1 Pedro 1:6-9

Wherein ye greatly rejoice.

Joy and trial in the Christian’s life

I. The Christian’s joy.

1. It is present joy. God’s service is gladsome even now (1 Pedro 1:8; Filipenses 4:4). Nor is this joy for advanced believers only, but for all true-hearted seekers after God (Salmos 105:3).

2. It is great joy (Salmos 68:3).

3. There are many sources of the Christian’s great joy, but the particular one here mentioned is the present happiness afforded by a believing expectation of the joys laid up for him in eternity.

4. There are important reasons why we all ought to be joyful Christians.

(1) It is our privilege as Christians. When we may be so much happier than we are, what folly not to exercise our right!

(2) Our influence for good over others depends greatly upon the apparent result which religion produces in our own case.

(3) Very much of our own stability as Christians depends upon our joyfulness (Neemias 8:10).

II. The Christian’s trial. There is nothing whatever unchequered here below-no joy without sorrow, no sunshine without shadow, no harmony unmixed with discord, Life is like an April day.

1. “Ye are in heaviness”-pressed down, forced to the earth, as if under some cruel load. The Christian’s joy is from heaven, his grief from earth. These two are ever at war with one another.

2. “Ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” Persecutions abounded. The devil aimed his fiery darts at them. The world spread its allurements for them.

3. Yet this state of trial has its alleviations.

(1) It is only “for a season,” whereas the Christian’s joy endures forever (Salmos 30:5; 2 Coríntios 4:17).

(2) It is only “if need be”-if there is a necessity, if some good can be effected by it.

III. The union of joy and trial in the Christian’s earthly lot. Does the text teach that times of trial are destroyers of the Christian’s joy, even for a season? On the contrary, St. Peter speaks of the “heaviness” only to give us a more exalted idea of the mighty power of the “joy.” “Ye greatly rejoice, though ye are in heaviness”; your hearts remain glad in spite of your trials.

Clouds come, but the sun breaks through them and goes on shining still. Obstacles arise, but the bright river of the Christian’s peace flows past and over them, deep and glad as before. The one great peculiarity of the Christian’s joy is its comparative independence of outward circumstances-nay, its triumph over them. Worldly men can rejoice when all is prosperous. If, therefore, the Christian’s joy vanished at the approach of sorrow, men might well ask wherein the Christian differed from others? (J. Henry Burn, B. D.)

The Christian’s joy and the Christian’s sufferings

I. The Christian’s joy.

1. Its greatness. “Wherein ye greatly rejoice.” There are only three things really great in the universe-God and the soul and eternity, and as religion has to do with them all its dealings have something superior in them all.

2. Its ground.

(1) The Christian’s joy is not unfounded.

(2) The Christian’s joy is founded principally upon spiritual and eternal things.

II. The Christian’s grief.

1. The nature of the Christian’s sufferings.

2. The number.

3. Their influence.

4. Their expediency.

5. Their duration. (W. Jay.)

The Christian’s heaviness and rejoicing

I. His heaviness.

1. If we were not in heaviness during our troubles we should not be like our Covenant Head-Christ Jesus.

2. If we did not suffer heaviness we would begin to grow too proud, and become too great in our own esteem.

3. In heaviness we often learn lessons that we never could attain elsewhere. “Ah!” said Luther, “affliction is the best book in my library,” and let me add the best leaf in the book of affliction is that blackest of all the leaves, the leaf called heaviness, when the spirit sinks within us, and we cannot endure as we could wish.

4. This heaviness is of essential use to a Christian if he would do good to others. Who shall speak to those whose hearts are broken but those whose hearts have been broken also?

II. His rejoicing. Mariners tell us that there are some parts of the sea where there is a strong current upon the surface going one way, but that down in the depths there is a strong current running the other way. Two seas do not meet and interfere with one another, but one stream of water on the surface is running in one direction, and another below in an opposite direction. Now the Christian is like that.

On the surface there is a stream of heaviness rolling with dark waves, but down in the depths there is a strong undercurrent of great rejoicing that is always flowing there. The apostle is writing “to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus.”

1. The first thing that he says to them is, that they are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God,” “wherein we greatly rejoice.” Ah! even when the Christian is most “in heaviness through manifold temptations,” what a mercy it is that he can know that he is still elect of God!

2. The apostle says that we are “elect through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ”-“wherein we greatly rejoice.” Is the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ girt about my loins, to be my beauty; and is the blood of Jesus sprinkled upon me to take away all my guilt and all my sin, and shall I not in this greatly rejoice?

3. But the great and cheering comfort of the apostle is, that we are elect unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. And here is the grand comfort of the Christian.

4. There is one more doctrine that will always cheer a Christian, this perhaps is the one chiefly intended here in the text. “Reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” This will be one of the greatest cordials to a Christian in heaviness, that he is not kept by his own power, but by the power of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The sweetest joys learned in trial

Very many of the sweetest joys of Christian hearts are songs which have been learned in the bitter ness of trial. It is said of the canary bird that he will never learn to sing the song his master will have him sing while it is light in his cage. He learns a snatch of every song he hears, but will not learn a full separate melody of its own. And the master covers the cage and makes it dark all about the bird, and then he listens and learns the one song that is taught to him until his heart is full of it.

Then, ever after, he sings the song in the light. With many of us it is as with the bird. The Master has a song He wants to teach to us, but we learn only a strain of it, a note here and there, while we catch up snatches of the world’s songs and sing them with it. Then He comes and makes it dark about us till we learn the sweet melody He would teach us. Many of the loveliest songs of peace and trust sung by God’s children in this world they have been taught in the darkened chamber of sorrow.

Triumph of the soul over trial

There are even many facts in our ordinary human experience that render quite conceivable this triumph of the soul over all surrounding tribulations and distresses. What cares the patient, toiling man of science for the incredulity and jeers of his neighbours, or the vexations of poverty, when first the obscurity and meanness of his lonely chamber are lighted up by the flash of some great discovery? How superior to threats and discouragements of every kind was the mighty heart of Columbus as he calmly forced his way through the veil of waters toward this unseen world! Nay, how often has the bitterness of death itself been overcome to the soldier on the battlefield and the patriot on the scaffold, by the silent anticipation of the freedom and glory which their agonies secured for the country they loved! And need we then wonder if the confessors of Jesus have gone singing to the stake, and their shout of victory has been stifled only by the flames into which they sank? (J. Lillie, D. D.)

Joy in heaviness

They say that springs of sweet fresh water well up amid the brine of salt seas; that the fairest Alpine flowers bloom in the wildest, ruggedest mountain passes; that the noblest psalms were the outcome of the profoundest agony of soul. Be it so. And thus amid manifold trials souls which love God will find reasons for bounding, leaping joy. Have you learnt this lesson yet? Not simply to endure God’s will, nor only to choose it, nor only to trust it, but to rejoice in it.

Of such joy there are two sources: first, the understanding of the nature and meaning of trial; second, the soul’s love and faith in its unseen Lord. There is enough in these two for unsullied and transcendent joy; in fact, we may question whether we ever truly drink of Christ’s joy till all other sources of joy are eliminated by earthly sorrow, and we are driven to seek that joyous blessedness which no earthly sun can wither and no winter freeze (Habacuque 3:17-19). (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

Christian joy

Greek, ἀγαλλιᾶσθε, Ye dance for joy, ye dance a galliard, or as children do about a bonfire: ye cannot but express your inward joy in your countenance, voice, and gesture. (J. Trapp.)

Variableness of Christian moods

The variableness of Christian moods is often a matter of great and unnecessary suffering; but Christian life does not follow the changes of feeling. Our feelings are but the torch; and our life is the man that carries it. The wind that flares the flame does not make the man waver. The flame may sway hither and thither, but he holds his course straight on. Thus oftentimes it is that our Christian hopes are carried, as one carries a lighted candle through the windy street, that seems never to be so nearly blown out as when we step through the open door, and, in a moment, we are safe within.

Our wind-blown feelings rise and fall through all our life, and the draught of death threatens quite to extinguish them; but one moment more, and they shall rise and forever shine serenely in the unstormed air of heaven. (H. W. Beecher.)

The needs be

When our hearts grow a grain too light, God seeth it but needful to make us heavy through manifold temptations. (J. Trapp.)

The duality of Christian life

As there are two men in every true Christian, a new man and an old one, so heaviness in manifold temptation and rejoicing may readily co-exist. (J. P. Lunge.)

In heaviness through manifold temptations.-

Why the godly must undergo many troubles

1. To drive them to repentance (2 Samuel 12:18; Gênesis 42:21). They are as the shepherd’s dog, to fetch us out of the corn, to bring us into compass again (Salmos 32:4-5; Salmos 119:67; Salmos 119:71).

2. To keep them from sin, being therefore compared to a hedge of thorns (Oséias 2:6; Jó 33:17; 2 Crônicas 20:37).

3. To humble them. We have a proud nature, and while in health we think our heads half touch the clouds; therefore God pulls us down by troubles.

4. To make them more holy, to scourge off the rust, purge out some of the remnant of the old man, and renew the inner man (Isaías 4:4; Hebreus 12:10; Isaías 27:9).

5. To wean them from the world, to which even the best are too much addicted, and to make them willing to die and to be gone hence, so setting them on work to look after and make sure of a better inheritance.

6. To prove the devil a liar (Jó 1:9).

7. To keep them from hell and condemnation.

8. To bring them to heaven. (John Rogers.)

Heaven’s discipline of the good

I. The disciplinary elements are very manifold.

II. The disciplinary elements are very painful. “Ye are in heaviness.” Or, as Dr. Davidson renders it, “made sorrowful.” “Heaviness” is a relative term. What is heavy to one would be light to another. Paul gloried in tribulation.

III. The disciplinary elements are only temporary. “Now for a season.”

1. The trials of life are short compared with the enjoyments of life. They are exceptional.

2. The trials of life are short compared with the blessedness of the future.

IV. The disciplinary elements are very necessary. “If need be.” As storms in nature are necessary to purify the air, so trials are necessary to cleanse the atmosphere around the soul.

V. The disciplinary elements are always beneficent. “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth.” Nothing is more important to man than that it should be genuine. (Homilist.)

The uses of grief

What! would you choose that you alone may fare better than all God’s saints? that God should strew carpets for your nice feet only, to walk into your heaven, and make that way smooth for you which all patriarchs, prophets, evangelists, confessors, Christ Himself, have found rugged! Away with this self-love, and come down, you ambitious sons of Zebedee, and, ere you think of sitting near the throne, be content to be called unto the cross.

Now is your trial. Let your Saviour see how much of His bitter portion you can pledge. Then shall you see how much of His glory He can afford you. As snow is of itself cold, yet warms and refreshes the earth, so afflictions, though in themselves grievous, yet keep the soul of the Christian warm and make it fruitful. Let the most afflicted know and remember that it is better to be preserved in brine than to rot in honey.

After a forest fire has raged furiously, it has been found that many pine cones have had their seeds released by the heat, which ordinarily would have remained unsown. The future forest sprang from the ashes of the former. Some Christian graces, such as humility, patience, sympathy, have been evolved frown the sufferings of the saints. The furnace has been used to fructify. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Needful afflictions

Consider that all thy afflictions are needful, and work for thy good. Nothing is intolerable that is necessary. “If need be,” whilst we have diseased bodies, physic is as needful as food; whilst we have diseased souls, misery is as needful as outward mercies. The winter is as necessary to bring on harvest as the spring; affliction is as necessary to bring on the harvest of glory as any condition. (W. Swinnock.)

Trials and glory

Look upon a painted post or sign whose colour is laid in oil, how the rain beats upon it in stormy weather, that one would think all the colour would be washed off, yet how the water glides away and leaves it rather more beautiful than before. And thus it is with every child of God, being well garnished with graces of the Spirit, let the wind of persecution blow, and the floods of affliction lift up their voice, they shall never deface, but rather add unto their beauty; such is the condition of grace, that it shines the brighter for scouring, and is most glorious when it is most clouded. (J. Spencer.)

The use of trials

Suppose I made a very wonderful steam engine, and put it into a ship, to make it into a steam packet. It is all beautifully made, and complete, and I want to “try” whether it is all good; whether the machinery is right and works well. Where should I send it, into a smooth sea or a rough sea? I should send it “up the rapids”-up the river-against the stream, to see whether it would go up, I should. So God does with you. He furnishes you with everything you want-then puts you up “the rapids,” sends you on the rough water, just to “try” you, to see what you are made of.

The trial of your faith.

The trial of faith

I. The Christian’s temptations.

1. They are manifold in their nature. What a world of change and sorrow we live in t

2. They are difficult to bear; for they cause heaviness or depression of mind (Hebreus 10:32). If you are in heaviness bear it manfully, but do not show it openly. Speak of your troubles to your bosom friend, but do not talk of them to men of this world. Above all, tell them to Jesus.

3. They are temporary. The longest trials, and those which leave the deepest wounds, are but for a season.

4. They are necessary. “If need be.” Oh, there is “a needs be” for every stroke, and though we do not now understand why this trial or the other falls upon us, yet we shall know hereafter.

II. The end and aim of these temptations must be carefully observed. “They are for the trial of our faith.”

1. The value of faith cannot be overestimated. Gold perishes, but faith lives-lives in death, and far beyond it (1 Coríntios 13:13).

2. But it must be tried, and sometimes in a very severe furnace. It is proved, tested, or verified by trial, and the faith which cannot stand the ordeal is of little or no value (Jó 23:10). There are many ways in which faith is tried.

(1) It is tried by Divine commands. God gives His servants some difficult task to perform. True faith will surmount all difficulties.

(2) Faith is often tried by doubts.

(3) And faith is tried by fire-the fire of discipline, of persecution, of protracted bodily affliction.

3. The ultimate design of the trial is that it may “be found,” nothing of it being lost, “unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” (Thornley Smith.)

The testing of religious faith

I. The process of testing a man’s faith involves much pain. This we gather-

1. From the use of the word that describes the process-“temptation.”

2. From the fact that those who are being tested are often possessed with “heaviness,” “grief.”

3. From the nature of the elements employed in the process.

(1) No material element causes more pain than “fire.”

(2) These elements are “manifold.” With those to whom Peter wrote it was Gentile scorn, slander, persecution, martyrdom.

II. The process of testing a man’s faith is of such supreme worth as to compensate for all such pain.

1. The testing is only temporary.

2. The worth of the soul is tested.

3. The purpose of the process.

(1) To try the genuineness of faith.

(2) To remove alloy.

(3) To train for highest uses.

(4) To lead to highest destiny. (U. R. Thomas.)

Afflictions a test of faith

1. To try whether we have any faith.

2. To try whether our faith be as much as we take it to be or more; this, affliction will discover.

3. To purge and purify that true faith which we have, and increase it. (John Rogers.)

The trial of our faith

The apostle here expresses his very cordial sympathy with his Christian brethren under the circumstances of trial to which they were exposed. “Ye greatly rejoice in that last time,” or, as the passage might be rendered, “Wherein ye shall greatly rejoice.” “Now for a season ye are in heaviness, but in the last time-the time of Christ’s appearing-the time of your entering upon the inheritance that is incorruptible, ye shall greatly rejoice.

” But still the prospect of the great rejoicing in the last time gives some measure of rejoicing in the present. It is impossible for us to hope with anything like assurance for something that will make us very joyful without feeling in a measure joyful now. We can in a somewhat cheerful spirit bear the most dismal wintry weather, as we have the assurance of the spring and summer that are to follow.

