CHARITY AND LONELINESS.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest
of these is charity.-I COR. xiii. 13.
_The possession of this Divine Charity often necessitates walking
in a lonely path._
Not merely in opposition and persecution, but _alone_ in it,
and here, again, Jesus, who was the personification of Divine lore,
stands out as our great example. He was emphatically alone, and of
the people there was none with Him. Even the disciples whom He had
drawn nearest to Him, and to whom He had tried to communicate most of
His thought and spirit, were so behind that He often had to reprove
them, and lament their obtuseness and want of sympathy. In the
greatness of His love He had to go forward into the darkness of
Gethsemane. He was alone while they slept, and then through ribaldry,
scorn, and sarcasm, to the cross. Alas! alas! almost alone, except a
few--to their everlasting honor--poor faithful women--_alone!_
And, as it was with the Master, so it has been with all those whom
God has called to go in advance of their race. It was so with John,
and with Paul, and with most of the apostles, and with all those whom
God has called to extraordinary paths since. Must John have a
revelation of things shortly to come to pass? He must go alone into
the Isle of Patmos! Must Paul hear unspeakable words, not, at that
time, lawful for a man to utter? He must go alone into the third
heaven, and not be allowed even to communicate what he saw and heard
when he came down; alone, he must necessarily go in advance.
And just so, when God has called some of His followers to an
out-of-the-way path, they have had to go alone in an untrodden way.
Superior love necessitates a lonely walk. You shrink, and say, "That
seems so hard." Yes, I know; I wish I could make it easier, but I cannot
help it. I simply state the fact, that superior love necessitates, in
some measure, a lonely walk, because you see it is only they who--thus
love, to whom the Lord tells His secrets. If you want to ask a
confidential question and get a confidential answer, you must be on
the bosom of your Master. You won't be able to do it at a distance.
Then, you see, when He gives to any soul superior light to its
fellows, and that soul _follows_ the light, it necessarily entails a
path in advance of its fellows. Unless he can inspire and encourage them
(which, alas! is hard work) to follow, he must go on alone.
That was a beautiful illustration we read in the lesson (Acts x.).
Here is Peter called to go in advance of the whole Church! Now, the
Lord wants a man to do this, and whom does He choose? He chooses
impulsive, energetic, head-first Peter. But then, there is something
to be done first God lets down the sheet with all its unclean contents,
and Peter fastens his eyes upon it. (I wish you had studied all the
sheets the Lord has let down before _your eyes_, you would have come out
very differently to what you have.) Peter studies them, and soon the
Divine vision has absorbed Peter's attention. When the Lord has fairly
got his attention, then comes the voice, "Now, Peter, rise, slay and
eat." Then, when the Lord had taught him his lesson effectually, and
when Peter saw that he had not yet explored all the ideas of the Divine
mind about the extension of His kingdom, and that his business was to
follow his Lord's directions, and not to have his own "ifs" and "buts,"
but go ahead and do as God bade him, then Peter goes on to carry out the
Divine direction. Then the church, aghast, as usual, at anything
new--always down upon a measure, whether good or bad, if it has the _awful
quality of being new_--was down upon it. This new church, which had only
just itself been brought to God by a set of _new measures_, is down
upon Peter, and they call him to the council to answer for his conduct.
He tells them all about it in the truthful simplicity of a man of
God, and, thank God, they had sense enough--yes, and love enough,
charity enough, to accept his explanations, and to glorify God. Would
to God we could get as much sense and charity in these days!
A lady writes to me, only the other day, of her husband, saying that
he sympathises with outside work, but contends that there is
everything one wants in the church; and another contends that there
is everything everybody wants somewhere else, and so they are down
upon all the Peters that dare to do anything out of the jog-trot
line. You may reason ever so urgently, and show them that all these
old measures are not enough for everybody, that there is a great mass
of outlying population which they do not reach--the Gentiles of this
generation; you may show them that these Gentiles are without the
Holy Ghost, that they are not cleansed, that they are yet common and
unclean; you may show them that these new measures of yours are quite
as lawful as their old measures, and that, probably, they would be a
great deal more useful, and, moreover, that they have been borne in
upon you by the Holy Ghost, and that you feel as if there were a fire
in your bones urging you to go and try them, but they will not hold
their peace and glorify God, but will loose their tongues and villify
you.
False Charity looks more at the means than at the end. Its possessor
is more concerned about what men will think of _him_, than what
will exalt the Redeemer. You can know it by this mark. Are you more
concerned about what your neighbor, Mr. So-and-So, or your minister,
Rev. Mr. So-and-So, or even your bishop, thinks about you, than you
are about the extension of the kingdom of Christ? Look out, my
friend, yours is the wrong sort of Charity. True Charity looks at the
end--the spread of righteousness in the earth--_the reign of the
King_--and it is not very fastidious about the measures, so that
they are lawful.
