By the Venerable C. J. Hoare, M.A.,
_Archdeacon and Prebendary of Winchester._
Romans viii. 28.
"And we know that all things work together for good to
them that love God."
Amongst the observations most frequently heard in the world, is that
made on the undeserved prosperity of the wicked, and the many
seemingly uncalled-for trials of the righteous. Experience will indeed
tell us, that neither of these opposite conditions is uninterrupted;
neither is it all sunshine in the most prosperous worldly lot; nor is
it all gloom--far from it--in the Christian's portion on earth.
Experience will also go further, and will abundantly prove the saying
of the wise man, that "the prosperity of fools shall destroy them."
Such success has a tendency first to deceive, then to corrupt, and
lastly to betray men into utter destruction. But the text will lead us
still further; it will teach us, that the trials of the righteous
preserve them--yea, work for good; and that "all things," and,
therefore, even the greatest trials, "work together for good to them
that love God."
The text represents them as workmen. They work together for good;
they are constantly at work for that purpose, whether as instruments
in God's hands, or as in a degree self-moving for that end; they are
constructing as it were a building, or they are laying a foundation;
and that which they lay--that which all things befalling a Christian
are ever laying for him--is a ground for his substantial, necessary,
and eternal benefit. "We know that all things work together for good
to them that love God."
This, then, it will be, with God's blessing, my humble endeavour to
show in the following discourse: first, premising the sense of the
word "good," in all just and reasonable acceptation; next, showing
more fully how all things may be thus said to "work for good to them
that love God;" finally, pointing out some of the many things which
will be found by experience to work in this very manner.
I. The term "_good_," it must be said in the first place, is very
different, both in the language of the bible and in the estimation of
the truly wise, from what it usually represents in the language and
opinion of the world. The bible teaches us to view all things in their
consequences, and in their real and essential nature. View things in
their consequences, in their final end and issue, if you would view
them at all justly or wisely. Ease, and health, and worldly wealth,
and success may be good, just as the plentiful feast is good, provided
a man has temperance and soundness of constitution properly to partake
of it; but, if he is likely to indulge to a surfeit, or if every
morsel is food to some mortal disorder, and every cup adds strength to
a fever that is raging in his veins, no one in reason would call such
an entertainment good to such a man. And just so with the good things
of this present life: the Christian does not unreasonably deny that
prosperity is pleasing, health desirable, friends and relations deeply
attaching to us, and the smiles of social endearment or public favour
greatly captivating; but neither does he, like the world, consider
them to be necessarily all they seem to be, good to all persons, and
under all circumstances; he does not forget that earthly and bodily
good is just what it becomes in the use of it; that many times the use
can hardly be separated from the abuse; that lawful things, when
unlawfully or idolatrously used, are just as evil as unlawful
ones--nay, rather, that for a few comparatively who have perished from
a hardened course of forbidden pleasure, multitudes have been for ever
lost by allowed indulgences. Till he sees, then, the application made,
and the resulting consequences of any worldly boon, he does not call
the possessor happy, nor the possession good, nor very eagerly or
supremely does he desire it either for himself or others.
But, again, the things _really and essentially good_ in their very
nature and inseparable qualities are those which, in the estimation of
the mere world, are held in no account whatsoever. What the bible
chiefly esteems, and the world wholly neglects, are spiritual
blessings,--the good things of the soul of man, "the precious things
of heaven, even of the everlasting hills." Those precious things, the
goodwill of him who is the great I AM--the peace of God which passeth
all understanding--the luxury of promoting the good of man and the
glory of God;--still more, the pardon of sin, through faith in the
atonement of Jesus Christ--a gradual advancement in true holiness--a
growing fitness and longing desire for the future blessedness of the
saints, and a final admission and "abundant entrance into the
everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour," the "inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away;"--these are truly
to the world but as a dream, a fancy, a cunningly-devised fable; but,
to the mind of the Christian, stand for everything truly and
substantially good. They are in all his plans first and foremost, and
nearest and dearest to his heart. They are as necessary to him in his
calculation and account of human happiness, as profit and pleasure are
to his neighbours around. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the
heart conceived, the things which God hath prepared for them that love
him." But God hath revealed to _him_ by his Spirit, these very things,
as his chief good, his measure of all true happiness. Wealth may be
good, health still better, kindly affections and attached friends the
best of earthly boons; but the favour of God, the acquisition of his
image, the means of grace, and the hope of glory, are to him sovereign
and above all. While many ask, amidst the increase of their corn, and
wine, and oil, "Who will show us any good?" he exclaims, "Lord, lift
thou up the light of thy countenance upon me"--"in thy presence is the
fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore." He
weighs well the nature, and "remembers the end" of all that is called
good, and so "does not amiss."
