And what, then, are we to infer from all this? That besides God’s general providence which rules over all, ordering, as from a distant throne, the being and motions of the universe, He exercises a particular providence, drawing nigh to individuals, stepping in between cause and effect, saving, helping, prospering, hindering, confounding, destroying, just in those very cases which natural laws would treat otherwise. Not that this is always done in the case of all men. The wicked are often and chiefly let alone; they are, it may be, in great prosperity for a time; they come perhaps to no present misfortune; they do violence and escape justice; their time of reward is not yet. Again, the righteous are not exempt from trials, and troubles, and privations—their time of reward is not yet (and if it were, their very trials, in the spiritual effects they produce, may be part of their blessedness); but they are never forsaken. The very hairs of their heads are all numbered. Nothing befalls them but by God’s permission—a permission which is only given when the event will work for their good. They may commit themselves unto Him as unto a faithful Creator and most merciful Saviour; they may put their trust in Him, assured that it will not miscarry; no evil shall approach to hurt them lastingly—He will keep them as the apple of His eye; none shall be able to pluck them out of His hand. In short, while they desire the things which He promises, and love and do the things which He commands, He will forward all their wise undertakings, and bless them in all their circumstances; and when their own ignorance, or want of forethought, or external so-called chances, or the machinations of evil men or spirits expose them to danger, He will interfere and ward off the consequences, save only when, like the trials of Job or Joseph, they can be made productive of greater excellence and so of greater reward. If this be so, then surely expediency approves what right demands, that we should forego the taking thought which is so uncertainly successful, and that we should repose in a care which never fails—“Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you.”
Oh! my brethren, try to believe heartily this great doctrine of a particular Providence! Look not back to the creation of the world, and to the working out of men’s redemption in Judea, or forward to the Judgment Day, as though God were only working and manifesting Himself there and then. God is everywhere and is active everywhere; He is here now; He is marking how we conduct ourselves in this house; He is looking into the very depths of our hearts and minds, and noting whatsoever lurks there. This night He will be about our beds; to-morrow about our paths; always spying out all our ways. Of every thought, of every word, of every deed of ours, He will at once note the intent and the measure. Of all that is done in His fear and service, He will record that it is “righteous worship;” of all else that it is “idolatry,” the setting up of some person or some thing as more worthy to be loved or feared than He is. Every undertaking, every endurance, all safety and all danger, all wisdom and all folly, will be watched and allowed or overruled according as we deserve or deserve not to be dealt with in love by a present God.
Oh! if we felt this, how easy would it be to avoid taking thought for temporal things! how full would be our minds of God! how should we breathe as in His presence, and listen for His guidance, and trust in His providence! And then how determined would be our service of Him! We should not talk of expediency; we should not invent excuses; we should not do evil that good may come, or avoid good that we may escape unpleasant circumstances. No! God would be indeed God; religion would be the one thing needful; we should hope for what it promised, and fear what it threatened. The allurements of the world, the offers of pleasure, riches, power, honour, would be scorned as childish toys idly held out to sage and sober men. The scoffs, the sneers, the threats, the persecutions of the world would be nothing cared for—they would be as the impotent threats of chained madmen.
Serve God or mammon? Who would be in doubt which to do, who would shrink from or fail in the service, if God were only thus palpably present? Having thus set God before us, how zealously should we serve Him, how confidently should we rest on Him!
And, lastly, what men of prayer we should become. If we felt that God is indeed an interfering power in the world; that His superintendence is not general only but special also; that He may at any time avert a threatened danger, or confer an improbable blessing; that, in short, He may alter the whole face of things, and their working upon us and ours on them at any moment, and that our doings, our yearnings, our prayers may prompt His interference; then would not prayer cease to be regarded as a mere necessary religious exercise, to be gone through much as grace before and after meat is; would it not become a vivid recital of our wants and feelings, an earnest pleading, a very wrestling with God? Would not every event, every shadow of weal or wo bring us to our knees? Should we make any plans or enter upon any course, or indulge any thoughts, before we had laid all before Him? In all our efforts, all our fears, all our wishes, all our sufferings, should we not betake ourselves to Him not only as the Wise Counsellor but the Effectual Doer? And in all our blessings and averted dangers, as readily and as heartily should we offer the tribute of thanksgiving; asking from Him what we desired, ascribing to Him what we received throughout our life, and its every circumstance realizing that the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and that we are the subjects of His rule; in all our interests and all our duties resting and acting upon the tremendous truth that God is a God at hand and not a God afar off!
SERMON II.
RIGHT THOUGHTS OF CHRIST.
St. Matthew, xxii., 42.
“What think ye of Christ?”
Jesus we know claimed to be the Christ. He was not wont, indeed, to manifest Himself plainly in that character to the multitude; He did not often so speak of Himself even to the chosen; but still, indirectly, by hint of speech and deed, He did—parabolically—propose Himself to mankind as the promised Messiah, the Son of God, the Son of David, the Saviour of the World. But He was not often so received. A Galilean fisherman was enabled by the Spirit to confess—“Thou art the Christ, the son of the Blessed.” A Samaritan asked in wondering faith—“Is not this the Christ?” But more frequently He was regarded as merely a prophet, as Elijah or Jeremiah, or as a wonderful man who came from God; who spake as no other had ever spoken; who could not do such works except God were with Him. This was among the well-disposed.
His enemies called Him “Beelzebub, the Prince of the Devils;” “The fellow that deceiveth the people;” “a Nazarene;” “a sinner;” “a winebibber;” “a Sabbath-breaker;” “a blasphemer;” “guilty, i.e., deserving, of death.” It mattered not that they were unable to resist the wisdom with which He spake; that He did all things well, making both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak; that He was proved to be versed in Divine letters, without ever having learned (of men); that His appeals to God for vindication as a teacher of truth and a forgiver of sins were visibly answered. They saw no beauty or comeliness in Him, nor anything that should make them desire Him; they would not come unto Him that they might have life. He was despised and rejected.
It was when He had been exhibiting His credentials very openly and condescendingly, and when the witnesses, with marvellous obstinacy, had refused to believe what they saw, that drawing off their thoughts for the moment from Himself the fulfiller of prophecy, He bade them look back upon the prophecy itself and answer to themselves and to Him what it was they expected: “What think ye,” He demanded, “of Christ?” “Since you see not in me any resemblance to God’s portrait of His anointed One, tell me, tell yourselves what are the features for which you look. I am not the being whom you expect—what, then, do you expect? what think ye of the Christ?”