God's Call Refused

Proverbs i, 24 — 31. Because I have called, and ye refused; T have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear Cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you: then shall ye call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but shall not find me; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof: therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

This solemn and affecting passage is from the lips of Eternal Wisdom. It is the voice of God heard everywhere, — speaking in public and in private, in the house and by the way, on the land and on the ocean. The persons addressed are the simple ones, who love simplicity, — the ignorant, unwary, and careless, who love to continue thoughtless and dissipated, and turn away from all those thoughts which interfere with their present pursuits of pleasure, reputation, or worldly gain. They are the scorners who delight in their scorning — those who deride and revile the truths and precepts of the Gospel, and glory in their impiety and unbelief They are the/oo/s who hate knowledge, — persons who have had some acquaintance with religion, whose consciences have been awakened and convinced, but viho have broken these bonds, who sin in defiance of these convictions, and set at nought all counsels, and despise all rebuke. The consequences of their folly are here portrayed in glowing and mournful colors. They are the most dreadful calamity and terror; — fear and destruction, like the impetuous and all-prostrating blast of the whirlwind — distress and anguish seizing upon them — every hope and comfort fled — and every helper, human and divine, neglecting and disdaining their distress. The object of this discourse, therefore, is to point out some of the ways in which God thus expostulates with men, and to show that when they disregard his expostulations, they have reason to expect that he in his turn will disregard theirs.

I. I am to point out some of the ways in which God calls the children of men. He calls them,

1. In the first place, by his Word. Here, he opens to them the sources of divine instruction, the counsels of his infinite mind, the fountains of eternal Wisdom. Here he reveals to them truths which the lights of nature and reason could never disclose, which angels could not reveal, and which none but God knew. Here he makes them acquainted with the sublimest objects in the universe, — his own infinitely great and divinely glorious character, government, and method of mercy by his well-beloved Son. Here he shows them the rule of duty, and the great end of their existence. Here he uncovers the depth of their moral depravity, and, if possible, the deeper abyss of woe and wrath which await all the impenitent workers of iniquity. Here he supplies the strongest motives which the universe contains, and which his own infinite mind can suggest, to induce them to hearken to his voice and live. Here he introduces them to the amazing reahties beyond the grave; and by all that is conclusive and irreversible in the decisions of the Final Day, all that is elevating and transporting in the condition and joys of God’s right hand, and all that is fearful in the agonies and anguish of the soul that is forever exiled from his presence; entreats them to accept his offered mercy. He here spreads before them the map of eternity, the chart of their perilous voyage to that distant and unmeasured country; and puts into their hands a guide, a manual of written instructions, clear, and intelligible, and safe. Throughout all its revelations is diffused the glory of its divine Author, and in every sentence and line his own almighty voice is uttered, as really as it was uttered to our first parents in the garden, or to Moses and the people of Israel on Sinai.

2. God calls them by his ministers. Once he Called them by the ministry of angels; by his servants the prophets; and by special messengers, raised up and sent forth upon this special errand. For a series of years, he called them by the personal ministry of his Son. On his return to the heavenly world, he called them by divinely instituted apostles; and since that period by the ordinary ministers of the Gospel. They are God’s ambassadors, and speak in his name. They are his advocates at the bar of the human conscience, intrusted with a concern that interests the well-being of their fellow- men for eternity. They are appointed to argue the cause of God before this thoughtless and revolted world; to present and urge his claims; to hear the woid at his mouth, and warn them from him.

What the Bible does privately, ministers of the Gospel do publicly. They illustrate and defend the truth, and press the invitations of their Lord and Master on all that have ears to hear. Through them, Wisdom crieth without, and uttereth her voice in the streets; she crieth in the chief places of concourse, and in the opening of the gates. Every Sabbath brings with it privileges which, if improved, would be remembered with joy in heaven. Faithful ministers aim to convey the divine calls directly to the minds of their hearers, and to make them vibrate on their hearts. They endeavor to present the expostulations of God’s word in such a light as to constrain men to hear, and understand them, and feel their force. They view the condition of lost sinners, in some measure, as God views it; and feel toward them, in some measure, as God feels; and try all in their power to wake up their attention, to rouse them to a sense of their guilt and danger, to show them the worth of their souls, and with all fidelity and love, to persuade them to flee from the coming wrath.

