BY THE LATE REV. ALEXANDER STEWART, D.D., MINISTER AT
MOULIN, DINGWALL, AND EDINBURGH SUCCESSIVELY.*
“Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure; for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.”—2 SAMUEL xxiii. 5.
DAVID, from his earlier days, to the close of his long and varied life, was visited with many and painful afflictions. Like Him whom in spirit he called Lord, though descended of David after the flesh, he was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. But sanctified affliction produces godly sorrow, and godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. Of this, David was a most conspicuous and instructive example. From his youth, he was taught to know and worship the Lord God of Israel. After he was taken from the sheep-fold, and brought to feed Jacob, and rule over Israel, new temptations beset him; iniquities, according to his own sorrowful confession, did at times prevail against him, and his falls were grievous. But the Lord had chosen him for a servant, therefore He did not leave him to perish in his sin. This sweet Psalmist of Israel was reclaimed from the error of his way; and after wiping off his penitential tears, he again tuned his sacred harp to the praises of his own great Shepherd, who had restored his soul, and had led him anew in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. From the manifold mercies of God to his soul, experienced through the whole course of his diversified life, David possessed an assured confidence that the Lord had established His covenant with him, that the God of Jacob was his everlasting portion, that He would never fail him nor forsake him, and that He would build up his throne and establish his seed to many generations. Notwithstanding this assurance, many of his troubles still remained, impaired his comfort, and broke the peace of his family. His children had in many things grieved his heart; his enemies perpetually harassed him; and, especially, in his own soul he did not find his desires and expectations accomplished, nor spiritual
* The name of Dr. Stewart is well known to those acquainted with the history of the Church of Scotland as that of a highly-honoured minister of the Gospel and a distinguished Gaelic scholar. His ministry was much blessed of the Lord. He was the father of the eminent Rev. Alexander Stewart, Cromarty. Dr. Stewart died on 27th May, 1821, in the 57th year of his age. He was a member of the Northern Missionary Society. His biographer says that his published sermons consist of written preparations, “unequal to his spoken discourses in liveliness and force.” At the same time, we believe that the Christian reader will find a sweet relish of divine truth in perusing the present discourse.—ED.
grace growing up to that maturity which formed a most valuable part of the promise in the covenant of his salvation.
Here we have an example of a case common to those who have been led through mercy to lay hold on the covenant of life, established through the Son of David, the great Mediator. A believer has apprehended and laid hold of this covenant; he knows it is all his salvation, he feels it is all his desire, yet he has to mourn his shortcomings and the disappointment of his hopes in some of those points which he believes to be most infallibly secured by that very covenant. This is a case that calls for tender treatment; and while we would humbly endeavour to state the believer’s views of the covenant and his experience in connection with those views, let us earnestly implore the presence and blessing of Him whose commission to His servants is still the same as ever, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.”
I.—We shall state the believer’s views of the covenant. Having searched the Scriptures which testify of Christ, and having been led by the Spirit to the knowledge and love of the truth, the believer perceives that the covenant of his salvation is indeed an “everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure.”
He sees the perfections of God illustriously displayed.
His justice is satisfied by the perfect obedience and sufferings of His own Son in the human nature, who thus paid the full penalty of man’s transgression and wrought out a complete righteousness adequate to the demands of the perfect law of God. His mercy is gloriously manifested in freely bestowing a full pardon and even conferring the highest honours on sinners, rebels, outcasts, who deserved nothing but to be consigned to “the blackness of darkness” for ever. His sovereignty is maintained in “doing what he will with his own;” in choosing, according to the unerring counsel of His will, the objects of His special favour; and dispensing to these such measures of His grace and His bounty as appear good in His sight whose dominion is over all, and who “giveth not account of any of his matters.” His truth is vindicated in fulfilling His unchangeable word that the wages of sin is death, that, without due expiation, He will not clear the guilty, that nothing unclean shall enter into the holy Jerusalem above, that though heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law till all be fulfilled; all which is completely accomplished in the meritorious work of the great Redeemer and in the sanctifying operations of the Divine Spirit on the soul of a penitent sinner. Thus the honour of the divine government is secured and all the intelligent world is made to know and acknowledge that the righteous Jehovah loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity. The believer, contemplating the wonders of redeeming love, admires and glories in that covenant by which mercy and truth thus meet and shine forth together.
