A MUZZLE FOR THE IGNORANCE OF FOLLY. "FOR SO IS THE WILL OF GOD, THAT WITH WELL-DOING YE MAY PUT TO SILENCE THE IGNORANCE OF FOOLISH MEN' (1 Peter ii. 15). I. CHRIST'S DISCIPLES ARE SURE TO BE SPOKEN AGAINST. They need not expect to fare better than their Master. Men will say all manner of evil against them falsely for His sake, misunderstand their principles and motives, misrepresent their actions and words, exaggerate their infirmities, and magnify their inconsistencies. II. CHRIST'S DISCIPLES HAVE THE CONSOLATION OF KNOWING THAT THEY WHO SPEAK AGAINST THEM ARE IGNORANT AND FOOLISH MEN. That is one comfort. Such talkers do not understand the Christian in his difficulties and conflicts, and aspirations and aims, and successes and failures. They have never felt the like, so as to sympathise and hold their tongues. They are foolish in having no such aims, in judging Christians by their own ignorance, in speaking against the excellent of the earth, in being themselves destitute of saving wisdom. Still the Christian may be irritated by the very fact that he has to suffer from ignorance, and that, too, of foolish men; yet he should pity rather than be irritated. III. EVEN THE IGNORANCE OF FOOLISH MEN MAY BE SILENCED. This ignorance, the worst, the most pertinacious and hopeless. They may not be convinced, but they can be silenced, literally muzzled, as if theirs were the unreason and ignorance of brute beasts. IV. THE ONLY EFFECTUAL MUZZLE FOR THE IGNORANCE OF FOOLISH MEN IS CHRISTIAN WELL-DOING. Not by word, or pen, or argument, or retort, not by explaining principles, vindicating motives, and defending our position. Fools, they would not listen or yield, but clamour out their own talk and hold to their own conceited opinions. Ignorant, they could not understand if they did listen, but would rather count the eagerness of our protestations as confirming the truth of their charges. Answer not a fool according to his folly. Well-doing alone silences them; in all the relations of life, especially in those that are most public, as citizens and subjects to the monarchy and the magistracy, in the discharge of political duty and the enjoyment of political privilege, in the exercise of our Christian liberty, acting in all things as servants of God and for men's good, as members of society honouring all, respecting what is good in all, as members of one church, loving the brethren, fearing God. Deeds are stubborn things. Even ignorant and foolish men cannot get over "well-doing.” V. CHRIST'S DISCIPLES DARE NOT NEGLECT THIS SILENCING OF THE IGNORANCE OF FOOLISH MEN. It is God's will. It is not a matter of policy or worldly prudence for personal comfort. We dare not be indifferent for our own sakes, or for theirs, or for Christ's. Not only our comfort and usefulness, but their salvation and Christ's honour are involved. It may not be to our liking to employ well-doing. That it is God's will should be enough. GOSPEL. "I WILL SEE YOU AGAIN WHEN we consider what Jesus was to His disciples, we understand what must have been their feelings in the prospect of losing Him. Especially were these feelings acutely sorrowful as they could not understand why or where He was going. What relief and consolation must have been afforded by His gracious promise: "I will see you again!" I. THIS PROMISE WAS FULFILLED IN CHRIST'S RESURRECTION. This event was fraught with joy to the apostles, who were glad when they saw the Lord. But not only did they see Him; He saw them, i.e., with the eye of friendship, favour, and love,-in the human body to reassure and comfort them; in divine glory to direct, inspire, and commission them. II. THIS PROMISE WAS FULFILLED IN THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. This Jesus repeatedly foretold as His ministry drew to its close, assuring His friends that it was expedient that He Himself should depart, that the Comforter might come. Thus by His Spirit I. Jesus saw them to observe and to supply their spiritual needs. 2. To visit them, and confer upon them the benefits of His divine society. III. THIS PROMISE IS TO BE FULFILLED IN CHRIST'S RETURN AND SECOND COMING. It is true that our Lord sees His people from the throne of His glory. But a nearer and brighter revelation awaits the faithful friends of the Son of God. Uncertain as are the manner and the time of the Saviour's return, the fact is certain. Those who saw Christ when He was upon earth will see Him again, not in His humiliation, but in His glory. Those who have not seen and yet have believed shall behold Him with the gaze of satisfied and happy sight-shall "see Him as He is." Application.-I. Let the assurance of the Saviour's spiritual presence and knowledge of His people, support them in duty and under trial and persecution: they are not unnoticed, and their fidelity is not overlooked. 