But this joy is mingled with sorrow. “Now for a season ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” And this brings us to the subject of our text-namely, the trial of our faith. Now your faith is your confidence in God. Your faith is your confidence in God’s being, and doing all that in His Word He is represented to be and to have done; your confidence in God as infinitely wise, and mighty, and righteous, and merciful; your confidence in Him as having provided a full and free redemption for mankind through the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ; your confidence in Him as certain to fulfil all the great promises that He has given to His people.

That is your faith, your confidence in God. And concerning the trial of this the apostle here speaks. But, first, of this faith he says that it is more precious than gold. I think I can appeal to every Christian here, and say, “Now, you would be sorry to lose your property, no doubt?” Quite natural. But still, do not you as Christians feel that we would rather be beggared today than lose this precious faith of which the Apostle Peter speaks? Well, this faith, he tells us, is to be tried.

That is to say, our faith is subjected to proof-put to the test. If we profess to be Christians, it is very important that the world and the Church and ourselves should have some proof of our Christianity that this profession of ours is a right, honest thing, and neither a piece of hypocrisy nor a piece of self-delusion. And so for our own sakes first of all, but also for the sake of the Church, which we have no right to deceive, and for the sake of the world, which also has a claim to know the genuineness of our religious profession-it is necessary that our faith should be proved.

Now, unfortunately, we have in our religious phraseology nearly lost sight of this very common sense meaning of the word “trial.” When you talk about the trial of a steamship or the trial of a hundred-ton gun, well, we understand that it is putting these things to a proof. But in our religious phraseology, a trial, forsooth, is simply a calamity-some terrible thing. And that is almost the only light in which we regard it, with scarcely any recognition of God’s design, and of His design being the proof of character.

But that is His design. Now here is an alleviation at once, and a very great alleviation of the trials that you and I may have to pass through. Here is a man who comes forward and professes to be a seaman. Well, it is a very reasonable thing that he should be required to prove his seamanship by having, sometimes at any rate, to navigate his vessel amid the perils of a storm. And here is another who professes to be a soldier.

Well, no injustice is done, but very much the contrary, if this man be required to prove his courage and skill by being sent, occasionally at any rate, upon some exceedingly hazardous military duty. And here is one who professes to be a servant of God, and do not let him be surprised if God, like any other master, shall subject him to proof, and ascertain, by practical experiment, what he is worth and what he can do, and whether he really be what by his profession he ought to be.

So our faith is tried. A reasonable and perfectly right thing that tried it ought to be, as I said just now, for our own sake, if for the sake of nobody else. And, as the apostle reminds us here, the trial of our faith is conducted through manifold temptations. Let us take the word “trials,” not “temptations,” for God does not tempt any man in this evil sense of the word “temptation.” We are tried through manifold trials.

That is to say, our faith is subjected to more proofs than one; and so it ought to be. I suppose that when they try a ship they make her go through many manoeuvres; and when they try a horse there is more than one sort of test to which the creature is put. And when a student goes in for examination, success in which is to be crowned with some distinguished honour, he is subjected to a considerable number of trials in order that the height and breadth and length and depth of the man’s mind, if there be any height and length and depth and breadth in it, may be ascertained.

And he is subjected to various manifold trials, because the very brilliant capacity in one direction may, unfortunately, be accompanied by miserable incapacity in another direction, and so the man is subjected to manifold trials. And faith, likewise, is subjected to more trials than one. We find that poverty tries our honesty. A sad reverse of circumstances, such as is very frequently witnessed, does certainly try the integrity of a man’s principles as a man of business.

And then I need not say that unkindness, injustice, is a great trial of our charity; and persecution would be a severe trial of our courage. Insolence is a trial of our meekness. And there are trials of a peculiar character, not very peculiar either, for they are not uncommon. I mean the trials of our faith that are often experienced by men who really find it difficult to retain their confidence in the revelation of God’s will in His Word.

And you must not at all suppose that because a man never knew what bad health is, and never knew anything of poverty, and never had the slightest reason to be anxious about a single secular concern, that that man’s faith is going untried. It may be being tried a great deal more than yours in the midst of sickness and of poverty. There may be a terrible war going on within that man’s mind and heart as he is endeavouring, with all earnestness, but often finds himself failing, endeavouring to retain his confidence in the great principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thus our faith is tried, and severe is the trial sometimes, as the apostle indicates when he says, “Though it be tried with fire.” It has been in the most terribly literal sense tried with fire, for, as you know, for a long time burning to death was the method commonly resorted to in the persecution of those who stood faithful to the truth as it is in Christ. And so the faith of men like John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, and Bishop Latimer, and thousands upon thousands more in the noble army of martyrs, was in the most literal and severe sense tried with fire.

But, of course, we can understand this expression “tried with fire,” in a metaphorical sense, as indicative of any peculiarly severe trial to which faith may be exposed, such as a long and wearisome and painful illness. And now to notice some of the alleviations that we have graciously granted to us in these trials of our faith. Do not let us give way to a hopeless sorrow over the matter, for God has mingled very much comfort with all this distress.

In the first place, as the apostle reminds us, it is only for a season, or, as we might render his words, “Now for a little while ye are in heaviness through manifold temptation”-for a little while. It will not be long. It cannot be long. And then, again, there is a necessity for it. “If need be,” but not if need not be. Only “if need be,” and only in proportion as the need really is.

And we really must allow God to be the judge and the only judge of this need. We leave it, of course, to the goldsmith to determine how he is to deal with the gold that he is to make up into an article of use or adornment; and we leave it to the lapidary to decide how to cut and to polish the jewels which he intends to set in this fashion or in that. It would be an impertinent thing for persons not skilled in such work even to venture an opinion, and an impertinent thing to venture opinions about the manner in which God Almighty should deal with and make up the gold and the gems whereof He is preparing a glorious crown for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

No, “if need be,” and only if need be. The sculptor, you know, would not on any account chip off a block of marble one atom more than in his judgment is necessary to the realisation of his idea in the statue. And no surgeon or physician of ordinary humanity will give his patient any more pain than is unavoidable in order to the healing of the wound or the curing of the disease. And we, as the children of God, are in very wise hands, in very tender hands, in very safe hands.

And then there is a great object secured by these trials, that this faith thus tried is found to be unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Unto whose praise and honour and glory? Not unto ours-at least, not unto ours in the first place, but unto our Lord’s, an Archbishop Leighton says, “God delights to bring out His strongest champions, that they might fight great battles for Him.

” And although, certainly, it is sad to think of a good man being cast into prison, and sadder still to think of his being committed to the flame, yet I can imagine that God, not although He loves His people, but just because He loves them, rejoices over such a scene as that. I can imagine God rejoicing to see how His grace strengthens a poor, feeble, mortal man, and makes him firm and enduring unto the end.

And at the last it will be found that this trial of their faith was ever unto the praise and honour and glory of their Lord, and to their own praise and honour and glory likewise. But, again, there is this alleviation in the trial of faith suggested in the words, “Whom having not seen ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing”-the love that we bear to our Lord Jesus Christ will greatly help us in the trial of our faith.

You know that for a person whom you love you will do and suffer things that you would never think of doing or suffering for a person towards whom you felt no particular regard. How much a man will do, and how much he will suffer for his wife and for his children! And so, in proportion to the love we bear to Jesus Christ will be the lightness of the infliction involved in any trials to which our faith is subjected.

Once more, there is this alleviation, that “believing in Christ we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls.” But some will say, “Have not we already received the salvation of our souls?” Now salvation is a great compound blessing, if I may so speak, and some of it we have received already, and some of it is in reserve.

In fact, salvation is a blessing, of which a Christian is receiving something every day. I had so much salvation yesterday; I have got more today, and I shall have more tomorrow, if I am living the Christian life, that is to say. Now, in so far as salvation is the forgiveness of sins, salvation is ours now. (H. S. Brown.)

Trials

Trials are of many kinds. Some are very slight; but often a little thing is more severely felt than one that is greater. There are all the little annoyances which happen every hour; things go contrary to our wishes; we have to give up our wills; we are disappointed of our hopes. There are pains of body and sickness; there is the sickness of our dear friends. Now trial is natural to us: it belongs to us as children of Adam. But to Christians trials come in a somewhat different way. They belong to us as members of Christ.

I. The first thing to be thought when we have any trial, is that it comes from God. It is not a proof of any special wickedness in the person to whom it is sent, nor of God’s being specially angry with that person. Quite the contrary. God feels towards each of you the very same tender fatherly love that you feel to your dear boy; and so He corrects you as you correct that boy. And just as you take the trouble to prune and attend to the fruit tree which bears well, in the hope that it will bear still better, so God sends trouble to them who are doing good, in the hope that they will do still better. In all troubles, then, look to God-receive them from Him as the best things which your loving Father can send you.

II. Think, next, what are they sent for? They are punishments for sins, that is true; but see the wonderful goodness of God: these punishments His love turns into mercies and blessings. What does He send them for?

1. To remind us of our sins; to make us remember our sins, that through His mercy we may repent of them.

2. To draw our thoughts towards Himself. “In their affliction they will seek Me early.”

3. They are called trials-that means things which try. What do they try? They try us, whether we can trust God when matters seem to be going wrong.

4. To make us patient. Patience is that great gift which most especially helps to make us perfect Christians. “Let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” When we quietly give up our way to others-when we are disappointed and do not fret-when we ourselves have sharp pains to bear and we do not repine-then we are learning to become more perfect Christians-then we are becoming holier-we are really growing into what God intends us to be.

III. They lead us on to the crown. To conclude.

1. Try to think in this way of all troubles whatsoever, of all the little vexations of life, as well as of the heavier afflictions which come more seldom.

2. Look on continually to the end-the end of all things-heaven and eternity! This will encourage you to bear what now seems so painful. The hope of what is coming will cheer you up.

3. And especially look continually to Jesus Christ, and the example He has set us. Look to Him continually, “lest you be weary and faint in your minds.” (W. H. Ridley, M. A.)

Trials

These words are spoken to Christians, to persons called by the apostle “elect according to the foreknowledge of God,” and “begotten to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” How great a privilege to be chosen to eternal life I Well may the Christian be delighted with such thoughts, “wherein,” says St. Peter, “ye rejoice.” But before the enjoyment of these things there are many troubles to be encountered; we may be glad, yet may we perchance, when we look at intervening difficulties, “be in heaviness.

” It is well known that the most devout Christians are sometimes “in heaviness.” Do not think it any strange thing for the Christian man to be “in heaviness,” even as to his salvation. The Lord often lays the severest trial, that is, this feeling of desertion, on the most perfect, as you would place the boldest soldier in the front of the battle. Hence, then, assurance is not necessary; the spiritual atmosphere is variable.

1. Poverty is a great temptation-a temptation which throws many “into heaviness.”

2. But again, the temptations of the rich lie in another direction.

3. The heaviness which sometimes arises from the oppression and power of sin.

4. And some persons are in heaviness-they themselves know not why. None are more to be sorrowed with. There seems to be no known cause-and yet they are in lowness of spirits, and weary of the world. (J. M. Chanter, M. A.)

Trial as fire

Trial is here compared to fire; that subtle element which is capable of inflicting such exquisite torture on our seared flesh; which cannot endure the least taint or remnant of impurity, but wraps its arms around objects committed to it with eager intensity to set them free and make them pure; which is careless of agony, if only its passionate yearning may be satisfied; which lays hold of things more material than itself, loosening their texture, snapping their fetters, and bearing them upwards in its heaven-leaping energy. What better emblem could there be for God, and for those trims which He permits or sends, and in the heart of which He is to be found?

1. But this fire is a refiner’s fire (Malaquias 3:3).

(1) It is He who permits the trial. The evil thing may originate in the malignity of a Judas, but by the time it reaches us it has become the cup which our Father has given us to drink. The waster may purpose his own lawless and destructive work, but he cannot go an inch beyond the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. The very devil must ask permission ere he touches a hair of the patriarch’s head. The point up to which we may be tested is fixed by consummate wisdom. The weapon may hurt and the fire sting, but they are in the hands which redeemed us.

(2) It is He who superintends the trial. No earthly friend may be near, but in every furnace there is One like the Son of Man.

(3) It is He who watches the progress of the trial. No mother bending over her suffering child is more solicitous than He is. Suiting the trial to your strength.

2. Trial is only for a season. “Now for a season ye are in heaviness.” The great Husbandman is net always threshing. The showers soon pass. Our light affliction is but for a moment.

3. Trial is for a purpose. “If needs be.” There is utility in every trial. It is intended to reveal the secrets of our hearts, to humble and prove us, to winnow us as corn is shaken in a sieve, to detach us from the earthly and visible, to create in us an eager desire for the realities which can alone quench our cravings and endure forever. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

The theology of sufferings

I. Temptations or trials reveal faith.

1. On the one hand, they show us the evil that is in us. More evil dwells in the heart than we have ever realised. “I never before could believe,” exclaims the afflicted man, “that so many hard thoughts of God were nestling in my brain, and so many rebellious passions lodging in my heart.” God sends trouble to bring out and make palpable that which is latent.

2. Not only so, but afflictions further serve to evoke our good, to lead forth into visibility the faith, the hope, and the charity God in His loving kindness has infused into our souls. Certain things will not disclose what is in them save under pressure. Aromatic herbs will not diffuse their aroma till they are bruised.

II. Temptations or trials strengthen faith.

1. Bitters are the best tonic for the spiritual man as for the physical. All who are a little acquainted with gardening operations know how careful the gardener is to lop off all redundant growths which genial weather calls forth, growths which he significantly calls “suckers,” because they drain away the sap which would otherwise go to form fruit. On just the same principle the Divine Husbandman treats the “Trees of Righteousness” growing in His vineyard-He mercilessly lops off the worldly “suckers” which steal away the juice, the fatness, of your religion, and thereby drives the whole energy of your spirit back upon your faith.

2. Sorrows further invigorate faith, because they call it into frequent, yea, constant exercise. And it is an universally admitted truth that all our natural faculties and spiritual graces grow in exercise. To be a robust Christian you must battle with difficulties.

III. Temptations or trials purify faith.

1. They release it from the impurities which attach to it. Religion in this world lives among pots, and, as might be expected, it does not quite escape “the corruption that is in the world through lust.” And God in His wisdom judges it expedient to cast it into the sea; but, as Leighton quaintly remarks, He does it “not to drown it, but to wash it.” But this process of separation is not an easy one, pleasant to flesh and blood; rather it requires the penetrating action of the flame.

2. Adversity, moreover, throws faith more upon its own proper resources, making it draw its aliment and inspiration more directly from God as revealed in His Book.

IV. Temptations or trials beautify faith.

1. Trials evolve the latent beauty of faith. Faith is intrinsically a beautiful grace, but to disclose its beauty it must often undergo the severe operations of chisel and hammer.

2. But it is also true that sorrows impart beauty to faith, a kind of weird-like fascination that makes it, in its struggle with obstacles, a “spectacle worthy of the gods.” God throws the Christian into “many-coloured” afflictions that he may be thereby adorned and made meet to enter the society of heaven. He makes His Church a coat of many colours to show His love to her and appreciation of her. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)

The trial of faith

I. The value of faith

1. Even considered intellectually, as a mere belief of revealed truth, faith is of the highest possible value, as the great instrument by which we obtain religious knowledge and wisdom.