I do not advocate anything unlawful, to do good--God forbid. Divine
Charity says, "Anywhere with Jesus"--in the temple or outside of
it--at the seaside or in Cheapside--on the mountain top or in the market
place--in the streets--anywhere, Lord Jesus, if Thou wilt only come
and take Thine inheritance and reign over the hearts and souls of
men. True Charity is only too glad to become a Jew to the Jews, as
weak to the weak, if it can only pick them up;--only too glad to
descend to men of low estate, and put its arms round their necks, if
it can only bring them to the cross and bring them back to the heart
and Heaven of God; and it does not care what the Pharisee on the
other side says; it is set on saving the poor sinner; it is pouring
in oil and wine, and putting him on its own beast; _it is intent on
saving him_, and does not care what anybody thinks. Have you got
it? It is so good. It makes you feel so warm and comfortable inside.
It is beautiful, and it proves better and better every day, and it
will be better still when you are dying--Faith and Hope will be done
away, but this love will last _forever!_
But this necessitates somebody leading the way--going on in advance.
Will _you_ be content to go in advance? Will _you_ endure the hardness
of a pioneer? Can you bear the ridicule and gibes of your fellow-men?
Dare _you_ go where the Holy Ghost leads, and leave Him to look _after
the consequences?_ If so, happy are you, and you shall have a harvest of
precious souls; you shall shine as the stars forever; but, if you draw
back, His soul shall have no pleasure in you. Step out on to the Divine
love, that is able, alone amongst the breakers, to bear your little
bark--able to make you _more_ than a conqueror. Oh, step out--follow,
follow, follow--do not be afraid!
_Spurious Charity_ is the opposite of this. It must have human
notice. Ostentation is its very essence. Cease to notice it, and it
will soon die. "I went about to establish mine own righteousness,"
says Paul, before he got the true Charity. Here was a grand
opportunity for Pharisaic Saul. These Nazarenes, were they not
everywhere spoken against? Was not this a grand opportunity for
_him_ to be everywhere spoken for?--and so he takes advantage of
public opinion, and becomes "exceedingly mad" against them; and, not
satisfied with persecuting them in his own city, he goes after them
into strange cities, but he reveals, afterwards, when he got the
Divine Charity, that the mainspring of his zeal was SELF-GLORY.
False Charity hates to be in a minority--you never find it in an
unrespectable minority,--it wants company, and that of a respectable,
genteel kind. Its possessors are always sticklers for the traditions
of the elders; their horizon is bounded very largely by the opinions
of men and the attitude of the _rulers_. They are always asking,
"Have any of the rulers believed on Him?"
Now, my friends, let this teach you wisdom and love. Prove all
things before you condemn. I have no doubt Saul was an honest man, in
the world's acceptation of the term, for he says he persecuted the
Nazarenes ignorantly, thinking he was doing God service; but what a
grand mistake he was making, and how effectually he was doing the
_work of the devil!_ Of course, if he had _seen_, he was mistaken, he
would have ceased to _be mistaken_.
I wish people would stop and think that the path they are now
standing in the well-beaten track on which they are now walking with
such slow dignity--was one quite as new and unconventional and
outrageous to the coadjutors of their forefathers, as the path which
any new departure by the Holy Ghost may set before them _now_. I
wish such people would read history. I suppose they do not, or, if
they do, they read it as they do the Bible--they fail to draw any
practical principle from it. Such people should read "Neale's History
of the Puritans," and see in what a hurricane of excitement,
opposition, contempt, and persecution, their forefathers fought for
the very paths they are now _standing still in_, and holding so
sacred that they cannot have them disturbed. Do you see how
unphilosophically they are acting? If their forefathers had acted on
the principles they are acting on, they would have stood still in old
paths, and we would never have been in the new ones. These people
stand in these paths of traditionalism and routinism, just where
their forefathers left them, occupying all their time in admiring the
wisdom and benevolence and devotion of their forefathers, instead of
imitating _their aggressive faith_ and MARCHING ON TO THE CONQUEST OF
THE WORLD.
Which is the most God-honoring? Which has the most common sense in
it? Which will please your forefathers the most? But it is now as it
was in the days of the Son of Man--for, "ye build the tombs of the
prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, 'If
we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been
partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' Wherefore ye be
witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which
killed the prophets."
Alas! what a deal of this is going on to-day, only there is one
difference--it is going on "under a Christian creed, instead of a
Jewish." It is only the _creed_ that differs--the character, the
spring of action, is the same.
