07. Chapter 7: Manifoldness

Chapter VII.

MANIFOLDNESS.

1Pe 1:6. — Manifold temptations.

1Pe 4:10. — Manifold grace.

Eph 3:10. — Manifold wisdom.

Thereis an obvious contrast of subject-matter between the first of these quotations and the others. But the idea of manifoldness, variety, appears in all, and this connects them, and suggests important facts regarding the relation between the Christian’s needs, and his Lord’s supplies, and his Lord’s purposes towards him. i. ManifoldTemptations. On the word “temptation” I do not dwell at length, only remarking that the original word lends itself equally to denote the solicitations of the great Enemy and the tests of the Eternal Friend; “temptation” and “trial” respectively, in our present parlance. And it is obvious that these things are very often, perhaps always, in the case of the believer, two aspects of the one thing. In the history of Job we see Satan tempting, with resolute and merciless purposes of evil; we see the Lord trying, so as to shew to his “perfect” (Job 1:8), his thoroughly genuine, servant more of the plague of his own heart, and very much more of the glory and love of God. And we see the two processes carried on in great measure by the same events and experience. The double process is one of the normal facts of the Christian’s life. The Enemy is unwearied in temptation, the Friend mercifully perseveres with the touchstone and the probe. And truly to the regenerate soul both processes have to do with pain, with heaviness. Temptation, whatever be the victory of grace over it, has this deep pain in it, that it means the presence of the foe of the soul and of its Lord. Trial, whatever be the secret joy of knowing who sends it, and why, and of learning more of Him through it, a joy on which we dwelt above, [Note: Chapter 5] is in its very nature painful. It is intended to hurt, though not to injure. The Lord does not make His people Stoics, but Christians. His blessing does not blunt but refine their sensibilities, while it gives strength to their weakness. They feel the rod, they feel the Refiner’s fire. Not only in view of temptation, but under sense of trial, they understand what heaviness means.

Meanwhile let us remember, though but in passing, that heaviness was not the leading experience of St Peter’s converts. Their characteristic was joy and love. Read over the golden verses which contain this word about “heaviness. ”They form a picture radiant with the light of the Lord; with living hope, ardent love, joy unspeakable and full of glory. And St Peter speaks of these experiences as the present and habitual portion of these beloved “strangers scattered. ” [Note: I well remember a friend’s telling me that he had lighted upon two very different comments on this passage, almost at once. In the one, an expositor maintained that such glowing words must refer to the life to come; that they could only be anticipations of heaven, not experiences on earth. The other comment was an entry in the diary of the late Rev. W. H. Hewitson, a saint who had deep experiences of the Cross: ‘I have been rejoicing all day long with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. ’] On the other hand, and this is our chief concern now, this picture of light is crossed by a deep, tender shadow; “heaviness through manifold temptations. ”It is not easy, perhaps, to dissect the subject and to explain the theory. Solvitur ambulands; it is explained in the believing soul by a walk with God.

“Wouldst thou too understand?Behold I show The perfect way:Love God, and thou shalt know. ” [Note: James Montgomery,TheLotof the Righteous. ] And this experience of “heaviness” is “manifold. ”It has to do with manifold temptations, varied trials. Yes, they are varied, indeed. It was so of old. We have but to name the saints of Hebrews 11 : to see this in its vivid reality. But it is a fact too close to the human heart of all time to need much illustration. No two of us are fully alike in character or in surroundings. No one of us is free from innumerable changes in the incidence of his surroundings on his character. Age of life, social position, mental and moral education, bodily ease or disease, relationships and connexions, private and public duties, - I designedly mention these things without order, - all these differences, and how many others touching upon the individual spirit within, make up a vast “manifoldness” of temptation, of trial. And we can go only a very little way in helping one another in the multiplicity. We are like enough to another to understand the fact; we are unlike enough to be soon baffled by the details, even when we bring our best sympathy to bear. Only a little can the Christians whose trial is the snare and care of wealth enter into the life whose trial is poverty and straits; and the converse is true also. Only imperfectly can the Christian burthened with public responsibility enter into the difficulties that are bounded by the humble home. Not fully, with rare exceptions, can the strong, in health or in will, appreciate the essence of the temptations of the weak. And, again, such are the intricacies of life and of the soul, that the same man may often find himself tried at once from different quarters, on opposite sides of character. It is a manifold problem. ii. The manifold Grace of God. Here the problem finds a blessed answer. We have studied an extremely complicated lock, and no key in all our store will meet it and move it. But the great Artificer of both circumstances and salvation appears here with His perfect key, His golden key, cast into the very mould of the labyrinthine wards, intended and able to fit them all. Need aboundeth, in its many ramifications. But “grace doth much more abound” (Rom 5:20); it is the manifold grace of God.

