Finding Peace in God's Unchanging Purpose
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It is very advantageous to the Christian mind frequently to consider the deep and unsearchable attributes of God. The beneficial effect is palpable in two ways, exerting a sacred influence both on the judgment and the heart. In respect to the one, it tends to confirm us in those good old Orthodox doctrines which lie at the basis of our faith. [00:27:18]
Brethren, I am not afraid that any man who thinks worthily about the Creator, stands in awe of his adorable perfections, and sees him sitting upon the throne doing all things according to the counsel of his will, will go far wrong in his doctrinal sentiments. He may say, my heart is fixed, O God. [02:11:46]
Just so is it with us when we turn from the ever-shifting, often boisterous tide of earthly things to take refuge in the Eternal God, who hath been our dwelling place in all generations. The fleeting things of human life and the fickle thoughts and showy deeds of men are as movable and changeable as the waters of the treacherous deep. [00:16:42]
We suffer the headaches, the heart leaps with palpitations, the blood creeps sluggishly along where its healthy flow should have been more rapid. We lose our limbs crushed by accident, some sense fails us, the eye is eclipsed in perpetual night, our mind is wrecked and disturbed, our fortunes vary, our goods disappear before our eyes. [00:49:45]
O believer, ever look then on all thy sufferings as being parts of the divine plan, and say as wave upon wave rolls over thee, he is in one mind, he is carrying out still his one great purpose. None of these cometh by chance, none of these happeneth to me out of order. [00:53:59]
How sorrowful it often seems to think how good men die. They learn through the days of their youth, and often before they come to years to use their learning, they are gone. The blade is made and annealed in many a fire, but ere the foeman useth it, it snaps. [00:58:58]
Ah, but my brethren, all those things were about the carrying out of the divine plan. Just so you may have seen sometimes upon the hard rock the lichen spring. As soon as the lichen race grows grand, it dies. But wherefore? It is because its death prepares the moss. [01:03:57]
The first sentence shows that he has a purpose; the second shows that it is incapable of change. Who can turn him? There are some shallow thinkers who dream that the great plan and design of God was thrown out of order by the fall of man. [01:10:58]
It is a wonderful thing how God affects his purpose while still the creature is free. They who think that predestination and the fulfillment of the divine purpose is contrary to the free agency of man know not what they say nor whereof they affirm. [01:22:25]
I know there is an easy way of getting out of this great deep, either by denying predestination altogether or by denying free agency altogether. But if you can hold the two, if you can say, yes, my consciousness teaches me that man does as he wills. [01:25:27]
Now, believer, listen to the second lesson. Who can turn him? While he is immutable from within, he is immovable from without. Who can turn him? That is a splendid picture presented to us by Moses in the Book of Numbers. [01:33:21]
Beloved, what God's soul desireth is your salvation and mine if we be his chosen. Well, that he doeth. Part of that salvation consists in our perfect sanctification. We have had a long struggle with inbred sin, and as far as we can judge, we have not made much progress. [01:47:34]
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Brethren, I am not afraid that any man who thinks worthily about the Creator, stands in awe of his adorable perfections, and sees him sitting upon the throne doing all things according to the counsel of his will, will go far wrong in his doctrinal sentiments. He may say, my heart is fixed, O God. [02:11:46]
Just so is it with us when we turn from the ever-shifting, often boisterous tide of earthly things to take refuge in the Eternal God, who hath been our dwelling place in all generations. The fleeting things of human life and the fickle thoughts and showy deeds of men are as movable and changeable as the waters of the treacherous deep. [00:16:42]
We suffer the headaches, the heart leaps with palpitations, the blood creeps sluggishly along where its healthy flow should have been more rapid. We lose our limbs crushed by accident, some sense fails us, the eye is eclipsed in perpetual night, our mind is wrecked and disturbed, our fortunes vary, our goods disappear before our eyes. [00:49:45]
O believer, ever look then on all thy sufferings as being parts of the divine plan, and say as wave upon wave rolls over thee, he is in one mind, he is carrying out still his one great purpose. None of these cometh by chance, none of these happeneth to me out of order. [00:53:59]
How sorrowful it often seems to think how good men die. They learn through the days of their youth, and often before they come to years to use their learning, they are gone. The blade is made and annealed in many a fire, but ere the foeman useth it, it snaps. [00:58:58]
Ah, but my brethren, all those things were about the carrying out of the divine plan. Just so you may have seen sometimes upon the hard rock the lichen spring. As soon as the lichen race grows grand, it dies. But wherefore? It is because its death prepares the moss. [01:03:57]
The first sentence shows that he has a purpose; the second shows that it is incapable of change. Who can turn him? There are some shallow thinkers who dream that the great plan and design of God was thrown out of order by the fall of man. [01:10:58]
It is a wonderful thing how God affects his purpose while still the creature is free. They who think that predestination and the fulfillment of the divine purpose is contrary to the free agency of man know not what they say nor whereof they affirm. [01:22:25]
I know there is an easy way of getting out of this great deep, either by denying predestination altogether or by denying free agency altogether. But if you can hold the two, if you can say, yes, my consciousness teaches me that man does as he wills. [01:25:27]
Now, believer, listen to the second lesson. Who can turn him? While he is immutable from within, he is immovable from without. Who can turn him? That is a splendid picture presented to us by Moses in the Book of Numbers. [01:33:21]
Beloved, what God's soul desireth is your salvation and mine if we be his chosen. Well, that he doeth. Part of that salvation consists in our perfect sanctification. We have had a long struggle with inbred sin, and as far as we can judge, we have not made much progress. [01:47:34]
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