{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_13601/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_13601","id":"gutenberg_13601","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13601","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Corinthians -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.","Bible. Romans -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity"],"text":"Produced by Charles Franks, John Hagerson, and the Project Gutenberg\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team\n\n\n\n\n\nEXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE\n\nALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D., Litt. D.\n\nROMANS\nCORINTHIANS _(To II Corinthians, Chap. V)_\n\n\n\n\nEXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE\n\nALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D., Litt. D.\n\nROMANS\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\nTHE WITNESS OF THE RESURRECTION (Romans i. 4, R.V.)\n\nPRIVILEGE AND OBLIGATION (Romans i. 7)\n\nPAUL'S LONGING (Romans i. 11, 12)\n\nDEBTORS TO ALL MEN (Romans i. 14)\n\nTHE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD (Romans i. 16)\n\nWORLD-WIDE SIN AND WORLD-WIDE REDEMPTION (Romans iii. 19-26)\n\nNO DIFFERENCE (Romans iii. 22)\n\n'LET US HAVE PEACE' (Romans v. 1, R.V.)\n\nACCESS INTO GRACE (Romans v. 2)\n\nTHE SOURCES OF HOPE (Romans v. 2-4)\n\nA THREEFOLD CORD (Romans v. 5)\n\nWHAT PROVES GOD'S LOVE (Romans v. 8)\n\nTHE WARRING QUEENS (Romans v. 21)\n\n'THE FORM OF TEACHING' (Romans vi. 17)\n\n'THY FREE SPIRIT' (Romans viii. 2)\n\nCHRIST CONDEMNING SIN (Romans viii. 8)\n\nTHE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT (Romans viii. 16)\n\nSONS AND HEIRS (Romans viii. 17)\n\nSUFFERING WITH CHRIST, A CONDITION OF GLORY WITH CHRIST\n   (Romans viii. 17)\n\nTHE REVELATION OF SONS (Romans viii. 19)\n\nTHE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY (Romans viii. 23)\n\nTHE INTERCEDING SPIRIT (Romans viii. 26)\n\nTHE GIFT THAT BRINGS ALL GIFTS (Romans viii. 32)\n\nMORE THAN CONQUERORS (Romans viii. 37)\n\nLOVE'S TRIUMPH (Romans viii. 38, 39)\n\nTHE SACRIFICE OF THE BODY (Romans xii. 1)\n\nTRANSFIGURATION (Romans xii. 2)\n\nSOBER THINKING (Romans xii. 3)\n\nMANY AND ONE (Romans xii. 4, 5)\n\nGRACE AND GRACES (Romans xii. 6-8)\n\nLOVE THAT CAN HATE (Romans xii. 9, 10, R.V.)\n\nA TRIPLET OF GRACES (Romans xii. 11)\n\nANOTHER TRIPLET OF GRACES (Romans xii. 12)\n\nSTILL ANOTHER TRIPLET (Romans xii. 13-15)\n\nSTILL ANOTHER TRIPLET (Romans xii. 16, R.V.)\n\nSTILL ANOTHER TRIPLET (Romans xii. 17, 18, R.V.)\n\nSTILL ANOTHER TRIPLET (Romans xii. 19-21)\n\nLOVE AND THE DAY (Romans xiii. 8-14)\n\nSALVATION NEARER (Romans xiii. 11)\n\nTHE SOLDIER'S MORNING-CALL (Romans xiii. 12)\n\nTHE LIMITS OF LIBERTY (Romans xiv. 12-23)\n\nTWO FOUNTAINS, ONE STREAM (Romans xv. 4, 13)\n\nJOY AND PEACE IN BELIEVING (Romans xv. 13)\n\nPHOEBE (Romans xvi. 1, 2, R.V.)\n\nPRISCILLA AND AQUILA (Romans xvi. 3-5)\n\nTWO HOUSEHOLDS (Romans xvi. 10,11)\n\nTRYPHENA AND TRYPHOSA (Romans xvi. 12)\n\nPERSIS (Romans xvi. 12)\n\nA CRUSHED SNAKE (Romans xvi. 20)\n\nTERTIUS (Romans xvi. 22, R.V.)\n\nQUARTUS A BROTHER (Romans xvi. 23)\n\n\n\n\nTHE WITNESS OF THE RESURRECTION\n\n   'Declared to be the Son of God with power, ... by the\n   resurrection of the dead.'--ROMANS i. 4 (R.V.).\n\n\nIt is a great mistake to treat Paul's writings, and especially this\nEpistle, as mere theology. They are the transcript of his life's\nexperience. As has been well said, the gospel of Paul is an\ninterpretation of the significance of the life and work of Jesus\nbased upon the revelation to him of Jesus as the risen Christ. He\nbelieved that he had seen Jesus on the road to Damascus, and it was\nthat appearance which revolutionised his life, turned him from a\npersecutor into a disciple, and united him with the Apostles as\nordained to be a witness with them of the Resurrection. To them all\nthe Resurrection of Jesus was first of all a historical fact\nappreciated chiefly in its bearing on Him. By degrees they discerned\nthat so transcendent a fact bore in itself a revelation of what would\nbecome the experience of all His followers beyond the grave, and a\nsymbol of the present life possible for them. All three of these\naspects are plainly declared in Paul's writings. In our text it is\nchiefly the first which is made prominent. All that distinguishes\nChristianity; and makes it worth believing, or mighty, is inseparably\nconnected with the Resurrection.\n\nI. The Resurrection of Christ declares His Sonship.\n\nResurrection and Ascension are inseparably connected. Jesus does not\nrise to share again in the ills and weariness of humanity. Risen, 'He\ndieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him.' 'He died unto\nsin once'; and His risen humanity had nothing in it on which physical\ndeath could lay hold. That He should from some secluded dimple on\nOlivet ascend before the gazing disciples until the bright cloud,\nwhich was the symbol of the Divine Presence, received Him out of\ntheir sight, was but the end of the process which began unseen in\nmorning twilight. He laid aside the garments of the grave and passed\nout of the sepulchre which was made sure by the great stone rolled\nagainst its mouth. The grand avowal of faith in His Resurrection\nloses meaning, unless it is completed as Paul completed his 'yea\nrather that was raised from the dead,' with the triumphant 'who is at\nthe right hand of God.' Both are supernatural, and the Virgin Birth\ncorresponds at the beginning to the supernatural Resurrection and\nAscension at the close. Both such an entrance into the world and such\na departure from it, proclaim at once His true humanity, and that\n'this is the Son of God.'\n\nStill further, the Resurrection is God's solemn 'Amen' to the\ntremendous claims which Christ had made. The fact of His\nResurrection, indeed, would not declare His divinity; but the\nResurrection of One who had spoken such words does. If the Cross and\na nameless grave had been the end, what a _reductio ad absurdum_\nthat would have been to the claims of Jesus to have ever been with\nthe Father and to be doing always the things that pleased Him. The\nResurrection is God's last and loudest proclamation, 'This is My\nbeloved Son: hear ye Him.' The Psalmist of old had learned to trust\nthat his sonship and consecration to the Father made it impossible\nthat that Father should leave his soul in Sheol, or suffer one who\nwas knit to Him by such sacred bonds to see corruption; and the\nunique Sonship and perfect self-consecration of Jesus went down into\nthe grave in the assured confidence, as He Himself declared, that the\nthird day He would rise again. The old alternative seems to retain\nall its sharp points: Either Christ rose again from the dead, or His\nclaims are a series of blasphemous arrogances and His character\nirremediably stained.\n\nBut we may also remember that Scripture not only represents Christ's\nResurrection as a divine act but also as the act of Christ's own\npower. In His earthly life He asserted that His relation both to\nphysical death and to resurrection was an entirely unique one. 'I\nhave power,' said He, 'to lay down my life, and I have power to take\nit again'; and yet, even in this tremendous instance of\nself-assertion, He remains the obedient Son, for He goes on to say,\n'This commandment have I received of My Father.' If these claims are\njust, then it is vain to stumble at the miracles which Jesus did in\nHis earthly life. If He could strip it off and resume it, then\nobviously it was not a life like other men's. The whole phenomenon is\nsupernatural, and we shall not be in the true position to understand\nand appreciate it and Him until, like the doubting Thomas, we fall at\nthe feet of the risen Son, and breathe out loyalty and worship in\nthat rapturous exclamation, 'My Lord and my God.'\n\nII. The Resurrection interprets Christ's Death.\n\nThere is no more striking contrast than that between the absolute\nnon-receptivity of the disciples in regard to all Christ's plain\nteachings about His death and their clear perception after Pentecost\nof the mighty power that lay in it. The very fact that they continued\ndisciples at all, and that there continued to be such a community as\nthe Church, demands their belief in the Resurrection as the only\ncause which can account for it. If He did not rise from the dead, and\nif His followers did not know that He did so by the plainest\nteachings of common-sense, they ought to have scattered, and borne in\nisolated hearts the bitter memories of disappointed hopes; for if He\nlay in a nameless grave, and they were not sure that He was risen\nfrom the dead, His death would have been a conclusive showing up of\nthe falsity of His claims. In it there would have been no atoning\npower, no triumph over sin. If the death of Christ were not followed\nby His Resurrection and Ascension, the whole fabric of Christianity\nfalls to pieces. As the Apostle puts it in his great chapter on\nresurrection, 'Ye are yet in your sins.' The forgiveness which the\nGospel holds forth to men does not depend on the mercy of God or on\nthe mere penitence of man, but upon the offering of the one sacrifice\nfor sins in His death, which is justified by His Resurrection as\nbeing accepted by God. If we cannot triumphantly proclaim 'Christ is\nrisen indeed,' we have nothing worth preaching.\n\nWe are told now that the ethics of Christianity are its vital centre,\nwhich will stand out more plainly when purified from these mystical\ndoctrines of a Death as the sin-offering for the world, and a\nResurrection as the great token that that offering avails. Paul did\nnot think so. To him the morality of the Gospel was all deduced from\nthe life of Christ the Son of God as our Example, and from His death\nfor us which touches men's hearts and makes obedience to Him our\njoyful answer to what He has done for us. Christianity is a new thing\nin the world, not as moral teaching, but as moral power to obey that\nteaching, and that depends on the Cross interpreted by the\nResurrection. If we have only a dead Christ, we have not a living\nChristianity.\n\nIII. Resurrection points onwards to Christ's coming again.\n\nPaul at Athens declared in the hearing of supercilious Greek\nphilosophers, that the Jesus, whom he proclaimed to them, was 'the\nMan whom God had ordained to judge the world in righteousness,' and\nthat 'He had given assurance thereof unto all men, in that He raised\nHim from the dead.' The Resurrection was the beginning of the process\nwhich, from the human point of view, culminated in the Ascension.\nBeyond the Ascension stretches the supernatural life of the glorified\nSon of God. Olivet cannot be the end, and the words of the two men in\nwhite apparel who stood amongst the little group of the upward gazing\nfriends, remain as the hope of the Church: 'This same Jesus shall so\ncome in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.' That great\nassurance implies a visible corporeal return locally defined, and\nhaving for its purpose to complete the work which Incarnation, Death,\nResurrection, and Ascension, each advanced a stage. The Resurrection\nis the corner-stone of the whole Christian faith. It seals the truths\nthat Jesus is the Son of God with power, that He died for us, that He\nhas ascended on high to prepare a place for us, that He will come\nagain and take us to Himself. If we, by faith in Him, take for ours\nthe women's greeting on that Easter morning, 'The Lord hath risen\nindeed,' He will come to us with His own greeting, 'Peace be unto\nyou.'\n\n\n\n\nPRIVILEGE AND OBLIGATION\n\n   'To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be\n   saints.'--ROMANS i. 7.\n\n\nThis is the address of the Epistle. The first thing to be noticed\nabout it, by way of introduction, is the universality of this\ndesignation of Christians. Paul had never been in Rome, and knew very\nlittle about the religious stature of the converts there. But he has\nno hesitation in declaring that they are all 'beloved of God' and\n'saints.' There were plenty of imperfect Christians amongst them;\nmany things to rebuke; much deadness, coldness, inconsistency, and\nyet none of these in the slightest degree interfered with the\napplication of these great designations to them. So, then, 'beloved\nof God' and 'saints' are not distinctions of classes within the pale\nof Christianity, but belong to the whole community, and to each\nmember of the body.\n\nThe next thing to note, I think, is how these two great terms,\n'beloved of God' and 'saints,' cover almost the whole ground of the\nChristian life. They are connected with each other very closely, as I\nshall have occasion to show presently, but in the meantime it may be\nsufficient to mark how the one carries us deep into the heart of God\nand the other extends over the whole ground of our relation to Him.\nThe one is a statement of a universal prerogative, the other an\nenforcement of a universal obligation. Let us look, then, at these\ntwo points, the universal privilege and the universal obligation of\nthe Christian life.\n\nI. The universal privilege of the Christian life.\n\n'Beloved of God.' Now we are so familiar with the juxtaposition of\nthe two ideas, 'love' and 'God,' that we cease to feel the\nwonderfulness of their union. But until Jesus Christ had done His\nwork no man believed that the two thoughts could be brought together.\n\nDoes God love any one? We think the question too plain to need to be\nput, and the answer instinctive. But it is not by any means\ninstinctive, and the fact is that until Christ answered it for us,\nthe world stood dumb before the question that its own heart raised,\nand when tortured spirits asked, 'Is there care in heaven, and is\nthere love?' there was 'no voice, nor answer, nor any that regarded.'\nThink of the facts of life; think of the facts of nature. Think of\nsorrows and miseries and pains, and sins, and wasted lives and\nstorms, and tempests, and diseases, and convulsions; and let us feel\nhow true the grim saying is, that\n\n  'Nature, red in tooth and claw,\n  With rapine, shrieks against the creed'\n\nthat God is love.\n\nAnd think of what the world has worshipped, and of all the varieties\nof monstrosity, not the less monstrous because sometimes beautiful,\nbefore which men have bowed. Cruel, lustful, rapacious, capricious,\nselfish, indifferent deities they have adored. And then, 'God hath\nestablished,' proved, demonstrated 'His love to us in that while we\nwere yet sinners Christ died for us.'\n\nOh, brethren, do not let us kick down the ladder by which we have\nclimbed; or, in the name of a loving God, put away the Christian\nteaching which has begotten the conception in humanity of a God that\nloves. There are men to-day who would never have come within sight\nof that sunlight truth, even as a glimmering star, away down upon\nthe horizon, if it had not been for the Gospel; and who now turn\nround upon that very Gospel which has given them the conception,\nand accuse it of narrow and hard thoughts of the love of God.\n\nOne of the Scripture truths against which the assailant often turns\nhis sharpest weapons is that which is involved in my text, the\nScripture answer to the other question, 'Does not God love all?' Yes!\nyes! a thousand times, yes! But there is another question, Does the\nlove of God, to all, make His special designation of Christian men as\nHis beloved the least unlikely? Surely there is no kind of\ncontradiction between the broadest proclamation of the universality\nof the love of God and Paul's decisive declaration that, in a very\ndeep and real manner, they who are in Christ are the beloved of God.\nSurely special affection is not in its nature, inconsistent with\nuniversal beneficence and benevolence. Surely it is no exaltation,\nbut rather a degradation of the conception of the divine love, if we\nproclaim its utter indifference to men's characters. Surely you are\nnot honouring God when you say, 'It is all the same to Him whether a\nman loves Him and serves Him, or lifts himself up in rebellion\nagainst Him, and makes himself his own centre, and earth his aim and\nhis all.' Surely to imagine a God who not only makes His sun to shine\nand His rains and dews to fall on the unthankful and the evil, that\nHe may draw them to love Him, but who also is conceived as taking the\nsinful creature who yet cleaves to his sins to His heart, as He does\nthe penitent soul that longs for His image to be produced in it, is\nto blaspheme, and not to honour the love, the universal love of God.\n\nGod forbid that any words that ever drop from my lips should seem to\ncast the smallest shadow of doubt on that great truth, 'God so loved\nthe world that He gave His Son!' But God forbid, equally, that any\nwords of mine should seem to favour the, to me, repellent idea that\nthe infinite love of God disregards the character of the man on whom\nit falls. There are manifestations of that loving heart which any man\ncan receive; and each man gets as much of the love of God as it is\npossible to pour upon him. But granite rock does not drink in the dew\nas a flower does; and the nature of the man on whom God's love falls\ndetermines how much, and what manner of its manifestations shall pass\ninto his true possession, and what shall remain without.\n\nSo, on the whole, we have to answer the questions, 'Does God love\nany? Does not God love all? Does God specially love some?' with the\none monosyllable, 'Yes.'\n\nAnd so, dear brethren, let us learn the path by which we can pass\ninto that blessed community of those on whom the fullness and\nsweetness and tenderest tenderness of the Father's heart will fall.\n'If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love\nhim.' Myths tell us that the light which, at the beginning, had been\ndiffused through a nebulous mass, was next gathered into a sun. So\nthe universal love of God is concentrated in Jesus Christ; and if we\nhave Him we have it; and if we have faith we have Him, and can say,\n'Neither life, nor death, nor things present, nor things to come, nor\nheight, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate\nus from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'\n\nII. Then, secondly, mark the universal obligation of the Christian\nlife.\n\n'Called to be saints,' says my text. Now you will observe that the\ntwo little words 'to be' are inserted here as a supplement. They may\nbe correct enough, but they are open to the possibility of\nmisunderstanding, as if the saintship, to which all Christian people\nare 'called' was something future, and not realised at the moment.\nNow, in the context, the Apostle employs the same form of expression\nwith regard to himself in a clause which illuminates the meaning of\nmy text. 'Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ' says he, in the first\nverse, 'called to be an Apostle' or, more correctly, 'a called\nApostle.' The apostleship coincided in time with the call, was\ncontemporaneous with that which was its cause. And if Paul was an\nApostle since he was called, saints are saints since _they_ are\ncalled. 'The beloved of God' are 'the called saints.'\n\nI need only observe, further, that the word 'called' here does not\nmean 'named' or 'designated' but 'summoned.' It describes not the\nname by which Christian men are known, but the thing which they are\ninvited, summoned, 'called' by God to be. It is their vocation, not\ntheir designation. Now, then, I need not, I suppose, remind you that\n'saint' and 'holy' convey precisely the same idea: the one expressing\nit in a word of Teutonic, and the other in one of classic derivation.\n\nWe notice that the true idea of this universal holiness which, _ipso\nfacto_, belongs to all Christian people, is consecration to God. In\nthe old days temple, altars, sacrifices, sacrificial vessels, persons\nsuch as priests, periods like Sabbaths and feasts, were called\n'holy.' The common idea running through all these uses of the word is\n_belonging to God_, and that is the root notion of the New Testament\n'saint' a man who is God's. God has claimed us for Himself when He\ngave us Jesus Christ. We respond to the claim when we accept Christ.\nHenceforth we are not our own, but 'consecrated'--that is, 'saints.'\n\nNow the next step is purity, which is the ordinary idea of sanctity.\nPurity will follow consecration, and would not be worth much without\nit, even if it was possible to be attained. Now, look what a far\ndeeper and nobler idea of the service and conditions of moral\ngoodness this derivation of it from surrender to God gives, than does\na God-ignoring morality which talks and talks about acts and\ndispositions, and never goes down to the root of the whole matter;\nand how much nobler it is than a shallow religion which in like\nmanner is ever straining after acts of righteousness, and forgets\nthat in order to be right there must be prior surrender to God. Get a\nman to yield himself up to God and no fear about the righteousness.\nVirtue, goodness, purity, righteousness, all these synonyms express\nvery noble things; but deep down below them all lies the New\nTestament idea of holiness, consecration of myself to God, which is\nthe parent of them all.\n\nAnd then the next thing to remind you of is that this consecration is\nto be applied all through a man's nature. Yielding yourselves to God\nis the talismanic secret of all righteousness, as I have said; and\nevery part of our complex, manifold being is capable of such\nconsecration. I hallow my heart if its love twines round His heart. I\nhallow my thoughts if I take His truth for my guide, and ever seek to\nbe led thereby in practice and in belief. I hallow my will when it\nbows and says, 'Speak, Lord! Thy servant heareth!' I hallow my senses\nwhen I use them as from Him, with recognition of Him and for Him. In\nfact, there are two ways of living in the world; and, narrow as it\nsounds, I venture to say there are only two. Either God is my centre,\nand that is holiness; or self is my centre, in more or less subtle\nforms, and that is sin.\n\nThen the next step is that this consecration, which will issue in all\npurity, and will cover the whole ground of a human life, is only\npossible when we have drunk in the blessed thought 'beloved of God.'\nMy yielding of myself to Him can only be the echo of His giving of\nHimself to me. He must be the first to love. You cannot argue a man\ninto loving God, any more than you can hammer a rosebud open. If you\ndo you spoil its petals. But He can love us into loving Him, and the\nsunshine, falling on the closed flower, will expand it, and it will\ngrow by its reception of the light, and grow sunlike in its measure\nand according to its nature. So a God who has only claims upon us\nwill never be a God to whom we yield ourselves. A God who has love\nfor us will be a God to whom it is blessed that we should be\nconsecrated, and so saints.\n\nThen, still further, this consecration, thus built upon the reception\nof the divine love, and influencing our whole nature, and leading to\nall purity, is a universal characteristic of Christians. There is no\nfaith which does not lead to surrender. There is no aristocracy in\nthe Christian Church which deserves to have the family name given\nespecially to it. 'Saint' this, and 'Saint' that, and 'Saint' the\nother--these titles cannot be used without darkening the truth that\nthis honour and obligation of being saints belong equally to all that\nlove Jesus Christ. All the men whom thus God has drawn to Himself, by\nHis love in His Son, they are all, if I may so say, objectively holy;\nthey belong to God. But consecration may be cultivated, and must be\ncultivated and increased. There is a solemn obligation laid upon\nevery one of us who call ourselves Christians, to be saints, in the\nsense that we have consciously yielded up our whole lives to Him; and\nare trying, body, soul, and spirit, 'to perfect holiness in the fear\nof the Lord.'\n\nPaul's letter, addressed to the 'beloved in God,' the 'called saints'\nthat are in Rome, found its way to the people for whom it was meant.\nIf a letter so addressed were dropped in our streets, do you think\nanybody would bring it to you, or to any Christian society as a\nwhole, recognising that we were the people for whom it was meant? The\nworld has taunted us often enough with the name of saints; and\nlaughed at the profession which they thought was included in the\nword. Would that their taunts had been undeserved, and that it were\nnot true that 'saints' in the Church sometimes means less than 'good\nmen' out of the Church! 'Seeing that we have these promises, dearly\nbeloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and\nspirit; perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.'\n\n\n\n\nPAUL'S LONGING[1]\n\n   'I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some\n    spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;\n    12. That is, that I may be comforted together with\n    you, by the mutual faith both of you and me.'--ROMANS i. 11, 12.\n\n\nI am not wont to indulge in personal references in the pulpit, but I\ncannot but yield to the impulse to make an exception now, and to let\nour happy circumstances mould my remarks. I speak mainly to mine own\npeople, and I must trust that other friends who may hear or read my\nwords will forgive my doing so.\n\nIn taking such a text as this, I desire to shelter myself behind\nPaul, and in expounding his feelings to express my own, and to draw\nsuch lessons as may be helpful and profitable to us all. And so there\nare three things in this text that I desire to note: the manly\nexpression of Christian affection; the lofty consciousness of the\npurpose of their meeting; and the lowly sense that there was much to\nbe received as well as much to be given. A word or two about each of\nthese things is all on which I can venture.\n\nI. First, then, notice the manly expression of Christian affection\nwhich the Apostle allows himself here.\n\nVery few Christian teachers could or should venture to talk so much\nabout themselves as Paul did. The strong infusion of the personal\nelement in all his letters is so transparently simple, so obviously\nsincere, so free from any jarring note of affectation or unctuous\nsentiment that it attracts rather than repels. If I might venture\nupon a paradox, his personal references are instances of\nself-oblivion in the midst of self-consciousness.\n\nHe had never been in Rome when he wrote these words; he had no\npersonal relations with the believers there; he had never looked them\nin the face; there were no sympathy and confidence between them, as\nthe growth of years. But still his heart went out towards them, and\nhe was not ashamed to show it. 'I _long_ to see you,'--in the\noriginal the word expresses a very intense amount of yearning blended\nwith something of regret that he had been so long kept from them.\n\nNow it is not a good thing for people to make many professions of\naffection, and I think a public teacher has something better to do\nthan to parade such feelings before his audiences. But there are\nexceptions to all rules, and I suppose I may venture to let my heart\nspeak, and to say how gladly I come back to the old place, dear to me\nby so many sacred memories and associations, and how gladly I reknit\nthe bonds of an affection which has been unbroken, and deepening on\nboth sides through thirty long years.\n\nDear friends! let us together thank God to-day if He has knit our\nhearts together in mutual affection; and if you and I can look each\nother, as I believe we can, in the eyes, with the assurance that I\nsee only the faces of friends, and that you see the face of one who\ngladly resumes the old work and associations.\n\nBut now, dear brethren, let us draw one lesson. Unless there be this\nmanly, honest, though oftenest silent, Christian affection, the\nsooner you and I part the better. Unless it be in my heart I can do\nyou no good. No man ever touched another with the sweet constraining\nforces that lie in Christ's Gospel unless the heart of the speaker\nwent out to grapple the hearts of the hearers. And no audience ever\nlisten with any profit to a man when they come in the spirit of\ncarping criticism, or of cold admiration, or of stolid indifference.\nThere must be for this simple relationship which alone binds a\nNonconformist preacher to his congregation, as a _sine qua non_ of\nall higher things and of all spiritual good, a real, though oftenest\nit be a concealed, mutual affection and regard. We have to thank God\nfor much of it; let us try to get more. That is all I want to say\nabout the first point here.\n\nII. Note the lofty consciousness of the purpose of their meeting.\n\n'I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift.'\nPaul knew that he had something which he could give to these people,\nand he calls it by a very comprehensive term, 'some spiritual\ngift'--a gift of some sort which, coming from the Divine Spirit, was\nto be received into the human spirit.\n\nNow that expression--a spiritual gift--in the New Testament has a\nvariety of applications. Sometimes it refers to what we call\nmiraculous endowments, sometimes it refers to what we may call\nofficial capacity; but here it is evidently neither the one nor the\nother of these more limited and special things, but the general idea\nof a divine operation upon the human spirit which fills it with\nChristian graces--knowledge, faith, love. Or, in simpler words, what\nPaul wanted to give them was a firmer grasp and fuller possession of\nJesus Christ, His love and power, which would secure a deepening and\nstrengthening of their whole Christian life. He was quite sure he had\nthis to give, and that he could impart it, if they would listen to\nwhat he would say to them. But whilst thus he rises into the lofty\nconception of the purpose and possible result of his meeting the\nRoman Christians, he is just as conscious of the limitations of his\npower in the matter as he is of the greatness of his function. These\nare indicated plainly. The word which he employs here, 'gift' is\nnever used in the New Testament for a thing that one man can give to\nanother, but is always employed for the concrete results of the grace\nof God bestowed upon men. The very expression, then, shows that Paul\nthought of himself, not as the original giver, but simply as a\nchannel through which was communicated what God had given. In the\nsame direction points the adjective which accompanies the noun--a\n'_spiritual_ gift'--which probably describes the origin of the gift\nas being the Spirit of God, rather than defines the seat of it when\nreceived as being the spirit of the receiver. Notice, too, as bearing\non the limits of Paul's part in the gift, the propriety and delicacy\nof the language in his statement of the ultimate purpose of the gift.\nHe does not say 'that I may strengthen you,' which might have sounded\ntoo egotistical, and would have assumed too much to himself, but he\nsays 'that ye may be strengthened,' for the true strengthener is not\nPaul, but the Spirit of God.\n\nSo, on the one hand, the Christian teacher is bound to rise to the\nheight of the consciousness of his lofty vocation as having in\npossession a gift that he can bestow; on the other hand, he is bound\never to remember the limitations within which that is true--viz. that\nthe gift is not his, but God's, and that the Spirit of the Lord is\nthe true Giver of all the graces which may blossom when His word,\nministered by human agents, is received into human hearts.\n\nAnd, now, what are the lessons that I take from this? Two very simple\nones. First, no Christian teacher has any business to open his mouth,\nunless he is sure that he has received something to impart to men as\na gift from the Divine Spirit. To preach our doubts, to preach our\nown opinions, to preach poor platitudes, to talk about politics and\nmorals and taste and literature and the like in the pulpit, is\nprofanation and blasphemy. Let no man open his lips unless he can\nsay: 'The Lord hath showed me this; and this I bring to you as His\nword.' Nor has a Christian organisation any right to exist, unless it\nrecognises the communication and reception and further spreading of\nthis spiritual gift as its great function. Churches which have lost\nthat consciousness, and, instead of a divine gift, have little more\nto offer than formal worship, or music, or entertainments, or mere\nintellectual discourse, whether orthodox or 'advanced,' have no right\nto be; and by the law of the survival of the fittest will not long\nbe. The one thing that warrants such a relationship as subsists\nbetween you and me is this, my consciousness that I have a message\nfrom God, and your belief that you hear such from my lips. Unless\nthat be our bond the sooner these walls crumble, and this voice\nceases, and these pews are emptied, the better. 'I have,' says, Paul,\n'a gift to impart; and I long to see you that I may impart it to\nyou.' Oh! for more, in all our pulpits, of that burdened\nconsciousness of a divine message which needs the relief of speech,\nand longs with a longing caught from Christ to impart its richest\ntreasures.\n\nThat is the one lesson. And the other one is this. Have you, dear\nfriends, received the gift that I have, under the limitations already\nspoken of, to bestow? There are some of you who have listened to my\nvoice ever since you were children--some of you, though not many,\nhave heard it for well on to thirty years. Have you taken the thing\nthat all these years I have been--God knows how poorly, but God knows\nhow honestly--trying to bring to you? That is, have you taken Christ,\nand have you faith in Him? And, as for those of you who say that\nyou are Christians, many blessings have passed between you and me\nthrough all these years; but, dear friends, has the chief blessing\nbeen attained? Are you being strengthened day by day for the burdens\nand the annoyances and the sorrows of life by your coming here? Do I\ndo you any good in that way; are you better men than when we first\nmet together? Is Christ dearer, and more real and nearer to you; and\nare your lives more transparently consecrated, more manifestly the\nresult of a hidden union with Him? Do you walk in the world like the\nMaster, because you are members of this congregation? If so, its\npurpose has been accomplished. If not, it has miserably failed.\n\nI have said that I have to thank God for the unbroken affection that\nhas knit us together. But what is the use of such love if it does not\nlead onwards to this? I have had enough, and more than enough, of\nwhat you call popularity and appreciation, undeserved enough, but\nrendered unstintedly by you. I do not care the snap of a finger for\nit by comparison with this other thing. And oh, dear brethren! if all\nthat comes of our meeting here Sunday after Sunday is either praise\nor criticism of my poor words and ways, our relationship is a curse,\nand not a blessing, and we come together for the worse and not for\nthe better. The purpose of the Church, and the purpose of the\nministry, and the meaning of our assembling are, that spiritual gifts\nmay be imparted, not by me alone, but by you, too, and by me in my\nplace and measure, and if that purpose be not accomplished, all other\npurposes, that are accomplished, are of no account, and worse than\nnothing.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, note the lowly consciousness that much was to\nbe received as well as much to be given.\n\nThe Apostle corrects himself after he has said 'that I may impart\nunto you some spiritual gift,' by adding, 'that is, that I may be\ncomforted (or rather, encouraged) together with you by the mutual\nfaith both of you and me.' If his language were not so transparently\nsincere, and springing from deep interest in the relationship between\nhimself and these people, we should say that it was exquisite\ncourtesy and beautiful delicacy. But it moves in a region far more\nreal than the region of courtesy, and it speaks the inmost truth\nabout the conditions on which the Roman Christians should\nreceive--viz. that they should also give. There is only one Giver who\nis only a Giver, and that is God. All other givers are also\nreceivers. Paul desired to see his Roman brethren that he might be\nencouraged; and when he did see them, as he marched along the Appian\nWay, a shipwrecked prisoner, the Acts of the Apostles tells us, 'He\nthanked God and took courage.' The sight of them strengthened him and\nprepared him for what lay before him.\n\nPaul's was a richly complicated nature--firm as a rock in its will,\ntremulously sensitive in its sympathies; like some strongly-rooted\ntree with its stable stem and a green cloud of fluttering foliage\nthat moves in the lightest air. So his spirit rose and fell according\nto the reception that he met from his brethren, and the manifestation\nof their faith quickened and strengthened his.\n\nAnd he is but one instance of a universal law. All teachers, the more\ngenuine they are, the more sympathetic they are, are the more\nsensitive of their environment. The very oratorical temperament\nplaces a man at the mercy of surroundings. All earnest work has ever\ntravelling with it as its shadow seasons of deep depression; and the\nChristian teacher does not escape these. I am not going to speak\nabout myself, but this is unquestionably true, that every Elijah,\nafter the mightiest effort of prophecy, is apt to cover his head in\nhis mantle and to say, 'Take me away; I am not better than my\nfathers.' And when a man for thirty years, amidst all the changes\nincident to a great city congregation in that time, has to stand up\nSunday after Sunday before the same people, and mark how some of them\nare stolidly indifferent, and note how others are dropping away\nfrom their faithfulness, and see empty places where loving forms used\nto sit--no wonder that the mood comes ever and anon, 'Then, said I,\nsurely I have laboured in vain and spent my strength for nought.' The\nhearer reacts on the speaker quite as much as the speaker does on the\nhearer. If you have ice in the pews, that brings down the temperature\nup here. It is hard to be fervid amidst people that are all but dead.\nIt is difficult to keep a fire alight when it is kindled on the top\nof an iceberg. And the unbelief and low-toned religion of a\ncongregation are always pulling down the faith and the fervour of\ntheir minister, if he be better and holier, as they expect him to be,\nthan they are.\n\n'He did not many works because of their unbelief.' Christ knew the\nhampering and the restrictions of His power which came from being\nsurrounded by a chill, unsympathetic environment. My strength and my\nweakness are largely due to you. And if you want your minister to\npreach better, and in all ways to do his work more joyfully and\nfaithfully, the means lie largely in your own hands. Icy\nindifference, ill-natured interpretations, carping criticisms, swift\nforgetfulness of one's words, all these things kill the fervour of\nthe pulpit.\n\nOn the other hand, the true encouragement to give a man when he is\ntrying to do God's will, to preach Christ's Gospel, is not to pat him\non the back and say, 'What a remarkable sermon that was of yours!\nwhat a genius! what an orator!' not to go about praising it, but to\ncome and say, 'Thy words have led me to Christ, and from thee I have\ntaken the gift of gifts.'\n\nDear brethren, the encouragement of the minister is in the conversion\nand the growth of the hearers. And I pray that in this new lease of\nunited fellowship which we have taken out, be it longer or\nshorter--and advancing years tell me that at the longest it must be\ncomparatively short--I may come to you ever more and more with the\nlofty and humbling consciousness that I have a message which Christ\nhas given to me, and that you may come more and more receptive--not\nof _my_ words, God forbid--but of Christ's truth; and that so we\nmay be helpers one of another, and encourage each other in the\nwarfare and work to which we all are called and consecrated.\n\n[Footnote 1: Preached after long absence on account of illness.]\n\n\n\nDEBTORS TO ALL MEN\n\n  'I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians,\n   both to the wise and to the unwise.'--ROMANS i. 14.\n\n\nNo doubt Paul is here referring to the special obligation laid upon\nhim by his divine call to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. He was\nentrusted with the Gospel as a steward, and was therefore bound to\ncarry it to all sorts and conditions of men. But the principle\nunderlying the statement applies to all Christians. The indebtedness\nreferred to is no peculiarity of the Apostolic order, but attaches to\nevery believer. Every servant of Jesus Christ, who has received the\ntruth for himself, has received it as a steward, and is, as such,\nindebted to God, from whom he got the trust, and to the men for whom\nhe got it. The only limit to the obligation is, as Paul says in the\ncontext, 'as much as in me is.' Capacity, determined by faculties,\nopportunities, and circumstances, prescribes the kind and the degree\nof the work to be done in discharge of the obligation; but the\nobligation is universal. We are not at liberty to choose whether we\nshall do our part in spreading the name of Jesus Christ. It is a debt\nthat we owe to God and to men. Is that the view of duty which the\naverage Christian man takes? I am afraid it is not. If it were, our\ntreasuries would be full, and great would be the multitude of them\nthat preached the Word.\n\nIt is no very exalted degree of virtue to pay our debts. We do not\nexpect to be praised for that; and we do not consider that we are at\nliberty to choose whether we shall do it or not. We are dishonest if\nwe do not. It is no merit in us to be honest. Would that all\nChristian people applied that principle to their religion. The world\nwould be different, and the Church would be different, if they did.\n\nLet me try, then, to enforce this thought of indebtedness and of\ncommon honesty in discharging the indebtedness, which underlies these\nwords. Paul thought that he went a long way to pay his debts to\nhumanity by carrying to everybody whom he could reach the 'Name that\nis above every name.'\n\nI. Now, first, let me say that we Christians are debtors to all men\nby our common manhood.\n\nIt is not the least of the gifts which Christianity has brought to\nthe world, that it has introduced the new thought of the brotherhood\nof mankind. The very word 'humanity' is a Christian coinage, and it\nwas coined to express the new thought that began to throb in men's\nhearts, as soon as they accepted the message that Jesus Christ came\nto give, the message of the Fatherhood of God. For it is on that\nbelief of God's Fatherhood that the belief of man's brotherhood\nrests, and on it alone can it be secured and permanently based.\n\nHere is a Jew writing to Latins in the Greek language. The phenomenon\nitself is a sign of a new order of things, of the rising of a flood\nthat had surged over, and in the course of ages would sap away and\ndissolve, the barriers between men. The Apostle points to two of the\nwidest gulfs that separated men, in the words of my text. 'Greeks and\nBarbarians' divides mankind, according to race and language. 'Wise\nand unwise' divides them according to culture and intellectual\ncapacity. Both gulfs exist still, though they have been wonderfully\nfilled up by the influence, direct and indirect, of the Gospel of\nJesus Christ. The fiercest antagonisms of race which still subsist\nare felt to belong to a decaying order, and to be sure, sooner or\nlater, to pass away. I suppose that the gulf made by the increased\nculture of modern society between civilised and the savage peoples,\nand, within the limits of our own land, the gulf made by education\nbetween the higher and the lower layers of our community--I speak not\nof higher and lower in regard to wealth or station, but in regard to\nintellectual acquirement and capacity--are greater than, perhaps,\nthey ever were in the past. But yet over the gulf a bridge is thrown,\nand the gulf itself is being filled up. High above all the\nsuperficial distinctions which separate Jew and Gentile, Greek and\nBarbarian, educated and illiterate, scientific and unscientific, wise\nand unwise, there stretches the great rainbow of the truth that all\nare one in Christ Jesus. Fraternity without Fatherhood is a ghastly\nmockery that ended a hundred years ago in the guillotine, and to-day\nwill end in disappointment; and it is little more than cant. But when\nChristianity comes and tells us that we have one Father and one\nRedeemer, then the unity of the race is secured.\n\nAnd that oneness which makes us debtors to all men is shown to be\nreal by the fact that, beneath all superficial distinctions of\nculture, race, age, or station, there are the primal necessities and\nyearnings and possibilities that lie in every human soul. All men,\nsavage or cultivated, breathe the same air, see by the same light,\nare fed by the same food and drink, have the same yearning hearts,\nthe same lofty aspirations that unfulfilled are torture; the same\nexperience of the same guilt, and, blessed be God! the same Saviour\nand the same salvation.\n\nBecause, then, we are all members of the one family, every man is\nbound to regard all that he possesses, and is, and can do, as\ncommitted to him in stewardship to be imparted to his fellows. We are\nnot sponges to absorb, but we are pipes placed in the spring, that we\nmay give forth the precious water of life.\n\nCain is not a very good model, but his question is the world's\nquestion, and it implies the expectation of a negative answer--'Am I\nmy brother's keeper?' Surely, the very language answers itself, and,\nalthough Cain thinks that the only answer is 'No,' wisdom sees that\nthe only answer is 'Yes.' For if I am my brother's brother, then\nsurely I am my brother's keeper. We have a better example. There is\nanother Elder Brother who has come to give to His brethren all that\nHimself possessed, and we but poorly follow our Master's pattern\nunless we feel that the mystic tie which binds us in brotherhood to\nevery man makes us every man's debtor to the extent of our\npossessions. That is the Christian truth that underlies the modern\nSocialistic idea, and, whatever the form in which it is ultimately\nbrought into practice as the rule of mankind, the principle will\ntriumph one day; and we are bound, as Christian men, to hasten the\ncoming of its victory. We are debtors by reason of our common\nhumanity.\n\nII. We are debtors by our possession of the universal salvation.\n\nThe principle which I have already been laying down applies all\nround, to everything that we have, are, or can do. But its most\nstringent obligation, and the noblest field for its operations, are\nfound in reference to the Christian man's possession of the Gospel\nfor the joy of his own heart, and to the duties that are therein\ninvolved. Christ draws men to Himself for their own sakes, blessed be\nHis name! but not for their own sakes only. He draws them to Himself,\nthat they, in their turn, may draw others with whose hands theirs are\nlinked, and so may swell the numbers of the flock that gathers round\nthe one Shepherd. He puts the dew of His blessing into the chalice of\nthe tiniest flower, that it may 'share its dewdrop with another\nnear.' Just as every particle of inert dough as it is leavened\nbecomes in its turn leaven, and the medium for leavening the particle\ncontiguous to it, so every Christian is bound, or, to use the\nmetaphor of my text, is a debtor to God and man, to impart the Gospel\nof Jesus Christ. 'Greek and Barbarian,' says Paul, 'wise or unwise';\nall distinctions vanish. If I can get at a man, no matter what\ncolour, his race, his language, his capacity, his acquirements,\nhe is my creditor, and I am defrauding him of what he has a right to\nexpect from me if I do not do my best to bring him to Jesus Christ.\n\nThis obligation receives additional weight from the proved adaptation\nof the Gospel to all sorts and conditions of men. Alone of all\nreligions has Christianity proved itself capable of dominating every\ntype of character, of influencing every stage of civilisation, of\nassuming the speech of every tongue, and of wearing the garb of every\nrace. There are other religions which are evidently destined only to\na narrow field of operations, and are rigidly limited by geographical\nconditions, or by stages of civilisation. There are wines that are\nruined by a sea voyage, and can only be drunk in the land where the\nvintage was gathered; and that is the condition of all the ethnic\nreligions. Christianity alone passes through the whole earth, and\ninfluences all men. The history of missions shows us that. There has\nyet to be found the race that is incapable of receiving, or is beyond\nthe need of possessing, or cannot be elevated by the operation of,\nthe Gospel of Jesus Christ.\n\nSo to all men we are bound, as much as in us is, to carry the Gospel.\nThe distinction that is drawn so often by the people who never move a\nfinger to help the heathen either at home or abroad, between the home\nand the foreign field of work, vanishes altogether when we stand at\nthe true Christian standpoint. Here is a man who wants the Gospel; I\nhave it; I can give it to him. That constitutes a summons as\nimperative as if we were called by name from Heaven, and bade to go,\nand as much as in us is to preach the Gospel. Brethren! we do not\nobey the command, 'Owe no man anything,' unless, to the extent of our\nability, or over the whole field which we can influence at home or\nabroad, we seek to spread the name of Christ and the salvation that\nis in Him.\n\nIII. We are debtors by benefits received.\n\nI am speaking to men and women a very large proportion of whom get\ntheir living, and some of whom amass their wealth, by trade with\nlands that need the Gospel. It is not for nothing that England has\nwon the great empire that she possesses--won it, alas! far too often\nby deeds that will not bear investigation in the light of Christian\nprinciple, but won it.\n\nWhat do we owe to the lands that we call 'heathen'? The very speech\nby which we communicate with one another; the beginning of our\ncivilisation; wide fields for expanding population and emigration;\ntreasures of wisdom of many kinds; an empire about which we are too\nfond of crowing and too reluctant to recognise its\nresponsibilities--and Manchester its commerce and prosperity! Did God\nput us where we are as a nation only in order that we might carry the\ngifts of our literature, great as that is; of our science, great as\nthat is; of our law, blessed as that is; of our manufactures, to\nthose distant lands? The best thing that we can give is the thing\nthat all of us can help to give--the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 'Who\nknoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as\nthis?'\n\nIV. Lastly, we are debtors by injuries inflicted.\n\nMany subject-races seem destined to fade away by contact with our\nrace; and if we think of the nameless cruelties, and the iliad of\nwoes which England's possession of this great Colonial Empire has had\naccompanying it, we may feel that the harm in many aspects outweighs\nthe good, and that it had been better for these men to be left\nsuckled in creeds outworn, and ignorant of our civilisation, than to\nreceive from us the fatal gifts that they often have received. I do\nnot wish to exaggerate, but if you will take the facts of the case as\nbrought out by people that have no Christian prejudices to serve, I\nthink you will acknowledge that we as a nation owe a debt of\nreparation to the barbarians and the unwise.\n\nWhat about killing African tribes by the thousand with the vile stuff\nthat we call rum, and send to them in exchange for their poor\ncommodities? What about introducing new diseases, the offspring of\nvice, into the South Sea Islands, decimating and all but destroying\nthe population? Is it not true that, as the prophet wailed of old\nabout a degenerate Israel, we may wail about the beach-combers and\nother loafers that go amongst savage lands from England--'Through you\nthe name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles.' A Hindoo once said\nto a missionary, 'Your Book is very good. If you were as good as your\nBook you would conquer India in five years.' That may be true or it\nmay not, but it gives us the impression that is produced by godless\nEnglishmen on heathen peoples. We are taking away their religion from\nthem, necessarily, as the result of education and contact with\nEuropean thought. And if we do not substitute for it the one faith\nthat elevates and saves, the last state of that man will be worse\nthan the first.\n\nWe can almost hear the rattle of the guns on the north-west frontier\nof India to-day. There is another specimen of the injuries inflicted.\nThis is not the place to talk politics, but I feel that this is the\nplace to ask this question, 'Are Christian principles to have\nanything to do in determining national actions?' Is it Christian to\nimpose our yoke on unwilling tribes who have as deep a love for\nindependence as the proudest Englishmen of us all, and as good a\nright to it? Are punitive expeditions and Maxim guns instalments of\nour debt to all men? I wonder what Jesus Christ, who died for Afridis\nand Orakzais and all the rest of them, thinks about such conduct?\n\nBrethren, we are debtors to all men. Let us do our best to influence\nnational action in accordance with the brotherhood which has been\nrevealed to us by the Elder Brother of us all; and let us, at least\nfor our own parts, recognise, and, as much as in us is, discharge the\ndebt which, by our common humanity, and by our possession of the\nuniversal Gospel we owe to all men, and which is made more weighty by\nthe benefits we receive from many, and by the injuries which England\nhas inflicted on not a few. Else shall we hear rise above all the\nvoices that palliate crime, on the plea of 'State necessity,' the\nstern words of the Master, 'In thy skirts is found the blood of the\nsouls of poor innocents.' We are debtors; let us pay our debts.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GOSPEL THE POWER OF GOD[1]\n\n   'I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is\n   the power of God unto salvation to every one that\n   believeth.'--ROMANS i. 16.\n\n\nTo preach the Gospel in Rome had long been the goal of Paul's hopes.\nHe wished to do in the centre of power what he had done in Athens,\nthe home of wisdom; and with superb confidence, not in himself, but\nin his message, to try conclusions with the strongest thing in the\nworld. He knew its power well, and was not appalled. The danger was\nan attraction to his chivalrous spirit. He believed in flying at\nthe head when you are fighting with a serpent, and he knew that\ninfluence exerted in Rome would thrill through the Empire. If we\nwould understand the magnificent audacity of these words of my text\nwe must try to listen to them with the ears of a Roman. Here was a\npoor little insignificant Jew, like hundreds of his countrymen down\nin the Ghetto, one who had his head full of some fantastic nonsense\nabout a young visionary whom the procurator of Syria had very wisely\nput an end to a while ago in order to quiet down the turbulent\nprovince; and he was going into Rome with the notion that his word\nwould shake the throne of the C\u00e6sars. What proud contempt would have\ncurled their lips if they had been told that the travel-stained\nprisoner, trudging wearily up the Appian Way, had the mightiest thing\nin the world entrusted to his care! Romans did not believe much in\nideas. Their notion of power was sharp swords and iron yokes on the\nnecks of subject peoples. But the history of Christianity, whatever\nelse it has been, has been the history of the supremacy and the\nrevolutionary force of ideas. Thought is mightier than all visible\nforces. Thought dissolves and reconstructs. Empires and institutions\nmelt before it like the carbon rods in an electric lamp; and the\nlittle hillock of Calvary is higher than the Palatine with its regal\nhomes and the Capitoline with its temples: 'I am not ashamed of the\nGospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation.'\n\nNow, dear friends, I have ventured to take these great words for my\ntext, though I know, better than any of you can tell me, how sure my\ntreatment of them is to enfeeble rather than enforce them, because I,\nfor my poor part, feel that there are few things which we, all of us,\npeople and ministers, need more than to catch some of the infection\nof this courageous confidence, and to be fired with some spark of\nPaul's enthusiasm for, and glorying in, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.\n\nI ask you, then, to consider three things: (1) what Paul thought was\nthe Gospel? (2) what Paul thought the Gospel was? and (3) what he\nfelt about the Gospel?\n\nI. What Paul thought was the Gospel?\n\nHe has given to us in his own rapid way a summary statement,\nabbreviated to the very bone, and reduced to the barest elements, of\nwhat he meant by the Gospel. What was the irreducible minimum? The\nfacts of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, as you will find\nwritten in the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the\nCorinthians. So, then, to begin with, the Gospel is not a statement\nof principles, but a record of facts, things that have happened in\nthis world of ours. But the least part of a fact is the visible part\nof it, and it is of no significance unless it has explanation, and so\nPaul goes on to bind up with the facts an explanation of them. The\nmere fact that Jesus, a young Nazarene, was executed is no more a\ngospel than the other one, that two brigands were crucified beside\nHim. But the fact that could be seen, plus the explanation which\nunderlies and interprets it, turns the chronicle into a gospel, and\nthe explanation begins with the name of the Sufferer; for if you want\nto understand His death you must understand who it was that died. His\ndeath is a thought pathetic in all aspects, and very precious in\nmany. But when we hear 'Christ died according to the Scriptures,' the\nwhole symbolism of the ancient ritual and all the glowing\nanticipations of the prophets rise up before us, and that death\nassumes an altogether different aspect. If we stop with 'Jesus died,'\nthen that death may be a beautiful example of heroism, a sweet,\npathetic instance of innocent suffering, a conspicuous example of the\nworld's wages to the world's teachers, but it is little more. If,\nhowever, we take Paul's words upon our lips, 'Brethren, I declare\nunto you the Gospel which I preached ... how that Christ died ...\naccording to the Scriptures,' the fact flashes up into solid beauty,\nand becomes the Gospel of our salvation. And the explanation goes on,\n'How that Christ died for our sins.' Now, I may be very blind, but I\nventure to say that I, for my part, cannot see in what intelligible\nsense the Death of Christ can be held to have been for, or on behalf\nof, our sins--that is, that they may be swept away and we delivered\nfrom them--unless you admit the atoning nature of His sacrifice for\nsins. I cannot stop to enlarge, but I venture to say that any\nnarrower interpretation evacuates Paul's words of their deepest\nsignificance. The explanation goes on, 'And that He was buried.' Why\nthat trivial detail? Partly because it guarantees the fact of His\nDeath, partly because of its bearing on the evidences of His\nResurrection. 'And that He rose from the dead according to the\nScriptures.' Great fact, without which Christ is a shattered prop,\nand 'ye are yet in your sins.'\n\nBut, further, notice that my text is also Paul's text for this\nEpistle, and that it differs from the condensed summary of which I\nhave been speaking only as a bud with its petals closed differs from\none with them expanded in their beauty. And now, if you will take the\nwords of my text as being the keynote of this letter, and read over\nits first eight chapters, what is the Apostle talking about when he\nin them fulfils his purpose and preaches 'the Gospel' to them that\nare at Rome also? Here is, in the briefest possible words, his\nsummary--the universality of sin, the awful burden of guilt, the\ntremendous outlook of penalty, the impossibility of man rescuing\nhimself or living righteously, the Incarnation, and Life, and Death\nof Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, the hand of\nfaith grasping the offered blessing, the indwelling in believing\nsouls of the Divine Spirit, and the consequent admission of man into\na life of sonship, power, peace, victory, glory, the child's place in\nthe love of the Father from which nothing can separate. These are the\nteachings which make the staple of this Epistle. These are the\nexplanations of the weighty phrases of my text. These are at least\nthe essential elements of the Gospel according to Paul.\n\nBut he was not alone in this construction of his message. We hear a\ngreat deal to-day about Pauline Christianity, with the implication,\nand sometimes with the assertion, that he was the inventor of what,\nfor the sake of using a brief and easily intelligible term, I may\ncall Evangelical Christianity. Now, it is a very illuminating thought\nfor the reading of the New Testament that there are the three sets of\nteaching, roughly, the Pauline, Petrine, and Johannine, and you\ncannot find the distinctions between these three in any difference as\nto the fundamental contents of the Gospel; for if Paul rings out,\n'God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners\nChrist died for us,' Peter declares, 'Who His own self bare our sins\nin His own body on the tree,' and John, from his island solitude,\nsends across the waters the hymn of praise, 'Unto Him that loved us\nand washed us from our sins in His own blood.' And so the proud\ndeclaration of the Apostle, which he dared not have ventured upon in\nthe face of the acrid criticism he had to front unless he had known\nhe was perfectly sure of his ground, is natural and\nwarranted--'Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach.'\n\nWe are told that we must go back to the Christ of the Gospels, the\nhistorical Christ, and that He spoke nothing concerning all these\nimportant points that I have mentioned as being Paul's conception of\nthe Gospel. Back to the Christ of the Gospels by all means, if you\nwill go to the Christ of all the Gospels and of the whole of each\nGospel. And if you do, you will go back to the Christ who said, 'The\nSon of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to\ngive His life a ransom for many.' You will go back to the Christ who\nsaid, 'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men\nunto Me.' You will go back to the Christ who said, 'The bread that I\nwill give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.'\nYou will go back to the Christ who bade His followers hold in\neverlasting memory, not the tranquil beauty of His life, not the\npersuasive sweetness of His gracious words, not the might of His\nmiracles of blessing, but the mysterious agonies of His last hours,\nby which He would have us learn that there lie the secret of His\npower, the foundation of our hopes, the stimulus of our service.\n\nNow, brethren, I have ventured to dwell so long upon this matter,\nbecause it is no use talking about the Gospel unless we understand\nwhat we mean by it, and I, for my part, venture to say that that is\nwhat Paul meant by it, and that is what I mean by it. I plead for no\nnarrow interpretation of the phrases of my text. I would not that\nthey should be used to check in the smallest degree the diversities\nof representation which, according to the differences of individual\ncharacter, must ever prevail in the conceptions which we form and\nwhich we preach of this Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want no parrot-like\nrepetition of a certain set of phrases embodied, however great may be\ntheir meanings, in every sermon. And I would that the people to whom\nthose truths are true would make more allowance than they sometimes\ndo for the differences to which I have referred, and would show a\ngreat deal more sympathy than they often do to those, especially\nthose young men, who, with their faces toward Christ, have not yet\ngrown to the full acceptance of all that is implied in those gracious\nwords. There is room for a whole world of thought in the Gospel of\nChrist as Paul conceived it, with all the deep foundations of\nimplication and presupposition on which it rests, and with all the,\nas yet, undiscovered range of conclusions to which it may lead.\nRemember that the Cross of Christ is the key to the universe, and\nsends its influence into every region of human thought.\n\nII. What Paul thought the Gospel was.\n\n'The power of God unto salvation.' There was in the background of the\nApostle's mind a kind of tacit reference to the antithetical power\nthat he was going up to meet, the power of Rome, and we may trace\nthat in the words of my text. Rome, as I have said, was the\nembodiment of physical force, with no great faith in ideas. And over\nagainst this carnal might Paul lifts the undissembled weakness of the\nCross, and declares that it is stronger than man, 'the power of God\nunto salvation.' Rome is high in force; Athens is higher; the Cross\nis highest of all, and it comes shrouded in weakness having a poor\nMan hanging dying there. That is a strange embodiment of divine\npower. Yes, and because so strange, it is so touching, and so\nconquering. The power that is draped in weakness is power indeed.\nThough Rome's power did make for righteousness sometimes, yet its\nstream of tendency was on the whole a power to destruction and\ngrasped the nations of the earth as some rude hand might do rich\nclusters of grapes and squeeze them into a formless mass. The tramp\nof the legionary meant death, and it was true in many respects of\nthem what was afterwards said of later invaders of Europe, that where\ntheir horses' hoofs had once stamped no grass ever grew. Over against\nthis terrific engine of destruction Paul lifts up the meek forces of\nlove which have for their sole object the salvation of man.\n\nThen we come to another of the keywords about which it is very\nneedful that people should have deeper and wider notions than they\noften seem to cherish. What is salvation? Negatively, the removal and\nsweeping away of all evil, physical and moral, as the schools speak.\nPositively, the inclusion of all good for every part of the composite\nnature of a man which the man can receive and which God can bestow.\nAnd that is the task that the Gospel sets to itself. Now, I need not\nremind you how, for the execution of such a purpose, it is plain that\nsomething else than man's power is absolutely essential. It is only\nGod who can alter my relation to His government. It is only God who\ncan trammel up the inward consequences of my sins and prevent them\nfrom scourging me. It is only God who can bestow upon my death a new\nlife, which shall grow up into righteousness and beauty,\ncaught of, and kindred to, His own. But if this be the aim of the\nGospel, then its diagnosis of man's sickness is a very much graver\none than that which finds favour amongst so many of us now. Salvation\nis a bigger word than any of the little gospels that we hear\nclamouring round about us are able to utter. It means something a\ngreat deal more than either social or intellectual, or still more,\nmaterial or political betterment of man's condition. The disease lies\nso deep, and so great are the destruction and loss partly\nexperienced, and still more awfully impending over every soul of us,\nthat something else than tinkering at the outsides, or dealing, as\nself-culture does, with man's understanding or, as social gospels do,\nwith man's economical and civic condition, should be brought to bear.\nDear brethren, especially you Christian ministers, preach a social\nChristianity by all means, an applied Christianity, for there does\nlie in the Gospel of Jesus Christ a key to all the problems that\nafflict our social condition. But be sure first that there is a\nChristianity before you talk about applying it. And remember that the\nprocess of salvation begins in the deep heart of the individual and\ntransforms him first and foremost. The power is 'to every one that\nbelieveth.' It is power in its most universal sweep. Rome's Empire\nwas wellnigh ubiquitous, but, blessed be God, the dove of Christ\nflies farther than the Roman eagle with beak and claw ready for\nrapine, and wherever there are men here is a Gospel for them. The\nlimitation is no limitation of its universality. It is no limitation\nof the claim of a medicine to be a panacea that it will only do good\nto the man who swallows it. And that is the only limitation of which\nthe Gospel is susceptible, for we have all the same deep needs, the\nsame longings; we are fed by the same bread, we are nourished by the\nsame draughts of water, we breathe the same air, we have the same\nsins, and, thanks be to God, we have the same Saviour. 'The power of\nGod unto salvation to every one that believeth.'\n\nNow before I pass from this part of my subject there is only one\nthing more that I want to say, and that is, that you cannot apply\nthat glowing language about 'the power of God unto salvation' to\nanything but the Gospel that Paul preached. Forms of Christianity\nwhich have lost the significance of the Incarnation and Death of\nJesus Christ, and which have struck out or obscured the central facts\nwith which I have been dealing, are not, never were, and, I may\npresumptuously venture to say, never will be, forces of large account\nin this world. Here is a clock, beautiful, chased on the back, with a\nvery artistic dial-plate, and works modelled according to the most\napproved fashion, but, somehow or other, the thing won't go. Perhaps\nthe mainspring is broken. And so it is only the Gospel, as Paul\nexpounds it and expands it in this Epistle, that is 'the power of God\nunto salvation.' Dear brethren, in the course of a sermon like this,\nof course, one must lay himself open to the charge of dogmatising.\nThat cannot be helped under the conditions of my space. But let me\nsay as my own solemn conviction--I know that that is not worth much\nto you, but it is my justification for speaking in such a\nfashion--let me say as my solemn conviction that you may as well take\nthe keystone out of an arch, with nothing to hold the other stones\ntogether or keep them from toppling in hideous ruin on your\nunfortunate head, as take the doctrine that Paul summed up in that\none word out of your conception of Christianity and expect it to\nwork. And be sure of this, that there is only one Name that lords it\nover the demons of afflicted humanity, and that if a man goes and\ntries to eject them with any less potent charm than Paul's Gospel,\nthey will turn upon him with 'Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who\nare you?'\n\nIII. What Paul felt about this Gospel.\n\nHis restrained expression, 'I am not ashamed,' is the stronger for\nits very moderation. It witnesses to the fixed purpose of his heart\nand attitude of his mind, whilst it suggests that he was well aware\nof all the temptations in Rome to being ashamed of it there. Think of\nwhat was arrayed against him--venerable religion, systematised\nphilosophies, bitter hatred and prejudice, material power and wealth.\nThese were the brazen armour of Goliath, and this little David went\ncheerily down into the valley with five pebble stones in a leathern\nwallet, and was quite sure how it was going to end. And it ended as\nhe expected. His Gospel shook the kingdom of the Roman, and cast it\nin another mould.\n\nAnd there are temptations, plenty of them, for us, dear friends,\nto-day, to bate our confidence. The drift of what calls itself\ninfluential opinion is anti-supernatural, and we all are conscious of\nthe presence of that element all round about us. It tells with\nspecial force upon our younger men, but it affects us all. In this\nday, when a large portion of the periodical press, which does the\nthinking for most of us, looks askance at these truths, and when, on\nthe principle that in the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed man is\nthe king, popular novelists become our theological tutors, and when\nevery new publishing season brings out a new conclusive destruction\nof Christianity, which supersedes last season's equally complete\ndestruction, it is hard for some of us to keep our flags flying. The\nice round about us will either bring down the temperature, or, if it\nstimulates us to put more fuel on the fire, perhaps the fire may melt\nit. And so the more we feel ourselves encompassed by these\ntemptations, the louder is the call to Christian men to cast\nthemselves back on the central verities, and to draw at first hand\nfrom them the inspiration which shall be their safety. And how is\nthat to be done? Well, there are many ways by which thoughtful, and\ncultivated, students may do it. But may I venture to deal here rather\nwith ways which all Christian people have open before them? And I am\nbold to say that the way to be sure of 'the power of God unto\nsalvation' is to submit ourselves continually to its cleansing and\nrenewing influence. This certitude, brethren, may be contributed to\nby books of apologetics, and by other sources of investigation and\nstudy which I should be sorry indeed to be supposed in any degree to\ndepreciate. But the true way to get it is, by deep communion with the\nliving God, to realise the personality of Jesus Christ as present\nwith us, our Friend, our Saviour, our Sanctifier by His Holy Spirit.\nWhy, Paul's Gospel was, I was going to say, altogether--that would be\nan exaggeration--but it was to a very large extent simply the\ngeneralisation of his own experience. That is what all of us will\nfind to be the Gospel that we have to preach. 'We speak that we do\nknow and testify that we have seen.' And it was because this man\ncould say so assuredly--because the depths of his own conscience and\nthe witness within him bore testimony to it--'He loved me and gave\nHimself for me,' that he could also say, 'The power of God unto\nsalvation to every one that believeth.' Go down into the depths,\nbrother and friend; cry to Him out of the depths. Then you will feel\nHis strong, gentle grip lifting you to the heights, and that will\ngive power that nothing else will, and you will be able to say, 'I\nhave heard Him myself, and I know that this is the Christ, the\nSaviour of the world.'\n\nBut there is yet another source of certitude open to us all, and that\nis the history of the centuries. Our modern sceptics, attacking the\ntruth of Christianity mostly from the physical side, are strangely\nblind to the worth of history. It is a limitation of faculty that\nbesets them in a good many directions, but it does not work anywhere\nmore fatally than it does in their attitude towards the Gospel. After\nall, Jesus Christ spoke the ultimate word when He said, 'By their\nfruits ye shall know them.' And it is so, because just as what is\nmorally wrong cannot be politically right, so what is intellectually\nfalse cannot be morally good. Truth, goodness, beauty, they are but\nthree names for various aspects of one thing, and if it be that the\ndifference between B.C. and A.D. has come from a Gospel which is not\nthe truth of God, then all I can say is, that the richest vintage\nthat ever the world saw, and the noblest wine of which it ever drank,\ndid grow upon a thorn. I know that the Christian Church has sinfully\nand tragically failed to present Christ adequately to the world. But\nfor all that, 'Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord'; and nobler\nmanners and purer laws have come in the wake of this Gospel of Jesus\nChrist. And as I look round about upon what Christianity has done in\nthe world, I venture to say, 'Show us any system of religion or of no\nreligion that has done that or anything the least like it, and then\nwe will discuss with you the other evidences of the Gospel.'\n\nIn closing these words, may I venture relying on the melancholy\nprivilege of seniority, to drop for a minute or two into a tone of\nadvice? I would say, do not be frightened out of your confidence\neither by the premature paean of victory from the opposite camp, or\nby timid voices in our own ranks. And that you may not be so\nfrightened, be sure to keep clear in your mind the distinction\nbetween the things that can be shaken and the kingdom that cannot be\nmoved. It is bad strategy to defend an elongated line. It is\ncowardice to treat the capture of an outpost as involving the\nevacuation of the key of the position. It is a mistake, to which many\ngood Christian people are sorely tempted in this day, to assert such\na connection between the eternal Gospel and our deductions from the\nprinciples of that Gospel as that the refutation of the one must be\nthe overthrow of the other. And if it turns out to be so in any case,\na large part of the blame lies upon those good and mistaken people\nwho insist that everything must be held or all must be abandoned. The\nburning questions of this day about the genuineness of the books of\nScripture, inspiration, inerrancy, and the like, are not so\nassociated with this word, 'God so loved the world ... that whosoever\nbelieveth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,' as\nthat the discovery of errors in the Second Book of Chronicles shakes\nthe foundations of the Christian certitude. In a day like this truth\nmust change its vesture. Who believes that the Dissenting Churches of\nEngland are the highest, perfect embodiment of the Kingdom of God?\nAnd who believes that any creed of man's making has in it all and has\nin it only the everlasting Gospel? So do not be frightened, and do\nnot think that when the things that can be shaken are removed, the\nthings that cannot be shaken are at all less likely to remain. Depend\nupon it, the Gospel, whose outline I have imperfectly tried to set\nbefore you now, will last as long as men on earth know they are\nsinners and need a Saviour. Did you ever see some mean buildings that\nhave by degrees been gathered round the sides of some majestic\ncathedral, and do you suppose that the sweeping away of those\nshanties would touch the solemn majesty of the medi\u00e6val glories of\nthe building that rises above them? Take them away if need be, and\nit, in its proportion, beauty, strength, and heavenward aspiration,\nwill stand more glorious for the sweeping away. Preach positive\ntruth. Do not preach doubts. You remember Mr. Kingsley's book\n_Yeast_. Its title was its condemnation. Yeast is not meant to be\ndrunk; it is meant to be kept in the dark till the process of\nfermentation goes on and it works itself clear, and then you may\nbring it out. Do not be always arguing with the enemy. It is a great\ndeal better to preach the truth. Remember what Jesus said: 'Let them\nalone, they are blind leaders of the blind, they will fall into the\nditch.' It is not given to every one of us to conduct controversial\narguments in the pulpit. There are some much wiser and abler brethren\namongst us than you or I who can do it. Let us be contented with, not\nthe humbler but the more glorious, office of telling what we have\nknown, leaving it, as it will do, to prove itself. You remember what\nthe old woman, who had been favoured by her pastor with an elaborate\nsermon to demonstrate the existence of God, said when he had\nfinished; 'Well, I believe there is a God, for all the gentleman\nsays.'\n\nAs one who sees the lengthening shadows falling over the darkening\nfield, may I say one word to my junior brethren, with all whose\nstruggles and doubts and difficulties I, for one, do most tenderly\nsympathise? I beseech them--though, alas! the advice condemns the\ngiver of it as he looks back over long years of his ministry--to be\nfaithful to the Gospel how that 'Jesus Christ died for our sins\naccording to the Scriptures.' Dear young friends, if you only go\nwhere Paul went, and catch the inspiration that he caught there, your\npath will be clear. It was in contact with Christ, whose passion for\nsoul-winning brought Him from heaven, that Paul learned his passion\nfor soul-winning. And if you and I are touched with the divine\nenthusiasm, and have that aim clear before us, we shall soon find out\nthat there is only one power, one name given under heaven among men\nwhereby we can accomplish what we desire--the name of 'Jesus Christ\nthat died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right\nhand of God, and also maketh intercession for us.' If our aim is\nclear before us it will prescribe our methods, and if the inspiration\nof our ministry is, 'I determine not to know anything among you save\nJesus Christ and Him crucified,' then, whether men will hear or\nwhether they will forbear, they shall know that there hath been a\nProphet among them.\n\n[Footnote 1: Preached before Baptist Union.]\n\n\nWORLD-WIDE SIN AND WORLD-WIDE REDEMPTION\n\n   'Now we know, that what things soever the law saith, it\n   saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth\n   may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty\n   before God. 20. Therefore by the deeds of the law there\n   shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the\n   law is the knowledge of sin. 21. But now the\n   righteousness of God without the law is manifested,\n   being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22. Even\n   the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus\n   Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for\n   there is no difference: 23. For all have sinned, and\n   come short of the glory of God: 24. Being justified\n   freely by His grace, through the redemption that is\n   in Christ Jesus; 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a\n   propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His\n   righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,\n   through the forbearance of God; 26. To declare, I say,\n   at this time His righteousness; that He might be just,\n   and the justifier of him which believeth in\n   Jesus.'--ROMANS iii. 19-26.\n\n\nLet us note in general terms the large truths which this passage\ncontains. We may mass these under four heads:\n\nI. Paul's view of the purpose of the law.\n\nHe has been quoting a mosaic of Old Testament passages from the\nPsalms and Isaiah. He regards these as part of 'the law,' which term,\ntherefore, in his view, here includes the whole previous revelation,\nconsidered as making known God's will as to man's conduct. Every word\nof God, whether promise, or doctrine, or specific command, has in it\nsome element bearing on conduct. God reveals nothing only in order\nthat we may know, but all that, knowing, we may do and be what is\npleasing in His sight. All His words are law.\n\nBut Paul sets forth another view of its purpose here; namely, to\ndrive home to men's consciences the conviction of sin. That is not\nthe only purpose, for God reveals duty primarily in order that men\nmay do it, and His law is meant to be obeyed. But, failing obedience,\nthis second purpose comes into action, and His law is a swift witness\nagainst sin. The more clearly we know our duty, the more poignant\nwill be our consciousness of failure. The light which shines to show\nthe path of right, shines to show our deviations from it. And that\nconviction of sin, which it was the very purpose of all the previous\nRevelation to produce, is a merciful gift; for, as the Apostle\nimplies, it is the prerequisite to the faith which saves.\n\nAs a matter of fact, there was a far profounder and more inward\nconviction of sin among the Jews than in any heathen nation. Contrast\nthe wailings of many a psalm with the tone in Greek or Roman\nliterature. No doubt there is a law written on men's hearts which\nevokes a lower measure of the same consciousness of sin. There are\nprayers among the Assyrian and Babylonian tablets which might almost\nstand beside the Fifty-first Psalm; but, on the whole, the deep sense\nof sin was the product of the revealed law. The best use of our\nconsciousness of what we ought to be, is when it rouses conscience to\nfeel the discordance with it of what we are, and so drives us to\nChrist. Law, whether in the Old Testament, or as written in our\nhearts by their very make, is the slave whose task is to bring us to\nChrist, who will give us power to keep God's commandments.\n\nAnother purpose of the law is stated in verse 21, as being to bear\nwitness, in conjunction with the prophets, to a future more perfect\nrevelation of God's righteousness. Much of the law was symbolic and\nprophetic. The ideal it set forth could not always remain\nunfulfilled. The whole attitude of that system was one of\nforward-looking expectancy. There is much danger lest, in modern\ninvestigations as to the authorship, date, and genesis of the Old\nTestament revelation, its central characteristic should be lost sight\nof; namely, its pointing onwards to a more perfect revelation which\nshould supersede it.\n\nII. Paul's view of universal sinfulness.\n\nHe states that twice in this passage (vs. 20 to 24), and it underlies\nhis view of the purpose of law. In verse 20 he asserts that 'by the\nworks of the law shall no flesh be justified,' and in verses 23 and\n24 he advances from that negative statement to the positive assertion\nthat all have sinned. The impossibility of justification by the works\nof the law may be shown from two considerations: one, that, as a\nmatter of fact, no flesh has ever done them all with absolute\ncompleteness and purity; and, second, that, even if they had ever\nbeen so done, they would not have availed to secure acquittal at a\ntribunal where motive counts for more than deed. The former is the\nmain point with Paul.\n\nIn verse 23 the same fact of universal experience is contemplated as\nboth positive sin and negative falling short of the 'glory' (which\nhere seems to mean, as in John v. 44, xii. 43, approbation from God).\n'There is no distinction,' but all varieties of condition, character,\nattainment, are alike in this, that the fatal taint is upon them all.\n'We have, all of us, one human heart.' We are alike in physical\nnecessities, in primal instincts, and, most tragically of all, in the\ncommon experience of sinfulness.\n\nPaul does not mean to bring all varieties of character down to one\ndead level, but he does mean to assert that none is free from the\ntaint. A man need only be honest in self-examination to endorse the\nstatement, so far as he himself is concerned. The Gospel would be\nbetter understood if the fact of universal sinfulness were more\ndeeply felt. Its superiority to all schemes for making everybody\nhappy by rearrangements of property, or increase of culture, would be\nseen through; and the only cure for human misery would be discerned\nto be what cures universal sinfulness.\n\nIII. So we have next Paul's view of the remedy for man's sin. That is\nstated in general terms in verses 21, 22. Into a world of sinful men\ncomes streaming the light of a 'righteousness of God.' That\nexpression is here used to mean a moral state of conformity with\nGod's will, imparted by God. The great, joyful message, which Paul\nfelt himself sent to proclaim, is that the true way to reach the\nstate of conformity which law requires, and which the\nunsophisticated, universal conscience acknowledges not to have been\nreached, is the way of faith.\n\nThe message is so familiar to us that we may easily fail to realise\nits essential greatness and wonderfulness when first proclaimed. That\nGod should give righteousness, that it should be 'of God,' not only\nas coming from Him, but as, in some real way, being kindred with His\nown perfection; that it should be brought to men by Jesus Christ, as\nancient legends told that a beneficent Titan brought from heaven, in\na hollow cane, the gift of fire; and that it should become ours by\nthe simple process of trusting in Jesus Christ, are truths which\ncustom has largely robbed of their wonderfulness. Let us meditate\nmore on them till they regain, by our own experience of their power,\nsome of the celestial light which belongs to them.\n\nObserve that in verse 22 the universality of the redemption which is\nin Christ is deduced from the universality of sin. The remedy must\nreach as far as the disease. If there is no difference in regard to\nsin, there can be none in regard to the sweep of redemption. The\ndoleful universality of the covering spread over all nations, has\ncorresponding to it the blessed universality of the light which is\nsent forth to flood them all. Sin's empire cannot stretch farther\nthan Christ's kingdom.\n\nIV. Paul's view of what makes the Gospel the remedy.\n\nIn verses 21 and 22 it was stated generally that Christ was the\nchannel, and faith the condition, of righteousness. The personal\nobject of faith was declared, but not the special thing in Christ\nwhich was to be trusted in. That is fully set forth in verses 24-26.\nWe cannot attempt to discuss the great words in these verses, each of\nwhich would want a volume. But we may note that 'justified' here\nmeans to be accounted or declared righteous, as a judicial act; and\nthat justification is traced in its ultimate source to God's\n'grace,'--His own loving disposition--which bends to unworthy and\nlowly creatures, and is regarded as having for the medium of its\nbestowal the 'redemption' that is in Christ Jesus. That is the\nchannel through which grace comes from God.\n\n'Redemption' implies captivity, liberation, and a price paid. The\nmetaphor of slaves set free by ransom is exchanged in verse 25 for a\nsacrificial reference. A propitiatory sacrifice averts punishment\nfrom the offerer. The death of the victim procures the life of the\nworshipper. So, a propitiatory or atoning sacrifice is offered by\nChrist's blood, or death. That sacrifice is the ransom-price through\nwhich our captivity is ended, and our liberty assured. As His\nredemption is the channel 'through' which God's grace comes to men,\nso faith is the condition 'through' which (ver. 25) we make that\ngrace ours.\n\nNote, then, that Paul does not merely point to Jesus Christ as\nSaviour, but to His death as the saving power. We are to have faith\nin Jesus Christ (ver. 22). But that is not a complete statement. It\nmust be faith in His propitiation, if it is to bring us into living\ncontact with His redemption. A gospel which says much of Christ, but\nlittle of His Cross, or which dilates on the beauty of His life, but\nstammers when it begins to speak of the sacrifice in His death, is\nnot Paul's Gospel, and it will have little power to deal with the\nuniversal sickness of sin.\n\nThe last verses of the passage set forth another purpose attained by\nChrist's sacrifice; namely, the vindication of God's righteousness in\nforbearing to inflict punishment on sins committed before the advent\nof Jesus. That Cross rayed out its power in all directions--to the\nheights of the heavens; to the depths of Hades (Col. i. 20); to the\nages that were to come, and to those that were past. The suspension\nof punishment through all generations, from the beginning till that\nday when the Cross was reared on Calvary, was due to that Cross\nhaving been present to the divine mind from the beginning. 'The judge\nis condemned when the guilty is acquitted,' or left unpunished. There\nwould be a blot on God's government, not because it was so severe,\nbut because it was so forbearing, unless His justice was vindicated,\nand the fatal consequences of sin shown in the sacrifice of Christ.\nGod could not have shown Himself just, in view either of age-long\nforbearance, or of now justifying the sinner, unless the Cross had\nshown that He was not immorally indulgent toward sin.\n\n\n\n\nNO DIFFERENCE\n\n   'There is no difference.'--ROMANS iii. 22.\n\nThe things in which all men are alike are far more important than\nthose in which they differ. The diversities are superficial, the\nidentities are deep as life. Physical processes and wants are the\nsame for everybody. All men, be they kings or beggars, civilised or\nsavage, rich or poor, wise or foolish, cultured or illiterate,\nbreathe the same breath, hunger and thirst, eat and drink, sleep, are\nsmitten by the same diseases, and die at last the same death. We have\nall of us one human heart. Tears and grief, gladness and smiles, move\nus all. Hope, fear, love, play the same music upon all heart-strings.\nThe same great law of duty over-arches every man, and the same heaven\nof God bends above him.\n\nReligion has to do with the deep-seated identities and not with the\nsuperficial differences. And though there have been many aristocratic\nreligions in the world, it is the great glory of Christianity that it\ngoes straight to the central similarities, and brushes aside, as of\naltogether secondary importance, all the subordinate diversities,\ngrappling with the great facts which are common to humanity, and with\nthe large hopes which all may inherit.\n\nPaul here, in his grand way, triumphs and rises above all these small\ndifferences between man and man, more pure or less pure, Jew or\nGentile, wise or foolish, and avers that, in regard of the deepest\nand most important things, 'there is no difference,' and so his\nGospel is a Gospel for the world, because it deals with all men on\nthe same level. Now I wish to work out this great glory and\ncharacteristic of the Gospel system in a few remarks, and to point\nout to you the more important of these things in which all men, be\nthey what or who they may, stand in one category and have identical\nexperiences and interests.\n\nI. First, there is no difference in the fact of sin.\n\nNow let us understand that the Gospel does not assert that there is\nno difference in the degrees of sin. Christianity does not teach,\nhowsoever some of its apostles may seem to have taught, or\nunconsciously lent themselves to representations which imply the view\nthat there was no difference between a man who 'did by nature the\nthings contained in the law,' as Paul says, and the man who set\nhimself to violate law. There is no such monstrous teaching in the\nNew Testament as that all blacks are the same shade, all sin of the\nsame gravity, no such teaching as that a man that tries according to\nhis light to do what is right stands on exactly the same level as the\nman who flouts all such obligations, and has driven the chariots of\nhis lusts and passions through every law that may stand in his way.\n\nBut even whilst we have to insist upon that, that the teaching of my\ntext is not of an absolute identity of criminality, but only an\nuniversal participation in criminality, do not let us forget that, if\nyou take the two extremes, and suppose it possible that there were a\nbest man in all the world, and a worst man in all the world, the\ndifference between these two is not perhaps so great as at first\nsight it looks. For we have to remember that motives make actions,\nand that you cannot judge of these by considering those, that 'as a\nman thinketh in his heart,' and not as a man does with his hands, 'so\nis he.' We have to remember, also, that there may be lives,\nsedulously and immaculately respectable and pure, which are white\nrather with the unwholesome leprosy of disease than with the\nwholesome purity of health.\n\nIn Queen Elizabeth's time, the way in which they cleaned the hall of\na castle, the floor of which might be covered with remnants of food\nand all manner of abominations, was to strew another layer of rushes\nover the top of the filth, and then they thought themselves quite\nneat and respectable. And that is what a great many of you do, cover\nthe filth well up with a sweet smelling layer of conventional\nproprieties, and think yourselves clean, and the pinks of perfection.\nGod forbid that I should say one word that would seem to cast any\nkind of slur upon the effort that any man makes to do what he knows\nto be right, but this I proclaim, or rather my text proclaims for me,\nthat, giving full weight and value to all that, and admitting the\nexistence of variations in degree, the identity is deeper than the\ndiversity; and there is 'not a just man upon earth that doeth good\nand sinneth not.'\n\nOh, dear friends! it is not a question of degree, but of direction;\nnot how far the ship has gone on her voyage, but how she heads. Good\nand evil are the same in essence, whatever be their intensity and\nwhatever be their magnitude. Arsenic is arsenic, whether you have a\nton of it or a grain; and a very small dose will be enough to poison.\nThe Gospel starts with the assertion that there is no difference in\nthe fact of sin. The assertion is abundantly confirmed. Does not\nconscience assent? We all admit 'faults,' do we not? We all\nacknowledge 'imperfections.' It is that little word 'sin' which seems\nto bring in another order of considerations, and to command the\nassent of conscience less readily. But sin is nothing except fault\nconsidered in reference to God's law. Bring the notion of God into\nthe life, and 'faults' and 'slips' and 'weaknesses,' and all the\nother names by which we try to smooth down the ugliness of the ugly\nthing, start up at once into their tone, magnitude, and importance,\nand stand avowed as _sins_.\n\nWell now, if there be, therefore, this universal consciousness of\nimperfection, and if that consciousness of imperfection has only need\nto be brought into contact with God, as it were, to flame thus, let\nme remind you, too, that this fact of universal sinfulness puts us\nall in one class, no matter what may be the superficial difference.\nShakespeare and the Australian savage, the biggest brain and the\nsmallest, the loftiest and the lowest of us, the purest and the\nfoulest of us, we all come into the same order. It is a question of\nclassification. 'The Scripture hath concluded all under sin,' that is\nto say, has shut all men up as in a prison. You remember in the\nFrench Revolution, all manner of people were huddled indiscriminately\ninto the same dungeon of the Paris prisons. You would find a princess\nand some daughter of shame from the gutters; a boor from the country\nand a landlord, a count, a marquis, a _savant_, a philosopher\nand an illiterate workman, all together in the dungeons. They kept up\nthe distinctions of society and of class with a ghastly mockery, even\nto the very moment when the tumbrils came for them. And so here are\nwe all, in some sense inclosed within the solemn cells of this great\nprison-house, and whether we be wise or foolish, we are prisoners,\nwhether we have titles or not, we are prisoners. You may be a\nstudent, but you are a sinner: you may be a rich Manchester merchant,\nbut you are a sinner; you may be a man of rank, but you are a sinner.\nNaaman went to Elisha and was very much offended because Elisha\ntreated him as a leper who happened to be a nobleman. He wanted to be\ntreated as a nobleman who happened to be a leper. And that is the way\nwith a great many of us; we do not like to be driven into one class\nwith all the crowd of evildoers. But, my friend, 'there is no\ndifference.' 'All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.'\n\nII. Again, there is no difference in the fact of God's love to us.\n\nGod does not love men because of what they are, therefore He does not\ncease to love them because of what they are. His love to the sons of\nmen is not drawn out by their goodness, their morality, their\nobedience, but it wells up from the depths of His own heart, because\n'it is His nature and property,' and if I may so say, He cannot help\nloving. You do not need to pump up that great affection by any\nmachinery of obedience and of merits; it rises like the water in an\nArtesian well, of its own impulse, with ebullient power from the\ncentral heat, and spreads its great streams everywhere. And\ntherefore, though our sin may awfully disturb our relations with God,\nand may hurt and harm us in a hundred ways, there is one thing it\ncannot do, it cannot stop Him from loving us. It cannot dam back His\ngreat love, which flows out for ever towards all His creatures, and\nlaves them all in its gentle, strong flood, from which nothing can\ndraw them away. 'In Him we live, and move, and have our being,' and\nto live in Him, whatever else it may mean--and it means a great deal\nmore--is most certainly to live in His love. A man can as soon pass\nout of the atmosphere in which he breathes as he can pass out of the\nlove of God. We can no more travel beyond that great over-arching\nfirmament of everlasting love which spans all the universe than a\nstar set in the blue heavens can transcend the liquid arch and get\nbeyond its range. 'There is no difference' in the fact that all men,\nunthankful and evil as they are, are grasped and held in the love of\nGod.\n\nBut there _is_ a difference. Sin cannot dam God's love back, but sin\nhas a terrible power in reference to the love of God. Two things it\ncan do. It can make us incapable of receiving the highest blessings\nof that love. There are many mercies which God pours 'upon the\nunthankful and the evil.' These are His least gifts; His highest and\nbest cannot be given to the unthankful and the evil. They would if\nthey could, but they cannot, because they cannot be received by them.\nYou can shut the shutters against the light; you can close the vase\nagainst the stream. You cannot prevent its shining, you cannot\nprevent its flowing, but you can prevent yourself from receiving its\nloftiest and best blessings.\n\nAnd another awful power that my sin has in reference to God's love\nis, that it can modify the form which God's love takes in its\ndealings with me. We may force Him to do 'His work,' 'His strange\nwork,' as Isaiah calls it, and to punish when He would fain only\nsuccour and comfort and bless. Just as a fog in the sky does not\ntouch the sun, but turns it to our eyes into a fiery ball, red and\nlurid, so the mist of my sin coming between me and God, may, to my\napprehension and to my capacity of reception, solemnly make different\nthat great love of His. But yet there is no difference in the fact of\nGod's love to us.\n\nIII. Thirdly, there is no difference in the purpose and power of\nChrist's Cross for us all.\n\n'He died for all.' The area over which the purpose and the power of\nChrist's death extend is precisely conterminous with the area over\nwhich the power of sin extends. It cannot be--blessed be God!--that\nthe raven Sin shall fly further than the dove with the olive branch\nin its mouth. It cannot be that the disease shall go wider than the\ncure. And so, dear friends, I have to come to you now with this\nmessage. No matter what a man is, how far he has gone, how sinful he\nhas been, how long he has stayed away from the sweetness and grace of\nthat great sacrifice on the Cross, that death was for him. The power\nof Christ's sacrifice makes possible the forgiveness of all the sins\nof all the world, past, present, and to come. The worth of that\nsacrifice, which was made by the willing surrender of the Incarnate\nSon of God to the death of the Cross, is sufficient for the ransom\nprice of all the sins of all men.\n\nNor is it only the power of the Cross which is all embracing, but its\npurpose also. In the very hour of Christ's death, there stood, clear\nand distinct, before His divine omniscience, each man, woman, and\nchild of the race. And for them all, grasping them all in the\ntenderness of His sympathy and in the clearness of His knowledge, in\nthe design of His sufferings for them all, He died, so that every\nhuman being may lay his hand on the head of the sacrifice, and _know_\n'his guilt was there,' and may say, with as triumphant and\nappropriating faith as Paul did, 'He loved _me_,' and in that hour of\nagony and love 'gave Himself for _me_.'\n\nTo go back to a metaphor already employed, the prisoners are gathered\ntogether in the prison, not that they may be slain, but 'God hath\nincluded them all,' shut them all up, 'that He might have mercy upon\nall.' And so, as it was in the days of Christ's life upon earth, so\nis it now, and so will it be for ever. All the crowd may come to Him,\nand whosoever comes 'is made whole of whatsoever disease he had.'\nThere are no incurables nor outcasts. 'There is no difference.'\n\nIV. Lastly, there is no difference in the way which we must take for\nsalvation. The only thing that unites men to Jesus Christ is faith.\nYou must trust Him, you must trust the power of His sacrifice, you\nmust trust the might of His living love. You must trust Him with a\ntrust which is self-distrust. You must trust Him out and out. The\npeople with whom Paul is fighting, in this chapter, were quite\nwilling to admit that faith was the thing that made Christians, but\nthey wanted to tack on something besides. They wanted to tack on the\nrites of Judaism and obedience to the moral law. And ever since men\nhave been going on in that erroneous rut. Sometimes it has been that\npeople have sought to add a little of their own morality; sometimes\nto add ceremonies and sacraments. Sometimes it has been one thing and\nsometimes it has been another; but there are not two ways to the\nCross of Christ, and to the salvation which He gives. There is only\none road, and all sorts of men have to come by it. You cannot lean\nhalf upon Christ and half upon yourselves, like the timid cripple\nthat is not quite sure of the support of the friendly arm. You cannot\neke out the robe with which He will clothe you with a little bit of\nstuff of your own weaving. It is an insult to a host to offer to pay\nfor entertainment. The Gospel feast that Christ provides is not a\nsocial meal to which every guest brings a dish. Our part is simple\nreception, we have to bring empty hands if we would receive the\nblessing.\n\nWe must put away superficial differences. The Gospel is for the\nworld, therefore the act by which we receive it must be one which all\nmen can perform, not one which only some can do. Not wisdom, nor\nrighteousness, but faith joins us to Christ. And, therefore, people\nwho fancy themselves wise or righteous are offended that 'special\nterms' are not made with them. They would prefer to have a private\nportion for themselves. It grates against the pride of the\naristocratic class, whether it be aristocratic by culture--and that\nis the most aristocratic of all--or by position, or anything else--it\ngrates against their pride to be told: 'You have to go in by that\nsame door that the beggar is going in at'; and 'there is no\ndifference.' Therefore, the very width of the doorway, that is wide\nenough for all the world, gets to be thought narrowness, and becomes\na hindrance to our entering. As Naaman's servant put a common-sense\nquestion to him, so may I to you. 'If the prophet had bid thee do\nsome great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?' Ay! that you\nwould! 'How much more when He says \"Wash and be clean!\"' There is\nonly one way of getting dirt off, and that is by water. There is only\none way of getting sin off, and that is by the blood of Jesus Christ.\nThere is only one way of having that blood applied to your heart, and\nthat is trusting Him. 'The common salvation' becomes ours when we\nexercise 'the common faith.' 'There is no difference' in our sins.\nThank God! 'there is no difference' in the fact that He grasps us\nwith His love. There is no difference in the fact that Jesus Christ\nhas died for us all. Let there be no difference in our faith, or\nthere will be a difference, deep as the difference between Heaven and\nHell; the difference between them that believe and them that believe\nnot, which will darken and widen into the difference between them\nthat are saved and them that perish.\n\n\n\n\nLET US HAVE PEACE\n\n   'Let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus\n   Christ.'--ROMANS v. 1. (R.V.).\n\n\nIn the rendering of the Revised Version, 'Let us have peace with God\nthrough our Lord Jesus Christ,' the alteration is very slight, being\nthat of one letter in one word, the substitution of a long 'o' for a\nshort one. The majority of manuscripts of authority read 'let us\nhave,' making the clause an exhortation and not a statement. I\nsuppose the reason why, in some inferior MSS., the statement takes\nthe place of the exhortation is because it was felt to be somewhat of\na difficulty to understand the Apostle's course of thought. But I\nshall hope to show you that the true understanding of the context, as\nwell as of the words I have taken for my text, requires the\nexhortation and not the affirmation.\n\nOne more remark of an introductory character: is it not very\nbeautiful to see how the Apostle here identifies himself, in all\nhumility, with the Christians whom he is addressing, and feels that\nhe, Apostle as he is, has the same need for the same counsel and\nstimulus that the weakest of those to whom he is writing have? It\nwould have been so easy for him to isolate himself, and say, 'Now you\nhave peace with God; see that you keep it.' But he puts himself into\nthe same class as those whom he is exhorting, and that is what all of\nus have to do who would give advice that will be worth anything or of\nany effect. He does not stand upon a little molehill of superiority,\nand look down upon the Roman Christians, and imply that they have\nneeds that he has not, but he exhorts himself too, saying, 'Let all\nof us who have obtained like precious faith, which is alike in an\nApostle and in the humblest believer, have peace with God.'\n\nNow a word, first, about the meaning of this somewhat singular\nexhortation.\n\nThere is a theory of man and his relation to God underlying it, which\nis very unfashionable at present, but which corresponds to the\ndeepest things in human nature, and the deepest mysteries in human\nhistory, and that is, that something has come in to produce the\ntotally unnatural and monstrous fact that between God and man there\nis not amity or harmony. Men, on their side, are alienated, because\ntheir wills are rebellious and their aims diverse from God's purpose\nconcerning them. And--although it is an awful thing to have to say,\nand one from which the sentimentalism of much modern Christianity\nweakly recoils--on God's side, too, the relation has been disturbed,\nand 'we are by nature the children of wrath, even as others'; not of\na wrath which is unloving, not of a wrath which is impetuous and\npassionate, not of a wrath which seeks the hurt of its objects, but\nof a wrath which is the necessary antagonism and recoil of pure love\nfrom such creatures as we have made ourselves to be. To speak as if\nthe New Testament taught that 'reconciliation' was lop-sided--which\nwould be a contradiction in terms, for reconciliation needs two to\nmake it--to talk as if the New Testament taught that reconciliation\nwas only man's putting away his false relation to God, is, as I\nhumbly think, to be blind to its plainest teaching. So, there being\nthis antagonism and separation between God and man, the Gospel comes\nto deal with it, and proclaims that Jesus Christ has abolished the\nenmity, and by His death on the Cross has become our peace; and that\nwe, by faith in that Christ, and grasping in faith His death, pass\nfrom out of the condition of hostility into the condition of\nreconciliation.\n\nWith this by way of basis, let us come back to my text. It sounds\nstrange; 'Therefore, being justified by faith, let up have peace.'\n'Well,' you will say, 'but is not all that you have been saying just\nthis, that to be justified by faith, to be declared righteous by\nreason of faith in Him who makes us righteous, is to have peace with\nGod? Is not your exhortation an entirely superfluous one?' No doubt\nthat is what the old scribe thought who originated the reading which\nhas crept into our Authorised Version. The two things do seem to be\nentirely parallel. To be justified by faith is a certain process, to\nhave peace with God is the inseparable and simultaneous result of\nthat process itself. But that is going rather too fast. 'Being\njustified by faith let us have peace with God,' really is just\nthis--see that you abide where you are; keep what you have. The\nexhortation is not to attain peace, but retain it. 'Hold fast that\nthou hast; let no man take thy crown.' 'Being justified by faith'\ncling to your treasure and let nothing rob you of it--'let us have\npeace with God.'\n\nNow a word, in the next place, as to the necessity and importance of\nthis exhortation.\n\nThere underlies it, this solemn thought, which Christian people, and\nespecially some types of Christian doctrine, do need to have hammered\ninto them over and over again, that we hold the blessed life itself,\nand all its blessings, only on condition of our own cooperation in\nkeeping them; and that just as physical life dies, unless by\nreception of food we nourish and continue it, so a man that is in\nthis condition of being justified by faith, and having peace with\nGod, needs, in order to the permanence of that condition, to give his\nutmost effort and diligence. It will all go if he do not. All the old\nstate will come back again if we are slothful and negligent. We\ncannot keep the treasure unless we guard it. And just because we have\nit, we need to put all our mind, the earnestness of our will, and the\nconcentration of our efforts, into the specific work of retaining it.\n\nFor, consider how manifold and strong are the forces which are always\nworking against our continual possession of this justification by\nfaith, and consequent peace with God. There are all the ordinary\ncares and duties and avocations and fortunes of our daily life,\nwhich, indeed, may be so hallowed in their motives and in their\nactivities, as that they may be turned into helps instead of\nhindrances, but which require a great deal of diligence and effort in\norder that they should not work like grains of dust that come between\nthe parts of some nicely-fitting engine, and so cause friction and\ndisaster. There are all the daily tasks that tempt us to forget the\nthings that we only know by faith, and to be absorbed in the things\nthat we can touch and taste and handle. If a man is upon an inclined\nplane, unless he is straining his muscles to go upwards, gravitation\nwill make short work of him, and bring him down. And unless Christian\nmen grip hard and continually that sense of having fellowship and\npeace with God, as sure as they are living they will lose the\nclearness of that consciousness, and the calm that comes from it. For\nwe cannot go into the world and do the work that is laid upon us all\nwithout there being possible hostility to the Christian life in\neverything that we meet. Thank God there is possible help, too, and\nwhether our daily calling is an enemy or a friend to our religion\ndepends upon the earnestness and continuousness of our own efforts.\nBut there is a worse force than these external distractions working\nto draw us away, one that we carry within, in our own vacillating\nwills and wayward hearts and treacherous affections and passions that\nusually lie dormant, but wake up sometimes at the most inopportune\nperiods. Unless we keep a very tight hand upon ourselves, certainly\nthese will rob us of this consciousness of being justified by faith\nwhich brings with it peace with God that passes understanding.\n\nIn the Isle of Wight massive cliffs rise hundreds of feet above the\nsea, and seem as if they were as solid as the framework of the earth\nitself. But they rest upon a sharply inclined plane of clay, and the\nmoisture trickles through the rifts in the majestic cliffs above, and\ngets down to that slippery substance and makes it like the greased\nways down which they launch a ship; and away goes the cliff one day,\nwith its hundreds of feet of buttresses that have fronted the tempest\nfor centuries, and it lies toppled in hideous ruin on the beach\nbelow. We have all a layer of 'blue slipper' in ourselves, and unless\nwe take care that no storm-water finds its way down through the\nchinks in the rocks above they will slide into awful ruin. 'Being\njustified, let us have peace with God,' and remember that the\nexhortation is enforced not only by a consideration of the many\nstrong forces which tend to deprive us of this peace, but also by a\nconsideration of the hideous disaster that comes upon a man's whole\nnature if he loses peace with God. For there is no peace with\nourselves, and there is no peace with man, and there is no peace in\nface of the warfare of life and the calamities that are certainly\nbefore us all, unless, in the deepest sanctuary of our being, there\nis the peace of God because in our consciences there is peace with\nGod. If I desire to be at rest--and there is no blessedness but\nrest--if I desire to know the sovereign joy of tranquillity,\nundisturbed by my own stormy passions or by any human enmity, and to\nhave even the 'beasts of the field at peace with' me, and all things\nmy helpers and allies, there is but one way to realise the desire,\nand that is the retention of peace with God that comes with being\njustified by faith.\n\nLastly, a word or two as to the ways by which this exhortation can be\ncarried into effect.\n\nI have tried to explain how the peace of which my text speaks comes\noriginally through Christ's work laid hold of by my faith, and now I\nwould say only three things.\n\nRetain the peace by the exercise of that same faith which at first\nbrought it. Next, retain it by union with that same Lord from whom\nyou at first received it. Very significantly, in the immediate\ncontext, we have the Apostle drawing a broad distinction between the\nbenefits which we have received from Christ's death, and those which\nwe shall receive through His life. And that is the best commentary on\nthe words of my text. 'If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to\nGod by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be\nsaved by His life.' So let our faith grasp firmly the great twin\nfacts of the Christ who died that He might abolish the enmity, and\nbring us peace; and of the Christ who lives in order that He may pour\ninto our hearts more and more of His own life, and so make us more\nand more in His own image. And the last word that I would say, in\naddition to these two plain, practical precepts is, let your conduct\nbe such as will not disturb your peace with God. For if a man lets\nhis own will rise up in rebellion against God's, whether that divine\nwill command duty or impose suffering, away goes all his peace. There\nis no possibility of the tranquil sense of union and communion with\nmy Father in heaven lasting when I am in rebellion against Him. The\nsmallest sin destroys, for the time being, our sense of forgiveness\nand our peace with God. The blue surface of the lake, mirroring in\nits unmoved tranquillity the sky and the bright sun, or the solemn\nstars, loses all that reflected heaven in its heart when a cat's paw\nof wind ruffles its surface. If we would keep our hearts as mirrors,\nin their peace, of the peace in the heavens that shine down on them,\nwe must fence them from the winds of evil passions and rebellious\nwills. 'Oh! that thou wouldest hearken unto Me, then had thy peace\nbeen like a river.'\n\n\n\n\nACCESS INTO GRACE\n\n   'By whom also we have access by faith into this grace\n   wherein we stand.'--ROMANS v. 2.\n\n\nI may be allowed to begin with a word or two of explanation of the\nterms of this passage. Note then, especially, that _also_ which\nsends us back to the previous clause, and tells us that our text adds\nsomething to what was spoken of there. What was spoken of there?\n'The peace of God' which comes to a man by Jesus Christ through faith,\nthe removal of enmity, and the declaration of righteousness. But that\npeace with God, which is the beginning of everything in the Christian\nview, is only the beginning, and there is much to follow. While,\nthen, there is a progress clearly marked in the words of our text,\nand 'access into this grace wherein we stand' is something more than,\nand after, the 'peace with God,' mark next the similarity of the text\nand the preceding verse. The two great truths in the latter, Christ's\nmediation or intervention, and our faith as the condition by which we\nreceive the blessings which are brought to us in and through Him, are\nboth repeated, with no unmeaning tautology, but with profound\nsignificance in our text--'By whom also we have access'--as well\nas--'the peace of God'--'access _by faith_ into this grace.' So then,\nfor the initial blessing, and for all the subsequent blessings of the\nChristian life, the way is the same. The medium and channel is one,\nand the act by which we avail ourselves of the blessings coming\nthrough that one medium is the same. Now the language of my text,\nwith its talking about access, faith, and grace, sounds to a great\nmany of us, I am afraid, very hard and remote and technical. And\nthere are not wanting people who tell us that all that terminology in\nthe New Testament is like a dying brand in the fire, where the little\nkernel of glowing heat is getting covered thicker and thicker with\ngrey ashes. Yes; but if you blow the ashes off, the fire is there all\nthe same. Let us try if we can blow the ashes off.\n\nThis text seems to me in its archaic phraseology, only to need to be\npondered in order to flash up into wonderful beauty. It carries in it\na magnificent ideal of the Christian life, in three things: the\nChristian place, 'access into grace'; the Christian attitude,\n'wherein we stand'; and the Christian means of realising that ideal,\n'through Christ' and 'by faith.' Now let us look at these three\npoints.\n\nI. The Christian Place.\n\nThere is clearly a metaphor here, both in the word 'access' and in\nthat other one 'stand.' 'The grace' is supposed as some ample space\ninto which a man is led, and where he can continue, stand, and\nexpatiate. Or, we may say, it is regarded as a palace or\ntreasure-house into which we can enter. Now, if we take that great\nNew Testament word 'grace,' and ponder its meanings, we find that\nthey run something in this fashion. The central thought, grand and\nmarvellous, which is enshrined in it, and which often is buried for\ncareless ears, is that of the active love of God poured out upon\ninferiors who deserve something very different. Then there follows a\nsecond meaning, which covers a great part of the ground of the use of\nthe phrase in the New Testament, and that is the communication of\nthat love to men, the specific and individualised gifts which come\nout of that great reservoir of patient, pardoning, condescending, and\nbestowing love. Then there may be taken into view a meaning which is\nless prominent in Scripture but not absent, namely, the resulting\nbeauty of character. A gracious soul ought to be, and is, a graceful\nsoul; a supreme loveliness is imparted to human nature by the\ncommunication to it of the gifts which are the results of the\nundeserved, free, and infinite love of God.\n\nNow if we take all these three thoughts as blended together in the\ngrand metaphor of the Apostle, of the ample space into which the\nChristian man passes, we get such lessons as this. A Christian life\nmay, and therefore should, be suffused with a continual consciousness\nof the love of God. That would change everything in it. Here is some\ngreat sweep of rolling country, perhaps a Highland moor: the little\ntarns on it are grey and cold, the vegetation is gloomy and dark,\ndreariness is over all the scene, because there is a great pall of\ncloud drawn beneath the blue. But the sun pierces with his lances\nthrough the grey, and crumples up the mists, and sends them flying\nbeneath the horizon. Then what a change in the landscape! All the\ntarns that looked black and wicked are now infantile in their\ninnocent blue and sunny gladness, and every dimple in the heights\nshows, and all the heather burns with the sunshine that falls upon\nit. So my lonely doleful life, if that light from God, the beam of\nHis love, shines down upon it, rises into nobility, and flashes into\nbeauty, and is calm and fair and great, as nothing else can make it.\nYou may dwell in love by dwelling in God, and then your lives will be\nfair. You have access into the grace; see that you go there. They\ntell us that nightingales sing by the wayside by preference, and we\nmay have in our lives, singing a quiet tune, the continual thought of\nthe love of God, even whilst life's highway is dusty and rough, and\nour feet are often weary in treading it. A Christian life may be, and\ntherefore should be, suffused with the sense of the abiding love of\nGod.\n\nTake the other meaning of the word, the secondary and derived\nmeaning, the communication of that love to us, and that leads us to\nsay that a Christian life may, and therefore should, be enriched with\ncontinual gifts from God's fullness. I said that the Apostle was\nusing a metaphor here, regarding the grace as being an ample\nspace into which a man was admitted, or we may say that he is\nthinking of it as a great treasure-house. We have the right of\nentrance there, where on every side, as it were, lie ingots of\nuncoined gold, and masses of treasure, and we may have just as much\nor as little as we choose. It is entirely in our own determination\nhow much of the wealth of God we shall possess. We have access to the\ntreasure-house; and this permit is put into our hands: 'Be it unto\nthee even as thou wilt.' The size of the sack that the man brings, in\nthe old story, determined the amount of wealth that he carried away.\nSome of you bring very tiny baskets and expect little and desire\nlittle; you get no more than you desired and expected.\n\nThat wealth, the fullness of God, takes the shape of, as well as is\ndetermined in its measure by the magnitude of, the vessel into which\nit is put. It is multiform, and we get whatever we desire, and\nwhatever either our characters or our circumstances require. The one\ngift assumes all forms, just as water poured into a vase takes the\nshape of the vase into which it is poured. The same gift unfolds\nitself in an infinite variety of manners, according to the needs of\nthe man to whom it is given; just as the writer's pen, the\ncarpenter's hammer, the farmer's ploughshare, are all made out of the\nsame metal. So God's grace comes to you in a different shape from\nthat in which it comes to me, according to our different callings and\nneeds, as fixed by our circumstances, our duties, our sorrows, our\ntemptations.\n\nSo, brethren, how shameful it is that, having the possibility of so\nmuch, we should have the actuality of so little. There is an old\nstory about one of our generals in India long ago, who, when he came\nhome, was accused of rapacity because he had brought away so much\ntreasure from the Rajahs whom he had conquered, and his answer to the\ncharge was, 'I was surprised at my own moderation.' Ah! there are a\ngreat many Christian people who ought to be ashamed of their\nmoderation. They have gone into the treasure-house; stacks of jewels,\njars of gold on all sides of them--and they have been content to come\naway with some one poor little coin, when they might have been 'rich\nbeyond the dreams of avarice.' Brethren, you have 'access' to the\nfullness of God. Whose fault is it if you are empty?\n\nThen, further, I said there was another meaning in these great words.\nThe love which may suffuse our lives, the gifts, the consequence of\nthat love, which may enrich our lives, should, and in the measure in\nwhich they are received will, adorn and make beautiful our lives. For\n'grace' means loveliness as well as goodness, and the God who is the\nfountain of it all is the fountain of 'whatsoever things are fair,'\nas well as of whatsoever things are good. That suggests two\nconsiderations on which I have no time to dwell. One is that the\nhighest beauty is goodness, and unless the art of a nation learns\nthat, its art will become filthy and a minister of sin. They talk\nabout 'Art for Art's sake.' Would that all these poets and painters\nwho are trying to find beauty in corruption--and there is a\nphosphorescent glimmer in rotting wood, and a prismatic colouring on\nthe scum of a stagnant pond--would that all those men who are seeking\nto find beauty apart from goodness, and so are turning a divine\ninstinct into a servant of evil, would learn that the true\ngracefulness comes from the grace which is the fullness of God given\nunto men.\n\nBut there is another lesson, and that is that Christian people who\nsay that they have their lives irradiated by the love of God, and who\nprofess to be receiving gifts from His full hand, are bound to take\ncare that their goodness is not 'harsh and crabbed,' as not only\n'dull fools suppose' it to be, but as it sometimes is, but is musical\nand fair. You are bound to make your goodness attractive, and to show\nthat the things that are 'of good report' are likewise the 'things\nthat are lovely.'\n\nII. And so, now, turn to the second point here, viz. the Christian\nattitude.\n\n'The grace wherein ye _stand_'; that word is very emphatic here,\nand does not merely mean 'continue,' but it suggests what I have put\ninto that phrase, the Christian attitude.\n\nTwo things are implied. One is that a life thus suffused by the love,\nand enriched by the gifts, and adorned by the loveliness that come\nfrom God, will be stable and steadfast. Resistance and stability are\nimplied in the words. One very important item in determining a man's\npower of resistance, and of standing firm against whatever assaults\nmay be hurled against him, is the sort of footing that he has. If you\nstand on slippery mud, or on the ice of a glacier, you will find it\nhard to stand firm; but if you plant your foot on the grace of God,\nthen you will be able to 'withstand in the evil day, and having done\nall to stand.' And how does a man plant his foot on the grace of God?\nsimply by trusting in God, and not in himself. So that the secret of\nall steadfastness of life, and of all successful resistance to the\nwhirling onrush of temptations and of difficulties, is to set your\nfoot upon that rock, and then your 'goings' will be established.\n\nJesus Christ brings to us, in the gift of life in Him, stability\nwhich will check the vacillations of our own hearts. We go up and\ndown, we yield when pressure is brought to bear against us, we are\ncarried off our feet often by the sudden swirl of the stream, and the\nfitful blast of the wind. But His grace comes in, and will make us\nable to stand against all assaults. Our poor natures, necessarily\nchangeable, and sinfully vacillating and weak, will be uniform, in\nthe measure in which the grace of God comes into our hearts. Just as\nin these so-called petrifying wells, they take a bit of cloth, a\nbird's nest, a billet of wood, and plunge it into the water, and the\nmineral held in solution there infiltrates into the substance of the\nthing plunged in, and makes it firm and inflexible: so let us plunge\nour poor, changeful, vacillating resolutions, our wayward, wandering\nhearts, our passions, so easily excited by temptation, into that\ngreat fountain, and there will filter into our flexibility what will\nmake it firm, and into our changefulness what will give in us some\nfaint copy of the divine immutability, and we shall stand fast in the\nLord and in the power of His might.\n\nFurther, in regard to this attitude, which is the result of the\npossession of grace, we may say that it indicates not only stability\nand steadfastness, but erectness, as in opposition to crouching or\nbowing. A man's independence is guaranteed by his dependence upon,\nand his possession of, that communicated grace of God. And so you\nhave the fact that the phase of the Christian teaching which has laid\nmost stress on the decrees and sovereign will of God, on divine grace\nin fact, and too little upon the human side--the phase which is\nroughly described as Calvinism--has underlain the liberties of\nEurope, and has stiffened men into the rejection of all priestly and\ncivic domination. 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is\nliberty,' and if a man has in his heart the grace of God, then he\nstands erect as a man. 'Ye are bought with a price; be ye not the\nservants of men.' The Christian democracy, the Christian rejection of\nall sacerdotal and other domination, flows from the access of each\nindividual Christian to the fountain of all wisdom, the only source\nof law and command, the inspirer of all strength, the giver of all\ngrace. By faith ye stand. 'Stand fast therefore in the liberty\nwherewith Christ has made you free.'\n\nIII. Lastly, and only a word; we have here the Christian way of\nentrance into grace.\n\nI have already remarked on the emphasis with which, both in my text\nand in the preceding clause, there are laid down the two conditions\nof possessing this grace, or the peace which precedes it: 'By\nChrist--through faith.' Notice, too, that Jesus Christ gives us\n'access.' Now that expression is but an imperfect rendering of the\noriginal. If it were not for its trivial associations, one might read\ninstead of 'access,' introduction, 'by whom we have introduction into\nthis grace wherein we stand.' The thought is that Jesus Christ\nsecures us entry into this ample space, this treasure-house, as some\ncourt officer might take by the hand a poor rustic, standing on the\nthreshold of the palace, and lead him through all the glittering\nseries of unfamiliar splendour, and present him at last in the\ncentral ring around the king. The reality that underlies the metaphor\nis plain. We sinners can never pass into that central glory, nor ever\npossess those gifts of grace, unless the barrier that stands between\nus and God, between us and His highest gifts of love, is swept away.\n\nI recall an old legend where two knights are represented as seeking\nto enter a palace, where there is a mysterious fire burning in the\nmiddle of the portal. One of them tries to pass through, and recoils\nscorched; but when the other essays an entrance the fierce fire\nsinks, and the path is cleared. Jesus Christ has died, and I say it\nwith all reverence, as His blood touches the fire it flickers down\nand the way is opened 'into the holiest of all, whither the\nForerunner is for us entered.' He both brings the grace and makes it\npossible that we should go in where the grace is.\n\nBut Jesus Christ's work is nothing to you unless your personal faith\ncomes in, and so that is pointed to in the second of the clauses\nhere: '_By faith_ we have access.' That is no arbitrary appointment.\nIt lies in the very nature of the gift and of the recipient. How can\nGod give access into that grace to a man who shrinks from being near\nHim; who does not want 'access,' and who could not use the grace if\nhe had it? How can God bestow inward and spiritual gifts upon any man\nwho closes his heart against them, and will not have them? My faith\nis the condition; Christ is the Giver. If I ally myself to Him by my\nfaith, He gives to me. If I do not, with all the will to do it, He\ncannot bestow His best gifts any more than a man who stretches out\nhis hand to another sinking in the flood can lift him out, and set\nhim on the safe shore, if the drowning man's hand is not stretched\nout to grasp the rescuer's outstretched hand.\n\nBrethren, God is infinitely willing to give the choicest gifts of His\nlove to us all, to gladden, to enrich, to adorn, to make stable and\nerect. But He cannot give them unless you will trust Him. 'It pleased\nthe Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.' That alabaster box\nis brought to earth. It was broken on the Cross that 'the house'\nmight be 'filled with the odour of the ointment.' Our faith is the\nonly condition; it is only the condition, but it is the indispensable\ncondition, of our being anointed with that fragrant anointing. He,\nand He only, can give us the fullness of God.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SOURCES OF HOPE\n\n   'We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3. And not only\n   so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that\n   tribulation worketh patience; 4. And patience, experience;\n   and experience, hope.'--ROMANS v. 2-4.\n\n\nWe have seen in a previous sermon that the Apostle in the foregoing\ncontext is sketching a grand outline of the ideal Christian life, as\nall rooted in 'being justified by faith,' and flowering into 'peace\nwith God,' 'access into grace,' and a firm stand against all\nantagonists and would-be masters. In our text he advances to complete\nthe outline by sketching the true Christian attitude towards the\nfuture. I have ventured to take so pregnant and large a text, because\nthere is a very striking and close connection throughout the verses,\nwhich is lost unless we take them together. Note, then, 'we rejoice\nin hope,' 'we glory in tribulation.' Now, it is one word in the\noriginal which is diversely rendered in these two clauses by\n'rejoice' and 'glory.' The latter is a better rendering than the\nformer, because the original expression designates not only the\nemotion of joy, but the expression of it, especially in words. So it\nis frequently rendered in the New Testament by the word 'boast,'\nwhich, of course, has unpleasant associations, which scarcely fit it\nfor use here. So then you see Paul regards it as possible for, and\nmore than possibly characteristic of, a Christian, that the very same\nemotion should he excited by that great bright future hope, and by\nthe blackness of present sorrow. That is strong meat; and so he goes\non to explain how he thinks it can and must be so, and points out\nthat trouble, through a series of results, arrives at last at this,\nthat if it is rightly borne, it flashes up into greater brightness\nthe hope which has grasped the glory of God. So then we have here,\nnot only a wonderful designation of the object around which Christian\nhope twines its tendrils, but of the double source from which that\nhope may come, and of the one emotion with which Christian people\nshould front the darkness of the present and the brightness of the\nfuture. Ah! how different our lives would be if that ideal of a\nsteadfast hope and an untroubled joy were realised by each of us. It\nmay be. It should be. So I ask you to look at these three points\nwhich I have suggested.\n\nI. That wonderful designation of the one object of Christian hope\nwhich should fill, with an uncoruscating and unflickering light, all\nthat dark future.\n\n'We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.' Now, I suppose I need not\nremind you that that phrase 'the glory of God' is, in the Old\nTestament, used especially to mean the light that dwelt between the\ncherubim above the mercy-seat; the symbol of the divine perfections\nand the token of the Divine Presence. The reality of which it was a\nsymbol is the total splendour, so to speak, of that divine nature, as\nit rays itself out into all the universe. And, says Paul, the true\nhope of the Christian man is nothing less than that of that glory he\nshall be, in some true sense, and in an eternally growing degree, the\nreal possessor. It is a tremendous claim, and one which leads us into\ndeep places that I dare not venture into now, as to the resemblance\nbetween the human person and the Divine Person, notwithstanding all\nthe differences which of course exist, and which only a presumptuous\nform of religion has ventured to treat as transitory or\ninsignificant. Let me use a technical word, and say that it is no\npantheistic absorption in an impersonal Light, no Nirvana of union\nwith a vague whole, which the Apostle holds out here, but it is the\nclosest possible union, personality being saved and individual\nconsciousness being intensified. It is the clothing of humanity with\nso much of that glory as can be imparted to a finite creature. That\nmeans perfect knowledge, perfect purity, perfect love, and that means\nthe dropping away of all weaknesses and the access of strange new\npowers, and that means the end of the schism between 'will' and\n'ought,' and of the other schism between 'will' and 'can.' It means\nwhat this Apostle says: 'Whom He justified them He also glorified,'\nand what He says again, 'We all, beholding as in a glass'--or rather,\nperhaps, mirroring as a glass does--'the glory, are changed into the\nsame image.'\n\nThe very heart of Christianity is that the Divine Light of which that\nShekinah was but a poor and transitory symbol has 'tabernacled'\namongst men in the Christ, and has from Him been communicated, and is\nbeing communicated in such measure as earthly limitations and\nconditions permit, and that these do point on assuredly to perfect\nimpartation hereafter, when 'we shall be like Him, for we shall see\nHim as He is.' The Three could walk in the furnace of fire, because\nthere was One with them, 'like unto the Son of God.' 'Who among us\nshall dwell with the everlasting fire,' the fire of that divine\nperfection? They who have had introduction by Christ into the grace,\nand who will be led by Him into the glory.\n\nNow, brethren, it seems to me to be of great importance that this,\nthe loftiest of conceptions of that future life, should be the main\naspect under which we think of it. It is well to speak of rest from\ntoil; it is well to speak of all the negations of present\nunfavourable, afflictive conditions which that future presents to us.\nAnd perhaps there is none of the aspects of it which appeals to\ndeeper feelings in ourselves, than those which say 'there shall be no\nnight there,' 'there shall be no tears there, neither sorrow nor\nsighing'; 'there shall be no toil there.' But we must rise above all\nthat, for our heaven is to live in God, and to be possessors of His\nglory. Do not let us dwell upon the symbols instead of the realities.\nDo not let us dwell only on the oppositions and contradictions to\nearth. Let us rather rise high above symbols, high above negations,\nto the positive truth, and not contented with saying 'We shall be\nfull of blessedness; we shall be full of purity; we shall be full of\nknowledge,' let us rather think of that which embraces them all--we\nshall be full of God.\n\nSo much, then, for the one object of Christian hope. We have here--\n\nII. The double source of that hope.\n\nObserve that the first clause of my text comes as the last term in a\nsequence. It began with 'being justified by faith.' The second round\nof the ladder was, 'we have peace with God.' The third, 'we have\naccess into this grace.' The fourth, 'we stand,' and then comes, 'we\nrejoice in hope of the glory of God.' That is to say, to put it into\ngeneral words, and, of course, presupposing the revelation in Jesus\nChrist as the basis of all, without which there is no assured hope of\na future beyond the grave, then the facts of a Christian man's life\nare for him the best brighteners of the hope beyond. Of course, that\nis so. 'Justified by faith'--'peace with God'--'access into grace';\nwhat, in the name of common-sense, can death do with these things?\nHow can its blunted sword cut the bond that unites a soul that has\nhad such experiences as these with the source of them all? Nothing\ncan be more grotesque, nothing more incongruous, than to think that\nthat subordinate and accidental fact, whose region is the physical,\nhas anything whatever to do with this higher region of consciousness.\n\nAnd, further than that, it is absolutely unthinkable to a man in the\npossession of these spiritual gifts, that they should ever come to a\nclose; and the fact that in the precise degree in which we realise as\nour very own possession, here and now, these Christian emotions and\nblessings, we instinctively rise to the belief that they are 'not for\nan age, but for all time,' and not for all time, but for eternity, is\nitself, if not a proof, yet a very strong presumption, if you believe\nin God, that a man who thus 'feels he was not made to die' because he\nhas grasped the Eternal, is right in so feeling. If, too, we look at\nthe experiences themselves, they all have the stamp of\nincompleteness, and suggest completeness by their own incompleteness.\nThe new moon with its ragged edge not more surely prophesies its\ncompleted silver round, than do the experiences of the Christian life\nhere, in their greatness and in their smallness, declare that there\ncome a time and an order of things in which what was thwarted\ntendency shall be accomplished result. The tender green spikelet,\npushing up through the brown clods, does not more surely prophesy the\nwaving yellow ear, nor the broad highway on which a man comes in the\nwilderness more surely declare that there is a village at the end of\nit, than do the facts of the Christian life, here and now, attest the\nvalidity of the hope of the glory of God.\n\nAnd so, brethren, if you wish to brighten that great light that fills\nthe future, see to it that your present Christianity is fuller of\n'peace with God,' 'access into grace,' and the firm, erect standing\nwhich flows from these. When the springs in the mountains dry up, the\nriver in the valley shrinks; and when they are full, it glides along\nlevel with the top of its banks. So when our Christian life in the\npresent is richest, our Christian hope of the future will be the\nbrighter. Look into yourselves. Is there anything there that\nwitnesses to that great future; anything there that is obviously\nincipient, and destined to greater power; anything there which is\nlike a tropical plant up here in 45 degrees of north latitude,\nmanaging to grow, but with dwarfed leaves and scanty flowers and half\nshrivelled and sourish fruit, and that in the cold dreams of the warm\nnative land? Reflecting telescopes show the stars in a mirror, and\nthe observer looks down to see the heavens. Look into yourselves, and\nsee whether, on the polished plate within, there are any images of\nthe stars that move around the Throne of God.\n\nBut let us turn for a moment to the second source to which the\nApostle traces the Christian hope here. I must not be tempted to more\nthan just a word of explanation, but perhaps you will tolerate that.\nPaul says that trouble works patience, that is to say, not only\npassive endurance, but brave persistence in a course, in spite of\nantagonisms. That is what trouble does to a man when it is rightly\nborne. Of course the Apostle is speaking here of its ideal operation,\nand not of the reality which alas! often is seen when our\ntribulations lash us into impatience, or paralyse our efforts.\nTribulation worketh patience, 'and patience _experience_.' That is a\ndifficult word to put into English. There underlies it the frequent\nthought which is familiar in Scripture, of trouble of all kinds as\ntesting a man, whether as the refiner's fire or the winnower's fan.\nIt tests a man, and if he bears the trouble with patient persistence,\nthen he has passed the test and is approved. Patient perseverance\nthus works approval, or proof of the man's Christianity, and, still\nmore, proof of the reality and power of the Christ whom his\nChristianity grasps. And so from out of that approval or proof which\ncomes, through perseverance, from tribulation, there rises, of\ncourse, in that heart that has been tested and has stood, a calm hope\nthat the future will be as the past, and that, having fought through\nsix troubles, by God's help the seventh will be vanquished also, till\nat last troubles will end, and heaven be won.\n\nBrethren, there is the true point of view from which to look, not\nonly at tribulations, but at all the trials, for they too bring\ntrials, that lie in duty and in enjoyment, and in earthly things.\nThey are meant to work in us a conviction, by our experience of\nhaving been able to meet them aright, of the reality of our grasp of\nGod, and of the reality and power of the God whom we grasp. If we\ntook that point of view in regard to all the changes of this\nchangeful life, we should not so often be bewildered and upset by the\ndarkest of our sorrows. The shining lancets and cruel cutting\ninstruments that the surgeon lays out on his table before he begins\nthe operation are very dreadful. But the way to think of them is that\nthey are there in order to remove from a man what it does him harm to\nkeep, and what, if it is not taken away, will kill him. So life, with\nits troubles, great and small, is all meant for this, to make us\nsurer of, and bring us closer to, our God, and to brace and\nstrengthen us in our own personal character. And if it does that,\nthen blessed be everything that produces these results, and leads us\nthereby to glorying in the troubles by which shines out on us a\nbrighter hope.\n\nSo there are the two sources, you see: the one is the blessedness of\nthe Christian life, the other the sorrows of the outward life, and\nboth may converge upon the brightening of our Christian hope. Our\nrainbow is the child of the marriage of the sun and the rain. The\nChristian hope comes from being 'justified by faith, having peace\nwith God ... and access into grace,' and it comes from tribulation,\nwhich 'worketh patience,' and patience which 'worketh approval.' The\none spark is struck from the hard flint by the cold steel, and the\nother is kindled by the sun itself, but they are both fire.\n\nAnd so, lastly, we have here--\n\nIII. The one emotion with which the Christian should front all the\nfacts, inward and outward, of his earthly life.\n\n'We glory in the hope,' 'we glory in tribulation,' I need not dwell\nupon the lesson which is taught us here by the fact that the Apostle\nputs as one in a series of Christian characteristics this of a\nsteadfast and all-embracing joy. I do not believe that we Christian\npeople half enough realise how imperative a Christian duty, as well\nas how great a Christian privilege, it is to be glad always. You have\nno right to be anxious; you are wrong to be hypochondriac and\ndepressed, and weary and melancholy. True; there are a great many\noccasions in our Christian life which minister sadness. True; the\nChristian joy looks very gloomy to a worldly eye. But there are far\nmore occasions which, if we were right, would make joy instinctive,\nand which, whether we are right or not, make it obligatory upon us. I\nneed not speak of how, if that hope were brighter than it commonly is\nwith us, and if it were more constantly present to our minds and\nhearts, we should sing with gladness. I need not dwell upon that\ngreat and wonderful paradox by which the co-existence of sorrow and\nof joy is possible. The sorrows are on the surface; beneath there may\nbe rest. All the winds of heaven may rave across the breast of ocean,\nand fret it into clouds of spume against a storm-swept sky. But deep\ndown there is stillness, and yet not stagnation, because there is the\ngreat motion that brings life and freshness; and so, though there\nwill be wind-vexed surfaces on our too-often agitated spirits, there\nought to be deeper than these the calm setting of the whole ocean of\nour nature towards God Himself. It is possible, as this Apostle has\nit, to be 'sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.' It is possible, as his\nbrother Apostle has it, to 'rejoice greatly, though now for a season\nwe are in sorrow through manifold temptations.' Look back upon your\nlives from the point of view that your tribulation is an instrument\nto produce hope, and you will be able to thank God for all the way by\nwhich He has led you.\n\nNow, brethren, the plain lesson of all this is just that we have\nhere, in these texts, a linked chain, one end of which is wrapped\naround our sinful hearts, and the other is fastened to the Throne of\nGod. You cannot drop any of the links, and you must begin at the\nbeginning, if you are to be carried on to the end. If we are to have\na joy immovable, we must have a 'steadfast hope.' If we are to have a\n'steadfast hope,' we must have a present 'grace.' If we are to have a\npresent 'grace,' and 'access' to the fullness of God, we must have\n'peace with God.' If we are to have 'peace with God,' we must have\nthe condemnation and the guilt taken away. If we are to have the\ncondemnation and the guilt taken away, Jesus Christ must take them.\nIf Jesus Christ is to take them away, we must have faith in Him. Then\nyou can work it backward, and begin at your own end, and say, 'If I\nhave faith in Jesus Christ, then every link of the chain in due\nsuccession will pass through my hand, and I shall have justifying,\npeace, access, the grace, erectness, hope, and exultation, and at\nlast He will lead me by the hand into the glory for which I dare to\nhope, the glory which the Father gave to Him before the foundation of\nthe world, and which He will give to me when the world has passed\naway in fervent heat.'\n\n\n\n\nA THREEFOLD CORD\n\n   'And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is\n   shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is\n   given unto us.'--ROMANS v. 5.\n\n\nWe have seen in former sermons that, in the previous context, the\nApostle traces Christian hope to two sources: one, the series of\nexperiences which follow 'being justified by faith' and the other,\nthose which follow on trouble rightly borne. Those two golden chains\ntogether hold up the precious jewel of hope. But a chain that is to\nbear a weight must have a staple, or it will fall to the ground. And\nso Paul here turns to yet another thought, and, going behind both our\ninward experiences and our outward discipline, falls back on that\nwhich precedes all. After all is said and done, the love of God,\neternal, self-originated, the source of all Christian experiences\nbecause of the work of Christ which originates them all, is the root\nfact of the universe, and the guarantee that our highest\nanticipations and desires are not unsubstantial visions, but morning\ndreams, which are proverbially sure to be fulfilled. God is love;\ntherefore the man who trusts Him shall not be put to shame.\n\nBut you will notice that here the Apostle not only adduces the love\nof God as the staple, so to speak, from which these golden chains\nhang, but that he traces the heart's being suffused with that love to\nits source, and as, of course, is always the case in the order of\nanalysis, that which was last in time comes first in statement. We\nbegin at the surface, and go down and down and down from effect to\ncause, and yet again to the cause of that cause which is itself\neffect. We strip off, as it were, layer after layer, until we get to\nthe living centre--hope comes from the love, the love comes from the\nSpirit in the heart. And so to get at the order of time and of\nmanifestation, we must reverse the order of analysis in my text, and\nbegin where it ends. So we have here three things--the Spirit given,\nthe love shed abroad by that Spirit, and the hope established by that\nlove. Now just look at them for a moment.\n\nI. The Spirit given.\n\nNow, the first point to notice here is that the Revised Version\npresents the meaning of our text more accurately than the Authorised\nVersion, because, instead of reading 'is given,' it correctly reads\n'was given.' And any of you that can consult the original will see\nthat the form of the language implies that the Apostle is thinking,\nnot so much of a continuous bestowment, as of a definite moment when\nthis great gift was bestowed upon the man to whom he is speaking.\n\nSo the first question is, when was that Spirit given to these Roman\nChristians? The Christian Church has been split in two by its answers\nto that question. One influential part, which has taken a new lease\nof life amongst us to-day, says 'in baptism,' and the other says 'at\nthe moment of faith.' I am not going to be tempted into controversial\npaths now, for my purpose is a very different one, but I cannot help\njust a word about the former of these two answers. 'Given in\nbaptism,' say our friends, and I venture to think that they thereby\ndegrade Christianity into a system of magic, bringing together two\nentirely disparate things, an external physical act and a spiritual\nchange. I do not say anything about the disastrous effects that have\nfollowed from such a conception of the medium by which this greatest\nof all Christian gifts is effected upon men. Since the Spirit who is\ngiven is life, the result of the gift of that Spirit is a new life,\nand we all know what disastrous and debasing consequences have\nfollowed from that dogma of regeneration by baptism. No doubt it is\nperfectly true that normally, in the early Church, the Divine Spirit\nwas given at baptism; but for one thing, that general rule had\nexceptions, as in the case of Cornelius, and, for another thing,\nthough it was given _at_ baptism, it was not given _in_\nbaptism, but it was given through faith, of which in those days\nbaptism was the sequel and the sign.\n\nBut I pass altogether from this, and fall back on the great words\nwhich, to me at least, if there were no other, would determine the\nwhole answer to this question as to when the Spirit was given: 'This\nspake He of the Holy Ghost, which they that _believe_ on Him\nshould receive'; and I would ask the modern upholders of the other\ntheory the indignant question which the Apostle Paul fired off out of\nhis heavy artillery at their ancient analogues, the circumcisers in\nthe Galatian Church: 'This only would I know of you: Received ye the\nHoly Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?'\n\nThe answer which the evangelical Christian gives to this ancient\nquestion suggested by my text, 'When was that Divine Spirit\nbestowed?' is congruous with the spirituality of the Christian faith,\nand is eminently reasonable. For the condition required is the\nopening of the whole nature in willing welcome to the entrance of the\nDivine Spirit, and as surely as, wherever there is an indentation of\nthe land, and a concavity of a receptive bay, the ocean will pour\ninto it and fill it, so surely where a heart is open for God, God in\nHis Divine Spirit will enter into that heart, and there will shed His\nblessed influences.\n\nSo, dear brethren, and this is the main point to which I wish to\ndirect your attention, the Apostle here takes it for granted that all\nthese Roman Christians knew in themselves the truth of what he was\nsaying, and had an experience which confirmed his assertion that the\nDivine Spirit of God was given to them when they believed. Ah! I\nwonder if that is true about us professing Christians; if we are\naware in any measure of a higher life than our own having been\nbreathed into us; if we are aware in any measure of a Divine Spirit\ndwelling in our spirits, moulding, lifting, enlightening, guiding,\nconstraining, and yet not coercing? We ought to be, 'Know ye not that\nthe Spirit dwelleth in you, except ye be rejected?' Brethren, it\nseems to me to be of the very last importance, in this period of the\nChurch's history, that the proportion between the Church's teaching\nas to the work of Christ on the Cross, and as to the consequent work\nof the Spirit of Christ in our hearts and spirits, should be changed.\nWe must become more mystical if we are not to become less Christian.\nAnd the fact that so many of us seem to imagine that the whole Gospel\nlies in this, that 'He died for our sins according to the\nScriptures,' and have relegated the teaching that He, by His Spirit,\nlives in us, if we are His disciples, to a less prominent place, has\ndone enormous harm, not only to the type of Christian life, but to\nthe conception of what Christianity is, both amongst those who\nreceive it, and amongst those who do not accept it, making it out to\nbe nothing more than a means of escape from the consequences of our\ntransgression, instead of recognising it for what it is, the\nimpartation of a new life which will flower into all beauty, and bear\nfruit in all goodness.\n\nThere was a question put once to a group of disciples, in\nastonishment and incredulity, by this Apostle, when he said to the\ntwelve disciples in Ephesus, 'Did you receive the Holy Ghost when you\nbelieved?' The question might well be put to a multitude of\nprofessing Christians amongst us, and I am afraid a great many of\nthem, if they answered truly, would answer as those disciples did,\n'We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.'\n\nAnd now for the second point in my text--\n\nII. The love which is shed abroad by that Spirit.\n\nNow, I suppose I do not need to do more than point out that 'the love\nof God' here means His to us, and not ours to Him, and that the\nmetaphor employed is but partially represented by that rendering\n'shed abroad.' 'Poured out' would better convey Paul's image, which\nis that of a flood sent coursing through the heart, or, perhaps,\nrather lying there, as a calm deep lake on whose unruffled surface\nthe heavens, with all their stars, are reflected. Of course, if God's\nlove to us thus suffuses a heart, then there follows the\nconsciousness of that love; though it is not the consciousness of the\nlove that the Apostle is primarily speaking of, but that which lies\nbehind it, the actual flowing into the human heart of that sweet and\nall-satisfying Love. This Divine Spirit that dwells in us, if we are\ntrusting in Christ, will pour it in full streams into our else empty\nhearts. Surely there is nothing incongruous with the nature either of\nGod or of man, in believing that thus a real communication is\npossible between them, and that by thoughts the occasions of which we\ncannot trace, by moments of elevation, by swift, piercing\nconvictions, by sudden clear illuminations, God may speak, and will\nspeak, in our waiting hearts.\n\n  'Such rebounds the inmost ear\n    Catches often from afar.\n  Listen, prize them, hold them dear;\n    For of God, of God, they are.'\n\nBut we must not forget, too, that, according to the whole strain of\nNew Testament thinking, the means by which that Divine Spirit does\npour out the flashing flood of the love of God into a man's heart is,\nas Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, by taking the things of Christ\nand showing them to us.\n\nNow, as I said about a former point of my sermon,\nthat the Apostle was taking for granted that this gift of the Spirit\nbelonged to all Christian people; so here again he takes for granted\nthat in every Christian heart there is, by a divine operation, the\npresence of the love, and of the consciousness of the love, of God.\nAnd, again, the question comes to some of us stunningly, to all of us\nwarningly, Is that a transcript of our experience? It is the ideal of\na Christian life; it is meant that it should be so, and should be so\ncontinuously. The stream that is poured out is intended to run summer\nand winter, not to be dried up in drought, nor made turbid and noisy\nin flood, but with equable flow throughout. I fear me that the\nexperience of most good people is rather like one of those tropical\nwadies, or nullahs in Eastern lands, where there alternate times of\nspate and times of drought; and instead of a flashing stream, pouring\nlife everywhere, and full to the top of its banks, there is for long\nperiods a dismal stretch of white sun-baked stones, and a chaos of\ntumbled rocks with not a drop of water in the channel. The Spirit\npours God's love into men's spirits, but there may be dams and\nbarriers, so that no drop of the water comes into the empty heart.\n\nOur Quaker friends have a great deal to say about 'waiting for the\nspringing of the life within us.' Never mind about the phraseology:\nwhat is meant is profoundly true, that no Christian man will realise\nthis blessing unless he knows how to sit still and meditate, and let\nthe gracious influence soak into him. Thus being quiet, he may, he\nwill, find rising in his heart the consciousness of the love of God.\nYou will not, if you give only broken momentary sidelong glances; you\nwill not, if you do not lie still. If you hold up a cup in a shaking\nhand beneath a fountain, and often twitch it aside, you will get\nlittle water in it; and unless we 'wait on the Lord,' we shall not\n'renew our strength.' You can build a dam as they do in Holland that\nwill keep out, not only the waters of a river, but the waters of an\nocean, and not a drop will come through the dike. Brethren, we must\nkeep ourselves in the love of God.\n\nLastly, we have here--\n\nIII. The hope that is established by the love poured out.\n\nI need not dwell at any length upon this point, because, to a large\nextent, it has been anticipated in former sermons, but just a word or\ntwo may be permitted me. That love, you may be very sure, is not\ngoing to lose its objects in the dust. The old Psalmist who knew so\nmuch less than we do as to the love of God, and knew nothing of the\nwhispers of a Divine Spirit within his heart charged with the message\nof the love as it was manifested in Jesus Christ, had risen to a\nheight of confidence, the beauty of the expression of which is often\nlost sight of, because we insist upon dealing with it as merely being\na Messianic prophecy, which it is, but not merely: 'Thou wilt not\nleave my soul in Sheol, neither wilt Thou suffer Thy beloved' (for\nthat is the real meaning of the word translated 'thy Holy\nOne')--'Thou wilt not suffer the child of Thy love to see\ncorruption.' Death's bony fingers can untie all true lover's knots\nbut one; and they fumble at that one in vain. God will not lose His\nchild in the grave.\n\nThat love, we may be very sure, will not foster in us hopes that are\nto be disappointed. Now, it is a fact that the more a man feels that\nGod loves him, the less is it possible for him to believe that that\nlove will ever terminate, or that he shall 'all die.' In the lock of\na canal, as the water pours in, the vessel rises. In our hearts, as\nthe flood of the full love of God pours in, our hopes are borne up\nand up, nearer and nearer to the heavens. Since it is so, we must\nfind in the fact that the constant and necessary result of communion\nwith Him here on earth is a conviction of the immortality of that\ncommunion, a very, very strong guarantee for ourselves that the hope\nis not in vain. And if you say that that is all merely subjective,\nyet I think that the universality of the experience is a fact to be\ntaken into account even by those who doubt the reality of the hope,\nand for ourselves, at all events, is a sufficient ground on which to\nrest. We have the historical fact of the Resurrection of Jesus\nChrist. We have the fact that wherever there has been earthly\nexperience of true communion with God, there, and in the measure in\nwhich it has been realised, the thermometer of our hopes of\nimmortality, so to speak, has risen. 'God is love,' and God will not\nbring the man that trusts Him to confusion.\n\nAnd may we not venture to say that, contemplating the analogous\nearthly love, we are permitted to believe that that divine Lover of\nour souls desires to have His beloved with Him, and desires that\nthere be no separation between Him and them, either, if I might so\nsay, in place or in disposition? As certainly as husband and wife,\nlover and friend, long to be together, and need it for perfection and\nfor rest, so surely will that divine love not be satisfied until it\nhas gathered all its children to its breast and made them partakers\nof itself.\n\nThere are many, many hopes that put the men who cherish them to\nshame, partly because they are never fulfilled, partly because,\nthough fulfilled, they are disappointed, since the reality is so much\nless than the anticipation. Who does not know that the spray of\nblossom on the tree looks far more lovely hanging above our heads\nthan when it is grasped by us? Who does not know that the fish\nstruggling on the hook seems heavier than it turns out to be when\nlying on the bank? We go to the rainbow's end, and we find, not a pot\nof gold, but a huddle of cold, wet mist. There is one man that is\nentitled to say: 'To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more\nabundant.' Who is he? Only the man whose hope is in the Lord his God.\nIf we open our hearts by faith, then these three lines of sequence of\nwhich we have been speaking will converge, and we shall have the hope\nthat is the shining apex of 'being justified by faith,' and the hope\nthat is the calm result of trouble and agitation, and the hope that,\ntravelling further and higher than anything in our inward experience\nor our outward discipline, grasps the key-word of the universe, 'God\nis love,' and triumphantly makes sure that 'neither death nor life,\nnor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor\nthings to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall\nbe able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus\nour Lord.'\n\n\n\n\nWHAT PROVES GOD'S LOVE\n\n   'God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we\n   were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'--ROMANS v. 8.\n\n\nWe have seen in previous sermons on the preceding context that the\nApostle has been tracing various lines of sequence, all of which\nconverge upon Christian hope. The last of these pointed to the fact\nthat the love of God, poured into a heart like oil into a lamp,\nbrightened that flame; and having thus mentioned the great Christian\nrevelation of God as love, Paul at once passes to emphasise the\nhistorical fact on which the conviction of that love rests, and goes\non to say that 'the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the\nHoly Ghost which is given to us, _for_ when we were yet without\nstrength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.' Then there rises\nbefore him the thought of how transcendent and unparalleled a love is\nthat which pours its whole preciousness on unworthy and unresponsive\nhearts. He thinks to himself--'We are all ungodly; without\nstrength--yet, He died for us. Would any man do that? No! for,' says\nhe, 'it will be a hard thing to find any one ready to die for a\nrighteous man--a man rigidly just and upright, and because rigidly\njust, a trifle hard, and therefore not likely to touch a heart to\nsacrifice; and even for a good man, in whom austere righteousness has\nbeen softened and made attractive, and become graciousness and\nbeneficence, well! it is just within the limits of possibility that\nsomebody might be found even to die for a man that had laid such a\nstrong hand upon his affections. But God commendeth His love in that\nwhile we were yet sinners Christ died for us.' Now, when Paul says\n'commend,' he uses a very significant word which is employed in two\nways in the New Testament. It sometimes means to establish, or to\nprove, or to make certain. But 'prove' is a cold word, and the\nexpression also means to recommend, to set forth in such a way as to\nappeal to the heart, and God does both in that great act. He\nestablishes the fact, and He, as it were, sweeps it into a man's\nheart, on the bosom of that full tide of self-sacrifice.\n\nSo there are two or three points that arise from these words, on\nwhich I desire to dwell now--to lay them upon our hearts, and not\nonly upon our understandings. For it is a poor thing to prove the\nlove of God, and we need that not only shall we be sure of it, but\nthat we shall be softened by it. So now let me ask you to look with\nme, first, at this question--\n\nI. What Paul thought Jesus Christ died for.\n\n'Died _for_ us.' Now that expression plainly implies two things:\nfirst, that Christ died of His own accord, and being impelled by a\ngreat motive, beneficence; and, second, that that voluntary death,\nsomehow or other, is for our behoof and advantage. The word in the\noriginal, 'for,' does not define in what way that death ministers to\nour advantage, but it does assert that for those Roman Christians who\nhad never seen Jesus Christ, and by consequence for you and me\nnineteen centuries off the Cross, there is benefit in the fact of\nthat death. Now, suppose we quote an incident in the story of\nmissionary martyrdom. There was a young lady, whom some of us knew\nand loved, in a Chinese mission station, who, with the rest of the\nmissionary band, was flying. Her life was safe. She looked back, and\nsaw a Chinese boy that her heart twined round, in danger. She\nreturned to save him; they laid hold of her and flung her into the\nburning house, and her charred remains have never been found. That\nwas a death for another, but 'Jesus died for us' in a deeper sense\nthan that. Take another case. A man sets himself to some great cause,\nnot his own, and he sees that in order to bless humanity, either by\nthe proclamation of some truth, or by the origination of some great\nmovement, or in some other way, if he is to carry out his purpose,\nhe must give his life. He does so, and dies a martyr. What he aimed\nat could only be done by the sacrifice of his life. The death was a\nmeans to his end, and he died for his fellows. That is not the depth\nof the sense in which Paul meant that Jesus Christ died for us. It\nwas not that He was true to His message, and, like many another\nmartyr, died. There is only one way, as it seems to me, in which any\nbeneficial relation can be established between the Death of Christ\nand us, and it is that when He died He died for us, because 'He bare\nour sins in His own body on the tree.'\n\nDear brethren, I dare say some of you do not take that view, but I\nknow not how justice can be done to the plain words of Scripture\nunless this is the point of view from which we look at the Cross of\nCalvary--that there the Lamb of Sacrifice was bearing, and bearing\naway, the sins of the whole world. I know that Christian men who\nunite in the belief that Christ's death was a sacrifice and an\natonement diverge from one another in their interpretations of the\nway in which that came to be a fact, and I believe, for my part, that\nthe divergent interpretations are like the divergent beams of light\nthat fall upon men who stand round the same great luminary, and that\nall of them take their origin in, and are part of the manifestation\nof, the one transcendent fact, which passes all understanding, and\ngathers into itself all the diverse conceptions of it which are\nformed by limited minds. He died for us because, in His death, our\nsins are taken away and we are restored to the divine favour.\n\nI know that Jesus Christ is said to have made far less of that aspect\nof His work in the Gospels than His disciples have done in the\nEpistles, and that we are told that, if we go back to Jesus, we shall\nnot find the doctrine which for some of us is the first form in which\nthe Gospel finds its way into the hearts of men. I admit that the\nfully-developed teaching followed the fact, as was necessarily the\ncase. I do not admit that Jesus Christ 'spake nothing concerning\nHimself' as the sacrifice for the world's sins. For I hear from His\nlips--not to dwell upon other sayings which I could quote--I hear\nfrom His lips, 'The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to\nminister'--that is only half His purpose--'and to give His life a\nransom instead of the many.' You cannot strike the atoning aspect of\nHis death out of that expression by any fair handling of the words.