{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_21190/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_21190","id":"gutenberg_21190","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21190","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Epistles of Paul -- Commentaries","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity"],"text":"Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n_EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE_\n\nALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D.\n\n * * * * *\n\n SECOND CORINTHIANS,\n GALATIANS,\n AND PHILIPPIANS\n\n CHAPTERS I TO END\n\n COLOSSIANS, THESSALONIANS,\n AND FIRST TIMOTHY\n\n NEW YORK\n GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY\n\n\n\n\n _EXPOSITIONS OF\n HOLY SCRIPTURE_\n\n ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D.\n\n * * * * *\n\n SECOND CORINTHIANS\n\n _Chaps. VII to End_\n\n GALATIANS AND\n PHILIPPIANS\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nII. CORINTHIANS\n\nHOPE AND HOLINESS (2 Cor. vii. 1) 1\n\nSORROW ACCORDING TO GOD (2 Cor. vii. 10) 8\n\nGIVING AND ASKING (2 Cor. viii. 1-12) 20\n\nRICH YET POOR (2 Cor. viii. 9) 27\n\nWILLING AND NOT DOING (2 Cor. viii. 11) 36\n\nALL GRACE ABOUNDING (2 Cor. ix. 8) 42\n\nGOD'S UNSPEAKABLE GIFT (2 Cor. ix. 15) 50\n\nA MILITANT MESSAGE (2 Cor. x. 5 and 6, R.V.) 57\n\nSIMPLICITY TOWARDS CHRIST (2 Cor. xi. 3) 65\n\nSTRENGTH IN WEAKNESS (2 Cor. xii. 8, 9) 74\n\nNOT YOURS BUT YOU (2 Cor. xii. 14) 83\n\n\nGALATIANS\n\nFROM CENTRE TO CIRCUMFERENCE (Gal. ii. 20) 91\n\nTHE EVIL EYE AND THE CHARM (Gal. iii. 1) 100\n\nLESSONS OF EXPERIENCE (Gal. iii. 4) 109\n\nTHE UNIVERSAL PRISON (Gal. iii. 22) 116\n\nTHE SON SENT (Gal. iv. 4, 5, R.V.) 126\n\nWHAT MAKES A CHRISTIAN: CIRCUMCISION OR FAITH? (Gal. v. 6) 136\n\n'WALK IN THE SPIRIT' (Gal. v. 16) 153\n\nTHE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT (Gal. v. 22, 23) 162\n\nBURDEN-BEARING (Gal. vi. 2-5) 171\n\nDOING GOOD TO ALL (Gal. vi. 10) 180\n\nTHE OWNER'S BRAND (Gal. vi. 17) 189\n\n\nPHILIPPIANS\n\nLOVING GREETINGS (Phil. i. 1-8, R.V.) 200\n\nA COMPREHENSIVE PRAYER (Phil. i. 9-11, R.V.) 206\n\nA PRISONER'S TRIUMPH (Phil. i. 12-20, R.V.) 211\n\nA STRAIT BETWIXT TWO (Phil. i. 21-25) 219\n\nCITIZENS OF HEAVEN (Phil. i. 27, 28) 233\n\nA PLEA FOR UNITY (Phil. ii. 1-4, R.V.) 244\n\nTHE DESCENT OF THE WORD (Phil. ii. 5-8, R.V.) 253\n\nTHE ASCENT OF JESUS (Phil. ii. 9-11, R.V.) 260\n\nWORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION (Phil. ii. 12, 13) 268\n\nCOPIES OF JESUS (Phil. ii. 14-16, R.V.) 281\n\nA WILLING SACRIFICE (Phil. ii. 16-18, R.V.) 287\n\nPAUL AND TIMOTHY (Phil. ii. 19-24, R.V.) 295\n\nPAUL AND EPAPHRODITUS (Phil. ii. 25-30, R.V.) 305\n\nPREPARING TO END (Phil. iii. 1-3, R.V.) 311\n\nTHE LOSS OF ALL (Phil. iii. 4-8, R.V.) 321\n\nTHE GAIN OF CHRIST (Phil. iii. 8, 9, R.V.) 328\n\nSAVING KNOWLEDGE (Phil. iii. 10, 11, R.V.) 336\n\nLAID HOLD OF AND LAYING HOLD (Phil. iii. 12) 348\n\nTHE RACE AND THE GOAL (Phil. iii. 13, 14) 359\n\nTHE SOUL'S PERFECTION (Phil. iii. 15) 369\n\nTHE RULE OF THE ROAD (Phil. iii. 16) 381\n\nWARNINGS AND HOPES (Phil. iii. 17-21, R.V.) 391\n\n\n\n\nII. CORINTHIANS\n\nHOPE AND HOLINESS\n\n Having therefore these promises . . . let us cleanse\n ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and\n spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of\n God.'--2 COR. vii. 1.\n\n\nIt is often made a charge against professing Christians that their\nreligion has very little to do with common morality. The taunt has\nsharpened multitudes of gibes and been echoed in all sorts of tones: it\nis very often too true and perfectly just, but if ever it is, let it be\ndistinctly understood that it is not so because of Christian men's\nreligion but in spite of it. Their bitterest enemy does not condemn them\nhalf so emphatically as their own religion does: the sharpest censure of\nothers is not so sharp as the rebukes of the New Testament. If there is\none thing which it insists upon more than another, it is that religion\nwithout morality is nothing--that the one test to which, after all,\nevery man must submit is, what sort of character has he and how has he\nbehaved--is he pure or foul? All high-flown pretension, all fervid\nemotion has at last to face the question which little children ask, 'Was\nhe a good man?'\n\nThe Apostle has been speaking about very high and mystical truths, about\nall Christians being the temple of God, about God dwelling in men, about\nmen and women being His sons and daughters; these are the very truths\non which so often fervid imaginations have built up a mystical piety\nthat had little to do with the common rules of right and wrong. But Paul\nkeeps true to the intensely practical purpose of his preaching and\nbrings his heroes down to the prosaic earth with the homely common sense\nof this far-reaching exhortation, which he gives as the fitting\nconclusion for such celestial visions.\n\nI. A Christian life should be a life of constant self-purifying.\n\nThis epistle is addressed to the church of God which is at Corinth with\nall the _saints_ which are in all Achaia.\n\nLooking out over that wide region, Paul saw scattered over godless\nmasses a little dispersed company to each of whom the sacred name of\nSaint applied. They had been deeply stained with the vices of their age\nand place, and after a black list of criminals he had had to say to them\n'such were some of you,' and he lays his finger on the miracle that had\nchanged them and hesitates not to say of them all, 'But ye are washed,\nbut ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord\nJesus and by the Spirit of our God.'\n\nThe first thing, then, that every Christian has is a cleansing which\naccompanies forgiveness, and however his garment may have been 'spotted\nby the flesh,' it is 'washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.'\nStrange cleansing by which black stains melt out of garments plunged in\nred blood! With the cleansing of forgiveness and justification comes,\nwherever they come, the gift of the Holy Spirit--a new life springing up\nwithin the old life, and untouched by any contact with its evils. These\ngifts belong universally to the initial stage of the Christian life and\nrequire for their possession only the receptiveness of faith. They\nadmit of no co-operation of human effort, and to possess them men have\nonly to 'take the things that are freely given to them of God.' But of\nthe subsequent stages of the Christian life, the laborious and constant\neffort to develop and apply that free gift is as essential as, in the\nearliest stage, it is worse than useless. The gift received has to be\nwrought into the very substance of the soul, and to be wrought out in\nall the endless varieties of life and conduct. Christians are cleansed\nto begin with, but they have still daily to cleanse themselves: the\nleaven is hid in the three measures of meal, but ''tis a life-long task\ntill the lump be leavened,' and no man, even though he has the life that\nwas in Jesus within him, will grow up 'into the measure of the stature\nof the fulness of Christ' unless, by patient and persistent effort, he\nis ever pressing on to 'the things that are before' and daily striving\nto draw nearer to the prize of his high calling. We are cleansed, but we\nhave still to cleanse ourselves.\n\nYet another paradox attaches to the Christian life, inasmuch as God\ncleanses us, but we have to cleanse ourselves. The great truth that the\nspirit of God in a man is the fontal source of all his goodness, and\nthat Christ's righteousness is given to us, is no pillow on which to\nrest an idle head, but should rather be a trumpet-call to effort which\nis thereby made certain of success. If we were left to the task of\nself-purifying by our own efforts we might well fling it up as\nimpossible. It is as easy for a man to lift himself from the ground by\ngripping his own shoulders as it is for us to rise to greater heights of\nmoral conduct by our own efforts; but if we can believe that God gives\nthe impulse after purity, and the vision of what purity is, and imparts\nthe power of attaining it, strengthening at once our dim sight and\nstirring our feeble desires and energising our crippled limbs, then we\ncan 'run with patience the race that is set before us.'\n\nWe must note the thoroughness of the cleansing which the Apostle here\nenjoins. What is to be got rid of is not this or that defect or vice,\nbut '_all_ filthiness of flesh and spirit.' The former, of course,\nrefers primarily to sins of impurity which in the eyes of the Greeks of\nCorinth were scarcely sins at all, and the latter to a state of mind\nwhen fancy, imagination, and memory were enlisted in the service of\nevil. Both are rampant in our day as they were in Corinth. Much modern\nliterature and the new gospel of 'Art for Art's sake' minister to both,\nand every man carries in himself inclinations to either. It is no\npartial cleansing with which Paul would have us to be satisfied: '_all_'\nfilthiness is to be cast out. Like careful housewives who are never\ncontent to cease their scrubbing while a speck remains upon furniture,\nChristian men are to regard their work as unfinished as long as the\nleast trace of the unclean thing remains in their flesh or in their\nspirit. The ideal may be far from being realised at any moment, but it\nis at the peril of the whole sincerity and peacefulness of their lives\nif they, in the smallest degree, lower the perfection of their ideal in\ndeference to the imperfection of their realisation of it.\n\nIt must be abundantly clear from our own experience that any such\ncleansing is a very long process. No character is made, whether it be\ngood or bad, but by a slow building up: no man becomes most wicked all\nat once, and no man is sanctified by a wish or at a jump. As long as men\nare in a world so abounding with temptation, 'he that is washed' will\nneed daily to 'wash his feet' that have been stained in the foul ways of\nlife, if he is to be 'clean every whit.'\n\nAs long as the spirit is imprisoned in the body and has it for its\ninstrument there will be need for much effort at purifying. We must be\ncontent to overcome one foe at a time, and however strong may be the\npilgrim's spirit in us, we must be content to take one step at a time,\nand to advance by very slow degrees. Nor is it to be forgotten that as\nwe get nearer what we ought to be, we should be more conscious of the\nthings in which we are not what we ought to be. The nearer we get to\nJesus Christ, the more will our consciences be enlightened as to the\nparticulars in which we are still distant from Him. A speck on a\npolished shield will show plain that would never have been seen on a\nrusty one. The saint who is nearest God will think more of his sins than\nthe man who is furthest from him. So new work of purifying will open\nbefore us as we grow more pure, and this will last as long as life\nitself.\n\nII. The Christian life is to be not merely a continual getting rid of\nevil, but a continual becoming good.\n\nPaul here draws a distinction between cleansing ourselves from\nfilthiness and perfecting holiness, and these two, though closely\nconnected and capable of being regarded as being but the positive and\nnegative sides of one process, are in reality different, though in\npractice the former is never achieved without the latter, nor the latter\naccomplished without the former. Holiness is more than purity; it is\nconsecration. That is holy which is devoted to God, and a saint is one\nwhose daily effort is to devote his whole self, in all his faculties and\nnature, thoughts, heart, and will, more and more, to God, and to\nreceive into himself more and more of God.\n\nThe purifying which Paul has been enjoining will only be successful in\nthe measure of our consecration, and the consecration will only be\ngenuine in the measure of our purifying. Herein lies the broad and\nblessed distinction between the world's morality and Christian ethics.\nThe former fails just because it lacks the attitude towards a Person who\nis the very foundation of Christian morality, and changes a hard and\nimpossible law into love. There is no more futile waste of breath than\nthat of teachers of morality who have no message but Be good! Be good!\nand no motive by which to urge it but the pleasures of virtue and the\ndisadvantages of vice, but when the vagueness of the abstract thought of\ngoodness solidifies into a living Person and that Person makes his\nappeal first to our hearts and bids us love him, and then opens before\nus the unstained light of his own character and beseeches us to be like\nhim, the repellent becomes attractive: the impossible becomes possible,\nand 'if ye love Me keep My commandments' becomes a constraining power\nand a victorious impulse in our lives.\n\nIII. The Christian life of purifying and consecration is to be animated\nby hope and fear.\n\nThe Apostle seems to connect hope more immediately with the cleansing,\nand holiness with the fear of God, but probably both hope and fear are\nin his mind as the double foundation on which both purity and\nconsecration are to rest, or the double emotion which is to produce them\nboth. These promises refer directly to the immediately preceding words,\n'I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be My sons and daughters,' in\nwhich all the blessings which God can give or men can receive are fused\ntogether in one lustrous and all-comprehensive whole. So all the great\ntruths of the Gospel and all the blessed emotions of sonship which can\nspring up in a human heart are intended to find their practical result\nin holy and pure living. For this end God has spoken to us out of the\nthick darkness; for this end Christ has come into our darkness; for this\nend He has lived; for this end He died; for this end He rose again; for\nthis end He sends His Spirit and administers the providence of the\nworld. The purpose of all the Divine activity as regards us men is not\nmerely to make us happy, but to make us happy in order that we may be\ngood. He whom what he calls his religion has only saved from the wrath\nof God and the fear of hell has not learned the alphabet of religion.\nUnless God's promises evoke men's goodness it will be of little avail\nthat they seem to quicken their hope. Joyful confidence in our sonship\nis only warranted in the measure in which we are like our Father. Hope\noften deludes and makes men dreamy and unpractical. It generally paints\npictures far lovelier than the realities, and without any of their\nshadows; it is too often the stimulus and ally of ignoble lives, and\nseldom stirs to heroism or endurance, but its many defects are not due\nto itself but to its false choice of objects on which to fix. The hope\nwhich is lifted from trailing along the earth and twining round\ncreatures and which rises to grasp these promises ought to be, and in\nthe measure of its reality is the ally of all patient endurance and\nnoble self-sacrifice. Its vision of coming good is all directed to the\ncoming Christ, and 'every man that hath this hope in Him, purifieth\nhimself even as He is pure.'\n\nIn Paul's experience there was no contrariety between hope set on Jesus\nand fear directed towards God. It is in the fear of God that holiness is\nto be perfected. There is a fear which has no torment. Yet more, there\nis no love in sons or daughters without fear. The reverential awe with\nwhich God's children draw near to God has in it nothing slavish and no\nterror. Their love is not only joyful but lowly. The worshipping gaze\nupon His Divine majesty, the reverential and adoring contemplation of\nHis ineffable holiness, and the poignant consciousness, after all\neffort, of the distance between us and Him will bow the hearts that love\nHim most in lowliest prostration before Him. These two, hope and fear,\nconfidence and awe, are like the poles on which the whole round world\nturns and are united here in one result. They who 'set their hope in\nGod' must 'not forget the works of God but keep His commandments'; they\nwho 'call Him Father,' 'who without respect of persons judgeth' must\n'pass the time of their sojourning here in fear,' and their hopes and\ntheir fears must drive the wheels of life, purify them from all\nfilthiness and perfect them in all holiness.\n\n\n\n\nSORROW ACCORDING TO GOD\n\n 'Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not\n to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world\n worketh death.'--2 COR. vii. 10.\n\n\nVery near the close of his missionary career the Apostle Paul summed up\nhis preaching as being all directed to enforcing two points, 'Repentance\ntowards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.' These two, repentance\nand faith, ought never to be separated in thought, as they are\ninseparable in fact. True repentance is impossible without faith, true\nfaith cannot exist without repentance.\n\nYet the two are separated very often, even by earnest Christian\nteachers. The tendency of this day is to say a great deal about faith,\nand not nearly enough in proportion about repentance; and the effect is\nto obscure the very idea of faith, and not seldom to preach 'Peace!\npeace! when there is no peace.' A gospel which is always talking about\nfaith, and scarcely ever talking about sin and repentance, is denuded,\nindeed, of some of its most unwelcome characteristics, but is also\ndeprived of most of its power, and it may very easily become an ally of\nunrighteousness, and an indulgence to sin. The reproach that the\nChristian doctrine of salvation through faith is immoral in its\nsubstance derives most of its force from forgetting that 'repentance\ntowards God' is as real a condition of salvation as is 'faith in our\nLord Jesus Christ.' We have here the Apostle's deliverance about one of\nthese twin thoughts. We have three stages--the root, the stem, the\nfruit; sorrow, repentance, salvation. But there is a right and a wrong\nkind of sorrow for sin. The right kind breeds repentance, and thence\nreaches salvation; the wrong kind breeds nothing, and so ends in death.\n\nLet us then trace these stages, not forgetting that this is not a\ncomplete statement of the case, and needs to be supplemented in the\nspirit of the words which I have already quoted, by the other part of\nthe inseparable whole, 'faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.'\n\nI. First, then, consider the true and the false sorrow for sin.\n\nThe Apostle takes it for granted that a recognition of our own evil, and\na consequent penitent regretfulness, lie at the foundation of all true\nChristianity. Now I do not insist upon any uniformity of experience in\npeople, any more than I should insist that all their bodies should be of\none shape or of one proportion. Human lives are infinitely different,\nhuman dispositions are subtly varied, and because neither the one nor\nthe other are ever reproduced exactly in any two people, therefore the\nreligious experience of no two souls can ever be precisely alike.\n\nWe have no right to ask--and much harm has been done by asking--for an\nimpossible uniformity of religious experience, any more than we have a\nright to expect that all voices shall be pitched in one key, or all\nplants flower in the same month, or after the same fashion. You can\nprint off as many copies as you like, for instance, of a drawing of a\nflower on a printing-press, and they shall all be alike, petal for\npetal, leaf for leaf, shade for shade; but no two hand-drawn copies will\nbe so precisely alike, still less will any two of the real buds that\nblow on the bush. Life produces resemblance with differences; it is\nmachinery that makes facsimiles.\n\nSo we insist on no pedantic or unreal uniformity; and yet, whilst\nleaving the widest scope for divergencies of individual character and\nexperience, and not asking that a man all diseased and blotched with the\nleprosy of sin for half a lifetime, and a little child that has grown up\nat its mother's knee, 'in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,' and\nso has been kept 'innocent of much transgression,' shall have the same\nexperience; yet Scripture, as it seems to me, and the nature of the case\ndo unite in asserting that there are certain elements which, in varying\nproportions indeed, will be found in all true Christian experience, and\nof these an indispensable one--and in a very large number, if not in\nthe majority of cases, a fundamental one--is this which my text calls\n'godly sorrow.'\n\nDear brethren, surely a reasonable consideration of the facts of our\nconduct and character point to that as the attitude that becomes us.\nDoes it not? I do not charge you with crimes in the eye of the law. I do\nnot suppose that many of you are living in flagrant disregard of the\nelementary principles of common every-day morality. Some are, no doubt.\nThere are, no doubt, unclean men here; there are some who eat and drink\nmore than is good for them, habitually; there are, no doubt, men and\nwomen who are living in avarice and worldliness, and doing things which\nthe ordinary conscience of the populace points to as faults and\nblemishes. But I come to you respectable people that can say: 'I am not\nas other men are, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican'; and\npray you, dear friends, to look at your character all round, in the\nlight of the righteousness and love of God, and to plead to the\nindictment which charges you with neglect of many a duty and with sin\nagainst Him. How do you plead, 'guilty or not guilty, sinful or not\nsinful?' Be honest with yourselves, and the answer will not be far to\nseek.\n\nNotice how my text draws a broad distinction between the right and the\nwrong kind of sorrow for sin. 'Godly sorrow' is, literally\nrendered,'sorrow according to God,' which may either mean sorrow which\nhas reference to God, or sorrow which is in accordance with His will;\nthat is to say, which is pleasing to Him. If it is the former, it will\nbe the latter. I prefer to suppose that it is the former--that is,\nsorrow which has reference to God. And then, there is another kind of\nsorrow, which the Apostle calls the 'sorrow of the world,' which is\ndevoid of that reference to God. Here we have the characteristic\ndifference between the Christian way of looking at our own faults and\nshortcomings, and the sorrow of the world, which has got no blessing in\nit, and will never lead to anything like righteousness and peace. It is\njust this--one has reference to God, puts its sin by His side, sees its\nblackness relieved against the 'fierce light' of the Great White Throne,\nand the other has not that reference.\n\nTo expand that for a moment,--there are plenty of us who, when our sin\nis behind us, and its bitter fruits are in our hands, are sorry enough\nfor our faults. A man that is lying in the hospital a wreck, with the\nsins of his youth gnawing the flesh off his bones, is often enough sorry\nthat he did not live more soberly and chastely and temperately in the\npast days. That fraudulent bankrupt who has not got his discharge and\nhas lost his reputation, and can get nobody to lend him money enough to\nstart him in business again, as he hangs about the streets, slouching in\nhis rags, is sorry enough that he did not keep the straight road. The\n'sorrow of the world' has no thought about God in it at all. The\nconsequences of sin set many a man's teeth on edge who does not feel any\ncompunction for the wrong that he did. My brethren, is that the position\nof any that are listening to me now?\n\nAgain, men are often sorry for their conduct without thinking of it as\nsin against God. Crime means the transgression of man's law, wrong means\nthe transgression of conscience's law, sin is the transgression of God's\nlaw. Some of us would perhaps have to say--'I have done crime.' We are\nall of us quite ready to say: 'I have done wrong many a time'; but\nthere are some of us who hesitate to take the other step, and say: 'I\nhave done sin.' Sin has, for its correlative, God. If there is no God\nthere is no sin. There may be faults, there may be failures, there may\nbe transgressions, breaches of the moral law, things done inconsistent\nwith man's nature and constitution, and so on; but if there be a God,\nthen we have personal relations to that Person and His law; and when we\nbreak His law it is more than crime; it is more than fault; it is more\nthan transgression; it is more than wrong; it is sin. It is when you\nlift the shutter off conscience, and let the light of God rush in upon\nyour hearts and consciences, that you have the wholesome sorrow that\nworketh repentance and salvation and life.\n\nOh, dear friends, I do beseech you to lay these simple thoughts to\nheart. Remember, I urge no rigid uniformity of experience or character,\nbut I do say that unless a man has learned to see his sin in the light\nof God, and in the light of God to weep over it, he has yet to know 'the\nstrait gate that leadeth unto life.'\n\nI believe that a very large amount of the superficiality and\neasy-goingness of the Christianity of to-day comes just from this, that\nso many who call themselves Christians have never once got a glimpse of\nthemselves as they really are. I remember once peering over the edge of\nthe crater of Vesuvius, and looking down into the pit, all swirling with\nsulphurous fumes. Have you ever looked into your hearts, in that\nfashion, and seen the wreathing smoke and the flashing fire there? If\nyou have, you will cleave to that Christ, who is your sole deliverance\nfrom sin.\n\nBut, remember, there is no prescription about depth or amount or length\nof time during which this sorrow shall be felt. If, on the one hand, it\nis essential, on the other hand there are a great many people who ought\nto be walking in the light and the liberty of God's Gospel who bring\ndarkness and clouds over themselves by the anxious scrutinising\nquestion: 'Is my sorrow deep enough?' Deep enough! What for? What is the\nuse of sorrow for sin? To lead a man to repentance and to faith. If you\nhave as much sorrow as leads you to penitence and trust you have enough.\nIt is not your sorrow that is going to wash away your sin, it is\nChrist's blood. So let no man trouble himself about the question, Have I\nsorrow enough? The one question is: 'Has my sorrow led me to cast myself\non Christ?'\n\nII. Still further, look now for a moment at the next stage here. 'Godly\nsorrow worketh repentance.'\n\nWhat is repentance? No doubt many of you would answer that it is 'sorrow\nfor sin,' but clearly this text of ours draws a distinction between the\ntwo. There are very few of the great key-words of Christianity that have\nsuffered more violent and unkind treatment, and have been more obscured\nby misunderstandings, than this great word. It has been weakened down\ninto penitence, which in the ordinary acceptation, means simply the\nemotion that I have already been speaking about, viz., a regretful sense\nof my own evil. And it has been still further docked and degraded, both\nin its syllables and in its substance, into _penance_. But the\n'repentance' of the New Testament and of the Old Testament--one of the\ntwin conditions of salvation--is neither sorrow for sin nor works of\nrestitution and satisfaction, but it is, as the word distinctly\nexpresses, a change of purpose in regard to the sin for which a man\nmourns. I cannot now expand and elaborate this idea as I should like,\nbut let me remind you of one or two passages in Scripture which may show\nthat the right notion of the word is not sorrow but changed attitude and\npurpose in regard to my sin.\n\nWe find passages, some of which ascribe and some deny repentance to the\nDivine nature. But if there be a repentance which is possible for the\nDivine nature, it obviously cannot mean sorrow for sin, but must signify\na change of purpose. In the Epistle to the Romans we read, 'The gifts\nand calling of God are without repentance,' which clearly means without\nchange of purpose on His part. And I read in the story of the mission of\nthe Prophet Jonah, that 'the Lord repented of the evil which He had said\nHe would do unto them, and He did it not.' Here, again, the idea of\nrepentance is clearly and distinctly that of a change of purpose. So fix\nthis on your minds, and lay it on your hearts, dear friends, that the\nrepentance of the New Testament is not idle tears nor the twitchings of\na vain regret, but the resolute turning away of the sinful heart from\nits sins. It is 'repentance toward God,' the turning from the sin to the\nFather, and that is what leads to salvation. The sorrow is separated\nfrom the repentance in idea, however closely they may be intertwined in\nfact. The sorrow is one thing, and the repentance which it works is\nanother.\n\nThen notice that this change of purpose and breaking off from sin is\nproduced by the sorrow for sin, of which I have been speaking; and that\nthe production of this repentance is the main characteristic difference\nbetween the godly sorrow and the sorrow of the world. A man may have his\nparoxysms of regret, but the question is: Does it make any difference\nin his attitude? Is he standing, after the tempest of sorrow has swept\nover him, with his face in the same direction as before; or has it\nwhirled him clean round, and set him in the other direction? The one\nkind of sorrow, which measures my sin by the side of the brightness and\npurity of God, vindicates itself as true, because it makes me hate my\nevil and turn away from it. The other, which is of the world, passes\nover me like the empty wind through an archway, it whistles for a moment\nand is gone, and there is nothing left to show that it was ever there.\nThe one comes like one of those brooks in tropical countries, dry and\nwhite for half the year, and then there is a rush of muddy waters,\nfierce but transient, and leaving no results behind. My brother! when\nyour conscience pricks, which of these two things does it do? After the\nprick, is the word of command that your Will issues 'Right about face!'\nor is it 'As you were'? Godly sorrow worketh a change of attitude,\npurpose, mind; the sorrow of the world leaves a man standing where he\nwas. Ask yourselves the question: Which of the two are you familiar\nwith?\n\nAgain, the true means of evoking true repentance is the contemplation of\nthe Cross. Law and the fear of hell may startle into sorrow, and even\nlead to some kind of repentance. But it is the great power of Christ's\nlove and sacrifice which will really melt the heart into true\nrepentance. You may hammer ice to pieces, but it is ice still. You may\nbray a fool in a mortar, and his folly will not depart from him. Dread\nof punishment may pulverise the heart, but not change it; and each\nfragment, like the smallest bits of a magnet, will have the same\ncharacteristics as the whole mass. But 'the goodness of God leads to\nrepentance' as the prodigal is conquered and sees the true hideousness\nof the swine's trough, when he bethinks himself of the father's love. I\nbeseech you to put yourselves under the influence of that great love,\nand look on that Cross till your hearts melt.\n\nIII. We come to the last stage here. Salvation is the issue of\nrepentance. 'Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation not to be\nrepented of.'\n\nWhat is the connection between repentance and salvation? Two sentences\nwill answer the question. You cannot get salvation without repentance.\nYou do not get salvation by repentance.\n\nYou cannot get the salvation of God unless you shake off your sin. It is\nno use preaching to a man, 'Faith, Faith, Faith!' unless you preach\nalong with it,'Break off your iniquities.' 'Let the wicked forsake his\nway and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him turn unto the\nLord.' The nature of the case forbids it. It is a clear contradiction in\nterms, and an absolute impossibility in fact, that God should save a man\nwith the salvation which consists in the deliverance from sin, whilst\nthat man is holding to his sin. Unless, therefore, you have not merely\nsorrow, but repentance, which is turning away from sin with resolute\npurpose, as a man would turn from a serpent, you cannot enter into the\nKingdom of Heaven.\n\nBut you do not get salvation for your repentance. It is no case of\nbarter, it is no case of salvation by works, that work being repentance:\n\n 'Could my zeal no respite know,\n Could my tears for ever flow,\n All for sin could not atone,\n Thou must save, and Thou alone.'\n\nNot my penitence, but Christ's death, is the ground of the salvation of\nevery one that is saved at all. Yet repentance is an indispensable\ncondition of salvation.\n\nWhat is the connection between repentance and faith? There can be no\ntrue repentance without trust in Christ. There can be no true trust in\nChrist without the forsaking of my sin. Repentance without faith, in so\nfar as it is possible, is one long misery; like the pains of those poor\nHindoo devotees that will go all the way from Cape Comorin to the shrine\nof Juggernaut, and measure every foot of the road with the length of\ntheir own bodies in the dust. Men will do anything, and willingly make\nany sacrifice, rather than open their eyes to see this,--that\nrepentance, clasped hand in hand with Faith, leads the guiltiest soul\ninto the forgiving presence of the crucified Christ, from whom peace\nflows into the darkest heart.\n\nOn the other hand, faith without repentance is not possible, in any deep\nsense. But in so far as it is possible, it produces a superficial\nChristianity which vaguely trusts to Christ without knowing exactly what\nit is trusting Him for, or why it needs Him; and which has a great deal\nto say about what I may call the less important parts of the Christian\nsystem, and nothing to say about its vital centre; which preaches a\nmorality which is not a living power to create; which practises a\nreligion which is neither a joy nor a security. The old word of the\nMaster has a deep truth in it: 'These are they which heard the word, and\nanon with joy received it.' Having no sorrow, no penitence, no deep\nconsciousness of sin, 'they have no root in themselves, and in time of\ntemptation they fall away.' If there is to be a profound, an\nall-pervading, life-transforming-sin, and devil-conquering faith, it\nmust be a faith rooted deep in penitence and sorrow for sin.\n\nDear brethren, if, by God's grace, my poor words have touched your\nconsciences at all, I beseech you, do not trifle with the budding\nconviction! Do not seek to have the wound skinned over. Take care that\nyou do not let it all pass in idle sorrow or impotent regret. If you do,\nyou will be hardened, and the worse for it, and come nearer to that\ncondition which the sorrow of the world worketh, the awful death of the\nsoul. Do not wince from the knife before the roots of the cancer are cut\nout. The pain is merciful. Better the wound than the malignant growth.\nYield yourselves to the Spirit that would convince you of sin, and\nlisten to the voice that calls to you to forsake your unrighteous ways\nand thoughts. But do not trust to any tears, do not trust to any\nresolves, do not trust to any reformation. Trust only to the Lord who\ndied on the Cross for you, whose death for you, whose life in you, will\nbe deliverance from your sin. Then you will have a salvation which, in\nthe striking language of my text, 'is not to be repented of,' which will\nleave no regrets in your hearts in the day when all else shall have\nfaded, and the sinful sweets of this world shall have turned to ashes\nand bitterness on the lips of the men that feed on them.\n\n'The sorrow of the world works death.' There are men and women listening\nto me now who are half conscious of their sin, and are resisting the\npleading voice that comes to them, who at the last will open their eyes\nupon the realities of their lives, and in a wild passion of remorse,\nexclaim: 'I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.' Better to\nmake thorough work of the sorrow, and by it to be led to repentance\ntoward God and faith in Christ, and so secure for our own that salvation\nfor which no man will ever regret having given even the whole world,\nsince he gains his own soul.\n\n\n\n\nGIVING AND ASKING\n\n 'Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace\n of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; 2.\n How that in a great trial of affliction the\n abundance of their joy and their deep poverty\n abounded unto the riches of their liberality. 3.\n For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond\n their power they were willing of themselves; 4.\n Praying us with much entreaty that we would\n receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship\n of the ministering to the saints. 5. And this they\n did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own\n selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of\n God: 6. Insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he\n had begun, so he would also finish in you the same\n grace also. 7. Therefore, as ye abound in every\n thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and\n in all diligence, and in your love to us; see that\n ye abound in this grace also. 8. I speak not by\n commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of\n others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.\n 9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,\n that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He\n became poor, that ye through His poverty might be\n rich. 10. And herein I give my advice: for this is\n expedient for you, who have begun before, not only\n to do, but also to be forward a year ago. 11. Now\n therefore perform the doing of it; that as there\n was a readiness to will, so there may be a\n performance also out of that which ye have. 12.\n For if there be first a willing mind, it is\n accepted according to that a man hath, and not\n according to that he hath not.'--2 COR. viii.\n 1-12.\n\n\nA collection from Gentile churches for their poor brethren in Jerusalem\noccupied much of Paul's time and efforts before his last visit to that\ncity. Many events, which have filled the world with noise and been\nwritten at length in histories, were less significant than that first\noutcome of the unifying spirit of common faith. It was a making visible\nof the grand thought, 'Ye are all one in Christ Jesus.' Practical help,\nprompted by a deep-lying sense of unity which overleaped gulfs of\nseparation in race, language, and social conditions, was a unique\nnovelty. It was the first pulsation of that spirit of Christian\nliberality which has steadily grown in force and sweep ever since.\nFoolish people gibe at some of its manifestations. Wiser ones regard\nits existence as not the least of the marks of the divine origin of\nChristianity.\n\nThis passage is a striking example of the inimitable delicacy of the\nApostle. His words are full of what we should call tact, if it were not\nmanifestly the spontaneous utterance of right feeling. They are a\nperfect model of the true way to appeal for money, and set forth also\nthe true spirit in which such appeals should be made.\n\nIn verses 1 to 5, Paul seeks to stimulate the liberality of the\nCorinthians by recounting that of the Macedonian churches. His sketch\ndraws in outline the picture of what all Christian money-giving should\nbe. We note first the designation of the Macedonian Christians'\nbeneficence as 'a grace' given by God to them. It is twice called so\n(vers. 1, 4), and the same name is applied in regard to the Corinthians'\ngiving (vers. 6, 7). That is the right way to look at money\ncontributions. The opportunity to give them, and the inclination to do\nso, are God's gifts. How many of us think that calls for service or\nmoney are troublesome obligations, to be got out of as easily as\npossible! A true Christian will be thankful, as for a love token from\nGod, for every occasion of giving to Him. It would be a sharp test for\nmany of us to ask ourselves whether we can say, 'To me . . . is this grace\ngiven,' that I should part with my money for Christ's sake.\n\nNote, further, the lovely picture of these Macedonian givers. They were\nplunged in sorrows and troubles, but these did not dry their fountains\nof sympathy. Nothing is apt to be more selfish than grief; and if we\nhave tears to spare for others, when they are flowing bitterly for\nourselves, we have graduated well in Christ's school. Paul calls the\nMacedonians' troubles 'proof of their affliction,' meaning that it\nconstituted a proof of their Christian character; that is, by the manner\nin which it was borne; and in it they had still 'abundance of joy,' for\nthe paradox of the Christian life is that it admits of the co-existence\nof grief and gladness.\n\nAgain, Christian giving gives from scanty stores. 'Deep poverty' is no\nexcuse for not giving, and will be no hindrance to a willing heart. 'I\ncannot afford it' is sometimes a genuine valid reason, but oftener an\ninsincere plea. Why are subscriptions for religious purposes the first\nexpenditure to be reduced in bad times?\n\nFurther, Christian giving gives up to the very edge of ability, and\nsometimes goes beyond the limits of so-called prudence. In all regions\n'power to its last particle is duty,' and unless power is strained it is\nnot fully exercised. It is in trying to do what we cannot do that we do\nbest what we can do. He who keeps well within the limits of his supposed\nability will probably not do half as much as he could. While there is a\nlimit behind which generosity even for Christ may become dishonesty or\ndisregard of other equally sacred claims, there is little danger of\nmodern Christians transgressing that limit, and they need the stimulus\nto do a little more than they think they can do, rather than to listen\nto cold-blooded prudence.\n\nFurther, Christian giving does not wait to be asked, but takes the\nopportunity to give as itself 'grace' and presses its benefactions. It\nis an unwonted experience for a collector of subscriptions to be\nbesought to take them 'with much entreaty,' but it would not be so\nanomalous if Christian people understood their privileges.\n\nFurther, Christian giving begins with the surrender of self to Christ,\nfrom which necessarily follows the glad offering of wealth. These\nMacedonians did more than Paul had hoped, and the explanation of the\nunexpected largeness of their contributions was their yielding of\nthemselves to Jesus. That is the deepest source of all true liberality.\nIf a man feels that he does not own himself, much less will he feel that\nhis goods are his own. A slave's owner possesses the slave's bit of\ngarden ground, his hut, and its furniture. If I belong to Christ, to\nwhom does my money belong? But the consciousness that my goods are not\nmine, but Christ's, is not to remain a mere sentiment. It can receive\npractical embodiment by my giving them to Christ's representatives. The\nway for the Macedonians to show that they regarded their goods as\nChrist's, was to give them to Paul for Christ's poor saints. Jesus has\nHis representatives still, and it is useless for people to talk or sing\nabout belonging to Him, unless they verify their words by deeds.\n\nVerse 6 tells the Corinthians that the success of the collection in\nMacedonia had induced Paul to send Titus to Corinth to promote it there.\nHe had previously visited it on the same errand (chap. xii. 14), and now\nis coming to complete 'this grace.' The rest of the passage is Paul's\nappeal to the Corinthians for their help in the matter, and certainly\nnever was such an appeal made in a more dignified, noble, and lofty\ntone. He has been dilating on the liberality of others, and thereby\nsanctioning the stimulating of Christian liberality, in the same way as\nother graces may legitimately be stimulated, by example. That is\ndelicate ground to tread on, and needs caution if it is not to\ndegenerate into an appeal to rivalry, as it too often does, but in\nitself is perfectly legitimate and wholesome. But, passing from that\nincitement, Paul rests his plea on deeper grounds.\n\nFirst, Christian liberality is essential to the completeness of\nChristian character. Paul's praise in verse 7 is not mere flattery, nor\nmeant to put the Corinthians into good humour. He will have enough to\nsay hereafter about scandals and faults, but now he gives them credit\nfor all the good he knew to be in them. Faith comes first, as always. It\nis the root of every Christian excellence. Then follow two graces,\neminently characteristic of a Greek church, and apt to run to seed in\nit,--utterance and knowledge. Then two more, both of a more emotional\ncharacter,--earnestness and love, especially to Paul as Christ's\nservant. But all these fair attributes lacked completeness without the\ncrowning grace of liberality. It is the crowning grace, because it is\nthe practical manifestation of the highest excellences. It is the result\nof sympathy, of unselfishness, of contact with Christ, of drinking in of\nHis spirit, Love is best. Utterance and knowledge and earnestness are\npoor beside it. This grace is like the diamond which clasps a necklace\nof jewels.\n\nChristian giving does not need to be commanded. 'I speak not by way of\ncommandment.' That is poor virtue which only obeys a precept. Gifts\ngiven because it is duty to give them are not really gifts, but taxes.\nThey leave no sweet savour on the hand that bestows, and bring none to\nthat which receives. 'I call you not servants, but friends.' The region\nin which Christian liberality moves is high above the realm of law and\nits correlative, obligation.\n\nFurther, Christian liberality springs spontaneously from conscious\npossession of Christ's riches. We cannot here enter on the mysteries of\nChrist's emptying Himself of His riches of glory. We can but touch the\nstupendous fact, remembering that the place whereon we stand is holy\nground. Who can measure the nature and depth of that self-denuding of\nthe glory which He had with the Father before the world was? But, thank\nGod, we do not need to measure it, in order to feel the solemn, blessed\nforce of the appeal which it makes to us. Adoring wonder and gratitude,\nunfaltering trust and absolute self-surrender to a love so\nself-sacrificing, must ever follow the belief of that mystery of Divine\nmercy, the incarnation and sacrifice of the eternal Son.\n\nBut Paul would have us remember that the same mighty act of stooping\nlove, which is the foundation of all our hope, is to be the pattern for\nall our conduct. Even in His divinest and most mysterious act, Christ is\nour example. A dewdrop is rounded by the same laws which shape the\nplanetary spheres or the sun himself; and Christians but half trust\nChrist if they do not imitate Him. What selfishness in enjoyment of our\n'own things' could live in us if we duly brought ourselves under the\ninfluence of that example? How miserably poor and vulgar the appeals by\nwhich money is sometimes drawn from grudging owners and tight-buttoned\npockets, sound beside that heart-searching and heart-moving one, 'Ye\nknow the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ!'\n\nFurther, Christian liberality will not go off in good intentions and\nbenevolent sentiments. The Corinthians were ready with their 'willing'\non Titus's previous visit. Now Paul desires them to put their good\nfeelings into concrete shape. There is plenty of benevolence that never\ngets to be beneficence. The advice here has a very wide application: 'As\nthere was the readiness to will, so there may be the completion also.'\nWe all know where the road leads that is paved with good intentions.\n\nFurther, Christian liberality is accepted and rewarded according to\nwillingness, if that is carried into act according to ability. While the\nmere wish to help is not enough, it is the vital element in the act\nwhich flows from it; and there may be more of it in the widow's mite\nthan in the rich man's large donation--or there may be less. The\nconditions of acceptable offerings are twofold--first, readiness, glad\nwillingness to give, as opposed to closed hearts or grudging bestowals;\nand, second, that willingness embodied in the largest gift possible. The\nabsence of either vitiates all. The presence of both gives trifles a\nplace in God's storehouse of precious things. A father is glad when his\nchild brings him some utterly valueless present, not because he must,\nbut because he loves; and many a parent has such laid away in sacred\nrepositories. God knows how to take gifts from His children, not less\nwell than we who are evil know how to do it.\n\nBut the gracious saying of our passage has a solemn side; for if only\ngifts 'according as a man hath' are accepted, what becomes of the many\nwhich fall far short of our ability, and are really given, not because\nwe have the willing mind, but because we could not get out of the\nunwelcome necessity to part with a miserably inadequate percentage of\nour possessions. Is God likely to be satisfied with the small dividends\nwhich we offer as composition for our great debt?\n\n\n\n\nRICH YET POOR\n\n 'For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,\n that, though He was rich yet for your sakes He\n became poor, that ye through His poverty might be\n rich.'--2 COR. viii. 9.\n\n\nThe Apostle has been speaking about a matter which, to us, seems very\nsmall, but to him was very great viz., a gathering of pecuniary help\nfrom the Gentile churches for the poor church in Jerusalem. Large\nissues, in his estimation, attended that exhibition of Christian unity,\nand, be it great or small, he applies the highest of all motives to this\nmatter. 'For ye know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though He\nwas rich yet for your sakes He became poor.' The trivial things of life\nare to be guided and shaped by reference to the highest of all things,\nthe example of Jesus Christ; and that in the whole depth of His\nhumiliation, and even in regard to His cross and passion. We have here\nset forth, as the pattern to which the Christian life is to be\nconformed, the deepest conception of what our Lord's career on earth\nwas.\n\nThe whole Christian Church is about to celebrate the nativity of our\nLord at this time. This text gives us the true point of view from which\nto regard it. We have here the work of Christ in its deepest motive,\n'The grace of our Lord Jesus.' We have it in its transcendent\nself-impoverishment, 'Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became\npoor.' We have it in its highest issue, 'That ye through His poverty\nmight become rich.' Let us look at those points.\n\nI. Here we have the deepest motive which underlies the whole work of\nChrist, unveiled to us.\n\n'Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Every word here is\nsignificant. It is very unusual in the New Testament to find that\nexpression 'grace' applied to Jesus Christ. Except in the familiar\nbenediction, I think there are only one or two instances of such a\ncollocation of words. It is 'the grace of God' which, throughout the New\nTestament, is the prevailing expression. But here 'grace is attributed\nto Jesus'; that is to say, the love of the Divine heart is, without\nqualification or hesitation, ascribed to Him. And what do we mean by\ngrace? We mean love in exercise to inferiors. It is infinite\ncondescension in Jesus to love. His love stoops when it embraces us.\nVery significant, therefore, is the employment here of the solemn full\ntitle, 'the Lord Jesus Christ,' which enhances the condescension by\nmaking prominent the height from which it bent. The 'grace' is all the\nmore wonderful because of the majesty and sovereignty, to say the least\nof it, which are expressed in that title, the Lord. The highest stoops\nand stands upon the level of the lowest. 'Grace' is love that expresses\nitself to those who deserve something else. And the deepest motive,\nwhich is the very key to the whole phenomena of the life of Jesus\nChrist, is that it is all the exhibition, as it is the consequence, of a\nlove that, stooping, forgives. 'Grace' is love that, stooping and\nforgiving, communicates its whole self to unworthy and transgressing\nrecipients. And the key to the life of Jesus is that we have set forth\nin its operation a love which is not content to speak only the ordinary\nlanguage of human affection, or to do its ordinary deeds, but is\nself-impelled to impart what transcends all other gifts of human\ntenderness, and to give its very self. And so a love that condescends, a\nlove that passes by unworthiness, is turned away by no sin, is unmoved\nto any kind of anger, and never allows its cheek to flush or its heart\nto beat faster, because of any provocation and a love that is content\nwith nothing short of entire surrender and self-impartation underlies\nall that precious life from Bethlehem to Calvary.\n\nBut there is another word in our text that may well be here taken into\nconsideration. 'For your sakes,' says the Apostle to that Corinthian\nchurch, made up of people, not one of whom had ever seen or been seen by\nJesus. And yet the regard to them was part of the motive that moved the\nLord to His life, and His death. That is to say, to generalise the\nthought, this grace, thus stooping and forgiving and self-imparting, is\na love that gathers into its embrace and to its heart all mankind; and\nis universal because it is individualising. Just as each planet in the\nheavens, and each tiny plant upon the earth, are embraced by, and\nseparately receive, the benediction of that all-encompassing arch of the\nheaven, so that grace enfolds all, because it takes account of each.\nWhilst it is love for a sinful world, every soul of us may say: 'He\nloved me, and'--therefore--'gave Himself for me.' Unless we see beneath\nthe sweet story of the earthly life this deep-lying source of it all, we\nfail to understand that life itself. We may bring criticism to bear upon\nit; we may apprehend it in diverse affecting, elevating, educating\naspects; but, oh! brethren, we miss the blazing centre of the light, the\nwarm heart of the fire, unless we see pulsating through all the\nindividual facts of the life this one, all-shaping, all-vitalising\nmotive; the grace--the stooping, the pardoning, the self-communicating,\nthe individualising, and the universal love of Jesus Christ.\n\nSo then, we have here set before us the work of Christ in its--\n\nII. Most mysterious and unique self-impoverishment.\n\n'He was . . . He became,' there is one strange contrast. 'He was _rich_\n. . . He became _poor_,' there is another. 'He was . . . He became.' What\ndoes that say? Well, it says that if you want to understand Bethlehem,\nyou must go back to a time before Bethlehem. The meaning of Christ's\nbirth is only understood when we turn to that Evangelist who does not\nnarrate it. For the meaning of it is here; 'the Word became flesh, and\ndwelt among us.' The surface of the fact is the smallest part of the\nfact. They say that there is seven times as much of an iceberg under\nwater as there is above the surface. And the deepest and most important\nfact about the nativity of our Lord is that it was not only the birth of\nan Infant, but the Incarnation of the Word. 'He was . . . He became.' We\nhave to travel back and recognise that that life did not begin in the\nmanger. We have to travel back and recognise the mystery of godliness,\nGod manifest in the flesh.\n\nAnd these two words 'He was . . . He became,' imply another thing, and\nthat is, that Jesus Christ who died because He chose, was not passive in\nHis being born, but as at the end of His earthly life, so at its\nbeginning exercised His volition, and was born because He willed, and\nwilled because of 'the grace of our Lord Jesus.'\n\nNow in this connection it is very remarkable, and well worth our\npondering, that throughout the whole of the Gospels, when Jesus speaks\nof His coming into the world, He never uses the word 'born' but once,\nand that was before the Roman governor, who would not have understood or\ncared for anything further, to whom He did say,'To this end was I\nborn.' But even when speaking to him His consciousness that that word\ndid not express the whole truth was so strong that He could not help\nadding--though He knew that the hard Roman procurator would pay no\nattention to the apparent tautology--the expression which more truly\ncorresponded to the fact, 'and for this cause came I into the world.'\nThe two phrases are not parallel. They are by no means synonymous. One\nexpresses the outward fact; the other expresses that which underlay it.\n'To this end was I born.' Yes! 'And for this cause came I.' He Himself\nput it still more definitely when He said, 'I came forth from the\nFather, and am come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go unto\nthe Father.' So the two extremities of the earthly manifestation are\nneither of them ends; but before the one, and behind the other, there\nstretches an identity or oneness of Being and condition. The one as the\nother, the birth and the death, may be regarded as, in deepest reality,\nnot only what He passively endured, but what He actively did. He was\nborn, and He died, that in all points He might be 'like unto His\nbrethren.' He 'came' into the world, and He 'went' to the Father. The\nend circled round to the beginning, and in both He acted because He\nchose, and chose because He loved.\n\nSo much, then, lies in the one of these two antitheses of my text; and\nthe other is no less profound and significant. 'He was rich; He became\npoor.' In this connection 'rich' can only mean possessed of the Divine\nfulness and independence; and 'poor' can only mean possessed of human\ninfirmity, dependence, and emptiness. And so to Jesus of Nazareth, to be\nborn was impoverishment. If there is nothing more in His birth than in\nthe birth of each of us, the words are grotesquely inappropriate to the\nfacts of the case. For as between nothingness, which is the alternative,\nand the possession of conscious being, there is surely a contrast the\nvery reverse of that expressed here. For us, to be born is to be endowed\nwith capacities, with the wealth of intelligent, responsible, voluntary\nbeing; but to Jesus Christ, if we accept the New Testament teaching, to\nbe born was a step, an infinite step, downwards, and He, alone of all\nmen, might have been 'ashamed to call men brethren.' But this denudation\nof Himself, into the particulars of which I do not care to enter now,\nwas the result of that stooping grace which 'counted it not a thing to\nbe clutched hold of, to be equal with God; but He made Himself of no\nreputation, and was found in fashion as a man, and became obedient unto\ndeath, even the death of the Cross.'