That strong or sudden affections of the mind have had wonderful effect on the body, must have been the observation of every age, so that we need not speak of it. But that Scripture both recognizes and illustrates this fact, when the affection of the mind is conviction of sin, we may profitably consider for a little.
In Psa. 32, the soul guilty, silent, unrepentant, gives a miserable account of itself; telling how the moisture of the body was turned into summer's drought, and how the bones waxed old through the roaring of the conscience all the day.
In Dan. 10, the prophet tells us that when the glory appeared to him, on the banks of the Hiddekel, his comeliness was turned into corruption; and this was conscience, not disease. The glory, or the divine presence, let Daniel know that he was a sinner, and the sense of that was intolerable. A sinner comes short of the glory of Gog. (Rom. 3:2, 32Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. 3For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? (Romans 3:2‑3).) Adam, in innocency, did not thus tremble, nor do the elect angels that have kept their first estate. They stand on Mount Sinai unabashed. (Heb. 2:22For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; (Hebrews 2:2).) Conscience must account for this overwhelming of Daniel, and of others in like condition-.
When sin is appreciated, when the conscience is convicted, or when God brings Himself near, we find it to be too much for us; and this may be either by inward power over the soul, as in Psa. 32, or by manifestation of glory, as in Dan. 10.
Man is a rebel. He has done all to dishonor God that he was capable of doing. He gave Him up to the lie of His accuser. The divine presence, or the sense of it on the conscience, must be terrible to such an one. It lays the sentence of death in him. Generally, we have but a poor apprehension of what sin has wrought, and but a feeble sense of what sin itself is. Were it otherwise, were we more in the light and power of God's word as to this, some of His dealings with our fellow-sinners would be more simply accepted by us; they would be seen in their real consistency, however strange they might appear to be in the judgment of the mere moral sense of man.
Nay, we should be then prepared for something more out of the way than modern times have ever exhibited, even for such a sight as the cattle of the field, the mules, the asses, and the oxen, being put under sackcloth.
Did conviction of sin, under the hand of God, ever express itself so? We know it did. But was it not absurd? Would not men hold such an exhibition in contempt? And yet this was what the Spirit of God wrought. "I am not mad, most noble Festus," said one; and it is equally with his words, words of "truth and soberness" with us, when we say, that a dumb ass, with man's mouth, shall speak as from God to a sinner, and an ass clothed in sackcloth shall speak as from a poor convicted sinner to God. "Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not." (Jonah 3:99Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? (Jonah 3:9).)
The glory, we well know, may so array or veil itself, as to suit itself to our condition as sinners. It may do this at once, or after some interval. This variety is found in the ways and manifestations of grace. But when the glory thus appears, it will be infinitely grateful to faith. But let it be revealed simply, and not under such conditions, and the soul will find it intolerable. "We have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
In the day of Ex. 19; 20, Israel was called into the presence of God, but not under such conditions as suited a sinner, and the stoutest in the camp trembled. But when the same Israel, afterward, in the day of Lev. 8; 9, was called into the same presence, under such conditions as suited a sinner, they shouted for joy and worshipped. This was the difference between Mount Sinai and the door of the Tabernacle. The fire that was ready to consume the transgressor accompanied the glory, or the divine presence, on the Mount -the fire that witnessed the justification of a sinner accompanied it at the door of the Tabernacle.
These were two occasions, separated by a long interval. In other cases, the interval is scarcely anything. It is thus in the case of Isaiah. Isaiah saw the glory in its judicial character, which is its simple, proper, native character in a rebel-world like our's, and in the eye of a rebel-creature like man. For God, showing Himself as God, to a wicked creature, cannot but show Himself in judgment, and such an one cannot stand it. Isaiah is overwhelmed. He takes the sentence of death into himself. "Woe is me," says be, "I am undone." But then, immediately after, the altar appearing in company with the glory, and the virtue of the altar being conveyed to him, convicted as he had been, he no longer trembles, but is ready to serve in perfect freedom of heart.
