Jonah Restored to Office

“And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time.” — Jonah iii. 1. “J shall not die, but live, and declare the icorks of the Lord. The Lokd hath chastened me sore: but He hath not given me over unto death. Open to me the gates of righteousness.” — Ps. cxviii. 17-19.

RESTORED to the land of the living, the prophet is restored to office also, and furnished anew with the Divine commission to Nineveh.

It is indeed a signal instance of Divine grace when the rebellious servant is not only pardoned — personally restored to favour — but even replaced in office, and allowed again to serve the Lord in special duty in His Kingdom. It would have been a very conspicuous instance of gracious condescension and forgiving love, had the Lord simply forgiven the penitent prophet his great sin in disobeying the heavenly command and fleeing from the presence of the Lord: and though the intimation of his pardon had been accompanied with an injunction to return to his native land, and abide in the comparatively narrow sphere and seclusion of private life — never henceforth being permitted to aspire to the honour of glorifying God in the prophet’s calling — we would have felt that the mercy of the Lord, as extended to the penitent Jonah even in this degree, was very eminently illustrated, and worthy of all celebrations and praise, But the work of the Lord is perfect. And in bringing His erring servant to repentance, and reinstating him in favour, He reinstates him in office also; sealing to him the assurance of his own personal forgiveness by the restoration of his holy calling. Jonah is to have cause to say, “To me, who am the least of all saints” — “who am not worthy to be called” a prophet, because I fled from the presence of the Lord — “to me is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles” the word and message of God. Thus also, in Peter’s repentance and restoration; — the crowning seal of the Lord’s approbation is affixed when the shepherd’s crook is again put into the penitent’s hands, and the gracious command given to him: “Feed my sheep.”

How gracious is the Lord! Yea, our God is merciful. His thoughts are not as our thoughts, neither are His ways our ways. He stints not the liberality of His grace; He places no limits on what He is willing to bestow, or we warranted to ask. Rather,^ He will do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. His design, indeed, is to “show in the ages to come the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us by Jesus Christ” (Eph. ii. 7).

Most righteous and unanswerable would His procedure have been, both with Jonah in the Old and Peter in the New Testament times, had He set aside His fallen servants from ever intromitting* with the public work of His kingdom — from ever again putting their hand officially to His cause upon the earth. Forgiving their iniquity personally, yet taking vengeance on their inventions by taking from them their office and giving it to another, He might have left upon them a mark of His displeasure under which they would have gone mourning all the days of their lives.

But He dealt not with them as they had sinned. He wholly obliterated the remembrance of their transgression. He cast it into the depths of the sea. He was perfectly appeased. He was wholly reconciled. He re-admitted His penitent servants and children to His perfect confidence. He placed them again in His counsels. He set them hiofh in His confidence and service as before. He took them near to His person afresh. He had work for them still. He could commit His honour to their keeping once more. He could take them unreservedly again into His confidence, and generously repose confidence again in them. He does not put them to a distance. He does not put them on probation, and require them to purge themselves from all suspicion of insincerity, or do penance for past transgression, by serving in some menial work, and proving themselves to be true, in some humble place. But taking them at their word; accepting their confession of guilt and their expressions of grief; — “being very gracious, and owning their sincerity;” — He looses all their bonds He exceeds all their hopes, He sets aside all their fears: and by

N a full and free forgiveness, a full and free reconciliation, He puts away all their sin wholly, and remembers against them their iniquity no more. They had forsaken His way, and kept not His commandments: and He had visited their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes: nevertheless, His loving-kindness does He not take from them, nor suffer His faithfulness to fail. And the plenitude and perfection of His manifested favour, in investing them anew with their high and holy function as His prophets, is the seal which His infinitely generous grace bestows in token that He has returned unto them once more, in all the riches of His love.

The prophet’s prayer has been heard. He is delivered from his living death in the deep. “The Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.” So far the Lord’s wrath is turned away. Jonah breathes forth his gratitude and gladness in a song of thanksgiving. He rejoices in the mercy of God. He glories in his reconciliation to his God anew.

But is all well? Is the remembrance of his offence cancelled for ever? Will it never be mentioned to him any more? Is all between him and his God again exactly as if this sad offence and its dread penalty had never been? Or will the Lord keep up the remembrance of his rebellion, and brand him henceforth as not to be trusted in His service?

