Apart

“The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart;

“All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.”

True repentance is attended with mourning. It may not in itself be sorrow, but a repentance which did not include sorrow for sin would be a mere pretense. It is a change of mind, and that change involves sorrow for the past.

We have need to stand in doubt of that repentance which has no tear in its eye, no mourning in its heart.

Even when Christ is clearly seen, and pardon is enjoyed, mourning for sin does not cease; say rather, it is both deepened and purified.

This mourning has one special characteristic that it is personal, the act of each individual, and the act of the individual apart from any of his fellows. Its watchword is “apart.”

I. THE INDIVIDUALIZING EFFECT OF SORROW FOR SIN. Observe the many times in which we here have the word “apart.”

1. It is seen even when that mourning is universal. “The land shall mourn, every family apart.” The widest spread of grace will not diminish its power over each separate person.

2. It will be seen in the separation of one family from another when the mourning is common, and most families repent. How much more when only a few households worship God!

3. It is seen in the distinction between family and family even when both fear the Lord. Each family has its peculiar sin, and a speciality must be made in the confession of each one.

   • The royal family: or rich: or influential: “the family of the house of David apart.”
   • The prophet’s family: the family at the manse: “the family of the house of Nathan apart.”
   • The priest’s family: the family of the church-officer, or the teacher, etc.: “the family of the house of Levi apart.”
   • The ordinary family: the household of the trader, workman, etc.: “the family of Shimei apart.”
   • Each family has its neglected duties, evil habits, differences, unconverted members, besetments, etc.

4. It is seen in the individualizing of those nearest akin: “and their wives apart.” These are one flesh; but when their hearts are made flesh, each one mourns alone.

   • Common sin in husbands and wives should be mourned in common; holy joy, and holy grief, and much of devotion should be united; but in seeking the Lord by repentance each one must come alone.
   • This personality of holy grief has been stigmatized as morbid, self-conscious, and selfish; but those who thus speak are strangers to spiritual facts, and cavil for the mere sake of caviling.

II. HOW DOES THIS INDIVIDUALITY SHOW ITSELF?

Of course, from the nature of things, it differs in each case, but—

1. Each individual sees most his own sin: he is alone as to character.

2. Each individual desires to be alone as to place. No matter where, whether at the bed-side, or in the field, or in the barn: but solitude is desired, and must be obtained.

3. Each individual has his own time. At once the penitent must mourn, whether it be morning, noon, or night: he cannot be timed by regulation.

4. Each individual has his own manner. Some are silent; others cry aloud. One weeps, another cannot literally do so, and is all the more sad. One feels broken in heart, another laments his hardness, etc.

5. Each individual has his own secret. None can enter into it even if they would do so. Each mourner has a secret hidden away in his own soul, and he cannot reveal it to men.

III. HOW DO WE ACCOUNT FOR THIS INDIVIDUALITY?

1. In part it is accounted for by a natural and justifiable shame, which prevents our confessing all our sins before another.

2. The heart desires to come to God himself, and the presence of a third person would be an interruption.

3. The man is conscious that his guilt was all his own, and as he dissociates everyone else from it, he instinctively comes to God apart, and solely on his own account.

4. This is the sign of sincerity. Sham piety talks about religion as national, and delights to display itself in the assembly, or in the street; true godliness is of the heart, and being “in spirit and in truth,” it is deeply personal.

5. This is the mark of spiritual life with its individual emotions, needs, struggles, desires, regrets, confessions, etc. No two living men are quite alike outwardly, and certainly none are so inwardly: therefore, before the Lord they must exhibit a separate personal existence.

   • Practice much self-examination; minute, and searching.
   • Realize the fact that you must die apart, and, in a sense, be judged, and sentenced apart. Never forget your own individuality. You must have Christ for yourself, and be born again yourself, or you are lost.
   • Go forth and bless all the world when you are yourself prepared for such work. Light your own torch, or you cannot enlighten others. There is no selfishness in seeking to be made unselfish, and that is what grace alone can do for you.

Personalities

Let the question of eternity have a monopoly in you. It is an intensely personal question; but instead of making you selfish, it will expand your heart. He who has never felt for his own soul cannot feel for another’s.—Brownlow North.

Personal private faults must be privately confessed. It is not meet a wife should know all the bosom-sins of him in whose bosom she lies. Perhaps being now offended for not hearing her husband’s prayers, she would be more offended if she heard them. Nor has she just cause to complain, seeing herein Nathan’s wife is equal with Nathan himself; what liberty she allows is allowed her, and she may, as well as her husband, claim the privilege privately and apart, to pour forth her soul unto God in her daily devotions. Yet man and wife, at other times, ought to communicate in their prayers, all others excluded.—Thomas Fuller.

The question “Guilty?” or “Not Guilty?” must be put to each prisoner separately, and each one must answer to his name, and put in his personal plea. Should a pardon be granted, it must bear the individual’s name, and it must be issued distinctly to him, or it will be a document of no value to him. In every case, the guilt and the pardon must have a personal bearing: but how hard it is to make a man see this! Oh, that we could preach in the “thou-and-you” style, and could make each hearer feel that we were as personal as Nathan when he said, “You are the man”! If our hearers will not cry, “Lord, is it I?” we must go to them with the word, “I have a message from God unto you.”