It had been exactly thus with Adam, at the beginning. The presence of the Lord God in the garden, in the cool of the day, was too much for him. To be sure it was. He had sinned, and he could not but prove in his conscience that he, had come short of the glory of God. He hid himself. But afterward, when the Lord in His word to the serpent, had revealed the mystery of Christ, or the death and victory of the woman's Seed, then Adam can leave his hiding-place, and in peacefulness and confidence return to the divine presence, and there talk of life, accepting, in the, coat of skins, the salvation of God., (Gen. 3)
In Peter's history we see the same. His conscience, as I may say, entertained the glory or the divine presence. The sense of it was communicated to him in the draft of fishes which revealed the Stranger; and he falls before it. But immediately afterward the glory, clothing itself in that character which suited Peter, as "a sinful man," which he had discovered himself to be, he is happy and free. "Fear not," says the Lord of the glory to him; and then, like Isaiah before him, he is ready to leave all for Jesus.
And so it was with Saul, on the road to Damascus. It was unveiled glory, or the simple power of the presence of God, that then applied itself as to a rebel, a child of Adam, one fighting against God; and such an one falls before it. Saul is struck to the earth. And John, in the Isle of Patmos, is like one dead in the same presence. (See Acts 9 Rev. 1) But Saul and John, like Peter, are relieved as soon as the glory arrays itself in a character suited to their convicted condition; which it does with John immediately, and with Saul after three days.
The glory thus arraying itself; as I have expressed it, or taking a character suited to us sinners, is spoken of by the apostle, as "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." A beautiful and blessed sentence. "The glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." It is God coming near to us in the way that makes His presence infinitely suitable and welcome. It brings our preparation for it, with it. If the King enter so, He has our wedding-garment with Him, and we know ourselves fitted guests then. But let it be otherwise, and His presence is too' much for us; we cannot attain it, or reach it.
Without any interval, either long or short, the presence of God will sometimes suit itself to us, the moment we apprehend it. It was thus with Moses, in Ex. 33. He saw the back parts and not the face, as the expression there is, and lie saw this from the cleft rock, and he worshipped. There was no terror-for it was not the conscience that was called, on that occasion, to entertain the glory. And that makes all the difference.
It was the same with Abraham, in Gen. 18. It was not the conscience, if I may so speak, that acted the host, when the calf, tender and good, was laid out under the tree. Indeed, the conscience could never have done such service. It would never have been called to it. Abraham then, in perfect ease, enjoyed the divine presence, and used the privilege of it, because the Lord was there putting Himself in such relationship to His servant, as could not but win his confidence. He had come to his tent door as a traveler, ready to accept his hospitality. Such a veil over the glory as that might well challenge the liberty and ease of heart of the patriarch. The Lord had gone to be guest with a man that was a sinner-but sinner as he was, it could not be a trembling conscience, but a happy heart, that entertained Him. And there lies the secret and the difference. Is it conscience, or is it faith, that enters the presence of the Lord? Does God bring Himself before the apprehensions of the soul simply as God in a world of sin, or does He come under conditions that suit the sinner?
This difference is to be noticed in preaching, as well as in these different cases. Consider the fragments of apostolic sermons in the Book of the Acts. This difference makes itself apparent there. Peter's word in chap. 2 addresses itself to the conscience of the Jews, and they cry out under it:- Paul's word in chap. 13 addresses itself 'to the affections, and the Gentiles listen to it with delight. The one presented to the Jew his sin in crucifying Jesus, and the danger that followed that sin, inasmuch as the One whom he had crucified, God had raised and exalted, making Him Lord and Christ. The other presented, on the other hand, the grace of God, from the beginning to that moment.
