The more we apply our hearts unto wisdom the better shall we understand God's dealings with us; and if we are attentive to the bearing and purpose of those dealings we shall find that most of them are comprised under these three heads, each of which is distinct in its character, intent, and the effect produced on the soul. It is a profitable subject to meditate on, and before tracing the examples of each action in Scripture I may state, in a few words, what I believe to be their respective characteristics.
Retribution I regard as distinctly belonging to God's government in the world, and the Lord's rule in the church; the principle of which is embodied in that passage, " With whatsoever measure ye mete it shall be measured unto you again."
Chastening is of another order, and is more when we have neglected our calling, like Jacob at Shalem, the Lord comes in to remove the weight which obstructs our course. Perhaps there is a position to be renounced, which we are unwilling to renounce, but which, being an obstacle to our progress, some sorrow is sent to effect the required correction.
Purging I understand to be the help one gets to detach oneself from an association at the moment, during service, which enables us the more effectually to carry out the purpose of the soul, which, far from being unwilling, gladly avails itself of the help or correction to right itself; the great characteristic of the action being, that the soul readily accepts it as expediting and enlarging it in the service it is engaged with. We may now examine these a little more closely.
Retribution is often very difficult to trace to its cause, although its occurrence may be manifest enough. One great reason of this is, that God in His mercy often allows such a time to elapse before He inflicts what His righteous government demands; " for there is a God that judgeth in the earth." Death is the first and greatest retribution; " The day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." This is the first judicial penalty attached to an infraction of God's just law of government. The curse of Cain, is an instance of simple retribution very speedily instituted, while the suffering of both his sons was a chastening to Adam, and we see the fruit of it in his naming of Seth. All Abram suffered on account of Hagar was retribution, for had he not gone down into Egypt he would not have met with her. In David's history we find instances of each. When, in the matter of Bathsheba, he offends against the laws by which God governs man on the earth, he suffers retribution in the sentence that the sword was not to depart from his house; and he is also chastened, for his child dies. Retribution occurs apart from chastening, but the exercised soul may use it as chastening, though primarily inflicted, because God's laws have been outraged; not so much, perhaps, with reference to Himself, or the conscience of His servant, as with His servant's dealings towards men on earth. " With whatsoever measure ye mete it shall be measured unto you again," will explain many a trial which God's people suffer from. For instance, if I speak unkindly of people, some one will speak unkindly of me; my resource is to go to the Lord with my sorrows, and He will avenge me, if I have been unduly dealt with, or unrighteously condemned, though I have met with a just retribution, and it is so far permitted; yet the executioner will always suffer at God's hand condign and signal punishment. The laws I have outraged are vindicated in my public sufferings; but the "Absalom" used by God to retribute me meets with signal and terrible judgment.
As to Chastening, many term that chastening which is not so, and vice versa. We are inclined to call all treatment which is irksome to our nature, chastening; but that is not the true definition of divine correction. Again: we very often designate interruptions to our plans as such, which, in reality, have a very different object. To a certain extent they act as corrections, but their primary object is to save us from some sorrow to which we should have been exposed, if we had been allowed to prosecute our own plans; in fact, we are too much in the habit of associating the idea of penance and punishment with chastening. Now, the same word is used forty times in the Old Testament, and only ten times is it translated chastening. In all the rest it is correction. I think we may say there are three orders of correction: the first and happiest is that termed " purging," which we shall notice presently. The second is that correction which is sent to make us renounce what failure has led us into, and which is hindering our progress. For this purpose the soul is brought through sorrow and exercise; and while this process is going on, i.e. while it is passing through the sorrow, there is no fruit. It is " afterward," that it yields the " peaceable fruits of righteousness." This is easily understood, for while one is very much occu-
pied with oneself, there is no power to perceive the necessity of the correction; for we never see anything distinctly till we are some distance from it; in fact, this order of chastening is always " grievous," and during its continuance there is more or less sense of distance between the Father and the soul; while in the first order, or "purging," there is NONE WHATEVER.
The third order of correction is when God chastens His people but they do not perceive it. Careless souls are often admonished, and never know why, nor seem to care to know. But the Lord does this to vindicate His own care, so that when their eyes are opened they may recall His correction.