Are these, or such as these, the prophet’s fears for a moment? Does he doubt whether, after sin like his, he can find such favour again in his master’s sight as to be trusted once more with the high honours and responsibilities and confidence of his master’s service? Is his anxious heart waiting to be set at rest on this point also?

He has not long to wait: —” The word of the Lord came unto

Jonah the second time, saying. Arise, go to Nineveh, that great

city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.”

X Now, let us trace the effect of Jonah’s late experience in

[ qualifying him for his coming work. For the Lord had been

dealing marvellously with him. And his dealings are designed

as preparations. When the Lord painfully chisels and polishes

a living stone, it is for some special place in the temple: and it

will be seen to have acquired under His hand a special fitness

/ for its place.

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In the present case, Jonah would resume his commission with a new obedience: with a meekness, a faith, a courage; to all of which his punishment and pardon had been the signal means of disciplining him. He would resume his work and mission with another spirit: (1.) As a sinful man, whose sin had been eminently forgiven; (2.) As a prayerful man, whose prayer had been eminently answered; (3.) As an afflicted man, whose affliction had been eminently blessed.

I. As a sinful man, whose sin had been forgiven, he could not fail to accept, at the hand of the Lord, the mission now assigned him in a spirit of reverence and dutifulness — of gratitude, submission, and obedience. He could be ready to say with the Psalmist, “I will run the way of Thy commandments, for Thou hast enlarged my heart.” Subdued, not more by the mighty power of God in pursuing him with punishment, than by the tender kindness of God in abundantly pardoning, he would hold himself in readiness to prove his thanksgiving by prompt and loyal obedience. Rejoicing in the sweetness of a fresh and full reconciliation; — lightened in spirit by tasting in God a mercy larger than he could ever formerly have thought of; — cleansed from the darkness that brooded over his soul, and the countless images of terror and of evil which rose up before him while he was fleeing from his God in rebellion, and his God was pursuing him in wrath; — enjoying the unutterable blessedness of him who, after griefs and fears unspeakable, has God’s own warrant for saying, “Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee;” — Jonah would not only be prepared, but desirous to be engaged again in his Master’s service.

There are two distinct principles that prompt the forgiven soul to serve the Lord. There is gratitude — one of the finest and most healthful and animating emotions of which the heart of man is susceptible — gratitude for the grace, the generosity, that forgiveth unreasonable offence. And this blessed principle is called into special exercise by forgiveness bestowed on the gospel scheme: “For the love of Christ constraineth us: because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead, and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. v. 14, 15).

But there is reverence also. For in forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, God is not only gracious but sovereign. It is as a sovereign that God forgiveth. It is in all the majesty and glory of the King of kings; in all the authority of the Lord of lords. It is as the Judge that God dealeth vi’ith sin at all, whether in avenging or in forgiving. Till I see His sovereign glory as the Lawgiver, the Governor, the Judge, I never know, my guilt in resisting and rebelling against Him. Till then I never have any adequate idea of my position as a sinner. Till then I never go into God’s presence, to deal with Him anent my sin, with any adequate or holy impression of sin’s exceeding sinfulness. It is with God as the Sovereign Ruler, the God of infinite authority and infinite majesty, that I must deal, when I seek the remission of sin. It is against the Sovereign Lord of all that 1 have sinned. In that character I must own Him in confessing my sin. In that character will He have Himself owned in pardoning it. He will, in the very transaction of my forgiveness, cause me to see His glory. His right to deal authoritatively anent my sin, His right to remit the penalty of eternal death, implies an infinite glory on His part — the glory of infinite, sovereign, authoritative right to rule — infinite, sovereign, authoritative right to dispose of me. If I sincerely acknowledge that He has the right to settle eternally my standing before Him; if it be acknowledged, as sincere confession does acknowledge, that it lies with Him to pronounce me condemned, or acquitted and accepted in His sight; if, whether in condemning or acquitting. He is seen to act as the Supreme Judge from whose bar, even unto eternity, there can be no appeal: and if, in forgiving my sin and announcing my relation to Him to be that of one righteous in His sight. He eminently acts in His character of Lord and Sovereign, making known the riches of His glory on a vessel of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory; — then I cannot intelligently enter into this transaction without having, in the very essence of it, communion with God as my Lord and King. My forgiveness does not merely prepare me for beginning to see that He who has forgiven me is now entitled to be my Lord; but my forgiveness is my Lord’s glorious manifestation of His

Lordship,- — His majestic act of sovereign authority concerning me and over me. There is forgiveness with Him, that He may be feared. And to stretch forth my hand to receive His gift of pardon, is to stretch forth my hand and touch in reverence the sceptre of unHmited, eternal, sovereign, holy government.

