GAL. iv. 29.
“As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him
that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.”
THE Church sets before us
to-day a parable from the history of Abraham: and wonderful it is to see how in
the good Providence of God the things which happened so many years ago among the
men of the East so many thousand miles off, are made to signify the greatest
counsels of the Almighty, and to help us and all Christians in our daily duties
to God and to one another. Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid and the
other by a freewoman, the Law of God at that time allowing, as you know, of more
than one wife. Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman Hagar, was born in a natural
way, without any thing strange or miraculous. After him was born Isaac, the son
of the freewoman Sarah, in a wonderful manner, by miracle; his father being a
hundred years old, and his mother past age: and this in fulfilment of a special
covenant which God had made with Abraham a great many years before, during all
which time he had been waiting for it in faith. This difference between the two
sons the Apostle explains by saying, “Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman, was
born after the flesh, but Isaac the son of the freewoman was by promise.” And
then he goes on to explain that this whole matter was an allegory or parable.
Abraham represents Almighty God, the Father of us all; Ishmael represents
mankind in general, who are the children of God born after the natural way;
Isaac represents the Christian people, God’s children by adoption and grace;
God’s children, because by a heavenly and spiritual union they are made members
of His Only Begotten Son; born again of God, born of water and of the Spirit.
The elder son is in bondage, because until people are mystically united to Jesus
Christ they are in slavery under sin, death, and the devil; they are not free to
obey God’s holy commandments; even if they have misgivings, and some sense of
what is right, they must confess as one did of old, “The good that I would, I do
not, and the evil that I would not, that I do.” But the younger son Isaac, is
free, because the children of Christ and of His Church have power given them by
His Holy Spirit to keep His commandments if they will. Those then, who choose
to go on as if they could not help sinning, are in fact making themselves
slaves, when God has made them free: those only are free indeed, who stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ “hath made them free,” and do not suffer
themselves to be again entangled with the yoke of the world, the flesh and the
devil. The children of the bond woman, like the heathens who know not God, are
content to be in slavery to their sins; the children of the freewoman are free
to serve God, and try with all their might to do so. With one sort or the other
you and I and all of us must take our place. Which shall it be, my brethren?
On which side shall we be found? It is no small matter: it is for our life.
And we have but a short time to choose in. Very quickly the time is passing, at
the end of which it will be too late for us to think of having any choice at
all. And if any man say, “Well, I do not wish to choose; I had rather not have
any thought about the matter; I will take my chance, as so many others have
done: “ the Word of God tells that man loudly and plainly, “it cannot be so with
you: you must make your choice; if you go on thinking to have no care about your
soul, know that there is one close at hand who is all the while busy in
destroying that soul, winding his net about it, that it cannot escape. To say,
you will not care for your soul, comes to Just the same as if you said, I will
give my soul up to the hands of the devil.”
Look to It well therefore,
my brethren, that you are really behaving as children of the freewoman. Why
should you of your own accord invite the Evil One to put his chains on you
again? And Holy Scripture gives you many signs, whereby you may know on which
side you are at present. One of these signs is, whether or no you are going on
in a way to hurt and distress the people of God. You heard just now what the
Apostle says of persecution, “As then he that was born after the flesh
persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.” He that was
born after the flesh, in Abraham’s family, was Ishmael: he that was born after
the Spirit is Isaac. How did Ishmael persecute Isaac? The history tells us: it
was by scorning and mockery. On the day that Isaac was weaned, Abraham made a
great feast to his household: and in the course of the festival hours it came to
pass that Sarah, Isaac’s mother, saw Ishmael mocking. Ishmael was then a lad of
fourteen or fifteen years old, likely enough to have high spirits and rough
ways: and when Sarah saw him inclined to be so disrespectful to his father and
herself, so unbrotherly towards Isaac, she spoke to Abraham of casting him out,
and the Lord confirmed his word.
Now, this mockery of
Ishmael’s was a type and token of the Jewish people, the children of the
bondwoman, the Synagogue, rejecting, mocking, persecuting, murdering first the
Lord Jesus, and then His members, for which also the Jewish people were cast out
of the Lord’s house, as Hagar and Ishmael from Abraham’s. Even so it is now,
saith S. Paul: the children of the bondwoman stood round the judgement seat and
cried out, “crucify Him;” they stood round the Cross deriding and saying, “Let
the Lord deliver Him now, if He will have Him.” Thus they sported themselves,
they made a wide mouth and drew out the tongue, against the Holy One of Israel,
against their Lord and Redeemer enduring the worst of torments for them. Was
not this the very depth of malice, the very extreme of unpitying persecution?
not being themselves carried away with the heat of false zeal, to have pleasure
in, seeing how cruelly others treated Him, Him the very God of pity, the most
meek and merciful Saviour!
