“BUT BY THE GRACE OF GOD.”
IT is said that the famous author of “Pilgrim’s Progress,” on seeing a murderer taken to the gallows, exclaimed, “But by the grace of God, there goes John Bunyan.” The thought expressed was that himself by nature had the same evil instincts of the murderer, and only God’s goodness had kept him from committing the outward act. And this is just as true of others as it was of Bunyan. “The carnal mind [the mind of the flesh] is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.” Gal. 5:19-21. These are the natural outcroppings, the poisons of the working of the ferment of sin in the flesh. We know that thousands will repudiate the divine delineation of the character of the natural man. They will declare that they are neither adulterers, fornicators, idolaters, or murderers. And in the overt act all this may be true; but it is not themselves that has kept them from it. There is many a self-voiced, sweet-faced woman in the drawing-room who looks with infinite scorn upon her fallen sisters, and who, if she had been under the same temptations, would have been with them. She may even now be like many others, “only strong for lack of test.” Her sin may not lie in this direction; it may be in envy or hatred of others superior or more successful; but hatred is the root of murder. There are many men who will condemn with words loud and intense the wrong doings of some libertine or murderer, whose imaginations are throbbing brothels and hearts are hells of hatred. But the Master of hearts has said: “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matt. 5:28), and “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer.” 1 John 3:15. In other words, adultery is the fruit of unrestrained lust; murder is the ripened product of unrestrained hate. Pride leads to envy, envy to hatred, hatred to murder. There are some who do not sin in these gross ways, who would not lift a hand to take life, and yet who will, with the stiletto of insinuation, the dagger thrust of innuendo, destroy a reputation and an influence dearer than life. There are those who seem to be models of virtue, upon which they pride themselves in a self-righteousness more loathsome in God’s sight than the sin of the discouraged thief or adulteress. They are idolaters, worshipers of the god of self. What has restrained sin in these?—Sometimes a cold pride as bad as the sin. The form of the sin is changed; its root nature is the same. Sometimes it is early instruction. Ingersoll often ridiculed his orthodox ancestry; but if it had not been for the very principles God taught him through them, despite all their errors and mistakes, he would have been a different man. He and his friends were proud of so-called virtues which in no wise originated with himself, but were fruits of a Christian education, a heritage unconsciously received, for which he was not only not grateful, but which he used his best-received powers to destroy. We measure sin as God does not. We set up false standards, and estimate the heinousness of the sin by the social standard of the times. In the sight of the infinite God there is but little difference. If to-day all could stand in open vision before the Great White Throne, she who now would feel contaminated if her skirts but touched those of her weaker sister, would not pause for a moment to measure the intensity of the shades of sin. Her own selfishness would seem so black in the white light of His presence that the cry, “Unclean,” would refer but to the one, namely, self. The wealthy capitalist, whose property has been wrung from brain, and brawn, and bone, and blood of the poor, would no longer look with patronizing contempt upon their uncouth manners, crude sentences, and poverty-stricken homes, nor with horror upon their demand for justice or cries for revenge. His field of vision would be filled by his mountain of selfishness. This is written to excuse no one, to condemn no one. It is not to get the despised of men to condemn their more fortunate fellows, or the poor to condemn the rich. Let each one look to himself. Nay, let every one look to God. See all in His light. Some day you will stand before His throne. But two persons will then seem to be present,—“God and I.” Look at things now as you will then wish you had. Consider that had it not been for God’s good providence, you would now be utterly lost. “But by the grace of God” we would still be pagans, worshipers of gods of wood and stone, and guilty of all kinds of practices. “Search thine own heart. What paineth thee
In others in thyself may be;
All dust is frail, all flesh is weak;
Be thou the true man thou dost seek.” And he who truly searches by the light divine will find, as did Andrew Rykman,— “For myself alone I doubt;
All is well, I know, without;
I alone the beauty mar,
I alone the music jar.” “Rich alone in favors lent,
Virtuous by accident,
Doubtful where I fain would rest,
Frailest where I seem the best,
Only strong for lack of test,—
What am I that I should press
Special pleas of selfishness,
Coolly mounting into heaven
On my neighbor unforgiven?” God alone can solve the problem and take away the sin; and His grace, brother, however great a sinner you may be, is all sufficient.