WHAT IS MERCY? by Dr. Cumming

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 5, 1861

WHAT IS MERCY?

By Dr. Cumming

If there were no sin there could be no mercy.

Mercy is love through the prism of a Saviour's mediation refracted into all the beautiful colors of the covenant rainbow. God is good to angels, He is love to the unfallen, He is mercy to sinners. And, therefore, if you be a sinner, a chief sinner, an inveterate sinner, let a ray of glory shoot through your heart; and you have a God who is mercy—the very thing you need. Ah, you reply, that is very true; but that does not comfort my soul. I have nothing to give for it, and, therefore, there is no hope for me. What is the next ray of his glory? He is gracious. What is grace? Literally good given gratis. What was the prayer of John Wickliffe, the morning star of the Reformation? "Good Lord save me gratis." God saves only gratis. If you were to pay anything, there is no mercy for you, if you promise anything by way of equivalent, there is no mercy for you: if you offer to endure anything as expiation, there is no mercy for you. You must take mercy in all its amplitude, without promise, pledge, or anything on your part but grace, just as God gives it you.

But you answer, this may be all very true: but I have sinned so long, I have sinned against light, against conscience, against law, against love. If I had been your judge, you had been crushed long ago, if the most tender hearted man had been your judge, you would have been destroyed; but let a ray of this glory sweep through your troubled spirit, and what does it show? That whilst He is merciful and gracious He is also long-suffering. How glorious is this attribute! He suffers long, and is not easily provoked; delighting in mercy.

But if you should say, Ah, this is very true, very comforting: but it does not meet all my case: for so many have drawn upon his mercy, so many have got it gratis, such multitudes have tasted of his long-suffering, that I fear it is exhausted long ago. If God were a cistern his mercy would have been exhausted; but we are told he is a fountain, and a living fountain, inexhaustible, and springing up to everlasting life forever and ever.

But the ray of his glory that meets your case is that while he is long-suffering, He is also abundant in goodness and truth.

But if you should say, So many generations have drawn upon Him, from the world's gray fathers that trod the deserts of Palestine and the pavements of Egypt; the prophets, and evangelists, and apostles, and martyrs, and reformers, and the long procession of sufferers, have all, generation after generation, drawn upon his goodness, drank of his mercy, sought it gratis, and enjoyed it in all its fullness, that I fear it is impossible that God can have supplied so long a world of rebels so countless, and all his mercy is surely dried up long ago. The answer is, He keeps mercy for thousands of generations.

But you add, perhaps, Well, all this is very delightful; but I have been guilty of sins of thought, sins of word, sins of deed, all kinds and degrees of sin. I have no doubt of it; and I am sure you are far more guilty than you think and far more so than you feel; but here is another ray of God's glory; He forgives iniquity; that is the first sort of sin, transgression, that is the second sort; and sin, that is the third sort. In other words, He forgives sins of thought, sins of word, sins of deed.—Dr. Cumming.