This preaching, this which we thus find in Acts 13, draws the heart. The glory, as it were, comes under a suited veil, and the sinner welcomes it at once, as Moses did in the cleft of the rock. I believe it was thus with. Zaccheus in his day, in Luke 19 How gently was that Publican of Jericho brought to Jesus! The Spirit visited his heart, imparting to him a desire to see Jesus, and giving great strength and authority to that desire. So, in the case of the eunuch. He had gone to Jerusalem as a worshipper; he was now coming from Jerusalem as an inquirer. The Spirit of God, or the drawings of the Father, had visited his soul, and made him unsatisfied with all the religion he had been performing in the great city of solemnities; and the worshipper had become an inquirer. The plowshare had been at work, it is true, but it had been doing its work noiselessly; for Jesus, as the Savior, had been brought at once before him. He was reading the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. He knew it not as yet; but still it was the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ", that he was looking at-and Philip has but to show him the secret of that scripture which had already interested him; and then he soon went on his way, full of joy.
And it was thus with the people in the synagogue at Antioch, to whom I just alluded. They were attracted by Paul's testimony to the grace of God in the history of Israel, from the day of the call of Abraham to the day of the resurrection of Christ. These were cords of love, as it were, taken from the counsels and ways of God; and they drew the hearts of the hearers, as the thunders of the fiery hill would startle the conscience the hearers (Acts 13).
Most surely, I would add, the conscience in such cases as these of Zaccheus, and of the eunuch, and of the Gentiles in the synagogue at Antioch, was reached sooner or later. It must be so, whenever there is a saving work of God in the soul. I only notice these cases as showing us, that in some instances, the work on the affections is the characteristic, where the sense of God's presence is brought in company with something that suits that presence to a sinner, or (as scripture expresses, and as I have already mentioned), when " the glory of God" shines in upon the soul, as in "the face of Jesus Christ."
If it do not so shine, let me again say, the glory or the divine. presence must be too much for us-and that too, whether it be simply apprehended by the soul or be conveyed by some palpable manifestation of itself-as we saw before, in the different cases of Psa. 32, and Dan. 10 Man, as man, cannot confront God, as God. Impossible. The mountains and the rocks would be called on to hide him, rather than that that presence should be encountered. We must not wonder at this, nor doubt it. Nor indeed shall we, if we duly judge our own ruined, self-ruined, condition, and what the glory of the Blessed One is; and we need not think of denying this. It is so, ourselves being witnesses. For let us ask ourselves or our fellows this-If the glory were to appear this moment, would not man be found a coward, however brave he might have been a moment before? We know he would. The man in the parable was in the pastime and the feasting of the marriage-supper, free and easy enough; but as soon as the king appeared, he was speechless: (Matt. 22) This is so, as the Lord teaches, and as the fallen, revolted nature experiences.
Nay, further, under or before the authority of God's assembly, where the divine presence may be judged as in but a chastened reflection, the same effect is contemplated. The stranger there, brought to acknowledge God, is spoken of as "falling down." (See 1 Cor. 14:2525And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. (1 Corinthians 14:25).)
And again, let me say, all depends on the divine presence making itself known, either simply, or under such conditions as suit, in grace, our ruined character as sinners. In other words, all depends on this-whether conscience or faith be called to entertain the divine presence. If the glory address me just as I am, if it shine on me as from the face of Moses, I must fall to the earth, or in some way or other take the sentence of death into my soul—if it come, suiting itself to me a sinner, if it shine on me as from the face of Jesus, and my faith entertain it, I worship.
And at times God is pleased to afford very vivid expression of these things, in order to give the generation a fresh sense of eternal realities. And is He not doing this now? I believe He is. He would have us know more deeply than we are wont to do, that sin is a reality, judgment a reality, hell a reality; and accordingly, He is presenting, fresh from under His own hand, samples of the force and authority of these realities upon the conscience of man. And seeing, also, that salvation is a reality, a present reality, together with that peace and joy in the Holy Ghost which properly wait on it, He is also presenting living, happy, thankful witnesses to this reality, with these its attendant virtues.
For the Lord has ever had both His ordinary and His extraordinary seasons, in the course of His dispensations; and such extraordinary seasons may be well called "revivals." Such were the days of Samuel and Jehoshaphat, of Hezekiah and of Josiah, of Ezra and of Nehemiah likewise. His way, or form, or character of acting then, as by His Spirit in the midst of His people, was marked and peculiar, thus making the moment peculiar.
