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That it is a gratuitous ascription of one of the darkest of human passions to that Being in whom is no darkness at all will be evident to those readers who have been able to follow my reasoning in the present chapter. But I may add that it fails to take due account of the truth that Divine mercy is far from allowing impunity to transgressors —that in all cases, whatsoever a man soweth he shall also reap. The moral government of the world has rendered sin a very serious matter to those by whom it is committed; no transgressor is ever allowed to get off with the impression that it is a trifling matter. Knowing this, we cannot be surprised at finding that Redemption was not to be accomplished without awe-inspiring and exemplary suffering. But it cannot be affirmed that in the nature of things there is evident reason why transgression should, as a matter of course, be paid for either by everlasting misery, or by some vicarious experience which, when reckoned as penal, may be rated as its equivalent-in other words, that remission of liability to the former is clearly forbidden by an immutable principle of justice, unless the latter be provided. It would seem enough that the sinner has by his own act ruined himself for ever, except on the supposition that his Maker shall, in loving kindness and compassion, intervene with an effectual remedy. Surely, for the vindication of the authority which transgressors have slighted, nothing need be added to the hopelessness of the condition to which they have reduced themselves (that is, considered simply by itself), the innumerable evils and troubles to which they are exposed, and the fact that the righteous man is only scarcely saved.

* I am far from insinuating that the value of the Sacrifice may be duly estimated without reference to the dignity of the Victim: I simply decline the attempt to balance, on any consideration, a few hours of suffering, regarded as penal, against an eternity of torment.

15. Doubtless, in dying for us, the Saviour has, to use' a biblical phrase, magnified the Law and made it honourable. But the Divine Law is the Law of Love. What, then, was the testimony, what was the sort of vindication which it received from His death? It was in His power to abandon sinners for ever to the consequences of their disobedience to let them continue through endless ages depraving themselves, and still falling from depth to depth in the abyss into which they had plunged. That was the most tremendous punishment He could have inflicted upon them, and it would certainly have vindicated His Sovereign authority. The natural tendency of a man, when wronged and insulted, is to become inflamed with anger, and his impulse is to revenge himself if he has the opportunity. But what says the Lord? "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways. .. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Certain minds had, indeed, been so far enlightened as to perceive that generosity was nobler than vindictiveness, but it was beyond even their reach to divine the step He had purposed to take in order to magnify His Law and make it honourable. For what was it He actually did? The fulfilment which He exacted He exemplified in His own person; He revealed as it had never been seen before the exceeding sinfulness of sin by suffering at the hands of sinners; He rebuked pride by humbling Himself; He reproved iniquity by submitting to be treated as a wrongdoer; He testified against vindictiveness by rendering good for evil; tortured and reviled, He continued faithful unto death, in all things bearing witness to that Supreme authority which was destined, though His testimony, to bear down all opposition and secure the homage of every * Isai. lv. 8, 9.

• Isai. xlii. 21.

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rational creature. Herein, if our hearts and intellects do justice to the Law which He thus magnified and rendered honourable, we cannot but perceive the worthiest and the sublimest tribute which Omnipotence could pay it, and the only effectual vindication of it that was possible.

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CHAPTER X.

PROVIDENTIAL CHARACTER OF THE FUNDAMENTAL

GOVERNMENT.

Οὐχὶ δύο στρουθία ἀσσαρίου πωλεῖται; καὶ ἓν ἐξ αὐτῶν οὐ πεσεῖται ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἄνευ τοῦ πατρὸς ὑμῶν. ὑμῶν δὲ καὶ αἱ τρίχες τῆς κεφαλῆς πᾶσαι ἠριθμημέναι εἰσίν.” —MATT. x. 29, 30.

I. IF it be admitted that the character we must ascribe to the Being who rules the universe has been sufficiently determined by the considerations already submitted to the reader, we are now in a position to pursue our investigation with a view to conclusions respecting the character of His Government. The materials available for purely inductive results are clearly insufficient. Even if scientific attention had been paid in any considerable measure to seemingly relevant facts, and the outcome of careful inquiry, duly registered, were available for scientific purposes, the phenomena thus ascertained would not adequately disclose their significance until examined in connection with facts which fall not within the range of human observation in this lower state of existence, and with such testimonies to the moral drift and import of the Divine administration as are still, for each mortal, in the womb of the future. A pertinent deduction, however, of no little importance, is warranted by truths which, if my reasonings up to this point have been intelligible and sound, may now be regarded as fully

established.

The plan and method of the Supreme direction of affairs must of necessity be such as to give effect to the designs proper to a Father of spirits, or, to designate more explicitly the Sovereign whose sway extends over all things, that Father whose mind and character we find revealed to us in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.

2. But this truth being distinctly recognized, a further conclusion will readily suggest itself, and will also be perceived, after a moment's reflection, to be inevitable. The laws and conditions of all phenomenal change, or, to use more familiar language, the constitution and course of nature, in so far as children of the Father of spirits are, as such, affected by them, must be subordinate to their interests. As regards my present argument, it is of no importance whether He be conceived of as operating upon His rational creatures by means of what may be called matter, or what should be termed forces, or never otherwise than immediately anyhow, in determining the conditions of those influences to which they were to be at any time subject, He must have had in view, as of supreme moment, their well-being. Is it credible that this was with Him a secondary consideration, and that His primary object was to construct, as it were, a machine in which all the wheels and beams and cranks might move with harmonious precision? Is it for an instant to be supposed that He saw fit to fabricate such a machine, and to introduce into it as component parts organs of rational life, chiefly with an eye to the superficial evenness of motion which they, with the rest, would contribute to maintain, and regardless of the effects the spirits thus imprisoned in it would experience, as the monstrous engine-contrived for what purpose, who shall say? carried on its operations with crushing force and relentless regularity? Is the notion that we are thus

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