Through Much Tribulation

turned on their own steps confirmed; and then, get the community constituted under a sound and Scriptural government.

Corresponding with their specific object, the burden of the missionaries’ preaching this time is not “Kepent and believe the gospel,” but, “Continue in the faith.” And for the rest, the warning word rings clearly out, “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” Nothing strange will happen to these Asiatic believers: the preachers include themselves in this description of the Christian life. It is a law of the kingdom that they announce here. The forewarned are forearmed. Remembering this word, they will not faint when persecution for Christ’s sake comes.

Much tribulation! Yes; but they will pass through it. “What a word is this! Thanks be to God for this blessed transitive preposition! No part of speech so sweet as this in all the lessons of the grammarian! There is trouble, but the disciples of Christ get through it. Trouble changes its nature when you are assured that it cannot last long. Can you measure the difference between abiding in tribulation and going through it? No; it passeth all understanding. You never read of the unsaved passing through their suffering, or of the saved in Christ passing through their joy. In the one case, it is a passing through joy (the pleasures of sin) into tribulation; in the other, a passing through tribulation into the joy of the Lord.

The life of a disciple on earth is like a voyage on the sea. The sea is rough; the heart is sick; the land is not in sight. Helpless and miserable, the voyager lays himself down at night. He looks and feels as if he cared for nothing, and hoped for nothing. But underneath all this sadness a living hope is burning which these stormy waters cannot quench. He has confidence in the ship and the crew; he expects soon to reach the shore. And when he reaches it his sorrow is

Through much Tribulation. 307

over, and even the memory of it almost blotted out. Suddenly, from the open sea, the ship has passed through the portals of the haven, and there is a great calm. He has passed through the tribulation.

Those who have watched the death-bed of Christians have seen such a storm suddenly settling into a calm. It is a great relief to weeping witnesses when the tossing ceases, and the peace begins.

It is not only that in point of fact tribulation happens to lie between Christians and their rest: it has been placed there of deliberate design by a wise and loving Father, in order that, by passing through it, they may be prepared for a rest beyond.

In some of the most delicate manufactures of this country, the web, in a rude and unsightly state, enters a vessel filled with a certain liquid, passes slowly through, and emerges continuously at the opposite side. As it enters, the cloth seems all of one colour, and that one dim and unattractive; as it emerges, it glitters in a variety of brilliant hues arranged in cunning figures, like a robe of needle-work for the adornment of a queen. The liquid through which the fabric passes is composed of certain fiery, biting acids; and the reason why it is strained through such a bath is, that in the passage all the deforming and defiling things that have adhered to its surface in preceding processes may be discharged, and the figures, already secretly imprinted, may shine out in their beauty.

Thus the disciples of Christ are in this life drawn through great tribulation, although the Lord who loves them has all power in heaven and in earth: nay, precisely because the Lord who loves them has all power in heaven and in earth, they are bathed in this sea of sorrows. It is not that this sea lies in their way, and that by a kind of geographical necessity they must go through it; rather, the Lord that bought them has provided that sea, and placed it across their path, that in its bitter waters the manifold incrustations that defile their beauty may be discharged ere they appear before the great white throne. Already, and by the ministry of the Spirit, the various features of their Kedeemer’s likeness have been secretly imprinted on their hearts; but these features have been so overlaid by manifold corruptions in actual life, that the new nature can scarcely be recognised. Hence the necessity of providing a searching medium, and making even those who are “his workmanship” pass through it for their own good.

Much tribulation: He is wise and loving who determines in each case its amount and its duration. He does not spare the patient so as to spoil the work by leaving it half-done. A child is ailing; and some slight but rather painful operation is required. The mother will herself perform it. But after she has begun, the child cries pitifully: the mother’s courage fails. She desists, lays down the instrument, takes the child in her arms, and wipes away the falling tears. The child’s crying ceases under this process, but the child’s ailment is not cured. The case must be put into the surgeon’s hands. He has both skill to know what is needed and courage to carry it through. He will not spare for the patient’s crying. This treatment is better in the long-run for the child.

I have been informed, as I looked curiously on the web in perpetual motion passing through, that if it were allowed ] to remain one minute too long in the bath, the fabric itself would be destroyed. The manufacturer, skilful and careful, c: has so tempered the ingredients on the one hand, and timed le the passage on the other, that while the impurities are to thoroughly discharged, the fabric comes out uninjured. In wisdom and love, both infinite, the Lord has mingled the I; ingredients, and determined the duration of the baptism; so that, on the one hand, none of his should be lost, and, on the other, every grace of the Spirit should be brought out in its beauty upon all his own.

Thus, there is a “need-be” for the great tribulation; but we shall miss more than half the meaning of the word here if we think of this necessity as applicable only to the suffering. Another thing is necessary — a better and a brighter. True, it is said of all Christ’s people, that they must pass through much tribulation; but it is also said of them, that they must enter the kingdom. As certainly as he came out to seek, those whom he finds shall go in. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. The Captain of our salvation will bring many sons into glory. The “must” is spoken of the abundant entrance as well as of the narrow road. Fear not, little flock; it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

“And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed,” etc. —

HILE the apostles devoted themselves mainly to the

H preaching of the gospel, they did not neglect the organisation of the Church. The young disciples were not left long without institutions and order. For edification and discipline and defence, each community was constituted a corporation; and in each corporation elders were ordained. It was on the second visit of the missionaries that this was