II. For, secondly, he finds that, while we so do, and so consider,
"all things work together for good to _those that love God_." There
is, first, on the mind of the Christian that secret influence in the
very disposition of love to God, which will _of itself_ turn to good
every thing that comes from the God whom we love, and the Saviour on
whom we fully and implicitly rely. And there is, secondly, a full
disposition on the part of _our heavenly Father_ so to order and
direct every event which befals his loving and attached children, as
shall be found at last to have answered the ends of sovereign wisdom
and divine mercy.
In the first instance, the tendency, _on our own part_, of love to the
great and good God will be this, namely, to turn all that befals us to
an instrument of good. As, in the healthy body, food of very different
descriptions may yet all turn to nourishment, and minister to health
and bodily strength; so, in the healthy mind, purified and
strengthened by the grace of God's Holy Spirit, every thing that meets
it is converted to its advantage, and adds in some way to its
improvement and its happiness. There is ever a colour cast upon
outward circumstances from the complexion of the inward soul. The vain
man, on his part, the ambitious, the sensual, the gainful, well know
how to turn all to the advancement of their sinful objects; and no
less does the good man turn all to the enlargement of his goodness,
and the lover of his God to the increase and exercise of that love.
Viewing every thing in the glass, or by the lamp of God's word, he
ingeniously, so to speak, finds in every thing a reason for loving and
fearing, serving and obeying God. Every event works for his good,
because he is resolved it shall do so; and every result satisfies,
pleases, rejoices him, because he is persuaded it ought to do so.
Loving God, he has a confidence that he is beloved of God; and then,
feeling himself in a world made by God, and proceeding forward under
his guidance and permission, he never will believe that any thing
falls out in it but what is intended to make him both good and happy.
Happy then he will be, if God intends he should be so; and holy he
will be encouraged to become, under the consciousness that God intends
his holiness.
Dispositions like these will indeed work for their possessor even upon
the hardest materials, and will, by the very force of a new and
spiritual nature, convert all into "servants to righteousness unto
holiness." Faith will be a hand, bringing together the events of life
and the framer and guide of all life and all existence; and the result
will be a solemn and heart-satisfying conviction, that "all things
work together for good to them that love God."
Nor, next, will such a faith prove to be groundless; for surely there
is a _power engaged_, there is a pledge in the gospel, a sure word of
promise, and even of covenant, that all things shall be ours;--"All
are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." The trial of our
faith lies indeed very much upon this one point. Can we, for a moment,
believe that God permits all the disorder and confusion which appears
to us in the world--the prosperity of wickedness, the trials and
adversity of the righteous, in order to raise a doubt on our minds
whether he be not absent all the while--whether he bears or not any
share in the world he created, or in all those moving causes that owe
their activity and life to himself alone? God is surely present; he is
powerfully operating; he is the supreme controller, and the almighty
director; he is fully aware of those adverse appearances, and is no
less deeply engaged in the final issue of all events, to render them
consistent with the ends of justice and mercy, than as if we saw him
at work with our bodily eyes: or, as if we then could fully know the
mind of the Lord, or be his counsellors to instruct him.
The expressions of scripture are too strong, and too agreeable to the
very nature of God and of his works, to make us doubt for a moment of
his providential care and unceasing watchfulness. "He is not far from
every one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being." To
the true disciple saith Christ himself, "The very hairs of your head
are all numbered;" and yet more strongly, "If a man love me, he will
keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him,
and make our abode with him." Promises, these, which have been ever
realized in the history of the saints in all ages who have walked with
God--Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and the patriarch Jacob--none more tried
than he--yet we read _his_ testimony to "the God, which fed me all my
life-long unto this day; the angel which redeemed me from all evil."
