not always strive with man. This must end. This must end at some time or other. This battle between my Spirit and the wicked and perverse wills of these sinners; this battle between the love and the justice and the purity which I am trying to teach them, and the corruption and the violence with which they are filling the earth." But there is no pa.s.sion in the Lord, no spite, no sudden rage, like the brute pa.s.sionate anger of weak man. Our anger, if we are not under the guiding of G.o.d"s Spirit, conquers our wills, carries us away, makes us say and do on the moment--G.o.d forgive us for it--whatsoever our pa.s.sion prompts us.
The Lord"s anger does not conquer Him. It does not conquer His patience, His love, His steadfast will for the good of all. Even when it shows itself in the flood and the earthquake; even though it break up the fountains of the great deep, and destroy from off the earth both man and beast, yet it is, and was, and ever will be, the anger of The Lamb--a patient, a merciful, and a loving anger.
Therefore the Lord says: "Yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." One hundred and twenty years more he would endure those corrupt and violent sinners, in the hope of correcting them.
One hundred and twenty years more would G.o.d"s Spirit strive with men.
One hundred and twenty years more the long-suffering of G.o.d, as St.
Peter says, would wait, if by any means they would turn and repent.
Oh, wonderful love and condescension of G.o.d! G.o.d waits for man! The Holy One waits for the unholy! The Creator waits for the work of His own hands! The wrathful G.o.d, who repents that He has made man upon the earth, waits one hundred and twenty years for the very creatures whom He repents having made! Does this seem strange to us--unlike our notions of G.o.d? If it is strange to us, my friends, its being strange is only a proof of how far we have fallen from the likeness of G.o.d, wherein man was originally created. If we were more like G.o.d, then the accounts of G.o.d"s long-suffering, and mercy, and repentance, which we read in the Bible, would not be so strange to us. We should understand what G.o.d declares of Himself, by seeing the same feelings working in ourselves, which He declares to be working in Himself. And if we were more righteous and more loving, we should understand more how G.o.d"s will was a loving and a righteous will; how His justice was His mercy, and His mercy His justice, instead of dividing His substance, who is one G.o.d, by fancying that His mercy and His justice are two different attributes, which are at times contrary the one to the other.
We read nothing here about G.o.d"s absolute purposes, and fixed decrees, whereof men talk so often, making a G.o.d in their own fallen image, after their own fallen likeness. The Lord, the Word of G.o.d, of whom the Bible tells us, does not think it beneath his dignity to say: "It repenteth me that I have made man." Different, truly, from that false G.o.d which man makes in his own image. Man is proud, and he fancies that G.o.d is proud; man is self-willed and selfish, and he fancies that G.o.d is self-willed and selfish; man is arbitrary and obstinate, and determined to have his own way just because it is his own way; and then he fancies that G.o.d is arbitrary and obstinate, and determines to have His own way and will, just because it is His own way and will. But wilt thou know, oh vain man, why G.o.d will have His own way and will? Because His way is a good way, and His will a loving will; because the Lord knows that His way is the only path of life, and joy, and blessing to man and beast, yes, and to the very hairs of our head, which are all numbered, and to the sparrows, whereof not one falls to the ground without our Father"s knowledge; because His will is a loving will, which wills that none should perish, but that all should come and be saved in body, soul, and spirit. He will have His own will done, not because it is His own will, but because it is good, good for men. And if men will change and repent, then will He change and repent also. If man will resist the striving of G.o.d"s Spirit with him, then will the Lord say: "It repenteth me that I have made that man." But if a man will repent him of the evil, then G.o.d will repent Him of the evil also. If a man will let G.o.d"s Spirit convince him, and will open his ears and hear, and open his eyes and see, and open his heart to take in the loving thoughts and the right thoughts, and the penitent and humble thoughts, which do come to him--you know they do come to you all at times--then the Lord will repent also, as he repents, and repent concerning the evil which He has declared concerning that man. So said the Lord, who cannot change, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, the same now that He was in the days of the flood, to Jeremiah the prophet, when He moved him to go down to the potter"s house, and watch him there at his work.
