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diff --git a/13601-h/13601-h.htm b/13601-h/13601-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cd2ec15 --- /dev/null +++ b/13601-h/13601-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,23068 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta name="generator" content= +"HTML Tidy for Windows (vers 1st March 2004), see www.w3.org"> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= +"text/html; charset=us-ascii"> +<meta content="GutCutter (version 0.3)" name="generator"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Expositions of the Holy +Scriptures, Romans and Corinthians, by Alexander Maclaren.</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + * { font-family: "Bookman Old Style"; Verdana; Times; serif; + } + P { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + font-size: 12pt; + text-align: left; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + P.noindent { text-indent: 0em; } + P.fnt { font-size: 10 pt; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; } + PRE { font-family: Courier New, monospaced; + margin-left: 4em;} + .toc { margin-left: 15%; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 0em;} + CENTER { padding: 10px;} + // --> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans +Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V), by Alexander Maclaren + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V) + +Author: Alexander Maclaren + +Release Date: October 5, 2004 [EBook #13601] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks, John Hagerson, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE</h1> +<h2>ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D.</h2> +<h3>ROMANS<br> +CORINTHIANS <i>(To II Corinthians, Chap. V)</i></h3> +<hr> +<h1><a name="part1" id="part1">EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE</a></h1> +<h2>ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D.</h2> +<h3>ROMANS</h3> +<h4>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h4> +<p><a href="#twotr01">THE WITNESS OF THE RESURRECTION</a> (Romans i. +4, R. V.)</p> +<p><a href="#pao02">PRIVILEGE AND OBLIGATION</a> (Romans i. 7)</p> +<p><a href="#pl03">PAUL'S LONGING</a> (Romans i. 11, 12)</p> +<p><a href="#dtom04">DEBTORS TO ALL MEN</a> (Romans i. 14)</p> +<p><a href="#tgtpog05">THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD</a> (Romans i. +16)</p> +<p><a href="#wsawr06">WORLD-WIDE SIN AND WORLD-WIDE REDEMPTION</a> +(Romans iii. 19-26)</p> +<p><a href="#nd07">NO DIFFERENCE</a> (Romans iii. 22)</p> +<p><a href="#luhp08">‘LET US HAVE PEACE’</a> (Romans v. +1, R. V.)</p> +<p><a href="#aig09">ACCESS INTO GRACE</a> (Romans v. 2)</p> +<p><a href="#tsoh10">THE SOURCES OF HOPE</a> (Romans v. 2-4)</p> +<p><a href="#atc11">A THREEFOLD CORD</a> (Romans v. 5)</p> +<p><a href="#wpgl12">WHAT PROVES GOD'S LOVE</a> (Romans v. 8)</p> +<p><a href="#twq13">THE WARRING QUEENS</a> (Romans v. 21)</p> +<p><a href="#tfot14">‘THE FORM OF TEACHING’</a> (Romans +vi. 17)</p> +<p><a href="#tfs15">‘THY FREE SPIRIT’</a> (Romans viii. +2)</p> +<p><a href="#ccs16">CHRIST CONDEMNING SIN</a> (Romans viii. 8)</p> +<p><a href="#twots17">THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT</a> (Romans viii. +16)</p> +<p><a href="#sah18">SONS AND HEIRS</a> (Romans viii. 17)</p> +<p><a href="#swcacogwc19">SUFFERING WITH CHRIST, A CONDITION OF GLORY +WITH CHRIST</a> (Romans viii. 17)</p> +<p><a href="#tros20">THE REVELATION OF SONS</a> (Romans viii. 19)</p> +<p><a href="#trotb21">THE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY</a> (Romans viii. +23)</p> +<p><a href="#tis22">THE INTERCEDING SPIRIT</a> (Romans viii. 26)</p> +<p><a href="#tgtbag23">THE GIFT THAT BRINGS ALL GIFTS</a> (Romans +viii. 32)</p> +<p><a href="#mtc24">MORE THAN CONQUERORS</a> (Romans viii. 37)</p> +<p><a href="#lt25">LOVE'S TRIUMPH</a> (Romans viii. 38, 39)</p> +<p><a href="#tsotb26">THE SACRIFICE OF THE BODY</a> (Romans xii. +1)</p> +<p><a href="#t27">TRANSFIGURATION</a> (Romans xii. 2)</p> +<p><a href="#st28">SOBER THINKING</a> (Romans xii. 3)</p> +<p><a href="#mao29">MANY AND ONE</a> (Romans xii. 4, 5)</p> +<p><a href="#gag30">GRACE AND GRACES</a> (Romans xii. 6-8)</p> +<p><a href="#ltch31">LOVE THAT CAN HATE</a> (Romans xii. 9, 10, R. +V.)</p> +<p><a href="#atog32">A TRIPLET OF GRACES</a> (Romans xii. 11)</p> +<p><a href="#atog33">ANOTHER TRIPLET OF GRACES</a> (Romans xii. +12)</p> +<p><a href="#sat34">STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET</a> (Romans xii. 13-15)</p> +<p><a href="#sat35">STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET</a> (Romans xii. 16, R. +V.)</p> +<p><a href="#sat36">STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET</a> (Romans xii. 17, 18, R. +V.)</p> +<p><a href="#sat37">STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET</a> (Romans xii. 19-21)</p> +<p><a href="#latd38">LOVE AND THE DAY</a> (Romans xiii. 8-14)</p> +<p><a href="#sn39">SALVATION NEARER</a> (Romans xiii. 11)</p> +<p><a href="#tsm40">THE SOLDIER'S MORNING-CALL</a> (Romans xiii. +12)</p> +<p><a href="#tlol41">THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY</a> (Romans xiv. +12-23)</p> +<p><a href="#tfos42">TWO FOUNTAINS, ONE STREAM</a> (Romans xv. 4, +13)</p> +<p><a href="#japib43">JOY AND PEACE IN BELIEVING</a> (Romans xv. +13)</p> +<p><a href="#p44">PHŒBE</a> (Romans xvi. 1, 2, R. V.)</p> +<p><a href="#paa45">PRISCILLA AND AQUILA</a> (Romans xvi. 3-5)</p> +<p><a href="#th46">TWO HOUSEHOLDS</a> (Romans xvi. 10,11)</p> +<p><a href="#tat47">TRYPHENA AND TRYPHOSA</a> (Romans xvi. 12)</p> +<p><a href="#p48">PERSIS</a> (Romans xvi. 12)</p> +<p><a href="#acs49">A CRUSHED SNAKE</a> (Romans xvi. 20)</p> +<p><a href="#t50">TERTIUS</a> (Romans xvi. 22, R. V.)</p> +<p><a href="#qab51">QUARTUS A BROTHER</a> (Romans xvi. 23)</p> +<p><a href="#part2">PART 2</a></p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="twotr01" id="twotr01">THE WITNESS OF THE +RESURRECTION</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Declared to be the Son of God with power, ... by +the resurrection of the dead.’—ROMANS i. 4 (R. +V.).</blockquote> +<p>It is a great mistake to treat Paul's writings, and especially +this Epistle, as mere theology. They are the transcript of his life's +experience. As has been well said, the gospel of Paul is an +interpretation of the significance of the life and work of Jesus +based upon the revelation to him of Jesus as the risen Christ. He +believed that he had seen Jesus on the road to Damascus, and it was +that appearance which revolutionised his life, turned him from a +persecutor into a disciple, and united him with the Apostles as +ordained to be a witness with them of the Resurrection. To them all +the Resurrection of Jesus was first of all a historical fact +appreciated chiefly in its bearing on Him. By degrees they discerned +that so transcendent a fact bore in itself a revelation of what would +become the experience of all His followers beyond the grave, and a +symbol of the present life possible for them. All three of these +aspects are plainly declared in Paul's writings. In our text it is +chiefly the first which is made prominent. All that distinguishes +Christianity; and makes it worth believing, or mighty, is inseparably +connected with the Resurrection.</p> +<p>I. The Resurrection of Christ declares His Sonship.</p> +<p>Resurrection and Ascension are inseparably connected. Jesus does +not rise to share again in the ills and weariness of humanity. Risen, +‘He dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him.’ +‘He died unto sin once’; and His risen humanity had +nothing in it on which physical death could lay hold. That He should +from some secluded dimple on Olivet ascend before the gazing +disciples until the bright cloud, which was the symbol of the Divine +Presence, received Him out of their sight, was but the end of the +process which began unseen in morning twilight. He laid aside the +garments of the grave and passed out of the sepulchre which was made +sure by the great stone rolled against its mouth. The grand avowal of +faith in His Resurrection loses meaning, unless it is completed as +Paul completed his ‘yea rather that was raised from the +dead,’ with the triumphant ‘who is at the right hand of +God.’ Both are supernatural, and the Virgin Birth corresponds +at the beginning to the supernatural Resurrection and Ascension at +the close. Both such an entrance into the world and such a departure +from it, proclaim at once His true humanity, and that ‘this is +the Son of God.’</p> +<p>Still further, the Resurrection is God's solemn ‘Amen’ +to the tremendous claims which Christ had made. The fact of His +Resurrection, indeed, would not declare His divinity; but the +Resurrection of One who had spoken such words does. If the Cross and +a nameless grave had been the end, what a <i>reductio ad absurdum</i> +that would have been to the claims of Jesus to have ever been with +the Father and to be doing always the things that pleased Him. The +Resurrection is God's last and loudest proclamation, ‘This is +My beloved Son: hear ye Him.’ The Psalmist of old had learned +to trust that his sonship and consecration to the Father made it +impossible that that Father should leave his soul in Sheol, or suffer +one who was knit to Him by such sacred bonds to see corruption; and +the unique Sonship and perfect self-consecration of Jesus went down +into the grave in the assured confidence, as He Himself declared, +that the third day He would rise again. The old alternative seems to +retain all its sharp points: Either Christ rose again from the dead, +or His claims are a series of blasphemous arrogances and His +character irremediably stained.</p> +<p>But we may also remember that Scripture not only represents +Christ's Resurrection as a divine act but also as the act of Christ's +own power. In His earthly life He asserted that His relation both to +physical death and to resurrection was an entirely unique one. +‘I have power,’ said He, ‘to lay down my life, and +I have power to take it again’; and yet, even in this +tremendous instance of self-assertion, He remains the obedient Son, +for He goes on to say, ‘This commandment have I received of My +Father.’ If these claims are just, then it is vain to stumble +at the miracles which Jesus did in His earthly life. If He could +strip it off and resume it, then obviously it was not a life like +other men's. The whole phenomenon is supernatural, and we shall not +be in the true position to understand and appreciate it and Him +until, like the doubting Thomas, we fall at the feet of the risen +Son, and breathe out loyalty and worship in that rapturous +exclamation, ‘My Lord and my God.’</p> +<p>II. The Resurrection interprets Christ's Death.</p> +<p>There is no more striking contrast than that between the absolute +non-receptivity of the disciples in regard to all Christ's plain +teachings about His death and their clear perception after Pentecost +of the mighty power that lay in it. The very fact that they continued +disciples at all, and that there continued to be such a community as +the Church, demands their belief in the Resurrection as the only +cause which can account for it. If He did not rise from the dead, and +if His followers did not know that He did so by the plainest +teachings of common-sense, they ought to have scattered, and borne in +isolated hearts the bitter memories of disappointed hopes; for if He +lay in a nameless grave, and they were not sure that He was risen +from the dead, His death would have been a conclusive showing up of +the falsity of His claims. In it there would have been no atoning +power, no triumph over sin. If the death of Christ were not followed +by His Resurrection and Ascension, the whole fabric of Christianity +falls to pieces. As the Apostle puts it in his great chapter on +resurrection, ‘Ye are yet in your sins.’ The forgiveness +which the Gospel holds forth to men does not depend on the mercy of +God or on the mere penitence of man, but upon the offering of the one +sacrifice for sins in His death, which is justified by His +Resurrection as being accepted by God. If we cannot triumphantly +proclaim ‘Christ is risen indeed,’ we have nothing worth +preaching.</p> +<p>We are told now that the ethics of Christianity are its vital +centre, which will stand out more plainly when purified from these +mystical doctrines of a Death as the sin-offering for the world, and +a Resurrection as the great token that that offering avails. Paul did +not think so. To him the morality of the Gospel was all deduced from +the life of Christ the Son of God as our Example, and from His death +for us which touches men's hearts and makes obedience to Him our +joyful answer to what He has done for us. Christianity is a new thing +in the world, not as moral teaching, but as moral power to obey that +teaching, and that depends on the Cross interpreted by the +Resurrection. If we have only a dead Christ, we have not a living +Christianity.</p> +<p>III. Resurrection points onwards to Christ's coming again.</p> +<p>Paul at Athens declared in the hearing of supercilious Greek +philosophers, that the Jesus, whom he proclaimed to them, was +‘the Man whom God had ordained to judge the world in +righteousness,’ and that ‘He had given assurance thereof +unto all men, in that He raised Him from the dead.’ The +Resurrection was the beginning of the process which, from the human +point of view, culminated in the Ascension. Beyond the Ascension +stretches the supernatural life of the glorified Son of God. Olivet +cannot be the end, and the words of the two men in white apparel who +stood amongst the little group of the upward gazing friends, remain +as the hope of the Church: ‘This same Jesus shall so come in +like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.’ That great +assurance implies a visible corporeal return locally defined, and +having for its purpose to complete the work which Incarnation, Death, +Resurrection, and Ascension, each advanced a stage. The Resurrection +is the corner-stone of the whole Christian faith. It seals the truths +that Jesus is the Son of God with power, that He died for us, that He +has ascended on high to prepare a place for us, that He will come +again and take us to Himself. If we, by faith in Him, take for ours +the women's greeting on that Easter morning, ‘The Lord hath +risen indeed,’ He will come to us with His own greeting, +‘Peace be unto you.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="pao02" id="pao02">PRIVILEGE AND OBLIGATION</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to +be saints.’—ROMANS i. 7.</blockquote> +<p>This is the address of the Epistle. The first thing to be noticed +about it, by way of introduction, is the universality of this +designation of Christians. Paul had never been in Rome, and knew very +little about the religious stature of the converts there. But he has +no hesitation in declaring that they are all ‘beloved of +God’ and ‘saints.’ There were plenty of imperfect +Christians amongst them; many things to rebuke; much deadness, +coldness, inconsistency, and yet none of these in the slightest +degree interfered with the application of these great designations to +them. So, then, ‘beloved of God’ and ‘saints’ +are not distinctions of classes within the pale of Christianity, but +belong to the whole community, and to each member of the body.</p> +<p>The next thing to note, I think, is how these two great terms, +‘beloved of God’ and ‘saints,’ cover almost +the whole ground of the Christian life. They are connected with each +other very closely, as I shall have occasion to show presently, but +in the meantime it may be sufficient to mark how the one carries us +deep into the heart of God and the other extends over the whole +ground of our relation to Him. The one is a statement of a universal +prerogative, the other an enforcement of a universal obligation. Let +us look, then, at these two points, the universal privilege and the +universal obligation of the Christian life.</p> +<p>I. The universal privilege of the Christian life.</p> +<p>‘Beloved of God.’ Now we are so familiar with the +juxtaposition of the two ideas, ‘love’ and +‘God,’ that we cease to feel the wonderfulness of their +union. But until Jesus Christ had done His work no man believed that +the two thoughts could be brought together.</p> +<p>Does God love any one? We think the question too plain to need to +be put, and the answer instinctive. But it is not by any means +instinctive, and the fact is that until Christ answered it for us, +the world stood dumb before the question that its own heart raised, +and when tortured spirits asked, ‘Is there care in heaven, and +is there love?’ there was ‘no voice, nor answer, nor any +that regarded.’ Think of the facts of life; think of the facts +of nature. Think of sorrows and miseries and pains, and sins, and +wasted lives and storms, and tempests, and diseases, and convulsions; +and let us feel how true the grim saying is, that</p> +<pre> +'Nature, red in tooth and claw, +With rapine, shrieks against the creed' +</pre> +<p class="noindent">that God is love.</p> +<p>And think of what the world has worshipped, and of all the +varieties of monstrosity, not the less monstrous because sometimes +beautiful, before which men have bowed. Cruel, lustful, rapacious, +capricious, selfish, indifferent deities they have adored. And then, +‘God hath established,’ proved, demonstrated ‘His +love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for +us.’</p> +<p>Oh, brethren, do not let us kick down the ladder by which we have +climbed; or, in the name of a loving God, put away the Christian +teaching which has begotten the conception in humanity of a God that +loves. There are men to-day who would never have come within sight of +that sunlight truth, even as a glimmering star, away down upon the +horizon, if it had not been for the Gospel; and who now turn round +upon that very Gospel which has given them the conception, and accuse +it of narrow and hard thoughts of the love of God.</p> +<p>One of the Scripture truths against which the assailant often +turns his sharpest weapons is that which is involved in my text, the +Scripture answer to the other question, ‘Does not God love +all?’ Yes! yes! a thousand times, yes! But there is another +question, Does the love of God, to all, make His special designation +of Christian men as His beloved the least unlikely? Surely there is +no kind of contradiction between the broadest proclamation of the +universality of the love of God and Paul's decisive declaration that, +in a very deep and real manner, they who are in Christ are the +beloved of God. Surely special affection is not in its nature, +inconsistent with universal beneficence and benevolence. Surely it is +no exaltation, but rather a degradation of the conception of the +divine love, if we proclaim its utter indifference to men's +characters. Surely you are not honouring God when you say, ‘It +is all the same to Him whether a man loves Him and serves Him, or +lifts himself up in rebellion against Him, and makes himself his own +centre, and earth his aim and his all.’ Surely to imagine a God +who not only makes His sun to shine and His rains and dews to fall on +the unthankful and the evil, that He may draw them to love Him, but +who also is conceived as taking the sinful creature who yet cleaves +to his sins to His heart, as He does the penitent soul that longs for +His image to be produced in it, is to blaspheme, and not to honour +the love, the universal love of God.</p> +<p>God forbid that any words that ever drop from my lips should seem +to cast the smallest shadow of doubt on that great truth, ‘God +so loved the world that He gave His Son!’ But God forbid, +equally, that any words of mine should seem to favour the, to me, +repellent idea that the infinite love of God disregards the character +of the man on whom it falls. There are manifestations of that loving +heart which any man can receive; and each man gets as much of the +love of God as it is possible to pour upon him. But granite rock does +not drink in the dew as a flower does; and the nature of the man on +whom God's love falls determines how much, and what manner of its +manifestations shall pass into his true possession, and what shall +remain without.</p> +<p>So, on the whole, we have to answer the questions, ‘Does God +love any? Does not God love all? Does God specially love some?’ +with the one monosyllable, ‘Yes.’</p> +<p>And so, dear brethren, let us learn the path by which we can pass +into that blessed community of those on whom the fullness and +sweetness and tenderest tenderness of the Father's heart will fall. +‘If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will +love him.’ Myths tell us that the light which, at the +beginning, had been diffused through a nebulous mass, was next +gathered into a sun. So the universal love of God is concentrated in +Jesus Christ; and if we have Him we have it; and if we have faith we +have Him, and can say, ‘Neither life, nor death, nor things +present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other +creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is +in Christ Jesus our Lord.’</p> +<p>II. Then, secondly, mark the universal obligation of the Christian +life.</p> +<p>‘Called to be saints,’ says my text. Now you will +observe that the two little words ‘to be’ are inserted +here as a supplement. They may be correct enough, but they are open +to the possibility of misunderstanding, as if the saintship, to which +all Christian people are ‘called’ was something future, +and not realised at the moment. Now, in the context, the Apostle +employs the same form of expression with regard to himself in a +clause which illuminates the meaning of my text. ‘Paul, a +servant of Jesus Christ’ says he, in the first verse, +‘called to be an Apostle’ or, more correctly, ‘a +called Apostle.’ The apostleship coincided in time with the +call, was contemporaneous with that which was its cause. And if Paul +was an Apostle since he was called, saints are saints since +<i>they</i> are called. ‘The beloved of God’ are +‘the called saints.’</p> +<p>I need only observe, further, that the word ‘called’ +here does not mean ‘named’ or ‘designated’ +but ‘summoned.’ It describes not the name by which +Christian men are known, but the thing which they are invited, +summoned, ‘called’ by God to be. It is their vocation, +not their designation. Now, then, I need not, I suppose, remind you +that ‘saint’ and ‘holy’ convey precisely the +same idea: the one expressing it in a word of Teutonic, and the other +in one of classic derivation.</p> +<p>We notice that the true idea of this universal holiness which, +<i>ipso facto</i>, belongs to all Christian people, is consecration +to God. In the old days temple, altars, sacrifices, sacrificial +vessels, persons such as priests, periods like Sabbaths and feasts, +were called ‘holy.’ The common idea running through all +these uses of the word is <i>belonging to God</i>, and that is the +root notion of the New Testament ‘saint’ a man who is +God's. God has claimed us for Himself when He gave us Jesus Christ. +We respond to the claim when we accept Christ. Henceforth we are not +our own, but ‘consecrated’—that is, +‘saints.’</p> +<p>Now the next step is purity, which is the ordinary idea of +sanctity. Purity will follow consecration, and would not be worth +much without it, even if it was possible to be attained. Now, look +what a far deeper and nobler idea of the service and conditions of +moral goodness this derivation of it from surrender to God gives, +than does a God-ignoring morality which talks and talks about acts +and dispositions, and never goes down to the root of the whole +matter; and how much nobler it is than a shallow religion which in +like manner is ever straining after acts of righteousness, and +forgets that in order to be right there must be prior surrender to +God. Get a man to yield himself up to God and no fear about the +righteousness. Virtue, goodness, purity, righteousness, all these +synonyms express very noble things; but deep down below them all lies +the New Testament idea of holiness, consecration of myself to God, +which is the parent of them all.</p> +<p>And then the next thing to remind you of is that this consecration +is to be applied all through a man's nature. Yielding yourselves to +God is the talismanic secret of all righteousness, as I have said; +and every part of our complex, manifold being is capable of such +consecration. I hallow my heart if its love twines round His heart. I +hallow my thoughts if I take His truth for my guide, and ever seek to +be led thereby in practice and in belief. I hallow my will when it +bows and says, ‘Speak, Lord! Thy servant heareth!’ I +hallow my senses when I use them as from Him, with recognition of Him +and for Him. In fact, there are two ways of living in the world; and, +narrow as it sounds, I venture to say there are only two. Either God +is my centre, and that is holiness; or self is my centre, in more or +less subtle forms, and that is sin.</p> +<p>Then the next step is that this consecration, which will issue in +all purity, and will cover the whole ground of a human life, is only +possible when we have drunk in the blessed thought ‘beloved of +God.’ My yielding of myself to Him can only be the echo of His +giving of Himself to me. He must be the first to love. You cannot +argue a man into loving God, any more than you can hammer a rosebud +open. If you do you spoil its petals. But He can love us into loving +Him, and the sunshine, falling on the closed flower, will expand it, +and it will grow by its reception of the light, and grow sunlike in +its measure and according to its nature. So a God who has only claims +upon us will never be a God to whom we yield ourselves. A God who has +love for us will be a God to whom it is blessed that we should be +consecrated, and so saints.</p> +<p>Then, still further, this consecration, thus built upon the +reception of the divine love, and influencing our whole nature, and +leading to all purity, is a universal characteristic of Christians. +There is no faith which does not lead to surrender. There is no +aristocracy in the Christian Church which deserves to have the family +name given especially to it. ‘Saint’ this, and +‘Saint’ that, and ‘Saint’ the +other—these titles cannot be used without darkening the truth +that this honour and obligation of being saints belong equally to all +that love Jesus Christ. All the men whom thus God has drawn to +Himself, by His love in His Son, they are all, if I may so say, +objectively holy; they belong to God. But consecration may be +cultivated, and must be cultivated and increased. There is a solemn +obligation laid upon every one of us who call ourselves Christians, +to be saints, in the sense that we have consciously yielded up our +whole lives to Him; and are trying, body, soul, and spirit, ‘to +perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord.’</p> +<p>Paul's letter, addressed to the ‘beloved in God,’ the +‘called saints' that are in Rome, found its way to the people +for whom it was meant. If a letter so addressed were dropped in our +streets, do you think anybody would bring it to you, or to any +Christian society as a whole, recognising that we were the people for +whom it was meant? The world has taunted us often enough with the +name of saints; and laughed at the profession which they thought was +included in the word. Would that their taunts had been undeserved, +and that it were not true that ‘saints’ in the Church +sometimes means less than ‘good men’ out of the Church! +‘Seeing that we have these promises, dearly beloved, let us +cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit; perfecting +holiness in the fear of the Lord.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="pl03" id="pl03">PAUL'S LONGING</a>[<a href= +"#pl03f1">1</a>]</h2> +<blockquote>‘I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some +spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; 12. That is, that I +may be comforted together with you, by the mutual faith both of you +and me.’—ROMANS i. 11, 12.</blockquote> +<p>I am not wont to indulge in personal references in the pulpit, but +I cannot but yield to the impulse to make an exception now, and to +let our happy circumstances mould my remarks. I speak mainly to mine +own people, and I must trust that other friends who may hear or read +my words will forgive my doing so.</p> +<p>In taking such a text as this, I desire to shelter myself behind +Paul, and in expounding his feelings to express my own, and to draw +such lessons as may be helpful and profitable to us all. And so there +are three things in this text that I desire to note: the manly +expression of Christian affection; the lofty consciousness of the +purpose of their meeting; and the lowly sense that there was much to +be received as well as much to be given. A word or two about each of +these things is all on which I can venture.</p> +<p>I. First, then, notice the manly expression of Christian affection +which the Apostle allows himself here.</p> +<p>Very few Christian teachers could or should venture to talk so +much about themselves as Paul did. The strong infusion of the +personal element in all his letters is so transparently simple, so +obviously sincere, so free from any jarring note of affectation or +unctuous sentiment that it attracts rather than repels. If I might +venture upon a paradox, his personal references are instances of +self-oblivion in the midst of self-consciousness.</p> +<p>He had never been in Rome when he wrote these words; he had no +personal relations with the believers there; he had never looked them +in the face; there were no sympathy and confidence between them, as +the growth of years. But still his heart went out towards them, and +he was not ashamed to show it. ‘I <i>long</i> to see +you,’—in the original the word expresses a very intense +amount of yearning blended with something of regret that he had been +so long kept from them.</p> +<p>Now it is not a good thing for people to make many professions of +affection, and I think a public teacher has something better to do +than to parade such feelings before his audiences. But there are +exceptions to all rules, and I suppose I may venture to let my heart +speak, and to say how gladly I come back to the old place, dear to me +by so many sacred memories and associations, and how gladly I reknit +the bonds of an affection which has been unbroken, and deepening on +both sides through thirty long years.</p> +<p>Dear friends! let us together thank God to-day if He has knit our +hearts together in mutual affection; and if you and I can look each +other, as I believe we can, in the eyes, with the assurance that I +see only the faces of friends, and that you see the face of one who +gladly resumes the old work and associations.</p> +<p>But now, dear brethren, let us draw one lesson. Unless there be +this manly, honest, though oftenest silent, Christian affection, the +sooner you and I part the better. Unless it be in my heart I can do +you no good. No man ever touched another with the sweet constraining +forces that lie in Christ's Gospel unless the heart of the speaker +went out to grapple the hearts of the hearers. And no audience ever +listen with any profit to a man when they come in the spirit of +carping criticism, or of cold admiration, or of stolid indifference. +There must be for this simple relationship which alone binds a +Nonconformist preacher to his congregation, as a <i>sine qua non</i> +of all higher things and of all spiritual good, a real, though +oftenest it be a concealed, mutual affection and regard. We have to +thank God for much of it; let us try to get more. That is all I want +to say about the first point here.</p> +<p>II. Note the lofty consciousness of the purpose of their +meeting.</p> +<p>‘I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some +spiritual gift.’ Paul knew that he had something which he could +give to these people, and he calls it by a very comprehensive term, +‘some spiritual gift’—a gift of some sort which, +coming from the Divine Spirit, was to be received into the human +spirit.</p> +<p>Now that expression—a spiritual gift—in the New +Testament has a variety of applications. Sometimes it refers to what +we call miraculous endowments, sometimes it refers to what we may +call official capacity; but here it is evidently neither the one nor +the other of these more limited and special things, but the general +idea of a divine operation upon the human spirit which fills it with +Christian graces—knowledge, faith, love. Or, in simpler words, +what Paul wanted to give them was a firmer grasp and fuller +possession of Jesus Christ, His love and power, which would secure a +deepening and strengthening of their whole Christian life. He was +quite sure he had this to give, and that he could impart it, if they +would listen to what he would say to them. But whilst thus he rises +into the lofty conception of the purpose and possible result of his +meeting the Roman Christians, he is just as conscious of the +limitations of his power in the matter as he is of the greatness of +his function. These are indicated plainly. The word which he employs +here, ‘gift’ is never used in the New Testament for a +thing that one man can give to another, but is always employed for +the concrete results of the grace of God bestowed upon men. The very +expression, then, shows that Paul thought of himself, not as the +original giver, but simply as a channel through which was +communicated what God had given. In the same direction points the +adjective which accompanies the noun—a ‘<i>spiritual</i> +gift’—which probably describes the origin of the gift as +being the Spirit of God, rather than defines the seat of it when +received as being the spirit of the receiver. Notice, too, as bearing +on the limits of Paul's part in the gift, the propriety and delicacy +of the language in his statement of the ultimate purpose of the gift. +He does not say ‘that I may strengthen you,’ which might +have sounded too egotistical, and would have assumed too much to +himself, but he says ‘that ye may be strengthened,’ for +the true strengthener is not Paul, but the Spirit of God.</p> +<p>So, on the one hand, the Christian teacher is bound to rise to the +height of the consciousness of his lofty vocation as having in +possession a gift that he can bestow; on the other hand, he is bound +ever to remember the limitations within which that is true—viz. +that the gift is not his, but God's, and that the Spirit of the Lord +is the true Giver of all the graces which may blossom when His word, +ministered by human agents, is received into human hearts.</p> +<p>And, now, what are the lessons that I take from this? Two very +simple ones. First, no Christian teacher has any business to open his +mouth, unless he is sure that he has received something to impart to +men as a gift from the Divine Spirit. To preach our doubts, to preach +our own opinions, to preach poor platitudes, to talk about politics +and morals and taste and literature and the like in the pulpit, is +profanation and blasphemy. Let no man open his lips unless he can +say: ‘The Lord hath showed me this; and this I bring to you as +His word.’ Nor has a Christian organisation any right to exist, +unless it recognises the communication and reception and further +spreading of this spiritual gift as its great function. Churches +which have lost that consciousness, and, instead of a divine gift, +have little more to offer than formal worship, or music, or +entertainments, or mere intellectual discourse, whether orthodox or +‘advanced,’ have no right to be; and by the law of the +survival of the fittest will not long be. The one thing that warrants +such a relationship as subsists between you and me is this, my +consciousness that I have a message from God, and your belief that +you hear such from my lips. Unless that be our bond the sooner these +walls crumble, and this voice ceases, and these pews are emptied, the +better. ‘I have,’ says, Paul, ‘a gift to impart; +and I long to see you that I may impart it to you.’ Oh! for +more, in all our pulpits, of that burdened consciousness of a divine +message which needs the relief of speech, and longs with a longing +caught from Christ to impart its richest treasures.</p> +<p>That is the one lesson. And the other one is this. Have you, dear +friends, received the gift that I have, under the limitations already +spoken of, to bestow? There are some of you who have listened to my +voice ever since you were children—some of you, though not +many, have heard it for well on to thirty years. Have you taken the +thing that all these years I have been—God knows how poorly, +but God knows how honestly—trying to bring to you? That is, +have you taken Christ, and have you faith in Him? And, as for those +of you who say that you are Christians, many blessings have passed +between you and me through all these years; but, dear friends, has +the chief blessing been attained? Are you being strengthened day by +day for the burdens and the annoyances and the sorrows of life by +your coming here? Do I do you any good in that way; are you better +men than when we first met together? Is Christ dearer, and more real +and nearer to you; and are your lives more transparently consecrated, +more manifestly the result of a hidden union with Him? Do you walk in +the world like the Master, because you are members of this +congregation? If so, its purpose has been accomplished. If not, it +has miserably failed.</p> +<p>I have said that I have to thank God for the unbroken affection +that has knit us together. But what is the use of such love if it +does not lead onwards to this? I have had enough, and more than +enough, of what you call popularity and appreciation, undeserved +enough, but rendered unstintedly by you. I do not care the snap of a +finger for it by comparison with this other thing. And oh, dear +brethren! if all that comes of our meeting here Sunday after Sunday +is either praise or criticism of my poor words and ways, our +relationship is a curse, and not a blessing, and we come together for +the worse and not for the better. The purpose of the Church, and the +purpose of the ministry, and the meaning of our assembling are, that +spiritual gifts may be imparted, not by me alone, but by you, too, +and by me in my place and measure, and if that purpose be not +accomplished, all other purposes, that are accomplished, are of no +account, and worse than nothing.</p> +<p>III. And now, lastly, note the lowly consciousness that much was +to be received as well as much to be given.</p> +<p>The Apostle corrects himself after he has said ‘that I may +impart unto you some spiritual gift,’ by adding, ‘that +is, that I may be comforted (or rather, encouraged) together with you +by the mutual faith both of you and me.’ If his language were +not so transparently sincere, and springing from deep interest in the +relationship between himself and these people, we should say that it +was exquisite courtesy and beautiful delicacy. But it moves in a +region far more real than the region of courtesy, and it speaks the +inmost truth about the conditions on which the Roman Christians +should receive—viz. that they should also give. There is only +one Giver who is only a Giver, and that is God. All other givers are +also receivers. Paul desired to see his Roman brethren that he might +be encouraged; and when he did see them, as he marched along the +Appian Way, a shipwrecked prisoner, the Acts of the Apostles tells +us, ‘He thanked God and took courage.’ The sight of them +strengthened him and prepared him for what lay before him.</p> +<p>Paul's was a richly complicated nature—firm as a rock in its +will, tremulously sensitive in its sympathies; like some +strongly-rooted tree with its stable stem and a green cloud of +fluttering foliage that moves in the lightest air. So his spirit rose +and fell according to the reception that he met from his brethren, +and the manifestation of their faith quickened and strengthened +his.</p> +<p>And he is but one instance of a universal law. All teachers, the +more genuine they are, the more sympathetic they are, are the more +sensitive of their environment. The very oratorical temperament +places a man at the mercy of surroundings. All earnest work has ever +travelling with it as its shadow seasons of deep depression; and the +Christian teacher does not escape these. I am not going to speak +about myself, but this is unquestionably true, that every Elijah, +after the mightiest effort of prophecy, is apt to cover his head in +his mantle and to say, ‘Take me away; I am not better than my +fathers.’ And when a man for thirty years, amidst all the +changes incident to a great city congregation in that time, has to +stand up Sunday after Sunday before the same people, and mark how +some of them are stolidly indifferent, and note how others are +dropping away from their faithfulness, and see empty places where +loving forms used to sit—no wonder that the mood comes ever and +anon, ‘Then, said I, surely I have laboured in vain and spent +my strength for nought.’ The hearer reacts on the speaker quite +as much as the speaker does on the hearer. If you have ice in the +pews, that brings down the temperature up here. It is hard to be +fervid amidst people that are all but dead. It is difficult to keep a +fire alight when it is kindled on the top of an iceberg. And the +unbelief and low-toned religion of a congregation are always pulling +down the faith and the fervour of their minister, if he be better and +holier, as they expect him to be, than they are.</p> +<p>‘He did not many works because of their unbelief.’ +Christ knew the hampering and the restrictions of His power which +came from being surrounded by a chill, unsympathetic environment. My +strength and my weakness are largely due to you. And if you want your +minister to preach better, and in all ways to do his work more +joyfully and faithfully, the means lie largely in your own hands. Icy +indifference, ill-natured interpretations, carping criticisms, swift +forgetfulness of one's words, all these things kill the fervour of +the pulpit.</p> +<p>On the other hand, the true encouragement to give a man when he is +trying to do God's will, to preach Christ's Gospel, is not to pat him +on the back and say, ‘What a remarkable sermon that was of +yours! what a genius! what an orator!’ not to go about praising +it, but to come and say, ‘Thy words have led me to Christ, and +from thee I have taken the gift of gifts.’</p> +<p>Dear brethren, the encouragement of the minister is in the +conversion and the growth of the hearers. And I pray that in this new +lease of united fellowship which we have taken out, be it longer or +shorter—and advancing years tell me that at the longest it must +be comparatively short—I may come to you ever more and more +with the lofty and humbling consciousness that I have a message which +Christ has given to me, and that you may come more and more +receptive—not of <i>my</i> words, God forbid—but of +Christ's truth; and that so we may be helpers one of another, and +encourage each other in the warfare and work to which we all are +called and consecrated.</p> +<p class="fnt"><a name="pl03f1" id="pl03f1">Footnote 1</a>: Preached after long +absence on account of illness.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="dtom04" id="dtom04">DEBTORS TO ALL MEN</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the +Barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.’—ROMANS +i. 14.</blockquote> +<p>No doubt Paul is here referring to the special obligation laid +upon him by his divine call to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. He was +entrusted with the Gospel as a steward, and was therefore bound to +carry it to all sorts and conditions of men. But the principle +underlying the statement applies to all Christians. The indebtedness +referred to is no peculiarity of the Apostolic order, but attaches to +every believer. Every servant of Jesus Christ, who has received the +truth for himself, has received it as a steward, and is, as such, +indebted to God, from whom he got the trust, and to the men for whom +he got it. The only limit to the obligation is, as Paul says in the +context, ‘as much as in me is.’ Capacity, determined by +faculties, opportunities, and circumstances, prescribes the kind and +the degree of the work to be done in discharge of the obligation; but +the obligation is universal. We are not at liberty to choose whether +we shall do our part in spreading the name of Jesus Christ. It is a +debt that we owe to God and to men. Is that the view of duty which +the average Christian man takes? I am afraid it is not. If it were, +our treasuries would be full, and great would be the multitude of +them that preached the Word.</p> +<p>It is no very exalted degree of virtue to pay our debts. We do not +expect to be praised for that; and we do not consider that we are at +liberty to choose whether we shall do it or not. We are dishonest if +we do not. It is no merit in us to be honest. Would that all +Christian people applied that principle to their religion. The world +would be different, and the Church would be different, if they +did.</p> +<p>Let me try, then, to enforce this thought of indebtedness and of +common honesty in discharging the indebtedness, which underlies these +words. Paul thought that he went a long way to pay his debts to +humanity by carrying to everybody whom he could reach the ‘Name +that is above every name.’</p> +<p>I. Now, first, let me say that we Christians are debtors to all +men by our common manhood.</p> +<p>It is not the least of the gifts which Christianity has brought to +the world, that it has introduced the new thought of the brotherhood +of mankind. The very word ‘humanity’ is a Christian +coinage, and it was coined to express the new thought that began to +throb in men's hearts, as soon as they accepted the message that +Jesus Christ came to give, the message of the Fatherhood of God. For +it is on that belief of God's Fatherhood that the belief of man's +brotherhood rests, and on it alone can it be secured and permanently +based.</p> +<p>Here is a Jew writing to Latins in the Greek language. The +phenomenon itself is a sign of a new order of things, of the rising +of a flood that had surged over, and in the course of ages would sap +away and dissolve, the barriers between men. The Apostle points to +two of the widest gulfs that separated men, in the words of my text. +‘Greeks and Barbarians’ divides mankind, according to +race and language. ‘Wise and unwise’ divides them +according to culture and intellectual capacity. Both gulfs exist +still, though they have been wonderfully filled up by the influence, +direct and indirect, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The fiercest +antagonisms of race which still subsist are felt to belong to a +decaying order, and to be sure, sooner or later, to pass away. I +suppose that the gulf made by the increased culture of modern society +between civilised and the savage peoples, and, within the limits of +our own land, the gulf made by education between the higher and the +lower layers of our community—I speak not of higher and lower +in regard to wealth or station, but in regard to intellectual +acquirement and capacity—are greater than, perhaps, they ever +were in the past. But yet over the gulf a bridge is thrown, and the +gulf itself is being filled up. High above all the superficial +distinctions which separate Jew and Gentile, Greek and Barbarian, +educated and illiterate, scientific and unscientific, wise and +unwise, there stretches the great rainbow of the truth that all are +one in Christ Jesus. Fraternity without Fatherhood is a ghastly +mockery that ended a hundred years ago in the guillotine, and to-day +will end in disappointment; and it is little more than cant. But when +Christianity comes and tells us that we have one Father and one +Redeemer, then the unity of the race is secured.</p> +<p>And that oneness which makes us debtors to all men is shown to be +real by the fact that, beneath all superficial distinctions of +culture, race, age, or station, there are the primal necessities and +yearnings and possibilities that lie in every human soul. All men, +savage or cultivated, breathe the same air, see by the same light, +are fed by the same food and drink, have the same yearning hearts, +the same lofty aspirations that unfulfilled are torture; the same +experience of the same guilt, and, blessed be God! the same Saviour +and the same salvation.</p> +<p>Because, then, we are all members of the one family, every man is +bound to regard all that he possesses, and is, and can do, as +committed to him in stewardship to be imparted to his fellows. We are +not sponges to absorb, but we are pipes placed in the spring, that we +may give forth the precious water of life.</p> +<p>Cain is not a very good model, but his question is the world's +question, and it implies the expectation of a negative +answer—‘Am I my brother's keeper?’ Surely, the very +language answers itself, and, although Cain thinks that the only +answer is ‘No,’ wisdom sees that the only answer is +‘Yes.’ For if I am my brother's brother, then surely I am +my brother's keeper. We have a better example. There is another Elder +Brother who has come to give to His brethren all that Himself +possessed, and we but poorly follow our Master's pattern unless we +feel that the mystic tie which binds us in brotherhood to every man +makes us every man's debtor to the extent of our possessions. That is +the Christian truth that underlies the modern Socialistic idea, and, +whatever the form in which it is ultimately brought into practice as +the rule of mankind, the principle will triumph one day; and we are +bound, as Christian men, to hasten the coming of its victory. We are +debtors by reason of our common humanity.</p> +<p>II. We are debtors by our possession of the universal +salvation.</p> +<p>The principle which I have already been laying down applies all +round, to everything that we have, are, or can do. But its most +stringent obligation, and the noblest field for its operations, are +found in reference to the Christian man's possession of the Gospel +for the joy of his own heart, and to the duties that are therein +involved. Christ draws men to Himself for their own sakes, blessed be +His name! but not for their own sakes only. He draws them to Himself, +that they, in their turn, may draw others with whose hands theirs are +linked, and so may swell the numbers of the flock that gathers round +the one Shepherd. He puts the dew of His blessing into the chalice of +the tiniest flower, that it may ‘share its dewdrop with another +near.’ Just as every particle of inert dough as it is leavened +becomes in its turn leaven, and the medium for leavening the particle +contiguous to it, so every Christian is bound, or, to use the +metaphor of my text, is a debtor to God and man, to impart the Gospel +of Jesus Christ. ‘Greek and Barbarian,’ says Paul, +‘wise or unwise’; all distinctions vanish. If I can get +at a man, no matter what colour, his race, his language, his +capacity, his acquirements, he is my creditor, and I am defrauding +him of what he has a right to expect from me if I do not do my best +to bring him to Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>This obligation receives additional weight from the proved +adaptation of the Gospel to all sorts and conditions of men. Alone of +all religions has Christianity proved itself capable of dominating +every type of character, of influencing every stage of civilisation, +of assuming the speech of every tongue, and of wearing the garb of +every race. There are other religions which are evidently destined +only to a narrow field of operations, and are rigidly limited by +geographical conditions, or by stages of civilisation. There are +wines that are ruined by a sea voyage, and can only be drunk in the +land where the vintage was gathered; and that is the condition of all +the ethnic religions. Christianity alone passes through the whole +earth, and influences all men. The history of missions shows us that. +There has yet to be found the race that is incapable of receiving, or +is beyond the need of possessing, or cannot be elevated by the +operation of, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>So to all men we are bound, as much as in us is, to carry the +Gospel. The distinction that is drawn so often by the people who +never move a finger to help the heathen either at home or abroad, +between the home and the foreign field of work, vanishes altogether +when we stand at the true Christian standpoint. Here is a man who +wants the Gospel; I have it; I can give it to him. That constitutes a +summons as imperative as if we were called by name from Heaven, and +bade to go, and as much as in us is to preach the Gospel. Brethren! +we do not obey the command, ‘Owe no man anything,’ +unless, to the extent of our ability, or over the whole field which +we can influence at home or abroad, we seek to spread the name of +Christ and the salvation that is in Him.</p> +<p>III. We are debtors by benefits received.</p> +<p>I am speaking to men and women a very large proportion of whom get +their living, and some of whom amass their wealth, by trade with +lands that need the Gospel. It is not for nothing that England has +won the great empire that she possesses—won it, alas! far too +often by deeds that will not bear investigation in the light of +Christian principle, but won it.</p> +<p>What do we owe to the lands that we call ‘heathen’? +The very speech by which we communicate with one another; the +beginning of our civilisation; wide fields for expanding population +and emigration; treasures of wisdom of many kinds; an empire about +which we are too fond of crowing and too reluctant to recognise its +responsibilities—and Manchester its commerce and prosperity! +Did God put us where we are as a nation only in order that we might +carry the gifts of our literature, great as that is; of our science, +great as that is; of our law, blessed as that is; of our +manufactures, to those distant lands? The best thing that we can give +is the thing that all of us can help to give—the Gospel of +Jesus Christ. ‘Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom +for such a time as this?’</p> +<p>IV. Lastly, we are debtors by injuries inflicted.</p> +<p>Many subject-races seem destined to fade away by contact with our +race; and if we think of the nameless cruelties, and the iliad of +woes which England's possession of this great Colonial Empire has had +accompanying it, we may feel that the harm in many aspects outweighs +the good, and that it had been better for these men to be left +suckled in creeds outworn, and ignorant of our civilisation, than to +receive from us the fatal gifts that they often have received. I do +not wish to exaggerate, but if you will take the facts of the case as +brought out by people that have no Christian prejudices to serve, I +think you will acknowledge that we as a nation owe a debt of +reparation to the barbarians and the unwise.</p> +<p>What about killing African tribes by the thousand with the vile +stuff that we call rum, and send to them in exchange for their poor +commodities? What about introducing new diseases, the offspring of +vice, into the South Sea Islands, decimating and all but destroying +the population? Is it not true that, as the prophet wailed of old +about a degenerate Israel, we may wail about the beach-combers and +other loafers that go amongst savage lands from +England—‘Through you the name of God is blasphemed among +the Gentiles.’ A Hindoo once said to a missionary, ‘Your +Book is very good. If you were as good as your Book you would conquer +India in five years.’ That may be true or it may not, but it +gives us the impression that is produced by godless Englishmen on +heathen peoples. We are taking away their religion from them, +necessarily, as the result of education and contact with European +thought. And if we do not substitute for it the one faith that +elevates and saves, the last state of that man will be worse than the +first.</p> +<p>We can almost hear the rattle of the guns on the north-west +frontier of India to-day. There is another specimen of the injuries +inflicted. This is not the place to talk politics, but I feel that +this is the place to ask this question, ‘Are Christian +principles to have anything to do in determining national +actions?’ Is it Christian to impose our yoke on unwilling +tribes who have as deep a love for independence as the proudest +Englishmen of us all, and as good a right to it? Are punitive +expeditions and Maxim guns instalments of our debt to all men? I +wonder what Jesus Christ, who died for Afridis and Orakzais and all +the rest of them, thinks about such conduct?</p> +<p>Brethren, we are debtors to all men. Let us do our best to +influence national action in accordance with the brotherhood which +has been revealed to us by the Elder Brother of us all; and let us, +at least for our own parts, recognise, and, as much as in us is, +discharge the debt which, by our common humanity, and by our +possession of the universal Gospel we owe to all men, and which is +made more weighty by the benefits we receive from many, and by the +injuries which England has inflicted on not a few. Else shall we hear +rise above all the voices that palliate crime, on the plea of +‘State necessity,’ the stern words of the Master, +‘In thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of poor +innocents.’ We are debtors; let us pay our debts.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tgtpog05" id="tgtpog05">THE GOSPEL THE POWER OF +GOD</a>[<a href="#tgtpog05f1">1</a>]</h2> +<blockquote>‘I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it +is the power of God unto salvation to every one that +believeth.’—ROMANS i. 16.</blockquote> +<p>To preach the Gospel in Rome had long been the goal of Paul's +hopes. He wished to do in the centre of power what he had done in +Athens, the home of wisdom; and with superb confidence, not in +himself, but in his message, to try conclusions with the strongest +thing in the world. He knew its power well, and was not appalled. The +danger was an attraction to his chivalrous spirit. He believed in +flying at the head when you are fighting with a serpent, and he knew +that influence exerted in Rome would thrill through the Empire. If we +would understand the magnificent audacity of these words of my text +we must try to listen to them with the ears of a Roman. Here was a +poor little insignificant Jew, like hundreds of his countrymen down +in the Ghetto, one who had his head full of some fantastic nonsense +about a young visionary whom the procurator of Syria had very wisely +put an end to a while ago in order to quiet down the turbulent +province; and he was going into Rome with the notion that his word +would shake the throne of the Cæsars. What proud contempt would +have curled their lips if they had been told that the travel-stained +prisoner, trudging wearily up the Appian Way, had the mightiest thing +in the world entrusted to his care! Romans did not believe much in +ideas. Their notion of power was sharp swords and iron yokes on the +necks of subject peoples. But the history of Christianity, whatever +else it has been, has been the history of the supremacy and the +revolutionary force of ideas. Thought is mightier than all visible +forces. Thought dissolves and reconstructs. Empires and institutions +melt before it like the carbon rods in an electric lamp; and the +little hillock of Calvary is higher than the Palatine with its regal +homes and the Capitoline with its temples: ‘I am not ashamed of +the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto +salvation.’</p> +<p>Now, dear friends, I have ventured to take these great words for +my text, though I know, better than any of you can tell me, how sure +my treatment of them is to enfeeble rather than enforce them, because +I, for my poor part, feel that there are few things which we, all of +us, people and ministers, need more than to catch some of the +infection of this courageous confidence, and to be fired with some +spark of Paul's enthusiasm for, and glorying in, the Gospel of Jesus +Christ.</p> +<p>I ask you, then, to consider three things: (1) what Paul thought +was the Gospel? (2) what Paul thought the Gospel was? and (3) what he +felt about the Gospel?</p> +<p>I. What Paul thought was the Gospel?</p> +<p>He has given to us in his own rapid way a summary statement, +abbreviated to the very bone, and reduced to the barest elements, of +what he meant by the Gospel. What was the irreducible minimum? The +facts of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, as you will find +written in the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the +Corinthians. So, then, to begin with, the Gospel is not a statement +of principles, but a record of facts, things that have happened in +this world of ours. But the least part of a fact is the visible part +of it, and it is of no significance unless it has explanation, and so +Paul goes on to bind up with the facts an explanation of them. The +mere fact that Jesus, a young Nazarene, was executed is no more a +gospel than the other one, that two brigands were crucified beside +Him. But the fact that could be seen, plus the explanation which +underlies and interprets it, turns the chronicle into a gospel, and +the explanation begins with the name of the Sufferer; for if you want +to understand His death you must understand who it was that died. His +death is a thought pathetic in all aspects, and very precious in +many. But when we hear ‘Christ died according to the +Scriptures,’ the whole symbolism of the ancient ritual and all +the glowing anticipations of the prophets rise up before us, and that +death assumes an altogether different aspect. If we stop with +‘Jesus died,’ then that death may be a beautiful example +of heroism, a sweet, pathetic instance of innocent suffering, a +conspicuous example of the world's wages to the world's teachers, but +it is little more. If, however, we take Paul's words upon our lips, +‘Brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached ... +how that Christ died ... according to the Scriptures,’ the fact +flashes up into solid beauty, and becomes the Gospel of our +salvation. And the explanation goes on, ‘How that Christ died +for our sins.’ Now, I may be very blind, but I venture to say +that I, for my part, cannot see in what intelligible sense the Death +of Christ can be held to have been for, or on behalf of, our +sins—that is, that they may be swept away and we delivered from +them—unless you admit the atoning nature of His sacrifice for +sins. I cannot stop to enlarge, but I venture to say that any +narrower interpretation evacuates Paul's words of their deepest +significance. The explanation goes on, ‘And that He was +buried.’ Why that trivial detail? Partly because it guarantees +the fact of His Death, partly because of its bearing on the evidences +of His Resurrection. ‘And that He rose from the dead according +to the Scriptures.’ Great fact, without which Christ is a +shattered prop, and ‘ye are yet in your sins.’</p> +<p>But, further, notice that my text is also Paul's text for this +Epistle, and that it differs from the condensed summary of which I +have been speaking only as a bud with its petals closed differs from +one with them expanded in their beauty. And now, if you will take the +words of my text as being the keynote of this letter, and read over +its first eight chapters, what is the Apostle talking about when he +in them fulfils his purpose and preaches ‘the Gospel’ to +them that are at Rome also? Here is, in the briefest possible words, +his summary—the universality of sin, the awful burden of guilt, +the tremendous outlook of penalty, the impossibility of man rescuing +himself or living righteously, the Incarnation, and Life, and Death +of Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, the hand of +faith grasping the offered blessing, the indwelling in believing +souls of the Divine Spirit, and the consequent admission of man into +a life of sonship, power, peace, victory, glory, the child's place in +the love of the Father from which nothing can separate. These are the +teachings which make the staple of this Epistle. These are the +explanations of the weighty phrases of my text. These are at least +the essential elements of the Gospel according to Paul.</p> +<p>But he was not alone in this construction of his message. We hear +a great deal to-day about Pauline Christianity, with the implication, +and sometimes with the assertion, that he was the inventor of what, +for the sake of using a brief and easily intelligible term, I may +call Evangelical Christianity. Now, it is a very illuminating thought +for the reading of the New Testament that there are the three sets of +teaching, roughly, the Pauline, Petrine, and Johannine, and you +cannot find the distinctions between these three in any difference as +to the fundamental contents of the Gospel; for if Paul rings out, +‘God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet +sinners Christ died for us,’ Peter declares, ‘Who His own +self bare our sins in His own body on the tree,’ and John, from +his island solitude, sends across the waters the hymn of praise, +‘Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own +blood.’ And so the proud declaration of the Apostle, which he +dared not have ventured upon in the face of the acrid criticism he +had to front unless he had known he was perfectly sure of his ground, +is natural and warranted—‘Therefore, whether it were I or +they, so we preach.’</p> +<p>We are told that we must go back to the Christ of the Gospels, the +historical Christ, and that He spoke nothing concerning all these +important points that I have mentioned as being Paul's conception of +the Gospel. Back to the Christ of the Gospels by all means, if you +will go to the Christ of all the Gospels and of the whole of each +Gospel. And if you do, you will go back to the Christ who said, +‘The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to +minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.’ You will go +back to the Christ who said, ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the +earth, will draw all men unto Me.’ You will go back to the +Christ who said, ‘The bread that I will give is My flesh, which +I will give for the life of the world.’ You will go back to the +Christ who bade His followers hold in everlasting memory, not the +tranquil beauty of His life, not the persuasive sweetness of His +gracious words, not the might of His miracles of blessing, but the +mysterious agonies of His last hours, by which He would have us learn +that there lie the secret of His power, the foundation of our hopes, +the stimulus of our service.</p> +<p>Now, brethren, I have ventured to dwell so long upon this matter, +because it is no use talking about the Gospel unless we understand +what we mean by it, and I, for my part, venture to say that that is +what Paul meant by it, and that is what I mean by it. I plead for no +narrow interpretation of the phrases of my text. I would not that +they should be used to check in the smallest degree the diversities +of representation which, according to the differences of individual +character, must ever prevail in the conceptions which we form and +which we preach of this Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want no parrot-like +repetition of a certain set of phrases embodied, however great may be +their meanings, in every sermon. And I would that the people to whom +those truths are true would make more allowance than they sometimes +do for the differences to which I have referred, and would show a +great deal more sympathy than they often do to those, especially +those young men, who, with their faces toward Christ, have not yet +grown to the full acceptance of all that is implied in those gracious +words. There is room for a whole world of thought in the Gospel of +Christ as Paul conceived it, with all the deep foundations of +implication and presupposition on which it rests, and with all the, +as yet, undiscovered range of conclusions to which it may lead. +Remember that the Cross of Christ is the key to the universe, and +sends its influence into every region of human thought.</p> +<p>II. What Paul thought the Gospel was.</p> +<p>‘The power of God unto salvation.’ There was in the +background of the Apostle's mind a kind of tacit reference to the +antithetical power that he was going up to meet, the power of Rome, +and we may trace that in the words of my text. Rome, as I have said, +was the embodiment of physical force, with no great faith in ideas. +And over against this carnal might Paul lifts the undissembled +weakness of the Cross, and declares that it is stronger than man, +‘the power of God unto salvation.’ Rome is high in force; +Athens is higher; the Cross is highest of all, and it comes shrouded +in weakness having a poor Man hanging dying there. That is a strange +embodiment of divine power. Yes, and because so strange, it is so +touching, and so conquering. The power that is draped in weakness is +power indeed. Though Rome's power did make for righteousness +sometimes, yet its stream of tendency was on the whole a power to +destruction and grasped the nations of the earth as some rude hand +might do rich clusters of grapes and squeeze them into a formless +mass. The tramp of the legionary meant death, and it was true in many +respects of them what was afterwards said of later invaders of +Europe, that where their horses’ hoofs had once stamped no +grass ever grew. Over against this terrific engine of destruction +Paul lifts up the meek forces of love which have for their sole +object the salvation of man.</p> +<p>Then we come to another of the keywords about which it is very +needful that people should have deeper and wider notions than they +often seem to cherish. What is salvation? Negatively, the removal and +sweeping away of all evil, physical and moral, as the schools speak. +Positively, the inclusion of all good for every part of the composite +nature of a man which the man can receive and which God can bestow. +And that is the task that the Gospel sets to itself. Now, I need not +remind you how, for the execution of such a purpose, it is plain that +something else than man's power is absolutely essential. It is only +God who can alter my relation to His government. It is only God who +can trammel up the inward consequences of my sins and prevent them +from scourging me. It is only God who can bestow upon my death a new +life, which shall grow up into righteousness and beauty, caught of, +and kindred to, His own. But if this be the aim of the Gospel, then +its diagnosis of man's sickness is a very much graver one than that +which finds favour amongst so many of us now. Salvation is a bigger +word than any of the little gospels that we hear clamouring round +about us are able to utter. It means something a great deal more than +either social or intellectual, or still more, material or political +betterment of man's condition. The disease lies so deep, and so great +are the destruction and loss partly experienced, and still more +awfully impending over every soul of us, that something else than +tinkering at the outsides, or dealing, as self-culture does, with +man's understanding or, as social gospels do, with man's economical +and civic condition, should be brought to bear. Dear brethren, +especially you Christian ministers, preach a social Christianity by +all means, an applied Christianity, for there does lie in the Gospel +of Jesus Christ a key to all the problems that afflict our social +condition. But be sure first that there is a Christianity before you +talk about applying it. And remember that the process of salvation +begins in the deep heart of the individual and transforms him first +and foremost. The power is ‘to every one that believeth.’ +It is power in its most universal sweep. Rome's Empire was wellnigh +ubiquitous, but, blessed be God, the dove of Christ flies farther +than the Roman eagle with beak and claw ready for rapine, and +wherever there are men here is a Gospel for them. The limitation is +no limitation of its universality. It is no limitation of the claim +of a medicine to be a panacea that it will only do good to the man +who swallows it. And that is the only limitation of which the Gospel +is susceptible, for we have all the same deep needs, the same +longings; we are fed by the same bread, we are nourished by the same +draughts of water, we breathe the same air, we have the same sins, +and, thanks be to God, we have the same Saviour. ‘The power of +God unto salvation to every one that believeth.’</p> +<p>Now before I pass from this part of my subject there is only one +thing more that I want to say, and that is, that you cannot apply +that glowing language about ‘the power of God unto +salvation’ to anything but the Gospel that Paul preached. Forms +of Christianity which have lost the significance of the Incarnation +and Death of Jesus Christ, and which have struck out or obscured the +central facts with which I have been dealing, are not, never were, +and, I may presumptuously venture to say, never will be, forces of +large account in this world. Here is a clock, beautiful, chased on +the back, with a very artistic dial-plate, and works modelled +according to the most approved fashion, but, somehow or other, the +thing won't go. Perhaps the mainspring is broken. And so it is only +the Gospel, as Paul expounds it and expands it in this Epistle, that +is ‘the power of God unto salvation.’ Dear brethren, in +the course of a sermon like this, of course, one must lay himself +open to the charge of dogmatising. That cannot be helped under the +conditions of my space. But let me say as my own solemn +conviction—I know that that is not worth much to you, but it is +my justification for speaking in such a fashion—let me say as +my solemn conviction that you may as well take the keystone out of an +arch, with nothing to hold the other stones together or keep them +from toppling in hideous ruin on your unfortunate head, as take the +doctrine that Paul summed up in that one word out of your conception +of Christianity and expect it to work. And be sure of this, that +there is only one Name that lords it over the demons of afflicted +humanity, and that if a man goes and tries to eject them with any +less potent charm than Paul's Gospel, they will turn upon him with +‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?’</p> +<p>III. What Paul felt about this Gospel.</p> +<p>His restrained expression, ‘I am not ashamed,’ is the +stronger for its very moderation. It witnesses to the fixed purpose +of his heart and attitude of his mind, whilst it suggests that he was +well aware of all the temptations in Rome to being ashamed of it +there. Think of what was arrayed against him—venerable +religion, systematised philosophies, bitter hatred and prejudice, +material power and wealth. These were the brazen armour of Goliath, +and this little David went cheerily down into the valley with five +pebble stones in a leathern wallet, and was quite sure how it was +going to end. And it ended as he expected. His Gospel shook the +kingdom of the Roman, and cast it in another mould.</p> +<p>And there are temptations, plenty of them, for us, dear friends, +to-day, to bate our confidence. The drift of what calls itself +influential opinion is anti-supernatural, and we all are conscious of +the presence of that element all round about us. It tells with +special force upon our younger men, but it affects us all. In this +day, when a large portion of the periodical press, which does the +thinking for most of us, looks askance at these truths, and when, on +the principle that in the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is +the king, popular novelists become our theological tutors, and when +every new publishing season brings out a new conclusive destruction +of Christianity, which supersedes last season's equally complete +destruction, it is hard for some of us to keep our flags flying. The +ice round about us will either bring down the temperature, or, if it +stimulates us to put more fuel on the fire, perhaps the fire may melt +it. And so the more we feel ourselves encompassed by these +temptations, the louder is the call to Christian men to cast +themselves back on the central verities, and to draw at first hand +from them the inspiration which shall be their safety. And how is +that to be done? Well, there are many ways by which thoughtful, and +cultivated, students may do it. But may I venture to deal here rather +with ways which all Christian people have open before them? And I am +bold to say that the way to be sure of ‘the power of God unto +salvation’ is to submit ourselves continually to its cleansing +and renewing influence. This certitude, brethren, may be contributed +to by books of apologetics, and by other sources of investigation and +study which I should be sorry indeed to be supposed in any degree to +depreciate. But the true way to get it is, by deep communion with the +living God, to realise the personality of Jesus Christ as present +with us, our Friend, our Saviour, our Sanctifier by His Holy Spirit. +Why, Paul's Gospel was, I was going to say, altogether—that +would be an exaggeration—but it was to a very large extent +simply the generalisation of his own experience. That is what all of +us will find to be the Gospel that we have to preach. ‘We speak +that we do know and testify that we have seen.’ And it was +because this man could say so assuredly—because the depths of +his own conscience and the witness within him bore testimony to +it—‘He loved me and gave Himself for me,’ that he +could also say, ‘The power of God unto salvation to every one +that believeth.’ Go down into the depths, brother and friend; +cry to Him out of the depths. Then you will feel His strong, gentle +grip lifting you to the heights, and that will give power that +nothing else will, and you will be able to say, ‘I have heard +Him myself, and I know that this is the Christ, the Saviour of the +world.’</p> +<p>But there is yet another source of certitude open to us all, and +that is the history of the centuries. Our modern sceptics, attacking +the truth of Christianity mostly from the physical side, are +strangely blind to the worth of history. It is a limitation of +faculty that besets them in a good many directions, but it does not +work anywhere more fatally than it does in their attitude towards the +Gospel. After all, Jesus Christ spoke the ultimate word when He said, +‘By their fruits ye shall know them.’ And it is so, +because just as what is morally wrong cannot be politically right, so +what is intellectually false cannot be morally good. Truth, goodness, +beauty, they are but three names for various aspects of one thing, +and if it be that the difference between B.C. and A.D. has come from +a Gospel which is not the truth of God, then all I can say is, that +the richest vintage that ever the world saw, and the noblest wine of +which it ever drank, did grow upon a thorn. I know that the Christian +Church has sinfully and tragically failed to present Christ +adequately to the world. But for all that, ‘Ye are My +witnesses, saith the Lord’; and nobler manners and purer laws +have come in the wake of this Gospel of Jesus Christ. And as I look +round about upon what Christianity has done in the world, I venture +to say, ‘Show us any system of religion or of no religion that +has done that or anything the least like it, and then we will discuss +with you the other evidences of the Gospel.’</p> +<p>In closing these words, may I venture relying on the melancholy +privilege of seniority, to drop for a minute or two into a tone of +advice? I would say, do not be frightened out of your confidence +either by the premature paean of victory from the opposite camp, or +by timid voices in our own ranks. And that you may not be so +frightened, be sure to keep clear in your mind the distinction +between the things that can be shaken and the kingdom that cannot be +moved. It is bad strategy to defend an elongated line. It is +cowardice to treat the capture of an outpost as involving the +evacuation of the key of the position. It is a mistake, to which many +good Christian people are sorely tempted in this day, to assert such +a connection between the eternal Gospel and our deductions from the +principles of that Gospel as that the refutation of the one must be +the overthrow of the other. And if it turns out to be so in any case, +a large part of the blame lies upon those good and mistaken people +who insist that everything must be held or all must be abandoned. The +burning questions of this day about the genuineness of the books of +Scripture, inspiration, inerrancy, and the like, are not so +associated with this word, ‘God so loved the world ... that +whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting +life,’ as that the discovery of errors in the Second Book of +Chronicles shakes the foundations of the Christian certitude. In a +day like this truth must change its vesture. Who believes that the +Dissenting Churches of England are the highest, perfect embodiment of +the Kingdom of God? And who believes that any creed of man's making +has in it all and has in it only the everlasting Gospel? So do not be +frightened, and do not think that when the things that can be shaken +are removed, the things that cannot be shaken are at all less likely +to remain. Depend upon it, the Gospel, whose outline I have +imperfectly tried to set before you now, will last as long as men on +earth know they are sinners and need a Saviour. Did you ever see some +mean buildings that have by degrees been gathered round the sides of +some majestic cathedral, and do you suppose that the sweeping away of +those shanties would touch the solemn majesty of the mediæval +glories of the building that rises above them? Take them away if need +be, and it, in its proportion, beauty, strength, and heavenward +aspiration, will stand more glorious for the sweeping away. Preach +positive truth. Do not preach doubts. You remember Mr. Kingsley's +book <i>Yeast</i>. Its title was its condemnation. Yeast is not meant +to be drunk; it is meant to be kept in the dark till the process of +fermentation goes on and it works itself clear, and then you may +bring it out. Do not be always arguing with the enemy. It is a great +deal better to preach the truth. Remember what Jesus said: ‘Let +them alone, they are blind leaders of the blind, they will fall into +the ditch.’ It is not given to every one of us to conduct +controversial arguments in the pulpit. There are some much wiser and +abler brethren amongst us than you or I who can do it. Let us be +contented with, not the humbler but the more glorious, office of +telling what we have known, leaving it, as it will do, to prove +itself. You remember what the old woman, who had been favoured by her +pastor with an elaborate sermon to demonstrate the existence of God, +said when he had finished; ‘Well, I believe there is a God, for +all the gentleman says.’</p> +<p>As one who sees the lengthening shadows falling over the darkening +field, may I say one word to my junior brethren, with all whose +struggles and doubts and difficulties I, for one, do most tenderly +sympathise? I beseech them—though, alas! the advice condemns +the giver of it as he looks back over long years of his +ministry—to be faithful to the Gospel how that ‘Jesus +Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.’ Dear +young friends, if you only go where Paul went, and catch the +inspiration that he caught there, your path will be clear. It was in +contact with Christ, whose passion for soul-winning brought Him from +heaven, that Paul learned his passion for soul-winning. And if you +and I are touched with the divine enthusiasm, and have that aim clear +before us, we shall soon find out that there is only one power, one +name given under heaven among men whereby we can accomplish what we +desire—the name of ‘Jesus Christ that died, yea, rather, +that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, and also +maketh intercession for us.’ If our aim is clear before us it +will prescribe our methods, and if the inspiration of our ministry +is, ‘I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus +Christ and Him crucified,’ then, whether men will hear or +whether they will forbear, they shall know that there hath been a +Prophet among them.</p> +<p class="fnt"><a name="tgtpog05f1" id="tgtpog05f1">Footnote 1</a>: Preached +before Baptist Union.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="wsawr06" id="wsawr06">WORLD-WIDE SIN AND WORLD-WIDE +REDEMPTION</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Now we know, that what things soever the law +saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may +be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20. +Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified +in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21. But now the +righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed +by the law and the prophets; 22. Even the righteousness of God which +is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; +for there is no difference: 23. For all have sinned, and come short +of the glory of God: 24. Being justified freely by His grace, through +the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; 25. Whom God hath set forth +to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His +righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the +forbearance of God; 26. To declare, I say, at this time His +righteousness; that He might be just, and the justifier of him which +believeth in Jesus.’—ROMANS iii. 19-26.</blockquote> +<p>Let us note in general terms the large truths which this passage +contains. We may mass these under four heads:</p> +<p>I. Paul's view of the purpose of the law.</p> +<p>He has been quoting a mosaic of Old Testament passages from the +Psalms and Isaiah. He regards these as part of ‘the law,’ +which term, therefore, in his view, here includes the whole previous +revelation, considered as making known God's will as to man's +conduct. Every word of God, whether promise, or doctrine, or specific +command, has in it some element bearing on conduct. God reveals +nothing only in order that we may know, but all that, knowing, we may +do and be what is pleasing in His sight. All His words are law.</p> +<p>But Paul sets forth another view of its purpose here; namely, to +drive home to men's consciences the conviction of sin. That is not +the only purpose, for God reveals duty primarily in order that men +may do it, and His law is meant to be obeyed. But, failing obedience, +this second purpose comes into action, and His law is a swift witness +against sin. The more clearly we know our duty, the more poignant +will be our consciousness of failure. The light which shines to show +the path of right, shines to show our deviations from it. And that +conviction of sin, which it was the very purpose of all the previous +Revelation to produce, is a merciful gift; for, as the Apostle +implies, it is the prerequisite to the faith which saves.</p> +<p>As a matter of fact, there was a far profounder and more inward +conviction of sin among the Jews than in any heathen nation. Contrast +the wailings of many a psalm with the tone in Greek or Roman +literature. No doubt there is a law written on men's hearts which +evokes a lower measure of the same consciousness of sin. There are +prayers among the Assyrian and Babylonian tablets which might almost +stand beside the Fifty-first Psalm; but, on the whole, the deep sense +of sin was the product of the revealed law. The best use of our +consciousness of what we ought to be, is when it rouses conscience to +feel the discordance with it of what we are, and so drives us to +Christ. Law, whether in the Old Testament, or as written in our +hearts by their very make, is the slave whose task is to bring us to +Christ, who will give us power to keep God's commandments.</p> +<p>Another purpose of the law is stated in verse 21, as being to bear +witness, in conjunction with the prophets, to a future more perfect +revelation of God's righteousness. Much of the law was symbolic and +prophetic. The ideal it set forth could not always remain +unfulfilled. The whole attitude of that system was one of +forward-looking expectancy. There is much danger lest, in modern +investigations as to the authorship, date, and genesis of the Old +Testament revelation, its central characteristic should be lost sight +of; namely, its pointing onwards to a more perfect revelation which +should supersede it.</p> +<p>II. Paul's view of universal sinfulness.</p> +<p>He states that twice in this passage (vs. 20 to 24), and it +underlies his view of the purpose of law. In verse 20 he asserts that +‘by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified,’ +and in verses 23 and 24 he advances from that negative statement to +the positive assertion that all have sinned. The impossibility of +justification by the works of the law may be shown from two +considerations: one, that, as a matter of fact, no flesh has ever +done them all with absolute completeness and purity; and, second, +that, even if they had ever been so done, they would not have availed +to secure acquittal at a tribunal where motive counts for more than +deed. The former is the main point with Paul.</p> +<p>In verse 23 the same fact of universal experience is contemplated +as both positive sin and negative falling short of the +‘glory’ (which here seems to mean, as in John v. 44, xii. +43, approbation from God). ‘There is no distinction,’ but +all varieties of condition, character, attainment, are alike in this, +that the fatal taint is upon them all. ‘We have, all of us, one +human heart.’ We are alike in physical necessities, in primal +instincts, and, most tragically of all, in the common experience of +sinfulness.</p> +<p>Paul does not mean to bring all varieties of character down to one +dead level, but he does mean to assert that none is free from the +taint. A man need only be honest in self-examination to endorse the +statement, so far as he himself is concerned. The Gospel would be +better understood if the fact of universal sinfulness were more +deeply felt. Its superiority to all schemes for making everybody +happy by rearrangements of property, or increase of culture, would be +seen through; and the only cure for human misery would be discerned +to be what cures universal sinfulness.</p> +<p>III. So we have next Paul's view of the remedy for man's sin. That +is stated in general terms in verses 21, 22. Into a world of sinful +men comes streaming the light of a ‘righteousness of +God.’ That expression is here used to mean a moral state of +conformity with God's will, imparted by God. The great, joyful +message, which Paul felt himself sent to proclaim, is that the true +way to reach the state of conformity which law requires, and which +the unsophisticated, universal conscience acknowledges not to have +been reached, is the way of faith.</p> +<p>The message is so familiar to us that we may easily fail to +realise its essential greatness and wonderfulness when first +proclaimed. That God should give righteousness, that it should be +‘of God,’ not only as coming from Him, but as, in some +real way, being kindred with His own perfection; that it should be +brought to men by Jesus Christ, as ancient legends told that a +beneficent Titan brought from heaven, in a hollow cane, the gift of +fire; and that it should become ours by the simple process of +trusting in Jesus Christ, are truths which custom has largely robbed +of their wonderfulness. Let us meditate more on them till they +regain, by our own experience of their power, some of the celestial +light which belongs to them.</p> +<p>Observe that in verse 22 the universality of the redemption which +is in Christ is deduced from the universality of sin. The remedy must +reach as far as the disease. If there is no difference in regard to +sin, there can be none in regard to the sweep of redemption. The +doleful universality of the covering spread over all nations, has +corresponding to it the blessed universality of the light which is +sent forth to flood them all. Sin's empire cannot stretch farther +than Christ's kingdom.</p> +<p>IV. Paul's view of what makes the Gospel the remedy.</p> +<p>In verses 21 and 22 it was stated generally that Christ was the +channel, and faith the condition, of righteousness. The personal +object of faith was declared, but not the special thing in Christ +which was to be trusted in. That is fully set forth in verses 24-26. +We cannot attempt to discuss the great words in these verses, each of +which would want a volume. But we may note that +‘justified’ here means to be accounted or declared +righteous, as a judicial act; and that justification is traced in its +ultimate source to God's ‘grace,’—His own loving +disposition—which bends to unworthy and lowly creatures, and is +regarded as having for the medium of its bestowal the +‘redemption’ that is in Christ Jesus. That is the channel +through which grace comes from God.</p> +<p>‘Redemption’ implies captivity, liberation, and a +price paid. The metaphor of slaves set free by ransom is exchanged in +verse 25 for a sacrificial reference. A propitiatory sacrifice averts +punishment from the offerer. The death of the victim procures the +life of the worshipper. So, a propitiatory or atoning sacrifice is +offered by Christ's blood, or death. That sacrifice is the +ransom-price through which our captivity is ended, and our liberty +assured. As His redemption is the channel ‘through’ which +God's grace comes to men, so faith is the condition +‘through’ which (ver. 25) we make that grace ours.</p> +<p>Note, then, that Paul does not merely point to Jesus Christ as +Saviour, but to His death as the saving power. We are to have faith +in Jesus Christ (ver. 22). But that is not a complete statement. It +must be faith in His propitiation, if it is to bring us into living +contact with His redemption. A gospel which says much of Christ, but +little of His Cross, or which dilates on the beauty of His life, but +stammers when it begins to speak of the sacrifice in His death, is +not Paul's Gospel, and it will have little power to deal with the +universal sickness of sin.</p> +<p>The last verses of the passage set forth another purpose attained +by Christ's sacrifice; namely, the vindication of God's righteousness +in forbearing to inflict punishment on sins committed before the +advent of Jesus. That Cross rayed out its power in all +directions—to the heights of the heavens; to the depths of +Hades (Col. i. 20); to the ages that were to come, and to those that +were past. The suspension of punishment through all generations, from +the beginning till that day when the Cross was reared on Calvary, was +due to that Cross having been present to the divine mind from the +beginning. ‘The judge is condemned when the guilty is +acquitted,’ or left unpunished. There would be a blot on God's +government, not because it was so severe, but because it was so +forbearing, unless His justice was vindicated, and the fatal +consequences of sin shown in the sacrifice of Christ. God could not +have shown Himself just, in view either of age-long forbearance, or +of now justifying the sinner, unless the Cross had shown that He was +not immorally indulgent toward sin.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="nd07" id="nd07">NO DIFFERENCE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘There is no difference.’—ROMANS iii. +22.</blockquote> +<p>The things in which all men are alike are far more important than +those in which they differ. The diversities are superficial, the +identities are deep as life. Physical processes and wants are the +same for everybody. All men, be they kings or beggars, civilised or +savage, rich or poor, wise or foolish, cultured or illiterate, +breathe the same breath, hunger and thirst, eat and drink, sleep, are +smitten by the same diseases, and die at last the same death. We have +all of us one human heart. Tears and grief, gladness and smiles, move +us all. Hope, fear, love, play the same music upon all heart-strings. +The same great law of duty over-arches every man, and the same heaven +of God bends above him.</p> +<p>Religion has to do with the deep-seated identities and not with +the superficial differences. And though there have been many +aristocratic religions in the world, it is the great glory of +Christianity that it goes straight to the central similarities, and +brushes aside, as of altogether secondary importance, all the +subordinate diversities, grappling with the great facts which are +common to humanity, and with the large hopes which all may +inherit.</p> +<p>Paul here, in his grand way, triumphs and rises above all these +small differences between man and man, more pure or less pure, Jew or +Gentile, wise or foolish, and avers that, in regard of the deepest +and most important things, ‘there is no difference,’ and +so his Gospel is a Gospel for the world, because it deals with all +men on the same level. Now I wish to work out this great glory and +characteristic of the Gospel system in a few remarks, and to point +out to you the more important of these things in which all men, be +they what or who they may, stand in one category and have identical +experiences and interests.</p> +<p>I. First, there is no difference in the fact of sin.</p> +<p>Now let us understand that the Gospel does not assert that there +is no difference in the degrees of sin. Christianity does not teach, +howsoever some of its apostles may seem to have taught, or +unconsciously lent themselves to representations which imply the view +that there was no difference between a man who ‘did by nature +the things contained in the law,’ as Paul says, and the man who +set himself to violate law. There is no such monstrous teaching in +the New Testament as that all blacks are the same shade, all sin of +the same gravity, no such teaching as that a man that tries according +to his light to do what is right stands on exactly the same level as +the man who flouts all such obligations, and has driven the chariots +of his lusts and passions through every law that may stand in his +way.</p> +<p>But even whilst we have to insist upon that, that the teaching of +my text is not of an absolute identity of criminality, but only an +universal participation in criminality, do not let us forget that, if +you take the two extremes, and suppose it possible that there were a +best man in all the world, and a worst man in all the world, the +difference between these two is not perhaps so great as at first +sight it looks. For we have to remember that motives make actions, +and that you cannot judge of these by considering those, that +‘as a man thinketh in his heart,’ and not as a man does +with his hands, ‘so is he.’ We have to remember, also, +that there may be lives, sedulously and immaculately respectable and +pure, which are white rather with the unwholesome leprosy of disease +than with the wholesome purity of health.</p> +<p>In Queen Elizabeth's time, the way in which they cleaned the hall +of a castle, the floor of which might be covered with remnants of +food and all manner of abominations, was to strew another layer of +rushes over the top of the filth, and then they thought themselves +quite neat and respectable. And that is what a great many of you do, +cover the filth well up with a sweet smelling layer of conventional +proprieties, and think yourselves clean, and the pinks of perfection. +God forbid that I should say one word that would seem to cast any +kind of slur upon the effort that any man makes to do what he knows +to be right, but this I proclaim, or rather my text proclaims for me, +that, giving full weight and value to all that, and admitting the +existence of variations in degree, the identity is deeper than the +diversity; and there is ‘not a just man upon earth that doeth +good and sinneth not.’</p> +<p>Oh, dear friends! it is not a question of degree, but of +direction; not how far the ship has gone on her voyage, but how she +heads. Good and evil are the same in essence, whatever be their +intensity and whatever be their magnitude. Arsenic is arsenic, +whether you have a ton of it or a grain; and a very small dose will +be enough to poison. The Gospel starts with the assertion that there +is no difference in the fact of sin. The assertion is abundantly +confirmed. Does not conscience assent? We all admit +‘faults,’ do we not? We all acknowledge +‘imperfections.’ It is that little word ‘sin’ +which seems to bring in another order of considerations, and to +command the assent of conscience less readily. But sin is nothing +except fault considered in reference to God's law. Bring the notion +of God into the life, and ‘faults’ and +‘slips’ and ‘weaknesses,’ and all the other +names by which we try to smooth down the ugliness of the ugly thing, +start up at once into their tone, magnitude, and importance, and +stand avowed as <i>sins</i>.</p> +<p>Well now, if there be, therefore, this universal consciousness of +imperfection, and if that consciousness of imperfection has only need +to be brought into contact with God, as it were, to flame thus, let +me remind you, too, that this fact of universal sinfulness puts us +all in one class, no matter what may be the superficial difference. +Shakespeare and the Australian savage, the biggest brain and the +smallest, the loftiest and the lowest of us, the purest and the +foulest of us, we all come into the same order. It is a question of +classification. ‘The Scripture hath concluded all under +sin,’ that is to say, has shut all men up as in a prison. You +remember in the French Revolution, all manner of people were huddled +indiscriminately into the same dungeon of the Paris prisons. You +would find a princess and some daughter of shame from the gutters; a +boor from the country and a landlord, a count, a marquis, a +<i>savant</i>, a philosopher and an illiterate workman, all together +in the dungeons. They kept up the distinctions of society and of +class with a ghastly mockery, even to the very moment when the +tumbrils came for them. And so here are we all, in some sense +inclosed within the solemn cells of this great prison-house, and +whether we be wise or foolish, we are prisoners, whether we have +titles or not, we are prisoners. You may be a student, but you are a +sinner: you may be a rich Manchester merchant, but you are a sinner; +you may be a man of rank, but you are a sinner. Naaman went to Elisha +and was very much offended because Elisha treated him as a leper who +happened to be a nobleman. He wanted to be treated as a nobleman who +happened to be a leper. And that is the way with a great many of us; +we do not like to be driven into one class with all the crowd of +evildoers. But, my friend, ‘there is no difference.’ +‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’</p> +<p>II. Again, there is no difference in the fact of God's love to +us.</p> +<p>God does not love men because of what they are, therefore He does +not cease to love them because of what they are. His love to the sons +of men is not drawn out by their goodness, their morality, their +obedience, but it wells up from the depths of His own heart, because +‘it is His nature and property,’ and if I may so say, He +cannot help loving. You do not need to pump up that great affection +by any machinery of obedience and of merits; it rises like the water +in an Artesian well, of its own impulse, with ebullient power from +the central heat, and spreads its great streams everywhere. And +therefore, though our sin may awfully disturb our relations with God, +and may hurt and harm us in a hundred ways, there is one thing it +cannot do, it cannot stop Him from loving us. It cannot dam back His +great love, which flows out for ever towards all His creatures, and +laves them all in its gentle, strong flood, from which nothing can +draw them away. ‘In Him we live, and move, and have our +being,’ and to live in Him, whatever else it may mean—and +it means a great deal more—is most certainly to live in His +love. A man can as soon pass out of the atmosphere in which he +breathes as he can pass out of the love of God. We can no more travel +beyond that great over-arching firmament of everlasting love which +spans all the universe than a star set in the blue heavens can +transcend the liquid arch and get beyond its range. ‘There is +no difference’ in the fact that all men, unthankful and evil as +they are, are grasped and held in the love of God.</p> +<p>But there <i>is</i> a difference. Sin cannot dam God's love back, +but sin has a terrible power in reference to the love of God. Two +things it can do. It can make us incapable of receiving the highest +blessings of that love. There are many mercies which God pours +‘upon the unthankful and the evil.’ These are His least +gifts; His highest and best cannot be given to the unthankful and the +evil. They would if they could, but they cannot, because they cannot +be received by them. You can shut the shutters against the light; you +can close the vase against the stream. You cannot prevent its +shining, you cannot prevent its flowing, but you can prevent yourself +from receiving its loftiest and best blessings.</p> +<p>And another awful power that my sin has in reference to God's love +is, that it can modify the form which God's love takes in its +dealings with me. We may force Him to do ‘His work,’ +‘His strange work,’ as Isaiah calls it, and to punish +when He would fain only succour and comfort and bless. Just as a fog +in the sky does not touch the sun, but turns it to our eyes into a +fiery ball, red and lurid, so the mist of my sin coming between me +and God, may, to my apprehension and to my capacity of reception, +solemnly make different that great love of His. But yet there is no +difference in the fact of God's love to us.</p> +<p>III. Thirdly, there is no difference in the purpose and power of +Christ's Cross for us all.</p> +<p>‘He died for all.’ The area over which the purpose and +the power of Christ's death extend is precisely conterminous with the +area over which the power of sin extends. It cannot be—blessed +be God!—that the raven Sin shall fly further than the dove with +the olive branch in its mouth. It cannot be that the disease shall go +wider than the cure. And so, dear friends, I have to come to you now +with this message. No matter what a man is, how far he has gone, how +sinful he has been, how long he has stayed away from the sweetness +and grace of that great sacrifice on the Cross, that death was for +him. The power of Christ's sacrifice makes possible the forgiveness +of all the sins of all the world, past, present, and to come. The +worth of that sacrifice, which was made by the willing surrender of +the Incarnate Son of God to the death of the Cross, is sufficient for +the ransom price of all the sins of all men.</p> +<p>Nor is it only the power of the Cross which is all embracing, but +its purpose also. In the very hour of Christ's death, there stood, +clear and distinct, before His divine omniscience, each man, woman, +and child of the race. And for them all, grasping them all in the +tenderness of His sympathy and in the clearness of His knowledge, in +the design of His sufferings for them all, He died, so that every +human being may lay his hand on the head of the sacrifice, and +<i>know</i> ‘his guilt was there,’ and may say, with as +triumphant and appropriating faith as Paul did, ‘He loved +<i>me</i>,’ and in that hour of agony and love ‘gave +Himself for <i>me</i>.’</p> +<p>To go back to a metaphor already employed, the prisoners are +gathered together in the prison, not that they may be slain, but +‘God hath included them all,’ shut them all up, +‘that He might have mercy upon all.’ And so, as it was in +the days of Christ's life upon earth, so is it now, and so will it be +for ever. All the crowd may come to Him, and whosoever comes +‘is made whole of whatsoever disease he had.’ There are +no incurables nor outcasts. ‘There is no difference.’</p> +<p>IV. Lastly, there is no difference in the way which we must take +for salvation.</p> +<p>The only thing that unites men to Jesus Christ is faith. You must +trust Him, you must trust the power of His sacrifice, you must trust +the might of His living love. You must trust Him with a trust which +is self-distrust. You must trust Him out and out. The people with +whom Paul is fighting, in this chapter, were quite willing to admit +that faith was the thing that made Christians, but they wanted to +tack on something besides. They wanted to tack on the rites of +Judaism and obedience to the moral law. And ever since men have been +going on in that erroneous rut. Sometimes it has been that people +have sought to add a little of their own morality; sometimes to add +ceremonies and sacraments. Sometimes it has been one thing and +sometimes it has been another; but there are not two ways to the +Cross of Christ, and to the salvation which He gives. There is only +one road, and all sorts of men have to come by it. You cannot lean +half upon Christ and half upon yourselves, like the timid cripple +that is not quite sure of the support of the friendly arm. You cannot +eke out the robe with which He will clothe you with a little bit of +stuff of your own weaving. It is an insult to a host to offer to pay +for entertainment. The Gospel feast that Christ provides is not a +social meal to which every guest brings a dish. Our part is simple +reception, we have to bring empty hands if we would receive the +blessing.</p> +<p>We must put away superficial differences. The Gospel is for the +world, therefore the act by which we receive it must be one which all +men can perform, not one which only some can do. Not wisdom, nor +righteousness, but faith joins us to Christ. And, therefore, people +who fancy themselves wise or righteous are offended that +‘special terms’ are not made with them. They would prefer +to have a private portion for themselves. It grates against the pride +of the aristocratic class, whether it be aristocratic by +culture—and that is the most aristocratic of all—or by +position, or anything else—it grates against their pride to be +told: ‘You have to go in by that same door that the beggar is +going in at’; and ‘there is no difference.’ +Therefore, the very width of the doorway, that is wide enough for all +the world, gets to be thought narrowness, and becomes a hindrance to +our entering. As Naaman's servant put a common-sense question to him, +so may I to you. ‘If the prophet had bid thee do some great +thing, wouldest thou not have done it?’ Ay! that you would! +‘How much more when He says “Wash and be +clean!”’ There is only one way of getting dirt off, and +that is by water. There is only one way of getting sin off, and that +is by the blood of Jesus Christ. There is only one way of having that +blood applied to your heart, and that is trusting Him. ‘The +common salvation’ becomes ours when we exercise ‘the +common faith.’ ‘There is no difference’ in our +sins. Thank God! ‘there is no difference’ in the fact +that He grasps us with His love. There is no difference in the fact +that Jesus Christ has died for us all. Let there be no difference in +our faith, or there will be a difference, deep as the difference +between Heaven and Hell; the difference between them that believe and +them that believe not, which will darken and widen into the +difference between them that are saved and them that perish.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="luhp08" id="luhp08">LET US HAVE PEACE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus +Christ.’—ROMANS v. 1. (R. V.).</blockquote> +<p>In the rendering of the Revised Version, ‘Let us have peace +with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,’ the alteration is very +slight, being that of one letter in one word, the substitution of a +long ‘o’ for a short one. The majority of manuscripts of +authority read ‘let us have,’ making the clause an +exhortation and not a statement. I suppose the reason why, in some +inferior MSS., the statement takes the place of the exhortation is +because it was felt to be somewhat of a difficulty to understand the +Apostle's course of thought. But I shall hope to show you that the +true understanding of the context, as well as of the words I have +taken for my text, requires the exhortation and not the +affirmation.</p> +<p>One more remark of an introductory character: is it not very +beautiful to see how the Apostle here identifies himself, in all +humility, with the Christians whom he is addressing, and feels that +he, Apostle as he is, has the same need for the same counsel and +stimulus that the weakest of those to whom he is writing have? It +would have been so easy for him to isolate himself, and say, +‘Now you have peace with God; see that you keep it.’ But +he puts himself into the same class as those whom he is exhorting, +and that is what all of us have to do who would give advice that will +be worth anything or of any effect. He does not stand upon a little +molehill of superiority, and look down upon the Roman Christians, and +imply that they have needs that he has not, but he exhorts himself +too, saying, ‘Let all of us who have obtained like precious +faith, which is alike in an Apostle and in the humblest believer, +have peace with God.’</p> +<p>Now a word, first, about the meaning of this somewhat singular +exhortation.</p> +<p>There is a theory of man and his relation to God underlying it, +which is very unfashionable at present, but which corresponds to the +deepest things in human nature, and the deepest mysteries in human +history, and that is, that something has come in to produce the +totally unnatural and monstrous fact that between God and man there +is not amity or harmony. Men, on their side, are alienated, because +their wills are rebellious and their aims diverse from God's purpose +concerning them. And—although it is an awful thing to have to +say, and one from which the sentimentalism of much modern +Christianity weakly recoils—on God's side, too, the relation +has been disturbed, and ‘we are by nature the children of +wrath, even as others’; not of a wrath which is unloving, not +of a wrath which is impetuous and passionate, not of a wrath which +seeks the hurt of its objects, but of a wrath which is the necessary +antagonism and recoil of pure love from such creatures as we have +made ourselves to be. To speak as if the New Testament taught that +‘reconciliation’ was lop-sided—which would be a +contradiction in terms, for reconciliation needs two to make +it—to talk as if the New Testament taught that reconciliation +was only man's putting away his false relation to God, is, as I +humbly think, to be blind to its plainest teaching. So, there being +this antagonism and separation between God and man, the Gospel comes +to deal with it, and proclaims that Jesus Christ has abolished the +enmity, and by His death on the Cross has become our peace; and that +we, by faith in that Christ, and grasping in faith His death, pass +from out of the condition of hostility into the condition of +reconciliation.</p> +<p>With this by way of basis, let us come back to my text. It sounds +strange; ‘Therefore, being justified by faith, let up have +peace.’ ‘Well,’ you will say, ‘but is not all +that you have been saying just this, that to be justified by faith, +to be declared righteous by reason of faith in Him who makes us +righteous, is to have peace with God? Is not your exhortation an +entirely superfluous one?’ No doubt that is what the old scribe +thought who originated the reading which has crept into our +Authorised Version. The two things do seem to be entirely parallel. +To be justified by faith is a certain process, to have peace with God +is the inseparable and simultaneous result of that process itself. +But that is going rather too fast. ‘Being justified by faith +let us have peace with God,’ really is just this—see that +you abide where you are; keep what you have. The exhortation is not +to attain peace, but retain it. ‘Hold fast that thou hast; let +no man take thy crown.’ ‘Being justified by faith’ +cling to your treasure and let nothing rob you of it—‘let +us have peace with God.’</p> +<p>Now a word, in the next place, as to the necessity and importance +of this exhortation.</p> +<p>There underlies it, this solemn thought, which Christian people, +and especially some types of Christian doctrine, do need to have +hammered into them over and over again, that we hold the blessed life +itself, and all its blessings, only on condition of our own +cooperation in keeping them; and that just as physical life dies, +unless by reception of food we nourish and continue it, so a man that +is in this condition of being justified by faith, and having peace +with God, needs, in order to the permanence of that condition, to +give his utmost effort and diligence. It will all go if he do not. +All the old state will come back again if we are slothful and +negligent. We cannot keep the treasure unless we guard it. And just +because we have it, we need to put all our mind, the earnestness of +our will, and the concentration of our efforts, into the specific +work of retaining it.</p> +<p>For, consider how manifold and strong are the forces which are +always working against our continual possession of this justification +by faith, and consequent peace with God. There are all the ordinary +cares and duties and avocations and fortunes of our daily life, +which, indeed, may be so hallowed in their motives and in their +activities, as that they may be turned into helps instead of +hindrances, but which require a great deal of diligence and effort in +order that they should not work like grains of dust that come between +the parts of some nicely-fitting engine, and so cause friction and +disaster. There are all the daily tasks that tempt us to forget the +things that we only know by faith, and to be absorbed in the things +that we can touch and taste and handle. If a man is upon an inclined +plane, unless he is straining his muscles to go upwards, gravitation +will make short work of him, and bring him down. And unless Christian +men grip hard and continually that sense of having fellowship and +peace with God, as sure as they are living they will lose the +clearness of that consciousness, and the calm that comes from it. For +we cannot go into the world and do the work that is laid upon us all +without there being possible hostility to the Christian life in +everything that we meet. Thank God there is possible help, too, and +whether our daily calling is an enemy or a friend to our religion +depends upon the earnestness and continuousness of our own efforts. +But there is a worse force than these external distractions working +to draw us away, one that we carry within, in our own vacillating +wills and wayward hearts and treacherous affections and passions that +usually lie dormant, but wake up sometimes at the most inopportune +periods. Unless we keep a very tight hand upon ourselves, certainly +these will rob us of this consciousness of being justified by faith +which brings with it peace with God that passes understanding.</p> +<p>In the Isle of Wight massive cliffs rise hundreds of feet above +the sea, and seem as if they were as solid as the framework of the +earth itself. But they rest upon a sharply inclined plane of clay, +and the moisture trickles through the rifts in the majestic cliffs +above, and gets down to that slippery substance and makes it like the +greased ways down which they launch a ship; and away goes the cliff +one day, with its hundreds of feet of buttresses that have fronted +the tempest for centuries, and it lies toppled in hideous ruin on the +beach below. We have all a layer of ‘blue slipper’ in +ourselves, and unless we take care that no storm-water finds its way +down through the chinks in the rocks above they will slide into awful +ruin. ‘Being justified, let us have peace with God,’ and +remember that the exhortation is enforced not only by a consideration +of the many strong forces which tend to deprive us of this peace, but +also by a consideration of the hideous disaster that comes upon a +man's whole nature if he loses peace with God. For there is no peace +with ourselves, and there is no peace with man, and there is no peace +in face of the warfare of life and the calamities that are certainly +before us all, unless, in the deepest sanctuary of our being, there +is the peace of God because in our consciences there is peace with +God. If I desire to be at rest—and there is no blessedness but +rest—if I desire to know the sovereign joy of tranquillity, +undisturbed by my own stormy passions or by any human enmity, and to +have even the ‘beasts of the field at peace with’ me, and +all things my helpers and allies, there is but one way to realise the +desire, and that is the retention of peace with God that comes with +being justified by faith.</p> +<p>Lastly, a word or two as to the ways by which this exhortation can +be carried into effect.</p> +<p>I have tried to explain how the peace of which my text speaks +comes originally through Christ's work laid hold of by my faith, and +now I would say only three things.</p> +<p>Retain the peace by the exercise of that same faith which at first +brought it. Next, retain it by union with that same Lord from whom +you at first received it. Very significantly, in the immediate +context, we have the Apostle drawing a broad distinction between the +benefits which we have received from Christ's death, and those which +we shall receive through His life. And that is the best commentary on +the words of my text. ‘If when we were enemies, we were +reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being +reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.’ So let our faith +grasp firmly the great twin facts of the Christ who died that He +might abolish the enmity, and bring us peace; and of the Christ who +lives in order that He may pour into our hearts more and more of His +own life, and so make us more and more in His own image. And the last +word that I would say, in addition to these two plain, practical +precepts is, let your conduct be such as will not disturb your peace +with God. For if a man lets his own will rise up in rebellion against +God's, whether that divine will command duty or impose suffering, +away goes all his peace. There is no possibility of the tranquil +sense of union and communion with my Father in heaven lasting when I +am in rebellion against Him. The smallest sin destroys, for the time +being, our sense of forgiveness and our peace with God. The blue +surface of the lake, mirroring in its unmoved tranquillity the sky +and the bright sun, or the solemn stars, loses all that reflected +heaven in its heart when a cat's paw of wind ruffles its surface. If +we would keep our hearts as mirrors, in their peace, of the peace in +the heavens that shine down on them, we must fence them from the +winds of evil passions and rebellious wills. ‘Oh! that thou +wouldest hearken unto Me, then had thy peace been like a +river.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="aig09" id="aig09">ACCESS INTO GRACE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘By whom also we have access by faith into this +grace wherein we stand.’—ROMANS v. 2.</blockquote> +<p>I may be allowed to begin with a word or two of explanation of the +terms of this passage. Note then, especially, that <i>also</i> which +sends us back to the previous clause, and tells us that our text adds +something to what was spoken of there. What was spoken of there? +‘The peace of God’ which comes to a man by Jesus Christ +through faith, the removal of enmity, and the declaration of +righteousness. But that peace with God, which is the beginning of +everything in the Christian view, is only the beginning, and there is +much to follow. While, then, there is a progress clearly marked in +the words of our text, and ‘access into this grace wherein we +stand’ is something more than, and after, the ‘peace with +God,’ mark next the similarity of the text and the preceding +verse. The two great truths in the latter, Christ's mediation or +intervention, and our faith as the condition by which we receive the +blessings which are brought to us in and through Him, are both +repeated, with no unmeaning tautology, but with profound significance +in our text—‘By whom also we have access’—as +well as—‘the peace of God’—‘access +<i>by faith</i> into this grace.’ So then, for the initial +blessing, and for all the subsequent blessings of the Christian life, +the way is the same. The medium and channel is one, and the act by +which we avail ourselves of the blessings coming through that one +medium is the same. Now the language of my text, with its talking +about access, faith, and grace, sounds to a great many of us, I am +afraid, very hard and remote and technical. And there are not wanting +people who tell us that all that terminology in the New Testament is +like a dying brand in the fire, where the little kernel of glowing +heat is getting covered thicker and thicker with grey ashes. Yes; but +if you blow the ashes off, the fire is there all the same. Let us try +if we can blow the ashes off.</p> +<p>This text seems to me in its archaic phraseology, only to need to +be pondered in order to flash up into wonderful beauty. It carries in +it a magnificent ideal of the Christian life, in three things: the +Christian place, ‘access into grace’; the Christian +attitude, ‘wherein we stand’; and the Christian means of +realising that ideal, ‘through Christ’ and ‘by +faith.’ Now let us look at these three points.</p> +<p>I. The Christian Place.</p> +<p>There is clearly a metaphor here, both in the word +‘access’ and in that other one ‘stand.’ +‘The grace’ is supposed as some ample space into which a +man is led, and where he can continue, stand, and expatiate. Or, we +may say, it is regarded as a palace or treasure-house into which we +can enter. Now, if we take that great New Testament word +‘grace,’ and ponder its meanings, we find that they run +something in this fashion. The central thought, grand and marvellous, +which is enshrined in it, and which often is buried for careless +ears, is that of the active love of God poured out upon inferiors who +deserve something very different. Then there follows a second +meaning, which covers a great part of the ground of the use of the +phrase in the New Testament, and that is the communication of that +love to men, the specific and individualised gifts which come out of +that great reservoir of patient, pardoning, condescending, and +bestowing love. Then there may be taken into view a meaning which is +less prominent in Scripture but not absent, namely, the resulting +beauty of character. A gracious soul ought to be, and is, a graceful +soul; a supreme loveliness is imparted to human nature by the +communication to it of the gifts which are the results of the +undeserved, free, and infinite love of God.</p> +<p>Now if we take all these three thoughts as blended together in the +grand metaphor of the Apostle, of the ample space into which the +Christian man passes, we get such lessons as this. A Christian life +may, and therefore should, be suffused with a continual consciousness +of the love of God. That would change everything in it. Here is some +great sweep of rolling country, perhaps a Highland moor: the little +tarns on it are grey and cold, the vegetation is gloomy and dark, +dreariness is over all the scene, because there is a great pall of +cloud drawn beneath the blue. But the sun pierces with his lances +through the grey, and crumples up the mists, and sends them flying +beneath the horizon. Then what a change in the landscape! All the +tarns that looked black and wicked are now infantile in their +innocent blue and sunny gladness, and every dimple in the heights +shows, and all the heather burns with the sunshine that falls upon +it. So my lonely doleful life, if that light from God, the beam of +His love, shines down upon it, rises into nobility, and flashes into +beauty, and is calm and fair and great, as nothing else can make it. +You may dwell in love by dwelling in God, and then your lives will be +fair. You have access into the grace; see that you go there. They +tell us that nightingales sing by the wayside by preference, and we +may have in our lives, singing a quiet tune, the continual thought of +the love of God, even whilst life's highway is dusty and rough, and +our feet are often weary in treading it. A Christian life may be, and +therefore should be, suffused with the sense of the abiding love of +God.</p> +<p>Take the other meaning of the word, the secondary and derived +meaning, the communication of that love to us, and that leads us to +say that a Christian life may, and therefore should, be enriched with +continual gifts from God's fullness. I said that the Apostle was +using a metaphor here, regarding the grace as being an ample space +into which a man was admitted, or we may say that he is thinking of +it as a great treasure-house. We have the right of entrance there, +where on every side, as it were, lie ingots of uncoined gold, and +masses of treasure, and we may have just as much or as little as we +choose. It is entirely in our own determination how much of the +wealth of God we shall possess. We have access to the treasure-house; +and this permit is put into our hands: ‘Be it unto thee even as +thou wilt.’ The size of the sack that the man brings, in the +old story, determined the amount of wealth that he carried away. Some +of you bring very tiny baskets and expect little and desire little; +you get no more than you desired and expected.</p> +<p>That wealth, the fullness of God, takes the shape of, as well as +is determined in its measure by the magnitude of, the vessel into +which it is put. It is multiform, and we get whatever we desire, and +whatever either our characters or our circumstances require. The one +gift assumes all forms, just as water poured into a vase takes the +shape of the vase into which it is poured. The same gift unfolds +itself in an infinite variety of manners, according to the needs of +the man to whom it is given; just as the writer's pen, the +carpenter's hammer, the farmer's ploughshare, are all made out of the +same metal. So God's grace comes to you in a different shape from +that in which it comes to me, according to our different callings and +needs, as fixed by our circumstances, our duties, our sorrows, our +temptations.</p> +<p>So, brethren, how shameful it is that, having the possibility of +so much, we should have the actuality of so little. There is an old +story about one of our generals in India long ago, who, when he came +home, was accused of rapacity because he had brought away so much +treasure from the Rajahs whom he had conquered, and his answer to the +charge was, ‘I was surprised at my own moderation.’ Ah! +there are a great many Christian people who ought to be ashamed of +their moderation. They have gone into the treasure-house; stacks of +jewels, jars of gold on all sides of them—and they have been +content to come away with some one poor little coin, when they might +have been ‘rich beyond the dreams of avarice.’ Brethren, +you have ‘access’ to the fullness of God. Whose fault is +it if you are empty?</p> +<p>Then, further, I said there was another meaning in these great +words. The love which may suffuse our lives, the gifts, the +consequence of that love, which may enrich our lives, should, and in +the measure in which they are received will, adorn and make beautiful +our lives. For ‘grace’ means loveliness as well as +goodness, and the God who is the fountain of it all is the fountain +of ‘whatsoever things are fair,’ as well as of +whatsoever things are good. That suggests two considerations on which +I have no time to dwell. One is that the highest beauty is goodness, +and unless the art of a nation learns that, its art will become +filthy and a minister of sin. They talk about ‘Art for Art's +sake.’ Would that all these poets and painters who are trying +to find beauty in corruption—and there is a phosphorescent +glimmer in rotting wood, and a prismatic colouring on the scum of a +stagnant pond—would that all those men who are seeking to find +beauty apart from goodness, and so are turning a divine instinct into +a servant of evil, would learn that the true gracefulness comes from +the grace which is the fullness of God given unto men.</p> +<p>But there is another lesson, and that is that Christian people who +say that they have their lives irradiated by the love of God, and who +profess to be receiving gifts from His full hand, are bound to take +care that their goodness is not ‘harsh and crabbed,’ as +not only ‘dull fools suppose’ it to be, but as it +sometimes is, but is musical and fair. You are bound to make your +goodness attractive, and to show that the things that are ‘of +good report’ are likewise the ‘things that are +lovely.’</p> +<p>II. And so, now, turn to the second point here, viz. the Christian +attitude.</p> +<p>‘The grace wherein ye <i>stand</i>’; that word is very +emphatic here, and does not merely mean ‘continue,’ but +it suggests what I have put into that phrase, the Christian +attitude.</p> +<p>Two things are implied. One is that a life thus suffused by the +love, and enriched by the gifts, and adorned by the loveliness that +come from God, will be stable and steadfast. Resistance and stability +are implied in the words. One very important item in determining a +man's power of resistance, and of standing firm against whatever +assaults may be hurled against him, is the sort of footing that he +has. If you stand on slippery mud, or on the ice of a glacier, you +will find it hard to stand firm; but if you plant your foot on the +grace of God, then you will be able to ‘withstand in the evil +day, and having done all to stand.’ And how does a man plant +his foot on the grace of God? simply by trusting in God, and not in +himself. So that the secret of all steadfastness of life, and of all +successful resistance to the whirling onrush of temptations and of +difficulties, is to set your foot upon that rock, and then your +‘goings’ will be established.</p> +<p>Jesus Christ brings to us, in the gift of life in Him, stability +which will check the vacillations of our own hearts. We go up and +down, we yield when pressure is brought to bear against us, we are +carried off our feet often by the sudden swirl of the stream, and the +fitful blast of the wind. But His grace comes in, and will make us +able to stand against all assaults. Our poor natures, necessarily +changeable, and sinfully vacillating and weak, will be uniform, in +the measure in which the grace of God comes into our hearts. Just as +in these so-called petrifying wells, they take a bit of cloth, a +bird's nest, a billet of wood, and plunge it into the water, and the +mineral held in solution there infiltrates into the substance of the +thing plunged in, and makes it firm and inflexible: so let us plunge +our poor, changeful, vacillating resolutions, our wayward, wandering +hearts, our passions, so easily excited by temptation, into that +great fountain, and there will filter into our flexibility what will +make it firm, and into our changefulness what will give in us some +faint copy of the divine immutability, and we shall stand fast in the +Lord and in the power of His might.</p> +<p>Further, in regard to this attitude, which is the result of the +possession of grace, we may say that it indicates not only stability +and steadfastness, but erectness, as in opposition to crouching or +bowing. A man's independence is guaranteed by his dependence upon, +and his possession of, that communicated grace of God. And so you +have the fact that the phase of the Christian teaching which has laid +most stress on the decrees and sovereign will of God, on divine grace +in fact, and too little upon the human side—the phase which is +roughly described as Calvinism—has underlain the liberties of +Europe, and has stiffened men into the rejection of all priestly and +civic domination. ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is +liberty,’ and if a man has in his heart the grace of God, then +he stands erect as a man. ‘Ye are bought with a price; be ye +not the servants of men.’ The Christian democracy, the +Christian rejection of all sacerdotal and other domination, flows +from the access of each individual Christian to the fountain of all +wisdom, the only source of law and command, the inspirer of all +strength, the giver of all grace. By faith ye stand. ‘Stand +fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you +free.’</p> +<p>III. Lastly, and only a word; we have here the Christian way of +entrance into grace.</p> +<p>I have already remarked on the emphasis with which, both in my +text and in the preceding clause, there are laid down the two +conditions of possessing this grace, or the peace which precedes it: +‘By Christ—through faith.’ Notice, too, that Jesus +Christ gives us ‘access.’ Now that expression is but an +imperfect rendering of the original. If it were not for its trivial +associations, one might read instead of ‘access,’ +introduction, ‘by whom we have introduction into this grace +wherein we stand.’ The thought is that Jesus Christ secures us +entry into this ample space, this treasure-house, as some court +officer might take by the hand a poor rustic, standing on the +threshold of the palace, and lead him through all the glittering +series of unfamiliar splendour, and present him at last in the +central ring around the king. The reality that underlies the metaphor +is plain. We sinners can never pass into that central glory, nor ever +possess those gifts of grace, unless the barrier that stands between +us and God, between us and His highest gifts of love, is swept +away.</p> +<p>I recall an old legend where two knights are represented as +seeking to enter a palace, where there is a mysterious fire burning +in the middle of the portal. One of them tries to pass through, and +recoils scorched; but when the other essays an entrance the fierce +fire sinks, and the path is cleared. Jesus Christ has died, and I say +it with all reverence, as His blood touches the fire it flickers down +and the way is opened ‘into the holiest of all, whither the +Forerunner is for us entered.’ He both brings the grace and +makes it possible that we should go in where the grace is.</p> +<p>But Jesus Christ's work is nothing to you unless your personal +faith comes in, and so that is pointed to in the second of the +clauses here: ‘<i>By faith</i> we have access.’ That is +no arbitrary appointment. It lies in the very nature of the gift and +of the recipient. How can God give access into that grace to a man +who shrinks from being near Him; who does not want +‘access,’ and who could not use the grace if he had it? +How can God bestow inward and spiritual gifts upon any man who closes +his heart against them, and will not have them? My faith is the +condition; Christ is the Giver. If I ally myself to Him by my faith, +He gives to me. If I do not, with all the will to do it, He cannot +bestow His best gifts any more than a man who stretches out his hand +to another sinking in the flood can lift him out, and set him on the +safe shore, if the drowning man's hand is not stretched out to grasp +the rescuer's outstretched hand.</p> +<p>Brethren, God is infinitely willing to give the choicest gifts of +His love to us all, to gladden, to enrich, to adorn, to make stable +and erect. But He cannot give them unless you will trust Him. +‘It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness +dwell.’ That alabaster box is brought to earth. It was broken +on the Cross that ‘the house’ might be ‘filled with +the odour of the ointment.’ Our faith is the only condition; it +is only the condition, but it is the indispensable condition, of our +being anointed with that fragrant anointing. He, and He only, can +give us the fullness of God.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tsoh10" id="tsoh10">THE SOURCES OF HOPE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3. And not +only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation +worketh patience; 4. And patience, experience; and experience, +hope.’—ROMANS v. 2-4.</blockquote> +<p>We have seen in a previous sermon that the Apostle in the +foregoing context is sketching a grand outline of the ideal Christian +life, as all rooted in ‘being justified by faith,’ and +flowering into ‘peace with God,’ ‘access into +grace,’ and a firm stand against all antagonists and would-be +masters. In our text he advances to complete the outline by sketching +the true Christian attitude towards the future. I have ventured to +take so pregnant and large a text, because there is a very striking +and close connection throughout the verses, which is lost unless we +take them together. Note, then, ‘we rejoice in hope,’ +‘we glory in tribulation.’ Now, it is one word in the +original which is diversely rendered in these two clauses by +‘rejoice’ and ‘glory.’ The latter is a better +rendering than the former, because the original expression designates +not only the emotion of joy, but the expression of it, especially in +words. So it is frequently rendered in the New Testament by the word +‘boast,’ which, of course, has unpleasant associations, +which scarcely fit it for use here. So then you see Paul regards it +as possible for, and more than possibly characteristic of, a +Christian, that the very same emotion should he excited by that great +bright future hope, and by the blackness of present sorrow. That is +strong meat; and so he goes on to explain how he thinks it can and +must be so, and points out that trouble, through a series of results, +arrives at last at this, that if it is rightly borne, it flashes up +into greater brightness the hope which has grasped the glory of God. +So then we have here, not only a wonderful designation of the object +around which Christian hope twines its tendrils, but of the double +source from which that hope may come, and of the one emotion with +which Christian people should front the darkness of the present and +the brightness of the future. Ah! how different our lives would be if +that ideal of a steadfast hope and an untroubled joy were realised by +each of us. It may be. It should be. So I ask you to look at these +three points which I have suggested.</p> +<p>I. That wonderful designation of the one object of Christian hope +which should fill, with an uncoruscating and unflickering light, all +that dark future.</p> +<p>‘We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.’ Now, I +suppose I need not remind you that that phrase ‘the glory of +God’ is, in the Old Testament, used especially to mean the +light that dwelt between the cherubim above the mercy-seat; the +symbol of the divine perfections and the token of the Divine +Presence. The reality of which it was a symbol is the total +splendour, so to speak, of that divine nature, as it rays itself out +into all the universe. And, says Paul, the true hope of the Christian +man is nothing less than that of that glory he shall be, in some true +sense, and in an eternally growing degree, the real possessor. It is +a tremendous claim, and one which leads us into deep places that I +dare not venture into now, as to the resemblance between the human +person and the Divine Person, notwithstanding all the differences +which of course exist, and which only a presumptuous form of religion +has ventured to treat as transitory or insignificant. Let me use a +technical word, and say that it is no pantheistic absorption in an +impersonal Light, no Nirvana of union with a vague whole, which the +Apostle holds out here, but it is the closest possible union, +personality being saved and individual consciousness being +intensified. It is the clothing of humanity with so much of that +glory as can be imparted to a finite creature. That means perfect +knowledge, perfect purity, perfect love, and that means the dropping +away of all weaknesses and the access of strange new powers, and that +means the end of the schism between ‘will’ and +‘ought,’ and of the other schism between +‘will’ and ‘can.’ It means what this Apostle +says: ‘Whom He justified them He also glorified,’ and +what He says again, ‘We all, beholding as in a +glass’—or rather, perhaps, mirroring as a glass +does—‘the glory, are changed into the same +image.’</p> +<p>The very heart of Christianity is that the Divine Light of which +that Shekinah was but a poor and transitory symbol has +‘tabernacled’ amongst men in the Christ, and has from Him +been communicated, and is being communicated in such measure as +earthly limitations and conditions permit, and that these do point on +assuredly to perfect impartation hereafter, when ‘we shall be +like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’ The Three could walk +in the furnace of fire, because there was One with them, ‘like +unto the Son of God.’ ‘Who among us shall dwell with the +everlasting fire,’ the fire of that divine perfection? They who +have had introduction by Christ into the grace, and who will be led +by Him into the glory.</p> +<p>Now, brethren, it seems to me to be of great importance that this, +the loftiest of conceptions of that future life, should be the main +aspect under which we think of it. It is well to speak of rest from +toil; it is well to speak of all the negations of present +unfavourable, afflictive conditions which that future presents to us. +And perhaps there is none of the aspects of it which appeals to +deeper feelings in ourselves, than those which say ‘there shall +be no night there,’ ‘there shall be no tears there, +neither sorrow nor sighing’; ‘there shall be no toil +there.’ But we must rise above all that, for our heaven is to +live in God, and to be possessors of His glory. Do not let us dwell +upon the symbols instead of the realities. Do not let us dwell only +on the oppositions and contradictions to earth. Let us rather rise +high above symbols, high above negations, to the positive truth, and +not contented with saying ‘We shall be full of blessedness; we +shall be full of purity; we shall be full of knowledge,’ let us +rather think of that which embraces them all—we shall be full +of God.</p> +<p>So much, then, for the one object of Christian hope. We have +here—</p> +<p>II. The double source of that hope.</p> +<p>Observe that the first clause of my text comes as the last term in +a sequence. It began with ‘being justified by faith.’ The +second round of the ladder was, ‘we have peace with God.’ +The third, ‘we have access into this grace.’ The fourth, +‘we stand,’ and then comes, ‘we rejoice in hope of +the glory of God.’ That is to say, to put it into general +words, and, of course, presupposing the revelation in Jesus Christ as +the basis of all, without which there is no assured hope of a future +beyond the grave, then the facts of a Christian man's life are for +him the best brighteners of the hope beyond. Of course, that is so. +‘Justified by faith’—‘peace with +God’—‘access into grace’; what, in the name +of common-sense, can death do with these things? How can its blunted +sword cut the bond that unites a soul that has had such experiences +as these with the source of them all? Nothing can be more grotesque, +nothing more incongruous, than to think that that subordinate and +accidental fact, whose region is the physical, has anything whatever +to do with this higher region of consciousness.</p> +<p>And, further than that, it is absolutely unthinkable to a man in +the possession of these spiritual gifts, that they should ever come +to a close; and the fact that in the precise degree in which we +realise as our very own possession, here and now, these Christian +emotions and blessings, we instinctively rise to the belief that they +are ‘not for an age, but for all time,’ and not for all +time, but for eternity, is itself, if not a proof, yet a very strong +presumption, if you believe in God, that a man who thus ‘feels +he was not made to die’ because he has grasped the Eternal, is +right in so feeling. If, too, we look at the experiences themselves, +they all have the stamp of incompleteness, and suggest completeness +by their own incompleteness. The new moon with its ragged edge not +more surely prophesies its completed silver round, than do the +experiences of the Christian life here, in their greatness and in +their smallness, declare that there come a time and an order of +things in which what was thwarted tendency shall be accomplished +result. The tender green spikelet, pushing up through the brown +clods, does not more surely prophesy the waving yellow ear, nor the +broad highway on which a man comes in the wilderness more surely +declare that there is a village at the end of it, than do the facts +of the Christian life, here and now, attest the validity of the hope +of the glory of God.</p> +<p>And so, brethren, if you wish to brighten that great light that +fills the future, see to it that your present Christianity is fuller +of ‘peace with God,’ ‘access into grace,’ and +the firm, erect standing which flows from these. When the springs in +the mountains dry up, the river in the valley shrinks; and when they +are full, it glides along level with the top of its banks. So when +our Christian life in the present is richest, our Christian hope of +the future will be the brighter. Look into yourselves. Is there +anything there that witnesses to that great future; anything there +that is obviously incipient, and destined to greater power; anything +there which is like a tropical plant up here in 45 degrees of north +latitude, managing to grow, but with dwarfed leaves and scanty +flowers and half shrivelled and sourish fruit, and that in the cold +dreams of the warm native land? Reflecting telescopes show the stars +in a mirror, and the observer looks down to see the heavens. Look +into yourselves, and see whether, on the polished plate within, there +are any images of the stars that move around the Throne of God.</p> +<p>But let us turn for a moment to the second source to which the +Apostle traces the Christian hope here. I must not be tempted to more +than just a word of explanation, but perhaps you will tolerate that. +Paul says that trouble works patience, that is to say, not only +passive endurance, but brave persistence in a course, in spite of +antagonisms. That is what trouble does to a man when it is rightly +borne. Of course the Apostle is speaking here of its ideal operation, +and not of the reality which alas! often is seen when our +tribulations lash us into impatience, or paralyse our efforts. +Tribulation worketh patience, ‘and patience +<i>experience</i>.’ That is a difficult word to put into +English. There underlies it the frequent thought which is familiar in +Scripture, of trouble of all kinds as testing a man, whether as the +refiner's fire or the winnower's fan. It tests a man, and if he bears +the trouble with patient persistence, then he has passed the test and +is approved. Patient perseverance thus works approval, or proof of +the man's Christianity, and, still more, proof of the reality and +power of the Christ whom his Christianity grasps. And so from out of +that approval or proof which comes, through perseverance, from +tribulation, there rises, of course, in that heart that has been +tested and has stood, a calm hope that the future will be as the +past, and that, having fought through six troubles, by God's help the +seventh will be vanquished also, till at last troubles will end, and +heaven be won.</p> +<p>Brethren, there is the true point of view from which to look, not +only at tribulations, but at all the trials, for they too bring +trials, that lie in duty and in enjoyment, and in earthly things. +They are meant to work in us a conviction, by our experience of +having been able to meet them aright, of the reality of our grasp of +God, and of the reality and power of the God whom we grasp. If we +took that point of view in regard to all the changes of this +changeful life, we should not so often be bewildered and upset by the +darkest of our sorrows. The shining lancets and cruel cutting +instruments that the surgeon lays out on his table before he begins +the operation are very dreadful. But the way to think of them is that +they are there in order to remove from a man what it does him harm to +keep, and what, if it is not taken away, will kill him. So life, with +its troubles, great and small, is all meant for this, to make us +surer of, and bring us closer to, our God, and to brace and +strengthen us in our own personal character. And if it does that, +then blessed be everything that produces these results, and leads us +thereby to glorying in the troubles by which shines out on us a +brighter hope.</p> +<p>So there are the two sources, you see: the one is the blessedness +of the Christian life, the other the sorrows of the outward life, and +both may converge upon the brightening of our Christian hope. Our +rainbow is the child of the marriage of the sun and the rain. The +Christian hope comes from being ‘justified by faith, having +peace with God ... and access into grace,’ and it comes from +tribulation, which ‘worketh patience,’ and patience which +‘worketh approval.’ The one spark is struck from the hard +flint by the cold steel, and the other is kindled by the sun itself, +but they are both fire.</p> +<p>And so, lastly, we have here—</p> +<p>III. The one emotion with which the Christian should front all the +facts, inward and outward, of his earthly life.</p> +<p>‘We glory in the hope,’ ‘we glory in +tribulation,’ I need not dwell upon the lesson which is taught +us here by the fact that the Apostle puts as one in a series of +Christian characteristics this of a steadfast and all-embracing joy. +I do not believe that we Christian people half enough realise how +imperative a Christian duty, as well as how great a Christian +privilege, it is to be glad always. You have no right to be anxious; +you are wrong to be hypochondriac and depressed, and weary and +melancholy. True; there are a great many occasions in our Christian +life which minister sadness. True; the Christian joy looks very +gloomy to a worldly eye. But there are far more occasions which, if +we were right, would make joy instinctive, and which, whether we are +right or not, make it obligatory upon us. I need not speak of how, if +that hope were brighter than it commonly is with us, and if it were +more constantly present to our minds and hearts, we should sing with +gladness. I need not dwell upon that great and wonderful paradox by +which the co-existence of sorrow and of joy is possible. The sorrows +are on the surface; beneath there may be rest. All the winds of +heaven may rave across the breast of ocean, and fret it into clouds +of spume against a storm-swept sky. But deep down there is stillness, +and yet not stagnation, because there is the great motion that brings +life and freshness; and so, though there will be wind-vexed surfaces +on our too-often agitated spirits, there ought to be deeper than +these the calm setting of the whole ocean of our nature towards God +Himself. It is possible, as this Apostle has it, to be +‘sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.’ It is possible, as his +brother Apostle has it, to ‘rejoice greatly, though now for a +season we are in sorrow through manifold temptations.’ Look +back upon your lives from the point of view that your tribulation is +an instrument to produce hope, and you will be able to thank God for +all the way by which He has led you.</p> +<p>Now, brethren, the plain lesson of all this is just that we have +here, in these texts, a linked chain, one end of which is wrapped +around our sinful hearts, and the other is fastened to the Throne of +God. You cannot drop any of the links, and you must begin at the +beginning, if you are to be carried on to the end. If we are to have +a joy immovable, we must have a ‘steadfast hope.’ If we +are to have a ‘steadfast hope,’ we must have a present +‘grace.’ If we are to have a present ‘grace,’ +and ‘access’ to the fullness of God, we must have +‘peace with God.’ If we are to have ‘peace with +God,’ we must have the condemnation and the guilt taken away. +If we are to have the condemnation and the guilt taken away, Jesus +Christ must take them. If Jesus Christ is to take them away, we must +have faith in Him. Then you can work it backward, and begin at your +own end, and say, ‘If I have faith in Jesus Christ, then every +link of the chain in due succession will pass through my hand, and I +shall have justifying, peace, access, the grace, erectness, hope, and +exultation, and at last He will lead me by the hand into the glory +for which I dare to hope, the glory which the Father gave to Him +before the foundation of the world, and which He will give to me when +the world has passed away in fervent heat.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="atc11" id="atc11">A THREEFOLD CORD</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of +God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given +unto us.’—ROMANS v. 5.</blockquote> +<p>We have seen in former sermons that, in the previous context, the +Apostle traces Christian hope to two sources: one, the series of +experiences which follow ‘being justified by faith’ and +the other, those which follow on trouble rightly borne. Those two +golden chains together hold up the precious jewel of hope. But a +chain that is to bear a weight must have a staple, or it will fall to +the ground. And so Paul here turns to yet another thought, and, going +behind both our inward experiences and our outward discipline, falls +back on that which precedes all. After all is said and done, the love +of God, eternal, self-originated, the source of all Christian +experiences because of the work of Christ which originates them all, +is the root fact of the universe, and the guarantee that our highest +anticipations and desires are not unsubstantial visions, but morning +dreams, which are proverbially sure to be fulfilled. God is love; +therefore the man who trusts Him shall not be put to shame.</p> +<p>But you will notice that here the Apostle not only adduces the +love of God as the staple, so to speak, from which these golden +chains hang, but that he traces the heart's being suffused with that +love to its source, and as, of course, is always the case in the +order of analysis, that which was last in time comes first in +statement. We begin at the surface, and go down and down and down +from effect to cause, and yet again to the cause of that cause which +is itself effect. We strip off, as it were, layer after layer, until +we get to the living centre—hope comes from the love, the love +comes from the Spirit in the heart. And so to get at the order of +time and of manifestation, we must reverse the order of analysis in +my text, and begin where it ends. So we have here three +things—the Spirit given, the love shed abroad by that Spirit, +and the hope established by that love. Now just look at them for a +moment.</p> +<p>I. The Spirit given.</p> +<p>Now, the first point to notice here is that the Revised Version +presents the meaning of our text more accurately than the Authorised +Version, because, instead of reading ‘is given,’ it +correctly reads ‘was given.’ And any of you that can +consult the original will see that the form of the language implies +that the Apostle is thinking, not so much of a continuous bestowment, +as of a definite moment when this great gift was bestowed upon the +man to whom he is speaking.</p> +<p>So the first question is, when was that Spirit given to these +Roman Christians? The Christian Church has been split in two by its +answers to that question. One influential part, which has taken a new +lease of life amongst us to-day, says ‘in baptism,’ and +the other says ‘at the moment of faith.’ I am not going +to be tempted into controversial paths now, for my purpose is a very +different one, but I cannot help just a word about the former of +these two answers. ‘Given in baptism,’ say our friends, +and I venture to think that they thereby degrade Christianity into a +system of magic, bringing together two entirely disparate things, an +external physical act and a spiritual change. I do not say anything +about the disastrous effects that have followed from such a +conception of the medium by which this greatest of all Christian +gifts is effected upon men. Since the Spirit who is given is life, +the result of the gift of that Spirit is a new life, and we all know +what disastrous and debasing consequences have followed from that +dogma of regeneration by baptism. No doubt it is perfectly true that +normally, in the early Church, the Divine Spirit was given at +baptism; but for one thing, that general rule had exceptions, as in +the case of Cornelius, and, for another thing, though it was given +<i>at</i> baptism, it was not given <i>in</i> baptism, but it was +given through faith, of which in those days baptism was the sequel +and the sign.</p> +<p>But I pass altogether from this, and fall back on the great words +which, to me at least, if there were no other, would determine the +whole answer to this question as to when the Spirit was given: +‘This spake He of the Holy Ghost, which they that +<i>believe</i> on Him should receive’; and I would ask the +modern upholders of the other theory the indignant question which the +Apostle Paul fired off out of his heavy artillery at their ancient +analogues, the circumcisers in the Galatian Church: ‘This only +would I know of you: Received ye the Holy Spirit by the works of the +law, or by the hearing of faith?’</p> +<p>The answer which the evangelical Christian gives to this ancient +question suggested by my text, ‘When was that Divine Spirit +bestowed?’ is congruous with the spirituality of the Christian +faith, and is eminently reasonable. For the condition required is the +opening of the whole nature in willing welcome to the entrance of the +Divine Spirit, and as surely as, wherever there is an indentation of +the land, and a concavity of a receptive bay, the ocean will pour +into it and fill it, so surely where a heart is open for God, God in +His Divine Spirit will enter into that heart, and there will shed His +blessed influences.</p> +<p>So, dear brethren, and this is the main point to which I wish to +direct your attention, the Apostle here takes it for granted that all +these Roman Christians knew in themselves the truth of what he was +saying, and had an experience which confirmed his assertion that the +Divine Spirit of God was given to them when they believed. Ah! I +wonder if that is true about us professing Christians; if we are +aware in any measure of a higher life than our own having been +breathed into us; if we are aware in any measure of a Divine Spirit +dwelling in our spirits, moulding, lifting, enlightening, guiding, +constraining, and yet not coercing? We ought to be, ‘Know ye +not that the Spirit dwelleth in you, except ye be rejected?’ +Brethren, it seems to me to be of the very last importance, in this +period of the Church's history, that the proportion between the +Church's teaching as to the work of Christ on the Cross, and as to +the consequent work of the Spirit of Christ in our hearts and +spirits, should be changed. We must become more mystical if we are +not to become less Christian. And the fact that so many of us seem to +imagine that the whole Gospel lies in this, that ‘He died for +our sins according to the Scriptures,’ and have relegated the +teaching that He, by His Spirit, lives in us, if we are His +disciples, to a less prominent place, has done enormous harm, not +only to the type of Christian life, but to the conception of what +Christianity is, both amongst those who receive it, and amongst those +who do not accept it, making it out to be nothing more than a means +of escape from the consequences of our transgression, instead of +recognising it for what it is, the impartation of a new life which +will flower into all beauty, and bear fruit in all goodness.</p> +<p>There was a question put once to a group of disciples, in +astonishment and incredulity, by this Apostle, when he said to the +twelve disciples in Ephesus, ‘Did you receive the Holy Ghost +when you believed?’ The question might well be put to a +multitude of professing Christians amongst us, and I am afraid a +great many of them, if they answered truly, would answer as those +disciples did, ‘We have not so much as heard whether there be +any Holy Ghost.’</p> +<p>And now for the second point in my text—</p> +<p>II. The love which is shed abroad by that Spirit.</p> +<p>Now, I suppose I do not need to do more than point out that +‘the love of God’ here means His to us, and not ours to +Him, and that the metaphor employed is but partially represented by +that rendering ‘shed abroad.’ ‘Poured out’ +would better convey Paul's image, which is that of a flood sent +coursing through the heart, or, perhaps, rather lying there, as a +calm deep lake on whose unruffled surface the heavens, with all their +stars, are reflected. Of course, if God's love to us thus suffuses a +heart, then there follows the consciousness of that love; though it +is not the consciousness of the love that the Apostle is primarily +speaking of, but that which lies behind it, the actual flowing into +the human heart of that sweet and all-satisfying Love. This Divine +Spirit that dwells in us, if we are trusting in Christ, will pour it +in full streams into our else empty hearts. Surely there is nothing +incongruous with the nature either of God or of man, in believing +that thus a real communication is possible between them, and that by +thoughts the occasions of which we cannot trace, by moments of +elevation, by swift, piercing convictions, by sudden clear +illuminations, God may speak, and will speak, in our waiting +hearts.</p> +<pre> +'Such rebounds the inmost ear + Catches often from afar. +Listen, prize them, hold them dear; + For of God, of God, they are.' +</pre> +<p class="noindent">But we must not forget, too, that, according to +the whole strain of New Testament thinking, the means by which that +Divine Spirit does pour out the flashing flood of the love of God +into a man's heart is, as Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, by +taking the things of Christ and showing them to us.</p> +<p>Now, as I said about a former point of my sermon, that the Apostle +was taking for granted that this gift of the Spirit belonged to all +Christian people; so here again he takes for granted that in every +Christian heart there is, by a divine operation, the presence of the +love, and of the consciousness of the love, of God. And, again, the +question comes to some of us stunningly, to all of us warningly, Is +that a transcript of our experience? It is the ideal of a Christian +life; it is meant that it should be so, and should be so +continuously. The stream that is poured out is intended to run summer +and winter, not to be dried up in drought, nor made turbid and noisy +in flood, but with equable flow throughout. I fear me that the +experience of most good people is rather like one of those tropical +wadies, or nullahs in Eastern lands, where there alternate times of +spate and times of drought; and instead of a flashing stream, pouring +life everywhere, and full to the top of its banks, there is for long +periods a dismal stretch of white sun-baked stones, and a chaos of +tumbled rocks with not a drop of water in the channel. The Spirit +pours God's love into men's spirits, but there may be dams and +barriers, so that no drop of the water comes into the empty +heart.</p> +<p>Our Quaker friends have a great deal to say about ‘waiting +for the springing of the life within us.’ Never mind about the +phraseology: what is meant is profoundly true, that no Christian man +will realise this blessing unless he knows how to sit still and +meditate, and let the gracious influence soak into him. Thus being +quiet, he may, he will, find rising in his heart the consciousness of +the love of God. You will not, if you give only broken momentary +sidelong glances; you will not, if you do not lie still. If you hold +up a cup in a shaking hand beneath a fountain, and often twitch it +aside, you will get little water in it; and unless we ‘wait on +the Lord,’ we shall not ‘renew our strength.’ You +can build a dam as they do in Holland that will keep out, not only +the waters of a river, but the waters of an ocean, and not a drop +will come through the dike. Brethren, we must keep ourselves in the +love of God.</p> +<p>Lastly, we have here—</p> +<p>III. The hope that is established by the love poured out.</p> +<p>I need not dwell at any length upon this point, because, to a +large extent, it has been anticipated in former sermons, but just a +word or two may be permitted me. That love, you may be very sure, is +not going to lose its objects in the dust. The old Psalmist who knew +so much less than we do as to the love of God, and knew nothing of +the whispers of a Divine Spirit within his heart charged with the +message of the love as it was manifested in Jesus Christ, had risen +to a height of confidence, the beauty of the expression of which is +often lost sight of, because we insist upon dealing with it as merely +being a Messianic prophecy, which it is, but not merely: ‘Thou +wilt not leave my soul in Sheol, neither wilt Thou suffer Thy +beloved’ (for that is the real meaning of the word translated +‘thy Holy One’)—‘Thou wilt not suffer the +child of Thy love to see corruption.’ Death's bony fingers can +untie all true lover's knots but one; and they fumble at that one in +vain. God will not lose His child in the grave.</p> +<p>That love, we may be very sure, will not foster in us hopes that +are to be disappointed. Now, it is a fact that the more a man feels +that God loves him, the less is it possible for him to believe that +that love will ever terminate, or that he shall ‘all +die.’ In the lock of a canal, as the water pours in, the vessel +rises. In our hearts, as the flood of the full love of God pours in, +our hopes are borne up and up, nearer and nearer to the heavens. +Since it is so, we must find in the fact that the constant and +necessary result of communion with Him here on earth is a conviction +of the immortality of that communion, a very, very strong guarantee +for ourselves that the hope is not in vain. And if you say that that +is all merely subjective, yet I think that the universality of the +experience is a fact to be taken into account even by those who doubt +the reality of the hope, and for ourselves, at all events, is a +sufficient ground on which to rest. We have the historical fact of +the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have the fact that wherever +there has been earthly experience of true communion with God, there, +and in the measure in which it has been realised, the thermometer of +our hopes of immortality, so to speak, has risen. ‘God is +love,’ and God will not bring the man that trusts Him to +confusion.</p> +<p>And may we not venture to say that, contemplating the analogous +earthly love, we are permitted to believe that that divine Lover of +our souls desires to have His beloved with Him, and desires that +there be no separation between Him and them, either, if I might so +say, in place or in disposition? As certainly as husband and wife, +lover and friend, long to be together, and need it for perfection and +for rest, so surely will that divine love not be satisfied until it +has gathered all its children to its breast and made them partakers +of itself.</p> +<p>There are many, many hopes that put the men who cherish them to +shame, partly because they are never fulfilled, partly because, +though fulfilled, they are disappointed, since the reality is so much +less than the anticipation. Who does not know that the spray of +blossom on the tree looks far more lovely hanging above our heads +than when it is grasped by us? Who does not know that the fish +struggling on the hook seems heavier than it turns out to be when +lying on the bank? We go to the rainbow's end, and we find, not a pot +of gold, but a huddle of cold, wet mist. There is one man that is +entitled to say: ‘To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more +abundant.’ Who is he? Only the man whose hope is in the Lord +his God. If we open our hearts by faith, then these three lines of +sequence of which we have been speaking will converge, and we shall +have the hope that is the shining apex of ‘being justified by +faith,’ and the hope that is the calm result of trouble and +agitation, and the hope that, travelling further and higher than +anything in our inward experience or our outward discipline, grasps +the key-word of the universe, ‘God is love,’ and +triumphantly makes sure that ‘neither death nor life, nor +angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor +things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall +be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus +our Lord.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="wpgl12" id="wpgl12">WHAT PROVES GOD'S LOVE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while +we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’—ROMANS v. +8.</blockquote> +<p>We have seen in previous sermons on the preceding context that the +Apostle has been tracing various lines of sequence, all of which +converge upon Christian hope. The last of these pointed to the fact +that the love of God, poured into a heart like oil into a lamp, +brightened that flame; and having thus mentioned the great Christian +revelation of God as love, Paul at once passes to emphasise the +historical fact on which the conviction of that love rests, and goes +on to say that ‘the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by +the Holy Ghost which is given to us, <i>for</i> when we were yet +without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.’ +Then there rises before him the thought of how transcendent and +unparalleled a love is that which pours its whole preciousness on +unworthy and unresponsive hearts. He thinks to +himself—‘We are all ungodly; without strength—yet, +He died for us. Would any man do that? No! for,’ says he, +‘it will be a hard thing to find any one ready to die for a +righteous man—a man rigidly just and upright, and because +rigidly just, a trifle hard, and therefore not likely to touch a +heart to sacrifice; and even for a good man, in whom austere +righteousness has been softened and made attractive, and become +graciousness and beneficence, well! it is just within the limits of +possibility that somebody might be found even to die for a man that +had laid such a strong hand upon his affections. But God commendeth +His love in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.’ +Now, when Paul says ‘commend,’ he uses a very significant +word which is employed in two ways in the New Testament. It sometimes +means to establish, or to prove, or to make certain. But +‘prove’ is a cold word, and the expression also means to +recommend, to set forth in such a way as to appeal to the heart, and +God does both in that great act. He establishes the fact, and He, as +it were, sweeps it into a man's heart, on the bosom of that full tide +of self-sacrifice.</p> +<p>So there are two or three points that arise from these words, on +which I desire to dwell now—to lay them upon our hearts, and +not only upon our understandings. For it is a poor thing to prove the +love of God, and we need that not only shall we be sure of it, but +that we shall be softened by it. So now let me ask you to look with +me, first, at this question—</p> +<p>I. What Paul thought Jesus Christ died for.</p> +<p>‘Died <i>for</i> us.’ Now that expression plainly +implies two things: first, that Christ died of His own accord, and +being impelled by a great motive, beneficence; and, second, that that +voluntary death, somehow or other, is for our behoof and advantage. +The word in the original, ‘for,’ does not define in what +way that death ministers to our advantage, but it does assert that +for those Roman Christians who had never seen Jesus Christ, and by +consequence for you and me nineteen centuries off the Cross, there is +benefit in the fact of that death. Now, suppose we quote an incident +in the story of missionary martyrdom. There was a young lady, whom +some of us knew and loved, in a Chinese mission station, who, with +the rest of the missionary band, was flying. Her life was safe. She +looked back, and saw a Chinese boy that her heart twined round, in +danger. She returned to save him; they laid hold of her and flung her +into the burning house, and her charred remains have never been +found. That was a death for another, but ‘Jesus died for +us’ in a deeper sense than that. Take another case. A man sets +himself to some great cause, not his own, and he sees that in order +to bless humanity, either by the proclamation of some truth, or by +the origination of some great movement, or in some other way, if he +is to carry out his purpose, he must give his life. He does so, and +dies a martyr. What he aimed at could only be done by the sacrifice +of his life. The death was a means to his end, and he died for his +fellows. That is not the depth of the sense in which Paul meant that +Jesus Christ died for us. It was not that He was true to His message, +and, like many another martyr, died. There is only one way, as it +seems to me, in which any beneficial relation can be established +between the Death of Christ and us, and it is that when He died He +died for us, because ‘He bare our sins in His own body on the +tree.’