2. But its value-as it is not merely an intellectual exercise, but an act of trust, and thus a work of the heart-is shown by this, that it connects us immediately and personally with the merits of the great Atonement.

3. The value of faith is seen in this, that it not only connects man, as guilty, with the meritorious atonement of the Saviour, but man, as weak and helpless, with the omnipotence of Divine grace.

4. Another proof of the value of faith is found in that wonderful property which the Apostle Paul assigns to it, and which, indeed, we find by actual experience that it possesses-the property of fixing its eye on invisible and eternal realities, and keeping the soul continually under their influence.

II. The trial of faith.

1. In its lower sense-merely considered as belief of truth-faith will be tried. This may occur in many circumstances, and especially from infidel sophistry.

2. But our faith will not only be tried by sophistry; it will be tried also by what may be termed practical unbelief. This is especially the ease in all temptations to sin.

3. Faith, in that higher sense in which the word is used-as implying a simple trust in the atonement of the Saviour-will be tried by our proneness to self-dependence.

4. Faith is also tried by afflictions and sorrows. In sorrows our faith has to repose entirely on the great doctrine that all that concerns us is in the hands of God, that here there is no chance, no oversight, no delegation of the Divine power to the creature.

III. The final honours of faith. It has, indeed, its honours now, far greater than any of which unbelief can boast. Is it not that which brings man to God for the blessings of reconciliation and adoption? Is it not that which brings with it the mighty influence of that Holy Spirit which works in man the death unto sin and the new life unto righteousness? Is it not that which is the source of our spiritual victories, which gives us strength to do and strength to suffer? Is it not that which enables us to resist the temptations with which the present world continually surrounds us? And is it not that which extracts the sting of death? Such are the honours of faith here on earth.

Where shall we look for those of formality and unbelief? But the apostle refers to its future honours, to the praise and glory in which our faith shall issue at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then shall the faith which has received the mysteries of God be honoured. (R. Watson.)

The trial of faith

I. Faith is much more precious than gold.

1. Gold is of an earthly, but faith of a heavenly origin.

2. Faith has its object, as well as its origin, in God; whereas gold, unless placed in the hands of him who has the new nature, tends to the place whence it came, and is often also in the child of God the means of dragging hint too much to earth.

3. Faith always enriches the possessor, but gold often impoverishes.

II. This faith must be tried, and that with fire.

1. The world is a great trial to faith.

2. Satan is always attempting to try and to overstep the faith of God’s people.

III. What is the great end and purpose for which faith is so tried? It is that it may be proved to be faith, just as the gold is tried in the fire. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)

The trial of your faith

I. Your faith will be tried surely.

1. Faith, in the very nature of it, implies a degree of trial. God never gave us faith to play with. It is a sword, but it was not made for presentation on a gala day, nor to be worn on state occasions only, nor to be exhibited on a parade ground. It is a sword, and he that has it girt about him may expect, between here and heaven, that he shall know what battle means. Faith is a sound sea-going vessel, and was not meant to lie in dock and perish of dry rot.

To whom God has given faith, it is as though one gave a lantern to his friend because he expected it to be dark on his way home. The very gift of faith is a hint to you that you will want it, and that, at all points and in every place, you will really need it.

2. Trial is the very element of faith. Faith is a salamander that lives in the fire, a star which moves in a lofty sphere, a diamond which bores its way through the rock. Faith without trial is like a diamond uncut, the brilliance of which has never been seen. Untried faith is such little faith that some have thought it no faith at all. What a fish would be without water or a bird without air, that would be faith without trial.

3. It is the honour of faith to be tried. He that has tested God, and whom God has tested, is the man that shall have it said of him, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

4. The trial of your faith is sent to prove its sincerity.

5. It must also be tested to prove its strength.

6. The trial of our faith is necessary to remove its dross. “Why, a week ago,” says one, “I used to sing, and think that I had the full assurance of faith; and now I can scarcely tell whether I am one of God’s people or not.” Now you know how much faith you really possess. You can now tell how much was solid and how much was sham; for had that which has failed you been real faith, it would not have been consumed by any trial through which it has passed. You have lost the froth from the top of the cup, but all that was really worth having is still there.

II. Your faith will be tried variously.

1. There are some whose faith is tried each day in their communion with God. That is, God in Christ, who is our God, is a consuming fire; and when His people live in Him, the very presence of God consumes in them their love of sin and all their pretentious graces and fictitious attainments, so that the false disappears and only the true survives. The presence of perfect holiness is killing to empty boastings and hollow pretences.

2. God frequently tries us by the blessings which He sends us.

(1) Riches.

(2) Praise.

3. Another trial of faith is exceedingly common and perilous nowadays, and that is heretical doctrine and false teaching.

4. The trial of our faith usually comes in the form of affliction. I remember Mr. Rutherford, writing to a lady who had lost five children and her husband, says to her, “Oh, how Christ must love you! He would take every bit of your heart to Himself. He would not permit you to reserve any of your soul for any earthly thing.” Can we stand that test? Can we let all go for His sake? Do you answer that you can? Time will show.

III. Your faith will be tried individually. It is an interesting subject, is it not, the trial of faith? It is not quite so pleasant to study alone the trial of your faith. It is stern work when it comes to be your trial, and the trial of your faith. Do not ask for trials. Children must not ask to be whipped, nor saints pray to be tested. The Lord Jesus Christ has been glorified by the trial of His people’s faith. He has to be glorified by the trial of your faith.

IV. Your faith will be tried searchingly. The blows of the flail of tribulation are not given in sport, but in awful earnest. The Lord tries the very life of our faith-not its beauty and its strength alone, but its very existence. The iron enters into the soul; the man’s real self is made to endure the trial.

V. Your faith will be tried for an abundantly useful purpose.

1. The trial of your faith will increase, develop, deepen, and strengthen it. We may wisely rejoice in tribulation, because it worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and by that way we are exceedingly enriched, and our faith grows strong.

2. The trial of our faith is useful, because it leads to a discovery of our faith to ourselves. I notice an old Puritan using this illustration. He says, you shaft go into a wood when you please, but if you are very quiet, you will not know whether there is a partridge, or a pheasant, or a rabbit in it; but when you begin to move about or make a noise, you very soon see the living creatures.

They rise or they run. So, when affliction comes into the soul, and makes a disturbance and breaks our peace, up rise our graces. Faith comes out of its hiding, and love leaps from its secret place.

3. Besides, when faith is tried, it brings God glory. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The trial of faith precious

It is not faith, but the trial of faith, that is here pronounced to be precious. Precisely because faith is the link by which the saved are bound to the Saviour, it is of unspeakable importance to have faith tested in time and proved to be true. Here the fire and the crucible are the most valuable of all things for the investor. These are his safeguards, In like manner, it is dangerous to venture our eternity on a fair weather profession; an assay in some form is essential to determine whether there is life or only a name that you live.

The trial of faith by affliction is com pared to the testing and purifying of gold by fire. The greatest results will be seen within the veil. When Christ comes the second time to reign, the effect of these trials will appear to his praise. (W. Arnot.)

The trial of faith

This trial is made upon faith principally, rather than any other grace, because the trial of that is, in effect, the trial of all that is good in us. (M. Henry.)

Trials are tests

The surest way to know our gold is to look upon it and examine it in God’s furnace, where He tries it for that end, that we may see what it is. If we have a mind to know whether a building stands strong or no, we must look upon it when the wind blows. If we would know whether that which appears in the form of wheat has the real substance of wheat or be only chaff, we must observe it when it is winnowed.

If we would know whether a staff be strong or a rotten, broken reed, we must observe it when it is leaned on and weight is borne upon it. If we would weigh ourselves justly, we must weigh ourselves in God’s scales that He makes use of to weigh us. (Jonathan Edwards.)

Burnt in

Yonder is a porcelain vase just fashioned; it is now in the decorator’s hands, who paints on it various pretty and delicate figures-here and there he paints a passage of Scripture. Presently he passes it into the hands of another who glazes it, who in his turn passes it on to a third. But what is the third doing? Why, he is putting the vase into a hot oven. “Sir,” we exclaim, “you will spoil your ware, and your labour will be in vain.

” Smiling at our alarm, he placidly replies, “Gentlemen, I will take care that the vase suffers no injury. I put it into the oven to enhance its value, for I mean thus to burn in what has been painted on it, which would otherwise wash off. There-it is finished now,” he adds, “and you may wash that vase for twelve months without making any impression on the colours. They are burnt in, sirs, burnt in.

” Similarly God burns in verses of the Bible into our experience. Having infused His grace into us in regeneration, and made wholesome impressions on the mind through the ministry of the Word, He consigns us to the furnace of affliction that they may be burnt into the very core of our being, so burnt that nothing will ever again erase them. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)

Much more precious than of gold that perisheth.-

Tried faith more precious than gold

1. Gold comes out of the earth; faith from heaven, whence every good and perfect gift is.

2. Faith is more rare, termed therefore the faith of God’s elect, whereas most, even of the wicked, are not without gold.

3. Faith cannot be purchased with all the gold in the world.

4. It is hardly gotten and hardly kept, and has many and strong enemies-our own nature, the world and the devil are all against faith, but not against getting of gold.

5. It apprehends salvation and life eternal, and so is the instrument of our happiness. So is not gold but the instrument of many a man’s damnation; by unconscionable getting, and covetous keeping the same, many cast away their souls.

6. It will comfort a man with true comfort in his life, carry him strongly through troubles, and boldly through the gates of death.

7. Gold perisheth, here canker and rust consume it; we may be taken from it, as it from us; but faith endureth till Christ’s appearing, to our full redemption, as the fruit thereof forever.

Uses:

1. To them that want gold, and yet have faith. Know that thou art richer than he that hath thousands of gold and hath not faith.

2. To the rich. Rejoice not that thou art rich, but that thou hast faith. Again, think all your pains to become you well, and well bestowed in getting this precious faith.

3. To those who have not faith. Poor souls, labour after it, that you may be made inwardly rich.

4. To rich men who have toiled for gold. Seek this that is so much better. (John Rogers.)

Genuine faith more precious than gold

I. Gold cannot satisfy the soul. Genuine faith does. As a rule it will, perhaps, be found that he who has the most gold is the most discontented and restless in heart. Faith fills the soul with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

II. Gold cannot strengthen the soul. Genuine faith does. In what does the strength of the soul consist? In force of sympathies generous and devout; force of determination to pursue the right; force to bear up with buoyant magnanimity under all the trials and sorrows of life. Gold cannot give this strength. How strong were the men mentioned in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews!

III. Gold cannot ennoble the soul. But genuine faith ennobles the soul, enthrones it above the tide of passion and the force of circumstances. (Homilist.)

Peter’s list of valuables

Peter is very fond of this word “precious.” He uses it more frequently than all the other New Testament writers, with the exception of John in the Revelation, where, however, it is only employed in reference to things of material value, such as jewels and costly woods. Paul uses it only once, and in a similar connection, speaking about “gold, silver, and precious stones.” James employs it once in regard of the fruits of the earth; and all the other instances of its use are in Peter’s writings.

Here are the cases in which he uses it. First, in my text, about the process by which Christian faith is tested; then about the blood of Jesus Christ; then, in a quotation from Isaiah, about Christ Himself as the cornerstone. These three are the instances in the first Epistle. In the second we find two, where he speaks of “like precious faith,” and of “exceeding great and precious promises.”

I. That our true treasures are all contained in, and clustered round, the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now, in order to estimate the value of a thing, the first necessity is a correct standard. Now, if we are seeking for a standard of value, surely the following points are very plain. Our true treasure mast be such as helps us towards the highest ends for which we are fitted by our make.

It must be such as satisfies our deepest needs; it must be such as meets our whole nature; and it must be such as cannot be wrenched from us. I do not want to undervalue lower and relative good of any kind, or to preach an overstrained contempt of material, transient, and partial blessing. Competence and wealth, gold and what gold buys, and what it keeps away, are good. High above them we rank the treasures of a cultivated mind, of a refined taste, of eyes that see the beauty of God’s fair creation.

Above these we rank the priceless treasures of pure reciprocated human love. But none of them, nor all of them put together, meet our tests, simple and obvious as they are. They do not satisfy the whole, or the depths, of our natures. Only God can fill a soul. So Peter is right after all, when he points us in a wholly different direction for the true precious things. “Christ is precious.” Now, the word that he employs there is slightly different from that which occurs in the other verses.

The speaker in the original words of the prophet is God Himself. It is the preciousness in God’s sight of the stone which He “lays in Zion” that is glanced at in the epithet. Let me suggest how the preciousness of His beloved Son, in the eyes of the Father who gave Him, enhances the preciousness of the gift to us. God obeys the law which He lays upon His servants; and He “will not give” to us “that which costs Him nothing.

” But Christ is precious to us. Yes, if we know ourselves and what we want; if we know Him and what He gives. Do you want wisdom? He is the wisdom of God. Do you seek power? He is the power of God. Do you long for joy? He will give you His own. Do you weary for peace? “My peace I leave with you.” Do you hunger for righteousness? “He of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness.” Do you need fulness and abundance? “In Him dwells all the fulness of God; and of His fulness have all we received.

” Whatever good any soul seeks, Christ is the highest good, and is all good. Let us turn our hearts away from false treasures and lay hold on Him who is the true riches. Further, Christ’s blood is precious. Peter believed in Christ’s atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world, and of each single soul therein. If you strike that element out of the work of our Lord, what remains, precious as it is, does not seem to me to so completely satisfy human necessities as to make Him the one all-sufficient and single treasure and riches of men’s souls.

And then there is the third precious thing, clustering round and flowing from Jesus Christ and His work-and that is, the “exceeding great and precious promises,” which are given to us “that by them we may be partakers of a Divine nature.” I presume that these promises referred to by the apostle are largely, if not exclusively, those which have reference to what we call the future state. And they are precious because they come straight to meet one of the deepest needs of humanity, often neglected, but always there-an ache, if not a conscious need.

What about that dark, dim beyond? Is there any solid ground in it? Christ comes with the answer: “I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” Then it is not mist; then I can fling my grappling-iron into it and it will hold, and I can hold on to it.

II. That which puts us in possession of the precious things is itself precious. So the apostle speaks, in his second Epistle, about “like precious faith,” using a compound word, which, however, is substantially identical with the simple expression in the other verses. The only preciousness of that faith which the New Testament magnifies so greatly is that it brings us into possession of the things that are intrinsically precious.

Suppose a door, worth half a crown. Yes! but it is the door of a storehouse full of bullion. Here is a bit of lead pipe, worth twopence. Yes, but through it comes the water that keeps a besieged city alive. And so your faith, worth nothing in itself, is worth everything as the means by which you lay hold of the durable riches and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Therefore cherish it. A cultivated mind is a treasure, because it is the key to many treasures.

Refined tastes are treasures because they bring us into possession of lofty gifts. AEsthetic sensibilities are precious because they make our own a pure and ennobling pleasure. And, for precisely the same reason, high above the cultivated understanding, and refined tastes, and the artistic sense, ay, and even above the loving heart that twines its tendrils round another heart as loving, we rank the faith which joins us to Christ.

