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النشر الإلكتروني

LECTURE XVII.

FALSE COMFORTS FOR SINNERS.

TEXT.-"How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood."-Joв. xxi. 34.

JOB's three friends insisted on it that the afflictions which he suffered were sent as a punishment for his sins, and were evidence conclusive that he was a hypocrite, and not a good man as he professed to be. A lengthy argument ensued, in which Job referred to all past experience, to prove that men are not dealt with in this world according to their character, that the distinction is not observed in the allotments of Providence. His friends maintained the opposite, and intimated that this world is also a place of rewards and punishments, in which men receive good or evil, according to their deeds. In this chapter, Job shows by appealing to common sense and common observation, and experience, that this cannot be true, because it is a matter of fact that the wicked are often prosperous in the world and through life, and hence infers that their judgment and punishment must be reserved for a future state. "The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction," and "they shall be brought forth to the day of his wrath." And inasmuch as his friends came to comfort him, but being in the dark on this fundamental point, had not been able to understand his case, and so could not afford him any comfort, but rather aggravated his grief, Job insisted upon it that he would still look to a future state for consolation, and rebukes them by exclaiming, in the bitterness of his soul," How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?"

My present purpose is, to make some remarks upon the various methods employed in comforting anxious sinners, and I design.

I. To notice briefly the necessity and design of instructing anxious sinners.

II. To show that anxious sinners are always seeking comfort. Their supreme object is to get comfort in their distress. III. To notice some of the false comforts often administered. I. The necessity and design of instructing anxious sinners. The very idea of anxiety implies some instruction. A sinner would not be anxious at all about his future state, unless he

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had light enough to know that he is a sinner, and that he is in danger of punishment and needs forgiveness. But men are to be converted, not by physical force, or by a change wrought in their nature or constitution by creative power, but by the truth. made effectual by the Holy Spirit. Conversion is yielding to the truth. And therefore, the more truth can be brought to bear on the mind, other things being equal, so much the more probable is it that the individual will be converted. Unless the truth is brought to bear upon him, it is certain he will not be converted. If it is brought to bear, it is not absolutely certain that it will be effectual, but the probability is in proportion to the extent to which the truth is brought to bear. The great design of dealing with an anxious sinner is to clear up all his difficulties and darkness, and do away all his errors, and sap the foundation of his self-righteous hopes, and sweep away every vestige of comfort that he could find in himself. There is often much difficulty in this, and much instruction is required. Sinners often cling with a death grasp to their false dependences. The last place to which a sinner ever betakes himself for relief is to Jesus Christ. Sinners had rather be saved in any other way in the world. They had rather make any sacrifice, go to any expense, or endure any suffering, than just to throw themselves as guilty and lost rebels upon Christ alone for salvation. This is the very last way in which they are ever willing to be saved. It cuts up all their self-righteousness, and annihilates their pride and self-satisfaction so completely, that they are exceedingly unwilling to adopt it. But it is as true in philosophy as it is in fact, that this is, after all, the only way in which a sinner could find relief. If God should attempt to relieve sinners, and save them without humbling their pride and turning them from their sins, he could not do it. Now the object of instructing an anxious sinner should be to lead him by the shortest possible way to do this. It is to bring his mind, by the shortest rout, to the practical conclusion, that there is, in fact, no other way in which he can be relieved and saved, but to renounce himself and rest in Christ alone. To do this with effect, requires great skill. It requires a thorough knowledge of the human heart, a clear understanding of the plan of salvation, and a precise and definite idea of the very thing that a sinner MUST DO in order to be saved. To know how to do this effectually is one of the rarest qualifications in the ministry at the present day. It is distressing to see how few ministers, and how few professors of religion there are who have in their own minds that distinct idea of the thing to be done, that they

can go to an anxious sinner, and tell him exactly what he has to do, and how to do it, and can show him clearly that there is no possible way for him to be saved, but by doing that very thing which they tell him, and can make him feel the certainty that he must do it, and that unless he does that very thing, he will be damned.

II. I am to show that anxious sinners are always seeking comfort.

Sinners often imagine they are seeking Jesus Christ, and seeking religion, but this is a mistake. No person ever sought religion, and yet remained irreligious. What is religion? It is obeying God. Seeking religion is seeking to obey God. The soul that hungers and thirsts after righteousness is the soul of a Christian. To say that a person can seek to obey God, and yet not obey him, is absurd. For if he is seeking religion he is not an impenitent sinner. To seek religion, implies a willingness to obey God, and a willingness to obey God is reli gion. It is a contradiction to say that an impenitent sinner is seeking religion. It is the same as to say, that he seeks and actually longs to obey God, and God will not let him, or that he longs to embrace Jesus Christ, and Christ will not let him come. The fact is, the anxious sinner is seeking a hope, he is seeking pardon, and comfort, and deliverance from hell. He is anxiously looking for some one to comfort him, and make him feel better, without being obliged to conform to such humiliating conditions as those of the gospel. And his anxiety and distress continue, only because he will not yield to the terms. Unfor tunately, anxious sinners find comforters enough to their liking. Miserable comforters they all are, too, "seeing in their answers there remaineth falsehood." No doubt, millions and millions are now in hell, because there were those around them who gave them false comfort, who had so much false pity, or were themselves so much in the dark, that they would not let them remain in anxiety till they had submitted their hearts to God, but administered falsehood, and relieved their distress in this way, and now their souls are lost.