</p> +<p>Dear brethren, I dare say some of you do not take that view, but I +know not how justice can be done to the plain words of Scripture +unless this is the point of view from which we look at the Cross of +Calvary—that there the Lamb of Sacrifice was bearing, and +bearing away, the sins of the whole world. I know that Christian men +who unite in the belief that Christ's death was a sacrifice and an +atonement diverge from one another in their interpretations of the +way in which that came to be a fact, and I believe, for my part, that +the divergent interpretations are like the divergent beams of light +that fall upon men who stand round the same great luminary, and that +all of them take their origin in, and are part of the manifestation +of, the one transcendent fact, which passes all understanding, and +gathers into itself all the diverse conceptions of it which are +formed by limited minds. He died for us because, in His death, our +sins are taken away and we are restored to the divine favour.</p> +<p>I know that Jesus Christ is said to have made far less of that +aspect of His work in the Gospels than His disciples have done in the +Epistles, and that we are told that, if we go back to Jesus, we shall +not find the doctrine which for some of us is the first form in which +the Gospel finds its way into the hearts of men. I admit that the +fully-developed teaching followed the fact, as was necessarily the +case. I do not admit that Jesus Christ ‘spake nothing +concerning Himself’ as the sacrifice for the world's sins. For +I hear from His lips—not to dwell upon other sayings which I +could quote—I hear from His lips, ‘The Son of Man came +not to be ministered unto, but to minister’—that is only +half His purpose—‘and to give His life a ransom instead +of the many.’ You cannot strike the atoning aspect of His death +out of that expression by any fair handling of the words.</p> +<p>And what does the Lord's Supper mean? Why did Jesus Christ select +that one point of His life as the point to be remembered? Why did He +institute the double memorial, the body parted from the blood being a +sign of a violent death? I know of no explanation that makes that +Lord's Supper an intelligible rite except the explanation which says +that He came, to live indeed, and in that life to be a sacrifice, but +to make the sacrifice complete by Himself bearing the consequences of +transgression, and making atonement for the sins of the world.</p> +<p>Brethren, that is the only aspect of Christ's death which makes it +of any consequence to us. Strip it of that, and what does it matter +to me that He died, any more than it matters to me that any +philanthropist, any great teacher, any hero or martyr or saint, +should have died? As it seems to me, nothing. Christ's death is +surrounded by tenderly pathetic and beautiful accompaniments. As a +story it moves the hearts of men, and ‘purges them, by pity and +by terror.’ But the death of many a hero of tragedy does all +that. And if you want to have the Cross of Christ held upright in its +place as the Throne of Christ and the attractive power for the whole +world, you must not tamper with that great truth, but say, ‘He +died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.’</p> +<p>Now, there is a second question that I wish to ask, and that +is—</p> +<p>II. How does Christ's death ‘commend’ God's love?</p> +<p>That is a strange expression, if you will think about it, that +‘<i>God</i> commendeth His love towards us in that +<i>Christ</i> died.’ If you take the interpretation of Christ's +death of which I have already been speaking, one could have +understood the Apostle if he had said, ‘Christ commendeth His +love towards us in that Christ died.’ But where is the force of +the fact of a <i>man's</i> death to prove <i>God's</i> love? Do you +not see that underlying that swift sentence of the Apostle there is a +presupposition, which he takes for granted? It is so obvious that I +do not need to dwell upon it to vindicate his change of persons, viz. +that ‘God was in Christ,’ in such fashion as that +whatsoever Christ did was the revelation of God. You cannot suppose, +at least I cannot see how you can, that there is any force of proof +in the words of my text, unless you come up to the full belief, +‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.’</p> +<p>Suppose some great martyr who dies for his fellows. Well, all +honour to him, and the race will come to his tomb for a while, and +bring their wreaths and their sorrow. But what bearing has his death +upon our knowledge of God's love towards us? None whatever, or at +most a very indirect and shadowy one. We have to dig deeper down than +that. ‘God commends His love ... in that Christ died.’ +‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ And we have +the right and the obligation to argue back from all that is manifest +in the tender Christ to the heart of God, and say, not only, +‘God so loved the world that He’ sent His Son, but to see +that the love that was in Christ is the manifestation of the love of +God Himself.</p> +<p>So there stands the Cross, the revelation to us, not only of a +Brother's sacrifice, but of a Father's love; and that because Jesus +Christ is the revelation of God as being the ‘eradiation of His +glory, and the express image of His person.’ Friends! light +does pour out from that Cross, whatever view men take of it. But the +omnipotent beam, the all-illuminating radiance, the transforming +light, the heat that melts, are all dependent on our looking at +it—I do not only say, as Paul looked at it, nor do I even say +as Christ looked at it, but as the deep necessities of humanity +require that the world should look at it, as the altar whereon is +laid the sacrifice for our sins, the very Son of God Himself. To me +the great truths of the Incarnation and the Atonement of Jesus Christ +are not points in a mere speculative theology; they are the pulsating +vital centre of religion. And every man needs them in his own +experience.</p> +<p>I was going to have said a word or two here—but it is not +necessary—about the need that the love of God should be +irrefragably established, by some plain and undeniable and +conspicuous fact. I need not dwell upon the ambiguous oracles +which—</p> +<pre> +'Nature, red in tooth and claw, +With rapine' +</pre> +<p class="noindent">gives forth, nor on how the facts of human life, +our own sorrows, and the world's miseries, the tears that swathe the +earth, as it rolls on its orbit, like a misty atmosphere, war against +the creed that God is love. I need not remind you, either, of how +deep, in our own hearts, when the conscience begins to speak its +<i>not</i> ambiguous oracles, there does rise the conviction that +there is much in us which it is impossible should be the object of +God's love. Nor need I remind you how all these difficulties in +believing in a God who is love, based on the contradictory aspects of +nature, and the mysteries of providence, and the whisperings of our +own consciousness, are proved to have been insuperable by the history +of the world, where we find mythologies and religions of all types +and gods of every sort, but nowhere in all the pantheon a God who is +Love.</p> +<p>Only let me press upon you that that conviction of the love of +God, which is found now far beyond the limits of Christian faith, and +amongst many of us who, in the name of that conviction itself, reject +Christianity, because of its sterner aspects, is historically the +child of the evangelical doctrine of the Incarnation and sacrifice of +Jesus Christ. And if it still subsists, as I know it does, especially +in this generation, amongst many men who reject what seems to me to +be the very kernel of Christianity—subsists like the stream cut +off from its source, but still running, that only shows that men hold +many convictions the origin of which they do not know. God is love. +You will not permanently sustain that belief against the pressure of +outward mysteries and inward sorrows, unless you grasp the other +conviction that Christ died for our sins. The two are +inseparable.</p> +<p>And now lastly—</p> +<p>III. What kind of love does Christ's death declare to us as +existing in God?</p> +<p>A love that is turned away by no sin—that is the thing that +strikes the Apostle here, as I have already pointed out. The utmost +reach of human affection might be that a man would die for the +good—he would scarcely die for the righteous. But God sends His +Son, and comes Himself in His Son, and His Son died for the ungodly +and the sinner. That death reveals a love which is its own origin and +motive. We love because we discern, or fancy we do, something lovable +in the object. God loves under the impulse, so to speak, of His own +welling-up heart.</p> +<p>And yet it is a love which, though not turned away by any sin, is +witnessed by that death to be rigidly righteous. It is no mere +flaccid, flabby laxity of a loose-girt affection, no mere foolish +indulgence like that whereby earthly parents spoil their children. +God's love is not lazy good-nature, as a great many of us think it to +be and so drag it in the mud, but it is rigidly righteous, and +therefore Christ died. That Death witnesses that it is a love which +shrinks from no sacrifices. This Isaac was not ‘spared.’ +God gave up His Son. Love has its very speech in surrender, and God's +love speaks as ours does. It is a love which, turned away by no sin, +and yet rigidly righteous and shrinking from no sacrifices, embraces +all ages and lands. ‘God commendeth’—not +‘commended.’ The majestic present tense suggests that +time and space are nothing to the swift and all-filling rays of that +great Light. That love is ‘towards us,’ you and me and +all our fellows. The Death is an historical fact, occurring in one +short hour. The Cross is an eternal power, raying out light and love +over all humanity and through all ages.</p> +<p>God lays siege to all hearts in that great sacrifice. Do you +believe that Jesus Christ died for <i>your</i> sins ‘according +to the Scriptures’? Do you see there the assurance of a love +which will lift you up above all the cross-currents of earthly life, +and the mysteries of providence, into the clear ether where the +sunshine is unobscured? And above all, do you fling back the +reverberating ray from the mirror of your own heart that directs +again towards heaven the beam of love which heaven has shot down upon +you? ‘Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved +us, and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.’ Is +it true of us that we love God because He first loved us?</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="twq13" id="twq13">THE WARRING QUEENS</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might +grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ +our Lord.’—ROMANS v. 21.</blockquote> +<p>I am afraid this text will sound to some of you rather +unpromising. It is full of well-worn terms, ‘sin,’ +‘death,’ ‘grace,’ +‘righteousness,’ ‘eternal life,’ which +suggest dry theology, if they suggest anything. When they welled up +from the Apostle's glowing heart they were like a fiery lava-stream. +But the stream has cooled, and, to a good many of us, they seem as +barren and sterile as the long ago cast out coils of lava on the +sides of a quiescent volcano. They are so well-worn and familiar to +our ears that they create but vague conceptions in our minds, and +they seem to many of us to be far away from a bearing upon our daily +lives. But you much mistake Paul if you take him to be a mere +theological writer. He is an earnest evangelist, trying to draw men +to love and trust in Jesus Christ. And his writings, however +old-fashioned and doctrinally hard they may seem to you, are all +throbbing with life—instinct with truths that belong to all +ages and places, and which fit close to every one of us.</p> +<p>I do not know if I can give any kind of freshness to these words, +but I wish to try. To begin with, I notice the highly-imaginative and +picturesque form into which the Apostle casts his thoughts here. He, +as it were, draws back a curtain, and lets us see two royal figures, +which are eternally opposed and dividing the dominion between them. +Then he shows us the issues to which these two rulers respectively +conduct their subjects; and the question that is trembling on his +lips is ‘Under which of them do you stand?’ Surely that +is not fossil theology, but truths that are of the highest +importance, and ought to be of the deepest interest, to every one of +us. They are to you the former, whether they are the latter or +not.</p> +<p>I. So, first, look at the two Queens who rule over human life.</p> +<p>Sin and Grace are both personified; and they are both conceived of +as female figures, and both as exercising dominion. They stand face +to face, and each recognises as her enemy the other. The one has +established her dominion: ‘Sin <i>hath</i> reigned.’ The +other is fighting to establish hers: ‘That Grace <i>might</i> +reign.’ And the struggle is going on between them, not only on +the wide field of the world; but in the narrow lists of the heart of +each of us.</p> +<p>Sin reigns. The truths that underlie that solemn picture are plain +enough, however unwelcome they may be to some of us, and however +remote from the construction of the universe which many of us are +disposed to take.</p> +<p>Now, let us understand our terms. Suppose a man commits a theft. +You may describe it from three different points of view. He has +thereby broken the law of the land; and when we are thinking about +that we call it crime. He has also broken the law of +‘morality,’ as we call it; and when we are looking at his +deed from that point of view, we call it vice. Is that all? He has +broken something else. He has broken the law of God; and when we look +at it from that point of view we call it sin. Now, there are a great +many things which are sins that are not crimes; and, with due +limitations, I might venture to say that there are some things which +are sins that are not to be qualified as vices. Sin implies God. The +Psalmist was quite right when he said; ‘Against Thee, Thee only +have I sinned’; although he was confessing a foul injury he had +done to Bathsheba, and a glaring crime that he had committed against +Uriah. It was as to God, and in reference to Him only, that his crime +and his vice darkened and solidified into sin.</p> +<p>And what is it, in our actions or in ourselves considered in +reference to God, that makes our actions sins and ourselves sinners? +Remember the prodigal son. ‘Father! Give me the portion of +goods that falleth to me.’ There you have it all. He went away, +and ‘wasted his substance in riotous living.’ To claim +myself for my own; to act independently of, or contrary to, the will +of God; to try to shake myself clear of Him; to have nothing to do +with Him, even though it be by mere forgetfulness and negligence, +and, in all my ways to comport myself as if I had no relations of +dependence on and submission to him—that is sin. And there may +be that oblivion or rebellion, not only in the gross vulgar acts +which the law calls crimes, or in those which conscience declares to +be vices, but also in many things which, looked at from a lower point +of view, may be fair and pure and noble. If there is this assertion +of self in them, or oblivion of God and His will in them, I know not +how we are to escape the conclusion that even these fall under the +class of sins. For there can be no act or thought, truly worthy of a +man, situated and circumstanced as we are, which has not, for the +very core and animating motive of it, a reference to God.</p> +<p>Now, when I come and say, as my Bible teaches me to say, that this +is the deepest view of the state of humanity that sin reigns, I do +not wish to fall into the exaggerations by which sometimes that +statement has been darkened and discredited; but I do want to press +upon you, dear brethren, this, as a matter of <i>personal</i> +experience, that wherever there is a heart that loves, and leaves God +out, and wherever there is a will that resolves, determines, impels +to action, and does not bow itself before Him, and wherever there are +hands that labour, or feet that run, at tasks and in paths +self-chosen and unconsecrated by reference to our Father in heaven, +no matter how great and beautiful subsidiary lustres may light up +their deeds, the very heart of them all is transgression of the law +of God. For this, and nothing else or less, is His law: ‘Thou +shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy +soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.’ I do +not charge you with crimes. You know how far it would be right to +charge you with vices. <i>I</i> do not charge you with anything; but +I pray you to come with me and confess: ‘We all have sinned, +and come short of the glory of God.’</p> +<p>I suppose I need not dwell upon the difficulty of getting a +lodgment for this conviction in men's hearts. There is no sadder, and +no more conclusive proof, of the tremendous power of sin over us, +than that it has lulled us into unconsciousness, hard to be broken, +of its own presence and existence. You remember the old +stories—I suppose there is no truth in them, but they will do +for an illustration—about some kind of a blood-sucking animal +that perched upon a sleeping man, and with its leathern wings fanned +him into deeper drowsiness whilst it drew from him his life-blood. +That is what this hideous Queen does for men. She robes herself in a +dark cloud, and sends out her behests from obscurity. And men fancy +that they are free whilst all the while they are her servants. Oh, +dear brethren! you may call this theology, but it is a simple +statement of the facts of our condition. ‘Sin hath +reigned.’</p> +<p>And now turn to the other picture, ‘Grace might +reign.’ Then there is an antagonistic power that rises up to +confront the widespread dominion of this anarch of old. And this +Queen comes with twenty thousand to war against her that has but ten +thousand on her side.</p> +<p>Again I say, let us understand our terms. I suppose, there are few +of the keywords of the New Testament which have lost more of their +radiance, like quicksilver, by exposure in the air during the +centuries than that great word Grace, which is always on the lips of +this Apostle, and to him had music in its sound, and which to us is a +piece of dead doctrine, associated with certain high Calvinistic +theories which we enlightened people have long ago grown beyond, and +got rid of. Perhaps Paul was more right than we when his heart leaped +up within him at the very thought of all which he saw to lie +palpitating and throbbing with eager desire to bless men, in that +great word. What does he mean by it? Let me put it into the shortest +possible terms. This antagonist Queen is nothing but the love of God +raying out for ever to us inferior creatures, who, by reason of our +sinfulness, have deserved something widely different. Sin stands +there, a hideous hag, though a queen; Grace stands here, ‘in +all her gestures dignity and love,’ fair and +self-communicative, though a sovereign. The love of God in exercise +to sinful men: that is what the New Testament means by grace. And is +it not a great thought?</p> +<p>Notice, for further elucidation of the Apostle's conception, how +he sacrifices the verbal correctness of his antithesis in order to +get to the real opposition. What is the opposite of Sin? +Righteousness. Why does he not say, then, that ‘as Sin hath +reigned unto death, even so might Righteousness reign unto +life’? Why? Because it is not man, or anything in man, that can +be the true antagonist of, and victor over, the regnant Sin of +humanity; but God Himself comes into the field, and only He is the +foe that Sin dreads. That is to say, the only hope for a +sin-tyrannised world is in the out-throb of the love of the great +heart of God. For, notice the weapon with which He fights man's +transgression, if I may vary the figure for a moment. It is only +subordinately punishment, or law, or threatening, or the revelation +of the wickedness of the transgression. All these have their places, +but they are secondary places. The thing that will conquer a world's +wickedness is nothing else but the manifested love of God. Only the +patient shining down of the sun will ever melt the icebergs that +float in all our hearts. And wonderful and blessed it is to think +that, in whatsoever aspects man's sin may have been an interruption +and a contradiction of the divine purpose, out of the evil has come a +good; that the more obdurate and universal the rebellion, the more +has it evoked a deeper and more wondrous tenderness. The blacker the +thundercloud, the brighter glows the rainbow that is flung across it. +So these two front each other, the one settled in her established +throne—</p> +<pre> +'Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell—' +</pre> +<p class="noindent">the other coming on her adventurous errand to +conquer the world to herself, and to banish the foul tyranny under +which men groan. ‘Sin hath reigned.’ Grace is on her way +to her dominion.</p> +<p>II. Notice the gifts of these two Queens to their subjects.</p> +<p>‘Sin hath reigned in death’ (as the accurate +translation has it); ‘Grace reigns unto eternal life.’ +The one has established her dominion, and its results are wrought +out, her reign is, as it were, a reign in a cemetery; and her +subjects are dead. If you want a modern instance to illustrate an +ancient saw, think of Armenia. There is a reign whose gifts to its +subjects are death. Sin reigns, says Paul, and for proof points to +the fact that men die.</p> +<p>Now, I am not going to enter into the question here, and now, +whether physical death passes over mankind because of the fact of +transgression. I do not suppose that this is so. But I ask you to +remember that when the Bible says that ‘Death passed upon all +men, for all have sinned,’ it does not merely mean the physical +fact of dissolution, but it means that fact along with the +accompaniments of it, and the forerunners of it, in men's +consciences. ‘The sting of death is sin,’ says Paul, in +another place. By which he implies, I presume, that, if it were not +for the fact of alienation from God and opposition to His holy will, +men might lie down and die as placidly as an animal does, and might +strip themselves for it ‘as for a bed, that longing they'd been +sick for.’ No doubt, there was death in the world long before +there were men in it. No doubt, also, the complex whole phenomenon +gets its terror from the fact of men's sin.</p> +<p>But it is not so much that physical fact with its accompaniments +which Paul is thinking about when he says that ‘sin reigns in +death,’ as it is that solemn truth which he is always +reiterating, and which I pray you, dear friends, to lay to heart, +that, whatever activity there may be in the life of a man who has +rent himself away from dependence upon God—however vigorous his +brain, however active his hand, however full charged with other +interests his life, in the very depth of it is a living death, and +the right name for it is death. So this is Sin's gift—that over +our whole nature there come mortality and decay, and that they who +live as her subjects are dead whilst they live. Dear brethren, that +may be figurative, but it seems to me that it is absurd for you to +turn away from such thoughts, shrug your shoulders, and say, +‘Old-fashioned Calvinistic theology!’ It is simply +putting into a vivid form the facts of your life and of your +condition in relation to God, if you are subjects of Sin.</p> +<p>Then, on the other hand, the other queenly figure has her hands +filled with one great gift which, like the fatal bestowment which Sin +gives to her subjects, has two aspects, a present and a future one. +Life, which is given in our redemption from Death and Sin, and in +union with God; that is the present gift that the love of God holds +out to every one of us. That life, in its very incompleteness here, +carries in itself the prophecy of its own completion hereafter, in a +higher form and world, just as truly as the bud is the prophet of the +flower and of the fruit; just as truly as a half-reared building is +the prophecy of its own completion when the roof tree is put upon it. +The men that here have, as we all may have if we choose, the gift of +life eternal in the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ His Son, +must necessarily tend onwards and upwards to a region where Death is +beneath the horizon, and Life flows and flushes the whole heaven. +Brother! do you put out your whole hand to take the poisoned gift +from the claw-like hand of that hideous Queen; or do you turn and +take the gift of life eternal from the hands of the queenly +Grace?</p> +<p>III. How this queenly Grace gives her gifts.</p> +<p>You observe that the Apostle, as is his wont—I was going to +say—gets himself entangled in a couple of almost parenthetical +or, at all events, subsidiary sentences. I suppose when he began to +write he meant to say, simply, ‘as Sin hath reigned unto death, +so Grace might reign unto life.’ But notice that he inserts two +qualifications: ‘through righteousness,’ ‘through +Jesus Christ our Lord.’ What does he mean by these?</p> +<p>He means this, first, that even that great love of God, coming +throbbing straight from His heart, cannot give eternal life as a mere +matter of arbitrary will. God can make His sun to shine and His rain +to fall, ‘on the unthankful and on the evil,’ and if God +could, God would give eternal life to everybody, bad and good; but He +cannot. There must be righteousness if there is to be life. Just as +sin's fruit is death, the fruit of righteousness is life.</p> +<p>He means, in the next place, that whilst there is no life without +righteousness, there is no righteousness without God's gift. You +cannot break away from the dominion of Sin, and, as it were, +establish yourselves in a little fortress of your own, repelling her +assaults by any power of yours. Dear brethren, we cannot undo the +past; we cannot strip off the poisoned garment that clings to our +limbs; we can mend ourselves in many respects, but we cannot of our +own volition and motion clothe ourselves with that righteousness of +which the wearers shall be worthy to ‘pass through the gate +into the city.’ There is no righteousness without God's +gift.</p> +<p>And the other subsidiary clause completes the thought: +‘through Christ.’ In Him is all the grace, the manifest +love, of God gathered together. It is not diffused as the nebulous +light in some chaotic incipient system, but it is gathered into a sun +that is set in the centre, in order that it may pour down warmth and +life upon its circling planets. The grace of God is in Christ Jesus +our Lord. In Him is life eternal; therefore, if we desire to possess +it we must possess Him. In Him is righteousness; therefore, if we +desire our own foulness to be changed into the holiness which shall +see God, we must go to Jesus Christ. Grace reigns in life, but it is +life through righteousness, which is through Jesus Christ our +Lord.</p> +<p>So, then, brother, my message and my petition to each of you +are—knit yourself to Him by faith in Him. Then He who is +‘full of grace and truth’ will come to you; and, coming, +will bring in His hands righteousness and life eternal. If only we +rest ourselves on Him, and keep ourselves close in touch with Him; +then we shall be delivered from the tyranny of the darkness, and +translated into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tfot14" id="tfot14">‘THE FORM OF +TEACHING’</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘... Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of +doctrine which was delivered you.’—ROMANS vi. +17.</blockquote> +<p>There is room for difference of opinion as to what Paul precisely +means by ‘form’ here. The word so rendered appears in +English as <i>type</i>, and has a similar variety of meaning. It +signifies originally a mark made by pressure or impact; and then, by +natural transitions, a <i>mould</i>, or more generally a +<i>pattern</i> or <i>example</i>, and then the copy of such an +example or pattern, or the cast from such a mould. It has also the +other meaning which its English equivalent has taken on very +extensively of late years, such as, for instance, you find in +expressions like ‘An English type of face,’ meaning +thereby the general outline which preserves the distinguishing +characteristics of a thing. Now we may choose between these two +meanings in our text. If the Apostle means type in the latter sense +of the word, then the rendering ‘form’ is adequate, and +he is thinking of the Christian teaching which had been given to the +Roman Christians as possessing certain well-defined characteristics +which distinguished it from other kinds of teaching—such, for +instance, as Jewish or heathen.</p> +<p>But if we take the other meaning, then he is, in true Pauline +fashion, bringing in a vivid and picturesque metaphor to enforce his +thought, and is thinking of the teaching which the Roman Christians +had received as being a kind of mould into which they were thrown, a +pattern to which they were to be conformed. And that that is his +meaning seems to me to be made a little more probable by the fact +that the last words of my text would be more accurate if inverted, +and instead of reading, as the Authorised Version does, ‘that +form of doctrine which was delivered you,’ we were to read, as +the Revised Version does, ‘that form whereunto ye were +delivered.’</p> +<p>If this be the general meaning of the words before us, there are +three thoughts arising from them to which I turn briefly. First, +Paul's Gospel was a definite body of teaching; secondly, that +teaching is a mould for conduct and character; lastly, that teaching +therefore demands obedience. Take, then, these three thoughts.</p> +<p>I. First, Paul's Gospel was a definite body of teaching.</p> +<p>Now the word ‘doctrine,’ which is employed in my text, +has, in the lapse of years since the Authorised Version was made, +narrowed its significance. At the date of our Authorised translation +‘doctrine’ was probably equivalent to +‘teaching,’ of whatever sort it might be. Since then it +has become equivalent to a statement of abstract principles, and that +is not at all what Paul means. He does not mean to say that his +gospel was a form of doctrine in the sense of being a theological +system, but he means to say that it was a body of teaching, the +nature of the teaching not being defined at all by the word.</p> +<p>Therefore we have to notice that the great, blessed peculiarity of +the Gospel is that it is a teaching, not of abstract dry principles, +but of concrete historical facts. From these principles in plenty may +be gathered, but in its first form as it comes to men fresh from God +it is not a set of propositions, but a history of deeds that were +done upon earth. And, therefore, is it fitted to be the food of every +soul and the mould of every character.</p> +<p>Jesus Christ did not come and talk to men about God, and say to +them what His Apostles afterwards said, ‘God is love,’ +but He lived and died, and that mainly was His teaching about God. He +did not come to men and lay down a theory of atonement or a doctrine +of propitiation, or theology about sin and its relations to God, but +He went to the Cross and gave Himself for us, and that was His +teaching about sacrifice. He did not say to men ‘There is a +future life, and it is of such and such a sort,’ but He came +out of the grave and He said ‘Touch Me, and handle Me. A spirit +hath not flesh and bones,’ and <i>therefore</i> He brought life +and immortality to light, by no empty words but by the solid +realities of facts. He did not lecture upon ethics, but He lived a +perfect human life out of which all moral principles that will guide +human conduct may be gathered. And so, instead of presenting us with +a <i>hortus siccus</i>, with a botanic collection of scientifically +arranged and dead propositions, He led us into the meadow where the +flowers grow, living and fair. His life and death, with all that they +imply, are the teaching.</p> +<p>Let us not forget, on the other hand, that the history of a fact +is not the mere statement of the outward thing that has happened. +Suppose four people, for instance, standing at the foot of Christ's +Cross; four other ‘evangelists’ than the four that we +know. There is a Roman soldier; there is a Pharisee; there is one of +the weeping crowd of poor women, not disciples; and there is a +disciple. The first man tells the fact as he saw it: ‘A Jewish +rebel was crucified this morning.’ The second man tells the +fact: ‘A blaspheming apostate suffered what he deserved +to-day.’ The woman tells the fact: ‘A poor, gentle, fair +soul was martyred to-day.’ And the fourth one tells the fact: +‘Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins.’ The +three tell the same fact; the fourth preaches the Gospel—that +is to say, Christian teaching is the facts plus their explanation; +and it is that which differentiates it from the mere record which is +of no avail to anybody. So Paul himself in one of his other letters +puts it. This is his gospel: Jesus of Nazareth ‘died for +<i>our</i> sins according to the Scriptures, and He was buried, and +rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.’ That is +what turns the bald story of the facts into teaching, which is the +mould for life.</p> +<p>So on the one hand, dear brethren, do not let us fall into the +superficial error of fancying that our religion is a religion of +emotion and morality only. It is a religion with a basis of divine +truth, which, being struck away, all the rest goes. There is a revolt +against dogma to-day, a revolt which in large measure is justified as +an essential of progress, and in large measure as an instance of +progress; but human nature is ever prone to extremes, and in the +revolt from man's dogma there is danger of casting away God's truth. +Christianity is not preserved when we hold by the bare facts of the +outward history, unless we take with these facts the interpretation +of them, which declares the divinity and the sacrifice of the Son of +God.</p> +<p>And on the other hand, let us keep very clear in our minds the +broad and impassable gulf of separation between the Christian +teaching as embodied in the Scripture and the systems which +Christianity has evolved therefrom. Men's intellects must work upon +the pabulum that is provided for them, and a theology in a +systematised form is a necessity for the intellectual and reasonable +life of the Christian Church. But there is all the difference between +man's inferences from and systematising of the Christian truth and +the truth that lies here. The one is the golden roof that is cast +over us; the other is too often but the spiders’ webs that are +spun across and darken its splendour. It is a sign of a wholesome +change in the whole sentiment and attitude of the modern Christian +mind that the word ‘doctrine,’ which has come to mean +men's inferences from God's truth, should have been substituted as it +has been in our Revised Version of my text, by the wholesome +Christian word ‘teaching.’ The teaching is the facts with +the inspired commentary on them.</p> +<p>II. Secondly, notice that this teaching is in Paul's judgment a +mould or pattern according to which men's lives are to be +conformed.</p> +<p>There can be no question but that, in that teaching as set forth +in Scripture, there does lie the mightiest formative power for +shaping our lives, and emancipating us from our evil.</p> +<p>Christ is <i>the</i> type, the mould into which men are to be +cast. The Gospel, as presented in Scripture, gives us three things. +It gives us the perfect mould; it gives us the perfect motive; it +gives us the perfect power. And in all three things appears its +distinctive glory, apart from and above all other systems that have +ever tried to affect the conduct or to mould the character of +man.</p> +<p>In Jesus Christ we have in due combination, in perfect proportion, +all the possible excellences of humanity. As in other cases of +perfect symmetry, the very precision of the balanced proportions +detracts from the apparent magnitude of the statue or of the fair +building, so to a superficial eye there is but little beauty there +that we should desire Him, but as we learn to know Him, and live +nearer to Him, and get more familiar with all His sweetness, and with +all His power, He towers before us in ever greater and yet never +repellent or exaggerated magnitude, and never loses the reality of +His brotherhood in the completeness of His perfection. We have in the +Christ the one type, the one mould and pattern for all striving, the +‘glass of form,’ the perfect Man.</p> +<p>And that likeness is not reproduced in us by pressure or by a +blow, but by the slow and blessed process of gazing until we become +like, beholding the glory until we are changed into the glory.</p> +<p>It is no use having a mould and metal unless you have a fire. It +is no use having a perfect Pattern unless you have a motive to copy +it. Men do not go to the devil for want of examples; and morality is +not at a low ebb by reason of ignorance of what the true type of life +is. But nowhere but in the full-orbed teaching of the New Testament +will you find a motive strong enough to melt down all the obstinate +hardness of the ‘northern iron’ of the human will, and to +make it plastic to His hand. If we can say, ‘He loved me and +gave Himself for me’ then the sum of all morality, the old +commandment that ‘ye love one another’ receives a new +stringency, and a fresh motive as well as a deepened interpretation, +when His love is our pattern. The one thing that will make men +willing to be like Christ is their faith that Christ is their +Sacrifice and their Saviour. And sure I am of this, that no form of +mutilated Christianity, which leaves out or falteringly proclaims the +truth that Christ died on the Cross for the sins of the world, will +ever generate heat enough to mould men's wills, or kindle motives +powerful enough to lead to a life of growing imitation of and +resemblance to Him. The dial may be all right, the hours most +accurately marked in their proper places, every minute registered on +the circle, the hands may be all right, delicately fashioned, truly +poised, but if there is no main-spring inside, dial and hands are of +little use, and a Christianity which says, ‘Christ is the +Teacher; do you obey Him?’ is as impotent as the dial face with +the broken main-spring. What we need, and what, thank God, in +‘the teaching’ we have, is the pattern brought near to +us, and the motive for imitating the pattern, set in motion by the +great thought, ‘He loved me and gave Himself for me.’</p> +<p>Still further, the teaching is a power to fashion life, inasmuch +as it brings with it a gift which secures the transformation of the +believer into the likeness of his Lord. Part of ‘the +teaching’ is the fact of Pentecost; part of the teaching is the +fact of the Ascension; and the consequence of the Ascension and the +sure promise of the Pentecost is that all who love Him, and wait upon +Him, shall receive into their hearts the ‘Spirit of life in +Christ Jesus’ which shall make them free from the law of sin +and death.</p> +<p>So, dear friends, on the one hand, let us remember that our +religion is meant to work, that we have nothing in our creed that +should not be in our character, that all our <i>credenda</i> are to +be our <i>agenda</i>; everything <i>believed</i> to be something +<i>done</i>; and that if we content ourselves with the simple +acceptance of the teaching, and make no effort to translate that +teaching into life, we are hypocrites or self-deceivers.</p> +<p>And, on the other hand, do not let us forget that religion is the +soul of which morality is the body, and that it is impossible in the +nature of things that you shall ever get a true, lofty, moral life +which is not based upon religion. I do not say that men cannot be +sure of the outlines of their duty without Christianity, though I am +free to confess that I think it is a very maimed and shabby version +of human duty, which is supplied, minus the special revelation of +that duty which Christianity makes; but my point is, that the +knowledge will not work without the Gospel.</p> +<p>The Christian type of character is a distinct and manifestly +separate thing from the pagan heroism or from the virtues and the +righteousnesses of other systems. Just as the musician's ear can +tell, by half a dozen bars, whether that strain was Beethoven's, or +Handel's, or Mendelssohn's, just as the trained eye can see +Raffaelle's magic in every touch of his pencil, so Christ, the +Teacher, has a style; and all the scholars of His school carry with +them a certain mark which tells where they got their education and +who is their Master, if they are scholars indeed. And that leads me +to the last word.</p> +<p>III. This mould demands obedience.</p> +<p>By the very necessity of things it is so. If the +‘teaching’ was but a teaching of abstract truths it would +be enough to assent to them. I believe that the three angles of a +triangle are equal to two right angles, and I have done my duty by +that proposition when I have said ‘Yes! it is so.’ But +the ‘teaching’ which Jesus Christ gives and <i>is</i>, +needs a good deal more than that. By the very nature of the teaching, +assent drags after it submission. You can please yourself whether you +let Jesus Christ into your minds or not, but if you do let Him in, He +will be Master. There is no such thing as taking Him in and not +obeying.</p> +<p>And so the requirement of the Gospel which we call faith has in it +quite as much of the element of obedience as of the element of trust. +And the presence of that element is just what makes the difference +between a sham and a real faith. ‘Faith which has not works is +dead, being alone.’ A faith which is all trust and no obedience +is neither trust nor obedience.</p> +<p>And that is why so many of us do not care to yield ourselves to +the faith that is in Jesus Christ. If it simply came to us and said, +‘If you will trust Me you will get pardon,’ I fancy there +would be a good many more of us honest Christians than are so. But +Christ comes and says, ‘Trust Me, follow Me, and take Me for +your Master; and be like Me,’ and one's will kicks, and one's +passions recoil, and a thousand of the devil's servants within us +prick their ears up and stiffen their backs in remonstrance and +opposition. ‘Submit’ is Christ's first word; submit by +faith, submit in love.</p> +<p>That heart obedience, which is the requirement of Christianity, +means freedom. The Apostle draws a wonderful contrast in the context +between the slavery to lust and sin, and the freedom which comes from +obedience to God and to righteousness. Obey the Truth, and the Truth, +in your obeying, shall make you free, for freedom is the willing +submission to the limitations which are best. ‘I will walk at +liberty for I keep Thy precepts.’ Take Christ for your Master, +and, being His servants, you are your own masters, and the world's to +boot. For ‘all things are yours if ye are Christ's.’ +Refuse to bow your necks to that yoke which is easy, and to take upon +your shoulders that burden which is light, and you do not buy +liberty, though you buy licentiousness, for you become the slaves and +downtrodden vassals of the world and the flesh and the devil, and +while you promise yourselves liberty, you become the bondsmen of +corruption. Oh! then, let us obey from the heart that mould of +teaching to which we are delivered, and so obeying, we shall be free +indeed.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tfs15" id="tfs15">‘THY FREE SPIRIT’</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath +made me free from the law of sin and death.’—ROMANS viii. +2.</blockquote> +<p>We have to distinguish two meanings of law. In the stricter sense, +it signifies the authoritative expressions of the will of a ruler +proposed for the obedience of man; in the wider, almost figurative +sense, it means nothing more than the generalised expression of +constant similar facts. For instance, objects attract one another in +certain circumstances with a force which in the same circumstances is +always the same. When that fact is stated generally, we get the law +of gravitation. Thus the word comes to mean little more than a +regular process. In our text the word is used in a sense much nearer +the latter than the former of these two. ‘The law of sin and of +death’ cannot mean a series of commandments; it certainly does +not mean the Mosaic law. It must either be entirely figurative, +taking sin and death as two great tyrants who domineer over men; or +it must mean the continuous action of these powers, the process by +which they work. These two come substantially to the same idea. The +law of sin and of death describes a certain constancy of operation, +uniform and fixed, under the dominion of which men are struggling. +But there is another constancy of operation, uniform and fixed too, a +mighty antagonistic power, which frees from the dominion of the +former: it is ‘the law of the Spirit of life in Christ +Jesus.’</p> +<p>I. The bondage.</p> +<p>The Apostle is speaking about himself as he was, and we have our +own consciousness to verify his transcript of his own personal +experience. Paul had found that, by an inexorable iron sequence, sin +worked in himself the true death of the soul, in separation from God, +in the extinction of good and noble capacities, in the atrophying of +all that was best in himself, in the death of joy and peace. And this +iron sequence he, with an eloquent paradox, calls a +‘law,’ though its very characteristic is that it is +lawless transgression of the true law of humanity. He so describes +it, partly, because he would place emphasis on its dominion over us. +Sin rules with iron sway; men madly obey it, and even when they think +themselves free, are under a bitter tyranny. Further, he desires to +emphasise the fact that sin and death are parts of one process which +operates constantly and uniformly. This dark anarchy and wild chaos +of disobedience and transgression has its laws. All happens there +according to rule. Rigid and inevitable as the courses of the stars, +or the fall of the leaf from the tree, is sin hurrying on to its +natural goal in death. In this fatal dance, sin leads in death; the +one fair spoken and full of dazzling promises, the other in the end +throws off the mask, and slays. It is true of all who listen to the +tempting voice, and the deluded victim ‘knows not that the dead +are there, and that her guests are in the depth of hell.’</p> +<p>II. The method of deliverance.</p> +<p>The previous chapter sounded the depths of human impotence, and +showed the tragic impossibility of human efforts to strip off the +poisoned garment. Here the Apostle tells the wonderful story of how +he himself was delivered, in the full rejoicing confidence that what +availed for his emancipation would equally avail for every captived +soul. Because he himself has experienced a divine power which breaks +the dreadful sequence of sin and of death, he knows that every soul +may share in the experience. No mere outward means will be sufficient +to emancipate a spirit; no merely intellectual methods will avail to +set free the passions and desires which have been captured by sin. It +is vain to seek deliverance from a perverted will by any +republication, however emphatic, of a law of duty. Nothing can touch +the necessities of the case but a gift of power which becomes an +abiding influence in us, and develops a mightier energy to overcome +the evil tendencies of a sinful soul.</p> +<p>That communicated power must impart life. Nothing short of a +Spirit of life, quick and powerful, with an immortal and intense +energy, will avail to meet the need. Such a Spirit must give the life +which it possesses, must quicken and bring into action dormant powers +in the spirit that it would free. It must implant new energies and +directions, new motives, desires, tastes, and tendencies. It must +bring into play mightier attractions to neutralise and deaden +existing ones; as when to some chemical compound a substance is added +which has a stronger affinity for one of the elements, a new thing is +made.</p> +<p>Paul's experience, which he had a right to cast into general terms +and potentially to extend to all mankind, had taught him that such a +new life for such a spirit had come to him by union with Jesus +Christ. Such a union, deep and mystical as it is, is, thank God, an +experience universal in all true Christians, and constitutes the very +heart of the Gospel which Paul rejoiced to believe was entrusted to +his hands for the world. His great message of ‘Christ in +us’ has been wofully curtailed and mangled when his other +message of ‘Christ for us’ has been taken, as it too +often has been, to be the whole of his Gospel. They who take either +of these inseparable elements to be the whole, rend into two +imperfect halves the perfect oneness of the Gospel of Christ.</p> +<p>We are often told that Paul was the true author of Christian +doctrine, and are bidden to go back from him to Jesus. If we do so, +we hear His grave sweet voice uttering in the upper-room the deep +words, ‘I am the Vine, ye are the branches’; and, surely, +Paul is but repeating, without metaphor, what Christ, once for all, +set forth in that lovely emblem, when he says that ‘the law of +the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin +and of death.’ The branches in their multitude make the Vine in +its unity, and the sap which rises from the deep root through the +brown stem, passes to every tremulous leaf, and brings bloom and +savour into every cluster. Jesus drew His emblem from the noblest +form of vegetative life; Paul, in other places, draws his from the +highest form of bodily life, when he points to the many members in +one body, and the Head which governs all, and says, ‘So also is +Christ.’ In another place he points to the noblest form of +earthly love and unity. The blessed fellowship and sacred oneness of +husband and wife are an emblem sweet, though inadequate, of the +fellowship in love and unity of spirit between Christ and His +Church.</p> +<p>And all this mysterious oneness of life has an intensely practical +side. In Jesus, and by union with Him, we receive a power that +delivers from sin and arrests the stealthy progress of sin's +follower, death. Love to Him, the result of fellowship with Him, and +the consequence of life received from Him, becomes the motive which +makes the redeemed heart delight to do His will, and takes all the +power out of every temptation. We are in Him, and He in us, on +condition, and by means, of our humble faith; and because my faith +thus knits me to Him it is ‘the victory that overcomes the +world’ and breaks the chains of many sins. So this communion +with Jesus Christ is the way by which we shall increase that +triumphant spiritual life, which is the only victorious antagonist of +the else inevitable consequence which declares that the ‘soul +that sinneth it shall die,’ and die even in sinning.</p> +<p>III. The process of the deliverance.</p> +<p>Following the R. V. we read ‘made me free,’ not +‘hath made me.’ The reference is obviously, as the Greek +more clearly shows, to a single historical event, which some would +take to be the Apostle's baptism, but which is more properly supposed +to be his conversion. His strong bold language here does not mean +that he claims to be sinless. The emancipation is effected, although +it is but begun. He holds that at that moment when Jesus appeared to +him on the road to Damascus, and he yielded to Him as Lord, his +deliverance was real, though not complete. He was conscious of a real +change of position in reference to that law of sin and of death. Paul +distinguishes between the true self and the accumulation of selfish +and sensual habits which make up so much of ourselves. The deeper and +purer self may be vitalised in will and heart, and set free even +while the emancipation is not worked out in the life. The parable of +the leaven applies in the individual renewal; and there is no +fanaticism, and no harm, in Paul's point of view, if only it be +remembered that sins by which passion and externals overbear my +better self are mine in responsibility and in consequences. Thus +guarded, we may be wholly right in thinking of all the evils which +still cleave to the renewed Christian soul as not being part of it, +but destined to drop away.</p> +<p>And this bold declaration is to be vindicated as a prophetic +confidence in the supremacy and ultimate dominion of the new power +which works even through much antagonism in an imperfect Christian. +Paul, too, calls ‘things that are not as though they +were.’ If my spirit of life is the ‘Spirit of life in +Christ,’ it will go on to perfection. It is Spirit, therefore +it is informing and conquering the material; it is a divine Spirit, +therefore it is omnipotent; it is the Spirit of life, leading in and +imparting life like itself, which is kindred with it and is its +source; it is the Spirit of life in Christ, therefore leading to life +like His, bringing us to conformity with Him because the same causes +produce the same effects; it is a life in Christ having a law and +regular orderly course of development. So, just as if we have the +germ we may hope for fruit, and can see the infantile oak in the +tightly-shut acorn, or in the egg the creature which shall afterwards +grow there, we have in this gift of the Spirit, the victory. If we +have the cause, we have the effects implicitly folded in it; and we +have but to wait further development.</p> +<p>The Christian life is to be one long effort, partial, and gradual, +to unfold the freedom possessed. Paul knew full well that his +emancipation was not perfect. It was, probably, after this triumphant +expression of confidence that he wrote, ‘Not as though I had +already attained, either were already perfect.’ The first stage +is the gift of power, the appropriation and development of that power +is the work of a life; and it ought to pass through a well-marked +series and cycle of growing changes. The way to develop it is by +constant application to the source of all freedom, the life-giving +Spirit, and by constant effort to conquer sins and temptations. There +is no such thing in the Christian conflict as a painless development. +We must mortify the deeds of the body if we are to live in the +Spirit. The Christian progress has in it the nature of a crucifixion. +It is to be effort, steadily directed for the sake of Christ, and in +the joy of His Spirit, to destroy sin, and to win practical holiness. +Homely moralities are the outcome and the test of all pretensions to +spiritual communion.</p> +<p>We are, further, to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord, by +‘waiting for the Redemption,’ which is not merely passive +waiting, but active expectation, as of one who stretches out a +welcoming hand to an approaching friend. Nor must we forget that this +accomplished deliverance is but partial whilst upon earth. ‘The +body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of +righteousness.’ But there may be indefinite approximation to +complete deliverance. The metaphors in Scripture under which +Christian progress is described, whether drawn from a conflict or a +race, or from a building, or from the growth of a tree, all suggest +the idea of constant advance against hindrances, which yet, constant +though it is, does not reach the goal here. And this is our noblest +earthly condition—not to be pure, but to be tending towards it +and conscious of impurity. Hence our tempers should be those of +humility, strenuous effort, firm hope. We are as slaves who have +escaped, but are still in the wilderness, with the enemies’ +dogs baying at our feet; but we shall come to the land of freedom, on +whose sacred soil sin and death can never tread.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="ccs16" id="ccs16">CHRIST CONDEMNING SIN</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘For what the law could not do, in that it was weak +through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful +flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.’—ROMANS +viii. 3.</blockquote> +<p>In the first verse of this chapter we read that ‘There is no +condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.’ The reason of +that is, that they are set free from the terrible sequence of cause +and effect which constitutes ‘the law of sin and death’; +and the reason why they are freed from that awful sequence by the +power of Christ is, because He has ‘condemned sin in the +flesh.’ The occurrence of the two words +‘condemnation’ (ver. 1) and ‘condemned’ (ver. +3) should be noted. Sin is personified as dwelling in the flesh, +which expression here means, not merely the body, but unregenerate +human nature. He has made his fortress there, and rules over it all. +The strong man keeps his house and his goods are in peace. He laughs +to scorn the attempts of laws and moralities of all sorts to cast him +out. His dominion is death to the human nature over which he +tyrannises. Condemnation is inevitable to the men over whom he rules. +They or he must perish. If he escape they die. If he could be slain +they might live. Christ comes, condemns the tyrant, and casts him +out. So, he being condemned, we are acquitted; and he being slain +there is no death for us. Let us try to elucidate a little further +this great metaphor by just pondering the two points prominent in +it—Sin tyrannising over human nature and resisting all attempts +to overcome it, and Christ's condemnation and casting out of the +tyrant.</p> +<p>I. Sin tyrannising over human nature, and resisting all attempts +to overcome it.</p> +<p>Paul is generalising his own experience when he speaks of the +condemnation of an intrusive alien force that holds unregenerate +human nature in bondage. He is writing a page of his own +autobiography, and he is sure that all the rest of us have like pages +in ours. Heart answereth unto heart as in a mirror. If each man is a +unity, the poison must run through all his veins and affect his whole +nature. Will, understanding, heart, must all be affected and each in +its own way by the intruder; and if men are a collective whole, each +man's experience is repeated in his brother's.</p> +<p>The Apostle is equally transcribing his own experience when in the +text he sadly admits the futility of all efforts to shake the +dominion of sin. He has found in his own case that even the loftiest +revelation in the Mosaic law utterly fails in the attempt to condemn +sin. This is true not only in regard to the Mosaic law but in regard +to the law of conscience, and to moral teachings of any kind. It is +obvious that all such laws do condemn sin in the sense that they +solemnly declare God's judgment about it, and His sentence on it; but +in the sense of real condemnation, or casting out, and depriving sin +of its power, they all are impotent. The law may deter from overt +acts or lead to isolated acts of obedience; it may stir up antagonism +to sin's tyranny, but after that it has no more that it can do. It +cannot give the purity which it proclaims to be necessary, nor create +the obedience which it enjoins. Its thunders roll terrors, and no +fruitful rain follows them to soften the barren soil. There always +remains an unbridged gulf between the man and the law.</p> +<p>And this is what Paul points to in saying that it ‘was weak +through the flesh.’ It is good in itself, but it has to work +through the sinful nature. The only powers to which it can appeal are +those which are already in rebellion. A discrowned king whose only +forces to conquer his rebellious subjects are the rebels themselves, +is not likely to regain his crown. Because law brings no new element +into our humanity, its appeal to our humanity has little more effect +than that of the wind whistling through an archway. It appeals to +conscience and reason by a plain declaration of what is right; to +will and understanding by an exhibition of authority; to fears and +prudence by plainly setting forth consequences. But what is to be +done with men who know what is right but have no wish to do it, who +believe that they ought but will not, who know the consequences but +‘choose rather the pleasures of sin for a season,’ and +shuffle the future out of their minds altogether? This is the +essential weakness of all law. The tyrant is not afraid so long as +there is no one threatening his reign, but the unarmed herald of a +discrowned king. His citadel will not surrender to the blast of the +trumpet blown from Sinai.</p> +<p>II. Christ's condemnation and casting out of the tyrant.</p> +<p>The Apostle points to a triple condemnation.</p> +<p>‘In the likeness of sinful flesh,’ Jesus condemns sin +by His own perfect life. That phrase, ‘the likeness of the +flesh of sin,’ implies the real humanity of Jesus, and His +perfect sinlessness; and suggests the first way in which He condemns +sin in the flesh. In His life He repeats the law in a higher fashion. +What the one spoke in words the other realised in ‘loveliness +of perfect deeds’; and all men own that example is the +mightiest preacher of righteousness, and that active goodness draws +to itself reverence and sways men to imitate. But that life lived in +human nature gives a new hope of the possibilities of that nature +even in us. The dream of perfect beauty ‘in the flesh’ +has been realised. What the Man Christ Jesus was, He was that we may +become. In the very flesh in which the tyrant rules, Jesus shows the +possibility and the loveliness of a holy life.</p> +<p>But this, much as it is, is not all. There is another way in which +Christ condemns sin in the flesh, and that is by His perfect +sacrifice. To this also Paul points in the phrase, ‘the flesh +of sin.’ The example of which we have been speaking is much, +but it is weak for the very same reason for which law is +weak—that it operates only through our nature as it is; and +that is not enough. Sin's hold on man is twofold—one that it +has perverted his relation to God, and another that it has corrupted +his nature. Hence there is in him a sense of separation from God and +a sense of guilt. Both of these not only lead to misery, but +positively tend to strengthen the dominion of sin. The leader of the +mutineers keeps them true to him by reminding them that the mutiny +laws decree death without mercy. Guilt felt may drive to desperation +and hopeless continuance in wrong. The cry, ‘I am so bad that +it is useless to try to be better,’ is often heard. Guilt +stifled leads to hardening of heart, and sometimes to desire and +riot. Guilt slurred over by some easy process of absolution may lead +to further sin. Similarly separation from God is the root of all +evil, and thoughts of Him as hard and an enemy, always lead to sin. +So if the power of sin in the past must be cancelled, the sense of +guilt must be removed, and the wall of partition between man and God +thrown down. What can law answer to such a demand? It is silent; it +can only say, ‘What is written is written.’ It has no +word to speak that promises ‘the blotting out of the +handwriting that is against us’; and through its silence one +can hear the mocking laugh of the tyrant that keeps his castle.</p> +<p>But Christ has come ‘for sin’; that is to say His +Incarnation and Death had relation to, and had it for their object to +remove, human sin. He comes to blot out the evil, to bring God's +pardon. The recognition of His sacrifice supplies the adequate motive +to copy His example, and they who see in His death God's sacrifice +for man's sin, cannot but yield themselves to Him, and find in +obedience a delight. Love kindled at His love makes likeness and +transmutes the outward law into an inward ‘spirit of life in +Christ Jesus.’</p> +<p>Still another way by which God ‘condemns sin in the +flesh’ is pointed to by the remaining phrase of our text, +‘sending His own Son.’ In the beginning of this epistle +Jesus is spoken of as ‘being declared to be the Son of God with +power according to the Spirit of holiness’; and we must connect +that saying with our text, and so think of Christ's bestowal of His +perfect gift to humanity of the Spirit which sanctifies as being part +of His condemnation of sin in the flesh. Into the very region where +the tyrant rules, the Son of God communicates a new nature which +constitutes a real new power. The Spirit operates on all our +faculties, and redeems them from the bondage of corruption. All the +springs in the land are poisoned; but a new one, limpid and pure, is +opened. By the entrance of the Spirit of holiness into a human +spirit, the usurper is driven from the central fortress: and though +he may linger in the outworks and keep up a guerilla warfare, that is +all that he can do. We never truly apprehend Christ's gift to man +until we recognise that He not merely ‘died for our +sins,’ but lives to impart the principle of holiness in the +gift of His Spirit. The dominion of that imparted Spirit is gradual +and progressive. The Canaanite may still be in the land, but a +growing power, working in and through us, is warring against all in +us that still owns allegiance to that alien power, and there can be +no end to the victorious struggle until the whole body, soul, and +spirit, be wholly under the influence of the Spirit that dwelleth in +us, and nothing shall hurt or destroy in what shall then be all God's +holy mountain.</p> +<p>Such is, in the most general terms, the statement of what Christ +does ‘for us’; and the question comes to be the +all-important one for each, Do I let Him do it for me? Remember the +alternative. There must either be condemnation for us, or for the sin +that dwelleth in us. There is no condemnation for them who are in +Christ Jesus, because there is condemnation for the sin that dwells +in them. It must he slain, or it will slay us. It must be cast out, +or it will cast us out from God. It must be separated from us, or it +will separate us from Him. We need not be condemned, but if it be not +condemned, then we shall be.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="twots17" id="twots17">THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, +that we are the children of God.’—ROMANS viii. +18.</blockquote> +<p>The sin of the world is a false confidence, a careless, complacent +taking for granted that a man is a Christian when he is not. The +fault, and sorrow, and weakness of the Church is a false diffidence, +an anxious fear whether a man be a Christian when he is. There are +none so far away from false confidence as those who tremble lest they +be cherishing it. There are none so inextricably caught in its toils +as those who are all unconscious of <i>its</i> existence and of +<i>their</i> danger. The two things, the false confidence and the +false diffidence, are perhaps more akin to one another than they look +at first sight. Their opposites, at all events—the true +confidence, which is faith in Christ; and the true diffidence, which +is utter distrust of myself—are identical. But there may +sometimes be, and there often is, the combination of a real +confidence and a false diffidence, the presence of faith, and the +doubt whether it be present. Many Christians go through life with +this as the prevailing temper of their minds—a doubt sometimes +arising almost to agony, and sometimes dying down into passive +patient acceptance of the condition as inevitable—a doubt +whether, after all, they be not, as they say, ‘deceiving +themselves’; and in the perverse ingenuity with which that +state of mind is constantly marked, they manage to distil for +themselves a bitter vinegar of self-accusation out of grand words in +the Bible, that were meant to afford them but the wine of gladness +and of consolation.</p> +<p>Now this great text which I have ventured to take—not with +the idea that I can exalt it or say anything worthy of it, but simply +in the hope of clearing away some misapprehensions—is one that +has often and often tortured the mind of Christians. They say of +themselves, ‘I know nothing of any such evidence: I am not +conscious of any Spirit bearing witness with my spirit.’ +Instead of looking to other sources to answer the question whether +they are Christians or not—and then, having answered it, +thinking thus, ‘That text asserts that <i>all</i> Christians +have this witness, therefore certainly I have it in some shape or +other,’ they say to themselves, ‘I do not feel anything +that corresponds with my idea of what such a grand, supernatural +voice as the witness of God's Spirit in my spirit must needs be; and +therefore I doubt whether I am a Christian at all.’ I should be +thankful if the attempt I make now to set before you what seems to me +to be the true teaching of the passage, should be, with God's help, +the means of lifting some little part of the burden from some hearts +that are right, and that only long to know that they are, in order to +be at rest.</p> +<p>‘The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we +are the children of God.’ The general course of thought which I +wish to leave with you may be summed up thus: Our cry +‘Father’ is the witness that we are sons. That cry is not +simply ours, but it is the voice of God's Spirit. The divine Witness +in our spirits is subject to the ordinary influences which affect our +spirits.</p> +<p>Let us take these three thoughts, and dwell on them for a little +while.</p> +<p>I. Our cry ‘Father’ is the witness that we are +sons.</p> +<p>Mark the terms of the passage: ‘The Spirit itself beareth +witness <i>with</i> our spirit—.’ It is not so much a +revelation made to my spirit, considered as the recipient of the +testimony, as a revelation made in or with my spirit considered as +co-operating in the testimony. It is not that my spirit says one +thing, bears witness that I am a child of God; and that the Spirit of +God comes in by a distinguishable process, with a separate evidence, +to say Amen to my persuasion; but it is that there is one testimony +which has a conjoint origin—the origin from the Spirit of God +as true source, and the origin from my own soul as recipient and +co-operant in that testimony. From the teaching of this passage, or +from any of the language which Scripture uses with regard to the +inner witness, it is not to be inferred that there will rise up in a +Christian's heart, from some origin consciously beyond the sphere of +his own nature, a voice with which he has nothing to do; which at +once, by its own character, by something peculiar and distinguishable +about it, by something strange in its nature, or out of the ordinary +course of human thinking, shall certify itself to be not his voice at +all, but <i>God's</i> voice. That is not the direction in which you +are to look for the witness of God's Spirit. It is evidence borne, +indeed, by the Spirit of God; but it is evidence borne not only to +our spirit, but through it, with it. The testimony is one, the +testimony of a man's own emotion, and own conviction, and own desire, +the cry, Abba, Father! So far, then, as the form of the evidence +goes, you are not to look for it in anything ecstatic, arbitrary, +parted off from your own experience by a broad line of demarcation; +but you are to look into the experience which at first sight you +would claim most exclusively for your own, and to try and find out +whether <i>there</i> there be not working with your soul, working +through it, working beneath it, distinct from it but not +distinguishable from it by anything but its consequences and its +fruitfulness—a deeper voice than yours—a ‘still +small voice,’—no whirlwind, nor fire, nor +earthquake—but the voice of God speaking in secret, taking the +voice and tones of your own heart and your own consciousness, and +saying to you, ‘Thou art my child, inasmuch as, operated by My +grace, and Mine inspiration alone, there rises, tremblingly but +truly, in thine own soul the cry, Abba, Father.’</p> +<p>So much, then, for the form of this evidence—my own +conviction. Then with regard to the substance of it: conviction of +what? The text itself does not tell us what is the evidence which the +Spirit bears, and by reason of which we have a right to conclude that +we are the children of God. The previous verse tells us. I have +partially anticipated what I have to say on that point, but it will +bear a little further expansion. ‘Ye have not received the +spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of +adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father.’ ‘The Spirit +itself,’ by this means of our cry, Abba, Father, ‘beareth +witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.’ The +substance, then, of the conviction which is lodged in the human +spirit by the testimony of the Spirit of God is not primarily +directed to our relation or feelings to God, but to a far grander +thing than that—to God's feelings and relation to us. Now I +want you to think for one moment, before I pass on, how entirely +different the whole aspect of this witness of the Spirit of which +Christian men speak so much, and sometimes with so little +understanding, becomes according as you regard it mistakenly as being +the direct testimony to you that you are a child of God, or rightly +as being the direct testimony to you that God is your Father. The two +things seem to be the same, but they are not. In the one case, the +false case, the mistaken interpretation, we are left to this, that a +man has no deeper certainty of his condition, no better foundation +for his hope, than what is to be drawn from the presence or absence +of certain emotions within his own heart. In the other case, we are +admitted into this ‘wide place,’ that all which is our +own is second and not first, and that the true basis of all our +confidence lies not in the thought of what we are and feel to God, +but in the thought of what God is and feels to us. And instead, +therefore, of being left to labour for ourselves, painfully to search +amongst the dust and rubbish of our own hearts, we are taught to +sweep away all that crumbled, rotten surface, and to go down to the +living rock that lies beneath it; we are taught to say, in the words +of the book of Isaiah, ‘Doubtless Thou art our Father—we +are all an unclean thing; our iniquities, like the wind, have carried +us away’; there is nothing stable in us; our own resolutions, +they are swept away like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor, by +the first gust of temptation; but what of that?—‘in those +is continuance, and we shall be saved!’ Ah, brethren! expand +this thought of the conviction that God is my Father, as being the +basis of all my confidence that I am His child, into its widest and +grandest form, and it leads us up to the blessed old conviction, I am +nothing, my holiness is nothing, my resolutions are nothing, my faith +is nothing, my energies are nothing; I stand stripped, and barren, +and naked of everything, and I fling myself out of myself into the +merciful arms of my Father in heaven! There is all the difference in +the world between searching for evidence of my sonship, and seeking +to get the conviction of God's Fatherhood. The one is an endless, +profitless, self-tormenting task; the other is the light and liberty, +the glorious liberty, of the children of God.</p> +<p>And so the <i>substance</i> of the Spirit's evidence is the direct +conviction based on the revelation of God's infinite love and +fatherhood in Christ the Son, that God is my Father; from which +direct conviction I come to the conclusion, the inference, the second +thought, Then I may trust that I am His son. But why? Because of +anything in me? No: because of Him. The very emblem of fatherhood and +sonship might teach us that <i>that</i> depends upon the Father's +will and the Father's heart. The Spirit's testimony has for form my +own conviction: and for substance my humble cry, ‘Oh Thou, my +Father in heaven!’ Brethren, is not that a far truer and nobler +kind of thing to preach than saying, Look into your own heart for +strange, extraordinary, distinguishable signs which shall mark you +out as God's child—and which are proved to be His Spirit's, +because they are separated from the ordinary human consciousness? Is +it not far more blessed for us, and more honouring to Him who works +the sign, when we say, that it is to be found in no out-of-rule, +miraculous evidence, but in the natural (which is in reality +supernatural) working of His Spirit in the heart which is its +recipient, breeding there the conviction that God is my Father? And +oh, if I am speaking to any to whom that text, with all its light and +glory, has seemed to lift them up into an atmosphere too rare and a +height too lofty for their heavy wings and unused feet, if I am +speaking to any Christian man to whom this word has been like the +cherubim and flaming sword, bright and beautiful, but threatening and +repellent when it speaks of a Spirit that bears witness with our +spirit—I ask you simply to take the passage for yourself, and +carefully and patiently to examine it, and see if it be not true what +I have been saying, that your trembling conviction—sister and +akin as it is to your deepest distrust and sharpest sense of sin and +unworthiness—that your trembling conviction of a love mightier +than your own, everlasting and all-faithful, is indeed the selectest +sign that God can give you that you <i>are</i> His child. Oh, +brethren and sisters! be confident; for it is not false confidence: +be confident if up from the depths of that dark well of your own +sinful heart there rises sometimes, through all the bitter waters, +unpolluted and separate, a sweet conviction, forcing itself upward, +that God hath love in His heart, and that God is <i>my</i> Father. Be +confident; ‘the Spirit itself beareth witness with your +spirit.’</p> +<p>II. And now, secondly, That cry is not simply ours, but it is the +voice of God's Spirit.</p> +<p>Our own convictions are ours because they are God's. Our own souls +possess these emotions of love and tender desire going out to +God—our own spirits possess them; but our own spirits did not +originate them. They are ours by property; they are His by source. +The spirit of a Christian man has no good thought in it, no true +thought, no perception of the grace of God's Gospel, no holy desire, +no pure resolution, which is not stamped with the sign of a higher +origin, and is not the witness of God's Spirit in his spirit. The +passage before us tells us that the sense of Fatherhood which is in +the Christian's heart, and becomes his cry, comes from God's Spirit. +This passage, and that in the Epistle to the Galatians which is +almost parallel, put this truth very forcibly, when taken in +connection. ‘Ye have received,’ says the text before us, +‘the Spirit of adoption, whereby <i>we</i> cry, Abba, +Father.’ The variation in the Epistle to the Galatians is this: +‘Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son +into your hearts, <i>crying</i> (the Spirit crying), Abba, +Father.’ So in the one text, the cry is regarded as the voice +of the believing heart; and in the other the same cry is regarded as +the voice of God's Spirit. And these two things are both true; the +one would want its foundation if it were not for the other; the cry +of the Spirit is nothing for me unless it be appropriated by me. I do +not need to plunge here into metaphysical speculation of any sort, +but simply to dwell upon the plain practical teaching of the +Bible—a teaching verified, I believe, by every Christian's +experience, if he will search into it—that everything in him +which makes the Christian life, is not his, but is God's by origin, +and his only by gift and inspiration. And the whole doctrine of my +text is built on this one thought—without the Spirit of God in +your heart, you never can recognise God as your Father. That in us +which runs, with love, and childlike faith, and reverence, to the +place ‘where His honour dwelleth,’ that in us which says +‘Father,’ is kindred with God, and is not the simple, +unhelped, unsanctified human nature. There is no ascent of human +desires above their source. And wherever in a heart there springs up +heavenward a thought, a wish, a prayer, a trembling confidence, it is +because that came down first from heaven, and rises to seek its level +again. All that is divine in man comes from God. All that tends +towards God in man is God's voice in the human heart; and were it not +for the possession and operation, the sanctifying and quickening, of +a living divine Spirit granted to us, our souls would for ever cleave +to the dust and dwell upon earth, nor ever rise to God and live in +the light of His presence. Every Christian, then, may be sure of +this, that howsoever feeble may be the thought and conviction in his +heart of God's Fatherhood, <i>he</i> did not work it, he received it +only, cherished it, thought of it, watched over it, was careful not +to quench it; but in origin it was God's, and it is now and ever the +voice of the Divine Spirit in the child's heart.</p> +<p>But, my friends, if this principle be true, it does not apply only +to this one single attitude of the believing soul when it cries, +Abba, Father; it must be widened out to comprehend the whole of a +Christian's life, outward and inward, which is not sinful and +darkened with actual transgression. To all the rest of his being, to +everything in heart and life which is right and pure, the same truth +applies. ‘The Spirit itself beareth witness with our +spirit’ in every perception of God's word which is granted, in +every revelation of His counsel which dawns upon our darkness, in +every aspiration after Him which lifts us above the smoke and dust of +this dim spot, in every holy resolution, in every thrill and throb of +love and desire. Each of these is mine—inasmuch as in my heart +it is experienced and transacted; it is mine, inasmuch as I am not a +mere dead piece of matter, the passive recipient of a magical and +supernatural grace; but it is God's; and therefore, and therefore +only, has it come to be mine!</p> +<p>And if it be objected, that this opens a wide door to all manner +of delusion, and that there is no more dangerous thing than for a man +to confound his own thoughts with the operations of God's Spirit, let +me just give you (following the context before us) the one guarantee +and test which the Apostle lays down. He says, ‘There is a +witness from God in your spirits.’ You may say, That witness, +if it come in the form of these convictions in my own heart, I may +mistake and falsely read. Well, then, here is an outward guarantee. +‘As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of +God’; and so, on the regions both of heart and of life the +consecrating thought,—God's work, and God's Spirit's +work—is stamped. The heart with its love, the head with its +understanding, the conscience with its quick response to the law of +duty, the will with its resolutions,—these are all, as +sanctified by Him, the witness of His Spirit; and the life with its +strenuous obedience, with its struggles against sin and temptation, +with its patient persistence in the quiet path of ordinary duty, as +well as with the times when it rises into heroic stature of +resignation or allegiance, the martyrdom of death and the martyrdom +of life, this too is all (in so far as it is pure and right) the work +of that same Spirit. The test of the inward conviction is the outward +life; and they that have the witness of the Spirit within them have +the light of their life lit by the Spirit of God, whereby they may +read the handwriting on the heart, and be sure that it is God's and +not their own.</p> +<p>III. And now, lastly, this divine Witness in our spirits is +subject to the ordinary influences which affect our spirits.</p> +<p>The notion often prevails that if there be in the heart this +divine witness of God's Spirit, it must needs be perfect, clearly +indicating its origin by an exemption from all that besets ordinary +human feelings, that it must be a strong, uniform, never flickering, +never darkening, and perpetual light, a kind of vestal fire burning +always on the altar of the heart! The passage before us, and all +others that speak about the matter, give us the directly opposite +notion. The Divine Spirit, when it enters into the narrow room of the +human spirit, condescends to submit itself, not wholly, but to such +an extent as practically for our present purpose <i>is</i> wholly to +submit itself to the ordinary laws and conditions and contingencies +which befall and regulate our own human nature. Christ came into the +world divine: He was ‘found in fashion as a man,’ in form +a servant; the humanity that He wore limited (if you like), +regulated, modified, the manifestation of the divinity that dwelt in +it. And not otherwise is the operation of God's Holy Spirit when it +comes to dwell in a human heart. There too, working through man, +<i>it</i> ‘is found in fashion as a man’; and though the +origin of the conviction be of God, and though the voice in my heart +be not only my voice, but God's voice there, it will obey those same +laws which make human thoughts and emotions vary, and fluctuate, +flicker and flame up again, burn bright and burn low, according to a +thousand circumstances. The witness of the Spirit, if it were yonder +in heaven, would shine like a perpetual star; the witness of the +Spirit, here in the heart on earth, burns like a flickering flame, +never to be extinguished, but still not always bright, wanting to be +trimmed, and needing to be guarded from rude blasts. Else, brother, +what does an Apostle mean when he says to you and me, ‘Quench +not the Spirit’? what does he mean when he says to us, +‘Grieve not the Spirit’? What does the whole teaching +which enjoins on us, ‘Let your loins be girded about, and your +lights burning,’ and ‘What I say to you, I say to all, +Watch!’ mean, unless it means this, that God-given as (God be +thanked!) that conviction of Fatherhood is, it is not given in such a +way as that, irrespective of our carefulness, irrespective of our +watching, it shall burn on—the same and unchangeable? The +Spirit's witness comes from God, therefore it is veracious, divine, +omnipotent; but the Spirit's witness from God is in man, therefore it +may be wrongly read, it may be checked, it may for a time be kept +down, and prevented from showing itself to be what it is.</p> +<p>And the practical conclusion that comes from all this, is just the +simple advice to you all: Do not wonder, in the first place, if that +evidence of which we speak, vary and change in its clearness and +force in your own hearts. ‘The flesh lusteth against the +spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.’ Do not think that it +cannot be genuine, because it is changeful. There is a sun in the +heavens, but there are heavenly lights too that wax and wane; they +<i>are</i> lights, they <i>are</i> in the heavens though they change. +You have no reason, Christian man, to be discouraged, cast down, +still less despondent, because you find that the witness of the +Spirit changes and varies in your heart. Do not despond because it +does; watch it, and guard it, lest it do; live in the contemplation +of the Person and the fact that calls it forth, that it may not. You +will never ‘brighten your evidences’ by polishing at +them. To polish the mirror ever so assiduously does not secure the +image of the sun on its surface. The only way to do that is to carry +the poor bit of glass out into the sunshine. It will shine then, +never fear. It is weary work to labour at self-improvement with the +hope of drawing from our own characters evidences that we are the +sons of God. To have the heart filled with the light of Christ's love +to us is the only way to have the whole being full of light. If you +would have clear and irrefragable, for a perpetual joy, a glory and a +defence, the unwavering confidence, ‘I am Thy child,’ go +to God's throne, and lie down at the foot of it, and let the first +thought be, ‘My Father in heaven,’ and <i>that</i> will +brighten, that will stablish, that will make omnipotent in your life +the witness of the Spirit that you are the child of God.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="sah18" id="sah18">SONS AND HEIRS</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and +joint-heirs with Christ.’—ROMANS viii. 17.</blockquote> +<p>God Himself is His greatest gift. The loftiest blessing which we +can receive is that we should be heirs, possessors of God. There is a +sublime and wonderful mutual possession of which Scripture speaks +much wherein the Lord is the inheritance of Israel, and Israel is the +inheritance of the Lord. ‘The Lord hath taken you to be to Him +a people of inheritance,’ says Moses; ‘Ye are a people +for a possession,’ says Peter. And, on the other hand, +‘The Lord is the portion of my inheritance,’ says David; +‘Ye are heirs of God,’ echoes Paul. On earth and in +heaven the heritage of the children of the Lord is God Himself, +inasmuch as He is with them for their delight, in them to make them +‘partakers of the divine nature,’ and for them in all His +attributes and actions.</p> +<p>This being clearly understood at the outset, we shall be prepared +to follow the Apostle's course of thought while he points out the +conditions upon which the possession of that inheritance depends. It +is children of God who are heirs of God. It is by union with Christ +Jesus, the Son, to whom the inheritance belongs, that they who +believe on His name receive power to become the sons of God, and with +that power the possession of the inheritance. Thus, then, in this +condensed utterance of the text there appear a series of thoughts +which may perhaps be more fully unfolded in some such manner as the +following, that there is no inheritance without sonship, that there +is no sonship without a spiritual birth, that there is no spiritual +birth without Christ, and that there is no Christ for us without +faith.</p> +<p>I. First, then, the text tells us, no inheritance without +sonship.</p> +<p>In general terms, spiritual blessings can only be given to those +who are in a certain spiritual condition. Always and necessarily the +capacity or organ of reception precedes and determines the bestowment +of blessings. The light falls everywhere, but only the eye drinks it +in. The lower orders of creatures are shut out from all participation +in the gifts which belong to the higher forms of life, simply because +they are so made and organised as that these cannot find entrance +into their nature. They are, as it were, walled up all round; and the +only door they have to communicate with the outer world is the door +of sense. Man has higher gifts simply because he has higher +capacities. All creatures are plunged in the same boundless ocean of +divine beneficence and bestowment, and into each there flows just +that, and no more, which each, by the make and constitution that God +has given it, is capable of receiving. In the man there are more +windows and doors opened out than in the animal He is capable of +receiving intellectual impulses, spiritual emotions; he can think, +and feel, and desire, and will, and resolve: and so he stands on a +higher level than the beast below him.</p> +<p>Not otherwise is it in regard to God's kingdom, ‘which is +righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’ The gift +and blessing of salvation is primarily a spiritual gift, and only +involves outward consequences secondarily and subordinately. It +mainly consists in the heart being at peace with God, in the whole +soul being filled with divine affections, in the weight and bondage +of transgression being taken away, and substituted by the impulse and +the life of the new love. Therefore, neither God can give, nor man +can receive, that gift upon any other terms, than just this, that the +heart and nature be fitted and adapted for it. Spiritual blessings +require a spiritual capacity for the reception of them; or, as my +text says, you cannot have the inheritance unless you are sons. If +salvation consisted simply in a change of place; if it were merely +that by some expedient or arrangement, an outward penalty, which was +to fall or not to fall at the will of an arbitrary judge, were +prevented from coming down, why then, it would be open to Him who +held the power of letting the sword fall, to decide on what terms He +might choose to suspend its infliction. But inasmuch as God's +deliverance is not a deliverance from a mere arbitrary and outward +punishment: inasmuch as God's salvation, though it be deliverance +from the penalty as well as from the guilt of sin, is by no means +chiefly a deliverance from outward consequences, but mainly a removal +of the nature and disposition that makes these outward consequences +certain,—therefore a man cannot be saved, God's love cannot +save him, God's justice will not save him, God's power stands back +from saving him, upon any other condition than this that his soul +shall be adapted and prepared for the reception and enjoyment of the +blessing of a spiritual salvation.</p> +<p>But the inheritance which my text speaks about is also that which +a Christian hopes to receive and enter upon in heaven. The same +principle precisely applies there. There is no inheritance of heaven +without sonship; because all the blessings of that future life are of +a spiritual character. The joy and the rapture and the glory of that +higher and better life have, of course, connected with them certain +changes of bodily form, certain changes of local dwelling, certain +changes which could perhaps be granted equally to a man, of whatever +sort he was. But, friends, it is not the golden harps, not the +pavement of ‘glass mingled with fire,’ not the cessation +from work, not the still composure, and changeless indwelling, not +the society even, that makes the heaven of heaven. All these are but +the embodiments and rendering visible of the inward facts, a soul at +peace with God in the depths of its being, an eye which gazes upon +the Father, and a heart which wraps itself in His arms. Heaven is no +heaven except in so far as it is the possession of God. That saying +of the Psalmist is not an exaggeration, nor even a forgetting of the +other elements of future blessedness, but it is a simple statement of +the literal fact of the case, ‘I have none in heaven but +Thee!’ God is the heritage of His people. To dwell in His love, +and to be filled with His light, and to walk for ever in the glory of +His sunlit face, to do His will, and to bear His character stamped +upon our foreheads—<i>that</i> is the glory and the perfectness +to which we are aspiring. Do not then rest in the symbols that show +us, darkly and far off, what that future glory is. Do not forget that +the picture is a shadow. Get beneath all these figurative +expressions, and feel that whilst it may be true that for us in our +present earthly state, there can be no higher, no purer, no more +spiritual nor any truer representations of the blessedness which is +to come, than those which couch it in the forms of earthly +experience, and appeal to sense as the minister of delight—yet +that all these things are representations, and not adequate +presentations. The inheritance of the servants of the Lord is the +Lord Himself, and they dwell in Him, and <i>there</i> is their +joy.</p> +<p>Well then, if that be even partially true—admitting all that +you may say about circumstances which go to make some portion of the +blessedness of that future life—if it be true that God is the +true blessing given by His Gospel upon earth, that He Himself is the +greatest gift that can be bestowed, and that He is the true Heaven of +heaven—what a flood of light does it cast upon that statement +of my text, ‘If children, then heirs’; no inheritance +without sonship! For who can possess God but they who love Him? who +can love, but they who know His love? who can have Him working in +their hearts a blessed and sanctifying change, except the souls that +lie thankfully quiet beneath the forming touch of His invisible hand, +and like flowers drink in the light of His face in their still joy? +How can God dwell in any heart except a heart which has in it a love +of purity? Where can He make His temple except in the ‘upright +heart and pure’? How can there be fellowship betwixt Him and +any one except the man who is a son because he hath received of the +divine nature, and in whom that divine nature is growing up into a +divine likeness? ‘What fellowship hath Christ with +Belial?’ is not only applicable as a guide for our practical +life, but points to the principle on which God's inheritance belongs +to God's sons alone. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they +shall see God’; and those only who love, and are children, to +them alone does the Father come and does the Father belong.</p> +<p>So much, then, for the first principle: No inheritance without +sonship.</p> +<p>II. Secondly, the text leads us to the principle that there is no +sonship without a spiritual birth.</p> +<p>The Apostle John in that most wonderful preface to his Gospel, +where all deepest truths concerning the Eternal Being in itself and +in the solemn march of His progressive revelations to the world are +set forth in language simple like the words of a child and +inexhaustible like the voice of a god, draws a broad distinction +between the relation to the manifestations of God which every human +soul by virtue of his humanity sustains, and that into which some, by +virtue of their faith, enter. Every man is lighted by the true light +because he is a man. They who believe in His name receive from Him +the prerogative to become the sons of God. Whatever else may be +taught in John's words, surely they do teach us this, that the +sonship of which he speaks does not belong to man as man, is not a +relation into which we are born by natural birth, that we +<i>become</i> sons after we <i>are</i> men, that those who become +sons do not include all those who are lighted by the Light, but +consist of so many of that greater number as receive Him, and that +such become sons by a divine act, the communication of a spiritual +life, whereby they are born of God.</p> +<p>The same Apostle, in his Epistles, where the widest love is +conjoined with the most firmly drawn lines of moral demarcation +between the great opposites—life, light, love—death, +darkness, hate—contrasts in the most unmistakable antithesis +the sons of God who are known for such because they do righteousness, +and the world which knew not Christ, nor knows those who, dimly +beholding, partially resemble Him. Nay, he goes further, and says in +strange contradiction to the popular estimate of his character, but +in true imitation of that Incarnate love which hated iniquity, +‘In this the children of God are manifested and the children of +the devil’—echoing thus the words of Him whose pitying +tenderness had sometimes to clothe itself in sharpest words, even as +His hand of powerful love had once to grasp the scourge of small +cords. ‘If God were your Father, ye would love Me: ye are of +your father, the devil.’</p> +<p>These are but specimens of a whole cycle of Scripture statements +which in every form of necessary implication, and of direct +statement, set forth the principle that he who is born again of the +Spirit, and he only, is a son of God.</p> +<p>Nothing in all this contradicts the belief that all men are the +children of God, inasmuch as they are shaped by His divine hand and +He has breathed into their nostrils the breath of life. They who hold +that sonship is obtained on the condition which these passages seem +to assert, do also rejoice to believe and to preach that the Father's +love broods over every human heart as the dovelike Spirit over the +primeval chaos. They rejoice to proclaim that Christ has come that +all, that each, may receive the adoption of sons. They do not feel +that their message to, nor their hope for, the world is less blessed, +less wide, because while they call on all to come and take the things +that are freely given to them of God, they believe that those only +who do come and take possess the blessing. Every man may become a son +and heir of God by faith in Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>But notwithstanding all the mercies that belong to us all, +notwithstanding the divine beneficence, which, like the air and the +light, pervades all nature, and underlies all our lives, +notwithstanding the universal adaptation and intention of Christ's +work, notwithstanding the wooing of His tender voice and the +unceasing beckoning of His love, it still remains true that there are +men in the world, created by God, loved and cared for by Him, for +whom Christ died, who might be, but are not, sons of God.</p> +<p>Fatherhood! what does that word itself teach us? It speaks of the +communication of a life, and the reciprocity of love. It rests upon a +divine act, and it involves a human emotion. It involves that the +father and the child shall have kindred life—the father +bestowing and the child possessing a life which is derived; and +because derived, kindred; and because kindred, unfolding itself in +likeness to the father that gave it. And it requires that between the +father's heart and the child's heart there shall pass, in blessed +interchange and quick correspondence, answering love, flashing +backwards and forwards, like the lightning that touches the earth and +rises from it again. A simple appeal to your own consciousness will +decide if that be the condition of all men. Are you, my brother, +conscious of anything within you higher than the common life that +belongs to you because you are an immortal soul? Can you say, +‘From God's hand I have received the granting and implantation +of a new and better life?’ Is your claim verified by this, that +you are kindred with God in holy affections, in like purposes, loving +what He loves, hating what He hates, doing what He wills, accepting +what He sends, longing for Himself, and blessed in His presence? Is +your sonship proved by the depth and sincerity, the simplicity and +power, of your throbbing heart of love to your Father in heaven? Or +are all these emotions empty words to you, things that are spoken in +pulpits, but to which you have nothing in your life corresponding? Oh +then, my friend, what am I to say to you? What but this? no sonship +except by that spiritual birth; and if not such sonship, then the +spirit of bondage. If not such sonship, why then, by all the +tendencies of your nature, and by all the affinities of your moral +being, if you are not holding of heaven, you are holding of hell; if +you are not drawing your life, your character, your emotions, your +affections, from the sacred well that lies up yonder, you are drawing +them from the black one that lies down there. There are heaven, hell, +and the earth that lies between, ever influenced either from above or +from below. You are sons because born again, or slaves and +‘enemies by wicked works.’ It is a grim alternative, but +it is a fact.</p> +<p>III. Thirdly, no spiritual birth without Christ.</p> +<p>We have seen that the sonship which gives power of possessing the +inheritance and which comes by spiritual birth, rests upon the giving +of life, spiritual life, from God; and unfolds itself in certain holy +characters, and affections, and desires, the throbbing of the whole +soul in full accord and harmony with the divine character and will. +Well then, it looks very clear that a man cannot make that new life +for himself, cannot do it because of the habit of sin, and cannot do +it because of the guilt and punishment of sin. If for sonship there +must be a birth again, why, surely, the very symbol might convince +you that such a process does not lie within our own power. There must +come down a divine leaven into the mass of human nature, before this +new being can be evolved in any one. There must be a gift of God. A +divine energy must be the source and fountain of all holy and of all +Godlike life. Christ comes, comes to make you and me live again as we +never lived before; live possessors of God's love; live tenanted and +ruled by a divine Spirit; live with affections in our hearts which +<i>we</i> never could kindle there; live with purposes in our souls +which <i>we</i> never could put there.</p> +<p>And I want to urge this thought, that the centre point of the +Gospel is this regeneration; because if we understand, as we are too +much disposed to do, that the Gospel simply comes to make men live +better, to work out a moral reformation,—why, there is no need +for a Gospel at all. If the change were a simple change of habit and +action on the part of men, we could do without a Christ. If the +change simply involved a bracing ourselves up to behave better for +the future, we could manage somehow or other about as well as or +better than we have managed in the past. But if redemption be the +giving of life from God; and if redemption be the change of position +in reference to God's love and God's law as well, neither of these +two changes can a man effect for himself. You cannot gather up the +spilt water; you cannot any more gather up and re-issue the past +life. The sin remains, the guilt remains. The inevitable law of God +will go on its crashing way in spite of all penitence, in spite of +all reformation, in spite of all desires after newness of life. There +is but one Being who can make a change in our position in regard to +God, and there is but one Being who can make the change by which man +shall become a ‘new creature.’ The Creative Spirit that +shaped the earth must shape its new being in my soul; and the Father +against whose law I have offended, whose love I have slighted, from +whom I have turned away, must effect the alteration that I can never +effect—the alteration in my position to His judgments and +justice, and to the whole sweep of His government. No new birth +without Christ; no escape from the old standing-place, of being +‘enemies to God by wicked works,’ by anything that we can +do: no hope of the inheritance unless the Lord and the Man, the +‘second Adam from heaven,’ have come! He <i>has</i> come, +and He has ‘dwelt with us,’ and He has worn this life of +ours, and He has walked in the midst of this world, and He knows all +about our human condition, and He has effected an actual change in +the possible aspect of the divine justice and government to us; and +He has carried in the golden urn of His humanity a new spirit and a +new life which He has set down in the midst of the race; and the urn +was broken on the cross of Calvary, and the water flowed out, and +whithersoever that water comes there is life, and whithersoever it +comes not there is death!</p> +<p>IV. Last of all, no Christ without faith.</p> +<p>It is not enough, brethren, that we should go through all these +previous steps, if we then go utterly astray at the end, by +forgetting that there is only one way by which we become partakers of +any of the benefits and blessings that Christ has wrought out. It is +much to say that for inheritance there must be sonship. It is much to +say that for sonship there must be a divine regeneration. It is much +to say that the power of this regeneration is all gathered together +in Christ Jesus. But there are plenty of people that would agree to +all that, who go off at that point, and content themselves with +<i>this</i> kind of thinking—that in some vague mysterious way, +they know not how, in a sort of half-magical manner, the benefit of +Christ's death and work comes to all in Christian lands, whether +there be an act of faith or not! Now I am not going to talk theology +at present, at this stage of my sermon; but what I want to leave upon +all your hearts is this profound conviction,—Unless we are +wedded to Jesus Christ by the simple act of trust in His mercy and +His power, Christ is nothing to us. Do not let us, my friends, blink +that deciding test of the whole matter. We may talk about Christ for +ever; we may set forth aspects of His work, great and glorious. He +may be to us much that is very precious; but the one question, the +question of questions, on which everything else depends, is, Am I +trusting to Him as my divine Redeemer? am I resting in Him as the Son +of God? Some of us here now have a sort of nominal connection with +Christ, who have a kind of imaginative connection with Him; +traditional, ceremonial, by habit of thought, by attendance on public +worship, and by I know not what other means. Ceremonies are nothing, +notions are nothing, beliefs are nothing, formal participation in +worship is nothing. Christ is everything to him that trusts Him. +Christ is nothing but a judge and a condemnation to him who trusts +Him not. And here is the turning-point, Am I resting upon that Lord +for my salvation? If so, you can begin upon that step, the low one on +which you can put your foot, the humble act of faith, and with the +foot there, can climb up. If faith, then new birth; if new birth, +then sonship; if sonship, then an heir of God, and a joint-heir with +Christ.’ But if you have not got your foot upon the lowest +round of the ladder, you will never come within sight of the blessed +face of Him who stands at the top of it, and who looks down to you at +this moment, saying to you, ‘My child, <i>wilt</i> thou not cry +unto Me “Abba, Father?”’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="swcacogwc19" id="swcacogwc19">SUFFERING WITH CHRIST, A +CONDITION OF GLORY WITH CHRIST</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘...Joint heirs with Christ: if so be that we +suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified +together.’—ROMANS viii. 17.</blockquote> +<p>In the former part of this verse the Apostle tells us that in +order to be heirs of God, we must become sons through and joint-heirs +with Christ. He seems at first sight to add in these words of our +text another condition to those already specified, namely, that of +suffering with Christ.</p> +<p>Now, of course, whatever may be the operation of suffering in +fitting for the possession of the Christian inheritance, either here +or in another world, the sonship and the sorrows do not stand on the +same level in regard to that possession. The one is the indispensable +condition of all; the other is but the means for the operation of the +condition. The one—being sons, ‘joint-heirs with +Christ,’—is the root of the whole matter; the +other—the ‘suffering with Him,’—is but the +various process by which from the root there come ‘the blade, +and the ear, and the full corn in the ear.’ Given the +sonship—if it is to be worked out into power and beauty, there +must be suffering with Christ. But unless there be sonship, there is +no possibility of inheriting God; discipline and suffering will be of +no use at all.</p> +<p>The chief lesson which I wish to gather from this text now is that +all God's sons must suffer with Christ; and in addition to this +principle, we may complete our considerations by adding briefly, that +the inheritance must be won by suffering, and that if we suffer with +Him, we certainly shall receive the inheritance.</p> +<p>I. First, then, sonship with Christ necessarily involves suffering +with Him.</p> +<p>I think that we entirely misapprehend the force of this passage +before us, if we suppose it to refer principally or merely to the +outward calamities, what you call trials and afflictions, which +befall people, and see in it only the teaching, that the sorrows of +daily life may have in them a sign of our being children of God, and +some power to prepare us for the glory that is to come. There is a +great deal more in the thought than that, brethren. This is not +merely a text for people who are in affliction, but for all of us. It +does not merely contain a law for a certain part of life, but it +contains a law for the whole of life. It is not merely a promise that +in all our afflictions Christ will be afflicted, but it is a solemn +injunction that we seek to know ‘the fellowship of His +sufferings, and be made conformable to the likeness of His +death,’ if we expect to be ‘found in the likeness of His +Resurrection,’ and to have any share in the community of His +glory. In other words, the foundation of it is not that Christ shares +in our sufferings; but that we, as Christians, in a deep and real +sense do necessarily share and participate in Christ's. We +‘suffer with Him’; <i>not</i> He suffers with us.</p> +<p>Now, do not let us misunderstand each other, or the Apostle's +teaching. Do not suppose that I am forgetting, or wishing you to +account as of small importance, the awful sense in which Christ's +suffering stands as a thing by itself and unapproachable, a solitary +pillar rising up, above the waste of time, to which all men +everywhere are to turn with the one thought, ‘I can do nothing +like that; I need to do nothing like it; it has been done once, and +once for all; and what I have to do is, simply to lie down before +Him, and let the power and the blessings of that death and those +sufferings flow into my heart.’ The Divine Redeemer makes +eternal redemption. The sufferings of Christ—the sufferings of +His life, and the sufferings of His death—both because of the +nature which bore them, and of the aspect which they wore in regard +to us, are in their source, in their intensity, in their character, +and consequences, unapproachable, incapable of repetition, and +needing no repetition whilst the world shall stand. But then, do not +let us forget that the very books and writers in the New Testament +that preach most broadly Christ's sole, all-sufficient, eternal +redemption for the world by His sufferings and death, turn round and +say to us too, ‘“Be planted together in the likeness of +His death”; you are “crucified to the world” by the +Cross of Christ; you are to “fill up that which is behind of +the sufferings of Christ.”’ He Himself speaks of our +drinking of the cup that He drank of, and being baptized with the +baptism that He was baptized with, if we desire to sit yonder on His +throne, and share with Him in His glory.</p> +<p>Now what do the Apostles, and what does Christ Himself, in that +passage that I have quoted, mean, by such solemn words as these? Some +people shrink from them, and say that it is trenching upon the +central doctrine of the Gospel, when we speak about drinking of the +cup which Christ drank of. They ask, Can it be? Yes, it can be, if +you will think thus:—If a Christian has the Spirit and life of +Christ in him, his career will be moulded, imperfectly but really, by +the same Spirit that dwelt in his Lord; and similar causes will +produce corresponding effects. The life of Christ which—divine, +pure, incapable of copy and repetition—in one aspect has ended +for ever for men, remains to be lived, in another view of it, by +every Christian, who in like manner has to fight with the world; who +in like manner has to resist temptation; who in like manner has to +stand, by God's help, pure and sinless, in so far as the new nature +of him is concerned, in the midst of a world that is full of evil. +For were the sufferings of the Lord only the sufferings that were +wrought upon Calvary? Were the sufferings of the Lord only the +sufferings which came from the contradiction of sinners against +Himself? Were the sufferings of the Lord only the sufferings which +were connected with His bodily afflictions and pain, precious and +priceless as they were, and operative causes of our redemption as +they were? Oh no. Conceive of that perfect, sinless, really human +life, in the midst of a system of things that is all full of +corruption and of sin; coming ever and anon against misery, and +wrong-doing, and rebellion; and ask yourselves whether part of His +sufferings did not spring from the contact of the sinless Son of man +with a sinful world, and the apparently vain attempt to influence and +leaven that sinful world with care for itself and love for the +Father. If there had been nothing more than that, yet Christ's +sufferings as the Son of God in the midst of sinful men would have +been deep and real. ‘O faithless generation, how long shall I +be with you? how long shall I suffer you?’ was wrung from Him +by the painful sense of want of sympathy between His aims and theirs. +‘Oh that I had wings like a dove, for then I would fly away and +be at rest,’ must often be the language of those who are like +Him in spirit, and in consequent sufferings.</p> +<p>And then again, another branch of the ‘sufferings of +Christ’ is to be found in that deep and mysterious fact on +which I durst not venture to speak beyond what the actual words of +Scripture put into my lips—the fact that Christ wrought out His +perfect obedience as a man, through temptation and by suffering. +There was no sin <i>within</i> Him, no tendency to sin, no yielding +to the evil that assailed. ‘The Prince of this world cometh, +and hath nothing in Me.’ But yet, when that dark Power stood by +His side, and said, ‘If thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself +down,’ it was a real temptation and not a sham one. There was +no wish to do it, no faltering for a moment, no hesitation. There was +no rising up in that calm will of even a moment's impulse to do the +thing that was presented;—but yet it was presented, and, when +Christ triumphed, and the tempter departed for a season, there had +been a temptation and there had been a conflict. And though obedience +be a joy, and the doing of His Father's will was His delight, as it +must needs be in pure and in purified hearts; yet obedience which is +sustained in the face of temptation, and which never fails, though +its path lead to bodily pains and the ‘contradiction of +sinners,’ may well be called suffering. We cannot speak of our +Lord's obedience as the surrender of His own will to the Father's, +with the implication that these two wills ever did or could move +except in harmony. There was no place in Christ's obedience for that +casting out of sinful self which makes our submission a surrender +joined with suffering, but He knew temptation. Flesh, and sense, and +the world, and the prince of this world, presented it to Him; and +therefore His obedience too was suffering, even though to do the will +of His Father was His meat and His drink, His sustenance and His +refreshment.</p> +<p>But then, let me remind you still further, that not only does the +life of Christ, as sinless in the midst of sinful men, and the life +of Christ, as sinless whilst yet there was temptation presented to +it—assume the aspect of being a life of suffering, and become, +in that respect, the model for us; but that also the Death of Christ, +besides its aspect as an atonement and sacrifice for sin, the power +by which transgression is put away and God's love flows out upon our +souls, has another power given to it in the teaching of the New +Testament. The Death of Christ is a type of the Christian's life, +which is to be one long, protracted, and daily dying to sin, to self, +to the world. The crucifixion of the old manhood is to be the life's +work of every Christian, through the power of faith in that Cross by +which ‘the world is crucified unto Me, and I unto the +world.’ That thought comes over and over again in all forms of +earnest presentation in the Apostle's teaching. Do not slur it over +as if it were a mere fanciful metaphor. It carries in its type a most +solemn reality. The truth is, that, if a Christian, you have a double +life. There is Christ, with His power, with His Spirit, giving you a +nature which is pure and sinless, incapable of transgression, like +His own. The new man, that which is born of God, sinneth not, cannot +sin. But side by side with it, working through it, working in it, +leavening it, indistinguishable from it to your consciousness, by +anything but this that the one works righteousness and the other +works transgression, there is the ‘old man,’ ‘the +flesh,’ ‘the old Adam,’ your own godless, +independent, selfish, proud being. And the one is to slay the other! +Ah, let me tell you, these words—crucifying, casting out the +old man, plucking out the right eye, maiming self of the right hand, +mortifying the deeds of the body—they are something very much +deeper and more awful than poetical symbols and metaphors. They teach +us this, that there is no growth without sore sorrow. Conflict, not +progress, is the word that defines man's path from darkness into +light. No holiness is won by any other means than this, that +wickedness should be slain day by day, and hour by hour. In long +lingering agony often, with the blood of the heart pouring out at +every quivering vein, you are to cut right through the life and being +of that sinful self; to do what the Word does, pierce to the dividing +asunder of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and get rid by +crucifying and slaying—a long process, a painful +process—of your own sinful self. And not until you can stand up +and say, ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,’ +have you accomplished that to which you are consecrated and vowed by +your sonship—‘being conformed unto the likeness of His +death,’ and ‘knowing the fellowship of His +sufferings.’</p> +<p>It is this process, the inward strife and conflict in getting rid +of evil, which the Apostle designates here with the name of +‘suffering with Christ, that we may be also glorified +together.’ On this high level, and not upon the lower one of +the consideration that Christ will help us to bear outward +infirmities and afflictions, do we find the true meaning of all that +Scripture teaching which says indeed, ‘Yes, our sufferings are +<i>His</i>’; but lays the foundation of it in this, ‘His +sufferings are <i>ours</i>.’ It begins by telling us that +Christ has done a work and borne a sorrow that no second can ever do. +Then it tells us that Christ's life of obedience—which, because +it <i>was</i> a life of obedience, was a life of suffering, and +brought Him into a condition of hostility to the men around +Him—is to be repeated in us. It sets before us the Cross of +Calvary, and the sorrows and pains that were felt there;—and it +says to us, Christian men and women, if you want the power for holy +living, have fellowship in that atoning death; and if you want the +pattern of holy living, look at that Cross and feel, ‘I am +crucified to the world by it; and the life that I live in the flesh I +live by the faith of the Son of God.’</p> +<p>Such considerations as these, however, do not necessarily exclude +the other one (which we may just mention and dwell on for a moment), +namely, that where there is this spiritual participation in the +sufferings of Christ, and where His death is reproduced and +perpetuated, as it were, in our daily mortifying ourselves in the +present evil world—there Christ is with us in our afflictions. +God forbid that I should try to strike away any word of consolation +that has come, as these words of my text have come, to so many +sorrowing hearts in all generations, like music in the night and like +cold waters to a thirsty soul. We need not hold that there is no +reference here to that comforting thought, ‘In all our +affliction He is afflicted.’ Brethren, you and I have, each of +us—one in one way, and one in another, all in some way, all in +the right way, none in too severe a way, none in too slight a +way—to tread the path of sorrow; and is it not a blessed thing, +as we go along through that dark valley of the shadow of death down +into which the sunniest paths go sometimes, to come, amidst the +twilight and the gathering clouds, upon tokens that Jesus has been on +the road before us? They tell us that in some trackless lands, when +one friend passes through the pathless forests, he breaks a twig ever +and anon as he goes, that those who come after may see the traces of +his having been there, and may know that they are not out of the +road. Oh, when we are journeying through the murky night, and the +dark woods of affliction and sorrow, it is something to find here and +there a spray broken, or a leafy stem bent down with the tread of His +foot and the brush of His hand as He passed, and to remember that the +path He trod He has hallowed, and thus to find lingering fragrances +and hidden strengths in the remembrance of Him as ‘in all +points tempted like as we are,’ bearing grief <i>for</i> us, +bearing grief <i>with</i> us, bearing grief <i>like</i> us.</p> +<p>Oh, do not, do not, my brethren, keep these sacred thoughts of +Christ's companionship in sorrow, for the larger trials of life. If +the mote in the eye be large enough to annoy you, it is large enough +to bring out His sympathy; and if the grief be too small for Him to +compassionate and share, it is too small for you to be troubled by +it. If you are ashamed to apply that divine thought, ‘Christ +bears this grief with me,’ to those petty molehills that you +sometimes magnify into mountains, think to yourselves that then it is +a shame for you to be stumbling over them. But on the other hand, +never fear to be irreverent or too familiar in the thought that +Christ is willing to bear, and help you to bear, the pettiest, the +minutest, and most insignificant of the daily annoyances that may +come to ruffle you. Whether it be a poison from one serpent sting, or +whether it be poison from a million of buzzing tiny mosquitoes, if +there be a smart, go to Him, and He will help you to endure it. He +will do more, He will bear it with you, for if so be that we suffer +with Him, He suffers with us, and our oneness with Christ brings +about a community of possessions whereby it becomes true of each +trusting soul in its relations to Him, that ‘all mine (joys and +sorrows alike) are thine, and all thine are mine.’</p> +<p>II. There remain some other considerations which may be briefly +stated, in order to complete the lessons of this text. In the second +place, this community of suffering is a necessary preparation for the +community of glory.</p> +<p>I name this principally for the sake of putting in a caution. The +Apostle does not mean to tell us, of course, that if there were such +a case as that of a man becoming a son of God, and having no occasion +or opportunity afterwards, by brevity of life or other causes, for +passing through the discipline of sorrow, his inheritance would be +forfeited. We must always take such passages as this—which seem +to make the discipline of the world an essential part of the +preparing of us for glory—in conjunction with the other +undeniable truth which completes them, that when a man has the love +of God in his heart, however feebly, however newly, there and then he +is fit for the inheritance. I think that Christian people make vast +mistakes sometimes in talking about ‘being made meet for the +inheritance of the saints in light,’ about being ‘ripe +for glory,’ and the like. One thing at any rate is very +certain, it is not the discipline that fits. That which fits goes +before the discipline, and the discipline only develops the fitness. +‘God hath made us meet for the inheritance of the saints in +light,’ says the Apostle. That is a past act. The preparedness +for heaven comes at the moment—if it be a momentary +act—when a man turns to Christ. You may take the lowest and +most abandoned form of human character, and in one moment (it is +possible, and it is often the case) the entrance into that soul of +the feeble germ of that new affection shall at once change the whole +moral habitude of that man. Though it be true, then, that heaven is +only open to those who are capable—by holy aspirations and +divine desires—of entering into it, it is equally true that +such aspirations and desires may be the work of an instant, and may +be superinduced in a moment in a heart the most debased and the most +degraded. ‘This day shalt thou be with Me in +Paradise,’—<i>fit</i> for the inheritance!</p> +<p>And, therefore, let us not misunderstand such words as this text, +and fancy that the necessary discipline, which we have to go through +before we are ready for heaven, is necessary in anything like the +same sense in which it is necessary that a man should have faith in +Christ in order to be saved. The one may be dispensed with, the other +cannot. A Christian at any period of his Christian experience, if it +please God to take him, is fit for the kingdom. The life <i>is</i> +life, whether it be the budding beauty and feebleness of childhood, +or the strength of manhood, or the maturity and calm peace of old +age. But ‘add to your faith,’ that ‘an entrance may +be ministered unto you <i>abundantly</i>.’ Remember that though +the root of the matter, the seed of the kingdom, may be in you; and +that though, therefore, you have a right to feel that, at any period +of your Christian experience, if it please God to take you out of +this world, you are fit for heaven—yet in His mercy He is +leaving you here, training you, disciplining you, cleansing you, +making you to be polished shafts in His quiver; and that all the +glowing furnaces of fiery trial and all the cold waters of affliction +are but the preparation through which the rough iron is to be passed +before it becomes tempered steel, a shaft in the Master's hand.</p> +<p>And so learn to look upon all trial as being at once the seal of +your sonship, and the means by which God puts it within your power to +win a higher place, a loftier throne, a nobler crown, a closer +fellowship with Him ‘who hath suffered, being tempted,’ +and who will receive into His own blessedness and rest them that are +tempted. ‘The child, though he be an heir, differeth nothing +from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and +governors.’ God puts us in the school of sorrow under that +stern tutor and governor here, and gives us the opportunity of +‘suffering with Christ,’ that by the daily crucifixion of +our old nature, by the lessons and blessings of outward calamities +and change, there may grow up in us a still nobler and purer, and +perfecter divine life; and that we may so be made capable—more +capable, and capable of more—of that inheritance for which the +only necessary thing is the death of Christ, and the only fitness is +faith in His name.</p> +<p>III. Finally, that inheritance is the necessary result of the +suffering that has gone before.</p> +<p>The suffering results from our union with Christ. That union must +needs culminate in glory. It is not only because the joy hereafter +seems required in order to vindicate God's love to His children, who +here reap sorrow from their sonship, that the discipline of life +cannot but end in blessedness. That ground of mere compensation is a +low one on which to rest the certainty of future bliss. But the +inheritance is sure to all who here suffer with Christ, because the +one cause—union with the Lord—produces both the present +result of fellowship in His sorrows, and the future result of joy in +His joy, of possession of His possessions. The inheritance is sure +because Christ possesses it now. The inheritance is sure because +earth's sorrows not merely require to be repaid by its peace, but +because they have an evident design to fit us for it, and it would be +destructive to all faith in God's wisdom, and God's knowledge of His +own purposes, not to believe that what He has wrought us for will be +given to us. Trials have no meaning, unless they are means to an end. +The end is the inheritance, and sorrows here, as well as the Spirit's +work here, are the earnest of the inheritance. Measure the greatness +of the glory by what has preceded it. God takes all these years of +life, and all the sore trials and afflictions that belong inevitably +to an earthly career, and works them in, into the blessedness that +<i>shall</i> come. If a fair measure of the greatness of any result +of productive power be the length of time that was taken for getting +it ready, we can dimly conceive what that joy must be for which +seventy years of strife and pain and sorrow are but a momentary +preparation; and what must be the weight of that glory which is the +counterpoise and consequence to the afflictions of this lower world. +The further the pendulum swings on the one side, the further it goes +up on the other. The deeper God plunges the comet into the darkness +out yonder, the closer does it come to the sun at its nearest +distance, and the longer does it stand basking and glowing in the +full blaze of the glory from the central orb. So in <i>our</i> +revolution, the measure of the distance from the farthest point of +our darkest earthly sorrow, <i>to</i> the throne, may help us to the +measure of the closeness of the bright, perfect, perpetual glory +above, when we are <i>on</i> the throne: for if so be that we are +sons, we <i>must</i> suffer with Him; if so be that we suffer, we +<i>must</i> be glorified together!</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tros20" id="tros20">THE REVELATION OF SONS</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘For the earnest expectation of the creature +waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.’—ROMANS +viii. 19.</blockquote> +<p>The Apostle has been describing believers as ‘sons’ +and ‘heirs.’ He drops from these transcendent heights to +contrast their present apparent condition with their true character +and their future glory. The sad realities of suffering darken his +lofty hopes, even although these sad realities are to his faith +tokens of joint-heirship with Jesus, and pledges that if our +inheritance is here manifested by suffering with him, that very fact +is a prophecy of common glory hereafter. He describes that future as +the revealing of a glory, to which the sufferings of this present +time are not worthy to be compared; and then, in our text he varies +the application of that thought of revealing and thinks of the +subjects of it as being the ‘sons of God.’ They will be +revealed when the glory which they have as joint-heirs with Christ is +revealed in them. They walk, as it were, compassed with mist and +cloud, but the splendour which will fall on them will scatter the +envious darkness, and ‘when Christ who is our life shall +appear, then shall His co-heirs also appear with Him in +glory.’</p> +<p>We may consider—</p> +<p>I. The present veil over the sons of God.</p> +<p>There is always a difference between appearance and reality, +between the ideal and its embodiments. For all men it is true that +the full expression of oneself is impossible. Each man's deeds fall +short of disclosing the essential self in the man. Every will is +hampered by the fleshly screen of the body. ‘I would that my +tongue could utter the thoughts that arise in me,’ is the +yearning of every heart that is deeply moved. Contending principles +successively sway every personality and thwart each other's +expression. For these, and many other reasons, the sum-total of every +life is but a shrouded representation of the man who lives it; and +we, all of us, after all efforts at self-revelation, remain mysteries +to our fellows and to ourselves. All this is eminently true of the +sons of God. They have a life-germ hidden in their souls, which in +its very nature is destined to fill and expand their whole being, and +to permeate with its triumphant energy every corner of their nature. +But it is weak and often overborne by its opposite. The seed sown is +to grow in spite of bad weather and a poor soil and many weeds, and +though it is destined to overcome all these, it may to-day only be +able to show on the surface a little patch of pale and struggling +growth. When we think of the cost at which the life of Christ was +imparted to men, and of the divine source from which it comes, and of +the sedulous and protracted discipline through which it is being +trained, we cannot but conclude that nothing short of its universal +dominion over all the faculties of its imperfect possessors can be +the goal of its working. Hercules in his cradle is still Hercules, +and strangles snakes. Frost and sun may struggle in midwinter, and +the cold may seem to predominate, but the sun is steadily enlarging +its course in the sky, and increasing the fervour of its beams, and +midsummer day is as sure to dawn as the shortest day was.</p> +<p>The sons of God, even more truly than other men, have contending +principles fighting within them. It was the same Apostle who with +oaths denied that he ‘knew the man,’ and in a passion of +clinging love and penitence fell at His feet; but for the mere +onlooker it would be hard to say which was the true man and which +would conquer. The sons of God, like other men, have to express +themselves in words which are never closely enough fitted to their +thoughts and feelings. David's penitence has to be contented with +groans which are not deep enough; and John's calm raptures on his +Saviour's breast can only be spoken by shut eyes and silence. The +sons of God never fully correspond to their character, but always +fall somewhat beneath their desire, and must always be somewhat less +than their intention. The artist never wholly embodies his +conception. It is only God who ‘rests from His works’ +because the works fully embody His creative design and fully receive +the benediction of His own satisfaction with them.</p> +<p>From all such thoughts there arises a piece of plain practical +wisdom, which warns Christian men not to despond or despair if they +do not find themselves living up to their ideal. The sons of God are +‘veiled’ because the world's estimate of them is untrue. +The old commonplace that the world knows nothing of its greatest men +is verified in the opinions which it holds about the sons of God. It +is not for their Christianity that they get any of the world's +honours and encomiums, if such fall to their share. They are +<i>un</i>known and yet <i>well</i>-known. They live for the most part +veiled in obscurity. ‘The light shineth in darkness, and the +darkness comprehendeth it not.’ They are God's hidden ones. If +they are wise, they will look for no recognition nor eulogy from the +world, and will be content to live, as unknown by the princes of this +world as was the Lord of glory, whom they slew because their dim eyes +could not see the flashing of the glory ‘through the veil, that +is to say, His flesh.’ But no consciousness of imperfection in +our revelation of an indwelling Christ must ever be allowed to +diminish our efforts to live out the life that is in us, and to shine +as lights in the world; nor must the consciousness that we walk as +‘veiled,’ lead us to add to the thick folds the criminal +one of voluntary silence and cowardly hiding in dumb hearts the +secret of our lives.</p> +<p>II. The unveiling of the sons of God.</p> +<p>That unveiling is in the text represented as coming along with the +glory which shall be revealed to usward, and as being contemporaneous +with the deliverance of the creation itself from the bondage of +corruption, and its passing into the liberty of the glory of the +children of God. It coincides with the vanishing of the pain in which +the whole creation now groans and travails, and with the +adoption—that is, the redemption of our body. Then hope will be +seen and will pass into still fruition. All this points to the time +when Jesus Christ is revealed, and His servants are revealed with Him +in glory. That revelation brings with it of necessity the +manifestation of the sons of God for what they are—the making +visible in the life of what God sees them to be.</p> +<p>That revelation of the sons of God is the result of the entire +dominion and transforming supremacy of the Spirit of God in them. In +the whole sweep of their consciousness there will in that day be +nothing done from other motives; there will be no sidelights flashing +in and disturbing the perfect illumination from the candle of the +Lord set on high in their being; there will be no contradictions in +the life. It will be one and simple, and therefore perfectly +intelligible. Such is the destined issue of the most imperfect +Christian life. The Christian man who has in his experience to-day +the faintest and most interrupted operation of the spirit of life in +Christ Jesus has therein a pledge of immortality, because nothing +short of an endless life of progressive and growing purity will be +adequate to receive and exemplify the power which can never terminate +until it is made like Him and perfectly seeing Him as He is.</p> +<p>But that unveiling further guarantees the possession of fully +adequate means of expression. The limitations and imperfections of +our present bodily life will all drop away in putting on ‘the +body of glory’ which shall be ours. The new tongue will +perfectly utter the new knowledge and rapture of the new life; new +hands will perfectly realise our ideals; and on every forehead will +be stamped Christ's new name.</p> +<p>That unveiling will be further realised by a divine act indicating +the characters of the sons of God by their position. Earth's +judgments will be reversed by that divine voice, and the great +promise, which through weary ages has shone as a far-off +star,—‘I will set him on high because he hath known my +name’—will then be known for the sun near at hand. Many +names loudly blown through the world's trumpet will fall silent then. +Many stars will be quenched, but ‘they that be wise shall shine +as the brightness of the firmament.’</p> +<p>That revelation will be more surprising to no one than to those +who are its subjects, when they see themselves mirrored in that +glass, and so unlike what they are here. Their first impulse will be +to wonder at the form they see, and to ask, almost with incredulity, +‘Lord, is it I?’ Nor will the wonder be less when they +recognise many whom they knew not. The surprises when the family of +God is gathered together at last will be great. The Israel of +Captivity lifts up her wondering eyes as she sees the multitudes +flocking to her side as the doves to their windows, and, half-ashamed +of her own narrow vision, exclaims, ‘I was left alone; these, +where had they been?’ Let us rejoice that in the day when the +sons of God are revealed, many hidden ones from many dark corners +will sit at the Father's table. That revelation will be made to the +whole universe; we know not how, but we know that it shall be; and, +as the text tells us, that revelation of the sons of God is the hope +for which ‘the earnest expectation of the creature waits’ +through the weary ages.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="trotb21" id="trotb21">THE REDEMPTION OF THE +BODY</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘The adoption, to wit, the redemption of our +body.’—ROMANS viii. 23.</blockquote> +<p>In a previous verse Paul has said that all true Christians have +received ‘the Spirit of adoption.’ They become sons of +God through Christ the Son. They receive a new spiritual and divine +life from God through Christ, and that life is like its source. In so +far as that new life vitalises and dominates their nature, believers +have received ‘the Spirit of adoption,’ and by it they +cry ‘Abba, Father.’ But the body still remains a source +of weakness, the seat of sin. It is sluggish and inapt for high +purposes; it still remains subject to ‘the law of sin and +death’; and so is not like the Father who breathed into it the +breath of life. It remains in bondage, and has not yet received the +adoption. This text, in harmony with the Apostle's whole teaching, +looks forward to a change in the body and in its relations to the +renewed spirit, as the crown and climax of the work of redemption, +and declares that till that change is effected, the condition of +Christian men is imperfect, and is a waiting, and often a +groaning.</p> +<p>In dealing with some of the thoughts that arise from this text, we +note—</p> +<p>I. That a future bodily life is needed in order to give +definiteness and solidity to the conception of immortality.</p> +<p>Before the Gospel came men's belief in a future life was vague and +powerless, mainly because it had no Gospel of the Resurrection, and +so nothing tangible to lay hold on. The Gospel has made the belief in +a future state infinitely easier and more powerful, mainly because of +the emphasis with which it has proclaimed an actual resurrection and +a future bodily life. Its great proof of immortality is drawn, not +merely from ethical considerations of the manifest futility of +earthly life which has no sequel beyond the grave, nor from the +intuitions and longings of men's souls, but from the historical fact +of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and of His Ascension in bodily +form into heaven. It proclaims these two facts as parts of His +experience, and asserts that when He rose from the dead and ascended +up on high, He did so as ‘the first-born among many +brethren,’ their forerunner and their pattern. It is this which +gives the Gospel its power, and thus transforms a vague and shadowy +conception of immortality into a solid faith, for which we have +already an historical guarantee. Stupendous mysteries still veil the +nature of the resurrection process, though these are exaggerated into +inconceivabilities by false notions of what constitutes personal +identity; but if the choice lies between accepting the Christian +doctrine of a resurrection and the conception of a finite spirit +disembodied and yet active, there can be no doubt as to which of +these two is the more reasonable and thinkable. Body, soul, and +spirit make the complete triune man.</p> +<p>The thought of the future life as a bodily life satisfies the +longings of the heart. Much natural shrinking from death comes from +unwillingness to part company with an old companion and friend. As +Paul puts it in 2nd Corinthians, ‘Not for that we would be +unclothed, but clothed upon.’ All thoughts of the future which +do not give prominence to the idea of a bodily life open up but a +ghastly and uninviting mode of existence, which cannot but repel +those who are accustomed to the fellowship of their bodies, and they +feel that they cannot think of themselves as deprived of that which +was their servant and instrument, through all the years of their +earthly consciousness.</p> +<p>II. ‘The body that shall be’ is an emancipated +body.</p> +<p>The varied gifts of the Spirit bestowed upon the Christian Church +served to quicken the hope of the yet greater gifts of that +indwelling Spirit which were yet to come. Chief amongst these our +text considers the transformation of the earthly into a spiritual +body. This transformation our text regards as being the participation +by the body in the redemption by which Christ has bought us with the +great price of His blood. We have to interpret the language here in +the light of the further teaching of Paul in the great Resurrection +chapter of 1st Corinthians, which distinctly lays stress, not on the +identity of the corporeal frame which is laid in the grave with +‘the body of glory,’ but upon the entire contrast between +the ‘natural body,’ which is fit organ for the lower +nature, and is informed by it, and the ‘spiritual body,’ +which is fit organ for the spirit. We have to interpret ‘the +resurrection of the body’ by the definite apostolic +declaration, ‘Thou sowest not that body that shall be... but +God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him’; and we have to +give full weight to the contrasts which the Apostle draws between the +characteristics of that which is ‘sown’ and of that which +is ‘raised.’ The one is ‘sown in corruption and +raised in incorruption.’ Natural decay is contrasted with +immortal youth. The one is ‘sown in dishonour,’ the other +is ‘raised in glory.’ That contrast is ethical, and +refers either to the subordinate position of the body here in +relation to the spirit, or to the natural sense of shame, or to the +ideas of degradation which are attached to the indulgence of the +appetites. The one is ‘sown in weakness,’ the other is +‘raised in power’; the one is ‘sown a natural +body,’ the other is ‘raised a spiritual body.’ Is +not Paul in this whole series of contrasts thinking primarily of the +vision which he saw on the road to Damascus when the risen Christ +appeared before him? And had not the years which had passed since +then taught him to see in the ascended Christ the prophecy and the +pattern of what His servants should become? We have further to keep +in view Paul's other representation in 2nd Corinthians v., where he +strongly puts the contrast between the corporeal environment of earth +and ‘the body of glory,’ which belongs to the future +life, in his two images: ‘the earthly house of this +tabernacle’—a clay hut which lasts but for a +time,—and ‘the building of God, the house not made with +hands and eternal.’ The body is an occasion of separation from +the Lord.</p> +<p>These considerations may well lead us to, at least, general +outlines on which a confident and peaceful hope may fix. For example, +they lead us to the thought that that redeemed body is no more +subject to decay and death, is no more weighed upon by weakness and +weariness, has no work beyond its strength, needs no sustenance by +food, and no refreshment of sleep. ‘The Lamb which is in the +midst of the throne shall feed them,’ suggests strength +constantly communicated by a direct divine gift. And from all these +negative characteristics there follows that there will be in that +future bodily life no epochs of age marked by bodily changes. The two +young men who were seen sitting in the sepulchre of Jesus had lived +before Adam, and would seem as young if we saw them to-day.</p> +<p>Similarly the redeemed body will be a more perfect instrument for +communication with the external universe. We know that the present +body conditions our knowledge, and that our senses do not take +cognisance of all the qualities of material things. Microscopes and +telescopes have enlarged our field of vision, and have brought the +infinitely small and the infinitely distant within our range. Our ear +hears vibrations at a certain rate per second, and no doubt if it +were more delicately organised we could hear sounds where now is +silence. Sometimes the creatures whom we call ‘inferior’ +seem to have senses that apprehend much of which we are not aware. +Balaam's ass saw the obstructing angel before Balaam did. Nor is +there any reason to suppose that all the powers of the mind find +tools to work with in the body. It is possible that that body which +is the fit instrument of the spirit may become its means of knowing +more deeply, thinking more wisely, understanding more swiftly, +comprehending more widely, remembering more firmly and judging more +soundly. It is possible that the contrast between then and now may be +like the contrast between telegraph and slow messenger in regard to +the rapidity, between photograph and poor daub in regard to the +truthfulness, between a full-orbed circle and a fragmentary arc in +regard to the completeness of the messages which the body brings to +the indwelling self.</p> +<p>But, once more, the body unredeemed has appetites and desires +which may lead to their own satisfaction, which do lead to sordid +cares and weary toil. ‘The flesh lusts against the spirit and +the spirit against the flesh.’ The redeemed body will have in +it nothing to tempt and nothing to clog, but will be a helper to the +spirit and a source of strength. Glorious work of God as the body is, +it has its weaknesses, its limitations, and its tendencies to evil. +We must not be tempted into brooding over unanswered questions as to +‘How do the dead rise, and with what body do they come?’ +But we can lift our eyes to the mountain-top where Jesus went up to +pray. ‘And as He prayed the fashion of His countenance was +altered, and His raiment became white and dazzling’; and He was +capable of entering into the Shekinah cloud and holding fellowship +therein with the Father, who attested His Sonship and bade us listen +to His voice. And we can look to Olivet and follow the ascending +Jesus as He lets His benediction drop on the upturned faces of His +friends, until He again passes into the Shekinah cloud, and leaving +the world, goes to the Father. And from both His momentary +transfiguration and His permanent Ascension we can draw the certain +assurance that ‘He shall fashion anew the body of our +humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, +according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things +unto Himself.’</p> +<p>III. The redeemed body is a consequence of Christ's indwelling +Spirit.</p> +<p>It is no natural result of death or resurrection, but is the +outcome of the process begun on earth, by which, ‘through faith +and the righteousness of faith,’ the spirit is life. The +context distinctly enforces this view by its double use of +‘adoption,’ which in one aspect has already been +received, and is manifested by the fact that ‘now are we the +sons of God,’ and in another aspect is still +‘waited’ for. The Christian man in his regenerated spirit +has been born again; the Christian man still waits for the completion +of that sonship in a time when the regenerated spirit will no longer +dwell in the clay cottage of ‘this tabernacle,’ but will +inhabit a congruous dwelling in ‘the building of God not made +with hands, eternal in the heavens.’</p> +<p>Scripture is too healthy and comprehensive to be contented with a +merely spiritual regeneration, and is withal too spiritual to be +satisfied with a merely material heaven. It gives full place to both +elements, and yet decisively puts all belonging to the latter second. +It lays down the laws that for a complete humanity there must be body +as well as spirit; that there must be a correspondence between the +two, and as is the spirit so must the body be, and further, that the +process must begin at the centre and work outwards, so that the +spirit must first be transformed, and then the body must be +participant of the transformation.</p> +<p>All that Scripture says about ‘rising in glory’ is +said about believers. It is represented as a spiritual process. They +who have the Spirit of God in their spirits because they have it +receive the glorified body which is like their Saviour's. It is not +enough to die in order to ‘rise glorious.’ ‘If the +Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He +that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal +bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.’ The resurrection is +promised for all mankind, but it may be a resurrection in which there +shall be endless living and no glory, nor any beauty and no +blessedness. But the body may be ‘sown in weakness,’ and +in weakness raised; it may be ‘sown in dishonour’ and in +dishonour raised; it may be sown dead, and raised a living death. +‘Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, +some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting +contempt.’ Does that mean nothing? ‘They that have done +evil to the resurrection of condemnation.’ Does that mean +nothing? There are dark mysteries in these and similar words of +Scripture which should make us all pause and solemnly reflect. The +sole way which leads to the resurrection of glory is the way of faith +in Jesus Christ. If we yield ourselves to Him, He will plant His +Spirit in our spirits, will guide and growingly sanctify us through +life, will deliver us by the indwelling of the Spirit of life in Him +from the law of sin and death. Nor will His transforming power cease +till it has pervaded our whole being with its fiery energy, and we +stand at the last men like Christ, redeemed in body, soul, and +spirit, ‘according to the mighty working whereby He is able to +subdue all things unto Himself.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tis22" id="tis22">THE INTERCEDING SPIRIT</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with +groanings which cannot be uttered.’—ROMANS viii. +26.</blockquote> +<p>Pentecost was a transitory sign of a perpetual gift. The tongues +of fire and the rushing mighty wind, which were at first the most +conspicuous results of the gifts of the Spirit, tongues, and +prophecies, and gifts of healing, which were to the early Church +itself and to onlookers palpable demonstrations of an indwelling +power, were little more lasting than the fire and the wind. Does +anything remain? This whole great chapter is Paul's triumphant answer +to such a question. The Spirit of God dwells in every believer as the +source of his true life, is for him ‘the Spirit of +adoption’ and witnesses with his spirit that he is a child of +God, and a joint-heir with Christ. Not only does that Spirit +co-operate with the human spirit in this witness-bearing, but the +verse, of which our text is a part, points to another form of +co-operation: for the word rendered in the earlier part of the verse +‘helpeth’ in the original suggests more distinctly that +the Spirit of God in His intercession for us works in association +with us.</p> +<p>First, then—</p> +<p>I. The Spirit's intercession is not carried on apart from us.</p> +<p>Much modern hymnology goes wrong in this point, that it represents +the Spirit's intercession as presented in heaven rather than as +taking place within the personal being of the believer. There is a +broad distinction carefully observed throughout Scripture between the +representations of the work of Christ and that of the Spirit of +Christ. The former in its character and revelation and attainment was +wrought upon earth, and in its character of intercession and +bestowment of blessings is discharged at the right hand of God in +heaven; the whole of the Spirit's work, on the other hand, is wrought +in human spirits here. The context speaks of intercession expressed +in ‘groanings which cannot be uttered,’ and which, +unexpressed though they are, are fully understood ‘by Him who +searches the heart.’ Plainly, therefore, these groanings come +from human hearts, and as plainly are the Divine Spirit's voicing +them.</p> +<p>II. The Spirit's intercession in our spirits consists in our own +divinely-inspired longings.</p> +<p>The Apostle has just been speaking of another groaning within +ourselves, which is the expression of ‘the earnest +expectation’ of ‘the adoption, to wit, the redemption of +our body’; and he says that that longing will be the more +patient the more it is full of hope. This, then, is Paul's conception +of the normal attitude of a Christian soul; but that attitude is hard +to keep up in one's own strength, because of the distractions of time +and sense which are ever tending to disturb the continuity and fixity +of that onward look, and to lead us rather to be satisfied with the +gross, dull present. That redemption of the body, with all which it +implies and includes, ought to be the supreme object to which each +Christian heart should ever be turning, and Christian prayers should +be directed. But our own daily experience makes us only too sure that +such elevation above, and remoteness from earthly thoughts, with all +their pettinesses and limitations, is impossible for us in our own +strength. As Paul puts it here, ‘We know not what to pray +for’; nor can we fix and focus our desires, nor present them +‘as we ought.’ It is to this weakness and incompleteness +of our desires and prayers that the help of the Spirit is directed. +He strengthens our longings by His own direct operation. The more +vivid our anticipations and the more steadfast our hopes, and the +more our spirits reach out to that future redemption, the more are we +bound to discern something more than human imaginings in them, and to +be sure that such visions are too good not to be true, too solid to +be only the play of our own fancy. The more we are conscious of these +experiences as our own, the more certain we shall be that in them it +is not we that speak, but ‘the Spirit of the Father that +speaketh in us.’</p> +<p>III. These divinely-inspired longings are incapable of full +expression.</p> +<p>They are shallow feelings that can be spoken. Language breaks down +in the attempt to express our deepest emotions and our truest love. +For all the deepest things in man, inarticulate utterance is the most +self-revealing. Grief can say more in a sob and a tear than in many +weak words; love finds its tongue in the light of an eye and the +clasp of a hand. The groanings which rise from the depths of the +Christian soul cannot be forced into the narrow frame-work of human +language; and just because they are unutterable are to be recognised +as the voice of the Holy Spirit.</p> +<p>But where amidst the Christian experience of to-day shall we find +anything in the least like these unutterable longings after the +redemption of the body which Paul here takes it for granted are the +experience of all Christians? There is no more startling condemnation +of the average Christianity of our times than the calm certainty with +which through all this epistle the Apostle takes it for granted that +the experience of the Roman Christians will universally endorse his +statements. Look for a moment at what these statements are. Listen to +the briefest summary of them: ‘We cry, Abba, Father’; +‘We are children of God’; ‘We suffer with Him that +we may be glorified with Him’; ‘Glory shall be revealed +to usward’; ‘We have the first-fruits of the +Spirit’; ‘We ourselves groan within ourselves’; +‘By hope were we saved’; ‘We hope for that which we +see not’; ‘Then do we with patience wait for it’; +‘We know that to them that love God all things work together +for good’; ‘In all these things we are more than +conquerors’; ‘Neither death nor life... nor any other +creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God.’ He +believed that in these rapturous and triumphant words he was +gathering together the experience of every Roman Christian, and would +evoke from their lips a confident ‘Amen.’ Where are the +communities to-day in whose hearing these words could be reiterated +with the like assurance? How few among us there are who know anything +of these ‘groanings which cannot be uttered!’ How few +among us there are whose spirits are stretching out eager desires +towards the land of perpetual summer, like migratory birds in +northern latitudes when the autumn days are shortening and the +temperature is falling!</p> +<p>But, however we must feel that our poor experience falls far short +of the ideal in our text, an ideal which was to some extent realised +in the early Christian Church, we must beware of taking the +imperfections of our experience as any evidence of the unreality of +our Christianity. They are a proof that we have limited and impeded +the operation of the Spirit within us. They teach us that He will not +intercede ‘with groanings which cannot be uttered’ unless +we let Him speak through our voices. Therefore, if we find that in +our own consciousness there is little to correspond to those +unuttered groanings, we should take the warning: ‘Quench not +the Spirit.’ ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God in whom +ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.’</p> +<p>IV. The unuttered longings are sure to be answered.</p> +<p>He that searcheth the heart knows the meaning of the Spirit's +unspoken prayers; and looking into the depths of the human spirit +interprets its longings, discriminating between the mere human and +partial expression and the divinely-inspired desire which may be +unexpressed. If our prayers are weak, they are answered in the +measure in which they embody in them, though perhaps mistaken by us, +a divine longing. Apparent disappointment of our petitions may be +real answers to our real prayer. It was because Jesus loved Mary and +Martha and Lazarus that He abode still in the same place where He +was, to let Lazarus die that He might be raised again. That was the +true answer to the sisters’ hope of His immediate coming. God's +way of giving to us is to breathe within us a desire, and then to +answer the desire inbreathed. So, longing is the prophecy of +fulfilment when it is longing according to the will of God. They who +‘hunger and thirst after righteousness’ may ever be sure +that their bread shall be given them, and their water will be made +sure. The true object of our desires is often not clear to us, and so +we err in translating it into words. Let us be thankful that we pray +to a God who can discern the prayer within the prayer, and often +gives the substance of our petitions in the very act of refusing +their form.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tgtbag23" id="tgtbag23">THE GIFT THAT BRINGS ALL +GIFTS</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him +up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all +things?’—ROMANS viii. 32.</blockquote> +<p>We have here an allusion to, if not a distinct quotation from, the +narrative in Genesis, of Abraham's offering up of Isaac. The same +word which is employed in the Septuagint version of the Old +Testament, to translate the Hebrew word rendered in our Bible as +‘withheld,’ is employed here by the Apostle. And there is +evidently floating before his mind the thought that, in some profound +and real sense, there is an analogy between that wondrous and +faithful act of giving up and the transcendent and stupendous gift to +the world, from God, of His Son.</p> +<p>If we take that point of view, the language of my text rises into +singular force, and suggests many very deep thoughts, about which, +perhaps, silence is best. But led by that analogy, let us deal with +these words.</p> +<p>I. Consider this mysterious act of divine surrender.</p> +<p>The analogy seems to suggest to us, strange as it may be, and +remote from the cold and abstract ideas of the divine nature which it +is thought to be philosophical to cherish, that something +corresponding to the pain and loss that shadowed the patriarch's +heart flitted across the divine mind when the Father sent the Son to +be the Saviour of the world. Not merely to give, but to give up, is +the highest crown and glory of love, as we know it. And who shall +venture to say that we so fully apprehend the divine nature as to be +warranted in declaring that some analogy to that is impossible for +Him? Our language is, ‘I will not offer unto God that which +doth cost me nothing.’ Let us bow in silence before the dim +intimation that seems to flicker out of the words of my text, that so +He says to us, ‘I will not offer unto you that which doth cost +Me nothing.’ ‘He <i>spared</i> not His own Son’; +withheld Him not from us.</p> +<p>But passing from that which, I dare say, many of you may suppose +to be fanciful and unwarranted, let us come upon the surer ground of +the other words of my text. And notice how the reality of the +surrender is emphasised by the closeness of the bond which, in the +mysterious eternity, knits together the Father and the Son. As with +Abraham, so in this lofty example, of which Abraham and Isaac were +but as dim, wavering reflections in water, the Son is His own Son. It +seems to me impossible, upon any fair interpretation of the words +before us, to refrain from giving to that epithet here its very +highest and most mysterious sense. It cannot be any mere equivalent +for Messiah, it cannot merely mean a man who was like God in purity +of nature and in closeness of communion. For the force of the analogy +and the emphasis of that word which is even more emphatic in the +Greek than in the English ‘His <i>own</i> Son,’ point to +a community of nature, to a uniqueness and singleness of relation, to +a closeness of intimacy, to which no other is a parallel. And so we +have to estimate the measure of the surrender by the tenderness and +awfulness of the bond. ‘Having one Son, His well-beloved, He +sent Him.’</p> +<p>Notice, again, how the greatness of the surrender is made more +emphatic by the contemplation of it in its double negative and +positive aspect, in the two successive clauses. ‘He spared not +His Son, but delivered Him up,’ an absolute, positive giving of +Him over to the humiliation of the life and to the mystery of the +death.</p> +<p>And notice how the tenderness and the beneficence that were the +sole motive of the surrender are lifted into light in the last words, +‘for us all.’ The single, sole reason that bowed, if I +may so say, the divine purpose, and determined the mysterious act, +was a pure desire for our blessing. No definition is given as to the +manner in which that surrender wrought for our good. The Apostle does +not need to dwell upon that. His purpose is to emphasise the entire +unselfishness, the utter simplicity of the motive which moved the +divine will. One great throb of love to the whole of humanity led to +that transcendent surrender, before which we can only bow and say, +‘Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.’</p> +<p>And now, notice how this mysterious act is grasped by the Apostle +here as what I may call the illuminating fact as to the whole divine +nature. From it, and from it alone, there falls a blaze of light on +the deepest things in God. We are accustomed to speak of Christ's +perfect life of unselfishness, and His death of pure beneficence, as +being the great manifestation to us all that in His heart there is an +infinite fountain of love to us. We are, further, accustomed to speak +of Christ's mission and death as being the revelation to us of the +love of God as well as of the Man Christ Jesus, because we believe +that ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world,’ and that +He has so manifested and revealed the very nature of divinity to us, +in His life and in His person, that, as He Himself says, ‘He +that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ And every conclusion +that we draw as to the love of Christ is, <i>ipso facto</i>, a +conclusion as to the love of God. But my text looks at the matter +from rather a different point of view, and bids us see, in Christ's +mission and sacrifice, the great demonstration of the love of God, +not only because ‘God was in Christ,’ but because the +Father's will, conceived of as distinct from, and yet harmonious +with, the will of the Son, gives Him up for us. And we have to say, +not only that we see the love of God in the love of Christ, but +‘God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten +Son’ that we might have life through Him.</p> +<p>These various phases of the love of Christ as manifesting the +divine love, may not be capable of perfect harmonising in our +thoughts, but they do blend into one, and by reason of them all, +‘God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet +sinners, Christ died for us.’ We have to think not only of +Abraham who gave up, but of the unresisting, innocent Isaac, bearing +on his shoulders the wood for the burnt offering, as the Christ bore +the Cross on His, and suffering himself to be bound upon the pile, +not only by the cords that tied his limbs, but by the cords of +obedience and submission, and in both we have to bow before the +Apocalypse of divine love.</p> +<p>II. So, secondly, look at the power of this divine surrender to +bring with it all other gifts.</p> +<p>‘How shall He not with Him also freely give us all +things?’ The Apostle's triumphant question requires for its +affirmative answer only the belief in the unchangeableness of the +Divine heart, and the uniformity of the Divine purpose. And if these +be recognised, their conclusion inevitably follows. ‘With Him +He will freely give us all things.’</p> +<p>It is so, because the greater gift implies the less. We do not +expect that a man who hands over a million of pounds to another, to +help him, will stick at a farthing afterwards. If you give a diamond +you may well give a box to keep it in. In God's gift the lesser will +follow the lead of the greater; and whatsoever a man can want, it is +a smaller thing for Him to bestow, than was the gift of His Son.</p> +<p>There is a beautiful contrast between the manners of giving the +two sets of gifts implied in words of the original, perhaps scarcely +capable of being reproduced in any translation. The expression that +is rendered ‘freely give,’ implies that there is a grace +and a pleasantness in the act of bestowal. God gave in Christ, what +we may reverently say it was something like pain to give. Will He not +give the lesser, whatever they may be, which it is the joy of His +heart to communicate? The greater implies the less.</p> +<p>Farther, this one great gift draws all other gifts after it, +because the purpose of the greater gift cannot be attained without +the bestowment of the lesser. He does not begin to build being unable +to finish; He does not miscalculate His resources, nor stultify +Himself by commencing upon a large scale, and having to stop short +before the purpose with which He began is accomplished. Men build +great palaces, and are bankrupt before the roof is put on. God lays +His plans with the knowledge of His powers, and having first of all +bestowed this large gift, is not going to have it bestowed in vain +for want of some smaller ones to follow it up. Christ puts the same +argument to us, beginning only at the other end of the process. Paul +says, ‘God has laid the foundation in Christ.’ Do you +think He will stop before the headstone is put on? Christ said, +‘It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the +Kingdom.’ Do you think He will not give you bread and water on +the road to it? Will He send out His soldiers half-equipped; will it +be found when they are on their march that they have been started +with a defective commissariat, and with insufficient trenching tools? +Shall the children of the King, on the road to their thrones, be left +to scramble along anyhow, in want of what they need to get there? +That is not God's way of doing. He that hath begun a good work will +also perfect the same, and when He gave to you and me His Son, He +bound Himself to give us every subsidiary and secondary blessing +which was needed to make that Son's work complete in each of us.</p> +<p>Again, this great blessing draws after it, by necessary +consequence, all other lesser and secondary gifts, inasmuch as, in +every real sense, everything is included and possessed in the Christ +when we receive Him. ‘With Him,’ says Paul, as if that +gift once laid in a man's heart actually enclosed within it, and had +for its indispensable accompaniment the possession of every smaller +thing that a man can need, Jesus Christ is, as it were, a great +Cornucopia, a horn of abundance, out of which will pour, with magic +affluence, all manner of supplies according as we require. This +fountain flows with milk, wine, and water, as men need. Everything is +given us when Christ is given to us, because Christ is the Heir of +all things, and we possess all things in Him; as some poor village +maiden married to a prince in disguise, who, on the morrow of her +wedding finds that she is lady of broad lands, and mistress of a +kingdom. ‘He that spared not His own Son,’ not only +‘with Him will give,’ but in Him has ‘given us all +things.’</p> +<p>And so, brethren, just as that great gift is the illuminating fact +in reference to the divine heart, so is it the interpreting fact in +reference to the divine dealings. Only when we keep firm hold of +Christ as the gift of God, and the Explainer of all that God does, +can we face the darkness, the perplexities, the torturing questions +that from the beginning have harassed men's minds as they looked upon +the mysteries of human misery. If we recognise that God has given us +His Son, then all things become, if not plain, at least lighted with +some gleam from that great gift; and we feel that the surrender of +Christ is the constraining fact which shapes after its own likeness, +and for its own purpose, all the rest of God's dealings with men. +That gift makes anything believable, reasonable, possible, rather +than that He should spare not His own Son, and then should +counterwork His own act by sending the world anything but good.