The Magnanimity of God

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 21, 1877,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Behold, God is mighty, and despises not any: He is mighty in strength
and wisdom" (or, in strength of heart) Job 36:5.

WE cannot wonder that, in the extreme bitterness of his soul, Job was
driven to utter some expressions which he would not, afterwards, have
attempted to justify. Among the rest Job had thought and almost said
that God had despised him. In the 10th chapter, at the 3rd verse, he
appealed to Him thus, "Is it good unto You that You should oppress,
that You should despise the work of Your hands?" Elihu, in his zeal to
vindicate the righteousness of his Maker, fixes his mind, as I think,
upon that expression of Job and meets it with a positive denial,
proving his point from the might and the great-heartedness of the Lord.
He had promised to fetch his argument from afar and, therefore, he does
not argue against God's despising any from His mercy or goodness.

Nor does he give us a commonplace reason for his assertion, such as
would easily have suggested itself even to the thoughtless, but he
grounds his declaration that God despises no one and, consequently, not
Job, upon the fact of God's being mighty. "Behold, God is mighty, and
despises not any: He is mighty in strength of heart." That form of
argument would not have naturally occurred to you or to me. We might
even have been inclined to argue the other way and say– He is so
mighty that He cannot be expected to consider such feeble things as His
creatures and He despises them all! And it is, therefore, little wonder
that He should despise Job among the rest. Elihu, with far better
judgment than the most of us possess, draws quite the opposite
inference and declares that because God is mighty, therefore He
despises no one!

Facts are convincing arguments and if you carefully observe, you will
see that usually those persons who despise others are weak and, if weak
nowhere else, weak in understanding. Those little men who are dressed
in brief authority are often harsh and tyrannical, but the truly great
are courteous, tender and considerate. The strong have no reason to be
suspicious and jealous and, therefore, they are free from envy. They
are void of fear of the power of others and, therefore, they become
anxious that their own power should not be oppressive to the weak ones
around them. They become considerate of others because this furnishes a
fit sphere for the use of their strength. Yon man who is only strong in
appearance and is really feeble, despises others because he dreads
them–and knowing how much he deserves to be despised, himself, he
pretends to look down upon his neighbors.

It is your half-educated man who sneers. It is your pretender to
gentility who gives himself airs. Wherever anything is mere pretense,
it endeavors to shield itself from criticism by casting sarcasms upon
its rivals. It is said of the Pharisees that they trusted in
themselves, that they were righteous and despised others. Had they been
truly righteous, they would not have despised others, but because they
had a mere veneer of religion, a superficial varnish or gilding of
righteousness–or something that looked like righteousness–they looked
down with supreme scorn upon all who did not make the same show as
themselves.

God is so great in all things that He despises none! He has no rivals
and has no need to sustain Himself by lowering the good name of others.
He is supremely real. He is so true and thorough that in Him there can
never be so much as the thought of despising any in order to guard
Himself. His power is not soon awakened to war because it has no
opposition to fear. His might is associated with gentleness–fury is
not in Him because it is such great might that when it is once in
action it devours His adversaries as flame consumes the stubble! God is
too great to be contemptuous, too mighty to be haughty.

Note, too, that mere brute force may despise the weak, but the might
here ascribed to the Lord is of a higher order. His might is seen not
only in that power which rocks the solid world with earthquakes and
shakes the heavens with tempests, but in that nobler form of might
which reveals itself in wisdom and nobleness of mind. The power of His
arm is

equaled by the greatness of His spirit. His might lies in His heart–in
His understanding and in His love. He is mighty in spiritual things, in
sublimity of thought, grandeur of motive, nobleness of spirit and
loftiness of aim. When you perceive the exaltation of the Divine Mind
and the sublimity of the Divine Character, you perceive the reason why
the Lord does not despise any.

