New England Religious Herald

Man's Extremity, God's Opportunity.

BY REV. JONATHAN BRACE.

This sentiment has become a proverb, and like most proverbs, is founded in truth. It is a fact that divine intervention may be expected in behalf of man, and more especially in behalf of the friends of God, when necessity calls for it.

"Just in the last distressing hour
The Lord displays delivering power;
The mount of danger is the place
Where we shall see surprising grace."

Of the truth of this familiar apothegm, it is not difficult to find illustrations. Look at the Israelites in Egypt. They were ground down by oppression, and "sighed by reason of hard bondage." A season came, however, when the cruelty exercised against them became extreme,—when they were not only forced to labor, but their very offsprings were doomed to die. When this season came, when murder took off the infants, and threatened to extirpate the seed through whom the promised Shiloh was to come,—then, the Lord showed himself to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush," and commissioned and endowed him to be the triumphant champion of his roused people.

The Israelites went up harnessed out of Egypt. Pharaoh, repenting of his permission to let them go, "made ready his chariot, took six hundred chosen chariots," and his mighty men of valor, and followed in close pursuit. Nothing however is done on the part of God, till there seems but a step between his people and destruction. When they had reached the Red Sea, which lay as an impassable barrier before them, when mountains rugged and high prevented their escape on either side, and the hosts of the tyrant thirsting for blood were hard upon their backs, then it was, that the salvation of the Lord was shown. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Lift up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it, and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and their horses." And he did so; the sea returned to its strength, overwhelming all the hosts of Pharaoh, so that there remained not so much as one of them.

Jehovah had declared that "the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head." His advent was looked for with interest. Types, shadows, and emblems, prefigured and betokened his coming; yet century after century rolled away, and no Messiah! But when the darkest hour had arrived, when the world was crowded with idols, "when reason, tired and blind," could do nothing for the relief of man, and philosophy nothing,—when Satan, besides possessing the souls of mankind, had begun to claim their bodies also as his, when the sceptre had departed from Judah, the law giver from between his feet, when the Jews were slaves to the Romans, and Herod an Edomite, king; then, He comes; then the

"Star of the east—the horizon adorning,
Guides where the infant Redeemer is laid."

Christ entered into a ship, and his disciples followed him. While the sun shone clear, the winds were favorable, the motions of the ship easy, and the waves curled gently around her, their Master "was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow." But when there arose a great tempest, insomuch that the billows beat violently, covered the ship, and threatened to ingulf him and them; then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, "and there was a great calm."

The Apostle Peter is apprehended, thrust into prison, and delivered to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him. There he remains, though prayer is made unceasing by the church unto God for him," until the night previous to his contemplated execution. When that crisis came,—the very night before, by a decree of Herod, he was to be brought forth,—brought forth that his enemies might make him a public victim to their rage, put him to death like a wild beast for their entertainment; then, an angel finds his way to him in the gloomy dungeon, and light shines in upon the darkness, and his fetters fall off, and the iron gate leading into the city openeth of its own accord, and Peter is free!

At the commencement of the Christian dispensation, the wrath of the wicked waxed ed hot against the church; but when this wrath was the hottest, when that barbarous persecuter Diocletian was so confident of the success of his measures to annihilate the church, as to cause pillars to be erected with the inscription, "Deleta superstitione Christiana,"—the Christian superstition is destroyed,—her deliverance under Constantine the Great was just at hand. Constantine succeeded Diocletian.

After the decease of Constantine, the church suffered severely under the Roman pontiffs. But when truth was adulterated, virtue driven to cloisters, and piety had almost become extinct,—when the grave of spiritual Religion was dug, and she, to human appearances, was about to descend into it, the Lord raised up Luther, and kindred minds and hearts of zeal and courage, who infused into her precious body, vitality and strength. When the Dominican Tetzel was peddling his indulgences in the streets of Wittenberg, the Scarlet Lady throned upon the seven hills was in her glory, and then it was that she received a wound, from which she has never recovered, and we pray may never recover.

And just previous to our Saviour's second coming, we have reason to think that Zion will be wrapped about with the blackest clouds. "When the Son of man cometh,"—was the significant interrogatory of Christ,—"when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" That is,—religion will be at a low ebb; believers in him be very few. Yet, at this juncture, when the gospel shall be trampled upon, scoffers cry "where is the promise of his coming?" and when the torrent of iniquity shall seem to be bearing down all before it,—Gog and Magog, in the plenitude of their strength and fury,—"the earth corrupt before the Lord, and the earth filled with violence;" then, too, shall "the Lord arise, and his enemies be scattered!"

Other illustrations of the fact,—that "Man's extremity is God's opportunity," it were easy to produce. But these may suffice. Jehovah does appear in behalf of men, and especially in behalf of his people, in times of despondency and distress.

If we asked why He proceeds upon this principle? several reasons may be assigned. His attributes are hereby glorified; His attributes of wisdom, power, compassion, goodness, forbearance, and long suffering. His attribute of wisdom. It displays superior wisdom to devise means for the removal of great difficulties. He is the most learned and skillful physician who can master the most violent and dangerous diseases. And when matters have reached such a pass that all which human knowledge can do is unavailing, God manifests his wisdom by a successful interposition. When informed by a messenger of the sickness of his friend Lazarus, "Christ abode two days still in the same place where he was." Not because he did not love Lazarus, but because he would glorify himself in raising him from the dead.

