All, for example, have need of pardon. It often happens that persons who have sought this, and rightly sought it, through the blood of the Redeemer, yet cannot obtain peace of mind. They are still fearful of the wrath of God. Death still appears to them as the king of terrors. This parable, however, forbids them to yield to despondency, and cease from seeking. The parable is to this end, that men ought always to pray, and faint not. Shall not God avenge his own elect, though he bear long with them? God may delay his answer, but he always hears the prayer of faith. And at the right time his answer will arrive. We may speak also of affliction: such as loss of friends, or disease, or pain, or indigence. God often sees fit to visit men with such trials. They betake themselves to prayer. Those, even, who have been little used to prayer, fly to it as their best refuge under the pressure of affliction. And if we would know what real prayer is, we should visit the abode of some sick person, who believes himself within a few hours of death: or if some tender parent, whose child is in urgent danger: or of some diseased sufferer, who is racked with the severity of pain. When we witnessed their fervour, and heard their entreaties for relief, we could no longer doubt whether their hearts were engaged in prayer. We are encouraged, by the example in the parable, to persist in this earnest suit. The very reason why God bears so long with his people, is that he may try, and confirm their faith. "Tribulation worketh patience." "He knows what ye have need of before you ask him." And it might be inquired, Why then need we ask? Simply that we may feel our dependence on him: and that we may show our dependence on him: that we may learn to hope against hope; that we may " rejoice in the Lord," though all things seem adverse and like suffering Job, "though he slay us, yet trust in him." Many encouragements to this confidence may be taken from the circumstances of the parable. The widow, for instance, was a stranger; no way related to the judge. But Christians are the elect of God: his favoured and peculiar people: those whom he has chosen to receive his offer of salvation: those whom he has called to become his children by adoption in Christ Jesus. The unjust judge believed the stranger widow: and shall not God avenge his own elect? Further, with a character like that of the judge, the widow had little ground for hope. He was known neither to fear God, nor regard man. God has implanted in mankind a salutary love of the good opinion of others, that they who fear not Him who is invisible, may yet be restrained by a sense of what is valuable to themselves. This judge had neither of such motives to incline him in the suitor's favour. We, on the other hand, apply to a loving and compassionate Father. "Turn (says the prophet) unto the Lord your God: for he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil." And shall not he avenge his own elect, who cry day and night unto him? The poor widow, again, had none to intercede for her. To this severe judge, from whom so little was to be hoped, she was forced to go alone. But we have one to plead for us, who cannot plead in vain. "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins." "He ever liveth at the right hand of God, to make intercession for us." And he bids us "come boldly to the throne of grace." For he has said, Shall not God avenge his own elect? I tell you, that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith in the earth? Shall he find men believing and acting upon the truth, that God does regard his people, and will make a final difference between them and others? We know not how this may prove, when the Son of man cometh. But we do know that there never yet has been a period, when, if he had come, he would have found this faith prevailing generally in the earth. However, the great and important thing is, that it exist in ourselves. Would he find it in ourselves, if he were to issue his summons now? Would he find us believing that there is a people which is of God, as there is a people which is not of God, in the world? And would he find us ranged among those which are of God, and marked as such by our faith and practice? Our earnest, persevering prayer must be, that we may be so found at the last: that, "by his special grace preventing us, he may put into our 3 See Mal. iii. 18. hearts good desires, and by his continual help enable us to bring the same to good effect, through Jesus Christ our Lord." LECTURE LXVIII. THE SELF-JUSTIFYING PHARISEE IS CONDEMNED. SELF-CONDEMNING PUBLICAN IS JUSTI THE LUKE Xviii. 9-14. 9. And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10. Two men went up to the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11. The Pharisee stood up and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not, as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 13. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 14. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. We are expressly informed, against what character of persons this parable is directed: against certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. This was the character of the Pharisees in general. It was the foun dation of the reproach which they frequently cast upon Jesus and his disciples, because they ate with publicans and sinners. They trusted in themselves that they were righteous. 1 They "rested in the law, and made their boast of God, and were confident that they were guides of the blind." They despised others; saying of them, "This people, which know not the law, are cursed." "Stand by, come not near me, I am holier than thou.” 2 Now a spirit like this shuts the heart against "the truth as it is in Jesus." It is an absolute barrier agains the reception of the gospel." They that are whole need not a physician." He who perceives no darkness within, will never look up to that "light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," He who does not feel himself to be heavy laden with the sinfulness which he bears about him, will never take up the yoke of Christ as an easier burthen. The spirit which despises others is less common now than it was among the Jews. But the spirit which trusts in itself that it is righteous, is always too prevalent among mankind. Men do not indeed go into the temple, and utter a prayer like that of the Pharisee, because the church supplies them with prayers in a very different strain. But their inward and actual trust is often no other than his: they are not as other men are: their neighbours are worse, or at least no better: and they have kept clear from many notorious vices: they are not extortioners, unjust, adulterers: the call to mind the sins which they have avoided, rather than those into which 1 See Rom. ii. 2 John vii. 49. Isa. lxv. 5. |