III. The process which strengthens that faith is precious. My nominal text speaks about “the trial of your faith” as being “much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire.” Peter meant that the process by which faith was tested, and, being tested, is purified and perfected, is a precious treasure. If Christ and what pertains to Him are our real wealth, and if our faith is the means of our coming into possession of our property, then everything that tightens our grasp upon Him, and increases our capacity of receiving Him, is valuable.

Let us lay that to heart, and it changes all our estimates of this world’s mistaken ill and good. Let us lay that to heart, and it interprets much. We do not understand life until we have got rid of the prejudice that enjoyment, or any lower thing, is the object of it. Let us understand that the deepest meaning of all our experience here is discipline, and we have come within sight of the solution of most of our perplexities.

Sorrow and joy, light and darkness, summer and winter, sunshine and storm, life and death, gain and loss, failures and successes-they all have the one end, that we may be partakers of the wealth of His holiness. Let us try to clear our minds of the delusions of this world, and to rectify our estimates of true good. A very perverted standard prevails, and we are too apt to fall in with it. Many of us are no wiser than savages that will exchange gold for trash, and barter away fertile lands for a stand of old muskets or a case of fiery rum.

Listen to Jesus Christ counselling you to buy of Him gold tried in the fire. Turn away from the fairy gold, which by daylight will be seen to be but a heap of yellow fading leaves, and cling in faith, which is precious, to Him who is priceless, and in whom the poorest will find riches that cannot be corrupted nor lost forever. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.-

Perfect salvation

These words have reminded me of a phrase which, twenty or thirty years ago, was constantly recurring in sermons of many of the younger and more ardent preachers of that time. They insisted that Christ had come to achieve for us what they described as a present salvation. There was a polemical element, too, in preaching of this kind, for the doctrine of a present salvation was asserted as though it were a part of the Christian gospel that had never been clearly apprehended; it was implied that most Christian people had thought of salvation as something future, something that could not be known on this side of death, while in fact we are to be saved, if saved at all, here and now.

Those who preached a present salvation said in substance, “Many of you Christian people have missed the power and glory which Christ came to make yours in this life, because you are always thinking of heaven and the life to come; your religion is unpractical, you do not see that Christ came to make an infinite difference in the whole life of man in this world, as well as to make eternal blessedness our inheritance in the next.

” There is no need to preach like that now. None of us, I imagine, are too much occupied with thoughts of heaven and the life to come. Richard Baxter, as some of you remember, tells us that in the afternoon, when it began to be too dark to go on with his reading and writing, and before the candles were brought in, he used to sit quietly in the twilight meditating on the saints’ everlasting rest.

There are not many Christian people, I imagine, who spend much of their time in that way now. Whether we realise the present salvation more fully than our fathers did I cannot tell, but I imagine it is certain that we think very much less about any salvation that is still to come. There is a present salvation, there is also a salvation to be hoped for, “Wherein ye greatly rejoice.” Christ, not the earthly Christ but the ascended Christ, is the head of the new race.

His larger, diviner, human life is ours, and the life which we have received from Him, and into the full possession of which He entered at His resurrection and ascension, that life has in its essence the hope and assurance of passing into the same glory into which Christ has entered. Having this life we are born, therefore, to “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.

” This inheritance is not here; it is not ours in possession yet; it is no part of the present salvation; it is reserved for us in heaven. And lest we should come to harm before we reach it, we are kept safely for the salvation which is ready to be revealed at the last time. In this it is that we Christian people are to rejoice. The present salvation is an incomplete salvation; the perfect salvation is to come.

The future life of those who are to live forever in God-the complete salvation-transcends all thought as well as all hope; we cannot see the inheritance for the golden haze that surrounds it; it is too intensely bright for mortal vision; it belongs to another order than this; it cannot be revealed to knowledge until it is revealed in experience. But some elements of the present salvation will in the future salvation be perfect.

Our sins, through the infinite mercy of God, are already forgiven, and we may have the full assurance that they are forgiven. But not until we are capable of a fuller knowledge of God shall we know the infinite blessedness of the discovery that He has blotted out our sins as a thick cloud which varnishes and leaves no stain on the blue of heaven. That blessedness is to come. There are times when we see the manifestations of the love of God for us-manifestations given to us in secret and wonderful ways by the power of the Spirit of God, making the heart tremble with a blended reverence and joy.

We have no strength to bear them for long. If they remained glory would break upon glory, and we should anticipate the blessedness we hope for. What we hope for is a life that appears so enlarged, and with so Divine an environment that these manifestations of the personal love of the Eternal for us, and manifestations still more wonderful, will be with us always; that we shall move freely among them as we move in the common air and in the light of the common sun; they will never become dim, never be interrupted, but that in their tenderness and in their power they will increase through age after age of increasing wonder and joy.

There is something in this great hope to give us courage and to renew the strength which too often faints and the resolution which too often falters. The joy of the Christian life would be immeasurably augmented if we dwelt more constantly on its eternal consummation in the Divine Presence, and the joy would give strength. We have great memories to sustain us, and, above all, the memory of the supreme manifestation of the Divine love in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But when hope is confederate with memory, and both are confirmed by the present consciousness that we have found God, every power of our better life receives new animation, and we see that all things are possible to us. Further, apart from a clear vision of the perfect salvation, faith is subject to an unnecessary strain. Forget too how large and free and blessed a life men are destined for in Christ in the next world, and it will sometimes seem as if there were disproportion between the great discoveries of the Christian gospel and what the gospel actually accomplishes.

It is as if you were to judge of the labour which has been spent on the fields by the appearance of early spring, when the dark ground is hardly relieved by the faint green of the wheat which has just begun to shoot-it is so frail, apparently of so little value. Is this all that is to come of cleaning the ground and ploughing it and enriching it with the seed? Ah! you must wait-wait till the spring has expanded into the bright days of summer, and the summer into early autumn, and then the corn ripened, perfected, rising and falling in golden billows under the glowing sun, will reveal the end for which the farmer laboured.

And Christ’s harvest home is not ended here, but in worlds unseen. Not until we know the perfect righteousness and the perfect blessedness of the saints in glory shall we see for what great ends the Son of God became man and rose again for our race. (R. W Dale, LL. D.)

Whom having not seen, ye love.-

Love to an unseen Saviour

To produce in us a love to Christ it is not necessary that we should see Him with our bodily eyes. Those who actually saw Jesus and loved Him are comparatively few to those who love Him unseen.

I. The properties of this love.

1. It is sincere and hearty. We must not judge by one single act in life, but by the habitual frame and the general tenor in behaviour. A real concern of mind for offending a friend is a sign that we esteem him.

2. It has respect unto Christ in all His characters and titles.

3. This love is superlative. It exceeds the esteem which the soul has for all other things. Christ will accept of nothing less.

4. This love is constant and everlasting. It is not like the esteem which we have for our fellow creatures, which frequently stops upon receiving an affront, and is often changed into resentment.

II. The grounds and reasons why the Christian loves an unseen Jesus.

1. The Christian loves an unseen Jesus because of the excellencies which He possesses, Whatever excellency is in the creature may be found in the highest perfection in Jesus Christ, for He inherits all true perfection: creatures’ glories are all imperfect.

2. The Christian loves an unseen Saviour because of the relation which He stands in to him. The ties of nature and relation are strong inducements to affection; a mother must turn monster if she does not love her babe.

3. The Christian is under the greatest obligations to Jesus for the wonders of His free and unmerited love: no wonder, then, that he loves Him, though unseen.

III. The reasonableness of the Christian’s love to an unseen Saviour.

1. Let us view the infinite glory of His person.

2. The amazing greatness of His condescension for His people’s advantage.

3. The blessings which He has conferred upon the Christian,

4. The endearing titles He has given him.

5. The care He continually takes of him, and the glory He has prepared and will secure for him.

6. The freeness of this love. (S. Hayward.)

Love to an unseen Saviour

I. Believe, though we never saw. We should not count this a hardship, since we every day believe in places and peoples whom we have not seen. Thus, you all believe that there is such a city as Rome, although few of you may have seen it. You believe also that a Pontiff rules there. But in these days of widespread scepticism men object to believe, in the first place, because the events to which we ask their credence happened so long ago.

But if you believe that Julius Caesar fell at Pompey’s pillar pierced by traitorous wounds, surely it is not more difficult to believe that about the same period in our world’s history the Lord Jesus Christ died on the Cross of Calvary for the sins of the world. It is objected, however, in the second place, that we ask faith in something supernatural concerning Jesus Christ, the like of which is not to be found in the history of Julius Caesar-namely, that He was raised from the dead, and that He ascended into the heavens.

Quite true; but our God affords evidence correspondingly strong. But the faith that pleases God is not a mere conviction that the sacred oracles are true-it should include also a hearty acceptance of Christ as a Saviour for our own sinful souls. It is one thing for you to believe that a certain individual is the richest man in the city, and quite an additional thing if he, hearing of your straits, should write you to go to the bank and draw on him to any amount.

And suppose you had really never seen the rich man, but had only heard of his goodness, as you found all your wants supplied at that bank, you would resemble these primitive Christians who were thus addressed. “Though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”

II. Although these Christians had never seen Christ, they, nevertheless, loved him. It is possible to love those whom we have never seen. The experience is felt every day. For example-

1. Men love unseen benefactors, and it becomes us to love the unseen Saviour-the greatest Benefactor of all. When the emancipation of the West Indian slaves became an accomplished fact, the liberated Negroes in their humble dwellings loved the men who had done so much for them, and suffered so much for them. They had never seen them, and yet they loved them.

2. But let us introduce another element into the claims of the ascended Christ, and consider that He is also a brother unseen. It sometimes happens that an unseen benefactor is also an unseen brother. I knew a family in this city, the elder brother in which had gone out to an Indian appointment before the younger members of it were born. Their father died before he could be called an old man, leaving a widow and large family without great resources.

But this elder brother did a father’s part. He sent home remittances quite regularly, which maintained, clothed, and educated the younger children, and, as the daughters grew up, and were, one after another, married, he sent them special presents for their marriage outfits. Oh, how they loved him, although they had never seen him! Does not my parable once more suit? Is not this Jesus whom we have never seen occupied in high heavenly administration?

3. Further, the believer loves Christ, though he has never seen Him, on account of His beauty. We sometimes fall in love with the character of men whom we have never seen.

III. Though believers never saw Christ, they rejoice in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory. A doubtsome faith, leaving a man uncertain as to whether he is saved or not, is not countenanced in the Word of God. Further, the New Testament does not discourage ecstasy in religious experience. It expects “joy unspeakable” in the heart of the Christian. And if we see men and women in tumultuous joy, making processions and waving banners in honour of Bruce and Wallace, Tell and Garibaldi, whom they never saw, have we not infinitely greater cause to rejoice in present salvation and the hope of future glory through an unseen Christ? When the foreman of the jury says “Not guilty,” the prisoner leaps up in the dock with joy unspeakable.

When the physician, feeling the pulse, says to the anxious patient: “Your symptoms are much improved today; in fact, you are out of danger, and will henceforth progress to complete recovery,” his joy is unspeakable. Now, what is holiness but wholeness in health?-the great blessing which we receive at the Cross, the salvation of the soul, the pardon of sin and the accompanying indwelling and renewal of the Holy Ghost.

But the best is coming yet; the joy is also “full of glory.” We are down in the valley; but the hilltops are already radiant with the rising orb of eternal day. Beyond these hills our Redeemer is preparing a place for us. In conclusion, let me speak first a word of caution, and then a word of encouragement.

1. The word of caution I address to those who may be ready to proclaim their love to Christ and their assurance of salvation while yet their lives are unholy. Not only must Christ have the throne of our affections, but also the government of our wills freely and habitually surrendered-wills married to His and sweetly lost in His.

2. Such is the word of caution; now for the word of encouragement. How many worthy people are there who, when we ask them whether they love the Lord, or not, are unable to answer in the affirmative. Restricted views of the extent of Divine grace keep some in darkness, while others are the victims of hypochondriacal spiritual or rather unspiritual melancholy. As to the first cause of fear I would simply say that there is no doubt of God’s love to you, and therefore you should love Him in return.

As to your morbid anxieties, I would exhort you to dismiss them all. Do not go about constantly feeling your own spiritual pulse. The best proof of your love to God is that you keep His commandments. (F. Ferguson, D. D.)

Love to Christ

I. The nature and grounds of love to Christ. Love to Christ is not to be confounded with the raptures of a visionary enthusiasm. Its foundation must not be laid in those ideal representations of His person and character which a luxuriant fancy is apt to picture. It signifies simply that sincere esteem of His person and character, which is founded on what is revealed respecting Him in the records of inspiration.

1. Love to the Redeemer is the first movement of the soul when illumined to discern the perfect excellencies of His Divine character. Is perfect holiness the proper object of delight and love? Are truth and faithfulness, combined with mercy and grace, the proper objects of moral approbation and delight? In Him “mercy and truth have met together.” He is justly entitled to our supreme regard, whose nature is infinitely excellent, and whose perfections are boundless.

2. But the believer will not confine himself to the contemplation of his Lord in the attributes of His Divine character; he will consider Him in His human nature also, and, as such, the proper object of enlightened attachment. As a man He exhibited an example of perfect conformity to the whole will of God.

3. The mediatorial character of Jesus justly entitles Him to our especial affection. From what Christ hath done, we learn what He is; and the glories of His character shine with peculiar lustre through the veil of His mediation, suffering, and death. And can we contemplate so much love without feeling some corresponding emotion of love in return?

II. Christ, though unseen, is the object of a Christian’s love.

1. Although Christ was never seen by us, yet we have been favoured with the most full and satisfactory information regarding Him. He is brought near to our view in the prophecies of the Old Testament, and in the varied writings of the New.

2. Jesus, though we never saw Him, is ascertained to be unquestionably our best friend and nearest relation. He is our instructor to point the way; our high priest to redeem and intercede for us; our Captain and King to bring many sons and daughters to glory.

3. He hath given us the most stupendous evidences of His disinterested love.

4. This kind friend hath sent us many kind messages of love, and hath actually left us a legacy to perpetuate His remembrance.

5. Though not personally present with us, He hath given us, as His representative, His Holy Spirit to abide with us forever, to enlighten our understandings, to purify our hearts from the power of corruption, to raise our affections to things spiritual and heavenly, to check in us the power of sin, and to guide us amid the snares and temptations of our pilgrimage through the world.

6. Though we see not Christ now, we are assured that if we love Him truly we shall see Him afterwards.

III. The manner in which love to Christ will practically express itself.

1. Love to Christ will lead us to cultivate a more intimate acquaintance with Him.

2. Love to Christ will lead us frequently to think and to speak of Him.

3. Love to Christ will lead us to seek intercourse with Him in all His ordinances.

4. If we love Christ, we will love His people and cause.

5. Finally, “If ye love Me,” says Jesus, “keep My commandments.” This is the most substantial test of the sincerity of our love. (R. Burns, D. D.)

Love to an unseen Saviour

I. The general nature of love to Christ. There are four essential acts that form the perfect notion of love. First, there is esteem, which is as the groundwork of love. And on all accounts Christ deserves this in the highest degree. Again, there is inclination of goodwill to the party beloved. This is called a benevolential esteem, as the former is complacential. The former considers its object as fit to do us good or give us pleasure.

