THE MISSION OF EXPERIENCE.
By William S. Sadler
We are often called upon to pass through experiences which we do not understand. Some pass through them without complaint, and learn great lessons from them. Others are tempted to murmur at God, and blame Providence for their adverse experience. Some things happened to Paul which he no doubt found it difficult to harmonize with the thought of God's mercy, care, and justice. But he says he would have the Philippians understand that these apparently evil things that happened to him had all worked out for the furtherance of the Gospel. Phil. 1:12. In the providence of God there is no such thing as an accidental occurrence. Nothing happens to man but that is permitted in view of God's perfect knowledge of his condition, and of the divine understanding of what is best for him. The Lord does not send adversity, trial, or affliction to punish us because of our mistakes, so much as to correct us of our tendency to do wrong, and to furnish us with both the opportunity and the power to get out of the wrong way and into the right. The Lord is not managing things hit and miss; neither does He delight in punishing man for having strayed into by and forbidden paths. Everything that happens to us is a result of God's perfect love, and of His complete knowledge of our condition and of our real needs of soul and body. The things we suffer here below, such as disaster, adversity, etc., are but the thorns that Providence has put in the path of wrong-doing, to call us back into the righteous path we have forsaken. The Lord has allowed these things to overtake us for the purpose of correcting us. Angels desire to look into these things, and see how God's Spirit and truth can transform people who have fallen so low, when they mount the ladder, round by round, until they are ready to stand on the mount of translation. When passing through some very unpleasant trial, it is one great secret of a happy and peaceful Christian experience to be able to recognize that it comes from God, that we have not been turned over to Satan to be abused and buffeted, but that the Lord is superintending every test. God permitted it, and His angel is by our side. The Father above has not lost sight of us, but He still knows where we are, and is watching the test moment by moment. As long as you are in the Lord's hands, others can not misuse you. They may try to do it; but they will only heap trouble upon themselves, and you will emerge from the whole thing triumphant, for "all things work together for good to them that love God." Everybody abused Joseph, and it seemed that everything he did that was good brought him a harvest of evil. Afterward, when talking to his brethren, he said, "It was not you that sent me hither, but God." Gen. 45:8. And Reuben, who inwardly desired to protect his brother from the evil designs of the rest of Jacob's sons, but who had not moral courage sufficient to lead him to take a determined stand in defense of Joseph, might also, had he been more courageous, have gone down to Egypt, and there shared in the ultimate triumph of Joseph. There are a few simple things like this, which, unless we get them settled and firmly fixed in our minds and in our Christian experience, will cause us no end of trials and tribulations. Let us remember that if we have the faith of Jesus it is not we who are being tried, but the faith of Jesus, and that has already been tried and proved sufficient. Without faith it is impossible to please God; but God was well pleased with Christ, so when we have Jesus' faith we shall be able to keep the commandments of God, in sunshine or in shadow. In the hour of trial Jesus said, "Nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done." He has left us an example that we might be partakers of His sufferings. 1 Peter 2:21. He did not suffer for His own sins, but for the sins of the world. As partakers of His divine nature; as coworkers with Him in the plan of salvation, we shall sometimes be called to suffer mentally, morally, physically, for the good of our fellow-men. Sometimes we shall suffer mental anguish, moral darkness, physical pain, as partakers of Christ's sufferings in the great work of preserving the universe and saving the world, and not as the direct result of our own acts. Then if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him. We must drink the cup He drank, and be baptized with the baptism He was baptized with, and then we shall be prepared to sit with Him in glory. But if we disobey; if we ourselves set in operation the cause of moral despair or physical disease, we are sure to reap the results. But there will be things which will come in our experience, not as a direct result of our own transgression. Nothing ever happens to us but by an order from the throne of God, as a definite divine permission. Then no matter what happens, whether we have sinned and sown for it or not, it will fall out for our good and that of the universe, for the furtherance of the Gospel, and the accomplishment of God's eternal purpose. We are to seek prayerfully and carefully for the cause of the affliction, and see if we are responsible. If after having done everything we can to find the cause, to secure a disposition to be obedient to every law of God both physical and spiritual, the suffering is still permitted to linger, let us remember that God is doing something for the furtherance of the Gospel, and that our reconciliation to His plan is preaching the Gospel louder and more effectively than if we stood in the greatest pulpit in the world. Let us never murmur nor complain. The man who complains of his bitter experiences will never discover how to sweeten them. Some other soul will have to come around and show him the way out of his trouble. We simply pull the oars, and let God steer the boat. You can't steer a boat until it is moving. The thing to do is to keep it going, and then He will steer it aright. W. S. SADLER.