29. The Permission of Evil.

I. At an earlier time infidels endeavoured to discredit the Providence of God on account of the existence of noxious animals, natural catastrophes, and the thousand struggles for life that are always in progress. Certain beings they considered as too vile or insignificant to merit the attention of Providence; other things, as unmitigated evils. A fuller science has now taught us that everything has its uses, and is for the general weal although hurtful in some particular. We have learnt too that the lowliest creatures exhibit as fully as the noblest the ingenuities of God’s wisdom, the marvels of His power, the infinite range of His knowledge and prevision. Many mysteries still remain hidden from us; many difficulties will be a trial of faith till new discoveries shall solve them. Do not presume to criticize the inscrutable ways of God’s Providence because of being too ignorant to understand them. One day all things will be made clear to you.

II. A greater difficulty to many is the permission of moral evil, with all its tremendous consequences of physical evil here and the eternal loss of souls hereafter. The solution of this will be completed only at the general judgment, but we may attain to a partial comprehension of it here by the aid of faith and good-will. Man possesses liberty. It is his proudest prerogative. It is not for Providence to do violence to the natural order, to put a free man in moral chains, to exact from him the service of a slave in order to give him a reward that he does not wish for. Man knows the law, he knows the consequences of its violation, he has power to observe it if he will, he deliberately revolts against it and accepts the results. He would be the first to protest against the tyranny if God were to overcome his free will by force. The Providence of God acts on the principle which mankind has of late years arrived at, that the suppression of liberty is a greater evil than tolerating its abuse. The divine wisdom is able to draw a greater good from evil, and is therefore just and holy in permitting it. On this the great mysteries of God’s love are grounded, the Incarnation and Death of Our Lord, and the wonderful economy of redemption in the case of each individual. The goodness of God is shown in the pardon of sin and the rehabilitation of the soul after its fall and corruption. The precious virtue of repentance, the meritorious works of mortification, have been thrown open to the sinner, and the joy of the angels of God has been enhanced by the sight. The just are tried in the furnace and provided with opportunities of practising the noblest virtues. Thank God for all the good that has accrued to you from possessing liberty in all its fulness, and even, indirectly, from your abuse of it.

III. Another difficulty has been felt even by the sacred writers, viz., the afflictions of the just. “What profit is it,” they ask, “that we have kept His ordinances, and that we have walked sorrowful before the Lord of Hosts?” (Mal. iii. 14). We must know that God has two grades of Providence, the natural and the supernatural. It is under His supernatural Providence that He chastens those whom He loves. He deprives them of the good things of life in order that they may merit a greater abundance of the good things of grace and glory. All God’s friends have suffered except Solomon, and therefore, as St Jerome remarks, his heart became depraved and his salvation is uncertain. In the ordinary course no one enters heaven unless he has passed through the school of affliction. It makes men feel the nothingness of this life, it detaches them from possessions and pleasures, it teaches them patience, resignation, fortitude, trust in God; it shows them that nothing is of any value but the service of God on earth and the possession of Him in heaven. Endeavour to learn these lessons.

28. The Providence of God

I. God, having created the world, did not thenceforward leave it to itself. He still oversees and guides all things, according to the Scripture: “The eyes of all hope in Thee, O Lord, and Thou givest them meat in due season” (Ps. cxliv. 15). The world requires for its conservation and development a continuance of the same divine influx which created it. It is no more within the power of matter and force to go on in their due order without God than to create themselves without Him. Left to itself for a single instant the whole fabric of the universe would totter and collapse. So in the human order a building, a garden, an army, a social organization, require constant care, or they will go to ruin. Whether God’s sustaining influence is renewed from moment to moment immediately by Him, as source of the natural order, or whether it is contained in created forces which received a primordial impulse that will carry them on through the whole cycle of existence, is indifferent to our argument. These are but statements, differing in their degree of completeness, of the same fundamental truth that Providence rules all things. The Providence of God is manifested in these reflections of itself which exist in creatures; in the case of parents for their children, of animals for their young, of the artist for the productions of his hand or brain. These qualities in creatures are evidence of the existence in a supreme degree in God of a most complete, thoughtful and loving watchfulness over His creation. Never forget that God feels this supreme interest in your temporal and spiritual welfare.

