01.1. A Mother's Love

Chapter 1 A MOTHER’S LOVE, OR THE TENDER COMPASSION OF OUR GOD

"But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands: thy walls are continually before me." - Isaiah 49:14-16

Truly, the Lord loveth the gates of Zion. Glorious things are spoken of thee, city of God. Behold a fruit tree near a fountain, from whence thousands of weary pilgrims in every age, have gathered golden fruits, and it flourishes, and blossoms, and is still richly laden. O let every troubled soul draw near, and partake of this heavenly manna.

Three things here demand our attention ―

1. The building of Zion.

2. The mournful complaint of the daughter of Zion, and 3. The assurance of God’s love to his afflicted children.

These shall be the subjects of our meditation.

1. THE BUILDING OF ZION

Go round about Zion, mark well her bulwarks, and consider the towers thereof. Zion is the city of the living God, ― the church, the tabernacle, or building of which St. Peter speaks, when he addresses those that are born of water and of the Holy Ghost, and says. " Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house." (1 Peter 2:5) Such is a full and comprehensive representation of the church of God. Do you inquire respecting the Great Master Builder? The Creator of all things is the founder of the church. Its builder and maker is God. Before the world was called into being, its design was minutely portrayed, in all its beautiful proportions, in the counsels of the Eternal. The height, and breadth, and length of God’s building were accurately defined; the period within which it should be perfected was determined; the stones were all numbered, and the places specified whence they should be obtained. Nearly six thousand years have elapsed since God begun the spiritual building, and Yet it is still in progress, and in perfect accordance with the original design. It is the work of God alone. We are only instruments which he employs; all the glory is his. He shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory. (Zechariah 6:12-13) He is jealous for the honour of his name. Do you ask respecting the foundation of the church? St. Paul has furnished us with the answer: " Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 3:11) The incarnate God is the foundation. If trust be reposed in any other Saviour than " the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;" (John 1:29) if the surety-ship of blood be wanting, it is " no house of the Lord." The true church is based upon Christ; but not upon him with whom the world can find no fault; nor upon him whom an infidel and atheistic philosophy can tolerate; but it rests upon that crucified Saviour who is to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness, but to them that are called, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:23-24) And what is the building itself? It consists of stones, yea, of living stones. (1 Peter 2:5) Stones, indeed, are we all by nature, gravitating earthwards, cleaving to the dust, hard, cold, lifeless. How many of you have sat for years, unmoved alike by tenderness or wrath! The rain and dew have fallen from heaven; the sun has shone in his brightness; the awful storm of thunder and lightning has passed over you; and yet you remain unfeeling, obdurate, unchanged. Is not this like the stone, like the rock of flint? But, thanks be unto God, there is one who can, of these stones, raise up children unto Abraham. (Matthew 3:9)

It is even these hard and unyielding materials that God has selected for the building of the spiritual temple, that the greatness of his power may be made manifest. He chose not the angels and the heavenly host; He chose not the legions of devils, and the fallen morning stars; but the spiritually dead, miserable, and helpless children of Adam; these are the quarry from whence he collects the stones, with which to raise the walls of Zion. And as the building is the Lord’s, so is the separation of the stones from the quarry. His servants, the ministers of the Gospel, have power to loosen no stone; for he speaks the word by their mouth; he directs the stroke where it shall fall. " My word," saith the Lord, " is as the hammer, and as the fire which breaketh in pieces the rocks."

God’s methods in effecting this great work are not uniform, but various. Some are loosened gradually and gently, after long preparation, as Mary, Lazarus, and Martha. Others are forcibly severed; then is the work more speedy, and also more perceptible, as Peter, and Nicodemus. Others are rent as by a flash of lightning, like Paul on his way to Damascus, or the jailer at Philippi: there is a clap of thunder, and at once the stone is set free. But when may it be said that the stone is loosened? It is at that moment, my brethren, when the man, by the Spirit of God becomes conscious that he is a miserable sinner, utterly lost, and is led to repentance. Then is he separated from the quarry. God has taken him thence, and he is altogether changed; differing from the stones which remain in the quarry, he has become a living stone, and is awakened to recollection and calling upon God. He is now formed and polished by the hand of the builder, and laid upon the wall of the spiritual temple, being united to Christ the foundation, by a living faith, by a faith of the operation of God. (Colossians 2:12)

