[One aspect of peacemaking is leading others to peace with God. The following excerpt provides just such a reminder for all who desire to experience the blessedness of being “peacemakers.”– editor]
[The godly man] is not content to go heaven alone but wants to take others there. Spiders work only for themselves, but bees work for others. A godly man is both a diamond and a lodestone — a diamond for the sparkling luster of grace and a lodestone for his attractiveness. He is always drawing others to embrace piety. Living things have a propagating virtue. Where religion lives in the heart, there will be an endeavor to propagate the life of grace in those we converse with: “My son, Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds” (Philemon 10). Though God is the fountain of grace, yet the saints are pipes to transmit living streams to others. This great effort for the conversion of souls proceeds:
I. From the nature of godliness.
It is like fire which assimilates and turns everything into its own nature. Where there is the fire of grace in the heart, it will endeavor to inflame others. Grace is a holy leaven, which will be seasoning and leavening others with divine principles. Paul would gladly have converted Agrippa — how he courted him with rhetoric! “King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest” (Acts 26:27). His zeal and eloquence had almost captivated the king (v. 28). Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”
2. From a spirit of compassion.
Grace makes the heart tender. A godly man cannot choose but pity those who are in he gull of bitterness. lie sees what a deadly cup is brewing for the wicked. They must, without repentance, be bound over to God’s wrath. The fire which rained on Sodom was but a painted fire in comparison with hell fire. Now when a godly man sees captive sinners ready to be damned, he strives to convert them from the error of their way: “Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Cor. 5:11).
3. From the holy zeal he has for Christ’s glory.
The glory of Christ is as dear to him as his own salvation. Therefore, that this may be promoted, he strives with the greatest effort to bring souls to Christ. It is a glory to Christ when multitudes are born to him. Every star adds a luster to the sky; every convert is a member added to Christ’s body and a jewel adorning his crown. The more there are saved, the more Christ is exalted. Why else should the angels rejoice at the conversion of a sinner, but because Christ’s glory now shines the more (Luke 15:10)?
Uses:
1. If men loved Christ, they would try to draw as many as they could to him. He who loves his captain will persuade others to come under his banner. This unmasks the hypocrite. Though a hypocrite may make a show of grace himself, yet he never bothers to procure grace in others. He is without compassion. I may allude to the verse: “that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off” (Zech. 11:9). Let souls go to the devil, he cares not.
2. How far from being godly are those who, instead of striving for grace in others, work to destroy all hopeful beginnings of race in them! Instead of drawing them to Christ, they draw them from Christ. Their work is to poison and harm souls. This harming of souls occurs in three ways:
(i) By bad edicts. So Jeroboam made Israel sin (1 Kings 16:26). He forced them to idolatry.
(ii) By bad examples. Examples speak louder than precepts, but principally the examples of great men are influential. If great men move irregularly, others will follow them.
(iii) By bad company. The wicked are for ever setting snares and temptations before others, as the prophet speaks in another sense: “I set pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, Drink” (Jer. 35:5). So the wicked set pots of wine before others and make them drink, till reason is stupefied and lust inflamed. These who make men proselytes to the devil are prodigiously wicked. How sad will be the doom of those who, besides their own sins, have the blood of others to answer for!
3. If it is the sign of a godly man to promote grace in others, then how much more ought he to promote it in his near relations.
A godly man will be careful that his children should know God. He would be sorry that any of his flesh should burn in hell. He labors to see Christ formed in those who are himself in another edition. Augustine says that his mother Monica travailed with greater care and pain for his spiritual than for his natural birth. The time of childhood is the fittest time to be sowing seed of religion in our children. “Whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts” (Isa. 28:9). The wax, while it is soft and tender, will take any impression. Children, while they are young, will fear a reproof; when they are old, they will hate it.
Use 2: Let all who have God’s name placed on them do what in them lies to advance piety in others. A knife touched with a lodestone will attract the needle. He whose heart is divinely touched with the lodestone of God’s Spirit will endeavor to attract those who are near him to Christ. The heathen could say, “We are not born for ourselves only.” A Christian must not move altogether within his own circle, but seek the welfare of others. To be diffusely good makes us resemble God, whose sacred influence is universal. And surely it will be no grief of heart when conscience can witness for us that we have brought glory to God in this matter by working to fill heaven.
Not that this is in any way meritorious, or has any causal influence on our salvation. Christ’s blood is the cause, but our promoting God’s glory in the conversion of others is a signal evidence of our salvation.
From The Godly Man’s Picture
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