II. One great characteristic of Divine Providence is that it “ordereth all things sweetly” (Wisd. viii. 1). There is in its rule nothing violent, arbitrary, or contrary to the nature of things and their due order. There is no irregular interference, no sudden afterthought, no forcing of all sorts of things into one mould. On the contrary, a marvellous diversity and freedom prevail within the limits of perfect harmony. In the natural order God works by natural means in accordance with the laws which He implanted in nature at the first. There are no breaks of continuity in His works, no need to supplement His natural arrangements by the introduction of miraculous effects, except for the supernatural purpose of forwarding our salvation, and in strict accordance with supernatural law. You must be content to take things as they have been arranged by God’s Providence, not expecting the feeble to be perfect, the free to be constrained, transient things to be permanent. All things cannot be accommodated to your fancies, but you must accommodate yourself sweetly to all things, bearing the defects of others, and accepting humbly the fact that you have still worse defects.

III. Because of the sweetness in the operations of Providence, therefore “it reacheth from end to end mightily” (Wisd. viii. 1), and never fails to accomplish its purposes. Note that there are two classes of objects proposed by God for every creature. One is its particular end or aim; such as for the tree to bear fruit, animals to subserve our utility, man to imitate God and attain to His possession; and this object of Providence often fails of accomplishment. But there is a general end or aim, viz., the progress of the universe, the justification of God’s action and His law, and the manifestation of His supremacy and glory. This object of divine Providence never fails. The storm which uproots the saplings is for the benefit of the forest. The punishment of malefactors is evidence of respect for law, efficiency of government, security for good citizens. Out of particular evils God draws some general good. The wicked supply by their perversity the opposition which elicits and strengthens virtue. Persecution purifies the Church. Sin becomes the means of manifesting God’s mercy and His justice. So all things are compelled to work together unto the good of the elect and the glory of God. 

27. The Justice of God.

 

I. There is in God a perfect distributive justice towards all His creatures. In virtue of this He awards to every being all that it requires according to its place in the divine scheme; He gives it the strength and the adaptability necessary for the duties He has appointed it to do. To man God assigns body and soul, reason and freedom, senses and faculties, the means of maintaining life, subduing the world, and making continual progress. Further, every one receives the graces of his state, adapted to his special work and special difficulties; and by means of these he can infallibly accomplish the natural and spiritual duties of his life, and at last attain to heaven. If we find ourselves deficient in such necessary grace, it is not because God is inequitable and seeks to reap what He did not sow, but either because we have not prepared and secured that grace, or because we have forced ourselves into a position not intended for us by God, where the requirements are beyond our capabilities. Religion is God’s great means of distribution; it will supply everything that our special circumstances demand. Never complain against the ordinances of God. You are not qualified to criticize them. Unless you know exactly what God has reserved for each man in the way of duty and future reward, you cannot judge whether his equipment is sufficient or not. Be persuaded that “God is faithful and without any iniquity, just and right” (Deut. xxxii. 4).
II. A second kind of justice—avenging justice—marks God’s dealings with unrepentant sinners. Terrible as their punishment is, they receive less than their due. They reap only that which they have sown, which they have brought on themselves with their eyes open and with full deliberation. “He loved cursing, and it shall come unto him; and he would not have blessing, and it shall be far from him” (Ps. cviii. 18). Sinners refuse to place their happiness in God, till at last they have so moulded their tastes and character that they have no longer the capacity for finding pleasure in Him. They introduce a permanent disorder into their being, and this necessarily produces permanent evils. The effect is strictly proportioned to the cause. The degree and the kind of the guilt is the exact measure of the punishment. “By what a man sinneth, by the same also is he tormented” (Wisd. xi. 17). “According to the measure of the sin shall the measure also of the stripes be” (Deut. xxv. 2). The sinner shall fall into the pit that he himself digged. Nothing can be more exactly just than this, and nothing more terrible. Let your love and trust in God’s mercy be always mingled with fear of His avenging justice. This is the beginning of wisdom.

