God's Plan with Men Part 10

Often G.o.d's children are discouraged because they cannot see any purpose in their trials. But G.o.d a.s.sures us that there is a purpose.

The child cannot understand the purpose of the lessons at school, but the father has the purpose. Elijah, possibly filled with apprehension, sitting by the drying brook Cherith, did not see any purpose, but G.o.d, who makes all things work together for good to His people, had the purpose and accomplished it in the development of Elijah's character; and so, as F. B. Meyer has so aptly put it, the redeemed, sitting by the drying brook of health, of property, of reputation, of family happiness, may not see the purpose, but the Heavenly Father will work, in His plan for each, every trial into the warp or woof of each life. The Saviour said to Peter, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter."--John 13:7.

"Behind our life the Weaver stands And works His wondrous will; We leave it all in His wise hands And trust His perfect skill.

Should mystery enshroud His plan, And our short sight be dim, We will not try the whole to scan, But leave each thread to Him."

Who knows the defects, the weaknesses, of each character? Only G.o.d.

Who knows what each character ought to be? Only G.o.d. Who knows how to develop each character properly? Only G.o.d. Who is able to so shape the circ.u.mstances of each life as to properly develop each character? Only G.o.d. And He has promised that He will. "We know that all things work together for good to those who love G.o.d, to those who are the called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28); "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."--1 Peter 1:7. This is _the only_ explanation of the many hara.s.sments of life.

G.o.d has revealed that the standard by which character is measured is patience, endurance. "Let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing."--James 1:4. If there were no hara.s.sments, no afflictions, no burdens, no sorrows, no disappointments, no sufferings, there could be no patience, endurance; and if there were no patience, no endurance, there could be no maturity and completeness of character. As to what trials are needed, and are best in each case, only G.o.d can decide. In our dimsightedness we think that many things are mistakes in G.o.d's plans, and that He cannot bring good out of them; but He will. A boy was born with a badly deformed foot. When he was eight years of age his father had two surgeons to operate and try to straighten the foot, but they failed.

After a second operation, the foot was placed in a brace which was worn for months. But the foot remained as badly deformed as ever. The surgeons then informed the father that the foot could never be straightened. The father studied the deformed foot for many days, and then had a strange-looking box made with screws, felt taps and iron rods in different parts of it. He had the surgeons to operate again on the boy's foot, cutting the muscles and tendons in different places.

The foot was then placed in the strange box; a screw was turned till the felt tap pressed against the foot at one place, almost breaking the bones; then another screw and felt tap were brought to bear on another deformed part of the foot, straightening the foot and almost breaking the bones in that part of the foot; then the iron rod was used to straighten another part. For months the boy's foot was kept in that box. The suffering, day and night for months, was indescribable.

The child would weep for hours, the pain being all but unbearable; and when the father would come home the child would beg piteously for the box to be taken off and to be left a cripple. The father, mingling his tears with the tears of the suffering child, would turn the screws tighter than before, and the child would shriek in fearful agony.

During those weeks and months of suffering he looked upon his father as being harsh and cruel and without love for him. Finally the father loosened all the screws and said, "Son, stand up," and for the first time in his life the boy stood erect. Often has that son, now a gray-haired man, stood over the grave of that father, long since dead, and bedewed the grave with his tears, and thanked G.o.d that he had a father who was true enough to continue the suffering until the terrible deformity was corrected. The father may have turned the screws one thread too much, but the Father in Heaven makes no mistakes, and far beyond the grave many of the redeemed will praise Him, when they understand, for the sufferings and afflictions and burdens they were led to endure here.

"Choose for us, Lord, nor let our weak preferring Cheat us of good Thou hast for us designed.

Choose for us, Lord; Thy wisdom is unerring, And we are fools and blind."

With the reader this may seem mere theory; he may feel that it cannot explain all the seemingly unfathomable mystery of suffering in the lives of many of the redeemed, the real children of G.o.d. Let the reader consider two things: first, that as a juror, he would not form a judgment till all the evidence had been placed before the jury.

G.o.d's purpose in each case, and what G.o.d actually accomplishes in each case, in the development of character,--these have not yet been placed before the jury; but, backed up by many fulfilled prophecies, by the character of Jesus Christ, by His resurrection, by what He has accomplished in the world, we have G.o.d's solemn a.s.surance that _He will yet place this evidence before the jury_.