Thus a true reception of the true forgiveness fills the soul, in the very instant, with reverential submission, quickening and calling forth a promise and pledge — yea, a longing desire and a loyal endeavour — to obey.

And this, mino-led with gratitude, constitutes the noblest and most ennobling principle that can animate the sons of men: while, under its lively impulse, the believer breaks forth in the joyful exclamations: “What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits?” “0 Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant, for Thou hast loosed my bonds.” “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”

For any service that the Lord may appoint, a deep experience of His forgiving mercy is a necessary and effectual preparation. But especially is it needful, and especially is it eflfective, if the service be that of proclaiming to others the character and will of our God.

This is strikingly illustrated in the case of David. In the matter of his great guilt, and of God’s consequent controversy with him, there seems to have been nothing in which he was more hampered and hindered than the discharge of his duty as a prophet or a teacher of others; bound, as indeed every believer is, to warn transgressors, and show them the way of life. And there seems to have been nothing which his profound repentance and perfect restoration of Divine favour more abundantly qualified him for than this duty of testifying to his fellow-men the will and grace of God, that they might be saved. “Hide thy face from my sin, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy free Spirit. Then — i/ieii — will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee” (Ps. li. 9-13).

Nor is it superfluous to refer to the instance of Isaiah. Melancholy indeed was the commission assigned to that prophet.

The gospel is a savour of life to some, and death to others. It is so in either case in proportion to the fulness and richness with which it is proclaimed. If deadly, it is more deadly the more truly and plentifully it is preached. Among all the prophets, Isaiah testified most emphatically and abundantly of Christ. He is, by way of eminence, the evangelical prophet. Alas! the richer his exhibitions of the coming Christ were to be, the harder were the hearts of his countrymen to become under his ministry. The deadly alternative result was to prevail grievously. He was even to be warned that it would be so. A ministry of judgment was thus to be assigned to him. The terrible commission was to be given: “Go and tell this people, Hear ye, indeed, but understand not: and seek ye, indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes I lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed.” A woful mission for a patriot! a trying, an agonising service to a tender heart! Little wonder if the prophet, in the hope that such a ministry of judgment might be brief, hastens to inquire, “Lord, how long?”

But, oh, the heart-withering answer! “And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses wathout man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.”

How shall the tender spirit of the prophet — for wdth all his terrific energy and force his is a tender spirit still — how shall it be reconciled to go and minister what will thus so extensively, thus so long, prove the savour of death unto death? It is some comfort to him that his people are not about to be cast away; that they are not utterly to be exterminated or disowned. The Lord assures him of a remnant that shall be saved: “But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return and shall be eaten: as a teil tree and as an oak whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves; so the holy seed shall be substance thereof.” Even in the deadly apostasy and deep desolation of “a gainsaying and a disobedient people,” there is “a remnant according to the election of grace.” But even with this mitigation of the prophet’s deep alarm and anguish for his people, how is he to be reconciled to undertake the work of ministering to them an influence which the vast majority shall wrest to their own destruction?

He received a vision of the Lord — the King — seated on the throne of His glory, high and lifted up. Before Him the seraphim veil their faces and their feet with their wings. Their voices of responsive adoration fill the temple. The posts of the doors shake, and the place is filled with smoke. Prostrate in conscious uncleanness and unfitness for the presence and service of a King so searchless in His might and glory, Isaiah falls at the throne: — “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” What is the remedy? What is the reviving cordial? Pardon, pardon; the purging away of sin: the sealing of the Lord’s forgiveness and His favour. “And he laid the coal from the altar on my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged.” Isaiah sees the King, the Lord of hosts; but intensely terrible as is His glory, intensely sure and perfect is His free forgiveness. His royal and eternal favour. Fear not, 0 trembling child of the dust! O contrite spirit I conscious deeply of thy sin; thine iniquity is purged; purged, even so as satisfies this King of glory, the Lord of hosts; purged by the power of an altar on which even He shall die, wounded for thy transgressions, bruised for thy iniquity: and now thou mayest stand before Him — His servant. His counseller. His prophet.

