The gifts unimproved are apt to be lost. One knows not all the
conditions on which England holds her sway, nor do we fathom the
strange way in which spiritual characteristics are inwrought with
material interests. But we believe in a providential government of the
world, and of this we may be very sure, that all advantages not used
for God are held by a very precarious tenure.
The fact is that selfishness is the ruin of any people. When you have
a 'Christian' nation not using their position for God's glory, they
are using it for their own sakes; and that indicates a state of mind
which will lead to numberless other evils in their relation to men,
many of which have a direct tendency to rob them of their advantages.
For instance, a selfish nation will never hold conquests with a firm
grasp. If we do not bind subject peoples to us by benefits, we shall
repel them by hatreds. Think of India and its lessons, or of South
Africa and its. We have seen the tide of material prosperity ebb away
from many a nation and land, and I for my part believe in the Hand of
God in history, and believe that the tide follows the motions of the
heavens.
The history of the Jewish people is not an exception to the laws of
God's government of the world, but a specimen of it. They who were
made a hearth in which the embers of divine truth were kept in a dark
world, when they began to think that they had the truth in order that
they might be different from other people, and forgot that they were
different from others in order that they might first preserve and then
impart the truth to all, lost the light and heat of it, stiffened into
formal hypocrisy and malice and all uncharitableness, and then the
Roman sword smote their national life in twain.
Whatever is not used for God becomes a snare first, then injures the
possessors, and tends to destroy the possessors. The march of
Providence goes on. Its purposes will be effected. Whatever stands in
the way will be mowed remorselessly down, if need be. Helps that have
become hindrances will go. The kingdoms of this world will have to
fall; and if we are not helping and hasting the coming of the Lord we
shall be destroyed by the brightness of His coming. The chariot rolls
on. For men and for nations there is only the choice of yoking
themselves to the car, and finding themselves borne along rather than
bearing it, and partaking the triumph, or of being crushed beneath its
awful wheels as they bound along their certain road, bearing Him who
rides 'forth prosperously because of truth and meekness and
righteousness.'
IV. Though we be unfaithful, God's purpose of mercy to the world shall
be accomplished.
'Deliverance and enlargement shall arise from another place.' So it is
certain that God from eternity has willed that all flesh should see
His salvation. He loves the heathen better than we do. Christ has died
not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. God hath
made of one blood all nations of men. The race is one in its need. The
race is one in its goal. The Gospel is fit for all men. The Gospel is
preached to all men. The Gospel shall yet be received by a world, and
from every corner of a believing earth will rise one roll of praise to
one Father, and the race shall be one in its hopes, one in its Lord,
one in faith, one in baptism, one in one God and Father of us all.
That grand unity shall certainly come. That true unity and fraternity
shall be realised. The blissful wave of the knowledge of the Lord
shall cover and hide and flow rejoicingly over all national
distinctions. 'In that day Israel shall be the third with Egypt and
with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth.'
This is as certain as the efficacy of a Saviour's blood can make it,
as certain as the universal adaptation and design of a preached Gospel
can make it, as certain as the oneness of human nature can make it, as
certain as the power of a Comforter who shall convince the world of
sin, of righteousness, and judgment can make it, as certain as the
misery of man can make it, as certain as the promises of God who
cannot lie can make it, as certain as His faithfulness who hangs the
rainbow in the heavens and enters into an everlasting covenant with
all the earth can make it.
And this accumulation of certainties does not depend on the
faithfulness of men. In the width of that mighty result the failure of
some single agent may be eliminated. Nay, more, though all men failed,
God hath instruments, and will use them Himself, if need were.
Only we may share the triumph and partake of the blessed result.
Decide for yourself, what share you will have in that marvellous day.
Let your work be such as that it shall abide. Stonehenge, cathedrals,
temples stand when all else has passed away. Work for God abides and
outlasts everything beside, and the smallest service for Him is only
made to flash forth light by the glorifying and revealing fires of
that awful day which will burn up the wood, the hay, and the stubble,
and flow with beautifying brightness and be flashed back with double
splendour from 'the gold, the silver, and the precious stones,' the
abiding workmanship of devout hearts in that everlasting tabernacle
which shall not be taken down, the ransomed souls builded together,
ransomed by our preaching, and 'builded up together for a temple of
God by the Spirit.'