2. Let the hope that He will see them yet again and more manifestly, inspire the friends of Christ as they look forward to the future: a joyful anticipation, a glorious prospect is theirs! MENTAL CONTRASTS. "YE SHALL BE SORROWFUL, BUT YOUR SORROW SHALL BE TURNED INTO JOY' (John xvi. 20). THE apostles had sorrow when Christ was in "a little while" taken from them in the garden of Gethsemane to judgment and a cross, but that sorrow was turned into joy at the resurrection. Again they had sorrow when He was taken up from them into heaven, but that sorrow was turned into joy at Pentecost. They went through marked mental contrasts, and this is often enough the experience of God's people. Sorrow and joy run through the Christian's life just as a woollen thread intertwisted in two colours, black and white: "As sorrowful yet always rejoicing." I. THE SORROW OF PENITENCE YIELDS TO THE JOY OF REMISSION. I. The absolution sounds sweet in the ears of the true penitent. He grasps its meaning, and is content to accept it as a message from God. "Rivers 2. The true Christian sorrows for the sins of others. of tears run down mine eyes because men keep not Thy law." But there is true gladness that the Saviour has procured and bestows remission of sins on all who repent. II. THE SORROW OF AFFLICTION YIELDS THE JOY OF SPIRITUAL PERFECTION. This is the effect of suffering. It tends, rightly regarded and honestly received, to the destruction of evil in the heart and the spiritual perfection of the sufferer. III. THE SORROW OF DYING SHALL YIELD THE JOYS OF PARADISE. "I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there ye may be also." CHANGE OF CIRCUMSTANCES (John xvi. 16-23). JESUS informs His disciples in this Gospel of the impending change in their circumstances, their inward and outward condition. The same changefulness, seeing and not seeing, sorrow and joy, repeat themselves incessantly in our life. It is God's wise arrangement and dispensation, and, like all His doings, is for His glory and our good. Of course we often wonder at it, and ask, "Would it not be better for us always to be healthful, prosperous, happy, and contented? Why this insecurity?" I. IT IS UNDENIABLE THAT LIFE IS CHANGEFUL. 1. There is change in nature. It is not always spring; it is not always day. The years are not all fruitful, and very easy is it for men to be deceived in their expectations. 2. There is change in our outward life. Now we have peace, but how long will it endure amid the arming of nations and the prevalence of an almost universal mistrust, while envy, malice, and religious disputations fill our newspapers? Now we are spared from dread visitations of sickness affecting wide areas, but how soon may we be visited by a wave of impure air bringing bodily ailments in its track? "A little while" is written in the clouds, the stars, in society, the world, and the Church. Quicker than the turn of a wheel, more swiftly than the change of the mind, our destinies alter and are transformed. Now we have joy, but a dispatch is silently put into our hands, and "our sorrow is turned into joy." We rejoice in family pleasures, but friend and lover are put far from us, and our acquaintance into darkness. 3. There is change in our spiritual life. The sunshine of our early days of love and piety is visited with clouds. We must attain to spiritual manhood, and it can only be by enduring temptation. Littleness of faith, impatience of spirit, wilfulness and weakness of the flesh, struggles and falls like that of Moses, of David, of St. Peter; and, like St. Paul, we have the trial of a "thorn in the flesh." O weakness and frailty! thy name is man. II. WHAT ARE THE REASONS OF THIS CHANGEFULNESS? 1. The first ground lies in God's grace, and the second in man's sin. But, in truth, these things commingle. In heaven there is no change, neither in God, nor the people, nor in the inward and outward life. But the earth is our place of education. God's grace is to displace human sin. Good days are sent to lead us to repentance, for without repentance we cannot reach heaven. Crosses and troubles are sent to bring forth faith, for without faith there is no salvation. If all goes smoothly, we cease to be thankful, loving, kind, forgiving, and become haughty, forgetting God, and earthly-minded. But God does not forget us, and says, "Wake up, thou north wind, and blow fiercely through his garden of delights; howl, ye storms, and purify the air from the pestilent vapours of sin; open, ye clouds, and pour down righteousness and judgment." If it is hard to be poor, to lose goods, friends, to endure bitter experiences, Jesus, too, has suffered these things. In such times thousands have returned to the Lord. Suffering has a high mission. But "sorrow is turned into joy," and God says again, "Wake up, thou south wind of grace and love; dry up the damp soil, woo forth the buried seeds and the leaves and blossoms. 'Weeping endureth for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."" Did not Joseph, the children of Israel, David, St. Peter, and the disciples in the text experience all this? What the ebb and the flow are to the sea, what the day and the night are for plants and for men and animals, that joy and sorrow in their manifold changefulness are for the culture of our inner life. 2. Blessings accompany this changefulness. We become reconciled to God's ways. Sorrow moderates joy and joy softens sorrow, and both tend to our complete sanctification. "IN A LITTLE WHILE" IF there were no Good Friday there would be no Easter; if there were no sorrow, there would not be the same joy. I. "A LITTLE WHILE"-EVERY EARTHLY JOY IS BUT FOR A SEASON. "A little while and ye shall not see Me, and again a little while and ye shall see Me." II. "A LITTLE WHILE"-EVERY EARTHLY SORROW IS BUT FOR A SEASON. "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy." 1. God has duly apportioned each of these in our lives. 2. God has apportioned them for the very highest ends. 3. Learning to recognise these truths by the example set before us, we should not be too exultant in joy nor too depressed in sorrow. |