\n\nAnd what does the Lord's Supper mean? Why did Jesus Christ select\nthat one point of His life as the point to be remembered? Why did He\ninstitute the double memorial, the body parted from the blood being a\nsign of a violent death? I know of no explanation that makes that\nLord's Supper an intelligible rite except the explanation which says\nthat He came, to live indeed, and in that life to be a sacrifice, but\nto make the sacrifice complete by Himself bearing the consequences of\ntransgression, and making atonement for the sins of the world.\n\nBrethren, that is the only aspect of Christ's death which makes it of\nany consequence to us. Strip it of that, and what does it matter to\nme that He died, any more than it matters to me that any\nphilanthropist, any great teacher, any hero or martyr or saint,\nshould have died? As it seems to me, nothing. Christ's death is\nsurrounded by tenderly pathetic and beautiful accompaniments. As a\nstory it moves the hearts of men, and 'purges them, by pity and by\nterror.' But the death of many a hero of tragedy does all that.\nAnd if you want to have the Cross of Christ held upright in its place\nas the Throne of Christ and the attractive power for the whole world,\nyou must not tamper with that great truth, but say, 'He died for our\nsins, according to the Scriptures.'\n\nNow, there is a second question that I wish to ask, and that is--\n\nII. How does Christ's death 'commend' God's love?\n\nThat is a strange expression, if you will think about it, that\n'_God_ commendeth His love towards us in that _Christ_\ndied.' If you take the interpretation of Christ's death of which I\nhave already been speaking, one could have understood the Apostle if\nhe had said, 'Christ commendeth His love towards us in that Christ\ndied.' But where is the force of the fact of a _man's_ death to\nprove _God's_ love? Do you not see that underlying that swift\nsentence of the Apostle there is a presupposition, which he takes for\ngranted? It is so obvious that I do not need to dwell upon it to\nvindicate his change of persons, viz. that 'God was in Christ,' in\nsuch fashion as that whatsoever Christ did was the revelation of God.\nYou cannot suppose, at least I cannot see how you can, that there is\nany force of proof in the words of my text, unless you come up to the\nfull belief, 'God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.'\n\nSuppose some great martyr who dies for his fellows. Well, all honour\nto him, and the race will come to his tomb for a while, and bring\ntheir wreaths and their sorrow. But what bearing has his death upon\nour knowledge of God's love towards us? None whatever, or at most a\nvery indirect and shadowy one. We have to dig deeper down than that.\n'God commends His love ... in that Christ died.' 'He that hath seen\nMe hath seen the Father.' And we have the right and the obligation to\nargue back from all that is manifest in the tender Christ to the\nheart of God, and say, not only, 'God so loved the world that He'\nsent His Son, but to see that the love that was in Christ is the\nmanifestation of the love of God Himself.\n\nSo there stands the Cross, the revelation to us, not only of a\nBrother's sacrifice, but of a Father's love; and that because Jesus\nChrist is the revelation of God as being the 'eradiation of His\nglory, and the express image of His person.' Friends! light does pour\nout from that Cross, whatever view men take of it. But the omnipotent\nbeam, the all-illuminating radiance, the transforming light, the heat\nthat melts, are all dependent on our looking at it--I do not only\nsay, as Paul looked at it, nor do I even say as Christ looked at it,\nbut as the deep necessities of humanity require that the world should\nlook at it, as the altar whereon is laid the sacrifice for our sins,\nthe very Son of God Himself. To me the great truths of the\nIncarnation and the Atonement of Jesus Christ are not points in a\nmere speculative theology; they are the pulsating vital centre of\nreligion. And every man needs them in his own experience.\n\nI was going to have said a word or two here--but it is not\nnecessary--about the need that the love of God should be irrefragably\nestablished, by some plain and undeniable and conspicuous fact. I\nneed not dwell upon the ambiguous oracles which--\n\n  'Nature, red in tooth and claw,\n  With rapine'\n\ngives forth, nor on how the facts of human life, our own sorrows, and\nthe world's miseries, the tears that swathe the earth, as it rolls on\nits orbit, like a misty atmosphere, war against the creed that God is\nlove. I need not remind you, either, of how deep, in our own hearts,\nwhen the conscience begins to speak its _not_ ambiguous oracles,\nthere does rise the conviction that there is much in us which it is\nimpossible should be the object of God's love. Nor need I remind you\nhow all these difficulties in believing in a God who is love, based\non the contradictory aspects of nature, and the mysteries of\nprovidence, and the whisperings of our own consciousness, are proved\nto have been insuperable by the history of the world, where we find\nmythologies and religions of all types and gods of every sort, but\nnowhere in all the pantheon a God who is Love.\n\nOnly let me press upon you that that conviction of the love of God,\nwhich is found now far beyond the limits of Christian faith, and\namongst many of us who, in the name of that conviction itself, reject\nChristianity, because of its sterner aspects, is historically the\nchild of the evangelical doctrine of the Incarnation and sacrifice of\nJesus Christ. And if it still subsists, as I know it does, especially\nin this generation, amongst many men who reject what seems to me to\nbe the very kernel of Christianity--subsists like the stream cut off\nfrom its source, but still running, that only shows that men hold\nmany convictions the origin of which they do not know. God is love.\nYou will not permanently sustain that belief against the pressure of\noutward mysteries and inward sorrows, unless you grasp the other\nconviction that Christ died for our sins. The two are inseparable.\n\nAnd now lastly--\n\nIII. What kind of love does Christ's death declare to us as existing\nin God?\n\nA love that is turned away by no sin--that is the thing that strikes\nthe Apostle here, as I have already pointed out. The utmost reach of\nhuman affection might be that a man would die for the good--he would\nscarcely die for the righteous. But God sends His Son, and comes\nHimself in His Son, and His Son died for the ungodly and the sinner.\nThat death reveals a love which is its own origin and motive. We love\nbecause we discern, or fancy we do, something lovable in the object.\nGod loves under the impulse, so to speak, of His own welling-up\nheart.\n\nAnd yet it is a love which, though not turned away by any sin, is\nwitnessed by that death to be rigidly righteous. It is no mere\nflaccid, flabby laxity of a loose-girt affection, no mere foolish\nindulgence like that whereby earthly parents spoil their children.\nGod's love is not lazy good-nature, as a great many of us think it to\nbe and so drag it in the mud, but it is rigidly righteous, and\ntherefore Christ died. That Death witnesses that it is a love which\nshrinks from no sacrifices. This Isaac was not 'spared.' God gave up\nHis Son. Love has its very speech in surrender, and God's love speaks\nas ours does. It is a love which, turned away by no sin, and yet\nrigidly righteous and shrinking from no sacrifices, embraces all ages\nand lands. 'God commendeth'--not 'commended.' The majestic present\ntense suggests that time and space are nothing to the swift and\nall-filling rays of that great Light. That love is 'towards us,' you\nand me and all our fellows. The Death is an historical fact,\noccurring in one short hour. The Cross is an eternal power, raying\nout light and love over all humanity and through all ages.\n\nGod lays siege to all hearts in that great sacrifice. Do you believe\nthat Jesus Christ died for _your_ sins 'according to the Scriptures'?\nDo you see there the assurance of a love which will lift you up above\nall the cross-currents of earthly life, and the mysteries of\nprovidence, into the clear ether where the sunshine is unobscured?\nAnd above all, do you fling back the reverberating ray from the\nmirror of your own heart that directs again towards heaven\nthe beam of love which heaven has shot down upon you? 'Herein is\nlove, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave His Son\nto be the propitiation for our sins.' Is it true of us that we love\nGod because He first loved us?\n\n\n\n\nTHE WARRING QUEENS\n\n   'As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace\n   reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus\n   Christ our Lord.'--ROMANS v. 21.\n\n\nI am afraid this text will sound to some of you rather unpromising.\nIt is full of well-worn terms, 'sin,' 'death,' 'grace,'\n'righteousness,' 'eternal life,' which suggest dry theology, if they\nsuggest anything. When they welled up from the Apostle's glowing\nheart they were like a fiery lava-stream. But the stream has cooled,\nand, to a good many of us, they seem as barren and sterile as the\nlong ago cast out coils of lava on the sides of a quiescent volcano.\nThey are so well-worn and familiar to our ears that they create but\nvague conceptions in our minds, and they seem to many of us to be far\naway from a bearing upon our daily lives. But you much mistake Paul\nif you take him to be a mere theological writer. He is an earnest\nevangelist, trying to draw men to love and trust in Jesus Christ. And\nhis writings, however old-fashioned and doctrinally hard they may\nseem to you, are all throbbing with life--instinct with truths that\nbelong to all ages and places, and which fit close to every one of\nus.\n\nI do not know if I can give any kind of freshness to these words, but\nI wish to try. To begin with, I notice the highly-imaginative and\npicturesque form into which the Apostle casts his thoughts here. He,\nas it were, draws back a curtain, and lets us see two royal figures,\nwhich are eternally opposed and dividing the dominion between them.\nThen he shows us the issues to which these two rulers respectively\nconduct their subjects; and the question that is trembling on his\nlips is 'Under which of them do you stand?' Surely that is not fossil\ntheology, but truths that are of the highest importance, and ought to\nbe of the deepest interest, to every one of us. They are to you the\nformer, whether they are the latter or not.\n\nI. So, first, look at the two Queens who rule over human life.\n\nSin and Grace are both personified; and they are both conceived of as\nfemale figures, and both as exercising dominion. They stand face to\nface, and each recognises as her enemy the other. The one has\nestablished her dominion: 'Sin _hath_ reigned.' The other is\nfighting to establish hers: 'That Grace _might_ reign.' And the\nstruggle is going on between them, not only on the wide field of the\nworld; but in the narrow lists of the heart of each of us.\n\nSin reigns. The truths that underlie that solemn picture are plain\nenough, however unwelcome they may be to some of us, and however\nremote from the construction of the universe which many of us are\ndisposed to take.\n\nNow, let us understand our terms. Suppose a man commits a theft. You\nmay describe it from three different points of view. He has thereby\nbroken the law of the land; and when we are thinking about that we\ncall it crime. He has also broken the law of 'morality,' as we call\nit; and when we are looking at his deed from that point of view, we\ncall it vice. Is that all? He has broken something else. He has\nbroken the law of God; and when we look at it from that point of view\nwe call it sin. Now, there are a great many things which are sins\nthat are not crimes; and, with due limitations, I might venture to\nsay that there are some things which are sins that are not to be\nqualified as vices. Sin implies God. The Psalmist was quite right\nwhen he said; 'Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned'; although he\nwas confessing a foul injury he had done to Bathsheba, and a glaring\ncrime that he had committed against Uriah. It was as to God, and in\nreference to Him only, that his crime and his vice darkened and\nsolidified into sin.\n\nAnd what is it, in our actions or in ourselves considered in\nreference to God, that makes our actions sins and ourselves sinners?\nRemember the prodigal son. 'Father! Give me the portion of goods that\nfalleth to me.' There you have it all. He went away, and 'wasted his\nsubstance in riotous living.' To claim myself for my own; to act\nindependently of, or contrary to, the will of God; to try to shake\nmyself clear of Him; to have nothing to do with Him, even though it\nbe by mere forgetfulness and negligence, and, in all my ways to\ncomport myself as if I had no relations of dependence on and\nsubmission to him--that is sin. And there may be that oblivion or\nrebellion, not only in the gross vulgar acts which the law calls\ncrimes, or in those which conscience declares to be vices, but also\nin many things which, looked at from a lower point of view, may be\nfair and pure and noble. If there is this assertion of self in them,\nor oblivion of God and His will in them, I know not how we are to\nescape the conclusion that even these fall under the class of sins.\nFor there can be no act or thought, truly worthy of a man, situated\nand circumstanced as we are, which has not, for the very core and\nanimating motive of it, a reference to God.\n\nNow, when I come and say, as my Bible teaches me to say, that this is\nthe deepest view of the state of humanity that sin reigns, I do not\nwish to fall into the exaggerations by which sometimes that statement\nhas been darkened and discredited; but I do want to press upon you,\ndear brethren, this, as a matter of _personal_ experience, that\nwherever there is a heart that loves, and leaves God out, and\nwherever there is a will that resolves, determines, impels to action,\nand does not bow itself before Him, and wherever there are hands that\nlabour, or feet that run, at tasks and in paths self-chosen and\nunconsecrated by reference to our Father in heaven, no matter how\ngreat and beautiful subsidiary lustres may light up their deeds, the\nvery heart of them all is transgression of the law of God. For this,\nand nothing else or less, is His law: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy\nGod with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy\nstrength, and with all thy mind.' I do not charge you with crimes.\nYou know how far it would be right to charge you with vices. _I_\ndo not charge you with anything; but I pray you to come with me and\nconfess: 'We all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.'\n\nI suppose I need not dwell upon the difficulty of getting a lodgment\nfor this conviction in men's hearts. There is no sadder, and no more\nconclusive proof, of the tremendous power of sin over us, than that\nit has lulled us into unconsciousness, hard to be broken, of its own\npresence and existence. You remember the old stories--I suppose there\nis no truth in them, but they will do for an illustration--about some\nkind of a blood-sucking animal that perched upon a sleeping man, and\nwith its leathern wings fanned him into deeper drowsiness whilst it\ndrew from him his life-blood. That is what this hideous Queen does\nfor men. She robes herself in a dark cloud, and sends out her behests\nfrom obscurity. And men fancy that they are free whilst all the while\nthey are her servants. Oh, dear brethren! you may call this theology,\nbut it is a simple statement of the facts of our condition. 'Sin hath\nreigned.'\n\nAnd now turn to the other picture, 'Grace might reign.' Then there is\nan antagonistic power that rises up to confront the widespread\ndominion of this anarch of old. And this Queen comes with twenty\nthousand to war against her that has but ten thousand on her side.\n\nAgain I say, let us understand our terms. I suppose, there are few of\nthe keywords of the New Testament which have lost more of their\nradiance, like quicksilver, by exposure in the air during the\ncenturies than that great word Grace, which is always on the lips of\nthis Apostle, and to him had music in its sound, and which to us is a\npiece of dead doctrine, associated with certain high Calvinistic\ntheories which we enlightened people have long ago grown beyond, and\ngot rid of. Perhaps Paul was more right than we when his heart leaped\nup within him at the very thought of all which he saw to lie\npalpitating and throbbing with eager desire to bless men, in that\ngreat word. What does he mean by it? Let me put it into the shortest\npossible terms. This antagonist Queen is nothing but the love of God\nraying out for ever to us inferior creatures, who, by reason of our\nsinfulness, have deserved something widely different. Sin stands\nthere, a hideous hag, though a queen; Grace stands here, 'in all her\ngestures dignity and love,' fair and self-communicative, though a\nsovereign. The love of God in exercise to sinful men: that is what\nthe New Testament means by grace. And is it not a great thought?\n\nNotice, for further elucidation of the Apostle's conception, how he\nsacrifices the verbal correctness of his antithesis in order to get\nto the real opposition. What is the opposite of Sin? Righteousness.\nWhy does he not say, then, that 'as Sin hath reigned unto death, even\nso might Righteousness reign unto life'? Why? Because it is not man,\nor anything in man, that can be the true antagonist of, and victor\nover, the regnant Sin of humanity; but God Himself comes into the\nfield, and only He is the foe that Sin dreads. That is to say, the\nonly hope for a sin-tyrannised world is in the out-throb of the love\nof the great heart of God. For, notice the weapon with which He\nfights man's transgression, if I may vary the figure for a moment. It\nis only subordinately punishment, or law, or threatening, or the\nrevelation of the wickedness of the transgression. All these have\ntheir places, but they are secondary places. The thing that will\nconquer a world's wickedness is nothing else but the manifested love\nof God. Only the patient shining down of the sun will ever melt the\nicebergs that float in all our hearts. And wonderful and blessed it\nis to think that, in whatsoever aspects man's sin may have been an\ninterruption and a contradiction of the divine purpose, out of the\nevil has come a good; that the more obdurate and universal the\nrebellion, the more has it evoked a deeper and more wondrous\ntenderness. The blacker the thundercloud, the brighter glows the\nrainbow that is flung across it. So these two front each other, the\none settled in her established throne--\n\n'Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell--'\n\nthe other coming on her adventurous errand to conquer the world to\nherself, and to banish the foul tyranny under which men groan. 'Sin\nhath reigned.' Grace is on her way to her dominion.\n\nII. Notice the gifts of these two Queens to their subjects.\n\n'Sin hath reigned in death' (as the accurate translation has it);\n'Grace reigns unto eternal life.' The one has established her\ndominion, and its results are wrought out, her reign is, as it were,\na reign in a cemetery; and her subjects are dead. If you want a\nmodern instance to illustrate an ancient saw, think of Armenia. There\nis a reign whose gifts to its subjects are death. Sin reigns, says\nPaul, and for proof points to the fact that men die.\n\nNow, I am not going to enter into the question here, and now, whether\nphysical death passes over mankind because of the fact of\ntransgression. I do not suppose that this is so. But I ask you to\nremember that when the Bible says that 'Death passed upon all men,\nfor all have sinned,' it does not merely mean the physical fact of\ndissolution, but it means that fact along with the accompaniments of\nit, and the forerunners of it, in men's consciences. 'The sting of\ndeath is sin,' says Paul, in another place. By which he implies,\nI presume, that, if it were not for the fact of alienation from God\nand opposition to His holy will, men might lie down and die as\nplacidly as an animal does, and might strip themselves for it 'as for\na bed, that longing they'd been sick for.' No doubt, there was death\nin the world long before there were men in it. No doubt, also, the\ncomplex whole phenomenon gets its terror from the fact of men's sin.\n\nBut it is not so much that physical fact with its accompaniments\nwhich Paul is thinking about when he says that 'sin reigns in death,'\nas it is that solemn truth which he is always reiterating, and which\nI pray you, dear friends, to lay to heart, that, whatever activity\nthere may be in the life of a man who has rent himself away from\ndependence upon God--however vigorous his brain, however active his\nhand, however full charged with other interests his life, in the very\ndepth of it is a living death, and the right name for it is death. So\nthis is Sin's gift--that over our whole nature there come mortality\nand decay, and that they who live as her subjects are dead whilst\nthey live. Dear brethren, that may be figurative, but it seems to me\nthat it is absurd for you to turn away from such thoughts, shrug your\nshoulders, and say, 'Old-fashioned Calvinistic theology!' It is\nsimply putting into a vivid form the facts of your life and of your\ncondition in relation to God, if you are subjects of Sin.\n\nThen, on the other hand, the other queenly figure has her hands\nfilled with one great gift which, like the fatal bestowment which Sin\ngives to her subjects, has two aspects, a present and a future one.\nLife, which is given in our redemption from Death and Sin, and in\nunion with God; that is the present gift that the love of God holds\nout to every one of us. That life, in its very incompleteness here,\ncarries in itself the prophecy of its own completion hereafter, in a\nhigher form and world, just as truly as the bud is the prophet of the\nflower and of the fruit; just as truly as a half-reared building is\nthe prophecy of its own completion when the roof tree is put upon it.\nThe men that here have, as we all may have if we choose, the gift of\nlife eternal in the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ His Son,\nmust necessarily tend onwards and upwards to a region where Death is\nbeneath the horizon, and Life flows and flushes the whole heaven.\nBrother! do you put out your whole hand to take the poisoned gift\nfrom the claw-like hand of that hideous Queen; or do you turn and\ntake the gift of life eternal from the hands of the queenly Grace?\n\nIII. How this queenly Grace gives her gifts.\n\nYou observe that the Apostle, as is his wont--I was going to\nsay--gets himself entangled in a couple of almost parenthetical or,\nat all events, subsidiary sentences. I suppose when he began to write\nhe meant to say, simply, 'as Sin hath reigned unto death, so Grace\nmight reign unto life.' But notice that he inserts two\nqualifications: 'through righteousness,' 'through Jesus Christ our\nLord.' What does he mean by these?\n\nHe means this, first, that even that great love of God, coming\nthrobbing straight from His heart, cannot give eternal life as a mere\nmatter of arbitrary will. God can make His sun to shine and His rain\nto fall, 'on the unthankful and on the evil,' and if God could, God\nwould give eternal life to everybody, bad and good; but He cannot.\nThere must be righteousness if there is to be life. Just as sin's\nfruit is death, the fruit of righteousness is life.\n\nHe means, in the next place, that whilst there is no life without\nrighteousness, there is no righteousness without God's gift. You\ncannot break away from the dominion of Sin, and, as it were,\nestablish yourselves in a little fortress of your own, repelling her\nassaults by any power of yours. Dear brethren, we cannot undo the\npast; we cannot strip off the poisoned garment that clings to our\nlimbs; we can mend ourselves in many respects, but we cannot of our\nown volition and motion clothe ourselves with that righteousness of\nwhich the wearers shall be worthy to 'pass through the gate into the\ncity.' There is no righteousness without God's gift.\n\nAnd the other subsidiary clause completes the thought: 'through\nChrist.' In Him is all the grace, the manifest love, of God gathered\ntogether. It is not diffused as the nebulous light in some chaotic\nincipient system, but it is gathered into a sun that is set in the\ncentre, in order that it may pour down warmth and life upon its\ncircling planets. The grace of God is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In\nHim is life eternal; therefore, if we desire to possess it we must\npossess Him. In Him is righteousness; therefore, if we desire our own\nfoulness to be changed into the holiness which shall see God, we must\ngo to Jesus Christ. Grace reigns in life, but it is life through\nrighteousness, which is through Jesus Christ our Lord.\n\nSo, then, brother, my message and my petition to each of you\nare--knit yourself to Him by faith in Him. Then He who is 'full of\ngrace and truth' will come to you; and, coming, will bring in His\nhands righteousness and life eternal. If only we rest ourselves on\nHim, and keep ourselves close in touch with Him; then we shall be\ndelivered from the tyranny of the darkness, and translated into the\nKingdom of the Son of His love.\n\n\n\n\n'THE FORM OF TEACHING'\n\n   '... Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine\n   which was delivered you.'--ROMANS vi. 17.\n\n\nThere is room for difference of opinion as to what Paul precisely\nmeans by 'form' here. The word so rendered appears in English as\n_type_, and has a similar variety of meaning. It signifies\noriginally a mark made by pressure or impact; and then, by natural\ntransitions, a _mould_, or more generally a _pattern_ or _example_,\nand then the copy of such an example or pattern, or the cast from\nsuch a mould. It has also the other meaning which its English\nequivalent has taken on very extensively of late years, such as, for\ninstance, you find in expressions like 'An English type of face,'\nmeaning thereby the general outline which preserves the\ndistinguishing characteristics of a thing. Now we may choose between\nthese two meanings in our text. If the Apostle means type in the\nlatter sense of the word, then the rendering 'form' is adequate, and\nhe is thinking of the Christian teaching which had been given to the\nRoman Christians as possessing certain well-defined characteristics\nwhich distinguished it from other kinds of teaching--such, for\ninstance, as Jewish or heathen.\n\nBut if we take the other meaning, then he is, in true Pauline\nfashion, bringing in a vivid and picturesque metaphor to enforce his\nthought, and is thinking of the teaching which the Roman Christians\nhad received as being a kind of mould into which they were thrown, a\npattern to which they were to be conformed. And that that is his\nmeaning seems to me to be made a little more probable by the fact\nthat the last words of my text would be more accurate if inverted,\nand instead of reading, as the Authorised Version does, 'that form of\ndoctrine which was delivered you,' we were to read, as the Revised\nVersion does, 'that form whereunto ye were delivered.'\n\nIf this be the general meaning of the words before us, there are\nthree thoughts arising from them to which I turn briefly. First,\nPaul's Gospel was a definite body of teaching; secondly, that\nteaching is a mould for conduct and character; lastly, that teaching\ntherefore demands obedience. Take, then, these three thoughts.\n\nI. First, Paul's Gospel was a definite body of teaching.\n\nNow the word 'doctrine,' which is employed in my text, has, in the\nlapse of years since the Authorised Version was made, narrowed its\nsignificance. At the date of our Authorised translation 'doctrine'\nwas probably equivalent to 'teaching,' of whatever sort it might be.\nSince then it has become equivalent to a statement of abstract\nprinciples, and that is not at all what Paul means. He does not mean\nto say that his gospel was a form of doctrine in the sense of being a\ntheological system, but he means to say that it was a body of\nteaching, the nature of the teaching not being defined at all by the\nword. Therefore we have to notice that the great, blessed peculiarity\nof the Gospel is that it is a teaching, not of abstract dry\nprinciples, but of concrete historical facts. From these principles\nin plenty may be gathered, but in its first form as it comes to men\nfresh from God it is not a set of propositions, but a history of\ndeeds that were done upon earth. And, therefore, is it fitted to be\nthe food of every soul and the mould of every character.\n\nJesus Christ did not come and talk to men about God, and say to them\nwhat His Apostles afterwards said, 'God is love,' but He lived and\ndied, and that mainly was His teaching about God. He did not come to\nmen and lay down a theory of atonement or a doctrine of propitiation,\nor theology about sin and its relations to God, but He went to the\nCross and gave Himself for us, and that was His teaching about\nsacrifice. He did not say to men 'There is a future life, and it is\nof such and such a sort,' but He came out of the grave and He said\n'Touch Me, and handle Me. A spirit hath not flesh and bones,' and\n_therefore_ He brought life and immortality to light, by no empty\nwords but by the solid realities of facts. He did not lecture upon\nethics, but He lived a perfect human life out of which all moral\nprinciples that will guide human conduct may be gathered. And so,\ninstead of presenting us with a _hortus siccus_, with a botanic\ncollection of scientifically arranged and dead propositions, He led\nus into the meadow where the flowers grow, living and fair. His life\nand death, with all that they imply, are the teaching.\n\nLet us not forget, on the other hand, that the history of a fact is\nnot the mere statement of the outward thing that has happened.\nSuppose four people, for instance, standing at the foot of Christ's\nCross; four other 'evangelists' than the four that we know. There is\na Roman soldier; there is a Pharisee; there is one of the weeping\ncrowd of poor women, not disciples; and there is a disciple. The\nfirst man tells the fact as he saw it: 'A Jewish rebel was crucified\nthis morning.' The second man tells the fact: 'A blaspheming apostate\nsuffered what he deserved to-day.' The woman tells the fact: 'A poor,\ngentle, fair soul was martyred to-day.' And the fourth one tells the\nfact: 'Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins.' The three\ntell the same fact; the fourth preaches the Gospel--that is to say,\nChristian teaching is the facts plus their explanation; and it is\nthat which differentiates it from the mere record which is of no\navail to anybody. So Paul himself in one of his other letters puts\nit. This is his gospel: Jesus of Nazareth 'died for _our_ sins\naccording to the Scriptures, and He was buried, and rose again the\nthird day, according to the Scriptures.' That is what turns the bald\nstory of the facts into teaching, which is the mould for life.\n\nSo on the one hand, dear brethren, do not let us fall into the\nsuperficial error of fancying that our religion is a religion of\nemotion and morality only. It is a religion with a basis of divine\ntruth, which, being struck away, all the rest goes. There is a revolt\nagainst dogma to-day, a revolt which in large measure is justified as\nan essential of progress, and in large measure as an instance of\nprogress; but human nature is ever prone to extremes, and in the\nrevolt from man's dogma there is danger of casting away God's truth.\nChristianity is not preserved when we hold by the bare facts of the\noutward history, unless we take with these facts the interpretation\nof them, which declares the divinity and the sacrifice of the Son of\nGod.\n\nAnd on the other hand, let us keep very clear in our minds the broad\nand impassable gulf of separation between the Christian teaching as\nembodied in the Scripture and the systems which Christianity has\nevolved therefrom. Men's intellects must work upon the pabulum that\nis provided for them, and a theology in a systematised form is a\nnecessity for the intellectual and reasonable life of the Christian\nChurch. But there is all the difference between man's inferences from\nand systematising of the Christian truth and the truth that lies\nhere. The one is the golden roof that is cast over us; the other is\ntoo often but the spiders' webs that are spun across and darken its\nsplendour. It is a sign of a wholesome change in the whole sentiment\nand attitude of the modern Christian mind that the word 'doctrine,'\nwhich has come to mean men's inferences from God's truth, should have\nbeen substituted as it has been in our Revised Version of my text, by\nthe wholesome Christian word 'teaching.' The teaching is the facts\nwith the inspired commentary on them.\n\nII. Secondly, notice that this teaching is in Paul's judgment a mould\nor pattern according to which men's lives are to be conformed.\n\nThere can be no question but that, in that teaching as set forth in\nScripture, there does lie the mightiest formative power for shaping\nour lives, and emancipating us from our evil.\n\nChrist is _the_ type, the mould into which men are to be cast.\nThe Gospel, as presented in Scripture, gives us three things. It\ngives us the perfect mould; it gives us the perfect motive; it gives\nus the perfect power. And in all three things appears its distinctive\nglory, apart from and above all other systems that have ever tried to\naffect the conduct or to mould the character of man.\n\nIn Jesus Christ we have in due combination, in perfect proportion,\nall the possible excellences of humanity. As in other cases of\nperfect symmetry, the very precision of the balanced proportions\ndetracts from the apparent magnitude of the statue or of the fair\nbuilding, so to a superficial eye there is but little beauty there\nthat we should desire Him, but as we learn to know Him, and live\nnearer to Him, and get more familiar with all His sweetness, and with\nall His power, He towers before us in ever greater and yet never\nrepellent or exaggerated magnitude, and never loses the reality of\nHis brotherhood in the completeness of His perfection. We have in the\nChrist the one type, the one mould and pattern for all striving, the\n'glass of form,' the perfect Man.\n\nAnd that likeness is not reproduced in us by pressure or by a blow,\nbut by the slow and blessed process of gazing until we become like,\nbeholding the glory until we are changed into the glory.\n\nIt is no use having a mould and metal unless you have a fire. It is\nno use having a perfect Pattern unless you have a motive to copy it.\nMen do not go to the devil for want of examples; and morality is not\nat a low ebb by reason of ignorance of what the true type of life is.\nBut nowhere but in the full-orbed teaching of the New Testament will\nyou find a motive strong enough to melt down all the obstinate\nhardness of the 'northern iron' of the human will, and to make it\nplastic to His hand. If we can say, 'He loved me and gave Himself for\nme' then the sum of all morality, the old commandment that 'ye love\none another' receives a new stringency, and a fresh motive as well as\na deepened interpretation, when His love is our pattern. The one\nthing that will make men willing to be like Christ is their faith\nthat Christ is their Sacrifice and their Saviour. And sure I am of\nthis, that no form of mutilated Christianity, which leaves out or\nfalteringly proclaims the truth that Christ died on the Cross for the\nsins of the world, will ever generate heat enough to mould men's\nwills, or kindle motives powerful enough to lead to a life of growing\nimitation of and resemblance to Him. The dial may be all right, the\nhours most accurately marked in their proper places, every minute\nregistered on the circle, the hands may be all right, delicately\nfashioned, truly poised, but if there is no main-spring inside, dial\nand hands are of little use, and a Christianity which says, 'Christ\nis the Teacher; do you obey Him?' is as impotent as the dial face\nwith the broken main-spring. What we need, and what, thank God, in\n'the teaching' we have, is the pattern brought near to us, and the\nmotive for imitating the pattern, set in motion by the great thought,\n'He loved me and gave Himself for me.'\n\nStill further, the teaching is a power to fashion life, inasmuch as\nit brings with it a gift which secures the transformation of the\nbeliever into the likeness of his Lord. Part of 'the teaching' is the\nfact of Pentecost; part of the teaching is the fact of the Ascension;\nand the consequence of the Ascension and the sure promise of the\nPentecost is that all who love Him, and wait upon Him, shall receive\ninto their hearts the 'Spirit of life in Christ Jesus' which shall\nmake them free from the law of sin and death.\n\nSo, dear friends, on the one hand, let us remember that our religion\nis meant to work, that we have nothing in our creed that should not\nbe in our character, that all our _credenda_ are to be our _agenda_;\neverything _believed_ to be something _done_; and that if we content\nourselves with the simple acceptance of the teaching, and make no\neffort to translate that teaching into life, we are hypocrites or\nself-deceivers.\n\nAnd, on the other hand, do not let us forget that religion is the\nsoul of which morality is the body, and that it is impossible in the\nnature of things that you shall ever get a true, lofty, moral life\nwhich is not based upon religion. I do not say that men cannot be\nsure of the outlines of their duty without Christianity, though I am\nfree to confess that I think it is a very maimed and shabby version\nof human duty, which is supplied, minus the special revelation of\nthat duty which Christianity makes; but my point is, that the\nknowledge will not work without the Gospel.\n\nThe Christian type of character is a distinct and manifestly separate\nthing from the pagan heroism or from the virtues and the\nrighteousnesses of other systems. Just as the musician's ear can\ntell, by half a dozen bars, whether that strain was Beethoven's, or\nHandel's, or Mendelssohn's, just as the trained eye can see\nRaffaelle's magic in every touch of his pencil, so Christ, the\nTeacher, has a style; and all the scholars of His school carry with\nthem a certain mark which tells where they got their education and\nwho is their Master, if they are scholars indeed. And that leads me\nto the last word.\n\nIII. This mould demands obedience.\n\nBy the very necessity of things it is so. If the 'teaching' was but a\nteaching of abstract truths it would be enough to assent to them. I\nbelieve that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right\nangles, and I have done my duty by that proposition when I have said\n'Yes! it is so.' But the 'teaching' which Jesus Christ gives and\n_is_, needs a good deal more than that. By the very nature of the\nteaching, assent drags after it submission. You can please yourself\nwhether you let Jesus Christ into your minds or not, but if you\ndo let Him in, He will be Master. There is no such thing as taking\nHim in and not obeying.\n\nAnd so the requirement of the Gospel which we call faith has in it\nquite as much of the element of obedience as of the element of trust.\nAnd the presence of that element is just what makes the difference\nbetween a sham and a real faith. 'Faith which has not works is dead,\nbeing alone.' A faith which is all trust and no obedience is neither\ntrust nor obedience.\n\nAnd that is why so many of us do not care to yield ourselves to the\nfaith that is in Jesus Christ. If it simply came to us and said, 'If\nyou will trust Me you will get pardon,' I fancy there would be a good\nmany more of us honest Christians than are so. But Christ comes and\nsays, 'Trust Me, follow Me, and take Me for your Master; and be like\nMe,' and one's will kicks, and one's passions recoil, and a thousand\nof the devil's servants within us prick their ears up and stiffen\ntheir backs in remonstrance and opposition. 'Submit' is Christ's\nfirst word; submit by faith, submit in love.\n\nThat heart obedience, which is the requirement of Christianity, means\nfreedom. The Apostle draws a wonderful contrast in the context\nbetween the slavery to lust and sin, and the freedom which comes from\nobedience to God and to righteousness. Obey the Truth, and the Truth,\nin your obeying, shall make you free, for freedom is the willing\nsubmission to the limitations which are best. 'I will walk at liberty\nfor I keep Thy precepts.' Take Christ for your Master, and, being His\nservants, you are your own masters, and the world's to boot. For 'all\nthings are yours if ye are Christ's.' Refuse to bow your necks to\nthat yoke which is easy, and to take upon your shoulders that burden\nwhich is light, and you do not buy liberty, though you buy\nlicentiousness, for you become the slaves and downtrodden vassals of\nthe world and the flesh and the devil, and while you promise\nyourselves liberty, you become the bondsmen of corruption. Oh! then,\nlet us obey from the heart that mould of teaching to which we are\ndelivered, and so obeying, we shall be free indeed.\n\n\n\n\n'THY FREE SPIRIT'\n\n   'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made\n   me free from the law of sin and death.'--ROMANS viii. 2.\n\n\nWe have to distinguish two meanings of law. In the stricter sense, it\nsignifies the authoritative expressions of the will of a ruler\nproposed for the obedience of man; in the wider, almost figurative\nsense, it means nothing more than the generalised expression of\nconstant similar facts. For instance, objects attract one another in\ncertain circumstances with a force which in the same circumstances is\nalways the same. When that fact is stated generally, we get the law\nof gravitation. Thus the word comes to mean little more than a\nregular process. In our text the word is used in a sense much nearer\nthe latter than the former of these two. 'The law of sin and of\ndeath' cannot mean a series of commandments; it certainly does not\nmean the Mosaic law. It must either be entirely figurative, taking\nsin and death as two great tyrants who domineer over men; or it must\nmean the continuous action of these powers, the process by which they\nwork. These two come substantially to the same idea. The law of sin\nand of death describes a certain constancy of operation, uniform and\nfixed, under the dominion of which men are struggling. But there is\nanother constancy of operation, uniform and fixed too, a mighty\nantagonistic power, which frees from the dominion of the former: it\nis 'the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.'\n\nI. The bondage.\n\nThe Apostle is speaking about himself as he was, and we have our own\nconsciousness to verify his transcript of his own personal experience.\nPaul had found that, by an inexorable iron sequence, sin\nworked in himself the true death of the soul, in separation from God,\nin the extinction of good and noble capacities, in the atrophying of\nall that was best in himself, in the death of joy and peace. And this\niron sequence he, with an eloquent paradox, calls a 'law,' though its\nvery characteristic is that it is lawless transgression of the true\nlaw of humanity. He so describes it, partly, because he would place\nemphasis on its dominion over us. Sin rules with iron sway; men madly\nobey it, and even when they think themselves free, are under a bitter\ntyranny. Further, he desires to emphasise the fact that sin and death\nare parts of one process which operates constantly and uniformly.\nThis dark anarchy and wild chaos of disobedience and transgression\nhas its laws. All happens there according to rule. Rigid and\ninevitable as the courses of the stars, or the fall of the leaf from\nthe tree, is sin hurrying on to its natural goal in death. In this\nfatal dance, sin leads in death; the one fair spoken and full of\ndazzling promises, the other in the end throws off the mask, and\nslays. It is true of all who listen to the tempting voice, and the\ndeluded victim 'knows not that the dead are there, and that her\nguests are in the depth of hell.'\n\nII. The method of deliverance.\n\nThe previous chapter sounded the depths of human impotence, and\nshowed the tragic impossibility of human efforts to strip off the\npoisoned garment. Here the Apostle tells the wonderful story of how\nhe himself was delivered, in the full rejoicing confidence that what\navailed for his emancipation would equally avail for every captived\nsoul. Because he himself has experienced a divine power which breaks\nthe dreadful sequence of sin and of death, he knows that every soul\nmay share in the experience. No mere outward means will be sufficient\nto emancipate a spirit; no merely intellectual methods will avail to\nset free the passions and desires which have been captured by sin. It\nis vain to seek deliverance from a perverted will by any\nrepublication, however emphatic, of a law of duty. Nothing can touch\nthe necessities of the case but a gift of power which becomes an\nabiding influence in us, and develops a mightier energy to overcome\nthe evil tendencies of a sinful soul.\n\nThat communicated power must impart life. Nothing short of a Spirit\nof life, quick and powerful, with an immortal and intense energy,\nwill avail to meet the need. Such a Spirit must give the life which\nit possesses, must quicken and bring into action dormant powers in\nthe spirit that it would free. It must implant new energies and\ndirections, new motives, desires, tastes, and tendencies. It must\nbring into play mightier attractions to neutralise and deaden\nexisting ones; as when to some chemical compound a substance is added\nwhich has a stronger affinity for one of the elements, a new thing is\nmade.\n\nPaul's experience, which he had a right to cast into general terms\nand potentially to extend to all mankind, had taught him that such a\nnew life for such a spirit had come to him by union with Jesus\nChrist. Such a union, deep and mystical as it is, is, thank God, an\nexperience universal in all true Christians, and constitutes the very\nheart of the Gospel which Paul rejoiced to believe was entrusted to\nhis hands for the world. His great message of 'Christ in us' has been\nwofully curtailed and mangled when his other message of 'Christ for\nus' has been taken, as it too often has been, to be the whole of his\nGospel. They who take either of these inseparable elements to be the\nwhole, rend into two imperfect halves the perfect oneness of the\nGospel of Christ.\n\nWe are often told that Paul was the true author of Christian\ndoctrine, and are bidden to go back from him to Jesus. If we do so,\nwe hear His grave sweet voice uttering in the upper-room the deep\nwords, 'I am the Vine, ye are the branches'; and, surely, Paul is but\nrepeating, without metaphor, what Christ, once for all, set forth in\nthat lovely emblem, when he says that 'the law of the Spirit of life\nin Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.' The\nbranches in their multitude make the Vine in its unity, and the sap\nwhich rises from the deep root through the brown stem, passes to\nevery tremulous leaf, and brings bloom and savour into every cluster.\nJesus drew His emblem from the noblest form of vegetative life; Paul,\nin other places, draws his from the highest form of bodily life, when\nhe points to the many members in one body, and the Head which governs\nall, and says, 'So also is Christ.' In another place he points to the\nnoblest form of earthly love and unity. The blessed fellowship and\nsacred oneness of husband and wife are an emblem sweet, though\ninadequate, of the fellowship in love and unity of spirit between\nChrist and His Church.\n\nAnd all this mysterious oneness of life has an intensely practical\nside. In Jesus, and by union with Him, we receive a power that\ndelivers from sin and arrests the stealthy progress of sin's\nfollower, death. Love to Him, the result of fellowship with Him, and\nthe consequence of life received from Him, becomes the motive which\nmakes the redeemed heart delight to do His will, and takes all the\npower out of every temptation. We are in Him, and He in us, on\ncondition, and by means, of our humble faith; and because my faith\nthus knits me to Him it is 'the victory that overcomes the world' and\nbreaks the chains of many sins. So this communion with Jesus Christ\nis the way by which we shall increase that triumphant spiritual life,\nwhich is the only victorious antagonist of the else inevitable\nconsequence which declares that the 'soul that sinneth it shall die,'\nand die even in sinning.\n\nIII. The process of the deliverance.\n\nFollowing the R.V. we read 'made me free,' not 'hath made me.' The\nreference is obviously, as the Greek more clearly shows, to a single\nhistorical event, which some would take to be the Apostle's baptism,\nbut which is more properly supposed to be his conversion. His strong\nbold language here does not mean that he claims to be sinless. The\nemancipation is effected, although it is but begun. He holds that at\nthat moment when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, and\nhe yielded to Him as Lord, his deliverance was real, though not\ncomplete. He was conscious of a real change of position in reference\nto that law of sin and of death. Paul distinguishes between the true\nself and the accumulation of selfish and sensual habits which make up\nso much of ourselves. The deeper and purer self may be vitalised in\nwill and heart, and set free even while the emancipation is not\nworked out in the life. The parable of the leaven applies in the\nindividual renewal; and there is no fanaticism, and no harm, in\nPaul's point of view, if only it be remembered that sins by which\npassion and externals overbear my better self are mine in\nresponsibility and in consequences. Thus guarded, we may be wholly\nright in thinking of all the evils which still cleave to the\nrenewed Christian soul as not being part of it, but destined to drop\naway.\n\nAnd this bold declaration is to be vindicated as a prophetic\nconfidence in the supremacy and ultimate dominion of the new power\nwhich works even through much antagonism in an imperfect Christian.\nPaul, too, calls 'things that are not as though they were.' If my\nspirit of life is the 'Spirit of life in Christ,' it will go on to\nperfection. It is Spirit, therefore it is informing and conquering\nthe material; it is a divine Spirit, therefore it is omnipotent; it\nis the Spirit of life, leading in and imparting life like itself,\nwhich is kindred with it and is its source; it is the Spirit of life\nin Christ, therefore leading to life like His, bringing us to\nconformity with Him because the same causes produce the same effects;\nit is a life in Christ having a law and regular orderly course of\ndevelopment. So, just as if we have the germ we may hope for fruit,\nand can see the infantile oak in the tightly-shut acorn, or in the\negg the creature which shall afterwards grow there, we have in this\ngift of the Spirit, the victory. If we have the cause, we have the\neffects implicitly folded in it; and we have but to wait further\ndevelopment.\n\nThe Christian life is to be one long effort, partial, and gradual, to\nunfold the freedom possessed. Paul knew full well that his\nemancipation was not perfect. It was, probably, after this triumphant\nexpression of confidence that he wrote, 'Not as though I had already\nattained, either were already perfect.' The first stage is the gift\nof power, the appropriation and development of that power is the work\nof a life; and it ought to pass through a well-marked series and\ncycle of growing changes. The way to develop it is by constant\napplication to the source of all freedom, the life-giving Spirit, and\nby constant effort to conquer sins and temptations. There is no such\nthing in the Christian conflict as a painless development. We must\nmortify the deeds of the body if we are to live in the Spirit. The\nChristian progress has in it the nature of a crucifixion. It is to be\neffort, steadily directed for the sake of Christ, and in the joy of\nHis Spirit, to destroy sin, and to win practical holiness. Homely\nmoralities are the outcome and the test of all pretensions to\nspiritual communion.\n\nWe are, further, to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord, by\n'waiting for the Redemption,' which is not merely passive waiting,\nbut active expectation, as of one who stretches out a welcoming hand\nto an approaching friend. Nor must we forget that this accomplished\ndeliverance is but partial whilst upon earth. 'The body is dead\nbecause of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.' But\nthere may be indefinite approximation to complete deliverance. The\nmetaphors in Scripture under which Christian progress is described,\nwhether drawn from a conflict or a race, or from a building, or from\nthe growth of a tree, all suggest the idea of constant advance\nagainst hindrances, which yet, constant though it is, does not reach\nthe goal here. And this is our noblest earthly condition--not to be\npure, but to be tending towards it and conscious of impurity. Hence\nour tempers should be those of humility, strenuous effort, firm hope.\nWe are as slaves who have escaped, but are still in the wilderness,\nwith the enemies' dogs baying at our feet; but we shall come to the\nland of freedom, on whose sacred soil sin and death can never tread.\n\n\n\n\nCHRIST CONDEMNING SIN\n\n   'For what the law could not do, in that it was weak\n   through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the\n   likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin\n   in the flesh.'--ROMANS viii. 3.\n\n\nIn the first verse of this chapter we read that 'There is no\ncondemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.' The reason of that\nis, that they are set free from the terrible sequence of cause and\neffect which constitutes 'the law of sin and death'; and the reason\nwhy they are freed from that awful sequence by the power of Christ\nis, because He has 'condemned sin in the flesh.' The occurrence of\nthe two words 'condemnation' (ver. 1) and 'condemned' (ver. 3) should\nbe noted. Sin is personified as dwelling in the flesh, which\nexpression here means, not merely the body, but unregenerate human\nnature. He has made his fortress there, and rules over it all. The\nstrong man keeps his house and his goods are in peace. He laughs to\nscorn the attempts of laws and moralities of all sorts to cast him\nout. His dominion is death to the human nature over which he\ntyrannises. Condemnation is inevitable to the men over whom he rules.\nThey or he must perish. If he escape they die. If he could be slain\nthey might live. Christ comes, condemns the tyrant, and casts him\nout. So, he being condemned, we are acquitted; and he being slain\nthere is no death for us. Let us try to elucidate a little further\nthis great metaphor by just pondering the two points prominent in\nit--Sin tyrannising over human nature and resisting all attempts to\novercome it, and Christ's condemnation and casting out of the tyrant.\n\nI. Sin tyrannising over human nature, and resisting all attempts to\novercome it.\n\nPaul is generalising his own experience when he speaks of the\ncondemnation of an intrusive alien force that holds unregenerate\nhuman nature in bondage. He is writing a page of his own\nautobiography, and he is sure that all the rest of us have like pages\nin ours. Heart answereth unto heart as in a mirror. If each man is a\nunity, the poison must run through all his veins and affect his whole\nnature. Will, understanding, heart, must all be affected and each in\nits own way by the intruder; and if men are a collective whole, each\nman's experience is repeated in his brother's.\n\nThe Apostle is equally transcribing his own experience when in the\ntext he sadly admits the futility of all efforts to shake the\ndominion of sin. He has found in his own case that even the loftiest\nrevelation in the Mosaic law utterly fails in the attempt to condemn\nsin. This is true not only in regard to the Mosaic law but in regard\nto the law of conscience, and to moral teachings of any kind. It is\nobvious that all such laws do condemn sin in the sense that they\nsolemnly declare God's judgment about it, and His sentence on it; but\nin the sense of real condemnation, or casting out, and depriving sin\nof its power, they all are impotent. The law may deter from overt\nacts or lead to isolated acts of obedience; it may stir up antagonism\nto sin's tyranny, but after that it has no more that it can do. It\ncannot give the purity which it proclaims to be necessary, nor create\nthe obedience which it enjoins. Its thunders roll terrors, and no\nfruitful rain follows them to soften the barren soil. There always\nremains an unbridged gulf between the man and the law.\n\nAnd this is what Paul points to in saying that it 'was weak through\nthe flesh.' It is good in itself, but it has to work through the\nsinful nature. The only powers to which it can appeal are those which\nare already in rebellion. A discrowned king whose only forces to\nconquer his rebellious subjects are the rebels themselves, is not\nlikely to regain his crown. Because law brings no new element into\nour humanity, its appeal to our humanity has little more effect than\nthat of the wind whistling through an archway. It appeals to\nconscience and reason by a plain declaration of what is right; to\nwill and understanding by an exhibition of authority; to fears and\nprudence by plainly setting forth consequences. But what is to be\ndone with men who know what is right but have no wish to do it, who\nbelieve that they ought but will not, who know the consequences but\n'choose rather the pleasures of sin for a season,' and shuffle the\nfuture out of their minds altogether? This is the essential weakness\nof all law. The tyrant is not afraid so long as there is no one\nthreatening his reign, but the unarmed herald of a discrowned king.\nHis citadel will not surrender to the blast of the trumpet blown from\nSinai.\n\nII. Christ's condemnation and casting out of the tyrant.\n\nThe Apostle points to a triple condemnation.\n\n'In the likeness of sinful flesh,' Jesus condemns sin by His own\nperfect life. That phrase, 'the likeness of the flesh of sin,'\nimplies the real humanity of Jesus, and His perfect sinlessness; and\nsuggests the first way in which He condemns sin in the flesh. In His\nlife He repeats the law in a higher fashion. What the one spoke in\nwords the other realised in 'loveliness of perfect deeds'; and all men\nown that example is the mightiest preacher of righteousness, and\nthat active goodness draws to itself reverence and sways men to\nimitate. But that life lived in human nature gives a new hope of the\npossibilities of that nature even in us. The dream of perfect beauty\n'in the flesh' has been realised. What the Man Christ Jesus was, He\nwas that we may become. In the very flesh in which the tyrant rules,\nJesus shows the possibility and the loveliness of a holy life.\n\nBut this, much as it is, is not all. There is another way in which\nChrist condemns sin in the flesh, and that is by His perfect\nsacrifice. To this also Paul points in the phrase, 'the flesh of\nsin.' The example of which we have been speaking is much, but it is\nweak for the very same reason for which law is weak--that it operates\nonly through our nature as it is; and that is not enough. Sin's hold\non man is twofold--one that it has perverted his relation to God, and\nanother that it has corrupted his nature. Hence there is in him\na sense of separation from God and a sense of guilt. Both of these not\nonly lead to misery, but positively tend to strengthen the dominion\nof sin. The leader of the mutineers keeps them true to him by\nreminding them that the mutiny laws decree death without mercy. Guilt\nfelt may drive to desperation and hopeless continuance in wrong. The\ncry, 'I am so bad that it is useless to try to be better,' is often\nheard. Guilt stifled leads to hardening of heart, and sometimes to\ndesire and riot. Guilt slurred over by some easy process of\nabsolution may lead to further sin. Similarly separation from God is\nthe root of all evil, and thoughts of Him as hard and an enemy,\nalways lead to sin. So if the power of sin in the past must be\ncancelled, the sense of guilt must be removed, and the wall of\npartition between man and God thrown down. What can law answer to\nsuch a demand? It is silent; it can only say, 'What is written is\nwritten.' It has no word to speak that promises 'the blotting out of\nthe handwriting that is against us'; and through its silence one can\nhear the mocking laugh of the tyrant that keeps his castle.\n\nBut Christ has come 'for sin'; that is to say His Incarnation and\nDeath had relation to, and had it for their object to remove, human\nsin. He comes to blot out the evil, to bring God's pardon. The\nrecognition of His sacrifice supplies the adequate motive to copy His\nexample, and they who see in His death God's sacrifice for man's sin,\ncannot but yield themselves to Him, and find in obedience a delight.\nLove kindled at His love makes likeness and transmutes the outward\nlaw into an inward 'spirit of life in Christ Jesus.'\n\nStill another way by which God 'condemns sin in the flesh' is pointed\nto by the remaining phrase of our text, 'sending His own Son.' In the\nbeginning of this epistle Jesus is spoken of as 'being declared to be\nthe Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness'; and\nwe must connect that saying with our text, and so think of Christ's\nbestowal of His perfect gift to humanity of the Spirit which\nsanctifies as being part of His condemnation of sin in the flesh.\nInto the very region where the tyrant rules, the Son of God\ncommunicates a new nature which constitutes a real new power. The\nSpirit operates on all our faculties, and redeems them from the\nbondage of corruption. All the springs in the land are poisoned; but\na new one, limpid and pure, is opened. By the entrance of the Spirit\nof holiness into a human spirit, the usurper is driven from the\ncentral fortress: and though he may linger in the outworks and keep\nup a guerilla warfare, that is all that he can do. We never truly\napprehend Christ's gift to man until we recognise that He not merely\n'died for our sins,' but lives to impart the principle of holiness in\nthe gift of His Spirit. The dominion of that imparted Spirit is\ngradual and progressive. The Canaanite may still be in the land, but\na growing power, working in and through us, is warring against all in\nus that still owns allegiance to that alien power, and there can be\nno end to the victorious struggle until the whole body, soul, and\nspirit, be wholly under the influence of the Spirit that dwelleth in\nus, and nothing shall hurt or destroy in what shall then be all God's\nholy mountain.\n\nSuch is, in the most general terms, the statement of what Christ does\n'for us'; and the question comes to be the all-important one for\neach, Do I let Him do it for me? Remember the alternative. There must\neither be condemnation for us, or for the sin that dwelleth in us.\nThere is no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus, because\nthere is condemnation for the sin that dwells in them. It must he\nslain, or it will slay us. It must be cast out, or it will cast us\nout from God. It must be separated from us, or it will separate us\nfrom Him. We need not be condemned, but if it be not condemned, then\nwe shall be.\n\n\n\n\nTHE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT\n\n   'The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit,\n   that we are the children of God.'--ROMANS viii. 18.\n\n\nThe sin of the world is a false confidence, a careless, complacent\ntaking for granted that a man is a Christian when he is not. The\nfault, and sorrow, and weakness of the Church is a false diffidence,\nan anxious fear whether a man be a Christian when he is. There are\nnone so far away from false confidence as those who tremble lest they\nbe cherishing it. There are none so inextricably caught in its toils\nas those who are all unconscious of _its_ existence and of _their_\ndanger. The two things, the false confidence and the false\ndiffidence, are perhaps more akin to one another than they look at\nfirst sight. Their opposites, at all events--the true confidence,\nwhich is faith in Christ; and the true diffidence, which is utter\ndistrust of myself--are identical. But there may sometimes be, and\nthere often is, the combination of a real confidence and a false\ndiffidence, the presence of faith, and the doubt whether it be\npresent. Many Christians go through life with this as the prevailing\ntemper of their minds--a doubt sometimes arising almost to agony, and\nsometimes dying down into passive patient acceptance of the condition\nas inevitable--a doubt whether, after all, they be not, as they say,\n'deceiving themselves'; and in the perverse ingenuity with which that\nstate of mind is constantly marked, they manage to distil for\nthemselves a bitter vinegar of self-accusation out of grand words in\nthe Bible, that were meant to afford them but the wine of gladness\nand of consolation.\n\nNow this great text which I have ventured to take--not with the idea\nthat I can exalt it or say anything worthy of it, but simply in the\nhope of clearing away some misapprehensions--is one that has often\nand often tortured the mind of Christians. They say of themselves, 'I\nknow nothing of any such evidence: I am not conscious of any Spirit\nbearing witness with my spirit.' Instead of looking to other sources\nto answer the question whether they are Christians or not--and then,\nhaving answered it, thinking thus, 'That text asserts that _all_\nChristians have this witness, therefore certainly I have it in some\nshape or other,' they say to themselves, 'I do not feel anything that\ncorresponds with my idea of what such a grand, supernatural voice as\nthe witness of God's Spirit in my spirit must needs be; and therefore\nI doubt whether I am a Christian at all.' I should be thankful if the\nattempt I make now to set before you what seems to me to be the true\nteaching of the passage, should be, with God's help, the means of\nlifting some little part of the burden from some hearts that are\nright, and that only long to know that they are, in order to be at\nrest.\n\n'The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the\nchildren of God.' The general course of thought which I wish to leave\nwith you may be summed up thus: Our cry 'Father' is the witness that\nwe are sons. That cry is not simply ours, but it is the voice of\nGod's Spirit. The divine Witness in our spirits is subject to the\nordinary influences which affect our spirits.\n\nLet us take these three thoughts, and dwell on them for a little\nwhile.\n\nI. Our cry 'Father' is the witness that we are sons.\n\nMark the terms of the passage: 'The Spirit itself beareth witness\n_with_ our spirit--.' It is not so much a revelation made to my\nspirit, considered as the recipient of the testimony, as a revelation\nmade in or with my spirit considered as co-operating in the\ntestimony. It is not that my spirit says one thing, bears witness\nthat I am a child of God; and that the Spirit of God comes in by a\ndistinguishable process, with a separate evidence, to say Amen to my\npersuasion; but it is that there is one testimony which has a\nconjoint origin--the origin from the Spirit of God as true source,\nand the origin from my own soul as recipient and co-operant in that\ntestimony. From the teaching of this passage, or from any of the\nlanguage which Scripture uses with regard to the inner witness, it is\nnot to be inferred that there will rise up in a Christian's heart,\nfrom some origin consciously beyond the sphere of his own nature, a\nvoice with which he has nothing to do; which at once, by its own\ncharacter, by something peculiar and distinguishable about it, by\nsomething strange in its nature, or out of the ordinary course of\nhuman thinking, shall certify itself to be not his voice at all, but\n_God's_ voice. That is not the direction in which you are to\nlook for the witness of God's Spirit. It is evidence borne, indeed,\nby the Spirit of God; but it is evidence borne not only to our\nspirit, but through it, with it. The testimony is one, the testimony\nof a man's own emotion, and own conviction, and own desire, the cry,\nAbba, Father! So far, then, as the form of the evidence goes, you are\nnot to look for it in anything ecstatic, arbitrary, parted off\nfrom your own experience by a broad line of demarcation; but you are\nto look into the experience which at first sight you would claim most\nexclusively for your own, and to try and find out whether\n_there_ there be not working with your soul, working through it,\nworking beneath it, distinct from it but not distinguishable from it\nby anything but its consequences and its fruitfulness--a deeper voice\nthan yours--a 'still small voice,'--no whirlwind, nor fire, nor\nearthquake--but the voice of God speaking in secret, taking the voice\nand tones of your own heart and your own consciousness, and saying to\nyou, 'Thou art my child, inasmuch as, operated by My grace, and Mine\ninspiration alone, there rises, tremblingly but truly, in thine own\nsoul the cry, Abba, Father.'\n\nSo much, then, for the form of this evidence--my own conviction. Then\nwith regard to the substance of it: conviction of what? The text\nitself does not tell us what is the evidence which the Spirit bears,\nand by reason of which we have a right to conclude that we are the\nchildren of God. The previous verse tells us. I have partially\nanticipated what I have to say on that point, but it will bear a\nlittle further expansion. 'Ye have not received the spirit of bondage\nagain to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby\nwe cry Abba, Father.' 'The Spirit itself,' by this means of our cry,\nAbba, Father, 'beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the\nchildren of God.' The substance, then, of the conviction which is\nlodged in the human spirit by the testimony of the Spirit of God is\nnot primarily directed to our relation or feelings to God, but to a\nfar grander thing than that--to God's feelings and relation to us.\nNow I want you to think for one moment, before I pass on, how\nentirely different the whole aspect of this witness of the Spirit of\nwhich Christian men speak so much, and sometimes with so little\nunderstanding, becomes according as you regard it mistakenly as being\nthe direct testimony to you that you are a child of God, or rightly\nas being the direct testimony to you that God is your Father. The two\nthings seem to be the same, but they are not. In the one case, the\nfalse case, the mistaken interpretation, we are left to this, that a\nman has no deeper certainty of his condition, no better foundation\nfor his hope, than what is to be drawn from the presence or absence\nof certain emotions within his own heart. In the other case, we are\nadmitted into this 'wide place,' that all which is our own is second\nand not first, and that the true basis of all our confidence lies not\nin the thought of what we are and feel to God, but in the thought of\nwhat God is and feels to us. And instead, therefore, of being left to\nlabour for ourselves, painfully to search amongst the dust and\nrubbish of our own hearts, we are taught to sweep away all that\ncrumbled, rotten surface, and to go down to the living rock that lies\nbeneath it; we are taught to say, in the words of the book of Isaiah,\n'Doubtless Thou art our Father--we are all an unclean thing; our\niniquities, like the wind, have carried us away'; there is nothing\nstable in us; our own resolutions, they are swept away like the chaff\nof the summer threshing-floor, by the first gust of temptation; but\nwhat of that?--'in those is continuance, and we shall be saved!' Ah,\nbrethren! expand this thought of the conviction that God is my\nFather, as being the basis of all my confidence that I am His child,\ninto its widest and grandest form, and it leads us up to the blessed\nold conviction, I am nothing, my holiness is nothing, my resolutions\nare nothing, my faith is nothing, my energies are nothing; I stand\nstripped, and barren, and naked of everything, and I fling myself out\nof myself into the merciful arms of my Father in heaven! There is all\nthe difference in the world between searching for evidence of my\nsonship, and seeking to get the conviction of God's Fatherhood. The\none is an endless, profitless, self-tormenting task; the other is the\nlight and liberty, the glorious liberty, of the children of God.\n\nAnd so the _substance_ of the Spirit's evidence is the direct\nconviction based on the revelation of God's infinite love and\nfatherhood in Christ the Son, that God is my Father; from which\ndirect conviction I come to the conclusion, the inference, the second\nthought, Then I may trust that I am His son. But why? Because of\nanything in me? No: because of Him. The very emblem of fatherhood and\nsonship might teach us that _that_ depends upon the Father's\nwill and the Father's heart. The Spirit's testimony has for form my\nown conviction: and for substance my humble cry, 'Oh Thou, my Father\nin heaven!' Brethren, is not that a far truer and nobler kind of\nthing to preach than saying, Look into your own heart for strange,\nextraordinary, distinguishable signs which shall mark you out as\nGod's child--and which are proved to be His Spirit's, because they\nare separated from the ordinary human consciousness? Is it not far\nmore blessed for us, and more honouring to Him who works the sign,\nwhen we say, that it is to be found in no out-of-rule, miraculous\nevidence, but in the natural (which is in reality supernatural)\nworking of His Spirit in the heart which is its recipient, breeding\nthere the conviction that God is my Father? And oh, if I am speaking\nto any to whom that text, with all its light and glory, has seemed to\nlift them up into an atmosphere too rare and a height too lofty for\ntheir heavy wings and unused feet, if I am speaking to any Christian\nman to whom this word has been like the cherubim and flaming sword,\nbright and beautiful, but threatening and repellent when it speaks of\na Spirit that bears witness with our spirit--I ask you simply to take\nthe passage for yourself, and carefully and patiently to examine it,\nand see if it be not true what I have been saying, that your\ntrembling conviction--sister and akin as it is to your deepest\ndistrust and sharpest sense of sin and unworthiness--that your\ntrembling conviction of a love mightier than your own, everlasting\nand all-faithful, is indeed the selectest sign that God can give you\nthat you _are_ His child. Oh, brethren and sisters! be\nconfident; for it is not false confidence: be confident if up from\nthe depths of that dark well of your own sinful heart there rises\nsometimes, through all the bitter waters, unpolluted and separate, a\nsweet conviction, forcing itself upward, that God hath love in His\nheart, and that God is _my_ Father. Be confident; 'the Spirit\nitself beareth witness with your spirit.'\n\nII. And now, secondly, That cry is not simply ours, but it is the\nvoice of God's Spirit.\n\nOur own convictions are ours because they are God's. Our own souls\npossess these emotions of love and tender desire going out to\nGod--our own spirits possess them; but our own spirits did not\noriginate them. They are ours by property; they are His by source.\nThe spirit of a Christian man has no good thought in it, no true\nthought, no perception of the grace of God's Gospel, no holy desire,\nno pure resolution, which is not stamped with the sign of a higher\norigin, and is not the witness of God's Spirit in his spirit. The\npassage before us tells us that the sense of Fatherhood which is in\nthe Christian's heart, and becomes his cry, comes from God's Spirit.\nThis passage, and that in the Epistle to the Galatians which is\nalmost parallel, put this truth very forcibly, when taken in\nconnection. 'Ye have received,' says the text before us, 'the Spirit\nof adoption, whereby _we_ cry, Abba, Father.' The variation in the\nEpistle to the Galatians is this: 'Because ye are sons, God hath sent\nforth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, _crying_ (the Spirit\ncrying), Abba, Father.' So in the one text, the cry is regarded as\nthe voice of the believing heart; and in the other the same cry is\nregarded as the voice of God's Spirit. And these two things are both\ntrue; the one would want its foundation if it were not for the other;\nthe cry of the Spirit is nothing for me unless it be appropriated by\nme. I do not need to plunge here into metaphysical speculation of any\nsort, but simply to dwell upon the plain practical teaching of the\nBible--a teaching verified, I believe, by every Christian's\nexperience, if he will search into it--that everything in him which\nmakes the Christian life, is not his, but is God's by origin, and his\nonly by gift and inspiration. And the whole doctrine of my text is\nbuilt on this one thought--without the Spirit of God in your heart,\nyou never can recognise God as your Father. That in us which runs,\nwith love, and childlike faith, and reverence, to the place 'where\nHis honour dwelleth,' that in us which says 'Father,' is kindred with\nGod, and is not the simple, unhelped, unsanctified human nature.\nThere is no ascent of human desires above their source. And wherever\nin a heart there springs up heavenward a thought, a wish, a prayer, a\ntrembling confidence, it is because that came down first from heaven,\nand rises to seek its level again. All that is divine in man comes\nfrom God. All that tends towards God in man is God's voice in the\nhuman heart; and were it not for the possession and operation, the\nsanctifying and quickening, of a living divine Spirit granted to us,\nour souls would for ever cleave to the dust and dwell upon earth, nor\never rise to God and live in the light of His presence. Every\nChristian, then, may be sure of this, that howsoever feeble may be\nthe thought and conviction in his heart of God's Fatherhood, _he_ did\nnot work it, he received it only, cherished it, thought of it,\nwatched over it, was careful not to quench it; but in origin it was\nGod's, and it is now and ever the voice of the Divine Spirit in the\nchild's heart.\n\nBut, my friends, if this principle be true, it does not apply only to\nthis one single attitude of the believing soul when it cries, Abba,\nFather; it must be widened out to comprehend the whole of a\nChristian's life, outward and inward, which is not sinful and\ndarkened with actual transgression. To all the rest of his being, to\neverything in heart and life which is right and pure, the same truth\napplies. 'The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit' in every\nperception of God's word which is granted, in every revelation of His\ncounsel which dawns upon our darkness, in every aspiration after Him\nwhich lifts us above the smoke and dust of this dim spot, in every\nholy resolution, in every thrill and throb of love and desire. Each\nof these is mine--inasmuch as in my heart it is experienced and\ntransacted; it is mine, inasmuch as I am not a mere dead piece of\nmatter, the passive recipient of a magical and supernatural grace;\nbut it is God's; and therefore, and therefore only, has it come to be\nmine!\n\nAnd if it be objected, that this opens a wide door to all manner of\ndelusion, and that there is no more dangerous thing than for a man to\nconfound his own thoughts with the operations of God's Spirit, let me\njust give you (following the context before us) the one guarantee and\ntest which the Apostle lays down. He says, 'There is a witness from\nGod in your spirits.' You may say, That witness, if it come in the\nform of these convictions in my own heart, I may mistake and falsely\nread. Well, then, here is an outward guarantee. 'As many as are led\nby the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God'; and so, on the\nregions both of heart and of life the consecrating thought,--God's\nwork, and God's Spirit's work--is stamped. The heart with its love,\nthe head with its understanding, the conscience with its quick\nresponse to the law of duty, the will with its resolutions,--these\nare all, as sanctified by Him, the witness of His Spirit; and the\nlife with its strenuous obedience, with its struggles against sin and\ntemptation, with its patient persistence in the quiet path of\nordinary duty, as well as with the times when it rises into heroic\nstature of resignation or allegiance, the martyrdom of death and the\nmartyrdom of life, this too is all (in so far as it is pure and\nright) the work of that same Spirit. The test of the inward\nconviction is the outward life; and they that have the witness of the\nSpirit within them have the light of their life lit by the Spirit of\nGod, whereby they may read the handwriting on the heart, and be sure\nthat it is God's and not their own.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, this divine Witness in our spirits is subject\nto the ordinary influences which affect our spirits.\n\nThe notion often prevails that if there be in the heart this divine\nwitness of God's Spirit, it must needs be perfect, clearly indicating\nits origin by an exemption from all that besets ordinary human\nfeelings, that it must be a strong, uniform, never flickering, never\ndarkening, and perpetual light, a kind of vestal fire burning always\non the altar of the heart! The passage before us, and all others that\nspeak about the matter, give us the directly opposite notion. The\nDivine Spirit, when it enters into the narrow room of the human\nspirit, condescends to submit itself, not wholly, but to such an\nextent as practically for our present purpose _is_ wholly to submit\nitself to the ordinary laws and conditions and contingencies which\nbefall and regulate our own human nature. Christ came into the world\ndivine: He was 'found in fashion as a man,' in form a servant; the\nhumanity that He wore limited (if you like), regulated, modified, the\nmanifestation of the divinity that dwelt in it. And not otherwise is\nthe operation of God's Holy Spirit when it comes to dwell in a human\nheart. There too, working through man, _it_ 'is found in fashion as a\nman'; and though the origin of the conviction be of God, and though\nthe voice in my heart be not only my voice, but God's voice there, it\nwill obey those same laws which make human thoughts and emotions\nvary, and fluctuate, flicker and flame up again, burn bright and burn\nlow, according to a thousand circumstances. The witness of the\nSpirit, if it were yonder in heaven, would shine like a perpetual\nstar; the witness of the Spirit, here in the heart on earth, burns\nlike a flickering flame, never to be extinguished, but still not\nalways bright, wanting to be trimmed, and needing to be guarded from\nrude blasts. Else, brother, what does an Apostle mean when he says to\nyou and me, 'Quench not the Spirit'? what does he mean when he says\nto us, 'Grieve not the Spirit'? What does the whole teaching which\nenjoins on us, 'Let your loins be girded about, and your lights\nburning,' and 'What I say to you, I say to all, Watch!' mean, unless\nit means this, that God-given as (God be thanked!) that conviction of\nFatherhood is, it is not given in such a way as that, irrespective of\nour carefulness, irrespective of our watching, it shall burn on--the\nsame and unchangeable? The Spirit's witness comes from God, therefore\nit is veracious, divine, omnipotent; but the Spirit's witness from\nGod is in man, therefore it may be wrongly read, it may be checked,\nit may for a time be kept down, and prevented from showing itself to\nbe what it is.\n\nAnd the practical conclusion that comes from all this, is just the\nsimple advice to you all: Do not wonder, in the first place, if that\nevidence of which we speak, vary and change in its clearness and\nforce in your own hearts. 'The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and\nthe spirit against the flesh.' Do not think that it cannot be\ngenuine, because it is changeful. There is a sun in the heavens, but\nthere are heavenly lights too that wax and wane; they _are_ lights,\nthey _are_ in the heavens though they change. You have no reason,\nChristian man, to be discouraged, cast down, still less despondent,\nbecause you find that the witness of the Spirit changes and varies in\nyour heart. Do not despond because it does; watch it, and guard it,\nlest it do; live in the contemplation of the Person and the fact that\ncalls it forth, that it may not. You will never 'brighten your\nevidences' by polishing at them. To polish the mirror ever so\nassiduously does not secure the image of the sun on its surface. The\nonly way to do that is to carry the poor bit of glass out into the\nsunshine. It will shine then, never fear. It is weary work to labour\nat self-improvement with the hope of drawing from our own characters\nevidences that we are the sons of God. To have the heart filled with\nthe light of Christ's love to us is the only way to have the whole\nbeing full of light. If you would have clear and irrefragable, for a\nperpetual joy, a glory and a defence, the unwavering confidence, 'I\nam Thy child,' go to God's throne, and lie down at the foot of it,\nand let the first thought be, 'My Father in heaven,' and _that_\nwill brighten, that will stablish, that will make omnipotent in your\nlife the witness of the Spirit that you are the child of God.\n\n\n\n\nSONS AND HEIRS\n\n   'If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and\n   joint-heirs with Christ.'--ROMANS viii. 17.\n\n\nGod Himself is His greatest gift. The loftiest blessing which we can\nreceive is that we should be heirs, possessors of God. There is a\nsublime and wonderful mutual possession of which Scripture speaks\nmuch wherein the Lord is the inheritance of Israel, and Israel is the\ninheritance of the Lord. 'The Lord hath taken you to be to Him a\npeople of inheritance,' says Moses; 'Ye are a people for a\npossession,' says Peter. And, on the other hand, 'The Lord is the\nportion of my inheritance,' says David; 'Ye are heirs of God,' echoes\nPaul. On earth and in heaven the heritage of the children of the Lord\nis God Himself, inasmuch as He is with them for their delight, in\nthem to make them 'partakers of the divine nature,' and for them in\nall His attributes and actions.\n\nThis being clearly understood at the outset, we shall be prepared to\nfollow the Apostle's course of thought while he points out the\nconditions upon which the possession of that inheritance depends. It\nis children of God who are heirs of God. It is by union with Christ\nJesus, the Son, to whom the inheritance belongs, that they who\nbelieve on His name receive power to become the sons of God, and with\nthat power the possession of the inheritance. Thus, then, in this\ncondensed utterance of the text there appear a series of thoughts\nwhich may perhaps be more fully unfolded in some such manner as the\nfollowing, that there is no inheritance without sonship, that there\nis no sonship without a spiritual birth, that there is no spiritual\nbirth without Christ, and that there is no Christ for us without\nfaith.\n\nI. First, then, the text tells us, no inheritance without sonship.\n\nIn general terms, spiritual blessings can only be given to those who\nare in a certain spiritual condition. Always and necessarily the\ncapacity or organ of reception precedes and determines the bestowment\nof blessings. The light falls everywhere, but only the eye drinks it\nin. The lower orders of creatures are shut out from all participation\nin the gifts which belong to the higher forms of life, simply because\nthey are so made and organised as that these cannot find entrance\ninto their nature. They are, as it were, walled up all round; and the\nonly door they have to communicate with the outer world is the door\nof sense. Man has higher gifts simply because he has higher\ncapacities. All creatures are plunged in the same boundless ocean of\ndivine beneficence and bestowment, and into each there flows just\nthat, and no more, which each, by the make and constitution that God\nhas given it, is capable of receiving. In the man there are more\nwindows and doors opened out than in the animal He is capable of\nreceiving intellectual impulses, spiritual emotions; he can think,\nand feel, and desire, and will, and resolve: and so he stands on a\nhigher level than the beast below him.\n\nNot otherwise is it in regard to God's kingdom, 'which is\nrighteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.' The gift and\nblessing of salvation is primarily a spiritual gift, and only\ninvolves outward consequences secondarily and subordinately. It\nmainly consists in the heart being at peace with God, in the whole\nsoul being filled with divine affections, in the weight and bondage\nof transgression being taken away, and substituted by the impulse and\nthe life of the new love. Therefore, neither God can give, nor man\ncan receive, that gift upon any other terms, than just this, that the\nheart and nature be fitted and adapted for it. Spiritual blessings\nrequire a spiritual capacity for the reception of them; or, as my\ntext says, you cannot have the inheritance unless you are sons. If\nsalvation consisted simply in a change of place; if it were merely\nthat by some expedient or arrangement, an outward penalty, which was\nto fall or not to fall at the will of an arbitrary judge, were\nprevented from coming down, why then, it would be open to Him who\nheld the power of letting the sword fall, to decide on what terms He\nmight choose to suspend its infliction. But inasmuch as God's\ndeliverance is not a deliverance from a mere arbitrary and outward\npunishment: inasmuch as God's salvation, though it be deliverance\nfrom the penalty as well as from the guilt of sin, is by no means\nchiefly a deliverance from outward consequences, but mainly a\nremoval of the nature and disposition that makes these outward\nconsequences certain,--therefore a man cannot be saved, God's love\ncannot save him, God's justice will not save him, God's power stands\nback from saving him, upon any other condition than this that his\nsoul shall be adapted and prepared for the reception and enjoyment of\nthe blessing of a spiritual salvation.\n\nBut the inheritance which my text speaks about is also that which a\nChristian hopes to receive and enter upon in heaven. The same\nprinciple precisely applies there. There is no inheritance of heaven\nwithout sonship; because all the blessings of that future life are of\na spiritual character. The joy and the rapture and the glory of that\nhigher and better life have, of course, connected with them certain\nchanges of bodily form, certain changes of local dwelling, certain\nchanges which could perhaps be granted equally to a man, of whatever\nsort he was. But, friends, it is not the golden harps, not the\npavement of 'glass mingled with fire,' not the cessation from work,\nnot the still composure, and changeless indwelling, not the society\neven, that makes the heaven of heaven. All these are but the\nembodiments and rendering visible of the inward facts, a soul at\npeace with God in the depths of its being, an eye which gazes upon\nthe Father, and a heart which wraps itself in His arms. Heaven is no\nheaven except in so far as it is the possession of God. That saying\nof the Psalmist is not an exaggeration, nor even a forgetting of the\nother elements of future blessedness, but it is a simple statement of\nthe literal fact of the case, 'I have none in heaven but Thee!' God\nis the heritage of His people. To dwell in His love, and to be filled\nwith His light, and to walk for ever in the glory of His\nsunlit face, to do His will, and to bear His character stamped upon\nour foreheads--_that_ is the glory and the perfectness to which\nwe are aspiring. Do not then rest in the symbols that show us, darkly\nand far off, what that future glory is. Do not forget that the\npicture is a shadow. Get beneath all these figurative expressions,\nand feel that whilst it may be true that for us in our present\nearthly state, there can be no higher, no purer, no more spiritual\nnor any truer representations of the blessedness which is to come,\nthan those which couch it in the forms of earthly experience, and\nappeal to sense as the minister of delight--yet that all these things\nare representations, and not adequate presentations. The inheritance\nof the servants of the Lord is the Lord Himself, and they dwell in\nHim, and _there_ is their joy.\n\nWell then, if that be even partially true--admitting all that you may\nsay about circumstances which go to make some portion of the\nblessedness of that future life--if it be true that God is the true\nblessing given by His Gospel upon earth, that He Himself is the\ngreatest gift that can be bestowed, and that He is the true Heaven of\nheaven--what a flood of light does it cast upon that statement of my\ntext, 'If children, then heirs'; no inheritance without sonship! For\nwho can possess God but they who love Him? who can love, but they who\nknow His love? who can have Him working in their hearts a blessed and\nsanctifying change, except the souls that lie thankfully quiet\nbeneath the forming touch of His invisible hand, and like flowers\ndrink in the light of His face in their still joy? How can God dwell\nin any heart except a heart which has in it a love of purity? Where\ncan He make His temple except in the 'upright heart and pure'? How\ncan there be fellowship betwixt Him and any one except the man who is\na son because he hath received of the divine nature, and in whom that\ndivine nature is growing up into a divine likeness? 'What fellowship\nhath Christ with Belial?' is not only applicable as a guide for our\npractical life, but points to the principle on which God's\ninheritance belongs to God's sons alone. 'Blessed are the pure in\nheart, for they shall see God'; and those only who love, and are\nchildren, to them alone does the Father come and does the Father\nbelong.\n\nSo much, then, for the first principle: No inheritance without\nsonship.\n\nII. Secondly, the text leads us to the principle that there is no\nsonship without a spiritual birth.\n\nThe Apostle John in that most wonderful preface to his Gospel, where\nall deepest truths concerning the Eternal Being in itself and in the\nsolemn march of His progressive revelations to the world are set\nforth in language simple like the words of a child and inexhaustible\nlike the voice of a god, draws a broad distinction between the\nrelation to the manifestations of God which every human soul by\nvirtue of his humanity sustains, and that into which some, by virtue\nof their faith, enter. Every man is lighted by the true light because\nhe is a man. They who believe in His name receive from Him the\nprerogative to become the sons of God. Whatever else may be taught in\nJohn's words, surely they do teach us this, that the sonship of which\nhe speaks does not belong to man as man, is not a relation into which\nwe are born by natural birth, that we _become_ sons after we\n_are_ men, that those who become sons do not include all those\nwho are lighted by the Light, but consist of so many of that greater\nnumber as receive Him, and that such become sons by a divine act, the\ncommunication of a spiritual life, whereby they are born of God.\n\nThe same Apostle, in his Epistles, where the widest love is conjoined\nwith the most firmly drawn lines of moral demarcation between the\ngreat opposites--life, light, love--death, darkness, hate--contrasts\nin the most unmistakable antithesis the sons of God who are known for\nsuch because they do righteousness, and the world which knew not\nChrist, nor knows those who, dimly beholding, partially resemble Him.\nNay, he goes further, and says in strange contradiction to the\npopular estimate of his character, but in true imitation of that\nIncarnate love which hated iniquity, 'In this the children of God are\nmanifested and the children of the devil'--echoing thus the words of\nHim whose pitying tenderness had sometimes to clothe itself in\nsharpest words, even as His hand of powerful love had once to grasp\nthe scourge of small cords. 'If God were your Father, ye would love\nMe: ye are of your father, the devil.'\n\nThese are but specimens of a whole cycle of Scripture statements\nwhich in every form of necessary implication, and of direct\nstatement, set forth the principle that he who is born again of the\nSpirit, and he only, is a son of God.\n\nNothing in all this contradicts the belief that all men are the\nchildren of God, inasmuch as they are shaped by His divine hand and\nHe has breathed into their nostrils the breath of life. They who hold\nthat sonship is obtained on the condition which these passages seem\nto assert, do also rejoice to believe and to preach that the Father's\nlove broods over every human heart as the dovelike Spirit over the\nprimeval chaos. They rejoice to proclaim that Christ has come that\nall, that each, may receive the adoption of sons. They do not feel\nthat their message to, nor their hope for, the world is less blessed,\nless wide, because while they call on all to come and take the things\nthat are freely given to them of God, they believe that those only\nwho do come and take possess the blessing. Every man may become a son\nand heir of God by faith in Jesus Christ.\n\nBut notwithstanding all the mercies that belong to us all,\nnotwithstanding the divine beneficence, which, like the air and the\nlight, pervades all nature, and underlies all our lives,\nnotwithstanding the universal adaptation and intention of Christ's\nwork, notwithstanding the wooing of His tender voice and the\nunceasing beckoning of His love, it still remains true that there are\nmen in the world, created by God, loved and cared for by Him, for\nwhom Christ died, who might be, but are not, sons of God.\n\nFatherhood! what does that word itself teach us? It speaks of the\ncommunication of a life, and the reciprocity of love. It rests upon a\ndivine act, and it involves a human emotion. It involves that the\nfather and the child shall have kindred life--the father bestowing\nand the child possessing a life which is derived; and because\nderived, kindred; and because kindred, unfolding itself in likeness\nto the father that gave it. And it requires that between the father's\nheart and the child's heart there shall pass, in blessed interchange\nand quick correspondence, answering love, flashing backwards and\nforwards, like the lightning that touches the earth and rises from it\nagain. A simple appeal to your own consciousness will decide if that\nbe the condition of all men. Are you, my brother, conscious of\nanything within you higher than the common life that belongs to you\nbecause you are an immortal soul? Can you say, 'From God's hand I have\nreceived the granting and implantation of a new and better life?' Is\nyour claim verified by this, that you are kindred with God in holy\naffections, in like purposes, loving what He loves, hating what He\nhates, doing what He wills, accepting what He sends, longing for\nHimself, and blessed in His presence? Is your sonship proved by the\ndepth and sincerity, the simplicity and power, of your throbbing\nheart of love to your Father in heaven? Or are all these emotions\nempty words to you, things that are spoken in pulpits, but to which\nyou have nothing in your life corresponding? Oh then, my friend, what\nam I to say to you? What but this? no sonship except by that\nspiritual birth; and if not such sonship, then the spirit of bondage.\nIf not such sonship, why then, by all the tendencies of your nature,\nand by all the affinities of your moral being, if you are not holding\nof heaven, you are holding of hell; if you are not drawing your life,\nyour character, your emotions, your affections, from the sacred well\nthat lies up yonder, you are drawing them from the black one that\nlies down there. There are heaven, hell, and the earth that lies\nbetween, ever influenced either from above or from below. You are\nsons because born again, or slaves and 'enemies by wicked works.' It\nis a grim alternative, but it is a fact.\n\nIII. Thirdly, no spiritual birth without Christ.\n\nWe have seen that the sonship which gives power of possessing the\ninheritance and which comes by spiritual birth, rests upon the giving\nof life, spiritual life, from God; and unfolds itself in certain holy\ncharacters, and affections, and desires, the throbbing of the whole\nsoul in full accord and harmony with the divine character and will.\nWell then, it looks very clear that a man cannot make that new life\nfor himself, cannot do it because of the habit of sin, and cannot do\nit because of the guilt and punishment of sin. If for sonship there\nmust be a birth again, why, surely, the very symbol might convince\nyou that such a process does not lie within our own power. There must\ncome down a divine leaven into the mass of human nature, before this\nnew being can be evolved in any one. There must be a gift of God. A\ndivine energy must be the source and fountain of all holy and of all\nGodlike life. Christ comes, comes to make you and me live again as we\nnever lived before; live possessors of God's love; live tenanted and\nruled by a divine Spirit; live with affections in our hearts which\n_we_ never could kindle there; live with purposes in our souls which\n_we_ never could put there.\n\nAnd I want to urge this thought, that the centre point of the Gospel\nis this regeneration; because if we understand, as we are too much\ndisposed to do, that the Gospel simply comes to make men live better,\nto work out a moral reformation,--why, there is no need for a Gospel\nat all. If the change were a simple change of habit and action on the\npart of men, we could do without a Christ. If the change simply\ninvolved a bracing ourselves up to behave better for the future, we\ncould manage somehow or other about as well as or better than we have\nmanaged in the past. But if redemption be the giving of life from\nGod; and if redemption be the change of position in reference to\nGod's love and God's law as well, neither of these two changes can a\nman effect for himself. You cannot gather up the spilt water; you\ncannot any more gather up and re-issue the past life. The sin\nremains, the guilt remains. The inevitable law of God will go\non its crashing way in spite of all penitence, in spite of all\nreformation, in spite of all desires after newness of life. There is\nbut one Being who can make a change in our position in regard to God,\nand there is but one Being who can make the change by which man shall\nbecome a 'new creature.' The Creative Spirit that shaped the earth\nmust shape its new being in my soul; and the Father against whose law\nI have offended, whose love I have slighted, from whom I have turned\naway, must effect the alteration that I can never effect--the\nalteration in my position to His judgments and justice, and to the\nwhole sweep of His government. No new birth without Christ; no escape\nfrom the old standing-place, of being 'enemies to God by wicked\nworks,' by anything that we can do: no hope of the inheritance unless\nthe Lord and the Man, the 'second Adam from heaven,' have come! He\n_has_ come, and He has 'dwelt with us,' and He has worn this\nlife of ours, and He has walked in the midst of this world, and He\nknows all about our human condition, and He has effected an actual\nchange in the possible aspect of the divine justice and government to\nus; and He has carried in the golden urn of His humanity a new spirit\nand a new life which He has set down in the midst of the race; and\nthe urn was broken on the cross of Calvary, and the water flowed out,\nand whithersoever that water comes there is life, and whithersoever\nit comes not there is death!\n\nIV. Last of all, no Christ without faith.\n\nIt is not enough, brethren, that we should go through all these\nprevious steps, if we then go utterly astray at the end, by\nforgetting that there is only one way by which we become partakers of\nany of the benefits and blessings that Christ has wrought out. It is\nmuch to say that for inheritance there must be sonship. It is much to\nsay that for sonship there must be a divine regeneration. It is much\nto say that the power of this regeneration is all gathered together\nin Christ Jesus. But there are plenty of people that would agree to\nall that, who go off at that point, and content themselves with\n_this_ kind of thinking--that in some vague mysterious way, they\nknow not how, in a sort of half-magical manner, the benefit of\nChrist's death and work comes to all in Christian lands, whether\nthere be an act of faith or not! Now I am not going to talk theology\nat present, at this stage of my sermon; but what I want to leave upon\nall your hearts is this profound conviction,--Unless we are wedded to\nJesus Christ by the simple act of trust in His mercy and His power,\nChrist is nothing to us. Do not let us, my friends, blink that\ndeciding test of the whole matter. We may talk about Christ for ever;\nwe may set forth aspects of His work, great and glorious. He may be\nto us much that is very precious; but the one question, the question\nof questions, on which everything else depends, is, Am I trusting to\nHim as my divine Redeemer? am I resting in Him as the Son of God?\nSome of us here now have a sort of nominal connection with Christ,\nwho have a kind of imaginative connection with Him; traditional,\nceremonial, by habit of thought, by attendance on public worship, and\nby I know not what other means. Ceremonies are nothing, notions\nare nothing, beliefs are nothing, formal participation in worship is\nnothing. Christ is everything to him that trusts Him. Christ is\nnothing but a judge and a condemnation to him who trusts Him not. And\nhere is the turning-point, Am I resting upon that Lord for my\nsalvation? If so, you can begin upon that step, the low one on which\nyou can put your foot, the humble act of faith, and with the foot\nthere, can climb up. If faith, then new birth; if new birth, then\nsonship; if sonship, then an heir of God, and a joint-heir with\nChrist.' But if you have not got your foot upon the lowest round of\nthe ladder, you will never come within sight of the blessed face of\nHim who stands at the top of it, and who looks down to you at this\nmoment, saying to you, 'My child, _wilt_ thou not cry unto Me \"Abba,\nFather?\"'\n\n\n\n\nSUFFERING WITH CHRIST, A CONDITION OF GLORY WITH CHRIST\n\n   '...Joint heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with\n   Him, that we may be also glorified together.'--ROMANS viii. 17.\n\n\nIn the former part of this verse the Apostle tells us that in order\nto be heirs of God, we must become sons through and joint-heirs with\nChrist. He seems at first sight to add in these words of our text\nanother condition to those already specified, namely, that of\nsuffering with Christ.\n\nNow, of course, whatever may be the operation of suffering in fitting\nfor the possession of the Christian inheritance, either here or in\nanother world, the sonship and the sorrows do not stand on the same\nlevel in regard to that possession. The one is the indispensable\ncondition of all; the other is but the means for the operation of the\ncondition. The one--being sons, 'joint-heirs with Christ,'--is the\nroot of the whole matter; the other--the 'suffering with Him,'--is\nbut the various process by which from the root there come 'the blade,\nand the ear, and the full corn in the ear.' Given the sonship--if it\nis to be worked out into power and beauty, there must be suffering\nwith Christ. But unless there be sonship, there is no possibility of\ninheriting God; discipline and suffering will be of no use at all.\n\nThe chief lesson which I wish to gather from this text now is that\nall God's sons must suffer with Christ; and in addition to this\nprinciple, we may complete our considerations by adding briefly, that\nthe inheritance must be won by suffering, and that if we suffer with\nHim, we certainly shall receive the inheritance.\n\nI. First, then, sonship with Christ necessarily involves suffering\nwith Him.\n\nI think that we entirely misapprehend the force of this passage\nbefore us, if we suppose it to refer principally or merely to the\noutward calamities, what you call trials and afflictions, which\nbefall people, and see in it only the teaching, that the sorrows of\ndaily life may have in them a sign of our being children of God, and\nsome power to prepare us for the glory that is to come. There is a\ngreat deal more in the thought than that, brethren. This is not\nmerely a text for people who are in affliction, but for all of us. It\ndoes not merely contain a law for a certain part of life, but it\ncontains a law for the whole of life. It is not merely a promise that\nin all our afflictions Christ will be afflicted, but it is a solemn\ninjunction that we seek to know 'the fellowship of His sufferings,\nand be made conformable to the likeness of His death,' if we expect\nto be 'found in the likeness of His Resurrection,' and to have any\nshare in the community of His glory. In other words, the foundation\nof it is not that Christ shares in our sufferings; but that we, as\nChristians, in a deep and real sense do necessarily share and\nparticipate in Christ's. We 'suffer with Him'; _not_ He suffers\nwith us.\n\nNow, do not let us misunderstand each other, or the Apostle's\nteaching. Do not suppose that I am forgetting, or wishing you to\naccount as of small importance, the awful sense in which Christ's\nsuffering stands as a thing by itself and unapproachable, a solitary\npillar rising up, above the waste of time, to which all men\neverywhere are to turn with the one thought, 'I can do nothing like\nthat; I need to do nothing like it; it has been done once, and once\nfor all; and what I have to do is, simply to lie down before Him, and\nlet the power and the blessings of that death and those sufferings\nflow into my heart.' The Divine Redeemer makes eternal redemption.\nThe sufferings of Christ--the sufferings of His life, and the\nsufferings of His death--both because of the nature which bore them,\nand of the aspect which they wore in regard to us, are in their\nsource, in their intensity, in their character, and consequences,\nunapproachable, incapable of repetition, and needing no repetition\nwhilst the world shall stand. But then, do not let us forget that the\nvery books and writers in the New Testament that preach most broadly\nChrist's sole, all-sufficient, eternal redemption for the world by\nHis sufferings and death, turn round and say to us too, '\"Be planted\ntogether in the likeness of His death\"; you are \"crucified to the\nworld\" by the Cross of Christ; you are to \"fill up that which is\nbehind of the sufferings of Christ.\"' He Himself speaks of our\ndrinking of the cup that He drank of, and being baptized with the\nbaptism that He was baptized with, if we desire to sit yonder on His\nthrone, and share with Him in His glory.\n\nNow what do the Apostles, and what does Christ Himself, in that\npassage that I have quoted, mean, by such solemn words as these? Some\npeople shrink from them, and say that it is trenching upon the\ncentral doctrine of the Gospel, when we speak about drinking of the\ncup which Christ drank of. They ask, Can it be? Yes, it can be, if\nyou will think thus:--If a Christian has the Spirit and life of\nChrist in him, his career will be moulded, imperfectly but really, by\nthe same Spirit that dwelt in his Lord; and similar causes will\nproduce corresponding effects. The life of Christ which--divine,\npure, incapable of copy and repetition--in one aspect has ended for\never for men, remains to be lived, in another view of it, by every\nChristian, who in like manner has to fight with the world; who in\nlike manner has to resist temptation; who in like manner has to\nstand, by God's help, pure and sinless, in so far as the new nature\nof him is concerned, in the midst of a world that is full of evil.\nFor were the sufferings of the Lord only the sufferings that were\nwrought upon Calvary? Were the sufferings of the Lord only the\nsufferings which came from the contradiction of sinners against\nHimself? Were the sufferings of the Lord only the sufferings which\nwere connected with His bodily afflictions and pain, precious and\npriceless as they were, and operative causes of our redemption as\nthey were? Oh no. Conceive of that perfect, sinless, really human\nlife, in the midst of a system of things that is all full of\ncorruption and of sin; coming ever and anon against misery, and\nwrong-doing, and rebellion; and ask yourselves whether part of His\nsufferings did not spring from the contact of the sinless Son of man\nwith a sinful world, and the apparently vain attempt to influence and\nleaven that sinful world with care for itself and love for the\nFather. If there had been nothing more than that, yet Christ's\nsufferings as the Son of God in the midst of sinful men would have\nbeen deep and real. 'O faithless generation, how long shall I be with\nyou? how long shall I suffer you?' was wrung from Him by the painful\nsense of want of sympathy between His aims and theirs. 'Oh that I had\nwings like a dove, for then I would fly away and be at rest,' must\noften be the language of those who are like Him in spirit, and in\nconsequent sufferings.\n\nAnd then again, another branch of the 'sufferings of Christ' is to be\nfound in that deep and mysterious fact on which I durst not venture\nto speak beyond what the actual words of Scripture put into my\nlips--the fact that Christ wrought out His perfect obedience as a\nman, through temptation and by suffering. There was no sin _within_\nHim, no tendency to sin, no yielding to the evil that assailed. 'The\nPrince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.' But yet, when\nthat dark Power stood by His side, and said, 'If thou be the Son of\nGod, cast Thyself down,' it was a real temptation and not a sham one.\nThere was no wish to do it, no faltering for a moment, no hesitation.\nThere was no rising up in that calm will of even a moment's impulse\nto do the thing that was presented;--but yet it was presented, and,\nwhen Christ triumphed, and the tempter departed for a season, there\nhad been a temptation and there had been a conflict. And though\nobedience be a joy, and the doing of His Father's will was His\ndelight, as it must needs be in pure and in purified hearts; yet\nobedience which is sustained in the face of temptation, and which\nnever fails, though its path lead to bodily pains and the\n'contradiction of sinners,' may well be called suffering. We cannot\nspeak of our Lord's obedience as the surrender of His own will to the\nFather's, with the implication that these two wills ever did or could\nmove except in harmony. There was no place in Christ's obedience for\nthat casting out of sinful self which makes our submission a\nsurrender joined with suffering, but He knew temptation. Flesh, and\nsense, and the world, and the prince of this world, presented it to\nHim; and therefore His obedience too was suffering, even though to do\nthe will of His Father was His meat and His drink, His sustenance and\nHis refreshment.\n\nBut then, let me remind you still further, that not only does the\nlife of Christ, as sinless in the midst of sinful men, and the life\nof Christ, as sinless whilst yet there was temptation presented to\nit--assume the aspect of being a life of suffering, and become, in\nthat respect, the model for us; but that also the Death of Christ,\nbesides its aspect as an atonement and sacrifice for sin, the power\nby which transgression is put away and God's love flows out upon our\nsouls, has another power given to it in the teaching of the New\nTestament. The Death of Christ is a type of the Christian's life,\nwhich is to be one long, protracted, and daily dying to sin, to self,\nto the world. The crucifixion of the old manhood is to be the life's\nwork of every Christian, through the power of faith in that Cross by\nwhich 'the world is crucified unto Me, and I unto the world.' That\nthought comes over and over again in all forms of earnest\npresentation in the Apostle's teaching. Do not slur it over as if it\nwere a mere fanciful metaphor. It carries in its type a most solemn\nreality. The truth is, that, if a Christian, you have a double life.\nThere is Christ, with His power, with His Spirit, giving you a nature\nwhich is pure and sinless, incapable of transgression, like His\nown. The new man, that which is born of God, sinneth not, cannot sin.\nBut side by side with it, working through it, working in it,\nleavening it, indistinguishable from it to your consciousness, by\nanything but this that the one works righteousness and the other\nworks transgression, there is the 'old man,' 'the flesh,' 'the old\nAdam,' your own godless, independent, selfish, proud being. And the\none is to slay the other! Ah, let me tell you, these\nwords--crucifying, casting out the old man, plucking out the right\neye, maiming self of the right hand, mortifying the deeds of the\nbody--they are something very much deeper and more awful than\npoetical symbols and metaphors. They teach us this, that there is no\ngrowth without sore sorrow. Conflict, not progress, is the word that\ndefines man's path from darkness into light. No holiness is won by\nany other means than this, that wickedness should be slain day by\nday, and hour by hour. In long lingering agony often, with the blood\nof the heart pouring out at every quivering vein, you are to cut\nright through the life and being of that sinful self; to do what the\nWord does, pierce to the dividing asunder of the thoughts and intents\nof the heart, and get rid by crucifying and slaying--a long process,\na painful process--of your own sinful self. And not until you can\nstand up and say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' have\nyou accomplished that to which you are consecrated and vowed by your\nsonship--'being conformed unto the likeness of His death,' and\n'knowing the fellowship of His sufferings.'\n\nIt is this process, the inward strife and conflict in getting rid of\nevil, which the Apostle designates here with the name of 'suffering\nwith Christ, that we may be also glorified together.' On this high\nlevel, and not upon the lower one of the consideration that Christ\nwill help us to bear outward infirmities and afflictions, do we find\nthe true meaning of all that Scripture teaching which says indeed,\n'Yes, our sufferings are _His_'; but lays the foundation of it in\nthis, 'His sufferings are _ours_.' It begins by telling us that\nChrist has done a work and borne a sorrow that no second can ever do.\nThen it tells us that Christ's life of obedience--which, because it\n_was_ a life of obedience, was a life of suffering, and brought\nHim into a condition of hostility to the men around Him--is to be\nrepeated in us. It sets before us the Cross of Calvary, and the\nsorrows and pains that were felt there;--and it says to us, Christian\nmen and women, if you want the power for holy living, have fellowship\nin that atoning death; and if you want the pattern of holy living,\nlook at that Cross and feel, 'I am crucified to the world by it; and\nthe life that I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of\nGod.'\n\nSuch considerations as these, however, do not necessarily exclude the\nother one (which we may just mention and dwell on for a moment),\nnamely, that where there is this spiritual participation in the\nsufferings of Christ, and where His death is reproduced and\nperpetuated, as it were, in our daily mortifying ourselves in the\npresent evil world--there Christ is with us in our afflictions. God\nforbid that I should try to strike away any word of consolation that\nhas come, as these words of my text have come, to so many sorrowing\nhearts in all generations, like music in the night and like cold\nwaters to a thirsty soul. We need not hold that there is no reference\nhere to that comforting thought, 'In all our affliction He is\nafflicted.' Brethren, you and I have, each of us--one in one way,\nand one in another, all in some way, all in the right way, none in\ntoo severe a way, none in too slight a way--to tread the path of\nsorrow; and is it not a blessed thing, as we go along through that\ndark valley of the shadow of death down into which the sunniest paths\ngo sometimes, to come, amidst the twilight and the gathering clouds,\nupon tokens that Jesus has been on the road before us? They tell us\nthat in some trackless lands, when one friend passes through the\npathless forests, he breaks a twig ever and anon as he goes, that\nthose who come after may see the traces of his having been there, and\nmay know that they are not out of the road. Oh, when we are\njourneying through the murky night, and the dark woods of affliction\nand sorrow, it is something to find here and there a spray broken, or\na leafy stem bent down with the tread of His foot and the brush of\nHis hand as He passed, and to remember that the path He trod He has\nhallowed, and thus to find lingering fragrances and hidden strengths\nin the remembrance of Him as 'in all points tempted like as we are,'\nbearing grief _for_ us, bearing grief _with_ us, bearing\ngrief _like_ us.\n\nOh, do not, do not, my brethren, keep these sacred thoughts of\nChrist's companionship in sorrow, for the larger trials of life. If\nthe mote in the eye be large enough to annoy you, it is large enough\nto bring out His sympathy; and if the grief be too small for Him to\ncompassionate and share, it is too small for you to be troubled by\nit. If you are ashamed to apply that divine thought, 'Christ bears\nthis grief with me,' to those petty molehills that you sometimes\nmagnify into mountains, think to yourselves that then it is a shame\nfor you to be stumbling over them. But on the other hand, never fear\nto be irreverent or too familiar in the thought that Christ is\nwilling to bear, and help you to bear, the pettiest, the minutest,\nand most insignificant of the daily annoyances that may come to\nruffle you. Whether it be a poison from one serpent sting, or whether\nit be poison from a million of buzzing tiny mosquitoes, if there be a\nsmart, go to Him, and He will help you to endure it. He will do more,\nHe will bear it with you, for if so be that we suffer with Him, He\nsuffers with us, and our oneness with Christ brings about a community\nof possessions whereby it becomes true of each trusting soul in its\nrelations to Him, that 'all mine (joys and sorrows alike) are thine,\nand all thine are mine.' II. There remain some other considerations\nwhich may be briefly stated, in order to complete the lessons of this\ntext. In the second place, this community of suffering is a necessary\npreparation for the community of glory.\n\nI name this principally for the sake of putting in a caution. The\nApostle does not mean to tell us, of course, that if there were such\na case as that of a man becoming a son of God, and having no occasion\nor opportunity afterwards, by brevity of life or other causes, for\npassing through the discipline of sorrow, his inheritance would be\nforfeited. We must always take such passages as this--which seem to\nmake the discipline of the world an essential part of the preparing\nof us for glory--in conjunction with the other undeniable truth which\ncompletes them, that when a man has the love of God in his heart,\nhowever feebly, however newly, there and then he is fit for the\ninheritance. I think that Christian people make vast mistakes\nsometimes in talking about 'being made meet for the inheritance of\nthe saints in light,' about being 'ripe for glory,' and the like. One\nthing at any rate is very certain, it is not the discipline that\nfits. That which fits goes before the discipline, and the discipline\nonly develops the fitness. 'God hath made us meet for the inheritance\nof the saints in light,' says the Apostle. That is a past act. The\npreparedness for heaven comes at the moment--if it be a momentary\nact--when a man turns to Christ. You may take the lowest and most\nabandoned form of human character, and in one moment (it is possible,\nand it is often the case) the entrance into that soul of the feeble\ngerm of that new affection shall at once change the whole moral\nhabitude of that man. Though it be true, then, that heaven is only\nopen to those who are capable--by holy aspirations and divine\ndesires--of entering into it, it is equally true that such\naspirations and desires may be the work of an instant, and may be\nsuperinduced in a moment in a heart the most debased and the most\ndegraded. 'This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise,'--_fit_ for\nthe inheritance!\n\nAnd, therefore, let us not misunderstand such words as this text, and\nfancy that the necessary discipline, which we have to go through\nbefore we are ready for heaven, is necessary in anything like the\nsame sense in which it is necessary that a man should have faith in\nChrist in order to be saved. The one may be dispensed with, the other\ncannot. A Christian at any period of his Christian experience, if it\nplease God to take him, is fit for the kingdom. The life _is_ life,\nwhether it be the budding beauty and feebleness of childhood, or the\nstrength of manhood, or the maturity and calm peace of old age. But\n'add to your faith,' that 'an entrance may be ministered unto you\n_abundantly_.' Remember that though the root of the matter, the seed\nof the kingdom, may be in you; and that though, therefore, you have a\nright to feel that, at any period of your Christian experience, if it\nplease God to take you out of this world, you are fit for heaven--yet\nin His mercy He is leaving you here, training you, disciplining you,\ncleansing you, making you to be polished shafts in His quiver; and\nthat all the glowing furnaces of fiery trial and all the cold waters\nof affliction are but the preparation through which the rough iron is\nto be passed before it becomes tempered steel, a shaft in the\nMaster's hand.\n\nAnd so learn to look upon all trial as being at once the seal of your\nsonship, and the means by which God puts it within your power to win\na higher place, a loftier throne, a nobler crown, a closer fellowship\nwith Him 'who hath suffered, being tempted,' and who will receive\ninto His own blessedness and rest them that are tempted. 'The child,\nthough he be an heir, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be\nlord of all; but is under tutors and governors.' God puts us in the\nschool of sorrow under that stern tutor and governor here, and gives\nus the opportunity of 'suffering with Christ,' that by the daily\ncrucifixion of our old nature, by the lessons and blessings of\noutward calamities and change, there may grow up in us a still nobler\nand purer, and perfecter divine life; and that we may so be made\ncapable--more capable, and capable of more--of that inheritance for\nwhich the only necessary thing is the death of Christ, and the only\nfitness is faith in His name.\n\nIII. Finally, that inheritance is the necessary result of the\nsuffering that has gone before.\n\nThe suffering results from our union with Christ. That union must\nneeds culminate in glory. It is not only because the joy hereafter\nseems required in order to vindicate God's love to His children, who\nhere reap sorrow from their sonship, that the discipline of life\ncannot but end in blessedness. That ground of mere compensation is a\nlow one on which to rest the certainty of future bliss. But the\ninheritance is sure to all who here suffer with Christ, because the\none cause--union with the Lord--produces both the present result of\nfellowship in His sorrows, and the future result of joy in His joy,\nof possession of His possessions. The inheritance is sure because\nChrist possesses it now. The inheritance is sure because earth's\nsorrows not merely require to be repaid by its peace, but because\nthey have an evident design to fit us for it, and it would be\ndestructive to all faith in God's wisdom, and God's knowledge of His\nown purposes, not to believe that what He has wrought us for will be\ngiven to us. Trials have no meaning, unless they are means to an end.\nThe end is the inheritance, and sorrows here, as well as the Spirit's\nwork here, are the earnest of the inheritance. Measure the greatness\nof the glory by what has preceded it. God takes all these years of\nlife, and all the sore trials and afflictions that belong inevitably\nto an earthly career, and works them in, into the blessedness that\n_shall_ come. If a fair measure of the greatness of any result of\nproductive power be the length of time that was taken for getting it\nready, we can dimly conceive what that joy must be for which seventy\nyears of strife and pain and sorrow are but a momentary preparation;\nand what must be the weight of that glory which is the counterpoise\nand consequence to the afflictions of this lower world. The further\nthe pendulum swings on the one side, the further it goes up on the\nother. The deeper God plunges the comet into the darkness out yonder,\nthe closer does it come to the sun at its nearest distance, and the\nlonger does it stand basking and glowing in the full blaze of the\nglory from the central orb. So in _our_ revolution, the measure of\nthe distance from the farthest point of our darkest earthly sorrow,\n_to_ the throne, may help us to the measure of the closeness of the\nbright, perfect, perpetual glory above, when we are _on_ the throne:\nfor if so be that we are sons, we _must_ suffer with Him; if so be\nthat we suffer, we _must_ be glorified together!\n\n\n\n\nTHE REVELATION OF SONS\n\n   'For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for\n   the manifestation of the sons of God.'--ROMANS viii. 19.\n\n\nThe Apostle has been describing believers as 'sons' and 'heirs.' He\ndrops from these transcendent heights to contrast their present\napparent condition with their true character and their future glory.\nThe sad realities of suffering darken his lofty hopes, even although\nthese sad realities are to his faith tokens of joint-heirship with\nJesus, and pledges that if our inheritance is here manifested by\nsuffering with him, that very fact is a prophecy of common glory\nhereafter. He describes that future as the revealing of a glory, to\nwhich the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be\ncompared; and then, in our text he varies the application of that\nthought of revealing and thinks of the subjects of it as being the\n'sons of God.' They will be revealed when the glory which they have\nas joint-heirs with Christ is revealed in them. They walk, as it\nwere, compassed with mist and cloud, but the splendour which will\nfall on them will scatter the envious darkness, and 'when Christ who\nis our life shall appear, then shall His co-heirs also appear with\nHim in glory.'\n\nWe may consider--\n\nI. The present veil over the sons of God.\n\nThere is always a difference between appearance and reality, between\nthe ideal and its embodiments. For all men it is true that the full\nexpression of oneself is impossible. Each man's deeds fall short of\ndisclosing the essential self in the man. Every will is hampered by\nthe fleshly screen of the body. 'I would that my tongue could utter\nthe thoughts that arise in me,' is the yearning of every heart that\nis deeply moved. Contending principles successively sway every\npersonality and thwart each other's expression. For these, and many\nother reasons, the sum-total of every life is but a shrouded\nrepresentation of the man who lives it; and we, all of us, after all\nefforts at self-revelation, remain mysteries to our fellows and to\nourselves. All this is eminently true of the sons of God. They have a\nlife-germ hidden in their souls, which in its very nature is destined\nto fill and expand their whole being, and to permeate with its\ntriumphant energy every corner of their nature. But it is weak and\noften overborne by its opposite. The seed sown is to grow in spite of\nbad weather and a poor soil and many weeds, and though it is destined\nto overcome all these, it may to-day only be able to show on the\nsurface a little patch of pale and struggling growth. When we think\nof the cost at which the life of Christ was imparted to men, and of\nthe divine source from which it comes, and of the sedulous and\nprotracted discipline through which it is being trained, we cannot\nbut conclude that nothing short of its universal dominion over all\nthe faculties of its imperfect possessors can be the goal of its\nworking. Hercules in his cradle is still Hercules, and strangles\nsnakes. Frost and sun may struggle in midwinter, and the cold may\nseem to predominate, but the sun is steadily enlarging its course in\nthe sky, and increasing the fervour of its beams, and midsummer day\nis as sure to dawn as the shortest day was.\n\nThe sons of God, even more truly than other men, have contending\nprinciples fighting within them. It was the same Apostle who with\noaths denied that he 'knew the man,' and in a passion of clinging\nlove and penitence fell at His feet; but for the mere onlooker it\nwould be hard to say which was the true man and which would conquer.\nThe sons of God, like other men, have to express themselves in words\nwhich are never closely enough fitted to their thoughts and feelings.\nDavid's penitence has to be contented with groans which are not deep\nenough; and John's calm raptures on his Saviour's breast can only be\nspoken by shut eyes and silence. The sons of God never fully\ncorrespond to their character, but always fall somewhat beneath their\ndesire, and must always be somewhat less than their intention. The\nartist never wholly embodies his conception. It is only God who\n'rests from His works' because the works fully embody His creative\ndesign and fully receive the benediction of His own satisfaction with\nthem.\n\nFrom all such thoughts there arises a piece of plain practical\nwisdom, which warns Christian men not to despond or despair if they\ndo not find themselves living up to their ideal. The sons of God are\n'veiled' because the world's estimate of them is untrue. The old\ncommonplace that the world knows nothing of its greatest men is\nverified in the opinions which it holds about the sons of God. It is\nnot for their Christianity that they get any of the world's honours\nand encomiums, if such fall to their share. They are _un_known and\nyet _well_-known. They live for the most part veiled in obscurity.\n'The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it\nnot.' They are God's hidden ones. If they are wise, they will look\nfor no recognition nor eulogy from the world, and will be content to\nlive, as unknown by the princes of this world as was the Lord of\nglory, whom they slew because their dim eyes could not see the\nflashing of the glory 'through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.'\nBut no consciousness of imperfection in our revelation of an\nindwelling Christ must ever be allowed to diminish our efforts to\nlive out the life that is in us, and to shine as lights in the world;\nnor must the consciousness that we walk as 'veiled,' lead us to add\nto the thick folds the criminal one of voluntary silence and cowardly\nhiding in dumb hearts the secret of our lives.\n\nII. The unveiling of the sons of God.\n\nThat unveiling is in the text represented as coming along with the\nglory which shall be revealed to usward, and as being contemporaneous\nwith the deliverance of the creation itself from the bondage of\ncorruption, and its passing into the liberty of the glory of the\nchildren of God. It coincides with the vanishing of the pain in which\nthe whole creation now groans and travails, and with the\nadoption--that is, the redemption of our body. Then hope will be seen\nand will pass into still fruition. All this points to the time when\nJesus Christ is revealed, and His servants are revealed with Him in\nglory. That revelation brings with it of necessity the manifestation\nof the sons of God for what they are--the making visible in the life\nof what God sees them to be.\n\nThat revelation of the sons of God is the result of the entire\ndominion and transforming supremacy of the Spirit of God in them. In\nthe whole sweep of their consciousness there will in that day be\nnothing done from other motives; there will be no sidelights flashing\nin and disturbing the perfect illumination from the candle of the\nLord set on high in their being; there will be no contradictions in\nthe life. It will be one and simple, and therefore perfectly\nintelligible. Such is the destined issue of the most imperfect\nChristian life. The Christian man who has in his experience to-day\nthe faintest and most interrupted operation of the spirit of life in\nChrist Jesus has therein a pledge of immortality, because nothing\nshort of an endless life of progressive and growing purity will be\nadequate to receive and exemplify the power which can never terminate\nuntil it is made like Him and perfectly seeing Him as He is.\n\nBut that unveiling further guarantees the possession of fully\nadequate means of expression. The limitations and imperfections of\nour present bodily life will all drop away in putting on 'the body of\nglory' which shall be ours. The new tongue will perfectly utter the\nnew knowledge and rapture of the new life; new hands will perfectly\nrealise our ideals; and on every forehead will be stamped Christ's\nnew name.\n\nThat unveiling will be further realised by a divine act indicating\nthe characters of the sons of God by their position. Earth's\njudgments will be reversed by that divine voice, and the great\npromise, which through weary ages has shone as a far-off star,--'I\nwill set him on high because he hath known my name'--will then be\nknown for the sun near at hand. Many names loudly blown through the\nworld's trumpet will fall silent then. Many stars will be quenched,\nbut 'they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the\nfirmament.'\n\nThat revelation will be more surprising to no one than to those who\nare its subjects, when they see themselves mirrored in that glass,\nand so unlike what they are here. Their first impulse will be to\nwonder at the form they see, and to ask, almost with incredulity,\n'Lord, is it I?' Nor will the wonder be less when they recognise many\nwhom they knew not. The surprises when the family of God is gathered\ntogether at last will be great. The Israel of Captivity lifts up her\nwondering eyes as she sees the multitudes flocking to her side as the\ndoves to their windows, and, half-ashamed of her own narrow vision,\nexclaims, 'I was left alone; these, where had they been?' Let us\nrejoice that in the day when the sons of God are revealed, many\nhidden ones from many dark corners will sit at the Father's table.\nThat revelation will be made to the whole universe; we know not how,\nbut we know that it shall be; and, as the text tells us, that\nrevelation of the sons of God is the hope for which 'the earnest\nexpectation of the creature waits' through the weary ages.\n\n\n\n\nTHE REDEMPTION OF THE BODY\n\n   'The adoption, to wit, the redemption of our\n   body.'--ROMANS viii. 23.\n\n\nIn a previous verse Paul has said that all true Christians have\nreceived 'the Spirit of adoption.' They become sons of God through\nChrist the Son. They receive a new spiritual and divine life from God\nthrough Christ, and that life is like its source. In so far as that\nnew life vitalises and dominates their nature, believers have\nreceived 'the Spirit of adoption,' and by it they cry 'Abba, Father.'\nBut the body still remains a source of weakness, the seat of sin. It\nis sluggish and inapt for high purposes; it still remains subject to\n'the law of sin and death'; and so is not like the Father who\nbreathed into it the breath of life. It remains in bondage, and has\nnot yet received the adoption. This text, in harmony with the\nApostle's whole teaching, looks forward to a change in the body and\nin its relations to the renewed spirit, as the crown and climax of\nthe work of redemption, and declares that till that change is\neffected, the condition of Christian men is imperfect, and is a\nwaiting, and often a groaning.\n\nIn dealing with some of the thoughts that arise from this text, we\nnote--\n\nI. That a future bodily life is needed in order to give definiteness\nand solidity to the conception of immortality.\n\nBefore the Gospel came men's belief in a future life was vague and\npowerless, mainly because it had no Gospel of the Resurrection, and\nso nothing tangible to lay hold on. The Gospel has made the belief in\na future state infinitely easier and more powerful, mainly because of\nthe emphasis with which it has proclaimed an actual resurrection and\na future bodily life. Its great proof of immortality is drawn, not\nmerely from ethical considerations of the manifest futility of\nearthly life which has no sequel beyond the grave, nor from the\nintuitions and longings of men's souls, but from the historical fact\nof the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and of His Ascension in bodily\nform into heaven. It proclaims these two facts as parts of His\nexperience, and asserts that when He rose from the dead and ascended\nup on high, He did so as 'the first-born among many brethren,' their\nforerunner and their pattern. It is this which gives the Gospel its\npower, and thus transforms a vague and shadowy conception of\nimmortality into a solid faith, for which we have already an\nhistorical guarantee. Stupendous mysteries still veil the nature of\nthe resurrection process, though these are exaggerated into\ninconceivabilities by false notions of what constitutes personal\nidentity; but if the choice lies between accepting the Christian\ndoctrine of a resurrection and the conception of a finite spirit\ndisembodied and yet active, there can be no doubt as to which of\nthese two is the more reasonable and thinkable. Body, soul, and\nspirit make the complete triune man.\n\nThe thought of the future life as a bodily life satisfies the\nlongings of the heart. Much natural shrinking from death comes from\nunwillingness to part company with an old companion and friend. As\nPaul puts it in 2nd Corinthians, 'Not for that we would be unclothed,\nbut clothed upon.' All thoughts of the future which do not give\nprominence to the idea of a bodily life open up but a ghastly and\nuninviting mode of existence, which cannot but repel those who are\naccustomed to the fellowship of their bodies, and they feel that they\ncannot think of themselves as deprived of that which was their\nservant and instrument, through all the years of their earthly\nconsciousness.\n\nII. 'The body that shall be' is an emancipated body.\n\nThe varied gifts of the Spirit bestowed upon the Christian Church\nserved to quicken the hope of the yet greater gifts of that\nindwelling Spirit which were yet to come. Chief amongst these our\ntext considers the transformation of the earthly into a spiritual\nbody. This transformation our text regards as being the participation\nby the body in the redemption by which Christ has bought us with the\ngreat price of His blood. We have to interpret the language here in\nthe light of the further teaching of Paul in the great Resurrection\nchapter of 1st Corinthians, which distinctly lays stress, not on the\nidentity of the corporeal frame which is laid in the grave with 'the\nbody of glory,' but upon the entire contrast between the 'natural\nbody,' which is fit organ for the lower nature, and is informed by\nit, and the 'spiritual body,' which is fit organ for the spirit. We\nhave to interpret 'the resurrection of the body' by the definite\napostolic declaration, 'Thou sowest not that body that shall be...\nbut God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him'; and we have to give\nfull weight to the contrasts which the Apostle draws between the\ncharacteristics of that which is 'sown' and of that which is\n'raised.' The one is 'sown in corruption and raised in incorruption.'\nNatural decay is contrasted with immortal youth. The one is 'sown in\ndishonour,' the other is 'raised in glory.' That contrast is ethical,\nand refers either to the subordinate position of the body here in\nrelation to the spirit, or to the natural sense of shame, or to the\nideas of degradation which are attached to the indulgence of the\nappetites. The one is 'sown in weakness,' the other is 'raised in\npower'; the one is 'sown a natural body,' the other is 'raised a\nspiritual body.' Is not Paul in this whole series of contrasts\nthinking primarily of the vision which he saw on the road to Damascus\nwhen the risen Christ appeared before him? And had not the years\nwhich had passed since then taught him to see in the ascended Christ\nthe prophecy and the pattern of what His servants should become? We\nhave further to keep in view Paul's other representation in 2nd\nCorinthians v., where he strongly puts the contrast between the\ncorporeal environment of earth and 'the body of glory,' which belongs\nto the future life, in his two images: 'the earthly house of this\ntabernacle'--a clay hut which lasts but for a time,--and 'the\nbuilding of God, the house not made with hands and eternal.' The body\nis an occasion of separation from the Lord.\n\nThese considerations may well lead us to, at least, general outlines\non which a confident and peaceful hope may fix. For example, they\nlead us to the thought that that redeemed body is no more subject to\ndecay and death, is no more weighed upon by weakness and weariness,\nhas no work beyond its strength, needs no sustenance by food, and no\nrefreshment of sleep. 'The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne\nshall feed them,' suggests strength constantly communicated by a\ndirect divine gift. And from all these negative characteristics there\nfollows that there will be in that future bodily life no epochs of\nage marked by bodily changes. The two young men who were seen sitting\nin the sepulchre of Jesus had lived before Adam, and would seem as\nyoung if we saw them to-day.\n\nSimilarly the redeemed body will be a more perfect instrument for\ncommunication with the external universe. We know that the present\nbody conditions our knowledge, and that our senses do not take\ncognisance of all the qualities of material things. Microscopes and\ntelescopes have enlarged our field of vision, and have brought the\ninfinitely small and the infinitely distant within our range. Our ear\nhears vibrations at a certain rate per second, and no doubt if it\nwere more delicately organised we could hear sounds where now is\nsilence. Sometimes the creatures whom we call 'inferior' seem to have\nsenses that apprehend much of which we are not aware. Balaam's ass\nsaw the obstructing angel before Balaam did. Nor is there any reason\nto suppose that all the powers of the mind find tools to work with in\nthe body. It is possible that that body which is the fit instrument\nof the spirit may become its means of knowing more deeply, thinking\nmore wisely, understanding more swiftly, comprehending more widely,\nremembering more firmly and judging more soundly. It is possible that\nthe contrast between then and now may be like the contrast between\ntelegraph and slow messenger in regard to the rapidity, between\nphotograph and poor daub in regard to the truthfulness, between a\nfull-orbed circle and a fragmentary arc in regard to the completeness\nof the messages which the body brings to the indwelling self.\n\nBut, once more, the body unredeemed has appetites and desires which\nmay lead to their own satisfaction, which do lead to sordid cares and\nweary toil. 'The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit\nagainst the flesh.' The redeemed body will have in it nothing to\ntempt and nothing to clog, but will be a helper to the spirit and a\nsource of strength. Glorious work of God as the body is, it has its\nweaknesses, its limitations, and its tendencies to evil. We must not\nbe tempted into brooding over unanswered questions as to 'How do the\ndead rise, and with what body do they come?' But we can lift our eyes\nto the mountain-top where Jesus went up to pray. 'And as He prayed\nthe fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment became\nwhite and dazzling'; and He was capable of entering into the Shekinah\ncloud and holding fellowship therein with the Father, who attested\nHis Sonship and bade us listen to His voice. And we can look to\nOlivet and follow the ascending Jesus as He lets His benediction drop\non the upturned faces of His friends, until He again passes into the\nShekinah cloud, and leaving the world, goes to the Father. And from\nboth His momentary transfiguration and His permanent Ascension we can\ndraw the certain assurance that 'He shall fashion anew the body of\nour humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory,\naccording to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things\nunto Himself.'\n\nIII. The redeemed body is a consequence of Christ's indwelling\nSpirit.\n\nIt is no natural result of death or resurrection, but is the outcome\nof the process begun on earth, by which, 'through faith and the\nrighteousness of faith,' the spirit is life. The context distinctly\nenforces this view by its double use of 'adoption,' which in one\naspect has already been received, and is manifested by the fact that\n'now are we the sons of God,' and in another aspect is still 'waited'\nfor. The Christian man in his regenerated spirit has been born again;\nthe Christian man still waits for the completion of that sonship in a\ntime when the regenerated spirit will no longer dwell in the clay\ncottage of 'this tabernacle,' but will inhabit a congruous dwelling\nin 'the building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.'\n\nScripture is too healthy and comprehensive to be contented with a\nmerely spiritual regeneration, and is withal too spiritual to be\nsatisfied with a merely material heaven. It gives full place to both\nelements, and yet decisively puts all belonging to the latter second.\nIt lays down the laws that for a complete humanity there must be body\nas well as spirit; that there must be a correspondence between the\ntwo, and as is the spirit so must the body be, and further, that the\nprocess must begin at the centre and work outwards, so that the\nspirit must first be transformed, and then the body must be\nparticipant of the transformation.\n\nAll that Scripture says about 'rising in glory' is said about\nbelievers. It is represented as a spiritual process. They who have\nthe Spirit of God in their spirits because they have it receive the\nglorified body which is like their Saviour's. It is not enough to die\nin order to 'rise glorious.' 'If the Spirit of Him that raised up\nJesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the\ndead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that\ndwelleth in you.' The resurrection is promised for all mankind, but\nit may be a resurrection in which there shall be endless living and\nno glory, nor any beauty and no blessedness. But the body may be\n'sown in weakness,' and in weakness raised; it may be 'sown in\ndishonour' and in dishonour raised; it may be sown dead, and raised a\nliving death. 'Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall\nawake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting\ncontempt.' Does that mean nothing? 'They that have done evil to the\nresurrection of condemnation.' Does that mean nothing? There are dark\nmysteries in these and similar words of Scripture which should make\nus all pause and solemnly reflect. The sole way which leads to the\nresurrection of glory is the way of faith in Jesus Christ. If we\nyield ourselves to Him, He will plant His Spirit in our spirits, will\nguide and growingly sanctify us through life, will deliver us by the\nindwelling of the Spirit of life in Him from the law of sin and\ndeath. Nor will His transforming power cease till it has pervaded our\nwhole being with its fiery energy, and we stand at the last men like\nChrist, redeemed in body, soul, and spirit, 'according to the mighty\nworking whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE INTERCEDING SPIRIT\n\n   'The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with\n   groanings which cannot be uttered.'--ROMANS viii. 26.\n\n\nPentecost was a transitory sign of a perpetual gift. The tongues of\nfire and the rushing mighty wind, which were at first the most\nconspicuous results of the gifts of the Spirit, tongues, and\nprophecies, and gifts of healing, which were to the early Church\nitself and to onlookers palpable demonstrations of an indwelling\npower, were little more lasting than the fire and the wind. Does\nanything remain? This whole great chapter is Paul's triumphant answer\nto such a question. The Spirit of God dwells in every believer as the\nsource of his true life, is for him 'the Spirit of adoption' and\nwitnesses with his spirit that he is a child of God, and a joint-heir\nwith Christ. Not only does that Spirit co-operate with the human\nspirit in this witness-bearing, but the verse, of which our text is a\npart, points to another form of co-operation: for the word rendered\nin the earlier part of the verse 'helpeth' in the original suggests\nmore distinctly that the Spirit of God in His intercession for us\nworks in association with us.\n\nFirst, then--\n\nI. The Spirit's intercession is not carried on apart from us.\n\nMuch modern hymnology goes wrong in this point, that it represents\nthe Spirit's intercession as presented in heaven rather than as\ntaking place within the personal being of the believer. There is a\nbroad distinction carefully observed throughout Scripture between the\nrepresentations of the work of Christ and that of the Spirit of\nChrist. The former in its character and revelation and attainment was\nwrought upon earth, and in its character of intercession and\nbestowment of blessings is discharged at the right hand of God in\nheaven; the whole of the Spirit's work, on the other hand, is wrought\nin human spirits here. The context speaks of intercession expressed\nin 'groanings which cannot be uttered,' and which, unexpressed though\nthey are, are fully understood 'by Him who searches the heart.'\nPlainly, therefore, these groanings come from human hearts, and as\nplainly are the Divine Spirit's voicing them.\n\nII. The Spirit's intercession in our spirits consists in our own\ndivinely-inspired longings.\n\nThe Apostle has just been speaking of another groaning within\nourselves, which is the expression of 'the earnest expectation' of\n'the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body'; and he says that\nthat longing will be the more patient the more it is full of hope.\nThis, then, is Paul's conception of the normal attitude of a\nChristian soul; but that attitude is hard to keep up in one's own\nstrength, because of the distractions of time and sense which are\never tending to disturb the continuity and fixity of that onward\nlook, and to lead us rather to be satisfied with the gross, dull\npresent. That redemption of the body, with all which it implies and\nincludes, ought to be the supreme object to which each Christian\nheart should ever be turning, and Christian prayers should be\ndirected. But our own daily experience makes us only too sure that\nsuch elevation above, and remoteness from earthly thoughts, with all\ntheir pettinesses and limitations, is impossible for us in our own\nstrength. As Paul puts it here, 'We know not what to pray for'; nor\ncan we fix and focus our desires, nor present them 'as we ought.' It\nis to this weakness and incompleteness of our desires and prayers\nthat the help of the Spirit is directed. He strengthens our longings\nby His own direct operation. The more vivid our anticipations and the\nmore steadfast our hopes, and the more our spirits reach out to that\nfuture redemption, the more are we bound to discern something more\nthan human imaginings in them, and to be sure that such visions are\ntoo good not to be true, too solid to be only the play of our own\nfancy. The more we are conscious of these experiences as our own, the\nmore certain we shall be that in them it is not we that speak, but\n'the Spirit of the Father that speaketh in us.'\n\nIII. These divinely-inspired longings are incapable of full\nexpression.\n\nThey are shallow feelings that can be spoken. Language breaks down in\nthe attempt to express our deepest emotions and our truest love. For\nall the deepest things in man, inarticulate utterance is the most\nself-revealing. Grief can say more in a sob and a tear than in many\nweak words; love finds its tongue in the light of an eye and the\nclasp of a hand. The groanings which rise from the depths of the\nChristian soul cannot be forced into the narrow frame-work of human\nlanguage; and just because they are unutterable are to be recognised\nas the voice of the Holy Spirit.\n\nBut where amidst the Christian experience of to-day shall we find\nanything in the least like these unutterable longings after the\nredemption of the body which Paul here takes it for granted are\nthe experience of all Christians? There is no more startling\ncondemnation of the average Christianity of our times than the calm\ncertainty with which through all this epistle the Apostle takes it\nfor granted that the experience of the Roman Christians will\nuniversally endorse his statements. Look for a moment at what these\nstatements are. Listen to the briefest summary of them: 'We cry,\nAbba, Father'; 'We are children of God'; 'We suffer with Him that we\nmay be glorified with Him'; 'Glory shall be revealed to usward'; 'We\nhave the first-fruits of the Spirit'; 'We ourselves groan within\nourselves'; 'By hope were we saved'; 'We hope for that which we see\nnot'; 'Then do we with patience wait for it'; 'We know that to them\nthat love God all things work together for good'; 'In all these\nthings we are more than conquerors'; 'Neither death nor life... nor\nany other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of\nGod.' He believed that in these rapturous and triumphant words he was\ngathering together the experience of every Roman Christian, and would\nevoke from their lips a confident 'Amen.' Where are the communities\nto-day in whose hearing these words could be reiterated with the like\nassurance? How few among us there are who know anything of these\n'groanings which cannot be uttered!' How few among us there are whose\nspirits are stretching out eager desires towards the land of\nperpetual summer, like migratory birds in northern latitudes when the\nautumn days are shortening and the temperature is falling!\n\nBut, however we must feel that our poor experience falls far short of\nthe ideal in our text, an ideal which was to some extent realised in\nthe early Christian Church, we must beware of taking the\nimperfections of our experience as any evidence of the unreality of\nour Christianity. They are a proof that we have limited and impeded\nthe operation of the Spirit within us. They teach us that He will not\nintercede 'with groanings which cannot be uttered' unless we let Him\nspeak through our voices. Therefore, if we find that in our own\nconsciousness there is little to correspond to those unuttered\ngroanings, we should take the warning: 'Quench not the Spirit.'\n'Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God in whom ye were sealed unto the\nday of redemption.'\n\nIV. The unuttered longings are sure to be answered.\n\nHe that searcheth the heart knows the meaning of the Spirit's\nunspoken prayers; and looking into the depths of the human spirit\ninterprets its longings, discriminating between the mere human and\npartial expression and the divinely-inspired desire which may be\nunexpressed. If our prayers are weak, they are answered in the\nmeasure in which they embody in them, though perhaps mistaken by us,\na divine longing. Apparent disappointment of our petitions may be\nreal answers to our real prayer. It was because Jesus loved Mary and\nMartha and Lazarus that He abode still in the same place where He\nwas, to let Lazarus die that He might be raised again. That was the\ntrue answer to the sisters' hope of His immediate coming. God's way\nof giving to us is to breathe within us a desire, and then to answer\nthe desire inbreathed. So, longing is the prophecy of fulfilment when\nit is longing according to the will of God. They who 'hunger and\nthirst after righteousness' may ever be sure that their bread shall\nbe given them, and their water will be made sure. The true object of\nour desires is often not clear to us, and so we err in translating it\ninto words. Let us be thankful that we pray to a God who can discern\nthe prayer within the prayer, and often gives the substance of our\npetitions in the very act of refusing their form.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GIFT THAT BRINGS ALL GIFTS\n\n   'He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up\n   for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give\n   us all things?'--ROMANS viii. 32.\n\n\nWe have here an allusion to, if not a distinct quotation from, the\nnarrative in Genesis, of Abraham's offering up of Isaac. The same\nword which is employed in the Septuagint version of the Old\nTestament, to translate the Hebrew word rendered in our Bible as\n'withheld,' is employed here by the Apostle. And there is evidently\nfloating before his mind the thought that, in some profound and real\nsense, there is an analogy between that wondrous and faithful act of\ngiving up and the transcendent and stupendous gift to the world, from\nGod, of His Son.\n\nIf we take that point of view, the language of my text rises into\nsingular force, and suggests many very deep thoughts, about which,\nperhaps, silence is best. But led by that analogy, let us deal with\nthese words.\n\nI. Consider this mysterious act of divine surrender.\n\nThe analogy seems to suggest to us, strange as it may be, and remote\nfrom the cold and abstract ideas of the divine nature which it is\nthought to be philosophical to cherish, that something corresponding\nto the pain and loss that shadowed the patriarch's heart flitted\nacross the divine mind when the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour\nof the world. Not merely to give, but to give up, is the highest\ncrown and glory of love, as we know it. And who shall venture to say\nthat we so fully apprehend the divine nature as to be warranted in\ndeclaring that some analogy to that is impossible for Him? Our\nlanguage is, 'I will not offer unto God that which doth cost me\nnothing.' Let us bow in silence before the dim intimation that seems\nto flicker out of the words of my text, that so He says to us, 'I\nwill not offer unto you that which doth cost Me nothing.' 'He\n_spared_ not His own Son'; withheld Him not from us.\n\nBut passing from that which, I dare say, many of you may suppose to\nbe fanciful and unwarranted, let us come upon the surer ground of the\nother words of my text. And notice how the reality of the surrender\nis emphasised by the closeness of the bond which, in the mysterious\neternity, knits together the Father and the Son. As with Abraham, so\nin this lofty example, of which Abraham and Isaac were but as dim,\nwavering reflections in water, the Son is His own Son. It seems to me\nimpossible, upon any fair interpretation of the words before us, to\nrefrain from giving to that epithet here its very highest and most\nmysterious sense. It cannot be any mere equivalent for Messiah, it\ncannot merely mean a man who was like God in purity of nature and in\ncloseness of communion. For the force of the analogy and the emphasis\nof that word which is even more emphatic in the Greek than in the\nEnglish 'His _own_ Son,' point to a community of nature, to a\nuniqueness and singleness of relation, to a closeness of intimacy, to\nwhich no other is a parallel. And so we have to estimate the measure\nof the surrender by the tenderness and awfulness of the bond. 'Having\none Son, His well-beloved, He sent Him.'\n\nNotice, again, how the greatness of the surrender is made more\nemphatic by the contemplation of it in its double negative and\npositive aspect, in the two successive clauses. 'He spared not His\nSon, but delivered Him up,' an absolute, positive giving of Him over\nto the humiliation of the life and to the mystery of the death.\n\nAnd notice how the tenderness and the beneficence that were the sole\nmotive of the surrender are lifted into light in the last words, 'for\nus all.' The single, sole reason that bowed, if I may so say, the\ndivine purpose, and determined the mysterious act, was a pure desire\nfor our blessing. No definition is given as to the manner in which\nthat surrender wrought for our good. The Apostle does not need to\ndwell upon that. His purpose is to emphasise the entire\nunselfishness, the utter simplicity of the motive which moved the\ndivine will. One great throb of love to the whole of humanity led to\nthat transcendent surrender, before which we can only bow and say,\n'Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.'\n\nAnd now, notice how this mysterious act is grasped by the Apostle\nhere as what I may call the illuminating fact as to the whole divine\nnature. From it, and from it alone, there falls a blaze of light on\nthe deepest things in God. We are accustomed to speak of Christ's\nperfect life of unselfishness, and His death of pure beneficence, as\nbeing the great manifestation to us all that in His heart there is an\ninfinite fountain of love to us. We are, further, accustomed to speak\nof Christ's mission and death as being the revelation to us of the\nlove of God as well as of the Man Christ Jesus, because we believe\nthat 'God was in Christ reconciling the world,' and that He has so\nmanifested and revealed the very nature of divinity to us, in His\nlife and in His person, that, as He Himself says, 'He that hath seen\nMe hath seen the Father.' And every conclusion that we draw as to the\nlove of Christ is, _ipso facto_, a conclusion as to the love of God.\nBut my text looks at the matter from rather a different point of view,\nand bids us see, in Christ's mission and sacrifice, the great\ndemonstration of the love of God, not only because 'God was in\nChrist,' but because the Father's will, conceived of as distinct\nfrom, and yet harmonious with, the will of the Son, gives Him up for\nus. And we have to say, not only that we see the love of God in the\nlove of Christ, but 'God so loved the world that He sent His only\nbegotten Son' that we might have life through Him.\n\nThese various phases of the love of Christ as manifesting the divine\nlove, may not be capable of perfect harmonising in our thoughts, but\nthey do blend into one, and by reason of them all, 'God commendeth\nHis love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for\nus.' We have to think not only of Abraham who gave up, but of the\nunresisting, innocent Isaac, bearing on his shoulders the wood for\nthe burnt offering, as the Christ bore the Cross on His, and\nsuffering himself to be bound upon the pile, not only by the cords\nthat tied his limbs, but by the cords of obedience and submission,\nand in both we have to bow before the Apocalypse of divine love.\n\nII. So, secondly, look at the power of this divine surrender to bring\nwith it all other gifts.\n\n'How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?' The\nApostle's triumphant question requires for its affirmative answer\nonly the belief in the unchangeableness of the Divine heart, and the\nuniformity of the Divine purpose. And if these be recognised, their\nconclusion inevitably follows. 'With Him He will freely give us all\nthings.'\n\nIt is so, because the greater gift implies the less. We do not expect\nthat a man who hands over a million of pounds to another, to help\nhim, will stick at a farthing afterwards. If you give a diamond you\nmay well give a box to keep it in. In God's gift the lesser will\nfollow the lead of the greater; and whatsoever a man can want, it is\na smaller thing for Him to bestow, than was the gift of His Son.\n\nThere is a beautiful contrast between the manners of giving the two\nsets of gifts implied in words of the original, perhaps scarcely\ncapable of being reproduced in any translation. The expression that\nis rendered 'freely give,' implies that there is a grace and a\npleasantness in the act of bestowal. God gave in Christ, what we may\nreverently say it was something like pain to give. Will He not give\nthe lesser, whatever they may be, which it is the joy of His heart to\ncommunicate? The greater implies the less.\n\nFarther, this one great gift draws all other gifts after it, because\nthe purpose of the greater gift cannot be attained without the\nbestowment of the lesser. He does not begin to build being unable to\nfinish; He does not miscalculate His resources, nor stultify Himself\nby commencing upon a large scale, and having to stop short before the\npurpose with which He began is accomplished. Men build great palaces,\nand are bankrupt before the roof is put on. God lays His plans with\nthe knowledge of His powers, and having first of all bestowed this\nlarge gift, is not going to have it bestowed in vain for want of some\nsmaller ones to follow it up. Christ puts the same argument to us,\nbeginning only at the other end of the process. Paul says, 'God has\nlaid the foundation in Christ.' Do you think He will stop before the\nheadstone is put on? Christ said, 'It is your Father's good pleasure\nto give you the Kingdom.' Do you think He will not give you bread and\nwater on the road to it? Will He send out His soldiers half-equipped;\nwill it be found when they are on their march that they have been\nstarted with a defective commissariat, and with insufficient\ntrenching tools? Shall the children of the King, on the road to their\nthrones, be left to scramble along anyhow, in want of what they need\nto get there? That is not God's way of doing. He that hath begun a\ngood work will also perfect the same, and when He gave to you and me\nHis Son, He bound Himself to give us every subsidiary and secondary\nblessing which was needed to make that Son's work complete in each of\nus.\n\nAgain, this great blessing draws after it, by necessary consequence,\nall other lesser and secondary gifts, inasmuch as, in every real\nsense, everything is included and possessed in the Christ when we\nreceive Him. 'With Him,' says Paul, as if that gift once laid\nin a man's heart actually enclosed within it, and had for its\nindispensable accompaniment the possession of every smaller thing\nthat a man can need, Jesus Christ is, as it were, a great Cornucopia,\na horn of abundance, out of which will pour, with magic affluence,\nall manner of supplies according as we require. This fountain flows\nwith milk, wine, and water, as men need. Everything is given us when\nChrist is given to us, because Christ is the Heir of all things, and\nwe possess all things in Him; as some poor village maiden married to\na prince in disguise, who, on the morrow of her wedding finds that\nshe is lady of broad lands, and mistress of a kingdom. 'He that\nspared not His own Son,' not only 'with Him will give,' but in Him\nhas 'given us all things.'\n\nAnd so, brethren, just as that great gift is the illuminating fact in\nreference to the divine heart, so is it the interpreting fact in\nreference to the divine dealings. Only when we keep firm hold of\nChrist as the gift of God, and the Explainer of all that God does,\ncan we face the darkness, the perplexities, the torturing questions\nthat from the beginning have harassed men's minds as they looked upon\nthe mysteries of human misery. If we recognise that God has given us\nHis Son, then all things become, if not plain, at least lighted with\nsome gleam from that great gift; and we feel that the surrender of\nChrist is the constraining fact which shapes after its own likeness,\nand for its own purpose, all the rest of God's dealings with men.\nThat gift makes anything believable, reasonable, possible, rather\nthan that He should spare not His own Son, and then should\ncounterwork His own act by sending the world anything but good.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, take one or two practical issues\nfrom these thoughts, in reference to our own belief and conduct.\n\nFirst, I would say, Let us correct our estimates of the relative\nimportance of the two sets of gifts. On the one side stands the\nsolitary Christ; on the other side are massed all delights of sense,\nall blessings of time, all the things that the vulgar estimation of\nmen unanimously recognises to be good. These are only makeweights.\nThey are all lumped together into an 'also.' They are but the golden\ndust that may be filed off from the great ingot and solid block. They\nare but the outward tokens of His far deeper and true preciousness.\nThey are secondary; He is the primary. What an inversion of our\nnotions of good! Do _you_ degrade all the world's wealth,\npleasantness, ease, prosperity, into an 'also?' Are you content to\nput it in the secondary place, as a result, if it please Him, of\nChrist? Do you live as if you did? Which do you hunger for most?\nWhich do you labour for hardest? 'Seek ye first the Kingdom and the\nKing, and all 'these things shall be added unto you.'\n\nLet these thoughts teach us that sorrow too is one of the gifts of\nthe Christ. The words of my text, at first sight, might seem to be\nsimply a promise of abundant earthly good. But look what lies close\nbeside them, and is even part of the same triumphant burst. 'Shall\ntribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or\nperil, or sword?' These are some of the 'all things' which Paul\nexpected that God would give him and his brethren. And looking upon\nall, he says, 'They all work together for good'; and in them all we\nmay be more than conquerors. It would be a poor, shabby issue of such\na great gift as that of which we have been speaking, if it were only\nto be followed by the sweetnesses and prosperity and wealth of this\nworld. But here is the point that we have to keep hold of--inasmuch\nas He gives us all things, let us take all the things that come to us\nas being as distinctly the gifts of His love, as is the gift of\nChrist Himself. A wise physician, to an ignorant onlooker, might seem\nto be acting in contradictory fashions when in the one moment he\nslashes into a limb, with a sharp, gleaming knife, and in the next\nsedulously binds the wounds, and closes the arteries, but the purpose\nof both acts is one.