CONFIDENCE IN GOD- Burns, William Chalmers

“I have seemed to see a need of everything God gives me, and want nothing that he denies me; there is no dispensation, though afflict, but either in it, or after it, I find, I could not have done without it. Whether it
be taken from me, or not given to me, sooner or later God quiets me in himself without it. I cast all my concerns on the Lord, and live securely on the care and wisdom of my heavenly Father. My ways are in a
sense hedged up with thorns, and grow darker and darker daily; but yet I distrust not my good God in the least, and live more quietly in the absence of all, by faith, than I should do, I am persuaded, if I possessed
them all. I think the Lord deals kindly with me, to make me believe for my mercies before I have them. The less reason hath to work on, the more freely faith casts itself on the faithfulness of God. I find that while faith
is steady, nothing can disquiet me, and when faith totters, nothing can establish me. If I tumble out amongst means and creatures, I am presently lost, and can come to no end; but if I stay myself according to its holy and spiritual character, the Law must be brought down to suit his fallen nature. No error is more common than this, and there is none which more completely saps the foundation of the Gospel. It is beyond all doubt true that man is totally depraved, and that, until he is born again, he cannot command so much as one holy thought; yet it is equally certain that he is bound, absolutely bound, by Divine justice, to keep the Law as
strictly and perfectly as Adam was in the day of his creation. God did not deal with Adam as a private person, but as the head and representative of the human family; and when he gave him the Law, he gave him with it a
holy nature to be preserved and conveyed to all his posterity. We are ready to object to this arrangement because the covenant is broken, and we are involved in Adam’s guilt and ruin; but would anyone have done
so, had Adam stood? Would we not have had infinite reason to admire God’s boundless grace in giving eternal glory to us so freely? And, had we been present on the day when God humbled himself so infinitely
as to make a covenant with man, must we not have joyfully and thankfully approved of that covenant? And was it not then more righteous and gracious in the Lord to make that choice for us in our absence which we
must have joyfully welcomed if present? It is not the choice of God, but the choice of Adam that we ought to condemn; and yet the very individuals who find fault with the first covenant, madly reject the second, and follow their first father in the paths of rebellion and apostasy from day to day and hour to hour.And then consider, again, the nature of that inability which man is under to keep the Law of God. Were men
willing and anxious to keep it, and yet prevented by some outward hindrance, such as the want of faculties or opportunities, it might with some reason be said, that the Law demanded too much. But is this the case? No! The reason of our inability is simply the greatness of our depravity – that we are desperately wicked, and full of pride, enmity to God, rebellion, impurity, and injustice. And shall the Law of God give
countenance to principles so base and fiendish as these? Shall it consent to man’s rebellion? Shall it legalize iniquity and ungodliness? Fearful thought! What! shall the fall of a guilty worm shake the principles of
eternal righteousness! Shall man’s willful enmity against the blessed God rob God of his right to perfect and constant love! Ah, no! Man may fall, but God’s Law and justice cannot be shaken. Man may become so
depraved that he cannot love God, and cannot hate sin, but God cannot cease to demand that sin should be abhorred, and that his own character – the perfection of beauty – should be admired. Were he to retreat
from these demands, and to wink at sin in any form, he would cease to be God – the glory of him who dwelled in the light that is inaccessible would set in an eternal night! Ah! praise to the Lord, this cannot be.

