Our torments may by length of time become
Our elements;
and I am sure our blessings may. They say that people who endure
continual pain and misery, get at length hardly to feel it. And so,
on the other hand, people who have continual prosperity get at
length hardly to feel that. God forgive us! My friends, when I say
this to you, I say it to myself. If I blame you, I blame myself.
If I warn you, I warn myself. We most of us need warning in these
comfortable times; for I believe that it is this very
unrighteousness of ours which brings many of our losses and troubles
on us. If we are so dull that we will not know the value of a thing
when we have got it, then God teaches us the value of it by taking
it from us. He teaches us the value of health by making us feel
sickness; he teaches us the value of wealth by making us feel
poverty. I do not say it is always so. God forbid. There are
those who suffer bitter afflictions, not because they have sinned,
but that, like the poor blind man, the glory of God may be made
manifest in them. There are those too who suffer no sorrow at all,
even though they feel, in their thoughtful moments, that they
deserve it. And miserable enough should we all be, if God punished
us every time we were ungrateful to him. If he dealt with us after
our sins, and rewarded us according to our iniquities, where should
we be this day?
But still, I cannot but believe that if we do go on in prosperity,
careless and unthankful, we are running into danger; we are likely
to bring down on ourselves some sorrow or anxiety which will teach
us, which at least is meant to teach us--from whom all good things
come; and to know that the Lord has given, when the Lord has taken
away.
God grant that when that lesson is sent to us we may learn it.
Learn it, perhaps, at once, and in a moment, we cannot. Weak flesh
and blood cannot enter into the kingdom of God, and see that he is
ruling us, and all things, in love and justice; and our eyes are, as
it were, dimmed with our tears, so that we cannot see God's
handwriting upon the wall against us. But at length, when the first
burst of sorrow is past, we may learn it; and, like righteous Job,
justify God; saying,--The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away,
blessed be the name of the Lord. If we do that, and give God the
glory, it may be with us, after all, as it was with Job, when God
gave him back sevenfold for all that he had taken away, wealth and
prosperity, sons and daughters. For God doth not afflict willingly,
nor grieve the children of men out of spite. His punishments are
not revenge, but correction; and, as a father, he chastises his
children, not to harm, but to bless them.
And God grant that if that day, too, comes--if after sorrow comes
joy, if after storm comes sunshine--we may not forget God afresh in
our prosperity, nor go our ways like those dull-hearted Jews, after
they were cleansed from their leprosy: but, like the Samaritan,
return, and give glory to God, who gives, and delights in giving;
and only takes away, that he may lift up our souls to him, in whom
we live, and move, and have our being: and so, knowing who we are,
and where we are, may live in God, and by God, and for God, in this
life, and for ever.