\n\nThe diurnal revolution of the earth brings the joyful sunrise and the\npathetic sunset. The same annual revolution whirls us through the\nbalmy summer days and the biting winter ones. God's purpose is one.\nHis methods vary. The road goes straight to its goal; but it\nsometimes runs in tunnels dank and dark and stifling, and sometimes\nby sunny glades and through green pastures. God's purpose is always\nlove, brother. His withdrawals are gifts, and sorrow is not the least\nof the benefits which come to us through the Man of Sorrows.\n\nSo again, let these thoughts teach us to live by a very quiet and\npeaceful faith. We find it a great deal easier to trust God for\nHeaven than for earth--for the distant blessings than for the near\nones. Many a man will venture his soul into God's hands, who would\nhesitate to venture to-morrow's food there. Why? Is it not because we\ndo not really trust Him for the greater that we find it so hard to\ntrust Him for the less? Is it not because we want the less more\nreally than we want the greater, that we can put ourselves off with\nfaith for the one, and want something more solid to grasp for the\nother? Live in the calm confidence that God gives all things; and\ngives us for to-morrow as for eternity; for earth as for heaven.\n\nAnd, last of all, make you quite sure that you have taken _the_\ngreat gift of God. He gives it to all the world, but they only have\nit who accept it by faith. Have you, my brother? I look out upon the\nlives of the mass of professing Christians; and this question weighs\non my heart, judging by conduct--have they really got Christ for\ntheir own? 'Wherefore do ye spend your money for that which is not\nbread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not?' Look how you\nare all fighting and scrambling, and sweating and fretting, to get\nhold of the goods of this present life, and here is a gift gleaming\nbefore you all the while that you will not condescend to take. Like a\nman standing in a market-place offering sovereigns for nothing, which\nnobody accepts because they think the offer is too good to be true,\nso God complains and wails: I have stretched out My hands all the\nday, laden with gifts, and no man regarded.\n\n  'It is only heaven may be had for the asking;\n  It is only God that is given away.'\n\nHe gives His Son. Take Him by humble faith in His sacrifice and\nSpirit; take Him, and with Him He freely gives you all things.\n\n\n\n\nMORE THAN CONQUERORS\n\n   'Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors\n   through Him that loved us.'--ROMANS viii. 37.\n\n\nIn order to understand and feel the full force of this triumphant\nsaying of the Apostle, we must observe that it is a negative answer\nto the preceding questions, 'Who shall separate us from the love of\nChrist? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or\nnakedness, or peril, or sword?' A heterogeneous mass the Apostle here\nbrigades together as an antagonistic army. They are alike in nothing\nexcept that they are all evils. There is no attempt at an exhaustive\nenumeration, or at classification. He clashes down, as it were, a\nmiscellaneous mass of evil things, and then triumphs over them, and\nall the genus to which they belong, as being utterly impotent to drag\nmen away from Jesus Christ. To ask the question is to answer it, but\nthe form of the answer is worth notice. Instead of directly replying,\n'No! no such powerless things as these can separate us from the love\nof Christ,' he says, 'No! In all these things, whilst weltering\namongst them, whilst ringed round about by them, as by encircling\nenemies, \"we are more than conquerors.\"' Thereby, he suggests that\nthere is something needing to be done by us, in order that the foes\nmay not exercise their natural effect. And so, taking the words of my\ntext in connection with that to which they are an answer, we have\nthree things--the impotent enemies of love; the abundant victory of\nlove; 'We are more than conquerors'; and the love that makes us\nvictorious. Let us look then at these three things briefly.\n\nI. First of all, the impotent enemies of love.\n\nThere is contempt in the careless massing together of the foes which\nthe Apostle enumerates. He begins with the widest word that covers\neverything--'affliction.' Then he specifies various forms of\nit--'distress,' _straitening_, as the word might be rendered,\nthen he comes to evils inflicted for Christ's sake by hostile\nmen--'persecution,' then he names purely physical evils, 'hunger' and\n'nakedness,' then he harks back again to man's antagonism, 'peril,'\nand 'sword.' And thus carelessly, and without an effort at logical\norder, he throws together, as specimens of their class, these salient\npoints, as it were, and crests of the great sea, whose billows\nthreaten to roll over us; and he laughs at them all, as impotent and\nnought, when compared with the love of Christ, which shields us from\nthem all.\n\nNow it must be noticed that here, in his triumphant question, the\nApostle means not our love to Christ but His to us; and not even our\nsense of that love, but the fact itself. And his question is just\nthis:--Is there any evil in the world that can make Christ stop\nloving a man that cleaves to Him? And, as I said, to ask the question\nis to answer it. The two things belong to two different regions. They\nhave nothing in common. The one moves amongst the low levels of\nearth; the other dwells up amidst the abysses of eternity, and to\nsuppose that anything that assails and afflicts us here has any\neffect in making that great heart cease to love us is to fancy that\nthe mists can quench the sunlight, is to suppose that that which lies\ndown low in the earth can rise to poison and to darken the heavens.\n\nThere is no need, in order to rise to the full height of the\nChristian contempt for calamity, to deny any of its terrible power.\nThese things can separate us from much. They can separate us from\njoy, from hope, from almost all that makes life desirable. They can\nstrip us to the very quick, but the quick they cannot touch. The\nfrost comes and kills the flowers, browns the leaves, cuts off the\nstems, binds the sweet music of the flowing rivers in silent chains,\ncasts mists and darkness over the face of the solitary grey world,\nbut it does not touch the life that is in the root.\n\nAnd so all these outward sorrows that have power over the whole of\nthe outward life, and can slay joy and all but stifle hope, and can\nban men into irrevocable darkness and unalleviated solitude, they do\nnot touch in the smallest degree the secret bond that binds the heart\nto Jesus, nor in any measure affect the flow of His love to us.\nTherefore we may front them and smile at them and say:\n\n  'Do as thou wilt, devouring time,\n  With this wide world, and all its fading sweets';\n\n'my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart,\nand my portion for ever.'\n\nYou need not be very much afraid of anything being taken from you as\nlong as Christ is left you. You will not be altogether hopeless so\nlong as Christ, who is our hope, still speaks His faithful promises\nto you, nor will the world be lonely and dark to them who feel that\nthey are lapt in the sweet and all-pervading consciousness of the\nchangeless love of the heart of Christ. 'Shall tribulation, or\ndistress, or persecution?'--in any of these things, 'we are more than\nconquerors through Him that loved us.' Brethren, that is the\nChristian way of looking at all externals, not only at the dark and\nthe sorrowful, but at the bright and the gladsome. If the withdrawal\nof external blessings does not touch the central sanctities and\nsweetness of a life in communion with Jesus, the bestowal of external\nblessedness does not much brighten or gladden it. We can face the\nwithdrawal of them all, we need not covet the possession of them all,\nfor we have all in Christ; and the world without His love contributes\nless to our blessedness and our peace than the absence of all its\njoys with His love does. So let us feel that earth, in its givings\nand in its withholdings, is equally impotent to touch the one thing\nthat we need, the conscious possession of the love of Christ.\n\nAll these foes, as I have said, have no power over the fact of\nChrist's love to us, but they have power, and a very terrible power,\nover our consciousness of that love; and we may so kick against the\npricks as to lose, in the pain of our sorrows, the assurance of His\npresence, or be so fascinated by the false and vulgar sweetnesses and\npromises of the world as, in the eagerness of our chase after them,\nto lose our sense of the all-sufficing certitude of His love.\nTribulation does not strip us of His love, but tribulation may so\ndarken our perceptions that we cannot see the sun. Joys need not rob\nus of His heart, but joys may so fill ours, as that there shall be no\nlonging for His presence within us. Therefore let us not exaggerate\nthe impotence of these foes, but feel that there are real dangers, as\nin the sorrows so in the blessings of our outward life, and that the\nevil to be dreaded is that outward things, whether in their bright or\nin their dark aspects, may come between us and the home of our\nhearts, the love of the loving Christ.\n\nII. So then, note next, the abundant victory of love.\n\nMark how the Apostle, in his lofty and enthusiastic way, is not\ncontent here with simply saying that he and his fellows conquer. It\nwould be a poor thing, he seems to think, if the balance barely\ninclined to our side, if the victory were but just won by a hair's\nbreadth and triumph were snatched, as it were, out of the very jaws\nof defeat. There must be something more than that to correspond to\nthe power of the victorious Christ that is in us. And so, he says, we\nvery abundantly conquer; we not only hinder these things which he has\nbeen enumerating from doing that which it is their aim apparently to\ndo, but we actually convert them into helpers or allies. The '_more_\nthan conquerors' seems to mean, if there is any definite idea to be\nattached to it, the conversion of the enemy conquered into a friend\nand a helper. The American Indians had a superstition that every foe\ntomahawked sent fresh strength into the warrior's arm. And so all\nafflictions and trials rightly borne, and therefore overcome, make a\nman stronger, and bring him nearer to Jesus Christ.\n\nNote then, further, that not only is this victory more than bare\nvictory, being the conversion of the enemy into allies, but that it\nis a victory which is won even whilst we are in the midst of the\nstrife. It is not that we shall be conquerors in some far-off heaven,\nwhen the noise of battle has ceased and they hang the trumpet in the\nhall, but it is here now, in the hand-to-hand and foot-to-foot\ndeath-grapple that we do overcome. No ultimate victory, in some\nfar-off and blessed heaven, will be ours unless moment by moment,\nhere, to-day,' we _are_ more than conquerors through Him that\nloved us.'\n\nSo, then, about this abundant victory there are these things to\nsay:--You conquer the world only, then, when you make it contribute\nto your conscious possession of the love of Christ. That is the real\nvictory, the only real victory in life. Men talk about overcoming\nhere on earth, and they mean thereby the accomplishment of their\ndesigns. A man has 'victory,' as it is phrased, in the world's\nstrife, when he secures for himself the world's goods at which he has\naimed, but that is not the Christian idea of the conquest of\ncalamity. Everything that makes me feel more thrillingly in my\ninmost heart the verity and the sweetness of the love of Jesus Christ\nas my very own, is conquered by me and compelled to subserve my\nhighest good, and everything which slips a film between me and Him,\nwhich obscures the light of His face to me, which makes me less\ndesirous of, and less sure of, and less happy in, and less satisfied\nwith, His love, is an enemy that has conquered me. And all these\nevils as the world calls them, and as our bleeding hearts have often\nfelt them to be, are converted into allies and friends when they\ndrive us to Christ, and keep us close to Him, in the conscious\npossession of His sweet and changeless love. That is the victory, and\nthe only victory. Has the world helped me to lay hold of Christ? Then\nI have conquered it. Has the world loosened my grasp upon Him? Then\nit has conquered me.\n\nNote then, further, that this abundant victory depends on how we deal\nwith the changes of our outward lives, our sorrows or our joys. There\nis nothing, _per se_, salutary in affliction, there is nothing,\n_per se_, antagonistic to Christian faith in it either. No man\nis made better by his sorrows, no man need be made worse by them.\nThat depends upon how we take the things which come storming against\nus. The set of your sails, and the firmness of your grasp upon the\ntiller, determine whether the wind shall carry you to the haven or\nshall blow you out, a wandering waif, upon a shoreless and melancholy\nsea. There are some of you that have been blown away from your\nmoorings by sorrow. There are some professing Christians who have\nbeen hindered in their work, and had their peace and their faith\nshattered all but irrevocably, because they have not accepted, in the\nspirit in which they were sent, the trials that have come for their\ngood. The worst of all afflictions is a wasted affliction, and they\nare all wasted unless they teach us more of the reality and the\nblessedness of the love of Jesus Christ.\n\nIII. Lastly, notice the love which makes us conquerors.\n\nThe Apostle, with a wonderful instinctive sense of fitness, names\nChrist here by a name congruous to the thoughts which occupy his\nmind, when he speaks of Him that loved us. His question has been, Can\nanything separate us from the love of Christ? And his answer is, So\nfar from that being the case, that very love, by occasion of sorrows\nand afflictions, tightens its grasp upon us, and, by the\ncommunication of itself to us, makes us more than conquerors. This\ngreat love of Jesus Christ, from which nothing can separate us, will\nuse the very things that seem to threaten our separation as a means\nof coming nearer to us in its depth and in its preciousness.\n\nThe Apostle says 'Him that loved us,' and the words in the original\ndistinctly point to some one fact as being the great instance of\nlove. That is to say they point to His death. And so we may say\nChrist's love helps us to conquer because in His death He interprets\nfor us all possible sorrows. If it be true that love to each of us\nnailed Him there, then nothing that can come to us but must be a\nlove-token, and a fruit of that same love. The Cross is the key to\nall tribulation, and shows it to be a token and an instrument of an\nunchanging love.\n\nFurther, that great love of Christ helps us to conquer, because in\nHis sufferings and death He becomes the Companion of all the weary.\nThe rough, dark, lonely road changes its look when we see His\nfootprints there, not without specks of blood in them,\nwhere the thorns tore His feet. We conquer our afflictions if we\nrecognise that 'in all our afflictions He was afflicted,' and that\nHimself has drunk to its bitterest dregs the cup which He commends to\nour lips. He has left a kiss upon its margin, and we need not shrink\nwhen He holds it out to us and says 'Drink ye all of it.' That one\nthought of the companionship of the Christ in our sorrows makes us\nmore than conquerors.\n\nAnd lastly, this dying Lover of our souls communicates to us all, if\nwe will, the strength whereby we may coerce all outward things into\nbeing helps to the fuller participation of His perfect love. Our\nsorrows and all the other distracting externals do seek to drag us\naway from Him. Is all that happens in counteraction to that pull of\nthe world, that we tighten our grasp upon Him, and will not let Him\ngo; as some poor wretch might the horns of the altar that did not\nrespond to his grasp? Nay what we lay hold of is no dead thing, but\na living hand, and it grasps us more tightly than we can ever grasp\nit. So because He holds us, and not because we hold Him, we shall\nnot be dragged away, by anything outside of our own weak and wavering\nsouls, and all these embattled foes may come against us, they may\nshear off everything else, they cannot sever Christ from us unless\nwe ourselves throw Him away. 'In this thou shalt conquer.' 'They\novercame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of His testimony.'\n\n\n\n\nLOVE'S TRIUMPH\n\n   'Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,\n   nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor\n   height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able\n   to separate us from the love of God.'--ROMANS viii. 38, 39.\n\n\nThese rapturous words are the climax of the Apostle's long\ndemonstration that the Gospel is the revelation of 'the righteousness\nof God from faith to faith,' and is thereby 'the power of God unto\nsalvation.' What a contrast there is between the beginning and the\nend of his argument! It started with sombre, sad words about man's\nsinfulness and aversion from the knowledge of God. It closes with\nthis sunny outburst of triumph; like some stream rising among black\nand barren cliffs, or melancholy moorlands, and foaming through\nnarrow rifts in gloomy ravines, it reaches at last fertile lands, and\nflows calm, the sunlight dancing on its broad surface, till it loses\nitself at last in the unfathomable ocean of the love of God.\n\nWe are told that the Biblical view of human nature is too dark. Well,\nthe important question is not whether it is dark, but whether it is\ntrue. But, apart from that, the doctrine of Scripture about man's\nmoral condition is not dark, if you will take the whole of it\ntogether. Certainly, a part of it is very dark. The picture, for\ninstance, of what men are, painted at the beginning of this Epistle,\nis shadowed like a canvas of Rembrandt's. The Bible is 'Nature's\nsternest painter but her best.' But to get the whole doctrine of\nScripture on the subject, we have to take its confidence as to what\nmen may become, as well as its portrait of what they are--and then\nwho will say that the anthropology of Scripture is gloomy? To me it\nseems that the unrelieved blackness of the view which, because it\nadmits no fall, can imagine no rise, which sees in all man's sins and\nsorrows no token of the dominion of an alien power, and has,\ntherefore, no reason to believe that they can be separated from\nhumanity, is the true 'Gospel of despair,' and that the system which\nlooks steadily at all the misery and all the wickedness, and calmly\nproposes to cast it all out, is really the only doctrine of human\nnature which throws any gleam of light on the darkness. Christianity\nbegins indeed with, 'There is none that doeth good, no, not one,' but\nit ends with this victorious p\u00e6an of our text.\n\nAnd what a majestic close it is to the great words that have gone\nbefore, fitly crowning even their lofty height! One might well shrink\nfrom presuming to take such words as a text, with any idea of\nexhausting or of enhancing them. My object is very much more humble.\nI simply wish to bring out the remarkable order, in which Paul here\nmarshals, in his passionate, rhetorical amplification, all the\nenemies that can be supposed to seek to wrench us away from the love\nof God; and triumphs over them all. We shall best measure the\nfullness of the words by simply taking these clauses as they stand in\nthe text.\n\nI. The love of God is unaffected by the extremest changes of our\ncondition.\n\nThe Apostle begins his fervid catalogue of vanquished foes by a pair\nof opposites which might seem to cover the whole ground--'neither\ndeath nor life.' What more can be said? Surely, these two include\neverything. From one point of view they do. But yet, as we shall see,\nthere is more to be said. And the special reason for beginning with\nthis pair of possible enemies is probably to be found by remembering\nthat they are a pair, that between them they do cover the whole\nground and represent the _extremes_ of change which can befall\nus. The one stands at the one pole, the other at the other. If these\ntwo stations, so far from each other, are equally near to God's love,\nthen no intermediate point can be far from it. If the most violent\nchange which we can experience does not in the least matter to the\ngrasp which the love of God has on us, or to the grasp which we may\nhave on it, then no less violent a change can be of any consequence.\nIt is the same thought in a somewhat modified form, as we find in\nanother word of Paul's, 'Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and\nwhether we die, we die unto the Lord.' Our subordination to Him is\nthe same, and our consecration should be the same, in all varieties\nof condition, even in that greatest of all variations. His love to us\nmakes no account of that mightiest of changes. How should it be\naffected by slighter ones?\n\nThe distance of a star is measured by the apparent change in its\nposition, as seen from different points of the earth's surface or\norbit. But this great Light stands steadfast in our heaven, nor moves\na hair's-breadth, nor pours a feebler ray on us, whether we look up\nto it from the midsummer day of busy life, or from the midwinter of\ndeath. These opposites are parted by a distance to which the millions\nof miles of the world's path among the stars are but a point, and yet\nthe love of God streams down on them alike.\n\nOf course, the confidence in immortality is implied in this thought.\nDeath does not, in the slightest degree, affect the essential\nvitality of the soul; so it does not, in the slightest degree, affect\nthe outflow of God's love to that soul. It is a change of condition\nand circumstance, and no more. He does not lose us in the dust of\ndeath. The withered leaves on the pathway are trampled into mud, and\nindistinguishable to human eyes; but He sees them even as when they\nhung green and sunlit on the mystic tree of life.\n\nHow beautifully this thought contrasts with the saddest aspect of the\npower of death in our human experience! He is Death the Separator,\nwho unclasps our hands from the closest, dearest grasp, and divides\nasunder joints and marrow, and parts soul and body, and withdraws us\nfrom all our habitude and associations and occupations, and loosens\nevery bond of society and concord, and hales us away into a lonely\nland. But there is one bond which his 'abhorred shears' cannot cut.\nTheir edge is turned on _it_. One Hand holds us in a grasp which\nthe fleshless fingers of Death in vain strive to loosen. The\nseparator becomes the uniter; he rends us apart from the world that\nHe may 'bring us to God.' The love filtered by drops on us in life is\npoured upon us in a flood in death; 'for I am persuaded, that neither\ndeath nor life shall be able to separate us from the love of God.'\n\nII. The love of God is undiverted from us by any other order of\nbeings.\n\n'Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,' says Paul. Here we pass\nfrom conditions affecting ourselves to living beings beyond\nourselves. Now, it is important for understanding the precise thought\nof the Apostle to observe that this expression, when used without any\nqualifying adjective, seems uniformly to mean good angels, the\nhierarchy of blessed spirits before the throne. So that there is no\nreference to 'spiritual wickedness in high places' striving to draw\nmen away from God. The supposition which the Apostle makes is,\nindeed, an impossible one, that these ministering spirits, who are\nsent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation,\nshould so forget their mission and contradict their nature as to seek\nto bar us out from the love which it is their chiefest joy to bring\nto us. He knows it to be an impossible supposition, and its very\nimpossibility gives energy to his conclusion, just as when in the\nsame fashion he makes the other equally impossible supposition about\nan angel from heaven preaching another gospel than that which he had\npreached to them.\n\nSo we may turn the general thought of this second category of\nimpotent efforts in two different ways, and suggest, first, that it\nimplies the utter powerlessness of any third party in regard to the\nrelations between our souls and God.\n\nWe alone have to do with Him alone. The awful fact of individuality,\nthat solemn mystery of our personal being, has its most blessed or\nits most dread manifestation in our relation to God. There no other\nBeing has any power. Counsel and stimulus, suggestion or temptation,\ninstruction or lies, which may tend to lead us nearer to Him or away\nfrom Him, they may indeed give us; but after they have done their\nbest or their worst, all depends on the personal act of our own\ninnermost being. Man or angel can affect that, but from without. The\nold mystics called prayer 'the flight of the lonely soul to the only\nGod.' It is the name for all religion. These two, God and the soul,\nhave to 'transact,' as our Puritan forefathers used to say, as if\nthere were no other beings in the universe but only they two. Angels\nand principalities and powers may stand beholding with sympathetic\njoy; they may minister blessing and guardianship in many ways; but\nthe decisive act of union between God and the soul they can neither\neffect nor prevent.\n\nAnd as for them, so for men around us; the limits of their power to\nharm us are soon set. They may shut us out from human love by\ncalumnies, and dig deep gulfs of alienation between us and dear ones;\nthey may hurt and annoy us in a thousand ways with slanderous\ntongues, and arrows dipped in poisonous hatred, but one thing they\ncannot do. They may build a wall around us, and imprison us from many\na joy and many a fair prospect, but they cannot put a roof on it to\nkeep out the sweet influences from above, or hinder us from looking\nup to the heavens. Nobody can come between us and God but ourselves.\n\nOr, we may turn this general thought in another direction, and say,\nThese blessed spirits around the throne do not absorb and intercept\nHis love. They gather about its steps in their 'solemn troops and\nsweet societies'; but close as are their ranks, and innumerable as is\ntheir multitude, they do not prevent that love from passing beyond\nthem to us on the outskirts of the crowd. The planet nearest the sun\nis drenched and saturated with fiery brightness, but the rays from\nthe centre of life pass on to each of the sister spheres in its turn,\nand travel away outwards to where the remotest of them all rolls in\nits far-off orbit, unknown for millenniums to dwellers closer to the\nsun, but through all the ages visited by warmth and light according\nto its needs. Like that poor, sickly woman who could lay her wasted\nfingers on the hem of Christ's garment, notwithstanding the thronging\nmultitude, we can reach our hands through all the crowd, or rather He\nreaches His strong hand to us and heals and blesses us. All the\nguests are fed full at that great table. One's gain is not another's\nloss. The multitudes sit on the green grass, and the last man of\nthe last fifty gets as much as the first. 'They did all eat, and were\nfilled'; and more remains than fed them all. So all beings are\n'nourished from the King's country,' and none jostle others out of\ntheir share. This healing fountain is not exhausted of its curative\npower by the early comers. 'I will give unto this last, even as unto\nthee.' 'Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, shall be able to\nseparate us from the love of God.'\n\nIII. The love of God is raised above the power of time.\n\n'Nor things present, nor things to come,' is the Apostle's next class\nof powers impotent to disunite us from the love of God. The\nrhythmical arrangement of the text deserves to be noticed, as bearing\nnot only on its music and rhetorical flow, but as affecting its\nforce. We had first a pair of opposites, and then a triplet; 'death\nand life: angels, principalities, and powers.' We have again a pair\nof opposites; 'things present, things to come,' again followed by a\ntriplet, 'height nor depth, nor any other creature.' The effect of\nthis is to divide the whole into two, and to throw the first and\nsecond classes more closely together, as also the third and fourth.\nTime and Space, these two mysterious ideas, which work so fatally on\nall human love, are powerless here.\n\nThe great revelation of God, on which the whole of Judaism was built,\nwas that made to Moses of the name 'I Am that I Am.' And parallel to\nthe verbal revelation was the symbol of the Bush, burning and\nunconsumed, which is so often misunderstood. It appears wholly\ncontrary to the usage of Scriptural visions, which are ever wont to\nexpress in material form the same truth which accompanies them in\nwords, that the meaning of that vision should be, as it is frequently\ntaken as being, the continuance of Israel unharmed by the fiery\nfurnace of persecution. Not the continuance of Israel, but the\neternity of Israel's God is the teaching of that flaming wonder. The\nburning Bush and the Name of the Lord proclaimed the same great truth\nof self-derived, self-determined, timeless, undecaying Being. And\nwhat better symbol than the bush burning, and yet not burning out,\ncould be found of that God in whose life there is no tendency to\ndeath, whose work digs no pit of weariness into which it falls, who\ngives and is none the poorer, who fears no exhaustion in His\nspending, no extinction in His continual shining?\n\nAnd this eternity of Being is no mere metaphysical abstraction. It is\neternity of love, for God is love. That great stream, the pouring out\nof His own very inmost Being, knows no pause, nor does the deep\nfountain from which it flows ever sink one hair's-breadth in its pure\nbasin.\n\nWe know of earthly loves which cannot die. They have entered so\ndeeply into the very fabric of the soul, that like some cloth dyed in\ngrain, as long as two threads hold together they will retain the\ntint. We have to thank God for such instances of love stronger than\ndeath, which make it easier for us to believe in the unchanging\nduration of His. But we know, too, of love that can change, and we\nknow that all love must part. Few of us have reached middle life, who\ndo not, looking back, see our track strewed with the gaunt skeletons\nof dead friendships, and dotted with 'oaks of weeping,' waving green\nand mournful over graves, and saddened by footprints striking away\nfrom the line of march, and leaving us the more solitary for their\ndeparture.\n\nHow blessed then to know of a love which cannot change or die! The\npast, the present, and the future are all the same to Him, to whom 'a\nthousand years,' that can corrode so much of earthly love, are in\ntheir power to change 'as one day,' and 'one day,' which can hold so\nfew of the expressions of our love, may be 'as a thousand years' in\nthe multitude and richness of the gifts which it can be expanded to\ncontain. The whole of what He has been to any past, He is to us\nto-day. 'The God of Jacob is our refuge.' All these old-world stories\nof loving care and guidance may be repeated in our lives.\n\nSo we may bring the blessedness of all the past into the present, and\ncalmly face the misty future, sure that it cannot rob us of His love.\n\nWhatever may drop out of our vainly-clasping hands, it matters not,\nif only our hearts are stayed on His love, which neither things\npresent nor things to come can alter or remove. Looking on all the\nflow of ceaseless change, the waste and fading, the alienation and\ncooling, the decrepitude and decay of earthly affection, we can lift\nup with gladness, heightened by the contrast, the triumphant song of\nthe ancient Church: 'Give thanks unto the Lord: for He is good:\nbecause His mercy endureth for ever!'\n\nIV. The love of God is present everywhere.\n\nThe Apostle ends his catalogue with a singular trio of antagonists;\n'nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,' as if he had got\nimpatient of the enumeration of impotencies, and having named the\noutside boundaries in space of the created universe, flings, as it\nwere, with one rapid toss, into that large room the whole that it can\ncontain, and triumphs over it all.\n\nAs the former clause proclaimed the powerlessness of Time, so this\nproclaims the powerlessness of that other great mystery of creatural\nlife which we call Space, Height or depth, it matters not. That\ndiffusive love diffuses itself equally in all directions. Up or down,\nit is all the same. The distance from the centre is the same to\nZenith or to Nadir.\n\nHere, we have the same process applied to that idea of Omnipresence\nas was applied in the former clause to the idea of Eternity. That\nthought, so hard to grasp with vividness, and not altogether a glad\none to a sinful soul, is all softened and glorified, as some solemn\nAlpine cliff of bare rock is when the tender morning light glows on\nit, when it is thought of as the Omnipresence of Love. 'Thou, God,\nseest me,' may be a stern word, if the God who sees be but a mighty\nMaker or a righteous Judge. As reasonably might we expect a prisoner\nin his solitary cell to be glad when he thinks that the jailer's eye\nis on him from some unseen spy-hole in the wall, as expect any\nthought of God but one to make a man read that grand one hundred and\nthirty-ninth Psalm with joy: 'If I ascend into heaven, Thou art\nthere; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, Thou art there.' So may a\nman say shudderingly to himself, and tremble as he asks in vain,\n'Whither shall I flee from Thy Presence?' But how different it all is\nwhen we can cast over the marble whiteness of that solemn thought the\nwarm hue of life, and change the form of our words into this of our\ntext: 'Nor height, nor depth, shall be able to separate us from the\nlove of God.'\n\nIn that great ocean of the divine love we live and move and have our\nbeing, floating in it like some sea flower which spreads its filmy\nbeauty and waves its long tresses in the depths of mid-ocean. The\nsound of its waters is ever in our ears, and above, beneath, around\nus, its mighty currents run evermore. We need not cower before the\nfixed gaze of some stony god, looking on us unmoved like those\nEgyptian deities that sit pitiless with idle hands on their laps, and\nwide-open lidless eyes gazing out across the sands. We need not fear\nthe Omnipresence of Love, nor the Omniscience which knows us\naltogether, and loves us even as it knows. Rather we shall be glad\nthat we are ever in His Presence, and desire, as the height of all\nfelicity and the power for all goodness, to walk all the day long in\nthe light of His countenance, till the day come when we shall receive\nthe crown of our perfecting in that we shall be 'ever with the Lord.'\n\nThe recognition of this triumphant sovereignty of love over all these\nreal and supposed antagonists makes us, too, lords over them, and\ndelivers us from the temptations which some of them present us to\nseparate ourselves from the love of God. They all become our servants\nand helpers, uniting us to that love. So we are set free from the\ndread of death and from the distractions incident to life. So we are\ndelivered from superstitious dread of an unseen world, and from\ncraven fear of men. So we are emancipated from absorption in the\npresent and from careful thought for the future. So we are at home\neverywhere, and every corner of the universe is to us one of the many\nmansions of our Father's house. 'All things are yours, ... and ye are\nChrist's; and Christ is God's.'\n\nI do not forget the closing words of this great text. I have not\nventured to include them in our present subject, because they would\nhave introduced another wide region of thought to be laid down on our\nalready too narrow canvas.\n\nBut remember, I beseech you, that this love of God is explained by\nour Apostle to be 'in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Love illimitable,\nall-pervasive, eternal; yes, but a love which has a channel and a\ncourse; love which has a method and a process by which it pours\nitself over the world. It is not, as some representations would make\nit, a vague, nebulous light diffused through space as in a chaotic\nhalf-made universe, but all gathered in that great Light which rules\nthe day--even in Him who said: 'I am the Light of the world.' In\nChrist the love of God is all centred and embodied, that it may be\nimparted to all sinful and hungry hearts, even as burning coals are\ngathered on a hearth that they may give warmth to all that are in the\nhouse. 'God _so_ loved the world'--not merely _so much_, but in _such\na fashion_--'that'--that what? Many people would leap at once from\nthe first to the last clause of the verse, and regard eternal life\nfor all and sundry as the only adequate expression of the universal\nlove of God. Not so does Christ speak. Between that universal love\nand its ultimate purpose and desire for every man He inserts two\nconditions, one on God's part, one on man's. God's love reaches its\nend, namely, the bestowal of eternal life, by means of a divine act\nand a human response. 'God _so_ loved the world, that He _gave_ His\nonly begotten Son, that whosoever _believeth_ in Him should not\nperish, but have everlasting life.' So all the universal love of God\nfor you and me and for all our brethren is 'in Christ Jesus our\nLord,' and faith in Him unites us to it by bonds which no foe can\nbreak, no shock of change can snap, no time can rot, no distance can\nstretch to breaking. 'For I am persuaded, that neither death nor\nlife, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,\nnor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,\nshall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ\nJesus our Lord.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE SACRIFICE OF THE BODY\n\n   'I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of\n   God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,\n   holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable\n   service.'--ROMANS xii. 1.\n\n\nIn the former part of this letter the Apostle has been building up a\nmassive fabric of doctrine, which has stood the waste of centuries,\nand the assaults of enemies, and has been the home of devout souls.\nHe now passes to speak of practice, and he binds the two halves of\nhis letter indissolubly together by that significant 'therefore,'\nwhich does not only look back to the thing last said, but to the\nwhole of the preceding portion of the letter. 'What God hath joined\ntogether let no man put asunder.' Christian living is inseparably\nconnected with Christian believing. Possibly the error of our\nforefathers was in cutting faith too much loose from practice, and\nsupposing that an orthodox creed was sufficient, though I think the\nextent to which they did suppose that has been very much exaggerated.\nThe temptation of this day is precisely the opposite. 'Conduct is\nthree-fourths of life,' says one of our teachers. Yes. But what about\nthe _fourth_ fourth which underlies conduct? Paul's way is the\nright way. Lay broad and deep the foundations of God's facts revealed\nto us, and then build upon that the fabric of a noble life. This\ngeneration superficially tends to cut practice loose from faith, and\nso to look for grapes from thorns and figs from thistles. Wrong\nthinking will not lead to right doing. 'I beseech you, _therefore_,\nbrethren, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.'\n\nThe Apostle, in beginning his practical exhortations, lays as the\nfoundations of them all two companion precepts: one, with which we\nhave to deal, affecting mainly the outward life; its twin sister,\nwhich follows in the next verse, affecting mainly the inward life. He\nwho has drunk in the spirit of Paul's doctrinal teaching will present\nhis body a living sacrifice, and be renewed in the spirit of his\nmind; and thus, outwardly and inwardly, will be approximating to\nGod's ideal, and all specific virtues will be his in germ. Those two\nprecepts lay down the broad outline, and all that follow in the way\nof specific commandments is but filling in its details.\n\nI. We observe that we have here, first, an all-inclusive directory\nfor the outward life.\n\nNow, it is to be noticed that the metaphor of sacrifice runs through\nthe whole of the phraseology of my text. The word rendered 'present'\nis a technical expression for the sacerdotal action of offering. A\ntacit contrast is drawn between the sacrificial ritual, which was\nfamiliar to Romans as well as Jews, and the true Christian sacrifice\nand service. In the former a large portion of the sacrifices\nconsisted of animals which were slain. Ours is to be 'a living\nsacrifice.' In the former the offering was presented to the Deity,\nand became His property. In the Christian service, the gift passes,\nin like manner, from the possession of the worshipper, and is set\napart for the uses of God, for that is the proper meaning of the word\n'holy.' The outward sacrifice gave an odour of a sweet smell, which,\nby a strong metaphor, was declared to be fragrant in the nostrils of\nDeity. In like manner, the Christian sacrifice is 'acceptable unto\nGod.' These other sacrifices were purely outward, and derived no\nefficacy from the disposition of the worshipper. Our sacrifice,\nthough the material of the offering be corporeal, is the act of the\ninner man, and so is called 'rational' rather than 'reasonable,' as\nour Version has it, or as in other parts of Scripture, 'spiritual.'\nAnd the last word of my text, 'service,' retains the sacerdotal\nallusion, because it does not mean the service of a slave or\ndomestic, but that of a priest.\n\nAnd so the sum of the whole is that the master-word for the outward\nlife of a Christian is sacrifice. That, again, includes two\nthings--self-surrender and surrender to God.\n\nNow, Paul was not such a superficial moralist as to begin at the\nwrong end, and talk about the surrender of the outward life, unless\nas the result of the prior surrender of the inward, and that priority\nof the consecration of the man to his offering of the body is\ncontained in the very metaphor. For a priest needs to be consecrated\nbefore he can offer, and we in our innermost wills, in the depths of\nour nature, must be surrendered and set apart to God ere any of our\noutward activities can be laid upon His altar. The Apostle, then,\ndoes not make the mistake of substituting external for\ninternal surrender, but he presupposes that the latter has preceded.\nHe puts the sequence more fully in the parallel passage in this very\nletter: 'Yield yourselves unto God, and your bodies as instruments of\nrighteousness unto Him.' So, then, first of all, we must be priests\nby our inward consecration, and then, since 'a priest must have\nsomewhat to offer,' we must bring the outward life and lay it upon\nHis altar.\n\nNow, of the two thoughts which I have said are involved in this great\nkeyword, the former is common to Christianity, with all noble systems\nof morality, whether religious or irreligious. It is a commonplace,\non which I do not need to dwell, that every man who will live a man's\nlife, and not that of a beast, must sacrifice the flesh, and rigidly\nkeep it down. But that commonplace is lifted into an altogether new\nregion, assumes a new solemnity, and finds new power for its\nfulfilment when we add to the moralist's duty of control of the\nanimal and outward nature the other thought, that the surrender must\nbe to God.\n\nThere is no need for my dwelling at any length on the various\npractical directions in which this great exhortation must be wrought\nout. It is of more importance, by far, to have well fixed in our\nminds and hearts the one dominant thought that sacrifice is the\nkeyword of the Christian life than to explain the directions in which\nit applies. But still, just a word or two about these. There are\nthree ways in which we may look at the body, which the Apostle here\nsays is to be yielded up unto God.\n\nIt is the recipient of impressions from without. _There_ is a field\nfor consecration. The eye that looks upon evil, and by the look has\nrebellious, lustful, sensuous, foul desires excited in the heart,\nbreaks this solemn law. The eye that among the things seen dwells\nwith complacency on the pure, and turns from the impure as if a hot\niron had been thrust into its pupil; that in the things seen discerns\nshimmering behind them, and manifested through them, the things\nunseen and eternal, is the consecrated eye. 'Art for Art's sake,' to\nquote the cant of the day, has too often meant art for the flesh's\nsake. And there are pictures and books, and sights of various sorts,\nflashed before the eyes of you young men and women which it is\npollution to dwell upon, and should be pain to remember. I beseech\nyou all to have guard over these gates of the heart, and to pray,\n'Turn away mine eyes from viewing vanity.' And the other senses, in\nlike manner, have need to be closely connected with God if they are\nnot to rush us down to the devil.\n\nThe body is not only the recipient of impressions. It is the\npossessor of appetites and necessities. See to it that these are\nindulged, with constant reference to God. It is no small attainment\nof the Christian life 'to eat our meat with gladness and singleness\nof heart, praising God.' In a hundred directions this characteristic\nof our corporeal lives tends to lead us all away from supreme\nconsecration to Him. There is the senseless luxury of this\ngeneration. There is the exaggerated care for physical strength and\ncompleteness amongst the young; there is the intemperance in eating\nand drinking, which is the curse and the shame of England. There is\nthe provision for the flesh, the absorbing care for the procuring of\nmaterial comforts, which drowns the spirit in miserable anxieties,\nand makes men bond-slaves. There is the corruption which comes from\ndrunkenness and from lust. There is the indolence which checks lofty\naspirations and stops a man in the middle of noble work. And there\nare many other forms of evil on which I need not dwell, all of which\nare swept clean out of the way when we lay to heart this injunction:\n'I beseech you present your bodies a living sacrifice,' and let\nappetites and tastes and corporeal needs be kept in rigid\nsubordination and in conscious connection with Him. I remember a\nquaint old saying of a German schoolmaster, who apostrophised his\nbody thus: 'I go with you three times a day to eat; you must come\nwith me three times a day to pray.' Subjugate the body, and let it be\nthe servant and companion of the devout spirit.\n\nIt is also, besides being the recipient of impressions, and the\npossessor of needs and appetites, our instrument for working in the\nworld. And so the exhortation of my text comes to include this, that\nall our activities done by means of brain and eye and tongue and hand\nand foot shall be consciously devoted to Him, and laid as a sacrifice\nupon His altar. That pervasive, universally diffused reference to\nGod, in all the details of daily life, is the thing that Christian\nmen and women need most of all to try to cultivate. 'Pray without\nceasing,' says the Apostle. This exhortation can only be obeyed if\nour work is indeed worship, being done by God's help, for God's sake,\nin communion with God.\n\nSo, dear friends, sacrifice is the keynote--meaning thereby\nsurrender, control, and stimulus of the corporeal frame, surrender to\nGod, in regard to the impressions which we allow to be made upon our\nsenses, to the indulgence which we grant to our appetites, and the\nsatisfaction which we seek for our needs, and to the activities which\nwe engage in by means of this wondrous instrument with which God has\ntrusted us. These are the plain principles involved in the\nexhortation of my text. 'He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the\nflesh reap corruption.' 'I keep under my body, and bring it into\nsubjection.' It is a good servant; it is a bad master.\n\nII. Note, secondly, the relation between this priestly service and\nother kinds of worship.\n\nI need only say a word about that. Paul is not meaning to depreciate\nthe sacrificial ritual, from which he drew his emblem. But he is\nmeaning to assert that the devotion of a life, manifested through\nbodily activity, is higher in its nature than the symbolical worship\nof any altar and of any sacrifice. And that falls in with prevailing\ntendencies in this day, which has laid such a firm hold on the\nprinciple that daily conduct is better than formal worship, that it\nhas forgotten to ask the question whether the daily conduct is likely\nto be satisfactory if the formal worship is altogether neglected. I\nbelieve, as profoundly as any man can, that the true worship is\ndistinguishable from and higher than the more sensuous forms of the\nCatholic or other sacramentarian churches, or the more simple of the\nPuritan and Nonconformist, or the altogether formless of the Quaker.\nI believe that the best worship is the manifold activities of daily\nlife laid upon God's altar, so that the division between things\nsecular and things sacred is to a large extent misleading and\nirrelevant. But at the same time I believe that you have very little\nchance of getting this diffused and all-pervasive reference of all a\nman's doings to God unless there are, all through his life, recurring\nwith daily regularity, reservoirs of power, stations where he may\nrest, kneeling-places where the attitude of service is exchanged for\nthe attitude of supplication; times of quiet communion with God which\nshall feed the worshipper's activities as the white snowfields on the\nhigh summits feed the brooks that sparkle by the way, and bring\nfertility wherever they run. So, dear brethren, remember that whilst\nlife is the field of worship there must be the inward worship within\nthe shrine if there is to be the outward service.\n\nIII. Lastly, note the equally comprehensive motive and ground of this\nall-inclusive directory for conduct.\n\n'I beseech you, by the mercies of God.' That plural does not mean\nthat the Apostle is extending his view over the whole wide field of\nthe divine beneficence, but rather that he is contemplating the one\nall-inclusive mercy about which the former part of his letter has\nbeen eloquent--viz. the gift of Christ--and contemplating it in the\nmanifoldness of the blessings which flow from it. The mercies of God\nwhich move a man to yield himself as a sacrifice are not the diffused\nbeneficences of His providence, but the concentrated love that lies\nin the person and work of His Son.\n\nAnd there, as I believe, is the one motive to which we can appeal\nwith any prospect of its being powerful enough to give the needful\nimpetus all through a life. The sacrifice of Christ is the ground on\nwhich our sacrifices can be offered and accepted, for it was the\nsacrifice of a death propitiatory and cleansing, and on it, as the\nancient ritual taught us, may be reared the enthusiastic sacrifice of\na life--a thankoffering for it.\n\nNor is it only the ground on which our sacrifice is accepted, but it\nis the great motive by which our sacrifice is impelled. _There_\nis the difference between the Christian teaching, 'present your\nbodies a sacrifice,' and the highest and noblest of similar teaching\nelsewhere. One of the purest and loftiest of the ancient moralists\nwas a contemporary of Paul's. He would have re-echoed from his heart\nthe Apostle's directory, but he knew nothing of the Apostle's motive.\nSo his exhortations were powerless. He had no spell to work on men's\nhearts, and his lofty teachings were as the voice of one crying in\nthe wilderness. Whilst Seneca taught, Rome was a cesspool of moral\nputridity and Nero butchered. So it always is. There may be noble\nteachings about self-control, purity, and the like, but an evil and\nadulterous generation is slow to dance to such piping.\n\nOur poet has bid us--\n\n  'Move upwards, casting out the beast,\n  And let the ape and tiger die.'\n\nBut how is this heavy bulk of ours to 'move upwards'; how is the\nbeast to be 'cast out'; how are the 'ape and tiger' in us to be\nslain? Paul has told us, 'By the mercies of God.' Christ's gift,\nmeditated on, accepted, introduced into will and heart, is the one\npower that will melt our obstinacy, the one magnet that will draw us\nafter it.\n\nNothing else, brethren, as your own experience has taught you, and as\nthe experience of the world confirms, nothing else will bind\nBehemoth, and put a hook in his nose. Apart from the constraining\nmotive of the love of Christ, all the cords of prudence, conscience,\nadvantage, by which men try to bind their unruly passions and manacle\nthe insisting flesh, are like the chains on the demoniac's\nwrists--'And he had oftentimes been bound by chains, and the chains\nwere snapped asunder.' But the silken leash with which the fair Una\nin the poem leads the lion, the silken leash of love will bind the\nstrong man, and enable us to rule ourselves. If we will open our\nhearts to the sacrifice of Christ, we shall be able to offer\nourselves as thankofferings. If we will let His love sway our wills\nand consciences, He will give our wills and consciences power to\nmaster and to offer up our flesh. And the great change, according to\nwhich He will one day change the body of our humiliation into the\nlikeness of the body of His glory, will be begun in us, if we live\nunder the influence of the motive and the commandment which this\nApostle bound together in our text and in his other great words, 'Ye\nare not your own; ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God\nin your body and spirit, which are His.'\n\n\n\n\nTRANSFIGURATION\n\n   'Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by\n   the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that\n   good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.'--ROMANS xii. 2.\n\n\nI had occasion to point out, in a sermon on the preceding verse, that\nthe Apostle is, in this context, making the transition from the\ndoctrinal to the practical part of his letter, and that he lays down\nbroad principles, of which all his subsequent injunctions and\nexhortations are simply the filling up of the details. One master\nword, for the whole Christian life, as we then saw, is sacrifice,\nself-surrender, and that to God. In like manner, Paul here brackets,\nwith that great conception of the Christian life, another equally\ndominant and equally comprehensive. In one aspect, it is\nself-surrender; in another, it is growing transformation. And, just\nas in the former verse we found that an inward surrender preceded the\noutward sacrifice, and that the inner man, having been consecrated as\na priest, by this yielding of himself to God, was then called upon to\nmanifest inward consecration by outward sacrifice, so in this further\nexhortation, an inward 'renewing of the mind' is regarded as the\nnecessary antecedent of transformation of outward life.\n\nSo we have here another comprehensive view of what the Christian life\nought to be, and that not only grasped, as it were, in its very\ncentre and essence, but traced out in two directions--as to that\nwhich must precede it within, and as to that which follows it as\nconsequence. An outline of the possibilities, and therefore the\nduties, of the Christian, is set forth here, in these three thoughts\nof my text, the renewed mind issuing in a transfigured life, crowned\nand rewarded by a clearer and ever clearer insight into what we ought\nto be and do.\n\nI. Note, then, that the foundation of all transformation of character\nand conduct is laid deep in a renewed mind.\n\nNow it is a matter of world-wide experience, verified by each of us\nin our own case, if we have ever been honest in the attempt, that the\npower of self-improvement is limited by very narrow bounds. Any man\nthat has ever tried to cure himself of the most trivial habit which\nhe desires to get rid of, or to alter in the slightest degree the set\nof some strong taste or current of his being, knows how little he can\ndo, even by the most determined effort. Something may be effected,\nbut, alas! as the proverbs of all nations and all lands have taught\nus, it is very little indeed. 'You cannot expel nature with a fork,'\nsaid the Roman. 'What's bred in the bone won't come out of the\nflesh,' says the Englishman. 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin or\nthe leopard his spots?' says the Hebrew. And we all know what the\nanswer to that question is. The problem that is set before a man when\nyou tell him to effect self-improvement is something like that\nwhich confronted that poor paralytic lying in the porch at the pool:\n'If you can walk you will be able to get to the pool that will make\nyou able to walk. But you have got to be cured before you can do what\nyou need to do in order to be cured.' Only one knife can cut the\nknot. The Gospel of Jesus Christ presents itself, not as a mere\nrepublication of morality, not as merely a new stimulus and motive to\ndo what is right, but as an actual communication to men of a new\npower to work in them, a strong hand laid upon our poor, feeble hand\nwith which we try to put on the brake or to apply the stimulus. It is\na new gift of a life which will unfold itself after its own nature,\nas the bud into flower, and the flower into fruit; giving new\ndesires, tastes, directions, and renewing the whole nature. And so,\nsays Paul, the beginning of transformation of character is the\nrenovation in the very centre of the being, and the communication of\na new impulse and power to the inward self.\n\nNow, I suppose that in my text the word 'mind' is not so much\nemployed in the widest sense, including all the affections and will,\nand the other faculties of our nature, as in the narrower sense of\nthe perceptive power, or that faculty in our nature by which we\nrecognise, and make our own, certain truths. 'The renewing of the\nmind,' then, is only, in such an interpretation, a theological way of\nputting the simpler English thought, a change of estimates, a new set\nof views; or if that word be too shallow, as indeed it is, a new set\nof convictions. It is profoundly true that 'As a man thinketh, so\nis he.' Our characters are largely made by our estimates of what is\ngood or bad, desirable or undesirable. And what the Apostle is\nthinking about here is, as I take it, principally how the body of\nChristian truth, if it effects a lodgment in, not merely the brain of\na man, but his whole nature, will modify and alter it all. Why, we\nall know how often a whole life has been revolutionised by the sudden\ndawning or rising in its sky, of some starry new truth, formerly\nhidden and undreamed of. And if we should translate the somewhat\narchaic phraseology of our text into the plainest of modern English,\nit just comes to this: If you want to change your characters, and God\nknows they all need it, change the deep convictions of your mind; and\nget hold, as living realities, of the great truths of Christ's\nGospel. If you and I really believed what we say we believe, that\nJesus Christ has died for us, and lives for us, and is ready to pour\nout upon us the gift of His Divine Spirit, and wills that we should\nbe like Him, and holds out to us the great and wonderful hopes and\nprospects of an absolutely eternal life of supreme and serene\nblessedness at His right hand, should we be, could we be, the sort of\npeople that most of us are? It is not the much that you say you\nbelieve that shapes your character; it is the little that you\nhabitually realise. Truth professed has no transforming power; truth\nreceived and fed upon can revolutionise a man's whole character.\n\nSo, dear brethren, remember that my text, though it is an analysis of\nthe methods of Christian progress, and though it is a wonderful\nsetting forth of the possibilities open to the poorest, dwarfed,\nblinded, corrupted nature, is also all commandment. And if it is true\nthat the principles of the Gospel exercise transforming power upon\nmen's lives, and that in order for these principles to effect their\nnatural results there must be honest dealing with them, on our parts,\ntake this as the practical outcome of all this first part of my\nsermon--let us all see to it that we keep ourselves in touch with the\ntruths which we say we believe; and that we thorough-goingly apply\nthese truths in all their searching, revealing, quickening, curbing\npower, to every action of our daily lives. If for one day we could\nbring everything that we do into touch with the creed that we\nprofess, we should be different men and women. Make of your every\nthought an action; link every action with a thought. Or, to put it\nmore Christianlike, let there be nothing in your creed which is not\nin your commandments; and let nothing be in your life which is not\nmoulded by these. The beginning of all transformation is the\nrevolutionised conviction of a mind that has accepted the truths of\nthe Gospel.\n\nII. Well then, secondly, note the transfigured life.\n\nThe Apostle uses in his positive commandment, 'Be ye transformed,'\nthe same word which is employed by two of the Evangelists in their\naccount of our Lord's transfiguration. And although I suppose it\nwould be going too far to assert that there is a distinct reference\nintended to that event, it may be permissible to look back to it as\nbeing a lovely illustration of the possibilities that open to an\nhonest Christian life--the possibility of a change, coming from\nwithin upwards, and shedding a strange radiance on the face, whilst\nyet the identity remains. So by the rippling up from within of the\nrenewed mind will come into our lives a transformation not altogether\nunlike that which passed on Him when His garments did shine 'so as no\nfuller on earth could white them'; and His face was as the sun in his\nstrength.\n\nThe life is to be transfigured, yet it remains the same, not only in\nthe consciousness of personal identity, but in the main trend and\ndrift of the character. There is nothing in the Gospel of Jesus\nChrist which is meant to obliterate the lines of the strongly marked\nindividuality which each of us receives by nature. Rather the Gospel\nis meant to heighten and deepen these, and to make each man more\nintensely himself, more thoroughly individual and unlike anybody\nelse. The perfection of our nature is found in the pursuit, to the\nfurthest point, of the characteristics of our nature, and so, by\nreason of diversity, there is the greater harmony, and, all taken\ntogether, will reflect less inadequately the infinite glories of\nwhich they are all partakers. But whilst the individuality remains,\nand ought to be heightened by Christian consecration, yet a change\nshould pass over our lives, like the change that passes over the\nwinter landscape when the summer sun draws out the green leaves from\nthe hard black boughs, and flashes a fresh colour over all the brown\npastures. There should be such a change as when a drop or two of ruby\nwine falls into a cup, and so diffuses a gradual warmth of tint over\nall the whiteness of the water. Christ in us, if we are true to Him,\nwill make us more ourselves, and yet new creatures in Christ Jesus.\n\nAnd the transformation is to be into His likeness who is the pattern\nof all perfection. We must be moulded after the same type. There are\ntwo types possible for us: this world; Jesus Christ. We have to make\nour choice which is to be the headline after which we are to try to\nwrite. 'They that make them are like unto them.' Men resemble their\ngods; men become more or less like their idols. What you conceive to\nbe desirable you will more and more assimilate yourselves to. Christ\nis the Christian man's pattern; is He not better than the blind,\ncorrupt world?\n\nThat transformation is no sudden thing, though the revolution which\nunderlies it may be instantaneous. The working _out_ of the new\nmotives, the working _in_ of the new power, is no mere work of a\nmoment. It is a lifelong task till the lump be leavened. Michael\nAngelo, in his mystical way, used to say that sculpture effected its\naim by the removal of parts; as if the statue lay somehow hid in the\nmarble block. We have, day by day, to work at the task of removing\nthe superfluities that mask its outlines. Sometimes with a heavy\nmallet, and a hard blow, and a broad chisel, we have to take away\nhuge masses; sometimes, with fine tools and delicate touches, to\nremove a grain or two of powdered dust from the sparkling block, but\nalways to seek more and more, by slow, patient toil, to conform\nourselves to that serene type of all perfectness that we have learned\nto love in Jesus Christ.\n\nAnd remember, brethren, this transformation is no magic change\neffected whilst men sleep. It is a commandment which we have to brace\nourselves to perform, day by day to set ourselves to the task of more\ncompletely assimilating ourselves to our Lord. It comes to be a\nsolemn question for each of us whether we can say, 'To-day I am liker\nJesus Christ than I was yesterday; to-day the truth which renews the\nmind has a deeper hold upon me than it ever had before.'\n\nBut this positive commandment is only one side of the transfiguration\nthat is to be effected. It is clear enough that if a new likeness is\nbeing stamped upon a man, the process may be looked at from the other\nside; and that in proportion as we become liker Jesus Christ, we\nshall become more unlike the old type to which we were previously\nconformed. And so, says Paul, 'Be not conformed to this world, but be\nye transformed.' He does not mean to say that the nonconformity\nprecedes the transformation. They are two sides of one process; both\narising from the renewing of the mind within.\n\nNow, I do not wish to do more than just touch most lightly upon the\nthoughts that are here, but I dare not pass them by altogether. 'This\nworld' here, in my text, is more properly 'this age,' which means\nsubstantially the same thing as John's favourite word 'world,' viz.\nthe sum total of godless men and things conceived of as separated\nfrom God, only that by this expression the essentially fleeting\nnature of that type is more distinctly set forth. Now the world is\nthe world to-day just as much as it was in Paul's time. No doubt the\nGospel has sweetened society; no doubt the average of godless life in\nEngland is a better thing than the average of godless life in the\nRoman Empire. No doubt there is a great deal of Christianity diffused\nthrough the average opinion and ways of looking at things, that\nprevail around us. But the World is the world still. There are maxims\nand ways of living, and so on, characteristic of the Christian life,\nwhich are in as complete antagonism to the ideas and maxims and\npractices that prevail amongst men who are outside of the influences\nof this Christian truth in their own hearts, as ever they were.\n\nAnd although it can only be a word, I want to put in here a very\nearnest word which the tendencies of this generation do very\nspecially require. It seems to be thought, by a great many people,\nwho call themselves Christians nowadays, that the nearer they can\ncome in life, in ways of looking at things, in estimates of\nliterature, for instance, in customs of society, in politics, in\ntrade, and especially in amusements--the nearer they can come to the\nun-Christian world, the more 'broad' (save the mark!) and 'superior\nto prejudice' they are. 'Puritanism,' not only in theology, but in\nlife and conduct, has come to be at a discount in these days. And it\nseems to be by a great many professing Christians thought to be a\ngreat feat to walk as the mules on the Alps do, with one foot over\nthe path and the precipice down below. Keep away from the edge. You\nare safer so. Although, of course, I am not talking about mere\nconventional dissimilarities; and though I know and believe and feel\nall that can be said about the insufficiency, and even insincerity,\nof such, yet there is a broad gulf between the man who believes in\nJesus Christ and His Gospel and the man who does not, and the\nresulting conducts cannot be the same unless the Christian man is\ninsincere.\n\nIII. And now lastly, and only a word, note the great reward and crown\nof this transfigured life.\n\nPaul puts it in words which, if I had time, would require some\ncommenting upon. The issue of such a life is, to put it into plain\nEnglish, an increased power of perceiving, instinctively and surely,\nwhat it is God's will that we should do. And that is the reward. Just\nas when you take away disturbing masses of metal from near a compass,\nit trembles to its true point, so when, by the discipline of which I\nhave been speaking, there are swept away from either side of us the\nthings that would perturb our judgment, there comes, as blessing and\nreward, a clear insight into that which it is our duty to do.\n\nThere may be many difficulties left, many perplexities. There is no\npromise here, nor is there anything in the tendencies of Christ-like\nliving, to lead us to anticipate that guidance in regard to matters\nof prudence or expediency or temporal advantage will follow from such\na transfigured life. All such matters are still to be determined in\nthe proper fashion, by the exercise of our own best judgment and\ncommon-sense. But in the higher region, the knowledge of good and\nevil, surely it is a blessed reward, and one of the highest that can\nbe given to a man, that there shall be in him so complete a harmony\nwith God that, like God's Son, he 'does always the things that please\nHim,' and that the Father will show him whatsoever things Himself\ndoeth; and that these also will the son do likewise. To know beyond\ndoubt what I ought to do, and knowing, to have no hesitation or\nreluctance in doing it, seems to me to be heaven upon earth, and the\nman that has it needs but little more. This, then, is the reward.\nEach peak we climb opens wider and clearer prospects into the\nuntravelled land before us.\n\nAnd so, brethren, here is the way, the only way, by which we can\nchange ourselves, first let us have our minds renewed by contact with\nthe truth, then we shall be able to transform our lives into the\nlikeness of Jesus Christ, and our faces too will shine, and our lives\nwill be ennobled, by a serene beauty which men cannot but admire,\nthough it may rebuke them. And as the issue of all we shall have\nclearer and deeper insight into that will, which to know is life, in\nkeeping of which there is great reward. And thus our apostle's\npromise may be fulfilled for each of us. 'We all with unveiled faces\nreflecting'--as a mirror does--'the glory of the Lord, are changed\n... into the same image.'\n\n\n\n\nSOBER THINKING\n\n   'For I say, through the grace that is given unto me, to\n   every man that is among you, not to think of himself more\n   highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly,\n   according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of\n   faith.'--ROMANS xii. 3.\n\n\nIt is hard to give advice without seeming to assume superiority; it\nis hard to take it, unless the giver identifies himself with the\nreceiver, and shows that his counsel to others is a law for himself.\nPaul does so here, led by the delicate perception which comes from a\nloving heart, compared with which deliberate 'tact' is cold and\nclumsy. He wishes, as the first of the specific duties to which he\ninvites the Roman Christians, an estimate of themselves based upon\nthe recognition of God as the Giver of all capacities and graces, and\nleading to a faithful use for the general good of the 'gifts\ndiffering according to the grace given to us.' In the first words of\nour text, he enforces his counsel by an appeal to his apostolic\nauthority; but he so presents it that, instead of separating himself\nfrom the Roman Christians by it, he unites himself with them. He\nspeaks of 'the grace given to _me_,' and in verse 6 of 'the grace\ngiven to _us_.' He was made an Apostle by the same giving God who has\nbestowed varying gifts on each of _them_. He knows what is the grace\nwhich he possesses as he would have them know; and in these counsels\nhe is assuming no superiority, but is simply using the special gift\nbestowed on him for the good of all. With this delicate turn of what\nmight else have sounded harshly authoritative, putting prominently\nforward the divine gift and letting the man Paul to whom it was given\nfall into the background, he counsels as the first of the social\nduties which Christian men owe to one another, a sober and just\nestimate of themselves. This sober estimate is here regarded as being\nimportant chiefly as an aid to right service. It is immediately\nfollowed by counsels to the patient and faithful exercise of\ndiffering gifts. For thus we may know what our gifts are; and the\nacquisition of such knowledge is the aim of our text.\n\nI. What determines our gifts.\n\nPaul here gives a precise standard, or 'measure' as he calls it,\naccording to which we are to estimate ourselves. 'Faith' is the\nmeasure of our gifts, and is itself a gift from God. The strength of\na Christian man's faith determines his whole Christian character.\nFaith is trust, the attitude of receptivity. There are in it a\nconsciousness of need, a yearning desire and a confidence of\nexpectation. It is the open empty hand held up with the assurance\nthat it will be filled; it is the empty pitcher let down into the\nwell with the assurance that it will be drawn up filled. It is the\nprecise opposite of the self-dependent isolation which shuts us out\nfrom God. The law of the Christian life is ever, 'according to your\nfaith be it unto you'; 'believe that ye receive and ye have them.' So\nthen the more faith a man exercises the more of God and Christ he\nhas. It is the measure of our capacity, hence there may be indefinite\nincrease in the gifts which God bestows on faithful souls. Each of us\nwill have as much as he desires and is capable of containing. The\nwalls of the heart are elastic, and desire expands them.\n\nThe grace given by faith works in the line of its possessor's natural\nfaculties; but these are supernaturally reinforced and strengthened\nwhile, at the same time, they are curbed and controlled, by the\ndivine gift, and the natural gifts thus dealt with become what Paul\ncalls _charisms_. The whole nature of a Christian should be ennobled,\nelevated, made more delicate and intense, when the 'Spirit of life\nthat is in Christ Jesus' abides in and inspires it. Just as a sunless\nlandscape is smitten into sudden beauty by a burst of sunshine which\nheightens the colouring of the flowers on the river's bank, and is\nflashed back from every silvery ripple on the stream, so the faith\nwhich brings the life of Christ into the life of the Christian makes\nhim more of a man than he was before. So, there will be infinite\nvariety in the resulting characters. It is the same force in various\nforms that rolls in the thunder or gleams in the dewdrops, that\npaints the butterfly's feathers or flashes in a star. All individual\nidiosyncrasies should be developed in the Christian Church, and will\nbe when its members yield themselves fully to the indwelling Spirit,\nand can truly declare that the lives which they live in the flesh\nthey live by the faith of the Son of God.\n\nBut Paul here regards the measure of faith as itself 'dealt to every\nman'; and however we may construe the grammar of this sentence there\nis a deep sense in which our faith is God's gift to us. We have to\ngive equal emphasis to the two conceptions of faith as a human act\nand as a divine bestowal, which have so often been pitted against\neach other as contradictory when really they are complementary. The\napparent antagonism between them is but one instance of the great\nantithesis to which we come to at last in reference to all human\nthought on the relations of man to God. 'It is He that worketh in us\nboth to will and to do of His own good pleasure'; and all our\ngoodness is God-given goodness, and yet it is our goodness. Every\ndevout heart has a consciousness that the faith which knits it to God\nis God's work in it, and that left to itself it would have remained\nalienated and faithless. The consciousness that his faith was his own\nact blended in full harmony with the twin consciousness that it was\nChrist's gift, in the agonised father's prayer, 'Lord, I believe,\nhelp Thou mine unbelief.'\n\nII. What is a just estimate of our gifts.\n\nThe Apostle tells us, negatively, that we are not to think more\nhighly than we ought to think, and positively that we are to 'think\nsoberly.'\n\nTo arrive at a just estimate of ourselves the estimate must ever be\naccompanied with a distinct consciousness that all is God's gift.\nThat will keep us from anything in the nature of pride or\nover-weening self-importance. It will lead to true humility, which is\nnot ignorance of what we can do, but recognition that we, the doers,\nare of ourselves but poor creatures. We are less likely to fancy that\nwe are greater than we are when we feel that, whatever we are, God\nmade us so. 'What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou\ndidst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received\nit?'\n\nFurther, it is to be noted that the estimate of gifts which Paul\nenjoins is an estimate with a view to service. Much\nself-investigation is morbid, because it is self-absorbed; and much\nis morbid because it is undertaken only for the purpose of\nascertaining one's 'spiritual condition.' Such self-examination is\ngood enough in its way, and may sometimes be very necessary; but a\ntesting of one's own capacities for the purpose of ascertaining what\nwe are fit for, and what therefore it is our duty to do, is far more\nwholesome. Gifts are God's summons to work, and our first response to\nthe summons should be our scrutiny of our gifts with a distinct\npurpose of using them for the great end for which we received them.\nIt is well to take stock of the loaves that we have, if the result be\nthat we bring our poor provisions to Him, and put them in His hands,\nthat He may give them back to us so multiplied as to be more than\nadequate to the needs of the thousands. Such just estimate of our\ngifts is to be attained mainly by noting ourselves at work. Patient\nself-observation may be important, but is apt to be mistaken; and the\ntrue test of what we can do is what we _do_ do.\n\nThe just estimate of our gifts which Paul enjoins is needful in order\nthat we may ascertain what God has meant us to be and do, and may\nneither waste our strength in trying to be some one else, nor hide\nour talent in the napkin of ignorance or false humility. There is\nquite as much harm done to Christian character and Christian service\nby our failure to recognise what is in our power, as by ambitious or\nostentatious attempts at what is above our power. We have to be\nourselves as God has made us in our natural faculties, and as the new\nlife of Christ operating on these has made us new creatures in Him\nnot by changing but by enlarging our old natures. It matters nothing\nwhat the special form of a Christian man's service may be; the\nsmallest and the greatest are alike to the Lord of all, and He\nappoints His servants' work. Whether the servant be a cup-bearer or a\ncounsellor is of little moment. 'He that is faithful in that which is\nleast, is faithful also in much.'\n\nThe positive aspect of this right estimate of one's gifts is, if we\nfully render the Apostle's words, as the Revised Version does, 'so to\nthink as to think soberly.' There is to be self-knowledge in order to\n'sobriety,' which includes not only what we mean by sober-mindedness,\nbut self-government; and this aspect of the apostolic exhortation\nopens out into the thought that the gifts, which a just estimate of\nourselves pronounces us to possess, need to be kept bright by the\ncontinual suppression of the mind of the flesh, by putting down\nearthly desires, by guarding against a selfish use of them, by\npreventing them by rigid control from becoming disproportioned and\nour masters. All the gifts which Christ bestows upon His people He\nbestows on condition that they bind them together by the golden chain\nof self-control.\n\n\n\n\nMANY AND ONE\n\n   'For we have many members in one body, and all members have\n   not the same office: 5. So we, being many, are one body in\n   Christ, and every one members one of another.'--ROMANS xii. 4, 5.\n\n\nTo Paul there was the closest and most vital connection between the\nprofoundest experiences of the Christian life and its plainest and\nmost superficial duties. Here he lays one of his most mystical\nconceptions as the very foundation on which to rear the great\nstructure of Christian conduct, and links on to one of his\nprofoundest thoughts, the unity of all Christians in Christ, a\ncomprehensive series of practical exhortations. We are accustomed to\nhear from many lips: 'I have no use for these dogmas that Paul\ndelights in. Give me his practical teaching. You may keep the Epistle\nto the Romans, I hold by the thirteenth of First Corinthians.' But\nsuch an unnatural severance between the doctrine and the ethics of\nthe Epistle cannot be effected without the destruction of both. The\nvery principle of this Epistle to the Romans is that the difference\nbetween the law and the Gospel is, that the one preaches conduct\nwithout a basis for it, and that the other says, First believe in\nChrist, and in the strength of that belief, do the right and be like\nHim. Here, then, in the very laying of the foundation for conduct in\nthese verses we have in concrete example the secret of the Christian\nway of making good men.\n\nI. The first point to notice here is, the unity of the derived life.\nMany are one, because they are each in Christ, and the individual\nrelationship and derivation of life from Him makes them one whilst\ncontinuing to be many. That great metaphor, and nowadays much\nforgotten and neglected truth, is to Paul's mind the fact which ought\nto mould the whole life and conduct of individual Christians and to\nbe manifested therein. There are three most significant and\ninstructive symbols by which the unity of believers in Christ Jesus\nis set forth in the New Testament. Our Lord Himself gives us the one\nof the vine and its branches, and that symbol suggests the silent,\neffortless process by which the life-giving sap rises and finds its\nway from the deep root to the furthest tendril and the far-extended\ngrowth. The same symbol loses indeed in one respect its value if we\ntransfer it to growths more congenial to our northern climate, and\ninstead of the vine with its rich clusters, think of some great elm,\ndeeply rooted, and with its firm bole and massive branches, through\nall of which the mystery of a common life penetrates and makes every\nleaf in the cloud of foliage through which we look up participant of\nitself. But, profound and beautiful as our Lord's metaphor is, the\nvegetative uniformity of parts and the absence of individual\ncharacteristics make it, if taken alone, insufficient. In the tree\none leaf is like another; it 'grows green and broad and takes no\ncare.' Hence, to express the whole truth of the union between Christ\nand us we must bring in other figures. Thus we find the Apostle\nadducing the marriage tie, the highest earthly example of union,\nfounded on choice and affection. But even that sacred bond leaves a\ngap between those who are knit together by it; and so we have the\nconception of our text, the unity of the body as representing for us\nthe unity of believers with Jesus. This is a unity of life. He is not\nonly head as chief and sovereign, but He is soul or life, which has\nits seat, not in this or that organ as old physics teach, but\npervades the whole and 'filleth all in all.' The mystery which\nconcerns the union of soul and body, and enshrouds the nature of\nphysical life, is part of the felicity of this symbol in its\nChristian application. That commonest of all things, the mysterious\nforce which makes matter live and glow under spiritual emotion, and\nchanges the vibrations of a nerve, or the undulations of the grey\nbrain, into hope and love and faith, eludes the scalpel and the\nmicroscope. Of man in his complex nature it is true that 'clouds and\ndarkness are round about him,' and we may expect an equally solemn\nmystery to rest upon that which makes out of separate individuals one\nliving body, animated with the life and moved by the Spirit of the\nindwelling Christ. We can get no further back, and dig no deeper\ndown, than His own words, 'I am ... the life.'\n\nBut, though this unity is mysterious, it is most real. Every\nChristian soul receives from Christ the life of Christ. There is a\nreal implantation of a higher nature which has nothing to do with sin\nand is alien from death. There is a true regeneration which is\nsupernatural, and which makes all who possess it one, in the measure\nof their possession, as truly as all the leaves on a tree are one\nbecause fed by the same sap, or all the members in the natural body\nare one, because nourished by the same blood. So the true bond of\nChristian unity lies in the common participation of the one Lord, and\nthe real Christian unity is a unity of derived life.\n\nThe misery and sin of the Christian Church have been, and are, that\nit has sought to substitute other bonds of unity. The whole weary\nhistory of the divisions and alienations between Christians has\nsurely sufficiently, and more than sufficiently, shown the failure of\nthe attempts to base Christian oneness upon uniformity of opinion, or\nof ritual, or of purpose. The difference between the real unity, and\nthese spurious attempts after it, is the difference between bundles\nof faggots, dead and held together by a cord, and a living tree\nlifting its multitudinous foliage towards the heavens. The bundle of\nfaggots may be held together in some sort of imperfect union, but is\nno exhibition of unity. If visible churches must be based on some\nkind of agreement, they can never cover the same ground as that of\n'the body of Christ.'\n\nThat oneness is independent of our organisations, and even of our\nwill, since it comes from the common possession of a common life. Its\nenemies are not divergent opinions or forms, but the evil tempers and\ndispositions which impede, or prevent, the flow into each Christian\nsoul of the uniting 'Spirit of life in Christ Jesus' which makes the\nmany who may be gathered into separate folds one flock clustered\naround the one Shepherd. And if that unity be thus a fundamental fact\nin the Christian life and entirely apart from external organisation,\nthe true way to increase it in each individual is, plainly, the\ndrawing nearer to Him, and the opening of our spirits so as to\nreceive fuller, deeper, and more continuous inflows from His own\ninexhaustible fullness. In the old Temple stood the seven-branched\ncandlestick, an emblem of a formal unity; in the new the seven\ncandlesticks are one, because Christ stands in the midst. He makes\nthe body one; without Him it is a carcase.\n\nII. The diversity.\n\n'We have many members in one body, but all members have not the same\noffice.' Life has different functions in different organs. It is\nlight in the eye, force in the arm, music on the tongue, swiftness in\nthe foot; so also is Christ. The higher a creature rises in the scale\nof life, the more are the parts differentiated. The lowest is a mere\nsac, which performs all the functions that the creature requires; the\nhighest is a man with a multitude of organs, each of which is\ndefinitely limited to one office. In like manner the division of\nlabour in society measures its advance; and in like manner in the\nChurch there is to be the widest diversity. What the Apostle\ndesignates as 'gifts' are natural characteristics heightened by the\nSpirit of Christ; the effect of the common life in each ought to be\nthe intensifying and manifestation of individuality of character. In\nthe Christian ideal of humanity there is place for every variety of\ngifts. The flora of the Mountain of God yields an endless\nmultiplicity of growths on its ascending slopes which pass through\nevery climate. There ought to be a richer diversity in the Church\nthan anywhere besides; that tree should 'bear twelve manner of\nfruits, yielding its fruit every month for the healing of the\nnations.' 'All flesh is not the same flesh.' 'Star differeth from\nstar in glory.'\n\nThe average Christian life of to-day sorely fails in two things: in\nbeing true to itself, and in tolerance of diversities. We are all so\nafraid of being ticketed as 'eccentric,' 'odd,' that we oftentimes\nstifle the genuine impulses of the Spirit of Christ leading us to the\ndevelopment of unfamiliar types of goodness, and the undertaking of\nunrecognised forms of service. If we trusted in Christ in ourselves\nmore, and took our laws from His whispers, we should often reach\nheights of goodness which tower above us now, and discover in\nourselves capacities which slumber undiscerned. There is a dreary\nmonotony and uniformity amongst us which impoverishes us, and weakens\nthe testimony that we bear to the quickening influence of the Spirit\nthat is in Christ Jesus; and we all tend to look very suspiciously at\nany man who 'puts all the others out' by being himself, and letting\nthe life that he draws from the Lord dictate its own manner of\nexpression. It would breathe a new life into all our Christian\ncommunities if we allowed full scope to the diversities of operation,\nand realised that in them all there was the one Spirit. The world\ncondemns originality: the Church should have learned to prize it.\n'One after this fashion, and one after that,' is the only wholesome\nlaw of the development of the manifold graces of the Christian life.\n\nIII. The harmony.\n\n'We being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of\nanother.' That expression is remarkable, for we might have expected\nto read rather members _of the body_, than _of each other_;\nbut the bringing in of such an idea suggests most emphatically that\nthought of the mutual relation of each part of the great whole, and\nthat each has offices to discharge for the benefit of each. In the\nChristian community, as in an organised body, the active co-operation\nof all the parts is the condition of health. All the rays into which\nthe spectrum breaks up the pure white light must be gathered together\nagain in order to produce it; just as every instrument in the great\norchestra contributes to the volume of sound. The Lancashire\nhand-bell ringers may illustrate this point for us. Each man picks up\nhis own bell from the table and sounds his own note at the moment\nprescribed by the score, and so the whole of the composer's idea is\nreproduced. To suppress diversities results in monotony; to combine\nthem is the only sure way to secure harmony. Nor must we forget that\nthe indwelling life of the Church can only be manifested by the full\nexhibition and freest possible play of all the forms which that life\nassumes in individual character. It needs all, and more than all, the\ntypes of mental characteristics that can be found in humanity to\nmirror the infinite beauty of the indwelling Lord. 'There are\ndiversities of operations,' and all those diversities but partially\nrepresent that same Lord 'who worketh all in all,' and Himself is\nmore than all, and, after all manifestation through human characters,\nremains hinted at rather than declared, suggested but not revealed.\n\nStill further, only by the exercise of possible diversities is the\none body nourished, for each member, drawing life directly and\nwithout the intervention of any other from Christ the Source, draws\nalso from his fellow-Christian some form of the common life that to\nhimself is unfamiliar, and needs human intervention in order to its\nreception. Such dependence upon one's brethren is not inconsistent\nwith a primal dependence on Christ alone, and is a safeguard against\nthe cultivating of one's own idiosyncrasies till they become diseased\nand disproportionate. The most slenderly endowed Christian soul has\nthe double charge of giving to, and receiving from, its brethren. We\nhave all something which we can contribute to the general stock. We\nhave all need to supplement our own peculiar gifts by brotherly\nministration. The prime condition of Christian vitality has been set\nforth for ever by the gracious invitation, which is also an\nimperative command, 'Abide in Me and I in you'; but they who by such\nabiding are recipients of a communicated life are not thereby\nisolated, but united to all who like them have received 'the\nmanifestation of the Spirit to do good with.'\n\n\n\n\nGRACE AND GRACES\n\n   'Having then gifts, differing according to the grace that\n   is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according\n   to the proportion of faith; 7. Or ministry, let us wait on\n   our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; 8. Or he\n   that exhorteth, on exhortation; he that giveth, let him do\n   it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that\n   showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.'--ROMANS xii. 6-8.\n\n\nThe Apostle here proceeds to build upon the great thought of the\nunity of believers in the one body a series of practical\nexhortations. In the first words of our text, he, with characteristic\ndelicacy, identifies himself with the Roman Christians as a\nrecipient, like them, of 'the grace that is given to us,' and as,\ntherefore, subject to the same precepts which he commends to them. He\ndoes not stand isolated by the grace that is given to him; nor does\nhe look down as from the height of his apostleship on the multitude\nbelow, saying to them,--Go. As one of themselves he stands amongst\nthem, and with brotherly exhortation says,--Come. If that had been\nthe spirit in which all Christian teachers had besought men, their\nexhortations would less frequently have been breath spent in vain.\nWe may note\n\nI. The grace that gives the gifts.\n\nThe connection between these two is more emphatically suggested by\nthe original Greek, in which the word for 'gifts' is a derivative of\nthat for 'grace.' The relation between these two can scarcely be\nverbally reproduced in English; but it may be, though imperfectly,\nsuggested by reading 'graces' instead of 'gifts.' The gifts are\nrepresented as being the direct product of, and cognate with, the\ngrace bestowed. As we have had already occasion to remark, they are\nin Paul's language a designation of natural capacities strengthened\nby the access of the life of the Spirit of Christ. As a candle\nplunged in a vase of oxygen leaps up into more brilliant flame, so\nall the faculties of the human soul are made a hundred times\nthemselves when the quickening power of the life of Christ enters\ninto them.\n\nIt is to be observed that the Apostle here assumes that every\nChristian possesses, in some form, that grace which gives graces. To\nhim a believing soul without Christ-given gifts is a monstrosity. No\none is without some graces, and therefore no one is without some\nduties. No one who considers the multitude of professing Christians\nwho hamper all our churches to-day, and reflects on the modern need\nto urge on the multitude of idlers forms of Christian activity, will\nfail to recognise signs of terribly weakened vitality. The humility,\nwhich in response to all invitations to work for Christ pleads\nunfitness is, if true, more tragical than it at first seems, for it\nis a confession that the man who alleges it has no real hold of the\nChrist in whom he professes to trust. If a Christian man is fit for\nno Christian work, it is time that he gravely ask himself whether he\nhas any Christian life. 'Having gifts' is the basis of all the\nApostle's exhortations. It is to him inconceivable that any Christian\nshould not possess, and be conscious of possessing, some endowment\nfrom the life of Christ which will fit him for, and bind him to, a\ncourse of active service.\n\nThe universality of this possession is affirmed, if we note that,\naccording to the Greek, it was 'given' at a special time in the\nexperience of each of these Roman Christians. The rendering 'was\ngiven' might be more accurately exchanged for 'has been given,' and\nthat expression is best taken as referring to a definite moment in\nthe history of each believer namely, his conversion. When we 'yield\nourselves to God,' as Paul exhorts us to do in the beginning of this\nchapter, as the commencement of all true life of conformity to His\nwill, Christ yields Himself to us. The possession of these gifts of\ngrace is no prerogative of officials; and, indeed, in all the\nexhortations which follow there is no reference to officials, though\nof course such were in existence in the Roman Church. They had their\nspecial functions and special qualifications for these. But what Paul\nis dealing with now is the grace that is inseparable from individual\nsurrender to Christ, and has been bestowed upon all who are His. To\nlimit the gifts to officials, and to suppose that the universal gifts\nin any degree militate against the recognition of officials in the\nChurch, are equally mistakes, and confound essentially different\nsubjects.\n\nII. The graces that flow from the grace.\n\nThe Apostle's catalogue of these is not exhaustive, nor logically\narranged; but yet a certain loose order may be noted, which may be\nprofitable for us to trace. They are in number seven--the sacred\nnumber; and are capable of being divided, as so many of the series of\nsevens are, into two portions, one containing four and the other\nthree. The former include more public works, to each of which a man\nmight be specially devoted as his life work for and in the Church.\nThree are more private, and may be conceived to have a wider relation\nto the world. There are some difficulties of construction and\nrendering in the list, which need not concern us here; and we may\nsubstantially follow the Authorised Version.\n\nThe first group of four seems to fall into two pairs, the first of\nwhich, 'prophecy' and 'ministry,' seem to be bracketed together by\nreason of the difference between them. Prophecy is a very high form\nof special inspiration, and implies a direct reception of special\nrevelation, but not necessarily of future events. The prophet is\nusually coupled in Paul's writings with the apostle, and was\nobviously amongst those to whom was given one of the highest forms of\nthe gifts of Christ. It is very beautiful to note that by natural\ncontrast the Apostle at once passes to one of the forms of\nservice which a vulgar estimate would regard as remotest from the\nspecial revelation of the prophet, and is confined to lowly service.\nSide by side with the exalted gift of prophecy Paul puts the lowly\ngift of ministry. Very significant is the juxtaposition of these two\nextremes. It teaches us that the lowliest office is as truly allotted\nby Jesus as the most sacred, and that His highest gifts find an\nadequate field for manifestation in him who is servant of all.\nMinistry to be rightly discharged needs spiritual character. The\noriginal seven were men 'full of faith and of the Holy Ghost,' though\nall they had to do was to hand their pittances to poor widows. It may\nbe difficult to decide for what reason other than the emphasising of\nthis contrast the Apostle links together ministry and prophecy, and\nso breaks a natural sequence which would have connected the second\npair of graces with the first member of the first pair. We should\nhave expected that here, as elsewhere, 'prophet,' 'teacher,'\n'exhorter,' would have been closely connected, and there seems no\nreason why they should not have been so, except that which we have\nsuggested, namely, the wish to bring together the highest and\nthe lowest forms of service.\n\nThe second pair seem to be linked together by likeness. The 'teacher'\nprobably had for his function, primarily, the narration of the facts\nof the Gospel, and the setting forth in a form addressed chiefly to\nthe understanding the truths thereby revealed; whilst the 'exhorter'\nrather addressed himself to the will, presenting the same truth, but\nin forms more intended to influence the emotions. The word here\nrendered 'exhort' is found in Paul's writings as bearing special\nmeanings, such as consoling, stimulating, encouraging, rebuking and\nothers. Of course these two forms of service would often be\nassociated, and each would be imperfect when alone; but it would\nappear that in the early Church there were persons in whom the one or\nthe other of these two elements was so preponderant that their office\nwas thereby designated. Each received a special gift from the one\nSource. The man who could only say to his brother, 'Be of good\ncheer,' was as much the recipient of the Spirit as the man who could\nconnect and elaborate a systematic presentation of the truths of the\nGospel.\n\nThese four graces are followed by a group of three, which may be\nregarded as being more private, as not pointing to permanent offices\nso much as to individual acts. They are 'giving,' 'ruling,' 'showing\npity,' concerning which we need only note that the second of these\ncan hardly be the ecclesiastical office, and that it stands between\ntwo which are closely related, as if it were of the same kind. The\ngifts of money, or of direction, or of pity, are one in kind. The\nright use of wealth comes from the gift of God's grace; so does the\nright use of any sway which any of us have over any of our brethren;\nand so does the glow of compassion, the exercise of the natural human\nsympathy which belongs to all, and is deepened and made tenderer and\nintenser by the gift of the Spirit. It would be a very different\nChurch, and a very different world, if Christians, who were not\nconscious of possessing gifts which made them fit to be either\nprophets, or teachers, or exhorters, and were scarcely endowed even\nfor any special form of ministry, felt that a gift from their hands,\nor a wave of pity from their hearts, was a true token of the movement\nof God's Spirit on their spirits. The fruit of the Spirit is to be\nfound in the wide fields of everyday life, and the vine bears many\nclusters for the thirsty lips of wearied men who may little know what\ngives them their bloom and sweetness. It would be better for both\ngiver and receiver if Christian beneficence were more clearly\nrecognised as one of the manifestations of spiritual life.\n\nIII. The exercise of the graces.\n\nThere are some difficulties in reference to the grammatical\nconstruction of the words of our text, into which it is not necessary\nthat we should enter here. We may substantially follow the Authorised\nand Revised Versions in supplying verbs in the various clauses, so as\nto make of the text a series of exhortations. The first of these is\nto 'prophesy according to the proportion of faith'; a commandment\nwhich is best explained by remembering that in the preceding verse\n'the measure of faith' has been stated as being the measure of the\ngifts. The prophet then is to exercise his gifts in proportion to his\nfaith. He is to speak his convictions fully and openly, and to let\nhis utterances be shaped by the indwelling life. This exhortation may\nwell sink into the heart of preachers in this day. It is but the echo\nof Jeremiah's strong words: 'He that hath my word, let him speak my\nword faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is\nnot my word like as fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that\nbreaketh the rock in pieces?' The ancient prophet's woe falls with\ndouble weight on those who use their words as a veil to obscure their\nreal beliefs, and who prophesy, not 'according to the proportion of\nfaith,' but according to the expectations of the hearers, whose faith\nis as vague as theirs.\n\nIn the original, the next three exhortations are alike in grammatical\nconstruction, which is represented in the Authorised Version by the\nsupplement 'let us wait on,' and in the Revised Version by 'let us\ngive ourselves to'; we might with advantage substitute for either the\nstill more simple form 'be in,' after the example of Paul's\nexhortation to Timothy 'be in these things'; that is, as our Version\nhas it, 'give thyself wholly to them.' The various gifts are each\nrepresented as a sphere within which its possessor is to move, for\nthe opportunities for the exercise of which he is carefully to watch,\nand within the limits of which he is humbly to keep. That general law\napplies equally to ministry, and teaching and exhorting. We are to\nseek to discern our spheres; we are to be occupied with, if not\nabsorbed in, them. At the least we are diligently to use the gift\nwhich we discover ourselves to possess, and thus filling our several\nspheres, we are to keep within them, recognising that each is sacred\nas the manifestation of God's will for each of us. The divergence of\nforms is unimportant, and it matters nothing whether 'the Giver of\nall' grants less or more. The main thing is that each be faithful in\nthe administration of what he has received, and not seek to imitate\nhis brother who is diversely endowed, or to monopolise for himself\nanother's gifts. To insist that our brethren's gifts should be like\nours, and to try to make ours like theirs, are equally sins against\nthe great truth, of which the Church as a whole is the example, that\nthere are 'diversities of operations but the same Spirit.'\n\nThe remaining three exhortations are in like manner thrown together\nby a similarity of construction in which the personality of the doer\nis put in the foreground, and the emphasis of the commandment is\nrested on the manner in which the grace is exercised. The reason for\nthat may be that in these three especially the manner will show the\ngrace. 'Giving' is to be 'with simplicity.' There are to be no\nsidelong looks to self-interest; no flinging of a gift from a height,\nas a bone might be flung to a dog; no seeking for gratitude; no\nostentation in the gift. Any taint of such mixed motives as these\ninfuses poison into our gifts, and makes them taste bitter to the\nreceiver, and recoil in hurt upon ourselves. To 'give with\nsimplicity' is to give as God gives.\n\n'Diligence' is the characteristic prescribed for the man that rules.\nWe have already pointed out that this exhortation includes a much\nwider area than that of any ecclesiastical officials. It points to\nanother kind of rule, and the natural gifts needed for any kind of\nrule are diligence and zeal. Slackly-held reins make stumbling\nsteeds; and any man on whose shoulders is laid the weight of\ngovernment is bound to feel it as a weight. The history of many a\nnation, and of many a family, teaches that where the rule is slothful\nall evils grow apace; and it is that natural energy and earnestness,\ndeepened and hallowed by the Christian life, which here is enjoined\nas the true Christian way of discharging the function of ruling,\nwhich, in some form or another, devolves on almost all of us.\n\n'He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.' The glow of natural human\nsympathy is heightened so as to become a 'gift,' and the way in which\nit is exercised is defined as being 'with cheerfulness.' That\ninjunction is but partially understood if it is taken to mean no more\nthan that sympathy is not to be rendered grudgingly, or as by\nnecessity. No sympathy is indeed possible on such terms; unless the\nheart is in it, it is nought. And that it should thus flow forth\nspontaneously wherever sorrow and desolation evoke it, there must be\na continual repression of self, and a heart disengaged from the\nentanglements of its own circumstances, and at leisure to make a\nbrother's burden its very own. But the exhortation may, perhaps,\nrather mean that the truest sympathy carries a bright face into\ndarkness, and comes like sunshine in a shady place.\n\n\n\n\nLOVE THAT CAN HATE\n\n   'Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil;\n   cleave to that which is good. 10. In love of the brethren\n   be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honour\n   preferring one another.'--ROMANS xii. 9-10 (R.V.).\n\n\nThus far the Apostle has been laying down very general precepts and\nprinciples of Christian morals. Starting with the one\nall-comprehensive thought of self-sacrifice as the very foundation of\nall goodness, of transformation as its method, and of the clear\nknowledge of our several powers and faithful stewardship of these, as\nits conditions, he here proceeds to a series of more specific\nexhortations, which at first sight seem to be very unconnected, but\nthrough which there may be discerned a sequence of thought.\n\nThe clauses of our text seem at first sight strangely disconnected.\nThe first and the last belong to the same subject, but the\nintervening clause strikes a careless reader as out of place and\nheterogeneous. I think that we shall see it is not so; but for the\npresent we but note that here are three sets of precepts which\nenjoin, first, honest love; then, next, a healthy vehemence against\nevil and for good; and finally, a brotherly affection and mutual\nrespect.\n\nI. Let love be honest.\n\nLove stands at the head, and is the fontal source of all separate\nindividualised duties. Here Paul is not so much prescribing love as\ndescribing the kind of love which he recognises as genuine, and the\nmain point on which he insists is sincerity. The 'dissimulation' of\nthe Authorised Version only covers half the ground. It means, hiding\nwhat one is; but there is simulation, or pretending to be what one is\nnot. There are words of love which are like the iridescent scum on\nthe surface veiling the black depths of a pool of hatred. A Psalmist\ncomplains of having to meet men whose words were 'smoother than\nbutter' and whose true feelings were as 'drawn swords'; but, short of\nsuch consciously lying love, we must all recognise as a real danger\nbesetting us all, and especially those of us who are naturally\ninclined to kindly relations with our fellows, the tendency to use\nlanguage just a little in excess of our feelings. The glove is\nslightly stretched, and the hand in it is not quite large enough to\nfill it. There is such a thing, not altogether unknown in Christian\ncircles, as benevolence, which is largely cant, and words of\nconventional love about individuals which do not represent any\ncorresponding emotion. Such effusive love pours itself in words, and\nis most generally the token of intense selfishness. Any man who seeks\nto make his words a true picture of his emotions must be aware that\nfew harder precepts have ever been given than this brief one of the\nApostle's, 'Let love be without hypocrisy.'\n\nBut the place where this exhortation comes in the apostolic sequence\nhere may suggest to us the discipline through which obedience to it\nis made possible. There is little to be done by the way of directly\nincreasing either the fervour of love or the honesty of its\nexpression. The true method of securing both is to be growingly\ntransformed by 'the renewing of our minds,' and growingly to bring\nour whole old selves under the melting and softening influence of\n'the mercies of God.' It is swollen self-love, 'thinking more highly\nof ourselves than we ought to think,' which impedes the flow of love\nto others, and it is in the measure in which we receive into our\nminds 'the mind that was in Christ Jesus,' and look at men as He did,\nthat we shall come to love them all honestly and purely. When we are\ndelivered from the monstrous oppression and tyranny of self, we have\nhearts capable of a Christlike and Christ-giving love to all men, and\nonly they who have cleansed their hearts by union with Him, and by\nreceiving into them the purging influence of His own Spirit, will be\nable to love without hypocrisy.\n\nII. Let love abhor what is evil, and cleave to what is good.\n\nIf we carefully consider this apparently irrelevant interruption in\nthe sequence of the apostolic exhortations, we shall, I think, see at\nonce that the irrelevance is only apparent, and that the healthy\nvehemence against evil and resolute clinging to good is as essential\nto the noblest forms of Christian love as is the sincerity enjoined\nin the previous clause. To detest the one and hold fast by the other\nare essential to the purity and depth of our love. Evil is to be\nloathed, and good to be clung to in our own moral conduct, and\nwherever we see them. These two precepts are not mere tautology, but\nthe second of them is the ground of the first. The force of our\nrecoil from the bad will be measured by the firmness of our grasp\nof the good; and yet, though inseparably connected, the one is apt to\nbe easier to obey than is the other. There are types of Christian men\nto whom it is more natural to abhor the evil than to cleave to the\ngood; and there are types of character of which the converse is true.\nWe often see men very earnest and entirely sincere in their\ndetestation of meanness and wickedness, but very tepid in their\nappreciation of goodness. To hate is, unfortunately, more congenial\nwith ordinary characters than to love; and it is more facile to look\ndown on badness than to look up at goodness.\n\nBut it needs ever to be insisted upon, and never more than in this\nday of spurious charity and unprincipled toleration, that a healthy\nhatred of moral evil and of sin, wherever found and however garbed,\nought to be the continual accompaniment of all vigorous and manly\ncleaving to that which is good. Unless we shudderingly recoil from\ncontact with the bad in our own lives, and refuse to christen it with\ndeceptive euphemisms when we meet it in social and civil life, we\nshall but feebly grasp, and slackly hold, that which is good. Such\nenergy of moral recoil from evil is perfectly consistent with honest\nlove, for it is things, not men, that we are to hate; and it is\nneedful as the completion and guardian of love itself. There is\nalways danger that love shall weaken the condemnation of wrong, and\nmodern liberality, both in the field of opinion and in regard to\npractical life, has so far condoned evil as largely to have lost its\nhold upon good. The criminal is pitied rather than blamed, and a\nmultitude of agencies are so occupied in elevating the wrong-doers\nthat they lose sight of the need of punishing.\n\nNor is it only in reference to society that this tendency works harm.\nThe effect of it is abundantly manifest in the fashionable ideas of\nGod and His character. There are whole schools of opinion which\npractically strike out of their ideal of the Divine Nature abhorrence\nof evil, and, little as they think it, are thereby fatally\nimpoverishing their ideal of God, and making it impossible to\nunderstand His government of the world. As always, so in this matter,\nthe authentic revelation of the Divine Nature, and the perfect\npattern for the human are to be found in Jesus Christ. We recall that\nwonderful incident, when on His last approach to Jerusalem, rounding\nthe shoulder of the Mount of Olives, He beheld the city, gleaming in\nthe morning sunshine across the valley, and forgetting His own\nsorrow, shed tears over its approaching desolation, which yet He\nsteadfastly pronounced. His loathing of evil was whole-souled and\nabsolute, and equally intense and complete was His cleaving to that\nwhich is good. In both, and in the harmony between them, He makes God\nknown, and prescribes and holds forth the ideal of perfect humanity\nto men.\n\nIII. Let sincere and discriminating love be concentrated on Christian\nmen.\n\nIn the final exhortation of our text 'the love of the brethren' takes\nthe place of the more diffused and general love enjoined in the first\nclause. The expression 'kindly affectioned' is the rendering of a\nvery eloquent word in the original in which the instinctive love of a\nmother to her child, or the strange mystical ties which unite members\nof a family together, irrespective of their differences of character\nand temperament, are taken as an example after which Christian men\nare to mould their relations to one another. The love which is\nwithout hypocrisy, and is to be diffused on all sides, is also to be\ngathered together and concentrated with special energy on all who\n'call upon Jesus Christ as Lord, both their Lord and ours.' The more\ngeneral precept and the more particular are in perfect harmony,\nhowever our human weakness sometimes confuses them. It is obvious\nthat this final precept of our text will be the direct result of the\ntwo preceding, for the love which has learned to be moral, hating\nevil, and clinging to good as necessary, when directed to possessors\nof like precious faith will thrill with the consciousness of a deep\nmystical bond of union, and will effloresce in all brotherly love and\nkindly affections. They who are like one another in the depths of\ntheir moral life, who are touched by like aspirations after like holy\nthings, and who instinctively recoil with similar revulsion from like\nabominations, will necessarily feel the drawing of a unity far deeper\nand sacreder than any superficial likenesses of race, or\ncircumstance, or opinion. Two men who share, however imperfectly, in\nChrist's Spirit are more akin in the realities of their nature,\nhowever they may differ on the surface, than either of them is to\nanother, however like he may seem, who is not a partaker in the life\nof Christ.\n\nThis instinctive, Christian love, like all true and pure love, is to\nmanifest itself by 'preferring one another in honour'; or as the word\nmight possibly be rendered, 'anticipating one another.' We are not to\nwait to have our place assigned before we give our brother his. There\nwill be no squabbling for the chief seat in the synagogue, or the\nuppermost rooms at the feast, where brotherly love marshals the\nguests. The one cure for petty jealousies and the miserable strife\nfor recognition, which we are all tempted to engage in, lies in a\nheart filled with love of the brethren because of its love to the\nElder Brother of them all, and to the Father who is His Father as\nwell as ours. What a contrast is presented between the practice of\nChristians and these precepts of Paul! We may well bow ourselves in\nshame and contrition when we read these clear-drawn lines indicating\nwhat we ought to be, and set by the side of them the blurred and\nblotted pictures of what we are. It is a painful but profitable task\nto measure ourselves against Paul's ideal of Christ's commandment;\nbut it will only be profitable if it brings us to remember that\nChrist gives before He commands, and that conformity with His ideal\nmust begin, not with details of conduct, or with emotion, however\npure, but with yielding ourselves to the God who moves us by His\nmercies, and being 'transformed by the renewing of our minds' and\n'the indwelling of Christ in our hearts by faith.'\n\n\n\n\nA TRIPLET OF GRACES\n\n   'Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit;\n   serving the Lord.'--ROMANS xii. 11.\n\n\nPaul believed that Christian doctrine was meant to influence\nChristian practice; and therefore, after the fundamental and profound\nexhibition of the central truths of Christianity which occupies the\nearlier portion of this great Epistle, he tacks on, with a\n'therefore' to his theological exposition, a series of plain,\npractical teachings. The place where conduct comes in the letter is\nprofoundly significant, and, if the significance of it had been\nobserved and the spirit of it carried into practice, there would have\nbeen less of a barren orthodoxy, and fewer attempts at producing\nrighteous conduct without faith.\n\nBut not only is the place where this series of exhortations occur\nvery significant, but the order in which they appear is also\ninstructive. The great principle which covers all conduct, and may be\nbroken up into all the minutenesses of practical directions is\nself-surrender. Give yourselves up to God; that is the Alpha and the\nOmega of all goodness, and wherever that foundation is really laid,\non it will rise the fair building of a life which is a temple,\nadorned with whatever things are lovely and of good report. So after\nPaul has laid deep and broad the foundation of all Christian virtue\nin his exhortation to present ourselves as living sacrifices, he goes\non to point out the several virtues in which such self-surrender will\nmanifest itself. There runs through the most of these exhortations an\narrangement in triplets--three sister Graces linked together\nhand-in-hand as it were--and my text presents an example of that\nthreefoldness in grouping. 'Not slothful in business; fervent in\nspirit; serving the Lord.'\n\nI. We have, first, the prime grace of Christian diligence.\n\n'Not slothful in business' suggests, by reason of our modern\nrestriction of that word 'business' to a man's daily occupation, a\nmuch more limited range to this exhortation than the Apostle meant to\ngive it. The idea which is generally drawn from these words by\nEnglish readers is that they are to do their ordinary work\ndiligently, and, all the while, notwithstanding the cooling or\ndistracting influences of their daily avocations, are to keep\nthemselves 'fervent in spirit.' That is a noble and needful\nconception of the command, but it does not express what is in the\nApostle's mind. He does not mean by 'business' a trade or profession,\nor daily occupation. But the word means 'zeal' or 'earnestness.' And\nwhat Paul says is just this--'In regard to your earnestness in all\ndirections, see that you are not slothful.'\n\nThe force and drift of the whole precept is just the exhortation to\nexercise the very homely virtue of diligence, which is as much a\ncondition of growth and maturity in the Christian as it is in any\nother life. The very homeliness and obviousness of the duty causes us\noften to lose sight of its imperativeness and necessity.\n\nMany of us, if we would sit quietly down and think of how we go about\nour 'business,' as we call it, and of how we go about our Christian\nlife, which ought to be our highest business, would have great cause\nfor being ashamed. We begin the one early in the morning, we keep\nhard at it all day, our eyes are wide open to see any opening where\nmoney is to be made; that is all right. We give our whole selves to\nour work whilst we are at it; that is as it should be. But why are\nthere not the same concentration, the same wide-awakeness, the same\nopen-eyed eagerness to find out ways of advancement, the same\nresolved and continuous and all-comprehending and dominating\nenthusiasm about our Christianity as there is about our shop, or our\nmill, or our success as students? Why are we all fire in the one case\nand all ice in the other? Why do we think that it is enough to lift\nthe burden that Christ lays upon us with one languid finger, and to\nput our whole hand, or rather, as the prophet says, 'both hands\nearnestly,' to the task of lifting the load of daily work? 'In your\nearnestness be not slothful.'\n\nBrethren, that is a very homely exhortation. I wonder how many of us\ncan say, 'Lord! I have heard, and I have obeyed Thy precept.'\n\nII. Diligence must be fed by a fervent spirit.\n\nThe word translated 'fervent' is literally boiling. The metaphor is\nvery plain and intelligible. The spirit brought into contact with\nChristian truth and with the fire of the Holy Spirit will naturally\nhave its temperature raised, and will be moved by the warm touch as\nheat makes water in a pot hung above a fire boil. Such emotion,\nproduced by the touch of the fiery Spirit of God, is what Paul\ndesires for, and enjoins on, all Christians; for such emotion is the\nonly way by which the diligence, without which no Christian progress\nwill be made, can be kept up.\n\nNo man will work long at a task that his heart is not in; or if he\ndoes, because he is obliged, the work will be slavery. In order,\nthen, that diligence may neither languish and become slothfulness,\nnor be felt to be a heavy weight and an unwelcome necessity, Paul\nhere bids us see to it that our hearts are moved because there is a\nfire below which makes 'the soul's depths boil in earnest.'\n\nNow, of course, I know that, as a great teacher has told us, 'The\ngods approve the depth and not the tumult of the soul,' and I know\nthat there is a great deal of emotional Christianity which is worth\nnothing. But it is not that kind of fervour that the Apostle is\nenjoining here. Whilst it is perfectly true that mere emotion often\ndoes co-exist with, and very often leads to, entire negligence as to\npossessing and manifesting practical excellence, the true relation\nbetween these is just the opposite--viz. that this fervour of which I\nspeak, this wide-awakeness and enthusiasm of a spirit all quickened\ninto rapidity of action by the warmth which it has felt from God in\nChrist, should drive the wheels of life. Boiling water makes steam,\ndoes it not? And what is to be done with the steam that comes off the\n'boiling' spirit? You may either let it go roaring through a\nwaste-pipe and do nothing but make a noise and be idly dissipated in\nthe air, or you may lead it into a cylinder and make it lift a\npiston, and then you will get work out of it. That is what the\nApostle desires us to do with our emotion. The lightning goes\ncareering through the sky, but we have harnessed it to tram-cars\nnowadays, and made it 'work for its living,' to carry our letters and\nlight our rooms. Fervour of a Christian spirit is all right when it\nis yoked to Christian work, and made to draw what else is a heavy\nchariot. It is not emotion, but it is indolent emotion, that is the\ncurse of much of our 'fervent' Christianity.\n\nThere cannot be too much fervour. There may be too little outlet\nprovided for the fervour to work in. It may all go off in comfortable\nfeeling, in enthusiastic prayers and 'Amens!' and 'So be it, Lords!'\nand the like, or it may come with us into our daily tasks, and make\nus buckle to with more earnestness, and more continuity. Diligence\ndriven by earnestness, and fervour that works, are the true things.\n\nAnd surely, surely there cannot be any genuine\nChristianity--certainly there cannot be any deep Christianity--which\nis not fervent.\n\nWe hear from certain quarters of the Church a great deal about the\nvirtue of moderation. But it seems to me that, if you take into\naccount what Christianity tells us, the 'sober' feeling is fervent\nfeeling, and tepid feeling is imperfect feeling. I cannot understand\nany man believing as plain matter-of-fact the truths on which the\nwhole New Testament insists, and keeping himself 'cool,' or, as our\nfriends call it, 'moderate.' Brethren, enthusiasm--which properly\nmeans the condition of being dwelt in by a god--is the wise, the\nreasonable attitude of Christian men, if they believe their own\nChristianity and are really serving Jesus Christ. They should be\n'diligent in business, fervent'--boiling--in spirit.\n\nIII. The diligence and the fervency are both to be animated by the\nthought, 'Serving the Lord!'\n\nSome critics, as many of you know, no doubt, would prefer to read\nthis verse in its last clause 'serving the time.' But that seems to\nme a very lame and incomplete climax for the Apostle's thought, and\nit breaks entirely the sequence which, as I think, is discernible in\nit. Much rather, he here, in the closing member of the triplet,\nsuggests a thought which will be stimulus to the diligence and fuel\nto the fire that makes the spirit boil.\n\nIn effect he says, 'Think, when your hands begin to droop, and when\nyour spirits begin to be cold and indifferent, and languor to steal\nover you, and the paralysing influences of the commonplace and the\nfamiliar, and the small begin to assert themselves--think that you\nare serving the Lord.' Will that not freshen you up? Will that not\nset you boiling again? Will it not be easy to be diligent when we\nfeel that we are 'ever in the great Taskmaster's eye'? There are many\nreasons for diligence--the greatness of the work, for it is no small\nmatter for us to get the whole lump of our nature leavened with the\ngood leaven; the continual operation of antagonistic forces which are\nall round us, and are working night-shifts as well as day ones,\nwhether we as Christians are on short time or not, the brevity of the\nperiod during which we have to work, and the tremendous issues which\ndepend upon the completeness of our service here--all these things\nare reasons for our diligence. But _the_ reason is: 'Thou Christ\nhast died for me, and livest for me; truly I am Thy slave.' That is\nthe thought that will make a man bend his back to his work, whatever\nit be, and bend his will to his work, too, however unwelcome it may\nbe; and that is the thought that will stir his whole spirit to\nfervour and earnestness, and thus will deliver him from the\ntemptations to languid and perfunctory work that ever creep over us.\n\nYou can carry that motive--as we all know, and as we all forget when\nthe pinch comes--into your shop, your study, your office, your mill,\nyour kitchen, or wherever you go. 'On the bells of the horses there\nshall be written, Holiness to the Lord,' said the prophet, and 'every\nbowl in Jerusalem' may be sacred as the vessels of the altar. All\nlife may flash into beauty, and tower into greatness, and be smoothed\nout into easiness, and the crooked things may be made straight and\nthe rough places plain, and the familiar and the trite be invested\nwith freshness and wonder as of a dream, if only we write over them,\n'For the sake of the Master.' Then, whatever we do or bear, be it\ncommon, insignificant, or unpleasant, will change its aspect, and all\nwill be sweet. Here is the secret of diligence and of fervency, 'I\nset the Lord always before me.'\n\n\n\n\nANOTHER TRIPLET OF GRACES\n\n   'Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing\n   instant in prayer.'--ROMANS xii. 12.\n\n\nThese three closely connected clauses occur, as you all know, in the\nmidst of that outline of the Christian life with which the Apostle\nbegins the practical part of this Epistle. Now, what he omits in this\nsketch of Christian duty seems to me quite as significant as what he\ninserts. It is very remarkable that in the twenty verses devoted to\nthis subject, this is the only one which refers to the inner secrets\nof the Christian life. Paul's notion of 'deepening the spiritual\nlife' was 'Behave yourself better in your relation to other people.'\nSo all the rest of this chapter is devoted to inculcating our duties\nto one another. Conduct is all-important. An orthodox creed is\nvaluable if it influences action, but not otherwise. Devout emotion\nis valuable, if it drives the wheels of life, but not otherwise.\nChristians should make efforts to attain to clear views and warm\nfeelings, but the outcome and final test of both is a daily life of\nvisible imitation of Jesus. The deepening of spiritual life should be\nmanifested by completer, practical righteousness in the market-place\nand the street and the house, which non-Christians will acknowledge.\n\nBut now, with regard to these three specific exhortations here, I\nwish to try to bring out their connection as well as the force of\neach of them.\n\nI. So I remark first, that the Christian life ought to be joyful\nbecause it is hopeful.\n\nNow, I do not suppose that many of us habitually recognise it as a\nChristian duty to be joyful. We think that it is a matter of\ntemperament and partly a matter of circumstance. We are glad when\nthings go well with us. If we have a sunny disposition, and are\nnaturally light-hearted, all the better; if we have a melancholy or\nmorose one, all the worse. But do we recognise this, that a Christian\nwho is not joyful is not living up to his duty; and that there is no\nexcuse, either in temperament or in circumstances, for our not being\nso, and always being so? 'Rejoice in the Lord alway,' says Paul; and\nthen, as if he thought, 'Some of you will be thinking that that is a\nvery rash commandment, to aim at a condition quite impossible to make\nconstant,' he goes on--'and, to convince you that I do not say it\nhastily, I will repeat it--\"and again I say, rejoice.\"' Brethren, we\nshall have to alter our conceptions of what true gladness is before\nwe can come to understand the full depth of the great thought that\njoy is a Christian duty. The true joy is not the kind of joy that a\nsaying in the Old Testament compares to the 'crackling of thorns\nunder a pot,' but something very much calmer, with no crackle in it;\nand very much deeper, and very much more in alliance with 'whatsoever\nthings are lovely and of good report,' than that foolish,\nshort-lived, and empty mirth that burns down so soon into black\nashes.\n\nTo be glad is a Christian duty. Many of us have as much religion as\nmakes us sombre, and impels us often to look upon the more solemn and\nawful aspects of Christian truth, but we have not enough to make us\nglad. I do not need to dwell upon all the sources in Christian faith\nand belief, of that lofty and imperatively obligatory gladness, but I\nconfine myself to the one in my text, 'Rejoicing in hope.'\n\nNow, we all know--from the boy that is expecting to go home for his\nholidays in a week, up to the old man to whose eye the time-veil is\nwearing thin--that hope, if it is certain, is a source of gladness.\nHow lightly one's bosom's lord sits upon its throne, when a great\nhope comes to animate us! how everybody is pleasant, and all things\nare easy, and the world looks different! Hope, if it is certain, will\ngladden, and if our Christianity grasps, as it ought to do, the only\nhope that is absolutely certain, and as sure as if it were in the\npast and had been experienced, then our hearts, too, will sing for\njoy. True joy is _not_ a matter of temperament, so much as a matter\nof faith. It is _not_ a matter of circumstances. All the surface\ndrainage may be dry, but there is a well in the courtyard deep and\ncool and full and exhaustless, and a Christian who rightly\nunderstands and cherishes the Christian hope is lifted above\ntemperament, and is not dependent upon conditions for his joys.\n\nThe Apostle, in an earlier part of this same letter, defines for us\nwhat that hope is, which thus is the secret of perpetual gladness,\nwhen he speaks about 'rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.' Yes, it\nis that great, supreme, calm, far off, absolutely certain prospect of\nbeing gathered into the divine glory, and walking there, like the\nthree in the fiery furnace, unconsumed and at ease; it is that hope\nthat will triumph over temperament, and over all occasions for\nmelancholy, and will breathe into our life a perpetual gladness.\nBrethren, is it not strange and sad that with such a treasure by our\nsides we should consent to live such poor lives as we do?\n\nBut remember, although I cannot say to myself, 'Now I will be glad,'\nand cannot attain to joy by a movement of the will or direct effort,\nalthough it is of no use to say to a man--which is all that the world\ncan ever say to him--'Cheer up and be glad,' whilst you do not alter\nthe facts that make him sad, there is a way by which we can bring\nabout feelings of gladness or of gloom. It is just this--we can\nchoose what we will look at. If you prefer to occupy your mind with\nthe troubles, losses, disappointments, hard work, blighted hopes of\nthis poor sin-ridden world, of course sadness will come over you\noften, and a general grey tone will be the usual tone of your lives,\nas it is of the lives of many of us, broken only by occasional bursts\nof foolish mirth and empty laughter. But if you choose to turn away\nfrom all these, and instead of the dim, dismal, hard present, to sun\nyourselves in the light of the yet unrisen sun, which you can do,\nthen, having rightly chosen the subjects to think about, the feeling\nwill come as a matter of course. You cannot make yourselves glad by,\nas it were, laying hold of yourselves and lifting yourselves into\ngladness, but you can rule the direction of your thoughts, and so can\nbring around you summer in the midst of winter, by steadily\ncontemplating the facts--and they are present facts, though we talk\nabout them collectively as 'the future'--the facts on which all\nChristian gladness ought to be based. We can carry our own atmosphere\nwith us; like the people in Italy, who in frosty weather will be seen\nsitting in the market-place by their stalls with a dish of embers,\nwhich they grasp in their hands, and so make themselves comfortably\nwarm on the bitterest day. You can bring a reasonable degree of\nwarmth into the coldest weather, if you will lay hold of the vessel\nin which the fire is, and keep it in your hand and close to your\nheart. Choose what you think about, and feelings will follow\nthoughts.\n\nBut it needs very distinct and continuous effort for a man to keep\nthis great source of Christian joy clear before him. We are like the\ndwellers in some island of the sea, who, in some conditions of the\natmosphere, can catch sight of the gleaming mountain-tops on the\nmainland across the stormy channel between. But thick days, with a\nheavy atmosphere and much mist, are very frequent in our latitude,\nand then all the distant hills are blotted out, and we see nothing\nbut the cold grey sea, breaking on the cold, grey stones. Still, you\ncan scatter the mist if you will. You can make the atmosphere bright;\nand it is worth an effort to bring clear before us, and to keep high\nabove the mists that cling to the low levels, the great vision which\nwill make us glad. Brethren, I believe that one great source of the\nweakness of average Christianity amongst us to-day is the dimness\ninto which so many of us have let the hope of the glory of God pass\nin our hearts. So I beg you to lay to heart this first commandment,\nand to rejoice in hope.\n\nII. Now, secondly, here is the thought that life, if full of joyful\nhope, will be patient.\n\nI have been saying that the gladness of which my text speaks is\nindependent of circumstances, and may persist and be continuous even\nwhen externals occasion sadness. It is possible--I do not say it is\neasy, God knows it is hard--I do not say it is frequently attained,\nbut I do say it is possible--to realise that wonderful ideal of the\nApostle's 'As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.' The surface of the\nocean may be tossed and fretted by the winds, and churned into foam,\nbut the great central depths 'hear not the loud winds when they\ncall,' and are still in the midst of tempest. And we, dear brethren,\nought to have an inner depth of spirit, down to the disturbance of\nwhich no surface-trouble can ever reach. That is the height of\nattainment of Christian faith, but it is a possible attainment for\nevery one of us.\n\nAnd if there be that burning of the light under the water, like\n'Greek fire,' as it was called, which many waters could not\nquench--if there be that persistence of gladness beneath the\nsurface-sorrow, as you find a running stream coming out below a\nglacier, then the joy and the hope, which co-exist with the sorrow,\nwill make life patient.\n\nNow, the Apostle means by these great words, 'patient' and\n'patience,' which are often upon his lips, something more than simple\nendurance. That endurance is as much as many of us can often muster\nup strength to exercise. It sometimes takes all our faith and all our\nsubmission simply to say, 'I opened not my mouth, because thou didst\nit; and I will bear what thine hand lays upon me.' But that is not\nall that the idea of Christian 'patience' includes, for it also takes\nin the thought of active work, and it is _perseverance_ as much\nas _patience_.\n\nNow, if my heart is filled with a calm gladness because my eye is\nfixed upon a celestial hope, then both the passive and active sides\nof Christian 'patience' will be realised by me. If my hope burns\nbright, and occupies a large space in my thoughts, then it will not\nbe hard to take the homely consolation of good John Newton's hymn and\nsay--\n\n  'Though painful at present,\n    'Twill cease before long;\n  And then, oh, how pleasant\n    The conqueror's song!'\n\nA man who is sailing to America, and knows that he will be in New\nYork in a week, does not mind, although his cabin is contracted, and\nhe has a great many discomforts, and though he has a bout of\nsea-sickness. The disagreeables are only going to last for a day or\ntwo. So our hope will make us bear trouble, and not make much of it.\n\nAnd our hope will strengthen us, if it is strong, for all the work\nthat is to be done. Persistence in the path of duty, though my heart\nbe beating like a smith's hammer on the anvil, is what Christian men\nshould aim at, and possess. If we have within our hearts that fire of\na certain hope, it will impel us to diligence in doing the humblest\nduty, whether circumstances be for or against us; as some great\nsteamer is driven right on its course, through the ocean, whatever\nstorms may blow in the teeth of its progress, because, deep down in\nit, there are furnaces and boilers which supply the steam that drives\nthe engines. So a life that is joyful because it is hopeful will be\nfull of calm endurance and strenuous work. 'Rejoicing in hope;\npatient,' persevering in tribulation.\n\nIII. Lastly, our lives will be joyful, hopeful, and patient, in\nproportion as they are prayerful.\n\n'Continuing instant'--which, of course, just means steadfast--'in\nprayer.' Paul uttered a paradox when he said, 'Rejoice in the Lord\nalway,' as he said long before this verse, in the very first letter\nthat he ever wrote, or at least the first which has come down to us.\nThere he bracketed it along with two other equally paradoxical\nsayings. 'Rejoice evermore; pray without ceasing; in everything give\nthanks.' If you pray without ceasing you can rejoice without ceasing.\n\nBut can I pray without ceasing? Not if by prayer you mean only words\nof supplication and petition, but if by prayer you mean also a mental\nattitude of devotion, and a kind of sub-conscious reference to God in\nall that you do, such unceasing prayer is possible. Do not let us\nblunt the edge of this commandment, and weaken our own consciousness\nof having failed to obey it, by getting entangled in the cobwebs of\nmere curious discussions as to whether the absolute ideal of\nperfectly unbroken communion with God is possible in this life. At\nall events it is possible to us to approximate to that ideal a great\ndeal more closely than our consciences tell us that we ever yet have\ndone. If we are trying to keep our hearts in the midst of daily duty\nin contact with God, and if, ever and anon in the press of our work,\nwe cast a thought towards Him and a prayer, then joy and hope and\npatience will come to us, in a degree that we do not know much about\nyet, but might have known all about long, long ago.\n\nThere is a verse in the Old Testament which we may well lay to heart:\n'They cried unto God in the battle, and He was entreated of them.'\nWell, what sort of a prayer do you think that would be? Suppose that\nyou were standing in the thick of battle with the sword of an enemy\nat your throat, there would not be much time for many words of\nprayer, would there? But the cry could go up, and the thought could\ngo up, and as they went up, down would come the strong buckler which\nGod puts between His servants and all evil. That is the sort of\nprayer that you, in the battle of business, in your shops and\ncounting-houses and warehouses and mills, we students in our studies,\nand you mothers in your families and your kitchens, can send up to\nheaven. If thus we 'pray without ceasing,' then we shall 'rejoice\nevermore,' and our souls will be kept in patience and filled with the\npeace of God.\n\n\n\n\nSTILL ANOTHER TRIPLET\n\n   'Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to\n   hospitality. 14. Bless them which persecute you: bless,\n   and curse not. 15. Rejoice with them that do rejoice,\n   and weep with them that weep.'--ROMANS xii. 13-15.\n\n\nIn these verses we pass from the innermost region of communion with\nGod into the wide field of duties in relation to men. The solitary\nsecrecies of rejoicing hope, endurance, and prayer unbroken, are\nexchanged for the publicities of benevolence and sympathy. In the\nformer verses the Christian soul is in 'the secret place of the Most\nHigh'; in those of our text he comes forth with the light of God on\nhis face, and hands laden with blessings. The juxtaposition of the\ntwo suggests the great principles to which the morality of the New\nTestament is ever true--that devotion to God is the basis of all\npractical helpfulness to man, and that practical helpfulness to man\nis the expression and manifestation of devotion to God.\n\nThe three sets of injunctions in our text, dissimilar though they\nappear, have a common basis. They are varying forms of one\nfundamental disposition--love; which varies in its forms according to\nthe necessities of its objects, bringing temporal help to the needy,\nmeeting hostility with blessing, and rendering sympathy to both the\nglad and the sorrowful. There is, further, a noteworthy connection,\nnot in sense but in sound, between the first and second clauses of\nour text, which is lost in our English Version. 'Given to\nhospitality' is, as the Revised margin shows, literally, pursuing\nhospitality. Now the Greek, like the English word, has the special\nmeaning of following with a hostile intent, and the use of it in the\none sense suggests its other meaning to Paul, whose habit of 'going\noff at a word,' as it has been called, is a notable feature of his\nstyle. Hence, this second injunction, of blessing the persecutors,\ncomes as a kind of play upon words, and is obviously occasioned by\nthe verbal association. It would come more appropriately at a later\npart of the chapter, but its occurrence here is characteristic of\nPaul's idiosyncrasy. We may represent the connection of these two\nclauses by such a rendering as: Pursue hospitality, and as for those\nwho pursue you, bless, and curse not.\n\nWe may look at these three flowers from the one root of love.\n\nI. Love that speaks in material help.\n\nWe have here two special applications of that love which Paul regards\nas 'the bond of perfectness,' knitting all Christians together. The\nformer of these two is love that expresses itself by tangible\nmaterial aid. The persons to be helped are 'saints,' and it is their\n'needs' that are to be aided. There is no trace in the Pauline\nEpistles of the community of goods which for a short time prevailed\nin the Church of Jerusalem and which was one of the causes that led\nto the need for the contribution for the poor saints in that city\nwhich occupied so much of Paul's attention at Corinth and elsewhere.\nBut, whilst Christian love leaves the rights of property intact, it\ncharges them with the duty of supplying the needs of the brethren.\nThey are not absolute and unconditioned rights, but are subject to\nthe highest principles of stewardship for God, trusteeship for men,\nand sacrifice for Christ. These three great thoughts condition and\nlimit the Christian man's possession of the wealth, which, in a\nmodified sense, it is allowable for him to call his own. His\nbrother's need constitutes a first charge on all that belongs to him,\nand ought to precede the gratification of his own desires for\nsuperfluities and luxuries. If we 'see our brother have need and shut\nup our bowels of compassion against him' and use our possessions for\nthe gratification of our own whims and fancies, 'how dwelleth the\nlove of God in us?' There are few things in which Christian men of\nthis day have more need for the vigorous exercise of conscience, and\nfor enlightenment, than in their getting, and spending, and keeping\nmoney. In that region lies the main sphere of usefulness for many of\nus; and if we have not been 'faithful in that which is least,' our\nunfaithfulness there makes it all but impossible that we should be\nfaithful in that which is greatest. The honest and rigid\ncontemplation of our own faults in the administration of our worldly\ngoods, might well invest with a terrible meaning the Lord's\ntremendous question, 'If ye have not been faithful in that which is\nanother's, who shall give you that which is your own?'\n\nThe hospitality which is here enjoined is another shape which\nChristian love naturally took in the early days. When believers were\na body of aliens, dispersed through the world, and when, as they went\nfrom one place to another, they could find homes only amongst their\nown brethren, the special circumstances of the time necessarily\nattached special importance to this duty; and as a matter of fact, we\nfind it recognised in all the Epistles of the New Testament as one of\nthe most imperative of Christian duties. 'It was the unity and\nstrength which this intercourse gave that formed one of the great\nforces which supported Christianity.' But whilst hospitality was a\nspecial duty for the early Christians, it still remains a duty for\nus, and its habitual exercise would go far to break down the frowning\nwalls which diversities of social position and of culture have reared\nbetween Christians.\n\nII. The love that meets hostility with blessing.\n\nThere are perhaps few words in Scripture which have been more\nfruitful of the highest graces than this commandment. What a train of\nmartyrs, from primitive times to the Chinese Christians in recent\nyears, have remembered these words, and left their legacy of blessing\nas they laid their heads on the block or stood circled by fire at the\nstake! For us, in our quieter generation, actual persecution is rare,\nbut hostility of ill-will more or less may well dog our steps, and\nthe great principle here commended to us is that we are to meet\nenmity with its opposite, and to conquer by love. The diamond is cut\nwith sharp knives, and each stroke brings out flashing beauty. There\nare kinds of wood which are fragrant when they burn; and there are\nkinds which show their veining under the plane. It is a poor thing if\na Christian character only gives back like a mirror the expression of\nthe face that looks at it. To meet hate with hate, and scorn with\nscorn, is not the way to turn hate into love and scorn into sympathy.\nIndifferent equilibrium in the presence of active antagonism is not\npossible for us. As long as we are sensitive we shall wince from a\nblow, or a sarcasm, or a sneer. We must bless in order to keep\nourselves from cursing. The lesson is very hard, and the only way of\nobeying it fully is to keep near Christ and drink in His spirit who\nprayed 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'\n\nIII. Love that flows in wide sympathy.\n\nOf the two forms of sympathy which are here enjoined, the former is\nthe harder. To 'rejoice with them that do rejoice' makes a greater\ndemand on unselfish love than to 'weep with them that weep.' Those\nwho are glad feel less need of sympathy than do the sorrowful, and\nenvy is apt to creep in and mar the completeness of sympathetic joy.\nBut even the latter of the two injunctions is not altogether easy.\nThe cynic has said that there is 'something not wholly displeasing in\nthe misfortunes of our best friends'; and, though that is an utterly\nworldly and unchristian remark, it must be confessed not to be\naltogether wanting in truth.\n\nBut for obedience to both of these injunctions, a heart at leisure\nfrom itself is needed to sympathise; and not less needed is a\nsedulous cultivation of the power of sympathy. No doubt temperament\nhas much to do with the degree of our obedience; but this whole\ncontext goes on the assumption that the grace of God working on\ntemperament strengthens natural endowments by turning them into\n'gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.' Though\nwe live in that awful individuality of ours, and are each, as it\nwere, is landed in ourselves 'with echoing straits between us thrown,'\nit is possible for us, as the result of close communion with Jesus\nChrist, to bridge the chasms, and to enter into the joy of a\nbrother's joy. He who groaned in Himself as He drew near to the grave\nof Lazarus, and was moved to weep with the weeping sisters, will help\nus, in the measure in which we dwell in Him and He in us, that we too\nmay look 'not every man on his own things, but every man also on the\nthings of others.'\n\nOn the whole, love to Jesus is the basis of love to man, and love to\nman is the practical worship of Christianity. As in all things, so in\nthe exhortations which we have now been considering, Jesus is our\npattern and power. He Himself communicates with our necessities, and\nopens His heart to give us hospitable welcome there. He Himself has\nshown us how to meet and overcome hatred with love, and hurt with\nblessing. He shares our griefs, and by sharing lessens them. He\nshares our joys, and by sharing hallows them. The summing up of all\nthese specific injunctions is, 'Let that mind be in you which was\nalso in Christ Jesus.'\n\n\n\n\nSTILL ANOTHER TRIPLET\n\n   'Be of the same mind one toward another. Set not your\n   mind on high things, but condescend to things that are\n   lowly. Be not wise in your own conceits.'--Romans xii. 16 (R.V.).\n\n\nWe have here again the same triple arrangement which has prevailed\nthrough a considerable portion of the context. These three\nexhortations are linked together by a verbal resemblance which can\nscarcely be preserved in translation. In the two former the same verb\nis employed: and in the third the word for 'wise' is cognate with the\nverb found in the other two clauses. If we are to seek for any closer\nconnection of thought we may find it first in this--that all the\nthree clauses deal with mental attitudes, whilst the preceding ones\ndealt with the expression of such; and second in this--that the first\nof the three is a general precept, and the second and third are\nwarnings against faults which are most likely to interfere with it.\n\nI. We note, the bond of peace.\n\n'Be of the same mind one toward another.' It is interesting to notice\nhow frequently the Apostle in many of his letters exhorts to mutual\nharmonious relations. For instance, in this very Epistle he invokes\n'the God of patience and of comfort' to grant to the Roman Christians\n'to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus,'\nand to the Corinthians, who had their full share of Greek\ndivisiveness, he writes, 'Be of the same mind, live in peace,' and\nassures them that, if so, 'the God of love and peace will be with\nthem'; to his beloved Philippians he pours out his heart in\nbeseeching them by 'the consolation that is in Christ Jesus, and the\ncomfort of love, and the fellowship of the Spirit--' that they would\n'fulfil his joy, that they be of the same mind, having the same love,\nbeing of one accord, of one mind'; whilst to the two women in that\nChurch who were at variance with one another he sends the earnest\nexhortation 'to be of the same mind in the Lord,' and prays one whom\nwe only know by his loving designation of 'a true yokefellow,' to\nhelp them in what would apparently put a strain upon their Christian\nprinciple. For communities and for individuals the cherishing of the\nspirit of amity and concord is a condition without which there will\nbe little progress in the Christian life.\n\nBut it is to be carefully noted that such a spirit may co-exist with\ngreat differences about other matters. It is not opposed to wide\ndivergence of opinion, though in our imperfect sanctification it is\nhard for us to differ and yet to be in concord. We all know the\nhopelessness of attempting to make half a dozen good men think alike\non any of the greater themes of the Christian religion; and if we\ncould succeed in such a vain attempt, there would still be many an\nunguarded door through which could come the spirit of discord, and\nthe half-dozen might have divergence of heart even whilst they\nprofess identity of opinion. The true hindrances to our having 'the\nsame mind one toward another' lie very much deeper in our nature than\nthe region in which we keep our creeds. The self-regard and\nself-absorption, petulant dislike of fellow-Christians'\npeculiarities, the indifference which comes from lack of imaginative\nsympathy, and which ministers to the ignorance which causes it, and a\nthousand other weaknesses in Christian character bring about the\ndeplorable alienation which but too plainly marks the relation of\nChristian communities and of individual Christians to one another in\nthis day. When one thinks of the actual facts in every corner of\nChristendom, and probes one's own feelings, the contrast between the\napostolic ideal and the Church's realisation of it presents a\ncontradiction so glaring that one wonders if Christian people at all\nbelieve that it is their duty 'to be of the same mind one toward\nanother.'\n\nThe attainment of this spirit of amity and concord ought to be a\ndistinct object of effort, and especially in times like ours, when\nthere is no hostile pressure driving Christian people together, but\nwhen our great social differences are free to produce a certain\ninevitable divergence and to check the flow of our sympathy, and when\nthere are deep clefts of opinion, growing deeper every day, and\nseeming to part off Christians into camps which have little\nunderstanding of, and less sympathy with, one another. Even the\nstrong individualism, which it is the glory of true Christian faith\nto foster in character, and which some forms of Christian fellowship\ndo distinctly promote, works harm in this matter; and those who pride\nthemselves on belonging to 'Free churches,' and standing apart from\ncreed-bound and clergy-led communities, are specially called upon to\nsee to it that they keep this exhortation, and cultivate 'the unity\nof the Spirit in the bond of peace.'\n\nIt should not be necessary to insist that the closest mutual concord\namongst all believers is but an imperfect manifestation, as all\nmanifestations in life of the deepest principles must be, of the true\noneness which binds together in the most sacred unity, and should\nbind together in closest friendship, all partakers of the one life.\nAnd assuredly the more that one life flows into our spirits, the less\npower will all the enemies of Christian concord have over us. It is\nthe Christ in us which makes us kindred with all others in whom He\nis. It is self, in some form or other, that separates us from the\npossessors of like precious faith. When the tide is out, the little\nrock-pools on the shore lie separated by stretches of slimy weeds,\nbut the great sea, when it rushes up, buries the divisions, and\nunites them all. Our Christian unity is unity in Christ, and the only\nsure way 'to be of the same mind one toward another' is, that 'the\nmind which was in Christ Jesus be in us also.'\n\nII. The divisive power of selfish ambition.\n\n'Set not your mind on high things, but condescend to things that are\nlowly.' The contrast here drawn between the high and the lowly makes\nit probable that the latter as well as the former is to be taken as\nreferring to 'things' rather than persons. The margin of the Revised\nVersion gives the literal rendering of the word translated\n'condescend.' 'To be carried away with,' is metaphorically equivalent\nto surrendering one's self to; and the two clauses present two sides\nof one disposition, which seeks not for personal advancement or\nconspicuous work which may minister to self-gratulation, but\ncontentedly fills the lowly sphere, and 'the humblest duties on\nherself doth lay.' We need not pause to point out that such an ideal\nis dead against the fashionable maxims of this generation. Personal\nambition is glorified as an element in progress, and to a world which\nbelieves in such a proverb as 'devil take the hindmost,' these two\nexhortations can only seem fanatical absurdity. And yet, perhaps, if\nwe fairly take into account how the seeking after personal\nadvancement and conspicuous work festers the soul, and how the flower\nof heart's-ease grows, as Bunyan's shepherd-boy found out, in the\nlowly valley, these exhortations to a quiet performance of lowly\nduties and a contented filling of lowly spheres, may seem touched\nwith a higher wisdom than is to be found in the arenas where men\ntrample over each other in their pursuit of a fame 'which appeareth\nfor a little time, and then vanisheth away.' What a peaceful world it\nwould be, and what peaceful souls they would have, if Christian\npeople really adopted as their own these two simple maxims. They are\neasy to understand, but how hard they are to follow.\n\nIt needs scarcely be noted that the temper condemned here destroys\nall the concord and amity which the Apostle has been urging in the\nprevious clause. Where every man is eagerly seeking to force himself\nin front of his neighbour, any community will become a struggling\nmob; and they who are trying to outrun one another and who grasp at\n'high things,' will never be 'of the same mind one toward another.'\nBut, we may observe that the surest way to keep in check the natural\nselfish tendency to desire conspicuous things for ourselves is\nhonestly, and with rigid self-control, to let ourselves be carried\naway by enthusiasm for humble tasks. If we would not disturb our\nlives and fret our hearts by ambitions that, even when gratified,\nbring no satisfaction, we must yield ourselves to the impulse of the\ncontinuous stream of lowly duties which runs through every life.\n\nBut, plainly as this exhortation is needful, it is too\nheavy a strain to be ever carried out except by the power of Christ\nformed in the heart. It is in His earthly life that we find the great\nexample of the highest stooping to the lowest duties, and elevating\nthem by taking them upon Himself. He did not 'strive nor cry, nor\ncause His voice to be heard in the streets.' Thirty years of that\nperfect life were spent in a little village folded away in the\nGalilean hills, with rude peasants for the only spectators, and the\nnarrow sphere of a carpenter's shop for its theatre. For the rest,\nthe publicity possible would have been obscurity to an ambitious\nsoul. To speak comforting words to a few weeping hearts; to lay His\nhands on a few sick folk and heal them; to go about in a despised\nland doing good, loved indeed by outcasts and sinners, unknown by\nall the dispensers of renown, and consciously despised by all whom\nthe world honoured--that was the perfect life of the Incarnate God.\nAnd that is an example which His followers seem with one consent to\nset aside in their eager race after distinction and work that may\nglorify their names. The difficulty of a faithful following of these\nprecepts, and the only means by which that difficulty can be\novercome, are touchingly taught us in another of Paul's Epistles by\nthe accumulation of motives which he brings to bear upon his\ncommandment, when he exhorts by the tender motives of 'comfort in\nChrist, consolation of love, fellowship of the Spirit, and tender\nmercies and compassions, that ye fulfil my joy, being of the same\nmind, of one accord; doing nothing through faction or vainglory, but\nin lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself.' As the\npattern for each of us in our narrow sphere, he holds forth the mind\nthat was in Christ Jesus, and the great self-emptying which he shrank\nnot from, 'but being in the form of God counted it not a prize to be\non an equality with God, but, being found in fashion as a man, He\nhumbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death.'\n\nIII. The divisive power of intellectual self-conceit.\n\nIn this final clause the Apostle, in some sense, repeats the maxim\nwith which he began the series of special exhortations in this\nchapter. He there enjoined 'every one among you not to think of\nhimself more highly than he ought to think'; here he deals with one\nespecial form of such too lofty thinking, viz. intellectual conceit.\nHe is possibly quoting the Book of Proverbs (iii. 7), where we read,\n'Be not wise in thine own eyes,' which is preceded by, 'Lean not to\nthine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him'; and is\nfollowed by, 'Fear the Lord and depart from evil'; thus pointing to\nthe acknowledgment and fear of the Lord as the great antagonist of\nsuch over-estimate of one's own wisdom as of all other faults of mind\nand life. It needs not to point out how such a disposition breaks\nChristian unity of spirit. There is something especially isolating in\nthat form of self-conceit. There are few greater curses in the Church\nthan little coteries of superior persons who cannot feed on ordinary\nfood, whose enlightened intelligence makes them too fastidious to\nsoil their dainty fingers with rough, vulgar work, and whose\nsupercilious criticism of the unenlightened souls that are content to\ncondescend to lowly Christian duties, is like an iceberg that brings\ndown the temperature wherever it floats. That temper indulged in,\nbreaks the unity, reduces to inactivity the work, and puts an end to\nthe progress, of any Christian community in which it is found; and\njust as its predominance is harmful, so the obedience to the\nexhortation against it is inseparable from the fulfilling of its\nsister precepts. To know ourselves for the foolish creatures that we\nare, is a mighty help to being 'of the same mind one toward another.'\nWho thinks of himself soberly and according to the measure of faith\nwhich God hath dealt to him will not hunger after high things, but\nrather prefer the lowly ones that are on a level with his lowly self.\n\nThe exhortations of our text were preceded with injunctions to\ndistribute material help, and to bestow helpful sympathy. The tempers\nenjoined in our present text are the inward source and fountain of\nsuch external bestowments. The rendering of material help and of\nsympathetic emotion are right and valuable only as they are the\noutcome of this unanimity and lowliness. It is possible to\n'distribute to the necessity of saints' in such a way as that the\ngift pains more than a blow; it is possible to proffer sympathy so\nthat the sensitive heart shrinks from it. It was 'when the multitude\nof them that believed were of one heart and one soul' that it became\nnatural to have all things common. As in the aurora borealis,\nquivering beams from different centres stream out and at each throb\napproach each other till they touch and make an arch of light that\nglorifies the winter's night, so, if Christian men were 'of the same\nmind toward one another,' did not 'set their minds on high things,\nbut condescended to things that were lowly, and were not wise in\ntheir own conceits,' the Church of Christ would shine forth in the\ndarkness of a selfish world and would witness to Him who came down\n'from the highest throne in glory' to the lowliest place in this\nlowly world, that He might lift us to His own height of glory\neverlasting.\n\n\n\n\nSTILL ANOTHER TRIPLET\n\n   'Render to no man evil for evil. Take thought for\n   things honourable in the light of all men. 18. If it\n   be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace\n   with all men.'--ROMANS xii. 17, 18 (R.V.).\n\n\nThe closing words of this chapter have a certain unity in that they\ndeal principally with a Christian's duty in the face of hostility and\nantagonism. A previous injunction touched on the same subject in the\nexhortation to bless the persecutors; but with that exception, all\nthe preceding verses have dealt with duties owing to those with whom\nwe stand in friendly relations. Such exhortations take no cognisance\nof the special circumstances of the primitive Christians as 'lambs in\nthe midst of wolves'; and a large tract of Christian duty would be\nundealt with, if we had not such directions for feelings and actions\nin the face of hate and hurt. The general precept in our text is\nexpanded in a more complete form in the verses which follow the text,\nand we may postpone its consideration until we have to deal with\nthem. It is one form of the application of the 'love without\nhypocrisy' which has been previously recommended. The second of these\nthree precepts seems quite heterogeneous, but it may be noticed that\nthe word for 'evil' in the former and that for 'honourable,' in these\nclosely resemble each other in sound, and the connection of the two\nclauses may be partially owing to that verbal resemblance; whilst we\nmay also discern a real link between the thoughts in the\nconsideration that we owe even to our enemies the exhibition of a\nlife which a prejudiced hostility will be forced to recognise as\ngood. The third of these exhortations prescribes unmoved persistence\nin friendly regard to all men.\n\nDealing then, in this sermon only, with the second and third of these\nprecepts, and postponing the consideration of the first to the\nfollowing discourse, we have here the counsel that\n\nI. Hostility is to be met with a holy and beautiful life.\n\nThe Authorised Version inadequately translates the significant word\nin this exhortation by 'honest.' The Apostle is not simply enjoining\nhonesty in our modern, narrow sense of the word, which limits it to\nthe rendering to every man his own. It is a remarkable thing that\n'honest,' like many other words expressing various types of goodness,\nhas steadily narrowed in signification, and it is very characteristic\nof England that probity as to money and material goods should be its\nmain meaning. Here the word is used in the full breadth of its\nancient use, and is equivalent to that which is fair with the moral\nbeauty of goodness.\n\nA Christian man then is bound to live a life which all men will\nacknowledge to be good. In that precept is implied the recognition of\neven bad men's notions of morality as correct. The Gospel is not a\nnew system of ethics, though in some points it brings old virtues\ninto new prominence, and alters their perspective. It is further\nimplied that the world's standard of what Christians ought to be may\nbe roughly taken as a true one. Christian men would learn a great\ndeal about themselves, and might in many respects heighten their\nideal, if they would try to satisfy the expectations of the most\ndegraded among them as to what they ought to be. The worst of men has\na rude sense of duty which tops the attainments of the best.\nChristian people ought to seek for the good opinion of those around\nthem. They are not to take that opinion as the motive for their\nconduct, nor should they do good in order to be praised or admired\nfor it; but they are to 'adorn the doctrine,' and to let their light\nshine that men seeing their good may be led to think more loftily of\nits source, and so to 'glorify their Father which is in heaven.' That\nis one way of preaching the Gospel. The world knows goodness when it\nsees it, though it often hates it, and has no better ground for its\ndislike of a man than that his purity and beauty of character make\nthe lives of others seem base indeed. Bats feel the light to be\nlight, though they flap against it, and the winnowing of their\nleathery wings and their blundering flight are witnesses to that\nagainst which they strike. Jesus had to say, 'The world hateth Me\nbecause I testify of it that the deeds thereof are evil.' That\nwitness was the result of His being 'the Light of the world'; and if\nHis followers are illuminated from Him, they will have the same\neffect, and must be prepared for the same response. But none the less\nis it incumbent upon them to 'take thought for things honourable in\nthe sight of all men.'\n\nThis duty involves the others of taking care that we have goodness to\nshow, and that we do not make our goodness repulsive by our additions\nto it. There are good people who comfort themselves when men dislike\nthem, or scoff at them, by thinking that their religion is the cause,\nwhen it is only their own roughness and harshness of character. It is\nnot enough that we present an austere and repellent virtue; the fair\nfood should be set on a fair platter. This duty is especially owing\nto our enemies. They are our keenest critics. They watch for our\nhalting. The thought of their hostile scrutiny should ever stimulate\nus, and the consciousness that Argus-eyes are watching us, with a\nkeenness sharpened by dislike, should lead us not only to vigilance\nover our own steps, but also to the prayer, 'Lead me in a plain path,\nbecause of those who watch me.' To 'provide things honest in the\nsight of all men' is a possible way of disarming some hostility,\nconciliating some prejudice, and commending to some hearts the Lord\nwhom we seek to imitate.\n\nII. Be sure that, if there is to be enmity, it is all on one side.\n\n'As much as in you lieth, be at peace with all.' These words are, I\nthink, unduly limited when they are supposed to imply that there are\ncircumstances in which a Christian has a right to be at strife. As if\nthey meant: Be peaceable as far as you can; but if it be impossible,\nthen quarrel. The real meaning goes far deeper than that. 'It takes\ntwo to make a quarrel,' says the old proverb; it takes two to make\npeace also, does it not? We cannot determine whether our relations\nwith men will be peaceful or no; we are only answerable for our part,\nand for that we are answerable. 'As much as lieth in you' is the\nexplanation of 'if it be possible.' Your part is to be at peace; it\nis not your part up to a certain point and no further, but always,\nand in all circumstances, it is your part. It may not be possible to\nbe at peace with all men; there may be some who _will_ quarrel with\nyou. You are not to blame for that, but their part and yours are\nseparate, and your part is the same whatever they do. Be you at peace\nwith all men whether they are at peace with you or not. Don't you\nquarrel with them even if they will quarrel with you. That seems to\nme to be plainly the meaning of the words. It would be contrary to\nthe tenor of the context and the teaching of the New Testament to\nsuppose that here we had that favourite principle, 'There is a point\nbeyond which forbearance cannot go,' where it becomes right to\ncherish hostile sentiments or to try to injure a man. If there be such\na point, it is very remarkable that there is no attempt made in the\nNew Testament to define it. The nearest approach to such definition\nis 'till seventy times seven,' the two perfect numbers multiplied\ninto themselves. So I think that this injunction absolutely\nprescribes persistent, patient peacefulness, and absolutely\nproscribes our taking up the position of antagonism, and under no\ncircumstances meeting hate with hate. It does not follow that there\nis never to be opposition. It may be necessary for the good of the\nopponent himself, and for the good of society, that he should be\nhindered in his actions of hostility, but there is never to be\nbitterness; and we must take care that none of the devil's leaven\nmingles with our zeal against evil.