To put my meaning into one cumbersome but expressive word, it is the
magnanimity of God which prevents His despising any. The sun is so
glorious that it refuses not to shine upon a dunghill! The rain is so
plenteous that it declines not to drop into the tiny flower cup! The
sea is so vast that it does not hesitate to waft a feather and God is
so mighty that He rejects not the praises of babes and sucklings. If
God were little, He might despise the little. If He were weak He would
disdain the weak. If He were untrue He would be supercilious to those
about Him. But, seeing He is none of these, but is God Over All,
blessed forever, the Only Wise God, we have to deal with One who,
though He is high, has respect unto the lowly! Our God is One who,
though He humbles Himself even to observe the things which are done in
Heaven, yet despises not the cry of the humble! The magnanimity of God
is the reason why He despises no one. By the aid of the Holy Spirit we
will, this morning, first dwell upon the doctrine and then consider its
practical uses.

I. First, I want you reverently to consider THE DOCTRINE that God is
mighty and, therefore, despises not any. Begin at the beginning. The
Lord is mighty–that is to say, God is so strong that immeasurable and
inconceivable power belongs to Him. "God has spoken once; twice have I
heard this; that power belongs unto God." All that God has already done
proves His power, but we cannot, even from His greatest works, guess at
what He is yet able to do! "Lo, these are parts of His ways; but how
little a portion is heard of Him? The thunder of His power, who can
understand?" Since there is no boundary to His power and it would be
sinful to attempt to limit the Holy One of Israel, we are free to
believe that the Lord could work in even a more stupendous scale than
He has done if it so pleased Him.

Search as long as you will, and by His help obtain as clear a discovery
of Divine power as was ever given to mortal mind, but remember that He
is past finding out and that even if you saw Him stand and measure the
earth, and drive asunder the nations and cause the everlasting
mountains to be scattered, and the perpetual hills to bow, you would
yet have to say with Habakkuk, "There was the hiding of His power."
With the Lord nothing is impossible! Learn somewhat of His power from
the following facts. First, all the power there is in the universe came
from God at first, comes from Him, still, and, at His bidding, would,
in a single moment, cease! Whatever of force there is in inanimate
Nature it is but God at work. He set the wheel of Nature in motion and
at His bidding it would cease to turn.

Whatever mental faculty there may be in cherub or seraph, angel or man,
it is but an emanation from His creative energy, a ray from His eternal
sun which would cease if He restrained His might. If Jehovah willed it,
yonder enormous orbs, which now revolve in order around the central
sphere, would rush in wild confusion to inevitable destruction! The law
of gravitation, which holds all things in their places, would be broken
in an instant if He withdrew the force which makes the law a power!
There would be no coherence among atoms–no, the atoms, themselves,
would dissolve into non-existence and leave one vast sepulcher–one
universal void!

Herein is power so great that we cry with Nehemiah, "You, even You, are
Lord alone! You have made Heaven, the Heaven of heavens, with all their
hosts, the earth and all things that are therein. The seas and all that
is therein and You preserve them all and the host of Heaven worships
you." The great God can do all things without help. He needs no
assistance from any created thing. Indeed, there could be no such aid,
since all the power of all other beings is derived from Him! Creatures
do not contribute to His strength–they only manifest Him, revealing
the power which they have first of all borrowed from Him. To achieve
any purpose of His heart He asks none to be His ally, for He does as He
wills.

What is more, He could, with equal ease, accomplish all His purposes if
all created intelligences and forces were against Him. It would make no
difference to His supremacy of might though all the tremendous powers
which have now been created should revolt. He that sits in the heavens
would have them in derision. Even powers which set up their standard
against Him are beneath His control! His enemies are His footstool–out
of their rage He brings forth His peaceful purposes–"He makes the
wrath of men to praise Him and the remainder thereof He does restrain."
Note well that when God has done all that He pleases, He has not spent
His strength. "He faints not, neither is weary. There is no searching
of His understanding."

He watches always, but He never wearies so as to need to slumber. He
works always, but He never pauses to take rest because of any weariness
or exhaustion. When He has done all that He has purposed to do, He
remains as ready to work

as before. When He has, according to our notions, gone to the utmost of
His potency, He is but at the beginning! These are the hems of His
garments, but His full Glory is not seen. I tremble while I speak upon
that of which I know so little, but assuredly God is mighty in the most
emphatic sense that can be conceived by the most enlarged intellect,
yes, and far beyond all that has entered into the heart of man.

