# “He drank for your sake a cup of unmixed wrath” by John Newton

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2022/07/19/he-drank-for-your-sake-a-cup-of-unmixed-wrath-by-john-newton/
- Published: 2022-07-19T12:00:33-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“We are a spectacle to the universe, to angels as well as to men.

Cheer up: the Lord has put you in your present trying situation, that you may have
the fairer opportunity of adorning your profession of the Gospel; and though you
suffer much, He is able to make you abundant amends.

Nor need I remind you that He has suffered unspeakably more for you: He drank for
your sake a cup of unmixed wrath, and only puts into your hand a cup of affliction
mixed with many mercies.

How ought the groans of Jesus to be as it were continually sounding in our ears?
What are all other sufferings compared to His?

And yet He endured them freely. He needed not to have borne them, if He would have
left us to perish; but such was His love, He died that we might live, and endured
the fiercest agonies that He might open to us the gate of everlasting peace and 
happiness.

How amazingly perverse is my heart, that I can be more affected with a melancholy
story in a newspaper concerning persons I never saw, than with all that I read of
His bitter passion in the garden and on the cross, though I profess to believe He
endured it all for me!

Oh, if we could always behold Him by faith as evidently crucified before our eyes,
how would it compose our spirits as to all the sweets and bitters of this poor life!

What a banner would it prove against all the snares and temptations whereby Satan
would draw us into evil; and what a firm ground of confidence would it afford us
amidst the conflicts we sustain from the working of unbelief and indwelling sin!

I long for more of that faith which is the substance of things hoped for, and the
evidence of things not seen, that I may be preserved humble, thankful, watchful,
and dependent.

To behold the glory and the love of Jesus is the only effectual way to participate
of His image.

We are to set out tonight from the Interpreter’s house towards the hill Difficulty,
and hope to be favoured with a sight of the cross by the way.

To stand at the foot of it with a softened heart and melting eyes; to forget our
sins, sorrows, and burdens, while we are wholly swallowed up in the contemplation
of Him who bore our sins in His own body upon the tree, is certainly the most desirable
situation on this side the grave.

To speak of it, and to see it by the light of the Spirit, are widely different things:
and though we cannot always enjoy this view, yet the remembrance of what we have
seen is an excellent means of encouragement to mount the hill, and to face the lions.

It is now Saturday evening, and growing late. I am just returned from a serious 
walk, which is my usual manner of closing the week when the weather is fine.

I endeavour to join in heart with the Lord’s ministers and people, who are seeking
a blessing on tomorrow’s ordinances. At such times I especially remember those friends
with whom I have gone to the house of the Lord in company, consequently you are 
not forgot.

I can venture to assure you, that if you have a value for our prayers, you have 
a frequent share in them, yea, are loved and remembered by many here; but as we 
are forgetful creatures, I hope you will always refresh our memory, and quicken 
our prayers, by a yearly visit.

In the morning I shall think of you again. What a multitude of eyes’ and hearts 
will be directed to our Redeemer tomorrow!

He has a numerous and necessitous family; but He is rich enough to supply them all,
and His tender compassions extend to the meanest and most unworthy.

Like the sun, He can cheer and enlighten thousands and millions at once, and give
to each as bountifully as if there were no more to partake of His favour.

His best blessings are not diminished by being shared among many.

The greatest earthly monarch would soon be poor if he was to give a little (though
but a little) to all his subjects; but Jesus has unsearchable, inexhaustible riches
of grace to bestow.

The innumerable assembly before the Throne have been all supplied from His fulness;
and yet there is enough and to spare for us also, and for all that shall come after
us.

May He give us an eager appetite, a hunger and thirst that will not be put off with
anything short of the bread of life.

And then we may confidently open our mouths wide, for He has promised to fill them.”

–John Newton, [_The Works of John Newton_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1848715110?tag=toletaupanre-20),
[_Volume 2_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1848715110?tag=toletaupanre-20) (Carlisle,
PA: Banner of Truth, 1988), 2: 191-195.

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