\n\nThere is no need for enlarging on the enormous difficulty of carrying\nout such a commandment in our daily lives. We all know too well how\nhard it is; but we may reflect for a moment on the absolute necessity\nof obeying this precept to the full. For their own souls' sakes\nChristian men are to avoid all bitterness, strife, and malice. Let us\ntry to remember, and to bring to bear on our daily lives, the solemn\nthings which Jesus said about God's forgiveness being measured by our\nforgiveness. The faithful, even though imperfect, following of this\nexhortation would revolutionise our lives. Nothing that we can only\nwin by fighting with our fellows is worth fighting for. Men will\nweary of antagonism which is met only by the imperturbable calm of a\nheart at peace with God, and seeking peace with all men. The hot fire\nof hatred dies down, like burning coals scattered on a glacier, when\nlaid against the crystal coldness of a patient, peaceful spirit.\nWatch-dogs in farmhouses will bark half the night through because\nthey hear another barking a mile off. It takes two to make a quarrel;\nlet me be sure that I am never one of the two!\n\n\n\n\nSTILL ANOTHER TRIPLET\n\n   'Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give\n   place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine;\n   I will repay, saith the Lord. 20. Therefore if thine\n   enemy hunger, feed him: if he thirst, give him drink;\n   for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his\n   head. 21. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil\n   with good.'--ROMANS xii. 19-21.\n\n\nThe natural instinct is to answer enmity with enmity, and kindliness\nwith kindliness. There are many people of whom we think well and\nlike, for no other reason than because we believe that they think\nwell of and like us. Such a love is really selfishness. In the same\nfashion, dislike, and alienation on the part of another naturally\nreproduce themselves in our own minds. A dog will stretch its neck to\nbe patted, and snap at a stick raised to strike it. It requires a\nstrong effort to master this instinctive tendency, and that effort\nthe plainest principles of Christian morality require from us all.\nThe precepts in our text are in twofold form, negative and positive;\nand they are closed with a general principle, which includes both\nthese forms, and much more besides. There are two pillars, and a\ngreat lintel coping them, like the trilithons of Stonehenge.\n\nI. We deal with the negative precept.\n\n'Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto wrath.' Do not\ntake the law into your own hands, but leave God's way of retribution\nto work itself out. By avenging, the Apostle means a passionate\nredress of private wrongs at the bidding of personal resentment. We\nmust note how deep this precept goes. It prohibits not merely\nexternal acts which, in civilised times are restrained by law, but,\nas with Christian morality, it deals with thoughts and feelings, and\nnot only with deeds. It forbids such natural and common thoughts as\n'I owe him an ill turn for that'; 'I should like to pay him off.' A\ngreat deal of what is popularly called 'a proper spirit' becomes\nextremely improper if tested by this precept. There is an eloquent\nword in German which we can only clumsily reproduce, which christens\nthe ugly pleasure at seeing misfortune and calls it 'joy in others'\ndisasters.' We have not the word; would that we had not the thing!\n\nA solemn reason is added for the difficult precept, in that\nfrequently misunderstood saying, 'Give place unto wrath.' The\nquestion is, Whose wrath? And, plainly, the subsequent words of the\nsection show that it is God's. That quotation comes from Deuteronomy\nxxxii. 35. It is possibly unfortunate that 'vengeance' is ascribed to\nGod; for hasty readers lay hold of the idea of passionate resentment,\nand transfer it to Him, whereas His retributive action has in it no\nresentment and no passion. Nor are we to suppose that the thought\nhere is only the base one, _they are sure to be punished, so we\nneed not trouble_. The Apostle points to the solemn fact of\nretribution as an element in the Divine government. It is not merely\nautomatically working laws which recompense evil by evil,\nbut it is the face of the Lord which is inexorably and inevitably set\n'against them that do evil.' That recompense is not hidden away in\nthe future behind the curtain of death, but is realised in the\npresent, as every evil-doer too surely and bitterly experiences.\n\n'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.' God only has the\nright to recompense the ungodly and the sinner as well as the\nrighteous. Dwelling in such a system as we do, how dares any one take\nthat work into his hands? It requires perfect knowledge of the true\nevil of an action, which no one has who cannot read the heart; it\nrequires perfect freedom from passion; it requires perfect immunity\nfrom evil desert on the part of the avenger; in a word, it belongs to\nGod, and to Him alone. We have nothing to do with apportioning\nretribution to desert, either in private actions or in the treatment\nof so-called criminals. In the latter our objects should be\nreformation and the safety of society. If we add to these\nretribution, we transcend our functions.\n\nII. Take the positive,--Follow God's way of meeting hostility with\nbeneficence.\n\nThe hungry enemy is to be fed, the thirsty to be given drink; and the\nreason is, that such beneficence will 'heap coals of fire upon his\nhead.' The negative is not enough. To abstain from vengeance will\nleave the heart unaffected, and may simply issue in the cessation of\nall intercourse. The reason assigned sounds at first strange. It is\nclear that the 'coals of fire' which are to be heaped on the head are\nmeant to melt and soften the heart, and cause it to glow with love.\nThere may be also included the burning pangs of shame felt by a man\nwhose evil is answered by good. But these are secondary and auxiliary\nto the true end of kindling the fire of love in his alienated heart.\nThe great object which every Christian man is bound to have in view\nis to win over the enemy and melt away misconceptions and hostility.\nIt is not from any selfish regard to one's own personal ease that we\nare so to act, but because of the sacred regard which Christ has\ntaught us to cherish for the blessing of peace amongst men, and in\norder that we may deliver a brother from the snare, and make him\nshare in the joys of fellowship with God. The only way to burn up the\nevil in his heart is by heaping coals of kindness and beneficence on\nhis head. And for such an end it becomes us to watch for\nopportunities. We have to mark the right moment, and make sure that\nwe time our offer for food when he is hungry and of drink when he\nthirsts; for often _mal-a-propos_ offers of kindness make things\nworse. Such is God's way. His thunderbolts we cannot grasp, His love\nwe can copy. Of the two weapons mercy and judgment which He holds in\nHis hand, the latter is emphatically His own; the former should be\nours too.\n\nIII. In all life meet and conquer evil with good.\n\nThis last precept, 'Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with\ngood,' is cast into a form which covers not only relations to\nenemies, but all contact with evil of every kind. It involves many\ngreat thoughts which can here be only touched. It implies that in all\nour lives we have to fight evil, and that it conquers, and we are\nbeaten when we are led to do it. It is only conquered by being\ntransformed into good. We overcome our foes when we win them to be\nlovers. We overcome our temptations to doing wrong when we make them\noccasions for developing virtues; we overcome the evil of sorrow when\nwe use it to bring us nearer to God; we overcome the men around us\nwhen we are not seduced by their example to evil, but attract them to\ngoodness by ours.\n\nEvil is only thus transformed by the positive exercise of goodness on\nour part. We have seen this in regard to enemies in the preceding\nremarks. In regard to other forms of evil, it is often better not to\nfight them directly, but to occupy the mind and heart with positive\ntruth and goodness, and the will and hands with active service. A\nrusty knife shall not be cleaned so effectually by much scouring as\nby strenuous use. Our lives are to be moulded after the great example\nof Him, who at almost the last moment of His earthly course said, 'Be\nof good cheer: I have overcome the world.' Jesus seeks to conquer\nevil in us all, and counts that He has conquered it when He has\nchanged it into love.\n\n\n\n\nLOVE AND THE DAY\n\n   'Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that\n   loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 9. For this, Thou\n   shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt\n   not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not\n   covet; and if there be any other commandment it is briefly\n   comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy\n   neighbour as thyself. 10. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour:\n   therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 11. And that,\n   knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of\n   sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.\n   12. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us\n   therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put\n   on the armour of light, 13. Let us walk honestly, as in\n   the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering\n   and wantonness, not in strife and envying: 14. But put ye\n   on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the\n   flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.'--ROMANS xiii. 8-14.\n\n\nThe two paragraphs of this passage are but slightly connected. The\nfirst inculcates the obligation of universal love; and the second\nbegins by suggesting, as a motive for the discharge of that duty, the\nnear approach of 'the day.' The light of that dawn draws Paul's eyes\nand leads him to wider exhortations on Christian purity as befitting\nthe children of light.\n\nI. Verses 8-10 set forth the obligation of a love which embraces all\nmen, and comprehends all duties to them. The Apostle has just been\nlaying down the general exhortation, 'Pay every man his due' and\napplying it especially to the Christian's relation to civic rulers.\nHe repeats it in a negative form, and bases on it the obligation of\nloving every man. That love is further represented as the sum and\nsubstance of the law. Thus Paul brings together two thoughts which\nare often dealt with as mutually exclusive,--namely, love and law. He\ndoes not talk sentimentalisms about the beauty of charity and the\nlike, but lays it down, as a 'hard and fast rule,' that we are bound\nto love every man with whom we come in contact; or, as the Greek has\nit, 'the other.'\n\nThat is the first plain truth taught here. Love is not an emotion\nwhich we may indulge or not, as we please. It is not to select its\nobjects according to our estimate of their lovableness or goodness.\nBut we are bound to love, and that all round, without distinction of\nbeautiful or ugly, good or bad. 'A hard saying; who can hear it?'\nEvery man is our creditor for that debt. He does not get his due from\nus unless he gets love. Note, further, that the debt of love is never\ndischarged. After all payments it still remains owing. There is no\npaying in full of all demands, and, as Bengel says, it is an undying\ndebt. We are apt to weary of expending love, especially on unworthy\nrecipients, and to think that we have wiped off all claims, and it\nmay often be true that our obligations to others compel us to cease\nhelping one; but if we laid Paul's words to heart, our patience would\nbe longer-breathed, and we should not be so soon ready to shut hearts\nand purses against even unthankful suitors.\n\nFurther, Paul here teaches us that this debt (_debitum_, 'duty') of\nlove includes all duties. It is the fulfilling of the law, inasmuch\nas it will secure the conduct which the law prescribes. The Mosaic\nlaw itself indicates this, since it recapitulates the various\ncommandments of the second table, in the one precept of love to our\nneighbour (Lev. xix. 18). Law enjoins but has no power to get its\ninjunctions executed. Love enables and inclines to do all that law\nprescribes, and to avoid all that it prohibits. The multiplicity of\nduties is melted into unity; and that unity, when it comes into act,\nunfolds into whatsoever things are lovely and of good report. Love is\nthe mother tincture which, variously diluted and manipulated, yields\nall potent and fragrant draughts. It is the white light which the\nprism of daily life resolves into its component colours.\n\nBut Paul seems to limit the action of love here to negative doing no\nill. That is simply because the commandments are mostly negative, and\nthat they are is a sad token of the lovelessness natural to us all.\nBut do we love ourselves only negatively, or are we satisfied with\ndoing ourselves no harm? That stringent pattern of love to others not\nonly prescribes degree, but manner. It teaches that true love to men\nis not weak indulgence, but must sometimes chastise, and thwart, and\nalways must seek their good, and not merely their gratification.\n\nWhoever will honestly seek to apply that negative precept of working\nno ill to others, will find it positive enough. We harm men when we\nfail to help them. If we can do them a kindness, and do it not, we do\nthem ill. Non-activity for good is activity for evil. Surely, nothing\ncan be plainer than the bearing of this teaching on the Christian\nduty as to intoxicants. If by using these a Christian puts a\nstumbling-block in the way of a weak will, then he is working ill to\nhis neighbour, and that argues absence of love, and that is\ndishonest, shirking payment of a plain debt.\n\nII. The great stimulus to love and to all purity is set forth as\nbeing the near approach--of the day (verses 11-14). 'The day,' in\nPaul's writing, has usually the sense of the great day of the Lord's\nreturn, and may have that meaning here; for, as Jesus has told us,\n'it is not for' even inspired Apostles 'to know the times or the\nseasons,' and it is no dishonour to apostolic inspiration to assign\nto it the limits which the Lord has assigned.\n\nBut, whether we take this as the meaning of the phrase, or regard it\nsimply as pointing to the time of death as the dawning of heaven's\nday, the weight of the motive is unaffected. The language is vividly\npicturesque. The darkness is thinning, and the blackness turning\ngrey. Light begins to stir and whisper. A band of soldiers lies\nasleep, and, as the twilight begins to dawn, the bugle call summons\nthem to awake, to throw off their night-gear,--namely, the works\ncongenial to darkness,--and to brace on their armour of light. Light\nmay here be regarded as the material of which the glistering armour\nis made; but, more probably, the expression means weapons appropriate\nto the light.\n\nSuch being the general picture, we note the fact which underlies the\nwhole representation; namely, that every life is a definite whole\nwhich has a fixed end. Jesus said, 'We must work the works of Him\nthat sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh.' Paul uses the\nopposite metaphors in these verses. But, though the two sayings are\nopposite in form, they are identical in substance. In both, the\npredominant thought is that of the rapidly diminishing space of\nearthly life, and the complete unlikeness to it of the future. We\nstand like men on a sandbank with an incoming tide, and every wash of\nthe waves eats away its edges, and presently it will yield below our\nfeet. We forget this for the most part, and perhaps it is not well\nthat it should be ever present; but that it should never be present\nis madness and sore loss.\n\nPaul, in his intense moral earnestness, in verse 13, bids us regard\nourselves as already in 'the day,' and shape our conduct as if it\nshone around us and all things were made manifest by its light. The\nsins to be put off are very gross and palpable. They are for the most\npart sins of flesh, such as even these Roman Christians had to be\nwarned against, and such as need to be manifested by the light even\nnow among many professing Christian communities.\n\nBut Paul has one more word to say. If he stopped without it, he would\nhave said little to help men who are crying out, 'How am I to strip\noff this clinging evil, which seems my skin rather than my clothing?\nHow am I to put on that flashing panoply?' There is but one way,--put\non the Lord Jesus Christ. If we commit ourselves to Him by faith, and\nfront our temptations in His strength, and thus, as it were, wrap\nourselves in Him, He will be to us dress and armour, strength and\nrighteousness. Our old self will fall away, and we shall take no\nforethought for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.\n\n\n\n\nSALVATION NEARER\n\n   '... Now is our salvation nearer than\n   when we believed.'--ROMANS xiii. 11.\n\n\nThere is no doubt, I suppose, that the Apostle, in common with the\nwhole of the early Church, entertained more or less consistently the\nexpectation of living to witness the second coming of Jesus Christ.\nThere are in Paul's letters passages which look both in the direction\nof that anticipation, and in the other one of expecting to taste\ndeath. 'We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord,'\nhe says twice in one chapter. 'I am ready to be offered, and the hour\nof my departure is at hand,' he says in his last letter.\n\nNow this contrariety of anticipation is but the natural result of\nwhat our Lord Himself said, 'It is not for you to know the times and\nthe seasons,' and no one, who is content to form his doctrine of the\nknowledge resulting from inspiration from the words of Jesus Christ\nHimself, need stumble in the least degree in recognising the plain\nfact that Paul and his brother Apostles did not know when the Master\nwas to come. Christ Himself had told them that there was a chamber\nlocked against their entrance, and therefore we do not need to think\nthat it militates against the authoritative inspiration of these\nearly teachers of the Church, if they, too, searched 'what manner of\ntime the Spirit which was in them did signify when it testified\nbeforehand ... the glory that should follow.'\n\nNow, my text is evidently the result of the former of these two\nanticipations, viz. that Paul and his generation were probably to see\nthe coming of the Lord from heaven. And to him the thought that' the\nnight was far spent,' as the context says, 'and the day was at hand,'\nunderlay his most buoyant hope, and was the inspiration and\nmotive-spring of his most strenuous effort.\n\nNow, our relation to the closing moments of our own earthly lives, to\nthe fact of death, is precisely the same as that of the Apostle and\nhis brethren to the coming of the Lord. We, too, stand in that\nposition of partial ignorance, and for us practically the words of my\ntext, and all their parallel words, point to how we should think of,\nand how we should be affected by, the end to which we are coming. And\nthis is the grand characteristic of the Christian view of that last\nsolemn moment. 'Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.'\nSo I would note, first of all, what these words teach us should be\nthe Christian view of our own end; and, second, to what conduct that\nview should lead us.\n\nI. The Christian view of death.\n\n'Now is our salvation nearer.' We have to think away by faith and\nhope all the grim externals of death, and to get to the heart of the\nthing. And then everything that is repulsive, everything that makes\nflesh and blood shrink, disappears and is evaporated, and beneath the\nfolds of his black garment, there is revealed God's last, sweetest,\nmost triumphant angel-messenger to Christian souls, the great,\nstrong, silent Angel of Death, and he carries in his hand the gift of\na full salvation. That is what our Apostle rose to the rapture of\nbeholding, when he knew that the thought of his surviving till Christ\ncame again must be put away, and when close to the last moment of his\nlife, he said, 'The Lord shall deliver me, and save me into His\neverlasting kingdom.' What was the deliverance and being saved that\nhe expected and expresses in these words? Immunity from punishment?\nEscape from the headsman's axe? Being 'delivered from the mouth of\nthe lion,' the persecuting fangs of the bloody Nero? By no means. He\nknew that death was at hand, and he said, 'He will save me'--not from\nit, but through it--'into His everlasting kingdom.' And so in the\nwords of my text we may say--though Paul did not mean them so--as we\nsee the distance between us, and that certain close, dwindling,\ndwindling, dwindling: 'Now,' as moment after moment ticks itself into\nthe past, 'now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.'\nChildren, when they are getting near their holidays, take strips of\npaper, and tear off a piece as each day passes. And as we tear off\nthe days let us feel that we are drawing closer to our home, and that\nthe blessedness laid up for us in it is drawing nearer to us. 'Our\nsalvation,' not our destruction, our fuller life, not in any true\nsense of the word our 'death,' is 'nearer than when we believed.'\n\nBut some one may say, 'Is a man not saved till after he is dead?' Is\nsalvation future, not coming till after the grave? No, certainly not.\nThere are three aspects of that word in Scripture. Sometimes the New\nTestament writers treat salvation as past, and represent a Christian\nas being invested with the possession of it all at the very moment of\nhis first faith. That is true, that whatever is yet to be evolved\nfrom what is given to the poorest and foulest sinner, in the moment\nof his initial faith in Christ, there is nothing to be added to it.\nThe salvation which the penitent thief received on the cross is all\nthe salvation that he was ever to get. But out of it there came\nwelling and welling and welling, when he had passed into the region\n'where beyond these voices there is peace'--there came welling out\nfrom that inexhaustible fountain which was opened in him all the\nfullnesses of an eternal progress in the heavens. And so it is with\nus. Salvation is a past gift which we received when we believed.\n\nBut in another aspect, which is also emphatically stated in\nScripture, it is a progressive process, and not merely a gift\nbestowed once for all in the past. I do not dwell upon that thought,\nbut just remind you of a turn of expression which occurs in various\nconnections more than once. 'The Lord added to the Church daily such\nas were being saved,' says Luke. Still more emphatically in the\nEpistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle puts into antithesis the two\nprogressive processes, and speaks of the Gospel as being preached,\nand being a savour of life unto life 'to them that are being saved,'\nand a savour of destruction 'to them that are being lost.' No moral\nor spiritual condition is stereotyped or stagnant. It is all\nprogressive. And so the salvation that is given once for all is ever\nbeing unfolded, and the Christian life on earth is the unfolding of\nit.\n\nBut in another aspect still, such as is presented in my text, and in\nother parallel passages, that salvation is regarded as lying on the\nother side of the flood, because the manifestations of it there, the\nevolving there of what is in it, and the great gifts that come then,\nare so transcendently above all even of our selectest experiences\nhere, that they are, as it were, new, though still their roots are in\nthe old. The salvation which culminates in the absolute removal from\nour whole being of all manner of evil, whether it be sorrow or sin,\nand in the conclusive bestowal upon us of all manner of good, whether\nit be righteousness or joy, and which has for its seal 'the adoption,\nto wit, the redemption of the body,' so that body, soul, and spirit\n'make one music as before, but vaster,' is so far beyond the germs of\nitself which here we experience that my text and its like are amply\nvindicated. And the man who is most fully persuaded and conscious\nthat he possesses the salvation of God, and most fully and blessedly\naware that that salvation is gradually gaining power in his life, is\nthe very man who will most feel that between its highest\nmanifestation on earth, and its lowest in the heavens there is such a\ngulf as that the wine that he will drink there at the Father's table\nis indeed new wine. And so 'is our salvation nearer,' though we\nalready possess it, 'than when we believed.'\n\nDear brethren, if these things be true, and if to die is to be saved\ninto the kingdom, do not two thoughts result? The one is that that\nblessed consummation should occupy more of our thoughts than I am\nafraid it does. As life goes on, and the space dwindles between us\nand it, we older people naturally fall into the way, unless we are\nfools, of more seriously and frequently turning our thoughts to the\nend. I suppose the last week of a voyage to Australia has far more\nthoughts in it about the landing next week than the two or three\nfirst days of beating down the English Channel had. I do not want to\nput old heads on young shoulders in this or in any other respect. But\nsure I am that it does belong very intimately to the strength of our\nChristian characters that we should, as the Psalmist says, be 'wise'\nto 'consider our latter end.'\n\nThe other thought that follows is as plain, viz. that that\nanticipation should always be buoyant, hopeful, joyous. We have\nnothing to do with the sad aspects of parting from earth. They are\nall but non-existent for the Christian consciousness, when it is as\nvigorous and God-directed as it ought to be. They drop into the\nbackground, and sometimes are lost to sight altogether. Remember how\nthis Apostle, when he does think about death, looks at it with--I was\ngoing to quote words which may strike you as being inappropriate--'a\nfrolic welcome'; how, at all events, he is neither a bit afraid of\nit, nor does he see in it anything from which to shrink. He speaks of\nbeing with Christ, which is far better; 'absent from the body,\npresent with the Lord'; 'the dissolution of the earthly house of this\ntabernacle'--the tumbling down of the old clay cottage in order that\na stately palace of marble and precious stones may be reared upon its\nsite; 'the hour of my departure is at hand; I have finished the\nfight.' Peter, too, chimes in with his words: 'My exodus; my\ndeparture,' and both of the two are looking, if not longingly, at all\nevents without a tremor of the eyelid, into the very eyeballs of the\nmessenger whom most men feel so hideous. Is it not a wonderful gift\nto Christian souls that by faith in Jesus Christ, the realm in which\ntheir hope can expatiate is more than doubled, and annexes the dim\nlands beyond the frontier of death? Dear friends, if we are living in\nChrist, the thought of the end and that here we are absent from home,\nought to be infinitely sweet, of whatever superficial terrors this\npoor, shrinking flesh may still be conscious. And I am sure that the\nnearer we get to our Saviour, and the more we realise the joyous\npossession of salvation as already ours, and the more we are\nconscious of the expanding of that gift in our hearts, the more we\nshall be delivered from that fear of death which makes men all their\n'lifetime subject to bondage.' So I beseech you to aim at this, that,\nwhen you look forward, the furthest thing you see on the horizon of\nearth may be that great Angel of Death coming to save you into the\neverlasting kingdom.\n\nNow, just a word about\n\nII. The conduct to which such a hope should incite.\n\nThe Apostle puts it very plainly in the context, and we need but\nexpand in a word or two what he teaches us there. 'And that knowing\nthe time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is\nour salvation nearer than when we believed.' To what does he refer by\n'that'? The whole of the practical exhortations to a Christian life\nwhich have been given before. Everything that is duty becomes tenfold\nmore stringent and imperative when we apprehend the true meaning of\nthat last moment. They tell us that it is unwholesome to be thinking\nabout death and the beyond, because to do so takes away interest from\nmuch of our present occupations and weakens energy. If there is\nanything from which a man is wrenched away because he steadily\ncontemplates the fact of being wrenched away altogether from\neverything before long, it is something that he had better be\nwrenched from. And if there be any occupations which dwindle into\nnothingness, and into which a man cannot for the life of him fling\nhimself with any thoroughgoing enthusiasm or interest, if once the\nthought of death stirs in him, depend upon it they are occupations\nwhich are in themselves contemptible and unworthy. All good aims will\ngain greater power over us; we shall have a saner estimate of what is\nworth living for; we shall have a new standard of what is the\nrelative importance of things; and if some that looked very great\nturn out to be very small when we let that searching light in upon\nthem, and others which seemed very insignificant spring suddenly up\ninto dominating magnitude--that new and truer perspective will be all\nclear gain. The more we feel that our salvation is sweeping towards\nus, as it were, from the throne of God through the blue abysses, the\nmore diligently we shall 'work while it is called day,' and the more\nearnestly we shall seek, when the Saviour and His salvation come, to\nbe found with loins girt for all strenuous work, and lamps burning in\nall the brightness of the light of a Christian character.\n\nFurther, says Paul, this hopeful, cheerful contemplation of\napproaching salvation should lead us to cast off the evil, and to put\non the good. You will remember the heart-stirring imagery which the\nApostle employs in the context, where he says, 'The day is at hand;\nlet us therefore fling off the works of darkness'--as men in the\nmorning, when the daylight comes through the window, and makes them\nlift their eyelids, fling off their night-gear--'and let us put on\nthe armour of light.' We are soldiers, and must be clad in what will\nbe bullet-proof, and will turn a sword's edge. And where shall steel\nof celestial temper be found that can resist the fiery darts shot at\nthe Christian soldier? His armour must be 'of light.' Clad in the\nradiance of Christian character he will be invulnerable. And how can\nwe, who have robed ourselves in the works of darkness, either cast\nthem off or array ourselves in sparkling armour of light? Paul tells\nus, 'Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the\nflesh.' The picture is of a camp of sleeping soldiers; the night\nwears thin, the streaks of saffron are coming in the dawning east.\nOne after another the sleepers awake; they cast aside their\nnight-gear, and they brace on the armour that sparkles in the beams\nof the morning sun. So they are ready when the trumpet sounds the\nreveille, and with the morning comes the Captain of the Lord's host,\nand with the Captain comes the perfecting of the salvation which is\ndrawing nearer and nearer to us, as our moments glide through our\nfingers like the beads of a rosary. Many men think of death and fear;\nthe Christian should think of death--and hope.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SOLDIER'S MORNING-CALL\n\n   'Let us put on the armour of light.'--ROMANS xiii. 12.\n\n\nIt is interesting to notice that the metaphor of the Christian armour\noccurs in Paul's letters throughout his whole course. It first\nappears, in a very rudimentary form, in the earliest of the Epistles,\nthat to the Thessalonians. It appears here in a letter which belongs\nto the middle of his career, and it appears finally in the Epistle to\nthe Ephesians, in its fully developed and drawn-out shape, at almost\nthe end of his work. So we may fairly suppose that it was one of his\nfamiliar thoughts. Here it has a very picturesque addition, for the\npicture that is floating before his vivid imagination is that of a\ncompany of soldiers, roused by the morning bugle, casting off their\nnight-gear because the day is beginning to dawn, and bracing on the\narmour that sparkles in the light of the rising sun. 'That,' says\nPaul, 'is what you Christian people ought to be. Can you not hear the\nnotes of the reveille? The night is far spent; the day is at hand;\ntherefore let us put off the works of darkness--the night-gear that\nwas fit for those hours of slumber. Toss it away, and put on the\narmour that belongs to the day.'\n\nNow, I am not going to ask or try to answer the question of how far\nthis Apostolic exhortation is based upon the Apostle's expectation\nthat the world was drawing near its end. That does not matter at all\nfor us at present, for the fact which he expresses as the foundation\nof this exhortation is true about us all, and about our position in\nthe midst of these fleeting shadows round us. We are hastening to the\ndawning of the true day. And so let me try to emphasise the\nexhortation here, old and threadbare and commonplace as it is,\nbecause we all need it, at whatever point of life's journey we have\narrived.\n\nNow, the first thing that strikes me is that the garb for the man\nexpectant of the day is armour.\n\nWe might have anticipated something very different in accordance with\nthe thoughts that Paul's imagery here suggests, about the difference\nbetween the night which is so swiftly passing, and is full of enemies\nand dangers, and the day which is going to dawn, and is full of light\nand peace and joy. We might have expected that he would have said,\n'Let us put on the festal robes.' But no! 'The night is far spent;\nthe day is at hand.' But the dress that befits the expectant of the\nday is not yet the robe of the feast, but it is 'the armour' which,\nput into plain words, means just this, that there is fighting, always\nfighting, to be done. If you are ever to belong to the day, you have\nto equip yourselves _now_ with armour and weapons. I do not need\nto dwell upon that, but I do wish to insist upon this fact, that\nafter all that may be truly said about growth in grace, and the\npeaceful approximation towards perfection in the Christian character,\nwe cannot dispense with the other element in progress, and that is\nfighting. We have to struggle for every step. _Growth_ is not enough\nto define completely the process by which men become conformed to the\nimage of the Father, and are 'made meet to be partakers of the\ninheritance of the saints in light.' Growth does express part of it,\nbut only a part. Conflict is needed to come in, before you have the\nwhole aspect of Christian progress before your minds. For there will\nalways be antagonism without and traitors within. There will always\nbe recalcitrant horses that need to be whipped up, and jibbing horses\nthat need to be dragged forward, and shying ones that need to be\nviolently coerced and kept in the traces. Conflict is the law,\nbecause of the enemies, and because of the conspiracy between the\nweakness within and the things without that appeal to it.\n\nWe hear a great deal to-day about being 'sanctified by faith.' I\nbelieve that as much as any man, but the office of faith is to bring\nus the power that cleanses, and the application of that power\nrequires our work, and it requires our fighting. So it is not enough\nto say, 'Trust for your sanctifying as you have trusted for your\njustifying and acceptance,' but you have to work out what you get by\nyour faith, and you will never work it out unless you fight against\nyour unworthy self, and the temptations of the world. The garb of the\ncandidate for the day is armour.\n\nAnd there is another side to that same thought, and that is, the more\nvivid our expectations of that blessed dawn the more complete should\nbe our bracing on of the armour. The anticipation of that future, in\nvery many instances, in the Christian Church, has led to precisely\nthe opposite state of mind. It has induced people to drop into mere\nfantastic sentiment, or to ignore this contemptible present, and\nthink that they have nothing to do with it, and are only 'waiting for\nthe coming of the Lord,' and the like. Paul says, 'Just because, on\nyour eastern horizon, you can see the pink flush that tells that the\nnight is gone, and the day is coming, therefore do not be a\nsentimentalist, do not be idle, do not be negligent or contemptuous\nof the daily tasks; but because you see it, put on the armour of\nlight, and whether the time between the rising of the whole orb of\nthe sun on the horizon be long or short, fill the hours with\ntriumphant conflict. Put on the whole armour of light.'\n\nAgain, note here what the armour is. Of course that phrase, 'the\narmour of light,' may be nothing more than a little bit of colour put\nin by a picturesque imagination, and may suggest simply how the\nburnished steel would shine and glitter when the sunbeams smote it,\nand the glistening armour, like that of Spenser's Red Cross Knight,\nwould make a kind of light in the dark cave, into which he went. Or\nit may mean 'the armour that befits the light'; as is perhaps\nsuggested by the antithesis 'the works of darkness,' which are to be\n'put off.' These are works that match the darkness, and similarly the\narmour is to be the armour that befits the light, and that can flash\nback its beams. But I think there is more than that in the\nexpression. I would rather take the phrase to be parallel to another\nof this Apostle's, who speaks in 2nd Corinthians of the 'armour of\nrighteousness on the right hand and on the left.' 'Light' makes the\narmour, 'righteousness' makes the armour. The two phrases say the\nsame thing, the one in plain English, the other in figure, which\nbeing brought down to daily life is just this, that the true armour\nand weapon of a Christian man is Christian character. 'Whatsoever\nthings are true, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are\nof good report,' these are the pieces of armour, and these are the\nweapons which we are to wield. A Christian man fights against evil in\nhimself by putting on good. The true way to empty the heart of sin is\nto fill the heart with righteousness. The lances of the light,\naccording to the significant old Greek myth, slew pythons. The armour\nis 'righteousness on the right hand and on the left.' Stick to plain,\nsimple, homely duties, and you will find that they will defend your\nheart against many a temptation. A flask that is full of rich wine\nmay be plunged into the saltest ocean, and not a drop will find its\nway in. Fill your heart with righteousness; your lives--let them\nglisten in the light, and the light will be your armour. God is\nlight, wherefore God cannot be tempted with evil. 'Walk in the light,\nas He is in the light' ... and 'the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth\nfrom all sin.'\n\nBut there is another side to that thought, for if you will look, at\nyour leisure, to the closing words of the chapter, you will find the\nApostle's own exposition of what putting on the armour of light\nmeans. 'Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ'--that is his explanation of\nputting on 'the armour of light.' For 'once ye were darkness, but now\nare ye light in the Lord,' and it is in the measure in which we are\nunited to Him, by the faith which binds us to Him, and by the love\nwhich works obedience and conformity, that we wear the invulnerable\narmour of light. Christ Himself is, and He supplies to all, the\nseparate graces which Christian men can wear. We may say that He is\n'the panoply of God,' as Paul calls it in Ephesians, and when we wear\nHim, and only in the measure in which we do wear Him, in that measure\nare we clothed with it. And so the last thing that I would point out\nhere is that the obedience to these commands requires continual\neffort.\n\nThe Christians in Rome, to whom Paul was writing, were no novices in\nthe Christian life. Long ago many of them had been brought to Him.\nBut the oldest Christian amongst them needed the exhortation as much\nas the rawest recruit in the ranks. Continual renewal day by day is\nwhat we need, and it will not be secured without a great deal of\nwork. Seeing that there is a 'putting off' to go along with the\n'putting on,' the process is a very long one. ''Tis a lifelong task\ntill the lump be leavened.' It is a lifelong task till we strip off\nall the rags of this old self; and 'being clothed,' are not 'found\nnaked.' It takes a lifetime to fathom Jesus; it takes a lifetime to\nappropriate Jesus, it takes a lifetime to be clothed with Jesus. And\nthe question comes to each of us, have we 'put off the old man with\nhis deeds'? Are we daily, as sure as we put on our clothes in the\nmorning, putting on Christ the Lord?\n\nFor notice with what solemnity the Apostle gives the master His full,\nofficial, formal title here, 'put ye on the _Lord Jesus Christ_.' Do\nwe put Him on as _Lord_; bowing our whole wills to Him, and accepting\nHim, His commandments, promises, providences, with glad submission?\nDo we put on _Jesus_, recognising in His manhood as our Brother not\nonly the pattern of our lives, but the pledge that the pattern, by\nHis help and love, is capable of reproduction in ourselves? Do we put\nHim on as 'the Lord Jesus _Christ_,' who was anointed with the Divine\nSpirit, that from the head it might flow, even to the skirts of the\ngarments, and every one of us might partake of that unction and be\nmade pure and clean thereby? 'Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,' and\ndo it day by day, and then you have 'put on the whole armour of God.'\n\nAnd when the day that is dawning has risen to its full, then, not\ntill then, may we put off the armour and put on the white robe, lay\naside the helmet, and have our brows wreathed with the laurel,\nsheathe the sword, and grasp the palm, being 'more than conquerors\nthrough Him who loved us,' and fights in us, as well as for us.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LIMITS OF LIBERTY\n\n   'So then every one of us shall give account of himself\n   to God. 13. Let us not therefore judge one another any\n   more: but judge this rather, that no man put a\n   stumblingblock, or an occasion to fall, in his brother's\n   way. 14. I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus,\n   that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that\n   esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.\n   15. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now\n   walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy\n   meat, for whom Christ died. 16. Let not then your good\n   be evil spoken of: 17. For the kingdom of God is not\n   meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy\n   in the Holy Ghost. 18. For he that in these things\n   serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of\n   men. 19. Let us therefore follow after the things which\n   make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify\n   another. 20. For meat destroy not the work of God. All\n   things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man\n   who eateth with offence. 21. It is good neither to eat\n   flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy\n   brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.\n   22. Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God.\n   Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing\n   which he alloweth. 23. And he that doubteth is damned\n   if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for\n   whatsoever is not of faith is sin.'--ROMANS xiv. 12-23.\n\n\nThe special case in view, in the section of which this passage is\npart, is the difference of opinion as to the lawfulness of eating\ncertain meats. It is of little consequence, so far as the principles\ninvolved are concerned, whether these were the food which the Mosaic\nordinances made unclean, or, as in Corinth, meats offered to idols.\nThe latter is the more probable, and would be the more important in\nRome. The two opinions on the point represented two tendencies of\nmind, which always exist; one more scrupulous, and one more liberal.\nPaul has been giving the former class the lesson they needed in the\nformer part of this chapter; and he now turns to the 'stronger'\nbrethren, and lays down the law for their conduct. We may, perhaps,\nbest simply follow him, verse by verse.\n\nWe note then, first, the great thought with which he starts, that of\nthe final judgment, in which each man shall give account of himself.\nWhat has that to do with the question in hand? This, that it ought to\nkeep us from premature and censorious judging. We have something more\npressing to do than to criticise each other. Ourselves are enough to\nkeep our hands full, without taking a lift of our fellows' conduct.\nAnd this, further, that, in view of the final judgment, we should\nhold a preliminary investigation on our own principles of action, and\n'decide' to adopt as the overruling law for ourselves, that we shall\ndo nothing which will make duty harder for our brethren. Paul\nhabitually settled small matters on large principles, and brought the\nsolemnities of the final account to bear on the marketplace and the\nmeal.\n\nIn verse 13 he lays down the supreme principle for settling the case\nin hand. No Christian is blameless if he voluntarily acts so as to\nlay a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in another's path. Are\nthese two things the same? Possibly, but a man may stumble, and not\nfall, and that which makes him stumble may possibly indicate a\ntemptation to a less grave evil than that which makes him fall does.\nIt may be noticed that in the sequel we hear of a brother's being\n'grieved' first, and then of his being 'overthrown.' In any case,\nthere is no mistake about the principle laid down and repeated in\nverse 21. It is a hard saying for some of us. Is my liberty to be\nrestricted by the narrow scruples of 'strait-laced' Christians? Yes.\nDoes not that make them masters, and attach too much importance to\ntheir narrowness? No. It recognises Christ as Master, and all His\nservants as brethren. If the scrupulous ones go so far as to say to\nthe more liberal, 'You cannot be Christians if you do not do as we\ndo' then the limits of concession have been reached, and we are to do\nas Paul did, when he flatly refused to yield one hair's-breadth to\nthe Judaisers. If a man says, You must adopt this, that, or the other\nlimitation in conduct, or else you shall be unchurched, the only\nanswer is, I will not. We are to be flexible as long as possible, and\nlet weak brethren's scruples restrain our action. But if they insist\non things indifferent as essential, a yet higher duty than that of\nregard to their weak consciences comes in, and faithfulness to Christ\nlimits concession to His servants.\n\nBut, short of that extreme case, Paul lays down the law of curbing\nliberty in deference to 'narrowness.' In verse 14 he states with\nequal breadth the extreme principle of the liberal party, that\nnothing is unclean of itself. He has learned that 'in the Lord\nJesus.' Before he was 'in Him,' he had been entangled in cobwebs of\nlegal cleanness and uncleanness; but now he is free. But he adds an\nexception, which must be kept in mind by the liberal-minded\nsection--namely, that a clean thing is unclean to a man who thinks it\nis. Of course, these principles do not affect the eternal\ndistinctions of right and wrong. Paul is not playing fast and loose\nwith the solemn, divine law which makes sin and righteousness\nindependent of men's notions. He is speaking of things\nindifferent--ceremonial observances and the like; and the modern\nanalogies of these are conventional pieces of conduct, in regard to\namusements and the like, which, in themselves, a Christian man can do\nor abstain from without sin.\n\nVerse 15 is difficult to understand, if the 'for' at the beginning is\ntaken strictly. Some commentators would read instead of it a simple\n'but' which smooths the flow of thought. But possibly the verse\nassigns a reason for the law in verse 13, rather than for the\nstatements in verse 14. And surely there is no stronger reason for\ntender consideration for even the narrowest scruples of Christians\nthan the obligation to walk in love. Our common brotherhood binds us\nto do nothing that would even grieve one of the family. For instance,\nChristian men have different views of the obligations of Sunday\nobservance. It is conceivable that a very 'broad' Christian might see\nno harm in playing lawn-tennis in his garden on a Sunday; but if his\ndoing so scandalised, or, as Paul says, 'grieved' Christian people of\nless advanced views, he would be sinning against the law of love if\nhe did it.\n\nThere are many other applications of the principle readily suggested.\nThe principle is the thing to keep clearly in view. It has a wide\nfield for its exercise in our times, and when the Christian\nbrotherhood includes such diversities of culture and social\ncondition. And that is a solemn deepening of it, 'Destroy not with\nthy meat him for whom Christ died.' Note the almost bitter emphasis\non 'thy,' which brings out not only the smallness of the\ngratification for which the mischief is done, but the selfishness of\nthe man who will not yield up so small a thing to shield from evil\nwhich may prove fatal, a brother for whom Christ did not shrink from\nyielding up life. If He is our pattern, any sacrifice of tastes and\nliberties for our brother's sake is plain duty, and cannot be\nneglected without selfish sin. One great reason, then, for the\nconduct enjoined, is set forth in verse 15. It is the clear dictate\nof Christian love.\n\nAnother reason is urged in verses 16 to 18. It displays the true\ncharacter of Christianity, and so reflects honour on the doer. 'Your\ngood' is an expression for the whole sum of the blessings obtained by\nbecoming Christians, and is closely connected with what is here meant\nby the 'kingdom of God.' That latter phrase seems here to be\nsubstantially equivalent to the inward condition in which they are\nwho have submitted to the dominion of the will of God. It is 'the\nkingdom within us' which is 'righteousness, peace, and joy in the\nHoly Ghost.' What have you won by your Christianity? the Apostle in\neffect says, Do you think that its purpose is mainly to give you\ngreater licence in regard to these matters in question? If the most\nobvious thing in your conduct is your 'eating and drinking,' your\nwhole Christian standing will be misconceived, and men will fancy\nthat your religion permits laxity of life. But if, on the other hand,\nyou show that you are Christ's servants by righteousness, peace, and\njoy, you will be pleasing to God, and men will recognise that your\nreligion is from Him, and that you are consistent professors of it.\n\nModern liberal-minded brethren can easily translate all this for\nto-day's use. Take care that you do not give the impression that your\nChristianity has its main operation in permitting you to do what your\nweaker brethren have scruples about. If you do not yield to them, but\nflaunt your liberty in their and the world's faces, your advanced\nenlightenment will be taken by rough-and-ready observers as mainly\ncherished because it procures you these immunities. Show by your life\nthat you have the true spiritual gifts. Think more about them than\nabout your 'breadth,' and superiority to 'narrow prejudices.' Realise\nthe purpose of the Gospel as concerns your own moral perfecting, and\nthe questions in hand will fall into their right place.\n\nIn verses 19 and 20 two more reasons are given for restricting\nliberty in deference to others' scruples. Such conduct contributes to\npeace. If truth is imperilled, or Christ's name in danger of being\ntarnished, counsels of peace are counsels of treachery; but there are\nnot many things worth buying at the price of Christian concord. Such\nconduct tends to build up our own and others' Christian character.\nConcessions to the 'weak' may help them to become strong, but flying\nin the face of their scruples is sure to hurt them, in one way or\nanother.\n\nIn verse 15, the case was supposed of a brother's being grieved by\nwhat he felt to be laxity. That case corresponded to the\nstumbling-block of verse 13. A worse result seems contemplated in\nverse 20,--that of the weak brother, still believing that laxity was\nwrong, and yet being tempted by the example of the stronger to\nindulge in it. In that event, the responsibility of overthrowing what\nGod had built lies at the door of the tempter. The metaphor of\n'overthrowing' is suggested by the previous one of 'edifying.'\nChristian duty is mutual building up of character; inconsiderate\nexercise of 'liberty' may lead to pulling down, by inducing to\nimitation which conscience condemns.\n\nFrom this point onwards, the Apostle first reiterates in inverse\norder his two broad principles, that clean things are unclean to the\nman who thinks them so, and that Christian obligation requires\nabstinence from permitted things if our indulgence tends to a\nbrother's hurt. The application of the latter principle to the\nduty of total abstinence from intoxicants for the sake of others is\nperfectly legitimate, but it is an application, not the direct\npurpose of the Apostle's injunctions.\n\nIn verses 22 and 23, the section is closed by two exhortations, in\nwhich both parties, the strong and the weak, are addressed. The\nformer is spoken to in verse 22, the latter in verse 23. The strong\nbrother is bid to be content with having his wider views, or\n'faith'--that is, certainty that his liberty is in accordance with\nChrist's will. It is enough that he should enjoy that conviction,\nonly let him make sure that he can hold it as in God's sight, and do\nnot let him flourish it in the faces of brethren whom it would\ngrieve, or might lead to imitating his practice, without having risen\nto his conviction. And let him be quite sure that his conscience is\nentirely convinced, and not bribed by inclination; for many a man\ncondemns himself by letting wishes dictate to conscience.\n\nOn the other hand, there is a danger that those who have scruples\nshould, by the example of those who have not, be tempted to do what\nthey are not quite sure is right. If you have any doubts, says Paul,\nthe safe course is to abstain from the conduct in question. Perhaps a\nbrother can go to the theatre without harm, if he believes it right\nto do so; but if you have any hesitation as to the propriety of\ngoing, you will be condemned as sinning if you do. You must not\nmeasure your corn by another man's bushel. Your convictions, not his,\nare to be your guides. 'Faith' is used here in a somewhat unusual\nsense. It means certitude of judgment. The last words of verse 23\nhave no such meaning as is sometimes extracted from them; namely,\nthat actions, however pure and good, done by unbelievers, are of the\nnature of sin. They simply mean that whatever a Christian man does\nwithout clear warrant of his judgment and conscience is sin to him,\nwhatever it is to others.\n\n\n\n\nTWO FOUNTAINS, ONE STREAM\n\n   'That we, through patience and comfort of the\n   Scriptures, might have hope.... 13. The God of\n   hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,\n   that ye may abound in hope.'--ROMANS xv. 4, 13.\n\n\nThere is a river in Switzerland fed by two uniting streams, bearing\nthe same name, one of them called the 'white,' one of them the\n'grey,' or dark. One comes down from the glaciers, and bears\nhalf-melted snow in its white ripple; the other flows through a\nlovely valley, and is discoloured by its earth. They unite in one\ncommon current. So in these two verses we have two streams, a white\nand a black, and they both blend together and flow out into a common\nhope. In the former of them we have the dark stream--'through\npatience and comfort,' which implies affliction and effort. The issue\nand outcome of all difficulty, trial, sorrow, ought to be hope. And\nin the other verse we have the other valley, down which the light\nstream comes: 'The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in\nbelieving, that ye may abound in hope.'\n\nSo both halves of the possible human experience are meant to end in\nthe same blessed result; and whether you go round on the one side of\nthe sphere of human life, or whether you take the other hemisphere,\nyou come to the same point, if you have travelled with God's hand in\nyours, and with Him for your Guide.\n\nLet us look, then, at these two contrasted origins of the same\nblessed gift, the Christian hope.\n\nI. We have, first of all, the hope that is the child of the night,\nand born in the dark.\n\n'Whatsoever things,' says the Apostle, 'were written aforetime, were\nwritten for our learning, that we, through patience,'--or rather\n_the brave perseverance_--'and consolation'--or rather perhaps\n_encouragement_--'of the Scriptures might have hope.' The written\nword is conceived as the source of patient endurance which acts as\nwell as suffers. This grace Scripture works in us through the\nencouragement which it ministers in manifold ways, and the result of\nboth is hope.\n\nSo, you see, our sorrows and difficulties are not connected with, nor\ndo they issue in, bright hopefulness, except by reason of this\nconnecting link. There is nothing in a man's troubles to make him\nhopeful. Sometimes, rather, they drive him into despair; but at all\nevents, they seldom drive him to hopefulness, except where this link\ncomes in. We cannot pass from the black frowning cliffs on one side\nof the gorge to the sunny tablelands on the other without a\nbridge--and the bridge for a poor soul from the blackness of sorrow,\nand the sharp grim rocks of despair, to the smiling pastures of hope,\nwith all their half-open blossoms, is builded in that Book, which\ntells us the meaning and purpose of them all; and is full of the\nhistories of those who have fought and overcome, have hoped and not\nbeen ashamed.\n\nScripture is given for this among other reasons, that it may\nencourage us, and so may produce in us this great grace of active\npatience, if we may call it so.\n\nThe first thing to notice is, how Scripture gives encouragement--for\nsuch rather than consolation is the meaning of the word. It is much\nto dry tears, but it is more to stir the heart as with a trumpet\ncall. Consolation is precious, but we need more for well-being than\nonly to be comforted. And, surely, the whole tone of Scripture in its\ndealing with the great mystery of pain and sorrow, has a loftier\nscope than even to minister assuagement to grief, and to stay our\nweeping. It seeks to make us strong and brave to face and to master\nour sorrows, and to infuse into us a high-hearted courage, which\nshall not merely be able to accept the biting blasts, but shall feel\nthat they bring a glow to the cheek and oxygen to the blood, while\nwrestling with them builds up our strength, and trains us for higher\nservice. It would be a poor aim to comfort only; but to encourage--to\nmake strong in heart, resolved in will, and incapable of being\noverborne or crushed in spirit by any sorrows--that is a purpose\nworthy of the Book, and of the God who speaks through it.\n\nThis purpose, we may say, is effected by Scripture in two ways. It\nencourages us by its records, and by its revelation of principles.\n\nWho can tell how many struggling souls have taken heart again, as\nthey pondered over the sweet stories of sorrow subdued which stud its\npages, like stars in its firmament? The tears shed long ago which God\nhas put 'in His bottle,' and recorded in 'His book,' have truly been\nturned into pearls. That long gallery of portraits of sufferers, who\nhave all trodden the same rough road, and been sustained by the same\nhand, and reached the same home, speaks cheer to all who follow them.\nHearts wrung by cruel partings from those dearer to them than their\nown souls, turn to the pages which tell how Abraham, with calm\nsorrow, laid his Sarah in the cave at Macpelah; or how, when Jacob's\neyes were dim that he could not see, his memory still turned to the\nhour of agony when Rachael died by him, and he sees clear in its\nlight her lonely grave, where so much of himself was laid; or to the\nstill more sacred page which records the struggle of grief and faith\nin the hearts of the sisters of Bethany. All who are anyways\nafflicted in mind, body, or estate find in the Psalms men speaking\ntheir deepest experiences before them; and the grand majesty of\nsorrow that marks 'the patience of Job,' and the flood of sunshine\nthat bathes him, revealing the 'end of the Lord,' have strengthened\ncountless sufferers to bear and to hold fast, and to hope. We are all\nenough of children to be more affected by living examples than by\ndissertations, however true, and so Scripture is mainly history,\nrevealing God by the record of His acts, and disclosing the secret of\nhuman life by telling us the experiences of living men.\n\nBut Scripture has another method of ministering encouragement to our\noften fainting and faithless hearts. It cuts down through all the\ncomplications of human affairs, and lays bare the innermost motive\npower. It not only shows us in its narratives the working of sorrow,\nand the power of faith, but it distinctly lays down the source and\nthe purpose, the whence and the whither of all suffering. No man need\nquail or faint before the most torturing pains or most disastrous\nstrokes of evil, who holds firmly the plain teaching of Scripture on\nthese two points. They all come _from_ my Father, and they all\ncome _for_ my good. It is a short and simple creed, easily\napprehended. It pretends to no recondite wisdom. It is a homely\nphilosophy which common intellects can grasp, which children can\nunderstand, and hearts half paralysed by sorrow can take in. So much\nthe better. Grief and pain are so common that their cure had need to\nbe easily obtained. Ignorant and stupid people have to writhe in\nagony as well as wise and clever ones, and until grief is the portion\nonly of the cultivated classes, its healing must come from something\nmore universal than philosophy; or else the nettle would be more\nplentiful than the dock; and many a poor heart would be stung to\ndeath. Blessed be God! the Christian view of sorrow, while it leaves\nmuch unexplained, focuses a steady light on these two points; its\norigin and its end. 'He for our profit, that we may be partakers of\nHis holiness,' is enough to calm all agitation, and to make the\nfaintest heart take fresh courage. With that double certitude clear\nbefore us, we can face anything. The slings and arrows which strike\nare no more flung blindly by an 'outrageous fortune,' but each bears\nan inscription, like the fabled bolts, which tells what hand drew the\nbow, and they come with His love.\n\nThen, further, the courage thus born of the Scriptures produces\nanother grand thing--patience, or rather perseverance. By that word\nis meant more than simply the passive endurance which is the main\nelement in patience, properly so called. Such passive endurance is a\nlarge part of our duty in regard to difficulties and sorrows, but is\nnever the whole of it. It is something to endure and even while the\nheart is breaking, to submit unmurmuring, but, transcendent as that\nis, it is but half of the lesson which we have to learn and to put in\npractice. For if all our sorrows have a disciplinary and educational\npurpose, we shall not have received them aright, unless we have tried\nto make that purpose effectual, by appropriating whatsoever moral and\nspiritual teaching they each have for us. Nor does our duty stop\nthere. For while one high purpose of sorrow is to deaden our hearts\nto earthly objects, and to lift us above earthly affections, no\nsorrow can ever relax the bonds which oblige us to duty. The solemn\npressure of 'I ought,' is as heavy on the sorrowful as on the happy\nheart. We have still to toil, to press forward, in the sweat of our\nbrow, to gain our bread, whether it be food for our bodies, or\nsustenance for our hearts and minds. Our responsibilities to others\ndo not cease because our lives are darkened. Therefore, heavy or\nlight of heart, we have still to stick to our work, and though we may\nnever more be able to do it with the old buoyancy, still to do it\nwith our might.\n\nIt is that dogged persistence in plain duty, that tenacious\ncontinuance in our course, which is here set forth as the result of\nthe encouragement which Scripture gives. Many of us have all our\nstrength exhausted in mere endurance, and have let obvious duties\nslip from our hands, as if we had done all that we could do when we\nhad forced ourselves to submit. Submission would come easier if you\ntook up some of those neglected duties, and you would be stronger for\npatience, if you used more of your strength for service. You do well\nif you do not sink under your burden, but you would do better if,\nwith it on your shoulders, you would plod steadily along the road;\nand if you did, you would feel the weight less. It seems heaviest\nwhen you stand still doing nothing. Do not cease to toil because you\nsuffer. You will feel your pain more if you do. Take the\nencouragement which Scripture gives, that it may animate you to bate\nno jot of heart or hope, but still bear up and steer right onward.\n\nAnd let the Scripture directly minister to you perseverance as well\nas indirectly supply it through the encouragement which it gives. It\nabounds with exhortations, patterns, and motives of such patient\ncontinuance in well-doing. It teaches us a solemn scorn of ills. It,\nangel-like, bears us up on soft, strong hands, lest we bruise\nourselves on, or stumble over, the rough places on our roads. It\nsummons us to diligence by the visions of the prize, and glimpses of\nthe dread fate of the slothful, by all that is blessed in hope, and\nterrible in foreboding, by appeals to an enlightened self-regard, and\nby authoritative commands to conscience, by the pattern of the\nMaster, and by the tender motives of love to Him to which He,\nHimself, has given voice. All these call on us to be followers of\nthem who, through faith and perseverance, inherit the promises.\n\nBut we have yet another step to take. These two, the encouragement\nand perseverance produced by the right use of Scripture, will lead to\nhope.\n\nIt depends on how sorrow and trial are borne, whether they produce a\ndreary hopelessness which sometimes darkens into despair, or a\nbrighter, firmer hope than more joyous days knew. We cannot say that\nsorrow produces hope. It does not, unless we have this connecting\nlink--the experience in sorrow of a God-given courage which falters\nnot in the onward course, nor shrinks from any duty. But if, in the\nvery press and agony, I am able, by God's grace, to endure nor cease\nto toil, I have, in myself, a living proof of His power, which\nentitles me to look forward with the sure confidence that, through\nall the uproar of the storm, He will bring me to my harbour of rest\nwhere there is peace. The lion once slain houses a swarm of bees who\nlay up honey in its carcase. The trial borne with brave persistence\nyields a store of sweet hopes. If we can look back and say, 'Thou\nhast been with me in six troubles,' it is good logic to look forward\nand say, 'and in seven Thou wilt not forsake me.' When the first wave\nbreaks over the ship, as she clears the heads and heels over before\nthe full power of the open sea, inexperienced landsmen think they are\nall going to the bottom, but they soon learn that there is a long way\nbetween rolling and foundering, and get to watch the highest waves\ntowering above the bows in full confidence that these also will slip\nquietly beneath the keel as the others have done, and be left\nharmless astern.\n\nThe Apostle, in this very same letter, has another word parallel to\nthis, in which he describes the issues of rightly-borne suffering\nwhen he says, 'Tribulation worketh perseverance'--the same word that\nis used here--'and perseverance worketh' the proof in our experience\nof a sustaining God; and the proof in our experience of a sustaining\nGod works hope. We know that of ourselves we could not have met\ntribulation, and therefore the fact that we have been able to meet\nand overcome it is demonstration of a mightier power than our own,\nworking in us, which we know to be from God, and therefore\ninexhaustible and ever ready to help. That is foundation firm enough\nto build solid fabrics of hope upon, whose bases go down to the\ncentre of all things, the purpose of God, and whose summits, like the\nupward shooting spire of some cathedral, aspire to, and seem almost\nto touch, the heavens.\n\nSo hope is born of sorrow, when these other things come between. The\ndarkness gives birth to the light, and every grief blazes up a\nwitness to a future glory. Each drop that hangs on the wet leaves\ntwinkles into rainbow light that proclaims the sun. The garish\nsplendours of the prosperous day hide the stars, and through the\nnight of our sorrow there shine, thickly sown and steadfast, the\nconstellations of eternal hopes. The darker the midnight, the surer,\nand perhaps the nearer, the coming of the day. Sorrow has not had its\nperfect work unless it has led us by the way of courage and\nperseverance to a stable hope. Hope has not pierced to the rock, and\nbuilds only 'things that can be shaken,' unless it rests on sorrows\nborne by God's help.\n\nII. So much then for the genealogy of one form of the Christian hope.\nBut we have also a hope that is born of the day, the child of\nsunshine and gladness; and that is set before us in the second of the\ntwo verses which we are considering, 'The God of hope fill you with\nall joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope.'\n\nSo then, 'the darkness and the light are both alike' to our hope, in\nso far as each may become the occasion for its exercise. It is not\nonly to be the sweet juice expressed from our hearts by the winepress\nof calamities, but that which flows of itself from hearts ripened and\nmellowed under the sunshine of God-given blessedness.\n\nWe have seen that the bridge by which sorrow led to hope, is\nperseverance and courage; in this second analysis of the origin of\nhope, joy and peace are the bridge by which Faith passes over into\nit. Observe the difference: there is no direct connection between\naffliction and hope, but there is between joy and hope. We have no\nright to say, 'Because I suffer, I shall possess good in the future';\nbut we have a right to say, 'Because I rejoice'--of course with a joy\nin God--'I shall never cease to rejoice in Him.' Such joy is the\nprophet of its own immortality and completion. And, on the other\nhand, the joy and peace which are naturally the direct progenitors of\nChristian hope, are the children of faith. So that we have here two\ngenerations, as it were, of hope's ancestors;--Faith produces joy and\npeace, and these again produce hope.\n\nFaith leads to joy and peace. Paul has found, and if we only put it\nto the proof, we shall also find, that the simple exercise of simple\nfaith fills the soul with '_all_ joy and peace.' Gladness in all\nits variety and in full measure, calm repose in every kind and\nabundant in its still depth, will pour into my heart as water does\ninto a vessel, on condition of my taking away the barrier and opening\nmy heart through faith. Trust and thou shalt be glad. Trust, and thou\nshalt be calm. In the measure of thy trust shall be the measure of\nthy joy and peace.\n\nNotice, further, how indissolubly connected the present exercise of\nfaith is with the present experience of joy and peace. The exuberant\nlanguage of this text seems a world too wide for anything that many\nprofessing Christians ever know even in the moments of highest\nelevation, and certainly far beyond the ordinary tenor of their\nlives. But it is no wonder that these should have so little joy, when\nthey have so little faith. It is only while we are looking to Jesus\nthat we can expect to have joy and peace. There is no flashing light\non the surface of the mirror, but when it is turned full to the sun.\nAny interruption in the electric current is registered accurately by\nan interruption in the continuous line perforated on the telegraph\nribbon; and so every diversion of heart and faith from Jesus Christ\nis recorded by the fading of the sunshine out of the heart, and the\nsilencing of all the song-birds. Yesterday's faith will not bring joy\nto-day; you cannot live upon past experience, nor feed your souls\nwith the memory of former exercises of Christian faith. It must be\nlike the manna, gathered fresh every day, else it will rot and smell\nfoul. A present faith, and a present faith only, produces a present\njoy and peace. Is there, then, any wonder that so much of the\nordinary experience of ordinary Christians should present a sadly\nbroken line--a bright point here and there, separated by long\nstretches of darkness? The gaps in the continuity of their joy are\nthe tell-tale indicators of the interruptions in their faith. If the\nlatter were continuous, the former would be unbroken. Always believe,\nand you will always be glad and calm.\n\nIt is easy to see that this is the natural result of faith. The very\nact of confident reliance on another for all my safety and well-being\nhas a charm to make me restful, so long as my reliance is not put to\nshame. There is no more blessed emotion than the tranquil happiness\nwhich, in the measure of its trust, fills every trustful soul. Even\nwhen its objects are poor, fallible, weak, ignorant dying men and\nwomen, trust brings a breath of more than earthly peace into the\nheart. But when it grasps the omnipotent, all-wise, immortal Christ,\nthere are no bounds but its own capacity to the blessedness which it\nbrings into the soul, because there is none to the all-sufficient\ngrace of which it lays hold.\n\nObserve again how accurately the Apostle defines for us the\nconditions on which Christian experience will be joyful and tranquil.\nIt is 'in believing,' not in certain other exercises of mind, that\nthese blessings are to be realised. And the forgetfulness of that\nplain fact leads to many good people's religion being very much more\ngloomy and disturbed than God meant it to be. For a large part of it\nconsists in sadly testing their spiritual state, and gazing at their\nfailures and imperfections. There is nothing cheerful or\ntranquillising in grubbing among the evils of your own heart, and it\nis quite possible to do that too much and too exclusively. If your\nfavourite subject of contemplation in your religious thinking is\nyourself, no wonder that you do not get much joy and peace out of\nthat. If you do, it will be of a false kind. If you are thinking more\nabout your own imperfections than about Christ's pardon, more about\nthe defects of your own love to Him than about the perfection of His\nlove to you, if instead of practising faith you are absorbed in\nself-examination, and instead of saying to yourself, 'I know how foul\nand unworthy I am, but I look away from myself to my Saviour,' you\nare bewailing your sins and doubting whether you are a Christian, you\nneed not expect God's angels of joy and peace to nestle in your\nheart. It is 'in believing,' and not in other forms of religious\ncontemplation, however needful these may in their places be, that\nthese fair twin sisters come to us and make their abode with us.\n\nThen, the second step in this tracing of the origin of the hope which\nhas the brighter source is the consideration that the joy and peace\nwhich spring from faith, in their turn produce that confident\nanticipation of future and progressive good.\n\nHerein lies the distinguishing blessedness of the Christian joy and\npeace, in that they carry in themselves the pledge of their own\neternity. Here, and here only, the mad boast which is doomed to be so\nmiserably falsified when applied to earthly gladness is simple truth.\nHere 'to-morrow _shall_ be as this day and much more abundant.'\nSuch joy has nothing in itself which betokens exhaustion, as all the\nless pure joys of earth have. It is manifestly not born for death, as\nare they. It is not fated, like all earthly emotions or passions, to\nexpire in the moment of its completeness, or even by sudden revulsion\nto be succeeded by its opposite. Its sweetness has no after pang of\nbitterness. It is not true of this gladness, that 'Hereof cometh in\nthe end despondency and madness,' but its destiny is to 'remain' as\nlong as the soul in which it unfolds shall exist, and 'to be full' as\nlong as the source from which it flows does not run dry.\n\nSo that the more we experience the present blessedness, which faith\nin Christ brings us, the more shall we be sure that nothing in the\nfuture, either in or beyond time, can put an end to it; and hence a\nhope that looks with confident eyes across the gorge of death, to the\n'shining tablelands' on the other side, and is as calm as certitude,\nshall be ours. To the Christian soul, rejoicing in the conscious\nexercise of faith and the conscious possession of its blessed\nresults, the termination of a communion with Christ, so real and\nspiritual, by such a trivial accident as death, seems wildly absurd\nand therefore utterly impossible. Just as Christ's Resurrection seems\ninevitable as soon as we grasp the truth of His divine nature, and it\nbecomes manifestly impossible that He, being such as He is--should\nbe holden of death,' being such as it is, so for His children, when\nonce they come to know the realities of fellowship with their Lord,\nthey feel the entire dissimilarity of these to anything in the realm\nwhich is subjected to the power of death, and to know it to be as\nimpossible that these purely spiritual experiences should be reduced\nto inactivity, or meddled with by it, as that a thought should be\nbound with a cord or a feeling fastened with fetters. They, and\ndeath, belong to two different regions. It can work its will on 'this\nwide world, and all its fading sweets'--but is powerless in the still\nplace where the soul and Jesus hold converse, and all His joy passes\ninto His servant's heart. I saw, not long since, in a wood a mass of\nblue wild hyacinths, that looked like a little bit of heaven dropped\ndown upon earth. You and I may have such a tiny bit of heaven itself\nlying amidst all the tangle of our daily lives, if only we put our\ntrust in Christ, and so get into our hearts some little portion of\nthat joy that is unspeakable, and that peace that passeth\nunderstanding.\n\nThus, then, the sorrows of the earthly experience and the joys of the\nChristian life will blend together to produce the one blessed result\nof a hope that is full of certainty, and is the assurance of\nimmortality. There is no rainbow in the sky unless there be both a\nblack cloud and bright sunshine. So, on the blackest, thickest\nthunder-mass of our sorrows, if smitten into moist light by the\nsunshine of joy and peace drawn from Jesus Christ by faith, there may\nbe painted the rainbow of hope, the many-coloured, steadfast token of\nthe faithful covenant of the faithful God.\n\n\n\n\nJOY AND PEACE IN BELIEVING\n\n   'The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in\n   believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the\n   power of the Holy Ghost.'--ROMANS xv. 13.\n\n\nWith this comprehensive and lofty petition the Apostle closes his\nexhortation to the factions in the Roman Church to be at unity. The\nform of the prayer is moulded by the last words of a quotation which\nhe has just made, which says that in the coming Messiah 'shall the\nGentiles hope.' But the prayer itself is not an instance of being led\naway by a word--in form, indeed, it is shaped by verbal resemblance;\nin substance it points to the true remedy for religious controversy.\nFill the contending parties with a fuller spiritual life, and the\nground of their differences will begin to dwindle, and look very\ncontemptible. When the tide rises, the little pools on the rocks are\nall merged into one.\n\nBut we may pass beyond the immediate application of these words, and\nsee in them the wish, which is also a promise, and like the\nexhibition of every ideal is a command. This is Paul's conception of\nthe Christian life as it might and should be, in one aspect. You\nnotice that there is not a word in it about conduct. It goes far\ndeeper than action. It deals with the springs of action in the\nindividual life. It is the depths of spiritual experience here set\nforth which will result in actions that become a Christian. And in\nthese days, when all around us we see a shallow conception of\nChristianity, as if it were concerned principally with conduct and\nmen's relations with one another, it is well to go down into the\ndepths, and to remember that whilst 'Do, do, do!' is very important,\n'Be, be, be!' is the primary commandment. Conduct is a making visible\nof personality, and the Scripture teaching which says first faith and\nthen works is profoundly philosophical as well as Christian. So we\nturn away here from externals altogether, and regard the effect of\nChristianity on the inward life.\n\nI. I wish to notice man's faith and God's filling as connected, and\nas the foundation of everything.\n\n'The God of hope fill you ...'--let us leave out the intervening\nwords for a moment--'in believing.' Now, you notice that Paul does\nnot stay to tell us what or whom we are to believe in, or on. He\ntakes that for granted, and his thought is fastened, for the moment,\nnot on the object but on the act of faith. And he wishes to drive\nhome to us this, that the attitude of trust is the necessary\nprerequisite condition of God's being able to fill a man's soul, and\nthat God's being able to fill a man's soul is the necessary\nconsequence of a man's trust. Ah, brethren, we cannot altogether shut\nGod out from our spirits. There are loving and gracious gifts that,\nas our Lord tells us, He makes to 'fall on the unthankful and the\nevil.' His rain is not like the summer showers that we sometimes see,\nthat fall in one spot and leave another dry; nor like the destructive\nthunderstorms, that come down bringing ruin upon one cane-brake and\nleave the plants in the next standing upright. But the best, the\nhighest, the truly divine gifts which He is yearning to give to us\nall, cannot be given except there be consent, trust, and desire for\nthem. You can shut your hearts or you can open them. And just as the\nwind will sigh round some hermetically closed chamber in vain search\nfor a cranny, and the man within may be asphyxiated though the\natmosphere is surging up its waves all round his closed domicile, so\nby lack of our faith, which is at once trust, consent, and desire, we\nshut out the gift with which God would fain fill our spirits. You can\ntake a porous pottery vessel, wrap it up in waxcloth, pitch it all\nover, and then drop it into mid-Atlantic, and not a drop will find\nits way in. And that is what we can do with ourselves, so that\nalthough in Him 'we live and move and have our being,' and are like\nthe earthen vessel in the ocean, no drop of the blessed moisture will\never find its way into the heart. There must be man's faith before\nthere can be God's filling.\n\nFurther, this relation of the two things suggests to us that a\nconsequence of a Christian man's faith is the direct action of God\nupon him. Notice how the Apostle puts that truth in a double form\nhere, in order that he may emphasise it, using one form of\nexpression, involving the divine, direct activity, at the beginning\nof his prayer, and another at the end, and so enclosing, as it were,\nwithin a great casket of the divine action, all the blessings, the\nflashing jewels, which he desires his Roman friends to possess. 'The\nGod of hope fill you ... through the power of the Holy Ghost.' I wish\nI could find words by which I could bear in upon the ordinary type of\nthe Evangelical Christianity of this generation anything like the\ndepth and earnestness of my own conviction that, for lack of a\nproportionate development of that great truth, of the direct action\nof the giving God on the believing heart, it is weakened and harmed\nin many ways. Surely He that made my spirit can touch my spirit;\nsurely He who filleth all things according to their capacity can\nHimself enter into and fill the spirit which is opened for Him by\nsimple faith. We do not need wires for the telegraphy between heaven\nand the believing soul, but He comes directly to, and speaks in, and\nmoves upon, and moulds and blesses, the waiting heart. And until you\nknow, by your own experience rightly interpreted, that there is such\na direct communion between the giving God and the recipient believing\nspirit, you have yet to learn the deepest depth, and the most blessed\nblessedness, of Christian faith and experience. For lack of it a\nhundred evils beset modern Christianity. For lack of it men fix their\nfaith so exclusively as that the faith is itself harmed thereby, on\nthe past act of Christ's death on the Cross. You will not suspect me\nof minimising that, but I beseech you remember one climax of the\nApostle's which, though not bearing the same message as my text, is\nin harmony with it, 'Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen\nagain, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh\nintercession for us.' And remember that Christ Himself bestows the\ngift of His Divine Spirit as the result of the humiliation and the\nagony of His Cross. Faith brings the direct action of the giving God.\n\nAnd one more word about this first part of my text: the result of\nthat direct action is complete--'the God of hope fill you' with no\nshrunken stream, no painful trickle out of a narrow rift in the rock,\nbut a great exuberance which will pass into a man's nature in the\nmeasure of his capacity, which is the measure of his trust and\ndesire. There are two limits to God's gifts to men: the one is the\nlimitless limit of God's infinitude, the other is the working\nlimit--our capacity--and that capacity is precisely measured, as the\ncapacity of some built-in vessel might be measured by a little gauge\non the outside, by our faith. 'The God of hope' fills you in\n'believing,' and 'according to thy faith shall it be unto thee.'\n\nII. Notice the joy and peace which come from the direct action of the\nGod of hope on the believer's soul.\n\nNow, it is not only towards God that we exercise trust, but wherever\nit is exercised, to some extent, and in the measure in which the\nobject on which it rests is discovered by experience to be worthy, it\nproduces precisely these results. Whoever trusts is at peace, just as\nmuch as he trusts. His confidence may be mistaken, and there will\ncome a tremendous awakening if it is, and the peace will be shattered\nlike some crystal vessel dashed upon an iron pavement, but so long as\na man's mind and heart are in the attitude of dependence upon\nanother, conceived to be dependable, one knows that there are few\nphases of tranquillity and blessedness which are sweeter and deeper\nthan that. 'The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her'--that\nis one illustration, and a hundred more might be given. And if you\nwill take that attitude of trust which, even when it twines round\nsome earthly prop, is upheld for a time, and bears bright flowers--if\nyou take it and twine it round the steadfast foundations of the\nThrone of God, what can shake that sure repose? 'Joy and peace' will\ncome when the Christian heart closes with its trust, which is God in\nChrist.\n\nHe that believes has found the short, sure road to joy and peace,\nbecause his relations are set right with God. For these relations are\nthe disturbing elements in all earthly tranquillity, and like the\nskeleton at the feast in all earthly joy, and a man can never, down\nto the roots of his being, be at rest until he is quite sure that\nthere is nothing wrong between him and God. And so believing, we come\nto that root of all real gladness which is anything better than a\ncrackling of thorns under a pot, and to that beginning of all true\ntranquillity. Joy in the Lord and peace with God are the parents of\nall joy and peace that are worthy of the name.\n\nAnd that same faith will again bring these two bright-winged angels\ninto the most saddened and troubled lives, because that faith brings\nright relations with ourselves. For our inward strifes stuff thorns\ninto the pillow of our repose, and mingle bitterness with the\nsweetest, foaming draughts of our earthly joys. If a man's conscience\nand inclinations pull him two different ways, he is torn asunder as\nby wild horses. If a man has a hungry heart, for ever yearning after\nunattained and impossible blessings, then there is no rest there. If\na man's little kingdom within him is all anarchical, and each passion\nand appetite setting up for itself, then there is no tranquillity.\nBut if by faith we let the God of hope come in, then hungry hearts\nare satisfied, and warring dispositions are harmonised, and the\nconscience becomes quieted, and fair imaginations fill the chamber of\nthe spirit, and the man is at rest, because he himself is unified by\nthe faith and fear of God.\n\nAnd the same faith brings joy and peace because it sets right our\nrelations with other people, and with all externals. If I am living\nin an atmosphere of trust, then sorrow will never be absolute, nor\nhave exclusive monopoly and possession of my spirit. But there will\nbe the paradox, and the blessedness, of Christian experience, 'as\nsorrowful yet always rejoicing.' For the joy of the Christian life\nhas its source far away beyond the swamps from which the sour drops\nof sorrow may trickle, and it is possible that, like the fabled fire\nthat burned under water, the joy of the Lord may be bright in my\nheart, even when it is drenched in floods of calamity and distress.\n\nAnd so, brethren, the joy and peace that come from faith will fill\nthe heart which trusts. Only remember how emphatically the Apostle\nhere puts these two things together, 'joy and peace in believing.' As\nlong as, and not a moment longer than, you are exercising the\nChristian act of trust, will you be experiencing the Christian\nblessedness of 'joy and peace.' Unscrew the pipe, and in an instant\nthe water ceases to flow. Touch the button and switch off, and out\ngoes the light. Some Christian people fancy they can live upon past\nfaith. You will get no present joy and peace out of past faith. The\nrain of this day twelve months will not moisten the parched ground of\nto-day. Yesterday's religion was all used up yesterday. And if you\nwould have a continuous flow of joy and peace through your lives,\nkeep up a uniform habit and attitude of trust in God. You will get it\nthen; you will get it in no other way.\n\nIII. Lastly, note the hope which springs from this experience of joy\nand peace.\n\n'The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that\nye may abound in hope.' Here, again, the Apostle does not trouble\nhimself to define the object of the hope. In this, as in the former\nclause, his attention is fixed upon the emotion, not upon that\ntowards which it goes out. And just as there was no need to say in\nwhom it was that the Christian man was to believe, so there is no\nroom to define what it is that the Christian man has a right to hope\nfor. For his hope is intended to cover all the future, the next\nmoment, or to-morrow, or the dimmest distance where time has ceased\nto be, and eternity stands unmoved. The attitude of the Christian\nmind ought to be a cheery optimism, an unconquerable hope. 'The best\nhas yet to be' is the true Christian thought in contemplating the\nfuture for myself, for my dear ones, for God's Church, and for God's\nuniverse.\n\nAnd the truest basis on which that hope can rest is the experience\ngranted to us, on condition of our faith, of a present, abundant\npossession of the joy and peace which God gives. The gladder you are\nto-day, if the gladness comes from the right source, the surer you\nmay be that that gladness will never end. That is not what befalls\nmen who live by earthly joys. For the more poignant, precious, and,\nas we faithlessly think, indispensable some of these are to us, the\nmore into their sweetest sweetness creeps the dread thought: 'This is\ntoo good to last; this must pass.' We never need to think that about\nthe peace and joy that come to us through believing. For they, in\ntheir sweetness, prophesy perpetuity. I need not dwell upon the\nthought that the firmest, most personally precious convictions of an\neternity of future blessedness, rise and fall in a Christian\nconsciousness with the purity and the depth of its own experience of\nthe peace and joy of the Gospel. The more you have of Jesus Christ in\nyour lives and hearts to-day, the surer you will be that whatever\ndeath may do, it cannot touch that, and the more ludicrously\nimpossible it will seem that anything that befalls this poor body can\ntouch the bond that knits us to Jesus Christ. Death can separate us\nfrom a great deal. Its sharp scythe cuts through all other bonds, but\nits edge is turned when it is tried against the golden chain that\nbinds the believing soul to the Christ in whom he has believed.\n\nSo, brethren, there is the ladder--begin at the bottom step, with\nfaith in Jesus Christ. That will bring God's direct action into your\nspirit, through His Holy Spirit, and that one gift will break up into\nan endless multiplicity of blessings, just as a beam of light spilt\nupon the surface of the ocean breaks into diamonds in every wave, and\nthat 'joy and peace' will kindle in your hearts a hope fed by the\ngreat words of the Lord: 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give\nunto you,' 'My joy shall remain in you, and your joy shall be full,'\n'He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.'\n\n\n\n\nPHOEBE\n\n   'I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant\n   of the Church that is at Cenchrea: 2. That ye receive her\n   in the Lord, worthily of the Saints, and that ye assist\n   her in whatsover matter she may have need of you: for she\n   herself hath been a succourer of many, and of mine own\n   self.'--ROMANS xvi. 1, 2 (R.V.).\n\n\nThis is an outline picture of an else wholly unknown person. She,\nlike most of the other names mentioned in the salutations in this\nchapter, has had a singular fate. Every name, shadowy and unreal as\nit is to us, belonged to a human life filled with hopes and fears,\nplunged sometimes in the depths of sorrows, struggling with anxieties\nand difficulties; and all the agitations have sunk into forgetfulness\nand calm. There is left to the world an immortal remembrance, and\nscarcely a single fact associated with the undying names.\n\nNote the person here disclosed.\n\nA little rent is made in the dark curtain through which we see as\nwith an incandescent light concentrated for a moment upon her, one of\nthe many good women who helped Paul, as their sisters had helped\nPaul's Master, and who thereby have won, little as either Paul or she\nthought it, an eternal commemoration. Her name is a purely idolatrous\none, and stamps her as a Greek, and by birth probably a worshipper of\nApollo. Her Christian associations were with the Church at Cenchrea,\nthe port of Corinth, of which little Christian community nothing\nfurther is known. But if we take into account the hideous\nimmoralities of Corinth, we shall deem it probable that the port,\nwith its shifting maritime population, was, like most seaports, a\nsoil in which goodness was hard put to it to grow, and a church had\nmuch against which to struggle. To be a Christian at Cenchrea can\nhave been no light task. Travellers in Egypt are told that Port Said\nis the wickedest place on the face of the earth; and in Phoebe's home\nthere would be a like drift of disreputables of both sexes and of all\nnationalities. It was fitting that one good woman should be recorded\nas redeeming womanhood there. We learn of her that she was a\n'servant,' or, as the margin preferably reads, a 'deaconess of the\nChurch which is at Cenchrea'; and in that capacity, by gentle\nministrations and the exhibition of purity and patient love, as well\nas by the gracious administration of material help, had been a\n'succourer of many.' There is a whole world of unmentioned kindnesses\nand a life of self-devotion hidden away under these few words.\nPossibly the succour which she administered was her own gift. She may\nhave been rich and influential, or perhaps she but distributed the\nChurch's bounty; but in any case the gift was sweetened by the\ngiver's hand, and the succour was the impartation of a woman's\nsympathy more than the bestowment of a donor's gift. Sometime or\nother, and somehow or other, she had had the honour and joy of\nhelping Paul, and no doubt that opportunity would be to her a crown\nof service. She was now on the point of taking the long journey to\nRome on her own business, and the Apostle bespeaks for her help from\nthe Roman Church 'in whatsoever matter she may have need of you,' as\nif she had some difficult affair on hand, and had no other friends in\nthe city. Possibly then she was a widow, and perhaps had had some\nlawsuit or business with government authorities, with whom a word\nfrom some of her brethren in Rome might stand her in good stead.\nApparently she was the bearer of this epistle, which would give her a\nstanding at once in the Roman Church, and she came among them with a\nhalo round her from the whole-hearted commendation of the Apostle.\n\nMark the lessons from this little picture.\n\nWe note first the remarkable illustration here given of the power of\nthe new bond of a common faith. The world was then broken up into\nsections, which were sometimes bitterly antagonistic and at others\nmerely rigidly exclusive. The only bond of union was the iron fetter\nof Rome, which crushed the people, but did not knit them together.\nBut here are Paul the Jew, Phoebe the Greek, and the Roman readers of\nthe epistle, all fused together by the power of the divine love that\nmelted their hearts, and the common faith that unified their lives.\nThe list of names in this chapter, comprising as it does men and\nwomen of many nationalities, and some slaves as well as freemen, is\nitself a wonderful testimony of the truth of Paul's triumphant\nexclamation in another epistle, that in Christ there is 'neither Jew\nnor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female.'\n\nThe clefts have closed, and the very line of demarcation is\nobliterated; and these clefts were deeper than any of which we\nmoderns have had experience. It remains something like a miracle that\nthe members of Paul's churches could ever be brought together, and\nthat their consciousness of oneness could ever overpower the\ntremendous divisive forces. We sometimes wonder at their bickerings;\nwe ought rather to wonder at their unity, and be ashamed of the\nimportance which we attach to our infinitely slighter mutual\ndisagreements. The bond that was sufficient to make the early\nChristians all one in Christ Jesus seems to have lost its binding\npower to-day, and, like an used-up elastic band, to have no clasping\ngrip left in it.\n\nAnother thought which we may connect with the name of Phoebe is the\ncharacteristic place of women in Christianity.\n\nThe place of woman amongst the Jews was indeed free and honourable as\ncompared with her position either in Greece or Rome, but in none of\nthem was she placed on the level of man, nor regarded mainly in the\naspect of an equal possessor of the same life of the Spirit. But a\nreligion which admits her to precisely the same position of a\nsupernatural life as is granted to man, necessarily relegates to a\nsubordinate position all differences of sex as it does all other\nnatural distinctions. The women who ministered to Jesus of their\nsubstance, the two sisters of Bethany, the mourners at Calvary, the\nthree who went through the morning twilight to the tomb, were but the\nforemost conspicuous figures in a great company through all the ages\nwho have owed to Jesus their redemption, not only from the slavery of\nsin, but from the stigma of inferiority as man's drudge or toy. To\nthe world in which Paul lived it was a strange, new thought that\nwomen could share with man in his loftiest emotions. Historically the\nemancipation of one half of the human race is the direct result of\nthe Christian principle that all are one in Christ Jesus. In modern\nlife the emancipation has been too often divorced from its one sure\nbasis, and we have become familiar with the sight of the 'advanced'\nwomen who have advanced so far as to have lost sight of the Christ to\nwhom they owe their freedom. The picture of Phoebe in our text might\nwell be commended to all such as setting forth the most womanlike\nideal. She was 'a succourer of many.' Her ministry was a ministry of\nhelp; and surely such gentle ministry is that which most befits the\nwoman's heart and comes most graciously to the woman's fingers.\n\nPhoebe then may well represent to us the ministry of succour in this\nworld of woe and need. There is ever a cry, even in apparently\nsuccessful lives, for help and a helper. Man's clumsy hand is but too\napt to hurt where it strives to soothe, and nature itself seems to\ndevolve on the swifter sympathies and more delicate perceptions of\nwoman the joy of binding up wounded spirits. In the verses\nimmediately following our text we read of another woman to whom was\nentrusted a more conspicuous and direct form of service. Priscilla\n'taught Apollos the way of God more perfectly,' and is traditionally\nrepresented as being united with her husband in evangelistic work.\nBut it is not merely prejudice which takes Phoebe rather than\nPriscilla as the characteristic type of woman's special ministry. We\nmust remember our Lord's teaching, that the giver of 'a cup of cold\nwater in the name of a prophet' in some measure shares in the\nprophet's work, and will surely share in the prophet's reward. She\nwho helped Paul must have entered into the spirit of Paul's labours;\nand He to whom all service that is done from the same motive is one\nin essence, makes no difference between him whose thirsty lips drink\nand her whose loving hand presents the cup of cold water. 'Small\nservice is true service while it lasts.' Paul and Phoebe were one in\nministry and one in its recompense.\n\nWe may further see in her a foreshadowing of the reward of lowly\nservice, though it be only the service of help. Little did Phoebe\ndream that her name would have an eternal commemoration of her\nunnoticed deeds of kindness and aid, standing forth to later\ngenerations and peoples of whom she knew nothing, as worthy of\neternal remembrance. For those of us who have to serve unnoticed and\nunknown, here is an instance and a prophecy which may stimulate and\nencourage. 'Surely I will never forget any of their works' is a\ngracious promise which the most obscure and humble of us may take to\nheart, and sustained by which, we may patiently pursue a way on which\nthere are 'none to praise and very few to love.' It matters little\nwhether our work be noticed or recorded by men, so long as we know\nthat it is written in the Lamb's book of life and that He will one\nday proclaim it 'before the Father in heaven and His angels.'\n\n\n\n\nPRISCILLA AND AQUILA\n\n   'Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus;\n   4. (Who have for my life laid down their own necks:\n   unto whom not only I give thanks, but so all the churches\n   of the Gentiles:) 5. Likewise greet the church that is\n   in their house.'--ROMANS xvi. 3-5.\n\n\nIt has struck me that this wedded couple present, even in the scanty\nnotices that we have of them, some interesting points which may be\nworth while gathering together.\n\nNow, to begin with, we are told that Aquila was a Jew. We are not\ntold whether Priscilla was a Jewess or no. So far as her name is\nconcerned, she may have been, and very probably was, a Roman, and, if\nso, we have in their case a 'mixed marriage' such as was not uncommon\nthen, and of which Timothy's parents give another example. She is\nsometimes called Prisca, which was her proper name, and sometimes\nPriscilla, an affectionate diminutive. The two had been living in\nRome, and had been banished under the decree of the Emperor, just as\nJews have been banished from England and from every country in Europe\nagain and again. They came from Rome to Corinth, and were, perhaps,\nintending to go back to Aquila's native place, Pontus, when Paul met\nthem in the latter city, and changed their whole lives. His\nassociation with them began in a purely commercial partnership. But\nas they abode together and worked at their trade, there would be many\nearnest talks about the Christ, and these ended in both husband and\nwife becoming disciples. The bond thus knit was too close to be\neasily severed, and so, when Paul sailed across the \u00c6gean for\nEphesus, his two new friends kept with him, which they would be the\nmore ready to do, as they had no settled home. They remained with him\nduring his somewhat lengthened stay in the great Asiatic city; for we\nfind in the first Epistle to the Corinthians which was written from\nEphesus about that time, that the Apostle sends greetings from\n'Priscilla and Aquila and the Church which is in their house.' But\nwhen Paul left Ephesus they seem to have stayed behind, and\nafterwards to have gone their own way.\n\nAbout a year after the first Epistle to the Corinthians was sent from\nEphesus, the Epistle to the Romans was written, and we find there the\nsalutation to Priscilla and Aquila which is my text. So this\nwandering couple were back again in Rome by that time, and settled\ndown there for a while. They are then lost sight of for some time,\nbut probably they returned to Ephesus. Once more we catch a glimpse\nof them in Paul's last letter, written some seven or eight years\nafter that to the Romans. The Apostle knows that death is near, and,\nat that supreme moment, his heart goes out to these two faithful\ncompanions, and he sends them a parting token of his undying love.\nThere are only two messages to friends in the second Epistle to\nTimothy, and one of these is to Prisca and Aquila. At the mouth of\nthe valley of the shadow of death he remembered the old days in\nCorinth, and the, to us, unknown instance of devotion which these two\nhad shown, when, for his life, they laid down their own necks.\n\nSuch is all that we know of Priscilla and Aquila. Can we gather any\nlessons from these scattered notices thus thrown together?\n\nI. Here is an object lesson as to the hallowing effect of\nChristianity on domestic life and love.\n\nDid you ever notice that in the majority of the places where these\ntwo are named, if we adopt the better readings, Priscilla's name\ncomes first? She seems to have been 'the better man of the two'; and\nAquila drops comparatively into the background. Now, such a couple,\nand a couple in which the wife took the foremost place, was an\nabsolute impossibility in heathenism. They are a specimen of what\nChristianity did in the primitive age, all over the Empire, and is\ndoing to-day, everywhere--lifting woman to her proper place. These\ntwo, yoked together in 'all exercise of noble end,' and helping one\nanother in Christian work, and bracketed together by the Apostle, who\nputs the wife first, as his fellow-helpers in Christ Jesus, stands\nbefore us as a living picture of what our sweet and sacred family\nlife and earthly loves may be glorified into, if the light from\nheaven shines down upon them, and is thankfully received into them.\n\nSuch a house as the house of Prisca and Aquila is the product of\nChristianity, and such ought to be the house of every professing\nChristian. For we should all make our homes as 'tabernacles of the\nrighteous,' in which the voice of joy and rejoicing is ever heard.\nNot only wedded love, but family love, and all earthly love, are then\nmost precious, when into them there flows the ennobling, the calming,\nthe transfiguring thought of Christ and His love to us.\n\nAgain, notice that, even in these scanty references to our two\nfriends, there twice occurs that remarkable expression 'the church\nthat is in their house.' Now, I suppose that that gives us a little\nglimpse into the rudimentary condition of public worship in the\nprimitive church. It was centuries after the time of Priscilla and\nAquila before circumstances permitted Christians to have buildings\ndevoted exclusively to public worship. Up to a very much later period\nthan that which is covered by the New Testament, they gathered\ntogether wherever was most convenient. And, I suppose, that both in\nRome and Ephesus, this husband and wife had some room--perhaps the\nworkshop where they made their tents, spacious enough for some of the\nChristians of the city to meet together in. One would like people who\ntalk so much about 'the Church,' and refuse the name to individual\nsocieties of Christians, and even to an aggregate of these, unless it\nhas 'bishops,' to explain how the little gathering of twenty or\nthirty people in the workshop attached to Aquila's house, is called\nby the Apostle without hesitation 'the church which is in their\nhouse.' It was a part of the Holy Catholic Church, but it was also 'a\nChurch,' complete in itself, though small in numbers. We have here\nnot only a glimpse into the manner of public worship in early times,\nbut we may learn something of far more consequence for us, and find\nhere a suggestion of what our homes ought to be. 'The Church that is\nin thy house'--fathers and mothers that are responsible for your\nhomes and their religious atmosphere, ask yourselves if any one would\nsay that about your houses, and if they could not, why not?\n\nII. We may get here another object lesson as to the hallowing of\ncommon life, trade, and travel.\n\nIt does not appear that, after their stay in Ephesus, Aquila and his\nwife were closely attached to Paul's person, and certainly they did\nnot take any part as members of what we may call his evangelistic\nstaff. They seem to have gone their own way, and as far as the scanty\nnotices carry us, they did not meet Paul again, after the time when\nthey parted in Ephesus. Their gipsy life was probably occasioned by\nAquila's going about--as was the custom in old days when there were\nno trades-unions or organised centres of a special industry--to look\nfor work where he could find it. When he had made tents in Ephesus\nfor a while, he would go on somewhere else, and take temporary\nlodgings there. Thus he wandered about as a working man. Yet Paul\ncalls him his 'fellow worker in Christ Jesus'; and he had, as we saw,\na Church in his house. A roving life of that sort is not generally\nsupposed to be conducive to depth of spiritual life. But their\nwandering course did not hurt these two. They took their religion\nwith them. It did not depend on locality, as does that of a great\nmany people who are very religious in the town where they live, and,\nwhen they go away for a holiday, seem to leave their religion, along\nwith their silver plate, at home. But no matter whether they were in\nCorinth or Ephesus or Rome, Aquila and Priscilla took their Lord and\nMaster with them, and while working at their camel's-hair tents, they\nwere serving God.\n\nDear brethren, what we want is not half so much preachers such as my\nbrethren and I, as Christian tradesmen and merchants and travellers,\nlike Aquila and Priscilla.\n\nIII. Again, we may see here a suggestion of the unexpected issues of\nour lives.\n\nThink of that complicated chain of circumstances, one end of which\nwas round Aquila and the other round the young Pharisee in Jerusalem.\nIt steadily drew them together until they met in that lodging at\nCorinth. Claudius, in the fullness of his absolute power, said, 'Turn\nall these wretched Jews out of my city. I will not have it polluted\nwith them any more. Get rid of them!' So these two were uprooted, and\ndrifted to Corinth. We do not know why they chose to go thither;\nperhaps they themselves did not know why; but God knew. And while\nthey were coming thither from the west, Paul was coming thither from\nthe east and north. He was 'prevented by the Spirit from speaking in\nAsia,' and driven across the sea against his intention to Neapolis,\nand hounded out of Philippi and Thessalonica and Ber\u00e6a; and turned\nsuperciliously away from Athens; and so at last found himself in\nCorinth, face to face with the tentmaker from Rome and his wife. Then\none of the two men said, 'Let us join partnership together, and set\nup here as tent-makers for a time.' What came out of this unintended\nand apparently chance meeting?\n\nThe first thing was the conversion of Aquila and his wife; and the\neffects of that are being realised by them in heaven at this moment,\nand will go on to all eternity.\n\nSo, in the infinite complexity of events, do not let us worry\nourselves by forecasting, but let us trust, and be sure that the Hand\nwhich is pushing us is pushing us in the right direction, and that He\nwill bring us, by a right, though a roundabout way, to the City of\nHabitation. It seems to me that we poor, blind creatures in this\nworld are somewhat like a man in a prison, groping with his hand in\nthe dark along the wall, and all unawares touching a spring which\nmoves a stone, disclosing an aperture that lets in a breath of purer\nair, and opens the way to freedom. So we go on as if stumbling in the\ndark, and presently, without our knowing what we do, by some trivial\nact we originate a train of events which influences our whole future.\n\nAgain, when Aquila and Priscilla reached Ephesus they formed another\nchance acquaintance in the person of a brilliant young Alexandrian,\nwhose name was Apollos. They found that he had good intentions and a\ngood heart, but a head very scantily furnished with the knowledge of\nthe Gospel. So they took him in hand, just as Paul had taken them. If\nI may use such a phrase, they did not know how large a fish they had\ncaught. They had no idea what a mighty power for Christ was lying\ndormant in that young man from Alexandria who knew so much less than\nthey did. They instructed Apollos, and Apollos became second only to\nPaul in the power of preaching the Gospel. So the circle widens and\nwidens. God's grace fructifies from one man to another, spreading\nonward and outward. And all Apollos' converts, and _their_\nconverts, and _theirs_ again, right away down the ages, we may\ntrace back to Priscilla and Aquila.\n\nSo do not let us be anxious about the further end of our deeds--viz.\ntheir results; but be careful about the nearer end of them--viz.\ntheir motives; and God will look after the other end. Seeing that\n'thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that,' or how\nmuch any of them will prosper, let us grasp _all_ opportunities\nto do His will and glorify His name.\n\nIV. Further, here we have an instance of the heroic self-devotion\nwhich love to Christ kindles.\n\n'For my sake they laid down their own necks.' We do not know to what\nPaul is referring: perhaps to that tumult in Ephesus, where he\ncertainly was in danger. But the language seems rather more emphatic\nthan such danger would warrant. Probably it was at some perilous\njuncture of which we know nothing (for we know very little, after\nall, of the details of the Apostle's life), in which Aquila and\nPriscilla had said, 'Take us and let him go. He can do a great deal\nmore for God than we can do. We will put our heads on the block, if\nhe may still live.' That magnanimous self-surrender was a wonderful\ntoken of the passionate admiration and love which the Apostle\ninspired, but its deepest motive was love to Christ and not to Paul\nonly.\n\nFaith in Christ and love to Him ought to turn cowards into heroes, to\ndestroy thoughts of self, and to make the utmost self-sacrifice\nnatural, blessed, and easy. We are not called upon to exercise\nheroism like Priscilla's and Aquila's, but there is as much heroism\nneeded for persistently Christian life, in our prosaic daily\ncircumstances, as has carried many a martyr to the block, and many a\ntremulous woman to the pyre. We can all be heroes; and if the love of\nChrist is in us, as it should be, we shall all be ready to 'yield\nourselves living sacrifices, which is our reasonable service.'\n\nLong years after, the Apostle, on the further edge of life, looked\nback over it all; and, whilst much had become dim, and some trusted\nfriends had dropped away, like Demas, he saw these two, and waved\nthem his last greeting before he turned to the executioner--'Salute\nPrisca and Aquila.' Paul's Master is not less mindful of His friends'\nlove, or less eloquent in the praise of their faithfulness, or less\nsure to reward them with the crown of glory. 'Whoso confesseth Me\nbefore men, him will I also confess before the angels in heaven.'\n\n\n\n\nTWO HOUSEHOLDS\n\n   '... Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household.\n   11. ... Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus,\n   which are in the Lord.'--ROMANS xvi. 10, 11.\n\n\nThere does not seem much to be got out of these two sets of\nsalutations to two households in Rome; but if we look at them with\neyes in our heads, and some sympathy in our hearts, I think we shall\nget lessons worth the treasuring.\n\nIn the first place, here are two sets of people, members of two\ndifferent households, and that means mainly, if not exclusively,\nslaves. In the next place, in each case there was but a section of\nthe household which was Christian. In the third place, in neither\nhousehold is the master included in the greeting. So in neither case\nwas _he_ a Christian.\n\nWe do not know anything about these two persons, men of position\nevidently, who had large households. But the most learned of our\nliving English commentators of the New Testament has advanced a very\nreasonable conjecture in regard to each of them. As to the first of\nthem, Aristobulus: that wicked old King Herod, in whose life Christ\nwas born, had a grandson of the name, who spent all his life in Rome,\nand was in close relations with the Emperor of that day. He had died\nsome little time before the writing of this letter. As to the second\nof them, there is a very notorious Narcissus, who plays a great part\nin the history of Rome just a little while before Paul's period\nthere, and he, too, was dead. And it is more than probable that the\nslaves and retainers of these two men were transferred in both cases\nto the emperor's household and held together in it, being known as\nAristobulus' men and Narcissus' men. And so probably the Christians\namong them are the brethren to whom these salutations are sent.\n\nBe that as it may, I think that if we look at the two groups, we\nshall get out of them some lessons.\n\nI. The first of them is this: the penetrating power of Christian\ntruth. Think of the sort of man that the master of the first\nhousehold was, if the identification suggested be accepted. He is one\nof that foul Herodian brood, in all of whom the bad Idum\u00e6an blood ran\ncorruptly. The grandson of the old Herod, the brother of Agrippa of\nthe Acts of the Apostles, the hanger-on of the Imperial Court, with\nRoman vices veneered on his native wickedness, was not the man to\nwelcome the entrance of a revolutionary ferment into his household;\nand yet through his barred doors had crept quietly, he knowing\nnothing about it, that great message of a loving God, and a Master\nwhose service was freedom. And in thousands of like cases the Gospel\nwas finding its way underground, undreamed of by the great and wise,\nbut steadily pressing onwards, and undermining all the towering\ngrandeur that was so contemptuous of it. So Christ's truth spread at\nfirst; and I believe that is the way it always spreads. Intellectual\nrevolutions begin at the top and filter down; religious revolutions\nbegin at the bottom and rise; and it is always the 'lower orders'\nthat are laid hold of first. 'Ye see your calling, brethren, how that\nnot many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble\nare called,' but a handful of slaves in Aristobulus' household, with\nthis living truth lodged in their hearts, were the bearers and the\nwitnesses and the organs of the power which was going to shatter all\nthat towered above it and despised it. And so it always is.\n\nDo not let us be ashamed of a Gospel that has not laid hold of the\nupper and the educated classes, but let us feel sure of this, that\nthere is no greater sign of defective education and of superficial\nculture and of inborn vulgarity than despising the day of small\nthings, and estimating truth by the position or the intellectual\nattainments of the men that are its witnesses and its lovers. The\nGospel penetrated at first, and penetrates still, in the fashion that\nis suggested here.\n\nII. Secondly, these two households teach us very touchingly and\nbeautifully the uniting power of Christian sympathy.\n\nA considerable proportion of the first of these two households would\nprobably be Jews--if Aristobulus were indeed Herod's grandson. The\nprobability that he was is increased by the greeting interposed\nbetween those to the two households--'Salute Herodion.' The name\nsuggests some connection with Herod, and whether we suppose the\ndesignation of 'my kinsman,' which Paul gives him, to mean 'blood\nrelation' or 'fellow countryman,' Herodion, at all events, was a Jew\nby birth. As to the other members of these households, Paul may have\nmet some of them in his many travels, but he had never been in Rome,\nand his greetings are more probably sent to them as conspicuous\nsections, numerically, of the Roman Church, and as tokens of his\naffection, though he had never seen them. The possession of a common\nfaith has bridged the gulf between him and them. Slaves in those days\nwere outside the pale of human sympathy, and almost outside the pale\nof human rights. And here the foremost of Christian teachers, who was\na freeman born, separated from these poor people by a tremendous\nchasm, stretches a brother's hand across it and grasps theirs. The\nGospel that came into the world to rend old associations and to split\nup society, and to make a deep cleft between fathers and children and\nhusband and wife, came also to more than counterbalance its dividing\neffects by its uniting power. And in that old world that was\nseparated into classes by gulfs deeper than any of which we have any\nexperience, it, and it alone, threw a bridge across the abysses and\nbound men together. Think of what a revolution it must have been,\nwhen a master and his slave could sit down together at the table of\nthe Lord and look each other in the face and say 'Brother' and for\nthe moment forget the difference of bond and free. Think of what a\nrevolution it must have been when Jew and Gentile could sit down\ntogether at the table of the Lord, and forget circumcision and\nuncircumcision, and feel that they were all one in Jesus Christ. And\nas for the third of the great clefts--that, alas! which made so much\nof the tragedy and the wickedness of ancient life--viz. the\nseparation between the sexes--think of what a revolution it was when\nmen and women, in all purity of the new bond of Christian affection,\ncould sit down together at the same table, and feel that they were\nbrethren and sisters in Jesus Christ.\n\nThe uniting power of the common faith and the common love to the one\nLord marked Christianity as altogether supernatural and new, unique\nin the world's experience, and obviously requiring something more\nthan a human force to produce it. Will anybody say that the\nChristianity of this day has preserved and exhibits that primitive\ndemonstration of its superhuman source? Is there anything obviously\nbeyond the power of earthly motives in the unselfish, expansive love\nof modern Christians? Alas! alas! to ask the question is to answer\nit, and everybody knows the answer, and nobody sorrows over it. Is\nany duty more pressingly laid upon Christian churches of this\ngeneration than that, forgetting their doctrinal janglings for a\nwhile, and putting away their sectarianisms and narrowness, they\nshould show the world that their faith has still the power to do what\nit did in the old times, bridge over the gulf that separates class\nfrom class, and bring all men together in the unity of the faith and\nof the love of Jesus Christ? Depend upon it, unless the modern\norganisations of Christianity which call themselves 'churches' show\nthemselves, in the next twenty years, a great deal more alive to the\nnecessity, and a great deal more able to cope with the problem, of\nuniting the classes of our modern complex civilisation, the term of\nlife of these churches is comparatively brief. And the form of\nChristianity which another century will see will be one which\nreproduces the old miracle of the early days, and reaches across the\ndeepest clefts that separate modern society, and makes all one in\nJesus Christ. It is all very well for us to glorify the ancient love\nof the early Christians, but there is a vast deal of false\nsentimentality about our eulogistic talk of it. It were better to\npraise it less and imitate it more. Translate it into present life,\nand you will find that to-day it requires what it nineteen hundred\nyears ago was recognised as manifesting, the presence of something\nmore than human motive, and something more than man discovers of\ntruth. The cement must be divine that binds men thus together.\n\nAgain, these two households suggest for us the tranquillising power\nof Christian resignation.\n\nThey were mostly slaves, and they continued to be slaves when they\nwere Christians. Paul recognised their continuance in the servile\nposition, and did not say a word to them to induce them to break\ntheir bonds. The Epistle to the Corinthians treats the whole subject\nof slavery in a very remarkable fashion. It says to the slave: 'If\nyou were a slave when you became a Christian, stop where you are. If\nyou have an opportunity of being free, avail yourself of it; if you\nhave not, never mind.' And then it adds this great principle: 'He\nthat is called in the Lord, being a slave, is Christ's freeman.\nLikewise he that is called, being free, is Christ's slave.' The\nApostle applies the very same principle, in the adjoining verses, to\nthe distinction between circumcision and uncircumcision. From all\nwhich there comes just the same lesson that is taught us by these two\nhouseholds of slaves left intact by Christianity--viz. that where a\nman is conscious of a direct, individual relation to Jesus Christ,\nthat makes all outward circumstances infinitely insignificant. Let us\nget up to the height, and they all become very small. Of course, the\nprinciples of Christianity killed slavery, but it took eighteen\nhundred years to do it. Of course, there is no blinking the fact that\nslavery was an essentially immoral and unchristian institution. But\nit is one thing to lay down principles and leave them to be worked in\nand then to be worked out, and it is another thing to go blindly\ncharging at existing institutions and throwing them down by violence,\nbefore men have grown up to feel that they are wicked. And so the New\nTestament takes the wise course, and leaves the foolish one to\nfoolish people. It makes the tree good, and then its fruit will be\ngood.\n\nBut the main point that I want to insist upon is this: what was good\nfor these slaves in Rome is good for you and me. Let us get near to\nJesus Christ, and feel that we have got hold of His hand for our own\nselves, and we shall not mind very much about the possible varieties\nof human condition. Rich or poor, happy or sad, surrounded by\ncompanions or treading a solitary path, failures or successes as the\nworld has it, strong or broken and weak and wearied--all these\nvarieties, important as they are, come to be very small when we can\nsay, 'We are the Lord's.' That amulet makes all things tolerable; and\nthe Christian submission which is the expression of our love to, and\nconfidence in, His infinite sweetness and unerring goodness, raises\nus to a height from which the varieties of earthly condition seem to\nblend and melt into one. When we are down amongst the low hills, it\nseems a long way from the foot of one of them to the top of it; but\nwhen we are on the top they all melt into one dead level, and you\ncannot tell which is top and which is bottom. And so, if we only can\nrise high enough up the hill, the possible diversities of our\ncondition will seem to be very small variations in the level.\nIII. Lastly, these two groups suggest to us the conquering power of\nChristian faithfulness.\n\nThe household of Herod's grandson was not a very likely place to find\nChristian people in, was it? Such flowers do not often grow, or at\nleast do not easily grow, on such dunghills. And in both these cases\nit was only a handful of the people, a portion of each household,\nthat was Christian. So they had beside them, closely identified with\nthem--working, perhaps, at the same tasks, I might almost say,\nchained with the same chains--men who had no share in their faith or\nin their love. It would not be easy to pray and love and trust God\nand do His will, and keep clear of complicity with idolatry and\nimmorality and sin, in such a pigsty as that; would it? But these men\ndid it. And nobody need ever say, 'I am in such circumstances that I\ncannot live a Christian life.' There are no such circumstances, at\nleast none of God's appointing. There are often such that we bring\nupon ourselves, and then the best thing is to get out of them as soon\nas we can. But as far as He is concerned, He never puts anybody\nanywhere where he cannot live a holy life.\n\nThere were no difficulties too great for these men to overcome; there\nare no difficulties too great for us to overcome. And wherever you\nand I may be, we cannot be in any place where it is so hard to live a\nconsistent life as these people were. Young men in warehouses, people\nin business here in Manchester, some of us with unfortunate domestic\nor relative associations, and so on--we may all feel as if it would\nbe so much easier for us if this, that, and the other thing were\nchanged. No, it would not be any easier; and perhaps the harder the\neasier, because the more obviously the atmosphere is poisonous, the\nmore we shall put some cloth over our mouths to prevent it from\ngetting into our lungs. The dangerous place is the place where the\nvapours that poison are scentless as well as invisible. But whatever\nbe the difficulties, there is strength waiting for us, and we may all\nwin the praise which the Apostle gives to another of these Roman\nbrethren, whom he salutes as 'Apelles, approved in Christ'--a man\nthat had been 'tried' and had stood his trial. So in our various\nspheres of difficulty and of temptation we may feel that the greeting\nfrom heaven, like Paul's message to the slaves in Rome, comes to us\nwith good cheer, and that the Master Himself sees us, sympathises\nwith us, salutes us, and stretches out His hand to help and to keep\nus.\n\n\n\n\nTRYPHENA AND TRYPHOSA\n\n   'Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour\n   in the Lord.'--ROMANS xvi. 12.\n\n\nThe number of salutations to members of the Roman Church is\nremarkable when we take into account that Paul had never visited it.\nThe capital drew all sorts of people to it, and probably there had\nbeen personal intercourse between most of the persons here mentioned\nand the Apostle in some part of his wandering life. He not only\ndisplays his intimate knowledge of the persons saluted, but his\nbeautiful delicacy and ingenuity in the varying epithets applied to\nthem shows how in his great heart and tenacious memory individuals\nhad a place. These shadowy saints live for ever by Paul's brief\ncharacterisation of them, and stand out to us almost as clearly and\nas sharply distinguished as they did to him.\n\nThese two, Tryphena and Tryphosa, were probably sisters. That is\nrendered likely by their being coupled together here, as well as by\nthe similarity of their names. These names mean luxurious, or\ndelicate, and no doubt expressed the ideal for their daughters which\nthe parents had had, and possibly indicate the kind of life from\nwhich these two women had come. We can scarcely fail to note the\ncontrast between the meaning of their names and the Christian lives\nthey had lived. Two dainty women, probably belonging to a class in\nwhich a delicate withdrawal from effort and toil was thought to be\nthe woman's distinctive mark, had fled from luxury, which often\ntended to be voluptuous, and was always self-indulgent, and had\nchosen the better part of 'labour in the Lord.' They had become\nuntrue to their names, because they must be true to their Master and\nthemselves. We may well take the lesson that lies here, and is\neminently needful to-day amidst the senseless, and often sinful, tide\nof luxury which runs so strongly as to threaten the great and eternal\nChristian principle of self-denial.\n\nThe first thing that strikes us in looking at these salutations is\nthe illustration which it gives of the uniting power of a common\nfaith. Tryphena and Tryphosa were probably Roman ladies of some\nsocial standing, and their names may indicate that they at least\ninherited a tendency to exclusiveness; yet here they occur\nimmediately after the household of Narcissus and in close connection\nwith that of Aristobulus, both of which are groups of slaves.\nAristobulus was a grandson of Herod the Great, and Narcissus was a\nwell-known freedman, whose slaves at his death would probably become\nthe property of the Emperor. Other common slave names are those of\nAmpliatus and Urbanus; and here in these lists they stand side by\nside with persons of some distinction in the Roman world, and with\nmen and women of widely differing nationalities. The Church of Rome\nwould have seemed to any non-Christian observer a motley crowd in\nwhich racial distinctions, sex, and social conditions had all been\nswept away by the rising tide of a common fanaticism. In it was\nexemplified in actual operation Paul's great principle that in Christ\nJesus 'there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, bond nor\nfree, but in Him all are one.' Roman society in that day, as Juvenal\nshows us, was familiar with the levelling and uniting power of common\nvice and immorality, and the few sternly patriotic Romans who were\nleft lamented that 'the Orontes flowed into the Tiber'; but such\ncommon wallowing in filth led to no real unity, whereas, in the\nobscure corner of the great city where there were members of the\ninfant Church gathered together, there was the beginning of a common\nlife in the one Lord which lifted each participant of it out of the\ndreary solitude of individuality, and imparted to each heart the\ntingling consciousness of oneness with all who held the one faith in\nthe one Lord and had received the one baptism in the one Name. That\nfair dawn has been shadowed by many clouds, and the churches of\nto-day, however they may have developed doctrine, may look back with\nreproach and shame to the example of Rome, where Tryphena and\nTryphosa, with all their inherited, fastidious delicacy, recognised\nin the household of Aristobulus and the household of Narcissus\n'brethren in the Lord,' and were as glad to welcome Jews, Asiatics,\nPersians, and Greeks, as Romans of the bluest blood, into the family\nof Christ. The Romish Church of our day has lost its early grace of\nwelcoming all who love the one Lord into its fellowship; and we of\nthe Protestant churches have been but too swift to learn the bad\nlesson of forbidding all who follow not with us.\n\nAnother thought which may be suggested by Tryphena and Tryphosa is\nthe blessed hallowing of natural family relations by common faith.\nThey were probably sisters, or, at all events, as their names\nindicate, near relatives, and to them that faith must have been\ndoubly precious because they shared it with each other. None of the\ntrials to which the early Christians were exposed was more severe\nthan the necessity which their Christianity so often imposed upon\nthem of breaking the sacred family ties. It saddened even Christ's\nheart to think that He had come to rend families in sunder, and to\nmake 'a man's foes them of his own household'; and we can little\nimagine how bitter the pang must have been when family love had to be\ncast aside at the bidding of allegiance to Him.\n\nBut though the stress of that separation between those most nearly\nrelated in blood by reason of unshared faith is alleviated in this\nday, it still remains; and that is but a feeble Christian life which\ndoes not feel that it is drawing a heart from closest human embraces\nand constituting a barrier between it and the dearest of earth. There\nis still need in these days of relaxed Christian sentiment for the\nstern austerity of the law, 'He that loveth father or mother more\nthan Me is not worthy of Me'; and there are many Christian souls who\nwould be infinitely stronger and more mature, if they did not yield\nto the seductions of family affections which are not rooted in Jesus\nChrist. But still, though our faith ought to be far more than it\noften is, the determining element in our affections and associations,\nits noblest work is not to separate but to unite; and whilst it often\nmust divide, it is meant to draw more closely together hearts that\nare already knit by earthly love. Its legitimate effect is to make\nall earthly sweetnesses sweeter, all holy bonds more holy and more\nbinding, to infuse a new constraint and preciousness into all earthly\nrelationships, to make brothers tenfold more brotherly and sisters\nmore sisterly. The heart, in which the deepest devotion is yielded to\nJesus Christ, has its capacity for devotion infinitely increased, and\nthey who, looking into each other's faces, see reflected there\nsomething of the Lord whom they both love, love each other all the\nmore because they love Him most, and in their love to Him, and His to\nthem, have found a new measure for all their affection. They who,\nlooking on their dear ones, can 'trust they live in God,' will there\nfind them 'worthier to be loved,' and will there find a power of\nloving them. Tryphena and Tryphosa were more sisterly than ever when\nthey clung to their Elder Brother. 'There is no man that hath left\nbrethren, or sisters, or mother, or father, for My sake, but he shall\nreceive a hundredfold more in this time, brethren, and sisters, and\nmothers, and in the world to come eternal life.'\n\nThe contrast between the names of these two Roman ladies and the\ncharacterisation of their 'labour in the Lord' may suggest to us the\nmost formidable foe of Christian earnestness. Their names, as we have\nalready noticed, point to a state of society in which the parents\nideal for their daughters was dainty luxuriousness and a withdrawal\nfrom the rough and tumble of common life; but these two women,\nmagnetised by the love of Jesus, had turned their backs on the\nparental ideal, and had cast themselves earnestly into a life of\ntoil. That ideal was never more formidably antagonistic to the vigour\nof Christian life than it is to-day. Rome, in Paul's time, was not\nmore completely honeycombed with worldliness than England is to-day;\nand the English churches are not far behind the English 'world' in\ntheir paralysing love of luxury and self-indulgence. In all ages,\nearnest Christians have had to take up the same vehement remonstrance\nagainst the tendency of the average Christian to let his religious\nlife be weakened by the love of the world and the things of the\nworld. The protests against growing luxury have been a commonplace in\nall ages of the Church; but, surely, there has never been a time when\nit has reached a more senseless, sinful, and destroying height than\nin our day. The rapid growth of wealth, with no capacity of using it\nnobly, which modern commerce has brought, has immensely influenced\nall our churches for evil. It is so hard for us, aggregated in great\ncities, to live our own lives, and the example of our class has such\nimmense power over us that it is very hard to pursue the path of\n'plain living and high thinking' in communities, all classes of which\nare more and more yielding to the temptation to ostentation,\nso-called comfort, and extravagant expenditure; and that this is a\ndanger--we are tempted to say _the_ danger--to the purity, loftiness,\nand vigour of religious life among us, he must be blind who cannot\nsee, and he must be strangely ignorant of his own life who cannot\nfeel that it is the danger for him. I believe that for one professing\nChristian whose earnestness is lost by reason of intellectual doubts,\nor by some grave sin, there are a hundred from whom it simply oozes\naway unnoticed, like wind out of a bladder, so that what was once\nround and full becomes limp and flaccid. If Demas begins with loving\nthe present world, it will not be long before he finds a reason for\ndeparting from Paul.\n\nWe may take these two sisters, finally, as pointing for us the true\nvictory over this formidable enemy. They had turned resolutely away\nfrom the heathen ideal enshrined in their names to a life of real\nhard toil, as is distinctly implied by the word used by the Apostle.\nWhat that toil consisted in we do not know, and need not inquire; but\nthe main point to be noted is that their 'labour' was 'in the Lord.'\nThat union with Christ makes labour for Him a necessity, and makes it\npossible. 'The labour we delight in physics pain'; and if we are in\nHim, we shall not only 'live in Him,' but all our work begun,\ncontinued, and ended in Him, will in Him and by Him be accepted.\nThere is no victorious antagonist of worldly ease and self-indulgence\ncomparable to the living consciousness of union with Jesus and His\nlife in us. To dwell in the swamps at the bottom of the mountain is\nto live in a region where effort is impossible and malaria weakens\nvitality; to climb the heights brings bracing to the limbs and a\npurer air into the expanding lungs, and makes work delightsome that\nwould have been labour down below. If we are 'in the Lord,' He is our\natmosphere, and we can draw from Him full draughts of a noble life in\nwhich we shall not need the stimulus of self-interest or worldly\nsuccess to use it to the utmost in acts of service to Him. They who\nlive in the Lord will labour in the Lord, and they who labour in the\nLord will rest in the Lord.\n\n\n\n\nPERSIS\n\n   'Salute the beloved Persis, who laboured much in\n   the Lord.'--ROMANS xvi. 12.\n\n\nThere are a great number of otherwise unknown Christians who pass for\na moment before our view in this chapter. Their characterisations are\nlike the slight outlines in the background of some great artist's\ncanvas: a touch of the brush is all that is spared for each, and yet,\nif we like to look sympathetically, they live before us. Now, this\ngood woman, about whom we never hear again, and for whom these few\nwords are all her epitaph--was apparently, judging by her name, of\nPersian descent, and possibly had been brought to Rome as a slave. At\nall events, finding herself there, she had somehow or other become\nconnected with the Church in that city, and had there distinguished\nherself by continuous and faithful Christian toil which had won the\naffection of the Apostle, though he had never seen her, and knew no\nmore about her. That is all. She comes into the foreground for a\nmoment, and then she vanishes. What does she say to us?\n\nFirst of all, like the others named by Paul, she helps us to\nunderstand, by her living example, that wonderful, new, uniting\nprocess that was carried on by means of Christianity. The simple fact\nof a Persian woman getting a loving message from a Jew, the woman\nbeing in Rome and the Jew in Corinth, and the message being written\nin Greek, brings before us a whole group of nationalities all fused\ntogether. They had been hammered together, or, if you like it better,\nchained together, by Roman power, but they were melted together by\nChrist's Gospel. This Eastern woman and this Jewish man, and the many\nothers whose names and different nationalities pass in a flash before\nus in this chapter, were all brought together in Jesus Christ.\n\nIf we run our eye over these salutations, what strikes one, even at\nthe first sight, is the very small number of Jewish names; only one\ncertain, and another doubtful. Four or five names are Latin, and then\nall the rest are Greek, but this woman seemingly came from further\neast than any of them. There they all were, forgetting the hostile\nnationalities to which they belonged, because they had found One who\nhad brought them into one great community. We talk about the uniting\ninfluence of Christianity, but when we see the process going on\nbefore us, in a case like this, we begin to understand it better.\n\nBut another point may be noticed in regard to this uniting\nprocess--how it brought into action the purest and truest love as a\nbond that linked men. There are four or five of the people commended\nin this chapter of whom the Apostle has nothing to say but that they\nare beloved. This is the only woman to whom he applies that term. And\nnotice his instinctive delicacy: when he is speaking of men he says,\n'_My_ beloved'; when he is greeting Persis he says, '_the_ beloved,'\nthat there may be no misunderstanding about the 'my'--'the beloved\nPersis which laboured much in the Lord'--indicating, by one delicate\ntouch, the loftiness, the purity, and truly Christian character of\nthe bond that held them together. And that is no true Church, where\nanything but that is the bond--the love that knits us to one another,\nbecause we believe that each is knit to the dear Lord and fountain of\nall love.\n\nWhat more does this good woman say to us? She is an example living\nand breathing there before us, of what a woman may be in God's\nChurch. Paul had never been in Rome; no Apostle, so far as we know,\nhad had anything to do with the founding of the Church. The most\nimportant Church in the Roman Empire, and the Church which afterwards\nbecame the curse of Christendom, was founded by some anonymous\nChristians, with no commission, with no supervision, with no\nofficials amongst them, but who just had the grace of God in their\nhearts, and found themselves in Rome, and could not help speaking\nabout Jesus Christ. God helped them, and a little Church sprang into\nbeing. And the great abundance of salutations here, and the\nhonourable titles which the Apostle gives to the Christians of whom\nhe speaks, and many of whom he signalises as having done great\nservice, are a kind of certificate on his part to the vigorous life\nwhich, without any apostolic supervision or official direction, had\ndeveloped itself there in that Church.\n\nNow, it is to be noticed that this striking form of eulogium which is\nattached to our Persis she shares in common with others in the group.\nAnd it is to be further noticed that all those who are, as it were,\ndecorated with this medal--on whom Paul bestows this honour of saying\nthat they had 'laboured,' or 'laboured much in the Lord,' are women\nthat stand alone in the list. There are several other women in it,\nbut they are all coupled with men--husbands or brothers, or some kind\nof relative. But there are three sets of women, I do not say single\nwomen, but three sets of women, standing singly in the list, and it\nis about them, and them only, that Paul says they 'laboured,' or\n'laboured much.' There is a Mary who stands alone, and she 'bestowed\nmuch labour on' Paul and others. Then there are, in the same verse as\nmy text, two sisters, Tryphena and Tryphosa, whose names mean 'the\nluxurious.' And the Apostle seems to think, as he writes the two\nnames that spoke of self-indulgence: 'Perhaps these rightly described\nthese two women once, but they do not now. In the bad old days,\nbefore they were Christians, they may have been rightly named\nluxurious-living. But here is their name now, the luxurious is turned\ninto the self-sacrificing worker, and the two sisters \"labour in the\nLord.\"' Then comes our friend Persis, who also stands alone, and she\nshares in the honour that only these other two companies of women\nshare with her. She 'laboured much in the Lord.' In that little\ncommunity, without any direction from Apostles and authorised\nteachers, the brethren and sisters had every one found their tasks;\nand these solitary women, with nobody to say to them, 'Go and do this\nor that,' had found out for themselves, or rather had been taught by\nthe Spirit of Jesus, what they had to do, and they worked at it with\na will. There are many things that Christian women can do a great\ndeal better than men, and we are not to forget that this modern talk\nabout the emancipation of women has its roots here in the New\nTestament. We are not to forget either that prerogative means\nobligation, and that the elevation of woman means the laying upon her\nof solemn duties to perform. I wonder how many of the women members\nof our Churches and congregations deserve such a designation as that?\nWe hear a great deal about 'women's rights' nowadays. I wish some of\nmy friends would lay a little more to heart than they do, 'women's\nduties.'\n\nAnd now, lastly, the final lesson that I draw from this eulogium of an\notherwise altogether unknown woman is that she is a model of\nChristian service.\n\nFirst, in regard to its measure. She 'laboured much in the Lord.'\nNow, both these two words, 'laboured' and 'much,' are extremely\nemphatic. The word rightly translated 'laboured' will appear in its\nfull force if I recall to you a couple of other places in which it is\nemployed in the New Testament. You remember that touching incident\nabout our Lord when, being '_wearied_ with His journey, He sat\nthus on the well.' 'Wearied' is the same word as is here used. Then,\nyou remember how the Apostle, after he had been hauling empty nets\nall night in the little, wet, dirty fishing-boat, said, perhaps with\na yawn, 'Master, we have _toiled_ all the night and caught\nnothing.' He uses the same word as is employed here. Such is the sort\nof work that these women had done--work carried to the point of\nexhaustion, work up to the very edge of their powers, work unsparing\nand continuous, and not done once in some flash of evanescent\nenthusiasm, but all through a dreary night, in spite of apparent\nfailures.\n\n_There_ is the measure of service. Many of us seem to think that\nif we say 'I am tired,' that is a reason for not doing anything.\nSometimes it is, no doubt; and no man has a right so to labour as to\nimpair his capacity for future labour, but subject to that condition\nI do not know that the plea of fatigue is a sufficient reason for\nidleness. And I am quite sure that the true example for us is the\nexample of Him who, when He was most wearied, sitting on the well,\nwas so invigorated and refreshed by the opportunity of winning\nanother soul that, when His disciples came back to Him, they looked\nat His fresh strength with astonishment, and said to themselves, 'Has\nany man brought Him anything to eat?' Ay, what He had to eat was work\nthat He finished for the Father, and some of us know that the truest\nrefreshment in toil is a change of toil. It is almost as good to\nshift the load on to the other shoulder, or to take a stick into the\nother hand, as it is to put away the load altogether. Oh, the careful\nlimits which Christian people nowadays set to their work for Jesus!\nThey are not afraid of being tired in their pursuit of business or\npleasure, but in regard to Christ's work they will let anything go to\nwrack and ruin rather than that they should turn a hair, by\npersevering efforts to prevent it. Work to the limit of power if you\nlive in the light of blessedness.\n\nShe 'laboured much in the Lord,' or, as Jesus Christ said about the\nother woman who was blamed by the people that did not love enough to\nunderstand the blessedness of self-sacrifice, 'she had done what she\ncould.' It was an apology for the form of Mary's service, but it was\na stringent demand as to its amount. 'What she could'--not _half_ of\nwhat she could; not what she _conveniently_ could. That is the\nmeasure of acceptable service.\n\nThen, still further, may we not learn from Persis the spring of all\ntrue Christian work? She 'laboured much in the Lord,' because she\n_was_ 'in Him,' and in union with Him there came to her power\nand desire to do things which, without that close fellowship, she\nneither would have desired nor been able to do. It is vain to try to\nwhip up Christian people to forms of service by appealing to lower\nmotives. There is only one motive that will last, and bring out from\nus all that is in us to do, and that is the appeal to our sense of\nunion and communion with Jesus Christ, and the exhortation to live in\nHim, and then we shall work in Him. If you link the spindles in your\nmill, or the looms in your weaving-shed, with the engine, they will\ngo. It is of no use to try to turn them by hand. You will only spoil\nthe machinery, and it will be poor work that you will get off them.\n\nSo, dear brethren, be 'in the Lord.' That is the secret of service,\nand the closer we come to Him, and the more continuously, moment by\nmoment, we realise our individual dependence upon Him, and our union\nwith Him, the more will our lives effloresce and blossom into all\nmanner of excellence and joyful service, and nothing else that\nChristian people are whipped up to do, from lower and more vulgar\nmotives than that, will. It may be of a certain kind of\ninferior value, but it is far beneath the highest beauty of Christian\nservice, nor will its issues reach the loftiest point of usefulness\nto which even our poor service may attain.\n\nPersis seems to me to suggest, too, the safeguard of work. Ah, if she\nhad not 'laboured in the Lord,' and been 'in the Lord' whilst she was\nlabouring, she would very soon have stopped work. Our Christian work,\nhowever pure its motive when we begin it, has in itself the tendency\nto become mechanical, and to be done from lower motives than those\nfrom which it was begun. That is true about a man in my position. It\nis true about all of us, in our several ways of trying to serve our\ndear Lord and Master. Unless we make a conscience of continually\nrenewing our communion with Him, and getting our feet once more\nfirmly upon the rock, we shall certainly in our Christian work,\nhaving begun in the spirit, continue in the flesh, and before we know\nwhere we are, we shall be doing work from habit, because we did it\nyesterday at this hour, because people expect it of us, because A, B,\nor C does it, or for a hundred other reasons, all of which are but\ntoo familiar to us by experience. They are sure to slip in; they\nchange the whole character of the work, and they harm the workers.\nThe only way by which we can keep the garland fresh is by continually\ndipping it in the fountain. The only way by which we can keep our\nChristian work pure, useful, worthy of the Master, is by seeing to it\nthat our work itself does not draw us away from our fellowship with\nHim. And the more we have to do, the more needful is it that we\nshould listen to Christ's voice when He says to us, 'Come ye\nyourselves apart with Me into a solitary place, and there renew your\ncommunion with Me.'\n\nThe last lesson about our work which I draw from Persis is the\nunexpected immortality of true Christian service. How Persis would\nhave opened her eyes if anybody had told her that nearly 1900 years\nafter she lived, people in a far-away barbarous island would be\nsitting thinking about her, as you and I are doing now! How\nastonished she would have been if it had been said to her, 'Now,\nPersis, wheresoever in the whole world the Gospel is preached, your\nname and your work and your epitaph will go with it, and as long\nas men know about Jesus Christ, your and their Master, they will know\nabout you, His humble servant.' Well, we shall not have our names in\nthat fashion in men's memories, but Jesus will have your name and\nmine, if we do His work as this woman did it, in _His_ memory. 'I\nwill never forget any of their works.' And if we--self-forgetful to\nthe limit of our power, and as the joyful result of our personal\nunion with that Saviour who has done everything for us--try to live\nfor His praise and glory in any fashion, then be sure of this, that\nour poor deeds are as immortal as Him for whom they are done, and\nthat we may take to ourselves the great word which He has spoken,\nwhen He has declared that at the last He will confess His confessors'\nnames before the angels in heaven. Blessed are the living that 'live\nin the Lord'; blessed are the workers that work 'in the Lord,' for\nwhen they come to be the dead that 'die in the Lord' and rest from\ntheir labours, their works shall follow them.\n\n\n\n\nA CRUSHED SNAKE\n\n   'The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your\n   feet shortly.'--ROMANS xvi. 20.\n\n\nThere are three other Scriptural sayings which may have been floating\nin the Apostle's mind when he penned this triumphant assurance. 'Thou\nshalt bruise his head'; the great first Evangel--we are to be endowed\nwith Christ's power; 'The lion and the adder thou shalt trample under\nfoot'--all the strength that was given to ancient saints is ours;\n'Behold! I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and\nover all the power of the enemy'--the charter of the seventy is the\nperennial gift to the Church. Echoing all these great words, Paul\npromises the Roman Christians that 'the God of peace shall bruise\nSatan under your feet shortly.' Now, when any special characteristic\nis thus ascribed to God, as when He is called 'the God of patience'\nor 'the God of hope,' in the preceding chapter, the characteristic\nselected has some bearing on the prayer or promise following. For\nexample, this same designation, 'the God of peace,' united with the\nother, 'that brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus, that great\nShepherd of the sheep,' is laid as the foundation of the prayer for\nthe perfecting of the readers of the Epistle to the Hebrews in every\ngood work. It is, then, because of that great name that the Apostle\nis sure, and would have his Roman brethren to be sure, that Satan\nshall shortly be bruised under their feet. No doubt there may have\nbeen some reference in Paul's mind to what he had just said about\nthose who caused divisions in the Church; but, if there is such\nreference, it is of secondary importance. Paul is gazing on all the\ngreat things in God which make Him the God of peace, and in them all\nhe sees ground for the confident hope that His power will be exerted\nto crush all the sin that breaks His children's peace.\n\nNow the first thought suggested by these words is the solemn glimpse\ngiven of the struggle that goes on in every Christian soul.\n\nTwo antagonists are at hand-grips in every one of us. On the one\nhand, the 'God of peace,' on the other, 'Satan.' If you believe in\nthe personality of the One, do not part with the belief in the\npersonality of the other. If you believe that a divine power and\nSpirit is ready to help and strengthen you, do not think so lightly\nof the enemies that are arrayed against you as to falter in the\nbelief that there _is_ a great personal Power, rooted in evil,\nwho is warring against each of us. Ah, brethren! we live far too much\non the surface, and we neither go down deep enough to the dark source\nof the Evil, nor rise high enough to the radiant Fountain of the\nGood. It is a shallow life that strikes that antagonism of God and\nSatan out of itself. And though the belief in a personal tempter has\ngot to be very unfashionable nowadays, I am going to venture to say\nthat you may measure accurately the vitality and depth of a man's\nreligion by the emphasis with which he grasps the thought of that\ngreat antagonism. There is a star of light, and there is a star of\ndarkness; and they revolve, as it were, round one centre.\n\nBut whilst, on the one hand, our Christianity is made shallow in\nproportion as we ignore this solemn reality, on the other hand, it is\nsometimes paralysed and perverted by our misunderstanding of it. For,\nnotice, 'the God of peace shall bruise Satan _under your feet_.'\nYes, it is God that bruises, but He uses our feet to do it. It is God\nfrom whom the power comes, but the power works through us, and we are\nneither merely the field, nor merely the prize, of the conflict\nbetween these two, but we ourselves have to put all our pith into the\ntask of keeping down the flat, speckled head that has the poison\ngland in it. 'The God of peace'--blessed be His Name--'shall bruise\nSatan under your feet,' but it will need the tension of your muscles,\nand the downward force of your heel, if the wriggling reptile is to\nbe kept under.\n\nTurn, now, to the other thought that is here, the promise and pledge\nof victory in the name, the God of peace. I have already referred to\ntwo similar designations of God in the previous chapter, and if we\ntake them in union with this one in our text, what a wonderfully\nbeautiful and strengthening threefold view of that divine nature do\nwe get! 'The God of patience and consolation' is the first of the\nlinked three. It heads the list, and blessed is it that it does,\nbecause, after all, sorrow makes up a very large proportion of the\nexperience of us all, and what most men seem to themselves to need\nmost is a God that will bear their sorrows with them and help them to\nbear, and a God that will comfort them. But, supposing that He has\nbeen made known thus as the source of endurance and the God of all\nconsolation, He becomes 'the God of hope,' for a dark background\nflings up a light foreground, and a comforted sorrow patiently\nendured is mighty to produce a radiant hope. The rising of the muddy\nwaters of the Nile makes the heavy crops of 'corn in Egypt.' So the\nname 'the God of hope' fitly follows the name 'the God of patience\nand consolation.'\n\nThen we come to the name in my text, built perhaps on the other two,\nor at least reminiscent of them, and recalling them, 'the God of\npeace,' who, through patience and consolation, through hope, and\nthrough many another gift, breathes the benediction of His own great\ntranquillity and unruffled calm over our agitated, distracted, sinful\nhearts. In connection with one of those previous designations to\nwhich I have referred, the Apostle has a prayer very different in\nform from this, but identical in substance, when he says 'the God of\nhope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.' Is not that\nclosely allied to the promise of my text, 'The God of peace shall\nbruise Satan under your feet shortly'? Is there any surer way of\n'bruising Satan' under a man's feet than filling him 'with joy and\npeace in believing'? What can the Devil do to that man? If his soul\nis saturated, and his capacities filled, with that pure honey of\ndivine joy, will he have any taste for the coarse dainties, the leeks\nand the garlic, that the Devil offers him? Is there any surer way of\ndelivering a man from the temptations of his own baser nature, and\nthe solicitations of this busy intrusive world round about him, than\nto make him satisfied with the goodness of the Lord, and conscious in\nhis daily experience of 'all joy and peace'? Fill the vessel with\nwine, and there is no room for baser liquors or for poison. I suppose\nthat the way by which you and I, dear friends, will most effectually\nconquer any temptations, is by falling back on the superior sweetness\nof divine joys. When we live upon manna we do not crave onions. So He\n'will bruise Satan under your feet' by giving that which will arm\nyour hearts against all his temptations and all his weapons. Blessed\nbe God for the way of conquest, which is the possession of a supremer\ngood!\n\nBut then, notice how beautifully too this name, 'the God of peace,'\ncomes in to suggest that even in the strife there may be\ntranquillity. I remember in an old church in Italy a painting of an\nArchangel with his foot on the dragon's neck, and his sword thrust\nthrough its scaly armour. It is perhaps the feebleness of the\nartist's hand, but I think rather it is the clearness of his insight,\nwhich has led him to represent the victorious angel, in the moment in\nwhich he is slaying the dragon, as with a smile on his face, and not\nthe least trace of effort in the arm, which is so easily smiting the\nfatal blow. Perhaps if the painter could have used his brush better\nhe would have put more expression into the attitude and the face, but\nI think it is better as it is. We, too, may achieve a conquest over\nthe dragon which, although it requires effort, does not disturb\npeace. There is a possibility of bruising that slippery head under my\nfoot, and yet not having to strain myself in the process. We may have\n'peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation.' Do you remember\nhow the Apostle, in another place, gives us the same\nbeautiful--though at first sight contradictory--combination when he\nsays, 'The peace of God shall garrison your heart'?\n\n  'My soul! there is a country\n    Far, far beyond the stars,\n  Where stands an armed sentry,\n    All skilful in the wars.'\n\nAnd her name is Peace, as the poet goes on to tell us. Ah, brethren!\nif we lived nearer the Lord, we should find it more possible to\n'fight the good fight of faith,' and yet to have 'our feet shod with\nthe preparedness of the gospel of peace.'\n\n'The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet'; and in\nbruising He will give you His peace to do it, and His peace in doing\nit, and in still greater measure after doing it. For every struggle\nof the Christian soul adds something to the subsequent depth of\nits tranquillity. And so the name of the God of peace is our pledge of\nvictory in, and of deepened peace after, our warfare with sin and\ntemptation.\n\nLastly, note the swiftness with which Paul expects that this process\nshall he accomplished.\n\nI dare say that he was thinking about the coming of the Lord, when\nall the fighting and struggle would be over, and that when he said\n'God shall bruise him under your feet shortly,' there lay in the back\nof his mind the thought, 'the Lord is at hand.' But be that as it\nmay, there is another way of looking at the words. They are not in\nthe least like our experience, are they? 'Shortly!'--and here am I, a\nChristian man for the last half century perhaps; and have I got much\nfurther on in my course? Have I brought the sin that used to trouble\nme much down, and is my character much more noble, Christ-like, than\nit was long years ago? Would other people say that it is? Instead of\n'shortly' we ought to put 'slowly' for the most of us. But, dear\nfriend, the ideal is swift conquest, and it is our fault and our\nloss, if the reality is sadly different.\n\nThere are a great many evils that, unless they are conquered\nsuddenly, have very small chance of ever being conquered at all. You\nnever heard of a man being cured of his love of intoxicating drink,\nfor instance, by a gradual process. The serpent's life is not crushed\nout of it by gradual pressure, but by one vigorous stamp of a nervous\nheel.\n\nBut if my experience as a Christian man does not enable me to set to\nmy seal that this text is true, the text itself will tell me why. It\nis 'the God of peace' that is going to 'bruise Satan.' Do you keep\nyourself in touch with Him, dear friend? And do you let His powers\ncome uninterruptedly and continuously into your spirit and life? It\nis sheer folly and self-delusion to wonder that the medicine does not\nwork as quickly as was promised, if you do not take the medicine. The\nslow process by which, at the best, many Christian people 'bruise\nSatan under their feet,' during which he hurts their heels more than\nthey hurt his head, is mainly due to their breaking the closeness and\nthe continuity of their communion with God in Jesus Christ.\n\nBut, after all, it is Heaven's chronology that we have to do with\nhere. 'Shortly,' and it will be 'shortly,' if we reckon by heavenly\nscales of duration. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in\nthe morning. 'The Lord will help her, and that right early.' 'The\nLord is at hand.' When we get yonder, ah! how all the long years of\nfighting will have dwindled down, and we shall say 'the Lord did help\nme, and that right early,' and though there may have been more than\nthreescore years and ten of fighting, that, while we were in the\nthick of it, did not seem to come to much, we shall then look back\nand say: 'Yes, Lord, it was but for a moment, and it has brought me\nto the undying day of Eternal Peace.'\n\n\n\n\nTERTIUS\n\n   'I, Tertius, who write the epistle, salute you in the\n   Lord.'--ROMANS xvi. 22 (R.V.).\n\n\nOne sometimes sees in old religious pictures, in some obscure corner,\na tiny kneeling figure, the portrait of the artist. So Tertius here\ngets leave to hold the pen for a moment on his own account, and from\nCorinth sends his greeting to his unknown brethren in Rome.\nApparently he was a stranger to them, and needed to introduce\nhimself. He is never heard of before or since. For one brief moment\nhe is visible, like a star of a low magnitude, shining out for a\nmoment between two banks of darkness and then swallowed up. Judging\nby his name, he was probably a Roman, and possibly had some\nconnection with Italy, but clearly was a stranger to the Church in\nRome. We do not know whether he was a resident in Corinth, where he\nwrote this epistle, or one of Paul's travelling companions. Probably\nhe was the former, as his name never recurs in any of Paul's letters.\nOne can understand the impulse which led him for one moment to come\nout of obscurity and to take up personal relations with those who had\nso long enjoyed his pen. He would fain float across the deep gulf of\nalienation a thread of love which looked like gossamer, but has\nproved to be stronger than centuries and revolutions.\n\nThis humble and modest greeting is an expression of a sentiment which\nthe world may smile at, but which, being 'in the Lord,' partakes of\nimmortality. No doubt the world's hate drove more closely together\nall the disciples in primitive times; but the yearning of Tertius for\nsome little corner in the love of his Roman brethren might well\ninfluence us to-day. There ought to be an effort of imagination going\nout towards unknown brethren. Christian love is not meant to be kept\nwithin the limits of sight and personal knowledge; it should overleap\nthe narrow bounds of the communities to which we belong, and\nexpatiate over the whole wide field. The great Shepherd has\nprescribed for us the limits to the very edge of which our Christian\nlove should consciously go forth, and has rebuked the narrowness to\nwhich we are prone, when He has said, 'Other sheep I have which are\nnot of this fold.' We are all too prone to let identities of opinion\nand of polity, or even the accident of locality, set bounds to our\nconsciousness of brotherhood; and the example of this little gush of\naffection, that reaches out a hand across the ocean and grasps the\nhands of unknown partakers in the common life of the one Lord, may\nwell shame us out of our narrowness, and quicken us into a wide\nperception and deepened feeling towards all who in every place call\nup Jesus Christ as their Lord--'both their Lord and ours.'\n\nAnother lesson which we may learn from Tertius' characterisation of\nhimself is the dignity of subordinate work towards a great end. His\noffice as amanuensis was very humble, but it was quite as necessary\nas Paul's inspired fervour. It is to him that we owe our possession\nof the Epistle; it is to him that Paul owed it that he was able to\nrecord in imperishable words the thoughts that welled up in his mind,\nand would have been lost if Tertius had not been at his side. The\npower generated in the boilers does its work through machines of\nwhich each little cog-wheel is as indispensable as the great shafts.\nMembers of the body which seem to be 'more feeble, are necessary.'\nEvery note in a great concerted piece of music, and every instrument,\ndown to the triangle and the little drum in the great orchestra, is\nnecessary. This lesson of the dignity of subordinate work needs to be\nlaid to heart both by those who think themselves to be capable of\nmore important service, and by those who have to recognise that the\nless honourable tasks are all for which they are fit. To the former\nit may preach humility, the latter it may encourage. We are all very\nignorant of what is great and what is small in the matter of our\nChristian service, and we have sometimes to look very closely and to\nclear away a great many vulgar misconceptions before we can\nclearly discriminate between mites and talents. 'We know not which\nmay prosper, whether this or that'; and in our ignorance of what it\nmay please God to bring out of any service faithfully rendered to\nHim, we had better not be too sure that true service is ever small,\nor that the work that attracts attention and is christened by men\n'great' is really so in His eyes. It is well to have the noble\nambition to 'desire earnestly the greater gifts,' but it is better to\n'follow the more excellent way,' and to seek after the love which\nknows nothing of great or small, and without which prophecy and the\nknowledge of all mysteries, and all conspicuous and all the shining\nqualities profit nothing.\n\nWe can discern in Tertius' words a little touch of what we may call\npride in his work. No doubt he knew it to be subordinate, but he also\nknew it to be needful; and no doubt he had put all his strength into\ndoing it well. No man will put his best into any task which he does\nnot undertake in such a spirit. It is a very plain piece of homely\nwisdom that 'what is worth doing at all is worth doing well.' Without\na lavish expenditure of the utmost care and effort, our work will\ntend to be slovenly and unpleasing to God, and man, and to ourselves.\nWe may be sure there were no blots and bits of careless writing in\nTertius' manuscript, and that he would not have claimed the friendly\nfeelings of his Roman brethren, if he had not felt that he had put\nhis best into the writing of this epistle. The great word of King\nDavid has a very wide application. 'I will not take that which is\nthine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.'