VICISSITUDES, THEIR USE AND OBJECT
VICISSITUDES, THEIR USE AND OBJECT
The power to bear vicissitudes is the greatest proof of the possession of divine power, because that alone is as strong in one set of circumstances as it is in another. Men are considered strong when they have exercised themselves and have been drilled into a special force by practice and experience; and this is always more or less necessary for a saint; for though he possesses divine power, and that power is as strong in one set of circumstances as in another, still the awkwardness or [p. 174] the unskilfulness of the vessel has to be overcome by subjecting it to practice - making it quickly form from right to left, and from left to right, according as the enemy is in force. Hence vicissitudes are necessary for us while in this tabernacle. There is the camp life - the field practice, and the daily drill. Without the Spirit of God and a new nature one could not have any divine power. The power is always the same, but the extent to which we are governed by it is shewn by our being able to behave ourselves with as much facility and skill in new circumstances as in old ones. When we get used to a routine, the force of habit carries us through what would be most trying to others, possibly of more real power, just because our nature has been drilled into a particular groove. Now we must learn to sling with the right hand and with the left, and in order to teach us this, we are emptied from vessel to vessel; we are rapidly passed from one circle to another, in order to make us quite plastic - quite subject to the will of God; and wherein we are not, to expose the working of the will, and to shew us that the order and decorum in which we behaved ourselves in one set of circumstances and where we may have gained great reputation, had become habitual to us, and was not after all the work of grace, but the effect of habit.
The reason why we fail in new and unexpected circumstances is, that we too readily accept our success in the old, as true evidence of our power; and we rest in this, and in a measure plume ourselves on our ability. Peter had courageously struck off the ear of the high priest’s servant just prior to his denying the Lord because of fear. The greatest apparent courage gave place to the most abject fear. There was really no divine power in either case. If the Lord be my criterion I shall not when I appear to succeed commend myself because others commend me, for I must see and own before Him how defective all is, though every one may commend; and then when all are against me, I know [p. 175] I can turn to Him in whom only I confided when all were approving. He only is my strength and support by day or by night, and as He is, His passing me rapidly from one set of circumstances to another, is only to prove to my heart the elasticity and extent of my resources in Himself, and these are perhaps most used when I appear to man most awkward and most unskilled, simply because there is nothing in myself to trust to; and then it is that one can say, “I ... glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12: 9).