7. Possibilities of Good from Things Apparently Evil.

7. Possibilities of Good from Things Apparently Evil.

"And Nathanael said unto him: Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said unto him: Come and see!" John 1:46.

The long-looked-for Messiah had at last made His appearance. He had been the Desire of the nations, the expected One of the people Israel, throughout the centuries. He came in fulfillment of the promise made by the Father, that evil might not prevail forever. He came at the time foretold, at the place predicted, under circumstances long before described, in order to do God’s will. His coming called out the glad chorus of thanksgiving and praise, both from the intelligences of Heaven and the faithful and devout of earth.

"Heaven and nature sang 
 When earth received her King."

He came, fulfilling the strange and marvelous description that Isaiah had written of Him, that He should be a Son--yet the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father; One on whose shoulders the Government should rest, yet still a Man of Sorrows and deep acquaintance with grief. But when He came, those who had long looked for Him did not understand or welcome Him. He came to His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.

It was on His return from the wilderness and the Temptation, that John, His forerunner, is privileged to introduce Him to two of His disciples. "Looking upon Jesus as He walked, he said: Behold the Lamb of God!" and the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. This is, then, the beginning of that mighty following which today encircles the globe, loyal loving hearts, determined on eternal fellowship. But in the midst of the blessed work of securing recruits for Jesus, a difficulty unlooked for is encountered; a prejudice met with, that was at least unexpected. He was from Nazareth! It mattered not, if He came from the throne of Glory, came in the royal line of David and Solomon, came with the blessing and attested authority of Heaven itself. Was it true that He stopped on that long journey, for awhile, at the despised village of Nazareth? Then surely there is something amiss; for--can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Right wisely does the patient Philip meet the objection of this prejudiced one by the only effective argument in such a case:"Come and see!" From this incident, let us consider how it is possible that good may proceed from agencies, events, places apparently evil--at least from things despised, ignoble, and insignificant. Two factors are noticeably the cause of this incredulous state in which we find ourselves respecting the possible good that may come from insignificant or evil sources, and they are our prejudice--an opinion without a reason--and our lack of faith in God. The wrath of man has again and again been made to praise Him who brings good out of evil. That which is small and despised has had in it elements of greatness, and possibilities of unquestioned good, in spite of our prejudice or our lack of faith in God.

Dr. Cummings said: "Minute events are the hinges on which magnificent results turn. In a watch the smallest link, chain, or cog is as essential as the mainspring itself. If one falls out, the entire machinery will stand still."

It is well known that the art ofprinting, probably the parent of more good than all others, owes its origin to crude impressions taken, for the amusement of children, from letters carved on the bark of a beech-tree. This was a slight matter, which thousands would have passed over with neglect. The stupendous results of thesteam enginemay all be traced to an individual observing steam issuing from a kettle, just emptied, and placed casually close to a fire. So almost all the great discoveries in science were apparentlystumbledupon. Their first intimations of usefulness were slight, but were not ignored or despised. To these intimations the world owes much for its present greatness in commercial and mechanical arts. They are theNazarethsof science, out of which have come great good. Let them not be despised. But our theme does not demand from us a defense in behalf of evil. That would scarcely be possible. We are under no thanks to sin for any of the blessings we enjoy. No apparent good is ours, because of the existence of evil. If we have been privileged to reach higher heights after having touched lowest depths--the thanks are due to Him who has had compassion upon us in our low and lost estate, has heard our cry, and has stooped to save us. All the good that has come to us, and may yet come, is because of God sovereign mercy. "All things work together for good to those who love God." "For we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ;" not through sin, but through Christ. That which is apparently evil, or apparently small or inadequate, may not really be so. Theweakthings of earth have been chosen to confound the mighty. These may be weak, looking at them from a human standpoint, but not so when we discover that God is in them. They are theDavidsthat stand before the Goliaths of sin; the Gideons, armed only with trumpets and lamps; the Moses and Aarons, with but a rod in the presence of Pharaoh and before the Red Sea.

Yet above, and guiding the hand of a David, the insignificant stones in the shepherd’s sling do effective work. There is the breath of the Almighty in the cry, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!"

So, too, in all the ages past and in the centuries that are yet to come, the good that God has done, or may yet do, has a hiding-place in the despised things of earth. Paul saw a reason in this, and is led to say, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." Our prejudices! How they cheat us out of blessings, and blind our eyes to higher values, and depreciate men and events of real worth! Ourpreviously conceived notionsof what is for the best, may be far from correct. That which, under the blessing of God, may result in largest returns, does not always meet our approval or secure our cooperation. There is the possibility of good in the beginning of many movements that have, for support and advocacy, agencies and instruments unheard of before, or despised because of fewness or feebleness.

