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Preached at North Street Chapel, Stamford, on December 23rd, 1860, by J. C. Philpot
"Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength, therefore shall you plantpleasant plants, and shall set it with strange slips. In the day shall you make your plant to grow, and in the morning shall you make your seed to flourish--but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow." Isaiah 17:10-11
Ever since the fall, sorrow and disappointment have been the decreed lot of man; for on that sad and evil day when Adam sinned and fell, God cursed the ground for his sake, and declared that in sorrow he would eat of it all the days of his life. Thorns also and thistles--emblems of vexation and disappointment--was it to bring forth to him, and in the sweat of his face he was to eat bread, until he returned unto the ground from whence he was taken. "Dust," said God to him, "you are, and unto dust shall you return." Ge 3:17-19.
Sorrow, therefore, and disappointment being, by God's decree, the determined lot of man, no exertion of human skill or subtle contrivance of earthly wisdom can possibly avert them. As, then, a sailor putting out to sea, however softly the wind may blow, feels sure of encountering storms before the end of his voyage, and makes provision accordingly, so it will be our wisdom, however fair may be our present sky, to anticipate stormy winds and rough seas before we reach our destined harbor. But of all sorrows, the most cutting is that which we bring upon ourselves; and of all disappointments, the most keen is that of which we feel ourselves to be the main and miserable authors.
There is not a more true nor a more stinging reproof from the mouth of God to one under his chastening hand than this, "Have you not procured this unto yourself, in that you have forsaken the Lord your God?" nor a severer sentence against a disobedient child than, "Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backslidings shall reprove you--know, therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter that you have forsaken the Lord your God, and that my fear is not in you, says the Lord God of hosts." Jer 2:19.
Let me illustrate this point, for it is one of much importance, by one or two figures. When a ship leaves the harbor on a foreign voyage, it is naturally expected that she will be tossed by wind and wave; and no skill or care of the captain can always preserve her from being cast upon the rocks. But if the captain of a ship, from sheer wilfulness or drunkenness, when he hears the cry "Breakers ahead!" still holds on his course without slackening his sail or shifting his helm, and thus rushes on to destruction, although the eye of pity may drop a tear over the loss of vessel and crew, yet it can scarcely compassionate the case of the author of the calamity as perishing by his own madness and folly.
