In Doubt and Perplexity
Hold thou my hands!
In grief and joy, in hope and fear, Lord, let me feel that thou art near; Hold thou my hands!
If e’er by doubts
Of thy good Fatherhood depressed,
I cannot find in thee my rest,
Hold thou my hands!
William Canton.
Doubt need not be sin. Unbelief is sin, — unbelief that rejects Christ and denies God. But there is doubt which is only faith searching for and finding its way. It is not content to take things for granted because it finds them in a creed, or hears some one state them; it would know them for itself. Such knowledge gives a much securer foundation for faith than that which is merely accepted on the statement of others.
It must be confessed, however, that there are real perplexities in Christian life. Even doctrines which in the days of our happiness and prosperity we think are among our settled and impregnable beliefs, when the sore testingtimes come must be relearned, and won back again into sure faiths through experiences of doubt, fear, struggle, and toil.
Take the Christian doctrine of divine providence. We believe that this is our Father’s world, and that all things work together for good to them that love God. While all our affairs are prosperous, with nothing to interrupt our comfort, it is easy enough to formulate our faith. But when our condition changes, when the blue is hidden by sombre clouds, when the stars go out of sight, when prosperity gives way to loss and adversity, it is not so easy to maintain belief in the final outcome of good from all events. Most of us at least have to learn the lesson then anew, finding our way step by step through the dim shadows to the clear, full light of peace.
We all may learn many things from others who have gone over the way before us, and many things from books in which the lessons of other lives are enshrined; but, after all, each one of us must learn life’s real lessons in experiences of our own. However many before us have found goodness and mercy in life’s hard ways, and divine comfort in life’s bitter sorrows, we cannot get these blessings until we have passed through the painful ways for ourselves. No other one’s experience will do for us.
Many good people are perplexed by troubles in their affairs. Their plans miscarry. Their harvests fail. They lose money. They find it hard to make ends meet so as to get daily bread. It need not be surprising that in such experiences anxiety creeps into the heart. Yet the Bible does not admit that there are any circumstances in which Christian confidence and peace should be disturbed. There are no experiences which the divine promises do not cover. Our Lord’s counsel is simple, “Be not anxious for your life.” Then he gives sufficient reasons why we should not be anxious. St. Paul puts the lesson in like words. “Be anxious for nothing.” No room is left in the divine life-plan for worry or care. We have the promise of God’s own peace, and God never worries. Christ bequeathed his peace to his disciples, and in the sorest stress of his life he was never anxious.
What, then, are we to do with things that naturally would perplex us, if we may not worry about them? The Master tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then assures us that all needful things shall be added to us. That is, our own duty is to do God’s will, leaving the care of our life, without anxiety, in God’s hands. St. Paul’s teaching is practically the same: we are to be anxious about nothing, but instead are to make all our requests known to God, and leave all with him; then the peace of God will guard us.
Another frequent cause of perplexity is unjust treatment. Others wrong us, do us harm, injure us. It is hard to bear unkindness, and keep our heart sweet and loving under it all
It seems to us that our life itself must suffer from these wrongs; and we are tempted to think that we should do something to defend ourselves from them, or should try to set right the things which seem to have gone wrong. But the Bible teaching is that we need not be disturbed by the injustices or injuries which we have to suffer, and that we may safely leave them in the hands of God, committing them to him, while we go on with our simple duty.
The story of Joseph furnishes a remarkable illustration of the powerlessness of wrong to harm a life which is in God’s keeping. We pity the boy as he is cruelly sold by his brothers, and carried away as a slave. But we have only to read the story through to its close to see how even the wrongs which he suffered were made to minister good. We are apt to think, however, that Joseph’s case was exceptional, that God does not take the same interest in ordinary lives. But this is not true. Joseph was no exception. He was no dearer to God than thousands of other boys have been, and his life was no more important in God’s plan than the life of many others along the centuries. Every one who will commit his wrongs into the hands of God, going forward meanwhile in the path of duty, will learn that evil has been changed to good for him, and that blessing has come out of what seemed to be hurt.
Jesus himself is the best illustration: “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” If only we will keep our hands off, keep our heart patient and gentle, and go forward in faithful duty, blessing will come from the enduring of even the bitterest cruelties.