And the potter made a vessel--something which would be useful and good for a certain purpose--but the clay was marred in the hand of the potter. He was good and skilful; but there was a fault in the clay. What did he do? Throw the clay away as useless? No. He made it again another vessel. He was determined to make, not anything, but something useful and good. And if the clay, being faulty, failed him once, he would try again. He would change his purpose and plan, but not his right will to make good and useful vessels; them he WOULD make, if not by one way, then by another. And Jeremiah watched him; and as he watched, the Spirit of the Lord came on him, and taught him that that poor potter"s way of working with his clay, was a pattern and likeness of the Lord"s work on earth. Oh shame, that this great parable should have been twisted by men to make out that G.o.d is an arbitrary tyrant, who works by a brute necessity! It taught Jeremiah the very opposite. It taught him what it ought to teach us, that G.o.d does change, because man changes, that G.o.d"s steadfast will is the good of men, and therefore because men change their weak self-willed course, and fall, and seek out many inventions, therefore G.o.d changes to follow them, like a good shepherd, tracking and following the lost and wandering sheep up and down, right and left, over hill and dale, if by any means He may find him, and bring him home on His shoulders to the fold, calling upon the angels of G.o.d: "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which I had lost."
This is the likeness of G.o.d. The good and loving will of a Father following his wandering children. The likeness of a loving Father repenting that He hath brought into the world sinful children, to be a misery to themselves and all around them, and yet for the same reason loving those children, striving with their wicked wills to the very last, giving them one last chance and time for repentance; as the Lord did to those evil men of the old world, sending to them Noah, a preacher of righteousness, if by any means they would turn from their sins and be saved. Ay, not only preaching to their ears by Noah, but to their hearts by His Spirit; as St. Peter tells us, He Himself, Christ the Lord, went Himself by His Spirit to those very sinners before the flood, and strove to bring them to their reason again. By His Spirit; by the very same one and only Holy Spirit of G.o.d, St. Peter says, by which Christ Himself was raised from the dead, did He try to raise the souls of those sinners before the flood, from the death of sin to the life of righteousness: but they would not. They were disobedient. Their wills resisted His will to the last; and then the flood came, and swept them all away.
And so the first work of the heavenly Workman was marred in the making by no fault of His, but by the fault of what He made. He made men persons, rational beings with wills, that they might be willingly like Him: but they used those wills to be unlike Him, to rebel against Him, and to fill the earth with violence and corruption. And so, for the good of all mankind to come, He had to sweep them all away. But of that same sinful clay He made another vessel, as it seemed good to Him; even Noah and his Sons, whom He saved that He might carry on the race of the Sons of G.o.d unto this day.
And after that again, my friends, in a day more dark and evil still, when the earth was again corrupt before G.o.d, and filled with violence; when all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth, so that, as St. Paul said of them, there was none that did good, no not one: then the same Lord, when He saw that all the world lay in wickedness, and that the clay of human-kind was marred in the hands of the potter, then did He cast away that clay as reprobate and useless, and destroy mankind off the face of the earth? Not so.
Then, when there was none to help, His own arm brought salvation, and His own righteousness sustained Him; He trod the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with Him. His own righteousness sustained Him. His perfectly good and righteous will never failed Him for a moment; man He would save, and man He saved. If none else could do it, He would do it Himself. He would bring salvation with His own arm. He would fulfil His Father"s will, which is that none should perish; He would be made flesh, and dwell among men, that man might behold the likeness of G.o.d the Father, full of grace and truth, and see what they were meant to be. Then, in Him, in Jesus who wept over Jerusalem, was fully revealed and shown the likeness and glory of the Lord; the Lord in whose image man was made; who walked and spoke with Adam in the garden; who was not ashamed to say that it repented Him that He had made man; whom Ezekiel saw upon His throne, and as it were upon the throne the appearance of the likeness of a man; whom Daniel saw, and knew him to be the Son of Man. Not a man, then, of flesh and blood; but the Eternal Word of G.o.d, in whose image man was made, who could be loving and merciful, long-suffering and repenting Him of the evil, but never of the good. He came, and He swept away, as He had told the Apostles that He would do, by such afflictions as man had never seen since the beginning of the world until then, that Roman world with all its devilish systems and maxims, whereby the nations were kept down in slavery and sin; and He founded a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwell righteousness, even this Holy Catholic Church, to which we all belong this day.