He sees the salvation of the penitent sinner fully secured.
Abundant provision is made for the sinner’s deliverance from the penalty of the law, seeing Christ hath redeemed him from the curse of the law “by being made a ‘curse for him'” (Gal. iii. 13). Abundant provision is made for the sanctification of his depraved nature “by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost shed on him abundantly through Jesus Christ his Saviour.” Strength, wisdom, and courage, together with “the whole armour of God,” are supplied to bear him through his spiritual warfare; light to guide him in his pilgrimage, consolation and support in time of trouble. Nor is temporal safety and provision wanting; “his place of defence is the munition of rocks; bread also is given him; his water shall be sure.” He sees the Lord at once a sun and a shield to his people; “Christ made unto them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” And he foresees the final complete glorification of his soul and body in that bright world where there shall be no more sin nor curse, no more night, no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, nor pain; where the ransomed of the Lord shall live and reign with him for ever and ever.
The believer sees the subordinate provisions of the covenant well ordered in all things. The Bible, the deed or instrument which contains the covenant, is preserved entire, is published abroad to the world, is translated, or translating into all languages and disseminated through all lands so that people of all nations and kindreds and languages may hear in their own tongues the wonderful works of God. Messengers are selected and appointed, are equipped and sent forth, to make known the precious contents of the Bible, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Particular ordinances are appointed as seals or conveyances of the blessings of the covenant and administered in the churches to those who lawfully claim the benefit of them. Various dispensations of Providence, some of a prosperous, some of an adverse nature, directed by the Author of the covenant, serve to display the wisdom of its constitution, the suitableness and certainty of its promises, and the abundance of its resources. He sees these things further confirmed by the experience of those on the one hand who have embraced the covenant, and on the other of those who have rejected it. While he sees Christ crucified become a stumbling-block to the unbelieving Jews and foolishness to the philosophic Greeks, yet he sees that to them who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. i. 23, 24).
The believer sees the stability and perpetuity of the covenant insured by the immutable character of the parties engaged. The Father has promised to the Son that “the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand;” “that he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.” The Son undertakes and performs: “I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do; those whom thou gavest me I have kept,
and none of them is lost.” The Holy Spirit also undertakes and carries on His work in the hearts of those whom Jesus has ransomed till He has sanctified them wholly and presented them without spot or blemish. None of these parties can fail; the word of Him who cannot lie is passed. As if this were of itself insufficient to satisfy men slow of heart to believe He hath added His oath; and because He could swear by no greater He hath sworn by Himself, that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, His word and His oath, the blessings of the unchangeable covenant might be confirmed for ever to believers. Mercies thus unalterably secured may well be called “the sure mercies of David.” They cannot be exhausted; the source from which they flow cannot fail; they are like the pure river of the water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, and flowing for ever and ever.
The Lord takes pleasure in repeating in His own person the assurance of the endless continuance of His loving-kindness toward His chosen: “For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee” (Isaiah liv. 10).
Having thus stated the views which the believer is taught to form and habitually to entertain of the covenant of his salvation, we shall now enquire—
II.—What is his experience in connection with those views?
While the believer’s faith is lively and his views of the provisions and blessings of the covenant are clear, he rejoices in them as “all his salvation and all his desire.” He knows there is salvation in none else; that in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of the mountains; that in the Lord alone is the salvation of Israel (Jer. iii. 23). He does not wish for it in any other way than this which is so honourable to God and so secure to the sinner. His chief desire is to become a full partaker of this salvation and to glorify God by a life and conversation becoming this glorious scheme of redemption. But here he has at times to mourn a sore disappointment. The Lord does not always grant him his heart’s desire in the manner and season and measure that he expected. He desires to be spiritually-minded, to be raised above the world, to have his affections set on things above, to be wholly resigned to his Lord’s will and able to say in all things, “Not my will, but thine be done,” to have his whole temper and spirit conformed to the pattern of his Master’s spirit, seeking to have the same mind which was in Christ, and to learn of Him to be meek and lowly in heart. In endeavouring to attain this blessed temper, he does not trust to his own powers; if he did, his failure would be no wonder; but he has respect to the covenant and looks to its promises: “I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put
my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me” (Jer. xxxii. 40). Notwithstanding this, he often finds reason to complain that “iniquities prevail against him;” that backwardness to duty, discontent with his portion, or with something in his lot, impatience of temper, worldliness of spirit, distrust in providence are often working in his heart; though to will be present with him, yet how to perform that which is good he finds not; though he delights in the law of God after the inward man, yet he finds a law, that when he would do good, evil is present with him (Romans vii. 18), etc. While the everlasting covenant is all his salvation and his desire, his confidence and delight, still a body of sin, a body of death is his burden and his grief.