Now, my friends, try yourselves--which Charity _have you got?_
Do you rejoice in the extension of the kingdom of Jesus Christ by any
lawful means, or are you more concerned _about the color of a man's
coat than the state of his heart?_ Would you rather the poor
drunkard were left to rot and seethe in his misery, than that a man
should put on a blue jacket with an S.[Footnote: Badge of the
Salvation Army.] on his collar, and go and fetch him out? Would you
rather have men damned conventionally, than saved unconventionally?
If you would, you are a Pharisee at heart--I care not what you call
yourselves. Go home and read for your instruction Matt, xxiii. 23-28.
Further, how bitterly this false Charity often comes out in
individual cases. We will just take an illustration. We will suppose
here is a family of decent, respectable, professedly Christian
people, who have been to church or chapel most of their lives. Or
here is a Church, we will suppose, of the same character--nothing
particular has happened; they fear the Lord, and go comfortably
along, and are just where they were ten or fifteen years ago, making
up for _deaths_ and _removals_. We will suppose that a member of that
family or that church, as the case may be, gets converted. He reads a
book, goes to a special meeting, or some providential utterance is the
means of sending the light of God's Spirit upon his soul, and he is
quickened and woke up to see the miserable, half-dead, guilty condition
in which he is; he is praying and groaning, and feeling after God; he
gets the sense of his transgressions and unfaithfulness being taken
away, and the joy of God's salvation restored to his soul. Now, in a
moment, almost immediately, as in the case of Peter, as soon as the
internal work is done, comes the external path opened up. The Spirit of
God lays before him some new work, something strikes him which has been
long forgotten, or which never seems to have been recognised in his
family or church. He sees what a grand thing that would be for the
conversion of souls, and the extension of the kingdom of Jesus
Christ, and he feels it beginning to burn like a fire in his bones to
enter this path of usefulness. He prays much over it, and he waits
until he is fully satisfied that it is not a vain impulse, but that
it is of the Spirit of God. Full of love, and faith, and zeal, he
goes to tell his minister, or some Christian friend; he expects that
they will sympathise with his feelings, and enter into his project;
but, alas! alas! they begin by raising objections--they start
difficulties:--"Well, but you see that would be a little out of our
order: that is not exactly our way of doing things. I am afraid the
deacons would object, or I am afraid something would happen;" and if
he has the misfortune to be young (anybody would think it was a sin
to be young), they will "crush" him out; they put the extinguisher
on, and say, "Wait, my brother, until you have more experience," or,
"my sister," especially, "_you_ must never presume to do
anything of which we cannot approve!"
Oh! friends, you smile because you _know_ how true it is! Oh,
alas! the thousands of urgings of the Holy Ghost; the thousands of
heavenly voices that have been as clear to human souls as ever
Peter's sheet was to him; the thousands of glorious aspirations and
schemes for the spread of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ that
have been thus crushed by this spurious, false, selfish, devilish
Charity! The Lord put it out.
Oh! I would not care what the Lord called my child to do that would
be for the extension of His kingdom and the glory of His name; I
would not restrain her or keep her back. I might say, "My child, it
may be a painful thing for me to consent. I might have chosen another
path for you; but if you are satisfied the Spirit leads you, go
forward, and I will do all I can to help you." Why? Because I want
the King to have His own, and I do not care how it is, so that He gets
His own, and I will have Him to use _mine_ as well as me to get it.
Fathers and mothers, look out! If you grudge your children to God,
He will be even with you. "They that honor Me, I will honor, but they
who do not, shall be lightly esteemed." They shall get light weight
all round, and be whipped with their own rods. Mind how you withhold
that which is most precious from God! Mind you do not receive the
grace of God in vain; _some people do_.
The fifth point in which this Divine and spurious Charity contradict
each other, is, that Divine Charity--the pure love of God--is _law
abiding_.
That is, it always manifests itself in harmony with the great moral
law of the universe--it never does evil that good may come! You never
hear it saying--"I cannot say that this is exactly square; I know
this is not exactly the right course, but then I can accomplish such
and such objects by adopting it." Never! that is of the devil! You
may always know that the law of righteousness is entwined round the
very heart of Divine Charity, and as justice and judgment are the
habitation of the throne of its Divine Author, so righteousness is in
the very core of its soul. It will never sacrifice righteousness for
peace, or anything else.
Now, what is the whole duty of man? To love mercy, to do justly, and
walk humbly with God; and, when the Holy Spirit has brought about
that result in your soul, God will look on you with a beneficent eye,
with a smile of approbation, and its genial influence will sun your
whole being, and you will walk in the light of it, even as the angels
do in Heaven. "Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God;"
that is the whole duty of man--everything is included in that.
