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The Mercy of God

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Review and Herald Publishing Assn. · Washington, D. C. · Jan 7, 1904

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 1.

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The Mercy of God

By GEO. F. WATSON

GEO. F. WATSON
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.” This message of comfort from our tender Father is due his people at this time in a fuller sense than at any time in all the past. The dragon is wroth, and is making war upon God’s people in every way that his fiendish mind can imagine. One of his most successful means is discouragement. Many are falling because of this. And I doubt not but there are some who have become so discouraged that they have said to some friend, “I can not attain to the demands of the gospel, so I might just as well stop where I am. I can not be saved.” And there may be those who have said as much about some one else, and by so doing brought discouragement to the poor soul that was struggling for victory.
What we each need in these trying times is a message of hope, of faith, of power, that will lift men and women above their sins, their mistakes, and their failures. True, we are all sinners in the sight of heaven, but our God is a Saviour of sinners, and not only so, but a Saviour from sinning. My discouraged brother or sister, let us study the experiences of some men who have lived in the past. Shall we take Abraham first? He was a man called of God to stand at the head of God’s great family. This man went out by faith, not knowing whither he went. And yet there came a time when he failed to trust God, and to wait on him, and as a result, sinned. But did God cast him off as worthless? — Never. But we hear God calling this very man his friend, the father of the faithful, and with him he made the greatest covenant that can be found on record, promising that he should be heir of the world. “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.” It was not because of Abraham’s sin that God made of him a great nation, but because Abraham repented, obeyed, and trusted God.
Beloved, did you ever study the life of Jacob? What a deceiver he was, and that from his youth! O how many wrong things he did! and when God spoke to him, he was in a wilderness. God led him, he instructed him, he kept him “as the apple of his eye,” and made of him Israel, a man greatly beloved of God. But we must not forget that night of wrestling, nor Jacob’s earnest words, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” Why not make this our prayer? “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” And just as surely as God blessed Jacob, he will also bless you. Believe it, O believe it. “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.”
Shall we spend a little time with David? When a mere lad, he was called of God to be king over Israel. David was brave, kind, and gentle; but one day he planned a murder, or at least he placed one of his brave, true soldiers in the front of the battle where he would be killed, that he might have his wife. This sin would have been the utter destruction of David, but for his repentance. Let us pray his prayer, and make it our own: “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.” God did according to his word, and David was forgiven, and now we hear God saying, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.” And what was true in David’s case will be true in the case of every man who repents; “for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.”
I am sure a visit with Peter would help us. He was taught with the tenderest care, and by the greatest Teacher this world has ever known. How could he sin? and yet he did just as we have done many times. But that tender, loving look from his dear Lord brought true repentance to the heart of the man who had just that moment cursed and denied his Lord; and from that time Peter was a changed man. He saw himself as never before, and best of all, he saw his Saviour as never before. O that we may see ourselves in our true light, and then look away to the only One who can heal the sin-sick soul. O for a look into the face of our dear Lord!
The work left us is great, and we are a small people, but great is our God, and great is his cause, and great is his mercy to those that fear him. “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.”