Such are not properly times of miracles, only of special spiritual energy. Miracles wait on fresh apostle-ships, or the instituting of a dispensation; as were the days of Moses and of Christ. I say not, that they are confined to such times, but they naturally belong to them. But as miracles thus seal and signify some fresh apostleship or dispensation, a peculiar measure and visitation of spiritual energy will mark the day on which God, in His counseled grace, would impress a peculiar or extraordinary character. And again I say, such I believe to be the present.
It may be but short—and that is according to precedent-for the energies which signalized days of revival in Israel, whether while under their own. Kings, or after their return from Babylon, were but passing.
I doubt not that some or much of what has been seen of late, in places where there has been remarkable awakening of souls, may have come from the force of sympathy-from the infirmity of nature-from the acts and practicing of men likewise, and surely, I may add, from the direct power of the enemy; for as to this last, we are not ignorant of his devices. He will, at times, transform himself into an angel of light, and make his ministers, ministers of righteousness. At times, also, he will combine with an energy of God, for the purpose of neutralizing it, or bringing it into question and discredit. He did this in Egypt, through the magicians of Pharaoh. He sought to do this again, in the midst of the returned captives, making attempts, in the persons of the Samaritans, and certain of the uncircumcised, to join with the true Israel of God in the work of God. But he did not succeed. The energy then, in such servants of Jehovah, as Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, was a holy energy, because it was divine, and this attempt was defeated. The confederacy was refused.
This same attempt was made again, in the days of the Lord. Satan sought to bear testimony to Jesus, but Jesus would not receive it. (See Mark 1; 3)
And so, afterward, in the ministry of St. Paul, a damsel possessed with a spirit of divination followed him and his fellow-laborers, saying, " these men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation." But, in the spirit of his Master, Paul would not admit this. " Being grieved, he turned and said to the spirit, I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her."
I believe, therefore, we should be prepared to find leaven in the lump. But we ought to have both light to detect it, and strength to purge it out. Energy, if spiritual, is pure, as well as large, and firm, and gracious. It has fine combinations of its own, though it refuse fellowship with the works of darkness. While it yearns over Corinthian saints in the large and kindled bowels of Christ, yet it says, "what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6)
Whatever measure of these things may be in the present manifestation, still this leaves the work itself as God's work, of which I have no doubt. Surely it bears upon it the broad seal of His own precious power. We ought to have a heart for such a time. If a man will measure 'it by his own rules, this his way will be found to be his folly.
While, however, saying this, and claiming the heart as well as the judgment and conviction for this present work of God, I would also say, We are not to surrender what we have of God's truth, or any part of it, to it. We are 'not to treat it as we would Scripture. It is not authority, as-inspiration is. We are to judge it rather than to bow to it. It may be mixed with what is of man; and Satan, we know, and as we have before said, will be busy when God, in grace, is active. Human infirmity and man's hypocrisies and imitations may, likewise; be expected. But even without these accretions, as we may speak, and looking at this work as the work of the Spirit in the souls of sinners, and having in that character a great measure of blessedness; still it is not to get from us the surrender of anything we already have. It is not inspiration, nor can it claim to be authority, however attractive it may be, and properly so.
When the Syro-phoenician came to the Lord, there was a very attractive object before Him, a fresh sample of divine power, a stranger bringing her sorrow to Him in the conviction that none-could help her but Himself. This was just the very thing that would have had attraction for Christ-helpless misery appealing to Him. He was here for the very end of doing works of grace, which none other could do. But He did not fall under the power of this attraction, or surrender anything of God to it. He held fast what He had, in the very face of it, as I may say. She was a Syro-phoenician by nation, and He had come only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He had, therefore, no hand for her need (I can scarcely say no ear for her cry), till she took her Gentile place.
