117
THE KING’S BUSINESS
and by the Spirit of our God. And so may you be. It is, I know, a doctrjne which may be abused; but I will not scruple to preach it to those who' are fallen and sighing for deliverance. St. Augustine says that we may out of our dead sins make stepping- stones to rise to the heights of perfection. What did he mean by that? He meant that the memory of our falls may breed in us such a humility, such a distrust of self, such a constant clinging to Christ as we never could have had if we had not fallen. Does not the Scripture itself go even further ? David fell—deep as man can fall; but what does he say in that great fifty- first Psalm, in which he confesses his sin? Anticipating forgiveness, he says: “Then will I teach Thy ways unto Those that transgressors be, And those that sinners are, shall then Be turned unto Thee.” And what did our Lord Himself say to St. Peter about his fall? “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” A man may derive strength to give to others from having fallen. He may have a sym pathy with the erring; he may be able to describe the steps by which to rise, as no Other can. Thus, by God’s marvelous grace, out of the eater may come forth meat, and out of the strong may come forth sweet ness. III. T h e g ro u p of th e ex trem e left, o r th o se w ho a re tem p ters of oth ers. These three groups on the left form three stages of natural descent. First, tempted; secondly, fallen; their, if we have fallen, we tempt others to fall. This is quite natural. If we are down ourselves, we try to get others down beside us. There is a satisfaction in it. To a soul that has become black a soul that is still white is an offense. It is said of some, “They rest not except they have done mischief, and their sleep is taken away, except they cause some to fall.” There is nothing else, I think, in human nature so diabolical as the delight which the wicked feel in making others like themselves. Have
II.
T h e g ro u p of th e left, o r th o se w ho have fallen b efo re tem p tatio n . Though I do not know this audience, I know human nature well enough to be certain that there are some hearing me who are whispering sadly in their hearts, This is the group I belong to : I have fallen before temptation; it may not be known; it may not even be suspected; but it is true. To such I bear a message of hope today. The great tempter of men has two lies with which he plies us at two different stages. Before we have fallen, he tells us that one fall does not matter; it is a trifle; we can easily recover ourselves again. And, after we have fallen, he tells us that it is hopeless: we are given over to sin, and need not attempt to rise. Both are false. It is .a terrible falsehood to say that to fall once does not matter. Even by one fall there is something lost that can never be recovered again. It is like the breaking of an infinitely precious vessel, which may be mended, but will never again be as if it had not been broken. And, besides, one fall leads to others; it is like going upon very slippery ice on the face of a hill; even in the attempt to rise you are- carried away again farther than ever. Moreover, we give others a hold over us. If we have not sinned alone, to have sinned once involves a tacit pledge that we will sin again; and it is often almost impossible to get out of such a false position. God keep us from believing the devil’s lie, that to fall once does not matter. But then, if we have fallen, he plies us with the other lie: It is of no use to attempt to rise; you can not overcome your besetting sin. But this is falser still. To those who feel themselves fallen I come, in Christ’s name, to say, Yes, you may rise. If we could ascend to heaven today and scan the ranks of the blest, should we not find multitudes among them who were once sunk low as man can fall? But they are washed, they are justified, they are sanctified, in the name of our Lord Jesus
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs