The Golden Chain of Tribulation and Love 2
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3. But of nothing else? O yes; we gain in it an experience of the goodness of God; that He is good in taking away as well as in giving; good in bringing down as well as raising up; good in laying on the rod as well as bestowing the kiss; good in putting the soul into the furnace to purge out the dross, good in sustaining it in the furnace, and good in bringing it up out of the furnace. Thus we get an experience of the goodness of God by patiently enduring His afflicting hand. "The rebellious dwell in a dry land." What experience, then, have they of "the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living?" It is only when the soul is possessed in patience that "the goodness of the Lord" appears.
4. But is there no other experience gained by patience? Yes; an experience of the patient mercy of God; that He should bear with such rebels, that He should not long ago have been provoked by our rebellion to cast us utterly off, cut us down, and send us headlong to hell. When the soul is calmed down to submission, it sees what it was when the waves ran high; and as the crest of the billows subsides, the forbearance and patience of the Lord shine forth in the horizon.
Without enlarging here, we may safely add, that without tribulation there is no patience, and without patience no experience. A patience without tribulation, an experience without patience, we may pronounce sadly defective, if not wholly worthless.
IV. But experience works something else, and that is HOPE. Do you observe where the apostle places this link? Is it in the beginning, middle, or end of this chain? Most people place it at the beginning; they begin with hope--without tribulation, without patience, and without experience; but the apostle does not begin there. The chain contains five links, but he does not put hope as the first. Tribulation is the first, then comes patience, then experience, and then--linked on to experience--is hope. But what hope? Not hope in the general, but hope in the particular; that is, a hope connected with experience, as experience is connected with patience, and patience with tribulation. I observed before that the experience spoken of was particular; that is, limited to the path of tribulation. So is the hope particular; meaning not so much "a good hope through grace" generally, as a special hope, connected with the experience gained through patience.
But how does a special experience work a special hope? The believer walking in tribulation's path feels and speaks thus--"I get into tribulation; in this tribulation I learn, sooner or later, to submit to the will of God, and to endure the tribulation as coming from His hand. I now gain an experience of the wisdom, power and goodness of God displayed in the trial. As I gain this, I gain some ground of hope for the future; I obtain some firm basis on which to place my hope, that as the Lord has been with me in six troubles, He will also be with me in the seventh; and as in my late tribulation I obtained strength to endure, and when brought to submission sensibly experienced the wisdom, power and love of God, so in my future trials--for I must still walk in the path of tribulation--there rises up in my soul a blessed hope that I shall experience the same deliverance, feel the same power, and enjoy the same blessing."
How different is a hope of this nature, wrought in the soul by the power of God, from a hope that I might almost say is picked up in the streets, like a cast-off shoe that will fit any foot, and is therefore only fit to be thrown in the kennel and shoveled into the scavenger's cart! The hope here spoken of is a shoe that fits the foot of the weary, way-worn pilgrim, for it is made by a divine hand out of "the preparation of the gospel of peace," with which he is shod from the armory of God. Even natural experience is necessary to hope. A sick person has experienced benefit in a former illness from a certain physician, or a certain medicine; he has recourse to the same person or the same remedy again. "It did me good in a similar illness; why not now?" he inwardly says. Or a friend has helped us formerly; we hope, when we are brought into trying circumstances, that he will help us again.
Just see how this feeling of hope was wrought in the apostle's soul. He thus writes to the Corinthian church--"We would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead." 2Co 1:8,9 Observe, when he was thus killed to all creature hope, how God stepped in--"Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver." Now comes hope, or trust--"In whom we trust that He will yet deliver us."
Just trace out the successive steps detailed here. First came a heavy trial, which overwhelmed his soul almost in despair; this crushed out creature trust. Trust in God followed; then came deliverance; upon this followed trust, or hope for the future--that He who had delivered in the past, and was delivering in the present, would also deliver for the future.
