"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?"--John, xxi. 15.
No word here of the erring disciple's past faithlessness;--his guilty
cowardice--_unmentioned_;--his base denial--his oaths--and curses, and
treacherous desertion--all _unmentioned_! The memory of a threefold
denial is _suggested_, and no more, by the threefold question of
unutterable tenderness, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?" When
Jesus finds His disciples sleeping at the gate of Gethsemane, He rebukes
them; but how is the rebuke disarmed of its poignancy by the merciful
apology which is added--"The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is
weak!" How different from _their_ unkind insinuation regarding _Him_,
when, in the vessel on Tiberias, "He was asleep"--"Master carest thou
not that we perish!" The woman of Samaria is full of earthliness,
carnality, sectarianism, guilt. Yet how gently the Saviour speaks to
her--how forbearingly, yet faithfully. He directs the arrow of
conviction to that seared and hardened conscience, till He lays it
bleeding at His feet! Truly, "He will not break the bruised reed--He
will not quench the smoking flax." By "the _goodness_ of God," He would
lead to repentance. When others are speaking of merciless violence, He
can dismiss the most guilty of profligates with the words, "Neither do I
condemn thee; go, and sin no more."
How many have an unholy pleasure in finding a brother in the
wrong--blazing abroad his failings; administering rebuke, not in gentle
forbearance and kindly expostulation, but with harsh and impatient
severity! How beautifully did Jesus unite intense sensibility to sin,
along with tenderest compassion for the sinner, showing in this that
"He knoweth our frame!" Many a scholar needs gentleness in
chastisement. The reverse would crush a sensitive spirit, or drive it to
despair. Jesus tenderly "considers" the case of those He disciplines,
"tempering the wind to the shorn lamb." In the picture of the good
shepherd bearing home the wandering sheep, He illustrated by parable
what He had often and again taught by His own example. No word of
needless harshness or upbraiding uttered to the erring wanderer!
Ingratitude is too deeply felt to need rebuke! In silent love, "He lays
it on His shoulders rejoicing."
Reader! seek to mingle gentleness in all your rebukes; bear with the
infirmities of others; make allowance for constitutional frailties;
never say harsh things, if kind things will do as well; do not
unnecessarily lacerate with recalling former delinquencies. In reproving
another, let us rather feel how much we need reproof ourselves.
"Consider thyself," is a searching Scripture motto for dealing with an
erring brother. Remember thy Lord's method of silencing fierce
accusation--"Let him that is without sin cast the first stone."
Moreover, anger and severity are not the successful means of reclaiming
the backslider, or of melting the obdurate. Like the _smooth_ stones
with which David smote Goliath, _gentle_ rebukes are generally the most
powerful. The old fable of the traveller and his cloak has a moral here
as in other things. The genial sunshine will effect its removal sooner
than the rough tempest. It was said of Leighton, that "he rebuked faults
so mildly, that they were never repeated, not because the admonished
were afraid, but ashamed to do so."
"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."
Fourteenth Day.