I. When may it be said to be really well with any persons? Many would think it to be well with us when we have food and raiment, when our flocks and herds increase. But, if this is to be well, and we are no better than “this world’s goods” can make us, we are well only for time, and as it respects our frail and perishable bodies. In this sense, it was well with Dives. For it to be really well with us, we must come to things which concern the soul, and which have a reference to that eternal state whither we are going. Mark, then, what follows: It is well with us if our souls have been awakened--if we have found forgiveness--if the Lord Jesus Christ be precious to us--and if we be now walking in newness and righteousness of life.
II. Whether it be thus well with you? You may, as we have seen, be well as it respects this world and your abiding in it. But, is it well with your souls? Would it be well with you, do you think, if God were now to require your souls of you? Inquire, I pray you. Felt you ever your need of mercy? Has a sensibility of your guiltiness ever constrained you to cry for mercy? Have you, like her who had lost one of her ten pieces of silver, sought for it “til you have found it”? Is your heart “sprinkled from an evil conscience”? What do you love most? Christ or the world?--Christ or sinful pleasure?--Christ or the increase of your temporal wealth and honour?--Christ or yourself? What is your chief joy? The Christian “rejoices in Christ Jesus.” Is He the object of your rejoicing? In what way are you living? The way in which we live will most clearly evidence whether we have been awakened, forgiven, and “I accepted in the Beloved,” or not; and, consequently, whether it be well with us or not. (W. Mudge,B. A.)
It is well
Death is not a calamity to the Christian. “It is well.”
I. In view of the unsatisfactory nature of life. Paul would say, “To live is Christ,” and yet he testified, “To depart and be with Christ is far better.”
II. In view of the home prepared for the saved.
III. “it is well” with the child of God even in this life.
IV. Appeal to the living. Is it well with your soul? (HomileticReview.)
A searching inquiry
In the late South African War, Major Child, when setting out one morning on reconnaissance duty, had a presentiment he might not return alive, and so said to a brother officer that if he fell that day he wanted written on his memorial stone just these words: “Is it well with the child? It is well.” It fell out as he anticipated, but death had no terrors for him, and now he lies on the veldt with this question and answer above his grave. Suppose this question put to us: “Is it well with thee?” Can we answer, “It is well”? (J. D. Jones,M. A.)
She answered, It is well.--
Submission under trial
I. The trial which the woman endured. “Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upwards.” “The ills to which flesh is heir” are diffused with wonderful impartiality. The palace is as much accustomed to the visits of sorrow as is the cottage. The robe of honour cannot ward off the touch of pain any more than the garment of beggary. The glittering diadem often encircles an aching brow, and the silken robe often covers a bleeding heart.
1. In her trial there was the disappointment of a strong desire. She seems to have had only one strong desire ungratified. No child had ever called her mother; she had no son to perpetuate her husband’s name in Israel. The desire to be a mother was peculiarly strong in the heart of a Hebrew wife, from the national relationship to the promise, that of the seed of a woman would come the Destroyer of the serpent and the Deliverer of Jacob. This desire in the heart of the Shunammite had almost died away, when the prophet assures her she shall yet “embrace a son.” As the desire had been strong, so would the joy be great when the desire was realised. Who can blame her if her heart swelled with a joyful pride and a proud joy, as she clasped her baby to her breast, and pictured for him a future of happiness and honour?
2. An additional element in this woman’s trial was the blasting of a bright hope. What sweet and sacred hopes cluster round every cradle! We all know the power of hope, and to how large a degree hope constitutes the beauty and blessedness of human life.
3. As another element of this woman’s trial--her tenderest affections have been torn. Her child has been taken from her. The grief of “one that mourneth for a first-born” has passed into a proverb. She had lost her first-born--nay, she had lost her only child.
II. Her conduct under the trial. Notice, first:
1. She is filled with the most pungent sorrow. When trial is sent, it is designed we should feel it. There may be sorrow, there must be sorrow, under the afflictions and bereavements of life; only it should not be despondent sorrow, nor rebellious sorrow, nor murmuring sorrow, but sorrow submissive and sanctifying, like that of this woman.
2. She acquiesces in the will of God. She says, “It is well.” This is one of the highest achievements of Christian faith.
3. In her trial this woman cleaves to God. She does not sit down and brood over her bereavement, and nurse her grief, and indulge in “the luxury of sorrow.” She goes at once to consult the oracle of God.
(1) She may have gone to inquire whether there were not deliverance from her trial.
(2) She may have gone to seek strength to bear her trial. The prophet was the mouth of God to her.
(3) She may have gone to seek the sanctification of her trial. Whether this was one of the blessings she desired in going to the man of God, may be doubted; it cannot be doubted that this ought to be our main desire in going to God Himself in seasons of trial and sorrow.
III. The grounds which may produce and sustain such a course of conduct as this woman pursued. There are three grounds which may contribute to this desirable result. A consideration--
1. Of what we are who endure the trial;
2. of what He is who sends the trial; and
3. of the purpose the trial is designed to serve. (G. D. Macgregor.)
Reasons for trials
I. Affliction comes to call our sin to our remembrance, and to humble us for it beneath the cross of Jesus.
II. Another end for which God sends His heavy hand upon His children is to loose them from the world--to make them cease from the idolatry of the creature.
III. Again, another object of the trials which God sends His children is to make himself more dear to them. Dear indeed He is to all who have learned to view Him as a God of love--as the Godwho hath “so loved the world as to send His only-begotten Son” to die for it--dear is He to all of us whose souls. He has sprinkled with the blood of Christ, “in whom” He has “revealed His Son, and whom He has made heirs, through Christ, of life eternal.”
IV. A further end God has in view in laying crosses on His people is that He may conform them to their Saviour, by admitting them into the fellowship of His sufferings.” “If we suffer,” says the apostle, “we shall also reign with Him.” Justly then might we feel uneasy to be the prosperous followers of a suffering Lord--light-hearted servants of a sorrowing and weeping Master.
V. But, when God makes His children acquainted with affliction, He has a purpose in His view, beyond any of the objects we have yet enumerated. He intends by it His own glory. Eminently is that glory promoted and set forth by the patience of His people in the hour of trial, and by their cheerful acquiescence in His will. The world is then compelled to see that there is truth, that there is power, in His Gospel. “It is well,” very well, with every child of God, however great be “the fight of affliction” he is called on to sustain. For look at the issue of these things! These afflictions are not everlasting. God “will not always chide, neither keepeth He His anger for ever.” As soon as the ends of His chastening providence are answered, the dispensation will be changed. “It is well,” then, with believers even in their most afflicted moments. The Shunammite spoke truth when she uttered that saying in the midst of her affliction. Christian brethren, are any of us her fellow-sufferers? (A. Roberts,M. A.)
The uses of affliction
An artist asked a friend to come to his studio to see a painting just completed. He came at the time appointed, but was shown into a dark room, and there left alone. He waited for fifteen minutes, when his friend came in, greeted him cordially, and then took him to the studio. Before he left, the artist said laughingly: “I suppose you thought it queer to he left in that dark room so long?” “Yes, I did.” “Well,” said the artist, “I knew that if you came into my studio with the glare of the street in your eyes you could not appreciate the fine colouring of the picture. So I left you in the dark room till the glare had worn out of your eyes.” So God puts His children into the dark room of affliction, so that they may be able to see the beauty of heavenly things otherwise hidden from their eyes. (Christian Commonwealth.)
