Before we close our present Study, let us survey for a moment the
position of the truly Christian character. Let us see and examine a
position, whether filled by _lord_, _subject_, or _slave_, that seems so
surrounded with hope, so particularly the focus of all the irradiations
of heaven, that the distinctions and miseries of human life, even wrongs
done us, are blotted out by the brilliancy of their illumination.
But let us view it in connection with man in an unchristianized state,
under the control of the appetites, passions, and influences of an
unredeemed world; and it may be we shall behold with wonder the
operation of that redemption by which his felicity is made steadfast.
The uncertainty and vanity of human pursuits have for ever been a
subject of remark.
And, if we examine the motives of human conduct and see the fallacious
objects of human hope, we always perceive the constant attendance of
pain, misery, and woe.
As the visions of early life are relinquished, we transfer to the future
that confidence which has been for ever betrayed by the past, and as
these illusions are successively dispelled, new objects continue to fill
the imagination, till the very moment when all our prospects are
involved in the darkness of the tomb. Nor think ye that the miseries
that flow from ambition, avarice, voluptuousness, and open crime, are
the only ones that attend us. Each refinement of life is accompanied
with its own peculiar symptom. Besides, there are sufferings that no
foresight can foresee, which no excellence can elude.
The imperfection of a master, or of him placed in power, may bring to
his slave or other dependant unutterable wo!
The lassitude of sickness, the agony of its pain, the distresses, the
imperfections of our friends, their alienation from us, and our final
separation from the objects of our tenderest regard, would transform
paradise itself into a wilderness of wo, did not the light of God keep
it for ever illumined.
Even could we escape from all the external causes of wo, yet the waters
of bitterness would continue to flow from the never-ceasing sources of
sorrow that lie deep in our own bosoms buried.
We are therefore constrained, forced to conclude, that the balance of
our moral constitution has been destroyed; and by the derangement of a
system once harmoniously attuned, our principles of action, no longer in
unison, are thrown into perpetual collision: maintaining no longer their
original or their relative strength, they lead us into perpetual error,
and by their conflicts produce a moral discord incompatible with the
happiness of man. “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not
willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.”
“Because the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage
(δουλειαςδουλειας, _slavery_) of corruption into the glorious liberty of
the children of God.” _Rom._ viii. 20.
Had we been made acquainted merely with the fall of man and its effect
upon his moral constitution, we should have still been bewildered in the
perplexities of our condition. A consciousness of guilt would have
filled our minds with apprehension, and the fear of the Divine
displeasure would have mingled its bitterness with every gratification,
would have seized upon every hope. Like Cain, we should have cried out,
“Our punishment is greater than we can bear,” and solicited the black
mark of slavery as an antidote to threatened and instant death.
But the mercy of God, which always tempers even the natural events to
the delicate sensibilities of our physical perceptions, concealed from
our view the desolation of our condition, till, in the maturity of his
counsels, he saw fit to blend with the discovery the bright visions “of
the glory about to be revealed.” _Rom._ viii. 18.
The heathen nations, although painfully alive to the brevity of human
life, and deeply impressed with the vanity of our hopes, were equally
ignorant of our fallen nature, and of the holiness of that God before
whom we are to be adjudged. Their conception of an existence after death
was cheerless and indistinct, although, even at this late day, among the
most lofty intellects of their time, we can now perceive a longing
desire after something to them unknown, a hankering for the proof of a
spiritual immortality. Thus, while there was but little in their
anticipations of a future state to excite their apprehension or alarm,
there was but little to stimulate their hope.
The vulgar were sometimes alarmed by the majestic terrors of the
Thunderer, and the philosopher was sometimes penetrated by those
perfections which he was led to ascribe to the mighty Mind.
Yet the wisest sages of antiquity do not seem to have perceived in human
guilt an internal malignity, which no penitence can expiate, nor blood
of dying victims wash away.
If some glimpses of the miseries and dangers in which sin had involved
us were disclosed to the favoured few, yet visions of prophecy dispelled
the gloom; for, “where there is no vision the people perish.” _Prov._
xxix. 18.
