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‘He saved others; Himself He cannot save.’
Mar_15:31
II. We form far too ready judgments of success and failure.—We set our hearts upon a certain object, and if we do not attain it, we say at once, ‘There; I have failed’; or if we do attain it, we say, ‘There is a success,’ as if there could be no degree of doubt about it. But is not experience always teaching in some strange way that we do not really know what is best for us, or, in other words, that our successes are often failures, and our failures, which we deplore, are often successes? It is clear that we are taught to improve our work by failing in it. There is a wonderful uniting power in defeat. Defeat and even disaster evoke a wealth of generous sentiments in noble minds. There is no more splendid example than the faith of those who, when all seemed to be lost, have yet disdained to despair.
Human life, regarded in its religious aspect, is nothing else than an education of the soul. Christ teaches these two lessons which are so precious, that failure is an instrument—nay, a better instrument than success—in disciplining the soul; and that in this mysterious world of which we are the denizens it is only in failing ourselves, as men count failure, that we can hope to render the highest blessings to others.
—
Bishop Welldon.
Illustration‘An accomplished lady once wrote that she had lived long enough to thank God for not having granted her prayers; she meant for not having granted them in the way which she would have chosen. Believe me, as you proceed in life, as you look backward upon the ever-lengthening vista of past years, you will see more and more clearly that it would not have been good for you to have your own way, that you have learnt more from your trials than from your triumphs, and that God has been dealing with you lovingly and wisely, like a Father, in denying you the desire of your hearts, and in teaching you, by however hard a discipline, that you must give up what has seemed to you so good, for the sake of winning some day something which is much better.’
THE MISTAKE OF THOSE THAT PASSED BY
I. Thought exclusively of the present.—On this side of death they had clear, if narrow and illogical, views. They did not, as a body, think of the future as the balance and rectification of the present. Everything beyond death was shadowy and intangible. Only here, in the world of sense, was the real. The man of this world has a very limited horizon, and there is no completeness in his earthly day, no certainty in the passage of its hours. Man himself, according to his instinctive precautions and the maxims of his experience, is ruined when he dies. What if eternity lie all around us, and beyond be the true life?
II. Were more concerned for pain and physical deprivation than for sin.—Not that they pitied the Sufferer: at any rate their pity had no chastening or restraining force. It was only as regarding the pain, etc., as an evil from which men should shrink at any cost, and as judging Him Who, in their ideas, had brought it upon Himself, that they spoke. They did not conceive of themselves as in a worse position than He Whom they beheld. They revelled in iniquity. A time would come when they would say of themselves, ‘It were better we had never been born.’
III. Argued from self-love to the salvation of others.—It is in this aspect that their illogicalness is most evident. To talk thus showed a want of deep thought. Who is it to whom the world looks for its blessings and benefactions? To the timorous, the calculating, the self-seeking, the selfish? Is it not just the absence of these qualities that inspires our confidence and awakens our expectation? Woe to us, if in our utter loss of all things and our last agony, we have to turn for help and comfort to those whose first thought is for themselves! It is self-contradiction, it is indictment of themselves, when they say, ‘He saved others; Himself He cannot save.’
Illustration
‘The great question with us all now should be, not “Could He save Himself?” or “Could He save others?” but “Has He saved us?” Only in that consciousness can we be saved from the sin and folly of those who taunted and crucified Him. And the evidence of it is not far to seek,—“Has He enfranchised us from self?” Then shall we seek the good of others and the glory of God, and not till then. Let this be our plea with God, and our pattern amongst men, “He saved others; Himself He could not save.” ’