\n\nAnd so, dear friends, we know the measure of the stooping love of Jesus\nonly when we read the history by the light of this thought, that 'though\nHe was rich' with all the fulness of that eternal Word which was 'in the\nbeginning with God,' 'He became poor,' with the poverty, the infirmity,\nthe liability to temptation, the weakness, that attach to humanity; 'and\nwas found in all points like unto His brethren,' that He might be able\nto help and succour them all.\n\nThe last thing here is--\n\nIII. The work of Christ set forth in its highest issue.\n\n'That we through His poverty might become rich.' Of course, the\nantithetical expressions must be taken to be used in the same sense, and\nwith the same width of application, in both of the clauses. And if so,\njust think reverently, wonderingly, thankfully, of the infinite vista\nof glorious possibility that is open to us here. Christ was rich in the\npossession of that Divine glory which Had had with the Father before the\nworld was. 'He became poor,' in assuming the weakness of the manhood\nthat you and I carry, that we, in the human poverty which is like His\npoverty, may become rich with wealth that is like His riches, and that\nas He stooped to earth veiling the Divine with the human, we may rise to\nheaven, clothing the human with the Divine.\n\nFor surely there is nothing more plainly taught in Scriptures, and I am\nbold to say nothing to which any deep and vital Christian experience\neven here gives more surely an anticipatory confirmation, than the fact\nthat Christ became like unto us, that each of us may become like unto\nHim. The divine and the human natures are similar, and the fact of the\nIncarnation, on the one hand, and of the man's glorification by\npossession of the divine nature on the other, equally rest upon that\nfundamental resemblance between the divine nature and the human nature\nwhich God has made in His own image. If that which in each of us is\nunlike God is cleared away, as it can be cleared away, through faith in\nthat dear Lord, then the likeness as a matter of course, comes into\nforce.\n\nThe law of all elevation is that whosoever desires to lift must stoop;\nand the end of all stooping is to lift the lowly to the place from which\nthe love hath bent itself. And this is at once the law for the\nIncarnation of the Christ, and for the elevation of the Christian. 'We\nshall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.' And the great love,\nthe stooping, forgiving, self-communicating love, doth not reach its\nultimate issue, nor effect fully the purposes to which it ever is\ntending, unless and until all who have received it are 'changed from\nglory to glory even into the image of the Lord.' We do not understand\nJesus, His cradle, or His Cross, unless on the one hand we see in them\nHis emptying Himself that He might fill us, and, on the other hand, see,\nas the only result which warrants them and satisfies Him, our complete\nconformity to His image, and our participation in that glory which He\nhas at the right hand of God. That is the prospect for humanity, and it\nis possible for each of us.\n\nI do not dwell upon other aspects of this great self-emptying of our\nLord's, such as the revelation in it to us of the very heart of God, and\nof the divinest thing in the divine nature, which is love, or such as\nthe sympathy which is made possible thereby to Him, and which is not\nonly the pity of a God, but the compassion of a Brother. Nor do I touch\nupon many other aspects which are full of strengthening and teaching.\nThat grand thought that Jesus has shared our human poverty that we may\nshare His divine riches is the very apex of the New Testament teaching,\nand of the Christian hope. We have within us, notwithstanding all our\ntransgressions, what the old divines used to call a 'deiform nature,'\ncapable of being lifted up into the participation of divinity, capable\nof being cleansed from all the spots and stains which make us so unlike\nHim in whose likeness we were made.\n\nBrethren, let us not forget that this stooping, and pardoning, and\nself-imparting love, has for its main instrument to appeal to our\nhearts, not the cradle but the Cross. We are being told by many people\nto-day that the centre of Christianity lies in the thought of an\nIncarnation. Yes. But our Lord Himself has told us what that was for.\n\n'The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to\ngive His life a ransom for many.' It is only when we look to that Lord\nin His death, and see there the very lowest point to which He stooped,\nand the supreme manifestation of His grace, that we shall be drawn to\nyield our hearts and lives to Him in thankfulness, in trust, and in\nimitation: and shall set Him before us as the pattern for our conduct,\nas well as the Object of our trust.\n\nBrethren, my text was spoken originally as presenting the motive and the\nexample for a little piece of pecuniary liability. Do you take the\ncradle and the Cross as the law of your lives? For depend upon it, the\nsame necessity which obliged Jesus to come down to our level, if He\nwould lift us to His; to live our life and die our death, if He would\nmake us partakers of His immortal life, and deliver us from death; makes\nit absolutely necessary that if we are to live for anything nobler than\nour own poor, transitory self-aggrandisement, we too must learn to stoop\nto forgive, to impart ourselves, and must die by self-surrender and\nsacrifice, if we are ever to communicate any life, or good of life, to\nothers. He has loved us, and given Himself for us. He has set us therein\nan example which He commends to us by His own word when He tells us that\n'if a corn of wheat' is to bring forth 'much fruit' it must die, else it\n'abideth alone.' Unless we die, we never truly live; unless we die to\nourselves for others, and like Jesus, we live alone in the solitude of a\nself-enclosed self-regard. So living, we are dead whilst we live.\n\n\n\n\nWILLING AND NOT DOING\n\n 'Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as\n there was a readiness to will so there may be a\n performance also.'--2 COR. viii. 11.\n\n\nThe Revised Version reads: 'But now complete the doing also; that as\nthere was the readiness to will, so there may be the completion also out\nof your ability.' A collection of money for the almost pauper church at\nJerusalem bulked very largely in the Apostle's mind at the date of the\nwriting of the two letters to the Corinthian church. We learn that that\nchurch had been the first to agree to the project, and then had very\ndistinctly hung back from implementing its promises and fulfilling its\ngood intentions. So the Apostle, in the chapter from which my text is\ntaken, with wonderful delicacy, dignity, and profundity, sets forth the\ntrue principle, not only of Christian giving, but of Christian asking.\nThe text advises that the gushing sentiments of brotherly sympathy and\nliberality which had inspired the Corinthians a year ago should now bear\nsome fruit in action. So Paul is going to send Titus, his right-hand man\nat the time, to hurry up and finish off the collection and have done\nwith it. The text is in effect the message which Titus was to carry; but\nit has a far wider application than that. It is a needful advice for us\nall about a great many other things: 'As there was a readiness to will,\nso let there be a performance also.'\n\nResolutions, noble and good and Christlike, have a strange knack of\ncheating the people who make them. So we all need the exhortation not to\nbe befooled by fancying that we have done, when we have only willed. Of\ncourse we shall not do unless we will. But there is a wide gap, as our\nexperience witnesses, between the two things. We all know what place it\nis to which, according to the old proverb, the road is paved with good\nintentions; and the only way to pull up that paving is to take Paul's\nadvice here and always, and immediately to put into action the resolves\nof our hearts. Now I desire to say two or three very plain and simple\nthings about this matter.\n\nI. I would have you consider the necessity of this commandment.\n\nConsider that the fault here warned against is a universal one. What\ndifferent men we should be if our resolutions had fruited in conduct! In\nall regions of life that is true, but most emphatically is it true in\nregard to religion. The damning tragedy of many lives, and I dare say of\nthose of some of my hearers, is that men have over and over again\ndetermined that they would be Christians, and they are not Christians\nyet; just because they have let 'the native hue of resolution be\nsicklied over' by some paleness or other, and so have resolved and\nresolved and resolved till every nerve of action is rotted away, and\nthey will die unchristian. I dare say that there are men or women\nlistening to me now, perhaps with grey hairs upon them, who can remember\ntimes, in the springtide of their youth, when they said, 'I will give my\nheart to Jesus Christ, and set my faith upon Him'; and they have not\ndone it yet. Now, therefore, 'as there was a readiness to will, let\nthere be also the performance.'\n\nBut it is not only in regard to that most important of all resolves that\nI wish to say a word. All Christians, I am sure, know what it is, over\nand over again, to have had stirrings in their hearts which they have\nbeen able to consolidate into determination, but have not been able to\ncarry into act. 'The children have come to the birth, and there is not\nstrength to bring them forth.' That is true about all of us, more or\nless, and it is very solemnly true of a great many of us professing\nChristians. We have tried to cure--we have determined that we will\ncure--manifest and flagrant defects or faults in our Christian life. We\nhave resolved, and some nipping frost has come, and the blossoms have\ndropped on the grass before they have ever set into fruit. I know that\nis so about you, because I know that it is so about myself. And\ntherefore, dear brethren, I appeal to you, and ask you whether the\nexhortation of my text has not a sharp point for every one of\nus--whether the universality of this defect does not demand that we all\nshould gravely consider the exhortation here before us?\n\nThen, again, let me remind you how this injunction is borne in upon us\nby the consideration of the strength of the opposition with which we\nhave always to contend, in every honest attempt to bring to act our best\nresolutions. Did you ever try to cure some little habit, some mere\ntrifle, a trick of manner or twist of the finger, or some attitude or\ntone that might be ugly and awkward, and that people told you that it\nwould be better to get rid of? You know how hard it is. There is always\na tremendous gulf between the ideal and its realisation in life. As long\nas we are moving _in vacuo_ we move without any friction or difficulty;\nbut as soon as we come out into a world where there are an atmosphere\nand opposing forces, then friction comes in, and speed diminishes; and\nwe never become what we aim to be. We begin with grand purposes, and we\nend with very poor results. We all start, in our early days, with the\nnotion that our lives are going to be radiant and beautiful, and all\nunlike what the limitations of power and the antagonisms that we have to\nmeet make of them at last. The tree of our life's doings has to grow,\nlike those contorted pines on the slopes of the Alps, in many storms,\nwith heavy weights of snow on its branches, and beaten about by tempests\nfrom every quarter of the heavens; and so it gets gnarled and knotted\nand very unlike the symmetrical beauty that we dreamed would adorn it.\nWe begin with saying: 'Come! Let us build a tower whose top shall reach\nto heaven'; and we are contented at last, if we have put up some little\ntumble-down shed where we can get shelter for our heads from the blast.\n\nAnd the difficulty in bringing into action our best selves besets us in\nthe matter of translating our resolutions into practice. What are\narrayed against it? A feeble will, enslaved too often by passions and\nflesh and habits, and all about us lie obstacles to our carrying into\naction our conscientious convictions, our deepest resolutions; obstacles\nto our being true to our true selves; to which obstacles, alas, far too\nmany of us habitually, and all of us occasionally, succumb. That being\nthe case, do not we all need to ponder in our deepest hearts, and to\npray for grace to make the motto of our lives, 'As there was a readiness\nto will, let there be a performance'?\n\nII. Consider the importance of this counsel.\n\nThat is borne in upon mind and conscience by looking at the disastrous\neffects of letting resolutions remain sterile. Consider how apt we are\nto deceive ourselves with unfulfilled purposes. The quick response which\nan easily-moved nature may make to some appeal of noble thought or lofty\nprinciple is mistaken for action, and we are tempted to think that\nwilling is almost as good as if we had done what we half resolved on.\nAnd there is a kind of glow of satisfaction that comes when such a man\nthinks, 'I have done well in that I have determined.' The Devil will let\nyou resolve as much as you like--the more the better; only the more\neasily you resolve, the more certainly he will block the realisation.\nLet us take care of that seducing temptation which is apt to lead us all\nto plume ourselves on good resolutions, and to fancy that they are\nalmost equivalent to their own fulfilment. Cheques are all very well if\nthere be bullion in the bank cellars to pay them with when they fall\ndue, but if that be not so, then the issuing of them is crime and fraud.\nOur resolutions, made and forgotten as so many of our good resolutions\nare, are very little better.\n\nNote, too, how rapidly the habit of substituting lightly-made\nresolutions for seriously-endeavoured acts grows.\n\nAnd mark, further, how miserable and debilitating it is to carry the\ndead weight of such unaccomplished intentions.\n\nNothing so certainly weakens a man as a multitude of resolves that he\nknows he has never fulfilled. They weaken his will, burden his\nconscience, stand in the way of his hopes, make him feel as if the\nentail of evil was too firm and strong to be ever broken. 'O wretched\nman that I am!' said one who had made experience of what it was to will\nwhat was good, and not to find how to perform, 'who shall deliver me\nfrom the body of this death?' It is an awful thing to have to carry a\ncorpse about on your back. And that was what Paul thought the man did\nwho loaded his own shoulders with abortive resolutions, that perished\nin the birth, and never grew up to maturity. Weak and miserable is\nalways the man who is swift to resolve and slow to carry out his\nresolutions.\n\nIII. And now let me say a word before I close about how this universal\nand grave disease is to be coped with.\n\nWell, I should say to begin with, let us take very soberly and\ncontinually into our consciousness the recognition of the fact that the\ndisease is there. And then may I say, let us be rather slower to resolve\nthan we often are. 'Better is it that thou shouldest not vow than that\nthou shouldest vow and not pay.' The man who has never had the\ndetermination to give up some criminal indulgence--say, drink--is\npossibly less criminal, and certainly less weak, than the man who, when\nhis head aches, and the consequences of his self-indulgence are vividly\nrealised by him, makes up his mind to be a teetotaller, and soon\nstumbles into the first dram-shop that is open, and then reels out a\ndrunkard. Do not vow until you have made up your minds to pay. Remember\nthat it is a solemn act to determine anything, especially anything\nbearing on moral and religious life; and that you had far better keep\nyour will in suspense than spring to the resolution with thoughtless\nlevity and leave it with the same.\n\nFurther, the habit of promptly carrying out our resolves is one that,\nlike all other habits, can be cultivated. And we can cultivate it in\nlittle things, in the smallest trifles of daily life, which by their\nmyriads make up life itself, in order that it may be a fixed custom of\nour minds when great resolves have to be made. The man who has trained\nhimself day in and day out, in regard to the insignificances of daily\nlife, to let act follow resolve as the thunder peal succeeds the\nlightning flash, is the man who, if he is moved to make a great resolve\nabout his religion, or about his conduct, will be most likely to carry\nit out. Get the magical influence of habit on your side, and you will\nhave done much to conquer the evil of abortive resolutions.\n\nBut then there is something a great deal more than that to be said. The\nApostle did not content himself, in the passage already referred to,\nwith bewailing the wretchedness of the condition in which to will was\npresent, but how to perform he found not. He asked, and he triumphantly\nanswered, the question, 'Who shall deliver me?' with the great words, 'I\nthank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' There is the secret; keep near\nHim, trust Him, open your hearts to the influences of that Divine Spirit\nwho makes us free from the law of sin and death. And if thus, knowing\nour weakness, recognising our danger, humbly trying to cultivate the\nhabit of prompt discharge of all discerned duty, we leave ourselves in\nJesus Christ's hands, and wait, and ask, and believe that we possess,\nHis cleansing Spirit, then we shall not ask and wait in vain. 'Work out\nyour own salvation, . . . for it is God that worketh in you, both the\nwilling and the doing.'\n\n\n\n\nALL GRACE ABOUNDING\n\n 'God is able to make all grace abound toward you;\n that ye, always having all-sufficiency in all\n things, may abound to every good work.'--2 COR.\n ix. 8.\n\n\nIn addition to all his other qualities the Apostle was an extremely good\nman of business; and he had a field for the exercise of that quality in\nthe collection for the poor saints of Judea, which takes up so much of\nthis letter, and occupied for so long a period so much of his thoughts\nand efforts. It was for the sake of showing by actual demonstration that\nwould 'touch the hearts' of the Jewish brethren, the absolute unity of\nthe two halves of the Church, the Gentile and the Jewish, that the\nApostle took so much trouble in this matter. The words which I have read\nfor my text come in the midst of a very earnest appeal to the Corinthian\nChristians for their pecuniary help. He is dwelling upon the same\nthought which is expressed in the well-known words: 'What I gave I kept;\nwhat I kept I lost.'\n\nBut whilst the words of my text primarily applied to money matters, you\nsee that they are studiously general, universal. The Apostle, after his\nfashion, is lifting up a little 'secular' affair into a high spiritual\nregion; and he lays down in my text a broad general law, which goes to\nthe very depths of the Christian life.\n\nNow, notice, we have here in three clauses three stages which we may\nventure to distinguish as the fountain, the basin, the stream. 'God is\nable to make all grace abound toward you';--there is the fountain. 'That\nye always, having all-sufficiency in all things';--there is the basin\nthat receives the gush from the fountain. 'May abound in every good\nwork';--there is the steam that comes from the basin. The fountain pours\ninto the basin, that the flow from the basin may feed the stream.\n\nNow this thought of Paul's goes to the heart of things. So let us look\nat it.\n\nI. The Fountain.\n\nThe Christian life in all its aspects and experiences is an outflow from\nthe 'the Fountain of Life,' the giving God. Observe how emphatically the\nApostle, in the context, accumulates words that express universality:\n'_all_ grace . . . _all_-sufficiency for _all_ things . . . _every_ good\nwork.' But even these expressions do not satisfy Paul, and he has to\nrepeat the word 'abound,' in order to give some faint idea of his\nconception of the full tide which gushes from the fountain. It is 'all\ngrace,' and it is abounding grace.\n\nNow what does he mean by 'grace'? That word is a kind of shorthand for\nthe whole sum of the unmerited blessings which come to men through Jesus\nChrist. Primarily, it describes what we, for want of a better\nexpression, have to call a 'disposition' in the divine nature; and it\nmeans, then, if so looked at, the unconditioned, undeserved,\nspontaneous, eternal, stooping, pardoning love of God. That is grace, in\nthe primary New Testament use of the phrase.\n\nBut there are no idle 'dispositions' in God. They are always energising,\nand so the word glides from meaning the disposition, to meaning the\nmanifestation and activities of it, and the 'grace' of our Lord is that\nlove in exercise. And then, since the divine energies are never\nfruitless, the word passes over, further, to mean all the blessed and\nbeautiful things in a soul which are the consequences of the Promethean\ntruth of God's loving hand, the outcome in life of the inward bestowment\nwhich has its cause, its sole cause, in God's ceaseless, unexhausted\nlove, unmerited and free.\n\nThat, very superficially and inadequately set forth, is at least a\nglimpse into the fulness and greatness of meaning that lies in that\nprofound New Testament word, 'grace.' But the Apostle here puts\nemphasis on the variety of forms which the one divine gift assumes.\nIt is '_all_ grace' which God is able to make abound toward you. So\nthen, you see this one transcendent gift from the divine heart, when\nit comes into our human experience, is like a meteor when it passes\ninto the atmosphere of earth, and catches fire and blazes, showering\nout a multitude of radiant points of light. The grace is\nmany-sided--many-sided to us, but one in its source and in its\ncharacter. For at bottom, that which God in His grace gives to us as His\ngrace is what? Himself; or if you like to put it in another form, which\ncomes to the same thing--new life through Jesus Christ. That is the\nencyclopaediacal gift, which contains within itself all grace. And just\nas the physical life in each of us, one in all its manifestations,\nproduces many results, and shines in the eye, and blushes in the cheek,\nand gives strength to the arm, and flexibility and deftness to the\nfingers and swiftness to the foot: so also is that one grace which,\nbeing manifold in its manifestations, is one in its essence. There are\nmany graces, there is one Grace.\n\nBut this grace is not only many-sided, but abounding. It is not\ncongruous with God's wealth, nor with His love, that He should give\nscantily, or, as it were, should open but a finger of the hand that is\nfull of His gifts, and let out a little at a time. There are no sluices\non that great stream so as to regulate its flow, and to give sometimes a\npainful trickle and sometimes a full gush, but this fountain is always\npouring itself out, and it 'abounds.'\n\nBut then we are pulled up short by another word in this first clause:\n'God is _able_ to make.' Paul does not say, 'God will make.' He puts the\nwhole weight of responsibility for that ability becoming operative upon\nus. There are conditions; and although we may have access to that full\nfountain, it will not pour on us 'all grace' and 'abundant grace,'\nunless we observe these, and so turn God's ability to give into actual\ngiving. And how do we do that? By desire, by expectance, by petition,\nby faithful stewardship. If we have these things, if we have tutored\nourselves, and experience has helped in the tuition, to make large our\nexpectancy, God will smile down upon us and 'do exceeding abundantly\nabove all' that we 'think' as well as above all that we 'ask.' Brethren,\nif our supplies are scant, when the full fountain is gushing at our\nsides, we are 'not straitened in God, we are straitened in ourselves.'\nChristian possibilities are Christian obligations, and what we might\nhave and do not have, is our condemnation.\n\nI turn, in the next place, to what I have, perhaps too fancifully,\ncalled\n\nII. The Basin.\n\n'God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, having always\nall-sufficiency in all things, may,' . . . etc.\n\nThe result of all this many-sided and exuberant outpouring of grace from\nthe fountain is that the basin may be full. Considering the infinite\nsource and the small receptacle, we might have expected something more\nthan 'sufficiency' to have resulted.\n\nDivine grace is sufficient. Is it not more than sufficient? Yes, no\ndoubt. But what Paul wishes us to feel is this--to put it into very\nplain English--that the good gifts of the divine grace will always be\nproportioned to our work, and to our sufferings too. We shall feel that\nwe have enough, if we are as we ought to be. Sufficiency is more than a\nman gets anywhere else. 'Enough is as good as a feast.' And if we have\nstrength, which we may have, to do the day's tasks, and strength to\ncarry the day's crosses, and strength to accept the day's sorrows, and\nstrength to master the day's temptations, that is as much as we need\nwish to have, even out of the fulness of God. And we shall get it, dear\nbrethren, if we will only fulfil the conditions. If we exercise\nexpectance, and desire and petition and faithful stewardship, we shall\nget what we need. 'Thy shoes shall be iron and brass,' if the road is a\nsteep and rocky one that would wear out leather. 'As thy days so shall\nthy strength be.' God does not hurl His soldiers in a blundering attack\non some impregnable mountain, where they are slain in heaps at the base;\nbut when He lays a commandment on my shoulders, He infuses strength into\nme, and according to the good homely old saying that has brought comfort\nto many a sad and weighted heart, makes the back to bear the burden. The\nheavy task or the crushing sorrow is often the key that opens the door\nof God's treasure-house. You have had very little experience either of\nlife or of Christian life, if you have not learnt by this time that the\nharder your work, and the darker your sorrows, the mightier have been\nGod's supports, and the more starry the lights that have shone upon your\npath. 'That ye, always having all-sufficiency in all things.'\n\nOne more word: this sufficiency _should be_ more uniform, _is_ uniform\nin the divine intention, and in so far as the flow of the fountain is\nconcerned. Always having had I may be sure that I always shall have. Of\ncourse I know that, in so far as our physical nature conditions our\nspiritual experience, there will be ups and downs, moments of\nemancipation and moments of slavery. There will be times when the flower\nopens, and times when it shuts itself up. But I am sure that the great\nmass of Christian people might have a far more level temperature in\ntheir Christian experience than they have; that we could, if we would,\nhave far more experimental knowledge of this 'always' of my text. God\nmeans that the basin should be always full right up to the top of the\nmarble edge, and that the more is drawn off from it, the more should\nflow into it. But it is very often like the reservoirs in the hills for\nsome great city in a drought, where great stretches of the bottom are\nexposed, and again, when the drought breaks, are full to the top of the\nretaining wall. That should not be. Our Christian life should run on the\nhigh levels. Why does it not? Possibilities are duties.\n\nAnd now, lastly, we have here what, adhering to my metaphor, I call\n\nIII. The stream.\n\n'That ye, always having all-sufficiency in all things, may abound to\nevery good work.'\n\nThat is what God gives us His grace for; and that is a very important\nconsideration. The end of God's dealings with us, poor, weak, sinful\ncreatures, is character and conduct. Of course you can state the end in\na great many other ways; but there have been terrible evils arising from\nthe way in which Evangelical preachers have too often talked, as if the\nend of God's dealings with us was the vague thing which they call\n'salvation,' and by which many of their hearers take them to mean\nneither more nor less than dodging Hell. But the New Testament, with all\nits mysticism, even when it soars highest, and speaks most about the\nperfection of humanity, and the end of God's dealings being that we may\nbe 'filled with the fulness of God,' never loses its wholesome, sane\nhold of the common moralities of daily life, and proclaims that we\nreceive all, in order that we may be able to 'maintain good works for\nnecessary uses.' And if we lay that to heart, and remember that a\ncorrect creed, and a living faith, and precious, select, inward emotions\nand experiences are all intended to evolve into lives, filled and\nradiant with common moralities and 'good works'--not meaning thereby the\nthings which go by that name in popular phraseology, but 'whatsoever\nthings are lovely . . . and of good report'--then we shall understand a\nlittle better what we are here for and what Jesus Christ died for, and\nwhat His Spirit is given and lives in us for. So 'good works' is the\nend, in one very important aspect, of all that avalanche of grace which\nhas been from eternity rushing down upon us from the heights of God.\n\nThere is one more thing to note, and that is that, in our character and\nconduct, we should copy the 'giving grace.' Look how eloquently and\nsignificantly, in the first and last clauses of my text, the same words\nrecur. 'God is able to make _all_ grace abound, that ye may _abound_ in\n_all_ good work.' Copy God in the many-sidedness and in the copiousness\nof the good that flows out from your life and conduct, because of your\npossession of that divine grace. And remember, 'to him that hath shall\nbe given.' We pray for more grace; we need to pray for that, no doubt.\nDo we use the grace that God has given us? If we do not, the remainder\nof that great word which I have just quoted will be fulfilled in you.\nGod forbid that any of us should receive the grace of God in vain, and\ntherefore come under the stern and inevitable sentence, 'From him that\nhath not shall be taken away, even that which he hath!'\n\n\n\n\nGOD'S UNSPEAKABLE GIFT\n\n 'Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.'--2\n COR. ix. 15.\n\n\nIt seems strange that there should ever have been any doubt as to what\ngift it is which evokes this burst of thanksgiving. There is but one of\nGod's many mercies which is worthy of being thus singled out. There is\none blazing central sun which shines out amidst all the galaxy of lights\nwhich fill the heavens. There is one gift of God which, beyond all\nothers, merits the designation of 'unspeakable.' The gift of Christ\ndraws all other divine gifts after it. 'How should He not with Him also\nfreely give us all things.'\n\nThe connection in which this abrupt jet of praise stands is very\nremarkable. The Apostle has been dwelling on the Christian obligation of\ngiving bountifully and cheerfully, and on the great law that a glad\ngiver is 'enriched' and not impoverished thereby, whilst the recipients,\nfor their part, are blessed by having thankfulness evoked towards the\ngivers. And that contemplation of the happy interchange of benefit and\nthanks between men leads the fervid Apostle to the thoughts which were\nalways ready to spring to his lips--of God as the great pattern of\ngiving and of the gratitude to Him which should fill all our souls. The\nexpression here 'unspeakable' is what I wish chiefly to fix upon now. It\nmeans literally that which cannot be fully declared. Language fails\nbecause thought fails.\n\nI. The gift comes from unspeakable love.\n\nGod _so_ loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. The love is\nthe cause of the gift: the gift is the expression of the love. John's\nGospel says that the Son which is in the bosom of the Father has\n_declared_ Him. Paul here uses a related word for _unspeakable_ which\nmight be rendered 'that which cannot be fully declared.' The declaration\nof the Father partly consists in this, that He is declared to be\nundeclarable, the proclamation of His name consists partly in this that\nit is proclaimed to be a name that cannot be proclaimed. Language fails\nwhen it is applied to the expression of human emotion; no tongue can\never fully serve the heart. Whether there be any thoughts too great for\nwords or no, there are emotions too great. Language is ever 'weaker than\nour grief' and not seldom weaker than our love. It is but the surface\nwater that can be run off through the narrow channel of speech: the\ncentral deep remains. If it be so with human affection, how much more\nmust it be so with God's love? With lowly condescension He uses all\nsweet images drawn from earthly relationships, to help us in\nunderstanding His. Every dear name is pressed into the service--father,\nmother, husband, wife, brother, friend, and after all are exhausted, the\nlove which clothed itself in them all in turn, and used them all to give\nsome faint hint of its own perfection, remains unspoken. We know human\nlove, its limitations, its changes, its extravagances, its shortcomings,\nand cannot but feel how unworthy it is to mirror for us that perfection\nin God which we venture to name by a name so soiled. The analogies\nbetween what we call love in man and love in God must be supplemented by\nthe differences between them, if we are ever to approach a worthy\nconception of the unspeakable love that underlies the unspeakable gift.\n\nII. The gift involves unspeakable sacrifice.\n\nHuman love desires to give its most precious treasures to its object\nand is then most blessed: divine love cannot come short of human in this\nmost characteristic of its manifestations. Surely the copy is not to\nsurpass the original, nor the mirror to flash more brightly than the sun\nwhich, at the brightest, it but reflects. In such a matter we can but\nstammer when we try to find words. As our text warns us, we are trying\nto utter the unutterable when we seek to speak of God's giving up for\nus; but however such a thought may seem to be forbidden by other aspects\nof the divine nature, it seems to be involved in the great truth that\n'God is love.' Since He is, His blessedness too, must be in imparting,\nand in parting with what He gives. A humble worshipper in Jewish times\nloved enough to say that he would not offer unto God an offering that\ncost him nothing, and that loving height of self-surrender was at the\nhighest, but a lowly imitation of the love to which it looked up. When\nPaul in the Epistle to the Romans says, 'He that spared not His own Son\nbut delivered Him up for us all,' he is obviously alluding to, and all\nbut quoting, the divine words to Abraham, 'Seeing thou hast not withheld\nthy son, thine only son, from Me,' and the allusion permits us to\nparallel what God did when He sent His Son with what Abraham did when,\nwith wrung heart, but with submission, he bound and laid Isaac on the\naltar and stretched forth his hand with the knife in it to slay him.\nSuch a representation contradicts the vulgar conceptions of a\npassionless, self-sufficing, icy deity, but reflection on the facts of\nour own experience and on the blessed secrets of our own love, leads us\nto believe that some shadow of loss passed across the infinite and\neternal completeness of the divine nature when 'God sent forth His Son\nmade of a woman.' And may we not go further and say that when Jesus on\nthe Cross cried from out of the darkness of eclipse, 'My God! My God!\nWhy hast Thou forsaken me?' there was something in the heavens\ncorresponding to the darkness that covered the earth and something in\nthe Father's heart that answered the Son's. But our text warns us that\nsuch matters are not for our handling in speech, and are best dealt\nwith, not as matters of possibly erring speculation, but as materials\nfor lowly thanks unto God for His unspeakable gift.\n\nBut whatever may be true about the love of the Father who sent, there\ncan be no doubt about the love of the Son who came. No man helps his\nfellows in suffering but at the cost of his own suffering. Sympathy\nmeans _fellow-feeling_, and the one indispensable condition of all\nrescue work of any sort is that the rescuer must bear on his own\nshoulders the sins or sorrows that he is able to bear away. Heartless\nhelp is no help. It does not matter whether he who 'stands and says, \"Be\nye clothed and fed,\"' gives or does not give 'the things necessary,' he\nwill be but a 'miserable comforter' if he has not in heart and feeling\nentered into the sorrows and pains which he seeks to alleviate. We need\nnot dwell on the familiar truths concerning Him who was a 'man of\nsorrows and acquainted with grief.' All through His life He was in\ncontact with evil, and for Him the contact was like that of a naked hand\npressed upon hot iron. The sins and woes of the world made His path\nthrough it like that of bare feet on sharp flints. If He had never died\nit would still have been true that 'He was wounded for our\ntransgressions and bruised for our iniquities.' On the Cross He\ncompleted the libation which had continued throughout His life and\n'poured out His soul unto death' as He had been pouring it out all\nthrough His life. We have no measure by which we can estimate the\ninevitable sufferings in such a world as ours of such a spirit as\nChrist's. We may know something of the solitude of uncongenial society;\nof the pain of seeing miseries that we cannot comfort, of the horrors of\ndwelling amidst impurities that we cannot cleanse, and of longings to\nescape from them all to some nest in the wilderness, but all these are\nbut the feeblest shadows of the incarnate sorrows whose name among men\nwas Jesus. Nothing is more pathetic than the way in which our Lord kept\nall these sorrows close locked within His own heart, so that scarcely\never did they come to light. Once He did permit a glimpse into that\nhidden chamber when He said, 'O faithless generation, how long shall I\nbe with you, how long shall I suffer you?' But for the most part His\nsorrow was unspoken because it was 'unspeakable.' Once beneath the\nquivering olives in the moonlight of Gethsemane, He made a pitiful\nappeal for the little help which three drowsy men could give Him, when\nHe cried, 'My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry ye\nhere and watch with Me,' but for the most part the silence at which His\njudges 'marvelled greatly,' and raged as much as they marvelled, was\nunbroken, and as 'a sheep before her shearers is dumb,' so 'He opened\nnot His mouth.' The sacrifice of His death was, for the most part,\nsilent like the sacrifice of His life. Should it not call forth from us\nfloods of praise and thanks to God for His unspeakable gift?\n\nIII. The gift brings with it unspeakable results.\n\nIn Christ are hid 'all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.' When God\ngave us Him, He gave us a storehouse in which are contained treasures of\ntruth which can never be fully comprehended, and which, even if\ncomprehended, can never be exhausted. The mystery of the Divine Name\nrevealed in Jesus, the mystery of His person, are themes on which the\nChristian world has been nourished ever since, and which are as full of\nfood, not for the understanding only, but far more for the heart and the\nwill, to-day as ever they were. The world may think that it has left the\nteaching of Jesus behind, but in reality the teaching is far ahead, and\nthe world's practise is but slowly creeping towards its imperfect\nattainment. The Gospel is the guide of the race, and each generation\ngathers something more from it, and progresses in the measure in which\nit follows Christ; and as for the race, so for the individual. Each of\nChrist's scholars finds his own gift, and in the measure of his\nfaithfulness to what he has found makes ever new discoveries in the\nunsearchable riches of Christ. After all have fed full there still\nremain abundant baskets full to be taken up.\n\nHe who has sounded the depths of Jesus most completely is ever the first\nto acknowledge that he has been but as a child 'gathering pebbles on the\nbeach while the great ocean lies unsounded before him.' No single soul,\nand no multitude of souls, can exhaust Jesus; neither our individual\nexperiences, nor the experiences of a believing world can fully realise\nthe endless wealth laid up in Him. He is the Alpha and the Omega of all\nour speech, the first letter and the last of our alphabet, between which\nlie all the rest.\n\nThe gift is completed in consequences yet unspeakable. Even the first\nblessings which the humblest faith receives from the pierced hands have\nmore in them than words can tell. Who has ever spoken adequately and in\nfull correspondence with reality what it is to have God's pardoning\nlove flowing in upon the soul? Many singers have sung sweet psalms and\nhymns and spiritual songs on which generations of devout souls have fed,\nbut none of them has spoken the deepest blessedness of a Christian life,\nor the calm raptures of communion with God. It is easy to utter the\nwords 'forgiveness, reconciliation, acceptance, fellowship, eternal\nlife'; the syllables can be spoken, but who knows or can utter the\ndepths of the meanings? After all human words the half has not been told\nus, and as every soul carries within itself unrevealable emotions, and\nis a mystery after all revelation, so the things which God's gift brings\nto a soul are after all speech unspeakable, and the words 'cannot be\nuttered' which they who are caught up into the third heavens hear.\n\nThen we may extend our thoughts to the future form of Christian\nexperience. 'It doth not yet appear what we should be.' All our\nconceptions of a future existence must necessarily be inadequate.\nNothing but experience can reveal them to us, and our experience there\nwill be capable of indefinite expansion, and through eternity there will\nbe endless growth in the appropriation of the unspeakable gift.\n\nFor us the only recompense that we can make for the unspeakable gift is\nto receive it with 'thanks unto God' and the yielding up of our hearts\nto Him. God pours this love upon us freely, without stint. It is\nunspeakable in the depths of its source, in the manner of its\nmanifestation, in the glory of its issues. It is like some great stream,\nrising in the trackless mountains, broad and deep, and leading on to a\nsunlit ocean. We stand on the bank; let us trust ourselves to its broad\nbosom. It will bear us safe. And let us take heed that we receive not\nthe gift of God _in vain_.\n\n\n\n\nA MILITANT MESSAGE\n\n 'Casting down imaginations, and every high thing\n that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and\n bringing every thought into captivity to the\n obedience of Christ; and being in readiness to\n avenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall\n be fulfilled.'--2 COR. x. 5 and 6 (R.V.).\n\n\nNone of Paul's letters are so full of personal feeling as this one is.\nIt is written, for the most part, at a white heat; he had heard from his\ntrusted Titus tidings which on one hand filled him with a thankfulness\nof which the first half of the letter is the expression; but there had\nalso been tidings of a very different kind, and from this point onwards\nthe letter is seething with the feelings which these had produced. There\nwas in the Corinthian Church a party, probably Judaisers, which denied\nhis authority and said bitter things about his character. They\napparently had contrasted the force of his letters and the feebleness of\nhis 'bodily presence' and speech. They insinuated that his 'bark was\nworse than his bite.' Their language put into plain English would be\nsomething like this, 'Ah! He is very bold at a distance, let him come\nand face us and we shall see a difference. Vapouring in his letters, he\nwill be meek enough when he is here.'\n\nThese slanderers seem to have thought of Paul as if he 'warred according\nto flesh,' and it is this charge, that he was actuated in his opposition\nto the evils in Corinth by selfish considerations and worldly interests,\nwhich seems to have set the Apostle on fire. In answer he pours out\nquick, indignant questionings, sharp irony, vehement self-vindication,\npassionate remonstrances, flashes of wrath, sudden jets of tenderness.\nWhat a position for him to have to say, 'I am not a low schemer; I am\nnot working for myself.' Yet it is the common lot of all such men to be\nmisread by little, crawling creatures who cannot believe in heroic\nself-forgetfulness. He answers the taunt that he 'walked according to\nthe flesh' in the context by saying, 'Yes, I live in the flesh, my\noutward life is like that of other men, but I do not go a-soldiering\n_according_ to the flesh. It is not for my own sinful self that I get\nthe rules of my life's battle, neither do I get my weapons from the\nflesh. They could not do what they do if that were their origin: they\nare of God and therefore mighty.' Then the metaphor as it were catches\nfire, and in our text he expands the figure of a warfare and sets before\nus the destruction of fortresses, the capture of their garrisons, and\nthe leading of them away into another land, the stern punishment of the\nrebels who still hold out, and the merciful delay in administering it.\nIt has been suggested that there is an allusion in our text to the\nextermination of the pirates in Paul's native Cilicia which happened\nsome fifty or sixty years before his birth and ended in destroying their\nrobber-holds and taking some thousands of prisoners. Whether that be so\nor no, the Apostle's kindled imagination sets forth here great truths as\nto the effects which his message is meant to produce and, thank God, has\nproduced.\n\nI. The opposing fortresses.\n\nThe Apostle conceives of himself and of his brother preachers of Christ\nas going forth on a merciful warfare. He thinks of strong rock\nfortresses, with lofty walls set on high, and frowning down on any\nassailants. No doubt he is thinking first of the opposition which he had\nto front in Corinth from the Judaisers to whom we have referred, but the\napplication of the metaphor goes far beyond the petty strife in Corinth\nand carries for us the wholesome lesson that one main cause which keeps\nmen back from Christ is a too high estimate of themselves. Some of us\nare enclosed in the fortress of self-sufficiency: we will not humbly\nacknowledge our dependence on God, and have turned self-reliance into\nthe law of our lives. There are many voices, some of them sweet and\npowerful, which to-day are preaching that gospel. It finds eager\nresponse in many hearts, and there is something in us all to which it\nappeals. We are often tempted to say defiantly, 'Who is Lord over us?'\nAnd the teaching that bids us rely on ourselves is so wholly in accord\nwith the highest wisdom and the noblest life that what is good and what\nis evil in each of us contribute to reinforce it. Self-dependence is a\ngreat virtue, and the mother of much energy and nobleness, but it is\nalso a great error and a great sin. To be so self-sufficing as not to\nneed externals is good; to be so self-sufficing as not to need or to see\nGod is ruin and death. The title which, as one of our great thinkers\ntells us, a humourist put on the back of a volume of heterodox tracts,\n'Every man his own redeemer,' makes a claim for self-sufficiency which\nmore or less unconsciously shuts out many men from the salvation of\nChrist.\n\nThere is the fortress of culture and the pride of it in which many of us\nare to-day entrenched against the Gospel. The attitude of mind into\nwhich persons of culture tend to fall is distinctly adverse to their\nreception of the Gospel, and that is not because the Gospel is adverse\nto culture, but because cultured people do not care to be put on the\nsame level with publicans and harlots. They would be less disinclined to\ngo into the feast if there were in it reserved seats for superior people\nand a private entrance to them. If the wise and prudent were more of\nboth, they would be liker the babes to whom these things are revealed,\nand they would be revealed to them too. Not knowledge but the\nsuperciliousness which is the result of the conceit of knowledge hinders\nfrom God, and is one of the strongest fortresses against which the\nweapons of our warfare have to be employed.\n\nThere is the fortress of ignorance. Most men who are kept from Christ\nare so because they know neither themselves nor God. The most widely\nprevailing characteristic of the superficial life of most men is their\nabsolute unconsciousness of the fact of sin; they neither know it as\nuniversal nor as personal. They have never gone deeply enough down into\nthe depths of their own hearts to have come up scared at the ugly things\nthat lie sleeping there, nor have they ever reflected on their own\nconduct with sufficient gravity to discern its aberrations from the law\nof right, hence the average man is quite unconscious of sin, and is a\ncomplete stranger to himself. The cup has been drunk by and intoxicated\nthe world, and the masses of men are quite unaware that it has\nintoxicated them.\n\nThey are ignorant of God as they are of themselves, and if at any time,\nby some flash of light, they see themselves as they are, they think of\nGod as if He were altogether such an one as themselves, and fall back on\na vague trust in the vaguer mercy of their half-believed-in God as their\nhope for a vague salvation. Men who thus walk in a vain show will never\nfeel their need of Jesus, and the lazy ignorance of themselves and the\nas lazy trust in what they call their God, are a fortress against which\nit will task the power of God to make any weapons of warfare mighty to\nits pulling down.\n\nII. The casting down of fortresses.\n\nThe first effect of any real contact with Christ and His Gospel is to\nreveal a man to himself, to shatter his delusive estimates of what he\nis, and to pull down about his ears the lofty fortress in which he has\nensconced himself. It seems strange work for what calls itself a Gospel\nto begin by forcing a man to cry out with sobs and tears, Oh, wretched\nman that I am! But no man will ever reach the heights to which Christ\ncan lift him, who does not begin his upward course by descending to the\ndepths into which Christ's Gospel begins its work by plunging him.\nUnconsciousness of sin is sure to lead to indifference to a Saviour, and\nunless we know ourselves to be miserable and poor and blind and naked,\nthe offer of gold refined by fire and white garments that we may clothe\nourselves will make no appeal to us. The fact of sin makes the need for\na Saviour; our individual sense of sin makes us sensible of our need of\na Saviour.\n\nPaul believed that the weapons of his warfare were mighty enough to cast\ndown the strongest of all strongholds in which men shut themselves up\nagainst the humbling Gospel of salvation by the mercy of God. The\nweapons to which he thus trusted were the same to which Jesus pointed\nHis disciples when, about to leave them, He said, 'When the Comforter is\ncome He will convict the world of sin because they believe not in Me.'\nJesus brought to the world the perfect revelation of the holiness of\nGod, and set before us all a divine pattern of manhood to rebuke and\ncondemn our stained and rebellious lives, and He turned us away from the\nsuperficial estimate of actions to the careful scrutiny of motives. By\nall these and many other ways He presented Himself to the world a\nperfect man, the incarnation of a holy God and the revelation and\ncondemnation of sinful humanity. Yet, all that miracle of loveliness,\ngentleness, and dignity is beheld by men without a thrill, and they see\nin Him no 'beauty that they should desire Him,' and no healing to which\nthey will trust. Paul's way of kindling penitence in impenitent spirits\nwas not to brandish over them the whips of law or to seek to shake souls\nwith terror of any hell, still less was it to discourse with philosophic\ncalm on the obligations of duty and the wisdom of virtuous living; his\nappeal to conscience was primarily the pressing on the heart of the love\nof God in Christ Jesus our Lord. When the heart is melted, the\nconscience will not long continue indurated. We cannot look lovingly and\nbelievingly at Jesus and then turn to look complacently on ourselves.\nNot to believe on Him is the sin of sins, and to be taught that it is so\nis the first step in the work of Him who never merits the name of the\nComforter more truly than when He convicts the world of sin.\n\nFor a Christianity that does not begin with the deep consciousness of\nsin has neither depth nor warmth and has scarcely vitality. The Gospel\nis no Gospel, and we had almost said, 'The Christ is no Christ' to one\nwho does not feel himself, if parted from Christ, 'dead in trespasses\nand sins.' Our religion depends for all its force, our gratitude and\nlove for all their devotion, upon our sense that 'the chastisement of\nour peace was laid upon Him, and that by His stripes we are healed.'\nSince He gave Himself for us, it is meet that we give ourselves to Him,\nbut there will be little fervour of devotion or self-surrender, unless\nthere has been first the consciousness of the death of sin and then the\njoyous consciousness of newness of life in Christ Jesus.\n\nIII. The captives led away to another land.\n\nThe Apostle carries on his metaphor one step further when he goes on to\ndescribe what followed the casting down of the fortresses. The enemy,\ndriven from their strongholds, have nothing for it but to surrender and\nare led away in captivity to another land. The long strings of prisoners\non Assyrian and Egyptian monuments show how familiar an experience this\nwas. It may be noted that perhaps our text regards the obedience of\nChrist as being the far country into which 'every thought was to be\nbrought.' At all events Paul's idea here is that the end of the whole\nstruggle between 'the flesh' and the weapons of God is to make men\nwilling captives of Jesus Christ. We are Christians in the measure in\nwhich we surrender our wills to Christ. That surrender rests upon, and\nis our only adequate answer to, His surrender for us. The 'obedience of\nChrist' is perfect freedom; His captives wear no chains and know nothing\nof forced service; His yoke is easy, not because it does not press hard\nupon the neck but because it is lined with love, and 'His burden is\nlight' not because of its own weight but because it is laid on us by\nlove and is carried by kindred love. He only commands himself who gladly\nlets Christ command him. Many a hard task becomes easy; crooked things\nare straightened out and rough places often made surprisingly plain for\nthe captives of Christ, whom He leads into the liberty of obedience to\nHim.\n\nIV. Fate of the disobedient.\n\nPaul thinks that in Corinth there will be found some stiff-necked\nopponents of whom he cannot hope that their 'obedience shall be\nfulfilled,' and he sees in the double issue of the small struggle that\nwas being waged in Corinth a parable of the wider results of the warfare\nin the world. 'Some believed and some believed not'; that has been the\nbrief summary of the experience of all God's messengers everywhere, and\nit is their experience to-day. No doubt when Paul speaks of 'being in\nreadiness to avenge all disobedience,' he is alluding to the exercise of\nhis apostolic authority against the obdurate antagonists whom he\ncontemplates as still remaining obdurate, and it is beautiful to note\nthe long-suffering patience with which he will hold his hand until all\nthat can be won has been won. But we must not forget that Paul's\ndemeanour is but a faint shadow of his Lord's, and that the weapons\nwhich were ready to avenge all disobedience were the weapons of God. If\na man steels himself against the efforts of divine love, builds up round\nhimself a fortress of self-righteousness and locks its gates against the\nmerciful entrance of convictions of sin and the knowledge of a Saviour,\nand if he therefore lives, year in, year out, in disobedience, the\nweapons which he thinks himself to have resisted will one day make him\nfeel their edge. We cannot set ourselves against the salvation of Jesus\nwithout bringing upon ourselves consequences which are wholly evil and\nharmful. Torpid consciences, hungry hearts, stormy wills, tyrannous\ndesires, vain hopes and not vain fears come to be, by slow degrees, the\ntortures of the man who drops the portcullis and lifts the bridge\nagainst the entrance of Jesus. There are hells enough on earth if men's\nhearts were displayed.\n\nBut the love which is obliged to smite gives warning that it is ready to\navenge, long before it lets the blow fall, and does so in order that it\nmay never need to fall. As long as it is possible that the disobedient\nshall become obedient to Christ, He holds back the vengeance that is\nready to fall and will one day fall 'on all disobedience.' Not till all\nother means have been patiently tried will He let that terrible ending\ncrash down. It hangs over the heads of many of us who are all unaware\nthat we walk beneath the shadow of a rock that at any moment may be set\nin motion and bury us beneath its weight. It is 'in readiness,' but it\nis still at rest. Let us be wise in time and yield to the merciful\nweapons with which Jesus would make His way into our hearts. Or if the\nmetaphor of our text presents Him in too warlike a guise, let us listen\nto His own gentle pleading, 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if\nany man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him.'\n\n\n\n\nSIMPLICITY TOWARDS CHRIST\n\n 'But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent\n beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds\n should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in\n Christ.'--2 COR. xi. 3.\n\n\nThe Revised Version, amongst other alterations, reads, 'the simplicity\nthat is _towards_ Christ.'