The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Timothy — Section 40

of sadness In all their joy, What better confession could there be that we are miserable? We are sadly out of tune. Who can bring joy out of us ? Now, here comes in the gospel to make UB happy. God could have made others happy. If there had not been enough, he could have created more, and poured out his happiness upon them. But no; here are a few miserable beings. Out of the hundred sheep, here is one that has strayed away in the wilds and haunts of beasts of prey. Out of the countless myriads that are in God's universe, here are a few that are miserable. And the blessed God says, " I would make them happy ; I would bring back joy to their hearts ; I would pour out my blessedness on them." .As if one more philanthropic than the rest should say, "I will not go to the homes of peace and health and plenty, and try to make those already blessed doubly blessed ; but I will go to the prisons, and to the hospitals, and to the alleys, and, wherever I see suffering, I will attempt to relieve it." Glorious g,)spel, then, that has respect to UB who are miserable I But far more glorious, if it is considered how we are miserable. We are miserable by our own act. In our folly and sin, we have thrown away blessedness. We have sold it for a mess of pottage. Strange it is, yet it is truly none other than this, that we have willed our own misery. And, having guiltily willed our own misery, God, we can suppose, might have willed it too, He might have said, "I have made all my creatures for happiness; but t h - these whom I have honoured above others-they will not have it; they have spurned it away from them, and so by their own act, not by my wish, they are miserable." But glorious gospel, in spite of our sin, the blessed God willed our happiness. And in his compassions he said, "I will raise them out of their misery." And ~o his language now is," I have no pleasure in your misery." Thrice to this effect he speaks in Ezekiel: "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God;" " For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God;" "Say unto them that pine away in their sins, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." Here, theo, is our glorious gospel The blessed God, the Fountain of blessedness, wishe:; you to be blessed. Whoever you are that are unhappy, that are pining away in your sms, that are afraid of eternal misery, believe it, that is not according to God's heart. To the most wretched, woe-begone, sin-distracted soul on the face of the earth, we are warranted in the Name of the happy God to say- Be happy. We remark (2) the gospel is glorious, if we consider the means by which, w~ are made bleRl!ed. If creation was pleasing to God, it was also easy. He had simply to will the existence of happy creatures. But he had to do more than will us sinners to be happy. We look upon a great city; we think by what means it has been built up; we think of the incalculable labour that has been spent upon it. We think how generations of men have toiled hard at it, with what a.nx.iety they have contrive4, with what patience and endurance they have laid stone upon stone, and added house to hoUBe and street to street. We think how many able men have spent their lives, sacrificed their available strength, in the building up of this city, and then we think with what majestic ease, and how in a. moment of time, God might have placed it there complete. But to make us sinners happy, was work more difficult for God than for us the building up of a city-work requiring greater sacrifice of life. But glorious gospel, glorioUB beyond all parallel, glorious beyond all conception, the ble,sed Son in the bosom of the blessed Father said, "I will undertake it; I will suffer and die to make men happy." .And so he takes measures to suffer and die. He descends into our humanity. And do you say it is man who is there, suffering and agonizing and dying? Say, rather, it is God in our humanity. Why, the means used to make us happy are altogether stupendous in their proportions. And dreadfully hard-hearted and void or all feeling must we be, if we can see these means UBed befo1:c our eyes, and yet we be content to remain in our misery, as though God had done nothrng but had allowed us to suffer the consequences of our Bins. Oh, let us learn the lesson that Calvary has to teach us about God's desire to make us happy. Let us dismiss every dark conception of God from our minds which an evil heart may throw up. Let us feel that on God's part there is an infinite willingness, nay, an infinite anxiety and longing to bless UB. And let llB heartily respond to God's desire to blesa us, in the way prescribed by him. Let us take, as the object of our faith, what has come out of t?at heart of _blessednes~. and is now evidently set before UB. Let us take, a.s the ob;ect of our laith, the lull wd free and meritorious righteousness of the crucified Son of God, to wake us just and  28 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. [oB, I, 1-20.