IF we live in a day of crying wrongs, it is not because it is not a day of pleaded “rights.” We hear it on every side. There are royal rights and the people’s rights, national rights and municipal rights, religious rights and commercial rights, workmen’s rights and employers’ rights, and (that nobody should be left out) men’s rights and women’s rights. With what dogged tenacity will man cling to his so-called rights; how hotly will he contend for them; and how indignantly will he resent any infringement of them.
But suppose that the justice of every such plea could be granted, what about God? It would almost appear today that amidst all the hubbub for the creature’s rights the Creator’s rights had either been well-nigh forgotten or willfully ignored. Let us consider this grave matter more closely. Has He no rights?
There are two great powers at work in the world today, the Holy Spirit of God and “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”
The first maintains the right of God to bless the children of men by securing a place for Himself in their hearts, and this through Christ and what He accomplished on the cross.
The second seeks to set Christ and His atoning work aside altogether. To this end he induces man to mentally frame a god according to his own ideas of what God ought to be, and with this either to deny the necessity of redemption by blood altogether, or else to cast a slur upon the efficacy of the atoning work by detracting from the personal glory of Him who did it.
It is a solemn consideration that every reader of this paper is being influenced by one or other of these powers, and the great test for each is found in the Saviour’s own words (Matt. 22:4242Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. (Matthew 22:42)), “What think ye of Christ?”
If you have ever been brought to real repentance toward God, nothing short of Christ could meet your conscience or satisfy your heart. You came as a sinner to Him: you could do, you dare do no other. You not only saw that sin must have its just judgment, but you pronounced judgment upon your own sin. You knew that God, in the very necessity of His holy nature and righteous character, must bring every evil thing into judgment; but that in the death of Christ for you He had already done it; that expiation had been made: sin’s penalty endured.
But more than this, you saw that there was a, gracious motive in all that had been done, a, motive worthy of the blessed God Himself. LOVE, infinite love, was in it. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)). The confidence of your heart was drawn out to God through Christ, and you could afford, because of what He was, to pronounce the sentence of condemnation on what you were.
Now probably no one would go so far as to deny God His sovereign right to show mercy. But this granted, another thing must follow. If He has the right to show mercy at all, surely He has a right to show it in His own way. Surely He is in no way dependent upon His creature to tell Him how He is to do it! Show mercy He will; nay, He has already done so in the death of His beloved Son; He has declared Himself in that very act as not against man, but for him. But this is just what the enemy hates, and against which, either in secret ambush or in public battle array, he marshals his hostile forces. Beware of him, my reader.
When Oliver, Cromwell was besieging the town of Wexford, in Ireland, the commander-in-chief of the town forces sent by special messenger the terms on which he would surrender the town to the Protector.
But there was another side, Cromwell’s side. Mercy was offered to the town, but only on the ground of unconditional surrender before a certain hour of a certain day. This offer was proudly disregarded; the commander in the besieged city insisted on making his own terms, and history records the sequel.
There were no less than ten stipulations in the document, one of which ran thus:—
“All acts, transgressions, offenses, depredations, and other crimes, of what nature or quality soever, be they ever so transcendent... shall pass into oblivion; without chastisement, challenge, recompense, demand, or questioning for them, or any of them, now or any time hereinafter.”
Such a demand under the circumstances was regarded as nothing short of barefaced impudence.
When the appointed time had expired Oliver Cromwell showed no mercy, save as he considered that extreme measures in one place would prove a mercy to other places by stopping further bloodshed. Power, overwhelming power, was on his side, and he used it with such vengeance as made his opposers think twice before they idly tried to parley with the terms he thought well to offer.
“When Thy judgments are in the earth,” said the prophet, “the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isa. 26:99With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. (Isaiah 26:9)). But how slow man is to learn it, while on every side grace is flowing like a river, and “sentence against man’s evil work is not speedily executed.”
Many condescend to recognize God’s existence, though in reality they can no more deny it than could the Wexford commander deny the existence of Cromwell as he stood with iron hand at his closed gates. Others will even patronize God by serving Him, if only left to do so according to their own ideas. But let the question of sin come up, and they coolly talk as if, in such a trifling matter as sin against God, the offender must be left to dictate his own terms and say what God ought to be and what He ought not to be!
If a man has committed an offense which is worthy of death, then according to the king’s rights and that man’s deserts he must die for his crime. What would be done, if on the way to execution, he tried to dictate his own terms to the sovereign? Would the sentence be reversed or even commuted? Would he be listened to? No, not for a moment. His right is to die!
From the beginning God has claimed His right to show mercy to fallen man, but He has done so according to His own holiness, and therefore in the full recognition of sin’s just deserts.
He claimed His right to show mercy to our first parents, but it was in clothing them with that which testified of death having taken place, or the skin of the animal could not have been provided.
He claimed his right to show mercy to Noah, but judgment fell on the ark that sheltered him.
He claimed His right to shelter Israel, the night of Egypt’s judgment, but it was only when He saw the sprinkled blood that He passed by each door. Death was in every house in Egypt—a dead lamb or a dead son.
He claimed His right to show mercy to Israel by typically atoning for their sins once a year, but His golden mercy-seat was, year by year, sprinkled with the blood of atonement.
Today He claims His right to show mercy by proclaiming free pardon to man, for “He is rich in mercy”; but it is only through repentance on man’s side and the blood of propitiation on God’s. “Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9:2222And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)). “We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:77In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7)).
But do not forget that this period of grace and mercy is fast wearing away. Judgment will follow, a judgment all the more terrible because it will follow nineteen centuries of slighted grace and mercy.
God’s rights must be respected, either as they are presented in grace through righteousness now, or in judgment, without mercy in the day that is coming. Bow to His present right to bless you, in His own way; and do it now.
GEO. C.
Feelings and Faith.— “Do you talk about feeling that the dead in their graves will be raised again? Do you feel that the cold of winter will be followed by the heat of summer? No. You believe these things; to talk of feeling would be absurd.
“Feelings are more fickle than the winds, more unsubstantial than soap bubbles, and are these to be the gauge of divine fidelity?” —Extract.