And as it was with our
Lord, so it was with His Apostles and His Church: according to His own prophecy,
“If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” [S. John xv. 20.]
The Jews and the heathens too, being both children of the bondwoman, both in
slavery to their sins, did from the beginning persecute in all ways the members
of Christ, the children of the freewoman. And so the noble army of Martyrs
grew, as you know, to a great number, and their blood was the seed of the
Church, it bare fruit an hundred fold: as was said of the Israelites in Egypt,
the more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied and grew. You might
think that upon this the persecutions would at length be worn out, that
Christians would no longer have to suffer for their religion, that the son of
the bondwoman, being effectually put down, would cease to disturb the son of the
freewoman. But it is not so: the same Apostle informs us, that “all who will
live godly in Christ Jesus, must suffer persecution.” [2 Tim. iii. 11.]
Somehow or another it must be so, in our time and in all times as well as in the
beginning of the Gospel: in our country and in all countries, as well as in
Judea and ancient Rome. There are the same Church and the same world as ever:
and these are contrary the one to the other; there can be no peace nor truce,
nor mutual agreement. The one sort cannot bear the other anymore now, than in
our Lord’s own life time. The Pharisees (for instance,) who were covetous, and
derided Him then, would no doubt deride in our days those who tried to walk in
His steps. The children of those Pharisees, proud and unbelieving, yet
outwardly decent and calling themselves respectable, are in general violently
set against all, whom they see generous and devoted in the service of Christ.
The passionate, haughty man cannot bear the humble and meek; he frets against
him, he is glad to get out of sight of him. The mere lover of pleasure cannot
bear the lover of God: it is a trouble and a vexation to him; very irksome and
uncomfortable to an irreligious person, when he is thrown into company with one
who tries to be thoroughly and consistently religious. This is the spirit of
persecution: and however its outward violence be restrained by a good
Providence, it is sure to break out more or less one way or another. Whoever
comes in earnest to serve the Lord must prepare in good earnest to suffer
persecution from men.
You will say, “How is it
then that any Christians live in peace? How is it that if we look round, in
this or any other place, we appear to see so many living quietly, with no
trouble, no ill usage to endure for religion’s sake? Do not people in this
country go in and out, to Church or elsewhere, as often as they please, and no
one interferes to hinder them? Are there not many who are accounted more or
less in earnest in their Christian duties, and instead of losing their lives and
properties, they appear to be all the better thought of, and many are anxious to
help them in one way or another? How can it be said that all these suffer
persecution? and yet the word of God plainly says they must do so, if they
really wish to live godly in Christ Jesus. How can these things be?”
Holy men of old explain,
that ridicule and contempt and evil report is one sort of persecution, and to
many, most terrible. Ishmael, as you heard just now, did but mock at his
brother Isaac, and it was judged such direct persecution, that the two could not
dwell together in the house. Here is something for us to think of, when we see
persons stricter than others, or supposed to be so, brought into reproach or
contempt: a bad name given them, every thing said and done to put them out of
countenance, and make men ashamed of belonging to them. Some years ago, if
anyone was at all more serious than his companions liked him to be, he was
presently called, as you know, a Methodist, now it may be some other name: but
the spirit which gives men such names is just the same, and you may depend upon
it they are a part of real persecution, though they touch neither a person’s
body nor his estate: yet they give many a real pang, and cause many a sad
disappointment. To be mocked and scorned is to many (as to holy Job himself)
the bitterest of pains: and it proves a sad hindrance in the way of our being
useful: and this in itself, to a good and charitable mind, is a sore trial.
They seek to make others better and happier, but they cannot, because in some
way those others have been taught not to respect or trust them. Again and
‘again they try, and again and again Satan hinders them. It is really as bad,
in the way of disappointment, as if they were banished or imprisoned.
But further; holy men
teach us that the very suffering which the servants of Christ endure when they
see others, especially those belonging to them, wicked and setting themselves
against Christ, those very sufferings are really and truly a persecution.
