SERMON IX

THE PROPORTION OF GRACE TO TRIAL

“And as thy days, so shall thy strength be.”—Deut. xxxiii. 25.

IT

T is of great importance, that, in considering the present condition of our race, we neither exaggerate nor extenuate the consequences of the original apostasy. We believe it possible to do the one as well as the other; for though it may not be easy to overstate the degree of our alienation from God, or our inability to return unto Him from whom we have revolted, we may speak as though certain passions and affections had been engendered in us since the Fall, having had nothing correspondent in man as first formed. And this, we believe, would be a great mistake; for we do not see how any part of our mental constitution can have been added or produced, since we turned aside from God: we may have prostituted this or that affection, and perverted this or that power; but assuredly the affection and the power, under a better aspect and with a holier aim, must have belonged to our nature before, as well as since the transgression of Adam. are not to think that an entirely new set of energies and passions was communicated to man, when he had fallen from innocence; for this would be to represent God as

We

interfering to implant in us sinful propensities. When a man is converted, and therefore regains, in a degree, the lost image of his Maker, there are not given him powers and affections which he possessed not before; all that is effected is the removal of an evil bias, or the proposing of a new object; the faculties are what they were, except that they are no longer warped, and no longer wasted on perishable things. And if that renewal of human nature, which is designated as actually a fresh creation, consist rather in its purification and elevation than in its endowment with new qualities, we may conclude, that, in its fall, there was the debasement rather than the destruction of its properties, the corruption of what it had, rather than the acquisition of what it had not.

It is, we think, a very interesting thing to observe men's present dispositions and tendencies, and to consider what they would have been had man continued in uprightness. The distorted feature, and the degraded power, should not merely be mourned over and reproached: they should be used as clements from which we may determine what our race was ere it rebelled against God. When, for example, we behold men eagerly bent on the amassing of wealth, giving all their energy and time to the accumulation of riches, which they can never need and never enjoy, we consider that we are not looking merely on a melancholy spectacle, that of creatures squandering their lives on what deserves not their strivings. There is indeed the exhibition of misused powers: but the exhibition is, at the same time, a striking evidence of what man originally was, and for what he was designed. The passion for accumulation, for making provision for the unknown future, is among the strongest indications that the soul feels herself immortal, and urges to the laying up for yet distant times.

What would the man, who is labouring night and day for corruptible possessions, have been, had he remained what he was as originally created? He would have been an eager candidate for those treasures which are enduring; and all that concentration of powers on a perishable good which now excites our sorrow, would have been the undivided employment of every energy on the acquisition of everlasting blessedness. It is not a new desire, a desire which subsisted not under any form in the unfallen man, that which now actuates the great mass of our race, who toil and strive only to be rich. It is the very desire which, we may believe, was uppermost in our first father, when the image of God was in its freshness, and evil had not entered paradise. The desire has been turned towards the base and corruptible; there has been a change, a fatal change in its object; but nevertheless, the desire itself. belonged to our nature in its glorious estate, God its author and immortality its aim. So that, from the spectacle of crowded marts and busy exchanges, where numbers manifestly devote themselves, body and soul, to the amassing of money, we can pass in thought to the spectacle of a world inhabited only by unfallen men, creatures who, like Adam as originally formed, present the lineaments of the Lord God Himself. The one spectacle suggests the other:

I learn what man was from observing what he is.

And it is not merely that, viewing the matter generally, we can see that the passion for accumulating wealth is an original affection of our nature implanted for noble ends. If you examine with a little more attention, you will be struck with the testimony which there is in this passion to the exigencies and destinies of man. If you were to speak with a great capitalist, one who has already realized large wealth, but who is as industrious in adding to his

stores as though he were just beginning life, he would perhaps hardly tell you that he had any very definite purpose in heaping up riches, that there was any great end which he hoped to attain, or any new source of happiness which he expected to possess. He goes on accumulating, because there is an unsatisfied longing, a craving which has not been appeased, a consciousness, which will not suffer him to be idle, that man's business upon earth is to make provision for the future. For our part, we have no share in the feeling of wonder, which we often hear expressed, that worldly men, as they grow old, are even more eager than ever in adding to their riches. The surprising thing to us is, when a man, who for years has been intent on accumulating capital, can withdraw from his accustomed pursuits, and yet not be industrious in seeking treasure above. We think it only natural, that the covetous man should be more covetous, as he draws nearer to death; for we regard covetousness as nothing less than the prostituted desire of immortality; it is the passion of a being, goaded by an irrepressible feeling that he shall have wants hereafter, for which it behoves him to be provident now; and what marvel, if this feeling become more and more intense, as the time of dissolution approaches, and the soul has mysterious and painful forebodings of being cast, without a shred and without a hope, on eternity?

But we make these remarks on the passion for accumulation, as found in unconverted men, because we wish to examine whether there be anything analogous in those who have been brought to the providing for an after state of being. The worldly man, as we have seen, is not content with a present sufficiency, or even abundance: he is always aiming at having a large stock in hand, so that he may be secure, as he thinks, against future contingencies. And

when you view him as a creature with misdirected energies, we have shown you that his irrepressible tendency to the providing for hereafter, is among the most beautiful of testimonies to his being immortal, and placed upon earth to prepare for another state. But if we now suppose him so transformed by divine grace, that he is enabled to set his affections "on things above," there is a strong likelihood that he will carry with him, if we may so express it, the habit of accumulation, so that he will be in spiritual things, what he has long been in temporal, discontented with the present supply, and desirous of anticipating the future. And, of course, we are not required to limit this remark to the case of an individual who has been eager in amassing earthly wealth. We think it a feature which is characteristic, without exception, of all men, that there is a tendency to the providing for the future. There is hardly the mind to be found, so stripped of every vestige of its origin, that it cares only for to-day, and has no regard for to-morrow. And if there be an universal disposition to the having, if possible, the supply of future wants already in possession, we may well expect, on the principles already laid down, that such disposition will show itself in regard of spiritual necessities, and not be confined to such only as are temporal.

It is the consideration of the disposition, as it may thus operate in righteous individuals, with which we now desire to engage your attention. Our text may have often recurred to you as a beautiful promise, pledging God to administer such supports to His people as shall be proportioned to their several necessities. "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." And it is unquestionably a most encouraging declaration, full of godly comfort, admirably 1 Col. iii. 2.