THROUGH MUCH TRIBULATION.
By Uriah Smith
PAUL and Barnabas had preached at Lystra. A notable miracle had been performed at their hands, in the healing of a man, impotent in his feet from birth; and the people were scarcely restrained from offering sacrifices to them as beings from the other world. But envious and malignant Jews followed them to the place, and so turned the fickle current of public opinion against them that the people became as anxious to destroy them as they had been just before to worship them; and they stoned Paul, and left him for dead. But “as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples,” says the record, “and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” Acts 14: 20-22. The way, then, laid out before us, into the kingdom of God, is a way of tribulation. To the natural eye it is not an attractive way, but we can thank God that it is only the way to the kingdom, and not the condition of the kingdom itself. And a way is only a temporary place; it will soon be passed; for “our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Cor. 4: 17, 18. And Peter expresses a like train of thought: “Beloved,” he says, “think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” 1 Peter 4: 12, 13. But the query will arise, Why is there a “must” in this proposition? Why must we through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God? Many reasons may be given, a few of which we name, why there is a necessity that tribulation and trial should precede our entrance into the kingdom of God. First, it is a part of the working out of our probation. In the very nature of the case, a man must be proved before he can be approved. Probation precedes approbation. A man may look fair, and yet be utterly useless. So God trains and tries men before he advances them, and for the very purpose that he may advance them. The man in the parable could not be appointed to rule over ten cities before he had improved his talents, and shown that he would be faithful over a few things. In the case of which Paul speaks, the advancement is to be very great,—an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The testing process must therefore be close and true; and to be so, it must be severe and searching. And it is generally so arranged that a man’s life is so adjusted to circumstances, and so measured as to length, as to constitute, on the whole, a complete probation. In every one there is that which only suffering and trial can reach and try. God did tempt, try, or test, Abraham till he had demonstrated that he would stand true to God and keep his commandments, his statutes, and his laws, and command his household after him. Secondly, we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God, for the sake of purification. Our probation is, on God’s part, ordained with a view to our purification. If we take the whole life as holding darkness and affliction, it is true, nevertheless, that, in the life discipline, God does not design the destruction of any man, but his fitting up for better things. God’s fires10are hot; but they are purifying; he aims only to purge out the dross. He himself is a “consuming fire,” only to that which is evil. He is a preserving fire to all that is good. Thirdly, we must have, and must pass through, much tribulation in order to have, that which every Christian soul longs for—fellowship with Christ. Christian fellowship is life in Christ. And the “fellowship of his sufferings” is associated (Phil. 3:10) with the “power of his resurrection.” “Abide in me, and I in you.” We are to bear about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus, be killed all the day long, and die to self daily. Such nourishment goes down to the very roots of life. Penitence feeds purity. How many have felt, in the depths of tribulation, that Christ was nearer than he had ever seemed before; nearer than they had ever thought that he could seem! Fourthly, we must pass to the kingdom through much tribulation, for the sake of others. It is often the case that God uses the sufferings of one for the sanctification of others. The rule that applies to living and dying, applies equally, doubtless, to suffering; and the scripture assures us that no man “liveth to himself,” and no man “dieth to himself.” So, also, no man suffereth to himself. What tribulation does for us is more than intimated in the scripture before us. The souls of the disciples were confirmed, and they were strengthened to continue in the faith, by knowing that it was the plan of God to purify them by tribulation before they entered into the kingdom of God. “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us.” Not to be willing to suffer with Christ is here set forth as the same as to deny him. A “tribulum” was a piece of wood, studded with sharp pieces of flint, or teeth, used for thrashing out grain; and from this instrument and its use the word “tribulation” and the figure of its use, are derived. It is to separate the wheat from the chaff, in our characters, and in the church. “Tribulation,” says Paul, “worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.” Rom. 5: 4, 5. But there is no virtue in tribulation, or suffering, in itself considered. It has no expiatory power, and makes no atonement. We can not, by self-inflicted chastisement, and doing penance, accumulate a store of merit, for future use. If we patiently endure tribulation, it will bear its legitimate fruit. If we take it impatiently, we but incur fresh penalties. We must not think that because many are the tribulations of the righteous, therefore all that have tribulations are righteous. Calamities all the while beset those who are living in alienation from God, as well as others. And tears are the portion, day and night, of many who have no Scriptural ground for hope that God will at last wipe away all tears from their eyes. From this part of the subject another erroneous inference is sometimes drawn. One not called to extraordinary tribulation, but who lives in peace and quiet, in the even tenor of his ways, when he reads of entering the kingdom through much tribulation, is liable to feel that he is destitute of the chief evidence that he is a child of God, and this temptation may itself become so strong as to be no small tribulation. But between the righteous and the wicked there is this difference: With the wicked, absence of tribulation nourishes a feeling of presumption and indifference to religion; while with the righteous, it awakens fears of danger as to the enchanted ground, and drives him to the Lord. The expression “through much tribulation,” as connected with entering God’s kingdom, is used in the sense of traveling, or passing, through them, as if they lay all along our road. And this is an encouraging similitude. It sets us forth as independent of, and superior to, the trials, setting them forth as our appointed way, and nothing more; not placed there to have the mastery over us, but to be faced, and then left behind, just as the traveler faces, and leaves behind, the dangers and rough places of his journey. “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life.” Through one mental process, in the main, do men enter into the life of the Spirit; and it is a humbling process. The Christian, in every class and department of life, must prepare himself for fightings without, and fears within. Through distress of heart, and wrenching asunder of earthly ties, in one shape or another, lies every one’s path while passing through this vestibule of our Father’s house, this fitting-up process for a place with the company of the redeemed on the sea of glass, before the great white throne. But the path ends at last, and that soon, in the kingdom of righteousness and peace, and the perfect day.