God's providence is over both persons and nations. In this world retribution
to persons is imperfect, for they will be dealt with hereafter. But nations
exist here only. Whatever rewards or punishments they receive must be
temporal. In thrift, and peace, and honor—they have their reward in this
world for their justice, temperance and industry. Here too they are punished
for their iniquities.
Sins are national—either by their prevalence among a
people, or by being sanctioned by national authority. When the law-making
power of a country decrees unrighteousness and frames wickedness by a law;
when its executive power is wielded for cruelty, or favoritism; when the
judges of a land are corrupt, and justify the guilty and condemn the
innocent—then a fearful reckoning is not far off. Likewise, when iniquity
abounds in the members of a nation, its punishment is near. The offences,
which bring ruin on nations, are pride, luxury, idleness, oppression,
extortion, cruelty, covetousness, profaneness, hardness of heart,
ingratitude—or any of the sins forbidden in God's word.
But the Scriptures make it very clear that nothing is
more offensive to God than the rejection of his Gospel by a people. The 60th
chapter of Isaiah contains a prophecy respecting the peaceful and powerful
triumph of righteousness, concluding with the declaration that casting off
the authority of Christ shall be followed by awful woes, "The nation and
kingdom, that will not serve you, shall perish." "The character of nations
and men," says Dr. Spring, "is decided by the Gospel. As they fall in with
it, or fall out with it—they are saved or lost."
This is a weighty matter. Let us consider it well. These
remarks are obviously just—
1. It is of God's mere sovereign kindness that ever the
Gospel has been preached, or mercy offered to any people. The glad tidings
of salvation are the more gladsome, because we had no title to such a
blessing.
2. The sending of the gospel to one nation and not to
another is not owing to the superior merit of the favored people over
others. "Not for your sakes do I this, says the Lord, be it known unto
you—be you ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel." Ezek.
36:32. Where is the nation who when they first heard of salvation were not
sunk down in many and great sins?
3. The continuance of the gospel among any people is an
act of prolonged sovereign goodness. He, who kindly gave, may justly take
away. All people have sinned enough to warrant God in withdrawing all his
mercies.
4. Great favors impose great obligations. The greater the
mercy, the greater the responsibility. The Gospel is the greatest blessing
ever bestowed on man. Therefore nothing equally obliges a people to receive
the gift with gratitude and to make a right use of it.
Nations reject the Gospel by an avowed and general
renunciation of its claims and authority, after being made acquainted with
them. In every land some refuse the yoke of Christ. Sometimes many do it
secretly. But when the hostility is bold and aversion rises to the point of
malignity, and opposition builds up adverse systems, and all this with the
clear light shining—that nation has reached an appalling crisis! So it was
with the Jews. Paul and Barnabas said to them, "Seeing you put it from you,
and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles."
Acts 13:46.
Let us carefully look at this matter—
I. Sometimes this rejection is accompanied by anti-christian
legislation. Such was one law of the Jewish rulers, that if any should
confess Christ he should be put out of the synagogue. Such was much of the
legislation of revolutionary France, incorporating into its edicts the very
spirit of Voltaire's infidelity.
Sometimes a people go further and cruelly persecute all
who oppose their wicked course. Ignorantly yet rashly to shed innocent
blood—is a blemish on a human government, or a stigma on a benevolent man.
Popular violence roused by some atrocity may rashly and wickedly mete out a
too terrible doom. Or a cowardly judge, overawed by popular clamor, may
perjure himself, and deliver to death one who hardly deserves scourging. But
when in the spirit of Cain or of Nero, a people hunt down, imprison and
murder the friends of God's truth, their case becomes fearful beyond
expression. In his History of Redemption, Edwards says, "We read in
Scripture of scarcely any destruction of nations but that one main reason
given for it is, their enmity and injuries against God's church, and
doubtless this was one main reason of the destruction of all nations by the
flood."
The case is, if possible, yet more alarming when the
rancorous zeal of persecutors makes them seek to hinder the spread of saving
truth among those who are not joined with them by social or political ties.
Thus the cry of the infidels of the last century was, "We must set fire to
the four corners of Europe," intending the destruction of all religion. So
the Jews not only killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and
persecuted the Christians—but they became "contrary to all men," says Paul,
"forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up
their sin always—for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." 1 Thes.
2:16. This was the drop that filled their cup of trembling to the full.
