"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when we shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifiers himself, even as he is pure." -- I John III : 2, 3.
Preached by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
Sunday Morning, October 5th, 1863
Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, NY
If we trace our relationship, through moral experience and equality, to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother, and if through him the children of God can say, in sincerity and in truth, “Our Father," then everyone in that line should have a sense of personal worth that will be of incalculable value to them.
The want of suitable pride is one of our biggest curses. The race suffers for the want of that sense of character, that sense of dignity, which alone can hold men back from things little and low, and keep them always in the line of things worthy. This is inspired by a sense of our relationship to God.
This view is a remedy for that sense of loneliness which falls upon people who are thrown out of social life, or who have never had any rich social relationships. Many people in society are consciously alone. There is a nature within that prevents them from speaking their inward thoughts. They are never able to declare their innermost feelings. When people have been thrown out of society among strangers, naturally they have this sense of loneliness.
Christ himself felt it. He said that he was alone; and then, correcting himself, he said that the Father was with him. Our sense of relationship to God, our sense of its reality and glory, can be the legitimate correction of that sense of loneliness. This view should likewise overcome that sense of waste and uselessness which is a source of unhappiness.
There is something sad in the feeling that one has nothing to do. There is something sad about being out of one's regular occupation. People dread sickness because it will make them a burden upon others. People dread being thrown out of their trade or profession, or out of that position in society in which they have thrived and been a blessing to others. People feel that they are not good for anything any longer under such circumstances.
This is especially the case when people contemplate old age before they are old. When people get old, they often do not feel old; but as they are drawing near to old age and perceive the signs and tokens of it, they dread the idea of being old. They shrink from the thought of being useless or laid aside.
Those whom God is holding in reserve are as valuable as those at the front of the battle doing the actual fighting. If we are the children of God, and our destiny is influenced and ordered by divine intervention, then we are not useless, though just now we may not be actively employed.
Look at life largely. Measure existence on a broad scale. How infinite the space! How enormous the duration! How transcendent the capacity which belongs to the human soul! We are sons of God; once being consciously under the divine favor and power, once having felt the emancipation of God, it matters little whether we wait a week, a month, a year, or ten years. We are going to our home and are sure to reach it; and then we shall know as we are known and shall be satisfied because we shall be like God.
In the convulsions and the scatterings that are taking place in the world; in the business distresses, the bankruptcies, the sudden revolutions which are occurring, the glory, the chiefest treasure, of man, cannot be touched. It is true that a man's relations to his fellows are often divided; it is true that there is a great deal of suffering and sensibility that should be guarded and respected, in these changes which are going on in the conditions of men; but what is the use of being a Christian if you have nothing better than anybody else? What is the use of being rich if you have no money?
Your treasure should be “where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” And if when you break down, if when all the property that you have been accumulating for twenty years goes to the winds, if when the earthquake shakes the city, you go shivering and saying “I am ruined, ” you might as well have had no Christ to die for you.
If when the dirt falls from you, that ruins you; if when your garments fall off, you find that there has been nothing of you but soil, or clothes or money, then the more you are ruined the better it is for the world.
Are you ruined? You, whom angel bands have been hovering ever since you were born? You, whose name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life? You , who are waited for and longed for in heaven? You, for whom there is laid up the palm, and crown, and scepter?
Ah! The loss of things in this world is oftentimes a great gain. Have you noticed that frequently, in the abundance of the leaves of summer, both the landscape and the mansion are hidden? Though it is a sad time, and we do not like to see the leaves turn; though we dread the coming of the frosts, yet behold, when, in the morning after the frost, every tree is bare, and not a leaf is left, as we look there appears a house that we have not seen all summer. The leaves hid it; but now that the leaves are gone, it shines out to our view. And the landscape — the mountains and the distant river — which has so long been obscured, is revealed to us. What a wonderful vision is opened when the leaves fall!
Many people whose prosperity have been like thick foliage before their eyes, could not see their Father's house, had no view of Mount Zion, of the heavenly Jerusalem nor of the beautiful landscape beyond; but when adversity came and stripped them bare , and people said, “They are ruined! They are gone!" They were richer than they ever had been before.
The truth of God is present with us; the certainty that he cares for us and will not forsake us; the belief that if he is for us no man can be against us; the doctrine that physical and material things are transient, these are the foundations on which a man should build his trust. In the consciousness of these things, he walks on the sea at night as Christ walked, and rules the storm as Christ ruled it.
Christian sisters and brothers, let us lie hold of these pillars of our hope. You are the sons of God. It doth not yet appear what you shall be; but when He shall appear, you shall be like him.
Having these hopes, purify yourselves and live more by faith, and less by sight; more by the power of God, and less by the power of the world. More by long suffering, love, and all those holy conceptions which call you from the clutches of the flesh into the emancipation of the spirit, and crown you with eternal rejoicing.