And hark! There is a work to be done; there is a servant to be found. Thy redeeming God, in His unsearchable administration, has mysterious work to do; work that might shake the loyalty of an experienced, an untried commissioner; service that may not be performed by a novice, — that may not be performed even by a veteran, save in the adoring acquiescence which believes in the rectitude and goodness of the Lord, even when His way is in the great deep and His procedure past finding out. “Also I heard a voice saying. Who will go for us, and whom shall we send?” Who will undertake the terrible commission? Whom can we safely send on this soul-trying service? “Then said I,” — adoring the glory of the Lord, my cup running over with His grace — “Then said I, Here am I; send me.” (Isa. vi. 1-13).

With like feelinos will Jonah now welcome the mission to

200 Jonah Restoi’ed to Office.

Nineveh, — mission of judgment though it be. Pardoned, and cleansed, and reinstated in the favour of his God, the Lord whom he fears, even the God of heaven, he will be in meek, adoring, loyal readiness now to do Him service — even though the duty be sore to flesh and blood — though it be the work of threatening sore judgment on a great and sinful city.

II. As a man of prayer whose prayer had been eminently heard and answered, Jonah had a new qualification with his new call to serve the Lord.

He had obtained singular experience of the faithfulness of God as the hearer of prayer. He had called upon the Lord in circumstances almost fitted to shut out the possibility of hope. He had laid his case before the Lord when it seemed all but desperate. Out of the belly of hell had he cried unto the Lord. Cast out of His presence, he had yet ventured to look again towards His temple.

If there be a case on record pre-eminently fitted to confirm the declaration, “Men ought always to pray and not to faint,” it is the case of Jonah. And if his experience is fitted to encourage and animate others, how abundantly must it have influenced himself! Think you that he would not enter with revived animation and vigour on the duty of his calling, from his being able to return to it with the new song in his mouth: “I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry; he brought me out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay; and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings “? Would he not resume his post and his office with livelier loyalty and implicit sense of duty, when he could resume it with the blessed protestation: “I love the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplication: because He hath inclined His ear unto me, I will call upon Him as long as I live “?

For this blessed experience of prayer heard and answered would brace him for his work in more ways than one. Thus —

1. In the first place, it was a testimony to him of his own sincerity and integrity.

Shocked by his own rebellion, the penitent prophet would not lightly or easily be convinced that his heart was again thoroughly guileless and right with God. The strength and subtlety of its rebelliousness would alarm him. That that rebelliousness was truly subdued he would seek a fresh and satisfactory proof; — a proof coming from without and not from within ; — a testimony not from his own inward consciousness, which might deceive him, but an infallible testimony, in which he could not be deceived. Such a testimony he would find in the fact of his prayer being heard. For God heareth not sinners; — that is, He heareth not those in whom sin still reigns. He heareth only the righteous, the true-hearted, the sincere. Uprightness of spirit is essential to true prayer — the prayer of faith which the Father heareth alway. Hence, when prayer is truly heard and answered, the answer is peculiarly sweet, as carrying with it a testimony from God to the suppliant’s simplicity of spirit and godly sincerity.

It is thus that the Psalmist, in the GGth Psalm, interprets an answer to his prayers as the witness of God to his integrity. “Come and hear,” saith he, “Come and hear all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul.” And what is it that God hath done for His soul, and which He feels impelled to publish unto “all that fear His name?” It is nothing else than this; that God had eminently and distinctly heard his prayers, and therein gave him the gratification of knowing that there was no duplicity in his spirit and no evil way within him. “I cried unto Him with my mouth, and He was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart?” — if I cling to any beloved idol, or any besetting sin — “the Lord will not hear me. But verily God hath heard me: He hath attended to the voice of my prayer.” He would not have done so, had I been regarding iniquity in my heart. And when He liaili done so, it is His testimony to me, that He who knoweth all things, knoweth that I love Him; yea, “Blessed be the Lord, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me.”