III. Towards the just God exhibits remunerative justice. It is not that God has any obligations towards us, or owes any debt of justice for our services. We are unprofitable servants, we have given Him nothing that was not already His, our virtues are worthless before Him. But God has given us a claim by His promises, and through Jesus Christ, and so has made Himself our debtor. “Whosoever shall glorify Me, him will I glorify” (1 Kings ii. 30). God will render to us infinitely more than we have done for Him, but still there will be some proportion between our services and our reward. All the blessed will possess Him indeed, but it will be in greater or less measure according to the capacity which each one has created for himself by his goodness when on earth. Never repine at your lot, or be troubled about others receiving apparently less than they have merited. God’s accounts are not balanced till the next life. Trust in that infinite justice, which after a short delay will rectify all that is wrong, and give compensation for present inequalities.

26. The Mercy of God

  

 

I. God’s action in doing good to His creatures has different aspects and different names. Considering simply the good done we attribute it to God’s goodness; when the good is due to us we thank God’s justice; thinking of its abundance and gratuitousness we ascribe it to liberality: and we praise His mercy when He sympathizes with our miseries, and relieves them or saves us from them. God gives great prominence to this perfection. The Psalmist says, “The Lord is gracious and merciful, patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Ps. cxliv. 8, 9). And the Apostle: “Mercy exalteth itself above judgment” (James ii. 13). God’s mercy, though not more infinite than His other perfections, commends itself more to our appreciation, because of the contrast between our miseries and the state to which He raises us. From our point of view God’s mercy seems to be more valuable than His power or His wisdom, and to have a wider range and more wonderful effects than His justice or His sanctity. We may see mercy in all God’s works. His creatures are all in a state of misery before Him; and when He calls us from the depths of nothingness, and raises us to a state superior to nature, and holds out Paradise as a place of deliverance from all evils, this is all the work of mercy. Thank God for His mercies, and be merciful in your own sphere.

II. The principal and only real misery is sin, with its consequences. The permission of sin has thus created the opportunity for the exercise of the divine mercy; for its chief manifestation is towards sinners. It has several forms. 

1. It is gentleness, in that God does not break forth into anger and crush the sinner with His vengeance. 

2. It is patience. We prolong our iniquities, refuse to repent, or make our repentance a mockery; and God holds back the consequences of our sins until we tire of them and return to Him. 

3. It is benignity, for God is always ready to receive us back, and even admit us after all our sins to the highest favor in His kingdom. 

4. It is clemency; that is, that even if a sinner persists in his obstinacy to the end, the punishment he incurs is always, and in hell even, less than his deserts. Hence the prophet said: “When Thou art angry Thou wilt remember mercy” (Hab. iii. 2); and St. John in the Apocalypse speaks of the anger and judgment of God as being that of the Lamb. Truly “it is the mercy of the Lord that we are not consumed” (Lam. iii. 22). What immense reason you have for being grateful to God for His repeated and unwearying mercy!

III. If God does so much for obstinate sinners, much more will He do for those who repent. He pours forth His mercy on those who reject and despise it, but for those who implore it and open their hearts for it, He “will show the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He hath prepared unto glory” (Rom. ix. 23). This mercy becomes adoption of the sinner as heir of the kingdom of heaven; special protection, against the temptations of hell and relapse into sin; affability, by which God delights to converse with the children of men (Prov. viii. 31); considerateness, which punishes venial sin with troubles in this life, so as to spare the more grievous pains of purgatory; sweetness, in the interior peace and joy that God gives; munificence, in the abundance of present and future blessings. Do not be downcast on account of your miseries, your weakness, your repeated failures. They are the very raison d’être of God’s mercies. They are rather ground for confidence than for despondency, provided you try to serve God and do not sin in presumption on His mercy. Your claim for mercy and salvation rests rather on your sins than on your justice.