Another experience which brings perplexity and dismay to many good people is sorrow. A minister has just been telling of his sore bereavement. He had been married for eleven years, and has two beautiful children. His wife was a woman of rare strength of character and firmness of spirit. She brought great joy and good into his life, and seemed to be altogether indispensable to his happiness. The other day, when he was absent in a distant city, his wife suddenly became ill with pneumonia. He was summoned by telegraph, but before, he could reach her side she had passed away.
What is the Christian word for this good man in his grief? God does not blame him for his tears, — the divine comfort does not deaden the affections so that we do not feel the pangs of bereavement. Indeed, the love of God only makes the human heart the more tender, and human affection the sweeter and richer, so that the pang of bereavement is even keener in the Christian than in the worldly man. God does not promise to keep us from tears. “Jesus wept.” But the teaching of the Bible is that our sorrow shall not be bitter or insubmissive, but shall be chastened by reverent love, its darkness struck through with the light of peace. God’s comfort is strength — strength to endure.
What is this comfort which can produce in the bereft life the quiet peace of God?
For one thing, it is the divine revealing concerning those who are taken from us. There was no accident, to the mind of God, in the taking away of the happy young wife from her devoted husband, and from her sacred place at the heart of the home. Her mission on earth was ended, her work here was finished. Her life was not ended, however; it has only passed into another sphere, where, with greater power to be a blessing, she will continue to serve her Master.
Then, for those who remain in the emptied home, the comfort is that God’s love in the taking away of the dear life is just as deep and true as it was in the giving of it; that there are blessings in sorrow itself which far more than compensate for the pain and anguish; and that heaven will be nearer now since the dear life has passed into its brightness.
Some day we shall know that no mistake was made when the messenger of sorrow came to our door. God’s comfort is so satisfying, so enriching, so uplifting, that it is well worth our while to have grief that we may receive the blessing of divine consolation.
“Sometime, when all life’s lessons have been learned,
And sun and stars for evermore have set, The things which our weak judgments here have spurned,
The things o’er which we grieved with lashes wet, Will flash before us out of life’s dark night,
As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue; And we shall see how all God’s plans are right,
And how what seemed reproof was love most true.”
Another case of perplexity in many lives is in the not answering of prayers. The promises that prayers will be answered seem clear and direct as we read them; and yet, when we make our requests, the things we ask for are not given to us. Many persons are sorely perplexed on this account, and sometimes they even begin to doubt that prayer is heard and answered at all.
But it is important that the Bible teaching on the subject of prayer shall be well understood. Much of our perplexity comes from an imperfect understanding of the divine words. The whole truth concerning the matter of prayer may not be found in any one passage.
The teaching certainly is not that every request made by any one in prayer shall be granted. This would indicate that God had abdicated his place as Lord of the universe. Then, God is not like an over-indulgent parent who gives hks child everything he asks for. There are many foolish prayers for things which would not be blessings if they were given; our Father will not answer these, however urgently the requests are pressed. There are prayers also to which answers come, but come in a form different from that in which the suppliant expected to receive them. We ask to have the burden taken away, and instead, God strengthens us that we may still carry it. This really is a better answer than we sought. There are prayers, too, whose answers are long delayed; to grant them at once would be to give us unripe fruit, which would only harm us.
The key of all perplexities concerning prayer is found in the reference of all our requests, however urgent, to the wisdom of God, asking him to consider them, and to do for us what is best, to give or to withhold, to grant what we ask or something else if that is better. If we thus exercise faith in asking, we shall not be perplexed in the answering or the not answering of our requests.
These are a few of the perplexities which are common in much Christian experience, with the Bible teaching which ought to relieve them of their disturbing power. By every Marah grows the tree which will sweeten the bitter waters. For every form of distress in our life God has ready just the word of promise, or the grace which will give comfort and peace. The trouble with us too often is, that we have eyes only for the perplexity, and not for the peace that waits for us. If we were as quick to find the blessing as we are to see the trouble, it would be better for us.
“O Father, I am in the dark,
My soul is heavy-bowed;
I send my prayer up like a lark,
Up through my vapory shroud,
To find thee,
And remind thee
I am thy child, and thou my Father,
Though round me death itself should gather.
Lay thy loved hand upon my head,
Let thy heart beat in mine;
One thought from thee, when all seems dead,
Will make the darkness shine
About me
And throughout me! And should again the dull night gather, I’ll cry again, Thou art my Father.”