Learn a parable from a wounded soldier.  His limb must be amputated, for mortification and gangrene have begun their work.  He is told that the surgical operation, which will last a half hour, will yield him twenty or forty years of healthy and active life.  The endurance of an “evil thing,” for a few moments, will result in the possession of a “good thing,” for many long days and years.  He holds out the limb, and submits to the knife.  He accepts the inevitable conditions under which he finds himself.  He is resolute and stern, in order to secure a great good, in the future.

It is the practice of this same principle, though not in the use of the same kind of power, that we would urge upon you. Look up to God for grace and help, and deliberately forego a present advantage, for the sake of something infinitely more valuable hereafter.  Do not, for the sake of the temporary enjoyment of Dives, lose the eternal happiness of Lazarus.  Rather, take the place, and accept the “evil things,” of the beggar. Look up to God for grace and strength to do it, and then live a life of contrition for sin, and faith in Christ’s blood.  Deny yourself, and take up the cross daily.  Expect your happiness hereafter.  Lay up your treasure above.  Then, in the deciding day, it will be said of you, as it will be of all the true children of God:  “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

[Footnote 1:  SHEDD:  History of Doctrine, II., 234 sq.]

[Footnote 2:  The early religious experience of John Owen furnishes a striking illustration.  “For a quarter of a year, he avoided almost all intercourse with men; could scarcely be induced to speak; and when he did say anything, it was in so disordered a manner as rendered him a wonder to many.  Only those who have experienced the bitterness of a wounded spirit can form an idea of the distress he must have suffered.  Compared with this anguish of soul, all the afflictions which befall a sinner [on earth] are trifles.  One drop of that wrath which shall finally fill the cup of the ungodly, poured into the mind, is enough to poison all the comforts of life, and to spread mourning, lamentation, and woe over the countenance.  Though the violence of Owen’s convictions had subsided after the first severe conflict, they still continued to disturb his peace, and nearly five years elapsed from their commencement before he obtained solid comfort.”  ORME:  Life of Owen, Chap.  I.]

[Footnote 3:  WORDSWORTH:  Laodamia.]

THE EXERCISE OF MERCY OPTIONAL WITH GOD.

ROMANS ix. 15.—­“For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”