May 4

My word shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. - Isaiah 55:11.

HERE we see the resemblance between natural and Spiritual influences in the certainty of their success. The snow and the rain do not return fruitless, nor shall God’s word; neither the one nor the other is ineffectual, but produce results corresponding to a certain and previous arrangement. Some results indeed always follow. But are these showers always useful? It is easy to see, that when they fall upon the garden and upon the cultivated field they are useful, but what is their use when they fall upon the sea, upon the sand, and upon the rock? We cannot say that God has poured them down in vain even then.

It is not for us mere short-sighted creatures, to determine what is in vain in the divine empire, where we find one operation will produce a thousand effects. It is a fact that God sends his gospel, and it is fairly and faithfully preached often when persons do not receive it. Nor is it then thrown away; even with regard to the wicked it is not in vain; they will have to acknowledge that “a prophet has been among them;” “they will have no cloak for their sin;” they “will be speechless;” they will be made to feel the full conviction that their destruction has been from themselves; they will have to acknowledge that God is justified when he speaketh, and clear when he judgeth.

Besides, man is to be considered not only personally but relatively. Where the gospel does not sanctify, it restrains; where it does not save, it civilizes. The community derives a thousand benefits from the genial influence of the gospel. But there is a certainty of some Spiritual effects in this case also. The degree and the instances of usefulness here we are incompetent judges of. It is impossible to tell what conviction it produces, or what emotions it excites. O, could we witness what has taken place under a gospel sermon as God surveys it! Then we should find one pricked in the heart crying out, “What must I do to be saved?” There is another, freed from his doubts and fears, and enabled to rejoice in the God of his salvation. Another comes in, pressed with grief to the ground; and the preacher has the tongue of the learned, and speaks a word in season to his weary heart; and he finds God in his palaces for a refuge.