If we examine the building more narrowly, we shall discover a remarkable similarity in the living stones of which it is composed. Collected from the various nations of the earth both savage and cultivated, and diverse from each other in kind and quality, as soon as they occupy the place assigned them in the spiritual temple, all diversity ceases, and they severally form a constituent part of that magnificent edifice, which is distinguished for uniformity of execution no less than unity of design, and in the harmony and beauty of whose several parts, the glory of the Lord is specially made manifest. They are all sprinkled with the same blood, all renewed by the same Spirit: and though to themselves they appear utterly unworthy, they are, in the eyes of God, pure as the lily, and whiter than the snow. They are a lowly, contrite people, sojourners in Mesheck, (Psalms 120:5) pilgrims of God, who have here no continuing city, but seek one that is to come. (Hebrews 13:14) In the world they have tribulation, but in Christ they have peace: (John 16:33) they long and "wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of their body," (Romans 8:23.) and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. They have " one faith, one hope, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in them all. (Ephesians 4:5) Herein is the unity of the true church. Jerusalem is a city that is at unity in itself. (Psalms 122:3; Psalms 133:1)

One in spiritual life; the gifts and graces of the members of Christ are manifold and diversified. "Behold," saith the Lord, to his church, " I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires; and I will make thy windows of agate, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones." (Isaiah 54:11) They are all precious stones; but one, in whom hope predominates, may be compared to an emerald; a second is distinguished for love; he is a ruby: in a third we are struck by the prevalence of a child-like simplicity and humility; he is a sapphire; a fourth is a transparent crystal, shining in wisdom and knowledge. One is contemplative and intellectual; another active and laborious. One is a babe, another a young man, a third is a father in Christ. Various as are the means by which they are brought nigh to God, yet they are all one in Christ Jesus. And "all this worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." (1 Corinthians 12:1-13.) One Spirit works in all, and, as He wills, Gives varied gifts on either hand; But when each stone its place allotted fills. The temple shall completed stand;

Glorious amidst the city of our God!

There shine those gems of many a hue.

Thus shall his church appear ― his saints’ abode. Who seemed so mean to mortal view.

2. THE MOURNFUL COMPLAINT OF THE DAUGHTER OF ZION The Lord loveth the gates of Zion. But how deeply and how tenderly he loves her, she appears not to know; or why does she utter this mournful complaint, " The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." O Zion, weep rather for thyself. If thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God.

Visitations of calamity or of judgment may indeed he sent, under which nothing would be more appropriate than such a complaint. When, at the time of Noah, the whole world stood in hostile array against the Lord and against his anointed, and all, with the exception of a single family, were overwhelmed in one common and universal destruction; or when, both in Israel and Judah, the seed of Abraham revolted from Jehovah, and the knees of his elect people bowed before the altars of Moloch and of Baal; or when the haughty king of Babylon trampled with, the iron shoe of war the ruined fragments of Salem’s towers, and the abomination of desolation was set up by Antiochus, on the altar of the Lord, and the holy book of God was torn by profane hands, and cast into the flames; or when, in later days, papal darkness brooded over the church, and obscured the light of heaven; or when, yet darker still, a godless illuminator dared to mock, as " the crucified," the Lord of lords ― ah! "who then would chide the daughter of Zion because she hung her harp upon the willows, and clothed herself in mourning as a widow, and gave utterance to that melancholy cry, " The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me!" And what is thy state in these our days, thou daughter of Israel? Thou standest upon thy watch-tower, and lookest round upon thy palaces, and behold they are rich and glorious. On all sides thou hearest again the loud acclamations of Hosannah, Hosannah to Him that Cometh in the name of the Lord. Again, there is a witness and a testimony awakened in the land, where there was silence and sorrow ― the witness of Him whom thy soul loveth. The blood-red banner of the cross is again unfurled; and showers of blessings descend from the Lord. Take then thy harp from the bough of the willow and utter a song of praise to the Lord, and of defiance to his enemies. But should any one inquire of thee, " What of the night?" then mayest thou answer, not, indeed, without tears, " The morning Cometh, and also the night; if ye will inquire, inquire ye, return, come." Thou regardest thyself still as vile, even as the worm Jacob, and sittest solitary, as a lonely cottage in a vineyard. Thou seest that in a thousand places the ways of Zion mourn, and all her ways are desolate, and her priests sigh and her virgins are afflicted. Thou castest thine eyes upon the countless host of hirelings who continually cause the people to err, and lead them through Golgotha to everlasting destruction. Thou beholdest the millions of wandering sheep which hear not the voice of the good Shepherd, and perish, eternally perish, and no man layeth it to heart. At the contemplation of this darkness around thee, thy heart is well nigh broken, and the bitter cry bursts from thee again, " The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." But if Zion doth not collectively thus complain, yet do I well know that in the hearts of many of the individual citizens of Zion, this lamentation is not silenced. I hearken to you, and hear, O children of God; and O! on every side of me, the heavy sigh escapes from many a heart, " The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me."

There sits a poor weeping penitent, and he smites upon his breast and cries, " God be merciful to me, a sinner! " As yet he knows not how to find the arms and heart of the Saviour, and he thinks " the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.’

