Poor prisoners

James Wells.

"The Lord heareth the poor," spiritually poor. Let us notice first what this does not mean, in order to get clearly at what it does mean. I make no hesitation in saying that this consciousness of spiritual poverty is one of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and none can understand it but those who, are experimentally led into the secret. First, it does not mean literal, mental nor moral poverty, but it consists in our sense of our natural, internal, spiritual worthlessness of character. You may be as moral as an angel, and still be destitute of spiritual life in the soul. Therefore the soul not united to Christ is not united to that that can give it access to God; it is not united to that that can bring upon it the approbation of God; it is not united to that that can save it. "He died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God." Therefore, while we prize good works, yet none of these things are of any use in the salvation of the soul; salvation is altogether a secret and another thing. Now, we go on to the literal prisoner. Some good people have been cast into prison through what other people have said about them; — they have been slandered and reproached, and it has been believed, and they have been cast into prison; but the Lord "despiseth not His prisoners." Joseph was slandered — he was reproached, cast into prison; but the Lord did not despise him; the Lord was with him. And so the Lord turned, in one sense, the dungeon into a paradise; and by and by, when Joseph interpreted the dreams, he was exalted, and realized all that his visions predicted. But there is another class of prisoners, and that is those that get into prison by their own fault. Why, you are never going to say a word in favour of them, are you? Well, if not in favour of them, I can say a word in favour of the Lord; and if He is pleased to say a word in favour of them, I shall not differ from Him. Well, Jonah, you are got into prison, do you think you will ever get out again? You have got there by your own fault. But the Lord watched over him and took care of him, and the sea could not kill him, and the weeds could not kill him. He cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard him, answered and delivered him, and make him accomplish his mission. So the Lord despiseth not His prisoners, even when they get into prison through their own fault. This is a God worth loving, worth worshipping, worth cleaving to. Samson got into prision by his own fault. You are not going to say a word in favour of him, are you? I would rather die Samson's death than I would die the death of the most sleek, the most polished Pharisee under the heavens, because they die, in enmity against God; but Samson died in sweet reconciliation to God, and obtained the victory God intended he should. He got into prison by his own fault: did the Lord leave him and despise him? No. When they were making sport of Samson he cried to God, for He heareth the poor; He despised not His prisoner. "Let me be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes." He bowed with all his might; the victory was wrought, his soul saved, God glorified; and if we are ashamed of these testimonies of God's mercy, then I believe God will be ashamed of us. They are His prisoners because they are His people. Let us, then, not boast one over the other, but rather bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

(James Wells.)