III. I am to notice several of the ways in which false comfort is given to anxious sinners.

I might almost say, there is an endless variety of ways in which this is done. The more experience I have, and the more I observe the ways in which even good people deal with anxious sinners, the more I feel grieved at the endless fooleries and falsehoods with which they attempt to comfort their anxious friends, and thus, in fact, deceive them and beguile them out of

their salvation. It often reminds me of the manner in which people act when any one is sick. Let any one of you be sick, with almost any disease in the world, and you will find that every person you meet with has a remedy for that disorder, a certain cure, a specific, a panacea; and you will find such a world of quackery all around you, that if you do not take care and SHUT IT ALL OUT, you will certainly lose your life. A man must exercise his own judgment, for he will find as many remedies as he has friends, and each one is tenacious of his own medicine, and perhaps will think hard if it is not taken. And no doubt this miserable system of quackery kills a great many people.

This is true to no greater extent respecting the diseases of the body than respecting the diseases of the mind. People have their specifics and their catholicons and their panaceas to comfort distressed souls, and whenever they begin to talk with an anxious sinner, they will bring in their false comforts, so much that if he does not TAKE CARE, and mind the word of God, he will infallibly be deceived to his own destruction. I propose to mention a few of the falsehoods that are often brought forward in attempting to comfort anxious sinners. Time would fail me, even to name them all.

The direct object of many persons is to comfort sinners, and they are often so intent upon this that they do not stick at means or kind of comfort. They see their friends distressed, and they pity them, they feel very compassionate, "Oh, oh, I cannot bear to see them so distressed, I must comfort them somehow," and so they try one way, and another, and all to comfort them! Now, God desires they should be comforted. He is benevolent, and has kind feelings, and his heart yearns over them, when he sees them so distressed. But he sees that there is only one way to give a sinner real comfort. He has more benevolence and compassion than all men, and wishes to comfort them. But he has fixed the terms as unyielding as his throne, on which he will give a sinner relief. And he will not alter. He knows that nothing else will do the sinner effectual good, for nothing can make him happy, until he repents of his sins and forsakes them, and turns to God. And therefore God will not yield. Our object should be the same as that of God. We should feel compassion and benevolence, just as he does, and be as ready to give comfort, but be sure that it be of the right kind. The fact is, our prime object should be, to induce the sinner to obey God. His comfort ought to be with us, and with him, but a secondary object, and while we are more anxious to relieve his distress

than to have him cease to abuse, and dishonor God, we are not likely, by our instructions, to do him any real good. This is a fundamental distinction, in dealing with anxious sinners, but it is evidently overlooked by many, who seem to have no higher motives, than sympathy or compassion for the sinner. If in preaching the gospel, or instructing the anxious, we are not actuated by a high regard to the honor of God, and rise no higher, than to desire to relieve the distressed; this is going no farther than a constitutional sympathy, or compassion, would carry us. Overlooking this principle, has often misled professors of religion, and when they have heard others dealing faithfully with anxious sinners, they have accused them of cruelty. I have often had professors bring anxious sinners to me, and beg me to comfort them, and, when I have probed their consciences to the quick, they have shuddered, and sometimes taken the sinners' part. It is sometimes impossible to deal effectually with youth who are anxious, in the presence of their parents, because they have so much more compassion for their children, than regard to the honor of God. This is all wrong, and with such views and feelings you had better hold your tongue, than to say any thing to the anxious.

1. One of the ways in which people give false comfort to distressed sinners, is, by asking them "What have you done? you are not so bad." They see them distressed, and cry out, "Why, what have you done?" as if they had never done any thing wicked, and had in reality no occasion to feel distressed at all. I have before mentioned the case of a fashionable lady, who was awakened in this city, and was going to see a minister to converse with him, when she was met by a friend, who turned her back, and drove off her anxiety, by the cry, "What have you done, to make you feel so? I am sure you have never committed any sin, that need to make you feel so."

I have often met with cases of this kind. A mother will tell her son, who is anxious, what an obedient child he has always been, how good and how kind, and she begs him not to take on SO. So a husband will tell his wife, or a wife her husband, how good they are, and ask, "What have you done?" When they see them in great distress, they begin to comfort them, Why you are not so bad. You have been to hear that frightful minister, that frightens people, and you have got excited. Be comforted, for I am sure you have not been bad enough to feel so much distressed." When the truth is, they have been a great deal worse than they think they have. No sinner ever had an idea that his sins were greater than they are. No sinner

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