Page images
PDF
EPUB

the arguments of his neighbour, and afterwards, as well as before, he keeps on knocking and entreating. At length, he that is in the chamber, tired with the noise, springs from his couch, bursts open the window, and gives the petitioner what he requests.

"I say unto you," concludes the Lord in the parable, "though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth." O what consolation is there in these words! What a condescension of the Lord to our infirmity! Therefore, He means to say, "only persevere in prayer;" and even when there may seem to be no answer, persevere still!-Certainly He will eventually give to you, because He is favourably inclined to such petitioners, and is your Friend. Supposing, however, He were not so, supposing He stood as you might falsely fancy to yourself, firmly opposed to you; continue nevertheless to knock on with your sighs and, doubt not, you will be received. Even on account of your importunity, and your persevering prayer, He will extend unto you his saving hand. This is what Jesus means to say. Can there be condescension more lovely, unto the necessity of our infirmity, than is here shown by the Lord? Can there be more powerful consolation, or a more complete dispelling of doubt, than here? Be it therefore that you are beloved of God or not; the question of our communing with Jesus in the human form need not cause you disquiet. To the importunate petitioner, who will not allow himself to be checked or deterred by any thing, will be granted what he needs. "And I say unto you," says the Lord, "ask and it shall be given to you; seek

and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you!"

Avail yourself therefore of the great privileges that are given unto you before the gate of the rich Lord, and leave him not ere He blesses you and teaches you the song of peace and salvation.

353

XII.

HAZAEL.

"WHEN thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him, lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the very last mite.”1 What a fulness of meaning is contained in the rough shell of this simple parable! In truth, it sets forth the greatest and most important problem upon earth; whilst, at the same time, it permits the sweet light of the gospel to soften the terror which it inspires.

We are proceeding before the "magistrate." The magistrate or governor is God. We are all going, running, flying towards his seat of judgment-atheists, believers in God, all of us. Whether you remain where you now sojourn, or flee with the wings of the morning to the uttermost parts of the sea, we shall meet again. Whether it be to-morrow, or after the lapse of years, before the face of Him who holds the sceptre and the balance, we shall all again meet together. As yet we are only "in the way." An "adversary"

Luke xii. 58, 59.

goes with us. To be delivered from him in the proper way is the business about which we are occupied. The adversary is the divine law; the divine, I say, which demands that holiness of thought and action in which there is no blemish. That law is against you, whatever other, termed moral, human or civil law, be for you. Stand forward and answer; does it not accuse you as you approach it? Yes, its accusation becomes more and more loud in your conscience, in the remorse which is gnawing at your heart, in your dread of death, in your awe at the word " sins," for, in reference to yourself, you will only plead guilty to "errors;" it is in your hypocrisy, with which consciously and unconsciously you are ever busy to appear other than what you are. Why other? Because you are obliged to lay aside your true form. Or would you suffer that your chamber walls might speak, and only for one single day that your heart should be laid open before the eyes of all? You fall back in affright at the very thought! But to get on a friendly footing with that adversary," is a work towards which we by no means do too much, when we devote thereunto all our cares, thoughts and efforts. It is the most important and profitable work to which we can apply our thoughts and our energies.

[ocr errors]

Behold yonder poor creatures, how they scourge and draw the blood from themselves. You suspect with what view they do so; they contemplate great things, but thus it will not succeed. Look at these penitents here, these fasting ones, these prayer-saying ones by day and by night. The object for which they are struggling is worthy of the struggle; but it cannot be thus attained. Behold, how each morning they awake with the renewed

holy design of to-day at length loving God completely, to deny the world completely, and to preserve the heart entirely unstained, and to do only what is right; but return to them again in the evening, and ask them if they have succeeded, and depend upon it you will find them sighing and lamenting, if not even lying prostrate in the dust in despair. And observe again others, those who have been delivered from the adversary. They have a law which declares itself satisfied, if no gross sin is committed, and if outwardly, at least, they walk honestly; and this law approves them and flatters them. Had that law but the power of justification, and the sanction of God; but that validity is wanting

there it fails confirmation. And following this selfmade law, the people are pursued by the divine law, although unseen, and what that pronounces upon their deeds is confirmed by the decisive sentence of the final judgment. Alas! what varied and exhausting efforts have been made in the world to effect an understanding and to make peace with the adversary! How much tribulation and misery has this task caused! And is this to be wondered at? If we are not delivered from the adversary, then are we turned over to the judge, and the judge will deliver us to the officer, (you know who he is ;) and he will cast us into prison, and we shall not depart until we have paid the very last mite: which means, in other words, that out of that abyss of destruction there is no escape. He who in the sunshine of the period of grace kept not the law, how will he be capable of keeping it in the hell-furnace of divine wrath?

How then, in truth, shall we be delivered from the adversary? Not, friends, that thereby, in wicked arbi

« PreviousContinue »