25. God's Hatred of Sin

I. Sin is the only thing that God has not originated, the only thing not represented in those archetypal ideas of God which are the source of all positive being, the only thing in which there is no reflection of God or participation of His perfections. The state of sin, therefore, has no positive being; for all that has being has it as deriving from God. Sin is rather the state of privation of all that comes from Supreme Being; it is the contradictory of being, or, in the word of St. Augustine, it is nothingness. Being and nothingness, as mutually exclusive, are said to be, in tendency, destructive of one another. Equally, God and sin are diametrically opposed; they are incompatible one with the other. Hence the expression, “Sin, as far as in it lies, would destroy God.” Sin expels God necessarily from the soul; the presence of God in the soul is destructive of sin. We express this in human terms by saying that God hates sin infinitely. God’s love and tenderness do not make Him tolerant of sin; on the contrary, they are necessarily antipathetic to that evil which is their opposite. Our soi disant tolerance of sin and error is not Christian charity, as we would pretend; it is indifference to God’s sanctity and is covert sympathy with evil. Sin is further hateful to God for the destruction it has wrought in God’s best-beloved creatures. If you really love God you will hate and avoid the smallest sin as worse than all the material evils of life.

II. Consider the qualities of God’s hatred of sin in this life.

1. It is tranquil. It is not really the passion of hatred, and there is no disturbance, fury, vindictiveness in it. To express the intensity of God’s opposition to sin vividly we speak of it as having the attributes of intense opposition as we know it in men.

2. It is just and reasonable. There is no precipitation, no harshness, no excess of retribution; but the sin itself is allowed to be the measure and the automatic cause of its own punishment.

3. It is loving. It is caused by, and is identical with God’s love of good. It involves no personal enmity to the sinner. God, though expelled from the sinful soul, loves it for the natural good that He has implanted in it, and for its possibilities of supernatural good; and He uses every means to bring the sinner once more to grace.

4. It disappears as soon as sin is removed from the soul, however late in life this may be, and however enormous and multiplied the offences. Never be discouraged by your sins, and never despair of the most obstinate sinner. There is more tenderness in God’s hatred of sin than in the greatest mercifulness of men.

III. As soon as this life is over there is a change in the character of God’s hatred of sin; or rather in the relation of the sinner to God. Then indeed “to God the wicked and his wickedness are hateful alike” (Wisd. xiv. 9). The sinner has persevered in his obstinacy, has refused the last offer of reconciliation, and confirmed himself for ever in hostility to God. The time of grace, probation and merit, is at an end. The sinner knows infinite goodness sufficiently to hate it as he hated its finite manifestations on earth; as he resists the impulse which all nature has towards God, he has resisted the attraction and calls of God during life. Rejecting God, he rejects all kinds of good; and this is equivalent to incurring universal and infinite evil; for evil is simply the privation of good. Hence the overwhelming torrent of miseries in hell. These are spoken of as the burning torrent of God’s indignation; but they are, more really, the effect of sin itself, henceforth not checked by God, and allowed to work its own havoc in the soul. For “God made not death, neither hath He pleasure in the destruction of the living” (Wisd. i. 13). How horrible and unnatural is the state of sin as thus revealed! What madness and folly to rush headlong into it! Present sin is one and the same thing with the future hell.  

24. God's Love For Creatures

I. God does not stand apart from His creation, indifferent to it and neglecting it. “Thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which Thou hast made” (Wisd. xi. 25). The propension of the divine will is one of complacency and benevolence towards all that is good. The first object of this love is the Supreme Good, the Divine Essence; the second object is created good. All creatures are good, as deriving from God, and as being reflections, and in some sort images of the divine perfections. The love of God for the Godhead is communicated to that which is so closely connected with the Godhead as are its productions, its creatures. On every single creature, then, God dwells with pleasure and love. On every one of them does He bestow His favours; natural favours on those that are of the natural order, and much more abundant supernatural ones on those that are supernatural. “Thou openest Thy hand and fillest every creature with blessing” (Wisd. xi. 25). The love of God for men is far in excess of what He bestows on the lower creation; and among men He lavishes a far more intense love on those who are members of the mystical body of His Son, and who serve Him with all their ability. Your love should be given first of all to the most worthy object, i.e. God, and then should extend in due order to all creatures of God for His sake, because they are His and are loved by Him.