The latter regards its object as worthy to receive good, whether absolutely or from us or others. Esteem and benevolence, then, are the two leading branches of love, and both find room enough in Christ. The two remaining, desire, fitly enough called love in motion, and delight or complacency, called love at rest, rank themselves under each of the former respectively; for it is of the nature of true love to desire and delight in the happiness of the object as really as its own proceeding from it.

II. The object of the Christian’s love-the Lord Jesus Christ-with the grounds that are found with Him, of our loving Him. And here we might first observe how the many names, titles, and characters which Christ bears in Scripture, that convey various ideas of beauty, use, and pleasure, do of themselves recommend Him to our highest love. The particular grounds of love to Christ which His various names import and lead to.

1. If the greatest personal excellencies and beauties imaginable.

2. If the most intimate relation to God and His manifestative glory, joined with the highest interest in His favour and respect.

3. If the most amazing love to us.

4. If the most arduous and excellent works performed for our service and advantage.

5. If the most numerous, valuable, benefits conferred on us or promised to us.

III. The particular acts and expressions of a genuine love to Christ.

1. In the first place, wherever love to Christ is found, it will certainly show itself in frequent thoughts, attended ever and anon with discourse of Him. And what thoughts are they which love to Christ will inspire? They are thoughts of a noble elevation and of a comprehensive reach-thoughts which dignify our understandings. Further, the thoughts influenced by the love of Christ will be with regard to ourselves, and other things viewed in comparison with Christ, humbling and disdaining.

Again, the thoughts about Christ which love to Him prompts are the most chosen and pleasing thoughts of any that can employ the mind. Finally, the thoughts that love to Christ inspires are affectionate thoughts and influential into the heart from whence they are united.

2. Love to Christ will express itself in desires towards Him accompanied with suitable endeavours, and these of two sorts, such as respect ourselves immediately, or Christ for ourselves, and such as respect Him for Himself.

IV. The properties and characters of genuine love to Christ. True love to Christ is sincere and unfeigned, love incorrupt.

2. True love to Christ is a judicious and rational affection. Though Christians love an unseen, they do not love an unknown Saviour.

3. Love to Christ is free, as being the effect of rational choice; and yet more free still, as being a supernatural habit influenced by Divine grace.

4. True love to Christ is of a very active and fruitful nature. There is a great deal of life, strength, and sprightliness in the affection of love.

5. True love to Christ is entire and universal. He must be loved in His whole character, or He is not loved at all.

6. It must be supreme.

7. It is constant.

8. This love to Christ is great, so as to become unspeakable and full of glory.

V. How faith accounts for this love in want of sight, so that this should not in reason be any obstruction to, while yet it is a commendation of it.

1. Let us see how faith contains a just reason for loving Christ, though never seen. Than which nothing will appear more manifest, if we only consider what faith is, in these two parts wherein the apostle sums it up (Hebreus 11:1).

2. Want of seeing Christ, though no reasonable bar against loving Him, must be allowed to import some greater commendation of love under this circumstance than in the case of personal sight.

VI. Improvement.

1. How much should we be concerned to observe the too obvious want of love to Christ in the Christian world, and withal to inquire whether it be not wanting in our own hearts also!

2. Suffer the word of exhortation, to give to Christ all the love we are capable of, suitable to His glorious dignity, and the obligations He has laid on us, heartily and bitterly lamenting withal our sin and folly in having withheld from Him so long and so much what has been His due. (J. Hubbard.)

The highest Christian experience

I. Love for the unseen. This is an axiom with all true affection.

1. It appears difficult theoretically.

2. It is common in experience. The absent, the dead are loved.

3. It is an element in the highest form of love. The non-sensuous.

4. It is a very blessed emotion. The band of love brings the distant near, makes the remote easily discerned.

II. Trust in the loved. Love Christ more, and you will trust Him more. You will believe what He says about-

1. Salvation.

2. Duty.

3. Trial.

4. Sacrifice.

III. Joy in the loved and trusted.

1. The joy of rest.

2. The joy of communion. (U. R. Thomas.)

The reign of Christ in Christendom

In the first place, think how wonderful a phenomenon the very existence of Christendom is. It is so in three particulars. In the first place, when we turn to the page of history, the existence of Christendom is wonderful when we consider the opposition which it had to overcome. And then, above all, the establishment of Christendom is wonderful when we consider the character of the doctrine which determined it.

The gospel flattered no pride, it gave quarter to no passion. Now I wish further to direct your attention to the present reign of Christ in this present Christendom. And here I observe, in the first place, that our blessed Lord reigns over the intellect of Christendom by His authority. Human thinkers do not really govern thought. There has been no one-man government in the realm of intellect since Aristotle was deposed in the middle ages.

These apparent governors of human thought rule a party, or a school, or a clique. Even there they are not really taken at their own word. The thing is not believed to be true just because they say it is true. Now, our blessed Lord, beyond all question, does not propose for the acceptance of His people a self-evident doctrine. You must make an act of faith in it, and that act of faith is an inclusive act.

You cannot parcel it off into two separate divisions or compartments, and say: “Here is the sentiment, supremely beautiful, and there is the dogma, of which we cannot say quite so much.” We must believe the dogma of Christ’s authority, or we do not fully receive Christ. But then it may be said to the Christian, “What is thy beloved, more than another beloved?” There are other teachers who receive the adoration of thousands of souls: the Buddha reigns over as many souls as Christ does, and possibly a good many more.

Yes, but not over as many sorts of souls. Jesus reigns over varied races. At all events, all nations who renounce Him, lose, or begin to lose, their place amongst the nations of mankind; and the fact of their denial is written upon their bodily and material organisations. Now, I mention further that Christ reigns over the hearts of men by love. Consider for a moment man’s relation after death to the affections of those who survive him.

The place which any of us can keep in the affections of those who survive is a narrow one indeed. Forgetfulness, in a very short time, must grow over us like the grass. And now, with this, contrast Christ after His death as an object of human affection. This love is illimitable in extent as well as in time. Every minute some dying man or woman invokes that name with a light of love upon the dying face.

“I am a judge of men, and I tell you that this Man with His power of awakening and perpetuating love was more than man.” Jesus reigns as God by love in Christendom. Here is the strange fact of the spiritual world-this intense personal love towards One whom we have not seen. As St. Bernard says: “When I name Jesus I name a Man, strong, gentle, pure, holy, sympathising, who is also the true and the Eternal God.

” And the image of the beauty is the best proof to the heart of the reality of the object which it represents-something in the same way as when we are walking along in meditation by a clear river that runs into the sea, the reflection of the white sea bird in the stream, even when we are not able to look up, is a proof to us that the bird is really sailing overhead. There is no fear of disappointment in that love toward Christ.

Certa vez, havia uma esposa que era totalmente para um marido que era cego desde a infância, e quando surgiu a pergunta sobre uma operação que estava sendo realizada, ela ficou perturbada. Ela confessou que estava preocupada que, quando a visão fosse restaurada a seu marido, a quem ela amava e cuidava, ele ficasse desapontado com as características em que havia pensado com tanta ternura. Sim! mas à medida que a visão espiritual é dada a nós, ao começarmos à luz da manhã da Ressurreição, não haverá decepção; ao despertarmos à sua semelhança, estaremos satisfeitos com ele, com a semelhança dAquele que, não tendo visto, amamos. ( Bp. Alexander. )

Amor ao Cristo invisível

Podemos supor que, se tivéssemos vivido nos dias de Cristo, nossa fé e amor teriam estado muito mais próximos da perfeição do que podem estar agora. Testemunhar a expressão de Seu semblante teria dado uma compreensão muito mais completa de Seu caráter, que nossas mais fortes afeições necessariamente teriam se dirigido a Ele. Há pessoas que precisam das percepções dos sentidos para ajudar nas operações do entendimento, antes que possam perceber os fatos com clareza suficiente para que seus sentimentos sejam excitados.

Mas isso não é verdade para as mentes mais sérias - para algumas, é exatamente o contrário da verdade. É o mesmo com respeito ao ensino de Cristo e Suas qualidades morais, como com respeito a todas as outras coisas na vida - a mente compreende apenas o que está preparada para receber. As coisas nos afetam, não apenas de acordo com sua natureza, mas de acordo com a nossa. O que vemos depende não apenas do que há para ser visto, mas também de nossa capacidade de ver.

Bondade e pureza incomensuravelmente acima de nós só nos afetarão no grau em que formos capazes de aceitá-los. Conseqüentemente, aqueles discípulos judeus que estão ao redor de nosso Salvador, olhando em Seus olhos, só seriam movidos por Seu caráter, na proporção de seus Sua própria bondade, pureza e beleza espiritual interior os capacitaram a simpatizar com ele. Então, também, há outra consideração muito a nosso favor: o amor que se baseia na idealização de um personagem deve, necessariamente, ser mais refinado e espiritual do que aquele que é derivado das percepções sensoriais.

Pois os sentidos emprestam influências próprias, que, mesclando-se com os elementos espirituais, impedem a operação pura e simples deste último e, muitas vezes, distorcem suas impressões próprias. Portanto, o caráter de um homem é frequentemente melhor compreendido por aqueles que não estão familiarizados com sua pessoa do que por aqueles ao redor dele. E, ainda mais freqüentemente, é somente quando a distância do espaço ou do tempo remove a presença sensual que as qualidades espirituais de um homem se tornam completamente compreendidas.

E, também sob este princípio, é que um amigo afastado de nós pela morte, logo perde, em nossa imaginação, suas características físicas distintivas, enquanto suas qualidades morais e espirituais se destacam cada vez mais claramente definidas. A essa objeção pode-se possivelmente responder: por que nosso amor por Cristo deveria ser diferente do amor suscitado por nossos companheiros e amigos vivos? Por que, visto que Ele era semelhante a nós em todos os pontos, o sensual não deveria se misturar com o espiritual? Eu respondo, primeiro, porque não é natural; visto que Ele está afastado de nossas vistas, podemos verdadeiramente apenas seguir a lei natural de nossas mentes e desenhar uma representação ideal Dele.

Mas, em segundo lugar, e acima de tudo, porque toda a influência espiritualizante do amor depende de seu caráter espiritual. Pois o poder do amor de Cristo para nos elevar depende de dois elementos: Primeiro, embora seja amor por um filho do homem, é um filho do homem que não está diante de nós em formas difíceis de sentido, mas cuja própria humanidade torna-se para nós uma essência espiritual, que nos escapa quando tentamos apreendê-lo, mas que assume todas as linhas mais brilhantes que nossas fantasias purificadas projetam sobre ele.

E essa impalpabilidade da imagem sensual nos leva, cada vez mais, a entrar no segundo elemento do qual depende o poder, a saber, as qualidades espirituais e morais de sua natureza. Por se deter quase exclusivamente neles, a mente se torna, por assim dizer, saturada com suas influências e é levada a uma simpatia cada vez maior por eles. O ideal que assim forma do Cristo está continuamente se elevando mais e mais alto; mais brilhante e mais candescente com a santidade divina, verdade, bondade, beleza espiritual, a imagem maravilhosa resplandece - não é de se admirar que a alma vivificada e em adoração exclama com entusiasmo: “A quem, tendo visto, nós amamos.

”E as qualidades nas quais este amor por Cristo repousa, são as qualidades nas quais todo amor verdadeiro sempre repousa. Pois o amor é ir de espírito a espírito, de alma a alma - dar a outra a própria vida espiritual interior. Quando a alma assim O discerne, toda a sua vida mais profunda é despertada; admiração, deleite e alegria inefável se harmonizam como acordes melodiosos de música sagrada dentro de seu ser mais íntimo; ela se entrega em amor Àquele a quem assim conhece. E vale a pena notar as qualidades que a alma assim discerne em Cristo e que assim suscitam o seu amor.

1. Em primeiro lugar, existe a veracidade divina. Refiro-me à harmonia interior do pensamento e sentimento com a lei de Deus, com a ideia de Deus, com fatos eternos e imutáveis. Mais forte, por causa dessa veracidade, do que a rocha de granito, mais imóvel do que as montanhas do Líbano, Ele se apresenta por Deus, e pela lei de Deus de direito dentro Dele.

2. Mas, então, essa veracidade levou à pureza; pois a pureza é a verdade reduzida à vida; é a incorporação do que é certo em seu próprio caráter. E você sabe como o Salvador fez isso. Você sabe como Ele seguiu o que é certo por meio de denúncias más e boas. Pode haver, no entanto, tudo isso, mas em formas duras como a rocha de granito, brilhando ao sol e destacando-se com suas linhas duras e bem definidas contra o céu, estimulando nossa admiração e admiração, mas não tocando nenhum acorde de amor no coração.

3. E, portanto, deve haver amor - a gentileza e a ternura de uma natureza amorosa acrescentada e surgindo deles. Aniquilando a si mesmo, ele busca esbanjar os recursos de sua própria vida e bem-aventurança no mundo ao redor. E não preciso me deter nas múltiplas formas em que esse amor gentil e terno se manifestou nAquele que não clamou nem fez com que Sua voz fosse ouvida nas ruas - que não quebrou o junco partido nem apagou o linho fumegante.

Mas então, eu entendo que não é nem a veracidade, a pureza, nem o amor que, por si só e sozinho, suscita nosso amor. Mas essas qualidades constituem, quando existem juntas em suas proporções adequadas, aquela coisa maravilhosa que chamamos de beleza espiritual - algo que todos nós reconhecemos, de acordo com nossa cultura, quando a encontramos, mas que é tão sutil que desafia nossa definição. Enquanto os teólogos têm construído suas teorias e doutrinas sobre a natureza divina, e seitas rivais lutam por seus shiboletes individuais, as almas simples e amorosas de todas as igrejas, a partir das breves narrativas dos Evangelhos, idealizam para si mesmas o Cristo , e diante da irresistível beleza espiritual que assim discerniram em Seu caráter, renderam o mais forte amor e a mais pura devoção de seu coração. (James Cranbrook. )

O amor alegre do crente

Houve aqueles que, por argumentos plausíveis, tentaram provar que o amor a um Salvador invisível é impossível. A visão não é por si só o fundamento ou a causa de qualquer afeto dignificado em nome de amor. Não foi à vista que você aprendeu o caráter de seu amigo para apreciá-lo por sua excelência. E não conhecemos nosso bendito Salvador? Pelas delineações do arrebatado Isaías e pelas histórias simples do evangelho, nós O conhecemos como Ele andou na Terra, tanto quanto os homens precisam saber.

E além deste livro abençoado, temos outras fontes de conhecimento. As obras da natureza sempre falam de Sua sabedoria, poder e bondade; são sempre emocionantes para o Seu amor. A história da Igreja, que é o corpo de Cristo, é outra revelação contínua de Seu caráter, mais perfeita agora do que em qualquer época anterior. Assim como você aprende o temperamento de seu amigo observando os métodos que ele usa para governar sua casa, você pode ler o coração de nosso Salvador interpretando Seu trato com a Igreja.