\n\nThe inaccurate rendering of the Authorised Version is responsible for a\nmistake in the meaning of these words, which has done much harm. They\nhave been supposed to describe a quality or characteristic belonging to\nChrist or the Gospel; and, so construed, they have sometimes been made\nthe watchword of narrowness and of intellectual indolence. 'Give us the\nsimple Gospel' has been the cry of people who have thought themselves to\nbe evangelical when they were only lazy, and the consequence has been\nthat preachers have been expected to reiterate commonplaces, which have\nmade both them and their hearers listless, and to sink the educational\nfor the evangelistic aspect of the Christian teacher's function.\n\nIt is quite true that the Gospel is simple, but it is also true that it\nis deep, and they will best appreciate its simplicity who have most\nhonestly endeavoured to fathom its depth. When we let our little\nsounding lines out, and find that they do not reach the bottom, we begin\nto wonder even more at the transparency of the clear abyss. It is not\nsimplicity _in_ Christ, but _towards_ Christ of which the Apostle is\nspeaking; not a quality in Him, but a quality in _us_ towards Him. I\nwish, then, to turn to the two thoughts that these words suggest. First\nand chiefly, the attitude towards Christ which befits our relation to\nHim; and, secondly and briefly, the solicitude for its maintenance.\n\nI. First, then, look at the attitude towards Christ which befits the\nChristian relation to Him.\n\nThe word 'simplicity' has had a touch of contempt associated with it. It\nis a somewhat doubtful compliment to say of a man that he is\n'simple-minded.' All noble words which describe great qualities get\noxidised by exposure to the atmosphere, and rust comes over them, as\nindeed all good things tend to become deteriorated in time and by use.\nBut the notion of the word is really a very noble and lofty one. To be\n'without a fold,' which is the meaning of the Greek word and of its\nequivalent 'simplicity,' is, in one aspect, to be transparently honest\nand true, and in another to be out and out of a piece. There is no\nunderside of the cloth, doubled up beneath the upper which shows, and\nrunning in the opposite direction; but all tends in one way. A man with\nno under-currents, no by-ends, who is down to the very roots what he\nlooks, and all whose being is knit together and hurled in one direction,\nwithout reservation or back-drawing, that is the 'simple' man whom the\nApostle means. Such simplicity is the truest wisdom; such simplicity of\ndevotion to Jesus Christ is the only attitude of heart and mind which\ncorresponds to the facts of our relation to Him. That relation is set\nforth in the context by a very sweet and tender image, in the true line\nof scriptural teaching, which in many a place speaks of the Bride and\nBridegroom, and which on its last page shows us the Lamb's wife\ndescending from Heaven to meet her husband. The state of devout souls\nand of the community of such here on earth is that of betrothal. Their\nstate in heaven is that of marriage. Very beautiful it is to see how\nthis fiery Paul, like the ascetic John, who never knew the sacred joys\nof that state, lays hold of the thought of the Bridegroom and the Bride,\nand of his individual relation to both as indicating the duties of the\nChurch and the solicitude of the Apostle. He says that he has been the\nintermediary who, according to Oriental custom, arranged the\npreliminaries of the marriage, and brought the bride to the bridegroom,\nand, as the friend of the latter, standing by rejoices greatly to hear\nthe bridegroom's voice, and is solicitous mainly that in the tremulous\nheart of the betrothed there should be no admixture of other loves, but\na whole-hearted devotion, an exclusive affection, and an absolute\nobedience. 'I have espoused you,' says he, 'to one husband that I may\npresent you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest . . . your mind\nshould be corrupted from the simplicity that is towards Him.'\n\nNow that metaphor carries in its implication all that anybody can say\nabout the exclusiveness, the depth, the purity, the all-pervasiveness of\nthe dependent love which should knit us to Jesus Christ. The same\nthought of whole-hearted, single, absolute devotion is conveyed by\nother Scripture metaphors, the _slave_ and the _soldier_ of Christ. But\nall that is repellent or harsh in these is softened and glorified when\nwe contemplate it in the light of the metaphor of my text.\n\nSo I might leave it to do its own work, but I may perhaps be allowed to\nfollow out the thought in one or two directions.\n\nThe attitude, then, which corresponds to our relation to Jesus Christ is\nthat, first, of a faith which looks to Him exclusively as the source of\nsalvation and of light. The specific danger which was alarming Paul, in\nreference to that little community of Christians in Corinth, was one\nwhich, in its particular form, is long since dead and buried. But the\nprinciples which underlay it, the tendencies to which it appealed, and\nthe perils which alarmed Paul for the Corinthian Church, are perennial.\nHe feared that these Judaising teachers, who dogged his heels all his\nlife long, and whose one aim seemed to be to build upon his foundation\nand to overthrow his building, should find their way into this church\nand wreck it. The keenness of the polemic, in this and in the contextual\nchapters, shows how real and imminent the danger was. Now what they did\nwas to tell people that Jesus Christ had a partner in His saving work.\nThey said that obedience to the Jewish law, ceremonial and other, was a\ncondition of salvation, along with trust in Jesus Christ as the Messiah.\nAnd because they thus shared out the work of salvation between Jesus\nChrist and something else, Paul thundered and lightened at them all his\nlife, and, as he tells us in this context, regarded them as preaching\nanother Jesus, another spirit, and another gospel. That particular error\nis long dead and buried.\n\nBut is there nothing else that has come into its place? Has this old\nfoe not got a new face, and does not it live amongst us as really as it\nlived then? I think it does; whether in the form of the grosser kind of\nsacramentarianism and ecclesiasticism which sticks sacraments and a\nchurch in front of the Cross, or in the form of the definite denial that\nJesus Christ's death on the Cross is the one means of salvation, or\nsimply in the form of the coarse, common wish to have a finger in the\npie and a share in the work of saving oneself, as a drowning man will\nsometimes half drown his rescuer by trying to use his own limbs. These\ntendencies that Paul fought, and which he feared would corrupt the\nCorinthians from their simple and exclusive reliance on Christ, and\nChrist alone, as the ground and author of their salvation, are perennial\nin human nature, and we have to be on our guard for ever and for ever\nagainst them. Whether they come in organised, systematic, doctrinal\nform, or whether they are simply the rising in our own hearts of the old\nAdam of pride and self-trust, they equally destroy the whole work of\nChrist, because they infringe upon its solitariness and uniqueness. It\nis not Christ and anything else. Men are not saved by a syndicate. It is\nJesus Christ alone, and 'beside Him there is no Saviour.' You go into a\nTurkish mosque and see the roof held up by a forest of slim pillars. You\ngo into a cathedral chapter-house and see one strong support in the\ncentre that bears the whole roof. The one is an emblem of the Christless\nmultiplicity of vain supports, the other of the solitary strength and\neternal sufficiency of the one Pillar on which the whole weight of a\nworld's salvation rests, and which lightly bears it triumphantly aloft.\n'I fear lest your minds be corrupted from the simplicity' of a\nreasonable faith directed towards Christ.\n\nAnd in like manner He is the sole light and teacher of men as to God,\nthemselves, their duty, their destinies and prospects. He, and He alone,\nbrings these things to light. His word, whether it comes from His lips\nor from the deeds which are part of His revelation, or from the voice of\nthe Spirit which takes of His and speaks to the ages through His\napostles, should be 'the end of all strife.' What He says, and all that\nHe says, and nothing else than what He says, is the creed of the\nChristian. He, and He only, is 'the light which lighteth every man that\ncometh into the world.' In this day of babblements and confusions, let\nus listen for the voice of Christ and accept all which comes from Him,\nand let the language of our deepest hearts be, 'Lord, to whom shall we\ngo? Thou only hast the words of eternal life.'\n\nAgain, our relation to Jesus Christ demands exclusive love to Him.\n'Demands' is an ugly word to bracket with love. We might say, and\nperhaps more truly, permits or privileges. It is the joy of the\nbetrothed that her duty is to love, and to keep her heart clear from all\ncompeting affections. But it is none the less her duty because it is her\njoy. What Christ is to you, if you are a Christian, and what He longs to\nbe to us all, whether we are Christians or not, is of such a character\nas that the only fitting attitude of our hearts to Him in response is\nthat of exclusive affection. I do not mean that we are to love nothing\nbut Him, but I mean that we are to love all things else in Him, and\nthat, if any creature so delays or deflects our love as that either it\ndoes not pass, by means of the creature, into the presence of the\nChrist, or is turned away from the Christ by the creature, then we have\nfallen beneath the sweet level of our lofty privilege, and have won for\nourselves the misery due to distracted and idolatrous hearts. Love to\none who has done what He has done for us is in its very nature\nexclusive, and its exclusiveness is all-pervasive exclusiveness. The\ncentre diamond makes the little stones set round it all the more\nlustrous. We must love Jesus Christ all in all or not at all. Divided\nlove incurs the condemnation that falls heavily upon the head of the\nfaithless bride.\n\nDear friends, the conception of the essence of religion as being love is\nno relaxation, but an increase, of its stringent requirements. The more\nwe think of that sweet bond as being the true union of the soul with\nGod, who is its only rest and home, the more reasonable and imperative\nwill appear the old commandment, 'Thou shalt love Him with all thy\nheart, and soul, and strength, and mind.'\n\nBut, further, our relation to Jesus Christ is such as that nothing short\nof absolute obedience to His commandment corresponds to it. There must\nbe the simplicity, the single-mindedness that thus obeys, obeys swiftly,\ncheerfully, constantly. In all matters His command is my law, and, as\nsurely as I make His command my law, will He make my desire His motive.\nFor He Himself has said, in words that bring together our obedience to\nHis will and His compliance with our wishes, in a fashion that we should\nnot have ventured upon unless He had set us an example, 'If ye love Me,\nkeep My commandments. If ye ask anything in My name I will do it.' The\nexclusive love that binds us, by reason of our faith in Him alone, to\nthat Lord ought to express itself in unhesitating, unfaltering,\nunreserved, and unreluctant obedience to every word that comes from His\nmouth.\n\nThese brief outlines are but the poorest attempt to draw out what the\nwords of my text imply. But such as they are, let us remember that they\ndo set forth the only proper response of the saved man to the saving\nChrist. 'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.' Anything short of a faith that\nrests on Him alone, of a love that knits itself to His single,\nall-sufficient heart, and of an obedience that bows the whole being to\nthe sweet yoke of His commandment is an unworthy answer to the Love that\ndied, and that lives for us all.\n\nII. And now I have only time to glance at the solicitude for the\nmaintenance of this exclusive single-mindedness towards Christ.\n\nThink of what threatens it. I say nothing about the ferment of opinion\nin this day, for one man that is swept away from a thorough\nwhole-hearted faith by intellectual considerations, there are a dozen\nfrom whom it is filched without their knowing it, by their own\nweaknesses and the world's noises. And so it is more profitable that we\nshould think of the whole crowd of external duties, enjoyments,\nsweetnesses, bitternesses, that solicit us, and would seek to draw us\naway. Who can hear the low voice that speaks peace and wisdom when\nNiagara is roaring past his ears? 'The world is too much with us, late\nand soon. Buying and selling we lay waste our powers,' and break\nourselves away from our simple devotion to that dear Lord. But it is\npossible that we may so carry into all the whirl the central peace, as\nthat we shall not be disturbed by it; and possible that 'whether we eat\nor drink, or whatsoever we do, we may do all to His glory,' so that we\ncan, even in the midst of our daily pressing avocations and cares be\nkeeping our hearts in the heavens, and our souls in touch with our Lord.\n\nBut it is not only things without that draw us away. Our own weaknesses\nand waywardnesses, our strong senses, our passions, our desires, our\nnecessities, all these have a counteracting force, which needs continual\nwatchfulness in order to be neutralised. No man can grasp a stay, which\nalone keeps him from being immersed in the waves, with uniform tenacity,\nunless every now and then he tightens his muscles. And no man can keep\nhimself firmly grasping Jesus Christ without conscious effort directed\nto bettering his hold.\n\nIf there be dangers around us, and dangers within us, the discipline\nwhich we have to pursue in order to secure this uniform, single-hearted\ndevotion is plain enough. Let us be vividly conscious of the\nperil--which is what some of us are not. Let us take stock of ourselves\nlest creeping evil may be encroaching upon us, while we are all\nunaware--which is what some of us never do. Let us clearly contemplate\nthe possibility of an indefinite increase in the closeness and\nthoroughness of our surrender to Him--a conviction which has faded away\nfrom the minds of many professing Christians. Above all, let us find\ntime or make time for the patient, habitual contemplation of the great\nfacts which kindle our devotion. For if you never think of Jesus Christ\nand His love to you, how can you love Him back again? And if you are so\nbusy carrying out your own secular affairs, or pursuing your own\nambitions, or attending to your own duties, as they may seem to be, that\nyou have no time to think of Christ, His death, His life, His Spirit,\nHis yearning heart over His bride, how can it be expected that you will\nhave any depth of love to Him? Let us, too, wait with prayerful patience\nfor that Divine Spirit who will knit us more closely to our Lord.\n\nUnless we do so, we shall get no happiness out of our religion, and it\nwill bring no praise to Christ or profit to ourselves. I do not know a\nmore miserable man than a half-and-half Christian, after the pattern of,\nI was going to say, the ordinary average of professing Christians of\nthis generation. He has religion enough to prick and sting him, and not\nenough to impel him to forsake the evil which yet he cannot comfortably\ndo. He has religion enough to 'inflame his conscience,' not enough to\nsubdue his will and heart. How many of my hearers are in that condition\nit is for them to settle. If we are to be Christian men at all, let us\nbe it out and out. Half-and-half religion is no religion.\n\n 'One foot in sea, and one on shore;\n To one thing constant never!'\n\nThat is the type of thousands of professing Christians. 'I fear lest by\nany means your minds be corrupted from the simplicity that is towards\nChrist.'\n\n\n\n\nSTRENGTH IN WEAKNESS\n\n 'For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that\n it might depart from me. And He said unto me, My\n grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is\n made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore\n will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the\n power of Christ may rest upon me.'--2 COR. xii. 8,\n 9.\n\n\nThis very remarkable page in the autobiography of the Apostle shows us\nthat he, too, belonged to the great army of martyrs who, with hearts\nbleeding and pierced through and through with a dart, yet did their work\nfor God. It is of little consequence what his thorn in the flesh may\nhave been. The original word suggests very much heavier sorrow than the\nmetaphor of 'a thorn' might imply. It really seems to mean not a tiny\nbit of thorn that might lie half concealed in the finger tip, but one\nof those hideous stakes on which the cruel punishment of impalement used\nto be inflicted. And Paul's thought is, not that he has a little,\ntrivial trouble to bear, but that he is, as it were, forced quivering\nupon that tremendous torture.\n\nUnquestionably, what he means is some bodily ailment or other. The\nhypothesis that the 'thorn in the flesh' was the sting of the animal\nnature inciting him to evil is altogether untenable, because such a\nthorn could never have been left when the prayer for its removal was\nearnestly presented; nor could it ever have been, when left, an occasion\nfor glorifying. Manifestly it was no weakness removable by his own\neffort, no incapacity for service which in any manner approximated to\nbeing a fault, but purely and simply some infliction from God's hand\n(though likewise capable of being regarded as a 'messenger of Satan')\nwhich hindered him in his work, and took down any proud flesh and danger\nof spiritual exaltation in consequence of the largeness of his religious\nprivileges.\n\nOur text sets before us three most instructive windings, as it were, of\nthe stream of thoughts that passed through the Apostle's mind, in\nreference to this burden that he had to carry, and may afford wholesome\ncontemplation for us to-day. There is, first, the instinctive shrinking\nwhich took refuge in prayer. Then there is the insight won by prayer\ninto the sustaining strength for, and the purposes of, the thorn that\nwas not to be plucked out. And then, finally, there is the peace of\nacquiescence, and a will that accepts--not the inevitable, but the\nloving.\n\nI. First of all we see the instinctive shrinking from that which\ntortured the flesh, which takes refuge in prayer.\n\nThere is a wonderful, a beautiful, and, I suppose, an intentional\nparallel between the prayers of the servant and of the Master. Paul's\npetitions are the echo of Gethsemane. There, under the quivering olives,\nin the broken light of the Paschal moon, Jesus 'thrice' prayed that the\ncup might pass from Him. And here the servant, emboldened and instructed\nby the example of the Master, 'thrice' reiterates his human and natural\ndesire for the removal of the pain, whatever it was, which seemed to him\nso to hinder the efficiency and the fulness, as it certainly did the\njoy, of his service.\n\nBut He who prayed in Gethsemane was He to whom Paul addressed his\nprayer. For, as is almost always the case in the New Testament, 'the\nLord' here evidently means Christ, as is obvious from the connection of\nthe answer to the petition with the Apostle's final confidence and\nacquiescence. For the answer was, 'My strength is made perfect in\nweakness'; and the Apostle's conclusion is, 'Most gladly will I glorify\nin infirmity,' that the strength or 'power _of Christ_ may rest upon\nme.' Therefore the prayer with which we have to deal here is a prayer\noffered to Jesus, who prayed in Gethsemane, and to whom we can bring our\npetitions and our desires.\n\nNotice how this thought of prayer directed to the Master Himself helps\nto lead us deep into the sacredest and most blessed characteristics of\nprayer. It is only telling Christ what is in our hearts. Oh, if we lived\nin the true understanding of what prayer really is--the emptying out of\nour inmost desire and thoughts before our Brother, who is likewise our\nLord--questions as to what it was permissible to pray for, and what it\nwas not permissible to pray for, would be irrelevant, and drop away of\nthemselves. If we had a less formal notion of prayer, and realised more\nthoroughly what it was--the speech of a confiding heart to a\nsympathising Lord--then everything that fills our hearts would be seen\nto be a fitting object of prayer. If anything is large enough to\ninterest me, it is not too small to be spoken about to Him.\n\nSo the question, which is often settled upon very abstract and deep\ngrounds that have little to do with the matter--the question as to\nwhether prayer for outward blessings is permissible--falls away of\nitself. If I am to talk to Jesus Christ about everything that concerns\nme, am I to keep my thumb upon all that great department and be silent\nabout it? One reason why our prayers are often so unreal is, because\nthey do not fit our real wants, nor correspond to the thoughts that are\nbusy in our minds at the moment of praying. Our hearts are full of some\nsmall matter of daily interest, and when we kneel down not a word about\nit comes to our lips. Can that be right?\n\nThe difference between the different objects of prayer is not to be\nfound in the rejection of all temporal and external, but in remembering\nthat there are two sets of things to be prayed about, and over one set\nmust ever be written 'If it be Thy will,' and over the other it need not\nbe written, because we are sure that the granting of our wishes _is_ His\nwill. We know about the one that 'if we ask anything according to His\nwill, He heareth us.' That may seem to be a very poor and shrunken kind\nof hope to give a man, that if his prayer is in conformity with the\nprevious determination of the divine will, it will be answered. But it\navailed for the joyful confidence of that Apostle who saw deepest into\nthe conditions and the blessedness of the harmony of the will of God and\nof man. But about the other set we can only say, 'Not my will, but\nThine be done.' With that sentence, not as a formula upon our lips but\ndeep in our hearts, let us take everything into His presence--thorns and\nstakes, pinpricks and wounds out of which the life-blood is ebbing--let\nus take them all to Him, and be sure that we shall take none of them in\nvain.\n\nSo then we have the Person to whom the prayer is addressed, the subjects\nwith which it is occupied, and the purpose to which it is directed.\n'Take away the burden' was the Apostle's petition; but it was a mistaken\npetition and, therefore, unanswered.\n\nII. That brings me to the second of the windings, as I have ventured to\ncall them, of this stream--viz. the insight into the source of strength\nfor, and the purpose of, the thorn that could not be taken away. The\nLord said unto me, 'My grace is sufficient for thee. For My strength'\n(where the word 'My' is a supplement, but a necessary one) 'is made\nperfect in weakness.'\n\nThe answer is, in form and in substance, a gentle refusal of the form of\nthe petition, but it is a more than granting of its essence. For the\nbest answer to such a prayer, and the answer which a true man means when\nhe asks, 'Take away the burden,' need not be the external removal of the\npressure of the sorrow, but the infusing of power to sustain it. There\nare two ways of lightening a burden, one is diminishing its actual\nweight, the other is increasing the strength of the shoulder that bears\nit. And the latter is God's way, is Christ's way, of dealing with us.\n\nNow mark that the answer which this faithful prayer receives is no\ncommunication of anything fresh, but it is the opening of the man's eyes\nto see that already he has all that he needs. The reply is not, 'I\n_will_ give thee grace sufficient,' but 'My grace' (which thou hast\nnow) 'is sufficient for thee.' That grace is given and possessed by the\nsorrowing heart at the moment when it prays. Open your eyes to see what\nyou have, and you will not ask for the load to be taken away. Is not\nthat always true? Many a heart is carrying some heavy weight; perhaps\nsome have an incurable sorrow, some are stricken by disease that they\nknow can never be healed, some are aware that the shipwreck has been\ntotal, and that the sorrow that they carry to-day will lie down with\nthem in the dust. Be it so! 'My grace (not shall be, but) _is_\nsufficient for thee.' And what thou hast already in thy possession is\nenough for all that comes storming against thee of disease,\ndisappointment, loss, and misery. Set on the one side all possible as\nwell as all actual weaknesses, burdens, pains, and set on the other\nthese two words--'My grace,' and all these dwindle into nothingness and\ndisappear. If troubled Christian men would learn what they have, and\nwould use what they already possess, they would less often beseech Him\nwith vain petitions to take away their blessings which are in the thorns\nin the flesh. 'My grace is sufficient.'\n\nHow modestly the Master speaks about what He gives! 'Sufficient'? Is not\nthere a margin? Is there not more than is wanted? The overplus is\n'exceeding abundant,' not only 'above what we ask or think,' but far\nmore than our need. 'Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not _sufficient_\nthat every one may take a little,' says Sense. Omnipotence says, 'Bring\nthe few small loaves and fishes unto Me'; and Faith dispensed them\namongst the crowd; and Experience 'gathered up of the fragments that\nremained' more than there had been when the multiplication began. So the\ngrace utilised increases; the gift grows as it is employed. 'Unto him\nthat hath shall be given.' And the 'sufficiency' is not a bare adequacy,\njust covering the extent of the need, with no overlapping margin, but is\nlarge beyond expectation, desire, or necessity; so leading onwards to\nhigh hopes and a wider opening of the open mouths of our need that the\nblessing may pour in.\n\nThe other part of this great answer, that the Christ from Heaven spoke\nin or to the praying spirit of this not disappointed, though refused,\nApostle, unveiled the purpose of the sorrow, even as the former part had\ndisclosed the strength to bear it. For, says He, laying down therein the\ngreat law of His kingdom in all departments and in all ways, 'My\nstrength is made perfect'--that is, of course, perfect in its\nmanifestation or operations, for it is perfect in itself already. 'My\nstrength is made perfect in weakness.' It works in and through man's\nweakness.\n\nGod works with broken reeds. If a man conceits himself to be an iron\npillar, God can do nothing with or by him. All the self-conceit and\nconfidence have to be taken out of him first. He has to be brought low\nbefore the Father can use him for His purposes. The lowlands hold the\nwater, and, if only the sluice is open, the gravitation of His grace\ndoes all the rest and carries the flood into the depths of the lowly\nheart.\n\nHis strength loves to work in weakness, only the weakness must be\nconscious, and the conscious weakness must have passed into conscious\ndependence. There, then, you get the law for the Church, for the works\nof Christianity on the widest scale, and in individual lives. Strength\nthat conceits itself to be such is weakness; weakness that knows itself\nto be such is strength. The only true source of Power, both for\nChristian work and in all other respects, is God Himself; and our\nstrength is ours but by derivation from Him. And the only way to secure\nthat derivation is through humble dependence, which we call faith in\nJesus Christ. And the only way by which that faith in Jesus Christ can\never be kindled in a man's soul is through the sense of his need and\nemptiness. So when we know ourselves weak, we have taken the first step\nto strength; just as, when we know ourselves sinners, we have taken the\nfirst step to righteousness; just as in all regions the recognition of\nthe doleful fact of our human necessity is the beginning of the joyful\nconfidence in the glad, triumphant fact of the divine fulness. All our\nhollownesses, if I may so say, are met with His fulness that fits into\nthem. It only needs that a man be aware of that which he is, and then\nturn himself to Him who is all that he is not, and then into his empty\nbeing will flow rejoicing the whole fulness of God. 'My strength is made\nperfect in weakness.'\n\nIII. Lastly, mark the calm final acquiescence in the loving necessity of\ncontinued sorrow. 'Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my\ninfirmity that the power of Christ may rest upon me.' The will is\nentirely harmonised with Christ's. The Apostle begins with instinctive\nshrinking, he passes onwards to a perception of the purpose of his trial\nand of the sustaining grace; and he comes now to acquiescence which is\nnot passivity, but glad triumph. He is more than submissive, he gladly\nglories in his infirmity in order that the power of Christ may 'spread a\ntabernacle over' him. 'It is good for me that I have been afflicted,'\nsaid the old prophet. Paul says, in a yet higher note of concord with\nGod's will, 'I am glad that I sorrow. I rejoice in weakness, because it\nmakes it easier for me to cling, and, clinging, I am strong, and\nconquer evil.' Far better is it that the sting of our sorrow should be\ntaken away, by our having learned what it is for, and having bowed to\nit, than that it should be taken away by the external removal which we\nsometimes long for. A grief, a trial, an incapacity, a limitation, a\nweakness, which we use as a means of deepening our sense of dependence\nupon Him, is a blessing, and not a sorrow. And if we would only go out\ninto the world trying to interpret its events in the spirit of this\ngreat text, we should less frequently wonder and weep over what\nsometimes seem to us the insoluble mysteries of the sorrows of ourselves\nand of other men. They are all intended to make it more easy for us to\nrealise our utter hanging upon Him, and so to open our hearts to receive\nmore fully the quickening influences of His omnipotent and\nself-sufficing grace.\n\nHere, then, is a lesson for those who have to carry some cross and know\nthey must carry it throughout life. It will be wreathed with flowers if\nyou accept it. Here is a lesson for all Christian workers. Ministers of\nthe Gospel especially should banish all thoughts of their own\ncleverness, intellectual ability, culture, sufficiency for their work,\nand learn that only when they are emptied can they be filled, and only\nwhen they know themselves to be nothing are they ready for God to work\nthrough them. And here is a lesson for all who stand apart from the\ngrace and power of Jesus Christ as if they needed it not. Whether you\nknow it or not, you are a broken reed; and the only way of your ever\nbeing bound up and made strong is that you shall recognise your\nsinfulness, your necessity, your abject poverty, your utter emptiness,\nand come to Him who is righteousness, riches, fulness, and say,\n'Because I am weak, be Thou my strength.' The secret of all noble,\nheroic, useful, happy life lies in the paradox, 'When I am weak, then am\nI strong,' and the secret of all failures, miseries, hopeless losses,\nlies in its converse, 'When I am strong, then am I weak.'\n\n\n\n\nNOT YOURS BUT YOU\n\n 'I seek not yours, but you.'--2 COR. xii. 14.\n\n\nMen are usually quick to suspect others of the vices to which they\nthemselves are prone. It is very hard for one who never does anything\nbut with an eye to what he can make out of it, to believe that there are\nother people actuated by higher motives. So Paul had, over and over\nagain, to meet the hateful charge of making money out of his\napostleship. It was one of the favourite stones that his opponents in\nthe Corinthian Church, of whom there were very many, very bitter ones,\nflung at him. In this letter he more than once refers to the charge. He\ndoes so with great dignity, and with a very characteristic and delicate\nmixture of indignation and tenderness, almost playfulness. Thus, in the\ncontext, he tells these Corinthian grumblers that he must beg their\npardon for not having taken anything of them, and so honoured them. Then\nhe informs them that he is coming again to see them for the third time,\nand that that visit will be marked by the same independence of their\nhelp as the others had been. And then he just lets a glimpse of his\npained heart peep out in the words of my text. 'I seek not yours, but\nyou.' _There_ speaks a disinterested love which feels obliged, and yet\nreluctant, to stoop to say that it _is_ love, and that it _is_\ndisinterested. Where did Paul learn this passionate desire to possess\nthese people, and this entire suppression of self in the desire? It was\na spark from a sacred fire, a drop from an infinite ocean, an echo of a\ndivine voice. The words of my text would never have been Paul's if the\nspirit of them had not first been Christ's. I venture to take them in\nthat aspect, as setting forth Christ's claims upon us, and bearing very\ndirectly on the question of Christian service and of Christian\nliberality.\n\nI. So, then, first of all, I remark, Christ desires personal surrender.\n\n'I seek not yours, but _you_,' is the very mother-tongue of love; but\nupon our lips, even when our love is purest, there is a tinge of\nselfishness blending with it, and very often the desire for another's\nlove is as purely selfish as the desire for any material good. But in so\nfar as human love is pure in its desire to possess another, we have the\nright to believe the deep and wonderful thought that there is something\ncorresponding to it in the heart of Christ, which is a revelation for us\nof the heart of God; and that, however little we may be able to construe\nthe whole meaning of the fact, He does stretch out an arm of desire\ntowards us; and for His own sake, as for ours, would fain draw us near\nto Himself, and is 'satisfied,' as He is not without it, when men's\nhearts yield themselves up to Him, and let Him love them and lavish\nHimself upon them. I do not venture into these depths, but I would lay\nupon our hearts that the very inmost meaning of all that Jesus Christ\nhas said, and is saying, to each of us by the records of His life, by\nthe pathos of His death, by the miracle of His Resurrection, by the\nglory of His Ascension, by the power of His granted Spirit, is, 'I seek\nyou.'\n\nAnd, brethren, our self-surrender is the essence of our Christianity.\nOur religion lies neither in our heads nor in our acts; the deepest\nnotion of it is that it is the entire yielding up of ourselves to Jesus\nChrist our Lord. There is plenty of religion which is a religion of the\nhead and of creeds. There is plenty of religion which is the religion of\nthe hand and of the tongue, and of forms and ceremonies and sacraments;\nexternal worship. There is plenty of religion which surrenders to Him\nsome of the more superficial parts of our personality, whilst the\nancient Anarch, Self, sits undisturbed on his dark throne, in the depths\nof our being. But none of these are the religion that either Christ\nrequires or that we need. The only true notion of a Christian is a man\nwho can truly say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.'\n\nAnd that is the only kind of life that is blessed; our only true\nnobleness and beauty and power and sweetness are measured by, and\naccurately correspond with, the completeness of our surrender of\nourselves to Jesus Christ. As long as the earth was thought to be the\ncentre of the planetary system there was nothing but confusion in the\nheavens. Shift the centre to the sun and all becomes order and beauty.\nThe root of sin, and the mother of death, is making myself my own law\nand Lord; the germ of righteousness, and the first pulsations of life,\nlie in yielding ourselves to God in Christ, because He has yielded\nHimself unto us.\n\nI need not remind you, I suppose, that this self-surrender is a great\ndeal more than a vivid metaphor: that it implies a very hard fact;\nimplies at least two things, that we have yielded ourselves to Jesus\nChrist, by the love of our hearts, and by the unreluctant submission of\nour wills, whether He commands or whether He sends sufferings or joys.\n\nAnd, oh, brethren, be sure of this, that no such giving of myself away,\nin the sweet reciprocities of a higher than human affection, is\npossible, in the general, and on the large scale, if you evacuate from\nthe Gospel the great truth, 'He loved me, and gave Himself for me.' I\nbelieve--and therefore I am bound to preach it--that the only power\nwhich can utterly annihilate and cast out the dominion of self from a\nhuman soul is the power that is lodged in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ\non the Cross for sinful men.\n\nAnd whilst I would fully recognise all that is noble, and all that is\neffective, in systems either of religion, or of irreligious morality,\nwhich have no place within their bounds for that great motive, I am sure\nof this, that the evil self within us is too strong to be exorcised by\nanything short of the old message, 'Jesus Christ has given His life for\nthee, wilt thou not give thyself unto Him?'\n\nII. Christ seeks personal service.\n\n'I seek . . . you'; not only for My love, but for My tools; for My\ninstruments in carrying out the purposes for which I died, and\nestablishing My dominion in the world. Now I want to say two or three\nvery plain things about this matter, which lies very near my heart, as\nto some degree responsible for the amount of Christian activity and\nservice in this my congregation. Brethren, the surrender of ourselves to\nJesus Christ in acts of direct Christian activity and service, will be\nthe outcome of a real surrender of ourselves to Him in love and\nobedience.\n\nI cannot imagine a man who, in any deep sense, has realised his\nobligations to that Saviour, and in any real sense has made the great\nact of self-renunciation, and crowned Christ as his Lord, living for the\nrest of his life, as so many professing Christians do, dumb and idle, in\nso far as work for the Master is concerned. It seems to me that, among\nthe many wants of this generation of professing Christians, there is\nnone that is more needed than that a wave of new consecration should\npass over the Church. If men who call themselves Christians lived more\nin habitual contact with the facts of their redeeming Saviour's\nsacrifice for them, there would be no need to lament the fewness of the\nlabourers, as measured against the overwhelming multitude of the fields\nthat are white to harvest. If once that flood of a new sense of Christ's\ngift, and a consequent new completeness of our returned gifts to Him,\nflowed over the churches, then all the little empty ravines would be\nfilled with a flashing tide. Not a shuttle moves, not a spindle\nrevolves, until the strong impulse born of fire rushes in; and then, all\nis activity. It is no use to flog, flog, flog, at idle Christians, and\ntry to make them work. There is only one thing that will set them to\nwork, and that is that they shall live nearer their Master, and find out\nmore of what they owe to Him; and so render themselves up to be His\ninstruments for any purpose for which He may choose to use them.\n\nThis surrender of ourselves for direct Christian service is the only\nsolution of the problem of how to win the world for Jesus Christ.\nProfessionals cannot do it. Men of my class cannot do it. We are clogged\nvery largely by the fact that, being necessarily dependent on our\ncongregations for a living, we cannot, with as clear an emphasis as you\ncan, go to people and say, 'We seek not yours, but you.' I have nothing\nto say about the present ecclesiastical arrangements of modern Christian\ncommunities. That would take me altogether from my present purposes, but\nI want to lay this upon your consciences, dear brethren, that you who\nhave other means of living than proclaiming Christ's name have an\nadvantage, which it is at your peril that you fling away. As long as the\nChristian Church thought that an ordained priest was a man who could do\nthings that laymen could not do, the limitation of Christian service to\nthe priesthood was logical. But when the Christian Church, especially as\nrepresented by us Nonconformists, came to believe that a minister was\nonly a man who preached the Gospel, which every Christian man is bound\nto do, the limitations of Christian service to the official class became\nan illogical survival, utterly incongruous with the fundamental\nprinciples of our conception of the Christian Church. And yet here it\nis, devastating our churches to-day, and making hundreds of good people\nperfectly comfortable, in an unscriptural and unchristian indolence,\nbecause, forsooth, it is the minister's business to preach the Gospel. I\nknow that there is not nearly as much of that indolence as there used to\nbe. Thank God for that. There are far more among our congregations than\nin former times who have realised the fact that it is _every_ Christian\nman's task, somehow or other, to set forth the great name of Jesus\nChrist. But still, alas, in a church with, say, 400 members, you may\nknock off the last cypher, and you will get a probably not too low\nstatement of the number of people in it who have realised and fulfilled\nthis obligation. What about the other 360 'dumb dogs, that will not\nbark'? And in that 360 there will probably be several men who can make\nspeeches on political platforms, and in scientific lecture-halls, and\nabout social and economical questions, only they cannot, for the life of\nthem, open their mouths and say a word to a soul about Him whom they say\nthey serve, and to whom they say they belong.\n\nBrethren, this direct service cannot be escaped from, or commuted by a\nmoney payment. In the old days a man used to escape serving in the\nmilitia if he found a substitute, and paid for him. There are a great\nmany good Christian people who seem to think that Christ's army is\nrecruited on that principle. But it is a mistake. 'I seek you, not\nyours.'\n\nIII. Lastly, and only a word. Christ seeks us, _and_ ours.\n\nNot you _without_ yours, still less yours without you. This is no place,\nnor is the fag end of a sermon the time, to talk about so wide a subject\nas the ethics of Christian dealing with money. But two things I will\nsay--consecration of self is extremely imperfect which does not include\nthe consecration of possessions, and, conversely, consecration of\npossessions which does not flow from, and is not accompanied by, the\nconsecration of self, is nought.\n\nIf, then, the great law of self-surrender is to run through the whole\nChristian life, that law, as applied to our dealing with what we own,\nprescribes three things. The first is _stewardship_, not ownership; and\nthat all round the circumference of our possessions. Depend upon it, the\nangry things that we hear to-day about the unequal distribution of\nwealth will get angrier and angrier, and will be largely justified in\nbecoming so by the fact that so many of us, _Christians included_, have\nfirmly grasped the notion of possession, and utterly forgotten the\nobligation of stewardship.\n\nAgain, the law of self-surrender, in its application to all that we\nhave, involves our continual reference to Jesus Christ in our\ndisposition of these our possessions. I draw no line of distinction, in\nthis respect, between what a man spends upon himself, and what he spends\nupon 'charity,' and what he spends upon religious objects. _One_\nprinciple is to govern, getting, hoarding, giving, enjoying, and that\nis, that in it all Christ shall be Master.\n\nAgain, the law of self-surrender, in its application to our possessions,\nimplies that there shall be an element of sacrifice in our use of these;\nwhether they be possessions of intellect, of acquirement, of influence,\nof position, or of material wealth. The law of help is sacrifice, and\nthe law for a Christian man is that he shall not offer unto the Lord his\nGod that which costs him nothing.\n\nSo, dear friends, let us all get near to that great central fire till it\nmelts our hearts. Let the love which is our hope be our pattern.\nRemember that though only faintly, and from afar, can the issues of\nChrist's great sacrifice be reproduced in any actions of ours, the\nspirit which brought Him to die is the spirit which must instruct and\ninspire us to live. Unless we can say, 'He loved me, and gave Himself\nfor me; I yield myself to Him'; and unless our lives confirm the\nutterance, we have little right to call ourselves His disciples.\n\n\n\n\nGALATIANS\n\n\n\n\nFROM CENTRE TO CIRCUMFERENCE\n\n 'The life which I now live in the flesh I live by\n the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and\n gave Himself for me.'--GAL. ii. 20.\n\n\nWe have a bundle of paradoxes in this verse. First, 'I am crucified with\nChrist, nevertheless I live.' The Christian life is a dying life. If we\nare in any real sense joined to Christ, the power of His death makes us\ndead to self and sin and the world. In that region, as in the physical,\ndeath is the gate of life; and, inasmuch as what we die to in Christ is\nitself only a living death, we live because we die, and in proportion as\nwe die.\n\nThe next paradox is, 'Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' The Christian\nlife is a life in which an indwelling Christ casts out, and therefore\nquickens, self. We gain ourselves when we lose ourselves. His abiding in\nus does not destroy but heightens our individuality. We then most truly\nlive when we can say, 'Not I, but Christ liveth in me'; the soul of my\nsoul and the self of myself.\n\nAnd the last paradox is that of my text, 'The life which I live in the\nflesh, I live in' (not 'by') 'the faith of the Son of God.' The true\nChristian life moves in two spheres at once. Externally and\nsuperficially it is 'in the flesh,' really it is 'in faith.' It belongs\nnot to the material nor is dependent upon the physical body in which we\nare housed. We are strangers here, and the true region and atmosphere of\nthe Christian life is that invisible sphere of faith.\n\nSo, then, we have in these words of my text a Christian man's frank\navowal of the secret of his own life. It is like a geological cutting,\nit goes down from the surface, where the grass and the flowers are,\nthrough the various strata, but it goes deeper than these, to the fiery\nheart, the flaming nucleus and centre of all things. Therefore it may do\nus all good to make a section of our hearts and see whether the _strata_\nthere are conformable to those that are here.\n\nI. Let us begin with the centre, and work to the surface. We have,\nfirst, the great central fact named last, but round which all the\nChristian life is gathered.\n\n'The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.' These two\nwords, the 'loving' and the 'giving,' both point backwards to some one\ndefinite historical fact, and the only fact which they can have in view\nis the great one of the death of Jesus Christ. That is His giving up of\nHimself. That is the signal and highest manifestation and proof of His\nlove.\n\nNotice (though I can but touch in the briefest possible manner upon the\ngreat thoughts that gather round these words) the three aspects of that\ntranscendent fact, the centre and nucleus of the whole Christian life,\nwhich come into prominence in these words before us. Christ's death is a\ngreat act of self-surrender, of which the one motive is His own pure and\nperfect love. No doubt in other places of Scripture we have set forth\nthe death of Christ as being the result of the Father's purpose, and we\nread that in that wondrous surrender there were two givings up The\nFather 'freely gave Him up to the death for us all.' That divine\nsurrender, the Apostle ventures, in another passage, to find dimly\nsuggested from afar, in the silent but submissive and unreluctant\nsurrender with which Abraham yielded his only begotten son on the\nmountain top. But besides that ineffable giving up by the Father of the\nSon, Jesus Christ Himself, moved only by His love, willingly yields\nHimself. The whole doctrine of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ has been\nmarred by one-sided insisting on the truth that God sent the Son, to the\nforgetting of the fact that the Son 'came'; and that He was bound to the\nCross neither by cords of man's weaving nor by the will of the Father,\nbut that He Himself bound Himself to that Cross with the 'cords of love\nand the bands of a man,' and died from no natural necessity nor from any\nimposition of the divine will upon Him unwilling, but because He would,\nand that He would because He loved. 'He loved me, and gave Himself for\nme.'\n\nThen note, further, that here, most distinctly, that great act of\nself-surrendering love which culminates on the Cross is regarded as\nbeing for man in a special and peculiar sense. I know, of course, that\nfrom the mere wording of my text we cannot argue the atoning and\nsubstitutionary character of the death of Christ, for the preposition\nhere does not necessarily mean 'instead of,' but 'for the behoof of.'\nBut admitting that, I have another question. If Christ's death is for\n'the behoof of' men, in what conceivable sense does it benefit them,\nunless it is in the place of men? The death 'for me' is only for me when\nI understand that it is 'instead of' me. And practically you will find\nthat wherever the full-orbed faith in Christ Jesus as the death for all\nthe sins of the whole world, bearing the penalty and bearing it away,\nhas begun to falter and grow pale, men do not know what to do with\nChrist's death at all, and stop talking about it to a very large extent.\n\nUnless He died as a sacrifice, I, for one, fail to see in what other\nthan a mere sentimental sense the death of Christ is a death for men.\n\nAnd lastly, about this matter, observe how here we have brought into\nvivid prominence the great thought that Jesus Christ in His death has\nregard to single souls. We preach that He died for all. If we believe in\nthat august title which is laid here as the vindication of our faith on\nthe one hand, and as the ground of the possibility of the benefits of\nHis death being world-wide on the other--viz. the Son of God--then we\nshall not stumble at the thought that He died for all, because He died\nfor each. I know that if you only regard Jesus Christ as human I am\ntalking utter nonsense; but I know, too, that if we believe in the\ndivinity of our Lord, there need be nothing to stumble us, but the\ncontrary, in the thought that it was not an abstraction that He died\nfor, that it was not a vague mass of unknown beings, clustered together,\nbut so far away that He could not see any of their faces, for whom He\ngave His life on the Cross. That is the way in which, and in which\nalone, _we_ can embrace the whole mass of humanity--by losing sight of\nthe individuals. We generalise, precisely because we do not see the\nindividual units; but that is not God's way, and that is not Christ's\nway, who is divine. For Him the _all_ is broken up into its parts, and\nwhen we say that the divine love loves all, we mean that the divine love\nloves each. I believe (and I commend the thought to you) that we do not\nfathom the depth of Christ's sufferings unless we recognise that the\nsins of each man were consciously adding pressure to the load beneath\nwhich He sank; nor picture the wonders of His love until we believe that\non the Cross it distinguished and embraced each, and, therefore,\ncomprehended all. Every man may say, 'He loved me, and gave Himself for\nme.'\n\nII. So much, then, for the first central fact that is here. Now let me\nsay a word, in the second place, about the faith which makes that fact\nthe foundation of my own personal life.\n\n'I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself\nfor me.' I am not going to plunge into any unnecessary dissertations\nabout the nature of faith; but may I say that, like all other familiar\nconceptions, it has got worn so smooth that it glides over our mental\npalate without roughening any of the _papillae_ or giving any sense or\nsavour at all? And I do believe that dozens of people like you, who have\ncome to church and chapel all your lives, and fancy yourselves to be\nfully _au fait_ at all the Christian truth that you will ever hear from\nmy lips, do not grasp with any clearness of apprehension the meaning of\nthat fundamental word 'faith.'\n\nIt is a thousand pities that it is confined by the accidents of language\nto our attitude in reference to Jesus Christ. So some of you think that\nit is some kind of theological juggle which has nothing to do with, and\nnever can be seen in operation in, common life. Suppose, instead of the\nthreadbare, technical 'faith' we took to a new translation for a minute,\nand said '_trust_,' do you think that would freshen up the thought to\nyou at all? It is the very same thing which makes the sweetness of your\nrelations to wife and husband and friend and parent, which, transferred\nto Jesus Christ and glorified in the process, becomes the seed of\nimmortal life and the opener of the gate of Heaven. Trust Jesus Christ.\nThat is the living centre of the Christian life; that is the process by\nwhich we draw the general blessing of the Gospel into our own hearts,\nand make the world-wide truth, our truth.\n\nI need not insist either, I suppose, on the necessity, if our Christian\nlife is to be modelled upon the Apostolic lines, of our faith embracing\nthe Christ in all these aspects in which I have been speaking about His\nwork. God forbid that I should seem to despise rudimentary and\nincomplete feelings after Him in any heart which may be unable to say\n'Amen' to Paul's statement here. I want to insist very earnestly, and\nwith special reference to the young, that the true Christian faith is\nnot merely the grasp of the person, but it is the grasp of the Person\nwho is 'declared to be the Son of God,' and whose death is the voluntary\nself-surrender motived by His love, for the carrying away of the sins of\nevery single soul in the whole universe. That is the Christ, the full\nChrist, cleaving to whom our faith finds somewhat to grasp worthy of\ngrasping. And I beseech you, be not contented with a partial grasp of a\npartial Saviour; neither shut your eyes to the divinity of His nature,\nnor to the efficacy of His death, but remember that the true Gospel\npreaches Christ and Him crucified; and that for us, saving faith is the\nfaith that grasps the Son of God 'Who loved me and gave Himself for me.'\n\nNote, further, that true faith is personal faith, which appropriates,\nand, as it were, fences in as my very own, the purpose and benefit of\nChrist's giving of Himself. It is always difficult for lazy people (and\nmost of us are lazy) to transfer into their own personal lives, and to\nbring into actual contact with themselves and their own experience,\nwide, general truths. To assent to them, when we keep them in their\ngenerality, is very easy and very profitless. It does no man any good to\nsay 'All men are mortal'; but how different it is when the blunt end of\nthat generalisation is shaped into a point, and I say 'I have to die!'\nIt penetrates then, and it sticks. It is easy to say 'All men are\nsinners.' That never yet forced anybody down on his knees. But when we\nshut out on either side the lateral view and look straight on, on the\nnarrow line of our own lives, up to the Throne where the Lawgiver sits,\nand feel 'I am a sinful man,' that sends us to our prayers for pardon\nand purity. And in like manner nobody was ever wholesomely terrified by\nthe thought of a general judgment. But when you translate it into 'I\nmust stand there,' the terror of the Lord persuades men.\n\nIn like manner that great truth which we all of us say we believe, that\nChrist has died for the world, is utterly useless and profitless to us\nuntil we have translated it into Paul's world, 'loved _me_ and gave\nHimself for _me_.' I do not say that the essence of faith is the\nconversion of the general statement into the particular application, but\nI do say that there is no faith which does not realise one's personal\npossession of the benefits of the death of Christ, and that until you\nturn the wide word into a message for yourself alone, you have not yet\ngot within sight of the blessedness of the Christian life. The whole\nriver may flow past me, but only so much of it as I can bring into my\nown garden by my own sluices, and lift in my own bucket, and put to my\nown lips, is of any use to me. The death of Christ for the world is a\ncommonplace of superficial Christianity, which is no Christianity; the\ndeath of Christ for myself, as if He and I were the only beings in the\nuniverse, that is the death on which faith fastens and feeds.\n\nAnd, dear brother, you have the right to exercise it. The Christ loves\neach, and therefore He loves all; that is the process in the divine\nmind. The converse is the process in the revelation of that mind; the\nBible says to us, Christ loves all, and therefore we have the right to\ndraw the inference that He loves each. You have as much right to take\nevery 'whosoever' of the New Testament as your very own, as if on the\npage of your Bible that 'whosoever' was struck out, and your name, John,\nThomas, Mary, Elizabeth, or whatever it is, were put in there. 'He loved\n_me_.' Can _you_ say that? Have you ever passed from the region of\nuniversality, which is vague and profitless, into the region of personal\nappropriation of the person of Jesus Christ and His death?\n\nIII. And now, lastly, notice the life which is built upon this faith.\n\nThe true Christian life is dual. It is a life in the flesh, and it is\nalso a life in faith. These two, as I have said, are like two spheres,\nin either of which a man's course is passed, or, rather, the one is\nsurface and the other is central. Here is a great trailing spray of\nseaweed floating golden on the unquiet water, and rising and falling on\neach wave or ripple. Aye! but its root is away deep, deep, deep below\nthe storms, below where there is motion, anchored upon a hidden rock\nthat can never move. And so my life, if it be a Christian life at all,\nhas its surface amidst the shifting mutabilities of earth, but its root\nin the silent eternities of the centre of all things, which is Christ\nin God. I live in the flesh on the outside, but if I am a Christian at\nall, I live in the faith in regard of my true and proper being.