The Riches of God's Mercy
“Thii is the rest wherczfith ye may cause the zveary to rest, and this is the refreshing” —
“®oti, fajljo is ridj in mrrrg, for is great lofae ixifjmbjitlj lobcti us, rtirn iufjcn be Jxicrc iraB in sins.” — Eph. ii. 4, 5.
S:ije Eir’^cs of
©oil’s fHcrcu.
A BEFITTING song this to Sing, as the
fronds of the Elim-pahiis are bending over
yEolian harps, musical with “the name which is above every name!”
Salvation is here traced up to the riches of God’s mercy. It is the offended Sovereign proclaiming amnesty to rebels, lifting the beggar from the dunghill and setting him among princes. The mercy of God! It is a brief sentence. It can be lisped by a child; but what seraph can fathom the depths of its meaning? The inspired Apostle, baffled in the attempt, seems here only able to shadow forth its wonders by heaping together superlatives: “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins” (Eph. ii. 4, 5). Amazing thought! God’s mercy stooping over us, and His love loving us, when we were morally and spiritually dead. Did you ever hear of one loving the dead? ‘Yes! ’ a hundred lips reply; ’ we hai’e loved the dead! We have wept and sobbed over the cold marble; — we have loved to gaze on those rayless eyes, although the light of life has faded from them for ever here; — with an unutterably-sacred affection have w& loved the broken, mutilated casket, even when the bright jewel had departed.’ But this is not the case in point, in estimating the marvels of the mercy of God. Let us ask rather — Did you ever love the dead outcast on the street? Did you ever love the beggar, found, wrapped in rags for his shroud, lying on the open highway? No! though you may have pitied him, compassionated him; though you may have shuddered at the spectacle — no tear of love could bedew your cheek. But if human compassion is unable to tell so wondrous a tale, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed out of the hand of the enemy.” God has done this. God’s mercy has reached the point of loving the dead outcast — ay! more — loving the dead enemy: “Even 7C’hen 7ve ti’ere dead i?i sins!”
That mercy of God in Christ embraces, too, the vilest and most miserable. None stand beyond its pale. No gate — no veil — no flaming sword of cherubim bar the way to the mercy-seat. Our sins may have reached unto the clouds, but the heights of the Divine mercy are loftier still: “As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy towards them that fear Him.” In writing to Timothy from Rome, the most joyful word St. Paul can utter when he thinks of himself, as “before, a blasphemer and persecutor and injurious,” is this — ‘■’■ But I obtained MERCY.” Yes! come and learn from this giant in grace, when standing on the borders of the grave, the alone foundation of a sinner’s, or rather a believer’s, hope. With all the memories of his apostleship behind him, a thousand battles of the faith, in which, as a spiritual champion, he had fought and bled and conquered: with the remembrance of Jewish hate and Gentile scorn; the stocks and stripes of Philippi; the buffeting of winter tempests he had braved by land and sea; the moral intrepidity that made him stand amid Athenian philosophers, in the streets of Imperial Rome, and amid the merchant princes of Corinth, pleading the injured cause of his Great Master; the sacrifice of home, country, friends, religion, for a life of untiring and perpetual exile from most of the world’s amenities and joys, like a weary bird having no rest for the sole of his foot, and seeking none; and now with the flash of the executioner’s sword before him to close the mighty drama of a consecrated existence: yet hear his final plea, — “I obtained mercy.” Could we follow him now, among the bright martyr-multitude before the throne, doubtless we should find the dungeon-prayer caught up in Paradise, and become the song of Eternity — “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever!”
He would remind us, in all this, of the one only ground of hope and confidence and trust we have in the sight of a holy God. He was indeed the last to undervalue the precious fruits of the Spirit, as manifested in the heart and the life of the true believer. In the soul that has been divinely sanctified and purified, there is much to love and admire; — those Christian graces — holy affections and holy deeds — flowers in the Beloved’s garden, which, like so many incense-censers, are sending up their fragrant perfume to heaven. Such, doubtless, are regarded with divine complacency now; and at the Great Day, they will draw from the lips of the Righteous Judge the divine approval and encomium — “Well done, good and faithful servant!” But what would all these (the best of them) avail, when we come to regard them as forming our plea at that bar of unspotted rectitude and equity? A poor instalment, verily, in the discharge of an infinite debt. If the iYpostle himself once indulged some such dreams of personal merit and sufficiency, the further he advanced in the divine life, the more maturely he grew in grace and holiness and purity; in a word, the nearer he approached to God, the more deeply did he feel his need of mercy. His estimate of himself in his closing and riper years is this: — “Less than the least of all saints;” — “Sinners, of whom I am the chief!”
Be it ours ever to take the publican’s place; saying as as we look to the true Altar of Sacrifice — “God be mercifid to me, a sinner!” We believe there is no bound or barrier to that ocean of mercy in Christ, save what is erected by the pride, or indifference, or unbelief of man. It laves and washes the rockiest shores of the rockiest heart. St. Paul tells us for our encouragement, why Divine compassion was exercised towards him. “Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me, first” ( first, not in point of time, but in point of guilt), “Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting.” “I look,” said Simeon of Cambridge on his deathbed, “as the chief of sinners, for the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, to life eternal. And I lie adoring the sovereignty of God in choosing such an one, and the mercy of God in pardoning such an one, and the patience of God in bearing with such an one, and the faithfulness of God in perfecting His work and performing all His promises to such an one.”
How many can add, from deeper and darker and sadder experiences, “Great is Thy mercy toward me, and Thou hast delivered my soul out of the lowest hell! “’
“Let Thy mercy’s wings be spread
O’er me, keep me close to Thee;
In the peace Thy love doth shed
Let me dwell eternally.
Be my all; in all I do
Let me only seek Thy will;
Where the heart to Thee is true,
All is peaceful, calm, and still.”
‘on HOW GREAT IS THY GOODNESS, WHICH THOU HAST LAID
UP FOR THEM THAT FEAR THEE; WHICH THOU HAST
WROUGHT FOR THEM THAT TRUST IN THEE
BEFORE THE SONS OF MEN!”