II. Men sometimes reject the Gospel by making a
hypocritical profession of it. Which of the prophets has not lifted up his
voice like a trumpet to warn men against this sin? Jesus Christ, in whose
lips the law of kindness sat, yet uttered the most fearful denunciations
against hypocrites. For false professions, Ananias and Sapphira fell dead by
the awful judgment of God. A hypocritical profession of the Gospel is more
offensive than a hypocritical profession under any preceding dispensation,
because it is committed against clearer light. The real cause of a
hypocritical profession of religion is found in the desperate wickedness and
deceitfulness of the human heart. But the occasions to it are
principally two—
First—the legislation of a country, holding out to
professors of some peculiar form of religion baits in the way of profit,
trust or honor. Carnal men in large numbers will submit to the drudgery of
religious rites—rather than forego political preferment. Shaftesbury,
Collins and Gibbon, bold infidels as they were, were willing to receive the
Lord's Supper in the church of England, rather than be shut out of
Parliament.
Secondly—sometimes public sentiment becomes powerful in
favor of a religious profession, and in some way makes temporal prosperity
dependent on a connection with the church. There is hardly a state where
some one sect is not a kind of pet with ungodly men in power. The sect most
favored is commonly the one that commands the most votes, or one whose
public ministrations are but seldom honored by pungent convictions of sin,
or clear conversions to God. Those who preach "Peace! Peace!" are the
teachers for the men of this world. "If a liar and deceiver comes and says,
'I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,' he would be just the
prophet for this people!" Micah 2:11. This public opinion, perverted, is
potent for mischief. It knows no limits. It has no checks as every written
law has. It can make hypocrites faster than the apostles made converts. Nor
will any true-hearted professor of religion feel the less abhorrence to the
adulation offered by cunning men, because it may be directed to his own
denomination.
III. A general formality without any practical embracing
of Christianity, a readiness to rest upon forms, and rites, and
ceremonies—is a great rejection of the Gospel. Outward privilege cannot take
the place of inward grace. With formalists, profession is everything,
principle is nothing. "A pale cast of thought sicklies over all their
religious enterprises and turns all their good purposes awry." Ceremony
takes the place of holy living. Fruitfulness gives way to a denominational
zeal. The receptacles in the temples of religion are full of anise, mint,
rue and cummin; but justice, faith and mercy are stricken from the roll of
necessary morals. A staid sobriety and a studied formality take the
place of genuine solemnity and Christian kindness. A whimpering
sentimentality is substituted for a warm-hearted charity. The Gospel is
professed but its genius is not understood. Some of its doctrines are
taught—but it is never dreamed that they require holiness. Baptismal
regeneration supplants the renewal of the Holy Spirit. Men reach the fearful
conclusion that religion consists in forms.
Such a community, destitute of fervent love—may soon be
filled with fanatics, contemplative and philosophical, or vulgar and
boisterous, or fierce and lawless—holding to the bloodiest codes and worst
maxims of devils, doing evil that good may come, offended at nothing so much
as hesitancy in receiving their wicked dogmas, or resisting their sovereign
sway. You might as soon find figs on thistles—as meekness, gentleness,
goodness, charity, pity or patience in them. They have the Gospel, without
the humility it requires. They hear God's word—but they do it not. They are
like the "earth, which drinks in the rain that comes oft upon it, which yet
brings forth thorns and briars, and which is rejected, and near unto
cursing, whose end is to be burned." Heb. 6:7, 8. To such a people Jesus
said, "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof." Matt. 21:43.
Those who thus treat the Gospel bring on themselves
incalculable evils. The Scriptures say "they shall perish." This perdition
is spiritual and temporal. Their souls perish, and with them their dignity,
their good institutions, their outward prosperity. Left to themselves, men
"grope for the wall at noon-day." "They sit in darkness, yes, in the region
and shadow of death." "Their understanding is darkened, being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that is in them." "Where no vision is,
the people perish."
No principle of moral conduct is sufficiently clear to
the natural mind, nor invested with adequate authority—to control the heart
and life—if one is left without a revelation from God. And if one rejects
the Gospel, nothing can establish its claim to a divine original. Without
God's word, reason herself is benighted. The very light that is in men is
darkness. They know not God. They know not Jesus Christ. They have not so
much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. "He who has not Christ—has
neither beginning of good, nor shall have end of misery. O blessed Jesus,
how much better were it not to be—than to be without you." A soul which has
no God, is worse than the new-born babe without a caretaker. The worst
spiritual calamities for time and eternity await those, who for their sins
are deprived of the Gospel.