II. Consider the qualities of the love of God for you and all His creatures.

1. It is eternal. Your image has always been present to the consciousness of God, and He has always taken delight in it. “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee” (Jer. xxxi. 3).

2. It is constant; it remains unchanged even when we have turned against God by sin. He still goes on bestowing favors and calling us to His grace.

3. It is gratuitous. God has nothing to gain from us in return. We have nothing and can do nothing. There is no attractiveness in us that He should desire us, except what He Himself has imparted to us.

4. It is individual. God loves each one as fully as if that creature were the only object of His infinite love. No one need be jealous lest the love given to others be so much taken from him. Be faithful for ever to the love of God who has first loved you. “Forsake not an old friend, for the new will not be like him” (Eccli. ix. 14). Strive to love God, 

1. perpetually, 

2. without wavering or weariness, 

3. for His own sake and not your own, 

4. as the sole object of your love, loving all others in Him.

III. Consider the efficacy of God’s love. Created love is for the most part selfish, useless, noxious even: it is changeable, inconstant, and is seldom able to do such good as it desires. The love of God produces every good in its object; it gratifies, enriches, ennobles, glorifies. Human love is drawn forth by some good quality in its object; God’s love is the cause of all goodness; it creates and diffuses the goodness which attracts it. If God were to withdraw His love momentarily from us, we should at once lose all excellence, all our virtues, all happiness, hope, existence even. God’s love then is the sum of all good to you here, and more especially hereafter. Do not barter it for any transient pleasure or advantage of this world. If you possess it, what does all else matter to you? And you have it, for Our Lord Himself has assured you of it, and has proved it by His deeds. Let this be your delight, your support, your consolation, your compensation under all circumstances. Try to love Him as well as you can, and you need have no fear as to the rest.

23. The Liberty of God

I. Liberty is a great and magnificent prerogative. God possesses it in perfection, in a manner beyond our conception. We delight in it, and are continually extending and safeguarding it; but how imperfect it is with us! Our liberty consists to a considerable extent in restraints on liberty, so that each may be protected against the inevitable encroachments of others. As our liberties increase, so do our laws. The most autocratic monarch is restrained in his freedom by international law, by public opinion, by etiquette and custom, by neighbouring countries and by his subjects. Above all, the freest of mankind are subject to God, bound to accept His revelation and obey His laws; they can indeed disobey, but by so doing they become subject to penal consequences here and hereafter. There are other limitations of our freedom imposed by God, which we are not able to transgress; we are bound down to a narrow corner of the universe, we are limited to a few years of life, we are checked continually by the weakness of our faculties. God is absolutely independent and sovereign, and can dispose of infinite powers. Such liberty, united to such power, would be terrible in any being not possessed of infinite wisdom and goodness. In God all these faculties are one. We, too, require goodness in proportion to our share of liberty. Otherwise, liberty becomes a mere instrument of oppression in the hands of the strong and the few. The machinery of law is a mere makeshift to supply the want of moral goodness as a check on the abuses of individual liberty.

II. God is absolutely free in the determinations of His will towards creatures. This is not the liberty of caprice and continual change, but a free determination, immutable and eternal nevertheless, because founded on perfect knowledge of all things present and future. As towards Himself, the determination of God’s will is fully voluntary, but it is a necessity of His perfect nature. It is impossible for God to do otherwise than delight in the perfection and beauty and the operations of His Divine Essence. But God was not necessitated in creating this world. He freely chose to act and accordingly called into being this universe with all its series of creatures, instead of an indefinite number of others which He might have made. Now that God has created the present universe, its material elements go on necessarily in the path of life and growth appointed for them, and they cannot now be other than they are; but this necessity is created by the fact of God’s action, and did not exist anteriorly to compel Him to make things as they are. Pay homage to God’s liberty by dedicating yours to His service. Thus only will you find true liberty of action and success in your works.