</p> +<p>III. And now, lastly, take one or two practical issues from these +thoughts, in reference to our own belief and conduct.</p> +<p>First, I would say, Let us correct our estimates of the relative +importance of the two sets of gifts. On the one side stands the +solitary Christ; on the other side are massed all delights of sense, +all blessings of time, all the things that the vulgar estimation of +men unanimously recognises to be good. These are only makeweights. +They are all lumped together into an ‘also.’ They are but +the golden dust that may be filed off from the great ingot and solid +block. They are but the outward tokens of His far deeper and true +preciousness. They are secondary; He is the primary. What an +inversion of our notions of good! Do <i>you</i> degrade all the +world's wealth, pleasantness, ease, prosperity, into an +‘also?’ Are you content to put it in the secondary +place, as a result, if it please Him, of Christ? Do you live as if +you did? Which do you hunger for most? Which do you labour for +hardest? ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom and the King, and all +‘these things shall be added unto you.’</p> +<p>Let these thoughts teach us that sorrow too is one of the gifts of +the Christ. The words of my text, at first sight, might seem to be +simply a promise of abundant earthly good. But look what lies close +beside them, and is even part of the same triumphant burst. +‘Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or +nakedness, or peril, or sword?’ These are some of the +‘all things’ which Paul expected that God would give him +and his brethren. And looking upon all, he says, ‘They all work +together for good'; and in them all we may be more than conquerors. +It would be a poor, shabby issue of such a great gift as that of +which we have been speaking, if it were only to be followed by the +sweetnesses and prosperity and wealth of this world. But here is the +point that we have to keep hold of—inasmuch as He gives us all +things, let us take all the things that come to us as being as +distinctly the gifts of His love, as is the gift of Christ Himself. A +wise physician, to an ignorant onlooker, might seem to be acting in +contradictory fashions when in the one moment he slashes into a limb, +with a sharp, gleaming knife, and in the next sedulously binds the +wounds, and closes the arteries, but the purpose of both acts is +one.</p> +<p>The diurnal revolution of the earth brings the joyful sunrise and +the pathetic sunset. The same annual revolution whirls us through the +balmy summer days and the biting winter ones. God's purpose is one. +His methods vary. The road goes straight to its goal; but it +sometimes runs in tunnels dank and dark and stifling, and sometimes +by sunny glades and through green pastures. God's purpose is always +love, brother. His withdrawals are gifts, and sorrow is not the least +of the benefits which come to us through the Man of Sorrows.</p> +<p>So again, let these thoughts teach us to live by a very quiet and +peaceful faith. We find it a great deal easier to trust God for +Heaven than for earth—for the distant blessings than for the +near ones. Many a man will venture his soul into God's hands, who +would hesitate to venture to-morrow's food there. Why? Is it not +because we do not really trust Him for the greater that we find it so +hard to trust Him for the less? Is it not because we want the less +more really than we want the greater, that we can put ourselves off +with faith for the one, and want something more solid to grasp for +the other? Live in the calm confidence that God gives all things; and +gives us for to-morrow as for eternity; for earth as for heaven.</p> +<p>And, last of all, make you quite sure that you have taken +<i>the</i> great gift of God. He gives it to all the world, but they +only have it who accept it by faith. Have you, my brother? I look out +upon the lives of the mass of professing Christians; and this +question weighs on my heart, judging by conduct—have they +really got Christ for their own? ‘Wherefore do ye spend your +money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which +satisfieth not?’ Look how you are all fighting and scrambling, +and sweating and fretting, to get hold of the goods of this present +life, and here is a gift gleaming before you all the while that you +will not condescend to take. Like a man standing in a market-place +offering sovereigns for nothing, which nobody accepts because they +think the offer is too good to be true, so God complains and wails: I +have stretched out My hands all the day, laden with gifts, and no man +regarded.</p> +<pre> +'It is only heaven may be had for the asking; +It is only God that is given away.' +</pre> +<p class="noindent">He gives His Son. Take Him by humble faith in His +sacrifice and Spirit; take Him, and with Him He freely gives you all +things.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="mtc24" id="mtc24">MORE THAN CONQUERORS</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Nay, in all these things we are more than +conquerors through Him that loved us.’—ROMANS viii. +37.</blockquote> +<p>In order to understand and feel the full force of this triumphant +saying of the Apostle, we must observe that it is a negative answer +to the preceding questions, ‘Who shall separate us from the +love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or +famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?’ A heterogeneous mass +the Apostle here brigades together as an antagonistic army. They are +alike in nothing except that they are all evils. There is no attempt +at an exhaustive enumeration, or at classification. He clashes down, +as it were, a miscellaneous mass of evil things, and then triumphs +over them, and all the genus to which they belong, as being utterly +impotent to drag men away from Jesus Christ. To ask the question is +to answer it, but the form of the answer is worth notice. Instead of +directly replying, ‘No! no such powerless things as these can +separate us from the love of Christ,’ he says, ‘No! In +all these things, whilst weltering amongst them, whilst ringed round +about by them, as by encircling enemies, “we are more than +conquerors.”’ Thereby, he suggests that there is +something needing to be done by us, in order that the foes may not +exercise their natural effect. And so, taking the words of my text in +connection with that to which they are an answer, we have three +things—the impotent enemies of love; the abundant victory of +love; ‘We are more than conquerors’; and the love that +makes us victorious. Let us look then at these three things +briefly.</p> +<p>I. First of all, the impotent enemies of love.</p> +<p>There is contempt in the careless massing together of the foes +which the Apostle enumerates. He begins with the widest word that +covers everything—‘affliction.’ Then he specifies +various forms of it—‘distress,’ <i>straitening</i>, +as the word might be rendered, then he comes to evils inflicted for +Christ's sake by hostile men—‘persecution,’ then he +names purely physical evils, ‘hunger’ and +‘nakedness,’ then he harks back again to man's +antagonism, ‘peril,’ and ‘sword.’ And thus +carelessly, and without an effort at logical order, he throws +together, as specimens of their class, these salient points, as it +were, and crests of the great sea, whose billows threaten to roll +over us; and he laughs at them all, as impotent and nought, when +compared with the love of Christ, which shields us from them all.</p> +<p>Now it must be noticed that here, in his triumphant question, the +Apostle means not our love to Christ but His to us; and not even our +sense of that love, but the fact itself. And his question is just +this:—Is there any evil in the world that can make Christ stop +loving a man that cleaves to Him? And, as I said, to ask the question +is to answer it. The two things belong to two different regions. They +have nothing in common. The one moves amongst the low levels of +earth; the other dwells up amidst the abysses of eternity, and to +suppose that anything that assails and afflicts us here has any +effect in making that great heart cease to love us is to fancy that +the mists can quench the sunlight, is to suppose that that which lies +down low in the earth can rise to poison and to darken the +heavens.</p> +<p>There is no need, in order to rise to the full height of the +Christian contempt for calamity, to deny any of its terrible power. +These things can separate us from much. They can separate us from +joy, from hope, from almost all that makes life desirable. They can +strip us to the very quick, but the quick they cannot touch. The +frost comes and kills the flowers, browns the leaves, cuts off the +stems, binds the sweet music of the flowing rivers in silent chains, +casts mists and darkness over the face of the solitary grey world, +but it does not touch the life that is in the root.</p> +<p>And so all these outward sorrows that have power over the whole of +the outward life, and can slay joy and all but stifle hope, and can +ban men into irrevocable darkness and unalleviated solitude, they do +not touch in the smallest degree the secret bond that binds the heart +to Jesus, nor in any measure affect the flow of His love to us. +Therefore we may front them and smile at them and say:</p> +<pre> +'Do as thou wilt, devouring time, +With this wide world, and all its fading sweets'; +</pre> +<p class="noindent">‘my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is +the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.’</p> +<p>You need not be very much afraid of anything being taken from you +as long as Christ is left you. You will not be altogether hopeless so +long as Christ, who is our hope, still speaks His faithful promises +to you, nor will the world be lonely and dark to them who feel that +they are lapt in the sweet and all-pervading consciousness of the +changeless love of the heart of Christ. ‘Shall tribulation, or +distress, or persecution?’—in any of these things, +‘we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.’ +Brethren, that is the Christian way of looking at all externals, not +only at the dark and the sorrowful, but at the bright and the +gladsome. If the withdrawal of external blessings does not touch the +central sanctities and sweetness of a life in communion with Jesus, +the bestowal of external blessedness does not much brighten or +gladden it. We can face the withdrawal of them all, we need not covet +the possession of them all, for we have all in Christ; and the world +without His love contributes less to our blessedness and our peace +than the absence of all its joys with His love does. So let us feel +that earth, in its givings and in its withholdings, is equally +impotent to touch the one thing that we need, the conscious +possession of the love of Christ.</p> +<p>All these foes, as I have said, have no power over the fact of +Christ's love to us, but they have power, and a very terrible power, +over our consciousness of that love; and we may so kick against the +pricks as to lose, in the pain of our sorrows, the assurance of His +presence, or be so fascinated by the false and vulgar sweetnesses and +promises of the world as, in the eagerness of our chase after them, +to lose our sense of the all-sufficing certitude of His love. +Tribulation does not strip us of His love, but tribulation may so +darken our perceptions that we cannot see the sun. Joys need not rob +us of His heart, but joys may so fill ours, as that there shall be no +longing for His presence within us. Therefore let us not exaggerate +the impotence of these foes, but feel that there are real dangers, as +in the sorrows so in the blessings of our outward life, and that the +evil to be dreaded is that outward things, whether in their bright or +in their dark aspects, may come between us and the home of our +hearts, the love of the loving Christ.</p> +<p>II. So then, note next, the abundant victory of love.</p> +<p>Mark how the Apostle, in his lofty and enthusiastic way, is not +content here with simply saying that he and his fellows conquer. It +would be a poor thing, he seems to think, if the balance barely +inclined to our side, if the victory were but just won by a hair's +breadth and triumph were snatched, as it were, out of the very jaws +of defeat. There must be something more than that to correspond to +the power of the victorious Christ that is in us. And so, he says, we +very abundantly conquer; we not only hinder these things which he has +been enumerating from doing that which it is their aim apparently to +do, but we actually convert them into helpers or allies. The +‘<i>more</i> than conquerors’ seems to mean, if there is +any definite idea to be attached to it, the conversion of the enemy +conquered into a friend and a helper. The American Indians had a +superstition that every foe tomahawked sent fresh strength into the +warrior's arm. And so all afflictions and trials rightly borne, and +therefore overcome, make a man stronger, and bring him nearer to +Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>Note then, further, that not only is this victory more than bare +victory, being the conversion of the enemy into allies, but that it +is a victory which is won even whilst we are in the midst of the +strife. It is not that we shall be conquerors in some far-off heaven, +when the noise of battle has ceased and they hang the trumpet in the +hall, but it is here now, in the hand-to-hand and foot-to-foot +death-grapple that we do overcome. No ultimate victory, in some +far-off and blessed heaven, will be ours unless moment by moment, +here, to-day,’ we <i>are</i> more than conquerors through Him +that loved us.’</p> +<p>So, then, about this abundant victory there are these things to +say:—You conquer the world only, then, when you make it +contribute to your conscious possession of the love of Christ. That +is the real victory, the only real victory in life. Men talk about +overcoming here on earth, and they mean thereby the accomplishment of +their designs. A man has ‘victory,’ as it is phrased, in +the world's strife, when he secures for himself the world's goods at +which he has aimed, but that is not the Christian idea of the +conquest of calamity. Everything that makes me feel more thrillingly +in my inmost heart the verity and the sweetness of the love of Jesus +Christ as my very own, is conquered by me and compelled to subserve +my highest good, and everything which slips a film between me and +Him, which obscures the light of His face to me, which makes me less +desirous of, and less sure of, and less happy in, and less satisfied +with, His love, is an enemy that has conquered me. And all these +evils as the world calls them, and as our bleeding hearts have often +felt them to be, are converted into allies and friends when they +drive us to Christ, and keep us close to Him, in the conscious +possession of His sweet and changeless love. That is the victory, and +the only victory. Has the world helped me to lay hold of Christ? Then +I have conquered it. Has the world loosened my grasp upon Him? Then +it has conquered me.</p> +<p>Note then, further, that this abundant victory depends on how we +deal with the changes of our outward lives, our sorrows or our joys. +There is nothing, <i>per se</i>, salutary in affliction, there is +nothing, <i>per se</i>, antagonistic to Christian faith in it either. +No man is made better by his sorrows, no man need be made worse by +them. That depends upon how we take the things which come storming +against us. The set of your sails, and the firmness of your grasp +upon the tiller, determine whether the wind shall carry you to the +haven or shall blow you out, a wandering waif, upon a shoreless and +melancholy sea. There are some of you that have been blown away from +your moorings by sorrow. There are some professing Christians who +have been hindered in their work, and had their peace and their faith +shattered all but irrevocably, because they have not accepted, in the +spirit in which they were sent, the trials that have come for their +good. The worst of all afflictions is a wasted affliction, and they +are all wasted unless they teach us more of the reality and the +blessedness of the love of Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>III. Lastly, notice the love which makes us conquerors.</p> +<p>The Apostle, with a wonderful instinctive sense of fitness, names +Christ here by a name congruous to the thoughts which occupy his +mind, when he speaks of Him that loved us. His question has been, Can +anything separate us from the love of Christ? And his answer is, So +far from that being the case, that very love, by occasion of sorrows +and afflictions, tightens its grasp upon us, and, by the +communication of itself to us, makes us more than conquerors. This +great love of Jesus Christ, from which nothing can separate us, will +use the very things that seem to threaten our separation as a means +of coming nearer to us in its depth and in its preciousness.</p> +<p>The Apostle says ‘Him that loved us,’ and the words in +the original distinctly point to some one fact as being the great +instance of love. That is to say they point to His death. And so we +may say Christ's love helps us to conquer because in His death He +interprets for us all possible sorrows. If it be true that love to +each of us nailed Him there, then nothing that can come to us but +must be a love-token, and a fruit of that same love. The Cross is the +key to all tribulation, and shows it to be a token and an instrument +of an unchanging love.</p> +<p>Further, that great love of Christ helps us to conquer, because in +His sufferings and death He becomes the Companion of all the weary. +The rough, dark, lonely road changes its look when we see His +footprints there, not without specks of blood in them, where the +thorns tore His feet. We conquer our afflictions if we recognise that +‘in all our afflictions He was afflicted,’ and that +Himself has drunk to its bitterest dregs the cup which He commends to +our lips. He has left a kiss upon its margin, and we need not shrink +when He holds it out to us and says ‘Drink ye all of it.’ +That one thought of the companionship of the Christ in our sorrows +makes us more than conquerors.</p> +<p>And lastly, this dying Lover of our souls communicates to us all, +if we will, the strength whereby we may coerce all outward things +into being helps to the fuller participation of His perfect love. Our +sorrows and all the other distracting externals do seek to drag us +away from Him. Is all that happens in counteraction to that pull of +the world, that we tighten our grasp upon Him, and will not let Him +go; as some poor wretch might the horns of the altar that did not +respond to his grasp? Nay what we lay hold of is no dead thing, +but a living hand, and it grasps us more tightly than we can ever +grasp it. So because He holds us, and not because we hold Him, we +shall not be dragged away, by anything outside of our own weak and +wavering souls, and all these embattled foes may come against us, +they may shear off everything else, they cannot sever Christ from us +unless we ourselves throw Him away. ‘In this thou shalt +conquer.’ ‘They overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by +the word of His testimony.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="lt25" id="lt25">LOVE'S TRIUMPH</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor +principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, +nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to +separate us from the love of God.’—ROMANS viii. 38, +39.</blockquote> +<p>These rapturous words are the climax of the Apostle's long +demonstration that the Gospel is the revelation of ‘the +righteousness of God from faith to faith,’ and is thereby +‘the power of God unto salvation.’ What a contrast there +is between the beginning and the end of his argument! It started with +sombre, sad words about man's sinfulness and aversion from the +knowledge of God. It closes with this sunny outburst of triumph; like +some stream rising among black and barren cliffs, or melancholy +moorlands, and foaming through narrow rifts in gloomy ravines, it +reaches at last fertile lands, and flows calm, the sunlight dancing +on its broad surface, till it loses itself at last in the +unfathomable ocean of the love of God.</p> +<p>We are told that the Biblical view of human nature is too dark. +Well, the important question is not whether it is dark, but whether +it is true. But, apart from that, the doctrine of Scripture about +man's moral condition is not dark, if you will take the whole of it +together. Certainly, a part of it is very dark. The picture, for +instance, of what men are, painted at the beginning of this Epistle, +is shadowed like a canvas of Rembrandt's. The Bible is +‘Nature's sternest painter but her best.’ But to get the +whole doctrine of Scripture on the subject, we have to take its +confidence as to what men may become, as well as its portrait of what +they are—and then who will say that the anthropology of +Scripture is gloomy? To me it seems that the unrelieved blackness of +the view which, because it admits no fall, can imagine no rise, which +sees in all man's sins and sorrows no token of the dominion of an +alien power, and has, therefore, no reason to believe that they can +be separated from humanity, is the true ‘Gospel of +despair,’ and that the system which looks steadily at all the +misery and all the wickedness, and calmly proposes to cast it all +out, is really the only doctrine of human nature which throws any +gleam of light on the darkness. Christianity begins indeed with, +‘There is none that doeth good, no, not one,’ but it ends +with this victorious pæan of our text.</p> +<p>And what a majestic close it is to the great words that have gone +before, fitly crowning even their lofty height! One might well shrink +from presuming to take such words as a text, with any idea of +exhausting or of enhancing them. My object is very much more humble. +I simply wish to bring out the remarkable order, in which Paul here +marshals, in his passionate, rhetorical amplification, all the +enemies that can be supposed to seek to wrench us away from the love +of God; and triumphs over them all. We shall best measure the +fullness of the words by simply taking these clauses as they stand in +the text.</p> +<p>I. The love of God is unaffected by the extremest changes of our +condition.</p> +<p>The Apostle begins his fervid catalogue of vanquished foes by a +pair of opposites which might seem to cover the whole +ground—‘neither death nor life.’ What more can be +said? Surely, these two include everything. From one point of view +they do. But yet, as we shall see, there is more to be said. And the +special reason for beginning with this pair of possible enemies is +probably to be found by remembering that they are a pair, that +between them they do cover the whole ground and represent the +<i>extremes</i> of change which can befall us. The one stands at the +one pole, the other at the other. If these two stations, so far from +each other, are equally near to God's love, then no intermediate +point can be far from it. If the most violent change which we can +experience does not in the least matter to the grasp which the love +of God has on us, or to the grasp which we may have on it, then no +less violent a change can be of any consequence. It is the same +thought in a somewhat modified form, as we find in another word of +Paul's, ‘Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we +die, we die unto the Lord.’ Our subordination to Him is the +same, and our consecration should be the same, in all varieties of +condition, even in that greatest of all variations. His love to us +makes no account of that mightiest of changes. How should it be +affected by slighter ones?</p> +<p>The distance of a star is measured by the apparent change in its +position, as seen from different points of the earth's surface or +orbit. But this great Light stands steadfast in our heaven, nor moves +a hair's-breadth, nor pours a feebler ray on us, whether we look up +to it from the midsummer day of busy life, or from the midwinter of +death. These opposites are parted by a distance to which the millions +of miles of the world's path among the stars are but a point, and yet +the love of God streams down on them alike.</p> +<p>Of course, the confidence in immortality is implied in this +thought. Death does not, in the slightest degree, affect the +essential vitality of the soul; so it does not, in the slightest +degree, affect the outflow of God's love to that soul. It is a change +of condition and circumstance, and no more. He does not lose us in +the dust of death. The withered leaves on the pathway are trampled +into mud, and indistinguishable to human eyes; but He sees them even +as when they hung green and sunlit on the mystic tree of life.</p> +<p>How beautifully this thought contrasts with the saddest aspect of +the power of death in our human experience! He is Death the +Separator, who unclasps our hands from the closest, dearest grasp, +and divides asunder joints and marrow, and parts soul and body, and +withdraws us from all our habitude and associations and occupations, +and loosens every bond of society and concord, and hales us away into +a lonely land. But there is one bond which his ‘abhorred +shears’ cannot cut. Their edge is turned on <i>it</i>. One Hand +holds us in a grasp which the fleshless fingers of Death in vain +strive to loosen. The separator becomes the uniter; he rends us apart +from the world that He may ‘bring us to God.’ The love +filtered by drops on us in life is poured upon us in a flood in +death; ‘for I am persuaded, that neither death nor life shall +be able to separate us from the love of God.’</p> +<p>II. The love of God is undiverted from us by any other order of +beings.</p> +<p>‘Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,’ says +Paul. Here we pass from conditions affecting ourselves to living +beings beyond ourselves. Now, it is important for understanding the +precise thought of the Apostle to observe that this expression, when +used without any qualifying adjective, seems uniformly to mean good +angels, the hierarchy of blessed spirits before the throne. So that +there is no reference to ‘spiritual wickedness in high +places’ striving to draw men away from God. The supposition +which the Apostle makes is, indeed, an impossible one, that these +ministering spirits, who are sent forth to minister to them who shall +be heirs of salvation, should so forget their mission and contradict +their nature as to seek to bar us out from the love which it is their +chiefest joy to bring to us. He knows it to be an impossible +supposition, and its very impossibility gives energy to his +conclusion, just as when in the same fashion he makes the other +equally impossible supposition about an angel from heaven preaching +another gospel than that which he had preached to them.</p> +<p>So we may turn the general thought of this second category of +impotent efforts in two different ways, and suggest, first, that it +implies the utter powerlessness of any third party in regard to the +relations between our souls and God.</p> +<p>We alone have to do with Him alone. The awful fact of +individuality, that solemn mystery of our personal being, has its +most blessed or its most dread manifestation in our relation to God. +There no other Being has any power. Counsel and stimulus, suggestion +or temptation, instruction or lies, which may tend to lead us nearer +to Him or away from Him, they may indeed give us; but after they have +done their best or their worst, all depends on the personal act of +our own innermost being. Man or angel can affect that, but from +without. The old mystics called prayer ‘the flight of the +lonely soul to the only God.’ It is the name for all religion. +These two, God and the soul, have to ‘transact,’ as our +Puritan forefathers used to say, as if there were no other beings in +the universe but only they two. Angels and principalities and powers +may stand beholding with sympathetic joy; they may minister blessing +and guardianship in many ways; but the decisive act of union between +God and the soul they can neither effect nor prevent.</p> +<p>And as for them, so for men around us; the limits of their power +to harm us are soon set. They may shut us out from human love by +calumnies, and dig deep gulfs of alienation between us and dear ones; +they may hurt and annoy us in a thousand ways with slanderous +tongues, and arrows dipped in poisonous hatred, but one thing they +cannot do. They may build a wall around us, and imprison us from many +a joy and many a fair prospect, but they cannot put a roof on it to +keep out the sweet influences from above, or hinder us from looking +up to the heavens. Nobody can come between us and God but +ourselves.</p> +<p>Or, we may turn this general thought in another direction, and +say, These blessed spirits around the throne do not absorb and +intercept His love. They gather about its steps in their +‘solemn troops and sweet societies’; but close as are +their ranks, and innumerable as is their multitude, they do not +prevent that love from passing beyond them to us on the outskirts of +the crowd. The planet nearest the sun is drenched and saturated with +fiery brightness, but the rays from the centre of life pass on to +each of the sister spheres in its turn, and travel away outwards to +where the remotest of them all rolls in its far-off orbit, unknown +for millenniums to dwellers closer to the sun, but through all the +ages visited by warmth and light according to its needs. Like that +poor, sickly woman who could lay her wasted fingers on the hem of +Christ's garment, notwithstanding the thronging multitude, we can +reach our hands through all the crowd, or rather He reaches His +strong hand to us and heals and blesses us. All the guests are fed +full at that great table. One's gain is not another's loss. The +multitudes sit on the green grass, and the last man of the last fifty +gets as much as the first. ‘They did all eat, and were +filled’; and more remains than fed them all. So all beings are +‘nourished from the King's country,’ and none jostle +others out of their share. This healing fountain is not exhausted of +its curative power by the early comers. ‘I will give unto this +last, even as unto thee.’ ‘Nor angels, nor +principalities, nor powers, shall be able to separate us from the +love of God.’</p> +<p>III. The love of God is raised above the power of time.</p> +<p>‘Nor things present, nor things to come,’ is the +Apostle's next class of powers impotent to disunite us from the love +of God. The rhythmical arrangement of the text deserves to be +noticed, as bearing not only on its music and rhetorical flow, but as +affecting its force. We had first a pair of opposites, and then a +triplet; ‘death and life: angels, principalities, and +powers.’ We have again a pair of opposites; ‘things +present, things to come,’ again followed by a triplet, +‘height nor depth, nor any other creature.’ The effect of +this is to divide the whole into two, and to throw the first and +second classes more closely together, as also the third and fourth. +Time and Space, these two mysterious ideas, which work so fatally on +all human love, are powerless here.</p> +<p>The great revelation of God, on which the whole of Judaism was +built, was that made to Moses of the name ‘I Am that I +Am.’ And parallel to the verbal revelation was the symbol of +the Bush, burning and unconsumed, which is so often misunderstood. It +appears wholly contrary to the usage of Scriptural visions, which are +ever wont to express in material form the same truth which +accompanies them in words, that the meaning of that vision should be, +as it is frequently taken as being, the continuance of Israel +unharmed by the fiery furnace of persecution. Not the continuance of +Israel, but the eternity of Israel's God is the teaching of that +flaming wonder. The burning Bush and the Name of the Lord proclaimed +the same great truth of self-derived, self-determined, timeless, +undecaying Being. And what better symbol than the bush burning, and +yet not burning out, could be found of that God in whose life there +is no tendency to death, whose work digs no pit of weariness into +which it falls, who gives and is none the poorer, who fears no +exhaustion in His spending, no extinction in His continual +shining?</p> +<p>And this eternity of Being is no mere metaphysical abstraction. It +is eternity of love, for God is love. That great stream, the pouring +out of His own very inmost Being, knows no pause, nor does the deep +fountain from which it flows ever sink one hair's-breadth in its pure +basin.</p> +<p>We know of earthly loves which cannot die. They have entered so +deeply into the very fabric of the soul, that like some cloth dyed in +grain, as long as two threads hold together they will retain the +tint. We have to thank God for such instances of love stronger than +death, which make it easier for us to believe in the unchanging +duration of His. But we know, too, of love that can change, and we +know that all love must part. Few of us have reached middle life, who +do not, looking back, see our track strewed with the gaunt skeletons +of dead friendships, and dotted with ‘oaks of weeping,’ +waving green and mournful over graves, and saddened by footprints +striking away from the line of march, and leaving us the more +solitary for their departure.</p> +<p>How blessed then to know of a love which cannot change or die! The +past, the present, and the future are all the same to Him, to whom +‘a thousand years,’ that can corrode so much of earthly +love, are in their power to change ‘as one day,’ and +‘one day,’ which can hold so few of the expressions of +our love, may be ‘as a thousand years’ in the multitude +and richness of the gifts which it can be expanded to contain. The +whole of what He has been to any past, He is to us to-day. ‘The +God of Jacob is our refuge.’ All these old-world stories of +loving care and guidance may be repeated in our lives.</p> +<p>So we may bring the blessedness of all the past into the present, +and calmly face the misty future, sure that it cannot rob us of His +love.</p> +<p>Whatever may drop out of our vainly-clasping hands, it matters +not, if only our hearts are stayed on His love, which neither things +present nor things to come can alter or remove. Looking on all the +flow of ceaseless change, the waste and fading, the alienation and +cooling, the decrepitude and decay of earthly affection, we can lift +up with gladness, heightened by the contrast, the triumphant song of +the ancient Church: ‘Give thanks unto the Lord: for He is good: +because His mercy endureth for ever!’</p> +<p>IV. The love of God is present everywhere.</p> +<p>The Apostle ends his catalogue with a singular trio of +antagonists; ‘nor height, nor depth, nor any other +creature,’ as if he had got impatient of the enumeration of +impotencies, and having named the outside boundaries in space of the +created universe, flings, as it were, with one rapid toss, into that +large room the whole that it can contain, and triumphs over it +all.</p> +<p>As the former clause proclaimed the powerlessness of Time, so this +proclaims the powerlessness of that other great mystery of creatural +life which we call Space, Height or depth, it matters not. That +diffusive love diffuses itself equally in all directions. Up or down, +it is all the same. The distance from the centre is the same to +Zenith or to Nadir.</p> +<p>Here, we have the same process applied to that idea of +Omnipresence as was applied in the former clause to the idea of +Eternity. That thought, so hard to grasp with vividness, and not +altogether a glad one to a sinful soul, is all softened and +glorified, as some solemn Alpine cliff of bare rock is when the +tender morning light glows on it, when it is thought of as the +Omnipresence of Love. ‘Thou, God, seest me,’ may be a +stern word, if the God who sees be but a mighty Maker or a righteous +Judge. As reasonably might we expect a prisoner in his solitary cell +to be glad when he thinks that the jailer's eye is on him from some +unseen spy-hole in the wall, as expect any thought of God but one to +make a man read that grand one hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm with +joy: ‘If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed +in Sheol, behold, Thou art there.’ So may a man say +shudderingly to himself, and tremble as he asks in vain, +‘Whither shall I flee from Thy Presence?’ But how +different it all is when we can cast over the marble whiteness of +that solemn thought the warm hue of life, and change the form of our +words into this of our text: ‘Nor height, nor depth, shall be +able to separate us from the love of God.’</p> +<p>In that great ocean of the divine love we live and move and have +our being, floating in it like some sea flower which spreads its +filmy beauty and waves its long tresses in the depths of mid-ocean. +The sound of its waters is ever in our ears, and above, beneath, +around us, its mighty currents run evermore. We need not cower before +the fixed gaze of some stony god, looking on us unmoved like those +Egyptian deities that sit pitiless with idle hands on their laps, and +wide-open lidless eyes gazing out across the sands. We need not fear +the Omnipresence of Love, nor the Omniscience which knows us +altogether, and loves us even as it knows. Rather we shall be glad +that we are ever in His Presence, and desire, as the height of all +felicity and the power for all goodness, to walk all the day long in +the light of His countenance, till the day come when we shall receive +the crown of our perfecting in that we shall be ‘ever with the +Lord.’</p> +<p>The recognition of this triumphant sovereignty of love over all +these real and supposed antagonists makes us, too, lords over them, +and delivers us from the temptations which some of them present us to +separate ourselves from the love of God. They all become our servants +and helpers, uniting us to that love. So we are set free from the +dread of death and from the distractions incident to life. So we are +delivered from superstitious dread of an unseen world, and from +craven fear of men. So we are emancipated from absorption in the +present and from careful thought for the future. So we are at home +everywhere, and every corner of the universe is to us one of the many +mansions of our Father's house. ‘All things are yours, ... and +ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.’</p> +<p>I do not forget the closing words of this great text. I have not +ventured to include them in our present subject, because they would +have introduced another wide region of thought to be laid down on our +already too narrow canvas.</p> +<p>But remember, I beseech you, that this love of God is explained by +our Apostle to be ‘in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Love +illimitable, all-pervasive, eternal; yes, but a love which has a +channel and a course; love which has a method and a process by which +it pours itself over the world. It is not, as some representations +would make it, a vague, nebulous light diffused through space as in a +chaotic half-made universe, but all gathered in that great Light +which rules the day—even in Him who said: ‘I am the Light +of the world.’ In Christ the love of God is all centred and +embodied, that it may be imparted to all sinful and hungry hearts, +even as burning coals are gathered on a hearth that they may give +warmth to all that are in the house. ‘God <i>so</i> loved the +world’—not merely <i>so much</i>, but in <i>such a +fashion</i>—‘that’—that what? Many people +would leap at once from the first to the last clause of the verse, +and regard eternal life for all and sundry as the only adequate +expression of the universal love of God. Not so does Christ speak. +Between that universal love and its ultimate purpose and desire for +every man He inserts two conditions, one on God's part, one on man's. +God's love reaches its end, namely, the bestowal of eternal life, by +means of a divine act and a human response. ‘God <i>so</i> +loved the world, that He <i>gave</i> His only begotten Son, that +whosoever <i>believeth</i> in Him should not perish, but have +everlasting life.’ So all the universal love of God for you +and me and for all our brethren is ‘in Christ Jesus our +Lord,’ and faith in Him unites us to it by bonds which no foe +can break, no shock of change can snap, no time can rot, no distance +can stretch to breaking. ‘For I am persuaded, that neither +death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor +things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any +other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, +which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tsotb26" id="tsotb26">THE SACRIFICE OF THE BODY</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies +of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, +acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable +service.‘—ROMANS xii. 1.</blockquote> +<p>In the former part of this letter the Apostle has been building up +a massive fabric of doctrine, which has stood the waste of centuries, +and the assaults of enemies, and has been the home of devout souls. +He now passes to speak of practice, and he binds the two halves of +his letter indissolubly together by that significant +‘therefore,‘ which does not only look back to the thing +last said, but to the whole of the preceding portion of the letter. +‘What God hath joined together let no man put asunder.’ +Christian living is inseparably connected with Christian believing. +Possibly the error of our forefathers was in cutting faith too much +loose from practice, and supposing that an orthodox creed was +sufficient, though I think the extent to which they did suppose that +has been very much exaggerated. The temptation of this day is +precisely the opposite. ‘Conduct is three-fourths of +life,’ says one of our teachers. Yes. But what about the +<i>fourth</i> fourth which underlies conduct? Paul's way is the right +way. Lay broad and deep the foundations of God's facts revealed to +us, and then build upon that the fabric of a noble life. This +generation superficially tends to cut practice loose from faith, and +so to look for grapes from thorns and figs from thistles. Wrong +thinking will not lead to right doing. ‘I beseech you, +<i>therefore</i>, brethren, that ye present your bodies a living +sacrifice.’</p> +<p>The Apostle, in beginning his practical exhortations, lays as the +foundations of them all two companion precepts: one, with which we +have to deal, affecting mainly the outward life; its twin sister, +which follows in the next verse, affecting mainly the inward life. He +who has drunk in the spirit of Paul's doctrinal teaching will present +his body a living sacrifice, and be renewed in the spirit of his +mind; and thus, outwardly and inwardly, will be approximating to +God's ideal, and all specific virtues will be his in germ. Those two +precepts lay down the broad outline, and all that follow in the way +of specific commandments is but filling in its details.</p> +<p>I. We observe that we have here, first, an all-inclusive directory +for the outward life.</p> +<p>Now, it is to be noticed that the metaphor of sacrifice runs +through the whole of the phraseology of my text. The word rendered +‘present’ is a technical expression for the sacerdotal +action of offering. A tacit contrast is drawn between the sacrificial +ritual, which was familiar to Romans as well as Jews, and the true +Christian sacrifice and service. In the former a large portion of the +sacrifices consisted of animals which were slain. Ours is to be +‘a living sacrifice.’ In the former the offering was +presented to the Deity, and became His property. In the Christian +service, the gift passes, in like manner, from the possession of the +worshipper, and is set apart for the uses of God, for that is the +proper meaning of the word ‘holy.’ The outward sacrifice +gave an odour of a sweet smell, which, by a strong metaphor, was +declared to be fragrant in the nostrils of Deity. In like manner, the +Christian sacrifice is ‘acceptable unto God.’ These other +sacrifices were purely outward, and derived no efficacy from the +disposition of the worshipper. Our sacrifice, though the material of +the offering be corporeal, is the act of the inner man, and so is +called ‘rational’ rather than ‘reasonable,’ +as our Version has it, or as in other parts of Scripture, +‘spiritual.’ And the last word of my text, +‘service,’ retains the sacerdotal allusion, because it +does not mean the service of a slave or domestic, but that of a +priest.</p> +<p>And so the sum of the whole is that the master-word for the +outward life of a Christian is sacrifice. That, again, includes two +things—self-surrender and surrender to God.</p> +<p>Now, Paul was not such a superficial moralist as to begin at the +wrong end, and talk about the surrender of the outward life, unless +as the result of the prior surrender of the inward, and that priority +of the consecration of the man to his offering of the body is +contained in the very metaphor. For a priest needs to be consecrated +before he can offer, and we in our innermost wills, in the depths of +our nature, must be surrendered and set apart to God ere any of our +outward activities can be laid upon His altar. The Apostle, then, +does not make the mistake of substituting external for internal +surrender, but he presupposes that the latter has preceded. He puts +the sequence more fully in the parallel passage in this very letter: +‘Yield yourselves unto God, and your bodies as instruments of +righteousness unto Him.’ So, then, first of all, we must be +priests by our inward consecration, and then, since ‘a priest +must have somewhat to offer,’ we must bring the outward life +and lay it upon His altar.</p> +<p>Now, of the two thoughts which I have said are involved in this +great keyword, the former is common to Christianity, with all noble +systems of morality, whether religious or irreligious. It is a +commonplace, on which I do not need to dwell, that every man who will +live a man's life, and not that of a beast, must sacrifice the flesh, +and rigidly keep it down. But that commonplace is lifted into an +altogether new region, assumes a new solemnity, and finds new power +for its fulfilment when we add to the moralist's duty of control of +the animal and outward nature the other thought, that the surrender +must be to God.</p> +<p>There is no need for my dwelling at any length on the various +practical directions in which this great exhortation must be wrought +out. It is of more importance, by far, to have well fixed in our +minds and hearts the one dominant thought that sacrifice is the +keyword of the Christian life than to explain the directions in which +it applies. But still, just a word or two about these. There are +three ways in which we may look at the body, which the Apostle here +says is to be yielded up unto God.</p> +<p>It is the recipient of impressions from without. <i>There</i> is a +field for consecration. The eye that looks upon evil, and by the look +has rebellious, lustful, sensuous, foul desires excited in the heart, +breaks this solemn law. The eye that among the things seen dwells +with complacency on the pure, and turns from the impure as if a hot +iron had been thrust into its pupil; that in the things seen discerns +shimmering behind them, and manifested through them, the things +unseen and eternal, is the consecrated eye. ‘Art for Art's +sake,’ to quote the cant of the day, has too often meant art +for the flesh's sake. And there are pictures and books, and sights of +various sorts, flashed before the eyes of you young men and women +which it is pollution to dwell upon, and should be pain to remember. +I beseech you all to have guard over these gates of the heart, and to +pray, ‘Turn away mine eyes from viewing vanity.’ And the +other senses, in like manner, have need to be closely connected with +God if they are not to rush us down to the devil.</p> +<p>The body is not only the recipient of impressions. It is the +possessor of appetites and necessities. See to it that these are +indulged, with constant reference to God. It is no small attainment +of the Christian life ‘to eat our meat with gladness and +singleness of heart, praising God.’ In a hundred directions +this characteristic of our corporeal lives tends to lead us all away +from supreme consecration to Him. There is the senseless luxury of +this generation. There is the exaggerated care for physical strength +and completeness amongst the young; there is the intemperance in +eating and drinking, which is the curse and the shame of England. +There is the provision for the flesh, the absorbing care for the +procuring of material comforts, which drowns the spirit in miserable +anxieties, and makes men bond-slaves. There is the corruption which +comes from drunkenness and from lust. There is the indolence which +checks lofty aspirations and stops a man in the middle of noble work. +And there are many other forms of evil on which I need not dwell, all +of which are swept clean out of the way when we lay to heart this +injunction: ‘I beseech you present your bodies a living +sacrifice,’ and let appetites and tastes and corporeal needs be +kept in rigid subordination and in conscious connection with Him. I +remember a quaint old saying of a German schoolmaster, who +apostrophised his body thus: ‘I go with you three times a day +to eat; you must come with me three times a day to pray.’ +Subjugate the body, and let it be the servant and companion of the +devout spirit.</p> +<p>It is also, besides being the recipient of impressions, and the +possessor of needs and appetites, our instrument for working in the +world. And so the exhortation of my text comes to include this, that +all our activities done by means of brain and eye and tongue and hand +and foot shall be consciously devoted to Him, and laid as a sacrifice +upon His altar. That pervasive, universally diffused reference to +God, in all the details of daily life, is the thing that Christian +men and women need most of all to try to cultivate. ‘Pray +without ceasing,’ says the Apostle. This exhortation can only +be obeyed if our work is indeed worship, being done by God's help, +for God's sake, in communion with God.</p> +<p>So, dear friends, sacrifice is the keynote—meaning thereby +surrender, control, and stimulus of the corporeal frame, surrender to +God, in regard to the impressions which we allow to be made upon our +senses, to the indulgence which we grant to our appetites, and the +satisfaction which we seek for our needs, and to the activities which +we engage in by means of this wondrous instrument with which God has +trusted us. These are the plain principles involved in the +exhortation of my text. ‘He that soweth to the flesh, shall of +the flesh reap corruption.’ ‘I keep under my body, and +bring it into subjection.’ It is a good servant; it is a bad +master.</p> +<p>II. Note, secondly, the relation between this priestly service and +other kinds of worship.</p> +<p>I need only say a word about that. Paul is not meaning to +depreciate the sacrificial ritual, from which he drew his emblem. But +he is meaning to assert that the devotion of a life, manifested +through bodily activity, is higher in its nature than the symbolical +worship of any altar and of any sacrifice. And that falls in with +prevailing tendencies in this day, which has laid such a firm hold on +the principle that daily conduct is better than formal worship, that +it has forgotten to ask the question whether the daily conduct is +likely to be satisfactory if the formal worship is altogether +neglected. I believe, as profoundly as any man can, that the true +worship is distinguishable from and higher than the more sensuous +forms of the Catholic or other sacramentarian churches, or the more +simple of the Puritan and Nonconformist, or the altogether formless +of the Quaker. I believe that the best worship is the manifold +activities of daily life laid upon God's altar, so that the division +between things secular and things sacred is to a large extent +misleading and irrelevant. But at the same time I believe that you +have very little chance of getting this diffused and all-pervasive +reference of all a man's doings to God unless there are, all through +his life, recurring with daily regularity, reservoirs of power, +stations where he may rest, kneeling-places where the attitude of +service is exchanged for the attitude of supplication; times of quiet +communion with God which shall feed the worshipper's activities as +the white snowfields on the high summits feed the brooks that sparkle +by the way, and bring fertility wherever they run. So, dear brethren, +remember that whilst life is the field of worship there must be the +inward worship within the shrine if there is to be the outward +service.</p> +<p>III. Lastly, note the equally comprehensive motive and ground of +this all-inclusive directory for conduct.</p> +<p>‘I beseech you, by the mercies of God.’ That plural +does not mean that the Apostle is extending his view over the whole +wide field of the divine beneficence, but rather that he is +contemplating the one all-inclusive mercy about which the former part +of his letter has been eloquent—viz. the gift of +Christ—and contemplating it in the manifoldness of the +blessings which flow from it. The mercies of God which move a man to +yield himself as a sacrifice are not the diffused beneficences of His +providence, but the concentrated love that lies in the person and +work of His Son.</p> +<p>And there, as I believe, is the one motive to which we can appeal +with any prospect of its being powerful enough to give the needful +impetus all through a life. The sacrifice of Christ is the ground on +which our sacrifices can be offered and accepted, for it was the +sacrifice of a death propitiatory and cleansing, and on it, as the +ancient ritual taught us, may be reared the enthusiastic sacrifice of +a life—a thankoffering for it.</p> +<p>Nor is it only the ground on which our sacrifice is accepted, but +it is the great motive by which our sacrifice is impelled. +<i>There</i> is the difference between the Christian teaching, +‘present your bodies a sacrifice,’ and the highest and +noblest of similar teaching elsewhere. One of the purest and loftiest +of the ancient moralists was a contemporary of Paul's. He would have +re-echoed from his heart the Apostle's directory, but he knew nothing +of the Apostle's motive. So his exhortations were powerless. He had +no spell to work on men's hearts, and his lofty teachings were as the +voice of one crying in the wilderness. Whilst Seneca taught, Rome was +a cesspool of moral putridity and Nero butchered. So it always is. +There may be noble teachings about self-control, purity, and the +like, but an evil and adulterous generation is slow to dance to such +piping.</p> +<p>Our poet has bid us—</p> +<pre> +'Move upwards, casting out the beast, +And let the ape and tiger die.' +</pre> +<p class="noindent">But how is this heavy bulk of ours to ‘move +upwards’; how is the beast to be ‘cast out’; how +are the ‘ape and tiger’ in us to be slain? Paul has told +us, ‘By the mercies of God.’ Christ's gift, meditated on, +accepted, introduced into will and heart, is the one power that will +melt our obstinacy, the one magnet that will draw us after it.</p> +<p>Nothing else, brethren, as your own experience has taught you, and +as the experience of the world confirms, nothing else will bind +Behemoth, and put a hook in his nose. Apart from the constraining +motive of the love of Christ, all the cords of prudence, conscience, +advantage, by which men try to bind their unruly passions and manacle +the insisting flesh, are like the chains on the demoniac's +wrists— ‘And he had oftentimes been bound by chains, and +the chains were snapped asunder.’ But the silken leash with +which the fair Una in the poem leads the lion, the silken leash of +love will bind the strong man, and enable us to rule ourselves. If we +will open our hearts to the sacrifice of Christ, we shall be able to +offer ourselves as thankofferings. If we will let His love sway our +wills and consciences, He will give our wills and consciences power +to master and to offer up our flesh. And the great change, according +to which He will one day change the body of our humiliation into the +likeness of the body of His glory, will be begun in us, if we live +under the influence of the motive and the commandment which this +Apostle bound together in our text and in his other great words, +‘Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price, therefore +glorify God in your body and spirit, which are His.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="t27" id="t27">TRANSFIGURATION</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Be not conformed to this world; but be ye +transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is +that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of +God.’—ROMANS xii. 2.</blockquote> +<p>I had occasion to point out, in a sermon on the preceding verse, +that the Apostle is, in this context, making the transition from the +doctrinal to the practical part of his letter, and that he lays down +broad principles, of which all his subsequent injunctions and +exhortations are simply the filling up of the details. One master +word, for the whole Christian life, as we then saw, is sacrifice, +self-surrender, and that to God. In like manner, Paul here brackets, +with that great conception of the Christian life, another equally +dominant and equally comprehensive. In one aspect, it is +self-surrender; in another, it is growing transformation. And, just +as in the former verse we found that an inward surrender preceded the +outward sacrifice, and that the inner man, having been consecrated as +a priest, by this yielding of himself to God, was then called upon to +manifest inward consecration by outward sacrifice, so in this further +exhortation, an inward ‘renewing of the mind’ is regarded +as the necessary antecedent of transformation of outward life.</p> +<p>So we have here another comprehensive view of what the Christian +life ought to be, and that not only grasped, as it were, in its very +centre and essence, but traced out in two directions—as to that +which must precede it within, and as to that which follows it as +consequence. An outline of the possibilities, and therefore the +duties, of the Christian, is set forth here, in these three thoughts +of my text, the renewed mind issuing in a transfigured life, crowned +and rewarded by a clearer and ever clearer insight into what we ought +to be and do.</p> +<p>I. Note, then, that the foundation of all transformation of +character and conduct is laid deep in a renewed mind.</p> +<p>Now it is a matter of world-wide experience, verified by each of +us in our own case, if we have ever been honest in the attempt, that +the power of self-improvement is limited by very narrow bounds. Any +man that has ever tried to cure himself of the most trivial habit +which he desires to get rid of, or to alter in the slightest degree +the set of some strong taste or current of his being, knows how +little he can do, even by the most determined effort. Something may +be effected, but, alas! as the proverbs of all nations and all lands +have taught us, it is very little indeed. ‘You cannot expel +nature with a fork,’ said the Roman. ‘What's bred in the +bone won't come out of the flesh,’ says the Englishman. +‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his +spots?’ says the Hebrew. And we all know what the answer to +that question is. The problem that is set before a man when you tell +him to effect self-improvement is something like that which +confronted that poor paralytic lying in the porch at the pool: +‘If you can walk you will be able to get to the pool that will +make you able to walk. But you have got to be cured before you can do +what you need to do in order to be cured.’ Only one knife can +cut the knot. The Gospel of Jesus Christ presents itself, not as a +mere republication of morality, not as merely a new stimulus and +motive to do what is right, but as an actual communication to men of +a new power to work in them, a strong hand laid upon our poor, feeble +hand with which we try to put on the brake or to apply the stimulus. +It is a new gift of a life which will unfold itself after its own +nature, as the bud into flower, and the flower into fruit; giving new +desires, tastes, directions, and renewing the whole nature. And so, +says Paul, the beginning of transformation of character is the +renovation in the very centre of the being, and the communication of +a new impulse and power to the inward self.</p> +<p>Now, I suppose that in my text the word ‘mind’ is not +so much employed in the widest sense, including all the affections +and will, and the other faculties of our nature, as in the narrower +sense of the perceptive power, or that faculty in our nature by which +we recognise, and make our own, certain truths. ‘The renewing +of the mind,’ then, is only, in such an interpretation, a +theological way of putting the simpler English thought, a change of +estimates, a new set of views; or if that word be too shallow, as +indeed it is, a new set of convictions. It is profoundly true that +‘As a man thinketh, so is he.’ Our characters are largely +made by our estimates of what is good or bad, desirable or +undesirable. And what the Apostle is thinking about here is, as I +take it, principally how the body of Christian truth, if it effects a +lodgment in, not merely the brain of a man, but his whole nature, +will modify and alter it all. Why, we all know how often a whole life +has been revolutionised by the sudden dawning or rising in its sky, +of some starry new truth, formerly hidden and undreamed of. And if we +should translate the somewhat archaic phraseology of our text into +the plainest of modern English, it just comes to this: If you want to +change your characters, and God knows they all need it, change the +deep convictions of your mind; and get hold, as living realities, of +the great truths of Christ's Gospel. If you and I really believed +what we say we believe, that Jesus Christ has died for us, and lives +for us, and is ready to pour out upon us the gift of His Divine +Spirit, and wills that we should be like Him, and holds out to us the +great and wonderful hopes and prospects of an absolutely eternal life +of supreme and serene blessedness at His right hand, should we be, +could we be, the sort of people that most of us are? It is not the +much that you say you believe that shapes your character; it is the +little that you habitually realise. Truth professed has no +transforming power; truth received and fed upon can revolutionise a +man's whole character.</p> +<p>So, dear brethren, remember that my text, though it is an analysis +of the methods of Christian progress, and though it is a wonderful +setting forth of the possibilities open to the poorest, dwarfed, +blinded, corrupted nature, is also all commandment. And if it is true +that the principles of the Gospel exercise transforming power upon +men's lives, and that in order for these principles to effect their +natural results there must be honest dealing with them, on our parts, +take this as the practical outcome of all this first part of my +sermon—let us all see to it that we keep ourselves in touch +with the truths which we say we believe; and that we thorough-goingly +apply these truths in all their searching, revealing, quickening, +curbing power, to every action of our daily lives. If for one day we +could bring everything that we do into touch with the creed that we +profess, we should be different men and women. Make of your every +thought an action; link every action with a thought. Or, to put it +more Christianlike, let there be nothing in your creed which is not +in your commandments; and let nothing be in your life which is not +moulded by these. The beginning of all transformation is the +revolutionised conviction of a mind that has accepted the truths of +the Gospel.</p> +<p>II. Well then, secondly, note the transfigured life.</p> +<p>The Apostle uses in his positive commandment, ‘Be ye +transformed,’ the same word which is employed by two of the +Evangelists in their account of our Lord's transfiguration. And +although I suppose it would be going too far to assert that there is +a distinct reference intended to that event, it may be permissible to +look back to it as being a lovely illustration of the possibilities +that open to an honest Christian life—the possibility of a +change, coming from within upwards, and shedding a strange radiance +on the face, whilst yet the identity remains. So by the rippling up +from within of the renewed mind will come into our lives a +transformation not altogether unlike that which passed on Him when +His garments did shine ‘so as no fuller on earth could white +them’; and His face was as the sun in his strength.</p> +<p>The life is to be transfigured, yet it remains the same, not only +in the consciousness of personal identity, but in the main trend and +drift of the character. There is nothing in the Gospel of Jesus +Christ which is meant to obliterate the lines of the strongly marked +individuality which each of us receives by nature. Rather the Gospel +is meant to heighten and deepen these, and to make each man more +intensely himself, more thoroughly individual and unlike anybody +else. The perfection of our nature is found in the pursuit, to the +furthest point, of the characteristics of our nature, and so, by +reason of diversity, there is the greater harmony, and, all taken +together, will reflect less inadequately the infinite glories of +which they are all partakers. But whilst the individuality remains, +and ought to be heightened by Christian consecration, yet a change +should pass over our lives, like the change that passes over the +winter landscape when the summer sun draws out the green leaves from +the hard black boughs, and flashes a fresh colour over all the brown +pastures. There should be such a change as when a drop or two of ruby +wine falls into a cup, and so diffuses a gradual warmth of tint over +all the whiteness of the water. Christ in us, if we are true to Him, +will make us more ourselves, and yet new creatures in Christ +Jesus.</p> +<p>And the transformation is to be into His likeness who is the +pattern of all perfection. We must be moulded after the same type. +There are two types possible for us: this world; Jesus Christ. We +have to make our choice which is to be the headline after which we +are to try to write. ‘They that make them are like unto +them.’ Men resemble their gods; men become more or less like +their idols. What you conceive to be desirable you will more and more +assimilate yourselves to. Christ is the Christian man's pattern; is +He not better than the blind, corrupt world?</p> +<p>That transformation is no sudden thing, though the revolution +which underlies it may be instantaneous. The working <i>out</i> of +the new motives, the working <i>in</i> of the new power, is no mere +work of a moment. It is a lifelong task till the lump be leavened. +Michael Angelo, in his mystical way, used to say that sculpture +effected its aim by the removal of parts; as if the statue lay +somehow hid in the marble block. We have, day by day, to work at the +task of removing the superfluities that mask its outlines. Sometimes +with a heavy mallet, and a hard blow, and a broad chisel, we have to +take away huge masses; sometimes, with fine tools and delicate +touches, to remove a grain or two of powdered dust from the sparkling +block, but always to seek more and more, by slow, patient toil, to +conform ourselves to that serene type of all perfectness that we have +learned to love in Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>And remember, brethren, this transformation is no magic change +effected whilst men sleep. It is a commandment which we have to brace +ourselves to perform, day by day to set ourselves to the task of more +completely assimilating ourselves to our Lord. It comes to be a +solemn question for each of us whether we can say, ‘To-day I am +liker Jesus Christ than I was yesterday; to-day the truth which +renews the mind has a deeper hold upon me than it ever had +before.’</p> +<p>But this positive commandment is only one side of the +transfiguration that is to be effected. It is clear enough that if a +new likeness is being stamped upon a man, the process may be looked +at from the other side; and that in proportion as we become liker +Jesus Christ, we shall become more unlike the old type to which we +were previously conformed. And so, says Paul, ‘Be not conformed +to this world, but be ye transformed.’ He does not mean to say +that the nonconformity precedes the transformation. They are two +sides of one process; both arising from the renewing of the mind +within.</p> +<p>Now, I do not wish to do more than just touch most lightly upon +the thoughts that are here, but I dare not pass them by altogether. +‘This world’ here, in my text, is more properly +‘this age,’ which means substantially the same thing as +John's favourite word ‘world,’ viz. the sum total of +godless men and things conceived of as separated from God, only that +by this expression the essentially fleeting nature of that type is +more distinctly set forth. Now the world is the world to-day just as +much as it was in Paul's time. No doubt the Gospel has sweetened +society; no doubt the average of godless life in England is a better +thing than the average of godless life in the Roman Empire. No doubt +there is a great deal of Christianity diffused through the average +opinion and ways of looking at things, that prevail around us. But +the World is the world still. There are maxims and ways of living, +and so on, characteristic of the Christian life, which are in as +complete antagonism to the ideas and maxims and practices that +prevail amongst men who are outside of the influences of this +Christian truth in their own hearts, as ever they were.</p> +<p>And although it can only be a word, I want to put in here a very +earnest word which the tendencies of this generation do very +specially require. It seems to be thought, by a great many people, +who call themselves Christians nowadays, that the nearer they can +come in life, in ways of looking at things, in estimates of +literature, for instance, in customs of society, in politics, in +trade, and especially in amusements—the nearer they can come to +the un-Christian world, the more ‘broad’ (save the mark!) +and ‘superior to prejudice’ they are. +‘Puritanism,’ not only in theology, but in life and +conduct, has come to be at a discount in these days. And it seems to +be by a great many professing Christians thought to be a great feat +to walk as the mules on the Alps do, with one foot over the path and +the precipice down below. Keep away from the edge. You are safer so. +Although, of course, I am not talking about mere conventional +dissimilarities; and though I know and believe and feel all that can +be said about the insufficiency, and even insincerity, of such, yet +there is a broad gulf between the man who believes in Jesus Christ +and His Gospel and the man who does not, and the resulting conducts +cannot be the same unless the Christian man is insincere.</p> +<p>III. And now lastly, and only a word, note the great reward and +crown of this transfigured life.</p> +<p>Paul puts it in words which, if I had time, would require some +commenting upon. The issue of such a life is, to put it into plain +English, an increased power of perceiving, instinctively and surely, +what it is God's will that we should do. And that is the reward. Just +as when you take away disturbing masses of metal from near a compass, +it trembles to its true point, so when, by the discipline of which I +have been speaking, there are swept away from either side of us the +things that would perturb our judgment, there comes, as blessing and +reward, a clear insight into that which it is our duty to do.</p> +<p>There may be many difficulties left, many perplexities. There is +no promise here, nor is there anything in the tendencies of +Christ-like living, to lead us to anticipate that guidance in regard +to matters of prudence or expediency or temporal advantage will +follow from such a transfigured life. All such matters are still to +be determined in the proper fashion, by the exercise of our own best +judgment and common-sense. But in the higher region, the knowledge of +good and evil, surely it is a blessed reward, and one of the highest +that can be given to a man, that there shall be in him so complete a +harmony with God that, like God's Son, he ‘does always the +things that please Him,’ and that the Father will show him +whatsoever things Himself doeth; and that these also will the son do +likewise. To know beyond doubt what I ought to do, and knowing, to +have no hesitation or reluctance in doing it, seems to me to be +heaven upon earth, and the man that has it needs but little more. +This, then, is the reward. Each peak we climb opens wider and clearer +prospects into the untravelled land before us.</p> +<p>And so, brethren, here is the way, the only way, by which we can +change ourselves, first let us have our minds renewed by contact with +the truth, then we shall be able to transform our lives into the +likeness of Jesus Christ, and our faces too will shine, and our lives +will be ennobled, by a serene beauty which men cannot but admire, +though it may rebuke them. And as the issue of all we shall have +clearer and deeper insight into that will, which to know is life, in +keeping of which there is great reward. And thus our apostle's +promise may be fulfilled for each of us. ‘We all with unveiled +faces reflecting’—as a mirror does—‘the glory +of the Lord, are changed ... into the same image.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="st28" id="st28">SOBER THINKING</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘For I say, through the grace that is given unto +me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more +highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God +hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.’—ROMANS +xii. 3.</blockquote> +<p>It is hard to give advice without seeming to assume superiority; +it is hard to take it, unless the giver identifies himself with the +receiver, and shows that his counsel to others is a law for himself. +Paul does so here, led by the delicate perception which comes from a +loving heart, compared with which deliberate ‘tact’ is +cold and clumsy. He wishes, as the first of the specific duties to +which he invites the Roman Christians, an estimate of themselves +based upon the recognition of God as the Giver of all capacities and +graces, and leading to a faithful use for the general good of the +‘gifts differing according to the grace given to us.’ In +the first words of our text, he enforces his counsel by an appeal to +his apostolic authority; but he so presents it that, instead of +separating himself from the Roman Christians by it, he unites himself +with them. He speaks of ‘the grace given to <i>me</i>,’ +and in verse 6 of ‘the grace given to <i>us</i>.’ He was +made an Apostle by the same giving God who has bestowed varying gifts +on each of <i>them</i>. He knows what is the grace which he possesses +as he would have them know; and in these counsels he is assuming no +superiority, but is simply using the special gift bestowed on him for +the good of all. With this delicate turn of what might else have +sounded harshly authoritative, putting prominently forward the divine +gift and letting the man Paul to whom it was given fall into the +background, he counsels as the first of the social duties which +Christian men owe to one another, a sober and just estimate of +themselves. This sober estimate is here regarded as being important +chiefly as an aid to right service. It is immediately followed by +counsels to the patient and faithful exercise of differing gifts. For +thus we may know what our gifts are; and the acquisition of such +knowledge is the aim of our text.</p> +<p>I. What determines our gifts.</p> +<p>Paul here gives a precise standard, or ‘measure’ as he +calls it, according to which we are to estimate ourselves. +‘Faith’ is the measure of our gifts, and is itself a gift +from God. The strength of a Christian man's faith determines his +whole Christian character. Faith is trust, the attitude of +receptivity. There are in it a consciousness of need, a yearning +desire and a confidence of expectation. It is the open empty hand +held up with the assurance that it will be filled; it is the empty +pitcher let down into the well with the assurance that it will be +drawn up filled. It is the precise opposite of the self-dependent +isolation which shuts us out from God. The law of the Christian life +is ever, ‘according to your faith be it unto you’; +‘believe that ye receive and ye have them.’ So then the +more faith a man exercises the more of God and Christ he has. It is +the measure of our capacity, hence there may be indefinite increase +in the gifts which God bestows on faithful souls. Each of us will +have as much as he desires and is capable of containing. The walls of +the heart are elastic, and desire expands them.</p> +<p>The grace given by faith works in the line of its possessor's +natural faculties; but these are supernaturally reinforced and +strengthened while, at the same time, they are curbed and controlled, +by the divine gift, and the natural gifts thus dealt with become what +Paul calls <i>charisms</i>. The whole nature of a Christian should be +ennobled, elevated, made more delicate and intense, when the +‘Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus’ abides in and +inspires it. Just as a sunless landscape is smitten into sudden +beauty by a burst of sunshine which heightens the colouring of the +flowers on the river's bank, and is flashed back from every silvery +ripple on the stream, so the faith which brings the life of Christ +into the life of the Christian makes him more of a man than he was +before. So, there will be infinite variety in the resulting +characters. It is the same force in various forms that rolls in the +thunder or gleams in the dewdrops, that paints the butterfly's +feathers or flashes in a star. All individual idiosyncrasies should +be developed in the Christian Church, and will be when its members +yield themselves fully to the indwelling Spirit, and can truly +declare that the lives which they live in the flesh they live by the +faith of the Son of God.</p> +<p>But Paul here regards the measure of faith as itself ‘dealt +to every man’; and however we may construe the grammar of this +sentence there is a deep sense in which our faith is God's gift to +us. We have to give equal emphasis to the two conceptions of faith as +a human act and as a divine bestowal, which have so often been pitted +against each other as contradictory when really they are +complementary. The apparent antagonism between them is but one +instance of the great antithesis to which we come to at last in +reference to all human thought on the relations of man to God. +‘It is He that worketh in us both to will and to do of His own +good pleasure’; and all our goodness is God-given goodness, and +yet it is our goodness. Every devout heart has a consciousness that +the faith which knits it to God is God's work in it, and that left to +itself it would have remained alienated and faithless. The +consciousness that his faith was his own act blended in full harmony +with the twin consciousness that it was Christ's gift, in the +agonised father's prayer, ‘Lord, I believe, help Thou mine +unbelief.’</p> +<p>II. What is a just estimate of our gifts.</p> +<p>The Apostle tells us, negatively, that we are not to think more +highly than we ought to think, and positively that we are to +‘think soberly.’</p> +<p>To arrive at a just estimate of ourselves the estimate must ever +be accompanied with a distinct consciousness that all is God's gift. +That will keep us from anything in the nature of pride or +over-weening self-importance. It will lead to true humility, which is +not ignorance of what we can do, but recognition that we, the doers, +are of ourselves but poor creatures. We are less likely to fancy that +we are greater than we are when we feel that, whatever we are, God +made us so. ‘What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, +if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not +received it?’</p> +<p>Further, it is to be noted that the estimate of gifts which Paul +enjoins is an estimate with a view to service. Much +self-investigation is morbid, because it is self-absorbed; and much +is morbid because it is undertaken only for the purpose of +ascertaining one's ‘spiritual condition.’ Such +self-examination is good enough in its way, and may sometimes be very +necessary; but a testing of one's own capacities for the purpose of +ascertaining what we are fit for, and what therefore it is our duty +to do, is far more wholesome. Gifts are God's summons to work, and +our first response to the summons should be our scrutiny of our gifts +with a distinct purpose of using them for the great end for which we +received them. It is well to take stock of the loaves that we have, +if the result be that we bring our poor provisions to Him, and put +them in His hands, that He may give them back to us so multiplied as +to be more than adequate to the needs of the thousands. Such just +estimate of our gifts is to be attained mainly by noting ourselves at +work. Patient self-observation may be important, but is apt to be +mistaken; and the true test of what we can do is what we <i>do</i> +do.</p> +<p>The just estimate of our gifts which Paul enjoins is needful in +order that we may ascertain what God has meant us to be and do, and +may neither waste our strength in trying to be some one else, nor +hide our talent in the napkin of ignorance or false humility. There +is quite as much harm done to Christian character and Christian +service by our failure to recognise what is in our power, as by +ambitious or ostentatious attempts at what is above our power. We +have to be ourselves as God has made us in our natural faculties, and +as the new life of Christ operating on these has made us new +creatures in Him not by changing but by enlarging our old natures. It +matters nothing what the special form of a Christian man's service +may be; the smallest and the greatest are alike to the Lord of all, +and He appoints His servants’ work. Whether the servant be a +cup-bearer or a counsellor is of little moment. ‘He that is +faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much.’</p> +<p>The positive aspect of this right estimate of one's gifts is, if +we fully render the Apostle's words, as the Revised Version does, +‘so to think as to think soberly.’ There is to be +self-knowledge in order to ‘sobriety,’ which includes not +only what we mean by sober-mindedness, but self-government; and this +aspect of the apostolic exhortation opens out into the thought that +the gifts, which a just estimate of ourselves pronounces us to +possess, need to be kept bright by the continual suppression of the +mind of the flesh, by putting down earthly desires, by guarding +against a selfish use of them, by preventing them by rigid control +from becoming disproportioned and our masters. All the gifts which +Christ bestows upon His people He bestows on condition that they bind +them together by the golden chain of self-control.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="mao29" id="mao29">MANY AND ONE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘For we have many members in one body, and all +members have not the same office: 5. So we, being many, are one body +in Christ, and every one members one of another.‘—ROMANS +xii. 4, 5.</blockquote> +<p>To Paul there was the closest and most vital connection between +the profoundest experiences of the Christian life and its plainest +and most superficial duties. Here he lays one of his most mystical +conceptions as the very foundation on which to rear the great +structure of Christian conduct, and links on to one of his +profoundest thoughts, the unity of all Christians in Christ, a +comprehensive series of practical exhortations. We are accustomed to +hear from many lips: ‘I have no use for these dogmas that Paul +delights in. Give me his practical teaching. You may keep the Epistle +to the Romans, I hold by the thirteenth of First Corinthians.’ +But such an unnatural severance between the doctrine and the ethics +of the Epistle cannot be effected without the destruction of both. +The very principle of this Epistle to the Romans is that the +difference between the law and the Gospel is, that the one preaches +conduct without a basis for it, and that the other says, First +believe in Christ, and in the strength of that belief, do the right +and be like Him. Here, then, in the very laying of the foundation for +conduct in these verses we have in concrete example the secret of the +Christian way of making good men.</p> +<p>I. The first point to notice here is, the unity of the derived +life. Many are one, because they are each in Christ, and the +individual relationship and derivation of life from Him makes them +one whilst continuing to be many. That great metaphor, and nowadays +much forgotten and neglected truth, is to Paul's mind the fact which +ought to mould the whole life and conduct of individual Christians +and to be manifested therein. There are three most significant and +instructive symbols by which the unity of believers in Christ Jesus +is set forth in the New Testament. Our Lord Himself gives us the one +of the vine and its branches, and that symbol suggests the silent, +effortless process by which the life-giving sap rises and finds its +way from the deep root to the furthest tendril and the far-extended +growth. The same symbol loses indeed in one respect its value if we +transfer it to growths more congenial to our northern climate, and +instead of the vine with its rich clusters, think of some great elm, +deeply rooted, and with its firm bole and massive branches, through +all of which the mystery of a common life penetrates and makes every +leaf in the cloud of foliage through which we look up participant of +itself. But, profound and beautiful as our Lord's metaphor is, the +vegetative uniformity of parts and the absence of individual +characteristics make it, if taken alone, insufficient. In the tree +one leaf is like another; it ‘grows green and broad and takes +no care.’ Hence, to express the whole truth of the union +between Christ and us we must bring in other figures. Thus we find +the Apostle adducing the marriage tie, the highest earthly example of +union, founded on choice and affection. But even that sacred bond +leaves a gap between those who are knit together by it; and so we +have the conception of our text, the unity of the body as +representing for us the unity of believers with Jesus. This is a +unity of life. He is not only head as chief and sovereign, but He is +soul or life, which has its seat, not in this or that organ as old +physics teach, but pervades the whole and ‘filleth all in +all.’ The mystery which concerns the union of soul and body, +and enshrouds the nature of physical life, is part of the felicity of +this symbol in its Christian application. That commonest of all +things, the mysterious force which makes matter live and glow under +spiritual emotion, and changes the vibrations of a nerve, or the +undulations of the grey brain, into hope and love and faith, eludes +the scalpel and the microscope. Of man in his complex nature it is +true that ‘clouds and darkness are round about him,’ and +we may expect an equally solemn mystery to rest upon that which makes +out of separate individuals one living body, animated with the life +and moved by the Spirit of the indwelling Christ. We can get no +further back, and dig no deeper down, than His own words, ‘I am +... the life.’</p> +<p>But, though this unity is mysterious, it is most real. Every +Christian soul receives from Christ the life of Christ. There is a +real implantation of a higher nature which has nothing to do with sin +and is alien from death. There is a true regeneration which is +supernatural, and which makes all who possess it one, in the measure +of their possession, as truly as all the leaves on a tree are one +because fed by the same sap, or all the members in the natural body +are one, because nourished by the same blood. So the true bond of +Christian unity lies in the common participation of the one Lord, and +the real Christian unity is a unity of derived life.</p> +<p>The misery and sin of the Christian Church have been, and are, +that it has sought to substitute other bonds of unity. The whole +weary history of the divisions and alienations between Christians has +surely sufficiently, and more than sufficiently, shown the failure of +the attempts to base Christian oneness upon uniformity of opinion, or +of ritual, or of purpose. The difference between the real unity, and +these spurious attempts after it, is the difference between bundles +of faggots, dead and held together by a cord, and a living tree +lifting its multitudinous foliage towards the heavens. The bundle of +faggots may be held together in some sort of imperfect union, but is +no exhibition of unity. If visible churches must be based on some +kind of agreement, they can never cover the same ground as that of +‘the body of Christ.’</p> +<p>That oneness is independent of our organisations, and even of our +will, since it comes from the common possession of a common life. Its +enemies are not divergent opinions or forms, but the evil tempers and +dispositions which impede, or prevent, the flow into each Christian +soul of the uniting ‘Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’ +which makes the many who may be gathered into separate folds one +flock clustered around the one Shepherd. And if that unity be thus a +fundamental fact in the Christian life and entirely apart from +external organisation, the true way to increase it in each individual +is, plainly, the drawing nearer to Him, and the opening of our +spirits so as to receive fuller, deeper, and more continuous inflows +from His own inexhaustible fullness. In the old Temple stood the +seven-branched candlestick, an emblem of a formal unity; in the new +the seven candlesticks are one, because Christ stands in the midst. +He makes the body one; without Him it is a carcase.</p> +<p>II. The diversity.</p> +<p>‘We have many members in one body, but all members have not +the same office.’ Life has different functions in different +organs. It is light in the eye, force in the arm, music on the +tongue, swiftness in the foot; so also is Christ. The higher a +creature rises in the scale of life, the more are the parts +differentiated. The lowest is a mere sac, which performs all the +functions that the creature requires; the highest is a man with a +multitude of organs, each of which is definitely limited to one +office. In like manner the division of labour in society measures its +advance; and in like manner in the Church there is to be the widest +diversity. What the Apostle designates as ‘gifts’ are +natural characteristics heightened by the Spirit of Christ; the +effect of the common life in each ought to be the intensifying and +manifestation of individuality of character. In the Christian ideal +of humanity there is place for every variety of gifts. The flora of +the Mountain of God yields an endless multiplicity of growths on its +ascending slopes which pass through every climate. There ought to be +a richer diversity in the Church than anywhere besides; that tree +should ‘bear twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every +month for the healing of the nations.’ ‘All flesh is not +the same flesh.’ ‘Star differeth from star in +glory.’</p> +<p>The average Christian life of to-day sorely fails in two things: +in being true to itself, and in tolerance of diversities. We are all +so afraid of being ticketed as ‘eccentric,’ +‘odd,’ that we oftentimes stifle the genuine impulses of +the Spirit of Christ leading us to the development of unfamiliar +types of goodness, and the undertaking of unrecognised forms of +service. If we trusted in Christ in ourselves more, and took our laws +from His whispers, we should often reach heights of goodness which +tower above us now, and discover in ourselves capacities which +slumber undiscerned. There is a dreary monotony and uniformity +amongst us which impoverishes us, and weakens the testimony that we +bear to the quickening influence of the Spirit that is in Christ +Jesus; and we all tend to look very suspiciously at any man who +‘puts all the others out’ by being himself, and letting +the life that he draws from the Lord dictate its own manner of +expression. It would breathe a new life into all our Christian +communities if we allowed full scope to the diversities of operation, +and realised that in them all there was the one Spirit. The world +condemns originality: the Church should have learned to prize it. +‘One after this fashion, and one after that,’ is the only +wholesome law of the development of the manifold graces of the +Christian life.</p> +<p>III. The harmony.</p> +<p>‘We being many are one body in Christ, and every one members +one of another.’ That expression is remarkable, for we might +have expected to read rather members <i>of the body</i>, than <i>of +each other</i>; but the bringing in of such an idea suggests most +emphatically that thought of the mutual relation of each part of the +great whole, and that each has offices to discharge for the benefit +of each. In the Christian community, as in an organised body, the +active co-operation of all the parts is the condition of health. All +the rays into which the spectrum breaks up the pure white light must +be gathered together again in order to produce it; just as every +instrument in the great orchestra contributes to the volume of sound. +The Lancashire hand-bell ringers may illustrate this point for us. +Each man picks up his own bell from the table and sounds his own note +at the moment prescribed by the score, and so the whole of the +composer's idea is reproduced. To suppress diversities results in +monotony; to combine them is the only sure way to secure harmony. Nor +must we forget that the indwelling life of the Church can only be +manifested by the full exhibition and freest possible play of all the +forms which that life assumes in individual character. It needs all, +and more than all, the types of mental characteristics that can be +found in humanity to mirror the infinite beauty of the indwelling +Lord. ‘There are diversities of operations,’ and all +those diversities but partially represent that same Lord ‘who +worketh all in all,’ and Himself is more than all, and, after +all manifestation through human characters, remains hinted at rather +than declared, suggested but not revealed.</p> +<p>Still further, only by the exercise of possible diversities is the +one body nourished, for each member, drawing life directly and +without the intervention of any other from Christ the Source, draws +also from his fellow-Christian some form of the common life that to +himself is unfamiliar, and needs human intervention in order to its +reception. Such dependence upon one's brethren is not inconsistent +with a primal dependence on Christ alone, and is a safeguard against +the cultivating of one's own idiosyncrasies till they become diseased +and disproportionate. The most slenderly endowed Christian soul has +the double charge of giving to, and receiving from, its brethren. We +have all something which we can contribute to the general stock. We +have all need to supplement our own peculiar gifts by brotherly +ministration. The prime condition of Christian vitality has been set +forth for ever by the gracious invitation, which is also an +imperative command, ‘Abide in Me and I in you’; but they +who by such abiding are recipients of a communicated life are not +thereby isolated, but united to all who like them have received +‘the manifestation of the Spirit to do good with.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="gag30" id="gag30">GRACE AND GRACES</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Having then gifts, differing according to the +grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy +according to the proportion of faith; 7. Or ministry, let us wait on +our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; 8. Or he that +exhorteth, on exhortation; he that giveth, let him do it with +simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, +with cheerfulness.’—ROMANS xii. 6-8.</blockquote> +<p>The Apostle here proceeds to build upon the great thought of the +unity of believers in the one body a series of practical +exhortations. In the first words of our text, he, with characteristic +delicacy, identifies himself with the Roman Christians as a +recipient, like them, of ‘the grace that is given to us,’ +and as, therefore, subject to the same precepts which he commends to +them. He does not stand isolated by the grace that is given to him; +nor does he look down as from the height of his apostleship on the +multitude below, saying to them,—Go. As one of themselves he +stands amongst them, and with brotherly exhortation says,—Come. +If that had been the spirit in which all Christian teachers had +besought men, their exhortations would less frequently have been +breath spent in vain.</p> +<p>We may note</p> +<p>I. The grace that gives the gifts.</p> +<p>The connection between these two is more emphatically suggested by +the original Greek, in which the word for ‘gifts’ is a +derivative of that for ‘grace.’ The relation between +these two can scarcely be verbally reproduced in English; but it may +be, though imperfectly, suggested by reading ‘graces’ +instead of ‘gifts.’ The gifts are represented as being +the direct product of, and cognate with, the grace bestowed. As we +have had already occasion to remark, they are in Paul's language a +designation of natural capacities strengthened by the access of the +life of the Spirit of Christ. As a candle plunged in a vase of oxygen +leaps up into more brilliant flame, so all the faculties of the human +soul are made a hundred times themselves when the quickening power of +the life of Christ enters into them.</p> +<p>It is to be observed that the Apostle here assumes that every +Christian possesses, in some form, that grace which gives graces. To +him a believing soul without Christ-given gifts is a monstrosity. No +one is without some graces, and therefore no one is without some +duties. No one who considers the multitude of professing Christians +who hamper all our churches to-day, and reflects on the modern need +to urge on the multitude of idlers forms of Christian activity, will +fail to recognise signs of terribly weakened vitality. The humility, +which in response to all invitations to work for Christ pleads +unfitness is, if true, more tragical than it at first seems, for it +is a confession that the man who alleges it has no real hold of the +Christ in whom he professes to trust. If a Christian man is fit for +no Christian work, it is time that he gravely ask himself whether he +has any Christian life. ‘Having gifts’ is the basis of +all the Apostle's exhortations. It is to him inconceivable that any +Christian should not possess, and be conscious of possessing, some +endowment from the life of Christ which will fit him for, and bind +him to, a course of active service.</p> +<p>The universality of this possession is affirmed, if we note that, +according to the Greek, it was ‘given’ at a special time +in the experience of each of these Roman Christians. The rendering +‘was given’ might be more accurately exchanged for +‘has been given,’ and that expression is best taken as +referring to a definite moment in the history of each believer +namely, his conversion. When we ‘yield ourselves to God,’ +as Paul exhorts us to do in the beginning of this chapter, as the +commencement of all true life of conformity to His will, Christ +yields Himself to us. The possession of these gifts of grace is no +prerogative of officials; and, indeed, in all the exhortations which +follow there is no reference to officials, though of course such were +in existence in the Roman Church. They had their special functions +and special qualifications for these. But what Paul is dealing with +now is the grace that is inseparable from individual surrender to +Christ, and has been bestowed upon all who are His. To limit the +gifts to officials, and to suppose that the universal gifts in any +degree militate against the recognition of officials in the Church, +are equally mistakes, and confound essentially different +subjects.</p> +<p>II. The graces that flow from the grace.</p> +<p>The Apostle's catalogue of these is not exhaustive, nor logically +arranged; but yet a certain loose order may be noted, which may be +profitable for us to trace. They are in number seven—the sacred +number; and are capable of being divided, as so many of the series of +sevens are, into two portions, one containing four and the other +three. The former include more public works, to each of which a man +might be specially devoted as his life work for and in the Church. +Three are more private, and may be conceived to have a wider relation +to the world. There are some difficulties of construction and +rendering in the list, which need not concern us here; and we may +substantially follow the Authorised Version.</p> +<p>The first group of four seems to fall into two pairs, the first of +which, ‘prophecy’ and ‘ministry,’ seem to be +bracketed together by reason of the difference between them. Prophecy +is a very high form of special inspiration, and implies a direct +reception of special revelation, but not necessarily of future +events. The prophet is usually coupled in Paul's writings with the +apostle, and was obviously amongst those to whom was given one of the +highest forms of the gifts of Christ. It is very beautiful to note +that by natural contrast the Apostle at once passes to one of the +forms of service which a vulgar estimate would regard as remotest +from the special revelation of the prophet, and is confined to lowly +service. Side by side with the exalted gift of prophecy Paul puts the +lowly gift of ministry. Very significant is the juxtaposition of +these two extremes. It teaches us that the lowliest office is as +truly allotted by Jesus as the most sacred, and that His highest +gifts find an adequate field for manifestation in him who is servant +of all. Ministry to be rightly discharged needs spiritual character. +The original seven were men ‘full of faith and of the Holy +Ghost,’ though all they had to do was to hand their pittances +to poor widows. It may be difficult to decide for what reason other +than the emphasising of this contrast the Apostle links together +ministry and prophecy, and so breaks a natural sequence which would +have connected the second pair of graces with the first member of the +first pair. We should have expected that here, as elsewhere, +‘prophet,’ ‘teacher,’ ‘exhorter,’ +would have been closely connected, and there seems no reason why they +should not have been so, except that which we have suggested, namely, +the wish to bring together the highest and the lowest forms of +service.</p> +<p>The second pair seem to be linked together by likeness. The +‘teacher’ probably had for his function, primarily, the +narration of the facts of the Gospel, and the setting forth in a form +addressed chiefly to the understanding the truths thereby revealed; +whilst the ‘exhorter’ rather addressed himself to the +will, presenting the same truth, but in forms more intended to +influence the emotions. The word here rendered ‘exhort’ +is found in Paul's writings as bearing special meanings, such as +consoling, stimulating, encouraging, rebuking and others. Of course +these two forms of service would often be associated, and each would +be imperfect when alone; but it would appear that in the early Church +there were persons in whom the one or the other of these two elements +was so preponderant that their office was thereby designated. Each +received a special gift from the one Source. The man who could only +say to his brother, ‘Be of good cheer,’ was as much the +recipient of the Spirit as the man who could connect and elaborate a +systematic presentation of the truths of the Gospel.</p> +<p>These four graces are followed by a group of three, which may be +regarded as being more private, as not pointing to permanent offices +so much as to individual acts. They are ‘giving,’ +‘ruling,’ ‘showing pity,’ concerning which we +need only note that the second of these can hardly be the +ecclesiastical office, and that it stands between two which are +closely related, as if it were of the same kind. The gifts of money, +or of direction, or of pity, are one in kind. The right use of wealth +comes from the gift of God's grace; so does the right use of any sway +which any of us have over any of our brethren; and so does the glow +of compassion, the exercise of the natural human sympathy which +belongs to all, and is deepened and made tenderer and intenser by the +gift of the Spirit. It would be a very different Church, and a very +different world, if Christians, who were not conscious of possessing +gifts which made them fit to be either prophets, or teachers, or +exhorters, and were scarcely endowed even for any special form of +ministry, felt that a gift from their hands, or a wave of pity from +their hearts, was a true token of the movement of God's Spirit on +their spirits. The fruit of the Spirit is to be found in the wide +fields of everyday life, and the vine bears many clusters for the +thirsty lips of wearied men who may little know what gives them their +bloom and sweetness. It would be better for both giver and receiver +if Christian beneficence were more clearly recognised as one of the +manifestations of spiritual life.</p> +<p>III. The exercise of the graces.</p> +<p>There are some difficulties in reference to the grammatical +construction of the words of our text, into which it is not necessary +that we should enter here. We may substantially follow the Authorised +and Revised Versions in supplying verbs in the various clauses, so as +to make of the text a series of exhortations. The first of these is +to ‘prophesy according to the proportion of faith’; a +commandment which is best explained by remembering that in the +preceding verse ‘the measure of faith’ has been stated as +being the measure of the gifts. The prophet then is to exercise his +gifts in proportion to his faith. He is to speak his convictions +fully and openly, and to let his utterances be shaped by the +indwelling life. This exhortation may well sink into the heart of +preachers in this day. It is but the echo of Jeremiah's strong words: +‘He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What +is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not my word like as +fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in +pieces?’ The ancient prophet's woe falls with double weight on +those who use their words as a veil to obscure their real beliefs, +and who prophesy, not ‘according to the proportion of +faith,’ but according to the expectations of the hearers, whose +faith is as vague as theirs.</p> +<p>In the original, the next three exhortations are alike in +grammatical construction, which is represented in the Authorised +Version by the supplement ‘let us wait on,’ and in the +Revised Version by ‘let us give ourselves to’; we might +with advantage substitute for either the still more simple form +‘be in,’ after the example of Paul's exhortation to +Timothy ‘be in these things’; that is, as our Version has +it, ‘give thyself wholly to them.’ The various gifts are +each represented as a sphere within which its possessor is to move, +for the opportunities for the exercise of which he is carefully to +watch, and within the limits of which he is humbly to keep. That +general law applies equally to ministry, and teaching and exhorting. +We are to seek to discern our spheres; we are to be occupied with, if +not absorbed in, them. At the least we are diligently to use the gift +which we discover ourselves to possess, and thus filling our several +spheres, we are to keep within them, recognising that each is sacred +as the manifestation of God's will for each of us. The divergence of +forms is unimportant, and it matters nothing whether ‘the Giver +of all’ grants less or more. The main thing is that each be +faithful in the administration of what he has received, and not seek +to imitate his brother who is diversely endowed, or to monopolise for +himself another's gifts. To insist that our brethren's gifts should +be like ours, and to try to make ours like theirs, are equally sins +against the great truth, of which the Church as a whole is the +example, that there are ‘diversities of operations but the same +Spirit.’</p> +<p>The remaining three exhortations are in like manner thrown +together by a similarity of construction in which the personality of +the doer is put in the foreground, and the emphasis of the +commandment is rested on the manner in which the grace is exercised. +The reason for that may be that in these three especially the manner +will show the grace. ‘Giving’ is to be ‘with +simplicity.’ There are to be no sidelong looks to +self-interest; no flinging of a gift from a height, as a bone might +be flung to a dog; no seeking for gratitude; no ostentation in the +gift. Any taint of such mixed motives as these infuses poison into +our gifts, and makes them taste bitter to the receiver, and recoil in +hurt upon ourselves. To ‘give with simplicity’ is to give +as God gives.</p> +<p>‘Diligence’ is the characteristic prescribed for the +man that rules. We have already pointed out that this exhortation +includes a much wider area than that of any ecclesiastical officials. +It points to another kind of rule, and the natural gifts needed for +any kind of rule are diligence and zeal. Slackly-held reins make +stumbling steeds; and any man on whose shoulders is laid the weight +of government is bound to feel it as a weight. The history of many a +nation, and of many a family, teaches that where the rule is slothful +all evils grow apace; and it is that natural energy and earnestness, +deepened and hallowed by the Christian life, which here is enjoined +as the true Christian way of discharging the function of ruling, +which, in some form or another, devolves on almost all of us.</p> +<p>‘He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.’ The glow of +natural human sympathy is heightened so as to become a +‘gift,’ and the way in which it is exercised is defined +as being ‘with cheerfulness.’ That injunction is but +partially understood if it is taken to mean no more than that +sympathy is not to be rendered grudgingly, or as by necessity. No +sympathy is indeed possible on such terms; unless the heart is in it, +it is nought. And that it should thus flow forth spontaneously +wherever sorrow and desolation evoke it, there must be a continual +repression of self, and a heart disengaged from the entanglements of +its own circumstances, and at leisure to make a brother's burden its +very own. But the exhortation may, perhaps, rather mean that the +truest sympathy carries a bright face into darkness, and comes like +sunshine in a shady place.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="ltch31" id="ltch31">LOVE THAT CAN HATE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is +evil; cleave to that which is good. 10. In love of the brethren be +tenderly affectioned one to another; in honour preferring one +another.’—ROMANS xii. 9-10 (R. V.).</blockquote> +<p>Thus far the Apostle has been laying down very general precepts +and principles of Christian morals. Starting with the one +all-comprehensive thought of self-sacrifice as the very foundation of +all goodness, of transformation as its method, and of the clear +knowledge of our several powers and faithful stewardship of these, as +its conditions, he here proceeds to a series of more specific +exhortations, which at first sight seem to be very unconnected, but +through which there may be discerned a sequence of thought.</p> +<p>The clauses of our text seem at first sight strangely +disconnected. The first and the last belong to the same subject, but +the intervening clause strikes a careless reader as out of place and +heterogeneous. I think that we shall see it is not so; but for the +present we but note that here are three sets of precepts which +enjoin, first, honest love; then, next, a healthy vehemence against +evil and for good; and finally, a brotherly affection and mutual +respect.</p> +<p>I. Let love be honest.</p> +<p>Love stands at the head, and is the fontal source of all separate +individualised duties. Here Paul is not so much prescribing love as +describing the kind of love which he recognises as genuine, and the +main point on which he insists is sincerity. The +‘dissimulation’ of the Authorised Version only covers +half the ground. It means, hiding what one is; but there is +simulation, or pretending to be what one is not. There are words of +love which are like the iridescent scum on the surface veiling the +black depths of a pool of hatred. A Psalmist complains of having to +meet men whose words were ‘smoother than butter’ and +whose true feelings were as ‘drawn swords’; but, short of +such consciously lying love, we must all recognise as a real danger +besetting us all, and especially those of us who are naturally +inclined to kindly relations with our fellows, the tendency to use +language just a little in excess of our feelings. The glove is +slightly stretched, and the hand in it is not quite large enough to +fill it. There is such a thing, not altogether unknown in Christian +circles, as benevolence, which is largely cant, and words of +conventional love about individuals which do not represent any +corresponding emotion. Such effusive love pours itself in words, and +is most generally the token of intense selfishness. Any man who seeks +to make his words a true picture of his emotions must be aware that +few harder precepts have ever been given than this brief one of the +Apostle's, ‘Let love be without hypocrisy.’</p> +<p>But the place where this exhortation comes in the apostolic +sequence here may suggest to us the discipline through which +obedience to it is made possible. There is little to be done by the +way of directly increasing either the fervour of love or the honesty +of its expression. The true method of securing both is to be +growingly transformed by ‘the renewing of our minds,’ and +growingly to bring our whole old selves under the melting and +softening influence of ‘the mercies of God.’ It is +swollen self-love, ‘thinking more highly of ourselves than we +ought to think,’ which impedes the flow of love to others, and +it is in the measure in which we receive into our minds ‘the +mind that was in Christ Jesus,’ and look at men as He did, that +we shall come to love them all honestly and purely. When we are +delivered from the monstrous oppression and tyranny of self, we have +hearts capable of a Christlike and Christ-giving love to all men, and +only they who have cleansed their hearts by union with Him, and by +receiving into them the purging influence of His own Spirit, will be +able to love without hypocrisy.</p> +<p>II. Let love abhor what is evil, and cleave to what is good.</p> +<p>If we carefully consider this apparently irrelevant interruption +in the sequence of the apostolic exhortations, we shall, I think, see +at once that the irrelevance is only apparent, and that the healthy +vehemence against evil and resolute clinging to good is as essential +to the noblest forms of Christian love as is the sincerity enjoined +in the previous clause. To detest the one and hold fast by the other +are essential to the purity and depth of our love. Evil is to be +loathed, and good to be clung to in our own moral conduct, and +wherever we see them. These two precepts are not mere tautology, but +the second of them is the ground of the first. The force of our +recoil from the bad will be measured by the firmness of our grasp of +the good; and yet, though inseparably connected, the one is apt to be +easier to obey than is the other. There are types of Christian men to +whom it is more natural to abhor the evil than to cleave to the good; +and there are types of character of which the converse is true. We +often see men very earnest and entirely sincere in their detestation +of meanness and wickedness, but very tepid in their appreciation of +goodness. To hate is, unfortunately, more congenial with ordinary +characters than to love; and it is more facile to look down on +badness than to look up at goodness.</p> +<p>But it needs ever to be insisted upon, and never more than in this +day of spurious charity and unprincipled toleration, that a healthy +hatred of moral evil and of sin, wherever found and however garbed, +ought to be the continual accompaniment of all vigorous and manly +cleaving to that which is good. Unless we shudderingly recoil from +contact with the bad in our own lives, and refuse to christen it with +deceptive euphemisms when we meet it in social and civil life, we +shall but feebly grasp, and slackly hold, that which is good. Such +energy of moral recoil from evil is perfectly consistent with honest +love, for it is things, not men, that we are to hate; and it is +needful as the completion and guardian of love itself. There is +always danger that love shall weaken the condemnation of wrong, and +modern liberality, both in the field of opinion and in regard to +practical life, has so far condoned evil as largely to have lost its +hold upon good. The criminal is pitied rather than blamed, and a +multitude of agencies are so occupied in elevating the wrong-doers +that they lose sight of the need of punishing.</p> +<p>Nor is it only in reference to society that this tendency works +harm. The effect of it is abundantly manifest in the fashionable +ideas of God and His character. There are whole schools of opinion +which practically strike out of their ideal of the Divine Nature +abhorrence of evil, and, little as they think it, are thereby fatally +impoverishing their ideal of God, and making it impossible to +understand His government of the world. As always, so in this matter, +the authentic revelation of the Divine Nature, and the perfect +pattern for the human are to be found in Jesus Christ. We recall that +wonderful incident, when on His last approach to Jerusalem, rounding +the shoulder of the Mount of Olives, He beheld the city, gleaming in +the morning sunshine across the valley, and forgetting His own +sorrow, shed tears over its approaching desolation, which yet He +steadfastly pronounced. His loathing of evil was whole-souled and +absolute, and equally intense and complete was His cleaving to that +which is good. In both, and in the harmony between them, He makes God +known, and prescribes and holds forth the ideal of perfect humanity +to men.</p> +<p>III. Let sincere and discriminating love be concentrated on +Christian men.</p> +<p>In the final exhortation of our text ‘the love of the +brethren’ takes the place of the more diffused and general love +enjoined in the first clause. The expression ‘kindly +affectioned’ is the rendering of a very eloquent word in the +original in which the instinctive love of a mother to her child, or +the strange mystical ties which unite members of a family together, +irrespective of their differences of character and temperament, are +taken as an example after which Christian men are to mould their +relations to one another. The love which is without hypocrisy, and is +to be diffused on all sides, is also to be gathered together and +concentrated with special energy on all who ‘call upon Jesus +Christ as Lord, both their Lord and ours.’ The more general +precept and the more particular are in perfect harmony, however our +human weakness sometimes confuses them. It is obvious that this final +precept of our text will be the direct result of the two preceding, +for the love which has learned to be moral, hating evil, and clinging +to good as necessary, when directed to possessors of like precious +faith will thrill with the consciousness of a deep mystical bond of +union, and will effloresce in all brotherly love and kindly +affections. They who are like one another in the depths of their +moral life, who are touched by like aspirations after like holy +things, and who instinctively recoil with similar revulsion from like +abominations, will necessarily feel the drawing of a unity far deeper +and sacreder than any superficial likenesses of race, or +circumstance, or opinion. Two men who share, however imperfectly, in +Christ's Spirit are more akin in the realities of their nature, +however they may differ on the surface, than either of them is to +another, however like he may seem, who is not a partaker in the life +of Christ.</p> +<p>This instinctive, Christian love, like all true and pure love, is +to manifest itself by ‘preferring one another in honour’; +or as the word might possibly be rendered, ‘anticipating one +another.’ We are not to wait to have our place assigned before +we give our brother his. There will be no squabbling for the chief +seat in the synagogue, or the uppermost rooms at the feast, where +brotherly love marshals the guests. The one cure for petty jealousies +and the miserable strife for recognition, which we are all tempted to +engage in, lies in a heart filled with love of the brethren because +of its love to the Elder Brother of them all, and to the Father who +is His Father as well as ours. What a contrast is presented between +the practice of Christians and these precepts of Paul! We may well +bow ourselves in shame and contrition when we read these clear-drawn +lines indicating what we ought to be, and set by the side of them the +blurred and blotted pictures of what we are. It is a painful but +profitable task to measure ourselves against Paul's ideal of Christ's +commandment; but it will only be profitable if it brings us to +remember that Christ gives before He commands, and that conformity +with His ideal must begin, not with details of conduct, or with +emotion, however pure, but with yielding ourselves to the God who +moves us by His mercies, and being ‘transformed by the renewing +of our minds’ and ‘the indwelling of Christ in our hearts +by faith.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="atog32" id="atog32">A TRIPLET OF GRACES</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; +serving the Lord.’—ROMANS xii. 11.</blockquote> +<p>Paul believed that Christian doctrine was meant to influence +Christian practice; and therefore, after the fundamental and profound +exhibition of the central truths of Christianity which occupies the +earlier portion of this great Epistle, he tacks on, with a +‘therefore’ to his theological exposition, a series of +plain, practical teachings. The place where conduct comes in the +letter is profoundly significant, and, if the significance of it had +been observed and the spirit of it carried into practice, there would +have been less of a barren orthodoxy, and fewer attempts at producing +righteous conduct without faith.</p> +<p>But not only is the place where this series of exhortations occur +very significant, but the order in which they appear is also +instructive. The great principle which covers all conduct, and may be +broken up into all the minutenesses of practical directions is +self-surrender. Give yourselves up to God; that is the Alpha and the +Omega of all goodness, and wherever that foundation is really laid, +on it will rise the fair building of a life which is a temple, +adorned with whatever things are lovely and of good report. So after +Paul has laid deep and broad the foundation of all Christian virtue +in his exhortation to present ourselves as living sacrifices, he goes +on to point out the several virtues in which such self-surrender will +manifest itself. There runs through the most of these exhortations an +arrangement in triplets—three sister Graces linked together +hand-in-hand as it were—and my text presents an example of that +threefoldness in grouping. ‘Not slothful in business; fervent +in spirit; serving the Lord.’</p> +<p>I. We have, first, the prime grace of Christian diligence.</p> +<p>‘Not slothful in business’ suggests, by reason of our +modern restriction of that word ‘business’ to a man's +daily occupation, a much more limited range to this exhortation than +the Apostle meant to give it. The idea which is generally drawn from +these words by English readers is that they are to do their ordinary +work diligently, and, all the while, notwithstanding the cooling or +distracting influences of their daily avocations, are to keep +themselves ‘fervent in spirit.’ That is a noble and +needful conception of the command, but it does not express what is in +the Apostle's mind. He does not mean by ‘business’ a +trade or profession, or daily occupation. But the word means +‘zeal’ or ‘earnestness.’ And what Paul says +is just this—‘In regard to your earnestness in all +directions, see that you are not slothful.’</p> +<p>The force and drift of the whole precept is just the exhortation +to exercise the very homely virtue of diligence, which is as much a +condition of growth and maturity in the Christian as it is in any +other life. The very homeliness and obviousness of the duty causes us +often to lose sight of its imperativeness and necessity.</p> +<p>Many of us, if we would sit quietly down and think of how we go +about our ‘business,’ as we call it, and of how we go +about our Christian life, which ought to be our highest business, +would have great cause for being ashamed. We begin the one early in +the morning, we keep hard at it all day, our eyes are wide open to +see any opening where money is to be made; that is all right. We give +our whole selves to our work whilst we are at it; that is as it +should be. But why are there not the same concentration, the same +wide-awakeness, the same open-eyed eagerness to find out ways of +advancement, the same resolved and continuous and all-comprehending +and dominating enthusiasm about our Christianity as there is about +our shop, or our mill, or our success as students? Why are we all +fire in the one case and all ice in the other? Why do we think that +it is enough to lift the burden that Christ lays upon us with one +languid finger, and to put our whole hand, or rather, as the prophet +says, ‘both hands earnestly,’ to the task of lifting the +load of daily work? ‘In your earnestness be not +slothful.’</p> +<p>Brethren, that is a very homely exhortation. I wonder how many of +us can say, ‘Lord! I have heard, and I have obeyed Thy +precept.’</p> +<p>II. Diligence must be fed by a fervent spirit.</p> +<p>The word translated ‘fervent’ is literally boiling. +The metaphor is very plain and intelligible. The spirit brought into +contact with Christian truth and with the fire of the Holy Spirit +will naturally have its temperature raised, and will be moved by the +warm touch as heat makes water in a pot hung above a fire boil. Such +emotion, produced by the touch of the fiery Spirit of God, is what +Paul desires for, and enjoins on, all Christians; for such emotion is +the only way by which the diligence, without which no Christian +progress will be made, can be kept up.</p> +<p>No man will work long at a task that his heart is not in; or if he +does, because he is obliged, the work will be slavery. In order, +then, that diligence may neither languish and become slothfulness, +nor be felt to be a heavy weight and an unwelcome necessity, Paul +here bids us see to it that our hearts are moved because there is a +fire below which makes ‘the soul's depths boil in +earnest.’</p> +<p>Now, of course, I know that, as a great teacher has told us, +‘The gods approve the depth and not the tumult of the +soul,’ and I know that there is a great deal of emotional +Christianity which is worth nothing. But it is not that kind of +fervour that the Apostle is enjoining here. Whilst it is perfectly +true that mere emotion often does co-exist with, and very often leads +to, entire negligence as to possessing and manifesting practical +excellence, the true relation between these is just the +opposite—viz. that this fervour of which I speak, this +wide-awakeness and enthusiasm of a spirit all quickened into rapidity +of action by the warmth which it has felt from God in Christ, should +drive the wheels of life. Boiling water makes steam, does it not? And +what is to be done with the steam that comes off the +‘boiling’ spirit? You may either let it go roaring +through a waste-pipe and do nothing but make a noise and be idly +dissipated in the air, or you may lead it into a cylinder and make it +lift a piston, and then you will get work out of it. That is what the +Apostle desires us to do with our emotion. The lightning goes +careering through the sky, but we have harnessed it to tram-cars +nowadays, and made it ‘work for its living,’ to carry our +letters and light our rooms. Fervour of a Christian spirit is all +right when it is yoked to Christian work, and made to draw what else +is a heavy chariot. It is not emotion, but it is indolent emotion, +that is the curse of much of our ‘fervent’ +Christianity.</p> +<p>There cannot be too much fervour. There may be too little outlet +provided for the fervour to work in. It may all go off in comfortable +feeling, in enthusiastic prayers and ‘Amens!’ and +‘So be it, Lords!’ and the like, or it may come with us +into our daily tasks, and make us buckle to with more earnestness, +and more continuity. Diligence driven by earnestness, and fervour +that works, are the true things.</p> +<p>And surely, surely there cannot be any genuine +Christianity—certainly there cannot be any deep +Christianity—which is not fervent.</p> +<p>We hear from certain quarters of the Church a great deal about the +virtue of moderation. But it seems to me that, if you take into +account what Christianity tells us, the ‘sober’ feeling +is fervent feeling, and tepid feeling is imperfect feeling. I cannot +understand any man believing as plain matter-of-fact the truths on +which the whole New Testament insists, and keeping himself +‘cool,’ or, as our friends call it, +‘moderate.’ Brethren, enthusiasm—which properly +means the condition of being dwelt in by a god—is the wise, the +reasonable attitude of Christian men, if they believe their own +Christianity and are really serving Jesus Christ. They should be +‘diligent in business, fervent’—boiling—in +spirit.</p> +<p>III. The diligence and the fervency are both to be animated by the +thought, ‘Serving the Lord!’</p> +<p>Some critics, as many of you know, no doubt, would prefer to read +this verse in its last clause ‘serving the time.’ But +that seems to me a very lame and incomplete climax for the Apostle's +thought, and it breaks entirely the sequence which, as I think, is +discernible in it. Much rather, he here, in the closing member of the +triplet, suggests a thought which will be stimulus to the diligence +and fuel to the fire that makes the spirit boil.</p> +<p>In effect he says, ‘Think, when your hands begin to droop, +and when your spirits begin to be cold and indifferent, and languor +to steal over you, and the paralysing influences of the commonplace +and the familiar, and the small begin to assert +themselves—think that you are serving the Lord.’ Will +that not freshen you up? Will that not set you boiling again? Will it +not be easy to be diligent when we feel that we are ‘ever in +the great Taskmaster's eye’? There are many reasons for +diligence—the greatness of the work, for it is no small matter +for us to get the whole lump of our nature leavened with the good +leaven; the continual operation of antagonistic forces which are all +round us, and are working night-shifts as well as day ones, whether +we as Christians are on short time or not, the brevity of the period +during which we have to work, and the tremendous issues which depend +upon the completeness of our service here—all these things are +reasons for our diligence. But <i>the</i> reason is: ‘Thou +Christ hast died for me, and livest for me; truly I am Thy +slave.’ That is the thought that will make a man bend his back +to his work, whatever it be, and bend his will to his work, too, +however unwelcome it may be; and that is the thought that will stir +his whole spirit to fervour and earnestness, and thus will deliver +him from the temptations to languid and perfunctory work that ever +creep over us.</p> +<p>You can carry that motive—as we all know, and as we all +forget when the pinch comes—into your shop, your study, your +office, your mill, your kitchen, or wherever you go. ‘On the +bells of the horses there shall be written, Holiness to the +Lord,’ said the prophet, and ‘every bowl in +Jerusalem’ may be sacred as the vessels of the altar. All life +may flash into beauty, and tower into greatness, and be smoothed out +into easiness, and the crooked things may be made straight and the +rough places plain, and the familiar and the trite be invested with +freshness and wonder as of a dream, if only we write over them, +‘For the sake of the Master.’ Then, whatever we do or +bear, be it common, insignificant, or unpleasant, will change its +aspect, and all will be sweet. Here is the secret of diligence and of +fervency, ‘I set the Lord always before me.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="atog33" id="atog33">ANOTHER TRIPLET OF GRACES</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; +continuing instant in prayer.’—ROMANS xii. +12.</blockquote> +<p>These three closely connected clauses occur, as you all know, in +the midst of that outline of the Christian life with which the +Apostle begins the practical part of this Epistle. Now, what he omits +in this sketch of Christian duty seems to me quite as significant as +what he inserts. It is very remarkable that in the twenty verses +devoted to this subject, this is the only one which refers to the +inner secrets of the Christian life. Paul's notion of +‘deepening the spiritual life’ was ‘Behave yourself +better in your relation to other people.’ So all the rest of +this chapter is devoted to inculcating our duties to one another. +Conduct is all-important. An orthodox creed is valuable if it +influences action, but not otherwise. Devout emotion is valuable, if +it drives the wheels of life, but not otherwise. Christians should +make efforts to attain to clear views and warm feelings, but the +outcome and final test of both is a daily life of visible imitation +of Jesus. The deepening of spiritual life should be manifested by +completer, practical righteousness in the market-place and the street +and the house, which non-Christians will acknowledge.</p> +<p>But now, with regard to these three specific exhortations here, I +wish to try to bring out their connection as well as the force of +each of them.</p> +<p>I. So I remark first, that the Christian life ought to be joyful +because it is hopeful.</p> +<p>Now, I do not suppose that many of us habitually recognise it as a +Christian duty to be joyful. We think that it is a matter of +temperament and partly a matter of circumstance. We are glad when +things go well with us. If we have a sunny disposition, and are +naturally light-hearted, all the better; if we have a melancholy or +morose one, all the worse. But do we recognise this, that a Christian +who is not joyful is not living up to his duty; and that there is no +excuse, either in temperament or in circumstances, for our not being +so, and always being so? ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway,’ +says Paul; and then, as if he thought, ‘Some of you will be +thinking that that is a very rash commandment, to aim at a condition +quite impossible to make constant,’ he goes +on—‘and, to convince you that I do not say it hastily, I +will repeat it—“and again I say, rejoice.”’ +Brethren, we shall have to alter our conceptions of what true +gladness is before we can come to understand the full depth of the +great thought that joy is a Christian duty. The true joy is not the +kind of joy that a saying in the Old Testament compares to the +‘crackling of thorns under a pot,’ but something very +much calmer, with no crackle in it; and very much deeper, and very +much more in alliance with ‘whatsoever things are lovely and of +good report,’ than that foolish, short-lived, and empty mirth +that burns down so soon into black ashes.</p> +<p>To be glad is a Christian duty. Many of us have as much religion +as makes us sombre, and impels us often to look upon the more solemn +and awful aspects of Christian truth, but we have not enough to make +us glad. I do not need to dwell upon all the sources in Christian +faith and belief, of that lofty and imperatively obligatory gladness, +but I confine myself to the one in my text, ‘Rejoicing in +hope.’</p> +<p>Now, we all know—from the boy that is expecting to go home +for his holidays in a week, up to the old man to whose eye the +time-veil is wearing thin—that hope, if it is certain, is a +source of gladness. How lightly one's bosom's lord sits upon its +throne, when a great hope comes to animate us! how everybody is +pleasant, and all things are easy, and the world looks different! +Hope, if it is certain, will gladden, and if our Christianity grasps, +as it ought to do, the only hope that is absolutely certain, and as +sure as if it were in the past and had been experienced, then our +hearts, too, will sing for joy. True joy is <i>not</i> a matter of +temperament, so much as a matter of faith. It is <i>not</i> a matter +of circumstances. All the surface drainage may be dry, but there is a +well in the courtyard deep and cool and full and exhaustless, and a +Christian who rightly understands and cherishes the Christian hope is +lifted above temperament, and is not dependent upon conditions for +his joys.</p> +<p>The Apostle, in an earlier part of this same letter, defines for +us what that hope is, which thus is the secret of perpetual gladness, +when he speaks about ‘rejoicing in hope of the glory of +God.’ Yes, it is that great, supreme, calm, far off, absolutely +certain prospect of being gathered into the divine glory, and walking +there, like the three in the fiery furnace, unconsumed and at ease; +it is that hope that will triumph over temperament, and over all +occasions for melancholy, and will breathe into our life a perpetual +gladness. Brethren, is it not strange and sad that with such a +treasure by our sides we should consent to live such poor lives as we +do?</p> +<p>But remember, although I cannot say to myself, ‘Now I will +be glad,’ and cannot attain to joy by a movement of the will or +direct effort, although it is of no use to say to a man—which +is all that the world can ever say to him—‘Cheer up and +be glad,’ whilst you do not alter the facts that make him sad, +there is a way by which we can bring about feelings of gladness or of +gloom. It is just this—we can choose what we will look at. If +you prefer to occupy your mind with the troubles, losses, +disappointments, hard work, blighted hopes of this poor sin-ridden +world, of course sadness will come over you often, and a general grey +tone will be the usual tone of your lives, as it is of the lives of +many of us, broken only by occasional bursts of foolish mirth and +empty laughter. But if you choose to turn away from all these, and +instead of the dim, dismal, hard present, to sun yourselves in the +light of the yet unrisen sun, which you can do, then, having rightly +chosen the subjects to think about, the feeling will come as a matter +of course. You cannot make yourselves glad by, as it were, laying +hold of yourselves and lifting yourselves into gladness, but you can +rule the direction of your thoughts, and so can bring around you +summer in the midst of winter, by steadily contemplating the +facts—and they are present facts, though we talk about them +collectively as ‘the future’—the facts on which all +Christian gladness ought to be based. We can carry our own atmosphere +with us; like the people in Italy, who in frosty weather will be seen +sitting in the market-place by their stalls with a dish of embers, +which they grasp in their hands, and so make themselves comfortably +warm on the bitterest day. You can bring a reasonable degree of +warmth into the coldest weather, if you will lay hold of the vessel +in which the fire is, and keep it in your hand and close to your +heart. Choose what you think about, and feelings will follow +thoughts.</p> +<p>But it needs very distinct and continuous effort for a man to keep +this great source of Christian joy clear before him. We are like the +dwellers in some island of the sea, who, in some conditions of the +atmosphere, can catch sight of the gleaming mountain-tops on the +mainland across the stormy channel between. But thick days, with a +heavy atmosphere and much mist, are very frequent in our latitude, +and then all the distant hills are blotted out, and we see nothing +but the cold grey sea, breaking on the cold, grey stones. Still, you +can scatter the mist if you will. You can make the atmosphere bright; +and it is worth an effort to bring clear before us, and to keep high +above the mists that cling to the low levels, the great vision which +will make us glad. Brethren, I believe that one great source of the +weakness of average Christianity amongst us to-day is the dimness +into which so many of us have let the hope of the glory of God pass +in our hearts. So I beg you to lay to heart this first commandment, +and to rejoice in hope.</p> +<p>II. Now, secondly, here is the thought that life, if full of +joyful hope, will be patient.</p> +<p>I have been saying that the gladness of which my text speaks is +independent of circumstances, and may persist and be continuous even +when externals occasion sadness. It is possible—I do not say it +is easy, God knows it is hard—I do not say it is frequently +attained, but I do say it is possible—to realise that wonderful +ideal of the Apostle's ‘As sorrowful, yet always +rejoicing.’ The surface of the ocean may be tossed and fretted +by the winds, and churned into foam, but the great central depths +‘hear not the loud winds when they call,’ and are still +in the midst of tempest. And we, dear brethren, ought to have an +inner depth of spirit, down to the disturbance of which no +surface-trouble can ever reach. That is the height of attainment of +Christian faith, but it is a possible attainment for every one of +us.</p> +<p>And if there be that burning of the light under the water, like +‘Greek fire,’ as it was called, which many waters could +not quench—if there be that persistence of gladness beneath the +surface-sorrow, as you find a running stream coming out below a +glacier, then the joy and the hope, which co-exist with the sorrow, +will make life patient.</p> +<p>Now, the Apostle means by these great words, ‘patient’ +and ‘patience,’ which are often upon his lips, something +more than simple endurance. That endurance is as much as many of us +can often muster up strength to exercise. It sometimes takes all our +faith and all our submission simply to say, ‘I opened not my +mouth, because thou didst it; and I will bear what thine hand lays +upon me.’ But that is not all that the idea of Christian +‘patience’ includes, for it also takes in the thought of +active work, and it is <i>perseverance</i> as much as +<i>patience</i>.</p> +<p>Now, if my heart is filled with a calm gladness because my eye is +fixed upon a celestial hope, then both the passive and active sides +of Christian ‘patience’ will be realised by me. If my +hope burns bright, and occupies a large space in my thoughts, then it +will not be hard to take the homely consolation of good John Newton's +hymn and say—</p> +<pre> +'Though painful at present, + 'Twill cease before long; +And then, oh, how pleasant + The conqueror's song!' +</pre> +<p>A man who is sailing to America, and knows that he will be in New +York in a week, does not mind, although his cabin is contracted, and +he has a great many discomforts, and though he has a bout of +sea-sickness. The disagreeables are only going to last for a day or +two. So our hope will make us bear trouble, and not make much of +it.</p> +<p>And our hope will strengthen us, if it is strong, for all the work +that is to be done. Persistence in the path of duty, though my heart +be beating like a smith's hammer on the anvil, is what Christian men +should aim at, and possess. If we have within our hearts that fire of +a certain hope, it will impel us to diligence in doing the humblest +duty, whether circumstances be for or against us; as some great +steamer is driven right on its course, through the ocean, whatever +storms may blow in the teeth of its progress, because, deep down in +it, there are furnaces and boilers which supply the steam that drives +the engines. So a life that is joyful because it is hopeful will be +full of calm endurance and strenuous work. ‘Rejoicing in hope; +patient,’ persevering in tribulation.</p> +<p>III. Lastly, our lives will be joyful, hopeful, and patient, in +proportion as they are prayerful.</p> +<p>‘Continuing instant’—which, of course, just +means steadfast—‘in prayer.’ Paul uttered a paradox +when he said, ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway,’ as he said +long before this verse, in the very first letter that he ever wrote, +or at least the first which has come down to us. There he bracketed +it along with two other equally paradoxical sayings. ‘Rejoice +evermore; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks.’ If +you pray without ceasing you can rejoice without ceasing.</p> +<p>But can I pray without ceasing? Not if by prayer you mean only +words of supplication and petition, but if by prayer you mean also a +mental attitude of devotion, and a kind of sub-conscious reference to +God in all that you do, such unceasing prayer is possible. Do not let +us blunt the edge of this commandment, and weaken our own +consciousness of having failed to obey it, by getting entangled in +the cobwebs of mere curious discussions as to whether the absolute +ideal of perfectly unbroken communion with God is possible in this +life. At all events it is possible to us to approximate to that ideal +a great deal more closely than our consciences tell us that we ever +yet have done. If we are trying to keep our hearts in the midst of +daily duty in contact with God, and if, ever and anon in the press of +our work, we cast a thought towards Him and a prayer, then joy and +hope and patience will come to us, in a degree that we do not know +much about yet, but might have known all about long, long ago.</p> +<p>There is a verse in the Old Testament which we may well lay to +heart: ‘They cried unto God in the battle, and He was entreated +of them.’ Well, what sort of a prayer do you think that would +be? Suppose that you were standing in the thick of battle with the +sword of an enemy at your throat, there would not be much time for +many words of prayer, would there? But the cry could go up, and the +thought could go up, and as they went up, down would come the strong +buckler which God puts between His servants and all evil. That is the +sort of prayer that you, in the battle of business, in your shops and +counting-houses and warehouses and mills, we students in our studies, +and you mothers in your families and your kitchens, can send up to +heaven. If thus we ‘pray without ceasing,’ then we shall +‘rejoice evermore,’ and our souls will be kept in +patience and filled with the peace of God.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="sat34" id="sat34">STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to +hospitality. 14. Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse +not. 15. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that +weep.’—ROMANS xii. 13-15.</blockquote> +<p>In these verses we pass from the innermost region of communion +with God into the wide field of duties in relation to men. The +solitary secrecies of rejoicing hope, endurance, and prayer unbroken, +are exchanged for the publicities of benevolence and sympathy. In the +former verses the Christian soul is in ‘the secret place of the +Most High’; in those of our text he comes forth with the light +of God on his face, and hands laden with blessings. The juxtaposition +of the two suggests the great principles to which the morality of the +New Testament is ever true—that devotion to God is the basis of +all practical helpfulness to man, and that practical helpfulness to +man is the expression and manifestation of devotion to God.</p> +<p>The three sets of injunctions in our text, dissimilar though they +appear, have a common basis. They are varying forms of one +fundamental disposition—love; which varies in its forms +according to the necessities of its objects, bringing temporal help +to the needy, meeting hostility with blessing, and rendering sympathy +to both the glad and the sorrowful. There is, further, a noteworthy +connection, not in sense but in sound, between the first and second +clauses of our text, which is lost in our English Version. +‘Given to hospitality’ is, as the Revised margin shows, +literally, pursuing hospitality. Now the Greek, like the English +word, has the special meaning of following with a hostile intent, and +the use of it in the one sense suggests its other meaning to Paul, +whose habit of ‘going off at a word,’ as it has been +called, is a notable feature of his style. Hence, this second +injunction, of blessing the persecutors, comes as a kind of play upon +words, and is obviously occasioned by the verbal association. It +would come more appropriately at a later part of the chapter, but its +occurrence here is characteristic of Paul's idiosyncrasy. We may +represent the connection of these two clauses by such a rendering as: +Pursue hospitality, and as for those who pursue you, bless, and curse +not.</p> +<p>We may look at these three flowers from the one root of love.</p> +<p>I. Love that speaks in material help.</p> +<p>We have here two special applications of that love which Paul +regards as ‘the bond of perfectness,’ knitting all +Christians together. The former of these two is love that expresses +itself by tangible material aid. The persons to be helped are +‘saints,’ and it is their ‘needs’ that are to +be aided. There is no trace in the Pauline Epistles of the community +of goods which for a short time prevailed in the Church of Jerusalem +and which was one of the causes that led to the need for the +contribution for the poor saints in that city which occupied so much +of Paul's attention at Corinth and elsewhere. But, whilst Christian +love leaves the rights of property intact, it charges them with the +duty of supplying the needs of the brethren. They are not absolute +and unconditioned rights, but are subject to the highest principles +of stewardship for God, trusteeship for men, and sacrifice for +Christ. These three great thoughts condition and limit the Christian +man's possession of the wealth, which, in a modified sense, it is +allowable for him to call his own. His brother's need constitutes a +first charge on all that belongs to him, and ought to precede the +gratification of his own desires for superfluities and luxuries. If +we ‘see our brother have need and shut up our bowels of +compassion against him’ and use our possessions for the +gratification of our own whims and fancies, ‘how dwelleth the +love of God in us?’ There are few things in which Christian men +of this day have more need for the vigorous exercise of conscience, +and for enlightenment, than in their getting, and spending, and +keeping money. In that region lies the main sphere of usefulness for +many of us; and if we have not been ‘faithful in that which is +least,’ our unfaithfulness there makes it all but impossible +that we should be faithful in that which is greatest. The honest and +rigid contemplation of our own faults in the administration of our +worldly goods, might well invest with a terrible meaning the Lord's +tremendous question, ‘If ye have not been faithful in that +which is another's, who shall give you that which is your +own?’</p> +<p>The hospitality which is here enjoined is another shape which +Christian love naturally took in the early days. When believers were +a body of aliens, dispersed through the world, and when, as they went +from one place to another, they could find homes only amongst their +own brethren, the special circumstances of the time necessarily +attached special importance to this duty; and as a matter of fact, we +find it recognised in all the Epistles of the New Testament as one of +the most imperative of Christian duties. ‘It was the unity and +strength which this intercourse gave that formed one of the great +forces which supported Christianity.’ But whilst hospitality +was a special duty for the early Christians, it still remains a duty +for us, and its habitual exercise would go far to break down the +frowning walls which diversities of social position and of culture +have reared between Christians.</p> +<p>II. The love that meets hostility with blessing.</p> +<p>There are perhaps few words in Scripture which have been more +fruitful of the highest graces than this commandment. What a train of +martyrs, from primitive times to the Chinese Christians in recent +years, have remembered these words, and left their legacy of blessing +as they laid their heads on the block or stood circled by fire at the +stake! For us, in our quieter generation, actual persecution is rare, +but hostility of ill-will more or less may well dog our steps, and +the great principle here commended to us is that we are to meet +enmity with its opposite, and to conquer by love. The diamond is cut +with sharp knives, and each stroke brings out flashing beauty. There +are kinds of wood which are fragrant when they burn; and there are +kinds which show their veining under the plane. It is a poor thing if +a Christian character only gives back like a mirror the expression of +the face that looks at it. To meet hate with hate, and scorn with +scorn, is not the way to turn hate into love and scorn into sympathy. +Indifferent equilibrium in the presence of active antagonism is not +possible for us. As long as we are sensitive we shall wince from a +blow, or a sarcasm, or a sneer. We must bless in order to keep +ourselves from cursing. The lesson is very hard, and the only way of +obeying it fully is to keep near Christ and drink in His spirit who +prayed ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they +do.’</p> +<p>III. Love that flows in wide sympathy.</p> +<p>Of the two forms of sympathy which are here enjoined, the former +is the harder. To ‘rejoice with them that do rejoice’ +makes a greater demand on unselfish love than to ‘weep with +them that weep.’ Those who are glad feel less need of sympathy +than do the sorrowful, and envy is apt to creep in and mar the +completeness of sympathetic joy. But even the latter of the two +injunctions is not altogether easy. The cynic has said that there is +‘something not wholly displeasing in the misfortunes of our +best friends’; and, though that is an utterly worldly and +unchristian remark, it must be confessed not to be altogether wanting +in truth.</p> +<p>But for obedience to both of these injunctions, a heart at leisure +from itself is needed to sympathise; and not less needed is a +sedulous cultivation of the power of sympathy. No doubt temperament +has much to do with the degree of our obedience; but this whole +context goes on the assumption that the grace of God working on +temperament strengthens natural endowments by turning them into +‘gifts differing according to the grace that is given to +us.’ Though we live in that awful individuality of ours, and +are each, as it were, islanded in ourselves ‘with echoing +straits between us thrown,’ it is possible for us, as the +result of close communion with Jesus Christ, to bridge the chasms, +and to enter into the joy of a brother's joy. He who groaned in +Himself as He drew near to the grave of Lazarus, and was moved to +weep with the weeping sisters, will help us, in the measure in which +we dwell in Him and He in us, that we too may look ‘not every +man on his own things, but every man also on the things of +others.’</p> +<p>On the whole, love to Jesus is the basis of love to man, and love +to man is the practical worship of Christianity. As in all things, so +in the exhortations which we have now been considering, Jesus is our +pattern and power. He Himself communicates with our necessities, and +opens His heart to give us hospitable welcome there. He Himself has +shown us how to meet and overcome hatred with love, and hurt with +blessing. He shares our griefs, and by sharing lessens them. He +shares our joys, and by sharing hallows them. The summing up of all +these specific injunctions is, ‘Let that mind be in you which +was also in Christ Jesus.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="sat35" id="sat35">STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Be of the same mind one toward another. Set not +your mind on high things, but condescend to things that are lowly. Be +not wise in your own conceits.’—Romans xii. 16 (R. +V.).</blockquote> +<p>We have here again the same triple arrangement which has prevailed +through a considerable portion of the context. These three +exhortations are linked together by a verbal resemblance which can +scarcely be preserved in translation. In the two former the same verb +is employed: and in the third the word for ‘wise’ is +cognate with the verb found in the other two clauses. If we are to +seek for any closer connection of thought we may find it first in +this—that all the three clauses deal with mental attitudes, +whilst the preceding ones dealt with the expression of such; and +second in this—that the first of the three is a general +precept, and the second and third are warnings against faults which +are most likely to interfere with it.</p> +<p>I. We note, the bond of peace.</p> +<p>‘Be of the same mind one toward another.’ It is +interesting to notice how frequently the Apostle in many of his +letters exhorts to mutual harmonious relations. For instance, in this +very Epistle he invokes ‘the God of patience and of +comfort’ to grant to the Roman Christians ‘to be of the +same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus,’ and to +the Corinthians, who had their full share of Greek divisiveness, he +writes, ‘Be of the same mind, live in peace,’ and assures +them that, if so, ‘the God of love and peace will be with +them’; to his beloved Philippians he pours out his heart in +beseeching them by ‘the consolation that is in Christ Jesus, +and the comfort of love, and the fellowship of the +Spirit—’ that they would ‘fulfil his joy, that they +be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of +one mind’; whilst to the two women in that Church who were at +variance with one another he sends the earnest exhortation ‘to +be of the same mind in the Lord,’ and prays one whom we only +know by his loving designation of ‘a true yokefellow,’ to +help them in what would apparently put a strain upon their Christian +principle. For communities and for individuals the cherishing of the +spirit of amity and concord is a condition without which there will +be little progress in the Christian life.</p> +<p>But it is to be carefully noted that such a spirit may co-exist +with great differences about other matters. It is not opposed to wide +divergence of opinion, though in our imperfect sanctification it is +hard for us to differ and yet to be in concord. We all know the +hopelessness of attempting to make half a dozen good men think alike +on any of the greater themes of the Christian religion; and if we +could succeed in such a vain attempt, there would still be many an +unguarded door through which could come the spirit of discord, and +the half-dozen might have divergence of heart even whilst they +profess identity of opinion. The true hindrances to our having +‘the same mind one toward another’ lie very much deeper +in our nature than the region in which we keep our creeds. The +self-regard and self-absorption, petulant dislike of +fellow-Christians' peculiarities, the indifference which comes from +lack of imaginative sympathy, and which ministers to the ignorance +which causes it, and a thousand other weaknesses in Christian +character bring about the deplorable alienation which but too plainly +marks the relation of Christian communities and of individual +Christians to one another in this day. When one thinks of the actual +facts in every corner of Christendom, and probes one's own feelings, +the contrast between the apostolic ideal and the Church's realisation +of it presents a contradiction so glaring that one wonders if +Christian people at all believe that it is their duty ‘to be of +the same mind one toward another.’</p> +<p>The attainment of this spirit of amity and concord ought to be a +distinct object of effort, and especially in times like ours, when +there is no hostile pressure driving Christian people together, but +when our great social differences are free to produce a certain +inevitable divergence and to check the flow of our sympathy, and when +there are deep clefts of opinion, growing deeper every day, and +seeming to part off Christians into camps which have little +understanding of, and less sympathy with, one another. Even the +strong individualism, which it is the glory of true Christian faith +to foster in character, and which some forms of Christian fellowship +do distinctly promote, works harm in this matter; and those who pride +themselves on belonging to ‘Free churches,’ and standing +apart from creed-bound and clergy-led communities, are specially +called upon to see to it that they keep this exhortation, and +cultivate ‘the unity of the Spirit in the bond of +peace.’</p> +<p>It should not be necessary to insist that the closest mutual +concord amongst all believers is but an imperfect manifestation, as +all manifestations in life of the deepest principles must be, of the +true oneness which binds together in the most sacred unity, and +should bind together in closest friendship, all partakers of the one +life. And assuredly the more that one life flows into our spirits, +the less power will all the enemies of Christian concord have over +us. It is the Christ in us which makes us kindred with all others in +whom He is. It is self, in some form or other, that separates us from +the possessors of like precious faith. When the tide is out, the +little rock-pools on the shore lie separated by stretches of slimy +weeds, but the great sea, when it rushes up, buries the divisions, +and unites them all. Our Christian unity is unity in Christ, and the +only sure way ‘to be of the same mind one toward another’ +is, that ‘the mind which was in Christ Jesus be in us +also.’</p> +<p>II. The divisive power of selfish ambition.</p> +<p>‘Set not your mind on high things, but condescend to things +that are lowly.’ The contrast here drawn between the high and +the lowly makes it probable that the latter as well as the former is +to be taken as referring to ‘things’ rather than persons. +The margin of the Revised Version gives the literal rendering of the +word translated ‘condescend.’ ‘To be carried away +with,’ is metaphorically equivalent to surrendering one's self +to; and the two clauses present two sides of one disposition, which +seeks not for personal advancement or conspicuous work which may +minister to self-gratulation, but contentedly fills the lowly sphere, +and ‘the humblest duties on herself doth lay.’ We need +not pause to point out that such an ideal is dead against the +fashionable maxims of this generation. Personal ambition is glorified +as an element in progress, and to a world which believes in such a +proverb as ‘devil take the hindmost,’ these two +exhortations can only seem fanatical absurdity. And yet, perhaps, if +we fairly take into account how the seeking after personal +advancement and conspicuous work festers the soul, and how the flower +of heart's-ease grows, as Bunyan's shepherd-boy found out, in the +lowly valley, these exhortations to a quiet performance of lowly +duties and a contented filling of lowly spheres, may seem touched +with a higher wisdom than is to be found in the arenas where men +trample over each other in their pursuit of a fame ‘which +appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.’ What a +peaceful world it would be, and what peaceful souls they would have, +if Christian people really adopted as their own these two simple +maxims. They are easy to understand, but how hard they are to +follow.</p> +<p>It needs scarcely be noted that the temper condemned here destroys +all the concord and amity which the Apostle has been urging in the +previous clause. Where every man is eagerly seeking to force himself +in front of his neighbour, any community will become a struggling +mob; and they who are trying to outrun one another and who grasp at +‘high things,’ will never be ‘of the same mind one +toward another.’ But, we may observe that the surest way to +keep in check the natural selfish tendency to desire conspicuous +things for ourselves is honestly, and with rigid self-control, to let +ourselves be carried away by enthusiasm for humble tasks. If we would +not disturb our lives and fret our hearts by ambitions that, even +when gratified, bring no satisfaction, we must yield ourselves to the +impulse of the continuous stream of lowly duties which runs through +every life.</p> +<p>But, plainly as this exhortation is needful, it is too heavy a +strain to be ever carried out except by the power of Christ formed in +the heart. It is in His earthly life that we find the great example +of the highest stooping to the lowest duties, and elevating them by +taking them upon Himself. He did not ‘strive nor cry, nor cause +His voice to be heard in the streets.’ Thirty years of that +perfect life were spent in a little village folded away in the +Galilean hills, with rude peasants for the only spectators, and the +narrow sphere of a carpenter's shop for its theatre. For the rest, +the publicity possible would have been obscurity to an ambitious +soul. To speak comforting words to a few weeping hearts; to lay His +hands on a few sick folk and heal them; to go about in a despised +land doing good, loved indeed by outcasts and sinners, unknown +by all the dispensers of renown, and consciously despised by all whom +the world honoured—that was the perfect life of the Incarnate +God. And that is an example which His followers seem with one consent +to set aside in their eager race after distinction and work that may +glorify their names. The difficulty of a faithful following of these +precepts, and the only means by which that difficulty can be +overcome, are touchingly taught us in another of Paul's Epistles by +the accumulation of motives which he brings to bear upon his +commandment, when he exhorts by the tender motives of ‘comfort +in Christ, consolation of love, fellowship of the Spirit, and tender +mercies and compassions, that ye fulfil my joy, being of the same +mind, of one accord; doing nothing through faction or vainglory, but +in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself.’ +As the pattern for each of us in our narrow sphere, he holds forth +the mind that was in Christ Jesus, and the great self-emptying which +he shrank not from, ‘but being in the form of God counted it +not a prize to be on an equality with God, but, being found in +fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto +death.’</p> +<p>III. The divisive power of intellectual self-conceit.</p> +<p>In this final clause the Apostle, in some sense, repeats the maxim +with which he began the series of special exhortations in this +chapter. He there enjoined ‘every one among you not to think of +himself more highly than he ought to think’; here he deals with +one especial form of such too lofty thinking, viz. intellectual +conceit. He is possibly quoting the Book of Proverbs (iii. 7), where +we read, ‘Be not wise in thine own eyes,’ which is +preceded by, ‘Lean not to thine own understanding; in all thy +ways acknowledge Him’; and is followed by, ‘Fear the Lord +and depart from evil’; thus pointing to the acknowledgment and +fear of the Lord as the great antagonist of such over-estimate of +one's own wisdom as of all other faults of mind and life. It needs +not to point out how such a disposition breaks Christian unity of +spirit. There is something especially isolating in that form of +self-conceit. There are few greater curses in the Church than little +coteries of superior persons who cannot feed on ordinary food, whose +enlightened intelligence makes them too fastidious to soil their +dainty fingers with rough, vulgar work, and whose supercilious +criticism of the unenlightened souls that are content to condescend +to lowly Christian duties, is like an iceberg that brings down the +temperature wherever it floats. That temper indulged in, breaks the +unity, reduces to inactivity the work, and puts an end to the +progress, of any Christian community in which it is found; and just +as its predominance is harmful, so the obedience to the exhortation +against it is inseparable from the fulfilling of its sister precepts. +To know ourselves for the foolish creatures that we are, is a mighty +help to being ‘of the same mind one toward another.’ Who +thinks of himself soberly and according to the measure of faith which +God hath dealt to him will not hunger after high things, but rather +prefer the lowly ones that are on a level with his lowly self.</p> +<p>The exhortations of our text were preceded with injunctions to +distribute material help, and to bestow helpful sympathy. The tempers +enjoined in our present text are the inward source and fountain of +such external bestowments. The rendering of material help and of +sympathetic emotion are right and valuable only as they are the +outcome of this unanimity and lowliness. It is possible to +‘distribute to the necessity of saints’ in such a way as +that the gift pains more than a blow; it is possible to proffer +sympathy so that the sensitive heart shrinks from it. It was +‘when the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and +one soul’ that it became natural to have all things common. As +in the aurora borealis, quivering beams from different centres stream +out and at each throb approach each other till they touch and make an +arch of light that glorifies the winter's night, so, if Christian men +were ‘of the same mind toward one another,’ did not +‘set their minds on high things, but condescended to things +that were lowly, and were not wise in their own conceits,’ the +Church of Christ would shine forth in the darkness of a selfish world +and would witness to Him who came down ‘from the highest throne +in glory’ to the lowliest place in this lowly world, that He +might lift us to His own height of glory everlasting.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="sat36" id="sat36">STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Render to no man evil for evil. Take thought for +things honourable in the light of all men. 18. If it be possible, as +much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men.’—ROMANS +xii. 17, 18 (R. V.).</blockquote> +<p>The closing words of this chapter have a certain unity in that +they deal principally with a Christian's duty in the face of +hostility and antagonism. A previous injunction touched on the same +subject in the exhortation to bless the persecutors; but with that +exception, all the preceding verses have dealt with duties owing to +those with whom we stand in friendly relations. Such exhortations +take no cognisance of the special circumstances of the primitive +Christians as ‘lambs in the midst of wolves’; and a large +tract of Christian duty would be undealt with, if we had not such +directions for feelings and actions in the face of hate and hurt. The +general precept in our text is expanded in a more complete form in +the verses which follow the text, and we may postpone its +consideration until we have to deal with them. It is one form of the +application of the ‘love without hypocrisy’ which has +been previously recommended. The second of these three precepts seems +quite heterogeneous, but it may be noticed that the word for +‘evil’ in the former and that for +‘honourable,’ in these closely resemble each other in +sound, and the connection of the two clauses may be partially owing +to that verbal resemblance; whilst we may also discern a real link +between the thoughts in the consideration that we owe even to our +enemies the exhibition of a life which a prejudiced hostility will be +forced to recognise as good. The third of these exhortations +prescribes unmoved persistence in friendly regard to all men.</p> +<p>Dealing then, in this sermon only, with the second and third of +these precepts, and postponing the consideration of the first to the +following discourse, we have here the counsel that</p> +<p>I. Hostility is to be met with a holy and beautiful life.</p> +<p>The Authorised Version inadequately translates the significant +word in this exhortation by ‘honest.’ The Apostle is not +simply enjoining honesty in our modern, narrow sense of the word, +which limits it to the rendering to every man his own. It is a +remarkable thing that ‘honest,’ like many other words +expressing various types of goodness, has steadily narrowed in +signification, and it is very characteristic of England that probity +as to money and material goods should be its main meaning. Here the +word is used in the full breadth of its ancient use, and is +equivalent to that which is fair with the moral beauty of +goodness.</p> +<p>A Christian man then is bound to live a life which all men will +acknowledge to be good. In that precept is implied the recognition of +even bad men's notions of morality as correct. The Gospel is not a +new system of ethics, though in some points it brings old virtues +into new prominence, and alters their perspective. It is further +implied that the world's standard of what Christians ought to be may +be roughly taken as a true one. Christian men would learn a great +deal about themselves, and might in many respects heighten their +ideal, if they would try to satisfy the expectations of the most +degraded among them as to what they ought to be. The worst of men has +a rude sense of duty which tops the attainments of the best. +Christian people ought to seek for the good opinion of those around +them. They are not to take that opinion as the motive for their +conduct, nor should they do good in order to be praised or admired +for it; but they are to ‘adorn the doctrine,’ and to let +their light shine that men seeing their good may be led to think more +loftily of its source, and so to ‘glorify their Father which is +in heaven.’ That is one way of preaching the Gospel. The world +knows goodness when it sees it, though it often hates it, and has no +better ground for its dislike of a man than that his purity and +beauty of character make the lives of others seem base indeed. Bats +feel the light to be light, though they flap against it, and the +winnowing of their leathery wings and their blundering flight are +witnesses to that against which they strike. Jesus had to say, +‘The world hateth Me because I testify of it that the deeds +thereof are evil.’ That witness was the result of His being +‘the Light of the world’; and if His followers are +illuminated from Him, they will have the same effect, and must be +prepared for the same response. But none the less is it incumbent +upon them to ‘take thought for things honourable in the sight +of all men.’</p> +<p>This duty involves the others of taking care that we have goodness +to show, and that we do not make our goodness repulsive by our +additions to it. There are good people who comfort themselves when +men dislike them, or scoff at them, by thinking that their religion +is the cause, when it is only their own roughness and harshness of +character. It is not enough that we present an austere and repellent +virtue; the fair food should be set on a fair platter. This duty is +especially owing to our enemies. They are our keenest critics. They +watch for our halting. The thought of their hostile scrutiny should +ever stimulate us, and the consciousness that Argus-eyes are watching +us, with a keenness sharpened by dislike, should lead us not only to +vigilance over our own steps, but also to the prayer, ‘Lead me +in a plain path, because of those who watch me.’ To +‘provide things honest in the sight of all men’ is a +possible way of disarming some hostility, conciliating some +prejudice, and commending to some hearts the Lord whom we seek to +imitate.</p> +<p>II. Be sure that, if there is to be enmity, it is all on one +side.</p> +<p>‘As much as in you lieth, be at peace with all.’ These +words are, I think, unduly limited when they are supposed to imply +that there are circumstances in which a Christian has a right to be +at strife. As if they meant: Be peaceable as far as you can; but if +it be impossible, then quarrel. The real meaning goes far deeper than +that. ‘It takes two to make a quarrel,’ says the old +proverb; it takes two to make peace also, does it not? We cannot +determine whether our relations with men will be peaceful or no; we +are only answerable for our part, and for that we are answerable. +‘As much as lieth in you’ is the explanation of ‘if +it be possible.’ Your part is to be at peace; it is not your +part up to a certain point and no further, but always, and in all +circumstances, it is your part. It may not be possible to be at peace +with all men; there may be some who <i>will</i> quarrel with you. You +are not to blame for that, but their part and yours are separate, and +your part is the same whatever they do. Be you at peace with all men +whether they are at peace with you or not. Don't you quarrel with +them even if they will quarrel with you. That seems to me to be +plainly the meaning of the words. It would be contrary to the tenor +of the context and the teaching of the New Testament to suppose that +here we had that favourite principle, ‘There is a point beyond +which forbearance cannot go,’ where it becomes right to cherish +hostile sentiments or to try to injure a man. If there be such a +point, it is very remarkable that there is no attempt made in the New +Testament to define it. The nearest approach to such definition is +‘till seventy times seven,’ the two perfect numbers +multiplied into themselves. So I think that this injunction +absolutely prescribes persistent, patient peacefulness, and +absolutely proscribes our taking up the position of antagonism, and +under no circumstances meeting hate with hate. It does not follow +that there is never to be opposition. It may be necessary for the +good of the opponent himself, and for the good of society, that he +should be hindered in his actions of hostility, but there is never to +be bitterness; and we must take care that none of the devil's leaven +mingles with our zeal against evil.</p> +<p>There is no need for enlarging on the enormous difficulty of +carrying out such a commandment in our daily lives. We all know too +well how hard it is; but we may reflect for a moment on the absolute +necessity of obeying this precept to the full. For their own +souls’ sakes Christian men are to avoid all bitterness, strife, +and malice. Let us try to remember, and to bring to bear on our daily +lives, the solemn things which Jesus said about God's forgiveness +being measured by our forgiveness. The faithful, even though +imperfect, following of this exhortation would revolutionise our +lives. Nothing that we can only win by fighting with our fellows is +worth fighting for. Men will weary of antagonism which is met only by +the imperturbable calm of a heart at peace with God, and seeking +peace with all men. The hot fire of hatred dies down, like burning +coals scattered on a glacier, when laid against the crystal coldness +of a patient, peaceful spirit. Watch-dogs in farmhouses will bark +half the night through because they hear another barking a mile off. +It takes two to make a quarrel; let me be sure that I am never one of +the two!</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="sat37" id="sat37">STILL ANOTHER TRIPLET</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather +give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will +repay, saith the Lord. 20. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him: +if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals +of fire on his head. 21. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil +with good.’—ROMANS xii. 19-21.</blockquote> +<p>The natural instinct is to answer enmity with enmity, and +kindliness with kindliness. There are many people of whom we think +well and like, for no other reason than because we believe that they +think well of and like us. Such a love is really selfishness. In the +same fashion, dislike, and alienation on the part of another +naturally reproduce themselves in our own minds. A dog will stretch +its neck to be patted, and snap at a stick raised to strike it. It +requires a strong effort to master this instinctive tendency, and +that effort the plainest principles of Christian morality require +from us all. The precepts in our text are in twofold form, negative +and positive; and they are closed with a general principle, which +includes both these forms, and much more besides. There are two +pillars, and a great lintel coping them, like the trilithons of +Stonehenge.</p> +<p>I. We deal with the negative precept.</p> +<p>‘Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto +wrath.’ Do not take the law into your own hands, but leave +God's way of retribution to work itself out. By avenging, the Apostle +means a passionate redress of private wrongs at the bidding of +personal resentment. We must note how deep this precept goes. It +prohibits not merely external acts which, in civilised times are +restrained by law, but, as with Christian morality, it deals with +thoughts and feelings, and not only with deeds. It forbids such +natural and common thoughts as ‘I owe him an ill turn for +that’; ‘I should like to pay him off.’ A great deal +of what is popularly called ‘a proper spirit’ becomes +extremely improper if tested by this precept. There is an eloquent +word in German which we can only clumsily reproduce, which christens +the ugly pleasure at seeing misfortune and calls it ‘joy in +others’ disasters.’ We have not the word; would that we +had not the thing!</p> +<p>A solemn reason is added for the difficult precept, in that +frequently misunderstood saying, ‘Give place unto wrath.’ +The question is, Whose wrath? And, plainly, the subsequent words of +the section show that it is God's. That quotation comes from +Deuteronomy xxxii. 35. It is possibly unfortunate that +‘vengeance’ is ascribed to God; for hasty readers lay +hold of the idea of passionate resentment, and transfer it to Him, +whereas His retributive action has in it no resentment and no +passion. Nor are we to suppose that the thought here is only the base +one, <i>they are sure to be punished, so we need not trouble</i>. The +Apostle points to the solemn fact of retribution as an element in the +Divine government. It is not merely automatically working laws which +recompense evil by evil, but it is the face of the Lord which is +inexorably and inevitably set ‘against them that do +evil.’ That recompense is not hidden away in the future behind +the curtain of death, but is realised in the present, as every +evil-doer too surely and bitterly experiences.</p> +<p>‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.’ God +only has the right to recompense the ungodly and the sinner as well +as the righteous. Dwelling in such a system as we do, how dares any +one take that work into his hands? It requires perfect knowledge of +the true evil of an action, which no one has who cannot read the +heart; it requires perfect freedom from passion; it requires perfect +immunity from evil desert on the part of the avenger; in a word, it +belongs to God, and to Him alone. We have nothing to do with +apportioning retribution to desert, either in private actions or in +the treatment of so-called criminals. In the latter our objects +should be reformation and the safety of society. If we add to these +retribution, we transcend our functions.</p> +<p>II. Take the positive,—Follow God's way of meeting hostility +with beneficence.</p> +<p>The hungry enemy is to be fed, the thirsty to be given drink; and +the reason is, that such beneficence will ‘heap coals of fire +upon his head.’ The negative is not enough. To abstain from +vengeance will leave the heart unaffected, and may simply issue in +the cessation of all intercourse. The reason assigned sounds at first +strange. It is clear that the ‘coals of fire’ which are +to be heaped on the head are meant to melt and soften the heart, and +cause it to glow with love. There may be also included the burning +pangs of shame felt by a man whose evil is answered by good. But +these are secondary and auxiliary to the true end of kindling the +fire of love in his alienated heart. The great object which every +Christian man is bound to have in view is to win over the enemy and +melt away misconceptions and hostility. It is not from any selfish +regard to one's own personal ease that we are so to act, but because +of the sacred regard which Christ has taught us to cherish for the +blessing of peace amongst men, and in order that we may deliver a +brother from the snare, and make him share in the joys of fellowship +with God. The only way to burn up the evil in his heart is by heaping +coals of kindness and beneficence on his head. And for such an end it +becomes us to watch for opportunities. We have to mark the right +moment, and make sure that we time our offer for food when he is +hungry and of drink when he thirsts; for often <i>mal-a-propos</i> +offers of kindness make things worse. Such is God's way. His +thunderbolts we cannot grasp, His love we can copy. Of the two +weapons mercy and judgment which He holds in His hand, the latter is +emphatically His own; the former should be ours too.</p> +<p>III. In all life meet and conquer evil with good.</p> +<p>This last precept, ‘Be not overcome of evil, but overcome +evil with good,’ is cast into a form which covers not only +relations to enemies, but all contact with evil of every kind. It +involves many great thoughts which can here be only touched. It +implies that in all our lives we have to fight evil, and that it +conquers, and we are beaten when we are led to do it. It is only +conquered by being transformed into good. We overcome our foes when +we win them to be lovers. We overcome our temptations to doing wrong +when we make them occasions for developing virtues; we overcome the +evil of sorrow when we use it to bring us nearer to God; we overcome +the men around us when we are not seduced by their example to evil, +but attract them to goodness by ours.</p> +<p>Evil is only thus transformed by the positive exercise of goodness +on our part. We have seen this in regard to enemies in the preceding +remarks. In regard to other forms of evil, it is often better not to +fight them directly, but to occupy the mind and heart with positive +truth and goodness, and the will and hands with active service. A +rusty knife shall not be cleaned so effectually by much scouring as +by strenuous use. Our lives are to be moulded after the great example +of Him, who at almost the last moment of His earthly course said, +‘Be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.’ Jesus +seeks to conquer evil in us all, and counts that He has conquered it +when He has changed it into love.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="latd38" id="latd38">LOVE AND THE DAY</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for +he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 9. For this, Thou +shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, +Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if +there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this +saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 10. Love +worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of +the law. 11. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to +awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we +believed. 12. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us +therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the +armour of light, 13. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in +rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in +strife and envying: 14. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make +not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts +thereof.’—ROMANS xiii. 8-14.</blockquote> +<p>The two paragraphs of this passage are but slightly connected. The +first inculcates the obligation of universal love; and the second +begins by suggesting, as a motive for the discharge of that duty, the +near approach of ‘the day.’ The light of that dawn draws +Paul's eyes and leads him to wider exhortations on Christian purity +as befitting the children of light.</p> +<p>I. Verses 8-10 set forth the obligation of a love which embraces +all men, and comprehends all duties to them. The Apostle has just +been laying down the general exhortation, ‘Pay every man his +due’ and applying it especially to the Christian's relation to +civic rulers. He repeats it in a negative form, and bases on it the +obligation of loving every man. That love is further represented as +the sum and substance of the law. Thus Paul brings together two +thoughts which are often dealt with as mutually +exclusive,—namely, love and law. He does not talk +sentimentalisms about the beauty of charity and the like, but lays it +down, as a ‘hard and fast rule,’ that we are bound to +love every man with whom we come in contact; or, as the Greek has it, +‘the other.’</p> +<p>That is the first plain truth taught here. Love is not an emotion +which we may indulge or not, as we please. It is not to select its +objects according to our estimate of their lovableness or goodness. +But we are bound to love, and that all round, without distinction of +beautiful or ugly, good or bad. ‘A hard saying; who can hear +it?’ Every man is our creditor for that debt. He does not get +his due from us unless he gets love. Note, further, that the debt of +love is never discharged. After all payments it still remains owing. +There is no paying in full of all demands, and, as Bengel says, it is +an undying debt. We are apt to weary of expending love, especially on +unworthy recipients, and to think that we have wiped off all claims, +and it may often be true that our obligations to others compel us to +cease helping one; but if we laid Paul's words to heart, our patience +would be longer-breathed, and we should not be so soon ready to shut +hearts and purses against even unthankful suitors.</p> +<p>Further, Paul here teaches us that this debt (<i>debitum</i>, +‘duty’) of love includes all duties. It is the fulfilling +of the law, inasmuch as it will secure the conduct which the law +prescribes. The Mosaic law itself indicates this, since it +recapitulates the various commandments of the second table, in the +one precept of love to our neighbour (Lev. xix. 18). Law enjoins but +has no power to get its injunctions executed. Love enables and +inclines to do all that law prescribes, and to avoid all that it +prohibits. The multiplicity of duties is melted into unity; and that +unity, when it comes into act, unfolds into whatsoever things are +lovely and of good report. Love is the mother tincture which, +variously diluted and manipulated, yields all potent and fragrant +draughts. It is the white light which the prism of daily life +resolves into its component colours.</p> +<p>But Paul seems to limit the action of love here to negative doing +no ill. That is simply because the commandments are mostly negative, +and that they are is a sad token of the lovelessness natural to us +all. But do we love ourselves only negatively, or are we satisfied +with doing ourselves no harm? That stringent pattern of love to +others not only prescribes degree, but manner. It teaches that true +love to men is not weak indulgence, but must sometimes chastise, and +thwart, and always must seek their good, and not merely their +gratification.</p> +<p>Whoever will honestly seek to apply that negative precept of +working no ill to others, will find it positive enough. We harm men +when we fail to help them. If we can do them a kindness, and do it +not, we do them ill. Non-activity for good is activity for evil. +Surely, nothing can be plainer than the bearing of this teaching on +the Christian duty as to intoxicants. If by using these a Christian +puts a stumbling-block in the way of a weak will, then he is working +ill to his neighbour, and that argues absence of love, and that is +dishonest, shirking payment of a plain debt.</p> +<p>II. The great stimulus to love and to all purity is set forth as +being the near approach—of the day (verses 11-14). ‘The +day,’ in Paul's writing, has usually the sense of the great day +of the Lord's return, and may have that meaning here; for, as Jesus +has told us, ‘it is not for’ even inspired Apostles +‘to know the times or the seasons,’ and it is no +dishonour to apostolic inspiration to assign to it the limits which +the Lord has assigned.</p> +<p>But, whether we take this as the meaning of the phrase, or regard +it simply as pointing to the time of death as the dawning of heaven's +day, the weight of the motive is unaffected. The language is vividly +picturesque. The darkness is thinning, and the blackness turning +grey. Light begins to stir and whisper. A band of soldiers lies +asleep, and, as the twilight begins to dawn, the bugle call summons +them to awake, to throw off their night-gear,—namely, the works +congenial to darkness,—and to brace on their armour of light. +Light may here be regarded as the material of which the glistering +armour is made; but, more probably, the expression means weapons +appropriate to the light.</p> +<p>Such being the general picture, we note the fact which underlies +the whole representation; namely, that every life is a definite whole +which has a fixed end. Jesus said, ‘We must work the works of +Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh.’ Paul uses +the opposite metaphors in these verses. But, though the two sayings +are opposite in form, they are identical in substance. In both, the +predominant thought is that of the rapidly diminishing space of +earthly life, and the complete unlikeness to it of the future. We +stand like men on a sandbank with an incoming tide, and every wash of +the waves eats away its edges, and presently it will yield below our +feet. We forget this for the most part, and perhaps it is not well +that it should be ever present; but that it should never be present +is madness and sore loss.</p> +<p>Paul, in his intense moral earnestness, in verse 13, bids us +regard ourselves as already in ‘the day,’ and shape our +conduct as if it shone around us and all things were made manifest by +its light. The sins to be put off are very gross and palpable. They +are for the most part sins of flesh, such as even these Roman +Christians had to be warned against, and such as need to be +manifested by the light even now among many professing Christian +communities.</p> +<p>But Paul has one more word to say. If he stopped without it, he +would have said little to help men who are crying out, ‘How am +I to strip off this clinging evil, which seems my skin rather than my +clothing? How am I to put on that flashing panoply?’ There is +but one way,—put on the Lord Jesus Christ. If we commit +ourselves to Him by faith, and front our temptations in His strength, +and thus, as it were, wrap ourselves in Him, He will be to us dress +and armour, strength and righteousness. Our old self will fall away, +and we shall take no forethought for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts +thereof.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="sn39" id="sn39">SALVATION NEARER</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘... Now is our salvation nearer than when we +believed.’—ROMANS xiii. 11.</blockquote> +<p>There is no doubt, I suppose, that the Apostle, in common with the +whole of the early Church, entertained more or less consistently the +expectation of living to witness the second coming of Jesus Christ. +There are in Paul's letters passages which look both in the direction +of that anticipation, and in the other one of expecting to taste +death. ‘We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the +Lord,’ he says twice in one chapter. ‘I am ready to be +offered, and the hour of my departure is at hand,’ he says in +his last letter.</p> +<p>Now this contrariety of anticipation is but the natural result of +what our Lord Himself said, ‘It is not for you to know the +times and the seasons,’ and no one, who is content to form his +doctrine of the knowledge resulting from inspiration from the words +of Jesus Christ Himself, need stumble in the least degree in +recognising the plain fact that Paul and his brother Apostles did not +know when the Master was to come. Christ Himself had told them that +there was a chamber locked against their entrance, and therefore we +do not need to think that it militates against the authoritative +inspiration of these early teachers of the Church, if they, too, +searched ‘what manner of time the Spirit which was in them did +signify when it testified beforehand ... the glory that should +follow.’</p> +<p>Now, my text is evidently the result of the former of these two +anticipations, viz. that Paul and his generation were probably to see +the coming of the Lord from heaven. And to him the thought +that’ the night was far spent,’ as the context says, +‘and the day was at hand,’ underlay his most buoyant +hope, and was the inspiration and motive-spring of his most strenuous +effort.</p> +<p>Now, our relation to the closing moments of our own earthly lives, +to the fact of death, is precisely the same as that of the Apostle +and his brethren to the coming of the Lord. We, too, stand in that +position of partial ignorance, and for us practically the words of my +text, and all their parallel words, point to how we should think of, +and how we should be affected by, the end to which we are coming. And +this is the grand characteristic of the Christian view of that last +solemn moment. ‘Now is our salvation nearer than when we +believed.’ So I would note, first of all, what these words +teach us should be the Christian view of our own end; and, second, to +what conduct that view should lead us.</p> +<p>I. The Christian view of death.</p> +<p>‘Now is our salvation nearer.’ We have to think away +by faith and hope all the grim externals of death, and to get to the +heart of the thing. And then everything that is repulsive, everything +that makes flesh and blood shrink, disappears and is evaporated, and +beneath the folds of his black garment, there is revealed God's last, +sweetest, most triumphant angel-messenger to Christian souls, the +great, strong, silent Angel of Death, and he carries in his hand the +gift of a full salvation. That is what our Apostle rose to the +rapture of beholding, when he knew that the thought of his surviving +till Christ came again must be put away, and when close to the last +moment of his life, he said, ‘The Lord shall deliver me, and +save me into His everlasting kingdom.’ What was the deliverance +and being saved that he expected and expresses in these words? +Immunity from punishment? Escape from the headsman's axe? Being +‘delivered from the mouth of the lion,’ the persecuting +fangs of the bloody Nero? By no means. He knew that death was at +hand, and he said, ‘He will save me’—not from it, +but through it—‘into His everlasting kingdom.’ And +so in the words of my text we may say—though Paul did not mean +them so—as we see the distance between us, and that certain +close, dwindling, dwindling, dwindling: ‘Now,’ as moment +after moment ticks itself into the past, ‘now is our salvation +nearer than when we believed.’ Children, when they are getting +near their holidays, take strips of paper, and tear off a piece as +each day passes. And as we tear off the days let us feel that we are +drawing closer to our home, and that the blessedness laid up for us +in it is drawing nearer to us. ‘Our salvation,’ not our +destruction, our fuller life, not in any true sense of the word our +‘death,’ is ‘nearer than when we +believed.’</p> +<p>But some one may say, ‘Is a man not saved till after he is +dead?’ Is salvation future, not coming till after the grave? +No, certainly not. There are three aspects of that word in Scripture. +Sometimes the New Testament writers treat salvation as past, and +represent a Christian as being invested with the possession of it all +at the very moment of his first faith. That is true, that whatever is +yet to be evolved from what is given to the poorest and foulest +sinner, in the moment of his initial faith in Christ, there is +nothing to be added to it. The salvation which the penitent thief +received on the cross is all the salvation that he was ever to get. +But out of it there came welling and welling and welling, when he had +passed into the region ‘where beyond these voices there is +peace’—there came welling out from that inexhaustible +fountain which was opened in him all the fullnesses of an eternal +progress in the heavens. And so it is with us. Salvation is a past +gift which we received when we believed.</p> +<p>But in another aspect, which is also emphatically stated in +Scripture, it is a progressive process, and not merely a gift +bestowed once for all in the past. I do not dwell upon that thought, +but just remind you of a turn of expression which occurs in various +connections more than once. ‘The Lord added to the Church daily +such as were being saved,’ says Luke. Still more emphatically +in the Epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle puts into antithesis +the two progressive processes, and speaks of the Gospel as being +preached, and being a savour of life unto life ‘to them that +are being saved,’ and a savour of destruction ‘to them +that are being lost.’ No moral or spiritual condition is +stereotyped or stagnant. It is all progressive. And so the salvation +that is given once for all is ever being unfolded, and the Christian +life on earth is the unfolding of it.</p> +<p>But in another aspect still, such as is presented in my text, and +in other parallel passages, that salvation is regarded as lying on +the other side of the flood, because the manifestations of it there, +the evolving there of what is in it, and the great gifts that come +then, are so transcendently above all even of our selectest +experiences here, that they are, as it were, new, though still their +roots are in the old. The salvation which culminates in the absolute +removal from our whole being of all manner of evil, whether it be +sorrow or sin, and in the conclusive bestowal upon us of all manner +of good, whether it be righteousness or joy, and which has for its +seal ‘the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body,’ +so that body, soul, and spirit ‘make one music as before, but +vaster,’ is so far beyond the germs of itself which here we +experience that my text and its like are amply vindicated. And the +man who is most fully persuaded and conscious that he possesses the +salvation of God, and most fully and blessedly aware that that +salvation is gradually gaining power in his life, is the very man who +will most feel that between its highest manifestation on earth, and +its lowest in the heavens there is such a gulf as that the wine that +he will drink there at the Father's table is indeed new wine. And so +‘is our salvation nearer,’ though we already possess it, +‘than when we believed.’</p> +<p>Dear brethren, if these things be true, and if to die is to be +saved into the kingdom, do not two thoughts result? The one is that +that blessed consummation should occupy more of our thoughts than I +am afraid it does. As life goes on, and the space dwindles between us +and it, we older people naturally fall into the way, unless we are +fools, of more seriously and frequently turning our thoughts to the +end. I suppose the last week of a voyage to Australia has far more +thoughts in it about the landing next week than the two or three +first days of beating down the English Channel had. I do not want to +put old heads on young shoulders in this or in any other respect. But +sure I am that it does belong very intimately to the strength of our +Christian characters that we should, as the Psalmist says, be +‘wise’ to ‘consider our latter end.’</p> +<p>The other thought that follows is as plain, viz. that that +anticipation should always be buoyant, hopeful, joyous. We have +nothing to do with the sad aspects of parting from earth. They are +all but non-existent for the Christian consciousness, when it is as +vigorous and God-directed as it ought to be. They drop into the +background, and sometimes are lost to sight altogether. Remember how +this Apostle, when he does think about death, looks at it +with—I was going to quote words which may strike you as being +inappropriate—‘a frolic welcome’; how, at all +events, he is neither a bit afraid of it, nor does he see in it +anything from which to shrink. He speaks of being with Christ, which +is far better; ‘absent from the body, present with the +Lord’; ‘the dissolution of the earthly house of this +tabernacle’—the tumbling down of the old clay cottage in +order that a stately palace of marble and precious stones may be +reared upon its site; ‘the hour of my departure is at hand; I +have finished the fight.’ Peter, too, chimes in with his words: +‘My exodus; my departure,’ and both of the two are +looking, if not longingly, at all events without a tremor of the +eyelid, into the very eyeballs of the messenger whom most men feel so +hideous. Is it not a wonderful gift to Christian souls that by faith +in Jesus Christ, the realm in which their hope can expatiate is more +than doubled, and annexes the dim lands beyond the frontier of death? +Dear friends, if we are living in Christ, the thought of the end and +that here we are absent from home, ought to be infinitely sweet, of +whatever superficial terrors this poor, shrinking flesh may still be +conscious. And I am sure that the nearer we get to our Saviour, and +the more we realise the joyous possession of salvation as already +ours, and the more we are conscious of the expanding of that gift in +our hearts, the more we shall be delivered from that fear of death +which makes men all their ‘lifetime subject to bondage.’ +So I beseech you to aim at this, that, when you look forward, the +furthest thing you see on the horizon of earth may be that great +Angel of Death coming to save you into the everlasting kingdom.</p> +<p>Now, just a word about</p> +<p>II. The conduct to which such a hope should incite.</p> +<p>The Apostle puts it very plainly in the context, and we need but +expand in a word or two what he teaches us there. ‘And that +knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for +now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.’ To what +does he refer by ‘that’? The whole of the practical +exhortations to a Christian life which have been given before. +Everything that is duty becomes tenfold more stringent and imperative +when we apprehend the true meaning of that last moment. They tell us +that it is unwholesome to be thinking about death and the beyond, +because to do so takes away interest from much of our present +occupations and weakens energy. If there is anything from which a man +is wrenched away because he steadily contemplates the fact of being +wrenched away altogether from everything before long, it is something +that he had better be wrenched from. And if there be any occupations +which dwindle into nothingness, and into which a man cannot for the +life of him fling himself with any thoroughgoing enthusiasm or +interest, if once the thought of death stirs in him, depend upon it +they are occupations which are in themselves contemptible and +unworthy. All good aims will gain greater power over us; we shall +have a saner estimate of what is worth living for; we shall have a +new standard of what is the relative importance of things; and if +some that looked very great turn out to be very small when we let +that searching light in upon them, and others which seemed very +insignificant spring suddenly up into dominating magnitude—that +new and truer perspective will be all clear gain. The more we feel +that our salvation is sweeping towards us, as it were, from the +throne of God through the blue abysses, the more diligently we shall +‘work while it is called day,’ and the more earnestly we +shall seek, when the Saviour and His salvation come, to be found with +loins girt for all strenuous work, and lamps burning in all the +brightness of the light of a Christian character.</p> +<p>Further, says Paul, this hopeful, cheerful contemplation of +approaching salvation should lead us to cast off the evil, and to put +on the good. You will remember the heart-stirring imagery which the +Apostle employs in the context, where he says, ‘The day is at +hand; let us therefore fling off the works of +darkness’—as men in the morning, when the daylight comes +through the window, and makes them lift their eyelids, fling off +their night-gear—‘and let us put on the armour of +light.’ We are soldiers, and must be clad in what will be +bullet-proof, and will turn a sword's edge. And where shall steel of +celestial temper be found that can resist the fiery darts shot at the +Christian soldier? His armour must be ‘of light.’ Clad in +the radiance of Christian character he will be invulnerable. And how +can we, who have robed ourselves in the works of darkness, either +cast them off or array ourselves in sparkling armour of light? Paul +tells us, ‘Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not +provision for the flesh.’ The picture is of a camp of sleeping +soldiers; the night wears thin, the streaks of saffron are coming in +the dawning east. One after another the sleepers awake; they cast +aside their night-gear, and they brace on the armour that sparkles in +the beams of the morning sun. So they are ready when the trumpet +sounds the reveille, and with the morning comes the Captain of the +Lord's host, and with the Captain comes the perfecting of the +salvation which is drawing nearer and nearer to us, as our moments +glide through our fingers like the beads of a rosary. Many men think +of death and fear; the Christian should think of death—and +hope.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tsm40" id="tsm40">THE SOLDIER'S MORNING-CALL</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Let us put on the armour of +light.’—ROMANS xiii. 12.</blockquote> +<p>It is interesting to notice that the metaphor of the Christian +armour occurs in Paul's letters throughout his whole course. It first +appears, in a very rudimentary form, in the earliest of the Epistles, +that to the Thessalonians. It appears here in a letter which belongs +to the middle of his career, and it appears finally in the Epistle to +the Ephesians, in its fully developed and drawn-out shape, at almost +the end of his work. So we may fairly suppose that it was one of his +familiar thoughts. Here it has a very picturesque addition, for the +picture that is floating before his vivid imagination is that of a +company of soldiers, roused by the morning bugle, casting off their +night-gear because the day is beginning to dawn, and bracing on the +armour that sparkles in the light of the rising sun. +‘That,’ says Paul, ‘is what you Christian people +ought to be. Can you not hear the notes of the reveille? The night is +far spent; the day is at hand; therefore let us put off the works of +darkness—the night-gear that was fit for those hours of +slumber. Toss it away, and put on the armour that belongs to the +day.’</p> +<p>Now, I am not going to ask or try to answer the question of how +far this Apostolic exhortation is based upon the Apostle's +expectation that the world was drawing near its end. That does not +matter at all for us at present, for the fact which he expresses as +the foundation of this exhortation is true about us all, and about +our position in the midst of these fleeting shadows round us. We are +hastening to the dawning of the true day. And so let me try to +emphasise the exhortation here, old and threadbare and commonplace as +it is, because we all need it, at whatever point of life's journey we +have arrived.</p> +<p>Now, the first thing that strikes me is that the garb for the man +expectant of the day is armour.</p> +<p>We might have anticipated something very different in accordance +with the thoughts that Paul's imagery here suggests, about the +difference between the night which is so swiftly passing, and is full +of enemies and dangers, and the day which is going to dawn, and is +full of light and peace and joy. We might have expected that he would +have said, ‘Let us put on the festal robes.’ But no! +‘The night is far spent; the day is at hand.’ But the +dress that befits the expectant of the day is not yet the robe of the +feast, but it is ‘the armour’ which, put into plain +words, means just this, that there is fighting, always fighting, to +be done. If you are ever to belong to the day, you have to equip +yourselves <i>now</i> with armour and weapons. I do not need to dwell +upon that, but I do wish to insist upon this fact, that after all +that may be truly said about growth in grace, and the peaceful +approximation towards perfection in the Christian character, we +cannot dispense with the other element in progress, and that is +fighting. We have to struggle for every step. <i>Growth</i> is not +enough to define completely the process by which men become conformed +to the image of the Father, and are ‘made meet to be partakers +of the inheritance of the saints in light.’ Growth does express +part of it, but only a part. Conflict is needed to come in, before +you have the whole aspect of Christian progress before your minds. +For there will always be antagonism without and traitors within. +There will always be recalcitrant horses that need to be whipped up, +and jibbing horses that need to be dragged forward, and shying ones +that need to be violently coerced and kept in the traces. Conflict is +the law, because of the enemies, and because of the conspiracy +between the weakness within and the things without that appeal to +it.</p> +<p>We hear a great deal to-day about being ‘sanctified by +faith.’ I believe that as much as any man, but the office of +faith is to bring us the power that cleanses, and the application of +that power requires our work, and it requires our fighting. So it is +not enough to say, ‘Trust for your sanctifying as you have +trusted for your justifying and acceptance,’ but you have to +work out what you get by your faith, and you will never work it out +unless you fight against your unworthy self, and the temptations of +the world. The garb of the candidate for the day is armour.</p> +<p>And there is another side to that same thought, and that is, the +more vivid our expectations of that blessed dawn the more complete +should be our bracing on of the armour. The anticipation of that +future, in very many instances, in the Christian Church, has led to +precisely the opposite state of mind. It has induced people to drop +into mere fantastic sentiment, or to ignore this contemptible +present, and think that they have nothing to do with it, and are only +‘waiting for the coming of the Lord,’ and the like. Paul +says, ‘Just because, on your eastern horizon, you can see the +pink flush that tells that the night is gone, and the day is coming, +therefore do not be a sentimentalist, do not be idle, do not be +negligent or contemptuous of the daily tasks; but because you see it, +put on the armour of light, and whether the time between the rising +of the whole orb of the sun on the horizon be long or short, fill the +hours with triumphant conflict. Put on the whole armour of +light.’</p> +<p>Again, note here what the armour is. Of course that phrase, +‘the armour of light,’ may be nothing more than a little +bit of colour put in by a picturesque imagination, and may suggest +simply how the burnished steel would shine and glitter when the +sunbeams smote it, and the glistening armour, like that of Spenser's +Red Cross Knight, would make a kind of light in the dark cave, into +which he went. Or it may mean ‘the armour that befits the +light’; as is perhaps suggested by the antithesis ‘the +works of darkness,’ which are to be ‘put off.’ +These are works that match the darkness, and similarly the armour is +to be the armour that befits the light, and that can flash back its +beams. But I think there is more than that in the expression. I would +rather take the phrase to be parallel to another of this Apostle's, +who speaks in 2nd Corinthians of the ‘armour of righteousness +on the right hand and on the left.’ ‘Light’ makes +the armour, ‘righteousness’ makes the armour. The two +phrases say the same thing, the one in plain English, the other in +figure, which being brought down to daily life is just this, that the +true armour and weapon of a Christian man is Christian character. +‘Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are lovely, +whatsoever things are of good report,’ these are the pieces of +armour, and these are the weapons which we are to wield. A Christian +man fights against evil in himself by putting on good. The true way +to empty the heart of sin is to fill the heart with righteousness. +The lances of the light, according to the significant old Greek myth, +slew pythons. The armour is ‘righteousness on the right hand +and on the left.’ Stick to plain, simple, homely duties, and +you will find that they will defend your heart against many a +temptation. A flask that is full of rich wine may be plunged into the +saltest ocean, and not a drop will find its way in. Fill your heart +with righteousness; your lives—let them glisten in the light, +and the light will be your armour. God is light, wherefore God cannot +be tempted with evil. ‘Walk in the light, as He is in the +light’ ... and ‘the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from +all sin.’</p> +<p>But there is another side to that thought, for if you will look, +at your leisure, to the closing words of the chapter, you will find +the Apostle's own exposition of what putting on the armour of light +means. ‘Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ’—that is +his explanation of putting on ‘the armour of light.’ For +‘once ye were darkness, but now are ye light in the +Lord,’ and it is in the measure in which we are united to Him, +by the faith which binds us to Him, and by the love which works +obedience and conformity, that we wear the invulnerable armour of +light. Christ Himself is, and He supplies to all, the separate graces +which Christian men can wear. We may say that He is ‘the +panoply of God,’ as Paul calls it in Ephesians, and when we +wear Him, and only in the measure in which we do wear Him, in that +measure are we clothed with it. And so the last thing that I would +point out here is that the obedience to these commands requires +continual effort.</p> +<p>The Christians in Rome, to whom Paul was writing, were no novices +in the Christian life. Long ago many of them had been brought to Him. +But the oldest Christian amongst them needed the exhortation as much +as the rawest recruit in the ranks. Continual renewal day by day is +what we need, and it will not be secured without a great deal of +work. Seeing that there is a ‘putting off’ to go along +with the ‘putting on,’ the process is a very long one. +‘'Tis a lifelong task till the lump be leavened.’ It is a +lifelong task till we strip off all the rags of this old self; and +‘being clothed,’ are not ‘found naked.’ It +takes a lifetime to fathom Jesus; it takes a lifetime to appropriate +Jesus, it takes a lifetime to be clothed with Jesus. And the question +comes to each of us, have we ‘put off the old man with his +deeds’? Are we daily, as sure as we put on our clothes in the +morning, putting on Christ the Lord?</p> +<p>For notice with what solemnity the Apostle gives the master His +full, official, formal title here, ‘put ye on the <i>Lord Jesus +Christ</i>.’ Do we put Him on as <i>Lord</i>; bowing our whole +wills to Him, and accepting Him, His commandments, promises, +providences, with glad submission? Do we put on <i>Jesus</i>, +recognising in His manhood as our Brother not only the pattern of our +lives, but the pledge that the pattern, by His help and love, is +capable of reproduction in ourselves? Do we put Him on as ‘the +Lord Jesus <i>Christ</i>,’ who was anointed with the Divine +Spirit, that from the head it might flow, even to the skirts of the +garments, and every one of us might partake of that unction and be +made pure and clean thereby? ‘Put ye on the Lord Jesus +Christ,’ and do it day by day, and then you have ‘put on +the whole armour of God.’</p> +<p>And when the day that is dawning has risen to its full, then, not +till then, may we put off the armour and put on the white robe, lay +aside the helmet, and have our brows wreathed with the laurel, +sheathe the sword, and grasp the palm, being ‘more than +conquerors through Him who loved us,’ and fights in us, as well +as for us.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tlol41" id="tlol41">THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘So then every one of us shall give account of +himself to God. 13. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: +but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock, or an +occasion to fall, in his brother's way. 14. I know, and am persuaded +by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to +him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15. +But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not +charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. 16. +Let not then your good be evil spoken of: 17. For the kingdom of God +is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the +Holy Ghost. 18. For he that in these things serveth Christ is +acceptable to God, and approved of men. 19. Let us therefore follow +after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may +edify another. 20. For meat destroy not the work of God. All things +indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. +21. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing +whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. 22. +Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that +condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. 23. And he +that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: +for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.’—ROMANS xiv. +12-23.</blockquote> +<p>The special case in view, in the section of which this passage is +part, is the difference of opinion as to the lawfulness of eating +certain meats. It is of little consequence, so far as the principles +involved are concerned, whether these were the food which the Mosaic +ordinances made unclean, or, as in Corinth, meats offered to idols. +The latter is the more probable, and would be the more important in +Rome. The two opinions on the point represented two tendencies of +mind, which always exist; one more scrupulous, and one more liberal. +Paul has been giving the former class the lesson they needed in the +former part of this chapter; and he now turns to the +‘stronger’ brethren, and lays down the law for their +conduct. We may, perhaps, best simply follow him, verse by verse.</p> +<p>We note then, first, the great thought with which he starts, that +of the final judgment, in which each man shall give account of +himself. What has that to do with the question in hand? This, that it +ought to keep us from premature and censorious judging. We have +something more pressing to do than to criticise each other. Ourselves +are enough to keep our hands full, without taking a lift of our +fellows’ conduct. And this, further, that, in view of the final +judgment, we should hold a preliminary investigation on our own +principles of action, and ‘decide’ to adopt as the +overruling law for ourselves, that we shall do nothing which will +make duty harder for our brethren. Paul habitually settled small +matters on large principles, and brought the solemnities of the final +account to bear on the marketplace and the meal.</p> +<p>In verse 13 he lays down the supreme principle for settling the +case in hand. No Christian is blameless if he voluntarily acts so as +to lay a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in another's path. +Are these two things the same? Possibly, but a man may stumble, and +not fall, and that which makes him stumble may possibly indicate a +temptation to a less grave evil than that which makes him fall does. +It may be noticed that in the sequel we hear of a brother's being +‘grieved’ first, and then of his being +‘overthrown.’ In any case, there is no mistake about the +principle laid down and repeated in verse 21. It is a hard saying for +some of us. Is my liberty to be restricted by the narrow scruples of +‘strait-laced’ Christians? Yes. Does not that make them +masters, and attach too much importance to their narrowness? No. It +recognises Christ as Master, and all His servants as brethren. If the +scrupulous ones go so far as to say to the more liberal, ‘You +cannot be Christians if you do not do as we do’ then the limits +of concession have been reached, and we are to do as Paul did, when +he flatly refused to yield one hair's-breadth to the Judaisers. If a +man says, You must adopt this, that, or the other limitation in +conduct, or else you shall be unchurched, the only answer is, I will +not. We are to be flexible as long as possible, and let weak +brethren's scruples restrain our action. But if they insist on things +indifferent as essential, a yet higher duty than that of regard to +their weak consciences comes in, and faithfulness to Christ limits +concession to His servants.</p> +<p>But, short of that extreme case, Paul lays down the law of curbing +liberty in deference to ‘narrowness.’ In verse 14 he +states with equal breadth the extreme principle of the liberal party, +that nothing is unclean of itself. He has learned that ‘in the +Lord Jesus.’ Before he was ‘in Him,’ he had been +entangled in cobwebs of legal cleanness and uncleanness; but now he +is free. But he adds an exception, which must be kept in mind by the +liberal-minded section—namely, that a clean thing is unclean to +a man who thinks it is. Of course, these principles do not affect the +eternal distinctions of right and wrong. Paul is not playing fast and +loose with the solemn, divine law which makes sin and righteousness +independent of men's notions. He is speaking of things +indifferent—ceremonial observances and the like; and the modern +analogies of these are conventional pieces of conduct, in regard to +amusements and the like, which, in themselves, a Christian man can do +or abstain from without sin.</p> +<p>Verse 15 is difficult to understand, if the ‘for’ at +the beginning is taken strictly. Some commentators would read instead +of it a simple ‘but’ which smooths the flow of thought. +But possibly the verse assigns a reason for the law in verse 13, +rather than for the statements in verse 14. And surely there is no +stronger reason for tender consideration for even the narrowest +scruples of Christians than the obligation to walk in love. Our +common brotherhood binds us to do nothing that would even grieve one +of the family. For instance, Christian men have different views of +the obligations of Sunday observance. It is conceivable that a very +‘broad’ Christian might see no harm in playing +lawn-tennis in his garden on a Sunday; but if his doing so +scandalised, or, as Paul says, ‘grieved’ Christian people +of less advanced views, he would be sinning against the law of love +if he did it.</p> +<p>There are many other applications of the principle readily +suggested. The principle is the thing to keep clearly in view. It has +a wide field for its exercise in our times, and when the Christian +brotherhood includes such diversities of culture and social +condition. And that is a solemn deepening of it, ‘Destroy not +with thy meat him for whom Christ died.’ Note the almost bitter +emphasis on ‘thy,’ which brings out not only the +smallness of the gratification for which the mischief is done, but +the selfishness of the man who will not yield up so small a thing to +shield from evil which may prove fatal, a brother for whom Christ did +not shrink from yielding up life. If He is our pattern, any sacrifice +of tastes and liberties for our brother's sake is plain duty, and +cannot be neglected without selfish sin. One great reason, then, for +the conduct enjoined, is set forth in verse 15. It is the clear +dictate of Christian love.</p> +<p>Another reason is urged in verses 16 to 18. It displays the true +character of Christianity, and so reflects honour on the doer. +‘Your good’ is an expression for the whole sum of the +blessings obtained by becoming Christians, and is closely connected +with what is here meant by the ‘kingdom of God.’ That +latter phrase seems here to be substantially equivalent to the inward +condition in which they are who have submitted to the dominion of the +will of God. It is ‘the kingdom within us’ which is +‘righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’ What +have you won by your Christianity? the Apostle in effect says, Do you +think that its purpose is mainly to give you greater licence in +regard to these matters in question? If the most obvious thing in +your conduct is your ‘eating and drinking,’ your whole +Christian standing will be misconceived, and men will fancy that your +religion permits laxity of life. But if, on the other hand, you show +that you are Christ's servants by righteousness, peace, and joy, you +will be pleasing to God, and men will recognise that your religion is +from Him, and that you are consistent professors of it.</p> +<p>Modern liberal-minded brethren can easily translate all this for +to-day's use. Take care that you do not give the impression that your +Christianity has its main operation in permitting you to do what your +weaker brethren have scruples about. If you do not yield to them, but +flaunt your liberty in their and the world's faces, your advanced +enlightenment will be taken by rough-and-ready observers as mainly +cherished because it procures you these immunities. Show by your life +that you have the true spiritual gifts. Think more about them than +about your ‘breadth,’ and superiority to ‘narrow +prejudices.’ Realise the purpose of the Gospel as concerns your +own moral perfecting, and the questions in hand will fall into their +right place.</p> +<p>In verses 19 and 20 two more reasons are given for restricting +liberty in deference to others’ scruples. Such conduct +contributes to peace. If truth is imperilled, or Christ's name in +danger of being tarnished, counsels of peace are counsels of +treachery; but there are not many things worth buying at the price of +Christian concord. Such conduct tends to build up our own and +others’ Christian character. Concessions to the +‘weak’ may help them to become strong, but flying in the +face of their scruples is sure to hurt them, in one way or +another.</p> +<p>In verse 15, the case was supposed of a brother's being grieved by +what he felt to be laxity. That case corresponded to the +stumbling-block of verse 13. A worse result seems contemplated in +verse 20,—that of the weak brother, still believing that laxity +was wrong, and yet being tempted by the example of the stronger to +indulge in it. In that event, the responsibility of overthrowing what +God had built lies at the door of the tempter. The metaphor of +‘overthrowing’ is suggested by the previous one of +‘edifying.’ Christian duty is mutual building up of +character; inconsiderate exercise of ‘liberty’ may lead +to pulling down, by inducing to imitation which conscience +condemns.</p> +<p>From this point onwards, the Apostle first reiterates in inverse +order his two broad principles, that clean things are unclean to the +man who thinks them so, and that Christian obligation requires +abstinence from permitted things if our indulgence tends to a +brother's hurt. The application of the latter principle to the duty +of total abstinence from intoxicants for the sake of others is +perfectly legitimate, but it is an application, not the direct +purpose of the Apostle's injunctions.</p> +<p>In verses 22 and 23, the section is closed by two exhortations, in +which both parties, the strong and the weak, are addressed. The +former is spoken to in verse 22, the latter in verse 23. The strong +brother is bid to be content with having his wider views, or +‘faith’—that is, certainty that his liberty is in +accordance with Christ's will. It is enough that he should enjoy that +conviction, only let him make sure that he can hold it as in God's +sight, and do not let him flourish it in the faces of brethren whom +it would grieve, or might lead to imitating his practice, without +having risen to his conviction. And let him be quite sure that his +conscience is entirely convinced, and not bribed by inclination; for +many a man condemns himself by letting wishes dictate to +conscience.</p> +<p>On the other hand, there is a danger that those who have scruples +should, by the example of those who have not, be tempted to do what +they are not quite sure is right. If you have any doubts, says Paul, +the safe course is to abstain from the conduct in question. Perhaps a +brother can go to the theatre without harm, if he believes it right +to do so; but if you have any hesitation as to the propriety of +going, you will be condemned as sinning if you do. You must not +measure your corn by another man's bushel. Your convictions, not his, +are to be your guides. ‘Faith’ is used here in a somewhat +unusual sense. It means certitude of judgment. The last words of +verse 23 have no such meaning as is sometimes extracted from them; +namely, that actions, however pure and good, done by unbelievers, are +of the nature of sin. They simply mean that whatever a Christian man +does without clear warrant of his judgment and conscience is sin to +him, whatever it is to others.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tfos42" id="tfos42">TWO FOUNTAINS, ONE STREAM</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘That we, through patience and comfort of the +Scriptures, might have hope.... 13. The God of hope fill you with all +joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in +hope.’—ROMANS xv. 4, 13.</blockquote> +<p>There is a river in Switzerland fed by two uniting streams, +bearing the same name, one of them called the ‘white,’ +one of them the ‘grey,’ or dark. One comes down from the +glaciers, and bears half-melted snow in its white ripple; the other +flows through a lovely valley, and is discoloured by its earth. They +unite in one common current. So in these two verses we have two +streams, a white and a black, and they both blend together and flow +out into a common hope. In the former of them we have the dark +stream—‘through patience and comfort,’ which +implies affliction and effort. The issue and outcome of all +difficulty, trial, sorrow, ought to be hope. And in the other verse +we have the other valley, down which the light stream comes: +‘The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, +that ye may abound in hope.’</p> +<p>So both halves of the possible human experience are meant to end +in the same blessed result; and whether you go round on the one side +of the sphere of human life, or whether you take the other +hemisphere, you come to the same point, if you have travelled with +God's hand in yours, and with Him for your Guide.</p> +<p>Let us look, then, at these two contrasted origins of the same +blessed gift, the Christian hope.</p> +<p>I. We have, first of all, the hope that is the child of the night, +and born in the dark.</p> +<p>‘Whatsoever things,’ says the Apostle, ‘were +written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we, through +patience,’—or rather <i>the brave +perseverance</i>—‘and consolation’—or rather +perhaps <i>encouragement</i>—‘of the Scriptures might +have hope.’ The written word is conceived as the source of +patient endurance which acts as well as suffers. This grace Scripture +works in us through the encouragement which it ministers in manifold +ways, and the result of both is hope.</p> +<p>So, you see, our sorrows and difficulties are not connected with, +nor do they issue in, bright hopefulness, except by reason of this +connecting link. There is nothing in a man's troubles to make him +hopeful. Sometimes, rather, they drive him into despair; but at all +events, they seldom drive him to hopefulness, except where this link +comes in. We cannot pass from the black frowning cliffs on one side +of the gorge to the sunny tablelands on the other without a +bridge—and the bridge for a poor soul from the blackness of +sorrow, and the sharp grim rocks of despair, to the smiling pastures +of hope, with all their half-open blossoms, is builded in that Book, +which tells us the meaning and purpose of them all; and is full of +the histories of those who have fought and overcome, have hoped and +not been ashamed.</p> +<p>Scripture is given for this among other reasons, that it may +encourage us, and so may produce in us this great grace of active +patience, if we may call it so.</p> +<p>The first thing to notice is, how Scripture gives +encouragement—for such rather than consolation is the meaning +of the word. It is much to dry tears, but it is more to stir the +heart as with a trumpet call. Consolation is precious, but we need +more for well-being than only to be comforted. And, surely, the whole +tone of Scripture in its dealing with the great mystery of pain and +sorrow, has a loftier scope than even to minister assuagement to +grief, and to stay our weeping. It seeks to make us strong and brave +to face and to master our sorrows, and to infuse into us a +high-hearted courage, which shall not merely be able to accept the +biting blasts, but shall feel that they bring a glow to the cheek and +oxygen to the blood, while wrestling with them builds up our +strength, and trains us for higher service. It would be a poor aim to +comfort only; but to encourage—to make strong in heart, +resolved in will, and incapable of being overborne or crushed in +spirit by any sorrows—that is a purpose worthy of the Book, and +of the God who speaks through it.</p> +<p>This purpose, we may say, is effected by Scripture in two ways. It +encourages us by its records, and by its revelation of +principles.</p> +<p>Who can tell how many struggling souls have taken heart again, as +they pondered over the sweet stories of sorrow subdued which stud its +pages, like stars in its firmament? The tears shed long ago which God +has put ‘in His bottle,’ and recorded in ‘His +book,’ have truly been turned into pearls. That long gallery of +portraits of sufferers, who have all trodden the same rough road, and +been sustained by the same hand, and reached the same home, speaks +cheer to all who follow them. Hearts wrung by cruel partings from +those dearer to them than their own souls, turn to the pages which +tell how Abraham, with calm sorrow, laid his Sarah in the cave at +Macpelah; or how, when Jacob's eyes were dim that he could not see, +his memory still turned to the hour of agony when Rachael died by +him, and he sees clear in its light her lonely grave, where so much +of himself was laid; or to the still more sacred page which records +the struggle of grief and faith in the hearts of the sisters of +Bethany. All who are anyways afflicted in mind, body, or estate find +in the Psalms men speaking their deepest experiences before them; and +the grand majesty of sorrow that marks ‘the patience of +Job,’ and the flood of sunshine that bathes him, revealing the +‘end of the Lord,’ have strengthened countless sufferers +to bear and to hold fast, and to hope. We are all enough of children +to be more affected by living examples than by dissertations, however +true, and so Scripture is mainly history, revealing God by the record +of His acts, and disclosing the secret of human life by telling us +the experiences of living men.</p> +<p>But Scripture has another method of ministering encouragement to +our often fainting and faithless hearts. It cuts down through all the +complications of human affairs, and lays bare the innermost motive +power. It not only shows us in its narratives the working of sorrow, +and the power of faith, but it distinctly lays down the source and +the purpose, the whence and the whither of all suffering. No man need +quail or faint before the most torturing pains or most disastrous +strokes of evil, who holds firmly the plain teaching of Scripture on +these two points. They all come <i>from</i> my Father, and they all +come <i>for</i> my good. It is a short and simple creed, easily +apprehended. It pretends to no recondite wisdom. It is a homely +philosophy which common intellects can grasp, which children can +understand, and hearts half paralysed by sorrow can take in. So much +the better. Grief and pain are so common that their cure had need to +be easily obtained. Ignorant and stupid people have to writhe in +agony as well as wise and clever ones, and until grief is the portion +only of the cultivated classes, its healing must come from something +more universal than philosophy; or else the nettle would be more +plentiful than the dock; and many a poor heart would be stung to +death. Blessed be God! the Christian view of sorrow, while it leaves +much unexplained, focuses a steady light on these two points; its +origin and its end. ‘He for our profit, that we may be +partakers of His holiness,’ is enough to calm all agitation, +and to make the faintest heart take fresh courage. With that double +certitude clear before us, we can face anything. The slings and +arrows which strike are no more flung blindly by an ‘outrageous +fortune,’ but each bears an inscription, like the fabled bolts, +which tells what hand drew the bow, and they come with His love.</p> +<p>Then, further, the courage thus born of the Scriptures produces +another grand thing—patience, or rather perseverance. By that +word is meant more than simply the passive endurance which is the +main element in patience, properly so called. Such passive endurance +is a large part of our duty in regard to difficulties and sorrows, +but is never the whole of it. It is something to endure and even +while the heart is breaking, to submit unmurmuring, but, transcendent +as that is, it is but half of the lesson which we have to learn and +to put in practice. For if all our sorrows have a disciplinary and +educational purpose, we shall not have received them aright, unless +we have tried to make that purpose effectual, by appropriating +whatsoever moral and spiritual teaching they each have for us. Nor +does our duty stop there. For while one high purpose of sorrow is to +deaden our hearts to earthly objects, and to lift us above earthly +affections, no sorrow can ever relax the bonds which oblige us to +duty. The solemn pressure of ‘I ought,’ is as heavy on +the sorrowful as on the happy heart. We have still to toil, to press +forward, in the sweat of our brow, to gain our bread, whether it be +food for our bodies, or sustenance for our hearts and minds. Our +responsibilities to others do not cease because our lives are +darkened. Therefore, heavy or light of heart, we have still to stick +to our work, and though we may never more be able to do it with the +old buoyancy, still to do it with our might.</p> +<p>It is that dogged persistence in plain duty, that tenacious +continuance in our course, which is here set forth as the result of +the encouragement which Scripture gives. Many of us have all our +strength exhausted in mere endurance, and have let obvious duties +slip from our hands, as if we had done all that we could do when we +had forced ourselves to submit. Submission would come easier if you +took up some of those neglected duties, and you would be stronger for +patience, if you used more of your strength for service. You do well +if you do not sink under your burden, but you would do better if, +with it on your shoulders, you would plod steadily along the road; +and if you did, you would feel the weight less. It seems heaviest +when you stand still doing nothing. Do not cease to toil because you +suffer. You will feel your pain more if you do. Take the +encouragement which Scripture gives, that it may animate you to bate +no jot of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer right +onward.</p> +<p>And let the Scripture directly minister to you perseverance as +well as indirectly supply it through the encouragement which it +gives. It abounds with exhortations, patterns, and motives of such +patient continuance in well-doing. It teaches us a solemn scorn of +ills. It, angel-like, bears us up on soft, strong hands, lest we +bruise ourselves on, or stumble over, the rough places on our roads. +It summons us to diligence by the visions of the prize, and glimpses +of the dread fate of the slothful, by all that is blessed in hope, +and terrible in foreboding, by appeals to an enlightened self-regard, +and by authoritative commands to conscience, by the pattern of the +Master, and by the tender motives of love to Him to which He, +Himself, has given voice. All these call on us to be followers of +them who, through faith and perseverance, inherit the promises.</p> +<p>But we have yet another step to take. These two, the encouragement +and perseverance produced by the right use of Scripture, will lead to +hope.</p> +<p>It depends on how sorrow and trial are borne, whether they produce +a dreary hopelessness which sometimes darkens into despair, or a +brighter, firmer hope than more joyous days knew. We cannot say that +sorrow produces hope. It does not, unless we have this connecting +link—the experience in sorrow of a God-given courage which +falters not in the onward course, nor shrinks from any duty. But if, +in the very press and agony, I am able, by God's grace, to endure nor +cease to toil, I have, in myself, a living proof of His power, which +entitles me to look forward with the sure confidence that, through +all the uproar of the storm, He will bring me to my harbour of rest +where there is peace. The lion once slain houses a swarm of bees who +lay up honey in its carcase. The trial borne with brave persistence +yields a store of sweet hopes. If we can look back and say, +‘Thou hast been with me in six troubles,’ it is good +logic to look forward and say, ‘and in seven Thou wilt not +forsake me.’ When the first wave breaks over the ship, as she +clears the heads and heels over before the full power of the open +sea, inexperienced landsmen think they are all going to the bottom, +but they soon learn that there is a long way between rolling and +foundering, and get to watch the highest waves towering above the +bows in full confidence that these also will slip quietly beneath the +keel as the others have done, and be left harmless astern.</p> +<p>The Apostle, in this very same letter, has another word parallel +to this, in which he describes the issues of rightly-borne suffering +when he says, ‘Tribulation worketh +perseverance’—the same word that is used +here—‘and perseverance worketh’ the proof in our +experience of a sustaining God; and the proof in our experience of a +sustaining God works hope. We know that of ourselves we could not +have met tribulation, and therefore the fact that we have been able +to meet and overcome it is demonstration of a mightier power than our +own, working in us, which we know to be from God, and therefore +inexhaustible and ever ready to help. That is foundation firm enough +to build solid fabrics of hope upon, whose bases go down to the +centre of all things, the purpose of God, and whose summits, like the +upward shooting spire of some cathedral, aspire to, and seem almost +to touch, the heavens.</p> +<p>So hope is born of sorrow, when these other things come between. +The darkness gives birth to the light, and every grief blazes up a +witness to a future glory. Each drop that hangs on the wet leaves +twinkles into rainbow light that proclaims the sun. The garish +splendours of the prosperous day hide the stars, and through the +night of our sorrow there shine, thickly sown and steadfast, the +constellations of eternal hopes. The darker the midnight, the surer, +and perhaps the nearer, the coming of the day. Sorrow has not had its +perfect work unless it has led us by the way of courage and +perseverance to a stable hope. Hope has not pierced to the rock, and +builds only ‘things that can be shaken,’ unless it rests +on sorrows borne by God's help.</p> +<p>II. So much then for the genealogy of one form of the Christian +hope. But we have also a hope that is born of the day, the child of +sunshine and gladness; and that is set before us in the second of the +two verses which we are considering, ‘The God of hope fill you +with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in +hope.’</p> +<p>So then, ‘the darkness and the light are both alike’ +to our hope, in so far as each may become the occasion for its +exercise. It is not only to be the sweet juice expressed from our +hearts by the winepress of calamities, but that which flows of itself +from hearts ripened and mellowed under the sunshine of God-given +blessedness.</p> +<p>We have seen that the bridge by which sorrow led to hope, is +perseverance and courage; in this second analysis of the origin of +hope, joy and peace are the bridge by which Faith passes over into +it. Observe the difference: there is no direct connection between +affliction and hope, but there is between joy and hope. We have no +right to say, ‘Because I suffer, I shall possess good in the +future’; but we have a right to say, ‘Because I +rejoice’—of course with a joy in God—‘I shall +never cease to rejoice in Him.’ Such joy is the prophet of its +own immortality and completion. And, on the other hand, the joy and +peace which are naturally the direct progenitors of Christian hope, +are the children of faith. So that we have here two generations, as +it were, of hope's ancestors;—Faith produces joy and peace, and +these again produce hope.</p> +<p>Faith leads to joy and peace. Paul has found, and if we only put +it to the proof, we shall also find, that the simple exercise of +simple faith fills the soul with ‘<i>all</i> joy and +peace.’ Gladness in all its variety and in full measure, calm +repose in every kind and abundant in its still depth, will pour into +my heart as water does into a vessel, on condition of my taking away +the barrier and opening my heart through faith. Trust and thou shalt +be glad. Trust, and thou shalt be calm. In the measure of thy trust +shall be the measure of thy joy and peace.</p> +<p>Notice, further, how indissolubly connected the present exercise +of faith is with the present experience of joy and peace. The +exuberant language of this text seems a world too wide for anything +that many professing Christians ever know even in the moments of +highest elevation, and certainly far beyond the ordinary tenor of +their lives. But it is no wonder that these should have so little +joy, when they have so little faith. It is only while we are looking +to Jesus that we can expect to have joy and peace. There is no +flashing light on the surface of the mirror, but when it is turned +full to the sun. Any interruption in the electric current is +registered accurately by an interruption in the continuous line +perforated on the telegraph ribbon; and so every diversion of heart +and faith from Jesus Christ is recorded by the fading of the sunshine +out of the heart, and the silencing of all the song-birds. +Yesterday's faith will not bring joy to-day; you cannot live upon +past experience, nor feed your souls with the memory of former +exercises of Christian faith. It must be like the manna, gathered +fresh every day, else it will rot and smell foul. A present faith, +and a present faith only, produces a present joy and peace. Is there, +then, any wonder that so much of the ordinary experience of ordinary +Christians should present a sadly broken line—a bright point +here and there, separated by long stretches of darkness? The gaps in +the continuity of their joy are the tell-tale indicators of the +interruptions in their faith. If the latter were continuous, the +former would be unbroken. Always believe, and you will always be glad +and calm.</p> +<p>It is easy to see that this is the natural result of faith. The +very act of confident reliance on another for all my safety and +well-being has a charm to make me restful, so long as my reliance is +not put to shame. There is no more blessed emotion than the tranquil +happiness which, in the measure of its trust, fills every trustful +soul. Even when its objects are poor, fallible, weak, ignorant dying +men and women, trust brings a breath of more than earthly peace into +the heart. But when it grasps the omnipotent, all-wise, immortal +Christ, there are no bounds but its own capacity to the blessedness +which it brings into the soul, because there is none to the +all-sufficient grace of which it lays hold.</p> +<p>Observe again how accurately the Apostle defines for us the +conditions on which Christian experience will be joyful and tranquil. +It is ‘in believing,’ not in certain other exercises of +mind, that these blessings are to be realised. And the forgetfulness +of that plain fact leads to many good people's religion being very +much more gloomy and disturbed than God meant it to be. For a large +part of it consists in sadly testing their spiritual state, and +gazing at their failures and imperfections. There is nothing cheerful +or tranquillising in grubbing among the evils of your own heart, and +it is quite possible to do that too much and too exclusively. If your +favourite subject of contemplation in your religious thinking is +yourself, no wonder that you do not get much joy and peace out of +that. If you do, it will be of a false kind. If you are thinking more +about your own imperfections than about Christ's pardon, more about +the defects of your own love to Him than about the perfection of His +love to you, if instead of practising faith you are absorbed in +self-examination, and instead of saying to yourself, ‘I know +how foul and unworthy I am, but I look away from myself to my +Saviour,’ you are bewailing your sins and doubting whether you +are a Christian, you need not expect God's angels of joy and peace to +nestle in your heart. It is ‘in believing,’ and not in +other forms of religious contemplation, however needful these may in +their places be, that these fair twin sisters come to us and make +their abode with us.</p> +<p>Then, the second step in this tracing of the origin of the hope +which has the brighter source is the consideration that the joy and +peace which spring from faith, in their turn produce that confident +anticipation of future and progressive good.</p> +<p>Herein lies the distinguishing blessedness of the Christian joy +and peace, in that they carry in themselves the pledge of their own +eternity. Here, and here only, the mad boast which is doomed to be so +miserably falsified when applied to earthly gladness is simple truth. +Here ‘to-morrow <i>shall</i> be as this day and much more +abundant.’ Such joy has nothing in itself which betokens +exhaustion, as all the less pure joys of earth have. It is manifestly +not born for death, as are they. It is not fated, like all earthly +emotions or passions, to expire in the moment of its completeness, or +even by sudden revulsion to be succeeded by its opposite. Its +sweetness has no after pang of bitterness. It is not true of this +gladness, that ‘Hereof cometh in the end despondency and +madness,’ but its destiny is to ‘remain’ as long as +the soul in which it unfolds shall exist, and ‘to be +full’ as long as the source from which it flows does not run +dry.</p> +<p>So that the more we experience the present blessedness, which +faith in Christ brings us, the more shall we be sure that nothing in +the future, either in or beyond time, can put an end to it; and hence +a hope that looks with confident eyes across the gorge of death, to +the ‘shining tablelands’ on the other side, and is as +calm as certitude, shall be ours. To the Christian soul, rejoicing in +the conscious exercise of faith and the conscious possession of its +blessed results, the termination of a communion with Christ, so real +and spiritual, by such a trivial accident as death, seems wildly +absurd and therefore utterly impossible. Just as Christ's +Resurrection seems inevitable as soon as we grasp the truth of His +divine nature, and it becomes manifestly impossible that He, being +such as He is—should be holden of death,’ being such as +it is, so for His children, when once they come to know the realities +of fellowship with their Lord, they feel the entire dissimilarity of +these to anything in the realm which is subjected to the power of +death, and to know it to be as impossible that these purely spiritual +experiences should be reduced to inactivity, or meddled with by it, +as that a thought should be bound with a cord or a feeling fastened +with fetters. They, and death, belong to two different regions. It +can work its will on ‘this wide world, and all its fading +sweets’—but is powerless in the still place where the +soul and Jesus hold converse, and all His joy passes into His +servant's heart. I saw, not long since, in a wood a mass of blue wild +hyacinths, that looked like a little bit of heaven dropped down upon +earth. You and I may have such a tiny bit of heaven itself lying +amidst all the tangle of our daily lives, if only we put our trust in +Christ, and so get into our hearts some little portion of that joy +that is unspeakable, and that peace that passeth understanding.</p> +<p>Thus, then, the sorrows of the earthly experience and the joys of +the Christian life will blend together to produce the one blessed +result of a hope that is full of certainty, and is the assurance of +immortality. There is no rainbow in the sky unless there be both a +black cloud and bright sunshine. So, on the blackest, thickest +thunder-mass of our sorrows, if smitten into moist light by the +sunshine of joy and peace drawn from Jesus Christ by faith, there may +be painted the rainbow of hope, the many-coloured, steadfast token of +the faithful covenant of the faithful God.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="japib43" id="japib43">JOY AND PEACE IN +BELIEVING</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in +believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy +Ghost.’—ROMANS xv. 13.</blockquote> +<p>With this comprehensive and lofty petition the Apostle closes his +exhortation to the factions in the Roman Church to be at unity. The +form of the prayer is moulded by the last words of a quotation which +he has just made, which says that in the coming Messiah ‘shall +the Gentiles hope.’ But the prayer itself is not an instance of +being led away by a word—in form, indeed, it is shaped by +verbal resemblance; in substance it points to the true remedy for +religious controversy. Fill the contending parties with a fuller +spiritual life, and the ground of their differences will begin to +dwindle, and look very contemptible. When the tide rises, the little +pools on the rocks are all merged into one.</p> +<p>But we may pass beyond the immediate application of these words, +and see in them the wish, which is also a promise, and like the +exhibition of every ideal is a command. This is Paul's conception of +the Christian life as it might and should be, in one aspect. You +notice that there is not a word in it about conduct. It goes far +deeper than action. It deals with the springs of action in the +individual life. It is the depths of spiritual experience here set +forth which will result in actions that become a Christian. And in +these days, when all around us we see a shallow conception of +Christianity, as if it were concerned principally with conduct and +men's relations with one another, it is well to go down into the +depths, and to remember that whilst ‘Do, do, do!’ is very +important, ‘Be, be, be!’ is the primary commandment. +Conduct is a making visible of personality, and the Scripture +teaching which says first faith and then works is profoundly +philosophical as well as Christian. So we turn away here from +externals altogether, and regard the effect of Christianity on the +inward life.</p> +<p>I. I wish to notice man's faith and God's filling as connected, +and as the foundation of everything.</p> +<p>‘The God of hope fill you ...’—let us leave out +the intervening words for a moment—‘in believing.’ +Now, you notice that Paul does not stay to tell us what or whom we +are to believe in, or on. He takes that for granted, and his thought +is fastened, for the moment, not on the object but on the act of +faith. And he wishes to drive home to us this, that the attitude of +trust is the necessary prerequisite condition of God's being able to +fill a man's soul, and that God's being able to fill a man's soul is +the necessary consequence of a man's trust. Ah, brethren, we cannot +altogether shut God out from our spirits. There are loving and +gracious gifts that, as our Lord tells us, He makes to ‘fall on +the unthankful and the evil.’ His rain is not like the summer +showers that we sometimes see, that fall in one spot and leave +another dry; nor like the destructive thunderstorms, that come down +bringing ruin upon one cane-brake and leave the plants in the next +standing upright. But the best, the highest, the truly divine gifts +which He is yearning to give to us all, cannot be given except there +be consent, trust, and desire for them. You can shut your hearts or +you can open them. And just as the wind will sigh round some +hermetically closed chamber in vain search for a cranny, and the man +within may be asphyxiated though the atmosphere is surging up its +waves all round his closed domicile, so by lack of our faith, which +is at once trust, consent, and desire, we shut out the gift with +which God would fain fill our spirits. You can take a porous pottery +vessel, wrap it up in waxcloth, pitch it all over, and then drop it +into mid-Atlantic, and not a drop will find its way in. And that is +what we can do with ourselves, so that although in Him ‘we live +and move and have our being,’ and are like the earthen vessel +in the ocean, no drop of the blessed moisture will ever find its way +into the heart. There must be man's faith before there can be God's +filling.</p> +<p>Further, this relation of the two things suggests to us that a +consequence of a Christian man's faith is the direct action of God +upon him. Notice how the Apostle puts that truth in a double form +here, in order that he may emphasise it, using one form of +expression, involving the divine, direct activity, at the beginning +of his prayer, and another at the end, and so enclosing, as it were, +within a great casket of the divine action, all the blessings, the +flashing jewels, which he desires his Roman friends to possess. +‘The God of hope fill you ... through the power of the Holy +Ghost.’ I wish I could find words by which I could bear in upon +the ordinary type of the Evangelical Christianity of this generation +anything like the depth and earnestness of my own conviction that, +for lack of a proportionate development of that great truth, of the +direct action of the giving God on the believing heart, it is +weakened and harmed in many ways. Surely He that made my spirit can +touch my spirit; surely He who filleth all things according to their +capacity can Himself enter into and fill the spirit which is opened +for Him by simple faith. We do not need wires for the telegraphy +between heaven and the believing soul, but He comes directly to, and +speaks in, and moves upon, and moulds and blesses, the waiting heart. +And until you know, by your own experience rightly interpreted, that +there is such a direct communion between the giving God and the +recipient believing spirit, you have yet to learn the deepest depth, +and the most blessed blessedness, of Christian faith and experience. +For lack of it a hundred evils beset modern Christianity. For lack of +it men fix their faith so exclusively as that the faith is itself +harmed thereby, on the past act of Christ's death on the Cross. You +will not suspect me of minimising that, but I beseech you remember +one climax of the Apostle's which, though not bearing the same +message as my text, is in harmony with it, ‘Christ that died, +yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of +God, who also maketh intercession for us.’ And remember that +Christ Himself bestows the gift of His Divine Spirit as the result of +the humiliation and the agony of His Cross. Faith brings the direct +action of the giving God.</p> +<p>And one more word about this first part of my text: the result of +that direct action is complete—‘the God of hope fill +you’ with no shrunken stream, no painful trickle out of a +narrow rift in the rock, but a great exuberance which will pass into +a man's nature in the measure of his capacity, which is the measure +of his trust and desire. There are two limits to God's gifts to men: +the one is the limitless limit of God's infinitude, the other is the +working limit—our capacity—and that capacity is precisely +measured, as the capacity of some built-in vessel might be measured +by a little gauge on the outside, by our faith. ‘The God of +hope’ fills you in ‘believing,’ and +‘according to thy faith shall it be unto thee.’</p> +<p>II. Notice the joy and peace which come from the direct action of +the God of hope on the believer's soul.</p> +<p>Now, it is not only towards God that we exercise trust, but +wherever it is exercised, to some extent, and in the measure in which +the object on which it rests is discovered by experience to be +worthy, it produces precisely these results. Whoever trusts is at +peace, just as much as he trusts. His confidence may be mistaken, and +there will come a tremendous awakening if it is, and the peace will +be shattered like some crystal vessel dashed upon an iron pavement, +but so long as a man's mind and heart are in the attitude of +dependence upon another, conceived to be dependable, one knows that +there are few phases of tranquillity and blessedness which are +sweeter and deeper than that. ‘The heart of her husband doth +safely trust in her’—that is one illustration, and a +hundred more might be given. And if you will take that attitude of +trust which, even when it twines round some earthly prop, is upheld +for a time, and bears bright flowers—if you take it and twine +it round the steadfast foundations of the Throne of God, what can +shake that sure repose? ‘Joy and peace’ will come when +the Christian heart closes with its trust, which is God in +Christ.</p> +<p>He that believes has found the short, sure road to joy and peace, +because his relations are set right with God. For these relations are +the disturbing elements in all earthly tranquillity, and like the +skeleton at the feast in all earthly joy, and a man can never, down +to the roots of his being, be at rest until he is quite sure that +there is nothing wrong between him and God. And so believing, we come +to that root of all real gladness which is anything better than a +crackling of thorns under a pot, and to that beginning of all true +tranquillity. Joy in the Lord and peace with God are the parents of +all joy and peace that are worthy of the name.</p> +<p>And that same faith will again bring these two bright-winged +angels into the most saddened and troubled lives, because that faith +brings right relations with ourselves. For our inward strifes stuff +thorns into the pillow of our repose, and mingle bitterness with the +sweetest, foaming draughts of our earthly joys. If a man's conscience +and inclinations pull him two different ways, he is torn asunder as +by wild horses. If a man has a hungry heart, for ever yearning after +unattained and impossible blessings, then there is no rest there. If +a man's little kingdom within him is all anarchical, and each passion +and appetite setting up for itself, then there is no tranquillity. +But if by faith we let the God of hope come in, then hungry hearts +are satisfied, and warring dispositions are harmonised, and the +conscience becomes quieted, and fair imaginations fill the chamber of +the spirit, and the man is at rest, because he himself is unified by +the faith and fear of God.</p> +<p>And the same faith brings joy and peace because it sets right our +relations with other people, and with all externals. If I am living +in an atmosphere of trust, then sorrow will never be absolute, nor +have exclusive monopoly and possession of my spirit. But there will +be the paradox, and the blessedness, of Christian experience, +‘as sorrowful yet always rejoicing.’ For the joy of the +Christian life has its source far away beyond the swamps from which +the sour drops of sorrow may trickle, and it is possible that, like +the fabled fire that burned under water, the joy of the Lord may be +bright in my heart, even when it is drenched in floods of calamity +and distress.</p> +<p>And so, brethren, the joy and peace that come from faith will fill +the heart which trusts. Only remember how emphatically the Apostle +here puts these two things together, ‘joy and peace in +believing.’ As long as, and not a moment longer than, you are +exercising the Christian act of trust, will you be experiencing the +Christian blessedness of ‘joy and peace.’ Unscrew the +pipe, and in an instant the water ceases to flow. Touch the button +and switch off, and out goes the light. Some Christian people fancy +they can live upon past faith. You will get no present joy and peace +out of past faith. The rain of this day twelve months will not +moisten the parched ground of to-day. Yesterday's religion was all +used up yesterday. And if you would have a continuous flow of joy and +peace through your lives, keep up a uniform habit and attitude of +trust in God. You will get it then; you will get it in no other +way.</p> +<p>III. Lastly, note the hope which springs from this experience of +joy and peace.</p> +<p>‘The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in +believing, that ye may abound in hope.’ Here, again, the +Apostle does not trouble himself to define the object of the hope. In +this, as in the former clause, his attention is fixed upon the +emotion, not upon that towards which it goes out. And just as there +was no need to say in whom it was that the Christian man was to +believe, so there is no room to define what it is that the Christian +man has a right to hope for. For his hope is intended to cover all +the future, the next moment, or to-morrow, or the dimmest distance +where time has ceased to be, and eternity stands unmoved. The +attitude of the Christian mind ought to be a cheery optimism, an +unconquerable hope. ‘The best has yet to be’ is the true +Christian thought in contemplating the future for myself, for my dear +ones, for God's Church, and for God's universe.</p> +<p>And the truest basis on which that hope can rest is the experience +granted to us, on condition of our faith, of a present, abundant +possession of the joy and peace which God gives. The gladder you are +to-day, if the gladness comes from the right source, the surer you +may be that that gladness will never end. That is not what befalls +men who live by earthly joys. For the more poignant, precious, and, +as we faithlessly think, indispensable some of these are to us, the +more into their sweetest sweetness creeps the dread thought: +‘This is too good to last; this must pass.’ We never need +to think that about the peace and joy that come to us through +believing. For they, in their sweetness, prophesy perpetuity. I need +not dwell upon the thought that the firmest, most personally precious +convictions of an eternity of future blessedness, rise and fall in a +Christian consciousness with the purity and the depth of its own +experience of the peace and joy of the Gospel. The more you have of +Jesus Christ in your lives and hearts to-day, the surer you will be +that whatever death may do, it cannot touch that, and the more +ludicrously impossible it will seem that anything that befalls this +poor body can touch the bond that knits us to Jesus Christ. Death can +separate us from a great deal. Its sharp scythe cuts through all +other bonds, but its edge is turned when it is tried against the +golden chain that binds the believing soul to the Christ in whom he +has believed.</p> +<p>So, brethren, there is the ladder—begin at the bottom step, +with faith in Jesus Christ. That will bring God's direct action into +your spirit, through His Holy Spirit, and that one gift will break up +into an endless multiplicity of blessings, just as a beam of light +spilt upon the surface of the ocean breaks into diamonds in every +wave, and that ‘joy and peace’ will kindle in your hearts +a hope fed by the great words of the Lord: ‘Peace I leave with +you, my peace I give unto you,’ ‘My joy shall remain in +you, and your joy shall be full,’ ‘He that liveth and +believeth in Me shall never die.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="p44" id="p44">PHŒBE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘I commend unto you Phœbe our sister, who is +a servant of the Church that is at Cenchrea: 2. That ye receive her +in the Lord, worthily of the Saints, and that ye assist her in +whatsover matter she may have need of you: for she herself hath been +a succourer of many, and of mine own self.’—ROMANS xvi. +1, 2 (R. V.).</blockquote> +<p>This is an outline picture of an else wholly unknown person. She, +like most of the other names mentioned in the salutations in this +chapter, has had a singular fate. Every name, shadowy and unreal as +it is to us, belonged to a human life filled with hopes and fears, +plunged sometimes in the depths of sorrows, struggling with anxieties +and difficulties; and all the agitations have sunk into forgetfulness +and calm. There is left to the world an immortal remembrance, and +scarcely a single fact associated with the undying names.</p> +<p>Note the person here disclosed.</p> +<p>A little rent is made in the dark curtain through which we see as +with an incandescent light concentrated for a moment upon her, one of +the many good women who helped Paul, as their sisters had helped +Paul's Master, and who thereby have won, little as either Paul or she +thought it, an eternal commemoration. Her name is a purely idolatrous +one, and stamps her as a Greek, and by birth probably a worshipper of +Apollo. Her Christian associations were with the Church at Cenchrea, +the port of Corinth, of which little Christian community nothing +further is known. But if we take into account the hideous +immoralities of Corinth, we shall deem it probable that the port, +with its shifting maritime population, was, like most seaports, a +soil in which goodness was hard put to it to grow, and a church had +much against which to struggle. To be a Christian at Cenchrea can +have been no light task. Travellers in Egypt are told that Port Said +is the wickedest place on the face of the earth; and in Phœbe's +home there would be a like drift of disreputables of both sexes and +of all nationalities. It was fitting that one good woman should be +recorded as redeeming womanhood there. We learn of her that she was a +‘servant,’ or, as the margin preferably reads, a +‘deaconess of the Church which is at Cenchrea’; and in +that capacity, by gentle ministrations and the exhibition of purity +and patient love, as well as by the gracious administration of +material help, had been a ‘succourer of many.’ There is a +whole world of unmentioned kindnesses and a life of self-devotion +hidden away under these few words. Possibly the succour which she +administered was her own gift. She may have been rich and +influential, or perhaps she but distributed the Church's bounty; but +in any case the gift was sweetened by the giver's hand, and the +succour was the impartation of a woman's sympathy more than the +bestowment of a donor's gift. Sometime or other, and somehow or +other, she had had the honour and joy of helping Paul, and no doubt +that opportunity would be to her a crown of service. She was now on +the point of taking the long journey to Rome on her own business, and +the Apostle bespeaks for her help from the Roman Church ‘in +whatsoever matter she may have need of you,’ as if she had some +difficult affair on hand, and had no other friends in the city. +Possibly then she was a widow, and perhaps had had some lawsuit or +business with government authorities, with whom a word from some of +her brethren in Rome might stand her in good stead. Apparently she +was the bearer of this epistle, which would give her a standing at +once in the Roman Church, and she came among them with a halo round +her from the whole-hearted commendation of the Apostle.</p> +<p>Mark the lessons from this little picture.</p> +<p>We note first the remarkable illustration here given of the power +of the new bond of a common faith. The world was then broken up into +sections, which were sometimes bitterly antagonistic and at others +merely rigidly exclusive. The only bond of union was the iron fetter +of Rome, which crushed the people, but did not knit them together. +But here are Paul the Jew, Phœbe the Greek, and the Roman +readers of the epistle, all fused together by the power of the divine +love that melted their hearts, and the common faith that unified +their lives. The list of names in this chapter, comprising as it does +men and women of many nationalities, and some slaves as well as +freemen, is itself a wonderful testimony of the truth of Paul's +triumphant exclamation in another epistle, that in Christ there is +‘neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor +female.’</p> +<p>The clefts have closed, and the very line of demarcation is +obliterated; and these clefts were deeper than any of which we +moderns have had experience. It remains something like a miracle that +the members of Paul's churches could ever be brought together, and +that their consciousness of oneness could ever overpower the +tremendous divisive forces. We sometimes wonder at their bickerings; +we ought rather to wonder at their unity, and be ashamed of the +importance which we attach to our infinitely slighter mutual +disagreements. The bond that was sufficient to make the early +Christians all one in Christ Jesus seems to have lost its binding +power to-day, and, like an used-up elastic band, to have no clasping +grip left in it.</p> +<p>Another thought which we may connect with the name of Phœbe +is the characteristic place of women in Christianity.</p> +<p>The place of woman amongst the Jews was indeed free and honourable +as compared with her position either in Greece or Rome, but in none +of them was she placed on the level of man, nor regarded mainly in +the aspect of an equal possessor of the same life of the Spirit. But +a religion which admits her to precisely the same position of a +supernatural life as is granted to man, necessarily relegates to a +subordinate position all differences of sex as it does all other +natural distinctions. The women who ministered to Jesus of their +substance, the two sisters of Bethany, the mourners at Calvary, the +three who went through the morning twilight to the tomb, were but the +foremost conspicuous figures in a great company through all the ages +who have owed to Jesus their redemption, not only from the slavery of +sin, but from the stigma of inferiority as man's drudge or toy. To +the world in which Paul lived it was a strange, new thought that +women could share with man in his loftiest emotions. Historically the +emancipation of one half of the human race is the direct result of +the Christian principle that all are one in Christ Jesus. In modern +life the emancipation has been too often divorced from its one sure +basis, and we have become familiar with the sight of the +‘advanced’ women who have advanced so far as to have lost +sight of the Christ to whom they owe their freedom. The picture of +Phœbe in our text might well be commended to all such as +setting forth the most womanlike ideal. She was ‘a succourer of +many.’ Her ministry was a ministry of help; and surely such +gentle ministry is that which most befits the woman's heart and comes +most graciously to the woman's fingers.</p> +<p>Phœbe then may well represent to us the ministry of succour +in this world of woe and need. There is ever a cry, even in +apparently successful lives, for help and a helper. Man's clumsy hand +is but too apt to hurt where it strives to soothe, and nature itself +seems to devolve on the swifter sympathies and more delicate +perceptions of woman the joy of binding up wounded spirits. In the +verses immediately following our text we read of another woman to +whom was entrusted a more conspicuous and direct form of service. +Priscilla ‘taught Apollos the way of God more perfectly,’ +and is traditionally represented as being united with her husband in +evangelistic work. But it is not merely prejudice which takes +Phœbe rather than Priscilla as the characteristic type of +woman's special ministry. We must remember our Lord's teaching, that +the giver of ‘a cup of cold water in the name of a +prophet’ in some measure shares in the prophet's work, and will +surely share in the prophet's reward. She who helped Paul must have +entered into the spirit of Paul's labours; and He to whom all service +that is done from the same motive is one in essence, makes no +difference between him whose thirsty lips drink and her whose loving +hand presents the cup of cold water. ‘Small service is true +service while it lasts.’ Paul and Phœbe were one in +ministry and one in its recompense.</p> +<p>We may further see in her a foreshadowing of the reward of lowly +service, though it be only the service of help. Little did +Phœbe dream that her name would have an eternal commemoration +of her unnoticed deeds of kindness and aid, standing forth to later +generations and peoples of whom she knew nothing, as worthy of +eternal remembrance. For those of us who have to serve unnoticed and +unknown, here is an instance and a prophecy which may stimulate and +encourage. ‘Surely I will never forget any of their +works’ is a gracious promise which the most obscure and humble +of us may take to heart, and sustained by which, we may patiently +pursue a way on which there are ‘none to praise and very few to +love.’ It matters little whether our work be noticed or +recorded by men, so long as we know that it is written in the Lamb's +book of life and that He will one day proclaim it ‘before the +Father in heaven and His angels.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="paa45" id="paa45">PRISCILLA AND AQUILA</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ +Jesus; 4. (Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom +not only I give thanks, but so all the churches of the Gentiles:) 5. +Likewise greet the church that is in their house.’—ROMANS +xvi. 3-5.</blockquote> +<p>It has struck me that this wedded couple present, even in the +scanty notices that we have of them, some interesting points which +may be worth while gathering together.</p> +<p>Now, to begin with, we are told that Aquila was a Jew. We are not +told whether Priscilla was a Jewess or no. So far as her name is +concerned, she may have been, and very probably was, a Roman, and, if +so, we have in their case a ‘mixed marriage’ such as was +not uncommon then, and of which Timothy's parents give another +example. She is sometimes called Prisca, which was her proper name, +and sometimes Priscilla, an affectionate diminutive. The two had been +living in Rome, and had been banished under the decree of the +Emperor, just as Jews have been banished from England and from every +country in Europe again and again. They came from Rome to Corinth, +and were, perhaps, intending to go back to Aquila's native place, +Pontus, when Paul met them in the latter city, and changed their +whole lives. His association with them began in a purely commercial +partnership. But as they abode together and worked at their trade, +there would be many earnest talks about the Christ, and these ended +in both husband and wife becoming disciples. The bond thus knit was +too close to be easily severed, and so, when Paul sailed across the +Ægean for Ephesus, his two new friends kept with him, which +they would be the more ready to do, as they had no settled home. They +remained with him during his somewhat lengthened stay in the great +Asiatic city; for we find in the first Epistle to the Corinthians +which was written from Ephesus about that time, that the Apostle +sends greetings from ‘Priscilla and Aquila and the Church which +is in their house.’ But when Paul left Ephesus they seem to +have stayed behind, and afterwards to have gone their own way.</p> +<p>About a year after the first Epistle to the Corinthians was sent +from Ephesus, the Epistle to the Romans was written, and we find +there the salutation to Priscilla and Aquila which is my text. So +this wandering couple were back again in Rome by that time, and +settled down there for a while. They are then lost sight of for some +time, but probably they returned to Ephesus. Once more we catch a +glimpse of them in Paul's last letter, written some seven or eight +years after that to the Romans. The Apostle knows that death is near, +and, at that supreme moment, his heart goes out to these two faithful +companions, and he sends them a parting token of his undying love. +There are only two messages to friends in the second Epistle to +Timothy, and one of these is to Prisca and Aquila. At the mouth of +the valley of the shadow of death he remembered the old days in +Corinth, and the, to us, unknown instance of devotion which these two +had shown, when, for his life, they laid down their own necks.</p> +<p>Such is all that we know of Priscilla and Aquila. Can we gather +any lessons from these scattered notices thus thrown together?</p> +<p>I. Here is an object lesson as to the hallowing effect of +Christianity on domestic life and love.</p> +<p>Did you ever notice that in the majority of the places where these +two are named, if we adopt the better readings, Priscilla's name +comes first? She seems to have been ‘the better man of the +two’; and Aquila drops comparatively into the background. Now, +such a couple, and a couple in which the wife took the foremost +place, was an absolute impossibility in heathenism. They are a +specimen of what Christianity did in the primitive age, all over the +Empire, and is doing to-day, everywhere—lifting woman to her +proper place. These two, yoked together in ‘all exercise of +noble end,’ and helping one another in Christian work, and +bracketed together by the Apostle, who puts the wife first, as his +fellow-helpers in Christ Jesus, stands before us as a living picture +of what our sweet and sacred family life and earthly loves may be +glorified into, if the light from heaven shines down upon them, and +is thankfully received into them.</p> +<p>Such a house as the house of Prisca and Aquila is the product of +Christianity, and such ought to be the house of every professing +Christian. For we should all make our homes as ‘tabernacles of +the righteous,’ in which the voice of joy and rejoicing is ever +heard. Not only wedded love, but family love, and all earthly love, +are then most precious, when into them there flows the ennobling, the +calming, the transfiguring thought of Christ and His love to us.</p> +<p>Again, notice that, even in these scanty references to our two +friends, there twice occurs that remarkable expression ‘the +church that is in their house.’ Now, I suppose that that gives +us a little glimpse into the rudimentary condition of public worship +in the primitive church. It was centuries after the time of Priscilla +and Aquila before circumstances permitted Christians to have +buildings devoted exclusively to public worship. Up to a very much +later period than that which is covered by the New Testament, they +gathered together wherever was most convenient. And, I suppose, that +both in Rome and Ephesus, this husband and wife had some +room—perhaps the workshop where they made their tents, spacious +enough for some of the Christians of the city to meet together in. +One would like people who talk so much about ‘the +Church,’ and refuse the name to individual societies of +Christians, and even to an aggregate of these, unless it has +‘bishops,’ to explain how the little gathering of twenty +or thirty people in the workshop attached to Aquila's house, is +called by the Apostle without hesitation ‘the church which is +in their house.’ It was a part of the Holy Catholic Church, but +it was also ‘a Church,’ complete in itself, though small +in numbers. We have here not only a glimpse into the manner of public +worship in early times, but we may learn something of far more +consequence for us, and find here a suggestion of what our homes +ought to be. ‘The Church that is in thy +house’—fathers and mothers that are responsible for your +homes and their religious atmosphere, ask yourselves if any one would +say that about your houses, and if they could not, why not?</p> +<p>II. We may get here another object lesson as to the hallowing of +common life, trade, and travel.</p> +<p>It does not appear that, after their stay in Ephesus, Aquila and +his wife were closely attached to Paul's person, and certainly they +did not take any part as members of what we may call his evangelistic +staff. They seem to have gone their own way, and as far as the scanty +notices carry us, they did not meet Paul again, after the time when +they parted in Ephesus. Their gipsy life was probably occasioned by +Aquila's going about—as was the custom in old days when there +were no trades-unions or organised centres of a special +industry—to look for work where he could find it. When he had +made tents in Ephesus for a while, he would go on somewhere else, and +take temporary lodgings there. Thus he wandered about as a working +man. Yet Paul calls him his ‘fellow worker in Christ +Jesus’; and he had, as we saw, a Church in his house. A roving +life of that sort is not generally supposed to be conducive to depth +of spiritual life. But their wandering course did not hurt these two. +They took their religion with them. It did not depend on locality, as +does that of a great many people who are very religious in the town +where they live, and, when they go away for a holiday, seem to leave +their religion, along with their silver plate, at home. But no matter +whether they were in Corinth or Ephesus or Rome, Aquila and Priscilla +took their Lord and Master with them, and while working at their +camel's-hair tents, they were serving God.</p> +<p>Dear brethren, what we want is not half so much preachers such as +my brethren and I, as Christian tradesmen and merchants and +travellers, like Aquila and Priscilla.</p> +<p>III. Again, we may see here a suggestion of the unexpected issues +of our lives.</p> +<p>Think of that complicated chain of circumstances, one end of which +was round Aquila and the other round the young Pharisee in Jerusalem. +It steadily drew them together until they met in that lodging at +Corinth. Claudius, in the fullness of his absolute power, said, +‘Turn all these wretched Jews out of my city. I will not have +it polluted with them any more. Get rid of them!’ So these two +were uprooted, and drifted to Corinth. We do not know why they chose +to go thither; perhaps they themselves did not know why; but God +knew. And while they were coming thither from the west, Paul was +coming thither from the east and north. He was ‘prevented by +the Spirit from speaking in Asia,’ and driven across the sea +against his intention to Neapolis, and hounded out of Philippi and +Thessalonica and Beræa; and turned superciliously away from +Athens; and so at last found himself in Corinth, face to face with +the tentmaker from Rome and his wife. Then one of the two men said, +‘Let us join partnership together, and set up here as +tent-makers for a time.’ What came out of this unintended and +apparently chance meeting?</p> +<p>The first thing was the conversion of Aquila and his wife; and the +effects of that are being realised by them in heaven at this moment, +and will go on to all eternity.</p> +<p>So, in the infinite complexity of events, do not let us worry +ourselves by forecasting, but let us trust, and be sure that the Hand +which is pushing us is pushing us in the right direction, and that He +will bring us, by a right, though a roundabout way, to the City of +Habitation. It seems to me that we poor, blind creatures in this +world are somewhat like a man in a prison, groping with his hand in +the dark along the wall, and all unawares touching a spring which +moves a stone, disclosing an aperture that lets in a breath of purer +air, and opens the way to freedom. So we go on as if stumbling in the +dark, and presently, without our knowing what we do, by some trivial +act we originate a train of events which influences our whole +future.</p> +<p>Again, when Aquila and Priscilla reached Ephesus they formed +another chance acquaintance in the person of a brilliant young +Alexandrian, whose name was Apollos. They found that he had good +intentions and a good heart, but a head very scantily furnished with +the knowledge of the Gospel. So they took him in hand, just as Paul +had taken them. If I may use such a phrase, they did not know how +large a fish they had caught. They had no idea what a mighty power +for Christ was lying dormant in that young man from Alexandria who +knew so much less than they did. They instructed Apollos, and Apollos +became second only to Paul in the power of preaching the Gospel. So +the circle widens and widens. God's grace fructifies from one man to +another, spreading onward and outward. And all Apollos’ +converts, and <i>their</i> converts, and <i>theirs</i> again, right +away down the ages, we may trace back to Priscilla and Aquila.</p> +<p>So do not let us be anxious about the further end of our +deeds—viz. their results; but be careful about the nearer end +of them—viz. their motives; and God will look after the other +end. Seeing that ‘thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether +this or that,’ or how much any of them will prosper, let us +grasp <i>all</i> opportunities to do His will and glorify His +name.</p> +<p>IV. Further, here we have an instance of the heroic self-devotion +which love to Christ kindles.</p> +<p>‘For my sake they laid down their own necks.’ We do +not know to what Paul is referring: perhaps to that tumult in +Ephesus, where he certainly was in danger. But the language seems +rather more emphatic than such danger would warrant. Probably it was +at some perilous juncture of which we know nothing (for we know very +little, after all, of the details of the Apostle's life), in which +Aquila and Priscilla had said, ‘Take us and let him go. He can +do a great deal more for God than we can do. We will put our heads on +the block, if he may still live.’ That magnanimous +self-surrender was a wonderful token of the passionate admiration and +love which the Apostle inspired, but its deepest motive was love to +Christ and not to Paul only.</p> +<p>Faith in Christ and love to Him ought to turn cowards into heroes, +to destroy thoughts of self, and to make the utmost self-sacrifice +natural, blessed, and easy. We are not called upon to exercise +heroism like Priscilla's and Aquila's, but there is as much heroism +needed for persistently Christian life, in our prosaic daily +circumstances, as has carried many a martyr to the block, and many a +tremulous woman to the pyre. We can all be heroes; and if the love of +Christ is in us, as it should be, we shall all be ready to +‘yield ourselves living sacrifices, which is our reasonable +service.’</p> +<p>Long years after, the Apostle, on the further edge of life, looked +back over it all; and, whilst much had become dim, and some trusted +friends had dropped away, like Demas, he saw these two, and waved +them his last greeting before he turned to the +executioner—‘Salute Prisca and Aquila.’ Paul's +Master is not less mindful of His friends’ love, or less +eloquent in the praise of their faithfulness, or less sure to reward +them with the crown of glory. ‘Whoso confesseth Me before men, +him will I also confess before the angels in heaven.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="th46" id="th46">TWO HOUSEHOLDS</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘... Salute them which are of Aristobulus’ +household. 11. ... Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, +which are in the Lord.’—ROMANS xvi. 10, 11.</blockquote> +<p>There does not seem much to be got out of these two sets of +salutations to two households in Rome; but if we look at them with +eyes in our heads, and some sympathy in our hearts, I think we shall +get lessons worth the treasuring.</p> +<p>In the first place, here are two sets of people, members of two +different households, and that means mainly, if not exclusively, +slaves. In the next place, in each case there was but a section of +the household which was Christian. In the third place, in neither +household is the master included in the greeting. So in neither case +was <i>he</i> a Christian.</p> +<p>We do not know anything about these two persons, men of position +evidently, who had large households. But the most learned of our +living English commentators of the New Testament has advanced a very +reasonable conjecture in regard to each of them. As to the first of +them, Aristobulus: that wicked old King Herod, in whose life Christ +was born, had a grandson of the name, who spent all his life in Rome, +and was in close relations with the Emperor of that day. He had died +some little time before the writing of this letter. As to the second +of them, there is a very notorious Narcissus, who plays a great part +in the history of Rome just a little while before Paul's period +there, and he, too, was dead. And it is more than probable that the +slaves and retainers of these two men were transferred in both cases +to the emperor's household and held together in it, being known as +Aristobulus’ men and Narcissus’ men. And so probably the +Christians among them are the brethren to whom these salutations are +sent.</p> +<p>Be that as it may, I think that if we look at the two groups, we +shall get out of them some lessons.</p> +<p>I. The first of them is this: the penetrating power of Christian +truth. Think of the sort of man that the master of the first +household was, if the identification suggested be accepted. He is one +of that foul Herodian brood, in all of whom the bad Idumæan +blood ran corruptly. The grandson of the old Herod, the brother of +Agrippa of the Acts of the Apostles, the hanger-on of the Imperial +Court, with Roman vices veneered on his native wickedness, was not +the man to welcome the entrance of a revolutionary ferment into his +household; and yet through his barred doors had crept quietly, he +knowing nothing about it, that great message of a loving God, and a +Master whose service was freedom. And in thousands of like cases the +Gospel was finding its way underground, undreamed of by the great and +wise, but steadily pressing onwards, and undermining all the towering +grandeur that was so contemptuous of it. So Christ's truth spread at +first; and I believe that is the way it always spreads. Intellectual +revolutions begin at the top and filter down; religious revolutions +begin at the bottom and rise; and it is always the ‘lower +orders’ that are laid hold of first. ‘Ye see your +calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not +many mighty, not many noble are called,’ but a handful of +slaves in Aristobulus’ household, with this living truth lodged +in their hearts, were the bearers and the witnesses and the organs of +the power which was going to shatter all that towered above it and +despised it. And so it always is.</p> +<p>Do not let us be ashamed of a Gospel that has not laid hold of the +upper and the educated classes, but let us feel sure of this, that +there is no greater sign of defective education and of superficial +culture and of inborn vulgarity than despising the day of small +things, and estimating truth by the position or the intellectual +attainments of the men that are its witnesses and its lovers. The +Gospel penetrated at first, and penetrates still, in the fashion that +is suggested here.</p> +<p>II. Secondly, these two households teach us very touchingly and +beautifully the uniting power of Christian sympathy.</p> +<p>A considerable proportion of the first of these two households +would probably be Jews—if Aristobulus were indeed Herod's +grandson. The probability that he was is increased by the greeting +interposed between those to the two households—‘Salute +Herodion.’ The name suggests some connection with Herod, and +whether we suppose the designation of ‘my kinsman,’ which +Paul gives him, to mean ‘blood relation’ or ‘fellow +countryman,’ Herodion, at all events, was a Jew by birth. As to +the other members of these households, Paul may have met some of them +in his many travels, but he had never been in Rome, and his greetings +are more probably sent to them as conspicuous sections, numerically, +of the Roman Church, and as tokens of his affection, though he had +never seen them. The possession of a common faith has bridged the +gulf between him and them. Slaves in those days were outside the pale +of human sympathy, and almost outside the pale of human rights. And +here the foremost of Christian teachers, who was a freeman born, +separated from these poor people by a tremendous chasm, stretches a +brother's hand across it and grasps theirs. The Gospel that came into +the world to rend old associations and to split up society, and to +make a deep cleft between fathers and children and husband and wife, +came also to more than counterbalance its dividing effects by its +uniting power. And in that old world that was separated into classes +by gulfs deeper than any of which we have any experience, it, and it +alone, threw a bridge across the abysses and bound men together. +Think of what a revolution it must have been, when a master and his +slave could sit down together at the table of the Lord and look each +other in the face and say ‘Brother’ and for the moment +forget the difference of bond and free. Think of what a revolution it +must have been when Jew and Gentile could sit down together at the +table of the Lord, and forget circumcision and uncircumcision, and +feel that they were all one in Jesus Christ. And as for the third of +the great clefts—that, alas! which made so much of the tragedy +and the wickedness of ancient life—viz. the separation between +the sexes—think of what a revolution it was when men and women, +in all purity of the new bond of Christian affection, could sit down +together at the same table, and feel that they were brethren and +sisters in Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>The uniting power of the common faith and the common love to the +one Lord marked Christianity as altogether supernatural and new, +unique in the world's experience, and obviously requiring something +more than a human force to produce it. Will anybody say that the +Christianity of this day has preserved and exhibits that primitive +demonstration of its superhuman source? Is there anything obviously +beyond the power of earthly motives in the unselfish, expansive love +of modern Christians? Alas! alas! to ask the question is to answer +it, and everybody knows the answer, and nobody sorrows over it. Is +any duty more pressingly laid upon Christian churches of this +generation than that, forgetting their doctrinal janglings for a +while, and putting away their sectarianisms and narrowness, they +should show the world that their faith has still the power to do what +it did in the old times, bridge over the gulf that separates class +from class, and bring all men together in the unity of the faith and +of the love of Jesus Christ? Depend upon it, unless the modern +organisations of Christianity which call themselves +‘churches’ show themselves, in the next twenty years, a +great deal more alive to the necessity, and a great deal more able to +cope with the problem, of uniting the classes of our modern complex +civilisation, the term of life of these churches is comparatively +brief. And the form of Christianity which another century will see +will be one which reproduces the old miracle of the early days, and +reaches across the deepest clefts that separate modern society, and +makes all one in Jesus Christ. It is all very well for us to glorify +the ancient love of the early Christians, but there is a vast deal of +false sentimentality about our eulogistic talk of it. It were better +to praise it less and imitate it more. Translate it into present +life, and you will find that to-day it requires what it nineteen +hundred years ago was recognised as manifesting, the presence of +something more than human motive, and something more than man +discovers of truth. The cement must be divine that binds men thus +together.</p> +<p>Again, these two households suggest for us the tranquillising +power of Christian resignation.</p> +<p>They were mostly slaves, and they continued to be slaves when they +were Christians. Paul recognised their continuance in the servile +position, and did not say a word to them to induce them to break +their bonds. The Epistle to the Corinthians treats the whole subject +of slavery in a very remarkable fashion. It says to the slave: +‘If you were a slave when you became a Christian, stop where +you are. If you have an opportunity of being free, avail yourself of +it; if you have not, never mind.’ And then it adds this great +principle: ‘He that is called in the Lord, being a slave, is +Christ's freeman. Likewise he that is called, being free, is Christ's +slave.’ The Apostle applies the very same principle, in the +adjoining verses, to the distinction between circumcision and +uncircumcision. From all which there comes just the same lesson that +is taught us by these two households of slaves left intact by +Christianity—viz. that where a man is conscious of a direct, +individual relation to Jesus Christ, that makes all outward +circumstances infinitely insignificant. Let us get up to the height, +and they all become very small. Of course, the principles of +Christianity killed slavery, but it took eighteen hundred years to do +it. Of course, there is no blinking the fact that slavery was an +essentially immoral and unchristian institution. But it is one thing +to lay down principles and leave them to be worked in and then to be +worked out, and it is another thing to go blindly charging at +existing institutions and throwing them down by violence, before men +have grown up to feel that they are wicked. And so the New Testament +takes the wise course, and leaves the foolish one to foolish people. +It makes the tree good, and then its fruit will be good.</p> +<p>But the main point that I want to insist upon is this: what was +good for these slaves in Rome is good for you and me. Let us get near +to Jesus Christ, and feel that we have got hold of His hand for our +own selves, and we shall not mind very much about the possible +varieties of human condition. Rich or poor, happy or sad, surrounded +by companions or treading a solitary path, failures or successes as +the world has it, strong or broken and weak and wearied—all +these varieties, important as they are, come to be very small when we +can say, ‘We are the Lord's.’ That amulet makes all +things tolerable; and the Christian submission which is the +expression of our love to, and confidence in, His infinite sweetness +and unerring goodness, raises us to a height from which the varieties +of earthly condition seem to blend and melt into one. When we are +down amongst the low hills, it seems a long way from the foot of one +of them to the top of it; but when we are on the top they all melt +into one dead level, and you cannot tell which is top and which is +bottom. And so, if we only can rise high enough up the hill, the +possible diversities of our condition will seem to be very small +variations in the level.</p> +<p>III. Lastly, these two groups suggest to us the conquering power +of Christian faithfulness.</p> +<p>The household of Herod's grandson was not a very likely place to +find Christian people in, was it? Such flowers do not often grow, or +at least do not easily grow, on such dunghills. And in both these +cases it was only a handful of the people, a portion of each +household, that was Christian. So they had beside them, closely +identified with them—working, perhaps, at the same tasks, I +might almost say, chained with the same chains—men who had no +share in their faith or in their love. It would not be easy to pray +and love and trust God and do His will, and keep clear of complicity +with idolatry and immorality and sin, in such a pigsty as that; would +it? But these men did it. And nobody need ever say, ‘I am in +such circumstances that I cannot live a Christian life.’ There +are no such circumstances, at least none of God's appointing. There +are often such that we bring upon ourselves, and then the best thing +is to get out of them as soon as we can. But as far as He is +concerned, He never puts anybody anywhere where he cannot live a holy +life.</p> +<p>There were no difficulties too great for these men to overcome; +there are no difficulties too great for us to overcome. And wherever +you and I may be, we cannot be in any place where it is so hard to +live a consistent life as these people were. Young men in warehouses, +people in business here in Manchester, some of us with unfortunate +domestic or relative associations, and so on—we may all feel as +if it would be so much easier for us if this, that, and the other +thing were changed. No, it would not be any easier; and perhaps the +harder the easier, because the more obviously the atmosphere is +poisonous, the more we shall put some cloth over our mouths to +prevent it from getting into our lungs. The dangerous place is the +place where the vapours that poison are scentless as well as +invisible. But whatever be the difficulties, there is strength +waiting for us, and we may all win the praise which the Apostle +gives to another of these Roman brethren, whom he salutes as +‘Apelles, approved in Christ’—a man that had +been ‘tried’ and had stood his trial. So in our various +spheres of difficulty and of temptation we may feel that the greeting +from heaven, like Paul's message to the slaves in Rome, comes to us +with good cheer, and that the Master Himself sees us, sympathises +with us, salutes us, and stretches out His hand to help and to keep +us.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tat47" id="tat47">TRYPHENA AND TRYPHOSA</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the +Lord.’—ROMANS xvi. 12.</blockquote> +<p>The number of salutations to members of the Roman Church is +remarkable when we take into account that Paul had never visited it. +The capital drew all sorts of people to it, and probably there had +been personal intercourse between most of the persons here mentioned +and the Apostle in some part of his wandering life. He not only +displays his intimate knowledge of the persons saluted, but his +beautiful delicacy and ingenuity in the varying epithets applied to +them shows how in his great heart and tenacious memory individuals +had a place. These shadowy saints live for ever by Paul's brief +characterisation of them, and stand out to us almost as clearly and +as sharply distinguished as they did to him.</p> +<p>These two, Tryphena and Tryphosa, were probably sisters. That is +rendered likely by their being coupled together here, as well as by +the similarity of their names. These names mean luxurious, or +delicate, and no doubt expressed the ideal for their daughters which +the parents had had, and possibly indicate the kind of life from +which these two women had come. We can scarcely fail to note the +contrast between the meaning of their names and the Christian lives +they had lived. Two dainty women, probably belonging to a class in +which a delicate withdrawal from effort and toil was thought to be +the woman's distinctive mark, had fled from luxury, which often +tended to be voluptuous, and was always self-indulgent, and had +chosen the better part of ‘labour in the Lord.’ They had +become untrue to their names, because they must be true to their +Master and themselves. We may well take the lesson that lies here, +and is eminently needful to-day amidst the senseless, and often +sinful, tide of luxury which runs so strongly as to threaten the +great and eternal Christian principle of self-denial.</p> +<p>The first thing that strikes us in looking at these salutations is +the illustration which it gives of the uniting power of a common +faith. Tryphena and Tryphosa were probably Roman ladies of some +social standing, and their names may indicate that they at least +inherited a tendency to exclusiveness; yet here they occur +immediately after the household of Narcissus and in close connection +with that of Aristobulus, both of which are groups of slaves. +Aristobulus was a grandson of Herod the Great, and Narcissus was a +well-known freedman, whose slaves at his death would probably become +the property of the Emperor. Other common slave names are those of +Ampliatus and Urbanus; and here in these lists they stand side by +side with persons of some distinction in the Roman world, and with +men and women of widely differing nationalities. The Church of Rome +would have seemed to any non-Christian observer a motley crowd in +which racial distinctions, sex, and social conditions had all been +swept away by the rising tide of a common fanaticism. In it was +exemplified in actual operation Paul's great principle that in Christ +Jesus ‘there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, bond +nor free, but in Him all are one.’ Roman society in that day, +as Juvenal shows us, was familiar with the levelling and uniting +power of common vice and immorality, and the few sternly patriotic +Romans who were left lamented that ‘the Orontes flowed into the +Tiber’; but such common wallowing in filth led to no real +unity, whereas, in the obscure corner of the great city where there +were members of the infant Church gathered together, there was the +beginning of a common life in the one Lord which lifted each +participant of it out of the dreary solitude of individuality, and +imparted to each heart the tingling consciousness of oneness with all +who held the one faith in the one Lord and had received the one +baptism in the one Name. That fair dawn has been shadowed by many +clouds, and the churches of to-day, however they may have developed +doctrine, may look back with reproach and shame to the example of +Rome, where Tryphena and Tryphosa, with all their inherited, +fastidious delicacy, recognised in the household of Aristobulus and +the household of Narcissus ‘brethren in the Lord,’ and +were as glad to welcome Jews, Asiatics, Persians, and Greeks, as +Romans of the bluest blood, into the family of Christ. The Romish +Church of our day has lost its early grace of welcoming all who love +the one Lord into its fellowship; and we of the Protestant churches +have been but too swift to learn the bad lesson of forbidding all who +follow not with us.</p> +<p>Another thought which may be suggested by Tryphena and Tryphosa is +the blessed hallowing of natural family relations by common faith. +They were probably sisters, or, at all events, as their names +indicate, near relatives, and to them that faith must have been +doubly precious because they shared it with each other. None of the +trials to which the early Christians were exposed was more severe +than the necessity which their Christianity so often imposed upon +them of breaking the sacred family ties. It saddened even Christ's +heart to think that He had come to rend families in sunder, and to +make ‘a man's foes them of his own household’; and we can +little imagine how bitter the pang must have been when family love +had to be cast aside at the bidding of allegiance to Him.</p> +<p>But though the stress of that separation between those most nearly +related in blood by reason of unshared faith is alleviated in this +day, it still remains; and that is but a feeble Christian life which +does not feel that it is drawing a heart from closest human embraces +and constituting a barrier between it and the dearest of earth. There +is still need in these days of relaxed Christian sentiment for the +stern austerity of the law, ‘He that loveth father or mother +more than Me is not worthy of Me’; and there are many Christian +souls who would be infinitely stronger and more mature, if they did +not yield to the seductions of family affections which are not rooted +in Jesus Christ. But still, though our faith ought to be far more +than it often is, the determining element in our affections and +associations, its noblest work is not to separate but to unite; and +whilst it often must divide, it is meant to draw more closely +together hearts that are already knit by earthly love. Its legitimate +effect is to make all earthly sweetnesses sweeter, all holy bonds +more holy and more binding, to infuse a new constraint and +preciousness into all earthly relationships, to make brothers tenfold +more brotherly and sisters more sisterly. The heart, in which the +deepest devotion is yielded to Jesus Christ, has its capacity for +devotion infinitely increased, and they who, looking into each +other's faces, see reflected there something of the Lord whom they +both love, love each other all the more because they love Him most, +and in their love to Him, and His to them, have found a new measure +for all their affection. They who, looking on their dear ones, can +‘trust they live in God,’ will there find them +‘worthier to be loved,’ and will there find a power of +loving them. Tryphena and Tryphosa were more sisterly than ever when +they clung to their Elder Brother. ‘There is no man that hath +left brethren, or sisters, or mother, or father, for My sake, but he +shall receive a hundredfold more in this time, brethren, and sisters, +and mothers, and in the world to come eternal life.’</p> +<p>The contrast between the names of these two Roman ladies and the +characterisation of their ‘labour in the Lord’ may +suggest to us the most formidable foe of Christian earnestness. Their +names, as we have already noticed, point to a state of society in +which the parents ideal for their daughters was dainty luxuriousness +and a withdrawal from the rough and tumble of common life; but these +two women, magnetised by the love of Jesus, had turned their backs on +the parental ideal, and had cast themselves earnestly into a life of +toil. That ideal was never more formidably antagonistic to the vigour +of Christian life than it is to-day. Rome, in Paul's time, was not +more completely honeycombed with worldliness than England is to-day; +and the English churches are not far behind the English +‘world’ in their paralysing love of luxury and +self-indulgence. In all ages, earnest Christians have had to take up +the same vehement remonstrance against the tendency of the average +Christian to let his religious life be weakened by the love of the +world and the things of the world. The protests against growing +luxury have been a commonplace in all ages of the Church; but, +surely, there has never been a time when it has reached a more +senseless, sinful, and destroying height than in our day. The rapid +growth of wealth, with no capacity of using it nobly, which modern +commerce has brought, has immensely influenced all our churches for +evil. It is so hard for us, aggregated in great cities, to live our +own lives, and the example of our class has such immense power over +us that it is very hard to pursue the path of ‘plain living and +high thinking’ in communities, all classes of which are more +and more yielding to the temptation to ostentation, so-called +comfort, and extravagant expenditure; and that this is a +danger—we are tempted to say <i>the</i> danger—to the +purity, loftiness, and vigour of religious life among us, he must be +blind who cannot see, and he must be strangely ignorant of his own +life who cannot feel that it is the danger for him. I believe that +for one professing Christian whose earnestness is lost by reason of +intellectual doubts, or by some grave sin, there are a hundred from +whom it simply oozes away unnoticed, like wind out of a bladder, so +that what was once round and full becomes limp and flaccid. If Demas +begins with loving the present world, it will not be long before he +finds a reason for departing from Paul.</p> +<p>We may take these two sisters, finally, as pointing for us the +true victory over this formidable enemy. They had turned resolutely +away from the heathen ideal enshrined in their names to a life of +real hard toil, as is distinctly implied by the word used by the +Apostle. What that toil consisted in we do not know, and need not +inquire; but the main point to be noted is that their +‘labour’ was ‘in the Lord.’ That union with +Christ makes labour for Him a necessity, and makes it possible. +‘The labour we delight in physics pain’; and if we are in +Him, we shall not only ‘live in Him,’ but all our work +begun, continued, and ended in Him, will in Him and by Him be +accepted. There is no victorious antagonist of worldly ease and +self-indulgence comparable to the living consciousness of union with +Jesus and His life in us. To dwell in the swamps at the bottom of the +mountain is to live in a region where effort is impossible and +malaria weakens vitality; to climb the heights brings bracing to the +limbs and a purer air into the expanding lungs, and makes work +delightsome that would have been labour down below. If we are +‘in the Lord,’ He is our atmosphere, and we can draw from +Him full draughts of a noble life in which we shall not need the +stimulus of self-interest or worldly success to use it to the utmost +in acts of service to Him. They who live in the Lord will labour in +the Lord, and they who labour in the Lord will rest in the Lord.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="p48" id="p48">PERSIS</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Salute the beloved Persis, who laboured much in +the Lord.’—ROMANS xvi. 12.</blockquote> +<p>There are a great number of otherwise unknown Christians who pass +for a moment before our view in this chapter. Their characterisations +are like the slight outlines in the background of some great artist's +canvas: a touch of the brush is all that is spared for each, and yet, +if we like to look sympathetically, they live before us. Now, this +good woman, about whom we never hear again, and for whom these few +words are all her epitaph—was apparently, judging by her name, +of Persian descent, and possibly had been brought to Rome as a slave. +At all events, finding herself there, she had somehow or other become +connected with the Church in that city, and had there distinguished +herself by continuous and faithful Christian toil which had won the +affection of the Apostle, though he had never seen her, and knew no +more about her. That is all. She comes into the foreground for a +moment, and then she vanishes. What does she say to us?</p> +<p>First of all, like the others named by Paul, she helps us to +understand, by her living example, that wonderful, new, uniting +process that was carried on by means of Christianity. The simple fact +of a Persian woman getting a loving message from a Jew, the woman +being in Rome and the Jew in Corinth, and the message being written +in Greek, brings before us a whole group of nationalities all fused +together. They had been hammered together, or, if you like it better, +chained together, by Roman power, but they were melted together by +Christ's Gospel. This Eastern woman and this Jewish man, and the many +others whose names and different nationalities pass in a flash before +us in this chapter, were all brought together in Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>If we run our eye over these salutations, what strikes one, even +at the first sight, is the very small number of Jewish names; only +one certain, and another doubtful. Four or five names are Latin, and +then all the rest are Greek, but this woman seemingly came from +further east than any of them. There they all were, forgetting the +hostile nationalities to which they belonged, because they had found +One who had brought them into one great community. We talk about the +uniting influence of Christianity, but when we see the process going +on before us, in a case like this, we begin to understand it +better.</p> +<p>But another point may be noticed in regard to this uniting +process—how it brought into action the purest and truest love +as a bond that linked men. There are four or five of the people +commended in this chapter of whom the Apostle has nothing to say but +that they are beloved. This is the only woman to whom he applies that +term. And notice his instinctive delicacy: when he is speaking of men +he says, ‘<i>My</i> beloved’; when he is greeting Persis +he says, ‘<i>the</i> beloved,’ that there may be no +misunderstanding about the ‘my’—‘the beloved +Persis which laboured much in the Lord’—indicating, by +one delicate touch, the loftiness, the purity, and truly Christian +character of the bond that held them together. And that is no true +Church, where anything but that is the bond—the love that knits +us to one another, because we believe that each is knit to the dear +Lord and fountain of all love.</p> +<p>What more does this good woman say to us? She is an example living +and breathing there before us, of what a woman may be in God's +Church. Paul had never been in Rome; no Apostle, so far as we know, +had had anything to do with the founding of the Church. The most +important Church in the Roman Empire, and the Church which afterwards +became the curse of Christendom, was founded by some anonymous +Christians, with no commission, with no supervision, with no +officials amongst them, but who just had the grace of God in their +hearts, and found themselves in Rome, and could not help speaking +about Jesus Christ. God helped them, and a little Church sprang into +being. And the great abundance of salutations here, and the +honourable titles which the Apostle gives to the Christians of whom +he speaks, and many of whom he signalises as having done great +service, are a kind of certificate on his part to the vigorous life +which, without any apostolic supervision or official direction, had +developed itself there in that Church.</p> +<p>Now, it is to be noticed that this striking form of eulogium which +is attached to our Persis she shares in common with others in the +group. And it is to be further noticed that all those who are, as it +were, decorated with this medal—on whom Paul bestows this +honour of saying that they had ‘laboured,’ or +‘laboured much in the Lord,’ are women that stand alone +in the list. There are several other women in it, but they are all +coupled with men—husbands or brothers, or some kind of +relative. But there are three sets of women, I do not say single +women, but three sets of women, standing singly in the list, and it +is about them, and them only, that Paul says they +‘laboured,’ or ‘laboured much.’ There is a +Mary who stands alone, and she ‘bestowed much labour on’ +Paul and others. Then there are, in the same verse as my text, two +sisters, Tryphena and Tryphosa, whose names mean ‘the +luxurious.’ And the Apostle seems to think, as he writes the +two names that spoke of self-indulgence: ‘Perhaps these rightly +described these two women once, but they do not now. In the bad old +days, before they were Christians, they may have been rightly named +luxurious-living. But here is their name now, the luxurious is turned +into the self-sacrificing worker, and the two sisters “labour +in the Lord.”’ Then comes our friend Persis, who also +stands alone, and she shares in the honour that only these other two +companies of women share with her. She ‘laboured much in the +Lord.’ In that little community, without any direction from +Apostles and authorised teachers, the brethren and sisters had every +one found their tasks; and these solitary women, with nobody to say +to them, ‘Go and do this or that,’ had found out for +themselves, or rather had been taught by the Spirit of Jesus, what +they had to do, and they worked at it with a will. There are many +things that Christian women can do a great deal better than men, and +we are not to forget that this modern talk about the emancipation of +women has its roots here in the New Testament. We are not to forget +either that prerogative means obligation, and that the elevation of +woman means the laying upon her of solemn duties to perform. I wonder +how many of the women members of our Churches and congregations +deserve such a designation as that? We hear a great deal about +‘women's rights’ nowadays. I wish some of my friends +would lay a little more to heart than they do, ‘women's +duties.’</p> +<p>And now, lastly, the final lesson that I draw from this eulogium +of an otherwise altogether unknown woman is that she is a model of +Christian service.</p> +<p>First, in regard to its measure. She ‘laboured much in the +Lord.’ Now, both these two words, ‘laboured’ and +‘much,’ are extremely emphatic. The word rightly +translated ‘laboured’ will appear in its full force if I +recall to you a couple of other places in which it is employed in the +New Testament. You remember that touching incident about our Lord +when, being ‘<i>wearied</i> with His journey, He sat thus on +the well.’ ‘Wearied’ is the same word as is here +used. Then, you remember how the Apostle, after he had been hauling +empty nets all night in the little, wet, dirty fishing-boat, said, +perhaps with a yawn, ‘Master, we have <i>toiled</i> all the +night and caught nothing.’ He uses the same word as is employed +here. Such is the sort of work that these women had done—work +carried to the point of exhaustion, work up to the very edge of their +powers, work unsparing and continuous, and not done once in some +flash of evanescent enthusiasm, but all through a dreary night, in +spite of apparent failures.</p> +<p><i>There</i> is the measure of service. Many of us seem to think +that if we say ‘I am tired,’ that is a reason for not +doing anything. Sometimes it is, no doubt; and no man has a right so +to labour as to impair his capacity for future labour, but subject to +that condition I do not know that the plea of fatigue is a sufficient +reason for idleness. And I am quite sure that the true example for us +is the example of Him who, when He was most wearied, sitting on the +well, was so invigorated and refreshed by the opportunity of winning +another soul that, when His disciples came back to Him, they looked +at His fresh strength with astonishment, and said to themselves, +‘Has any man brought Him anything to eat?’ Ay, what He +had to eat was work that He finished for the Father, and some of us +know that the truest refreshment in toil is a change of toil. It is +almost as good to shift the load on to the other shoulder, or to take +a stick into the other hand, as it is to put away the load +altogether. Oh, the careful limits which Christian people nowadays +set to their work for Jesus! They are not afraid of being tired in +their pursuit of business or pleasure, but in regard to Christ's work +they will let anything go to wrack and ruin rather than that they +should turn a hair, by persevering efforts to prevent it. Work to the +limit of power if you live in the light of blessedness.</p> +<p>She ‘laboured much in the Lord,’ or, as Jesus Christ +said about the other woman who was blamed by the people that did not +love enough to understand the blessedness of self-sacrifice, +‘she had done what she could.’ It was an apology for the +form of Mary's service, but it was a stringent demand as to its +amount. ‘What she could’—not <i>half</i> of what +she could; not what she <i>conveniently</i> could. That is the +measure of acceptable service.</p> +<p>Then, still further, may we not learn from Persis the spring of +all true Christian work? She ‘laboured much in the Lord,’ +because she <i>was</i> ‘in Him,’ and in union with Him +there came to her power and desire to do things which, without that +close fellowship, she neither would have desired nor been able to do. +It is vain to try to whip up Christian people to forms of service by +appealing to lower motives. There is only one motive that will last, +and bring out from us all that is in us to do, and that is the appeal +to our sense of union and communion with Jesus Christ, and the +exhortation to live in Him, and then we shall work in Him. If you +link the spindles in your mill, or the looms in your weaving-shed, +with the engine, they will go. It is of no use to try to turn them by +hand. You will only spoil the machinery, and it will be poor work +that you will get off them.</p> +<p>So, dear brethren, be ‘in the Lord.’ That is the +secret of service, and the closer we come to Him, and the more +continuously, moment by moment, we realise our individual dependence +upon Him, and our union with Him, the more will our lives effloresce +and blossom into all manner of excellence and joyful service, and +nothing else that Christian people are whipped up to do, from lower +and more vulgar motives than that, will. It may be of a certain kind +of inferior value, but it is far beneath the highest beauty of +Christian service, nor will its issues reach the loftiest point of +usefulness to which even our poor service may attain.</p> +<p>Persis seems to me to suggest, too, the safeguard of work. Ah, if +she had not ‘laboured in the Lord,’ and been ‘in +the Lord’ whilst she was labouring, she would very soon have +stopped work. Our Christian work, however pure its motive when we +begin it, has in itself the tendency to become mechanical, and to be +done from lower motives than those from which it was begun. That is +true about a man in my position. It is true about all of us, in our +several ways of trying to serve our dear Lord and Master. Unless we +make a conscience of continually renewing our communion with Him, and +getting our feet once more firmly upon the rock, we shall certainly +in our Christian work, having begun in the spirit, continue in the +flesh, and before we know where we are, we shall be doing work from +habit, because we did it yesterday at this hour, because people +expect it of us, because A, B, or C does it, or for a hundred other +reasons, all of which are but too familiar to us by experience. They +are sure to slip in; they change the whole character of the work, and +they harm the workers. The only way by which we can keep the garland +fresh is by continually dipping it in the fountain. The only way by +which we can keep our Christian work pure, useful, worthy of the +Master, is by seeing to it that our work itself does not draw us away +from our fellowship with Him. And the more we have to do, the more +needful is it that we should listen to Christ's voice when He says to +us, ‘Come ye yourselves apart with Me into a solitary place, +and there renew your communion with Me.’</p> +<p>The last lesson about our work which I draw from Persis is the +unexpected immortality of true Christian service. How Persis would +have opened her eyes if anybody had told her that nearly 1900 years +after she lived, people in a far-away barbarous island would be +sitting thinking about her, as you and I are doing now! How +astonished she would have been if it had been said to her, +‘Now, Persis, wheresoever in the whole world the Gospel is +preached, your name and your work and your epitaph will go with it, +and as long as men know about Jesus Christ, your and their Master, +they will know about you, His humble servant.’ Well, we shall +not have our names in that fashion in men's memories, but Jesus will +have your name and mine, if we do His work as this woman did it, in +<i>His</i> memory. ‘I will never forget any of their +works.’ And if we—self-forgetful to the limit of our +power, and as the joyful result of our personal union with that +Saviour who has done everything for us—try to live for His +praise and glory in any fashion, then be sure of this, that our poor +deeds are as immortal as Him for whom they are done, and that we may +take to ourselves the great word which He has spoken, when He has +declared that at the last He will confess His confessors’ names +before the angels in heaven. Blessed are the living that ‘live +in the Lord’; blessed are the workers that work ‘in the +Lord,’ for when they come to be the dead that ‘die in the +Lord’ and rest from their labours, their works shall follow +them.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="acs49" id="acs49">A CRUSHED SNAKE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your +feet shortly.’—ROMANS xvi. 20.</blockquote> +<p>There are three other Scriptural sayings which may have been +floating in the Apostle's mind when he penned this triumphant +assurance. ‘Thou shalt bruise his head’; the great first +Evangel—we are to be endowed with Christ's power; ‘The +lion and the adder thou shalt trample under foot’—all the +strength that was given to ancient saints is ours; ‘Behold! I +give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the +power of the enemy’—the charter of the seventy is the +perennial gift to the Church. Echoing all these great words, Paul +promises the Roman Christians that ‘the God of peace shall +bruise Satan under your feet shortly.’ Now, when any special +characteristic is thus ascribed to God, as when He is called +‘the God of patience’ or ‘the God of hope,’ +in the preceding chapter, the characteristic selected has some +bearing on the prayer or promise following. For example, this same +designation, ‘the God of peace,’ united with the other, +‘that brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus, that great +Shepherd of the sheep,’ is laid as the foundation of the prayer +for the perfecting of the readers of the Epistle to the Hebrews in +every good work. It is, then, because of that great name that the +Apostle is sure, and would have his Roman brethren to be sure, that +Satan shall shortly be bruised under their feet. No doubt there may +have been some reference in Paul's mind to what he had just said +about those who caused divisions in the Church; but, if there is such +reference, it is of secondary importance. Paul is gazing on all the +great things in God which make Him the God of peace, and in them all +he sees ground for the confident hope that His power will be exerted +to crush all the sin that breaks His children's peace.</p> +<p>Now the first thought suggested by these words is the solemn +glimpse given of the struggle that goes on in every Christian +soul.</p> +<p>Two antagonists are at hand-grips in every one of us. On the one +hand, the ‘God of peace,’ on the other, +‘Satan.’ If you believe in the personality of the One, do +not part with the belief in the personality of the other. If you +believe that a divine power and Spirit is ready to help and +strengthen you, do not think so lightly of the enemies that are +arrayed against you as to falter in the belief that there <i>is</i> a +great personal Power, rooted in evil, who is warring against each of +us. Ah, brethren! we live far too much on the surface, and we neither +go down deep enough to the dark source of the Evil, nor rise high +enough to the radiant Fountain of the Good. It is a shallow life that +strikes that antagonism of God and Satan out of itself. And though +the belief in a personal tempter has got to be very unfashionable +nowadays, I am going to venture to say that you may measure +accurately the vitality and depth of a man's religion by the emphasis +with which he grasps the thought of that great antagonism. There is a +star of light, and there is a star of darkness; and they revolve, as +it were, round one centre.</p> +<p>But whilst, on the one hand, our Christianity is made shallow in +proportion as we ignore this solemn reality, on the other hand, it is +sometimes paralysed and perverted by our misunderstanding of it. For, +notice, ‘the God of peace shall bruise Satan <i>under your +feet</i>.’ Yes, it is God that bruises, but He uses our feet to +do it. It is God from whom the power comes, but the power works +through us, and we are neither merely the field, nor merely the +prize, of the conflict between these two, but we ourselves have to +put all our pith into the task of keeping down the flat, speckled +head that has the poison gland in it. ‘The God of +peace’—blessed be His Name—‘shall bruise +Satan under your feet,’ but it will need the tension of your +muscles, and the downward force of your heel, if the wriggling +reptile is to be kept under.</p> +<p>Turn, now, to the other thought that is here, the promise and +pledge of victory in the name, the God of peace. I have already +referred to two similar designations of God in the previous chapter, +and if we take them in union with this one in our text, what a +wonderfully beautiful and strengthening threefold view of that divine +nature do we get! ‘The God of patience and consolation’ +is the first of the linked three. It heads the list, and blessed is +it that it does, because, after all, sorrow makes up a very large +proportion of the experience of us all, and what most men seem to +themselves to need most is a God that will bear their sorrows with +them and help them to bear, and a God that will comfort them. But, +supposing that He has been made known thus as the source of endurance +and the God of all consolation, He becomes ‘the God of +hope,’ for a dark background flings up a light foreground, and +a comforted sorrow patiently endured is mighty to produce a radiant +hope. The rising of the muddy waters of the Nile makes the heavy +crops of ‘corn in Egypt.’ So the name ‘the God of +hope’ fitly follows the name ‘the God of patience and +consolation.’</p> +<p>Then we come to the name in my text, built perhaps on the other +two, or at least reminiscent of them, and recalling them, ‘the +God of peace,’ who, through patience and consolation, through +hope, and through many another gift, breathes the benediction of His +own great tranquillity and unruffled calm over our agitated, +distracted, sinful hearts. In connection with one of those previous +designations to which I have referred, the Apostle has a prayer very +different in form from this, but identical in substance, when he says +‘the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in +believing.’ Is not that closely allied to the promise of my +text, ‘The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet +shortly’? Is there any surer way of ‘bruising +Satan’ under a man's feet than filling him ‘with joy and +peace in believing’? What can the Devil do to that man? If his +soul is saturated, and his capacities filled, with that pure honey of +divine joy, will he have any taste for the coarse dainties, the leeks +and the garlic, that the Devil offers him? Is there any surer way of +delivering a man from the temptations of his own baser nature, and +the solicitations of this busy intrusive world round about him, than +to make him satisfied with the goodness of the Lord, and conscious in +his daily experience of ‘all joy and peace’? Fill the +vessel with wine, and there is no room for baser liquors or for +poison. I suppose that the way by which you and I, dear friends, will +most effectually conquer any temptations, is by falling back on the +superior sweetness of divine joys. When we live upon manna we do not +crave onions. So He ‘will bruise Satan under your feet’ +by giving that which will arm your hearts against all his temptations +and all his weapons. Blessed be God for the way of conquest, which is +the possession of a supremer good!</p> +<p>But then, notice how beautifully too this name, ‘the God of +peace,’ comes in to suggest that even in the strife there may +be tranquillity. I remember in an old church in Italy a painting of +an Archangel with his foot on the dragon's neck, and his sword thrust +through its scaly armour. It is perhaps the feebleness of the +artist's hand, but I think rather it is the clearness of his insight, +which has led him to represent the victorious angel, in the moment in +which he is slaying the dragon, as with a smile on his face, and not +the least trace of effort in the arm, which is so easily smiting the +fatal blow. Perhaps if the painter could have used his brush better +he would have put more expression into the attitude and the face, but +I think it is better as it is. We, too, may achieve a conquest over +the dragon which, although it requires effort, does not disturb +peace. There is a possibility of bruising that slippery head under my +foot, and yet not having to strain myself in the process. We may have +‘peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation.’ Do +you remember how the Apostle, in another place, gives us the same +beautiful—though at first sight contradictory—combination +when he says, ‘The peace of God shall garrison your +heart’?</p> +<pre> +'My soul! there is a country + Far, far beyond the stars, +Where stands an armed sentry, + All skilful in the wars.' +</pre> +<p class="noindent">And her name is Peace, as the poet goes on to +tell us. Ah, brethren! if we lived nearer the Lord, we should find it +more possible to ‘fight the good fight of faith,’ and yet +to have ‘our feet shod with the preparedness of the gospel of +peace.’</p> +<p>‘The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet’; +and in bruising He will give you His peace to do it, and His peace in +doing it, and in still greater measure after doing it. For every +struggle of the Christian soul adds something to the subsequent depth +of its tranquillity. And so the name of the God of peace is our +pledge of victory in, and of deepened peace after, our warfare with +sin and temptation.</p> +<p>Lastly, note the swiftness with which Paul expects that this +process shall he accomplished.</p> +<p>I dare say that he was thinking about the coming of the Lord, when +all the fighting and struggle would be over, and that when he said +‘God shall bruise him under your feet shortly,’ there lay +in the back of his mind the thought, ‘the Lord is at +hand.’ But be that as it may, there is another way of looking +at the words. They are not in the least like our experience, are +they? ‘Shortly!’—and here am I, a Christian man for +the last half century perhaps; and have I got much further on in my +course? Have I brought the sin that used to trouble me much down, and +is my character much more noble, Christ-like, than it was long years +ago? Would other people say that it is? Instead of +‘shortly’ we ought to put ‘slowly’ for the +most of us. But, dear friend, the ideal is swift conquest, and it is +our fault and our loss, if the reality is sadly different.</p> +<p>There are a great many evils that, unless they are conquered +suddenly, have very small chance of ever being conquered at all. You +never heard of a man being cured of his love of intoxicating drink, +for instance, by a gradual process. The serpent's life is not crushed +out of it by gradual pressure, but by one vigorous stamp of a nervous +heel.</p> +<p>But if my experience as a Christian man does not enable me to set +to my seal that this text is true, the text itself will tell me why. +It is ‘the God of peace’ that is going to ‘bruise +Satan.’ Do you keep yourself in touch with Him, dear friend? +And do you let His powers come uninterruptedly and continuously into +your spirit and life? It is sheer folly and self-delusion to wonder +that the medicine does not work as quickly as was promised, if you do +not take the medicine. The slow process by which, at the best, many +Christian people ‘bruise Satan under their feet,’ during +which he hurts their heels more than they hurt his head, is mainly +due to their breaking the closeness and the continuity of their +communion with God in Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>But, after all, it is Heaven's chronology that we have to do with +here. ‘Shortly,’ and it will be ‘shortly,’ if +we reckon by heavenly scales of duration. Weeping may endure for a +night, but joy cometh in the morning. ‘The Lord will help her, +and that right early.’ ‘The Lord is at hand.’ When +we get yonder, ah! how all the long years of fighting will have +dwindled down, and we shall say ‘the Lord did help me, and that +right early,’ and though there may have been more than +threescore years and ten of fighting, that, while we were in the +thick of it, did not seem to come to much, we shall then look back +and say: ‘Yes, Lord, it was but for a moment, and it has +brought me to the undying day of Eternal Peace.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="t50" id="t50">TERTIUS</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘I, Tertius, who write the epistle, salute you in +the Lord.’—ROMANS xvi. 22 (R. V.).</blockquote> +<p>One sometimes sees in old religious pictures, in some obscure +corner, a tiny kneeling figure, the portrait of the artist. So +Tertius here gets leave to hold the pen for a moment on his own +account, and from Corinth sends his greeting to his unknown brethren +in Rome. Apparently he was a stranger to them, and needed to +introduce himself. He is never heard of before or since. For one +brief moment he is visible, like a star of a low magnitude, shining +out for a moment between two banks of darkness and then swallowed up. +Judging by his name, he was probably a Roman, and possibly had some +connection with Italy, but clearly was a stranger to the Church in +Rome. We do not know whether he was a resident in Corinth, where he +wrote this epistle, or one of Paul's travelling companions. Probably +he was the former, as his name never recurs in any of Paul's letters. +One can understand the impulse which led him for one moment to come +out of obscurity and to take up personal relations with those who had +so long enjoyed his pen. He would fain float across the deep gulf of +alienation a thread of love which looked like gossamer, but has +proved to be stronger than centuries and revolutions.</p> +<p>This humble and modest greeting is an expression of a sentiment +which the world may smile at, but which, being ‘in the +Lord,’ partakes of immortality. No doubt the world's hate drove +more closely together all the disciples in primitive times; but the +yearning of Tertius for some little corner in the love of his Roman +brethren might well influence us to-day. There ought to be an effort +of imagination going out towards unknown brethren. Christian love is +not meant to be kept within the limits of sight and personal +knowledge; it should overleap the narrow bounds of the communities to +which we belong, and expatiate over the whole wide field. The great +Shepherd has prescribed for us the limits to the very edge of which +our Christian love should consciously go forth, and has rebuked the +narrowness to which we are prone, when He has said, ‘Other +sheep I have which are not of this fold.’ We are all too prone +to let identities of opinion and of polity, or even the accident of +locality, set bounds to our consciousness of brotherhood; and the +example of this little gush of affection, that reaches out a hand +across the ocean and grasps the hands of unknown partakers in the +common life of the one Lord, may well shame us out of our narrowness, +and quicken us into a wide perception and deepened feeling towards +all who in every place call up Jesus Christ as their +Lord—‘both their Lord and ours.’</p> +<p>Another lesson which we may learn from Tertius’ +characterisation of himself is the dignity of subordinate work +towards a great end. His office as amanuensis was very humble, but it +was quite as necessary as Paul's inspired fervour. It is to him that +we owe our possession of the Epistle; it is to him that Paul owed it +that he was able to record in imperishable words the thoughts that +welled up in his mind, and would have been lost if Tertius had not +been at his side. The power generated in the boilers does its work +through machines of which each little cog-wheel is as indispensable +as the great shafts. Members of the body which seem to be ‘more +feeble, are necessary.’ Every note in a great concerted piece +of music, and every instrument, down to the triangle and the little +drum in the great orchestra, is necessary. This lesson of the dignity +of subordinate work needs to be laid to heart both by those who think +themselves to be capable of more important service, and by those who +have to recognise that the less honourable tasks are all for which +they are fit. To the former it may preach humility, the latter it may +encourage. We are all very ignorant of what is great and what is +small in the matter of our Christian service, and we have sometimes +to look very closely and to clear away a great many vulgar +misconceptions before we can clearly discriminate between mites and +talents. ‘We know not which may prosper, whether this or +that’; and in our ignorance of what it may please God to bring +out of any service faithfully rendered to Him, we had better not be +too sure that true service is ever small, or that the work that +attracts attention and is christened by men ‘great’ is +really so in His eyes. It is well to have the noble ambition to +‘desire earnestly the greater gifts,’ but it is better to +‘follow the more excellent way,’ and to seek after the +love which knows nothing of great or small, and without which +prophecy and the knowledge of all mysteries, and all conspicuous and +all the shining qualities profit nothing.</p> +<p>We can discern in Tertius’ words a little touch of what we +may call pride in his work. No doubt he knew it to be subordinate, +but he also knew it to be needful; and no doubt he had put all his +strength into doing it well. No man will put his best into any task +which he does not undertake in such a spirit. It is a very plain +piece of homely wisdom that ‘what is worth doing at all is +worth doing well.’ Without a lavish expenditure of the utmost +care and effort, our work will tend to be slovenly and unpleasing to +God, and man, and to ourselves. We may be sure there were no blots +and bits of careless writing in Tertius' manuscript, and that he +would not have claimed the friendly feelings of his Roman brethren, +if he had not felt that he had put his best into the writing of this +epistle. The great word of King David has a very wide application. +‘I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer +burnt offerings without cost.’</p> +<p>Tertius’ salutation may suggest to us the best thing by +which to be remembered. All his life before and after the hours spent +at Paul's side has sunk in oblivion. He wished to be known only as +having written the Epistle. Christian souls ought to desire to live +chiefly in the remembrance of those to whom they have been known as +having done some little bit of work for Jesus Christ. We may well ask +ourselves whether there is anything in our lives by which we should +thus wish to be remembered. All our many activities will sink into +silence; but if the stream of our life, which has borne along down +its course so much mud and sand, has brought some grains of gold in +the form of faithful and loving service to Christ and men—these +will not be lost in the ocean, but treasured by Him. What we do for +Jesus and to spread the knowledge of His name is the immortal part of +our mortal lives, and abides in His memory and in blessed results in +our own characters, when all the rest that made our busy and often +stormy days has passed into oblivion. All that we know of Tertius who +wrote this Epistle is that he wrote it. Well will it be for us if the +summary of our lives be something like that of his!</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="qab51" id="qab51">QUARTUS A BROTHER</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Quartus a brother.’—ROMANS xvi. +23.</blockquote> +<p>I am afraid very few of us read often, or with much interest, +those long lists of names at the end of Paul's letters. And yet there +are plenty of lessons in them, if anybody will look at them lovingly +and carefully. There does not seem much in these three words; but I +am very much mistaken if they will not prove to be full of beauty and +pathos, and to open out into a wonderful revelation of what +Christianity is and does, as soon as we try to freshen them up into +some kind of human interest.</p> +<p>It is easy for us to make a little picture of this brother +Quartus. He is evidently an entire stranger to the Church in Rome. +They had never heard his name before: none of them knew anything +about him. Further, he is evidently a man of no especial reputation +or position in the Church at Corinth, from which Paul writes. He +contrasts strikingly with the others who send salutations to Rome. +‘Timotheus, my work-fellow’—the companion and +helper of the Apostle, whose name was known everywhere among the +Churches, heads the list. Then come other prominent men of his more +immediate circle. Then follows a loving greeting from Paul's +amanuensis, who, naturally, as the pen is in his own hand, says: +‘<i>I</i>, Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the +Lord.’ Then Paul begins again to dictate, and the list runs on. +Next comes a message from ‘Gaius mine host, and of the whole +Church’—an influential man in the community, apparently +rich, and willing, as well as able, to extend to them large and +loving hospitality. Erastus, the chamberlain or treasurer of the +city, follows—a man of consequence in Corinth. And then, among +all these people of mark, comes the modest, quiet Quartus. He has no +wealth like Gaius, nor civic position like Erastus, nor wide +reputation like Timothy. He is only a good, simple, unknown +Christian. He feels a spring of love open in his heart to these +brethren far across the sea, whom he never met. He would like them to +know that he thought lovingly of them, and to be lovingly thought of +by them. So he begs a little corner in Paul's letter, and gets it; +and there, in his little niche, like some statue of a forgotten +saint, scarce seen amidst the glories of a great cathedral, +‘Quartus a brother’ stands to all time.</p> +<p>The first thing that strikes me in connection with these words is, +how deep and real they show that new bond of Christian love to have +been.</p> +<p>A little incident of this sort is more impressive than any amount +of mere talk about the uniting influence of the Gospel. Here we get a +glimpse of the power in actual operation in a man's heart, and if we +think of all that this simple greeting presupposes and implies, and +of all that had to be overcome before it could have been sent, we may +well see in it the sign of the greatest revolution that was ever +wrought in men's relations to one another, Quartus was an inhabitant +of Corinth, from which city this letter was written. His Roman name +may indicate Roman descent, but of that we cannot be sure. Just as +probably he may have been a Greek by birth, and so have had to +stretch his hand across a deep crevasse of national antipathy, in +order to clasp the hands of his brethren in the great city. There was +little love lost between Rome, the rough imperious conqueror, and +Corinth, prostrate and yet restive under her bonds, and nourishing +remembrances of a freedom which Rome had crushed, and of a culture +that Rome haltingly followed.</p> +<p>And how many other deep gulfs of separation had to be bridged +before that Christian sense of oneness could be felt! It is +impossible for us to throw ourselves completely back to the condition +of things which the Gospel found. The world then was like some great +field of cooled lava on the slopes of a volcano, all broken up by a +labyrinth of clefts and cracks, at the bottom of which one can see +the flicker of sulphurous flames. Great gulfs of national hatred, of +fierce enmities of race, language, and religion; wide separations of +social condition, far profounder than anything of the sort which we +know, split mankind into fragments. On the one side was the freeman, +on the other, the slave; on the one side, the Gentile, on the other, +the Jew; on the one side, the insolence and hard-handedness of Roman +rule, on the other, the impotent, and therefore envenomed, hatred of +conquered peoples.</p> +<p>And all this fabric, full of active repulsions and disintegrating +forces, was bound together into an artificial and unreal unity by the +iron clamp of Rome's power, holding up the bulging walls that were +ready to fall—the unity of the slave-gang manacled together for +easier driving. Into this hideous condition of things the Gospel +comes, and silently flings its clasping tendrils over the wide gaps, +and binds the crumbling structure of human society with a new bond, +real and living. We know well enough that that was so, but we are +helped to apprehend it by seeing, as it were, the very process going +on before our eyes, in this message from ‘Quartus a +brother.’</p> +<p>It reminds us that the very notion of humanity, and of the +brotherhood of man, is purely Christian. A world-embracing society, +held together by love, was not dreamt of before the Gospel came; and +since the Gospel came it is more than a dream. If you wrench away the +idea from its foundation, as people do who talk about fraternity, and +seek to bring it to pass without Christ, it is a mere piece of +Utopian sentiment—a fine dream. But in Christianity it worked. +It works imperfectly enough, God knows. Still there is some reality +in it, and some power. The Gospel first of all produced the thing and +the practice, and then the theory came afterwards. The Church did not +talk much about the brotherhood of man, or the unity of the race; but +simply ignored all distinctions, and gathered into the fold the slave +and his master, the Roman and his subject, fair-haired Goths and +swarthy Arabians, the worshippers of Odin and of Zeus, the Jew and +the Gentile. That actual unity, utterly irrespective of all +distinctions, which came naturally in the train of the Gospel, was +the first attempt to realise the oneness of the race, and first +taught the world that all men were brethren.</p> +<p>And before this simple word of greeting could have been sent, and +the unknown man in Corinth felt love to a company of unknown men in +Rome, some profound new impulse must have been given to the world; +something altogether unlike any of the forces hitherto in existence. +What was that? What should it be but the story of One who gave +Himself for the whole world, who binds men into a unity because of +His common relation to them all, and through whom the great +proclamation can be made: ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, +there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for +ye are all one in Christ Jesus.’ Brother Quartus’ +message, like some tiny flower above-ground which tells of a +spreading root beneath, is a modest witness to that mighty +revolution, and presupposes the preaching of a Saviour in whom he and +his unseen friends in Rome are one.</p> +<p>So let us learn not to confine our sympathy and the play of our +Christian affection within the limits of our personal knowledge. We +must go further a-field than that. Like this man, let us sometimes +send our thoughts across mountains and seas. He knew nobody in the +Roman Church, and nobody knew him, but he wished to stretch out his +hand to them, and to feel, as it were, the pressure of their fingers +in his palm. That is a pattern for us.</p> +<p>Let me suggest another thing. Quartus was a Corinthian. The +Corinthian Church was remarkable for its quarrellings and +dissensions. One said, ‘I am of Paul, and another, I of +Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.’ I wonder if our +friend Quartus belonged to any of these parties? There is nothing +more likely than that he had a much warmer glow of Christian love to +the brethren over there in Rome than to those who sat on the same +bench with him in the upper room at Corinth. For you know that +sometimes it is true about people, as well as about scenery, that +‘distance lends enchantment to the view.’ A great many of +us have much keener sympathies with ‘brethren’ who are +well out of our reach, and whose peculiarities do not jar against +ours, than with those who are nearest. I do not say Quartus was one +of these, but he may very well have been one of the wranglers in +Corinth who found it much easier to love his brother whom he had not +seen than his brother whom he had seen. So take the hint, if you need +it. Do not let your Christian love go wandering away abroad only, but +keep some for home consumption.</p> +<p>Again, how simply, and with what unconscious beauty, the deep +reason for our Christian unity is given in that one word, a +‘Brother.’ As if he had said, Never mind telling them +anything about what I am, what place I hold, or what I do. Tell them +I am a brother, that will be enough. It is the only name by which I +care to be known; it is the name which explains my love to them.</p> +<p>We are brethren because we are sons of one Father. So that +favourite name, by which the early Christians knew each other, rested +upon and proclaimed the deep truth that they knew themselves to be +all partakers of a common life derived from one Parent. When they +said they were brethren, they implied, ‘We have been born again +by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.’ The +great Christian truth of regeneration, the communication of a divine +life from God the Father, through Christ the Son, by the Holy Spirit, +is the foundation of Christian brotherhood. So the name is no mere +piece of effusive sentiment, but expresses a profound fact. ‘To +as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of +God,’ and therein to become the brethren of all His sons.</p> +<p>That is the true ground of our unity, and of our obligation to +love all who are begotten of Him. You cannot safely put them on any +other footing. All else—identity of opinion, similarity of +practice and ceremonial, local or national ties, and the +like—all else is insufficient. It may be necessary for +Christian communities to require in addition a general identity of +opinion, and even some uniformity in government and form of worship; +but if ever they come to fancy that such subordinate conditions of +visible oneness are the grounds of their spiritual unity, and to +enforce these as such, they are slipping off the real foundation, and +are perilling their character as Churches of Christ. The true ground +of the unity of all Christians is here: ‘Have we not all one +Father?’ We possess a kindred life derived from Him. We are a +family of brethren because we are sons.</p> +<p>Another remark is, how strangely and unwittingly this good man has +got himself an immortality by that passing thought of his. One loving +message has won for him the prize for which men have joyfully given +life itself,—an eternal place in history. Wheresoever the +Gospel is preached there also shall this be told as a memorial of +him. How much surprised he would have been if, as he leaned forward +to Tertius hurrying to end his task and said, ‘Send my love +too,’ anybody had told him that that one act of his would last +as long as the world, and his name be known for ever! And how much +ashamed some of the other people in the New Testament would have been +if they had known that their passing faults—the quarrel of +Euodia and Syntyche for instance—were to be gibbeted for ever +in the same fashion! How careful they would have been, and we would +be, of our behaviour if we knew that it was to be pounced down upon +and made immortal in that style! Suppose you were to be +told—Your thoughts and acts to-morrow at twelve o'clock will be +recorded for all the world to read—you would be pretty careful +how you behaved. When a speaker sees the reporters in front of him, +he weighs his words.</p> +<p>Well, Quartus' little message is written down here, and the world +knows it. All our words and works are getting put down too, in +another Book up there, and it is going to be read out one day. It +does seem wonderful that you and I should live as we do, knowing that +all the while that God is recording it all. If we are not ashamed to +do things, and let Him note them on His tablets that they may be for +the time to come, for ever and ever, it is strange that we should be +more careful to attitudinise and pose ourselves before one another +than before Him. Let us then keep ever in mind ‘those pure eyes +and perfect witness of the all-judging’ God. The eternal record +of this little message is only a symbol of the eternal life and +eternal record of all our transient and trivial thoughts and deeds +before Him. Let us live so that each act, if recorded, would shine +with some modest ray of true light like brother Quartus' greeting, +and let us seek that, like him,—all else about us being +forgotten, position, talents, wealth, buried in the dust,—we +may be remembered, if we are remembered at all, by such a biography +as is condensed into these three words. Who would not wish to be +embalmed, so to speak, in such a record? Who would not wish to have +such an epitaph as this? A sweet fate to live for ever in the world's +memory by three words which tell his name, his Christianity, and his +brotherly love! So far as we are remembered at all, may the like be +our life's history and our epitaph!</p> +<hr> +<h1><a name="part2" id="part2">EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE</a></h1> +<h2>ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D., Litt.D.</h2> +<h3>CORINTHIANS<br> +<i>(To II Corinthians, Chap. V)</i></h3> +<h4>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h4> +<p><a href="#cotn52">CALLING ON THE NAME</a> (1 COR. i. 2)</p> +<p><a href="#pobs53">PERISHING OR BEING SAVED</a> (1 COR. i. 18)</p> +<p><a href="#tat54">THE APOSTLE'S THEME</a> (1 COR. ii. 2)</p> +<p><a href="#gf55">GOD'S FELLOW-WORKERS</a> (1 COR. iii. 9)</p> +<p><a href="#ttf56">THE TESTING FIRE</a> (1 COR. iii. 12, 13)</p> +<p><a href="#tog57">TEMPLES OF GOD</a> (1 COR. iii. 16)</p> +<p><a href="#dtf58">DEATH, THE FRIEND</a> (1 COR. iii. 21, 22)</p> +<p><a href="#sal59">SERVANTS AND LORDS</a> (1 COR. iii. 21-23)</p> +<p><a href="#ttt60">THE THREE TRIBUNALS</a> (1 COR. iv. 3, 4)</p> +<p><a href="#tfl61">THE FESTAL LIFE</a> (1 COR. v. 8)</p> +<p><a href="#fvc62">FORMS <i>VERSUS</i> CHARACTER</a> (1 COR. vii. +19, GAL. v. 6, GAL. vi. 15, R. V.)</p> +<p><a href="#saf63">SLAVES AND FREE</a> (1 COR. vii. 22)</p> +<p><a href="#tcl64">THE CHRISTIAN LIFE</a> (1 COR. vii. 24)</p> +<p><a href="#lbu65">‘LOVE BUILDETH UP’</a> (1 COR. viii. +1-13)</p> +<p><a href="#tsos66">THE SIN OF SILENCE</a> (1 COR. ix. 16, 17)</p> +<p><a href="#asom67">A SERVANT OF MEN</a> (1 COR. ix. 19-23)</p> +<p><a href="#htvr68">HOW THE VICTOR RUNS</a> (1 COR. ix. 24)</p> +<p><a href="#ctc69">‘CONCERNING THE CROWN’</a> (1 COR. +ix. 25)</p> +<p><a href="#tlol70">THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY</a> (1 COR. x. 23-33)</p> +<p><a href="#irom71">‘IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME’</a> (1 COR. +xi. 24)</p> +<p><a href="#tug72">THE UNIVERSAL GIFT</a> (1 COR. xii. 7)</p> +<p><a href="#wl73">WHAT LASTS</a> (1 COR. xiii. 8, 13)</p> +<p><a href="#tpotr74">THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION</a> (1 COR. xv. +3, 4)</p> +<p><a href="#rafa75">REMAINING AND FALLING ASLEEP</a> (1 COR. xv. +6)</p> +<p><a href="#peoh76">PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF</a> (1 COR. xv. +10)</p> +<p><a href="#tuoat77">THE UNITY OF APOSTOLIC TEACHING</a> (1 COR. xv. +11)</p> +<p><a href="#tcajotr78">THE CERTAINTY AND JOY OF THE RESURRECTION</a> +(1 COR. xv. 20)</p> +<p><a href="#tdod79">THE DEATH OF DEATH</a> (1 COR. xv. 20, 21; +50-58)</p> +<p><a href="#sal80">STRONG AND LOVING</a> (1 COR. xvi. 13, 14)</p> +<p><a href="#aag81">ANATHEMA AND GRACE</a> (1 COR. xvi. 21-24)</p> +<p><a href="#gyma82">GOD'S YEA; MAN'S AMEN</a> (2 COR. i. 20, R. +V.)</p> +<p><a href="#aas83">ANOINTED AND STABLISHED</a> (2 COR. i. 21)</p> +<p><a href="#sae84">SEAL AND EARNEST</a> (2 COR. i. 22)</p> +<p><a href="#ttp85">THE TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION</a> (2 COR. ii. 14, R. +V.)</p> +<p><a href="#tbb86">TRANSFORMATION BY BEHOLDING</a> (2 COR. iii. +18)</p> +<p><a href="#latu87">LOOKING AT THE UNSEEN</a> (2 COR. iv. 18)</p> +<p><a href="#tab88">TENT AND BUILDING</a> (2 COR. v. 1)</p> +<p><a href="#tpw89">THE PATIENT WORKMAN</a> (2 COR. v. 5)</p> +<p><a href="#tohatn90">THE OLD HOUSE AND THE NEW</a> (2 COR. v. +8)</p> +<p><a href="#pc91">PLEASING CHRIST</a> (2 COR. v. 9)</p> +<p><a href="#tltc92">THE LOVE THAT CONSTRAINS</a> (2 COR. v. 14)</p> +<p><a href="#teog93">THE ENTREATIES OF GOD</a> (2 COR. v. 20)</p> +<p><a href="#part1">PART 1</a></p> +<hr> +<h2>I. CORINTHIANS</h2> +<h2><a name="cotn52" id="cotn52">CALLING ON THE NAME</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘All that in every place call upon the name of +Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.’—1 COR. i. +2.</blockquote> +<p>There are some difficulties, with which I need not trouble you, +about both the translation and the connection of these words. One +thing is quite clear, that in them the Apostle associates the church +at Corinth with the whole mass of Christian believers in the world. +The question may arise whether he does so in the sense that he +addresses his letter both to the church at Corinth and to the whole +of the churches, and so makes it a catholic epistle. That is +extremely unlikely, considering how all but entirely this letter is +taken up with dealing with the especial conditions of the Corinthian +church. Rather I should suppose that he is simply intending to remind +‘the Church of God at Corinth ... sanctified in Christ Jesus, +called to be saints,’ that they are in real, living union with +the whole body of believers. Just as the water in a little +land-locked bay, connected with the sea by some narrow strait like +that at Corinth, is yet part of the whole ocean that rolls round the +world, so that little community of Christians had its living bond of +union with all the brethren in every place that called upon the name +of Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>Whichever view on that detail of interpretation be taken, this +phrase, as a designation of Christians, is worth considering. It is +one of many expressions found in the New Testament as names for them, +some of which have now dropped out of general use, while some are +still retained. It is singular that the name of +‘Christian,’ which has all but superseded all others, was +originally invented as a jeer by sarcastic wits at Antioch, and never +appears in the New Testament, as a name by which believers called +themselves. Important lessons are taught by these names, such as +disciples, believers, brethren, saints, those of the way, and so on, +each of which embodies some characteristic of a follower of Jesus. So +this appellation in the text, ‘those who call upon the name of +our Lord Jesus Christ,’ may yield not unimportant lessons if it +be carefully weighed, and to some of these I would ask your attention +now.</p> +<p>I. First, it gives us a glimpse into the worship of the primitive +Church.</p> +<p>To ‘call on the name of the Lord’ is an expression +that comes straight out of the Old Testament. It means there +distinctly adoration and invocation, and it means precisely these +things when it is referred to Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>We find in the Acts of the Apostles that the very first sermon +that was preached at Pentecost by Peter all turns upon this phrase. +He quotes the Old Testament saying, ‘Whosoever shall call on +the name of the Lord shall be saved,’ and then goes on to prove +that ‘the Lord,’ the ‘calling on whose Name’ +is salvation, is Jesus Christ; and winds up with ‘Therefore let +all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same +Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.’</p> +<p>Again we find that Ananias of Damascus, when Jesus Christ appeared +to him and told him to go to Paul and lay his hands upon him, shrank +from the perilous task because Paul had been sent to ‘bind them +that call upon the name of the Lord,’ and to persecute them. We +find the same phrase recurring in other connections, so that, on the +whole, we may take the expression as a recognised designation of +Christians.</p> +<p>This was their characteristic, that they prayed to Jesus Christ. +The very first word, so far as we know, that Paul ever heard from a +Christian was, ‘Lord Jesus! receive my spirit.’ He heard +that cry of calm faith which, when he heard it, would sound to him as +horrible blasphemy from Stephen's dying lips. How little he dreamed +that he himself was soon to cry to the same Jesus, ‘Lord, what +wilt thou have me to do?’ and was in after-days to beseech Him +thrice for deliverance, and to be answered by sufficient grace. How +little he dreamed that, when his own martyrdom was near, he too would +look to Jesus as Lord and righteous Judge, from whose hands all who +loved His appearing should receive their crown! Nor only Paul directs +desires and adoration to Jesus as Lord; the last words of Scripture +are a cry to Him as Lord to come quickly, and an invocation of His +‘grace’ on all believing souls.</p> +<p>Prayer to Christ from the very beginning of the Christian Church +was, then, the characteristic of believers, and He to whom they +prayed, thus, from the beginning, was recognised by them as being a +Divine Person, God manifest in the flesh.</p> +<p>The object of their worship, then, was known by the people among +whom they lived. Singing hymns to Christus as a god is nearly all +that the Roman proconsul in his well-known letter could find to tell +his master of their worship. They were the worshippers—not +merely the disciples—of one Christ. That was their peculiar +distinction. Among the worshippers of the false gods they stood +erect; before Him, and Him only, they bowed. In Corinth there was the +polluted worship of Aphrodite and of Zeus. These men called not on +the name of these lustful and stained deities, but on the name of the +Lord Jesus Christ. And everybody knew whom they worshipped, and +understood whose men they were. Is that true about us? Do we +Christian men so habitually cultivate the remembrance of Jesus +Christ, and are we so continually in the habit of invoking His aid, +and of contemplating His blessed perfections and sufficiency, that +every one who knew us would recognise us as meant by those who call +on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ?</p> +<p>If this be the proper designation of Christian people, alas! alas! +for so many of the professing Christians of this day, whom neither +bystanders nor themselves would think of as included in such a +name!</p> +<p>Further, the connection here shows that the divine worship of +Christ was universal among the churches. There was no +‘place’ where it was not practised, no community calling +itself a church to whom He was not the Lord to be invoked and adored. +This witness to the early and universal recognition in the Christian +communities of the divinity of our Lord is borne by an undisputedly +genuine epistle of Paul's. It is one of the four which the most +thorough-going destructive criticism accepts as genuine. It was +written before the Gospels, and is a voice from the earlier period of +Paul's apostleship. Hence the importance of its attestation to this +fact that all Christians everywhere, both Jewish, who had been +trained in strict monotheism, and Gentile, who had burned incense at +many a foul shrine, were perfectly joined together in this, that in +all their need they called on the name of Jesus Christ as Lord and +brought to Him, as divine, adoration not to be rendered to any +creatures. From the day of Pentecost onwards, a Christian was not +merely a disciple, a follower, or an admirer, but a worshipper of +Christ, the Lord.</p> +<p>II. We may see here an unfolding of the all-sufficiency of Jesus +Christ.</p> +<p>Note that solemn accumulation, in the language of my text, of all +the designations by which He is called, sometimes separately and +sometimes unitedly, the name of ‘our Lord Jesus Christ.’ +We never find that full title given to Him in Scripture except when +the writer's mind is labouring to express the manifoldness and +completeness of our Lord's relations to men, and the largeness and +sufficiency of the blessings which He brings. In this context I find +in the first nine or ten verses of this chapter, so full is the +Apostle of the thoughts of the greatness and wonderfulness of his +dear Lord on whose name he calls, that six or seven times he employs +this solemn, full designation.</p> +<p>Now, if we look at the various elements of this great name we +shall get various aspects of the way in which calling on Christ is +the strength of our souls.</p> +<p>‘Call on the name of—the Lord.’ That is the Old +Testament Jehovah. There is no mistaking nor denying, if we candidly +consider the evidence of the New Testament writings, that, when we +read of Jesus Christ as ‘Lord,’ in the vast majority of +cases, the title is not a mere designation of human authority, but is +an attribution to Him of divine nature and dignity. We have, then, to +ascribe to Him, and to call on Him as possessing, all which that +great and incommunicable Name certified and sealed to the Jewish +Church as their possession in their God. The Jehovah of the Old +Testament is our Lord of the New. He whose being is eternal, +underived, self-sufficing, self-determining, knowing no variation, no +diminution, no age, He who is because He is and that He is, dwells in +His fulness in our Saviour. To worship Him is not to divert worship +from the one God, nor is it to have other gods besides Him. +Christianity is as much monotheistic as Judaism was, and the law of +its worship is the old law—Him only shalt thou serve. It is the +divine will that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour +the Father.</p> +<p>But what is it to call on the name of Jesus? That name implies all +the sweetness of His manhood. He is our Brother. The name +‘Jesus’ is one that many a Jewish boy bore in our Lord's +own time and before it; though, afterwards, of course, abhorrence on +the part of the Jew and reverence on the part of the Christian caused +it almost entirely to disappear. But at the time when He bore it it +was as undistinguished a name as Simeon, or Judas, or any other of +His followers’ names. To call upon the name of Jesus means to +realise and bring near to ourselves, for our consolation and +encouragement, for our strength and peace, the blessed thought of His +manhood, so really and closely knit to ours; to grasp the blessedness +of the thought that He knows our frame because He Himself has worn +it, and understands and pities our weakness, being Himself a man. To +Him whom we adore as Lord we draw near in tenderer, but not less +humble and prostrate, adoration as our brother when we call on the +name of the Lord Jesus, and thus embrace as harmonious, and not +contradictory, both the divinity of the Lord and the humanity of +Jesus.</p> +<p>To call on the name of Christ is to embrace in our faith and to +beseech the exercise on our behalf of all which Jesus is as the +Messiah, anointed by God with the fulness of the Spirit. As such He +is the climax, and therefore the close of all revelation, who is the +long-expected fruition of the desire of weary hearts, the fulfilment, +and therefore the abolition, of sacrifice and temple and priesthood +and prophecy and all that witnessed for Him ere He came. We further +call on the name of Christ the Anointed, on whom the whole fulness of +the Divine Spirit dwelt in order that, calling upon Him, that fulness +may in its measure be granted to us.</p> +<p>So the name of the Lord Jesus Christ brings to view the divine, +the human, the Messiah, the anointed Lord of the Spirit, and Giver of +the divine life. To call on His name is to be blessed, to be made +pure and strong, joyous and immortal. ‘The name of the Lord is +a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe.’ +Call on His name in the day of trouble and ye shall be heard and +helped.</p> +<p>III. Lastly, this text suggests what a Christian life should +be.</p> +<p>We have already remarked that to call on the name of Jesus was the +distinctive peculiarity of the early believers, which marked them off +as a people by themselves. Would it be a true designation of the bulk +of so-called Christians now? You do not object to profess yourself a +Christian, or, perhaps, even to say that you are a disciple of +Christ, or even to go the length of calling yourself a follower and +imitator. But are you a worshipper of Him? In your life have you the +habit of meditating on Him as Lord, as Jesus, as Christ, and of +refreshing and gladdening dusty days and fainting strength by the +living water, drawn from the one unfailing stream from these triple +fountains? Is the invocation of His aid habitual with you?</p> +<p>There needs no long elaborate supplication to secure His aid. How +much has been done in the Church's history by short bursts of prayer, +as ‘Lord, help me!’ spoken or unspoken in the moment of +extremity! ‘They cried unto God in the battle.’ They +would not have time for very lengthy petitions then, would they? They +would not give much heed to elegant arrangement of them or suiting +them to the canons of human eloquence. ‘They cried unto God in +the battle’; whilst the enemy's swords were flashing and the +arrows whistling about their ears. These were circumstances to make a +prayer a ‘cry’; no composed and stately utterance of an +elegantly modulated voice, nor a languid utterance without +earnestness, but a short, sharp, loud call, such as danger presses +from panting lungs and parched throats. Therefore the cry was +answered, ‘and He was entreated of them.’ ‘Lord, +save us, we perish!’ was a very brief prayer, but it brought +its answer. And so we, in like manner, may go through our warfare and +work, and day by day as we encounter sudden bursts of temptation may +meet them with sudden jets of petition, and thus put out their fires. +And the same help avails for long-continuing as for sudden needs. +Some of us may have to carry lifelong burdens and to fight in a +battle ever renewed. It may seem as if our cry was not heard, since +the enemy's assault is not weakened, nor our power to beat it back +perceptibly increased. But the appeal is not in vain, and when the +fight is over, if not before, we shall know what reinforcements of +strength to our weakness were due to our poor cry entering into the +ears of our Lord and Brother. No other ‘name’ is +permissible as our plea or as recipient of our prayer. In and on the +name of the Lord we must call, and if we do, anything is possible +rather than that the promise which was claimed for the Church and +referred to Jesus, in the very first Christian preaching on +Pentecost, should not be fulfilled—‘Whosoever shall call +on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’</p> +<p>‘In every place.’ We may venture to subject the words +of my text to a little gentle pressure here. The Apostle only meant +to express the universal characteristics of Christians everywhere. +But we may venture to give a different turn to the words, and learn +from them the duty of devout communion with Christ as a duty for each +of us wherever we are. If a place is not fit to pray in it is not fit +to be in. We may carry praying hearts, remembrances of the Lord, +sweet, though they may be swift and short, contemplations of His +grace, His love, His power, His sufficiency, His nearness, His +punctual help, like a hidden light in our hearts, into all the dusty +ways of life, and in every place call on His name. There is no place +so dismal but that thoughts of Him will make sunshine in it; no work +so hard, so commonplace, so prosaic, so uninteresting, but that it +will become the opposite of all these if whatever we do is done in +remembrance of our Lord. Nothing will be too hard for us to do, and +nothing too bitter for us to swallow, and nothing too sad for us to +bear, if only over all that befalls us and all that we undertake and +endeavour we make the sign of the Cross and call upon the name of the +Lord. If ‘in every place’ we have Him as the object of +our faith and desire, and as the Hearer of our petition, in +‘every place’ we shall have Him for our help, and all +will be full of His bright presence; and though we have to journey +through the wilderness we shall ever drink of that spiritual rock +that will follow us, and that Rock is Christ. In every place call +upon His name, and every place will be a house of God, and a gate of +heaven to our waiting souls.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="pobs53" id="pobs53">PERISHING OR BEING SAVED</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘For the preaching of the Cross is to them that +perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of +God.’—1 COR. i. 18.</blockquote> +<p>The starting-point of my remarks is the observation that a slight +variation of rendering, which will be found in the Revised Version, +brings out the true meaning of these words. Instead of reading +‘them that perish’ and ‘us which are saved,’ +we ought to read ‘them that <i>are perishing</i>,’ and +‘us which <i>are being</i> saved.’ That is to say, the +Apostle represents the two contrasted conditions, not so much as +fixed states, either present or future, but rather as processes which +are going on, and are manifestly, in the present, incomplete. That +opens some very solemn and intensely practical considerations.</p> +<p>Then I may further note that this antithesis includes the whole of +the persons to whom the Gospel is preached. In one or other of these +two classes they all stand. Further, we have to observe that the +consideration which determines the class to which men belong, is the +attitude which they respectively take to the preaching of the Cross. +If it be, and because it is, ‘foolishness’ to some, they +belong to the catalogue of the perishing. If it be, and because it +is, ‘the power of God’ to others, they belong to the +class of those who are in process of being saved.</p> +<p>So, then, we have the ground cleared for two or three very simple, +but, as it seems to me, very important thoughts.</p> +<p>I. I desire, first, to look at the two contrasted conditions, +‘perishing’ and ‘being saved.’</p> +<p>Now we shall best, I think, understand the force of the darker of +these two terms if we first ask what is the force of the brighter and +more radiant. If we understand what the Apostle means by +‘saving’ and ‘salvation’ we shall understand +also what he means by ‘perishing.’</p> +<p>If, then, we turn for a moment to Scripture analogy and teaching, +we find that that threadbare word ‘salvation,’ which we +all take it for granted that we understand, and which, like a +well-worn coin, has been so passed from hand to hand that it scarcely +remains legible—that well-worn word ‘salvation’ +starts from a double metaphorical meaning. It means either—and +is used for both—being healed or being made safe. In the one +sense it is often employed in the Gospel narratives of our Lord's +miracles, and it involves the metaphor of a sick man and his cure; in +the other it involves the metaphor of a man in peril and his +deliverance and security. The negative side, then, of the Gospel idea +of salvation is the making whole from a disease, and the making safe +from a danger. Negatively, it is the removal from each of us of the +one sickness, which is sin; and the one danger, which is the reaping +of the fruits and consequences of sin, in their variety as guilt, +remorse, habit, and slavery under it, perverted relation to God, a +fearful apprehension of penal consequences here, and, if there be a +hereafter, there, too. The sickness of soul and the perils that +threaten life, flow from the central fact of sin, and salvation +consists, negatively, in the sweeping away of all of these, whether +the sin itself, or the fatal facility with which we yield to it, or +the desolation and perversion which it brings into all the faculties +and susceptibilities, or the perversion of relation to God, and the +consequent evils, here and hereafter, which throng around the +evil-doer. The sick man is healed, and the man in peril is set in +safety.</p> +<p>But, besides that, there is a great deal more. The cure is +incomplete till the full tide of health follows convalescence. When +God saves, He does not only bar up the iron gate through which the +hosts of evil rush out upon the defenceless soul, but He flings wide +the golden gate through which the glad troops of blessings and of +graces flock around the delivered spirit, and enrich it with all joys +and with all beauties. So the positive side of salvation is the +investiture of the saved man with throbbing health through all his +veins, and the strength that comes from a divine life. It is the +bestowal upon the delivered man of everything that he needs for +blessedness and for duty. All good conferred, and every evil banned +back into its dark den, such is the Christian conception of +salvation. It is much that the negative should be accomplished, but +it is little in comparison with the rich fulness of positive +endowments, of happiness, and of holiness which make an integral part +of the salvation of God.</p> +<p>This, then, being the one side, what about the other? If this be +salvation, its precise opposite is the Scriptural idea of +‘perishing.’ Utter ruin lies in the word, the entire +failure to be what God meant a man to be. That is in it, and no +contortions of arbitrary interpretation can knock that solemn +significance out of the dreadful expression. If salvation be the cure +of the sickness, perishing is the fatal end of the unchecked disease. +If salvation be the deliverance from the outstretched claws of the +harpy evils that crowd about the trembling soul, then perishing is +the fixing of their poisoned talons into their prey, and their +rending of it into fragments.</p> +<p>Of course that is metaphor, but no metaphor can be half so +dreadful as the plain, prosaic fact that the exact opposite of the +salvation, which consists in the healing from sin and the deliverance +from danger, and in the endowment with all gifts good and beautiful, +is the Christian idea of the alternative ‘perishing.’ +Then it means the disease running its course. It means the dangers +laying hold of the man in peril. It means the withdrawal, or the +non-bestowal, of all which is good, whether it be good of holiness or +good of happiness. It does not mean, as it seems to me, the cessation +of conscious existence, any more than salvation means the bestowal of +conscious existence. But he who perishes knows that he has perished, +even as he knows the process while he is in the process of perishing. +Therefore, we have to think of the gradual fading away from +consciousness, and dying out of a life, of many things beautiful and +sweet and gracious, of the gradual increase of distance from Him, +union with whom is the condition of true life, of the gradual sinking +into the pit of utter ruin, of the gradual increase of that awful +death in life and life in death in which living consciousness makes +the conscious subject aware that he is lost; lost to God, lost to +himself.</p> +<p>Brethren, it is no part of my business to enlarge upon such awful +thoughts, but the brighter the light of salvation, the darker the +eclipse of ruin which rings it round. This, then, is the first +contrast.</p> +<p>II. Now note, secondly, the progressiveness of both members of the +alternative.</p> +<p>All states of heart or mind tend to increase, by the very fact of +continuance. Life is a process, and every part of a spiritual being +is in living motion and continuous action in a given direction. So +the law for the world, and for every man in it, in all regions of his +life, quite as much as in the religious, is ‘To him that hath +shall be given, and he shall have abundance.’</p> +<p>Look, then, at this thought of the process by which these two +conditions become more and more confirmed, consolidated, and +complete. Salvation is a progressive fact. In the New Testament we +have that great idea looked at from three points of view. Sometimes +it is spoken of as having been accomplished in the past in the case +of every believing soul—‘Ye have been saved’ is +said more than once. Sometimes it is spoken of as being accomplished +in the present—‘Ye are saved’ is said more than +once. And sometimes it is relegated to the future—‘Now is +our salvation nearer than when we believed,’ and the like. But +there are a number of New Testament passages which coincide with this +text in regarding salvation as, not the work of any one moment, but +as a continuous operation running through life, not a point either in +the past, present, or future, but a continued life. As, for instance, +‘The Lord added to the Church daily those that were being +saved.’ By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that +are being sanctified. And in a passage in the Second Epistle to the +Corinthians, which, in some respects, is an exact parallel to that of +my text, we read of the preaching of the Gospel as being a +‘savour of Christ in them that are being saved, and in them +that are perishing.’</p> +<p>So the process of being saved is going on as long as a Christian +man lives in this world; and every one who professes to be Christ's +follower ought, day by day, to be growing more and more saved, more +fully filled with that Divine Spirit, more entirely the conqueror of +his own lusts and passions and evil, more and more invested with all +the gifts of holiness and of blessedness which Jesus Christ is ready +to bestow upon him.</p> +<p>Ah, brethren! that notion of a progressive salvation at work in +all true Christians has all but faded away out of the beliefs, as it +has all but disappeared from the experience, of hosts of you that +call yourselves Christ's followers, and are not a bit further on than +you were ten years ago; are no more healed of your corruptions +(perhaps less so, for relapses are dangerous) than you were +then—have not advanced any further into the depths of God than +when you first got a glimpse of Him as loving, and your Father, in +Jesus Christ—are contented to linger, like some weak band of +invaders in a strange land, on the borders and coasts, instead of +pressing inwards and making it all your own. Growing +Christians—may I venture to say?—are not the majority +of professing Christians.</p> +<p>And, on the other side, as certainly, there are progressive +deterioration and approximation to disintegration and ruin. How many +men there are listening to me now who were far nearer being delivered +from their sins when they were lads than they have ever been since! +How many in whom the sensibility to the message of salvation has +disappeared, in whom the world has ossified their consciences and +their hearts, in whom there is a more entire and unstruggling +submission to low things and selfish things and worldly things and +wicked things, than there used to be! I am sure that there are not a +few among us now who were far better, and far happier, when they were +poor and young, and could still thrill with generous emotion and +tremble at the Word of God, than they are to-day. Why! there are some +of you that could no more bring back your former loftier impulses, +and compunction of spirit and throbs of desire towards Christ and His +salvation, than you could bring back the birds’ nests or the +snows of your youthful years. You are perishing, in the very process +of going down and down into the dark.</p> +<p>Now, notice, that the Apostle treats these two classes as covering +the whole ground of the hearers of the Word, and as alternatives. If +not in the one class we are in the other. Ah, brethren! life is no +level plane, but a steep incline, on which there is no standing +still, and if you try to stand still, down you go. Either up or down +must be the motion. If you are not more of a Christian than you were +a year ago, you are less. If you are not more saved—for there +is a degree of comparison—if you are not more saved, you are +less saved.</p> +<p>Now, do not let that go over your head as pulpit thunder, meaning +nothing. It means <i>you</i>, and, whether you feel or think it or +not, one or other of these two solemn developments is at this moment +going on in you. And that is not a thought to be put lightly on one +side.</p> +<p>Further, note what a light such considerations as these, that +salvation and perishing are vital processes—‘going on all +the time,’ as the Americans say—throw upon the future. +Clearly the two processes are incomplete here. You get the direction +of the line, but not its natural termination. And thus a heaven and a +hell are demanded by the phenomena of growing goodness and of growing +badness which we see round about us. The arc of the circle is +partially swept. Are the compasses going to stop at the point where +the grave comes in? By no means. Round they will go, and will +complete the circle. But that is not all. The necessity for progress +will persist after death; and all through the duration of immortal +being, goodness, blessedness, holiness, Godlikeness, will, on the one +hand, grow in brighter lustre; and on the other, alienation from God, +loss of the noble elements of the nature, and all the other doleful +darknesses which attend that conception of a lost man, will increase +likewise. And so, two people, sitting side by side here now, may +start from the same level, and by the operation of the one principle +the one may rise, and rise, and rise, till he is lost in God, and so +finds himself, and the other sink, and sink, and sink, into the +obscurity of woe and evil that lies beneath every human life as a +possibility.</p> +<p>III. And now, lastly, notice the determining attitude to the Cross +which settles the class to which we belong.</p> +<p>Paul, in my text, is explaining his reason for not preaching the +Gospel with what he calls ‘the words of man's wisdom,’ +and he says, in effect, ‘It would be of no use if I did, +because what settles whether the Cross shall look +“foolishness” to a man or not is the man's whole moral +condition, and what settles whether a man shall find it to be +“the power of God” or not is whether he has passed into +the region of those that are being saved.’</p> +<p>So there are two thoughts suggested which sound as if they were +illogically combined, but which yet are both true. It is true that +men perish, or are saved, because the Cross is to them respectively +‘foolishness’ or ‘the power of God’; and the +other thing is also true, that the Cross is to them +‘foolishness,’ or ‘the power of God’ because, +respectively, they are perishing or being saved. That is not putting +the cart before the horse, but both aspects of the truth are +true.</p> +<p>If you see nothing in Jesus Christ, and His death for us all, +except ‘foolishness,’ something unfit to do you any good, +and unnecessary to be taken into account in your lives—oh, my +friends! <i>that</i> is the condemnation of your eyes, and not of the +thing you look at. If a man, gazing on the sun at twelve o'clock on a +June day, says to me, ‘It is not bright,’ the only thing +I have to say to him is, ‘Friend, you had better go to an +oculist.’ And if to us the Cross is ‘foolishness,’ +it is because already a process of ‘perishing’ has gone +so far that it has attacked our capacity of recognising the wisdom +and love of God when we see them.</p> +<p>But, on the other hand, if we clasp that Cross in simple trust, we +find that it is the power which saves us out of all sins, sorrows, +and dangers, and ‘shall save us’ at last ‘into His +heavenly kingdom.’</p> +<p>Dear friends, that message leaves no man exactly as it found him. +My words, I feel, in this sermon, have been very poor, set by the +side of the greatness of the theme; but, poor as they have been, you +will not be exactly the same man after them, if you have listened to +them, as you were before. The difference may be very imperceptible, +but it will be real. One more, almost invisible, film, over the +eyeball; one more thin layer of wax in the ear; one more fold of +insensibility round heart and conscience—or else some yielding +to the love; some finger put out to take the salvation; some +lightening of the pressure of the sickness; some removal of the peril +and the danger. The same sun hurts diseased eyes, and gladdens sound +ones. The same fire melts wax and hardens clay. ‘This Child is +set for the rise and fall of many in Israel.’ ‘To the one +He is the savour of life unto life; to the other He is the savour of +death unto death.’ <i>Which</i> is He, for He <i>is</i> one of +them, to you?</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tat54" id="tat54">THE APOSTLE'S THEME</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘I determined not to know anything among you, save +Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.’—1 COR. ii. +2.</blockquote> +<p>Many of you are aware that to-day I close forty years of ministry +in this city—I cannot say to this congregation, for there are +very, very few that can go back with me in memory to the beginning of +these years. You will bear me witness that I seldom intrude personal +references into the pulpit, but perhaps it would be affectation not +to do so now. Looking back over these long years, many thoughts arise +which cannot be spoken in public. But one thing I may say, and that +is, that I am grateful to God and to you, dear friends, for the +unbroken harmony, confidence, affection, and forbearance which have +brightened and lightened my work. Of its worth I cannot judge; its +imperfections I know better than the most unfavourable critic; but I +can humbly take the words of this text as expressive, not, indeed, of +my attainments, but of my aims. One of my texts, on my first Sunday +in Manchester, was ‘We preach Christ and Him crucified,’ +and I look back, and venture to say that the noble words of this text +have been, however imperfectly followed, my guiding star.</p> +<p>Now, I wish to say a word or two, less personal perhaps, and yet, +as you can well suppose, not without a personal reference in my own +consciousness.</p> +<p>I. Note here first, then, the Apostolic theme—Jesus Christ +and Him crucified.</p> +<p>Now, the Apostle, in this context, gives us a little +autobiographical glimpse which is singularly and interestingly +confirmed by some slight incidental notices in the Book of the Acts. +He says, in the context, that he was with the Corinthians ‘in +weakness and in fear and in much trembling,’ and, if we turn to +the narrative, we find that a singular period of silence, apparent +abandonment of his work and dejection, seems to have synchronised +with his coming to the great city of Corinth. The reasons were very +plain. He had recently come into Europe for the first time and had +had to front a new condition of things, very different from what he +had found in Palestine or in Asia Minor. His experience had not been +encouraging. He had been imprisoned in Philippi; he had been smuggled +away by night from Thessalonica; he had been hounded from Berea; he +had all but wholly failed to make any impression in Athens, and in +his solitude he came to Corinth, and lay quiet, and took stock of his +adversaries. He came to the conclusion which he records in my text; +he felt that it was not for him to argue with philosophers, or to +attempt to vie with Sophists and professional orators, but that his +only way to meet Greek civilisation, Greek philosophy, Greek +eloquence, Greek self-conceit, was to preach ‘Christ and Him +crucified.’ The determination was not come to in ignorance of +the conditions that were fronting him. He knew Corinth, its wealth, +its wickedness, its culture, and knowing these he said, ‘I have +made up my mind that I will know nothing amongst you save Jesus +Christ and Him crucified.’</p> +<p>So, then, this Apostle's conception of his theme was—the +biography of a Man, with especial emphasis laid on one act in His +history—His death. Christianity is Christ, and Christ is +Christianity. His relation to the truth that He proclaimed, and to +the truths that may be deducible from the story of His life and +death, is altogether different from the relation of any other founder +of a religion to the truths that he has proclaimed. For in these you +can accept the teaching, and ignore the teacher. But you cannot do +that with Christianity; ‘I am the Way, and the Truth, and the +Life’; and in that revealing biography, which is the preacher's +theme, the palpitating heart and centre is the death upon the Cross. +So, whatever else Christianity comes to be—and it comes to be a +great deal else—the principle of its growth, and the germ which +must vitalise the whole, lie in the personality and the death of +Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>That is not all. The history of the life and the death want +something more to make them a gospel. The fact, I was going to say, +is the least part of the fact; as in some vegetable growths, there is +far more underground than above. For, unless along with, involved in, +and deducible from, but capable of being stated separately from, the +external facts, there is a certain commentary or explanation of them: +the history is a history, the biography is a biography, the story of +the Cross is a touching narrative, but it is no gospel.</p> +<p>And what was Paul's commentary which lifted the bare facts up into +the loftier region? This—as for the person, Jesus Christ +‘declared to be the son of God with power’—as for +the fact of the death, ‘died for our sins according to the +Scriptures.’ Let in these two conceptions into the +facts—and they are the necessary explanation and presupposition +of the facts—the Incarnation and the Sacrifice, and then you +get what Paul calls ‘my gospel,’ not because it was his +invention, but because it was the trust committed to him. That is the +Gospel which alone answers to the facts which he deals with; and that +is the Gospel which, God helping me, I have for forty years tried to +preach.</p> +<p>We hear a great deal at present, or we did a few years ago, about +this generation having recovered Jesus Christ, and about the +necessity of going ‘back to the Christ of the Gospels.’ +By all means, I say, if in the process you do not lose the Christ of +the Epistles, who is the Christ of the Gospels, too. I am free to +admit that a past generation has wrapped theological cobwebs round +the gracious figure of Christ with disastrous results. For it is +perfectly possible to know the things that are said about Him, and +not to know Him about whom these things are said. But the mistake +into which the present generation is far more likely to fall than +that of substituting theology for Christ, is the converse +one—that of substituting an undefined Christ for the Christ of +the Gospels and the Epistles, the Incarnate Son of God, who died for +our salvation. And that is a more disastrous mistake than the other, +for you can know nothing about Him and He can be nothing to you, +except as you grasp the Apostolic explanation of the bare +facts—seeing in Him the Word who became flesh, the Son who died +that we might receive the adoption of sons.</p> +<p>I would further point out that a clear conception of what the +theme is, goes a long way to determine the method in which it shall +be proclaimed. The Apostle says, in the passage which is parallel to +the present one, in the previous chapter, ‘We preach Christ +crucified’; with strong emphasis on the word +‘preach.’ ‘The Jew required a sign’; he +wanted a man who would do something. The Greek sought after wisdom; +he wanted a man who would perorate and argue and dissertate. Paul +says, ‘No!’ ‘We have nothing to <i>do</i>. We do +not come to philosophise and to argue. We come with a message of fact +that has occurred, of a Person that has lived.’ And, as most of +you know, the word which he uses means in its full signification, +‘to proclaim as a herald does.’</p> +<p>Of course, if my business were to establish a set of principles, +theological or otherwise, then argumentation would be my weapon, +proofs would be my means, and my success would be that I should win +your credence, your intellectual consent, and conviction. If I were +here to proclaim simply a morality, then the thing that I would aim +to secure would be obedience, and the method of securing it would be +to enforce the authority and reasonableness of the command. But, +seeing that my task is to proclaim a living Person and a historical +fact, then the way to do that is to do as the herald does when in the +market-place he stands, trumpet in one hand and the King's message in +the other—proclaim it loudly, confidently, not ‘with +bated breath and whispering humbleness,’ as if apologising, nor +too much concerned to buttress it up with argumentation out of his +own head, but to say, ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ and to what +the Lord saith conscience says, ‘Amen.’ Brethren, we need +far more, in all our pulpits, of that unhesitating confidence in the +plain, simple proclamation, stripped, as far as possible, of human +additions and accretions, of the great fact and the great Person on +whom all our salvation depends.</p> +<p>II. So let me ask you to notice the exclusiveness which this theme +demands.</p> +<p>‘Nothing but,’ says Paul. I might venture to +say—though perhaps the tone of the personal allusions in this +sermon may seem to contradict it—that this exclusiveness is to +be manifested in one very difficult direction, and that that is, the +herald shall efface himself. We have to hold up the picture; and if I +might take such a metaphor, like a man in a gallery who is displaying +some masterpiece to the eyes of the beholders, we have to keep +ourselves well behind it; and it will be wise if not even a +finger-tip is allowed to steal in front and come into sight. One +condition, I believe, of real power in the ministration of the +Gospel, is that people shall be convinced that the preacher is +thinking not at all about himself, but altogether about his message. +You remember that wonderfully pathetic utterance from John the +Baptist's stern lips, which derives much additional pathos and +tenderness from the character of the man from whom it came, when they +asked him, ‘Who art thou?’ and his answer was, ‘I +am a Voice.’ I am a Voice; that is all! Ah, that is the +example! We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord. We must +efface ourselves if we would proclaim Christ.</p> +<p>But I turn to another direction in which this theme demands +exclusiveness, and I revert to the previous chapter where in the +parallel portion to the words of my text, we find the Apostle very +clearly conscious of the two great streams of expectation and wish +which he deliberately thwarted and set at nought. ‘The Jews +require a sign—but we preach Christ crucified. The Greeks seek +after wisdom,’ but again, ‘we preach Christ +crucified.’ Now, take these two. They are representations, in a +very emphatic way, of two sets of desires and mental characteristics, +which divide the world between them.</p> +<p>On the one hand, there is the sensuous tendency that wants +something done for it, something to see, something that sense can +grasp at; and so, as it fancies, work itself upwards into a higher +region. ‘The Jew requires a sign’—that is, not +merely a miracle, but something to look at. He wants a visible +sacrifice; he wants a priest. He wants religion to consist largely in +the doing of certain acts which may be supposed to bring, in some +magical fashion, spiritual blessings. And Paul opposes to that, +‘We preach Christ crucified.’ Brethren, the tendency is +strong to-day, not only in those parts of the Anglican communion +where sacramentarian theories are in favour, but amongst all sections +of the Christian Church, in which there is obvious a drift towards +more ornate ritual, and aesthetic services, as means of attracting to +church or chapel, and as more important than proclaiming Christ. I am +free to confess that possibly some of us, with our Puritan upbringing +and tendency, too much disregard that side of human nature. Possibly +it is so. But for all that I profoundly believe that if religion is +to be strong it must have a very, very small infusion of these +external aids to spiritual worship, and that few things more weaken +the power of the Gospel that Paul preached than the lowering of the +flag in conformity with desires of men of sense, and substituting for +the simple glory of the preached Word the meretricious, and in time +impotent, and always corrupting, attractions of a sensuous +worship.</p> +<p>Further, ‘The Greeks seek after wisdom.’ They wanted +demonstration, abstract principles, systematised philosophies, and +the like. Paul comes again with his ‘We preach Christ and Him +crucified.’ The wisdom is there, as I shall have to say in a +moment, but the form that it takes is directly antagonistic to the +wishes of these wisdom-seeking Greeks. The same thing in modern guise +besets us to-day. We are called upon, on all sides, to bring into the +pulpit what they call an ethical gospel; putting it into plain +English, to preach morality, and to leave out Christ. We are called +upon, on all sides, to preach an applied Christianity, a social +gospel—that is to say, largely to turn the pulpit into a Sunday +supplement to the daily newspaper. We are asked to deal with the +intellectual difficulties which spring from the collision of science, +true or false, with religion, and the like. All that is right enough. +But I believe from my heart that the thing to do is to copy Paul's +example, and to preach Christ and Him crucified. You may think me +right or you may think me wrong, but here and now, at the end of +forty years, I should like to say that I have for the most part +ignored that class of subjects deliberately, and of set purpose, and +with a profound conviction, be it erroneous or not, that a ministry +which listens much to the cry for ‘wisdom’ in its modern +forms, has departed from the true perspective of Christian teaching, +and will weaken the churches which depend upon it. Let who will turn +the pulpit into a professor's chair, or a lecturer's platform, or a +concert-room stage or a politician's rostrum, I for one determine to +know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.</p> +<p>III. Lastly, observe the all-sufficient comprehensiveness which +this theme secures.</p> +<p>Paul says ‘nothing but’; he might have said +‘everything in.’ For ‘Jesus Christ and Him +crucified’ covers all the ground of men's needs. No doubt many +of you will have been saying to yourselves whilst you have been +listening, if you have been listening, to what I have been saying, +‘Ah! old-fashioned narrowness; quite out of date in this +generation.’ Brethren, there are two ways of adapting one's +ministry to the times. One is falling in with the requirements of the +times, and the other is going dead against them, and both of these +methods have to be pursued by us.</p> +<p>But the exclusiveness of which I have been speaking, is no narrow +exclusiveness. Paul felt that, if he was to give the Corinthians what +they needed, he must refuse to give them what they wanted, and that +whilst he crossed their wishes he was consulting their necessities. +That is true yet, for the preaching that bases itself upon the life +and death of Jesus Christ, conceived as Paul had learned from Jesus +Christ to conceive them, that Gospel, whilst it brushes aside men's +superficial wishes, goes straight to the heart of their deep-lying +universal necessities, for what the Jew needs most is not a sign, and +what the Greek needs most is not wisdom, but what they both need most +is deliverance from the guilt and power of sin. And we all, scholars +and fools, poets and common-place people, artists and ploughmen, all +of us, in all conditions of life, in all varieties of culture, in all +stages of intellectual development, in all diversities of occupation +and of mental bias, what we all have in common is that human heart in +which sin abides, and what we all need most to have is that evil drop +squeezed out of it, and our souls delivered from the burden and the +bondage. Therefore, any man that comes with a sign, and does not deal +with the sin of the human heart, and any man that comes with a +philosophical system of wisdom, and does not deal with sin, does not +bring a Gospel that will meet the necessities even of the people to +whose cravings he has been aiming to adapt his message.</p> +<p>But, beyond that, in this message of Christ and Him crucified, +there lies in germ the satisfaction of all that is legitimate in +these desires that at first sight it seems to thwart. ‘A +sign?’ Yes, and where is there power like the power that dwells +in Him who is the Incarnate might of omnipotence? +‘Wisdom?’ Yes, and where is there wisdom, except +‘in Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and +knowledge’? Let the Jew come to the Cross, and in the weak Man +hanging there, he will find a mightier revelation of the power of God +than anywhere else. Let the Greek come to the Cross, and there he +will find wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. +The bases of all social, economical, political reform and well-being, +lie in the understanding and the application to social and national +life, of the principles that are wrapped in, and are deduced from, +the Incarnation and the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We have not +learned them all yet. They have not all been applied to national and +individual life yet. I plead for no narrow exclusiveness, but for one +consistent with the widest application of Christian principles to all +life. Paul determined to know nothing but Jesus, and to know +everything in Jesus, and Jesus in everything. Do not begin your +building at the second-floor windows. Put in your foundations first, +and be sure that they are well laid. Let the Sacrifice of Christ, in +its application to the individual and his sins, be ever the basis of +all that you say. And then, when that foundation is laid, exhibit, to +your heart's content, the applications of Christianity and its social +aspects. But be sure that the beginning of them all is the work of +Christ for the individual sinful soul, and the acceptance of that +work by personal faith.</p> +<p>Dear friends, ours has been a long and happy union but it is a +very solemn one. My responsibilities are great; yours are not small. +Let me beseech you to ask yourselves if, with all your kindness to +the messenger, you have given heed to the message. Have you passed +beyond the voice that speaks, to Him of whom it speaks? Have you +taken the truth—veiled and weakened as I know it has been by my +words, but yet in them—for what it is, the word of the living +God? My occupancy of this pulpit must in the nature of things, before +long, come to a close, but the message which I have brought to you +will survive all changes in the voice that speaks here. ‘All +flesh is grass ... the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.’ +And, closing these forty years, during a long part of which some of +you have listened most lovingly and most forbearingly, I leave with +you this, which I venture to quote, though it is my Master's word +about Himself, ‘I judge you not; the word which I have spoken +unto you, the same shall judge you in the last day.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="gf55" id="gf55">GOD'S FELLOW-WORKERS</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Labourers together with God.’—1 COR. +iii. 9.</blockquote> +<p>The characteristic Greek tendency to factions was threatening to +rend the Corinthian Church, and each faction was swearing by a +favourite teacher. Paul and his companion, Apollos, had been taken as +the figureheads of two of these parties, and so he sets himself in +the context, first of all to show that neither of the two was of any +real importance in regard to the Church's life. They were like a +couple of gardeners, one of whom did the planting, and the other the +watering; but neither the man that put the little plant into the +ground, nor the man that came after him with a watering-pot, had +anything to do with originating the mystery of the life by which the +plant grew. That was God's work, and the pair that had planted and +watered were nothing. So what was the use of fighting which of two +nothings was the greater?</p> +<p>But then he bethinks himself that that is not quite all. The man +that plants and the man that waters are something after all. They do +not communicate life, but they do provide for its nourishment. And +more than that, the two operations—that of the man with the +dibble and that of the man with the watering-pot—are one in +issue; and so they are partners, and in some respects may be regarded +as one. Then what is the sense of pitting them against each +other?</p> +<p>But even that is not quite all; though united in operation, they +are separate in responsibility and activity, and will be separate in +reward. And even that is not all; for, being nothing and yet +something, being united and yet separate, they are taken into +participation and co-operation with God; and as my text puts it, in +what is almost a presumptuous phrase, they are ‘labourers +together with Him.’ That partnership of co-operation is not +merely a partnership of the two, but it is a partnership of the +three—God and the two who, in some senses, are one.</p> +<p>Now whilst this text is primarily spoken in regard to the +apostolic and evangelistic work of these early teachers, the +principle which it embodies is a very wide one, and it applies in all +regions of life and activity, intellectual, scholastic, +philanthropic, social. Where-ever men are thinking God's thoughts and +trying to carry into effect any phase or side of God's manifold +purposes of good and blessing to the world, there it is true. We +claim no special or exclusive prerogative for the Christian teacher. +Every man that is trying to make men understand God's thought, +whether it is expressed in creation, or whether it is written in +history, or whether it is carven in half-obliterated letters on the +constitution of human nature, every man who, in any region of society +or life, is seeking to effect the great designs of the universal +loving Father—can take to himself, in the measure and according +to the manner of his special activity, the great encouragement of my +text, and feel that he, too, in his little way, is a fellow-helper to +the truth and a fellow-worker with God. But then, of course, +according to New Testament teaching, and according to the realities +of the case, the highest form in which men thus can co-operate with +God, and carry into effect His purposes is that in which men devote +themselves, either directly or indirectly, to spreading throughout +the whole world the name and the power of the Saviour Jesus Christ, +in whom all God's will is gathered, and through whom all God's +blessings are communicated to mankind. So the thought of my text +comes appropriately when I have to bring before you the claims of our +missionary operations.</p> +<p>Now, the first way in which I desire to look at this great idea +expressed in these words, is that we find in it</p> +<p>I. A solemn thought.</p> +<p>‘Labourers together with God.’ Cannot He do it all +Himself? No. God needs men to carry out His purposes. True, on the +Cross, Jesus spoke the triumphant word, ‘It is finished!’ +He did not thereby simply mean that He had completed all His +suffering; but He meant that He had then done all which the world +needed to have done in order that it should be a redeemed world. But +for the distribution and application of that finished work God +depends on men. You all know, in your own daily businesses, how there +must be a middleman between the mill and the consumer. The question +of organising a distributing agency is quite as important as any +other part of the manufacturer's business. The great reservoir is +full, but there has to be a system of irrigating-channels by which +the water is carried into every corner of the field that is to be +watered. Christian men individually, and the Church collectively, +supply—may I call it the missing link?—between a +redeeming Saviour and the world which He has redeemed in act, but +which is not actually redeemed, until it has received the message of +the great Redemption that is wrought. The supernatural is implanted +in the very heart of the mass of leaven by the Incarnation and +Sacrifice of Jesus Christ; but the spreading of that supernatural +revelation is left in the hands of men who work through natural +processes, and who thus become labourers together with God, and +enable Christ to be to single souls, in blessed reality, what He is +potentially to the world, and has been ever since. He died upon the +Cross. ‘It is finished.’ Yes—because it is +finished, our work begins.</p> +<p>Let me remind you of the profound symbolism in that incident where +our Lord for once appeared conspicuously, and almost ostentatiously, +before Israel as its true King. He had need—as He Himself +said—of the meek beast on which He rode. He cannot pass, in His +coronation procession, through the world unless He has us, by whom He +may be carried into every corner of the earth. So ‘the Lord has +need’ of us, and we are ‘fellow-labourers with +Him.’</p> +<p>But this same thought suggests another point. We have here a +solemn call addressed to every Christian man and woman.</p> +<p>Do not let us run away with the idea that, because here the +Apostle is speaking in regard to himself and Apollos, he is +enunciating a truth which applies only to Apostles and evangelists. +It is true of all Christians. My knowledge of and faith in Jesus +Christ as my own personal Saviour impose upon me the obligation, in +so far as my opportunities and capacities extend, thus to co-operate +with Him in spreading His great Name. Every Christian man, just +because he is a Christian, is invested with the power—and power +to its last particle is duty—and is, therefore, burdened with +the honourable obligation to work for God. There is such a thing as +‘coming to the help of the Lord,’ though that phrase +seems to reverse altogether the true relation. It is the duty of +every Christian, partly because of loyalty to Jesus, and partly +because of the responsibility which the very constitution of society +lays upon every one of us, to diffuse what he possesses, and to be a +distributing agent for the life that he himself enjoys. Brethren! +there is no possibility of Christian men or women being fully +faithful to the Saviour, unless they recognise that the duty of being +a fellow-labourer with God inevitably follows on being a possessor of +Christ's salvation; and that no Apostle, no official, no minister, no +missionary, has any more necessity laid upon him to preach the +Gospel, nor pulls down any heavier woe on himself if he is +unfaithful, than has and does each one of Christ's servants.</p> +<p>So ‘we are fellow-labourers with God.’ Alas! alas! how +poorly the average Christian realises—I do not say discharges, +but realises—that obligation! Brethren, I do not wish to find +fault, but I do beseech you to ask yourselves whether, if you are +Christians, you are doing anything the least like what my text +contemplates as the duty of all Christians.</p> +<p>May I say a word or two with regard to another aspect of this +solemn call? Does not the thought of working along with God prescribe +for us the sort of work that we ought to do? We ought to work in +God's fashion, and if we wish to know what God's fashion is, we have +but to look at Jesus Christ. We ought to work in Jesus Christ's +fashion. We all know what that involved of self-sacrifice, of pain, +of weariness, of utter self-oblivious devotion, of gentleness, of +tenderness, of infinite pity, of love running over. ‘The +master's eye makes a good servant.’ The Master's hand working +along with the servant ought to make the servant work after the +Master's fashion. ‘As My Father hath sent Me, so send I +you.’ If we felt that side by side with us, like two sailors +hauling on one rope, ‘the Servant of the Lord’ was +toiling, do you not think it would burn up all our selfishness, and +light up all our indifference, and make us spend ourselves in His +service? A fellow-labourer with God will surely never be lazy and +selfish. Thus my text has in it, to begin with, a solemn call.</p> +<p>It suggests</p> +<p>II. A signal honour.</p> +<p>Suppose a great painter, a Raphael or a Turner, taking a little +boy that cleaned his brushes, and saying to him, ‘Come into my +studio, and I will let you do a bit of work upon my picture.’ +Suppose an aspirant, an apprentice in any walk of life, honoured by +being permitted to work along with some one who was recognised all +over the world as being at the very top of that special profession. +Would it not be a feather in the boy's cap all his life? And would he +not think it the greatest honour that ever had been done him that he +was allowed to co-operate, in however inferior a fashion, with such +an one? Jesus Christ says to us, ‘Come and work here side by +side with Me,’ But Christian men, plenty of them, answer, +‘It is a perpetual nuisance, this continual application for +money! money! money! work! work! work! It is never-ending, and it is +a burden!’ Yes, it is a burden, just because it is an honour. +Do you know that the Hebrew word which means ‘glory’ +literally means ‘weight’? There is a great truth in that. +You cannot get true honours unless you are prepared to carry them as +burdens. And the highest honour that Jesus Christ gives to men when +He says to them, not only ‘Go work to-day in My +vineyard,’ but ‘Come, work here side by side with +Me,’ is a heavy weight which can only be lightened by a +cheerful heart.</p> +<p>Is it not the right way to look at all the various forms of +Christian activity which are made imperative upon Christian people, +by their possession of Christianity as being tokens of Christ's love +to us? Do you remember that this same Apostle said, ‘Unto me +who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that I +should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ?’ He could +speak about burdens and heavy tasks, and being ‘persecuted but +not forsaken,’ almost crushed down and yet not in despair, and +about the weights that came upon him daily, ‘the care of all +the churches,’ but far beneath all the sense of his heavy load +lay the thrill of thankful wonder that to him, of all men in the +world, knowing as he did better than anybody else could do his own +imperfection and insufficiency, this distinguishing honour had been +bestowed, that he was made the Apostle to the Gentiles. That is the +way in which the true man will always look at what the selfish man, +and the half-and-half Christian, look at as being a weight and a +weariness, or a disagreeable duty, which is to be done as +perfunctorily as possible. One question that a great many who call +themselves Christians ask is, ‘With how little service can I +pass muster?’ Ah, it is because we have so little of the Spirit +of Christ in us that we feel burdened by His command, ‘Go ye +into all the world,’ as being so heavy; and that so many of +us—I leave you to judge if you are in the class—so many +of us make it criminally light if we do not ignore it altogether. I +believe that, if it were possible to conceive of the duty and +privilege of spreading Christ's name in the world being withdrawn +from the Church, all His real servants would soon be yearning to have +it back again. It is a token of His love; it is a source of infinite +blessings to ourselves; ‘if the house be not worthy, your peace +shall return to you again.’</p> +<p>And now, lastly, we have suggested by this text</p> +<p>III. A strong encouragement.</p> +<p>‘Fellow-labourers with God’—then, God is a +Fellow-labourer with us. The co-operation works both ways, and no man +who is seeking to spread that great salvation, to distribute that +great wealth, to irrigate some little corner of the field by some +little channel that he has dug, needs to feel that he is labouring +alone. If I am working with God, God is working with me. Do you +remember that most striking picture which is drawn in the verses +appended to Mark's Gospel, which tells how the universe seemed parted +into two halves, and up above in the serene the Lord ‘sat on +the right hand of God,’ while below, in the murky and obscure, +‘they went everywhere preaching the Word.’ The separation +seems complete, but the two halves are brought together by the next +word—‘The Lord also,’ sitting up yonder, +‘working with them’ the wandering preachers down here, +‘confirming the words with signs following.’ Ascended on +high, entered into His rest, having finished His work, He yet is +working with us, if we are labourers together with God. If we turn to +the last book of Scripture, which draws back the curtain from the +invisible world which is all filled with the glorified Christ, and +shows its relations to the earthly militant church, we read no longer +of a Christ enthroned in apparent ease, but of a Christ walking +amidst the candlesticks, and of a Lamb standing in the midst of the +Throne, and opening the seals, launching forth into the world the +sequences of the world's history, and of the Word of God charging His +enemies on His white horse, and behind Him the armies of God +following. The workers who labour with God have the ascended Christ +labouring with them.</p> +<p>But if God works with us, success is sure. Then comes the old +question that Gideon asked with bitterness of heart, when he was +threshing out his handful of wheat in a corner to avoid the +oppressors, ‘If the Lord be with us, wherefore is all this come +upon us? Will any one say that the progress of the Gospel in the +world has been at the rate which its early believers expected, or at +the rate which its own powers warranted them to expect? Certainly +not. And so it comes to this, that whilst every true labourer has God +working with him, and therefore success is certain, the planter and +the waterer can delay the growth of the plant by their +unfaithfulness, by not expecting success, by not so working as to +make it likely, or by neutralising their evangelistic efforts by +their worldly lives. When Jesus Christ was on earth, it is recorded, +‘He could there do no mighty works because of their unbelief, +save that He laid His hands on a few sick folk and healed +them.’ A faithless Church, a worldly Church, a lazy Church, an +unspiritual Church, an un-Christlike Church—which, to a large +extent, is the designation of the so-called Church of to +day—can clog His chariot-wheels, can thwart the work, can +hamper the Divine Worker. If the Christians of Manchester were +revived, they could win Manchester for Jesus. If the Christians of +England lived their Christianity, they could make England what it +never has been but in name—a Christian country. If the Church +universal were revived, it could win the world. If the single +labourer, or the community of such, is labouring ‘in the +Lord,’ their labour will not be in vain; and if they thus plant +and water, God will give the increase.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="ttf56" id="ttf56">THE TESTING FIRE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, +silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble: 13. Every man's work +shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it +shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of +what sort it is.’—1 COR. iii. 12, 13.</blockquote> +<p>Before I enter upon the ideas which the words suggest, my +exegetical conscience binds me to point out that the original +application of the text is not exactly that which I purpose to make +of it now. The context shows that the Apostle is thinking about the +special subject of Christian teachers and their work, and that the +builders of whom he speaks are the men in the Corinthian Church, some +of them his allies and some of them his rivals, who were +superimposing upon the foundation of the preaching of Jesus Christ +other doctrines and principles. The ‘wood, hay, stubble’ +are the vapid and trivial doctrines which the false teachers were +introducing into the Church. The ‘gold, silver, and precious +stones’ are the solid and substantial verities which Paul and +his friends were proclaiming. And it is about these, and not about +the Christian life in the general, that the tremendous metaphors of +my text are uttered.</p> +<p>But whilst that is true, the principles involved have a much wider +range than the one case to which the Apostle applies them. And, +though I may be slightly deflecting the text from its original +direction, I am not doing violence to it, if I take it as declaring +some very plain and solemn truths applicable to all Christian people, +in their task of building up a life and character on the foundation +of Jesus Christ; truths which are a great deal too much forgotten in +our modern popular Christianity, and which it concerns us all very +clearly to keep in view. There are three things here that I wish to +say a word about—the patchwork building, the testing fire, the +fate of the builders.</p> +<p>I. First, the patchwork structure.</p> +<p>‘If any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, +precious stones, wood, hay, stubble.’ In the original +application of the metaphor, Paul is thinking of all these teachers +in that church at Corinth as being engaged in building the one +structure—I venture to deflect here, and to regard each of us +as rearing our own structure of life and character on the foundation +of the preached and accepted Christ.</p> +<p>Now, what the Apostle says is that these builders were, some of +them, laying valuable things like gold and silver and costly +stones—by which he does not mean jewels, but marbles, +alabasters, polished porphyry or granite, and the like; sumptuous +building materials, which were employed in great palaces or +temples—and that some of them were bringing timber, hay, +stubble, reeds gathered from the marshes or the like, and filling in +with such trash as that. That is a picture of what a great many +Christian people are doing in their own lives—the same man +building one course of squared and solid and precious stones, and +topping them with rubbish. You will see in the walls of Jerusalem, at +the base, five or six courses of those massive blocks which are the +wonders of the world yet; well jointed, well laid, well cemented, and +then on the top of them a mass of poor stuff, heaped together anyhow; +scamped work—may I use a modern +vulgarism?—‘jerry-building.’ You may go to some +modern village, on an ancient historic site, and you will find built +into the mud walls of the hovels in which the people are living, a +marble slab with fair carving on it, or the drum of a great column of +veined marble, and on the top of that, timber and clay mixed +together.</p> +<p>That is the type of the sort of life that hosts of Christian +people are living. For, mark, all the builders are on the foundation. +Paul is not speaking about mere professed Christians who had no faith +at all in them, and no real union with Jesus Christ. These builders +were ‘on the foundation’; they were building on the +foundation, there was a principle deep down in their +lives—which really lay at the bottom of their lives—and +yet had not come to such dominating power as to mould and purify and +make harmonious with itself the life that was reared upon it. We all +know that that is the condition of many men, that they have what +really are the fundamental bases of their lives, in belief and aim +and direction; and which yet are not strong enough to master the +whole of the life, and to manifest themselves through it. Especially +it is the condition of some Christian people. They have a real faith, +but it is of the feeblest and most rudimentary kind. They are on the +foundation, but their lives are interlaced with the most +heterogeneous mixty-maxty of good and evil, of lofty, high, +self-sacrificing thoughts and heavenward aspirations, of resolutions +never carried out into practice; and side by side with these there +shall be meannesses, selfishnesses, tempers, dispositions all +contradictory of the former impulses. One moment they are all fire +and love, the next moment ice and selfishness. One day they are all +for God, the next day all for the world, the flesh, and the devil. +Jacob sees the open heavens and the face of God and vows; to-morrow +he meets Laban and drops to shifty ways. Peter leaves all and follows +his Master, and in a little while the fervour has gone, and the fire +has died down into grey ashes, and a flippant servant-girl's tongue +leads him to say ‘I know not the man.’ ‘Gold, +silver, precious stones,’ and topping them, ‘wood, hay, +stubble!’</p> +<p>The inconsistencies of the Christian life are what my text, in the +application that I am venturing to make of it, suggests to us. Ah, +dear friends! we do not need to go to Jacob and Peter; let us look at +our own hearts, and if we will honestly examine one day of our lives, +I think we shall understand how it is possible for a man, on the +foundation, yet to build upon it these worthless and combustible +things, ‘wood, hay, stubble.’</p> +<p>We are not to suppose that one man builds <i>only</i> ‘gold, +silver, precious stones.’ There is none of us that does that. +And we are not to suppose that any man who <i>is</i> on the +foundations has so little grasp of it, as that he builds <i>only</i> +‘wood, hay, stubble.’</p> +<p>There is none of us who has not intermingled his building, and +there is none of us, if we are Christians at all, who has not +sometimes laid a course of ‘precious stones.’ If your +faith is doing <i>nothing</i> for you except bringing to you a belief +that you are not going to hell when you die, then it is no faith at +all. ‘Faith without works is dead.’ So there is a +mingling in the best, and—thank God!—there is a mingling +of good with evil, in the worst of real Christian people.</p> +<p>II. Note here, the testing fire.</p> +<p>Paul points to two things, the day and the fire.</p> +<p>‘The day shall declare it,’ that is the day on which +Jesus Christ comes to be the Judge; and it, that is ‘the +day,’ ‘shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall test +every man's work.’ Now, it is to be noticed that here we are +moving altogether in the region of lofty symbolism, and that the +metaphor of the testing fire is suggested by the previous enumeration +of building materials, gold and silver being capable of being assayed +by flame; and ‘wood, hay, stubble’ being combustible, and +sure to be destroyed thereby. The fire here is not an emblem of +punishment; it is not an emblem of cleansing. There is no reference +to anything in the nature of what Roman Catholics call purgatorial +fires. The allusion is simply to some stringent and searching means +of testing the quality of a man's work, and of revealing that +quality.</p> +<p>So then, we come just to this, that for people ‘on the +foundation,’ there is a Day of revelation and testing of their +life's work. It is a great misfortune that so-called Evangelical +Christianity does not say as much as the New Testament says about the +judgment that is to be passed on ‘the house of God.’ +People seem to think that the great doctrine of salvation, ‘not +by works of righteousness which we have done, but by His +mercy,’ is, somehow or other, interfered with when we proclaim, +as Paul proclaims, speaking to Christian people, ‘We must be +manifested before the judgment seat of Christ,’ and declares +that ‘Every man will receive the things done in his body, +according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad.’ Paul +saw no contradiction, and there is no contradiction. But a great many +professing Christians seem to think that the great blessing of their +salvation by faith is, that they are exempt from that future +revelation and testing and judgment of their acts. That is not the +New Testament teaching. But, on the contrary, ‘Whatsoever a man +soweth that shall he also reap,’ was originally said to a +church of Christian people. And here we come full front against that +solemn truth, that the Lord will ‘gather together His saints, +those that have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice, that He may +judge His people.’ Never mind about the drapery, the symbolism, +the expression in material forms with which that future judgment is +arranged, in order that we may the more easily grasp it. Remember +that these pictures in the New Testament of a future judgment are +highly symbolical, and not to be interpreted as if they were plain +prose; but also remember that the heart of them is this, that there +comes for Christian people as for all others, a time when the light +will shine down upon their past, and will flash its rays into the +dark chambers of memory, and when men will—to themselves if not +to others—be revealed ‘in the day when the Lord shall +judge the secrets of men according to my Gospel.’</p> +<p>We have all experience enough of how but a few years, a change of +circumstances, or a growth into another stage of development, give us +fresh eyes with which to estimate the moral quality of our past. Many +a thing, which we thought to be all right at the time when we did it, +looks to us now very questionable and a plain mistake. And when we +shift our stations to up yonder, and get rid of all this blinding +medium of flesh and sense, and have the issues of our acts in our +possession, and before our sight—ah! we shall think very +differently of a great many things from what we think of them now. +Judgment will begin at the house of God.</p> +<p>And there is the other thought, that the fire which reveals and +tests has also in it a power of destruction. Gold and silver will +lose no atom of their weight, and will be brightened into greater +lustre as they flash back the beams. The timber and the stubble will +go up in a flare, and die down into black ashes. That is highly +metaphorical, of course. What does it mean? It means that some men's +work will be crumpled up and perish, and be as of none effect, +leaving a great, black sorrowful gap in the continuity of the +structure, and that other men's work will stand. Everything that we +do is, in one sense, immortal, because it is represented in our final +character and condition, just as a thin stratum of rock will +represent forests of ferns that grew for one summer millenniums ago, +or clouds of insects that danced for an hour in the sun. But whilst +that is so, and nothing human ever dies, on the other hand, deeds +which have been in accordance, as it were, with the great stream that +sweeps the universe on its bosom will float on that surface and never +sink. Acts which have gone against the rush of God's will through +creation will be like a child's go-cart that comes against the engine +of an express train—be reduced, first, to stillness, all the +motion knocked out of them, and then will be crushed to atoms. Deeds +which stand the test will abide in blessed issue for the doer, and +deeds which do not will pass away in smoke, and leave only ashes. +Some of us, building on the foundation, have built more rubbish than +solid work, and that will be</p> +<pre> +'Cast as rubbish to the void +When God has made the pile complete.' +</pre> +<p>III. So, lastly, we have here the fate of the two builders.</p> +<p>The one man gets wages. That is not the bare notion of salvation, +for both builders are conceived of as on the foundation, and both are +saved. He gets wages. Yes, of course! The architect has to give his +certificate before the builder gets his cheque. The weaver, who has +been working his hand-loom at his own house, has to take his web to +the counting-house and have it overlooked before he gets his pay. And +the man who has built ‘gold, silver, precious stones,’ +will have—over and above the initial salvation—in himself +the blessed consequences, and unfold the large results, of his +faithful service; while the other man, inasmuch as he has not such +work, cannot have the consequences of it, and gets no wages; or at +least his pay is subject to heavy deductions for the spoiled bits in +the cloth, and for the gaps in the wall.</p> +<p>The Apostle employs a tremendous metaphor here, which is masked in +our Authorised Version, but is restored in the Revised. ‘He +shall be saved, yet so as’ (not ‘by’ but) +‘through fire’; the picture being that of a man +surrounded by a conflagration, and making a rush through the flames +to get to a place of safety. Paul says that he will get through, +because down <i>below</i> all inconsistency and worldliness, there +was a little of that which ought to have been <i>above</i> all the +inconsistency and the worldliness—a true faith in Jesus Christ. +But because it was so imperfect, so feeble, so little operative in +his life as that it could not keep him from piling up inconsistencies +into his wall, therefore his salvation is so as through the fire.</p> +<p>Brethren, I dare not enlarge upon that great metaphor. It is meant +for us professing Christians, real and imperfect Christians—it +is meant for us; and it just tells us that there are degrees in that +future blessedness proportioned to present faithfulness. We begin +there where we left off here. That future is not a dead level; and +they who have earnestly striven to work out their faith into their +lives shall ‘summer high upon the hills of God.’ One man, +like Paul in his shipwreck, shall lose ship and lading, though +‘on broken pieces of the ship’ he may ‘escape safe +to land’; and another shall make the harbour with full cargo of +works of faith, to be turned into gold when he lands. If we build, as +we all may, ‘on that foundation, gold and silver and precious +stones,’ an entrance ‘shall be ministered unto us +abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus +Christ’; whilst if we bring a preponderance of ‘wood, +hay, stubble,’ we shall be ‘saved, yet so as through the +fire.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tog57" id="tog57">TEMPLES OF GOD</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of +God?’—1 COR. iii. 16</blockquote> +<p>The great purpose of Christianity is to make men like Jesus +Christ. As He is the image of the invisible God we are to be the +images of the unseen Christ. The Scripture is very bold and emphatic +in attributing to Christ's followers likeness to Him, in nature, in +character, in relation to the world, in office, and in ultimate +destiny. Is He the anointed of God? We are anointed—Christs in +Him. Is He the Son of God? We in Him receive the adoption of sons. Is +He the Light of the world? We in Him are lights of the world too. Is +He a King? A Priest? He hath made us to be kings and priests.</p> +<p>Here we have the Apostle making the same solemn assertion in +regard to Christian men, ‘Know ye not that ye +are’—as your Master, and because your Master +is—‘that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of +God dwelleth in you?’</p> +<p>Of course the allusion in my text is to the whole aggregate of +believers—what we call the Catholic Church, as being collectively +the habitation of God. But God cannot dwell in an aggregate of men, +unless He dwells in the individuals that compose the aggregate. And +God has nothing to do with institutions except through the people who +make the institutions. And so, if the Church as a whole is a Temple, +it is only because all its members are temples of God.</p> +<p>Therefore, without forgetting the great blessed lesson of the +unity of the Church which is taught in these words, I want rather to +deal with them in their individual application now; and to try and +lay upon your consciences, dear brethren, the solemn obligations and +the intense practical power which this Apostle associated with the +thought that each Christian man was, in very deed, a temple of +God.</p> +<p>It would be very easy to say eloquent things about this text, but +that is no part of my purpose.</p> +<p>I. Let me deal, first of all, and only for a moment or two, with +the underlying thought that is here—that every Christian is a +dwelling-place of God.</p> +<p>Now, do not run away with the idea that that is a metaphor. It was +the outward temple that was the metaphor. The reality is that which +you and I, if we are God's children in Jesus Christ, experience. +There was no real sense in which that Mighty One whom the Heaven of +Heavens cannot contain, dwelt in any house made with hands. But the +Temple, and all the outward worship, were but symbolical of the facts +of the Christian life, and the realities of our inward experience. +These are the truths whereof the other is the shadow. We use words to +which it is difficult for us to attach any meaning, when we talk +about God as being locally present in any material building; but we +do not use words to which it is so difficult to attach a meaning, +when we talk about the Infinite Spirit as being present and abiding +in a spirit shaped to hold Him, and made on purpose to touch Him and +be filled by Him.</p> +<p>All creatures have God dwelling in them in the measure of their +capacity. The stone that you kick on the road would not be there if +there were not a present God. Nothing would happen if there were not +abiding in creatures the force, at any rate, which is God. But just +as in this great atmosphere in which we all live and move and have +our being, the eye discerns undulations which make light, and the ear +catches vibrations which make sound, and the nostrils are recipient +of motions which bring fragrance, and all these are in the one +atmosphere, and the sense that apprehends one is utterly unconscious +of the other, so God's creatures, each through some little narrow +slit, and in the measure of their capacity, get a straggling beam +from Him into their being, and therefore they are.</p> +<p>But high above all other ways in which creatures can lie patent to +God, and open for the influx of a Divine Indweller, lies the way of +faith and love. Whosoever opens his heart in these divinely-taught +emotions, and fixes them upon the Christ in whom God dwells, receives +into the very roots of his being—as the water that trickles +through the soil to the rootlets of the tree—the very Godhead +Himself. ‘He that is joined to the Lord is one +spirit.’</p> +<p>That God shall dwell in my heart is possible only from the fact +that He dwelt in all His fulness in Christ, through whom I touch Him. +That Temple consecrates all heart-shrines; and all worshippers that +keep near to Him, partake with Him of the Father that dwelt in +Him.</p> +<p>Only remember that in Christ God dwelt completely, all ‘the +fulness of the Godhead bodily’ was there, but in us it is but +partially; that in Christ, therefore, the divine indwelling was +uniform and invariable, but in us it fluctuates, and sometimes is +more intimate and blessed, and sometimes He leaves the habitation +when we leave Him; that in Christ, therefore, there was no progress +in the divine indwelling, but that in us, if there be any true +inhabitation of our souls by God, that abiding will become more and +more, until every corner of our being is hallowed and filled with the +searching effulgence of the all-pervasive Light. And let us remember +that God dwelt in Christ, but that in us it is God in Christ who +dwells. So to Him we owe it all, that our poor hearts are made the +dwelling-place of God; or, as this Apostle puts it, in other words +conveying the same idea, ‘Ye are built upon the foundation of +the Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief +Corner-stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth +... for a habitation of God through the Spirit.’</p> +<p>II. Now then, turning from this underlying idea of the passage, +let us look, for a moment, at some of the many applications of which +the great thought is susceptible. I remark, then, in the second +place, that as temples all Christians are to be manifesters of +God.</p> +<p>The meaning of the Temple as of all temples was, that there the +indwelling Deity should reveal Himself; and if it be true that we +Christian men and women are, in this deep and blessed reality of +which I have been speaking, the abiding places and habitations of +God, then it follows that we shall stand in the world as the great +means by which God is manifested and made known, and that in a +two-fold way; <i>to ourselves</i> and <i>to other people</i>.</p> +<p>The real revelation of God to our hearts must be His abiding in +our hearts. We do not learn God until we possess God. He must fill +our souls before we know His sweetness. The answer that our Lord made +to one of His disciples is full of the deepest truth. ‘How is +it,’ said one of them in his blundering way, ‘how is it +that Thou wilt manifest Thyself to us?’ And the answer was, +‘We will come and make Our abode with him.’ You do not +know God until, if I might so say, He sits at your fireside and talks +with you in your hearts. Just as some wife may have a husband whom +the world knows as hero, or sage, or orator, but she knows him as +nobody else can; so the outside, and if I may so say, the public +character of God is but the surface of the revelation that He makes +to us, when in the deepest secrecy of our own hearts He pours Himself +into our waiting spirits. O brethren! it is within the curtains of +the Holiest of all that the Shekinah flashes; it is within our own +hearts, shrined and templed there, that God reveals Himself to us, as +He does not unto the world.</p> +<p>And then, further, Christian men, as the temples and habitations +of God, are appointed to be the great means of making Him known to +the world around. The eye that cannot look at the sun can look at the +rosy clouds that lie on either side of it, and herald its rising; +their opalescent tints and pearly lights are beautiful to dim vision, +to which the sun itself is too bright to be looked upon. Men will +believe in a gentle Christ when they see you gentle. They will +believe in a righteous love when they see it manifesting itself in +you. You are ‘the secretaries of God's praise,’ as George +Herbert has it. He dwells in your hearts that out of your lives He +may be revealed. The pictures in a book of travels, or the diagrams +in a mathematical work, tell a great deal more in half a dozen lines +than can be put into as many pages of dry words. And it is not books +of theology nor eloquent sermons, but it is a Church glowing with the +glory of God, and manifestly all flushed with His light and majesty, +that will have power to draw men to believe in the God whom it +reveals. When explorers land upon some untravelled island and meet +the gentle inhabitants with armlets of rough gold upon their wrists, +they say there must be many a gold-bearing rock of quartz crystal in +the interior of the land. And if you present yourselves, Christian +men and women, to the world with the likeness of your Master plain +upon you, then people will believe in the Christianity that you +profess. You have to popularise the Gospel in the fashion in which +go-betweens and middlemen between students and the populace +popularise science. You have to make it possible for men to believe +in the Christ because they see Christ in you. ‘Know ye not that +ye are the temples of the living God?’ Let His light shine from +you.</p> +<p>III. I remark again that as temples all Christian lives should be +places of sacrifice.</p> +<p>What is the use of a temple without worship? And what kind of +worship is that in which the centre point is not an altar? That is +the sort of temple that a great many professing Christians are. They +have forgotten the altar in their spiritual architecture. Have you +got one in your heart? It is but a poor, half-furnished sanctuary +that has not. Where is yours? The key and the secret of all noble +life is to yield up one's own will, to sacrifice oneself. There never +was anything done in this world worth doing, and there never will be +till the end of time, of which sacrifice is not the centre and +inspiration. And the difference between all other and lesser +nobilities of life, and the supreme beauty of a true Christian life +is that the sacrifice of the Christian is properly a +<i>sacrifice</i>—that is, an offering to <i>God</i>, done for +the sake of the great love wherewith He has loved us. As Christ is +the one true Temple, and we become so by partaking of Him, so He is +the one Sacrifice for sins for ever, and we become sacrifices only +through Him. If there be any lesson which comes out of this great +truth of Christians as temples, it is not a lesson of pluming +ourselves on our dignity, or losing ourselves in the mysticisms which +lie near this truth, but it is the hard lesson—If a temple, +then an altar; if an altar, then a sacrifice. ‘Ye are built up +a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, that ye may offer spiritual +sacrifices, acceptable to God’—sacrifice, priest, +temple, all in one; and all for the sake and by the might of that +dear Lord who has given Himself a bleeding Sacrifice for the sins +of the whole world, that we might offer a Eucharistic sacrifice of +thanks and praise and self-surrender unto Him, and to His Father +God.</p> +<p>IV. And, lastly, this great truth of my text enforces the solemn +lesson of the necessary sanctity of the Christian life.</p> +<p>‘The temple of God,’ says the context, ‘the +temple of God is holy, which (holy persons) ye are.’ The plain +first idea of the temple is a place set apart and consecrated to +God.</p> +<p>Hence, of course, follows the idea of purity, but the parent idea +of ‘holiness’ is not purity, which is the consequence, +but consecration or separation to God, which is the root.</p> +<p>And so in very various applications, on which I have not time to +dwell now, this idea of the necessary sanctity of the Temple is put +forth in these two letters to the Corinthian Church. Corinth was a +city honeycombed with the grossest immoralities; and hence, perhaps, +to some extent the great emphasis and earnestness and even severity +of the Apostle in dealing with some forms of evil.</p> +<p>But without dwelling on the details, let me just point you to +three directions in which this general notion of sanctity is applied. +There is that of our context here ‘Know ye not that ye are the +temple of God? If any man <i>destroy</i> the temple of God, him shall +God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, and such ye +are.’</p> +<p>He is thinking here mainly, I suppose, about the devastation and +destruction of this temple of God, which was caused by schismatical +and heretical teaching, and by the habit of forming parties, +‘one of Paul, one of Apollos, one of Cephas, one of +Christ,’ which was rending that Corinthian Church into pieces. +But we may apply it more widely than that, and say that anything +which corrupts and defiles the Christian life and the Christian +character assumes a darker tint of evil when we think that it is +sacrilege—the profanation of the temple, the pollution of that +which ought to be pure as He who dwells in it.</p> +<p>Christian men and women, how that thought darkens the blackness of +all sin! How solemnly there peals out the warning, ‘If any man +destroy or impair the temple,’ by any form of pollution, +‘him’ with retribution in kind, ‘him shall God +destroy.’ Keep the temple clear; keep it clean. Let Him come +with His scourge of small cords and His merciful rebuke. You +Manchester men know what it is to let the money-changers into the +sanctuary. Beware lest, beginning with making your hearts +‘houses of merchandise,’ you should end by making them +‘dens of thieves.’</p> +<p>And then, still further, there is another application of this same +principle, in the second of these Epistles. ‘What agreement +hath the temple of God with idols?’ ‘Ye are the temple of +the living God.’</p> +<p>Christianity is intolerant. There is to be one image in the +shrine. One of the old Roman Stoic Emperors had a pantheon in his +palace with Jesus Christ upon one pedestal and Plato on the one +beside Him. And some of us are trying the same kind of thing. Christ +there, and somebody else here. Remember, Christ must be everything or +nothing! Stars may be sown by millions, but for the earth there is +one sun. And you and I are to shrine one dear Guest, and one only, in +the inmost recesses of our hearts.</p> +<p>And there is another application of this metaphor also in our +letter. ‘Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy +Ghost which is in you?’ Christianity despises ‘the +flesh’; Christianity reverences the body; and would teach us +all that, being robed in that most wonderful work of God's hands, +which becomes a shrine for God Himself if He dwell in our hearts, all +purity, all chastisement and subjugation of animal passion is our +duty. Drunkenness, and gluttony, lusts of every kind, impurity of +conduct, and impurity of word and look and thought, all these assume +a still darker tint when they are thought of as not only crimes +against the physical constitution and the moral law of humanity, but +insults flung in the face of the God that would inhabit the +shrine.</p> +<p>And in regard to sins of this kind, which it is so difficult to +speak of in public, and which grow unchecked in secrecy, and are +ruining hundreds of young lives, the words of this context are grimly +true, ‘If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God +destroy.’ I speak now mainly in brotherly or fatherly warning +to young men—did you ever read this, ‘His bones are full +of the iniquities of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the +dust’? ‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of +God?’</p> +<p>And so, brethren, our text tells us what we may all be. There is +no heart without its deity. Alas! alas! for the many listening to me +now whose spirits are like some of those Egyptian temples, which had +in the inmost shrine a coiled-up serpent, the mummy of a monkey, or +some other form as animal and obscene.</p> +<p>Oh! turn to Christ and cry, ‘Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest, +Thou and the ark of Thy strength.’ Open your hearts and let +Christ come in. And before Him, as of old, the bestial Dagon will be +found, dejected and truncated, lying on the sill there; and all the +vain, cruel, lustful gods that have held riot and carnival in your +hearts will flee away into the darkness, like some foul ghosts at +cock-crow. ‘If any man hear My voice and open the door I will +come in.’ And the glory of the Lord shall fill the house.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="dtf58" id="dtf58">DEATH, THE FRIEND</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘... All things are yours ... death.’—1 +COR. iii. 21, 22.</blockquote> +<p>What Jesus Christ is to a man settles what everything else is to +Him. Our relation to Jesus determines our relation to the universe. +If we belong to Him, everything belongs to us. If we are His +servants, all things are our servants. The household of Jesus, which +is the whole Creation, is not divided against itself, and the +fellow-servants do not beat one another. Two bodies moving in the +same direction, and under the impulse of the same force, cannot come +into collision, and since ‘all things work together,’ +according to the counsel of His will, ‘all things work together +for good’ to His lovers. The triumphant words of my text are no +piece of empty rhetoric, but the plain result of two +facts—Christ's rule and the Christian's submission. ‘All +things are yours, and ye are Christ's,’ so the stars in their +courses fight against those who fight against Him, and if we are at +peace with Him we shall ‘make a league with the beasts of the +field, and the stones of the field,’ which otherwise would be +hindrances and stumbling-blocks, ‘shall be at peace with’ +us.</p> +<p>The Apostle carries his confidence in the subservience of all +things to Christ's servants very far, and the words of my text, in +which he dares to suggest that ‘the Shadow feared of man’ +is, after all, a veiled friend, are hard to believe, when we are +brought face to face with death, either when we meditate on our own +end, or when our hearts are sore and our hands are empty. Then the +question comes, and often is asked with tears of blood, Is it true +that this awful force, which we cannot command, does indeed serve us? +Did it serve those whom it dragged from our sides; and in serving +them, did it serve us? Paul rings out his ‘Yes’; and if +we have as firm a hold of Paul's Lord as Paul had, our answer will be +the same. Let me, then, deal with this great thought that lies here, +of the conversion of the last enemy into a friend, the assurance that +we may all have that death is ours, though not in the sense that we +can command it, yet in the sense that it ministers to our highest +good.</p> +<p>That thought may be true about ourselves when it comes to our turn +to die, and, thank God, has been true about all those who have +departed in His faith and fear. Some of you may have seen two very +striking engravings by a great, though somewhat unknown artist, +representing Death as the Destroyer, and Death as the Friend. In the +one case he comes into a scene of wild revelry, and there at his feet +lie, stark and stiff, corpses in their gay clothing and with garlands +on their brows, and feasters and musicians are flying in terror from +the cowled Skeleton. In the other he comes into a quiet church +belfry, where an aged saint sits with folded arms and closed eyes, +and an open Bible by his side, and endless peace upon the wearied +face. The window is flung wide to the sunrise, and on its sill +perches a bird that gives forth its morning song. The cowled figure +has brought rest to the weary, and the glad dawning of a new life to +the aged, and is a friend. The two pictures are better than all the +poor words that I can say. It depends on the people to whom he comes, +whether he comes as a destroyer or as a helper. Of course, for all of +us the mere physical facts remain the same, the pangs and the pain, +the slow torture of the loosing of the bond, or the sharp agony of +its instantaneous rending apart. But we have gone but a very little +way into life and its experiences, if we have not learnt that +identity of circumstances may cover profound difference of +essentials, and that the same experiences may have wholly different +messages and meanings to two people who are equally implicated in +them. Thus, while the physical fact remains the same for all, the +whole bearing of it may so differ that Death to one man will be a +Destroyer, while to another it is a Friend.</p> +<p>For, if we come to analyse the thoughts of humanity about the last +act in human life on earth, what is it that makes the dread darkness +of death, which all men know, though they so seldom think of it? I +suppose, first of all, if we seek to question our feelings, that +which makes Death a foe to the ordinary experience is, that it is +like a step off the edge of a precipice in a fog; a step into a dim +condition of which the imagination can form no conception, because it +has no experience, and all imagination's pictures are painted with +pigments drawn from our past. Because it is impossible for a man to +have any clear vision of what it is that is coming to meet him, and +he cannot tell ‘in that sleep what dreams may come,’ he +shrinks, as we all shrink, from a step into the vast Inane, the dim +Unknown. But the Gospel comes and says, ‘It <i>is</i> a land of +great darkness,’ but ‘To the people that sit in darkness +a great light hath shined.’</p> +<pre> +'Our knowledge of that life is small, +The eye of faith is dim.' +</pre> +<p class="noindent">But faith has an eye, and there is light, and +this we can see—One face whose brightness scatters all the +gloom, One Person who has not ceased to be the Sun of Righteousness +with healing in His beams, even in the darkness of the grave. +Therefore, one at least of the repellent features which, to the +timorous heart, makes Death a foe, is gone, when we know that the +known Christ fills the Unknown.</p> +<p>Then, again, another of the elements, as I suppose, which +constitute the hostile aspect that Death assumes to most of us, is +that it apparently hales us away from all the wholesome activities +and occupations of life, and bans us into a state of apparent +inaction. The thought that death is rest does sometimes attract the +weary or harassed, or they fancy it does, but that is a morbid +feeling, and much more common in sentimental epitaphs than among the +usual thoughts of men. To most of us there is no joy, but a chill, in +the anticipation that all the forms of activity which have so +occupied, and often enriched, our lives here, are to be cut off at +once. ‘What am I to do if I have no books?’ says the +student. ‘What am I to do if I have no mill?’ says the +spinner. ‘What am I to do if I have no nursery or +kitchen?’ say the women. What are you to do? There is only one +quieting answer to such questions. It tells us that what we are doing +here is learning our trade, and that we are to be moved into another +workshop there, to practise it. Nothing can bereave us of the force +we made our own, being here; and ‘there is nobler work for us +to do’ when the Master of all the servants stoops from His +Throne and says: ‘Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I +will make thee ruler over many things; have thou authority over ten +cities.’ Then the faithfulness of the steward will be exchanged +for the authority of the ruler, and the toil of the servant for a +share in the joy of the Lord.</p> +<p>So another of the elements which make Death an enemy is turned +into an element which makes it a friend, and instead of the +separation from this earthly body, the organ of our activity and the +medium of our connection with the external universe being the +condemnation of the naked spirit to inaction, it is the emancipation +of the spirit into greater activity. For nothing drops away at death +that does not make a man the richer for its loss, and when the dross +is purged from the silver, there remains ‘a vessel unto honour, +fit for the Master's use.’ This mightier activity is the +contribution to our blessedness, which Death makes to them who use +their activities here in Christ's service.</p> +<p>Then, still further, another of the elements which is converted +from being a terror into a joy is that Death, the separator, becomes +to Christ's servants Death, the uniter. We all know how that function +of death is perhaps the one that makes us shrink from it the most, +dread it the most, and sometimes hate it the most. But it will be +with us as it was with those who were to be initiated into ancient +religious rites. Blindfolded, they were led by a hand that grasped +theirs but was not seen, through dark, narrow, devious passages, but +they were led into a great company in a mighty hall. Seen from this +side, the ministry of Death parts a man from dear ones, but, oh! if +we could see round the turn in the corridor, we should see that the +solitude is but for a moment, and that the true office of Death is +not so much to part from those beloved on earth as to carry to, and +unite with, Him that is best Beloved in the heavens, and in Him with +all His saints. They that are joined to Christ, as they who pass from +earth are joined, are thereby joined to all who, in like manner, are +knit to Him. Although other dear bonds are loosed by the bony fingers +of the Skeleton, his very loosing of them ties more closely the bond +that unites us to Jesus, and when the dull ear of the dying has +ceased to hear the voices of earth that used to thrill it in their +lowest whisper, I suppose it hears another Voice that says: +‘When thou passest through the fire I will be with thee, and +through the waters they shall not overflow thee.’ Thus the +Separator unites, first to Jesus, and then to ‘the general +assembly and Church of the first-born,’ and leads into the city +of the living God, the pilgrims who long have lived, often isolated, +in the desert.</p> +<p>There is a last element in Death which is changed for the +Christian, and that is that to men generally, when they think about +it, there is an instinctive recoil from Death, because there is an +instinctive suspicion that after Death is the Judgment, and that, +somehow or other—never mind about the drapery in which the idea +may be embodied for our weakness—when a man dies he passes to a +state where he will reap the consequences of what he has sown here. +But to Christ's servant that last thought is robbed of its sting, and +all the poison sucked out of it, for he can say: ‘He that died +for me makes it possible for me to die undreading, and to pass +thither, knowing that I shall meet as my Judge Him whom I have +trusted as my Saviour, and so may have boldness before Him in the Day +of Judgment.’</p> +<p>Knit these four contrasts together. Death as a step into a dim +unknown <i>versus</i> Death as a step into a region lighted by Jesus; +Death as the cessation of activity <i>versus</i> Death as the +introduction to nobler opportunities, and the endowment with nobler +capacities of service; Death as the separator and isolator +<i>versus</i> Death as uniting to Jesus and all His lovers; Death as +haling us to the judgment-seat of the adversary <i>versus</i> Death +as bringing us to the tribunal of the Christ; and I think we can +understand how Christians can venture to say, ‘All things are +ours, whether life or death’ which leads to a better life.</p> +<p>And now let me add one word more. All this that I have been +saying, and all the blessed strength for ourselves and calming in our +sorrows which result therefrom, stand or fall with the Resurrection +of Jesus Christ. There is nothing else that makes these things +certain. There are, of course, instincts, peradventures, hopes, +fears, doubts. But in this region, and in regard to all this cycle of +truths, the same thing applies which applies round the whole horizon +of Christian Revelation—if you want not speculations but +certainties, you have to go to Jesus Christ for them. There were many +men who thought that there were islands of the sea beyond the setting +sun that dyed the western waves, but Columbus went and came back +again, and brought their products—and then the thought became a +fact. Unless you believe that Jesus Christ has come back from +‘the bourne from which no traveller returns,’ and has +come laden with the gifts of ‘happy isles of Eden’ far +beyond the sea, there is no certitude upon which a dying man can lay +his head, or by which a bleeding heart can be staunched. But when He +draws near, alive from the dead, and says to us, as He did to the +disciples on the evening of the day of Resurrection, ‘Peace be +unto you,’ and shows us His hands and His side, then we do not +only speculate or think a future life possible or probable, or +hesitate to deny it, or hope or fear, as the case may be, but we +<i>know</i>, and we can say: ‘All things are ours ... +death’ amongst others. The fact that Jesus Christ has died +changes the whole aspect of death to His servant, inasmuch as in that +great solitude he has a companion, and in the valley of the shadow of +death sees footsteps that tell him of One that went before.</p> +<p>Nor need I do more than remind you how the manner of our Lord's +death shows that He is Lord not only of the dead but of the Death +that makes them dead. For His own tremendous assertion, ‘I have +power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again,’ +was confirmed by His attitude and His words at the last, as is hinted +at by the very expressions with which the Evangelists record the fact +of His death: ‘He yielded up His spirit,’ ‘He gave +up the ghost,’ ‘He breathed out His life.’ It is +confirmed to us by such words as those remarkable ones of the +Apocalypse, which speak of Him as ‘the Living One,’ who, +by His own will, ‘became dead.’ He died because He would, +and He would die because He loved you and me. And in dying, He showed +Himself to be, not the Victim, but the Conqueror, of the Death to +which He submitted. The Jewish king on the fatal field of Gilboa +called his sword-bearer, and the servant came, and Saul bade him +smite, and when his trembling hand shrank from such an act, the king +fell on his own sword. The Lord of life and death summoned His +servant Death, and He came obedient, but Jesus died not by Death's +stroke, but by His own act. So that Lord of Death, who died because +He would, is the Lord who has the keys of death and the grave. In +regard to one servant He says, ‘I will that he tarry till I +come,’ and that man lives through a century, and in regard to +another He says, ‘Follow thou Me,’ and that man dies on a +cross. The dying Lord is Lord of Death, and the living Lord is for us +all the Prince of Life.</p> +<p>Brethren, we have to take His yoke upon us by the act of faith +which leads to a love that issues in an obedience which will become +more and more complete, as we become more fully Christ's. Then death +will be ours, for then we shall count that the highest good for us +will be fuller union with, a fuller possession of, and a completer +conformity to, Jesus Christ our King, and that whatever brings us +these, even though it brings also pain and sorrow and much from which +we shrink, is all on our side. It is possible—may it be so with +each of us!—that for us Death may be, not an enemy that bans us +into darkness and inactivity, or hales us to a judgment-seat, but the +Angel who wakes us, at whose touch the chains fall off, and who leads +us through ‘the iron gate that opens of its own accord,’ +and brings us into the City.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="sal59" id="sal59">SERVANTS AND LORDS</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘All things are yours; 22. Whether Paul, or +Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things +present, or things to come; all are yours; 23. And ye are +Christ's.’—1 COR. iii. 21-23.</blockquote> +<p>The Corinthian Christians seem to have carried into the Church +some of the worst vices of Greek—and English—political +life. They were split up into wrangling factions, each swearing by +the name of some person. Paul was the battle-cry of one set; Apollos +of another. Paul and Apollos were very good friends, their admirers +bitter foes—according to a very common experience. The springs +lie close together up in the hills, the rivers may be parted by half +a continent.</p> +<p>These feuds were all the more detestable to the Apostle because +his name was dragged into them; and so he sets himself, in the first +part of this letter, with all his might, to shame and to argue the +Corinthian Christians out of their wrangling. This great text is one +of the considerations which he adduces with that purpose. In effect +he says, ‘To pin your faith to any one teacher is a wilful +narrowing of the sources of your blessing and your wisdom. You say +you are Paul's men. Has Apollos got nothing that he could teach you? +and may you not get any good out of brave brother Cephas? Take them +all; they were all meant for your good. Let no man glory in +individuals.’</p> +<p>That is all that his argument required him to say. But in his +impetuous way he goes on into regions far beyond. His thought, like +some swiftly revolving wheel, catches fire of its own rapid motion; +and he blazes up into this triumphant enumeration of all the things +that serve the soul which serves Jesus Christ. ‘You are lords +of men, of the world of time, of death, of eternity; but you are not +lords of yourselves. You belong to Jesus, and in the measure in which +you belong to Him do all things belong to you.’</p> +<p>I. I think, then, that I shall best bring out the fulness of these +words by simply following them as they lie before us, and asking you +to consider, first, how Christ's servants are men's lords.</p> +<p>‘All things are yours, Paul, Apollos, Cephas.’ These +three teachers were all lights kindled at the central Light, and +therefore shining. They were fragments of His wisdom, of Him that +spoke; varying, but yet harmonious, and mutually complementary +aspects of the one infinite Truth had been committed to them. Each +was but a part of the mighty whole, a little segment of the +circle</p> +<pre> +'They are but broken lights of Thee, +And Thou, O Lord! art more than they.' +</pre> +<p class="noindent">And in the measure, therefore, in which men +adhere to Christ, and have taken Him for theirs; in that measure are +they delivered from all undue dependence on, still more from all +slavish submission to, any single individual teacher or aspect of +truth. To have Christ for ours, and to be His, which are only the +opposite sides of the same thing, mean, in brief, to take Jesus +Christ for the source of all knowledge of moral and religious truth. +His Word is the Christian's creed, His Person and the truths that lie +in Him, are the fountains of all our knowledge of God and man. To be +Christ's is to take Him as the master who has absolute authority over +conduct and practice. His commandment is the Christian's duty; His +pattern the Christian's all-sufficient example; His smile the +Christian's reward. To be Christ's is to take Him for the home of our +hearts, in whose gracious and sweet love we find all sufficiency and +a rest for our seeking affections. And so, if ye are His, Paul, +Apollos, Cephas, all men are yours; in the sense that you are +delivered from all undue dependence upon them; and in the sense that +they subserve your highest good.</p> +<p>So the true democracy of Christianity, which abjures swearing by +the words of any teacher, is simply the result of loyal adherence to +the teaching of Jesus Christ. And that proud independence which some +of you seek to cultivate, and on the strength of which you declare +that no man is your master upon earth, is an unwholesome and +dangerous independence, unless it be conjoined with the bowing down +of the whole nature, in loyal submission, to the absolute authority +of the only lips that ever spoke truth, truth only, and truth always. +If Christ be our Master, if we take our creed from Him, if we accept +His words and His revelation of the Father as our faith and our +objective religion, then all the slavery to favourite names, all the +taking of truth second-hand from the lips that we honour, all the +partisanship for one against another which has been the shame and the +ruin of the Christian Church, and is working untold mischiefs in it +to-day, are ended at once. ‘One is your Master, even +Christ.’ ‘Call no man Rabbi! upon earth; but bow before +Him, the Incarnate and the Personal Truth.’</p> +<p>And in like manner they who are Christ's are delivered from all +temptations to make men's maxims and practices and approbation the +law of their conduct. Society presses upon each of us; what we call +public opinion, which is generally the clatter of the half-dozen +people that happen to stand nearest us, rules us; and it needs to be +said very emphatically to all Christian men and women—Take your +law of conduct from His lips, and from nobody else's.</p> +<p>‘They say. What say they? Let them say.’ If we take +Christ's commandment for our absolute law, and Christ's approbation +for our highest aim and all-sufficient reward, we shall then be able +to brush aside other maxims and other people's opinions of us, safely +and humbly, and to say, ‘With me it is a very small matter to +be judged of you, or of man's judgment. He that judgeth me is the +Lord.’</p> +<p>The envoy of some foreign power cares very little what the +inhabitants of the land to which he is ambassador may think of him +and his doings; it is his sovereign's good opinion that he seeks to +secure. The soldier's reward is his commander's praise, the slave's +joy is the master's smile, and for us it ought to be the law of our +lives, and in the measure in which we really belong to Christ it will +be the law of our lives, that ‘we labour that, whether present +or absent, we may be pleasing to Him.’</p> +<p>So, brethren, as teachers, as patterns, as objects of love which +is only too apt to be exclusive and to master us, we can only take +one another in subordination to our supreme submission to Christ, and +if we are His, our duty, as our joy, is to count no man necessary to +our wellbeing, but to hang only on the one Man, whom it is safe and +blessed to believe utterly, to obey abjectly, and to love with all +our strength, because He is more than man, even God manifest in the +flesh.</p> +<p>II. And now let us pass to the next idea here, secondly, Christ's +servants are the lords of ‘the world.’</p> +<p>That phrase is used here, no doubt, as meaning the external +material universe. These creatures around us, they belong to us, if +we belong to Jesus Christ. That man owns the world who despises it. +There are plenty of rich men in Manchester who say they possess so +many thousand pounds. Turn the sentence about and it would be a great +deal truer—the thousands of pounds possess them. They are the +slaves of their own possessions, and every man who counts any +material thing as indispensable to his wellbeing, and regards it as +the chiefest good, is the slave-servant of that thing. He owns the +world who turns it to the highest use of growing his soul by it. All +material things are given, and, I was going to say, were created, for +the growth of men, or at all events their highest purpose is that men +should, by them, grow. And therefore, as the scaffolding is swept +away when the building is finished, so God will sweep away this +material universe with all its wonders of beauty and of contrivance, +when men have been grown by means of it. The material is less than +the soul, and he is master of the world, and owns it, who has got +thoughts out of it, truth out of it, impulses out of it, visions of +God out of it, who has by it been led nearer to his divine Master. If +I look out upon a fair landscape, and the man who draws the rents of +it is standing by my side, and I suck more sweetness, and deeper +impulses, and larger and loftier thoughts out of it than he does, it +belongs to me far more than it does to him. The world is his who from +it has learned to despise it, to know himself and to know God. He +owns the world who uses it as the arena, or wrestling ground, on +which, by labour, he may gain strength, and in which he may do +service. Antagonism helps to develop muscle, and the best use of the +outward frame of things is that we shall take it as the field upon +which we can serve God.</p> +<p>And now all these three things—the contempt of earth, the +use of earth for growing souls, and the use of earth as the field of +service—all these things belong most truly to the man who +belongs to Christ. The world is His, and if we live near Him and +cultivate fellowship with Him, and see His face gleaming through all +the Material, and are led up nearer to Him by everything around us, +then we own the world and wring the sweetness to the last drop out of +it, though we may have but little of that outward relation to its +goods which short-sighted men call possessing them. We may solve the +paradox of those who, ‘having nothing, yet have all,’ if +we belong to Christ the Lord of all things, and so have co-possession +with Him of all His riches.</p> +<p>III. Further, my text tells us, in the third place, that Christian +men, who belong to Jesus Christ, are the lords and masters of +‘life and death.’</p> +<p>Both of these words are here used, as it seems to me, in their +simple, physical sense, natural life and natural death. You may say, +‘Well, everybody is lord of life in that sense.’ Yes, of +course, in a fashion we all possess it, seeing that we are all alive. +But that mysterious gift of personality, that awful gift of conscious +existence, only belongs, in the deepest sense, to the men who belong +to Jesus Christ. I do not call that man the owner of his own life who +is not the lord of his own spirit. I do not see in what, except in +the mere animal sense in which a fly, or a spider, or a toad may be +called the master of its life, that man owns himself who has not +given up himself to Jesus Christ. The only way to get a real hold of +yourselves is to yield yourselves to Him who gives you back Himself, +and yourself along with Him. The true ownership of life depends upon +self-control, and self-control depends upon letting Jesus Christ +govern us wholly. So the measure in which it is true of me that +‘I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,’ is the +measure in which the lower life of sense really belongs to us, and +ministers to our highest good.</p> +<p>And then turn to the other member of this wonderful antithesis, +‘whether life or <i>death</i>.’ Surely if there is +anything over which no man can become lord, except by sinfully taking +his fate into his own hands, it is death. And yet even death, in +which we seem to be abjectly passive, and by which so many of us are +dragged away reluctantly from everything that we care to possess, may +become a matter of consent and therefore a moral act. Animals expire; +a Christian man may yield his soul to his Saviour, who is the Lord +both of the dead and of the living. If thus we feel our dependence +upon Him, and yield up our lives to Him, and can say, ‘Living +or dying we are the Lord's,’ then we may be quite sure that +death, too, will be our servant, and that our wills will be concerned +even in passing out of life.</p> +<p>Still more, if you and I, dear brethren, belong to Jesus Christ, +then death is our fellow-servant who comes to call us out of this +ill-lighted workshop into the presence of the King. And at His magic +cold touch, cares and toils and sorrows are stiffened into silence, +like noisy streams bound in white frost; and we are lifted clean up +out of all the hubbub and the toil into eternal calm. Death is ours +because it fulfils our deepest desires, and comes as a messenger to +paupers to tell them they have a great estate. Death is ours if we be +Christ's.</p> +<p>IV. And lastly, Christ's servants are the lords of time and +eternity, ‘things present or things to come.’</p> +<p>Our Apostle's division, in this catalogue of his, is rhetorical +rather than logical; and we need not seek to separate the first of +this final pair from others which we have already encountered in our +study of the words, but still we may draw a distinction. The whole +mass of ‘things present,’ including not only that +material universe which we call the world, but all the events and +circumstances of our lives, over these we may exercise supreme +control. If we are bowing in humble submission to Jesus Christ, they +will all subserve our highest good. Every weather will be right; +night and day equally desirable; the darkness will be good for eyes +that have been tired of brightness and that need repose, the light +will be good. The howling tempests of winter and its white snows, the +sharp winds of spring and its bursting sunshine; the calm steady heat +of June and the mellowing days of August, all serve to ripen the +grain. And so all ‘things present,’ the light and the +dark, the hopes fulfilled and the hopes disappointed, the gains and +the losses, the prayers answered and the prayers unanswered, they +will all be recognised, if we have the wisdom that comes from +submission to Jesus Christ's will, as being ours and ministering to +our highest blessing.</p> +<p>We shall be their lords too inasmuch as we shall be able to +control them. We need not be ‘anvils but hammers.’ We +need not let outward circumstances dominate and tyrannise over us. We +need not be like the mosses in the stream, that lie whichever way the +current sets, nor like some poor little sailing boat that is at the +mercy of the winds and the waves, but may carry an inward impulse +like some great ocean-going steamer, the throb of whose power shall +drive us straight forward on our course, whatever beats against us. +That we may have this inward power and mastery over things present, +and not be shaped and moulded and made by them, let us yield +ourselves to Christ, and He will help us to rule them.</p> +<p>And then, all ‘things to come,’ the dim, vague future, +shall be for each of us like some sunlit ocean stretching shoreless +to the horizon; every little ripple flashing with its own bright +sunshine, and all bearing us onwards to the great Throne that stands +on the sea of glass mingled with fire.</p> +<p>Then, my brother, ask yourselves what your future is if you have +not Christ for your Friend.</p> +<pre> +'I backward cast mine eye + On prospects drear; +And forward though I cannot see, + I guess and fear.' +</pre> +<p class="noindent">So I beseech you, yield yourselves to Jesus +Christ, He died to win us. He bears our sins that they may be all +forgiven. If we give ourselves to Him who has given Himself to us, +then we shall be lords of men, of the world, of life and death, of +time and eternity.</p> +<p>In the old days conquerors used to bestow upon their followers +lands and broad dominions on condition of their doing suit and +service, and bringing homage to them. Christ, the King of the +universe, makes His subjects kings, and will give us to share in His +dominion, so that to each of us may be fulfilled that boundless and +almost unbelievable promise: ‘He that overcometh shall inherit +all things.’ ‘All are yours if ye are +Christ's.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="ttt60" id="ttt60">THE THREE TRIBUNALS</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘But with me it is a very small thing that I should +be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own +self. 4. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified; +but he that judgeth me is the Lord.’—1 COR. iv. 3, +4.</blockquote> +<p>The Church at Corinth was honeycombed by the characteristic Greek +vice of party spirit. The three great teachers, Paul, Peter, Apollos, +were pitted against each other, and each was unduly exalted by those +who swore by him, and unduly depreciated by the other two factions. +But the men whose names were the war-cries of these sections were +themselves knit in closest friendship, and felt themselves to be +servants in common of one Master, and fellow-workers in one task.</p> +<p>So Paul, in the immediate context, associating Peter and Apollos +with himself, bids the Corinthians think of ‘<i>us</i>’ +as being servants of Christ, and not therefore responsible to men; +and as stewards of the mysteries of God, that is, dispensers of +truths long hidden but now revealed, and as therefore accountable for +correct accounts and faithful dispensation only to the Lord of the +household. Being responsible to Him, they heeded very little what +others thought about them. Being responsible to Him, they could not +accept vindication by their own consciences as being final. There was +a judgment beyond these.</p> +<p>So here we have three tribunals—that of man's estimates, +that of our own consciences, that of Jesus Christ. An appeal lies +from the first to the second, and from the second to the third. It is +base to depend on men's judgments; it is well to attend to the +decisions of conscience, but it is not well to take it for granted +that, if conscience approve, we are absolved. The court of final +appeal is Jesus Christ, and what He thinks about each of us. So let +us look briefly at these three tribunals.</p> +<p>I. First, the lowest—men's judgment.</p> +<p>‘With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of +you,’ enlightened Christians that you are, or by the outside +world. Now, Paul's letters give ample evidence that he was keenly +alive to the hostile and malevolent criticisms and slanders of his +untiring opponents. Many a flash of sarcasm out of the cloud like a +lightning bolt, many a burst of wounded affection like rain from +summer skies, tell us this. But I need not quote these. Such a +character as his could not but be quick to feel the surrounding +atmosphere, whether it was of love or of suspicion. So, he had to +harden himself against what naturally had a great effect upon him, +the estimate which he felt that people round him were making of him. +There was nothing brusque, rough, contemptuous in his brushing aside +these popular judgments. He gave them all due weight, and yet he +felt, ‘From all that this lowest tribunal may decide, there are +two appeals, one to my own conscience, and one to my Master in +heaven.’</p> +<p>Now, I suppose I need not say a word about the power which that +terrible court which is always sitting, and which passes judgment +upon every one of us, though we do not always hear the sentences +read, has upon us all. There is a power which it is meant to have. It +is not good for a man to stand constantly in the attitude of defying +whatever anybody else chooses to say or to think about him. But the +danger to which we are all exposed, far more than that other extreme, +is of deferring too completely and slavishly to, and being far too +subtly influenced in all that we do by, the thought of what A, B, or +C, may have to say or to think about it. ‘The last infirmity of +noble minds,’ says Milton about the love of fame. It is an +infirmity to love it, and long for it, and live by it. It is a +weakening of humanity, even where men are spurred to great efforts by +the thought of the reverberation of these in the ear of the world, +and of the honour and glory that may come therefrom.</p> +<p>But not only in these higher forms of seeking after reputation, +but in lower forms, this trembling before, and seeking to conciliate, +the tribunal of what we call ‘general opinion,’ which +means the voices of the half-dozen people that are beside us and know +about us, besets us all, and weakens us all in a thousand ways. How +many men would lose all the motive that they have for living +reputable lives, if nobody knew anything about it? How many of you, +when you go to London, and are strangers, frequent places that you +would not be seen in in Manchester? How many of us are hindered, in +courses which we know that we ought to pursue, because we are afraid +of this or that man or woman, and of what they may look or speak? +There is a regard to man's judgment, which is separated by the very +thinnest partition from hypocrisy. There is a very shadowy +distinction between the man who, consciously or unconsciously, does a +thing with an eye to what people may say about it, and the man who +pretends to be what he is not for the sake of the reputation that he +may thereby win.</p> +<p>Now, the direct tendency of Christian faith and principle is to +dwindle into wholesome insignificance the multitudinous voice of +men's judgments. For, if I understand at all what Christianity means, +it means centrally and essentially this, that I am brought into +loving personal relation with Jesus Christ, and draw from Him the +power of my life, and from Him the law of my life, and from Him the +stimulus of my life, and from Him the reward of my life. If there is +a direct communication between me and Him, and if I am deriving from +Him the life that He gives, which is ‘free from the law of sin +and death,’ I shall have little need or desire to heed the +judgment that men, who see only the surface, may pass upon me, and +upon my doings, and I shall refer myself to Him instead of to them. +Those who can go straight to Christ, whose lives are steeped in Him, +who feel that they draw all from Him, and that their actions and +character are moulded by His touch and His Spirit, are responsible to +no other tribunal. And the less they think about what men have to say +of them the stronger, the nobler, the more Christ-like they will +be.</p> +<p>There is no need for any contempt or roughness to blend with such +a putting aside of men's judgments. The velvet glove may be worn upon +the iron hand. All meekness and lowliness may go with this wholesome +independence, and must go with it unless that independence is false +and distorted. ‘With me it is a very small thing to be judged +of you, or of man's judgment,’ need not be said in such a tone +as to mean ‘I do not care a rush what you think about +me’; but it must be said in such a tone as to mean ‘I +care supremely for one approbation, and if I have that I can bear +anything besides.’</p> +<p>Let me appeal to you to cultivate more distinctly, as a plain +Christian duty, this wholesome independence of men's judgment. I +suppose there never was a day when it was more needed that men should +be themselves, seeing with their own eyes what God may reveal to them +and they are capable of receiving, and walking with their own feet on +the path that fits them, whatsoever other people may say about it. +For the multiplication of daily literature, the way in which we are +all living in glass houses nowadays—everybody knowing +everything about everybody else, and delighting in the gossip which +takes the place of literature in so many quarters—and the +tendency of society to a more democratic form give the many-headed +monster and its many tongues far more power than is wholesome, in the +shaping of the lives and character and conduct of most men. The evil +of democracy is that it levels down all to one plane, and that it +tends to turn out millions of people, as like each other as if they +had been made in a machine. And so we need, I believe, even more than +our fathers did, to lay to heart this lesson, that the direct result +of a deep and strong Christian faith is the production of intensely +individual character. And if there are plenty of angles in it, +perhaps so much the better. We are apt to be rounded by being rubbed +against each other, like the stones on the beach, till there is not a +sharp corner or a point that can prick anywhere. So society becomes +utterly monotonous, and is insipid and profitless because of that. +You Christian people, be yourselves, after your own pattern. And +whilst you accept all help from surrounding suggestions and hints, +make it ‘a very small thing that you be judged of men.’ +And you, young men, in warehouses and shops, and you, students, and +you, boys and girls, that are budding into life, never mind what +other people say. ‘Let thine eyes look right onwards,’ +and let all the clatter on either side of you go on as it will. The +voices are very loud, but if we go up high enough on the hill-top, to +the secret place of the Most High, we shall look down and see, but +not hear, the bustle and the buzz; and in the great silence Christ +will whisper to us, ‘Well done! good and faithful +servant.’ That praise is worth getting, and one way to get it +is to put aside the hindrance of anxious seeking to conciliate the +good opinion of men.</p> +<p>II. Note the higher court of conscience.</p> +<p>Our Apostle is not to be taken here as contradicting what he says +in other places. ‘I judge not mine own self,’—yet +in one of these same letters to the Corinthians he says, ‘If we +judged ourselves we should not be judged.’ So that he does not +mean here that he is entirely without any estimate of his own +character or actions. That he did in some sense judge himself is +evident from the next clause, because he goes on to say, ‘I +know nothing against myself.’ If he acquitted himself, he must +previously have been judging himself. But his acquittal of himself is +not to be understood as if it covered the whole ground of his life +and character, but it is to be confined to the subject in +hand—viz. his faithfulness as a steward of the mysteries of +God. But though there is nothing in that region of his life which he +can charge against himself as unfaithfulness, he goes on to say, +‘Yet am I not hereby justified?’</p> +<p>Our absolution by conscience is not infallible. I suppose that +conscience is more reliable when it condemns than when it acquits. It +is never safe for a man to neglect it when it says, ‘You are +wrong!’ It is just as unsafe for a man to accept it, without +further investigation, when it says, ‘You are right!’ For +the only thing that is infallible about what we call conscience is +its sentence, ‘It is right to do right.’ But when it +proceeds to say ‘This, that, and the other thing is right; and +therefore it is right for you to do it,’ there may be errors in +the judgment, as everybody's own experience tells them. The inward +judge needs to be stimulated, to be enlightened, to be corrected +often. I suppose that the growth of Christian character is very +largely the discovery that things that we thought innocent are not, +for us, so innocent as we thought them.</p> +<p>You only need to go back to history, or to go down into your own +histories, to see how, as light has increased, dark corners have been +revealed that were invisible in the less brilliant illumination. How +long it has taken the Christian Church to find out what Christ's +Gospel teaches about slavery, about the relations of sex, about +drunkenness, about war, about a hundred other things that you and I +do not yet know, but which our successors will wonder that we failed +to see! Inquisitor and martyr have equally said, ‘We are +serving God.’ Surely, too, nothing is more clearly witnessed by +individual experience, than that we may do a wrong thing, and think +that it is right. ‘They that kill you will think that they do +God service.’</p> +<p>So, Christian people, accept the inward monition when it is stern +and prohibitive. Do not be too sure about it when it is placable and +permissive. ‘Happy is he that condemneth not himself in the +thing which he alloweth.’ There may be secret faults, lying all +unseen beneath the undergrowth in the forest, which yet do prick and +sting. The upper floors of the house where we receive company, and +where we, the tenants, generally live, may be luxurious, and sweet, +and clean. What about the cellars, where ugly things crawl and swarm, +and breed, and sting?</p> +<p>Ah, dear brethren! when my conscience says to me, ‘You may +do it,’ it is always well to go to Jesus Christ, and say to Him +‘May I?’ ‘Search me, O God, and ... see if there be +any wicked way in me,’ and show it to me, and help me to cast +it out. ‘I know nothing against myself; yet am I not hereby +justified.’</p> +<p>III. Lastly, note the supreme court of final appeal.</p> +<p>‘He that judgeth me is the Lord.’ Now it is obvious +that ‘the Lord’ here is Christ, both because of the +preceding context and because of the next verse, which speaks of His +coming. And it is equally obvious, though it is often unnoticed, that +the judgment of which the Apostle is here speaking is a present and +preliminary judgment. ‘He that <i>judgeth</i> +me’—not, ‘will judge,’ but <i>now</i>, at +this very moment. That is to say, whilst people round us are passing +their superficial estimates upon me, and whilst my conscience is +excusing, or else accusing me—and in neither case with absolute +infallibility—there is another judgment, running concurrently +with them, and going on in silence. That calm eye is fixed upon me, +and sifting me, and knowing me. <i>That</i> judgment is not fallible, +because before Him ‘the hidden things’ that the darkness +shelters, those creeping things in the cellars that I was speaking +about, are all manifest; and to Him the ‘counsels of the +heart,’ that is, the motives from which the actions flow, are +all transparent and legible. So His judgment, the continual estimate +of me which Jesus Christ, in His supreme knowledge of me, has, at +every moment of my life—<i>that</i> is uttering the final word +about me and my character.</p> +<p>His estimate will dwindle the sentences of the other two tribunals +into nothingness. What matter what his fellow-servants say about the +steward's accounts, and distribution of provisions, and management of +the household? He has to render his books, and to give account of his +stewardship, only to his lord.</p> +<p>The governor of a Crown Colony may attach some importance to +colonial opinion, but he reports home; and it is what the people in +Downing Street will say that he thinks about. We have to report home; +and it is the King whom we serve, to whom we have to give an account. +The gladiator, down in the arena, did not much mind whether the +thumbs of the populace were up or down, though the one was the signal +for his life and the other for his death. He looked to the place +where, between the purple curtains and the flashing axes of the +lictors, the emperor sate. Our Emperor once was down on the sand +Himself, and although we are ‘compassed about with a cloud of +witnesses,’ we look to the Christ, the supreme Arbiter, and +take acquittal or condemnation, life or death, from Him.</p> +<p>That judgment, persistent all through each of our lives, is +preliminary to the future tribunal and sentence. The Apostle employs +in this context two distinct words, both of which are translated in +our version ‘judge.’ The one which is used in these three +clauses, on which I have been commenting, means a preliminary +examination, and the one which is used in the next verse means a +final decisive trial and sentence. So, dear brethren, Christ is +gathering materials for His final sentence; and you and I are writing +the depositions which will be adduced in evidence. Oh! how little all +that the world may have said about a man will matter then! Think of a +man standing before that great white throne, and saying, ‘I +held a very high place in the estimation of my neighbours. The +newspapers and the reviews blew my trumpet assiduously. My name was +carved upon the plinth of a marble statue, that my fellow-citizens +set up in honour of my many virtues,’—and the name was +illegible centuries before the statue was burned in the last +fire!</p> +<p>Brother! seek for the praise from Him, which is praise indeed. If +He says, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’ it +matters little what censures men may pass on us. If He says, ‘I +never knew you,’ all their praises will not avail. +‘Wherefore we labour that, whether present or absent, we may be +well-pleasing to Him.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tfl61" id="tfl61">THE FESTAL LIFE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old +leaven ... but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and +truth.’—1 COR. v. 8.</blockquote> +<p>There had been hideous immorality in the Corinthian Church. Paul +had struck at it with heat and force, sternly commanding the +exclusion of the sinner. He did so on the ground of the diabolical +power of infection possessed by evil, and illustrated that by the +very obvious metaphor of leaven, a morsel of which, as he says, +‘will leaven the whole lump,’ or, as we say, +‘batch.’ But the word ‘leaven’ drew up from +the depths of his memory a host of sacred associations connected with +the Jewish Passover. He remembered the sedulous hunting in every +Jewish house for every scrap of leavened matter; the slaying of the +Paschal Lamb, and the following feast. Carried away by these +associations, he forgets the sin in the Corinthian Church for a +moment, and turns to set forth, in the words of the text, a very deep +and penetrating view of what the Christian life is, how it is +sustained, and what it demands. ‘Wherefore,’ says he, +‘let us keep the feast ... with the unleavened bread of +sincerity and truth.’ That ‘wherefore’ takes us +back to the words before it, And what are these? ‘Christ our +Passover is sacrificed for us’; therefore—because of that +sacrifice, to us is granted the power, and on us is laid imperatively +the obligation, to make life a festival and to purge ourselves. Now, +in the notion of a feast, there are two things included—joy and +plentiful sustenance. So there are three points here, which I have +already indicated—what the Christian life is, a festival; on +what it is sustained, the Paschal Sacrifice; what it demands, +scrupulous purging out of the old leaven.</p> +<p>I. The Christian life ought to be a continual festival.</p> +<p>The Christian life a feast? It is more usually represented as a +fight, a wrestle, a race; and such metaphors correspond, as it would +appear, far more closely to the facts of our environment, and to the +experiences of our hearts, than does such a metaphor as this. But the +metaphor of the festival goes deeper than that of the fight or race, +and it does not ignore the strenuous and militant side of the +Christian life. No man ever lived a more strenuous life than Paul; no +man had heavier tasks, and did them more cheerily; no man had a +sterner fight and fought it more bravely. There is nothing soft, +Epicurean, or oblivious of the patent sad facts of humanity in the +declaration that after all, beneath all, above all, central to all, +the Christian life is a glad festival, when it is the life that it +ought to be.</p> +<p>But you say, ‘Ah! it is all very well to call it so; but in +the first place, continual joy is impossible in the presence of the +difficulties, and often sadnesses, that meet us on our life's path; +and, in the second place, it is folly to tell us to pump up emotions, +or to ignore the occasions for much heaviness and sorrow of +heart.’ True; but, still, it is possible to cultivate such a +temper as makes life habitually joyful. We can choose the aspect +under which we by preference and habitually regard our lives. All +emotion follows upon a preceding thought, or sensible experience, and +we can pick the objects of our thoughts, and determine what aspect of +our lives to look at most.</p> +<p>The sky is often piled with stormy, heaped-up masses of blackness, +but between them are lakes of calm blue. We can choose whether we +look at the clouds or at the blue. <i>These</i> are in the lower +ranges; <i>that</i> fills infinite spaces, upwards and out to the +horizon. These are transient, eating themselves away even whilst we +look, and black and thunderous as they may be, they are there but for +a moment—that is perennial. If we are wise, we shall fix our +gaze much rather on the blue than on the ugly cloud-rack that hides +it, and thus shall minister to ourselves occasions for the noble kind +of joy which is not noisy and boisterous, ‘like the crackling +of thorns under a pot,’ and does not foam itself away by its +very ebullience, but is calm like the grounds of it; still, like the +heaven to which it looks; eternal, like the God on whom it is +fastened. If we would only steadfastly remember that the one source +of worthy and enduring joy is God Himself, and listen to the command, +‘Rejoice in the Lord,’ we should find it possible to +‘rejoice always.’ For that thought of Him, His +sufficiency, His nearness, His encompassing presence, His prospering +eye, His aiding hand, His gentle consolation, His enabling help will +take the sting out of even the bitterest of our sorrows, and will +brace us to sustain the heaviest, otherwise crushing burdens, and +greatly to ‘rejoice, though now for a season we are in +heaviness through manifold temptations.’ The Gulf Stream rushes +into the northern hemisphere, melts the icebergs and warms the Polar +seas, and so the joy of the Lord, if we set it before us as we can +and should do, will minister to us a gladness which will make our +lives a perpetual feast.</p> +<p>But there is another thing that we can do; that is, we can clearly +recognise the occasions for sorrow in our experience, and yet +interpret them by the truths of the Christian faith. That is to say, +we can think of them, not so much as they tend to make us sad or +glad, but as they tend to make us more assured of our possession of, +more ardent in our love towards, and more submissive in our attitude +to, the all-ordering Love which is God. Brethren, if we thought of +life, and all its incidents, even when these are darkest and most +threatening, as being what it and they indeed are, His training of us +into capacity for fuller blessedness, because fuller possession of +Himself, we should be less startled at the commandment, +‘Rejoice in the Lord always,’ and should feel that it was +possible, though the figtree did not blossom, and there was no fruit +in the vine, though the flocks were cut off from the pastures, and +the herds from the stall, yet to rejoice in the God of our salvation. +Rightly understood and pondered on, all the darkest passages of life +are but like the cloud whose blackness determines the brightness of +the rainbow on its front. Rightly understood and reflected on, these +will teach us that the paradoxical commandment, ‘Count it all +joy that ye fall into divers temptations,’ is, after all, the +voice of true wisdom speaking at the dictation of a clear-eyed +faith.</p> +<p>This text, since it is a commandment, implies that obedience to +it, and therefore the realisation of this continual festal aspect of +life, is very largely in our own power. Dispositions differ, some of +us are constitutionally inclined to look at the blacker, and some at +the brighter, side of our experiences. But our Christianity is worth +little unless it can modify, and to some extent change, our natural +tendencies. The joy of the Lord being our strength, the cultivation +of joy in the Lord is largely our duty. Christian people do not +sufficiently recognise that it is as incumbent on them to seek after +this continual fountain of calm and heavenly joy flowing through +their lives, as it is to cultivate some of the more recognised +virtues and graces of Christian conduct and character.</p> +<p>Secondly, we have here—</p> +<p>II. The Christian life is a continual feeding on a sacrifice.</p> +<p>‘Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Wherefore let us +keep the feast.’ It is very remarkable that this is the only +place in Paul's writings where he articulately pronounces that the +Paschal Lamb is a type of Jesus Christ. There is only one other +instance in the New Testament where that is stated with equal +clearness and emphasis, and that is in John's account of the +Crucifixion, where he recognises the fact that Christ died with limbs +unbroken, as being a fulfilment, in the New Testament sense of that +word, of what was enjoined in regard to the antitype, ‘a bone +of him shall not be broken.’</p> +<p>But whilst the definite statement which precedes my text that +Christ is ‘our Passover,’ and ‘sacrificed for +us’ as such, is unique in Paul's writings, the thought to which +it gives clear and crystallised expression runs through the whole of +the New Testament. It underlies the Lord's Supper. Did you ever think +of how great was the self-assertion of Jesus Christ when He laid His +hand on that sacredest of Jewish rites, which had been established, +as the words of the institution of it say, to be ‘a perpetual +memorial through all generations,’ brushed it on one side, and +in effect, said: ‘You do not need to remember the Passover any +more. I am the true Paschal Lamb, whose blood sprinkled on the +doorposts averts the sword of the destroying Angel, whose flesh, +partaken of, gives immortal life. Remember Me, and this do in +remembrance of Me.’ The Lord's Supper witnesses that Jesus +thought Himself to be what Paul tells the Corinthians that He is, +even our Passover, sacrificed for us. But the point to be observed is +this, that just as in that ancient ritual, the lamb slain became the +food of the Israelites, so with us the Christ who has died is to be +the sustenance of our souls, and of our Christian life. +‘Therefore let us keep the feast.’</p> +<p>Feed upon Him; that is the essential central requirement for all +Christian life, and what does feeding on Him mean? ‘How can +this man give us his flesh to eat?’ said the Jews, and the +answer is plain now, though so obscure then. The flesh which He gave +for the life of the world in His death, must by us be taken for the +very nourishment of our souls, by the simple act of faith in Him. +That is the feeding which brings not only sustenance but life. +Christ's death for us is the basis, but it is only the basis, of +Christ's living in us, and His death for me is of no use at all to me +unless He that died for me lives in me. We feed on Him by faith, +which not only trusts to the Sacrifice as atoning for sin, but feeds +on it as communicating and sustaining eternal +life—‘Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, wherefore +let us keep the Feast.’</p> +<p>Again, we keep the feast when our minds feed upon Christ by +contemplation of what He is, what He has done, what He is doing, what +He will do; when we take Him as ‘the Master-light of all our +seeing,’ and in Him, His words and works, His Passion, +Resurrection, Ascension, Session as Sovereign at the right hand of +God, find the perfect revelation of what God is, the perfect +discovery of what man is, the perfect disclosure of what sin is, the +perfect prophecy of what man may become, the Light of light, the +answer to every question that our spirits can put about the loftiest +verities of God and man, the universe and the future. We feed on +Christ when, with lowly submission, we habitually subject thoughts, +purposes, desires, to His authority, and when we let His will flow +into, and make plastic and supple, our wills. We nourish our wills by +submitting them to Jesus, and we feed on Him when we not only say +‘Lord! Lord!’ but when we do the things that He says. We +feed on Christ, when we let His great, sacred, all-wise, all-giving, +all satisfying love flow into our restless hearts and make them +still, enter into our vagrant affections and fix them on Himself. +Thus when mind and conscience and will and heart all turn to Jesus, +and in Him find their sustenance, we shall be filled with the feast +of fat things which He has prepared for all people. With that bread +we shall be satisfied, and with it only, for the husks of the swine +are no food for the Father's son, and we ‘spend our money for +that which is not bread, and our labour for that which satisfieth +not,’ if we look anywhere else than to the Paschal Lamb slain +for us for the food of our souls.