Aug. 22
WRATH TO GOD'S GLORY
"Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath
shalt thou restrain" Ps. 76:10
Wicked men will be wrathful. Their anger we must endure as the
badge of our calling, the token of our separation from them: if we
were of the world, the world would love its own. Our comfort is that
the wrath of man shall be made to redound to the glory of God. When in
their wrath the wicked crucified the Son of God they were unwittingly
fulfilling the divine purpose, and in a thousand cases the willfulness
of the ungodly is doing the same. They think themselves free, but like
convicts in chains they are unconsciously working out the decrees of
the Almighty.
The devices of the wicked are overruled for their defeat. They act
in a suicidal way, and baffle their own plottings. Nothing will come
of their wrath which can do us real harm. When they burned the
martyrs, the smoke which blew from the stake sickened men of popery
more than anything else.
Meanwhile, the Lord has a muzzle and a chain for bears. He
restrains the more furious wrath of the enemy. He is like a miller who
holds back the mass of the water in the stream, and what he does allow
to flow he uses for the turning of his wheel. Let us not sigh, but
sing. All is well, however hard the wind blows.