It was not till our Saviour had sealed the charter of our hope, that our
condition, with a full view of its desolation, was proclaimed to a
fallen world. A knowledge of the disease and the remedy has in mercy
kept pace with each other. If we learn that the “creature was made
subject to vanity,” we also learn that he was made so in hope.
Now, when we behold our condition, although we see evidences of our
fallen state, of the degradation of our intellectual and moral
faculties, yet we see also a provision of mercy by which the creature
may be delivered from “the bondage (δουλειας, _slavery_) of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
Viewed in connection with this sublime truth, the value of human
interests, the pain of human sufferings, and the grief of human wrongs
disappear; yea, vanish from the eye of the true believer. The grandeur
of his future prospects dignifies his present state, however humble. His
present evils, which might overwhelm him if attached to his ultimate
condition, lose all their bitterness when converted by redeeming love
into mere lessons of moral discipline. The pain is softened by the
endearment of paternal tenderness, and he feels and knows that they will
only accompany the mere infancy of his being.
The poor, humble, but Christian slave, hears constantly the lessons of
Titus, and is happy in his obedience to his own master, that he may
please him well in all things, watchful to not contradict, nor purloin
from any one, and careful to show all good fidelity, that he may adorn
the doctrine of God. He feels that no one has a deeper interest in that
grace; for it hath equally appeared to all men.
He remembers his fellow-slaves of Colosse, and while with singleness of
eye he heartily serves his earthly master, he feels that the act is
ennobled, and is transferred to be an act of devotion and obedience to
the great Jehovah.
Sympathy carries him back to his Corinthian brethren, in common with
whom he feels no anxious care to change the condition in which he was
called, for while he is content to abide where God has placed him, he
knows that he has been purchased by the blood of Christ, and promoted to
the rank of a freeman of the Lord.
With his fellow-slaves of Ephesus, he may tremble with fear lest his
obedience to his master shall not be performed with good-will and
singleness of heart, as unto Christ himself, for he knows that God has
not required of him merely eye-service; yet he also knows that
Christians, whether bond or free in this world, will hereafter be
remembered of God for whatever good they do. Yea, he yields himself to
the exhortations of Timothy, and accounts his own master worthy of all
honour and obedience, that the name of God and his doctrine should not
be blasphemed; nor does he feel the less reverence for his believing
master, but rather does his service with alacrity as to a brother, and
with heart-felt joy, because he is a faithful and beloved partaker of
the benefits of his labour.
And when he hears men, whose ignorance of God has caused them to be
puffed up with the idea of their own importance and purity, evidently
filled with pride, as though they could teach God a more holy
government, attempting to exhort and teach them a different doctrine, he
feels, he knows that such are not only evil and bad men, but ignorant
ones, such as dote about questions, and strifes of words, which have no
other tendency than to fill the mind with envy, strife, railing, and
evil surmises, such as are among men of corrupt minds, among men who are
destitute of the truth, and among men who suppose that gain is
godliness. He will view such men, however thoughtless they may be of
their true position or sincere in their belief, as standing in the
position of the serpent in Eden. Their lessons to him are disobedience
to God. From such he will withdraw himself; yea, he will fly from them
as from a deadly poison, because disobedience to God for ever ends in
ruin and death. But from Timothy he learns contentment, for, as he
brought nothing into the world with him, and as he can most certainly
carry nothing out, so, having food and raiment, he will be content, and
especially so as contentment and godliness are great gain.
And finally he hears as it were a trumpet sounding from the very gates
of heaven, and looking, he beholds Peter standing there; he hears a
still small voice, the voice of Jesus Christ, saying, “Thou art Peter,
and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it, and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of
heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven.” _Matt._ xvi. 18, 19. And then Peter, raising his arm in the
direction of the Gentile nations, says to the slaves: “Be subject to
your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to
the froward: for this is thank-worthy, if a man for conscience towards
God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when
ye be buffeted for your faults, ye take it patiently? But if, when ye do
well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable to
God. For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for
us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps, who did no
sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who when he was reviled,
reviled not again; when he suffered he threatened not, but committed
himself to him that judgeth righteously; who his own self bare our sins
in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live
unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as
sheep gone astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of
your souls.”
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