____________________________________________________ THE GOSPEL OBSERVER ____________________________________________________ "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20). ____________________________________________________ April 27, 2003 ____________________________________________________ Thoughts Drawn From "The Scarlet Letter" (Part 2 of 2) by Tom Edwards The Confession That Is Good for the Soul As we considered earlier of David's lament over his sin with Bathsheba and the effect that had on his physical well-being, let us continue in his account to see what brought him relief: "I acknowledged my sin to Thee, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, `I will confess my transgressions to the Lord'; and Thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin" (Psa. 32:5). It was also David who said, "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!" (v. 1). Man-made Appeals There is no need for one to torture his body in drawing near to God or in soliciting Him -- as the 450 Baal worshipers did in trying to make their appeal to their false god, by cutting themselves "with swords and lances until the blood gushed out..." (1 Kings 18:28). Paul states in Colossians 2:23, "These are matters which have...the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence." Though the apostle probably did not have the Baal worshipers in mind, how applicable his statement is of them: they had a "self-made religion" that was characterized by "self-abasement and severe treatment of the body." But no man-made religion will ever be pleasing to God or be the way to eternal life. Penance Though today, we would normally think of penance as being a Catholic doctrine that concerns its people making their confessions to a priest; in the past, however, penance often involved much more than that. It also meant brutal punishment inflicted upon the individual. Martin Luther (1483-1546), for example, when starting out in the monastery and striving to be the best monk he could, tried to achieve his goal by doing torturous things to his body. He states: "I would flagellate myself with a whip until I fell unconscious. One morning I was found by my fellow-monks, lying unconscious in my own blood. ...I would stay out all night in snow and with as little clothing as decency would allow -- all in sober attempt to rid myself of sin and make myself acceptable to God." Though this might seem like an excessive and rare case, that is not so, according to the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia (in defining flagellants): "During the Middle Ages, the flagellants were groups of Christians who subjected themselves to ritualized whipping as atonement for sin. Individual flaggelation had become a common form of ecclesiastical punishment as early as the 4th century, and monastic communities allowed voluntary group flaggelation as a form of penance later in the medieval period...Although condemned by Pope Clement IV in 1349 and by the Council of Constance (1414-17), manifestations of flaggelant activity continued through the 15th century..." (David Harry Miller). Dimmesdale's Penance It appears indisputably that the young minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, who bore that secret sin that tormented him night and day, had literally carved an "A" over his own heart that corresponded to Hester's; for it had been seen, without Dimmesdale's awareness, by his physician (p. 143) and was also revealed moments prior to the minister's death (p. 268). The explanation of his having "kept his conscience all alive and painfully sensitive by the fretting of an unhealed wound" (p. 211), I would, therefore, take as being literal (with regard to the wound) and one which, being unhealed (after all those years), would have led to a painful infection that would become the reason for his death. And, though, he is responsible for these cuts on his chest, it would seem that he attributes the infection to God, as he refers to it as the Lord's way of proving "his mercy, most of all, in my afflictions. By giving me this burning torture to bear upon my breast" (p. 269). The "burning," possibly being an infection. Dimmesdale's Public Confession Still, what really brought relief to Dimmesdale was not his self-inflicted punishment, but rather the public acknowledgment of the sin that had been haunting him for so long. And this came about on that final day -- his final day -- the day when he nervously tottered upon the scaffold to deliver his last speech, looking like a man who was "hardly...alive" and "with such a death-like hue" (p. 263). Tremulously -- probably from his lack of health and strength which were now almost entirely depleted -- he refused help in his walking, "if that movement could be so described. ...he had come opposite the well-remembered and weather-darkened scaffold, where, long since, with all that dreary lapse of time between, Hester Prynne had encountered the world's ignominious stare" (pp. 263, 264). And from there, with the crowd looking upon him, he called for Hester and Pearl to come join him, crying out "with a piercing earnestness, `in the name of Him, so terrible and so merciful, who gives me grace, at this last moment, to do what -- for my own heavy sin and miserable agony -- I withheld myself from doing seven years ago, come hither now, and twine thy strength about me! Thy strength, Hester; but let it be guided by the will which God hath granted me! ...Come, Hester, come! Support me up yonder scaffold!"' (p. 265). Hester and Pearl complied. And with trembling and "an expression of doubt and anxiety in his eyes," yet with "a feeble smile upon his