This is, in one sense, unhappy work, and unwilling work, if I may so say, with the Lord; but He must vindicate Himself, His care, and His correction, however little appreciated. But I believe, in such cases as these, that He always corrects as little as possible; nay, that He always corrects most where He finds most acceptance of it. Abel's death I regard as a chastening to himself, and to Adam of the second order; and as giving us a character of the correction which a righteous man needs and is subject to. No doubt there was testimony in it, but we learn from Heb. 11;12. that suffering for righteousness is used of God as a correction for ourselves, because " He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." The demand on Abram to offer up Isaac I regard as chastening, until he entered on it, and from that moment it was purging, because his soul became each moment more and more free to fulfill it, acquiring strength as it advanced.
Joseph met with much chastening. His repeating his dreams to those who could not apprehend them indicated very clearly how much he required to be humbled under the mighty hand of God: and all his history is one of correction, very graciously dealt out and profited by, and sometimes advancing into purging.
A striking example of the third order of chastening may be found in Lot's earliest sufferings in Sodom-those recounted in Gen. 14, from which Abram delivered him. We have there the Lord's dealings with an unexercised soul, in order to vindicate His own care. And though not accepted as correction at the time, Lot could not, when his eyes were opened by the final catastrophe, have charged God with neglecting to warn him.
Purging I have termed the first order of chastening or correction; but though it may be thus classed as a higher order of dealing, it is at the same time quite distinct, having this special feature, that the soul which is purged is in full sympathy with the Purger, and not only accepts, but gladly avails itself of the process (that which flails off, as it were, the hindrances to the nature of Christ having its full development, or whatever impedes its service.) This is what the Lord speaks of in John 15, where He tells us that the Father is the purger. " Every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." The convicted soul hails the means of righting itself, so to speak; like Peter when he abandoned the ship, and went to the Lord. (John 21.) I do not think he suffered at all at that moment, but that his heart grew happier the nearer he approached the Lord; and the more he did so, the more he renounced his wanderings, and condemned himself for engaging therein. He left them " with a will," as we say. And he, of all in the ship, is purged first; for be is first attracted from the ship to the Lord, thus proving what has been said, that the Lord corrects most where there is most acceptance of the correction; and the result of this in Peter was to " bring forth more fruit."
Moses was purged when told to put off his shoes, for the place whereon he stood was holy ground. And Paul, when in prison, (the result of his own failure,) is relieved from fear- by the vision at night.
I regard the blessing of Melchizedek as purging to Abraham, because it detached him from earthly expectations, and fixed him on the future more distinctly, and thus enabled him, already a fruit-bearer, to " bring forth more fruit," by refusing all the offers of the king of Sodom. When Jacob corrects Joseph as to the position of his sons, it was purging to Joseph. Again, when David puts off Saul's armor after putting it on, his correction was of the order of purging, and gladly hailed by him. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were cast into the fiery furnace, it was clearly testimony; but I think the loosing of their bands gives us an illustration of purging; for they were thereby disembarrassed in their work and testimony, in order that they might execute more efficient service. When we really seek to serve, we are delivered from what would impede our service; and this is properly purging, which is not necessarily attended with suffering, its grand object being to disembarrass the soul from what it desires to be rid of; so that it becomes coadjutor with the Father in the process, at least as to will.
As to the effect produced by each of these dealings which we have noticed, we may add, I am inclined to think that, in cases of retribution, there is no elasticity of soul until the sorrow is past. Retributive sufferings, when accepted, will always lead us rather to humiliation and casting of ourselves on God than actual fruit-bearing. They may prepare us for the latter, but the tendency of the natural man under this class of sorrow is self-vindication; and we generally have to be taught to accept the punishment of our iniquity, not as a compensation for it, but a public satisfaction for God's offended laws, according as we have publicly offended. We may have " sought to do it secretly," as David did; but the enemies of the Lord blasphemed on account of it: and his experience, while suffering from the retribution, which is given in Psalm shows us the true and proper condition of soul at such times, and the one which will lead to full deliverance. Thus will it be with Israel in the latter day. David's retributive sufferings were followed by chastening-for Absalom dies; but he returns to the throne, bearing the " peaceable fruit of righteousness."
Any suffering is chastening or correction, if the effect of it be to lead us unto God. And when we are in reality thus affected, i.e., when we have accepted it as leading us unto Him, knowing that it is necessary for us to this end, and therefore willingly retaining or sanctioning it, then the chastening has advanced to purging, which often follows the lower order of correction, but which is nevertheless distinct from it, and which always produces joy and vigor of soul, increased fruit-bearing, and freedom for service.