Mas nosso conhecimento mais íntimo e pessoal do Redentor é obtido por experiência pessoal e pela revelação do Espírito Santo em nosso coração. Mas nosso texto fala tanto de alegria quanto de amor: “No qual, embora agora não o vejais, mas crendo, exultais com alegria inexprimível e cheia de glória”. Eles sempre existem juntos. Quem já pensou em um amor que não transmite satisfação e deleite? E quem jamais imaginou que a felicidade genuína pode ser desfrutada onde as afeições puras do coração não têm exercício? Onde quer que exista verdadeira fé e amor a Cristo, deve haver, até certo ponto, felicidade e deleite Nele. E isso é proporcional à pureza e simplicidade de nossa confiança e afeição. ( NC Locke, DD )

Amor de cristo

Afetos são evocados, não criados, educados de dentro, não implantados de fora. A qualidade do objeto determina de fato o tipo e a qualidade da afeição. O amor perfeito é a alegria perfeita somente onde o que ama e o que é amado são igualmente bons, sagrados e verdadeiros. O amor novamente pode ser evocado de duas maneiras - por instinto e natureza, ou por razão e espírito. Se um homem ama seu filho simplesmente porque o menino passa a ser dele, ou uma mulher sua filha simplesmente porque a menina pode ser dela, e por nenhuma outra razão mais elevada, o amor é apenas um impulso cego; não leva em consideração as qualidades espirituais reais ou possíveis, ou qualquer fim moral elevado.

Mas o amor despertado pela razão e no espírito é amor espiritual. As qualidades admiradas pertencem ao espírito, o olho que vê é o espírito, e a admiração que desperta vive no espírito. A afeição instintiva é cega e arbitrária, mas a espiritual não. Muitos homens perceberiam e desprezariam em outro menino as qualidades morais que ele mal observa em seu próprio filho. A primeira se deve a uma relação, natural ou arbitrária, mas a segunda a um valor, pessoal, inerente, moral, real.

A afeição instintiva pode ser cega e impura, mas a espiritual deve ser totalmente amável e verdadeira. Talvez agora seja supérfluo observar que o amor do cristão por Cristo deve ser do último tipo. A visão é espiritual e o afeto o mesmo. O amor pode não ter a paixão e a intensidade do instinto, mas tem a calma e a força do espírito. As reivindicações de Cristo não têm apelado aos olhos e ouvidos, mas ao coração e à mente.

Nós O amamos, não por Seu belo rosto, ou bela voz, ou maneiras cativantes, mas por Sua misericórdia e graça, a justiça e a verdade que se combinam tão perfeitamente em Seu caráter. As excelências morais de Jesus, e somente estas, podem ser fontes inesgotáveis ​​de amor espiritual. Essa distinção pode nos permitir lidar com uma dificuldade muito comum. Muitas almas devotas já disseram: “Não posso amar meu Salvador como amo meu filho.

Não amo, não posso amar a Deus mais do que amo meu marido. Há uma intensidade em minha afeição por minha família e amigos, desejando inteiramente minha afeição pelas coisas divinas. Eu preciso ser reconvertido. Devo estar totalmente errado. ” Mas o erro está em confundir as coisas diferentes. A afeição do homem pelo homem deve ser mais ou menos instintiva. O amor do homem por Cristo deve ser totalmente espiritual. Nosso amor por Cristo, então, embora deseje o calor de nosso amor pelo homem, tem mais profundidade e raiz em nosso ser; enquanto sua forma é menos fervente, sua essência é mais real.

Um parece ser, mas o outro na realidade é o maior. Na verdade, não pode ser corretamente comparado ao nosso amor pelos vivos. Assemelha-se muito mais ao nosso amor pelos mortos. A morte, ao mesmo tempo, santifica e espiritualiza nossa afeição. Portanto, não é difícil ter um Salvador invisível. Podemos amá-lo tanto quanto Ele está invisível. Se Deus fosse localizado, ele pareceria a nosso pensamento muito menos terrível e majestoso do que quando Ele é concebido como em toda parte, como o ar que respiramos, o elemento em que todos os seres vivem.

Talvez não seja demais dizer que os discípulos nunca amaram a Cristo corretamente até que Ele se tornou invisível. Seu amor tinha muito da intensidade da paixão, coexistia com muito interesse próprio. Mas quando Jesus ascendeu, tudo isso mudou. Suas afeições foram ampliadas e esclarecidas. Observe, agora, como essa invisibilidade capacita a mente a glorificar, a idealizar Jesus, como o objeto de seu amor. Os sentidos são muito prosaicos e tirânicos.

Eles vêem apenas um pequeno caminho dentro do homem, e retêm apenas o que dele é superficial e transitório. A imagem de Cristo que assombrava os discípulos seria muito desigual, uma de poder e fraqueza combinados, glória e vergonha. Ele ressuscitaria em suas memórias agora como um homem cansado, sentado no poço de Jacó, ou dormindo na parte traseira do navio, e novamente como um Deus poderoso, alimentando a multidão faminta ou acalmando a tempestade.

Agora, Ele seria visto em meio às glórias da transfiguração. Mas na nossa facilidade não existe tal obstáculo. Temos o privilégio de nunca ter visto Jesus. O Salvador, sabemos, é aquele cujas tristezas já passaram, cujas glórias chegaram, “a quem não vimos, amamos”. A imaginação muitas vezes deve vir em auxílio do amor. A mãe perdida e amada não aparece adornada com todas as graças, e o pai vestido com todas as virtudes? A infância também não brilha para o velho, quando ele se lembra dos prados nos quais brincava com uma luz que o sol nunca lançava de sua face ardente? E uma vez que a imaginação pode emprestar um brilho de matiz, um esplendor de cor aos objetos do tempo, evocando um amor mais profundo e terno, por que não ao Objeto de memória sagrada e esperança eterna - o Salvador invisível? O amor do Jesus invisível pode, portanto, desenvolver-se em nós como qualquer outra afeição normal, e nosso crescimento na graça será proporcional a esse desenvolvimento.

Aqui podemos notar a sabedoria e a bondade de Deus ao alistar nossas capacidades naturais ao lado de nossos próprios interesses eternos. Mas podemos definir esse amor? Quais são seus elementos constituintes? O amor, como a luz, parece simples, mas na verdade é composto. Em um simples feixe de luz branca existem cores variadas. Passe o feixe através de um prisma e ele se transforma em tons claros e escuros que se misturam tão lindamente no arco-íris.

O feixe é um, mas vários, cada cor constituinte sendo necessária para sua própria existência. Portanto, o amor tem seus elementos essenciais, cada um complementar ao outro, e todos se combinando para dar-lhe um ser real e amplo - boa vontade, aprovação, deleite, desejo e confiança. Onde nenhum desses não está, o amor não pode estar. Ó Tu, Cristo do Deus vivo, ensina-nos a Te amar, não simplesmente como um método curto e fácil de libertação, não como uma maneira conveniente de escapar das terríveis dores do inferno; mas como nosso irmão, nosso companheiro, nosso amigo, nosso único bem supremo, em quem somente a felicidade e a paz eternas podem ser encontradas. E agora, considere que privilégio, que honra tens em poder amar o Jesus invisível.

O lápis não pode delinear Sua perfeição; a cor não pode expressar Sua beleza. A forma humana deve ser transfigurada e transformada no Divino, antes que possa contar a glória e a graça do Cristo que habita em nós. Não desejaríamos então, ó Cristo, que Te tornássemos visível - Alguém que pudéssemos ver com nossos olhos carnais e manejar com nossas mãos carnais. Permanece dentro do véu; aí és mais digno de ser amado; e enquanto aqui estivermos, gozaremos da bem-aventurança daqueles que, por não terem visto, só mais creram e mais amaram. ( AM Fairbairn, DD )

Ver não é acreditar, mas acreditar é ver

I. Como entramos em contato com Jesus? O ponto mais alto de contato, o mais aparente na vida do crente, é o amor. "A quem não te tens visto a amar." Mas o texto fala de outro ponto de contato: “Em quem, embora agora não o vejais, mas crendo”. Somos novamente lembrados aqui de que não vemos, mas temos a certeza da possibilidade de crer Nele sem ver. Ah, não tornei eu pela fé real para mim mesmo o Salvador na Cruz? Em Cristo você creu e sabe que seu pecado está perdoado, que Sua justiça é imputada a você e que você é aceito no Amado.

Isso não é para você uma questão de esperança; é uma questão de firme convicção. Você não viu, mas você creu. Quanto à Sua ressurreição também. Você não o viu quando Ele se levantou do túmulo de manhã cedo e os vigias aterrorizados fugiram para longe, mas você acreditou Nele como ressuscitado. Acredito que, porque Ele vive, eu também viverei, e é possível acreditar nisso com tanta firmeza como se o víssemos.

Cristo está no céu implorando por nós. Não podemos ver o éfode e a couraça, mas acreditamos que Ele intercede com sucesso ali por nós. Nós O escolhemos para ser nosso advogado em todos os casos de grande angústia, em todos os casos de pecado grave; cremos que Ele é capaz de salvar perfeitamente os que por ele se achegam a Deus, e deixamos nosso terno com Ele em perfeita confiança. Ainda assim, a questão é que as pessoas carnais imaginarão que se houvesse algo para tocar ou cheirar, elas deveriam continuar, mas o mero fato de acreditar e amar é muito difícil para elas.

No entanto, esse pensamento não é razoável. Um homem analfabeto não pode ver que trabalho mental é trabalho, mas aquele que é capaz de trabalho mental logo percebe a realidade disso. Apenas transfira esse pensamento. Para a maioria das pessoas, entrar em contato com Cristo pelo toque parece mais real, isso porque sua natureza animal é superior; entrar em contato com Jesus pelo espírito parece-lhes irreal, apenas porque não sabem nada das coisas espirituais.

Pessoas irrefletidas pensam que a dor mental não é nada. Meros homens-animais costumam dizer: “Posso entender a dor de cabeça, posso entender a dor de ter uma perna cortada”; mas a dor da afeição ferida ou de receber a ingratidão de um amigo de confiança, isso pela mente áspera não é considerado dor. “Oh”, diz ele, “eu poderia agüentar isso”. Mas eu pergunto a vocês que têm mentes: existe alguma dor mais real do que a mental? Da mesma forma, a operação mental - pois é uma operação mental - de entrar em contato com Cristo por amá-lo e confiar nEle é a coisa mais real em todo o mundo, e ninguém pensará que é irreal quem uma vez a exerceu.

II. Que virtude é essa que flui dele?

1. O primeiro resultado de confiar e amar a Cristo é alegria, e alegria do tipo mais notável. É muito mais que qualquer alegria comum. É chamado de “alegria indescritível”. Agora, as alegrias nascidas na Terra podem ser contadas ao máximo. Mas as alegrias nascidas do espírito não podem ser contadas porque ainda não recebemos uma linguagem espiritual. Tenho visto o rosto dos homens se iluminar com a luz do sol do céu quando a alegria do Senhor é derramada em seu coração.

As mesmas pessoas que há um dia pareciam entorpecidas e pesadas parecem poder dançar de alegria porque encontraram o Salvador e sua alma está em paz por meio Dele. O apóstolo acrescenta que está “cheio de glória”. Muitas alegrias sensuais estão cheias de vergonha - um homem com consciência não ousa contá-las a seus semelhantes. A alegria de ganhar dinheiro é quente e cheia de glória, nem a alegria de matar um companheiro em batalha. Não há alegria como a do cristão, pois ele ousa falar dela em todos os lugares, em todas as companhias.

2. O apóstolo menciona outra bênção recebida por amar e confiar em Cristo. Ele diz, “recebendo o fim de sua fé, a salvação de suas almas”. Todo homem que confia e ama a Cristo é salvo. Quando confiamos em Jesus, embora não usássemos formas e cerimônias, recebemos a salvação de nossas almas.

III. O que se segue então de tudo isso?

1. Segue-se, em primeiro lugar, que um estado de alegria e salvação é a condição adequada e esperada de todo crente em Cristo.

2. Há outra inferência a ser tirada de meu assunto, e é para a alma que busca. Se você deseja conforto, vá para Cristo. ( CH Spurgeon. )

Ama um caminho para a fé

Você percebe que nas palavras do apóstolo o amor vem antes da fé. Certamente não é isso que deveríamos ter esperado. Como podemos amar antes de acreditar? Não devemos primeiro nos sentir convencidos da realidade de Cristo e da genuinidade de suas reivindicações? E ainda, se tomarmos o caso de alguém que viu Cristo, não está claro que o amor a Ele deve ter precedido a fé? O amor não surgiria imediatamente ao testemunhar algum ato de Cristo ou ao ouvir algumas de Suas palavras? E, no entanto, a fé pode ter envolvido mais dificuldade.

Era impossível não amar; mas como era possível acreditar, apesar de todas as dificuldades que tinham em suas expectativas em relação ao Messias? Não; não vemos o amor dos discípulos por seu Mestre realmente lutando para alcançar a fé em face de suas velhas crenças? O amor não deu atenção a esses obstáculos. Para isso, na visão de Cristo, não havia obstrução. Foi direto para seu objeto.

Mas a fé não pôde evitar o encontro. Ele teve que lutar com seus inimigos. O caso é diferente com os homens agora? Os homens em geral não aprendem a amar a Cristo antes mesmo de fazerem a pergunta sobre Sua realidade e a autenticidade de Suas afirmações? E aqui a primeira coisa que nos impressiona é a adaptação dos Evangelhos especialmente, e também, mas não tão marcadamente, das Epístolas para despertar o amor acima de tudo. O apelo não é feito principalmente e diretamente ao entendimento e razão.

Homens não são discutidos. Não há nenhuma demonstração elaborada apresentada. Não há como calar a boca dos homens por uma lógica inexorável. Pelo contrário, há uma imagem apresentada de uma vida grande e maravilhosa e uma morte de ignomínia exterior, mas glória moral transcendente. Observe como esse apelo ao amor é insinuante. Ele penetra no seu coração antes que você perceba. Você fica surpreso com a admiração e com o amor.

A vida de Jesus é tão primorosamente humana, tão cheia de pequenos toques que nada significam para o intelecto puro, mas são poderosos com o coração. As grandes qualidades de Cristo têm o efeito de despertar alguns sentimentos correspondentes na alma dos homens. Toda vida verdadeiramente elevada tem tal influência; mas a de Cristo de uma maneira totalmente transcendente. Homens, desta forma, por uma ligação pessoal a Cristo, ou admiração por Ele, ou entusiasmo por Ele, de acordo com sua inclinação particular, crescem no amor por todas as coisas nobres e puro.

E então aparece outro resultado. Acompanhando esse amor pela justiça, a penitência se mostra. Um sentimento de pecado, e uma amarga vergonha por causa dele, cresce no homem que admira sinceramente a Cristo. O que acontece quando esse estágio é alcançado? O homem agora está em posição de apreciar as coisas ricas e ternas que Cristo fala sobre o perdão. E agora ele entende que Cristo é um Salvador.

Sempre que o pecado é sentido como um fardo, obtém-se uma visão mais profunda de Cristo. E agora a fé em Cristo foi alcançada. As necessidades da alma, combinadas com o amor a Cristo, têm suscitado fé. Eles tornaram Cristo real. Quando a fé em Cristo começa a funcionar, o amor se torna mais amplo e mais fervoroso. Então o amor sente obrigação. Parece que tem uma tarefa a cumprir e uma dívida a quitar.

A fé torna-se doravante o grande alimentador e tributário do amor, trazendo suprimentos de todas as montanhas da verdade e chuvas de graça. Notemos uma ou duas inferências dessa linha de pensamento. Vemos como o amor a um Cristo invisível opera em mantê-lo perto da alma, apesar do decorrer dos séculos. Existem hoje almas humildes e fervorosas em miríades que sentem Cristo mais real e mais próximo do que muitas que O viram em carne e osso.

