Pine of love ♡

                                                             ♡☆☆☆☆☆☆♡ 


III. But to proceed—there is a third way by which this question might be very naturally suggested, and that is

WHEN A MAN WHO HAS FAITH IN CHRIST IS EXERCISED WITH DOUBTS AND FEARS WITH REGARD TO

HIS OWN FINAL PERSEVERANCE, OR HIS OWN PRESENT ACCEPTANCE IN CHRIST.

I must confess here, with sorrow, that I have seasons of despondency and depression of spirit which I trust none of you are called to suffer. And at such times I have doubted my interest in Christ, my calling my election, my perseverance, my Savior's blood, and my Father's love. I am sorry I ever told you that, but having done so on one occasion, I make now my humble apology as before God for it. I met with a sharp rebuke this last week. A Brother who lives very near to God—I believe one of the holiest men living—told me he never had a doubt of his acceptance once he believed in Christ, and another Christian confirmed his testimony. I do not question the Truth of my Brothers, but I do envy them. 'Tis a wondrous position to stand in! I know how it is. They, both of them, live by simple faith upon the Son of God, and one of them said to me, "When I speak to some of the Friends, and tell them they should not doubt and fear, they say, 'Yes, but our minister has doubts and fears.'" When he said that, I felt how wrong I had been, because the pastor should be an example to the flock, and if I have sinned in this respect, as I must sorrowfully confess I have, at least there was no necessity that I should have said so, for now it gives cause to some of the weak of the flock to excuse themselves. My Brothers and Sisters, if I should stand here and say I occasionally steal my neighbor's goods, you would be shocked! But when I said that I sometimes doubt my God, you were not shocked! There is as much guilt in the one as in the other. There is the highest degree of criminality in connection with doubting God and I feel it so. I do not see that we ought to offer any excuse whatever for our doubting our God. He does not deserve it of us—He is a true and faithful God, and with so many instances of His love and of His kindness as I have received, and daily receive at His hands—I feel I have no excuse to offer either to Him or to you for having dared to doubt Him.

'Twas a wicked sin; 'twas a great and grievous offense! But I pray you, do not use that sin on my part as a cloak for yourselves! I pray that I may be delivered from it entirely, and with an unstaggering faith, like Abraham, know that what He has promised, He is able also to perform. And then I trust I shall not have under my pastoral care a puny race of men who cannot trust their God, and who cannot, therefore, do anything—but a strong host of heroes who live by faith upon the Son of God—who loved them and gave Himself for them; who shall be a thundering legion; whose march to battle shall be but a march to victory, and the drawing of whose swords shall be but the prelude and prophecy of their triumph! Take not me as an example further than I follow my Lord, but pray for me that my faith may be increased. Doubt not, I pray you! Believe your God, and you shall prosper. The joy of the Lord is our strength, not the melancholy of our hearts. It does not say, "He who doubts shall be saved," but, "He who believes shall be saved." I know some ministers preach up doubts and fears so much that you would really think that doubting was the way to Heaven; and the more you could doubt and fear, the more proof there would be that you were a child of God! The fact is—the children of God do doubt and fear. I am sorry to say all of them, (no, not all of them—I question whether all of them do not, but still my Brother says he does not, and I believe him. I fear, however, he will doubt one of these days. I hope he never may; but when he does, it will be very wrong and very wicked of him, indeed, just as it has been with me, and as it has been with you), for when we doubt, it is sin. Oh cursed sin of unbelief—most damnable of sins, because it so stains God's honor, and so makes the enemy to blaspheme! "There," they say, "there is a man who cannot trust his God; a minister who cannot trust his God; a Christian who cannot repose upon the promise of the Almighty!" We cannot measure the guilt of sins—all sins are all base and vile—but there are crimes which we set down as being very heinous, which, I believe, are but little when compared with that which we think so trivial—the sin of doubting God and mistrusting His promise! If unbelief is like a thistle in the field, which proves that the soil is good, or it would not produce thistles—at any rate that is no reason why you and I should sow thistle seed! Let us cut the thistles up if there are any, and may the Holy Spirit plant the evergreen fir of hope, the towering pine of love, and the hardy boxwood of faith! Trust in the Lord! "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice." Let your joy be full; be not cast down and troubled, but rejoice in Him evermore.