III. Further, in the execution of His will God is free from all interference and obstruction. There is none to question His liberty or His actions. “Who shall say to Thee, What hast Thou done; or who shall withstand Thy judgments?” (Wisd. xii. 12). No difficulty deters God. The whole universe is no more strain on His power than the creation of a particle of dust. One act of volition is sufficient to call into existence all the substances, all the enormous forces, all the varied life and intricate arrangements of the world. Our liberty is not complete, because we are liable to fall into sin; our best resolutions fail, and we are but broken reeds. “To will good is present with me, but to accomplish that which is good I find not. For the good which I will, I do not; but the evil which I will not, that I do” (Rom. vii. 18, 19). Not so with God. Sin and injustice can find no place in Him, nor can they force Him to compromise with them. Keep yourself free from sin. This is the truest liberty here, and the greatest exercise of human strength and determination. This gives you the true liberty of God.

22. Conformity to God's Will

 
I. The will of God is the law of our life; our will is the motive power in our life; if our will, then, is harmonious with the will of God, our life and action will be perfect, in accordance with their law, and in resemblance to God. To accept fully the will of God is indeed a strict duty, but it is also most meritorious. It is an act of profound submission to God in that we subject to His dominion that faculty which holds dominion in our lives, and so exalt His divine authority. It is a grateful sacrifice to God to offer Him a thing that is so entirely our own; and as this faculty sums up all that we have, the oblation of it is a holocaust, a consecration of all our being to God. If we carry out the spirit of conformity fully, we shall be led thereby to the practice of the highest virtues. There is prudence in taking so infallible and beneficial a rule as our guide. There is justice, because we render to the Supreme Being what is His due. Nothing gives such fortitude in acting and enduring as the consciousness that we are fulfilling the will of God. Temperance or moderation is identical with restraining those appetites that oppose the divine will. We acquire perfect peace and security when we feel that everything is ordained by God, and content ourselves with it accordingly. Conformity to God’s will is one of the characteristics of the blessed in heaven; and as to us on earth, Our Lord says, “Whoever shall do the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother” (Matt. xii. 50). Offer your will to God. Desire nothing apart from Him.

II. There are four principal forms of this high virtue.

1. Conformity of obedience, whereby we desire to obey all those commands and prohibitions which are essential to our salvation.

2. Conformity of habit, by which we cultivate in ourselves the same ideas and dispositions towards different objects that God has. This is what St. Paul commands: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. ii. 5). Consider how Our Lord regarded such things as pleasure, labour, death, riches, prayer, mankind, God.

3. Conformity of aim, by which we strive after the same objects as God does; viz., His glory, the diffusion of knowledge and love of Him, the reign of justice, the salvation of souls.

4. Conformity of object, i.e., desiring everything that God desires without exception, and rejecting everything unreservedly that He disapproves of. This last can only be practised perfectly in heaven. Inquire as to God’s will in each respect and see how you are conformed to it. Never resist it in the smallest degree, for “who hath resisted Him and hath had peace?” (Job. ix. 4).

III. This last kind of conformity in its perfect form is not demanded of us on earth; our weakness can hardly rise to that height. Our Lord Himself mercifully accommodated His example to our capacities; for, while resigning Himself perfectly to the divine will, He said, “Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me” (Matt. xxvi. 39). We too are allowed to pray for favours and deprecate chastisement, in the hope that God may have so arranged things from the beginning, in prevision of our prayers, as to grant our desires; but we must be prepared to accept a refusal or a delay with contentment and gratitude. It is a great perfection, however, “to ask nothing and refuse nothing” in the temporal order, to cast ourselves unreservedly into the arms of the divine will, indifferent to all that may happen, wishing only that God’s purposes be accomplished, and knowing that everything He decrees is arranged for the best. So did the saints generally act in regard of themselves. Desire at least to have this conformity. Trust more in God. Be sure that “to them that love God all things work together unto good, to such as, according to His purpose, are called to be saints” (Rom. viii. 28).

