The Judge of all the earth will surely do what is right. He will spare those only who can be spared in righteousness. He will not call evil good, and good evil, to arrive in this way at an unrighteous judgment. He will spare only those whose best the blood of Jesus clears, as well as those whose worst the blood of Jesus covers.
Tj Being moved by His own free mercy and goodness, even in
the same love in which He sent His Son, the beloved, into the
world, to seek and save the lost ; on the 1st day of the second
month, in the evening, in the year, according to the common
1 H. W. Mabie, Parables of Life, 27.
5oo A PECULIAR TREASURE
account, 1689, being alone in my chamber, the Lord brake in upon me unexpectedly, quick as lightning from the heavens, and as a righteous, all-powerful, all-knowing, and sin-condemning Judge ; before whom my soul, as in the deepest agony, trembled, was confounded and amazed, and filled with such awful dread as no words can reach or declare.
My mind seemed plunged into utter darkness, and eternal condemnation appeared to enclose me on every side, as in the centre of the horrible pit — never to see redemption thence, or the face of Him in mercy, whom I had sought with all my soul. But in the midst of this confusion and amazement, where no thought could be formed or any idea retained, save eternal death possess- ing my whole man, a voice was formed and uttered in me : — " Thy will, 0 God, be done : if this be Thy act alone, and not my own, I yield my soul to Thee." In conceiving these words from the Word of Life I quickly found relief : there was all-healing virtue in them ; and the effect was so swift and powerful that, even in a moment, all my fears vanished, as if they had never been, and my mind became calm and still, and simple as a little child ; the day of the Lord dawned, and the Sun of Eighteousness arose in me, with Divine healing and restoring virtue in His countenance, and He became the centre of my mind.
In this wonderful operation of the Lord's power, denouncing judgment in tender mercy, and in the hour of my deepest concern and trial, I lost my old self, and came to the beginning of the knowledge of Him, the Just and Holy One, whom my soul had longed for.1
1. " I will spare them," says God, " as a man spareth his own son " ; in other words, " I will spare them fondly, I will spare them affectionately " — not as a judge spares a stranger, whom he dis- misses from his bar, but as a father spares a son, whom he takes to his bosom. This is a noteworthy fact or feature in the case. It would be a little thing comparatively to be merely spared — spared, with no feeling toward us in Him who spares — spared, as a stranger might be, who is nothing to Him. What would life eternal be ? What would innocence itself be ? What would both together be, without love to us in the heart of God ? Just an eternity without a summer and without a sun. But it is no such cheerless prospect that awaits us. God will spare us " as a man spareth his own son." On the great judgment day, every
1 A Journal of the Life of Thomas Story, 13.
MALACHI m. 17 501
accuser that assails us will be answered by Himself and answered from His own remembrance-books; and when, at last, the trial through, the process ended, He can spare us righteously, He will gather us in His arms, and clasp us to His bosom, saying, " These my sons were dead, and are alive again ; they were lost, and are found."
U In a letter to his youngest sister, announcing his intention to offer himself for foreign mission work, Henry Martyn wrote : " I am thankful to God that you are so free from anxiety and care ; we cannot but with praise acknowledge His goodness. What does it signify whether we be rich or poor, if we are sons of God ? How unconscious are they of their real greatness, and they will be so till they find themselves in glory ! When we contemplate our everlasting inheritance, it seems too good to be true; yet it is no more than is due to the kindred of ' God manifest in the flesh."'1
2. But the full promise of the text is greater still. " I will spare them," says God, " as a man spareth his own son that serveth him " — that kind of son. In other words, " I will spare him admiringly, I will spare him approvingly." A man usually would spare his own son in any circumstances. Though he were a son that served him not, he would labour to spare him till the going down of the sun. See, for instance, how David would have spared Absalom — a wicked son that would never have spared his father. David's charge to all his captains was " Beware that none touch the young man Absalom." And when, notwithstanding, Absalom perished, and news reached his father that it was even so, his bitter cry was this — " 0 my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom ! would God I had died for thee, 0 Absalom, my son, my son ! " Yes, a man would even spare his own son that served him not. Of course it would be only pityingly; still, pityingly, he would do it. But it is not thus that the Lord will spare His people, for He will spare them approvingly, " as a man spareth his own son that serveth him " — not as David would have spared Absalom, but as Abraham would have spared Isaac, that beloved son in whom he was at all times pleased.