2.03.06. Rejoicing in tribulation

VI. REJOICING IN TRIBULATION.

“ Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 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 honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”— 1 Peter 1:6-7.

N a somewhat formal logical definition Paul declares the kingdom of God to be “righteousness and peace and joy.” Gladness is one constituent of a living faith. They are completely out of their reckoning who think that earnest religion means the sacrifice of happiness in this world for the sake of securing it in the world to come. The faith that makes eternal life secure also sheds a blessed light over the life that now is. This may be gathered from the nature of the case. To pass from the condition of a criminal under condemnation to the place of a son and the right of an heir, cannot but gladden a man’s heart. That which the terms of the gospel would lead one to expect appears everywhere in its history. When Philip preached Christ with success in Samaria, “ there was great joy in that city; “ and when the Ethiopian treasurer heard and accepted the same message from the same preacher, “ he went on his way rejoicing.” In our own day the same effects spring from the same cause. There is no feature more distinctly characteristic of present religious earnestness tha. the gladness which springs in the heafts aoxd shines in the faces of the converts. The absolute identity of results produced by a hearty acceptance of the gospel in the days of the apostles and in ours, is itself a proof that the word of God is a living and reproductive seed— that it “ liveth and abideth for ever.”

Peter had himself experienced peace and joy in believing; and writing to the scattered converts, he takes for granted that in their experience like causes would produce like effects. On this point he plants a firm foot; there is no wavering. He counts on it as confidently as on the sequences of nature, that those who had accepted Christ as their own Saviour were made glad thereby. Nor is it an ordinary satisfaction, as when comand wine abound. It is an exuberant, exultant, passionate joyf ulness. The term implies an articulate and demonstrative happiness that cannot be concealed. It must reveal itself by leaping and singing. Such, moreover, is its strength and persistence that’ a great weight of grief will not quench it. “ Ye greatly rejoice, though now ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” A vivid illustration of this principle appears in Old Testament history. Elijah (1 Kings 18:1-46) would convict the priests of Baal, and convince the people, by fire from heaven consuming the sacrifice. But first he directs that the wood should be soaked and the ditch filled with water. When the fire burned the soaked wood, and licked up the water in the trench, there was a great demonstration of its power. So here: it is not an ordinary contentment; it is a joy that burns so fiercely that many waters of grief cannot quench it. The joy overcomes and swallows up the antagonist element, and the presence of the antagonist increases its triumph.

Witnesses, in number constituting a great cloud, have appeared in various ages and in various countries, to show that the joy of faith in Christ triumphed over all the tortures which ingenious superstition was able to invent or the most callous executioners were able to inflict. The hymns which the martyrs have sung in the flames are measures of the strength to which the Holy Spirit may bring the grace of joy in the heart of believers in the body. The sorrow with which believing joy in those primitive Christians must needs contend sprang from many and various sources. At one time it was persecution for Christ’s sake; at another time it was loss of goods, sickness, bereavement. But when the stream of suflering was swollen by the addition of all these affluents, faith still gave them victory, and they rejoiced in their Lord.

Two circumstances, expressed in two quiet parentheses, come in here to limit the great flood of affliction, — two touching, tender memorials of a Father’s pitying eye and all-encompassing arm. These are (1) “ if need be,*’ and (2) “ for a season.” Only if, and when, and as far as there is a necessity for them, are the trials permitted to come at all; and even when they come, their duration is limited. In both cases the Father is himself the judge, and he doeth all things well. Elsewhere in Scripture the believing sufierer is taught the art of diminishing the weight and shortening the term of sorrows. They seem “ light “ when compared with the exceeding great weight of the glory that shall follow, and “ but for a moment “ when compared with the eternal rest. It is thus that faith gains the victory over the world. It is on this principle that the disciples, when they find their hearts sinking under trials, say unto the Lord, Increase our faith. The disciples are taught to regard their sufierings in the aspect of trials; at once tests to determine whether their faith is genuine, and exercises to increase its strength. It is not faith, but the trial of faith, that is here pronounced to be precious. Precisely because faith is the link by which the saved are bound to the Saviour, it is of unspeakable importance to have faith tested in time and proved to be true. The trial of gold is precious; for if you sell all that you have, and give away the proceeds for a field that seems to contain the treasure, it is beyond all things necessary to test the glittering heap before the transaction is completed, in order to ascertain that it is really gold. Here the fire and the crucible are the most valuable of all things for the investor. These are his safeguards; he cannot want them. In like manner, it is dangerous to venture our eternity on a fair-weather profession; an assay in some form is essential to determine whether there is life or only a name that we live. The trial of faith by affliction is compared to the testing and purifying of gold by fire. The sufierer, while in the furnace, is encouraged to look up and see a Father in heaven bending over him in all-wise love, and ready to remove the pain as soon as the purpose is efifected. The “need be” and the “season” are determined and limited by an omniscient love. Nor is all over when the trial has come, and burned for a season, and accomplished its purpose here, and passed away. The greatest results will be seen within the veil. When Christ comes the second time to reign, the efiect of these trials will appear to his praise. In exact accordance with this representation is the vision of the glorified in the Revelation of John (Revelation 7:1-17). Those who stand round the throne in white clothing are described by two leading features, a subordinate and a supreme — they have come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Although the one ground on which they enter the kingdom is the atonement made on the cross, yet the tribulation they endured — the trial of their faith for a season through suffering — tells instrumentally with so much effect upon the Lord’s glory in their redemption, that it is reckoned worthy of mention among the means of th ir salvation and their Saviour’s praise.