Quão primorosamente o natural e o espiritual se fundem no amor a Cristo! Existem aqueles que parecem nunca ir além do natural. Eles amam a Cristo como amam qualquer grande benfeitor do mundo. E quem pode dizer exatamente quando seu amor por Cristo saiu desta esfera e se tornou espiritual; ou quando tal amor se torna espiritual, aspirante e ativo? Não é todo amor verdadeiro para o bem e no fundo e, em última análise, um amor para Deus, se ao menos conhecesse a si mesmo? Não devemos falar dela tanto como uma inspiração quanto como um instrumento do Espírito de Deus que aflige os homens em todos os lugares e os medita? Não é a manifestação de Cristo o grande meio pelo qual este amor latente de bondade é aceso e elevado, e reconhece seu centro e sua casa? Não é o imenso poder que Cristo tem sobre a admiração natural dos homens uma de suas maiores armas e uma das coisas que o Espírito de Deus mais usa?

E não é esta uma das principais adaptações do evangelho para o mundo inteiro? E se um homem não tenta dar a volta ao mundo, mas simplesmente busca que remédio pode aplicar aos corações humanos, que antídoto ele pode encontrar para o pecado e a desgraça, como ele pode tocar almas e conquistá-las do desânimo e escuridão, dureza e preguiça e vergonha em luz, amor e alegria; se ele pretende apenas adoçar e enobrecer a vida humana, descobrirá que existe apenas um meio universal simples, pronto e eficaz, a história daquela vida maravilhosa e amor mortal ao Cristo invisível ( J. Leckie, DD )

Cristo, embora invisível, o objeto de afeição devota

É familiar a toda experiência e observação o quanto a ação de nossa natureza espiritual depende dos sentidos, especialmente o quanto o poder dos objetos de interessar as afeições depende de serem objetos de visão. Os objetos que podemos ver dão uma impressão mais direta e positiva da realidade; não pode haver nenhuma suspeita duvidosa se eles existem ou não. A sensação de sua presença é mais absoluta.

Novamente, o bem ou o mal, o prazer ou a mágoa, que os objetos visíveis nos causam, são freqüentemente imediatos; eles estão agora; sem qualquer antecipação fico satisfeito, beneficiado - ou talvez angustiado. Considerando que os objetos da fé podem ser considerados como tendo seus efeitos sobre nós no futuro. Os objetos visíveis, quando vistos, podem ser claramente mantidos em mente na ausência - durante longos períodos - à maior distância.

Mas como os grandes objetos da fé nunca foram vistos, a mente não tem um tipo expresso para o qual voltar. Com objetos visíveis (falando de seres inteligentes) podemos ter uma comunicação sensível e definida. Seres invisíveis não nos proporcionam esse sentido perfeito de comunicação. Com seres visíveis (isto é, com seres humanos) temos o senso de igualdade, de um tipo; somos da mesma natureza e economia; na mesma condição geral de humanidade e mortalidade.

Mas, quanto às existências invisíveis, estamos totalmente fora de sua ordem. Com os seres visíveis, novamente, podemos ter um certo senso de apropriação; podem obter um interesse neles que eles reconhecerão. Mas os seres invisíveis! eles têm um grande relacionamento próprio! Eles permanecem distantes e distantes do círculo dentro do qual poderíamos compreender o que podemos chamar de nosso. Essas são algumas das vantagens de conversar com objetos que são vistos em vez de com o invisível.

E, em vista disso, tomado exclusivamente, foi um grande privilégio gozado por aqueles que viram e conversaram com nosso Senhor na terra. Mas este é apenas um lado do assunto. Olhe um momento para o outro. E não precisamos temer afirmar que, no geral, é uma grande vantagem não ter visto Jesus Cristo; uma vantagem em favor das afeições alegadas ser devotadas a ele. Não precisamos insistir na possibilidade de sentir um grande interesse por objetos que nunca vimos. Lembre-se de que medida de sentimento, de afeição em seus vários modos, foi dada aos heróis ilustres, libertadores de seu país, vingadores da opressão, e homens de poder intelectual transcendente.

Mas há uma manifestação mais nobre dessa possibilidade. Pense em toda a afeição do coração humano que foi dada ao Salvador do mundo desde que Ele retirou Sua presença visível dele! E ainda afirmamos que é vantajoso para a afeição de Seus discípulos por Ele que eles não O vejam. “Bem-aventurados os que não viram e creram”. Mas, mais do que isso; reverta em pensamento para a manifestação pessoal de nosso Senhor na terra, e considere como isso atuaria na mente do espectador crente.

A grandeza sublime deve, por uma lei inevitável do sentimento humano, ser reduzida, sombreada, diminuída, quanto à sua impressão na mente, por ser envolta e apresentada em uma mera forma humana. Considere também que, ao contemplar uma natureza gloriosa e divina em tal manifestação, a afeição daqueles que se dedicam à sugestão fixaria muito, muitas vezes principalmente, na mera qualidade humana do ser diante deles, e, portanto, seria familiarizado, vamos digamos vulgarizado, nessa proporção; pode ser muito caloroso e cordial, mas não elevado e horrível.

Considere, além disso, que sob a plena impressão direta da vista, haveria uma grande restrição à fé, agindo no caminho da imaginação. A mente não sabe como se expandir em esplêndida concepção ideal sobre um objeto apresentado próximo, claro e familiar à vista. Não deveriam tais considerações tornar evidente que ver o Messias em Sua manifestação pessoal era uma forma de contemplá-lo muito inferior, pela excitação do tipo mais sublime de afeição, àquela que devemos exercer pela fé? O texto pode nos sugerir uma idéia adicional, o que não poderia acontecer àqueles a quem o apóstolo escreveu.

Nós não apenas não O vimos, mas vivemos muito depois da época em que Ele podia ser visto; nós, portanto, ao nos esforçarmos para formar uma concepção sublime Dele, podemos adicionar e acumular sobre a idéia, toda a glória que lhe foi atribuída pelo progresso de Sua causa no mundo desde então. ( J. Foster. )

Gratidão a Cristo

I. A gratidão gera naturalmente um apego afetuoso ao seu objeto. Devemos não apenas nos proteger contra um erro muito prevalente em nossos próprios tempos, a saber, excluir totalmente as afeições da religião e atribuir os sinais delas nos outros ao impulso de uma imaginação acalorada, mas devemos valorizar sua influência como uma expressão apropriada de nosso amor a Jesus Cristo, e um sintoma agradável de nossa sinceridade, quando fazemos disso uma profissão pública.

II. É um efeito natural da gratidão manter o objeto dela muito em nossos pensamentos. Os privilégios e benefícios do evangelho interessam nossas afeições. Nosso coração arde dentro de nós quando contemplamos Sua doutrina, Seu caráter, Sua surpreendente humildade e benevolência?

III. Outro efeito da gratidão é proceder às expressões externas daqueles sentimentos de gratidão que inspiram nossos corações. Quando amamos ou odiamos, ou sofremos ou nos regozijamos em um grau intenso, somos sensivelmente gratificados pela expressão verbal dessas afeições. As palavras não apenas fluem das afeições, mas reagem sobre elas e aumentam sua vivacidade e força.

4. A gratidão naturalmente nos dispõe a fazer tudo o que estiver ao nosso alcance de acordo com nosso benfeitor, ou que tenda a promover seus interesses. Pretender amar Jesus Cristo enquanto amamos nossos pecados e os mantemos firmes não é menos absurdo do que seria um homem confessar lealdade a seu príncipe enquanto se unia a esses súditos rebeldes que conspiraram contra sua pessoa e governo. Quando surpreendidos por uma falha, somos afetados pela tristeza, não apenas pelo medo do perigo, mas pela consciência da ingratidão?

V. A gratidão naturalmente nos leva à glória em nossa conexão com nossos benfeitores. Jesus, um homem de dores enquanto tabernaculou na terra, está agora exaltado à destra do trono de Deus. Nossa gratidão não pode aumentar Sua glória, nem pode nossa ingratidão diminuí-la. Mas Sua Igreja, ou reino na terra, como os reinos deste mundo, não está isento das vicissitudes de destinos prósperos e adversos. Quantos sintomas alarmantes do declínio do crédito e da influência da religião cristã são exibidos na época e no país em que vivemos! ( T. Somerville, DD )

Em quem ... acreditando, vocês se alegram .-

O dever e a disciplina da alegria cristã

I. As grandes possibilidades da alegria cristã - indescritível e cheia de glória. É bem possível estar rodeado de preocupações e problemas e ainda sentir uma fonte pura de alegria celestial jorrando em nossos corações, doce em meio a águas amargas. Pode haver vida sob a neve. Pode haver fogo queimando, como o antigo fogo grego, abaixo da água. Um homem tem esse poder se ele tiver dois objetos de contemplação, para um ou outro dos quais ele pode voltar sua mente - ele pode escolher para qual dos dois ele se voltará.

Como um sinaleiro de ferrovia, você pode lançar a luz através do vidro branco puro ou de um colorido escuro. Você pode escolher olhar para tudo por meio das tristezas que pertencem ao tempo, ou por meio das alegrias que fluem da eternidade. A questão é: qual dos dois devemos escolher deve ocupar o lugar de destaque em nossos corações e dar cor à nossa experiência. E então o texto nos lembra que a alegria que portanto pertence à vida cristã é silenciosa e uma “alegria indizível e glorificada” transfigurada, como a palavra pode ser traduzida.

“Ele é um homem pobre que sabe contar seu rebanho”, dizia o antigo provérbio latino. Essas alegrias estão na superfície e podem ser faladas. O rio profundo segue silenciosamente, com fluxo uniforme, para o grande oceano; é o pequeno riacho raso que vibra entre os seixos. A verdadeira alegria cristã é glorificada, diz Pedro. A glória do céu brilha sobre ele e o transfigura. Está impregnado e repleto da glória pela qual o cristão espera, como Estevão quando “a glória de Deus o atingiu no rosto” e o fez brilhar como a de um anjo.

II. O único grande ato pelo qual essa possibilidade de alegria se torna realidade. "Em quem, embora agora não o vejais, crendo, porém, vos alegrais." O ato de fé é a condição da alegria. A alegria surge da contemplação ou experiência de algo calculado para excitá-la, e quanto mais real, permanente e todo-suficiente esse objetivo, mais plena e segura será a alegria. Mas onde podemos encontrar um objeto como Aquele com quem somos levados à união por nossa fé? Jesus Cristo é todo-suficiente, cheio de piedade, cheio de beleza e justiça, tudo o que podemos desejar - e tudo isso para sempre.

Mas notem, a linguagem de nosso texto mostra que nossa alegria será exatamente contemporânea de nossa confiança. Enquanto estivermos exercendo fé, experimentaremos alegria - nem um segundo a mais. É como um piano, cuja nota cessa no momento em que você levanta o dedo da tecla - não como um órgão, no qual o som persiste por um tempo depois.

III. O presente que aumenta a alegria. O exercício da fé é em si mesmo alegria, independente do que a fé assegura. Estendemos nossas mãos para Cristo, e o ato é bem-aventurança. A fé é a condição da alegria, e a salvação de nossas almas, que recebemos como seu fim, é o grande motivo de alegria. A salvação é passado, presente e futuro. Aqui, é claramente considerado como presente. Essa presente salvação será uma fonte de alegria pura e nobre.

Se meu coração está humilde e até tremulamente repousando sobre Ele, eu tenho, na medida de minha fé, o verdadeiro germe de toda salvação. Quais são os elementos em que consiste a salvação? O fato e a sensação de perdão para começar. Bem, eu tenho isso, não tenho, se eu confio em Cristo? Uma posse crescente de desejos puros, gostos forjados pelo céu, de tudo o que é chamado na Bíblia de “o novo homem” - bem! Eu tenho isso, com certeza, se eu confiar Nele.

Essa salvação progressiva é dada a mim se eu estiver confiando Nele, "a quem, não tendo visto, eu amo." Tudo isso tenderá para a alegria. A presente salvação aponta para a sua própria conclusão e, dessa forma, torna-se ainda mais uma fonte de alegria. Em suas profundezas, vemos refletido um céu azul com muitas estrelas. A salvação aqui toca apenas a alma, mas a salvação em sua forma perfeita toca o corpo, a alma e o espírito, e transforma toda a natureza externa para corresponder a eles e faz uma morada digna para os homens perfeitos. Essa perspectiva traz alegria além do alcance de qualquer outra coisa que você possa pagar. ( A. Maclaren, DD )

Alegria cristã

I. Sua fonte.

1. A crença no Cristo invisível é alegria presente porque cria harmonia na alma.

2. Porque cultiva o coração com o mais profundo amor.

II. Sua natureza.

1. É inexprimível na profundidade de sua emoção.

2. É o penhor do futuro céu. ( EL Hull, BA )

Crentes regozijando-se

I. A alegria do cristão. A alegria pertence a eles, e pertence a eles apenas neste mundo inferior. A alegria é seu dever, seu privilégio; a alegria é comandada, prometida, assegurada: sua alegria começou.

II. A fonte dessa alegria. Há o suficiente em Cristo para aliviar todas as necessidades, cumprir todas as esperanças, superar todos os desejos.

III. O meio dessa alegria.

1. A fé é o único meio de conhecê-Lo.

2. A fé é o meio de todas as nossas relações com ele.

4. A inexprimibilidade dessa alegria. Quem pode descrever sua doçura, sua eficiência?

V. A excelência desta alegria. ( W. Jay. )

Alegria indica força

Oh, que possamos ter uma alegria como aquela que inspirou os homens na batalha de Leuthen! Eles estavam cantando uma canção cristã enquanto iam para a batalha. Um general disse ao rei: “Devo parar de cantar essas pessoas? Não, ”disse o rei. “Homens que cantam assim podem lutar.” ( T. De Witt Talmage. )

Alegria indescritível

Seria uma coisa ruim se aquele que a possuía pudesse contar tudo. ( T. Leighton. )

Alegrias profundas

É com alegrias, como dizem de preocupações e tristezas, que as águas mais profundas correm mais quietas. ( T. De Witt Talmage. )

Alegrias do coração

A verdadeira alegria é uma coisa sólida e grave, mora mais no coração do que na face; ao passo que as alegrias básicas e falsas são apenas superficiais, superficiais (como dizemos); eles estão todos na cara. ( T. De Witt Talmage. )

Alegrias glorificadas

Já glorificado - um pedaço do reino de Deus e da felicidade do céu de antemão. ( J. Trapp. )

Gozo glorioso

Quando o Sr. Simeon, de Cambridge, estava morrendo, um amigo sentado ao lado de sua cama perguntou o que ele estava pensando em particular. “Acho que agora não”, respondeu ele, com grande animação. "Estou gostando." ( Tinling ' s Ilustrações. )

Recebendo o fim de sua fé, até mesmo a salvação de sua alma.-

Os piedosos, pela fé, até aqui desfrutam da salvação

Os servos de Deus, pela fé, mesmo aqui desfrutam da salvação e da vida eterna, mesmo agora temos glória, embora não em sua plenitude.

1. Porque temos tanta certeza disso como se o tivéssemos, como se tivéssemos a mão de Deus para isso, até mesmo Sua palavra, Seu selo, Seu sacramento.