The text, also, tells us that He is "mighty in strength and in wisdom,"
so that we have to consider that God is powerful in mind. "There is no
searching of His understanding." He not only possesses physical might,
by which He creates, preserves, or destroys, but the higher power of
understanding, for, "He is wonderful in counsel." "Great is our Lord
and of great power His understanding is infinite." It is difficult to
find words to express my meaning, for God is a Spirit and as far as He
may reverently be spoken of as possessing a mind and intellect, He is
as Omnipotent in that sphere as in the physical world. This is the
security of His creatures–that He is a great-minded God! He who has
great power of hand is to be dreaded unless he has corresponding
greatness of soul. It is a calamity when the ruler of an empire cannot
rule his own spirit.

The world has shuddered at Neros and Domitians and Caligulas who were
so weak in character that they broke every law of morality and
humanity–and yet had the destinies of nations under their control.
Look at the conformation of the heads of those monsters and they strike
you as resembling both prizefighters and idiots, or a combination of
the two! And one's blood chills at hearing that such beings were once
masters of the Roman world. Happy is it for a nation when the master of
its legions is of a benevolent mind and generous spirit, strong in
self-restraint and irresistible in the force of virtue. In the highest
degree we have this in "the Blessed and Only Potentate." God has great
thoughts, great designs, great wisdom, great goodness! He is mighty in
all respects and especially in the restraint which He puts upon His
wrath.

If you wish to see this, look at the forbearance and long-suffering
which He manifests towards the disobedient. How matchless is His
patience! How enduring His mercy! The wicked provoke Him and He feels
the provocation, but yet He does not smite. Week after week they insult
Him–they even touch the apple of His eye by persecuting His
people–but still He lets the lifted thunder drop and gives space for
repentance. He sends them messages of mercy. He implores them to turn
from the error of their ways, but they harden their hearts, they
blaspheme Him, they take His holy name in vain! Still, by the space of
many years He bears with their incessant rebellions and though He is
grieved with the hardness of their hearts, He keeps back His
indignation. This patience is shown not here and there to one of our
race, but to myriads of the human family–and not for one generation,
only, but from generation after generation does His good Spirit
strive–still does He stretch out His hands all the day long even to
the disobedient and to the gainsayers. Not willing that any should
perish, He waits long and patiently because He delights in mercy.

Equally wonderful, I think, is the power which God has over His own
mind in the ultimate pardoning of many of these transgressors. It is
marvelous that He should be able to forgive any and so perfectly to
forgive! It often happens to us that we feel compelled to say, when
greatly offended, "I can forgive you, but I fear I shall never forget
the wrong." God goes far beyond this, for He casts all our sins behind
His back and He declares that He will not remember them against us any
more, forever. What? Never? Such deep offenses! Such heinous crimes!
Such provoking transgressions! Shall they never be remembered? What?
Not ever remembered? Shall there not be at least a frown, or a degree
of coolness on account of them? No. "I have blotted out, as a thick
cloud, your transgressions and, as a cloud, your sins."

It shows the great-mindedness of God that He should be able to act thus
and to act thus towards the very chief of sinners! "Who is a God like
unto You, that pardons iniquity and passes by the transgressions of the
remnant of His heritage? He retains not His anger forever because He
delights in mercy." Let me add that when He does not forgive, but when
persistent impenitence demands the final doom, God is great-souled even
in the punishment of the wicked. He takes no pleasure in the sinner's
death. Judgment is His strange work. Punishment is never inflicted as a
matter of arbitrary sovereignty, but always because demanded by
justice. The Lord, in vindicating His justice, deals not with the poor
and the obscure, alone, but with the great ones of the earth–plucking
down from their high places, emperors and kings red-handed with human
carnage–and casting them down to Hell.