Thus, assuredly, might Jonah also judge that the Lord had graciously attested his returning integrity and uprightness. And how blessed a help would this conviction be in resuming his duty! To know that verily his soul was right with God; that verily his heart was supremely set upon the love and service of his Sovereign; — how would his hands no more hang down, his efforts no more be feeble or fitful! “‘Tis a point I long to know, do I love the Lord or no?” — many an anxious soul is often made to say. Nor among the many reasons that may weigh in leading to an earnest desire for settlement on that all-important point, is this the least; even that then I may take my Lord’s work in hand with the blessed and bounding assurance that there is no danger of His meeting me with the alarming demand: “Who hath required this at your hands?” or of His repudiating my service with the stern interrogation: “What hast thou to do to declare My statutes, or to take My covenant into thy mouth?”

Oh! art thou anxious to enjoy a perfect and a sure exemption from this danger? Art thou longing to serve the Lord with the full assurance that verily thou art His servant, and that He Himself doth seal and certify thee as such? Go to His throne of grace. Take thy whole case and lay it forth before Him. Thy special burden, difficulty, trial, thorn, fear — that do thou specially deal with thy God concerning. And m deal with Him; so peril all thy happiness and all thy hope, all thy salvation and all thy desire, upon the graciousness and faithfulness of thy God; so continue instant in prayer — “I will not let Thee go, until Thou bless me” — and, by faith and patience, so put God upon His word and promise, that He may manifest Himself in thy help, and distinguishingly answer thy prayer. Then shalt thou have God’s testimony that He counts thee of a perfect heart, — an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Ah! then His service will to thee be exceeding acceptable. Thou will ask for thy worlc; “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” And thou wilt do it with love, and fervour, and unselfish diligence. Thou wilt do it in newness of spirit; with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. Thou wilt be in thine element now, in serving the Lord.

So would Jonah resume his calling; eminently heard and answered of the Lord; the Lord testifying that He was of a pure heart, that he was truly His servant.

2. But the answer to His prayer would animate him to return to his duty in another way. It would inspire Him with the assurance that he was not returning alone; that he had One for his “shield and his strength,” who would bear him safely through all the danger, and successfully through all the duty, to which he was now summoned.

He was about to enter, unprotected, a city, whose inhabitants

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were pre-eminently wicked and violent; and he was to threaten them in the name of the Almighty with speedy and complete destruction. It was as going into the lion’s den. Nothing but, an implicit reliance on the presence, the faithfulness, the power,! and the protection of God, could possibly bear him through, in the calmness and courage befitting an ambassador of God. But surely the late amazing interposition of the Lord, in saving him from the deep, in answer to his prayer, was fitted to fill him with the requisite confidence, and with the strength and decision, needed for the discharge of his duty.

Thus at least did David arm himself against his enemies, feeding or fanning his courage to face them. “Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! There be many that rise up against me. But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me: my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and He heard me out of His holy hill.” And what were the immediate fruits of this blessed experience of answered prayer? Calm confidence and calm courage: the calm confidence of a peacefully-sleeping child, — “I laid me down, I slept; I awaked, for the Lord sustained me;” and the calm courage of a dauntless man, — “I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about” (Ps. iii. 1-6).

Yes! to come forth from the holy place, fresh from an audience of the King, and not an audience only, but an answer; to come forth an acknowledged and accepted friend; an answered and successful suppliant; that is the preparation for whatsoever future of suffering or of service may be opening up before you. “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus “(Gal. vi. 17). Yes! and let no evil dismay thee, nor over-master thee.” Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and

the dragon shalt thou trample under feet He shall call

upon me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy

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him, and show him my salvation “(Ps. xci. 9-16). Glorious promise! May you not boldly face even a dark and lowering future? “Put on the whole armour of God, .... praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” So was Jonah armed now.

Thus a man of prayer, whose prayer had been eminently answered, was Jonah afresh qualified for resuming the prophet’s mission.

III. Once more; as an afflicted man, whose affliction had been eminently blessed, he was now peculiarly fitted to receive anew his difficult, but Divine commission.