\n\nTertius' salutation may suggest to us the best thing by which to be\nremembered. All his life before and after the hours spent at Paul's\nside has sunk in oblivion. He wished to be known only as having\nwritten the Epistle. Christian souls ought to desire to live chiefly\nin the remembrance of those to whom they have been known as having\ndone some little bit of work for Jesus Christ. We may well ask\nourselves whether there is anything in our lives by which we should\nthus wish to be remembered. All our many activities will sink into\nsilence; but if the stream of our life, which has borne along down\nits course so much mud and sand, has brought some grains of gold in\nthe form of faithful and loving service to Christ and men--these will\nnot be lost in the ocean, but treasured by Him. What we do for Jesus\nand to spread the knowledge of His name is the immortal part of our\nmortal lives, and abides in His memory and in blessed results in our\nown characters, when all the rest that made our busy and often stormy\ndays has passed into oblivion. All that we know of Tertius who wrote\nthis Epistle is that he wrote it. Well will it be for us if the\nsummary of our lives be something like that of his!\n\n\n\n\nQUARTUS A BROTHER\n\n   'Quartus a brother.'--ROMANS xvi. 23.\n\n\nI am afraid very few of us read often, or with much interest, those\nlong lists of names at the end of Paul's letters. And yet there are\nplenty of lessons in them, if anybody will look at them lovingly and\ncarefully. There does not seem much in these three words; but I am\nvery much mistaken if they will not prove to be full of beauty and\npathos, and to open out into a wonderful revelation of what\nChristianity is and does, as soon as we try to freshen them up into\nsome kind of human interest.\n\nIt is easy for us to make a little picture of this brother Quartus.\nHe is evidently an entire stranger to the Church in Rome. They had\nnever heard his name before: none of them knew anything about him.\nFurther, he is evidently a man of no especial reputation or position\nin the Church at Corinth, from which Paul writes. He contrasts\nstrikingly with the others who send salutations to Rome. 'Timotheus,\nmy work-fellow'--the companion and helper of the Apostle, whose name\nwas known everywhere among the Churches, heads the list. Then come\nother prominent men of his more immediate circle. Then follows a\nloving greeting from Paul's amanuensis, who, naturally, as the pen is\nin his own hand, says: '_I_, Tertius, who wrote this epistle,\nsalute you in the Lord.' Then Paul begins again to dictate, and the\nlist runs on. Next comes a message from 'Gaius mine host, and of the\nwhole Church'--an influential man in the community, apparently rich,\nand willing, as well as able, to extend to them large and loving\nhospitality. Erastus, the chamberlain or treasurer of the city,\nfollows--a man of consequence in Corinth. And then, among all these\npeople of mark, comes the modest, quiet Quartus. He has no wealth\nlike Gaius, nor civic position like Erastus, nor wide reputation like\nTimothy. He is only a good, simple, unknown Christian. He feels a\nspring of love open in his heart to these brethren far across the\nsea, whom he never met. He would like them to know that he thought\nlovingly of them, and to be lovingly thought of by them. So he begs a\nlittle corner in Paul's letter, and gets it; and there, in his little\nniche, like some statue of a forgotten saint, scarce seen amidst the\nglories of a great cathedral, 'Quartus a brother' stands to all time.\n\nThe first thing that strikes me in connection with these words is,\nhow deep and real they show that new bond of Christian love to have\nbeen.\n\nA little incident of this sort is more impressive than any amount of\nmere talk about the uniting influence of the Gospel. Here we get a\nglimpse of the power in actual operation in a man's heart, and if we\nthink of all that this simple greeting presupposes and implies, and\nof all that had to be overcome before it could have been sent, we may\nwell see in it the sign of the greatest revolution that was ever\nwrought in men's relations to one another, Quartus was an inhabitant\nof Corinth, from which city this letter was written. His Roman name\nmay indicate Roman descent, but of that we cannot be sure. Just as\nprobably he may have been a Greek by birth, and so have had to\nstretch his hand across a deep crevasse of national antipathy, in\norder to clasp the hands of his brethren in the great city. There was\nlittle love lost between Rome, the rough imperious conqueror, and\nCorinth, prostrate and yet restive under her bonds, and nourishing\nremembrances of a freedom which Rome had crushed, and of a culture\nthat Rome haltingly followed.\n\nAnd how many other deep gulfs of separation had to be bridged before\nthat Christian sense of oneness could be felt! It is impossible for\nus to throw ourselves completely back to the condition of things\nwhich the Gospel found. The world then was like some great field of\ncooled lava on the slopes of a volcano, all broken up by a labyrinth\nof clefts and cracks, at the bottom of which one can see the flicker\nof sulphurous flames. Great gulfs of national hatred, of fierce\nenmities of race, language, and religion; wide separations of social\ncondition, far profounder than anything of the sort which we know,\nsplit mankind into fragments. On the one side was the freeman, on the\nother, the slave; on the one side, the Gentile, on the other, the\nJew; on the one side, the insolence and hard-handedness of Roman\nrule, on the other, the impotent, and therefore envenomed, hatred of\nconquered peoples.\n\nAnd all this fabric, full of active repulsions and disintegrating\nforces, was bound together into an artificial and unreal unity by the\niron clamp of Rome's power, holding up the bulging walls that were\nready to fall--the unity of the slave-gang manacled together for\neasier driving. Into this hideous condition of things the Gospel\ncomes, and silently flings its clasping tendrils over the wide gaps,\nand binds the crumbling structure of human society with a new bond,\nreal and living. We know well enough that that was so, but we are\nhelped to apprehend it by seeing, as it were, the very process going\non before our eyes, in this message from 'Quartus a brother.'\n\nIt reminds us that the very notion of humanity, and of the\nbrotherhood of man, is purely Christian. A world-embracing society,\nheld together by love, was not dreamt of before the Gospel came; and\nsince the Gospel came it is more than a dream. If you wrench away the\nidea from its foundation, as people do who talk about fraternity, and\nseek to bring it to pass without Christ, it is a mere piece of\nUtopian sentiment--a fine dream. But in Christianity it worked. It\nworks imperfectly enough, God knows. Still there is some reality in\nit, and some power. The Gospel first of all produced the thing and\nthe practice, and then the theory came afterwards. The Church did not\ntalk much about the brotherhood of man, or the unity of the race; but\nsimply ignored all distinctions, and gathered into the fold the slave\nand his master, the Roman and his subject, fair-haired Goths and\nswarthy Arabians, the worshippers of Odin and of Zeus, the Jew and\nthe Gentile. That actual unity, utterly irrespective of all\ndistinctions, which came naturally in the train of the Gospel, was\nthe first attempt to realise the oneness of the race, and first\ntaught the world that all men were brethren.\n\nAnd before this simple word of greeting could have been sent, and the\nunknown man in Corinth felt love to a company of unknown men in Rome,\nsome profound new impulse must have been given to the world;\nsomething altogether unlike any of the forces hitherto in existence.\nWhat was that? What should it be but the story of One who gave\nHimself for the whole world, who binds men into a unity because of\nHis common relation to them all, and through whom the great\nproclamation can be made: 'There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is\nneither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are\nall one in Christ Jesus.' Brother Quartus' message, like some tiny\nflower above-ground which tells of a spreading root beneath, is a\nmodest witness to that mighty revolution, and presupposes the\npreaching of a Saviour in whom he and his unseen friends in Rome are\none.\n\nSo let us learn not to confine our sympathy and the play of our\nChristian affection within the limits of our personal knowledge. We\nmust go further a-field than that. Like this man, let us sometimes\nsend our thoughts across mountains and seas. He knew nobody in the\nRoman Church, and nobody knew him, but he wished to stretch out his\nhand to them, and to feel, as it were, the pressure of their fingers\nin his palm. That is a pattern for us.\n\nLet me suggest another thing. Quartus was a Corinthian. The\nCorinthian Church was remarkable for its quarrellings and\ndissensions. One said, 'I am of Paul, and another, I of Apollos, and\nI of Cephas, and I of Christ.' I wonder if our friend Quartus\nbelonged to any of these parties? There is nothing more likely than\nthat he had a much warmer glow of Christian love to the brethren over\nthere in Rome than to those who sat on the same bench with him in the\nupper room at Corinth. For you know that sometimes it is true about\npeople, as well as about scenery, that 'distance lends enchantment to\nthe view.' A great many of us have much keener sympathies with\n'brethren' who are well out of our reach, and whose peculiarities do\nnot jar against ours, than with those who are nearest. I do not say\nQuartus was one of these, but he may very well have been one of the\nwranglers in Corinth who found it much easier to love his brother\nwhom he had not seen than his brother whom he had seen. So take the\nhint, if you need it. Do not let your Christian love go wandering\naway abroad only, but keep some for home consumption.\n\nAgain, how simply, and with what unconscious beauty, the deep reason\nfor our Christian unity is given in that one word, a 'Brother.' As if\nhe had said, Never mind telling them anything about what I am, what\nplace I hold, or what I do. Tell them I am a brother, that will be\nenough. It is the only name by which I care to be known; it is the\nname which explains my love to them.\n\nWe are brethren because we are sons of one Father. So that favourite\nname, by which the early Christians knew each other, rested upon and\nproclaimed the deep truth that they knew themselves to be all\npartakers of a common life derived from one Parent. When they said\nthey were brethren, they implied, 'We have been born again by the\nword of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.' The great Christian\ntruth of regeneration, the communication of a divine life from God\nthe Father, through Christ the Son, by the Holy Spirit, is the\nfoundation of Christian brotherhood. So the name is no mere piece of\neffusive sentiment, but expresses a profound fact. 'To as many as\nreceived Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God,' and\ntherein to become the brethren of all His sons. That is the true\nground of our unity, and of our obligation to love all who are\nbegotten of Him. You cannot safely put them on any other footing. All\nelse--identity of opinion, similarity of practice and ceremonial,\nlocal or national ties, and the like--all else is insufficient. It\nmay be necessary for Christian communities to require in addition a\ngeneral identity of opinion, and even some uniformity in government\nand form of worship; but if ever they come to fancy that such\nsubordinate conditions of visible oneness are the grounds of their\nspiritual unity, and to enforce these as such, they are slipping off\nthe real foundation, and are perilling their character as Churches of\nChrist. The true ground of the unity of all Christians is here: 'Have\nwe not all one Father?' We possess a kindred life derived from Him.\nWe are a family of brethren because we are sons.\n\nAnother remark is, how strangely and unwittingly this good man has\ngot himself an immortality by that passing thought of his. One loving\nmessage has won for him the prize for which men have joyfully given\nlife itself,--an eternal place in history. Wheresoever the Gospel is\npreached there also shall this be told as a memorial of him. How much\nsurprised he would have been if, as he leaned forward to Tertius\nhurrying to end his task and said, 'Send my love too,' anybody had\ntold him that that one act of his would last as long as the world,\nand his name be known for ever! And how much ashamed some of the\nother people in the New Testament would have been if they had known\nthat their passing faults--the quarrel of Euodia and Syntyche for\ninstance--were to be gibbeted for ever in the same fashion! How\ncareful they would have been, and we would be, of our behaviour if we\nknew that it was to be pounced down upon and made immortal in that\nstyle! Suppose you were to be told--Your thoughts and acts to-morrow\nat twelve o'clock will be recorded for all the world to read--you\nwould be pretty careful how you behaved. When a speaker sees the\nreporters in front of him, he weighs his words.\n\nWell, Quartus' little message is written down here, and the world\nknows it. All our words and works are getting put down too, in\nanother Book up there, and it is going to be read out one day. It\ndoes seem wonderful that you and I should live as we do, knowing that\nall the while that God is recording it all. If we are not ashamed to\ndo things, and let Him note them on His tablets that they may be for\nthe time to come, for ever and ever, it is strange that we should be\nmore careful to attitudinise and pose ourselves before one another\nthan before Him. Let us then keep ever in mind 'those pure eyes and\nperfect witness of the all-judging' God. The eternal record of this\nlittle message is only a symbol of the eternal life and eternal\nrecord of all our transient and trivial thoughts and deeds before\nHim. Let us live so that each act, if recorded, would shine with some\nmodest ray of true light like brother Quartus' greeting, and let us\nseek that, like him,--all else about us being forgotten, position,\ntalents, wealth, buried in the dust,--we may be remembered, if we are\nremembered at all, by such a biography as is condensed into these\nthree words. Who would not wish to be embalmed, so to speak, in such\na record? Who would not wish to have such an epitaph as this? A sweet\nfate to live for ever in the world's memory by three words which tell\nhis name, his Christianity, and his brotherly love! So far as we are\nremembered at all, may the like be our life's history and our\nepitaph!\n\n\n\n\nEXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE\n\nALEXANDER MACLAREN, D.D., Litt.D.\n\nCORINTHIANS\n(_To II Corinthians, Chap. V_)\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\nCALLING ON THE NAME (1 COR. i. 2)\n\nPERISHING OR BEING SAVED (1 COR. i. 18)\n\nTHE APOSTLE'S THEME (1 COR. ii. 2)\n\nGOD'S FELLOW-WORKERS (1 COR. iii. 9)\n\nTHE TESTING FIRE (1 COR. iii. 12, 13)\n\nTEMPLES OF GOD (1 COR. iii. 16)\n\nDEATH, THE FRIEND (1 COR. iii. 21, 22)\n\nSERVANTS AND LORDS (1 COR. iii. 21-23)\n\nTHE THREE TRIBUNALS (1 COR. iv. 3, 4)\n\nTHE FESTAL LIFE (1 COR. v. 8)\n\nFORMS _VERSUS_ CHARACTER\n   (1 COR. vii. 19, GAL. v. 6, GAL. vi. 15, R.V.)\n\nSLAVES AND FREE (1 COR. vii. 22)\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN LIFE (1 COR. vii. 24)\n\n'LOVE BUILDETH UP' (1 COR. viii. 1-13)\n\nTHE SIN OF SILENCE (1 COR. ix. 16, 17)\n\nA SERVANT OF MEN (1 COR. ix. 19-23)\n\nHOW THE VICTOR RUNS (1 COR. ix. 24)\n\n'CONCERNING THE CROWN' (1 COR. ix. 25)\n\nTHE LIMITS OF LIBERTY (1 COR. x. 23-33)\n\n'IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME' (1 COR. xi. 24)\n\nTHE UNIVERSAL GIFT (1 COR. xii. 7)\n\nWHAT LASTS (1 COR. xiii. 8, 13)\n\nTHE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION (1 COR. xv. 3, 4)\n\nREMAINING AND FALLING ASLEEP (1 COR. xv. 6)\n\nPAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF (1 COR. xv. 10)\n\nTHE UNITY OF APOSTOLIC TEACHING (1 COR. xv. 11)\n\nTHE CERTAINTY AND JOY OF THE RESURRECTION (1 COR. xv. 20)\n\nTHE DEATH OF DEATH (1 COR. xv. 20, 21; 50-58)\n\nSTRONG AND LOVING (1 COR. xvi. 13, 14)\n\nANATHEMA AND GRACE (1 COR. xvi. 21-24)\n\nGOD'S YEA; MAN'S AMEN (2 COR. i. 20, R.V.)\n\nANOINTED AND STABLISHED (2 COR. i. 21)\n\nSEAL AND EARNEST (2 COR. i. 22)\n\nTHE TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION (2 COR. ii. 14, R.V.)\n\nTRANSFORMATION BY BEHOLDING (2 COR. iii. 18)\n\nLOOKING AT THE UNSEEN (2 COR. iv. 18)\n\nTENT AND BUILDING (2 COR. v. 1)\n\nTHE PATIENT WORKMAN (2 COR. v. 5)\n\nTHE OLD HOUSE AND THE NEW (2 COR. v. 8)\n\nPLEASING CHRIST (2 COR. v. 9)\n\nTHE LOVE THAT CONSTRAINS (2 COR. v. 14)\n\nTHE ENTREATIES OF GOD (2 COR. v. 20)\n\n\n\n\nI. CORINTHIANS\n\n\nCALLING ON THE NAME\n\n   'All that in every place call upon the name of Jesus\n   Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.'--1 COR. i. 2.\n\n\nThere are some difficulties, with which I need not trouble you, about\nboth the translation and the connection of these words. One thing is\nquite clear, that in them the Apostle associates the church at\nCorinth with the whole mass of Christian believers in the world. The\nquestion may arise whether he does so in the sense that he addresses\nhis letter both to the church at Corinth and to the whole of the\nchurches, and so makes it a catholic epistle. That is extremely\nunlikely, considering how all but entirely this letter is taken up\nwith dealing with the especial conditions of the Corinthian church.\nRather I should suppose that he is simply intending to remind 'the\nChurch of God at Corinth ... sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be\nsaints,' that they are in real, living union with the whole body of\nbelievers. Just as the water in a little land-locked bay, connected\nwith the sea by some narrow strait like that at Corinth, is yet part\nof the whole ocean that rolls round the world, so that little\ncommunity of Christians had its living bond of union with all the\nbrethren in every place that called upon the name of Jesus Christ.\n\nWhichever view on that detail of interpretation be taken, this\nphrase, as a designation of Christians, is worth considering. It is\none of many expressions found in the New Testament as names for them,\nsome of which have now dropped out of general use, while some are\nstill retained. It is singular that the name of 'Christian,' which\nhas all but superseded all others, was originally invented as a jeer\nby sarcastic wits at Antioch, and never appears in the New Testament,\nas a name by which believers called themselves. Important lessons are\ntaught by these names, such as disciples, believers, brethren,\nsaints, those of the way, and so on, each of which embodies some\ncharacteristic of a follower of Jesus. So this appellation in the\ntext, 'those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,' may\nyield not unimportant lessons if it be carefully weighed, and to some\nof these I would ask your attention now.\n\nI. First, it gives us a glimpse into the worship of the primitive\nChurch.\n\nTo 'call on the name of the Lord' is an expression that comes\nstraight out of the Old Testament. It means there distinctly\nadoration and invocation, and it means precisely these things when it\nis referred to Jesus Christ.\n\nWe find in the Acts of the Apostles that the very first sermon that\nwas preached at Pentecost by Peter all turns upon this phrase. He\nquotes the Old Testament saying, 'Whosoever shall call on the name of\nthe Lord shall be saved,' and then goes on to prove that 'the Lord,'\nthe 'calling on whose Name' is salvation, is Jesus Christ; and winds\nup with 'Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that\nGod hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and\nChrist.'\n\nAgain we find that Ananias of Damascus, when Jesus Christ appeared to\nhim and told him to go to Paul and lay his hands upon him, shrank\nfrom the perilous task because Paul had been sent to 'bind them that\ncall upon the name of the Lord,' and to persecute them. We find the\nsame phrase recurring in other connections, so that, on the whole, we\nmay take the expression as a recognised designation of Christians.\n\nThis was their characteristic, that they prayed to Jesus Christ. The\nvery first word, so far as we know, that Paul ever heard from a\nChristian was, 'Lord Jesus! receive my spirit.' He heard that cry of\ncalm faith which, when he heard it, would sound to him as horrible\nblasphemy from Stephen's dying lips. How little he dreamed that he\nhimself was soon to cry to the same Jesus, 'Lord, what wilt thou have\nme to do?' and was in after-days to beseech Him thrice for\ndeliverance, and to be answered by sufficient grace. How little he\ndreamed that, when his own martyrdom was near, he too would look to\nJesus as Lord and righteous Judge, from whose hands all who loved His\nappearing should receive their crown! Nor only Paul directs desires\nand adoration to Jesus as Lord; the last words of Scripture are a cry\nto Him as Lord to come quickly, and an invocation of His 'grace' on\nall believing souls.\n\nPrayer to Christ from the very beginning of the Christian Church was,\nthen, the characteristic of believers, and He to whom they prayed,\nthus, from the beginning, was recognised by them as being a Divine\nPerson, God manifest in the flesh.\n\nThe object of their worship, then, was known by the people among whom\nthey lived. Singing hymns to Christus as a god is nearly all that the\nRoman proconsul in his well-known letter could find to tell his\nmaster of their worship. They were the worshippers--not merely the\ndisciples--of one Christ. That was their peculiar distinction. Among\nthe worshippers of the false gods they stood erect; before Him, and\nHim only, they bowed. In Corinth there was the polluted worship of\nAphrodite and of Zeus. These men called not on the name of these\nlustful and stained deities, but on the name of the Lord Jesus\nChrist. And everybody knew whom they worshipped, and understood whose\nmen they were. Is that true about us? Do we Christian men so\nhabitually cultivate the remembrance of Jesus Christ, and are we so\ncontinually in the habit of invoking His aid, and of contemplating\nHis blessed perfections and sufficiency, that every one who knew us\nwould recognise us as meant by those who call on the name of the Lord\nJesus Christ?\n\nIf this be the proper designation of Christian people, alas! alas!\nfor so many of the professing Christians of this day, whom neither\nbystanders nor themselves would think of as included in such a name!\n\nFurther, the connection here shows that the divine worship of Christ\nwas universal among the churches. There was no 'place' where it was\nnot practised, no community calling itself a church to whom He was\nnot the Lord to be invoked and adored. This witness to the early and\nuniversal recognition in the Christian communities of the divinity of\nour Lord is borne by an undisputedly genuine epistle of Paul's. It is\none of the four which the most thorough-going destructive criticism\naccepts as genuine. It was written before the Gospels, and is a voice\nfrom the earlier period of Paul's apostleship. Hence the importance\nof its attestation to this fact that all Christians everywhere, both\nJewish, who had been trained in strict monotheism, and Gentile, who\nhad burned incense at many a foul shrine, were perfectly joined\ntogether in this, that in all their need they called on the name of\nJesus Christ as Lord and brought to Him, as divine, adoration not to\nbe rendered to any creatures. From the day of Pentecost onwards, a\nChristian was not merely a disciple, a follower, or an admirer, but a\nworshipper of Christ, the Lord.\n\nII. We may see here an unfolding of the all-sufficiency of Jesus\nChrist.\n\nNote that solemn accumulation, in the language of my text, of all the\ndesignations by which He is called, sometimes separately and\nsometimes unitedly, the name of 'our Lord Jesus Christ.' We never\nfind that full title given to Him in Scripture except when the\nwriter's mind is labouring to express the manifoldness and\ncompleteness of our Lord's relations to men, and the largeness and\nsufficiency of the blessings which He brings. In this context I find\nin the first nine or ten verses of this chapter, so full is the\nApostle of the thoughts of the greatness and wonderfulness of his\ndear Lord on whose name he calls, that six or seven times he employs\nthis solemn, full designation.\n\nNow, if we look at the various elements of this great name we shall\nget various aspects of the way in which calling on Christ is the\nstrength of our souls.\n\n'Call on the name of--the Lord.' That is the Old Testament Jehovah.\nThere is no mistaking nor denying, if we candidly consider the\nevidence of the New Testament writings, that, when we read of Jesus\nChrist as 'Lord,' in the vast majority of cases, the title is not a\nmere designation of human authority, but is an attribution to Him of\ndivine nature and dignity. We have, then, to ascribe to Him, and to\ncall on Him as possessing, all which that great and incommunicable\nName certified and sealed to the Jewish Church as their possession\nin their God. The Jehovah of the Old Testament is our Lord of the\nNew. He whose being is eternal, underived, self-sufficing,\nself-determining, knowing no variation, no diminution, no age, He\nwho is because He is and that He is, dwells in His fulness in our\nSaviour. To worship Him is not to divert worship from the one God,\nnor is it to have other gods besides Him. Christianity is as much\nmonotheistic as Judaism was, and the law of its worship is the old\nlaw--Him only shalt thou serve. It is the divine will that all men\nshould honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.\n\nBut what is it to call on the name of Jesus? That name implies all\nthe sweetness of His manhood. He is our Brother. The name 'Jesus' is\none that many a Jewish boy bore in our Lord's own time and before it;\nthough, afterwards, of course, abhorrence on the part of the Jew and\nreverence on the part of the Christian caused it almost entirely to\ndisappear. But at the time when He bore it it was as undistinguished\na name as Simeon, or Judas, or any other of His followers' names. To\ncall upon the name of Jesus means to realise and bring near to\nourselves, for our consolation and encouragement, for our strength\nand peace, the blessed thought of His manhood, so really and closely\nknit to ours; to grasp the blessedness of the thought that He knows\nour frame because He Himself has worn it, and understands and pities\nour weakness, being Himself a man. To Him whom we adore as Lord we\ndraw near in tenderer, but not less humble and prostrate, adoration\nas our brother when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, and thus\nembrace as harmonious, and not contradictory, both the divinity of\nthe Lord and the humanity of Jesus.\n\nTo call on the name of Christ is to embrace in our faith and to\nbeseech the exercise on our behalf of all which Jesus is as the\nMessiah, anointed by God with the fulness of the Spirit. As such He\nis the climax, and therefore the close of all revelation, who is the\nlong-expected fruition of the desire of weary hearts, the fulfilment,\nand therefore the abolition, of sacrifice and temple and priesthood\nand prophecy and all that witnessed for Him ere He came. We further\ncall on the name of Christ the Anointed, on whom the whole fulness of\nthe Divine Spirit dwelt in order that, calling upon Him, that fulness\nmay in its measure be granted to us.\n\nSo the name of the Lord Jesus Christ brings to view the divine, the\nhuman, the Messiah, the anointed Lord of the Spirit, and Giver of the\ndivine life. To call on His name is to be blessed, to be made pure\nand strong, joyous and immortal. 'The name of the Lord is a strong\ntower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe.' Call on His name\nin the day of trouble and ye shall be heard and helped.\n\nIII. Lastly, this text suggests what a Christian life should be.\n\nWe have already remarked that to call on the name of Jesus was the\ndistinctive peculiarity of the early believers, which marked them off\nas a people by themselves. Would it be a true designation of the bulk\nof so-called Christians now? You do not object to profess yourself a\nChristian, or, perhaps, even to say that you are a disciple of\nChrist, or even to go the length of calling yourself a follower and\nimitator. But are you a worshipper of Him? In your life have you\nthe habit of meditating on Him as Lord, as Jesus, as Christ, and of\nrefreshing and gladdening dusty days and fainting strength by the\nliving water, drawn from the one unfailing stream from these triple\nfountains? Is the invocation of His aid habitual with you?\n\nThere needs no long elaborate supplication to secure His aid. How\nmuch has been done in the Church's history by short bursts of prayer,\nas 'Lord, help me!' spoken or unspoken in the moment of extremity!\n'They cried unto God in the battle.' They would not have time for\nvery lengthy petitions then, would they? They would not give much\nheed to elegant arrangement of them or suiting them to the canons of\nhuman eloquence. 'They cried unto God in the battle'; whilst the\nenemy's swords were flashing and the arrows whistling about their\nears. These were circumstances to make a prayer a 'cry'; no composed\nand stately utterance of an elegantly modulated voice, nor a languid\nutterance without earnestness, but a short, sharp, loud call, such as\ndanger presses from panting lungs and parched throats. Therefore the\ncry was answered, 'and He was entreated of them.' 'Lord, save us, we\nperish!' was a very brief prayer, but it brought its answer. And so\nwe, in like manner, may go through our warfare and work, and day by\nday as we encounter sudden bursts of temptation may meet them with\nsudden jets of petition, and thus put out their fires. And the same\nhelp avails for long-continuing as for sudden needs. Some of us may\nhave to carry lifelong burdens and to fight in a battle ever renewed.\nIt may seem as if our cry was not heard, since the enemy's assault is\nnot weakened, nor our power to beat it back perceptibly increased.\nBut the appeal is not in vain, and when the fight is over, if not\nbefore, we shall know what reinforcements of strength to our weakness\nwere due to our poor cry entering into the ears of our Lord and\nBrother. No other 'name' is permissible as our plea or as recipient\nof our prayer. In and on the name of the Lord we must call, and if we\ndo, anything is possible rather than that the promise which was\nclaimed for the Church and referred to Jesus, in the very first\nChristian preaching on Pentecost, should not be fulfilled--'Whosoever\nshall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'\n\n'In every place.' We may venture to subject the words of my text to a\nlittle gentle pressure here. The Apostle only meant to express the\nuniversal characteristics of Christians everywhere. But we may\nventure to give a different turn to the words, and learn from them\nthe duty of devout communion with Christ as a duty for each of us\nwherever we are. If a place is not fit to pray in it is not fit to be\nin. We may carry praying hearts, remembrances of the Lord, sweet,\nthough they may be swift and short, contemplations of His grace, His\nlove, His power, His sufficiency, His nearness, His punctual help,\nlike a hidden light in our hearts, into all the dusty ways of life,\nand in every place call on His name. There is no place so dismal but\nthat thoughts of Him will make sunshine in it; no work so hard, so\ncommonplace, so prosaic, so uninteresting, but that it will become\nthe opposite of all these if whatever we do is done in remembrance of\nour Lord. Nothing will be too hard for us to do, and nothing too\nbitter for us to swallow, and nothing too sad for us to bear, if only\nover all that befalls us and all that we undertake and endeavour we\nmake the sign of the Cross and call upon the name of the Lord. If 'in\nevery place' we have Him as the object of our faith and desire, and\nas the Hearer of our petition, in 'every place' we shall have Him for\nour help, and all will be full of His bright presence; and though we\nhave to journey through the wilderness we shall ever drink of that\nspiritual rock that will follow us, and that Rock is Christ. In every\nplace call upon His name, and every place will be a house of God, and\na gate of heaven to our waiting souls.\n\n\n\n\nPERISHING OR BEING SAVED\n\n   'For the preaching of the Cross is to them that perish\n   foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power\n   of God.'--1 COR. i. 18.\n\n\nThe starting-point of my remarks is the observation that a slight\nvariation of rendering, which will be found in the Revised Version,\nbrings out the true meaning of these words. Instead of reading 'them\nthat perish' and 'us which are saved,' we ought to read 'them that\n_are perishing_,' and 'us which _are being_ saved.' That is to say,\nthe Apostle represents the two contrasted conditions, not so much as\nfixed states, either present or future, but rather as processes which\nare going on, and are manifestly, in the present, incomplete. That\nopens some very solemn and intensely practical considerations.\n\nThen I may further note that this antithesis includes the whole of\nthe persons to whom the Gospel is preached. In one or other of these\ntwo classes they all stand. Further, we have to observe that the\nconsideration which determines the class to which men belong, is the\nattitude which they respectively take to the preaching of the Cross.\nIf it be, and because it is, 'foolishness' to some, they belong to\nthe catalogue of the perishing. If it be, and because it is, 'the\npower of God' to others, they belong to the class of those who are in\nprocess of being saved.\n\nSo, then, we have the ground cleared for two or three very simple,\nbut, as it seems to me, very important thoughts.\n\nI. I desire, first, to look at the two contrasted conditions,\n'perishing' and 'being saved.'\n\nNow we shall best, I think, understand the force of the darker of\nthese two terms if we first ask what is the force of the brighter and\nmore radiant. If we understand what the Apostle means by 'saving' and\n'salvation' we shall understand also what he means by 'perishing.'\n\nIf, then, we turn for a moment to Scripture analogy and teaching, we\nfind that that threadbare word 'salvation,' which we all take it for\ngranted that we understand, and which, like a well-worn coin, has\nbeen so passed from hand to hand that it scarcely remains\nlegible--that well-worn word 'salvation' starts from a double\nmetaphorical meaning. It means either--and is used for both--being\nhealed or being made safe. In the one sense it is often employed in\nthe Gospel narratives of our Lord's miracles, and it involves the\nmetaphor of a sick man and his cure; in the other it involves the\nmetaphor of a man in peril and his deliverance and security. The\nnegative side, then, of the Gospel idea of salvation is the making\nwhole from a disease, and the making safe from a danger. Negatively,\nit is the removal from each of us of the one sickness, which is sin;\nand the one danger, which is the reaping of the fruits and\nconsequences of sin, in their variety as guilt, remorse, habit, and\nslavery under it, perverted relation to God, a fearful apprehension\nof penal consequences here, and, if there be a hereafter, there, too.\nThe sickness of soul and the perils that threaten life, flow from the\ncentral fact of sin, and salvation consists, negatively, in the\nsweeping away of all of these, whether the sin itself, or the fatal\nfacility with which we yield to it, or the desolation and perversion\nwhich it brings into all the faculties and susceptibilities, or the\nperversion of relation to God, and the consequent evils, here and\nhereafter, which throng around the evil-doer. The sick man is healed,\nand the man in peril is set in safety.\n\nBut, besides that, there is a great deal more. The cure is incomplete\ntill the full tide of health follows convalescence. When God saves,\nHe does not only bar up the iron gate through which the hosts of evil\nrush out upon the defenceless soul, but He flings wide the golden\ngate through which the glad troops of blessings and of graces flock\naround the delivered spirit, and enrich it with all joys and with all\nbeauties. So the positive side of salvation is the investiture of the\nsaved man with throbbing health through all his veins, and the\nstrength that comes from a divine life. It is the bestowal upon the\ndelivered man of everything that he needs for blessedness and for\nduty. All good conferred, and every evil banned back into its dark\nden, such is the Christian conception of salvation. It is much that\nthe negative should be accomplished, but it is little in comparison\nwith the rich fulness of positive endowments, of happiness, and of\nholiness which make an integral part of the salvation of God.\n\nThis, then, being the one side, what about the other? If this be\nsalvation, its precise opposite is the Scriptural idea of\n'perishing.' Utter ruin lies in the word, the entire failure to be\nwhat God meant a man to be. That is in it, and no contortions of\narbitrary interpretation can knock that solemn significance out of\nthe dreadful expression. If salvation be the cure of the sickness,\nperishing is the fatal end of the unchecked disease. If salvation be\nthe deliverance from the outstretched claws of the harpy evils that\ncrowd about the trembling soul, then perishing is the fixing of their\npoisoned talons into their prey, and their rending of it into\nfragments.\n\nOf course that is metaphor, but no metaphor can be half so dreadful\nas the plain, prosaic fact that the exact opposite of the salvation,\nwhich consists in the healing from sin and the deliverance from\ndanger, and in the endowment with all gifts good and beautiful, is\nthe Christian idea of the alternative 'perishing.' Then it means the\ndisease running its course. It means the dangers laying hold of the\nman in peril. It means the withdrawal, or the non-bestowal, of all\nwhich is good, whether it be good of holiness or good of happiness.\nIt does not mean, as it seems to me, the cessation of conscious\nexistence, any more than salvation means the bestowal of conscious\nexistence. But he who perishes knows that he has perished, even as he\nknows the process while he is in the process of perishing. Therefore,\nwe have to think of the gradual fading away from consciousness, and\ndying out of a life, of many things beautiful and sweet and gracious,\nof the gradual increase of distance from Him, union with whom is the\ncondition of true life, of the gradual sinking into the pit of utter\nruin, of the gradual increase of that awful death in life and life in\ndeath in which living consciousness\nmakes the conscious subject aware that he is lost; lost to God, lost\nto himself.\n\nBrethren, it is no part of my business to enlarge upon such awful\nthoughts, but the brighter the light of salvation, the darker the\neclipse of ruin which rings it round. This, then, is the first\ncontrast.\n\nII. Now note, secondly, the progressiveness of both members of the\nalternative.\n\nAll states of heart or mind tend to increase, by the very fact of\ncontinuance. Life is a process, and every part of a spiritual being\nis in living motion and continuous action in a given direction. So\nthe law for the world, and for every man in it, in all regions of his\nlife, quite as much as in the religious, is 'To him that hath shall\nbe given, and he shall have abundance.'\n\nLook, then, at this thought of the process by which these two\nconditions become more and more confirmed, consolidated, and\ncomplete. Salvation is a progressive fact. In the New Testament we\nhave that great idea looked at from three points of view. Sometimes\nit is spoken of as having been accomplished in the past in the case\nof every believing soul--'Ye have been saved' is said more than once.\nSometimes it is spoken of as being accomplished in the present--'Ye\nare saved' is said more than once. And sometimes it is relegated to\nthe future--'Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed,' and\nthe like. But there are a number of New Testament passages which\ncoincide with this text in regarding salvation as, not the work of\nany one moment, but as a continuous operation running through life,\nnot a point either in the past, present, or future, but a continued\nlife. As, for instance, 'The Lord added to the Church daily those\nthat were being saved.' By one offering He hath perfected for ever\nthem that are being sanctified. And in a passage in the Second\nEpistle to the Corinthians, which, in some respects, is an exact\nparallel to that of my text, we read of the preaching of the Gospel\nas being a 'savour of Christ in them that are being saved, and in\nthem that are perishing.'\n\nSo the process of being saved is going on as long as a Christian man\nlives in this world; and every one who professes to be Christ's\nfollower ought, day by day, to be growing more and more saved, more\nfully filled with that Divine Spirit, more entirely the conqueror of\nhis own lusts and passions and evil, more and more invested with all\nthe gifts of holiness and of blessedness which Jesus Christ is ready\nto bestow upon him.\n\nAh, brethren! that notion of a progressive salvation at work in all\ntrue Christians has all but faded away out of the beliefs, as it has\nall but disappeared from the experience, of hosts of you that call\nyourselves Christ's followers, and are not a bit further on than you\nwere ten years ago; are no more healed of your corruptions (perhaps\nless so, for relapses are dangerous) than you were then--have not\nadvanced any further into the depths of God than when you first got a\nglimpse of Him as loving, and your Father, in Jesus Christ--are\ncontented to linger, like some weak band of invaders in a strange\nland, on the borders and coasts, instead of pressing inwards and\nmaking it all your own. Growing Christians--may I venture to\nsay?--are not the majority of professing Christians. And, on the\nother side, as certainly, there are progressive deterioration and\napproximation to disintegration and ruin. How many men there are\nlistening to me now who were far nearer being delivered from their\nsins when they were lads than they have ever been since! How many in\nwhom the sensibility to the message of salvation has disappeared, in\nwhom the world has ossified their consciences and their hearts, in\nwhom there is a more entire and unstruggling submission to low things\nand selfish things and worldly things and wicked things, than there\nused to be! I am sure that there are not a few among us now who were\nfar better, and far happier, when they were poor and young, and could\nstill thrill with generous emotion and tremble at the Word of God,\nthan they are to-day. Why! there are some of you that could no more\nbring back your former loftier impulses, and compunction of spirit\nand throbs of desire towards Christ and His salvation, than you could\nbring back the birds' nests or the snows of your youthful years. You\nare perishing, in the very process of going down and down into the\ndark.\n\nNow, notice, that the Apostle treats these two classes as covering\nthe whole ground of the hearers of the Word, and as alternatives. If\nnot in the one class we are in the other. Ah, brethren! life is no\nlevel plane, but a steep incline, on which there is no standing\nstill, and if you try to stand still, down you go. Either up or down\nmust be the motion. If you are not more of a Christian than you were a\nyear ago, you are less. If you are not more saved--for there is a\ndegree of comparison--if you are not more saved, you are less saved.\n\nNow, do not let that go over your head as pulpit thunder, meaning\nnothing. It means _you_, and, whether you feel or think it or\nnot, one or other of these two solemn developments is at this moment\ngoing on in you. And that is not a thought to be put lightly on one\nside.\n\nFurther, note what a light such considerations as these, that\nsalvation and perishing are vital processes--'going on all the time,'\nas the Americans say--throw upon the future. Clearly the two\nprocesses are incomplete here. You get the direction of the line, but\nnot its natural termination. And thus a heaven and a hell are\ndemanded by the phenomena of growing goodness and of growing badness\nwhich we see round about us. The arc of the circle is partially\nswept. Are the compasses going to stop at the point where the grave\ncomes in? By no means. Round they will go, and will complete the\ncircle. But that is not all. The necessity for progress will persist\nafter death; and all through the duration of immortal being,\ngoodness, blessedness, holiness, Godlikeness, will, on the one hand,\ngrow in brighter lustre; and on the other, alienation from God, loss\nof the noble elements of the nature, and all the other doleful\ndarknesses which attend that conception of a lost man, will increase\nlikewise. And so, two people, sitting side by side here now, may\nstart from the same level, and by the operation of the one principle\nthe one may rise, and rise, and rise, till he is lost in God, and so\nfinds himself, and the other sink, and sink, and sink, into the\nobscurity of woe and evil that lies beneath every human life as a\npossibility.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, notice the determining attitude to the Cross\nwhich settles the class to which we belong.\n\nPaul, in my text, is explaining his reason for not preaching the\nGospel with what he calls 'the words of man's wisdom,' and he says,\nin effect, 'It would be of no use if I did, because what settles\nwhether the Cross shall look \"foolishness\" to a man or not is the\nman's whole moral condition, and what settles whether a man shall\nfind it to be \"the power of God\" or not is whether he has passed into\nthe region of those that are being saved.'\n\nSo there are two thoughts suggested which sound as if they were\nillogically combined, but which yet are both true. It is true that\nmen perish, or are saved, because the Cross is to them respectively\n'foolishness' or 'the power of God'; and the other thing is also\ntrue, that the Cross is to them 'foolishness,' or 'the power of God'\nbecause, respectively, they are perishing or being saved. That is not\nputting the cart before the horse, but both aspects of the truth are\ntrue.\n\nIf you see nothing in Jesus Christ, and His death for us all, except\n'foolishness,' something unfit to do you any good, and unnecessary to\nbe taken into account in your lives--oh, my friends! _that_ is the\ncondemnation of your eyes, and not of the thing you look at. If a\nman, gazing on the sun at twelve o'clock on a June day, says to me,\n'It is not bright,' the only thing I have to say to him is, 'Friend,\nyou had better go to an oculist.' And if to us the Cross is\n'foolishness,' it is because already a process of 'perishing' has\ngone so far that it has attacked our capacity of recognising the\nwisdom and love of God when we see them.\n\nBut, on the other hand, if we clasp that Cross in simple trust, we\nfind that it is the power which saves us out of all sins, sorrows,\nand dangers, and 'shall save us' at last 'into His heavenly kingdom.'\n\nDear friends, that message leaves no man exactly as it found him. My\nwords, I feel, in this sermon, have been very poor, set by the side\nof the greatness of the theme; but, poor as they have been, you will\nnot be exactly the same man after them, if you have listened to them,\nas you were before. The difference may be very imperceptible, but it\nwill be real. One more, almost invisible, film, over the eyeball; one\nmore thin layer of wax in the ear; one more fold of insensibility\nround heart and conscience--or else some yielding to the love; some\nfinger put out to take the salvation; some lightening of the pressure\nof the sickness; some removal of the peril and the danger. The same\nsun hurts diseased eyes, and gladdens sound ones. The same fire melts\nwax and hardens clay. 'This Child is set for the rise and fall of\nmany in Israel.' 'To the one He is the savour of life unto life; to\nthe other He is the savour of death unto death.' _Which_ is He, for\nHe _is_ one of them, to you?\n\n\n\n\nTHE APOSTLE'S THEME\n\n   'I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus\n   Christ, and Him crucified.'--1 COR. ii. 2.\n\n\nMany of you are aware that to-day I close forty years of ministry in\nthis city--I cannot say to this congregation, for there are very,\nvery few that can go back with me in memory to the beginning of these\nyears. You will bear me witness that I seldom intrude personal\nreferences into the pulpit, but perhaps it would be affectation not\nto do so now. Looking back over these long years, many thoughts arise\nwhich cannot be spoken in public. But one thing I may say, and that\nis, that I am grateful to God and to you, dear friends, for the\nunbroken harmony, confidence, affection, and forbearance which have\nbrightened and lightened my work. Of its worth I cannot judge; its\nimperfections I know better than the most unfavourable critic; but I\ncan humbly take the words of this text as expressive, not, indeed, of\nmy attainments, but of my aims. One of my texts, on my first Sunday\nin Manchester, was 'We preach Christ and Him crucified,' and I look\nback, and venture to say that the noble words of this text have been,\nhowever imperfectly followed, my guiding star.\n\nNow, I wish to say a word or two, less personal perhaps, and yet, as\nyou can well suppose, not without a personal reference in my own\nconsciousness.\n\nI. Note here first, then, the Apostolic theme--Jesus Christ and Him\ncrucified.\n\nNow, the Apostle, in this context, gives us a little autobiographical\nglimpse which is singularly and interestingly confirmed by some\nslight incidental notices in the Book of the Acts. He says, in the\ncontext, that he was with the Corinthians 'in weakness and in fear\nand in much trembling,' and, if we turn to the narrative, we find\nthat a singular period of silence, apparent abandonment of his work\nand dejection, seems to have synchronised with his coming to the\ngreat city of Corinth. The reasons were very plain. He had recently\ncome into Europe for the first time and had had to front a new\ncondition of things, very different from what he had found in\nPalestine or in Asia Minor. His experience had not been encouraging.\nHe had been imprisoned in Philippi; he had been smuggled away by\nnight from Thessalonica; he had been hounded from Berea; he had all\nbut wholly failed to make any impression in Athens, and in his\nsolitude he came to Corinth, and lay quiet, and took stock of his\nadversaries. He came to the conclusion which he records in my text;\nhe felt that it was not for him to argue with philosophers, or to\nattempt to vie with Sophists and professional orators, but that his\nonly way to meet Greek civilisation, Greek philosophy, Greek\neloquence, Greek self-conceit, was to preach 'Christ and Him\ncrucified.' The determination was not come to in ignorance of the\nconditions that were fronting him. He knew Corinth, its wealth, its\nwickedness, its culture, and knowing these he said, 'I have made up\nmy mind that I will know nothing amongst you save Jesus Christ and\nHim crucified.'\n\nSo, then, this Apostle's conception of his theme was--the biography\nof a Man, with especial emphasis laid on one act in His history--His\ndeath. Christianity is Christ, and Christ is Christianity. His\nrelation to the truth that He proclaimed, and to the truths that may\nbe deducible from the story of His life and death, is altogether\ndifferent from the relation of any other founder of a religion to the\ntruths that he has proclaimed. For in these you can accept the\nteaching, and ignore the teacher. But you cannot do that with\nChristianity; 'I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life'; and in\nthat revealing biography, which is the preacher's theme, the\npalpitating heart and centre is the death upon the Cross. So,\nwhatever else Christianity comes to be--and it comes to be a great\ndeal else--the principle of its growth, and the germ which must\nvitalise the whole, lie in the personality and the death of Jesus\nChrist.\n\nThat is not all. The history of the life and the death want something\nmore to make them a gospel. The fact, I was going to say, is the\nleast part of the fact; as in some vegetable growths, there is far\nmore underground than above. For, unless along with, involved in, and\ndeducible from, but capable of being stated separately from, the\nexternal facts, there is a certain commentary or explanation of them:\nthe history is a history, the biography is a biography, the story of\nthe Cross is a touching narrative, but it is no gospel.\n\nAnd what was Paul's commentary which lifted the bare facts up into\nthe loftier region? This--as for the person, Jesus Christ 'declared\nto be the son of God with power'--as for the fact of the death, 'died\nfor our sins according to the Scriptures.' Let in these two\nconceptions into the facts--and they are the necessary explanation\nand presupposition of the facts--the Incarnation and the Sacrifice,\nand then you get what Paul calls 'my gospel,' not because it was his\ninvention, but because it was the trust committed to him. That is the\nGospel which alone answers to the facts which he deals with; and that\nis the Gospel which, God helping me, I have for forty years tried to\npreach.\n\nWe hear a great deal at present, or we did a few years ago, about\nthis generation having recovered Jesus Christ, and about the\nnecessity of going 'back to the Christ of the Gospels.' By all means,\nI say, if in the process you do not lose the Christ of the Epistles,\nwho is the Christ of the Gospels, too. I am free to admit that a past\ngeneration has wrapped theological cobwebs round the gracious figure\nof Christ with disastrous results. For it is perfectly possible to\nknow the things that are said about Him, and not to know Him about\nwhom these things are said. But the mistake into which the present\ngeneration is far more likely to fall than that of substituting\ntheology for Christ, is the converse one--that of substituting an\nundefined Christ for the Christ of the Gospels and the Epistles, the\nIncarnate Son of God, who died for our salvation. And that is a more\ndisastrous mistake than the other, for you can know nothing about Him\nand He can be nothing to you, except as you grasp the Apostolic\nexplanation of the bare facts--seeing in Him the Word who became\nflesh, the Son who died that we might receive the adoption of sons.\n\nI would further point out that a clear conception of what the theme\nis, goes a long way to determine the method in which it shall be\nproclaimed. The Apostle says, in the passage which is parallel to the\npresent one, in the previous chapter, 'We preach Christ crucified';\nwith strong emphasis on the word 'preach.' 'The Jew required a sign';\nhe wanted a man who would do something. The Greek sought after\nwisdom; he wanted a man who would perorate and argue and dissertate.\nPaul says, 'No!' 'We have nothing to _do_. We do not come to\nphilosophise and to argue. We come with a message of fact that has\noccurred, of a Person that has lived.' And, as most of you know, the\nword which he uses means in its full signification, 'to proclaim as a\nherald does.'\n\nOf course, if my business were to establish a set of principles,\ntheological or otherwise, then argumentation would be my weapon,\nproofs would be my means, and my success would be that I should win\nyour credence, your intellectual consent, and conviction. If I were\nhere to proclaim simply a morality, then the thing that I would aim\nto secure would be obedience, and the method of securing it would be\nto enforce the authority and reasonableness of the command. But,\nseeing that my task is to proclaim a living Person and a historical\nfact, then the way to do that is to do as the herald does when in the\nmarket-place he stands, trumpet in one hand and the King's message in\nthe other--proclaim it loudly, confidently, not 'with bated breath\nand whispering humbleness,' as if apologising, nor too much concerned\nto buttress it up with argumentation out of his own head, but to say,\n'Thus saith the Lord,' and to what the Lord saith conscience says,\n'Amen.' Brethren, we need far more, in all our pulpits, of that\nunhesitating confidence in the plain, simple proclamation, stripped,\nas far as possible, of human additions and accretions, of the great\nfact and the great Person on whom all our salvation depends.\n\nII. So let me ask you to notice the exclusiveness which this theme\ndemands.\n\n'Nothing but,' says Paul. I might venture to say--though perhaps the\ntone of the personal allusions in this sermon may seem to contradict\nit--that this exclusiveness is to be manifested in one very difficult\ndirection, and that that is, the herald shall efface himself. We have\nto hold up the picture; and if I might take such a metaphor, like a\nman in a gallery who is displaying some masterpiece to the eyes of\nthe beholders, we have to keep ourselves well behind it; and it will\nbe wise if not even a finger-tip is allowed to steal in front and\ncome into sight. One condition, I believe, of real power in the\nministration of the Gospel, is that people shall be convinced that\nthe preacher is thinking not at all about himself, but altogether\nabout his message. You remember that wonderfully pathetic utterance\nfrom John the Baptist's stern lips, which derives much additional\npathos and tenderness from the character of the man from whom it\ncame, when they asked him, 'Who art thou?' and his answer was, 'I am\na Voice.' I am a Voice; that is all! Ah, that is the example! We\npreach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord. We must efface\nourselves if we would proclaim Christ.\n\nBut I turn to another direction in which this theme demands\nexclusiveness, and I revert to the previous chapter where in the\nparallel portion to the words of my text, we find the Apostle very\nclearly conscious of the two great streams of expectation and wish\nwhich he deliberately thwarted and set at nought. 'The Jews require a\nsign--but we preach Christ crucified. The Greeks seek after wisdom,'\nbut again, 'we preach Christ crucified.' Now, take these two. They\nare representations, in a very emphatic way, of two sets of desires\nand mental characteristics, which divide the world between them.\n\nOn the one hand, there is the sensuous tendency that wants something\ndone for it, something to see, something that sense can grasp at; and\nso, as it fancies, work itself upwards into a higher region. 'The Jew\nrequires a sign'--that is, not merely a miracle, but something to\nlook at. He wants a visible sacrifice; he wants a priest. He wants\nreligion to consist largely in the doing of certain acts which may be\nsupposed to bring, in some magical fashion, spiritual blessings. And\nPaul opposes to that, 'We preach Christ crucified.' Brethren, the\ntendency is strong to-day, not only in those parts of the Anglican\ncommunion where sacramentarian theories are in favour, but amongst\nall sections of the Christian Church, in which there is obvious a\ndrift towards more ornate ritual, and aesthetic services, as means of\nattracting to church or chapel, and as more important than\nproclaiming Christ. I am free to confess that possibly some of us,\nwith our Puritan upbringing and tendency, too much disregard that\nside of human nature. Possibly it is so. But for all that I\nprofoundly believe that if religion is to be strong it must have a\nvery, very small infusion of these external aids to spiritual\nworship, and that few things more weaken the power of the Gospel that\nPaul preached than the lowering of the flag in conformity with\ndesires of men of sense, and substituting for the simple glory of the\npreached Word the meretricious, and in time impotent, and always\ncorrupting, attractions of a sensuous worship.\n\nFurther, 'The Greeks seek after wisdom.' They wanted demonstration,\nabstract principles, systematised philosophies, and the like. Paul\ncomes again with his 'We preach Christ and Him crucified.' The wisdom\nis there, as I shall have to say in a moment, but the form that it\ntakes is directly antagonistic to the wishes of these wisdom-seeking\nGreeks. The same thing in modern guise besets us to-day. We are\ncalled upon, on all sides, to bring into the pulpit what they call an\nethical gospel; putting it into plain English, to preach morality,\nand to leave out Christ. We are called upon, on all sides, to preach\nan applied Christianity, a social gospel--that is to say, largely to\nturn the pulpit into a Sunday supplement to the daily newspaper. We\nare asked to deal with the intellectual difficulties which spring\nfrom the collision of science, true or false, with religion, and the\nlike. All that is right enough. But I believe from my heart that the\nthing to do is to copy Paul's example, and to preach Christ and Him\ncrucified. You may think me right or you may think me wrong, but here\nand now, at the end of forty years, I should like to say that I have\nfor the most part ignored that class of subjects deliberately, and of\nset purpose, and with a profound conviction, be it erroneous or not,\nthat a ministry which listens much to the cry for 'wisdom' in its\nmodern forms, has departed from the true perspective of Christian\nteaching, and will weaken the churches which depend upon it. Let who\nwill turn the pulpit into a professor's chair, or a lecturer's\nplatform, or a concert-room stage or a politician's rostrum, I for\none determine to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him\ncrucified.\n\nIII. Lastly, observe the all-sufficient comprehensiveness which this\ntheme secures.\n\nPaul says 'nothing but'; he might have said 'everything in.' For\n'Jesus Christ and Him crucified' covers all the ground of men's\nneeds. No doubt many of you will have been saying to yourselves\nwhilst you have been listening, if you have been listening, to what I\nhave been saying, 'Ah! old-fashioned narrowness; quite out of date in\nthis generation.' Brethren, there are two ways of adapting one's\nministry to the times. One is falling in with the requirements of the\ntimes, and the other is going dead against them, and both of these\nmethods have to be pursued by us.\n\nBut the exclusiveness of which I have been speaking, is no narrow\nexclusiveness. Paul felt that, if he was to give the Corinthians what\nthey needed, he must refuse to give them what they wanted, and that\nwhilst he crossed their wishes he was consulting their necessities.\nThat is true yet, for the preaching that bases itself upon the life\nand death of Jesus Christ, conceived as Paul had learned from Jesus\nChrist to conceive them, that Gospel, whilst it brushes aside men's\nsuperficial wishes, goes straight to the heart of their deep-lying\nuniversal necessities, for what the Jew needs most is not a sign, and\nwhat the Greek needs most is not wisdom, but what they both need most\nis deliverance from the guilt and power of sin. And we all, scholars\nand fools, poets and common-place people, artists and ploughmen, all\nof us, in all conditions of life, in all varieties of culture, in all\nstages of intellectual development, in all diversities of occupation\nand of mental bias, what we all have in common is that human heart in\nwhich sin abides, and what we all need most to have is that evil drop\nsqueezed out of it, and our souls delivered from the burden and the\nbondage. Therefore, any man that comes with a sign, and does not deal\nwith the sin of the human heart, and any man that comes with a\nphilosophical system of wisdom, and does not deal with sin, does not\nbring a Gospel that will meet the necessities even of the people to\nwhose cravings he has been aiming to adapt his message.\n\nBut, beyond that, in this message of Christ and Him crucified, there\nlies in germ the satisfaction of all that is legitimate in these\ndesires that at first sight it seems to thwart. 'A sign?' Yes, and\nwhere is there power like the power that dwells in Him who is the\nIncarnate might of omnipotence? 'Wisdom?' Yes, and where is there\nwisdom, except 'in Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom\nand knowledge'? Let the Jew come to the Cross, and in the weak Man\nhanging there, he will find a mightier revelation of the power of God\nthan anywhere else. Let the Greek come to the Cross, and there he\nwill find wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption.\nThe bases of all social, economical, political reform and well-being,\nlie in the understanding and the application to social and national\nlife, of the principles that are wrapped in, and are deduced from,\nthe Incarnation and the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We have not\nlearned them all yet. They have not all been applied to national and\nindividual life yet. I plead for no narrow exclusiveness, but for one\nconsistent with the widest application of Christian principles to all\nlife. Paul determined to know nothing but Jesus, and to know\neverything in Jesus, and Jesus in everything. Do not begin your\nbuilding at the second-floor windows. Put in your foundations first,\nand be sure that they are well laid. Let the Sacrifice of Christ, in\nits application to the individual and his sins, be ever the basis of\nall that you say. And then, when that foundation is laid, exhibit, to\nyour heart's content, the applications of Christianity and its social\naspects. But be sure that the beginning of them all is the work of\nChrist for the individual sinful soul, and the acceptance of that\nwork by personal faith.\n\nDear friends, ours has been a long and happy union but it is a very\nsolemn one. My responsibilities are great; yours are not small. Let\nme beseech you to ask yourselves if, with all your kindness to the\nmessenger, you have given heed to the message. Have you passed beyond\nthe voice that speaks, to Him of whom it speaks? Have you taken the\ntruth--veiled and weakened as I know it has been by my words, but yet\nin them--for what it is, the word of the living God? My occupancy of\nthis pulpit must in the nature of things, before long, come to a\nclose, but the message which I have brought to you will survive all\nchanges in the voice that speaks here. 'All flesh is grass ... the\nWord of the Lord endureth for ever.' And, closing these forty years,\nduring a long part of which some of you have listened most lovingly\nand most forbearingly, I leave with you this, which I venture to\nquote, though it is my Master's word about Himself, 'I judge you not;\nthe word which I have spoken unto you, the same shall judge you in\nthe last day.'\n\n\n\n\nGOD'S FELLOW-WORKERS\n\n   'Labourers together with God.'--1 COR. iii. 9.\n\n\nThe characteristic Greek tendency to factions was threatening to rend\nthe Corinthian Church, and each faction was swearing by a favourite\nteacher. Paul and his companion, Apollos, had been taken as the\nfigureheads of two of these parties, and so he sets himself in the\ncontext, first of all to show that neither of the two was of any real\nimportance in regard to the Church's life. They were like a couple of\ngardeners, one of whom did the planting, and the other the watering;\nbut neither the man that put the little plant into the ground, nor\nthe man that came after him with a watering-pot, had anything to do\nwith originating the mystery of the life by which the plant grew.\nThat was God's work, and the pair that had planted and watered were\nnothing. So what was the use of fighting which of two nothings was\nthe greater?\n\nBut then he bethinks himself that that is not quite all. The man that\nplants and the man that waters are something after all. They do not\ncommunicate life, but they do provide for its nourishment. And more\nthan that, the two operations--that of the man with the dibble and\nthat of the man with the watering-pot--are one in issue; and so they\nare partners, and in some respects may be regarded as one. Then what\nis the sense of pitting them against each other?\n\nBut even that is not quite all; though united in operation, they are\nseparate in responsibility and activity, and will be separate in\nreward. And even that is not all; for, being nothing and yet\nsomething, being united and yet separate, they are taken into\nparticipation and co-operation with God; and as my text puts it, in\nwhat is almost a presumptuous phrase, they are 'labourers together\nwith Him.' That partnership of co-operation is not merely a\npartnership of the two, but it is a partnership of the three--God and\nthe two who, in some senses, are one.\n\nNow whilst this text is primarily spoken in regard to the apostolic\nand evangelistic work of these early teachers, the principle which it\nembodies is a very wide one, and it applies in all regions of life\nand activity, intellectual, scholastic, philanthropic, social.\nWhere-ever men are thinking God's thoughts and trying to carry into\neffect any phase or side of God's manifold purposes of good and\nblessing to the world, there it is true. We claim no special or\nexclusive prerogative for the Christian teacher. Every man that is\ntrying to make men understand God's thought, whether it is expressed\nin creation, or whether it is written in history, or whether it is\ncarven in half-obliterated letters on the constitution of human\nnature, every man who, in any region of society or life, is seeking\nto effect the great designs of the universal loving Father--can take\nto himself, in the measure and according to the manner of his special\nactivity, the great encouragement of my text, and feel that he, too,\nin his little way, is a fellow-helper to the truth and a\nfellow-worker with God. But then, of course, according to New\nTestament teaching, and according to the realities of the case, the\nhighest form in which men thus can co-operate with God, and carry\ninto effect His purposes is that in which men devote themselves,\neither directly or indirectly, to spreading throughout the whole\nworld the name and the power of the Saviour Jesus Christ, in whom all\nGod's will is gathered, and through whom all God's blessings are\ncommunicated to mankind. So the thought of my text comes\nappropriately when I have to bring before you the claims of our\nmissionary operations.\n\nNow, the first way in which I desire to look at this great idea\nexpressed in these words, is that we find in it\n\nI. A solemn thought.\n\n'Labourers together with God.' Cannot He do it all Himself? No. God\nneeds men to carry out His purposes. True, on the Cross, Jesus spoke\nthe triumphant word, 'It is finished!' He did not thereby simply mean\nthat He had completed all His suffering; but He meant that He had\nthen done all which the world needed to have done in order that it\nshould be a redeemed world. But for the distribution and application\nof that finished work God depends on men. You all know, in your own\ndaily businesses, how there must be a middleman between the mill and\nthe consumer. The question of organising a distributing agency is\nquite as important as any other part of the manufacturer's business.\nThe great reservoir is full, but there has to be a system of\nirrigating-channels by which the water is carried into every corner\nof the field that is to be watered. Christian men individually, and\nthe Church collectively, supply--may I call it the missing\nlink?--between a redeeming Saviour and the world which He has\nredeemed in act, but which is not actually redeemed, until it has\nreceived the message of the great Redemption that is wrought. The\nsupernatural is implanted in the very heart of the mass of leaven by\nthe Incarnation and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ; but the spreading of\nthat supernatural revelation is left in the hands of men who work\nthrough natural processes, and who thus become labourers together\nwith God, and enable Christ to be to single souls, in blessed\nreality, what He is potentially to the world, and has been ever\nsince. He died upon the Cross. 'It is finished.' Yes--because it is\nfinished, our work begins.\n\nLet me remind you of the profound symbolism in that incident where\nour Lord for once appeared conspicuously, and almost ostentatiously,\nbefore Israel as its true King. He had need--as He Himself said--of\nthe meek beast on which He rode. He cannot pass, in His coronation\nprocession, through the world unless He has us, by whom He may be\ncarried into every corner of the earth. So 'the Lord has need' of us,\nand we are 'fellow-labourers with Him.'\n\nBut this same thought suggests another point. We have here a solemn\ncall addressed to every Christian man and woman.\n\nDo not let us run away with the idea that, because here the Apostle\nis speaking in regard to himself and Apollos, he is enunciating a\ntruth which applies only to Apostles and evangelists. It is true of\nall Christians. My knowledge of and faith in Jesus Christ as my own\npersonal Saviour impose upon me the obligation, in so far as my\nopportunities and capacities extend, thus to co-operate with Him in\nspreading His great Name. Every Christian man, just because he is a\nChristian, is invested with the power--and power to its last particle\nis duty--and is, therefore, burdened with the honourable obligation\nto work for God. There is such a thing as 'coming to the help of the\nLord,' though that phrase seems to reverse altogether the true\nrelation. It is the duty of every Christian, partly because of\nloyalty to Jesus, and partly because of the responsibility which the\nvery constitution of society lays upon every one of us, to diffuse\nwhat he possesses, and to be a distributing agent for the life that\nhe himself enjoys. Brethren! there is no possibility of Christian men\nor women being fully faithful to the Saviour, unless they recognise\nthat the duty of being a fellow-labourer with God inevitably follows\non being a possessor of Christ's salvation; and that no Apostle, no\nofficial, no minister, no missionary, has any more necessity laid\nupon him to preach the Gospel, nor pulls down any heavier woe on\nhimself if he is unfaithful, than has and does each one of Christ's\nservants.\n\nSo 'we are fellow-labourers with God.' Alas! alas! how poorly the\naverage Christian realises--I do not say discharges, but\nrealises--that obligation! Brethren, I do not wish to find fault, but\nI do beseech you to ask yourselves whether, if you are Christians,\nyou are doing anything the least like what my text contemplates as\nthe duty of all Christians.\n\nMay I say a word or two with regard to another aspect of this solemn\ncall? Does not the thought of working along with God prescribe for us\nthe sort of work that we ought to do? We ought to work in God's\nfashion, and if we wish to know what God's fashion is, we have but to\nlook at Jesus Christ. We ought to work in Jesus Christ's fashion. We\nall know what that involved of self-sacrifice, of pain, of weariness,\nof utter self-oblivious devotion, of gentleness, of tenderness,\nof infinite pity, of love running over. 'The master's eye makes a good\nservant.' The Master's hand working along with the servant ought to\nmake the servant work after the Master's fashion. 'As My Father hath\nsent Me, so send I you.' If we felt that side by side with us, like\ntwo sailors hauling on one rope, 'the Servant of the Lord' was\ntoiling, do you not think it would burn up all our selfishness, and\nlight up all our indifference, and make us spend ourselves in His\nservice? A fellow-labourer with God will surely never be lazy and\nselfish. Thus my text has in it, to begin with, a solemn call.\n\nIt suggests\n\nII. A signal honour.\n\nSuppose a great painter, a Raphael or a Turner, taking a little boy\nthat cleaned his brushes, and saying to him, 'Come into my studio,\nand I will let you do a bit of work upon my picture.' Suppose an\naspirant, an apprentice in any walk of life, honoured by being\npermitted to work along with some one who was recognised all over the\nworld as being at the very top of that special profession. Would it\nnot be a feather in the boy's cap all his life? And would he not\nthink it the greatest honour that ever had been done him that he was\nallowed to co-operate, in however inferior a fashion, with such an\none? Jesus Christ says to us, 'Come and work here side by side with\nMe,' But Christian men, plenty of them, answer, 'It is a perpetual\nnuisance, this continual application for money! money! money! work!\nwork! work! It is never-ending, and it is a burden!' Yes, it is a\nburden, just because it is an honour. Do you know that the Hebrew\nword which means 'glory' literally means 'weight'? There is a great\ntruth in that. You cannot get true honours unless you are prepared to\ncarry them as burdens. And the highest honour that Jesus Christ gives\nto men when He says to them, not only 'Go work to-day in My\nvineyard,' but 'Come, work here side by side with Me,' is a heavy\nweight which can only be lightened by a cheerful heart.\n\nIs it not the right way to look at all the various forms of Christian\nactivity which are made imperative upon Christian people, by their\npossession of Christianity as being tokens of Christ's love to us? Do\nyou remember that this same Apostle said, 'Unto me who am less than\nthe least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach the\nunsearchable riches of Christ?' He could speak about burdens and\nheavy tasks, and being 'persecuted but not forsaken,' almost crushed\ndown and yet not in despair, and about the weights that came upon him\ndaily, 'the care of all the churches,' but far beneath all the sense\nof his heavy load lay the thrill of thankful wonder that to him, of\nall men in the world, knowing as he did better than anybody else\ncould do his own imperfection and insufficiency, this distinguishing\nhonour had been bestowed, that he was made the Apostle to the\nGentiles. That is the way in which the true man will always look at\nwhat the selfish man, and the half-and-half Christian, look at as\nbeing a weight and a weariness, or a disagreeable duty, which is to\nbe done as perfunctorily as possible. One question that a great many\nwho call themselves Christians ask is, 'With how little service can I\npass muster?' Ah, it is because we have so little of the Spirit of\nChrist in us that we feel burdened by His command, 'Go ye into all\nthe world,' as being so heavy; and that so many of us--I leave you to\njudge if you are in the class--so many of us make it criminally light\nif we do not ignore it altogether. I believe that, if it were\npossible to conceive of the duty and privilege of spreading Christ's\nname in the world being withdrawn from the Church, all His real\nservants would soon be yearning to have it back again. It is a token\nof His love; it is a source of infinite blessings to ourselves; 'if\nthe house be not worthy, your peace shall return to you again.'\n\nAnd now, lastly, we have suggested by this text\n\nIII. A strong encouragement.\n\n'Fellow-labourers with God'--then, God is a Fellow-labourer with us.\nThe co-operation works both ways, and no man who is seeking to spread\nthat great salvation, to distribute that great wealth, to irrigate\nsome little corner of the field by some little channel that he has\ndug, needs to feel that he is labouring alone. If I am working\nwith God, God is working with me. Do you remember that most striking\npicture which is drawn in the verses appended to Mark's Gospel, which\ntells how the universe seemed parted into two halves, and up above in\nthe serene the Lord 'sat on the right hand of God,' while below, in\nthe murky and obscure, 'they went everywhere preaching the Word.' The\nseparation seems complete, but the two halves are brought together by\nthe next word--'The Lord also,' sitting up yonder, 'working with\nthem' the wandering preachers down here, 'confirming the words with\nsigns following.' Ascended on high, entered into His rest, having\nfinished His work, He yet is working with us, if we are labourers\ntogether with God. If we turn to the last book of Scripture, which\ndraws back the curtain from the invisible world which is all filled\nwith the glorified Christ, and shows its relations to the earthly\nmilitant church, we read no longer of a Christ enthroned in apparent\nease, but of a Christ walking amidst the candlesticks, and of a Lamb\nstanding in the midst of the Throne, and opening the seals, launching\nforth into the world the sequences of the world's history, and of the\nWord of God charging His enemies on His white horse, and behind Him\nthe armies of God following. The workers who labour with God have the\nascended Christ labouring with them.\n\nBut if God works with us, success is sure. Then comes the old\nquestion that Gideon asked with bitterness of heart, when he was\nthreshing out his handful of wheat in a corner to avoid the\noppressors, 'If the Lord be with us, wherefore is all this come upon\nus? Will any one say that the progress of the Gospel in the world has\nbeen at the rate which its early believers expected, or at the rate\nwhich its own powers warranted them to expect? Certainly not. And so\nit comes to this, that whilst every true labourer has God working\nwith him, and therefore success is certain, the planter and the\nwaterer can delay the growth of the plant by their unfaithfulness, by\nnot expecting success, by not so working as to make it likely, or by\nneutralising their evangelistic efforts by their worldly lives. When\nJesus Christ was on earth, it is recorded, 'He could there do no\nmighty works because of their unbelief, save that He laid His hands\non a few sick folk and healed them.' A faithless Church, a worldly\nChurch, a lazy Church, an unspiritual Church, an un-Christlike\nChurch--which, to a large extent, is the designation of the so-called\nChurch of to day--can clog His chariot-wheels, can thwart the work,\ncan hamper the Divine Worker. If the Christians of Manchester were\nrevived, they could win Manchester for Jesus. If the Christians of\nEngland lived their Christianity, they could make England what it\nnever has been but in name--a Christian country. If the Church\nuniversal were revived, it could win the world. If the single\nlabourer, or the community of such, is labouring 'in the Lord,' their\nlabour will not be in vain; and if they thus plant and water, God\nwill give the increase.\n\n\n\nTHE TESTING FIRE\n\n   'Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver,\n   precious stones, wood, hay, stubble: 13. Every man's work\n   shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it,\n   because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall\n   try every man's work of what sort it is.'--1 COR. iii. 12, 13.\n\n\nBefore I enter upon the ideas which the words suggest, my exegetical\nconscience binds me to point out that the original application of the\ntext is not exactly that which I purpose to make of it now. The\ncontext shows that the Apostle is thinking about the special subject\nof Christian teachers and their work, and that the builders of whom\nhe speaks are the men in the Corinthian Church, some of them his\nallies and some of them his rivals, who were superimposing upon the\nfoundation of the preaching of Jesus Christ other doctrines and\nprinciples. The 'wood, hay, stubble' are the vapid and trivial\ndoctrines which the false teachers were introducing into the Church.\nThe 'gold, silver, and precious stones' are the solid and substantial\nverities which Paul and his friends were proclaiming. And it is about\nthese, and not about the Christian life in the general, that the\ntremendous metaphors of my text are uttered.\n\nBut whilst that is true, the principles involved have a much wider\nrange than the one case to which the Apostle applies them. And,\nthough I may be slightly deflecting the text from its original\ndirection, I am not doing violence to it, if I take it as declaring\nsome very plain and solemn truths applicable to all Christian people,\nin their task of building up a life and character on the foundation\nof Jesus Christ; truths which are a great deal too much forgotten in\nour modern popular Christianity, and which it concerns us all very\nclearly to keep in view. There are three things here that I wish to\nsay a word about--the patchwork building, the testing fire, the fate\nof the builders.\n\nI. First, the patchwork structure.\n\n'If any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones,\nwood, hay, stubble.' In the original application of the metaphor,\nPaul is thinking of all these teachers in that church at Corinth as\nbeing engaged in building the one structure--I venture to deflect\nhere, and to regard each of us as rearing our own structure of life\nand character on the foundation of the preached and accepted Christ.\n\nNow, what the Apostle says is that these builders were, some of them,\nlaying valuable things like gold and silver and costly stones--by\nwhich he does not mean jewels, but marbles, alabasters, polished\nporphyry or granite, and the like; sumptuous building materials,\nwhich were employed in great palaces or temples--and that some of\nthem were bringing timber, hay, stubble, reeds gathered from the\nmarshes or the like, and filling in with such trash as that. That is\na picture of what a great many Christian people are doing in their\nown lives--the same man building one course of squared and solid and\nprecious stones, and topping them with rubbish. You will see in the\nwalls of Jerusalem, at the base, five or six courses of those massive\nblocks which are the wonders of the world yet; well jointed, well\nlaid, well cemented, and then on the top of them a mass of poor\nstuff, heaped together anyhow; scamped work--may I use a modern\nvulgarism?--'jerry-building.' You may go to some modern village, on\nan ancient historic site, and you will find built into the mud walls\nof the hovels in which the people are living, a marble slab with fair\ncarving on it, or the drum of a great column of veined marble, and on\nthe top of that, timber and clay mixed together.\n\nThat is the type of the sort of life that hosts of Christian people\nare living. For, mark, all the builders are on the foundation. Paul\nis not speaking about mere professed Christians who had no faith at\nall in them, and no real union with Jesus Christ. These builders were\n'on the foundation'; they were building on the foundation, there was\na principle deep down in their lives--which really lay at the bottom\nof their lives--and yet had not come to such dominating power as to\nmould and purify and make harmonious with itself the life that was\nreared upon it. We all know that that is the condition of many men,\nthat they have what really are the fundamental bases of their lives,\nin belief and aim and direction; and which yet are not strong enough\nto master the whole of the life, and to manifest themselves through\nit. Especially it is the condition of some Christian people. They\nhave a real faith, but it is of the feeblest and most rudimentary\nkind. They are on the foundation, but their lives are interlaced with\nthe most heterogeneous mixty-maxty of good and evil, of lofty, high,\nself-sacrificing thoughts and heavenward aspirations, of resolutions\nnever carried out into practice; and side by side with these there\nshall be meannesses, selfishnesses, tempers, dispositions all\ncontradictory of the former impulses. One moment they are all fire\nand love, the next moment ice and selfishness. One day they are all\nfor God, the next day all for the world, the flesh, and the devil.\nJacob sees the open heavens and the face of God and vows; to-morrow\nhe meets Laban and drops to shifty ways. Peter leaves all and follows\nhis Master, and in a little while the fervour has gone, and the fire\nhas died down into grey ashes, and a flippant servant-girl's tongue\nleads him to say 'I know not the man.' 'Gold, silver, precious\nstones,' and topping them, 'wood, hay, stubble!'\n\nThe inconsistencies of the Christian life are what my text, in the\napplication that I am venturing to make of it, suggests to us. Ah,\ndear friends! we do not need to go to Jacob and Peter; let us look at\nour own hearts, and if we will honestly examine one day of our lives,\nI think we shall understand how it is possible for a man, on the\nfoundation, yet to build upon it these worthless and combustible\nthings, 'wood, hay, stubble.'\n\nWe are not to suppose that one man builds _only_ 'gold, silver,\nprecious stones.' There is none of us that does that. And we are not\nto suppose that any man who _is_ on the foundations has so little\ngrasp of it, as that he builds _only_ 'wood, hay, stubble.'\n\nThere is none of us who has not intermingled his building, and there\nis none of us, if we are Christians at all, who has not sometimes\nlaid a course of 'precious stones.' If your faith is doing _nothing_\nfor you except bringing to you a belief that you are not going to\nhell when you die, then it is no faith at all. 'Faith without works\nis dead.' So there is a mingling in the best, and--thank God!--there\nis a mingling of good with evil, in the worst of real Christian\npeople.\n\nII. Note here, the testing fire.\n\nPaul points to two things, the day and the fire.\n\n'The day shall declare it,' that is the day on which Jesus Christ\ncomes to be the Judge; and it, that is 'the day,' 'shall be revealed\nin fire; and the fire shall test every man's work.' Now, it is to be\nnoticed that here we are moving altogether in the region of lofty\nsymbolism, and that the metaphor of the testing fire is suggested by\nthe previous enumeration of building materials, gold and silver being\ncapable of being assayed by flame; and 'wood, hay, stubble' being\ncombustible, and sure to be destroyed thereby. The fire here is not\nan emblem of punishment; it is not an emblem of cleansing. There is\nno reference to anything in the nature of what Roman Catholics call\npurgatorial fires. The allusion is simply to some stringent and\nsearching means of testing the quality of a man's work, and of\nrevealing that quality.\n\nSo then, we come just to this, that for people 'on the foundation,'\nthere is a Day of revelation and testing of their life's work. It is\na great misfortune that so-called Evangelical Christianity does not\nsay as much as the New Testament says about the judgment that is to\nbe passed on 'the house of God.' People seem to think that the great\ndoctrine of salvation, 'not by works of righteousness which we have\ndone, but by His mercy,' is, somehow or other, interfered with when\nwe proclaim, as Paul proclaims, speaking to Christian people, 'We\nmust be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ,' and declares\nthat 'Every man will receive the things done in his body, according\nto that he has done, whether it be good or bad.' Paul saw no\ncontradiction, and there is no contradiction. But a great many\nprofessing Christians seem to think that the great blessing of their\nsalvation by faith is, that they are exempt from that future\nrevelation and testing and judgment of their acts. That is not the\nNew Testament teaching. But, on the contrary, 'Whatsoever a man\nsoweth that shall he also reap,' was originally said to a church of\nChristian people. And here we come full front against that solemn\ntruth, that the Lord will 'gather together His saints, those that\nhave made a covenant with Him by sacrifice, that He may judge His\npeople.' Never mind about the drapery, the symbolism, the expression\nin material forms with which that future judgment is arranged, in\norder that we may the more easily grasp it. Remember that these\npictures in the New Testament of a future judgment are highly\nsymbolical, and not to be interpreted as if they were plain prose;\nbut also remember that the heart of them is this, that there comes\nfor Christian people as for all others, a time when the light will\nshine down upon their past, and will flash its rays into the dark\nchambers of memory, and when men will--to themselves if not to\nothers--be revealed 'in the day when the Lord shall judge the secrets\nof men according to my Gospel.'\n\nWe have all experience enough of how but a few years, a change of\ncircumstances, or a growth into another stage of development, give us\nfresh eyes with which to estimate the moral quality of our past. Many\na thing, which we thought to be all right at the time when we did it,\nlooks to us now very questionable and a plain mistake. And when we\nshift our stations to up yonder, and get rid of all this blinding\nmedium of flesh and sense, and have the issues of our acts in our\npossession, and before our sight--ah! we shall think very differently\nof a great many things from what we think of them now. Judgment will\nbegin at the house of God.\n\nAnd there is the other thought, that the fire which reveals and tests\nhas also in it a power of destruction. Gold and silver will lose no\natom of their weight, and will be brightened into greater lustre as\nthey flash back the beams. The timber and the stubble will go up in a\nflare, and die down into black ashes. That is highly metaphorical, of\ncourse. What does it mean? It means that some men's work will be\ncrumpled up and perish, and be as of none effect, leaving a great,\nblack sorrowful gap in the continuity of the structure, and that\nother men's work will stand. Everything that we do is, in one sense,\nimmortal, because it is represented in our final character and\ncondition, just as a thin stratum of rock will represent forests of\nferns that grew for one summer millenniums ago, or clouds of insects\nthat danced for an hour in the sun. But whilst that is so, and\nnothing human ever dies, on the other hand, deeds which have been in\naccordance, as it were, with the great stream that sweeps the\nuniverse on its bosom will float on that surface and never sink. Acts\nwhich have gone against the rush of God's will through creation will\nbe like a child's go-cart that comes against the engine of an express\ntrain--be reduced, first, to stillness, all the motion knocked out of\nthem, and then will be crushed to atoms. Deeds which stand the test\nwill abide in blessed issue for the doer, and deeds which do not will\npass away in smoke, and leave only ashes. Some of us, building on the\nfoundation, have built more rubbish than solid work, and that will be\n\n  'Cast as rubbish to the void\n  When God has made the pile complete.'\n\nIII. So, lastly, we have here the fate of the two builders.\n\nThe one man gets wages. That is not the bare notion of salvation, for\nboth builders are conceived of as on the foundation, and both are\nsaved. He gets wages. Yes, of course! The architect has to give his\ncertificate before the builder gets his cheque. The weaver, who has\nbeen working his hand-loom at his own house, has to take his web to\nthe counting-house and have it overlooked before he gets his pay. And\nthe man who has built 'gold, silver, precious stones,' will\nhave--over and above the initial salvation--in himself the blessed\nconsequences, and unfold the large results, of his faithful service;\nwhile the other man, inasmuch as he has not such work, cannot have\nthe consequences of it, and gets no wages; or at least his pay is\nsubject to heavy deductions for the spoiled bits in the cloth, and\nfor the gaps in the wall.\n\nThe Apostle employs a tremendous metaphor here, which is masked in\nour Authorised Version, but is restored in the Revised. 'He shall be\nsaved, yet so as' (not 'by' but) 'through fire'; the picture being\nthat of a man surrounded by a conflagration, and making a rush\nthrough the flames to get to a place of safety. Paul says that he\nwill get through, because down _below_ all inconsistency and\nworldliness, there was a little of that which ought to have been\n_above_ all the inconsistency and the worldliness--a true faith\nin Jesus Christ. But because it was so imperfect, so feeble, so\nlittle operative in his life as that it could not keep him from\npiling up inconsistencies into his wall, therefore his salvation is\nso as through the fire.\n\nBrethren, I dare not enlarge upon that great metaphor. It is meant\nfor us professing Christians, real and imperfect Christians--it is\nmeant for us; and it just tells us that there are degrees in that\nfuture blessedness proportioned to present faithfulness. We begin\nthere where we left off here. That future is not a dead level; and\nthey who have earnestly striven to work out their faith into their\nlives shall 'summer high upon the hills of God.' One man, like Paul\nin his shipwreck, shall lose ship and lading, though 'on broken\npieces of the ship' he may 'escape safe to land'; and another shall\nmake the harbour with full cargo of works of faith, to be turned into\ngold when he lands. If we build, as we all may, 'on that foundation,\ngold and silver and precious stones,' an entrance 'shall be\nministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our\nLord and Saviour Jesus Christ'; whilst if we bring a preponderance of\n'wood, hay, stubble,' we shall be 'saved, yet so as through the\nfire.'\n\n\n\n\nTEMPLES OF GOD\n\n   'Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?'--1 COR. iii. 16\n\n\nThe great purpose of Christianity is to make men like Jesus Christ.\nAs He is the image of the invisible God we are to be the images of\nthe unseen Christ. The Scripture is very bold and emphatic in\nattributing to Christ's followers likeness to Him, in nature, in\ncharacter, in relation to the world, in office, and in ultimate\ndestiny. Is He the anointed of God? We are anointed--Christs in Him.\nIs He the Son of God? We in Him receive the adoption of sons. Is He\nthe Light of the world? We in Him are lights of the world too. Is He\na King? A Priest? He hath made us to be kings and priests.\n\nHere we have the Apostle making the same solemn assertion in regard\nto Christian men, 'Know ye not that ye are'--as your Master, and\nbecause your Master is--'that ye are the temple of God, and that the\nSpirit of God dwelleth in you?'\n\nOf course the allusion in my text is to the whole aggregate of\nbelievers--what we call the Catholic Church, as being collectively\nthe habitation of God. But God cannot dwell in an aggregate of men,\nunless He dwells in the individuals that compose the aggregate.\nAnd God has nothing to do with institutions except through the people\nwho make the institutions. And so, if the Church as a whole is a\nTemple, it is only because all its members are temples of God.\n\nTherefore, without forgetting the great blessed lesson of the unity\nof the Church which is taught in these words, I want rather to deal\nwith them in their individual application now; and to try and lay\nupon your consciences, dear brethren, the solemn obligations and the\nintense practical power which this Apostle associated with the\nthought that each Christian man was, in very deed, a temple of God.\n\nIt would be very easy to say eloquent things about this text, but\nthat is no part of my purpose.\n\nI. Let me deal, first of all, and only for a moment or two, with the\nunderlying thought that is here--that every Christian is a\ndwelling-place of God.\n\nNow, do not run away with the idea that that is a metaphor. It was\nthe outward temple that was the metaphor. The reality is that which\nyou and I, if we are God's children in Jesus Christ, experience.\nThere was no real sense in which that Mighty One whom the Heaven of\nHeavens cannot contain, dwelt in any house made with hands. But the\nTemple, and all the outward worship, were but symbolical of the facts\nof the Christian life, and the realities of our inward experience.\nThese are the truths whereof the other is the shadow. We use words to\nwhich it is difficult for us to attach any meaning, when we talk\nabout God as being locally present in any material building; but we\ndo not use words to which it is so difficult to attach a meaning,\nwhen we talk about the Infinite Spirit as being present and abiding\nin a spirit shaped to hold Him, and made on purpose to touch Him and\nbe filled by Him.\n\nAll creatures have God dwelling in them in the measure of their\ncapacity. The stone that you kick on the road would not be there if\nthere were not a present God. Nothing would happen if there were not\nabiding in creatures the force, at any rate, which is God. But just\nas in this great atmosphere in which we all live and move and have\nour being, the eye discerns undulations which make light, and the ear\ncatches vibrations which make sound, and the nostrils are recipient\nof motions which bring fragrance, and all these are in the one\natmosphere, and the sense that apprehends one is utterly unconscious\nof the other, so God's creatures, each through some little narrow\nslit, and in the measure of their capacity, get a straggling beam\nfrom Him into their being, and therefore they are.\n\nBut high above all other ways in which creatures can lie patent to\nGod, and open for the influx of a Divine Indweller, lies the way of\nfaith and love. Whosoever opens his heart in these divinely-taught\nemotions, and fixes them upon the Christ in whom God dwells, receives\ninto the very roots of his being--as the water that trickles through\nthe soil to the rootlets of the tree--the very Godhead Himself. 'He\nthat is joined to the Lord is one spirit.'\n\nThat God shall dwell in my heart is possible only from the fact that\nHe dwelt in all His fulness in Christ, through whom I touch Him. That\nTemple consecrates all heart-shrines; and all worshippers that keep\nnear to Him, partake with Him of the Father that dwelt in Him.\n\nOnly remember that in Christ God dwelt completely, all 'the fulness\nof the Godhead bodily' was there, but in us it is but partially; that\nin Christ, therefore, the divine indwelling was uniform and\ninvariable, but in us it fluctuates, and sometimes is more intimate\nand blessed, and sometimes He leaves the habitation when we leave\nHim; that in Christ, therefore, there was no progress in the divine\nindwelling, but that in us, if there be any true inhabitation of our\nsouls by God, that abiding will become more and more, until every\ncorner of our being is hallowed and filled with the searching\neffulgence of the all-pervasive Light. And let us remember that God\ndwelt in Christ, but that in us it is God in Christ who dwells. So to\nHim we owe it all, that our poor hearts are made the dwelling-place\nof God; or, as this Apostle puts it, in other words conveying the\nsame idea, 'Ye are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and\nprophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Corner-stone; in whom\nall the building fitly framed together groweth ... for a habitation\nof God through the Spirit.'\n\nII. Now then, turning from this underlying idea of the passage, let\nus look, for a moment, at some of the many applications of which the\ngreat thought is susceptible. I remark, then, in the second place,\nthat as temples all Christians are to be manifesters of God.\n\nThe meaning of the Temple as of all temples was, that there the\nindwelling Deity should reveal Himself; and if it be true that we\nChristian men and women are, in this deep and blessed reality of\nwhich I have been speaking, the abiding places and habitations of\nGod, then it follows that we shall stand in the world as the great\nmeans by which God is manifested and made known, and that in a\ntwo-fold way; _to ourselves_ and _to other people_.\n\nThe real revelation of God to our hearts must be His abiding in our\nhearts. We do not learn God until we possess God. He must fill our\nsouls before we know His sweetness. The answer that our Lord made to\none of His disciples is full of the deepest truth. 'How is it,' said\none of them in his blundering way, 'how is it that Thou wilt manifest\nThyself to us?' And the answer was, 'We will come and make Our abode\nwith him.' You do not know God until, if I might so say, He sits at\nyour fireside and talks with you in your hearts. Just as some wife\nmay have a husband whom the world knows as hero, or sage, or orator,\nbut she knows him as nobody else can; so the outside, and if I may so\nsay, the public character of God is but the surface of the revelation\nthat He makes to us, when in the deepest secrecy of our own hearts He\npours Himself into our waiting spirits. O brethren! it is within the\ncurtains of the Holiest of all that the Shekinah flashes; it is\nwithin our own hearts, shrined and templed there, that God reveals\nHimself to us, as He does not unto the world.\n\nAnd then, further, Christian men, as the temples and habitations of\nGod, are appointed to be the great means of making Him known to the\nworld around. The eye that cannot look at the sun can look at the\nrosy clouds that lie on either side of it, and herald its rising;\ntheir opalescent tints and pearly lights are beautiful to dim vision,\nto which the sun itself is too bright to be looked upon. Men will\nbelieve in a gentle Christ when they see you gentle. They will\nbelieve in a righteous love when they see it manifesting itself in\nyou. You are 'the secretaries of God's praise,' as George Herbert has\nit. He dwells in your hearts that out of your lives He may be\nrevealed. The pictures in a book of travels, or the diagrams in a\nmathematical work, tell a great deal more in half a dozen lines than\ncan be put into as many pages of dry words. And it is not books of\ntheology nor eloquent sermons, but it is a Church glowing with the\nglory of God, and manifestly all flushed with His light and majesty,\nthat will have power to draw men to believe in the God whom it\nreveals. When explorers land upon some untravelled island and meet\nthe gentle inhabitants with armlets of rough gold upon their wrists,\nthey say there must be many a gold-bearing rock of quartz crystal in\nthe interior of the land. And if you present yourselves, Christian\nmen and women, to the world with the likeness of your Master plain\nupon you, then people will believe in the Christianity that you\nprofess. You have to popularise the Gospel in the fashion in which\ngo-betweens and middlemen between students and the populace\npopularise science. You have to make it possible for men to believe\nin the Christ because they see Christ in you. 'Know ye not that ye\nare the temples of the living God?' Let His light shine from you.\n\nIII. I remark again that as temples all Christian lives should be\nplaces of sacrifice.\n\nWhat is the use of a temple without worship? And what kind of worship\nis that in which the centre point is not an altar? That is the sort\nof temple that a great many professing Christians are. They have\nforgotten the altar in their spiritual architecture. Have you got one\nin your heart? It is but a poor, half-furnished sanctuary that has\nnot. Where is yours? The key and the secret of all noble life is to\nyield up one's own will, to sacrifice oneself. There never was\nanything done in this world worth doing, and there never will be till\nthe end of time, of which sacrifice is not the centre and\ninspiration. And the difference between all other and lesser\nnobilities of life, and the supreme beauty of a true Christian life\nis that the sacrifice of the Christian is properly a\n_sacrifice_--that is, an offering to _God_, done for the sake of the\ngreat love wherewith He has loved us. As Christ is the one true\nTemple, and we become so by partaking of Him, so He is the one\nSacrifice for sins for ever, and we become sacrifices only through\nHim. If there be any lesson which comes out of this great truth of\nChristians as temples, it is not a lesson of pluming ourselves on our\ndignity, or losing ourselves in the mysticisms which lie near this\ntruth, but it is the hard lesson--If a temple, then an altar; if an\naltar, then a sacrifice. 'Ye are built up a spiritual house, a holy\npriesthood, that ye may offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to\nGod'--sacrifice, priest, temple, all in one; and all for the sake and\nby the might of that dear Lord who has given Himself a bleeding\nSacrifice for the sins of the whole world, that we might offer a\nEucharistic sacrifice of thanks and praise and self-surrender unto\nHim, and to His Father God.\n\nIV. And, lastly, this great truth of my text enforces the solemn\nlesson of the necessary sanctity of the Christian life.\n\n'The temple of God,' says the context, 'the temple of God is holy,\nwhich (holy persons) ye are.' The plain first idea of the temple is a\nplace set apart and consecrated to God.\n\nHence, of course, follows the idea of purity, but the parent idea of\n'holiness' is not purity, which is the consequence, but consecration\nor separation to God, which is the root.\n\nAnd so in very various applications, on which I have not time to\ndwell now, this idea of the necessary sanctity of the Temple is put\nforth in these two letters to the Corinthian Church. Corinth was a\ncity honeycombed with the grossest immoralities; and hence, perhaps,\nto some extent the great emphasis and earnestness and even severity\nof the Apostle in dealing with some forms of evil.\n\nBut without dwelling on the details, let me just point you to three\ndirections in which this general notion of sanctity is applied. There\nis that of our context here 'Know ye not that ye are the temple of\nGod? If any man _destroy_ the temple of God, him shall God\ndestroy, for the temple of God is holy, and such ye are.'\n\nHe is thinking here mainly, I suppose, about the devastation and\ndestruction of this temple of God, which was caused by schismatical\nand heretical teaching, and by the habit of forming parties, 'one of\nPaul, one of Apollos, one of Cephas, one of Christ,' which was\nrending that Corinthian Church into pieces. But we may apply it more\nwidely than that, and say that anything which corrupts and defiles\nthe Christian life and the Christian character assumes a darker tint\nof evil when we think that it is sacrilege--the profanation of the\ntemple, the pollution of that which ought to be pure as He who dwells\nin it.\n\nChristian men and women, how that thought darkens the blackness of\nall sin! How solemnly there peals out the warning, 'If any man\ndestroy or impair the temple,' by any form of pollution, 'him' with\nretribution in kind, 'him shall God destroy.' Keep the temple clear;\nkeep it clean. Let Him come with His scourge of small cords and His\nmerciful rebuke. You Manchester men know what it is to let the\nmoney-changers into the sanctuary. Beware lest, beginning with making\nyour hearts 'houses of merchandise,' you should end by making them\n'dens of thieves.'\n\nAnd then, still further, there is another application of this same\nprinciple, in the second of these Epistles. 'What agreement hath the\ntemple of God with idols?' 'Ye are the temple of the living God.'\n\nChristianity is intolerant. There is to be one image in the shrine.\nOne of the old Roman Stoic Emperors had a pantheon in his palace with\nJesus Christ upon one pedestal and Plato on the one beside Him. And\nsome of us are trying the same kind of thing. Christ there, and\nsomebody else here. Remember, Christ must be everything or nothing!\nStars may be sown by millions, but for the earth there is one sun.\nAnd you and I are to shrine one dear Guest, and one only, in the\ninmost recesses of our hearts.\n\nAnd there is another application of this metaphor also in our\nletter.'Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost\nwhich is in you?' Christianity despises 'the flesh'; Christianity\nreverences the body; and would teach us all that, being robed in that\nmost wonderful work of God's hands, which becomes a shrine for God\nHimself if He dwell in our hearts, all purity, all chastisement and\nsubjugation of animal passion is our duty. Drunkenness, and gluttony,\nlusts of every kind, impurity of conduct, and impurity of word and\nlook and thought, all these assume a still darker tint when they are\nthought of as not only crimes against the physical constitution and\nthe moral law of humanity, but insults flung in the face of the God\nthat would inhabit the shrine.\n\nAnd in regard to sins of this kind, which it is so difficult to speak\nof in public, and which grow unchecked in secrecy, and are ruining\nhundreds of young lives, the words of this context are grimly true,\n'If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.' I speak\nnow mainly in brotherly or fatherly warning to young men--did you\never read this, 'His bones are full of the iniquities of his youth,\nwhich shall lie down with him in the dust'? 'Know ye not that ye are\nthe temple of God?'\n\nAnd so, brethren, our text tells us what we may all be. There is no\nheart without its deity. Alas! alas! for the many listening to me now\nwhose spirits are like some of those Egyptian temples, which had in\nthe inmost shrine a coiled-up serpent, the mummy of a monkey, or some\nother form as animal and obscene.\n\nOh! turn to Christ and cry, 'Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest, Thou and\nthe ark of Thy strength.' Open your hearts and let Christ come in.\nAnd before Him, as of old, the bestial Dagon will be found, dejected\nand truncated, lying on the sill there; and all the vain, cruel,\nlustful gods that have held riot and carnival in your hearts will\nflee away into the darkness, like some foul ghosts at cock-crow. 'If\nany man hear My voice and open the door I will come in.' And the\nglory of the Lord shall fill the house.\n\n\n\n\nDEATH, THE FRIEND\n\n   '... All things are yours ... death.'--1 COR. iii. 21, 22.\n\n\nWhat Jesus Christ is to a man settles what everything else is to Him.\nOur relation to Jesus determines our relation to the universe. If we\nbelong to Him, everything belongs to us. If we are His servants, all\nthings are our servants. The household of Jesus, which is the whole\nCreation, is not divided against itself, and the fellow-servants do\nnot beat one another. Two bodies moving in the same direction, and\nunder the impulse of the same force, cannot come into collision, and\nsince 'all things work together,' according to the counsel of His\nwill, 'all things work together for good' to His lovers. The\ntriumphant words of my text are no piece of empty rhetoric, but the\nplain result of two facts--Christ's rule and the Christian's\nsubmission. 'All things are yours, and ye are Christ's,' so the stars\nin their courses fight against those who fight against Him, and if we\nare at peace with Him we shall 'make a league with the beasts of the\nfield, and the stones of the field,' which otherwise would be\nhindrances and stumbling-blocks, 'shall be at peace with' us.\n\nThe Apostle carries his confidence in the subservience of all things\nto Christ's servants very far, and the words of my text, in which he\ndares to suggest that 'the Shadow feared of man' is, after all, a\nveiled friend, are hard to believe, when we are brought face to face\nwith death, either when we meditate on our own end, or when our\nhearts are sore and our hands are empty. Then the question comes, and\noften is asked with tears of blood, Is it true that this awful force,\nwhich we cannot command, does indeed serve us? Did it serve those\nwhom it dragged from our sides; and in serving them, did it serve us?\nPaul rings out his 'Yes'; and if we have as firm a hold of Paul's\nLord as Paul had, our answer will be the same. Let me, then, deal\nwith this great thought that lies here, of the conversion of the last\nenemy into a friend, the assurance that we may all have that death is\nours, though not in the sense that we can command it, yet in the\nsense that it ministers to our highest good.\n\nThat thought may be true about ourselves when it comes to our turn to\ndie, and, thank God, has been true about all those who have departed\nin His faith and fear. Some of you may have seen two very striking\nengravings by a great, though somewhat unknown artist, representing\nDeath as the Destroyer, and Death as the Friend. In the one case he\ncomes into a scene of wild revelry, and there at his feet lie, stark\nand stiff, corpses in their gay clothing and with garlands on their\nbrows, and feasters and musicians are flying in terror from the\ncowled Skeleton. In the other he comes into a quiet church belfry,\nwhere an aged saint sits with folded arms and closed eyes, and an\nopen Bible by his side, and endless peace upon the wearied face. The\nwindow is flung wide to the sunrise, and on its sill perches a bird\nthat gives forth its morning song. The cowled figure has brought rest\nto the weary, and the glad dawning of a new life to the aged, and is\na friend. The two pictures are better than all the poor words that I\ncan say. It depends on the people to whom he comes, whether he comes\nas a destroyer or as a helper. Of course, for all of us the mere\nphysical facts remain the same, the pangs and the pain, the slow\ntorture of the loosing of the bond, or the sharp agony of its\ninstantaneous rending apart. But we have gone but a very little way\ninto life and its experiences, if we have not learnt that identity of\ncircumstances may cover profound difference of essentials, and that\nthe same experiences may have wholly different messages and meanings\nto two people who are equally implicated in them. Thus, while the\nphysical fact remains the same for all, the whole bearing of it may\nso differ that Death to one man will be a Destroyer, while to another\nit is a Friend.\n\nFor, if we come to analyse the thoughts of humanity about the last\nact in human life on earth, what is it that makes the dread darkness\nof death, which all men know, though they so seldom think of it? I\nsuppose, first of all, if we seek to question our feelings, that\nwhich makes Death a foe to the ordinary experience is, that it is\nlike a step off the edge of a precipice in a fog; a step into a dim\ncondition of which the imagination can form no conception, because it\nhas no experience, and all imagination's pictures are painted with\npigments drawn from our past. Because it is impossible for a man to\nhave any clear vision of what it is that is coming to meet him, and\nhe cannot tell 'in that sleep what dreams may come,' he shrinks, as\nwe all shrink, from a step into the vast Inane, the dim Unknown. But\nthe Gospel comes and says, 'It _is_ a land of great darkness,' but\n'To the people that sit in darkness a great light hath shined.'\n\n  'Our knowledge of that life is small,\n  The eye of faith is dim.'\n\nBut faith has an eye, and there is light, and this we can see--One\nface whose brightness scatters all the gloom, One Person who has not\nceased to be the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His beams, even\nin the darkness of the grave. Therefore, one at least of the\nrepellent features which, to the timorous heart, makes Death a foe,\nis gone, when we know that the known Christ fills the Unknown.\n\nThen, again, another of the elements, as I suppose, which constitute\nthe hostile aspect that Death assumes to most of us, is that it\napparently hales us away from all the wholesome activities and\noccupations of life, and bans us into a state of apparent inaction.\nThe thought that death is rest does sometimes attract the weary or\nharassed, or they fancy it does, but that is a morbid feeling, and\nmuch more common in sentimental epitaphs than among the usual\nthoughts of men. To most of us there is no joy, but a chill, in the\nanticipation that all the forms of activity which have so occupied,\nand often enriched, our lives here, are to be cut off at once. 'What\nam I to do if I have no books?' says the student. 'What am I to do if\nI have no mill?' says the spinner. 'What am I to do if I have no\nnursery or kitchen?' say the women. What are you to do? There is only\none quieting answer to such questions. It tells us that what we are\ndoing here is learning our trade, and that we are to be moved into\nanother workshop there, to practise it. Nothing can bereave us of the\nforce we made our own, being here; and 'there is nobler work for us\nto do' when the Master of all the servants stoops from His Throne and\nsays: 'Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee\nruler over many things; have thou authority over ten cities.' Then\nthe faithfulness of the steward will be exchanged for the authority\nof the ruler, and the toil of the servant for a share in the joy of\nthe Lord.\n\nSo another of the elements which make Death an enemy is turned into\nan element which makes it a friend, and instead of the separation\nfrom this earthly body, the organ of our activity and the medium of\nour connection with the external universe being the condemnation of\nthe naked spirit to inaction, it is the emancipation of the spirit\ninto greater activity. For nothing drops away at death that does not\nmake a man the richer for its loss, and when the dross is purged from\nthe silver, there remains 'a vessel unto honour, fit for the Master's\nuse.' This mightier activity is the contribution to our blessedness,\nwhich Death makes to them who use their activities here in Christ's\nservice.\n\nThen, still further, another of the elements which is converted from\nbeing a terror into a joy is that Death, the separator, becomes to\nChrist's servants Death, the uniter. We all know how that function of\ndeath is perhaps the one that makes us shrink from it the most, dread\nit the most, and sometimes hate it the most. But it will be with us\nas it was with those who were to be initiated into ancient religious\nrites. Blindfolded, they were led by a hand that grasped theirs but\nwas not seen, through dark, narrow, devious passages, but they were\nled into a great company in a mighty hall. Seen from this side, the\nministry of Death parts a man from dear ones, but, oh! if we could\nsee round the turn in the corridor, we should see that the solitude\nis but for a moment, and that the true office of Death is not so much\nto part from those beloved on earth as to carry to, and unite with,\nHim that is best Beloved in the heavens, and in Him with all His\nsaints. They that are joined to Christ, as they who pass from earth\nare joined, are thereby joined to all who, in like manner, are knit\nto Him. Although other dear bonds are loosed by the bony fingers of\nthe Skeleton, his very loosing of them ties more closely the bond\nthat unites us to Jesus, and when the dull ear of the dying has\nceased to hear the voices of earth that used to thrill it in their\nlowest whisper, I suppose it hears another Voice that says: 'When\nthou passest through the fire I will be with thee, and through the\nwaters they shall not overflow thee.' Thus the Separator unites,\nfirst to Jesus, and then to 'the general assembly and Church of the\nfirst-born,' and leads into the city of the living God, the pilgrims\nwho long have lived, often isolated, in the desert.\n\nThere is a last element in Death which is changed for the Christian,\nand that is that to men generally, when they think about it, there is\nan instinctive recoil from Death, because there is an instinctive\nsuspicion that after Death is the Judgment, and that, somehow or\nother--never mind about the drapery in which the idea may be embodied\nfor our weakness--when a man dies he passes to a state where he will\nreap the consequences of what he has sown here. But to Christ's\nservant that last thought is robbed of its sting, and all the poison\nsucked out of it, for he can say: 'He that died for me makes it\npossible for me to die undreading, and to pass thither, knowing that\nI shall meet as my Judge Him whom I have trusted as my Saviour, and\nso may have boldness before Him in the Day of Judgment.'\n\nKnit these four contrasts together. Death as a step into a dim\nunknown _versus_ Death as a step into a region lighted by Jesus;\nDeath as the cessation of activity _versus_ Death as the introduction\nto nobler opportunities, and the endowment with nobler capacities of\nservice; Death as the separator and isolator _versus_ Death as\nuniting to Jesus and all His lovers; Death as haling us to the\njudgment-seat of the adversary _versus_ Death as bringing us to the\ntribunal of the Christ; and I think we can understand how Christians\ncan venture to say, 'All things are ours, whether life or death'\nwhich leads to a better life.\n\nAnd now let me add one word more. All this that I have been saying,\nand all the blessed strength for ourselves and calming in our sorrows\nwhich result therefrom, stand or fall with the Resurrection of Jesus\nChrist. There is nothing else that makes these things certain. There\nare, of course, instincts, peradventures, hopes, fears, doubts. But\nin this region, and in regard to all this cycle of truths, the same\nthing applies which applies round the whole horizon of Christian\nRevelation--if you want not speculations but certainties, you have to\ngo to Jesus Christ for them. There were many men who thought that\nthere were islands of the sea beyond the setting sun that dyed the\nwestern waves, but Columbus went and came back again, and brought\ntheir products--and then the thought became a fact. Unless you\nbelieve that Jesus Christ has come back from 'the bourne from which\nno traveller returns,' and has come laden with the gifts of 'happy\nisles of Eden' far beyond the sea, there is no certitude upon which a\ndying man can lay his head, or by which a bleeding heart can be\nstaunched. But when He draws near, alive from the dead, and says to\nus, as He did to the disciples on the evening of the day of\nResurrection, 'Peace be unto you,' and shows us His hands and His\nside, then we do not only speculate or think a future life possible\nor probable, or hesitate to deny it, or hope or fear, as the case may\nbe, but we _know_, and we can say: 'All things are ours ... death'\namongst others. The fact that Jesus Christ has died changes the whole\naspect of death to His servant, inasmuch as in that great solitude he\nhas a companion, and in the valley of the shadow of death sees\nfootsteps that tell him of One that went before.\n\nNor need I do more than remind you how the manner of our Lord's death\nshows that He is Lord not only of the dead but of the Death that\nmakes them dead. For His own tremendous assertion, 'I have power to\nlay down My life, and I have power to take it again,' was confirmed\nby His attitude and His words at the last, as is hinted at by the\nvery expressions with which the Evangelists record the fact of His\ndeath: 'He yielded up His spirit,' 'He gave up the ghost,' 'He\nbreathed out His life.' It is confirmed to us by such words as those\nremarkable ones of the Apocalypse, which speak of Him as 'the Living\nOne,' who, by His own will, 'became dead.' He died because He would,\nand He would die because He loved you and me. And in dying, He showed\nHimself to be, not the Victim, but the Conqueror, of the Death to\nwhich He submitted. The Jewish king on the fatal field of Gilboa\ncalled his sword-bearer, and the servant came, and Saul bade him\nsmite, and when his trembling hand shrank from such an act, the king\nfell on his own sword. The Lord of life and death summoned His\nservant Death, and He came obedient, but Jesus died not by Death's\nstroke, but by His own act. So that Lord of Death, who died because\nHe would, is the Lord who has the keys of death and the grave. In\nregard to one servant He says, 'I will that he tarry till I come,'\nand that man lives through a century, and in regard to another He\nsays, 'Follow thou Me,' and that man dies on a cross. The dying Lord\nis Lord of Death, and the living Lord is for us all the Prince of\nLife.\n\nBrethren, we have to take His yoke upon us by the act of faith which\nleads to a love that issues in an obedience which will become more\nand more complete, as we become more fully Christ's. Then death will\nbe ours, for then we shall count that the highest good for us will be\nfuller union with, a fuller possession of, and a completer conformity\nto, Jesus Christ our King, and that whatever brings us these, even\nthough it brings also pain and sorrow and much from which we shrink,\nis all on our side. It is possible--may it be so with each of\nus!--that for us Death may be, not an enemy that bans us into\ndarkness and inactivity, or hales us to a judgment-seat, but the\nAngel who wakes us, at whose touch the chains fall off, and who leads\nus through 'the iron gate that opens of its own accord,' and brings\nus into the City.\n\n\n\n\nSERVANTS AND LORDS\n\n   'All things are yours; 22. Whether Paul, or Apollos,\n   or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things\n   present, or things to come; all are yours; 23. And ye\n   are Christ's.'--1 COR. iii. 21-23.\n\n\nThe Corinthian Christians seem to have carried into the Church some\nof the worst vices of Greek--and English--political life. They were\nsplit up into wrangling factions, each swearing by the name of some\nperson. Paul was the battle-cry of one set; Apollos of another. Paul\nand Apollos were very good friends, their admirers bitter\nfoes--according to a very common experience. The springs lie close\ntogether up in the hills, the rivers may be parted by half a\ncontinent.\n\nThese feuds were all the more detestable to the Apostle because his\nname was dragged into them; and so he sets himself, in the first part\nof this letter, with all his might, to shame and to argue the\nCorinthian Christians out of their wrangling. This great text is one\nof the considerations which he adduces with that purpose. In effect\nhe says, 'To pin your faith to any one teacher is a wilful narrowing\nof the sources of your blessing and your wisdom. You say you are\nPaul's men. Has Apollos got nothing that he could teach you? and may\nyou not get any good out of brave brother Cephas? Take them all; they\nwere all meant for your good. Let no man glory in individuals.'\n\nThat is all that his argument required him to say. But in his\nimpetuous way he goes on into regions far beyond. His thought, like\nsome swiftly revolving wheel, catches fire of its own rapid motion;\nand he blazes up into this triumphant enumeration of all the things\nthat serve the soul which serves Jesus Christ. 'You are lords of men,\nof the world of time, of death, of eternity; but you are not lords of\nyourselves. You belong to Jesus, and in the measure in which you\nbelong to Him do all things belong to you.'\n\nI. I think, then, that I shall best bring out the fulness of these\nwords by simply following them as they lie before us, and asking\nyou to consider, first, how Christ's servants are men's lords.\n\n'All things are yours, Paul, Apollos, Cephas.' These three teachers\nwere all lights kindled at the central Light, and therefore shining.\nThey were fragments of His wisdom, of Him that spoke; varying, but\nyet harmonious, and mutually complementary aspects of the one\ninfinite Truth had been committed to them. Each was but a part of the\nmighty whole, a little segment of the circle\n\n  'They are but broken lights of Thee,\n  And Thou, O Lord! art more than they.'\n\nAnd in the measure, therefore, in which men adhere to Christ, and\nhave taken Him for theirs; in that measure are they delivered from\nall undue dependence on, still more from all slavish submission to,\nany single individual teacher or aspect of truth. To have Christ for\nours, and to be His, which are only the opposite sides of the same\nthing, mean, in brief, to take Jesus Christ for the source of all\nknowledge of moral and religious truth. His Word is the Christian's\ncreed, His Person and the truths that lie in Him, are the fountains\nof all our knowledge of God and man. To be Christ's is to take Him as\nthe master who has absolute authority over conduct and practice. His\ncommandment is the Christian's duty; His pattern the Christian's\nall-sufficient example; His smile the Christian's reward. To be\nChrist's is to take Him for the home of our hearts, in whose gracious\nand sweet love we find all sufficiency and a rest for our seeking\naffections. And so, if ye are His, Paul, Apollos, Cephas, all men are\nyours; in the sense that you are delivered from all undue dependence\nupon them; and in the sense that they subserve your highest good.\n\nSo the true democracy of Christianity, which abjures swearing by the\nwords of any teacher, is simply the result of loyal adherence to the\nteaching of Jesus Christ. And that proud independence which some of\nyou seek to cultivate, and on the strength of which you declare that\nno man is your master upon earth, is an unwholesome and dangerous\nindependence, unless it be conjoined with the bowing down of the\nwhole nature, in loyal submission, to the absolute authority of the\nonly lips that ever spoke truth, truth only, and truth always. If\nChrist be our Master, if we take our creed from Him, if we accept His\nwords and His revelation of the Father as our faith and our objective\nreligion, then all the slavery to favourite names, all the taking of\ntruth second-hand from the lips that we honour, all the partisanship\nfor one against another which has been the shame and the ruin of the\nChristian Church, and is working untold mischiefs in it to-day, are\nended at once. 'One is your Master, even Christ.' 'Call no man Rabbi!\nupon earth; but bow before Him, the Incarnate and the Personal\nTruth.'\n\nAnd in like manner they who are Christ's are delivered from all\ntemptations to make men's maxims and practices and approbation the\nlaw of their conduct. Society presses upon each of us; what we call\npublic opinion, which is generally the clatter of the half-dozen\npeople that happen to stand nearest us, rules us; and it needs to be\nsaid very emphatically to all Christian men and women--Take your law\nof conduct from His lips, and from nobody else's.\n\n'They say. What say they? Let them say.' If we take Christ's\ncommandment for our absolute law, and Christ's approbation for our\nhighest aim and all-sufficient reward, we shall then be able to brush\naside other maxims and other people's opinions of us, safely and\nhumbly, and to say, 'With me it is a very small matter to be judged\nof you, or of man's judgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord.'\n\nThe envoy of some foreign power cares very little what the\ninhabitants of the land to which he is ambassador may think of him\nand his doings; it is his sovereign's good opinion that he seeks to\nsecure. The soldier's reward is his commander's praise, the slave's\njoy is the master's smile, and for us it ought to be the law of our\nlives, and in the measure in which we really belong to Christ it will\nbe the law of our lives, that 'we labour that, whether present or\nabsent, we may be pleasing to Him.'\n\nSo, brethren, as teachers, as patterns, as objects of love which is\nonly too apt to be exclusive and to master us, we can only take one\nanother in subordination to our supreme submission to Christ, and if\nwe are His, our duty, as our joy, is to count no man necessary to our\nwellbeing, but to hang only on the one Man, whom it is safe and\nblessed to believe utterly, to obey abjectly, and to love with all\nour strength, because He is more than man, even God manifest in the\nflesh.\n\nII. And now let us pass to the next idea here, secondly, Christ's\nservants are the lords of 'the world.'\n\nThat phrase is used here, no doubt, as meaning the external material\nuniverse. These creatures around us, they belong to us, if we belong\nto Jesus Christ. That man owns the world who despises it. There are\nplenty of rich men in Manchester who say they possess so many\nthousand pounds. Turn the sentence about and it would be a great deal\ntruer--the thousands of pounds possess them. They are the slaves of\ntheir own possessions, and every man who counts any material thing as\nindispensable to his wellbeing, and regards it as the chiefest good,\nis the slave-servant of that thing. He owns the world who turns it to\nthe highest use of growing his soul by it. All material things are\ngiven, and, I was going to say, were created, for the growth of men,\nor at all events their highest purpose is that men should, by them,\ngrow. And therefore, as the scaffolding is swept away when the\nbuilding is finished, so God will sweep away this material universe\nwith all its wonders of beauty and of contrivance, when men have been\ngrown by means of it. The material is less than the soul, and he is\nmaster of the world, and owns it, who has got thoughts out of it,\ntruth out of it, impulses out of it, visions of God out of it, who\nhas by it been led nearer to his divine Master. If I look out upon a\nfair landscape, and the man who draws the rents of it is standing by\nmy side, and I suck more sweetness, and deeper impulses, and larger\nand loftier thoughts out of it than he does, it belongs to me far\nmore than it does to him. The world is his who from it has learned to\ndespise it, to know himself and to know God. He owns the world who\nuses it as the arena, or wrestling ground, on which, by labour, he\nmay gain strength, and in which he may do service. Antagonism helps\nto develop muscle, and the best use of the outward frame of things is\nthat we shall take it as the field upon which we can serve God.\n\nAnd now all these three things--the contempt of earth, the use of\nearth for growing souls, and the use of earth as the field of\nservice--all these things belong most truly to the man who belongs to\nChrist. The world is His, and if we live near Him and cultivate\nfellowship with Him, and see His face gleaming through all the\nMaterial, and are led up nearer to Him by everything around us, then\nwe own the world and wring the sweetness to the last drop out of it,\nthough we may have but little of that outward relation to its goods\nwhich short-sighted men call possessing them. We may solve the\nparadox of those who, 'having nothing, yet have all,' if we belong to\nChrist the Lord of all things, and so have co-possession with Him of\nall His riches.\n\nIII. Further, my text tells us, in the third place, that Christian\nmen, who belong to Jesus Christ, are the lords and masters of 'life\nand death.'\n\nBoth of these words are here used, as it seems to me, in their\nsimple, physical sense, natural life and natural death. You may say,\n'Well, everybody is lord of life in that sense.' Yes, of course, in a\nfashion we all possess it, seeing that we are all alive. But that\nmysterious gift of personality, that awful gift of conscious\nexistence, only belongs, in the deepest sense, to the men who belong\nto Jesus Christ. I do not call that man the owner of his own life who\nis not the lord of his own spirit. I do not see in what, except in\nthe mere animal sense in which a fly, or a spider, or a toad may be\ncalled the master of its life, that man owns himself who has not\ngiven up himself to Jesus Christ. The only way to get a real hold of\nyourselves is to yield yourselves to Him who gives you back Himself,\nand yourself along with Him. The true ownership of life depends upon\nself-control, and self-control depends upon letting Jesus Christ\ngovern us wholly. So the measure in which it is true of me that 'I\nlive; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' is the measure in which\nthe lower life of sense really belongs to us, and ministers to our\nhighest good.\n\nAnd then turn to the other member of this wonderful antithesis,\n'whether life or _death_.' Surely if there is anything over which no\nman can become lord, except by sinfully taking his fate into his own\nhands, it is death. And yet even death, in which we seem to be\nabjectly passive, and by which so many of us are dragged away\nreluctantly from everything that we care to possess, may become a\nmatter of consent and therefore a moral act. Animals expire; a\nChristian man may yield his soul to his Saviour, who is the Lord both\nof the dead and of the living. If thus we feel our dependence upon\nHim, and yield up our lives to Him, and can say, 'Living or dying we\nare the Lord's,' then we may be quite sure that death, too, will be\nour servant, and that our wills will be concerned even in passing out\nof life.\n\nStill more, if you and I, dear brethren, belong to Jesus Christ, then\ndeath is our fellow-servant who comes to call us out of this\nill-lighted workshop into the presence of the King. And at His magic\ncold touch, cares and toils and sorrows are stiffened into silence,\nlike noisy streams bound in white frost; and we are lifted clean up\nout of all the hubbub and the toil into eternal calm. Death is ours\nbecause it fulfils our deepest desires, and comes as a messenger to\npaupers to tell them they have a great estate. Death is ours if we be\nChrist's.\n\nIV. And lastly, Christ's servants are the lords of time and eternity,\n'things present or things to come.'\n\nOur Apostle's division, in this catalogue of his, is rhetorical\nrather than logical; and we need not seek to separate the first of\nthis final pair from others which we have already encountered in our\nstudy of the words, but still we may draw a distinction. The whole\nmass of 'things present,' including not only that material universe\nwhich we call the world, but all the events and circumstances of our\nlives, over these we may exercise supreme control. If we are bowing\nin humble submission to Jesus Christ, they will all subserve our\nhighest good. Every weather will be right; night and day equally\ndesirable; the darkness will be good for eyes that have been tired of\nbrightness and that need repose, the light will be good. The howling\ntempests of winter and its white snows, the sharp winds of spring and\nits bursting sunshine; the calm steady heat of June and the mellowing\ndays of August, all serve to ripen the grain. And so all 'things\npresent,' the light and the dark, the hopes fulfilled and the hopes\ndisappointed, the gains and the losses, the prayers answered and the\nprayers unanswered, they will all be recognised, if we have the\nwisdom that comes from submission to Jesus Christ's will, as being\nours and ministering to our highest blessing.\n\nWe shall be their lords too inasmuch as we shall be able to control\nthem. We need not be 'anvils but hammers.' We need not let outward\ncircumstances dominate and tyrannise over us. We need not be like the\nmosses in the stream, that lie whichever way the current sets, nor\nlike some poor little sailing boat that is at the mercy of the winds\nand the waves, but may carry an inward impulse like some great\nocean-going steamer, the throb of whose power shall drive us straight\nforward on our course, whatever beats against us. That we may have\nthis inward power and mastery over things present, and not be shaped\nand moulded and made by them, let us yield ourselves to Christ, and\nHe will help us to rule them.\n\nAnd then, all 'things to come,' the dim, vague future, shall be for\neach of us like some sunlit ocean stretching shoreless to the\nhorizon; every little ripple flashing with its own bright sunshine,\nand all bearing us onwards to the great Throne that stands on the sea\nof glass mingled with fire.\n\nThen, my brother, ask yourselves what your future is if you have not\nChrist for your Friend.\n\n  'I backward cast mine eye\n    On prospects drear;\n  And forward though I cannot see,\n    I guess and fear.'\n\nSo I beseech you, yield yourselves to Jesus Christ, He died to win\nus. He bears our sins that they may be all forgiven. If we give\nourselves to Him who has given Himself to us, then we shall be lords\nof men, of the world, of life and death, of time and eternity.\n\nIn the old days conquerors used to bestow upon their followers lands\nand broad dominions on condition of their doing suit and service, and\nbringing homage to them. Christ, the King of the universe, makes His\nsubjects kings, and will give us to share in His dominion, so that to\neach of us may be fulfilled that boundless and almost unbelievable\npromise: 'He that overcometh shall inherit all things.' 'All are\nyours if ye are Christ's.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE THREE TRIBUNALS\n\n   'But with me it is a very small thing that I should be\n   judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not\n   mine own self. 4. For I know nothing by myself; yet am\n   I not hereby justified; but he that judgeth me is the\n   Lord.'--1 COR. iv. 3, 4.\n\n\nThe Church at Corinth was honeycombed by the characteristic Greek\nvice of party spirit. The three great teachers, Paul, Peter, Apollos,\nwere pitted against each other, and each was unduly exalted by those\nwho swore by him, and unduly depreciated by the other two factions.\nBut the men whose names were the war-cries of these sections were\nthemselves knit in closest friendship, and felt themselves to be\nservants in common of one Master, and fellow-workers in one task.\n\nSo Paul, in the immediate context, associating Peter and Apollos with\nhimself, bids the Corinthians think of '_us_' as being servants\nof Christ, and not therefore responsible to men; and as stewards of\nthe mysteries of God, that is, dispensers of truths long hidden but\nnow revealed, and as therefore accountable for correct accounts and\nfaithful dispensation only to the Lord of the household. Being\nresponsible to Him, they heeded very little what others thought about\nthem. Being responsible to Him, they could not accept vindication\nby their own consciences as being final. There was a judgment beyond\nthese.\n\nSo here we have three tribunals--that of man's estimates, that of our\nown consciences, that of Jesus Christ. An appeal lies from the first\nto the second, and from the second to the third. It is base to depend\non men's judgments; it is well to attend to the decisions of\nconscience, but it is not well to take it for granted that, if\nconscience approve, we are absolved. The court of final appeal is\nJesus Christ, and what He thinks about each of us. So let us look\nbriefly at these three tribunals.\n\nI. First, the lowest--men's judgment.\n\n'With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you,'\nenlightened Christians that you are, or by the outside world. Now,\nPaul's letters give ample evidence that he was keenly alive to the\nhostile and malevolent criticisms and slanders of his untiring\nopponents. Many a flash of sarcasm out of the cloud like a lightning\nbolt, many a burst of wounded affection like rain from summer skies,\ntell us this. But I need not quote these. Such a character as his\ncould not but be quick to feel the surrounding atmosphere, whether it\nwas of love or of suspicion. So, he had to harden himself against\nwhat naturally had a great effect upon him, the estimate which he\nfelt that people round him were making of him. There was nothing\nbrusque, rough, contemptuous in his brushing aside these popular\njudgments. He gave them all due weight, and yet he felt, 'From all\nthat this lowest tribunal may decide, there are two appeals, one to\nmy own conscience, and one to my Master in heaven.'\n\nNow, I suppose I need not say a word about the power which that\nterrible court which is always sitting, and which passes judgment\nupon every one of us, though we do not always hear the sentences\nread, has upon us all. There is a power which it is meant to have. It\nis not good for a man to stand constantly in the attitude of defying\nwhatever anybody else chooses to say or to think about him. But the\ndanger to which we are all exposed, far more than that other extreme,\nis of deferring too completely and slavishly to, and being far too\nsubtly influenced in all that we do by, the thought of what A, B, or\nC, may have to say or to think about it. 'The last infirmity of noble\nminds,' says Milton about the love of fame. It is an infirmity to\nlove it, and long for it, and live by it. It is a weakening of\nhumanity, even where men are spurred to great efforts by the thought\nof the reverberation of these in the ear of the world, and of the\nhonour and glory that may come therefrom.\n\nBut not only in these higher forms of seeking after reputation, but\nin lower forms, this trembling before, and seeking to conciliate, the\ntribunal of what we call 'general opinion,' which means the voices of\nthe half-dozen people that are beside us and know about us, besets us\nall, and weakens us all in a thousand ways. How many men would lose\nall the motive that they have for living reputable lives, if nobody\nknew anything about it? How many of you, when you go to London, and\nare strangers, frequent places that you would not be seen in in\nManchester? How many of us are hindered, in courses which we know\nthat we ought to pursue, because we are afraid of this or that man or\nwoman, and of what they may look or speak? There is a regard to man's\njudgment, which is separated by the very thinnest partition from\nhypocrisy. There is a very shadowy distinction between the man who,\nconsciously or unconsciously, does a thing with an eye to what people\nmay say about it, and the man who pretends to be what he is not for\nthe sake of the reputation that he may thereby win.\n\nNow, the direct tendency of Christian faith and principle is to\ndwindle into wholesome insignificance the multitudinous voice of\nmen's judgments. For, if I understand at all what Christianity means,\nit means centrally and essentially this, that I am brought into\nloving personal relation with Jesus Christ, and draw from Him the\npower of my life, and from Him the law of my life, and from Him the\nstimulus of my life, and from Him the reward of my life. If there is\na direct communication between me and Him, and if I am deriving from\nHim the life that He gives, which is 'free from the law of sin and\ndeath,' I shall have little need or desire to heed the judgment that\nmen, who see only the surface, may pass upon me, and upon my doings,\nand I shall refer myself to Him instead of to them. Those who can go\nstraight to Christ, whose lives are steeped in Him, who feel that\nthey draw all from Him, and that their actions and character are\nmoulded by His touch and His Spirit, are responsible to no other\ntribunal. And the less they think about what men have to say of them\nthe stronger, the nobler, the more Christ-like they will be.\n\nThere is no need for any contempt or roughness to blend with such a\nputting aside of men's judgments. The velvet glove may be worn upon\nthe iron hand. All meekness and lowliness may go with this wholesome\nindependence, and must go with it unless that independence is false\nand distorted. 'With me it is a very small thing to be judged of you,\nor of man's judgment,' need not be said in such a tone as to mean 'I\ndo not care a rush what you think about me'; but it must be said in\nsuch a tone as to mean 'I care supremely for one approbation, and if\nI have that I can bear anything besides.'\n\nLet me appeal to you to cultivate more distinctly, as a plain\nChristian duty, this wholesome independence of men's judgment. I\nsuppose there never was a day when it was more needed that men should\nbe themselves, seeing with their own eyes what God may reveal\nto them and they are capable of receiving, and walking with their own\nfeet on the path that fits them, whatsoever other people may say\nabout it. For the multiplication of daily literature, the way in\nwhich we are all living in glass houses nowadays--everybody knowing\neverything about everybody else, and delighting in the gossip which\ntakes the place of literature in so many quarters--and the tendency\nof society to a more democratic form give the many-headed monster and\nits many tongues far more power than is wholesome, in the shaping of\nthe lives and character and conduct of most men. The evil of\ndemocracy is that it levels down all to one plane, and that it tends\nto turn out millions of people, as like each other as if they had\nbeen made in a machine. And so we need, I believe, even more than our\nfathers did, to lay to heart this lesson, that the direct result of a\ndeep and strong Christian faith is the production of intensely\nindividual character. And if there are plenty of angles in it,\nperhaps so much the better. We are apt to be rounded by being rubbed\nagainst each other, like the stones on the beach, till there is not a\nsharp corner or a point that can prick anywhere. So society becomes\nutterly monotonous, and is insipid and profitless because of that.\nYou Christian people, be yourselves, after your own pattern. And\nwhilst you accept all help from surrounding suggestions and hints,\nmake it 'a very small thing that you be judged of men.' And you,\nyoung men, in warehouses and shops, and you, students, and you, boys\nand girls, that are budding into life, never mind what other people\nsay. 'Let thine eyes look right onwards,' and let all the clatter on\neither side of you go on as it will. The voices are very loud, but if\nwe go up high enough on the hill-top, to the secret place of the Most\nHigh, we shall look down and see, but not hear, the bustle and the\nbuzz; and in the great silence Christ will whisper to us, 'Well done!\ngood and faithful servant.' That praise is worth getting, and one way\nto get it is to put aside the hindrance of anxious seeking to\nconciliate the good opinion of men.\n\nII. Note the higher court of conscience.\n\nOur Apostle is not to be taken here as contradicting what he says in\nother places. 'I judge not mine own self,'--yet in one of these same\nletters to the Corinthians he says, 'If we judged ourselves we should\nnot be judged.' So that he does not mean here that he is entirely\nwithout any estimate of his own character or actions. That he did in\nsome sense judge himself is evident from the next clause, because he\ngoes on to say, 'I know nothing against myself.' If he acquitted\nhimself, he must previously have been judging himself. But his\nacquittal of himself is not to be understood as if it covered the\nwhole ground of his life and character, but it is to be confined to\nthe subject in hand--viz. his faithfulness as a steward of the\nmysteries of God. But though there is nothing in that region of his\nlife which he can charge against himself as unfaithfulness, he goes\non to say, 'Yet am I not hereby justified?'\n\nOur absolution by conscience is not infallible. I suppose that\nconscience is more reliable when it condemns than when it acquits. It\nis never safe for a man to neglect it when it says, 'You are wrong!'\nIt is just as unsafe for a man to accept it, without further\ninvestigation, when it says, 'You are right!' For the only thing that\nis infallible about what we call conscience is its sentence, 'It is\nright to do right.' But when it proceeds to say 'This, that, and the\nother thing is right; and therefore it is right for you to do it,'\nthere may be errors in the judgment, as everybody's own experience\ntells them. The inward judge needs to be stimulated, to be\nenlightened, to be corrected often. I suppose that the growth of\nChristian character is very largely the discovery that things that we\nthought innocent are not, for us, so innocent as we thought them.\n\nYou only need to go back to history, or to go down into your own\nhistories, to see how, as light has increased, dark corners have been\nrevealed that were invisible in the less brilliant illumination. How\nlong it has taken the Christian Church to find out what Christ's\nGospel teaches about slavery, about the relations of sex, about\ndrunkenness, about war, about a hundred other things that you and I\ndo not yet know, but which our successors will wonder that we failed\nto see! Inquisitor and martyr have equally said, 'We are serving\nGod.' Surely, too, nothing is more clearly witnessed by individual\nexperience, than that we may do a wrong thing, and think that it is\nright. 'They that kill you will think that they do God service.'\n\nSo, Christian people, accept the inward monition when it is stern and\nprohibitive. Do not be too sure about it when it is placable and\npermissive. 'Happy is he that condemneth not himself in the thing\nwhich he alloweth.' There may be secret faults, lying all unseen\nbeneath the undergrowth in the forest, which yet do prick and sting.\nThe upper floors of the house where we receive company, and where we,\nthe tenants, generally live, may be luxurious, and sweet, and clean.\nWhat about the cellars, where ugly things crawl and swarm, and breed,\nand sting?\n\nAh, dear brethren! when my conscience says to me, 'You may do it,' it\nis always well to go to Jesus Christ, and say to Him 'May I?' 'Search\nme, O God, and ... see if there be any wicked way in me,' and show it\nto me, and help me to cast it out. 'I know nothing against myself;\nyet am I not hereby justified.'\n\nIII. Lastly, note the supreme court of final appeal.\n\n'He that judgeth me is the Lord.' Now it is obvious that 'the Lord'\nhere is Christ, both because of the preceding context and because of\nthe next verse, which speaks of His coming. And it is equally\nobvious, though it is often unnoticed, that the judgment of which the\nApostle is here speaking is a present and preliminary judgment. 'He\nthat _judgeth_ me'--not, 'will judge,' but _now_, at this very\nmoment. That is to say, whilst people round us are passing their\nsuperficial estimates upon me, and whilst my conscience is excusing,\nor else accusing me--and in neither case with absolute\ninfallibility--there is another judgment, running concurrently with\nthem, and going on in silence. That calm eye is fixed upon me, and\nsifting me, and knowing me. _That_ judgment is not fallible, because\nbefore Him 'the hidden things' that the darkness shelters, those\ncreeping things in the cellars that I was speaking about, are all\nmanifest; and to Him the 'counsels of the heart,' that is, the\nmotives from which the actions flow, are all transparent and legible.\nSo His judgment, the continual estimate of me which Jesus Christ, in\nHis supreme knowledge of me, has, at every moment of my life--_that_\nis uttering the final word about me and my character.\n\nHis estimate will dwindle the sentences of the other two tribunals\ninto nothingness. What matter what his fellow-servants say about the\nsteward's accounts, and distribution of provisions, and management of\nthe household? He has to render his books, and to give account of his\nstewardship, only to his lord.\n\nThe governor of a Crown Colony may attach some importance to colonial\nopinion, but he reports home; and it is what the people in Downing\nStreet will say that he thinks about. We have to report home; and it\nis the King whom we serve, to whom we have to give an account. The\ngladiator, down in the arena, did not much mind whether the thumbs of\nthe populace were up or down, though the one was the signal for his\nlife and the other for his death. He looked to the place where,\nbetween the purple curtains and the flashing axes of the lictors, the\nemperor sate. Our Emperor once was down on the sand Himself, and\nalthough we are 'compassed about with a cloud of witnesses,' we look\nto the Christ, the supreme Arbiter, and take acquittal or\ncondemnation, life or death, from Him.\n\nThat judgment, persistent all through each of our lives, is\npreliminary to the future tribunal and sentence. The Apostle employs\nin this context two distinct words, both of which are translated in\nour version 'judge.' The one which is used in these three clauses, on\nwhich I have been commenting, means a preliminary examination, and\nthe one which is used in the next verse means a final decisive trial\nand sentence. So, dear brethren, Christ is gathering materials for\nHis final sentence; and you and I are writing the depositions which\nwill be adduced in evidence. Oh! how little all that the world may\nhave said about a man will matter then! Think of a man standing\nbefore that great white throne, and saying, 'I held a very high place\nin the estimation of my neighbours. The newspapers and the reviews\nblew my trumpet assiduously. My name was carved upon the plinth of a\nmarble statue, that my fellow-citizens set up in honour of my\nmany virtues,'--and the name was illegible centuries before the\nstatue was burned in the last fire!\n\nBrother! seek for the praise from Him, which is praise indeed. If He\nsays, 'Well done, good and faithful servant,' it matters little what\ncensures men may pass on us. If He says, 'I never knew you,' all\ntheir praises will not avail. 'Wherefore we labour that, whether\npresent or absent, we may be well-pleasing to Him.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE FESTAL LIFE\n\n   'Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old\n   leaven ... but with the unleavened bread of\n   sincerity and truth.'--1 COR. v. 8.\n\n\nThere had been hideous immorality in the Corinthian Church. Paul had\nstruck at it with heat and force, sternly commanding the exclusion of\nthe sinner. He did so on the ground of the diabolical power of\ninfection possessed by evil, and illustrated that by the very obvious\nmetaphor of leaven, a morsel of which, as he says, 'will leaven the\nwhole lump,' or, as we say, 'batch.' But the word 'leaven' drew up\nfrom the depths of his memory a host of sacred associations connected\nwith the Jewish Passover. He remembered the sedulous hunting in every\nJewish house for every scrap of leavened matter; the slaying of the\nPaschal Lamb, and the following feast. Carried away by these\nassociations, he forgets the sin in the Corinthian Church for a\nmoment, and turns to set forth, in the words of the text, a very deep\nand penetrating view of what the Christian life is, how it is\nsustained, and what it demands. 'Wherefore,' says he, 'let us keep\nthe feast ... with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.'\nThat 'wherefore' takes us back to the words before it, And what are\nthese? 'Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us'; therefore--because\nof that sacrifice, to us is granted the power, and on us is laid\nimperatively the obligation, to make life a festival and to purge\nourselves. Now, in the notion of a feast, there are two things\nincluded--joy and plentiful sustenance. So there are three points\nhere, which I have already indicated--what the Christian life is, a\nfestival; on what it is sustained, the Paschal Sacrifice; what it\ndemands, scrupulous purging out of the old leaven.\n\nI. The Christian life ought to be a continual festival.\n\nThe Christian life a feast? It is more usually represented as a\nfight, a wrestle, a race; and such metaphors correspond, as it would\nappear, far more closely to the facts of our environment, and to the\nexperiences of our hearts, than does such a metaphor as this. But the\nmetaphor of the festival goes deeper than that of the fight or race,\nand it does not ignore the strenuous and militant side of the\nChristian life. No man ever lived a more strenuous life than Paul; no\nman had heavier tasks, and did them more cheerily; no man had a\nsterner fight and fought it more bravely. There is nothing soft,\nEpicurean, or oblivious of the patent sad facts of humanity in the\ndeclaration that after all, beneath all, above all, central to all,\nthe Christian life is a glad festival, when it is the life that it\nought to be.\n\nBut you say, 'Ah! it is all very well to call it so; but in the first\nplace, continual joy is impossible in the presence of the\ndifficulties, and often sadnesses, that meet us on our life's path;\nand, in the second place, it is folly to tell us to pump up emotions,\nor to ignore the occasions for much heaviness and sorrow of heart.'\nTrue; but, still, it is possible to cultivate such a temper as makes\nlife habitually joyful. We can choose the aspect under which we by\npreference and habitually regard our lives. All emotion follows upon\na preceding thought, or sensible experience, and we can pick the\nobjects of our thoughts, and determine what aspect of our lives to\nlook at most.\n\nThe sky is often piled with stormy, heaped-up masses of blackness,\nbut between them are lakes of calm blue. We can choose whether we\nlook at the clouds or at the blue. _These_ are in the lower\nranges; _that_ fills infinite spaces, upwards and out to the\nhorizon. These are transient, eating themselves away even whilst we\nlook, and black and thunderous as they may be, they are there but for\na moment--that is perennial. If we are wise, we shall fix our gaze\nmuch rather on the blue than on the ugly cloud-rack that hides it,\nand thus shall minister to ourselves occasions for the noble kind of\njoy which is not noisy and boisterous, 'like the crackling of thorns\nunder a pot,' and does not foam itself away by its very ebullience,\nbut is calm like the grounds of it; still, like the heaven to which\nit looks; eternal, like the God on whom it is fastened. If we would\nonly steadfastly remember that the one source of worthy and enduring\njoy is God Himself, and listen to the command, 'Rejoice in the Lord,'\nwe should find it possible to 'rejoice always.' For that thought of\nHim, His sufficiency, His nearness, His encompassing presence, His\nprospering eye, His aiding hand, His gentle consolation, His enabling\nhelp will take the sting out of even the bitterest of our sorrows,\nand will brace us to sustain the heaviest, otherwise crushing\nburdens, and greatly to 'rejoice, though now for a season we are in\nheaviness through manifold temptations.' The Gulf Stream rushes into\nthe northern hemisphere, melts the icebergs and warms the Polar seas,\nand so the joy of the Lord, if we set it before us as we can and\nshould do, will minister to us a gladness which will make our lives a\nperpetual feast.\n\nBut there is another thing that we can do; that is, we can clearly\nrecognise the occasions for sorrow in our experience, and yet\ninterpret them by the truths of the Christian faith. That is to say,\nwe can think of them, not so much as they tend to make us sad or\nglad, but as they tend to make us more assured of our possession of,\nmore ardent in our love towards, and more submissive in our attitude\nto, the all-ordering Love which is God. Brethren, if we thought of\nlife, and all its incidents, even when these are darkest and most\nthreatening, as being what it and they indeed are, His training of us\ninto capacity for fuller blessedness, because fuller possession of\nHimself, we should be less startled at the commandment, 'Rejoice in\nthe Lord always,' and should feel that it was possible, though the\nfigtree did not blossom, and there was no fruit in the vine, though\nthe flocks were cut off from the pastures, and the herds from the\nstall, yet to rejoice in the God of our salvation. Rightly understood\nand pondered on, all the darkest passages of life are but like the\ncloud whose blackness determines the brightness of the rainbow on its\nfront. Rightly understood and reflected on, these will teach us that\nthe paradoxical commandment, 'Count it all joy that ye fall into\ndivers temptations,' is, after all, the voice of true wisdom speaking\nat the dictation of a clear-eyed faith.\n\nThis text, since it is a commandment, implies that obedience to it,\nand therefore the realisation of this continual festal aspect of\nlife, is very largely in our own power. Dispositions differ, some of\nus are constitutionally inclined to look at the blacker, and some at\nthe brighter, side of our experiences. But our Christianity is worth\nlittle unless it can modify, and to some extent change, our natural\ntendencies. The joy of the Lord being our strength, the cultivation\nof joy in the Lord is largely our duty. Christian people do not\nsufficiently recognise that it is as incumbent on them to seek after\nthis continual fountain of calm and heavenly joy flowing through\ntheir lives, as it is to cultivate some of the more recognised\nvirtues and graces of Christian conduct and character.\n\nSecondly, we have here--\n\nII. The Christian life is a continual feeding on a sacrifice.\n\n'Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Wherefore let us keep the\nfeast.' It is very remarkable that this is the only place in Paul's\nwritings where he articulately pronounces that the Paschal Lamb is a\ntype of Jesus Christ. There is only one other instance in the New\nTestament where that is stated with equal clearness and emphasis, and\nthat is in John's account of the Crucifixion, where he recognises the\nfact that Christ died with limbs unbroken, as being a fulfilment, in\nthe New Testament sense of that word, of what was enjoined in regard\nto the antitype, 'a bone of him shall not be broken.'\n\nBut whilst the definite statement which precedes my text that Christ\nis 'our Passover,' and 'sacrificed for us' as such, is unique in\nPaul's writings, the thought to which it gives clear and crystallised\nexpression runs through the whole of the New Testament. It underlies\nthe Lord's Supper. Did you ever think of how great was the\nself-assertion of Jesus Christ when He laid His hand on that\nsacredest of Jewish rites, which had been established, as the words\nof the institution of it say, to be 'a perpetual memorial through all\ngenerations,' brushed it on one side, and in effect, said: 'You do\nnot need to remember the Passover any more. I am the true Paschal\nLamb, whose blood sprinkled on the doorposts averts the sword of the\ndestroying Angel, whose flesh, partaken of, gives immortal life.\nRemember Me, and this do in remembrance of Me.' The Lord's Supper\nwitnesses that Jesus thought Himself to be what Paul tells the\nCorinthians that He is, even our Passover, sacrificed for us. But the\npoint to be observed is this, that just as in that ancient ritual,\nthe lamb slain became the food of the Israelites, so with us the\nChrist who has died is to be the sustenance of our souls, and of our\nChristian life. 'Therefore let us keep the feast.'\n\nFeed upon Him; that is the essential central requirement for all\nChristian life, and what does feeding on Him mean? 'How can this man\ngive us his flesh to eat?' said the Jews, and the answer is plain\nnow, though so obscure then. The flesh which He gave for the life of\nthe world in His death, must by us be taken for the very nourishment\nof our souls, by the simple act of faith in Him. That is the feeding\nwhich brings not only sustenance but life. Christ's death for us is\nthe basis, but it is only the basis, of Christ's living in us, and\nHis death for me is of no use at all to me unless He that died for me\nlives in me. We feed on Him by faith, which not only trusts to the\nSacrifice as atoning for sin, but feeds on it as communicating and\nsustaining eternal life--'Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us,\nwherefore let us keep the Feast.'\n\nAgain, we keep the feast when our minds feed upon Christ by\ncontemplation of what He is, what He has done, what He is doing, what\nHe will do; when we take Him as 'the Master-light of all our seeing,'\nand in Him, His words and works, His Passion, Resurrection,\nAscension, Session as Sovereign at the right hand of God, find the\nperfect revelation of what God is, the perfect discovery of what man\nis, the perfect disclosure of what sin is, the perfect prophecy of\nwhat man may become, the Light of light, the answer to every question\nthat our spirits can put about the loftiest verities of God and man,\nthe universe and the future. We feed on Christ when, with lowly\nsubmission, we habitually subject thoughts, purposes, desires, to His\nauthority, and when we let His will flow into, and make plastic and\nsupple, our wills. We nourish our wills by submitting them to Jesus,\nand we feed on Him when we not only say 'Lord! Lord!' but when we do\nthe things that He says. We feed on Christ, when we let His great,\nsacred, all-wise, all-giving, all satisfying love flow into our\nrestless hearts and make them still, enter into our vagrant\naffections and fix them on Himself. Thus when mind and conscience and\nwill and heart all turn to Jesus, and in Him find their sustenance,\nwe shall be filled with the feast of fat things which He has prepared\nfor all people. With that bread we shall be satisfied, and with it\nonly, for the husks of the swine are no food for the Father's son,\nand we 'spend our money for that which is not bread, and our labour\nfor that which satisfieth not,' if we look anywhere else than to the\nPaschal Lamb slain for us for the food of our souls.\n\nIII. The Christian life is a continual purging out of the old leaven.\n\nI need not remind you how vivid and profoundly significant that\nemblem of leaven, as applied to all manner of evil, is. But let me\nremind you how, just as in the Jewish Ritual, the cleansing from all\nthat was leavened was the essential pre-requisite to the\nparticipation in the feast, feeding on Jesus Christ, as I have tried\nto describe it, is absolutely impossible unless our leaven is\ncleansed away. Children spoil their appetites for wholesome food by\neating sweetmeats. Men destroy their capacity for feeding on Christ\nby hungry desires, and gluttonous satisfying of those desires with\nthe delusive sweets of this passing world. But, my brother, your\nexperience, if you are a Christian man at all, will tell you that in\nthe direct measure in which you have been drawn away into paltering\nwith evil, your appetite for Christ and your capacity for gazing upon\nHim, contemplating Him, feeding on Him, has died out. There comes a\nkind of constriction in a man's throat when he is hungering after\nlesser good, especially when there is a tinge of evil in the supposed\ngood that he is hungering after, which incapacitates Him from eating\nthe bread of God, which is Jesus Christ.\n\nBut let us remember that absolute cleansing from all sin is not\nessential, in order to have real participation in Jesus Christ. The\nJew had to take every scrap of leaven out of his house before he\nbegan the Passover. If that were the condition for us, alas! for us\nall; but the effort after purity, though it has not entirely attained\nits aim, is enough. Sin abhorred does not prevent a man from\nparticipating in the Bread that came down from heaven.\n\nThen observe, too, that for this power to cleanse ourselves, we must\nhave had some participation in Christ, by which there is given to us\nthat new life that conquers evil. In the words immediately preceding\nmy text, the Apostle bases his injunction to purge out the old leaven\non the fact that 'ye are unleavened.' Ideally, in so far as the power\npossessed by them was concerned, these Corinthians were unleavened,\neven whilst they were bid to purge out the leaven. That is to say, be\nwhat you are; realise your ideal, utilise the power you possess, and\nsince by your faith there has been given to you a new life that can\nconquer all corruption and sin, see that you use the life that is\ngiven. Purge out the old leaven because ye are unleavened.