Thus Jesus, the great exemplar, acted in a day of great spiritual attraction, when, had he simply and, at once followed the excitement, and in one sense the proper excitement, or claim of the moment, He would have been forgetful of God's principles.
And in the day of Acts 18, I see something of the like kind. Apollos was eloquent and fervent in spirit-a happy witness, I am sure, he must have been of divine handiwork-a freshly, wrought sample of what grace could do. He must have been very attractive in the eyes of his elders in Christ, Aquila and Priscilla. But we find that Aquila and Priscilla would not surrender anything to him. They would delight themselves, I doubt not, in his fervent, eloquent, mighty use of scripture, but instead of yielding up to that delight anything they already had, they take him and teach him the way of God more perfectly.
And thus is it to be with us at this time. Let, us take our delight in this fresh work, get blessing to ourselves out of it, be thankful on the behalf of thousands for it; but let us still hold fast that which we have of God from His word, and which, perhaps, none of these thousands have. For this work, though precious work of God, His own quickening, illuminating, gladdening virtue in sinners like ourselves, again I say, is not authority. It is not as scripture or inspiration.
God's way, already made known in His word, will take its way, and our eye must not be diverted. We may pray that this gracious power of the Spirit, which is now abroad, may do a plenteous work everywhere; but we are to remember the apostle's word to Timothy, " Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus."
This is a seasonable word. And among other applications of it to the present moment, I believe we may remember what we have learned touching the coming history of the world, that we may continue therein. For there are some, true and earnest-hearted saints of God, who would fain hail the present work of God as a pledge that the whole world was in progress to be brought to the obedience of Christ, But we have already surely learned that it is hastening to judgment, and that glory cannot fill the earth till judgments have cleared it and cleansed it-that it is not the office of the Spirit to prepare the earth for Jesus and His kingdom, but to gather an elect people out of it for Jesus and for heaven. The Spirit seals the heirs, but He does not redeem the inheritance.
Neither are we to forget the holiness and peculiarity of God's house, because of all this gracious and attractive visitation. It has a socializing influence. The present power of God has been rejoiced in by many of all sections among us; and this common joy, sweet and heavenly as it is, has a tendency to make us forget all but itself and the thing that has produced it. But we are not to be thus forgetful. We are to hold fast what we have learned from holy scripture, respecting the Church, its principles of order, its peculiarity and its holiness; just as we are to hold fast what, in like manner, we have learned respecting the world and its judgment, and the way of the entrance of the earth into the glory.
We are to continue in what we have learned, and not to surrender it to any attraction. But while remembering this, again I would say, the present is a time of God's power, I am sure, and the work of His Spirit in the souls of sinners is large and blessed.
One loves to see life showing itself in its freedom-yea, in something more than its freedom. Life is not to be treated as a measured thing, which rules and sustains itself by strict regimen and prescription; it is a nobler thing, which knows a pulse that beats strong and quick. Under its strugglings with the power or sentence of death, a king will disrobe himself; and with his nobles and people, and with the very beasts of the field, will put himself in sackcloth. Or a fisherman will fall on his face in a sinking boat, and pour out the convictions of a wounded conscience, careless whether the boat sink or swim. And under the joy and health of it, another king will disrobe himself and dance, as others may judge, like one of the abjects, making himself vile. But we may well cherish a heart for these things of life-and again we say, if men will measure them by their rules, this their wisdom shall be one day found to be folly.
And it is weakness that has again, in this day, been made strength. God's ancient weapons of war have been taken in hand, as in other days. The spears, and bucklers, and shields of David, that were hung up in the house of God, were called out for service by Jehoiada, when a usurpation was to be judged. (2 Chron. 23) It is the weak thing that has lately been confounding the mighty, as a shout once brought down a city's walls, and a sling a giant. These were the Lord's weapons of old, and He has been letting it be known, that they are His weapons still.
May every expression of His grace now in the salvation of sinners be only a fresh reason with the hearts of His saints, to wait for and long for the coming day of His glory! His provisions by the way are met, as He is Himself at the end of way. May we know this!
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