The Christian Life, Viewed Under Some of Its More Practical Aspects (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. SHALL NOT THE JUDGE OF ALL THE EAETH DO EIGHT ? GENESIS XVIII. 25. It is one thing to believe that God is a " God of judgment;" it is another thing to believe that His " judgments " are all " righteous." No man in his senses can deny the one; many, who profess to be very much in their senses, deny the Other. The right faith is certainly that of the Hebrew patriarch: " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ?" This question needs no answer: it answers itself. Abraham believed with his whole heart in the justice of God. The Lord had revealed to him the solemn purpose He had formed to destroy Sodom. It seemed however to be an act of injustice to "destroy the righteous with the wicked," and Abraham drew near to God with the plea, that if tenrighteous were found within the city, it should be spared for their sakes. His appeal was not to mercy, but to justice: his reliance upon the perfect equity of the Divine dealings was absolute : that great truth was to him " an anchor of the soul sure and steadfast:" and it shall be so to you, if you hold it fast without wavering. The judgments of God may be mysterious, incomprehensible, past finding out; but remember that God's ways are not as our ways: it does not follow that because we cannot understand them, they are either unwise or unrighteous: there are many questions for the solution of which we must be content to wait: but let us never be content to let slip the truth, which Abraham held with so firm a grasp:?" Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ?" The temptation to call in question the justice of God in punishing men for their sins is very common. Men reason thus :?" God is Almighty; He has made all men; but all men have sinful natures; they are prone to sin; it is surely unjust in God to punish them fo...