Note the beginnings of great reforms. See the men and means employed to carry them to success. Can any good thing come of such inadequate agencies? Wait and see. If God is present, these feeble beginnings will mature into mighty proportions, though the efficiency of methods and means at first are small and despised. In the sixteenth century an unknown yet vigorous monk took his stand against Papal Rome and her corrupt practices. He stood upon the clear declaration of the Word of God,"The just shall live by faith."He had no influence at court or among the nobility, yet this is the man called of God to do for Him and His children a needed work of spiritual reformation. Looking at him and at his surroundings, one would be a bold prophet indeed who would have said: "There is the possibility of great good in this man apparently destitute of the very forces of real greatness." So also in the eighteenth century, when vital piety had seemingly died out from the homes and hearts of our English ancestry, God looked down into that parsonage home at Epworth, and forthwith the preliminaries for a mighty revolution in aggressive Church work along evangelist lines began to arrange themselves, and Methodism is the result. Men sneered and stormed and defied; but opposition was overcome, prejudice gave way, and the possibilities of good from such insignificant sources were at last unquestioned. Can any good thing come from Wittenberg? Protestantism answers: "Come and see!" The temporal power of the pope reached its highest assumption of arrogance in that day, and the tide began to turn when Luther and his little band stood out in behalf of an open Bible, liberty of the individual conscience, and the doctrine of justification by faith. Can any good thing come from Epworth and Oxford? Methodism, in its extended branches of closely allied fellowship, replies: "Come and see." Churches in every community; schools and colleges scattered far and wide; a religious press, with publications singing the truth in every language; millions of children gathered together week after week for Bible study, and instruction in active service for Christ--all this, and more, at home and abroad, tell of results from small beginnings. So has it been with everymovement against iniquityand in behalf of organized effort for the suppression of vice. Great reforms do not begin with the masses, but with the individual.

If a system ofhuman slaveryis to be attacked and overthrown, the beginnings of that revolution must pass through the dark days, through humiliating scenes of ridicule and violence. But from the disgraceful acts of mobs, the burning of houses, the destruction of property, the movement gained substantially until it called to its support--argument, fact, publicity, members, and enlisted sympathy and moral support. It then moved on to success, for God was in it. Are there today moral or social movements, in or out of the Church--movements aimed at the destruction and complete overthrow of great evils, or designed to secure a better state of affairs in society? They may have originated unhappily, may be advocated by those poorly qualified in many particulars to help the cause along; but, in spite of unfortunate origin, in spite of prejudice, notwithstanding the feebleness of the support--these reforms of a philanthropic nature will in time exhibit to the world a proportion and a dignity that will entitle them to universal respect.

It may be the reform in international arbitration that will dissolve to peaceful pursuits, vast standing armies. It may refer to a confederation of Churches of like faith and doctrine that shall confer together in the interest of economy and efficiency respecting colleges, publications, missions, local Churches, refusing to enter fields already occupied by Churches of like faith, or to overlap each other in fields at home or abroad. Or it may be there has begun an agitation that looks to fitness and capability in the civil service, rather than to partisan zeal or complexion in color; or, better still, an uprising of a long-suffering class against a gigantic evil--a movement that has been slow and perhaps at times devious, yet always against a common enemy, at times engineered by noble men and women, and then directed by those whose motives may have been questioned, against whom there may exist great prejudice, but whose ultimate object may be hailed with unsurpassed delight--the prohibition of the liquor-traffic.

These and kindred reforms contain the germ of great good, though they may be surrounded by the husks or shells of apparent evil. When inclined to doubt the outcome of any desirable good because of its meager origin or support, remember Epworth and the Wesleys; remember Wittenberg and Luther; remember Nazareth and the Master Himself, who said that out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God has perfected praise. Can any good come out of evil? "Come and see." The little group of patient followers along the shores of Galilee and the Jordan has grown to a vast multitude of earnest people, going among all nations, in all climates. Thesefollowers of the Nazareneare among the advance guards of civilization--the pioneers of deepest thought and highest attainments in culture.

There is nothing in the religion of Christ that is detrimental to the freest discussion or the most careful investigation. The Christly spirit has founded all our colleges with scarcely an exception. It has also been the best patron of the press. If, in this enlightened age--an age of popular inquiry and general information; a state of things made possible only by the Gospel and its influence--if, in this enlightened age, the good that has come to us from Nazareth could not stand the glare of public criticism, the brilliancy of this twentieth century, then would its supporters cease to found colleges, establish newspapers, send out into all the world its advocates to cope with the skill and learning of its enemies. Light and liberty are ours because of Christ and Nazareth.

Contrast our position with the position of those nations who have not the gospel. Who fears the result of a comparison of the condition of the sincere Christian, with the best examples of any of the religions of heathendom? As it respects childhood, one may see the superiority, the Divinity of the Nazarene, in His instruction and influence concerning the sacredness of human life. Infanticide or criminal negligence, in the case of the child, has no encouragement among those who remember the Babe of Bethlehem and the Boy of Nazareth. But the motherly feeling in darkened lands has been benumbed by the deadening influence of nature-worship and superstition, or else has been sacrificed to a supposed demand of an offended Deity. That which some look back upon as the happiest of life’s experiences--childhood--has no sweet memories where Christ is unknown.

Come and see the good that has flowed as a sparkling stream from Nazareth’s rocky hills, making rich and happy the homes of all who dwell beside its banks. Each rollicking group of merry-hearted boys and girls speaks of Christ and of Nazareth. Such scenes are only possible where human life is held sacred, and where due regard is had for the child and its mother. The more thoroughly the investigation is pursued, the more thoroughly will all prejudiced Nathanaels be convinced that not only some good may, but that all good has, come to us from Nazareth, through Christ our Lord.

Let no one despise the place, the agent, the means from which great good is reported to have come. It is possible and very probable that God has chosen to put His Spirit in the simple and despised ones of earth, in order to call out the wonder and praise and adoration of men. He was wiser than Nathanael, who said: "If this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it; lest you be found even to fight against God."

"Beloved," said John, "try the spirits whether they are of God." Let our judgments be not merely from appearances, but be righteous judgments. With God all things are possible. He may have it in the order of His providences that some slight thing, some little word, some frail deed--shall effect a revolution, produce a conversion, form a character, secure a change--and such a change as shall be felt even in eternity. Let not prejudice or unbelief defraud us of a possible blessing; for there is always the possibility of great good from things apparently evil--from things insignificant and trivial.