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Elder Chick’s Letter
AUTHOR: | Mitchell, William M. |
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IT IS BY SLOW DEGREES that even many humble Christians
are brought to receive and understand how the wrath of man
can be made to praise God. Especially is this the case when they
read that “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of
God.”—James i. 20. Yet the Psalmist says, “Surely the wrath of
man shall praise thee.”—Psa. lxxvi. 10. Are those texts both
true? Are they in harmony one with the other? Does that sinful
wrath of man that does not work the righteousness of God tend
in any way to praise God?
In spite of ourselves, these or similar questions will arise in
our minds when we search and meditate upon the word of the
Lord, and they can only be truthfully answered in the affirmative.
The wrath or sins of men cannot, of themselves, be
anything but hateful to God. Everywhere in his holy word wickedness and sin are condemned. But when sin is bounded by the
eternal purpose and almighty power of God, so that it shall not
frustrate the purpose of God, but be kept, like the evil that
Joseph’s brethren thought against him, in that very channel which
infinite wisdom and goodness had marked out for it, then it
praiseth God in the sense presented to us in Psalms lxxvi. 10.
But we must learn these things, not only in the letter of the
Scriptures, but by experience also, if we enjoy their sweetness.
Tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience. Patient
endurance will work in the child of God an experience of the
overruling power and sustaining grace of God. He will, like Joseph,
often see that what wicked men and false brethren design
against him for evil, God designs that very wicked act of theirs to
be so bounded and circumscribed by his will, purpose and decree,
that it shall ‘‘work together for good to them that love God,
who are the called according to his purpose.—Rom. viii. 28.
And right here, as we have incidentally referred to God’s
dealings with Joseph and his brethren, as recorded in ten chapters
of Genesis, suffer us to say that to understand this subject
in all its bearings as there recorded would go far to silence all
caviling and disputation among beloved brethren on the subject
of God’s purpose and predestination. The gist and essence of
the whole matter of dispute is summed up and embraced in the
few loving words of Joseph to his brethren: “But as for you, ye
thought evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to
pass as it is this day, to save much people alive.”—Gen. l. 20.
Here is a plain declaration that the very thoughts of evil which
Joseph’s brethren had were purposed of God to be so under his
sovereign control and direction as to bear a part in working out
that good which he had purposed to his chosen Israel. This to
us may be deep and incomprehensible, but it is nevertheless
truth. It is high, and we cannot attain unto a full understanding
and comprehension of it. But can we not receive it in faith and
love as the truth of God.
And here, brethren, it strikes us with some force that could
we but understand and believe this as Joseph did, it would
greatly reconcile us to God, and to those who may intend evil
against us. The belief of this doctrine of the over ruling Providence
and power of God over sin will make us kind and tender
towards our erring brethren. It had this effect upon Joseph, and
if we believe it in our hearts and feel its force as Joseph did, the
same fruits of forbearance, compassion, love and kindness will
be manifest in us as they were in him. “Now, therefore, fear ye
not,” says Joseph. “I will nourish you and your little ones. And
he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.”—Gen. l. 21.
Here are some of the blessed fruits of a belief in the absolute
sovereignty of God in controlling evil and turning it to work
for good to them that love God. He spa
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