Keeping in view the notion of what is truly good for this state of
trial, and for the soul as well as for the body, there is no time and
no extent to which we shall not find the promise sure, and the
fulfilment exact, where God is pledged for the supply of his servants
that trust in him: his eye is ever open, his ear ever attentive unto
them. The petition he denies is able to operate as powerfully and as
favourably on their behalf as that which he grants; merciful alike in
the gift which he bestows and which he withholds, and wise alike in
the evil which he permits, and which he restrains.
There is nothing more important to the believer's faith, than to
apprehend that there is no uncertainty, nothing imperfect or weak in
the dispensations of God, as they respect the final issue of the
Christian's trials. Either God is wholly absent and forgetful of his
daily wants, or else he is wholly and for ever at work on his behalf.
If he were wholly absent, well might his servants doubt that, after
all their endeavours to that end, they should be able to turn to good
all the events of this mortal life. If _he_ do not temper the trials
of his servants, how in truth shall they overcome them? If _he_ do not
controul their enemies, how shall they ever escape them? Figure to
yourself any place, or time, or circumstance, where God is not, or
where he _can_ be spared from the concerns of his people, either
temporal or spiritual: but, if none can be imagined or assigned, then
is it but justly and essentially true, that, by his especial order and
his immediate appointment, "all things work together for good to them
that love God."
III. But we may proceed, lastly, to show, in a practical manner, _some
of those very things_ which shall thus work together for good. Take
the most unpromising and most unfavourable case, for instance, that of
_great prosperity_. None will deny it to be a case of many others the
most trying to the graces of the true Christian. Yet even shall the
temptations arising from worldly honours and successes, to a man armed
with the love of God, work together for good. Graces rarely exercised
in exalted stations, shall be found to shine the more conspicuously in
his instance. The grace of humility, and tenderness of spirit, shall
be the more eminently illustrated in that station, where, too often,
there is only pride and hardness of heart. If he be found, in a sober,
self-denying spirit, setting little value on those things so commonly
called good amongst mankind--using this world without abusing
it--shall not the grace of God be more abundantly magnified? When not
overcome, as Agar feared he might be, saying, "lest I be full, and
say, who is the Lord?"--but rather, when led by fulness to more
gratitude, and by a lofty station to deeper humility, and to a more
lowly submission to God, and meekness to man--how will he by such
prosperity as this testify to the reality of Christian principles: how
will he, in giving freely where he has freely received, esteeming even
his highest gains as loss for Christ's sake, and returning upon others
all that mercy which has been exercised towards himself, prove that
_he_ has not received the grace of God in vain; but that even
prosperity has "worked together for good to them that love God."
Or, suppose the case of _deep adversity_--suppose the Christian
stripped, like Job, of great honours and possessions at a single
stroke; betrayed and sold like Joseph, even by brethren, into bondage
and exile; or lying like Lazarus at the gate of the rich man, diseased
in body, and suing for the crumbs from off his table; or suppose him,
as St. Paul himself, in peril of foes, and even doubtful of friends;
in weariness and painfulness oft, in hunger and thirst, in cold and
nakedness. These last were exactly the circumstances under which the
very text was indited by the apostle himself: he saw, what you may
see, that trials like these, when tempered by the presence of the God
he loved, were good, not, I would say, in proportion to their weight,
but according to the patience which they exercised, the faith they
strengthened, the experience of divine support they afforded, the hope
they brightened, the crown they were preparing; yea, the exceeding and
eternal weight of glory which they must eventually be working out. The
apostle had "heard of the patience of Job," and had "seen the end of
the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." The
trials of Joseph had even led that servant of God, by degrees of
painful progress, to the honour of a prince, and a chain of gold. The
"evil things" of Lazarus--good they might have been called--had led
him to still higher honours, and had prepared him to be carried by
angels into Abraham's bosom. Every individual circumstance of this
nature, as it passed in review before the apostle in the text, had led
irresistibly to the conclusion he so strongly expresses. Could he
distrust the same arm, disbelieve the same promises; or rather saying
with David--"Our fathers trusted in thee, and were delivered," would
he not add--I will trust as they did; I will be "in subjection to the
Father of spirits, and live?" Let me feel only the "profit, that I may
be partaker of his holiness;" and then, "though no affliction for the
present is joyous, but grievous," it shall surely hereafter yield the
peaceable fruit of true righteousness; and "all things," adversity
itself, "shall work together for _my_ good."