The believer desires to be fitted for his divine Master’s service; to be more fervent in spirit, more active, and more successful in any work in which he is employed; to be more fruitful in every good word and work; and thus to glorify God in his body and spirit. In his hopes of attaining to fruitfulness he does not depend on his own exertions as if they alone were sufficient though he knows they are required, but he looks to the provisions of the covenant and thence draws his encouragement to labour and exertion. “I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. From me is thy fruit found” (Hos. xiv. 5, 6), etc. “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” But neither doth this grow with him according to his desires and his hopes; he still finds, to his grief and mortification, daily cause to accuse himself of sloth and barrenness, to lament his leanness and unprofitableness; that after all his flattering hopes of making a fair and fruitful show and accomplishing a great deal, he is little else than an unprofitable servant, an unfruitful cumberer of the ground.
The believer having tasted that the Lord is gracious and experienced the sweetness of communion with Him, desires to have constant fellowship with his heavenly Father and with his Son Jesus Christ; to be daily beholding the beauty of the Lord and drawing water out of the wells of salvation, and so to have a continual joy and peace in believing. And in this point also, he has respect to the covenant; he remembers the words of his Lord: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John xv. 11). “Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full” (chapter xvi. 24). But here, too, he is often sorely disappointed. Temptations arise and his faith is clouded—his prayers are hindered—his communion with God is disturbed or interrupted, his hopes are overcast, his joy is changed into sorrow and mourning.
He desires to see his own house and the household of faith flourishing. With respect to his children he can call God to witness that He has no higher wish, no greater joy, than to see that his children walk in the truth; and whatever be their lot in
the world, that they may have their portion with God’s people. So also for his brethren in Christ, his heart’s desire and prayer is, that their souls may prosper, that their light may shine, that the interests of Christ’s kingdom may be advanced, and that the children of Zion may be joyful in their King. In breathing out these desires he takes encouragement from the promises of the covenant, “Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life ; yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel” (Psalmscxxviii. 4, 5, 6). In this case, too, he has to mourn at times the disappointment of his fair expectations. A darling Benjamin is forced away from his father’s embraces, a favourite Joseph is, perhaps, torn by a wild beast, an accomplished Absalom becomes an undutiful rebellious son, and a Hophni or Phinehas, though well educated and in the priest’s office, become abandoned to vice and almost break their father’s heart. “His house is not so with God” as he wished and hoped, and this is a cause of sore lamentation. Neither does he see the church of Christ prospering in his land and in his day. Lukewarmness prevails, the love of many waxes cold, the godly man faileth and is taken away from the evil to come, the godly pastor who fed the Lord’s little flock in the wilderness is called home and the babes and sucklings are prematurely weaned from the breast. When the pillars of the church, the champions of the faith are removed, irreligion and profanity become bold, and the pious remnant seek for shelter in private retirements ; they enter into their chambers and shut the doors about them ; they hide themselves for a moment until the indignation be overpast (Isaiah xxix. 20). The zealous believer sees with grief and indignation the cross of Christ despised and the enemies of the cross lifting their heads with daring confidence. Alas ! he cries, “is the Lord’s hand shortened that it cannot save or his ear heavy that it cannot hear?” When his enemies rage and make a noise even in the house of the Lord (Lam. ii. 7), where is the Lord God of Elijah? where is the promise of his coming? “Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? Hath thy soul loathed Zion. We look for peace, and there is no good ; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble” (Jer. xiv. 19).