There is One in the universe who cannot do iniquity, and who, infinitely rather than that his Law should be violated, his justice injured, his glory tarnished, would cast with indignation a whole world of rebels into the
abyss of wrath! Heaven and earth may pass away, but one jot or tittle can in nowise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled. We may break a way to Hell through the Ten Commandments, which are set as a fence
around the Pit to keep man out of it; but who shall break up a door through them into Heaven? The world may dream that God’s law is relaxed, and may now be violated with impunity, because men have agreed to trample it under impious feet. We may dream that God can now bear our sins, because he has been so long accustomed to have his majesty insulted, his glory despised, his name dishonored. But ah! sinners will one day learn that they are mistaken. They will learn this at the Bar of Judgment, if they refuse to learn it at the Throne of Mercy: they will be taught it by the Devils in Hell, if they are not taught it by the gracious Spirit upon earth! If it had been possible that the Law could be relaxed, where would it have been so but in the Garden of
Gethsemane? to whom but to the only-begotten Son of God? If ever Jehovah could have sacrificed the claims of justice to the cry of mercy, it would surely have been in that mysterious hour of Emmanuel’s suffering
when he fell on his face, and three times prayed, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” and his sweat was great drops of blood falling down to the ground. It was not possible. There was, indeed, an
answer granted to his prayer; an angel appeared unto him from Heaven to strengthen him, but it was to strengthen him that he might reach the cross, and might not die before he had there drunk to its very dregs
that awful cup of trembling which Divine justice had measured out to sinners, and which was put into his holy hands as their redeeming surety! There was one way, indeed, in which he might have escaped, and
there was only one. Could he have broken his covenant engagement to the Father as the surety of his elect, — could he have given up his mighty and unparalleled undertaking, by which he was about to magnify the
law, and redeem from its curse sinners who had dishonored it, — could he have retreated from that scene of conflict, where he was about to make an end of sin, and overcome the Devil, and Death, and Hell, — could be
have returned dishonored to the Father’s bosom, his agonies might have been avoided. But this he could not do. His love to God, and to his people, his truth, his oath, his glory, all engaged him to carry through the
work which the Father had laid upon him. He could not, and he would not, retreat until he had spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly. And if he must go forward, Justice was
inflexible, — the Law was unchangeable, — God was inexorable! The sins of his people had been laid upon him, and though he was the man who is God’s fellow, he lay bound under the adamantine chains of Divine
everlasting justice, and he could not be set free until he had magnified the Law in all its unchangeable breadth and holiness, and had fully paid the penalty of his people’s sins! And can we imagine for a moment,
that, if the Law could not be relaxed to the man who is God’s fellow, it can be relaxed to poor guilty worms of the dust, such as we are – that God will punish his own Son and yet spare us? This is impossible: and the
hopes that are founded on such a ground are desperate and impious.

But how, then, you will say, can anyone be saved? If the Law is thus holy and unchangeable, who can keep it? and if it must be kept, who can have hope? It is, indeed, true, that it must be perfectly fulfilled; and
yet, mystery of mysteries! it is equally true that the guiltiest sinner out of Hell may be saved! How can this be? Not by the Law being brought down to meet the sinner, but by the sinner being brought up to meet and
magnify the Law, as clothed upon with the righteousness of Christ. The sins of men were laid on Christ, and the unchangeable Law condemned him, and humbled him, even to the death of the cross; and so, when the
righteousness of Christ is put upon the sinner, the unchangeable Law justified him, and exalts him to everlasting life in Heaven! It was no sin of Christ’s for which he wore a crown of thorns, and in like manner

it is no righteousness of ours for which we may wear a crown of glory. Thus it is that mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other. The Law remains unchanged and unchangeable; and yet,
mystery of mysteries! the sinner who has broken it is saved!Beloved fellow-sinner, the subject is so large, and has occupied us so long, that I can add nothing in the way of exhortation. But, let me ask you these solemn questions in the presence of God: Have you seen the Law to be holy, spiritual, exceeding broad, righteous, good, and unchangeable? Have you felt and acknowledged that you are under it, and that you are utterly undone? Have you confessed to God that you deserve to bear his holy curse in Hell? Have you fled from your own works, and embraced with all your heart the Law-magnifying work of Christ as your only ground of hope? If you have done these things, or if you do them now, through the Spirit, you are saved, and cannot come into condemnation. But if you have not this experience, and if you should never have it, it is impossible, infinitely impossible, that you can be saved. Beware, dear fellow-sinner, of begging at the door of Justice for mercy, or of bargaining with the Law, by doing what you can to fulfill it. The Law cannot speak in syllable of mercy; it will have nothing to do with prayers, and tears, and reformation: it has a promise for those who keep it perfectly; but it has a
curse for all who do not. It will enter into no compromise; it will not meet sin half-way with a reduction of its righteous demoralizing; it must have a perfect obedience, or it will inflict an everlasting curse. Thus, dear
fellow-sinner, you are shut up to faith in the righteousness of Christ. Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. Look unto him as your surety, and you will be saved; despise him, neglect him,
and you must eternally perish!Praying that the Holy Ghost may saving enlighten all who read these lines in the knowledge of Emmanuel, and entreating the progress of the Lord’s children, that, in the next letter, I may be enabled to speak aright of the work of Jesus, the glorious foundation of a sinner’s hope, which God has laid in Zion,I am, Dear fellow-sinners,

A lover of your souls, For the sake of Jesus,

Wm. C. Burns Perthshire, July, 1841