The Denver star., 1917-12-22
GRACE VS.. FAILURES
Often Times It Is the Great Re.
veaIer Of Gods Mercy, Love
and Power to Deliver. +


falls, but they never learned anything
which would not have been better
learned through their faith. 1t lis
enough to say that God will teach us
through our stumblings when that is
tho only textbook left to teach us out
OF. We need not go into any raptures
about failure. When he had denied
his Lord and then suddenly saw him
In all his truth and beauty, Peter knew
well enough that he might have seen
his Lord more clearly without a fall.
But be that as it may, the fall was
there, and the wonder Of it was that
his master was still willing to reveal
himself through what was left. Al
most any master could take the de-
fects and mistakes of his disciples and
point out what they had lost, but who
else would take the meanest and mos
contemplate passages in ones exist.
ence and make even them a lens
through which they could see the d.
vine if they would?
There are more normal ways of rev.
elation, points out the Sunday School
Times, but when this is the only way
we have left to God, then he takes
our falls and reveals himself through
them. Without ever once saying that
the fall was upward, or that the sin
was goodness in the making, the Bible
takes what men give and shows how
wonderfully God will commence the
miracle Of repair.
1t may be that we do not learn as
we might because we are too proud
to learn through the only means we
have left for God to employ in teach
ing us. A great fall may still be
great revealer. When we have had
one We may look upward because there
II nowhere else to look. At last we
look unto the hills whence cometh our
help. One Of the marks of Christian
believer is that to him a fall is some
thing different from what it is to an
other man. To the non-Christian q
fall may seem nothing but a finish.
To the Christian it must in some way
seem more terrible than to anybody
else. But though he Is cast down,
he is not destroyed.
Every Christian is brought very low
at times. To anyone else it would be
the end; but he is taught to expect
something more. Joseph Parker, who
80 constantly exhibited the e1uberance
Of the Gospel said: II have known
~ nearly as any man what it was to
be forsaken, have reached out and
found no help, that is, no lateral help.
The only direction from which help
could come to me was vertical"
TBese exhaustions ought never to
! have been, but they are here. and they
may be made the ground Of revela-
tions. When we cannot pray to God
out Of our nearness to him, then we
can pray out of our distance. George
Macdonald said that sometimes he felt
he had no other Claim upon God ex-
cept that he was SO miserable; and he
made that claim. One man lets his
weakness overwhelm him. His relig-
| ion ends there. But another takes his
stand upon his weakness, 1t is all he
has, and he uses that as an approach
to God and the willingness to do that
has been a great revealer to men.
Pride may ruin US. 1t may keep US
waiting until we have some better
We never find that basis. Who would
not wish taat he might look into Gods
face from a life that was all clear ?
But we cannot. The Pharisee tried it
in the temple and failed. The publican
knew that if he was to see God at all
he must see him from the standpoint
of sin and shame; throwing away his
pride, waiting for nothing. saying God
be merciful to me a sinner" he saw
God. There is not sinner in the
! world who may not add to the glories
of revelation.
God fulfills himself in many ways"
We could wish THAI the truth might
come TO Us steadily. through eyes that
are always bright and glad. But the
truth comes to many of us through
tears. 1t may come that way. Let us
not despise our disappointments.
SO far our sins and falls may have
only revealed to US ourselves. They
may have only intensified our self
knowledge. This is something; but II
it is all, it may end in death. But
when one realizes that Just this ex-
perience is what Christ has been look
ing for and that, made over to him,
iae may make it means of revelation,
then our greatest days may be draw
Ing nigh.
You are having some terrible dis
appointment or sorrow or failure. Do
not let 1t be that and nothing more.
Do not be proud about II. Do not say
you will not see God unless he comes
in the grand way. II this is all you
have by way Of present experience,
then 1t will suit God better than any
thing else you can offer. Christ al
ways took men just where they were.
He never asked that the situation
rhnIild ho alAnncd IL, caia .,1&hi.r.