\n\nThis faith, which grasps the Divine Christ as the person whose\nlove-moved death is my life, and who by my faith becomes Himself the\nIndwelling Guest in my heart; this faith, if it be worth anything, will\nmould and influence my whole being. It will give me motive, pattern,\npower for all noble service and all holy living. The one thing that\nstirs men to true obedience is that their hearts be touched with the\nfirm assurance that Christ loved them and died for them.\n\nWe sometimes used to see men starting an engine by manual force; and\nwhat toil it was to get the great cranks to turn, and the pistons to\nrise! So we set ourselves to try and move our lives into holiness and\nbeauty and nobleness, and it is dispiriting work. There is a far better,\nsurer way than that: let the steam in, and that will do it. That is to\nsay--let the Christ in His dying power and the living energy of His\nindwelling Spirit occupy the heart, and activity becomes blessedness,\nand work is rest, and service is freedom and dominion.\n\nThe life that I live in the flesh is poor, limited, tortured with\nanxiety, weighed upon by sore distress, becomes dark and gray and dreary\noften as we travel nearer the end, and is always full of miseries and of\npains. But if within that life in the flesh there be a life in faith,\nwhich is the life of Christ Himself brought to us through our faith,\nthat life will be triumphant, quiet, patient, aspiring, noble, hopeful,\ngentle, strong, Godlike, being the life of Christ Himself within us.\n\nSo, dear friends, test your faith by these two tests, what it grasps\nand what it does. If it grasps a whole Christ, in all the glory of His\nnature and the blessedness of His work, it is genuine; and it proves its\ngenuineness if, and only if, it works in you by love; animating all your\naction, bringing you ever into the conscious presence of that dear Lord,\nand making Him pattern, law, motive, goal, companion and reward. 'To me\nto live is Christ.'\n\nIf so, then we live indeed; but to live in the flesh is to die; and the\ndeath that we die when we live in Christ is the gate and the beginning\nof the only real life of the soul.\n\n\n\n\nTHE EVIL EYE AND THE CHARM\n\n 'Who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey\n the truth, before whose eye Jesus Christ hath been\n evidently set forth, crucified among you?'--GAL.\n iii. 1.\n\n\nThe Revised Version gives a shorter, and probably correct, form of this\nvehement question. It omits the two clauses 'that ye should not obey the\ntruth' and 'among you.' The omission increases the sharpness of the\nthrust of the interrogation, whilst it loses nothing of the meaning.\n\nNow, a very striking metaphor runs through the whole of this question,\nwhich may easily be lost sight of by ordinary readers. You know the old\nsuperstition as to the Evil Eye, almost universal at the date of this\nletter and even now in the East, and lingering still amongst ourselves.\nCertain persons were supposed to have the power, by a look, to work\nmischief, and by fixing the gaze of their victims, to suck the very life\nout of them. So Paul asks who the malign sorcerer is who has thus\nfascinated the fickle Galatians, and is draining their Christian life\nout of their eyes.\n\nVery appropriately, therefore, if there is this reference, which the\nword translated 'bewitched' carries with it, he goes on to speak about\nJesus Christ as having been displayed before their eyes. They had seen\nHim. How did they come to be able to turn away to look at anything else?\n\nBut there is another observation to be made by way of introduction, and\nthat is as to the full force of the expression 'evidently set forth.'\nThe word employed, as commentators tell us, is that which is used for\nthe display of official proclamations, or public notices, in some\nconspicuous place, as the Forum or the market, that the citizens might\nread. So, keeping up the metaphor, the word might be rendered, as has\nbeen suggested by some eminent scholars, 'placarded'--'Before whose eyes\nJesus Christ has been placarded.' The expression has acquired somewhat\nignoble associations from modern advertising, but that is no reason why\nwe should lose sight of its force. So, then, Paul says, 'In my\npreaching, Christ was conspicuously set forth. It is like some\ninexplicable enchantment that, having seen Him, you should turn away to\ngaze on others.' It is insanity which evokes wonder, as well as sin\nwhich deserves rebuke; and the fiery question of my text conveys both.\n\nI. Keeping to the metaphor, I note first the placard which Paul had\ndisplayed.\n\n'Jesus Christ crucified has been conspicuously set forth before you,' he\nsays to these Galatians. Now, he is referring, of course, to his own\nwork of preaching the Gospel to them at the beginning. And the vivid\nmetaphor suggests very strikingly two things. We see in it the Apostle's\nnotion of what He had to do. His had been a very humble office, simply\nto hang up a proclamation. The one virtue of a proclamation is that it\nshould be brief and plain. It must be authoritative, it must be urgent,\nit must be 'writ large,' it must be easily intelligible. And he that\nmakes it public has nothing to do except to fasten it up, and make sure\nthat it is legible. If I might venture into modern phraseology, what\nPaul means is that he was neither more nor less than a bill-sticker,\nthat he went out with the placards and fastened them up.\n\nAh! if we ministers universally acted up to the implications of this\nmetaphor, do you not think the pulpit would be more frequently a centre\nof power than it is to-day? And if, instead of presenting our own\ningenuities and speculations, we were to realise the fact that we have\nto hide ourselves behind the broad sheet that we fasten up, there would\nbe a new breath over many a moribund church, and we should hear less of\nthe often warrantable sarcasms about the inefficiency of the modern\npulpit.\n\nBut I turn from Paul's conception of the office to his statement of his\ntheme. '_Jesus_ was displayed amongst you.' If I might vary the metaphor\na little, the placard that Paul fastened up was like those that modern\nadvertising ingenuity displays upon all our walls. It was a\npicture-placard, and on it was portrayed one sole figure--Jesus, the\nPerson. Christianity is Christ, and Christ is Christianity; and wherever\nthere is a pulpit or a book which deals rather with doctrines than with\nHim who is the Fountain and Quarry of all doctrine, there is divergence\nfrom the primitive form of the Gospel.\n\nI know, of course, that doctrines--which are only formal and orderly\nstatements of principles involved in the facts--must flow from the\nproclamation of the person, Christ. I am not such a fool as to run\namuck against theology, as some people in this day do. But what I wish\nto insist upon is that the first form of Christianity is not a theory,\nbut a history, and that the revelation of God is the biography of a man.\nWe must begin with the person, Christ, and preach Him. Would that all\nour preachers and all professing Christians, in their own personal\nreligious life, had grasped this--that, since Christianity is not first\na philosophy but a history, and its centre not an ordered sequence of\ndoctrines but a living person, the act that makes a man possessor of\nChristianity is not the intellectual process of assimilating certain\ntruths, and accepting them, but the moral process of clinging, with\ntrust and love, to the person, Jesus.\n\nBut, further, if any of you consult the original, you will see that the\norder of the sentence is such as to throw a great weight of emphasis on\nthat last word 'crucified.' It is not merely a person that is portrayed\non the placard, but it is that person _upon the Cross_. Ah! brethren,\nPaul himself puts his finger, in the words of my text, on what, in his\nconception, was the throbbing heart of all his message, the vital point\nfrom which all its power, and all the gleam of its benediction, poured\nout upon humanity--'Christ crucified.' If the placard is a picture of\nChrist in other attitudes and in other aspects, without the picture of\nHim crucified, it is an imperfect representation of the Gospel that Paul\npreached and that Christ was.\n\nII. Now, think, secondly, of the fascinators that draw away the eyes.\n\nPaul's question is not one of ignorance, but it is a rhetorical way of\nrebuking, and of expressing wonder. He knew, and the Galatians knew,\nwell enough who it was that had bewitched them. The whole letter is a\npolemic worked in fire, and not in frost, as some argumentation is,\nagainst a very well-marked class of teachers--viz. those emissaries of\nJudaism who had crept into the Church, and took it as their special\nfunction to dog Paul's steps amongst the heathen communities that he had\ngathered together through faith in Christ, and used every means to upset\nhis work.\n\nI cannot but pause for a moment upon this original reference of my text,\nbecause it is very relevant to the present condition of things amongst\nus. These men whom Paul is fighting as if he were in a sawpit with them,\nin this letter, what was their teaching? This: they did not deny that\nJesus was the Christ; they did not deny that faith knit a man to Him,\nbut what they said was that the observance of the external rites of\nJudaism was necessary in order to entrance into the Church and to\nsalvation. They did not in their own estimation detract from Christ, but\nthey added to Him. And Paul says that to add is to detract, to say that\nanything is necessary except faith in Jesus Christ's finished work is to\ndeny that that finished work, and faith in it, are the means of\nsalvation; and the whole evangelical system crumbles into nothingness if\nonce you admit that.\n\nNow, is there anybody to-day who is saying the same things, with\nvariations consequent upon change of external conditions? Are there no\npeople within the limits of the Christian Church who are reiterating the\nold Jewish notion that external ceremonies--baptism and the Lord's\nSupper--are necessary to salvation and to connection with the Christian\nChurch? And is it not true now, as it was then, that though they do not\navowedly detract, they so represent these external rites as to detract,\nfrom the sole necessity of faith in the perfected work of Jesus Christ?\nThe centre is shifted from personal union with a personal Saviour by a\npersonal faith to participation in external ordinances. And I venture to\nthink that the lava stream which, in this Epistle to the Galatians, Paul\npours on the Judaisers of his day needs but a little deflection to pour\nits hot current over, and to consume, the sacramentarian theories of\nthis day. 'O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?' Is it not like\nsome malignant sorcery, that after the Evangelical revival of the last\ncentury and the earlier part of this, there should spring up again this\nold, old error, and darken the simplicity of the Gospel teaching, that\nChrist's work, apprehended by faith, without anything else, is the\nmeans, and the only means, of salvation?\n\nBut I need not spend time upon that original application. Let us rather\ncome more closely to our own individual lives and their weaknesses. It\nis a strange thing, so strange that if one did not know it by one's own\nself, one would be scarcely disposed to believe it possible, that a man\nwho has 'tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to\ncome,' and has known Jesus Christ as Saviour and Friend, should decline\nfrom Him, and turn to anything besides. And yet, strange and sad, and\nlike some enchantment as it is, it is the experience at times and in a\nmeasure, of us all; and, alas! it is the experience, in a very tragical\ndegree, of many who have walked for a little while behind the Master,\nand then have turned away and walked no more with Him. We may well\nwonder; but the root of the mischief is in no baleful glitter of a\nsorcerer's eye without us, but it is in the weakness of our own wills\nand the waywardness of our own hearts, and the wandering of our own\naffections. We often court the coming of the evil influence, and are\nwilling to be fascinated and to turn our backs upon Jesus. Mysterious it\nis, for why should men cast away diamonds for paste? Mysterious it is,\nfor we do not usually drop the substance to get the shadow. Mysterious\nit is, for a man does not ordinarily empty his pockets of gold in order\nto fill them with gravel. Mysterious it is, for a thirsty man will not\nusually turn away from the full, bubbling, living fountain, to see if he\ncan find any drops still remaining, green with scum, stagnant and\nodorous, at the bottom of some broken cistern. But all these follies are\nsanity as compared with the folly of which we are guilty, times without\nnumber, when, having known the sweetness of Jesus Christ, we turn away\nto the fascinations of the world. Custom, the familiarity that we have\nwith Him, the attrition of daily cares--like the minute grains of sand\nthat are cemented on to paper, and make a piece of sandpaper that is\nstrong enough to file an inscription off iron--the seductions of worldly\ndelights, the pressure of our daily cares--all these are as a ring of\nsorcerers that stand round about us, before whom we are as powerless as\na bird in the presence of a serpent, and they bewitch us and draw us\naway.\n\nThe sad fact has been verified over and over again on a large scale in\nthe history of the Church. After every outburst of renewed life and\nelevated spirituality there is sure to come a period of reaction when\ntorpor and formality again assert themselves. What followed the\nReformation in Germany? A century of death. What followed Puritanism in\nEngland? An outburst of lust and godlessness.\n\nSo it has always been, and so it is with us individually, as we too\nwell know. Ah, brethren! the seductions are omnipresent, and our poor\neyes are very weak, and we turn away from the Lord to look on these\nmisshapen monsters that are seeking by their gaze to draw us into\ndestruction. I wonder how many professing Christians are in this\naudience who once saw Jesus Christ a great deal more clearly, and\ncontemplated Him a great deal more fixedly, and turned their hearts to\nHim far more lovingly, than they do to-day? Some of the great mountain\npeaks of Africa are only seen for an hour or two in the morning, and\nthen the clouds gather around them, and hide them for the rest of the\nday. It is like the experience of many professing Christians, who see\nHim in the morning of their Christian life far more vividly than they\never do after. 'Who hath bewitched you?' The world; but the\narch-sorcerer sits safe in our own hearts.\n\nIII. Lastly, keeping to the metaphor, let me suggest, although my text\ndoes not touch upon it, the Amulet.\n\nOne has seen fond mothers in Egypt and Palestine who hang on their\nbabies' necks charms, to shield them from the influence of the Evil Eye;\nand there is a charm that we may wear if we will, which will keep us\nsafe. There is no fascination in the Evil Eye if you do not look at it.\n\nThe one object that the sorcerer has is to withdraw our gaze from\nChrist; it is not illogical to say that the way to defeat the object is\nto keep our gaze fixed on Christ. If you do not look at the baleful\nglitter of the Evil Eye it will exercise no power over you; and if you\nwill steadfastly look at Him, then, and only then, you will not look at\nit. Like Ulysses in the legend, bandage the eyes and put wax in the\nears, if you would neither be tempted by hearing the songs, nor by\nseeing the fair forms, of the sirens on their island. To look fixedly at\nJesus Christ, and with the resolve never to turn away from Him, is the\nonly safety against these tempting delights around us.\n\nBut, brethren, it is the crucified Christ, looking to whom, we are safe\namidst all seductions and snares. I doubt whether a Christ who did not\ndie for men has power enough over men's hearts and minds to draw them to\nHimself. The cords which bind us to Him are the assurance of His dying\nlove which has conquered us. If only we will, day by day, and moment by\nmoment, as we pass through the duties and distractions, the temptations\nand the trials, of this present life, by an act of will and thought turn\nourselves to Him, then all the glamour of false attractiveness will\ndisappear from the temptations around us, and we shall see that the\nsirens, for all their fair forms, end in loathly fishes' tails and sit\namidst dead men's bones.\n\nBrethren, 'looking _off_ unto Jesus' is the secret of triumph over the\nfascinations of the world. And if we will habitually so look, then the\nsweetness that we shall experience will destroy all the seducing power\nof lesser and earthly sweetness, and the blessed light of the sun will\ndim and all but extinguish the deceitful gleams that tempt us into the\nswamps where we shall be drowned. Turn away, then, from these things;\ncleave to Jesus Christ; and though in ourselves we may be as weak as a\nhumming-bird before a snake, or a rabbit before a tiger, He will give us\nstrength, and the light of His face shining down upon us will fix our\neyes and make us insensible to the fascinations of the sorcerers. So we\nshall not need to dread the question, 'Who hath bewitched you?' but\nourselves challenge the utmost might of the fascination with the\ntriumphant question, 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?'\n\nHelp us, O Lord! we beseech Thee, to live near Thee. Turn away our eyes\nfrom beholding vanity, and enable us to set the Lord always before us\nthat we be not moved.\n\n\n\n\nLESSONS OF EXPERIENCE\n\n 'Have ye suffered so many things in vain?'--GAL.\n iii 4.\n\n Preached on the last Sunday of the year.\n\n\nThis vehement question is usually taken to be a reminder to the fickle\nGalatians that their Christian faith had brought upon them much\nsuffering from the hands of their unbelieving brethren, and to imply an\nexhortation to faithfulness to the Gospel lest they should stultify\ntheir past brave endurance. Yielding to the Judaising teachers, and\nthereby escaping the 'offence of the Cross,' they would make their past\nsufferings vain. But it may be suggested that the word 'suffered' here\nis rather used in what is its known sense elsewhere, namely, with the\ngeneral idea of _feeling_, the nature of the feeling being undefined. It\nis a touching proof of the preponderance of pain and sorrow that by\ndegrees the significance of the word has become inextricably intertwined\nwith the thought of sadness; still, it is possible to take it in the\ntext as meaning _experienced_ or _felt_, and to regard the Apostle as\nreferring to the whole of the Galatians' past experience, and as\nfounding his appeal for their steadfastness on all the joys as well as\nthe sorrows, which their faith had brought them.\n\nTaking the words in this more general sense they become a question which\nit is well for us to ask ourselves at such a time as this, when the\ncalendar naturally invites us to look backwards and ask ourselves what\nwe have made of all our experiences in the past, or rather what, by the\nhelp of them all, we have made of ourselves.\n\nI. The duty of retrospect.\n\nFor almost any reason it is good for us to be delivered from our\nprevailing absorption in the present. Whatever counterpoises the\noverwhelming weight of the present is, so far, a blessing and a good,\nand whatever softens the heart and keeps up even the lingering\nremembrance of early, dewy freshness and of the high aspirations which,\neven for a brief space, elevated our past selves is gain amidst the\ndusty commonplaces of to-day. We see things better and more clearly when\nwe get a little away from them, as a face is more distinctly visible at\narmslength than when held close.\n\nBut our retrospects are too often almost as trivial and degrading as is\nour absorption in the present, and to prevent memory from becoming a\nminister of frivolity if not of sin, it is needful that such a question\nas that of our text be urgently asked by each of us. Memory must be in\nclosest union with conscience, as all our faculties must be, or she is\nof little use. There is a mere sentimental luxury of memory which finds\na pensive pleasure in the mere passing out from the hard present into\nthe soft light, not without illusion in its beams, of the 'days that are\nno more.' Merely to live over again our sorrows and joys without any\nclear discernment of what their effects on our moral character have\nbeen, is not the retrospect that becomes a man, however it might suit\nan animal. We have to look back as a man might do escaping from the\nocean on to some frail sand-bank which ever breaks off and crumbles away\nat his very heels. To remember the past mainly as it affected our joy or\nour sorrow is as unworthy as to regard the present from the same point\nof view, and robs both of their highest worth. To remember is only then\nblessed and productive of its highest possible good in us, when the\nquestion of our text insists on being faced, and the object of\nretrospect is not to try to rekindle the cold coals of past emotions,\nbut to ascertain what effect on our present characters our past\nexperiences have had. We have not to turn back and try to gather some\nlingering flowers, but to look for the fruit which has followed the\nfallen blossoms.\n\nII. The true test for the past.\n\nThe question of our text implies, as we have already suggested, that our\nwhole lives, with all their various and often opposite experiences, are\nyet an ordered whole, having a definite end. There is some purpose\nbeyond the moment to be served. Our joys and our sorrows, our gains and\nour losses, the bright hours and the dark hours, and the hours that are\nneither eminently bright nor supremely dark, our failures and our\nsuccesses, our hopes disappointed or fulfilled, and all the infinite\nvariety of condition and environment through which our varying days and\nyears have led us, co-operate for one end. It is life that makes men;\nthe infant is a bundle of possibilities, and as the years go on, one\npossible avenue of development after another is blocked. The child might\nhave been almost anything; the man has become hardened and fixed into\none shape.\n\nBut all this variety of impulses and complicated experiences need the\nco-operation of the man himself if they are to reach their highest\nresults in him. If he is simply recipient of these external forces\nacting upon him, they will shape him indeed, but he will be a poor\ncreature. Life does not make men unless men take the command of life,\nand he who lets circumstances and externals guide him, as the long water\nweeds in a river are directed by its current, will, from the highest\npoint of view, have experienced the variations of a lifetime in vain.\n\nNo doubt each of our experiences has its own immediate and lower purpose\nto serve, and these purposes are generally accomplished, but beyond\nthese each has a further aim which is not reached without diligent\ncarefulness and persistent effort on our parts. If we would be sure of\nwhat it is to suffer life's experiences in vain, we have but to ask\nourselves what life is given us for, and we all know that well enough to\nbe able to judge how far we have used life to attain the highest ends of\nliving. We may put these ends in various ways in our investigation of\nthe results of our manifold experiences. Let us begin with the\nlowest--we received life that we might learn truth, then if our\nexperience has not taught us wisdom it has been in vain. It is\ndeplorable to have to look round and see how little the multitude of men\nare capable of forming anything like an independent and intelligent\nopinion, and how they are swayed by gusts of passion, by blind\nprejudice, by pretenders and quacks of all sorts. It is no less sad for\nus to turn our eyes within and discover, perhaps not without surprise\nand shame, how few of what we are self-complacent enough to call our\nopinions are due to our own convictions.\n\nIf we ever are honest enough with ourselves to catch a glimpse of our\nown unwisdom, the question of our text will press heavily upon us, and\nmay help to make us wiser by teaching us how foolish we are. An infinite\nsource of wisdom is open to us, and all the rich variety of our lives'\nexperiences has been lavished on us to help us, and what have we made of\nit all?\n\nBut we may rise a step higher and remember that we are made moral\ncreatures. Therefore, whatever has not developed infant potentialities\nin us, and made them moral qualities, has been experienced in vain. 'Not\nenjoyment and not sorrow is our destined end and way.' Life is meant to\nmake us love and do the good, and unless it has produced that effect on\nus, it has failed. If this be true, the world is full of failures, like\nthe marred statues in a bad sculptor's studio, and we ourselves have\nearnestly to confess that the discipline of life has too often been\nwasted upon us, and that of us the divine complaint from of old has been\ntrue: 'In vain have I smitten thy children, they have received no\ncorrection.'\n\nThere is no sadder waste than the waste of sorrow, and alas! we all know\nhow impotent our afflictions have been to make us better. But not\nafflictions only have failed in their appeal to us, our joys have as\noften been in vain as our sorrows, and memory, when it turns its lamp on\nthe long past, sees so few points at which life has taught us to love\ngoodness, and be good, that she may well quench her light and let the\ndead past bury its dead.\n\nBut we must rise still higher, and think of men as being made for God,\nand as being the only creatures known to us who are capable of religion.\n'Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.' And this\nchief end is in fullest harmony with the lower ends to which we have\njust referred, and they will never be realised in their fullest\ncompleteness unless that completeness is sought in this the chief end.\nFrom of old meditative souls have known that the beginning of wisdom is\nthe fear of the Lord, and that that fear is as certainly the beginning\nof goodness. It was not an irrelevant rebuke to the question, 'What good\nthing shall I do?' when Jesus set the eager young soul who asked it, to\njustify to himself his courteous and superficial application to Him of\nthe abused and vulgarised title of 'Good,' and pointed him to God as the\nonly Being to whom that title, in its perfectness, could be given. If\n'there is none good but one, that is God,' man's goodness must be drawn\nfrom Him, and morality without religion will in theory be incomplete,\nand in practice a delusion. If, then, men are made to need God, and\ncapable of possessing Him, and of being possessed by Him, then the great\nquestion for all of us is, has life, with all its rapid whirl of\nchanging circumstance and varying fortunes, drawn us closer to God, and\nmade us more fit to receive more of Him? So supreme is this chief end\nthat a life which has not attained it can only be regarded as 'in vain'\nwhatever other successes it may have attained. So unspeakably more\nimportant and necessary is it, that compared with it all else sinks into\nnothingness; hence many lives which are dazzling successes in the eyes\nof men are ghastly failures in reality.\n\nNow, if we take these plain principles with us in our retrospect of the\npast year we shall be launched on a very serious inquiry, and brought\nface to face with a very penitent answer. Some of us may have had great\nsorrows, and the tears may be scarcely dry upon our cheeks: some of us\nmay have had great gladnesses, and our hearts may still be throbbing\nwith the thrill: some of us may have had great successes, and some of us\nheavy losses, but the question for us to ask is not of the quality of\nour past experiences, but as to their effects upon us. Has life been so\nused by us as to help us to become wiser, better, more devout? And the\nanswer to that question, if we are honest in our scrutiny of ourselves,\nand if memory has not been a mere sentimental luxury, must be that we\nhave too often been but unfaithful recipients alike of God's mercies and\nGod's chastisements, and have received much of the discipline of life,\nand remained undisciplined. The question of our text, if asked by me,\nwould be impertinent, but it is asked of each of us by the stern voice\nof conscience, and for some of us by the lips of dear ones whose loss\nhas been among our chiefest sufferings. God asks us this question, and\nit is hard to make-believe to Him.\n\nIII. The best issue of the retrospect.\n\nThe world says, 'What I have written I have written,' and there is a\nvery solemn and terrible reality in the thought of the irrevocable past.\nWhether life has achieved the ends for which it was given or no, it has\nachieved some ends. It may have made us into characters the very\nopposite of God's intention for us, but it has made us into certain\ncharacters which, so far as the world sees, can never be unmade or\nre-made. The world harshly preaches the indelibility of character, and\nproclaims that the Ethiopian may as soon be expected to change his skin\nor the leopard his spots as the man accustomed to do evil may learn to\ndo well. That dreary fatalism which binds the effects of a dead past on\na man's shoulders, and forbids him to hope that anything will\nobliterate the marks of 'what once hath been,' is in violent\ncontradiction to the large hope brought into the world by Jesus Christ.\nWhat we have written we _have_ written, and we have no power to erase\nthe lines and make the sheet clean again, but Jesus Christ has taken\naway the handwriting 'that was against us,' nailing it to His cross.\nInstead of our old sin-worn and sin-marked selves, He proffers to each\nof us a new self, not the outcome of what we have been, but the image of\nwhat He is and the prophecy of what we shall be. By the great gift of\nholiness for the future by the impartation of His own life and spirit,\nJesus makes all things new. The Gospel recognises to the full how bad\nsome who have received it were, but it can willingly admit their past\nfoulness, because it contrasts with all that former filth their present\ncleanness, and to the most inveterately depraved who have trusted in\nChrist rejoices to say, 'Ye were washed, ye were sanctified, ye were\njustified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE UNIVERSAL PRISON\n\n 'But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin,\n that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be\n given to them that believe.'--GAL. iii. 22.\n\n\nThe Apostle uses here a striking and solemn figure, which is much veiled\nfor the English reader by the ambiguity attaching to the word\n'concluded.' It literally means 'shut up,' and is to be taken in its\nliteral sense of confining, and not in its secondary sense of inferring.\nSo, then, we are to conceive of a vast prison-house in which mankind is\nconfined. And then, very characteristically, the Apostle passes at once\nto another metaphor when he goes on to say 'under sin.' What a moment\nbefore had presented itself to his vivid imagination as a great dungeon\nis now represented as a heavy weight, pressing down upon those beneath;\nif, indeed, we are not, perhaps, rather to think of the low roof of the\ndark dungeon as weighing on the captives.\n\nFurther, he says that Scripture has driven men into this captivity.\nThat, of course, cannot mean that revelation makes us sinners, but it\ndoes mean that it makes us more guilty, and that it declares the fact of\nhuman sinfulness as no other voice has ever done. And then the grimness\nof the picture is all relieved and explained, and the office ascribed to\nGod's revelation harmonised with God's love, by the strong, steady beam\nof light that falls from the last words, which tell us that the\nprisoners have not been bound in chains for despair or death, but in\norder that, gathered together in a common doleful destiny, they may\nbecome recipients of a common blessed salvation, and emerge into liberty\nand light through faith in Jesus Christ.\n\nSo here are three things--the prison-house, its guardian, and its\nbreaker. 'The Scripture hath shut up all under sin, in order that the\npromise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given unto all them that\nbelieve.'\n\nI. First, then, note the universal prison-house.\n\nNow the Apostle says two things--and we may put away the figure and look\nat the facts that underlie it. The one is that all sin is imprisonment,\nthe other is that all men are in that dungeon, unless they have come out\nof it through faith in Jesus Christ.\n\nAll sin is imprisonment. That is the direct contrary of the notion that\nmany people have. They say to themselves, 'Why should I be fettered and\nconfined by these antiquated restrictions of a conventional morality?\nWhy should I not break the bonds, and do as I like?' And they laugh at\nChristian people who recognise the limitations under which God's law has\nput them; and tell us that we are 'cold-blooded folks who live by rule,'\nand contrast their own broad 'emancipation from narrow prejudice.' But\nthe reality is the other way. The man who does wrong is a slave in the\nmeasure in which he does it. If you want to find out--and mark this, you\nyoung people, who may be deceived by the false contrasts between the\nrestraints of duty and the freedom of living a dissolute life--if you\nwant to find out how utterly 'he that committeth sin is the slave of\nsin,' try to break it off, and you will find it out fast enough. We all\nknow, alas! the impotence of the will when it comes to hand grips with\nsome evil to which we have become habituated; and how we determine and\ndetermine, and try, and fail, and determine again, with no better\nresult. We are the slaves of our own passions; and no man is free who is\nhindered by his lower self from doing that which his better self tells\nhim he ought to do. The tempter comes to you, and says, 'Come and do\nthis thing, just for once. You can leave off when you like, you know.\nThere is no need to do it a second time.' And when you have done it, he\nchanges his note, and says, 'Ah! you are in, and you cannot get out. You\nhave done it once; and in my vocabulary once means twice, and once and\ntwice mean _always_.'\n\nInsane people are sometimes tempted into a house of detention by being\nmade to believe that it is a grand mansion, where they are just going to\npay a flying visit, and can come away when they like. But once inside\nthe walls, they never get past the lodge gates any more. The foolish\nbirds do not know that there is lime on the twigs, and their little feet\nget fastened to the branch, and their wings flutter in vain. 'He that\ncommitteth sin is the slave of sin--shut up,' dungeoned, 'under sin.'\n\nBut do not forget, either, the other metaphor in our text, in which the\nApostle, with characteristic rapidity, and to the horror of rhetorical\npropriety, passes at once from the thought of a dungeon to the thought\nof an impending weight, and says, 'Shut up _under_ sin.'\n\nWhat does that mean? It means that we are guilty when we have done\nwrong; and it means that we are under penalties which are sure to\nfollow. No deed that we do, howsoever it may fade from the tablets of\nour memory, but writes in visible characters, in proportion to its\nmagnitude, upon our characters and lives. All human acts have perpetual\nconsequences. The kick of the rifle against the shoulder of the man that\nfires it is as certain as the flight of the bullet from its muzzle. The\nchalk cliffs that rise above the Channel entomb and perpetuate the\nrelics of myriads of evanescent lives; and our fleeting deeds are\nsimilarly preserved in our present selves. Everything that a man wills,\nwhether it passes into external act or not, leaves, in its measure,\nineffaceable impressions on himself. And so we are not only dungeoned\nin, but weighed upon by, and lie under, the evil that we do.\n\nNor, dear friends, dare I pass in silence what is too often passed in\nsilence in the modern pulpit, the plain fact that there is a future\nwaiting for each of us beyond the grave, of which the most certain\ncharacteristic, certified by our own forebodings, required by the\nreasonableness of creation, and made plain by the revelation of\nScripture, is that it is a future of retribution, where we shall have to\ncarry our works; and as we have brewed so shall we drink; and the beds\nthat we have made we shall have to lie upon. 'God shut up all under\nsin.'\n\nNote, again, the universality of the imprisonment.\n\nNow I am not going to exaggerate, I hope. I want to keep well within the\nlimits of fact, and to say nothing that is not endorsed by your own\nconsciences, if you will be honest with yourselves. And I say that the\nBible does not charge men universally with gross transgressions. It does\nnot talk about the virtues that grow in the open as if they were\nsplendid vices; but it does say, and I ask you if our own hearts do not\ntell us that it says truly, that no man is, or has been, does, or has\ndone, that which his own conscience tells him he should have been and\ndone. We are all ready to admit faults, in a general way, and to confess\nthat we have come short of what our own consciousness tells us we ought\nto be. But I want you to take the other step, and to remember that since\nwe each stand in a personal relation to God, therefore all\nimperfections, faults, negligences, shortcomings, and, still more,\ntransgressions of morality, or of the higher aspirations of our lives,\nare sins. Because sin--to use fine words--is the correlative of God. Or,\nto put it into plainer language, the deeds which in regard to law may be\ncrimes, or those which in regard to morality may be vices, or in regard\nto our own convictions of duty may be shortcomings, seeing they all have\nsome reference to Him, assume a very much graver character, and they are\nall sins.\n\nOh, brethren, if we realise how intimately and inseparably we are knit\nto God, and how everything that we do, and do not do, but should have\ndone, has an aspect in reference to Him, I think we should be less\nunwilling to admit, and less tinged with levity and carelessness in\nadmitting, that all our faults are transgressions of His law, and we\nshould find ourselves more frequently on our knees before Him, with the\npenitent words on our lips and in our hearts, 'Against Thee, Thee only\nhave I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.'\n\nThat was the prayer of a man who had done a foul evil in other people's\nsight; who had managed to accumulate about as many offences to as many\npeople in one deed as was possible. For, as a king he had sinned against\nhis nation, as a friend he had sinned against his companion, as a\ncaptain he had sinned against his brave subordinate, as a husband he had\nsinned against his wife, and he had sinned against Bathsheba. And yet,\nwith all that tangle of offences against all these people, he says,\n'Against Thee, Thee only.' Yes! Because, accurately speaking, the _sin_\nhad reference to God, and to God alone. And I wish for myself and for\nyou to cultivate the habit of connecting, thus, all our actions, and\nespecially our imperfections and our faults, with the thought of God,\nthat we may learn how universal is the enclosure of man in this dreadful\nprison-house.\n\nII. And so, I come, in the second place, to look at the guardian of the\nprison.\n\nThat is a strange phrase of my text attributing the shutting of men up\nin this prison-house to the merciful revelation of God in the Scripture.\nAnd it is made still more striking and strange by another edition of\nthe same expression in the Epistle to the Romans, where Paul directly\ntraces the 'concluding all in disobedience' to God Himself.\n\nThere may be other subtle thoughts connected with that expression which\nI do not need to enter upon now. But one that I would dwell upon, for a\nmoment, is this, that one great purpose of Scripture is to convince us\nthat we are sinful in God's sight. I do not need to remind you, I\nsuppose, how that was, one might almost say, the dominant intention of\nthe whole of the ceremonial and moral law of Israel, and explains its\nmany else inexplicable and apparently petty commandments and\nprohibitions. They were all meant to emphasise the difference between\nright and wrong, obedience and disobedience, and so to drive home to\nmen's hearts the consciousness that they had broken the commandments of\nthe living God. And although the Gospel comes with a very different\nguise from that ancient order, and is primarily gift and not law, a\nGospel of forgiveness, and not the promulgation of duty or the\nthreatening of condemnation, yet it, too, has for one of its main\npurposes, which must be accomplished in us before it can reach its\nhighest aim in us, the kindling in men's hearts of the same\nconsciousness that they are sinful men in God's sight.\n\nAh, brethren, we all need it. There is nothing that we need more than to\nhave driven deep into us the penetrating point of that conviction. There\nmust be some external standard by which men may be convinced of their\nsinfulness, for they carry no such standard within them. Your conscience\nis only _you_ judging on moral questions, and, of course, as you change,\nit will change too. A man's whole state determines the voice with which\nconscience shall speak to him, and so the worse he is, and the more he\nneeds it, the less he has it. The rebels cut the telegraph wires. The\nwaves break the bell that hangs on the reef, and so the black rocks get\nmany a wreck to gnaw with their sharp teeth. A man makes his conscience\ndumb by the very sins that require a conscience trumpet-tongued to\nreprehend them. And therefore it needs that God should speak from\nHeaven, and say to us, '_Thou_ art the man,' or else we pass by all\nthese grave things that I am trying to urge upon you now, and fall back\nupon our complacency and our levity and our unwillingness to take stock\nof ourselves, and front the facts of our condition. And so we build up a\nbarrier between ourselves and God, and God's grace, which nothing short\nof that grace and an omnipotent love and an all-powerful Redeemer can\never pull down.\n\nI wish to urge in a few words, yet with much earnestness, this thought,\nthat until we have laid to heart God's message about our own personal\nsinfulness we have not got to the place where we can in the least\nunderstand the true meaning of His Gospel, or the true work of His Son.\nMay I say that I, for one, am old-fashioned enough to look with great\napprehension on certain tendencies of present-day presentations of\nChristianity which, whilst they dwell much upon the social blessings\nwhich it brings, do seem to me to be in great peril of obscuring the\ncentral characteristic of the Gospel, that it is addressed to sinful\nmen, and that the only way by which individuals can come to the\npossession of any of its blessings is by coming as penitent sinners, and\ncasting themselves on the mercy of God in Jesus Christ? The beginning of\nall lies here, where Paul puts it, 'the Scripture hath herded all men,'\nin droves, into the prison, that it might have mercy upon all.\n\nDear friend, as the old proverb has it, deceit lurks in generalities. I\nhave no doubt you are perfectly willing to admit that all are sinful.\nCome a little closer to the truth, I beseech you, and say each is\nsinful, and I am one of the captives.\n\nIII. And so, lastly, the breaker of the prison-house.\n\nI need not spend your time in commenting on the final words of this\ntext. Suffice it to gather their general purport and scope. The\napparently stern treatment which God by revelation applies to the whole\nmass of mankind is really the tenderest beneficence. He has shut them up\nin the prison-house in order that, thus shut up, they may the more\neagerly apprehend and welcome the advent of the Deliverer. He tells us\neach our state, in order that we may the more long for, and the more\nclosely grasp, the great mercy which reverses the state. And so how\nshallow and how unfair it is to talk about evangelical Christianity as\nbeing gloomy, stern, or misanthropical! You do not call a doctor unkind\nbecause he tells an unsuspecting patient that his disease is far\nadvanced, and that if it is not cured it will be fatal. No more should a\nman turn away from Christianity, or think it harsh and sour, because it\nspeaks plain truths. The question is, are they true? not, are they\nunpleasant?\n\nIf you and I, and all our fellows, are shut up in this prison-house of\nsin, then it is quite clear that none of us can do anything to get\nourselves out. And so the way is prepared for that great message with\nwhich Jesus opened His ministry, and which, whilst it has a far wider\napplication, and reference to social as well as to individual evils,\nbegins with the proclamation of liberty to the captives, and the opening\nof the prison to them that are bound.\n\nThere was once a Roman emperor who wished that all his enemies had one\nneck, that he might slay them all at one blow. The wish is a fact in\nregard to Christ and His work, for by it all our tyrants have been\nsmitten to death by one stroke; and the death of Jesus Christ has been\nthe death of sin and death and hell--of sin in its power, in its guilt,\nand in its penalty. He has come into the prison-house, and torn the bars\naway, and opened the fetters, and every man may, if he will, come out\ninto the blessed sunshine and expatiate there.\n\nAnd if, brethren, it is true that the universal prison-house is opened\nby the death of Jesus Christ, who is the Propitiation for the sins of\nthe whole world, and the power by which the most polluted may become\nclean, then there follows, as plainly, that the only thing which we have\nto do is, recognising and feeling our bound impotence, to stretch out\nchained hands and take the gift that He brings. Since all is done for\neach of us, and since none of us can do sufficient for himself to break\nthe bond, then what we should do is to trust to Him who has broken every\nchain and let the oppressed go free.\n\nOh, dear friend, if you want to get to the heart of the sweetness and\nthe blessedness and power of the Gospel, you must begin here, with the\nclear and penitent consciousness that you are a sinful man in God's\nsight, and can do nothing to cleanse, help, or liberate yourself. Is\nJesus Christ the breaker of the bond for you? Do you learn from Him what\nyour need is? Do you trust yourself to Him for Pardon, for cleansing,\nfor emancipation? Unless you do, you will never know His most precious\npreciousness, and you have little right to call yourself a Christian. If\nyou do, oh, than a great light will shine in the prison-house, and your\nchains will drop from your wrists, and the iron door will open of its\nown accord, and you will come out into the morning sunshine of a new\nday, because you have confessed and abhorred the bondage into which you\nhave cast yourselves, and accepted the liberty wherewith Christ hath\nmade you free.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SON SENT\n\n 'When the fulness of the time came, God sent forth\n His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that\n He might redeem them which were under the law,\n that we might receive the adoption of sons.'--GAL.\n iv. 4, 5 (R.V.).\n\n\nIt is generally supposed that by the 'fulness of time' Paul means to\nindicate that Christ came at the moment when the world was especially\nprepared to receive Him, and no doubt that is a true thought. The Jews\nhad been trained by law to the conviction of sin; heathenism had tried\nits utmost, had reached the full height of its possible development, and\nwas decaying. Rome had politically prepared the way for the spread of\nthe Gospel. Vague expectations of coming change found utterance even\nfrom the lips of Roman courtier poets, and a feeling of unrest and\nanticipation pervaded society; but while no doubt all this is true and\nbecomes more certain the more we know of the state of things into which\nChrist came, it is to be noted that Paul is not thinking of the fulness\nof time primarily in reference to the world which received Him, but to\nthe Father who sent Him. Our text immediately follows words in which the\nair is described as being 'under guardians and stewards' until the time\nappointed of His Father, and the fulness of time is therefore the moment\nwhich God had ordained from the beginning for His coming. He, from of\nold, had willed that at that moment this Son should be born, and it is\nto the punctual accomplishment of His eternal purpose that Paul here\ndirects our thoughts. No doubt the world's preparedness is part of the\nreason for the divine determination of the time, but it is that divine\ndetermination rather than the world's preparedness to which the first\nwords of our text must be taken to refer.\n\nThe remaining portion of our text is so full of meaning that one shrinks\nfrom attempting to deal with it in our narrow space, but though it opens\nup depths beyond our fathoming, and gathers into one concentrated\nbrightness lights on which our dim eyes can hardly look, we may venture\nto attempt some imperfect consideration even of these great words.\nFollowing their course of thought we may deal with\n\nI. The mystery of love that sent.\n\nThe most frequent form under which the great fact of the incarnation is\nrepresented in Scripture is that of our text--'God sent His Son.' It is\nfamiliar on the lips of Jesus, but He also says that 'God gave His Son.'\nOne can feel a shade of difference in the two modes of expression. The\nformer bringing rather to our thoughts the representative character of\nthe Son as Messenger, and the latter going still deeper into the mystery\nof Godhead and bringing into view the love of the Father who spared not\nHis Son but freely bestowed Him on men. Yet another word is used by\nJesus Himself when He says, 'I came forth from God,' and that expression\nbrings into view the perfect willingness with which the Son accepted the\nmission and gave Himself, as well as was given by God. All three phases\nexpress harmonious, though slightly differing aspects of the same fact,\nas the facets of a diamond might flash into different colours, and all\nmust be held fast if we would understand the unspeakable gift of God.\nJesus was sent; Jesus was given; Jesus came. The mission from the\nFather, the love of the Father, the glad obedience of the Son, must ever\nbe recognised as interpenetrating, and all present in that supreme act.\n\nThere have been many men specially sent forth from God, whose personal\nexistence began with their birth, and so far as the words are concerned,\nJesus might have been one of these. There was a man sent from God whose\nname was John, and all through the ages he has had many companions in\nhis mission, but there has been only one who 'came' as well as 'was\nsent,' and He is the true light which lighteth every man. To speak in\ntheological language of the pre-existence of the Son is cold, and may\nobscure the truth which it formulates in so abstract a fashion, and may\nrob it of power to awe and impress. But there can be no question that in\nour text, as is shown by the juxtaposition of 'sent' and 'born,' and in\nall the New Testament references to the subject, the birth of Jesus is\nnot regarded as the beginning of the being of the Son. The one lies far\nback in the depths of eternity and the mystery of the divine nature, the\nother is a historical fact occurring in a definite place and at a dated\nmoment. Before time was the Son was, delighting in the Father, and 'in\nthe beginning was the word and the word was with God,' and He who in\nrespect of His expression of the Father's mind and will was the Word,\nwas the Son in respect of the love that bound the Father and Him in one.\nInto the mysteries of that love and union no eyes can penetrate, but\nunless our faith lays hold of it, we know not the God whom Jesus has\ndeclared to us. The mysteries of that divine union and communion lie\nbeyond our reach, but well within the grasp of our faith and the work of\nthe Son in the world, ever since there was a world, is not obscurely\ndeclared to all who have eyes to see and hearts to understand. For He\nhas through all ages been the active energy of the divine power, or as\nthe Old Testament words it, 'The Arm of the Lord,' the Agent of\ncreation, the Revealer of God, the Light of the world and the Director\nof Providence. 'He was in the world and the world was made by Him, and\nthe world knew Him not.'\n\nNow all this teaching that the Son was long before Jesus was born is no\nmere mysterious dogma without bearing on daily needs, but stands in the\nclosest connection with Christ's work and our faith in it. It is the\nguarantee of His representative character; on it depends the\nreliableness of His revelation of God. Unless He is the Son in a unique\nsense, how could God have spoken unto us in Him, and how could we rely\non His words? Unless He was 'the effulgence of His glory and the express\nimage of His person': how could we be sure that the light of His\ncountenance was light from God and that in His person God was so\npresented as that he who had seen Him had seen the Father? The\ncompleteness and veracity of His revelation, the authoritative fulness\nof His law, the efficacy of His sacrifice and the prevalence of His\nintercession all depend on the fact of His divine life with God long\nbefore His human life with men. It is a plain historical fact that a\nChristianity which has no place for a pre-existent Son in the bosom of\nthe Father has only a maimed Christ in reference to the needs of sinful\nmen. If our Christ were not the eternal Son of God, He will not be the\nuniversal Saviour of men.\n\nNor is this truth less needful in its bearing on modern theories which\nwill have nothing to say to the supernatural, and in a fatalistic\nfashion regard history as all the result of an orderly evolution in\nwhich the importance of personal agents is minimised. To it Jesus, like\nall other great men, is a product of His age, and the immediate result\nof the conditions under which He appeared. But when we look far beyond\nthe manger of Bethlehem into the depths of Eternity and see God so\nloving the world as to give His Son, we cannot but recognise that He has\nintervened in the course of human history and that the mightiest force\nin the development of man is the eternal Son whom He sent to save the\nworld.\n\nII. The miracle of lowliness that came.\n\nThe Apostle goes on from describing the great fact which took place in\nheaven to set forth the great fact which completed it on earth. The\nsending of the Son took effect in the birth of Jesus, and the Apostle\nputs it under two forms, both of which are plainly designed to present\nChrist's manhood as His full identification of Himself with us. The Son\nof God became the son of a woman; from His mother He drew a true and\ncomplete humanity in body and soul. The humanity which He received was\nsufficiently kindred with the divinity which received it to make it\npossible that the one should dwell in the other and be one person. As\nborn of a woman the Son of God took upon Himself all human experiences,\nbecame capable of sharing our pure emotions, wept our tears, partook in\nour joys, hoped and feared as we do, was subject to our changes, grew as\nwe grow, and in everything but sin, was a man amongst men.\n\nBut the Son of God could not be as the sons of men. Him the Father\nheard always. Even when He came down from Heaven and became the Son of\nMan, He continued to be 'The Son of Man which is in Heaven.' Amid all\nthe distractions and limitations of His earthly life, the continuity and\ndepth of His communion with the Father were unbroken and the\ncompleteness of His obedience undiminished. He was a Man, but He was\nalso the Man, the one realised ideal of humanity that has ever walked\nthe earth, to whom all others, even the most complete, are fragments,\nthe fairest foul, the most gracious harsh. In Him and in Him only has\nbeen 'given the world assurance of a man.'\n\nThe other condition which is here introduced is 'born under the law,' by\nwhich it may be noted that the Apostle does not mean the Jewish law,\ninasmuch as he does not use the definite article with the word. No doubt\nour Lord was born as a Jew and subject to the Jewish law, but the\nthought here and in the subsequent clause is extended to the general\nnotion of law. The very heart of our Lord's human identification is that\nHe too had duties imperative upon Him, and the language of one of the\nMessianic psalms was the voice of His filial will during all His earthly\nlife; 'Lo! I come, in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I\ndelight to do Thy will and Thy law is within My heart.' The very secret\nof His human life was discovered by the heathen centurion, at whose\nfaith He marvelled, who said, 'I _also_ am a man under authority'; so\nwas Jesus. The Son had ever been obedient in the sweet communion of\nHeaven, but the obedience of Jesus was not less perfect, continual and\nunstained. It was the man Jesus who summed up His earthly life in 'I do\nalways the things that please Him'; it was the man Jesus who, under the\nolives in Gethsemane, made the great surrender and yielded up His own\nwill to the will of the Father who sent Him.\n\nHe was under law in that the will of God dominated His life, but He was\nnot so under it as we are on whom its precepts often press as an\nunwelcome obligation, and who know the weight of guilt and condemnation.\nIf there is any one characteristic of Jesus more conspicuous than\nanother it is the absence in Him of any consciousness of deficiency in\nHis obedience to law, and yet that absence does not in the smallest\ndegree infringe on His claim to be 'meek and lowly in heart.' 