Second, let the reader remember that with G.o.d character counts more than comfort. What father would prefer his son to be a brutal, ignorant pugilist, enjoying food and drink, physical life,--to a useful, n.o.ble, highly educated, refined, learned son who could "listen in the orange groves of Verona to the sweet vows of Juliet, or to the blind bard's harp as he strikes the chords but seldom struck harmonious with the morning stars, or to the music of the spheres as they hymn His praises around their Creator's throne"? Far more than the earthly father would choose the latter for his son, does the Heavenly Father value the soul and its development above that of the body.

Could G.o.d's redeemed people only learn that perfection of character comes only through suffering, that as certain as G.o.d is true, a blessing will come from every sorrow, every burden, every affliction, every pang, every heartache!

"The ills we see-- The mystery of sorrow deep and long, The dark enigmas of permitted wrong, Have all one key-- This strange, sad world is but our Father's school; All chance and change His love shall grandly overrule."

Rarely has the author been stirred, thrilled, as he was while listening to an audience of a thousand colored people of the South sing the following hymn. Some of them had been slaves; many were poor; many uneducated; some Greek scholars; some were dest.i.tute; some were half-invalids; some were aged and infirm; but few had the comforts of life; all were heavy burden-bearers. White people from New York and Texas, from Mississippi and Kansas, were moved to tears, as that audience sang with such rhythm, such cadence, such pathos, such sweetness, such soul-power, as only they can sing:--

"We are tossed and driven On the restless sea of time, Sombre skies and howling tempest Oft succeed the bright sunshine.

In that land of perfect day When the mists have rolled away, We will understand it better by and by.

"By and by when the morning comes And all the saints of G.o.d are gathered home, We'll tell the story, how we've overcome, For we'll understand it better by and by.

"We are often dest.i.tute Of the things that life demands, Want of shelter and of food Thirsty hills and barren lands.

We are trusting in the Lord, And according to His word, We will understand it better by and by.

"Trials dark on every hand, And we cannot understand All the ways that G.o.d would lead us To the blessed promised land, But He guides us with His eye And we'll follow till we die, For we'll understand it better by and by.

"Temptations, hidden snares, Often take us unawares, And our hearts are made to bleed For a thoughtless word or deed, And we wonder why the test When we try to do our best, But we'll understand it better by and by."

But they are not the only ones who

"Wonder why the test When we try to do our best."

They are not the only ones who can say,

"Trials dark on every hand And we cannot understand,"

But they and all the redeemed, G.o.d's real children, can say,

"We will understand it better by and by."

Till then they can rest upon His word, that "the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ,"--1 Peter 1:7; for "we know that all things work together for good to those that love G.o.d, to those who are the called according to his purpose."--Rom. 8:28.

"Thou art as much His care as if beside, Nor man nor angel lived in Heaven or Earth."

_FOR FURTHER STUDY_:--Some readers may conclude, because trials come to the lives of the unredeemed as well as the redeemed, to those who are not G.o.d's children, as well as to those who are G.o.d's children, that, therefore, their characters are likewise developed by trials.

Let such readers consider two facts:--

First, it is a creature of G.o.d being developed in one case; in the other, it is one who has been redeemed and adopted as a child of G.o.d (Gal. 4:4-7), and born of the Spirit (John 3:8), that is being developed.

Second, the characters being developed in the two cla.s.ses, while they may appear to men as similar, in the sight of G.o.d are as different as light and darkness are to men, as different as Heaven and h.e.l.l. Let it be remembered that character is dependent, not on the deed, but _on the motive back of the deed_ (1 Cor. 13:1-3).

No unredeemed man can have that motive, because it springs from complete redemption through Christ (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). Hence, "they that are in the flesh cannot please G.o.d."--Rom. 8:8. Their motive power is all wrong and cannot be otherwise; hence their characters, however they may be developed, are all wrong in the sight of G.o.d.

Jesus said, "Cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside may be clean also."--Matt. 23:26. The child who, from love, bears trials and burdens placed upon him by the father, the slave who, from fear of the lash, bears trials and burdens placed upon him by the master, the hireling who, from desire for the wages, bears trials and burdens, and the stoic who, from sheer force of will, or from a cold sense of duty, bears trials and burdens, because he must,--are developing altogether different characters. Even so, the child of G.o.d, redeemed and adopted, who, from love, bears the trials and burdens of life, the unredeemed one who, from fear of the law, from fear of h.e.l.l, bears the trials and burdens of life; the unredeemed one who, from what he hopes to gain thereby, a home in Heaven (as the hireling his wages), bears the trials and burdens of life, and the unredeemed one who, from a cold sense of duty, bears the trials and burdens of life, are developing widely different characters for eternity. Which shall it be in your case, reader?