True, beneath its multiplicity grace has a divine simplicity and singleness. For what is grace, when we come to its ultimate description? It is no abstract thing; no mysterious substance, thrown off as it were by God and injected into man. It is the Lord Himself in action. Grace of acceptance – what is it but God, for Christ’s sake, pardoning and welcoming the sinner – “God for us” (Rom 8:31)? Grace of sanctification, of peace and power and holiness, what is it but “God working in us to will and to do” (Php 2:13); “the Spirit strengthening us in the inner man;” “Christ dwelling in the heart by faith” (Eph 3:16-17)? What is human kindness but a kind man in action? What is divine grace but the Lord Himself, infinitely kind, acting for, and acting in, the soul?

Thus there is a glorious oneness in the inmost idea of grace. But it is a oneness out of which springs its infinite manifoldness of fitness and application. Personal action, in its very nature, is thus manifold; and grace is divinely personal action. The most refined machine is limited to a rigid narrowness in line and scope of work; it stands utterly devoid of the power to feel and meet new circumstances. The humblest Person is capable, as such, of a boundless versatility, an endless adaptability, compared with the impersonal machine. Grace is manifold, beyond the variations of out utmost need, just because it is the action within the soul and will of Him, not it but Him, who dwells within.

Thus it meets the case, be the case what it may. Never for a moment interfering with our personality, or suspending the work and office of our conscience, it, that is to say the Lord thus present, comes self-adjusted to the trial, to the temptation, of this hour, of this minute. No craft of the enemy is too subtle for that skill. No force of circumstances is too pressing for that power. There is “no temptation with” which He cannot “make a way to escape” (1Co 10:13) — into Himself. There is no labyrinth of so-called conflicting duties out of which He cannot guide into a straight path.

There is abundant skill and power in grace to bring the anxious and the weak to the feet of Jesus Christ, be their antecedent obstacles what they may. There is resource in grace alike for the life of ceaseless energy and intercourse, that it may be lived in God, and for the life of solitude and forced inaction that it may be made occasion for new sacrifices to Him. There is a fit provision for the temptations of the young, buoyant spirit, and for the needs of the melancholy and fearing. It, that is to say He, can so meet the case, that “the weak shall say, I am strong” (Joe 3:10). It, that is to say He, “gives what He enjoins. ” [Note:Da quod jubes, et jube quod vis. St. Augustine. ]

It, that is to say He, is adjusted to every need of life. And when the need of death comes, when the “next thing” to do is to step into the valley, to touch the edge of the cold river, grace will be found (ah, let us be sure of it, as life moves on, and the thought of death only gains in mystery as we approach it), grace will be found perfectly adjusted to that hour. And our best preparation for that need will be to welcome this holy manifoldness for the needs of this present, for this waking moment of active or suffering life. We yet shall find, through Him that loved us and abideth in us, that it is “a very simple thing to die. ” So let us thankfully face the multiplicity of circumstances, and of trials. Let us recognize in “the changing scenes of life” fresh occasions for the great Artificer to employ His will, His power. Let us remember that for every one of them there is, somewhere in Him who is with us and in us, the corresponding gift. The subject is endless indeed in its development. Its treatment is coextensive with our life. iii. Now we turn from St Peter toSt Paul, and hear him speak of what is manifold also; “the manifoldwisdom of God. ” The words have a special reference, as will be seen, of special and beautiful significance. The Apostle speaks of his manifold wisdom, not in the abstract, but as illustrated and in action in the true Church, that is to say in “the blessed company of all faithful people”; [Note: The Communion Service. ] and in the view of very important spectators. “The principalities and powers,” the spirits of the heavenly world, “angels and archangels and the company of heaven,” [Note: The Communion Service. ] are seen in this wonderful verse studying the wisdom of God as shown in the believing company. To take the simplest aspects of this disclosure of God’s word; we have it indicated here that Christians, of every grade, and character, and situation, and age, and name, are capable of thus being viewed from above, to the glory of the wisdom of their God. The poorest, humblest, most forgotten and neglected saint of Christ in whose manifold trials manifold grace is doing its work, may at this moment be affording to our “elder brethren of the sky” discoveries of what the Lord is and what He can do, most precious to themselves. In us they see what they cannot see in their own bright ranks; the victory of grace over the infinitely complicated problem of the recovery, the acceptance, the sanctification, the glory, of beings fallen, rebellious, justly condemned, and under all the conditions of the flesh.

Very different are the specimens they study; the Christian martyr, the Christian leader and master of men, the Christian thinker and student, the missionary and evangelist, the Christian mother, the friend of the needy and the outcast, the little believing child, the lonely aged one, the dying one, sinking into what to us looks like “utter destruction. ” [Note: See the noble passage,Wis 3:1-4. ] but what by them is seen as the triumphant issue of divine wisdom, turning death into the gate of life. Are we part of the subject-matter of God’s lessons to these heavenly learners in the study of His manifold wisdom?Is there anything in our lives from which an angel might learn more of God?If there is an ambition lawful in the life of penitent sinners, can there be a purer aspiration than that we may be used as illustrations to the minds of the Blessed, not of what man can be but of what He whom we love can do?