'Which of\nyou convinceth Me of sin?' would have been from any other man a defiance\nthat would have provoked a crushing answer if it had not been taken as a\nproof of hopeless ignorance of self, but when Christ asks the question,\nthe world is silent. The silence has been all but unbroken for nineteen\nhundred years, and of all the busy and often unfriendly eyes that have\nbeen occupied with Him and the hostile pens that have been eager to say\nsomething new about Him, none have discovered a flaw, or dared to 'hint\na fault.' That character has stamped its own impression of perfectness\non all eyes even the most unfriendly or indifferent. In Him there is\nseen the perfect union and balance of opposite characteristics; the rest\nof us, at the best, are but broken arcs; Jesus is the completed round.\nHe is under law as fully, continuously and joyfully obedient; but for\nHim it had no accusing voice, and it laid on Him no burden of broken\ncommandments. He was born of a woman, born under law, but he lived\nseparate from sinners though identified with them.\n\nIII. The marvel of exaltation that results.\n\nOur Lord's lowliness is described in the two clauses which we have just\nbeen considering. They express His identification with us from a double\npoint of view, and that double point of view is continued in the final\nclauses of our text which state the double purpose of God in sending His\nSon. He became one with us that we might become one with Him. The two\nelements of this double purpose are stated in the reverse order to the\ntwo elements of Christ's lowliness. The redemption of them that were\nunder law is presented as the reason for His being born under law, and\nour reception of the 'adoption of sons' is the purpose of the Son's\nbeing sent and born of a woman. The order in which Paul here deals with\nthe two parts of the divine purpose is not to be put down to mere\nrhetorical ornament, but corresponds to the order in which these two\nelements are realised by men. For there must be redemption from law\nbefore there is the adoption of sons.\n\nWe have already had occasion to point out that 'law' here must be taken\nin the wide sense and not restricted to the Jewish law. It is a\nworld-wide redemption which the Father's love had in view in sending His\nSon, but that all-comprehending, fatherly love could not reach its aim\nby the mere forth-putting of its own energy. A process was needed if the\ndivine heart was to accomplish its desire, and the majestic stages in\nthat process are set forth here by Paul. The world was under law in a\nvery sad fashion, and though Jesus has come to redeem them that are\nunder law, the crushing weight of commandments flouted, of duties\nneglected, of sins done, presses heavily upon many of us. And yet how\nmany of us there are who do not know the burden that we carry and have\nhad no personal experience like that of Bunyan's Christian with the pack\non his back all but weighing him down? Jesus Christ has become one of\nus, and in His sinless life has 'magnified the law and made it\nhonourable,' and in His sinless death He endures the consequences of\nsin, not as due to Himself, but because they are man's. But we must\ncarefully keep in view, that as we have already pointed out, we are to\nthink of Christ's mission as His coming as well as the Father's sending,\nand that therefore we do not grasp the full idea of our Lord's enduring\nthe consequences of sin unless we take it as meaning His voluntary\nidentification of Himself in love with us sinful men. His obedience was\nperfect all His life long, and His last and highest act of obedience was\nwhen He became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.\n\nThis is the only means by which the burden of law in any of its forms\ncan be taken away from us. For a law which is not loved will be heavy\nand hard however holy and just and good it may be, and a law which we\nhave broken will become sooner or later its own avenger. Faithful in\n_Pilgrim's Progress_ tells how 'So soon as a man overtook me he was but\na word and a blow, for down he knocked me and laid me for dead. . . . He\nstruck me another deadly blow on the breast and beat me down backward,\nso I lay at his foot as dead as before, so when I came to myself again I\ncried him \"Mercy,\" but he said, \"I know not how to show mercy,\" and with\nthat knocked me down again; he had doubtless made an end of me but that\none came by and bid him forbear. . . . I did not know him at first, but as\nhe went by I perceived the holes in his hands and in his sides.' He was\nborn under law that He might redeem them that were under law.\n\nThe slaves bought into freedom are received into the great family. The\nSon has become flesh that they who dwell in the flesh may rise to be\nsons, but the Son stands alone even in the midst of His identification\nwith us, and of the great results which follow for us from it. He is the\nSon by nature; we are sons by adoption. He became man that we might\nshare in the possession of God. When the burden of law is lifted off it\nis possible to bestow the further blessing of sonship, but that blessing\nis only possible through Him in whom, and from whom, we derive a life\nwhich is divine life. There is a profound truth in the prophetic\nsentence, 'Behold I and the children which God hath given me!' for, in\none aspect, believers are the children of Christ, and in another, they\nare sons of God.\n\nWe have been speaking of the Son's identification with us in His\nmission, and our identification with Him, but that identification\ndepends on ourselves and is only an accomplished fact through our faith.\nWhen we trust in Him it is true that all His--His righteousness, His\nSonship, His union with the Father--is ours, and that all ours--our\nsins, our guilt, our alienation from God and our dwelling in the far-off\nland of rags and vice--is His. In His voluntary identification with us,\nHe has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. It is for us to\ndetermine whether we will lay on Him our iniquities, as the Father has\nalready laid the iniquities of us all. Are we by faith in Him who was\nborn of a woman, born under law, making our very own the redemption from\nthe law which He has wrought and the adoption of sons which He bestows?\n\n\n\n\nWHAT MAKES A CHRISTIAN: CIRCUMCISION OR FAITH?\n\n 'In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any\n thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh\n by love.'--GAL. v. 6.\n\n\nIt is a very singular instance of imaginative misreading of plain facts\nthat the primitive Church should be held up as a pattern Church. The\nearly communities had apostolic teaching; but beyond that, they seem to\nhave been in no respect above, and in many respects below, the level of\nsubsequent ages. If we may judge of their morality by the exhortations\nand dehortations which they received from the Apostle, Corinth and\nThessalonica were but beginners in holiness. If we may judge of their\nintelligence by the errors into which they were in danger of falling,\nthese first congregations had indeed need that one should teach them\nwhich were the first principles of the oracles of God. It could not be\notherwise. They were but just rescued from heathenism, and we need not\nwonder if their spirits long bore the scars of their former bondage. If\nwe wish to know what the apostolic churches were like, we have but to\nlook at the communities gathered by modern missionaries. The same\ninfantile simplicity, the same partial apprehensions of the truth, the\nsame danger of being led astray by the low morality of their heathen\nkindred, the same openness to strange heresy, the same danger of\nblending the old with the new, in opinion and in practice, beset both.\n\nThe history of the first theological difference in the early churches is\na striking confutation of the dream that they were perfect, and a\nstriking illustration of the dangers to which they were exposed from\nthe attempt, so natural to us all, to put new wine into old bottles. The\nJewish and the Gentile elements did not coalesce. The point round which\nthe strife was waged was not whether Gentiles might come into the\nChurch. That was conceded by the fiercest Judaisers. But it was whether\nthey could come in as Gentiles, without first being incorporated into\nthe Jewish nation by circumcision, and whether they could remain in as\nGentiles, without conforming to Jewish ceremonial and law.\n\nThose who said 'No' _were_ members of the Christian communities, and,\nbeing so, they still insisted that Judaism was to be eternal. They\ndemanded that the patched and stiff leathern bottle, which had no\nelasticity or pliability, should still contain the quick fermenting new\nwine of the kingdom. And certainly, if ever man had excuse for clinging\nto what was old and formal, these Judaising Christians held it. They\nheld by a law written with God's own finger, by ordinances awful by\nreason of divine appointment, venerable by reason of the generations to\nwhich they had been of absolute authority, commended by the very example\nof Christ Himself. Every motive which can bind heart and conscience to\nthe reverence and the practice of the traditions of the Fathers, bound\nthem to the Law and the ordinances which had been Israel's treasure from\nAbraham to Jesus.\n\nThose who said 'Yes' were mostly Gentiles, headed and inspired by a\nHebrew of the Hebrews. They believed that Judaism was preparatory, and\nthat its work was done. For those among themselves who were Jews, they\nwere willing that its laws should still be obligatory; but they fought\nagainst the attempt to compel all Gentile converts to enter Christ's\nkingdom through the gate of circumcision.\n\nThe fight was stubborn and bitter. I suppose it is harder to abolish\nforms than to change opinions. Ceremonies stand long after the thought\nwhich they express has fled, as a dead king may sit on his throne stiff\nand stark in his golden mantle, and no one come near enough to see that\nthe light is gone out of his eyes, and the will departed from the hand\nthat still clutches the sceptre. All through Paul's life he was dogged\nand tormented by this controversy. There was a deep gulf between the\nchurches he planted and this reactionary section of the Christian\ncommunity. Its emissaries were continually following in his footsteps.\nAs he bitterly reproaches them, they entered upon another man's line of\nthings made ready to their hand, not caring to plant churches of\ncircumcised Gentiles themselves, but starting up behind him as soon as\nhis back was turned, and spoiling his work.\n\nThis Epistle is the memorial of that foot-to-foot feud. It is of\nperennial use, as the tendencies against which it is directed are\nconstant in human nature. Men are ever apt to confound form and\nsubstance, to crave material embodiments of spiritual realities, to\nelevate outward means into the place of the inward and real, to which\nall the outward is but subsidiary. In every period of strife between the\ntwo great opponents, this letter has been the stronghold of those who\nfight for the spiritual conception of religion. With it Luther waged his\nwarfare, and in this day, too, its words are precious.\n\nMy text contains Paul's condensed statement of his whole position in the\ncontroversy. It tells us what he fought for, and why he fought, against\nthe attempt to suspend union to Christ on an outward rite.\n\nI. The first grand principle contained in these words is that faith\nworking by love makes a Christian.\n\nThe antithesis of our text appears in somewhat varied forms in two other\nplaces in the Apostle's writings. To the Corinthians he says,\n'Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping\nof the commandments of God.' His last word to the Galatians--the\ngathering up into one strong sentence of his whole letter--is, 'In\nChrist Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor\nuncircumcision, but a new creature.'\n\nNow, all these assertions embody substantially the same opposition\nbetween the conception of Christianity as depending upon a ceremonial\nrite, and as being a spiritual change. And the variations in the second\nmember of the contrast throw light on each other. In one, the essential\nthing is regarded from the divine side as being not a rite performed on\nthe body, but a new nature, the result of a supernatural regeneration.\nIn another, the essential thing is set forth as being not an outward\nact, but an inward principle, which produces appropriate effects on the\nwhole being. In yet another the essential thing is conceived as being\nnot a mere ceremonial, but practical obedience, the consequence of the\nactive principle of faith, and the sign of the new life. There is an\nevident sequence in the three sayings. They begin with the deepest, the\ndivine act of a new creation--and end with the outermost, the last\nresult and object of both the others--deeds of conformity to God's law.\n\nThis one process in its triple aspects, says Paul, constitutes a man a\nChristian. What correspondence is there between it, in any of its\nparts, and a carnal ordinance? They belong to wholly different\ncategories, and it is the most preposterous confusion to try to mix them\nup together. Are we to tack on to the solemn powers and qualities, which\nunite the soul to Christ, this beggarly addition that the Judaisers\ndesire, and to say, the essentials of Christianity are a new creature,\nfaith, obedience--and circumcision? That is, indeed, sewing old cloth on\na new garment, and huddling together in grotesque chaos things which are\nutterly diverse. It is as absurd bathos as to say the essentials of a\njudge are integrity, learning, patience--and an ermine robe!\n\nThere would be less danger of being entangled in false notions of the\nsort which devastated Galatia and have afflicted the Church ever since,\nif people would put a little more distinctly before their own minds what\nthey mean by 'religion'; what sort of man they intend when they talk\nabout 'a Christian.' A clear notion of the thing to be produced would\nthin away a wonderful deal of mist as to the way of producing it. So\nthen, beginning at the surface, in order to work inward, my first remark\nis that religion is the harmony of the soul with God, and the conformity\nof the life to His law.\n\nThe loftiest purpose of God, in all His dealings, is to make us like\nHimself; and the end of all religion is the complete accomplishment of\nthat purpose. There is no religion without these elements--consciousness\nof kindred with God, recognition of Him as the sum of all excellence and\nbeauty, and of His will as unconditionally binding upon us, aspiration\nand effort after a full accord of heart and soul with Him and with His\nlaw, and humble confidence that that sovereign beauty will be ours. 'Be\nye imitators of God as dear children' is the pure and comprehensive\ndictate which expresses the aim of all devout men. 'To keep His\ncommandments' goes deeper than the mere external deeds. Were it not so,\nPaul's grand words would shrink to a very poor conception of religion,\nwhich would then have its shrine and sphere removed from the sacred\nrecesses of the inmost spirit to the dusty Babel of the market-place and\nthe streets. But with that due and necessary extension of the words\nwhich results from the very nature of the case, that obedience must be\nthe obedience of a man, and not of his deeds only, and must include the\nsubmission of the will and the prostration of the whole nature before\nHim; they teach a truth which, fully received and carried out, clears\naway whole mountains of theoretical confusion and practical error.\nReligion is no dry morality; no slavish, punctilious conforming of\nactions to a hard law. Religion is not right thinking alone, nor right\nemotion alone, nor right action alone. Religion is still less the\nsemblance of these in formal profession, or simulated feeling, or\napparent rectitude. Religion is not nominal connection with the\nChristian community, nor participation in its ordinances and its\nworship. But to be godly is to be godlike. The full accord of all the\nsoul with His character, in whom, as their native home, dwell\n'whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,' and the full\nglad conformity of the will to His sovereign will, who is the life of\nour lives--this, and nothing shallower, nothing narrower, is religion in\nits perfection; and the measure in which we have attained to this\nharmony with God, is the measure in which we are Christians. As two\nstringed instruments may be so tuned to one keynote that, if you strike\nthe one, a faint ethereal echo is heard from the other, which blends\nundistinguishably with its parent sound; so, drawing near to God, and\nbrought into unison with His mind and will, our responsive spirits\nvibrate in accord with His, and give forth tones, low and thin indeed,\nbut still repeating the mighty music of heaven. 'Circumcision is\nnothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the\ncommandments of God.'\n\nBut our text tells us, further, that if we look backwards from character\nand deed to motive, this harmony with God results from love becoming the\nruling power of our lives. The imitation of the object of worship has\nalways been felt to be the highest form of worship. Many an ancient\nteacher, besides the Stoic philosopher, has said, 'He who copies the\ngods worships them adequately.' One of the prophets lays it down as a\nstanding rule, 'The people will walk every one in the name of his God.'\nBut it is only in the Christian attitude towards God that the motive\npower is found which makes such imitation more than an impossible duty,\neven as it is only in the revealed character of God that a pattern is\nfound, to imitate which is to be perfect. Everywhere besides, harmony\nwith the gods meant discord with conscience and flagrant outrages of the\ncommonest moralities. Everywhere else, the task of copying them was one\nlightened by no clear confidence in their love, and by no happy\nconsciousness of our own. But for us, the love revealed is the perfect\nlaw, and the love evoked is the fulfilling of the law.\n\nAnd this is the might and nobleness of the Christian love to God; that\nit is no idle emotion or lazy rapture, no vague sentiment, but the root\nof all practical goodness, of all strenuous effort, of all virtue, and\nof all praise. That strong tide is meant to drive the busy wheels of\nlife and to bear precious freightage on its bosom; not to flow away in\nprofitless foam. Love is the fruitful mother of bright children, as our\ngreat moralist-poet learned when he painted her in the House of\nHoliness:\n\n 'A multitude of babes about her hung,\n Playing their sport that joyed her to behold.'\n\nHer sons are Strength and Justice, and Self-control and Firmness, and\nCourage and Patience, and many more besides; and her daughters are Pity\nwith her sad eyes, and Gentleness with her silvery voice, and Mercy\nwhose sweet face makes sunshine in the shade of death, and Humility all\nunconscious of her loveliness; and linked hand in hand with these, all\nthe radiant band of sisters that men call Virtues and Graces. These will\ndwell in our hearts, if Love their mighty mother be there. If we are\nwithout her, we shall be without them.\n\nThere is discord between man and God which can only be removed by the\nsweet commerce of love, established between earth and heaven. God's love\nhas come to us. When ours springs responsive to Him, then the schism is\nended, and the wandering child forgets his rebellion, as he lays his\naching head on the father's bosom, and feels the beating of the father's\nheart. Our souls by reason of sin are 'like sweet bells jangled, out of\ntune and harsh.' Love's master hand laid upon them restores to them\ntheir part in 'the fair music that all creatures make to their great\nLord,' and brings us into such accord with God that\n\n 'We on earth with undiscording voice\n May rightly answer'\n\neven the awful harmonies of His lips. The essential of religion is\nconcord with God, and the power which makes that concord is love to God.\n\nBut this text leads to a still further consideration, namely, the\ndominion of love to God in our hearts arises from faith.\n\nWe thus reach the last link, or rather the staple, of the chain from\nwhich all hangs. Religion is harmony with God; that harmony is produced\nby love; and that love is produced by faith. Therefore the fundamental\nof all Christianity in the soul is faith. Would this sound any fresher\nand more obvious if we varied the language, and said that to be\nreligious we must be like God, that to be like Him we must love Him, and\nthat to love Him we must be sure that He loves us? Surely that is too\nplain to need enlarging on.\n\nAnd is it not true that faith must precede our love to God, and affords\nthe only possible basis on which that can be built? How can we love Him\nso long as we are in doubt of His heart, or misconceive His character,\nas if it were only power and wisdom, or awful severity? Men cannot love\nan unseen person at all, without some very special token of his personal\naffection for them. The history of all religions shows that where the\ngods have been thought of as unloving, the worshippers have been\nheartless too. It is only when we know and believe the love that God\nhath to us, that we come to cherish any corresponding emotion to Him.\nOur love is secondary, His is primary; ours is reflection, His the\noriginal beam; ours is echo, His the mother-tone. Heaven must bend to\nearth before earth can rise to heaven. The skies must open and drop down\nlove, ere love can spring in the fruitful fields. And it is only when we\nlook with true trust to that great unveiling of the heart of God which\nis in Jesus Christ, only when we can say, 'Herein is love--that He gave\nHis Son to be the propitiation for our sins,' that our hearts are\nmelted, and all their snows are dissolved into sweet waters, which,\nfreed from their icy chains, can flow with music in their ripple and\nfruitfulness along their course, through our otherwise silent and barren\nlives. Faith in Christ is the only possible basis for active love to\nGod.\n\nAnd this thought presents the point of contact between the teaching of\nPaul and John. The one dwells on faith, the other on love, but he who\ninsists most on the former declares that it produces its effects on\ncharacter by the latter; and he who insists most on the latter is\nforward to proclaim that it owes its very existence to the former.\n\nIt presents also the point of contact between Paul and James. The one\nspeaks of the essential of Christianity as faith, the other as works.\nThey are only striking the stream at different points, one at the\nfountain-head, one far down its course among the haunts of men. They\nboth preach that faith must be 'faith that worketh,' not a barren assent\nto a dogma, but a living trust that brings forth fruits in the life.\nPaul believes as much as James that faith without works is dead, and\ndemands the keeping of the commandments as indispensable to all true\nChristianity. James believes as much as Paul that works without faith\nare of none effect. So all three of these great teachers of the Church\nare represented in this text, to which each of them might seem to have\ncontributed a word embodying his characteristic type of doctrine. The\nthreefold rays into which the prism parts the white light blend again\nhere, where faith, love, and work are all united in the comprehensive\nsaying, 'In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor\nuncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.'\n\nThe sum of the whole matter is this--He who is one in will and heart\nwith God is a Christian. He who loves God is one in will and heart with\nHim. He who trusts Christ loves God. That is Christianity in its\nultimate purpose and result. That is Christianity in its means and\nworking forces. That is Christianity in its starting-point and\nfoundation.\n\nII. But we have to consider also the negative side of the Apostle's\nwords. They affirm that in comparison with the essential--faith, all\nexternals are infinitely unimportant.\n\nPaul's habit was always to settle questions by the widest principles he\ncould bring to bear upon them--which one may notice in passing is the\nvery opposite to the method that has been in favour with many Church\nteachers and guides since, who have preferred to live from hand to\nmouth, and to dispose of difficulties by the narrowest considerations\nthat would avail to quiet them. In our text the question in hand is\nsettled on a ground which covers a great deal more than the existing\ndispute. Circumcision is regarded as one of a whole class--namely, the\nclass of outward rites and observances; and the contrast drawn between\nit and faith extends to all the class to which it belongs. It is not\nsaid to be powerless because it is an Old Testament rite, but because it\nis a rite. Its impotence lies in the very nature which it has in common\nwith all external institutions, whether they be of the Old Testament or\nof the New, whether they be enjoined of God or invented by men. To them\nall the same characteristic cleaves. Compared with faith they are of no\navail. Not that they are absolutely useless. They have their place, but\n'_in Christ Jesus_' they are nothing. Union to Him depends on quite\nanother order of facts, which may or may not exist along with\ncircumcision, or with baptism, or with the Lord's Supper. However\nimportant these may be, they have no place among the things which bind a\nsoul to its Saviour. They may be helps to these things, but nothing\nmore. The rite does not ensure the faith, else the antithesis of our\ntext were unmeaning. The rite does not stand in the place of faith, or\nthe contrast implied were absurd. But the two belong to totally\ndifferent orders of things, which may co-exist indeed, but may also be\nfound separately; the one is the indispensable spiritual experience\nwhich makes us Christians, the other belongs to a class of material\ninstitutions which are much as helps to, but nothing as substitutes or\nequivalents for, faith.\n\nKeep firm hold of the positive principle with which we have been dealing\nin the former part of this sermon, and all forms and externals fall as a\nmatter of course into their proper place. If religion be the loving\ndevotion of the soul to God, resting upon reasonable faith, then all\nbesides is, at the most, a means which may further it. If loving trust\nwhich apprehends the truth, and cleaves to the Person, revealed to us in\nthe Gospel, be the link which binds men to God, then the only way by\nwhich these externals can be 'means of grace' is by their aiding us to\nunderstand better and to feel more the truth as it is in Jesus, and to\ncleave closer to Him who is the truth. Do they enlighten the\nunderstanding? Do they engrave deeper the loved face carven on the\ntablets of memory, which the attrition of worldly cares is ever\nobliterating, and the lichens of worldly thoughts ever filling up? Do\nthey clear out the rubbish from the channels of the heart, that the\ncleansing stream may flow through them? Do they, through the senses,\nminister to the soul its own proper food of clear thought, vivid\nimpressions, loving affections, trustful obedience? Do they bring Christ\nto us, and us to Him, in the only way in which approach is\npossible--through the occupation of mind and heart and will with His\ngreat perfectness? Then they are means of grace, precious and helpful,\nthe gifts of His love, the tokens of His wise knowledge of our weakness,\nthe signs of His condescension, in that He stoops to trust some portion\nof our remembrance of Him to the ministry of sense. But in comparison\nwith that faith which they cannot plant, though they may strengthen it,\nthey are nothing; and in the matter of uniting the soul to God and\nmaking men 'religious,' they are of no avail at all.\n\nAnd such thoughts as these have a very wide sweep, as well as a very\ndeep influence. Religion is the devotion of the soul to God. Then\n_everything_ besides is not religion, but at most a means to it. That is\ntrue about all Christian ordinances. Baptism is spoken about by Paul in\nterms which plainly show that he regarded it as 'nothing' in the same\nsense, and under the same limitations, as he thought that circumcision\nwas nothing. 'I baptized some of you,' says he to the Corinthians; 'I\nscarcely remember whom, or how many. I have far more important work to\ndo--to preach the Gospel.' It is true about all acts and forms of\nChristian worship. These are not religion, but means to it. Their only\nvalue and their only test is--Do they help men to know and feel Christ\nand His truth? It is true about laws of life, and many points of\nconventional morality. Remember the grand freedom with which the same\nApostle dealt with questions about meats offered to idols, and the\nobservance of days and seasons. The same principle guided him there too,\nand he relegated the whole question back to its proper place with, 'Meat\ncommendeth us not to God; for neither if we eat are we the better,\nneither if we eat not are we the worse.' 'He that regardeth the day,\nregardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the\nLord he doth not regard it.' It is true, though less obviously and\nsimply, about subordinate doctrines. It is true about the mere\nintellectual grasp of the fundamental truths of God's revelation. These,\nand the belief of these, are not Christianity, they are helps towards\nit.\n\nThe separation is broad and deep. On one side are all externals, rites,\nceremonies, politics, Church arrangements, forms of worship, modes of\nlife, practices of morality, doctrines, and creeds--all which are\nexternals to the soul: on the other is faith working through love, the\ninmost attitude and deepest emotion of the soul. The great heap is fuel.\nThe flame is loving faith. The only worth of the fuel is to feed the\nflame. Otherwise it is of no avail, but lies dead and cold, a mass of\nblackness. We are joined to God by faith. Whatever strengthens that\nfaith is precious as a help, but is worthless as a substitute.\n\nIII. There is a constant tendency to exalt these unimportant externals\ninto the place of faith.\n\nThe whole purpose of the Gospel may be described to be our deliverance\nfrom the dominion of sense, and the transference of the centre of our\nlife to the unseen world. This end is no doubt partly accomplished by\nthe help of sense. So long as men have bodily organisations, there will\nbe need for outward helps. Men's indolence, and men's sense-ridden\nnatures, will take symbols for royalties, bank-notes for wealth. The\neye will be tempted to stay on the rich colours of the glowing glass,\ninstead of passing through them to heaven's light beyond. To make the\nsenses a ladder for the soul to climb to heaven by, will be perilously\nlikely to end in the soul going down the ladder instead of up. Forms are\nsure to encroach, to overlay the truth that lies at their root, to\nbecome dimly intelligible, or quite unmeaning, and to constitute at last\nthe end instead of the means. Is it not then wise to minimise these\npotent and dangerous allies? Is it not needful to use them with the\nremembrance that a minute quantity may strengthen, but an overdose will\nkill--ay, and that the minute quantity may kill too? Christ instituted\ntwo outward rites. There could not have been fewer if there was to be an\noutward community at all, and they could not have been simpler; but look\nat the portentous outgrowth of superstition, and the unnumbered evils,\nreligious, moral, social, and even political, which have come from the\ninvincible tendency of human nature to corrupt forms, even when the\nforms are the sweet and simple ones of Christ's own appointment. What a\nlesson the history of the Lord's Supper, and its gradual change from the\ndomestic memorial of the dying love of our Lord to the 'tremendous\nsacrifice,' reads us as to the dangerous ally which spiritual\nreligion--and there is no other religion than spiritual--enlists when it\nseeks the help of external rites!\n\nBut remember that this danger of converting religion into outward\nactions has its root in us all, and is not annihilated by our rejection\nof an elaborate ceremonial. There is much significance in the double\nnegation of my text, 'Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision.' If the\nJudaisers were tempted to insist on the former, as indispensable, their\nantagonists were as much tempted to insist on the latter. The one were\nsaying, 'A man cannot be a Christian unless he be circumcised.' The\nother would be in danger of replying, 'He cannot be a Christian if he\nis.' There may be as much formalism in protesting against forms as in\nusing them. Extremes meet; and an unspiritual Quaker, for instance, is\nat bottom of the same way of thinking as an unspiritual Roman Catholic.\nThey agree in their belief that certain outward acts are essential to\nworship, and even to religion. They only differ as to what these acts\nare. The Judaiser who says, 'You must be circumcised,' and his\nantagonist who says, 'You must be uncircumcised,' are really in the same\nboat.\n\nAnd this is especially needful to be kept in mind by those who, like the\nmost of us, hold fast by the free and spiritual conception of\nChristianity. That freedom we may turn into a bondage, and that\nspirituality into a form, if we confound it with the essentials of\nChristianity, and deny the possibility of the life being developed\nexcept in conjunction with it. My text has a double edge. Let us use it\nagainst all this Judaising which is going on round about us, and against\nall the tendency to it in our own hearts. The one edge smites the\nformer, the other edge the latter. Circumcision is nothing, as most of\nus are forward to proclaim. But, also, remember, when we are tempted to\ntrust in our freedom, and to fancy that in itself it is good,\n_uncircumcision is nothing_. You are no more a Christian for your\nrejection of forms than another man is for his holding them. Your\nnegation no more unites you to Christ than does his affirmation. One\nthing alone does that,--faith which worketh by love, against which sense\never wars, both by tempting some of us to place religion in outward\nacts and ceremonies, and by tempting others of us to place it in\nrejecting the forms which our brethren abuse.\n\nIV. When an indifferent thing is made into an essential, it ceases to be\nindifferent, and must be fought against.\n\nPaul proclaimed that circumcision and uncircumcision were alike\nunavailing. A man might be a good Christian either way. They were not\nunimportant in all respects, but in regard to being united to Christ, it\ndid not matter which side one took. And, in accordance with this noble\nfreedom, he for himself practised Jewish rites; and, when he thought it\nmight conciliate prejudice without betraying principle, had Timothy\ncircumcised. But when it came to be maintained as a principle that\nGentiles _must_ be circumcised, the time for conciliation was past. The\nother side had made further concession impossible. The Apostle had no\nobjection to circumcision. What he objected to was its being forced upon\nall as a necessary preliminary to entering the Church. And as soon as\nthe opposite party took that ground, then there was nothing for it but\nto fight against them to the last. They had turned an indifferent thing\ninto an essential, and he could no longer treat it as indifferent.\n\nSo whenever parties or Churches insist on external rites as essential,\nor elevate any of the subordinate means of grace into the place of the\none bond which fastens our souls to Jesus, and is the channel of grace\nas well as the bond of union, then it is time to arm for the defence of\nthe spirituality of Christ's kingdom, and to resist the attempt to bind\non free shoulders the iron yoke. Let men and parties do as they like, so\nlong as they do not turn their forms into essentials. In broad freedom\nof speech and spirit, which holds by the one central principle too\nfirmly to be much troubled about subordinate matters--in tolerance of\ndiversities, which does not spring from indifference, but from the very\nclearness of our perception of, and from the very fervour of our\nadherence to, the one essential of the Christian life--let us take for\nour guide the large, calm, lofty thoughts which this text sets forth\nbefore us. Let us thankfully believe that men may love Jesus, and be fed\nfrom His fulness, whether they be on one side of this undying\ncontroversy or on the other. Let us watch jealously the tendencies in\nour own hearts to trust in our forms or in our freedom. And whensoever\nor wheresoever these subordinates are made into things essential, and\nthe ordinances of Christ's Church are elevated into the place which\nbelongs to loving trust in Christ's love, then let _our_ voices at least\nbe heard on the side of that mighty truth that 'in Jesus Christ neither\ncircumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which\nworketh by love.'\n\n\n\n\n'WALK IN THE SPIRIT'\n\n 'Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the\n lust of the flesh.'--GAL. v. 16.\n\n\nWe are not to suppose that the Apostle here uses the familiar contrast\nof spirit and flesh to express simply different elements of human\nnature. Without entering here on questions for which a sermon is\nscarcely a suitable vehicle of discussion, it may be sufficient for our\npresent purpose to say that, as usually, when employing this antithesis\nthe Apostle means by Spirit the divine, the Spirit of God, which he\ntriumphed in proclaiming to be the gift of every believing soul. The\nother member of the contrast, 'flesh,' is similarly not to be taken as\nequivalent to body, but rather as meaning the whole human nature\nconsidered as apart from God and kindred with earth and earthly things.\nThe flesh, in its narrower sense, is no doubt a predominant part of this\nwhole, but there is much in it besides the material organisation. The\nethics of Christianity suffered much harm and were degraded into a false\nand slavish asceticism for long centuries, by monastic misunderstandings\nof what Paul meant by the flesh, but he himself was too clear-sighted\nand too high-toned to give his adhesion to the superficial notion that\nthe body is the seat and source of sin. We need look no further than the\ncatalogue of the 'works of the flesh' which immediately follows our\ntext, for, although it begins with gross sins of a purely fleshly kind,\nit passes on to such as hatred, emulations, wrath, envyings and\nsuchlike. Many of these works of the flesh are such as an angel with an\nevil heart could do, whether he had a body or not. It seems therefore\nright to say that the one member of the contrast is the divine Spirit of\nholiness, and the other is man as he is, without the life-giving\ninfluence of the Spirit of God. In Paul's thought the idea of the flesh\nalways included the idea of sin, and the desires of the flesh were to\nhim not merely rebellious, sensuous passion, but the sinful desires of\ngodless human nature, however refined, and as some would say,\n'spiritual' these might be. We do not need to inquire more minutely as\nto the meaning of the Apostle's terms, but may safely take them as, on\nthe one hand, referring to the divine Spirit which imparts life and\nholiness, and on the other hand, to human nature severed from God, and\ndistracted by evil desires because wrenched away from Him.\n\nThe text is Paul's battle-cry, which he opposed to the Judaising\ndisturbers in Galatia. They said 'Do this and that; labour at a round of\nobservances; live by rule.' Paul said, 'No! That is of no use; you will\nmake nothing of such an attempt nor will ever conquer evil so. Live by\nthe spirit and you will not need a hard outward law, nor will you be in\nbondage to the works of the flesh.' That feud in the Galatian churches\nwas the earliest battle which Christianity had to fight between two\neternal tendencies of thought--the conception of religion as consisting\nin outward obedience to a law, and consequently as made up of a series\nof painful efforts to keep it, and the conception of religion as being\nfirst the implanting of a new, divine life, and needing only to be\nnourished and cared for in order to drive forth evils from the heart,\nand so to show itself living. The difference goes very far and very\ndeep, and these two views of what religion is have each their adherents\nto-day. The Apostle throws the whole weight of his authority into the\none scale, and emphatically declares this as the one secret of victory,\n'Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.'\n\nI. What it is to walk in the Spirit.\n\nThe thought which is but touched upon here is set forth more largely,\nand if we may so say, profoundly, in the Epistle to the Romans (chap.\nviii.). There, to walk after the flesh, is substantially the same as to\nbe carnally minded, and that 'mind of the flesh' is regarded as being by\nfatal necessity not 'subject to the law of God,' and consequently as in\nitself, with regard to future consequences, to be death. The fleshly\nmind which is thus in rebellion against the law of God is sure to issue\nin 'desires of the flesh,' just as when the pressure is taken off, some\nebullient liquid will bubble. They that are after the flesh of course\nwill 'mind the things of the flesh.' The vehement desires which we\ncherish when we are separated from God and which we call sins, are\ngraver as a symptom than even they are in themselves, for they show\nwhich way the wind blows, and are tell-tales that betray the true\ndirection of our nature. If we were not after the flesh we should not\nmind the things of the flesh. The one expression points to the\ndeep-seated nature, the other to the superficial actions to which it\ngives rise.\n\nAnd the same duality belongs to the life of those who are 'after the\nSpirit.' 'To walk,' of course, means to carry on the practical life, and\nthe Spirit is here thought of not so much perhaps as the path on which\nwe are to travel, but rather as the norm and direction by which we are\nto travel on life's common way. Just as the desires of the flesh were\ncertain to be done by those who in their deepest selves belonged to the\nflesh, so every soul which has received the unspeakable gift of newness\nof life through the Spirit of God will have the impulses to mind and do\nthe things of the Spirit. If we live in the Spirit we shall also--and\nlet us also--walk in the Spirit.\n\nBut let us make no mistakes, or think that our text in its great\ncommandment and radiant hope has any word of cheer to those who have not\nreceived into their hearts, in however feeble a manner and minute a\nmeasure, the Spirit of the Son. The first question for us all is, have\nwe received the Holy Ghost?--and the answer to that question is the\nanswer to the other, have we accepted Christ? It is through Him and\nthrough faith in Him that that supreme gift of a living spirit is\nbestowed. And only when our spirits bear witness with that Spirit that\nwe are the children of God, have we a right to look upon the text as\npointing our duty and stimulating our hope. If our practical life is to\nbe directed by the Spirit of God, He must enter into our spirits, and we\nshall not be in Him but in the measure that He is in us. Nor will our\nspirits be life because of righteousness unless He dwells in us and\ncasts forth the works of the flesh. There will be no practical direction\nof our lives by the Spirit of God unless we make conscience of\ncultivating the reception of His life-giving and cleansing influences,\nand unless we have inward communion with our inward guide, intimate and\nfrank, prolonged and submissive. If we are for ever allowing the light\nof our inward godliness to be blown about by gusts, or to show in our\ninmost hearts but a faint and flickering spark, how can we expect that\nit will shine safe direction on our outward path?\n\nII. Such walking in the Spirit conquers the flesh.\n\nWe all know it as a familiar experience that the surest way to conquer\nany strong desire or emotion is to bring some other into operation. To\nconcentrate attention on any overmastering thought or purpose, even if\nour object is to destroy it, is but too apt to strengthen it. And so to\nfix our minds on our own desires of the flesh, even though we may be\nhonestly wishing to suppress them, is a sure way to invest them with new\nforce; therefore the wise counsels of sages and moralists are, for the\nmost part, destined to lead those who listen to them astray. Many a man\nhas, in good faith, set himself to conquer his own evil lusts and has\nfound that the nett result of his struggles has been to make the lusts\nmore conspicuous and correspondingly more powerful. The Apostle knows a\nbetter way, which he has proved to his own experience, and now, with\nfull confidence and triumph, presses upon his hearers. He would have\nthem give up the monotonous and hopeless fight against the flesh and\nbring another ally into the field. His chief exhortation is a positive,\nnot a negative one. It is vain to try to tie up men with restrictions\nand prohibitions, which when their desires are stirred will be burst\nlike Samson's bonds. But if once the positive exhortation here is\nobeyed, then it will surely make short work of the desires and passions\nwhich otherwise men, for the most part, do not wish to get rid of, and\nnever do throw off by any other method.\n\nWe have pointed out that in our text to walk in the Spirit means to\nregulate the practical life by the Spirit of God, and that the 'desires\nof the flesh' mean the desires of the whole human nature apart from God.\nBut even if we take the contrasted terms in their lower and commonly\nadopted sense, the text is true and useful. A cultivated mind habituated\nto lofty ideas, and quick to feel the nobility of 'spiritual' pursuits\nand possessions, will have no taste for the gross delights of sense, and\nwill recoil with disgust from the indulgences in which more animal\nnatures wallow. But while this is true, it by no means exhausts the\ngreat principle laid down here. We must take the contrasted terms in\ntheir fullest meaning if we would arrive at it. The spiritual life\nderived from Jesus Christ and lodged in the human spirit has to be\nguarded, cherished and made dominant, and then it will drive out the\nold. If the Spirit which is life because of righteousness is allowed\nfree course in a human spirit, it will send forth its powers into the\nbody which is 'dead because of sin,' will regulate its desires, and if\nneedful will suppress them. And it is wiser and more blessed to rely on\nthis overflowing influence than to attempt the hopeless task of coercing\nthese desires by our own efforts.\n\nIf we walk in the Spirit, we shall thereby acquire new tastes and\ndesires of a higher kind which will destroy the lower. They to whom\nmanna is sweet as angel's food find that they have lost their relish for\nthe strong-smelling and rank-flavoured Egyptian leeks and garlic. A\nguest at a king's table will not care to enter a smoky hovel and will\nnot be hungry for the food to be found there. If we are still dependent\non the desires of the flesh we are still but children, and if we are\nwalking in the Spirit we have outgrown our childish toys. The enjoyment\nof the gifts which the Spirit gives deadens temptation and robs many\nthings that were very precious of their lustre.\n\nWe may also illustrate the great principle of our text by considering\nthat when we have found our supreme object there is no inducement to\nwander further in the search after delights. Desires are confessions of\ndiscontent, and though the absolute satisfaction of all our nature is\nnot granted to us here, there is so much of blessedness given and so\nmany of our most clamant desires fully met in the gift of life in\nChrist, that we may well be free from the prickings of desires which\nsting men into earnest seeking after often unreal good. 'The fruit of\nthe Spirit is love, joy, peace,' and surely if we have these we may well\nleave the world its troubled delights and felicities. Christ's joy\nremains in us and our joy is full. The world desires because it does not\npossess. When a deeper well is sunk, a shallower one is pretty sure to\ngive out. If we walk in the Spirit we go down to the deepest\nwater-holding stratum, and all the surface wells will run dry.\n\nFurther, we may note, that this walking in the Spirit brings into our\nlives the mightiest motives of holy living and so puts a bridle on the\nnecks and a bit in the mouths of our untamed desires. Holding fellowship\nwith the divine Indweller and giving the reins into His strong hand, we\nreceive from Him the spirit of adoption and learn that if we are\nchildren then are we heirs. Is there any motive that will so surely\nstill the desires of the flesh and of the mind as the blessed thought\nthat God is ours and we His? Surely their feet should never stumble or\nstray, who are aware of the Spirit of the Son bearing witness with their\nspirit that they are the children of God. Surely the measure in which we\nrealise this will be the measure in which the desires of the flesh will\nbe whipped back to their kennels, and cease to disturb us with their\nbarks.\n\nThe whole question here as between Paul and his opponents just comes to\nthis; if a field is covered with filth, whether is it better to set to\nwork on it with wheel-barrows and shovels, or to turn a river on it\nwhich will bear away all the foulness? The true way to change the fauna\nand flora of a country is to change the level, and as the height\nincreases they change themselves. If we desire to have the noxious\ncreatures expelled from ourselves, we must not so much labour at their\nexpulsion as see to the elevation of our own personal being and then we\nshall succeed. That is what Paul says, 'Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall\nnot fulfil the lusts of the flesh.'\n\nIII. Such a life is not freed from the necessity of struggle.\n\nThe highest condition, of course, would be that we had only to grow, not\nto fight. It will come some day that all evil shall drop away, and that\nto walk in the Spirit will need no effort, but that time has not come\nyet. So in addition to all that we have been saying in this sermon, we\nmust further say that Paul's exhortation has always to be coupled with\nthe other to fight the good fight. The highest word for our earthly\nlives is not 'victory' but 'contest.' We shall not walk in the Spirit\nwithout many a struggle to keep ourselves within that charmed\natmosphere. The promise of our text is not that we shall not feel, but\nthat we shall not fulfil, the desires of the flesh.\n\nNow this is very commonplace and threadbare teaching, but it is none the\nless important, and is especially needful to be strongly emphasised when\nwe have been speaking as we have just been doing. It is a historical\nfact, illustrated over and over again since Paul wrote, and not without\nillustration to-day, that there is constant danger of lax morality\ninfecting Christian life under pretence of lofty spirituality. So it\nmust ever be insisted upon that the test of a true walking in the Spirit\nis that we are thereby fitted to fight against the desires of the flesh.\nWhen we have the life of the Spirit within us, it will show itself as\nPaul has said in another place by the righteousness of the law being\nfulfilled in us, and by our 'mortifying the deeds of the body.' The gift\nof the Spirit does not take us out of the ranks of the combatants, but\nteaches us to fight, and arms us with its own sword for the conflict.\nThere will be abundant opportunities of courage in attacking the sin\nthat doth so easily beset us, and in resisting temptations which come to\nus by reason of our own imperfect sanctification. But there is all the\ndifference between fighting at our own hand and fighting with the help\nof God's Spirit, and there is all the difference between fighting with\nthe help of an unseen ally in heaven and fighting with a Spirit within\nus who helpeth our infirmities and Himself makes us able to contend, and\nsure, if we keep true to Him, to be more than conquerers through Him\nthat loveth us.\n\nSuch a conflict is a gift and a joy. It is hard but it is blessed,\nbecause it is an expression of our truest love; it comes from our\ndeepest will; it is full of hope and of assured victory. How different\nis the painful, often defeated and monotonous attempt to suppress our\nnature by main force, and to tread a mill-horse round! The joyous\nfreedom and buoyant hope taught us in the gospel way of salvation have\nbeen cramped and confined and all their glories veiled as by a mass of\ncobwebs spun beneath a golden roof, but our text sweeps away the foul\nobstruction. Let us learn the one condition of victorious conflict, the\none means of subduing our natural humanity and its distracting desires,\nand let nothing rob us of the conviction that this is God's way of\nmaking men like angels. 'Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the\nlusts of the flesh.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT\n\n 'But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,\n long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23.\n Meekness, temperance'--GAL. v. 22, 23.\n\n\n'The fruit of the Spirit,' says Paul, not the fruits, as we might more\nnaturally have expected, and as the phrase is most often quoted; all\nthis rich variety of graces, of conduct and character, is thought of as\none. The individual members are not isolated graces, but all connected,\nspringing from one root and constituting an organic whole. There is\nfurther to be noted that the Apostle designates the results of the\nSpirit as fruit, in strong and intentional contrast with the results of\nthe flesh, the grim catalogue of which precedes the radiant list in our\ntext. The works of the flesh have no such unity, and are not worthy of\nbeing called fruit. They are not what a man ought to bring forth, and\nwhen the great Husbandman comes, He finds no fruit there, however full\nof activity the life has been. We have then here an ideal of the noblest\nChristian character, and a distinct and profound teaching as to how to\nattain it. I venture to take the whole of this list for my text, because\nthe very beauty of each element in it depends on its being but part of a\nwhole, and because there are important lessons to be gathered from the\ngrouping.\n\nI. The threefold elements of character here.\n\nIt is perhaps not too artificial to point out that we have here three\ntriads of which the first describes the life of the Spirit in its\ndeepest secret; the second, the same life in its manifestations to men;\nand the third, that life in relation to the difficulties of the world,\nand of ourselves.\n\nThe first of these three triads includes love, joy, and peace, and it is\nnot putting too great a strain on the words to point out that the source\nof all three lies in the Christian relation to God. They regard nothing\nbut God and our relation to Him; they would be all the same if there\nwere no other men in the world, or if there were no world. We cannot\ncall them duties or virtues; they are simply the results of communion\nwith God--the certain manifestations of the better life of the Spirit.\nLove, of course, heads the list, as the foundation and moving principle\nof all the rest. It is the instinctive act of the higher life and is\nshed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit. It is the life sap which\nrises through the tree and given form to all the clusters. The remaining\ntwo members of this triad are plainly consequences of the first. Joy is\nnot so much an act or a grace of character as an emotion poured into\nmen's lives, because in their hearts abides love to God. Jesus Christ\npledged Himself to impart His joy to remain in us, with the issue that\nour joy should be full. There is only one source of permanent joy which\ntakes possession of and fills all the corners and crannies of the heart,\nand that is a love towards God equally abiding and all-pervasive. We\nhave all known joys so perturbed, fragmentary and fleeting, that it is\nhard to distinguish them from sorrows, but there is no need that joys\nshould be like green fruits hard and savourless and ready to drop from\nthe tree. If God is 'the gladness of our joy,' and all our delights come\nfrom communion with Him, our joy will never pass and will fill the whole\nround of our spirits as the sea laves every shore.\n\nPeace will be built upon love and joy, if our hearts are ever turning to\nGod and ever blessed with the inter-communion of love between Him and\nus. What can be strong enough to disturb the tranquillity that fills the\nsoul independent of all externals? However long and close may be the\nsiege, the well in the castle courtyard will be full. True peace comes\nnot from the absence of trouble but from the presence of God, and will\nbe deep and passing all understanding in the exact measure in which we\nlive in, and partake of, the love of God.\n\nThe second triad is long-suffering, kindness, goodness. All these three\nobviously refer to the spiritual life in its manifestations to men. The\nfirst of them--long-suffering--describes the attitude of patient\nendurance towards inflictors of injury or enemies, if we come forth from\nthe blessed fellowship with God, where love, joy, and peace reign\nunbroken, and are met with a cold gust of indifference or with an icy\nwind of hate. The reality of our happy communion and the depth of our\nlove will be tested by the patience of our long-suffering. Love\nsuffereth long, is not easily provoked, is not soon angry. He has little\nreason to suppose that the love of God is shed abroad in his heart, or\nthat the Spirit of God is bringing forth fruit in him, who has not got\nbeyond the stage of repaying hate with hate, and scorn with scorn. Any\nfool can answer a fool according to his folly, but it takes a wise and a\ngood man to overcome evil with good, and to love them that hate; and yet\nhow certainly the fires of mutual antagonism would go out if there were\nonly one to pile on the fuel! It takes two to make a quarrel, and no man\nliving under the influence of the Spirit of God can be one of such a\npair.