"'Though He slay me,' I would rest
In His Sovereign Will,
For the joy to feel His arms
Wrapped about me still.
"’ Though He slay me,' I would sing Alleluia lays;
For the Master's slaying-place
Is the gate of praise.
"Though He slay me,' I would cry,
Lord, our wills are one;
Spare or slay me as Thou wilt;
Let Thy Will be done!
"' Though He slay me,' yet in Him
All my soul would trust,
Not, alone, because it may,
But because it must!"
L A. BENNETT ("Alleluia Songs")
PROCURES PLEASURE
Man’s nature is such that, in addition to perfection, it demands pleasure. How that demand is met in the Will of God may thus be declared:—
God's Will is perfect, because He is love, and only Love can, and Love can only make laws for man which will provide him with perfect pleasure.
That is a double proposition. Let us consider it.
I. Only love can make laws for man which will provide him with perfect pleasure.— Disinterestedness lies at the heart of all pure love. "Love seeketh not its own." (1 Cor. 13:5) It is almost impossible to discuss the true nature of love from the midst of the limitations of human life as we know it. It is so easy to judge love by the partial realization of it that has come within our consciousness. We love those that love us, those that please us, those that like us; and at the root of all this, in the last analysis, there is but a refined form of selfishness.
The Divine fact of love is infinitely greater than these human imitations. Occasionally it seems to take possession of a human heart, and is then the subject of wonder to all men. Love, however, must always be judged from its essential being and manifestation in the character of God. There it is wholly unselfish, and consists of perfect affection for an object, without ulterior motive. There only is Shakespeare's description of it fully realized.
"Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove
Oh no I it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken."
When love becomes the motive of law (OT), then law conditions the true happiness of the one that is loved. (Gal. 5:14) To do this, love is never blind, but takes the largest possible outlook, and acts in its government not only for the present moment, but for all the issues of that moment; not only for the final issues, but also for all the present moments that contribute to its making. No other motive for law is equal to meeting the demand for pleasure. Righteousness, apart from its relation to love, may do many cruel things. The doctrine of the survival of the fittest, in its higher aspect, is a protest against uprightness; but it has within itself no remedy for failure, and ruthlessly sweeps away all the weak and fallen. The majesty and dignity of kingship will not ensure the pleasure of the subject in all cases. Law growing from selfishness will, in the nature of things, only bring happiness to those who minister to the self-seeking propensity of the law-giver. No law that my fellow-man can make for me is perfectly to be trusted to ensure my pleasure, because I am never certain of the hidden and yet powerful motive that may give birth to that law. Love only can condition the life of the subject in perfect happiness.
II. Love can only make laws for man which will provide him with perfect pleasure.—
Its very nature, as we have already seen, makes this a necessity. Herein lies the proof of our present proposition. The Will of God ensures the pleasure of man, because God is love. This is, perhaps, at once the simplest and most inspirational statement that revelation has made concerning the nature of God. Theologians have spoken of love as an attribute of Deity. Should it not rather be spoken of as the essence of the Divine, of which the attributes are the component parts? As a man's character is the sum and substance of his characteristics, so is the essence of the Divine the sum and substance of Divine attributes. Holiness, justice, beneficence—all these and others lie within the compass of love. To deny either is to deny love. To deny love is to contradict all. If, then, God is love, His Will is the Will of love; and the common mistake that law and love are in any sense antagonistic must be once and for ever abandoned. There is no divergence between the two. Browning sang truly,—
"I report, as a man may, of God's work: All's love, but all's law."
In the economy of God, love is law, and law is love. (Rom. 13:8, 10; Gal. 5:14)
The twofold denomination of John is not without significance. We speak of him as the Apostle of Love. Jesus called him a Son of Thunder. There is no contradiction in the thoughts. There was never yet an apostle of love who was not also a son of thunder. In the writings of John, the two words most often occurring are the words "commandment" and "love," and there is no contradiction, but rather unity of thought in the fact.
The law of God being then the expression of His love, seeks the perfect happiness of all those who obey it. When Jesus upon the Mount enunciated the ethics of His kingdom, the first word that fell from His lips indicated the purpose of His heart. It was the word "Happy." (Matt. 5:3-11) To make man happy is the purpose of God, and for the realization of that purpose Jesus came to live, to teach, to die. The law He enunciated was the most stringent and exacting that humanity had ever heard, and it was so because love makes no peace with anything that harms, and is the most relentless foe of every foe of the loved one.
Every prohibition of God, and every command He lays upon men, have their reason in His good will toward men. Nothing is denied to the subjects of His kingdom capriciously, or merely for the satisfaction of some motive outside these subjects. Love prohibits that which, if permitted, would blight the life and mar the pleasure. It is also true that every commandment calling to paths of duty is the out-breathing of love. There are moments when such pathways are rough and thorny and tortuous; but love never sends men along them except when, in the way, something is to be gained which will more than compensate for the suffering, and which can only be gained through the suffering.
"Every joy or trial
Falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial
By the Sun of love."
Man's capacity for pleasure finds its full satisfaction when his life is surrendered to the Will of God. There is first the immediate delight of obedience. The response to love is in itself the essence of delight. This is illustrated from all that we know of love in the human relation, but its highest realization is to be found in this realm of submission to the government of God. Infinite meaning lies within the words of Christ, "I delight to do Thy will, O my God." (Psa. 40:8)
Not only is there this joy of love's response to love, there is also the hope of consummation: for if the present will of love be delightful, the perfect issue of love will be the perfection of delight. Consequently, through all the mystery that often surrounds the obedience of today there shines the glow of the perfect consummation which alone can satisfy the Eternal Love.
The heaven towards which we look is, as to our own condition, realized capacity and realized functions of being. The powers which are today suggestions and prophecies, will then be possessions; and these all, moving within the realm of the Divine intention, will create the highest delight of which the spirit of man is capable. It is in this sense that the old word of the Psalmist is true: "In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore." (Psa. 16:11)
Not, however, to the future merely do we look for this answer to the second demand of our nature. Here and now, to abide in the Will of God is to find the secret of happiness in all life. Submission to the King involves the finding of the mystic key that opens every avenue of pure delight, for in His Will the powers which He in love created are no longer prostituted to dishonorable purposes, but serve the purpose of that love creation.
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