Yonder, behold a warrior in the hard conflict against sin and the devil, and as he deals his blows around him, he cannot overcome that creeping serpent, whose heads, when wounded, are continually renewed; and at length the poor soldier of the cross sinks upon the earth, and exclaims, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me! "

Here lies a poor soul in the darkness of heavy temptation, agitated and oppressed with fearful doubts, alarming forebodings, and thoughts which cause all his bones to tremble. He doubts respecting his state, he doubts respecting Christ and his love, and the cry impetuously bursts from his heart, " The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me."

There languishes another, who has now, for a long long time, been in the fire of outward tribulation, and the Lord comes not down to deliver him, and his enemies rejoice over him and say, " Where is now thy God? " and alas! his God does not reveal himself. The footsteps of the Lord are in the great waters, and his head is veiled in the clouds, so that even the friends of this troubled soul begin to say, " If thou wert righteous, God would not thus deal with thee; " and the poor sufferer is dismayed, and cries out in the anguish of his soul, " The Lord hath forsaken me." And whatever other causes may be assigned, is it not true, beloved heirs of the kingdom, that the melancholy plaint is not unfrequently heard among us, " The Lord hath forgotten me? " From many a heart does it arise, in many a chamber does it become vocal, and on the beds of multitudes of the children of Zion is it uttered, with bitter cries and tears, in the night, when the world is still, and the inhabitants thereof are at rest.

Gather yourselves together, then, ye godly troubled souls, for I speak not to those who have the sorrow of the world; gather yourselves together. Think not that I mean to rebuke you for your unbelief. No! That belongs not to me: for the Lord himself doth not rebuke you. Would you then comfort us? No beloved, not I; for how would that relieve you? But I would direct you to One who is both able and willing to comfort you. Behold! He is none other than the Lord God himself. He has heard your cry; he knows your sorrows; and is come down to deliver you. The bowels of his mercy yearn over you, his weeping children. Behold! Behold him! See the light of his countenance lifted up upon you; the outstretched arms of a merciful God and loving Father. He has a word to say to you; fear not. It is a word by which the darkness of your souls shall at once be converted into the brightness of the day.

3. THE ASSURANCE OF GOD’s LOVE TO HIS AFFLICTED CHILDREN.

"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me."

O, brethren, what grace, what comfort is here! Lay these words near your heart: let not one be lost, and say whether they are not full of comfort! Is it not a great and distinguished privilege to be permitted to fall down before the Almighty in trembling reverence, and to call him our God? And it is yet a greater blessedness to have boldness of access, through Christ, and to be enabled to cry to him in the spirit of adoption, " Abba, Father." And mark this well. It is as if God would encourage us to approach him with the confidence which we repose in a mother, and freely, and openly, without any fear or reserve, to communicate our inmost thoughts and feelings to himself. A mother’s love is therefore set before us, and we are assured that it is but a faint and imperfect emblem of the love of God.

Think, brethren, of the tender care and anxious solicitude of a mother! In whose arms does an infant love to rest! In whose heart is the helpless babe enshrined! By whose watchful care is his every want supplied! Is it not a mother’s? Who has borne, and carried, and nourished, and fed you? Is it not a mother? Who, my dear little ones, who is it that provides for you, and clothes you? Who corrects you, when needful, and herself suffers more, at such times, than the corrected child? Who comforts you, and gently lays you to rest?! is it not a mother? What more dost thou desire, thou happy child? Softly lay thy head on the bosom of thy mother, and repose in peace.

And, is it by a mother’s love that the Lord describes his own! It is my brethren; and it is to you he speaks, and his voice is to the children of men. Then, then, I have enough. What more do I need to hear? It is enough. ― No! my beloved. God has yet more to say to you. He would tell you further how it is that he loveth you.

" Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? " Such is the inquiry which the Lord makes. And mark the rising force of the words, which is noticed by many ancient commentators. Can a woman forget ― can she who is per-eminently endowed with feeling and affection ― can she forget her child? The child may be ungrateful and rebellious, but will she, on that account, forget him, withdraw from him her love, and banish him from her heart! Never! never ― I confidently appeal to you who are mothers.

But, admitting that she may forget her grown-up son, and far distant daughter, will she therefore forget her infant, her tender, helpless, sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? O no! A tiger may forget her young, but not a tender mother. But to suppose possible that which we acknowledge to be an impossibility ― a mother may forget her little child: does it then, of necessity, follow, that she will not have compassion on the son of her womb? that she can, without pain, see him languish, and pine away, and die? Ah, no! A mother’s eyes that had never wept, would at such a sight become a fountain of tears. And where is the mother that would not, from the heart, cry out, " Alas I my poor, poor child! would that I could suffer for thee, and ease thee of thy pain! "

When, therefore, the Lord inquires, " Can a mother forget her sucking child " are not all of you, who are mothers, ready with the answer? and do you not reply, with one voice, " No, no! it cannot be! " And so, saith the Lord, will I not forget you, my beloved children. Thus he loveth you with the tenderness of the most tender mother.