3. God calls men by the faithfulness and prayers of Christian friends. By their parents, who dedicate them to him, and nurture them for his kingdom; who pray with them, and for them, and teach them to pray; who daily bear them to his throne in the arms of faith; and who, by the light of their example and the tenderness of their expostulations, would fain conduct them in the path of life. Friends and associates, too, who have themselves tasted and seen that the Lord is good, are often moved by tender compassion for them, and plead with them to turn from the error of their ways. Few, however thoughtless and forbidding, have escaped these affectionate counsels of godly men. There are seasons when the heart of Christian love glows with sympathy,

2l6 GOD’S CALL REFUSED.

and burns with the hallowed desire to rescue them from impending danger. Faithful are the wounds of such a friend; and many is the bosom where some pliant arrow has been thus lodged, and left a wound, never to be healed but by the balm of redeeming mercy.

4. God calls them also by the conversion of others. He often appears to’ awaken, convince, and convert those who are around them. And when heedless and scornful sinners behold these wonders of the divine mercy; when they see those who but a little while ago were as heedless and scornful as themselves, now solemn and tender, — anxious and prayerful, — agitated and alarmed, — convinced of sin and humbled for their ungrateful disobedience, — returning to God, and casting themselves into the arms of redeeming love, — wiping away their tears and beginning their everlasting song; it is difficult for them to suppress the thought, that it is the call of Heaven’s tender mercy to them, to” seek the Lord lohile he may he found, and call u-pon him while he is nearP

5. God calls them by the awakening and convincing influences of his Spirit. He rouses them from their stupidity; he arrests their attention, and fixes their thoughts on the solemn and effective truths of his word. He lays open their hearts, and makes them feel’ what they deserve, and what his justice requires him to inflict upon them. He takes off the covering from that world of everlasting burnings, to which they are tending, and makes them tremble at every step they take in their guilty career. And in the midst of such scenes, not unfrequently do they feel that God is howing his heavens and coming down, and solemnly and directly inviting and calling them to become reconciled to him through the blood of his Son. Not often does he repeat this call; but when he gives it, though not loud and boisterous, it is distinct and impressive, — it is the voice of God, — the still small voice, such as made the prophet wrap his face in his mantle, and bow himself to the ground. I add,

6. God calls them by affecting providences. It may be by distinguished mercies; it may be by remarkable deliverances; it may be by some unexpected recovery from sickness; and they feel something within them warmly urging them to repentance. It may be by adverse and afflictive dispensations; by disappointments and losses; by debility, sickness, and suffering; by evil report and good report. It may be by the death of parents, or the death of children, who have been torn from their bosom, and now moulder beneath the clods of the valley. It may be by the admonitory voice of some dying shipmate, with whom they have enjoyed many an hour of gay hilarity, and who is now gone to give up his last account, and peradventure without a ray of hope.

God speaks by such affecting providences as these. He thus proclaims the hopeless character and miserable end of the wicked; the prostration of their plans, and the vanity of all their boasted pleasures and hopes; and exhorts them to stop in a career which so certainly terminates in disappointment and despair. He thus proclaims. to them, that this life is frail and perishing; that death and judgment are at the door; that that unknown world of which their departed friends have become the inhabitants, will soon open its mansions for their final reception; and that it is their highest wisdom so to live, as to die the death of the righteous, and with the sweet hope of a blessed immortahty.

Thus does God call upon the sons of men. He instructs, he counsels, he reproves them; he encourages and warns them; he expostulates with them, and urges them to repentance. There is no speech nor language, where his voice is not heard. He calls from heaven and from earth; from the living and the dead; from time and from eternity; from the visible and the invisible world. He calls upon them to turn at his reproof; he stretches out his hand, and invites, and beckons them away from their wonted scenes of folly and death; while all that he utters is solemn, powerful and persuasive, dictated by truth and directed only to their good.

Would to God that these calls were always obeyed. But it is not so. And the melancholy consequence is,

II. Those who refuse to hear when God calls,

HAVE REASON TO EXPECT THAT God WILL REFUSE TO HEAR WHEN THEY CRY UNTO HIM.