Thus does the believer often complain and mourn that his desire is not yet fulfilled, that “the Lord maketh it not to grow.” Instead of advancing he suspects himself to be losing ground. He is reaching forth, indeed, to the things which are before ; but the more he reaches and lifts his eyes he only sees the greater length before him and finds that perfection is the farther off. He is almost ready to faint and give over “because of the way.” For a moment he is tempted to doubt the sufficiency and stability of the covenant, but his faith is strengthened and he dares not doubt. He is ready, however, to doubt his own interest in the covenant and to think that his iniquities have separated between
him and his God, and that his sins have hid the Lord’s face from him that he will not hear (Isaiah lix. 2). This hangs heavy on his soul and makes him go mournfully from day to day.
Let us endeavour to address to a mourner in this situation—
- A word of encouragement. The case calls for encouragement and comfort. Although a believer should be left for a time under sorrow and discouragement, yet it is not the will of their heavenly Father that one of these little ones should perish. His command to his ministering messengers concerning such is still, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.”
Consider the promises applicable to your own particular situation.
You complain of carnality, backwardness, coldness of affection, besetting and indwelling sins defiling your soul, hindering or corrupting your duties, marring your comforts and still drawing your heart from God, or hiding from you the light of His countenance. But the Lord assures you that in time all that you complain of shall be purged away: “I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin” (Isaiah i. 25). “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you” (Ezek. xxxvi. 25). Paul complained as you do now: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?” But he found comfort at hand, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans vii. 24, 25).
You complain of unfruitfulness; that your own graces do not grow; that you are not profitable to others; that, instead of glorifying God with your body and spirit, you rather dishonour Him by a barren profession and a useless life; that you are cumbering the ground and only fit to be cut down and cast forth as a withered branch. But O! thou self-accusing mourner, hear the word of the Lord: “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground;” “I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out” (Isaiah xliv. 3; Zeph. iii. 19). “They shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine,” for “from me is thy fruit found” (Hos. xiv. 7, 8).
You complain of want of communion with God; that you have lost the cheering fellowship you once enjoyed with Him in His ordinances; you “go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but you cannot perceive Him.” You fear that the Lord hath cast you off; that His mercy is gone for ever; that even His promise doth fail for evermore. But hearken, O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted, the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and what doth He say? “For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee; in a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer” (Isaiah liv. 6, 7, 11). “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none,
and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them; I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water” (Isaiah xli. 17, 18).
You complain of the want of grace and piety in your family or in the church; and you ask with painful longing, when will salvation come to your house? “Wilt thou not revive us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee?” (Psalm lxxxv. 6). But you may still take to yourself and plead the promise made to the church of old, “I will pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit on thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring; and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children” (Isaiah xliv. 3; liv. 13). Behold, and read; hear, and understand; ask, and plead, and be not faithless but believing; and thou shalt yet see the glory of God!
Consider your own past experience.
Recollect how it fared at times with your bodily health when you said with Hezekiah, “I shall go to the gates of the grave; I am deprived of the residue of my years.” Notwithstanding your apprehensions the Lord stretched out His hand and healed you and bade you live, so that you cried out with the same pious king, “What will I say? He hath both spoken unto me and Himself hath done it.” Doth God take care for the body? Doth He take care for the beast of the field which He hath made? And will He not much more care for the soul which He hath redeemed? Will He not heal your spiritual diseases and relieve your pains and make you to sing with the king of Judah, “Behold, for peace I had great bitterness; but thou hast, in love to my soul, delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back” (Isaiah xxxviii. 10, 15, 17).
Recollect how it fared with your soul when at times your spirit was overwhelmed within you and the water had gone over your soul. Yet then did the Lord visit you. He heard your cry; he brought you up out of a horrible pit out of the miry clay; he set your feet upon a rock and established your goings (Psalms xl. 2). Even then when your soul fainted within you you remembered the Lord, and your prayer came in unto him into his holy temple (Jonah ii. 7).