\n\nThe second and third members of this triad--kindness, goodness, slide\nvery naturally into one another. They do not only require the negative\nvirtue of not retaliating, but express the Christian attitude towards\nall of meeting them, whatever their attitude, with good. It is possible\nthat kindness here expresses the inward disposition and goodness, the\nhabitual actions in which that disposition shows itself. If that be the\ndistinction between them, the former would answer to benevolence and the\nlatter to beneficence. These three graces include all that Paul presents\nas Christian duty to our fellows. The results of the life of the Spirit\nare to pass beyond ourselves and to influence our whole conduct. We are\nnot to live only as mainly for the spiritual enjoyments of fellowship\nwith God. The true field of religion is in moving amongst men, and the\ntrue basis of all service of men is love and fellowship with God.\n\nThe third triad--faithfulness, meekness, temperance--seems to point to\nthe world in which the Christian life is to be lived as a scene of\ndifficulties and oppositions. The rendering of the Revised Version is to\nbe preferred to that of the Authorised in the first of the three, for it\nis not faith in its theological sense to which the Apostle is here\nreferring. Possibly, however, the meaning may be trustfulness just as in\n1 Corinthians xiii. it is given as a characteristic of love that it\n'believeth all things.' More probably, however, the meaning is\nfaithfulness, and Paul's thought is that the Christian life is to\nmanifest itself in the faithful discharge of all duties and the honest\nhandling of all things committed to it. Meekness even more distinctly\ncontemplates a condition of things which is contrary to the Christian\nlife, and points to a submissiveness of spirit which does not lift\nitself up against oppositions, but bends like a reed before the storm.\nPaul preached meekness and practised it, but Paul could flash into\nstrong opposition and with a resonant ring in his voice could say 'To\nwhom we gave place by subjection, No! not for an hour.' The last member\nof the triad--temperance--points to the difficulties which the spiritual\nlife is apt to meet with in the natural passions and desires, and\ninsists upon the fact that conflict and rigid and habitual self-control\nare sure to be marks of that life.\n\nII. The unity of the fruit.\n\nWe have already pointed out the Apostles remarkable use of the word\n'fruit' here, by which he indicates that all the results of the life of\nthe Spirit in the human spirit are to be regarded as a whole that has a\nnatural growth. The foundation of all is of course that love which is\nthe fulfilling of the law. It scarcely needs to be pointed out how love\nbrings forth both the other elements of the first triad, but it is no\nless important to note that it and its two companions naturally lead on\nto the relations to men which make up the second triad. It is, however,\nworth while to dwell on that fact because there are many temptations for\nChristian people to separate between them. The two tables of the law are\nnot seldom written so far apart that their unity ceases to be noted.\nThere are many good people whose notions of religious duties are shut up\nin churches or chapels and limited to singing and praying, reading the\nBible and listening to sermons, and who, even while they are doing good\nservice in common life, do not feel that it is as much a religious duty\nto suppress the wish to retaliate as it is to sit in the sunshine of\nGod's love and to feel Christ's joy and peace filling the heart. On the\nother hand many loud voices, some of them with great force of words and\ninfluence on the popular mind, are never wearied of preaching that\nChristianity is worn out as a social impulse, and that the service of\nman has nothing to do with the love of God. As plainly Paul's first\ntriad naturally leads to his third. When the spiritual life has realised\nits deepest secret it will be strong to manifest itself as vigorous in\nreference to the difficulties of life. When that heart is blessed in its\nown settled love, abounding joy and untroubled peace, faithfulness and\nsubmission will both be possible and self-control will not be hard.\n\nIII. The culture of the tree which secures the fruit.\n\nCan we suppose that the Apostle here is going back in thought to our\nLord's profound teaching that every good tree bringeth forth good fruit,\nbut the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit? The obvious felicity of\nthat metaphor often conceals for us the drastic force of its teaching,\nit regards all a man's conduct as but the outcome of his character, and\nbrushes aside as trifling all attempts at altering products, whilst the\nproducer remains unaltered. Whether Paul was here alluding to a known\nsaying of Jesus or no, he was insisting upon the very centre of\nChristian ethics, that a man must first be good in order to do good. Our\nLord's words seemed to make an impossible demand--'Make the tree\ngood'--as the only way of securing good fruit, and it was in accordance\nwith the whole cast of the Sermon on the Mount that the means of\nrealising that demand was left unexpressed. But Paul stood on this side\nof Pentecost, and what was necessarily veiled in Christ's earlier\nutterances stood forth a revealed and blessed certainty to him. He had\nnot to say 'Make the tree good' and be silent as to how that process was\nto be effected; to him the message had been committed, 'The Spirit also\nhelpeth our infirmity.' There is but one way by which a corrupt tree can\nbe made good, and that is by grafting into the wild briar stock a\n'layer' from the rose. The Apostle had a double message to proclaim, and\nthe one part was built upon the other. He had first to preach--and this\nday has first to believe that God has sent His own Son in the likeness\nof sinful flesh and as an offering for sin--and then he had to proclaim\nthat, through that mission, it became possible that the ordinance of the\nlaw might be fulfilled in us who 'walk not after the flesh but after the\nspirit.' The beginning, then, of all true goodness is to be sought in\nreceiving into our corrupt natures the uncorrupted germs of the higher\nlife, and it is only in the measure in which that Spirit of God moves in\nour spirits and, like the sap in the vine, permeates every branch and\ntendril, that fruit to eternal life will grow. Christian graces are the\nproducts of the indwelling divine life, and nothing else will succeed in\nproducing them. All the preachings of moralists and all the struggles\nafter self-improvement are reduced to impotence and vanity by the stern,\ncurt sentence--'a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit.' Surely it\nshould come to us all as a true gospel when we feel ourselves foiled by\nour own evil nature in our attempts to be better, that the first thing\nwe have to do is not to labour at either of the two impossible tasks of\nthe making our bad selves good, or of the getting good fruits from bad\nselves, but to open our spirits through faith in Jesus for the entrance\ninto us of His Spirit which will change our corruption into\nincorruption, and cleanse us from all filthiness of flesh and spirit.\nShall we not seek to become recipient of that new life, and having\nreceived it, should we not give diligence that it may in us produce all\nits natural effects?\n\nThese fruits, though they are the direct results of the indwelling\nSpirit and will never be produced without its presence, are none the\nless truly dependent upon our manner of receiving that Spirit and on our\nfaithfulness and diligence in the use of its gifts. It is, alas! sadly\ntoo true, and matter of tragically common experience that instead of\n'trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord' heavy with ruddy\nclusters, there are but dwarfed and scrubby bushes which have scarcely\nlife enough to keep up a little show of green leaves and 'bring no fruit\nto perfection'. Would that so-called Christian people would more\nearnestly and searchingly ask themselves why it is that, with such\npossibilities offered to them, their actual attainments should be so\nsmall. They have a power which is able to do for them exceeding\nabundantly above all that they can ask or think, and its actual effects\non them are well on this side of both their petitions and their\nconceptions. There need be no difficulty in answering the question why\nour Christian lives do not correspond more closely to the Spirit that\ninspires them. The plain answer is that we have not cultivated, used,\nand obeyed Him. The Lord of the vineyard would less often have to ask\n'Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it\nforth wild grapes?' if we listened more obediently to the pathetic\ncommand which surely should touch a grateful heart--'Grieve not the holy\nSpirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.'\n\nIV. How this is the only worthy fruit.\n\nWe have already pointed out that the Apostle in the preceding context\nvaries his terms, and catalogues the actions that come from the godless\nself as works, whilst those which are the outcome of the Spirit are\nfruit. The distinction thus drawn is twofold. Multiplicity is contrasted\nwith unity and fruit with works. The deeds of the flesh have no\nconsistency except that of evil; they are at variance with themselves--a\nhuddled mob without regularity or order; and they are works indeed, but\nso disproportionate to the nature of the doer and his obligations that\nthey do not deserve to be called fruit. It is not to attach too much\nimportance to an accidental form of speech to insist upon this\ndistinction as intended to be drawn, and as suggesting to us very solemn\nthoughts about many apparently very active lives. The man who lives to\nGod truly lives; the busiest life which is not rooted in Him and\ndirected towards Him has so far missed its aim as to have brought forth\nno good fruit, and therefore to have incurred the sentence that it is\ncut down and cast into the fire. There is a very remarkable expression\nin Scripture, 'The unfruitful works of darkness,' which admits the busy\noccupation and energy of the doers and denies that all that struggling\nand striving comes to anything. Done in the dark, they seemed to have\nsome significance, when the light comes in they vanish. It is for us to\ndetermine whether our lives shall be works of the flesh, full, perhaps,\nof a time of 'sound and fury,' but 'signifying nothing,' or whether they\nshall be fruits of the Spirit, which we 'who have gathered shall eat in\nthe courts of His holiness.' They will be so if, living in the Spirit,\nwe walk in the Spirit, but if we 'sow to the flesh' we shall have a\nharder husbandry and a bitterer harvest when 'of the flesh we reap\ncorruption,' and hear the awful and unanswerable question, 'What fruit\nhad ye then of those things whereof ye are now ashamed?'\n\n\n\n\nBURDEN-BEARING\n\n 'Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the\n law of Christ. . . . 5. For every man shall bear his\n own burden.'--GAL. vi. 25.\n\n\nThe injunction in the former of these verses appears, at first sight, to\nbe inconsistent with the statement in the latter. But Paul has a way of\nsetting side by side two superficially contradictory clauses, in order\nthat attention may be awakened, and that we may make an effort to\napprehend the point of reconciliation between them. So, for instance,\nyou remember he puts in one sentence, and couples together by a 'for,'\nthese two sayings: 'Work out your own salvation'; 'It is God that\nworketh in you.' So here he has been exhorting the Galatian Christians\nto restore a fallen brother. That is one case to which the general\ncommandment, 'Bear ye one another's burdens,' is applicable.\n\nI cannot here enter on the intervening verses by which he glides from\nthe one to the other of these two thoughts which I have coupled\ntogether, but I may just point out in a word the outline of his course\nof thought. 'Bear ye one another's burden,' says he; and then he thinks,\n'What is it that keeps men from bearing each other's burdens?' Being\nswallowed up with themselves, and especially being conceited about their\nown strength and goodness. And so he goes on: 'If a man think himself to\nbe something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.' And what is the\nbest cure for all these fancies inside us of how strong and good we are?\nTo look at our work with an impartial and rigid judgment. It is easy for\na man to plume himself on being good, and strong, and great; but let him\nlook at what he has done, and try that by a high standard, and that will\nknock the conceit out of him. Or, if his work stands the test, then 'he\nshall have rejoicing in himself, and not' by comparing himself with\nother people. Two blacks do not make a white, and we are not to heighten\nthe lustre of our own whiteness by comparing it with our neighbour's\nblackness. Take your act for what _it_ is worth, apart altogether from\nwhat other people are. Do not say, 'God! I thank thee that I am not as\nother men are . . . or even as this publican'; but look to yourself. There\nis an occupation with self which is good, and is a help to brotherly\nsympathy.\n\nAnd so the Apostle has worked round, you see, to almost an opposite\nthought from the one with which he started. 'Bear ye one another's\nburdens.' Yes, but a man's work is his own and nobody else's, and a\nman's character is his own and nobody else's, so 'every man shall bear\nhis own burden.' The statements are not contradictory. They complete\neach other. They are the north and the south poles, and between them is\nthe rounded orb of the whole truth. So then, let me point out that:\n\nI. There are burdens which can be shared, and there are burdens which\n_cannot_.\n\nLet us take the case from which the whole context has arisen. Paul was\nexhorting the Galatians, as I explained, in reference to their duty to a\nfallen brother; and he speaks of him--according to our version--as\n'overtaken in a fault.' Now, that is scarcely his idea, I think. The\nphrase, as it stands in our Bibles, suggests that Paul is trying to\nminimise the gravity of the man's offence; but just in proportion as he\nminimised its gravity would he weaken his exhortation to restore him.\nBut what he is really doing is not to make as little as possible of the\nsin, but to make as much of it as is consistent with the truth. The word\n'overtaken' suggests that some sin, like a tiger in a jungle, springs\nupon a man and overpowers him by the suddenness of the assault. The word\nso rendered may perhaps be represented by some such phrase as\n'discovered'; or, if I may use a 'colloquialism,' if a man be caught\n'red-handed.' That is the idea. And Paul does not use the weak word\n'fault,' but a very much stronger one, which means stark staring sin. He\nis supposing a bad case of inconsistency, and is not palliating it at\nall. Here is a brother who has had an unblemished reputation; and all\nat once the curtain is thrown aside behind which he is working some\nwicked thing; and there the culprit stands, with the bull's-eye light\nflashed upon him, ashamed and trembling. Paul says, 'If you are a\nspiritual man'--there is irony there of the graver sort--'show your\nspirituality by going and lifting him up, and trying to help him.' When\nhe says, 'Restore such an one,' he uses an expression which is employed\nin other connections in the New Testament, such as for mending the\nbroken meshes of a net, for repairing any kind of damage, for setting\nthe fractured bones of a limb. And that is what the 'spiritual' man has\nto do. He is to show the validity of his claim to live on high by\nstooping down to the man bemired and broken-legged in the dirt. We have\ncome across people who chiefly show their own purity by their harsh\ncondemnation of others' sins. One has heard of women so very virtuous\nthat they would rather hound a fallen sister to death than try to\nrestore her; and there are saints so extremely saintly that they will\nnot touch the leper to heal him, for fear of their own hands being\nceremonially defiled. Paul says, 'Bear ye one another's burdens'; and\nespecially take a lift of each other's sin.\n\nI need not remind you how the same command applies in relation to\npecuniary distress, narrow circumstances, heavy duties, sorrows, and all\nthe 'ills that flesh is heir to.' These can be borne by sympathy, by\ntrue loving outgoing of the heart, and by the rendering of such\npractical help as the circumstances require.\n\nBut there are burdens that cannot be borne by any but the man himself.\n\nThere is the awful burden of personal existence. It is a solemn thing\nto be able to say 'I.' And that carries with it this, that after all\nsympathy, after all nestling closeness of affection, after the tenderest\nexhibition of identity of feeling, and of swift godlike readiness to\nhelp, each of us lives alone. Like the inhabitants of the islands of the\nGreek Archipelago, we are able to wave signals to the next island, and\nsometimes to send a boat with provisions and succour, but we are parted,\n'with echoing straits between us thrown.' Every man, after all, lives\nalone, and society is like the material things round about us, which are\nall compressible, because the atoms that compose them are not in actual\ncontact, but separated by slenderer or more substantial films of\nisolating air. Thus there is even in the sorrows which we can share with\nour brethren, and in all the burdens which we can help to bear, an\nelement which cannot be imparted. 'The heart knoweth its own\nbitterness', and neither 'stranger' nor other 'intermeddleth' with the\ndeepest fountains of 'its joy.'\n\nThen again, there is the burden of responsibility which can be shared by\nnone. A dozen soldiers may be turned out to make a firing party to shoot\nthe mutineer, and no man knows who fired the shot, but one man did fire\nit. And however there may have been companions, it was his rifle that\ncarried the bullet, and his finger that pulled the trigger. We say, 'The\nwoman that Thou gavest me tempted me, and I did eat.' Or we say, 'My\nnatural appetites, for which I am not responsible, but Thou who madest\nme art, drew me aside, and I fell', or we may say, 'It was not I; it was\nthe other boy.' And then there rises up in our hearts a veiled form, and\nfrom its majestic lips comes 'Thou art the man'; and our whole being\nechoes assent--_Mea culpa; mea maxima culpa_--'My fault, my exceeding\ngreat fault.' No man can bear that burden.\n\nAnd then, closely connected with responsibility there is another--the\nburden of the inevitable consequences of transgression, not only away\nyonder in the future, when all human bonds of companionship shall be\nbroken, and each man shall 'give account of himself to God,' but here\nand now; as in the immediate context the Apostle tells us, 'Whatsoever a\nman soweth, that shall he also reap.' The effects of our evil deeds come\nback to roost; and they never make a mistake as to where they should\nalight. If I have sown, I, and no one else, will gather. No sympathy\nwill prevent to-morrow's headache after to-night's debauch, and nothing\nthat anybody can do will turn the sleuth-hounds off the scent. Though\nthey may be slow-footed, they have sure noses and deep-mouthed fangs.\n'If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thyself, and if thou scornest\nthou alone shalt bear it.' So there are burdens which can, and burdens\nwhich cannot, be borne.\n\nII. Jesus Christ is the Burden-bearer for both sorts of burdens.\n\n'Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ,' not\nonly as spoken by His lips, but as set forth in the pattern of His life.\nWe have, then, to turn to Him, and think of Him as Burden-bearer in even\na deeper sense than the psalmist had discerned, who magnified God as 'He\nwho daily beareth our burdens.'\n\nChrist is the Burden-bearer of our sin. 'The Lord hath laid'--or made to\nmeet--'upon Him the iniquity of us all.' The Baptist pointed his lean,\nascetic finger at the young Jesus, and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God\nwhich beareth'--and beareth away--'the sin of the world.' How heavy the\nload, how real its pressure, let Gethsemane witness, when He clung to\nhuman companionship with the unutterably solemn and plaintive words, 'My\nsoul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. Tarry ye here and watch\nwith Me.' He bore the burden of the world's sin.\n\nJesus Christ is the bearer of the burden of the consequences of sin, not\nonly inasmuch as, in His sinless humanity, He knew by sympathy the\nweight of the world's sin, but because in that same humanity, by\nidentification of Himself with us, deeper and more wonderful than our\nplummets have any line long enough to sound the abysses of, He took the\ncup of bitterness which our sins have mixed, and drank it all when He\nsaid, 'My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?' Consequences still\nremain: thank God that they do! 'Thou wast a God that forgavest them,\nand Thou didst inflict retribution on their inventions.' So the outward,\nthe present, the temporal consequences of transgression are left\nstanding in all their power, in order that transgressors may thereby be\nscourged from their evil, and led to forsake the thing that has wrought\nthem such havoc. But the ultimate consequence, the deepest of all,\nseparation from God, has been borne by Christ, and need never be borne\nby us.\n\nI suppose I need not dwell on the other aspects of this burden-bearing\nof our Lord, how that He, in a very deep and real sense, takes upon\nHimself the sorrows which we bear in union with, and faith on, Him. For\nthen the griefs that still come to us, when so borne, are transmitted\ninto 'light affliction which is but for a moment.' 'In all their\nafflictions He was afflicted.' Oh, brethren! you with sad hearts, you\nwith lonely lives, you with carking cares, you with pressing, heavy\nduties, cast your burden on the Christ, and He 'will sustain you,' and\nsorrows borne in union with Him will change their character, and the\nvery cross shall be wreathed in flowers.\n\nJesus bears the burden of that solemn solitude which our personal being\nlays upon us all. The rest of us stand round, and, as I said, hoist\nsignals of sympathy, and sometimes can stretch a brotherly hand out and\ngrasp the sufferer's hand. But their help comes from without; Christ\ncomes in, and dwells in our hearts, and makes us no longer alone in the\ndepths of our being, which He fills with the effulgence and peace of His\ncompanionship. And so for sin, for guilt, for responsibility, for\nsorrow, for holiness, Christ bears our burdens.\n\nYes! And when He takes ours on His shoulders, He puts His on ours. 'My\nyoke is easy, and My burden is light.' As the old mystics used to say,\nChrist's burden carries him that carries it. It may add a little weight,\nbut it gives power to soar, and it gives power to progress. It is like\nthe wings of a bird, it is like the sails of a ship.\n\nIII. Lastly, Christ's carrying our burdens binds us to carry our\nbrother's!\n\n'So fulfil the law of Christ.' There is a very biting sarcasm, and, as I\nsaid about another matter, a grave irony in Paul's use of that word\n'law' here. For the whole of this Epistle has been directed against the\nJudaising teachers who were desirous of cramming Jewish law down\nGalatian throats, and is addressed to their victims in the Galatian\nchurches who had fallen into the trap. Paul turns round on them here,\nand says, 'You want law, do you? Well, if you _will_ have it, here it\nis--the law of Christ.' Christ's life is our law. Practical Christianity\nis doing what Christ did. The Cross is not only the ground of our hope,\nbut the pattern of our conduct.\n\nAnd, says Paul in effect, the example of Jesus Christ, in all its sweep,\nand in all the depth of it, is the only motive by which this injunction\nthat I am giving you will ever be fulfilled. 'Bear ye one another's\nburdens.' You will never do that unless you have Christ as the ground of\nyour hope, and His great sacrifice as the example for your conduct. For\nthe hindrance that prevents sympathy is self-absorption; and that\nnatural selfishness which is in us all will never be exorcised and\nbanished from us thoroughly, so as that we shall be awake to all the\nobligations to bear our brother's burdens, unless Christ has dethroned\nself, and is the Lord of our inmost spirits.\n\nI rejoice as much as any man in the largely increased sense of mutual\nresponsibility and obligation of mutual aid, which is sweetening society\nby degrees amongst us to-day, but I believe that no Socialistic or other\nschemes for the regeneration of society which are not based on the\nIncarnation and Sacrifice of Jesus Christ will live and grow. There is\nbut one power that will cast out natural selfishness, and that is love\nto Christ, apprehending His Cross as the great example to which our\nlives are to be conformed. I believe that the growing sense of\nbrotherhood amongst us, even where it is not consciously connected with\nany faith in Christianity, is, to a very large extent, the result of the\ndiffusion through society of the spirit of Christianity, even where its\nbody is rejected. Thank God, the river of the water of life can\npercolate through many a mile of soil, and reach the roots of trees far\naway, in the pastures of the wilderness, that know not whence the\nrefreshing moisture has come. But on the wide scale be sure of this: it\nis the law of Christ that will fight and conquer the natural selfishness\nwhich makes bearing our brother's burdens an impossibility for men.\nOnly, Christian people! let us take care that we are not robbed of our\nprerogative of being foremost in all such things, by men whose zeal has\na less heavenly source than ours ought to have. Depend upon it, heresy\nhas less power to arrest the progress of the Church than the selfish\nlives of Christian professors.\n\nSo, dear friends, let us see to it that we first of all cast our own\nburdens on the Christ who is able to bear them all, whatever they are.\nAnd then let us, with lightened hearts and shoulders, make our own the\nheavy burdens of sin, of sorrow, of care, of guilt, of consequences, of\nresponsibility, which are crushing down many that are weary and heavy\nladen. For be sure of this, if we do not bear our brother's burdens, the\nload that we thought we had cast on Christ will roll back upon\nourselves. He is able to bear both us and our burdens, if we will let\nHim, and if we will fulfil that law of Christ which was illustrated in\nall His life, 'Who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor,'\nand was written large in letters of blood upon that Cross where there\nwas 'laid on Him the iniquity of us all.'\n\n\n\n\nDOING GOOD TO ALL\n\n 'As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good\n unto all. . . .'--GAL. vi. 10.\n\n\n'As we have therefore'--that points a finger backwards to what has gone\nbefore. The Apostle has been exhorting to unwearied well-doing, on the\nground of the certain coming of the harvest season. Now, there is a\ndouble link of connection between the preceding words and our text; for\n'do good' looks back to 'well-doing,' and the word rendered\n'opportunity' is the same as that rendered 'season.' So, then, two\nthoughts arise--'well-doing' includes doing good to others, and is not\ncomplete unless it does. The future, on the whole, is the season of\nreaping; the present life on the whole is the season of sowing; and\nwhile life as a whole is the seed-time, in detail it is full of\nopportunities, openings which make certain good deeds possible, and\nwhich therefore impose upon us the obligation to do them. If we were in\nthe habit of looking on life mainly as a series of opportunities for\nwell-doing, how different it would be; and how different we should be!\n\nNow, this injunction is seen to be reasonable by every man, whether he\nobeys it or not. It is a commonplace of morality, which finds assent in\nall consciences, however little it may mould lives. But I wish to give\nit a particular application, and to try to enforce its bearing upon\nChristian missionary work. And the thought that I would suggest is just\nthis, that no Christian man discharges that elementary obligation of\nplain morality, if he is indifferent to this great enterprise. 'As we\nhave an opportunity, let us do good to all.' That is the broad\nprinciple, and one application is the duty of Christian men to diffuse\nthe Gospel throughout the world.\n\nI. Let me ask you to look at the obligation that is thus suggested.\n\nAs I have said, well-doing is the wider, and doing good to others the\nnarrower, expression. The one covers the whole ground of virtue, the\nother declares that virtue which is self-regarding, the culture which\nis mainly occupied with self, is lame and imperfect, and there is a\ngreat gap in it, as if some cantle had been cut out of the silver disc\nof the moon. It is only full-orbed when in well-doing, and as a very\nlarge constituent element of it, there is included the doing good to\nothers. That is too plain to need to be stated. We hear a great deal\nto-day about altruism. Well, Christianity preaches that more\nemphatically than any other system of thought, morals, or religion does.\nAnd Christianity brings the mightiest motives for it, and imparts the\npower by which obedience to that great law that every man's conscience\nresponds to is made possible.\n\nBut whilst thus we recognise as a dictate of elementary morality that\nwell-doing must necessarily include doing good to others, and feel, as I\nsuppose we all do feel, when we are true to our deepest convictions,\nthat possessions of all sorts, material, mental, and all others, are\ngiven to us in stewardship, and not in absolute ownership, in order that\nGod's grace in its various forms may fructify through us to all, my\npresent point is that, if that is recognised as being what it is, an\nelementary dictate of morality enforced by men's relationships to one\nanother, and sealed by their own consciences, there is no getting away\nfrom the obligation upon all Christian men which it draws after it, of\neach taking his share in the great work of imparting the gospel to the\nwhole world.\n\nFor that gospel is our highest good, the best thing that we can carry to\nanybody. We many of us recognise the obligation that is devolved upon us\nby the possession of wealth, to use it for others as well as for\nourselves. We recognise, many of us, the obligation that is devolved\nupon us by the possession of knowledge, to impart it to others as well\nas ourselves. We are willing to give of our substance, of our time, of\nour effort, to impart much that we have. But some of us seem to draw a\nline at the highest good that we have, and whilst responding to all\nsorts of charitable and beneficent appeals made to us, and using our\nfaculties often for the good of other people, we take no share and no\ninterest in communicating the highest of all goods, the good which comes\nto the man in whose heart Christ rests. It is our highest good, because\nit deals with our deepest needs, and lifts us to the loftiest position.\nThe gospel brings our highest good, because it brings eternal good,\nwhilst all other benefits fade and pass, and are left behind with life\nand the dead flesh. It is our highest good, because if that great\nmessage of salvation is received into a heart, or moulds the life of a\nnation, it will bring after it, as its ministers and results, all manner\nof material and lesser benefit. And so, giving Christ we give _our_\nbest, and giving Christ we give the highest gift that a weary world can\nreceive.\n\nRemember, too, that the impartation of this highest good is one of the\nmain reasons why we ourselves possess it. Jesus Christ can redeem the\nworld alone, but it cannot become a redeemed world without the help of\nHis servants. He needs us in order to carry into all humanity the\nenergies that He brought into the midst of mankind by His Incarnation\nand Sacrifice; and the cradle of Bethlehem and the Cross of Cavalry are\nnot sufficient for the accomplishment of the purpose for which they\nrespectively came to pass, without the intervention and ministry of\nChristian people. It was for this end amongst others, that each of us\nwho have received that great gift into our hearts have been enriched by\nit. The river is fed from the fountains of the hills, in order that it\nmay carry verdure and life whithersoever it goes. And you and I have\nbeen brought to the Cross of Christ, and made His disciples, not only in\norder that we ourselves might be blessed and quickened by the gift\nunspeakable, but in order that through us it may be communicated, just\nas each particle when leavened in the mass of the dough communicates its\nenergy to its adjacent particle until the whole is leavened.\n\nI am afraid that indifference to the communication of the highest good,\nwhich marks sadly too many Christian professors in all ages, and in this\nage, is a suspicious indication of a very slight realisation of the good\nfor themselves. Luther said that justification was the article of a\nstanding or a falling church. That may be true in the region of\ntheology, but in the region of practical life I do not know that you\nwill find a test more reliable and more easy of application than this,\nDoes a man care for spreading amongst his fellows the gospel that he\nhimself has received? If he does not, let him ask himself whether, in\nany real sense, he has it. 'Well-doing' includes doing good to others,\nand the possession of Christ will make it certain that we shall impart\nHim.\n\nII. Notice the bearing of this elementary injunction upon the scope of\nthe obligation.\n\n'Let us do good to all men.' It was Christianity that invented the word\n'humanity'; either in its meaning of the aggregate of men or its meaning\nof a gracious attitude towards them. And it invented the word because it\nrevealed the thing on which it rests. 'Brotherhood' is the sequel of\n'Fatherhood,' and the conception of mankind, beneath all diversities of\nrace and culture and the like, as being an organic whole, knit together\nby a thousand mystical bands, and each atom of which has connection\nwith, and obligations to, every other--that is a product of\nChristianity, however it may have been in subsequent ages divorced from\na recognition of its source. So, then, the gospel rises above all the\nnarrow distinctions which call themselves patriotism and are parochial,\nand it says that there is 'neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, Jew\nnor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free,' but all are one. Get\nhigh enough up upon the hill, and the hedges between the fields are\nbarely perceptible. Live on the elevation to which the Gospel of Jesus\nChrist lifts men, and you look down upon a great prairie, without a\nfence or a ditch or a division. So my text comes with profound\nsignificance, 'Let us do good to all,' because all are included in the\nsweep of that great purpose of love, and in the redeeming possibilities\nof that great death on the Cross. Christ has swept the compass, if I may\nsay so, of His love and work all round humanity; and are we to extend\nour sympathies or our efforts less widely? The circle includes the\nworld; our sympathies should be as wide as the circle that Christ has\ndrawn.\n\nLet me remind you, too, that only such a world-wide communication of the\nhighest good that has blessed ourselves will correspond to the proved\npower of that Gospel which treats as of no moment diversities that are\nsuperficial, and can grapple with and overcome, and bind to itself as a\ncrown of glory, every variety of character, of culture, of circumstance,\nclaiming for its own all races, and proving itself able to lift them\nall. 'The Bread of God which came down from heaven' is an exotic\neverywhere, because it came down from heaven, but it can grow in all\nsoils, and it can bring forth fruit unto eternal life everywhere amongst\nmankind. So 'let us do good to all.'\n\nAnd then we are met by the old objection, 'The eyes of a fool are in the\nends of the earth. Keep your work for home, that wants it.' Well! I am\nperfectly ready to admit that in Christian work, as in all others there\nmust be division of labour, and that one man's tastes and inclinations\nwill lead him to one sphere and one form of it; and another man's to\nanother; and I am quite ready, not to admit, but strongly to insist,\nthat, whatever happens, home is not to be neglected. 'All men' includes\nthe slums in England as well as the savages in Africa, and it is no\nexcuse for neglecting either of these departments that we are trying to\ndo something in the other. But it is not uncharitable to say that the\nobjection to which I am referring is most often made by one or other of\ntwo classes, either by people who do not care about the Gospel, nor\nrecognise the 'good' of it at all, or by people who are ingenious in\nfinding excuses for not doing the duty to which they are at the moment\nsummoned. The people that do the one are the people that do the other.\nWhere do you get your money from for home work? Mainly from the\nChristian Churches. Who is it that keeps up missionary work abroad?\nMainly the Christian Churches. There is a vast deal of unreality in that\nobjection. Just think of the disproportion between the embarrassment of\nriches in our Christian appliances here in England and the destitution\nin these distant lands. Here the ships are crammed into a dock, close up\nagainst one another, rubbing their yards upon each other; and away out\nyonder on the waters there are leagues of loneliness, where never a\nsail is seen. Here, at home, we are drenched with Christian teaching,\nand the Churches are competing with each other, often like rival\ntradespeople for their customers; and away out yonder a man to half a\nmillion is considered a fair allowance. 'Let us do good to all.'\n\nIII. Lastly, note the bearing of this elementary precept on the\noccasions that rise for the discharge of the duty.\n\n'As we have opportunity.' As I have already said, the Christian way to\nlook at our circumstances is to regard them as openings for the exercise\nof Christian virtue, and therefore summonses to its discharge. And if we\nregarded our own position individually, so we should find that there\nwere many, many doors that had long been opened, into which we had been\ntoo blind or too lazy, or too selfishly absorbed in our own concerns, to\nenter. The neglected opportunities, the beckoning doors whose thresholds\nwe have never crossed, the good that we might have done and have not\ndone--these are as weighty to sink us as the positive sins, the\nopportunities for which have appealed to our worse selves.\n\nBut I desire to say a word, not only about the opportunities offered to\nus individually, but about those offered to England for this great\nenterprise. The prophet of old represented the proud Assyrian conqueror\nas boasting, 'My hand hath gathered as a nest the riches of the peoples\n. . . and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or\npeeped.' It might be the motto of England to-day. It is not for nothing\nthat we and our brethren across the Atlantic, the inheritors of the same\nfaith and morals and literature, and speaking the same tongue, have had\ngiven to us the wide dominion that we possess, I know that England has\nnot climbed to her place without many a crime, and that in her 'skirts\nis found the blood of poor innocents,' but yet we have that connection,\nfor good or for evil, with subject races all over the earth. And I ask\nwhether or not that is an opportunity that the Christian Church is bound\nto make use of. What have we been intrusted with it for? Commerce,\ndominion, the impartation of Western knowledge, literature, laws? Yes!\nIs that all? Are you to send shirting and not the Gospel? Are you to\nsend muskets that will burst, and gin that is poison, and not\nChristianity? Are you to send Shakespeare, and Milton, and modern\nscience, and Herbert Spencer, and not Evangelists and the Gospels? Are\nyou to send the code of English law and not Christ's law of love? Are\nyou to send godless Englishmen, 'through whom the name of God is\nblasphemed amongst the Gentiles,' and are you not to send missionaries\nof the Cross? A Brahmin once said to a missionary, 'Look here! Your Book\nis a good Book. If you were as good as your Book you would make India\nChristian in ten years.'\n\nBrethren! the European world to-day is fighting and scrambling over what\nit calls the unclaimed corners of the world; looking upon all lands that\nare uncivilised by Western civilisation either as markets, or as parts\nof their empire. Is there no other way of looking at the heathen world\nthan that? How did Christ look at it? He was moved when He saw the\nmultitudes as 'sheep having no shepherd.' Oh! if Christian men, as\nmembers of this nation, would rise to the height of Christ's place of\nvision, and would look at the world with His eyes, what a difference it\nwould make! I appeal to you, Christian men and women, as members of\nthis nation, and therefore responsible, though it may be\ninfinitesimally, for what this nation is doing in the distant corners of\nthe world, and urge on you that you are bound, so far as your influence\ngoes, to protest against the way of looking at these heathen lands as\nexisting to be exploited for the material benefit of these Western\nPowers. You are bound to lend your voice, however weak it may be, to the\nprotests against the savage treatment of native races--against the\ndrenching of China with narcotics, and Africa with rum; to try to look\nat the world as Christ looked at it, to rise to the height of that great\nvision which regards all men as having been in His heart when He died on\nthe Cross, and refuses to recognise in this great work 'Barbarian,\nScythian, bond or free.' We have awful responsibilities; the world is\nopen to us. We have the highest good. How shall we obey this elementary\nprinciple of our text, unless we help as we can in spreading Christ's\nreign? Blessed shall we be if, and only if, we fill the seed-time with\ndelightful work, and remember that well-doing is imperfect unless it\nincludes doing good to others, and that the best good we can do is to\nimpart the Unspeakable Gift to the men that need it.\n\n\n\n\nTHE OWNER'S BRAND\n\n 'I bear in my body the marks of the Lord\n Jesus.'--GAL. vi. 17.\n\n\nThe reference in these words is probably to the cruel custom of branding\nslaves as we do cattle, with initials or signs, to show their ownership.\nIt is true that in old times criminals, and certain classes of Temple\nservants, and sometimes soldiers, were also so marked, but it is most in\naccordance with the Apostle's way of thinking that he here has reference\nto the first class, and would represent himself as the _slave_ of Jesus\nChrist, designated as His by the scars and weaknesses which were the\nconsequences of his apostolic zeal. Imprisonment, beating by the Jewish\nrod, shipwrecks, fastings, weariness, perils, persecutions, all these he\nsums up in another place as being the tokens by which he was approved as\nan apostle of Jesus Christ. And here he, no doubt, has the same thought\nin his mind, that his bodily weakness, which was the direct issue of his\napostolic work, showed that he was Christ's. The painful infirmity under\nwhich, as we learn, he was more especially suffering, about the time of\nwriting this letter, may also have been in his mind.\n\nAll through this Epistle he has been thundering and lightning against\nthe disputers of this apostolic authority. And now at last he softens,\nand as it were, bares his thin arm, his scarred bosom, and bids these\ncontumacious Galatians look upon them, and learn that he has a right to\nspeak as the representative and messenger of the Lord Jesus.\n\nSo we have here two or three points, I think, worth considering. First,\nthink for a moment of the slave of Christ; then of the brands which mark\nthe ownership; then of the glory in the servitude and the sign; and then\nof the immunity from human disturbances which that service gives. 'From\nhenceforth let no man trouble me. I bear in my body the marks of the\nLord Jesus.'\n\nI. First, then, a word or two about that conception of the slave of\nChrist.\n\nIt is a pity that our Bible has not rendered the title which Paul ever\ngives himself at the beginning of his letters, by that simple word\n'slave,' instead of the feebler one, 'servant.' For what he means when\nhe calls himself the 'servant of Jesus Christ' is not that he bore to\nChrist the kind of relation which servants among us bear to those who\nhave hired and paid them, and to whom they have come under obligations\nof their own will which they can terminate at any moment by their own\ncaprice; but that he was in the roughest and simplest sense of the word,\nChrist's slave.\n\nWhat lies in that metaphor? Well, it is the most uncompromising\nassertion of the most absolute authority on the one hand, and claim of\nunconditional submission and subjection on the other.\n\nThe slave belonged to his master; the master could do exactly as he\nliked with him. If he killed him nobody had anything to say. He could\nset him to any task; he could do what he liked with any little\npossession or property that the slave seemed to have. He could break all\nhis relationships, and separate him from wife and kindred.\n\nAll that is atrocious and blasphemous when it is applied to the\nrelations between man and man, but it is a blessed and magnificent truth\nwhen it is applied to the relations between a man and Christ. For this\nLord has absolute authority over us, and He can do what He likes with\neverything that belongs to us; and we, and our duties, and our\ncircumstances, and our relationships, are all in His hands, and the one\nthing that we have to render to Him is utter, absolute, unquestioning,\nunhesitating, unintermittent and unreserved obedience and submission.\nThat which is abject degradation when it is rendered to a man, that\nwhich is blasphemous presumption when it is required by a man, that\nwhich is impossible, in its deepest reality, as between man and man, is\npossible, is blessed, is joyful and strong when it is required by, and\nrendered to, Jesus Christ. We are His slaves if we have any living\nrelationship to Him at all. Where, then, in the Christian life, is there\na place for self-will; where a place for self-indulgence; where for\nmurmuring or reluctance; where for the assertion of any rights of my own\nas against that Master? We owe absolute obedience and submission to\nJesus Christ.\n\nAnd what does the metaphor carry as to the basis on which this authority\nrests? How did men acquire slaves? Chiefly by purchase. The abominations\nof the slave market are a blessed metaphor for the deep realities of the\nChristian life. Christ has bought you for His own. The only thing that\ngives a human soul the right to have any true authority over another\nhuman soul is that it shall have yielded itself to the soul whom it\nwould control. We must first of all give ourselves away before we have\nthe right to possess, and the measure in which we give ourselves to\nanother is the measure in which we possess another. And so Christ our\nLord, according to the deep words of one of Paul's letters, 'gives\nHimself for us, that He might purchase unto Himself a people for His\npossession.' 'Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price.'\n\nTherefore the absolute authority, and unconditional surrender and\nsubmission which are the very essence of the Christian life, at bottom\nare but the corresponding and twofold effects of one thing, and that is\nlove. For there is no possession of man by man except that which is\nbased on love. And there is no submission of man to man worth calling\nso except that which is also based therein.\n\n 'Thou hearts alone wouldst move;\n Thou only hearts dost love.'\n\nThe relation in both its parts, on the side of the Master and on the\nside of the captive bondsman, is the direct result and manifestation of\nthat love which knits them together.\n\nTherefore the Christian slavery, with its abject submission, with its\nutter surrender and suppression of mine own will, with its complete\nyielding up of self to the control of Jesus, who died for me; because it\nis based upon His surrender of Himself to me, and in its inmost essence\nit is the operation of love, is therefore co-existent with the noblest\nfreedom.\n\nThis great Epistle to the Galatians is the trumpet call and clarion\nproclamation of Christian liberty. The breath of freedom blows\ninspiringly through it all. The very spirit of the letter is gathered up\nin one of its verses, 'I have been called unto liberty,' and in its\ngreat exhortation, 'Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ\nhath made you free.' It is then sufficiently remarkable and profoundly\nsignificant that in this very letter, which thus is the protest of the\nfree Christian consciousness against all limitations and outward\nrestrictions, there should be this most emphatic declaration that the\nliberty of the Christian is slavery and the slavery of the Christian is\nfreedom. He is free whose will coincides with his outward law. He is\nfree who delights to do what he must do. He is free whose rule is love,\nand whose Master is Incarnate Love. 'If the Son make you free, ye shall\nbe free indeed.' 'O Lord, truly I am Thy servant, Thou hast loosed my\nbands.' 'I bear in my body' the charter of my liberty, for I bear in my\nbody the 'brand of the Lord Jesus.'\n\nII. And so now a word in the next place about these marks of ownership.\n\nAs I have said, the Apostle evidently means thereby distinctly the\nbodily weaknesses, and possibly diseases, which were the direct\nconsequences of his own apostolic faithfulness and zeal. He considered\nthat he proved himself to be a minister of God by his stripes,\nimprisonments, fastings, by all the pains and sufferings and their\npermanent consequences in an enfeebled constitution, which he bore\nbecause he had preached the Cross of Christ. He knew that these things\nwere the result of his faithful ministry. He believed that they had been\nsent by no blundering, blind fate; by no mere secondary causes; but by\nhis Master Himself, whose hand had held the iron that branded into the\nhissing flesh the marks of His ownership. He felt that by means of these\nhe had been drawn nearer to his Master, and the ownership had been made\nmore perfect. And so in a rapture of contempt of pain, this heroic soul\nlooks upon even bodily weakness and suffering as being the signs that he\nbelonged to Christ, and the means of that possession being made more\nperfect.\n\nNow, what is all that to us Christian people who have no persecutions to\nendure, and none of whom I am afraid have ever worked hard enough for\nChrist to have damaged our health by it? Is there anything in this text\nthat may be of general application to us all? Yes! I think so. Every\nChristian man or woman ought to bear, in his or her body, in a plain,\nliteral sense, the tokens that he or she belongs to Jesus Christ. You\nask me how? 'If thy foot or thine hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast\nit from thee.'\n\nThere are things in your physical nature that you have to suppress; that\nyou have always to regulate and coerce; that you have sometimes entirely\nto cast away and to do without, if you mean to be Jesus Christ's at all.\nThe old law of self-denial, of subduing the animal nature, its passions,\nappetites, desires, is as true and as needful to-day as it ever was; and\nfor us all it is essential to the loftiness and purity of our Christian\nlife that our animal nature and our fleshly constitution should be well\nkept down under heel and subdued. As Paul himself said in another place,\n'I bring under my body, and I keep it in subjection, lest by any means I\nshould myself, having proclaimed to others the laws of the contest, be\nrejected from the prize.' Oh, you Christian men and women! if you are\nnot living a life of self-denial, if you are not crucifying the flesh,\nwith its affections and lusts, if you are not bearing 'about in the body\nthe dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Christ may be\nmanifested in your mortal body,' what tokens are there that you are\nChrist's slaves at all?\n\nThen, besides this, we may expand the thought even further, and say\nthat, in a very real sense, all the pains and sorrows and\ndisappointments and afflictions that mainly touch our mortal part should\nbe taken by us as, and made by us to be, the tokens that we belong to\nthe Master.\n\nBut it is not only in limitations and restrictions and self-denials and\npains that Christ's ownership of us ought to be manifested in our daily\nlives, and so by means of our mortal bodies, but if there be in our\nhearts a deep indwelling possession of the grace and sweetness of\nChrist, it will make itself visible, ay! even in our faces, and 'beauty\nborn of' our communion with Him 'shall pass into' and glorify even\nrugged and care-lined countenances. There may be, and there ought to be,\nin all Christian people, manifestly visible the tokens of the indwelling\nserenity of the indwelling Christ. And it should not be left to some\nmoment of rapture at the end of life, for men to look upon us, to behold\nour faces, 'as it had been the face of an angel,' but by our daily walk,\nby our countenances full of a removed tranquillity, and a joy that rises\nfrom within, men ought to take knowledge of us that we have been with\nJesus, and it should be the truth--I bear in my body the tokens of His\npossession.\n\nIII. Now, once more notice the glorying in the slavery and its signs.\n\n'I bear,' says Paul; and he uses, as many of you may know, a somewhat\nremarkable word, which does not express mere bearing in the sense of\ntoleration and patient endurance, although that is much; nor mere\nbearing in the sense of carrying, but implies bearing with a certain\ntriumph as men would do who, coming back victorious from conflict, and\nbeing received into the city, were proud to show their scars, the\nhonourable signs of their courage and constancy. So, with a triumph that\nis legitimate, the Apostle solemnly and proudly bears before men the\nmarks of the Lord Jesus. Just as he says in another place:--'Thanks be\nunto God, which always leadeth us about in triumph in Jesus Christ,' He\nwas proud of being dragged at the conqueror's chariot wheels, chained to\nthem by the cords of love; and so he was proud of being the slave of\nChrist.\n\nIt is a degradation to a man to yield abject submission, unconditional\nservice to another man. It is the highest honour of our natures so to\nbow before that dear Lord. To prostrate ourselves to Him is to lift\nourselves high in the scale of being. The King's servant is every other\nperson's master. And he that feels that he is Christ's, may well be, not\nproud but conscious, of the dignity of belonging to such a Lord. The\nmonarch's livery is a sign of honour. In our old Saxon kingdom the\nking's menials were the first nobles. So it is with us. The aristocracy\nof humanity are the slaves of Jesus Christ.\n\nAnd let us be proud of the marks of the branding iron, whether they come\nin the shape of sorrows and pains, or otherwise. It is well that we\nshould have to carry these. It is blessed, and a special mark of the\nMaster's favour that He should think it worth His while to mark us as\nHis own, by any sorrow or by any pain. Howsoever hot may be the iron,\nand howsoever deeply it may be pressed by His firm, steady, gentle hand\nupon the quivering flesh and the shrinking heart, let us be thankful if\nHe, even by it, impresses on us the manifest tokens of ownership. Oh,\nbrethren! if we could come to look upon sorrows and losses with this\nclear recognition of their source, meaning and purpose, they change\ntheir nature, the paradox is fulfilled that we do 'gather grapes of\nthorns and figs of thistles.' 'I bear in my body,' with a solemn triumph\nand patient hope, 'the marks of the Lord Jesus.'\n\nIV. And now, lastly, the immunity from any disturbance which men can\nbring, which these marks, and the servitude they express, secure.\n\n'From henceforth let no man trouble me.' Paul claims that his apostolic\nauthority, having been established by the fact of his sufferings for\nChrist, should give him a sacredness in their eyes; that henceforth\nthere should be no rebellion against his teaching and his word. We may\nexpand the thought to apply more to ourselves, and say that, in the\nmeasure in which we belong to Christ, and hear the marks of His\npossession of us, in that measure are we free from the disturbance of\nearthly influences and of human voices; and from all the other sources\nof care and trouble, of perturbation and annoyance, which harass and vex\nother men's spirits. 'Ye are bought with a price,' says Paul elsewhere.\n'Be not the servants of men.' Christ is your Master; do not let men\ntrouble you. Take your orders from Him; let men rave as they like. Be\ncontent to be approved by Him; let men think of you as they please. The\nMaster's smile is life, the Master's frown is death to the slave; what\nmatters it what other people may say? 'He that judgeth me is the Lord.'\nSo keep yourselves above the cackle of 'public opinion'; do not let your\ncreed be crammed down your throats even by a consensus of however\nvenerable and grave human teachers. Take your directions from your\nMaster, and pay no heed to other voices if they would command. Live to\nplease Him, and do not care what other people think. You are Christ's\nservant; 'let no man trouble' you.\n\nAnd so it should be about all the distractions and petty annoyances that\ndisturb human life and harass our hearts. A very little breath of wind\nwill ruffle all the surface of a shallow pond, though it would sweep\nacross the deep sea and produce no effect. Deepen your natures by close\nunion with Christ, and absolute submission to Him, and there will be a\ngreat calm in them, and cares and sorrows, and all the external sources\nof anxiety, far away, down there beneath your feet, will 'show scarce\nso gross as beetles,' whilst you stand upon the high cliff and look down\nupon them all. 'From henceforth no man shall trouble me.' 'I bear in my\nbody the marks of the Lord Jesus.'