lips," he said to Hester, who now partly supported him in his physically weak condition, "Is not this better...than what we dreamed of in the forest?" [Their dream: Going away together to some faraway place where they would not be known.] "For thee and Pearl, be it as God shall order...and God is merciful! Let me now do the will which He hath made plain before my sight. For, Hester, I am a dying man. So let me make haste to take my shame upon me!" Dimmesdale was not only resolute, but also grateful for this moment, for this opportunity to set things right; and he declares in praise to God, "Thanks be to Him who hath led me hither!" (p. 266). The crowd had become a "tumult," "perplexed," and "thoroughly appalled, yet overflowing with tearful sympathy, as knowing that some deep life-matter -- which, if full of sin, was full of anguish and repentance likewise -- was now to be laid open to them." And from that platform, with the sun shining upon him in such a way that it "gave a distinctness to his figure...he stood out from all the earth, to put in his plea of guilty at the bar of Eternal Justice" (pp. 266, 267). To this people, the young minister acknowledged the sin that had been tormenting his soul for seven years -- and "With a convulsive motion, he tore away the ministerial band from before his breast. It was revealed!" Now, with his sin confessed and no longer hidden, "the minister stood, with a flush of triumph in his face, as one who, in the crisis of acutest pain, had won a victory. Then, down he sank upon the scaffold!" (p. 268). Dimmesdale's sin had not been public, but he felt compelled to make it so; and through his confession, he finally obtained the relief he had been needing. When his young, weeping daughter kissed him, "A spell was broken." He then said "farewell" to Hester, gave glory to God, and said one more final "farewell" with his last breath. It's a touching departure; and since it is fiction, we can add our own adjustments, here and there, (rather than to run into the conflict of that which is lacking and amiss in Puritan doctrines), to assure ourselves that Dimmesdale will be saved; and, therefore, be glad to see that he was able to have his terrible burden lifted from him before he left this earth. In reality, however, how often is one given the time to make a last-minute speech, say his farewells, and -- if an erring Christian -- acknowledge to God his sins, or have the time to then become a Christian if he has never been one before? To the contrary, how often does death just take one by surprise? It can happen abruptly -- with no warning. One moment a person is alive, in the best of health and feeling like he'll live for many years to come, and then -- suddenly! -- life for him has unexpectedly ceased. Then there is no more opportunity to repent of that sin or to become a child of God. It is too late. One's eternal destiny becomes forever sealed. And, sad to say, there is no happy ending in real life for those who reject the Lord. Hester's Penance Hester herself, throughout the story, is continually working out her penance: by going through the painful and humiliating ordeal of having to wear a scarlet letter in all public appearances (p. 98), which had been "long and dreary" (p. 168). She had to sustain "the gaze of the multitude through seven miserable years as a necessity, a penance, and something which it was a stern religion to endure" (p. 239). Even after her return, when she resumes the wearing of her shame, it appears as if the debt of her forgiveness is still not paid: for her penitence was still "yet to be" (p. 275). So she continues to wear the scarlet letter "of her own free will, for not the sternest magistrate of that iron period would have imposed it" (ibid.); and as she "glanced...downward" upon this symbol of the sin she committed so many years ago -- it was still with "sad eyes" that she beheld it. "Praying Through" -- A Type of "Penance" In a way, the penance that we see the young minister and Hester Prynne undergoing, might remind us -- of a lesser degree -- of those who feel that imploring God's mercy requires much begging and pleading, day after day, until you finally "pray through." I once heard of a man testify that after three weeks of praying for forgiveness, he finally "prayed through." In other words, after all these days of fervent effort on the beseecher's part, God finally heard and forgave the man of his sins. If one, however, could become a Christian through merely praying a "sinner's prayer," which the Bible does not teach, one would certainly not have to pray it for weeks -- nor even days. God saves promptly! As soon as we meet His conditions, we can know assuredly, by our faith, that every transgression has been blotted out. In addition, Paul never taught that we are "to persuade God to accept men," which seems to be what one is doing who feels that he needs to pray days and weeks to "pray through" to be saved -- and which seems to be what those who inflict their bodies with punishment to "atone" for their wrongs are also doing; rather, it was Paul's ambition, as it needs to be ours as well, to "persuade men" to accept the Lord (2 Cor. 5:11. See also Acts 8:4 and Acts 28:23). The Right Way to Appeal to God Gaining God's favor is not through torturous means, a penance of punishment, or "praying through," rather it is by simply submitting to His conditions: If you are a non-Christian, you must hear the gospel (Rom. 10:17), believe in Jesus (Jn. 8:24), repent of your sins (Luke 13:5), confess your faith in Christ (Rom. 10:9,10; Acts 8:36-38), be baptized in water so that your sins may be forgiven (Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom. 6:3,4; 1 Pet. 3:21), and remain faithful to the Lord (Rev. 2:10). For the one already a Christian (who falls into sin), the New Testament teaches that "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 Jn. 1:9). We, therefore, need to "repent...and pray" (Acts 8:22). The Close of Hester's Life To her dying day, Hester Prynne continued to wear the scarlet letter of "her own free-will" (p. 275). This was said quite some time after she had first started wearing it. For not too long after the death of the minister, Hester and Pearl disappeared for many years, "though a vague report would now and then find its way across the sea,--like a shapeless piece of driftwood tost ashore, with the initials of a name upon it,--yet no tidings of them unquestionably authentic were received" (p. 273). On one afternoon, however, Hester Prynne returned to her little cottage by the shore to take up "her long-forsaken shame" (p. 274). Still wearing the scarlet letter, she had returned to the place that "had been her sin...her sorrow; and here was yet to be her penitence" (p. 275). The sign of her sin from years ago no longer evoked "the world's scorn and bitterness." Rather, to this woman who had suffered many years -- and often unjustly -- people now had "brought all their sorrows and perplexities, and besought her counsel, as one who had herself gone through a mighty trouble"; and "Hester comforted and counseled them as best she might" (p. 275). How much better her life must have been, due to the forgiveness and acceptance later shown her; but, also, how much better it was in the lives of those who were able to do so. Hester refers to being able to forgive as a "priceless benefit"; and one which can make one "more human"; whereas the lack thereof can transform a wise man into being a "fiend." She, therefore, exhorts that person -- who had been sinned against more so than any other individual by her and the minister's transgression -- and whose heart was filled with hatred: "Wilt thou yet purge it out of thee, and be once more human? If not for his sake, then doubly for thine own!...There might be good for thee, and thee alone, since thou hast been deeply wronged, and hast it at thy will to pardon. Wilt thou give up that only privilege? Wilt thou reject that priceless benefit?" (p. 181). As noted in part 1, if we don't forgive others the way we should, the Lord then won't forgive us. So forgiveness is a "priceless benefit" and "doubly" so for the one who does; for being unmerciful and bitter will do more harm to the one who is that way than to the one who is the object of that unforgiving spirit; which shows that forgiving is not only good for our soul, but also for our physical well-being. Hester -- in Her Old Age A glimpse of Hester Prynne in her older years is given in the book's "Introductory": "Aged persons...remembered her, in their youth, as a very old, but not decrepit woman, of a stately solemn aspect. It had been her habit, from an almost immemorial date, to go about the country as a kind of voluntary nurse, and doing whatever miscellaneous good she might; taking upon herself, likewise, to give advice in all matters, especially those of the heart; by which means, as a person of such propensities inevitably must, she gained from many people the reverence due to an angel, but I should imagine, was looked upon by others as an intruder and a nuisance" (p. 32). It appears that Hester remained celibate -- and rightfully so -- the rest of her life; but how much better she made her community by the good deeds that abounded out of her humanitarian concerns -- and how fulfilling of a life it must have been to do so much good for so many people, and especially now that she was finally appreciated again -- though not by all -- and could feel that she was truly "touching" people's lives. Her Burial She had lived for many years after returning to this place "of her shame" and then was buried in "a new grave," which was "near an old and sunken one...yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both...and on this simple slab of slate...there appeared the semblance of an engraved escutcheon" -- which said, "On a Field, Sable [black], the Letter A, Gules [the heraldic color red]" (p. 276). To always be remembered for one's sin should not be when that sin has been blotted out by the blood of Jesus. But in the case of Hester Prynne, and with the religious concept of "penance" for that day, she appears to have been ever mindful of her transgression -- and that symbol for it, which she so long wore, will now be ever displayed to the world from even her tombstone. But she should have realized, as the apostle Paul who had been guilty of the murder of Christians, that there was no need for her to take her sin to the grave with her. Rather, if she had been truly forgiven of it, she could have from that point on, been blessed in God's mercy -- "forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead" (Phil. 3:13). That even if others would wrongfully hold her past sin against her -- never forgetting it, but always reminding her of it -- she could still find much comfort in the Lord's own gracious words: "For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more" (Hebrews 8:12). ____________________________________________________ MYRTLE STREET CHURCH OF CHRIST 1022 Myrtle Street Denham Springs, LA 70726 (225) 664-8208 Sunday: 9:15 AM, 10:00 AM, 4:00 PM Wednesday: 7:00 PM evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (225) 667-4520 e-mail: tedwards@onemain.com web site: http://home.onemain.com/~tedwards/go ____________________________________________________