</p> +<p>III. The Christian life is a continual purging out of the old +leaven.</p> +<p>I need not remind you how vivid and profoundly significant that +emblem of leaven, as applied to all manner of evil, is. But let me +remind you how, just as in the Jewish Ritual, the cleansing from all +that was leavened was the essential pre-requisite to the +participation in the feast, feeding on Jesus Christ, as I have tried +to describe it, is absolutely impossible unless our leaven is +cleansed away. Children spoil their appetites for wholesome food by +eating sweetmeats. Men destroy their capacity for feeding on Christ +by hungry desires, and gluttonous satisfying of those desires with +the delusive sweets of this passing world. But, my brother, your +experience, if you are a Christian man at all, will tell you that in +the direct measure in which you have been drawn away into paltering +with evil, your appetite for Christ and your capacity for gazing upon +Him, contemplating Him, feeding on Him, has died out. There comes a +kind of constriction in a man's throat when he is hungering after +lesser good, especially when there is a tinge of evil in the supposed +good that he is hungering after, which incapacitates Him from eating +the bread of God, which is Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>But let us remember that absolute cleansing from all sin is not +essential, in order to have real participation in Jesus Christ. The +Jew had to take every scrap of leaven out of his house before he +began the Passover. If that were the condition for us, alas! for us +all; but the effort after purity, though it has not entirely attained +its aim, is enough. Sin abhorred does not prevent a man from +participating in the Bread that came down from heaven.</p> +<p>Then observe, too, that for this power to cleanse ourselves, we +must have had some participation in Christ, by which there is given +to us that new life that conquers evil. In the words immediately +preceding my text, the Apostle bases his injunction to purge out the +old leaven on the fact that ‘ye are unleavened.’ Ideally, +in so far as the power possessed by them was concerned, these +Corinthians were unleavened, even whilst they were bid to purge out +the leaven. That is to say, be what you are; realise your ideal, +utilise the power you possess, and since by your faith there has been +given to you a new life that can conquer all corruption and sin, see +that you use the life that is given. Purge out the old leaven because +ye are unleavened.</p> +<p>One last word—this stringent exhortation, which makes +Christian effort after absolute purity a Christian duty, and the +condition of participation in the Paschal Lamb, is based upon that +thought to which I have already referred, of the diabolical power of +infection which Evil possesses. Either you must cast it out, or it +will choke the better thing in you. It spreads and grows, and +propagates itself, and works underground through and through the +whole mass. A water-weed got into some of our canals years ago, and +it has all but choked some of them. The slime on a pond spreads its +green mantle over the whole surface with rapidity. If we do not eject +Evil it will eject the good from us. Use the implanted power to cast +out this creeping, advancing evil. Sometimes a wine-grower has gone +into his cellars, and found in a cask no wine, but a monstrous fungus +into which all the wine had, in the darkness, passed unnoticed. I +fear some Christian people, though they do not know it, have +something like that going on in them.</p> +<p>It is possible for us all to keep this perpetual festival. To live +in, on, for, Jesus Christ will give us victory over enemies, burdens, +sorrows, sins. We may, if we will, dwell in a calm zone where no +tempests rage, hear a perpetual strain of sweet music persisting +through thunder peals of sorrow and suffering, and find a table +spread for us in the presence of our enemies, at which we shall renew +our strength for conflict, and whence we shall rise to fight the good +fight a little longer, till we sit with Him at His table in His +Kingdom, and ‘eat, and live for ever.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="fvc62" id="fvc62">FORMS <i>VERSUS</i> CHARACTER</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is +nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.’—1 +COR. vii. 19.<br> +‘For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, +nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by +love.’—GAL. v. 6.<br> +‘For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but +a new creature.’—GAL. vi. 16 (R. V.).</blockquote> +<p>The great controversy which embittered so much of Paul's life, and +marred so much of his activity, turned upon the question whether a +heathen man could come into the Church simply by the door of faith, +or whether he must also go through the gate of circumcision. We all +know how Paul answered the question. Time, which settles all +controversies, has settled that one so thoroughly that it is +impossible to revive any kind of interest in it; and it may seem to +be a pure waste of time to talk about it. But the principles that +fought then are eternal, though the forms in which they manifest +themselves vary with every varying age.</p> +<p>The Ritualist—using that word in its broadest sense—on +the one hand, and the Puritan on the other, represent permanent +tendencies of human nature; and we find to-day the old foes with new +faces. These three passages, which I have read, are Paul's +deliverance on the question of the comparative value of external +rites and spiritual character. They are remarkable both for the +identity in the former part of each and for the variety in the +latter. In all the three cases he affirms, almost in the same +language, that ‘circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is +nothing,’ that the Ritualist's rite and the Puritan's protest +are equally insignificant in comparison with higher things. And then +he varies the statement of what the higher things are, in a very +remarkable and instructive fashion. The ‘keeping of the +commandments of God,’ says one of the texts, is the +all-important matter. Then, as it were, he pierces deeper, and in +another of the texts (I take the liberty of varying their order) +pronounces that ‘a new creature’ is the all-important +thing. And then he pierces still deeper to the bottom of all, in the +third text, and says the all-important thing is ‘faith which +worketh by love.’</p> +<p>I think I shall best bring out the force of these words by dealing +first with that emphatic threefold proclamation of the nullity of all +externalism; and then with the singular variations in the triple +statement of what is essential, viz. spiritual conduct and +character.</p> +<p>I. First, the emphatic proclamation of the nullity of outward +rites.</p> +<p>‘Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is +nothing,’ say two texts. ‘Circumcision availeth nothing, +and uncircumcision availeth nothing,’ says the other. It +neither is anything nor does anything. Did Paul say that because +circumcision was a Jewish rite? No. As I believe, he said it because +it was <i>a rite</i>; and because he had learned that the one thing +needful was spiritual character, and that no external ceremonial of +any sort could produce that. I think we are perfectly warranted in +taking this principle of my text, and in extending it beyond the +limits of the Jewish rite about which Paul was speaking. For if you +remember, he speaks about baptism, in the first chapter of the First +Epistle to the Corinthians, in a precisely similar tone and for +precisely the same reason, when he says, in effect, ‘I baptized +Crispus and Gaius and the household of Stephanas, and I think these +are all. I am not quite sure. I do not keep any kind of record of +such things; God did not send me to baptize, He sent me to preach the +Gospel.’</p> +<p>The thing that produced the spiritual result was not the rite, but +the truth, and therefore he felt that his function was to preach the +truth and leave the rite to be administered by others. Therefore we +can extend the principle here to all externalisms of worship, in all +forms, in all churches, and say that in comparison with the +essentials of an inward Christianity they are nothing and they do +nothing.</p> +<p>They have their value. As long as we are here on earth, living in +the flesh, we must have outward forms and symbolical rites. It is in +Heaven that the seer ‘saw no temple.’ Our sense-bound +nature requires, and thankfully avails itself of, the help of +external rites and ceremonials to lift us up towards the Object of +our devotion. A man prays all the better if he bow his head, shut his +eyes, and bend his knees. Forms do help us to the realisation of the +realities, and the truths which they express and embody. Music may +waft our souls to the heavens, and pictures may stir deep thoughts. +That is the simple principle on which the value of all external aids +to devotion depends. They may be helps towards the appreciation of +divine truth, and to the suffusing of the heart with devout emotions +which may lead to building up a holy character.</p> +<p>There is a worth, therefore—an auxiliary and subordinate +worth—in these things, and in that respect they are <i>not</i> +nothing, nor do they ‘avail nothing.’ But then all +external rites tend to usurp more than belongs to them, and in our +weakness we are apt to cleave to them, and instead of using them as +means to lift us higher, to stay in them, and as a great many of us +do, to mistake the mere gratification of taste and the excitement of +the sensibilities for worship. A bit of stained glass may be glowing +with angel-forms and pictured saints, but it always keeps some of the +light out, and it always hinders us from seeing through it. And all +external worship and form have so strong a tendency to usurp more +than belongs to them, and to drag us down to their own level, even +whilst we think that we are praying, that I believe the wisest man +will try to pare down the externals of his worship to the lowest +possible point. If there be as much body as will keep a soul in, as +much form as will embody the spirit, that is all that we want. What +is more is dangerous.</p> +<p>All form in worship is like fire, it is a good servant but it is a +bad master, and it needs to be kept very rigidly in subordination, or +else the spirituality of Christian worship vanishes before men know; +and they are left with their dead forms which are only +evils—crutches that make people limp by the very act of using +them.</p> +<p>Now, my dear friends, when that has happened, when men begin to +say, as the people in Paul's time were saying about circumcision, and +as people are saying in this day about Christian rites, that they are +necessary, then it is needful to take up Paul's ground and to say, +‘No! they are nothing!’ They are useful in a certain +place, but if you make them obligatory, if you make them essential, +if you say that grace is miraculously conveyed through them, then it +is needful that we should raise a strong note of protestation, and +declare their absolute nullity for the highest purpose, that of +making that spiritual character which alone is essential.</p> +<p>And I believe that this strange recrudescence—to use a +modern word—of ceremonialism and aesthetic worship which we see +all round about us, not only in the ranks of the Episcopal Church, +but amongst Nonconformists, who are sighing for a less bare service, +and here and there are turning their chapels into concert-rooms, and +instead of preaching the Gospel are having ‘Services of +Song’ and the like—that all this makes it as needful +to-day as ever it was to say to men: ‘Forms are not worship. +Rites may crush the spirit. Men may yield to the sensuous impressions +which they produce, and be lapped in an atmosphere of aesthetic +emotion, without any real devotion.’</p> +<p>Such externals are only worth anything if they make us grasp more +firmly with our understandings and feel more profoundly with our +hearts, the great truths of the Gospel. If they do that, they help; +if they are not doing that, they hinder, and are to be fought +against. And so we have again to proclaim to-day, as Paul did, +‘Circumcision is nothing,’ ‘but the keeping of the +commandments of God.’</p> +<p>Then notice with what remarkable fairness and boldness and breadth +the Apostle here adds that other clause: ‘and uncircumcision is +nothing.’ It is a very hard thing for a man whose life has been +spent in fighting against an error, not to exaggerate the value of +his protest. It is a very hard thing for a man who has been delivered +from the dependence upon forms, not to fancy that his formlessness is +what the other people think that their forms are. The Puritan who +does not believe that a man can be a good man because he is a +Ritualist or a Roman Catholic, is committing the very same error as +the Ritualist or the Roman Catholic who does not believe that the +Puritan can be a Christian unless he has been +‘christened.’ The two people are exactly the same, only +the one has hold of the stick at one end, and the other at the other. +There may be as much idolatry in superstitious reliance upon the bare +worship as in the advocacy of the ornate; and many a Nonconformist +who fancies that he has ‘never bowed the knee to Baal’ is +as true an idol-worshipper in his superstitious abhorrence of the +ritualism that he sees in other communities, as are the men who trust +in it the most.</p> +<p>It is a large attainment in Christian character to be able to say +with Paul, ‘Circumcision is nothing, and my own favourite point +of uncircumcision is nothing either. Neither the one side nor the +other touches the essentials.’</p> +<p>II. Now let us look at the threefold variety of the designation of +these essentials here.</p> +<p>In our first text from the Epistle to the Corinthians we read, +‘Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but +the keeping of the commandments of God.’ If we finished the +sentence it would be, ‘but the keeping of the commandments of +God is everything.’</p> +<p>And by that ‘keeping the commandments,’ of course, the +Apostle does not mean merely external obedience. He means something +far deeper than that, which I put into this plain word, that the one +essential of a Christian life is the conformity of the will with +God's—not the external obedience merely, but the entire +surrender and the submission of my will to the will of my Father in +Heaven. That is the all-important thing; that is what God wants; that +is the end of all rites and ceremonies; that is the end of all +revelation and of all utterances of the divine heart. The Bible, +Christ's mission, His passion and death, the gift of His Divine +Spirit, and every part of the divine dealings in providence, all +converge upon this one aim and goal. For this purpose the Father +worketh hitherto, and Christ works, that man's will may yield and bow +itself wholly and happily and lovingly to the great infinite will of +the Father in heaven.</p> +<p>Brethren! that is the perfection of a man's nature, when his will +fits on to God's like one of Euclid's triangles superimposed upon +another, and line for line coincides. When his will allows a free +passage to the will of God, without resistance or deflection, as +light travels through transparent glass; when his will responds to +the touch of God's finger upon the keys, like the telegraphic needle +to the operator's hand, then man has attained all that God and +religion can do for him, all that his nature is capable of; and far +beneath his feet may be the ladders of ceremonies and forms and +outward acts, by which he climbed to that serene and blessed height, +‘Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but +the keeping of God's commandments is everything.’</p> +<p>That submission of will is the sum and the test of your +Christianity. Your Christianity does not consist only in a mere +something which you call faith in Jesus Christ. It does not consist +in emotions, however deep and blessed and genuine they may be. It +does not consist in the acceptance of a creed. All these are means to +an end. They are meant to drive the wheel of life, to build up +character, to make your deepest wish to be, ‘Father! not my +will, but Thine, be done.’ In the measure in which that is your +heart's desire, and not one hair's-breadth further, have you a right +to call yourself a Christian.</p> +<p>But, then, I can fancy a man saying: ‘It is all very well to +talk about bowing the will in this fashion; how can I do that?’ +Well, let us take our second text—the third in the order of +their occurrence—‘For neither circumcision is anything, +nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.’ That is to say, if we +are ever to keep the will of God we must be made over again. Ay! we +must! Our own consciences tell us that; the history of all the +efforts that ever we have made—and I suppose all of us have +made some now and then, more or less earnest and more or less +persistent—tells us that there needs to be a stronger hand than +ours to come into the fight if it is ever to be won by us. There is +nothing more heartless and more impotent than to preach, ‘Bow +your wills to God, and then you will be happy; bow your wills to God, +and then you will be good.’ If that is all the preacher has to +say, his powerless words will but provoke the answer, ‘We +cannot. Tell the leopard to change his spots, or the Ethiopian his +skin, as soon as tell a man to reduce this revolted kingdom within +him to obedience, and to bow his will to the will of God. We cannot +do it.’ But, brethren, in that word, ‘a new +creature,’ lies a promise from God; for a creature implies a +creator. ‘It is He that hath made us, and not we +ourselves.’ The very heart of what Christ has to offer us is +the gift of His own life to dwell in our hearts, and by its mighty +energy to make us free from the law of sin and death which binds our +wills. We may have our spirits moulded into His likeness, and new +tastes, and new desires, and new capacities infused into us, so as +that we shall not be left with our own poor powers to try and force +ourselves into obedience to God's will, but that submission and +holiness and love that keeps the commandments of God, will spring up +in our renewed spirits as their natural product and growth. Oh! you +men and women who have been honestly trying, half your lifetime, to +make yourselves what you know God wants you to be, and who are +obliged to confess that you have failed, hearken to the message: +‘If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are +passed away.’ The one thing needful is keeping the commandments +of God, and the only way by which we can keep the commandments of God +is that we should be formed again into the likeness of Him of whom +alone it is true that ‘He did always the things that +pleased’ God.</p> +<p>And so we come to the last of these great texts: ‘In Christ +Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, +but faith which worketh by love.’ That is to say, if we are to +be made over again, we must have faith in Christ Jesus. We have got +to the root now, so far as we are concerned. We must keep the +commandments of God; if we are to keep the commandments we must be +made over again, and if our hearts ask how can we receive that new +creating power into our lives, the answer is, by ‘faith which +worketh by love.’</p> +<p>Paul did not believe that external rites could make men partakers +of a new nature, but he believed that if a man would trust in Jesus +Christ, the life of that Christ would flow into his opened heart, and +a new spirit and nature would be born in him. And, therefore, his +triple requirements come all down to this one, so far as we are +concerned, as the beginning and the condition of the other two. +‘Neither circumcision does anything, nor uncircumcision, but +faith which worketh by love,’ does everything. He that trusts +Christ opens his heart to Christ, who comes with His new-creating +Spirit, and makes us willing in the day of His power to keep His +commandments.</p> +<p>But faith leads us to obedience in yet another fashion, than this +opening of the door of the heart for the entrance of the new-creating +Spirit. It leads to it in the manner which is expressed by the words +of our text, ‘worketh by love.’ Faith shows itself +living, because it leads us to love, and through love it produces its +effects upon conduct.</p> +<p>Two things are implied in this designation of faith. If you trust +Christ you will love Him. That is plain enough. And you will not love +Him unless you trust Him. Though it lies wide of my present purpose, +let us take this lesson in passing. You cannot work yourself up into +a spasm or paroxysm of religious emotion and love by resolution or by +effort. All that you can do is to go and look at the Master and get +near Him, and that will warm you up. You can love if you trust. Your +trust will make you love; unless you trust you will never love +Him.</p> +<p>The second thing implied is, that if you love you will obey. That +is plain enough. The keeping of the commandments will be easy where +there is love in the heart. The will will bow where there is love in +the heart. Love is the only fire that is hot enough to melt the iron +obstinacy of a creature's will. The will cannot be driven. Strike it +with violence and it stiffens; touch it gently and it yields. If you +try to put an iron collar upon the will, like the demoniac in the +Gospels, the touch of the apparent restraint drives it into fury, and +it breaks the bands asunder. Fasten it with the silken leash of love, +and a ‘little child’ can lead it. So faith works by love, +because whom we trust we shall love, and whom we love we shall +obey.</p> +<p>Therefore we have got to the root now, and nothing is needful but +an operative faith, out of which will come all the blessed possession +of a transforming Spirit, and all sublimities and noblenesses of an +obedient and submissive will.</p> +<p>My brother! Paul and James shake hands here. There is a +‘faith’ so called, which does not work. It is dead! Let +me beseech you, none of you to rely upon what you choose to call your +faith in Jesus Christ, but examine it. Does it do anything? Does it +help you to be like Him? Does it open your hearts for His Spirit to +come in? Does it fill them with love to that Master, a love which +proves itself by obedience? Plain questions, questions that any man +can answer; questions that go to the root of the whole matter. If +your faith does that, it is genuine; if it does not, it is not.</p> +<p>And do not trust either to forms, or to your freedom from forms. +They will not save your souls, they will not make you more +Christ-like. They will not help you to pardon, purity, holiness, +blessedness. In these respects neither if we have them are we the +better, nor if we have them not are we the worse. If you are trusting +to Christ, and by that faith are having your hearts moulded and made +over again into all holy obedience, then you have all that you need. +Unless you have, though you partook of all Christian rites, though +you believed all Christian truth, though you fought against +superstitious reliance on forms, you have not the one thing needful, +for ‘in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, +nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="saf63" id="saf63">SLAVES AND FREE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘He that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is +the Lord's free man: likewise also he that is called, being free, is +Christ's servant.’—1 COR. vii. 22.</blockquote> +<p>This remarkable saying occurs in a remarkable connection, and is +used for a remarkable purpose. The Apostle has been laying down the +principle, that the effect of true Christianity is greatly to +diminish the importance of outward circumstance. And on that +principle he bases an advice, dead in the teeth of all the maxims +recognised by worldly prudence. He says, in effect, ‘Mind very +little about getting on and getting up. Do God's will wherever you +are, and let the rest take care of itself.’ Now, the world +says, ‘Struggle, wriggle, fight, do anything to better +yourself.’ Paul says, ‘You will better yourself by +getting nearer God, and if you secure that—art thou a slave? +care not for it; if thou mayest be free, use it rather; art thou +bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed; art thou loosed? seek not to +be bound; art thou circumcised? seek not to be uncircumcised; art +thou a Gentile? seek not to become in outward form a Jew.’ +Never mind about externals: the main thing is our relation to Jesus +Christ, because in that there is what will be compensation for all +the disadvantages of any disadvantageous circumstances, and in that +there is what will take the gilt off the gingerbread of any +superficial and fleeting good, and will bring a deep-seated and +permanent blessing.</p> +<p>Now, I am not going to deal in this sermon with that general +principle, nor even to be drawn aside to speak of the tone in which +the Apostle here treats the great abomination of slavery, and the +singular advice that he gives to its victims; though the +consideration of the tone of Christianity to that master-evil of the +old world might yield a great many thoughts very relevant to pressing +questions of to-day. But my one object is to fix upon the combination +which he here brings out in regard to the essence of the Christian +life; how that in itself it contains both members of the antithesis, +servitude and freedom; so that the Christian man who is free +externally is Christ's slave, and the Christian man who is outwardly +in bondage is emancipated by his union with Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>There are two thoughts here, the application in diverse directions +of the same central idea—viz. the slavery of Christ's free men, +and the freedom of Christ's slaves. And I deal briefly with these two +now.</p> +<p>I. First, then, note how, according to the one-half of the +antithesis, Christ's freed men are slaves.</p> +<p>Now, the way in which the New Testament deals with that awful +wickedness of a man held in bondage by a man is extremely remarkable. +It might seem as if such a hideous piece of immorality were +altogether incapable of yielding any lessons of good. But the +Apostles have no hesitation whatever in taking slavery as a clear +picture of the relation in which all Christian people stand to Jesus +Christ their Lord. He is the owner and we are the slaves. For you +must remember that the word most inadequately rendered here, +‘servant’ does not mean a hired man who has, of his own +volition, given himself for a time to do specific work and get wages +for it; but it means ‘a bond-slave,’ a chattel owned by +another. All the ugly associations which gather round the word are +transported bodily into the Christian region, and there, instead of +being hideous, take on a shape of beauty, and become expressions of +the deepest and most blessed truths, in reference to Christian men's +dependence upon, and submission to, and place in the household and +the heart of, Jesus Christ, their Owner.</p> +<p>And what is the centre idea that lies in this metaphor, if you +like to call it so? It is this: absolute authority, which has for its +correlative—for the thing in us that answers to +it—unconditional submission. Jesus Christ has the perfect right +to command each of us, and we are bound to bow ourselves, +unreluctant, unmurmuring, unhesitating, with complete submission at +His feet. His authority, and our submission, go far, far deeper than +the most despotic sway of the most tyrannous master, or than the most +abject submission of the most downtrodden slave. For no man can +coerce another man's will, and no man can require more, or can ever +get more, than that outward obedience which may be rendered with the +most sullen and fixed rebellion of a hating heart and an obstinate +will. But Jesus Christ demands that if we call ourselves Christians +we shall bring, not our members only as instruments to Him, in +outward surrender and service, but that we shall yield ourselves, +with our capacities of willing and desiring, utterly, absolutely, +constantly to Him.</p> +<p>The founder of the Jesuits laid it down as a rule for his Order +that each member of it was to be at the master's disposal like a +corpse, or a staff in the hand of a blind man. That was horrible. But +the absolute putting of myself at the disposal of another's will, +which is expressed so tyrannously in Loyola's demand, is the simple +duty of every Christian, and as long as we have recalcitrating wills, +which recoil at anything which Christ commands or appoints, and perk +up their own inclinations in the face of His solemn commandment, or +that shrink from doing and suffering whatsoever He imposes and +enjoins, we have still to learn what it means to be Christ's +disciples.</p> +<p>Dear brethren, absolute submission is not all that makes a +disciple, but, depend upon it, there is no discipleship worth calling +by the name without it. So I come to each of you with His message to +you:—Down on your faces before Him! Bow your obstinate will, +surrender yourselves and accept Him as absolute, dominant Lord over +your whole being! Are you Christians after that pattern? Being +freemen, are you Christ's slaves?</p> +<p>It does not matter what sort of work the owner sets his household +of slaves to do. One man is picked out to be his pipe-bearer, or his +shoe-cleaner; and, if the master is a sovereign, another one is sent +off, perhaps, to be governor of a province, or one of his council. +They are all slaves; and the service that each does is equally +important.</p> +<pre> +'All service ranks the same with God: +There is no last nor first.' +</pre> +<p class="noindent">What does it matter what you and I are set to do? +Nothing. And, so, why need we struggle and wear our hearts out to get +into conspicuous places, or to do work that shall bring some revenue +of praise said glory to ourselves? ‘Play well thy part; there +all the honour lies,’ the world can say. Serve Christ in +anything, and all His servants are alike in His sight.</p> +<p>The slave-owner had absolute power of life and death over his +dependants. He could split up families; he could sell away dear ones; +he could part husband and wife, parent and child. The slave was his, +and he could do what he liked with his own, according to the cruel +logic of ancient law. And Jesus Christ, the Lord of the household, +the Lord of providence, can say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he +goes into the mists and the shadows of death. And He can say to those +who are most closely united, ‘Loose your hands! I have need of +one of you yonder. I have need of the other one here.’ And if +we are wise, if we are His servants in any real deep sense, we shall +not kick against the appointments of His supreme, autocratic, and yet +most loving Providence, but be content to leave the arbitrament of +life and death, of love united or of love parted, in His hands, and +say, ‘Whether we live we are the Lord's, or whether we die we +are the Lord's; living or dying we are His.’</p> +<p>The slave-owner owned all that the slave owned. He gave him a +little cottage, with some humble sticks of furniture in it; and a bit +of ground on which to grow his vegetables for his family. But he to +whom the owner of the vegetables and the stools belonged owned them +too. And if we are Christ's servants, our banker's book is Christ's, +and our purse is Christ's, and our investments are Christ's; and our +mills, and our warehouses, and our shops and our businesses are His. +We are not His slaves, if we arrogate to ourselves the right of doing +what we like with His possessions.</p> +<p>And, then, still further, there comes into our Apostle's picture +here yet another point of resemblance between slaves and the +disciples of Jesus. For the hideous abominations of the slave-market +are transferred to the Christian relation, and defecated and cleansed +of all their abominations and cruelty thereby. For what immediately +follows my text is, ‘Ye are bought with a price.’ Jesus +Christ has won us for Himself. There is only one price that can buy a +heart, and that is a heart. There is only one way of getting a man to +be mine, and that is by giving myself to be his. So we come to the +very vital, palpitating centre of all Christianity when we say, +‘He gave Himself for us, that He might acquire to Himself a +people for His possession.’ Thus His purchase of His slave, +when we remember that it is the buying of a man in his inmost +personality, changes all that might seem harsh in the requirement of +absolute submission into the most gracious and blessed privilege. For +when I am won by another, because that other has given him or her +whole self to me, then the language of love is submission, and the +conformity of the two wills is the delight of each loving will. +Whoever has truly been wooed into relationship with Jesus, by +reflection upon the love with which Jesus grapples him to His heart, +finds that there is nothing so blessed as to yield one's self utterly +and for ever to His service.</p> +<p>The one bright point in the hideous institution of slavery was, +that it bound the master to provide for the slave, and though that +was degrading to the inferior, it made his life a careless, +child-like, merry life, even amidst the many cruelties and +abominations of the system. But what was a good, dashed with a great +deal of evil, in that relation of man to man, comes to be a pure +blessing and good in our relation to Him. If I am Christ's slave, it +is His business to take care of His own property, and I do not need +to trouble myself much about it. If I am His slave, He will be quite +sure to find me in food and necessaries enough to get His tale of +work out of me; and I may cast all my care upon Him, for He careth +for me. So, brethren, absolute submission and the devolution of all +anxiety on the Master are what is laid upon us, if we are Christ's +slaves.</p> +<p>II. Then there is the other side, about which I must say, +secondly, a word or two; and that is, the freedom of Christ's +slaves.</p> +<p>As the text puts it, ‘He that is called, being a servant, is +the Lord's freedman.’ A freedman was one who was emancipated, +and who therefore stood in a relation of gratitude to his emancipator +and patron. So in the very word ‘freedman’ there is +contained the idea of submission to Him who has struck off the +fetters.</p> +<p>But, apart from that, let me just remind you, in a sentence or +two, that whilst there are many other ways by which men have sought, +and have partially attained, deliverance from the many fetters and +bondages that attach to our earthly life, the one perfect way by +which a man can be truly, in the deepest sense of the word and in his +inmost being, a free man is by faith in Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>I do not for a moment forget how wisdom and truth, and noble aims +and high purposes, and culture of various kinds have, in lower +degrees and partially, emancipated men from self and flesh and sin +and the world, and all the other fetters that bind us. But sure I am +that the process is never so completely and so assuredly effected as +by the simple way of absolute submission to Jesus Christ, taking Him +for the supreme and unconditional Arbiter and Sovereign of a +life.</p> +<p>If we do that, brethren, if we really yield ourselves to Him, in +heart and will, in life and conduct, submitting our understanding to +His infallible Word, and our wills to His authority, regulating our +conduct by His perfect pattern, and in all things seeking to serve +Him and to realise His presence, then be sure of this, that we shall +be set free from the one real bondage, and that is the bondage of our +own wicked selves. There is no such tyranny as mob tyranny; and there +is no such slavery as to be ruled by the mob of our own passions and +lusts and inclinations and other meannesses that yelp and clamour +within us, and seek to get hold of us and to sway. There is only one +way by which the brute domination of the lower part of our nature can +be surely and thoroughly put down, and that is by turning to Jesus +Christ and saying to Him, ‘Lord! do Thou rule this anarchic +kingdom within me, for I cannot govern it myself. Do Thou guide and +direct and subdue.’ You can only govern yourself and be free +from the compulsion of your own evil nature when you surrender the +control to the Master, and say ever, ‘Speak, Lord! for Thy +slave hears. Here am I, send me.’</p> +<p>And that is the only way by which a man can be delivered from the +bondage of dependence upon outward things. I said at the beginning of +these remarks that my text occurred in the course of a discussion in +which the Apostle was illustrating the tendency of true Christian +faith to set man free from, and to make him largely independent of, +the varieties in external circumstances. Christian faith does so, +because it brings into a life a sufficient compensation for all +losses, limitations, and sorrows, and a good which is the reality of +which all earthly goods are but shadows. So the slave may be free in +Christ, and the poor man may be rich in Him, and the sad man may be +joyful, and the joyful man may be delivered from excess of gladness, +and the rich man be kept from the temptations and sins of wealth, and +the free man be taught to surrender his liberty to the Lord who makes +him free. Thus, if we have the all-sufficient compensation which +there is in Jesus Christ, the satisfaction for all our needs and +desires, we do not need to trouble ourselves so much as we sometimes +do about these changing things round about us. Let them come, let +them go; let the darkness veil the light, and the light illuminate +the darkness; let summer and winter alternate; let tribulation and +prosperity succeed each other; we have a source of blessedness +unaffected by these. Ice may skin the surface of the lake, but deep +beneath, the water is at the same temperature in winter and in +summer. Storms may sweep the face of the deep, but in the abyss there +is calm which is not stagnation. So he that cleaves to Christ is +delivered from the slavery that binds men to the details and +accidents of outward life.</p> +<p>And if we are the servants of Christ, we shall be set free, in the +measure in which we are His, from the slavery which daily becomes +more oppressive as the means of communication become more complete, +the slavery to popular opinion and to men round us. Dare to be +singular; take your beliefs at first hand from the Master. Never mind +what fellow-slaves say. It is His smile or frown that is of +importance. ‘Ye are bought with a price; be not servants of +men.’</p> +<p>And so, brethren, ‘choose you this day whom ye will +serve.’ You are not made to be independent. You must serve some +thing or person. Recognise the narrow limitations within which your +choice lies, and the issues which depend upon it. It is not whether +you will serve Christ or whether you will be free. It is whether you +will serve Christ or your own worst self, the world, men, and I was +going to add, the flesh and the devil. Make your choice. He has +bought you. You belong to Him by His death. Yield yourselves to Him, +it is the only way of breaking your chains. He that doeth sin is the +servant of sin. ‘If the Son make you free, ye shall be free +indeed,’ and not only free; for the King's slaves are princes +and nobles, and ‘all things are yours, and ye are +Christ's.’ They who say to Him ‘O Lord! truly I am Thy +servant,’ receive from Him the rank of kings and priests to +God, and shall reign with Him for ever.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tcl64" id="tcl64">THE CHRISTIAN LIFE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, +therein abide with God.’—1 COR. vii. 24.</blockquote> +<p>You find that three times within the compass of a very few verses +this injunction is repeated. ‘As God hath distributed to every +man,’ says the Apostle in the seventeenth verse, ‘as the +Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all +the churches.’ Then again in the twentieth verse, ‘Let +every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called.’ And +then finally in our text.</p> +<p>The reason for this emphatic reiteration is not difficult to +ascertain. There were strong temptations to restlessness besetting +the early Christians. The great change from heathenism to +Christianity would seem to loosen the joints of all life, and having +been swept from their anchorage in religion, all external things +would appear to be adrift. It was most natural that a man should seek +to alter even the circumstances of his outward life, when such a +revolution had separated him from his ancient self. Hence would tend +to come the rupture of family ties, the separation of husband and +wife, the Jewish convert seeking to become like a Gentile, the +Gentile seeking to become like a Jew; the slave trying to be free, +the freeman, in some paroxysm of disgust at his former condition, +trying to become a slave. These three cases are all referred to in +the context—marriage, circumcision, slavery. And for all three +the Apostle has the same advice to give—‘Stop where you +are.’ In whatever condition you were when God's invitation drew +you to Himself—for that, and not being set to a +‘vocation’ in life, is the meaning of the word +‘called’ here—remain in it.</p> +<p>And then, on the other hand, there was every reason why the +Apostle and his co-workers should set themselves, by all means in +their power, to oppose this restlessness. For, if Christianity in +those early days had once degenerated into the mere instrument of +social revolution, its development would have been thrown back for +centuries, and the whole worth and power of it, for those who first +apprehended it, would have been lost. So you know Paul never said a +word to encourage any precipitate attempts to change externals. He +let slavery—he let war alone; he let the tyranny of the Roman +Empire alone—not because he was a coward, not because he +thought that these things were not worth meddling with, but because +he, like all wise men, believed in making the tree good and then its +fruit good. He believed in the diffusion of the principles which he +proclaimed, and the mighty Name which he served, as able to girdle +the poison-tree, and to take the bark off it, and the rest, the slow +dying, might be left to the work of time. And the same general idea +underlies the words of my text. ‘Do not try to change,’ +he says, ‘do not trouble about external conditions; keep to +your Christian profession; let those alone, they will right +themselves. Art thou a slave? Seek not to be freed. Art thou +circumcised? Seek not to be uncircumcised. Get hold of the central, +vivifying, transmuting influence, and all the rest is a question of +time.’</p> +<p>But, besides this more especial application of the words of my +text to the primitive times, it carries with it, dear brethren, a +large general principle that applies to all times—a principle, +I may say, dead in the teeth of the maxims upon which life is being +ordered by the most of us. <i>Our</i> maxim is, ‘Get on!’ +Paul's is, ‘Never mind about getting <i>on</i>, get +<i>up</i>!’ Our notion is—‘Try to make the +circumstances what I would like to have them.’ Paul's +is—‘Leave circumstances to take care of themselves, or +rather leave God to take care of the circumstances. You get close to +Him, and hold His hand, and everything else will right itself.’ +Only he is not preaching stolid acquiescence. His previous +injunctions were—‘Let every man abide in the same calling +wherein he was called.’ He sees that that may be misconceived +and abused, and so, in his third reiteration of the precept, he puts +in a word which throws a flood of light upon the whole +thing—‘Let every man wherein he is called therein +abide.’ Yes, but that is not all—‘therein abide +<i>with God</i>!’ Ay, that is it! not an impossible stoicism; +not hypocritical, fanatical contempt of the external. But whilst that +gets its due force and weight, whilst a man yields himself in a +measure to the natural tastes and inclinations which God has given +him, and with the intention that he should find there subordinate +guidance and impulse for his life, still let him abide where he is +called with God, and seek to increase his fellowship with Him, as the +main thing that he has to do.</p> +<p>I. Thus we are led from the words before us first to the thought +that our chief effort in life ought to be union with God.</p> +<p>‘Abide with God,’ which, being put into other words, +means, I think, mainly two things—constant communion, the +occupation of all our nature with Him, and, consequently, the +recognition of His will in all circumstances.</p> +<p>As to the former, we have the mind and heart and will of God +revealed to us for the light, the love, the obedience of our will and +heart and mind; and our Apostle's precept is, first, that we should +try, moment by moment, in all the bustle and stir of our daily life, +to have our whole being consciously directed to and engaged with, +fertilised and calmed by contact with, the perfect and infinite +nature of our Father in heaven.</p> +<p>As we go to our work again to-morrow morning, what difference +would obedience to this precept make upon my life and yours? Before +all else, and in the midst of all else, we should think of that +Divine Mind that in the heavens is waiting to illumine our darkness; +we should feel the glow of that uncreated and perfect Love, which, in +the midst of change and treachery, of coldness and of +‘greetings where no kindness is,’ in the midst of +masterful authority and unloving command, is ready to fill our hearts +with tenderness and tranquillity: we should bow before that Will +which is absolute and supreme indeed, but neither arbitrary nor +harsh, which is ‘the eternal purpose that He hath purposed in +Himself’ indeed, but is also ‘the good pleasure of His +goodness and the counsel of His grace.’</p> +<p>And with such a God near to us ever in our faithful thoughts, in +our thankful love, in our lowly obedience, with such a mind revealing +itself to us, and such a heart opening its hidden storehouses for us +as we approach, like some star that, as one gets nearer to it, +expands its disc and glows into rich colour, which at a distance was +but pallid silver, and such a will sovereign above all, energising, +even through opposition, and making obedience a delight, what room, +brethren, would there be in our lives for agitations, and +distractions, and regrets, and cares, and fears—what room for +earthly hopes or for sad remembrances? They die in the fruition of a +present God all-sufficient for mind, and heart, and will—even +as the sun when it is risen with a burning heat may scorch and wither +the weeds that grow about the base of the fruitful tree, whose deeper +roots are but warmed by the rays that ripen the rich clusters which +it bears. ‘Let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide +<i>with God</i>.’</p> +<p>And then, as a consequence of such an occupation of the whole +being with God, there will follow that second element which is +included in the precept, namely, the recognition of God's will as +operating in and determining all circumstances. When our whole soul +is occupied with Him, we shall see Him everywhere. And this ought to +be our honest effort—to connect everything which befalls +ourselves and the world with Him. We should see that Omnipotent Will, +the silent energy which flows through all being, asserting itself +through all secondary causes, marching on towards its destined and +certain goal, amidst all the whirl and perturbation of events, +bending even the antagonism of rebels and the unconsciousness of +godless men, as well as the play of material instruments, to its own +purposes, and swinging and swaying the whole set and motion of things +according to its own impulse and by the touch of its own fingers.</p> +<p>Such a faith does not require us to overlook the visible occasions +for the things which befall us, nor to deny the stable laws according +to which that mighty will operates in men's lives. Secondary causes? +Yes. Men's opposition and crime? Yes. Our own follies and sins? No +doubt. Blessings and sorrows falling indiscriminately on a whole +community or a whole world? Certainly. And yet the visible agents are +not the sources, but only the vehicles of the power, the belting and +shafting which transmit a mighty impulse which they had nothing to do +in creating. And the antagonism subserves the purposes of the rule +which it opposes, as the blow of the surf may consolidate the +sea-wall that it breaks against. And our own follies and sins may +indeed sorrowfully shadow our lives, and bring on us pains of body +and disasters in fortune, and stings in spirit for which we alone are +responsible, and which we have no right to regard as inscrutable +judgments—yet even these bitter plants of which our own hands +have sowed the seed, spring by His merciful will, and <i>are</i> to +be regarded as His loving, fatherly chastisements—sent before +to warn us by a premonitory experience that ‘the wages of sin +is death.’ As a rule, God does not interpose to pick a man out +of the mud into which he has been plunged by his own faults and +follies, until he has learned the lessons which he can find in plenty +down in the slough, if he will only look for them! And the fact that +some great calamity or some great joy affects a wide circle of +people, does not make its having a special lesson and meaning for +each of them at all doubtful. <i>There</i> is one of the great depths +of all-moving wisdom and providence, that in the very self-same act +it is in one aspect universal, and in another special and individual. +The ordinary notion of a special providence goes perilously near the +belief that God's will is less concerned in some parts of a man's +life than in others. It is very much like desecrating and +secularising a whole land by the very act of focussing the sanctity +in some single consecrated shrine. But the true belief is that the +whole sweep of a life is under the will of God, and that when, for +instance, war ravages a nation, though the sufferers be involved in a +common ruin occasioned by murderous ambition and measureless pride, +yet for each of the sufferers the common disaster has a special +message. Let us believe in a divine will which regards each +individual caught up in the skirts of the horrible storm, even as it +regards each individual on whom the equal rays of His universal +sunshine fall. Let us believe that every single soul has a place in +the heart, and is taken into account in the purposes of Him who moves +the tempest, and makes His sun to shine upon the unthankful and on +the good. Let us, in accordance with the counsel of the Apostle here, +first of all try to anchor and rest our own souls fast and firm in +God all the day long, that, grasping His hand, we may look out upon +all the confused dance of fleeting circumstances and say, ‘Thy +will is done on earth’—if not yet ‘as it is done in +heaven,’ still done in the issues and events of all—and +done with my cheerful obedience and thankful acceptance of its +commands and allotments in my own life.</p> +<p>II. The second idea which comes out of these words is +this—Such union with God will lead to contented continuance in +our place, whatever it be.</p> +<p>Our text is as if Paul had said, ‘You have been +“called” in such and such worldly circumstances. The fact +proves that these circumstances do not obstruct the highest and +richest blessings. The light of God can shine on your souls through +them. Since then you have such sacred memorials associated with them, +and know by experience that fellowship with God is possible in them, +do you remain where you are, and keep hold of the God who has visited +you in them.’</p> +<p>If once, in accordance with the thoughts already suggested, our +minds have, by God's help, been brought into something like real, +living fellowship with Him, and we have attained the wisdom that +pierces through the external to the Almighty will that underlies all +its mazy whirl, then why should we care about shifting our place? Why +should we trouble ourselves about altering these varying events, +since each in its turn is a manifestation of His mind and will; each +in its turn is a means of discipline for us; and through all their +variety a single purpose works, which tends to a single +end—‘that we should be partakers of His +holiness’?</p> +<p>And that is the one point of view from which we can bear to look +upon the world and not be utterly bewildered and over-mastered by it. +Calmness and central peace are ours; a true appreciation of all +outward good and a charm against the bitterest sting of outward evils +are ours; a patient continuance in the place where He has set us is +ours—when by fellowship with Him we have learned to look upon +our work as primarily doing His will, and upon all our possessions +and conditions primarily as means for making us like Himself. Most +men seem to think that they have gone to the very bottom of the thing +when they have classified the gifts of fortune as good or evil, +according as they produce pleasure or pain. But that is a poor, +superficial classification. It is like taking and arranging books by +their bindings and flowers by their colours. Instead of saying, +‘We divide life into two halves, and we put there all the +joyful, and here all the sad, for that is the ruling +distinction’—let us rather say, ‘The whole is one, +because it all comes from one purpose, and it all tends towards one +end. The only question worth asking in regard to the externals of our +life is—How far does each thing help me to be a good man? how +far does it open my understanding to apprehend Him? how far does it +make my spirit pliable and plastic under His touch? how far does it +make me capable of larger reception of greater gifts from Himself? +what is its effect in preparing me for that world beyond?’ Is +there any other greater, more satisfying, more majestic thought of +life than this—the scaffolding by which souls are built up into +the temple of God? And to care whether a thing is painful or pleasant +is as absurd as to care whether the bricklayer's trowel is knocking +the sharp corner off a brick, or plastering mortar on the one below +it before he lays it carefully on its course. Is the <i>building</i> +getting on? That is the one question that is worth thinking +about.</p> +<p>You and I write our lives as if on one of those manifold writers +which you use. A thin filmy sheet <i>here</i>, a bit of black paper +below it; but the writing goes through upon the next page, and when +the blackness that divides two worlds is swept away <i>there</i>, the +history of each life written by ourselves remains legible in +eternity. And the question is—What sort of autobiography are we +writing for the revelation of that day, and how far do our +circumstances help us to transcribe fair in our lives the will of our +God and the image of our Redeemer?</p> +<p>If, then, we have once got hold of that principle that all which +is—summer and winter, storm and sunshine, possession and loss, +memory and hope, work and rest, and all the other antitheses of +life—is equally the product of His will, equally the +manifestation of His mind, equally His means for our discipline, then +we have the amulet and talisman which will preserve us from the fever +of desire and the shivering fits of anxiety as to things which +perish. And, as they tell of a Christian father who, riding by one of +the great lakes of Switzerland all day long, on his journey to the +Church Council that was absorbing his thoughts, said towards evening +to the deacon who was pacing beside him, ‘Where is the +lake?’ so you and I, journeying along by the margin of this +great flood of things when wild storms sweep across it, or when the +sunbeams glint upon its blue waters, ‘and birds of peace sit +brooding on the charmed wave,’ will be careless of the +changeful sea, if the eye looks beyond the visible and beholds the +unseen, the unchanging real presences that make glory in the darkest +lives, and ‘sunshine in the shady place.’ ‘Let +every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.’</p> +<p>III. Still further, another thought may be suggested from these +words, or rather from the connection in which they occur, and that +is—Such contented continuance in our place is the dictate of +the truest wisdom.</p> +<p>There are two or three collateral topics, partly suggested by the +various connections in which this commandment occurs in the chapter, +from which I draw the few remarks I have to make now.</p> +<p>And the first point I would suggest is that very old commonplace +one, so often forgotten, that after all, though you may change about +as much as you like, there is a pretty substantial equipoise and +identity in the amount of pain and pleasure in all external +conditions. The total length of day and night all the year round is +the same at the North Pole and at the Equator—half and half. +Only, in the one place, it is half and half for four-and-twenty hours +at a time, and in the other, the night lasts through gloomy months of +winter, and the day is bright for unbroken weeks of summer. But, when +you come to add them up at the year's end, the man who shivers in the +ice, and the man who pants beneath the beams from the zenith, have +had the same length of sunshine and of darkness. It does not matter +much at what degrees between the Equator and the Pole you and I live; +when the thing comes to be made up we shall be all pretty much upon +an equality. You do not get the happiness of the rich man over the +poor one by multiplying twenty shillings a week by as many figures as +will suffice to make it up to £10,000 a year. What is the use +of such eager desires to change our condition, when every condition +has disadvantages attending its advantages as certainly as a shadow; +and when all have pretty nearly the same quantity of the raw material +of pain and pleasure, and when the amount of either actually +experienced by us depends not on where we are, but on <i>what</i> we +are?</p> +<p>Then, still further, there is another consideration to be kept in +mind upon which I do not enlarge, as what I have already said +involves it—namely, that whilst the portion of external pain +and pleasure summed up comes pretty much to the same in everybody's +life, any condition may yield the fruit of devout fellowship with +God.</p> +<p>Another very remarkable idea suggested by a part of the context +is—What is the need for my troubling myself about outward +changes when <i>in Christ</i> I can get all the peculiarities which +make any given position desirable to me? For instance, hear how Paul +talks to slaves eager to be set free: ‘For he that is called in +the Lord, <i>being</i> a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise +also he that is called, <i>being</i> free, is Christ's +servant.’ If you generalise that principle it comes to this, +that in union with Jesus Christ we possess, by our fellowship with +Him, the peculiar excellences and blessings that are derivable from +external relations of every sort. To take concrete examples—if +a man is a slave, he may be free in Christ. If free, he may have the +joy of utter submission to an absolute master in Christ. If you and I +are lonely, we may feel all the delights of society by union with +Him. If surrounded and distracted by companionship, and seeking for +seclusion, we may get all the peace of perfect privacy in fellowship +with Him. If we are rich, and sometimes think that we were in a +position of less temptation if we were poorer, we may find all the +blessings for which we sometimes covet poverty in communion with Him. +If we are poor, and fancy that, if we had a little more just to lift +us above the grinding, carking care of to-day and the anxiety of +to-morrow, we should be happier, we may find all tranquillity in Him. +And so you may run through all the variety of human conditions, and +say to yourself—What is the use of looking for blessings +flowing from these from without? Enough for us if we grasp that Lord +who is all in all, and will give us in peace the joy of conflict, in +conflict the calm of peace, in health the refinement of sickness, in +sickness the vigour and glow of health, in memory the brightness of +undying hope, in hope the calming of holy memory, in wealth the +lowliness of poverty, in poverty the ease of wealth; in life and in +death being all and more than all that dazzles us by the false gleam +of created brightness!</p> +<p>And so, finally—a remark which has no connection with the +text itself, but which I cannot avoid inserting here—I want you +to think, and think seriously, of the antagonism and diametrical +opposition between these principles of my text and the maxims current +in the world, and nowhere more so than in this city. Our text is a +revolutionary one. It is dead against the watchwords that you fathers +give your children—‘push,’ ‘energy,’ +‘advancement,’ ‘get on, whatever you do.’ You +have made a philosophy of it, and you say that this restless +discontent with a man's present position and eager desire to get a +little farther ahead in the scramble, underlies much modern +civilisation and progress, and leads to the diffusion of wealth and +to employment for the working classes, and to mechanical inventions, +and domestic comforts, and I don't know what besides. You have made a +religion of it; and it is thought to be blasphemy for a man to stand +up and say—‘It is idolatry!’ My dear brethren, I +declare I solemnly believe that, if I were to go on to the Manchester +Exchange next Tuesday, and stand up and say—‘There is no +God,’ I should not be thought half such a fool as if I were to +go and say—‘Poverty is not an evil <i>per se</i>, and men +do not come into this world to get <i>on</i> but to get +<i>up</i>—nearer and liker to God.’ If you, by God's +grace, lay hold of this principle of my text, and honestly resolve to +work it out, trusting in that dear Lord who ‘though He was rich +yet for our sakes became poor,’ in ninety-nine cases out of a +hundred you will have to make up your minds to let the big prizes of +your trade go into other people's hands, and be contented to +say—‘I live by peaceful, high, pure, Christ-like +thoughts.’ ‘He that needs least,’ said an old +heathen, ‘is nearest the gods’; but I would rather modify +the statement into, ‘He that needs most, and knows it, is +nearest the gods.’ For surely Christ is more than mammon; and a +spirit nourished by calm desires and holy thoughts into growing +virtues and increasing Christlikeness is better than circumstances +ordered to our will, in the whirl of which we have lost our God. +‘In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, +let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God and the +God of peace shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ +Jesus.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="lbu65" id="lbu65">‘LOVE BUILDETH +UP’</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Now, as touching things offered unto idols, we +know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity +edifieth. 2. And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he +knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. 3. But if any man love God, +the same is known of him. 4. As concerning therefore the eating of +those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that +an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but +one. 5. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven +or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) 6. But to us +there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in +Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by +Him. 7. Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some, +with conscience of the idol unto this hour, eat it as a thing offered +unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. 8. But meat +commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; +neither, if we eat not, are we the worse. 9. But take heed, lest by +any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that +are weak. 10. For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at +meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is +weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols; +11. And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom +Christ died? 12. But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound +their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. 13. Wherefore, if meat +make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world +standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.’—1 COR. viii. +1-13.</blockquote> +<p>It is difficult for us to realise the close connection which +existed between idol-worship and daily life. Something of the same +sort is found in all mission fields. It was almost impossible for +Christians to take any part in society and not seem to sanction +idolatry. Would that Christianity were as completely interwoven with +our lives as heathen religions are into those of their devotees! Paul +seems to have had referred to him a pressing case of conscience, +which divided the Corinthian Church, as to whether a Christian could +join in the usual feasts or sacrifices. His answer is in this +passage.</p> +<p>The longest way round is sometimes the shortest way home. The +Apostle begins far away from the subject in hand by running a +contrast between knowledge and love, and setting the latter first. +But his contrast is very relevant to his purpose. Small questions +should be solved on great principles.</p> +<p>The first principle laid down by Paul is the superiority of love +over knowledge, the bearing of which on the question in hand will +appear presently. We note that there is first a distinct admission of +the Corinthians’ intelligence, though there is probably a tinge +of irony in the language ‘We know that we all have +knowledge.’ ‘You Corinthians are fully aware that you are +very superior people. Whatever else you know, you know that, and I +fully recognise it.’</p> +<p>The admission is followed by a sudden, sharp comment, to which the +Corinthians’ knowledge that they knew laid them open. Swift as +the thrust of a spear comes flashing ‘Knowledge puffeth +up.’ Puffed-up things are swollen by wind only, and the more +they are inflated the hollower and emptier they are; and such a sharp +point as Paul's saying shrivels them. The statement is not meant as +the assertion of a necessary or uniform result of knowledge, but it +does put plainly a very usual result of it, if it is unaccompanied by +love. It is a strange, sad result of superior intelligence or +acquirements, that it so often leads to conceit, to a false estimate +of the worth and power of knowing, to a ridiculous over-valuing of +certain acquirements, and to an insolent contempt and cruel disregard +of those who have them not. Paul's dictum has been only too well +confirmed by experience.</p> +<p>‘Love builds up,’ or ‘edifies.’ Probably +the main direction in which that building up is conceived of as +taking effect, is in aiding the progress of our neighbours, +especially in the religious life. But the tendency of love to rear a +fair fabric of personal character is not to be overlooked. In regard +to effect on character, the palm must be given to love, which +produces solid excellence far beyond what mere knowledge can effect. +Further, that pluming one's self on knowledge is a sure proof of +ignorance. The more real our acquirements, the more they disclose our +deficiencies. All self-conceit hinders us from growing intellectually +or morally, and intellectual conceit is the worst kind of it.</p> +<p>Very significantly, love to God, and not the simple emotion of +love without reference to its object, is opposed to knowledge; for +love so directed is the foundation of all excellence, and of all real +love to men. Love to God is not the antithesis of true knowledge, but +it is the only victorious antagonist of the conceit of knowing. Very +significantly, too, does Paul vary his conclusion in verse 3 by +saying that the man who loves God ‘is known of Him,’ +instead of, as we might have expected, ‘knows Him.’ The +latter is true, but the statement in the verse puts more strongly the +thought of the man's being an object of God's care. In regard, then, +to their effects on character, in producing consideration and +helpfulness to others, and in securing God's protection, love stands +first, and knowledge second.</p> +<p>What has all this to do with the question in hand? This, that if +looked at from the standpoint of knowledge, it may be solved in one +way, but if from that of love, it will be answered in another. So, in +verses 4-6, Paul treats the matter on the ground of knowledge. The +fundamental truth of Christianity, that there is one God, who is +revealed and works through Jesus Christ, was accepted by all the +Corinthians. Paul states it here broadly, denying that there were any +objective realities answering to the popular conceptions or poetic +fancies or fair artistic presentments of the many gods and lords of +the Greek pantheon, and asserting that all Christians recognise one +God, the Father, from whom the universe of worlds and living things +has origin, and to whom we as Christians specially belong, and one +Lord, the channel through whom all divine operations of creation, +providence, and grace flow, and by whose redeeming work we Christians +are endowed with our best life. If a believer was fully convinced of +these truths, he could partake of sacrificial feasts without danger +to himself, and without either sanctioning idolatry or being tempted +to return to it.</p> +<p>No doubt it was on this ground that an idol was nothing that the +laxer party defended their action in eating meat offered to idols; +and Paul fully recognises that they had a strong case, and that, if +there were no other considerations to come in, the answer to the +question of conscience submitted to him would be wholly in favour of +the less scrupulous section. But there is something better than +knowledge; namely, love. And its decision must be taken before the +whole material for a judgment is in evidence.</p> +<p>Therefore, in the remainder of the chapter, Paul dwells on loving +regard for brethren. In verse 7, he reminds the ‘knowing’ +Corinthians that new convictions do not obliterate the power of old +associations. The awful fascination of early belief still exercises +influence. The chains are not wholly broken off. Every mission field +shows examples of this. Every man knows that habits are not so +suddenly overcome, that there is no hankering after them or liability +to relapse. It would be a dangerous thing for a weak believer to risk +sharing in an idol feast; for he would be very likely to slide down +to his old level of belief, and Zeus or Pallas to seem to him real +powers once more.</p> +<p>The considerations in verse 7 would naturally be followed by the +further thoughts in verse 9, etc. But, before dealing with these, +Paul interposes another thought in verse 8, to the effect that +partaking of or abstinence from any kind of food will not, in itself, +either help or hinder the religious life. The bearing of that +principle on his argument seems to be to reduce the importance of the +whole question, and to suggest that, since eating of idol sacrifices +could not be called a duty or a means of spiritual progress, the way +was open to take account of others’ weakness as determining our +action in regard to it. A modern application may illustrate the +point. Suppose that a Christian does not see total abstinence from +intoxicants to be obligatory on him. Well, he cannot say that +drinking is so, or that it is a religious duty, and so the way is +clear for urging regard to others’ weakness as an element in +the case.</p> +<p>That being premised, Paul comes to his final point; namely, that +Christian men are bound to restrict their liberty so that they shall +not tempt weaker brethren on to a path on which they cannot walk +without stumbling. He has just shown the danger to such of partaking +of the sacrificial feasts. He now completes his position by showing, +in verse 10, that the stronger man's example may lead the weaker to +do what he cannot do innocently. What is harmless to us may be fatal +to others, and, if we have led them to it, their blood is on our +heads.</p> +<p>The terrible discordance of such conduct with our Lord's example, +which should be our law, is forcibly set forth in verse 11, which has +three strongly emphasised thoughts—the man's fate—he +perishes; his relation to his slayer—a brother; what Christ did +for the man whom a Christian has sent to destruction—died for +him. These solemn thoughts are deepened in verse 12, which reminds us +of the intimate union between the weakest and Christ, by which He so +identifies Himself with them that any blow struck on them touches +Him.</p> +<p>There is no greater sin than to tempt weak or ignorant Christians +to thoughts or acts which their ignorance or weakness cannot +entertain or do without damage to their religion. There is much need +for laying that truth to heart in these days. Both in the field of +speculation and of conduct, Christians, who think that they know so +much better than ignorant believers, need to be reminded of it.</p> +<p>So Paul, in verse 13, at last answers the question. His sudden +turning to his own conduct is beautiful. He will not so much command +others, as proclaim his own determination. He does so with +characteristic vehemence and hyperbole. No doubt the liberal party in +Corinth were ready to complain against the proposal to restrict their +freedom because of others’ weakness; and they would be +disarmed, or at least silenced, and might be stimulated to like noble +resolution, by Paul's example.</p> +<p>The principle plainly laid down here is as distinctly applicable +to the modern question of abstinence from intoxicants. No one can +doubt that ‘moderation’ in their use by some tempts +others to use which soon becomes fatally immoderate. The Church has +been robbed of promising members thereby, over and over again. How +can a Christian man cling to a ‘moderate’ use of these +things, and run the risk of destroying by his example a brother for +whom Christ died?</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tsos66" id="tsos66">THE SIN OF SILENCE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘For though I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to +glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I +preach not the Gospel! 17. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a +reward.’—1 COR. ix. 16, 17.</blockquote> +<p>The original reference of these words is to the Apostle's +principle and practice of not receiving for his support money from +the churches. Gifts he did accept; pay he did not. The exposition of +his reason is interesting, ingenuous, and chivalrous. He strongly +asserts his right, even while he as strongly declares that he will +waive it. The reason for his waiving it is that he desires to have +somewhat in his service beyond the strict line of his duty. His +preaching itself, with all its toils and miseries, was but part of +his day's work, which he was bidden to do, and for doing which he +deserved no thanks nor praise. But he would like to have a little bit +of glad service over and above what he is ordered to do, that, as he +ingenuously says, he may have ‘somewhat to boast of.’</p> +<p>In this exposition of motives we have two great principles +actuating the Apostle—one, his profound sense of obligation, +and the other his desire, if it might be, to do more than he was +bound to do, because he loved his work so much. And though he is +speaking here as an apostle, and his example is not to be +unconditionally transferred to us, yet I think that the motives which +actuated his conduct are capable of unconditional application to +ourselves.</p> +<p>There are three things here. There is the obligation of speech, +there is the penalty of silence, and there is the glad obedience +which transcends obligation.</p> +<p>I. First, mark the obligation of speech.</p> +<p>No doubt the Apostle had, in a special sense, a ‘necessity +laid upon’ him, which was first laid upon him on that road to +Damascus, and repeated many a time in his life. But though he differs +from us in the direct supernatural commission which was given to him, +in the width of the sphere in which he had to work, and in the +splendour of the gifts which were entrusted to his stewardship, he +does not differ from us in the reality of the obligation which was +laid upon him. Every Christian man is as truly bound as was Paul to +preach the Gospel. The commission does not depend upon apostolic +dignity. Jesus Christ, when He said, ‘Go ye into all the world, +and preach the Gospel to every creature,’ was not speaking to +the eleven, but to all generations of His Church. And whilst there +are many other motives on which we may rest the Christian duty of +propagating the Christian faith, I think that we shall be all the +better if we bottom it upon this, the distinct and definite +commandment of Jesus Christ, the grip of which encloses all who for +themselves have found that the Lord is gracious.</p> +<p>For that commandment is permanent. It is exactly contemporaneous +with the duration of the promise which is appended to it, and +whosoever suns himself in the light of the latter is bound by the +precept of the former. ‘Lo! I am with you alway, even to the +end of the world,’ defines the duration of the promise, and it +defines also the duration of the duty. Nay, even the promise is made +conditional upon the discharge of the duty enjoined. For it is to the +Church ‘going into all the world, and preaching the Gospel to +every creature,’ that the promise of an abiding presence is +made.</p> +<p>Let us remember, too, that, just because this commission is given +to the whole Church, it is binding on every individual member of the +Church. There is a very common fallacy, not confined to this subject, +but extending over the whole field of Christian duty, by which things +that are obligatory on the community are shuffled off the shoulders +of the individual. But we have to remember that the whole Church is +nothing more than the sum total of all its members, and that nothing +is incumbent upon it which is not in their measure incumbent upon +each of them. Whatsoever Christ says to all, He says to each, and the +community has no duties which you and I have not.</p> +<p>Of course, there are diversities of forms of obedience to this +commandment; of course, the restrictions of locality and the other +obligations of life, come in to modify it; and it is not every man's +duty to wander over the whole world doing this work. But the direct +work of communicating to others who know it not the sweetness and the +power of Jesus Christ belongs to every Christian man. You cannot buy +yourselves out of the ranks, as they used to be able to do out of the +militia, by paying for a substitute. Both forms of service are +obligatory upon each of us. We all, if we know anything of Christ and +His love and His power, are bound, by the fact that we do know it, to +tell it to those whom we can reach. You have all got congregations if +you would look for them. There is not a Christian man or woman in +this world who has not somebody that he or she can speak to more +efficiently than anybody else can. You have your friends, your +relations, the people with whom you are brought into daily contact, +if you have no wider congregations. You cannot all stand up and +preach in the sense in which I do so. But this is not the meaning of +the word in the New Testament. It does not imply a pulpit, nor a set +discourse, nor a gathered multitude; it simply implies a herald's +task of proclaiming. Everybody who has found Jesus Christ can say, +‘I have found the Messiah,’ and everybody who knows Him +can say, ‘Come and hear, and I will tell what the Lord hath +done for my soul.’ Since you can do it you are bound to do it; +and if you are one of ‘the dumb dogs, lying down and loving to +slumber,’ of whom there are such crowds paralysing the energies +and weakening the witness of every Church upon earth, then you are +criminally and suicidally oblivious of an obligation which is a joy +and a privilege as much as a duty.</p> +<p>Oh, brethren! I do want to lay on the consciences of all you +Christian people this, that nothing can absolve you from the +obligation of personal, direct speech to some one of Christ and His +salvation. Unless you can say, ‘I have not refrained my lips, O +Lord! Thou knowest,’ there frowns over against you an +unfulfilled duty, the neglect of which is laming your spiritual +activity, and drying up the sources of your spiritual strength.</p> +<p>But, then, besides this direct effort, there are the other +indirect methods in which this commandment can be discharged, by +sympathy and help of all sorts, about which I need say no more +here.</p> +<p>Jesus Christ's ideal of His Church was an active propaganda, an +army in which there were no non-combatants, even although some of the +combatants might be detailed to remain in the camp and look after the +stuff, and others of them might be in the forefront of the battle. +But is that ideal ever fulfilled in any of our churches? How many +amongst us there are who do absolutely nothing in the shape of +Christian work! Some of us seem to think that the voluntary principle +on which our Nonconformist churches are largely organised means, +‘I do not need to do anything unless I like. Inclination is the +guide of duty, and if I do not care to take any active part in the +work of our church, nobody has anything to say.’ No man can +force me, but if Jesus Christ says to me, ‘Go!’ and I +say, ‘I had rather not,’ Jesus Christ and I have to +settle accounts between us. The less <i>men</i> control, the more +stringent ought to be the control of Christ. And if the principle of +Christian obedience is a willing heart, then the duty of a Christian +is to see that the heart is willing.</p> +<p>A stringent obligation, not to be shuffled off by any of the +excuses that we make, is laid upon us all. It makes very short work +of a number of excuses. There is a great deal in the tone of this +generation which tends to chill the missionary spirit. We know more +about the heathen world, and familiarity diminishes horror. We have +taken up, many of us, milder and more merciful ideas about the +condition of those who die without knowing the name of Jesus Christ. +We have taken to the study of comparative religion as a science, +forgetting sometimes that the thing that we are studying as a science +is spreading a dark cloud of ignorance and apathy over millions of +men. And all these reasons somewhat sap the strength and cool the +fervour of a good many Christian people nowadays. Jesus Christ's +commandment remains just as it was.</p> +<p>Then some of us say, ‘I prefer working at home!’ Well, +if you are doing all that you can there, and really are +enthusiastically devoted to one phase of Christian service, the great +principle of division of labour comes in to warrant your not entering +upon other fields which others cultivate. But unless you are thus +casting all your energies into the work which you say that you +prefer, there is no reason in it why you should do nothing in the +other direction. Jesus Christ still says, ‘Go ye into all the +world.’</p> +<p>Then some of you say, ‘Well, I do not much believe in your +missionary societies. There is a great deal of waste of money about +them. A number of things there are that one does not approve of. I +have heard stories about missionaries being very idle, very +luxurious, and taking too much pay, and doing too little work.’ +Well, be it so! Very probably it is partly true; though I do not know +that the people whose testimony is so willingly accepted, to the +detriment of our brethren in foreign lands, are precisely the kind of +people that should talk much about self-sacrifice and luxurious +living, or whose estimate of Christian work is to be relied upon. I +fancy many of them, if they walked about the streets of an English +town, would have a somewhat similar report to give, as they have when +they walk about the streets of an Indian one. But be that as it may, +does that indictment draw a wet sponge across the commandment of +Jesus Christ? or can you chisel out of the stones of Sinai one of the +words written there, by reason of the imperfections of those who are +seeking to obey them? Surely not! Christ still says, ‘Go ye +into all the world!’</p> +<p>I sometimes venture to think that the day will come when the +condition of being received into, and retained in, the communion of a +Christian church will be obedience to that commandment. Why, even +bees have the sense at a given time of the year to turn the drones +out of the hives, and sting them to death. I do not recommend the +last part of the process, but I am not sure but that it would be a +benefit to us all, both to those ejected and to those retained, that +we should get rid of that added weight that clogs every organised +community in this and other lands—the dead weight of idlers who +say that they are Christ's disciples. Whether it is a condition of +church membership or not, sure I am that it is a condition of +fellowship with Jesus Christ, and a condition, therefore, of health +in the Christian life, that it should be a life of active obedience +to this plain, imperative, permanent, and universal command.</p> +<p>II. Secondly, a word as to the penalty of silence.</p> +<p>‘Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.’ I suppose Paul +is thinking mainly of a future issue, but not exclusively of that. At +all events, let me point you, in a word or two, to the plain +penalties of silence here, and to the awful penalties of silence +hereafter.</p> +<p>‘Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.’ If you are a +dumb and idle professor of Christ's truth, depend upon it that your +dumb idleness will rob you of much communion with Jesus Christ. There +are many Christians who would be ever so much happier, more joyous, +and more assured Christians if they would go and talk about Christ to +other people. Because they have locked up God's word in their hearts +it melts away unknown, and they lose more than they suspect of the +sweetness and buoyancy and assured confidence that might mark them, +for no other reason than because they seek to keep their morsel to +themselves. Like that mist that lies white and dull over the ground +on a winter's morning, which will be blown away with the least puff +of fresh air, there lie doleful dampnesses, in their sooty folds, +over many a Christian heart, shutting out the sun from the earth, and +a little whiff of wholesome activity in Christ's cause would clear +them all away, and the sun would shine down upon men again. If you +want to be a happy Christian, work for Jesus Christ. I do not lay +that down as a specific by itself. There are other things to be taken +in conjunction with it, but yet it remains true that the woe of a +languid Christianity attaches to the men who, being professing +Christians, are silent when they should speak, and idle when they +should work.</p> +<p>There is, further, the woe of the loss of sympathies, and the gain +of all the discomforts and miseries of a self-absorbed life. And +there is, further, the woe of the loss of one of the best ways of +confirming one's own faith in the truth—viz. that of seeking to +impart it to others. If you want to learn a thing, teach it. If you +want to grasp the principles of any science, try to explain it to +somebody who does not understand it. If you want to know where, in +these days of jangling and controversy, the true, vital centre of the +Gospel is, and what is the essential part of the revelation of God, +go and tell sinful men about Jesus Christ who died for them; and you +will find out that it is the Cross, and Him who died thereon, as +dying for the world, that is the power which can move men's hearts. +And so you will cleave with a closer grasp, in days of difficulty and +unsettlement, to that which is able to bring light into darkness and +to harmonise the discord of a troubled and sinful soul. And, further, +there is the woe of having none that can look to you and say, +‘I owe myself to thee.’ Oh, brethren! there is no greater +joy accessible to a man than that of feeling that through his poor +words Christ has entered into a brother's heart. And you are throwing +away all this because you shut your mouths and neglect the plain +commandment of your Lord.</p> +<p>Ay! but that is not all. There is a future to be taken into +account, and I think that Christian people do far too little realise +the solemn truth that it is not all the same <i>then</i> whether a +man has kept his Master's commandments or neglected them. I believe +that whilst a very imperfect faith saves a man, there is such a thing +as being ‘saved, yet so as through fire,’ and that there +is such a thing as having ‘an abundant entrance ministered unto +us into the everlasting kingdom.’ He whose life has been very +slightly influenced by Christian principle, and who has neglected +plain, imperative duties, will not stand on the same level of +blessedness as the man who has more completely yielded himself in +life to the constraining power of Christ's love, and has sought to +keep all His commandments.</p> +<p>Heaven is not a dead level. Every man there will receive as much +blessedness as he is capable of, but capacities will vary, and the +principal factor in determining the capacity, which capacity +determines the blessedness, will be the thoroughness of obedience to +all the ordinances of Christ in the course of the life upon earth. +So, though we know, and therefore dare say, little about that future, +I do beseech you to take this to heart, that he who there can stand +before God, and say, ‘Behold! I and the children whom God hath +given me’ will wear a crown brighter than the starless ones of +those who saved themselves, and have brought none with them.</p> +<p>‘Some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship, they +all came safe to land.’ But the place where they stand depends +on their Christian life, and of that Christian life one main element +is obedience to the commandment which makes them the apostles and +missionaries of their Lord.</p> +<p>III. Lastly, note the glad obedience which transcends the limits +of obligation.</p> +<p>‘If I do this thing willingly I have a reward.’ Paul +desired to bring a little more than was required, in token of his +love to his Master, and of his thankful acceptance of the obligation. +The artist who loves his work will put more work into his picture +than is absolutely needed, and will linger over it, lavishing +diligence and care upon it, because he is in love with his task. The +servant who seeks to do as little as he can scrape through with +without rebuke is actuated by no high motives. The trader who barely +puts as much into the scale as will balance the weight in the other +is grudging in his dealings; but he who, with liberal hand, gives +‘shaken down, pressed together, and running over’ +measure, gives because he delights in the giving.</p> +<p>And so it is in the Christian life. There are many of us whose +question seems to be, ‘How little can I get off with? how much +can I retain?’—many of us whose effort is to find out how +much of the world is consistent with the profession of Christianity, +and to find the minimum of effort, of love, of service, of gifts +which may free us from obligation.</p> +<p>And what does that mean? It means that we are slaves. It means +that if we durst we would give nothing, and do nothing. And what does +that mean? It means that we do not care for the Lord, and have no joy +in our work. And what does that mean? It means that our work deserves +no praise, and will get no reward. If we love Christ we shall be +anxious, if it were possible, to do more than He commands us, in +token of our loyalty to the King, and of our delight in the service. +Of course, in the highest view, nothing can be more than necessary. +Of course He has the right to all our work; but yet there are heights +of Christian consecration and self-sacrifice which a man will not be +blamed if he has not climbed, and will be praised if he has. What we +want, if I might venture to say so, is extravagance of service. Judas +may say, ‘To what purpose is this waste?’ but Jesus will +say, He ‘hath wrought a good work on Me,’ and the +fragrance of the ointment will smell sweet through the centuries.</p> +<p>So, dear brethren, the upshot of the whole thing is, Do not let us +do our Christian work reluctantly, else it is only slave's work, and +there is no blessing in it, and no reward will come to us from it. Do +not let us ask, ‘How little may I do?’ but ‘How +much can I do?’ Thus, asking, we shall not offer as burnt +offering to the Lord that which doth cost us nothing. On His part He +has given the commandment as a sign of His love. The stewardship is a +token that He trusts us, the duty is an honour, the burden is a +grace. On our parts let us seek for the joy of service which is not +contented with the bare amount of the tribute that is demanded, but +gives something over, if it were possible, because of our love to +Him. They who thus give to Jesus Christ their all of love and effort +and service will receive it all back a hundredfold, for the Master is +not going to be in debt to any of His servants, and He says to them +all, ‘I will repay it, howbeit I say not unto thee how thou +owest unto Me even thine own self besides.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="asom67" id="asom67">A SERVANT OF MEN</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘For though I be free from all men, yet have I made +myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. 20. And unto the +Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are +under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are +under the law; 21. To them that are without law, as without law, +(being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I +might gain them that are without law. 22. To the weak became I as +weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, +that I might by all means save some. 23. And this I do for the +gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with +you.’—1 COR. ix. 19-23.</blockquote> +<p>Paul speaks much of himself, but he is not an egotist. When he +says, ‘I do so and so,’ it is a gracious way of enjoining +the same conduct on his readers. He will lay no burden on them which +he does not himself carry. The leader who can say ‘Come’ +is not likely to want followers. So, in this section, the Apostle is +really enjoining on the Corinthians the conduct which he declares is +his own.</p> +<p>The great principle incumbent on all Christians, with a view to +the salvation of others, is to go as far as one can without +untruthfulness in the direction of finding points of resemblance and +contact with those to whom we would commend the Gospel. There is a +base counterfeit of this apostolic example, which slurs over +distinctive beliefs, and weakly tries to please everybody by +differing from nobody. That trimming to catch all winds never gains +any. Mr. Facing-both-ways is not a powerful evangelist. The motive of +becoming all things to all men must be plainly disinterested, and the +assimilation must have love for the souls concerned and eagerness to +bring the truth to them, and them to the truth, legibly stamped upon +it, or it will be regarded, and rightly so, as mere cowardice or +dishonesty. And there must be no stretching the assimilation to the +length of either concealing truth or fraternising in evil. Love to my +neighbour can never lead to my joining him in wrongdoing.</p> +<p>But, while the limits of this assumption of the colour of our +surroundings are plainly marked, there is ample space within these +for the exercise of this eminently Christian grace. We must get near +people if we would help them. Especially must we identify ourselves +with them in sympathy, and seek to multiply points of assimilation, +if we would draw them to Jesus Christ. He Himself had to become man +that He might gain men, and His servants have to do likewise, in +their degree. The old story of the Christian teacher who voluntarily +became a slave, that he might tell of Christ to slaves, has in spirit +to be repeated by us all.</p> +<p>We can do no good by standing aloof on a height and flinging down +the Gospel to the people below. They must feel that we enter into +their circumstances, prejudices, ways of thinking, and the like, if +our words are to have power. That is true about all Christian +teachers, whether of old or young. You must be a boy among boys, and +try to show that you enter into the boy's nature, or you may lecture +till doomsday and do no good.</p> +<p>Paul instances three cases in which he had acted, and still +continued to do so, on this principle. He was a Jew, but after his +conversion he had to ‘become a Jew’ by a distinct act; +that is, he had receded so far from his old self, that he, if he had +had only himself to think of, would have given up all Jewish +observances. But he felt it his duty to conciliate prejudice as far +as he could, and so, though he would have fought to the death rather +than given countenance to the belief that circumcision was necessary, +he had no scruple about circumcising Timothy; and, though he believed +that for Christians the whole ancient ritual was abolished, he was +quite willing, if it would smooth away the prejudices of the +‘many thousands of Jews who believed,’ to show, by his +participation in the temple worship, that he ‘walked orderly, +keeping the law.’ If he was told ‘You must,’ his +answer could only be ‘I will not’; but if it was a +question of conciliating, he was ready to go all lengths for +that.</p> +<p>The category which he names next is not composed of different +persons from the first, but of the same persons regarded from a +somewhat different point of view. ‘Them that are under the +law’ describes Jews, not by their race, but by their religion; +and Paul was willing to take his place among them, as we have just +observed. But he will not do that so as to be misunderstood, +wherefore he protests that in doing so he is voluntarily abridging +his freedom for a specific purpose. He is not ‘under the +law’; for the very pith of his view of the Christian's position +is that he has nothing to do with that Mosaic law in any of its +parts, because Christ has made him free.</p> +<p>The second class to whom in his wide sympathies he is able to +assimilate himself, is the opposite of the former—the Gentiles +who are ‘without law.’ He did not preach on Mars’ +Hill as he did in the synagogues. The many-sided Gospel had aspects +fitted for the Gentiles who had never heard of Moses, and the +many-sided Apostle had links of likeness to the Greek and the +barbarian. But here, too, his assimilation of himself to those whom +he seeks to win is voluntary; wherefore he protests that he is not +without law, though he recognises no longer the obligations of +Moses’ law, for he is ‘under [or, rather, +“in”] law to Christ.’</p> +<p>‘The weak’ are those too scrupulous-conscienced +Christians of whom he has been speaking in chapter viii. and whose +narrow views he exhorted stronger brethren to respect, and to refrain +from doing what they could do without harming their own consciences, +lest by doing it they should induce a brother to do the same, whose +conscience would prick him for it. That is a lesson needed to-day as +much as, or more than, in Paul's time, for the widely different +degrees of culture and diversities of condition, training, and +associations among Christians now necessarily result in very diverse +views of Christian conduct in many matters. The grand principle laid +down here should guide us all, both in regard to fellow-Christians +and others. Make yourself as like them as you honestly can; restrict +yourself of allowable acts, in deference to even narrow prejudices; +but let the motive of your assimilating yourself to others be clearly +their highest good, that you may ‘gain’ them, not for +yourself but for your Master.</p> +<p>Verse 23 lays down Paul's ruling principle, which both impelled +him to become all things to all men, with a view to their salvation, +as he has been saying, and urged him to effort and self-discipline, +with a view to his own, as he goes on to say. ‘For the Gospel's +sake’ seems to point backward; ‘that I may be a joint +partaker thereof points forward. We have not only to preach the +Gospel to others, but to live on it and be saved by it ourselves.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="htvr68" id="htvr68">HOW THE VICTOR RUNS</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘So run, that ye may obtain.’—1 COR. +ix. 24.</blockquote> +<p>‘<i>So</i> run.’ Does that mean ‘Run so that ye +obtain?’ Most people, I suppose, superficially reading the +words, attach that significance to them, but the ‘so’ +here carries a much greater weight of meaning than that. It is a word +of comparison. The Apostle would have the Corinthians recall the +picture which he has been putting before them—a picture of a +scene that was very familiar to them; for, as most of us know, one of +the most important of the Grecian games was celebrated at intervals +in the immediate neighbourhood of Corinth. Many of the Corinthian +converts had, no doubt, seen, or even taken part in them. The +previous portion of the verse in which our text occurs appeals to the +Corinthians’ familiar knowledge of the arena and the +competitors, ‘Know ye not that they which run in a race run +all, but one receiveth the prize?’ He would have them picture +the eager racers, with every muscle strained, and the one victor +starting to the front; and then he says, ‘Look at that panting +conqueror. That is how you should run. <i>So</i> +run—‘meaning thereby not, ‘Run so that you may +obtain the prize,’ but ‘Run so’ as the victor does, +‘in order that you may obtain.’ So, then, this victor is +to be a lesson to us, and we are to take a leaf out of his book. Let +us see what he teaches us.</p> +<p>I. The first thing is, the utmost tension and energy and strenuous +effort.</p> +<p>It is very remarkable that Paul should pick out these Grecian +games as containing for Christian people any lesson, for they were +honeycombed, through and through, with idolatry and all sorts of +immorality, so that no Jew ventured to go near them, and it was part +of the discipline of the early Christian Church that professing +Christians should have nothing to do with them in any shape.</p> +<p>And yet here, as in many other parts of his letters, Paul takes +these foul things as patterns for Christians. ‘There is a soul +of goodness in things evil, if we would observantly distil it +out.’ It is very much as if English preachers were to refer +their people to a racecourse, and say, ‘Even there you may pick +out lessons, and learn something of the way in which Christian people +ought to live.’</p> +<p>On the same principle the New Testament deals with that diabolical +business of fighting. It is taken as an emblem for the Christian +soldier, because, with all its devilishness, there is in it this, at +least, that men give themselves up absolutely to the will of their +commander, and are ready to fling away their lives if he lifts his +finger. That at least is grand and noble, and to be imitated on a +higher plane.</p> +<p>In like manner Paul takes these poor racers as teaching us a +lesson. Though the thing be all full of sin, we can get one valuable +thought out of it, and it is this—If people would work half as +hard to gain the highest object that a man can set before him, as +hundreds of people are ready to do in order to gain trivial and +paltry objects, there would be fewer stunted and half-dead Christians +amongst us. ‘That is the way to run,’ says Paul, +‘if you want to obtain.’</p> +<p>Look at the contrast that he hints at, between the prize that +stirs these racers’ energies into such tremendous operation and +the prize which Christians profess to be pursuing. ‘They do it +to obtain a corruptible crown’—a twist of pine branch out +of the neighbouring grove, worth half-a-farthing, and a little +passing glory not worth much more. They do it to obtain a corruptible +crown; we do <i>not</i> do it, though we professedly have an +incorruptible one as our aim and object. If we contrast the relative +values of the objects that men pursue so eagerly, and the objects of +the Christian course, surely we ought to be smitten down with +penitent consciousness of our own unworthiness, if not of our own +hypocrisy.</p> +<p>It is not even there that the lesson stops, because we Christian +people may be patterns and rebukes to ourselves. For, on the one side +of our nature we show what we can do when we are really in earnest +about getting something; and on the other side we show with how +little work we can be contented, when, at bottom, we do not much care +whether we get the prize or not. If you and I really believed that +that crown of glory which Paul speaks about might be ours, and would +be all sufficing for us if it were ours, as truly as we believe that +money is a good thing, there would not be such a difference between +the way in which we clutch at the one and the apathy which scarcely +cares to put out a hand for the other. The things that are seen and +temporal do get the larger portion of the energies and thoughts of +the average Christian man, and the things that are unseen and eternal +get only what is left. Sometimes ninety per cent. of the water of a +stream is taken away to drive a milldam or do work, and only ten per +cent. can be spared to trickle down the half-dry channel and do +nothing but reflect the bright sun and help the little flowers and +the grass to grow. So, the larger portion of most lives goes to drive +the mill-wheels, and there is very little left, in the case of many +of us, in order to help us towards God, and bring us closer into +communion with our Lord. ‘Run’ for the crown as eagerly +as you ‘run’ for your incomes, or for anything that you +really, in your deepest desires, want. Take yourselves for your own +patterns and your own rebukes. Your own lives may show you how you +<i>can</i> love, hope, work, and deny yourselves when you have +sufficient inducement, and their flame should put to shame their +frost, for the warmth is directed towards trifles and the coldness +towards the crown. If you would run for the incorruptible prize of +effort in the fashion in which others and yourselves run for the +corruptible, your whole lives would be changed. Why! if Christian +people in general really took half—half? ay! a tenth part +of—the honest, persistent pains to improve their Christian +character, and become more like Jesus Christ, which a violinist will +take to master his instrument, there would be a new life for most of +our Christian communities. Hours and hours of patient practice are +not too much for the one; how many moments do we give to the other? +‘So run, that ye obtain.’</p> +<p>II. The victorious runner sets Christians an example of rigid +self-control.</p> +<p>Every man that is striving for the mastery is ‘temperate in +all things.’ The discipline for runners and athletes was rigid. +They had ten months of spare diet—no wine—hard gymnastic +exercises every day, until not an ounce of superfluous flesh was upon +their muscles, before they were allowed to run in the arena. And, +says Paul, that is the example for us. They practise this rigid +discipline and abstinence by way of preparation for the race, and +after it was run they might dispense with the training. You and I +have to practise rigid abstinence as part of the race, as a +continuous necessity. <i>They</i> did not abstain only from bad +things, they did not only avoid criminal acts of sensuous indulgence; +but they abstained from many perfectly legitimate things. So for us +it is not enough to say, ‘I draw the line there, at this or +that vice, and I will have nothing to do with these.’ You will +never make a growing Christian if abstinence from palpable sins only +is your standard. You must ‘lay aside’ every sin, of +course, but also ‘every <i>weight</i>’ Many things are +‘weights’ that are not ‘sins’; and if we are +to run fast we must run light, and if we are to do any good in this +world we have to live by rigid control and abstain from much that is +perfectly legitimate, because, if we do not, we shall fail in +accomplishing the highest purposes for which we are here. Not only in +regard to the gross sensual indulgences which these men had to avoid, +but in regard to a great deal of the outgoings of our interests and +our hearts, we have to apply the knife very closely and cut to the +quick, if we would have leisure and sympathy and affection left for +loftier objects. It is a very easy thing to be a Christian in one +aspect, inasmuch as a Christian at bottom is a man that is trusting +to Jesus Christ, and that is not hard to do. It is a very hard thing +to be a Christian in another aspect, because a real Christian is a +man who, by reason of his trusting Jesus Christ, has set his heel +upon the neck of the animal that is in him, and keeps the flesh well +down, and not only the flesh, but the desires of the mind as well as +of the flesh, and subordinates them all to the one aim of pleasing +Him. ‘No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs +of this life’ if his object is to please Him that has called +him to be a soldier. Unless we cut off a great many of the thorns, so +to speak, by which things catch hold of us as we pass them, we shall +not make much advance in the Christian life. Rigid self-control and +abstinence from else legitimate things that draw us away from Him are +needful, if we are so to run as the poor heathen racer teaches +us.</p> +<p>III. The last grace that is suggested here, the last leaf to take +out of these racers’ book, is definiteness and concentration of +aim.</p> +<p>‘I, therefore,’ says the Apostle, ‘so run not as +uncertainly.’ If the runner is now heading that way and now +this, making all manner of loops upon his path, of course he will be +left hopelessly in the rear. It is the old fable of the Grecian +mythology transplanted into Christian soil. The runner who turned +aside to pick up the golden apple was disappointed of his hopes of +the radiant fair. The ship, at the helm of which is a steersman who +has either a feeble hand or does not understand his business, and +which therefore keeps yawing from side to side, with the bows +pointing now this way and now that, is not holding a course that will +make the harbour first in the race. The people that to-day are +marching with their faces towards Zion, and to-morrow making a +loop-line to the world, will be a long time before they reach their +terminus. I believe there are few things more lacking in the average +Christian life of to-day than resolute, conscious concentration upon +an aim which is clearly and always before us. Do you know what you +are aiming at? That is the first question. Have you a distinct theory +of life's purpose that you can put into half a dozen words, or have +you not? In the one case, there is some chance of attaining your +object; in the other one, none. Alas! we find many Christian people +who do not set before themselves, with emphasis and constancy, as +their aim the doing of God's will, and so sometimes they do it, when +it happens to be easy, and sometimes, when temptations are strong, +they do not. It needs a strong hand on the tiller to keep it steady +when the wind is blowing in puffs and gusts, and sometimes the sail +bellies full and sometimes it is almost empty. The various strengths +of the temptations that blow us out of our course are such that we +shall never keep a straight line of direction, which is the shortest +line, and the only one on which we shall ‘obtain,’ unless +we know very distinctly where we want to go, and have a good strong +will that has learned to say ‘No!’ when the temptations +come. ‘Whom resist steadfast in the faith.’ ‘I +therefore so run, not as uncertainly,’ taking one course one +day and another the next.</p> +<p>Now, that definite aim is one that can be equally pursued in all +varieties of life. ‘This one thing I do’ said one who did +about as many things as most people, but the different kinds of +things that Paul did were all, at bottom, one thing. And we, in all +the varieties of our circumstances, may keep this one clear aim +before us, and whether it be in this way or in that, we may be +equally and at all times seeking the better country, and bending all +circumstances and all duty to make us more like our Master and bring +us closer to Him.</p> +<p>The Psalmist did not offer an impossible prayer when he said: +‘One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, +that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to +behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His temple.’ +Was David in ‘the house of the Lord’ when he was with his +sheep in the wilderness, and when he was in Saul's palace, and when +he was living with wild beasts in dens and caves of the earth, and +when he was a fugitive, hunted like a partridge upon the mountains? +Was he always in the Lord's house? Yes! At any rate he could be. All +that we do may be doing His will, and over a life, crowded with +varying circumstances and yet simplified and made blessed by +unvarying obedience, we may write, ‘This one thing I +do.’</p> +<p>But we shall not keep this one aim clear before our eyes, unless +we habituate ourselves to the contemplation of the end. The runner, +according to Paul's vivid picture in another of his letters, forgets +the things that are behind, and stretches out towards the things that +are before. And just as a man runs with his body inclining forward, +and his eager hand nearer the prize than his body, and his eyesight +and his heart travelling ahead of them both to grasp it, so if we +want to live with the one worthy aim for ours, and to put all our +effort and faith into what deserves it all—the Christian +race—we must bring clear before us continually, or at least +with the utmost frequency, the prize of our high calling, the crown +of righteousness. Then we shall run so that we may, at the last, be +able to finish our course with joy, and dying to hope with all +humility that there is laid up for us a crown of righteousness.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="ctc69" id="ctc69">‘CONCERNING THE +CROWN’</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we +are incorruptible.’—1 COR. ix. 25.</blockquote> +<p>One of the most famous of the Greek athletic festivals was held +close by Corinth. Its prize was a pine-wreath from the neighbouring +sacred grove. The painful abstinence and training of ten months, and +the fierce struggle of ten minutes, had for their result a twist of +green leaves, that withered in a week, and a little fading fame that +was worth scarcely more, and lasted scarcely longer. The struggle and +the discipline were noble; the end was contemptible. And so it is +with all lives whose aims are lower than the highest. They are +greater in the powers they put forth than in the objects they +compass, and the question, ‘What is it for?’ is like a +douche of cold water from the cart that lays the clouds of dust in +the ways.</p> +<p>So, says Paul, praising the effort and contemning the prize, +‘They do it to obtain a corruptible crown.’ And yet there +was a soul of goodness in this evil thing. Though these festivals +were indissolubly intertwined with idolatry, and besmirched with much +sensuous evil, yet he deals with them as he does with war and with +slavery; points to the disguised nobility that lay beneath the +hideousness, and holds up even these low things as a pattern for +Christian men.</p> +<p>But I do not mean here to speak so much about the general bearing +of this text as rather to deal with its designation of the aim and +reward of Christian energy, that ‘incorruptible crown’ of +which my text speaks. And in doing so I desire to take into account +likewise other places in Scripture in which the same metaphor +occurs.</p> +<p>I. The crown.</p> +<p>Let me recall the other places where the same metaphor is +employed. We find the Apostle, in the immediate prospect of death, +rising into a calm rapture in which imprisonment and martyrdom lose +their terrors, as he thinks of the ‘crown of +righteousness’ which the Lord will give to him. The Epistle of +James, again, assures the man who endures temptation that ‘the +Lord will give him the crown of life which He has promised to all +them that love Him.’ The Lord Himself from heaven repeats that +promise to the persecuted Church at Smyrna: ‘Be thou faithful +unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.’ The elders +cast their crowns before the feet of Him that sitteth upon the +throne. The Apostle Peter, in his letter, stimulates the elders upon +earth to faithful discharge of their duty, by the hope that thereby +they shall ‘receive a crown of righteousness that fadeth not +away.’ So all these instances taken together with this of my +text enable us to gather two or three lessons.</p> +<p>It is extremely unlikely that all these instances of the +occurrence of the emblem carry with them reference, such as that in +my text, to the prize at the athletic festivals. For Peter and James, +intense Jews as they were, had probably never seen, and possibly +never heard of, the struggles at the Isthmus and at Olympus and +elsewhere. The Book of the Revelation draws its metaphors almost +exclusively from the circle of Jewish practices and things. So that +we have to look in other directions than the arena or the racecourse +to explain these other uses of the image. It is also extremely +unlikely that in these other passages the reference is to a crown as +the emblem of sovereignty, for that idea is expressed, as a rule, by +another word in Scripture, which we have Anglicised as +‘diadem.’ The ‘crown’ in all these passages +is a garland twisted out of some growth of the field. In ancient +usage roses were twined for revellers; pine-shoots or olive branches +for the victors in the games; while the laurel was ‘the meed of +mighty conquerors’; and plaited oak leaves were laid upon the +brows of citizens who had deserved well of their country, and myrtle +sprays crowned the fair locks of the bride.</p> +<p>And thus in these directions, and not towards the wrestling ground +or the throne of the monarch, must we look for the ideas suggested by +the emblem.</p> +<p>Now, if we gather together all these various uses of the word, +there emerge two broad ideas, that the ‘crown’ which is +the Christian's aim symbolises a state of triumphant repose and of +festal enjoyment. There are other aspects of that great and dim +future which correspond to other necessities of our nature, and I +suppose some harm has been done and some misconceptions have been +induced, and some unreality imported into the idea of the Christian +future, by the too exclusive prominence given to these two +ideas—victorious rest after the struggle, and abundant +satisfaction of all desires. That future is other and more than a +festival; it is other and more than repose. There are larger fields +there for the operation of powers that have been trained and evolved +here. The faithfulness of the steward is exchanged, according to +Christ's great words, for the authority of the ruler over many +cities. But still, do we not all know enough of the worry and +turbulence and strained effort of the conflict here below, to feel +that to some of our deepest and not ignoble needs and desires that +image appeals? The helmet that pressed upon the brow even whilst it +protected the brain, and wore away the hair even whilst it was a +defence, is lifted off, and on unruffled locks the garland is +intertwined that speaks victory and befits a festival. One of the old +prophets puts the same metaphor in words imperfectly represented by +the English translation, when he promises ‘a crown’ or a +garland ‘for ashes’—instead of the symbol of +mourning, strewed grey and gritty upon the dishevelled hair of the +weepers, flowers twined into a wreath—‘the oil of joy for +mourning,’ and the festival ‘garment of praise’ to +dress the once heavy spirit. So the satisfaction of all desires, the +accompaniments of a feast, in abundance, rejoicing and companionship, +and conclusive conquest over all foes, are promised us in this great +symbol.</p> +<p>But let us look at the passages separately, and we shall find that +they present the one thought with differences, and that if we combine +these, as in a stereoscope, the picture gains solidity.</p> +<p>The crown is described in three ways. It is the crown of +‘life,’ of ‘glory’ and of +‘righteousness.’ And I venture to think that these three +epithets describe the material, so to speak, of which the wreath is +composed. The everlasting flower of life, the radiant blossoms of +glory, the white flower of righteousness; these are its +components.</p> +<p>I need not enlarge upon them, nor will your time allow that I +should. Here we have the promise of life, that fuller life which men +want, ‘the life of which our veins are scant,’ even in +the fullest tide and heyday of earthly existence. The promise sets +that future over against the present, as if then first should men +know what it means to live: so buoyant, elastic, unwearied shall be +their energies, so manifold the new outlets for activity, and the new +inlets for the surrounding glory and beauty; so incorruptible and +glorious shall be their new being. Here we live a living death; there +we shall live indeed; and that will be the crown, not only in regard +to physical, but in regard to spiritual, powers and +consciousness.</p> +<p>But remember that all this full tide of life is Christ's gift. +There is no such thing as natural immortality; there is no such thing +as independent life. All Being, from the lowest creature up to the +loftiest created spirit, exists by one law, the continual impartation +to it of life from the fountain of life, according to its capacities. +And unless Jesus Christ, all through the eternal ages of the future, +imparted to the happy souls that sit garlanded at His board the life +by which they live, the wreaths would wither on their brows, and the +brows would melt away, and dissolve from beneath the wreaths. +‘I will give him a crown of life.’</p> +<p>It is a crown of ‘glory,’ and that means a +lustrousness of character imparted by radiation and reflection from +the central light of the glory of God. ‘Then shall the +righteous blaze out like the sun in the Kingdom of My Father.’ +Our eyes are dim, but we can at least divine the far-off flashing of +that great light, and may ponder upon what hidden depths and miracles +of transformed perfectness and unimagined lustre wait for us, dark +and limited as we are here, in the assurance that we all shall be +changed into the ‘likeness of the body of His glory.’</p> +<p>It is a crown of ‘righteousness.’ Though that phrase +may mean the wreath that rewards righteousness, it seems more in +accordance with the other similar expressions to which I have +referred to regard it, too, as the material of which the crown is +composed. It is not enough that there should be festal gladness, not +enough that there should be calm repose, not enough that there should +be flashing glory, not enough that there should be fulness of life. +To accord with the intense moral earnestness of the Christian system +there must be, emphatically, in the Christian hope, cessation of all +sin and investiture with all purity. The word means the same thing as +the ancient promise, ‘Thy people shall be all righteous.’ +It means the same thing as the latest promise of the ascended Christ, +‘They shall walk with Me in white.’ And it sets, I was +going to say, the very climax and culmination on the other hopes, +declaring that absolute, stainless, infallible righteousness which +one day shall belong to our weak and sinful spirits.</p> +<p>These, then, are the elements, and on them all is stamped the +signature of perpetuity. The victor's wreath is tossed on the ashen +heap, the reveller's flowers droop as he sits in the heat of the +banqueting-hall; the bride's myrtle blossom fades though she lay it +away in a safe place. The crown of life is incorruptible. It is +twined of amaranth, ever blossoming into new beauty and never +fading.</p> +<p>II. Now look, secondly, at the discipline by which the crown is +won.</p> +<p>Observe, first of all, that in more than one of the passages to +which we have already referred great emphasis is laid upon Christ as +<i>giving</i> the crown. That is to say, that blessed future is not +won by effort, but is bestowed as a free gift. It is given from the +hands which have procured it, and, as I may say, twined it for us. +Unless His brows had been pierced with the crown of thorns, ours +would never have worn the garland of victory. Jesus provides the sole +means, by His work, by which any man can enter into that inheritance; +and Jesus, as the righteous Judge who bestows the rewards, which are +likewise the results, of our life here, gives the crown. It remains +for ever the gift of His love. ‘The wages of sin is +death,’ but we rise above the region of retribution and desert +when we pass to the next clause—‘the gift of God is +eternal life,’ and that ‘through Jesus Christ.’</p> +<p>Whilst, then, this must be laid as the basis of all, there must +also, with equal earnestness and clearness, be set forth the other +thought that Christ's gift has conditions, which conditions these +passages plainly set forth. In the one, which I have read as a text, +we have these conditions declared as being twofold—protracted +discipline and continuous effort. The same metaphor employed by the +same Apostle, in his last dying utterance, associates his +consciousness that he had fought the good fight and run his race, +like the pugilists and runners of the arena, with the hope that he +shall receive the crown of righteousness. James declares that it is +given to the man who <i>endures</i> temptation, not only in the sense +of bearing, but of so bearing as not thereby to be injured in +Christian character and growth in Christian life. Peter asserts that +it is the reward of self-denying discharge of duty. And the Lord from +heaven lays down the condition of faithfulness unto death as the +necessary pre-requisite of His gift of the crown of life. In two of +the passages there is included, though not precisely on the level of +these other requirements, the love of Him and the love of ‘His +appearing,’ as the necessary qualifications for the gift of the +crown.</p> +<p>So, to begin with, unless a man has such a love to Jesus Christ as +that he is happy in His presence, and longs to have Him near, as +parted loving souls do; and, especially, is looking forward to that +great judicial coming, and feeling that there is no tremor in his +heart at the prospect of meeting the Judge, but an outgoing of desire +and love at the hope of seeing his Saviour and his Friend, what right +has he to expect the crown? None. And he will never get it. There is +a test for us which may well make some of us ask ourselves, Are we +Christians, then, at all?</p> +<p>And then, beyond that, there are all these other conditions which +I have pointed out, which may be gathered into one—strenuous +discharge of daily duty and continual effort after following in +Christ's footsteps.</p> +<p>This needs to be as fully and emphatically preached as the other +doctrine that eternal life is the gift of God. All manner of +mischiefs may come, and have come, from either of these twin +thoughts, wrenched apart. But let us weave them as closely together +as the stems of the flowers that make the garlands are twined, and +feel that there is a perfect consistency of both in theory, and that +there must be a continual union of both, in our belief and in our +practice. Eternal life is the gift of God, on condition of our +diligence and earnestness. It is not all the same whether you are a +lazy Christian or not. It does make an eternal difference in our +condition whether here we ‘run with patience the race that is +set before us, looking unto Jesus.’ We have to receive the +crown as a gift; we have to wrestle and run, as contending for a +prize.</p> +<p>III. And now, lastly, note the power of the reward as motive for +life.</p> +<p>Paul says roundly in our text that the desire to obtain the +incorruptible crown is a legitimate spring of Christian action. Now, +I do not need to waste your time and my own in defending Christian +morality from the fantastic objection that it is low and selfish, +because it encourages itself to efforts by the prospect of the crown. +If there are any men who are Christians—if such a contradiction +can be even stated in words—only because of what they hope to +gain thereby in another world, they will not get what they hope for; +and they would not like it if they did. I do not believe that there +are any such; and sure I am, if there are, that it is not +Christianity that has made them so. But a thought that we must not +take as a supreme motive, we may rightly accept as a subsidiary +encouragement. We are not Christians unless the dominant motive of +our lives be the love of the Lord Jesus Christ; and unless we feel a +necessity, because of loving Him, to aim to be like Him. But, that +being so, who shall hinder me from quickening my flagging energies, +and stimulating my torpid faith, and encouraging my cowardice, by the +thought that yonder there remain rest, victory, the fulness of life, +the flashing of glory, and the purity of perfect righteousness? If +such hopes are low and selfish as motives, would God that more of us +were obedient to such low and selfish motives!</p> +<p>Now it seems to me, that this spring of action is not as strong in +the Christians of this day as it used to be, and as it should be. You +do not hear much about heaven in ordinary preaching. I do not think +it occupies a very large place in the average Christian man's mind. +We have all got such a notion nowadays of the great good that the +Gospel does in society and in the present, and some of us have been +so frightened by the nonsense that has been talked about the +‘other-worldliness’ of Christianity—as if that was +a disgrace to it—that it seems to me that the future of glory +and blessedness has very largely faded away, as a motive for +Christian men's energies, like the fresco off a neglected convent +wall.</p> +<p>And I want to say, dear brethren, that I believe, for my part, +that we suffer terribly by the comparative neglect into which this +side of Christian truth has fallen. Do you not think that it would +make a difference to you if you really believed, and carried always +with you in your thoughts, the thrilling consciousness that every act +of the present was registered, and would tell on the far side +yonder?</p> +<p>We do not know much of that future, and these days are intolerant +of mere unverifiable hypotheses. But accuracy of knowledge and +definiteness of impression do not always go together, nor is there +the fulness of the one wanted for the clearness and force of the +other. Though the thread which we throw across the abyss is very +slender, it is strong enough, like the string of a boy's kite, to +bear the messengers of hope and desire that we may send up by it, and +strong enough to bear the gifts of grace that will surely come down +along it.</p> +<p>We cannot understand to-day unless we look at it with eternity for +a background. The landscape lacks its explanation, until the mists +lift and we see the white summits of the Himalayas lying behind and +glorifying the low sandy plain. Would your life not be different; +would not the things in it that look great be wholesomely dwindled +and yet be magnified; would not sorrow be calmed, and life become +‘a solemn scorn of ills,’ and energies be stimulated, and +all be different, if you really ‘did it to obtain an +incorruptible crown?’</p> +<p>Brethren, let us try to keep more clearly before us, as solemn and +blessed encouragement in our lives, these great thoughts. The garland +hangs on the goal, but ‘a man is not crowned unless he strive +according to the laws’ of the arena. The laws are two—No +man can enter for the conflict but by faith in Christ; no man can win +in the struggle but by faithful effort. So the first law is, +‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,’ and the second is, +‘Hold fast that thou hast; let no man take thy +crown.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tlol70" id="tlol70">THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘All things are lawful for me, but all things are +not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify +not. 24. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth. 25. +Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for +conscience sake. 26. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness +thereof. 27. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and +ye be disposed to go, whatsoever is set before you eat, asking no +question for conscience sake. 28. But if any man say unto you, This +is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed +it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord's and the +fulness thereof: 29. Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the +other: for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? 30. +For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for +which I give thanks? 31. Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or +whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 32. Give none offence, +neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: +33. Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own +profit, but the profit of many, that they may be +saved.’—1 COR. x. 23-33.</blockquote> +<p>This passage strikingly illustrates Paul's constant habit of +solving questions as to conduct by the largest principles. He did not +keep his ‘theology’ and his ethics in separate +water-tight compartments, having no communication with each other. +The greatest truths were used to regulate the smallest duties. Like +the star that guided the Magi, they burned high in the heavens, but +yet directed to the house in Bethlehem.</p> +<p>The question here in hand was one that pressed on the Corinthian +Christians, and is very far away from our experience. Idolatry had so +inextricably intertwined itself with daily life that it was hard to +keep up any intercourse with non-Christians without falling into +constructive idolatry; and one very constantly obtruding difficulty +was that much of the animal food served on private tables had been +slaughtered as sacrifices or with certain sacrificial rites. What was +a Christian to do in such a case? To eat or not to eat? Both views +had their vehement supporters in the Corinthian church, and the +importance of the question is manifest from the large space devoted +to it in this letter.</p> +<p>In chapter viii. we have a weighty paragraph, in which one phase +of the difficulty is dealt with—the question whether a +Christian ought to attend a feast in an idol temple, where, of +course, the viands had been offered as sacrifices. But in chapter x. +Paul deals with the case in which the meat had been bought in the +flesh-market, and so was not necessarily sacrificial. Paul's manner +of handling the point is very instructive. He envelops, as it were, +the practical solution in a wrapping of large principles; verses 23, +24 precede the specific answer, and are general principles; verses +25-30 contain the practical answer; verses 31-33 and verse 1 of the +next chapter are again general principles, wide and imperative enough +to mould all conduct, as well as to settle the matter immediately in +hand, which, important as it was at Corinth, has become entirely +uninteresting to us.</p> +<p>We need not spend time in elucidating the specific directions +given as to the particular question in hand further than to note the +immense gift of saving common-sense which Paul had, and how sanely +and moderately he dealt with his problem. His advice +was—‘Don't ask where the joint set before you came from. +If you do not know that it was offered, your eating of it does not +commit you to idol worship.’ No doubt there were Corinthian +Christians with inflamed consciences who did ask such questions, and +rather prided themselves on their strictness and rigidity; but Paul +would have them let sleeping dogs lie. If, however, the meat is known +to have been offered to an idol, then Paul is as rigid and strict as +they are. That combination of willingness to go as far as possible, +and inflexible determination not to go one step farther, of +yieldingness wherever principle does not come in, and of iron +fixedness wherever it does, is rare indeed, but should be aimed at by +all Christians. The morality of the Gospel would make more way in the +world if its advocates always copied the ‘sweet +reasonableness’ of Paul, which, as he tells us in this passage, +he learned from Jesus.</p> +<p>As to the wrapping of general principles, they may all be reduced +to one—the duty of limiting Christian liberty by consideration +for others. In the two verses preceding the practical precepts, that +duty is stated with reference entirely to the obligations flowing +from our relationship to others. We are all bound together by a +mystical chain of solidarity. Since every man is my neighbour, I am +bound to think of him and not only of myself in deciding what I may +do or refrain from doing. I must abstain from lawful things if, by +doing them, I should be likely to harm my neighbour's building up of +a strong character. I can, or I believe that I can, pursue some +course of conduct, engage in some enterprise, follow some line of +life, without damage to myself, either in regard to worldly position, +or in regard to my religious life. Be it so, but I have to take some +one else into account. Will my example call out imitation in others, +to whom it may be harmful or fatal to do as I can do with real or +supposed impunity? If so, I am guilty of something very like murder +if I do not abstain.</p> +<p>‘What harm is there in betting a shilling? I can well afford +to lose it, and I can keep myself from the feverish wish to risk +more.’ Yes, and you are thereby helping to hold up that +gambling habit which is ruining thousands.</p> +<p>‘I can take alcohol in moderation, and it does me no harm, +and I can go to a prayer-meeting after my dinner and temperate glass, +and I am within my Christian liberty in doing so.’ Yes, and you +take part thereby in the greatest curse that besets our country, and +are, by countenancing the drink habit, guilty of the blood of souls. +How any Christian man can read these two verses and not abstain from +all intoxicants is a mystery. They cut clean through all the pleas +for moderate drinking, and bring into play another set of principles +which limit liberty by regard to others’ good. Surely, if there +was ever a subject to which these words apply, it is the use of +alcohol, the proved cause of almost all the crime and poverty on both +sides of the Atlantic. To the Christians who plead their +‘liberty’ we can only say, ‘Happy is he that +condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.’</p> +<p>The same general considerations reappear in the verses following +the specific precept, but with a difference. The neighbour's profit +is still put forth as the limiting consideration, but it is elevated +to a higher sacredness of obligation by being set in connection with +the ‘glory of God’ and the example of Christ. ‘Do +all to the glory of God.’ To put the thought here into modern +English—Could you ask a blessing over a glass of spirits when +you think that, though it should do you no harm, your taking it may, +as it were, tip some weak brother over the precipice? Can you drink +to God's glory when you know that drink is slaying thousands body and +soul, and that hopeless drunkards are made by wholesale out of +moderate drinkers? ‘Give no occasion of stumbling’; do +not by your example tempt others into risky courses. And remember +that ‘neighbour’ (verse 24) resolves itself into +‘Jews’ and ‘Greeks’ and the ‘Church of +God’—that is, substantially to your own race and other +races—to men with whom you have affinities, and to men with +whom you have none.</p> +<p>A Christian man is bound to shape his life so that no man shall be +able to say of him that he was the occasion of that one's fall. He is +so bound because every man is his neighbour. He is so bound because +he is bound to live to the glory of God, which can never be advanced +by laying stumbling-blocks in the way for feeble feet. He is so bound +because, unless Christ had limited Himself within the bound of +manhood, and had sought not His own profit or pleasure, we should +have had neither life nor hope. For all these reasons, the duty of +thinking of others, and of abstaining, for their sakes, from what one +might do, is laid on all Christians. How do they discharge that duty +who will not forswear alcohol for their neighbour's sake?</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="irom71" id="irom71">‘IN REMEMBRANCE OF +ME’</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘This do in remembrance of Me.’—1 COR. +xi. 24.</blockquote> +<p>The account of the institution of the Lord's Supper, contained in +this context, is very much the oldest extant narrative of that event. +It dates long before any of the Gospels, and goes up, probably, to +somewhere about five and twenty years after the Crucifixion. It +presupposes a previous narrative which had been orally delivered to +the Corinthians, and, as the Apostle alleges, was derived by him from +Christ Himself. It is intended to correct corruptions in the +administration of the rite which must have taken some time to develop +themselves. And so we are carried back to a period very close indeed +to the first institution of the rite, by the words before us.</p> +<p>No reasonable doubt can exist, then, that within a very few years +of our Lord's death, the whole body of Christian people believed that +Jesus Christ Himself appointed the Lord's Supper. I do not stay to +dwell upon the value of a rite contemporaneous with the fact which it +commemorates, and continuously lasting throughout the ages, as a +witness of the historical veracity of the alleged fact; but I want to +fix upon this thought, that Jesus Christ, who cared very little for +rites, who came to establish a religion singularly independent of any +outward form, did establish two rites, one of them to be done once in +a Christian lifetime, one of them to be repeated with indefinite +frequency, and, as it appears, at first repeated daily by the early +believers. The reason why these two, and only these two, external +ordinances were appointed by Jesus Christ was, that, taken together, +they cover the whole ground of revealed fact, and they also cover the +whole ground of Christian experience. There is no room for any other +rites, because these two, the rite of initiation, which is baptism, +and the rite of commemoration, which is the Lord's Supper, say +everything about Christianity as a revelation, and about Christianity +as a living experience.</p> +<p>Not only so, but in the simple primitive form of the Lord's Supper +there is contained a reference to the past, the present and the +future. It covers all time as well as all revelation and all +Christian experience. For the past, as the text shows us, it is a +memorial of one Person, and one fact in that Person's life. For the +present, it is the symbol of the Christian life, as that great sixth +chapter in John's gospel sets forth; and for the future, it is a +prophecy, as our Lord Himself said on that night in the upper +chamber, ‘Till I drink it new with you in My Father's +kingdom,’ and as the Apostle in this context says, ‘Till +He come.’ It is to these three aspects of this ordinance, as +the embodiment of all essential Christian truth, and as the +embodiment of all deep Christian experience, covering the past, the +present, and the future, that I wish to turn now. I do not deal so +much with the mere words of my text as with this threefold +significance of the rite which it appoints.</p> +<p>I. So then, first, we have to think of it as a memorial of the +past.</p> +<p>‘Do this,’ is the true meaning of the words, not +‘in remembrance of Me,’ but something far more sweet and +pathetic—‘do this for the <i>remembering</i> of +Me.’ The former expression is equal to ‘Do this because +you remember.’ The real meaning of the words is, ‘Do this +in case you forget’; do this in order that you may recall to +memory what the slippery memory is so apt to lose—the +impression of even the sweetest sweetness, of the most loving love, +and the most self-abnegating sacrifice, which He offered for us.</p> +<p>There is something to me infinitely pathetic and beautiful in +looking at the words not only as the commandment of the Lord, but as +the appeal of the Friend, who wished, as we all do, not to be utterly +forgotten by those whom He cared for and loved; and who, not only +because their remembrance was their salvation, but because their +forgetfulness pained His human heart, brings to their hearts the +plaintive appeal: ‘Do not forget Me when I am gone away from +you; and even if you have no better way of remembering Me, take these +poor symbols, to which I am not too proud to entrust the care of My +memory, and do this, lest you forget Me.’</p> +<p>But, dear brethren, there are deeper thoughts than this, on which +I must dwell briefly. ‘In remembrance of Me’—Jesus +Christ, then, takes up an altogether unique and solitary position +here, and into the sacredest hours of devotion and the loftiest +moments of communion with God, intrudes His personality, and says, +‘When you are most religious, remember Me; and let the highest +act of your devout life be a thought turned to Myself.’</p> +<p>Now, I want you to ask, is that thought diverted from God? And if +it is not, how comes it not to be? I want you honestly to ask +yourselves this question—what did <i>He</i> think about Himself +who, at that moment, when all illusions were vanishing, and life was +almost at its last ebb, took the most solemn rite of His nation and +laid it solemnly aside and said: ‘A greater than Moses is here; +a greater deliverance is being wrought’: ‘Remember +Me.’ Is that insisting on His own personality, and making the +remembrance of it the very apex and shining summit of all religious +aspiration—is that the work of one about whom all that we have +to say is, He was the noblest of men? If so, then I want to know how +Jesus Christ, in that upper chamber, founding the sole continuous +rite of the religion which He established, and making its heart and +centre the remembrance of His own personality, can be cleared from +the charge of diverting to Himself what belongs to God only, and how +you and I, if we obey His commands, escape the crime of idolatry and +man-worship? ‘Do this in remembrance,’—not of +God—‘in remembrance of Me,’ ‘and let memory, +with all its tendrils, clasp and cleave to My person.’ What an +extraordinary demand! It is obscuring God, unless the +‘Me’ <i>is</i> God manifest in the flesh.</p> +<p>Then, still further, let me remind you that in the appointment of +this solitary rite as His memorial to all generations, Jesus Christ +Himself designates one part of His whole manifestation as the part +into which all its pathos, significance, and power are concentrated. +We who believe that the death of Christ is the life of the world, are +told that one formidable objection to our belief is that Jesus Christ +Himself said so little during His life about His death. I believe His +reticence upon that question is much exaggerated, but apart +altogether from that, I believe also that there was a necessity in +the order of the evolution of divine truth, for the reticence, such +as it is, because, whatsoever might be possible to Moses and Elias, +on the Mount of Transfiguration, ‘His decease which He should +accomplish at Jerusalem,’ could not be much spoken about in the +plain till it had been accomplished. But, apart from both of these +considerations, reflect, that whether He said much about His death or +not, He said something very much to the purpose about it when He said +‘Do this in remembrance of Me.’</p> +<p>It is not His personality only that we are to remember. The whole +of the language of the institution of the ritual, as well as the form +of the rite, and its connection with the ancient passover, and its +connection with the new covenant into connection with which Christ +Himself brings it, all point to the significance in His eyes of His +death as the Sacrifice for the world's sin. Wherefore ‘the +body’ and ‘the blood’ separately remembered, except +to indicate death by violence? Wherefore the language ‘the body +<i>broken</i> for you’; ‘the blood <i>shed</i> for many +for the remission of sins?’ Wherefore the association with the +Passover sacrifice? Wherefore the declaration that ‘this is the +blood of the Covenant,’ unless all tended to the one +thought—His death is the foundation of all loving relationships +possible to us with God; and the condition of the remission of +sins—the Sacrifice for the whole world?’</p> +<p>This is the point that He desires us to remember; this is that +which He would have live for ever in our grateful hearts.</p> +<p>I say nothing about the absolute exclusion of any other purpose of +this memorial rite. If it was the mysterious thing that the +superstition of later ages has made of it, how, in the name of +common-sense, does it come that not one syllable, looking in that +direction, dropped from His lips when He established it? Surely He, +in that upper chamber, knew best what He meant, and what He was doing +when He established the rite; and I, for my part, am contented to be +told that I believe in a poor, bald Zwinglianism, when I say with my +Master, that the purpose of the Lord's Supper is simply the +commemoration, and therein the proclamation, of His death. There is +no magic, no mystery, no ‘sacrament’ about it. It blesses +us when it makes us remember Him. It does the same thing for us which +any other means of bringing Him to mind does. It does that through a +different vehicle. A sermon does it by words, the Communion does it +by symbols. That is the difference to be found between them. And away +goes the whole fabric of superstitious Christianity, and all its +mischiefs and evils, when once you accept the simple +‘Remember.’ Christ told us what He meant by the rite when +He said ‘Do this in remembrance of Me.’</p> +<p>II. And now one word or two more about the other particulars which +I have suggested. The past, however sweet and precious, is not enough +for any soul to live upon. And so this memorial rite, just because it +is memorial, is a symbol for the present.</p> +<p>That is taught us in the great chapter—the sixth of John's +Gospel—which was spoken long before the institution of the +Lord's Supper, but expresses in words the same ideas which it +expresses by material forms. The Christ who died is the Christ who +lives, and must be lived upon by the Christian. If our relation to +Jesus Christ were only that ‘Once in the end of the ages He +appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself’; and if +we had to look back through lengthening vistas of distance and +thickening folds of oblivion, simply to a historical past, in which +He was once offered, the retrospect would not have the sweetness in +it which it now has. But when we come to this thought that the Christ +who was for us is also the Christ in us, and that He is not the +Christ for us unless He is the Christ in us; and His death will never +wash away our sins unless we feed upon Him, here and now, by faith +and meditation, then the retrospect becomes blessedness. The +Christian life is not merely the remembrance of a historical Christ +in the past, but it is the present participation in a living Christ, +with us now.</p> +<p>He is near each of us that we may make Him the very food of our +spirits. We are to live upon Him. He is to be incorporated within us +by our own act. This is no mysticism, it is a piece of simple +reality. There is no Christian life without it. The true life of the +believer is just the feeding of our souls upon Him,—our minds +accepting, meditating upon, digesting the truths which are incarnated +in Jesus; our hearts feeding upon the love which is so tender, warm, +stooping, and close; our wills feeding upon and nourished by the +utterance of His will in commandments which to know is joy and to +keep is liberty; our hopes feeding upon Him who is our Hope, and in +whom they find no chaff and husks of peradventures, but the pure +wheat of ‘Verily! verily I say unto you’; the whole +nature thus finding its nourishment in Jesus Christ. You are +Christians in the measure in which the very strength of your spirits, +and sustenance of all your faculties, are found in loving communion +with the living Lord.</p> +<p>Remember, too, that all this communion, intimate, sweet, sacred, +is possible only, or at all events is in its highest forms and most +blessed reality, possible only, to those who approach Him through the +gate of His death. The feeding upon the living Christ which will be +the strength of our hearts and our portion for ever, must be a +feeding upon the whole Christ. We must not only nourish our spirits +on the fact that He was incarnated for our salvation, but also on the +truth that He was crucified for our acceptance with God. ‘He +that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me,’ has for its deepest +explanation, ‘He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood +hath eternal life.’</p> +<p>My friends, what about the hunger of your souls? Where is it +satisfied? With the swine's husks, or with the ‘Bread of God +which came down from Heaven?’</p> +<p>III. Now, lastly, that rite which is a memorial and a symbol is +also a prophecy.</p> +<p>In the original words of the institution our Lord Himself makes +reference to the future; ‘till I drink it new with you in My +Father's kingdom.’ And in the context here, the Apostle +provides for the perpetual continuance, and emphasises the prophetic +aspect, of the rite, by that word, ‘till He come.’ His +death necessarily implies His coming again. The Cross and the Throne +are linked together by an indissoluble bond. Being what it is, the +death cannot be the end. Being what He is, if He has once been +offered to bear the sins of many, so He must come the second time +without sin unto salvation. The rite, just because it is a rite, is +the prophecy of a time when the need for it, arising from weak flesh +and an intrusive world, shall cease. ‘They shall say no more, +The ark of the covenant of the Lord; at that time they shall call +Jerusalem the throne of the Lord.’ There shall be no temple in +that great city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the +Temple thereof. So all external worship is a prophecy of the coming +of the perfect time, when that which is perfect being come, the +external helps and ladders to climb to the loftiest shall be done +away.</p> +<p>But more than that, the memorial and symbol is a prophecy. That +upper chamber, with its troubled thoughts, its unbidden tears, +starting to the eyes of the half-understanding listeners, who only +felt that He was going away and the sweet companionship was +dissolved, may seem to be but a blurred and a poor image of the +better communion of heaven. But though on that sad night the Master +bore a burdened heart, and the servants had but partial apprehension +and a more partial love; though He went forth to agonise and to die, +and they went forth to deny and to betray, and to leave Him alone, +still it was a prophecy of Christ's table in His kingdom. Heaven is +to be a feast. That representation promises society to the solitary, +rest to the toilers, the oil of joy for mourning, and the full +satisfaction of all desires. That heavenly feast surpasses indeed the +antitype in the upper chamber, in that there the Master Himself +partook not, and yonder we shall sup with Him and He with us, but is +prophetic in that, as there He took a towel and girded Himself and +washed the disciples’ feet, so yonder He will come forth +Himself and serve them. The future is unlike the prophetic past in +that ‘we shall go no more out’; there shall be no +sequences of sorrow, and struggle, and distance and ignorance; but +like it in that we shall feast on Christ, for through eternity the +glorified Jesus will be the Bread of our spirits, and the fact of His +past sacrifice the foundation of our hopes.</p> +<p>So, dear brethren, though our external celebration of this rite be +dashed, as it always is, with much ignorance and with feeble faith; +and though we gather round this table as the first generation of +Israelites did round the passover, of which it is the successor, with +staff in hand and loins girded, and have to eat it often with bitter +herbs mingled, and though there be at our sides empty places, yet +even in our clouded and partial apprehension, and in the +imperfections of this outward type, we may see a gracious shadow of +what is waiting for us when we shall go no more out, and all empty +places shall be filled, and the bitter herbs shall be changed for the +asphodel of Heaven and the sweet flowerage round the throne of God, +and we shall feast upon the Christ, and in the loftiest experience of +the utmost glories of the Heavens, shall remember the bitter Cross +and agony as that which has bought it all. ‘This do in +remembrance of Me.’ May it be a symbol of our inmost life, and +the prophecy of the Heaven to which we each shall come!</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tug72" id="tug72">THE UNIVERSAL GIFT</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every +man to profit withal.’—1 COR. xii. 7.</blockquote> +<p>The great fact which to-day[<a href="#tug72f1">1</a>] commemorates +is too often regarded as if it were a transient gift, limited to +those on whom it was first bestowed. We sometimes hear it said that +the great need of the Christian world is a second Pentecost, a fresh +outpouring of the Spirit of God and the like. Such a way of thinking +and speaking misconceives the nature and significance of the first +Pentecost, which had a transient element in it, but in essence was +permanent. The rushing mighty wind and the cloven tongues of fire, +and the strange speech in many languages, were all equally transient. +The rushing wind swept on, and the house was no more filled with it. +The tongues flickered into invisibility and disappeared from the +heads. The hubbub of many languages was quickly silent. But that +which these things but symbolised is permanent; and we are not to +think of Pentecost as if it were a sudden gush from a great +reservoir, and the sluice was let down again after it, but as if it +were the entrance into a dry bed, of a rushing stream, whose first +outgush was attended with noise, but which thereafter flows +continuous and unbroken. If churches or individuals are scant of that +gift, it is not because it has not been bestowed, but because it has +not been accepted.</p> +<p>My text tells us two things: it unconditionally and broadly +asserts that every Christian possesses this great gift—the +manifestation is given to every man; and then it asserts that the +gift of each is meant to be utilised for the good of all. ‘The +manifestation is given to every man to profit withal.’</p> +<p>I. Let me, then, say a word or two, to begin with, about the +universality of this gift.</p> +<p>Now, that is implied in our Lord's own language, as commented upon +by the Evangelist. For Jesus Christ declared that this was the +standing law of His kingdom, to be universally applied to all its +members, that ‘He that believeth on Him, out of him shall flow +rivers of living water’; and the Evangelist's comment goes on +to say, ‘This spake He of the Spirit which they that believe on +Him should receive.’ <i>There</i> is the condition and the +qualification. Wherever there is faith, there the Spirit of God is +bestowed, and bestowed in the measure in which faith is exercised. +So, then, in full accordance with such fundamental principles in +reference to the gift of the Spirit of God, comes the language of my +text, and of many another text to which I cannot do more than refer. +But let me just quote one or two of them, in order that I may make +more emphatic what I believe a great many Christian people do not +realise as they ought—viz. that the gift of God's Holy Spirit +is not a thing to be desired, as if it were not possessed or confined +to select individuals, or manifested by exceptional and lofty +attainments, but is the universal heritage of the whole Christian +Church. ‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of the Holy +Ghost?’ ‘We have all been made to drink into one +Spirit,’ says Paul again, in the immediate context. ‘If +any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His,’ says +he, unconditionally. And in many other places the same principle is +laid down, a principle which I believe the Christian Church to-day +needs to have recalled to its consciousness, that it may be quickened +to realise it in its experience far more than is the case at +present.</p> +<p>Let me remind you, too, that that universality of the gifts of the +Divine Spirit is implied in the very conception of what Christ's +work, in its deepest and most precious aspects to us, is. For we are +not to limit, as a great many so-called earnest evangelical teachers +and believers do—we are not to limit His work to that which is +effected when a man first becomes a Christian—viz. pardon and +acceptance with God. God forbid that I should ever seem to underrate +that great initial gift on which everything else must be built. But I +am not underrating it when I say, ‘Let us prophesy according to +the proportion of faith,’ and the ‘proportion of +faith’ has been violated, and the perspective and completeness +of Christian truth, and of Christ's gifts, have been, alas! to a very +large extent distorted because Christian people, trained in what we +call the evangelical school, have laid far too little emphasis on the +fact that the essential gift of Christ to His people is not pardon, +nor acceptance, nor justification, but <i>life</i>; and that +forgiveness, and altered relationship to God, and assurance of +acceptance with Him, are all preliminaries. They are, if I may recur +to a figure that I have already employed, the preparing of the +channel, and the taking away of the obstacles that block its mouth, +in order to the inrush of the flood of the river of the water of +life.</p> +<p>This life that Christ gives is the result of the gift of the +Spirit. So ‘If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none +of His.’ The life is the gift considered from our side, and the +Spirit is the gift considered from the divine side. ‘Every man +that hath the Son hath life’; because the law of the Spirit of +life in Christ has made him free from the law of sin and death. So +you see if that is true—and I for my part am sure that it +is—then all that vulgar way of looking at the influences of the +Holy Spirit upon men, as if they were confined to certain exceptional +people, or certain abnormal and extraordinary and elevated acts, is +swept away. It is not the spasmodic, the exceptional, the rare, not +the lofty or transcendentally Christlike acts or characters that are +alone the manifestation of the Spirit.</p> +<p>Nor is this gift a thing that a man can discover as distinct from +his own consciousness. The point where the river of the water of life +comes into the channel of our spirits lies away far up, near the +sources, and long before the stream comes into sight in our own +consciousness, the blended waters have been inseparably mingled, and +flow on peacefully together. ‘The Spirit beareth witness +<i>with</i> our spirits’; and you are not to expect that you +can hear two voices speaking, but it is one voice and one only.</p> +<p>Now, that universality of this divine gift underlies the very +constitution of the Christian Church. ‘Where the Spirit of the +Lord is there is liberty,’ said Paul. It is because each +Christian man has access to the one Source of illumination and of +truth and righteousness and holiness, that no Christian man is to +become subject to the dominion of a brother. And it is because on the +servants and on the handmaidens has been poured out, in these days, +God's Spirit and they prophesy, that all domination of classes or +individuals, and all stiffening of the free life of God's Church by +man-made creeds, are contrary to the very basis of its existence, and +an attack on the dignity of each individual member of the Church. +‘Ye have an unction from the Holy One’ is said to all +Christian people—and ‘ye need not that any man teach +you,’ still less that any man, or body of men, or document +framed by men, should be set up as normal and authoritative over +Christ's free people.</p> +<p>Still further, and only one word—Let me remind you of what I +have already said, and what is only too sadly true, that this grand +universality of the Spirit's gift to all Christian people does not +fill, in the mind of the ordinary Christian man, the place that it +ought, and it does not fill it, therefore, in his experience. I say +no more upon that point.</p> +<p>II. And now let me say a word, secondly, about the many-sidedness +of this universal gift.</p> +<p>One of the reasons why Christian people as a whole do not realise +the universality as they ought is, as I have already suggested in a +somewhat different connection, because they limit their notions far +too much of what the gift of God's Spirit is to do to men. We must +take a wider view of what that Spirit is meant to effect than we +ordinarily take, before we understand how real and how visible its +universal manifestations are. Take a leaf out of the Old Testament. +The man who made the brass-work for the Tabernacle was ‘full of +the Spirit of God.’ The poets who sung the Psalms, in more than +one place, declare of themselves that they, too, were but the harps +upon which the divine finger played. Samson was capable of his rude +feats of physical strength, because ‘the Spirit of God was upon +him.’ Art, song, counsel, statesmanlike adaptation of means to +ends, and discernment of proper courses for a nation, such as were +exemplified in Joseph and in Daniel, are, in the Old Testament, +ascribed to the Spirit of God, and even the rude physical strength of +the simple-natured and sensuous athlete is traced up to the same +source.</p> +<p>But again, we see another sphere of the Spirit's working in the +manifestations of it in the experience of the primitive Church. These +are, as we all know, accompanied with miracles, speaking with tongues +and working wonders. The signs of that Spirit in those days were +visible and audible. As I said, when the river first came into its +bed, it came like the tide in Morecambe Bay, breast-high, with a roar +and a rush. But it was quiet after that. In the context we have a +whole series of manifestations of this Divine Spirit, some of them +miraculous and some being natural faculties heightened, but all +concerned with the Church as a society, and being for the benefit of +the community.</p> +<p>But there is another class. If you turn to the Epistle to the +Galatians, you will find a wonderful list there of what the Apostle +calls ‘the fruit of the Spirit,’ beginning with +‘love, joy, peace.’ These are all moral and religious, +bearing upon personal experience and the completeness of the +individual character.</p> +<p>Now, let us include all these aspects in our conception of the +fruit of the Spirit's working on men—the secular, if we may use +that word, as exhibited in the Old Testament; the miraculous, as seen +in the first days of the Church; the ecclesiastical, if we may so +designate the endowments mentioned in the context, and the purely +personal, moral, and religious emotions and acts. The plain fact is +that everything in a Christian's life, except his sin, is the +manifestation of that Divine Spirit, from whom all good thoughts, +counsels, and works do proceed. He is the ‘Spirit of +adoption,’ and whenever in my heart there rises warm and +blessed the aspiration ‘Abba! Father!’ it is not my voice +only, but the voice of that Divine Spirit. He is the Spirit of +intercession; and whenever in my soul there move yearning desires +after infinite good, child-like longings to be knit more closely to +Him, that, too, is the voice of God's Spirit; and our prayers are +then ‘sweet, indeed, when He the Spirit gives by which we +pray.’ In like manner, all the variety of Christian emotions +and experiences is to be traced to the conjoint operation of that +Divine Spirit as the source, and my own spirit as influenced by, and +the organ of, the Spirit of God. If I may take a very rough +illustration, there is a story in the Old Testament about a king, to +whom were given a bow and arrow, with the command to shoot. The +prophet's hand was laid on the king's weak hand, and the weak hand +was strengthened by the touch of the other; and with one common pull +they drew back the string and the arrow sped. The king drew the bow, +but it was the prophet's hand grasping his wrist that gave him +strength to do it. And that is how the Spirit of God will work with +us if we will.</p> +<p>III. Finally, consider the purpose of all the diverse +manifestations of the one universal gift.</p> +<p>‘To profit withal’—for his own good who +possesses it, and for the good of all the rest of his brethren.</p> +<p>Now, that involves two plain things. There have been people in the +Christian Church who have said, ‘We have all the Spirit, and +therefore we do not need one another.’ There may be isolation, +and self-sufficiency, and a host of other evils coming in, if we only +grasp the thought, ‘The manifestation of the Spirit is given to +every man,’ but they are all corrected if we go on and say, +‘to profit withal.’ For every one of us has something, +and no one of us has everything; so, on the one hand, we want each +other, and, on the other hand, we are responsible for the use of what +we have.</p> +<p>You get the life, not in order that you may plume yourself on its +possession, nor in order that you may ostentatiously display it, +still less in order that you may shut it up and do nothing with it; +but you get the life in order that it may spread through you to +others.</p> +<pre> +'The least flower with a brimming cup may stand, +And share its dew-drop with another near.' +</pre> +<p class="noindent">We each have the life that God's grace may fructify +through us to all. Power is duty; endowment is obligation; capacity +prescribes work. ‘The manifestation of the Spirit is given to +every man to profit withal.’</p> +<p>You can regulate the flow. You have the sluice; you can shut it or +open it. I have said that the condition, and the only condition, of +possessing the fulness of God's Spirit is faith in Jesus Christ. +Therefore, the more you trust the more you have, and the less your +faith the less the gift. You can get much or little, according to the +greatness or the smallness, the fixity or the transiency, of your +desires. If you hold the empty cup with a tremulous hand, the +precious liquid will not be poured into it—for some of it will +be spilt—in the same fulness as it would be if you held it +steadily. It is the old story—the miraculous flow of the oil +stopped when the widow had no more pots and vessels to bring. The +reason why some of us have so little of that Divine Spirit is because +we have not held out our vessels to be filled. You can diminish the +flow by ignoring it, and that is what a host of so-called Christian +people do nowadays. You can diminish it by neglecting to use the +little that you have for the purpose for which it was given you. Does +anybody profit by your spiritual life? Do you profit much by it +yourselves? Has it ever been of the least good to anybody else in the +world? ‘The manifestation of the Spirit is given to’ you, +if you are a Christian man or woman, more or less. And if you shut it +up, and do never an atom of good with it, either to yourselves or to +anybody else, of course it will slip away; and, sometime or other, to +your astonishment, you will find that the vessels are empty, and that +the Spirit of the Lord has departed from you. ‘Grieve not the +Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of +redemption.’</p> +<p class="fnt"><a name="tug72f1" id="tug72f1">Footnote 1</a>: Whitsunday.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="wl73" id="wl73">WHAT LASTS</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; +whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be +knowledge, it shall vanish away. 13. And now abideth faith, hope, +charity, these three. ...’—1 COR. xiii. 8, +13.</blockquote> +<p>We discern the run of the Apostle's thought best by thus omitting +the intervening verses and connecting these two. The part omitted is +but a buttress of what has been stated in the former of our two +verses; and when we thus unite them there is disclosed plainly the +Apostle's intention of contrasting two sets of things, three in each +set. The one set is ‘prophecies, tongues, knowledge’; the +other, ‘faith, hope, charity.’ There also comes out +distinctly that the point mainly intended by the contrast is the +transiency of the one and the permanence of the other. Now, that +contrast has been obscured and weakened by two mistakes, about which +I must say a word.</p> +<p>With regard to the former statement, ‘Whether there be +prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall +cease,’ that has been misunderstood as if it amounted to a +declaration that the miraculous gifts in the early Church were +intended to be of brief duration. However true that may be, it is not +what Paul means here. The cessation to which he refers is their +cessation in the light of the perfect Future. With regard to the +other statement, the abiding of faith, hope, charity, that, too, has +been misapprehended as if it indicated that faith and hope belonged +to this state of things only, and that love was the greatest of the +three, because it was permanent. The reason for that misconception +has mainly lain in the misunderstanding of the force of +‘<i>Now</i>,’ which has been taken to mean ‘for the +present,’ as an implied contrast to an unspoken +‘then’; just as in the previous verse we have, +‘<i>Now</i> we see through a glass, <i>then</i> face to +face.’ But the ‘now’ in this text is not, as the +grammarians say, temporal, but logical. That is, it does not refer to +time, but to the sequence of the Apostle's thought, and is equivalent +to ‘so then.’ ‘So then abideth faith, hope, +charity.’</p> +<p>The scope of the whole, then, is to contrast the transient with +the permanent, in Christian experience. If we firmly grasped the +truth involved, our estimates would be rectified and our practice +revolutionised.</p> +<p>I. I ask this question—What will drop away?</p> +<p>Paul answers, ‘prophecies, tongues, knowledge.’ Now +these three were all extraordinary gifts belonging to the present +phase of the Christian life. But inasmuch as these gifts were the +heightening of natural capacities and faculties, it is perfectly +legitimate to enlarge the declaration and to use these three words in +their widest signification. So understood, they come to this, that +all our present modes of apprehension and of utterance are transient, +and will be left behind.