Now, this is exactly the same experience as is traced out in the text--tribulation working patience, patience working experience, and experience working hope; that is, a hope that whatever trials come, there will be support under them; that the next trial will be as beneficial to the soul as the last, and that the goodness of God will be seen as clearly, felt as blessedly, and enjoyed as sweetly. This prepares the soul for tribulation when it comes, and raises up a blessed hope that God will support the soul under it whenever it may come, as He has already done.
But, speaking of this hope, the apostle adds, "It makes not ashamed." Contrast this hope, which springs out of experience, with false and delusive hopes. The great majority of human hopes will prove spiders' webs. The hope that is not wrought in the heart by the power of God will leave the soul at the last, and is therefore a hope, which makes ashamed. But what a fearful thing is this, that when a man comes to a dying hour, or to stand before the tribunal of God at the great day, his hope makes ashamed! He is ashamed of it, and it is ashamed of him. And why? Because it had no foundation, no root, for it was not grounded and rooted in his soul by the power of God. It came not either through tribulation, or patience, or experience; it was therefore a solitary link, not joined to experience at one end, or to love at the other, and consequently, like an isolated link in nature, is useless and worthless. Pick up a link of a chain in the street--what is it worth? Would you not be ashamed to be seen with it in your hand? Throw it down again, then, and kick it away. Thus there is a hope, which makes ashamed; it is an old rusty link. Leave it to the mud-rakers, or kick it away!
Examine, then, your hope, and see whether it be a solitary link, or one in a chain of which tribulation forms one end, and love the other. How did you come by it? Can you run through your experience, and find in it any resemblance to that which is written here by the pen of inspiration? Did tribulation bow your soul down, and was submission given to endure it? Did any sweet experience come into your heart; an experience of the mercy, goodness and love of God in tribulation? And did there spring out of this a sweet, childlike, blessed hope in the mercy of God, of a saving interest in the precious blood of Christ, and that the Lord would support you through every trial, and eventually set you before His face in glory?
V. But the apostle adds the chief reason why this hope makes not ashamed--"Because the LOVE OF GOD is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us." This is the last link in the chain, and makes it complete--the link of hope being now firmly welded on to the link of love. This union it is of hope and love, which makes hope to be "a good hope through grace," and gives it to stand unblushing before the throne of God. And yet "the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit" is united to tribulation by the intermediate links; and thus you see how love, hope, experience, patience and tribulation are all joined together, each link being continuous and mutually dependent, but all combining to form one harmonious chain. They must not, cannot be separated, for God has united them, and what "God has joined together let no man put asunder."
But what a blessed link is this last, "the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit!" And what strength and firmness it gives to the preceding, the link of hope! But as all the links in a chain, from the first to the last, have a mutual dependence, the highest link, which is love, and which is linked to the throne of God, bears up and supports the lowest, which is tribulation, and which drags, as it were, on the earth.
This shedding abroad of love in the heart solves the problem, "We glory in tribulations also," and explains what I stated at the outset, that the highest attainment in religion is to rejoice in tribulation. See this in Paul's case. He was caught up to the third heaven, where he heard unspeakable words, and was blessed with unspeakable manifestations; but was this his greatest attainment? No; he had not then learned to take pleasure in infirmities; to learn to do this he had to come down from the glories of heaven to the gates of hell. Satan was allowed to buffet him. Here was tribulation indeed. But the thorn in the flesh taught him patience. Hence when the Lord told him that His grace was made perfect in his weakness, he got a blessed experience of His power. This raised up a sweet hope of future strength for future battles; and as the love of God was shed abroad in his heart, it made him glory in his tribulations also. Patience had then her perfect work; he was "perfect and entire, lacking nothing;" and these deep and highest attainments in the divine life are embodied by him in those remarkable words--"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong." 2Co 12:10.