\n\nOne last word--this stringent exhortation, which makes Christian\neffort after absolute purity a Christian duty, and the condition of\nparticipation in the Paschal Lamb, is based upon that thought to\nwhich I have already referred, of the diabolical power of infection\nwhich Evil possesses. Either you must cast it out, or it will choke\nthe better thing in you. It spreads and grows, and propagates itself,\nand works underground through and through the whole mass. A\nwater-weed got into some of our canals years ago, and it has all but\nchoked some of them. The slime on a pond spreads its green mantle\nover the whole surface with rapidity. If we do not eject Evil it will\neject the good from us. Use the implanted power to cast out this\ncreeping, advancing evil. Sometimes a wine-grower has gone into his\ncellars, and found in a cask no wine, but a monstrous fungus into\nwhich all the wine had, in the darkness, passed unnoticed. I fear\nsome Christian people, though they do not know it, have something\nlike that going on in them.\n\nIt is possible for us all to keep this perpetual festival. To live\nin, on, for, Jesus Christ will give us victory over enemies, burdens,\nsorrows, sins. We may, if we will, dwell in a calm zone where no\ntempests rage, hear a perpetual strain of sweet music persisting\nthrough thunder peals of sorrow and suffering, and find a table\nspread for us in the presence of our enemies, at which we shall renew\nour strength for conflict, and whence we shall rise to fight the good\nfight a little longer, till we sit with Him at His table in His\nKingdom, and 'eat, and live for ever.'\n\n\n\n\nFORMS _VERSUS_ CHARACTER\n\n   'Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing,\n   but the keeping of the commandments of God.'--1 COR. vii. 19.\n\n   'For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything,\n   nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.'--GAL. v. 6.\n\n   'For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision,\n   but a new creature.'--GAL. vi. 16 (R.V.).\n\n\nThe great controversy which embittered so much of Paul's life, and\nmarred so much of his activity, turned upon the question whether a\nheathen man could come into the Church simply by the door of faith,\nor whether he must also go through the gate of circumcision. We all\nknow how Paul answered the question. Time, which settles all\ncontroversies, has settled that one so thoroughly that it is\nimpossible to revive any kind of interest in it; and it may seem to\nbe a pure waste of time to talk about it. But the principles that\nfought then are eternal, though the forms in which they manifest\nthemselves vary with every varying age.\n\nThe Ritualist--using that word in its broadest sense--on the one\nhand, and the Puritan on the other, represent permanent tendencies of\nhuman nature; and we find to-day the old foes with new faces. These\nthree passages, which I have read, are Paul's deliverance on the\nquestion of the comparative value of external rites and spiritual\ncharacter. They are remarkable both for the identity in the former\npart of each and for the variety in the latter. In all the three\ncases he affirms, almost in the same language, that 'circumcision is\nnothing, and uncircumcision is nothing,' that the Ritualist's rite\nand the Puritan's protest are equally insignificant in comparison\nwith higher things. And then he varies the statement of what the\nhigher things are, in a very remarkable and instructive fashion. The\n'keeping of the commandments of God,' says one of the texts, is the\nall-important matter. Then, as it were, he pierces deeper, and in\nanother of the texts (I take the liberty of varying their order)\npronounces that 'a new creature' is the all-important thing. And then\nhe pierces still deeper to the bottom of all, in the third text, and\nsays the all-important thing is 'faith which worketh by love.'\n\nI think I shall best bring out the force of these words by dealing\nfirst with that emphatic threefold proclamation of the nullity of all\nexternalism; and then with the singular variations in the triple\nstatement of what is essential, viz. spiritual conduct and character.\n\nI. First, the emphatic proclamation of the nullity of outward rites.\n\n'Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing,' say two\ntexts. 'Circumcision availeth nothing, and uncircumcision availeth\nnothing,' says the other. It neither is anything nor does anything.\nDid Paul say that because circumcision was a Jewish rite? No. As I\nbelieve, he said it because it was _a rite_; and because he had\nlearned that the one thing needful was spiritual character, and that\nno external ceremonial of any sort could produce that. I think we are\nperfectly warranted in taking this principle of my text, and in\nextending it beyond the limits of the Jewish rite about which Paul\nwas speaking. For if you remember, he speaks about baptism, in the\nfirst chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, in a precisely\nsimilar tone and for precisely the same reason, when he says, in\neffect, 'I baptized Crispus and Gaius and the household of Stephanas,\nand I think these are all. I am not quite sure. I do not keep any\nkind of record of such things; God did not send me to baptize, He\nsent me to preach the Gospel.'\n\nThe thing that produced the spiritual result was not the rite, but\nthe truth, and therefore he felt that his function was to preach the\ntruth and leave the rite to be administered by others. Therefore we\ncan extend the principle here to all externalisms of worship, in all\nforms, in all churches, and say that in comparison with the\nessentials of an inward Christianity they are nothing and they do\nnothing.\n\nThey have their value. As long as we are here on earth, living in the\nflesh, we must have outward forms and symbolical rites. It is in\nHeaven that the seer 'saw no temple.' Our sense-bound nature\nrequires, and thankfully avails itself of, the help of external rites\nand ceremonials to lift us up towards the Object of our devotion. A\nman prays all the better if he bow his head, shut his eyes, and bend\nhis knees. Forms do help us to the realisation of the realities, and\nthe truths which they express and embody. Music may waft our souls to\nthe heavens, and pictures may stir deep thoughts. That is the simple\nprinciple on which the value of all external aids to devotion\ndepends. They may be helps towards the appreciation of divine truth,\nand to the suffusing of the heart with devout emotions which may lead\nto building up a holy character.\n\nThere is a worth, therefore--an auxiliary and subordinate worth--in\nthese things, and in that respect they are _not_ nothing, nor do\nthey 'avail nothing.' But then all external rites tend to usurp more\nthan belongs to them, and in our weakness we are apt to cleave to\nthem, and instead of using them as means to lift us higher, to stay\nin them, and as a great many of us do, to mistake the mere\ngratification of taste and the excitement of the sensibilities for\nworship. A bit of stained glass may be glowing with angel-forms and\npictured saints, but it always keeps some of the light out, and it\nalways hinders us from seeing through it. And all external worship\nand form have so strong a tendency to usurp more than belongs to\nthem, and to drag us down to their own level, even whilst we think\nthat we are praying, that I believe the wisest man will try to pare\ndown the externals of his worship to the lowest possible point. If\nthere be as much body as will keep a soul in, as much form as will\nembody the spirit, that is all that we want. What is more is\ndangerous.\n\nAll form in worship is like fire, it is a good servant but it is a\nbad master, and it needs to be kept very rigidly in subordination, or\nelse the spirituality of Christian worship vanishes before men know;\nand they are left with their dead forms which are only\nevils--crutches that make people limp by the very act of using them.\n\nNow, my dear friends, when that has happened, when men begin to say,\nas the people in Paul's time were saying about circumcision, and as\npeople are saying in this day about Christian rites, that they are\nnecessary, then it is needful to take up Paul's ground and to say,\n'No! they are nothing!' They are useful in a certain place, but if\nyou make them obligatory, if you make them essential, if you say that\ngrace is miraculously conveyed through them, then it is needful that\nwe should raise a strong note of protestation, and declare their\nabsolute nullity for the highest purpose, that of making that\nspiritual character which alone is essential.\n\nAnd I believe that this strange recrudescence--to use a modern\nword--of ceremonialism and aesthetic worship which we see all round\nabout us, not only in the ranks of the Episcopal Church, but amongst\nNonconformists, who are sighing for a less bare service, and here and\nthere are turning their chapels into concert-rooms, and instead of\npreaching the Gospel are having 'Services of Song' and the like--that\nall this makes it as needful to-day as ever it was to say to men:\n'Forms are not worship. Rites may crush the spirit. Men may yield to\nthe sensuous impressions which they produce, and be lapped in an\natmosphere of aesthetic emotion, without any real devotion.'\n\nSuch externals are only worth anything if they make us grasp more\nfirmly with our understandings and feel more profoundly with our\nhearts, the great truths of the Gospel. If they do that, they help;\nif they are not doing that, they hinder, and are to be fought\nagainst. And so we have again to proclaim to-day, as Paul did,\n'Circumcision is nothing,' 'but the keeping of the commandments of\nGod.'\n\nThen notice with what remarkable fairness and boldness and breadth\nthe Apostle here adds that other clause: 'and uncircumcision is\nnothing.' It is a very hard thing for a man whose life has been spent\nin fighting against an error, not to exaggerate the value of his\nprotest. It is a very hard thing for a man who has been delivered\nfrom the dependence upon forms, not to fancy that his formlessness is\nwhat the other people think that their forms are. The Puritan who\ndoes not believe that a man can be a good man because he is a\nRitualist or a Roman Catholic, is committing the very same error as\nthe Ritualist or the Roman Catholic who does not believe that the\nPuritan can be a Christian unless he has been 'christened.' The two\npeople are exactly the same, only the one has hold of the stick at\none end, and the other at the other. There may be as much idolatry in\nsuperstitious reliance upon the bare worship as in the advocacy of\nthe ornate; and many a Nonconformist who fancies that he has 'never\nbowed the knee to Baal' is as true an idol-worshipper in his\nsuperstitious abhorrence of the ritualism that he sees in other\ncommunities, as are the men who trust in it the most.\n\nIt is a large attainment in Christian character to be able to say\nwith Paul, 'Circumcision is nothing, and my own favourite point of\nuncircumcision is nothing either. Neither the one side nor the other\ntouches the essentials.'\n\nII. Now let us look at the threefold variety of the designation of\nthese essentials here.\n\nIn our first text from the Epistle to the Corinthians we read,\n'Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the\nkeeping of the commandments of God.' If we finished the sentence it\nwould be, 'but the keeping of the commandments of God is everything.'\n\nAnd by that 'keeping the commandments,' of course, the Apostle does\nnot mean merely external obedience. He means something far deeper\nthan that, which I put into this plain word, that the one essential\nof a Christian life is the conformity of the will with God's--not\nthe external obedience merely, but the entire surrender and the\nsubmission of my will to the will of my Father in Heaven. That is the\nall-important thing; that is what God wants; that is the end of all\nrites and ceremonies; that is the end of all revelation and of all\nutterances of the divine heart. The Bible, Christ's mission, His\npassion and death, the gift of His Divine Spirit, and every part of\nthe divine dealings in providence, all converge upon this one aim and\ngoal. For this purpose the Father worketh hitherto, and Christ works,\nthat man's will may yield and bow itself wholly and happily and\nlovingly to the great infinite will of the Father in heaven.\n\nBrethren! that is the perfection of a man's nature, when his will\nfits on to God's like one of Euclid's triangles superimposed upon\nanother, and line for line coincides. When his will allows a free\npassage to the will of God, without resistance or deflection, as\nlight travels through transparent glass; when his will responds to\nthe touch of God's finger upon the keys, like the telegraphic needle\nto the operator's hand, then man has attained all that God and\nreligion can do for him, all that his nature is capable of; and far\nbeneath his feet may be the ladders of ceremonies and forms and\noutward acts, by which he climbed to that serene and blessed height,\n'Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the\nkeeping of God's commandments is everything.'\n\nThat submission of will is the sum and the test of your Christianity.\nYour Christianity does not consist only in a mere something which you\ncall faith in Jesus Christ. It does not consist in emotions, however\ndeep and blessed and genuine they may be. It does not consist in the\nacceptance of a creed. All these are means to an end. They are meant\nto drive the wheel of life, to build up character, to make your\ndeepest wish to be, 'Father! not my will, but Thine, be done.' In the\nmeasure in which that is your heart's desire, and not one\nhair's-breadth further, have you a right to call yourself a\nChristian.\n\nBut, then, I can fancy a man saying: 'It is all very well to talk\nabout bowing the will in this fashion; how can I do that?' Well, let\nus take our second text--the third in the order of their\noccurrence--'For neither circumcision is anything, nor\nuncircumcision, but a new creature.' That is to say, if we are ever\nto keep the will of God we must be made over again. Ay! we must! Our\nown consciences tell us that; the history of all the efforts that\never we have made--and I suppose all of us have made some now and\nthen, more or less earnest and more or less persistent--tells us that\nthere needs to be a stronger hand than ours to come into the fight if\nit is ever to be won by us. There is nothing more heartless and more\nimpotent than to preach, 'Bow your wills to God, and then you will be\nhappy; bow your wills to God, and then you will be good.' If that is\nall the preacher has to say, his powerless words will but provoke the\nanswer, 'We cannot. Tell the leopard to change his spots, or the\nEthiopian his skin, as soon as tell a man to reduce this revolted\nkingdom within him to obedience, and to bow his will to the will of\nGod. We cannot do it.' But, brethren, in that word, 'a new creature,'\nlies a promise from God; for a creature implies a creator. 'It is He\nthat hath made us, and not we ourselves.' The very heart of what\nChrist has to offer us is the gift of His own life to dwell in our\nhearts, and by its mighty energy to make us free from the law of sin\nand death which binds our wills. We may have our spirits moulded into\nHis likeness, and new tastes, and new desires, and new capacities\ninfused into us, so as that we shall not be left with our own poor\npowers to try and force ourselves into obedience to God's will, but\nthat submission and holiness and love that keeps the commandments of\nGod, will spring up in our renewed spirits as their natural product\nand growth. Oh! you men and women who have been honestly trying, half\nyour lifetime, to make yourselves what you know God wants you to be,\nand who are obliged to confess that you have failed, hearken to the\nmessage: 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things\nare passed away.' The one thing needful is keeping the commandments\nof God, and the only way by which we can keep the commandments of God\nis that we should be formed again into the likeness of Him of whom\nalone it is true that 'He did always the things that pleased' God.\n\nAnd so we come to the last of these great texts: 'In Christ Jesus,\nneither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith\nwhich worketh by love.' That is to say, if we are to be made over\nagain, we must have faith in Christ Jesus. We have got to the root\nnow, so far as we are concerned. We must keep the commandments of\nGod; if we are to keep the commandments we must be made over again,\nand if our hearts ask how can we receive that new creating power into\nour lives, the answer is, by 'faith which worketh by love.'\n\nPaul did not believe that external rites could make men partakers of\na new nature, but he believed that if a man would trust in Jesus\nChrist, the life of that Christ would flow into his opened heart, and\na new spirit and nature would be born in him. And, therefore, his\ntriple requirements come all down to this one, so far as we are\nconcerned, as the beginning and the condition of the other two.\n'Neither circumcision does anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith\nwhich worketh by love,' does everything. He that trusts Christ opens\nhis heart to Christ, who comes with His new-creating Spirit, and\nmakes us willing in the day of His power to keep His commandments.\n\nBut faith leads us to obedience in yet another fashion, than this\nopening of the door of the heart for the entrance of the new-creating\nSpirit. It leads to it in the manner which is expressed by the words\nof our text, 'worketh by love.' Faith shows itself living, because it\nleads us to love, and through love it produces its effects upon\nconduct.\n\nTwo things are implied in this designation of faith. If you trust\nChrist you will love Him. That is plain enough. And you will not love\nHim unless you trust Him. Though it lies wide of my present purpose,\nlet us take this lesson in passing. You cannot work yourself up into\na spasm or paroxysm of religious emotion and love by resolution or by\neffort. All that you can do is to go and look at the Master and get\nnear Him, and that will warm you up. You can love if you trust. Your\ntrust will make you love; unless you trust you will never love Him.\n\nThe second thing implied is, that if you love you will obey. That is\nplain enough. The keeping of the commandments will be easy where\nthere is love in the heart. The will will bow where there is love in\nthe heart. Love is the only fire that is hot enough to melt the iron\nobstinacy of a creature's will. The will cannot be driven. Strike it\nwith violence and it stiffens; touch it gently and it yields. If you\ntry to put an iron collar upon the will, like the demoniac in the\nGospels, the touch of the apparent restraint drives it into fury, and\nit breaks the bands asunder. Fasten it with the silken leash of love,\nand a 'little child' can lead it. So faith works by love, because\nwhom we trust we shall love, and whom we love we shall obey.\n\nTherefore we have got to the root now, and nothing is needful but an\noperative faith, out of which will come all the blessed possession of\na transforming Spirit, and all sublimities and noblenesses of an\nobedient and submissive will.\n\nMy brother! Paul and James shake hands here. There is a 'faith' so\ncalled, which does not work. It is dead! Let me beseech you, none of\nyou to rely upon what you choose to call your faith in Jesus Christ,\nbut examine it. Does it do anything? Does it help you to be like Him?\nDoes it open your hearts for His Spirit to come in? Does it fill them\nwith love to that Master, a love which proves itself by obedience?\nPlain questions, questions that any man can answer; questions that go\nto the root of the whole matter. If your faith does that, it is\ngenuine; if it does not, it is not.\n\nAnd do not trust either to forms, or to your freedom from forms. They\nwill not save your souls, they will not make you more Christ-like.\nThey will not help you to pardon, purity, holiness, blessedness. In\nthese respects neither if we have them are we the better, nor if we\nhave them not are we the worse. If you are trusting to Christ, and by\nthat faith are having your hearts moulded and made over again into\nall holy obedience, then you have all that you need. Unless you have,\nthough you partook of all Christian rites, though you believed all\nChristian truth, though you fought against superstitious reliance on\nforms, you have not the one thing needful, for 'in Christ Jesus\nneither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith\nwhich worketh by love.'\n\n\n\n\nSLAVES AND FREE\n\n   'He that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the\n   Lord's free man: likewise also he that is called, being\n   free, is Christ's servant.'--1 COR. vii. 22.\n\n\nThis remarkable saying occurs in a remarkable connection, and is used\nfor a remarkable purpose. The Apostle has been laying down the\nprinciple, that the effect of true Christianity is greatly to\ndiminish the importance of outward circumstance. And on that\nprinciple he bases an advice, dead in the teeth of all the maxims\nrecognised by worldly prudence. He says, in effect, 'Mind very little\nabout getting on and getting up. Do God's will wherever you are, and\nlet the rest take care of itself.' Now, the world says, 'Struggle,\nwriggle, fight, do anything to better yourself.' Paul says, 'You will\nbetter yourself by getting nearer God, and if you secure that--art\nthou a slave? care not for it; if thou mayest be free, use it rather;\nart thou bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed; art thou loosed?\nseek not to be bound; art thou circumcised? seek not to be\nuncircumcised; art thou a Gentile? seek not to become in outward form\na Jew.' Never mind about externals: the main thing is our relation to\nJesus Christ, because in that there is what will be compensation for\nall the disadvantages of any disadvantageous circumstances, and in\nthat there is what will take the gilt off the gingerbread of any\nsuperficial and fleeting good, and will bring a deep-seated and\npermanent blessing.\n\nNow, I am not going to deal in this sermon with that general\nprinciple, nor even to be drawn aside to speak of the tone in which\nthe Apostle here treats the great abomination of slavery, and the\nsingular advice that he gives to its victims; though the\nconsideration of the tone of Christianity to that master-evil of the\nold world might yield a great many thoughts very relevant to pressing\nquestions of to-day. But my one object is to fix upon the combination\nwhich he here brings out in regard to the essence of the Christian\nlife; how that in itself it contains both members of the antithesis,\nservitude and freedom; so that the Christian man who is free\nexternally is Christ's slave, and the Christian man who is outwardly\nin bondage is emancipated by his union with Jesus Christ.\n\nThere are two thoughts here, the application in diverse directions of\nthe same central idea--viz. the slavery of Christ's free men, and the\nfreedom of Christ's slaves. And I deal briefly with these two now.\n\nI. First, then, note how, according to the one-half of the\nantithesis, Christ's freed men are slaves.\n\nNow, the way in which the New Testament deals with that awful\nwickedness of a man held in bondage by a man is extremely remarkable.\nIt might seem as if such a hideous piece of immorality were\naltogether incapable of yielding any lessons of good. But the\nApostles have no hesitation whatever in taking slavery as a clear\npicture of the relation in which all Christian people stand to Jesus\nChrist their Lord. He is the owner and we are the slaves. For you\nmust remember that the word most inadequately rendered here,\n'servant' does not mean a hired man who has, of his own volition,\ngiven himself for a time to do specific work and get wages for it;\nbut it means 'a bond-slave,' a chattel owned by another. All the ugly\nassociations which gather round the word are transported bodily into\nthe Christian region, and there, instead of being hideous, take on a\nshape of beauty, and become expressions of the deepest and most\nblessed truths, in reference to Christian men's dependence upon, and\nsubmission to, and place in the household and the heart of, Jesus\nChrist, their Owner.\n\nAnd what is the centre idea that lies in this metaphor, if you like\nto call it so? It is this: absolute authority, which has for its\ncorrelative--for the thing in us that answers to it--unconditional\nsubmission. Jesus Christ has the perfect right to command each of us,\nand we are bound to bow ourselves, unreluctant, unmurmuring,\nunhesitating, with complete submission at His feet. His authority,\nand our submission, go far, far deeper than the most despotic sway of\nthe most tyrannous master, or than the most abject submission of the\nmost downtrodden slave. For no man can coerce another man's will, and\nno man can require more, or can ever get more, than that outward\nobedience which may be rendered with the most sullen and fixed\nrebellion of a hating heart and an obstinate will. But Jesus Christ\ndemands that if we call ourselves Christians we shall bring, not our\nmembers only as instruments to Him, in outward surrender and service,\nbut that we shall yield ourselves, with our capacities of willing and\ndesiring, utterly, absolutely, constantly to Him.\n\nThe founder of the Jesuits laid it down as a rule for his Order that\neach member of it was to be at the master's disposal like a corpse,\nor a staff in the hand of a blind man. That was horrible. But the\nabsolute putting of myself at the disposal of another's will, which\nis expressed so tyrannously in Loyola's demand, is the simple duty of\nevery Christian, and as long as we have recalcitrating wills, which\nrecoil at anything which Christ commands or appoints, and perk up\ntheir own inclinations in the face of His solemn commandment, or that\nshrink from doing and suffering whatsoever He imposes and enjoins, we\nhave still to learn what it means to be Christ's disciples.\n\nDear brethren, absolute submission is not all that makes a disciple,\nbut, depend upon it, there is no discipleship worth calling by the\nname without it. So I come to each of you with His message to\nyou:--Down on your faces before Him! Bow your obstinate will,\nsurrender yourselves and accept Him as absolute, dominant Lord over\nyour whole being! Are you Christians after that pattern? Being\nfreemen, are you Christ's slaves?\n\nIt does not matter what sort of work the owner sets his household of\nslaves to do. One man is picked out to be his pipe-bearer, or his\nshoe-cleaner; and, if the master is a sovereign, another one is sent\noff, perhaps, to be governor of a province, or one of his council.\nThey are all slaves; and the service that each does is equally\nimportant.\n\n  'All service ranks the same with God:\n  There is no last nor first.'\n\nWhat does it matter what you and I are set to do? Nothing. And, so,\nwhy need we struggle and wear our hearts out to get into conspicuous\nplaces, or to do work that shall bring some revenue of praise said\nglory to ourselves? 'Play well thy part; there all the honour lies,'\nthe world can say. Serve Christ in anything, and all His servants are\nalike in His sight.\n\nThe slave-owner had absolute power of life and death over his\ndependants. He could split up families; he could sell away dear ones;\nhe could part husband and wife, parent and child. The slave was his,\nand he could do what he liked with his own, according to the cruel\nlogic of ancient law. And Jesus Christ, the Lord of the household,\nthe Lord of providence, can say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes into\nthe mists and the shadows of death. And He can say to those who are\nmost closely united, 'Loose your hands! I have need of one of you\nyonder. I have need of the other one here.' And if we are wise, if we\nare His servants in any real deep sense, we shall not kick against\nthe appointments of His supreme, autocratic, and yet most loving\nProvidence, but be content to leave the arbitrament of life and\ndeath, of love united or of love parted, in His hands, and say,\n'Whether we live we are the Lord's, or whether we die we are the\nLord's; living or dying we are His.'\n\nThe slave-owner owned all that the slave owned. He gave him a little\ncottage, with some humble sticks of furniture in it; and a bit of\nground on which to grow his vegetables for his family. But he to whom\nthe owner of the vegetables and the stools belonged owned them too.\nAnd if we are Christ's servants, our banker's book is Christ's, and\nour purse is Christ's, and our investments are Christ's; and our\nmills, and our warehouses, and our shops and our businesses are His.\nWe are not His slaves, if we arrogate to ourselves the right of doing\nwhat we like with His possessions.\n\nAnd, then, still further, there comes into our Apostle's picture here\nyet another point of resemblance between slaves and the disciples of\nJesus. For the hideous abominations of the slave-market are\ntransferred to the Christian relation, and defecated and cleansed of\nall their abominations and cruelty thereby. For what immediately\nfollows my text is, 'Ye are bought with a price.' Jesus Christ has\nwon us for Himself. There is only one price that can buy a heart, and\nthat is a heart. There is only one way of getting a man to be mine,\nand that is by giving myself to be his. So we come to the very vital,\npalpitating centre of all Christianity when we say, 'He gave Himself\nfor us, that He might acquire to Himself a people for His\npossession.' Thus His purchase of His slave, when we remember that it\nis the buying of a man in his inmost personality, changes all that\nmight seem harsh in the requirement of absolute submission into the\nmost gracious and blessed privilege. For when I am won by another,\nbecause that other has given him or her whole self to me, then the\nlanguage of love is submission, and the conformity of the two wills\nis the delight of each loving will. Whoever has truly been wooed into\nrelationship with Jesus, by reflection upon the love with which Jesus\ngrapples him to His heart, finds that there is nothing so blessed as\nto yield one's self utterly and for ever to His service.\n\nThe one bright point in the hideous institution of slavery was, that\nit bound the master to provide for the slave, and though that was\ndegrading to the inferior, it made his life a careless, child-like,\nmerry life, even amidst the many cruelties and abominations of the\nsystem. But what was a good, dashed with a great deal of evil, in\nthat relation of man to man, comes to be a pure blessing and good in\nour relation to Him. If I am Christ's slave, it is His business to\ntake care of His own property, and I do not need to trouble myself\nmuch about it. If I am His slave, He will be quite sure to find me in\nfood and necessaries enough to get His tale of work out of me; and I\nmay cast all my care upon Him, for He careth for me. So, brethren,\nabsolute submission and the devolution of all anxiety on the Master\nare what is laid upon us, if we are Christ's slaves.\n\nII. Then there is the other side, about which I must say, secondly, a\nword or two; and that is, the freedom of Christ's slaves.\n\nAs the text puts it, 'He that is called, being a servant, is the\nLord's freedman.' A freedman was one who was emancipated, and who\ntherefore stood in a relation of gratitude to his emancipator and\npatron. So in the very word 'freedman' there is contained the idea of\nsubmission to Him who has struck off the fetters.\n\nBut, apart from that, let me just remind you, in a sentence or two,\nthat whilst there are many other ways by which men have sought, and\nhave partially attained, deliverance from the many fetters and\nbondages that attach to our earthly life, the one perfect way by\nwhich a man can be truly, in the deepest sense of the word and in his\ninmost being, a free man is by faith in Jesus Christ.\n\nI do not for a moment forget how wisdom and truth, and noble aims and\nhigh purposes, and culture of various kinds have, in lower degrees\nand partially, emancipated men from self and flesh and sin and the\nworld, and all the other fetters that bind us. But sure I am that\nthe process is never so completely and so assuredly effected as by the\nsimple way of absolute submission to Jesus Christ, taking Him for the\nsupreme and unconditional Arbiter and Sovereign of a life.\n\nIf we do that, brethren, if we really yield ourselves to Him, in\nheart and will, in life and conduct, submitting our understanding to\nHis infallible Word, and our wills to His authority, regulating our\nconduct by His perfect pattern, and in all things seeking to serve\nHim and to realise His presence, then be sure of this, that we shall\nbe set free from the one real bondage, and that is the bondage of our\nown wicked selves. There is no such tyranny as mob tyranny; and there\nis no such slavery as to be ruled by the mob of our own passions and\nlusts and inclinations and other meannesses that yelp and clamour\nwithin us, and seek to get hold of us and to sway. There is only one\nway by which the brute domination of the lower part of our nature can\nbe surely and thoroughly put down, and that is by turning to Jesus\nChrist and saying to Him, 'Lord! do Thou rule this anarchic kingdom\nwithin me, for I cannot govern it myself. Do Thou guide and direct\nand subdue.' You can only govern yourself and be free from the\ncompulsion of your own evil nature when you surrender the control to\nthe Master, and say ever, 'Speak, Lord! for Thy slave hears. Here am\nI, send me.'\n\nAnd that is the only way by which a man can be delivered from the\nbondage of dependence upon outward things. I said at the beginning of\nthese remarks that my text occurred in the course of a discussion in\nwhich the Apostle was illustrating the tendency of true Christian\nfaith to set man free from, and to make him largely independent of,\nthe varieties in external circumstances. Christian faith does so,\nbecause it brings into a life a sufficient compensation for all\nlosses, limitations, and sorrows, and a good which is the reality of\nwhich all earthly goods are but shadows. So the slave may be free in\nChrist, and the poor man may be rich in Him, and the sad man may be\njoyful, and the joyful man may be delivered from excess of gladness,\nand the rich man be kept from the temptations and sins of wealth, and\nthe free man be taught to surrender his liberty to the Lord who makes\nhim free. Thus, if we have the all-sufficient compensation which\nthere is in Jesus Christ, the satisfaction for all our needs and\ndesires, we do not need to trouble ourselves so much as we sometimes\ndo about these changing things round about us. Let them come, let\nthem go; let the darkness veil the light, and the light illuminate\nthe darkness; let summer and winter alternate; let tribulation and\nprosperity succeed each other; we have a source of blessedness\nunaffected by these. Ice may skin the surface of the lake, but deep\nbeneath, the water is at the same temperature in winter and in\nsummer. Storms may sweep the face of the deep, but in the abyss there\nis calm which is not stagnation. So he that cleaves to Christ is\ndelivered from the slavery that binds men to the details and\naccidents of outward life.\n\nAnd if we are the servants of Christ, we shall be set free, in the\nmeasure in which we are His, from the slavery which daily becomes\nmore oppressive as the means of communication become more complete,\nthe slavery to popular opinion and to men round us. Dare to be\nsingular; take your beliefs at first hand from the Master. Never mind\nwhat fellow-slaves say. It is His smile or frown that is of\nimportance. 'Ye are bought with a price; be not servants of men.'\nAnd so, brethren, 'choose you this day whom ye will serve.' You are\nnot made to be independent. You must serve some thing or person.\nRecognise the narrow limitations within which your choice lies, and\nthe issues which depend upon it. It is not whether you will serve\nChrist or whether you will be free. It is whether you will serve\nChrist or your own worst self, the world, men, and I was going to\nadd, the flesh and the devil. Make your choice. He has bought you.\nYou belong to Him by His death. Yield yourselves to Him, it is the\nonly way of breaking your chains. He that doeth sin is the servant of\nsin. 'If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed,' and not\nonly free; for the King's slaves are princes and nobles, and 'all\nthings are yours, and ye are Christ's.' They who say to Him 'O Lord!\ntruly I am Thy servant,' receive from Him the rank of kings and\npriests to God, and shall reign with Him for ever.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN LIFE\n\n   'Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein\n   abide with God.'--1 COR. vii. 24.\n\n\nYou find that three times within the compass of a very few verses\nthis injunction is repeated. 'As God hath distributed to every man,'\nsays the Apostle in the seventeenth verse, 'as the Lord hath called\nevery one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all the churches.'\nThen again in the twentieth verse, 'Let every man abide in the same\ncalling wherein he is called.' And then finally in our text.\n\nThe reason for this emphatic reiteration is not difficult to\nascertain. There were strong temptations to restlessness besetting\nthe early Christians. The great change from heathenism to\nChristianity would seem to loosen the joints of all life, and having\nbeen swept from their anchorage in religion, all external things\nwould appear to be adrift. It was most natural that a man should seek\nto alter even the circumstances of his outward life, when such a\nrevolution had separated him from his ancient self. Hence would tend\nto come the rupture of family ties, the separation of husband and\nwife, the Jewish convert seeking to become like a Gentile, the\nGentile seeking to become like a Jew; the slave trying to be free,\nthe freeman, in some paroxysm of disgust at his former condition,\ntrying to become a slave. These three cases are all referred to in\nthe context--marriage, circumcision, slavery. And for all three the\nApostle has the same advice to give--'Stop where you are.' In\nwhatever condition you were when God's invitation drew you to\nHimself--for that, and not being set to a 'vocation' in life, is the\nmeaning of the word 'called' here--remain in it.\n\nAnd then, on the other hand, there was every reason why the Apostle\nand his co-workers should set themselves, by all means in their\npower, to oppose this restlessness. For, if Christianity in those\nearly days had once degenerated into the mere instrument of social\nrevolution, its development would have been thrown back for\ncenturies, and the whole worth and power of it, for those who first\napprehended it, would have been lost. So you know Paul never said a\nword to encourage any precipitate attempts to change externals. He\nlet slavery--he let war alone; he let the tyranny of the Roman Empire\nalone--not because he was a coward, not because he thought that\nthese things were not worth meddling with, but because he, like all\nwise men, believed in making the tree good and then its fruit good.\nHe believed in the diffusion of the principles which he proclaimed,\nand the mighty Name which he served, as able to girdle the\npoison-tree, and to take the bark off it, and the rest, the slow\ndying, might be left to the work of time. And the same general idea\nunderlies the words of my text. 'Do not try to change,' he says, 'do\nnot trouble about external conditions; keep to your Christian\nprofession; let those alone, they will right themselves. Art thou a\nslave? Seek not to be freed. Art thou circumcised? Seek not to be\nuncircumcised. Get hold of the central, vivifying, transmuting\ninfluence, and all the rest is a question of time.'\n\nBut, besides this more especial application of the words of my text\nto the primitive times, it carries with it, dear brethren, a large\ngeneral principle that applies to all times--a principle, I may say,\ndead in the teeth of the maxims upon which life is being ordered by\nthe most of us. _Our_ maxim is, 'Get on!' Paul's is, 'Never mind\nabout getting _on_, get _up_!' Our notion is--'Try to make the\ncircumstances what I would like to have them.' Paul's is--'Leave\ncircumstances to take care of themselves, or rather leave God to take\ncare of the circumstances. You get close to Him, and hold His hand,\nand everything else will right itself.' Only he is not preaching\nstolid acquiescence. His previous injunctions were--'Let every man\nabide in the same calling wherein he was called.' He sees that that\nmay be misconceived and abused, and so, in his third reiteration of\nthe precept, he puts in a word which throws a flood of light upon the\nwhole thing--'Let every man wherein he is called therein abide.' Yes,\nbut that is not all--'therein abide _with God_!' Ay, that is it! not\nan impossible stoicism; not hypocritical, fanatical contempt of the\nexternal. But whilst that gets its due force and weight, whilst a\nman yields himself in a measure to the natural tastes and\ninclinations which God has given him, and with the intention that he\nshould find there subordinate guidance and impulse for his life,\nstill let him abide where he is called with God, and seek to increase\nhis fellowship with Him, as the main thing that he has to do.\n\nI. Thus we are led from the words before us first to the thought that\nour chief effort in life ought to be union with God.\n\n'Abide with God,' which, being put into other words, means, I think,\nmainly two things--constant communion, the occupation of all our\nnature with Him, and, consequently, the recognition of His will in\nall circumstances.\n\nAs to the former, we have the mind and heart and will of God revealed\nto us for the light, the love, the obedience of our will and heart\nand mind; and our Apostle's precept is, first, that we should try,\nmoment by moment, in all the bustle and stir of our daily life, to\nhave our whole being consciously directed to and engaged with,\nfertilised and calmed by contact with, the perfect and infinite\nnature of our Father in heaven.\n\nAs we go to our work again to-morrow morning, what difference would\nobedience to this precept make upon my life and yours? Before all\nelse, and in the midst of all else, we should think of that Divine\nMind that in the heavens is waiting to illumine our darkness; we\nshould feel the glow of that uncreated and perfect Love, which, in\nthe midst of change and treachery, of coldness and of 'greetings\nwhere no kindness is,' in the midst of masterful authority and\nunloving command, is ready to fill our hearts with tenderness and\ntranquillity: we should bow before that Will which is absolute and\nsupreme indeed, but neither arbitrary nor harsh, which is 'the\neternal purpose that He hath purposed in Himself' indeed, but is also\n'the good pleasure of His goodness and the counsel of His grace.'\n\nAnd with such a God near to us ever in our faithful thoughts, in our\nthankful love, in our lowly obedience, with such a mind revealing\nitself to us, and such a heart opening its hidden storehouses for us\nas we approach, like some star that, as one gets nearer to it,\nexpands its disc and glows into rich colour, which at a distance was\nbut pallid silver, and such a will sovereign above all, energising,\neven through opposition, and making obedience a delight, what room,\nbrethren, would there be in our lives for agitations, and\ndistractions, and regrets, and cares, and fears--what room for\nearthly hopes or for sad remembrances? They die in the fruition of a\npresent God all-sufficient for mind, and heart, and will--even as the\nsun when it is risen with a burning heat may scorch and wither the\nweeds that grow about the base of the fruitful tree, whose deeper\nroots are but warmed by the rays that ripen the rich clusters which\nit bears. 'Let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide _with\nGod_.'\n\nAnd then, as a consequence of such an occupation of the whole being\nwith God, there will follow that second element which is included in\nthe precept, namely, the recognition of God's will as operating in\nand determining all circumstances. When our whole soul is occupied\nwith Him, we shall see Him everywhere. And this ought to be our\nhonest effort--to connect everything which befalls ourselves and the\nworld with Him. We should see that Omnipotent Will, the silent energy\nwhich flows through all being, asserting itself through all secondary\ncauses, marching on towards its destined and certain goal, amidst all\nthe whirl and perturbation of events, bending even the antagonism of\nrebels and the unconsciousness of godless men, as well as the play of\nmaterial instruments, to its own purposes, and swinging and swaying\nthe whole set and motion of things according to its own impulse and\nby the touch of its own fingers.\n\nSuch a faith does not require us to overlook the visible occasions\nfor the things which befall us, nor to deny the stable laws according\nto which that mighty will operates in men's lives. Secondary causes?\nYes. Men's opposition and crime? Yes. Our own follies and sins? No\ndoubt. Blessings and sorrows falling indiscriminately on a whole\ncommunity or a whole world? Certainly. And yet the visible agents are\nnot the sources, but only the vehicles of the power, the belting and\nshafting which transmit a mighty impulse which they had nothing to do\nin creating. And the antagonism subserves the purposes of the rule\nwhich it opposes, as the blow of the surf may consolidate the\nsea-wall that it breaks against. And our own follies and sins may\nindeed sorrowfully shadow our lives, and bring on us pains of body\nand disasters in fortune, and stings in spirit for which we alone are\nresponsible, and which we have no right to regard as inscrutable\njudgments--yet even these bitter plants of which our own hands have\nsowed the seed, spring by His merciful will, and _are_ to be regarded\nas His loving, fatherly chastisements--sent before to warn us by a\npremonitory experience that 'the wages of sin is death.' As a rule,\nGod does not interpose to pick a man out of the mud into which he has\nbeen plunged by his own faults and follies, until he has learned the\nlessons which he can find in plenty down in the slough, if he will\nonly look for them! And the fact that some great calamity or some\ngreat joy affects a wide circle of people, does not make its having a\nspecial lesson and meaning for each of them at all doubtful. _There_\nis one of the great depths of all-moving wisdom and providence, that\nin the very self-same act it is in one aspect universal, and in\nanother special and individual. The ordinary notion of a special\nprovidence goes perilously near the belief that God's will is less\nconcerned in some parts of a man's life than in others. It is very\nmuch like desecrating and secularising a whole land by the very act\nof focussing the sanctity in some single consecrated shrine. But the\ntrue belief is that the whole sweep of a life is under the will of\nGod, and that when, for instance, war ravages a nation, though the\nsufferers be involved in a common ruin occasioned by murderous\nambition and measureless pride, yet for each of the sufferers the\ncommon disaster has a special message. Let us believe in a divine\nwill which regards each individual caught up in the skirts of the\nhorrible storm, even as it regards each individual on whom the equal\nrays of His universal sunshine fall. Let us believe that every single\nsoul has a place in the heart, and is taken into account in the\npurposes of Him who moves the tempest, and makes His sun to shine\nupon the unthankful and on the good. Let us, in accordance with the\ncounsel of the Apostle here, first of all try to anchor and rest our\nown souls fast and firm in God all the day long, that, grasping His\nhand, we may look out upon all the confused dance of fleeting\ncircumstances and say, 'Thy will is done on earth'--if not yet 'as it\nis done in heaven,' still done in the issues and events of all--and\ndone with my cheerful obedience and thankful acceptance of its\ncommands and allotments in my own life.\n\nII. The second idea which comes out of these words is this--Such\nunion with God will lead to contented continuance in our place,\nwhatever it be.\n\nOur text is as if Paul had said, 'You have been \"called\" in such and\nsuch worldly circumstances. The fact proves that these circumstances\ndo not obstruct the highest and richest blessings. The light of God\ncan shine on your souls through them. Since then you have such sacred\nmemorials associated with them, and know by experience that\nfellowship with God is possible in them, do you remain where you are,\nand keep hold of the God who has visited you in them.'\n\nIf once, in accordance with the thoughts already suggested, our minds\nhave, by God's help, been brought into something like real, living\nfellowship with Him, and we have attained the wisdom that pierces\nthrough the external to the Almighty will that underlies all its mazy\nwhirl, then why should we care about shifting our place? Why should\nwe trouble ourselves about altering these varying events, since each\nin its turn is a manifestation of His mind and will; each in its turn\nis a means of discipline for us; and through all their variety a\nsingle purpose works, which tends to a single end--'that we should be\npartakers of His holiness'?\n\nAnd that is the one point of view from which we can bear to look upon\nthe world and not be utterly bewildered and over-mastered by it.\nCalmness and central peace are ours; a true appreciation of all\noutward good and a charm against the bitterest sting of outward evils\nare ours; a patient continuance in the place where He has set us is\nours--when by fellowship with Him we have learned to look upon our\nwork as primarily doing His will, and upon all our possessions and\nconditions primarily as means for making us like Himself. Most men\nseem to think that they have gone to the very bottom of the thing\nwhen they have classified the gifts of fortune as good or evil,\naccording as they produce pleasure or pain. But that is a poor,\nsuperficial classification. It is like taking and arranging books by\ntheir bindings and flowers by their colours. Instead of saying, 'We\ndivide life into two halves, and we put there all the joyful, and\nhere all the sad, for that is the ruling distinction'--let us rather\nsay, 'The whole is one, because it all comes from one purpose, and it\nall tends towards one end. The only question worth asking in regard\nto the externals of our life is--How far does each thing help me to\nbe a good man? how far does it open my understanding to apprehend\nHim? how far does it make my spirit pliable and plastic under His\ntouch? how far does it make me capable of larger reception of greater\ngifts from Himself? what is its effect in preparing me for that world\nbeyond?' Is there any other greater, more satisfying, more majestic\nthought of life than this--the scaffolding by which souls are built\nup into the temple of God? And to care whether a thing is painful or\npleasant is as absurd as to care whether the bricklayer's trowel is\nknocking the sharp corner off a brick, or plastering mortar on the\none below it before he lays it carefully on its course. Is the\n_building_ getting on? That is the one question that is worth\nthinking about.\n\nYou and I write our lives as if on one of those manifold writers\nwhich you use. A thin filmy sheet _here_, a bit of black paper\nbelow it; but the writing goes through upon the next page, and when\nthe blackness that divides two worlds is swept away _there_, the\nhistory of each life written by ourselves remains legible in\neternity. And the question is--What sort of autobiography are we\nwriting for the revelation of that day, and how far do our\ncircumstances help us to transcribe fair in our lives the will of our\nGod and the image of our Redeemer?\n\nIf, then, we have once got hold of that principle that all which\nis--summer and winter, storm and sunshine, possession and loss,\nmemory and hope, work and rest, and all the other antitheses of\nlife--is equally the product of His will, equally the manifestation\nof His mind, equally His means for our discipline, then we have the\namulet and talisman which will preserve us from the fever of desire\nand the shivering fits of anxiety as to things which perish. And, as\nthey tell of a Christian father who, riding by one of the great lakes\nof Switzerland all day long, on his journey to the Church Council\nthat was absorbing his thoughts, said towards evening to the deacon\nwho was pacing beside him, 'Where is the lake?' so you and I,\njourneying along by the margin of this great flood of things when\nwild storms sweep across it, or when the sunbeams glint upon its blue\nwaters, 'and birds of peace sit brooding on the charmed wave,' will\nbe careless of the changeful sea, if the eye looks beyond the visible\nand beholds the unseen, the unchanging real presences that make glory\nin the darkest lives, and 'sunshine in the shady place.' 'Let every\nman, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.'\n\nIII. Still further, another thought may be suggested from these\nwords, or rather from the connection in which they occur, and that\nis--Such contented continuance in our place is the dictate of the\ntruest wisdom.\n\nThere are two or three collateral topics, partly suggested by the\nvarious connections in which this commandment occurs in the chapter,\nfrom which I draw the few remarks I have to make now.\n\nAnd the first point I would suggest is that very old commonplace one,\nso often forgotten, that after all, though you may change about as\nmuch as you like, there is a pretty substantial equipoise and\nidentity in the amount of pain and pleasure in all external\nconditions. The total length of day and night all the year round is\nthe same at the North Pole and at the Equator--half and half. Only,\nin the one place, it is half and half for four-and-twenty hours at a\ntime, and in the other, the night lasts through gloomy months of\nwinter, and the day is bright for unbroken weeks of summer. But, when\nyou come to add them up at the year's end, the man who shivers in the\nice, and the man who pants beneath the beams from the zenith, have\nhad the same length of sunshine and of darkness. It does not matter\nmuch at what degrees between the Equator and the Pole you and I live;\nwhen the thing comes to be made up we shall be all pretty much upon\nan equality. You do not get the happiness of the rich man over the\npoor one by multiplying twenty shillings a week by as many figures as\nwill suffice to make it up to \u00a310,000 a year. What is the use of such\neager desires to change our condition, when every condition has\ndisadvantages attending its advantages as certainly as a shadow; and\nwhen all have pretty nearly the same quantity of the raw material of\npain and pleasure, and when the amount of either actually experienced\nby us depends not on where we are, but on _what_ we are?\n\nThen, still further, there is another consideration to be kept in\nmind upon which I do not enlarge, as what I have already said\ninvolves it--namely, that whilst the portion of external pain and\npleasure summed up comes pretty much to the same in everybody's life,\nany condition may yield the fruit of devout fellowship with God.\n\nAnother very remarkable idea suggested by a part of the context\nis--What is the need for my troubling myself about outward changes\nwhen _in Christ_ I can get all the peculiarities which make any\ngiven position desirable to me? For instance, hear how Paul talks to\nslaves eager to be set free: 'For he that is called in the Lord,\n_being_ a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that\nis called, _being_ free, is Christ's servant.' If you generalise\nthat principle it comes to this, that in union with Jesus Christ we\npossess, by our fellowship with Him, the peculiar excellences and\nblessings that are derivable from external relations of every sort.\nTo take concrete examples--if a man is a slave, he may be free in\nChrist. If free, he may have the joy of utter submission to an\nabsolute master in Christ. If you and I are lonely, we may feel all\nthe delights of society by union with Him. If surrounded and\ndistracted by companionship, and seeking for seclusion, we may get\nall the peace of perfect privacy in fellowship with Him. If we are\nrich, and sometimes think that we were in a position of less\ntemptation if we were poorer, we may find all the blessings for which\nwe sometimes covet poverty in communion with Him. If we are poor, and\nfancy that, if we had a little more just to lift us above the\ngrinding, carking care of to-day and the anxiety of to-morrow, we\nshould be happier, we may find all tranquillity in Him. And so you\nmay run through all the variety of human conditions, and say to\nyourself--What is the use of looking for blessings flowing from these\nfrom without? Enough for us if we grasp that Lord who is all in all,\nand will give us in peace the joy of conflict, in conflict the calm\nof peace, in health the refinement of sickness, in sickness the\nvigour and glow of health, in memory the brightness of undying hope,\nin hope the calming of holy memory, in wealth the lowliness of\npoverty, in poverty the ease of wealth; in life and in death being\nall and more than all that dazzles us by the false gleam of created\nbrightness!\n\nAnd so, finally--a remark which has no connection with the text\nitself, but which I cannot avoid inserting here--I want you to think,\nand think seriously, of the antagonism and diametrical opposition\nbetween these principles of my text and the maxims current in the\nworld, and nowhere more so than in this city. Our text is a\nrevolutionary one. It is dead against the watchwords that you fathers\ngive your children--'push,' 'energy,' 'advancement,' 'get on,\nwhatever you do.' You have made a philosophy of it, and you say that\nthis restless discontent with a man's present position and eager\ndesire to get a little farther ahead in the scramble, underlies much\nmodern civilisation and progress, and leads to the diffusion of\nwealth and to employment for the working classes, and to mechanical\ninventions, and domestic comforts, and I don't know what besides. You\nhave made a religion of it; and it is thought to be blasphemy for a\nman to stand up and say--'It is idolatry!' My dear brethren, I\ndeclare I solemnly believe that, if I were to go on to the Manchester\nExchange next Tuesday, and stand up and say--'There is no God,' I\nshould not be thought half such a fool as if I were to go and\nsay--'Poverty is not an evil _per se_, and men do not come into\nthis world to get _on_ but to get _up_--nearer and liker to\nGod.' If you, by God's grace, lay hold of this principle of my text,\nand honestly resolve to work it out, trusting in that dear Lord who\n'though He was rich yet for our sakes became poor,' in ninety-nine\ncases out of a hundred you will have to make up your minds to let the\nbig prizes of your trade go into other people's hands, and be\ncontented to say--'I live by peaceful, high, pure, Christ-like\nthoughts.' 'He that needs least,' said an old heathen, 'is nearest\nthe gods'; but I would rather modify the statement into, 'He that\nneeds most, and knows it, is nearest the gods.' For surely Christ is\nmore than mammon; and a spirit nourished by calm desires and holy\nthoughts into growing virtues and increasing Christlikeness is better\nthan circumstances ordered to our will, in the whirl of which we have\nlost our God. 'In everything by prayer and supplication, with\nthanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace\nof God and the God of peace shall keep your hearts and minds in\nChrist Jesus.'\n\n\n\n\n'LOVE BUILDETH UP'\n\n   'Now, as touching things offered unto idols, we know that\n   we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity\n   edifieth. 2. And if any man think that he knoweth any\n   thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. 3. But\n   if any man love God, the same is known of him. 4. As\n   concerning therefore the eating of those things that\n   are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an\n   idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none\n   other God but one. 5. For though there be that are called\n   gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods\n   many, and lords many,) 6. But to us there is but one God,\n   the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and\n   one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we\n   by Him. 7. Howbeit there is not in every man that\n   knowledge: for some, with conscience of the idol unto\n   this hour, eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and\n   their conscience being weak is defiled. 8. But meat\n   commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are\n   we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.\n   9. But take heed, lest by any means this liberty of\n   yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.\n   10. For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit\n   at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience\n   of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things\n   which are offered to idols; 11. And through thy knowledge\n   shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?\n   12. But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound\n   their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.\n   13. Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend,\n   I will eat no flesh while the world standeth,\n   lest I make my brother to offend.'--1 COR. viii. 1-13.\n\n\nIt is difficult for us to realise the close connection which existed\nbetween idol-worship and daily life. Something of the same sort is\nfound in all mission fields. It was almost impossible for Christians\nto take any part in society and not seem to sanction idolatry. Would\nthat Christianity were as completely interwoven with our lives as\nheathen religions are into those of their devotees! Paul seems to\nhave had referred to him a pressing case of conscience, which divided\nthe Corinthian Church, as to whether a Christian could join in the\nusual feasts or sacrifices. His answer is in this passage.\n\nThe longest way round is sometimes the shortest way home. The Apostle\nbegins far away from the subject in hand by running a contrast\nbetween knowledge and love, and setting the latter first. But his\ncontrast is very relevant to his purpose. Small questions should be\nsolved on great principles.\n\nThe first principle laid down by Paul is the superiority of love over\nknowledge, the bearing of which on the question in hand will appear\npresently. We note that there is first a distinct admission of the\nCorinthians' intelligence, though there is probably a tinge of irony\nin the language 'We know that we all have knowledge.' 'You\nCorinthians are fully aware that you are very superior people.\nWhatever else you know, you know that, and I fully recognise it.'\n\nThe admission is followed by a sudden, sharp comment, to which the\nCorinthians' knowledge that they knew laid them open. Swift as the\nthrust of a spear comes flashing 'Knowledge puffeth up.' Puffed-up\nthings are swollen by wind only, and the more they are inflated the\nhollower and emptier they are; and such a sharp point as Paul's\nsaying shrivels them. The statement is not meant as the assertion of\na necessary or uniform result of knowledge, but it does put plainly a\nvery usual result of it, if it is unaccompanied by love. It is\na strange, sad result of superior intelligence or acquirements, that\nit so often leads to conceit, to a false estimate of the worth and\npower of knowing, to a ridiculous over-valuing of certain\nacquirements, and to an insolent contempt and cruel disregard of\nthose who have them not. Paul's dictum has been only too well\nconfirmed by experience.\n\n'Love builds up,' or 'edifies.' Probably the main direction in which\nthat building up is conceived of as taking effect, is in aiding the\nprogress of our neighbours, especially in the religious life. But the\ntendency of love to rear a fair fabric of personal character is not\nto be overlooked. In regard to effect on character, the palm must be\ngiven to love, which produces solid excellence far beyond what mere\nknowledge can effect. Further, that pluming one's self on knowledge\nis a sure proof of ignorance. The more real our acquirements, the\nmore they disclose our deficiencies. All self-conceit hinders us from\ngrowing intellectually or morally, and intellectual conceit is the\nworst kind of it.\n\nVery significantly, love to God, and not the simple emotion of love\nwithout reference to its object, is opposed to knowledge; for love so\ndirected is the foundation of all excellence, and of all real love to\nmen. Love to God is not the antithesis of true knowledge, but it is\nthe only victorious antagonist of the conceit of knowing. Very\nsignificantly, too, does Paul vary his conclusion in verse 3 by\nsaying that the man who loves God 'is known of Him,' instead of, as\nwe might have expected, 'knows Him.' The latter is true, but the\nstatement in the verse puts more strongly the thought of the man's\nbeing an object of God's care. In regard, then, to their effects on\ncharacter, in producing consideration and helpfulness to others, and\nin securing God's protection, love stands first, and knowledge\nsecond.\n\nWhat has all this to do with the question in hand? This, that if\nlooked at from the standpoint of knowledge, it may be solved in one\nway, but if from that of love, it will be answered in another. So, in\nverses 4-6, Paul treats the matter on the ground of knowledge. The\nfundamental truth of Christianity, that there is one God, who is\nrevealed and works through Jesus Christ, was accepted by all the\nCorinthians. Paul states it here broadly, denying that there were any\nobjective realities answering to the popular conceptions or poetic\nfancies or fair artistic presentments of the many gods and lords of\nthe Greek pantheon, and asserting that all Christians recognise one\nGod, the Father, from whom the universe of worlds and living things\nhas origin, and to whom we as Christians specially belong, and one\nLord, the channel through whom all divine operations of creation,\nprovidence, and grace flow, and by whose redeeming work we Christians\nare endowed with our best life. If a believer was fully convinced of\nthese truths, he could partake of sacrificial feasts without danger\nto himself, and without either sanctioning idolatry or being tempted\nto return to it.\n\nNo doubt it was on this ground that an idol was nothing that the\nlaxer party defended their action in eating meat offered to idols;\nand Paul fully recognises that they had a strong case, and that, if\nthere were no other considerations to come in, the answer to the\nquestion of conscience submitted to him would be wholly in favour of\nthe less scrupulous section. But there is something better than\nknowledge; namely, love. And its decision must be taken before the\nwhole material for a judgment is in evidence.\n\nTherefore, in the remainder of the chapter, Paul dwells on loving\nregard for brethren. In verse 7, he reminds the 'knowing' Corinthians\nthat new convictions do not obliterate the power of old associations.\nThe awful fascination of early belief still exercises influence. The\nchains are not wholly broken off. Every mission field shows examples\nof this. Every man knows that habits are not so suddenly overcome,\nthat there is no hankering after them or liability to relapse. It\nwould be a dangerous thing for a weak believer to risk sharing in an\nidol feast; for he would be very likely to slide down to his old\nlevel of belief, and Zeus or Pallas to seem to him real powers once\nmore.\n\nThe considerations in verse 7 would naturally be followed by the\nfurther thoughts in verse 9, etc. But, before dealing with these,\nPaul interposes another thought in verse 8, to the effect that\npartaking of or abstinence from any kind of food will not, in itself,\neither help or hinder the religious life. The bearing of that\nprinciple on his argument seems to be to reduce the importance of the\nwhole question, and to suggest that, since eating of idol sacrifices\ncould not be called a duty or a means of spiritual progress, the way\nwas open to take account of others' weakness as determining our\naction in regard to it. A modern application may illustrate the\npoint. Suppose that a Christian does not see total abstinence from\nintoxicants to be obligatory on him. Well, he cannot say that\ndrinking is so, or that it is a religious duty, and so the way is\nclear for urging regard to others' weakness as an element in the\ncase.\n\nThat being premised, Paul comes to his final point; namely, that\nChristian men are bound to restrict their liberty so that they shall\nnot tempt weaker brethren on to a path on which they cannot walk\nwithout stumbling. He has just shown the danger to such of partaking\nof the sacrificial feasts. He now completes his position by showing,\nin verse 10, that the stronger man's example may lead the weaker to\ndo what he cannot do innocently. What is harmless to us may be fatal\nto others, and, if we have led them to it, their blood is on our\nheads.\n\nThe terrible discordance of such conduct with our Lord's example,\nwhich should be our law, is forcibly set forth in verse 11, which has\nthree strongly emphasised thoughts--the man's fate--he perishes; his\nrelation to his slayer--a brother; what Christ did for the man whom a\nChristian has sent to destruction--died for him. These solemn\nthoughts are deepened in verse 12, which reminds us of the intimate\nunion between the weakest and Christ, by which He so identifies\nHimself with them that any blow struck on them touches Him.\n\nThere is no greater sin than to tempt weak or ignorant Christians to\nthoughts or acts which their ignorance or weakness cannot entertain\nor do without damage to their religion. There is much need for laying\nthat truth to heart in these days. Both in the field of speculation\nand of conduct, Christians, who think that they know so much better\nthan ignorant believers, need to be reminded of it.\n\nSo Paul, in verse 13, at last answers the question. His sudden\nturning to his own conduct is beautiful. He will not so much command\nothers, as proclaim his own determination. He does so with\ncharacteristic vehemence and hyperbole. No doubt the liberal party in\nCorinth were ready to complain against the proposal to restrict their\nfreedom because of others' weakness; and they would be disarmed, or\nat least silenced, and might be stimulated to like noble resolution,\nby Paul's example.\n\nThe principle plainly laid down here is as distinctly applicable to\nthe modern question of abstinence from intoxicants. No one can doubt\nthat 'moderation' in their use by some tempts others to use which\nsoon becomes fatally immoderate. The Church has been robbed of\npromising members thereby, over and over again. How can a Christian\nman cling to a 'moderate' use of these things, and run the risk of\ndestroying by his example a brother for whom Christ died?\n\n\n\n\nTHE SIN OF SILENCE\n\n   'For though I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to glory\n   of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me,\n   if I preach not the Gospel! 17. For if I do this thing\n   willingly, I have a reward.'--1 COR. ix. 16, 17.\n\n\nThe original reference of these words is to the Apostle's principle\nand practice of not receiving for his support money from the\nchurches. Gifts he did accept; pay he did not. The exposition of his\nreason is interesting, ingenuous, and chivalrous. He strongly asserts\nhis right, even while he as strongly declares that he will waive it.\nThe reason for his waiving it is that he desires to have somewhat in\nhis service beyond the strict line of his duty. His preaching itself,\nwith all its toils and miseries, was but part of his day's work,\nwhich he was bidden to do, and for doing which he deserved no thanks\nnor praise. But he would like to have a little bit of glad service\nover and above what he is ordered to do, that, as he ingenuously\nsays, he may have 'somewhat to boast of.'\n\nIn this exposition of motives we have two great principles actuating\nthe Apostle--one, his profound sense of obligation, and the other his\ndesire, if it might be, to do more than he was bound to do, because\nhe loved his work so much. And though he is speaking here as an\napostle, and his example is not to be unconditionally transferred to\nus, yet I think that the motives which actuated his conduct are\ncapable of unconditional application to ourselves.\n\nThere are three things here. There is the obligation of speech, there\nis the penalty of silence, and there is the glad obedience which\ntranscends obligation.\n\nI. First, mark the obligation of speech.\n\nNo doubt the Apostle had, in a special sense, a 'necessity laid upon'\nhim, which was first laid upon him on that road to Damascus, and\nrepeated many a time in his life. But though he differs from us in\nthe direct supernatural commission which was given to him, in the\nwidth of the sphere in which he had to work, and in the splendour of\nthe gifts which were entrusted to his stewardship, he does not differ\nfrom us in the reality of the obligation which was laid upon him.\nEvery Christian man is as truly bound as was Paul to preach the\nGospel. The commission does not depend upon apostolic dignity. Jesus\nChrist, when He said, 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the\nGospel to every creature,' was not speaking to the eleven, but to all\ngenerations of His Church. And whilst there are many other motives on\nwhich we may rest the Christian duty of propagating the Christian\nfaith, I think that we shall be all the better if we bottom it upon\nthis, the distinct and definite commandment of Jesus Christ, the grip\nof which encloses all who for themselves have found that the Lord is\ngracious.\n\nFor that commandment is permanent. It is exactly contemporaneous with\nthe duration of the promise which is appended to it, and whosoever\nsuns himself in the light of the latter is bound by the precept of\nthe former. 'Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world,'\ndefines the duration of the promise, and it defines also the duration\nof the duty. Nay, even the promise is made conditional upon the\ndischarge of the duty enjoined. For it is to the Church 'going into\nall the world, and preaching the Gospel to every creature,' that the\npromise of an abiding presence is made.\n\nLet us remember, too, that, just because this commission is given to\nthe whole Church, it is binding on every individual member of the\nChurch. There is a very common fallacy, not confined to this subject,\nbut extending over the whole field of Christian duty, by which things\nthat are obligatory on the community are shuffled off the shoulders\nof the individual. But we have to remember that the whole Church is\nnothing more than the sum total of all its members, and that nothing\nis incumbent upon it which is not in their measure incumbent upon\neach of them. Whatsoever Christ says to all, He says to each, and the\ncommunity has no duties which you and I have not.\n\nOf course, there are diversities of forms of obedience to this\ncommandment; of course, the restrictions of locality and the other\nobligations of life, come in to modify it; and it is not every man's\nduty to wander over the whole world doing this work. But the direct\nwork of communicating to others who know it not the sweetness and the\npower of Jesus Christ belongs to every Christian man. You cannot buy\nyourselves out of the ranks, as they used to be able to do out of the\nmilitia, by paying for a substitute. Both forms of service are\nobligatory upon each of us. We all, if we know anything of Christ and\nHis love and His power, are bound, by the fact that we do know it, to\ntell it to those whom we can reach. You have all got congregations if\nyou would look for them. There is not a Christian man or woman in\nthis world who has not somebody that he or she can speak to more\nefficiently than anybody else can. You have your friends, your\nrelations, the people with whom you are brought into daily contact,\nif you have no wider congregations. You cannot all stand up and\npreach in the sense in which I do so. But this is not the meaning of\nthe word in the New Testament. It does not imply a pulpit, nor a set\ndiscourse, nor a gathered multitude; it simply implies a herald's\ntask of proclaiming. Everybody who has found Jesus Christ can say, 'I\nhave found the Messiah,' and everybody who knows Him can say, 'Come\nand hear, and I will tell what the Lord hath done for my soul.' Since\nyou can do it you are bound to do it; and if you are one of 'the dumb\ndogs, lying down and loving to slumber,' of whom there are such\ncrowds paralysing the energies and weakening the witness of every\nChurch upon earth, then you are criminally and suicidally oblivious\nof an obligation which is a joy and a privilege as much as a duty.\n\nOh, brethren! I do want to lay on the consciences of all you\nChristian people this, that nothing can absolve you from the\nobligation of personal, direct speech to some one of Christ and His\nsalvation. Unless you can say, 'I have not refrained my lips, O Lord!\nThou knowest,' there frowns over against you an unfulfilled duty, the\nneglect of which is laming your spiritual activity, and drying up the\nsources of your spiritual strength.\n\nBut, then, besides this direct effort, there are the other indirect\nmethods in which this commandment can be discharged, by sympathy and\nhelp of all sorts, about which I need say no more here.\n\nJesus Christ's ideal of His Church was an active propaganda, an army\nin which there were no non-combatants, even although some of the\ncombatants might be detailed to remain in the camp and look after the\nstuff, and others of them might be in the forefront of the battle.\nBut is that ideal ever fulfilled in any of our churches? How many\namongst us there are who do absolutely nothing in the shape of\nChristian work! Some of us seem to think that the voluntary principle\non which our Nonconformist churches are largely organised means, 'I\ndo not need to do anything unless I like. Inclination is the guide of\nduty, and if I do not care to take any active part in the work of our\nchurch, nobody has anything to say.' No man can force me, but if\nJesus Christ says to me, 'Go!' and I say, 'I had rather not,' Jesus\nChrist and I have to settle accounts between us. The less _men_\ncontrol, the more stringent ought to be the control of Christ. And if\nthe principle of Christian obedience is a willing heart, then the\nduty of a Christian is to see that the heart is willing.\n\nA stringent obligation, not to be shuffled off by any of the excuses\nthat we make, is laid upon us all. It makes very short work of a\nnumber of excuses. There is a great deal in the tone of this\ngeneration which tends to chill the missionary spirit. We know more\nabout the heathen world, and familiarity diminishes horror. We have\ntaken up, many of us, milder and more merciful ideas about the\ncondition of those who die without knowing the name of Jesus Christ.\nWe have taken to the study of comparative religion as a science,\nforgetting sometimes that the thing that we are studying as a science\nis spreading a dark cloud of ignorance and apathy over millions of\nmen. And all these reasons somewhat sap the strength and cool the\nfervour of a good many Christian people nowadays. Jesus Christ's\ncommandment remains just as it was.\n\nThen some of us say, 'I prefer working at home!' Well, if you are\ndoing all that you can there, and really are enthusiastically devoted\nto one phase of Christian service, the great principle of division of\nlabour comes in to warrant your not entering upon other fields which\nothers cultivate. But unless you are thus casting all your energies\ninto the work which you say that you prefer, there is no reason in it\nwhy you should do nothing in the other direction. Jesus Christ still\nsays, 'Go ye into all the world.'\n\nThen some of you say, 'Well, I do not much believe in your missionary\nsocieties. There is a great deal of waste of money about them. A\nnumber of things there are that one does not approve of. I have heard\nstories about missionaries being very idle, very luxurious, and\ntaking too much pay, and doing too little work.' Well, be it so! Very\nprobably it is partly true; though I do not know that the people\nwhose testimony is so willingly accepted, to the detriment of our\nbrethren in foreign lands, are precisely the kind of people that\nshould talk much about self-sacrifice and luxurious living, or whose\nestimate of Christian work is to be relied upon. I fancy many of\nthem, if they walked about the streets of an English town, would have\na somewhat similar report to give, as they have when they walk about\nthe streets of an Indian one. But be that as it may, does that\nindictment draw a wet sponge across the commandment of Jesus Christ?\nor can you chisel out of the stones of Sinai one of the words\nwritten there, by reason of the imperfections of those who are\nseeking to obey them? Surely not! Christ still says, 'Go ye into all\nthe world!'\n\nI sometimes venture to think that the day will come when the\ncondition of being received into, and retained in, the communion of a\nChristian church will be obedience to that commandment. Why, even\nbees have the sense at a given time of the year to turn the drones\nout of the hives, and sting them to death. I do not recommend the\nlast part of the process, but I am not sure but that it would be a\nbenefit to us all, both to those ejected and to those retained, that\nwe should get rid of that added weight that clogs every organised\ncommunity in this and other lands--the dead weight of idlers who say\nthat they are Christ's disciples. Whether it is a condition of church\nmembership or not, sure I am that it is a condition of fellowship\nwith Jesus Christ, and a condition, therefore, of health in the\nChristian life, that it should be a life of active obedience to this\nplain, imperative, permanent, and universal command.\n\nII. Secondly, a word as to the penalty of silence.\n\n'Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.' I suppose Paul is thinking\nmainly of a future issue, but not exclusively of that. At all events,\nlet me point you, in a word or two, to the plain penalties of silence\nhere, and to the awful penalties of silence hereafter.\n\n'Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.' If you are a dumb and idle\nprofessor of Christ's truth, depend upon it that your dumb idleness\nwill rob you of much communion with Jesus Christ. There are many\nChristians who would be ever so much happier, more joyous, and more\nassured Christians if they would go and talk about Christ to other\npeople. Because they have locked up God's word in their hearts it\nmelts away unknown, and they lose more than they suspect of the\nsweetness and buoyancy and assured confidence that might mark them,\nfor no other reason than because they seek to keep their morsel to\nthemselves. Like that mist that lies white and dull over the ground\non a winter's morning, which will be blown away with the least puff\nof fresh air, there lie doleful dampnesses, in their sooty folds,\nover many a Christian heart, shutting out the sun from the earth, and\na little whiff of wholesome activity in Christ's cause would clear\nthem all away, and the sun would shine down upon men again. If you\nwant to be a happy Christian, work for Jesus Christ. I do not lay\nthat down as a specific by itself. There are other things to be taken\nin conjunction with it, but yet it remains true that the woe of a\nlanguid Christianity attaches to the men who, being professing\nChristians, are silent when they should speak, and idle when they\nshould work.\n\nThere is, further, the woe of the loss of sympathies, and the gain of\nall the discomforts and miseries of a self-absorbed life. And there\nis, further, the woe of the loss of one of the best ways of\nconfirming one's own faith in the truth--viz. that of seeking to\nimpart it to others. If you want to learn a thing, teach it. If you\nwant to grasp the principles of any science, try to explain it to\nsomebody who does not understand it. If you want to know where, in\nthese days of jangling and controversy, the true, vital centre of the\nGospel is, and what is the essential part of the revelation of God,\ngo and tell sinful men about Jesus Christ who died for them; and you\nwill find out that it is the Cross, and Him who died thereon, as\ndying for the world, that is the power which can move men's hearts.\nAnd so you will cleave with a closer grasp, in days of difficulty and\nunsettlement, to that which is able to bring light into darkness and\nto harmonise the discord of a troubled and sinful soul. And, further,\nthere is the woe of having none that can look to you and say, 'I owe\nmyself to thee.' Oh, brethren! there is no greater joy accessible to\na man than that of feeling that through his poor words Christ has\nentered into a brother's heart. And you are throwing away all this\nbecause you shut your mouths and neglect the plain commandment of\nyour Lord.\n\nAy! but that is not all. There is a future to be taken into account,\nand I think that Christian people do far too little realise the\nsolemn truth that it is not all the same _then_ whether a man\nhas kept his Master's commandments or neglected them. I believe that\nwhilst a very imperfect faith saves a man, there is such a thing as\nbeing 'saved, yet so as through fire,' and that there is such a thing\nas having 'an abundant entrance ministered unto us into the\neverlasting kingdom.' He whose life has been very slightly influenced\nby Christian principle, and who has neglected plain, imperative\nduties, will not stand on the same level of blessedness as the man\nwho has more completely yielded himself in life to the constraining\npower of Christ's love, and has sought to keep all His commandments.\n\nHeaven is not a dead level. Every man there will receive as much\nblessedness as he is capable of, but capacities will vary, and the\nprincipal factor in determining the capacity, which capacity\ndetermines the blessedness, will be the thoroughness of obedience to\nall the ordinances of Christ in the course of the life upon earth.\nSo, though we know, and therefore dare say, little about that future,\nI do beseech you to take this to heart, that he who there can stand\nbefore God, and say, 'Behold! I and the children whom God hath given\nme' will wear a crown brighter than the starless ones of those who\nsaved themselves, and have brought none with them.\n\n'Some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship, they all came\nsafe to land.' But the place where they stand depends on their\nChristian life, and of that Christian life one main element is\nobedience to the commandment which makes them the apostles and\nmissionaries of their Lord.\n\nIII. Lastly, note the glad obedience which transcends the limits of\nobligation.\n\n'If I do this thing willingly I have a reward.' Paul desired to bring\na little more than was required, in token of his love to his Master,\nand of his thankful acceptance of the obligation. The artist who\nloves his work will put more work into his picture than is absolutely\nneeded, and will linger over it, lavishing diligence and care upon\nit, because he is in love with his task. The servant who seeks to do\nas little as he can scrape through with without rebuke is actuated by\nno high motives. The trader who barely puts as much into the scale as\nwill balance the weight in the other is grudging in his dealings; but\nhe who, with liberal hand, gives 'shaken down, pressed together, and\nrunning over' measure, gives because he delights in the giving.\n\nAnd so it is in the Christian life. There are many of us whose\nquestion seems to be, 'How little can I get off with? how much can I\nretain?'--many of us whose effort is to find out how much of the\nworld is consistent with the profession of Christianity, and to find\nthe minimum of effort, of love, of service, of gifts which may free\nus from obligation.\n\nAnd what does that mean? It means that we are slaves. It means that\nif we durst we would give nothing, and do nothing. And what does that\nmean? It means that we do not care for the Lord, and have no joy in\nour work. And what does that mean? It means that our work deserves no\npraise, and will get no reward. If we love Christ we shall be\nanxious, if it were possible, to do more than He commands us, in\ntoken of our loyalty to the King, and of our delight in the service.\nOf course, in the highest view, nothing can be more than necessary.\nOf course He has the right to all our work; but yet there are heights\nof Christian consecration and self-sacrifice which a man will not be\nblamed if he has not climbed, and will be praised if he has. What we\nwant, if I might venture to say so, is extravagance of service. Judas\nmay say, 'To what purpose is this waste?' but Jesus will say, He\n'hath wrought a good work on Me,' and the fragrance of the ointment\nwill smell sweet through the centuries.\n\nSo, dear brethren, the upshot of the whole thing is, Do not let us do\nour Christian work reluctantly, else it is only slave's work, and\nthere is no blessing in it, and no reward will come to us from it. Do\nnot let us ask, 'How little may I do?' but 'How much can I do?' Thus,\nasking, we shall not offer as burnt offering to the Lord that which\ndoth cost us nothing. On His part He has given the commandment as a\nsign of His love. The stewardship is a token that He trusts us, the\nduty is an honour, the burden is a grace. On our parts let us seek\nfor the joy of service which is not contented with the bare amount of\nthe tribute that is demanded, but gives something over, if it were\npossible, because of our love to Him. They who thus give to Jesus\nChrist their all of love and effort and service will receive it all\nback a hundredfold, for the Master is not going to be in debt to any\nof His servants, and He says to them all, 'I will repay it, howbeit I\nsay not unto thee how thou owest unto Me even thine own self\nbesides.'\n\n\n\n\nA SERVANT OF MEN\n\n   'For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself\n   servant unto all, that I might gain the more. 20. And unto\n   the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to\n   them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might\n   gain them that are under the law; 21. To them that are\n   without law, as without law, (being not without law to\n   God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them\n   that are without law. 22. To the weak became I as weak,\n   that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all\n   men, that I might by all means save some. 23. And this I\n   do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof\n   with you.'--1 COR. ix. 19-23.\n\n\nPaul speaks much of himself, but he is not an egotist. When he says,\n'I do so and so,' it is a gracious way of enjoining the same conduct\non his readers. He will lay no burden on them which he does not\nhimself carry. The leader who can say 'Come' is not likely to want\nfollowers. So, in this section, the Apostle is really enjoining on\nthe Corinthians the conduct which he declares is his own.\n\nThe great principle incumbent on all Christians, with a view to the\nsalvation of others, is to go as far as one can without\nuntruthfulness in the direction of finding points of resemblance and\ncontact with those to whom we would commend the Gospel. There is a\nbase counterfeit of this apostolic example, which slurs over\ndistinctive beliefs, and weakly tries to please everybody by\ndiffering from nobody. That trimming to catch all winds never gains\nany. Mr. Facing-both-ways is not a powerful evangelist. The motive of\nbecoming all things to all men must be plainly disinterested, and the\nassimilation must have love for the souls concerned and eagerness to\nbring the truth to them, and them to the truth, legibly stamped upon\nit, or it will be regarded, and rightly so, as mere cowardice or\ndishonesty. And there must be no stretching the assimilation to the\nlength of either concealing truth or fraternising in evil. Love to my\nneighbour can never lead to my joining him in wrongdoing.\n\nBut, while the limits of this assumption of the colour of our\nsurroundings are plainly marked, there is ample space within these\nfor the exercise of this eminently Christian grace. We must get near\npeople if we would help them. Especially must we identify ourselves\nwith them in sympathy, and seek to multiply points of assimilation,\nif we would draw them to Jesus Christ. He Himself had to become man\nthat He might gain men, and His servants have to do likewise, in\ntheir degree. The old story of the Christian teacher who voluntarily\nbecame a slave, that he might tell of Christ to slaves, has in spirit\nto be repeated by us all.\n\nWe can do no good by standing aloof on a height and flinging down the\nGospel to the people below. They must feel that we enter into their\ncircumstances, prejudices, ways of thinking, and the like, if our\nwords are to have power. That is true about all Christian teachers,\nwhether of old or young. You must be a boy among boys, and try to\nshow that you enter into the boy's nature, or you may lecture till\ndoomsday and do no good.\n\nPaul instances three cases in which he had acted, and still continued\nto do so, on this principle. He was a Jew, but after his conversion\nhe had to 'become a Jew' by a distinct act; that is, he had receded\nso far from his old self, that he, if he had had only himself to\nthink of, would have given up all Jewish observances. But he felt it\nhis duty to conciliate prejudice as far as he could, and so, though\nhe would have fought to the death rather than given countenance to\nthe belief that circumcision was necessary, he had no scruple about\ncircumcising Timothy; and, though he believed that for Christians the\nwhole ancient ritual was abolished, he was quite willing, if it would\nsmooth away the prejudices of the 'many thousands of Jews who\nbelieved,' to show, by his participation in the temple worship, that\nhe 'walked orderly, keeping the law.' If he was told 'You must,' his\nanswer could only be 'I will not'; but if it was a question of\nconciliating, he was ready to go all lengths for that.\n\nThe category which he names next is not composed of different persons\nfrom the first, but of the same persons regarded from a somewhat\ndifferent point of view. 'Them that are under the law' describes\nJews, not by their race, but by their religion; and Paul was willing\nto take his place among them, as we have just observed. But he will\nnot do that so as to be misunderstood, wherefore he protests that in\ndoing so he is voluntarily abridging his freedom for a specific\npurpose. He is not 'under the law'; for the very pith of his view of\nthe Christian's position is that he has nothing to do with that\nMosaic law in any of its parts, because Christ has made him free.\n\nThe second class to whom in his wide sympathies he is able to\nassimilate himself, is the opposite of the former--the Gentiles who\nare 'without law.' He did not preach on Mars' Hill as he did in the\nsynagogues. The many-sided Gospel had aspects fitted for the Gentiles\nwho had never heard of Moses, and the many-sided Apostle had links of\nlikeness to the Greek and the barbarian. But here, too, his\nassimilation of himself to those whom he seeks to win is voluntary;\nwherefore he protests that he is not without law, though he\nrecognises no longer the obligations of Moses' law, for he is 'under\n[or, rather, \"in\"] law to Christ.'\n\n'The weak' are those too scrupulous-conscienced Christians of whom he\nhas been speaking in chapter viii. and whose narrow views he exhorted\nstronger brethren to respect, and to refrain from doing what they\ncould do without harming their own consciences, lest by doing it they\nshould induce a brother to do the same, whose conscience would prick\nhim for it. That is a lesson needed to-day as much as, or more than,\nin Paul's time, for the widely different degrees of culture and\ndiversities of condition, training, and associations among Christians\nnow necessarily result in very diverse views of Christian conduct in\nmany matters. The grand principle laid down here should guide us all,\nboth in regard to fellow-Christians and others. Make yourself as like\nthem as you honestly can; restrict yourself of allowable acts, in\ndeference to even narrow prejudices; but let the motive of your\nassimilating yourself to others be clearly their highest good, that\nyou may 'gain' them, not for yourself but for your Master.\n\nVerse 23 lays down Paul's ruling principle, which both impelled him\nto become all things to all men, with a view to their salvation, as\nhe has been saying, and urged him to effort and self-discipline, with\na view to his own, as he goes on to say. 'For the Gospel's sake'\nseems to point backward; 'that I may be a joint partaker thereof\npoints forward. We have not only to preach the Gospel to others, but\nto live on it and be saved by it ourselves.\n\n\n\n\nHOW THE VICTOR RUNS\n\n   'So run, that ye may obtain.'--1 COR. ix. 24.\n\n\n'_So_ run.' Does that mean 'Run so that ye obtain?' Most people,\nI suppose, superficially reading the words, attach that significance\nto them, but the 'so' here carries a much greater weight of meaning\nthan that. It is a word of comparison. The Apostle would have the\nCorinthians recall the picture which he has been putting before\nthem--a picture of a scene that was very familiar to them; for, as\nmost of us know, one of the most important of the Grecian games was\ncelebrated at intervals in the immediate neighbourhood of Corinth.\nMany of the Corinthian converts had, no doubt, seen, or even taken\npart in them. The previous portion of the verse in which our text\noccurs appeals to the Corinthians' familiar knowledge of the arena\nand the competitors, 'Know ye not that they which run in a race run\nall, but one receiveth the prize?' He would have them picture the\neager racers, with every muscle strained, and the one victor starting\nto the front; and then he says, 'Look at that panting conqueror. That\nis how you should run. _So_ run--'meaning thereby not, 'Run so that\nyou may obtain the prize,' but 'Run so' as the victor does, 'in order\nthat you may obtain.' So, then, this victor is to be a lesson to us,\nand we are to take a leaf out of his book. Let us see what he teaches\nus.\n\nI. The first thing is, the utmost tension and energy and strenuous\neffort.\n\nIt is very remarkable that Paul should pick out these Grecian games\nas containing for Christian people any lesson, for they were\nhoneycombed, through and through, with idolatry and all sorts of\nimmorality, so that no Jew ventured to go near them, and it was part\nof the discipline of the early Christian Church that professing\nChristians should have nothing to do with them in any shape.\n\nAnd yet here, as in many other parts of his letters, Paul takes these\nfoul things as patterns for Christians. 'There is a soul of goodness\nin things evil, if we would observantly distil it out.' It is very\nmuch as if English preachers were to refer their people to a\nracecourse, and say, 'Even there you may pick out lessons, and learn\nsomething of the way in which Christian people ought to live.'\n\nOn the same principle the New Testament deals with that diabolical\nbusiness of fighting. It is taken as an emblem for the Christian\nsoldier, because, with all its devilishness, there is in it this, at\nleast, that men give themselves up absolutely to the will of their\ncommander, and are ready to fling away their lives if he lifts his\nfinger. That at least is grand and noble, and to be imitated on a\nhigher plane.\n\nIn like manner Paul takes these poor racers as teaching us a lesson.\nThough the thing be all full of sin, we can get one valuable thought\nout of it, and it is this--If people would work half as hard to gain\nthe highest object that a man can set before him, as hundreds of\npeople are ready to do in order to gain trivial and paltry objects,\nthere would be fewer stunted and half-dead Christians amongst us.\n'That is the way to run,' says Paul, 'if you want to obtain.'\n\nLook at the contrast that he hints at, between the prize that stirs\nthese racers' energies into such tremendous operation and the prize\nwhich Christians profess to be pursuing. 'They do it to obtain a\ncorruptible crown'--a twist of pine branch out of the neighbouring\ngrove, worth half-a-farthing, and a little passing glory not worth\nmuch more. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown; we do _not_ do\nit, though we professedly have an incorruptible one as our aim and\nobject. If we contrast the relative values of the objects that men\npursue so eagerly, and the objects of the Christian course, surely we\nought to be smitten down with penitent consciousness of our own\nunworthiness, if not of our own hypocrisy.\n\nIt is not even there that the lesson stops, because we Christian\npeople may be patterns and rebukes to ourselves. For, on the one side\nof our nature we show what we can do when we are really in earnest\nabout getting something; and on the other side we show with how\nlittle work we can be contented, when, at bottom, we do not much care\nwhether we get the prize or not. If you and I really believed that\nthat crown of glory which Paul speaks about might be ours, and would\nbe all sufficing for us if it were ours, as truly as we believe that\nmoney is a good thing, there would not be such a difference between\nthe way in which we clutch at the one and the apathy which scarcely\ncares to put out a hand for the other. The things that are seen and\ntemporal do get the larger portion of the energies and thoughts of\nthe average Christian man, and the things that are unseen and eternal\nget only what is left. Sometimes ninety per cent. of the water of a\nstream is taken away to drive a milldam or do work, and only ten per\ncent. can be spared to trickle down the half-dry channel and do\nnothing but reflect the bright sun and help the little flowers and\nthe grass to grow. So, the larger portion of most lives goes to drive\nthe mill-wheels, and there is very little left, in the case of many\nof us, in order to help us towards God, and bring us closer into\ncommunion with our Lord. 'Run' for the crown as eagerly as you 'run'\nfor your incomes, or for anything that you really, in your deepest\ndesires, want. Take yourselves for your own patterns and your own\nrebukes. Your own lives may show you how you _can_ love, hope, work,\nand deny yourselves when you have sufficient inducement, and their\nflame should put to shame their frost, for the warmth is directed\ntowards trifles and the coldness towards the crown. If you would run\nfor the incorruptible prize of effort in the fashion in which others\nand yourselves run for the corruptible, your whole lives would be\nchanged. Why! if Christian people in general really took half--half?\nay! a tenth part of--the honest, persistent pains to improve their\nChristian character, and become more like Jesus Christ, which a\nviolinist will take to master his instrument, there would be a new\nlife for most of our Christian communities. Hours and hours of\npatient practice are not too much for the one; how many moments do we\ngive to the other? 'So run, that ye obtain.'\n\nII. The victorious runner sets Christians an example of rigid\nself-control.\n\nEvery man that is striving for the mastery is 'temperate in all\nthings.' The discipline for runners and athletes was rigid. They had\nten months of spare diet--no wine--hard gymnastic exercises every\nday, until not an ounce of superfluous flesh was upon their muscles,\nbefore they were allowed to run in the arena. And, says Paul, that is\nthe example for us. They practise this rigid discipline and\nabstinence by way of preparation for the race, and after it was run\nthey might dispense with the training. You and I have to practise\nrigid abstinence as part of the race, as a continuous necessity.\n_They_ did not abstain only from bad things, they did not only\navoid criminal acts of sensuous indulgence; but they abstained from\nmany perfectly legitimate things. So for us it is not enough to say,\n'I draw the line there, at this or that vice, and I will have nothing\nto do with these.' You will never make a growing Christian if\nabstinence from palpable sins only is your standard. You must 'lay\naside' every sin, of course, but also 'every _weight_' Many\nthings are 'weights' that are not 'sins'; and if we are to run fast\nwe must run light, and if we are to do any good in this world we have\nto live by rigid control and abstain from much that is perfectly\nlegitimate, because, if we do not, we shall fail in accomplishing the\nhighest purposes for which we are here. Not only in regard to the\ngross sensual indulgences which these men had to avoid, but in regard\nto a great deal of the outgoings of our interests and our hearts, we\nhave to apply the knife very closely and cut to the quick, if we\nwould have leisure and sympathy and affection left for loftier\nobjects. It is a very easy thing to be a Christian in one aspect,\ninasmuch as a Christian at bottom is a man that is trusting to Jesus\nChrist, and that is not hard to do. It is a very hard thing to be a\nChristian in another aspect, because a real Christian is a man who,\nby reason of his trusting Jesus Christ, has set his heel upon the\nneck of the animal that is in him, and keeps the flesh well down, and\nnot only the flesh, but the desires of the mind as well as of the\nflesh, and subordinates them all to the one aim of pleasing Him. 'No\nman that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life' if\nhis object is to please Him that has called him to be a soldier.\nUnless we cut off a great many of the thorns, so to speak, by which\nthings catch hold of us as we pass them, we shall not make much\nadvance in the Christian life. Rigid self-control and abstinence from\nelse legitimate things that draw us away from Him are needful, if we\nare so to run as the poor heathen racer teaches us.\n\nIII. The last grace that is suggested here, the last leaf to take out\nof these racers' book, is definiteness and concentration of aim.\n\n'I, therefore,' says the Apostle, 'so run not as uncertainly.' If the\nrunner is now heading that way and now this, making all manner of\nloops upon his path, of course he will be left hopelessly in the\nrear. It is the old fable of the Grecian mythology transplanted into\nChristian soil. The runner who turned aside to pick up the golden\napple was disappointed of his hopes of the radiant fair. The ship, at\nthe helm of which is a steersman who has either a feeble hand or does\nnot understand his business, and which therefore keeps yawing from\nside to side, with the bows pointing now this way and now that, is\nnot holding a course that will make the harbour first in the race.\nThe people that to-day are marching with their faces towards Zion,\nand to-morrow making a loop-line to the world, will be a long time\nbefore they reach their terminus. I believe there are few things more\nlacking in the average Christian life of to-day than resolute,\nconscious concentration upon an aim which is clearly and always\nbefore us. Do you know what you are aiming at? That is the first\nquestion. Have you a distinct theory of life's purpose that you can\nput into half a dozen words, or have you not? In the one case, there\nis some chance of attaining your object; in the other one, none.\nAlas! we find many Christian people who do not set before themselves,\nwith emphasis and constancy, as their aim the doing of God's will,\nand so sometimes they do it, when it happens to be easy, and\nsometimes, when temptations are strong, they do not. It needs a\nstrong hand on the tiller to keep it steady when the wind is blowing\nin puffs and gusts, and sometimes the sail bellies full and sometimes\nit is almost empty. The various strengths of the temptations that\nblow us out of our course are such that we shall never keep a\nstraight line of direction, which is the shortest line, and the only\none on which we shall 'obtain,' unless we know very distinctly where\nwe want to go, and have a good strong will that has learned to say\n'No!' when the temptations come. 'Whom resist steadfast in the\nfaith.' 'I therefore so run, not as uncertainly,' taking one course\none day and another the next.\n\nNow, that definite aim is one that can be equally pursued in all\nvarieties of life. 'This one thing I do' said one who did about as\nmany things as most people, but the different kinds of things that\nPaul did were all, at bottom, one thing. And we, in all the varieties\nof our circumstances, may keep this one clear aim before us, and\nwhether it be in this way or in that, we may be equally and at all\ntimes seeking the better country, and bending all circumstances and\nall duty to make us more like our Master and bring us closer to Him.\n\nThe Psalmist did not offer an impossible prayer when he said: 'One\nthing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may\ndwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the\nbeauty of the Lord and to enquire in His temple.' Was David in 'the\nhouse of the Lord' when he was with his sheep in the wilderness, and\nwhen he was in Saul's palace, and when he was living with wild beasts\nin dens and caves of the earth, and when he was a fugitive, hunted\nlike a partridge upon the mountains? Was he always in the Lord's\nhouse? Yes! At any rate he could be. All that we do may be doing His\nwill, and over a life, crowded with varying circumstances and yet\nsimplified and made blessed by unvarying obedience, we may write,\n'This one thing I do.'\n\nBut we shall not keep this one aim clear before our eyes, unless we\nhabituate ourselves to the contemplation of the end. The runner,\naccording to Paul's vivid picture in another of his letters, forgets\nthe things that are behind, and stretches out towards the things that\nare before. And just as a man runs with his body inclining forward,\nand his eager hand nearer the prize than his body, and his eyesight\nand his heart travelling ahead of them both to grasp it, so if we\nwant to live with the one worthy aim for ours, and to put all our\neffort and faith into what deserves it all--the Christian race--we\nmust bring clear before us continually, or at least with the utmost\nfrequency, the prize of our high calling, the crown of righteousness.\nThen we shall run so that we may, at the last, be able to finish our\ncourse with joy, and dying to hope with all humility that there is\nlaid up for us a crown of righteousness.\n\n\n\n\n'CONCERNING THE CROWN'\n\n   'They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but\n   we are incorruptible.'--1 COR. ix. 25.\n\n\nOne of the most famous of the Greek athletic festivals was held close\nby Corinth. Its prize was a pine-wreath from the neighbouring sacred\ngrove. The painful abstinence and training of ten months, and the\nfierce struggle of ten minutes, had for their result a twist of green\nleaves, that withered in a week, and a little fading fame that was\nworth scarcely more, and lasted scarcely longer. The struggle and the\ndiscipline were noble; the end was contemptible. And so it is with\nall lives whose aims are lower than the highest. They are greater in\nthe powers they put forth than in the objects they compass, and the\nquestion, 'What is it for?' is like a douche of cold water from the\ncart that lays the clouds of dust in the ways.\n\nSo, says Paul, praising the effort and contemning the prize, 'They do\nit to obtain a corruptible crown.' And yet there was a soul of\ngoodness in this evil thing. Though these festivals were indissolubly\nintertwined with idolatry, and besmirched with much sensuous evil,\nyet he deals with them as he does with war and with slavery; points\nto the disguised nobility that lay beneath the hideousness, and holds\nup even these low things as a pattern for Christian men.\n\nBut I do not mean here to speak so much about the general bearing of\nthis text as rather to deal with its designation of the aim and\nreward of Christian energy, that 'incorruptible crown' of which my\ntext speaks. And in doing so I desire to take into account likewise\nother places in Scripture in which the same metaphor occurs.\n\nI. The crown.\n\nLet me recall the other places where the same metaphor is employed.\nWe find the Apostle, in the immediate prospect of death, rising into\na calm rapture in which imprisonment and martyrdom lose their\nterrors, as he thinks of the 'crown of righteousness' which the Lord\nwill give to him. The Epistle of James, again, assures the man who\nendures temptation that 'the Lord will give him the crown of life\nwhich He has promised to all them that love Him.' The Lord Himself\nfrom heaven repeats that promise to the persecuted Church at Smyrna:\n'Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.'\nThe elders cast their crowns before the feet of Him that sitteth upon\nthe throne. The Apostle Peter, in his letter, stimulates the elders\nupon earth to faithful discharge of their duty, by the hope that\nthereby they shall 'receive a crown of righteousness that fadeth not\naway.' So all these instances taken together with this of my text\nenable us to gather two or three lessons.\n\nIt is extremely unlikely that all these instances of the occurrence\nof the emblem carry with them reference, such as that in my text, to\nthe prize at the athletic festivals. For Peter and James, intense\nJews as they were, had probably never seen, and possibly never heard\nof, the struggles at the Isthmus and at Olympus and elsewhere. The\nBook of the Revelation draws its metaphors almost exclusively from\nthe circle of Jewish practices and things. So that we have to look in\nother directions than the arena or the racecourse to explain these\nother uses of the image. It is also extremely unlikely that in these\nother passages the reference is to a crown as the emblem of\nsovereignty, for that idea is expressed, as a rule, by another word\nin Scripture, which we have Anglicised as 'diadem.' The 'crown' in\nall these passages is a garland twisted out of some growth of the\nfield. In ancient usage roses were twined for revellers; pine-shoots\nor olive branches for the victors in the games; while the laurel was\n'the meed of mighty conquerors'; and plaited oak leaves were laid\nupon the brows of citizens who had deserved well of their country,\nand myrtle sprays crowned the fair locks of the bride.\n\nAnd thus in these directions, and not towards the wrestling ground or\nthe throne of the monarch, must we look for the ideas suggested by\nthe emblem.\n\nNow, if we gather together all these various uses of the word, there\nemerge two broad ideas, that the 'crown' which is the Christian's aim\nsymbolises a state of triumphant repose and of festal enjoyment.\nThere are other aspects of that great and dim future which correspond\nto other necessities of our nature, and I suppose some harm has been\ndone and some misconceptions have been induced, and some unreality\nimported into the idea of the Christian future, by the too exclusive\nprominence given to these two ideas--victorious rest after the\nstruggle, and abundant satisfaction of all desires. That future is\nother and more than a festival; it is other and more than repose.\nThere are larger fields there for the operation of powers that have\nbeen trained and evolved here. The faithfulness of the steward is\nexchanged, according to Christ's great words, for the authority of\nthe ruler over many cities. But still, do we not all know enough of\nthe worry and turbulence and strained effort of the conflict here\nbelow, to feel that to some of our deepest and not ignoble needs and\ndesires that image appeals? The helmet that pressed upon the brow\neven whilst it protected the brain, and wore away the hair even\nwhilst it was a defence, is lifted off, and on unruffled locks the\ngarland is intertwined that speaks victory and befits a festival. One\nof the old prophets puts the same metaphor in words imperfectly\nrepresented by the English translation, when he promises 'a crown' or\na garland 'for ashes'--instead of the symbol of mourning, strewed\ngrey and gritty upon the dishevelled hair of the weepers, flowers\ntwined into a wreath--'the oil of joy for mourning,' and the festival\n'garment of praise' to dress the once heavy spirit. So the\nsatisfaction of all desires, the accompaniments of a feast, in\nabundance, rejoicing and companionship, and conclusive conquest over\nall foes, are promised us in this great symbol.\n\nBut let us look at the passages separately, and we shall find that\nthey present the one thought with differences, and that if we combine\nthese, as in a stereoscope, the picture gains solidity.\n\nThe crown is described in three ways. It is the crown of 'life,' of\n'glory' and of 'righteousness.' And I venture to think that these\nthree epithets describe the material, so to speak, of which the\nwreath is composed. The everlasting flower of life, the radiant\nblossoms of glory, the white flower of righteousness; these are its\ncomponents.\n\nI need not enlarge upon them, nor will your time allow that I should.\nHere we have the promise of life, that fuller life which men want,\n'the life of which our veins are scant,' even in the fullest tide and\nheyday of earthly existence. The promise sets that future over\nagainst the present, as if then first should men know what it means\nto live: so buoyant, elastic, unwearied shall be their energies, so\nmanifold the new outlets for activity, and the new inlets for the\nsurrounding glory and beauty; so incorruptible and glorious shall be\ntheir new being. Here we live a living death; there we shall live\nindeed; and that will be the crown, not only in regard to physical,\nbut in regard to spiritual, powers and consciousness.\n\nBut remember that all this full tide of life is Christ's gift. There\nis no such thing as natural immortality; there is no such thing as\nindependent life. All Being, from the lowest creature up to the\nloftiest created spirit, exists by one law, the continual impartation\nto it of life from the fountain of life, according to its capacities.\nAnd unless Jesus Christ, all through the eternal ages of the future,\nimparted to the happy souls that sit garlanded at His board the life\nby which they live, the wreaths would wither on their brows, and the\nbrows would melt away, and dissolve from beneath the wreaths. 'I will\ngive him a crown of life.'\n\nIt is a crown of 'glory,' and that means a lustrousness of character\nimparted by radiation and reflection from the central light of the\nglory of God. 'Then shall the righteous blaze out like the sun in the\nKingdom of My Father.' Our eyes are dim, but we can at least divine\nthe far-off flashing of that great light, and may ponder upon what\nhidden depths and miracles of transformed perfectness and unimagined\nlustre wait for us, dark and limited as we are here, in the assurance\nthat we all shall be changed into the 'likeness of the body of His\nglory.'\n\nIt is a crown of 'righteousness.' Though that phrase may mean the\nwreath that rewards righteousness, it seems more in accordance with\nthe other similar expressions to which I have referred to regard it,\ntoo, as the material of which the crown is composed. It is not enough\nthat there should be festal gladness, not enough that there should be\ncalm repose, not enough that there should be flashing glory, not\nenough that there should be fulness of life. To accord with the\nintense moral earnestness of the Christian system there must be,\nemphatically, in the Christian hope, cessation of all sin and\ninvestiture with all purity. The word means the same thing as the\nancient promise, 'Thy people shall be all righteous.' It means the\nsame thing as the latest promise of the ascended Christ, 'They shall\nwalk with Me in white.' And it sets, I was going to say, the very\nclimax and culmination on the other hopes, declaring that absolute,\nstainless, infallible righteousness which one day shall belong to our\nweak and sinful spirits.\n\nThese, then, are the elements, and on them all is stamped the\nsignature of perpetuity. The victor's wreath is tossed on the ashen\nheap, the reveller's flowers droop as he sits in the heat of the\nbanqueting-hall; the bride's myrtle blossom fades though she lay it\naway in a safe place. The crown of life is incorruptible. It is\ntwined of amaranth, ever blossoming into new beauty and never fading.\n\nII. Now look, secondly, at the discipline by which the crown is won.\n\nObserve, first of all, that in more than one of the passages to which\nwe have already referred great emphasis is laid upon Christ as\n_giving_ the crown. That is to say, that blessed future is not\nwon by effort, but is bestowed as a free gift. It is given from the\nhands which have procured it, and, as I may say, twined it for us.\nUnless His brows had been pierced with the crown of thorns, ours\nwould never have worn the garland of victory. Jesus provides the sole\nmeans, by His work, by which any man can enter into that inheritance;\nand Jesus, as the righteous Judge who bestows the rewards, which are\nlikewise the results, of our life here, gives the crown. It remains\nfor ever the gift of His love. 'The wages of sin is death,' but we\nrise above the region of retribution and desert when we pass to the\nnext clause--'the gift of God is eternal life,' and that 'through\nJesus Christ.'\n\nWhilst, then, this must be laid as the basis of all, there must also,\nwith equal earnestness and clearness, be set forth the other thought\nthat Christ's gift has conditions, which conditions these passages\nplainly set forth. In the one, which I have read as a text, we have\nthese conditions declared as being twofold--protracted discipline and\ncontinuous effort. The same metaphor employed by the same Apostle, in\nhis last dying utterance, associates his consciousness that he had\nfought the good fight and run his race, like the pugilists and\nrunners of the arena, with the hope that he shall receive the crown\nof righteousness. James declares that it is given to the man who\n_endures_ temptation, not only in the sense of bearing, but of\nso bearing as not thereby to be injured in Christian character and\ngrowth in Christian life. Peter asserts that it is the reward of\nself-denying discharge of duty. And the Lord from heaven lays down\nthe condition of faithfulness unto death as the necessary\npre-requisite of His gift of the crown of life. In two of the\npassages there is included, though not precisely on the level of\nthese other requirements, the love of Him and the love of 'His\nappearing,' as the necessary qualifications for the gift of the\ncrown.\n\nSo, to begin with, unless a man has such a love to Jesus Christ as\nthat he is happy in His presence, and longs to have Him near, as\nparted loving souls do; and, especially, is looking forward to that\ngreat judicial coming, and feeling that there is no tremor in his\nheart at the prospect of meeting the Judge, but an outgoing of desire\nand love at the hope of seeing his Saviour and his Friend, what right\nhas he to expect the crown? None. And he will never get it. There is\na test for us which may well make some of us ask ourselves, Are we\nChristians, then, at all?\n\nAnd then, beyond that, there are all these other conditions which I\nhave pointed out, which may be gathered into one--strenuous discharge\nof daily duty and continual effort after following in Christ's\nfootsteps.\n\nThis needs to be as fully and emphatically preached as the other\ndoctrine that eternal life is the gift of God. All manner of\nmischiefs may come, and have come, from either of these twin\nthoughts, wrenched apart. But let us weave them as closely together\nas the stems of the flowers that make the garlands are twined, and\nfeel that there is a perfect consistency of both in theory, and that\nthere must be a continual union of both, in our belief and in our\npractice. Eternal life is the gift of God, on condition of our\ndiligence and earnestness. It is not all the same whether you are a\nlazy Christian or not. It does make an eternal difference in our\ncondition whether here we 'run with patience the race that is set\nbefore us, looking unto Jesus.' We have to receive the crown as a\ngift; we have to wrestle and run, as contending for a prize.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, note the power of the reward as motive for\nlife.\n\nPaul says roundly in our text that the desire to obtain the\nincorruptible crown is a legitimate spring of Christian action. Now,\nI do not need to waste your time and my own in defending Christian\nmorality from the fantastic objection that it is low and selfish,\nbecause it encourages itself to efforts by the prospect of the crown.\nIf there are any men who are Christians--if such a contradiction can\nbe even stated in words--only because of what they hope to gain\nthereby in another world, they will not get what they hope for; and\nthey would not like it if they did. I do not believe that there are\nany such; and sure I am, if there are, that it is not Christianity\nthat has made them so. But a thought that we must not take as a\nsupreme motive, we may rightly accept as a subsidiary encouragement.\nWe are not Christians unless the dominant motive of our lives be the\nlove of the Lord Jesus Christ; and unless we feel a necessity,\nbecause of loving Him, to aim to be like Him. But, that being so, who\nshall hinder me from quickening my flagging energies, and stimulating\nmy torpid faith, and encouraging my cowardice, by the thought that\nyonder there remain rest, victory, the fulness of life, the flashing\nof glory, and the purity of perfect righteousness? If such hopes are\nlow and selfish as motives, would God that more of us were obedient\nto such low and selfish motives!\n\nNow it seems to me, that this spring of action is not as strong in\nthe Christians of this day as it used to be, and as it should be. You\ndo not hear much about heaven in ordinary preaching. I do not think\nit occupies a very large place in the average Christian man's mind.\nWe have all got such a notion nowadays of the great good that the\nGospel does in society and in the present, and some of us have been\nso frightened by the nonsense that has been talked about the\n'other-worldliness' of Christianity--as if that was a disgrace to\nit--that it seems to me that the future of glory and blessedness has\nvery largely faded away, as a motive for Christian men's energies,\nlike the fresco off a neglected convent wall.\n\nAnd I want to say, dear brethren, that I believe, for my part, that\nwe suffer terribly by the comparative neglect into which this side of\nChristian truth has fallen. Do you not think that it would make a\ndifference to you if you really believed, and carried always with you\nin your thoughts, the thrilling consciousness that every act of the\npresent was registered, and would tell on the far side yonder? We do\nnot know much of that future, and these days are intolerant of mere\nunverifiable hypotheses. But accuracy of knowledge and definiteness\nof impression do not always go together, nor is there the fulness of\nthe one wanted for the clearness and force of the other. Though the\nthread which we throw across the abyss is very slender, it is strong\nenough, like the string of a boy's kite, to bear the messengers of\nhope and desire that we may send up by it, and strong enough to bear\nthe gifts of grace that will surely come down along it.\n\nWe cannot understand to-day unless we look at it with eternity for a\nbackground. The landscape lacks its explanation, until the mists lift\nand we see the white summits of the Himalayas lying behind and\nglorifying the low sandy plain. Would your life not be different;\nwould not the things in it that look great be wholesomely dwindled\nand yet be magnified; would not sorrow be calmed, and life become 'a\nsolemn scorn of ills,' and energies be stimulated, and all be\ndifferent, if you really 'did it to obtain an incorruptible crown?'\n\nBrethren, let us try to keep more clearly before us, as solemn and\nblessed encouragement in our lives, these great thoughts. The garland\nhangs on the goal, but 'a man is not crowned unless he strive\naccording to the laws' of the arena. The laws are two--No man can\nenter for the conflict but by faith in Christ; no man can win in the\nstruggle but by faithful effort. So the first law is, 'Believe on the\nLord Jesus Christ,' and the second is, 'Hold fast that thou hast; let\nno man take thy crown.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE LIMITS OF LIBERTY\n\n   'All things are lawful for me, but all things are not\n   expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things\n   edify not. 24. Let no man seek his own, but every man\n   another's wealth. 25. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles,\n   that eat, asking no question for conscience sake.\n   26. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.\n   27. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast,\n   and ye be disposed togo, whatsoever is set before you\n   eat, asking no question for conscience sake. 28. But\n   if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice\n   unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and\n   for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord's and\n   the fulness thereof: 29. Conscience, I say, not thine\n   own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged\n   of another man's conscience? 30. For if I by grace be\n   a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which\n   I give thanks? 31. Whether therefore ye eat, or drink,\n   or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.\n   32. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the\n   Gentiles, nor to the church of God: 33. Even as I\n   please all men in all things, not seeking mine own\n   profit, but the profit of many, that they may be\n   saved.'--1 COR. x. 23-33.\n\n\nThis passage strikingly illustrates Paul's constant habit of solving\nquestions as to conduct by the largest principles. He did not keep\nhis 'theology' and his ethics in separate water-tight compartments,\nhaving no communication with each other. The greatest truths were\nused to regulate the smallest duties. Like the star that guided the\nMagi, they burned high in the heavens, but yet directed to the house\nin Bethlehem.\n\nThe question here in hand was one that pressed on the Corinthian\nChristians, and is very far away from our experience. Idolatry had so\ninextricably intertwined itself with daily life that it was hard to\nkeep up any intercourse with non-Christians without falling into\nconstructive idolatry; and one very constantly obtruding difficulty\nwas that much of the animal food served on private tables had been\nslaughtered as sacrifices or with certain sacrificial rites. What was\na Christian to do in such a case? To eat or not to eat? Both views\nhad their vehement supporters in the Corinthian church, and the\nimportance of the question is manifest from the large space devoted\nto it in this letter.\n\nIn chapter viii. we have a weighty paragraph, in which one phase of\nthe difficulty is dealt with--the question whether a Christian ought\nto attend a feast in an idol temple, where, of course, the viands had\nbeen offered as sacrifices. But in chapter x. Paul deals with the\ncase in which the meat had been bought in the flesh-market, and so\nwas not necessarily sacrificial. Paul's manner of handling the point\nis very instructive. He envelops, as it were, the practical solution\nin a wrapping of large principles; verses 23, 24 precede the specific\nanswer, and are general principles; verses 25-30 contain the\npractical answer; verses 31-33 and verse 1 of the next chapter are\nagain general principles, wide and imperative enough to mould all\nconduct, as well as to settle the matter immediately in hand, which,\nimportant as it was at Corinth, has become entirely uninteresting to\nus.\n\nWe need not spend time in elucidating the specific directions given\nas to the particular question in hand further than to note the\nimmense gift of saving common-sense which Paul had, and how sanely\nand moderately he dealt with his problem. His advice was--'Don't ask\nwhere the joint set before you came from. If you do not know that it\nwas offered, your eating of it does not commit you to idol worship.'\nNo doubt there were Corinthian Christians with inflamed consciences\nwho did ask such questions, and rather prided themselves on their\nstrictness and rigidity; but Paul would have them let sleeping dogs\nlie. If, however, the meat is known to have been offered to an idol,\nthen Paul is as rigid and strict as they are. That combination of\nwillingness to go as far as possible, and inflexible determination\nnot to go one step farther, of yieldingness wherever principle does\nnot come in, and of iron fixedness wherever it does, is rare indeed,\nbut should be aimed at by all Christians. The morality of the Gospel\nwould make more way in the world if its advocates always copied the\n'sweet reasonableness' of Paul, which, as he tells us in this\npassage, he learned from Jesus.\n\nAs to the wrapping of general principles, they may all be reduced to\none--the duty of limiting Christian liberty by consideration for\nothers. In the two verses preceding the practical precepts, that duty\nis stated with reference entirely to the obligations flowing from our\nrelationship to others. We are all bound together by a mystical chain\nof solidarity. Since every man is my neighbour, I am bound to think\nof him and not only of myself in deciding what I may do or refrain\nfrom doing. I must abstain from lawful things if, by doing them, I\nshould be likely to harm my neighbour's building up of a strong\ncharacter. I can, or I believe that I can, pursue some course of\nconduct, engage in some enterprise, follow some line of life, without\ndamage to myself, either in regard to worldly position, or in regard\nto my religious life. Be it so, but I have to take some one else into\naccount. Will my example call out imitation in others, to whom it may\nbe harmful or fatal to do as I can do with real or supposed impunity?\nIf so, I am guilty of something very like murder if I do not abstain.\n\n'What harm is there in betting a shilling? I can well afford to lose\nit, and I can keep myself from the feverish wish to risk more.' Yes,\nand you are thereby helping to hold up that gambling habit which is\nruining thousands.\n\n'I can take alcohol in moderation, and it does me no harm, and I can\ngo to a prayer-meeting after my dinner and temperate glass, and I am\nwithin my Christian liberty in doing so.' Yes, and you take part\nthereby in the greatest curse that besets our country, and are, by\ncountenancing the drink habit, guilty of the blood of souls. How any\nChristian man can read these two verses and not abstain from all\nintoxicants is a mystery. They cut clean through all the pleas for\nmoderate drinking, and bring into play another set of principles\nwhich limit liberty by regard to others' good. Surely, if there was\never a subject to which these words apply, it is the use of alcohol,\nthe proved cause of almost all the crime and poverty on both sides of\nthe Atlantic. To the Christians who plead their 'liberty' we can only\nsay, 'Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he\nalloweth.'\n\nThe same general considerations reappear in the verses following the\nspecific precept, but with a difference. The neighbour's profit is\nstill put forth as the limiting consideration, but it is elevated to\na higher sacredness of obligation by being set in connection with the\n'glory of God' and the example of Christ. 'Do all to the glory of\nGod.' To put the thought here into modern English--Could you ask a\nblessing over a glass of spirits when you think that, though it\nshould do you no harm, your taking it may, as it were, tip some weak\nbrother over the precipice? Can you drink to God's glory when you\nknow that drink is slaying thousands body and soul, and that hopeless\ndrunkards are made by wholesale out of moderate drinkers? 'Give no\noccasion of stumbling'; do not by your example tempt others into\nrisky courses. And remember that 'neighbour' (verse 24) resolves\nitself into 'Jews' and 'Greeks' and the 'Church of God'--that is,\nsubstantially to your own race and other races--to men with whom you\nhave affinities, and to men with whom you have none.\n\nA Christian man is bound to shape his life so that no man shall be\nable to say of him that he was the occasion of that one's fall. He is\nso bound because every man is his neighbour. He is so bound because\nhe is bound to live to the glory of God, which can never be advanced\nby laying stumbling-blocks in the way for feeble feet. He is so bound\nbecause, unless Christ had limited Himself within the bound of\nmanhood, and had sought not His own profit or pleasure, we should\nhave had neither life nor hope. For all these reasons, the duty of\nthinking of others, and of abstaining, for their sakes, from what one\nmight do, is laid on all Christians. How do they discharge that duty\nwho will not forswear alcohol for their neighbour's sake?\n\n\n\n\n'IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME'\n\n   'This do in remembrance of Me.'--1 COR. xi. 24.\n\n\nThe account of the institution of the Lord's Supper, contained in\nthis context, is very much the oldest extant narrative of that event.\nIt dates long before any of the Gospels, and goes up, probably, to\nsomewhere about five and twenty years after the Crucifixion. It\npresupposes a previous narrative which had been orally delivered to\nthe Corinthians, and, as the Apostle alleges, was derived by him from\nChrist Himself. It is intended to correct corruptions in the\nadministration of the rite which must have taken some time to develop\nthemselves. And so we are carried back to a period very close indeed\nto the first institution of the rite, by the words before us.\n\nNo reasonable doubt can exist, then, that within a very few years of\nour Lord's death, the whole body of Christian people believed that\nJesus Christ Himself appointed the Lord's Supper. I do not stay to\ndwell upon the value of a rite contemporaneous with the fact which it\ncommemorates, and continuously lasting throughout the ages, as a\nwitness of the historical veracity of the alleged fact; but I want to\nfix upon this thought, that Jesus Christ, who cared very little for\nrites, who came to establish a religion singularly independent of any\noutward form, did establish two rites, one of them to be done once in\na Christian lifetime, one of them to be repeated with indefinite\nfrequency, and, as it appears, at first repeated daily by the early\nbelievers. The reason why these two, and only these two, external\nordinances were appointed by Jesus Christ was, that, taken together,\nthey cover the whole ground of revealed fact, and they also cover the\nwhole ground of Christian experience. There is no room for any other\nrites, because these two, the rite of initiation, which is baptism,\nand the rite of commemoration, which is the Lord's Supper, say\neverything about Christianity as a revelation, and about Christianity\nas a living experience.\n\nNot only so, but in the simple primitive form of the Lord's Supper\nthere is contained a reference to the past, the present and the\nfuture. It covers all time as well as all revelation and all\nChristian experience. For the past, as the text shows us, it is a\nmemorial of one Person, and one fact in that Person's life. For the\npresent, it is the symbol of the Christian life, as that great sixth\nchapter in John's gospel sets forth; and for the future, it is a\nprophecy, as our Lord Himself said on that night in the upper\nchamber, 'Till I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom,' and\nas the Apostle in this context says, 'Till He come.' It is to these\nthree aspects of this ordinance, as the embodiment of all essential\nChristian truth, and as the embodiment of all deep Christian\nexperience, covering the past, the present, and the future, that I\nwish to turn now. I do not deal so much with the mere words of my\ntext as with this threefold significance of the rite which it\nappoints.\n\nI. So then, first, we have to think of it as a memorial of the past.\n\n'Do this,' is the true meaning of the words, not 'in remembrance of\nMe,' but something far more sweet and pathetic--'do this for the\n_remembering_ of Me.' The former expression is equal to 'Do this\nbecause you remember.' The real meaning of the words is, 'Do this in\ncase you forget'; do this in order that you may recall to memory what\nthe slippery memory is so apt to lose--the impression of even the\nsweetest sweetness, of the most loving love, and the most\nself-abnegating sacrifice, which He offered for us.\n\nThere is something to me infinitely pathetic and beautiful in looking\nat the words not only as the commandment of the Lord, but as the\nappeal of the Friend, who wished, as we all do, not to be utterly\nforgotten by those whom He cared for and loved; and who, not only\nbecause their remembrance was their salvation, but because their\nforgetfulness pained His human heart, brings to their hearts the\nplaintive appeal: 'Do not forget Me when I am gone away from you; and\neven if you have no better way of remembering Me, take these poor\nsymbols, to which I am not too proud to entrust the care of My\nmemory, and do this, lest you forget Me.'\n\nBut, dear brethren, there are deeper thoughts than this, on which I\nmust dwell briefly. 'In remembrance of Me'--Jesus Christ, then, takes\nup an altogether unique and solitary position here, and into the\nsacredest hours of devotion and the loftiest moments of communion\nwith God, intrudes His personality, and says, 'When you are most\nreligious, remember Me; and let the highest act of your devout life\nbe a thought turned to Myself.'\n\nNow, I want you to ask, is that thought diverted from God? And if it\nis not, how comes it not to be? I want you honestly to ask yourselves\nthis question--what did _He_ think about Himself who, at that\nmoment, when all illusions were vanishing, and life was almost at its\nlast ebb, took the most solemn rite of His nation and laid it\nsolemnly aside and said: 'A greater than Moses is here; a greater\ndeliverance is being wrought': 'Remember Me.' Is that insisting on\nHis own personality, and making the remembrance of it the very apex\nand shining summit of all religious aspiration--is that the work of\none about whom all that we have to say is, He was the noblest of men?\nIf so, then I want to know how Jesus Christ, in that upper chamber,\nfounding the sole continuous rite of the religion which He\nestablished, and making its heart and centre the remembrance of His\nown personality, can be cleared from the charge of diverting to\nHimself what belongs to God only, and how you and I, if we obey His\ncommands, escape the crime of idolatry and man-worship? 'Do this in\nremembrance,'--not of God--'in remembrance of Me,' 'and let memory,\nwith all its tendrils, clasp and cleave to My person.' What an\nextraordinary demand! It is obscuring God, unless the 'Me' _is_ God\nmanifest in the flesh.\n\nThen, still further, let me remind you that in the appointment of\nthis solitary rite as His memorial to all generations, Jesus Christ\nHimself designates one part of His whole manifestation as the part\ninto which all its pathos, significance, and power are concentrated.\nWe who believe that the death of Christ is the life of the world, are\ntold that one formidable objection to our belief is that Jesus Christ\nHimself said so little during His life about His death. I believe His\nreticence upon that question is much exaggerated, but apart\naltogether from that, I believe also that there was a necessity in\nthe order of the evolution of divine truth, for the reticence, such\nas it is, because, whatsoever might be possible to Moses and Elias,\non the Mount of Transfiguration, 'His decease which He should\naccomplish at Jerusalem,' could not be much spoken about in the plain\ntill it had been accomplished. But, apart from both of these\nconsiderations, reflect, that whether He said much about His death or\nnot, He said something very much to the purpose about it when He said\n'Do this in remembrance of Me.'\n\nIt is not His personality only that we are to remember. The whole of\nthe language of the institution of the ritual, as well as the form of\nthe rite, and its connection with the ancient passover, and its\nconnection with the new covenant into connection with which Christ\nHimself brings it, all point to the significance in His eyes of His\ndeath as the Sacrifice for the world's sin. Wherefore 'the body' and\n'the blood' separately remembered, except to indicate death by\nviolence? Wherefore the language 'the body _broken_ for you';\n'the blood _shed_ for many for the remission of sins?' Wherefore the\nassociation with the Passover sacrifice? Wherefore the declaration\nthat 'this is the blood of the Covenant,' unless all tended to the\none thought--His death is the foundation of all loving relationships\npossible to us with God; and the condition of the remission of\nsins--the Sacrifice for the whole world?'\n\nThis is the point that He desires us to remember; this is that which\nHe would have live for ever in our grateful hearts.\n\nI say nothing about the absolute exclusion of any other purpose of\nthis memorial rite. If it was the mysterious thing that the\nsuperstition of later ages has made of it, how, in the name of\ncommon-sense, does it come that not one syllable, looking in that\ndirection, dropped from His lips when He established it? Surely He,\nin that upper chamber, knew best what He meant, and what He was doing\nwhen He established the rite; and I, for my part, am contented to be\ntold that I believe in a poor, bald Zwinglianism, when I say with my\nMaster, that the purpose of the Lord's Supper is simply the\ncommemoration, and therein the proclamation, of His death. There is\nno magic, no mystery, no 'sacrament' about it. It blesses us when it\nmakes us remember Him. It does the same thing for us which any other\nmeans of bringing Him to mind does. It does that through a different\nvehicle. A sermon does it by words, the Communion does it by symbols.\nThat is the difference to be found between them. And away goes the\nwhole fabric of superstitious Christianity, and all its mischiefs and\nevils, when once you accept the simple 'Remember.' Christ told us\nwhat He meant by the rite when He said 'Do this in remembrance of\nMe.'\n\nII. And now one word or two more about the other particulars which I\nhave suggested. The past, however sweet and precious, is not enough\nfor any soul to live upon. And so this memorial rite, just because it\nis memorial, is a symbol for the present.\n\nThat is taught us in the great chapter--the sixth of John's\nGospel--which was spoken long before the institution of the Lord's\nSupper, but expresses in words the same ideas which it expresses by\nmaterial forms. The Christ who died is the Christ who lives, and must\nbe lived upon by the Christian. If our relation to Jesus Christ were\nonly that 'Once in the end of the ages He appeared to put away sin by\nthe sacrifice of Himself'; and if we had to look back through\nlengthening vistas of distance and thickening folds of oblivion,\nsimply to a historical past, in which He was once offered, the\nretrospect would not have the sweetness in it which it now has. But\nwhen we come to this thought that the Christ who was for us is also\nthe Christ in us, and that He is not the Christ for us unless He is\nthe Christ in us; and His death will never wash away our sins unless\nwe feed upon Him, here and now, by faith and meditation, then the\nretrospect becomes blessedness. The Christian life is not merely the\nremembrance of a historical Christ in the past, but it is the present\nparticipation in a living Christ, with us now.\n\nHe is near each of us that we may make Him the very food of our\nspirits. We are to live upon Him. He is to be incorporated within us\nby our own act. This is no mysticism, it is a piece of simple\nreality. There is no Christian life without it. The true life of the\nbeliever is just the feeding of our souls upon Him,--our minds\naccepting, meditating upon, digesting the truths which are incarnated\nin Jesus; our hearts feeding upon the love which is so tender, warm,\nstooping, and close; our wills feeding upon and nourished by the\nutterance of His will in commandments which to know is joy and to\nkeep is liberty; our hopes feeding upon Him who is our Hope, and in\nwhom they find no chaff and husks of peradventures, but the pure\nwheat of 'Verily! verily I say unto you'; the whole nature thus\nfinding its nourishment in Jesus Christ. You are Christians in the\nmeasure in which the very strength of your spirits, and sustenance of\nall your faculties, are found in loving communion with the living\nLord.\n\nRemember, too, that all this communion, intimate, sweet, sacred, is\npossible only, or at all events is in its highest forms and most\nblessed reality, possible only, to those who approach Him through the\ngate of His death. The feeding upon the living Christ which will be\nthe strength of our hearts and our portion for ever, must be a\nfeeding upon the whole Christ. We must not only nourish our spirits\non the fact that He was incarnated for our salvation, but also on the\ntruth that He was crucified for our acceptance with God. 'He that\neateth Me, even he shall live by Me,' has for its deepest\nexplanation, 'He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath\neternal life.'\n\nMy friends, what about the hunger of your souls? Where is it\nsatisfied? With the swine's husks, or with the 'Bread of God which\ncame down from Heaven?'\n\nIII. Now, lastly, that rite which is a memorial and a symbol is also\na prophecy.\n\nIn the original words of the institution our Lord Himself makes\nreference to the future; 'till I drink it new with you in My Father's\nkingdom.' And in the context here, the Apostle provides for the\nperpetual continuance, and emphasises the prophetic aspect, of\nthe rite, by that word, 'till He come.' His death necessarily implies\nHis coming again. The Cross and the Throne are linked together by an\nindissoluble bond. Being what it is, the death cannot be the end.\nBeing what He is, if He has once been offered to bear the sins of\nmany, so He must come the second time without sin unto salvation. The\nrite, just because it is a rite, is the prophecy of a time when the\nneed for it, arising from weak flesh and an intrusive world, shall\ncease. 'They shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord;\nat that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord.' There\nshall be no temple in that great city, because the Lord God Almighty\nand the Lamb are the Temple thereof. So all external worship is a\nprophecy of the coming of the perfect time, when that which is\nperfect being come, the external helps and ladders to climb to the\nloftiest shall be done away.\n\nBut more than that, the memorial and symbol is a prophecy. That upper\nchamber, with its troubled thoughts, its unbidden tears, starting to\nthe eyes of the half-understanding listeners, who only felt that He\nwas going away and the sweet companionship was dissolved, may seem to\nbe but a blurred and a poor image of the better communion of heaven.\nBut though on that sad night the Master bore a burdened heart, and\nthe servants had but partial apprehension and a more partial love;\nthough He went forth to agonise and to die, and they went forth to\ndeny and to betray, and to leave Him alone, still it was a prophecy\nof Christ's table in His kingdom. Heaven is to be a feast. That\nrepresentation promises society to the solitary, rest to the toilers,\nthe oil of joy for mourning, and the full satisfaction of all\ndesires. That heavenly feast surpasses indeed the antitype in the\nupper chamber, in that there the Master Himself partook not, and\nyonder we shall sup with Him and He with us, but is prophetic in\nthat, as there He took a towel and girded Himself and washed the\ndisciples' feet, so yonder He will come forth Himself and serve them.\nThe future is unlike the prophetic past in that 'we shall go no more\nout'; there shall be no sequences of sorrow, and struggle, and\ndistance and ignorance; but like it in that we shall feast on Christ,\nfor through eternity the glorified Jesus will be the Bread of our\nspirits, and the fact of His past sacrifice the foundation of our\nhopes.\n\nSo, dear brethren, though our external celebration of this rite be\ndashed, as it always is, with much ignorance and with feeble faith;\nand though we gather round this table as the first generation of\nIsraelites did round the passover, of which it is the successor, with\nstaff in hand and loins girded, and have to eat it often with bitter\nherbs mingled, and though there be at our sides empty places, yet even\nin our clouded and partial apprehension, and in the imperfections of\nthis outward type, we may see a gracious shadow of what is waiting\nfor us when we shall go no more out, and all empty places shall be\nfilled, and the bitter herbs shall be changed for the asphodel of\nHeaven and the sweet flowerage round the throne of God, and we shall\nfeast upon the Christ, and in the loftiest experience of the utmost\nglories of the Heavens, shall remember the bitter Cross and agony as\nthat which has bought it all. 'This do in remembrance of Me.' May it\nbe a symbol of our inmost life, and the prophecy of the Heaven to\nwhich we each shall come!\n\n\n\n\nTHE UNIVERSAL GIFT\n\n   'The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man\n   to profit withal.'--1 COR. xii. 7.\n\n\nThe great fact which to-day[1] commemorates is too often regarded as\nif it were a transient gift, limited to those on whom it was first\nbestowed. We sometimes hear it said that the great need of the\nChristian world is a second Pentecost, a fresh outpouring of the\nSpirit of God and the like. Such a way of thinking and speaking\nmisconceives the nature and significance of the first Pentecost,\nwhich had a transient element in it, but in essence was permanent.\nThe rushing mighty wind and the cloven tongues of fire, and the\nstrange speech in many languages, were all equally transient. The\nrushing wind swept on, and the house was no more filled with it. The\ntongues flickered into invisibility and disappeared from the heads.\nThe hubbub of many languages was quickly silent. But that which these\nthings but symbolised is permanent; and we are not to think of\nPentecost as if it were a sudden gush from a great reservoir, and the\nsluice was let down again after it, but as if it were the entrance\ninto a dry bed, of a rushing stream, whose first outgush was attended\nwith noise, but which thereafter flows continuous and unbroken. If\nchurches or individuals are scant of that gift, it is not because it\nhas not been bestowed, but because it has not been accepted.\n\nMy text tells us two things: it unconditionally and broadly asserts\nthat every Christian possesses this great gift--the manifestation is\ngiven to every man; and then it asserts that the gift of each is\nmeant to be utilised for the good of all. 'The manifestation is given\nto every man to profit withal.'\n\nI. Let me, then, say a word or two, to begin with, about the\nuniversality of this gift.\n\nNow, that is implied in our Lord's own language, as commented upon by\nthe Evangelist. For Jesus Christ declared that this was the standing\nlaw of His kingdom, to be universally applied to all its members,\nthat 'He that believeth on Him, out of him shall flow rivers of\nliving water'; and the Evangelist's comment goes on to say, 'This\nspake He of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should\nreceive.' _There_ is the condition and the qualification. Wherever\nthere is faith, there the Spirit of God is bestowed, and bestowed in\nthe measure in which faith is exercised. So, then, in full accordance\nwith such fundamental principles in reference to the gift of the\nSpirit of God, comes the language of my text, and of many another\ntext to which I cannot do more than refer. But let me just quote one\nor two of them, in order that I may make more emphatic what I believe\na great many Christian people do not realise as they ought--viz. that\nthe gift of God's Holy Spirit is not a thing to be desired, as if it\nwere not possessed or confined to select individuals, or manifested\nby exceptional and lofty attainments, but is the universal heritage\nof the whole Christian Church. 'Know ye not that ye are the temple of\nthe Holy Ghost?' 'We have all been made to drink into one Spirit,'\nsays Paul again, in the immediate context. 'If any man have not the\nSpirit of Christ, he is none of His,' says he, unconditionally. And\nin many other places the same principle is laid down, a principle\nwhich I believe the Christian Church to-day needs to have recalled to\nits consciousness, that it may be quickened to realise it in its\nexperience far more than is the case at present.\n\nLet me remind you, too, that that universality of the gifts of the\nDivine Spirit is implied in the very conception of what Christ's\nwork, in its deepest and most precious aspects to us, is. For we are\nnot to limit, as a great many so-called earnest evangelical teachers\nand believers do--we are not to limit His work to that which is\neffected when a man first becomes a Christian--viz. pardon and\nacceptance with God. God forbid that I should ever seem to underrate\nthat great initial gift on which everything else must be built. But I\nam not underrating it when I say, 'Let us prophesy according to the\nproportion of faith,' and the 'proportion of faith' has been\nviolated, and the perspective and completeness of Christian truth,\nand of Christ's gifts, have been, alas! to a very large extent\ndistorted because Christian people, trained in what we call the\nevangelical school, have laid far too little emphasis on the fact\nthat the essential gift of Christ to His people is not pardon, nor\nacceptance, nor justification, but _life_; and that forgiveness,\nand altered relationship to God, and assurance of acceptance with\nHim, are all preliminaries. They are, if I may recur to a figure that\nI have already employed, the preparing of the channel, and the taking\naway of the obstacles that block its mouth, in order to the inrush of\nthe flood of the river of the water of life.\n\nThis life that Christ gives is the result of the gift of the Spirit.\nSo 'If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His.' The\nlife is the gift considered from our side, and the Spirit is the gift\nconsidered from the divine side. 'Every man that hath the Son hath\nlife'; because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made him\nfree from the law of sin and death. So you see if that is true--and I\nfor my part am sure that it is--then all that vulgar way of looking\nat the influences of the Holy Spirit upon men, as if they were\nconfined to certain exceptional people, or certain abnormal and\nextraordinary and elevated acts, is swept away. It is not the\nspasmodic, the exceptional, the rare, not the lofty or\ntranscendentally Christlike acts or characters that are alone the\nmanifestation of the Spirit.\n\nNor is this gift a thing that a man can discover as distinct from his\nown consciousness. The point where the river of the water of life\ncomes into the channel of our spirits lies away far up, near the\nsources, and long before the stream comes into sight in our own\nconsciousness, the blended waters have been inseparably mingled, and\nflow on peacefully together. 'The Spirit beareth witness _with_\nour spirits'; and you are not to expect that you can hear two voices\nspeaking, but it is one voice and one only.\n\nNow, that universality of this divine gift underlies the very\nconstitution of the Christian Church. 'Where the Spirit of the Lord\nis there is liberty,' said Paul. It is because each Christian man\nhas access to the one Source of illumination and of truth and\nrighteousness and holiness, that no Christian man is to become\nsubject to the dominion of a brother. And it is because on the\nservants and on the handmaidens has been poured out, in these\ndays, God's Spirit and they prophesy, that all domination of classes\nor individuals, and all stiffening of the free life of God's Church\nby man-made creeds, are contrary to the very basis of its existence,\nand an attack on the dignity of each individual member of the Church.\n'Ye have an unction from the Holy One' is said to all Christian\npeople--and 'ye need not that any man teach you,' still less that any\nman, or body of men, or document framed by men, should be set up as\nnormal and authoritative over Christ's free people.\n\nStill further, and only one word--Let me remind you of what I have\nalready said, and what is only too sadly true, that this grand\nuniversality of the Spirit's gift to all Christian people does not\nfill, in the mind of the ordinary Christian man, the place that it\nought, and it does not fill it, therefore, in his experience. I say\nno more upon that point.\n\nII. And now let me say a word, secondly, about the many-sidedness of\nthis universal gift.\n\nOne of the reasons why Christian people as a whole do not realise the\nuniversality as they ought is, as I have already suggested in a\nsomewhat different connection, because they limit their notions far\ntoo much of what the gift of God's Spirit is to do to men. We must\ntake a wider view of what that Spirit is meant to effect than we\nordinarily take, before we understand how real and how visible its\nuniversal manifestations are. Take a leaf out of the Old Testament.\nThe man who made the brass-work for the Tabernacle was 'full of the\nSpirit of God.' The poets who sung the Psalms, in more than one\nplace, declare of themselves that they, too, were but the harps upon\nwhich the divine finger played. Samson was capable of his rude feats\nof physical strength, because 'the Spirit of God was upon him.' Art,\nsong, counsel, statesmanlike adaptation of means to ends, and\ndiscernment of proper courses for a nation, such as were exemplified\nin Joseph and in Daniel, are, in the Old Testament, ascribed to the\nSpirit of God, and even the rude physical strength of the\nsimple-natured and sensuous athlete is traced up to the same source.\n\nBut again, we see another sphere of the Spirit's working in the\nmanifestations of it in the experience of the primitive Church. These\nare, as we all know, accompanied with miracles, speaking with tongues\nand working wonders. The signs of that Spirit in those days were\nvisible and audible. As I said, when the river first came into its\nbed, it came like the tide in Morecambe Bay, breast-high, with a\nroar and a rush. But it was quiet after that. In the context we have a\nwhole series of manifestations of this Divine Spirit, some of them\nmiraculous and some being natural faculties heightened, but all\nconcerned with the Church as a society, and being for the benefit of\nthe community.\n\nBut there is another class. If you turn to the Epistle to the\nGalatians, you will find a wonderful list there of what the Apostle\ncalls 'the fruit of the Spirit,' beginning with 'love, joy, peace.'\nThese are all moral and religious, bearing upon personal experience\nand the completeness of the individual character.\n\nNow, let us include all these aspects in our conception of the fruit\nof the Spirit's working on men--the secular, if we may use that word,\nas exhibited in the Old Testament; the miraculous, as seen in the\nfirst days of the Church; the ecclesiastical, if we may so designate\nthe endowments mentioned in the context, and the purely personal,\nmoral, and religious emotions and acts. The plain fact is that\neverything in a Christian's life, except his sin, is the\nmanifestation of that Divine Spirit, from whom all good thoughts,\ncounsels, and works do proceed. He is the 'Spirit of adoption,' and\nwhenever in my heart there rises warm and blessed the aspiration\n'Abba! Father!' it is not my voice only, but the voice of that Divine\nSpirit. He is the Spirit of intercession; and whenever in my soul\nthere move yearning desires after infinite good, child-like longings\nto be knit more closely to Him, that, too, is the voice of God's\nSpirit; and our prayers are then 'sweet, indeed, when He the Spirit\ngives by which we pray.' In like manner, all the variety of Christian\nemotions and experiences is to be traced to the conjoint operation of\nthat Divine Spirit as the source, and my own spirit as influenced by,\nand the organ of, the Spirit of God. If I may take a very rough\nillustration, there is a story in the Old Testament about a king, to\nwhom were given a bow and arrow, with the command to shoot. The\nprophet's hand was laid on the king's weak hand, and the weak hand\nwas strengthened by the touch of the other; and with one common pull\nthey drew back the string and the arrow sped. The king drew the bow,\nbut it was the prophet's hand grasping his wrist that gave him\nstrength to do it. And that is how the Spirit of God will work with\nus if we will.\n\nIII. Finally, consider the purpose of all the diverse manifestations\nof the one universal gift.\n\n'To profit withal'--for his own good who possesses it, and for the\ngood of all the rest of his brethren.\n\nNow, that involves two plain things. There have been people in the\nChristian Church who have said, 'We have all the Spirit, and\ntherefore we do not need one another.' There may be isolation, and\nself-sufficiency, and a host of other evils coming in, if we only\ngrasp the thought, 'The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every\nman,' but they are all corrected if we go on and say, 'to profit\nwithal.' For every one of us has something, and no one of us has\neverything; so, on the one hand, we want each other, and, on the\nother hand, we are responsible for the use of what we have.\n\nYou get the life, not in order that you may plume yourself on its\npossession, nor in order that you may ostentatiously display it,\nstill less in order that you may shut it up and do nothing with it;\nbut you get the life in order that it may spread through you to\nothers.\n\n  'The least flower with a brimming cup may stand,\n  And share its dew-drop with another near.'\n\nWe each have the life that God's grace may fructify through us to\nall. Power is duty; endowment is obligation; capacity prescribes\nwork. 'The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to\nprofit withal.'\n\nYou can regulate the flow. You have the sluice; you can shut it or\nopen it. I have said that the condition, and the only condition, of\npossessing the fulness of God's Spirit is faith in Jesus Christ.\nTherefore, the more you trust the more you have, and the less your\nfaith the less the gift. You can get much or little, according to the\ngreatness or the smallness, the fixity or the transiency, of your\ndesires. If you hold the empty cup with a tremulous hand, the\nprecious liquid will not be poured into it--for some of it will be\nspilt--in the same fulness as it would be if you held it steadily. It\nis the old story--the miraculous flow of the oil stopped when the\nwidow had no more pots and vessels to bring. The reason why some of\nus have so little of that Divine Spirit is because we have not held\nout our vessels to be filled. You can diminish the flow by ignoring\nit, and that is what a host of so-called Christian people do\nnowadays. You can diminish it by neglecting to use the little that\nyou have for the purpose for which it was given you. Does anybody\nprofit by your spiritual life? Do you profit much by it yourselves?\nHas it ever been of the least good to anybody else in the world? 'The\nmanifestation of the Spirit is given to' you, if you are a Christian\nman or woman, more or less. And if you shut it up, and do never an\natom of good with it, either to yourselves or to anybody else, of\ncourse it will slip away; and, sometime or other, to your\nastonishment, you will find that the vessels are empty, and that the\nSpirit of the Lord has departed from you. 'Grieve not the Holy Spirit\nof God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.'\n\n[Footnote 1: Whitsunday.]\n\n\n\n\nWHAT LASTS\n\n   'Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether\n   there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be\n   knowledge, it shall vanish away. 13. And now abideth\n   faith, hope, charity, these three....'--1 COR. xiii. 8, 13.\n\n\nWe discern the run of the Apostle's thought best by thus omitting the\nintervening verses and connecting these two. The part omitted is but\na buttress of what has been stated in the former of our two verses;\nand when we thus unite them there is disclosed plainly the Apostle's\nintention of contrasting two sets of things, three in each set. The\none set is 'prophecies, tongues, knowledge'; the other, 'faith, hope,\ncharity.' There also comes out distinctly that the point mainly\nintended by the contrast is the transiency of the one and the\npermanence of the other. Now, that contrast has been obscured and\nweakened by two mistakes, about which I must say a word.\n\nWith regard to the former statement, 'Whether there be prophecies,\nthey shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease,' that\nhas been misunderstood as if it amounted to a declaration that the\nmiraculous gifts in the early Church were intended to be of brief\nduration. However true that may be, it is not what Paul means here.\nThe cessation to which he refers is their cessation in the light of\nthe perfect Future. With regard to the other statement, the abiding\nof faith, hope, charity, that, too, has been misapprehended as if it\nindicated that faith and hope belonged to this state of things only,\nand that love was the greatest of the three, because it was\npermanent. The reason for that misconception has mainly lain in the\nmisunderstanding of the force of '_Now_,' which has been taken to\nmean 'for the present,' as an implied contrast to an unspoken 'then';\njust as in the previous verse we have, '_Now_ we see through a glass,\n_then_ face to face.' But the 'now' in this text is not, as the\ngrammarians say, temporal, but logical. That is, it does not refer to\ntime, but to the sequence of the Apostle's thought, and is equivalent\nto 'so then.' 'So then abideth faith, hope, charity.'\n\nThe scope of the whole, then, is to contrast the transient with the\npermanent, in Christian experience. If we firmly grasped the truth\ninvolved, our estimates would be rectified and our practice\nrevolutionised.\n\nI. I ask this question--What will drop away?\n\nPaul answers, 'prophecies, tongues, knowledge.' Now these three were\nall extraordinary gifts belonging to the present phase of the\nChristian life. But inasmuch as these gifts were the heightening of\nnatural capacities and faculties, it is perfectly legitimate to\nenlarge the declaration and to use these three words in their widest\nsignification. So understood, they come to this, that all our present\nmodes of apprehension and of utterance are transient, and will be\nleft behind.\n\n'Knowledge, it shall cease,' and as the Apostle goes on to explain,\nin the verses which I have passed over for my present purpose, it\nshall cease because the perfect will absorb into itself the\nimperfect, as the inrushing tide will obliterate the little pools in\nthe rocks on the seashore. For another reason, the knowledge, the\nmode of apprehension belonging to the present, will pass--because\nhere it is indirect, and there it will be immediate. 'We shall know\nface to face,' which is what philosophers mean by intuition. Here our\nknowledge 'creeps from point to point,' painfully amassing facts, and\nthence, with many hesitations and errors, groping its way towards\nprinciples and laws. Here it is imperfect, with many a gap in the\ncircumference; or like the thin red line on a map which shows the\ntraveller's route across a prairie, or like the spider's thread in\nthe telescope, stretched athwart the blazing disc of the sun--'but\nthen face to face.' Incomplete knowledge shall be done away; and many\nof its objects will drop, and much of what makes the science of earth\nwill be antiquated and effete. What would the hand-loom weaver's\nknowledge of how to throw his shuttle be worth in a weaving-shed with\na thousand looms? Just so much will the knowledges of earth be when\nwe get yonder.\n\nModes of utterance will cease. With new experiences will come new\nmethods of communication. As a man can speak, and a beast can only\ngrowl or bark, so a man in heaven, with new experiences, will have\nnew methods of communication. The comparison between that mode of\nutterance which we now have, and that which we shall then possess,\nwill be like the difference between the old-fashioned semaphore, that\nused to wave about clumsy wooden arms in order to convey\nintelligence, and the telegraph.\n\nThink, then, of a man going into that future life, and saying 'I knew\nmore about Sanscrit than anybody that ever lived in Europe'; 'I sang\nsweet songs'; 'I was a past master in philology, grammars, and\nlexicons'; 'I was a great orator.' 'Tongues shall cease'; and the\nmodes of utterance that belonged to earth, and all that holds of\nthem, will drop away, and be of no more use.\n\nIf these things are true, brethren, with regard even to the highest\nform of these high and noble things, how much more and more solemnly\ntrue are they with regard to the aims and objects which most of us\nhave in view? They will all drop away, and we shall be left, stripped\nof what, for most of us, has made the whole interest and activity of\nour lives.\n\nII. What will last?\n\n'So then, abideth these three, faith, hope, love.' When Paul takes\nthree nouns and couples them with a verb in the singular, he is not\nmaking a slip of the pen, or committing a grammatical blunder which a\nchild could correct. But there is a great truth in that piece of\napparent grammatical irregularity; for the faith, the hope, and the\nlove, for which he can only afford a singular verb, are thereby\ndeclared to be in their depth and essence one thing, and it, the\ntriple star, abides, and continues to shine. The three primitive\ncolours are unified in the white beam of light. Do not correct the\ngrammar, and spoil the sense, but discern what he means when he says,\n'Now, abid_eth_ faith, hope, love.' For this is what he means,\nthat the two latter come out of the former, and that without it they\nare nought, and that it without them is dead.