God Chastises his Spiritual Sons.-HEB. 12. 6, 8-11. Chastisement is compared to a fan, Mark 3. 12; & pruning hook, John 15. 2; plough, Jer. 4. 3; a furnace, like Egypt to the Jews, Is. 48. 10; cords, Job 36. 8. In Jer. 31. 18, Ephraim is represented chastised by God as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; the bullock rebels against the will of his master, though nourished and supported by him; it will not subserve his interests; when chastised, it rebels the more; repeated strokes only serve to inflame its rage; nor will it ever submit until it be wearied out, and unable to maintain its opposition; thus the sinner generally fights against God. God chastised Solomon and David for their improvement; but he punished Saul with death for his offering sacrifice and sparing Agag, 1 Sam. 15; Peter's denial of Christ was worse than Ananiah's denial of a portion of his goods; yet how different the punishment. Pain is God's chiselling to produce his likeness. Christ learnt obedience from suffering, Heb. 5. 8; so the Prodigal, Luke 15. 17; and we are silly sheep, prosperity makes us stray the more, as sunshine on the dunghill only produces a greater stench, so Jas. I. 2. The Germans say a child may have too much of its mother's blessing. Better the child weep than the father. The Spaniards say more sprigs in the garden than the gardener ever sowed. Did God hate his people, he would suffer them to go merrily to hell. lets Christ sleep; the storm rouses him. Fruits of Chastisement : Calm weather 1. Tests reality, as Solomon's sword did the true mother, 1 Kings 3; as the storm did Peter's faith, Mat. 14. 30-31; a painted faith no more avails than a painted helmet. 2. Fructifies, as the palm-tree, by pressure, so prayer, as with Manasseh in fetters, 2 Ch. 33; so Paul when blind, Acts 9. 9; the hammer of chastisement squares the stones for the heavenly temple. 3. Not a mark of vengeance for sin, Job 42. 10; Paul's, Acts 28. 4; Siloam's tower, Luke 13.4-5. Saint Ambrose would not stop a night in the house of a man who had never seen chastisement, lest some judgment should seize him. 4. Peaceable fruits: the Prodigal, in some points, happier among swine than he had been in his father's house. Unsanctified affliction parboils a wicked man for hell; to the righteous affliction is not a fiery, but a brazen, serpent. God beats his children as we do our clothes in the sun only to beat out the moths. Manasseh got more good by his iron chain than by his golden chain. Hitopadesha.-On affliction's touchstone a man may learn the value of his family and of his own mind. Persiun.-Without a supple rod the ox or ass would not obey. Malay-As a hen pecks her chickens-i.e., lightly. Afghan. Until you heat iron you will not lengthen it—i.e.,. punishment makes the obstinate tractable. Tamul.-Is it proper to tame a parrot and give it into the claws of a cat? Afghan. The prick of a needle on a cat's head is plenty. Gujerat.-Water on a stone wets but enters not. Russian.-No bones are broken by a mother's fist. Vemana.-The washerman torments the cloth to take the stains out, and then folds it. What then though he who teaches thee chastises thee. Prabodh Chandroday.-After mortifying the body, pure spirit is discerned by reason, as rice is separated from the husk by beating it. Sanskrit.-A bad man, gold, a drum, a bad woman, a bad horse, stalks of sugarcane, sesamur seed, and low people, should be beaten to improve their qualities. Tamul.-A fruit must ripen of itself, must not be beaten by a cane into ripeness. Humble as little Children.—MAT. 18. 2. Christ the Lord of Glory became an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes; he carried the lambs of the flock in his own bosom. When his disciples repelled them he took the little children up in his arms and blessed them, and he has used children as an emblem of humility. He was a teacher of babes, and has taught us humility by babes, and particularly when the disciples disputed about preeminence he set a child in the midst. See parable of Marriage Feast, Luke 14. 7-II. The humble like little children in six points. 1. Docile; no prejudice, no habit to prevent its receiving impressions," train up a child in the way he should go," Pr. 22. 