Nor does He, on the other hand, exercise exceptional severity on the
great blasphemer, but He deals with the baser sort, also, and does not
spare the braggart of the streets who profanes His name. Calmly and
impartially does God deal out justice, "for there is no iniquity with
the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts." His
sentence is so just that none shall be able to criticize it. Thus He
proves the greatness of His mind, for when He does condemn and

punish it is never in passion, never in haste, never without exact
weighing of evidence. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
"Yes, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty
pervert judgment." Our God, then, is mighty of heart. Now, the pith of
the doctrine lies here, that because of His might God, despises not
any. The proof is very manifest. God is so great and mighty that all
things must be little to Him. There can be nothing great to the
infinite

God.

There are worlds so ponderous that human reckoning cannot estimate
their size. There are worlds so numerous that we have to leave them
uncounted, yet separately or apart, or taken altogether in their
constellations, all these must be as a drop in a bucket to Him. Since,
then, all things must be little, it comes to pass that nothing is,
therefore, more than little and nothing falls much more below the level
of His greatness than other things which we are known to think much of.
If the Divine observation and care is to extend to creatures at all,
then it must be exercised upon insignificance and weakness, since,
compared with Himself, there is nothing else. If you desire proof that
the Lord considers the lesser things, look at Creation. The great and
mighty God has displayed His greatness as much in the tiny objects
which He has made as in the magnificent worlds which He has fashioned.
Myriads of creatures disport themselves in a single drop of stagnant
water and yet in each one of these, Omnipotence is manifested.

The bodies of those minute beings display, in every part, amazing skill
and admirable design. Their very minuteness increases our wonder and
compels us to feel the mightiness of the Divine Creator. For each of
these infusorial creatures, so small as only to be observed beneath a
strong microscope, God finds fitting food and puts life-force into each
part of its organization so that it can exist, grow, mature, enjoy
life, and transmit it to its successor. He sees to everything that
concerns a gnat or a fly–and as surely as He watches over seraphim and
cherubim He guards the worm of the earth and the minnow of the brook!
God has created tiny things, not as a freak or an experiment, nor as
the sport of His leisure, but in sober earnest. He has evidently put
forth as much of His mind in the formation of the minute as in the
fashioning of the immense!

And since He has done so, let us not question that He will deal
tenderly with the poor and needy among men and He will despise none
that seek Him in sincerity of heart. He who takes care of gnats and
flies will hear the prayers of humble hearts and will not refuse to
regard the ignorant and the obscure! Jesus, His Son, was meek and lowly
in heart, and suffered the little children to come unto Him and,
therefore, we who are least among men shall not be despised! The same
respect to the minor things is observable in Providence. The Providence
of God does not only concern wars between mighty empires and the
discussions of cabinets and royal councils, but it comprehends within
its rule everything that transpires. The blooming of each one of the
millions of daisies in the meadows is arranged by eternal purpose and
the croaking of a frog in the marsh, or the falling of a leaf from an
oak in the forest is part of the plan of eternal wisdom!

The migration of each swallow is as much arranged as the voyage of
Columbus! The breaking of a fowler's net is as surely ordained as the
emancipation of a nation! God is in ALL things–not a sparrow lights to
the ground without your Father–and the very hairs of your head are all
numbered. A Force which encompasses these little things and condescends
to make them a part of His eternal purpose most evidently proves that
the Lord cannot be suspected of despising any! One telling argument to
prove that the magnanimity of God despises none is found in the fact
that He has regarded man. David thought so when he surveyed, "the
heavens, the work of God's fingers, the moon and the stars which He had
ordained," for he exclaimed, "What is man, that You are mindful of him?
And the son of man, that You

visit him?"

Man is neither the greatest, the strongest, nor the swiftest among
animals. Lions outmatch him in force, horses in swiftness, eagles in
power to soar and fish in ability to dive. Leviathan far surpasses him
in bulk and behemoth exceeds him in the strength of his loins. Man is
apparently a feeble creature and more likely to be the prey of beasts
than their destroyer. Look at him in his naked weakness and what a
defenseless, unprotected creature he appears! And yet he is monarch of
the world! As David said, "You made him to have dominion over the works
of Your hands. You have put all things under his feet; all sheep and
oxen, yes, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air and the
fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas."