\n\nFaith breeds Hope. _There_ is the difference between earthly hopes\nand Christian people's hopes. Our hopes, apart from the revelation of\nGod in Jesus Christ, are but the balancing of probabilities, and the\nscale is often dragged down by the clutch of eager desires. But all\nis baseless and uncertain, unless our hopes are the outcome of our\nfaith. Which, being translated into other words, is just this, that\nthe one basis on which men can rest--ay! even for the immediate\nfuture, and the contingencies of life, as well as for the solemnities\nand certainties of heaven--any legitimate and substantial hope is\ntrust in Jesus Christ, His word, His love, His power, and for the\nheavenly future, in His Resurrection and present glory. A man who\nbelieves these things, and only that man, has a rock foundation on\nwhich he can build his hope.\n\nFaith, in like manner, is the parent of Love. Paul and John, diverse\nas they are in the whole cast of their minds, the one being\nspeculative and the other mystical, the one argumentative and the\nother simply gazing and telling what he sees, are precisely agreed in\nregard to this matter. For, to the Apostle of Love, the foundation of\nall human love towards God is, 'We have known and believed the love\nthat God hath to us,' and 'We love Him because He first loved us,'\nand to Paul the first step is the trusting reception of the love of\nGod, 'commended to us' by the fact that 'whilst we were yet sinners\nChrist died for us,' and from that necessarily flows, if the faith be\ngenuine, the love that answers the sacrifice and obeys the Beloved.\nSo faith, hope, love, these three are a trinity in unity, and it\nabideth. That is the main point of our last text. Let me say a word\nor two about it.\n\nI have said that the words have often been misunderstood as if the\n'now' referred only to the present order of things, in which faith\nand hope are supposed to find their only appropriate sphere. But that\nis clearly not the Apostle's meaning here, for many reasons with\nwhich I need not trouble you. The abiding of all three is eternal\nabiding, and there is a heavenly as well as an earthly form of faith\nand hope as well as of love. Just look at these points for a moment.\n\n'Faith abides,' says Paul, yonder, as here. Now, there is a common\nsaying, which I suppose ninety out of a hundred people think comes\nout of the Bible, about faith being lost in sight. There is no such\nteaching in Scripture. True, in one aspect, faith is the antithesis\nof sight. True, Paul does say 'We walk by faith, not by sight.' But\nthat antithesis refers only to part of faith's significance. In so\nfar as it is the opposite of sight, of course it will cease to be in\noperation when 'we shall know even as we are known' and 'see Him as\nHe is.' But the essence of faith is not in the absence of the person\ntrusted, but the emotion of trust which goes out to the person,\npresent or absent. And in its deepest meaning of absolute dependence\nand happy confidence, faith abides through all the glories and the\nlustres of the heavens, as it burns amidst the dimnesses and the\ndarknesses of earth. For ever and ever, on through the irrevoluble\nages of eternity, dependence on God in Christ will be the life of the\nglorified, as it was the life of the militant, Church. No millenniums\nof possession, and no imaginable increases in beauty and perfectness\nand enrichment with the wealth of God, will bring us one inch nearer\nto casting off the state of filial dependence which is, and ever will\nbe, the condition of our receiving them all. Faith 'abides.'\n\nHope 'abides.' For it is no more a Scriptural idea that hope is lost\nin fruition, than it is that faith is lost in sight. Rather that\nFuture presents itself to us as the continual communication of an\ninexhaustible God to our progressively capacious and capable spirits.\nIn that continual communication there is continual progress. Wherever\nthere is progress there must be hope. And thus the fair form, which\nhas so often danced before us elusive, and has led us into bogs and\nmiry places and then faded away, will move before us through all the\nlong avenues of an endless progress, and will ever and anon come back\nto tell us of the unseen glories that lie beyond the next turn, and\nto woo us further into the depths of heaven and the fulness of God.\nHope 'abides.'\n\nLove 'abides.' I need not, I suppose, enlarge upon that thought which\nnobody denies, that love is the eternal form of the human relation to\nGod. It, too, like the mercy which it clasps, 'endureth for ever.'\n\nBut I may remind you of what the Apostle does not explain in our\ntext, that it is greater than its linked sisters, because whilst\nfaith and hope belong only to a creature, and are dependent and\nexpectant of some good to come to themselves, and correspond to\nsomething which is in God in Christ, the love which springs from\nfaith and hope not only corresponds to, but resembles, that from\nwhich it comes and by which it lives. The fire kindled is cognate\nwith the fire that kindles; and the love that is in man is like the\nlove that is in God. It is the climax of his nature; it is the\nfulfilling of all duty; it is the crown and jewelled clasp of all\nperfection. And so 'abideth faith, hope, love, and the greatest of\nthese is love.'\n\nIII. Lastly, what follows from all this?\n\nFirst, let us be quite sure that we understand what this abiding love\nis. I dare say you have heard people say 'Ah! I do not care much\nabout Paul's theology. Give me the thirteenth chapter of the first\nEpistle to the Corinthians. That is beautiful; that praise of Love;\n_that_ comes home to men.' Yes, very beautiful. Are you quite sure\nthat you know what Paul means by 'love'? I do not use the word\ncharity, because that lovely word, like a glistening meteor that\nfalls upon the earth, has a rust, as it were, upon its surface that\ndims its brightness very quickly. Charity has come to mean an\nindulgent estimate of other people's faults; or, still more\ndegradingly, the giving of money out of your pockets to other\npeople's necessities. These are what the people who do not care much\nabout Paul's theology generally suppose that he means here. But these\ndo not exhaust his meaning. Paul's notion of love is the response of\nthe human love to the divine, which divine is received into the heart\nby simple faith in Jesus Christ. And his notion of love which never\nfaileth, and endureth all things, and hopeth all things, is love to\nmen, which is but one stream of the great river of love to God. If we\nrightly understand what he means by love, we shall find that his\npraise of love is as theological as anything that he ever wrote. We\nshall never get further than barren admiration of a beautiful piece\nof writing, unless our love to men has the source and root to which\nPaul points us.\n\nAgain, let us take this great thought of the permanence of faith,\nhope, and love as being the highest conception that we can form of\nour future condition. It is very easy to bewilder ourselves with\nspeculations and theories of another life. I do not care much about\nthem. The great gates keep their secret well. Few stray beams of\nlight find their way through their crevices. The less we say the less\nlikely we are to err. It is easy to let ourselves be led away, by\nturning rhetoric into revelation, and accepting the symbols of the\nNew Testament as if they carried anything more than images of the\nrealities. But far beyond golden pavements, and harps, and crowns,\nand white robes, lies this one great thought that the elements of the\nimperfect, Christlike life of earth are the essence of the perfect,\nGodlike life in heaven. 'Now abide these three, faith, hope, love.'\n\nLast of all, let us shape our lives in accordance with these\ncertainties. The dropping away of the transient things is no argument\nfor neglecting or despising them; for our handling of them makes our\ncharacters, and our characters abide. But it is a very excellent\nargument for shaping our lives so as to seek first the first things,\nand to secure the permanent qualities, and so to use the transient as\nthat it shall all help us towards that which does not pass.\n\nWhat will a Manchester man that knows nothing except goods and office\nwork, and knows these only in their superficial aspect, and not as\nrelated to God, what, in the name of common-sense, will he do with\nhimself when he gets into a world where there is not a single ledger,\nnor a desk, nor a yard of cloth of any sort? What will some of us do\nwhen, in like manner, we are stripped of all the things that we have\ncared about, and worked for, and have made our aims down here?\nSuppose that you knew that you were under sailing orders to go\nsomewhere or other, and that at any moment a breathless messenger\nmight appear and say, 'Come along! we are all waiting for you'; and\nsuppose that you never did a single thing towards getting your outfit\nready, or preparing yourself in any way for that which might come at\nany moment, and could not but come before very long. Would you be a\nwise man? But that is what a great many of us are doing; doing every\nday, and all day long, and doing that only. 'He shall leave them in\nthe midst of his days,' says a grim text, 'and at his latter end\nshall be a fool.'\n\nWhat will drop? Modes of apprehension, modes of utterance,\noccupations, duties, relationships, loves; and we shall be left\nstanding naked, stripped, as it were, to the very quick, and only as\nmuch left as will keep our souls alive. But if we are clothed with\nfaith, hope, love, we shall not be found naked. Cultivate the high\nthings, the permanent things; then death will not wrench you\nviolently from all that you have been and cared for; but it will\nusher you into the perfect form of all that you have been and done\nupon earth. All these things will pass, but faith, hope, love, 'stay\nnot behind nor in the grave are trod,' but will last as long as\nChrist, their Object, lives, and as long as we in Him live also.\n\n\n\n\nTHE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION\n\n   'I delivered unto you first of all that which I\n   also received, how that Christ died for our sins\n   according to the Scriptures; 4. And that He was\n   buried, and that He rose again the third day\n   according to the Scriptures.'--1 COR. xv. 3, 4.\n\nChristmas day is probably not the true anniversary of the Nativity,\nbut Easter is certainly that of the Resurrection. The season is\nappropriate. In the climate of Palestine the first fruits of the\nharvest were ready at the Passover for presentation in the Temple. It\nwas an agricultural as well as a historical festival; and the\nconnection between that aspect of the feast and the Resurrection of\nour Lord is in the Apostle's mind when he says, in a subsequent part\nof this chapter, that Christ is 'risen from the dead and become the\nfirst fruits of them that slept.'\n\nIn our colder climate the season is no less appropriate. The 'life\nre-orient out of dust' which shows itself to-day in every bursting\nleaf-bud and springing flower is Nature's parable of the spring that\nawaits man after the winter of death. No doubt, apart from the\nResurrection of Jesus, the yearly miracle kindles sad thoughts in\nmourning hearts, and suggests bitter contrasts to those who sorrow,\nhaving no hope, but the grave in the garden has turned every blossom\ninto a smiling prophet of the Resurrection.\n\nAnd so the season, illuminated by the event, teaches us lessons of\nhope that 'we shall not all die.' Let us turn, then, to the thoughts\nnaturally suggested by the day, and the great fact which it brings to\neach mind, and confirmed thereafter by the miracle that is being\nwrought round about us.\n\nI. First, then, in my text, I would have you note the facts of Paul's\ngospel.\n\n'First of all ... I delivered' these things. And the 'first' not only\npoints to the order of time in the proclamation, but to the order of\nimportance as well. For these initial facts are the fundamental\nfacts, on which all that may follow thereafter is certainly built.\nNow the first thing that strikes me here is that, whatever else the\nsystem unfolded in the New Testament is, it is to begin with a simple\nrecord of historical fact. It becomes a philosophy, it becomes a\nreligious system; it is a revelation of God; it is an unveiling of\nman; it is a body of ethical precepts. It is morals and philosophy\nand religion all in one; but it is first of all a story of something\nthat took place in the world.\n\nIf that be so, there is a lesson for men whose work it is to preach\nit. Let them never forget that their business is to insist upon the\ntruth of these great, supernatural, all-important, and fundamental\nfacts, the death and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. They must\nevolve all the deep meanings that lie in them; and the deeper they\ndig for their meanings the better. They must open out the endless\ntreasures of consolation and enforce the omnipotent motives of action\nwhich are wrapped up in the facts; but howsoever far they may carry\ntheir evolving and their application of them, they will neither be\nfaithful to their Lord nor true stewards of their message unless,\nclear above all other aspects of their work, and underlying all other\nforms of their ministry, there be the unfaltering\nproclamation--'first of all,' midst of all, last of all--'how that\nChrist died for our sins according to the Scriptures,' and 'that He\nwas raised again according to the Scriptures.'\n\nNote, too, how this fundamental and original character of the gospel\nwhich Paul preached, as a record of facts, makes short work of a\ngreat deal that calls itself 'liberal Christianity' in these days. We\nare told that it is quite possible to be a very good Christian man,\nand reject the supernatural, and turn away with incredulity from the\nstory of the Resurrection. It may be so, but I confess that it\npuzzles me to understand how, if the fundamental character of\nChristian teaching be the proclamation of certain facts, a man who\ndoes not believe those facts has the right to call himself a\nChristian.\n\nNote, further, how there is an element of explanation involved in the\nproclamation of the facts which turns them into a gospel. Mark how\n'that _Christ_ died,' not _Jesus_. It is a great truth, that the man,\nour Brother, Jesus, passed through the common lot, but that is not\nwhat Paul says here, though he often says it. What he says is that\n'_Christ_ died.' Christ is the name of an office, into which is\ncondensed a whole system of truth, declaring that it is He who is the\nApex, the Seal, and ultimate Word of all divine revelation. It was\nthe _Christ_ who died; unless it was so, the death of Jesus is no\ngospel.\n\n'He died for our sins.' Now, if the Apostle had only said 'He died\nfor us,' that might conceivably have meant that, in a multitude of\ndifferent ways of example, appeal to our pity and compassion and the\nlike, His death was of use to mankind. But when he says 'He died\n_for our sins_,' I take leave to think that that expression has\nno meaning, unless it means that He died as the expiation and\nsacrifice for men's sins. I ask you, in what intelligible sense could\nChrist 'die for our sins' unless He died as bearing their punishment\nand as bearing it for us? And then, finally, 'He died and rose ...\naccording to the Scriptures,' and so fulfilled the divine purposes\nrevealed from of old.\n\nTo the fact that a man was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem,\n'and rose again the third day,' which is the narrative, there are\nadded these three things--the dignity of the Person, the purpose of\nHis death, the fulfilment of the divine intention manifested from of\nold. And these three things, as I said, turn the narrative into a\nGospel.\n\nSo, brethren, let us remember that, without all three of them, the\ndeath of Jesus Christ is nothing to us, any more than the death of\nthousands of sweet and saintly men in the past has been, who may have\nseen a little more of the supreme goodness and greatness than their\nfellows, and tried in vain to make purblind eyes participate in their\nvision. Do you think that these twelve fishermen would ever have\nshaken the world if they had gone out with the story of the Cross,\nunless they had carried along with it the commentary which is\nincluded in the words which I have emphasised? And do you suppose\nthat the type of Christianity which slurs over the explanation, and\nso does not know what to do with the facts, will ever do much in the\nworld, or will ever touch men? Let us liberalise our Christianity by\nall means, but do not let us evaporate it; and evaporate it we surely\nshall if we falter in saying with Paul, 'I declare, first of all,\nthat which received,' how that the death and resurrection were the\ndeath and resurrection of the Christ, 'for our sins, according to the\nScriptures.' These are the facts which make Paul's gospel.\n\nII. Now I ask you to look, in the second place, at what establishes\nthe facts.\n\nWe have here, in this chapter, a statement very much older than our\nexisting written gospels. This epistle is one of the four letters of\nPaul which nobody that I know of--with some quite insignificant\nexceptions in modern times--has ever ventured to dispute. It is\nadmittedly the writing of the Apostle, written before the gospels,\nand in all probability within five-and-twenty years of the date of\nthe Crucifixion. And what do we find alleged by it as the state of\nthings at its date? That the belief in the Resurrection of Jesus\nChrist was the subject of universal Christian teaching, and was\naccepted by all the Christian communities. Its evidence to that fact\nis undeniable; because there was in the early Christian Church a very\nformidable and large body of bitter antagonists of Paul's, who would\nhave been only too glad to have convicted him, if they could, of any\nmisrepresentation of the usual notions, or divergence from the usual\ntype of teaching. So we may take it as undeniable that the\nrepresentation of this chapter is historically true; and that within\nfive-and-twenty years of the death of Jesus Christ every Christian\ncommunity and every Christian teacher believed in and proclaimed the\nfact of the Resurrection.\n\nBut if that be so, we necessarily are carried a great deal nearer the\nCross than five-and-twenty years; and, in fact, there is not, between\nthe moment when Paul penned these words and the day of Pentecost, a\nsingle chink in the history where you can insert such a tremendous\ninnovation as the full-fledged belief in a resurrection coming in as\nsomething new.\n\nI do not need to dwell at all upon this other thought, that, unless\nthe belief that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead originated at\nthe time of His death, there would never have been a Church at all.\nWhy was it that they did not tumble to pieces? Take the nave out of\nthe wheel and what becomes of the spokes? A dead Christ could never\nhave been the basis of a living Church. If He had not risen from the\ndead, the story of His disciples would have been the same as that\nwhich Gamaliel told the Sanhedrim was the story of all former\npseudo-Messiahs such as that man Theudas. 'He was slain, and as many\nas followed him were dispersed and came to naught.' Of course! The\nexistence of the Church demands, as a pre-requisite, the initial\nbelief in the Resurrection. I think, then, that the\ncontemporaneousness of the evidence is sufficiently established.\n\nWhat about its good faith? I suppose that nobody, nowadays, doubts\nthe veracity of these witnesses. Anybody that knows an honest man\nwhen he sees him, anybody that has the least ear for the tone of\nsincerity and the accent of conviction, must say that they may have\nbeen fanatics, they may have been mistaken, but one thing is clear as\nsunlight, they were not false witnesses for God.\n\nWhat, then, about their competency? Their simplicity, their\nignorance, their slowness to believe, their stupor of surprise when\nthe fact first dawned upon them, which they tell not with any idea of\nmanufacturing evidence in their own favour, but simply as a piece of\nhistory, all tend to make us certain that there was no play of a\nmorbid imagination, no hysterical turning of a wish into a fact, on\nthe part of these men. The sort of things which they say that they\nsaw and experienced are such as to make any such supposition\naltogether absurd. There are long conversations, appearances\nappealing to more than one sense, appearances followed by\nwithdrawals, sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the evening,\nsometimes at a distance, as on the mountain, sometimes close by, as\nin the chamber, to single souls and to multitudes. Fancy five hundred\npeople all at once smitten with the same mistake, imagining that they\nsaw what they did not see! Miracles may be difficult to believe, they\nare not half so difficult to believe as absurdities. And this modern\nexplanation of the faith in the Resurrection I venture respectfully\nto designate as absurd.\n\nBut there is one other point to which I would like to turn for a\nmoment; and that is that little clause in my text that 'He was\nburied.' Why does Paul introduce that amongst his facts? Possibly in\norder to affirm the reality of Christ's death; but I think for\nanother reason. If it be true that Jesus Christ was laid in that\nsepulchre, a stone's throw outside the city gate, do you not see what\na difficulty that fact puts in the way of disbelief or denial of His\nResurrection? If the grave--and it was not a grave, remember, like\nours, but a cave, with a stone at the door of it, that anybody could\nroll away for entrance--if the grave was there, why, in the name of\ncommon-sense, did not the rulers put an end to the pestilent heresy\nby saying, 'Let us go and see if the body is there'?\n\nModern deniers of the Resurrection may fairly be asked to front this\nthought--If Jesus Christ's body was in the sepulchre, how was it\npossible for belief in the Resurrection to have been originated, or\nmaintained? If His body was not in the grave, what had become of it?\nIf His friends stole it away then they were deceivers of the worst\ntype in preaching a resurrection; and we have already seen that that\nhypothesis is ridiculous. If His enemies took it away, for which they\nhad no motive, why did they not produce it and say, 'There is an\nanswer to your nonsense. There is the dead man. Let us hear no more\nof this absurdity of His having risen from the dead'?\n\n'He died ... according to the Scriptures, and He was buried.' And the\nangels' word carries the only explanation of the fact which it\nproclaims, 'He is not here--He is risen.'\n\nI take leave to say that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is\nestablished by evidence which nobody would ever have thought of\ndoubting unless for the theory that miracles were impossible. The\nreason for disbelief is not the deficiency of the evidence, but the\nbias of the judge.\n\nIII. And now I have no time to do more than touch the last thought. I\nhave tried to show what establishes the facts. Let me remind you, in\na sentence or two, what the facts establish.\n\nI by no means desire to suspend the whole of the evidence for\nChristianity on the testimony of the eyewitnesses to the\nResurrection. There are a great many other ways of establishing the\ntruth of the Gospel besides that, upon which I do not need to dwell\nnow. But, taking this one specific ground which my text suggests,\nwhat do the facts thus established prove?\n\nWell, the first point to which I would refer, and on which I should\nlike to enlarge, if I had time, is the bearing of Christ's\nResurrection on the acceptance of the miraculous. We hear a great\ndeal about the impossibility of miracle and the like. It upsets the\ncertainty and fixedness of the order of things, and so forth, and so\nforth. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead; and that opens a door\nwide enough to admit all the rest of the Gospel miracles. It is of no\nuse paring down the supernatural in Christianity, in order to meet\nthe prejudices of a quasi-scientific scepticism, unless you are\nprepared to go the whole length, and give up the Resurrection. There\nis the turning point. The question is, Do you believe that Jesus\nChrist rose from the dead, or do you not? If your objections to the\nsupernatural are valid, then Christ is not risen from the dead; and\nyou must face the consequences of that. If He is risen from the dead,\nthen you must cease all your talk about the impossibility of miracle,\nand be willing to accept a supernatural revelation as God's way of\nmaking Himself known to man.\n\nBut, further, let me remind you of the bearing of the Resurrection\nupon Christ's work and claims. If He be lying in some forgotten\ngrave, and if all that fair thought of His having burst the bands of\ndeath is a blunder, then there was nothing in His death that had the\nleast bearing upon men's sin, and it is no more to me than the deaths\nof thousands in the past. But if He is risen from the dead, then the\nResurrection casts back a light upon the Cross, and we understand\nthat His death is the life of the world, and that 'by His stripes we\nare healed.'\n\nBut, further, remember what He said about Himself when He was in the\nworld--how He claimed to be the Son of God; how He demanded absolute\nobedience, implicit trust, supreme love, how He identified faith in\nHimself with faith in God--and consider the Resurrection as bearing\non the reception or rejection of these tremendous claims. It seems to\nme that we are brought sharp up to this alternative--Jesus Christ\nrose from the dead, and was declared by the Resurrection to be the\nSon of God with power; or Jesus Christ has _not_ risen from the\ndead--and what then? Then He was either deceiver or deceived, and in\neither case has no right to my reverence and my love. We may be\nthankful that men are illogical, and that many who reject the\nResurrection retain reverence, genuine and deep, for Jesus Christ.\nBut whether they have any right to do so is another matter. I confess\nfor myself that, if I did not believe that Jesus Christ had risen\nfrom the dead, I should find it very hard to accept, as an example of\nconduct, or as religious teacher, a man who had made such great\nclaims as He did, and had asked from me what He asked. It seems to me\nthat He is either a great deal more, or a great deal less, than a\nbeautiful saintly soul. If He rose from the dead He is much more; if\nHe did not, I am afraid to say how much less He is.\n\nAnd, finally, the bearing of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ upon\nour own hopes of the future may be suggested. It teaches us that life\nhas nothing to do with organisation, but persists apart from the\nbody. It teaches us that a man may pass from death and be unaltered in\nthe substance of his being; and it teaches us that the earthly\nhouse of our tabernacle may be fashioned like unto the glorious house\nin which He dwells now at the right hand of God. There is no other\nabsolute proof of immortality than the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.\n\nIf we accept with all our hearts and minds Paul's Gospel in its\nfundamental facts, we need not fear to die, because He has died, and\nby dying has been the death of death. We need not doubt that we shall\nlive again, because He was dead and is alive for ever more. This\nSamson has carried away the gates on His strong shoulders, and death\nis no more a dungeon but a passage. If we rest ourselves upon Him,\nthen we can take up, for ourselves and for all that are dear to us\nand have gone before us, the triumphant song, 'O Death, where is thy\nsting?' 'Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our\nLord Jesus Christ.'\n\n\n\n\nREMAINING AND FALLING ASLEEP\n\n   'After that He was seen of above five hundred brethren\n   at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this\n   present, but some are fallen asleep.'--1 COR. xv. 6.\n\n\nThere were, then, some five-and-twenty years after the Resurrection,\nseveral hundred disciples who were known amongst the churches as\nhaving been eyewitnesses of the risen Saviour. The greater part\nsurvived; some, evidently a very few, had died. The proportion of the\nliving to the dead, after five-and-twenty years, is generally the\nopposite. The greater part have 'fallen asleep'; some, a\ncomparatively few, remain 'unto this present.' Possibly there was\nsome divine intervention which supernaturally prolonged the lives of\nthese witnesses, in order that their testimony might be the more\nlasting. But, be that as it may, they evidently were men of mark, and\nsome kind of honour and observance surrounded them, as was very\nnatural, and as appears from the fact that Paul here knows so\naccurately (and can appeal to His fellow-Christians' accurate\nknowledge) the proportion between the survivors and the departed. We\nread of one of them in the Acts of the Apostles at a later date than\nthis, one Mnason, an 'original disciple.'\n\nSo we get a glimpse into the conditions of life in the early Church,\ninteresting and of value in an evidential point of view. But my\npurpose at present is to draw your attention to the remarkable\nlanguage in which the Apostle here speaks of the living and the dead\namongst these witnesses. In neither case does he use the simple,\ncommon words 'living' or 'dead'; but in the one clause he speaks of\ntheir 'remaining,' and in the other of their 'falling asleep'; both\nphrases being significant, and, as I take it, both being traced up to\nthe fact of their having seen the risen Lord as the cause why their\nlife could be described as a 'remaining,' and their death as a\n'falling asleep.' In other words, we have here brought before us, by\nthese two striking expressions, the transforming effect upon life and\nupon death of the faith in a risen Lord, whether grounded on sight or\nnot. And it is simply to these two points that I desire to turn now.\n\nI. First, then, we have to consider what life may become to those who\nsee the risen Christ.\n\n'The greater part remain until this present.' Now the word _remain_\nis no mere synonym for living or surviving. It not only tells us the\nfact that the survivors were living, but the kind of life that they\ndid live. It is very significant that it is the same expression as\nour Lord used in the profound prophetic words, 'If I will that he\ntarry till I come, what is that to thee?' Now we are told in John's\nGospel that 'that saying went abroad amongst the brethren,' and\ninasmuch as it was a matter of common notoriety in the early Church,\nit is by no means a violent supposition that it may be floating in\nPaul's memory here, and may determine his selection of this\nremarkable expression 'they remain,' or 'they tarry,' and they were\ntarrying till the Master came. So, then, I think if we give due\nweight to the significance of the phrase, we get two or three\nthoughts worth pondering.\n\nOne of them is that the sight of a risen Christ will make life calm\nand tranquil. Fancy one of these 500 brethren, after that vision,\ngoing back to his quiet rural home in some little village amongst the\nhills of Galilee. How small and remote from Him, and unworthy to\nruffle or disturb the heart in which the memory of that vision was\nburning, would seem the things that otherwise would have been\nimportant and distracting! The faith which we have in the risen\nChrist ought to do the same thing for us, and will do it in the\nmeasure in which there shines clearly before that inward eye, which\nis our true means of apprehending Him, the vision which shone before\nthe outward gaze of that company of wondering witnesses. If we build\nour nests amidst the tossing branches of the world's trees, they will\nsway with every wind, and perhaps be blown from their hold altogether\nby such a storm as we all have sometimes to meet. But we may build\nour nests in the clefts of the rock, like the doves, and be quiet, as\nthey are. Distractions will cease to distract, and troubles will\ncease to agitate, and across the heaving surface of the great ocean\nthere will come a Form beneath whose feet the waves smooth\nthemselves, and at whose voice the winds are still. They who see\nChrist need not be troubled. The ship that is empty is tossed upon\nthe ocean, that which is well laden is steady. The heart that has\nChrist for a passenger need not fear being rocked by any storm.\nCalmness will come with the vision of the Lord, and we shall abide or\n'remain,' for there will be no need for us to flee from this Refuge\nto that, nor shall we be driven from our secure abode by any\ncontingencies. 'He that believeth shall not make haste.'\n\nIt is a good thing to cultivate the disposition that says about most\nof the trifles of this life, 'It does not much matter'; but the only\nway to prevent wholesome contempt of the world's trivialities from\ndegenerating into supercilious indifference is, to base it upon\nChrist, discerned as near us and bestowing upon us the calmness of\nHis risen life. Make Him your scale of importance, and nothing will\nbe too small to demand and be worthy of the best efforts of your\nwork, but nothing will be too great to sweep you away from the\nserenity of your faith.\n\nAgain, the vision of the risen Christ will also lead to patient\npersistence in duty. If we have Him before us, the distasteful duty\nwhich He sets us will not be distasteful, and the small tasks, in\nwhich great faithfulness may be manifested, will cease to be small.\nIf we have Him before us we have in that risen Christ the great and\nlasting Example of how patient continuance in well-doing triumphs\nover the sorrows that it bears, by and in patiently bearing them, and\nis crowned at last with glory and honour. The risen Christ is the\nPattern for the men who will not be turned aside from the path of\nduty by any obstacles, dangers, or threats. The risen Christ is the\nsignal Example of glory following upon faithfulness, and of the crown\nbeing the result of the Cross. The risen Christ is the manifest\nHelper of them that put their trust in Him; and one of the plainest\nlessons and of the most imperative commands which come from the\nbelieving gaze upon that Lord who died because He would do the will\nof the Father, and is throned and crowned in the heavens because He\ndied, is--By patient continuance in well-doing let us commit the\nkeeping of our souls to Him: and abide in the calling wherewith we\nare called.\n\nAnd, again, the sight of the risen Christ leads to a life of calm\nexpectancy. 'If I will that He _tarry_ till I come' conveys that\nshade of meaning. The Apostle was to wait for the Lord from Heaven,\nand that vision which was given to these 500 men sent them home to\ntheir abodes to make all the rest of their lives one calm aspiration\nfor, and patient expectation of, the return of the Lord. These\nprimitive Christians expected that Jesus Christ would come speedily.\nThat expectation was disappointed in so far as the date was\nconcerned, but after nineteen centuries it still remains true that\nall vigorous and vital Christian life must have in it, as a very\nimportant element of its vitality, the onward look which ever is\nanticipating, which often is desiring, and which constantly is\nconfident of, the coming of the Lord from Heaven. The Resurrection\nhas for its consequences, its sequel and corollary, first the\nAscension; then the long tract of time during which Jesus Christ is\nabsent, but still in divine presence rules the world; and, finally,\nHis coming again in that same body in which the disciples saw Him\ndepart from them. And no Christian life is up to the level of its\nprivileges, nor has any Christian faith grasped the whole articles of\nits creed, except that which sets in the very centre of all its\nvisions of the future that great thought--He shall come again.\n\nQuestions of chronology have nothing to do with that. It stands there\nbefore us, the certain fact, made certain and inevitable by the past\nfacts of the Cross and the Grave and Olivet. He has come, He will\ncome; He has gone, He will come back. And for us the life that we\nlive in the flesh ought to be a life of waiting for God's Son from\nHeaven, and of patient, confident expectancy that when He shall be\nmanifested we also shall be manifested with Him in glory.\n\nSo much, then, for life--calm, persistent in every duty, and animated\nby that blessed and far-off, but certain, hope, and all of these\nfounded upon the vision and the faith of a risen Lord. What have\nfears and cares and distractions and faint-heartedness and gloomy\nsorrow to do with the eyes that have beheld the Christ, and with the\nlives that are based on faith in the risen Lord?\n\nII. So, secondly, consider what death becomes to those who have seen\nChrist risen from the dead.\n\n'Some are fallen asleep.' Now that most natural and obvious metaphor\nfor death is not only a Christian idea, but is found, as would be\nexpected, in many tongues, but yet with a great and significant\ndifference. The Christian reason for calling death a sleep embraces a\ngreat deal more than the heathen reason for doing so, and in some\nrespects is precisely the opposite of that, inasmuch as to most\nothers who have used the word, death has been a sleep that knew no\nwaking, whereas the very pith and centre of the Christian reason for\nemploying the symbol are that it makes our waking sure. We have here\nwhat the act of dying and the condition of the dead become by virtue\nof faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.\n\nThey have 'fallen asleep.' The act of dying is but a laying one's\nself down to rest, and a dropping out of consciousness of the\nsurrounding world. It is very remarkable and very beautiful that the\nnew Testament scarcely ever employs the words _dying_ and _death_ for\nthe act of separating body and spirit, or for the condition either of\nthe spirit parted from the body, or of the body parted from the\nspirit. It keeps those grim words for the reality, the separation of\nthe soul from God; and it only exceptionally uses them for the shadow\nand the symbol, the physical fact of the parting of the man from the\nhouse which here he has dwelt in. But the reason why Christianity\nuses these periphrases or metaphors, these euphemisms for death, is\nthe opposite of the reason why the world uses them. The world is so\nafraid of dying that it durst not name the grim, ugly thing. The\nChristian, or at least the Christian faith, is so little afraid of\ndeath that it does not think such a trivial matter worth calling by\nthe name, but only names it 'falling asleep.'\n\nEven when the circumstances of that dropping off to slumber are\npainful and violent, the Bible still employs the term. Is it not\nstriking that the first martyr, kneeling outside the city, bruised by\nstones and dying a bloody death, should have been said to fall\nasleep? If ever there was an instance in which the gentle metaphor\nseemed all inappropriate it was that cruel death, amidst a howling\ncrowd, and with fatal bruises, and bleeding limbs mangled by the\nheavy rocks that lay upon them. But yet, 'when he had said this he\nfell asleep.' If that be true of such a death, no physical pains of\nany kind make the sweet word inappropriate for any.\n\nWe have here not only the designation of the act of dying, but that\nof the condition of the dead. They are fallen asleep, and they\ncontinue asleep. How many great thoughts gather round that metaphor\non which it is needless for me to try to dilate! They will suggest\nthemselves without many words to you all.\n\nThere lies in it the idea of repose. 'They rest from their labours.'\nSleep restores strength, and withdraws a man at once from effort on\nthe outer world, and from communication from it. We may carry the\nanalogy into that unseen world. We know nothing about the relations\nto an external universe of the departed who sleep in Jesus. It may be\nthat, if they sleep in Him, since He knows all, they, through Him,\nmay know, too, something--so much as He pleases to impart to them--of\nwhat is happening here. And it may even be that, if they sleep in\nHim, and He wields the energies of Omnipotence, they, through Him,\nmay have some service to do, even while they wait for their house\nwhich is from heaven. But there is no need for, nor profit in, such\nspeculations. It is enough that the sweet emblem suggests repose, and\nthat in that sleep there are folded around the sleepers the arms of\nthe Christ on whose bosom they rest, as an infant does on its first\nand happiest home--its mother's breast.\n\nBut then, besides that, the emblem suggests the idea of continuous\nand conscious existence. A man asleep does not cease to be a man; a\ndead man does not cease to live. It has often been argued from this\nmetaphor that we are to conceive of the space between death and the\nresurrection as being a period of unconsciousness, but the analogies\nseem to me to be in the opposite direction. A sleeping man does not\ncease to know himself to be, and he does not cease to know himself to\nbe himself. That mysterious consciousness of personal identity\nsurvives the passage from waking to sleep, as dreams sufficiently\nshow us. And, therefore, they that sleep know themselves to be.\n\nAnd, finally, the emblem suggests the idea of waking. Sleep is a\nparenthesis. If the night comes, the morning comes. 'If winter comes,\ncan spring be far behind?' They that sleep will awake, and be\nsatisfied when they 'awake with Thy likeness.' And so these three\nthings--repose, conscious, continuous existence, and the certainty of\nawaking--all lie in that metaphor.\n\nNow, then, the risen Christ is the only ground of such hope, and\nfaith in Him is the only state of mind which is entitled to cherish\nit. Nothing proves immortality except that open grave. Every other\nfoundation is too weak to bear the weight of such a superstructure.\nThe current of present opinion shows, I think, that neither\nmetaphysical nor ethical arguments for the future life will stand the\nforce of the disintegrating criticism which is brought to bear upon\nthat hope by the fashionable materialism of this generation. There is\none barrier that will resist that force, and only one, and that is\nthe historical facts that Jesus Christ died, and that Jesus Christ\nhas risen again. He rose; therefore death is not the end of\nindividual existence. He rose; therefore life beyond the grave is\npossible for humanity. He rose; therefore His sacrifice for the\nworld's sin is accepted, and I may be delivered from my guilt and my\nburden. He rose; therefore He is declared to be the Son of God with\npower. He rose; therefore we, if we trust Him, may partake in His\nResurrection and in some reflection of His glory. The old Greek\narchitects were often careless of the solidity of the soil on which\nthey built their temples, and so, many of them have fallen in ruins.\nThe Temple of Immortality can be built only upon the rock of that\nproclamation--Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. And we, dear\nbrethren, should have all our hopes founded upon that one fact.\n\nSo then, for us, the calm, peaceful passage from life into what else\nis the great darkness is possible on condition of our having beheld\nthe risen Lord. These witnesses of whom my text speaks, Paul would\nsuggest to us, laid themselves quietly down to sleep, because before\nthem there still hovered the memory of the vision which they had\nbeheld. Faith in the risen Christ is the anchor of the soul in death,\nand there is nothing else by which we can hold then.\n\nAs the same Apostle, in one of his other letters, puts it, the belief\nthat Christ is risen is not only the irrefragable ground of our hope\nthat we, too, shall rise, but has the power to change the whole\naspect of our death. Did you ever observe the emphasis with which He\nsays, 'If we believe that Jesus _died_ and rose again, even so\nthem also which _sleep_ in Jesus will God bring with Him?' His\ndeath was death indeed, and faith in it softens ours to sleep. He\nbore the reality that we might never need to know it, and if our poor\nhearts are resting upon that dear Lord, then the flames are but\npainted ones and will not burn, and we shall pass through them, and\nno smell of fire will be upon us, and all that will be consumed will\nbe the bonds which bind us. He has abolished death. The physical fact\nremains, but all which to men makes the idea of death is gone if we\ntrust the risen Lord. So that, between two men dying under precisely\nthe same circumstances, of the same disease, in adjacent beds in the\nsame hospital, there may be such a difference as that the same word\ncannot be applied to the experiences of both.\n\nMy dear friends, we have each of us to pass through that last\nstruggle; but we may make it either a quiet going to sleep with a\nloved Face bending over our closing eyes, like a mother's over her\nchild's cradle, and the same Face meeting us when we open them in the\nmorning of heaven; or we may make it a reluctant departure from all\nthat we care for, and a trembling advance into all from which\nconscience and heart shrink.\n\nWhich is it going to be to you? The answer depends upon that to\nanother question. Are you looking to that Christ that died and is\nalive for evermore as your life and your salvation? Do you hold fast\nthat Gospel which Paul preached, 'how that Christ died for our sins\naccording to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose\nagain the third day, according to the Scriptures'? If you do, life\nwill be a calm, persevering, expectant waiting upon Him, and death\nwill be nothing more terrible than falling asleep.\n\n\n\n\nPAUL'S ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF\n\n   'By the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace\n   which was bestowed upon me was not in vain.'--1 COR. xv. 10.\n\n\nThe Apostle was, all his life, under the hateful necessity of\nvindicating his character and Apostleship. Thus here, though his main\npurpose in the context is simply to declare the Gospel which he\npreached, he is obliged to turn aside in order to assert, and to back\nup his assertion, that there was no sort of difference between him\nand the other recognised teachers of Christian truth. He was forced\nto do this by persistent endeavours in the Corinthian Church to deny\nhis Apostleship, and the faithfulness of his representation of the\nChristian verities. The way in which he does it is eminently\nbeautiful and remarkable. He fires up in vindication of himself; and\nthen he checks himself. 'By the grace of God I am'--and he is going\nto say what he is, but he bethinks himself, as if he had reflected;\n'No! I will leave other people to say what that is. By the grace of\nGod I am--what I am, whatever that be. And all that I have to say is\nthat God made me, and that I helped Him. For the grace of God which\nwas bestowed upon me was not in vain. You Corinthians may judge what\nthe product is. I tell you how it has come about.' So there are\nthoughts here, I think, well worth our pondering and taking into our\nhearts and lives.\n\nI. First, as to the one power that makes men.\n\n'By the grace of God I am what I am.' Now that word 'grace' has got\nto be worn threadbare, and to mean next door to nothing, in the ears\nand minds of a great many continual hearers of the Gospel. But\nPaul had a very definite idea of what he meant by it; and what he\nmeant by it was a very large thing, which we may well ponder for a\nmoment as being the only thing which will transform and ennoble\ncharacter and will produce fruit that a man need not be ashamed of.\nThe grace of God, in Paul's use of the words, which is the scriptural\nuse of them generally, implies these two things which are connected\nas root and product--the active love of God, in exercise towards us\nlow and sinful creatures, and the gifts with which that love comes\nfull charged to men. These two things, which at bottom are one, love\nand its gifts, are all, in the Apostle's judgment, gathered up and\nstored, as in a great storehouse, in Jesus Christ Himself, and\nthrough Him are made accessible to us, and brought to bear upon us\nfor the ennobling of our natures, and the investing of us with graces\nand beauties of character, all strange to us apart from these.\n\nNow it seems to me that these two things, which come from one root,\nare the precise things which you and I need in order to make us\nnobler and purer and more Godlike men than otherwise we could ever\nbecome. For what is it that men need most for noble and pure living?\nThese two things precisely--motive and power to carry out the\ndictates of conscience.\n\nEvery man in the world knows enough of duty and of right to be a far\nnobler man than any man in the world is. And it is not for want of\nclear convictions of duty, it is not for want of recognised models\nand patterns of life, that men go wrong; but it is because there are\nthese two things lacking, motives for nobler service, and power to do\nand be what they know they ought to be. And precisely here Paul's\ngospel comes in, 'By the grace of God I am what I am.' That grace,\nconsidered in its two sides of love and of giving, supplies all that\nwe want.\n\nIt supplies motives. There is nothing that will bend a man's will\nlike the recognition of divine love which it is blessedness to come\nin contact with, and to obey. You may try to sway him by motives of\nadvantage and self-interest, and to thunder into his ears the pealing\nwords of duty and right and 'ought,' and there is no adequate\nresponse. You cannot soften a heart by the hammers of the law. You\ncannot force a man to do right by brandishing before him the whip\nthat punishes doing wrong. You cannot sway the will by anything but\nthe heart; and when you can touch the deepest spring it moves the\nwhole mass.\n\nYou have seen some ponderous piece of machinery, which resists all\nattempts of a puny hand laid upon it to make it revolve. But down in\none corner is a little hidden spring. Touch that and with majestic\nslowness and certainty the mighty mass turns. You know those\nrocking-stones down in the south of England; tons of weight poised\nupon a pin point, and so exquisitely balanced that a child's finger\nrightly applied may move the mass. So the whole man is made mobile\nonly by the touch of love; and the grace that comes to us, and says,\n'If ye love Me, keep My commandments'--is, as I believe, the sole\nmotive which will continuously and adequately sway the rebellious,\nself-centred wills of men, to obedience resulting in nobility of\nlife.\n\nThe other aspect of this same great word is, in like manner, that\nwhich we need. What men want is, first of all, the will to be noble\nand good; and, second, the power to carry out the will. It is God\nthat worketh in us both the willing and the doing. I venture to\naffirm that there is no power known, either to thinkers, or\nphilanthropists, or doctrinaires, or strivers after excellence in the\nworld--no power known and available which will lift a life to such\nheights of beauty and self-sacrificing nobility, as will the power\nthat comes to us by communication of the grace that is in Jesus\nChrist.\n\nI am perpetually trying to insist, dear brethren, upon this one\nthought, that the communication of actual new life is the central\ngift of the Gospel; and this new life it is, this nature endowed with\nnew desires, hopes, aims, capacities, which alone will lift the whole\nman into unwonted heights of beauty and serenity. It is the grace of\nGod, the gift of His Divine Spirit who will dwell with all of us, if\nwe will, which alone can be trusted to make men good.\n\nAnd now, if that be true, what follows? Surely this, that for all you\nwho have, in any measure, caught a glimpse of what you ought to be,\nand have been more or less vainly trying to realise your ideal, and\nreach your goal, there is a better way than the way of self-centred\nand self-derived and self-dependent effort. There is the way of\nopening your hearts and spirits to the entrance and access of that\ngreat power, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which will do in us\nand for us all that we know we ought to do, and yet feel hampered and\nhindered in performing.\n\nOh, dear friends! there are many of you, I believe, who have more or\nless spasmodically and interruptedly, but with a continual recurrence\nto the effort, sought to plant your feet firmly in the paths of\nrighteousness, and have more or less failed. Listen to this Gospel,\nand accept it, and put it to the proof. The love of God which is in\nChrist Jesus, and the life which that love brings in its hands, for\nall of us who will trust it, will dwell in you if you will, and mould\nyou into His own likeness, and the law of the spirit of life which\nwas in Christ Jesus will make us free from the law of sin and death.\n\nAll noble living is a battle. Can you and I, with our ten thousand,\nmeet him that cometh against us with his twenty, the temptations of\nthe world and of its Prince? Send for the reinforcements, and Jesus\nChrist will come and teach your hands to war and your fingers to\nfight. All noble life is self-denial, coercion, restraint; and can my\npoor, feeble hands apply muscular force enough to the brake to keep\nthe wheels clogged, and prevent them from whirling me downhill into\nruin? Let Him come and put His great gentle hand on the top of yours,\nand that will enable you to scotch the wheels, and make self-denial\npossible. All noble life is a building up by slow degrees from the\nfoundation. And can you and I complete the task with our own limited\nresources, and our own feeble strengths? Will not 'all that pass by\nbegin to mock' us and say, 'This man began to build and was not able\nto finish'? That is the epitaph written over all moralities and over\nall lives which, catching some glimpse of the good and the true and\nthe noble, have tried, apart from Christ, to reproduce them in\nthemselves. Frightful gaps, and an unfinished, however fair structure\nend them all. Go to Him. 'His hand hath laid the foundation of the\nhouse, His hand shall also finish it.' He who is Himself the\nfoundation-stone is also the headstone of the corner, which is\nbrought forth with shouting of 'Grace! Grace unto it!'\n\nI need not, I suppose, linger to remind you what important and large\nlessons these thoughts carry, not only for men who are trying to work\nat the task of mending and making their own characters, but on the\nlarger scale, for all who seek to benefit and elevate their fellows.\nBrethren, it is not for me to depreciate any workers who, in any\ndepartment, and by any methods, seek, and partially effect, the\nelevation of humanity. But I should be untrue to my own deepest\nconvictions, and unfaithful to the message which God's providence has\ngiven it to me as my life's task to proclaim, if I did not declare\nthat nothing will truly _re-form_ humanity, society, the nation, the\ncity, except that which re-creates the individual: 'the grace of our\nLord Jesus Christ' entering into their midst.\n\nII. And so, secondly, and very briefly, notice the lesson we get here\nas to how we should think of our own attainments.\n\nI have already pointed out that there are two beautiful touches in my\ntext. The Apostle traces everything that he is, in his character and\nin his Christian standing and in his Apostolic work and success, to\nthat grace that has come down upon him, and clothed his nakedness\nwith so glorious a garment. And then, in addition to that, he\nmodestly, and with a fine sense of dignity, refrains from parading\nhis attainments or his achievements, and says, 'It is not for me to\nestimate what I am; it is for you to do it.' True, indeed, in the\nnext verse he does set forth, in very lofty language, his claims to\nbe in nothing behind the very chiefest of the Apostles, and 'to have\nlaboured more abundantly than they all.' But still the spirit of that\nhumble and yet dignified silence runs through the whole context. 'By\nthe grace of God I am--what I am.'\n\nWell, then, it is not necessary for a man to be ignorant, or to\npretend that he is ignorant, of what he can do. We hear a great deal\nabout the unconsciousness of genius. There is a partial truth in it;\nand possibly the highest examples of power and success, in any\ndepartment of mental or intellectual effort, are unaware of their\nachievements and stature. But if a man can do a certain kind of\nservice there is no harm whatever in his recognising the fact that he\ncan do it. The only harm is in his thinking that because he can, he is\na very fine fellow, and that the work itself is a great work; and\nso setting himself up above his brethren. There is a vast deal of\nhypocrisy in what is called unconsciousness of power. Most men who\nhave been chosen and empowered to do a great work for God or for men,\nin any department, have been aware that they could do it. But the\nless we think about ourselves, in any way, the better. The more\nentire our recognition of the influx of grace on which we depend for\nkeeping our reservoir full, the less likelihood there will be of\ntouchy self-assertion, the less likelihood of the misuse of the\npowers that we have. If we are to do much for God, if we are to keep\nwhat we have already attained, if we are to make our own lives sweet\nand beautiful, if we are to be invested with any increase of\ncapacity, or led to any higher heights of nobleness and\nChristlikeness, we must copy, and make a conscious effort to copy,\nthese two things, which marked the Apostle's estimate of himself--a\ndistinct recognition that we are only reservoirs and nothing\nmore--'What hast thou that thou hast not received? Why then dost thou\nglory as if thou hadst not received it?'--and a humble waiving aside\nof the attempt to determine what it is that we are. For however\nclearly a man may know his own powers and achievements, it is hard\nfor him to estimate the relations of these to his whole character.\n\nSo, dear brethren, although it is a very homely piece of advice, and\nmay seem to be beneath the so-called dignity of the pulpit, let me\nventure just to remind you that self-conceit is no disease peculiar\nto the ten-talented people, but is quite as rife, if not a good deal\nrifer, among those with one talent. They are very humble when it\ncomes to work, and are quite contented to wrap the one talent up in a\nnapkin then; but when it comes to self-assertion, or what they expect\nto receive of recognition from others, they need to be reminded quite\nas much as their betters in endowment--'By the grace of God I am what\nI am.'\n\nIII. And so, lastly, one word about the responsibility for our\nco-operation with the grace, in order to the accomplishment of its\nresults.\n\n'The grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain,' says Paul.\n'Not I, but the grace of God which was with me, and so I laboured\nmore abundantly than they all.' That is to say, God in His giving\nlove; Christ with His ever out-flowing Spirit, move round our hearts,\nand desire to enter. But the grace, the love, the gifts of the love\nmay all be put away by our unfaithfulness, by our non-receptivity, by\nour misuse, and by our negligence. Paul yielded himself to the grace\nthat was brought to work upon him. Have you yielded yourselves?\n\nPaul said, 'By the grace of God I am what I am.' He could not have\nsaid that, could he, if he had known that the most part of what he\nwas was dead against God's will and purpose? Has God anything to do\nwith making you what you are, or has it been the devil that has had\nthe greater share in it? This man, because he knew that he had\nsubmitted himself to the often painful, searching, crucifying,\nself-restraining and stimulating influences of the Gospel and Spirit\nof Christ, could say, 'God's grace has made me what I am, and I\nhelped Him to make me.' And can you say anything like that?\n\nTake your life. In how many of its deeds has there been present the\nconsciousness of God and His love? Take your character. How much of\nit has been shot through and through, so to speak, by the fiery darts\nof that cleansing, warming, consuming grace of God? Are you daily\nbeing baptized in that Spirit, searched by that Spirit, condemned by\nthat grace? Is it the grace of God, or nature and self and the world\nand the flesh that have made you what you are?\n\nOh, brethren I let us cultivate the sense of our need of this divine\nhelp, for it does not come where men do not know how weak they are,\nand how much they want it. The mountain tops are high,--yes! and they\nare dry; there is no water there. The rivers run in the green valleys\ndeep down. 'God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.'\nLet us see that we open our hearts to the reception of these\nquickening and cleansing influences, for it is possible for us to\ncover ourselves over with such an impenetrable covering that that\ngrace cannot pass through it. Let us see to it that we keep ourselves\nin close contact with the foundation of all this grace, even Jesus\nChrist Himself, by desire, by faith, by love, by communion, by\nmeditation, by approximation, by sympathy, by service. And let us see\nthat we use the grace that we possess. 'For to him that hath shall be\ngiven, and from him that hath not'--not possessing in any real sense\nbecause not utilising for its appointed purpose--'shall be taken away\neven that he hath.' Wherefore, brethren, I 'beseech you that ye\nreceive not the grace of God in vain.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE UNITY OF APOSTOLIC TEACHING\n\n   'Whether it were I or they, so we preach,\n   and so ye believed.'--1 COR. xv. 11.\n\n\nParty spirit and faction were the curses of Greek civic life, and\nthey had crept into at least one of the Greek churches--that in the\nluxurious and powerful city of Corinth. We know that there was a very\nconsiderable body of antagonists to Paul, who ranked themselves under\nthe banner of Apollos or of Cephas _i.e._ Peter. Therefore, Paul,\nkeenly conscious that he was speaking to some unfriendly critics,\nhastens in the context to remove the possible objection which might\nbe made, that the Gospel which he preached was peculiar to himself,\nand proceeds to assert that the whole substance of what he had to say\nto men, was held with unbroken unanimity by the other apostles.\n'They' means all of _them_; and 'so' means the summary of the Gospel\nteaching in the preceding verses.\n\nNow, Paul would not have ventured to make that assertion, in the face\nof men whom he knew to be eager to pick holes in anything that he\nsaid, unless he had been perfectly sure of his ground. There were\nbroad differences between him and the others. But their partisans\nmight squabble, as is often the case, and the men, whose partisans\nthey were, be unanimous. There were differences of individual\ncharacter, of temper, and of views about certain points of Christian\ntruth. But there was an unbroken front of unanimity in regard to all\nthat lies within the compass of that little word which covers so much\nground--'_So_ we preach.'\n\nNow, I wish to turn to that outstanding fact--which does not always\nattract the attention which it deserves--of the absolute identity of\nthe message which all the apostles and primitive teachers delivered,\nand to seek to enforce some of the considerations and lessons which\nseem to me naturally to flow from it.\n\nI. First, then, I ask you to think of the fact itself--the unbroken\nunanimity of the whole body of Apostolic teachers.\n\nAs I have said, there were wide differences of characteristics\nbetween them, but there was a broad tract of teaching wherein they\nall agreed. Let me briefly gather up the points of unanimity, the\ncontents of the one Gospel, which every man of them felt was his\nmessage to the world. I may take it all from the two clauses in the\npreceding context, 'how that Christ died for our sins according to\nthe Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the\nthird day according to the Scriptures.' These are the things about\nwhich, as Paul declares, there was not the whisper of a dissentient\nvoice. There is the vital centre which he declares every Christian\nteacher grasped as being the essential of his message, and in various\ntones and manners, but in substantial identity of content, declared\nto the world.\n\nNow, what lies in it? The Person spoken of--the Christ, and all that\nthat word involves of reference to the ancient and incomplete\nRevelation in the past, its shadows and types, its prophecies and\nceremonies, its priesthood and its sacrifices; with all that it\ninvolves of reference to the ancient hopes on which a thousand\ngenerations had lived, and which either are baseless delusions, or\nare realised in Jesus--the Person whom all the Apostles proclaimed\nwas One anointed from God as Prophet, Priest, and King; who had come\ninto the world to fulfil all that the ancient system had shadowed by\nsacrifice, temple, and priest, and was the Monarch of Israel and of\nthe world.\n\nAnd not only were they absolutely unanimous in regard to the Person,\nbut they were unbrokenly consentient in regard to the facts of His\nlife, His death, and His Resurrection. But the proclamation of the\nexternal fact is no gospel. You must add the clause 'for our sins,'\nand then the record, which is a mere piece of history, with no more\ngood news in it than the record of the death of any other martyr,\nhero, or saint, starts into being truly the good news for the world.\nThe least part of a historical fact is the fact; the greatest part of\nit is the explanation of the fact, and the setting it in its place in\nregard to other facts, the exhibition of the principles which it\nexpresses, and of the conclusions to which it leads. So the bare\nhistorical declaration of a death and a resurrection is transmuted\ninto a gospel, by that which is the most important part of the\nGospel, the explanation of the meaning of the fact--'He died for our\nsins.'\n\nIf redemption from sin through the death of a Person is the\nfundamental conception of the Gospel for the world, then it is clear\nthat, for such a purpose, a divine nature in the Person is wanted.\nYour notion of what Christ came to do will determine your notion of\nwho He is. If you only recognise that His work is to teach,\nor to show in exercise a fair human character, then you may rest\ncontent with the lower notion of His nature which sees in Him but the\nforemost of the sons of men. But if we grasp 'died for our sins,'\nthen for such a task the incarnation of the Eternal Son of God is the\nabsolute pre-requisite.\n\nStill further, our text brings out the contents of this gospel as\nbeing the declaration of the Resurrection. On that I need not here\nand now dwell at any length. But these are the points, the Person,\nthe two facts, death and resurrection, and the great meaning of the\ndeath--viz. the expiation for the world's sins: these are the things\non which the whole of the primitive teachers of the Apostolic Church\nhad one voice and one message.\n\nNow, I do not suppose that I need spend any time in showing to you\nhow the extant records bear out, absolutely, this contention of the\nApostle's. I need only remind you how the opposition that was waged\nagainst him--and it was a very vigorous and a very bitter\nopposition--from a section of the Church, had no bearing at all upon\nthe question of what he taught, but only upon the question of to whom\nit was to be taught. The only objection that the so-called Judaising\nparty in the early Church had against Paul and his preaching, was not\nthe Gospel that he declared, but his assertion that the Gentile\nnations might enter into the Church through faith in Jesus Christ,\nwithout passing through the gate of circumcision. Depend upon it, if\nthere had been any, even the most microscopic, divergence on his part\nfrom the general, broad stream of Christian teaching, the sleepless,\nkeen-eyed, unscrupulous enemies that dogged him all his days would\nhave pounced upon it eagerly, and would never have ceased talking\nabout it. But not one of them ever said a word of the sort, but\nallowed his teaching to pass, because it was the teaching of every\none of the apostles.\n\nIf I had time, or if it were necessary, it would be easy to point you\nto the records that we have left of the Apostolic teaching, in order\nto confirm this unbroken unanimity. I do not need to spend time on\nthat. Proof-texts are not worth so much as the fact that these\ndoctrines are interwoven into the whole structure of the New\nTestament as a whole--just as they are into Paul's letters. But I may\ngather one or two sayings, in which the substance of each writer's\nteaching has been concentrated by himself. For instance, Peter speaks\nabout being 'redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb\nwithout blemish and without spot,' and declares that 'He Himself bare\nour sins in His own body on the tree.' John comes in with his\ndoxology: 'Unto Him that loved us, and loosed us from our sins in His\nown blood'; and it is his pen that records how in the heavens there\nechoed 'glory and honour and thanks and blessing, for ever and ever,\nto the Lamb that was slain, and has redeemed us unto God by His\nblood.' The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, steeped as he is in\nceremonial and sacrificial ideas, and having for his one purpose to\nwork out the thought that Jesus Christ is all that the ancient\nritual, sacerdotal and sacrificial system shadows and foretells, sums\nup his teaching in the statement that Christ having come, a high\npriest of good things to come, 'through His own blood, entered in,\nonce for all, into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption\nfor us.'\n\nThere were limits to the unanimity, as I have already said. Paul and\nPeter had a great quarrel about circumcision and related subjects.\nThe Apostolic writings are wondrously diverse from one another. Peter\nis far less constructive and profound than Paul. Paul and Peter are\nboth untouched with the mystic wisdom of the Apostle John. But, in\nregard to the facts that I have signalised, the divinity, the person\nof Jesus Christ, His death and Resurrection, and the significance to\nbe attached to that death, they are absolutely one. The instruments\nin the orchestra are various, the tender flute, the ringing trumpet,\nand many another, but the note they strike is the same. 'Whether it\nwere I or they, so we preach.'\n\nII. Now, let me ask you to consider the only explanation of this\nunanimity.\n\nTime was when the people, who did not believe in Christ's divinity\nand sacrificial death, tortured themselves to try and make out\nmeanings for these epistles, which should not include the obnoxious\ndoctrines. That is nearly antiquated. I suppose that there is nobody\nnow, or next to nobody, who does not admit that, right or wrong,\nPaul, Peter, John--all of them--teach these two things, that Christ\nis the Eternal Son of the Father, and that His death is the Sacrifice\nfor the world's sin. But they say that that is not the primitive,\nsimple teaching of the Man of Nazareth; and that the unanimity is a\nunanimity of misapprehension of, and addition to, His words and to\nthe drift of His teaching.\n\nNow, just think what a huge--I was going to say--inconceivability\nthat supposition is. For there is no point, say from the time at\nwhich the Apostle who wrote the words of my text, which was somewhere\nabout the year 56 or 57 A.D.,--there is no point between that period,\nworking backwards through the history of the Church to the\nCrucifixion, where you can insert such a tremendous revolution of\nteaching as this. There is no trace of such a change. Peter's\nearliest speeches, as recorded in Acts, are in some important\nrespects less developed doctrinally than are the epistles, but\nChrist's Messiahship, death, and Resurrection, with which is\nconnected the remission of sins, are as clearly and emphatically\nproclaimed as at any later time. So these points of the Apostolic\ntestimony were preached from the first, and, if in preaching them,\nthe witnesses perverted the simple teaching of the Carpenter of\nNazareth, and ascribed to Him a character which He had not claimed,\nand to His death a power of which He had not dreamed, they did so at\nthe very time when the impressions of His personality and teaching\nwere most recent and strong. It seems to me, apart altogether from\nother considerations, that such a right-about-face movement on the\npart of the early teachers of Christianity, is an absolute\nimpossibility, regard being had to the facts of the case, even if you\nmake much allowance for possible errors in the record.\n\nBut I would make another remark. If misapprehension came in, if these\nmen, in their unanimous declaration of Christ's death as the\nSacrifice for sin, were not fairly representing the conclusions\ninevitable from the facts of Christ's life and death, and from His\nown words, is it not an odd thing that the same misapprehension\naffected them all? When people misconceive a teacher's doctrine, they\ngenerally differ in the nature of their misconceptions, and split\ninto sections and parties. But here you have to account for the fact\nthat every man of them, with all their diversity of idiosyncrasy and\ncharacter, tumbled into the same pit of error, and that there was not\none of them left sane enough to protest. Does that seem to be a\nlikely thing?\n\nAnd what about the worth of the teacher's teaching, that did not\nguard its receivers from such absolute misapprehension as that? If\nthe whole Church unanimously mistook everything that Jesus Christ had\nsaid to them, and unwarrantably made out of Him what they did, on\nthis hypothesis, I do not think that there is much left to honour or\nadmire in a teacher, whose teaching was so ambiguous, as that it led\nall that received it into such an error as that into which, by the\nsupposition, they fell.\n\nNo, brethren; they were one, because their Gospel was the only\npossible statement of the principles that underlay, and the\nconclusions that flowed from, the plain facts of the life and the\nteaching of Jesus Christ. I am not going to spend time in quoting His\nown words. I can only refer to one or two of them very succinctly.\n'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' 'As\nMoses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son\nof Man be lifted up.' 'My flesh is the bread which I will give for\nthe life of the world.' 'The Son of Man came not to be ministered\nunto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.' 'This\nis My body broken for you; take, eat, in remembrance of Me.' 'This is\nMy blood, shed for many for the remission of sins; this do ye, as\noften as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me.' What possible\nexplanation, doing justice to these words, is there, except 'Jesus\nChrist died for our sins according to the Scriptures'? And how could\nmen who had heard them with their own ears, and with their own eyes\nhad seen Him risen from the dead and ascending into heaven, do\notherwise than eagerly, enthusiastically, at the cost of all, and\nwith unhesitating voice of unbroken unanimity, 'so preach'?\n\nI quite admit that in Christ's teaching in the gospels you will not\nfind the articulate drawing out into doctrinal statement of the\nprinciples that underlay, and the conclusions that flow from, the\nhistorical fact of Christ's propitiatory death. I do not wonder at\nthat, nor do I admit that it is any argument against the truth of the\ndivine revelation which is made in these doctrinal statements, to\nallege that we find nothing corresponding to them in Jesus Christ's\nown words. The silence is not as absolute as is alleged, as the\nquotations which I have made, and which might have been multiplied,\ndo distinctly enough show. Even if it were more absolute than it is,\nthe silence is by no means unintelligible. Christ had to offer the\nSacrifice before the Sacrifice could be preached. He Himself warned\nHis disciples against accepting His own words prior to the Cross, as\nthe conclusive and ultimate revelation. 'I have many things to say\nunto you, but you cannot carry them now.' There was need that the\nCross should be a fact before it was evolved into a doctrine. And so\nI venture to say that the unanimity of the preaching is only\nexplicable on the ground of that preaching in both its parts--its\nassertion of Jesus' Messiahship and of His propitiatory death--being\nthe repetition on the housetop of the lessons which they had heard in\nthe ear from Him.\n\nIII. Note, briefly, the lesson from this unanimity.\n\nLet us distinctly apprehend where is the living heart of the\nGospel--that it is the message of redemption by the incarnation and\nsacrifice of the Son of God. There follows from that incarnation and\nsacrifice all the great teaching about the work of the Divine Spirit\nin men, dwelling in them for evermore. But the beginning of all is,\n'Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.' And,\nbrethren, that message meets, as nothing else meets, the deepest\nneeds of every human soul. It is able, as nothing else is able, to\nopen out into a whole encyclop\u00e6dia and universe of wisdom and truth\nand power. If we strike it out of our conception of Christianity, or\nif we obscure it as being the very palpitating centre of the whole,\nthen feebleness will creep over the Christianity that is _minus_ a\nCross, or does not see in it the Sacrifice for the world's sin. You\nmay cast overboard the sails to lighten the ship. If you do, she lies\na log on the waters. And if, for the sake of meeting new phases of\nthought, Christian churches tamper with this central truth, they have\nflung away their means of progress and of power.\n\nLet me say again, and in a word only, that the considerations that I\nhave been trying to submit to you in this sermon, show us the limits\nwithin which the modern cry of 'Back to the Christ of the Gospels,'\nis right, and where it may be wrong. I believe that in former days,\nand to some extent in the present day, we evangelical teachers have\ntoo much sometimes talked rather about the doctrines than about the\nPerson who is the doctrines. And if the cry of 'Back to the Christ'\nmeans, 'Do not talk so much about the Atonement and Propitiation;\ntalk about the Christ who atones,' then, with all my heart, I say,\n'Amen!' But put the Person in the foreground, the living-loving, the\ndying-loving, the risen-loving Christ, put Him in the foreground. But\nif it is implied, as I am afraid it is often implied, that the Christ\nof the Gospels is one and the Christ of the epistles is another, and\nthat to go back to the Christ of the gospels means to drop 'died for\nour sins according to the Scriptures,' and to retain only the\nnon-miraculous, moral and religious teachings that are recorded in\nthe three first gospels, then I say that it is fatal for the Church,\nand it is false to the facts, for the Christ of the epistles is the\nChrist of the gospels: the difference only being that in the one you\nhave the facts, and in the other you have their meaning and their\npower.\n\nSo, lastly, let this text teach us what we ourselves have to do with\nthis unanimous testimony. 'So we preach, and so ye believed.'\nBrother! Do you believe _so_? That is to say, is your conception\nof the Gospel the mighty redemptive agency which is wrought by the\nIncarnate Son of God, who was crucified for our offences, and rose\nthat we might live, and is glorified that we, too, may share His\nglory? Is that your Gospel? But do not be content with an\nintellectual grasp of the thing. 'So ye believed' means a great deal\nmore than 'I believe that Christ died for our sins.' It means 'I\nbelieve in the Christ who did die for my sins.' You must cast\nyourself as a sinful man on Him; and, so casting, you will find that\nit is no vain story which is commended to us by all these august\nvoices from the past, but you will have in your own experience the\nverification of the fact that He died for our sins, in your own\nconsciousness of sins forgiven, and new love bestowed; and so may\nturn round to Paul, the leader of the chorus, and to all the\napostolic band, and say to them, 'Now I believe, not because of thy\nsaying, but because I have seen Him, and myself heard Him.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE CERTAINTY AND JOY OF THE RESURRECTION\n\n   'But now is Christ risen from the dead ... the first\n   fruits of them that slept.'--1 COR. xv. 20.\n\n\nThe Apostle has been contemplating the long train of dismal\nconsequences which he sees would arise if we only had a dead Christ.\nHe thinks that he, the Apostle, would have nothing to preach, and we,\nnothing to believe. He thinks that all hope of deliverance from sin\nwould fade away. He thinks that the one fact which gives assurance of\nimmortality having vanished, the dead who had nurtured the assurance\nhave perished. And he thinks that if things were so, then Christian\nmen, who had believed a false gospel, and nourished an empty faith,\nand died clinging to a baseless hope, were far more to be pitied than\nmen who had had less splendid dreams and less utter illusions.\n\nThen, with a swift revulsion of feeling, he turns away from that\ndreary picture, and with a change of key, which the dullest ear can\nappreciate, from the wailing minors of the preceding verses, he\nbreaks into this burst of triumph. 'Now'--things being as they are,\nfor it is the logical 'now,' and not the temporal one--things being\nas they are, 'Christ is risen from the dead, and that as the first\nfruits of them that slept.'\n\nPart of the ceremonial of the Passover was the presentation in the\nTemple of a barley sheaf, the first of the harvest, waved before the\nLord in dedication to Him, and in sign of thankful confidence that\nall the fields would be reaped and their blessing gathered.\nThere may be some allusion to that ceremony, which coincided in time\nwith the Resurrection of our Lord, in the words here, which regard\nthat one solitary Resurrection as the early ripe and early reaped\nsheaf, the pledge and the prophecy of the whole ingathering.\n\nNow there seem to me, in these words, to ring out mainly two\nthings--an expression of absolute certainty in the fact, and an\nexpression of unbounded triumph in the certainty of the fact.\n\nAnd if we look at these two things, I think we shall get the main\nthoughts that the Apostle would impress upon our minds.\n\nI. The certainty of Christ's Resurrection.\n\n'Now _is_ Christ risen,' says he, defying, as it were, doubt and\nnegation, and basing himself upon the firm assurance which he\npossesses of that historical fact. 'Ah!' you say, 'seeing is\nbelieving; and he had evidence such as we can never have.' Well! let\nus see. Is it possible for us, nineteen centuries nearly after that\nday, to catch some echo of this assured confidence, and in the face\nof modern doubts and disbeliefs, to reiterate with as unfaltering\nassurance as that with which they came from his glowing lips, the\ngreat words of my text? Can we, logically and reasonably, as men who\nare guided by evidence and not by feeling, stand up before the world,\nand take for ours the ancient confession: 'I believe in Jesus Christ,\nHis only Son, our Lord, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was\ncrucified, dead, and buried. The third day He rose again from the\ndead'? I think we can.\n\nThe way to prove a fact is by the evidence of witnesses. You cannot\nargue that it would be very convenient, if such and such a thing\nshould be true; that great moral effects would follow if we believed\nit was true, and so on. The way to do is to put people who have seen\nit into the witness-box, and to make sure that their evidence is\nworth accepting.\n\nAnd at the beginning of my remarks I wish to protest, in a sentence,\nagainst confusing the issues about this question of the Resurrection\nof Jesus Christ in that fashion which is popular nowadays, when we\nare told that miracle is impossible, and _therefore_ there has\nbeen no Resurrection, or that death is the end of human existence,\nand that _therefore_ there has been no Resurrection. That is not\nthe way to go about ascertaining the truth as to asserted facts. Let\nus hear the evidence. The men who brush aside the testimony of the\nNew Testament writers, in obedience to a theory, either about the\nimpossibility of the supernatural, or about the fatal and final\nissues of human death, are victims of prejudice, in the strictest\nmeaning of the word; and are no more logical than the well-known and\nproverbial reasoner who, when told that facts were against him, with\nsublime confidence in his own infallibility, is reported to have\nsaid, 'So much the worse for the facts.' Let us deal with evidence,\nand not with theory, when we are talking about alleged facts of\nhistory.\n\nSo then, let me remind you that, in this chapter from which my text\nis taken, we have a record of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, older\nthan, and altogether independent of, the records contained in\nthe gospels, which are all subsequent in date to it; that this Epistle\nto the Corinthians is one of the four undisputed Epistles of the\nApostle, which not the most advanced school of modern criticism has a\nword to say against; that, therefore, this chapter, written, at the\nlatest, some seven and twenty years after the date of the\nCrucifixion, carries us up very close to that event; that it shows\nthat the Resurrection was _universally_ believed all over the Church,\nand therefore must have then been long believed; that it enables us\nto trace the same belief as universal, and in undisputed possession\nof the field among the churches, at the time of Paul's conversion,\nwhich cannot be put down at much more than five or six years after\nthe Crucifixion, and that so we are standing in the presence of\nabsolutely contemporaneous testimony. This is not a case in which a\nbelief slowly and gradually grew up. Whether we accept the evidence\nor not, we are bound to admit that it is strictly contemporaneous\ntestimony to the fact of Christ's Resurrection.\n\nAnd the witnesses are reliable and competent, as well as\ncontemporaneous. The old belief that their testimony was imposture is\ndead long ago; as, indeed, how could it live? It would be an anomaly,\nfar greater than the Resurrection, to believe that these people,\nMary, Peter, John, Paul, and all the rest of them, were conspirators\nin a lie, and that the fairest system of morality and the noblest\nconsecration that the world has ever seen, grew up out of a fraud,\nlike flowers upon a dunghill. That theory will not hold water; and\neven those who will not accept the testimony have long since\nconfessed that it will not. But the Apostle, in my context, seems to\nthink that that is the only tenable alternative to the other theory\nthat the witnesses were veracious, and I am disposed to believe that\nhe is right. He says, 'If Christ be not risen, then, are we' the\nutterly impossible thing of 'false witnesses to God,' devout\nperjurers, as the phrase might be paraphrased: men who are lying to\nplease God. If Christ be not risen, they have sworn to a thing that\nthey know to be untrue, in order to advance His cause and His\nkingdom. If that theory be not accepted, there is no other about\nthese men and their message that will hold water for a minute, except\nthe admission of its truth.\n\nThe fashionable modern one, that it was hallucination, is\npreposterous. Hallucinations that five hundred people at once shared!\nHallucinations that lasted all through long talks, spread at\nintervals over more than a month! Hallucinations that included eating\nand drinking, speech and answer; the clasp of the hand and the\nfeeling of the breath! Hallucinations that brought instruction!\nHallucinations that culminated in the fancy that a gathered multitude\nof them saw Him going up into heaven! The hallucination is on the\nother side, I think. They have got the saddle on the wrong horse when\nthey talk about the Apostolic witnesses being the victims of\nhallucination. It is the people who believe it possible that they\nshould be who are so. The old argument against miracles used to say\nthat it is more consonant with experience that testimony should be\nfalse, than that a miracle should be true. I venture to say it is a\nmuch greater strain on a man's credulity, to believe that _such_\nevidence is false than that _such_ a miracle, _so_ attested, is true.\nAnd I, for my part, venture to think that the reasonable men are the\nmen who listen to these eye-witnesses when they say, 'We saw Him\nrise'; and echo back in answer the triumphant certitude, 'Christ is\nrisen indeed!'\n\nThere is another consideration that I might put briefly. A very\nvaluable way of establishing facts is to point to the existence of\nother facts, which indispensably require the previous ones for their\nexplanation. Let me give you an illustration of what I mean. I\nbelieve in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, amongst other reasons,\nbecause I do not understand how it was possible for the Church to\nexist for a week after the Crucifixion, unless Jesus Christ rose\nagain. Why was it that they did not all scatter? Why was it that the\nspirit of despondency and the tendency to separation, which were\nbeginning to creep over them when they were saying: 'Ah! it is all\nup! We _trusted_ that this had been He,' did not go on to their\nnatural issue? How came it that these people, with their Master taken\naway from the midst of them, and the bond of union between them\nremoved, and all their hopes crushed did not say: 'We have made a\nmistake, let us go back to Gennesareth and take to our fishing again,\nand try and forget our bright illusions'? That is what John the\nBaptist's followers did when he died. Why did not Christ's do the\nsame? Because Christ rose again and re-knit them together. When the\nShepherd was smitten, the flock would have been scattered, and never\ndrawn together any more, unless there had been just such a thing as\nthe Resurrection asserts there was, to reunite the dispersed and to\nencourage the depressed. And so I say, Christianity with a _dead_\nChrist, and a Church gathered round a grave from which the stone has\n_not_ been rolled away, is more unbelievable than the miracle, for it\nis an absurdity.\n\nThen there is another thing that I would say in a word. Let me put an\nillustration to explain what I mean. Suppose, after the execution of\nKing Charles I., in some corner of the country a Pretender had sprung\nup and said, 'I am the King!' the way to end that would have been for\nthe Puritan leaders to have taken people to St. George's Chapel, and\nsaid, 'Look! there is the coffin, there is the body, is that the\nking, or is it not?' Jesus Christ was said to have risen again,\nwithin a week of the time of His death. The rulers of the nation had\nthe grave, the watch, the stone, the seal. They could have put an end\nto the pestilent nonsense in two minutes, if it had been nonsense, by\nthe simple process of saying, 'Go and look at the tomb, and you will\nsee Him there.' But this question has never been answered, and never\nwill be--What became of that sacred corpse if Jesus Christ did not\nrise again from the dead? The clumsy lie that the rulers told, that\nthe disciples had stolen away the body, was only their acknowledgment\nthat the grave was empty. If the grave were empty, either His\nservants were impostors, which we have seen it is incredible that\nthey were, or the Christ was risen again.\n\nAnd so, dear brethren, for many other reasons besides this handful\nthat I have ventured to gather and put before you, and in spite of\nthe prejudices of modern theories, I lift up here once more, with\nunfaltering certitude, the glad message which I beseech you to\naccept: 'Christ is risen, the first fruits of them that slept.'\n\nII. So much, then, for the first point in this passage. A word or two\nabout the second--the triumph in the certitude of that Resurrection.\n\nAs I remarked at a previous point of this discourse, the Apostle has\nbeen speaking about the consequences which would follow from the fact\nthat Christ was not raised. If we take all these consequences and\nreverse them, we get the glad issues of His Resurrection, and\nunderstand why it was that this great burst of triumph comes from the\nApostle's lips. And though I must necessarily treat this part of my\nsubject very inadequately, let me try to gather together the various\npoints on which, as I think, our Easter gladness ought to be built.\n\nFirst, then, I say, the risen Christ gives us a complete Gospel. A\ndead Christ annihilates the Gospel. 'If Christ be not risen,' says\nthe Apostle, 'our preaching,' by which he means not the act but the\nsubstance of his preaching, 'is vain.' Or, as the word might be more\naccurately rendered, 'empty.' There is nothing in it; no contents. It\nis a blown bladder; nothing in it but wind.\n\nWhat was Paul's 'preaching'? It all turned upon these points--that\nJesus Christ was the Son of God; that He was Incarnate in the flesh\nfor us men; that He died on the Cross for our offences; that He was\nraised again, and had ascended into Heaven, ruling the world and\nbreathing His presence into believing hearts; and that He would come\nagain to be our Judge. These were the elements of what Paul called\n'his Gospel.' He faces the supposition of a dead Christ, and he says,\n'It is all gone! It is all vanished into thin air. I have nothing to\npreach if I have not a Cross to preach which is man's deliverance\nfrom sin, because on it the Son of God hath died, and I only know\nthat Jesus Christ's sacrifice is accepted and sufficient, because I\nhave it attested to me in His rising again from the dead.'\n\nDear brethren, on the fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is\nsuspended everything which makes the Gospel a gospel. Strike that\nout, and what have you left? Some beautiful bits of moral teaching, a\nlovely life, marred by tremendous mistakes about Himself and His own\nimportance and His relation to men and to God; but you have got\nnothing left that is worth calling a gospel. You have the cross\nrising there, gaunt, black, solitary; but, unless on the other side\nof the river you have the Resurrection, no bridge will ever be thrown\nacross the black gulf, and the Cross remains 'dead, being alone.' You\nmust have a Resurrection to explain the Cross, and then the Life and\nthe Death tower up into the manifestation of God in the flesh and the\npropitiation for our sins. Without it we have nothing to preach which\nis worth calling a gospel.\n\nAgain, a living Christ gives faith something to lay hold of. The\nApostle here in the context twice says, according to the Authorised\nVersion, that a dead Christ makes our faith 'vain.' But he really\nuses two different words, the former of which is applied to\n'preaching,' and means literally 'empty,' while the latter means 'of\nnone effect' or 'powerless.' So there are two ideas suggested here\nwhich I can only touch with the lightest hand.\n\nThe risen Christ puts some contents, so to speak, into my faith; He\ngives me something for it to lay hold of.\n\nWho can trust a _dead_ Christ, or who can trust a _human_ Christ?\nThat would be as much a blasphemy as trusting any other man. It is\nonly when we recognise Him as declared to be the Son of God, and that\nby the Resurrection from the dead, that our faith has anything round\nwhich it can twine, and to which it can cleave. That living Saviour\nwill stretch out His hand to us if we look to Him, and if I put my\npoor, trembling little hand up towards Him, He will bend to me and\nclasp it. You cannot exercise faith unless you have a risen Saviour,\nand unless you exercise faith in Him your lives are marred and sad.\n\nAgain, if Christ be dead, our faith, if it could exist, would be as\ndevoid of effect as it would be empty of substance. For such a faith\nwould be like an infant seeking nourishment at a dead mother's\nbreast, or men trying to kindle their torches at an extinguished\nlamp. And chiefly would it fail to bring the first blessing which the\nbelieving soul receives through and from a risen Christ, namely,\ndeliverance from sin. If He whom we believed to be our sacrifice by\nHis death and our sanctification by His life has not risen, then, as\nwe have seen, all which makes His death other than a martyr's\nvanishes, and with it vanish forgiveness and purifying. Only when we\nrecognise that in His Cross explained by His Resurrection, we have\nredemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, and by\nthe communication of the risen life from the risen Lord possess that\nnew nature which sets us free from the dominion of our evil, is faith\noperative in setting us free from our sins.\n\nSo, dear friends, the risen Christ gives us something for faith to\nlay hold of, and will make it the hand by which we grasp His strong\nhand, which lifts us 'out of the horrible pit and the miry clay, and\nsets our feet upon a rock.' But if He lie dead in the grave your\nfaith is vain, because it grasps nothing but a shadow; and it is vain\nas being purposeless; you are yet in your sins.\n\nThe last thought is that the risen Christ gives us the certitude of\nour Resurrection. I do not for a moment mean to say that, apart from\nthe Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the thought, be it a wish or a\ndread, of immortality, has not been found in men, but there is all\nthe difference in the world between forebodings, aspirations, wishes\nit were so, fears that it might be so, and the calm certitude that it\nis so. Many men talked about a western continent, but Columbus went\nthere and came back again, and that ended doubt. Many men before, and\napart from Jesus, have cherished thoughts of an immortal life beyond\nthe grave, but He has been there and returned. And that, and, as I\nbelieve, that only puts the doctrine of immortality upon an\nirrefragable foundation; and we can say, 'Now, I know that there is\nthat land beyond.' They tell us that death ends everything. Modern\nmaterialism, in all its forms, asserts that it is the extinction of\nthe personality. Jesus Christ died, and went through it, and came out\nof it the same, and I will trust Him. Brethren, the set of opinion\namongst the educated and cultured classes in England, and all over\nEurope, at this moment, proves to anybody who has eyes to see, that\nfor this generation, rejection of immortality will follow certainly\non the rejection of Jesus Christ. And for England to-day, as for\nGreece when Paul sent his letter to Corinth, the one light of\ncertitude in the great darkness is the fact that Jesus Christ hath\ndied, and is risen again.\n\nIf you will let Him, He will make you partakers of His own immortal\nlife. 'The first fruits of them that slept' is the pledge and the\nprophecy of all the waving abundance of golden grain that shall be\ngathered into the great husbandman's barns. The Apostle goes on to\nrepresent the resurrection of 'them that are Christ's' as a\nconsequence of their union to Jesus. He has conquered for us all. He\nhas entered the prison-house and come forth bearing its iron gates on\nHis shoulders, and henceforth it is not possible that we should be\nholden of it. There are two resurrections--one, that of Christ's\nservants, one that of others. They are not the same in\nprinciple--and, alas, they are awfully different in issue. 'Some\nshall wake to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting\ncontempt.'\n\nLet me beseech you to make Jesus Christ the life of your dead souls,\nby humble, penitent trust in Him. And then, in due time, He will be\nthe life of your transformed bodies, changing these into the likeness\nof the body of His glory, 'according to the working whereby He is\nable even to subdue all things unto Himself.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE DEATH OF DEATH\n\n   'But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the\n   first-fruits of them that slept. 21. For since by man\n   came death, by man came also the resurrection of the\n   dead.... 50. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and\n   blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth\n   corruption inherit incorruption. 51. Behold, I shew\n   you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall\n   all be changed, 52. In a moment, in the twinkling of\n   an eye, at the last trump, (for the trumpet shall\n   sound;) and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,\n   and we shall be changed. 53. For this corruptible\n   must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put\n   on immortality. 54. So when this corruptible shall\n   have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have\n   put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the\n   saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in\n   victory. 55. O death, where is thy sting? O grave,\n   where is thy victory? 56. The sting of death is sin;\n   and the strength of sin is the law. 57. But thanks be\n   to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord\n   Jesus Christ. 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren,\n   be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in\n   the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your\n   labour is not in vain in the Lord.'--1 COR. xv. 20, 21; 50-58.\n\n\nThis passage begins with the triumphant ringing out of the great fact\nwhich changes all the darkness of an earthly life without a heavenly\nhope into a blaze of light. All the dreariness for humanity, and all\nthe vanity for Christian faith and preaching, vanish, like ghosts at\ncock-crow, when the Resurrection of Jesus rises sun-like on the\nworld's night. It is a historical fact, established by the evidence\nproper for such,--namely, the credible testimony of eye-witnesses.\nThey could attest His rising, but the knowledge of the worldwide\nsignificance of it comes, not from testimony, but from revelation.\nThose who saw Him risen join to declare: 'Now is Christ risen from\nthe dead,' but it is a higher Voice that goes on to say, 'and become\nthe first-fruits of them that slept.'\n\nThat one Man risen from the grave was like the solitary sheaf of\npaschal first-fruits, prophesying of many more, a gathered harvest\nthat will fill the great Husbandman's barns. The Resurrection of\nJesus is not only a prophecy, showing, as it and it alone does, that\ndeath is not the end of man, but that life persists through death and\nemerges from it, like a buried river coming again flashing into the\nlight of day, but it is the source or cause of the Christian's\nresurrection. The oneness of the race necessitated the diffusion\nthrough all its members of sin and of its consequence--physical\ndeath. If the fountain is poisoned, all the stream will be tainted.\nIf men are to be redeemed from the power of the grave, there must be\na new personal centre of life; and union with Him, which can only be\neffected by faith, is the condition of receiving life from Him, which\ngradually conquers the death of sin now, and will triumph over bodily\ndeath in the final resurrection. It is the resurrection of Christians\nthat Paul is dealing with. Others are to be raised, but on a\ndifferent principle, and to sadly different issues. Since Christ's\nResurrection assures us of the future waking, it changes death into\n'sleep,' and that sleep does not mean unconsciousness any more than\nnatural sleep does, but only rest from toil, and cessation of\nintercourse with the external world.\n\nIn the part of the passage, verses 50 to 58, the Apostle becomes, not\nthe witness or the reasoner, as in the earlier parts of the chapter,\nbut the revealer of a 'mystery.' That word, so tragically\nmisunderstood, has here its uniform scriptural sense of truth,\notherwise unknown, made known by revelation. But before he unveils\nthe mystery, Paul states with the utmost force a difficulty which\nmight seem to crush all hope,--namely, that corporeity, as we know\nit, is clearly incapable of living in such a world as that future one\nmust be. To use modern terms, organism and environment must be\nadapted to each other. A fish must have the water, the creatures that\nflourish at the poles would not survive at the equator. A man with\nhis gross earthly body, so thoroughly adapted to his earthly abode,\nwould be all out of harmony with his surroundings in that higher\nworld, and its rarified air would be too thin and pure for his lungs.\nCan there be any possibility of making him fit to live in a spiritual\nworld? Apart from revelation, the dreary answer must be 'No.' But the\n'mystery' answers with 'Yes.' The change from physical to spiritual\nis clearly necessary, if there is to be a blessed life hereafter.\n\nThat necessary change is assured to all Christians, whether they die\nor 'remain till the coming of the Lord.' Paul varies in his\nanticipations as to whether he and his contemporaries will belong to\nthe one class or the other; but he is quite sure that in either case\nthe indwelling Spirit of Jesus will effect on living and dead the\nneedful change. The grand description in verse 52, like the parallel\nin 1 Thessalonians iv. 16, is modelled on the account of the\ntheophany on Sinai. The trumpet was the signal of the Divine\nPresence. That last manifestation will be sudden, and its startling\nbreaking in on daily commonplace is intensified by the reduplication:\n'In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.' With sudden crash that\nawful blare of 'loud, uplifted angel trumpet' will silence all\nother sounds, and hush the world. The stages of what follows are\ndistinctly marked. First, the rising of the dead changed in passing\nthrough death, so as to rise in incorruptible bodies, and then the\nchange of the bodies of the living into like incorruption. The former\nwill not be found naked, but will be clothed with their white\ngarments; the latter will, as it were, put on the glorious robes\nabove the 'muddy vesture of decay,' or, more truly, will see the\nmiracle of these being transfigured till they shine 'so as no fuller\non earth could white them.' The living will witness the resurrection\nof the dead; the risen dead will witness the transformation of the\nliving. Then both hosts will be united, and, through all eternity,\n'live together,' and that 'with Him.' Paul evidently expects that he\nand the Corinthians will be in the latter class, as appears by the\n'we' in verse 52. He, as it were, points to his own body when he\nsays, recurring to his former thought of the necessity of harmony\nbetween organism and environment, '_this_ corruptible must put on\nincorruption.' Here 'corruption' is used in its physical application,\nthough the ethical meaning may be in the background.\n\nThe Apostle closes his long argument and revelation with a burst,\nalmost a shout, of triumph. Glowing words of old prophets rush into\nhis mind, and he breathes a new, grander meaning into them. Isaiah\nhad sung of a time when the veil over all nations should be destroyed\n'in this mountain,' and when death should be swallowed up for ever;\nand Paul grasps the words and says that the prophet's loftiest\nanticipations will be fulfilled when that monster, whose insatiable\nmaw swallows down youth, beauty, strength, wisdom, will himself be\nswallowed up. Hosea had prophesied of Israel's restoration under\nfigure of a resurrection, and Paul grasps _his_ words and fills them\nwith a larger meaning. He modifies them, in a manner on which we need\nnot enlarge, to express the great Christian thought that death has\nconquered man but that man in Christ will conquer the conqueror. With\nswift change of metaphor he represents death as a serpent, armed with\na poisoned sting, and that suggests to him the thought, never far\naway in his view of man, that death's power to slay is derived\nfrom--or, so to say, concentrated in--sin; and that at once raises\nthe other equally characteristic and familiar thought that law\nstimulates sin, since to know a thing to be forbidden creates in\nperverse humanity an itching to do it, and law reveals sin by setting\nup the ideal from which sin is the departure. But just as the tracks\nin Paul's mind were well worn, by which the thought of death brought\nin that of sin, and that of sin drew after it that of law, so with\nequal closeness of established association, that of law condemnatory\nand slaying, brought up that of Christ the all-sufficient refuge from\nthat gloomy triad--Death Sin, Law. Through union with Him each of us\nmay possess His immortal risen life, in which Death, the engulfer, is\nhimself engulfed; Death, the conqueror, is conquered utterly and for\never; Death, the serpent, has his sting drawn, and is harmless. That\nparticipation in Christ's life is begun even here, and God 'giveth us\nthe victory' now, even while we live outward lives that must end in\ndeath, and will give it perfectly in the resurrection, when 'they\ncannot die any more,' and death itself is dead.\n\nThe loftiest Christian hopes have close relation to the lowliest\nChristian duties, and Paul's triumphant song ends with plain,\npractical, prose exhortations to steadfastness, unmovable tenacity,\nand abundant fruitfulness, the motive and power of which will be\nfound in the assurance that, since there is a life beyond, all labour\nhere, however it may fail in the eyes of men, will not be in vain,\nbut will tell on character and therefore on condition through\neternity. If our peace does not rest where we would fain see it\nsettle, it will not be wasted, but will return to us again, like the\ndove to the ark, and we shall 'self-enfold the large results of'\nlabour that seemed to have been thrown away.\n\n\n\n\nSTRONG AND LOVING\n\n   'Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like\n   men, be strong. 14. Let all your things be done\n   with charity.'--1 COR. xvi. 13, 14.\n\n\nThere is a singular contrast between the first four of these\nexhortations and the last. The former ring sharp and short like\npistol-shots; the last is of gentler mould. The former sound like the\nword of command shouted from an officer along the ranks; and there is\na military metaphor running all through them. The foe threatens to\nadvance; let the guards keep their eyes open. He comes nearer;\nprepare for the charge, stand firm in your ranks. The battle is\njoined; 'quit you like men'--strike a man's stroke--'be strong.'\n\nAnd then all the apparatus of warfare is put away out of sight, and\nthe captain's word of command is softened into the Christian\nteacher's exhortation: 'Let all your deeds be done in charity.' For\nlove is better than fighting, and is stronger than swords. And yet,\nalthough there is a contrast here, there is also a sequence and\nconnection. No doubt these exhortations, which are Paul's last word\nto that Corinthian Church on whom he had lavished in turn the\ntreasures of his manifold eloquence, indignation, argumentation, and\ntenderness, reflected the deficiencies of the people to whom he was\nspeaking. They were schismatic and factious to the very core, and so\nthey needed the exhortation to be left last in their ears, as it\nwere, that everything should be done in love. They were ill-grounded\nin regard to the very fundamental doctrines of the faith, as all\nPaul's argumentation about the resurrection proves, and so they\nneeded to be bidden to 'stand fast in the faith.' Their slothful\ncarelessness as to the discipline of the Christian life, and their\nconsequent feebleness of grasp of the Christian verities, made them\nloose-braced and weak in all respects, and incapacitated them for\nvigorous warfare. Thus, we see a picture in these injunctions of the\nsort of community that Paul had to deal with in Corinth, which yet he\ncalled a Church of saints, and for which he loved and laboured. Let\nme then run over and try to bring out the importance and mutual\nconnection of what I may call this drill-book for the Christian\nwarfare, which is the Christian life.\n\n'Watch ye.' That means one of two things certainly, probably\nboth--Keep awake, and keep your eyes open. Our Lord used the same\nmetaphor, you remember, very frequently, but with a special\nsignificance. On His lips it generally referred to the attitude of\nexpectation of His coming in judgment. Paul uses sometimes the figure\nwith the same application, but here, distinctly, it has another. As I\nsaid, there is the military idea underlying it. What will become of\nan army if the sentries go to sleep? And what chance will a Christian\nman have of doing his _devoir_ against his enemy, unless he\nkeeps himself awake, and keeps himself alert? Watchfulness, in the\nsense of always having eyes open for the possible rush down upon us\nof temptation and evil, is no small part of the discipline and the\nduty of the Christian life. One part of that watchfulness consists in\nexercising a very rigid and a very constant and comprehensive\nscrutiny of our motives. For there is no way by which evil creeps\nupon us so unobserved, as when it slips in at the back door of a\nspecious motive. Many a man contents himself with the avoidance of\nactual evil actions, and lets any kind of motives come in and out of\nhis mind unexamined. It is all right to look after our _doings_, but\n'as a man _thinketh_ in his heart, so is he.' The good or the evil of\nanything that I do is determined wholly by the motive with which I do\nit. And we are a great deal too apt to palm off deceptions on\nourselves to make sure that our motives are right, unless we give\nthem a very careful and minute scrutiny. One side of this\nwatchfulness, then, is a habitual inspection of our motives and\nreasons for action. 'What am I doing this for?' is a question that\nwould stop dead an enormous proportion of our activity, as if you had\nturned the steam off from an engine. If you will use a very fine\nsieve through which to strain your motives, you will go a long way to\nkeeping your actions right. We should establish a rigid examination\nfor applicants for entrance, and make quite sure that each that\npresents itself is not a wolf in sheep's clothing. Make them all\nbring out their passports. Let every vessel that comes into your\nharbour remain isolated from all communication with the shore, until\nthe health officer has been on board and given a clean bill. 'Watch\nye,' for yonder, away in the dark, in the shadow of the trees, the\nblack masses of the enemy are gathered, and a midnight attack is but\ntoo likely to bring a bloody awakening to a camp full of sleepers.\n\nMy text goes on to bring the enemy nearer and nearer and nearer.\n'Watch ye'--and if, not unnoticed, they come down on you, 'stand fast\nin the faith.' There will be no keeping our ranks, or keeping our\nfeet--or at least, it is not nearly so likely that there will\nbe--unless there has been the preceding watchfulness. If the first\ncommand has not been obeyed, there is small chance of the second's\nbeing so. If there has not been any watchfulness, it is not at all\nlikely that there will be much steadfastness. Just as with a man\ngoing along a crowded pavement, a little touch from a passer-by will\nthrow him off his balance, whereas if he had known it was coming, and\nhad adjusted his poise rightly, he would have stood against thrice as\nviolent a shock, so, in order that we may stand fast, we must watch.\nA sudden assault will be a great deal less formidable when it is a\nforeseen assault.\n\n'Stand fast _in the faith_.' I take it that this does not mean\n'the thing that we believe,' which use of the word 'faith' is the\necclesiastical, but not the New Testament meaning. In Scripture,\nfaith means not the body of truths that we believe, but the act of\nbelieving them. This further command tells us that, in addition to\nour watchfulness, and as the basis of our steadfastness, confidence\nin the revelation of God in Jesus Christ will enable us to keep our\nfeet whatever comes against us, and to hold our ground, whoever may\nassault us.\n\nBut remember that it is not because I have faith that I stand fast,\nbut because of that in which I have faith. My feet may be well\nshod--and it used to be said that a soldier's shoes were of as much\nimportance in the battle as his musket--my feet may be well shod, but\nif they are not well planted upon firm ground I never shall be able\nto stand the collision of the foe. So then, it is not my grasp of the\nblessed truth, God in Christ my Friend and Helper, but it is that\ntruth which I grasp at, that makes me strong. Or, to put it into\nother words, it is the foothold, and not the foot that holds it, that\nensures our standing firm. Only there is no steadfastness\ncommunicated to us from the source of all stability, except by way of\nour faith, which brings Christ into us. 'Watch ye; stand fast in the\nfaith.'\n\nThe next two words of command are very closely connected, though not\nquite identical. 'Quit you like men.' Play a man's part in the\nbattle; strike with all the force of your muscles. But the Apostle\nadds, 'be strong.' You cannot play a man's part unless you are. 'Be\nstrong'--the original would rather bear 'become strong.' What is the\nuse of telling men to '_be_ strong'? It is a waste of words, in\nnine cases out of ten, to say to a weak man, 'Pluck up your courage,\nand show strength.' But the Apostle uses a very uncommon word here,\nat least uncommon in the New Testament, and another place where he\nuses it will throw light upon what he means: 'Strengthened with might\nby His Spirit in the inner man.' Then is it so vain a mockery to tell\na poor, weak creature like me to become strong, when you can point me\nto the source of all strength, in that 'Spirit of power and of love\nand of a sound mind'? We have only to take our weakness there to have\nit stiffened into strength; as people put bits of wood into what are\ncalled 'petrifying wells' which infiltrate into them mineral\nparticles, that do not turn the wood into stone, but make the wood as\nstrong as stone. So my manhood, with all its weakness, may have\nfiltered into it divine strength, which will brace me for all needful\nduty, and make me 'more than conqueror through Him that loved us.'\nThen, it is not mockery and cruelty, vanity and surplusage to preach\n'Quit you like men; be strong, and be a man'; because if we will\nobserve the plain and not hard conditions, strength will come to us\naccording to our day, in fulfilment of the great promises: 'My grace\nis sufficient for thee; and My strength is made perfect in weakness.'\n\nAnd now we have done with the fighting words of command, and come to\nthe gentler exhortation: 'Let all your things be done in charity.'\n\nThat was a hard lesson for these Corinthians who were splitting\nthemselves into factions and sects, and tearing each other's eyes out\nin their partisanship for various Christian teachers. But the advice\nhas a much wider application than to the suppression of squabbles in\nChristian communities. It is the sum of all commandments of the\nChristian life, if you will take love in its widest sense, in the\nsense, that is, in which it is always used in Paul's writings. We cut\nit into two halves, and think of it as sometimes meaning love to God,\nand sometimes love to man. The two are inseparably inter-penetrated\nin the New Testament writings; and so we have to interpret this\nsupreme commandment in the whole breadth and meaning of that great\nword _Love_. And then it just comes to this, that love is the\nvictor in all the Christian warfare. If we love God, at any given\nmoment, consciously having our affection engaged with Him, and our\nheart going out to Him, do you think that any evil or temptation\nwould have power over us? Should we not see them as they are, to be\ndevils in disguise? In the proportion in which I love God I conquer\nall sin. And at the moment in which that great, sweet, all-satisfying\nlight floods into my soul, I see through the hollowness and the\nshams, and detect the ugliness and the filth of the things that\notherwise would be temptations. If you desire to be conquerors in the\nChristian fight, remember that the true way of conquest is, as\nanother Apostle says, 'Keep yourselves in the love of God.' 'Let all\nyour things be done in charity.'\n\nAnd, further, how beautifully the Apostle here puts the great truth\nthat we are all apt to forget, that the strongest type of human\ncharacter is the gentlest and most loving, and that the mighty man is\nnot the man of intellectual or material force, such as the world\nidolises, but the man who is much because he loves much. If we would\ncome to supreme beauty of Christian character, there must be\ninseparably manifested in our lives, and lived in our hearts,\nstrength and love, might and gentleness. That is the perfect man,\nand that was the union which was set before us, in the highest form,\nin the 'Strong Son of God, Immortal Love,' whom we call our Saviour,\nand whom we are bound to follow. His soldiers conquer as the Captain\nof their salvation has conquered, when watchfulness and steadfastness\nand courage and strength are all baptized in love and perfected\nthereby.\n\n\n\n\nANATHEMA AND GRACE\n\n   'The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand. 22. If\n   any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be\n   Anathema Maran-atha. 23. The grace of our Lord Jesus\n   Christ be with you. 24. My love be with you all\n   in Christ Jesus.'--1 COR. xvi. 21-24.\n\n\nTerror and tenderness are strangely mingled in this parting\nsalutation, which was added in the great characters shaped by Paul's\nown hand, to the letter written by an amanuensis. He has been\nobliged, throughout the whole epistle, to assume a tone of\nremonstrance abundantly mingled with irony and sarcasm and\nindignation. He has had to rebuke the Corinthians for many faults,\nparty spirit, lax morality, toleration of foul sins, grave abuses in\ntheir worship even at the Lord's Supper, gross errors in opinion in\nthe denial of the Resurrection. And in this last solemn warning he\ntraces all these vices to their fountainhead--the defect of love to\nJesus Christ--and warns of their fatal issue. 'Let him be Anathema.'\n\nBut he will not leave these terrible words for his last. The thunder\nis followed by gentle rain, and the sun glistens on the drops; 'The\ngrace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.' Nor for himself will\nhe let the last impression be one of rebuke or even of warning. He\ndesires to show that his heart yearns over them all; so he gathers\nthem all--the partisans; the poor brother that has fallen into sin;\nthe lax ones who, in their misplaced tenderness, had left him in his\nsin; the misguided reasoners who had struck the Resurrection out of\nthe articles of the Christian creed--he gathers them all into his\nfinal salutation, and he says, 'Take and share my love--though I have\nhad to rebuke--amongst the whole of you.'\n\nIs not that beautiful? And does not the juxtaposition of such\nmessages in this farewell go deeper than the revelation of Paul's\ncharacter? May we not see, in these terrible and tender thoughts thus\ninextricably intertwined and braided together, a revelation of the\ntrue nature both of the terror and the tenderness of the Gospel which\nPaul preached? It is from that point of view that I wish to look at\nthem now.\n\nI. I take first that thought--the terror of the fate of the unloving.\n\nNow, I must ask you for a moment's attention in regard to these two\nuntranslated words. _Anathema Maran-atha_. The first thing to be\nnoticed is that the latter of them stands independently of the\nformer, and forms a sentence by itself, as I shall have to show you\npresently. 'Anathema' means an offering, or a thing devoted; and its\nuse in the New Testament arises from its use in the Greek translation\nof the Old Testament, where it is employed for persons and things\nthat, in a peculiar sense, were set apart and devoted to God. In the\nstory of the conquest of Canaan, for instance, we read of Jericho and\nother places, persons, or things that were, as our version somewhat\nunfortunately renders it, 'accursed,' or as it ought rather to be\nrendered, 'devoted,' or 'put under a ban.' And this 'devotion' was of\nsuch a sort as that the things or persons devoted were doomed to\ndestruction. All the dreadful things that were done in the Conquest\nwere the consequences of the persons that endured them being thus\n'consecrated,' in a very dreadful sense, or set apart for God. The\nunderlying idea was that evil things brought into contact with Him\nwere necessarily destroyed with a swift destruction. That being the\nmeaning of the word, it is clear that its use in my text is\ndistinctly metaphorical, and that it suggests to us that the\nunloving, like those cities full of uncleanness, when they are\nbrought into contact with the infinite love of the coming Judge,\nshrivel up and are destroyed.\n\nThe other word 'Maran-atha,' as I said, is to be taken as a separate\nsentence. It belongs to the dialect, which was probably the\nvernacular of Palestine in the time of Paul, and to which belong, for\nthe most part, the other untranslated words that are scattered up and\ndown the Gospels, such as 'Aceldama,' 'Ephphatha,' and the like. It\nmeans 'our Lord comes.' Why Paul chose to use that untranslated scrap\nof another tongue in a letter to a Gentile Church we cannot tell.\nPerhaps it had come to be a kind of watchword amongst the early\nJewish Christians, which came naturally to his lips. But, at any\nrate, the use of it here is distinctly to confirm the warning of the\nprevious clause, by pointing to the time at which that warning shall\nbe fulfilled. 'If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be\ndevoted and destroyed. Our Lord comes.' The only other thing to be\nnoticed by way of introduction is that this first clause is not an\nimprecation, nor any wish on the part of the Apostle, but is a solemn\nprophetic warning (acquiesced in by every righteous heart) of that\nwhich will certainly come. The significance of the whole may be\ngathered into one simple sentence--The coming of the Lord of Love is\nthe destruction of the unloving.\n\n'Our Lord comes.' Paul's Christianity gathered round two facts and\nmoments--one in the past, Christ has come; one in the future, Christ\nwill come. For memory, the coming by the cradle and the Cross; for\nhope, the coming on His throne in glory; and between these two\nmoments, like the solid piers of a suspension bridge, the frail\nstructure of the Present hangs swinging. In this day men have lost\ntheir expectation of the one, and to a large extent their faith in\nthe other. But we shall not understand Scripture unless we seek to\nmake as prominent in our thoughts as on its pages that second coming\nas the complement and necessary issue of the first. It stands stamped\non every line. It colours all the New Testament views of life. It is\nused as a motive for every duty, and as a magnet to draw men to Jesus\nChrist by salutary dread. There is no hint in my text about the time\nof the Lord's coming, no disturbing of the solemnity of the thought\nby non-essential details of chronology, so we may dismiss these from\nour minds. The fact is the same, and has the same force as a motive\nfor life, whether it is to be fulfilled in the next moment or\nthousands of years hence, provided only that you and I are to be\nthere when He comes.\n\nThere have been many comings in the past, besides the comings in the\nflesh. The days of the Lord that have already appeared in the history\nof the world are not few. One characteristic is stamped upon them\nall, and that is the swift annihilation of what is opposed to Him.\nThe Bible has a set of standing metaphors by which to illustrate this\nthought of the Coming of the Lord--a flood, a harvest when the ears\nare ripe for the sickle, the waking of God from slumber, and the\nlike; all suggesting similar thoughts. _The_ day of the Lord,\n_the_ coming of the Lord, will include and surpass all the\ncharacteristics which these lesser and premonitory judgment days\npresented in miniature. I do not enlarge on this theme. I would not\nplay the orator about it if I could; but I appeal to your\nconsciences, which, in the case of most of us, not only testify of\nright and wrong, but of responsibility, and suggest a judge to whom\nwe are responsible. And I urge on each, and on myself, this simple\nquestion: Have I allowed its due weight on my life and character to\nthat watchword of the ancient church--_Maran-atha_, 'our Lord\ncometh'?\n\nNow, the coming of the Lord of Love is the annihilation of the\nunloving. The destruction implied in Anathema does not mean the\ncessation of Being, but a death which is worse than death, because it\nis a death in life. Suppose a man with all his past annihilated,\nwith all its effort foiled and crushed, with all its possessions\nevaporated and disappeared, and with his memory and his conscience\nstung into clear-sighted activity, so that he looks back upon his\nformer self and into his present self, and feels that it is all waste\nand chaos, would not that fulfil the word of my text--'Let him be\nAnathema'? And suppose that such a man, in addition to these\nthoughts, and as the root and the source of them, had ever the\nquivering consciousness that he was and must be in the presence of an\nunloved Judge; have you not there the naked bones of a very dreadful\nthing, which does not need any tawdry eloquence of man to make it\nmore solemn and more real? The unloving heart is always ill at ease\nin the presence of Him whom it does not love. The unloving heart does\nnot love, because it does not trust, nor see the love. Therefore, the\nunloving heart is a heart that is only capable of apprehending the\nwrathful side of Christ's character. It is a heart devoid of the\nfruits of love which are likeness and righteousness, 'without which\nno man shall see the Lord,' nor stand the flash of the brightness of\nHis coming. So there is no cruelty nor arbitrariness in the decree\nthat the heart that loves not, when brought into contact with the\ninfinite Lord of Love, must find in the touch death and not life,\ndarkness and not light, terror and not hope. Notice that Paul's\nnegation _is_ a negation and not an affirmation. He does not say\n'he that hateth,' but 'he that doth not love.' The absence of the\nactive emotion of love, which is the child of faith, the parent of\nrighteousness, the condition of joy in His presence, is sufficient to\nensure that this fate shall fall upon a man. I durst not enlarge. I\nleave the truth on your hearts.\n\nII. Secondly, notice the present grace of the coming Lord. 'Our Lord\ncometh. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.' These\ntwo things are not contradictory, but we often deal with them as if\nthey were. And some men lay hold of the one side of the antithesis,\nand some men lay hold of the other, and rend them apart, and make\nantagonistic theories of Christianity out of them. But the real\ndoctrine puts the two together and says there is no terror without\ntenderness, and there is no tenderness without terror. If we\nsacrifice the aspects of the divine nature, as revealed to us in the\ngentle Christ, which kindle a wholesome dread, we have, all\nunwittingly, robbed the aspects of the divine nature, which warm in\nus a gracious love, of their power to inflame and to illuminate. You\ncannot have love which is anything nobler than facile good nature\nand unrighteous indifference, unless you have along with it aspects of\nGod's character and government which ought to make some men afraid.\nAnd you cannot keep these latter aspects from being exaggerated and\ndarkened into a Moloch of cruelty, unless you remember that, side by\nside with them, or rather underlying them and determining them, are\naspects of the divine nature to which only child-like confidence and\ncalm beatific returns of love do rightly respond. The terror of the\nLord is a garb which our sins force upon the love of the Lord, and\nwhen the one is presented it brings with it the other. Never should\nthey be parted in our thoughts or in our teaching.\n\nNote what that present grace is. It is a tenderness which gathers\ninto its embrace all these imperfect, immoral, lax, heretical people\nin Corinth, as well as everywhere else--'The grace of our Lord Jesus\nChrist be with _you all_.' There were men in that church that said,\n'I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas, I of Christ.' There were\nmen in that church that had defiled their souls and their flesh, and\ncorrupted the community, and blasphemed the name of Christ by such\nfoul, sensual sin as was 'not even named among the Gentiles.' There\nwere men in that church so dead to all the sanctities even of the\ncommunion-table as that, with the bread between their teeth and the\nwine-cup in their hands, one was hungry and another drunken. There\nwere men in that church, whose Christianity was so anomalous and\nsingularly fragmentary that they did not believe in the resurrection\nof the dead. And yet Paul flings the great rainbow, as it were, of\nChrist's enclosing love over them all. And surely the love which\ngathers in such people leaves none outside its sweep; and the\ntenderness which stoops from heaven to pity, to pardon, to cleanse\nsuch is a tenderness to which the weakest, saddest, sinfullest,\nfoulest of the sons of men may confidently resort. Let nothing rob\nyou of this assurance, that Christ, the coming Lord, is present with\nus all, and with all our weak and wicked brethren, in the full\ncondescension of His all-embracing, all-hoping, all-forgetting, and\nall-restoring love. All that we need, in order to get its full\nsunshine into our hearts, is that we trust Him utterly, and, so\ntrusting, love Him back again with that love which is the fulfilling\nof the Law and the crown of the Gospel.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, note the tenderness, caught from the Master\nHimself, of the servant who rebukes.\n\nThis last message of love from the Apostle himself, in verse 24, is\nquite anomalous. There is no other instance in his letters where he\nintroduces himself and his own love at the end, after he has\npronounced solemn benediction commending to Christ's grace. But here,\nas if he had felt that he must leave an impression of himself on\ntheir minds, which corresponded to the impression of his Master that\nhe desired to leave, he deviates from his ordinary habit, and makes\nhis last word a personal word--'_My love_ be with you all in Christ\nJesus.' Rebuke is the sign of love. Sharp condemnation may be the\nlanguage of love. Plain warning of possible evils is the simple duty\nof love. So Paul folds all whom he has been rebuking in the warm\nembrace of his proffered love, which was the very cause of his\nrebuke. The healing balm of this closing message was to be applied to\nthe wounds which his keen edged words had made, and to show that they\nwere wounds by a surgeon, not by a foe. In effect, this parting smile\nof love says, 'I am not become your enemy because I tell you the\ntruth; I show my love to you by the plainness and roughness of my\nwords.' Generalise that, free it from its personal reference, and it\njust comes to this: There never was a shallower sneer than the sneer\nwhich is cast at Christianity, as if it were harsh, 'ferocious,' or\nunloving, when it preaches the terror of the Lord. No! rather,\nbecause the Gospel _is_ a Gospel, it must speak plainly about death\nand destruction to the unloving. The danger signal is not to be\nblamed for a collision, which it is hoisted to avert; and it is a\nstrange sign of an unfeeling and unsympathetic, or of a harsh and\ngloomy system, that it should tell men where they are driving, in\norder that they may never reach the miserable goal. 'Knowing,\ntherefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.' And when people\nsay to us preachers, 'Is that your Gospel, a Gospel that talks about\neverlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord at the glory of\nHis coming--is that your Gospel?' We can only answer, 'Yes, it is!\nBecause, so to talk, may by God's mercy, secure that some who hear\nshall never know anything of the wrath, save the hearing of it with\nthe ear, and may, by the warning of it, be drawn to the Rock of Ages\nfor safety and shelter from the storm.'\n\nTherefore, dear friends, the upshot of all that I have been feebly\ntrying to say is just this; let us lay hold with all our hearts, and\nby simple faith, of the present grace of the coming, loving Lord and\nJudge. You can do it. It is your only hope to do it. _Have_ you\ndone it? If so, then you may lift up your heads to the throne, and be\nglad, as those who know that their Friend and Deliverer will come at\nlast, to help, to bless, to save. If not, dear friend, take the\nwarning, that not to love is to be shrivelled like a leaf in the\nflame, at that coming which is life to them that love, and\ndestruction to all besides. 'Herein is our love made perfect, that we\nmay have boldness before Him in the day of judgment.'\n\n\n\n\nII. CORINTHIANS\n\n\nGOD'S YEA; MAN'S AMEN\n\n   'For how many soever be the promises of God,\n   in Him is the yea: wherefore also through\n   Him is the Amen.'--2 COR. i. 20 (R.V.).\n\n\nThis is one of the many passages the force and beauty of which are,\nfor the first time, brought within the reach of an English reader by\nthe alterations in the Revised Version. These are partly dependent\nupon the reading of the text and partly upon the translation. As the\nwords stand in the Authorised Version, 'yea' and 'amen' seem to be\nvery nearly synonymous expressions, and to point substantially to the\nsame thing--viz. that Jesus Christ is, as it were, the confirmation\nand seal of God's promises. But in the Revised Version the\nalterations, especially in the pronouns, indicate more distinctly\nthat the Apostle means two different things by the 'yea' and the\n'amen'. The one is God's voice, the other is man's. The one has to do\nwith the certainty of the divine revelation, the other has to do with\nthe certitude of our faith in the revelation. When God speaks in\nChrist, He confirms everything that He has said before, and when we\nlisten to God speaking in Christ, our lips are, through Christ,\nopened to utter our assenting 'Amen' to His great promises. So, then,\nwe have the double form of our Lord's work, covering the whole ground\nof His relations to man, set forth in these two clauses, in the one\nof which God's confirmation of His past revelations by Jesus Christ\nis treated of, and in the other of which the full and confident\nassent which men may give to that revelation is set before us. I\ndeal, then, with these two points--God's certainties in Christ, and\nman's certitudes through Christ.\n\nNow these two things do not always go together. We may be very\ncertain, as far as our persuasion is concerned, of a very doubtful\nfact, or we may be very doubtful, as far as our persuasion is\nconcerned, of a very certain fact. We speak about truths or facts as\nbeing certain, and we ought to mean by that, not how we think about\nthem, but what they are in the evidence on which they rest. A certain\ntruth is a truth which has its evidence irrefragable; and the only\nfitting attitude for men, in the presence of a certain truth, is to\nhave a certitude of the truth. And these two things are, our Apostle\ntells us, both given to us in and through Jesus Christ. Let me deal,\nthen, with these two sides.\n\nI. First, God's certainties in Christ.\n\nOf course the original reference of the text is to the whole series\nof great promises given in the Old Testament. These, says Paul, are\nsealed and confirmed to men by the revelation and work of Jesus\nChrist, but it is obvious that the principle which is good in\nreference to them is good on a wider field. I venture to take that\nextension, and to ask you to think briefly about some of the things\nthat are made for us indubitably certain in Jesus Christ.\n\nAnd, first of all, there is the certainty about God's heart.\nEverywhere else we have only peradventures, hopes, fears, guesses\nmore or less doubtful, and roundabout inferences as to His\ndisposition and attitude towards us. As one of the old divines says\nsomewhere, 'All other ways of knowing God are like the bended bow,\nChrist is the straight string.' The only means by which, indubitably,\nas a matter of demonstration, men can be sure that God in the heavens\nhas a heart of love towards them is by Jesus Christ. For consider\nwhat will make us sure of that. Nothing but facts; words are of\nlittle use, arguments are of little use. A revelation, however\nprecious, which simply says to us, 'God is Love' is not sufficient\nfor our need. We want to see love in operation if we are to be sure\nof it, and the only demonstration of the love of God is to witness\nthe love of God in actual working. And you get it--where? On the\nCross of Jesus Christ. I do not believe that anything else\nirrefragably establishes the fact for the yearning hearts of us poor\nmen who want love, and yet cannot grope our way in amidst the\nmysteries and the clouds in providence and nature, except\nthis--'Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us,\nand sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.'\n\nThe question may arise in some minds, Is there any need for proving\nGod's love? The question never arose except within the limits of\nChristianity. It is only men who have lived all their lives in an\natmosphere saturated by Christian sentiment and conviction that ever\ncome to the point of saying, 'We do not want historical revelation to\nprove to us the fact of a loving God.' They would never have fancied\nthat they did not need the revelation unless, unconsciously to\nthemselves, and indirectly, all their thoughts had been coloured and\nilluminated by the revelation that they profess they reject. God as\nLove is 'our dearest faith, our ghastliest doubt,' and the only way\nto make absolutely certain of the fact that His heart is full of\nmercy to us is to look upon Him as He stands revealed to us, not\nmerely in the words of Christ, for, precious as they are, these are\nthe smallest part of His revelation, but in the life and in the death\nwhich open for us the heart of God. Remember what He said Himself,\n_not_ 'He who hath listened to Me, doth understand the Father,' but\n'He that hath _seen_ Me hath seen the Father.' 'In Him is yea,' and\nthe hopes and shadowy fore-revelations of the loving heart of God are\nconfirmed by the fact of His life and death. God _establishes_,\nnot 'commends' as our translation has it, 'His love towards us in\nthat whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for us.'\n\nFurther, in Him we have the certainty of pardon. Every deep\nheart-experience amongst men has felt the necessity of having a clear\ncertainty and knowledge about forgiveness. Men do not feel it always.\nA man can skate over the surface of the great deeps that lie beneath\nthe most frivolous life, and may suppose, in his superficial way of\nlooking at things, that there is no need for any definite teaching\nabout sin and the mode of dealing with it. But once bring that man\nface to face, in a quiet hour, with the facts of his life and of a\ndivine law, and all that superficial ignoring of evil in himself and\nof the dread of punishment and consequences, passes away. I am sure\nof this, that no religion will ever go far and last long and work\nmightily, and lay a sovereign hand upon human life, which has not a\nmost plain and decisive message to preach in reference to pardon. And\nI am sure of this, that one reason for the comparative feebleness of\nmuch so-called Christian teaching in this generation is just that the\ndeepest needs of a man's conscience are not met by it. In a religion\non which the whole spirit of a man may rest itself, there must be a\nvery plain message about what is to be done with sin. The only\nmessage which answers to the needs of an awakened conscience and an\nalarmed heart is the old-fashioned message that Jesus Christ the\nRighteous has died for us sinful men. All other religions have felt\nafter a clear doctrine of forgiveness, and all have failed to find\nit. Here is the divine 'Yea!' And on it alone we can suspend the\nwhole weight of our soul's salvation. The rope that is to haul us out\nof the horrible pit and the miry clay had much need to be tested\nbefore we commit ourselves to it. There are plenty of easygoing\nsuperficial theories about forgiveness predominant in the world\nto-day. Except the one that says, 'In whom we have redemption through\nHis blood, even the forgiveness of sin,' they are all like the rope\nlet down into the dark mine to lift the captives beneath, half of the\nstrands of which have been cut on the sharp edge above, and when the\nweight hangs on to it, it will snap. There is nothing on which a man\nwho has once learned the tragical meaning and awful reality and depth\nof the fact of his transgression can suspend his forgiveness, except\nthis, that 'Christ has died, the just for the unjust, to bring us\nunto God.' 'In Him the promise is yea.'\n\nAnd, again, we have in Christ divine certainties in regard to life.\nWe have in Him the absolutely perfect pattern to which we are to\nconform our whole doings. And so, notwithstanding that there may, and\nwill still be many uncertainties and much perplexity, we have the\ngreat broad lines of morals and of duty traced with a firm hand, and\nall that we need to know of obligation and of perfectness lies in\nthis--Be like Jesus Christ! So the solemn commandments of the ethical\nside of Divine Revelation, as well as the promises of it, get their\n'yea' in Jesus Christ, and He stands the Law of our lives.\n\nWe have certainties for life, in the matter of protection, guidance,\nsupply of all necessity, and the like, treasured and garnered in\nJesus Christ. For He not only confirms, but fulfils, the promises\nwhich God has made. If we have that dear Lord for our very own, and\nHe belongs to us as He does belong to them who love Him and trust\nHim, then in Him we have in actual possession these promises, how\nmany soever they be, which are given by God's other words.\n\nChrist is Protean, and becomes everything to each man that each man\nrequires. He is, as it were, 'a box where sweets compacted lie.' 'In\nHim are hid all the treasures,' not only of wisdom and knowledge, but\nof divine gifts, and we have but to go to Him in order to have that\nwhich at each moment as it emerges, we most require. As in some of\nthose sunny islands of the Southern Pacific, one tree supplies the\npeople with all that they need for their simple wants, fruit for\ntheir food, leaves for their houses, staves, thread, needles,\nclothing, drink, everything--so Jesus Christ, this Tree of Life, is\nHimself the sum of all the promises, and, having Him, we have\neverything that we need.\n\nAnd, lastly, in Christ we have the divine certainties as to the\nFuture over which, apart from Him, lie cloud and darkness. As I said\nabout the revelation of the heart of God, so I say about the\nrevelation of a future life--a verbal revelation is not enough. We\nhave enough of arguments; what we want is facts. We have enough of\nman's peradventures about a future life, enough of evidence more or\nless valid to show that it is 'probable,' or 'not inconceivable,' or\n'more likely than not,' and so on and so on. What we want is that\nsomebody shall cross the gulf and come back again, and so we get in\nthe Resurrection of Christ the one fact on which men may safely rest\ntheir convictions of immortality, and I do not think that there is a\nsecond anywhere. On it alone, as I believe, hinges the whole answer\nto the question--'If a man die, shall he live again?' This generation\nis brought, in my reading of it, right up to this\nalternative--Christ's Resurrection,--or we die like the brutes that\nperish. 'All the promises of God in Him are yea.'\n\nII. And now a word as to the second portion of my text--viz. man's\ncertitudes, which answer to God's certainties.\n\nThe latter are _in_ Christ, the former are _through_ Christ. Now it\nis clear that the only fitting attitude for professing Christians in\nreference to these certainties of God is the attitude of unhesitating\naffirmation and joyful assent. Certitude is the fitting response to\ncertainty.\n\nThere should be some kind of correspondence between the firmness with\nwhich we grasp, the tenacity with which we hold, the assurance with\nwhich we believe, these great truths, and the rock-like firmness and\nimmovableness of the evidence upon which they rest. It is a poor\ncompliment to God to come to His most veracious affirmations, sealed\nwith the broad seal of His Son's life and death, and to answer with a\nhesitating 'Amen,' that falters and almost sticks in our throat.\nBuild rock upon rock. Be sure of the certain things. Grasp with a\nfirm hand the firm stay. Immovably cling to the immovable foundation;\nand though you be but like the limpet on the rock hold fast by the\nRock, as the limpet does; for it is an insult to the certainty of the\nrevelation, when there is hesitation in the believer.\n\nI need not dwell for more than a moment upon the lamentable contrast\nwhich is presented between this certitude, which is our only fitting\nattitude, and the hesitating assent and half belief in which so many\nprofessing Christians pass their lives. The reasons for that are\npartly moral, partly intellectual. This is not a day which is\nfavourable to the unhesitating avowal of convictions in reference to\nan unseen world, and many of us are afraid of being called narrow, or\ndogmatisers, and think it looks like breadth, and liberality, and\nculture, and I know not what, to say 'Well! perhaps it is, but I am\nnot quite sure; I think it is, but I will not commit myself.' All the\npromises of God, which in Him are yea, ought through Him to get from\nus an 'Amen.'\n\nThere is a great deal that will always be uncertain. The firmer our\nconvictions, the fewer will be the things that they grasp; but, if\nthey be few, they will be large, and enough for us. These truths\ncertified in Christ concerning the heart of God, the message of\npardon, the law for life, the gifts of guidance, defence, and\nsanctifying, the sure and certain hope of immortality--these things\nwe ought to be sure about, whatever borderland of uncertainty may lie\nbeyond them. The Christian verb is 'we _know_,' not 'we hope, we\ncalculate, we infer, we think,' but 'we _know_.' And it becomes\nus to apprehend for ourselves the full blessedness and power of the\ncertitude which Christ has given to us by the certainties which he\nhas brought us.\n\nI need not speak about the blessedness of such a calm assurance,\nabout the need of it for power, for peace, for effort, for fixedness\nin the midst of a world and age of change. But I must, before I\nclose, point you to the only path by which that certitude is\nattainable. '_Through_ Him is the amen.' He is the Door. The truths\nwhich He confirms are so inextricably intertwined with Himself that\nyou cannot get them and put away Him. Christ's relation to Christ's\nGospel is not the relation of other teachers to their words. You may\naccept the words of a Plato, whatever you think of the Plato who\nspoke the words. But you cannot separate Christ and His teaching in\nthat fashion, and you must have _Him_ if you are to get _it_. So,\nfaith in Him, the intellectual acceptance of Him, as the\nauthoritative and infallible Revealer, the bowing down of heart and\nwill to Him as our Commander and our Lord, the absolute trust in Him\nas the foundation of all our hope and the source of all our\nblessedness--that is the way to certitude, and there is no other road\nthat we can take.\n\nIf thus we keep near Him, our faith will bring us the present\nexperience and fulfilment of the promises, and we shall be sure of\nthem, because we have them already. And whilst men are asking, 'Do we\nknow anything about God? Is there a God at all? Is there such a thing\nas forgiveness? Can anybody find anywhere absolute rules for his\nlife? Is there anything beyond the grave but mist and darkness?' we\ncan say, 'One thing I know, Jesus Christ is my Saviour, and in Him I\nknow God, and pardon, and duty, and sanctifying, and safety, and\nimmortality; and whatever is dark, this, at least, is sun-clear.' Get\nhigh enough up and you will be above the fog; and while the men down\nin it are squabbling as to whether there is anything outside the\nmist, you, from your sunny station, will see the far-off coasts, and\nhaply catch some whiff of perfume from their shore, and see some\nglinting of a glory upon the shining turrets of 'the city that hath\nfoundations.' We have a present possession of all the promises of\nGod; and whoever doubts their certitude, the man who knows himself a\nson of God by faith, and has experience of forgiveness and guidance\nand answered prayer and hopes whose 'sweetness yieldeth proof that\nthey were born for immortality,' _knows_ the things which others\nquestion and doubt.\n\nSo live near Jesus Christ, and, holding fast by His hand, you may\nlift up your joyful 'Amen' to every one of God's 'Yeas.' For in Him\nwe know the Father, in Him we know that we have the forgiveness of\nsins, in Him we know that God is near to bless and succour and guide,\nand in Him 'we know that, though our earthly house were dissolved, we\nhave a building of God.' Wherefore we are always confident; and when\nthe Voice from Heaven says 'Yea!' our choral shout may go up 'Amen!\nThou art the faithful and true witness.'\n\n\n\n\nANOINTED AND STABLISHED\n\n   'Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ,\n   and hath anointed us, is God.'--2 COR. i. 21.\n\n\nThe connection in which these words occur is a remarkable\nillustration of the Apostle's habit of looking at the most trivial\nthings in the light of the highest truths. He had been obliged, as\nthe context informs us, to abandon an intended visit to Corinth. The\nmiserable crew of antagonists, who yelped at his heels all his life,\nseized this change of purpose as the occasion for a double-barrelled\ncharge. They said he was either fickle and infirm of purpose, or\ninsincere, and saying 'Yea' with one side of his mouth and 'Nay' with\nthe other. He rebuts this accusation with apparently quite\ndisproportionate vehemence and great solemnity. He points in the\ncontext to the faithfulness of God, to the firm Gospel which he had\npreached, to God's great 'Yea!' as his answer. He says in effect,\n'How could I, with such a word burning in my heart, move in a region\nof equivocation and double-dealing; or how could I, whose whole being\nis saturated with so firm and stable a Gospel, be unreliable and\nfickle? The message must make the messenger like itself. Communion\nwith a faithful God must make faith-keeping men; the certainties of\nGod's \"Yea,\" and the certitudes of our \"Amen,\" must influence our\ncharacters.' And so to suppose that a man, influenced by\nChristianity, is a weak, double-dealing, unsteadfast man is a\ncontradiction in terms. In the text he carries his argument a step\nfurther, and points, not only to the power of the Gospel to steady\nand confirm, but also to the fact that God Himself communicates to\nthe believing soul Christian stability by the anointing which He\nbestows.\n\nSo, then, we have in these words the declaration that inflexible,\nimmovable steadfastness is a mark of a Christian, and that this\nChristian steadfastness, without which there is no Christianity worth\nthe naming, is a direct gift from God Himself by means of that great\nanointing which He confers upon men. To that thought, in one or two\nof its aspects, I ask your attention.\n\nI. Notice the deep source of this Christian steadfastness.\n\nThe language of the original, carefully considered, seems to me to\nbear this interpretation, that the 'anointing' of the second clause\nis the means of the 'establishing' of the first--that is to say, that\nGod confers Christian steadfastness of character by the bestowment of\nthe unction of His Divine Spirit.\n\nNow notice how deep Paul digs in order to get a foundation for a\ncommon virtue. There are many ways by which men may cultivate the\ntenacity and steadfastness of purpose which ought to mark us all.\nMuch discipline may be brought to bear in order to secure that; but\nthe text says that the deepest ground upon which it can be rested is\nnothing less divine and solemn than this, the actual communication to\nmen, to feeble, vacillating, fluctuating wills, and treacherous,\nwayward, wandering hearts, of the strength and fixedness which are\ngiven by God's own Spirit.\n\nI suppose I need not remind you that from beginning to end of\nScripture, 'anointing' is taken as the symbol of the communication of\na true divine influence. The oil poured on the head of prophet,\npriest, and king was but the expression of the communication to the\nrecipient of a divine influence which fitted him as well as\ndesignated him, for the office that he filled. And although it is\naside from my present purpose, I may just, in a sentence, point to\nthe felicity of the emblem. The flowing oil smoothes the surface upon\nwhich it is spread, supples the limbs, and is nutritive and\nilluminating; thus giving an appropriate emblem of the secret,\nsilent, quickening, nourishing, enlightening influences of that\nSpirit which God gives to all His sons.\n\nAnd inasmuch as here this oil of the Divine Spirit is stated as being\nthe true ground and basis of Christian steadfastness, it is obvious\nthat the anointing intended cannot be that of mere designation to,\nand inspiration for, apostolic or other office, but must be the\nuniversal possession of all Christian men and women. 'Ye,' says\nanother Apostle, speaking to the whole democracy of the Christian\nChurch, and not to any little group of selected aristocrats\ntherein--'ye have an unction from the Holy One,' and every man and\nwoman who has a living grasp of the living Christ, receives from Him\nthis great gift.\n\nThen, notice further that this anointing by a Divine Spirit, which is\na true source of life to those that possess it, is derived from, and\nparallel with, Christ's anointing. We use the word 'Christ' as a\nproper name, and forget what it means. The 'Christ' is _the Anointed\nOne_. And do you think that it was a mere accident, or the result of\na scanty vocabulary, which compelled the Apostle, in these two\ncontiguous clauses, to use cognate words when he said:--'He that\nestablisheth us with you in the _Anointed_, and hath _anointed_ us,\nis God'? Did he not mean to say thereby, 'Each of you in a very true\nsense, if you are a Christian, is a _Christ_'? You, too, are\nanointed; you, too, are God's Messiahs. On you in a measure the same\nSpirit rests which dwelt without measure in Him. The chief of\nChrist's gifts to the Church is the gift of His own life. All His\nbrethren are anointed with the oil that was poured upon His head,\neven as the oil upon Aaron's locks percolated to the very skirts of\nhis garments. Being anointed with the anointing which was on Him, all\nHis people may claim an identity of nature, may hope for an identity\nof destiny, and are bound to a prolongation of part of His function\nand a similarity of character. If He by that anointing was made\nProphet, Priest, and King for the world, all His children partake of\nthese offices in subordinate but real fashion, and are prophets to\nmake God known to men, priests to offer up spiritual sacrifices, and\nkings at least over themselves, and, if they will, over a world which\nobeys and serves those that serve and love God. Ye are\nanointed--'Messiahs' and 'Christs,' by derivation of the life of\nJesus Christ.\n\nAnd if these things be true, it is plain enough how this divine\nunction, which is granted to all Christians, lies at the root of\nsteadfastness.\n\nWe talk a great deal about the gentleness of Christ; we cannot\ncelebrate it too much, but we may forget that it is the gentleness of\nstrength. We do not sufficiently mark the masculine features in that\ncharacter, the tremendous tenacity of will, the inflexible fixedness\nof purpose, the irremovable constancy of obedience in the face of all\ntemptations to the contrary. The figure that rises before us is that\nof the Christ yearning over weaklings far oftener than it is that of\nthe Christ with knitted brow, and tightened lips, and far-off gazing\neye, 'steadfastly setting His face to go to Jerusalem,' and followed\nas He pressed up the rocky road from Jericho, by that wondering\ngroup, astonished at the rigidity of purpose that was stamped on His\nfeatures. That Christ gives us His Spirit to make us tenacious,\nconstant, righteously obstinate, inflexible in the pursuit of all\nthat is lovely and of good report, like Himself. That Divine Spirit\nwill cure the fickleness of our natures; for our wills are never\nfixed till they are fixed in obedience, and never free until they\nelect to serve Him. That Divine Spirit will cure the wandering of our\nhearts and bind us to Himself. It will lift us above the selfish and\ncowardly dependence on externals and surroundings, men and things, in\nwhich we are all tempted to live. We are all too like aneroid\nbarometers, that go up and down with every variation of a foot or two\nin our level, but if we have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us, it\nwill cut the bonds that bind us to the world, and give us possession\nof a deeper love than can be sustained by, or is derived from, these\nsuperficial sources. The true possession of the Divine Spirit, if I\nmight use such a metaphor, sets a man on an insulating stool, and all\nthe currents that move round about him are powerless to reach him. If\nwe have that Divine Spirit within us, it will give us an experience\nof the preciousness and the truth, the certitude and the sweetness,\nof Christ's Gospel, which will make it impossible that we should ever\ncast away the confidence which has such 'recompense of reward.' No\nman will be surely bound to the truth and person of Christ with bonds\nthat cannot be snapped, except he who in his heart has the knowledge\nof Him which is possession, and by the gift of the Divine Spirit is\nknit to Jesus Christ.\n\nSo, dear friends, whilst the world is full of wise words about\nsteadfastness, and exalts determination of character and fixity of\npurpose, rightly, as the basis of much good, our Gospel comes to us\npoor, light, thistledown creatures, and lets us see how we can be\nsteadfast and settled by being fastened to a steadfast and settled\nChrist. When storms are raging they lash light articles on deck to\nholdfasts. Let us lash ourselves to the abiding Christ, and we, too,\nshall abide.\n\nII. In the next place, notice the aim or purpose of this Christian\nsteadfastness.\n\n'He stablisheth us with you in Christ,' or as the original has it\neven more significantly, _into_ or '_unto_ Christ.' Now that seems to\nme to imply two things--first, that our steadfastness, made possible\nby our possession of that Divine Spirit, is steadfastness in our\nrelations to Jesus Christ. We are established in reference or in\nregard to Him. In other words, what Paul here means is, first, a\nfixed conviction of the truth that He is the Christ, the Son of God,\nthe Saviour of the world, and my Saviour. That is the first step. Men\nwho are steadfast without their intellect guiding and settling the\nsteadfastness are not steadfast, but obstinate and pigheaded. We are\nmeant to be guided by our understandings, and no fixity is anything\nbetter than the immobility of a stone, unless it be based upon a\ndistinct and whole-brained intellectual acceptance of Jesus Christ as\nthe All-in-all for us, for life and death, for inward and outward\nbeing.\n\nPaul means, next, a steadfastness in regard to Christ in our trust\nand love. Surely if from Him there is for ever streaming out an\nunbroken flow of tenderness, there should be ever on our sides an\nequally unbroken opening of our hearts for the reception of His love,\nand an equally uninterrupted response to it in our grateful\naffection. There can be no more damning condemnation of the\nvacillations and fluctuations of Christian men's affections than the\nsteadfastness of Christ's love to them. He loves ever; He is\nunalterable in the communication and effluence of His heart. Surely\nit is most fitting that we should be steadfast in our devotion and\nanswering love to Him. And Paul means not only fixedness of\nintellectual conviction and continuity of loving response, but also\nhabitual obedience, which is always ready to do His will.\n\nSo we should answer His 'Yea!' with our 'Amen!' and having an\nunchanging Christ to rest upon, we should rest upon Him unchanging.\nThe broken, fluctuating affections and trusts and obediences which\nmark so much of the average Christian life of this day are only too\nsad proofs of how scant our possession of that Spirit of\nsteadfastness must be supposed to be. God's 'Yea' is answered by our\nfaltering 'Amen'; God's truth is hesitatingly accepted; God's love is\npartially returned; God's work is slothfully and negligently done.\n'Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the\nLord.'\n\nAnother thought is suggested by these words--viz. that such\nsteadfastness as we have been trying to describe has for its result a\ndeeper penetration into Jesus Christ and a fuller possession of Him.\nThe only way by which we can grow nearer and nearer to our Lord is by\nsteadfastly keeping beside Him. You cannot get the spirit of a\nlandscape unless you sit down and gaze, and let it soak into you. The\ncheap tripper never sees the lake. You cannot get to know a man until\nyou summer and winter with him. No subject worth studying opens\nitself to the hasty glance. Was it not Sir Isaac Newton who used to\nsay, 'I have no genius, but I keep a subject before me'? 'Abide in\nMe; as the branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine, no\nmore can ye except ye abide in Me.' Continuous, steadfast adhesion to\nHim is the condition of growing up into His likeness, and receiving\nmore and more of His beauty into our waiting hearts. 'Wait on the\nLord; wait, I say, on the Lord.'\n\nIII. Lastly, notice the very humble and commonplace sphere in which\nthe Christian steadfastness manifests itself.\n\nIt was nothing of more importance than that Paul had said he was\ngoing to Corinth, and did not, on which he brings all this array of\ngreat principles to bear. From which I gather just this thought, that\nthe highest gifts of God's grace and the greatest truths of God's\nWord are meant to regulate the tiniest things in our daily life. It\nis no degradation to the lightning to have to carry messages. It is\nno profanation of the sun to gather its rays into a burning glass to\nlight a kitchen fire with. And it is no unworthy use of the Divine\nSpirit that God gives to His children, to say it will keep a man from\nhasty and precipitate decisions as to little things in life, and from\nchopping and changing about, with a levity of purpose and without a\nsufficient reason. If our religion is not going to influence the\ntrifles, what is it going to influence? Our life is made up of\ntrifles, and if these are not its field, where is its field? You may\nbe quite sure that, if your religion does not influence the little\nthings, it will never influence the great ones. If it has not power\nenough to guide the horses when they are at a slow, sober walk, what\ndo you think it will do when they are at a gallop and plunging? 'He\nthat is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.' So\nlet us see to two things--first, that all our religion is worked into\nour life, for only so much of it as is so inwrought is our\nreligion--and, second, that all our life is brought under the sway of\nmotives derived from our religion: for only in proportion as it is,\nwill it be pure and good.\n\nAnd as regards this special virtue and prime quality of steadfastness\nand fixedness of purpose, you can do no good in the world without it.\nUnless a man can hold his own, and turn an obstinate negative to the\ntemptations that lie thick about him, he will never come to any good\nat all, either in this life or in the next. The basis of all\nexcellence is a wholesome disregard of externals, and the cultivation\nof a strong self-reliant and self-centred, because God-trusting and\nChrist-centred, will. And I tell you, especially you young men and\nwomen, if you want to do or be anything worth doing or being, you\nmust try to get your natures hardened into being 'steadfast,\nunmovable.' There is only one infallible way of doing it, and that is\nto let the 'strong Son of God' live in you, and in Him to find your\nstrength for resistance, your strength for obedience, your strength\nfor submission. 'I have set the Lord always before me; because He is\nat my right hand, I shall not be moved.'\n\nThere are two types of men in the world. The one has his emblem in\nthe chaff, rootless, with no hold, swept out of the threshing-floor\nby every gust of wind. That the picture of many whose principles lie\nat the mercy of the babble of tongues round about them, whose\nrectitude goes at a puff of temptation, like the smoke out of a\nchimney when the wind blows; who have no will for what is good, but\nlive as it happens. The other type of man has his emblem in the tree,\nrooted deep, and therefore rising high, with its roots going as far\nunderground as its branches spread in the blue, and therefore green\nof leaf and rich of fruit 'We are made partakers of Christ if we hold\nfast the beginning of our confidence, steadfast until the end.'\n\n\n\n\nSEAL AND EARNEST\n\n   'Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of\n   the Spirit in our hearts.'--2 COR. i. 23.\n\n\nThere are three strong metaphors in this and the preceding\nverse--'anointing,' 'sealing,' and 'giving the earnest'--all of which\nfind their reality in the same divine act. These three metaphors all\nrefer to the same subject, and what that subject is is sufficiently\nexplained in the last of them. The 'earnest' consists of 'the Spirit\nin our hearts,' and the same explanation might have been appended to\nboth the preceding clauses, for the 'anointing' is the anointing of\nthe Spirit, and the 'seal' is the seal of the Spirit. Further, these\nthree metaphors all refer to one and the same act. They are not three\nthings, but three aspects of one thing, just as a sunbeam might be\nregarded either as the source of warmth, or of light, or of chemical\naction. So the one gift of the one Spirit, 'anoints,' 'seals,' and is\nthe 'earnest.' Further, these three metaphors all declare a universal\nprerogative of Christians. Every man that loves Jesus Christ has the\nSpirit in the measure of his faith,' and if any man have not the\nSpirit of Christ he is none of His.'\n\nI. Note the first metaphor in the text--the 'seal' of the Spirit.\n\nA seal is impressed upon a recipient material made soft by warmth, in\norder to leave there a copy of itself. Now it is not fanciful, nor\nriding a metaphor to death, when I dwell upon these features of the\nemblem in order to suggest their analogies in Christian life. The\nSpirit of God comes into our spirits, and by gentle contact impresses\nupon the material, which was intractable until it was melted by the\ngenial warmth of faith and love, the likeness of Himself, but yet so\nas that prominences correspond to the hollows, and what is in relief\nin the one is sunk in the other. Expand that general statement for a\nmoment or two.\n\nThe effect of all the divine indwelling, which is the characteristic\ngift of Christ to every Christian soul, is to mould the recipient\ninto the image of the divine inhabitant. There is in the human\nspirit--such are its dignity amidst its ruins, and its nobility\nshining through its degradation--a capacity of receiving that image\nof God which consists not only in voluntary and intelligent action\nand the consciousness of personal being, but in the love of the\nthings that are fair, and in righteousness, and true holiness. His\nSpirit, entering into a heart, will make that heart wise with its own\nwisdom, strong with some infusion of its own strength, gracious with\nsome drops of its own grace, gentle with some softening from its own\ngentleness, holy with some purity reflected from its own transcendent\nwhiteness. The Spirit, which is life, moulds the heart into which it\nenters to a kindred, and, therefore, similar life.\n\nThere are, however, characteristics in this 'seal' of the Spirit\nwhich are not so much copies as correspondences. That is to say, just\nas what is convex in the seal is concave in the impression, and\n_vice vers\u00e2_, so, when that Divine Spirit comes into our spirits, its\npromises will excite faith, its gifts will breed desire; to every\nbestowment there will answer an opening receptivity. Recipient love\nwill correspond to the love that longs to dispense, the sense of need\nto the divine fulness and sufficiency, emptiness to abundance,\nprayers to promises; the cry 'Abba! Father'! the yearning\nconsciousness of sonship, to the word 'Thou art My Son'; and the\nupward eye of aspiration and petition, and necessity, and waiting, to\nthe downward glance of love bestowing itself. The open heart answers\nto the extended hand, and the seal which God's Spirit impresses upon\nthe heart that is submitted to it, has the two-fold character of\nresemblance in moral nature and righteousness, and of correspondence\nas regards the mysteries of the converse between the recipient man\nand the giving God.\n\nThen, mark that the material is made capable of receiving the stamp,\nbecause it is warmed and softened. That is to say, faith must prepare\nthe heart for the sanctifying indwelling of that Divine Spirit. The\nhard wax may be struck with the seal, but it leaves no trace. God\ndoes not do with man as the coiner does with his blanks, put them\ncold into a press, and by violence from without stamp an image upon\nthem, but He does as men do with a seal, warms the wax first, and\nthen, with a gentle, firm touch, leaves the likeness there. So,\nbrother! learn this lesson: if you wish to be good, lie under the\ncontact of the Spirit of righteousness, and see that your heart is\nwarm.\n\nStill further, note that this aggregate of Christian character, in\nlikeness and correspondence, is the true sign that we belong to God.\nThe seal is the mark of ownership, is it not? Where the broad arrow\nhas been impressed, everybody knows that that is royal property. And\nso this seal of God's Divine Spirit, in its effects upon my\ncharacter, is the one token to myself and to other people that I\nbelong to God, and that He belongs to me. Or, to put it into plain\nEnglish, the best reason for any man's being regarded as a Christian\nis his possession of the likeness and correspondence to God which\nthat Divine Spirit gives. Likeness and correspondence, I say, for the\none class of results is the more open for the observation of the\nworld, and the other class is of the more value for ourselves. I\nbelieve that Christian people ought to have, and are meant by that\nDivine Spirit dwelling in them to have, a consciousness that they are\nChristians and God's children, for their own peace and rest and joy.