</p> +<p>‘Knowledge, it shall cease,’ and as the Apostle goes +on to explain, in the verses which I have passed over for my present +purpose, it shall cease because the perfect will absorb into itself +the imperfect, as the inrushing tide will obliterate the little pools +in the rocks on the seashore. For another reason, the knowledge, the +mode of apprehension belonging to the present, will +pass—because here it is indirect, and there it will be +immediate. ‘We shall know face to face,’ which is what +philosophers mean by intuition. Here our knowledge ‘creeps from +point to point,’ painfully amassing facts, and thence, with +many hesitations and errors, groping its way towards principles and +laws. Here it is imperfect, with many a gap in the circumference; or +like the thin red line on a map which shows the traveller's route +across a prairie, or like the spider's thread in the telescope, +stretched athwart the blazing disc of the sun—‘but then +face to face.’ Incomplete knowledge shall be done away; and +many of its objects will drop, and much of what makes the science of +earth will be antiquated and effete. What would the hand-loom +weaver's knowledge of how to throw his shuttle be worth in a +weaving-shed with a thousand looms? Just so much will the knowledges +of earth be when we get yonder.</p> +<p>Modes of utterance will cease. With new experiences will come new +methods of communication. As a man can speak, and a beast can only +growl or bark, so a man in heaven, with new experiences, will have +new methods of communication. The comparison between that mode of +utterance which we now have, and that which we shall then possess, +will be like the difference between the old-fashioned semaphore, that +used to wave about clumsy wooden arms in order to convey +intelligence, and the telegraph.</p> +<p>Think, then, of a man going into that future life, and saying +‘I knew more about Sanscrit than anybody that ever lived in +Europe’; ‘I sang sweet songs’; ‘I was a past +master in philology, grammars, and lexicons’; ‘I was a +great orator.’ ‘Tongues shall cease’; and the modes +of utterance that belonged to earth, and all that holds of them, will +drop away, and be of no more use.</p> +<p>If these things are true, brethren, with regard even to the +highest form of these high and noble things, how much more and more +solemnly true are they with regard to the aims and objects which most +of us have in view? They will all drop away, and we shall be left, +stripped of what, for most of us, has made the whole interest and +activity of our lives.</p> +<p>II. What will last?</p> +<p>‘So then, abideth these three, faith, hope, love.’ +When Paul takes three nouns and couples them with a verb in the +singular, he is not making a slip of the pen, or committing a +grammatical blunder which a child could correct. But there is a great +truth in that piece of apparent grammatical irregularity; for the +faith, the hope, and the love, for which he can only afford a +singular verb, are thereby declared to be in their depth and essence +one thing, and it, the triple star, abides, and continues to shine. +The three primitive colours are unified in the white beam of light. +Do not correct the grammar, and spoil the sense, but discern what he +means when he says, ‘Now, abid<i>eth</i> faith, hope, +love.’ For this is what he means, that the two latter come out +of the former, and that without it they are nought, and that it +without them is dead.</p> +<p>Faith breeds Hope. <i>There</i> is the difference between earthly +hopes and Christian people's hopes. Our hopes, apart from the +revelation of God in Jesus Christ, are but the balancing of +probabilities, and the scale is often dragged down by the clutch of +eager desires. But all is baseless and uncertain, unless our hopes +are the outcome of our faith. Which, being translated into other +words, is just this, that the one basis on which men can +rest—ay! even for the immediate future, and the contingencies +of life, as well as for the solemnities and certainties of +heaven—any legitimate and substantial hope is trust in Jesus +Christ, His word, His love, His power, and for the heavenly future, +in His Resurrection and present glory. A man who believes these +things, and only that man, has a rock foundation on which he can +build his hope.</p> +<p>Faith, in like manner, is the parent of Love. Paul and John, +diverse as they are in the whole cast of their minds, the one being +speculative and the other mystical, the one argumentative and the +other simply gazing and telling what he sees, are precisely agreed in +regard to this matter. For, to the Apostle of Love, the foundation of +all human love towards God is, ‘We have known and believed the +love that God hath to us,’ and ‘We love Him because He +first loved us,’ and to Paul the first step is the trusting +reception of the love of God, ‘commended to us’ by the +fact that ‘whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for +us,’ and from that necessarily flows, if the faith be genuine, +the love that answers the sacrifice and obeys the Beloved. So faith, +hope, love, these three are a trinity in unity, and it abideth. That +is the main point of our last text. Let me say a word or two about +it.</p> +<p>I have said that the words have often been misunderstood as if the +‘now’ referred only to the present order of things, in +which faith and hope are supposed to find their only appropriate +sphere. But that is clearly not the Apostle's meaning here, for many +reasons with which I need not trouble you. The abiding of all three +is eternal abiding, and there is a heavenly as well as an earthly +form of faith and hope as well as of love. Just look at these points +for a moment.</p> +<p>‘Faith abides,’ says Paul, yonder, as here. Now, there +is a common saying, which I suppose ninety out of a hundred people +think comes out of the Bible, about faith being lost in sight. There +is no such teaching in Scripture. True, in one aspect, faith is the +antithesis of sight. True, Paul does say ‘We walk by faith, not +by sight.’ But that antithesis refers only to part of faith's +significance. In so far as it is the opposite of sight, of course it +will cease to be in operation when ‘we shall know even as we +are known’ and ‘see Him as He is.’ But the essence +of faith is not in the absence of the person trusted, but the emotion +of trust which goes out to the person, present or absent. And in its +deepest meaning of absolute dependence and happy confidence, faith +abides through all the glories and the lustres of the heavens, as it +burns amidst the dimnesses and the darknesses of earth. For ever and +ever, on through the irrevoluble ages of eternity, dependence on God +in Christ will be the life of the glorified, as it was the life of +the militant, Church. No millenniums of possession, and no imaginable +increases in beauty and perfectness and enrichment with the wealth of +God, will bring us one inch nearer to casting off the state of filial +dependence which is, and ever will be, the condition of our receiving +them all. Faith ‘abides.’</p> +<p>Hope ‘abides.’ For it is no more a Scriptural idea +that hope is lost in fruition, than it is that faith is lost in +sight. Rather that Future presents itself to us as the continual +communication of an inexhaustible God to our progressively capacious +and capable spirits. In that continual communication there is +continual progress. Wherever there is progress there must be hope. +And thus the fair form, which has so often danced before us elusive, +and has led us into bogs and miry places and then faded away, will +move before us through all the long avenues of an endless progress, +and will ever and anon come back to tell us of the unseen glories +that lie beyond the next turn, and to woo us further into the depths +of heaven and the fulness of God. Hope ‘abides.’</p> +<p>Love ‘abides.’ I need not, I suppose, enlarge upon +that thought which nobody denies, that love is the eternal form of +the human relation to God. It, too, like the mercy which it clasps, +‘endureth for ever.’</p> +<p>But I may remind you of what the Apostle does not explain in our +text, that it is greater than its linked sisters, because whilst +faith and hope belong only to a creature, and are dependent and +expectant of some good to come to themselves, and correspond to +something which is in God in Christ, the love which springs from +faith and hope not only corresponds to, but resembles, that from +which it comes and by which it lives. The fire kindled is cognate +with the fire that kindles; and the love that is in man is like the +love that is in God. It is the climax of his nature; it is the +fulfilling of all duty; it is the crown and jewelled clasp of all +perfection. And so ‘abideth faith, hope, love, and the greatest +of these is love.’</p> +<p>III. Lastly, what follows from all this?</p> +<p>First, let us be quite sure that we understand what this abiding +love is. I dare say you have heard people say ‘Ah! I do not +care much about Paul's theology. Give me the thirteenth chapter of +the first Epistle to the Corinthians. That is beautiful; that praise +of Love; <i>that</i> comes home to men.’ Yes, very beautiful. +Are you quite sure that you know what Paul means by +‘love’? I do not use the word charity, because that +lovely word, like a glistening meteor that falls upon the earth, has +a rust, as it were, upon its surface that dims its brightness very +quickly. Charity has come to mean an indulgent estimate of other +people's faults; or, still more degradingly, the giving of money out +of your pockets to other people's necessities. These are what the +people who do not care much about Paul's theology generally suppose +that he means here. But these do not exhaust his meaning. Paul's +notion of love is the response of the human love to the divine, which +divine is received into the heart by simple faith in Jesus Christ. +And his notion of love which never faileth, and endureth all things, +and hopeth all things, is love to men, which is but one stream of the +great river of love to God. If we rightly understand what he means by +love, we shall find that his praise of love is as theological as +anything that he ever wrote. We shall never get further than barren +admiration of a beautiful piece of writing, unless our love to men +has the source and root to which Paul points us.</p> +<p>Again, let us take this great thought of the permanence of faith, +hope, and love as being the highest conception that we can form of +our future condition. It is very easy to bewilder ourselves with +speculations and theories of another life. I do not care much about +them. The great gates keep their secret well. Few stray beams of +light find their way through their crevices. The less we say the less +likely we are to err. It is easy to let ourselves be led away, by +turning rhetoric into revelation, and accepting the symbols of the +New Testament as if they carried anything more than images of the +realities. But far beyond golden pavements, and harps, and crowns, +and white robes, lies this one great thought that the elements of the +imperfect, Christlike life of earth are the essence of the perfect, +Godlike life in heaven. ‘Now abide these three, faith, hope, +love.’</p> +<p>Last of all, let us shape our lives in accordance with these +certainties. The dropping away of the transient things is no argument +for neglecting or despising them; for our handling of them makes our +characters, and our characters abide. But it is a very excellent +argument for shaping our lives so as to seek first the first things, +and to secure the permanent qualities, and so to use the transient as +that it shall all help us towards that which does not pass.</p> +<p>What will a Manchester man that knows nothing except goods and +office work, and knows these only in their superficial aspect, and +not as related to God, what, in the name of common-sense, will he do +with himself when he gets into a world where there is not a single +ledger, nor a desk, nor a yard of cloth of any sort? What will some +of us do when, in like manner, we are stripped of all the things that +we have cared about, and worked for, and have made our aims down +here? Suppose that you knew that you were under sailing orders to go +somewhere or other, and that at any moment a breathless messenger +might appear and say, ‘Come along! we are all waiting for +you’; and suppose that you never did a single thing towards +getting your outfit ready, or preparing yourself in any way for that +which might come at any moment, and could not but come before very +long. Would you be a wise man? But that is what a great many of us +are doing; doing every day, and all day long, and doing that only. +‘He shall leave them in the midst of his days,’ says a +grim text, ‘and at his latter end shall be a fool.’</p> +<p>What will drop? Modes of apprehension, modes of utterance, +occupations, duties, relationships, loves; and we shall be left +standing naked, stripped, as it were, to the very quick, and only as +much left as will keep our souls alive. But if we are clothed with +faith, hope, love, we shall not be found naked. Cultivate the high +things, the permanent things; then death will not wrench you +violently from all that you have been and cared for; but it will +usher you into the perfect form of all that you have been and done +upon earth. All these things will pass, but faith, hope, love, +‘stay not behind nor in the grave are trod,’ but will +last as long as Christ, their Object, lives, and as long as we in Him +live also.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tpotr74" id="tpotr74">THE POWER OF THE +RESURRECTION</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘I delivered unto you first of all that which I +also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the +Scriptures; 4. And that He was buried, and that He rose again the +third day according to the Scriptures.’—1 COR. xv. 3, +4.</blockquote> +<p>Christmas day is probably not the true anniversary of the +Nativity, but Easter is certainly that of the Resurrection. The +season is appropriate. In the climate of Palestine the first fruits +of the harvest were ready at the Passover for presentation in the +Temple. It was an agricultural as well as a historical festival; and +the connection between that aspect of the feast and the Resurrection +of our Lord is in the Apostle's mind when he says, in a subsequent +part of this chapter, that Christ is ‘risen from the dead and +become the first fruits of them that slept.’</p> +<p>In our colder climate the season is no less appropriate. The +‘life re-orient out of dust’ which shows itself to-day in +every bursting leaf-bud and springing flower is Nature's parable of +the spring that awaits man after the winter of death. No doubt, apart +from the Resurrection of Jesus, the yearly miracle kindles sad +thoughts in mourning hearts, and suggests bitter contrasts to those +who sorrow, having no hope, but the grave in the garden has turned +every blossom into a smiling prophet of the Resurrection.</p> +<p>And so the season, illuminated by the event, teaches us lessons of +hope that ‘we shall not all die.’ Let us turn, then, to +the thoughts naturally suggested by the day, and the great fact which +it brings to each mind, and confirmed thereafter by the miracle that +is being wrought round about us.</p> +<p>I. First, then, in my text, I would have you note the facts of +Paul's gospel.</p> +<p>‘First of all ... I delivered’ these things. And the +‘first’ not only points to the order of time in the +proclamation, but to the order of importance as well. For these +initial facts are the fundamental facts, on which all that may follow +thereafter is certainly built. Now the first thing that strikes me +here is that, whatever else the system unfolded in the New Testament +is, it is to begin with a simple record of historical fact. It +becomes a philosophy, it becomes a religious system; it is a +revelation of God; it is an unveiling of man; it is a body of ethical +precepts. It is morals and philosophy and religion all in one; but it +is first of all a story of something that took place in the +world.</p> +<p>If that be so, there is a lesson for men whose work it is to +preach it. Let them never forget that their business is to insist +upon the truth of these great, supernatural, all-important, and +fundamental facts, the death and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. +They must evolve all the deep meanings that lie in them; and the +deeper they dig for their meanings the better. They must open out the +endless treasures of consolation and enforce the omnipotent motives +of action which are wrapped up in the facts; but howsoever far they +may carry their evolving and their application of them, they will +neither be faithful to their Lord nor true stewards of their message +unless, clear above all other aspects of their work, and underlying +all other forms of their ministry, there be the unfaltering +proclamation—‘first of all,’ midst of all, last of +all—‘how that Christ died for our sins according to the +Scriptures,’ and ‘that He was raised again according to +the Scriptures.’</p> +<p>Note, too, how this fundamental and original character of the +gospel which Paul preached, as a record of facts, makes short work of +a great deal that calls itself ‘liberal Christianity’ in +these days. We are told that it is quite possible to be a very good +Christian man, and reject the supernatural, and turn away with +incredulity from the story of the Resurrection. It may be so, but I +confess that it puzzles me to understand how, if the fundamental +character of Christian teaching be the proclamation of certain facts, +a man who does not believe those facts has the right to call himself +a Christian.</p> +<p>Note, further, how there is an element of explanation involved in +the proclamation of the facts which turns them into a gospel. Mark +how ‘that <i>Christ</i> died,’ not <i>Jesus</i>. It is a +great truth, that the man, our Brother, Jesus, passed through the +common lot, but that is not what Paul says here, though he often says +it. What he says is that ‘<i>Christ</i> died.’ Christ is +the name of an office, into which is condensed a whole system of +truth, declaring that it is He who is the Apex, the Seal, and +ultimate Word of all divine revelation. It was the <i>Christ</i> who +died; unless it was so, the death of Jesus is no gospel.</p> +<p>‘He died for our sins.’ Now, if the Apostle had only +said ‘He died for us,’ that might conceivably have meant +that, in a multitude of different ways of example, appeal to our pity +and compassion and the like, His death was of use to mankind. But +when he says ‘He died <i>for our sins</i>,’ I take leave +to think that that expression has no meaning, unless it means that He +died as the expiation and sacrifice for men's sins. I ask you, in +what intelligible sense could Christ ‘die for our sins’ +unless He died as bearing their punishment and as bearing it for us? +And then, finally, ‘He died and rose ... according to the +Scriptures,’ and so fulfilled the divine purposes revealed from +of old.</p> +<p>To the fact that a man was crucified outside the gates of +Jerusalem, ‘and rose again the third day,’ which is the +narrative, there are added these three things—the dignity of +the Person, the purpose of His death, the fulfilment of the divine +intention manifested from of old. And these three things, as I said, +turn the narrative into a Gospel.</p> +<p>So, brethren, let us remember that, without all three of them, the +death of Jesus Christ is nothing to us, any more than the death of +thousands of sweet and saintly men in the past has been, who may have +seen a little more of the supreme goodness and greatness than their +fellows, and tried in vain to make purblind eyes participate in their +vision. Do you think that these twelve fishermen would ever have +shaken the world if they had gone out with the story of the Cross, +unless they had carried along with it the commentary which is +included in the words which I have emphasised? And do you suppose +that the type of Christianity which slurs over the explanation, and +so does not know what to do with the facts, will ever do much in the +world, or will ever touch men? Let us liberalise our Christianity by +all means, but do not let us evaporate it; and evaporate it we surely +shall if we falter in saying with Paul, ‘I declare, first of +all, that which received,’ how that the death and resurrection +were the death and resurrection of the Christ, ‘for our sins, +according to the Scriptures.’ These are the facts which make +Paul's gospel.</p> +<p>II. Now I ask you to look, in the second place, at what +establishes the facts.</p> +<p>We have here, in this chapter, a statement very much older than +our existing written gospels. This epistle is one of the four letters +of Paul which nobody that I know of—with some quite +insignificant exceptions in modern times—has ever ventured to +dispute. It is admittedly the writing of the Apostle, written before +the gospels, and in all probability within five-and-twenty years of +the date of the Crucifixion. And what do we find alleged by it as the +state of things at its date? That the belief in the Resurrection of +Jesus Christ was the subject of universal Christian teaching, and was +accepted by all the Christian communities. Its evidence to that fact +is undeniable; because there was in the early Christian Church a very +formidable and large body of bitter antagonists of Paul's, who would +have been only too glad to have convicted him, if they could, of any +misrepresentation of the usual notions, or divergence from the usual +type of teaching. So we may take it as undeniable that the +representation of this chapter is historically true; and that within +five-and-twenty years of the death of Jesus Christ every Christian +community and every Christian teacher believed in and proclaimed the +fact of the Resurrection.</p> +<p>But if that be so, we necessarily are carried a great deal nearer +the Cross than five-and-twenty years; and, in fact, there is not, +between the moment when Paul penned these words and the day of +Pentecost, a single chink in the history where you can insert such a +tremendous innovation as the full-fledged belief in a resurrection +coming in as something new.</p> +<p>I do not need to dwell at all upon this other thought, that, +unless the belief that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead +originated at the time of His death, there would never have been a +Church at all. Why was it that they did not tumble to pieces? Take +the nave out of the wheel and what becomes of the spokes? A dead +Christ could never have been the basis of a living Church. If He had +not risen from the dead, the story of His disciples would have been +the same as that which Gamaliel told the Sanhedrim was the story of +all former pseudo-Messiahs such as that man Theudas. ‘He was +slain, and as many as followed him were dispersed and came to +naught.’ Of course! The existence of the Church demands, as a +pre-requisite, the initial belief in the Resurrection. I think, then, +that the contemporaneousness of the evidence is sufficiently +established.</p> +<p>What about its good faith? I suppose that nobody, nowadays, doubts +the veracity of these witnesses. Anybody that knows an honest man +when he sees him, anybody that has the least ear for the tone of +sincerity and the accent of conviction, must say that they may have +been fanatics, they may have been mistaken, but one thing is clear as +sunlight, they were not false witnesses for God.</p> +<p>What, then, about their competency? Their simplicity, their +ignorance, their slowness to believe, their stupor of surprise when +the fact first dawned upon them, which they tell not with any idea of +manufacturing evidence in their own favour, but simply as a piece of +history, all tend to make us certain that there was no play of a +morbid imagination, no hysterical turning of a wish into a fact, on +the part of these men. The sort of things which they say that they +saw and experienced are such as to make any such supposition +altogether absurd. There are long conversations, appearances +appealing to more than one sense, appearances followed by +withdrawals, sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening, +sometimes at a distance, as on the mountain, sometimes close by, as +in the chamber, to single souls and to multitudes. Fancy five hundred +people all at once smitten with the same mistake, imagining that they +saw what they did not see! Miracles may be difficult to believe, they +are not half so difficult to believe as absurdities. And this modern +explanation of the faith in the Resurrection I venture respectfully +to designate as absurd.</p> +<p>But there is one other point to which I would like to turn for a +moment; and that is that little clause in my text that ‘He was +buried.’ Why does Paul introduce that amongst his facts? +Possibly in order to affirm the reality of Christ's death; but I +think for another reason. If it be true that Jesus Christ was laid in +that sepulchre, a stone's throw outside the city gate, do you not see +what a difficulty that fact puts in the way of disbelief or denial of +His Resurrection? If the grave—and it was not a grave, +remember, like ours, but a cave, with a stone at the door of it, that +anybody could roll away for entrance—if the grave was there, +why, in the name of common-sense, did not the rulers put an end to +the pestilent heresy by saying, ‘Let us go and see if the body +is there’?</p> +<p>Modern deniers of the Resurrection may fairly be asked to front +this thought—If Jesus Christ's body was in the sepulchre, how +was it possible for belief in the Resurrection to have been +originated, or maintained? If His body was not in the grave, what had +become of it? If His friends stole it away then they were deceivers +of the worst type in preaching a resurrection; and we have already +seen that that hypothesis is ridiculous. If His enemies took it away, +for which they had no motive, why did they not produce it and say, +‘There is an answer to your nonsense. There is the dead man. +Let us hear no more of this absurdity of His having risen from the +dead’?</p> +<p>‘He died ... according to the Scriptures, and He was +buried.’ And the angels’ word carries the only +explanation of the fact which it proclaims, ‘He is not +here—He is risen.’</p> +<p>I take leave to say that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is +established by evidence which nobody would ever have thought of +doubting unless for the theory that miracles were impossible. The +reason for disbelief is not the deficiency of the evidence, but the +bias of the judge.</p> +<p>III. And now I have no time to do more than touch the last +thought. I have tried to show what establishes the facts. Let me +remind you, in a sentence or two, what the facts establish.</p> +<p>I by no means desire to suspend the whole of the evidence for +Christianity on the testimony of the eyewitnesses to the +Resurrection. There are a great many other ways of establishing the +truth of the Gospel besides that, upon which I do not need to dwell +now. But, taking this one specific ground which my text suggests, +what do the facts thus established prove?</p> +<p>Well, the first point to which I would refer, and on which I +should like to enlarge, if I had time, is the bearing of Christ's +Resurrection on the acceptance of the miraculous. We hear a great +deal about the impossibility of miracle and the like. It upsets the +certainty and fixedness of the order of things, and so forth, and so +forth. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead; and that opens a door +wide enough to admit all the rest of the Gospel miracles. It is of no +use paring down the supernatural in Christianity, in order to meet +the prejudices of a quasi-scientific scepticism, unless you are +prepared to go the whole length, and give up the Resurrection. There +is the turning point. The question is, Do you believe that Jesus +Christ rose from the dead, or do you not? If your objections to the +supernatural are valid, then Christ is not risen from the dead; and +you must face the consequences of that. If He is risen from the dead, +then you must cease all your talk about the impossibility of miracle, +and be willing to accept a supernatural revelation as God's way of +making Himself known to man.</p> +<p>But, further, let me remind you of the bearing of the Resurrection +upon Christ's work and claims. If He be lying in some forgotten +grave, and if all that fair thought of His having burst the bands of +death is a blunder, then there was nothing in His death that had the +least bearing upon men's sin, and it is no more to me than the deaths +of thousands in the past. But if He is risen from the dead, then the +Resurrection casts back a light upon the Cross, and we understand +that His death is the life of the world, and that ‘by His +stripes we are healed.’</p> +<p>But, further, remember what He said about Himself when He was in +the world—how He claimed to be the Son of God; how He demanded +absolute obedience, implicit trust, supreme love, how He identified +faith in Himself with faith in God—and consider the +Resurrection as bearing on the reception or rejection of these +tremendous claims. It seems to me that we are brought sharp up to +this alternative—Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and was +declared by the Resurrection to be the Son of God with power; or +Jesus Christ has <i>not</i> risen from the dead—and what then? +Then He was either deceiver or deceived, and in either case has no +right to my reverence and my love. We may be thankful that men are +illogical, and that many who reject the Resurrection retain +reverence, genuine and deep, for Jesus Christ. But whether they have +any right to do so is another matter. I confess for myself that, if I +did not believe that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead, I should +find it very hard to accept, as an example of conduct, or as +religious teacher, a man who had made such great claims as He did, +and had asked from me what He asked. It seems to me that He is either +a great deal more, or a great deal less, than a beautiful saintly +soul. If He rose from the dead He is much more; if He did not, I am +afraid to say how much less He is.</p> +<p>And, finally, the bearing of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ upon +our own hopes of the future may be suggested. It teaches us that life +has nothing to do with organisation, but persists apart from the +body. It teaches us that a man may pass from death and be unaltered +in the substance of his being; and it teaches us that the earthly +house of our tabernacle may be fashioned like unto the glorious house +in which He dwells now at the right hand of God. There is no other +absolute proof of immortality than the Resurrection of Jesus +Christ.</p> +<p>If we accept with all our hearts and minds Paul's Gospel in its +fundamental facts, we need not fear to die, because He has died, and +by dying has been the death of death. We need not doubt that we shall +live again, because He was dead and is alive for ever more. This +Samson has carried away the gates on His strong shoulders, and death +is no more a dungeon but a passage. If we rest ourselves upon Him, +then we can take up, for ourselves and for all that are dear to us +and have gone before us, the triumphant song, ‘O Death, where +is thy sting?’ ‘Thanks be to God, which giveth us the +victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="rafa75" id="rafa75">REMAINING AND FALLING +ASLEEP</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘After that He was seen of above five hundred +brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, +but some are fallen asleep.’—1 COR. xv. 6.</blockquote> +<p>There were, then, some five-and-twenty years after the +Resurrection, several hundred disciples who were known amongst the +churches as having been eyewitnesses of the risen Saviour. The +greater part survived; some, evidently a very few, had died. The +proportion of the living to the dead, after five-and-twenty years, is +generally the opposite. The greater part have ‘fallen +asleep’; some, a comparatively few, remain ‘unto this +present.’ Possibly there was some divine intervention which +supernaturally prolonged the lives of these witnesses, in order that +their testimony might be the more lasting. But, be that as it may, +they evidently were men of mark, and some kind of honour and +observance surrounded them, as was very natural, and as appears from +the fact that Paul here knows so accurately (and can appeal to His +fellow-Christians' accurate knowledge) the proportion between the +survivors and the departed. We read of one of them in the Acts of the +Apostles at a later date than this, one Mnason, an ‘original +disciple.’</p> +<p>So we get a glimpse into the conditions of life in the early +Church, interesting and of value in an evidential point of view. But +my purpose at present is to draw your attention to the remarkable +language in which the Apostle here speaks of the living and the dead +amongst these witnesses. In neither case does he use the simple, +common words ‘living’ or ‘dead’; but in the +one clause he speaks of their ‘remaining,’ and in the +other of their ‘falling asleep’; both phrases being +significant, and, as I take it, both being traced up to the fact of +their having seen the risen Lord as the cause why their life could be +described as a ‘remaining,’ and their death as a +‘falling asleep.’ In other words, we have here brought +before us, by these two striking expressions, the transforming effect +upon life and upon death of the faith in a risen Lord, whether +grounded on sight or not. And it is simply to these two points that I +desire to turn now.</p> +<p>I. First, then, we have to consider what life may become to those +who see the risen Christ.</p> +<p>‘The greater part remain until this present.’ Now the +word <i>remain</i> is no mere synonym for living or surviving. It not +only tells us the fact that the survivors were living, but the kind +of life that they did live. It is very significant that it is the +same expression as our Lord used in the profound prophetic words, +‘If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to +thee?’ Now we are told in John's Gospel that ‘that saying +went abroad amongst the brethren,’ and inasmuch as it was a +matter of common notoriety in the early Church, it is by no means a +violent supposition that it may be floating in Paul's memory here, +and may determine his selection of this remarkable expression +‘they remain,’ or ‘they tarry,’ and they were +tarrying till the Master came. So, then, I think if we give due +weight to the significance of the phrase, we get two or three +thoughts worth pondering.</p> +<p>One of them is that the sight of a risen Christ will make life +calm and tranquil. Fancy one of these 500 brethren, after that +vision, going back to his quiet rural home in some little village +amongst the hills of Galilee. How small and remote from Him, and +unworthy to ruffle or disturb the heart in which the memory of that +vision was burning, would seem the things that otherwise would have +been important and distracting! The faith which we have in the risen +Christ ought to do the same thing for us, and will do it in the +measure in which there shines clearly before that inward eye, which +is our true means of apprehending Him, the vision which shone before +the outward gaze of that company of wondering witnesses. If we build +our nests amidst the tossing branches of the world's trees, they will +sway with every wind, and perhaps be blown from their hold altogether +by such a storm as we all have sometimes to meet. But we may build +our nests in the clefts of the rock, like the doves, and be quiet, as +they are. Distractions will cease to distract, and troubles will +cease to agitate, and across the heaving surface of the great ocean +there will come a Form beneath whose feet the waves smooth +themselves, and at whose voice the winds are still. They who see +Christ need not be troubled. The ship that is empty is tossed upon +the ocean, that which is well laden is steady. The heart that has +Christ for a passenger need not fear being rocked by any storm. +Calmness will come with the vision of the Lord, and we shall abide or +‘remain,’ for there will be no need for us to flee from +this Refuge to that, nor shall we be driven from our secure abode by +any contingencies. ‘He that believeth shall not make +haste.’</p> +<p>It is a good thing to cultivate the disposition that says about +most of the trifles of this life, ‘It does not much +matter’; but the only way to prevent wholesome contempt of the +world's trivialities from degenerating into supercilious indifference +is, to base it upon Christ, discerned as near us and bestowing upon +us the calmness of His risen life. Make Him your scale of importance, +and nothing will be too small to demand and be worthy of the best +efforts of your work, but nothing will be too great to sweep you away +from the serenity of your faith.</p> +<p>Again, the vision of the risen Christ will also lead to patient +persistence in duty. If we have Him before us, the distasteful duty +which He sets us will not be distasteful, and the small tasks, in +which great faithfulness may be manifested, will cease to be small. +If we have Him before us we have in that risen Christ the great and +lasting Example of how patient continuance in well-doing triumphs +over the sorrows that it bears, by and in patiently bearing them, and +is crowned at last with glory and honour. The risen Christ is the +Pattern for the men who will not be turned aside from the path of +duty by any obstacles, dangers, or threats. The risen Christ is the +signal Example of glory following upon faithfulness, and of the crown +being the result of the Cross. The risen Christ is the manifest +Helper of them that put their trust in Him; and one of the plainest +lessons and of the most imperative commands which come from the +believing gaze upon that Lord who died because He would do the will +of the Father, and is throned and crowned in the heavens because He +died, is—By patient continuance in well-doing let us commit the +keeping of our souls to Him: and abide in the calling wherewith we +are called.</p> +<p>And, again, the sight of the risen Christ leads to a life of calm +expectancy. ‘If I will that He <i>tarry</i> till I come’ +conveys that shade of meaning. The Apostle was to wait for the Lord +from Heaven, and that vision which was given to these 500 men sent +them home to their abodes to make all the rest of their lives one +calm aspiration for, and patient expectation of, the return of the +Lord. These primitive Christians expected that Jesus Christ would +come speedily. That expectation was disappointed in so far as the +date was concerned, but after nineteen centuries it still remains +true that all vigorous and vital Christian life must have in it, as a +very important element of its vitality, the onward look which ever is +anticipating, which often is desiring, and which constantly is +confident of, the coming of the Lord from Heaven. The Resurrection +has for its consequences, its sequel and corollary, first the +Ascension; then the long tract of time during which Jesus Christ is +absent, but still in divine presence rules the world; and, finally, +His coming again in that same body in which the disciples saw Him +depart from them. And no Christian life is up to the level of its +privileges, nor has any Christian faith grasped the whole articles of +its creed, except that which sets in the very centre of all its +visions of the future that great thought—He shall come +again.</p> +<p>Questions of chronology have nothing to do with that. It stands +there before us, the certain fact, made certain and inevitable by the +past facts of the Cross and the Grave and Olivet. He has come, He +will come; He has gone, He will come back. And for us the life that +we live in the flesh ought to be a life of waiting for God's Son from +Heaven, and of patient, confident expectancy that when He shall be +manifested we also shall be manifested with Him in glory.</p> +<p>So much, then, for life—calm, persistent in every duty, and +animated by that blessed and far-off, but certain, hope, and all of +these founded upon the vision and the faith of a risen Lord. What +have fears and cares and distractions and faint-heartedness and +gloomy sorrow to do with the eyes that have beheld the Christ, and +with the lives that are based on faith in the risen Lord?</p> +<p>II. So, secondly, consider what death becomes to those who have +seen Christ risen from the dead.</p> +<p>‘Some are fallen asleep.’ Now that most natural and +obvious metaphor for death is not only a Christian idea, but is +found, as would be expected, in many tongues, but yet with a great +and significant difference. The Christian reason for calling death a +sleep embraces a great deal more than the heathen reason for doing +so, and in some respects is precisely the opposite of that, inasmuch +as to most others who have used the word, death has been a sleep that +knew no waking, whereas the very pith and centre of the Christian +reason for employing the symbol are that it makes our waking sure. We +have here what the act of dying and the condition of the dead become +by virtue of faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>They have ‘fallen asleep.’ The act of dying is but a +laying one's self down to rest, and a dropping out of consciousness +of the surrounding world. It is very remarkable and very beautiful +that the new Testament scarcely ever employs the words <i>dying</i> +and <i>death</i> for the act of separating body and spirit, or for +the condition either of the spirit parted from the body, or of the +body parted from the spirit. It keeps those grim words for the +reality, the separation of the soul from God; and it only +exceptionally uses them for the shadow and the symbol, the physical +fact of the parting of the man from the house which here he has dwelt +in. But the reason why Christianity uses these periphrases or +metaphors, these euphemisms for death, is the opposite of the reason +why the world uses them. The world is so afraid of dying that it +durst not name the grim, ugly thing. The Christian, or at least the +Christian faith, is so little afraid of death that it does not think +such a trivial matter worth calling by the name, but only names it +‘falling asleep.’</p> +<p>Even when the circumstances of that dropping off to slumber are +painful and violent, the Bible still employs the term. Is it not +striking that the first martyr, kneeling outside the city, bruised by +stones and dying a bloody death, should have been said to fall +asleep? If ever there was an instance in which the gentle metaphor +seemed all inappropriate it was that cruel death, amidst a howling +crowd, and with fatal bruises, and bleeding limbs mangled by the +heavy rocks that lay upon them. But yet, ‘when he had said this +he fell asleep.’ If that be true of such a death, no physical +pains of any kind make the sweet word inappropriate for any.</p> +<p>We have here not only the designation of the act of dying, but +that of the condition of the dead. They are fallen asleep, and they +continue asleep. How many great thoughts gather round that metaphor +on which it is needless for me to try to dilate! They will suggest +themselves without many words to you all.</p> +<p>There lies in it the idea of repose. ‘They rest from their +labours.’ Sleep restores strength, and withdraws a man at once +from effort on the outer world, and from communication from it. We +may carry the analogy into that unseen world. We know nothing about +the relations to an external universe of the departed who sleep in +Jesus. It may be that, if they sleep in Him, since He knows all, +they, through Him, may know, too, something—so much as He +pleases to impart to them—of what is happening here. And it may +even be that, if they sleep in Him, and He wields the energies of +Omnipotence, they, through Him, may have some service to do, even +while they wait for their house which is from heaven. But there is no +need for, nor profit in, such speculations. It is enough that the +sweet emblem suggests repose, and that in that sleep there are folded +around the sleepers the arms of the Christ on whose bosom they rest, +as an infant does on its first and happiest home—its mother's +breast.</p> +<p>But then, besides that, the emblem suggests the idea of continuous +and conscious existence. A man asleep does not cease to be a man; a +dead man does not cease to live. It has often been argued from this +metaphor that we are to conceive of the space between death and the +resurrection as being a period of unconsciousness, but the analogies +seem to me to be in the opposite direction. A sleeping man does not +cease to know himself to be, and he does not cease to know himself to +be himself. That mysterious consciousness of personal identity +survives the passage from waking to sleep, as dreams sufficiently +show us. And, therefore, they that sleep know themselves to be.</p> +<p>And, finally, the emblem suggests the idea of waking. Sleep is a +parenthesis. If the night comes, the morning comes. ‘If winter +comes, can spring be far behind?’ They that sleep will awake, +and be satisfied when they ‘awake with Thy likeness.’ And +so these three things—repose, conscious, continuous existence, +and the certainty of awaking—all lie in that metaphor.</p> +<p>Now, then, the risen Christ is the only ground of such hope, and +faith in Him is the only state of mind which is entitled to cherish +it. Nothing proves immortality except that open grave. Every other +foundation is too weak to bear the weight of such a superstructure. +The current of present opinion shows, I think, that neither +metaphysical nor ethical arguments for the future life will stand the +force of the disintegrating criticism which is brought to bear upon +that hope by the fashionable materialism of this generation. There is +one barrier that will resist that force, and only one, and that is +the historical facts that Jesus Christ died, and that Jesus Christ +has risen again. He rose; therefore death is not the end of +individual existence. He rose; therefore life beyond the grave is +possible for humanity. He rose; therefore His sacrifice for the +world's sin is accepted, and I may be delivered from my guilt and my +burden. He rose; therefore He is declared to be the Son of God with +power. He rose; therefore we, if we trust Him, may partake in His +Resurrection and in some reflection of His glory. The old Greek +architects were often careless of the solidity of the soil on which +they built their temples, and so, many of them have fallen in ruins. +The Temple of Immortality can be built only upon the rock of that +proclamation—Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. And we, dear +brethren, should have all our hopes founded upon that one fact.</p> +<p>So then, for us, the calm, peaceful passage from life into what +else is the great darkness is possible on condition of our having +beheld the risen Lord. These witnesses of whom my text speaks, Paul +would suggest to us, laid themselves quietly down to sleep, because +before them there still hovered the memory of the vision which they +had beheld. Faith in the risen Christ is the anchor of the soul in +death, and there is nothing else by which we can hold then.</p> +<p>As the same Apostle, in one of his other letters, puts it, the +belief that Christ is risen is not only the irrefragable ground of +our hope that we, too, shall rise, but has the power to change the +whole aspect of our death. Did you ever observe the emphasis with +which He says, ‘If we believe that Jesus <i>died</i> and rose +again, even so them also which <i>sleep</i> in Jesus will God bring +with Him?’ His death was death indeed, and faith in it softens +ours to sleep. He bore the reality that we might never need to know +it, and if our poor hearts are resting upon that dear Lord, then the +flames are but painted ones and will not burn, and we shall pass +through them, and no smell of fire will be upon us, and all that will +be consumed will be the bonds which bind us. He has abolished death. +The physical fact remains, but all which to men makes the idea of +death is gone if we trust the risen Lord. So that, between two men +dying under precisely the same circumstances, of the same disease, in +adjacent beds in the same hospital, there may be such a difference as +that the same word cannot be applied to the experiences of both.</p> +<p>My dear friends, we have each of us to pass through that last +struggle; but we may make it either a quiet going to sleep with a +loved Face bending over our closing eyes, like a mother's over her +child's cradle, and the same Face meeting us when we open them in the +morning of heaven; or we may make it a reluctant departure from all +that we care for, and a trembling advance into all from which +conscience and heart shrink.</p> +<p>Which is it going to be to you? The answer depends upon that to +another question. Are you looking to that Christ that died and is +alive for evermore as your life and your salvation? Do you hold fast +that Gospel which Paul preached, ‘how that Christ died for our +sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He +rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures’? If you +do, life will be a calm, persevering, expectant waiting upon Him, and +death will be nothing more terrible than falling asleep.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="peoh76" id="peoh76">PAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘By the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace +which was bestowed upon me was not in vain.’—1 COR. xv. +10.</blockquote> +<p>The Apostle was, all his life, under the hateful necessity of +vindicating his character and Apostleship. Thus here, though his main +purpose in the context is simply to declare the Gospel which he +preached, he is obliged to turn aside in order to assert, and to back +up his assertion, that there was no sort of difference between him +and the other recognised teachers of Christian truth. He was forced +to do this by persistent endeavours in the Corinthian Church to deny +his Apostleship, and the faithfulness of his representation of the +Christian verities. The way in which he does it is eminently +beautiful and remarkable. He fires up in vindication of himself; and +then he checks himself. ‘By the grace of God I +am’—and he is going to say what he is, but he bethinks +himself, as if he had reflected; ‘No! I will leave other people +to say what that is. By the grace of God I am—what I am, +whatever that be. And all that I have to say is that God made me, and +that I helped Him. For the grace of God which was bestowed upon me +was not in vain. You Corinthians may judge what the product is. I +tell you how it has come about.’ So there are thoughts here, I +think, well worth our pondering and taking into our hearts and +lives.</p> +<p>I. First, as to the one power that makes men.</p> +<p>‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’ Now that word +‘grace’ has got to be worn threadbare, and to mean next +door to nothing, in the ears and minds of a great many continual +hearers of the Gospel. But Paul had a very definite idea of what he +meant by it; and what he meant by it was a very large thing, which we +may well ponder for a moment as being the only thing which will +transform and ennoble character and will produce fruit that a man +need not be ashamed of. The grace of God, in Paul's use of the words, +which is the scriptural use of them generally, implies these two +things which are connected as root and product—the active love +of God, in exercise towards us low and sinful creatures, and the +gifts with which that love comes full charged to men. These two +things, which at bottom are one, love and its gifts, are all, in the +Apostle's judgment, gathered up and stored, as in a great storehouse, +in Jesus Christ Himself, and through Him are made accessible to us, +and brought to bear upon us for the ennobling of our natures, and the +investing of us with graces and beauties of character, all strange to +us apart from these.</p> +<p>Now it seems to me that these two things, which come from one +root, are the precise things which you and I need in order to make us +nobler and purer and more Godlike men than otherwise we could ever +become. For what is it that men need most for noble and pure living? +These two things precisely—motive and power to carry out the +dictates of conscience.</p> +<p>Every man in the world knows enough of duty and of right to be a +far nobler man than any man in the world is. And it is not for want +of clear convictions of duty, it is not for want of recognised models +and patterns of life, that men go wrong; but it is because there are +these two things lacking, motives for nobler service, and power to do +and be what they know they ought to be. And precisely here Paul's +gospel comes in, ‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’ +That grace, considered in its two sides of love and of giving, +supplies all that we want.</p> +<p>It supplies motives. There is nothing that will bend a man's will +like the recognition of divine love which it is blessedness to come +in contact with, and to obey. You may try to sway him by motives of +advantage and self-interest, and to thunder into his ears the pealing +words of duty and right and ‘ought,’ and there is no +adequate response. You cannot soften a heart by the hammers of the +law. You cannot force a man to do right by brandishing before him the +whip that punishes doing wrong. You cannot sway the will by anything +but the heart; and when you can touch the deepest spring it moves the +whole mass.</p> +<p>You have seen some ponderous piece of machinery, which resists all +attempts of a puny hand laid upon it to make it revolve. But down in +one corner is a little hidden spring. Touch that and with majestic +slowness and certainty the mighty mass turns. You know those +rocking-stones down in the south of England; tons of weight poised +upon a pin point, and so exquisitely balanced that a child's finger +rightly applied may move the mass. So the whole man is made mobile +only by the touch of love; and the grace that comes to us, and says, +‘If ye love Me, keep My commandments’—is, as I +believe, the sole motive which will continuously and adequately sway +the rebellious, self-centred wills of men, to obedience resulting in +nobility of life.</p> +<p>The other aspect of this same great word is, in like manner, that +which we need. What men want is, first of all, the will to be noble +and good; and, second, the power to carry out the will. It is God +that worketh in us both the willing and the doing. I venture to +affirm that there is no power known, either to thinkers, or +philanthropists, or doctrinaires, or strivers after excellence in the +world—no power known and available which will lift a life to +such heights of beauty and self-sacrificing nobility, as will the +power that comes to us by communication of the grace that is in Jesus +Christ.</p> +<p>I am perpetually trying to insist, dear brethren, upon this one +thought, that the communication of actual new life is the central +gift of the Gospel; and this new life it is, this nature endowed with +new desires, hopes, aims, capacities, which alone will lift the whole +man into unwonted heights of beauty and serenity. It is the grace of +God, the gift of His Divine Spirit who will dwell with all of us, if +we will, which alone can be trusted to make men good.</p> +<p>And now, if that be true, what follows? Surely this, that for all +you who have, in any measure, caught a glimpse of what you ought to +be, and have been more or less vainly trying to realise your ideal, +and reach your goal, there is a better way than the way of +self-centred and self-derived and self-dependent effort. There is the +way of opening your hearts and spirits to the entrance and access of +that great power, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which will do +in us and for us all that we know we ought to do, and yet feel +hampered and hindered in performing.</p> +<p>Oh, dear friends! there are many of you, I believe, who have more +or less spasmodically and interruptedly, but with a continual +recurrence to the effort, sought to plant your feet firmly in the +paths of righteousness, and have more or less failed. Listen to this +Gospel, and accept it, and put it to the proof. The love of God which +is in Christ Jesus, and the life which that love brings in its hands, +for all of us who will trust it, will dwell in you if you will, and +mould you into His own likeness, and the law of the spirit of life +which was in Christ Jesus will make us free from the law of sin and +death.</p> +<p>All noble living is a battle. Can you and I, with our ten +thousand, meet him that cometh against us with his twenty, the +temptations of the world and of its Prince? Send for the +reinforcements, and Jesus Christ will come and teach your hands to +war and your fingers to fight. All noble life is self-denial, +coercion, restraint; and can my poor, feeble hands apply muscular +force enough to the brake to keep the wheels clogged, and prevent +them from whirling me downhill into ruin? Let Him come and put His +great gentle hand on the top of yours, and that will enable you to +scotch the wheels, and make self-denial possible. All noble life is a +building up by slow degrees from the foundation. And can you and I +complete the task with our own limited resources, and our own feeble +strengths? Will not ‘all that pass by begin to mock’ us +and say, ‘This man began to build and was not able to +finish’? That is the epitaph written over all moralities and +over all lives which, catching some glimpse of the good and the true +and the noble, have tried, apart from Christ, to reproduce them in +themselves. Frightful gaps, and an unfinished, however fair structure +end them all. Go to Him. ‘His hand hath laid the foundation of +the house, His hand shall also finish it.’ He who is Himself +the foundation-stone is also the headstone of the corner, which is +brought forth with shouting of ‘Grace! Grace unto +it!’</p> +<p>I need not, I suppose, linger to remind you what important and +large lessons these thoughts carry, not only for men who are trying +to work at the task of mending and making their own characters, but +on the larger scale, for all who seek to benefit and elevate their +fellows. Brethren, it is not for me to depreciate any workers who, in +any department, and by any methods, seek, and partially effect, the +elevation of humanity. But I should be untrue to my own deepest +convictions, and unfaithful to the message which God's providence has +given it to me as my life's task to proclaim, if I did not declare +that nothing will truly <i>re-form</i> humanity, society, the nation, +the city, except that which re-creates the individual: ‘the +grace of our Lord Jesus Christ’ entering into their midst.</p> +<p>II. And so, secondly, and very briefly, notice the lesson we get +here as to how we should think of our own attainments.</p> +<p>I have already pointed out that there are two beautiful touches in +my text. The Apostle traces everything that he is, in his character +and in his Christian standing and in his Apostolic work and success, +to that grace that has come down upon him, and clothed his nakedness +with so glorious a garment. And then, in addition to that, he +modestly, and with a fine sense of dignity, refrains from parading +his attainments or his achievements, and says, ‘It is not for +me to estimate what I am; it is for you to do it.’ True, +indeed, in the next verse he does set forth, in very lofty language, +his claims to be in nothing behind the very chiefest of the Apostles, +and ‘to have laboured more abundantly than they all.’ But +still the spirit of that humble and yet dignified silence runs +through the whole context. ‘By the grace of God I am—what +I am.’</p> +<p>Well, then, it is not necessary for a man to be ignorant, or to +pretend that he is ignorant, of what he can do. We hear a great deal +about the unconsciousness of genius. There is a partial truth in it; +and possibly the highest examples of power and success, in any +department of mental or intellectual effort, are unaware of their +achievements and stature. But if a man can do a certain kind of +service there is no harm whatever in his recognising the fact that he +can do it. The only harm is in his thinking that because he can, he +is a very fine fellow, and that the work itself is a great work; and +so setting himself up above his brethren. There is a vast deal of +hypocrisy in what is called unconsciousness of power. Most men who +have been chosen and empowered to do a great work for God or for men, +in any department, have been aware that they could do it. But the +less we think about ourselves, in any way, the better. The more +entire our recognition of the influx of grace on which we depend for +keeping our reservoir full, the less likelihood there will be of +touchy self-assertion, the less likelihood of the misuse of the +powers that we have. If we are to do much for God, if we are to keep +what we have already attained, if we are to make our own lives sweet +and beautiful, if we are to be invested with any increase of +capacity, or led to any higher heights of nobleness and +Christlikeness, we must copy, and make a conscious effort to copy, +these two things, which marked the Apostle's estimate of +himself—a distinct recognition that we are only reservoirs and +nothing more—‘What hast thou that thou hast not received? +Why then dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received +it?’—and a humble waiving aside of the attempt to +determine what it is that we are. For however clearly a man may know +his own powers and achievements, it is hard for him to estimate the +relations of these to his whole character.</p> +<p>So, dear brethren, although it is a very homely piece of advice, +and may seem to be beneath the so-called dignity of the pulpit, let +me venture just to remind you that self-conceit is no disease +peculiar to the ten-talented people, but is quite as rife, if not a +good deal rifer, among those with one talent. They are very humble +when it comes to work, and are quite contented to wrap the one talent +up in a napkin then; but when it comes to self-assertion, or what +they expect to receive of recognition from others, they need to be +reminded quite as much as their betters in endowment—‘By +the grace of God I am what I am.’</p> +<p>III. And so, lastly, one word about the responsibility for our +co-operation with the grace, in order to the accomplishment of its +results.</p> +<p>‘The grace which was bestowed upon me was not in +vain,’ says Paul. ‘Not I, but the grace of God which was +with me, and so I laboured more abundantly than they all.’ That +is to say, God in His giving love; Christ with His ever out-flowing +Spirit, move round our hearts, and desire to enter. But the grace, +the love, the gifts of the love may all be put away by our +unfaithfulness, by our non-receptivity, by our misuse, and by our +negligence. Paul yielded himself to the grace that was brought to +work upon him. Have you yielded yourselves?</p> +<p>Paul said, ‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’ He +could not have said that, could he, if he had known that the most +part of what he was was dead against God's will and purpose? Has God +anything to do with making you what you are, or has it been the devil +that has had the greater share in it? This man, because he knew that +he had submitted himself to the often painful, searching, crucifying, +self-restraining and stimulating influences of the Gospel and Spirit +of Christ, could say, ‘God's grace has made me what I am, and I +helped Him to make me.’ And can you say anything like that?</p> +<p>Take your life. In how many of its deeds has there been present +the consciousness of God and His love? Take your character. How much +of it has been shot through and through, so to speak, by the fiery +darts of that cleansing, warming, consuming grace of God? Are you +daily being baptized in that Spirit, searched by that Spirit, +condemned by that grace? Is it the grace of God, or nature and self +and the world and the flesh that have made you what you are?</p> +<p>Oh, brethren I let us cultivate the sense of our need of this +divine help, for it does not come where men do not know how weak they +are, and how much they want it. The mountain tops are +high,—yes! and they are dry; there is no water there. The +rivers run in the green valleys deep down. ‘God resisteth the +proud, and giveth grace to the humble.’ Let us see that we open +our hearts to the reception of these quickening and cleansing +influences, for it is possible for us to cover ourselves over with +such an impenetrable covering that that grace cannot pass through it. +Let us see to it that we keep ourselves in close contact with the +foundation of all this grace, even Jesus Christ Himself, by desire, +by faith, by love, by communion, by meditation, by approximation, by +sympathy, by service. And let us see that we use the grace that we +possess. ‘For to him that hath shall be given, and from him +that hath not’—not possessing in any real sense because +not utilising for its appointed purpose—‘shall be taken +away even that he hath.’ Wherefore, brethren, I ‘beseech +you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tuoat77" id="tuoat77">THE UNITY OF APOSTOLIC +TEACHING</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye +believed.’—1 COR. xv. 11.</blockquote> +<p>Party spirit and faction were the curses of Greek civic life, and +they had crept into at least one of the Greek churches—that in +the luxurious and powerful city of Corinth. We know that there was a +very considerable body of antagonists to Paul, who ranked themselves +under the banner of Apollos or of Cephas <i>i.e.</i> Peter. +Therefore, Paul, keenly conscious that he was speaking to some +unfriendly critics, hastens in the context to remove the possible +objection which might be made, that the Gospel which he preached was +peculiar to himself, and proceeds to assert that the whole substance +of what he had to say to men, was held with unbroken unanimity by the +other apostles. ‘They’ means all of <i>them</i>; and +‘so’ means the summary of the Gospel teaching in the +preceding verses.</p> +<p>Now, Paul would not have ventured to make that assertion, in the +face of men whom he knew to be eager to pick holes in anything that +he said, unless he had been perfectly sure of his ground. There were +broad differences between him and the others. But their partisans +might squabble, as is often the case, and the men, whose partisans +they were, be unanimous. There were differences of individual +character, of temper, and of views about certain points of Christian +truth. But there was an unbroken front of unanimity in regard to all +that lies within the compass of that little word which covers so much +ground—‘<i>So</i> we preach.’</p> +<p>Now, I wish to turn to that outstanding fact—which does not +always attract the attention which it deserves—of the absolute +identity of the message which all the apostles and primitive teachers +delivered, and to seek to enforce some of the considerations and +lessons which seem to me naturally to flow from it.</p> +<p>I. First, then, I ask you to think of the fact itself—the +unbroken unanimity of the whole body of Apostolic teachers.</p> +<p>As I have said, there were wide differences of characteristics +between them, but there was a broad tract of teaching wherein they +all agreed. Let me briefly gather up the points of unanimity, the +contents of the one Gospel, which every man of them felt was his +message to the world. I may take it all from the two clauses in the +preceding context, ‘how that Christ died for our sins according +to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the +third day according to the Scriptures.’ These are the things +about which, as Paul declares, there was not the whisper of a +dissentient voice. There is the vital centre which he declares every +Christian teacher grasped as being the essential of his message, and +in various tones and manners, but in substantial identity of content, +declared to the world.</p> +<p>Now, what lies in it? The Person spoken of—the Christ, and +all that that word involves of reference to the ancient and +incomplete Revelation in the past, its shadows and types, its +prophecies and ceremonies, its priesthood and its sacrifices; with +all that it involves of reference to the ancient hopes on which a +thousand generations had lived, and which either are baseless +delusions, or are realised in Jesus—the Person whom all the +Apostles proclaimed was One anointed from God as Prophet, Priest, and +King; who had come into the world to fulfil all that the ancient +system had shadowed by sacrifice, temple, and priest, and was the +Monarch of Israel and of the world.</p> +<p>And not only were they absolutely unanimous in regard to the +Person, but they were unbrokenly consentient in regard to the facts +of His life, His death, and His Resurrection. But the proclamation of +the external fact is no gospel. You must add the clause ‘for +our sins,’ and then the record, which is a mere piece of +history, with no more good news in it than the record of the death of +any other martyr, hero, or saint, starts into being truly the good +news for the world. The least part of a historical fact is the fact; +the greatest part of it is the explanation of the fact, and the +setting it in its place in regard to other facts, the exhibition of +the principles which it expresses, and of the conclusions to which it +leads. So the bare historical declaration of a death and a +resurrection is transmuted into a gospel, by that which is the most +important part of the Gospel, the explanation of the meaning of the +fact—‘He died for our sins.’</p> +<p>If redemption from sin through the death of a Person is the +fundamental conception of the Gospel for the world, then it is clear +that, for such a purpose, a divine nature in the Person is wanted. +Your notion of what Christ came to do will determine your notion of +who He is. If you only recognise that His work is to teach, or to +show in exercise a fair human character, then you may rest content +with the lower notion of His nature which sees in Him but the +foremost of the sons of men. But if we grasp ‘died for our +sins,’ then for such a task the incarnation of the Eternal Son +of God is the absolute pre-requisite.</p> +<p>Still further, our text brings out the contents of this gospel as +being the declaration of the Resurrection. On that I need not here +and now dwell at any length. But these are the points, the Person, +the two facts, death and resurrection, and the great meaning of the +death—viz. the expiation for the world's sins: these are the +things on which the whole of the primitive teachers of the Apostolic +Church had one voice and one message.</p> +<p>Now, I do not suppose that I need spend any time in showing to you +how the extant records bear out, absolutely, this contention of the +Apostle's. I need only remind you how the opposition that was waged +against him—and it was a very vigorous and a very bitter +opposition—from a section of the Church, had no bearing at all +upon the question of what he taught, but only upon the question of to +whom it was to be taught. The only objection that the so-called +Judaising party in the early Church had against Paul and his +preaching, was not the Gospel that he declared, but his assertion +that the Gentile nations might enter into the Church through faith in +Jesus Christ, without passing through the gate of circumcision. +Depend upon it, if there had been any, even the most microscopic, +divergence on his part from the general, broad stream of Christian +teaching, the sleepless, keen-eyed, unscrupulous enemies that dogged +him all his days would have pounced upon it eagerly, and would never +have ceased talking about it. But not one of them ever said a word of +the sort, but allowed his teaching to pass, because it was the +teaching of every one of the apostles.</p> +<p>If I had time, or if it were necessary, it would be easy to point +you to the records that we have left of the Apostolic teaching, in +order to confirm this unbroken unanimity. I do not need to spend time +on that. Proof-texts are not worth so much as the fact that these +doctrines are interwoven into the whole structure of the New +Testament as a whole—just as they are into Paul's letters. But +I may gather one or two sayings, in which the substance of each +writer's teaching has been concentrated by himself. For instance, +Peter speaks about being ‘redeemed by the precious blood of +Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot,’ and +declares that ‘He Himself bare our sins in His own body on the +tree.’ John comes in with his doxology: ‘Unto Him that +loved us, and loosed us from our sins in His own blood’; and it +is his pen that records how in the heavens there echoed ‘glory +and honour and thanks and blessing, for ever and ever, to the Lamb +that was slain, and has redeemed us unto God by His blood.’ The +writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, steeped as he is in ceremonial +and sacrificial ideas, and having for his one purpose to work out the +thought that Jesus Christ is all that the ancient ritual, sacerdotal +and sacrificial system shadows and foretells, sums up his teaching in +the statement that Christ having come, a high priest of good things +to come, ‘through His own blood, entered in, once for all, into +the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.’</p> +<p>There were limits to the unanimity, as I have already said. Paul +and Peter had a great quarrel about circumcision and related +subjects. The Apostolic writings are wondrously diverse from one +another. Peter is far less constructive and profound than Paul. Paul +and Peter are both untouched with the mystic wisdom of the Apostle +John. But, in regard to the facts that I have signalised, the +divinity, the person of Jesus Christ, His death and Resurrection, and +the significance to be attached to that death, they are absolutely +one. The instruments in the orchestra are various, the tender flute, +the ringing trumpet, and many another, but the note they strike is +the same. ‘Whether it were I or they, so we preach.’</p> +<p>II. Now, let me ask you to consider the only explanation of this +unanimity.</p> +<p>Time was when the people, who did not believe in Christ's divinity +and sacrificial death, tortured themselves to try and make out +meanings for these epistles, which should not include the obnoxious +doctrines. That is nearly antiquated. I suppose that there is nobody +now, or next to nobody, who does not admit that, right or wrong, +Paul, Peter, John—all of them—teach these two things, +that Christ is the Eternal Son of the Father, and that His death is +the Sacrifice for the world's sin. But they say that that is not the +primitive, simple teaching of the Man of Nazareth; and that the +unanimity is a unanimity of misapprehension of, and addition to, His +words and to the drift of His teaching.</p> +<p>Now, just think what a huge—I was going to +say—inconceivability that supposition is. For there is no +point, say from the time at which the Apostle who wrote the words of +my text, which was somewhere about the year 56 or 57 +A.D.,—there is no point between that period, working backwards +through the history of the Church to the Crucifixion, where you can +insert such a tremendous revolution of teaching as this. There is no +trace of such a change. Peter's earliest speeches, as recorded in +Acts, are in some important respects less developed doctrinally than +are the epistles, but Christ's Messiahship, death, and Resurrection, +with which is connected the remission of sins, are as clearly and +emphatically proclaimed as at any later time. So these points of the +Apostolic testimony were preached from the first, and, if in +preaching them, the witnesses perverted the simple teaching of the +Carpenter of Nazareth, and ascribed to Him a character which He had +not claimed, and to His death a power of which He had not dreamed, +they did so at the very time when the impressions of His personality +and teaching were most recent and strong. It seems to me, apart +altogether from other considerations, that such a right-about-face +movement on the part of the early teachers of Christianity, is an +absolute impossibility, regard being had to the facts of the case, +even if you make much allowance for possible errors in the +record.</p> +<p>But I would make another remark. If misapprehension came in, if +these men, in their unanimous declaration of Christ's death as the +Sacrifice for sin, were not fairly representing the conclusions +inevitable from the facts of Christ's life and death, and from His +own words, is it not an odd thing that the same misapprehension +affected them all? When people misconceive a teacher's doctrine, they +generally differ in the nature of their misconceptions, and split +into sections and parties. But here you have to account for the fact +that every man of them, with all their diversity of idiosyncrasy and +character, tumbled into the same pit of error, and that there was not +one of them left sane enough to protest. Does that seem to be a +likely thing?</p> +<p>And what about the worth of the teacher's teaching, that did not +guard its receivers from such absolute misapprehension as that? If +the whole Church unanimously mistook everything that Jesus Christ had +said to them, and unwarrantably made out of Him what they did, on +this hypothesis, I do not think that there is much left to honour or +admire in a teacher, whose teaching was so ambiguous, as that it led +all that received it into such an error as that into which, by the +supposition, they fell.</p> +<p>No, brethren; they were one, because their Gospel was the only +possible statement of the principles that underlay, and the +conclusions that flowed from, the plain facts of the life and the +teaching of Jesus Christ. I am not going to spend time in quoting His +own words. I can only refer to one or two of them very succinctly. +‘Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it +up.’ ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, +even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.’ ‘My flesh is +the bread which I will give for the life of the world.’ +‘The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to +minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.’ ‘This +is My body broken for you; take, eat, in remembrance of Me.’ +‘This is My blood, shed for many for the remission of sins; +this do ye, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ +What possible explanation, doing justice to these words, is there, +except ‘Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the +Scriptures’? And how could men who had heard them with their +own ears, and with their own eyes had seen Him risen from the dead +and ascending into heaven, do otherwise than eagerly, +enthusiastically, at the cost of all, and with unhesitating voice of +unbroken unanimity, ‘so preach’?</p> +<p>I quite admit that in Christ's teaching in the gospels you will +not find the articulate drawing out into doctrinal statement of the +principles that underlay, and the conclusions that flow from, the +historical fact of Christ's propitiatory death. I do not wonder at +that, nor do I admit that it is any argument against the truth of the +divine revelation which is made in these doctrinal statements, to +allege that we find nothing corresponding to them in Jesus Christ's +own words. The silence is not as absolute as is alleged, as the +quotations which I have made, and which might have been multiplied, +do distinctly enough show. Even if it were more absolute than it is, +the silence is by no means unintelligible. Christ had to offer the +Sacrifice before the Sacrifice could be preached. He Himself warned +His disciples against accepting His own words prior to the Cross, as +the conclusive and ultimate revelation. ‘I have many things to +say unto you, but you cannot carry them now.’ There was need +that the Cross should be a fact before it was evolved into a +doctrine. And so I venture to say that the unanimity of the preaching +is only explicable on the ground of that preaching in both its +parts—its assertion of Jesus’ Messiahship and of His +propitiatory death—being the repetition on the housetop of the +lessons which they had heard in the ear from Him.</p> +<p>III. Note, briefly, the lesson from this unanimity.</p> +<p>Let us distinctly apprehend where is the living heart of the +Gospel—that it is the message of redemption by the incarnation +and sacrifice of the Son of God. There follows from that incarnation +and sacrifice all the great teaching about the work of the Divine +Spirit in men, dwelling in them for evermore. But the beginning of +all is, ‘Christ died for our sins according to the +Scriptures.’ And, brethren, that message meets, as nothing else +meets, the deepest needs of every human soul. It is able, as nothing +else is able, to open out into a whole encyclopædia and +universe of wisdom and truth and power. If we strike it out of our +conception of Christianity, or if we obscure it as being the very +palpitating centre of the whole, then feebleness will creep over the +Christianity that is <i>minus</i> a Cross, or does not see in it the +Sacrifice for the world's sin. You may cast overboard the sails to +lighten the ship. If you do, she lies a log on the waters. And if, +for the sake of meeting new phases of thought, Christian churches +tamper with this central truth, they have flung away their means of +progress and of power.</p> +<p>Let me say again, and in a word only, that the considerations that +I have been trying to submit to you in this sermon, show us the +limits within which the modern cry of ‘Back to the Christ of +the Gospels,’ is right, and where it may be wrong. I believe +that in former days, and to some extent in the present day, we +evangelical teachers have too much sometimes talked rather about the +doctrines than about the Person who is the doctrines. And if the cry +of ‘Back to the Christ’ means, ‘Do not talk so much +about the Atonement and Propitiation; talk about the Christ who +atones,’ then, with all my heart, I say, ‘Amen!’ +But put the Person in the foreground, the living-loving, the +dying-loving, the risen-loving Christ, put Him in the foreground. But +if it is implied, as I am afraid it is often implied, that the Christ +of the Gospels is one and the Christ of the epistles is another, and +that to go back to the Christ of the gospels means to drop +‘died for our sins according to the Scriptures,’ and to +retain only the non-miraculous, moral and religious teachings that +are recorded in the three first gospels, then I say that it is fatal +for the Church, and it is false to the facts, for the Christ of the +epistles is the Christ of the gospels: the difference only being that +in the one you have the facts, and in the other you have their +meaning and their power.</p> +<p>So, lastly, let this text teach us what we ourselves have to do +with this unanimous testimony. ‘So we preach, and so ye +believed.’ Brother! Do you believe <i>so</i>? That is to say, +is your conception of the Gospel the mighty redemptive agency which +is wrought by the Incarnate Son of God, who was crucified for our +offences, and rose that we might live, and is glorified that we, too, +may share His glory? Is that your Gospel? But do not be content with +an intellectual grasp of the thing. ‘So ye believed’ +means a great deal more than ‘I believe that Christ died for +our sins.’ It means ‘I believe in the Christ who did die +for my sins.’ You must cast yourself as a sinful man on Him; +and, so casting, you will find that it is no vain story which is +commended to us by all these august voices from the past, but you +will have in your own experience the verification of the fact that He +died for our sins, in your own consciousness of sins forgiven, and +new love bestowed; and so may turn round to Paul, the leader of the +chorus, and to all the apostolic band, and say to them, ‘Now I +believe, not because of thy saying, but because I have seen Him, and +myself heard Him.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tcajotr78" id="tcajotr78">THE CERTAINTY AND JOY OF THE +RESURRECTION</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘But now is Christ risen from the dead ... the +first fruits of them that slept.’—1 COR. xv. +20.</blockquote> +<p>The Apostle has been contemplating the long train of dismal +consequences which he sees would arise if we only had a dead Christ. +He thinks that he, the Apostle, would have nothing to preach, and we, +nothing to believe. He thinks that all hope of deliverance from sin +would fade away. He thinks that the one fact which gives assurance of +immortality having vanished, the dead who had nurtured the assurance +have perished. And he thinks that if things were so, then Christian +men, who had believed a false gospel, and nourished an empty faith, +and died clinging to a baseless hope, were far more to be pitied than +men who had had less splendid dreams and less utter illusions.</p> +<p>Then, with a swift revulsion of feeling, he turns away from that +dreary picture, and with a change of key, which the dullest ear can +appreciate, from the wailing minors of the preceding verses, he +breaks into this burst of triumph. ‘Now’—things +being as they are, for it is the logical ‘now,’ and not +the temporal one—things being as they are, ‘Christ is +risen from the dead, and that as the first fruits of them that +slept.’</p> +<p>Part of the ceremonial of the Passover was the presentation in the +Temple of a barley sheaf, the first of the harvest, waved before the +Lord in dedication to Him, and in sign of thankful confidence that +all the fields would be reaped and their blessing gathered. There may +be some allusion to that ceremony, which coincided in time with the +Resurrection of our Lord, in the words here, which regard that one +solitary Resurrection as the early ripe and early reaped sheaf, the +pledge and the prophecy of the whole ingathering.</p> +<p>Now there seem to me, in these words, to ring out mainly two +things—an expression of absolute certainty in the fact, and an +expression of unbounded triumph in the certainty of the fact.</p> +<p>And if we look at these two things, I think we shall get the main +thoughts that the Apostle would impress upon our minds.</p> +<p>I. The certainty of Christ's Resurrection.</p> +<p>‘Now <i>is</i> Christ risen,’ says he, defying, as it +were, doubt and negation, and basing himself upon the firm assurance +which he possesses of that historical fact. ‘Ah!’ you +say, ‘seeing is believing; and he had evidence such as we can +never have.’ Well! let us see. Is it possible for us, nineteen +centuries nearly after that day, to catch some echo of this assured +confidence, and in the face of modern doubts and disbeliefs, to +reiterate with as unfaltering assurance as that with which they came +from his glowing lips, the great words of my text? Can we, logically +and reasonably, as men who are guided by evidence and not by feeling, +stand up before the world, and take for ours the ancient confession: +‘I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who +suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. The +third day He rose again from the dead’? I think we can.</p> +<p>The way to prove a fact is by the evidence of witnesses. You +cannot argue that it would be very convenient, if such and such a +thing should be true; that great moral effects would follow if we +believed it was true, and so on. The way to do is to put people who +have seen it into the witness-box, and to make sure that their +evidence is worth accepting.</p> +<p>And at the beginning of my remarks I wish to protest, in a +sentence, against confusing the issues about this question of the +Resurrection of Jesus Christ in that fashion which is popular +nowadays, when we are told that miracle is impossible, and +<i>therefore</i> there has been no Resurrection, or that death is the +end of human existence, and that <i>therefore</i> there has been no +Resurrection. That is not the way to go about ascertaining the truth +as to asserted facts. Let us hear the evidence. The men who brush +aside the testimony of the New Testament writers, in obedience to a +theory, either about the impossibility of the supernatural, or about +the fatal and final issues of human death, are victims of prejudice, +in the strictest meaning of the word; and are no more logical than +the well-known and proverbial reasoner who, when told that facts were +against him, with sublime confidence in his own infallibility, is +reported to have said, ‘So much the worse for the facts.’ +Let us deal with evidence, and not with theory, when we are talking +about alleged facts of history.</p> +<p>So then, let me remind you that, in this chapter from which my +text is taken, we have a record of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, +older than, and altogether independent of, the records contained in +the gospels, which are all subsequent in date to it; that this +Epistle to the Corinthians is one of the four undisputed Epistles of +the Apostle, which not the most advanced school of modern criticism +has a word to say against; that, therefore, this chapter, written, at +the latest, some seven and twenty years after the date of the +Crucifixion, carries us up very close to that event; that it shows +that the Resurrection was <i>universally</i> believed all over the +Church, and therefore must have then been long believed; that it +enables us to trace the same belief as universal, and in undisputed +possession of the field among the churches, at the time of Paul's +conversion, which cannot be put down at much more than five or six +years after the Crucifixion, and that so we are standing in the +presence of absolutely contemporaneous testimony. This is not a case +in which a belief slowly and gradually grew up. Whether we accept the +evidence or not, we are bound to admit that it is strictly +contemporaneous testimony to the fact of Christ's Resurrection.</p> +<p>And the witnesses are reliable and competent, as well as +contemporaneous. The old belief that their testimony was imposture is +dead long ago; as, indeed, how could it live? It would be an anomaly, +far greater than the Resurrection, to believe that these people, +Mary, Peter, John, Paul, and all the rest of them, were conspirators +in a lie, and that the fairest system of morality and the noblest +consecration that the world has ever seen, grew up out of a fraud, +like flowers upon a dunghill. That theory will not hold water; and +even those who will not accept the testimony have long since +confessed that it will not. But the Apostle, in my context, seems to +think that that is the only tenable alternative to the other theory +that the witnesses were veracious, and I am disposed to believe that +he is right. He says, ‘If Christ be not risen, then, are +we’ the utterly impossible thing of ‘false witnesses to +God,’ devout perjurers, as the phrase might be paraphrased: men +who are lying to please God. If Christ be not risen, they have sworn +to a thing that they know to be untrue, in order to advance His cause +and His kingdom. If that theory be not accepted, there is no other +about these men and their message that will hold water for a minute, +except the admission of its truth.</p> +<p>The fashionable modern one, that it was hallucination, is +preposterous. Hallucinations that five hundred people at once shared! +Hallucinations that lasted all through long talks, spread at +intervals over more than a month! Hallucinations that included eating +and drinking, speech and answer; the clasp of the hand and the +feeling of the breath! Hallucinations that brought instruction! +Hallucinations that culminated in the fancy that a gathered multitude +of them saw Him going up into heaven! The hallucination is on the +other side, I think. They have got the saddle on the wrong horse when +they talk about the Apostolic witnesses being the victims of +hallucination. It is the people who believe it possible that they +should be who are so. The old argument against miracles used to say +that it is more consonant with experience that testimony should be +false, than that a miracle should be true. I venture to say it is a +much greater strain on a man's credulity, to believe that <i>such</i> +evidence is false than that <i>such</i> a miracle, <i>so</i> +attested, is true. And I, for my part, venture to think that the +reasonable men are the men who listen to these eye-witnesses when +they say, ‘We saw Him rise’; and echo back in answer the +triumphant certitude, ‘Christ is risen indeed!’</p> +<p>There is another consideration that I might put briefly. A very +valuable way of establishing facts is to point to the existence of +other facts, which indispensably require the previous ones for their +explanation. Let me give you an illustration of what I mean. I +believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, amongst other reasons, +because I do not understand how it was possible for the Church to +exist for a week after the Crucifixion, unless Jesus Christ rose +again. Why was it that they did not all scatter? Why was it that the +spirit of despondency and the tendency to separation, which were +beginning to creep over them when they were saying: ‘Ah! it is +all up! We <i>trusted</i> that this had been He,’ did not go on +to their natural issue? How came it that these people, with their +Master taken away from the midst of them, and the bond of union +between them removed, and all their hopes crushed did not say: +‘We have made a mistake, let us go back to Gennesareth and take +to our fishing again, and try and forget our bright illusions’? +That is what John the Baptist's followers did when he died. Why did +not Christ's do the same? Because Christ rose again and re-knit them +together. When the Shepherd was smitten, the flock would have been +scattered, and never drawn together any more, unless there had been +just such a thing as the Resurrection asserts there was, to reunite +the dispersed and to encourage the depressed. And so I say, +Christianity with a <i>dead</i> Christ, and a Church gathered round a +grave from which the stone has <i>not</i> been rolled away, is more +unbelievable than the miracle, for it is an absurdity.</p> +<p>Then there is another thing that I would say in a word. Let me put +an illustration to explain what I mean. Suppose, after the execution +of King Charles I., in some corner of the country a Pretender had +sprung up and said, ‘I am the King!’ the way to end that +would have been for the Puritan leaders to have taken people to St. +George's Chapel, and said, ‘Look! there is the coffin, there is +the body, is that the king, or is it not?’ Jesus Christ was +said to have risen again, within a week of the time of His death. The +rulers of the nation had the grave, the watch, the stone, the seal. +They could have put an end to the pestilent nonsense in two minutes, +if it had been nonsense, by the simple process of saying, ‘Go +and look at the tomb, and you will see Him there.’ But this +question has never been answered, and never will be—What became +of that sacred corpse if Jesus Christ did not rise again from the +dead? The clumsy lie that the rulers told, that the disciples had +stolen away the body, was only their acknowledgment that the grave +was empty. If the grave were empty, either His servants were +impostors, which we have seen it is incredible that they were, or the +Christ was risen again.</p> +<p>And so, dear brethren, for many other reasons besides this handful +that I have ventured to gather and put before you, and in spite of +the prejudices of modern theories, I lift up here once more, with +unfaltering certitude, the glad message which I beseech you to +accept: ‘Christ is risen, the first fruits of them that +slept.’</p> +<p>II. So much, then, for the first point in this passage. A word or +two about the second—the triumph in the certitude of that +Resurrection.</p> +<p>As I remarked at a previous point of this discourse, the Apostle +has been speaking about the consequences which would follow from the +fact that Christ was not raised. If we take all these consequences +and reverse them, we get the glad issues of His Resurrection, and +understand why it was that this great burst of triumph comes from the +Apostle's lips. And though I must necessarily treat this part of my +subject very inadequately, let me try to gather together the various +points on which, as I think, our Easter gladness ought to be +built.</p> +<p>First, then, I say, the risen Christ gives us a complete Gospel. A +dead Christ annihilates the Gospel. ‘If Christ be not +risen,’ says the Apostle, ‘our preaching,’ by which +he means not the act but the substance of his preaching, ‘is +vain.’ Or, as the word might be more accurately rendered, +‘empty.’ There is nothing in it; no contents. It is a +blown bladder; nothing in it but wind.</p> +<p>What was Paul's ‘preaching’? It all turned upon these +points—that Jesus Christ was the Son of God; that He was +Incarnate in the flesh for us men; that He died on the Cross for our +offences; that He was raised again, and had ascended into Heaven, +ruling the world and breathing His presence into believing hearts; +and that He would come again to be our Judge. These were the elements +of what Paul called ‘his Gospel.’ He faces the +supposition of a dead Christ, and he says, ‘It is all gone! It +is all vanished into thin air. I have nothing to preach if I have not +a Cross to preach which is man's deliverance from sin, because on it +the Son of God hath died, and I only know that Jesus Christ's +sacrifice is accepted and sufficient, because I have it attested to +me in His rising again from the dead.’</p> +<p>Dear brethren, on the fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is +suspended everything which makes the Gospel a gospel. Strike that +out, and what have you left? Some beautiful bits of moral teaching, a +lovely life, marred by tremendous mistakes about Himself and His own +importance and His relation to men and to God; but you have got +nothing left that is worth calling a gospel. You have the cross +rising there, gaunt, black, solitary; but, unless on the other side +of the river you have the Resurrection, no bridge will ever be thrown +across the black gulf, and the Cross remains ‘dead, being +alone.’ You must have a Resurrection to explain the Cross, and +then the Life and the Death tower up into the manifestation of God in +the flesh and the propitiation for our sins. Without it we have +nothing to preach which is worth calling a gospel.</p> +<p>Again, a living Christ gives faith something to lay hold of. The +Apostle here in the context twice says, according to the Authorised +Version, that a dead Christ makes our faith ‘vain.’ But +he really uses two different words, the former of which is applied to +‘preaching,’ and means literally ‘empty,’ +while the latter means ‘of none effect’ or +‘powerless.’ So there are two ideas suggested here which +I can only touch with the lightest hand.</p> +<p>The risen Christ puts some contents, so to speak, into my faith; +He gives me something for it to lay hold of.</p> +<p>Who can trust a <i>dead</i> Christ, or who can trust a +<i>human</i> Christ? That would be as much a blasphemy as trusting +any other man. It is only when we recognise Him as declared to be the +Son of God, and that by the Resurrection from the dead, that our +faith has anything round which it can twine, and to which it can +cleave. That living Saviour will stretch out His hand to us if we +look to Him, and if I put my poor, trembling little hand up towards +Him, He will bend to me and clasp it. You cannot exercise faith +unless you have a risen Saviour, and unless you exercise faith in Him +your lives are marred and sad.</p> +<p>Again, if Christ be dead, our faith, if it could exist, would be +as devoid of effect as it would be empty of substance. For such a +faith would be like an infant seeking nourishment at a dead mother's +breast, or men trying to kindle their torches at an extinguished +lamp. And chiefly would it fail to bring the first blessing which the +believing soul receives through and from a risen Christ, namely, +deliverance from sin. If He whom we believed to be our sacrifice by +His death and our sanctification by His life has not risen, then, as +we have seen, all which makes His death other than a martyr's +vanishes, and with it vanish forgiveness and purifying. Only when we +recognise that in His Cross explained by His Resurrection, we have +redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, and by +the communication of the risen life from the risen Lord possess that +new nature which sets us free from the dominion of our evil, is faith +operative in setting us free from our sins.</p> +<p>So, dear friends, the risen Christ gives us something for faith to +lay hold of, and will make it the hand by which we grasp His strong +hand, which lifts us ‘out of the horrible pit and the miry +clay, and sets our feet upon a rock.’ But if He lie dead in the +grave your faith is vain, because it grasps nothing but a shadow; and +it is vain as being purposeless; you are yet in your sins.</p> +<p>The last thought is that the risen Christ gives us the certitude +of our Resurrection. I do not for a moment mean to say that, apart +from the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the thought, be it a wish or a +dread, of immortality, has not been found in men, but there is all +the difference in the world between forebodings, aspirations, wishes +it were so, fears that it might be so, and the calm certitude that it +is so. Many men talked about a western continent, but Columbus went +there and came back again, and that ended doubt. Many men before, and +apart from Jesus, have cherished thoughts of an immortal life beyond +the grave, but He has been there and returned. And that, and, as I +believe, that only puts the doctrine of immortality upon an +irrefragable foundation; and we can say, ‘Now, I know that +there is that land beyond.’ They tell us that death ends +everything. Modern materialism, in all its forms, asserts that it is +the extinction of the personality. Jesus Christ died, and went +through it, and came out of it the same, and I will trust Him. +Brethren, the set of opinion amongst the educated and cultured +classes in England, and all over Europe, at this moment, proves to +anybody who has eyes to see, that for this generation, rejection of +immortality will follow certainly on the rejection of Jesus Christ. +And for England to-day, as for Greece when Paul sent his letter to +Corinth, the one light of certitude in the great darkness is the fact +that Jesus Christ hath died, and is risen again.</p> +<p>If you will let Him, He will make you partakers of His own +immortal life. ‘The first fruits of them that slept’ is +the pledge and the prophecy of all the waving abundance of golden +grain that shall be gathered into the great husbandman's barns. The +Apostle goes on to represent the resurrection of ‘them that are +Christ's’ as a consequence of their union to Jesus. He has +conquered for us all. He has entered the prison-house and come forth +bearing its iron gates on His shoulders, and henceforth it is not +possible that we should be holden of it. There are two +resurrections—one, that of Christ's servants, one that of +others. They are not the same in principle—and, alas, they are +awfully different in issue. ‘Some shall wake to everlasting +life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’</p> +<p>Let me beseech you to make Jesus Christ the life of your dead +souls, by humble, penitent trust in Him. And then, in due time, He +will be the life of your transformed bodies, changing these into the +likeness of the body of His glory, ‘according to the working +whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tdod79" id="tdod79">THE DEATH OF DEATH</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become +the first-fruits of them that slept. 21. For since by man came death, +by man came also the resurrection of the dead.... 50. Now this I say, +brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; +neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 51. Behold, I shew you +a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52. +In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, (for the +trumpet shall sound;) and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and +we shall be changed. 53. For this corruptible must put on +incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54. So when +this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal +shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the +saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55. O +death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56. The +sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57. But +thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus +Christ. 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, +unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye +know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.’—1 COR. +xv. 20, 21; 50-58.</blockquote> +<p>This passage begins with the triumphant ringing out of the great +fact which changes all the darkness of an earthly life without a +heavenly hope into a blaze of light. All the dreariness for humanity, +and all the vanity for Christian faith and preaching, vanish, like +ghosts at cock-crow, when the Resurrection of Jesus rises sun-like on +the world's night. It is a historical fact, established by the +evidence proper for such,—namely, the credible testimony of +eye-witnesses. They could attest His rising, but the knowledge of the +worldwide significance of it comes, not from testimony, but from +revelation. Those who saw Him risen join to declare: ‘Now is +Christ risen from the dead,’ but it is a higher Voice that goes +on to say, ‘and become the first-fruits of them that +slept.’</p> +<p>That one Man risen from the grave was like the solitary sheaf of +paschal first-fruits, prophesying of many more, a gathered harvest +that will fill the great Husbandman's barns. The Resurrection of +Jesus is not only a prophecy, showing, as it and it alone does, that +death is not the end of man, but that life persists through death and +emerges from it, like a buried river coming again flashing into the +light of day, but it is the source or cause of the Christian's +resurrection. The oneness of the race necessitated the diffusion +through all its members of sin and of its consequence—physical +death. If the fountain is poisoned, all the stream will be tainted. +If men are to be redeemed from the power of the grave, there must be +a new personal centre of life; and union with Him, which can only be +effected by faith, is the condition of receiving life from Him, which +gradually conquers the death of sin now, and will triumph over bodily +death in the final resurrection. It is the resurrection of Christians +that Paul is dealing with. Others are to be raised, but on a +different principle, and to sadly different issues. Since Christ's +Resurrection assures us of the future waking, it changes death into +‘sleep,’ and that sleep does not mean unconsciousness any +more than natural sleep does, but only rest from toil, and cessation +of intercourse with the external world.</p> +<p>In the part of the passage, verses 50 to 58, the Apostle becomes, +not the witness or the reasoner, as in the earlier parts of the +chapter, but the revealer of a ‘mystery.’ That word, so +tragically misunderstood, has here its uniform scriptural sense of +truth, otherwise unknown, made known by revelation. But before he +unveils the mystery, Paul states with the utmost force a difficulty +which might seem to crush all hope,—namely, that corporeity, as +we know it, is clearly incapable of living in such a world as that +future one must be. To use modern terms, organism and environment +must be adapted to each other. A fish must have the water, the +creatures that flourish at the poles would not survive at the +equator. A man with his gross earthly body, so thoroughly adapted to +his earthly abode, would be all out of harmony with his surroundings +in that higher world, and its rarified air would be too thin and pure +for his lungs. Can there be any possibility of making him fit to live +in a spiritual world? Apart from revelation, the dreary answer must +be ‘No.’ But the ‘mystery’ answers with +‘Yes.’ The change from physical to spiritual is clearly +necessary, if there is to be a blessed life hereafter.</p> +<p>That necessary change is assured to all Christians, whether they +die or ‘remain till the coming of the Lord.’ Paul varies +in his anticipations as to whether he and his contemporaries will +belong to the one class or the other; but he is quite sure that in +either case the indwelling Spirit of Jesus will effect on living and +dead the needful change. The grand description in verse 52, like the +parallel in 1 Thessalonians iv. 16, is modelled on the account of the +theophany on Sinai. The trumpet was the signal of the Divine +Presence. That last manifestation will be sudden, and its startling +breaking in on daily commonplace is intensified by the reduplication: +‘In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.’ With sudden +crash that awful blare of ‘loud, uplifted angel trumpet’ +will silence all other sounds, and hush the world. The stages of what +follows are distinctly marked. First, the rising of the dead changed +in passing through death, so as to rise in incorruptible bodies, and +then the change of the bodies of the living into like incorruption. +The former will not be found naked, but will be clothed with their +white garments; the latter will, as it were, put on the glorious +robes above the ‘muddy vesture of decay,’ or, more truly, +will see the miracle of these being transfigured till they shine +‘so as no fuller on earth could white them.’ The living +will witness the resurrection of the dead; the risen dead will +witness the transformation of the living. Then both hosts will be +united, and, through all eternity, ‘live together,’ and +that ‘with Him.’ Paul evidently expects that he and the +Corinthians will be in the latter class, as appears by the +‘we’ in verse 52. He, as it were, points to his own body +when he says, recurring to his former thought of the necessity of +harmony between organism and environment, ‘<i>this</i> +corruptible must put on incorruption.’ Here +‘corruption’ is used in its physical application, though +the ethical meaning may be in the background.</p> +<p>The Apostle closes his long argument and revelation with a burst, +almost a shout, of triumph. Glowing words of old prophets rush into +his mind, and he breathes a new, grander meaning into them. Isaiah +had sung of a time when the veil over all nations should be destroyed +‘in this mountain,’ and when death should be swallowed up +for ever; and Paul grasps the words and says that the prophet's +loftiest anticipations will be fulfilled when that monster, whose +insatiable maw swallows down youth, beauty, strength, wisdom, will +himself be swallowed up. Hosea had prophesied of Israel's restoration +under figure of a resurrection, and Paul grasps <i>his</i> words and +fills them with a larger meaning. He modifies them, in a manner on +which we need not enlarge, to express the great Christian thought +that death has conquered man but that man in Christ will conquer the +conqueror. With swift change of metaphor he represents death as a +serpent, armed with a poisoned sting, and that suggests to him the +thought, never far away in his view of man, that death's power to +slay is derived from—or, so to say, concentrated in—sin; +and that at once raises the other equally characteristic and familiar +thought that law stimulates sin, since to know a thing to be +forbidden creates in perverse humanity an itching to do it, and law +reveals sin by setting up the ideal from which sin is the departure. +But just as the tracks in Paul's mind were well worn, by which the +thought of death brought in that of sin, and that of sin drew after +it that of law, so with equal closeness of established association, +that of law condemnatory and slaying, brought up that of Christ the +all-sufficient refuge from that gloomy triad—Death Sin, Law. +Through union with Him each of us may possess His immortal risen +life, in which Death, the engulfer, is himself engulfed; Death, the +conqueror, is conquered utterly and for ever; Death, the serpent, has +his sting drawn, and is harmless. That participation in Christ's life +is begun even here, and God ‘giveth us the victory’ now, +even while we live outward lives that must end in death, and will +give it perfectly in the resurrection, when ‘they cannot die +any more,’ and death itself is dead.</p> +<p>The loftiest Christian hopes have close relation to the lowliest +Christian duties, and Paul's triumphant song ends with plain, +practical, prose exhortations to steadfastness, unmovable tenacity, +and abundant fruitfulness, the motive and power of which will be +found in the assurance that, since there is a life beyond, all labour +here, however it may fail in the eyes of men, will not be in vain, +but will tell on character and therefore on condition through +eternity. If our peace does not rest where we would fain see it +settle, it will not be wasted, but will return to us again, like the +dove to the ark, and we shall ‘self-enfold the large results +of’ labour that seemed to have been thrown away.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="sal80" id="sal80">STRONG AND LOVING</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like +men, be strong. 14. Let all your things be done with +charity.’—1 COR. xvi. 13, 14.</blockquote> +<p>There is a singular contrast between the first four of these +exhortations and the last. The former ring sharp and short like +pistol-shots; the last is of gentler mould. The former sound like the +word of command shouted from an officer along the ranks; and there is +a military metaphor running all through them. The foe threatens to +advance; let the guards keep their eyes open. He comes nearer; +prepare for the charge, stand firm in your ranks. The battle is +joined; ‘quit you like men’—strike a man's +stroke—‘be strong.’</p> +<p>And then all the apparatus of warfare is put away out of sight, +and the captain's word of command is softened into the Christian +teacher's exhortation: ‘Let all your deeds be done in +charity.’ For love is better than fighting, and is stronger +than swords. And yet, although there is a contrast here, there is +also a sequence and connection. No doubt these exhortations, which +are Paul's last word to that Corinthian Church on whom he had +lavished in turn the treasures of his manifold eloquence, +indignation, argumentation, and tenderness, reflected the +deficiencies of the people to whom he was speaking. They were +schismatic and factious to the very core, and so they needed the +exhortation to be left last in their ears, as it were, that +everything should be done in love. They were ill-grounded in regard +to the very fundamental doctrines of the faith, as all Paul's +argumentation about the resurrection proves, and so they needed to be +bidden to ‘stand fast in the faith.’ Their slothful +carelessness as to the discipline of the Christian life, and their +consequent feebleness of grasp of the Christian verities, made them +loose-braced and weak in all respects, and incapacitated them for +vigorous warfare. Thus, we see a picture in these injunctions of the +sort of community that Paul had to deal with in Corinth, which yet he +called a Church of saints, and for which he loved and laboured. Let +me then run over and try to bring out the importance and mutual +connection of what I may call this drill-book for the Christian +warfare, which is the Christian life.</p> +<p>‘Watch ye.’ That means one of two things certainly, +probably both—Keep awake, and keep your eyes open. Our Lord +used the same metaphor, you remember, very frequently, but with a +special significance. On His lips it generally referred to the +attitude of expectation of His coming in judgment. Paul uses +sometimes the figure with the same application, but here, distinctly, +it has another. As I said, there is the military idea underlying it. +What will become of an army if the sentries go to sleep? And what +chance will a Christian man have of doing his <i>devoir</i> against +his enemy, unless he keeps himself awake, and keeps himself alert? +Watchfulness, in the sense of always having eyes open for the +possible rush down upon us of temptation and evil, is no small part +of the discipline and the duty of the Christian life. One part of +that watchfulness consists in exercising a very rigid and a very +constant and comprehensive scrutiny of our motives. For there is no +way by which evil creeps upon us so unobserved, as when it slips in +at the back door of a specious motive. Many a man contents himself +with the avoidance of actual evil actions, and lets any kind of +motives come in and out of his mind unexamined. It is all right to +look after our <i>doings</i>, but ‘as a man <i>thinketh</i> in +his heart, so is he.’ The good or the evil of anything that I +do is determined wholly by the motive with which I do it. And we are +a great deal too apt to palm off deceptions on ourselves to make sure +that our motives are right, unless we give them a very careful and +minute scrutiny. One side of this watchfulness, then, is a habitual +inspection of our motives and reasons for action. ‘What am I +doing this for?’ is a question that would stop dead an enormous +proportion of our activity, as if you had turned the steam off from +an engine. If you will use a very fine sieve through which to strain +your motives, you will go a long way to keeping your actions right. +We should establish a rigid examination for applicants for entrance, +and make quite sure that each that presents itself is not a wolf in +sheep's clothing. Make them all bring out their passports. Let every +vessel that comes into your harbour remain isolated from all +communication with the shore, until the health officer has been on +board and given a clean bill. ‘Watch ye,’ for yonder, +away in the dark, in the shadow of the trees, the black masses of the +enemy are gathered, and a midnight attack is but too likely to bring +a bloody awakening to a camp full of sleepers.</p> +<p>My text goes on to bring the enemy nearer and nearer and nearer. +‘Watch ye’—and if, not unnoticed, they come down on +you, ‘stand fast in the faith.’ There will be no keeping +our ranks, or keeping our feet—or at least, it is not nearly so +likely that there will be—unless there has been the preceding +watchfulness. If the first command has not been obeyed, there is +small chance of the second's being so. If there has not been any +watchfulness, it is not at all likely that there will be much +steadfastness. Just as with a man going along a crowded pavement, a +little touch from a passer-by will throw him off his balance, whereas +if he had known it was coming, and had adjusted his poise rightly, he +would have stood against thrice as violent a shock, so, in order that +we may stand fast, we must watch. A sudden assault will be a great +deal less formidable when it is a foreseen assault.</p> +<p>‘Stand fast <i>in the faith</i>.’ I take it that this +does not mean ‘the thing that we believe,’ which use of +the word ‘faith’ is the ecclesiastical, but not the New +Testament meaning. In Scripture, faith means not the body of truths +that we believe, but the act of believing them. This further command +tells us that, in addition to our watchfulness, and as the basis of +our steadfastness, confidence in the revelation of God in Jesus +Christ will enable us to keep our feet whatever comes against us, and +to hold our ground, whoever may assault us.</p> +<p>But remember that it is not because I have faith that I stand +fast, but because of that in which I have faith. My feet may be well +shod—and it used to be said that a soldier's shoes were of as +much importance in the battle as his musket—my feet may be well +shod, but if they are not well planted upon firm ground I never shall +be able to stand the collision of the foe. So then, it is not my +grasp of the blessed truth, God in Christ my Friend and Helper, but +it is that truth which I grasp at, that makes me strong. Or, to put +it into other words, it is the foothold, and not the foot that holds +it, that ensures our standing firm. Only there is no steadfastness +communicated to us from the source of all stability, except by way of +our faith, which brings Christ into us. ‘Watch ye; stand fast +in the faith.’</p> +<p>The next two words of command are very closely connected, though +not quite identical. ‘Quit you like men.’ Play a man's +part in the battle; strike with all the force of your muscles. But +the Apostle adds, ‘be strong.’ You cannot play a man's +part unless you are. ‘Be strong’—the original would +rather bear ‘become strong.’ What is the use of telling +men to ‘<i>be</i> strong’? It is a waste of words, in +nine cases out of ten, to say to a weak man, ‘Pluck up your +courage, and show strength.’ But the Apostle uses a very +uncommon word here, at least uncommon in the New Testament, and +another place where he uses it will throw light upon what he means: +‘Strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.’ +Then is it so vain a mockery to tell a poor, weak creature like me to +become strong, when you can point me to the source of all strength, +in that ‘Spirit of power and of love and of a sound +mind’? We have only to take our weakness there to have it +stiffened into strength; as people put bits of wood into what are +called ‘petrifying wells’ which infiltrate into them +mineral particles, that do not turn the wood into stone, but make the +wood as strong as stone. So my manhood, with all its weakness, may +have filtered into it divine strength, which will brace me for all +needful duty, and make me ‘more than conqueror through Him that +loved us.’ Then, it is not mockery and cruelty, vanity and +surplusage to preach ‘Quit you like men; be strong, and be a +man’; because if we will observe the plain and not hard +conditions, strength will come to us according to our day, in +fulfilment of the great promises: ‘My grace is sufficient for +thee; and My strength is made perfect in weakness.’</p> +<p>And now we have done with the fighting words of command, and come +to the gentler exhortation: ‘Let all your things be done in +charity.’</p> +<p>That was a hard lesson for these Corinthians who were splitting +themselves into factions and sects, and tearing each other's eyes out +in their partisanship for various Christian teachers. But the advice +has a much wider application than to the suppression of squabbles in +Christian communities. It is the sum of all commandments of the +Christian life, if you will take love in its widest sense, in the +sense, that is, in which it is always used in Paul's writings. We cut +it into two halves, and think of it as sometimes meaning love to God, +and sometimes love to man. The two are inseparably inter-penetrated +in the New Testament writings; and so we have to interpret this +supreme commandment in the whole breadth and meaning of that great +word <i>Love</i>. And then it just comes to this, that love is the +victor in all the Christian warfare. If we love God, at any given +moment, consciously having our affection engaged with Him, and our +heart going out to Him, do you think that any evil or temptation +would have power over us? Should we not see them as they are, to be +devils in disguise? In the proportion in which I love God I conquer +all sin. And at the moment in which that great, sweet, all-satisfying +light floods into my soul, I see through the hollowness and the +shams, and detect the ugliness and the filth of the things that +otherwise would be temptations. If you desire to be conquerors in the +Christian fight, remember that the true way of conquest is, as +another Apostle says, ‘Keep yourselves in the love of +God.’ ‘Let all your things be done in charity.’</p> +<p>And, further, how beautifully the Apostle here puts the great +truth that we are all apt to forget, that the strongest type of human +character is the gentlest and most loving, and that the mighty man is +not the man of intellectual or material force, such as the world +idolises, but the man who is much because he loves much. If we would +come to supreme beauty of Christian character, there must be +inseparably manifested in our lives, and lived in our hearts, +strength and love, might and gentleness. That is the perfect man, and +that was the union which was set before us, in the highest form, in +the ‘Strong Son of God, Immortal Love,’ whom we call our +Saviour, and whom we are bound to follow. His soldiers conquer as the +Captain of their salvation has conquered, when watchfulness and +steadfastness and courage and strength are all baptized in love and +perfected thereby.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="aag81" id="aag81">ANATHEMA AND GRACE</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand. 22. +If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema +Maran-atha. 23. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. 24. +My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.’—1 COR. xvi. +21-24.</blockquote> +<p>Terror and tenderness are strangely mingled in this parting +salutation, which was added in the great characters shaped by Paul's +own hand, to the letter written by an amanuensis. He has been +obliged, throughout the whole epistle, to assume a tone of +remonstrance abundantly mingled with irony and sarcasm and +indignation. He has had to rebuke the Corinthians for many faults, +party spirit, lax morality, toleration of foul sins, grave abuses in +their worship even at the Lord's Supper, gross errors in opinion in +the denial of the Resurrection. And in this last solemn warning he +traces all these vices to their fountainhead—the defect of love +to Jesus Christ—and warns of their fatal issue. ‘Let him +be Anathema.’</p> +<p>But he will not leave these terrible words for his last. The +thunder is followed by gentle rain, and the sun glistens on the +drops; ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you +all.’ Nor for himself will he let the last impression be one of +rebuke or even of warning. He desires to show that his heart yearns +over them all; so he gathers them all—the partisans; the poor +brother that has fallen into sin; the lax ones who, in their +misplaced tenderness, had left him in his sin; the misguided +reasoners who had struck the Resurrection out of the articles of the +Christian creed—he gathers them all into his final salutation, +and he says, ‘Take and share my love—though I have had to +rebuke—amongst the whole of you.’</p> +<p>Is not that beautiful? And does not the juxtaposition of such +messages in this farewell go deeper than the revelation of Paul's +character? May we not see, in these terrible and tender thoughts thus +inextricably intertwined and braided together, a revelation of the +true nature both of the terror and the tenderness of the Gospel which +Paul preached? It is from that point of view that I wish to look at +them now.</p> +<p>I. I take first that thought—the terror of the fate of the +unloving.</p> +<p>Now, I must ask you for a moment's attention in regard to these +two untranslated words. <i>Anathema Maran-atha</i>. The first thing +to be noticed is that the latter of them stands independently of the +former, and forms a sentence by itself, as I shall have to show you +presently. ‘Anathema’ means an offering, or a thing +devoted; and its use in the New Testament arises from its use in the +Greek translation of the Old Testament, where it is employed for +persons and things that, in a peculiar sense, were set apart and +devoted to God. In the story of the conquest of Canaan, for instance, +we read of Jericho and other places, persons, or things that were, as +our version somewhat unfortunately renders it, +‘accursed,’ or as it ought rather to be rendered, +‘devoted,’ or ‘put under a ban.’ And this +‘devotion’ was of such a sort as that the things or +persons devoted were doomed to destruction. All the dreadful things +that were done in the Conquest were the consequences of the persons +that endured them being thus ‘consecrated,’ in a very +dreadful sense, or set apart for God. The underlying idea was that +evil things brought into contact with Him were necessarily destroyed +with a swift destruction. That being the meaning of the word, it is +clear that its use in my text is distinctly metaphorical, and that it +suggests to us that the unloving, like those cities full of +uncleanness, when they are brought into contact with the infinite +love of the coming Judge, shrivel up and are destroyed.</p> +<p>The other word ‘Maran-atha,’ as I said, is to be taken +as a separate sentence. It belongs to the dialect, which was probably +the vernacular of Palestine in the time of Paul, and to which belong, +for the most part, the other untranslated words that are scattered up +and down the Gospels, such as ‘Aceldama,’ +‘Ephphatha,’ and the like. It means ‘our Lord +comes.’ Why Paul chose to use that untranslated scrap of +another tongue in a letter to a Gentile Church we cannot tell. +Perhaps it had come to be a kind of watchword amongst the early +Jewish Christians, which came naturally to his lips. But, at any +rate, the use of it here is distinctly to confirm the warning of the +previous clause, by pointing to the time at which that warning shall +be fulfilled. ‘If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let +him be devoted and destroyed. Our Lord comes.’ The only other +thing to be noticed by way of introduction is that this first clause +is not an imprecation, nor any wish on the part of the Apostle, but +is a solemn prophetic warning (acquiesced in by every righteous +heart) of that which will certainly come. The significance of the +whole may be gathered into one simple sentence—The coming of +the Lord of Love is the destruction of the unloving.</p> +<p>‘Our Lord comes.’ Paul's Christianity gathered round +two facts and moments—one in the past, Christ has come; one in +the future, Christ will come. For memory, the coming by the cradle +and the Cross; for hope, the coming on His throne in glory; and +between these two moments, like the solid piers of a suspension +bridge, the frail structure of the Present hangs swinging. In this +day men have lost their expectation of the one, and to a large extent +their faith in the other. But we shall not understand Scripture +unless we seek to make as prominent in our thoughts as on its pages +that second coming as the complement and necessary issue of the +first. It stands stamped on every line. It colours all the New +Testament views of life. It is used as a motive for every duty, and +as a magnet to draw men to Jesus Christ by salutary dread. There is +no hint in my text about the time of the Lord's coming, no disturbing +of the solemnity of the thought by non-essential details of +chronology, so we may dismiss these from our minds. The fact is the +same, and has the same force as a motive for life, whether it is to +be fulfilled in the next moment or thousands of years hence, provided +only that you and I are to be there when He comes.</p> +<p>There have been many comings in the past, besides the comings in +the flesh. The days of the Lord that have already appeared in the +history of the world are not few. One characteristic is stamped upon +them all, and that is the swift annihilation of what is opposed to +Him. The Bible has a set of standing metaphors by which to illustrate +this thought of the Coming of the Lord—a flood, a harvest when +the ears are ripe for the sickle, the waking of God from slumber, and +the like; all suggesting similar thoughts. <i>The</i> day of the +Lord, <i>the</i> coming of the Lord, will include and surpass all the +characteristics which these lesser and premonitory judgment days +presented in miniature. I do not enlarge on this theme. I would not +play the orator about it if I could; but I appeal to your +consciences, which, in the case of most of us, not only testify of +right and wrong, but of responsibility, and suggest a judge to whom +we are responsible. And I urge on each, and on myself, this simple +question: Have I allowed its due weight on my life and character to +that watchword of the ancient church—<i>Maran-atha</i>, +‘our Lord cometh’?</p> +<p>Now, the coming of the Lord of Love is the annihilation of the +unloving. The destruction implied in Anathema does not mean the +cessation of Being, but a death which is worse than death, because it +is a death in life. Suppose a man with all his past annihilated, with +all its effort foiled and crushed, with all its possessions +evaporated and disappeared, and with his memory and his conscience +stung into clear-sighted activity, so that he looks back upon his +former self and into his present self, and feels that it is all waste +and chaos, would not that fulfil the word of my text—‘Let +him be Anathema’? And suppose that such a man, in addition to +these thoughts, and as the root and the source of them, had ever the +quivering consciousness that he was and must be in the presence of an +unloved Judge; have you not there the naked bones of a very dreadful +thing, which does not need any tawdry eloquence of man to make it +more solemn and more real? The unloving heart is always ill at ease +in the presence of Him whom it does not love. The unloving heart does +not love, because it does not trust, nor see the love. Therefore, the +unloving heart is a heart that is only capable of apprehending the +wrathful side of Christ's character. It is a heart devoid of the +fruits of love which are likeness and righteousness, ‘without +which no man shall see the Lord,’ nor stand the flash of the +brightness of His coming. So there is no cruelty nor arbitrariness in +the decree that the heart that loves not, when brought into contact +with the infinite Lord of Love, must find in the touch death and not +life, darkness and not light, terror and not hope. Notice that Paul's +negation <i>is</i> a negation and not an affirmation. He does not say +‘he that hateth,’ but ‘he that doth not +love.’ The absence of the active emotion of love, which is the +child of faith, the parent of righteousness, the condition of joy in +His presence, is sufficient to ensure that this fate shall fall upon +a man. I durst not enlarge. I leave the truth on your hearts.</p> +<p>II. Secondly, notice the present grace of the coming Lord. +‘Our Lord cometh. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with +you all.’ These two things are not contradictory, but we often +deal with them as if they were. And some men lay hold of the one side +of the antithesis, and some men lay hold of the other, and rend them +apart, and make antagonistic theories of Christianity out of them. +But the real doctrine puts the two together and says there is no +terror without tenderness, and there is no tenderness without terror. +If we sacrifice the aspects of the divine nature, as revealed to us +in the gentle Christ, which kindle a wholesome dread, we have, all +unwittingly, robbed the aspects of the divine nature, which warm in +us a gracious love, of their power to inflame and to illuminate. You +cannot have love which is anything nobler than facile good nature and +unrighteous indifference, unless you have along with it aspects of +God's character and government which ought to make some men afraid. +And you cannot keep these latter aspects from being exaggerated and +darkened into a Moloch of cruelty, unless you remember that, side by +side with them, or rather underlying them and determining them, are +aspects of the divine nature to which only child-like confidence and +calm beatific returns of love do rightly respond. The terror of the +Lord is a garb which our sins force upon the love of the Lord, and +when the one is presented it brings with it the other. Never should +they be parted in our thoughts or in our teaching.</p> +<p>Note what that present grace is. It is a tenderness which gathers +into its embrace all these imperfect, immoral, lax, heretical people +in Corinth, as well as everywhere else—‘The grace of our +Lord Jesus Christ be with <i>you all</i>.’ There were men in +that church that said, ‘I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of +Cephas, I of Christ.’ There were men in that church that had +defiled their souls and their flesh, and corrupted the community, and +blasphemed the name of Christ by such foul, sensual sin as was +‘not even named among the Gentiles.’ There were men in +that church so dead to all the sanctities even of the communion-table +as that, with the bread between their teeth and the wine-cup in their +hands, one was hungry and another drunken. There were men in that +church, whose Christianity was so anomalous and singularly +fragmentary that they did not believe in the resurrection of the +dead. And yet Paul flings the great rainbow, as it were, of Christ's +enclosing love over them all. And surely the love which gathers in +such people leaves none outside its sweep; and the tenderness which +stoops from heaven to pity, to pardon, to cleanse such is a +tenderness to which the weakest, saddest, sinfullest, foulest +of the sons of men may confidently resort. Let nothing rob you of +this assurance, that Christ, the coming Lord, is present with us all, +and with all our weak and wicked brethren, in the full condescension +of His all-embracing, all-hoping, all-forgetting, and all-restoring +love. All that we need, in order to get its full sunshine into our +hearts, is that we trust Him utterly, and, so trusting, love Him back +again with that love which is the fulfilling of the Law and the crown +of the Gospel.</p> +<p>III. And now, lastly, note the tenderness, caught from the Master +Himself, of the servant who rebukes.</p> +<p>This last message of love from the Apostle himself, in verse 24, +is quite anomalous. There is no other instance in his letters where +he introduces himself and his own love at the end, after he has +pronounced solemn benediction commending to Christ's grace. But here, +as if he had felt that he must leave an impression of himself on +their minds, which corresponded to the impression of his Master that +he desired to leave, he deviates from his ordinary habit, and makes +his last word a personal word—‘<i>My love</i> be with you +all in Christ Jesus.’ Rebuke is the sign of love. Sharp +condemnation may be the language of love. Plain warning of possible +evils is the simple duty of love. So Paul folds all whom he has been +rebuking in the warm embrace of his proffered love, which was the +very cause of his rebuke. The healing balm of this closing message +was to be applied to the wounds which his keen edged words had made, +and to show that they were wounds by a surgeon, not by a foe. In +effect, this parting smile of love says, ‘I am not become your +enemy because I tell you the truth; I show my love to you by the +plainness and roughness of my words.’ Generalise that, free it +from its personal reference, and it just comes to this: There never +was a shallower sneer than the sneer which is cast at Christianity, +as if it were harsh, ‘ferocious,’ or unloving, when it +preaches the terror of the Lord. No! rather, because the Gospel +<i>is</i> a Gospel, it must speak plainly about death and destruction +to the unloving. The danger signal is not to be blamed for a +collision, which it is hoisted to avert; and it is a strange sign of +an unfeeling and unsympathetic, or of a harsh and gloomy system, that +it should tell men where they are driving, in order that they may +never reach the miserable goal. ‘Knowing, therefore, the terror +of the Lord, we persuade men.’ And when people say to us +preachers, ‘Is that your Gospel, a Gospel that talks about +everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord at the glory of +His coming—is that your Gospel?’ We can only answer, +‘Yes, it is! Because, so to talk, may by God's mercy, secure +that some who hear shall never know anything of the wrath, save the +hearing of it with the ear, and may, by the warning of it, be drawn +to the Rock of Ages for safety and shelter from the storm.’</p> +<p>Therefore, dear friends, the upshot of all that I have been feebly +trying to say is just this; let us lay hold with all our hearts, and +by simple faith, of the present grace of the coming, loving Lord and +Judge. You can do it. It is your only hope to do it. <i>Have</i> you +done it? If so, then you may lift up your heads to the throne, and be +glad, as those who know that their Friend and Deliverer will come at +last, to help, to bless, to save. If not, dear friend, take the +warning, that not to love is to be shrivelled like a leaf in the +flame, at that coming which is life to them that love, and +destruction to all besides. ‘Herein is our love made perfect, +that we may have boldness before Him in the day of +judgment.’</p> +<hr> +<h2>II. CORINTHIANS</h2> +<h2><a name="gyma82" id="gyma82">GOD'S YEA; MAN'S AMEN</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him +is the yea: wherefore also through Him is the Amen.’—2 +COR. i. 20 (R. V.).</blockquote> +<p>This is one of the many passages the force and beauty of which +are, for the first time, brought within the reach of an English +reader by the alterations in the Revised Version. These are partly +dependent upon the reading of the text and partly upon the +translation. As the words stand in the Authorised Version, +‘yea’ and ‘amen’ seem to be very nearly +synonymous expressions, and to point substantially to the same +thing—viz. that Jesus Christ is, as it were, the confirmation +and seal of God's promises. But in the Revised Version the +alterations, especially in the pronouns, indicate more distinctly +that the Apostle means two different things by the ‘yea’ +and the ‘amen’. The one is God's voice, the other is +man's. The one has to do with the certainty of the divine revelation, +the other has to do with the certitude of our faith in the +revelation. When God speaks in Christ, He confirms everything that He +has said before, and when we listen to God speaking in Christ, our +lips are, through Christ, opened to utter our assenting +‘Amen’ to His great promises. So, then, we have the +double form of our Lord's work, covering the whole ground of His +relations to man, set forth in these two clauses, in the one of which +God's confirmation of His past revelations by Jesus Christ is treated +of, and in the other of which the full and confident assent which men +may give to that revelation is set before us. I deal, then, with +these two points—God's certainties in Christ, and man's +certitudes through Christ.</p> +<p>Now these two things do not always go together. We may be very +certain, as far as our persuasion is concerned, of a very doubtful +fact, or we may be very doubtful, as far as our persuasion is +concerned, of a very certain fact. We speak about truths or facts as +being certain, and we ought to mean by that, not how we think about +them, but what they are in the evidence on which they rest. A certain +truth is a truth which has its evidence irrefragable; and the only +fitting attitude for men, in the presence of a certain truth, is to +have a certitude of the truth. And these two things are, our Apostle +tells us, both given to us in and through Jesus Christ. Let me deal, +then, with these two sides.</p> +<p>I. First, God's certainties in Christ.</p> +<p>Of course the original reference of the text is to the whole +series of great promises given in the Old Testament. These, says +Paul, are sealed and confirmed to men by the revelation and work of +Jesus Christ, but it is obvious that the principle which is good in +reference to them is good on a wider field. I venture to take that +extension, and to ask you to think briefly about some of the things +that are made for us indubitably certain in Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>And, first of all, there is the certainty about God's heart. +Everywhere else we have only peradventures, hopes, fears, guesses +more or less doubtful, and roundabout inferences as to His +disposition and attitude towards us. As one of the old divines says +somewhere, ‘All other ways of knowing God are like the bended +bow, Christ is the straight string.’ The only means by which, +indubitably, as a matter of demonstration, men can be sure that God +in the heavens has a heart of love towards them is by Jesus Christ. +For consider what will make us sure of that. Nothing but facts; words +are of little use, arguments are of little use. A revelation, however +precious, which simply says to us, ‘God is Love’ is not +sufficient for our need. We want to see love in operation if we are +to be sure of it, and the only demonstration of the love of God is to +witness the love of God in actual working. And you get +it—where? On the Cross of Jesus Christ. I do not believe that +anything else irrefragably establishes the fact for the yearning +hearts of us poor men who want love, and yet cannot grope our way in +amidst the mysteries and the clouds in providence and nature, except +this—‘Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He +loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our +sins.’</p> +<p>The question may arise in some minds, Is there any need for +proving God's love? The question never arose except within the limits +of Christianity. It is only men who have lived all their lives in an +atmosphere saturated by Christian sentiment and conviction that ever +come to the point of saying, ‘We do not want historical +revelation to prove to us the fact of a loving God.’ They would +never have fancied that they did not need the revelation unless, +unconsciously to themselves, and indirectly, all their thoughts had +been coloured and illuminated by the revelation that they profess +they reject. God as Love is ‘our dearest faith, our ghastliest +doubt,’ and the only way to make absolutely certain of the fact +that His heart is full of mercy to us is to look upon Him as He +stands revealed to us, not merely in the words of Christ, for, +precious as they are, these are the smallest part of His revelation, +but in the life and in the death which open for us the heart of God. +Remember what He said Himself, <i>not</i> ‘He who hath listened +to Me, doth understand the Father,’ but ‘He that hath +<i>seen</i> Me hath seen the Father.’ ‘In Him is +yea,’ and the hopes and shadowy fore-revelations of the loving +heart of God are confirmed by the fact of His life and death. God +<i>establishes</i>, not ‘commends’ as our translation has +it, ‘His love towards us in that whilst we were yet sinners +Christ died for us.’</p> +<p>Further, in Him we have the certainty of pardon. Every deep +heart-experience amongst men has felt the necessity of having a clear +certainty and knowledge about forgiveness. Men do not feel it always. +A man can skate over the surface of the great deeps that lie beneath +the most frivolous life, and may suppose, in his superficial way of +looking at things, that there is no need for any definite teaching +about sin and the mode of dealing with it. But once bring that man +face to face, in a quiet hour, with the facts of his life and of a +divine law, and all that superficial ignoring of evil in himself and +of the dread of punishment and consequences, passes away. I am sure +of this, that no religion will ever go far and last long and work +mightily, and lay a sovereign hand upon human life, which has not a +most plain and decisive message to preach in reference to pardon. And +I am sure of this, that one reason for the comparative feebleness of +much so-called Christian teaching in this generation is just that the +deepest needs of a man's conscience are not met by it. In a religion +on which the whole spirit of a man may rest itself, there must be a +very plain message about what is to be done with sin. The only +message which answers to the needs of an awakened conscience and an +alarmed heart is the old-fashioned message that Jesus Christ the +Righteous has died for us sinful men. All other religions have felt +after a clear doctrine of forgiveness, and all have failed to find +it. Here is the divine ‘Yea!’ And on it alone we can +suspend the whole weight of our soul's salvation. The rope that is to +haul us out of the horrible pit and the miry clay had much need to be +tested before we commit ourselves to it. There are plenty of +easygoing superficial theories about forgiveness predominant in the +world to-day. Except the one that says, ‘In whom we have +redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sin,’ +they are all like the rope let down into the dark mine to lift the +captives beneath, half of the strands of which have been cut on the +sharp edge above, and when the weight hangs on to it, it will snap. +There is nothing on which a man who has once learned the tragical +meaning and awful reality and depth of the fact of his transgression +can suspend his forgiveness, except this, that ‘Christ has +died, the just for the unjust, to bring us unto God.’ ‘In +Him the promise is yea.’</p> +<p>And, again, we have in Christ divine certainties in regard to +life. We have in Him the absolutely perfect pattern to which we are +to conform our whole doings. And so, notwithstanding that there may, +and will still be many uncertainties and much perplexity, we have the +great broad lines of morals and of duty traced with a firm hand, and +all that we need to know of obligation and of perfectness lies in +this—Be like Jesus Christ! So the solemn commandments of the +ethical side of Divine Revelation, as well as the promises of it, get +their ‘yea’ in Jesus Christ, and He stands the Law of our +lives.</p> +<p>We have certainties for life, in the matter of protection, +guidance, supply of all necessity, and the like, treasured and +garnered in Jesus Christ. For He not only confirms, but fulfils, the +promises which God has made. If we have that dear Lord for our very +own, and He belongs to us as He does belong to them who love Him and +trust Him, then in Him we have in actual possession these promises, +how many soever they be, which are given by God's other words.</p> +<p>Christ is Protean, and becomes everything to each man that each +man requires. He is, as it were, ‘a box where sweets compacted +lie.’ ‘In Him are hid all the treasures,’ not only +of wisdom and knowledge, but of divine gifts, and we have but to go +to Him in order to have that which at each moment as it emerges, we +most require. As in some of those sunny islands of the Southern +Pacific, one tree supplies the people with all that they need for +their simple wants, fruit for their food, leaves for their houses, +staves, thread, needles, clothing, drink, everything—so Jesus +Christ, this Tree of Life, is Himself the sum of all the promises, +and, having Him, we have everything that we need.</p> +<p>And, lastly, in Christ we have the divine certainties as to the +Future over which, apart from Him, lie cloud and darkness. As I said +about the revelation of the heart of God, so I say about the +revelation of a future life—a verbal revelation is not enough. +We have enough of arguments; what we want is facts. We have enough of +man's peradventures about a future life, enough of evidence more or +less valid to show that it is ‘probable,’ or ‘not +inconceivable,’ or ‘more likely than not,’ and so +on and so on. What we want is that somebody shall cross the gulf and +come back again, and so we get in the Resurrection of Christ the one +fact on which men may safely rest their convictions of immortality, +and I do not think that there is a second anywhere. On it alone, as I +believe, hinges the whole answer to the question—‘If a +man die, shall he live again?’ This generation is brought, in +my reading of it, right up to this alternative—Christ's +Resurrection,—or we die like the brutes that perish. ‘All +the promises of God in Him are yea.’</p> +<p>II. And now a word as to the second portion of my text—viz. +man's certitudes, which answer to God's certainties.</p> +<p>The latter are <i>in</i> Christ, the former are <i>through</i> +Christ. Now it is clear that the only fitting attitude for professing +Christians in reference to these certainties of God is the attitude +of unhesitating affirmation and joyful assent. Certitude is the +fitting response to certainty.</p> +<p>There should be some kind of correspondence between the firmness +with which we grasp, the tenacity with which we hold, the assurance +with which we believe, these great truths, and the rock-like firmness +and immovableness of the evidence upon which they rest. It is a poor +compliment to God to come to His most veracious affirmations, sealed +with the broad seal of His Son's life and death, and to answer with a +hesitating ‘Amen,’ that falters and almost sticks in our +throat. Build rock upon rock. Be sure of the certain things. Grasp +with a firm hand the firm stay. Immovably cling to the immovable +foundation; and though you be but like the limpet on the rock hold +fast by the Rock, as the limpet does; for it is an insult to the +certainty of the revelation, when there is hesitation in the +believer.</p> +<p>I need not dwell for more than a moment upon the lamentable +contrast which is presented between this certitude, which is our only +fitting attitude, and the hesitating assent and half belief in which +so many professing Christians pass their lives. The reasons for that +are partly moral, partly intellectual. This is not a day which is +favourable to the unhesitating avowal of convictions in reference to +an unseen world, and many of us are afraid of being called narrow, or +dogmatisers, and think it looks like breadth, and liberality, and +culture, and I know not what, to say ‘Well! perhaps it is, but +I am not quite sure; I think it is, but I will not commit +myself.’ All the promises of God, which in Him are yea, ought +through Him to get from us an ‘Amen.’</p> +<p>There is a great deal that will always be uncertain. The firmer +our convictions, the fewer will be the things that they grasp; but, +if they be few, they will be large, and enough for us. These truths +certified in Christ concerning the heart of God, the message of +pardon, the law for life, the gifts of guidance, defence, and +sanctifying, the sure and certain hope of immortality—these +things we ought to be sure about, whatever borderland of uncertainty +may lie beyond them. The Christian verb is ‘we +<i>know</i>,’ not ‘we hope, we calculate, we infer, we +think,’ but ‘we <i>know</i>.’ And it becomes us to +apprehend for ourselves the full blessedness and power of the +certitude which Christ has given to us by the certainties which he +has brought us.</p> +<p>I need not speak about the blessedness of such a calm assurance, +about the need of it for power, for peace, for effort, for fixedness +in the midst of a world and age of change. But I must, before I +close, point you to the only path by which that certitude is +attainable. ‘<i>Through</i> Him is the amen.’ He is the +Door. The truths which He confirms are so inextricably intertwined +with Himself that you cannot get them and put away Him. Christ's +relation to Christ's Gospel is not the relation of other teachers to +their words. You may accept the words of a Plato, whatever you think +of the Plato who spoke the words. But you cannot separate Christ and +His teaching in that fashion, and you must have <i>Him</i> if you are +to get <i>it</i>. So, faith in Him, the intellectual acceptance of +Him, as the authoritative and infallible Revealer, the bowing down of +heart and will to Him as our Commander and our Lord, the absolute +trust in Him as the foundation of all our hope and the source of all +our blessedness—that is the way to certitude, and there is no +other road that we can take.</p> +<p>If thus we keep near Him, our faith will bring us the present +experience and fulfilment of the promises, and we shall be sure of +them, because we have them already. And whilst men are asking, +‘Do we know anything about God? Is there a God at all? Is there +such a thing as forgiveness? Can anybody find anywhere absolute rules +for his life? Is there anything beyond the grave but mist and +darkness?’ we can say, ‘One thing I know, Jesus Christ is +my Saviour, and in Him I know God, and pardon, and duty, and +sanctifying, and safety, and immortality; and whatever is dark, this, +at least, is sun-clear.’ Get high enough up and you will be +above the fog; and while the men down in it are squabbling as to +whether there is anything outside the mist, you, from your sunny +station, will see the far-off coasts, and haply catch some whiff of +perfume from their shore, and see some glinting of a glory upon the +shining turrets of ‘the city that hath foundations.’ We +have a present possession of all the promises of God; and whoever +doubts their certitude, the man who knows himself a son of God by +faith, and has experience of forgiveness and guidance and answered +prayer and hopes whose ‘sweetness yieldeth proof that they were +born for immortality,’ <i>knows</i> the things which others +question and doubt.</p> +<p>So live near Jesus Christ, and, holding fast by His hand, you may +lift up your joyful ‘Amen’ to every one of God's +‘Yeas.’ For in Him we know the Father, in Him we know +that we have the forgiveness of sins, in Him we know that God is near +to bless and succour and guide, and in Him ‘we know that, +though our earthly house were dissolved, we have a building of +God.’ Wherefore we are always confident; and when the Voice +from Heaven says ‘Yea!’ our choral shout may go up +‘Amen! Thou art the faithful and true witness.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="aas83" id="aas83">ANOINTED AND STABLISHED</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, +and hath anointed us, is God.’—2 COR. i. 21.</blockquote> +<p>The connection in which these words occur is a remarkable +illustration of the Apostle's habit of looking at the most trivial +things in the light of the highest truths. He had been obliged, as +the context informs us, to abandon an intended visit to Corinth. The +miserable crew of antagonists, who yelped at his heels all his life, +seized this change of purpose as the occasion for a double-barrelled +charge. They said he was either fickle and infirm of purpose, or +insincere, and saying ‘Yea’ with one side of his mouth +and ‘Nay’ with the other. He rebuts this accusation with +apparently quite disproportionate vehemence and great solemnity. He +points in the context to the faithfulness of God, to the firm Gospel +which he had preached, to God's great ‘Yea!’ as his +answer. He says in effect, ‘How could I, with such a word +burning in my heart, move in a region of equivocation and +double-dealing; or how could I, whose whole being is saturated with +so firm and stable a Gospel, be unreliable and fickle? The message +must make the messenger like itself. Communion with a faithful God +must make faith-keeping men; the certainties of God's +“Yea,” and the certitudes of our “Amen,” must +influence our characters.’ And so to suppose that a man, +influenced by Christianity, is a weak, double-dealing, unsteadfast +man is a contradiction in terms. In the text he carries his argument +a step further, and points, not only to the power of the Gospel to +steady and confirm, but also to the fact that God Himself +communicates to the believing soul Christian stability by the +anointing which He bestows.</p> +<p>So, then, we have in these words the declaration that inflexible, +immovable steadfastness is a mark of a Christian, and that this +Christian steadfastness, without which there is no Christianity worth +the naming, is a direct gift from God Himself by means of that great +anointing which He confers upon men. To that thought, in one or two +of its aspects, I ask your attention.</p> +<p>I. Notice the deep source of this Christian steadfastness.</p> +<p>The language of the original, carefully considered, seems to me to +bear this interpretation, that the ‘anointing’ of the +second clause is the means of the ‘establishing’ of the +first—that is to say, that God confers Christian steadfastness +of character by the bestowment of the unction of His Divine +Spirit.</p> +<p>Now notice how deep Paul digs in order to get a foundation for a +common virtue. There are many ways by which men may cultivate the +tenacity and steadfastness of purpose which ought to mark us all. +Much discipline may be brought to bear in order to secure that; but +the text says that the deepest ground upon which it can be rested is +nothing less divine and solemn than this, the actual communication to +men, to feeble, vacillating, fluctuating wills, and treacherous, +wayward, wandering hearts, of the strength and fixedness which are +given by God's own Spirit.</p> +<p>I suppose I need not remind you that from beginning to end of +Scripture, ‘anointing’ is taken as the symbol of the +communication of a true divine influence. The oil poured on the head +of prophet, priest, and king was but the expression of the +communication to the recipient of a divine influence which fitted him +as well as designated him, for the office that he filled. And +although it is aside from my present purpose, I may just, in a +sentence, point to the felicity of the emblem. The flowing oil +smoothes the surface upon which it is spread, supples the limbs, and +is nutritive and illuminating; thus giving an appropriate emblem of +the secret, silent, quickening, nourishing, enlightening influences +of that Spirit which God gives to all His sons.</p> +<p>And inasmuch as here this oil of the Divine Spirit is stated as +being the true ground and basis of Christian steadfastness, it is +obvious that the anointing intended cannot be that of mere +designation to, and inspiration for, apostolic or other office, but +must be the universal possession of all Christian men and women. +‘Ye,’ says another Apostle, speaking to the whole +democracy of the Christian Church, and not to any little group of +selected aristocrats therein—‘ye have an unction from the +Holy One,’ and every man and woman who has a living grasp of +the living Christ, receives from Him this great gift.</p> +<p>Then, notice further that this anointing by a Divine Spirit, which +is a true source of life to those that possess it, is derived from, +and parallel with, Christ's anointing. We use the word +‘Christ’ as a proper name, and forget what it means. The +‘Christ’ is <i>the Anointed One</i>. And do you think +that it was a mere accident, or the result of a scanty vocabulary, +which compelled the Apostle, in these two contiguous clauses, to use +cognate words when he said:—‘He that establisheth us with +you in the <i>Anointed</i>, and hath <i>anointed</i> us, is +God’? Did he not mean to say thereby, ‘Each of you in a +very true sense, if you are a Christian, is a <i>Christ</i>’? +You, too, are anointed; you, too, are God's Messiahs. On you in a +measure the same Spirit rests which dwelt without measure in Him. The +chief of Christ's gifts to the Church is the gift of His own life. +All His brethren are anointed with the oil that was poured upon His +head, even as the oil upon Aaron's locks percolated to the very +skirts of his garments. Being anointed with the anointing which was +on Him, all His people may claim an identity of nature, may hope for +an identity of destiny, and are bound to a prolongation of part of +His function and a similarity of character. If He by that anointing +was made Prophet, Priest, and King for the world, all His children +partake of these offices in subordinate but real fashion, and are +prophets to make God known to men, priests to offer up spiritual +sacrifices, and kings at least over themselves, and, if they will, +over a world which obeys and serves those that serve and love God. Ye +are anointed—‘Messiahs’ and ‘Christs,’ +by derivation of the life of Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>And if these things be true, it is plain enough how this divine +unction, which is granted to all Christians, lies at the root of +steadfastness.</p> +<p>We talk a great deal about the gentleness of Christ; we cannot +celebrate it too much, but we may forget that it is the gentleness of +strength. We do not sufficiently mark the masculine features in that +character, the tremendous tenacity of will, the inflexible fixedness +of purpose, the irremovable constancy of obedience in the face of all +temptations to the contrary. The figure that rises before us is that +of the Christ yearning over weaklings far oftener than it is that of +the Christ with knitted brow, and tightened lips, and far-off gazing +eye, ‘steadfastly setting His face to go to Jerusalem,’ +and followed as He pressed up the rocky road from Jericho, by that +wondering group, astonished at the rigidity of purpose that was +stamped on His features. That Christ gives us His Spirit to make us +tenacious, constant, righteously obstinate, inflexible in the pursuit +of all that is lovely and of good report, like Himself. That Divine +Spirit will cure the fickleness of our natures; for our wills are +never fixed till they are fixed in obedience, and never free until +they elect to serve Him. That Divine Spirit will cure the wandering +of our hearts and bind us to Himself. It will lift us above the +selfish and cowardly dependence on externals and surroundings, men +and things, in which we are all tempted to live. We are all too like +aneroid barometers, that go up and down with every variation of a +foot or two in our level, but if we have the Spirit of Christ +dwelling in us, it will cut the bonds that bind us to the world, and +give us possession of a deeper love than can be sustained by, or is +derived from, these superficial sources. The true possession of the +Divine Spirit, if I might use such a metaphor, sets a man on an +insulating stool, and all the currents that move round about him are +powerless to reach him. If we have that Divine Spirit within us, it +will give us an experience of the preciousness and the truth, the +certitude and the sweetness, of Christ's Gospel, which will make it +impossible that we should ever cast away the confidence which has +such ‘recompense of reward.’ No man will be surely bound +to the truth and person of Christ with bonds that cannot be snapped, +except he who in his heart has the knowledge of Him which is +possession, and by the gift of the Divine Spirit is knit to Jesus +Christ.</p> +<p>So, dear friends, whilst the world is full of wise words about +steadfastness, and exalts determination of character and fixity of +purpose, rightly, as the basis of much good, our Gospel comes to us +poor, light, thistledown creatures, and lets us see how we can be +steadfast and settled by being fastened to a steadfast and settled +Christ. When storms are raging they lash light articles on deck to +holdfasts. Let us lash ourselves to the abiding Christ, and we, too, +shall abide.</p> +<p>II. In the next place, notice the aim or purpose of this Christian +steadfastness.</p> +<p>‘He stablisheth us with you in Christ,’ or as the +original has it even more significantly, <i>into</i> or +‘<i>unto</i> Christ.’ Now that seems to me to imply two +things—first, that our steadfastness, made possible by our +possession of that Divine Spirit, is steadfastness in our relations +to Jesus Christ. We are established in reference or in regard to Him. +In other words, what Paul here means is, first, a fixed conviction of +the truth that He is the Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour of the +world, and my Saviour. That is the first step. Men who are steadfast +without their intellect guiding and settling the steadfastness are +not steadfast, but obstinate and pigheaded. We are meant to be guided +by our understandings, and no fixity is anything better than the +immobility of a stone, unless it be based upon a distinct and +whole-brained intellectual acceptance of Jesus Christ as the +All-in-all for us, for life and death, for inward and outward +being.</p> +<p>Paul means, next, a steadfastness in regard to Christ in our trust +and love. Surely if from Him there is for ever streaming out an +unbroken flow of tenderness, there should be ever on our sides an +equally unbroken opening of our hearts for the reception of His love, +and an equally uninterrupted response to it in our grateful +affection. There can be no more damning condemnation of the +vacillations and fluctuations of Christian men's affections than the +steadfastness of Christ's love to them. He loves ever; He is +unalterable in the communication and effluence of His heart. Surely +it is most fitting that we should be steadfast in our devotion and +answering love to Him. And Paul means not only fixedness of +intellectual conviction and continuity of loving response, but also +habitual obedience, which is always ready to do His will.</p> +<p>So we should answer His ‘Yea!’ with our +‘Amen!’ and having an unchanging Christ to rest upon, we +should rest upon Him unchanging. The broken, fluctuating affections +and trusts and obediences which mark so much of the average Christian +life of this day are only too sad proofs of how scant our possession +of that Spirit of steadfastness must be supposed to be. God's +‘Yea’ is answered by our faltering ‘Amen’; +God's truth is hesitatingly accepted; God's love is partially +returned; God's work is slothfully and negligently done. ‘Be ye +steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the +Lord.’</p> +<p>Another thought is suggested by these words—viz. that such +steadfastness as we have been trying to describe has for its result a +deeper penetration into Jesus Christ and a fuller possession of Him. +The only way by which we can grow nearer and nearer to our Lord is by +steadfastly keeping beside Him. You cannot get the spirit of a +landscape unless you sit down and gaze, and let it soak into you. The +cheap tripper never sees the lake. You cannot get to know a man until +you summer and winter with him. No subject worth studying opens +itself to the hasty glance. Was it not Sir Isaac Newton who used to +say, ‘I have no genius, but I keep a subject before me’? +‘Abide in Me; as the branch cannot bear fruit except it abide +in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in Me.’ Continuous, +steadfast adhesion to Him is the condition of growing up into His +likeness, and receiving more and more of His beauty into our waiting +hearts. ‘Wait on the Lord; wait, I say, on the Lord.’</p> +<p>III. Lastly, notice the very humble and commonplace sphere in +which the Christian steadfastness manifests itself.</p> +<p>It was nothing of more importance than that Paul had said he was +going to Corinth, and did not, on which he brings all this array of +great principles to bear. From which I gather just this thought, that +the highest gifts of God's grace and the greatest truths of God's +Word are meant to regulate the tiniest things in our daily life. It +is no degradation to the lightning to have to carry messages. It is +no profanation of the sun to gather its rays into a burning glass to +light a kitchen fire with. And it is no unworthy use of the Divine +Spirit that God gives to His children, to say it will keep a man from +hasty and precipitate decisions as to little things in life, and from +chopping and changing about, with a levity of purpose and without a +sufficient reason. If our religion is not going to influence the +trifles, what is it going to influence? Our life is made up of +trifles, and if these are not its field, where is its field? You may +be quite sure that, if your religion does not influence the little +things, it will never influence the great ones. If it has not power +enough to guide the horses when they are at a slow, sober walk, what +do you think it will do when they are at a gallop and plunging? +‘He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in +much.’ So let us see to two things—first, that all our +religion is worked into our life, for only so much of it as is so +inwrought is our religion—and, second, that all our life is +brought under the sway of motives derived from our religion: for only +in proportion as it is, will it be pure and good.</p> +<p>And as regards this special virtue and prime quality of +steadfastness and fixedness of purpose, you can do no good in the +world without it. Unless a man can hold his own, and turn an +obstinate negative to the temptations that lie thick about him, he +will never come to any good at all, either in this life or in the +next. The basis of all excellence is a wholesome disregard of +externals, and the cultivation of a strong self-reliant and +self-centred, because God-trusting and Christ-centred, will. And I +tell you, especially you young men and women, if you want to do or be +anything worth doing or being, you must try to get your natures +hardened into being ‘steadfast, unmovable.’ There is only +one infallible way of doing it, and that is to let the ‘strong +Son of God’ live in you, and in Him to find your strength for +resistance, your strength for obedience, your strength for +submission. ‘I have set the Lord always before me; because He +is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.’</p> +<p>There are two types of men in the world. The one has his emblem in +the chaff, rootless, with no hold, swept out of the threshing-floor +by every gust of wind. That the picture of many whose principles lie +at the mercy of the babble of tongues round about them, whose +rectitude goes at a puff of temptation, like the smoke out of a +chimney when the wind blows; who have no will for what is good, but +live as it happens. The other type of man has his emblem in the tree, +rooted deep, and therefore rising high, with its roots going as far +underground as its branches spread in the blue, and therefore green +of leaf and rich of fruit ‘We are made partakers of Christ if +we hold fast the beginning of our confidence, steadfast until the +end.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="sae84" id="sae84">SEAL AND EARNEST</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of +the Spirit in our hearts.’—2 COR. i. 23.</blockquote> +<p>There are three strong metaphors in this and the preceding +verse—‘anointing,’ ‘sealing,’ and +‘giving the earnest’—all of which find their +reality in the same divine act. These three metaphors all refer to +the same subject, and what that subject is is sufficiently explained +in the last of them. The ‘earnest’ consists of ‘the +Spirit in our hearts,’ and the same explanation might have been +appended to both the preceding clauses, for the +‘anointing’ is the anointing of the Spirit, and the +‘seal’ is the seal of the Spirit. Further, these three +metaphors all refer to one and the same act. They are not three +things, but three aspects of one thing, just as a sunbeam might be +regarded either as the source of warmth, or of light, or of chemical +action. So the one gift of the one Spirit, ‘anoints,’ +‘seals,’ and is the ‘earnest.’ Further, these +three metaphors all declare a universal prerogative of Christians. +Every man that loves Jesus Christ has the Spirit in the measure of +his faith,’ and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is +none of His.’</p> +<p>I. Note the first metaphor in the text—the +‘seal’ of the Spirit.</p> +<p>A seal is impressed upon a recipient material made soft by warmth, +in order to leave there a copy of itself. Now it is not fanciful, nor +riding a metaphor to death, when I dwell upon these features of the +emblem in order to suggest their analogies in Christian life. The +Spirit of God comes into our spirits, and by gentle contact impresses +upon the material, which was intractable until it was melted by the +genial warmth of faith and love, the likeness of Himself, but yet so +as that prominences correspond to the hollows, and what is in relief +in the one is sunk in the other. Expand that general statement for a +moment or two.</p> +<p>The effect of all the divine indwelling, which is the +characteristic gift of Christ to every Christian soul, is to mould +the recipient into the image of the divine inhabitant. There is in +the human spirit—such are its dignity amidst its ruins, and its +nobility shining through its degradation—a capacity of +receiving that image of God which consists not only in voluntary and +intelligent action and the consciousness of personal being, but in +the love of the things that are fair, and in righteousness, and true +holiness. His Spirit, entering into a heart, will make that heart +wise with its own wisdom, strong with some infusion of its own +strength, gracious with some drops of its own grace, gentle with some +softening from its own gentleness, holy with some purity reflected +from its own transcendent whiteness. The Spirit, which is life, +moulds the heart into which it enters to a kindred, and, therefore, +similar life.