2. Porque mesmo aqui temos o penhor disso, que é o Seu Espírito. Quando o zelo é dado entre homens honestos, não há como voltar atrás, e Deus dirá e não fará isso?

3. Porque pela fé já entramos no primeiro grau dela; sendo unidos a Cristo, e tão perfeitamente justificados, chegamos aos subúrbios de nossa glória e estamos, por assim dizer, no portão, sem nada faltando, mas para sermos deixados entrar pela morte. ( John Rogers. )

Sua salvação pessoal

( Salmos 119: 41 ): - Visarei recomendar a salvação de Deus àqueles de vocês que a possuem, para que sejam mais gratos por sua escolha de herança; e ainda mais devo me esforçar para recomendá-lo àqueles que não o possuem, para que, tendo alguma idéia da grandeza de seu valor, possam ser estimulados a buscá-lo por si mesmos.

I. Vou tentar elogiar a salvação ou Deus, abrindo o que Pedro disse nos versículos antes de nós.

1. Deixe-me exortá-lo a dar atenção sincera à salvação de Deus, porque é uma salvação da graça ( 1 Pedro 1:10 ). O Senhor se propõe a salvá-lo porque você é miserável e Ele é misericordioso; porque você é necessitado e Ele é generoso.

2. Novamente, sua maior atenção pode muito bem ser solicitada à salvação de Deus quando lhe é dito no texto que é pela fé. “Recebendo o fim de sua fé, até mesmo a salvação de suas almas.” “Todos os que crêem são justificados de todas as coisas pelas quais não poderiam ser justificados pela lei de Moisés.” “Todo aquele que crê que Jesus é o Cristo é nascido de Deus.” “Quem crê Nele não é condenado.” “Aquele que crê Nele tem a vida eterna.”

3. O evangelho da salvação deve ser considerado por você, pois tem absorvido os pensamentos dos profetas. “A respeito da qual os profetas inquiriram e procuraram diligentemente, os profetas profetizaram sobre a graça que deveria vir a vós.” Se homens que tinham o Espírito Santo, e eram chamados de “videntes”, investigassem o significado da Palavra que eles próprios falaram, o que coisas pobres como nós devemos fazer para entender o evangelho? Deve ser nosso prazer ler, marcar, aprender e digerir interiormente as doutrinas da graça.

Além disso, quando a profecia cessou, o Espírito Santo desceu sobre outro grupo de homens de quem nosso texto fala. Pedro disse sobre estas coisas, que elas “agora vos são relatadas por aqueles que vos pregaram o evangelho com o Espírito Santo enviado do céu”.

4. Os apóstolos seguiram os profetas em testificar desta salvação, e com os apóstolos houve uma comunhão honrosa de evangelistas e pregadores fervorosos. Esses nobres portadores de boas novas continuaram a relatar esta salvação até que tivessem terminado suas missões e suas vidas, e, portanto, sinto que para nós, nestes tempos, brincar com a Palavra de Deus e dar ouvidos moucos aos convites do evangelho é um insulto às suas memórias de honra.

Você os martiriza uma segunda vez ao negligenciar desdenhosamente o que eles morreram para entregar a você. Dos mortos, eles dão testemunho contra você e, quando se levantarem novamente, se assentarão com seu Senhor para julgá-lo.

5. Nem temos meramente profetas e apóstolos olhando com admiração, mas nosso texto diz: "Para quais coisas os anjos desejam olhar." Eles se interessam tanto por nós, seus semelhantes, que têm um desejo intenso de conhecer todos os mistérios de nossa salvação. Já percorremos um longo caminho com este texto, subindo passo a passo. Agora vemos outra maravilha: nos elevamos ao Mestre dos anjos.

6. Cristo é a substância desta salvação. Para que diz o texto? Os profetas falaram "de antemão sobre os sofrimentos de Cristo e a glória que se seguiria". Ah, aí está o ponto. Para salvar os homens, Jesus sofreu. Resta uma outra etapa. Não pode ser mais alto; está no mesmo nível. É isto.

7. O Espírito Santo é a testemunha de tudo isso. Foi o Espírito Santo que falou nos profetas; foi o Espírito Santo quem estava com aqueles que primeiro relataram o evangelho; é o mesmo Espírito Santo que todos os dias dá testemunho de Cristo.

II. Até agora tenho elogiado a salvação do meu Senhor, e agora gostaria que, com tudo isso em sua mente, voltasse para a oração do salmo cento e dezenove: “Que a Tua misericórdia também chegue a mim, ó Senhor, mesmo Tua salvação segundo a Tua palavra. ” Use a oração com este intento: Senhor, tenho ouvido o que os profetas, apóstolos e anjos pensam sobre a Tua salvação, o que o Teu Filho e o Teu Espírito pensam sobre ela; agora deixe-me humildemente dizer o quê! pense nisso: Oh, isso era meu! Oh, que viria para mim!

II. Portanto, eu recomendaria a oração do salmista.

1. Eu direi sobre isso, que é em si uma oração muito graciosa, pois é oferecida em fundamentos corretos.

(1) Não há menção de mérito ou merecimento. Seu pedido é apenas por misericórdia.

(2) É uma oração graciosa, porque pede a coisa certa: “a Tua salvação”, não uma salvação de minha própria invenção. A salvação de Deus é aquela em que Sua soberania divina é revelada, e essa soberania deve ser aceita e adorada.

(3) Você vê que a oração é colocada na forma correta, pois é acrescentada: “Sim, a Tua salvação segundo a Tua Palavra”. Ele deseja ser salvo da maneira que o Senhor determinou. Senhor, se a Tua Palavra diz que devo me arrepender, dá-me a Tua salvação e faz com que eu me arrependa; se Tua Palavra diz que devo confessar meu pecado, dá-me Tua salvação na confissão de pecado; se disseste que devo confiar em Cristo, Senhor, ajuda-me agora a confiar nEle; apenas me conceda Tua salvação de acordo com Tua Palavra.

(4) Observe que toda a oração é concebida e proferida com um espírito humilde. É, "Que a Tua salvação venha também a mim." Ele é dono de seu desamparo. Ele não pode ficar com a misericórdia, ele quer que isso venha até ele. Ele está tão ferido e doente que não consegue colocar o curativo nem pegar o remédio, e por isso pede ao Senhor que o leve até ele.

2. Em segundo lugar, esta oração pode ser apoiada por argumentos graciosos. Suponho que algum pobre coração desejando dolorosamente usar esta oração. Aqui estão os argumentos para você. Ore assim. Diga: “Senhor, permita que Tua misericórdia venha sobre mim, pois eu preciso de misericórdia”. Em seguida, defenda isso; “Senhor, Tu o sabes e fizeste-me saber algo do que será de mim se a Tua misericórdia não vier sobre mim: devo perecer, devo perecer miseravelmente.

”Então implore:“ Se Tua misericórdia vier sobre mim, será uma grande maravilha, Senhor. Não tenho confiança para fazer mais do que vivamente torcer para que aconteça; mas, oh, se Tu alguma vez apagares o meu pecado, contarei isso ao mundo; por toda a eternidade cantarei Teus louvores e reivindicarei ser, de todos os salvos, o exemplo mais notável do que Tua graça soberana pode fazer. ” Então você pode entregar isso ao bom Salvador.

Diga a Ele que se Ele lhe der a salvação, Ele não empobrecerá com o presente. “Senhor, sou uma alma sedenta; mas Tu és um tal rio que, se eu beber de Ti, não terei medo de esgotar Teu suprimento ilimitado. ” Há outro apelo implícito na oração, e um argumento muito doce é: "Que Tua misericórdia também chegue a mim, ó Senhor." Significa: “Já aconteceu a muitos antes, portanto, venha também a mim.

Senhor, se eu fosse o único e Tu nunca tivesses salvado um pecador antes, ainda assim, me aventuraria em Tua palavra e promessa. Em especial, gostaria de vir e confiar no sangue de Jesus: mas, Senhor, não sou o primeiro de muitos milhões. Eu imploro, então, por Teu grande amor, que Tua salvação venha até mim. ”

3. Concluirei assegurando-lhes que esta oração abençoadamente graciosa, que ajudei a sustentar com argumentos, será respondida por nosso gracioso Deus. ( CH Spurgeon. )

Salvação é o fim da fé

I. Considere o artigo salvo - a alma, o espírito imortal pelo qual somos distinguidos dos animais que perecem.

1. Sua origem. “O Senhor Deus soprou no homem o fôlego da vida.” O corpo era composto do que existia antes; mas a alma que o animou veio imediatamente de Deus.

2. Sua imortalidade. As posses terrestres são estimadas de acordo com sua duração. Esses nossos corpos logo irão para o pó; mas a alma existirá por uma duração infinita. O que, então, pode ser tão importante quanto a salvação da alma?

II. O que esta salvação inclui?

1. Redenção da maldição da lei. Este é o primeiro passo no caminho para o céu.

2. Esta salvação inclui encontro pessoal. Devemos ser renovados no espírito de nossas mentes.

III. Observe a conexão entre fé e salvação. Quando o cristão morre, ele recebe o fim de sua fé. Como isso deve ser entendido? No versículo anterior ao texto, o apóstolo menciona “acreditar” como a causa da alegria. Todo o fim e objeto da fé é a salvação da alma. As Escrituras colocam este princípio em posição de destaque ( João 3: 18-36 ). ( Pregador Nacional Americano. )

Salvação - seus elementos subjetivos

I. Faith. "Em quem, embora agora não O vejais, mas crendo."

1. A fé é a primeira graça cristã. Sem ela, você não é cristão de forma alguma.

2. Esta fé é uma confiança pessoal em um Salvador pessoal. É mais do que consentimento intelectual, até mesmo confiança no coração.

3. Essa fé era, além disso, uma fé em um Salvador invisível. "Em quem, embora agora não O vejais, mas crendo."

II. Ame. "A quem, não tendo visto, amores."

1. O amor é um elemento essencial da religião cristã. É isso que distingue a religião cristã das outras religiões do mundo.

2. Nosso amor supremo. Seu lugar em nossa afeição é único - Ele desfruta de um amor mais profundo, profundo e duradouro do que o de pai ou mãe, de irmão ou irmã.

3. Esses estranhos da Dispersão evidenciaram seu amor supremo pelo Salvador ao permitirem que fossem despojados de todas as suas posses, em vez de negá-Lo. Seu amor foi severamente testado.

III. Alegria. “Alegrai-vos”, etc.

1. A alegria é um elemento essencial na religião de Jesus Cristo; não a alegria que exclui a tristeza, mas a alegria no meio dela.

2. Esta alegria não só desafia a filosofia para explicá-la, mas a linguagem para expressá-la - “alegria indizível”, que não pode ser contada.

(1) A alegria mais íntima do coração do cristão é uma coisa muito Divina, de uma textura muito delicada, para ser exposta à visão curiosa e profana dos mundanos. E todos nós conhecemos experiências sagradas demais, preciosas e doces demais para serem expostas aos olhos de todos os contempladores.

(2) A alegria que brota do coração do cristão não pode ser transmitida na linguagem, sendo uma coisa muito sutil e volátil, evaporando na própria tentativa de despejá-la do coração nas garrafas de construção gramatical.

3. Esta alegria é “cheia de glória” ou já glorificada.

(1) O centro interno desta alegria já está branco e brilhando.

(2) Essa alegria tem a evidência em si mesma de sua glorificação final no mundo vindouro. O processo foi iniciado aqui, será aperfeiçoado lá. ( JC Jones, DD )

Salvação da alma

I. O grande valor da salvação da alma. Isso é visto de

1. Os seres ilustres interessados ​​nele.

(1) Profetas.

(2) Anjos.

(3) Apóstolos.

(4) O Espírito de Cristo em todos eles.

2. O próprio Salvador por quem a salvação vem.

(1) Seus sofrimentos.

(2) Suas seguintes glórias.

II. O desenvolvimento gradual da revelação para a salvação da alma.

1. Predito pelos profetas.

(1) Gradualmente e parcialmente.

(2) Inconscientemente.

(3) Pela iluminação Divina.

2. Totalmente declarado, anunciado e relatado.

III. O meio simples de alcançar a salvação da alma.

1. Salvação é-

(1) Aquilo em que acreditamos.

(2) O fim para o qual leva a crença.

2. Esta fé é-

(1) Assentimento da mente.

(2) Consentimento do coração.

(3) Resposta da vontade. ( UR Thomas. )

Salvação como agora é recebida

I. Qual é a salvação recebida aqui?

1. Tudo isso pelas garras da fé e da graça da esperança.

2. O perdão absoluto e final do pecado é nosso neste momento.

3. A libertação da escravidão servil e de uma sensação de terrível distância de Deus é um alívio presente. Paz, reconciliação, contentamento, comunhão com Deus e deleite em Deus, nós desfrutamos nesta hora.

4. O resgate do poder de condenação do pecado agora está completo.

5. A liberação de seu domínio é nossa. Ele não pode mais nos comandar à sua vontade, nem nos embalar para dormir com seus acordes calmantes.

6. A conquista sobre o mal nos é concedida em grande medida de uma só vez. Os pecados são conquistáveis. Uma vida santa é possível. Alguns alcançaram um alto grau disso.

7. A alegria pode se tornar permanente em meio à tristeza.

II. Como é recebido?

1. Totalmente de Jesus, como um dom da graça divina.

2. Por fé, não por visão ou sentimento.

3. Por amor fervoroso a Deus. Isso estimula a vingança contra o pecado e, assim, proporciona a purificação presente. Isso também nos estimula para uma vida consagrada e, portanto, produz santidade.

4. Pela alegria no Senhor. Isso nos faz receber uma paz indizível, que não deve ser exagerada, nem mesmo proferida.

III. Você já recebeu e quanto?

1. Você já ouviu falar da salvação, mas ouvir não vai adiantar.

2. Você professa saber, mas a mera profissão não serve.

3. Você recebeu perdão? Tem certeza disso?

4. Você foi feito santo? Você é limpo diariamente em sua caminhada?

5. Você obteve descanso pela fé, esperança e amor? ( CH Spurgeon. )

A grandeza da salvação

Um escritor alemão ilustra a grandeza de nossa salvação dessa maneira. Um cavalheiro, depois de uma vida exemplar, morreu. O portão do céu foi aberto e ele foi recebido como um herdeiro da glória. Um dos gloriosos foi comissionado para ser seu maestro e mestre. Primeiro, ele o levou a um ponto em que ele podia ver a representação mais terrível do pecado em seus frutos de miséria. Os objetos de horror o fizeram estremecer.

Então seu guia pediu-lhe que olhasse cada vez mais para baixo na abóbada sombria, e ele viu o mais horrível e terrível dos seres, o fruto do pecado. “Isso”, disse seu guia, “é o que você teria sido em séculos de eternidade se tivesse continuado em pecado”. Em seguida, seu guia o levou a um ponto de onde podiam ser vistas as glórias dos redimidos. Ele viu fileira após fileira de anjos, serafins e querubins, habitando em glória inefável.

Ele pediu-lhe que olhasse além disso; e ao longe ele viu um ser transcendentemente mais radiante e glorioso, ao redor do qual flutuava a música suave de indizível doçura e alegria. “Aquele”, disse o guia, “é você mesmo daqui a muitas eras. Contemple a glória e bem-aventurança que a salvação de Jesus lhe trará. ”