Righteous Lot in Sodom, how sorely was he vexed; with the filthy conversation of
the wicked, how did he from day to day by seeing and hearing, vex his righteous
soul with their ungodly deeds! Very loud and rude were the people of Sodom in
their wickedness, they made no secret of it, they prided themselves on shewing
and practising it in the open streets: and this all the more, when they saw how
it shocked and distressed the righteous man. They were as truly persecutors as
if they had sought to throw him to the wild beasts or to cast him down
headlong. Our blessed Lord as His Passion drew on vouchsafed to endure more and
more of this kind of persecution as well as of all other outward and inward
suffering. When he saw Judas giving way to covetousness first, then to
black-hearted malice and treachery; was it not, think you, a sorer pang by far
to the heart of that Blessed One, than all the torment of the thorns, and
stripes, and nails? Imagine My brethren, as well as you can, what it must have
been to Him to look down day after day and hour after hour for many months into
that wicked and corrupt bosom of His false disciple, and to see the evil brood
of sins one after another coming into being, and growing into strength within
him! according to that saying of the Prophet, “They hatch cockatrice’s eggs, and
weave the spider’s web.” [Isa. lix. 5.] Even to a mortal man who has any real
love of goodness, to be aware of certain grievous sins committed very near him,
is absolutely loathsome: who can understand that deep suffering Judas’ fall must
have occasioned to our Lord Christ? the Scripture teaches us to call the like
of it, “crucifying afresh:” is not this the worst of persecution? And as Jesus
Christ was, so are they that belong to Him, in this world. If it was
unspeakably bitter to Him to see the wickedness of those whom He came to save,
be sure it is bitter, in its degree, to His people also; the more bitter, the
more truly and entirely they are His. Not bitter in the sense of making them
angry, as if they were better than the rest, and it were an affront and
indignity to have any thing so foul brought near them; that is the Pharisaical
feeling, not the Christian; but he who is beginning to love Christ will love all
souls because Christ died for them, and loving them, it will break his heart to
see them ruining themselves and affronting Christ. Now to bring upon a person
that which will break his heart is surely very like persecution. You see then
brethren, what you were doing, if ever any of you through wicked wantonness, and
braving as it were all consequences, has been tempted to make a shew of any sin,
and bring it on purpose before the eyes of persons who would be most shocked at
it, not caring how you annoyed and vexed them. Is it so very uncommon a thing,
for a person to swear, or utter other bad words, or go on with other wickedness,
all the more recklessly and impudently because there is some one near whom such
things shock and distress, and who feels it his duty to speak a word of warning
against them? Alas, when young persons or persons of any age are gathered
together not in the fear of God, when they are set to have their own way, to
please themselves with all greediness, too certainly they will be guilty of this
sin of persecution too: him who is unwilling to sin with them they will
persecute by mockery and ridicule, and when, being helped by God’s grace, he
shews himself unmoved by their scorn, they will often still go on to persecute
him, as the men of Sodom did Lot, by the very sight of their sins. “He will
needs be a judge,” they say: “now will we behave ourselves more fearlessly than
ever, to shew that we do not care for him.” This is direct persecution: but it
is also quite real, though less direct, when people suffer from beholding the
general wickedness and unbelief, uttered and practised, without any thought of
them. A man writes and publishes, we will say, a scornful sentence against
something holy in a book or a newspaper: that man is a persecutor: he sets
himself to vex and punish all who are pained, when holy things are set at
nought. Or it may be a profane word spoken: the pain and persecution to a
believing hearer, is just the same. By this one instance you may judge what a
common sin this of persecution is: and it will no longer sound strange to you to
be told, “Even so it is now, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must
suffer persecution.” [2 Tim. iii. 12.]
Fearful indeed must it be
to take part with the persecutors, i.e., to take part with the Jews and Judas
against our Lord: but one word of caution may be not amiss, for those also on
the other side, who wish to do right, and are therefore in danger of suffering
persecution. Our Lord encourages them not only to be patient but joyful:
“theirs,” he says, “is the kingdom of Heaven:” well may they rejoice .and leap
for joy, for they are beginning to enter into the portion of the Saints and
Prophets. But let them be very careful that their suffering is really for
righteousness’ sake, that they do not bring it on by any conceit, any
inconsiderate selfish ways of their own : if the Ishmaels, the children of the
bondwoman, seem to persecute them, let them see to it that they are themselves
not in ,bondage to any sin: let them make good their title to be free by
forgiving and loving and doing their best to help others to be free also: in
fear and pity earnestly praying for all who are now on the persecutor’s side,
and if they may, tenderly warning them of the peril they are in, in so taking
part with Christ’s enemies.
