'Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing
is God.'--2 COR. v. 5.

These words penetrate deep into the secrets of God. They assume to
have read the riddle of life. To Paul everything which we experience,
outwardly or inwardly, is from the divine working. Life is to him no
mere blind whirl, or unintelligent play of accidental forces, nor is
it the unguided result of our own or of others' wills, but is the
slow operation of the great Workman. Paul assumes to know the meaning
of this protracted process, that it all has one design which we may
know and grasp and further. And he believes that the clear perception
of the divine purpose, and the habit of looking at everything as
contributing thereto, will be a magic charm against all sorrow,
doubt, despondency, or fear, for he adds, 'Therefore we are always
confident.' So let us try to follow the course of thought which
issues in such a blessed gift as that of a continual, courageous
outlook, and buoyant though grave lightheartedness, because we
discern what He means 'Who worketh all things according to the
counsel of His own will.'

I. The first thought here is, God's purpose in all His working; 'He
that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God.'

What is that 'self-same thing'? To understand it we must look back
for a moment to the previous context. The Apostle has been speaking
about the instinctive reluctance which even good men feel at prospect
of dying and 'putting off the earthly house of this tabernacle.' He
distinguishes between three different conditions in which the human
spirit may be--dwelling in the earthly body, stripped of that, and
'clothed with the house which is from Heaven,' and to this last and
highest state he sees that for him and for his brethren there were
two possible roads. They might reach it either through losing the
present body, in the act of death, and passing through a period of
what he calls nakedness; or they might attain it by being
'superinvested,' as it were, with the glorious body which was to come
to saints with Christ when He came; and so slip on, as it were, the
wedding garment over their old clothes, without having to denude
themselves of these. And he says that deep in the Christian heart
there lay reluctance to take the former road and the preference for
the latter. His longing was that that which is mortal might be
'swallowed up of life,' as some sand-bank in the tide-way may be
gradually covered and