21. The Double Will in God

I. The will of God is one simple act without progressive stages or variation. Yet it has different effects according to the difference of the objects it deals with, like the sunlight, which to the healthy organism is a delight, but torture to the feeble and diseased eye. To represent this fact to ourselves we have to reduce it to terms of human ideas and speak of a double will in God. Scripture holds the same language, and tells us of God changing His decrees towards the sinner when he repents, and the just man when he falls away (Jer. xviii. 9, 10). The primordial intention of God in creation was to “have all men to be saved;” and therefore “the one Mediator of God and men . . . gave Himself a redemption for all” (I Tim. ii. 4-6). This we call the antecedent will of God. Man, however, is absolutely free, even to the extent of resisting Omnipotence. God does not break man’s will by force, but ratifies his choice and allows him to bear the consequences. To this extent the assent of God’s will depends on man’s; and therefore we speak of God’s subsequent will, as if it were formed later than the primordial will for such a man’s salvation, and after the prevision of his free action. Thus we reconcile the apparent contradiction that nothing happens without God’s will, and yet His will is contradicted; that Almighty power desires a man’s salvation, and yet that man is lost. There are mysterious depths in the Divine Will that we cannot fathom. “Thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter” (John xiii. 7). Wait in patience.

II. The efficiency of God’s antecedent will amounts to this, that He desires most urgently the salvation of every man, and brings it about efficaciously, except so far as each one’s free choice and deliberate obstinacy prevent it. God bestows the means of salvation on all, not scantily, but with at least as great a prodigality as we see in the material creation. He says of the lost soul, “What is there more that I ought to do to My vineyard that I have not done to it?” (Isa. v. 4). Many labour under peculiar disabilities, but the bounteous ways of Divine Providence are peculiar for each man. For every disadvantage there is compensation, for weakness there is gentle pity, for the effects of heredity or misfortune there is the broadest allowance. God does not command the impossible: He requires from each man only in proportion to what he has received; and, as the Gospels often show, the lot of the least endowed is often better than that of the most favoured. Thank God for His desire for your salvation. Trust in Him and do not wrong His mercy by any suspicion. Do what you can, and your salvation is secure.

III. If any man perish, he perishes in defiance of the antecedent will of God. “I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye from your evil ways; and why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezech. xxxiii. 11). If the subsequent will has consented to the soul’s loss, it is the doing of that soul alone. “Destruction is from thyself, O Israel” (Osee xiii. 9). A very small amount of knowledge suffices for salvation, and God at some time gives this to all. Temptation in itself is never fatal: we are helped to bear it, and grace is proportioned to our needs. “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able” (1 Cor. x. 13). Prayer places the whole force of God’s omnipotence in our hands; it pierces the clouds, and, according to Our Lord’s repeated promises, its effect is infallible. Only the most absolute carelessness and shocking perversity are capable of neutralizing God’s will to save our souls. Still you must always work out your salvation with fear and trembling. You cannot depend on yourself; there are such enormous possibilities of perversity in you.

20. The Will of God.

I. The will of God is that faculty in Him which determines the exercise of all His other powers. It is the cause of all things that proceed from God. It is free, intelligent, and sovereign. It is absolutely holy, righteous, and perfect. It cannot fail, it cannot change. God knows all good and evil that exists, or may exist; and He wills all good and in no way wills evil. He may permit evil in order to bring out of it greater good; and this is the explanation of all the misery that we find in the world. Whatever is willed by God is good. “God is not a man, that He should lie; nor as the son of man, that He should be changed. Hath He said, then shall He not do? Hath He spoken, and shall He not fulfill?” (Num. xxiii. 19). “I am the Lord, and I change not” (Mal. iii. 6). All things change around you; all is caprice and fickleness in men. You can rest only in the will of God. There is nothing firmer, truer, stronger, than the divine will. It is your foundation, your strength, your light, your law, your eternity. Unite yourself with it, study it, place all your trust in it. Then you will have peace.

II. Consider how worthy the will of God is of our esteem, reverence, and love. It is the will of One who is infinitely wise and knows all that is best; of One who is infinitely good and wishes only our good; of One who is infinitely powerful and able to effect His will; of One who is infinitely holy and can will nothing unworthy. How admirable and how consoling is such a will! And this will of God extends to everything: to our life and death, our joys and sorrows, our success and failure, our every step. Nothing escapes it. All is arranged by it. “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matt. x. 29). Nothing therefore happens by chance. Everything is directed by this loving will. Do not try to discover the reasons of God’s dealings with you; do not call them in question. There is reason enough in the fact that God wills them. Be persuaded that He knows better than you what is for your good. Confide in Him entirely.