That God should consider man is an instance of that great-mindedness
which does not look at bulk and strength, but abounds in condescension.
This is more clear, too, when you think of what sort of men God has
most of all favored. Who

are his chosen? Remember that the most intimate love of God has seldom
fallen to the lot of the great ones of this earth. "Not many mighty,
not many noble are called; but God has full often chosen the poor of
this world."–

"When the Eternal bows the skies

To visit earthly things,

With scorn Divine He turns His eyes

From towers of haughty kings.

He bears His a wful chariot roll

Far downward from the skies,

To visit every humble soul,

With pleasure in His eyes."

What does Paul say in His Epistle to the Corinthians? "Things which are
despised has God chosen, yes, and things which are not, to bring to
nothing things that are." He despises not any, we are sure, for when He
ordained fathers in His Church and set 12 leaders in the Apostleship,
He chose to this office neither philosophers, nor senators, nor kings,
but lowly fishermen! And from that day, to this, it has been His
pleasure to do His mightiest actions for His people by those who have
been least esteemed among the sons of men, for He is so mighty that He
despises not any.

Brethren, you know, some of you, another sweet proof that He does not
despise any, for you can say in the language of David, in the 22nd
Psalm, "He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the
afflicted; neither has He hid His face from him; but when he cried unto
Him, He heard." You have, some of you, been in very deep waters through
bodily pain, bereavement, poverty, or persecution. You have found loved
ones and friends forsake you, for you have been but poor company for
their merry-makings. But God has not forsaken you! He has been very
near to you in the time of your distress and thus has He proven that He
despises not any. To this man, also, has He looked, even to him that is
poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembles at His Word.

I need not stay to prove this further, for all history declares that
God has no esteem for human greatness–that He has no flattery for
human excellence–but that, on the contrary, He lays the axe at the
root of the tall and the green trees and brings them down even to the
ground. But as for those that are lowly and despised and appear to be
withered, He has pity upon them and blesses them–and so the word of
His servant, Ezekiel, is fulfilled, "And all the trees of the field
shall know that I, the Lord, have brought down the high tree, have
exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree and have made the
dry tree to flourish. I, the Lord, have spoken and have done it."

Now, Brothers and Sisters, the proof which I have given you that the
Lord looks upon little and lowly things shows the greatness of His
soul. Our God is not like the great ones among men. Kings and princes
generally esteem those most who can do them or the State most service.
God needs nothing from any and, therefore, neither esteems the great
nor despises the little. He is delivered from all consideration of
self, seeing that He is All in All. Those who can do the State no
service are usually looked upon by their rulers as the last to be
considered. Why should they have a voice? Who are they, that their
interests should be thought of? But seeing God requires not to look to
any for help, He is not led to look down with despite and contempt upon
any!

If you feel an undue esteem for some, it follows almost as a matter of
course that you should have a lack of consideration for others. But
because God has no need to ask favors of any of His creatures or, in
the slightest degree, to care for their strength or wisdom, He makes
not much of the great and, therefore, on the other hand, He does not
make little of those who are of lowly rank. God has power, also, to
protect all interests and this, human rulers say, they cannot do. The
great ones of the earth will often argue thus, "For the good of the
general public, a portion of the population must suffer. Great measures
naturally involve distress here and there, and this is unavoidable. The
law bears hard upon a few, but we cannot alter it–all regulations do
so, more or less."

But God is so mighty that He has no need to perform a deed which
involves injustice to one of the least of His creatures! Strict justice
shall be dealt out to every individual as impartially as if He were the
only creature God had ever made! The Lord knows how to consider
everyone a separate individual of the human family as carefully as if
there were no more than that one. He is so great in might and His
thoughts are so deeply wise that He looks to the interests of all. "The
Lord is good to all and His tender mercies are over all His works." Let
us adore and bless Him that this doctrine stands on so sure a basis–He
is mighty in heart, and despises not any!