</p> +<p>There are, however, characteristics in this ‘seal’ of +the Spirit which are not so much copies as correspondences. That is +to say, just as what is convex in the seal is concave in the +impression, and <i>vice versâ</i>, so, when that Divine Spirit comes +into our spirits, its promises will excite faith, its gifts will +breed desire; to every bestowment there will answer an opening +receptivity. Recipient love will correspond to the love that longs to +dispense, the sense of need to the divine fulness and sufficiency, +emptiness to abundance, prayers to promises; the cry ‘Abba! +Father’! the yearning consciousness of sonship, to the word +‘Thou art My Son’; and the upward eye of aspiration and +petition, and necessity, and waiting, to the downward glance of love +bestowing itself. The open heart answers to the extended hand, and +the seal which God's Spirit impresses upon the heart that is +submitted to it, has the two-fold character of resemblance in moral +nature and righteousness, and of correspondence as regards the +mysteries of the converse between the recipient man and the giving +God.</p> +<p>Then, mark that the material is made capable of receiving the +stamp, because it is warmed and softened. That is to say, faith must +prepare the heart for the sanctifying indwelling of that Divine +Spirit. The hard wax may be struck with the seal, but it leaves no +trace. God does not do with man as the coiner does with his blanks, +put them cold into a press, and by violence from without stamp an +image upon them, but He does as men do with a seal, warms the wax +first, and then, with a gentle, firm touch, leaves the likeness +there. So, brother! learn this lesson: if you wish to be good, lie +under the contact of the Spirit of righteousness, and see that your +heart is warm.</p> +<p>Still further, note that this aggregate of Christian character, in +likeness and correspondence, is the true sign that we belong to God. +The seal is the mark of ownership, is it not? Where the broad arrow +has been impressed, everybody knows that that is royal property. And +so this seal of God's Divine Spirit, in its effects upon my +character, is the one token to myself and to other people that I +belong to God, and that He belongs to me. Or, to put it into plain +English, the best reason for any man's being regarded as a Christian +is his possession of the likeness and correspondence to God which +that Divine Spirit gives. Likeness and correspondence, I say, for the +one class of results is the more open for the observation of the +world, and the other class is of the more value for ourselves. I +believe that Christian people ought to have, and are meant by that +Divine Spirit dwelling in them to have, a consciousness that they are +Christians and God's children, for their own peace and rest and joy. +But you cannot use that in demonstration to other people; you may be +as sure of it as you will, in your inmost hearts, but it is no sign +to anybody else. And, on the other hand, there may be much of outward +virtue and beauty of character which may lead other people to say +about a man: ‘<i>That</i> is a good Christian man, at any +rate,’ and yet there may be in the heart an all but absolute +absence of any joyful assurance that we are Christ's, and that He +belongs to us. So the two facts must go together. Correspondence, the +spirit of sonship which meets His taking us as sons, the faith which +clasps the promise, the reception which welcomes bestowment, must be +stamped upon the inward life. For the outward life there must be the +manifest impress of righteousness upon my actions, if there is to be +any real seal and token that I belong to Him. God writes His own name +upon the men that are His. All their goodness, their gentleness, +patience, hatred of evil, energy and strenuousness in service, +submission in suffering, with whatsoever other radiance of human +virtue may belong to them, are really ‘His mark!’</p> +<p>There is no other worth talking about, and to you Christian men I +come and say, Be very sure that your professions of inward communion +and happy consciousness that you are Christ's are verified to +yourself and to others by a plain outward life of righteousness like +the Lord's. Have you got that seal stamped upon your lives, like the +hall-mark that says, ‘This is genuine silver, and no plated +Brummagem stuff’? Have you got that seal of a visible +righteousness and every-day purity to confirm your assertion that you +belong to Christ? Is it woven into the whole length of your being, +like the scarlet thread that is spun into every Admiralty cable as a +sign that it is Crown property? God's seal, visible to me and to +nobody else, is my consciousness that I am His; but that +consciousness is vindicated and delivered from the possibility of +illusion or hypocrisy, only when it is checked and fortified by the +outward evidence of the holy life which the Spirit of God has +wrought.</p> +<p>Further, this sealing, which is thus the token of God's ownership, +is also the pledge of security. A seal is stamped in order that there +may be no tampering with what it seals; that it may be kept safe from +all assaults, thieves, and violence. And in the metaphor of our text +there is included this thought, too, which is also of an intensely +practical nature. For it just comes to this—our true guarantee +that we shall come at last into the sweet security and safety of the +perfect state is present likeness to the indwelling Spirit and +present reception of divine grace. The seal is the pledge of +security, just because it is the mark of ownership. When, by God's +Spirit dwelling in us, we are led to love the things that are fair, +and to long after more possession of whatever things are of good +report, that is like God's hoisting His flag upon a newly-annexed +territory. And is He going to be so careless in the preservation of +His property as that He will allow that which is thus acquired to +slip away from Him? Does He account us as of so small value as to +hold us with so slack a hand? But no man has a right to rest on the +assurance of God's saving him into the heavenly kingdom, unless He is +saving him at this moment from the devil and his own evil heart. And, +therefore, I say the Christian character, in its outward +manifestations and in its sweet inward secrets of communion, is the +guarantee that we shall not fall. Rest upon Him, and He will hold you +up. We are ‘kept by the power of God unto salvation,’ and +that power keeps us and that final salvation becomes ours, +‘through faith.’</p> +<p>II. Now, secondly, turn to the other emblem, that +‘earnest’ which consists in like manner ‘of the +Spirit.’</p> +<p>The ‘earnest,’ of course, is a small portion of +purchase-money, or wages, or contract-money, which is given at the +making of a bargain, as an assurance that the whole amount will be +paid in due time. And, says the Apostle, this seal is also an +earnest. It not only makes certain God's ownership and guarantees the +security of those on whom it is impressed, but it also points onwards +to the future, and at once guarantees that, and to a large extent +reveals the nature of it. So, then, we have here two thoughts on +which I touch.</p> +<p>The Christian character and experience are the earnest of the +inheritance, in the sense of being its guarantee, inasmuch as the +experiences of the Christian life here are plainly immortal. The +Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the objective and +external proof of a future life. The facts of the Christian life, its +aspirations, its communion, its clasp of God as its very own, are the +subjective and inward proofs of a future life. As a matter of fact, +if you will take the Old Testament, you will see that the highest +summits in it, to which the hope of immortality soared, spring +directly from the experience of deep and blessed communion with the +living God. When the Psalmist said ‘Thou wilt not leave my soul +in <i>Sheol</i>; neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see +corruption,’ he was speaking a conviction that had been floated +into his mind on the crest of a great wave of religious enjoyment and +communion. And, in like manner, when the other Psalmist said, +‘Thou art the strength of my heart, and my portion for +ever,’ he was speaking of the glimpse that he had got of the +land that was very far off, from the height which he had climbed on +the Mount of fellowship with God. And for us, I suppose that the same +experience holds good. Howsoever much we may say that we believe in a +future life and in a heaven, we really grasp them as facts that will +be true about ourselves, in the proportion in which we are living +here in direct contact and communion with God. The conviction of +immortality is the distinct and direct result of the present +enjoyment of communion with Him, and it is a reasonable result. No +man who has known what it is to turn himself to God with a glow of +humble love, and to feel that he is not turning his face to vacuity, +but to a Face that looks on him with love, can believe that anything +can ever come to destroy that communion. What have faith, love, +aspiration, resignation, fellowship with God, to do with death? They +cannot be cut through with the stroke that destroys physical life, +any more than you can divide a sunbeam with a sword. It unites again, +and the impotent edge passes through and has effected nothing. Death +can shear asunder many bonds, but that invisible bond that unites the +soul to God is of adamant, against which his scythe is in vain. Death +is the grim porter that opens the door of a dark hole and herds us +into it as sheep are driven into a slaughter-house. But to those who +have learned what it is to lay a trusting hand in God's hand, the +grim porter is turned into the gentle damsel, who keeps the door, and +opens it for light and warmth and safety to the hunted prisoner that +has escaped from the dungeon of life. Death cannot touch communion, +and the consciousness of communion with God is the earnest of the +inheritance.</p> +<p>It is so for another reason also. All the results of the Divine +Spirit's sealing of the soul are manifestly incomplete, and as +manifestly tend towards completeness. The engine is clearly working +now at half-speed. It is obviously capable of much higher pressure +than it is going at now. Those powers in the Christian man can +plainly do a great deal more than they ever have done here, and are +meant to do a great deal more. Is this imperfect Christianity of +ours, our little faith so soon shattered, our little love so quickly +disproved, our faltering resolutions, our lame performances, our +earthward cleavings—are these things all that Jesus Christ's +bitter agony was for, and all that a Divine Spirit is able to make of +us? Manifestly, here is but a segment of the circle, in heaven is the +perfect round; and the imperfections, so far as life is concerned, in +the work of so obviously divine an Agent, cry aloud for a region +where tendency shall become result, and all that it was possible for +Him to make us we shall become. The road evidently leads upwards, and +round that sharp corner where the black rocks come so near each other +and our eyesight cannot travel, we may be sure it goes steadily up +still to the top of the pass, until it reaches ‘the shining +table-lands whereof our God Himself is Sun and Moon,’ and +brings us all to the city set on a hill.</p> +<p>And, further, that divine seal is the earnest, inasmuch as itself +is part of the whole. The truest and the loftiest conception that we +can form of heaven is as being the perfecting of the religious +experience of earth. The shilling or two, given to the servant in +old-fashioned days, when he was hired, is of the same currency as the +balance that he is to get when the year's work is done. The small +payment to-day comes out of the same purse, and is coined out of the +same specie, and is part of the same currency of the same kingdom, as +what we get when we go yonder and count the endless riches to which +we have fallen heirs at last. You have but to take the faith, the +love, the obedience, the communion of the highest moments of the +Christian life on earth, and free them from all their limitations, +subtract from them all their imperfections, multiply them to their +superlative possibility, and endow them with a continual power of +growth, and stretch them out to absolute eternity, and you get +heaven. The earnest is of a piece with the inheritance.</p> +<p>So, dear brethren, here is a gift offered for us all, a gift which +our feebleness sorely needs, a gift for every timid nature, for every +weak will, for every man, woman, and child beset with snares and +fighting with heavy tasks, the offer of a reinforcement as real and +as sure to bring victory as when, on that day when the fate of Europe +was determined, after long hours of conflict, the Prussian bugles +blew, and the English commander knew that (with the fresh troops that +came on the field) victory was made certain. So you and I may have in +our hearts the Spirit of God, the spirit of strength, the spirit of +love and of a sound mind, the spirit of adoption, the spirit of +wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, to enlighten our +darkness, to bind our hearts to Him, to quicken and energise our +souls, to make the weakest among us strong, and the strong as an +angel of God. And the condition on which we may get it is this simple +one which the Apostle lays down; ‘<i>After that ye +believed</i>, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which +is the earnest of our inheritance.’ The Christ, who is the Lord +and Giver of the Spirit, has shown us how its blessed influences may +be ours when, on the great day of the feast, He stood and cried with +a voice that echoes across the centuries, and is meant for each of +us, ‘If any man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink. He +that believeth in Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living +water. This spake He of the Spirit which they that believe or Him +should receive.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="ttp85" id="ttp85">THE TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Thanks be unto God, which always leadeth us in +triumph in Christ and maketh manifest through us the savour of His +knowledge in every place.’—2 COR. ii. 14 (R. +V.)</blockquote> +<p>I suppose most of us have some knowledge of what a Roman Triumph +was, and can picture to ourselves the long procession, the victorious +general in his chariot with its white horses, the laurelled soldiers, +the sullen captives, with suppressed hate flashing in their sunken +eyes, the wreathing clouds of incense that went up into the blue sky, +and the shouting multitude of spectators. That is the picture in the +Apostle's mind here. The Revised Version correctly alters the +translation into ‘Thanks unto God which always <i>leadeth +us in</i> triumph in Christ.’</p> +<p>Paul thinks of himself and of his coadjutors in Christian work as +being conquered captives, made to follow their Conqueror and to swell +His triumph. He is thankful to be so overcome. What was deepest +degradation is to him supreme honour. Curses in many a strange tongue +would break from the lips of the prisoners who had to follow the +general's victorious chariot. But from Paul's lips comes +irrepressible praise; he joins in the shout of acclamation to the +Conqueror.</p> +<p>And then he passes on to another of the parts of the ceremonial. +As the wreathing incense appealed at once to two senses, and was +visible in its curling clouds of smoke, and likewise fragrant to the +nostrils, so says Paul, with a singular combination of expression, +‘He maketh <i>manifest</i>,’ that is visible, the +<i>savour</i> of His knowledge. From a heart kindled by the flame of +the divine love there will go up the odour of a holy life visible and +fragrant, sweet and fair.</p> +<p>And thus all Christians, and not Christian workers only in the +narrower sense of the word, who may be doing evangelistic work, have +set before them in these great words the very ideal and secret of +their lives.</p> +<p>There are three things here, on each of which I touch as belonging +to the true notion of a Christian life—the conquered captive; +that captive partaking in the triumph of his Conqueror; and the +conquered captive led as a trophy and a witness to the Conqueror's +power. These three things, I think, explain the Apostle's thoughts +here. Let me deal with them now.</p> +<p>I. First then, let us look at that thought of all Christians being +in the truest sense conquered captives, bound to the chariot wheels +of One who has overcome them.</p> +<p>The image implies a prior state of hostility and alienation. Now, +do not let us exaggerate, let us take Paul's own experience. He is +speaking about himself here; he is not talking doctrine, he is giving +us autobiography, and he says, ‘I was an enemy, and I have been +conquered.’</p> +<p>What sort of an enemy was he? Well! He says that before he became +a Christian he lived a pure, virtuous, respectable life. He was a man +‘as touching the righteousness which is in the law, +blameless.’ Observant of all relative duties, sober, temperate, +chaste; no man could say a word against him; he knew nothing against +himself. His conscience acquitted him of wrong: ‘I thought I +ought to do many things,’ as I did them. And yet, looking back +from his present point of view upon a life thus adorned with many +virtues, pure from all manifest corruption, to a large extent +regulated by conscientious and religious motives of a kind, he says, +‘Notwithstanding all that, I was an enemy.’ Why? Because +the retrospect let him see that his life was barren of the deepest +faith and the purest love. And so I come to some of my friends here +now, and I say to you, ‘Change the name, and the story is true +about you,’ respectable people, who are trying to live pure and +righteous lives, doing all duties that present themselves to you with +a very tolerable measure of completeness and abominating and trying +to keep yourselves from the things that your consciences tell you are +wrong, yet needing to be conquered, in the deepest recesses of your +wills and your hearts, before you become the true subjects of the +true King. I do not want to exaggerate, nor to say of the ordinary +run of people who listen to us preachers, that they commit manifest +sins, ‘gross as a mountain, open, palpable.’ Some of you +do, no doubt, for, in every hundred people, there are always some +whose lives are foul and whose memories are stained and horrible; but +the run of you are not like that. And yet I ask you, has your will +been bowed and broken, and your heart overcome and conquered by this +mighty Prince, the Prince of Peace, the Prince of Life? Unless it +has, for all your righteousness and respectability, for all your +outward religion and real religiousness of a sort, you are still +hostile and rebellious, in your inmost hearts. That is the basis of +the representation of my text.</p> +<p>What else does it suggest? It suggests the wonderful struggle and +victory of weaponless love. As was said about the first Christian +emperor, so it may be said about the great Emperor in the heavens, +‘<i>In hoc signo vinces!</i>’ By this sign thou shalt +conquer. For His only weapon is the Cross of His Son, and He fights +only by the manifestation of infinite love, sacrifice, suffering, and +pity. He conquers as the sun conquers the thick-ribbed ice by raying +down its heat upon it, and melting it into sweet water. So God in +Christ fights against the mountains of man's cold, hard sinfulness +and alienation, and by the warmth of His own radiation turns them all +into rivers that flow in love and praise. He conquers simply by +forbearance and pity and love.</p> +<p>And what more does this first part of my text say to us? It tells +us, too, of the true submission of the conquered captive; how we are +conquered when we perceive and receive His love; how there is nothing +else needed to win us all for Him except only that we shall recognise +His great love to us.</p> +<p>This picture of the triumph comes with a solemn appeal and +commandment to every one of us professing Christians. Think of these +men, dragged at the conqueror's chariot-wheels, abject, with their +weapons broken, with their resistance quelled, chained, yoked, haled +away from their own land, dependant for life or death on the caprice +of the general who rode before them there. It is a picture of what +you Christian men and women are bound to be if you believe that God +in Christ has loved you as we have been saying that He does. For +abject submission, unconditional surrender, the yielding up of our +whole will to Him, the yielding of all our possessions as His +vassals—these are the duties that are correspondent to the +facts of the case.</p> +<p>If we are thus won by infinite love, and not our own, but bought +with a price, no conquered king, dragged at an emperor's +chariot-wheels, was ever half as absolutely and abjectly bound to be +his slave, and to live or die by his breath, as you are bound to your +Master. You are Christians in the measure in which you are the +captives of His spear and of His bow; in the measure in which you +hold your territories as vassal kings, in the measure in which you +say, stretching out your willing hands for the fetters, ‘Lord! +here am I, do with me as Thou wilt.’ ‘I am not mine own; +be Thou my will, my Emperor, my Commander, my all.’ Loyola used +to say, as the law of his order, that every man that became a member +of the Society of Jesus was to be like as a staff in a man's hand, or +like as a corpse. It was a blasphemous and wicked claim, but it is +but a poor fragmentary statement of the truth about those of us who +enter the real Society of Jesus, and put ourselves in His hands to be +wielded as His staff and His rod, and submit ourselves to Him, not as +a corpse, but yield yourselves to our Christ ‘as those that are +alive from the dead.’</p> +<p>II. Now we have here, as part of the ideal of the Christian life, +the conquered captives partaking in the triumph of their general.</p> +<p>Two groups made up the triumphal procession—the one that of +the soldiers who had fought for, the other that of the prisoners who +had fought against, the leader. And some commentators are inclined to +believe that the Apostle is here thinking of himself and his fellows +as belonging to the conquering army, and not to the conquered enemy. +That seems to me to be less probable and in accordance with the whole +image than the explanation which I have adopted. But be that as it +may, it suggests to us this thought, that in the deepest reality in +that Christian life of which all this metaphor is but the expression, +they who are conquered foes become conquering allies. Or, to put it +into other words—to be triumphed over by Christ is to triumph +with Christ. And the praise which breaks from the Apostle's lips +suggests the same idea. He pours out his thanks for that which he +recognises as being no degradation but an honour, and a participation +in his Conqueror's triumph.</p> +<p>We may illustrate that thought, that to be triumphed over by +Christ is to triumph with Christ, by such considerations as these. +This submission of which I have been speaking, abject and +unconditional, extending to life and death, this submission and +captivity is but another name for liberty. The man who is absolutely +dependent upon Jesus Christ is absolutely independent of everything +and everybody besides, himself included. That is to say, to be His +slave is to be everybody else's master, and when we bow ourselves to +Him, and take upon us the chains of glad obedience, and life-deep as +well as life-long consecration, then He breaks off all other chains +from our hands, and will not suffer that any others should have a +share with Him in the possession of His servant. If you are His +servants you are free from all besides; if you give yourselves up to +Jesus Christ, in the measure in which you give yourselves up to Him, +you will be set at liberty from the worst of all slaveries, that is +the slavery of your own will and your own weakness, and your own +tastes and fancies. You will be set at liberty from dependence upon +men, from thinking about their opinion. You will be set at liberty +from your dependence upon externals, from feeling as if you could not +live unless you had this, that, or the other person or thing. You +will be emancipated from fears and hopes which torture the men who +strike their roots no deeper than this visible film of time which +floats upon the surface of the great, invisible abyss of Eternity. If +you have Christ for your Master you will be the masters of the world, +and of time and sense and men and all besides; and so, being +triumphed over by Him, you will share in His triumph.</p> +<p>And again, we may illustrate the same principle in yet another +way. Such absolute and entire submission of will and love as I have +been speaking about is the highest honour of a man. It was a +degradation to be dragged at the chariot-wheels of conquering +general, emperor, or consul—it broke the heart of many a +barbarian king, and led some of them to suicide rather than face the +degradation. It is a degradation to submit ourselves, even as much as +many of us do, to the domination of human authorities, or to depend +upon men as much as many of us do for our completeness and our +satisfaction. But it is the highest ennobling of humanity that it +shall lay itself down at Christ's feet, and let Him put His foot upon +its neck. It is the exaltation of human nature to submit to Christ. +The true nobility are those that ‘come over with the +Conqueror.’ When we yield ourselves to Him, and let Him be our +King, then the patent of nobility is given to us, and we are lifted +in the scale of being. All our powers and faculties are heightened in +their exercise, and made more blessed in their employment, because we +have bowed ourselves to His control. And so to be triumphed over by +Christ is to triumph with Christ.</p> +<p>And the same thought may be yet further illustrated. That +submission which I have been speaking about so unites us to our Lord +that we share in all that belongs to Him and thus partake in His +triumph. If in will and heart we have yielded ourselves to Him, he +that is thus joined to the Lord is one spirit, and all ‘mine is +Thine, and all Thine is mine.’ He is the Heir of all things, +and all things of which He is the Heir are our possession. ‘All +things are yours, and ye are Christ's.’ Thus His dominion is +the dominion of all that love Him, and His heritage is the heritage +of all those that have joined themselves to Him; and no sparkle of +the glory that falls upon His head but is reflected on the heads of +His servants. The ‘many crowns’ that He wears are the +crowns with which He crowns His followers.</p> +<p>Thus, my brother, to be overcome by God is to overcome the world, +to be triumphed over by Christ is to share in His triumph; and he +over whom Incarnate Love wins the victory, like the patriarch of old +in his mystical struggle, conquers in the hour of surrender; and to +him it is said: ‘As a prince thou hast power with God and hast +prevailed.’</p> +<p>III. Lastly, a further picture of the ideal of the Christian life +is set before us here in the thought of these conquered captives +being led as the trophies and the witnesses of His overcoming +power.</p> +<p>That idea is suggested by both halves of our verse. Both the +emblem of the Apostle as marching in the triumphal procession, and +the emblem of the Apostle as yielding from his burning heart the +fragrant visible odour of the ascending incense, convey the same +idea, viz. that one great purpose which Jesus Christ has in +conquering men for Himself, and binding them to His chariot wheels, +is that from them may go forth the witness of His power and the +knowledge of His name.</p> +<p>That opens very wide subjects for our consideration which I can +only very briefly touch upon. Let me just for an instant dwell upon +some of them. First, the fact that Jesus Christ, by His Cross and +Passion, is able to conquer men's wills, and to bind men's hearts to +Him, is the highest proof of His power. It is an entirely unique +thing in the history of the world. There is nothing the least like it +anywhere else. The passionate attachment which this dead Galilean +peasant is able to evoke in the hearts of people all these centuries +after His death, is an unheard of and an unparalleled thing. All +other teachers ‘serve their generations by the will of +God,’ and then their names become speedily less and less +powerful, and thicker and thicker mists of oblivion wrap them round +until they disappear. But time has no power over Christ's influence. +The bond which binds you and me to Him nineteen centuries after His +death is the very same in quality as, and in degree is often far +deeper and stronger than, the bond which united to Him the men that +had seen Him. It stands as an unique fact in the history of the +world, that from Christ of Nazareth there rays out through all the +ages the spiritual power which absolutely takes possession of men, +dominates them and turns them into His organs and instruments. This +generation prides itself upon testing all things by an utilitarian +test, and about every system says:—‘Well, let us see it +working.’ And I do not think that Christianity need shrink from +the test. With all its imperfections, the long procession of holy men +and women who, for nineteen centuries, have been marching through +history, owning Christ as their Conqueror, and ascribing all their +goodness to Him, is a witness to His power to sway and to satisfy +men, the force of whose testimony it is hard to overthrow. And I +would like to ask the simple question: Will any system of belief or +of no belief, except the faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice, do the +like for men? He leads through the world the train of His captives, +the evidence of His conquests.</p> +<p>And then, further, let me remind you that out of this +representation there comes a very stimulating and solemn suggestion +of duty for us Christian people. We are bound to live, setting forth +whose we are, and what He has done for us. Just as the triumphal +procession took its path up the Appian Way and along the side of the +Forum to the altar of the Capitol, wreathed about by curling clouds +of fragrant incense, so we should march through the world encompassed +by the sweet and fragrant odour of His name, witnessing for Him by +word, witnessing for Him by character, speaking for Him and living +like Him, showing in our life that He rules us, and professing by our +words that He does; and so should manifest His power.</p> +<p>Still further, Paul's thanksgiving teaches us that we should be +thankful for all opportunities of doing such work. Christian men and +women often grudge their services and grudge their money, and feel as +if the necessities for doing Christian work in the world were rather +a burden than an honour. This man's generous heart was so full of +love to his Prince that it glowed with thankfulness at the thought +that Christ had let him do such things for Him. And He lets you do +them if you will.</p> +<p>So, dear friends, it comes to be a very solemn question for us. +What part are we playing in that great triumphal procession? We are +all of us marching at His chariot wheels, whether we know it or not. +But there were two sets of people in the old triumph. There were +those who were conquered by force and unconquered in heart, and out +of their eyes gleamed unquenchable malice and hatred, though their +weapons were broken and their arms fettered. And there were those +who, having shared in the commander's fight, shared in his triumph +and rejoiced in his rule. And when the procession reached the gate of +the temple, some, at any rate, of the former class were put to death +before the gates. I pray you to remember that if we are dragged after +Him reluctantly, the word will come: ‘These, mine enemies, +which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay +them before Me.’ Whereas, on the other hand, for those who have +yielded heart and soul to Him in love and submission born of the +reception of His great love, the blessed word will come: ‘He +that overcometh shall inherit all things.’ Which of the two +parts of the procession do you belong to, my friend? Make your choice +where you shall march, and whether you will be His loyal allies and +soldiers who share in His triumph, or His enemies, who, overcome by +His power, are not melted by His love. The one live, the other +perish.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tbb86" id="tbb86">TRANSFORMATION BY BEHOLDING</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the +glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image.’—2 +COR. iii. 18.</blockquote> +<p>This whole section of the Epistle in which our text occurs is a +remarkable instance of the fervid richness of the Apostle's mind, +which acquires force by motion, and, like a chariot-wheel, catches +fire as it revolves. One of the most obvious peculiarities of his +style is his habit of ‘going off at a word.’ Each thought +is, as it were, barbed all round, and catches and draws into sight a +multitude of others, but slightly related to the main purpose in +hand. And this characteristic gives at first sight an appearance of +confusion to his writings. But it is not confusion, it is richness. +The luxuriant underwood which this fertile soil bears, as some +tropical forest, does not choke the great trees, though it drapes +them.</p> +<p>Paul's immediate purpose seems to be to illustrate the frank +openness which ought to mark the ministry of Christianity. He does +this by reference to the veil which Moses wore when he came forth +from talking with God. There, he says in effect, we have a picture of +the Old Dispensation—a partial revelation, gleaming through a +veil, flashing through symbols, expressed here in a rite, there in a +type, there again in an obscure prophecy, but never or scarcely ever +fronting the world with an unveiled face and the light of God shining +clear from it. Christianity is, and Christian teachers ought to be, +the opposite of all this. It has, and they are to have, no esoteric +doctrines, no hints where plain speech is possible, no reserve, no +use of symbols and ceremonies to overlay truth, but an intelligible +revelation in words and deeds, to men's understandings. It and they +are plentifully to declare the thing as it is.</p> +<p>But he gets far beyond this point in his uses of his illustration. +It opens out into a series of contrasts between the two revelations. +The veiled Moses represents the clouded revelation of old. The +vanishing gleam on his face recalls the fading glories of that which +was abolished; and then, by a quick turn of association, Paul thinks +of the veiled readers in the synagogues, copies, as it were, of the +lawgiver with the shrouded countenance; only too significant images +of the souls obscured by prejudice and obstinate unbelief, with which +Israel trifles over the uncomprehended letter of the old law.</p> +<p>The contrast to all this lies in our text. Judaism had the one +lawgiver who beheld God, while the people tarried below. Christianity +leads us all, to the mount of vision, and lets the lowliest pass +through the fences, and go up where the blazing glory is seen. Moses +veiled the face that shone with the irradiation of Deity. We with +unveiled face are to shine among men. He had a momentary gleam, a +transient brightness; we have a perpetual light. Moses’ face +shone, but the lustre was but skin deep. But the light that we have +is inward, and works transformation into its own likeness.</p> +<p>So there is here set forth the very loftiest conception of the +Christian life as direct vision, universal, manifest to men, +permanent, transforming.</p> +<p>I. Note then, first, that the Christian life is a life of +contemplating and reflecting Christ.</p> +<p>It is a question whether the single word rendered in our version +‘beholding as in a glass,’ means that, or +‘reflecting as a glass does.’ The latter seems more in +accordance with the requirements of the context, and with the truth +of the matter in hand. Unless we bring in the notion of reflected +lustre, we do not get any parallel with the case of Moses. Looking +into a glass does not in the least correspond with the allusion, +which gave occasion to the whole section, to the glory of God smiting +him on the face, till the reflected lustre with which it glowed +became dazzling, and needed to be hid. And again, if Paul is here +describing Christian vision of God as only indirect, as in a mirror, +then that would be a point of inferiority in us as compared with +Moses, who saw Him face to face. But the whole tone of the context +prepares us to expect a setting forth of the particulars in which the +Christian attitude towards the manifested God is above the Jewish. +So, on the whole, it seems better to suppose that Paul meant +‘mirroring,’ than ‘seeing in a mirror.’</p> +<p>But, whatever be the exact force of the word, the thing intended +includes both acts. There is no reflection of the light without a +previous reception of the light. In bodily sight, the eye is a +mirror, and there is no sight without an image of the thing perceived +being formed in the perceiving eye. In spiritual sight, the soul +which beholds is a mirror, and at once beholds and reflects. Thus, +then, we may say that we have in our text the Christian life +described as one of contemplation and manifestation of the light of +God.</p> +<p>The great truth of a direct, unimpeded vision, as belonging to +Christian men on earth, sounds strange to many of us. ‘That +cannot be,’ you say; ‘does not Paul himself teach that we +see through a glass darkly? Do we not walk by faith and not by sight? +“No man hath seen God at any time, nor can see Him”; and +besides that absolute impossibility, have we not veils of flesh and +sense, to say nothing of the covering of sin “spread over the +face of all nations,” which hide from us even so much of the +eternal light as His servants above behold, who see His face and bear +His name on their foreheads?’</p> +<p>But these apparent difficulties drop away when we take into +account two things—first, the object of vision, and second, the +real nature of the vision itself.</p> +<p>As to the former, who is the Lord whose glory we receive on our +unveiled faces? He is Jesus Christ. Here, as in the overwhelming +majority of instances where <i>Lord</i> occurs in the New Testament, +it is the name of the manifested God our brother. The glory which we +behold and give back is not the incomprehensible, incommunicable +lustre of the absolute divine perfectness, but that glory which, as +John says, we beheld in Him who tabernacled with us, full of grace +and truth; the glory which was manifested in loving, pitying words +and loveliness of perfect deeds; the glory of the will resigned to +God, and of God dwelling in and working through the will; the glory +of faultless and complete manhood, and therein of the express image +of God.</p> +<p>And as for the vision itself, that seeing which is denied to be +possible is the bodily perception and the full comprehension of the +Infinite God; that seeing which is affirmed to be possible, and +actually bestowed in Christ, is the beholding of Him with the soul by +faith; the immediate direct consciousness of His presence the +perception of Him in His truth by the mind, the feeling of Him in His +love by the heart, the contact with His gracious energy in our +recipient and opening spirits. Faith is made the antithesis of sight. +It is so, in certain respects. But faith is also paralleled with and +exalted above the mere bodily perception. He who believing grasps the +living Lord has a contact with Him as immediate and as real as that +of the eyeball with light, and knows Him with a certitude as reliable +as that which sight gives. ‘Seeing is believing,’ says +sense; ‘Believing is seeing’ says the spirit which clings +to the Lord, ‘whom having not seen’ it loves. A bridge of +perishable flesh, which is not myself but my tool, connects me with +the outward world. <i>It</i> never touches myself at all, and I know +it only by trust in my senses. But nothing intervenes between my Lord +and me, when I love and trust. Then Spirit is joined to spirit, and +of His presence I have the witness in myself. He is the light, which +proves its own existence by revealing itself, which strikes with +quickening impulse on the eye of the spirit that beholds by faith. +Believing we see, and, seeing, we have that light in our souls to be +‘the master light of all our seeing.’ We need not think +that to know by the consciousness of our trusting souls is less than +to know by the vision of our fallible eyes; and though flesh hides +from us the spiritual world in which we float, yet the only veil +which really dims God to us—the veil of sin, the one separating +principle—is done away in Christ, for all who love Him; so as +that he who has not seen and yet has believed, has but the perfecting +of his present vision to expect, when flesh drops away and the +apocalypse of the heaven comes. True, in one view, ‘We see +through a glass darkly’; but also true, ‘We all, with +unveiled face, behold and reflect the glory of the Lord.’</p> +<p>Then note still further Paul's emphasis on the universality of +this prerogative—‘We all.’ This vision does not +belong to any select handful; does not depend upon special powers or +gifts, which in the nature of things can only belong to a few. The +spiritual aristocracy of God's Church is not the distinction of the +law-giver, the priest or the prophet. There is none of us so weak, so +low, so ignorant, so compassed about with sin, but that upon our +happy faces that light may rest, and into our darkened hearts that +sunshine may steal.</p> +<p>In that Old Dispensation, the light that broke through clouds was +but that of the rising morning. It touched the mountain tops of the +loftiest spirits: a Moses, a David, an Elijah caught the early +gleams; while all the valleys slept in the pale shadow, and the mist +clung in white folds to the plains. But the noon has come, and, from +its steadfast throne in the very zenith, the sun, which never sets, +pours down its rays into the deep recesses of the narrowest gorge, +and every little daisy and hidden flower catches its brightness, and +there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. We have no privileged +class or caste now; no fences to keep out the mob from the place of +vision, while lawgiver and priest gaze upon God. Christ reveals +Himself to all His servants in the measure of their desire after Him. +Whatsoever special gifts may belong to a few in His Church, the +greatest gift belongs to all. The servants and the handmaidens have +the Spirit, the children prophesy, the youths see visions, the old +men dream dreams. ‘The mobs,’ ‘the masses,’ +‘the plebs,’ or whatever other contemptuous name the +heathen aristocratic spirit has for the bulk of men, makes good its +standing within the Church, as possessor of Christ's chiefest gifts. +Redeemed by Him, it can behold His face and be glorified into His +likeness. Not as Judaism with its ignorant mass, and its enlightened +and inspired few—we <i>all</i> behold the glory of the +Lord.</p> +<p>Again, this contemplation involves reflection, or giving forth the +light which we behold.</p> +<p>They who behold Christ have Christ formed in them, as will appear +in my subsequent remarks. But apart from such considerations, which +belong rather to the next part of this sermon, I touch on this +thought here for one purpose—to bring out this idea—that +what we <i>see</i> we shall certainly <i>show</i>. That will be the +inevitable result of all true possession of the glory of Christ. The +necessary accompaniment of vision is reflecting the thing beheld. +Why, if you look closely enough into a man's eye, you will see in it +little pictures of what he beholds at the moment; and if our hearts +are beholding Christ, Christ will be mirrored and manifested on our +hearts. Our characters will show what we are looking at, and ought, +in the case of Christian people, to bear His image so plainly, that +men cannot but take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.</p> +<p>This ought to lead all of us who say that we have seen the Lord, +to serious self-questioning. Do beholding and reflecting go together +in our cases? Are our characters like those transparent clocks, where +you can see not only the figures and hands, but the wheels and works? +Remember that, consciously and unconsciously, by direct efforts and +by insensible influences on our lives, the true secret of our being +ought to come, and will come, forth to light. The convictions which +we hold, the emotions that are dominant in our hearts, will mould and +shape our lives. If we have any deep, living perception of Christ, +bystanders looking into our faces will be able to tell what it is up +yonder that is making them like the faces of the angels—even +vision of the opened heavens and of the exalted Lord. These two +things are inseparable—the one describes the attitude and +action of the Christian man towards Christ; the other the very same +attitude and action in relation to men. And you may be quite sure +that, if little light comes from a Christian character, little light +comes into it; and if it be swathed in thick veils from men, there +must be no less thick veils between it and God.</p> +<p>Nor is it only that our fellowship with Christ will, as a matter +of course, show itself in our characters, and beauty born of that +communion ‘shall pass into our face,’ but we are also +called on, as Paul puts it here, to make direct conscious efforts for +the communication of the light which we behold. As the context has +it, God hath shined in our hearts, that we might give the light of +the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. Away +with all veils! No reserve, no fear of the consequences of plain +speaking, no diplomatic prudence regulating our frank utterance, no +secret doctrines for the initiated! We are to ‘renounce the +hidden things of dishonesty.’ Our power and our duty lie in the +full exhibition of the truth. We are only clear from the blood of men +when we, for our parts, make sure that if any light be hid, it is hid +not by reason of obscurity or silence on our parts, but only by +reason of the blind eyes, before which the full-orbed radiance gleams +in vain. All this is as true for every one possessing that universal +prerogative of seeing the glory of Christ, as it is for an Apostle. +The business of all such is to make known the name of Jesus, and if +from idleness, or carelessness, or selfishness, they shirk that plain +duty, they are counteracting God's very purpose in shining on their +hearts, and going far to quench the light which they darken.</p> +<p>Take this, then, Christian men and women, as a plain practical +lesson from this text. You are bound to manifest what you believe, +and to make the secret of your lives, in so far as possible, an open +secret. Not that you are to drag into light before men the sacred +depths of your own soul's experience. Let these lie hid. The world +will be none the better for your confessions, but it needs your Lord. +Show Him forth, not your own emotions about Him. What does the +Apostle say close by my text? ‘We preach not ourselves, but +Christ Jesus the Lord.’ Self-respect and reverence for the +sanctities of our deepest emotions forbid our proclaiming these from +the house-tops. Let these be curtained, if you will, from all eyes +but God's, but let no folds hang before the picture of your Saviour +that is drawn on your heart. See to it that you have the unveiled +face turned towards Christ to be irradiated by His brightness, and +the unveiled face turned towards men, from which shall shine every +beam of the light which you have caught from your Lord. ‘Arise! +shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon +thee!’</p> +<p>II. Notice, secondly, that this life of contemplation is therefore +a life of gradual transformation.</p> +<p>The brightness on the face of Moses was only skin-deep. It faded +away, and left no trace. It effaced none of the marks of sorrow and +care, and changed none of the lines of that strong, stern face. But, +says Paul, the glory which we behold sinks inward, and changes us as +we look, into its own image. Thus the superficial lustre, that had +neither permanence nor transforming power, becomes an illustration of +the powerlessness of law to change the moral character into the +likeness of the fair ideal which it sets forth. And, in opposition to +its weakness, the Apostle proclaims the great principle of Christian +progress, that the beholding of Christ leads to the assimilation to +Him.</p> +<p>The metaphor of a mirror does not wholly serve us here. When the +sunbeams fall upon it, it flashes in the light, just because they do +not enter its cold surface. It is a mirror, because it does not drink +them up, but flings them back. The contrary is the case with these +sentient mirrors of our spirits. In them the light must first sink in +before it can ray out. They must first be filled with the glory, +before the glory can stream forth. They are not so much like a +reflecting surface as like a bar of iron, which needs to be heated +right down to its obstinate black core, before its outer skin glows +with the whiteness of a heat that is too hot to sparkle. The sunshine +must fall on us, not as it does on some lonely hill-side, lighting up +the grey stones with a passing gleam that changes nothing, and fades +away, leaving the solitude to its sadness; but as it does on some +cloud cradled near its setting, which it drenches and saturates with +fire till its cold heart burns, and all its wreaths of vapour are +brightness palpable, glorified by the light which lives amidst its +mists. So must we have the glory sink into us before it can be +reflected from us. In deep inward beholding we must have Christ in +our hearts, that He may shine forth from our lives.</p> +<p>And this contemplation will be gradual transformation. There is +the great principle of Christian morals. ‘We all beholding ... +are changed.’ The power to which is committed the perfecting of +our characters lies in looking upon Jesus. It is not the mere +beholding, but the gaze of love and trust that moulds us by silent +sympathy into the likeness of His wondrous beauty, who is fairer than +the children of men. It was a deep, true thought which the old +painters had, when they drew John as likest to his Lord. Love makes +us like. We learn <i>that</i> even in our earthly relationships, +where habitual familiarity with parents and dear ones stamps some +tone of voice or look, or little peculiarity of gesture, on a whole +house. And when the infinite reverence and aspiration which the +Christian soul cherishes to its Lord are superadded, the transforming +power of loving contemplation of Him becomes mighty beyond all +analogies in human friendship, though one in principle with these. +What a marvellous thing that a block of rude sandstone, laid down +before a perfect marble, should become a copy of its serene +loveliness just by lying there! Lay your hearts down before Christ. +Contemplate Him. Love Him. Think about Him. Let that pure face shine +upon heart and spirit, and as the sun photographs itself on the +sensitive plate exposed to its light, and you get a likeness of the +sun by simply laying the thing in the sun, so He will ‘be +formed in, you.’ Iron near a magnet becomes magnetic. Spirits +that dwell with Christ become Christ-like. The Roman Catholic legends +put this truth in a coarse way, when they tell of saints who have +gazed on some ghastly crucifix till they have received, in their +tortured flesh, the copy of the wounds of Jesus, and have thus borne +in their body the marks of the Lord. The story is hideous and gross, +the idea beneath is ever true. Set your faces towards the Cross with +loving, reverent gaze, and you will ‘be conformed unto His +death,’ that in due time you may ‘be also in the likeness +of His Resurrection.’</p> +<p>Dear friends, surely this message—‘Behold and be +like’—ought to be very joyful and enlightening to many of +us, who are wearied with painful struggles after isolated pieces of +goodness, that elude our grasp. You have been trying, and trying, and +trying half your lifetime to cure faults and make yourselves better +and stronger. Try this other plan. Let love draw you, instead of duty +driving you. Let fellowship with Christ elevate you, instead of +seeking to struggle up the steeps on hands and knees. Live in sight +of your Lord, and catch His Spirit. The man who travels with his face +northwards has it grey and cold. Let him turn to the warm south, +where the midday sun dwells, and his face will glow with the +brightness that he sees. ‘Looking unto Jesus’ is the +sovereign cure for all our ills and sins. It is the one condition of +running with patience ‘the race that is set before us.’ +Efforts after self-improvement which do not rest on it will not go +deep enough, nor end in victory. But from that gaze will flow into +our lives a power which will at once reveal the true goal, and brace +every sinew for the struggle to reach it. Therefore, let us cease +from self, and fix our eyes on our Saviour till His image imprints +itself on our whole nature.</p> +<p>Such transformation, it must be remembered, comes gradually. The +language of the text regards it as a lifelong process. ‘We +<i>are</i> changed’; that is a continuous operation. +‘From glory to glory’; that is a course which has +well-marked transitions and degrees. Be not impatient if it be slow. +It will take a lifetime. Do not fancy that it is finished with you. +Life is not long enough for it. Do not be complacent over the partial +transformation which you have felt. There is but a fragment of the +great image yet reproduced in your soul, a faint outline dimly +traced, with many a feature wrongly drawn, with many a line still +needed, before it can be called even approximately complete. See to +it that you neither turn away your gaze, nor relax your efforts till +all that you have beheld in Him is repeated in you.</p> +<p>Likeness to Christ is the aim of all religion. To it conversion is +introductory; doctrines, devout emotion, worship and ceremonies, +churches and organisations are valuable as auxiliary. Let that +wondrous issue of God's mercy be the purpose of our lives, and the +end as well as the test of all the things which we call our +Christianity. Prize and use them as helps towards it, and remember +that they are helps only in proportion as they show us that Saviour, +the image of whom is our perfection, the beholding of whom is our +transformation.</p> +<p>III. Notice, lastly, that the life of contemplation finally +becomes a life of complete assimilation.</p> +<p>‘Changed into the same image, from glory to glory.’ +The lustrous light which falls upon Christian hearts from the face of +their Lord is permanent, and it is progressive. The likeness extends, +becomes deeper, truer, every way perfecter, comprehends more and more +of the faculties of the man; soaks into him, if I may say so, until +he is saturated with the glory; and in all the extent of his being, +and in all the depth possible to each part of that whole extent, is +like his Lord. That is the hope for heaven, towards which we may +indefinitely approximate here, and at which we shall absolutely +arrive there. There we expect changes which are impossible here, +while compassed with this body of sinful flesh. We look for the +merciful exercise of His mighty working to ‘change the body of +our lowliness, that it may be fashioned like unto the body of His +glory’; and that physical change in the resurrection of the +just rightly bulks very large in good men's expectations. But we are +somewhat apt to think of the perfect likeness of Christ too much in +connection with that transformation that begins only after death, and +to forget that the main transformation must begin here. The glorious, +corporeal life like our Lord's, which is promised for heaven, is +great and wonderful, but it is only the issue and last result of the +far greater change in the spiritual nature, which by faith and love +begins here. It is good to be clothed with the immortal vesture of +the resurrection, and in that to be like Christ. It is better to be +like Him in our hearts. His true image is that we should feel as He +does, should think as He does, should will as He does; that we should +have the same sympathies, the same loves, the same attitude towards +God, and the same attitude towards men. It is that His heart and ours +should beat in full accord, as with one pulse, and possessing one +life. Wherever there is the beginning of that oneness and likeness of +spirit, all the rest will come in due time. As the spirit, so the +body. The whole nature must be transformed and made like Christ's, +and the process will not stop till that end be accomplished in all +who love Him. But the beginning here is the main thing which draws +all the rest after it as of course. ‘If the Spirit of Him that +raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ +from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by His Spirit +that dwelleth in you.’</p> +<p>And, while this complete assimilation in body and spirit to our +Lord is the end of the process which begins here by love and faith, +my text, carefully considered, adds a further very remarkable idea. +‘We are all changed,’ says Paul, ‘into the +<i>same</i> image.’ Same as what? Possibly the same as we +behold; but more probably the phrase, especially ‘image’ +in the singular, is employed to convey the thought of the blessed +likeness of all who become perfectly like Him. As if he had said, +‘Various as we are in disposition and character, unlike in the +histories of our lives, and all the influences that these have had +upon us, differing in everything but the common relation to Jesus +Christ, we are all growing like the same image, and we shall come to +be perfectly like it, and yet each retain his own distinct +individuality.’ ‘We being many are one, for we are all +partakers of one.’</p> +<p>Perhaps, too, we may connect with this another idea which occurs +more than once in Paul's Epistles. In that to the Ephesians, for +instance, he says that the Christian ministry is to continue, till a +certain point of progress has been reached, which he describes as our +<i>all</i> coming to ‘a perfect <i>man</i>.’ The whole of +us together make a perfect man—the whole make one image. That +is to say, perhaps the Apostle's idea is, that it takes the +aggregated perfectness of the whole Catholic Church, one throughout +all ages, and containing a multitude that no man can number, to set +worthily forth anything like a complete image of the fulness of +Christ. No one man, even raised to the highest pitch of perfection, +and though his nature be widened out to perfect development, can be +the full image of that infinite sum of all beauty; but the whole of +us taken together, with all the diversities of natural character +retained and consecrated, being collectively His body which He +vitalises, may, on the whole, be a not wholly inadequate +representation of our perfect Lord. Just as we set round a central +light sparkling prisms, each of which catches the glow at its own +angle, and flashes it back of its own colour, while the sovereign +completeness of the perfect white radiance comes from the blending of +all their separate rays, so they who stand round about the starry +throne receive each the light in his own measure and manner, and give +forth each a true and perfect, and altogether a complete, image of +Him who enlightens them all, and is above them all.</p> +<p>And whilst thus all bear the same image, there is no monotony; and +while there is endless diversity, there is no discord. Like the +serene choirs of angels in the old monk's pictures, each one with the +same tongue of fire on the brow, with the same robe flowing in the +same folds to the feet, with the same golden hair, yet each a +separate self, with his own gladness, and a different instrument for +praise in his hand, and his own part in that ‘undisturbed song +of pure content,’ we shall all be changed into the same image, +and yet each heart shall grow great with its own blessedness, and +each spirit bright with its own proper lustre of individual and +characteristic perfection.</p> +<p>The law of the transformation is the same for earth and for +heaven. Here we see Him in part, and beholding grow like. There we +shall see Him as He is, and the likeness will be complete. That +Transfiguration of our Lord (which is described by the same word as +occurs in this text) may become for us the symbol and the prophecy of +what we look for. As with Him, so with us; the indwelling glory shall +come to the surface, and the countenance shall shine as the light, +and the garments shall be ‘white as no fuller on earth can +white them.’ Nor shall that be a fading splendour, nor shall we +fear as we enter into the cloud, nor, looking on Him, shall flesh +bend beneath the burden, and the eyes become drowsy, but we shall be +as the Lawgiver and the Prophet who stood by Him in the lambent +lustre, and shone with a brightness above that which had once been +veiled on Sinai. We shall never vanish from His side, but dwell with +Him in the abiding temple which He has built, and there, looking upon +Him for ever, our happy souls shall change as they gaze, and behold +Him more perfectly as they change, for ‘we know that when He +shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He +is.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="latu87" id="latu87">LOOKING AT THE UNSEEN</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘While we look not at the things which are seen, +but at the things which are not seen.’—2 COR. iv. +18.</blockquote> +<p>Men may be said to be divided into two classes, materialists and +idealists, in the widest sense of those two words. The mass care for, +and are occupied by, and regard as really solid good, those goods +which can be touched and enjoyed by sense. The +minority—students, thinkers, men of ideas, moralists, and the +like—believe in, and care for, impalpable spiritual riches. +Everybody admits that the latter class is distinctly the higher. Now +it is from no disregard to the importance and reality of that broad +distinction that I insist, to begin with, that it is not the +antithesis which is in the Apostle's mind here. His notion of +‘the things that are seen’ and ‘the things that are +not seen’ is a much grander and wider one than that. By +‘the things that are seen’ he means the whole of this +visible world, with all its circumstances and relations, and by +‘the things that are not seen’ he means the realities +beyond the stars.</p> +<p>He means the same thing that we mean when we talk in a much less +true and impressive contrast about the present and the future. To him +the ‘things that are not seen’ are present instead of +being, as we weakly and foolishly christen them, ‘the future +state.’ And it makes all the difference whether we think of +that august realm as lying far away ahead of us, or whether we feel +that it is, as it is, in very deed, all round about us, and pressing +in upon us, only that ‘the veil’—that is to say, +our ‘flesh’—has come between us and it. Do not +habitually think of these two sets of objects according to that +misleading distinction ‘present’ and +‘future,’ but think of them rather as ‘the things +that are seen,’ and ‘the things that are not +seen.’</p> +<p>I. Now, first, I wish to say a word or two about what such a look +will do for us.</p> +<p>Paul's notion is, as you will see if you look at the context, that +if we want to understand the visible, or to get the highest good out +of the things that are seen, we must bring into the field of vision +‘the things that are not seen.’ The case with which he is +dealing is that of a man in trouble. He talks about light affliction +which is but for a moment, working out a far more exceeding and +eternal weight of glory, ‘while we look at the things which are +not seen.’ But the principle on which that statement is made, +of course, has its widest application to all sorts and conditions of +human life.</p> +<p>And the thought that emerges from it directly is that only when we +take the ‘things that are not seen’ into account, and +make them the standard and the scale by which we judge all things, do +we understand ‘the things that are seen.’ That triumphant +paradox of the Apostle's about the heavy burdens that pressed upon +him and his brethren, lifelong as these burdens were, which yet he +calls ‘light’ and ‘but for a moment’ is +possible only when we open the shutter of the dungeon which we +fancied was the whole universe, and look out on to the fair land that +stretches beyond. A man who has seen the Himalayas will not be much +overwhelmed by the height of Helvellyn. They who look out into the +eternities have the true measuring rod and standard by which to +estimate the duration and intensity of the things that are present. +We are all tempted to do as villagers in some little hamlet +do—think that their small local affairs are the world's +affairs, and mighty, until they have been up to London and seen the +scale of things there. If you and I would let the steady light of +Eternity, and the sustaining pressure of the ‘exceeding weight +of glory’ pour into our minds, we should carry with us a +standard which would bring down the greatness, dwindle the duration, +lighten the pressure, of the most crushing sorrow, and would set in +its true dimensions everything that is here. It is for want of that +that we go on as we do, calculating wrongly what are the great things +and what are the small things. When, like some of those prisoners in +the Inquisition, the heavy iron weights are laid upon our +half-crushed hearts, we are tempted to shriek, ‘Oh, these will +be my death!’ instead of taking in that great vision which, as +it makes all earthly riches dross, so it makes all crushing burdens +and blows of sorrow light as a feather.</p> +<p>But, on the other hand, do not let us forget that this same +standard which thus dwindles, also magnifies the small, and in a very +solemn sense, makes eternal the else fleeting things of this life. +For there is nothing that makes this present existence of ours so +utterly contemptible, insignificant, and transitory, as to block out +of our sight its connection with Eternity. And there is nothing which +so lifts the commonplace into the solemn, and invests with +everlasting and tremendous importance everything that a man does +here, as to feel that it all tells on his condition away beyond +there. The shafting is on this side of the wall, but the work that it +does is through the wall there, in the other chamber; and you do not +understand the cranks and the wheels here unless you know that they +go through the partition and are doing something there beyond. If you +shut out Eternity from our life in time, then it is an inexplicable +riddle; and I, for my part, would venture to say that in that case, +the men who answer the question, ‘Is life worth living?’ +with a distinct negative, are wise. It is a tale told by an idiot, +‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,’ unless the +light of ‘the things not seen’ flashes and flares in upon +it.</p> +<p>Further, this look of which my text speaks is the condition on +which Time prepares for Eternity.</p> +<p>The Apostle is speaking about the effect of affliction in making +ready for us an eternal weight of glory, and he says that is done +while, or on condition that during the suffering, we are looking +steadfastly towards the ‘things that are not seen.’ But +no outward circumstances or events can prepare a weight of glory for +us hereafter, unless they prepare us for the glory. Affliction works +for us that blessed result, in the measure in which it fits us for +that result. And so you will find that, only a verse or two after my +text, Paul, using the same very significant and emphatic verb, writes +inverting the order of things, and says ‘He that hath wrought +<i>us for</i> the self-same thing is God.’ So that working the +thing for us, and working us for the thing, are one and the same +process. Or, to put it into plain English, our various duties and +circumstances here will prepare the glory of Eternity for us if they +prepare us for the glory of Eternity. But only in the measure in +which these outward things do thus shape and mould our characters do +they work out for us ‘an exceeding weight of glory.’</p> +<p>It is often thought that a man has been so miserable here that God +is sure to give him future blessedness to recompense him. Well! +‘that depends.’ If he has used his miserableness as he +will use it when he lets the light of ‘the things not +seen’ in upon it, then, certainly, it will work out for him the +blessed results. But if he does not, then, as certainly, it will not. +Whilst there are many ways by which character is hammered and moulded +and shaped into that which is fit to be clothed upon with the glory +that is yonder, one of the foremost of these is the passing through +things temporal with a continual regard to the things that are +eternal. If you want to understand to-day you must bring Eternity +into the account, and if you want to use to-day you must use it with +the light of the eternal world full upon it. The sum of it all is, +brethren, that the things seen cannot be estimated in their true +character, unless they are regarded in immediate connection with the +things that are unseen; and that the things seen will only prepare an +eternal weight of glory for us when they prepare us for an eternal +weight of glory.</p> +<p>II. And so, I note that this look at the things not seen is only +possible through Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>He is the only window which opens out and gives the vision of that +far-off land. I, for my part, believe that, if I might use such a +metaphor, He is the Columbus of the New World. Men believed, and +argued, and doubted about the existence of it across the seas there, +until a man went, and came back again, and then went to found a new +city yonder. And men hoped for immortality, and believed after a +fashion—some of them—in a future life, and dreaded that +it might be true, and discussed and debated whether it was, but doubt +clouded all minds, until One, our Brother, went away into the +darkness, and came back again, in most respects as He had gone, and +then departed once more to make ready a city in which all who love +Him should finally dwell, and to which you and I may be sure that we +shall emigrate. It is only in Jesus Christ that the look which my +text enjoins is possible.</p> +<p>For not only has He given a certitude so that we need now not to +say ‘We think, we hope, we fear, we are pretty well sure, that +there must be a life beyond,’ but we can say ‘We +know.’ Not only has He done this, but also in Him and His life +of glory at God's right hand in heaven, is summed up all that we +really can know about that future. We look into the darkness in vain; +we look at Him, and, our knowledge, though limited, is blessed. All +other adumbrations of a life beyond must necessarily be cast into the +metaphorical forms or the negative symbols in which the New Testament +abounds. We may speak of golden pavements, and thrones, and harps, +and the like. We may say: ‘No night there, no sighing, nor +weeping, no burdened hearts, no toil, no pain, for the former things +are passed away.’ But a future life which is all described in +metaphors, and a future life of which we know only that it is the +negation of the disagreeables and limitations of the present, is but +a poor affair. Here is the positive truth, ‘To him that +overcometh will I grant to sit with Me on My throne.’ ‘We +shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’ And beyond +that nearness to Christ, blessed communion with Christ, likeness to +Christ, royalty derived from Christ, I think we neither know nor need +to know anything about that life.</p> +<p>Not only is He our sole medium of knowledge and Himself the +revelation of our heaven, but it is only by Him that man's thoughts +and desires are drawn to, and find themselves at home in, that +tremendous thought of immortality. I know not how it may be with you, +but I am not ashamed to confess that to me the idea of eternal +continuance of my conscious being is an awful thought, rather +depressing and bewildering than delighting and attractive. I, for my +part, do not believe that men generally do grapple to their hearts, +with any gratitude or joy, that solemn belief of immortal life unless +they feel that it is life with, and in, and like, Jesus Christ. +‘To depart’ is dreary, and it is only when we can say +‘and to be with Christ’ that it becomes distinctly +‘far better.’ He is, if I may so say, at once telescope +and star. By Him we see Him; we see, seeing Him, that the things that +are unseen all cluster round Himself and become blessed.</p> +<p>III. And now, lastly, this look should be habitual with all +Christian people.</p> +<p>Paul takes it for granted that every Christian man is, as the +habitual direction of his thoughts, looking towards those +‘things that are not seen.’ The original shows that even +more distinctly than our translation, but our translation shows it +plainly enough. He does not say ‘works for us an exceeding +weight of glory <i>for</i>,’ but <i>‘while’</i> we +look, as if it were a matter of course. He took it for granted as to +these Corinthians. I wonder if he would be warranted in taking it for +granted about us?</p> +<p>Note what sort of a look it is which produces these blessed +effects. The word which the Apostle employs here is a more pointed +one than the ordinary one for ‘seeing.’ It is translated +in other places in the New Testament, <i>‘Mark’</i> them +which walk so as ye have us for an ensample, and the like. And it +implies a concentrated, protracted effort and interested gaze. A man, +standing on the deck of a ship, casts a languid eye for a moment out +on to the horizon, and sees nothing. A keen-eyed sailor by his side +shades his eyes with his hand, and shuts out cross-lights, and looks, +and peers, and keeps his eyes steady, and he sees the filmy outline +of the mountain land. If you look for a minute, not much caring +whether you see anything or not, and then turn away, and get your eye +dazzled with all those vulgar, crude, high colours round about you +here on earth, it is very little that you will see of ‘the +things that are not seen.’ Concentrated attention, and a +steadfast look, are wanted to make the invisible visible. You have to +alter the focus of your eye if you are to see the thing that is afar +off.</p> +<p>There has to be a positive shutting out of all other things, as is +emphatically taught in the text by putting first the not looking at +‘the things that are seen.’ Here they are pressing in +upon our eyeballs, all round us, insisting on being looked at, and +unless we resolutely avert our eyes, we shall not see anything else. +They monopolise us unless we resist the intrusive appeals that they +make to us. We are like men down in some fertile valley, surrounded +by rich vegetation, but seeing nothing beyond the green sides of the +glen. We have to go up to the hill-top if we are to look out over the +flashing ocean, and behold afar off the towers of the mother city +across the restless waves. Brethren, unless you shut out the world +you will never see the things that are not seen.</p> +<p>Now, as I have said, the Apostle regards this conscious effort at +bringing ourselves into touch, in mind and heart and faith, with +‘the things that are not seen’ as being a habitual +characteristic of Christian men. I am very much afraid that the +present generation of Christian people do not, in anything like the +degree in which they should, recreate and strengthen themselves with +the contemplation which he here recommends. It seems to me, for +instance, that we do not hear nearly as much in pulpits about the +life beyond the grave as we used to do when I was a boy. And, though +I confess I speak from limited knowledge, it seems to me that these +great motives which lie in the thought of Eternity and our place +there, are by no means as prominent in the minds of the Christian +people of this generation as they used to be. Partly, I suppose, that +arises from the wholesome emphasis which has been given of late years +to the present day, and this-side-the grave effects of Christianity, +upon character and life. Partly it arises, I think, from the +half-consciousness of being surrounded by an atmosphere of scepticism +and unbelief as to a future life, and from the most unwise, +inexpedient, and cowardly yielding to the temptation to say very +little about the distinctive features of Christianity, and to dwell +rather upon those which are sure to be recognised by even unbelieving +people. And it comes, too, from the lack of faith, which, again, it +tends mightily to increase.</p> +<p>Oh, dear brethren! our consciences tell us what different people +we should be if habitually there shone before us that great, solemn +issue to which we are all tending. Variations in the atmosphere there +will always be, and sometimes the distant outlines will be clearer +and sharper than at others, and the colours will shine out more +distinctly. But surely it should not be that our vision of the +Eternal should be like the vision that dwellers amongst the mountains +have of the summits. They say that some of the great peaks of the +world are swathed in mist all day long, and that only for a few +moments in the morning, or for a brief space in the evening, does the +solemn summit gleam rosy in the light. And that, I am afraid, is very +much like the degree in which most of us look at ‘the things +that are not seen’ and so we are feeble, and we do not +understand ‘the things that are not seen’; and we do not +get the good out of them.</p> +<p>Dear brethren, let us turn away our eyes from the gauds that we +can see, and open the eyes of our spirits on the things that are, the +things where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Surely, +surely, it is madness that when two sets of objects are before us, +the one lasting for a moment, and then dying down into black +nothingness, and the other shining on for ever; and when our +‘look’ settles whether we shall share the fate of the one +or of the other, we should choose to gaze with all our eyes and +hearts at the perishable and turn away from the permanent. Surely, if +it is true that the things which are seen are temporal, common-sense, +and a reasonable regard for our own well-being, bid us look at the +eternal ‘things which are not seen,’ since only so can +the light and the momentary afflictions, joys, sorrows, or +circumstances, work out for us, and work us for ‘a far more +exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tab88" id="tab88">TENT AND BUILDING</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘For we know that if our earthly house of this +tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made +with hands, eternal in the heavens.’—2 COR. v. +1.</blockquote> +<p>Knowledge and ignorance, doubt and certitude, are remarkably +blended in these words. The Apostle knows what many men are not +certain of; the Apostle doubts as to what all men now are certain of. +‘<i>If</i> our earthly house of this tabernacle be +dissolved’—there is surely no if about that. But we must +remember that the first Christians, and the Apostles with them, did +not know whether they might not survive till the coming of Christ; +and so not die, but ‘be changed.’ And this possibility, +as appears from the context, is clearly before the Apostle's mind. +Such a limitation of his knowledge is in entire accordance with our +Lord's own words, ‘It is not for you to know the times and the +seasons,’ and does not in the smallest degree derogate from his +authority as an inspired teacher. But his certitude is as remarkable +as his hesitation. He knows—and he modestly and calmly affirms +the confidence, as possessed by all believers—that, in the +event of death coming to him or them, he and they have a mansion +waiting for their entrance; a body of glory like to that which Jesus +already wears.</p> +<p>I. So my text mainly sets before us very strikingly the Christian +certitude as to the final future.</p> +<p>I need not dwell, I suppose, upon that familiar metaphor by which +the relation of man to his bodily environment is described as that of +a man to his dwelling-place. Only I would desire, in a word, to +emphasise this as being the first of the elements of the blessed +certitude in which Christian people may expatiate—the clear, +broad distinction between me and my physical frame. There is no more +connection, says Paul, between us and the organisation in which we at +present dwell than there is between a man and the house that he +inhabits. ‘The foolish senses crown’ Death and call him +lord; but the Christian's certitude firmly draws the line, and +declares that the man, the whole personality, is undisturbed by +anything that befalls his residence; and that he may pass unimpaired +from one house to another, being in both the self-same person. And +that is something to keep firm hold of in these days when we are +being told that life and consciousness are but a function of +organisation, and that if the one be annihilated the other cannot +persist. No; though all illustrations and metaphors must necessarily +fail, the two which lie side by side here in my text and its context +are far truer than that pseudo-science—which is not science at +all, but only inference from science—which denies that the man +is one thing and his house altogether another.</p> +<p>Then again, note, as part of the elements of this Christian +certitude, the blessed thought that a body is part of the perfection +of manhood. No mere dim, ghostly future, where consciousness somehow +persists, without environment or tools to act upon an outer world, +completes the idea of God in reference to man. But the old trinity is +the eternal trinity for humanity, body, soul, and spirit. Corporeity, +with all that it means of definiteness, with all that it means of +relation to an external universe, is the perfection of manhood. To +dwell naked, as the Apostle says in the context, is a thing from +which man shudderingly recoils; and it is not to be his final fate. +Let us take this as no small gain in reference to our conceptions of +a future—the emphatic drawing into light of that thought that +for his perfection man requires body, soul, and spirit.</p> +<p>And now, if we turn for a moment to the characteristics of the two +conditions with which my text deals, we get some familiar enough but +yet great and strengthening thoughts. The ‘earthly house of +this tabernacle is dissolved,’ or, more correctly, retaining +the metaphor of the house, is to be pulled down—and in its +place there comes a building of God, a ‘house not made with +hands, eternal in the heavens.’</p> +<p>Now the contrast that is drawn here, whilst it would run out into +a great many other particulars, about which we know nothing, and +therefore had better say nothing, revolves in the Apostle's mind +mainly round these two ‘earthly’ as contrasted with +‘in the heavens’; and ‘tabernacle,’ or tent, +as contrasted, first of all with a ‘building,’ and then +with the predicate ‘eternal.’</p> +<p>That is to say, the first outstanding difference which arises +before the Apostle as blessed and glorious, is the contrast between +the fragile dwelling-place, with its thin canvas, its bending poles, +its certain removal some day, and the permanence of that which is not +a ‘tent,’ but a ‘building’ which is +‘eternal.’ Involved in that is the thought that all the +limitations and weaknesses which are necessarily associated with the +perishableness of the present abode are at an end for ever. No more +fatigue, no more working beyond the measure of power, no more need +for recuperation and repose; no more dread of sickness and weakness; +no more possibility of decay, ‘It is sown in corruption; it is +raised in incorruption’—neither ‘<i>can</i> they +die any more.’ Whether that be by reason of any inherent +immortality, or by reason of the uninterrupted flow into the creature +of the immortal life of Christ, to whom he is joined, is a question +that need not trouble us now. Enough for us that the contrast between +the Bedouin tent—which is folded up and carried away, and +nothing left but the black circle where the cheerful hearth once +glinted amidst the sands of the desert—and the stately mansion +reared for eternity, is the contrast between the organ of the spirit +in which we now dwell and that which shall be ours.</p> +<p>And the other contrast is no less glorious and wonderful. +‘The <i>earthly</i> house of this tent’ does not merely +define the composition, but also the whole relations and capacities +of that to which it refers. The ‘tent’ is +‘earthly’, not merely because, to use a kindred metaphor, +it is a ‘building of clay,’ but because, by all its +capacities, it belongs to, corresponds with, and is fitted only for, +this lower order of things, the seen and the perishable. And, on the +other hand, the ‘mansion’ is in ‘the +heavens,’ even whilst the future tenant is a nomad in his tent. +That is so, because the power which can create that future abode is +‘in the heavens.’ It is so called in order to express the +security in which it is kept for those who shall one day enter upon +it. And it is so, further, to express the order of things with which +it brings its dwellers into contact. ‘Flesh and blood cannot +inherit the Kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit +incorruption.’ That future home of the spirit will be congruous +with the region in which it dwells; fitted for the heavens in which +it is now preserved. And thus the two contrasts—adapted to the +perishable, and itself perishable, belonging to the eternal and +itself incorruptible—are the two which loom largest before the +Apostle's mind.</p> +<p>Let no man say that such ideas of a possible future bodily frame +are altogether inconsistent with all that we know of the limitations +and characteristics of what we call matter. ‘There is one flesh +of beasts and another of birds,’ says Paul; ‘there is one +glory of the sun and another of the moon.’ And his +old-fashioned argument is perfectly sound to-day.</p> +<p>Do you know so fully all the possibilities of creation as that you +are warranted in asserting that such a thing as a body which is the +fit organ of the spirit, and is incorruptible like the heavens in +which it dwells, is an impossibility? Surely the forms of matter are +sufficiently varied to make us chary in asserting that other forms +are impossible, to which there may belong, as characteristics, even +these glorious ones of my text. The old story of the king in the +tropics, who laughed to scorn some one who told him that water could +be turned into a solid, may well be quoted in this connection. Let us +be less confident that we know all that is to be known in regard to +the sweep of God's creative power; and let us thankfully accept the +teaching by which we, too, in all our ignorance, may be able to say, +‘We know that ... we have a building of God ... eternal in the +heavens.’</p> +<p>Now there is only one more remark that I wish to make about this +part of my subject; and it is this, that the teaching of my text and +its context casts great light—and I think by many people +much-needed light—on what the resurrection of the dead means. +That doctrine has been weighted with a great many incredibilities and +I venture to say absurdities, by well-meaning misconceptions and +exaggerations. We have heard grand platitudes about ‘the +scattered dust being gathered from the four winds of heaven,’ +and so on, but the teaching of my text is that the contrast between +the present physical frame and the future bodily environment is utter +and complete; and that resurrection does not mean the assuming again +of the body that is left behind and done with, but the reinvestiture +of the man with another body. And so the Scriptural phrase is, not +‘the resurrection of the body,’ but ‘the +resurrection of the dead.’ It is a house ‘in the +heavens.’ It comes ‘from heaven.’</p> +<p>We leave the tent. Life and thought</p> +<pre> + ... have gone away, side by side, +Leaving doors and windows wide; +Careless tenants they! +</pre> +<p class="noindent">And they may well be careless, because in the +heavens they have another mansion, incorruptible and glorious.</p> +<p>We leave the ‘tent’; we enter the +‘building.’ There is nothing here of some germ of +immortality being somehow extricated from the ruins, and fostered +into glorious growth. Or, to take another metaphor of the context, we +strip off the garment and are naked; and then we are clothed with +another garment and are not found naked. The resurrection of the dead +is the clothing of the spirit with the house which is from heaven. +And there is as much difference between the two habitations as there +is between the grim, solid architecture of northern peoples, amidst +snow and ice, needed to resist the blasts, and to keep the life +within in an ungenial climate, and the light, graceful dwellings of +those who walk in an atmosphere of perpetual sunshine in the tropics, +as there is between the close-knit and narrow-windowed and +narrow-doored abode in which we now have to pass our days, and that +large house, with broad windows that take in a mightier sweep and new +senses that have relation with new qualities in the world then around +us. Therefore let us, whilst we grope in the dark here, and live in a +narrow hovel in a back street, look forward to the time when we shall +dwell on the sunny heights in the great pavilion which God prepares +for them that love Him.</p> +<p>II. And now note, again, how we come to this certitude.</p> +<p>My text is very significantly followed by a ‘for,’ +which gives the reason of the knowledge in a very remarkable manner. +‘We know, ... for in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be +clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven.’ Now that +singular collocation of ideas may be set forth thus—whatever +longing there is in a Christian, God-inspired soul, that longing is a +prophecy of its own fulfilment. We know that there is a house, +because of the yearning, which is deepest and strongest when we are +nearest God, and likest what He would have us to be—the +yearning to be ‘clothed upon with our house which is from +heaven.’ That is a truth that goes a long way; though to +enlarge on it is irrelevant to our present purpose. It has its +limitations, as is obvious from the context, in which are human +elements which are not destined to be gratified, mingled with the +yearning, which is of God, and which is destined to be satisfied. But +this at least we may firmly hold by, that just because God will not +put men to confusion intellectually, and does not let them entertain +uncherished—still less Himself foster and excite—longings +which He does not mean to gratify, a Christian yearning for +immortality is, to the man who feels it, a declaration that +immortality is sure for him. ‘Delight thyself in the Lord, and +He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.’ Whatsoever, in +touching Him, we do deeply long for may have blended with it human +elements, which will be dispersed unsatisfied, but the substance of +it is a prophecy of its own fulfilment. And as surely as the stork in +the heavens, flying southward, will reach the sunny lands which draw +it from the grim northern winter, so surely may a man say, ‘I +know that I have a house in heaven, because I long for it, and shrink +from being found naked.’</p> +<p>Of course such longing, such aspiration and revulsion are no +proofs of a fact except there be some fact which changes them, from +mere vague desires, and makes these solid certainties. And such a +fact we have in that which is the only proof that the world has +received, of the persistence of life through death and the +continuance of personal identity unchanged by the grave, and that is +the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Our faith in +immortality does not depend merely on our own subjective desires and +longings, but these desires and longings are quickened, confirmed, +and certified by this great fact that Jesus Christ has risen from the +dead; and therefore we know that the yearnings in us are not in vain. +So we come to this certitude, first, by reason of his experience; +and, second, by reason of the longings which that experience fosters +if it does not kindle, within our hearts.</p> +<p>And let no man take exception to the Apostle's word here, +‘we know,’ or tell us that ‘Knowledge is of the +things we see.’ That is true, and not true. It is true in +regard to what arrogates to itself the name of science. And we are +willing to admit the limitation if the men who insist upon it will, +on their sides, admit that there are other sources of certitude than +so-called ‘facts,’ by which they mean merely material +facts. If it is meant to assert that we are less sure of the love of +God, of immortality, than we are of the existence of this piece of +wood, or that flame of gas; then I humbly venture to say that there +is another region of facts than those which are appreciable by sense; +that the evidence upon which we rest our certitude of immortal +blessedness is quite as valid, quite as true, quite as able to bear +the weight of a leaning heart as anything that can be produced, in +the nature of evidence, for the things round us. It is not, ‘We +fancy, we believe, we hope, we are pretty nearly sure,’ but it +is ‘We <i>know</i> ... that we have a building of +God.’</p> +<p>III. Lastly, note what this certitude does.</p> +<p>The Apostle tells us by the ‘for’ which lies at the +beginning of my text, and makes it a reason for something that has +preceded, and what has preceded is this, ‘We look not at the +things which are seen, but at the things which are not +seen.’</p> +<p>That is to say, such a joyous, calm certitude draws men's thoughts +away from this shabby and transitory present, and fixes them on the +solemn majesties of that eternal future. Yes! and nothing else will. +Take away the idea of resurrection, and the remaining idea of +immortality is a poor, shadowy, impotent thing. There is no force in +it; there is no blessedness in it; there is nothing in it for a man +to lay hold of. And, as a matter of fact, there is no vivid faith in +a future life without belief in the resurrection and bodily existence +of the perfected dead.</p> +<p>And we shall not let our thoughts willingly go out thither unless +our own personal wellbeing there is very sure to us. When we know +that for us individually there is that house waiting for us to enter +into it, when the Lord comes, then we shall not be unwilling to turn +our hearts and our desires thither. We look at the things which are +not seen, for we know that we have a house eternal.</p> +<p>And such a certitude will also make a man willing to accept the +else unwelcome necessity of leaving the tent, and for a while doing +without the mansion. It is that which the Apostle is speaking of in +subsequent verses, on which I cannot enter now. He says—and +therein speaks a universal experience—that men recoil from the +idea of having to lay aside this earthly body and be +‘naked.’ But we know that we have that glorious mansion +waiting for us, and that till the day comes when we enter upon it we +may be lapt in Christ instead, and, in that so-called intermediate +state, may have Him to surround us, Him to be to us the medium by +which we come into connection with anything external, and so can +contentedly go away from our home in the body; and go to our home in +Christ. ‘Wherefore, we are always confident, and willing rather +to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the +Lord.’</p> +<p>Oh, brethren! do we think of our future thus? If we do, then let +us lay to heart the final words of our teacher in this part of his +letter: ‘Wherefore we make it our aim, whether at home or +absent, to be well-pleasing unto Him.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tpw89" id="tpw89">THE PATIENT WORKMAN</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same +thing is God.’—2 COR. v. 5.</blockquote> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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.’</p> +<p>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 absorbed by the rejoicing waters. And +then he says, ‘Now He that hath wrought us for this very thing, +is God.’</p> +<p>Of course it is impossible that he can mean by this ‘very +thing’ the second of the roads by which it was possible to +reach the ultimate issue, because he did not know whether his +brethren and he were to die or to be changed. He speaks in the +context about death as a possible contingency for himself and for +them,—‘<i>If</i> our earthly house of this tabernacle +were dissolved,’ and so on. Therefore we must suppose that +‘the self-same thing’ of which he is thinking as the +divine purpose in all His dealings with us, is not the manner in +which we may attain that ultimate condition, but the condition itself +which, by one road or another, God's children shall attain. Or, in +other words, the highest aim of the divine love in all its dealings +with us Christian men, is not merely a blessed spiritual life, but +the completion of our humanity in a perfect spirit dwelling in a +glorified body. Corporeity—the dwelling in a body by which the +pure spirit moves amidst pure universes—is the highest end of +God's will concerning us.</p> +<p>That glorified body is described in our context in wonderful +words, which it would take me far too long to do more than just touch +upon. Here we dwell in a tent, there we shall dwell in a building. +Here in a house made with hands, a corporeal frame derived from +parents by material transmission and intervention; there we shall +dwell in a building of which God is the maker. Here we dwell in a +crumbling clay tenement, which rains dissolve, which lightning +strikes, and winds overthrow, and which finally lies on the ground a +heap of tumbled ruin. There we dwell in a building, God's direct +work, eternal, and knowing no corruption nor change. Here we dwell in +a body congruous with, and part of, the perishable earthly world in +which it abides, and with which it stands in relation; there we dwell +in a house partaking of the nature of the heavens in which it moves, +a body that is the fit organ of a perfect spirit.</p> +<p>And so, says Paul, the end of what God means with us is not stated +in all its wonderfulness, when we speak of spirits imbued with His +wisdom and surcharged with His light and perfectness, but when we add +to that the thought of a fitting organ in which these spirits dwell, +whereby they can come into contact with an external universe, +incorruptible, and so reach the summit of their destined +completeness. ‘The house not made with hands,’ eternal, +the building of God in the Heavens, is the end that God has in view +for all His children.</p> +<p>II. So, then, secondly, note the slow process of the Divine +Workman.</p> +<p>The Apostle employs here a very emphatic compound term for +‘hath wrought.’ It conveys not only the idea of +operation, but the idea of continuous and somewhat toilsome and +effortful work, as if against the resistance of something that did +not yield itself naturally to the impulse that He would bestow. Like +some sculptor with a hard bit of marble, or some metallurgist who has +to work the rough ore till it becomes tractable, so the loving, +patient, Divine Artificer is here represented as labouring long and +earnestly with a somewhat obstinate material which can and does +resist His loving touch, and yet going on with imperturbable and +patient hope, by manifold touches, here a little and there a little, +all through life preparing a man for His purpose. The great Artificer +toils at His task, ‘rising early’ and working long, and +not discouraged when He comes upon a black vein in the white marble, +nor when the hard stone turns the edge of His chisels.</p> +<p>Now I would have you notice that there lies in this conception a +very important thought, viz. God cannot make you fit for heaven all +at a jump, or by a simple act of will. That is not His way of +working. He can make a world so, He cannot make a saint so. He can +speak and it is done when it is only a universe that has to be +brought into being; or He can say, ‘Let there be light,’ +and light springs at His word. But He cannot say, and He does not +say, Let there be holiness, and it comes. Not so can God make man +meet for the ‘inheritance of the saints in light.’ And it +takes Him all His energies, for all a lifetime, to prepare His child +for what He wants to make of him.</p> +<p>There is another thought here, which I can only touch, and that is +that God cannot give a man that glorified body of which I have been +speaking, unless the man's spirit is Christlike. He cannot raise a +bad man at the resurrection with the body of His glory. By the +necessities of the case it is confined to the purified, because it +corresponds to their inward spiritual being. It is only a perfect +spirit that can dwell in a perfect body. You could not put a bad man, +Godless and Christless, into the body which will be fit for them whom +Christ has changed first of all in heart and spirit into His own +likeness. He would be like those hermit crabs that you see on the +beach who run into any kind of a shell, whether it fits them or not, +in order to get a house.</p> +<p>There are two principles at work in the resurrection of the dead. +The glorified body is not the physical outcome of the material body +here, but is the issue and manifestation, in visible form, of the +perfect and Christlike spirit. Some shall rise to glory and +immortality, some to shame and everlasting contempt. If we are to +stand at the last with the body of our humiliation changed into a +body of glory, we must begin by being changed in the spirit of our +mind. As the mind is, so will the body be one day. But, passing from +such thoughts as these, and remembering that the Apostle here is +speaking only about Christian people, and the divine operations upon +them, we may still extend the meaning of this significant word +‘wrought’ somewhat further, and ask you just to consider, +and that very briefly, the three-fold processes which, in the divine +working, terminate in, and contemplate, this great issue.</p> +<p>God has wrought us for it in the very act of making us what we +are. Human nature is an insoluble enigma, if this world is its only +field. Amidst all the waste, the mysterious waste, of creation, there +is no more profligate expenditure of powers than that which is +involved in giving a man such faculties and capacities, if this be +the only field on which they are to be exercised. If you think of +what most of us do in this world, and of what it is in us to be, and +to do, it is almost ludicrous to consider the disproportion. All +other creatures fit their circumstances; nothing in them is bigger +than their environment. They find in life a field for every power. +You and I do not. ‘The foxes have holes, and the birds of the +air have roosting-places.’ They all correspond to their +circumstances, but we have an infinitude of faculty lying half +dormant in each of us, which finds no work at all in this present +world. And so, looking at men as they are with eternity in their +hearts, with natures that go reaching out towards infinity, the +question comes up: ‘Wherefore hast Thou made all men in vain? +What is the use of us, and why should we be what we are, if there is +nothing for us except this poor present?’ God, or whoever made +us, has made a mistake; and strangely enough, if we were not made, +but evolved, evolution has worked out faculties which have no +correspondence with the things around them.</p> +<p>Life and man are an insoluble enigma except on one hypothesis, and +that is that this is a nursery-ground, and that the plants will be +pricked out some day, and planted where they are meant to grow. The +hearts that feel after absolute and perfect love, the spirits that +can conceive the idea of an infinite goodness, the dumb desires, the +blank misgivings that wander homeless amidst the narrowness of this +poor earth, all these things proclaim that there is a region where +they will find their nutriment and expatiate, and when we look at a +man we can only say, He that hath wrought him for an infinite world, +and an endless communion with a perfect good, is God.</p> +<p>Still further, another field of the divine operation to this end +is in what we roughly call ‘providences.’ What is the +meaning of all this discipline through which we are passed, if there +is nothing to be disciplined for? What is the good of an +apprenticeship if there is no journeyman's life to come after it, +where the powers that have been slowly acquired shall be nobly +exercised upon broader fields? Why should men be taken, as it were, +and, like the rough iron from the ground,</p> +<pre> +'Be heated hot with hopes and fears, +And plunged in baths of hissing tears, +And battered with the shocks of doom,' +</pre> +<p class="noindent">if, after all the process, the polished shaft is +to be broken in two, and tossed away as rubbish? If death ends +faculty, it is a pity that the faculty was so patiently developed. If +God is educating us all in His school, and then means that, like some +wastrel boys, we should lose all our education as soon as we leave +its benches, there is little use in the rod, and little meaning in +the training. Brethren! life is an insoluble riddle unless the +purpose of it lie yonder, and unless all this patient training of our +sorrows and our gladnesses, the warmth that expands and the cold that +contracts the heart, the light that gladdens and the darkness that +saddens the eye and the spirit, are equally meant for training us for +the perfect life of a perfect soul moving a perfect body in a perfect +universe. Here is a pillar in some ancient hall that has fallen into +poor hands, and has had a low roof thrown across the centre of the +chamber at half its height. In the lower half there is part of a +pillar that means nothing; ugly, bare, evidently climbing, and +passing through the aperture, and away above yonder is the carved +capital and the great entablature that it carries. Who could +understand the shaft unless he could look up through the aperture, +and see the summit? And who can think of life as anything but a +wretched fragment unless he knows that all which begins here runs +upwards into the room above, and there finds its explanation and its +completion?</p> +<p>But there is the third sphere of the divine operation. As in +creation and in providence, so in all the work and mystery of our +redemption, this is the goal that God has in view. It was not worth +Christ's while to come and die, if nothing more was to come of it +than the imperfect reception of His blessings and gifts which the +noblest Christian life in this world presents. The meaning and +purpose of the Cross, the meaning and purpose of all the patient +dealings of His whispering Spirit, are that we shall be like our +Divine Lord in spirit first, and in body afterwards.</p> +<p>And everything about the experiences of a true Christian spirit is +charged with a prophecy of immortality. I have not time to dwell upon +one point gathered from the context, that I intended to have insisted +upon, viz. that the very desires which God's good Spirit works in a +believing soul are themselves confirmations of their own fulfilment. +But if you notice at your leisure the verses that precede my text, +you will find that the Apostle adduces the groanings of +‘earnest desire to be clothed with our house which is from +Heaven,’ as a proof that we <i>have</i> ‘a building of +God, a house not made with hands.’ That is to say, every +longing in a Christian heart when it is most filled with that Spirit, +and most in contact with God, and which is the answer of that heart +to a promise of Christ—every such longing carries with it the +assurance of its own fulfilment. He that hath wrought it has wrought +it in order that the desire may fit us for its answer, and that the +open mouth may be ready for the abundant filling which His grace +designs. He works upon us, therefore, by making us desire a gift, and +then He gives that which He desires. So let us cherish these +longings, not for the accident of escaping death, nor as choosing the +path by which we shall reach the blessed issue, but longing for that +great issue itself; and try to keep more distinct and clear before +all our minds this thought, ‘God means for me the participation +in Christ's glorified Manhood, and my attaining of that Manhood is +the end that He has in view in all that He does with me.’</p> +<p>III. So I must say one word about the last thought that is here, +and that is the certainty and the confidence. ‘Therefore we are +always confident,’ says the Apostle.</p> +<p>‘He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is +God.’ Then we may be sure that as far as He is concerned, the +work will not be suspended nor vain. <i>This</i> man does not begin +to build and is unable to finish. This workman has infinite +resources, an unchanging purpose, and infinite long-suffering. He +will complete His task.</p> +<p>In the quarries of Egypt you will find gigantic stones, +half-dressed, and intended to have been transported to some great +temple. But there they lie, the work incomplete, and they never +carried to their place. There are no half-polished stones in God's +quarries. They are all finished where they lie, and then borne across +the sea, like Hiram's from Lebanon, to the Temple on the hill. It is +a certainty that God will finish His work; and since ‘He that +hath wrought us is God,’ we may be sure that He will not stop +till He has done.</p> +<p>But it is a certainty that you can thwart. It is an operation that +you can counterwork. The potter in Jeremiah's parable was making a +vessel upon his wheel, and the vessel was marred in his hand, and did +not turn out what he wanted it. The meaning of the metaphor, which +has often been twisted to express the very opposite, is that the +potter's work may fail, that the artificer may be balked, that you +can counterwork the divine dealing, and that all His purpose in your +creation, in His providence and in His gift of His Son for your +redemption, may come to nought as far as you are concerned. ‘I +beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.’ +‘In vain have I smitten your children,’ wailed the Divine +Love; ‘they have received no correction.’ In vain God +lavishes upon some of us His mercies, in vain for some of us has +Christ toiled and suffered and died. Oh, brother! do not let all +God's work on you come to nought, but yield yourselves to it. Rejoice +in the confidence that He is moulding your character, cheerfully +welcome and accept the providences, painful as they may be, by which +He prepares you for heaven. The chisel is sharp that strikes off the +superfluous pieces of marble, and when the chisel cuts, not into +marble, but into a heart, there is a pang. Bear it, bear it! and +understand the meaning of the blow of the sculptor's mallet, and see +in all life the divine hand working towards the accomplishment of His +own loving purpose. Then if we turn to Him, amid the pains of His +discipline and the joys of His gifts of grace, with recognition and +acceptance of His meaning in them all, and cry to Him, ‘Thy +mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever, forsake not the work of Thine own +hands,’ we may be always confident, as knowing that ‘the +Lord will perfect that which concerneth us.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tohatn90" id="tohatn90">THE OLD HOUSE AND THE +NEW</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be +absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.’—2 +COR. v. 8.</blockquote> +<p>There lie in the words of my text simply these two things; the +Christian view of what death is, and the Christian temper in which to +anticipate it.</p> +<p>I. First, the Christian view of what death is.</p> +<p>Now it is to be observed that, properly speaking, the Apostle is +not here referring to the state of the dead, but to the act of dying. +The language would more literally and accurately be rendered +‘willing to <i>go from</i> home, from the body, and to +<i>go</i> home, to the Lord.’ The moment of transition of +course leads to a permanent state, but it is the moment of transition +which is in view in the words. I need not remind you, I suppose, that +the metaphor of the home is one which has already been dwelt upon in +the early part of the chapter, where the contrast is drawn between +the transitory house of ‘this tent,’ and the +‘building of God,’ the body of incorruption and glory +which the saints at the Resurrection day shall receive. So, then, the +Christian view of the act of death is that it is simply a change of +abode.</p> +<p>Very clearly and firmly does Paul draw the line between the man +and his dwelling-place. Life is more than a result of organisation. +Consciousness, thought, feeling, are more than functions of matter. +No materialist philosopher has ever been, or ever will be, able to +explain within the limits of his system the strange difference +between the cause and the effect; how it comes to pass that at the +one end of the chain there is an impression upon a nerve, and at the +other there is pain; how at the one end there is the throb of an inch +of matter in a man's skull, and at the other end there are thoughts +that breathe and words that burn, and that live for ever. That brings +us up to the edge of a gulf over which no materialist philosopher has +ever been able to cast a bridge. The scalpel cannot cut deep enough +to solve this mystery. Conscience as well as instinct cry out against +the theory that the worker and the tools are inseparable. For such a +theory reduces human actions to mechanical results, and shatters all +responsibility. Man is more than his dwelling-place. You crush a +shell on the beach with your heel, and you slay its tiny inhabitant. +But you can pull down the tent, and pluck up its pegs, and roll up +its canvas, and put it away in a dark corner, and the tenant is +untouched. The foolish senses crown Death as last, and lord of all. +But wisdom says, ‘Life and thought have gone away side by side, +leaving doors and windows wide,’ and that is all that has +happened.</p> +<p>Still further, my text suggests that to the Christian soul the +departure from the one house is the entrance into the other. The home +has been the body; the home is now to be Jesus Christ. And very +beautiful and significant with meanings, which only experience will +fully unfold, is the representation that the Lord Christ Himself +assumes the place which the bodily environment has hitherto held.</p> +<p>That teaches us, at all events, that there is a new depth and +closeness of union with Jesus waiting the Christian soul, when it +lays aside the separating film of flesh. Here the bodily +organisation, with its limitations, necessarily shuts us off from the +closeness of intercourse which is possible for a naked soul. We know +not how much separation may depend upon the immersing of the spirit +in the fleshly tabernacle, but this we know, that, though here and +now, by faith which dominates sense, souls can live in Christ even +whilst they live in the body; yet there shall come a form of union so +much more close, intimate, all-pervading, and all-encircling, as that +the present union with Him by faith, precious as it is, shall be, as +the Apostle calls it in our context, ‘absence from the +Lord.’ ‘We have to be discharged,’ says an old +thinker, ‘of a great deal of what we call body, and then we +shall be more truly ourselves,’ and more truly united to Him +who, if we are Christian people at all, is the self of ourselves and +the life of our lives. No man knows how close he can nestle to the +bosom of Christ when the film of flesh is rent away. Just as when in +some crowded street of a great city some grimy building is pulled +down, a sudden daylight fills the vacant space, and all the site that +had been shut out from the sky for many years is drenched in +sunshine, so when ‘the earthly house of this tabernacle’ +is ruinated and falls, the light will flood the place where it stood, +and to be ‘absent from the body’ shall be to be +‘present with the Lord.’</p> +<p>May we go a step further and suggest that, perhaps, in the bold +metaphor of my text, there is an answer to the questions which so +often rack loving and parted hearts? ‘Do the dead know aught of +what affects us here? and can they do aught but gaze on Him, and +love, and rest?’ If it be that there is any such analogy as +seems to be dimly shadowed in my text, between the relation of the +body on earth to the spirit that inhabits it, and that of Jesus +Christ to him who dwells in Him, and is clothed by Him, then it may +be that, as the flesh, so the Christ transmits to the spirit that has +Him for its home impressions from the outside world, and affords a +means of action upon that world. Christ may be, if I might so say, +the sensorium of the disembodied spirit; and Christ may be the hand +of the man who hath no other instrument by which to express himself. +But all that is fancy perhaps, speculation certainly; and yet there +seems to be a shadow of a foundation for at least entertaining the +possibility of such a thought as that Jesus is the means of knowing +and the means of acting to those who rest from their labours in Him, +and dwell in peace in His arms. But be that as it may, the reality of +a close communion and encircling by the felt presence of Jesus +Christ, which, in its blessed closeness, will make the closest +communion here seem to be obscure, is certainly declared in the words +before us.</p> +<p>Then this transition is regarded in my text as being the work of a +moment. It is not a long journey of which the beginning is ‘to +go <i>from</i> home, from the body,’ and the end is ‘to +<i>go</i> home, to the Lord.’ But it is one and the same motion +which, looked at from the one side, is departure, and looked at from +the other is arrival. The old saying has it, ‘there is but a +step between me and death.’ The truth is, there is but a step +between me and <i>life</i>. The mighty angel in the Apocalypse, that +stood with one foot on the firm land and the other on the boundless +ocean, is but the type of the spirit in the brief moment of +transition, when the consciousness of two worlds blends, and it is +clothed upon with the house which is from heaven, in the very act of +stripping off the earthly house of this tabernacle.</p> +<p>Nor need I remind you, I suppose, in more than a sentence, that +this transition obviously leads into a state of conscious communion +with Jesus Christ. The dreary figment of an unconscious interval for +the disembodied spirit has no foundation, either in what we know of +spirit, or in what is revealed to us in Scripture. For the one thing +that seems to make it probable—the use of that metaphor of +‘sleeping in Jesus’—is quite sufficiently accounted +for by the notions of repose, and cessation of outward activity, and +withdrawal of capacity of being influenced by the so-called realities +of this lower world, without dragging in the unfounded notion of +unconsciousness. My text is incompatible with it, for it is absurd to +say of an unconscious spirit, clear of a bodily environment, that it +is anywhere; and there is no intelligible sense in which the +condition of such a spirit can be called being ‘with the +Lord.’</p> +<p>So, then, I think a momentary transition, with uninterrupted +consciousness, which leads to a far deeper and more wonderful and +blessed sense of unity with Jesus Christ than is possible here on +earth, is the true shape in which the act of death presents itself to +the Christian thinker.</p> +<p>And remember, dear brethren, that is all we know. Nothing else is +certain—nothing but this, ‘with the Lord,’ and the +resulting certainty that therefore it is well with them. It is enough +for our faith, for our comfort, for our patient waiting. They live in +Christ, ‘and there we find them worthier to be loved,’ +and certainly lapped in a deeper rest. ‘Blessed are the dead +that die in the Lord.’</p> +<p>II. In the next place, note the Christian temper in which to +anticipate the transition.</p> +<p>‘We are always courageous, and willing rather to leave our +home in the body, and to go home to the Lord.’ Now I must +briefly remind you of how the Apostle comes to this state of feeling. +He has been speaking about the natural shrinking, which belongs to +all humanity, from the act of dissolution, considered as being the +stripping off of the garment of the flesh. And he has declared, on +behalf of himself and the early Christian Church, his own and their +personal desire that they might escape from that trial by the path +which seemed possible to the early Christians—viz. that of +surviving until the return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, when they +would be ‘clothed upon with the house which is from +Heaven,’ without the necessity of stripping off that with which +at present they are invested. Then he says—and this is a very +remarkable thought—that just because this instinctive shrinking +from death and yearning for the glorified body is so strong in the +Christian heart, that is a sign that there is such a glorified body +waiting for us. He says, ‘we know that if our house ... were +dissolved, we have a building of God.’ And his reason for +knowing it is this, ‘<i>for</i> in this we groan.’ That +is a bold position to say that a yearning in the Christian +consciousness prophesies its own fulfilment. Our desires are the +prophecies of His gifts. Then, on this certainty—which he +deduces from the fact of the longing for it—on this certainty +of the glorious, ultimate body of the Resurrection he bases his +willingness expressed in the text, to go through the unwelcome +process of leaving the old house, although he shrinks from it.</p> +<p>So, then, Christian faith does not destroy the natural reluctance +to put aside the old companion of our lives. The old house, though it +be smoky, dimly lighted, and, by our own careless keeping, sluttish +and grimy in many a corner, yet is the only house we have ever known, +and to be absent from it is untried and strange. There is nothing +wrong in saying ‘we would not be unclothed but clothed +upon.’ Nature speaks there. We may reverently entertain the +same feelings which our Pattern acknowledged, when He said, ‘I +have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened until it +be accomplished.’ And there would be nothing sinful in +repeating His prayer with His conditions, ‘If it be possible, +let this cup pass from Me.’</p> +<p>But then the text suggests to us the large Christian possessions +and hope which counterwork this reluctance, in the measure in which +we live lives of faith. There is the assurance of that ultimate home +in which all the transiency of the present material organisation is +exchanged for the enduring permanence which knows no corruption. The +‘tent’ is swept away to make room for the +‘building.’ The earthly house is dissolved in order that +there may be reared round the homeless tenant the house eternal, +‘not made with hands,’ God's own work, which is waiting +in the heavens; because the power that shall frame it is there. Not +only that great hope of the ‘body of His glory,’ with +which at the last all true souls shall be invested, but furthermore, +‘the earnest of the spirit,’ and the blessed experiences +therefrom, resulting even here, ought to make the unwelcome necessity +less unwelcome. If the firstfruits be righteousness and peace and joy +of the Holy Ghost, what shall the harvest be? If the +‘earnest,’ the shilling given in advance, be so precious, +what will the whole wealth of the inheritance which it heralds be +when it is received?</p> +<p>For such reasons the transitory passage becomes less painful and +unwelcome. Who is there that would hesitate to dip his foot into the +ice-cold brook if he knew that it would not reach above his ankles, +and that a step would land him in blessedness unimagined till +experienced?</p> +<p>Therefore the Christian temper is that of quiet willingness and +constant courage. There is nothing hysterical here, nothing morbid, +nothing overstrained, nothing artificial. The Apostle says: ‘I +would rather not. I should like if I could escape it. It is an +unwelcome necessity; but when I see what I do see beyond,’ I am +ready. Since so it must be, I will go, not reluctantly, nor dragged +away from life, nor clinging desperately to it as it slips from my +hands, nor dreading anything that may happen beyond; but always +courageous, and prepared to go whithersoever the path may take me, +since I am sure that it ends in His bosom. He is willing to go from +the home of the body, because to do that is to go home to Christ.</p> +<p>There are other references of our Apostle's, substantially of the +same tone as that of my text, but with very beautiful and encouraging +differences. When he was nearer his end, when it seemed to him as if +the headsman's block was not very far off, his <i>willingness</i> had +intensified into ‘having a <i>desire</i> to depart and to be +with Christ, which is far better.’ And when the end was all but +reached, and he knew that death was waiting just round the next turn +in the road, he said, with the confidence that in the midst of the +struggle would have been vainglory, but at the end of it was a +foretaste of the calm of Heaven, ‘I have finished my course, I +have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of +righteousness.’ That is our model, dear +brethren,—‘always courageous,’ afraid of nothing in +life, in death, or beyond, and therefore willing to go from home from +the body and to go home to the Lord.</p> +<p>Think of this man thus fronting the inevitable, with no excitement +and with no delusions. Remember what Paul believed about death, about +sin, about his own sin, about judgment, about hell. And then think of +how to him death had made its darkness beautiful with the light of +Christ's face, and all the terror was gone out of it. Do you think so +about death? Do you shrink from it? Why? Why do you not take Paul's +cure for the shrinking? If you can say, ‘To me to live is +Christ,’ you will have no difficulty in saying, ‘and to +die is gain.’ That is the only way by which you can come to +such a temper, and then you will be willing to move from the cottage +to the palace, and to wait in peace till you are shifted again into +‘the building of God, the house not made with hands, eternal in +the heavens.’</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="pc91" id="pc91">PLEASING CHRIST</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘We labour that whether present or absent we may be +accepted of Him.’—2 COR. v. 2.</blockquote> +<p>We do not usually care very much for, or very much trust, a man's +own statement of the motives of his life, especially if in the +statement he takes credit for lofty and noble ones. And it would be +rather a dangerous experiment for the ordinary run of so-called +Christian people to stand up and say what Paul says here, that the +supreme design and aim towards which all their lives are directed is +to please Jesus Christ. In his case the tree was known by its fruits. +Certainly there never was a life of more noble self-abnegation, of +more continuous heroism, of loftier aspiration and lowlier service +than the life of which we see the very pulse in these words.</p> +<p>But Paul is not only professing his own faith, he is speaking in +the name of all his brethren. ‘We,’ ought to include +every man and woman who calls himself or herself a Christian. It is +this setting of the will of Jesus Christ high up above all other +commandments, and proposing to one's self as the aim that swallows up +all other aims, that I may please Him—it is this, and not +creeds, forms, opinions, professions, or even a faith that simply +trusts in Him for salvation, that makes a true Christian. You are a +Christian in the precise measure in which Christ's will is uppermost +and exclusive in your life, and for all your professions and your +orthodoxy and your worship and your faith, not one hair's-breadth +further. Here is the signature and the common characteristic of all +real Christians, ‘We labour that whether present or absent we +may be well-pleasing to Him.’</p> +<p>So then in looking together at these words now, I take three +points, the supreme aim of the Christian life; the concentration of +effort which that aim demands; and the insignificance to which it +reduces all external things.</p> +<p>I. First, then, let me deal with that supreme aim of the Christian +life.</p> +<p>The word which is, correctly enough, rendered +‘accepted,’ may more literally, and perhaps with a closer +correspondence to the Apostle's meaning, be translated +‘well-pleasing,’ and the aim is this, not merely that we +may be accepted, but that we may bring a smile into His face, and +some joy and complacent delight in us into His heart, when He looks +upon our doings. That pleasure of Jesus Christ in them that +‘fear Him, and in them that hope in His mercy’ and do His +will is a present emotion that fills His heart in looking upon His +followers, and it will be especially declared in the solemn, final +judgment. We must keep in view both of these periods, if we would +rightly understand the sweep of the aim which ought to be uppermost +in all Christian people. Here and now in our present acts, we should +so live as to occasion a present sentiment of complacent delight in +us, in the heart of the Christ who sees us here and now and always. +We should so live as that at that far-off future day when we shall +‘all be manifested before the Judgment-seat of Christ,’ +the Judge may bend from His tribunal, and welcome us into His +presence with a word of congratulation and an outstretched hand of +loving reception. Set that two-fold aim before you, Christian men and +women, else you will fail to experience the full stimulus of this +thought.</p> +<p>Now such an aim as this implies a very wonderful conception of +Jesus Christ's present relations to us. It is a truth that we may +minister to His joy. It is a truth that just as really as you mothers +are glad when you hear from a far-off land that your boy is doing +well, and getting on, so Jesus Christ's heart fills with gladness +when He sees you and me walking in the paths in which He would have +us go. We often think about our dear dead that they cannot know of us +and our doings here, because the sorrow that would sometimes come +from the contemplation of our evil, or of our misfortunes, would +trouble them in their serene rest. We know not how that may be, but +this at least we do know, that the Man Jesus Christ, who, like those +dear ones, ‘was dead, and is alive for evermore,’ in His +human nature has knowledge of all His children's failures, as well as +successes, and is affected with some shadow of regret, or with some +reality of delight, according as they follow or stray from the paths +in which He would have them walk. If it be so with Him it may be so +with them; and though it be not so with them it must be so with Him. +So this strange, sweet, tender, and powerful thought is a piece of +plain prose, that Christ is glad when you and I are good.</p> +<p>Does it need any word to emphasise the force of that motive to a +Christian heart that loves the Master? Surely this is the great and +blessed peculiarity of all the morality of Christianity that it has +all a personal bearing and aspect, and that just as the sum of all +our duty is gathered up in the one command, ‘Imitate +Christ,’ so the motive for all our duty lies in ‘If you +love Me, keep My commandments,’ and the reward which ought to +stimulate more than anything besides is the one thought, not, of what +I shall get because I am good, but of what I shall give Him by my +obedience, a joy in the heart that was stabbed through and through by +sorrow for my sake. That we may please Him ‘who pleased not +Himself,’ is surely the grandest motive on which the pursuit of +holiness, and the imitation of Jesus Christ can ever be made to rest. +Oh! how different, and how much more blessed such a motive and aim is +than all the lower reasons for which men are sometimes exhorted and +encouraged to be good! What a difference it is when we say, ‘Do +that thing because it is right,’ and when we say, ‘Do +that thing because you will be happier if you do,’ or when we +say, ‘Do it because He would like you to do it.’ The one +is all cold and abstract. To stand before a man and simply say: +‘Now go and do your duty,’ is a poor way of setting his +feet upon a rock and establishing his goings. Duty is not a word that +stirs men's hearts, however it may awe their consciences. It rises up +before us like some goddess statuesque and serene, with purity, +indeed, in her deep and solemn eyes, but with nothing appealing to +our affections in her stern lineaments. But when the thought of +‘You ought’ melts into ‘For my sake,’ and +through the dissolving face of the cold marble goddess there shine +the beloved lineaments of Him who ‘wears the Godhead's most +benignant grace,’ the smile upon His face becomes a motive that +touches all hearts. Transmute obligation into gratitude, and in front +of duty and appeals to self put Christ, and all the harshness and +difficulty and burden and self-sacrifice of obedience becomes easy +and a joy.</p> +<p>Then let me remind you that this one supreme aim of pleasing Jesus +Christ can be carried on through all life in every varying form, +great or small. A blessed unity is given to our whole being when the +little things and the big things, the easy things and the hard +things, deeds which are conspicuous and deeds which no eye sees, are +all brought under the influence of the one motive and made co-operant +to the one end. Drive that one steadfast aim through your lives like +a bar of iron, and it will give the lives strength and +consistency—not rigidity, because they may still be flexible. +Nothing will be too small to be consecrated by that motive; nothing +too great to own its power. You can please Him everywhere and always. +The only thing that is inconsistent with pleasing Him is the thing +which, alas! we do at all times and should do at no time, and that is +to sin against Him. If we bear with us this as a conscious motive in +every part of our day's work it will give us a quick discernment as +to what is evil, which I believe nothing else will so surely give. If +you desire life to be noble, uniform, dignified, great in its +minutest acts and solemn in its very trifles, and if you would have +some continual test and standard by which you can detect all +spurious, apparent virtues, and discover lurking and masked +temptations, carry this one aim clear and high above all else, and +make it the purpose of the whole life, to be well-pleasing unto +Him.</p> +<p>II. Now, in the next place, notice the concentrated effort which +this aim requires.</p> +<p>The word rendered in my text ‘labour’ is a peculiar +one, very seldom employed in Scripture. It means, in its most literal +signification, to be fond of honour, or to be actuated by a love of +honour; and hence it comes, by a very natural transition, to mean to +strive to gain something for the sake of the honour connected with +it. That is to say, it not only expresses the notion of diligent, +strenuous effort, but it reveals the reason for that diligence and +strenuousness in what I may call (for the word might almost be so +rendered) the <i>ambition</i> of being honoured by pleasing Christ. +So that the ‘labour’ of my text covers the whole ground, +not only of the act but of its motive. The concentration of effort +which such an aim requires may be enforced by one or two simple +exhortations.</p> +<p>First, let me say that we ought, as Christian people, to cultivate +this noble ambition of pleasing Jesus Christ. Men have all got the +love of approbation deep in them. God put it there for a good +purpose, not that we might shape our lives so as to get others to pat +us on the back, and say, ‘Well done!’ but that, in +addition to the other solemn and sovereign motives for following the +paths of righteousness, we might have this highest ambition to impel +us on the road. And it is the duty of all Christians to see to it +that they discipline themselves so as, in their own feelings, to put +high above all the approbation or censure of their fellows the +approbation or censure of Jesus Christ. That will take some +cultivation. It is a great deal easier to shape our courses so as to +get one another's praise. I remember a quaint saying in a German +book. ‘An old schoolmaster tried to please this one and that +one, and it failed. “Well, then,” said he, “I will +try to please Christ.” And that succeeded.’</p> +<p>And let me remind you that a second part of the concentration of +effort which this aim requires is to strive with the utmost energy in +the accomplishment of it. Paul did not believe that anybody could +please Jesus Christ without a fight for it. His notion of acceptable +service was service which a man suppressed much to render, and +overcame much to bring. And I urge upon you this, dear brethren, that +with all the mob of faces round about us which shut out Christ's +face, and with all the temptations to follow other aims, and with the +weaknesses of our own characters, it never was, is not, nor ever will +be, an easy thing, or a thing to be done without a struggle and a +dead lift, to live so as to be well-pleasing to Him.</p> +<p>Look at Paul's metaphors with which he sets forth the Christian +life—a warfare, a race, a struggle, a building up of some great +temple structure, and the like—all suggesting at the least the +idea of patient, persistent, continuous toil, and most of them +suggesting also the idea of struggle with antagonistic forces and +difficulties, either within or without. So we must set our shoulders +to the wheel, put our backs into our work. Do not think that you are +going to be carried into the condition of conformity with Jesus +Christ in a dream, or that the road to heaven is a primrose path, to +be trodden in silver slippers. ‘I will not offer unto the Lord +that which doth cost me nothing,’ and if you do, it will be +worth exactly what it costs. There must be concentration of effort if +we are to be well-pleasing to Him.</p> +<p>But then do not forget, on the other hand, that deeper than all +effort, and the very spring and life of it, there must be the opening +of our hearts for the entrance of His life and spirit, by the +presence of which only are we well-pleasing to Christ. That which +pleases Him in you and me is our likeness to Him. According to the +old Puritan illustration, the refiner sat by the furnace until he +could see in the molten metal his own face mirrored, and then he knew +it was pure. So what pleases Christ in us is the reflection of +Himself. And how can we get that likeness to Himself except by +receiving into our hearts the Spirit that was in Christ Jesus, and +will dwell in us, and will produce in us in our measure the same +image that it formed in Him? ‘Work <i>out</i> your own +salvation,’ because ‘it is God that worketh <i>in</i> +you.’ Labour, concentrate effort, and above all open the heart +to the entrance of that transforming power.</p> +<p>III. Lastly, let me suggest the utter insignificance to which this +aim reduces all externals.</p> +<p>‘We labour,’ says Paul, ‘that whether present or +absent, we may be accepted.’ What differences of condition are +covered by that parenthetical phrase—‘present or +absent!’ He talks about it as if it was a very small matter, +does he not? And what is included in it? Whether a man shall be in +the body or out of it; that is to say, whether he be alive or dead. +Here is an aim then, so great, so lofty, so all-comprehensive that it +reduces the difference between living in the world and being out of +it, to a trifle. And if we stand so high up that these two varieties +of condition dwindle into insignificance and seem to have melted into +one, do you think that there is anything else that will be very big? +If the difference between life and death is dwindled and dwarfed, +what else do you suppose will remain? Nothing, I should think.</p> +<p>So if we only, by God's help, which will be given to us if we want +it, keep this clear before us as the motive of all our life, then all +the possible alternatives of human condition and circumstance will +sink into insignificance, and from that lofty summit will ‘show +scarce so gross as beetles’ in the air beneath our lofty +station.</p> +<p>Whether we be rich or poor, solitary or beset by friends, happy or +sad, hopeful or despairing, young or old, wearied or buoyant, learned +or foolish, it matters not. The one aim lifts itself before us, and +they in whose eyes shine the light of that great issue are careless +of the road along which they pass. Do you enlist yourselves in the +company that fires at the long range, and all those that take aim at +the shorter ones will seem to be very pitifully limiting their +powers.</p> +<p>Then remember that this same aim, and this same result may be +equally pursued and attained whether here or yonder. It is something +to have a course of life which runs straight along, unbent aside, and +not cut short off, by the change from earth to Heaven. And this +felicity he only has who, amidst things temporal and insignificant, +sees and seeks the eternal smile on the face of his unchanging +Saviour. On earth, in death, through eternity, such a life will be +homogeneous and of a piece; and when all other aims are hull down +below the horizon, forgotten and out of sight, then still this will +be the purpose, and yonder it will be the accomplished purpose, of +each, to please the Lord Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>My dear friend, remember that in its full meaning this aim regards +the future, and points onward to that great judgment-seat where you +and I will certainly each of us give account of himself. Do you think +that you will please Christ then? Do you think that when that day +dawns, a smile of welcome will come into His eyes, and a glow of +gladness at the meeting into yours? Or have you cause to fear that +you will ‘call on the rocks and the hills to cover you from the +face of Him that sitteth on the Throne?’</p> +<p>We are all close by one another; our voices are very audible to +each other. Do you learn, Christian people, that the first,—or +at least a prime—condition of all Christian and Christ-pleasing +life, is a wholesome disregard of what anybody says but Himself. The +old Lacedæmonians used to stir themselves to heroism by the +thought: ‘What will they say of us in Sparta?’ The +governor of some outlying English colony minds very little what the +people that he is set to rule think about him. He reports to Downing +Street, and it is the opinion of the Home Government that influences +him. You report to headquarters. Never mind what anybody else thinks +of you. Your business is to please Christ, and the less you trouble +yourselves about pleasing men the more you will succeed in doing it. +Be deaf to the tittle tattle of your fellow soldiers in the ranks. It +is your Commander's smile that will be your highest reward.</p> +<pre> +'Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, +But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes, +And perfect witness of all-judging Jove; +As he pronounces lastly on each deed, +Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed.' +</pre> +<hr> +<h2><a name="tltc92" id="tltc92">THE LOVE THAT CONSTRAINS</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘The love of Christ constraineth us.’—2 +COR. v. 14.</blockquote> +<p>It is a dangerous thing to be unlike other people. It is still +more dangerous to be better than other people. The world has a little +heap of depreciatory terms which it flings, age after age, at all men +who have a higher standard and nobler aims than their fellows. A +favourite term is ‘mad.’ So, long ago they said, +‘The prophet is a fool; the spiritual man is mad,’ and, +in His turn, Jesus was said to be ‘beside Himself,’ and +Festus shouted from the judgment-seat to Paul that he was mad. A +great many people had said the same thing about him before, as the +context shows. For the verse before my text is: ‘Whether we be +beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for +your cause.’ Now the former clause can only refer to other +people's estimate of the Apostle. No doubt there were many things +about him that gave colour to it. He said that a dead Man had +appeared to him and spoken with him. He said that he had been carried +up into the third heaven. He had a very strange creed in the judgment +of the times. He had abandoned a brilliant career for a very poor +one. He was obviously utterly indifferent to the ordinary aims of +men. He had a consuming enthusiasm. And so the world explained him +satisfactorily to itself by the short and easy method of saying, +‘Insane.’ And Paul explained himself by the great word of +my text, ‘The love of Christ constraineth us.’ Wherever +there is a life adequately under the influence of Christ's love the +results will be such as an unsympathising world may call madness, but +which are the perfection of sober-mindedness. Would there were more +such madmen! I wish to try to make one or two of them now, by getting +some of you to take for your motto, ‘The love of Christ +constraineth us.’</p> +<p>I. Now the first thing to notice is this constraining love.</p> +<p>I need not spend time in showing that when Paul says here +‘The love of Christ,’ he means Christ's love to him, not +his to Christ. That is in accordance with his continual usage of the +expression; and it is in accordance with facts. For it is not my love +to Jesus, but His love to me, that brings the real moulding power +into my life, and my love to Him is only the condition on which the +true power acts upon me. To get the fulcrum and the lever which will +heave a life up to the heights you have to get out of yourselves.</p> +<p>Now Paul never saw Jesus Christ in this earthly life. Timothy, who +is associated with him in this letter, and perhaps is one of the +‘us,’ never saw Him either. The Corinthian believers whom +he is addressing had, of course, never seen Him. And yet the Apostle +has not the slightest hesitation in taking that great benediction of +Christ's love and spreading it over them all. That love is +independent of time and of space; it includes humanity, and is +co-extensive with it. Unturned away by unworthiness, unrepelled by +non-responsiveness, undisgusted by any sin, unwearied by any, however +numerous, foiling of its attempts, the love of Christ, like the great +heavens that bend above us, wraps us all in its sweetness, and +showers upon us all its light and its dew.</p> +<p>And yet, brethren, I would have you remember that whilst we thus +try to paint, in poor, poor words, the universality of that love, we +have to remember that it does not partake of the weakness that +infects all human affections, which are only strong when they are +narrow, and as the river expands it becomes shallow, and loses the +force in its flow which it had when it was gathered between straiter +banks, so as that a universal charity is almost akin to a universal +indifference. But this love that grasps us all, this river that +‘proceedeth from the Throne of God and of the Lamb,’ +flows in its widest reaches as deep and as impetuous in its career as +if it were held within the narrowest of gorges. For Christ's +universal love is universal only because it is individualising and +particular. We love our nation by generalising and losing sight of +the individuals. Christ loves the world because He loves every man +and woman in it, and His grace enwraps all because His grace hovers +over each.</p> +<pre> +'The sun whose beams most glorious are + Despiseth no beholder,' +</pre> +<p class="noindent">but the rays come straight to each eyeball. Be +sure of this: that He who, when the multitude thronged Him and +pressed Him, felt the tremulous, timid, scarcely perceptible touch of +one woman's wasted finger on the hem of His garment, holds each of us +in the grasp of His love, which is universal, because it applies to +each. You and I have each the whole radiance of it pouring down on +our heads, and none intercepts the beams from any other. So, +brethren, let us each feel not only the love that grasps the world, +but the love that empties itself on me.</p> +<p>But there is one more remark that I wish to make in reference to +this constraining love of Jesus Christ, and that is, that in order to +see and feel it we must take the point of view that this Apostle +takes in my text. For hearken how he goes on. ‘The love of +Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for +all, then all died, and that He died for all,’ etc. That is to +say, the death of Christ for all, which is equivalent to the death of +Christ for each, is the great solvent by which the love of God melts +men's hearts, and is the great proof that Jesus Christ loves me, and +thee, and all of us. If you strike out that conception you have +struck out from your Christianity the vindication of the belief that +Christ loves the world. What possible meaning is there in the +expression, ‘He died for all?’ How can the fact of His +death on a ‘green hill’ outside the gates of a little +city in Syria have world-wide issues, unless in that death He bore, +and bore away, the sins of the whole world? I know that there have +been many—and there are many to-day—who not accepting +what seems to me to be the very vital heart of +Christianity—viz. the death of Christ for the world's sin, do +yet cherish—as I think illogically—yet do cherish a +regard for Him, which puts some of us who call ourselves +‘orthodox,’ and are tepid, to the blush. Thank God! men +are often better than their creeds, as well as worse than them. But +that fact does not affect what I am saying now, and what I beg you to +take for what you find it to be worth, that unless we believe that +Jesus Christ died for all, I do not know what claim He has on the +love of the world. We shall admire Him, we shall bow before Him, as +the very realised ideal of humanity, though how this one Man has +managed to escape the taint of the all-pervading evil remains, upon +that hypothesis, very obscure. But love Him? No! Why should I? But if +I feel that His death had world-wide issues, and that He went down +into the darkness in order that He might bring the world into the +light, then—and I am sure, on the wide scale and in the +long-run only then—will men turn to Him and say, ‘Thou +hast died for me, help me to live for Thee.’ Brethren, I +beseech you, take care of emptying the death of Christ of its deepest +meaning, lest you should thereby rob His character of its chiefest +charm, and His name of its mightiest soul-melting power. The love +that constraineth is the love that died, and died for all, because it +died for each.</p> +<p>II. Now let me ask you to consider the echo of this constraining +love.</p> +<p>I said a moment or two ago that Christ's love to us is the +constraining power, and that ours to Him is but the condition on +which that power works. But between the two there comes something +which brings that constraining love to bear upon our hearts. And so +notice what my text goes on to adduce as needful for Christ's love to +have its effect—namely, ‘because we thus judge,’ +etc. Then my estimate, my apprehension of the love of Christ must +come in between its manifestation and its power to grip, to restrain, +to impel me. If I may use such a figure, He stands, as it were, bugle +in hand, and blows the sweet strains that are meant to set the echoes +flying. But the rock must receive the impact of the vibrations ere it +can throw back the thinned echo of the music. Love must be believed +and known ere it can be responded to.</p> +<p>Now the only answer and echo that hearts desire is the love of the +beloved heart. We all know that in our earthly life. Love is as much +a hunger to be loved as the outgoing of my own affection. The two +things are inseparable, and there is nothing that repays love but +love. Jesus Christ wishes each of us to love Him. If it is true that +He loves me, then, intertwisted with the outgoing of His heart +towards me is the yearning that my heart may go out towards Him. Dear +brethren, this is no pulpit rhetoric, it is a plain, simple fact, +inseparable from the belief in Christ's love—that He wishes you +and every soul of man to love Him, and that, whatever else you bring, +lip reverence, orthodox belief, apparent surrender, in the assay shop +of His great mint all these are rejected, and the only metal that +passes the fire is the pure gold of an answering love. Brethren! is +that what you bring to Jesus Christ?</p> +<p>Love seeks for love, and our love can only be an echo of His. He +takes the beginning in everything. If I am to love Him back again, I +must have faith in His love to me. And if that be so, then the true +way by which you, imperfect Christian people, can deepen and +strengthen your love to Jesus Christ is not so much by efforts to +work up a certain warmth of sentiment and glow of affection, as by +gazing, with believing eyes of the heart, upon that which kindles +your love to Him. If you want ice to melt, put it out into the +sunshine, If you want the mirror to gleam, do not spend all your time +in polishing it. Carry it where it can catch the ray, and it will +flash it back in glory. ‘We love Him because He first loved +us.’ Our love is an echo; be sure that you listen for the +parent note, and link yourselves by faith with that great love which +has come down from Heaven for us all.</p> +<p>But how can I speak about echoes and responses when I know that +there are scores of men and women whom a preacher's words reach who +would be ashamed of themselves, and rightly, if they exhibited the +same callousness of heart and selfishness of ingratitude to some +human, partial benefactor as they are not ashamed to have exhibited +all their lives to Jesus Christ. Echo? Yes! your heartstrings are set +vibrating fast enough whenever, in the adjoining apartment, an +instrument is touched which is tuned to the same key as your heart. +Pleasures, earthly aims, worldly gifts, the sweetnesses of human +life, all these things set them thrilling, and you can hear the +music, but your hearts are not tuned to answer to the note that is +struck in ‘He loved me and gave Himself for me.’ The +bugle is blown, and there is silence, and no echo, faint and far, +comes whispering back. Brethren, we use no one else, in whose love we +have any belief, a thousandth part so ill as we use Jesus Christ.</p> +<p>III. Now, lastly, let me say a word about the constraining +influence of this echoed love.</p> +<p>Its first effect, if it has any real power in our hearts and +lives, will be to change their centre, to decentralise. Look what the +Apostle goes on to say: ‘We thus judge that He ... died for +all, that they which live should not live henceforth unto +themselves.’ That is the great transformation. Secure that, and +all nobleness will follow, and ‘whatsoever things are lovely +and of good report’ will come, like doves to their windows, +flocking into the soul that has ceased to find its centre in its poor +rebellious self. All love derives its power to elevate, refine, +beautify, ennoble, conquer, from the fact that, in lower degree, all +love makes the beloved the centre, and not the self. Hence the +mother's self-sacrifice, hence the sweet reciprocity of wedded life, +hence everything in humanity that is noble and good. Love is the +antagonist of selfishness, and the highest type of love should be, +and in the measure in which we are under the influence of Christ's +love will be, the self-surrendering life of a Christian man. I know +that in saying so I am condemning myself and my brethren. All the +same, it is true. The one power that rescues a man from the tyranny +of living for self, which is the mother of all sin and ignobleness, +is when a man can say ‘Christ is my aim,’ ‘Christ +is my object.’ ‘The life that I live in the flesh I live +by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for +me.’ There is no secret of self-annihilation, which is +self-transfiguration, and, I was going to say, deification, like that +of loving Christ with all my heart because He has loved me so.</p> +<p>Again, let me remind you that, on its lower reaches and levels, we +find that all true affection has in it a strange power of +assimilating its objects to one another. Just as a man and woman who +have lived together for half a century in wedded life come to have +the same notions, the same prejudices, the same tastes, and sometimes +you can see their very faces being moulded into likeness, so, if I +love Jesus Christ, I shall by degrees grow liker and liker to Him, +and be ‘changed into the same image, from glory to +glory.’</p> +<p>Again, the love constrains, and not only constrains but impels, +because it becomes a joy to divine and to do the will of the beloved +Christ. ‘My yoke is easy.’ Is it? It is very hard to be a +Christian. His requirements are a great deal sterner than others. His +yoke is easy, not because it is a lighter yoke, but because it is +padded with love. And that makes all service a sacrament, and the +surrender of my own will, which is the essence of obedience, a +joy.</p> +<p>So, dear friends, we come here in sight of the unique and blessed +characteristic of all Christian morality, and of all its practical +exhortations, and the Gospel stands alone as the mightiest moulding +power in the world, just because its word is ‘love, and do as +thou wilt.’ For in the measure of thy love will thy will +coincide with the will of Christ. There is nothing else that has +anything like that power. We do not want to be told what is right. We +know it a great deal better than we practise it. A revelation from +heaven that simply told me my duty would be surplusage. ‘If +there had been a law that could have given life, righteousness had +been by the law.’ We want a life, not a law, and the love of +Christ brings the life to us.</p> +<p>And so, dear friends, that life, restrained and impelled by the +love to which it is being assimilated, is a life of liberty and a +life of blessedness. In the measure in which the love of Christ +constrains any man, it makes for him difficulties easy, the +impossible possible, the crooked things straight, and the rough +places plain. The duty becomes a delight, and self ceases to disturb. +If the love of God is shed abroad in a heart, and in the measure in +which it is, that heart will be at rest, and a great peace will brood +over it. Then the will bows in glad submission, and all the powers +arise to joyous service. We are lords of the world and ourselves when +we are Christ's servants for love's sake; and earth and its good are +never so good as when the power of His echoed love rules our lives. +Do you know and believe that Christ loves you? Do you know and +believe that you had a place in His heart when He hung on the Cross +for the salvation of the world? Have you answered that love with +yours, kindled by your faith in, and experience of, His? Is His love +the overmastering impulse which urges you to all good, the mighty +constraint that keeps you back from all evil, the magnet that draws, +the anchor that steadies, the fortress that defends, the light that +illumines, the treasure that enriches? Is it the law that commands, +and the power that enables? Then you are blessed, though people will +perhaps say that you are mad, whilst here; and you will be blessed +for ever and ever.</p> +<hr> +<h2><a name="teog93" id="teog93">THE ENTREATIES OF GOD</a></h2> +<blockquote>‘Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though +God did beseech ... by us: we pray ... in Christ's stead, be ye +reconciled to God.’—2 COR. v. 20.</blockquote> +<p>These are wonderful and bold words, not so much because of what +they claim for the servants as because of what they reveal of the +Lord. That thought, ‘as though God did beseech,’ seems to +me to be the one deserving of our attention now, far rather than any +inferences which may be drawn from the words as to the relation of +preachers of the Gospel to man and to God. I wish, therefore, to try +to set forth the wonderfulness of this mystery of a beseeching God, +and to put by the side of it the other wonder and mystery of men +refusing the divine beseechings.</p> +<p>Before doing so, however, I remark that the supplement which +stands in our Authorised Version in this text is a misleading and +unfortunate one. ‘As though God did beseech <i>you</i>’ +and ‘we pray <i>you</i>’ unduly narrow the scope of the +Apostolic message, and confuse the whole course of the Apostolic +reasoning here. For he has been speaking of a world which is +reconciled to God, and he finds a consequence of that reconciliation +of the world in the fact that he and his fellow-preachers are +entrusted with the word of reconciliation. The scope of their +message, then, can be no narrower than the scope of the +reconciliation; and inasmuch as that is world-wide the beseeching +must be co-extensive therewith, and must cover the whole ground of +humanity. It is a universal message that is set forth here. The +Corinthians, to whom Paul was speaking, are, by his hypothesis, +already reconciled to God, and the message which he has in trust for +them is given in the subsequent words: ‘We then, as workers +together with God, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of +God in vain.’ But the message, the pleading of the divine +heart, ‘be ye reconciled to God,’ is a pleading that +reaches over the whole range of a reconciled world. I take then, just +these two thoughts, God beseeching man, and man refusing God.</p> +<p>I. God beseeching man.</p> +<p>Now notice how, in my text, there alternates, as if substantially +the same idea, the thoughts that Christ and that God pray men to be +reconciled. ‘We are ambassadors on <i>Christ's</i> behalf, as +though <i>God</i> did beseech you by us, we pray on <i>Christ's</i> +behalf.’ So you see, first, Christ the Pleader, then God +beseeching, then Christ again entreating and praying. Could any man +have so spoken, passing instinctively from the one thought to the +other, unless he had believed that whatsoever things the Father +doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise; and that Jesus Christ is +the Representative of the whole Deity for mankind, so as that when He +pleads God pleads, and God pleads through Him. I do not dwell upon +this, but I simply wish to mark it in passing as one of the +innumerable strong and irrefragable testimonies to the familiarity +and firmness with which that thought of the divinity of Jesus Christ, +and the full revelation of the Father by Him, was grasped by the +Apostle, and was believed by the people to whom he spoke. God pleads, +therefore Christ pleads, Christ pleads, therefore God pleads; and +these Two are One in their beseechings, and the voice of the Father +echoes to us in the tenderness of the Son.</p> +<p>So, then, let us think of that pleading. To sue for love, to beg +that an enemy will put away his enmity is the part of the inferior +rather than of the superior; is the part of the offender rather than +of the offended; is the part of the vanquished rather than of the +victor; is the part surely not of the king but of the rebel. And yet +here, in the sublime transcending of all human precedent and pattern +which characterises the divine dealing, we have the place of the +suppliant and of the supplicated inverted, and Love upon the Throne +bends down to ask of the rebel that lies powerless and sullen at His +feet, and yet is not conquered until his heart be won, though his +limbs be manacled, that he would put away all the bitterness out of +his heart, and come back to the love and the grace which are ready to +pour over him. ‘He that might the vengeance best have taken, +finds out the remedy.’ He against whom we have transgressed +prays us to be reconciled; and the Infinite Love lowers Himself in +that lowering which is, in another aspect, the climax of His +exaltation, to pray the rebels to accept His amnesty.</p> +<p>Oh, dear brethren! this is no mere piece of rhetoric. What facts +in the divine heart does it represent? What facts in the divine +conduct does it represent? It represents these facts in the divine +heart, that there is in it an infinite longing for the creature's +love, an infinite desire for unity between Him and us.</p> +<p>There are wonderful significance and beauty in the language of my +text which are lost in the Authorised Version; but are preserved in +the Revised. ‘We are ambassadors’ not only +‘<i>for</i> Christ,’ but ‘<i>on Christ's +behalf</i>.’ And the same proposition is repeated in the +subsequent clause. ‘We pray you,’ not merely ‘in +Christ's stead,’ though that is much, but ‘<i>on His +account</i>,’ which is more—as if it lay very near His +heart that we should put away our enmity; and as if in some +transcendent and wonderful manner the all-perfect, self-sufficing God +was made glad, and the Master, who is His image for us, ‘saw of +the travail of His soul, and,’ in regard to one man, ‘was +satisfied,’ when the man lets the warmth of God's love in +Christ thaw away the coldness out of his heart, and kindle there an +answering flame. An old divine says, ‘We cannot do God a +greater pleasure or more oblige His very heart, than to trust in Him +as a God of love.’ He is ready to stoop to any humiliation to +effect that purpose. So intense is the divine desire to win the world +to His love, that He will stoop to sue for it rather than lose it. +Such is at least part of the fact in the divine heart, which is +shadowed forth for us by that wonderful thought of the beseeching +God.</p> +<p>And what facts in the divine conduct does this great word +represent? A God that beseeches. Well, think of the tears of +imploring love which fell from Christ's eyes as He looked across the +valley from Olivet, and saw the Temple glittering in the early +sunshine. Think of ‘O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! ... how often would +I have gathered thy children together ... and ye would not.’ +And are we not to see in the Christ who wept in the earnestness of +His desire, and in the pain of its disappointment, the very +revelation of the Father's heart and the very action of the Father's +arm? ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, +and I will give you rest.’ That is Christ beseeching and God +beseeching in Him. Need I quote other words, gentle, winning, loving? +Do we not feel, when looking upon Christ, as if the secret of His +whole life was the stretching out imploring and welcoming hands to +men, and praying them to grasp His hands, and be saved? But, oh, +brethren! the fact that towers above all others, which explains the +whole procedure of divinity, and is the keystone of the whole arch of +revelation; the fact which reveals in one triple beam of light, God, +man, and sin in the clearest illumination, is the Cross of Jesus +Christ. And if that be not the very sublime of entreaty; and if any +voice can be conceived, human or divine, that shall reach men's +hearts with a more piercing note of pathetic invitation than sounds +from that Cross, I know not where it is. Christ that dies, in His +dying breath calls to us, and ‘the blood of sprinkling speaketh +better things than that of Abel’; inasmuch as its voice is, +‘Come unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the +earth.’</p> +<p>Not only in the divine facts of the life and death of Jesus +Christ, but in all the appeals of that great revelation which lies +before us in Scripture; and may I say, in the poor, broken utterances +of men whose harsh, thin voices try to set themselves, in some +measure, to the sweetness and the fulness of His beseeching +tones—does God call upon you to draw close to Him, and put away +your enmity. And not only by His Word written or ministered from +human lips, but also by the patient providences of His love He calls +and prays you to come. A mother will sometimes, in foolish fondness, +coax her sullen child by injudicious kindness, or, in wise patience, +will seek to draw the little heart away from the faults that she +desires not to notice, by redoubled ingenuity of tenderness and of +care. And so God does with us. When you and I, who deserve—oh! +so different treatment—get, as we do get, daily care and +providential blessings from Him, is not that His saying to us, +‘I beseech you to cherish no alienation, enmity, indifference, +but to come back and live in the love’? When He draws near to +us in these outward gifts of His mercy, is He not doing Himself what +He has bid us to do; and what He never could have bid us to do, nor +our hearts have recognised to be the highest strain of human virtue +to do, unless He Himself were doing it first? ‘If thine enemy +hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou +shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.’</p> +<p> Not only by the great demonstration of His stooping and infinite +desire for our love which lies in the life and death of Jesus Christ, +nor only by His outward work, nor by His providence, but by many an +inward touch on our spirits, by many a prick of conscience, by many +a strange longing that has swept across our souls, sudden as some +perfumed air in the scentless atmosphere; by many an inward voice, +coming we know not whence, that has spoken to us of Him, of His love, +of our duty; by many a drawing which has brought us nearer to the +Cross of Jesus Christ, only, alas! in some cases that we might +recoil further from it,—has He been beseeching, beseeching us +all.</p> +<p>Brethren! God pleads with you. He pleads with you because there is +nothing in His heart to any of you but love, and a desire to bless +you; He pleads with you because, unless you will let Him, He cannot +lavish upon you His richest gifts and His highest blessings. He +pleads with you, bowing to the level, and beneath the level, of your +alienation and reluctance. And the sum and substance of all His +dealings with every soul is, ‘My son! give Me thy heart.’ +‘Be ye reconciled to God.’</p> +<p>II. And now turn, very briefly, to the next suggestion arising +from this text, the terrible obverse, so to speak, of the coin: Man +refusing a beseeching God.</p> +<p>That is the great paradox and mystery. Nobody has ever fathomed +that yet, and nobody will. How it comes, how it is possible, there is +no need for us to inquire. It is an awful and a solemn power that +every poor little speck of humanity has, to lift itself up in God's +face, and say, in answer to all His pleadings, ‘I will +not!’ as if the dwellers in some little island, a mere +pin-point of black, barren rock, jutting up at sea, were to declare +war against a kingdom that stretched through twenty degrees of +longitude on the mainland. So we, on our little bit of island, our +pin-point of rock in the great waste ocean, we can separate ourselves +from the great Continent; or, rather, God has, in a fashion, made us +separate in order that we may either unite ourselves with Him, by our +willing yielding, or wrench ourselves away from Him by our antagonism +and rebellion. God beseeches because God has so settled the relations +between Him and us, that that is what He has to do in order to get +men to love Him. He cannot force them. He cannot prise open a man's +heart with a crowbar, as it were, and force Himself inside. The door +opens from within. ‘Behold! I stand at the door and +knock.’ There is an ‘if.’ ‘If any man open I +will come in.’ Hence the beseeching, hence the wail of wisdom +that cries aloud and no man regards it; of love that stands at the +entering in of the city, and pleads in vain, and says, ‘I have +called, and ye have refused.... How often would I have gathered ... +and ye would not.’ Oh, brethren! it is an awful responsibility, +a mysterious prerogative, which each one of us, whether consciously +or no, has to exercise, to accept or to refuse the pleadings of an +entreating Christ.</p> +<p>And let me remind you that the act of refusal is a very simple +one. Not to accept is to reject; not to yield is to rebel. You have +only to do nothing, to do it all. There are dozens of people in our +churches and chapels listening with self-satisfied unconcern, who +have all their lives been refusing a beseeching God. And they do not +know that they ever did it! They say, ‘Oh! I will be a +Christian some time or other.’ They cherish vague ideas that, +somehow or other, they are so already. They have done nothing at all, +they have simply been absolutely indifferent and passive. Some of you +have heard sermons like this so often that they produce no effect. +‘It is the right kind of thing to say. It is the thing we have +heard a hundred times.’ Perhaps you wonder why I should be so +much in earnest about the matter, and then you go outside, and +discuss me or the weather, and forget all about the sermon.</p> +<p>And thus, once more, you reject Christ. It is done without knowing +it; done simply by doing nothing. My brother! do not stop your ears +any more against that tender, imploring love.</p> +<p>Then let me remind you that this refusing the beseeching of God is +the climax of all folly. For consider what it is,—a man +refusing his highest good and choosing his certain ruin. I am afraid +that people have been arguing and fighting so much of late years over +disputable points in reference to the doctrine of future retribution +that the indisputable fact of such retribution has lost much of its +solemn power.</p> +<p>I pray you, brethren, to ask yourselves one question: Is there +anything, in the present or in the future condition of a man that is +not reconciled to God, which explains God's beseeching urgency? Why +this energy and intensity of divine desire? Why this which, if it +were human only, would be called <i>passionate</i> entreaty? Why was +it needful for Jesus Christ to die? Why was it worth His while to +bear the punishment of man's sin? Why should God and Christ, through +all the ages, plead with unintermittent voice? There must be some +explanation of it all, and here is the explanation, ‘They that +hate Me love <i>death</i>.’ ‘Be ye reconciled to +God,’ for enmity is ruin and destruction.</p> +<p>And finally, dear friends, this turning away from Him that +speaketh from Heaven, of which some of you have all your lives been +guilty, is not only supreme folly, but it is the climax of all guilt. +For there can be nothing worse, darker, arguing a nature more averse +or indifferent to the highest good, than that God should plead, and I +should steel my heart and deafen mine ear against His voice. The +crown of a man's sin, because it is the disclosure of the secrets of +his deepest heart as loving darkness rather than light, is turning +away from the divine voice that woos us to love and to God.</p> +<p>Oh! there are some of you that have heard that Voice too often to +be much touched by it. There are some of you too busy to attend to +it, who hear it not because of the clatter of the streets and the +whir of the spindles. There are some of you that are seeking to drown +it in the shouts of mirth and revelry. There are some of you to whom +it comes muffled in the mists of doubt; but I beseech you all, look +at the Cross, <i>look at the Cross!</i> and hear Him that hangs there +pleading with you.</p> +<p>Before the battle there comes out the captain of the twenty +thousand to the King with the ten thousand, who in His loftiness is +not afraid to stoop to sue for peace from the weaker power. My +brother! the moment is precious; the white flag may never be waved +before your eyes again. Do not; do not refuse! or the next instant +the clarion of the assault may sound, and where will you be then?</p> +<p>It is vain for thee to rush against the thick bosses of the +Almighty buckler. ‘We beseech, in Christ's behalf, be ye +reconciled with God.’</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans +Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. 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