But, yet more. Here is not only a mother’s tenderness, but a love beyond that of a mother. For the Lord does not merely say, I will not forget thee: but he says, "yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." If that which appears impossible, should indeed take place ― a mother may forget her sucking child ― yet will not I, the unchangeable, the eternal God, yet will not I forget thee. This is strong language. Here is opened before us the deep abyss of love, which the eye of man can never penetrate. And as we have no means to fathom it, so we can form no conception, much less can we give any adequate expression thereof.

O daughter of Zion, canst thou now complain, " the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me?" Ah! such a cry is not right, it is sin, it is blasphemy. Away with such unworthy complaint. Down in the dust and pray’’. And how does the Lord close these words of heavenly comfort? " Behold I have graven thee on the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." How precious this assurance to Zion at large, as well as to each individual believer! As an architect who is about to build a city, first lays down the outline, and marks out the spaces required for houses, streets, squares, and palaces, so also hath the Lord delineated his whole plan of the spiritual Zion: and it is upon the palms of his hands that he hath graven it. There, in his eternal purpose, doth it stand, finished and adorned in all its splendor: and who can hinder Him from perfecting his great and mighty design? Though the war-cry of the Canaanite and Samaritan may be, " Down with it! Down with it! even to the ground!" yet will the flag of Zion ever wave on its towers of glory. For the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion. Her walls are continually before him. With his favour doth he compass her as with a shield. And as Zion is herself graven upon the palms of His hands, so are each of the citizens thereof. O that every one of you could realize this for yourselves. You are graven there, not in the form which you now bear, not in the body of sin and death which still cleaves to you, (Romans 7:24) but in the similitude of that perfect body in which you shall hereafter be raised in power. (1 Corinthians 15:43) And whilst you are here suffering in the church militant, and groan, being burdened, (2 Corinthians 5:4). God beholds you already invested with the robes of righteousness, and bearing on high the palms of triumph, and shining in the spotless purity and surpassing brightness of eternal glory. (Revelation 7:9) Such as you stand engraven upon his hands, such you shall assuredly be before the throne of the Majesty on high. Nor is there a moment in which, wherever you are, his eyes are not upon you. Know, thou daughter of Zion, that thou art ever before him.

Shouldst thou retire into solitude to weep ― shouldst thou water thy couch with thy tears ― shouldst thou lie, with Elijah, under the lonely juniper tree ― or withdraw into the deepest shades of the dark and dreary forest, the tender heart of God is near thee, his watchful eye of love is over thee, and his right hand, though unseen, upholds and strengthens thee. In whatever state or circumstances thou mayest be, as often as thou sayest, " The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me," thou speakest not aright, thou doest thyself much wrong, God knoweth. Ah! brother, if thine eyes were but once opened, as were the eyes of the servant of the prophet, to see the angels of God that encamp around thee, thou wouldat indeed be astonished.

Away then with needless care! Who should be careful that knows the tender love of God! He forgetteth not his child, his little one, his helpless babe. O no. The child of God may take this comfortable assurance home to his heart. But are we his children? You are, brethren, if you can say, that with weeping hearts you seek his grace: that you inwardly delight in the fruit of his Cross; that, with a contrite spirit, you desire nothing more earnestly than to be washed in the blood of Jesus. Then are you the children of God: and, though you are not yet able to rejoice in the full assurance of your adoption into the family of heaven, and as yet are not conscious of being the objects" of the tender love of your God; nevertheless, believe in that love. The time for sensible experience is not far distant. God would delight to lead us in a smoother and more pleasant path than he is ordinarily wont to lead us, did not our salvation demand it otherwise.

But, look well to it, dear brethren, each for himself, that you do not groundlessly trust in the love and mercy of our God. It is to Zion only that God speaks in my text. And it is not fasting and prayer, it is not works and deservings, which bring us within the bonds of this covenant of grace and love; it is a poor, broken, and contrite heart, a troubled spirit, and a soul sighing and looking to the Cross of Jesus. The " Lord, remember me," of the thief upon the cross ― the "God be merciful to me a sinner," which bursts from the heart of the penitent, as, led by the Spirit, he bends in lowly reverence before the Lamb of God offered in sacrifice ― such a prayer alone rends the heavens, such a prayer finds its way, through our Advocate, to the heart of the Father; it is the key of the sanctuary. that God may give it to you all for Jesus Christ’s sake.

Amen.