_Temptation_, verily, shall be among the "things working together for
good to them that love God." Such indeed is our state of trial upon
earth, that every successive arrival at our doors comes to us in some
shape or other of temptation to sin. But take the strongest and most
pressing incitements to the corruptions of the heart, and the evil of
our nature. Even of _these_ must it not be said, that the temptation,
and the tempter himself, may be turned into a worker for good, when
that promise is brought forward, and brought home to the heart, "God
is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are
able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye
may be able to bear it?" Another apostle had a like meaning when he
said, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers
temptations." Every enemy opposed to the Christian warrior affords
him fresh opportunity for a sure victory in the strength of Christ.
Every obstacle in his path is that which faith regards as a trial
prepared for his soul; but hope and joy carry him over, to the glory
of his sovereign Upholder. In evil company, which he seeks not, his
courage is honourably put to the test, and abides it; amidst a world
of licentiousness and excess, which he desires not to approach, he
still trusts, through grace, that he shall not be found wanting. In a
season of provocation his meekness is tried, and it prevails; and in
the moment of fear, and the threats of alarm, "his heart standeth
fast, trusting in the Lord;" "nay, in all these things he is more than
conqueror through him that loved him."
If his very _sins_ are in one sense his shame, and the source of his
bitter tears and saddest recollections, still those tears and
recollections shall prove among the workers for his good, if they lead
him more closely to the throne of mercy, and to the fountain of
eternal strength. If any experiences of past weakness make him more
watchful, sober, and diligent for the future--if they direct him to
the vulnerable points in his armour, to the "sin that easily besets
him"--if, in the very moment of his conscious frailty and
heart-overwhelming struggle, he is enabled to exclaim, "Rejoice not
over me, O mine enemy; though I fall I shall arise; though I sit in
darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me:" then shall he know that
"_all things_ work together for good to them that love God."
I conclude with a single word of remark on the expression in the text,
"We _know_ that all things work together for good." It expresses the
_personal experience_ of the Christian. It answers to a similar
expression of the same apostle to the Philippians--"I know that this
shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the
spirit of Jesus Christ." But to whom is this knowledge vouchsafed? To
whom is it a safe and a sure conviction--an "earnest expectation and
hope," so "that in nothing we shall be ashamed?" Truly, to those only
who "_love God_"--to those who are "the called according to his
purpose." His purpose is our sanctification, and that we should be
"conformed to the image of his Son." To such truly, to such only does
that blessing apply, so frequently indeed, and but too rashly,
appropriated by many others, "All is for the best."
Let the careless rather tremble, those as yet not effectually called
into the gospel vineyard, at such an appropriation of the text. To
them it may be only a savour of death unto death, a deadly security, a
hope that "_maketh_ ashamed, because the love of God is _not_ yet shed
abroad in their hearts."
Gain rather in prayer, in secret meditation and much retirement from
the presence and the love of this world, the true love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Then being first transformed yourself, you
will be enabled, by a divine power, to transform everything around
you; you will receive all things as from the hand of the Father whom
you love, the Benefactor and Friend whom you wish and aim to serve.
Your willing and noble obedience to him will render, then, prosperity
a new advantage to you by awakening your gratitude, and adversity a
blessing, by exercising and perfecting your patience. You will have a
fence around you, an armour of divine temper to fortify you in the
presence of every temptation, and to turn the very weapons of your
adversaries into your own instruments of victory, the trophies of your
triumph. Sin will have its struggles within you, but will not gain
dominion over you, while every deviation from God's righteous will is
mourned in secret, and restored through grace; and while it brings you
the more urgently and constantly to the foot of the cross, where hung
the Saviour whom you love, whose favour and forgiveness you implore;
and you shall be enabled to close the volume of your experience in the
concluding words of the chapter, and with the apostle himself: "Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ?... I am persuaded, that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God
which is Christ Jesus our Lord."