But, next, “great, and mighty things, ‘which thou knowest not,” God will show thee in providence. A poor man is in trouble; he has not wherewithal to buy daily broad. Let him call upon God, and ask for it; and though he has never seen the Lord thrust out his hand from heaven, or feed him by the ravens, or quench his thirst with water out of the rock, let him go down on his knees, and he will find that there are more wonders in providence than you and I have seen yet In answer to prayer, we shall see how God’s providence, though it is far beyond our ideas, is according to our prayers. There are many Christians who have been in great trouble, and have experienced a most marvellous deliverance in providence. If we have great trouble, let us bring them to our great God; let us cry unto him, and in providence we shall see “great and mighty things” which we know not as yet.
In the next place, very briefly passing over these points, “great and mighty things, which thou knowest not,” God will show thee in matters of Christian experience. Let us search God’s Word, and give ourselves unto prayer, and then, in matters of experience, we shall see “great and mighty things” which we know not yet. A Christian is immeasurably beyond the worldling, and there is a possibility of a Christian becoming as much beyond himself as he now is beyond a sinner dead in sins. There is no telling how great he may become even on earth. I do not think we can ever on earth become perfect, but we know not how near to perfection we may come. We may not, whilst on earth, dwell in heaven; but; who can tell how much of heaven may dwell in us whilst we are here? Did you ever sit down and read the Life Of Herbert, or Whitefield, or Haliburton? After we have read such books, we say within ourselves, “What poor worms we are,!” We feel like Robert Hall, who, when a certain minister came to see him, said, “I am so glad to see you! Mr. So-and-so has been here; he is so far above me, that I felt myself to be nothing in his presence, but now I begin to feel myself a man again.” Have you never felt, when in the company of some great and mighty man, as if you were nothing at all? When I first read Henry Martyn’s Life, I could not refrain from weeping for some hours afterwards, to think how much below such a life as his I was living. Yet you know not but that you may climb where these men did; the steps of the mountain of piety may be steep to look upon, but they are accessible to the feet of diligence. Go on, and you shall yet stand where Moses stood, and behold Canaan from the top of Nebo. Remember that you are as yet upon the lowlands; be not ashamed to acknowledge that you are desirous to climb upwards. Bend you knees, and God will show you in experience “great and mighty things” that you know not yet.
If any man is content with his own experience, it is entirely through ignorance. I will defy anyone to take Rutherford’s Letters, and sit down, and after he has read them, to help saying, “Rutherford seems to have been like an angel of God; I am only a man, I never can stand where Rutherford stood.” Frequently, when I return home from chapel on the Sabbath evening, I get down George Herbert’s book of songs; and when I see how much he loved the Lord, it seems to me as if he had struck upon his harp the very notes that he hall heard in Paradise, and sung them all again. Let us not be discouraged, we may yet become Herberts, and Rutherfords, and Whitfields; nay, there is no reason why we should not become as great as the Old or New Testament saints. There is no reason why we should not be, as great as Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; for why should not every child of God, in these days, become a mighty a man of faith as was Abraham of old? Let us lead the promise of the text: “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
And, to conclude, the same truth holds good with regard to the universal Church of God. I do not know whether you may have noticed that the devil, in his wisdom, has just tried to pervert all our services. My heart has been made glad by the opening of Exeter Hall for the preaching of the gospel! Never did my heart so leap for joy as when I heard that our brethren of the Church of England had to begun to preach in Exeter Hall, though I felt sad when those doors were shut against them. Now our joys are blasted, and our happiness is clouded. It appears that, because some have lately endeavoured to turn to good account the earnestness of the people to hear the Word in their own churches and chapels, next Sunday we shall see the lamentable spectacle, in this great metropolis, of a place, not open simply for the preaching of the Word, but actually for a Sabbath Concert. We shall read of multitudes assembled in a building, the property of one connected with a theatre; we shall hear of people being gathered together, and there will be a person found who will profess to preach the gospel to them, and the “Messiah” will be performed as the great inducement for attracting them. Perhaps there is no person who feels more sorrow than I do that this fearful cloud has fallen upon us. The devil may one day open the Crystal Palace, the Museum, and every other place on Sunday; but the Lord reigneth; and if this nation shall be given up to Sabbath breaking, let us not despair. God sits as the ruler in heaven and, as surely as he is God, he will get the victory. The devil will outwit himself, as he has always done; Satan will fall into his own pit. I hope, however, that the Christians of Great Britain will be very earnest in calling upon God. Pray continually to the Most High, that he will prosper the preaching of the gospel to the multitude; but that he will never allow our entering into unconsecrated places to be twisted and turned to unhallowed uses, and that God will bring forth greater good out of the great evil, and so glorify himself, and thus show us great and mighty things that we know not.
I can only now beseech the Lord to pour his blessing upon each of you. May you be earnest in prayer, and constant in supplication; and if you have never known Christ yet, may he soon be made known to you by the Holy Spirit, and may your prayers be lifted up to heaven that he may show you his salvation, which is one of the “great and mighty things” which you know not now! Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
