But it is never possible for the Church to remain a Church if it forgets the time when God brought it out of the house of bondage. The day in the life of the Church that answers to this is that mighty act of God to which we look back, just as Israel looked back to the Eed Sea; that mighty act of God which includes the presence of Christ in the world, and His death, and resurrection, and ascension, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. If we are to remain Christians at all, if we are to have the character of God's people in us, our life must always remain under the impression of that great theme. To realize what it means that Jesus Christ lived in this world, lived our life, died our death, ascended to the Father, and poured out the gift of His Spirit, to realize that is to realize what a Christian means when he uses the word " God."
(2) "Eemember, forget thou not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness " (Deut. ix. 7).
In the life of Israel there were days that were eminent in evil. These forty years that had been passed in the wilderness might in some respects seem very monotonous. One year and
DEUTERONOMY viii. 2 -^^t 7
one day were only too painfully like another, but there were days eminent in badness, days when they had done monumental deeds of wickedness, things that provoked God to anger ; days of rebel- lion; days of mutiny; days of distrust, when they challenged God; days of degrading sensuality. What hideous recollections some of these were !
And is there not something corresponding to them in the life of every man ? You cannot date your conversion, perhaps, but you can remember the very day when you gave way to anger and hatred, to envy, to profanity, to sensuality, to some kind of evil passion that provoked the wrath of God. There are acts of sin that have a kind of evil prominence even in our bad lives, and God says to us, "Remember these: remember how thou pro- vokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness."
Why should we remember things like that ? They are to be remembered, for one thing, that we may understand the long- suffering of God, and praise Him for it. There is nothing more wonderful in God than the way in which He bears with us. His long-suffering sustains the provocation of our iniquities, and gives us new opportunities again and again ; is not wearied with receiv- ing our penitence, and multiplies His own marvel. And we need to remember those things that we ourselves may grow in peni- tence. A man does not repent and then be done with it. Re- pentance is not like the payment of a debt that we pay and then it is over. Repentance is a habit of daily virtue. Repentance is not something that is extinguished by forgiveness. Repentance is something that is begotten by forgiveness. Repentance is something that goes on, ever deepened and purified and made more powerful just by the prolonged experience of the pardoning love of God. And we need to remember these things also, that they may teach us to abstain from hasty judgments of others. How inconsiderate people can be in spite of their need of con- sideration ! If we remember how we did provoke the Lord our God in the wilderness, then we will not be so harsh and peremp- tory with the man who needs patience from us.
(3) " Remember all the way which the Lord thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness " (Deut. viii. 2).
It is taken for granted that our life here is under the provi-
8 REMEMBER ALL THE WAY
dence and guidance of God. " The Lord thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness." Now providence is difficult to prove except to a man who has learned to believe in redemp- tion. The Christian doctrine of providence is not something antecedent to redemption; the Christian doctrine of providence is an inference from redemption. You must know God's love at the place where it is hardest of all to believe in it, or else you will never be able to believe in it anywhere at all. You have an illustration of this in an ordinary family. When everything goes pleasantly, a boy hardly knows what it means when he is told his father loves him. He gets his regular meals ; he gets clothes ; he gets shelter ; he gets education — of course he does (that is what he thinks) — why should not he ? But if the boy were ill, dangerously ill, ill to the point of death, and he saw his father abandon everything to think of him, then it would come home to him that the love of his father was a real thing. And after that it would be credible to him, and he would understand, that the love of his father covered all his life, even in what had once seemed indifferent things; even in what once seemed per- verse and cross and untoward things ; he would understand that his father's affection might even in these be seeking his good. It is just like that with providence. A man cannot believe in pro- vidence unless providence is an inference from the Cross. And you will notice that that is the way it is put in the New Testa- ment. St. Paul says, " We know that all things work together for good to them that love God." Who know ? We Christians know. We who have stood beside the Cross of Christ, and have seen the love of God there come to us in our extremity, identify itself with us in our guilt and misery and despair, take all our burden on itself and lift us up ; we who have that assurance of God's love can see the light of it fall on all our life, and know that God is everywhere making it all contribute to our good. Those who can say, "He that spared not his own Son, but de- livered him up for us all," can say, " Shall he not with him also freely give us all things ? "