But there is a temporal perdition, awaiting a people,
who, to their other sins have added the rejection of the Gospel. The
language of Scripture is dreadful, "Who has hardened himself against God and
prospered?" "The nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish." A
most heavy vengeance will fall on those who having heard the Gospel, count
themselves unworthy of eternal life. So said God to the ancient Jews, "You
only of all the families of the earth have I known, therefore will I visit
upon you all your iniquities." Amos 3:2. With them the long-suffering of God
waited many years—but it did not wait always. The calamities which finally
overtook them might be weighed against the miseries of the world for any ten
centuries of its existence. Any adequate description of the destruction of
their temple and city would be too long for this work. First came Titus with
his Roman legions, themselves heathen, proud and fierce, with the Roman
eagle, the chosen emblem of prophecy for desolation. A trench was cast about
their Jerusalem. Then seditions arose in the city itself, compared by
Josephus to wild beasts grown mad, and for lack of food eating their own
flesh. Thus the city had fierce heathen foes without, and fiercer domestic
foes within. Famine with all its horrors wasted the unhappy people until the
human mind can hardly bear the recital. Heaps of slaughtered men and streams
of human gore were found around the altar of God. A dreadful pestilence was
the natural offspring of these things. In short, every outward calamity with
which man is commonly visited fell upon this people from without; while all
the intolerable fires of frenzy, envy and malice raged within. This state of
things was only diversified by new and deeper scenes of horror, mingled with
occasional and delusive hopes, springing up only to be disappointed, until
at last the city fell, and the ploughshare of ruin was driven over its walls
and through its streets by a soldiery fierce and brutalized by the nature of
the long-continued contest between the besiegers and the besieged. Tacitus
says 600,000 souls thus miserably perished. Josephus puts the number at
1,100,000. In that day was fulfilled the prophecy of our Savior, "Then shall
be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to
this time, no, nor ever shall be." Matt. 24:21. No man can read Josephus'
account of those awful scenes without saying this prophecy was fulfilled.
Following the overthrow of the holy city came a saddening
series of calamities to Jews everywhere. Long had they spoken of 'Gentile
dogs'; but for centuries, he who killed his neighbor's dog committed as
grave an offence as he who killed a Jew. That favored people became a
by-word and a hissing.
God also cast off the body of the nation from his saving
mercies and left them in their sins, hardened in unbelief. "Behold therefore
the goodness and severity of God—on them, which fell, severity; but toward
us, goodness, if we continue in his goodness; otherwise we also shall be cut
off." Let us not think we may treat the Gospel as we please and yet be safe.
The admonition of God to us is, "Be not high-minded but fear—for if God
spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not you." If
this reasoning teaches anything, it is that God may abandon and forsake a
Gentile people having the Gospel, for far less provocation than led him to
deliver the Jews over to destruction. For long generations God showed and
expressed peculiar tenderness to the seed of Abraham. Even in their deep
revolt from him, God said, "Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let
you go? How can I destroy you like Admah and Zeboiim? My heart is torn
within me, and my compassion overflows." Hos. 11:8. Let Gentile churches and
nations take timely warning from the awful fall of the Jews.
How instructive too is the history of the seven churches
of Asia, addressed in Revelation and warned to beware lest their
candle-stick be removed. Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis,
Philadelphia and Laodicea stand like seven dreadful beacons having inscribed
on them—BEWARE!!! Beware how you slight the Gospel! Beware how you leave
your first love! Beware how you embrace the doctrine of Balaam! Beware of
that woman Jezebel and her adulteries! Beware how you defile your garments!
Beware how you let any man take your crown! Beware how you become neither
cold nor hot!
The worst judgments are spiritual judgments. The sorest
plagues are plagues of the heart. War, famine and pestilence are God's
scourges for the nations generally. But the withholding of the influences of
the Spirit, the closing of the day of grace, and the withdrawal of a pure
gospel are the plagues reserved for sinners of the deepest dye. They are
fearful tokens of God's fiercest displeasure.
REMARKS.
1. Let the people of every land study their national
history. Its pages are full of interest. God is in history. Let the people
of America be no exception to this call.
2. Let us not trust in man to preserve us. The diviners
are often mad, and the seers are blind. God alone knows enough, and loves
enough, and is strong enough to protect any people.
3. Let us all beware of a morbid excitability of temper.
The mock tragedies and violence of our theaters and books, will create a
thirst for wickedness, until at last our people will gloat over scenes of
carnage.