There are those who refuse to hear when God calls. They are careless and secure in sin, and heed not the voice of their Maker. They take no notice of what he utters. They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear. Or if they hear, they refuse; they reject his counsel with disdain, and turn to him the back and not the face. And what have they reason to expect, but that God will refuse to hear, when they cry unto him. And the

1st Reason for this conclusion is, that the justice ajid honor of God imperatively demand it. It is right that the time should come when those should cry in vain, who have themselves so long refused. God is under no obligation to call them at all; and it would have been right, and the just recompense of their iniquity, had he left them without one admonition of their danger, or a single call to repentance. But since he has condescended to call them, if they refuse, it is certainly no injustice, that when they call, he should not answer.

And especially, when he has called so long and so tenderly, and they have so long and so obstinately refused to hearken to his voice. The most hardened sinners, in the time of their calamity, usually feel their dependence on God, and cry for mercy. And though the time was when he pitied their folly and invited them to the hopes of the Gospel; what now have they reason to expect, but that he will mock when their fear cometh! They once ridiculed his counsel; and why now should he not laugh at their calamity? They had no pity when he so affectionately entreated them; and why should his ear listen, or his eye spare, or his heart have pity now? Can there be any ground of complaint, if he should treat them as they have so often treated him? They are not so much greater and better than God, that they may neglect and despise him, and yet he may never neglect and despise them.

Yes, it is right, that since they have so long refused, they should cry in vain. And when fear and desolation come upon them, and death and hell stare them in the face, they lift up their trembling voice to God, and God hides his face; their consciences bear testimony that it is right in God to forsake them. They have none to thank but themselves. They are eating the fruit of their own way, and are filled with their own devices.

2. It is proper, too, that God should show what an evil it iSf thus to presume on his long suffering, God suffers very long with delaying, contending, scoffing men. His long suffering is their only hope. The Apostle says,” The long suffering of God is salvation;’* that is, there is no salvation without it; and if God did not bear long with men, they must all perish. But it is a very common sin to presume on God’s forbearance, and to take occasion from it to sin yet more and more; to become corrupt, and the corrupters of others; and thus ruin their own souls, and the souls of their fellow-men.

It is not only right, therefore, that God should treat such sinners as they treat him, but it is proper, and necessary, that he should show what an evil thing it is thus to presume on his long suffering. It is benevolent and kind to admonish men of the danger of doing this, and of the great evil of thus sinning against God, despising his calls, making light of Christ, rejecting his offered mercy, and hating and disobeying the truth. And now, when the sinners in Zion are afraid, and fearfulness surprises the hypocrites, what wonder, since he has borne with them till they filled up the measure of their iniquity, that he should express his displeasure, expose the wickedness of their conduct, and turn a deaf ear to their prayer? Besides,

3. Their cries do not arise from any regard to God. Their perplexities and embarrassments have in no respect altered their character. They cry unto God not because they are drawn by the cords of love. They are rebels, abusers of his goodness, and rejecters and despisers of his Son. Their cries are not the cries of friends, nor children, nor loyal subjects, but of enemies and traitors. Because fear and destruction come upon them, they cringe in vile hypocrisy before the throne; while they have not one emotion of love to God, one ingenuous pang of sorrow that they have refused and despised him, one honest purpose of obedience should he mitigate the terrors of his wrath. In the midst of all their cries, God sees that their hearts are full of wickedness, and that should his rod be removed, they would return to the same remorseless contempt of him which marked the days of their thoughtlessness and vanity.

You recollect how God reproved and condemned the hypocritical cries of his ancient people, and how he appealed to their consciences whether they could expect to be heard? Whe7i ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months even those seventy years, did ye at all fast UNTO ME, even unto me? Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law. Therefore it came to pass, that as he cried and they would not hear, so they cried and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts. Their cries proceeded from no regard to God. They have not cried unto me with their heart, saith the Lord, when they howled upon their beds. Such is the deceptive character of wicked men. When he slew them, then they sought him; and they returned and inquired early after God. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue.