You complain that whereas in former times you had falls and also recoveries, yet now you find little change, but a constant languor and deadness of spirit, even “a perpetual backsliding.” Then your complaint is the same that David uttered long ago, “The enemy hath persecuted my soul, he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead; therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me, my heart within me is desolate” (Psalms cxliii. 3, 4). But, with David, do you also remember the days of old? Who
formerly raised you up and recovered you? Who restored your soul? None else than your gracious Shepherd whose charge you still are. “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Romans v. 10). As sure as Jesus died and now lives, so surely they who have died with Christ unto sin shall live with Him also. Lazarus was once delivered from the power of death, yet a second time he sunk into the grave. Is it for that reason the less likely that he whom Jesus thus honoured shall have part at last in the resurrection of the just?
Formerly, your heavenly Teacher gave you shorter lessons, now He gives you heavier and longer tasks. He tries your strength, and makes you feel your own weakness that your strength may be in God. For two tedious years Joseph pined in prison, and concluded that his friend, the chief butler, would never remember him more. But his God had not forgotten him, and even then his highest exaltation was near at hand. Even in his confinement Joseph had one support, that the Lord showed him mercy and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. If the Lord has still given you favour in the sight of some of His own servants and people, esteem it as showing you mercy and as a token for good. Your deliverance from trouble is fast approaching. If your wilderness grow more dreary as you advance, yet you are always drawing nearer its confines, nearer to the water of Jordan. If the river become deeper as you wade through, yet you are assuredly approaching the further bank, the boundary of Canaan, the fields of your rest. The days of your mourning will soon be ended, for “your complete salvation is nearer than when ye first believed;” nearer, by many steps, than it was on the happy “day of your espousals,” when nothing but the voice of gladness and singing was heard in your tabernacle.
- Suffer me to add a word of admonition. Remember you are yet in the body. You bear about with you a body of sin and of death of which you cannot be wholly freed in this world. While you cannot suppose that you are already perfect and need not expect to become so here yet press on toward perfection. Let not your discouragements hinder your exertions. Let not weeping hinder working. Still sow, though in tears. In due time you shall reap and bring your sheaves rejoicing home. Bear up under your present burdens. You will soon cast off that “vile body,” and it will incumber you no longer. “Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he will strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord” (Psalms xxvii. 14). Remember you are yet in the wilderness. Do not expect that here you can feed daily on the grapes of Eshcol. A rich cluster may at a time be brought to your hand, but it is not the native growth of this barren soil. You may find some “bitter herbs” mixed with your sweetest portion, but they are of a salutary purifying virtue. Bless God for your daily manna, the word, and prayer, and daily ordinary
duties, comforts, and opportunities. Use these diligently and thankfully when richer cordials are not given. They will be as honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones (Proverbs xvi. 24). Remember you are yet in the midst of the enemies, your warfare is not yet accomplished. Your enemies may have been put to flight, but they are not yet banished from the land. Do not expect the conqueror’s crown while you are but in the heat of the conflict. The time is not yet fully come for putting off your armour, but be strong and of good courage, be not afraid, neither be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you whithersoever you go (Josh. i. 9). Even now, the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in; behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, skilfully and tenderly conducting the process until He shall have purged away thy dross and taken away all thy tin. Jesus, the ever-living Mediator, is even now praying, nay, He hath already prayed and obtained His request that your faith fail not till the combat be ended, till the victory over the “last enemy” be complete, till the crown of life be obtained, till you come to Zion with singing and everlasting joy upon your head, till you obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall for ever flee away.
As to such as desire not the salvation promised in the everlasting covenant, we cannot conclude without addressing to you this affectionate counsel, “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near.” “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” Amen.
MEN of power often want wisdom to direct them in the execution of their power, for great men are not always wise, and so their power degenerates into tyranny and oppression, and often ends in the ruin both of the ruler and the ruled. But the Generalissimo of the world, the great Pilot of the universe, is God only and infinitely wise. All His measures are laid with such depth of wisdom, that nothing can disconcert them. He sees into all possible futurities, so that no event can surprise Him. However the sons of men may be alarmed, His holy and wise hand is always at the upper end of the chain, and He knows and moves every link of it. He sets all the wheels in motion, from the least to the greatest, and they move no way without His direction. There cannot so much as a hair fall to the ground, without His will. This we think a very trivial thing, and yet there is a Divine hand in it. The bullets fly promiscuously in the day of battle, yet they are so under the direction of God, that they fall on those whom He has a mind to kill, and pass by those whom He intends to save alive.—Thomas Boston.