6, so believers are made new men by the Spirit; the mind of a child is compared to a sheet of white paper on which you can write anything. David calls himself a weaned child, Ps. 131. 2. 2. Confiding; the young of animals are not so dependent in reference to the world as are infants. This, however, causes more love. The mother's smile and breast are everything to the helpless babe; so the believer depends entirely on God for many years; the father's house is its home. "Ask and ye shall receive; so Abraham went forth, not knowing whither he went," Heb. 11. 8. Jacob in the same spirit went down to Egypt. Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the king. Paul said, I know in whom I have believed. 3. Humble and contented with little things. Christ said, I am meek and lowly in heart. Paul said, in whatever state I am, I have learned to be content, Phil. 4. II; submissive obedience is easily taught to a child; so with the believer every high thing is cast down; whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. 4. Simple-minded; a child tells its meaning at once, its desires and aversions; so the believer has God's glory as his sole guide. "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile," John I. 47. Still, to prevent imposition in the world, the wisdom of the serpent is to be united to the harmlessness of the dove. Gentle love to be without dissimulation, anger endures only for a little. The Christian does good unto all, especially to those of the household of faith. 5. Detached from the world, I Cor. 15. 20; to it business, ambition, wealth, pleasures are nothing; on the Exchange it would find no pleasure," not a grey head upon green shoulders; so the believer is not conformed to the world; his joys a stranger intermeddles not with; weeping as though they wept not, I Cor. 7. 30. 6. Attached to its father's house. Early recollections lead him to it as a bird to its nest; so Jacob, domesticated in Padan-Aram, longed for his father's house; so Joseph when he saw his brethern; so the believer longs for heaven, as the hart after the water brooks, for Jerusalem above is his home, we in this tabernacle groan. China. Who flies not high, falls not low. Malay. The leech wants to become a snake. Russian. The blind cannot see, the proud will not. Arab.—His nose looks to heaven, his legs are in the water. Persian.-The bending of the humble is the graceful droop of the branches laden with fruit. Turk.-A low ass is easy to ride on. Sanskrit.-Fruitful trees bend down; the wise stoop; Death of Righteous as a Shock of Corn.—JOB 5. 26. Death of righteous like shock of corn in eight points. The wicked are compared to weeds to be burned, but the righteous to corn in the harvest. See parable of Taret and Wheat, Mat. 13. Autumn after the hot season is pleasant, a time of the joy of harvest, Is. 9. 3; the righteous in death is compared in the text to the cutting of grain and to harvest home. 1. Sown in order to be reaped again; at first the leaf is fresh, and the stalk firm, but not so beautiful as when the stalk is thin, and the leaf sere, but grain yellow; so the body must die to be raised again. 2. Require preparatory agency; so showers of grace to nourish the sun of God's favour and harden the grain, the dews of the Spirit to refresh, and the winds of affliction to keep the roots loose. Jacob, not knowing the preparatory agency, said, All things are against me, Gen. 42. 36, when he was on the eve of great prosperity; God's chastening gives the peaceable fruits of righteousness. 3. Only cut when fully ripe; if cut too soon the ear is watery, if too late dried up; the sower waits for the early and latter rain, the wicked are driven away, but the righteous are always prepared by hope, Prov. 14. 32; Abijah and Josiah had their harvest in early youth; Noah and Abraham in advanced years. care. 4. The ripe corn is handled with care; the scythe of death is put to the roots, but the sheaves are bound up with Lazarus was nursed by dogs in life, but angels took charge of him in death, Luke 16. 21; many grains in the natural harvest are lost, but not so with the righteous,. John 10. 28. 5. When ripe housed in safety; there may be anxiety about the weather, but harvest home is a time of joy; the grain is lodged in the granary; no more tears. 6. When ripening hangs its head; so with increasing humility the righteous see more of their sin and of God's |