4. What shall be the future character of the busy
millions of America, who already begin to compass sea and land? is one of
the questions properly called sublime. Shall they be crude? The sternest
virtue may be clad in camel's hair. Shall they be refined? The most debasing
vices and the most atrocious crimes have often been arrayed in purple and
fine linen. Shall they have but little wealth? God has chosen the poor of
this world rich in faith. Shall they be free? Freedom is a blessing worth
all it ever cost. Still Joseph in chains was a man, whose presence made
others feel "how solemn, goodness is." Daniel in Babylon was as sublime a
character, as if he had never left the hills of Judea, and the waters of
Siloah. Paul dates several of his epistles from under the throne of Nero.
But when we ask, Shall this nation be virtuous? shall its
people know and do the will of God? shall they meekly wear the yoke of
Immanuel and welcome the offers of redeeming mercy? we ask the gravest
questions. "Blessed is that people, whose God is the Lord." All nations
shall call such a land blessed, God himself shall smile upon it, and in
every evening and morning hymn shall be sung "The tabernacle of God is with
men." When every land shall truly receive Messiah, it shall be said—
"One song employs all nations, and all day—
Worthy the Lamb for he was slain for us.
The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks
Shout to each other, and the mountain tops,
From distant mountains, catch the flying joy,
Until nation after nation taught the strain
Earth rolls the rapturous Hosanna round."
But if any people learn habitually to slight offered
mercy, their future course will open an Iliad of calamities, appalling to
the stoutest heart. The prophetic roll of such a country's history is
written within and without with lamentations, and mourning, and woe.
5. Let each man remember his own awful responsibility to
God. The way that nations rise in worth, or sink in ruin, is by the
individuals, who compose them—walking humbly with God, or renouncing their
portion in Jacob. Aggregated masses are the sum of the good or ill inwoven
into the character of their component parts. The union of godly men is
right, and it is strength. Let every man rule his own heart. He is the best
citizen—who walks most according to the moral law and the example of Christ,
and who most fervently implores the blessing of heaven on his people and
country.
"Blessed is the nation, whose God is the Lord."
"Righteousness exalts a nation—but sin is a reproach to
any people."
6. People of America! Beware how you trifle with sin,
how you make light of God's authority, and revel in iniquity. In ages
long gone by, there flourished on this continent a powerful race of men. In
the ruins of their cities and fortifications, we see monuments of their
prodigious energy and resources. But they are all passed away. No living man
has any knowledge of their rise and fall. After them, came the red man,
commonly called the Indian. Two centuries ago there were millions of these
people, where now are but thousands. Many powerful tribes have wholly
disappeared. Others are rapidly melting away. It looks as if God would make
a full end of them. Their nationality has generally perished. And shall the
myriads, that now swarm on these shores, follow in the footsteps of these
old transgressors, and alike fade away under the desolating power of evil,
by the curse of Jehovah, or in deadly strife? O Lord, you know. O Lord, have
mercy, and grant to us all unfeigned repentance.
But some are hopeless cases. Nothing moves them. God
chastises them—but they make their hearts harder than adamant. He invites
them by mingled words of entreaty and of authority—but they pass heedlessly
along. A word enters more into a wise man—than seven stripes into them.
Though they should be pounded with a pestle in a mortar, their foolishness
will not depart from them. In their case we fear the worst. "When they cry,
Peace and safety—then lo, sudden destruction comes upon them!" Yet no
signs of devouring wrath now strike their or our senses. Earthquakes, it is
said, are preceded by an unusual stillness in nature. Hell follows close
on uninterrupted carnal security.
God calls the whole nation to repentance. The voice of
mercy is loud and tender and persuasive. Will not all, individually, turn
and live? Will you renounce every evil way, and believe in Christ? This year
you may die. How can you appear at God's tribunal without a saving interest
in Christ? Be persuaded to lay hold on eternal life. If the nation repents,
it will be by each man bewailing his sins, believing in Christ, and so
fleeing from the wrath to come. "God now commands all men everywhere to
repent." Obey, and live.
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were
loud voices shouting in heaven: "The whole world has now become the Kingdom
of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever." And the
twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones before God fell on their faces
and worshiped him. And they said, "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
the one who is and who always was, for now you have assumed your great power
and have begun to reign! The nations were angry with you, but now the time
of your wrath has come. It is time to judge the dead and reward your
servants. You will reward your prophets and your holy people, all who fear
your name, from the least to the greatest. And you will destroy all who have
caused destruction on the earth." Revelation 11:15-18