\n\nMy brother! Whose marks do you bear? There are only two masters. If an\neye that could see things as they are, were to go through this\ncongregation, whose initials would it discern in your faces? There are\nsome of us, I have no doubt, who in a very horrid sense bear in our\nbodies the marks of the idol that we worship. Men who have ruined their\nhealth by dissipation and animal sensualism--are there any of them here\nthis morning? Are there none of us whose faces, whose trembling hands,\nwhose diseased frames, are the tokens that they belong to the flesh and\nthe world and the devil? Whose do _you_ bear?\n\nOh! when one looks at all the faces that pass one upon the street--this\nall drawn with avarice and earthly-mindedness; that all bloated with\nself-indulgence and loose living--when one sees the mean faces, the\npassionate faces, the cruel faces, the vindictive faces, the lustful\nfaces, the worldly faces, one sees how many of us bear in our bodies the\nmarks of _another_ lord. They have no rest day nor night who worship the\nbeast; and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.\n\nI pray you, yield yourselves to your true Lord, so on earth you may bear\nthe beginnings of the likeness that stamps you His, and hereafter, as\none of His happy slaves, shall do priestly service at His throne and see\nHis face, and His name shall be in your foreheads.\n\n\n\n\nPHILIPPIANS\n\n\n\n\nLOVING GREETINGS\n\n 'Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to\n all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at\n Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2. Grace\n to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord\n Jesus Christ. 3. I thank my God upon all my\n remembrance of you, 4. Always in every\n supplication of mine on behalf of you all making\n my supplication with joy, 5. For your fellowship\n in furtherance of the gospel from the first day\n until now; 6. Being confident of this very thing\n that He which began a good work in you will\n perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ: 7. Even\n as it is right for me to be thus minded on behalf\n of you all, because I have you in my heart,\n inasmuch as, both in my bonds and in the defence\n and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are\n partakers with me of grace. 8. For God is my\n witness, how I long after you all in the tender\n mercies of Christ Jesus.'--PHIL. i. 1-8 (R.V.).\n\n\nThe bond between Paul and the church at Philippi was peculiarly close.\nIt had been founded by himself, as is narrated at unusual length in the\nbook of Acts. It was the first church established in Europe. Ten years\nhad elapsed since then, possibly more. Paul is now a prisoner in Rome,\nnot suffering the extremest rigour of imprisonment, but still a prisoner\nin his own hired house, accessible to his friends and able to do work\nfor God, but still in the custody of soldiers, chained and waiting till\nthe tardy steps of Roman law should come up to him, or perhaps till the\ncaprice of Nero should deign to hear his cause. In that imprisonment we\nhave his letters to the Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and\nPhilemon, which latter three are closely connected in time, the two\nformer in subject, and the two latter in destination. This letter stands\napart from those to the great Asiatic churches.\n\nIts tone and general cast are unlike those of most of his letters. It\ncontains no doctrinal discussions and no rebukes of evil, but is an\noutpouring of happy love and confidence. Like all Paul's epistles it\nbegins with salutations, and like most of them with prayer, but from the\nvery beginning is a long gush of love. These early verses seem to me\nvery beautiful if we regard them either as a revelation of the personal\ncharacter of the Apostle, or as a picture of the relation between\nteacher and taught in its most blessed and undisturbed form, or as a\nlovely ideal of friendship and love in any relation, hallowed and\nsolemnised by Christian feeling.\n\nVerses one and two contain the apostolic greeting. In it we note the\nsenders. Timothy is associated with Paul, according to his custom in all\nhis letters even when he goes on immediately to speak in the singular.\nHe ever sought to hide his own supremacy and to bring his friends into\nprominence. He was a great, lowly soul, who had no pride in the dignity\nof his position but felt the weight of its responsibility and would fain\nhave had it shared. He calls Timothy and himself the slaves of Christ.\nHe regarded it as his highest honour to be Christ's born servant, bound\nto absolute submission to the all-worthy Lord who had died to win him.\nIt is to be noted that there is no reference here to apostolic\nauthority, and the contrast is very remarkable in this respect with the\nEpistle to the Galatians, where with scornful emphasis he asserts it as\nbestowed 'not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus Christ\nand God the Father.' In this designation of himself, we have already the\nfirst trace of the intimate and loving relationship in which Paul stood\nto the Philippians. There was no need for him to assert what was not\ndenied, and he did not wish to deal with them officially, but rather\npersonally. There is a similar omission in Philemon and a pathetic\nsubstitution there of the 'prisoner of Jesus Christ' for the 'slave of\nChrist Jesus.'\n\nThe persons addressed are 'all the saints in Christ Jesus.' As he had\nnot called himself an apostle, so he does not call them a church. He\nwill not lose in an abstraction the personal bond which unites them.\nThey are saints, which is not primarily a designation of moral purity,\nbut of consecration to God, from whom indeed purity flows. The primitive\nmeaning of the word is _separation_; the secondary meaning is\n_holiness_, and the connection between these two meanings contains a\nwhole ethical philosophy. They are saints in Christ Jesus; union with\nHim is the condition both of consecration and of purity.\n\nThe Philippian community had an organisation primitive but sufficient.\nWe do not enter on the discussion of its two offices further than to\nnote that the bishops are evidently identical with the elders, in the\naccount in Acts xx. of Paul's parting with the Ephesian Christians,\nwhere the same persons are designated by both titles, as is also the\ncase in Titus i. 5 and 7; the one name (elder) coming from the Hebrew\nand designating the office on the side of dignity, the other (bishop)\nbeing of Greek origin and representing it in terms of function. We note\nthat there were several elders then in the Philippian church, and that\ntheir place in the salutation negatives the idea of hierarchical\nsupremacy.\n\nThe benediction or prayer for grace and peace is couched in the form\nwhich it assumes in all Paul's letters. It blends Eastern and Western\nforms of greeting. 'Grace' being the Greek and 'Peace' the Hebrew form\nof salutation. So Christ fuses and fulfils the world's desires. The\ngrace which He gives is the self-imparting love of God, the peace which\nHe gives is its consequence, and the salutation is an unmistakable\nevidence of Paul's belief in Christ's divinity.\n\nThis salutation is followed by a great burst of thankful love, for the\nfull apprehension of which we must look briefly at the details of these\nverses. We have first Paul's thankfulness in all his remembrance of the\nPhilippians, then he further defines the times of his thankfulness as\n'always in every supplication of mind on behalf of you all making my\nsupplication with joy.' His gratitude for them is expressed in all his\nprayers which are all thank-offerings. He never thinks of them nor prays\nfor them without thanking God for them. Then comes the reason for his\ngratitude--their fellowship in furtherance of the gospel, from the first\nday when Lydia constrained him to come into her house, until this moment\nwhen now at the last their care of him had flourished again. The Revised\nVersion's rendering 'fellowship in furtherance of' instead of\n'fellowship in' conveys the great lesson which the other rendering\nobscures--that the true fellowship is not in enjoyment but in service,\nand refers not so much to a common participation in the blessedness as\nin the toils and trials of Christian work. This is apparent in an\nimmediately following verse where the Philippians' fellowship with\nChrist is again spoken of as consisting in sharing both in His bonds and\nin the double work of defending the gospel from gainsayers and in\npositively proclaiming it. Very beautifully in this connection does he\ndesignate that work and toil as 'my grace.'\n\nThe fellowship which thus is the basis of his thanksgiving leads on to a\nconfidence which he cherishes for them and which helps to make his\nprayers joyful thanksgivings. And such confidence becomes him because\nhe has them in his heart, and 'love hopeth all things' and delights to\nbelieve in and anticipate all good concerning its object. He has them in\nhis heart because they faithfully share with him his honourable, blessed\nburdens. But that is not all, it is 'in the tender mercies' of Christ\nthat he loved them. His love is the love of Christ in him; his being is\nso united to Jesus that his heart beats with the same emotion as throbs\nin Christ's, and all that is merely natural and of self in his love is\nchanged into a solemn participation in the great love which Christ has\nto them. This, then, being the general exposition of the words, let us\nnow dwell for a little while on the broad principles suggested by them.\n\nI. Participation in the work of Christ is the noblest basis for love and\nfriendship.\n\nPaul had tremendous courage and yet hungered for sympathy. He had no\noutlets for his love but his fellow Christians. There had, no doubt,\nbeen a wrenching of the ties of kindred when he became a Christian, and\nhis love, dammed back and restrained, had to pour itself on his\nbrethren.\n\nThe Church is a workshop, not a dormitory, and every Christian man and\nwoman is bound to help in the common cause. These Philippians help Paul\nby sympathy and gifts, indeed, but by their own direct work as well, and\nthings are not right with us unless leaders can say, 'Ye all are\npartakers of my grace.' There are other real and sweet bonds of love and\nfriendship, but the most real and sweetest is to be found in our common\nrelation to Jesus Christ and in our co-operation in the work which is\nours because it is His and we are His.\n\nII. Thankful, glad prayer flows from such co-operation.\n\nThe prisoner in his bonds in the alien city had the remembrance of his\nfriends coming into his chamber like fresh, cool air, or fragrance from\nfar-off gardens. A thrill of gladness was in his soul as often as he\nthought on them. It is blessed if in our experience teacher and taught\nare knit together thus; without some such bond of union no good will be\ndone. The relation of pastor and people is so delicate and spiritual,\nthe purpose of it so different from that of mere teaching, the laws of\nit so informal and elastic, the whole power of it, therefore, so\ndependent on sympathy and mutual kindliness that, unless there be\nsomething like the bond which united Paul and the Philippians, there\nwill be no prosperity or blessing. The thinnest film of cloud prevents\ndeposition of dew. If all men in pulpits could say what Paul said of the\nPhilippians, and all men in pews could deserve to have it said of them,\nthe world would feel the power of a quickened Church.\n\nIII. Confidence is born of love and common service.\n\nPaul delights to think that God will go on because God has already begun\na good work in them, and Paul delights to think of their perfection\nbecause he loves them. 'God is not a man that He should lie, or the son\nof man that He should repent.' His past is the guarantee for His future;\nwhat He begins He finishes.\n\nIV. Our love is hallowed and greatened in the love of Christ.\n\nPaul lived, yet not he, but Christ lived in him. It is but one\nillustration of the principle of his being that Christ who was the life\nof his life, is the heart of his love. He longed after his Philippian\nfriends in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus. This and this only is\nthe true consecration of love when we live and love in the Lord; when we\nwill as Christ does, think as He does, love as He does, when the mind\nthat was in Christ Jesus was in us. It is needful to guard against the\nintrusion of mere human affection and regard into our sacred relations\nin the Church; it is needful to guard against it in our own personal\nlove and friendship. Let us see that we ourselves know and believe the\nlove wherewith Christ hath loved us, and then let us see that that love\ndwells in us informing and hallowing our hearts, making them tender with\nHis great tenderness, and turning all the water of our earthly\naffections into the new wine of His kingdom. Let the law for our hearts,\nas well as for our minds and wills, be 'I live, yet not I but Christ\nliveth in me.'\n\n\n\n\nA COMPREHENSIVE PRAYER\n\n 'And this I pray, that your love may abound yet\n more and more in knowledge and all discernment;\n 10. So that ye may approve the things that are\n excellent; that ye may be sincere and void of\n offence unto the day of Christ; 11. Being filled\n with the fruits of righteousness, which are\n through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of\n God.'--PHIL. i. 9-11 (R.V.).\n\n\nWhat a blessed friendship is that of which the natural language is\nprayer! We have many ways, thank God, of showing our love and of helping\none another, but the best way is by praying for one another. All that is\nselfish and low is purged out of our hearts in the act, suspicions and\ndoubts fade away when we pray for those whom we love. Many an alienation\nwould have melted like morning mists if it had been prayed about, added\ntenderness and delicacy come to our friendships so like the bloom on\nripening grapes. We may test our loves by this simple criterion--Can we\npray about them? If not, should we have them? Are they blessings to us\nor to others?\n\nThis prayer, like all those in Paul's epistles, is wonderfully full. His\ndeep affection for, and joy in, the Philippian church breathes in every\nword of it. Even his jealous watchfulness saw nothing in them to desire\nbut progress in what they possessed. Such a desire is the highest that\nlove can frame. We can wish nothing better for one another than growth\nin the love of God. Paul's estimate of the highest good of those who\nwere dearest to him was that they should be more and more completely\nfilled with the love of God and with its fruits of holiness and purity,\nand what was his supreme desire for the Philippians is the highest\npurpose of the gospel for us all, and should be the aim of our effort\nand longing, dominating all others as some sovereign mountain peak\ntowers above the valleys. Looking then at this prayer as containing an\noutline of true progress in the Christian life, we may note:\n\nI. The growth in keenness of conscience founded on growth in love.\n\nPaul does not merely desire that their love may abound, but that it may\nbecome more and more 'rich in knowledge and all discernment.' The former\nis perhaps accurate knowledge, and the latter the application of it.\n'Discernment' literally means 'sense,' and here, of course, when\nemployed about spiritual and moral things it means the power of\napprehending good and bad as such. It is, I suppose, substantially\nequivalent to conscience, the moral tact or touch of the soul by which,\nin a manner analogous to bodily sense, it ascertains the moral character\nof things. This growth of love in the power of spiritual and moral\ndiscernment is desired in order to its exercise in 'proving things that\ndiffer.' It is a process of discrimination and testing that is meant,\nwhich is, I think, fairly represented by the more modern expression\nwhich I have used--keenness of conscience.\n\nI need spend little time in remarking on the absolute need of such a\nprocess of discrimination. We are surrounded by temptations to evil, and\nlive in a world where maxims and principles not in accordance with the\ngospel abound. Our own natures are but partially sanctified. The shows\nof things must be tested. Apparent good must be proved. The Christian\nlife is not merely to unfold itself in peace and order, but through\nconflict. We are not merely to follow impulses, or to live as angels do,\nwho are above sin, or as animals do who are beneath it. When false coin\nis current it is folly to accept any without a test. All around us there\nis glamour, and so within us there is need for careful watchfulness and\nquick discrimination.\n\nThis keenness of conscience follows on the growth of love. Nothing makes\na man more sensitive to evil than a hearty love to God. Such a heart is\nkeener to discern what is contrary to its love than any ethical maxims\ncan make it. A man who lives in love will be delivered from the blinding\ninfluence of his own evil tastes, and a heart steadfast in love will not\nbe swayed by lower temptations. Communion with God will, from its very\nfamiliarity with Him, instinctively discern the evil of evil, as a man\ncoming out of pure air is conscious of vitiated atmosphere which those\nwho dwell in it do not perceive. It used to be said that Venice glass\nwould shiver into fragments if poison were poured into the cup. As evil\nspirits were supposed to be cast out by the presence of an innocent\nchild or a pure virgin, so the ugly shapes that sometimes tempt us by\nassuming fair disguises will be shown in their native hideousness when\nconfronted with a heart filled with the love of God.\n\nSuch keenness of judgment is capable of indefinite increase. Our\nconsciences should become more and more sensitive: we should always be\nadvancing in our discovery of our own evils, and be more conscious of\nour sins, the fewer we have of them. Twilight in a chamber may reveal\nsome foul things, and the growing light will disclose more. 'Secret\nfaults' will cease to be secret when our love abounds more and more in\nknowledge, and in all discernment.\n\nII. The purity and completeness of character flowing from this keenness\nof conscience.\n\nThe Apostle desires that the knowledge which he asks for his Philippian\nfriends may pass over into character, and he describes the sort of men\nwhich he desires them to be in two clauses, 'sincere and void of\noffence' being the one, 'filled with the fruits of righteousness' being\nthe other. The former is perhaps predominantly negative, the latter\npositive. That which is sincere is so because when held up to the light\nit shows no flaws, and that which is without offence is so because the\nstones in the path have been cleared away by the power of\ndiscrimination, so that there is no stumbling. The life which discerns\nkeenly will bring forth the fruit which consists of righteousness, and\nthat fruit is to fill the whole nature so that no part shall be without\nit.\n\nNothing lower than this is the lofty standard towards which each\nChristian life is to aim, and to which it can indefinitely approximate.\nIt is not enough to aim at the negative virtue of sincerity so that the\nmost searching scrutiny of the web of our lives shall detect no flaws\nin the weaving, and no threads dropped or broken. There must also be the\nactual presence of positive righteousness filling life in all its parts.\nThat lofty standard is pressed upon us by a solemn motive, 'unto the day\nof Christ.' We are ever to keep before us the thought that in that\ncoming day all our works will be made manifest, and that all of them\nshould be done, so that when we have to give account of them we shall\nnot be ashamed.\n\nThe Apostle takes it for granted here that if the Philippian Christians\nknow what is right and what is wrong, they will immediately choose and\ndo the right. Is he forgetting the great gulf between knowledge and\npractice? Not so, but he is strong in the faith that love needs only to\nknow in order to do. The love which abounds more and more in knowledge\nand in all discernment will be the soul of obedience, and will delight\nin fulfilling the law which it has delighted in beholding. Other\nknowledge has no tendency to lead to practice, but this knowledge which\nis the fruit of love has for its fruit righteousness.\n\nIII. The great Name in which this completeness is secured.\n\nThe Apostle's prayer dwells not only on the way by which a Christian\nlife may increase itself, but in its close reaches the yet deeper\nthought that all that growth comes 'through Jesus Christ.' He is the\nGiver of it all, so that we are not so much called to a painful toil as\nto a glad reception. Our love fills us with the fruits of righteousness,\nbecause it takes all these from His hands. It is from His gift that\nconscience derives its sensitiveness. It is by His inspiration that\nconscience becomes strong enough to determine action, and that even our\ndull hearts are quickened into a glow of desiring to have in our lives,\nthe law of the spirit of life, that was in Christ Jesus, and to make our\nown all that we see in Him of 'things that are lovely and of good\nreport.'\n\nThe prayer closes with a reference to the highest end of all our\nperfecting--the glory and praise of God; the former referring rather to\nthe transcendent majesty of God in itself, and the latter to the\nexaltation of it by men. The highest glory of God comes from the gradual\nincrease in redeemed men's likeness to Him. They are 'the secretaries of\nHis praise,' and some portion of that great honour and responsibility\nlies on each of us. If all Christian men were what they all might be and\nshould be, swift and sure in their condemnation of evil and loyal\nfidelity to conscience, and if their lives were richly hung with ripened\nclusters of the fruits of righteousness, the glory of God would be more\nresplendent in the world, and new tongues would break into praise of Him\nwho had made men so like Himself.\n\n\n\n\nA PRISONER'S TRIUMPH\n\n 'Now I would have you know, brethren, that the\n things which happened unto me have fallen out\n rather unto the progress of the gospel; 13. So\n that my bonds became manifest in Christ throughout\n the whole praetorian guard, and to all the rest;\n 14. And that most of the brethren in the Lord,\n being confident through my bonds, are more\n abundantly bold to speak the word of God without\n fear. 15. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy\n and strife; and some also of good will: 16. The\n one do it of love, knowing that I am set for the\n defence of the gospel: 17. But the other proclaim\n Christ of faction, not sincerely, thinking to\n raise up affliction for me in my bonds. 18. What\n then? only that in every way, whether in pretence\n or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and therein I\n rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. 19. For I know\n that this shall turn to my salvation, through your\n supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus\n Christ. 20. According to my earnest expectation\n and hope, that in nothing shall I be put to shame,\n but that with all boldness, as always, so now also\n Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by\n life or by death.'--PHIL. i. 12-20 (R.V.)\n\n\nPaul's writings are full of autobiography, that is partly owing to\ntemperament, partly to the profound interpenetration of his whole\nnature with his religion. His theology was but the generalisation of his\nexperience. He has felt and verified all that he has to say. But the\npersonal experiences of this sunny letter to his favourite church have a\ncharacter all their own. In that atmosphere of untroubled love and\nsympathy a shyer heart than Paul's would have opened: his does so in\ntenderness, gladness, and trust. We have here the unveiling of his\ninmost self in response to what he knew would be an eager desire for\nnews of his welfare. This whole section appears to me to be a wonderful\nrevelation of his prison thoughts, an example of what we may call the\nennobling power of a passionate enthusiasm for Christ. Remember that he\nis a prisoner, shut out from his life's work, waiting to be tried before\nNero, whose reign had probably, by this time, passed from its delusive\nmorning of dewy promise to its lurid noon. The present and the future\nwere dark for him, and yet in spite of them all comes forth this burst\nof undaunted courage and noble gladness. We simply follow the course of\nthe words as they lie, and we find in them,\n\nI. An absorbing purpose which bends all circumstances to its service and\nvalues them only as instruments.\n\nThe things which happened unto me; that is Paul's minimising euphemism\nfor the grim realities of imprisonment, or perhaps for some recent\nominous turns in his circumstances. To him they are not worth dwelling\non further, nor is their personal incidence worth taking into account;\nthe only thing which is important is to say how these things have\naffected his life's work. It is enough for him, and he believes that it\nwill be enough even for his loving friends at Philippi to know that,\ninstead of their being as they might have feared, and as he sometimes\nwhen he was faithless expected, hindrances to his work, they have turned\nout rather to 'the furtherance of the gospel.' Whether he has been\ncomfortable or not is a matter of very small importance, the main thing\nis that Christ's work has been helped, and then he goes on to tell two\nways in which his imprisonment had conduced to this end.\n\n'My bonds became manifest in Christ.' It has been clearly shown why I\nwas a prisoner; all the Praetorian guard had learned what Paul was there\nfor. We know from Acts that he was 'suffered to abide by himself with\nthe soldier that kept him.' He has no word to say of the torture of\ncompulsory association, night and day, with the rude legionaries, or of\nthe horrors of such a presence in his sweetest, sacredest moments of\ncommunion with his Lord. These are all swallowed up in the thought as\nthey were in the fact, that each new guard as he came to sit there\nbeside Paul was a new hearer, and that by this time he must have told\nthe story of Christ and His love to nearly the whole corps. That is a\ngrand and wonderful picture of passionate earnestness and absorbed\nconcentration in one pursuit. Something of the same sort is in all\npursuits, the condition of success and the sure result of real interest.\nWe have all to be specialists if we would succeed in any calling. The\nriver that spreads wide flows slow, and if it is to have a scour in its\ncurrent it must be kept between high banks. We have to bring ourselves\nto a point and to see that the point is red-hot if we mean to bore with\nit. If our limitations are simply enforced by circumstances, they may be\nmaiming, but if they come of clear insight and free choice of worthy\nends, they are noble. The artist, the scholar, the craftsman, all need\nto take for their motto 'This one thing I do.' I suppose that a man\nwould not be able to make a good button unless he confined himself to\nbutton-making. We see round us abundant examples of men who, for\nmaterial aims and almost instinctively, use all circumstances for one\nend and appraise them according to their relations to that, and they are\nquoted as successful, and held up to young souls as patterns to be\nimitated. Yes! But what about the man who does the same in regard to\nChrist and His work? Is he thought of as an example to be imitated or as\na warning to be avoided? Is not the very same concentration when applied\nto Christian work and living thought to be fanatical, which is welcomed\nwith universal applause when it is directed to lower pursuits? The\ncontrast of our eager absorption in worldly things and of the ease with\nwhich any fluttering butterfly can draw us away from the path which\nleads us to God, ought to bring a blush to all cheeks and penitence to\nall hearts. There was no more obligation on Paul to look at the\ncircumstances of his life thus than there is on every Christian to do\nso. We do not desire that all should be apostles, but the Apostle's\ntemper and way of looking at 'the things which happened unto' him should\nbe our way of looking at the things which happen unto us. We shall\nestimate them rightly, and as God estimates them, only when we estimate\nthem according to their power to serve our souls and to further Christ's\nkingdom.\n\nII. The magnetism or contagion of enthusiasm.\n\nThe second way by which Paul's circumstances furthered the gospel was\n'that most of the brethren, being confident through my bonds, are more\nabundantly bold to speak the word of God.' His constancy and courage\nstirred them up. Moved by good-will and love, they were heartened to\npreach because they saw in him one 'appointed by God for the defence of\nthe gospel.' A soul all on flame has power to kindle others. There is an\nold story of a Scottish martyr whose constancy at the stake touched so\nmany hearts that 'a merry gentleman' said to Cardinal Beaton, 'If ye\nburn any more you should burn them in low cellars, for the reek (smoke)\nof Mr. Patrick Hamilton has infected as many as it blew upon.'\n\nIt is not only in the case of martyrs that enthusiasm is contagious.\nHowever highly we may estimate the impersonal forces that operate for\n'the furtherance of the gospel' we cannot but see that in all ages, from\nthe time of Paul down to to-day, the main agents for the spread of the\ngospel have been individual souls all aflame with the love of God in\nChrist Jesus and filled with the life of His Spirit. The history of the\nChurch has largely consisted in the biographies of its saints, and every\ngreat revival of religion has been the flame kindled round a flaming\nheart. Paul was impelled by his own love; the brethren in Rome were in a\nlower state as only reflecting his, and it ought to be the prerogative\nof every Christian to be a centre and source of kindling influence\nrather than a mere recipient of it. It is a question which may well be\nasked by each of us about ourselves--would anybody find quickening\nimpulses to divine life and Christian service coming from us, or do we\nsimply serve to keep others' coldness in countenance? It was said of old\nof Jesus Christ, 'He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and in fire,'\nand that promise remains effective to-day, however little one looking on\nthe characters of the mass of so-called Christians would believe it.\nThey seem rather to have been plunged into ice-cold water than into\nfire, and their coldness is as contagious as Paul's radiant enthusiasm\nwas. Let us try, for our parts, to radiate out the warmth of the love of\nGod, that it may kindle in others the flame which it has lighted in\nourselves, and not be like icebergs floating southwards and bringing\ndown the temperature of even the very temperate seas in which we find\nourselves.\n\nIII. The wide tolerance of such enthusiasm.\n\nIt is stigmatised as 'narrow,' which to-day is the sin of sins, but it\nis broad with the true breadth. Such enthusiasm lifts a man high enough\nto see over many hedges and to be tolerant even of intolerance, and of\nthe indifference which tolerates everything but earnestness. Paul here\ndeals with a class amongst the Roman Christians who were 'preaching of\nenvy and strife,' with the malicious calculation that so they would\nannoy him and 'add affliction' to his bonds. It is generally supposed\nthat these were Judaising Christians against whom Paul fulminates in all\nhis letters, but I confess that, notwithstanding the arguments of\nauthoritative commentators, I cannot believe that they are the same set\nof men preaching the same doctrines which in other places he treats as\ndestructive of the whole gospel. The change of tone is so great as to\nrequire the supposition of a change of subjects, and the Judaisers with\nwhom the Apostle waged a neverending warfare, never did evangelistic\nwork amongst the heathen as these men seem to have done, but confined\nthemselves to trying to pervert converts already made. It was not their\nmessage but their spirit that was faulty. With whatever purpose of\nannoyance they were animated, they did 'preach Christ,' and Paul\nsuperbly brushes aside all that was antagonistic to him personally, in\nhis triumphant recognition that the one thing needful _was_ spoken, even\nfrom unworthy motives and with a malicious purpose. The situation here\nrevealed, strange though it appears with our ignorance of the facts, is\nbut too like much of what meets us still. Do we not know denominational\nrivalries which infuse a bitter taint of envy and strife into much\nevangelistic earnestness, and is the spectacle of a man preaching Christ\nwith a taint of sidelong personal motives quite unknown to this day? We\nmay press the question still more closely home and ask ourselves if we\nare entirely free from the influence of such a spirit. No man who knows\nhimself and has learned how subtly lower motives blend themselves with\nthe highest will be in haste to answer these questions with an\nunconditional 'No,' and no man who looks on the sad spectacle of\ncompeting Christian communities and knows anything of the methods of\ncompetition that are in force, will venture to deny that there are still\nthose who preach Christ of envy and strife.\n\nIt comes, then, to be a testing question for each of us, have we learned\nfrom Paul this lesson of tolerance, which is not the result of cold\nindifference, but the outcome of fiery enthusiasm and of a clear\nrecognition of the one thing needful? Granted that there is preaching\nfrom unworthy motives and modes of work which offend our tastes and\nprejudices, and that there are types of evangelistic earnestness which\nhave errors mixed up with them, are we inclined to say 'Nevertheless\nChrist is proclaimed, and therein I rejoice, Yea, and will rejoice'?\nMuch chaff may be blended with the seeds sown; the chaff will lie inert\nand the seed will grow. Such tolerance is the very opposite of the\ncarelessness which comes from languid indifference. The one does not\nmind what a man preaches because it has no belief in any of the things\npreached, and to it one thing is as good as another, and none are of any\nreal consequence. The other proceeds from a passionate belief that the\none thing which sinful men need to hear is the great message that Christ\nhas lived and died for them, and therefore, it puts all else on one side\nand cares nothing for jangling notes that may come in, if only above\nthem the music of His name sounds out clear and full.\n\nIV. The calm fronting of life and death as equally magnifying Christ.\n\nThe Apostle is sure that all the experiences of his prison will turn to\nhis ultimate salvation, because he is sure that his dear friends in\nPhilippi will pray for him, and that through their prayers he will\nreceive a 'supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,' which shall be enough\nto secure his steadfastness. His expectation is not that he will escape\nfrom prison or from martyrdom, both of which stand only too clearly\nbefore him, but that whatever may be waiting for him in the future, 'all\nboldness' will be granted him, so that whether he lives he will live to\nthe Lord, or whether he dies, he will die to the Lord. He had so\ncompletely accepted it as his life's purpose to magnify Jesus, that the\nextremest possible changes of condition came to be insignificant to him.\nHe had what we may have, the true anaesthetic which will give us a\n'solemn scorn of ills' and make even the last and greatest change from\nlife to death of little account. If we magnify Christ in our lives with\nthe same passionate earnestness and concentrated absorption as Paul had,\nour lives like some train on well-laid rails will enter upon the bridge\nacross the valley with scarce a jolt. With whatever differences--and the\ndifferences are to us tremendous--the same purpose will be pursued in\nlife and in death, and they who, living, live to the praise of Christ,\ndying will magnify Him as their last act in the body which they leave.\nWhat was it that made possible such a passion of enthusiasm for a man\nwhom Paul had never seen in the flesh? What changed the gloomy\nfuliginous fanaticism of the Pharisee, at whose feet were laid the\nclothes of the men who stoned Stephen, into this radiant light, all\naflame with a divine splendour? The only answer is in Paul's own words,\n'He loved me and gave Himself for me.' That answer is as true for each\nof us as it was for him. Does it produce in us anything like the effects\nwhich it produced in him?\n\n\n\n\nA STRAIT BETWIXT TWO\n\n 'To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22.\n But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of\n my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. 23.\n For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire\n to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far\n better: 24. Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is\n more needful for you. 25. And having this\n confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue\n with you all for your furtherance and joy of\n faith.'--PHIL. i. 21-25.\n\n\nA preacher may well shrink from such a text. Its elevation of feeling\nand music of expression make all sermons on it sound feeble and harsh,\nlike some poor shepherd's pipe after an organ. But, though this be true,\nit may not be useless to attempt, at least, to point out the course of\nthought in these grand words. They flow like a great river, which\nsprings at first with a strong jet from some deep cave, then is torn and\nchafed among dividing rocks, and after a troubled middle course, moves\nat last with stately and equable current to the sea. The Apostle's\nthoughts and feelings have here, as it were, a threefold bent in their\nflow. First, we have the clear, unhesitating statement of the\ncomparative advantages of life and death to a Christian man, when\nthought of as affecting himself alone. The one is Christ, the other\ngain. But we neither live nor die to ourselves; and no man has a right\nto think of life or death only from the point of view of his own\nadvantage. So the problem is not so simple as it looked. Life here is\nthe condition of fruitful labour here. There are his brethren and his\nwork to think of. These bring him to a stand, and check the rising wish.\nHe knows not which state to prefer. The stream is dammed back between\nrocks, and it chafes and foams and seems to lose its way among them.\nThen comes a third bend in the flow of thought and feeling, and he\ngladly apprehends it as his present duty to remain at his work. If his\nown joy is thereby less, his brethren's will be more. If he is not to\ndepart and be with Christ, he will remain and be with Christ's friends,\nwhich is, in some sort, being with Him too. If he may not have the gain\nof death, he will have the fruit of work in life.\n\nLet us try to fill up, somewhat, this meagre outline of the warm stream\nthat pours through these great words.\n\nI. The simplicity of the comparison between life and death to a\nChristian thinking of himself alone.\n\n'To me' is plainly emphatic. It means more than 'in my judgment' or even\n'in my case.' It is equal to 'To me personally, if I stood alone, and\nhad no one to consider but myself.' 'To live' refers mainly here to\noutward practical life of service, and 'to die' should, perhaps, rather\nbe 'to be dead,' referring, not to the act of dissolution, but to the\nstate after; not to the entrance chamber, but to the palace to which it\nadmits.\n\nSo we have here grandly set forth the simplicity and unity of the\nChristian life. While the words probably refer mainly to outward life,\nthey presuppose an inward, of which that outward is the expression. In\nevery possible phase of the word 'life,' Christ is the life of the\nChristian. To live is Christ, for He is the mystical source from whom\nall ours flows. 'With Thee is the fountain of life,' and all life, both\nof body and spirit, is from Him, by Him, and in Him. 'To live is\nChrist,' for He is the aim and object, as well as the Lord, of it all,\nand no other is worth calling life, but that which is _for_ Him by\nwilling consecration, as well as _from_ Him by constant derivation. 'To\nlive is Christ,' for He is the model of all our life, and the one\nall-sufficient law for us is to follow Him.\n\nLife is to be _as_ Christ, _for_ Christ, _by_, _in_, and _from_ Christ.\nSo shall there be strength, peace, and freedom in our days. The unity\nbrought into life thereby will issue in calm blessedness, contrasted\nwondrously with the divided hearts and aims which fritter our days into\nfragments, and make our lives heaps of broken links instead of chains.\n\nSurely this is the charm which brings rest into the most troubled\nhistory, and nobleness into the lowliest duties. There is nothing so\ngrand as the unity breathed into our else distracted days by the\nall-pervading reference to and presence of Christ. Without that, we are\nlike the mariners of the old world, who crept timidly from headland to\nheadland, making each their aim for a while, and leaving each inevitably\nbehind, never losing sight of shore, nor ever knowing the wonders of the\ndeep and all the majesty of mid-ocean, nor ever touching the happy\nshores beyond, which they reach who carry in their hearts a compass that\never points to the unseen pole.\n\nThen comes the other great thought, that where life is simply Christ,\ndeath will be simply gain.\n\nPaul, no doubt, shrank from the act of death, as we all do. It was not\nthe narrow passage which attracted him, but the broad land beyond. Every\nother aspect of that was swallowed up in one great thought, which will\noccupy us more at length presently. But that word 'gain' suggests that\nto Paul's confident faith death was but an increase and progression in\nall that was good here. To him it was no loss to lose flesh and sense\nand all the fleeting joys with which they link us. To him death was no\ndestruction of his being, and not even an interruption of its\ncontinuity. Everything that was of any real advantage to him was to be\nhis after as before. The change was clear gain. Everything good was to\nbe just as it had been, only better. Nothing was to be dropped but what\nit was progress to lose, and whatever was kept was to be heightened.\n\nHow strongly does that view express the two thoughts of the _continuity_\nand _intensifying_ of the Christian life beyond the grave! And what a\ncontrast does that simple, sublime confidence present to many another\nthought of death! To how many men its blackness seems to be the sudden\nswallowing up of the light of their very being! To how many more does it\nseem to put an end to all their occupations, and to shear their lives in\ntwain, as remorselessly as the fall of the guillotine severs the head\nfrom the body. How are the light butterfly wings of the trivialities in\nwhich many men and women spend their days to carry them across the awful\ngulf? What are the people to do on the other side whose lives have all\nbeen given to purposes and tasks that stop on this side? Are there shops\nand mills, or warehouses and drawing-rooms, or studies and\nlecture-halls, over there? Will the lives which have not struck their\nroots down through all the surface soil to the rock, bear transplanting?\nAlas! for the thousands landed in that new country, as unfit for it by\nthe tenor of their past occupations, as some pale artisan, with delicate\nfingers and feeble muscles, set down as a colonist to clear the forest!\n\nThis Paul had a work here which he could carry on hereafter. There would\nbe no reversal of view, no change in the fundamental character of his\noccupations. True, the special forms of work which he had pursued here\nwould be left behind, but the principle underlying them would continue.\nIt matters very little to the servant whether he is out in the cold and\nwet 'ploughing and tending cattle,' or whether he is waiting on his\nmaster at table. It is service all the same, only it is warmer and\nlighter in the house than in the field, and it is promotion to be made\nan indoor servant.\n\nSo the direction of the life, and the source of the life, and the\nfundamentals of the life continue unchanged. Everything is as it was,\nonly in the superlative degree. To other men the narrow plain on which\ntheir low-lying lives are placed is rimmed by the jagged, forbidding\nwhite peaks. It is cold and dreary on these icy summits where no\ncreature can live. Perhaps there is land on the other side; who knows?\nThe pale barrier separates all here from all there; we know not what may\nbe on the other side. Only we feel that the journey is long and chill,\nthat the ice and the barren stone appal, and that we never can carry our\nhousehold goods, our tools, or our wealth with us up to the black jaws\nof the pass.\n\nBut for this man the Alps were tunnelled. There was no interruption in\nhis progress. He would go, he believed, without 'break of gauge,' and\nwould pass through the darkness, scarcely knowing when it came, and\ncertainly unchecked for even a moment, right on to the other side where\nhe would come out, as travellers to Italy do, to fairer plains and bluer\nskies, to richer harvests and a warmer sun. No jolt, no pause, no\nmomentary suspension of consciousness, no reversal, nor even\ninterruption in his activity, did Paul expect death to bring him, but\nonly continuance and increase of all that was essential to his life.\n\nHe has calmness in his confidence. There is nothing hysterical or\noverwrought or morbid in these brief words, so peaceful in their trust,\nso moderate and restrained in their rapture. Are our anticipations of\nthe future moulded on such a pattern? Do we think of it as quietly as\nthis man did? Are we as tranquilly sure about it? Is there as little\nmist of uncertainty about the clearly defined image to our eye as there\nwas to his? Is our confidence so profound that these brief monosyllables\nare enough to state it? Above all, do we know that to die will be gain,\nbecause we can honestly say that to live is Christ? If so, our hope is\nvalid, and will not yield when we lean heavily upon it for support in\nthe ford over the black stream. If our hope is built on anything\nbesides, it will snap then like a rotten pole, and leave us to stumble\nhelpless among the slippery stones and the icy torrent.\n\nII. The second movement of thought here, which troubles and complicates\nthis simple decision, as to what is the best for Paul himself, is the\nhesitation springing from the wish to help his brethren.\n\nAs we said, no man has a right to forget others in settling the question\nwhether he would live or die. We see the Apostle here brought to a stand\nby two conflicting currents of feelings. For himself he would gladly\ngo, for his friends' sake he is drawn to the opposite choice. He has\n'fallen into a place where two seas meet,' and for a minute or two his\nwill is buffeted from side to side by the 'violence of the waves.' The\nobscurity of his language, arising from its broken construction,\ncorresponds to the struggle of his feelings. As the Revised Version has\nit, 'If to live in the flesh--if this is the fruit of my work, then what\nI shall choose, I wot not.' By which fragmentary sentence, rightly\nrepresenting as it does the roughness of the Greek, we understand him to\nmean that if living on in this life is the condition of his gaining\nfruit from his toil, then he has to check the rising wish, and is\nhindered from decisive preference either way. Both motives act upon him,\none drawing him deathward, the other holding him firmly here. He is in a\ndilemma, pinned in, as it were, between the two opposing pressures. On\nthe one hand he has the desire (not 'a desire,' as the English Bible has\nit, as if it were but one among many) turned towards departing to be\nwith Christ; but on the other, he knows that his remaining here is for\nthe present all but indispensable for the immature faith of the churches\nwhich he has founded. So he stands in doubt for a moment, and the\npicture of his hesitation may well be studied by us.\n\nSuch a reason for wishing to die in conflict with such a reason for\nwishing to live, is as noble as it is rare, and, thank God, as imitable\nas it is noble.\n\nNotice the aspect which death wore to his faith. He speaks of it as\n'departing,' a metaphor which does not, like many of the flattering\nappellations which men give that last enemy, reveal a quaking dread\nwhich cannot bear to look him in his ashen, pale face. Paul calls him\ngentle names, because he fears him not at all. To him all the\ndreadfulness, the mystery, the pain and the solitude have melted away,\nand death has become a mere change of place. The word literally means\n_to unloose_, and is employed to express pulling up the tent-pegs of a\nshifting encampment, or drawing up the anchor of a ship. In either case\nthe image is simply that of removal. It is but striking the earthly\nhouse of this tent; it is but one more day's march, of which we have had\nmany already, though this is over Jordan. It is but the last day's\njourney, and to-morrow there will be no packing up in the morning and\nresuming our weary tramp, but we shall be at home, and go no more out.\nSo has the awful thing at the end dwindled, and the brighter and greater\nthe land behind it shines, the smaller does it appear.\n\nThe Apostle thinks little of dying because he thinks so much of what\ncomes after. Who is afraid of a brief journey if a meeting with dear\nfriends long lost is at the end of it? The narrow avenue seems short,\nand its roughness and darkness are nothing, because Jesus Christ stands\nwith outstretched arms at the other end, beckoning us to Himself, as\nmothers teach their children to walk. Whosoever is sure that he will be\nwith Christ can afford to smile at death, and call it but a shifting of\nplace. And whosoever feels the desire to be with Christ will not shrink\nfrom the means by which that desire is fulfilled, with the agony of\nrevulsion that it excites in many an imagination. It will always be\nsolemn, and its physical accompaniments of pain and struggle will always\nbe more or less of a terror, and the parting, even for a time, from our\ndear ones, will always be loss, but nevertheless if we see Christ across\nthe gulf, and know that one struggle more and we shall clasp Him with\n'inseparable hands with joy and bliss in over measure for ever,' we\nshall not dread the leap.\n\nOne thought about the future should fill our minds, as it did Paul's,\nthat it is to be with Christ. How different that nobly simple\nexpectation, resolving all bliss into the one element, is from the\nmorbid curiosity as to details, which vulgarises and weakens so much of\neven devout anticipation of the future. To us as to him Heaven should be\nChrist, and Christ should be Heaven. All the rest is but accident.\nGolden harps and crowns, and hidden manna and white robes and thrones,\nand all the other representations, are but symbols of the blessedness of\nunion with Him, or consequences of it. Immortal life and growth in\nperfection, both of mind and heart, and the cessation of all that\ndisturbs, and our investiture with glory and honour, flung around our\npoor natures like a royal robe over a naked body, are all but the\nmany-sided brightnesses that pour out from Him, and bathe in their\nrainbowed light those who are with Him.\n\nTo be with Christ is all we need. For the loving heart to be near Him is\nenough.\n\n 'I shall clasp thee again, O soul of my soul,\n And with God be the rest.'\n\nLet us not fritter away our imaginations and our hopes on the\nsubordinate and non-essential accompaniments, but concentrate all their\nenergy on the one central thought. Let us not lose this gracious image\nin a maze of symbols, that, though precious, are secondary. Let us not\ninquire, with curiosity that will find no answer, about the unrevealed\nwonders and staggering mysteries of that transcendent thought, life\neverlasting. Let us not acquire the habit of thinking of the future as\nthe perfecting of our humanity, without connecting all our speculations\nwith Him, whose presence will be all of heaven to us all. But let us\nkeep His serene figure ever clear before our imaginations in all the\nblaze of the light, and try to feed our hopes and stay our hearts on\nthis aspect of heavenly blessedness as the all-embracing one, that all,\neach for himself, shall be for ever conscious of Christ's loving\npresence, and of the closest union with Him, a union in comparison with\nwhich the dearest and sacredest blendings of heart with heart and life\nwith life are cold and distant. For the clearness of our hope the fewer\nthe details the better: for the willingness with which we turn from life\nand face the inevitable end, it is very important that we should have\nthat one thought disengaged from all others. The one full moon, which\ndims all the stars, draws the tides after it. These lesser lights may\ngem the darkness, and dart down white shafts of brilliance in quivering\nreflections on the waves, but they have no power to move their mass. It\nis Christ and Christ only who draws us across the gulf to be with Him,\nand reduces death to a mere shifting of our encampment.\n\nThis is a noble and worthy reason for wishing to die; not because Paul\nis disappointed and sick of life, not because he is weighed down with\nsorrow, or pain, or loss, or toil, but because he would like to be with\nhis Master. He is no morbid sentimentalist, he is cherishing no\nunwholesome longing, he is not weary of work, he indulges in no\nhysterical raptures of desire. What an eloquent simplicity is in that\nquiet 'very far better!' It goes straight to one's heart, and says more\nthan paragraphs of falsetto yearnings. There is nothing in such a wish\nto die, based on such a reason, that the most manly and wholesome piety\nneed be ashamed of. It is a pattern for us all.\n\nThe attraction of life contends with the attraction of heaven in these\nverses. That is a conflict which many good men know something of, but\nwhich does not take the shape with many of us which it assumed with\nPaul. Drawn, as he is, by the supreme desire of close union with his\nMaster, for the sake of which he is ready to depart, he is tugged back\neven more strongly by the thought that, if he stays here, he can go on\nworking and gaining results from his labour. It does not follow that he\ndid not expect service if he were with Christ. We may be very sure that\nPaul's heaven was no idle heaven, but one of happy activity and larger\nservice. But he will not be able to help these dear friends at Philippi\nand elsewhere who need him, as he knows. So love to them drags at his\nskirts, and ties him here.\n\nOne can scarcely miss the remarkable contrast between Paul's 'To abide\nin the flesh is more needful for you,' and the saying of Paul's Master\nto people who assuredly needed His presence more than Philippi needed\nPaul's, 'It is expedient for you that I go away.' This is not the place\nto work out the profound significance of the contrast, and the questions\nwhich it raises as to whether Christ expected His work to be finished\nand His helpfulness ended by His death, as Paul did by his. It must\nsuffice to have suggested the comparison.\n\nReturning to our text, such a reason for wishing to die, held in check\nand overcome by such a reason for wishing to live, is great and noble.\nThere are few of us who would not own to the mightier attraction of\nlife; but how few of us who feel that, for ourselves personally, if we\nwere free to think only of ourselves, we should be glad to go, because\nwe should be closer to Christ, but that we hesitate for the sake of\nothers whom we think we can help! Many of us cling to life with a\ndesperate clutch, like some poor wretch pushed over a precipice and\ntrying to dig his nails into the rock as he falls. Some of us cling to\nit because we dread what is beyond, and our longing to live is the\nmeasure of our dread to die. But Paul did not look forward to a thick\ndarkness of judgment, or to nothingness. He saw in the darkness a great\nlight, the light in the windows of his Father's house, and yet he turned\nwillingly away to his toil in the field, and was more than content to\ndrudge on as long as he could do anything by his work. Blessed are they\nwho share his desire to depart, and his victorious willingness to stay\nhere and labour! They shall find that such a life in the flesh, too, is\nbeing with Christ.\n\nIII. Thus the stream of thought passes the rapids and flows on smoothly\nto its final phase of peaceful acquiescence.\n\nThat is expressed very beautifully in the closing verse, 'Having this\nconfidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all, for\nyour furtherance and joy in faith.' Self is so entirely overcome that he\nputs away his own desire to enter into their joy, and rejoices with\nthem. He cannot yet have for himself the blessedness which his spirit\nseeks. Well, be it so; he will stop here and find a blessedness in\nseeing them growing in confidence and knowledge of Christ and in the\ngladness that comes from it. He gives up the hope of that higher\ncompanionship with Jesus which drew him so mightily. Well, be it so; he\nwill have companionship with his brethren, and 'abiding with you all'\nmay haply find, even before the day of final account, that to 'visit'\nChrist's little ones is to visit Christ. Therefore he fuses his opposing\nwishes into one. He is no more in a strait betwixt two, or unwitting\nwhat he shall choose. He chooses nothing, but accepts the appointment of\na higher wisdom. There is rest for him, as for us, in ceasing from our\nown wishes, and laying our wills silent and passive at His feet.\n\nThe true attitude for us in which to face the unknown future, with its\ndim possibilities, and especially the supreme alternative of life or\ndeath, is neither desire nor reluctance, nor a hesitation compounded of\nboth, but trustful acquiescence. Such a temper is far from indifference,\nand as far from agitation. In all things, and most of all in regard to\nthese matters, it is best to hold desire in equilibrium till God shall\nspeak. Torture not yourself with hopes or fears. They make us their\nslaves. Put your hand in God's hand, and let Him guide you as He will.\nWishes are bad steersmen. We are only at peace when desires and dreads\nare, if not extinct, at all events held tightly in. Rest, and wisdom,\nand strength come with acquiescence. Let us say with Richard Baxter, in\nhis simple, noble words:\n\n 'Lord, it belongs not to my care\n Whether I die or live;\n To love and serve Thee is my share,\n And that Thy grace must give.'