^ The most useful agents in nature have sometimes the most deadly effects. The atmosphere, which is essential to life, is the chief source of putrefaction and decay. The sea, which bears one mariner safely to the desired haven, buries another in a watery grave. Electricity, which carries a message across the world at the bidding of one man, strikes another dead. So the very circumstances of which a good man makes stepping-stones to heaven, a bad man will turn into a pathway to hell. The re- sponsibility for this, however, rests not with God, but with men.^
^ Crosses are blessed to us only in so far as we give ourselves up to them unreservedly and forgetting self. Seek to forget yourself, else all suffering is useless. God does not lay suffering on us merely that we may suffer, but that we may die to self by dint of putting it aside under the most difficult of all circum- stances, viz., pain.2
II Suffering borne in the Christian temper has often incidental effects upon character. For it induces tenderness, and strength,
^ A. W. Momerie, The Origin of Evil, 52. • F^nelon,- Spiritual Loiters to Men.
310 PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERINGS
and spirituality of life. The man who has suffered much has a keener insight into the sufferings of others, and therefore a more appreciative sympathy for them. His very voice and glance and touch gain a magnetic power from his pain. Nor is this tender- ness purchased at the cost of weakness, for suffering indurates and strengthens the entire person. Under all his apparent weak- ness, the man of sorrows is strong. And thus his own sorrow helps him to alleviate the sorrow of the world; while, besides thus enhancing his social efficiency, suffering refines and purifies the inner man, as a necessary consequence of the closer com- munion with the spiritual world to which it calls him.^
But if, impatient, thou let slip thy cross,
Thou wilt not find it in this world again,
Nor in another ; here, and here alone.
Is given thee to suffer for God's sake.
In other worlds we shall more perfectly
Serve Him and love Him, praise Him, work for Him,
Grow near, and nearer Him with all delight;
But then we shall not any more be called
To suffer, which is our appointment here.
Canst thou not suffer then one hour, or two?
And while we suffer, let us set our souls
To suffer perfectly ; since this alone.
The suffering, which is this world's special grace,
May here be perfected and left behind.^
II.
The Necessity for Christ's Sufferings.
"It became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things."
1. The phrase, " it became him," speaks of a moral necessity lying upon God, a necessity springing from the requirements of the Divine nature and government. Of course the word is one of much broader application. We can speak of a comely face and of a becoming dress, as well as of " that which becometh saints." There is a physical as well as a moral fitness. We may also say
» J. E. Illingworth.
• E. Hamilton King, The Sermon in the ffospUal.
HEBREWS II. lo 311
of anything that it becomes a man of wisdom, righteousness, truth — meaning by this only that it is not opposed to, though not absolutely required by, such a character. But, manifestly, that which in any circumstances is perfectly suited to the require- ments of perfect wisdom and spotless rectitude is absolutely obligatory. To do anything else than this, while circumstances remain unchanged, would be folly and sin. Moral fitness runs speedily into moral obligation. Christian propriety is strictest law. Howmuch more, then, Divine propriety — that which becometh God!
2. The statement here is not " it became God," or " it became the Father," but, with impressive emphasis, " It became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things." The sufferings of man's Saviour fit into the whole character of Jehovah and all His infinite perfections: they form an essential element of the Divine counsels and operations. Either the whole scheme of the Divine creation and government is loose and contingent, or the perfecting of the Captain of salvation is based on a Divine necessity of wisdom, righteousness, and love. The question has sometimes been put, whether or not sinners might have been saved in some other way than through the incarnation of the Eternal Word, and the atonement of the cross. Here we have an answer to the question, as direct as the occasion calls for : " It became " the All-Perfect, that the work should be accomplished even so.
3. The revelation of His Fatherhood required it. Humanity was His own child. Humanity was a child of many sorrows, familiar with tears, and the tears were, in part at least, of His own ordaining. Sin had enormously increased the sorrows ; but apart from sin there were the pangs and travail of creation, there was everywhere the pain and struggle and bereavement, and the bleeding and breaking heart. How could He join Himself to humanity without sharing human tears ? If He really loved and pitied His sad and guilty world, how could He send His saving message to us otherwise than through the life of a suffering one ? How could He prove to men His Fatherhood except by bearing their infirmities ? How could He become incarnate save as a Man of Sorrows ?