\nBut you cannot use that in demonstration to other people; you may be\nas sure of it as you will, in your inmost hearts, but it is no sign\nto anybody else. And, on the other hand, there may be much of outward\nvirtue and beauty of character which may lead other people to say\nabout a man: '_That_ is a good Christian man, at any rate,' and yet\nthere may be in the heart an all but absolute absence of any joyful\nassurance that we are Christ's, and that He belongs to us. So the two\nfacts must go together. Correspondence, the spirit of sonship which\nmeets His taking us as sons, the faith which clasps the promise, the\nreception which welcomes bestowment, must be stamped upon the inward\nlife. For the outward life there must be the manifest impress of\nrighteousness upon my actions, if there is to be any real seal and\ntoken that I belong to Him. God writes His own name upon the men that\nare His. All their goodness, their gentleness, patience, hatred of\nevil, energy and strenuousness in service, submission in suffering,\nwith whatsoever other radiance of human virtue may belong to them,\nare really 'His mark!'\n\nThere is no other worth talking about, and to you Christian men I\ncome and say, Be very sure that your professions of inward communion\nand happy consciousness that you are Christ's are verified to\nyourself and to others by a plain outward life of righteousness like\nthe Lord's. Have you got that seal stamped upon your lives, like the\nhall-mark that says, 'This is genuine silver, and no plated Brummagem\nstuff'? Have you got that seal of a visible righteousness and\nevery-day purity to confirm your assertion that you belong to Christ?\nIs it woven into the whole length of your being, like the scarlet\nthread that is spun into every Admiralty cable as a sign that it is\nCrown property? God's seal, visible to me and to nobody else, is my\nconsciousness that I am His; but that consciousness is vindicated and\ndelivered from the possibility of illusion or hypocrisy, only when it\nis checked and fortified by the outward evidence of the holy life\nwhich the Spirit of God has wrought.\n\nFurther, this sealing, which is thus the token of God's ownership, is\nalso the pledge of security. A seal is stamped in order that there\nmay be no tampering with what it seals; that it may be kept safe from\nall assaults, thieves, and violence. And in the metaphor of our text\nthere is included this thought, too, which is also of an intensely\npractical nature. For it just comes to this--our true guarantee that\nwe shall come at last into the sweet security and safety of the\nperfect state is present likeness to the indwelling Spirit and\npresent reception of divine grace. The seal is the pledge of\nsecurity, just because it is the mark of ownership. When, by God's\nSpirit dwelling in us, we are led to love the things that are fair,\nand to long after more possession of whatever things are of good\nreport, that is like God's hoisting His flag upon a newly-annexed\nterritory. And is He going to be so careless in the preservation of\nHis property as that He will allow that which is thus acquired to\nslip away from Him? Does He account us as of so small value as to\nhold us with so slack a hand? But no man has a right to rest on the\nassurance of God's saving him into the heavenly kingdom, unless He is\nsaving him at this moment from the devil and his own evil heart. And,\ntherefore, I say the Christian character, in its outward\nmanifestations and in its sweet inward secrets of communion, is the\nguarantee that we shall not fall. Rest upon Him, and He will hold you\nup. We are 'kept by the power of God unto salvation,' and that power\nkeeps us and that final salvation becomes ours, 'through faith.'\n\nII. Now, secondly, turn to the other emblem, that 'earnest' which\nconsists in like manner 'of the Spirit.'\n\nThe 'earnest,' of course, is a small portion of purchase-money, or\nwages, or contract-money, which is given at the making of a bargain,\nas an assurance that the whole amount will be paid in due time. And,\nsays the Apostle, this seal is also an earnest. It not only makes\ncertain God's ownership and guarantees the security of those on whom\nit is impressed, but it also points onwards to the future, and at\nonce guarantees that, and to a large extent reveals the nature of it.\nSo, then, we have here two thoughts on which I touch.\n\nThe Christian character and experience are the earnest of the\ninheritance, in the sense of being its guarantee, inasmuch as the\nexperiences of the Christian life here are plainly immortal. The\nResurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the objective and\nexternal proof of a future life. The facts of the Christian life, its\naspirations, its communion, its clasp of God as its very own, are the\nsubjective and inward proofs of a future life. As a matter of fact,\nif you will take the Old Testament, you will see that the highest\nsummits in it, to which the hope of immortality soared, spring\ndirectly from the experience of deep and blessed communion with the\nliving God. When the Psalmist said 'Thou wilt not leave my soul in\n_Sheol_; neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption,' he\nwas speaking a conviction that had been floated into his mind on the\ncrest of a great wave of religious enjoyment and communion. And, in\nlike manner, when the other Psalmist said, 'Thou art the strength of\nmy heart, and my portion for ever,' he was speaking of the glimpse\nthat he had got of the land that was very far off, from the height\nwhich he had climbed on the Mount of fellowship with God. And for us,\nI suppose that the same experience holds good. Howsoever much we may\nsay that we believe in a future life and in a heaven, we really grasp\nthem as facts that will be true about ourselves, in the proportion in\nwhich we are living here in direct contact and communion with God.\nThe conviction of immortality is the distinct and direct result of\nthe present enjoyment of communion with Him, and it is a reasonable\nresult. No man who has known what it is to turn himself to God with a\nglow of humble love, and to feel that he is not turning his face to\nvacuity, but to a Face that looks on him with love, can believe that\nanything can ever come to destroy that communion. What have faith,\nlove, aspiration, resignation, fellowship with God, to do with death?\nThey cannot be cut through with the stroke that destroys physical\nlife, any more than you can divide a sunbeam with a sword. It unites\nagain, and the impotent edge passes through and has effected nothing.\nDeath can shear asunder many bonds, but that invisible bond that\nunites the soul to God is of adamant, against which his scythe is in\nvain. Death is the grim porter that opens the door of a dark hole and\nherds us into it as sheep are driven into a slaughter-house. But to\nthose who have learned what it is to lay a trusting hand in God's\nhand, the grim porter is turned into the gentle damsel, who keeps the\ndoor, and opens it for light and warmth and safety to the hunted\nprisoner that has escaped from the dungeon of life. Death cannot\ntouch communion, and the consciousness of communion with God is the\nearnest of the inheritance.\n\nIt is so for another reason also. All the results of the Divine\nSpirit's sealing of the soul are manifestly incomplete, and as\nmanifestly tend towards completeness. The engine is clearly working\nnow at half-speed. It is obviously capable of much higher pressure\nthan it is going at now. Those powers in the Christian man can\nplainly do a great deal more than they ever have done here, and are\nmeant to do a great deal more. Is this imperfect Christianity of\nours, our little faith so soon shattered, our little love so quickly\ndisproved, our faltering resolutions, our lame performances, our\nearthward cleavings--are these things all that Jesus Christ's bitter\nagony was for, and all that a Divine Spirit is able to make of us?\nManifestly, here is but a segment of the circle, in heaven is the\nperfect round; and the imperfections, so far as life is concerned, in\nthe work of so obviously divine an Agent, cry aloud for a region\nwhere tendency shall become result, and all that it was possible for\nHim to make us we shall become. The road evidently leads upwards, and\nround that sharp corner where the black rocks come so near each other\nand our eyesight cannot travel, we may be sure it goes steadily up\nstill to the top of the pass, until it reaches 'the shining\ntable-lands whereof our God Himself is Sun and Moon,' and brings us\nall to the city set on a hill.\n\nAnd, further, that divine seal is the earnest, inasmuch as itself is\npart of the whole. The truest and the loftiest conception that we can\nform of heaven is as being the perfecting of the religious experience\nof earth. The shilling or two, given to the servant in old-fashioned\ndays, when he was hired, is of the same currency as the balance that\nhe is to get when the year's work is done. The small payment to-day\ncomes out of the same purse, and is coined out of the same specie,\nand is part of the same currency of the same kingdom, as what we get\nwhen we go yonder and count the endless riches to which we have\nfallen heirs at last. You have but to take the faith, the love, the\nobedience, the communion of the highest moments of the Christian life\non earth, and free them from all their limitations, subtract from\nthem all their imperfections, multiply them to their superlative\npossibility, and endow them with a continual power of growth, and\nstretch them out to absolute eternity, and you get heaven. The\nearnest is of a piece with the inheritance.\n\nSo, dear brethren, here is a gift offered for us all, a gift which\nour feebleness sorely needs, a gift for every timid nature, for every\nweak will, for every man, woman, and child beset with snares and\nfighting with heavy tasks, the offer of a reinforcement as real and\nas sure to bring victory as when, on that day when the fate of Europe\nwas determined, after long hours of conflict, the Prussian bugles\nblew, and the English commander knew that (with the fresh troops that\ncame on the field) victory was made certain. So you and I may have in\nour hearts the Spirit of God, the spirit of strength, the spirit of\nlove and of a sound mind, the spirit of adoption, the spirit of\nwisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, to enlighten our\ndarkness, to bind our hearts to Him, to quicken and energise our\nsouls, to make the weakest among us strong, and the strong as an\nangel of God. And the condition on which we may get it is this simple\none which the Apostle lays down; '_After that ye believed_, ye were\nsealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our\ninheritance.' The Christ, who is the Lord and Giver of the Spirit,\nhas shown us how its blessed influences may be ours when, on the\ngreat day of the feast, He stood and cried with a voice that echoes\nacross the centuries, and is meant for each of us, 'If any man\nthirsts, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth in Me, out\nof his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This spake He of the\nSpirit which they that believe or Him should receive.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION\n\n   'Thanks be unto God, which always leadeth us in triumph\n   in Christ and maketh manifest through us the savour of\n   His knowledge in every place.'--2 COR. ii. 14 (R.V.)\n\n\nI suppose most of us have some knowledge of what a Roman Triumph was,\nand can picture to ourselves the long procession, the victorious\ngeneral in his chariot with its white horses, the laurelled soldiers,\nthe sullen captives, with suppressed hate flashing in their sunken\neyes, the wreathing clouds of incense that went up into the blue sky,\nand the shouting multitude of spectators. That is the picture in the\nApostle's mind here. The Revised Version correctly alters the\ntranslation into 'Thanks unto God which always _leadeth us in_\ntriumph in Christ.'\n\nPaul thinks of himself and of his coadjutors in Christian work as\nbeing conquered captives, made to follow their Conqueror and to swell\nHis triumph. He is thankful to be so overcome. What was deepest\ndegradation is to him supreme honour. Curses in many a strange tongue\nwould break from the lips of the prisoners who had to follow the\ngeneral's victorious chariot. But from Paul's lips comes\nirrepressible praise; he joins in the shout of acclamation to the\nConqueror.\n\nAnd then he passes on to another of the parts of the ceremonial. As\nthe wreathing incense appealed at once to two senses, and was visible\nin its curling clouds of smoke, and likewise fragrant to the\nnostrils, so says Paul, with a singular combination of expression,\n'He maketh _manifest_,' that is visible, the _savour_ of\nHis knowledge. From a heart kindled by the flame of the divine love\nthere will go up the odour of a holy life visible and fragrant, sweet\nand fair.\n\nAnd thus all Christians, and not Christian workers only in the\nnarrower sense of the word, who may be doing evangelistic work, have\nset before them in these great words the very ideal and secret of\ntheir lives.\n\nThere are three things here, on each of which I touch as belonging to\nthe true notion of a Christian life--the conquered captive; that\ncaptive partaking in the triumph of his Conqueror; and the conquered\ncaptive led as a trophy and a witness to the Conqueror's power. These\nthree things, I think, explain the Apostle's thoughts here. Let me\ndeal with them now.\n\nI. First then, let us look at that thought of all Christians being in\nthe truest sense conquered captives, bound to the chariot wheels of\nOne who has overcome them.\n\nThe image implies a prior state of hostility and alienation. Now, do\nnot let us exaggerate, let us take Paul's own experience. He is\nspeaking about himself here; he is not talking doctrine, he is giving\nus autobiography, and he says, 'I was an enemy, and I have been\nconquered.'\n\nWhat sort of an enemy was he? Well! He says that before he became a\nChristian he lived a pure, virtuous, respectable life. He was a man\n'as touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.'\nObservant of all relative duties, sober, temperate, chaste; no man\ncould say a word against him; he knew nothing against himself. His\nconscience acquitted him of wrong: 'I thought I ought to do many\nthings,' as I did them. And yet, looking back from his present point\nof view upon a life thus adorned with many virtues, pure from all\nmanifest corruption, to a large extent regulated by conscientious and\nreligious motives of a kind, he says, 'Notwithstanding all that, I\nwas an enemy.' Why? Because the retrospect let him see that his life\nwas barren of the deepest faith and the purest love. And so I come to\nsome of my friends here now, and I say to you, 'Change the name, and\nthe story is true about you,' respectable people, who are trying to\nlive pure and righteous lives, doing all duties that present\nthemselves to you with a very tolerable measure of completeness and\nabominating and trying to keep yourselves from the things that your\nconsciences tell you are wrong, yet needing to be conquered, in the\ndeepest recesses of your wills and your hearts, before you become\nthe true subjects of the true King. I do not want to exaggerate, nor\nto say of the ordinary run of people who listen to us preachers, that\nthey commit manifest sins, 'gross as a mountain, open, palpable.'\nSome of you do, no doubt, for, in every hundred people, there are\nalways some whose lives are foul and whose memories are stained and\nhorrible; but the run of you are not like that. And yet I ask you,\nhas your will been bowed and broken, and your heart overcome and\nconquered by this mighty Prince, the Prince of Peace, the Prince of\nLife? Unless it has, for all your righteousness and respectability,\nfor all your outward religion and real religiousness of a sort, you\nare still hostile and rebellious, in your inmost hearts. That is the\nbasis of the representation of my text.\n\nWhat else does it suggest? It suggests the wonderful struggle and\nvictory of weaponless love. As was said about the first Christian\nemperor, so it may be said about the great Emperor in the heavens,\n'_In hoc signo vinces!_' By this sign thou shalt conquer. For\nHis only weapon is the Cross of His Son, and He fights only by the\nmanifestation of infinite love, sacrifice, suffering, and pity. He\nconquers as the sun conquers the thick-ribbed ice by raying down its\nheat upon it, and melting it into sweet water. So God in Christ\nfights against the mountains of man's cold, hard sinfulness and\nalienation, and by the warmth of His own radiation turns them all\ninto rivers that flow in love and praise. He conquers simply by\nforbearance and pity and love.\n\nAnd what more does this first part of my text say to us? It tells us,\ntoo, of the true submission of the conquered captive; how we are\nconquered when we perceive and receive His love; how there is nothing\nelse needed to win us all for Him except only that we shall recognise\nHis great love to us.\n\nThis picture of the triumph comes with a solemn appeal and\ncommandment to every one of us professing Christians. Think of these\nmen, dragged at the conqueror's chariot-wheels, abject, with their\nweapons broken, with their resistance quelled, chained, yoked,\nhaled away from their own land, dependant for life or death on the\ncaprice of the general who rode before them there. It is a picture of\nwhat you Christian men and women are bound to be if you believe that\nGod in Christ has loved you as we have been saying that He does. For\nabject submission, unconditional surrender, the yielding up of our\nwhole will to Him, the yielding of all our possessions as His\nvassals--these are the duties that are correspondent to the facts of\nthe case.\n\nIf we are thus won by infinite love, and not our own, but bought with\na price, no conquered king, dragged at an emperor's chariot-wheels,\nwas ever half as absolutely and abjectly bound to be his slave, and\nto live or die by his breath, as you are bound to your Master. You\nare Christians in the measure in which you are the captives of His\nspear and of His bow; in the measure in which you hold your\nterritories as vassal kings, in the measure in which you say,\nstretching out your willing hands for the fetters, 'Lord! here am I,\ndo with me as Thou wilt.' 'I am not mine own; be Thou my will, my\nEmperor, my Commander, my all.' Loyola used to say, as the law of his\norder, that every man that became a member of the Society of Jesus\nwas to be like as a staff in a man's hand, or like as a corpse. It\nwas a blasphemous and wicked claim, but it is but a poor fragmentary\nstatement of the truth about those of us who enter the real Society\nof Jesus, and put ourselves in His hands to be wielded as His staff\nand His rod, and submit ourselves to Him, not as a corpse, but yield\nyourselves to our Christ 'as those that are alive from the dead.'\n\nII. Now we have here, as part of the ideal of the Christian life, the\nconquered captives partaking in the triumph of their general.\n\nTwo groups made up the triumphal procession--the one that of the\nsoldiers who had fought for, the other that of the prisoners who had\nfought against, the leader. And some commentators are inclined to\nbelieve that the Apostle is here thinking of himself and his fellows\nas belonging to the conquering army, and not to the conquered enemy.\nThat seems to me to be less probable and in accordance with the whole\nimage than the explanation which I have adopted. But be that as it\nmay, it suggests to us this thought, that in the deepest reality in\nthat Christian life of which all this metaphor is but the expression,\nthey who are conquered foes become conquering allies. Or, to put it\ninto other words--to be triumphed over by Christ is to triumph with\nChrist. And the praise which breaks from the Apostle's lips suggests\nthe same idea. He pours out his thanks for that which he recognises\nas being no degradation but an honour, and a participation in his\nConqueror's triumph.\n\nWe may illustrate that thought, that to be triumphed over by Christ\nis to triumph with Christ, by such considerations as these. This\nsubmission of which I have been speaking, abject and unconditional,\nextending to life and death, this submission and captivity is but\nanother name for liberty. The man who is absolutely dependent upon\nJesus Christ is absolutely independent of everything and everybody\nbesides, himself included. That is to say, to be His slave is to be\neverybody else's master, and when we bow ourselves to Him, and take\nupon us the chains of glad obedience, and life-deep as well as\nlife-long consecration, then He breaks off all other chains from our\nhands, and will not suffer that any others should have a share with\nHim in the possession of His servant. If you are His servants you are\nfree from all besides; if you give yourselves up to Jesus Christ, in\nthe measure in which you give yourselves up to Him, you will be set\nat liberty from the worst of all slaveries, that is the slavery of\nyour own will and your own weakness, and your own tastes and fancies.\nYou will be set at liberty from dependence upon men, from thinking\nabout their opinion. You will be set at liberty from your dependence\nupon externals, from feeling as if you could not live unless you had\nthis, that, or the other person or thing. You will be emancipated\nfrom fears and hopes which torture the men who strike their roots no\ndeeper than this visible film of time which floats upon the surface\nof the great, invisible abyss of Eternity. If you have Christ for\nyour Master you will be the masters of the world, and of time and\nsense and men and all besides; and so, being triumphed over by Him,\nyou will share in His triumph.\n\nAnd again, we may illustrate the same principle in yet another way.\nSuch absolute and entire submission of will and love as I have been\nspeaking about is the highest honour of a man. It was a degradation\nto be dragged at the chariot-wheels of conquering general, emperor,\nor consul--it broke the heart of many a barbarian king, and led some\nof them to suicide rather than face the degradation. It is a\ndegradation to submit ourselves, even as much as many of us do, to\nthe domination of human authorities, or to depend upon men as much as\nmany of us do for our completeness and our satisfaction. But it is\nthe highest ennobling of humanity that it shall lay itself down at\nChrist's feet, and let Him put His foot upon its neck. It is the\nexaltation of human nature to submit to Christ. The true nobility are\nthose that 'come over with the Conqueror.' When we yield ourselves to\nHim, and let Him be our King, then the patent of nobility is given to\nus, and we are lifted in the scale of being. All our powers and\nfaculties are heightened in their exercise, and made more blessed in\ntheir employment, because we have bowed ourselves to His control. And\nso to be triumphed over by Christ is to triumph with Christ.\n\nAnd the same thought may be yet further illustrated. That submission\nwhich I have been speaking about so unites us to our Lord that we\nshare in all that belongs to Him and thus partake in His triumph. If\nin will and heart we have yielded ourselves to Him, he that is thus\njoined to the Lord is one spirit, and all 'mine is Thine, and all\nThine is mine.' He is the Heir of all things, and all things of which\nHe is the Heir are our possession. 'All things are yours, and ye are\nChrist's.' Thus His dominion is the dominion of all that love Him,\nand His heritage is the heritage of all those that have joined\nthemselves to Him; and no sparkle of the glory that falls upon His\nhead but is reflected on the heads of His servants. The 'many crowns'\nthat He wears are the crowns with which He crowns His followers.\n\nThus, my brother, to be overcome by God is to overcome the world, to\nbe triumphed over by Christ is to share in His triumph; and he over\nwhom Incarnate Love wins the victory, like the patriarch of old in\nhis mystical struggle, conquers in the hour of surrender; and to him\nit is said: 'As a prince thou hast power with God and hast\nprevailed.'\n\nIII. Lastly, a further picture of the ideal of the Christian life is\nset before us here in the thought of these conquered captives being\nled as the trophies and the witnesses of His overcoming power.\n\nThat idea is suggested by both halves of our verse. Both the emblem\nof the Apostle as marching in the triumphal procession, and the\nemblem of the Apostle as yielding from his burning heart the fragrant\nvisible odour of the ascending incense, convey the same idea, viz.\nthat one great purpose which Jesus Christ has in conquering men for\nHimself, and binding them to His chariot wheels, is that from them\nmay go forth the witness of His power and the knowledge of His name.\n\nThat opens very wide subjects for our consideration which I can only\nvery briefly touch upon. Let me just for an instant dwell upon some\nof them. First, the fact that Jesus Christ, by His Cross and Passion,\nis able to conquer men's wills, and to bind men's hearts to Him, is\nthe highest proof of His power. It is an entirely unique thing in the\nhistory of the world. There is nothing the least like it anywhere\nelse. The passionate attachment which this dead Galilean peasant is\nable to evoke in the hearts of people all these centuries after His\ndeath, is an unheard of and an unparalleled thing. All other teachers\n'serve their generations by the will of God,' and then their names\nbecome speedily less and less powerful, and thicker and thicker mists\nof oblivion wrap them round until they disappear. But time has no\npower over Christ's influence. The bond which binds you and me to Him\nnineteen centuries after His death is the very same in quality as,\nand in degree is often far deeper and stronger than, the bond which\nunited to Him the men that had seen Him. It stands as an unique fact\nin the history of the world, that from Christ of Nazareth there rays\nout through all the ages the spiritual power which absolutely takes\npossession of men, dominates them and turns them into His organs and\ninstruments. This generation prides itself upon testing all things by\nan utilitarian test, and about every system says:--'Well, let us see\nit working.' And I do not think that Christianity need shrink from\nthe test. With all its imperfections, the long procession of holy men\nand women who, for nineteen centuries, have been marching through\nhistory, owning Christ as their Conqueror, and ascribing all their\ngoodness to Him, is a witness to His power to sway and to satisfy\nmen, the force of whose testimony it is hard to overthrow. And I\nwould like to ask the simple question: Will any system of belief or\nof no belief, except the faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice, do the\nlike for men? He leads through the world the train of His captives,\nthe evidence of His conquests.\n\nAnd then, further, let me remind you that out of this representation\nthere comes a very stimulating and solemn suggestion of duty for us\nChristian people. We are bound to live, setting forth whose we are,\nand what He has done for us. Just as the triumphal procession took\nits path up the Appian Way and along the side of the Forum to the\naltar of the Capitol, wreathed about by curling clouds of fragrant\nincense, so we should march through the world encompassed by the\nsweet and fragrant odour of His name, witnessing for Him by word,\nwitnessing for Him by character, speaking for Him and living like\nHim, showing in our life that He rules us, and professing by our\nwords that He does; and so should manifest His power.\n\nStill further, Paul's thanksgiving teaches us that we should be\nthankful for all opportunities of doing such work. Christian men and\nwomen often grudge their services and grudge their money, and feel as\nif the necessities for doing Christian work in the world were\nrather a burden than an honour. This man's generous heart was so full\nof love to his Prince that it glowed with thankfulness at the thought\nthat Christ had let him do such things for Him. And He lets you do\nthem if you will.\n\nSo, dear friends, it comes to be a very solemn question for us. What\npart are we playing in that great triumphal procession? We are all of\nus marching at His chariot wheels, whether we know it or not. But\nthere were two sets of people in the old triumph. There were those\nwho were conquered by force and unconquered in heart, and out of\ntheir eyes gleamed unquenchable malice and hatred, though their\nweapons were broken and their arms fettered. And there were those\nwho, having shared in the commander's fight, shared in his triumph\nand rejoiced in his rule. And when the procession reached the gate of\nthe temple, some, at any rate, of the former class were put to death\nbefore the gates. I pray you to remember that if we are dragged after\nHim reluctantly, the word will come: 'These, mine enemies, which\nwould not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them\nbefore Me.' Whereas, on the other hand, for those who have yielded\nheart and soul to Him in love and submission born of the reception of\nHis great love, the blessed word will come: 'He that overcometh shall\ninherit all things.' Which of the two parts of the procession do you\nbelong to, my friend? Make your choice where you shall march, and\nwhether you will be His loyal allies and soldiers who share in His\ntriumph, or His enemies, who, overcome by His power, are not melted\nby His love. The one live, the other perish.\n\n\n\n\nTRANSFORMATION BY BEHOLDING\n\n   'We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory\n   of the Lord, are changed into the same image.'--2 COR. iii. 18.\n\n\nThis whole section of the Epistle in which our text occurs is a\nremarkable instance of the fervid richness of the Apostle's mind,\nwhich acquires force by motion, and, like a chariot-wheel, catches\nfire as it revolves. One of the most obvious peculiarities of his\nstyle is his habit of 'going off at a word.' Each thought is, as it\nwere, barbed all round, and catches and draws into sight a multitude\nof others, but slightly related to the main purpose in hand. And this\ncharacteristic gives at first sight an appearance of confusion to his\nwritings. But it is not confusion, it is richness. The luxuriant\nunderwood which this fertile soil bears, as some tropical forest,\ndoes not choke the great trees, though it drapes them.\n\nPaul's immediate purpose seems to be to illustrate the frank openness\nwhich ought to mark the ministry of Christianity. He does this by\nreference to the veil which Moses wore when he came forth from\ntalking with God. There, he says in effect, we have a picture of the\nOld Dispensation--a partial revelation, gleaming through a veil,\nflashing through symbols, expressed here in a rite, there in a type,\nthere again in an obscure prophecy, but never or scarcely ever\nfronting the world with an unveiled face and the light of God shining\nclear from it. Christianity is, and Christian teachers ought to be,\nthe opposite of all this. It has, and they are to have, no esoteric\ndoctrines, no hints where plain speech is possible, no reserve, no\nuse of symbols and ceremonies to overlay truth, but an intelligible\nrevelation in words and deeds, to men's understandings. It and they\nare plentifully to declare the thing as it is.\n\nBut he gets far beyond this point in his uses of his illustration. It\nopens out into a series of contrasts between the two revelations. The\nveiled Moses represents the clouded revelation of old. The vanishing\ngleam on his face recalls the fading glories of that which was\nabolished; and then, by a quick turn of association, Paul thinks of\nthe veiled readers in the synagogues, copies, as it were, of the\nlawgiver with the shrouded countenance; only too significant images\nof the souls obscured by prejudice and obstinate unbelief, with which\nIsrael trifles over the uncomprehended letter of the old law.\n\nThe contrast to all this lies in our text. Judaism had the one\nlawgiver who beheld God, while the people tarried below. Christianity\nleads us all, to the mount of vision, and lets the lowliest pass\nthrough the fences, and go up where the blazing glory is seen. Moses\nveiled the face that shone with the irradiation of Deity. We with\nunveiled face are to shine among men. He had a momentary gleam, a\ntransient brightness; we have a perpetual light. Moses' face shone,\nbut the lustre was but skin deep. But the light that we have is\ninward, and works transformation into its own likeness.\n\nSo there is here set forth the very loftiest conception of the\nChristian life as direct vision, universal, manifest to men,\npermanent, transforming.\n\nI. Note then, first, that the Christian life is a life of\ncontemplating and reflecting Christ.\n\nIt is a question whether the single word rendered in our version\n'beholding as in a glass,' means that, or 'reflecting as a glass\ndoes.' The latter seems more in accordance with the requirements of\nthe context, and with the truth of the matter in hand. Unless we\nbring in the notion of reflected lustre, we do not get any parallel\nwith the case of Moses. Looking into a glass does not in the least\ncorrespond with the allusion, which gave occasion to the whole\nsection, to the glory of God smiting him on the face, till the\nreflected lustre with which it glowed became dazzling, and needed to\nbe hid. And again, if Paul is here describing Christian vision of God\nas only indirect, as in a mirror, then that would be a point of\ninferiority in us as compared with Moses, who saw Him face to face.\nBut the whole tone of the context prepares us to expect a setting\nforth of the particulars in which the Christian attitude towards the\nmanifested God is above the Jewish. So, on the whole, it seems better\nto suppose that Paul meant 'mirroring,' than 'seeing in a mirror.'\n\nBut, whatever be the exact force of the word, the thing intended\nincludes both acts. There is no reflection of the light without a\nprevious reception of the light. In bodily sight, the eye is a\nmirror, and there is no sight without an image of the thing perceived\nbeing formed in the perceiving eye. In spiritual sight, the soul\nwhich beholds is a mirror, and at once beholds and reflects. Thus,\nthen, we may say that we have in our text the Christian life\ndescribed as one of contemplation and manifestation of the light of\nGod.\nThe great truth of a direct, unimpeded vision, as belonging to\nChristian men on earth, sounds strange to many of us. 'That cannot\nbe,' you say; 'does not Paul himself teach that we see through a\nglass darkly? Do we not walk by faith and not by sight? \"No man hath\nseen God at any time, nor can see Him\"; and besides that absolute\nimpossibility, have we not veils of flesh and sense, to say nothing\nof the covering of sin \"spread over the face of all nations,\" which\nhide from us even so much of the eternal light as His servants above\nbehold, who see His face and bear His name on their foreheads?'\n\nBut these apparent difficulties drop away when we take into account\ntwo things--first, the object of vision, and second, the real nature\nof the vision itself.\n\nAs to the former, who is the Lord whose glory we receive on our\nunveiled faces? He is Jesus Christ. Here, as in the overwhelming\nmajority of instances where _Lord_ occurs in the New Testament,\nit is the name of the manifested God our brother. The glory which we\nbehold and give back is not the incomprehensible, incommunicable\nlustre of the absolute divine perfectness, but that glory which, as\nJohn says, we beheld in Him who tabernacled with us, full of grace\nand truth; the glory which was manifested in loving, pitying words\nand loveliness of perfect deeds; the glory of the will resigned to\nGod, and of God dwelling in and working through the will; the glory\nof faultless and complete manhood, and therein of the express image\nof God.\n\nAnd as for the vision itself, that seeing which is denied to be\npossible is the bodily perception and the full comprehension of the\nInfinite God; that seeing which is affirmed to be possible, and\nactually bestowed in Christ, is the beholding of Him with the soul by\nfaith; the immediate direct consciousness of His presence the\nperception of Him in His truth by the mind, the feeling of Him in His\nlove by the heart, the contact with His gracious energy in our\nrecipient and opening spirits. Faith is made the antithesis of sight.\nIt is so, in certain respects. But faith is also paralleled with and\nexalted above the mere bodily perception. He who believing grasps the\nliving Lord has a contact with Him as immediate and as real as that\nof the eyeball with light, and knows Him with a certitude as reliable\nas that which sight gives. 'Seeing is believing,' says sense;\n'Believing is seeing' says the spirit which clings to the Lord, 'whom\nhaving not seen' it loves. A bridge of perishable flesh, which is not\nmyself but my tool, connects me with the outward world. _It_ never\ntouches myself at all, and I know it only by trust in my senses. But\nnothing intervenes between my Lord and me, when I love and trust.\nThen Spirit is joined to spirit, and of His presence I have the\nwitness in myself. He is the light, which proves its own existence by\nrevealing itself, which strikes with quickening impulse on the eye of\nthe spirit that beholds by faith. Believing we see, and, seeing, we\nhave that light in our souls to be 'the master light of all our\nseeing.' We need not think that to know by the consciousness of our\ntrusting souls is less than to know by the vision of our fallible\neyes; and though flesh hides from us the spiritual world in which we\nfloat, yet the only veil which really dims God to us--the veil of\nsin, the one separating principle--is done away in Christ, for all\nwho love Him; so as that he who has not seen and yet has believed,\nhas but the perfecting of his present vision to expect, when flesh\ndrops away and the apocalypse of the heaven comes. True, in one view,\n'We see through a glass darkly'; but also true, 'We all, with\nunveiled face, behold and reflect the glory of the Lord.'\n\nThen note still further Paul's emphasis on the universality of this\nprerogative--'We all.' This vision does not belong to any select\nhandful; does not depend upon special powers or gifts, which in the\nnature of things can only belong to a few. The spiritual aristocracy\nof God's Church is not the distinction of the law-giver, the priest\nor the prophet. There is none of us so weak, so low, so ignorant, so\ncompassed about with sin, but that upon our happy faces that light\nmay rest, and into our darkened hearts that sunshine may steal.\n\nIn that Old Dispensation, the light that broke through clouds was but\nthat of the rising morning. It touched the mountain tops of the\nloftiest spirits: a Moses, a David, an Elijah caught the early\ngleams; while all the valleys slept in the pale shadow, and the mist\nclung in white folds to the plains. But the noon has come, and, from\nits steadfast throne in the very zenith, the sun, which never sets,\npours down its rays into the deep recesses of the narrowest gorge,\nand every little daisy and hidden flower catches its brightness, and\nthere is nothing hid from the heat thereof. We have no privileged\nclass or caste now; no fences to keep out the mob from the place of\nvision, while lawgiver and priest gaze upon God. Christ reveals\nHimself to all His servants in the measure of their desire after Him.\nWhatsoever special gifts may belong to a few in His Church, the\ngreatest gift belongs to all. The servants and the handmaidens have\nthe Spirit, the children prophesy, the youths see visions, the old\nmen dream dreams. 'The mobs,' 'the masses,' 'the plebs,' or whatever\nother contemptuous name the heathen aristocratic spirit has for the\nbulk of men, makes good its standing within the Church, as possessor\nof Christ's chiefest gifts. Redeemed by Him, it can behold His face\nand be glorified into His likeness. Not as Judaism with its ignorant\nmass, and its enlightened and inspired few--we _all_ behold the glory\nof the Lord.\n\nAgain, this contemplation involves reflection, or giving forth the\nlight which we behold.\n\nThey who behold Christ have Christ formed in them, as will appear in\nmy subsequent remarks. But apart from such considerations, which\nbelong rather to the next part of this sermon, I touch on this\nthought here for one purpose--to bring out this idea--that what we\n_see_ we shall certainly _show_. That will be the inevitable result\nof all true possession of the glory of Christ. The necessary\naccompaniment of vision is reflecting the thing beheld. Why, if you\nlook closely enough into a man's eye, you will see in it little\npictures of what he beholds at the moment; and if our hearts are\nbeholding Christ, Christ will be mirrored and manifested on our\nhearts. Our characters will show what we are looking at, and ought,\nin the case of Christian people, to bear His image so plainly, that\nmen cannot but take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.\n\nThis ought to lead all of us who say that we have seen the Lord, to\nserious self-questioning. Do beholding and reflecting go together in\nour cases? Are our characters like those transparent clocks, where\nyou can see not only the figures and hands, but the wheels and works?\nRemember that, consciously and unconsciously, by direct efforts and\nby insensible influences on our lives, the true secret of our being\nought to come, and will come, forth to light. The convictions which\nwe hold, the emotions that are dominant in our hearts, will mould and\nshape our lives. If we have any deep, living perception of Christ,\nbystanders looking into our faces will be able to tell what it is up\nyonder that is making them like the faces of the angels--even vision\nof the opened heavens and of the exalted Lord. These two things are\ninseparable--the one describes the attitude and action of the\nChristian man towards Christ; the other the very same attitude and\naction in relation to men. And you may be quite sure that, if little\nlight comes from a Christian character, little light comes into it;\nand if it be swathed in thick veils from men, there must be no less\nthick veils between it and God.\n\nNor is it only that our fellowship with Christ will, as a matter of\ncourse, show itself in our characters, and beauty born of that\ncommunion 'shall pass into our face,' but we are also called on, as\nPaul puts it here, to make direct conscious efforts for the\ncommunication of the light which we behold. As the context has it,\nGod hath shined in our hearts, that we might give the light of the\nknowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. Away with\nall veils! No reserve, no fear of the consequences of plain speaking,\nno diplomatic prudence regulating our frank utterance, no secret\ndoctrines for the initiated! We are to 'renounce the hidden things of\ndishonesty.' Our power and our duty lie in the full exhibition of the\ntruth. We are only clear from the blood of men when we, for our\nparts, make sure that if any light be hid, it is hid not by reason of\nobscurity or silence on our parts, but only by reason of the blind\neyes, before which the full-orbed radiance gleams in vain. All this\nis as true for every one possessing that universal prerogative of\nseeing the glory of Christ, as it is for an Apostle. The business of\nall such is to make known the name of Jesus, and if from idleness, or\ncarelessness, or selfishness, they shirk that plain duty, they are\ncounteracting God's very purpose in shining on their hearts, and\ngoing far to quench the light which they darken.\n\nTake this, then, Christian men and women, as a plain practical lesson\nfrom this text. You are bound to manifest what you believe, and to\nmake the secret of your lives, in so far as possible, an open secret.\nNot that you are to drag into light before men the sacred depths of\nyour own soul's experience. Let these lie hid. The world will be none\nthe better for your confessions, but it needs your Lord. Show Him\nforth, not your own emotions about Him. What does the Apostle say\nclose by my text? 'We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the\nLord.' Self-respect and reverence for the sanctities of our deepest\nemotions forbid our proclaiming these from the house-tops. Let these\nbe curtained, if you will, from all eyes but God's, but let no folds\nhang before the picture of your Saviour that is drawn on your heart.\nSee to it that you have the unveiled face turned towards Christ to be\nirradiated by His brightness, and the unveiled face turned towards\nmen, from which shall shine every beam of the light which you have\ncaught from your Lord. 'Arise! shine, for thy light is come, and the\nglory of the Lord is risen upon thee!'\n\nII. Notice, secondly, that this life of contemplation is therefore a\nlife of gradual transformation.\n\nThe brightness on the face of Moses was only skin-deep. It faded\naway, and left no trace. It effaced none of the marks of sorrow and\ncare, and changed none of the lines of that strong, stern face. But,\nsays Paul, the glory which we behold sinks inward, and changes us as\nwe look, into its own image. Thus the superficial lustre, that had\nneither permanence nor transforming power, becomes an illustration of\nthe powerlessness of law to change the moral character into the\nlikeness of the fair ideal which it sets forth. And, in opposition to\nits weakness, the Apostle proclaims the great principle of Christian\nprogress, that the beholding of Christ leads to the assimilation to\nHim.\n\nThe metaphor of a mirror does not wholly serve us here. When the\nsunbeams fall upon it, it flashes in the light, just because they do\nnot enter its cold surface. It is a mirror, because it does not drink\nthem up, but flings them back. The contrary is the case with these\nsentient mirrors of our spirits. In them the light must first sink in\nbefore it can ray out. They must first be filled with the glory,\nbefore the glory can stream forth. They are not so much like a\nreflecting surface as like a bar of iron, which needs to be heated\nright down to its obstinate black core, before its outer skin glows\nwith the whiteness of a heat that is too hot to sparkle. The sunshine\nmust fall on us, not as it does on some lonely hill-side, lighting up\nthe grey stones with a passing gleam that changes nothing, and fades\naway, leaving the solitude to its sadness; but as it does on some\ncloud cradled near its setting, which it drenches and saturates with\nfire till its cold heart burns, and all its wreaths of vapour are\nbrightness palpable, glorified by the light which lives amidst its\nmists. So must we have the glory sink into us before it can be\nreflected from us. In deep inward beholding we must have Christ in\nour hearts, that He may shine forth from our lives.\n\nAnd this contemplation will be gradual transformation. There is the\ngreat principle of Christian morals. 'We all beholding ... are\nchanged.' The power to which is committed the perfecting of our\ncharacters lies in looking upon Jesus. It is not the mere beholding,\nbut the gaze of love and trust that moulds us by silent sympathy into\nthe likeness of His wondrous beauty, who is fairer than the children\nof men. It was a deep, true thought which the old painters had, when\nthey drew John as likest to his Lord. Love makes us like. We learn\n_that_ even in our earthly relationships, where habitual familiarity\nwith parents and dear ones stamps some tone of voice or look, or\nlittle peculiarity of gesture, on a whole house. And when the\ninfinite reverence and aspiration which the Christian soul cherishes\nto its Lord are superadded, the transforming power of loving\ncontemplation of Him becomes mighty beyond all analogies in human\nfriendship, though one in principle with these. What a marvellous\nthing that a block of rude sandstone, laid down before a perfect\nmarble, should become a copy of its serene loveliness just by lying\nthere! Lay your hearts down before Christ. Contemplate Him. Love Him.\nThink about Him. Let that pure face shine upon heart and spirit, and\nas the sun photographs itself on the sensitive plate exposed to its\nlight, and you get a likeness of the sun by simply laying the thing\nin the sun, so He will 'be formed in, you.' Iron near a magnet\nbecomes magnetic. Spirits that dwell with Christ become Christ-like.\nThe Roman Catholic legends put this truth in a coarse way, when they\ntell of saints who have gazed on some ghastly crucifix till they have\nreceived, in their tortured flesh, the copy of the wounds of Jesus,\nand have thus borne in their body the marks of the Lord. The story is\nhideous and gross, the idea beneath is ever true. Set your faces\ntowards the Cross with loving, reverent gaze, and you will 'be\nconformed unto His death,' that in due time you may 'be also in the\nlikeness of His Resurrection.'\n\nDear friends, surely this message--'Behold and be like'--ought to be\nvery joyful and enlightening to many of us, who are wearied with\npainful struggles after isolated pieces of goodness, that elude our\ngrasp. You have been trying, and trying, and trying half your\nlifetime to cure faults and make yourselves better and stronger. Try\nthis other plan. Let love draw you, instead of duty driving you. Let\nfellowship with Christ elevate you, instead of seeking to struggle up\nthe steeps on hands and knees. Live in sight of your Lord, and catch\nHis Spirit. The man who travels with his face northwards has it grey\nand cold. Let him turn to the warm south, where the midday sun\ndwells, and his face will glow with the brightness that he sees.\n'Looking unto Jesus' is the sovereign cure for all our ills and sins.\nIt is the one condition of running with patience 'the race that is\nset before us.' Efforts after self-improvement which do not rest on\nit will not go deep enough, nor end in victory. But from that gaze\nwill flow into our lives a power which will at once reveal the true\ngoal, and brace every sinew for the struggle to reach it. Therefore,\nlet us cease from self, and fix our eyes on our Saviour till His\nimage imprints itself on our whole nature.\n\nSuch transformation, it must be remembered, comes gradually. The\nlanguage of the text regards it as a lifelong process. 'We _are_\nchanged'; that is a continuous operation. 'From glory to glory'; that\nis a course which has well-marked transitions and degrees. Be not\nimpatient if it be slow. It will take a lifetime. Do not fancy that\nit is finished with you. Life is not long enough for it. Do not be\ncomplacent over the partial transformation which you have felt. There\nis but a fragment of the great image yet reproduced in your soul, a\nfaint outline dimly traced, with many a feature wrongly drawn, with\nmany a line still needed, before it can be called even approximately\ncomplete. See to it that you neither turn away your gaze, nor relax\nyour efforts till all that you have beheld in Him is repeated in you.\n\nLikeness to Christ is the aim of all religion. To it conversion is\nintroductory; doctrines, devout emotion, worship and ceremonies,\nchurches and organisations are valuable as auxiliary. Let that\nwondrous issue of God's mercy be the purpose of our lives, and the\nend as well as the test of all the things which we call our\nChristianity. Prize and use them as helps towards it, and remember\nthat they are helps only in proportion as they show us that Saviour,\nthe image of whom is our perfection, the beholding of whom is our\ntransformation.\n\nIII. Notice, lastly, that the life of contemplation finally becomes a\nlife of complete assimilation.\n\n'Changed into the same image, from glory to glory.' The lustrous\nlight which falls upon Christian hearts from the face of their Lord\nis permanent, and it is progressive. The likeness extends, becomes\ndeeper, truer, every way perfecter, comprehends more and more of the\nfaculties of the man; soaks into him, if I may say so, until he is\nsaturated with the glory; and in all the extent of his being, and in\nall the depth possible to each part of that whole extent, is like his\nLord. That is the hope for heaven, towards which we may indefinitely\napproximate here, and at which we shall absolutely arrive there.\nThere we expect changes which are impossible here, while compassed\nwith this body of sinful flesh. We look for the merciful exercise of\nHis mighty working to 'change the body of our lowliness, that it may\nbe fashioned like unto the body of His glory'; and that physical\nchange in the resurrection of the just rightly bulks very large in\ngood men's expectations. But we are somewhat apt to think of the\nperfect likeness of Christ too much in connection with that\ntransformation that begins only after death, and to forget that the\nmain transformation must begin here. The glorious, corporeal life\nlike our Lord's, which is promised for heaven, is great and\nwonderful, but it is only the issue and last result of the far\ngreater change in the spiritual nature, which by faith and love\nbegins here. It is good to be clothed with the immortal vesture of\nthe resurrection, and in that to be like Christ. It is better to be\nlike Him in our hearts. His true image is that we should feel as He\ndoes, should think as He does, should will as He does; that we should\nhave the same sympathies, the same loves, the same attitude towards\nGod, and the same attitude towards men. It is that His heart and ours\nshould beat in full accord, as with one pulse, and possessing one\nlife. Wherever there is the beginning of that oneness and likeness of\nspirit, all the rest will come in due time. As the spirit, so the\nbody. The whole nature must be transformed and made like Christ's,\nand the process will not stop till that end be accomplished in all\nwho love Him. But the beginning here is the main thing which draws\nall the rest after it as of course. 'If the Spirit of Him that raised\nup Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from\nthe dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by His Spirit that\ndwelleth in you.'\n\nAnd, while this complete assimilation in body and spirit to our Lord\nis the end of the process which begins here by love and faith, my\ntext, carefully considered, adds a further very remarkable idea. 'We\nare all changed,' says Paul, 'into the _same_ image.' Same as what?\nPossibly the same as we behold; but more probably the phrase,\nespecially 'image' in the singular, is employed to convey the thought\nof the blessed likeness of all who become perfectly like Him. As if\nhe had said, 'Various as we are in disposition and character, unlike\nin the histories of our lives, and all the influences that these have\nhad upon us, differing in everything but the common relation to Jesus\nChrist, we are all growing like the same image, and we shall come to\nbe perfectly like it, and yet each retain his own distinct\nindividuality.' 'We being many are one, for we are all partakers of\none.'\n\nPerhaps, too, we may connect with this another idea which occurs more\nthan once in Paul's Epistles. In that to the Ephesians, for instance,\nhe says that the Christian ministry is to continue, till a certain\npoint of progress has been reached, which he describes as our\n_all_ coming to 'a perfect _man_.' The whole of us together\nmake a perfect man--the whole make one image. That is to say, perhaps\nthe Apostle's idea is, that it takes the aggregated perfectness of\nthe whole Catholic Church, one throughout all ages, and containing a\nmultitude that no man can number, to set worthily forth anything like\na complete image of the fulness of Christ. No one man, even raised to\nthe highest pitch of perfection, and though his nature be widened out\nto perfect development, can be the full image of that infinite sum of\nall beauty; but the whole of us taken together, with all the\ndiversities of natural character retained and consecrated, being\ncollectively His body which He vitalises, may, on the whole, be a not\nwholly inadequate representation of our perfect Lord. Just as we\nset round a central light sparkling prisms, each of which catches the\nglow at its own angle, and flashes it back of its own colour, while\nthe sovereign completeness of the perfect white radiance comes from\nthe blending of all their separate rays, so they who stand round\nabout the starry throne receive each the light in his own measure and\nmanner, and give forth each a true and perfect, and altogether a\ncomplete, image of Him who enlightens them all, and is above them\nall.\n\nAnd whilst thus all bear the same image, there is no monotony; and\nwhile there is endless diversity, there is no discord. Like the\nserene choirs of angels in the old monk's pictures, each one with the\nsame tongue of fire on the brow, with the same robe flowing in the\nsame folds to the feet, with the same golden hair, yet each a\nseparate self, with his own gladness, and a different instrument for\npraise in his hand, and his own part in that 'undisturbed song of\npure content,' we shall all be changed into the same image, and yet\neach heart shall grow great with its own blessedness, and each spirit\nbright with its own proper lustre of individual and characteristic\nperfection.\n\nThe law of the transformation is the same for earth and for heaven.\nHere we see Him in part, and beholding grow like. There we shall see\nHim as He is, and the likeness will be complete. That Transfiguration\nof our Lord (which is described by the same word as occurs in this\ntext) may become for us the symbol and the prophecy of what we look\nfor. As with Him, so with us; the indwelling glory shall come to the\nsurface, and the countenance shall shine as the light, and the\ngarments shall be 'white as no fuller on earth can white them.' Nor\nshall that be a fading splendour, nor shall we fear as we enter into\nthe cloud, nor, looking on Him, shall flesh bend beneath the burden,\nand the eyes become drowsy, but we shall be as the Lawgiver and the\nProphet who stood by Him in the lambent lustre, and shone with a\nbrightness above that which had once been veiled on Sinai. We shall\nnever vanish from His side, but dwell with Him in the abiding temple\nwhich He has built, and there, looking upon Him for ever, our happy\nsouls shall change as they gaze, and behold Him more perfectly as\nthey change, for 'we know that when He shall appear we shall be like\nHim, for we shall see Him as He is.'\n\n\n\n\nLOOKING AT THE UNSEEN\n\n   'While we look not at the things which are seen, but\n   at the things which are not seen.'--2 COR. iv. 18.\n\n\nMen may be said to be divided into two classes, materialists and\nidealists, in the widest sense of those two words. The mass care for,\nand are occupied by, and regard as really solid good, those goods\nwhich can be touched and enjoyed by sense. The minority--students,\nthinkers, men of ideas, moralists, and the like--believe in, and care\nfor, impalpable spiritual riches. Everybody admits that the latter\nclass is distinctly the higher. Now it is from no disregard to the\nimportance and reality of that broad distinction that I insist, to\nbegin with, that it is not the antithesis which is in the Apostle's\nmind here. His notion of 'the things that are seen' and 'the things\nthat are not seen' is a much grander and wider one than that. By 'the\nthings that are seen' he means the whole of this visible world, with\nall its circumstances and relations, and by 'the things that are not\nseen' he means the realities beyond the stars.\n\nHe means the same thing that we mean when we talk in a much less true\nand impressive contrast about the present and the future. To him the\n'things that are not seen' are present instead of being, as we weakly\nand foolishly christen them, 'the future state.' And it makes all the\ndifference whether we think of that august realm as lying far away\nahead of us, or whether we feel that it is, as it is, in very deed,\nall round about us, and pressing in upon us, only that 'the\nveil'--that is to say, our 'flesh'--has come between us and it. Do\nnot habitually think of these two sets of objects according to that\nmisleading distinction 'present' and 'future,' but think of them\nrather as 'the things that are seen,' and 'the things that are not\nseen.'\n\nI. Now, first, I wish to say a word or two about what such a look\nwill do for us.\n\nPaul's notion is, as you will see if you look at the context, that if\nwe want to understand the visible, or to get the highest good out of\nthe things that are seen, we must bring into the field of vision 'the\nthings that are not seen.' The case with which he is dealing is that\nof a man in trouble. He talks about light affliction which is but for\na moment, working out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of\nglory, 'while we look at the things which are not seen.' But the\nprinciple on which that statement is made, of course, has its widest\napplication to all sorts and conditions of human life.\n\nAnd the thought that emerges from it directly is that only when we\ntake the 'things that are not seen' into account, and make them the\nstandard and the scale by which we judge all things, do we understand\n'the things that are seen.' That triumphant paradox of the Apostle's\nabout the heavy burdens that pressed upon him and his brethren,\nlifelong as these burdens were, which yet he calls 'light' and 'but\nfor a moment' is possible only when we open the shutter of the\ndungeon which we fancied was the whole universe, and look out on to\nthe fair land that stretches beyond. A man who has seen the Himalayas\nwill not be much overwhelmed by the height of Helvellyn. They who\nlook out into the eternities have the true measuring rod and standard\nby which to estimate the duration and intensity of the things that\nare present. We are all tempted to do as villagers in some little\nhamlet do--think that their small local affairs are the world's\naffairs, and mighty, until they have been up to London and seen the\nscale of things there. If you and I would let the steady light of\nEternity, and the sustaining pressure of the 'exceeding weight of\nglory' pour into our minds, we should carry with us a standard which\nwould bring down the greatness, dwindle the duration, lighten the\npressure, of the most crushing sorrow, and would set in its true\ndimensions everything that is here. It is for want of that that we go\non as we do, calculating wrongly what are the great things and what\nare the small things. When, like some of those prisoners in the\nInquisition, the heavy iron weights are laid upon our half-crushed\nhearts, we are tempted to shriek, 'Oh, these will be my death!'\ninstead of taking in that great vision which, as it makes all earthly\nriches dross, so it makes all crushing burdens and blows of sorrow\nlight as a feather.\n\nBut, on the other hand, do not let us forget that this same standard\nwhich thus dwindles, also magnifies the small, and in a very solemn\nsense, makes eternal the else fleeting things of this life. For there\nis nothing that makes this present existence of ours so utterly\ncontemptible, insignificant, and transitory, as to block out of our\nsight its connection with Eternity. And there is nothing which so\nlifts the commonplace into the solemn, and invests with everlasting\nand tremendous importance everything that a man does here, as to feel\nthat it all tells on his condition away beyond there. The shafting is\non this side of the wall, but the work that it does is through the\nwall there, in the other chamber; and you do not understand the\ncranks and the wheels here unless you know that they go through the\npartition and are doing something there beyond. If you shut out\nEternity from our life in time, then it is an inexplicable riddle;\nand I, for my part, would venture to say that in that case, the men\nwho answer the question, 'Is life worth living?' with a distinct\nnegative, are wise. It is a tale told by an idiot, 'full of sound and\nfury, signifying nothing,' unless the light of 'the things not seen'\nflashes and flares in upon it.\n\nFurther, this look of which my text speaks is the condition on which\nTime prepares for Eternity.\n\nThe Apostle is speaking about the effect of affliction in making\nready for us an eternal weight of glory, and he says that is done\nwhile, or on condition that during the suffering, we are looking\nsteadfastly towards the 'things that are not seen.' But no outward\ncircumstances or events can prepare a weight of glory for us\nhereafter, unless they prepare us for the glory. Affliction works for\nus that blessed result, in the measure in which it fits us for that\nresult. And so you will find that, only a verse or two after my text,\nPaul, using the same very significant and emphatic verb, writes\ninverting the order of things, and says 'He that hath wrought _us\nfor_ the self-same thing is God.' So that working the thing for us,\nand working us for the thing, are one and the same process. Or, to\nput it into plain English, our various duties and circumstances here\nwill prepare the glory of Eternity for us if they prepare us for the\nglory of Eternity. But only in the measure in which these outward\nthings do thus shape and mould our characters do they work out for us\n'an exceeding weight of glory.'\n\nIt is often thought that a man has been so miserable here that God is\nsure to give him future blessedness to recompense him. Well! 'that\ndepends.' If he has used his miserableness as he will use it when he\nlets the light of 'the things not seen' in upon it, then, certainly,\nit will work out for him the blessed results. But if he does not,\nthen, as certainly, it will not. Whilst there are many ways by which\ncharacter is hammered and moulded and shaped into that which is fit\nto be clothed upon with the glory that is yonder, one of the foremost\nof these is the passing through things temporal with a continual\nregard to the things that are eternal. If you want to understand\nto-day you must bring Eternity into the account, and if you want to\nuse to-day you must use it with the light of the eternal world full\nupon it. The sum of it all is, brethren, that the things seen cannot\nbe estimated in their true character, unless they are regarded in\nimmediate connection with the things that are unseen; and that the\nthings seen will only prepare an eternal weight of glory for us when\nthey prepare us for an eternal weight of glory.\n\nII. And so, I note that this look at the things not seen is only\npossible through Jesus Christ.\n\nHe is the only window which opens out and gives the vision of that\nfar-off land. I, for my part, believe that, if I might use such a\nmetaphor, He is the Columbus of the New World. Men believed, and\nargued, and doubted about the existence of it across the seas there,\nuntil a man went, and came back again, and then went to found a new\ncity yonder. And men hoped for immortality, and believed after a\nfashion--some of them--in a future life, and dreaded that it might be\ntrue, and discussed and debated whether it was, but doubt clouded all\nminds, until One, our Brother, went away into the darkness, and came\nback again, in most respects as He had gone, and then departed once\nmore to make ready a city in which all who love Him should finally\ndwell, and to which you and I may be sure that we shall emigrate. It\nis only in Jesus Christ that the look which my text enjoins is\npossible.\n\nFor not only has He given a certitude so that we need now not to say\n'We think, we hope, we fear, we are pretty well sure, that there must\nbe a life beyond,' but we can say 'We know.' Not only has He done\nthis, but also in Him and His life of glory at God's right hand in\nheaven, is summed up all that we really can know about that future.\nWe look into the darkness in vain; we look at Him, and, our\nknowledge, though limited, is blessed. All other adumbrations of a\nlife beyond must necessarily be cast into the metaphorical forms or\nthe negative symbols in which the New Testament abounds. We may speak\nof golden pavements, and thrones, and harps, and the like. We may\nsay: 'No night there, no sighing, nor weeping, no burdened hearts, no\ntoil, no pain, for the former things are passed away.' But a future\nlife which is all described in metaphors, and a future life of which\nwe know only that it is the negation of the disagreeables and\nlimitations of the present, is but a poor affair. Here is the positive\ntruth, 'To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me on My\nthrone.' 'We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.' And\nbeyond that nearness to Christ, blessed communion with Christ,\nlikeness to Christ, royalty derived from Christ, I think we neither\nknow nor need to know anything about that life.\n\nNot only is He our sole medium of knowledge and Himself the\nrevelation of our heaven, but it is only by Him that man's thoughts\nand desires are drawn to, and find themselves at home in, that\ntremendous thought of immortality. I know not how it may be with you,\nbut I am not ashamed to confess that to me the idea of eternal\ncontinuance of my conscious being is an awful thought, rather\ndepressing and bewildering than delighting and attractive. I, for my\npart, do not believe that men generally do grapple to their hearts,\nwith any gratitude or joy, that solemn belief of immortal life unless\nthey feel that it is life with, and in, and like, Jesus Christ. 'To\ndepart' is dreary, and it is only when we can say 'and to be with\nChrist' that it becomes distinctly 'far better.' He is, if I may so\nsay, at once telescope and star. By Him we see Him; we see, seeing\nHim, that the things that are unseen all cluster round Himself and\nbecome blessed.\n\nIII. And now, lastly, this look should be habitual with all Christian\npeople.\n\nPaul takes it for granted that every Christian man is, as the\nhabitual direction of his thoughts, looking towards those 'things\nthat are not seen.' The original shows that even more distinctly than\nour translation, but our translation shows it plainly enough. He does\nnot say 'works for us an exceeding weight of glory _for_,' but\n_'while'_ we look, as if it were a matter of course. He took it for\ngranted as to these Corinthians. I wonder if he would be warranted in\ntaking it for granted about us?\n\nNote what sort of a look it is which produces these blessed effects.\nThe word which the Apostle employs here is a more pointed one than\nthe ordinary one for 'seeing.' It is translated in other places in\nthe New Testament, _'Mark'_ them which walk so as ye have us for\nan ensample, and the like. And it implies a concentrated, protracted\neffort and interested gaze. A man, standing on the deck of a ship,\ncasts a languid eye for a moment out on to the horizon, and sees\nnothing. A keen-eyed sailor by his side shades his eyes with his\nhand, and shuts out cross-lights, and looks, and peers, and keeps his\neyes steady, and he sees the filmy outline of the mountain land. If\nyou look for a minute, not much caring whether you see anything or\nnot, and then turn away, and get your eye dazzled with all those\nvulgar, crude, high colours round about you here on earth, it is very\nlittle that you will see of 'the things that are not seen.'\nConcentrated attention, and a steadfast look, are wanted to make the\ninvisible visible. You have to alter the focus of your eye if you are\nto see the thing that is afar off.\n\nThere has to be a positive shutting out of all other things, as is\nemphatically taught in the text by putting first the not looking at\n'the things that are seen.' Here they are pressing in upon our\neyeballs, all round us, insisting on being looked at, and unless\nwe resolutely avert our eyes, we shall not see anything else. They\nmonopolise us unless we resist the intrusive appeals that they make\nto us. We are like men down in some fertile valley, surrounded by\nrich vegetation, but seeing nothing beyond the green sides of the\nglen. We have to go up to the hill-top if we are to look out over the\nflashing ocean, and behold afar off the towers of the mother city\nacross the restless waves. Brethren, unless you shut out the world\nyou will never see the things that are not seen.\n\nNow, as I have said, the Apostle regards this conscious effort at\nbringing ourselves into touch, in mind and heart and faith, with 'the\nthings that are not seen' as being a habitual characteristic of\nChristian men. I am very much afraid that the present generation of\nChristian people do not, in anything like the degree in which they\nshould, recreate and strengthen themselves with the contemplation\nwhich he here recommends. It seems to me, for instance, that we do\nnot hear nearly as much in pulpits about the life beyond the grave as\nwe used to do when I was a boy. And, though I confess I speak from\nlimited knowledge, it seems to me that these great motives which lie\nin the thought of Eternity and our place there, are by no means as\nprominent in the minds of the Christian people of this generation as\nthey used to be. Partly, I suppose, that arises from the wholesome\nemphasis which has been given of late years to the present day, and\nthis-side-the grave effects of Christianity, upon character and life.\nPartly it arises, I think, from the half-consciousness of being\nsurrounded by an atmosphere of scepticism and unbelief as to a future\nlife, and from the most unwise, inexpedient, and cowardly yielding to\nthe temptation to say very little about the distinctive features of\nChristianity, and to dwell rather upon those which are sure to be\nrecognised by even unbelieving people. And it comes, too, from the\nlack of faith, which, again, it tends mightily to increase.\n\nOh, dear brethren! our consciences tell us what different people we\nshould be if habitually there shone before us that great, solemn\nissue to which we are all tending. Variations in the atmosphere there\nwill always be, and sometimes the distant outlines will be clearer\nand sharper than at others, and the colours will shine out more\ndistinctly. But surely it should not be that our vision of the\nEternal should be like the vision that dwellers amongst the mountains\nhave of the summits. They say that some of the great peaks of the\nworld are swathed in mist all day long, and that only for a few\nmoments in the morning, or for a brief space in the evening, does the\nsolemn summit gleam rosy in the light. And that, I am afraid, is very\nmuch like the degree in which most of us look at 'the things that are\nnot seen' and so we are feeble, and we do not understand 'the things\nthat are not seen'; and we do not get the good out of them.\n\nDear brethren, let us turn away our eyes from the gauds that we can\nsee, and open the eyes of our spirits on the things that are, the\nthings where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Surely,\nsurely, it is madness that when two sets of objects are before us,\nthe one lasting for a moment, and then dying down into black\nnothingness, and the other shining on for ever; and when our 'look'\nsettles whether we shall share the fate of the one or of the other,\nwe should choose to gaze with all our eyes and hearts at the\nperishable and turn away from the permanent. Surely, if it is true\nthat the things which are seen are temporal, common-sense, and a\nreasonable regard for our own well-being, bid us look at the eternal\n'things which are not seen,' since only so can the light and the\nmomentary afflictions, joys, sorrows, or circumstances, work out for\nus, and work us for 'a far more exceeding and eternal weight of\nglory.'\n\n\n\n\nTENT AND BUILDING\n\n   'For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle\n   be dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made\n   with hands, eternal in the heavens.'--2 COR. v. 1.\n\n\nKnowledge and ignorance, doubt and certitude, are remarkably blended\nin these words. The Apostle knows what many men are not certain of;\nthe Apostle doubts as to what all men now are certain of. '_If_ our\nearthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved'--there is surely no if\nabout that. But we must remember that the first Christians, and the\nApostles with them, did not know whether they might not survive till\nthe coming of Christ; and so not die, but 'be changed.' And this\npossibility, as appears from the context, is clearly before the\nApostle's mind. Such a limitation of his knowledge is in entire\naccordance with our Lord's own words, 'It is not for you to know the\ntimes and the seasons,' and does not in the smallest degree derogate\nfrom his authority as an inspired teacher. But his certitude is as\nremarkable as his hesitation. He knows--and he modestly and calmly\naffirms the confidence, as possessed by all believers--that, in the\nevent of death coming to him or them, he and they have a mansion\nwaiting for their entrance; a body of glory like to that which Jesus\nalready wears.\n\nI. So my text mainly sets before us very strikingly the Christian\ncertitude as to the final future.\n\nI need not dwell, I suppose, upon that familiar metaphor by which the\nrelation of man to his bodily environment is described as that of a\nman to his dwelling-place. Only I would desire, in a word, to\nemphasise this as being the first of the elements of the blessed\ncertitude in which Christian people may expatiate--the clear, broad\ndistinction between me and my physical frame. There is no more\nconnection, says Paul, between us and the organisation in which we at\npresent dwell than there is between a man and the house that he\ninhabits. 'The foolish senses crown' Death and call him lord; but the\nChristian's certitude firmly draws the line, and declares that the\nman, the whole personality, is undisturbed by anything that befalls\nhis residence; and that he may pass unimpaired from one house to\nanother, being in both the self-same person. And that is something to\nkeep firm hold of in these days when we are being told that life and\nconsciousness are but a function of organisation, and that if the one\nbe annihilated the other cannot persist. No; though all illustrations\nand metaphors must necessarily fail, the two which lie side by side\nhere in my text and its context are far truer than that\npseudo-science--which is not science at all, but only inference from\nscience--which denies that the man is one thing and his house\naltogether another.\n\nThen again, note, as part of the elements of this Christian\ncertitude, the blessed thought that a body is part of the perfection\nof manhood. No mere dim, ghostly future, where consciousness somehow\npersists, without environment or tools to act upon an outer world,\ncompletes the idea of God in reference to man. But the old trinity is\nthe eternal trinity for humanity, body, soul, and spirit. Corporeity,\nwith all that it means of definiteness, with all that it means of\nrelation to an external universe, is the perfection of manhood. To\ndwell naked, as the Apostle says in the context, is a thing from\nwhich man shudderingly recoils; and it is not to be his final fate.\nLet us take this as no small gain in reference to our conceptions of\na future--the emphatic drawing into light of that thought that for\nhis perfection man requires body, soul, and spirit. And now, if we\nturn for a moment to the characteristics of the two conditions with\nwhich my text deals, we get some familiar enough but yet great and\nstrengthening thoughts. The 'earthly house of this tabernacle is\ndissolved,' or, more correctly, retaining the metaphor of the house,\nis to be pulled down--and in its place there comes a building of God,\na 'house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.'\n\nNow the contrast that is drawn here, whilst it would run out into a\ngreat many other particulars, about which we know nothing, and\ntherefore had better say nothing, revolves in the Apostle's mind\nmainly round these two 'earthly' as contrasted with 'in the heavens';\nand 'tabernacle,' or tent, as contrasted, first of all with a\n'building,' and then with the predicate 'eternal.'\n\nThat is to say, the first outstanding difference which arises before\nthe Apostle as blessed and glorious, is the contrast between the\nfragile dwelling-place, with its thin canvas, its bending poles, its\ncertain removal some day, and the permanence of that which is not a\n'tent,' but a 'building' which is 'eternal.' Involved in that is\nthe thought that all the limitations and weaknesses which are\nnecessarily associated with the perishableness of the present\nabode are at an end for ever. No more fatigue, no more working beyond\nthe measure of power, no more need for recuperation and repose; no\nmore dread of sickness and weakness; no more possibility of decay,\n'It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption'--neither\n'_can_ they die any more.' Whether that be by reason of any inherent\nimmortality, or by reason of the uninterrupted flow into the creature\nof the immortal life of Christ, to whom he is joined, is a question\nthat need not trouble us now. Enough for us that the contrast between\nthe Bedouin tent--which is folded up and carried away, and nothing\nleft but the black circle where the cheerful hearth once glinted\namidst the sands of the desert--and the stately mansion reared for\neternity, is the contrast between the organ of the spirit in which we\nnow dwell and that which shall be ours.\n\nAnd the other contrast is no less glorious and wonderful. 'The\n_earthly_ house of this tent' does not merely define the composition,\nbut also the whole relations and capacities of that to which it\nrefers. The 'tent' is 'earthly', not merely because, to use a kindred\nmetaphor, it is a 'building of clay,' but because, by all its\ncapacities, it belongs to, corresponds with, and is fitted only for,\nthis lower order of things, the seen and the perishable. And, on the\nother hand, the 'mansion' is in 'the heavens,' even whilst the future\ntenant is a nomad in his tent. That is so, because the power which\ncan create that future abode is 'in the heavens.' It is so called in\norder to express the security in which it is kept for those who shall\none day enter upon it. And it is so, further, to express the order of\nthings with which it brings its dwellers into contact. 'Flesh and\nblood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither doth corruption\ninherit incorruption.' That future home of the spirit will be\ncongruous with the region in which it dwells; fitted for the heavens\nin which it is now preserved. And thus the two contrasts--adapted to\nthe perishable, and itself perishable, belonging to the eternal and\nitself incorruptible--are the two which loom largest before the\nApostle's mind.\n\nLet no man say that such ideas of a possible future bodily frame are\naltogether inconsistent with all that we know of the limitations and\ncharacteristics of what we call matter. 'There is one flesh of beasts\nand another of birds,' says Paul; 'there is one glory of the sun and\nanother of the moon.' And his old-fashioned argument is perfectly\nsound to-day.\n\nDo you know so fully all the possibilities of creation as that you\nare warranted in asserting that such a thing as a body which is the\nfit organ of the spirit, and is incorruptible like the heavens in\nwhich it dwells, is an impossibility? Surely the forms of matter are\nsufficiently varied to make us chary in asserting that other forms\nare impossible, to which there may belong, as characteristics, even\nthese glorious ones of my text. The old story of the king in the\ntropics, who laughed to scorn some one who told him that water could\nbe turned into a solid, may well be quoted in this connection. Let us\nbe less confident that we know all that is to be known in regard to\nthe sweep of God's creative power; and let us thankfully accept the\nteaching by which we, too, in all our ignorance, may be able to say,\n'We know that ... we have a building of God ... eternal in the\nheavens.'\n\nNow there is only one more remark that I wish to make about this part\nof my subject; and it is this, that the teaching of my text and its\ncontext casts great light--and I think by many people much-needed\nlight--on what the resurrection of the dead means. That doctrine has\nbeen weighted with a great many incredibilities and I venture to say\nabsurdities, by well-meaning misconceptions and exaggerations. We\nhave heard grand platitudes about 'the scattered dust being gathered\nfrom the four winds of heaven,' and so on, but the teaching of my\ntext is that the contrast between the present physical frame and the\nfuture bodily environment is utter and complete; and that\nresurrection does not mean the assuming again of the body that is\nleft behind and done with, but the reinvestiture of the man with\nanother body. And so the Scriptural phrase is, not 'the resurrection\nof the body,' but 'the resurrection of the dead.' It is a house 'in\nthe heavens.' It comes 'from heaven.'\n\nWe leave the tent. Life and thought\n\n    ... have gone away, side by side,\n  Leaving doors and windows wide;\n  Careless tenants they!\n\nAnd they may well be careless, because in the heavens they have\nanother mansion, incorruptible and glorious.\n\nWe leave the 'tent'; we enter the 'building.' There is nothing here\nof some germ of immortality being somehow extricated from the ruins,\nand fostered into glorious growth. Or, to take another metaphor of\nthe context, we strip off the garment and are naked; and then we are\nclothed with another garment and are not found naked. The\nresurrection of the dead is the clothing of the spirit with the house\nwhich is from heaven. And there is as much difference between the two\nhabitations as there is between the grim, solid architecture\nof northern peoples, amidst snow and ice, needed to resist the\nblasts, and to keep the life within in an ungenial climate, and the\nlight, graceful dwellings of those who walk in an atmosphere of\nperpetual sunshine in the tropics, as there is between the close-knit\nand narrow-windowed and narrow-doored abode in which we now have to\npass our days, and that large house, with broad windows that take in\na mightier sweep and new senses that have relation with new qualities\nin the world then around us. Therefore let us, whilst we grope in the\ndark here, and live in a narrow hovel in a back street, look forward\nto the time when we shall dwell on the sunny heights in the great\npavilion which God prepares for them that love Him.\n\nII. And now note, again, how we come to this certitude.\n\nMy text is very significantly followed by a 'for,' which gives the\nreason of the knowledge in a very remarkable manner. 'We know, ...\nfor in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our\nhouse, which is from heaven.' Now that singular collocation of ideas\nmay be set forth thus--whatever longing there is in a Christian,\nGod-inspired soul, that longing is a prophecy of its own fulfilment.\nWe know that there is a house, because of the yearning, which is\ndeepest and strongest when we are nearest God, and likest what He\nwould have us to be--the yearning to be 'clothed upon with our house\nwhich is from heaven.' That is a truth that goes a long way; though\nto enlarge on it is irrelevant to our present purpose. It has its\nlimitations, as is obvious from the context, in which are human\nelements which are not destined to be gratified, mingled with the\nyearning, which is of God, and which is destined to be satisfied. But\nthis at least we may firmly hold by, that just because God will not\nput men to confusion intellectually, and does not let them entertain\nuncherished--still less Himself foster and excite--longings which He\ndoes not mean to gratify, a Christian yearning for immortality is, to\nthe man who feels it, a declaration that immortality is sure for him.\n'Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of\nthine heart.' Whatsoever, in touching Him, we do deeply long for may\nhave blended with it human elements, which will be dispersed\nunsatisfied, but the substance of it is a prophecy of its own\nfulfilment. And as surely as the stork in the heavens, flying\nsouthward, will reach the sunny lands which draw it from the grim\nnorthern winter, so surely may a man say, 'I know that I have a house\nin heaven, because I long for it, and shrink from being found naked.'\n\nOf course such longing, such aspiration and revulsion are no proofs\nof a fact except there be some fact which changes them, from mere\nvague desires, and makes these solid certainties. And such a fact we\nhave in that which is the only proof that the world has received, of\nthe persistence of life through death and the continuance of personal\nidentity unchanged by the grave, and that is the Resurrection of\nJesus Christ from the dead. Our faith in immortality does not depend\nmerely on our own subjective desires and longings, but these desires\nand longings are quickened, confirmed, and certified by this great\nfact that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead; and therefore we know\nthat the yearnings in us are not in vain. So we come to this\ncertitude, first, by reason of his experience; and, second, by reason\nof the longings which that experience fosters if it does not kindle,\nwithin our hearts.\n\nAnd let no man take exception to the Apostle's word here, 'we know,'\nor tell us that 'Knowledge is of the things we see.' That is true,\nand not true. It is true in regard to what arrogates to itself the\nname of science. And we are willing to admit the limitation if the\nmen who insist upon it will, on their sides, admit that there are\nother sources of certitude than so-called 'facts,' by which they mean\nmerely material facts. If it is meant to assert that we are less sure\nof the love of God, of immortality, than we are of the existence of\nthis piece of wood, or that flame of gas; then I humbly venture to\nsay that there is another region of facts than those which are\nappreciable by sense; that the evidence upon which we rest our\ncertitude of immortal blessedness is quite as valid, quite as true,\nquite as able to bear the weight of a leaning heart as anything that\ncan be produced, in the nature of evidence, for the things round us.\nIt is not, 'We fancy, we believe, we hope, we are pretty nearly\nsure,' but it is 'We _know_ ... that we have a building of God.'\n\nIII. Lastly, note what this certitude does.\n\nThe Apostle tells us by the 'for' which lies at the beginning of my\ntext, and makes it a reason for something that has preceded, and what\nhas preceded is this, 'We look not at the things which are seen, but\nat the things which are not seen.'\n\nThat is to say, such a joyous, calm certitude draws men's thoughts\naway from this shabby and transitory present, and fixes them on the\nsolemn majesties of that eternal future. Yes! and nothing else will.\nTake away the idea of resurrection, and the remaining idea of\nimmortality is a poor, shadowy, impotent thing. There is no force in\nit; there is no blessedness in it; there is nothing in it for a man\nto lay hold of. And, as a matter of fact, there is no vivid faith in\na future life without belief in the resurrection and bodily existence\nof the perfected dead.\n\nAnd we shall not let our thoughts willingly go out thither unless our\nown personal wellbeing there is very sure to us. When we know that\nfor us individually there is that house waiting for us to enter into\nit, when the Lord comes, then we shall not be unwilling to turn our\nhearts and our desires thither. We look at the things which are not\nseen, for we know that we have a house eternal.\n\nAnd such a certitude will also make a man willing to accept the else\nunwelcome necessity of leaving the tent, and for a while doing\nwithout the mansion. It is that which the Apostle is speaking of in\nsubsequent verses, on which I cannot enter now. He says--and therein\nspeaks a universal experience--that men recoil from the idea of\nhaving to lay aside this earthly body and be 'naked.' But we know\nthat we have that glorious mansion waiting for us, and that till the\nday comes when we enter upon it we may be lapt in Christ instead,\nand, in that so-called intermediate state, may have Him to surround\nus, Him to be to us the medium by which we come into connection with\nanything external, and so can contentedly go away from our home in\nthe body; and go to our home in Christ. 'Wherefore, we are always\nconfident, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be\nat home with the Lord.'\n\nOh, brethren! do we think of our future thus? If we do, then let us\nlay to heart the final words of our teacher in this part of his\nletter: 'Wherefore we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to\nbe well-pleasing unto Him.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE PATIENT WORKMAN\n\n   'Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing\n   is God.'--2 COR. v. 5.\n\n\nThese words penetrate deep into the secrets of God. They assume to\nhave read the riddle of life. To Paul everything which we experience,\noutwardly or inwardly, is from the divine working. Life is to him no\nmere blind whirl, or unintelligent play of accidental forces, nor is\nit the unguided result of our own or of others' wills, but is the\nslow operation of the great Workman. Paul assumes to know the meaning\nof this protracted process, that it all has one design which we may\nknow and grasp and further. And he believes that the clear perception\nof the divine purpose, and the habit of looking at everything as\ncontributing thereto, will be a magic charm against all sorrow,\ndoubt, despondency, or fear, for he adds, 'Therefore we are always\nconfident.' So let us try to follow the course of thought which\nissues in such a blessed gift as that of a continual, courageous\noutlook, and buoyant though grave lightheartedness, because we\ndiscern what He means 'Who worketh all things according to the\ncounsel of His own will.'\n\nI. The first thought here is, God's purpose in all His working; 'He\nthat hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God.'\n\nWhat is that 'self-same thing'? To understand it we must look back\nfor a moment to the previous context. The Apostle has been speaking\nabout the instinctive reluctance which even good men feel at prospect\nof dying and 'putting off the earthly house of this tabernacle.' He\ndistinguishes between three different conditions in which the human\nspirit may be--dwelling in the earthly body, stripped of that, and\n'clothed with the house which is from Heaven,' and to this last and\nhighest state he sees that for him and for his brethren there were\ntwo possible roads. They might reach it either through losing the\npresent body, in the act of death, and passing through a period of\nwhat he calls nakedness; or they might attain it by being\n'superinvested,' as it were, with the glorious body which was to come\nto saints with Christ when He came; and so slip on, as it were, the\nwedding garment over their old clothes, without having to denude\nthemselves of these. And he says that deep in the Christian heart\nthere lay reluctance to take the former road and the preference for\nthe latter. His longing was that that which is mortal might be\n'swallowed up of life,' as some sand-bank in the tide-way may be\ngradually covered and absorbed by the rejoicing waters. And then he\nsays, 'Now He that hath wrought us for this very thing, is God.'\n\nOf course it is impossible that he can mean by this 'very thing' the\nsecond of the roads by which it was possible to reach the ultimate\nissue, because he did not know whether his brethren and he were to\ndie or to be changed. He speaks in the context about death as a\npossible contingency for himself and for them,--'_If_ our earthly\nhouse of this tabernacle were dissolved,' and so on. Therefore we\nmust suppose that 'the self-same thing' of which he is thinking as\nthe divine purpose in all His dealings with us, is not the manner in\nwhich we may attain that ultimate condition, but the condition itself\nwhich, by one road or another, God's children shall attain. Or, in\nother words, the highest aim of the divine love in all its dealings\nwith us Christian men, is not merely a blessed spiritual life, but\nthe completion of our humanity in a perfect spirit dwelling in a\nglorified body. Corporeity--the dwelling in a body by which the pure\nspirit moves amidst pure universes--is the highest end of God's will\nconcerning us.\n\nThat glorified body is described in our context in wonderful words,\nwhich it would take me far too long to do more than just touch upon.\nHere we dwell in a tent, there we shall dwell in a building. Here in\na house made with hands, a corporeal frame derived from parents by\nmaterial transmission and intervention; there we shall dwell in a\nbuilding of which God is the maker. Here we dwell in a crumbling clay\ntenement, which rains dissolve, which lightning strikes, and winds\noverthrow, and which finally lies on the ground a heap of tumbled\nruin. There we dwell in a building, God's direct work, eternal, and\nknowing no corruption nor change. Here we dwell in a body congruous\nwith, and part of, the perishable earthly world in which it abides,\nand with which it stands in relation; there we dwell in a house\npartaking of the nature of the heavens in which it moves, a body that\nis the fit organ of a perfect spirit.\n\nAnd so, says Paul, the end of what God means with us is not stated in\nall its wonderfulness, when we speak of spirits imbued with His\nwisdom and surcharged with His light and perfectness, but when we add\nto that the thought of a fitting organ in which these spirits dwell,\nwhereby they can come into contact with an external universe,\nincorruptible, and so reach the summit of their destined\ncompleteness. 'The house not made with hands,' eternal, the building\nof God in the Heavens, is the end that God has in view for all His\nchildren.\n\nII. So, then, secondly, note the slow process of the Divine Workman.\n\nThe Apostle employs here a very emphatic compound term for 'hath\nwrought.' It conveys not only the idea of operation, but the idea of\ncontinuous and somewhat toilsome and effortful work, as if against\nthe resistance of something that did not yield itself naturally to\nthe impulse that He would bestow. Like some sculptor with a hard bit\nof marble, or some metallurgist who has to work the rough ore till it\nbecomes tractable, so the loving, patient, Divine Artificer is here\nrepresented as labouring long and earnestly with a somewhat obstinate\nmaterial which can and does resist His loving touch, and yet going on\nwith imperturbable and patient hope, by manifold touches, here a\nlittle and there a little, all through life preparing a man for His\npurpose. The great Artificer toils at His task, 'rising early' and\nworking long, and not discouraged when He comes upon a black vein in\nthe white marble, nor when the hard stone turns the edge of His\nchisels.\n\nNow I would have you notice that there lies in this conception a very\nimportant thought, viz. God cannot make you fit for heaven all at a\njump, or by a simple act of will. That is not His way of working. He\ncan make a world so, He cannot make a saint so. He can speak and it\nis done when it is only a universe that has to be brought into being;\nor He can say, 'Let there be light,' and light springs at His word.\nBut He cannot say, and He does not say, Let there be holiness, and it\ncomes. Not so can God make man meet for the 'inheritance of the\nsaints in light.' And it takes Him all His energies, for all a\nlifetime, to prepare His child for what He wants to make of him.\n\nThere is another thought here, which I can only touch, and that is\nthat God cannot give a man that glorified body of which I have been\nspeaking, unless the man's spirit is Christlike. He cannot raise a\nbad man at the resurrection with the body of His glory. By the\nnecessities of the case it is confined to the purified, because it\ncorresponds to their inward spiritual being. It is only a perfect\nspirit that can dwell in a perfect body. You could not put a bad man,\nGodless and Christless, into the body which will be fit for them whom\nChrist has changed first of all in heart and spirit into His own\nlikeness. He would be like those hermit crabs that you see on the\nbeach who run into any kind of a shell, whether it fits them or not,\nin order to get a house.\n\nThere are two principles at work in the resurrection of the dead. The\nglorified body is not the physical outcome of the material body here,\nbut is the issue and manifestation, in visible form, of the perfect\nand Christlike spirit. Some shall rise to glory and immortality, some\nto shame and everlasting contempt. If we are to stand at the last\nwith the body of our humiliation changed into a body of glory, we\nmust begin by being changed in the spirit of our mind. As the mind\nis, so will the body be one day. But, passing from such thoughts as\nthese, and remembering that the Apostle here is speaking only about\nChristian people, and the divine operations upon them, we may still\nextend the meaning of this significant word 'wrought' somewhat\nfurther, and ask you just to consider, and that very briefly, the\nthree-fold processes which, in the divine working, terminate in, and\ncontemplate, this great issue.\n\nGod has wrought us for it in the very act of making us what we are.\nHuman nature is an insoluble enigma, if this world is its only field.\nAmidst all the waste, the mysterious waste, of creation, there is no\nmore profligate expenditure of powers than that which is involved in\ngiving a man such faculties and capacities, if this be the only field\non which they are to be exercised. If you think of what most of us do\nin this world, and of what it is in us to be, and to do, it is almost\nludicrous to consider the disproportion. All other creatures fit\ntheir circumstances; nothing in them is bigger than their\nenvironment. They find in life a field for every power. You and I do\nnot. 'The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have\nroosting-places.' They all correspond to their circumstances, but we\nhave an infinitude of faculty lying half dormant in each of us, which\nfinds no work at all in this present world. And so, looking at men as\nthey are with eternity in their hearts, with natures that go reaching\nout towards infinity, the question comes up: 'Wherefore hast Thou\nmade all men in vain? What is the use of us, and why should we be\nwhat we are, if there is nothing for us except this poor present?'\nGod, or whoever made us, has made a mistake; and strangely enough, if\nwe were not made, but evolved, evolution has worked out faculties\nwhich have no correspondence with the things around them.\n\nLife and man are an insoluble enigma except on one hypothesis, and\nthat is that this is a nursery-ground, and that the plants will be\npricked out some day, and planted where they are meant to grow. The\nhearts that feel after absolute and perfect love, the spirits\nthat can conceive the idea of an infinite goodness, the dumb desires,\nthe blank misgivings that wander homeless amidst the narrowness of\nthis poor earth, all these things proclaim that there is a region\nwhere they will find their nutriment and expatiate, and when we look\nat a man we can only say, He that hath wrought him for an infinite\nworld, and an endless communion with a perfect good, is God.\n\nStill further, another field of the divine operation to this end is\nin what we roughly call 'providences.' What is the meaning of all\nthis discipline through which we are passed, if there is nothing to\nbe disciplined for? What is the good of an apprenticeship if there is\nno journeyman's life to come after it, where the powers that have\nbeen slowly acquired shall be nobly exercised upon broader fields?\nWhy should men be taken, as it were, and, like the rough iron from\nthe ground,\n\n  'Be heated hot with hopes and fears,\n  And plunged in baths of hissing tears,\n  And battered with the shocks of doom,'\n\nif, after all the process, the polished shaft is to be broken in two,\nand tossed away as rubbish? If death ends faculty, it is a pity that\nthe faculty was so patiently developed. If God is educating us all in\nHis school, and then means that, like some wastrel boys, we should\nlose all our education as soon as we leave its benches, there is\nlittle use in the rod, and little meaning in the training. Brethren!\nlife is an insoluble riddle unless the purpose of it lie yonder, and\nunless all this patient training of our sorrows and our gladnesses,\nthe warmth that expands and the cold that contracts the heart, the\nlight that gladdens and the darkness that saddens the eye and the\nspirit, are equally meant for training us for the perfect life of a\nperfect soul moving a perfect body in a perfect universe. Here is a\npillar in some ancient hall that has fallen into poor hands, and has\nhad a low roof thrown across the centre of the chamber at half its\nheight. In the lower half there is part of a pillar that means\nnothing; ugly, bare, evidently climbing, and passing through the\naperture, and away above yonder is the carved capital and the great\nentablature that it carries. Who could understand the shaft unless he\ncould look up through the aperture, and see the summit? And who can\nthink of life as anything but a wretched fragment unless he knows\nthat all which begins here runs upwards into the room above, and\nthere finds its explanation and its completion?\n\nBut there is the third sphere of the divine operation. As in creation\nand in providence, so in all the work and mystery of our redemption,\nthis is the goal that God has in view. It was not worth Christ's\nwhile to come and die, if nothing more was to come of it than the\nimperfect reception of His blessings and gifts which the noblest\nChristian life in this world presents. The meaning and purpose of the\nCross, the meaning and purpose of all the patient dealings of His\nwhispering Spirit, are that we shall be like our Divine Lord in\nspirit first, and in body afterwards.\n\nAnd everything about the experiences of a true Christian spirit is\ncharged with a prophecy of immortality. I have not time to dwell upon\none point gathered from the context, that I intended to have insisted\nupon, viz. that the very desires which God's good Spirit works in a\nbelieving soul are themselves confirmations of their own fulfilment.\nBut if you notice at your leisure the verses that precede my text,\nyou will find that the Apostle adduces the groanings of 'earnest\ndesire to be clothed with our house which is from Heaven,' as a proof\nthat we _have_ 'a building of God, a house not made with hands.'\nThat is to say, every longing in a Christian heart when it is most\nfilled with that Spirit, and most in contact with God, and which is\nthe answer of that heart to a promise of Christ--every such longing\ncarries with it the assurance of its own fulfilment. He that hath\nwrought it has wrought it in order that the desire may fit us for its\nanswer, and that the open mouth may be ready for the abundant filling\nwhich His grace designs. He works upon us, therefore, by making us\ndesire a gift, and then He gives that which He desires. So let us\ncherish these longings, not for the accident of escaping death, nor\nas choosing the path by which we shall reach the blessed issue, but\nlonging for that great issue itself; and try to keep more distinct\nand clear before all our minds this thought, 'God means for me the\nparticipation in Christ's glorified Manhood, and my attaining of that\nManhood is the end that He has in view in all that He does with me.'\n\nIII. So I must say one word about the last thought that is here, and\nthat is the certainty and the confidence. 'Therefore we are always\nconfident,' says the Apostle.\n\n'He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God.' Then we may\nbe sure that as far as He is concerned, the work will not be\nsuspended nor vain. _This_ man does not begin to build and is\nunable to finish. This workman has infinite resources, an unchanging\npurpose, and infinite long-suffering. He will complete His task.\n\nIn the quarries of Egypt you will find gigantic stones, half-dressed,\nand intended to have been transported to some great temple. But there\nthey lie, the work incomplete, and they never carried to their place.\nThere are no half-polished stones in God's quarries. They are all\nfinished where they lie, and then borne across the sea, like Hiram's\nfrom Lebanon, to the Temple on the hill. It is a certainty that God\nwill finish His work; and since 'He that hath wrought us is God,' we\nmay be sure that He will not stop till He has done.\n\nBut it is a certainty that you can thwart. It is an operation that\nyou can counterwork. The potter in Jeremiah's parable was making a\nvessel upon his wheel, and the vessel was marred in his hand, and did\nnot turn out what he wanted it. The meaning of the metaphor, which\nhas often been twisted to express the very opposite, is that the\npotter's work may fail, that the artificer may be balked, that you\ncan counterwork the divine dealing, and that all His purpose in your\ncreation, in His providence and in His gift of His Son for your\nredemption, may come to nought as far as you are concerned. 'I\nbeseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.' 'In vain\nhave I smitten your children,' wailed the Divine Love; 'they have\nreceived no correction.' In vain God lavishes upon some of us His\nmercies, in vain for some of us has Christ toiled and suffered and\ndied. Oh, brother! do not let all God's work on you come to nought,\nbut yield yourselves to it. Rejoice in the confidence that He is\nmoulding your character, cheerfully welcome and accept the\nprovidences, painful as they may be, by which He prepares you for\nheaven. The chisel is sharp that strikes off the superfluous pieces\nof marble, and when the chisel cuts, not into marble, but into a\nheart, there is a pang. Bear it, bear it! and understand the meaning\nof the blow of the sculptor's mallet, and see in all life the divine\nhand working towards the accomplishment of His own loving purpose.\nThen if we turn to Him, amid the pains of His discipline and the joys\nof His gifts of grace, with recognition and acceptance of His meaning\nin them all, and cry to Him, 'Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever,\nforsake not the work of Thine own hands,' we may be always confident,\nas knowing that 'the Lord will perfect that which concerneth us.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE OLD HOUSE AND THE NEW\n\n   'We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent\n   from the body, and to be present with the Lord.'--2 COR. v. 8.\n\n\nThere lie in the words of my text simply these two things; the\nChristian view of what death is, and the Christian temper in which to\nanticipate it.\n\nI. First, the Christian view of what death is.\n\nNow it is to be observed that, properly speaking, the Apostle is not\nhere referring to the state of the dead, but to the act of dying. The\nlanguage would more literally and accurately be rendered 'willing to\n_go from_ home, from the body, and to _go_ home, to the Lord.' The\nmoment of transition of course leads to a permanent state, but it is\nthe moment of transition which is in view in the words. I need not\nremind you, I suppose, that the metaphor of the home is one which has\nalready been dwelt upon in the early part of the chapter, where the\ncontrast is drawn between the transitory house of 'this tent,' and\nthe 'building of God,' the body of incorruption and glory which the\nsaints at the Resurrection day shall receive. So, then, the Christian\nview of the act of death is that it is simply a change of abode.\n\nVery clearly and firmly does Paul draw the line between the man and\nhis dwelling-place. Life is more than a result of organisation.\nConsciousness, thought, feeling, are more than functions of matter.\nNo materialist philosopher has ever been, or ever will be, able to\nexplain within the limits of his system the strange difference\nbetween the cause and the effect; how it comes to pass that at the\none end of the chain there is an impression upon a nerve, and at the\nother there is pain; how at the one end there is the throb of an inch\nof matter in a man's skull, and at the other end there are thoughts\nthat breathe and words that burn, and that live for ever. That brings\nus up to the edge of a gulf over which no materialist philosopher has\never been able to cast a bridge. The scalpel cannot cut deep enough\nto solve this mystery. Conscience as well as instinct cry out against\nthe theory that the worker and the tools are inseparable. For such a\ntheory reduces human actions to mechanical results, and shatters all\nresponsibility. Man is more than his dwelling-place. You crush a\nshell on the beach with your heel, and you slay its tiny inhabitant.\nBut you can pull down the tent, and pluck up its pegs, and roll up\nits canvas, and put it away in a dark corner, and the tenant is\nuntouched. The foolish senses crown Death as last, and lord of all.\nBut wisdom says, 'Life and thought have gone away side by side,\nleaving doors and windows wide,' and that is all that has happened.\n\nStill further, my text suggests that to the Christian soul the\ndeparture from the one house is the entrance into the other. The home\nhas been the body; the home is now to be Jesus Christ. And very\nbeautiful and significant with meanings, which only experience will\nfully unfold, is the representation that the Lord Christ Himself\nassumes the place which the bodily environment has hitherto held.\n\nThat teaches us, at all events, that there is a new depth and\ncloseness of union with Jesus waiting the Christian soul, when it\nlays aside the separating film of flesh. Here the bodily\norganisation, with its limitations, necessarily shuts us off from the\ncloseness of intercourse which is possible for a naked soul. We know\nnot how much separation may depend upon the immersing of the spirit\nin the fleshly tabernacle, but this we know, that, though here and\nnow, by faith which dominates sense, souls can live in Christ even\nwhilst they live in the body; yet there shall come a form of union so\nmuch more close, intimate, all-pervading, and all-encircling, as that\nthe present union with Him by faith, precious as it is, shall be, as\nthe Apostle calls it in our context, 'absence from the Lord.' 'We\nhave to be discharged,' says an old thinker, 'of a great deal of what\nwe call body, and then we shall be more truly ourselves,' and more\ntruly united to Him who, if we are Christian people at all, is the\nself of ourselves and the life of our lives. No man knows how close\nhe can nestle to the bosom of Christ when the film of flesh is rent\naway. Just as when in some crowded street of a great city some grimy\nbuilding is pulled down, a sudden daylight fills the vacant space,\nand all the site that had been shut out from the sky for many years\nis drenched in sunshine, so when 'the earthly house of this\ntabernacle' is ruinated and falls, the light will flood the place\nwhere it stood, and to be 'absent from the body' shall be to be\n'present with the Lord.'\n\nMay we go a step further and suggest that, perhaps, in the bold\nmetaphor of my text, there is an answer to the questions which so\noften rack loving and parted hearts? 'Do the dead know aught of what\naffects us here? and can they do aught but gaze on Him, and love, and\nrest?' If it be that there is any such analogy as seems to be dimly\nshadowed in my text, between the relation of the body on earth to the\nspirit that inhabits it, and that of Jesus Christ to him who dwells\nin Him, and is clothed by Him, then it may be that, as the flesh, so\nthe Christ transmits to the spirit that has Him for its home\nimpressions from the outside world, and affords a means of action\nupon that world. Christ may be, if I might so say, the sensorium of\nthe disembodied spirit; and Christ may be the hand of the man who\nhath no other instrument by which to express himself. But all that is\nfancy perhaps, speculation certainly; and yet there seems to be a\nshadow of a foundation for at least entertaining the possibility of\nsuch a thought as that Jesus is the means of knowing and the means of\nacting to those who rest from their labours in Him, and dwell in\npeace in His arms. But be that as it may, the reality of a close\ncommunion and encircling by the felt presence of Jesus Christ, which,\nin its blessed closeness, will make the closest communion here seem\nto be obscure, is certainly declared in the words before us.\n\nThen this transition is regarded in my text as being the work of a\nmoment. It is not a long journey of which the beginning is 'to go\n_from_ home, from the body,' and the end is 'to _go_ home, to the\nLord.' But it is one and the same motion which, looked at from the\none side, is departure, and looked at from the other is arrival. The\nold saying has it, 'there is but a step between me and death.' The\ntruth is, there is but a step between me and _life_. The mighty angel\nin the Apocalypse, that stood with one foot on the firm land and the\nother on the boundless ocean, is but the type of the spirit in the\nbrief moment of transition, when the consciousness of two worlds\nblends, and it is clothed upon with the house which is from heaven,\nin the very act of stripping off the earthly house of this\ntabernacle.\n\nNor need I remind you, I suppose, in more than a sentence, that this\ntransition obviously leads into a state of conscious communion with\nJesus Christ. The dreary figment of an unconscious interval for the\ndisembodied spirit has no foundation, either in what we know of\nspirit, or in what is revealed to us in Scripture. For the one thing\nthat seems to make it probable--the use of that metaphor of 'sleeping\nin Jesus'--is quite sufficiently accounted for by the notions of\nrepose, and cessation of outward activity, and withdrawal of capacity\nof being influenced by the so-called realities of this lower world,\nwithout dragging in the unfounded notion of unconsciousness. My text\nis incompatible with it, for it is absurd to say of an unconscious\nspirit, clear of a bodily environment, that it is anywhere; and there\nis no intelligible sense in which the condition of such a spirit can\nbe called being 'with the Lord.'\n\nSo, then, I think a momentary transition, with uninterrupted\nconsciousness, which leads to a far deeper and more wonderful and\nblessed sense of unity with Jesus Christ than is possible here on\nearth, is the true shape in which the act of death presents itself to\nthe Christian thinker.\n\nAnd remember, dear brethren, that is all we know. Nothing else is\ncertain--nothing but this, 'with the Lord,' and the resulting\ncertainty that therefore it is well with them. It is enough for our\nfaith, for our comfort, for our patient waiting. They live in Christ,\n'and there we find them worthier to be loved,' and certainly lapped\nin a deeper rest. 'Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.'\n\nII. In the next place, note the Christian temper in which to\nanticipate the transition.\n\n'We are always courageous, and willing rather to leave our home in\nthe body, and to go home to the Lord.' Now I must briefly remind you\nof how the Apostle comes to this state of feeling. He has been\nspeaking about the natural shrinking, which belongs to all humanity,\nfrom the act of dissolution, considered as being the stripping off of\nthe garment of the flesh. And he has declared, on behalf of himself\nand the early Christian Church, his own and their personal desire\nthat they might escape from that trial by the path which seemed\npossible to the early Christians--viz. that of surviving until the\nreturn of Jesus Christ from Heaven, when they would be 'clothed upon\nwith the house which is from Heaven,' without the necessity of\nstripping off that with which at present they are invested. Then he\nsays--and this is a very remarkable thought--that just because this\ninstinctive shrinking from death and yearning for the glorified body\nis so strong in the Christian heart, that is a sign that there is\nsuch a glorified body waiting for us. He says, 'we know that if our\nhouse ... were dissolved, we have a building of God.' And his reason\nfor knowing it is this, '_for_ in this we groan.' That is a bold\nposition to say that a yearning in the Christian consciousness\nprophesies its own fulfilment. Our desires are the prophecies of His\ngifts. Then, on this certainty--which he deduces from the fact of the\nlonging for it--on this certainty of the glorious, ultimate body of\nthe Resurrection he bases his willingness expressed in the text, to\ngo through the unwelcome process of leaving the old house, although\nhe shrinks from it.\n\nSo, then, Christian faith does not destroy the natural reluctance to\nput aside the old companion of our lives. The old house, though it be\nsmoky, dimly lighted, and, by our own careless keeping, sluttish and\ngrimy in many a corner, yet is the only house we have ever known, and\nto be absent from it is untried and strange. There is nothing wrong\nin saying 'we would not be unclothed but clothed upon.' Nature speaks\nthere. We may reverently entertain the same feelings which our\nPattern acknowledged, when He said, 'I have a baptism to be baptized\nwith, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished.' And there\nwould be nothing sinful in repeating His prayer with His conditions,\n'If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.'\n\nBut then the text suggests to us the large Christian possessions and\nhope which counterwork this reluctance, in the measure in which we\nlive lives of faith. There is the assurance of that ultimate home in\nwhich all the transiency of the present material organisation is\nexchanged for the enduring permanence which knows no corruption. The\n'tent' is swept away to make room for the 'building.' The earthly\nhouse is dissolved in order that there may be reared round the\nhomeless tenant the house eternal, 'not made with hands,' God's own\nwork, which is waiting in the heavens; because the power that shall\nframe it is there. Not only that great hope of the 'body of His\nglory,' with which at the last all true souls shall be invested, but\nfurthermore, 'the earnest of the spirit,' and the blessed experiences\ntherefrom, resulting even here, ought to make the unwelcome necessity\nless unwelcome. If the firstfruits be righteousness and peace and joy\nof the Holy Ghost, what shall the harvest be? If the 'earnest,' the\nshilling given in advance, be so precious, what will the whole wealth\nof the inheritance which it heralds be when it is received?\n\nFor such reasons the transitory passage becomes less painful and\nunwelcome. Who is there that would hesitate to dip his foot into the\nice-cold brook if he knew that it would not reach above his ankles,\nand that a step would land him in blessedness unimagined till\nexperienced?\n\nTherefore the Christian temper is that of quiet willingness and\nconstant courage. There is nothing hysterical here, nothing morbid,\nnothing overstrained, nothing artificial. The Apostle says: 'I would\nrather not. I should like if I could escape it. It is an unwelcome\nnecessity; but when I see what I do see beyond,' I am ready. Since so\nit must be, I will go, not reluctantly, nor dragged away from life,\nnor clinging desperately to it as it slips from my hands, nor\ndreading anything that may happen beyond; but always courageous, and\nprepared to go whithersoever the path may take me, since I am sure\nthat it ends in His bosom. He is willing to go from the home of the\nbody, because to do that is to go home to Christ.\n\nThere are other references of our Apostle's, substantially of the\nsame tone as that of my text, but with very beautiful and encouraging\ndifferences. When he was nearer his end, when it seemed to him as if\nthe headsman's block was not very far off, his _willingness_ had\nintensified into 'having a _desire_ to depart and to be with\nChrist, which is far better.' And when the end was all but reached,\nand he knew that death was waiting just round the next turn in the\nroad, he said, with the confidence that in the midst of the struggle\nwould have been vainglory, but at the end of it was a foretaste of\nthe calm of Heaven, 'I have finished my course, I have kept the\nfaith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.'\nThat is our model, dear brethren,--'always courageous,' afraid of\nnothing in life, in death, or beyond, and therefore willing to go\nfrom home from the body and to go home to the Lord.\n\nThink of this man thus fronting the inevitable, with no excitement\nand with no delusions. Remember what Paul believed about death, about\nsin, about his own sin, about judgment, about hell. And then think of\nhow to him death had made its darkness beautiful with the light of\nChrist's face, and all the terror was gone out of it. Do you think so\nabout death? Do you shrink from it? Why? Why do you not take Paul's\ncure for the shrinking? If you can say, 'To me to live is Christ,'\nyou will have no difficulty in saying, 'and to die is gain.' That is\nthe only way by which you can come to such a temper, and then you\nwill be willing to move from the cottage to the palace, and to wait\nin peace till you are shifted again into 'the building of God, the\nhouse not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.'\n\n\n\n\nPLEASING CHRIST\n\n   'We labour that whether present or absent we may be\n   accepted of Him.'--2 COR. v. 2.\n\n\nWe do not usually care very much for, or very much trust, a man's own\nstatement of the motives of his life, especially if in the statement\nhe takes credit for lofty and noble ones. And it would be rather a\ndangerous experiment for the ordinary run of so-called Christian\npeople to stand up and say what Paul says here, that the supreme\ndesign and aim towards which all their lives are directed is to\nplease Jesus Christ. In his case the tree was known by its fruits.\nCertainly there never was a life of more noble self-abnegation, of\nmore continuous heroism, of loftier aspiration and lowlier service\nthan the life of which we see the very pulse in these words.\n\nBut Paul is not only professing his own faith, he is speaking in the\nname of all his brethren. 'We,' ought to include every man and woman\nwho calls himself or herself a Christian. It is this setting of the\nwill of Jesus Christ high up above all other commandments, and\nproposing to one's self as the aim that swallows up all other aims,\nthat I may please Him--it is this, and not creeds, forms, opinions,\nprofessions, or even a faith that simply trusts in Him for salvation,\nthat makes a true Christian. You are a Christian in the precise\nmeasure in which Christ's will is uppermost and exclusive in your\nlife, and for all your professions and your orthodoxy and your\nworship and your faith, not one hair's-breadth further. Here is the\nsignature and the common characteristic of all real Christians, 'We\nlabour that whether present or absent we may be well-pleasing to\nHim.'\n\nSo then in looking together at these words now, I take three points,\nthe supreme aim of the Christian life; the concentration of effort\nwhich that aim demands; and the insignificance to which it reduces\nall external things.\n\nI. First, then, let me deal with that supreme aim of the Christian\nlife.\n\nThe word which is, correctly enough, rendered 'accepted,' may more\nliterally, and perhaps with a closer correspondence to the Apostle's\nmeaning, be translated 'well-pleasing,' and the aim is this, not\nmerely that we may be accepted, but that we may bring a smile into\nHis face, and some joy and complacent delight in us into His heart,\nwhen He looks upon our doings. That pleasure of Jesus Christ in them\nthat 'fear Him, and in them that hope in His mercy' and do His will\nis a present emotion that fills His heart in looking upon His\nfollowers, and it will be especially declared in the solemn, final\njudgment. We must keep in view both of these periods, if we would\nrightly understand the sweep of the aim which ought to be uppermost\nin all Christian people. Here and now in our present acts, we should\nso live as to occasion a present sentiment of complacent delight in\nus, in the heart of the Christ who sees us here and now and always.\nWe should so live as that at that far-off future day when we shall\n'all be manifested before the Judgment-seat of Christ,' the Judge may\nbend from His tribunal, and welcome us into His presence with a word\nof congratulation and an outstretched hand of loving reception. Set\nthat two-fold aim before you, Christian men and women, else you will\nfail to experience the full stimulus of this thought.\n\nNow such an aim as this implies a very wonderful conception of Jesus\nChrist's present relations to us. It is a truth that we may minister\nto His joy. It is a truth that just as really as you mothers are glad\nwhen you hear from a far-off land that your boy is doing well, and\ngetting on, so Jesus Christ's heart fills with gladness when He sees\nyou and me walking in the paths in which He would have us go. We\noften think about our dear dead that they cannot know of us and\nour doings here, because the sorrow that would sometimes come from\nthe contemplation of our evil, or of our misfortunes, would trouble\nthem in their serene rest. We know not how that may be, but this at\nleast we do know, that the Man Jesus Christ, who, like those dear\nones, 'was dead, and is alive for evermore,' in His human nature has\nknowledge of all His children's failures, as well as successes, and\nis affected with some shadow of regret, or with some reality of\ndelight, according as they follow or stray from the paths in which He\nwould have them walk. If it be so with Him it may be so with them;\nand though it be not so with them it must be so with Him. So this\nstrange, sweet, tender, and powerful thought is a piece of plain\nprose, that Christ is glad when you and I are good.\n\nDoes it need any word to emphasise the force of that motive to a\nChristian heart that loves the Master? Surely this is the great and\nblessed peculiarity of all the morality of Christianity that it has\nall a personal bearing and aspect, and that just as the sum of all\nour duty is gathered up in the one command, 'Imitate Christ,' so the\nmotive for all our duty lies in 'If you love Me, keep My\ncommandments,' and the reward which ought to stimulate more than\nanything besides is the one thought, not, of what I shall get because\nI am good, but of what I shall give Him by my obedience, a joy in the\nheart that was stabbed through and through by sorrow for my sake.\nThat we may please Him 'who pleased not Himself,' is surely the\ngrandest motive on which the pursuit of holiness, and the imitation\nof Jesus Christ can ever be made to rest. Oh! how different, and how\nmuch more blessed such a motive and aim is than all the lower reasons\nfor which men are sometimes exhorted and encouraged to be good! What\na difference it is when we say, 'Do that thing because it is right,'\nand when we say, 'Do that thing because you will be happier if you\ndo,' or when we say, 'Do it because He would like you to do it.' The\none is all cold and abstract. To stand before a man and simply say:\n'Now go and do your duty,' is a poor way of setting his feet upon a\nrock and establishing his goings. Duty is not a word that stirs men's\nhearts, however it may awe their consciences. It rises up before us\nlike some goddess statuesque and serene, with purity, indeed, in her\ndeep and solemn eyes, but with nothing appealing to our affections in\nher stern lineaments. But when the thought of 'You ought' melts into\n'For my sake,' and through the dissolving face of the cold marble\ngoddess there shine the beloved lineaments of Him who 'wears the\nGodhead's most benignant grace,' the smile upon His face becomes a\nmotive that touches all hearts. Transmute obligation into gratitude,\nand in front of duty and appeals to self put Christ, and all the\nharshness and difficulty and burden and self-sacrifice of obedience\nbecomes easy and a joy.\n\nThen let me remind you that this one supreme aim of pleasing Jesus\nChrist can be carried on through all life in every varying form,\ngreat or small. A blessed unity is given to our whole being when the\nlittle things and the big things, the easy things and the hard\nthings, deeds which are conspicuous and deeds which no eye sees, are\nall brought under the influence of the one motive and made co-operant\nto the one end. Drive that one steadfast aim through your lives like\na bar of iron, and it will give the lives strength and\nconsistency--not rigidity, because they may still be flexible.\nNothing will be too small to be consecrated by that motive; nothing\ntoo great to own its power. You can please Him everywhere and always.\nThe only thing that is inconsistent with pleasing Him is the thing\nwhich, alas! we do at all times and should do at no time, and that is\nto sin against Him. If we bear with us this as a conscious motive in\nevery part of our day's work it will give us a quick discernment as\nto what is evil, which I believe nothing else will so surely give. If\nyou desire life to be noble, uniform, dignified, great in its\nminutest acts and solemn in its very trifles, and if you would have\nsome continual test and standard by which you can detect all\nspurious, apparent virtues, and discover lurking and masked\ntemptations, carry this one aim clear and high above all else, and\nmake it the purpose of the whole life, to be well-pleasing unto Him.\n\nII. Now, in the next place, notice the concentrated effort which this\naim requires.\n\nThe word rendered in my text 'labour' is a peculiar one, very seldom\nemployed in Scripture. It means, in its most literal signification,\nto be fond of honour, or to be actuated by a love of honour; and\nhence it comes, by a very natural transition, to mean to strive to\ngain something for the sake of the honour connected with it. That is\nto say, it not only expresses the notion of diligent, strenuous\neffort, but it reveals the reason for that diligence and\nstrenuousness in what I may call (for the word might almost be so\nrendered) the _ambition_ of being honoured by pleasing Christ.\nSo that the 'labour' of my text covers the whole ground, not only of\nthe act but of its motive. The concentration of effort which such an\naim requires may be enforced by one or two simple exhortations.\n\nFirst, let me say that we ought, as Christian people, to cultivate\nthis noble ambition of pleasing Jesus Christ. Men have all got the\nlove of approbation deep in them. God put it there for a good\npurpose, not that we might shape our lives so as to get others to pat\nus on the back, and say, 'Well done!' but that, in addition to the\nother solemn and sovereign motives for following the paths of\nrighteousness, we might have this highest ambition to impel us on the\nroad. And it is the duty of all Christians to see to it that they\ndiscipline themselves so as, in their own feelings, to put high above\nall the approbation or censure of their fellows the approbation or\ncensure of Jesus Christ. That will take some cultivation. It is a\ngreat deal easier to shape our courses so as to get one another's\npraise. I remember a quaint saying in a German book. 'An old\nschoolmaster tried to please this one and that one, and it failed.\n\"Well, then,\" said he, \"I will try to please Christ.\" And that\nsucceeded.'\n\nAnd let me remind you that a second part of the concentration of\neffort which this aim requires is to strive with the utmost energy in\nthe accomplishment of it. Paul did not believe that anybody could\nplease Jesus Christ without a fight for it. His notion of acceptable\nservice was service which a man suppressed much to render, and\novercame much to bring. And I urge upon you this, dear brethren, that\nwith all the mob of faces round about us which shut out Christ's\nface, and with all the temptations to follow other aims, and with the\nweaknesses of our own characters, it never was, is not, nor ever will\nbe, an easy thing, or a thing to be done without a struggle and a\ndead lift, to live so as to be well-pleasing to Him.\n\nLook at Paul's metaphors with which he sets forth the Christian\nlife--a warfare, a race, a struggle, a building up of some great\ntemple structure, and the like--all suggesting at the least the idea\nof patient, persistent, continuous toil, and most of them suggesting\nalso the idea of struggle with antagonistic forces and difficulties,\neither within or without. So we must set our shoulders to the wheel,\nput our backs into our work. Do not think that you are going to be\ncarried into the condition of conformity with Jesus Christ in a\ndream, or that the road to heaven is a primrose path, to be trodden\nin silver slippers. 'I will not offer unto the Lord that which doth\ncost me nothing,' and if you do, it will be worth exactly what it\ncosts. There must be concentration of effort if we are to be\nwell-pleasing to Him.\n\nBut then do not forget, on the other hand, that deeper than all\neffort, and the very spring and life of it, there must be the opening\nof our hearts for the entrance of His life and spirit, by the\npresence of which only are we well-pleasing to Christ. That which\npleases Him in you and me is our likeness to Him. According to the\nold Puritan illustration, the refiner sat by the furnace until he\ncould see in the molten metal his own face mirrored, and then he knew\nit was pure. So what pleases Christ in us is the reflection of\nHimself. And how can we get that likeness to Himself except by\nreceiving into our hearts the Spirit that was in Christ Jesus, and\nwill dwell in us, and will produce in us in our measure the same\nimage that it formed in Him? 'Work _out_ your own salvation,'\nbecause 'it is God that worketh _in_ you.' Labour, concentrate\neffort, and above all open the heart to the entrance of that\ntransforming power.\n\nIII. Lastly, let me suggest the utter insignificance to which this\naim reduces all externals.\n\n'We labour,' says Paul, 'that whether present or absent, we may be\naccepted.' What differences of condition are covered by that\nparenthetical phrase--'present or absent!' He talks about it as if it\nwas a very small matter, does he not? And what is included in it?\nWhether a man shall be in the body or out of it; that is to say,\nwhether he be alive or dead. Here is an aim then, so great, so lofty,\nso all-comprehensive that it reduces the difference between living in\nthe world and being out of it, to a trifle. And if we stand so high\nup that these two varieties of condition dwindle into insignificance\nand seem to have melted into one, do you think that there is anything\nelse that will be very big? If the difference between life and death\nis dwindled and dwarfed, what else do you suppose will remain?\nNothing, I should think.\n\nSo if we only, by God's help, which will be given to us if we want\nit, keep this clear before us as the motive of all our life, then all\nthe possible alternatives of human condition and circumstance will\nsink into insignificance, and from that lofty summit will 'show\nscarce so gross as beetles' in the air beneath our lofty station.\n\nWhether we be rich or poor, solitary or beset by friends, happy or\nsad, hopeful or despairing, young or old, wearied or buoyant, learned\nor foolish, it matters not. The one aim lifts itself before us, and\nthey in whose eyes shine the light of that great issue are careless\nof the road along which they pass. Do you enlist yourselves in the\ncompany that fires at the long range, and all those that take aim at\nthe shorter ones will seem to be very pitifully limiting their\npowers.\n\nThen remember that this same aim, and this same result may be equally\npursued and attained whether here or yonder. It is something to have\na course of life which runs straight along, unbent aside, and not cut\nshort off, by the change from earth to Heaven. And this felicity he\nonly has who, amidst things temporal and insignificant, sees and\nseeks the eternal smile on the face of his unchanging Saviour. On\nearth, in death, through eternity, such a life will be homogeneous\nand of a piece; and when all other aims are hull down below the\nhorizon, forgotten and out of sight, then still this will be the\npurpose, and yonder it will be the accomplished purpose, of each, to\nplease the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nMy dear friend, remember that in its full meaning this aim regards\nthe future, and points onward to that great judgment-seat where you\nand I will certainly each of us give account of himself. Do you think\nthat you will please Christ then? Do you think that when that day\ndawns, a smile of welcome will come into His eyes, and a glow of\ngladness at the meeting into yours? Or have you cause to fear that\nyou will 'call on the rocks and the hills to cover you from the face\nof Him that sitteth on the Throne?'\n\nWe are all close by one another; our voices are very audible to each\nother. Do you learn, Christian people, that the first,--or at least a\nprime--condition of all Christian and Christ-pleasing life, is a\nwholesome disregard of what anybody says but Himself. The old\nLaced\u00e6monians used to stir themselves to heroism by the thought:\n'What will they say of us in Sparta?' The governor of some outlying\nEnglish colony minds very little what the people that he is set to\nrule think about him. He reports to Downing Street, and it is the\nopinion of the Home Government that influences him. You report to\nheadquarters. Never mind what anybody else thinks of you. Your\nbusiness is to please Christ, and the less you trouble yourselves\nabout pleasing men the more you will succeed in doing it. Be deaf to\nthe tittle tattle of your fellow soldiers in the ranks. It is your\nCommander's smile that will be your highest reward.\n\n  'Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,\n  But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes,\n  And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;\n  As he pronounces lastly on each deed,\n  Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE LOVE THAT CONSTRAINS\n\n   'The love of Christ constraineth us.'--2 COR. v. 14.\n\n\nIt is a dangerous thing to be unlike other people. It is still more\ndangerous to be better than other people. The world has a little heap\nof depreciatory terms which it flings, age after age, at all men who\nhave a higher standard and nobler aims than their fellows. A\nfavourite term is 'mad.' So, long ago they said, 'The prophet is a\nfool; the spiritual man is mad,' and, in His turn, Jesus was said to\nbe 'beside Himself,' and Festus shouted from the judgment-seat to\nPaul that he was mad. A great many people had said the same thing\nabout him before, as the context shows. For the verse before my text\nis: 'Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be\nsober, it is for your cause.' Now the former clause can only refer to\nother people's estimate of the Apostle. No doubt there were many\nthings about him that gave colour to it. He said that a dead Man had\nappeared to him and spoken with him. He said that he had been carried\nup into the third heaven. He had a very strange creed in the judgment\nof the times. He had abandoned a brilliant career for a very poor\none. He was obviously utterly indifferent to the ordinary aims of\nmen. He had a consuming enthusiasm. And so the world explained him\nsatisfactorily to itself by the short and easy method of saying,\n'Insane.' And Paul explained himself by the great word of my text,\n'The love of Christ constraineth us.' Wherever there is a life\nadequately under the influence of Christ's love the results will be\nsuch as an unsympathising world may call madness, but which are the\nperfection of sober-mindedness. Would there were more such madmen! I\nwish to try to make one or two of them now, by getting some of you to\ntake for your motto, 'The love of Christ constraineth us.'\n\nI. Now the first thing to notice is this constraining love.\n\nI need not spend time in showing that when Paul says here 'The love\nof Christ,' he means Christ's love to him, not his to Christ. That is\nin accordance with his continual usage of the expression; and it is\nin accordance with facts. For it is not my love to Jesus, but His\nlove to me, that brings the real moulding power into my life, and my\nlove to Him is only the condition on which the true power acts upon\nme. To get the fulcrum and the lever which will heave a life up to\nthe heights you have to get out of yourselves.\n\nNow Paul never saw Jesus Christ in this earthly life. Timothy, who is\nassociated with him in this letter, and perhaps is one of the 'us,'\nnever saw Him either. The Corinthian believers whom he is addressing\nhad, of course, never seen Him. And yet the Apostle has not the\nslightest hesitation in taking that great benediction of Christ's\nlove and spreading it over them all. That love is independent of time\nand of space; it includes humanity, and is co-extensive with it.\nUnturned away by unworthiness, unrepelled by non-responsiveness,\nundisgusted by any sin, unwearied by any, however numerous, foiling\nof its attempts, the love of Christ, like the great heavens that bend\nabove us, wraps us all in its sweetness, and showers upon us all its\nlight and its dew.\n\nAnd yet, brethren, I would have you remember that whilst we thus try\nto paint, in poor, poor words, the universality of that love, we have\nto remember that it does not partake of the weakness that infects all\nhuman affections, which are only strong when they are narrow, and as\nthe river expands it becomes shallow, and loses the force in its flow\nwhich it had when it was gathered between straiter banks, so as that\na universal charity is almost akin to a universal indifference. But\nthis love that grasps us all, this river that 'proceedeth from the\nThrone of God and of the Lamb,' flows in its widest reaches as deep\nand as impetuous in its career as if it were held within the\nnarrowest of gorges. For Christ's universal love is universal only\nbecause it is individualising and particular. We love our nation by\ngeneralising and losing sight of the individuals. Christ loves the\nworld because He loves every man and woman in it, and His grace\nenwraps all because His grace hovers over each.\n\n  'The sun whose beams most glorious are\n    Despiseth no beholder,'\n\nbut the rays come straight to each eyeball. Be sure of this: that He\nwho, when the multitude thronged Him and pressed Him, felt the\ntremulous, timid, scarcely perceptible touch of one woman's wasted\nfinger on the hem of His garment, holds each of us in the grasp of\nHis love, which is universal, because it applies to each. You and I\nhave each the whole radiance of it pouring down on our heads, and\nnone intercepts the beams from any other. So, brethren, let us each\nfeel not only the love that grasps the world, but the love that\nempties itself on me.\n\nBut there is one more remark that I wish to make in reference to this\nconstraining love of Jesus Christ, and that is, that in order to see\nand feel it we must take the point of view that this Apostle takes in\nmy text. For hearken how he goes on. 'The love of Christ constraineth\nus, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died,\nand that He died for all,' etc. That is to say, the death of Christ\nfor all, which is equivalent to the death of Christ for each, is the\ngreat solvent by which the love of God melts men's hearts, and is the\ngreat proof that Jesus Christ loves me, and thee, and all of us. If\nyou strike out that conception you have struck out from your\nChristianity the vindication of the belief that Christ loves the\nworld. What possible meaning is there in the expression, 'He died for\nall?' How can the fact of His death on a 'green hill' outside the\ngates of a little city in Syria have world-wide issues, unless in\nthat death He bore, and bore away, the sins of the whole world? I\nknow that there have been many--and there are many to-day--who not\naccepting what seems to me to be the very vital heart of\nChristianity--viz. the death of Christ for the world's sin, do yet\ncherish--as I think illogically--yet do cherish a regard for Him,\nwhich puts some of us who call ourselves 'orthodox,' and are tepid,\nto the blush. Thank God! men are often better than their creeds, as\nwell as worse than them. But that fact does not affect what I am\nsaying now, and what I beg you to take for what you find it to be\nworth, that unless we believe that Jesus Christ died for all, I do\nnot know what claim He has on the love of the world. We shall admire\nHim, we shall bow before Him, as the very realised ideal of humanity,\nthough how this one Man has managed to escape the taint of the\nall-pervading evil remains, upon that hypothesis, very obscure. But\nlove Him? No! Why should I? But if I feel that His death had\nworld-wide issues, and that He went down into the darkness in order\nthat He might bring the world into the light, then--and I am sure,\non the wide scale and in the long-run only then--will men turn to\nHim and say, 'Thou hast died for me, help me to live for Thee.'\nBrethren, I beseech you, take care of emptying the death of Christ\nof its deepest meaning, lest you should thereby rob His character of\nits chiefest charm, and His name of its mightiest soul-melting power.\nThe love that constraineth is the love that died, and died for all,\nbecause it died for each.\n\nII. Now let me ask you to consider the echo of this constraining\nlove.\n\nI said a moment or two ago that Christ's love to us is the\nconstraining power, and that ours to Him is but the condition on\nwhich that power works. But between the two there comes something\nwhich brings that constraining love to bear upon our hearts. And so\nnotice what my text goes on to adduce as needful for Christ's love to\nhave its effect--namely, 'because we thus judge,' etc. Then my\nestimate, my apprehension of the love of Christ must come in between\nits manifestation and its power to grip, to restrain, to impel me. If\nI may use such a figure, He stands, as it were, bugle in hand, and\nblows the sweet strains that are meant to set the echoes flying. But\nthe rock must receive the impact of the vibrations ere it can throw\nback the thinned echo of the music. Love must be believed and known\nere it can be responded to.\n\nNow the only answer and echo that hearts desire is the love of the\nbeloved heart. We all know that in our earthly life. Love is as much\na hunger to be loved as the outgoing of my own affection. The two\nthings are inseparable, and there is nothing that repays love but\nlove. Jesus Christ wishes each of us to love Him. If it is true that\nHe loves me, then, intertwisted with the outgoing of His heart\ntowards me is the yearning that my heart may go out towards Him. Dear\nbrethren, this is no pulpit rhetoric, it is a plain, simple fact,\ninseparable from the belief in Christ's love--that He wishes you and\nevery soul of man to love Him, and that, whatever else you bring, lip\nreverence, orthodox belief, apparent surrender, in the assay shop of\nHis great mint all these are rejected, and the only metal that passes\nthe fire is the pure gold of an answering love. Brethren! is that\nwhat you bring to Jesus Christ?\n\nLove seeks for love, and our love can only be an echo of His. He\ntakes the beginning in everything. If I am to love Him back again, I\nmust have faith in His love to me. And if that be so, then the true\nway by which you, imperfect Christian people, can deepen and\nstrengthen your love to Jesus Christ is not so much by efforts to\nwork up a certain warmth of sentiment and glow of affection, as by\ngazing, with believing eyes of the heart, upon that which kindles\nyour love to Him. If you want ice to melt, put it out into the\nsunshine, If you want the mirror to gleam, do not spend all your time\nin polishing it. Carry it where it can catch the ray, and it will\nflash it back in glory. 'We love Him because He first loved us.' Our\nlove is an echo; be sure that you listen for the parent note, and\nlink yourselves by faith with that great love which has come down\nfrom Heaven for us all.\n\nBut how can I speak about echoes and responses when I know that there\nare scores of men and women whom a preacher's words reach who would\nbe ashamed of themselves, and rightly, if they exhibited the same\ncallousness of heart and selfishness of ingratitude to some human,\npartial benefactor as they are not ashamed to have exhibited all\ntheir lives to Jesus Christ. Echo? Yes! your heartstrings are set\nvibrating fast enough whenever, in the adjoining apartment, an\ninstrument is touched which is tuned to the same key as your heart.\nPleasures, earthly aims, worldly gifts, the sweetnesses of human\nlife, all these things set them thrilling, and you can hear the\nmusic, but your hearts are not tuned to answer to the note that is\nstruck in 'He loved me and gave Himself for me.' The bugle is blown,\nand there is silence, and no echo, faint and far, comes whispering\nback. Brethren, we use no one else, in whose love we have any belief,\na thousandth part so ill as we use Jesus Christ.\n\nIII. Now, lastly, let me say a word about the constraining influence\nof this echoed love.\n\nIts first effect, if it has any real power in our hearts and lives,\nwill be to change their centre, to decentralise. Look what the\nApostle goes on to say: 'We thus judge that He ... died for all, that\nthey which live should not live henceforth unto themselves.' That is\nthe great transformation. Secure that, and all nobleness will follow,\nand 'whatsoever things are lovely and of good report' will come, like\ndoves to their windows, flocking into the soul that has ceased to\nfind its centre in its poor rebellious self. All love derives its\npower to elevate, refine, beautify, ennoble, conquer, from the fact\nthat, in lower degree, all love makes the beloved the centre, and not\nthe self. Hence the mother's self-sacrifice, hence the sweet\nreciprocity of wedded life, hence everything in humanity that is\nnoble and good. Love is the antagonist of selfishness, and the\nhighest type of love should be, and in the measure in which we are\nunder the influence of Christ's love will be, the self-surrendering\nlife of a Christian man. I know that in saying so I am condemning\nmyself and my brethren. All the same, it is true. The one power that\nrescues a man from the tyranny of living for self, which is the\nmother of all sin and ignobleness, is when a man can say 'Christ is\nmy aim,' 'Christ is my object.' 'The life that I live in the flesh I\nlive by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself\nfor me.' There is no secret of self-annihilation, which is\nself-transfiguration, and, I was going to say, deification, like that\nof loving Christ with all my heart because He has loved me so.\n\nAgain, let me remind you that, on its lower reaches and levels, we\nfind that all true affection has in it a strange power of\nassimilating its objects to one another. Just as a man and woman who\nhave lived together for half a century in wedded life come to have\nthe same notions, the same prejudices, the same tastes, and sometimes\nyou can see their very faces being moulded into likeness, so, if I\nlove Jesus Christ, I shall by degrees grow liker and liker to Him,\nand be 'changed into the same image, from glory to glory.'\n\nAgain, the love constrains, and not only constrains but impels,\nbecause it becomes a joy to divine and to do the will of the beloved\nChrist. 'My yoke is easy.' Is it? It is very hard to be a Christian.\nHis requirements are a great deal sterner than others. His yoke is\neasy, not because it is a lighter yoke, but because it is padded with\nlove. And that makes all service a sacrament, and the surrender of my\nown will, which is the essence of obedience, a joy.\n\nSo, dear friends, we come here in sight of the unique and blessed\ncharacteristic of all Christian morality, and of all its practical\nexhortations, and the Gospel stands alone as the mightiest moulding\npower in the world, just because its word is 'love, and do as thou\nwilt.' For in the measure of thy love will thy will coincide with the\nwill of Christ. There is nothing else that has anything like that\npower. We do not want to be told what is right. We know it a great\ndeal better than we practise it. A revelation from heaven that simply\ntold me my duty would be surplusage. 'If there had been a law that\ncould have given life, righteousness had been by the law.' We want a\nlife, not a law, and the love of Christ brings the life to us.\n\nAnd so, dear friends, that life, restrained and impelled by the love\nto which it is being assimilated, is a life of liberty and a life of\nblessedness. In the measure in which the love of Christ constrains\nany man, it makes for him difficulties easy, the impossible possible,\nthe crooked things straight, and the rough places plain. The duty\nbecomes a delight, and self ceases to disturb. If the love of God is\nshed abroad in a heart, and in the measure in which it is, that heart\nwill be at rest, and a great peace will brood over it. Then the will\nbows in glad submission, and all the powers arise to joyous service.\nWe are lords of the world and ourselves when we are Christ's servants\nfor love's sake; and earth and its good are never so good as when the\npower of His echoed love rules our lives. Do you know and believe\nthat Christ loves you? Do you know and believe that you had a place\nin His heart when He hung on the Cross for the salvation of the\nworld? Have you answered that love with yours, kindled by your faith\nin, and experience of, His? Is His love the overmastering impulse\nwhich urges you to all good, the mighty constraint that keeps you\nback from all evil, the magnet that draws, the anchor that steadies,\nthe fortress that defends, the light that illumines, the treasure\nthat enriches? Is it the law that commands, and the power that\nenables? Then you are blessed, though people will perhaps say that\nyou are mad, whilst here; and you will be blessed for ever and ever.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ENTREATIES OF GOD\n\n   'Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God\n   did beseech ... by us: we pray ... in Christ's stead,\n   be ye reconciled to God.'--2 COR. v. 20.\n\n\nThese are wonderful and bold words, not so much because of what they\nclaim for the servants as because of what they reveal of the Lord.\nThat thought, 'as though God did beseech,' seems to me to be the one\ndeserving of our attention now, far rather than any inferences which\nmay be drawn from the words as to the relation of preachers of the\nGospel to man and to God. I wish, therefore, to try to set forth the\nwonderfulness of this mystery of a beseeching God, and to put by the\nside of it the other wonder and mystery of men refusing the divine\nbeseechings.\n\nBefore doing so, however, I remark that the supplement which stands\nin our Authorised Version in this text is a misleading and\nunfortunate one. 'As though God did beseech _you_' and 'we pray\n_you_' unduly narrow the scope of the Apostolic message, and confuse\nthe whole course of the Apostolic reasoning here. For he has been\nspeaking of a world which is reconciled to God, and he finds a\nconsequence of that reconciliation of the world in the fact that he\nand his fellow-preachers are entrusted with the word of\nreconciliation. The scope of their message, then, can be no narrower\nthan the scope of the reconciliation; and inasmuch as that is\nworld-wide the beseeching must be co-extensive therewith, and must\ncover the whole ground of humanity. It is a universal message that\nis set forth here. The Corinthians, to whom Paul was speaking, are,\nby his hypothesis, already reconciled to God, and the message which\nhe has in trust for them is given in the subsequent words: 'We then,\nas workers together with God, beseech you also that ye receive not\nthe grace of God in vain.' But the message, the pleading of the\ndivine heart, 'be ye reconciled to God,' is a pleading that reaches\nover the whole range of a reconciled world. I take then, just these\ntwo thoughts, God beseeching man, and man refusing God.\n\nI. God beseeching man.\n\nNow notice how, in my text, there alternates, as if substantially the\nsame idea, the thoughts that Christ and that God pray men to be\nreconciled. 'We are ambassadors on _Christ's_ behalf, as though\n_God_ did beseech you by us, we pray on _Christ's_ behalf.'\nSo you see, first, Christ the Pleader, then God beseeching, then\nChrist again entreating and praying. Could any man have so spoken,\npassing instinctively from the one thought to the other, unless he\nhad believed that whatsoever things the Father doeth, these also\ndoeth the Son likewise; and that Jesus Christ is the Representative\nof the whole Deity for mankind, so as that when He pleads God pleads,\nand God pleads through Him. I do not dwell upon this, but I simply\nwish to mark it in passing as one of the innumerable strong and\nirrefragable testimonies to the familiarity and firmness with which\nthat thought of the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the full revelation\nof the Father by Him, was grasped by the Apostle, and was believed by\nthe people to whom he spoke. God pleads, therefore Christ pleads,\nChrist pleads, therefore God pleads; and these Two are One in their\nbeseechings, and the voice of the Father echoes to us in the\ntenderness of the Son.\n\nSo, then, let us think of that pleading. To sue for love, to beg that\nan enemy will put away his enmity is the part of the inferior rather\nthan of the superior; is the part of the offender rather than of the\noffended; is the part of the vanquished rather than of the victor; is\nthe part surely not of the king but of the rebel. And yet here, in\nthe sublime transcending of all human precedent and pattern which\ncharacterises the divine dealing, we have the place of the suppliant\nand of the supplicated inverted, and Love upon the Throne bends down\nto ask of the rebel that lies powerless and sullen at His feet, and\nyet is not conquered until his heart be won, though his limbs be\nmanacled, that he would put away all the bitterness out of his heart,\nand come back to the love and the grace which are ready to pour over\nhim. 'He that might the vengeance best have taken, finds out the\nremedy.' He against whom we have transgressed prays us to be\nreconciled; and the Infinite Love lowers Himself in that lowering\nwhich is, in another aspect, the climax of His exaltation, to pray\nthe rebels to accept His amnesty.\n\nOh, dear brethren! this is no mere piece of rhetoric. What facts in\nthe divine heart does it represent? What facts in the divine conduct\ndoes it represent? It represents these facts in the divine heart,\nthat there is in it an infinite longing for the creature's love, an\ninfinite desire for unity between Him and us.\n\nThere are wonderful significance and beauty in the language of my\ntext which are lost in the Authorised Version; but are preserved in\nthe Revised. 'We are ambassadors' not only '_for_ Christ,' but\n'_on Christ's behalf_.' And the same proposition is repeated in\nthe subsequent clause. 'We pray you,' not merely 'in Christ's stead,'\nthough that is much, but '_on His account_,' which is more--as\nif it lay very near His heart that we should put away our enmity; and\nas if in some transcendent and wonderful manner the all-perfect,\nself-sufficing God was made glad, and the Master, who is His image\nfor us, 'saw of the travail of His soul, and,' in regard to one man,\n'was satisfied,' when the man lets the warmth of God's love in Christ\nthaw away the coldness out of his heart, and kindle there an\nanswering flame. An old divine says, 'We cannot do God a greater\npleasure or more oblige His very heart, than to trust in Him as a God\nof love.' He is ready to stoop to any humiliation to effect that\npurpose. So intense is the divine desire to win the world to His\nlove, that He will stoop to sue for it rather than lose it. Such is\nat least part of the fact in the divine heart, which is shadowed\nforth for us by that wonderful thought of the beseeching God.\n\nAnd what facts in the divine conduct does this great word represent?\nA God that beseeches. Well, think of the tears of imploring love\nwhich fell from Christ's eyes as He looked across the valley from\nOlivet, and saw the Temple glittering in the early sunshine. Think of\n'O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! ... how often would I have gathered thy\nchildren together ... and ye would not.' And are we not to see in the\nChrist who wept in the earnestness of His desire, and in the pain of\nits disappointment, the very revelation of the Father's heart and the\nvery action of the Father's arm? 'Come unto me, all ye that labour,\nand are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' That is Christ\nbeseeching and God beseeching in Him. Need I quote other words,\ngentle, winning, loving? Do we not feel, when looking upon Christ, as\nif the secret of His whole life was the stretching out imploring and\nwelcoming hands to men, and praying them to grasp His hands, and be\nsaved? But, oh, brethren! the fact that towers above all others,\nwhich explains the whole procedure of divinity, and is the keystone\nof the whole arch of revelation; the fact which reveals in one triple\nbeam of light, God, man, and sin in the clearest illumination, is the\nCross of Jesus Christ. And if that be not the very sublime of\nentreaty; and if any voice can be conceived, human or divine, that\nshall reach men's hearts with a more piercing note of pathetic\ninvitation than sounds from that Cross, I know not where it is.\nChrist that dies, in His dying breath calls to us, and 'the blood of\nsprinkling speaketh better things than that of Abel'; inasmuch as its\nvoice is, 'Come unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.'\n\nNot only in the divine facts of the life and death of Jesus Christ,\nbut in all the appeals of that great revelation which lies before us\nin Scripture; and may I say, in the poor, broken utterances of men\nwhose harsh, thin voices try to set themselves, in some measure, to\nthe sweetness and the fulness of His beseeching tones--does\nGod call upon you to draw close to Him, and put away your enmity. And\nnot only by His Word written or ministered from human lips, but also\nby the patient providences of His love He calls and prays you to\ncome. A mother will sometimes, in foolish fondness, coax her sullen\nchild by injudicious kindness, or, in wise patience, will seek to\ndraw the little heart away from the faults that she desires not to\nnotice, by redoubled ingenuity of tenderness and of care. And so God\ndoes with us. When you and I, who deserve--oh! so different\ntreatment--get, as we do get, daily care and providential blessings\nfrom Him, is not that His saying to us, 'I beseech you to cherish no\nalienation, enmity, indifference, but to come back and live in the\nlove'? When He draws near to us in these outward gifts of His mercy,\nis He not doing Himself what He has bid us to do; and what He never\ncould have bid us to do, nor our hearts have recognised to be the\nhighest strain of human virtue to do, unless He Himself were doing it\nfirst? 'If thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him\ndrink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.'\n\nNot only by the great demonstration of His stooping and infinite\ndesire for our love which lies in the life and death of Jesus Christ,\nnor only by His outward work, nor by His providence, but by many an\ninward touch on our spirits, by many a prick of conscience, by many a\nstrange longing that has swept across our souls, sudden as some\nperfumed air in the scentless atmosphere; by many an inward voice,\ncoming we know not whence, that has spoken to us of Him, of His love,\nof our duty; by many a drawing which has brought us nearer to the\nCross of Jesus Christ, only, alas! in some cases that we might recoil\nfurther from it,--has He been beseeching, beseeching us all.\n\nBrethren! God pleads with you. He pleads with you because there is\nnothing in His heart to any of you but love, and a desire to bless\nyou; He pleads with you because, unless you will let Him, He cannot\nlavish upon you His richest gifts and His highest blessings. He\npleads with you, bowing to the level, and beneath the level, of your\nalienation and reluctance. And the sum and substance of all His\ndealings with every soul is, 'My son! give Me thy heart.' 'Be ye\nreconciled to God.'\n\nII. And now turn, very briefly, to the next suggestion arising from\nthis text, the terrible obverse, so to speak, of the coin: Man\nrefusing a beseeching God.\n\nThat is the great paradox and mystery. Nobody has ever fathomed that\nyet, and nobody will. How it comes, how it is possible, there is no\nneed for us to inquire. It is an awful and a solemn power that every\npoor little speck of humanity has, to lift itself up in God's face,\nand say, in answer to all His pleadings, 'I will not!' as if the\ndwellers in some little island, a mere pin-point of black, barren\nrock, jutting up at sea, were to declare war against a kingdom that\nstretched through twenty degrees of longitude on the mainland. So we,\non our little bit of island, our pin-point of rock in the great waste\nocean, we can separate ourselves from the great Continent; or,\nrather, God has, in a fashion, made us separate in order that we may\neither unite ourselves with Him, by our willing yielding, or wrench\nourselves away from Him by our antagonism and rebellion. God\nbeseeches because God has so settled the relations between Him and\nus, that that is what He has to do in order to get men to love Him.\nHe cannot force them. He cannot prise open a man's heart with a\ncrowbar, as it were, and force Himself inside. The door opens from\nwithin. 'Behold! I stand at the door and knock.' There is an 'if.'\n'If any man open I will come in.' Hence the beseeching, hence the\nwail of wisdom that cries aloud and no man regards it; of love that\nstands at the entering in of the city, and pleads in vain, and says,\n'I have called, and ye have refused.... How often would I have\ngathered ... and ye would not.' Oh, brethren! it is an awful\nresponsibility, a mysterious prerogative, which each one of us,\nwhether consciously or no, has to exercise, to accept or to refuse\nthe pleadings of an entreating Christ.\n\nAnd let me remind you that the act of refusal is a very simple one.\nNot to accept is to reject; not to yield is to rebel. You have only\nto do nothing, to do it all. There are dozens of people in our\nchurches and chapels listening with self-satisfied unconcern, who\nhave all their lives been refusing a beseeching God. And they do not\nknow that they ever did it! They say, 'Oh! I will be a Christian\nsometime or other.' They cherish vague ideas that, somehow or other,\nthey are so already. They have done nothing at all, they have simply\nbeen absolutely indifferent and passive. Some of you have heard\nsermons like this so often that they produce no effect. 'It is the\nright kind of thing to say. It is the thing we have heard a hundred\ntimes.' Perhaps you wonder why I should be so much in earnest about\nthe matter, and then you go outside, and discuss me or the weather,\nand forget all about the sermon. And thus, once more, you reject\nChrist. It is done without knowing it; done simply by doing nothing.\nMy brother! do not stop your ears any more against that tender,\nimploring love.\n\nThen let me remind you that this refusing the beseeching of God is\nthe climax of all folly. For consider what it is,--a man refusing his\nhighest good and choosing his certain ruin. I am afraid that people\nhave been arguing and fighting so much of late years over disputable\npoints in reference to the doctrine of future retribution that the\nindisputable fact of such retribution has lost much of its solemn\npower.\n\nI pray you, brethren, to ask yourselves one question: Is there\nanything, in the present or in the future condition of a man that is\nnot reconciled to God, which explains God's beseeching urgency? Why\nthis energy and intensity of divine desire? Why this which, if it\nwere human only, would be called _passionate_ entreaty? Why was\nit needful for Jesus Christ to die? Why was it worth His while to\nbear the punishment of man's sin? Why should God and Christ, through\nall the ages, plead with unintermittent voice? There must be some\nexplanation of it all, and here is the explanation, 'They that hate\nMe love _death_.' 'Be ye reconciled to God,' for enmity is ruin\nand destruction.\n\nAnd finally, dear friends, this turning away from Him that speaketh\nfrom Heaven, of which some of you have all your lives been guilty, is\nnot only supreme folly, but it is the climax of all guilt. For there\ncan be nothing worse, darker, arguing a nature more averse or\nindifferent to the highest good, than that God should plead, and I\nshould steel my heart and deafen mine ear against His voice. The\ncrown of a man's sin, because it is the disclosure of the secrets of\nhis deepest heart as loving darkness rather than light, is turning\naway from the divine voice that woos us to love and to God.\n\nOh! there are some of you that have heard that Voice too often to be\nmuch touched by it. There are some of you too busy to attend to it,\nwho hear it not because of the clatter of the streets and the whir of\nthe spindles. There are some of you that are seeking to drown it in\nthe shouts of mirth and revelry. There are some of you to whom it\ncomes muffled in the mists of doubt; but I beseech you all, look at\nthe Cross, _look at the Cross!_ and hear Him that hangs there\npleading with you.\n\nBefore the battle there comes out the captain of the twenty thousand\nto the King with the ten thousand, who in His loftiness is not afraid\nto stoop to sue for peace from the weaker power. My brother! the\nmoment is precious; the white flag may never be waved before your\neyes again. Do not; do not refuse! or the next instant the clarion of\nthe assault may sound, and where will you be then?\n\nIt is vain for thee to rush against the thick bosses of the Almighty\nbuckler. 'We beseech, in Christ's behalf, be ye reconciled with God.'","title":"Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":251318}