Before he was afflicted, he went astray; but now he will keep God’s word. Chastened and subdued, — of a meek and quiet spirit, — overwhelmingly convinced that no device of man can prosper against the strong hand of the Most High, he would return with a readiness to render implicit and unquestioning obedience to whatsoever the Divine oracle should enjoin. Knowing the terrors of the Lord, he could speak of them feelingly, and with reverence. On this theme, he could speak from personal and profound knowledge. Not any less than the royal Psalmist could he say, “I believed, therefore have I spoken; I was greatly afflicted:” so closely would his speaking for God stand related henceforth to his terrible experience. Or he might address himself to the work of declaring God’s message in words like these: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore: but He hath not given me over unto death.” And if it be God’s terrible work that Jonah must declare — God’s strange work of judgment, — still Jonah himself knoweth both the “goodness and severity of God;” and he knoweth that the Lord’s severity is never cruelty — never unrighteous, even should it destroy a city by fire, or a world by a flood. In His own terrible experience, he knows the severity of God; yet he knows also that the Lord is righteous, yea, that his God is merciful.

There is scarcely anything more necessary for God’s ambassador to possess, and scarcely anything more difficult to attain, than thorough ability of spirit to threaten straitly and terribly the enemies of his Lord, and yet to do so with combined feelings yonah Restored to Office. 205

of liveliest love and pity for their souls, and a profound acquiesence in God’s righteousness in threatening them. Either it is difficult to love those to whom we carry what we feel to be the Lord’s most due and righteous sentence of His eternal wrath; or it is difficult to justify that terrible doom when called to carry it to those we love. At once to acquiesce in the propriety, the necessity of their threatened eternal ruin; and to love, and pity, and long after them in the Lord: — to abstain, on the one hand, from quarrelling with the rectitude of that decision of the Most High, which we know must sweep those we love, except they repent, into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels; and on the other hand, to take a no less loving and lively interest in them, because we justify God in revealing His wrath from heaven against them: — this is the sore trial which God’s servant has to undergo. Often he is tempted to be more sparing in setting forth the terrors of the Lord than fidelity both to God and man demands. To sigh after those whom as yet the Lord assigns to eternal perdition, and to side with God in unshrinking loyalty in His doing so; — this is the painful trial of spirit which thousands never think of, but which the pastor who understands his office, and seeks even in some measure to discharge it, has habitually to face. It is questionable whether the high spiritual attainment which it implies and demands, is ever in any measure very decidedly reached save through the furnace of affliction, whether external or spiritual, and more especially the latter. “I believed,” said David, “therefore have I spoken; / was greatly afflicted.” And Paul — entering profoundly into the spirit of that brief declaration, and realising the profound connection between speaking for God, on the one hand, and faith combined with affliction, on the other — has this comment upon the Psalmist’s experience, appropriating it to himself and to the pastoral office generally; “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed,, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak” (compare Ps. cxvi. and 2 Cor. iv. throughout).

“Brethren, pray for us;” may the pastors of the Church well say. The office we have to discharge is in no respect an easy one. The anxieties connected with it are manifold. To sit loose to these anxieties, and suffer them to lie lightly on your spirit, is not the way to commend ourselves to Him that sent us, or to be pure from the blood of all men. Especially we have to tell those who are not in Christ that the wrath of Almighty God abideth on them. We have unflinchingly to denounce upon them the speedy and the endless execution of that wrath except they repent. We have to tell some, that neither we or any fellow-creature can behold the slightest evidence that his repentance is in their case begun; and that they are, therefore, to all appearance, ripening for eternal perdition. In delivering declarations so terrible as these, it behoves us to speak as those who feel that God will do a righteous thing in consigning such to eternal woe if they repent not, and yet to speak as those who at the same time long after them in the bowels of Christ. In denouncing against them this fierce wrath of the God whom they have abandoned, to whom they have never yet returned — the God whom they have offended and insulted, and to whom they have never seriously sued for forgiveness and for reconciliation — we are not permitted even to announce, as Jonah was, a respite of forty days. We cannot offer you one week, one day, one hour, to count upon. We are required to summon you to repentance and surrender — on the spot. But we bless God we have an explicit message of mercy, such as was never put into Jonah’s hands; a declaration from the Lord of hosts — whom you have made your enemy, and to whom you have been enemies — that He is prepared to receive you immediately into reconciliation and favour, through a great propitiation, through the sacrifice of Him who was “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth:” and behold! now is the accepted time; behold! now is the day of salvation. Laid hold on in simplicity and truth, with lively and living faith, this word of the Lord shall be the anchor of your soul, sure and steadfast: neglected and despised, it shall be a swift witness against you. Therefore “let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”