Do you hear it, oh! ye temporizers with Divine law? Do you hear it,
ye who say that we must come down partly, and be a little like the
world in order to win it? that you must come on to the level of the
ungodly in order that you may win them to God?--I tell you that
_all unrighteousness is sin!_ Do you hear this, you who contend
for covering up by a false Charity certain sins which are sending men
to perdition wholesale, and make laws and acts of parliament to
protect men in these crimes? I know your specious arguments that come
from the devil; but I ask, is it justice to take one part of the human
race, and that the weaker, and, therefore, according to the law of
Divine Charity, demanding the greater protection from cruelty and wrong,
and offer that part up for the _supposed_ good of the other, because
the latter is stronger? Is that justice? Is that mercy? and, mind, I say
emphatically _supposed good_; for, do you think one part of God's
creation can be trodden down without reacting with terrible moral force
upon the other? Do you think it can? Was it ever done? Will it ever be
done? _No! not while He sits on His throne_. Yes, _supposed_ good, for
facts mock your arguments. It is not for their good; you know it is not.
You cannot accomplish your purpose when you have done all; and think you
that you will escape, by your satanic inventions, the Divine
Executioner? Think you that your specious arguments will avail with Him
who hath sworn in His holy habitation that He will avenge the oppressed
and down-trodden of the earth? No, no! I see written between the lines,
and I hear muttering between your speeches. "Be not deceived; God is not
mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." You
cannot escape the penalty!
The last characteristic of true Charity which I shall name is, that
_it holds out_, in spite of ingratitude, opposition, and persecution!
Its possessor seeks the good of all men, not because he ought, merely,
but because he cannot help it. His _heart_ is on the side of God and
truth. He _loves_ righteousness, and, therefore, cannot desist from
seeking to bring all beings to love it, too, although they hate and
despise him for so doing. Jesus held out in this glorious love, even in
the agonies of crucifixion. "Father, forgive them; they know not what
they do." His heart was set on bringing man back to God, and He went
through with it. His soul did not draw back, and His Divine love
constrained Him, even onto death.
Paul followed his Master in this respect; and though the more he
loved some of his converts, the less he was loved, he went on,
seeking their highest good, not being hindered for a moment by their
ingratitude. He loved _them_--not their good opinion or applause! A
spurious Charity soon tires when the objects of it prove unworthy. Its
possessor says: "I have had enough of this; the kinder I am, the worse
people treat me. I shall button up my pocket, and take my ease, till I
am better appreciated." _Self_-glory is the very life of spurious
Charity: it dies right out under ingratitude and contempt.
Which have you got, my brother?--my sister?
Does somebody say, as a man who had been to a service at Scarborough
the other, day, and had been hearing some straight truth, said, when
asked, "How did you like it?" The man, a young, prosperous tradesman
in the town, shuffled about, and said: "Well, it was awful; if that
is true, I am on my way to hell." Thank God he had found it out. Now,
have you got this Divine Charity? I told you, at the beginning, it
did not grow on unregenerate human nature, so if you are an
unregenerate man, and have not the Holy Spirit, I want you to find it
out. You have to begin at the beginning, and get the plant planted.
No matter what spurious imitations you have got, if you have not got
_the love of God_. Have you got it, brother?--sister? If you
have not, you can have it this afternoon. Will you seek it? We were
all once without it, even as it is said, "We were the children of
wrath, even as others;" we hated those who hated us; we hated things,
not because they were wicked, and against God, but because they were
opposed to us personally; our love and hate were influenced by
selfishness, the same as others, but now the Lord has renewed our
hearts, and made us in some little measure, like Him who "loved
righteousness, and hated iniquity; and, therefore, God anointed Him
with the oil of gladness above His fellows." Oh! yes; the more you
love righteousness and hate iniquity, the more of gladness you will
have, and the more glorious the testimony you will give for God. You
will be able to say, with David, "I have not hid Thy righteousness
within my heart; I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation:
I have not concealed Thy loving kindness and Thy truth from the great
congregation." There will be no difficulty about declaring it. We
find it easy to declare it when people get it. We cannot keep them
quiet; they are like the early converts--they are up two or three
together; and, like Paul, we have to say, "One at a time; you shall
all prophecy, if you do it one at a time." When people get it, it
bubbles up, and runs over; "it springs up," as out great Master said,
"as a well of water, unto everlasting life." Many floods cannot
quench it; it abideth forever.
Have you got it? Have you got enough of it to lift you above your
petty, selfish interests, or are you guided by the Charity that first
looks inside to see how any proposition will affect _self_,
instead of seeing how it will affect the kingdom of God? And you,
poor sinner, who know you have not got it--I have more hope of you
than some who profess to have it. His great bowels of compassion move
towards you; He is waiting to shed abroad this love in your heart.
The feast is spread; all things are now ready. Oh! come into His
banqueting house, and sit under His banner of love for ever and ever.