II. Now I come to THE PRACTICAL USES of this great Truth of God. And
the first use is, it should greatly encourage those who are tried. You
have not come, my dear Friend, to quite so low a state as that of Job
when he sat upon a dunghill and scraped his sores with a potsherd. But
even if you had, you ought not to conclude that you are despised of the
Lord. He could never despise one of those for whom Christ died. The
Lord has not thought contemptuously of you and said, "Let Him suffer!
He is a nobody–it matters not what becomes of him." On the contrary,
whatever your griefs are today, they have been allotted to you by
infinite Wisdom and superlative Love. You are in the best condition
that you could be in. Bad as it appears to you, God knows that your lot
is rightly ordained.

If it had been better for you, upon the whole, to have been rolling in
wealth, you would have been. If it had been better for you never to
know pang or pain, you would not have known them. But God's great
purposes and plans, involving you and the rest of His people, render it
the best thing that you should be tried and, therefore, tried you are.
If you could have all the facts of the case and all the Divine purposes
spread before you–and if you could have as clear an understanding as
God has–you would put yourself just where you are now, for your
Father's dealings are right and good. He has not put you in the furnace
because He despises you, but because He values you! He bought you with
the blood of Jesus and, therefore, you may be sure He prizes you.

Neither does the Lord think so little of you as to forget you in your
pains. In all your grief, Jesus has deep sympathy with you. In the
watches of the night His eyes see your faintness and sleeplessness.
When nurse and friend must, from very weariness, leave you, He is still
with you, making your bed in your sickness. You must not say, "My God
is so busy with Heaven's glories and with the management of the world's
affairs that He forgot me." Far from it! "Like as a father pities his
children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him." Depend upon it, the
great God is too mighty to despise one of His own children!

He does not say, "It is only a work-girl pining away with consumption,
she will not be missed." Nor does He say, "It is only a poor old woman,
worn out and suffering the natural pains of old age, it little matters
what happens to her." He does not speak contemptuously and say, "It is
only a man of a small brain who will never do much and is not worth
caring about–let him sorrow and die–there will only be one grave more
in the cemetery and one less mouth to feed, and that is all." Oh, no,
He "despises not any." "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death
of His saints." He sees your tears and hears your groans, for He is in
fellowship with the very least of His people! "In all their affliction
He is afflicted and the angel of His Presence saves them."

If any of you have come here, this morning, very much cast down because
your trials are little known to others and nobody sympathizes with you,
get a grasp of this grand fact–"He despises not any"–and you will be
much cheered. You are not made to suffer because of any indifference in
God's heart towards you, but because He loves you! "As many as I love,"
He says, "I rebuke and chasten." Take these rebukes and chastening as
tokens of His love and when the rod falls more heavily than usual,
perceive it to be the rod of the Covenant which is held in a father's
hand and only comes upon His own beloved!

A second use of this great Truth of God is one which I pray God to
render effectual. It should encourage every sinner who is seeking the
face of God to think that God is mighty and despises no one. You, dear
Friend, feel now as if God might very well pass you by and suffer you
to perish. You have begun to seek His face, but you could not blame Him
if He were to hide Himself from you and leave you to perish, for you
have such a keen sense of your unworthiness and insignificance. Be
comforted by this–God is too great to deny you His favor! What profit
would He have in your blood? What benefit would it be to Him that you
should go down alive into the Pit? His Justice has been glorified
sufficiently in the death of His Son, Jesus, and those that believe in
Him shall, therefore, live!

Beloved Friend, it may be you say, "I am so ignorant, I know but little
of the Lord." Will He despise you because of that? If He does, woe unto
us all, for we are all ignorant–and on that ground He might despise
even the angels whom He charged with folly! In comparison with His
Omniscience, all creatures are fools! Little as you know, He will teach
you and instruct you, but He will not despise you. "Ah," you say, "but
I have such slender faculties." Suppose you have–the greatest
intellect that God has created must, in comparison with Him, have
little enough of capacity and, therefore, He would despise all that He
has made! But it is not so.