Now, it is this spiritual chain, constituted of these several spiritual links, which distinguishes the people of God from all others. You may have tribulations; but examine these tribulations, their nature and connection. Are they spiritual tribulations? Do they work patience? Here mistakes are often made. Tribulation without patience, or patience without tribulation, is nothing. Many worldly people have tribulations, many are naturally patient, and many profess to have an experience, but it is one of joy without sorrow, mercy without misery, liberty without bondage, light without darkness, and faith without unbelief. Many, also, boast of a hope, and even of "a good hope through grace," who have neither experience nor love, neither patience nor tribulation. A solitary link binds nothing. Such is a hope, which stands by itself; it does not bind the soul to the throne of God; it will not sustain the heart in the day of trial. And what, also, is love, unless in union with experience and hope? Yet many speak of the love of God who know nothing of tribulation, or experience, or hope, or any of these links, as connected with it and each other.
But you will say, perhaps, "I know what tribulation is; I have had, or still have, affliction of body or circumstances, affliction in my family or in my mind." Well, you may have all that; but what has your tribulation done for you? That is the grand point. It may be only a solitary link; and, therefore, until welded on to patience, it must be doubtful whether it be of nature or of grace. What, then, does tribulation do for you? You say, "I find that I am very rebellious under it." Doubtless you are, and left to yourself you never can be anything else. But do you never find anything else but rebellion? Is there no endurance, no submission? Do you never see the hand of God in your trials, bless Him for them, and feel that you would not be without them, however painful? If so, the first link is being welded on to the second; the chain is being made; the blessed Spirit is at work in your soul.
But do you never get beyond this? Because there is a natural patience, as well as a spiritual; a callous stoicism as well as a gracious submission. Do you find anything spring up in your soul out of this patience? A sweet experience of the goodness, mercy, power and love of God? If you can go thus far, and have experienced anything of the power and goodness of God, may I not ask you farther, What made you long after God's testimonies? What made you see the emptiness, uncertainty and folly of everything but an experience for yourself of God's goodness and love? Tribulation. No man will want to have a sweet experience of the love of God in his soul until he has been in the furnace. He is always full of self, until it is burnt out of him. But when trials, afflictions, distress of conscience, guilt of soul, fear of death, snares of hell and assaults of Satan have burnt Pharisaism out of him, his soul longs to experience pardoning love and mercy, and to realize for himself that God is his Father and Friend. Is this your experience? If it is, then your hope is "a good hope through grace," and will not make you ashamed.
But have you ever experienced any measure of the love of God? You know that naturally all chains are not of the same weight and size. The number of links may be the same, but the links are generally proportionate; for it is evident that the strength of the chain is determined by the weakest link. Great tribulation is connected with great patience; great patience with great experience; great experience with great hope; and great hope with great love. And thus conversely, if we have but little tribulation we have but little patience; with little patience, little experience; with little experience, little hope; with little hope, little love. Still, great or small, heavy or light, it must be a complete chain.
Now is not this scriptural as well as experimental? Can you deny it? And does not this solve the problem and bring us back to the point whence we started, that the greatest attainment in the divine life, because the last, is to glory or rejoice in tribulations? No man ever did, or could, rejoice in tribulation for its own sake; that would be a contradiction. But he can, and may, and does rejoice in tribulation on account of the fruit it bears, the effects it produces. It is true we cannot pray for it. Our coward flesh shrinks at the thought. And yet what do we know of the power of God or of the suitability and blessedness of the Lord Jesus in the path of tribulation?
What a mercy it is to have a little true religion! There is not much in our day; indeed, there are very few in whom there is any at all. What a mercy to have any, even the least particle! And you may depend upon it the only religion worth knowing is what the Holy Spirit has revealed here by the pen of Paul.
Now if you can find a little of this work going on in your heart, prize it greatly. You may be tried sometimes as to the reality and genuineness of the work. This is a part of the needful tribulation. But cleave to the Spirit's work in your heart. Prize every token for good, every mark of grace, everything which humbles self and exalts Jesus. To His suffering image must all His saints be conformed; and those who suffer with Him here will be glorified with Him hereafter.
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