He does it that His people may be conformed to Christ.
As they are tempted and distressed, so was He; as it is with
their souls a season of darkness, so it was also with His holy soul that was
full of amazement under a sense of God’s wrath- though He never despaired
indeed, as many of His servants are apt to do under the violence of sorrow.
Isaiah 53:3: [He was] a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” When He was
so saddened for our sakes, it is reasonable to think that we should sometimes
taste the bitter cup, and not always rejoice and be at ease. If God did not
spare His only Son, why should we expect to feel nothing but what is very mild
and gentle? Our Lord has told us that the world will rejoice, but we shall be
sorrowful (see John 16:20-22). The sufferings of Christ were to give
satisfaction to divine justice; ours are not to be looked upon with such an
eye. By these terrors and desertions we learn to value and esteem the love of
Christ, who was pleased to redeem us when it cost Him so very dearly, and who
was pleased not to decline the field of battle, though it was not to be managed
without vast labor and a mighty pain. And the apostle says, “Rejoice, inasmuch
as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:13).
He does it because our fall and our ruin came by pleasure.
It was a delight. Though a very short one, that made our
forefather Adam apostatize; and it is equitable that we should be cured by
something contrary to that which occasioned our disease, seeing that our joys
are dangerous. He makes our grief and sorrows to be medicinal.
He does it because it is a very proper season wherein to be sorrowful.
Among all the other excellent appointments of providence,
this one is that there should be a time to weep (Ecclesiastes 3:4). There is in
this weeping night nothing strange or uncouth. All our fathers have, in some
respect, pass under a cloud, and a cloud that has dissolved in rain, and which
has given the good pilgrims much trouble as they went along. 1 Peter 1:6: “Now
for a season ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” It is no more
strange to see mourning in the church on earth than to see storms or snow in
winter. Everything is beautiful in its season, and so is affliction. The night
is useful to the world, though not as pleasant as the day. Our sickly state
will not admit us to have nothing but what is satisfying to our palates; the
wise God, therefore, many time, instead of very pleasant things confers the
best upon us. We must allow the great Master of the family to maintain its
order, prosperity, and welfare by His own methods, and to chastise us when and
how and as long as He pleases; for His strokes, though very painful, yet are
still very just. And it is in order to achieve some better thing that He
designs for us that at the present we are made to grieve; for grief, as Dr.
[Robert] Harris observes, is an imperfect passion, not made for itself but for
some higher use, as are all the rest of the declining affections, such as
hatred for love, fear for confidence, and so sorrow for joy, unto which it is
subservient. Lancing and searing are not for themselves, but for ease and
remedy. A bitter potion is not for sickness, though it may cause if for a time,
but for health. In the same way, sorrow is made for joy, and joy is the end of
sorrow. And God, we may be sure, will have His end.
He does it to show His own sovereignty both in afflicting and in
comforting.
He causes such a prince as Job to sit upon a dunghill, in
anguish and trouble, while another sits in unclouded glory on the throne. He
pulls down one and sets up another, and does whatsoever He will in occasion of
mourning for the soul, and one that He permits at various times; for though He
does not deny what is absolutely necessary to the being of the Christian, yet
He many times does not promise to give what would make it very comfortable. He,
for wise reasons, allows the hearts of His people to be overwhelmed with sorrow
when He could make them brim-full of joy, as in nature He lets the earth gape
for thirst when He could immediately refresh it with seasonable flowers.
Who, in all this mysterious variety of His administrations,
can say unto Him, “What art Thou doing?” Some countries are desert, barren and
forsaken, burned up with scorching heat, and filled with beasts of prey; others
are inhabited and fruitful, and greatly blessed, and He sees fit to have part
of His dominions thus qualified. Some He draws with the sweet savor of His
ointments, and they perceive nothing but what is gratifying and refreshing; but
others He sorely terrifies with the greatness of His power, His holiness, and
His majesty, and they never eat nor live with pleasure.
The Captain of our salvation causes some of His soldiers to
meet with much more formidable dangers than others do: they have more sweat,
fatigue, toil, and painful duty, though He will be sure to help them Himself
when they are ready to give way. The manner of His dispensations to His
servants is varied, both in life and at death. Some are chastened all the day
long, and with sore pains upon their beds too, while others have no pain at
all. Some go drooping to the grave, bowed down with God’s displeasure, while
His favor and His gracious eye make others go smiling there. Enoch and Elijah
had a pleasant removal from the world; very short and very glorious was their
passage hence. But most men groan a long while before they are called away, and
then He does it to show His own power, so that when the wound appears to be
desperate He can cure it with a word. When the night is most full of horror, He
can bring the reviving day. When the storms are highest, He needs but say to
the waves, to our doubts and our fears, “Be still,” and immediately there is a
calm.
What is such a God, so great and so good a God, not able to
do! He who produced from a mere chaos this beautiful and pleasant world needs
only say to us in the middle of our doleful darkness, “Let there be light,” and
it shall be so. Job 5:18: “He maketh sore, and bindeth up. He woundeth, and His
hands make whole.” It is in acknowledgment of this sovereign ability it is that
David prays in Psalm 51:8, “Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones
which Thou hast broken may rejoice.”
Why so? Had not Nathan told him that his sin was pardoned?
Yes, but all the testimonies of men are nothing without the inward witness of
the Holy Spirit. God has committed to men the administration of His Word, but
reserves the Spirit to Himself, that Spirit which gives consolation to our
hearts and peace to our consciences. When Mary and Martha were in sorrow for
their brother’s death, it is said in John 11:19 that many of the Jews came from
Jerusalem to comfort them. But they received no comfort until Christ Himself had
come there.
Timothy Rogers
Trouble of Mind and the Disease of Melancholy, pp. 340-343
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