"The Lord turned and looked upon Peter."--Luke, xxii. 61.
Jesus never spake one unnecessarily harsh or severe word. He had a
Divine sympathy for the frailties and infirmities of a tried, and
suffering, and tempted nature in others. He was forbearing to the
ignorant, encouraging to the weak, tender to the penitent, loving to
all,--yet how faithful was He as "the Reprover of sin!" Silent under His
own wrongs, with what burning invectives did He lay bare the Pharisees'
masked corruption and hypocrisy! When His Father's name and temple were
profaned, how did He sweep, with an avenging hand, the mammon-crowd
away, replacing the superscription, "Holiness to the Lord," over the
defiled altars!
Nor was it different with His own disciples. With what fidelity, when
rebuke was needed, did He administer it: the withering reprimand
conveyed sometimes by an impressive _word_ (Matt. xvi. 23); sometimes by
a silent _look_ (Luke, xxii. 61). "Faithful always were the wounds of
_this_ Friend."
Reader! art thou equally faithful with thy Lord in rebuking evil; not
with "the wrath of man, which worketh not the righteousness of God," but
with a holy jealousy of His glory, feeling, with the sensitive honor of
"the good soldier of Jesus Christ," that an affront offered to Him is
offered to thyself? The giving of a wise reproof requires much Christian
prudence and delicate discretion. It is not by a rash and inconsiderate
exposure of failings that we must attempt to reclaim an erring brother.
But neither, for the sake of a false peace, must we compromise fidelity;
even friendship is too dearly purchased by winking at sin. Perhaps, when
Peter was led to call the Apostle who honestly reproved him, "Our
beloved brother Paul," in nothing did he love his rebuker more, than for
the honest boldness of his Christian reproof. If Paul had, in that
crisis of the Church, with a timidity unworthy of him, evaded the
ungracious task, what, humanly speaking, might have been the result?
How often does a seasonable reprimand, a faithful caution, save a
lifetime of sin and sorrow! How many a death-bed has made the
disclosure, "That kind warning of my friend put an arrest on my career
of guilt; it altered my whole being; it brought me to the cross, touched
my heart, and, by God's grace, saved my soul!" On the other hand, how
many have felt, when death has put his impressive seal on some close
earthly intimacy, "This friend, or that friend,--I might have spoken a
solemn word to him; but now he is no more; the opportunity is lost,
never to be recalled!"
Reader! see that you act not the spiritual coward. When tempted to sit
silent when the name of God is slighted or dishonored, think, _would
Jesus have done so_?--would _He_ have allowed the oath to go
unrebuked--the lie to be uttered unchallenged--the Sabbath with impunity
to be profaned? Where there is a natural diffidence which makes you
shrink from a more bold and open reproof, remember much may be done to
discountenance sin, by the silent holiness of demeanor which refuses to
smile at the unholy allusion or ribald jest. "A word spoken in due
season, how good is it!" "Speak gently," yet speak faithfully: "be
pitiful--be courteous:" yet "quit you like men; be strong!"
"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."
Thirteenth Day.