III. The saints have all had an immense veneration and affection for the holy will of God. “Fiat voluntas tua!” was their watchword. They found peace and joy in it. All their strength lay in their submission to it. Try to form the same habit. Say often, “Fiat voluntas tua!” Say it especially when things go against you; when your plans are broken, your hopes destroyed, your life embittered, your strength exhausted, your prayers unanswered, your desolation complete. You are then nearest to God, because you are nearest to the suffering Christ. Let the will of God be for you the centre of your spiritual life. Say “yes” to all that He sends you. Let it be the food of your soul, the repose of your mind, the joy of your heart, the light of your path. When your work fails, your health breaks down, your friends forsake you, your powers fail you—say with resignation and confidence, “Thy will be done!” That is the grandest of prayers, the deepest of consolations, the most meritorious of acts. And when your end comes and the last struggle is over, say with your last breath, “Thy will be done!”

19. The Life of God

I. Holy Scripture speaks of the life of God as one of His distinctive attributes; it frequently calls Him the Living One or the Living God. He affirms by His life, in Ezechiel: “As I live, saith the Lord:” and the angel in the Apocalypse “lifted up his hand and swore by Him that liveth for ever and ever” (Apoc. x. 17). A living being is one that has in itself a principle of operation or of movement. Life is the source of activity either in regard to oneself or others. God has this. He is not a dead inactive substance, He does not operate or move in accordance with some higher external law; but He has a most full and superabounding vitality, which first energizes within the Divinity, and then diffuses itself and becomes the origin of all other life and activity. The Divine Life is not as the life of the plant or the sentient life of the animal, but it is the highest kind, spiritual, intellectual; and from this intellectual life proceed all material substances and all forces. Even our poor intelligence operates on external matter, and is, in a modified sense, creative; much more is this the case with God. The divine life is the breath of our nostrils (Job. xxvii. 3) in the natural order; and a more special communication of it is our life in the supernatural order. A spontaneous, irresistible drawing towards life is a sign that it is vigorous in you. Take delight in God, long after Him, try to say “My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God” (Ps. lxxxiii. 2).

II. Consider the excellence of this divine life in God. It is spiritual and intellectual. “The cognition of the Divine Essence is the food and drink of the Word” (St. Clem. Alexand.). The divine life is full of purity and sanctity and virtue of all kinds. It is most peaceful, happy, tranquil and content. It is perfectly free, independent, and sovereign. It is the first source and the last term of the perfection of all created natural and supernatural life. It is an inconceivably perfect life beyond all powers of description. God communicates Himself to you in divers ways, with Himself His life. This takes place through Our Lord, through His teaching, His Church, His grace, His Sacraments; and it is accomplished so perfectly that we may become able to say, “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. ii. 20). Then all the aforesaid noble qualities of the divine life become realized in us. Thank God for these wonders, and for thus elevating you above the natural creation and above your natural capacities.

III. God in Jesus Christ becomes our life (John. xiv. 6). We sorely need this life. Compare human life with the divine. “Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries; who cometh forth like a flower and is destroyed, and fleeth as a shadow, and never continueth in the same state” (Job. xiv. 1, 2). Our life begins in nakedness and feebleness and tears, and in original sin; it continues in labours and sorrows, in fears and disappointments, in perversity, folly and sin; it ends in weariness and failure, in humiliating decay, or in premature catastrophe. It is seldom successful, generally pitiful, and often is considered not worth living. There is only one thing that will elevate it, that will lend it dignity, that will make it endurable and useful; and that thing is the infusion of the supernatural life of God. The universal cry of human nature is, “Unhappy man that I am! who will deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. vii. 24). Your life is worth nothing to yourself or to others unless God be with you. This is the greatest truth of moral and social science and the secret of your happiness. Do not wait to learn it by sad experience, but be wise in time.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.