There is no lifting up of the soul to God in such cries; no humble groanings of the spirit that cannot be uttered, and that enter the ears and penetrate the heart of the hearer of prayer. Far from it. If such sinners would speak out the real feelings of their souls, they would refuse God still; and would set him at defiance in the depth of their adversity, as really as they have done in the height of their pride. But,

4. Those who hear the calls of God, and thus abuse them, 7nust he destroyed, that the Scriptures may he fulfilled. It is not the purpose of God to save all mankind. It is an interesting fact, and no truth is more clearly revealed, than that it is not the purpose of God to save all men. The interests of his kingdom require that some should be left to their own infatuated choice of sin and death; should never be reclaimed; and should be set forth as examples of his justice.

Who many of these most signal examples of his justice will be, he has informed us in his word. They will be those who have heard and abused his offers of mercy. He predicted the final perdition of such persons in the text. He predicted this of the cities to which the twelve apostles were sent, and who refused to listen to their message. He predicted this in the parable of the vineyard; in the parable of the sower; in the parable of the marriage supper; in the parabjp of the ten virgins; and in the parable of the tares. Nothing can give us clearer evidence of this great principle of the divine government, than these and similar predictions. God cannot lie, and he will not alter his mind. Some, therefore, who hear the Gospel and despise it, must be destroyed, that the Scriptures may be fulfilled. Some of them may be brought to repentance, but some must be destroyed.

Heaven and earth may pass away, but God’s word shall not pass away. And is there no evidence in this solemn fact, that those who refuse to hear when God calls, have reason to expect that God will refuse to hear when they cry unto him? Who shall be left to their own chosen way, if not just such sinners as these? From whom shall God hide his face in trouble, if not from those who have long heard, and long rejected his calls? I add,

5. Melancholy facts, also, prove the position we are endeavoring to illustrate. God has already refused to hear some who have refused to hear him. His providence is a comment upon his purposes. Men who refused to hear his voice, have cried to him in their distresses; and notwithstanding all his compassions, he has felt himself constrained to turn a deaf ear to their cry.

How frequently have you seen this fact verified in the history of men. In trouble, in want, in sickness, in perils by land and by sea, how many who have neglected God in the seasons of prosperity, have cried to him in vain in the day of their adversity! How often has this mournful fact been verified in the hour oi death! The bold and profane mariner — early the child of prayer, and early and late refusing the calls of the divine mercy — tossed on the foaming billows, lifts his agonizing cry to God amid the roaring of the storm, but sinks beneath the waves, to come up no more till the sea shall give up its dead.

There lies a man, mouldering in yonder vault, whose youthful conscience was once tender, but who hushed and stifled its voice. Who, when the day of his calamity came, died with the bitter exclamation on his lips, O how deep! how dark is hell!

In yonder cemetery lies one, early trained up for God, and who long refused when God called. When his distress and anguish came upon him, he cried mightily unto God; but reason tottered on her throne, and his benighted, abandoned spirit, uttered one shriek of wild dismay, and plunged into eternity.

And there, too, lies the almost forgotten frame of an-Other, over whose time-worn monument the winds of fifty winters have passed; whose youth was the season of deep reUgious sohcitude, but who set at nought all God’s counsel, became abandoned to incorrigible infidelity, and after days and nights of sickness and pain, woe and despair, exclaimed, O the unutterable horrors of hell and damnation! and then expired.

Go to that chamber of mourning. There lies the lifeless body of a man whose breasts were but the other day full of milk, and his bones moistened with marrow. He who speaks to you was called, in the providence of God, to stand by his pillow. I saw him encountering the pains, and agonies, and strife. I saw dismay and gloom depicted on his countenance. I saw fear come upon him, and desolation driving his hopes away like chaff. Tenderly I asked him, if he had made his peace with God; and all that he could say was. Anguish and distress come upon me. God is passing by, and I hear him say, Because I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and you have not regarded; therefore I will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh!

There, too, is the living sinner, spared till the measure of his iniquity is almost full, — thrown up, like some shattered hulk, upon the weather-beaten shore, and set forth as a beacon to all that will live ungodly. He grieved the blessed Spirit of God, outlived revival after revival and now is compassed about by his iniquities, writhing under the agonies of an unappeased conscience; — trying to lift up his cry, but is repulsed from the throne, and sinks in despondency because God will not hear.