Does the Lord ask any faculty from us, except the faculty to receive
His mercy and to lay hold upon His Grace? Your very emptiness and sense
of need constitute a faculty of receptiveness into which He will pour
His Grace! Be not

discouraged, however low in the scale of intelligence you may place
yourself. God is mighty in heart and despises not any. Your heart is
broken. Well, it is written, "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You
will not despise." Your graces are very weak. You cannot see clear
marks of the Divine Spirit about you. It is written, "He has not
despised the day of small things." Even sparks of Grace He never
tramples out! And although your Grace is but as a smoking flax, which
may have more of offense about it than of excellence, even that He does
not quench. The bruised reed, the Grace which seems to be destroyed,
and out of which no music can be brought, He does not despise or break!
Others may despise you, but the heavenly Father will not.

It is possible that you say, "Oh, Sir, I cannot think deep thoughts. I
try to grasp the great doctrines, but they are beyond me." God is so
mighty that He does not despise you for that, for He has sent you a
Gospel which requires no deep thought. The Gospel of, "believe and
live," is on the level of any man's capacity who desires to understand
and believe. Christ Jesus has pitched the Gospel note so low that our
poor cracked bass voices may join in the tune! He has made the steps of
the Palace Beautiful so easy that little children may climb them! I
bless Him for that Word, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me,
and forbid them not," for then I, who feel myself as a mere babe amidst
the great mysteries of His Kingdom, may come to Him and be sure that He
despises not any and despises not even me!

"Ah, but," you say, "I fear that God will cast me away because I shall
never be eminent for any great Grace even if He saves me. My faith, I
fear, will always be weak. My love will always be chill, my character
will be imperfect." Well, beloved Friend, then you will owe more to His
love than others! And more to His patience and His Grace! But in any
case He will not despise you. Do you think that the great God needs our
great graces? It is true He is pleased with great faith, but He would
be a great God if we had no faith at all! It is true He delights to see
the heroism of His children, but not because He depends upon that or
needs it in the slightest degree! He gets nothing out of us! Our
goodness extends not to Him, therefore is He too mighty to despise us
if we cannot render anything to Him.

Yet another replies, "I can understand God's saving a man who
afterwards becomes an eminent minister or a gifted missionary. But if
He were to save me, He could not make much of me. What would I be if
Divine Grace did its best with me? I could only be a humble unknown
member of the Church drawing greatly upon His resources, but giving Him
a very small return." Well, Beloved, the Lord is so mighty that He is
willing to receive multitudes of such! Why should He not? If He did not
receive them, He would not be enriched by His refusal. If He does
receive them, He will not be impoverished by what He bestows upon them!

Believe firmly in the generosity of God! I have known what it is to
find shelter behind His magnanimity when I have cried, "O that He would
look upon me in love! I am utterly unworthy and insignificant–will He
take the trouble to spurn me? Will it be worth His while to refuse me
His Grace? Surely I am too unimportant for Him to break His promise in
order to reject me and act contrary to His Nature in order to cast me
away–and both of these He would have to do if He rejected one poor,
needy, penitent spirit which dares to trust in Him through Jesus
Christ!" O poor, discouraged one, believe in God's great-heartedness!
Throw yourself at the foot of the Cross, Sinner, and say unto God, "By
Your very greatness I will lay hold upon You. Surely you are too mighty
to crush a worm like I, too mighty to refuse me, now that I trust the
blood and merit of Your Son! Display the greatness of Your might by
saving me, even me, I beseech You."

Do you not see how full of consolation is the doctrine of the text? May
faith be given by the Holy Spirit to enable you to grasp it! Lastly,
this doctrine affords an example for God's people. If our heavenly
Father is mighty and despises not any, then it clearly follows that if
we are imitators of God, as dear children we must not despise any. I
pray you never despise any of your Brothers and Sisters in Christ. Are
they poorer than you? Do not despise them, but rather help them! If
they are very, very poor, think what they have to bear and do not add
to their other sorrows the grief caused by your contempt. Deal gently
and tenderly with them!

