Things to be Considered.
i. 3. My people doth not consider.
The universe is regulated by fixed laws, by which God preserves and governs all things. Man is endowed with rational powers, intellectual faculties, capable of apprehending these laws, whether they become known to him by revelation or by his own discoveries, and of using them as his guides. His well-being depends upon his harmony with them, and his dignity and bliss on the right application of his mental powers. One of Satan’s main stratagems is to endeavour to hinder him from using them aright; to induce him to act without forethought or reflection, and to incite him to act merely on impulse, feeling, or passion.[1] As a result of these artifices, the great mass of mankind live without thought, and are borne in stupid insensibility to the eternal world. Thus God complains of the infatuation of Israel, “My people doth not consider.” To consider is to think deliberately, to reflect maturely. There are many subjects to which our consideration should be attentively and diligently given. We should consider—I. The character and will of God. His words should lead us to this. If you see a beautiful picture, or piece of sculpture or mechanism, you naturally direct your thoughts to the artist or mechanist who has produced it. The grandeur of the divine works surrounds you, and ought you not to consider the wondrous Architect of the whole? His relationship to you should induce it. Your existence is derived from Him, and He fashioned you, and bestowed on you all your endowments. He is your Father, your bountiful Preserver. Besides, you are ever in His hand, ever before His eyes, He surrounds you. And He is great, wise, powerful, holy, and just. His love and favour are heaven; His anger and frowns are hell. II. Ourselves. What are we? What our powers? our capabilities? our end and destination? the claims of God? our duties to others? the improvement we should make of the present? the preparation we should make for the future? Are we answering the end of our being? &c. III. Our spiritual state before God. Is it one of ignorance, or of knowledge? folly, or wisdom? guilt, or pardon? condemnation or acceptance? alienation, or sonship and adoption? safety, or imminent peril? Are we heirs of wrath or perdition, or of God and salvation? IV. The importance of life. Life is the seedtime for eternity, the period of probation, the only opportunity of securing eternal blessedness. How short it is, how fragile, how uncertain! How criminal to waste it, to pervert it! &c. V. The solemnities of death (Deut. xxxii. 29). Consider its certainty, its probable nearness, its truly awful character. Try to realise it. Consider if you were now dying, &c.[2] VI. The great concerns of eternity. The judgment-day. Heaven, with its eternal glories; hell, with its everlasting horrors. Eternity itself, how solemn, how overwhelming! How blissful to the saint! how terrific to the sinner! Eternity! VII. That salvation which will fit us for living, dying, and for eternity. Provided by the mercy of God, obtained by the Lord Jesus Christ, revealed in the gospel, offered to every sinner, received by simple faith, and which delivers from guilt, pollution, fear, and everlasting wrath. VIII. Our present duty and interest. Men are supposed to care naturally for these. But their care usually relates merely to the body, and the things of time. Consider whether it is not your duty to obey and serve God; whether it is not your interest (1 Tim. iv. 8). IX. That there is no substitute for religion (Jer. ii. 13).
Application.—Urge consideration upon all present. 1. Some have never considered. Now begin. Retire and reflect; weigh and consider these things. 2. Some have considered occasionally—in church, or when sick, in the house of bereavement, &c. Cultivate the habit of consideration,[3] and carry into effect the conclusions to which you will inevitably come. 3. There is hope for all who will consider. 4. They are hopeless who will not consider.[4]—Jabez Burns, D.D., Pulpit Cyclopædia, vol. ii. pp. 34–37.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Satan doth his utmost, that sinners may not have any serious thoughts of the miserable state they are in while they are under his rule, or hear of anything from others which might the least unsettle their minds from his service. Consideration, he knows, is the first step to repentance. He that doth not consider his ways what they are, and whither they lead him, is not likely to change them in haste. Israel stirred not until Moses came, and had some discourse with them about their woful slavery and the gracious thoughts of God towards them, and then they begin to desire to be gone. Pharaoh soon bethought him what consequence might follow upon him, and cunningly labours to prevent it by doubling their task. “Ye are idle, ye are idle, therefore ye say, Let us go, and do sacrifice unto the Lord. Go therefore and work.” Thus Satan is very jealous of the sinner, afraid every Christian that speaks to him, or ordinance that he hears, will inveigle him. By his good-will he should come at neither; no, nor have a thought of heaven or hell from one end of the week to the other, and that he may have as few as may be, he keeps him full-handed with work. The sinner grinds, and he is filling the hopper that the mill may not stand still. Ah, poor wretch! was ever slave so looked to? As long as the devil can keep thee thus, thou art his own sure enough. The prodigal “came to himself” before he came to his father. He considered with himself what a starving condition he was in; his husks were poor meat, and yet he had not enough of them; and how easily he might mend his commons if he had but grace to go home and humble himself to his father! Now, and not till now, he goes.—Gurnall, 1616–1679.
[2] The sand of life
Ebbs fastly to its finish. Yet a little,
And the last fleeting particle will fall
Silent, unseen, unnoticed, unlamented.
Come, then, sad thought, and let us meditate,
While meditate we may. We have now
But a small portion of what men call time
To hold communion.—H. K. White.
[3] He sat within a silent cave, apart
From men, upon a chair of diamond stone;
Words he had not, companions he had none,
But steadfastly pursued his thoughtful art;
And as he mused he pulled a slender string
Which evermore within his hand he held;
And the dim curtain rose which had concealed
His thoughts, the city of the immortal king:
There, pictured in its solemn pomp, it lay
A glorious country stretching round about,
And through its golden gates passed in and out
Men of all nations, on their heavenly way.
On this he mused, and mused the whole day long,
Feeding his feeble faith till it grew strong.—George Craly.
[4] No man is in so much danger as he who thinks there is no danger. Why, when the bell rings, when the watchman rends the air with cries of “Fire! Fire! Fire!” when in every direction there is the pattering of feet on the sidewalk, and when the engines come rattling up to the burning house, one after another the inmates are awakened, and they rush out; and they are safest that are most terrified, and that suffer most from a sense of danger. One only remains behind. He hears the tumult, but it weaves itself into the shape of dreams, and he seems to be listening to some parade, and soon the sounds begin to be indistinct in his ear, and at length they cease to make any impression upon him. During all this time he is inhaling the deadly gas with which his apartment has become filled, gradually his senses are benumbed, and finally he is rendered unconscious by suffocation. And, in the midst of peril, and the thunder of excitement, that man who is the least awake, and the least frightened, is the very man that is most likely to be burned up.—Beecher.