Isaiah 27:8 In measure, when it shoots forth, you will debate with it: he stays his rough wind in the day of the east wind. God determines very exactly the measure of our tribulation, ever mingling mercy with judgment, and permitting trial no further than our moral perfecting requires. He sometimes sifts by a violent wind; but He only sifts, He does not mar and destroy. I. LIFE AT LARGE furnishes us with an illustration of the text. Through human sin the whole world has been filled with disorder and suffering. Wherever we look — whether in nature or the race — we witness scenes of confusion and misery. God did not threaten us in vain; the power of His displeasure has been bitterly felt throughout the whole creation. Yet are we sure that judgment has not come upon us to the uttermost. The world is dark enough to justify a very sad philosophy, and yet the regulations restrictive of evil, the restorative forces, the system of compensations, the wide spaces for positive pleasure which we find in nature and human life, show the world to be far from a condition of unmixed and hopeless evil. The fact is, the central truth of revelation, the redemption of the world by the Son of God, tells at every point. II. GOD'S PROVIDENTIAL DEALINGS WITH HIS CHILDREN illustrate abundantly the same law of mercy. It is essential to the unlearning of our errors, and the perfecting of our spirit in holiness, that we should be familiar with tribulation; but it is deeply interesting to observe the various methods by which God reduces the whirlwind to a winnowing breeze. 1. Sometimes this is effected by educating us against the day of adversity. Most likely we are totally unaware of the process; it is only when we have passed through the ordeal that the discipline of years stands revealed. Then we perceive why our mind has been specially directed to given truths; why we have been led in prayer to seek special gifts and graces; why we have formed certain friendships and associations. 2. On other occasions the force of disaster is broken by the graduation of trial Is not this exemplified in the instance of Job? Successive messengers bring to the patriarch their sad tidings, but the crowning woe comes last. The same order has been observed in the sufferings of the Primitive Church. "So when they had further threatened them, they let them go" (Acts 4:21). "And laid their hands on the Apostles, and put them in the common prison (Acts 5:18). When they had called the apostles and beaten them" (Acts 5:40). "And they stoned Stephen" (Acts 7:59). Menaces prepared them for captivity; fetters inured them for the scourge; the scourge ascertained their royalty, and left them strong enough to claim the martyr's diadem. 3. Again, tribulation is often relieved by counterbalancing advantages. Be sure, where there is a "but" against us there are, as in the case of Naaman, several grand "buts" for us, and it will be most to our good to ponder these. In nature we constantly see this compensatory action — see the rod of God, like that of Aaron, breaking into flowers. Losing eyesight, our other faculties forthwith acquire preternatural acuteness. 4. In that law of sympathy which prevails throughout society we see once again the sword of judgment crossed by mercy's sceptre. The sick and suffering are objects of special sympathy and succour. Macaulay writes of John Bunyan: "He had several small children, and among them a daughter who was blind, and whom he loved with peculiar tenderness. He could not, he said, bear even to let the wind blow on her." III. IN GOD'S SPIRITUAL KINGDOM AND GOVERNMENT we find our last illustration of the inspiring truth we seek to inculcate. In the kingdom of grace are special equivalents for life's losses, special inspirations for the passage of flood and flame. In dark periods we acquire a special interest in the Word of God. Times of adversity bring out multitudes of precious promises, as night brings out the stars. And not only so, but in the bitter conflicts of life we gain a fuller, clearer vision of truth in general, and realise its peculiar preciousness. This fuller, richer apprehension of the mind and purpose of God imbues us with new, strange qualities, and the fire forgets its power to burn. In dark periods we also receive special measures of the grace of God. We must ever gratefully acknowledge the mercy which ameliorates the world about us and makes its conditions gentler; but we must hold firmly the truth that the rough wind is stayed in the day of His east wind, chiefly through the sanctification and exaltation of the human mind in Christ Jesus. Here we often err. We plead for the rectification and amelioration of circumstances; that our path may be smoother, our load lighter, our sky brighter, We are anxious for better health, improved trade, the restoration of friends, the reduction of life's cares, griefs and losses. We want life tempering by making our environment less exhaustive; by adjusting the world more nearly to our weakness. But this is not God's most approved method. He does not modify the universe about us so much as He raises the mind within us; giving us relief and victory in knowledge, power, faith, hope, love, and the joy which is inseparable from a soul so richly dowered, "In the day when I cried thou answeredst me and strengthenedst. me with strength in my soul." Lessons — (1) We gain an affecting view of the love of God. (2) We see in this a reason for submission and gratitude. (3) We see the justification of confidence and quietness. (4) Let us go forth again with renewed courage and hope.It is generally allowed that Dante has pictured Inferno more ably than Paradiso; and the critics explain this on the ground that the poet's gloomy genius made him more skilful in depicting a dark theme than a cheerful one. The measure of Dante's genius is rare; the kind very common indeed. Most of us are clever at painting black pictures. (W. L. Watkinson.) Parallel Verses KJV: In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. |
    |