And how many, think you, lie beneath the surface of the earth we inhabit, who, in the hour of their calamity, cried to God in vain? How many, think you, who refused to hear when God called, have gone to their last account; have stood at the gate of heaven, and cried, Lord, Lord, open to us, to whom the King has answered, / know ye not whence ye are, depart from me, ye that work iniquity? How many who, like the rich man in the parable, have gone to be tormented in that flame, and to cry for a drop of water to cool their tongue, but from whom the things that belong to their peace are hid forever!

And are none of you, beloved hearers, witnesses of the same mournful truth? Have none of you cried to God without success? Have you not set at nought all his counsel? And now when your fear cometh, when thick darkness settles upon you, when memory brings back your unnumbered transgressions, and conscience lacerates with inward stings; do you not find a cloud over the mercy-seat, so that your prayer cannot pass through? Do you not remember the days when God called, and you would not hear; and does not the withering thought come over you, like the cold blast of the tempest, that now he will not hear when you cry unto him?

And now in the conclusion of this discourse, what shall I say? To you, dear hearers, God has called. His word has instructed, encouraged, and admonished you. His ministers have pleaded with you. Your Christian friends have mourned over your impenitence, and entreated you. God has called you by his mercies and by his judgments. And often, too, has his Holy Spirit touched your conscience. He has stretched out his hand all the day long. Even now you live upon his forbearance. But how have you heeded his calls? Have you listened, believed, and felt them? Are not many of you still unawakened, unconcerned, blind, and deaf, and dead in sin? Are you not despising the riches of his goodness and long-suffering, and setting at nought all his counsel? Testify, ye neglected Sabbaths! say, ye unfrequented closets! speak, thou book of God! proclaim, ye his ministers, his ordinances and his people! and testify, O thou perverted conscience! to the neglect and contempt of these blood-bought privileges.

Well, the withering blast shall one day come. It may be some unexpected season of earthly disappointment, — of deep pensiveness and gloom. It may be the hour of inward terror and remorse. It may be days and nights of restless anxiety, when you feel the burden of past transgressions. It may be when prostrating disease assails, or death invades you, and you feel that, as lost sinners, you are just about to fall into the hands of an angry God. But come it will. And it will be a fearful day. God will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh. O, I awfully fear, that many of you, who have long rejected the calls of his mercy, will one day be involved in unutterable anguish and despair. These abused mercies, these lost Sabbaths, these expostulations of God’s Spirit, must one day be remembered with bitterness of heart. God is long-suffering and gracious, but not forever. He has drawn a line, which, if the sinner crosses, he goes a step too far. He places himself beyond the reach of mercy, and not a ray of hope shall dawn upon his path forever. The lost spirits of hell took one step too far; they trifled with their immortal interests once too often; and when they had taken that fatal step, the die was cast. You, dear hearers, may refuse to hear God’s call now; but it may be once too often. You may procrastinate your repentance, and delay it to a more convenient season; and when you awake in eternity, you may find, alas! that you delayed one day too long; that the door is shut, and your destiny sealed forever. Believe me, the day is near, when you will mourn that you refused the guidance of wisdom, and would not choose the fear of the Lord. As the criminal, when arrested by the hand of justice, and about to suffer the demands of law, when he sees his chains, and looks at his scaffold, in vain desires to recall and undo the deeds that have brought him to the block; so you, when the ministers of God’s vengeance shall drag you before his bar, will give utterance to the bitter cry, O how have I hated instruction, and despised reproof! But it will be too late. Your crimes are proved; the sentence is past; the second death must be your portion, and you must weep, and wail, and gnash your teeth. You shall call theii, but it shall be God’s turn to disregard your cry! O how much better to hearken to the voice of God, so that when danger and death assail, you may possess your souls in peace! How much better to listen to the solicitations of his mercy, — the pleadings of his love, — the entreaties of his Son, — the expostulations of his Spirit, — that when human life is passed away, and you shall have descended to the tomb, you may dwell in safety, and be quiet from the fear of evil! O how much holier and happier, now to make your peace with God, so that hereafter you shall not be disturbed by apprehension, nor agitated by terror, nor depressed by despondency; and when the heavens and the earth are convulsed, and the elements melt, and the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God sound, you may glory in the cross of Christ, and triumph in your immortality!