If they are parts of your Lord's body, you should be glad to serve
them, for so you wash His feet. You should feel it to be a blessing
that there are poor saints to whom you can minister because, in doing
so, you are ministering to Christ. "The poor you have always with you"
and they are necessary, for if there were no poor saints, we might
begin crying, "Lord Jesus, what can we do for You? We wish we could
show our love to You, but now, seeing there are no poor saints, we do
not know how to clothe You, nor how to visit You in Your sickness, and
we shall miss the blessing of doing it." If poor saints abound around
you, esteem them, because it is through them you will be able to be
commended by your Lord when He will say to you, "I was hungry and you
gave Me meat. I was thirsty and you gave Me drink."

Perhaps your poorer Brothers and Sisters are more honorable in God's
esteem than you are–and probably they love the Master better than you
do. It is very possible that they show more of the power of godliness
in their lives than you do in yours and it may be, when Christ will
come in His Glory, He will put them in a higher seat than some who have
houses and lands. Brothers and Sisters, do not despise one another! If
you see a Brother with very little talent doing his best, never sneer
at him. God may, perhaps, bless his one handful of corn more than He
will your basketful if he sows in more faith than you do. Do not
despise young beginners. What if they do not know as much as you do?
You do not know too much and you know but little to the purpose if you
have no compassion upon the lambs of the flock.

Never despise a Brother because of the mistakes he makes in doctrine.
If you can set him right, do so, but if the love of God is in him, do
not cast him out for his blunders. Do not say, "I will never associate
with that man." In the family of Grace there are some strange people.
Some of the Lord's are such that if He did not choose them in
sovereignty, I am at a loss to see how else they were chosen. But then,
if the Lord loves them, you should endeavor to do the same. Never
despise one of Christ's little ones, or evil will come of it.

Once more, never despise any. There is a text that some people are very
pleased with–"Honor the king." Yes, by all means! I trust we shall
always be very loyal and honor the sovereign of the realm in which we
dwell. But did you ever notice the precept which comes before it, which
I recommend to those people who sneer at the poor? It runs thus–
"Honor all men." This is just as much a duty as, "Honor the king."
"Honor all men." What? Honor the lower classes? Yes, Sir, "honor all
men." Honor agricultural laborers? Yes, "all men." Honor paupers,
crossing-sweepers? Yes, "honor all men." Respect the worker and the
sufferer? Respect the burden and the burden-bearer? Anything in the
shape of a man or a woman deserves to be honored, for man was made in
the image of God!

You are not to say of the fallen woman, "Away with her! The less said
about her, the better." Perhaps so, Sister, but the more done the
better. Nor are you to say of any man, "He is an incorrigible
character. We can do nothing for him." No, that is not the way Jesus
deals with men–He despises not any. Upon the worst of characters we
ought to spend sevenfold love and patience in the hope that we may
rescue such depraved ones from the depths of sin. If it comes, you
know, to the matter of despising, and you and I begin despising our
fellow creatures, God may make short work of us by despising us! He may
just shut the door of Mercy in our faces and say, "You think little
enough of one another. You poor people are railing at the rich and you
rich people are sneering at the poor. By your own judgment you shall
all be judged."

The Lord knows if He were to leave a woman to be judged by women, or
even if He were to leave a man to be judged by men, a whole host of us
would be lost! But instead of that, He sets wide the door of Grace and
bids the despised ones come and welcome! For Jesus' sake He looks in
pity upon men and has a kindness towards them. He sets before us an
open door of Mercy and cries, "I have given My Son to die, and whoever
among you will but believe in Him shall prove that I will not despise
you, but will receive you to My heart, love you in time and love you in
eternity–and give you to be sharers of the Throne of My only begotten
Son forever and ever."

Brothers and Sisters, shake off your pride and love your fellow man,
for if you love not your brother whom you have seen, how can you love
God, whom you have not seen? If He is mighty and despises not any, then
you can be sure that if you despise any it is because you are not the
mighty body that you think you are! Your contempt of others proves that
you are a little-souled creature–weak, pitiful, pretentious! You may
measure yourself by this–if you despise others you ought to be
despised! But, if on the contrary, your tender heart of sympathy would
lift even the beggar from the dunghill, you are magnanimous,
great-souled and like unto God! May the Holy Spirit make you more and
more so. Amen.
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