In bringing the counsels of the heathen to nought, and making the devices of the prudent of none effect; in turning wise men backwards, and circumventing the crafty designs of the arch apostate, he makes a signal illustration of his wisdom.

His attribute of power. The weaker his Church, and the more energetic and malignant her enemies, the mightier that arm which upholds the Church and conquers these enemies. Hence, when in the case of Pharaoh's hosts, who, breathing out threatening and slaughter against Israel, cried, "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; I will draw my sword, I will devour them:" God blew with his wind and the sea covered them, and they sank as lead in the mighty waters; he eminently glorified his power. And very natural was the exclamation of the redeemed Jews, as they beheld horses and riders submerged in the waves, and their carcases driven upon the shore,—"The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name. The Lord is our strength."

His attributes of compassion and goodness. It is the part of compassion and goodness to relieve distress; and the deeper the distress the greater the mercy. When the Church faints; when friends are from her and sighs are wrung from her, then the kindness of her covenant God appears. A brother is born for adversity; and so is a father; and when neither can assuage misery, then the pity and benevolence of Jehovah appear in taking us up; and he often waits till then that he may be impressively gracious unto us. "I will heal thee of thy wounds," said he, to Zion, "because they called thee an outcast, saying this is Zion, whom no man seeketh after."

His attributes of forbearance and long-suffering. He shows that he cherishes no malicious feelings towards the creatures he has made, and though they do wickedly, that he is willing to be patient, and grant them space for repentance. Nor till the cup of iniquity is quite full, is the struggling bolt of justice loosed, and sent abroad on its mission. Not, sometimes, till the question arises whether his people shall be destroyed, does He destroy the latter.

Further,—by acting upon this principle,—a spirit of prayer and supplication is awakened. We naturally rely upon our own resources, —dislike to be laid under obligations to another, and are disposed to resort to numerous expedients before supplicating aid. Hence the little prayer that ascends from our earth—for prayer is the breath of want. It is an humble confession of self-impotence and extorted acknowledgment of another's superior ability. But in man's extremity, he calls upon God, and those who are wont to invoke Him, then invoke Him with increased fervor and importunity. When did the children of Israel cry unto the Lord? When "they lifted up their eyes, and beheld the Egyptians marching after them, and were sore afraid." When did the disciples cry—"Lord save us, we perish?" When a storm of wind came down upon the lake. When did Peter pray? When he saw the heavy swell of the sea, and was beginning to sink. When was the Psalmist most earnest in his pleadings in behalf of himself and friends? when enemies came in upon him and them like a flood. "Have mercy upon us, O Lord," is his cry,—"have mercy upon us,—for we are exceedingly filled with contempt." It is in the hour of perplexity and distress, when men's hearts are failing for fear, and for the looking of those disasters which may befall them,—it is then, that, like the mariners bound with Jonah for Tarshish, they "arise and call upon God;" and since Jehovah enjoins prayer as a duty, and would encourage it, He often brings the children of men into straits that so they may feel the necessity of it, and appreciate the value of it.

He acts likewise upon this principle, to increase the confidence of his people in him. Beholding how they have been rescued and sustained in six troubles, they may feel confident that they will be borne triumphantly through the seventh. Hence, David, when remonstrated with against exposing himself to the might and fury of the gigantic Goliath, properly replied— The Lord, who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." And when the Church marks how signally she has been saved, when wofully sunk, she may feel "strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.' As Abraham could not but confide in God, that he would take care of Isaac, after that He had redeemed him from the knife and the flames, by the intervention of the lamb caught in the thicket; so the spiritual children of Abraham may learn from the repeated deliverances of the Church from the ferocious passions of those who would exterminate her, that "Jehovah is in the midst of her, and she cannot be moved."

We may say, too, that such deliverances are well calculated to dishearten the enemies of Christianity. They may see, in these instances of Divine interposition, that there is a vigilant, able guardian of truth, and the friends of truth, and that it is useless to war against it and them. And were they not infatuated they would see that truth and Christianity are impregnable,—that "there is no enchantment against Jacob, nor any divination against Israel."

Like the natives who, having chased the pious captain Wilson, and having seen him plunge into the Coleroon, a stream full of alligators, and emerge safe on the opposite bank, were so struck at the hand of God in his preservation, as not to discharge their arrows but retire silent and thoughtful from the pursuit; so they, were they not smitten with madness and blindness of heart, would acknowledge that a Divinity is on the side of the gospel and Zion, and all endeavors to destroy either is the height of folly.—"Truth crushed to earth will rise again,"—and the Church attend the funeral of all other societies. Indeed, truth and the Church will survive the general conflagration.—will rise from the ashes of the world like the fabled Phœnix, and spring upwards immortal.

The sentiment, therefore, with which we commenced our article, is founded in fact, and is happy in its bearings on God and humanity.—Christian Magazine.