\n\nWe may learn, too, that we may be quite sure that we shall be left here\nas long as we are needed. Paul knew that his stay was needful, so he\ncould say, 'I know that I shall abide with you.' We do not, but we may\nbe sure that if our stay is needful we shall abide. We are always\ntempted to think ourselves indispensable, but, thank God, nobody is\nnecessary. There are no irreparable losses, hard as it is to believe it.\nWe look at our work, at our families, our business, our congregations,\nour subjects of study, and we say to ourselves, 'What will become of\nthem when I am gone? Everything would fall to pieces if I were\nwithdrawn.' Do not be afraid. Depend on it, you will be left here as\nlong as you are wanted. There are no incomplete lives and no premature\nremovals. To the eye of faith the broken column in our cemeteries is a\nsentimental falsehood. No Christian life is broken short off so, but\nrises in a symmetrical shaft, and its capital is garlanded with\namaranthine flowers in heaven. In one sense all our lives are\nincomplete, for they and their issues are above, out of our sight here.\nIn another none are, for we are 'immortal till our work is done.'\n\nThe true attitude, then, for us is patient service till He withdraws us\nfrom the field. We do not count him a diligent servant who is always\nwearying for the hour of leaving off to strike. Be it ours to labour\nwhere He puts us, patiently waiting till 'death's mild curfew' sets us\nfree from the long day's work, and sends us home.\n\nBrethren! there are but two theories of life; two corresponding aspects\nof death. The one says, 'To me to live is Christ, and to die gain'; the\nother, 'To me to live is self, and to die is loss and despair.' One or\nother must be your choice. Which?\n\n\n\n\nCITIZENS OF HEAVEN\n\n 'Only let your conversation be as it becometh the\n gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you,\n or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs,\n that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind\n striving together for the faith of the gospel; 28.\n And in nothing terrified by your\n adversaries.'--PHIL. i. 27, 28.\n\n\nWe read in the Acts of the Apostles that Philippi was the chief city of\nthat part of Macedonia, and a 'colony.' Now, the connection between a\nRoman colony and Rome was a great deal closer than that between an\nEnglish colony and England. It was, in fact, a bit of Rome on foreign\nsoil.\n\nThe colonists and their children were Roman citizens. Their names were\nenrolled on the lists of Roman tribes. They were governed not by the\nprovincial authorities, but by their own magistrates, and the law to\nwhich they owed obedience was not that of the locality, but the law of\nRome.\n\nNo doubt some of the Philippian Christians possessed these privileges.\nThey knew what it was to live in a community to which they were less\nclosely bound than to the great city beyond the sea. They were members\nof a mighty polity, though they had never seen its temples nor trod its\nstreets. They lived in Philippi, but they belonged to Rome. Hence there\nis a peculiar significance in the first words of our text. The\nrendering, 'conversation,' was inadequate even when it was made. It has\nbecome more so now. The word then meant 'conduct.' It now means little\nmore than words. But though the phrase may express loosely the Apostle's\ngeneral idea, it loses entirely the striking metaphor under which it is\ncouched. The Revised Version gives the literal rendering in its\nmargin--'Behave as citizens'--though it adopts in its text a rendering\nwhich disregards the figure in the word, and contents itself with the\nless picturesque and vivid phrase--'let your manner of life be worthy.'\nBut there seems no reason for leaving out the metaphor; it entirely fits\nin with the purpose of the Apostle and with the context.\n\nThe meaning is, Play the citizen in a manner worthy of the Gospel. Paul\ndoes not, of course, mean, Discharge your civic duties as Christian men,\nthough some Christian Englishmen need that reminder; but the city of\nwhich these Philippians were citizens was the heavenly Jerusalem, the\nmetropolis, the mother city of us all. He would kindle in them the\nconsciousness of belonging to another order of things than that around\nthem. He would stimulate their loyalty to obedience to the city's laws.\nAs the outlying colonies of Rome had sometimes entrusted to them the\ntask of keeping the frontiers and extending the power of the imperial\ncity, so he stirs them up to aggressive warfare; and as in all their\nconflicts the little colony felt that the Empire was at its back, and\ntherefore looked undaunted on shoals of barbarian foes, so he would have\nhis friends at Philippi animated by lofty courage, and ever confident of\nfinal victory.\n\nSuch seems to be a general outline of these eager exhortations to the\ncitizens of heaven in this outlying colony of earth. Let us think of\nthem briefly in order now.\n\nI. Keep fresh the sense of belonging to the mother city.\n\nPaul was not only writing _to_ Philippi, but _from_ Rome, where he might\nsee how, even in degenerate days, the consciousness of being a Roman\ngave dignity to a man, and how the idea became almost a religion. He\nwould kindle a similar feeling in Christians.\n\nWe do belong to another polity or order of things than that with which\nwe are connected by the bonds of flesh and sense. Our true affinities\nare with the mother city. True, we are here on earth, but far beyond the\nblue waters is another community, of which we are really members, and\nsometimes in calm weather we can see, if we climb to a height above the\nsmoke of the valley where we dwell, the faint outline of the mountains\nof that other land, lying bathed in sunlight and dreamlike on the opal\nwaves.\n\nTherefore it is a great part of Christian discipline to keep a vivid\nconsciousness that there is such an unseen order of things at present in\nexistence. We speak popularly of 'the future life,' and are apt to\nforget that it is also the _present_ life to an innumerable company. In\nfact, this film of an earthly life floats in that greater sphere which\nis all around it, above, beneath, touching it at every point.\n\nIt is, as Peter says, 'ready to be unveiled.' Yes, behind the thin\ncurtain, through which stray beams of the brightness sometimes shoot,\nthat other order stands, close to us, parted from us by a most slender\ndivision, only a woven veil, no great gulf or iron barrier. And before\nlong His hand will draw it back, rattling with its rings as it is put\naside, and _there_ will blaze out what has always been, though we saw it\nnot. It is so close, so real, so bright, so solemn, that it is worth\nwhile to try to feel its nearness; and we are so purblind, and such\nfoolish slaves of mere sense, shaping our lives on the legal maxim that\nthings which are non-apparent must be treated as non-existent, that it\nneeds a constant effort not to lose the feeling altogether.\n\nThere is a present connection between all Christian men and that\nheavenly City. It not merely exists, but we belong to it in the measure\nin which we are Christians. All these figurative expressions about our\ncitizenship being in heaven and the like, rest on the simple fact that\nthe life of Christian men on earth and in heaven is fundamentally the\nsame. The principles which guide, the motives which sway, the tastes and\ndesires, affections and impulses, the objects and aims, are\nsubstantially one. A Christian man's true affinities are with the things\nnot seen, and with the persons there, however his surface relationship\nknit him to the earth. In the degree in which he is a Christian, he is a\nstranger here and a native of the heavens. That great City is, like some\nof the capitals of Europe, built on a broad river, with the mass of the\nmetropolis on the one bank, but a wide-spreading suburb on the other. As\nthe Trastevere is to Rome, as Southwark to London, so is earth to\nheaven, the bit of the city on the other side the bridge. As Philippi\nwas to Rome, so is earth to heaven, the colony on the outskirts of the\nempire, ringed round by barbarians, and separated by sounding seas, but\nkeeping open its communications, and one in citizenship.\n\nBe it our care, then, to keep the sense of that city beyond the\nriver vivid and constant. Amid the shows and shams of earth look\never onward to the realities 'the things which _are_,' while all\nelse only seems to be. The things which are seen are but smoke\nwreaths, floating for a moment across space, and melting into\nnothingness while we look. We do not belong to them or to the\norder of things to which they belong. There is no kindred between\nus and them. Our true relationships are elsewhere. In this present\nvisible world all other creatures find their sufficient and homelike\nabode. 'Foxes have holes, and birds their roosting-places'; but man\nalone has not where to lay his head, nor can he find in all the width\nof the created universe a place in which and with which he can be\nsatisfied. Our true _habitat_ is elsewhere. So let us set our thoughts\nand affections on things above. The descendants of the original settlers\nin our colonies talk still of coming to England as going 'home,' though\nthey were born in Australia, and have lived there all their lives. In\nlike manner we Christian people should keep vigorous in our minds the\nthought that our true home is there where we have never been, and that\nhere we are foreigners and wanderers.\n\nNor need that feeling of detachment from the present sadden our spirits,\nor weaken our interest in the things around us. To recognise our\nseparation from the order of things in which we 'move,' because we\nbelong to that majestic unseen order in which we really 'have our\nbeing,' makes life great and not small. It clothes the present with\ndignity beyond what is possible to it if it be not looked at in the\nlight of its connection with 'the regions beyond.' From that connection\nlife derives all its meaning. Surely nothing can be conceived more\nunmeaning, more wearisome in its monotony, more tragic in its joy, more\npurposeless in its efforts, than man's life, if the life of sense and\ntime be all. Truly it is 'like a tale told by an idiot, full of sound\nand fury, signifying nothing.' 'The white radiance of eternity,'\nstreaming through it from above, gives all its beauty to the 'dome of\nmany-coloured glass' which men call life. They who feel most their\nconnection with the city which hath foundations should be best able to\nwring the last drop of pure sweetness out of all earthly joys, to\nunderstand the meaning of all events, and to be interested most keenly,\nbecause most intelligently and most nobly, in the homeliest and\nsmallest of the tasks and concerns of the present.\n\nSo, in all things, act as citizens of the great Mother of heroes and\nsaints beyond the sea. Ever feel that you belong to another order, and\nlet the thought, 'Here we have no continuing city,' be to you not merely\nthe bitter lesson taught by the transiency of earthly joys and treasures\nand loves, but the happy result of 'seeking for the city which hath the\nfoundations.'\n\nII. Another exhortation which our text gives is, Live by the laws of the\ncity.\n\nThe Philippian colonists were governed by the code of Rome. Whatever\nmight be the law of the province of Macedonia, they owed no obedience to\nit. So Christian men are not to be governed by the maxims and rules of\nconduct which prevail in the province, but to be governed from the\ncapital. We ought to get from on-lookers the same character that was\ngiven to the Jews, that we are 'a people whose laws are different from\nall people that be on earth,' and we ought to reckon such a character\nour highest praise. Paul would have these Philippian Christians act\n'worthy of _the gospel_.' That is our law.\n\nThe great good news of God manifest in the flesh, and of our salvation\nthrough Christ Jesus, is not merely to be believed, but to be obeyed.\nThe gospel is not merely a message of deliverance, it is also a rule of\nconduct. It is not merely theology, it is also ethics. Like some of the\nancient municipal charters, the grant of privileges and proclamation of\nfreedom is also the sovereign code which imposes duties and shapes life.\nA gospel of laziness and mere exemption from hell was not Paul's gospel.\nA gospel of doctrines, to be investigated, spun into a system of\ntheology, and accepted by the understanding, and there an end, was not\nPaul's gospel. He believed that the great facts which he proclaimed\nconcerning the self-revelation of God in Christ would unfold into a\nsovereign law of life for every true believer, and so his one\nall-sufficient precept and standard of conduct are in these simple\nwords, 'worthy of the gospel.'\n\nThat law is all-sufficient. In the truths which constituted Paul's\ngospel, that is to say, in the truths of the life, death, and\nresurrection of Jesus Christ, lies all that men need for conduct and\ncharacter. In Him we have the 'realised ideal,' the flawless example,\nand instead of a thousand precepts, for us all duty is resolved into\none--be like Christ. In Him we have the mighty motive, powerful enough\nto overcome all forces that would draw us away, and like some strong\nspring to keep us in closest contact with right and goodness. Instead of\na confusing variety of appeals to manifold motives of interest and\nconscience, and one knows not what beside, we have the one all-powerful\nappeal, 'If ye love Me, keep My commandments,' and that draws all the\nagitations and fluctuations of the soul after it, as the rounded fulness\nof the moon does the heaped waters in the tidal wave that girdles the\nworld. In Him we have all the helps that weakness needs, for He Himself\nwill come and dwell with us and in us, and be our righteousness and our\nstrength.\n\nLive 'worthy of the gospel,' then. How grand the unity and simplicity\nthus breathed into our duties and through our lives! All duties are\ncapable of reduction to this one, and though we shall still need\ndetailed instruction and specific precepts, we shall be set free from\nthe pedantry of a small scrupulous casuistry, which fetters men's limbs\nwith microscopic bands, and shall joyfully learn how much mightier and\nhappier is the life which is shaped by one fruitful principle, than that\nwhich is hampered by a thousand regulations.\n\nNor is such an all-comprehensive precept a mere toothless generality.\nLet a man try honestly to shape his life by it; and he will find soon\nenough how close it grips him, and how wide it stretches, and how deep\nit goes. The greatest principles of the gospel are to be fitted to the\nsmallest duties. Indeed that combination--great principles and small\nduties--is the secret of all noble and calm life, and nowhere should it\nbe so beautifully exemplified as in the life of a Christian man. The\ntiny round of the dew-drop is shaped by the same laws that mould the\ngiant sphere of the largest planet. You cannot make a map of the poorest\ngrass-field without celestial observations. The star is not too high nor\ntoo brilliant to move before us and guide simple men's feet along their\npilgrimage. 'Worthy of the gospel' is a most practical and stringent\nlaw.\n\nAnd it is an exclusive commandment too, shutting out obedience to other\ncodes, however common and fashionable they may be. We are governed from\nhome, and we give no submission to provincial authorities. Never mind\nwhat people say about you, nor what may be the maxims and ways of men\naround you. These are no guides for you. Public opinion (which only\nmeans for most of us the hasty judgments of the half-dozen people who\nhappen to be nearest us), use and wont, the customs of our set, the\nnotions of the world about duty, with all these we have nothing to do.\nThe censures or the praise of men need not move us. We report to\nheadquarters, and subordinates' estimate need be nothing to us. Let us\nthen say, 'With me it is a very small matter that I should be judged of\nmen's judgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord.' When we may be\nmisunderstood or harshly dealt with, let us lift our eyes to the lofty\nseat where the Emperor sits, and remove ourselves from men's sentences\nby our 'appeal unto Caesar'; and, in all varieties of circumstances and\nduty, let us take the Gospel which is the record of Christ's life,\ndeath, and character, for our only law, and labour that, whatever others\nmay think of us, we 'may be well pleasing to Him.'\n\nIII. Further, our text bids the colonists fight for the advance of the\ndominions of the City.\n\nLike the armed colonists whom Russia and other empires had on their\nfrontier, who received their bits of land on condition of holding the\nborder against the enemy, and pushing it forward a league or two when\npossible, Christian men are set down in their places to be 'wardens of\nthe marches,' citizen soldiers who hold their homesteads on a military\ntenure, and are to 'strive together for the faith of the gospel.'\n\nThere is no space here and now to go into details of the exposition of\nthis part of our text. Enough to say in brief that we are here exhorted\nto 'stand fast'; that is, as it were, the defensive side of our warfare,\nmaintaining our ground and repelling all assaults; that this successful\nresistance is to be 'in one spirit,' inasmuch as all resistance depends\non our poor feeble spirits being ingrafted and rooted in God's Spirit,\nin vital union with whom we may be knit together into a unity which\nshall oppose a granite breakwater to the onrushing tide of opposition;\nthat in addition to the unmoved resistance which will not yield an inch\nof the sacred soil to the enemy, we are to carry the war onwards, and,\nnot content with holding our own, are with one mind to strive together\nfor the faith of the gospel. There is to be discipline, then, and\ncompact organisation, like that of the legions whom Paul, from his\nprison among the Praetorian guards, had often seen shining in steel,\nmoving like a machine, grim, irresistible. The cause for which we are to\nfight is the faith of the gospel, an expression which almost seems to\njustify the opinion that 'the faith' here means, as it does in later\nusage, the sum and substance of that which is believed. But even here\nthe word may have its usual meaning of the subjective act of trust in\nthe gospel, and the thought may be that we are unitedly to fight for its\ngrowing power in our own hearts and in the hearts of others. In any\ncase, the idea is plainly here that Christian men are set down in the\nworld, like the frontier guard, to push the conquests of the empire, and\nto win more ground for their King.\n\nSuch work is ever needed, never more needed than now. In this day when a\nwave of unbelief seems passing over society, when material comfort and\nworldly prosperity are so dazzlingly attractive to so many, the solemn\nduty is laid upon us with even more than usual emphasis, and we are\ncalled upon to feel more than ever the oneness of all true Christians,\nand to close up our ranks for the fight. All this can only be done after\nwe have obeyed the other injunctions of this text. The degree in which\nwe feel that we belong to another order of things than this around us,\nand the degree in which we live by the Imperial laws, will determine the\ndegree in which we can fight with vigour for the growth of the dominion\nof the City. Be it ours to cherish the vivid consciousness that we are\nhere dwelling not in the cities of the Canaanites, but, like the father\nof the faithful, in tents pitched at their gates, nomads in the midst\nof a civic life to which we do not belong, in order that we may breathe\na hallowing influence through it, and win hearts to the love of Him whom\nto imitate is perfection, whom to serve is freedom.\n\nIV. The last exhortation to the colonists is, Be sure of victory.\n\n'In nothing terrified by your adversaries,' says Paul. He uses a very\nvivid, and some people might think, a very vulgar metaphor here. The\nword rendered _terrified_ properly refers to a horse shying or plunging\nat some object. It is generally things half seen and mistaken for\nsomething more dreadful than themselves that make horses shy; and it is\nusually a half-look at adversaries, and a mistaken estimate of their\nstrength, that make Christians afraid. Go up to your fears and speak to\nthem, and as ghosts are said to do, they will generally fade away. So we\nmay go into the battle, as the rash French minister said he did into the\nFranco-German war, 'with a light heart,' and that for good reasons. We\nhave no reason to fear for ourselves. We have no reason to fear for the\nark of God. We have no reason to fear for the growth of Christianity in\nthe world. Many good men in this time seem to be getting half-ashamed of\nthe gospel, and some preachers are preaching it in words which sound\nlike an apology rather than a creed. Do not let us allow the enemy to\noverpower our imaginations in that fashion. Do not let us fight as if we\nexpected to be beaten, always casting our eyes over our shoulders, even\nwhile we are advancing, to make sure of our retreat, but let us trust\nour gospel, and trust our King, and let us take to heart the old\nadmonition, 'Lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not\nafraid.'\n\nSuch courage is a prophecy of victory. Such courage is based upon a sure\nhope. 'Our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the\nLord Jesus as Saviour.' The little outlying colony in this far-off edge\nof the empire is ringed about by wide-stretching hosts of dusky\nbarbarians. Far as the eye can reach their myriads cover the land, and\nthe watchers from the ramparts might well be dismayed if they had only\ntheir own resources to depend on. But they know that the Emperor in his\nprogress will come to this sorely beset outpost, and their eyes are\nfixed on the pass in the hills where they expect to see the waving\nbanners and the gleaming spears. Soon, like our countrymen in Lucknow,\nthey will hear the music and the shouts that tell that He is at hand.\nThen when He comes, He will raise the siege and scatter all the enemies\nas the chaff of the threshing-floor, and the colonists who held the post\nwill go with Him to the land which they have never seen, but which is\ntheir home, and will, with the Victor, sweep in triumph 'through the\ngates into the city.'\n\n\n\n\nA PLEA FOR UNITY\n\n 'If there is therefore any comfort in Christ, if\n any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the\n Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, 2.\n Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be of the same mind,\n having the same love, being of one accord, of one\n mind; 3. Doing nothing through faction or through\n vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each counting\n other better than himself; 4. Not looking each of\n you to his own things, but each of you also to the\n things of others.'--PHIL. ii. 1-4 (R.V.).\n\n\nThere was much in the state of the Philippian church which filled Paul's\nheart with thankfulness, and nothing which drew forth his censures, but\nthese verses, with their extraordinary energy of pleading, seem to hint\nthat there was some defect in the unity of heart and mind of members of\nthe community. It did not amount to discord, but the concord was not as\nfull as it might have been. There is another hint pointing in the same\ndirection in the appeal to Paul's true yoke-fellow, in chapter iv., to\nhelp two good women who, though they had laboured much in the gospel,\nhad not managed to keep 'of the same mind in the Lord,' and there is\nperhaps a still further indication that Paul's sensitive heart was\nconscious of the beginnings of strife in the air, in the remarkable\nemphasis with which, at the very outset of the letter, he over and over\nagain pours out his confidence and affection on them 'all,' as if aware\nof some incipient rifts in their brotherhood. There are always forces at\nwork which tend to part the most closely knit unities even when these\nare consecrated by Christian faith. Where there are no dogmatical\ngrounds of discord, nor any open alienation, there may still be the\nbeginnings of separation, and a chill breeze may be felt even when the\nsun is shining with summer warmth. Wasps are attracted by the ripest\nfruit.\n\nThe words of our text present no special difficulty, and bring before us\na well-worn subject, but it has at least this element of interest, that\nit grips very tightly the deepest things in Christian life, and that\nnone of us can truly say that we do not need to listen to Paul's\npleading voice. We may notice the general division of his thoughts in\nthese words, in that he puts first the heart-touching motives for\nlistening to his appeal, next describes with the exuberance of\nearnestness the fair ideal of unity to which he exhorts, and finally\ntouches on the hindrances to its realisation, and the victorious powers\nwhich will overcome these.\n\nI. The motives and bonds of Christian unity.\n\nIt is not a pedantic dissection (and vivisection) of the Apostle's\nearnest words, if we point out that they fall into four clauses, of\nwhich the first and third ('any comfort in Christ, any fellowship of the\nSpirit') urge the objective facts of Christian revelation, and the\nsecond and fourth ('any consolation of love, any tender mercies and\ncompassions') put emphasis on the subjective emotions of Christian\nexperience. We may lay the warmth of all of these on our own hearts, and\nshall find that these hearts will be drawn into the blessedness of\nChristian unity in the precise measure in which they are affected by\nthem.\n\nAs to the first of them, it may be suggested that here, as elsewhere in\nthe New Testament, the true idea of the word rendered 'comfort' is\nrather 'exhortation.' The Apostle is probably not so much pointing to\nthe consolations for trouble which come from Jesus, as to the stimulus\nto unity which flows from Him. It would rather weaken the force of\nPaul's appeal, if the two former grounds of it were so nearly identical\nas they are, if the one is based upon 'comfort' and the other on\n'consolation.' The Apostle is true to his dominant belief, that in Jesus\nChrist there lies, and from Him flows, the sovereign exhortation that\nrouses men to 'whatsoever things are lovely and of good report.' In Him\nwe shall find in the measure in which we are in Him, the most persuasive\nof all exhortations to unity, and the most omnipotent of all powers to\nenforce it. Shall we not be glad to be in the flock of the Good\nShepherd, and to preserve the oneness which He gave His life to\nestablish? Can we live in Him, and not share His love for His sheep?\nSurely those who have felt the benediction of His breath on their\nforeheads when He prayed 'that they may all be one; even as Thou,\nFather, art in Me and I in Thee,' cannot but do what is in them to\nfulfil that prayer, and to bring a little nearer the realisation of\ntheir Lord's purpose in it, 'that the world may believe that Thou didst\nsend Me.' Surely if we lay to heart, and enter into sympathy with, the\nwhole life and death of Jesus Christ, we shall not fail to feel the\ndynamic power fusing us together, nor fail to catch the exhortation to\nunity which comes from the lips that said, 'I am the vine, ye are the\nbranches.'\n\nThe Apostle next bases his appeal for unity on the experiences of the\nPhilippian Christians, and on their memories of the comfort which they\nhave tasted in the exercise of mutual love. Our hearts find it hard to\nanswer the question whether they are more blessed when their love passes\nout from them in a warm stream to others, or when the love of others\npours into them. To love and to be loved equally elevate courage, and\nbrace the weakest for calm endurance and high deeds. The man who loves\nand knows that he is loved will be a hero. It must always seem strange\nand inexplicable that a heart which has known the enlargement and joy of\nlove given and received, should ever fall so far beneath itself as to be\nnarrowed and troubled by nourishing feelings of separation and\nalienation from those whom it might have gathered into its embrace, and\nthereby communicated, and in communicating acquired, courage and\nstrength. We have all known the comfort of love; should it not impel us\nto live in 'the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace'? Men around\nus are meant to be our helpers, and to be helped by us, and the one way\nto secure both is to walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.\n\nBut Paul has still further heart-melting motives to urge. He turns the\nPhilippians' thoughts to their fellowship in the Spirit. All believers\nhave been made to drink into one spirit, and in that common\nparticipation in the same supernatural life they partake of a oneness,\nwhich renders any clefts or divisions unnatural, and contradictory of\nthe deepest truths of their experience. The branch can no more shiver\nitself off from the tree, or keep the life sap enclosed within itself,\nthan one possessor of the common gift of the Spirit can separate himself\nfrom the others who share it. We are one in Him; let us be one in heart\nand mind. The final appeal is connected with the preceding, inasmuch as\nit lays emphasis on the emotions which flow from the one life common to\nall believers. That participation in the Spirit naturally leads in each\nparticipant to 'tender mercies and compassions' directed to all sharers\nin it. The very mark of truly possessing the Spirit's life is a nature\nfull of tenderness and swift to pity, and they who have experienced the\nheaven on earth of such emotions should need no other motive than the\nmemory of its blessedness, to send them out among their brethren, and\neven into a hostile world, as the apostles of love, the bearers of\ntender mercies, and the messengers of pity.\n\nII. The fair ideal which would complete the Apostle's joy.\n\nWe may gather from the rich abundance of motives which the Apostle\nsuggests before he comes to present his exhortation, that he suspected\nthe existence of some tendencies in the opposite direction in Philippi,\nand possibly the same conclusion may be drawn from the exuberance of\nthe exhortation itself, and from its preceding the dehortation which\nfollows. He does not scold, he scarcely even rebukes, but he begins by\ntrying to melt away any light frost that had crept over the warmth of\nthe Philippians' love; and having made that preparation, he sets before\nthem with a fulness which would be tautological but for the earnestness\nthat throbs in it, the ideal of unity, and presses it upon them still\nmore meltingly, by telling them that their realisation of it will be the\ncompletion of his joy. The main injunction is 'that ye be of the same\nmind,' and that is followed by three clauses which are all but exactly\nsynonymous with it, 'having the same love, being of one accord, of one\nmind.' The resemblance of the latter clause to the main exhortation is\nstill more complete, if we read with Revised Version (margin) 'of the\nsame mind,' but in any case the exhortations are all practically the\nsame. The unity which Paul would fain see, is far deeper and more vital\nthan mere unanimity of opinion, or identity of polity, or co-operation\nin practice. The clauses which expand it guard us against the mistake of\nthinking that intellectual or practical oneness is all that is meant by\nChristian unity. They are 'of the same mind,' who have the same wishes,\naims, outlooks, the same hopes and fears, and who are one in the depths\nof their being. They have 'the same love,' all similarly loving and\nbeing loved, the same emotion filling each heart. They are united in\nsoul, or 'with accordant souls' having, and knowing that they have them,\nakin, allied to one another, moving to a common end, and aware of their\noneness. The unity which Christian people have hitherto reached is at\nits best but a small are of the great circle which the Apostle drew,\nand none of us can read these fervid words without shame. His joy is not\nyet fulfilled.\n\nThat exhortation to be 'of the same mind,' not only points to a deep and\nvital unity, but suggests that the ground of the unity is to be found\nwithout us, in the common direction of our 'minds,' which means far more\nthan popular phraseology means by it, to an external object. It is\nhaving our hearts directed to Christ that makes us one. He is the bond\nand centre of unity. We have just said that the object is external, but\nthat has to be taken with a modification, for the true basis of unity is\nthe common possession of 'Christ in us.' It is when we have this mind in\nus 'which was also in Christ Jesus,' that we have 'the same mind' one\nwith another.\n\nThe very keynote of the letter is joy, as may be seen by a glance over\nit. He joys and rejoices with them all, but his cup is not quite full.\nOne more precious drop is needed to make it run over. Probably the\ncoldness which he had heard of between Euodias and Syntyche had troubled\nhim, and if he could be sure of the Philippians' mutual love he would\nrejoice in his prison. We cannot tell whether that loving and careful\nheart is still aware of the fortunes of the Church, but we know of a\nmore loving and careful heart which is, and we cannot but believe that\nthe alienations and discords of His professed followers bring some\nshadow over the joy of Christ. Do we not hear His voice again asking,\n'what was it that you disputed among yourselves by the way?' and must we\nnot, like the disciples, 'hold our peace' when that question is asked?\nMay we not hear a voice sweeter in its cadence, and more melting in its\ntenderness than Paul's, saying to us 'Fulfil ye My joy that ye be of\nthe same mind.'\n\nIII. The hindrances and helps to being of the same mind.\n\nThe original has no verb in front of 'nothing' in verse 3, and it seems\nbetter to supply the one which has been so frequently used in the\npreceding exhortation than 'doing,' which carries us too abruptly into\nthe outer region of action. Paul indicates two main hindrances to being\nof the same mind, namely, faction and vainglory on the one hand, and\nself-absorption on the other, and opposed to each the tone of mind which\nis its best conqueror. Faction and vainglory are best defeated by\nhumility and unselfishness. As to the former, the love of making or\nheading little cliques in religion or politics or society, has oftenest\nits roots in nothing loftier than vanity or pride. Many a man who poses\nas guided by staunch adherence to conviction is really impelled only by\na wish to make himself notorious as a leader, and loves to talk of\n'those with whom I act.' There is a strong admixture of a too lofty\nestimate of self in most of the disagreements of Christian people. They\nexpect more deference than they get, or their judgment is not taken as\nlaw, or their place is not so high as they think is their due, or in a\nhundred different ways self-love is wounded, and self-esteem is\ninflamed. All this is true in reference to the smaller communities of\ncongregations, and with the necessary modifications it is quite as true\nin reference to the larger aggregations which we call churches or\ndenominations. If all in their work that is directly due to faction and\nvainglory were struck out there would be great gaps in their activities,\nand many a flourishing scheme would fall dead.\n\nThe cure for all these evils is lowliness of mind. That is a Christian\nword. Used by Greek thinkers, it meant abjectness; and it is one\nconspicuous instance of the change effected in morals by Christian\nteaching that it has become the name of a virtue. We are to dwell not on\nour gifts but on our imperfections, and if we judge ourselves with\nconstant reference to the standard in Christ's life, we shall need\nlittle more to bring us to our knees in true lowliness of mind. The man\nwho has been forgiven so many talents will not be in a hurry to take his\nbrother by the throat and leave the marks of his fingers for tenpence.\n\nChristian unity is further broken by selfishness. To be absorbed in self\nis of course to have the heart shut to others. Our own interests,\ninclinations, possessions, when they assert themselves in our lives,\nbuild up impassable barriers between us and our fellows. To live to self\nis the real root of every sin as it is of all loveless life. The Apostle\nuses careful language: he admits the necessity for attention to our 'own\nthings,' and only requires that we should look 'also' on the things of\nothers. His cure for the hindrances to Christian unity is very complete,\nvery practical, and very simple. Each counting other better than\nhimself, and each 'looking also to the things of others' seem very\nhomely and pedestrian virtues, but homely as they are we shall find that\nthey grip us tight, if we honestly try to practise them in our daily\nlives, and we shall find also that the ladder which has its foot on\nearth has its top in the heavens, and that the practice of humility and\nunselfishness leads straight to having 'the mind which was also in\nChrist Jesus.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE DESCENT OF THE WORD\n\n 'Have this mind in you which was also in Christ\n Jesus: 6. Who, being in the form of God, counted\n it not a prize to be on an equality with God, 7.\n But emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,\n being made in the likeness of men; 8. And being\n found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself,\n becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death\n of the cross.'--PHIL. ii. 5-8 (R.V.).\n\n\nThe purpose of the Apostle in this great passage must ever be kept\nclearly in view. Our Lord's example is set forth as the pattern of that\nunselfish disregard of one's own things, and devotion to the things of\nothers, which has just been urged on the Philippians, and the mind which\nwas in Him is presented as the model on which they are to fashion their\nminds. This purpose in some measure explains some of the peculiarities\nof the language here, and may help to guide us through some of the\nintricacies and doubtful points in the interpretation of the words. It\nexplains why Christ's death is looked at in them only in its bearing\nupon Himself, as an act of obedience and of condescension, and why even\nthat death in which Jesus stands most inimitable and unique is presented\nas capable of being imitated by us. The general drift of these verses is\nclear, but there are few Scripture passages which have evoked more\ndifference of opinion as to the precise meaning of nearly every phrase.\nTo enter on the subtle discussions involved in the adequate exposition\nof the words would far exceed our limits, and we must perforce content\nourselves with a slight treatment of them, and aim chiefly at bringing\nout their practical side.\n\nThe broad truth which stands sun-clear amid all diverse interpretations\nis--that the Incarnation, Life, and Death are the great examples of\nliving humility and self-sacrifice. To be born was His supreme act of\ncondescension. It was love which made Him assume the vesture of human\nflesh. To die was the climax of His voluntary obedience, and of His\ndevotion to us.\n\nI. The height from which Jesus descended.\n\nThe whole strange conception of birth as being the voluntary act of the\nPerson born, and as being the most stupendous instance of condescension\nin the world's history, necessarily reposes on the clear conviction that\nHe had a prior existence so lofty that it was an all but infinite\ndescent to become man. Hence Paul begins with the most emphatic\nassertion that he who bore the name of Jesus lived a divine life before\nHe was born. He uses a very strong word which is given in the margin of\nthe Revised Version, and might well have been in its text. 'Being\noriginally' as the word accurately means, carries our thoughts back not\nonly to a state which preceded Bethlehem and the cradle, but to that\nsame timeless eternity from which the prologue of the Gospel of John\npartially draws the veil when it says, 'In the beginning was the Word,'\nand to which Jesus Himself more obscurely pointed when He said, 'Before\nAbraham was I am.'\n\nEqually emphatic in another direction is Paul's next expression, 'In the\nform of God,' for 'form' means much more than 'shape.' I would point out\nthe careful selection in this passage of three words to express three\nideas which are often by hasty thought regarded as identical. We read of\n'the _form_ of God' (verse 6), 'the _likeness_ of men' (verse 7), and\n'in _fashion_ as a man.' Careful investigation of these two words 'form'\nand 'fashion' has established a broad distinction between them, the\nformer being more fixed, the latter referring to that which is\naccidental and outward, which may be fleeting and unsubstantial. The\npossession of the form involves participation in the essence also. Here\nit implies no corporeal idea as if God had a material form, but it\nimplies also much more than a mere apparent resemblance. He who is in\nthe form of God possesses the essential divine attributes. Only God can\nbe 'in the form of God': man is made in the likeness of God, but man is\nnot 'in the form of God.' Light is thrown on this lofty phrase by its\nantithesis with the succeeding expression in the next verse, 'the form\nof a servant,' and as that is immediately explained to refer to Christ's\nassumption of human nature, there is no room for candid doubt that\n'being originally in the form of God' is a deliberately asserted claim\nof the divinity of Christ in His pre-existent state.\n\nAs we have already pointed out, Paul soars here to the same lofty height\nto which the prologue of John's Gospel rises, and he echoes our Lord's\nown words about 'the glory which I had with Thee before the foundation\nof the world.' Our thoughts are carried back before creatures were, and\nwe become dimly aware of an eternal distinction in the divine nature\nwhich only perfects its eternal oneness. Such an eternal participation\nin the divine nature before all creation and before time is the\nnecessary pre-supposition of the worth of Christ's life as the pattern\nof humility and self-sacrifice. That pre-supposition gives all its\nmeaning, its pathos, and its power, to His gentleness, and love, and\ndeath. The facts are different in their significance, and different in\ntheir power to bless and gladden, to purge and sway the soul, according\nas we contemplate them with or without the background of His\npre-existent divinity. The view which regards Him as simply a man, like\nall the rest of us, beginning to be when He was born, takes away from\nHis example its mightiest constraining force. Only when we with all our\nhearts believe 'that the Word became flesh,' do we discern the\noverwhelming depths of condescension manifested in the Birth. If it was\nnot the incarnation of God, it has no claim on the hearts of men.\n\nII. The wondrous act of descent.\n\nThe stages in that long descent are marked out with a precision and\ndefiniteness which would be intolerable presumption, if Paul were\nspeaking only his own thoughts, or telling what he had seen with his own\neyes. They begin with what was in the mind of the eternal Word before He\nbegan His descent, and whilst yet He is 'in the form of God.' He stands\non the lofty level before the descent begins, and in spirit makes the\nsurrender, which, stage by stage, is afterwards to be wrought out in\nact. Before any of these acts there must have been the disposition of\nmind and will which Paul describes as 'counting it not a thing to be\ngrasped to be on an equality with God.' He did not regard the being\nequal to God as a prey or treasure to be clutched and retained at all\nhazards. That sweeps our thoughts into the dim regions far beyond\nCalvary or Bethlehem, and is a more overwhelming manifestation of love\nthan are the acts of lowly gentleness and patient endurance which\nfollowed in time. It included and transcended them all.\n\nIt was the supreme example of not 'looking on one's own things.' And\nwhat made Him so count? What but infinite love. To rescue men, and win\nthem to Himself and goodness, and finally to lift them to the place from\nwhich He came down for them, seemed to Him to be worth the temporary\nsurrender of that glory and majesty. We can but bow and adore the\nperfect love. We look more deeply into the depths of Deity than unaided\neyes could ever penetrate, and what we see is the movement in that abyss\nof Godhead of purest surrender which, by beholding, we are to\nassimilate.\n\nThen comes the wonder of wonders, 'He emptied Himself.' We cannot enter\nhere on the questions which gather round that phrase, and which give it\na factitious importance in regard to present controversies. All that we\nwould point out now is that while the Apostle distinctly treats the\nIncarnation as being a laying aside of what made the Word to be equal\nwith God, he says nothing, on which an exact determination can be based,\nof the degree or particulars in which the divine nature of our Lord was\nlimited by His humanity. The fact he asserts, and that is all. The scene\nin the Upper Chamber was but a feeble picture of what had already been\ndone behind the veil. Unless He had laid aside His garments of divine\nglory and majesty, He would have had no human flesh from which to strip\nthe robes. Unless He had willed to take the 'form of a servant,' He\nwould not have had a body to gird with the slave's towel. The\nIncarnation, which made all His acts of lowly love possible, was a\ngreater act of lowly love than those which flowed from it. Looking at it\nfrom earth, men say, 'Jesus was born.' Looking at it from heaven, Angels\nsay, 'He emptied Himself.'\n\nBut how did He empty Himself? By taking the form of a slave, that is to\nGod. And how did He take the form of a slave? By 'becoming in the\nlikeness of men.' Here we are specially to note the remarkable language\nimplying that what is true of none other in all the generations of men\nis true of Him. That just as 'emptying Himself' was His own act, also\nthe taking the form of a slave by His being born was His own act, and\nwas more truly described as a 'becoming.' We note, too, the strong\ncontrast between that most remarkable word and the 'being originally'\nwhich is used to express the mystery of divine pre-existence.\n\nWhilst His becoming in the likeness of men stands in strong contrast\nwith 'being originally' and energetically expresses the voluntariness of\nour Lord's birth, the 'likeness of men' does not cast any doubt on the\nreality of His manhood, but points to the fact that 'though certainly\nperfect man, He was by reason of the divine nature present in Him not\nsimply and merely man.'\n\nHere then the beginning of Christ's manhood is spoken of in terms which\nare only explicable, if it was a second form of being, preceded by a\npre-existent form, and was assumed by His own act. The language, too,\ndemands that that humanity should have been true essential manhood. It\nwas in 'the form' of man and possessed of all essential attributes. It\nwas in 'the likeness' of man possessed of all external characteristics,\nand yet was something more. It summed up human nature, and was its\nrepresentative.\n\nIII. The obedience which attended the descent.\n\nIt was not merely an act of humiliation and condescension to become man,\nbut all His life was one long act of lowliness. Just as He 'emptied\nHimself' in the act of becoming in the 'likeness of men,' so He 'humbled\nHimself,' and all along the course of His earthly life He chose constant\nlowliness and to be 'despised and rejected of men.' It was the result\nmoment by moment of His own will that to the eyes of men He presented\n'no form nor comeliness,' and that will was moment by moment steadied\nin its unmoved humility, because He perpetually looked 'not on His own\nthings, but on the things of others.' The guise He presented to the eyes\nof men was 'the _fashion_ of a man.' That word corresponds exactly to\nPaul's carefully selected term, and makes emphatic both its superficial\nand its transitory character.\n\nThe lifelong humbling of Himself was further manifested in His becoming\n'obedient.' That obedience was, of course, to God. And here we cannot\nbut pause to ask the question, How comes it that to the man Jesus\nobedience to God was an act of humiliation? Surely there is but one\nexplanation of such a statement. For all men but this one to be God's\nslaves is their highest honour, and to speak of obedience as humiliation\nis a sheer absurdity.\n\nNot only was the life of Jesus so perfect an example of unbroken\nobedience that He could safely front His adversaries with the question,\n'Which of you convinceth Me of sin?' and with the claim to 'do always\nthe things that pleased Him,' but the obedience to the Father was\nperfected in His death. Consider the extraordinary fact that a man's\ndeath is the crowning instance of his humility, and ask yourselves the\nquestion, Who then is this who chose to be born, and stooped in the act\nof dying? His death was obedience to God, because by it He carried out\nthe Father's will for the salvation of the world, His death is the\ngreatest instance of unselfish self-sacrifice, and the loftiest example\nof looking on the 'things of others' that the world has ever seen. It\ndwindles in significance, in pathos, and in power to move us to\nimitation unless we clearly see the divine glory of the eternal Lord as\nthe background of the gentle lowliness of the Man of Sorrows, and the\nCross. No theory of Christ's life and death but that He was born for us,\nand died for us, either explains the facts and the apostolic language\nconcerning them, or leaves them invested with their full power to melt\nour hearts and mould our lives. There is a possibility of imitating Him\nin the most transcendent of His acts. The mind may be in us which was in\nChrist Jesus. That it may, His death must first be the ground of our\nhope, and then we must make it the pattern of our lives, and draw from\nit the power to shape them after His blessed Example.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ASCENT OF JESUS\n\n 'Wherefore also God highly exalted Him and gave\n unto Him the name which is above every name; 10.\n That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow,\n of things in heaven, and things on earth, and\n things under the earth; 11. And that every tongue\n should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the\n glory of God the Father.'--PHIL. ii. 9-11 (R.V.).\n\n\n'He that humbleth himself shall be exalted,' said Jesus. He is Himself\nthe great example of that law. The Apostle here goes on to complete his\npicture of the Lord Jesus as our pattern. In previous verses we had the\nsolemn steps of His descent, and the lifelong humility and obedience of\nthe incarnate Son, the man Christ Jesus. Here we have the wondrous\nascent which reverses all the former process. Our text describes the\nreflex motion by which Jesus is borne back to the same level as that\nfrom which the descent began.\n\nWe have\n\nI. The act of exaltation which forms the contrast and the parallel to\nthe descent.\n\n'God highly exalted Him.' The Apostle coins an emphatic word which\ndoubly expresses elevation, and in its grammatical form shows that it\nindicates a historical fact. That elevation was a thing once\naccomplished on this green earth; that is to say it came to pass in the\nfact of our Lord's ascension when from some fold of the Mount of Olives\nHe was borne upwards and, with blessing hands, was received into the\nShechinah cloud, the glory of which hid Him from the upward-gazing eyes.\n\nIt is plain that the 'Him' of whom this tremendous assertion is made,\nmust be the same as the 'He' of whom the previous verses spoke, that is,\nthe Incarnate Jesus. It is the manhood which is exalted. His humiliation\nconsisted in His becoming man, but His exaltation does not consist in\nHis laying aside His humanity. It is not a transient but an eternal\nunion into which in the Incarnation it entered with divinity.\nHenceforward we have to think of Him in all the glory of His heavenly\nstate as man, and as truly and completely in the 'likeness of men' as\nwhen He walked with bleeding feet on the flinty road of earthly life. He\nnow bears for ever the 'form of God' and 'the fashion of a man.'\n\nHere I would pause for a moment to point out that the calm tone of this\nreference to the ascension indicates that it was part of the recognised\nChristian beliefs, and implies that it had been familiar long before the\ndate of this Epistle, which itself dates from not more than at the most\nthirty years from the death of Christ. Surely that lapse of time is far\ntoo narrow to allow of such a belief having sprung up, and been\nuniversally accepted about a dead man, who all the while was lying in a\nnameless grave.\n\nThe descent is presented as _His_ act, but decorum and truth required\nthat the exaltation should be God's act. 'He humbled Himself,' but 'God\nexalted Him.' True, He sometimes represented Himself as the Agent of His\nown Resurrection and Ascension, and established a complete parallel\nbetween His descent and His ascent, as when He said, 'I came out from\nthe Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go\nunto the Father.' He was no less obedient to the Father's will when He\nascended up on high, than He was when He came down to earth, and whilst,\nfrom one point of view, His Resurrection and Ascension were as truly His\nown acts as were His birth and His death, from another, He had to pray,\n'And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory\nwhich I had with Thee before the world was.' The Titans presumptuously\nscaled the heavens, according to the old legend, but the Incarnate Lord\nreturned to 'His own calm home, His habitation from eternity,' was\nexalted thither by God, in token to the universe that the Father\napproved the Son's descent, and that the work which the Son had done was\nindeed, as He declared it to be, 'finished.' By exalting Him, the Father\nnot merely reinstated the divine Word in its eternal union with God, but\nreceived into the cloud of glory the manhood which the Word had assumed.\n\nII. The glory of the name of Jesus.\n\nWhat is the name 'which is above every name'? It is the name Jesus. It\nis to be noted that Paul scarcely ever uses that simple appellative.\nThere are, roughly speaking, about two hundred instances in which he\nnames our Lord in his Epistles, and there are only four places, besides\nthis, in which he uses this as his own, and two in which he, as it were,\nputs it into the mouth of an enemy. Probably then, some special reason\nled to its occurrence here, and it is not difficult, I think, to see\nwhat that reason is. The simple personal name was given indeed with\nreference to His work, but had been borne by many a Jewish child before\nMary called her child Jesus, and the fact that it is this common name\nwhich is exalted above every name, brings out still more strongly the\nthought already dwelt upon, that what is thus exalted is the manhood of\nour Lord. The name which expressed His true humanity, which showed His\nfull identification with us, which was written over His Cross, which\nperhaps shaped the taunt 'He _saved_ others, Himself He cannot\nsave,'--that name God has lifted high above all names of council and\nvalour, of wisdom and might, of authority and rule. It is shrined in the\nhearts of millions who render to it perfect trust, unconditional\nobedience, absolute loyalty. Its growing power, and the warmth of\npersonal love which it evokes, in centuries and lands so far removed\nfrom the theatre of His life, is a unique thing in the world's history.\nIt reigns in heaven.\n\nBut Paul is not content with simply asserting the sovereign glory of the\nname of Jesus. He goes on to set it forth as being what no other name\nborne by man can be, the ground and object of worship, when he declares,\nthat 'in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.' The words are quoted\nfrom the second Isaiah, and occur in one of the most solemn and majestic\nutterances of the monotheism of the Old Testament. And Paul takes these\nwords, undeterred by the declaration which precede them, 'I Am am God\nand there is none else,' applies them to Jesus, to the manhood of our\nLord. Bowing the knee is of course prayer, and in these great words the\nissue of the work of Jesus is unmistakably set forth, as not only being\nthat He has declared God to men, who through Him are drawn to worship\nthe Father, but that their emotions of love, reverence, worship, are\nturned to _Him_, though as the Apostle is careful immediately to note,\nthey are not thereby intercepted from, but directed to, the glory of God\nthe Father. In the eternities before His descent, there was equality\nwith God, and when He returns, it is to the Father, who in Him has\nbecome the object of adoration, and round whose throne gather with\nbended knees all those who in Jesus see the Father.\n\nThe Apostle still further dwells on the glory of the name as that of the\nacknowledged Lord. And here we have with significant variation in strong\ncontrast to the previous name of Jesus, the full title 'Jesus Christ\nLord.' That is almost as unusual in its completeness as the other in its\nsimplicity, and it comes in here with tremendous energy, reminding us of\nthe great act to which we owe our redemption, and of all the prophecies\nand hopes which, from of old, had gathered round the persistent hope of\nthe coming Messiah, while the name of Lord proclaims His absolute\ndominion. The knee is bowed in reverence, the tongue is vocal in\nconfession. That confession is incomplete if either of these three names\nis falteringly uttered, and still more so, if either of them is wanting.\nThe Jesus whom Christians confess is not merely the man who was born in\nBethlehem and known among men as 'Jesus the carpenter.' In these modern\ndays, His manhood has been so emphasised as to obscure His Messiahship\nand to obliterate His dominion, and alas! there are many who exalt Him\nby the name that Mary gave Him, who turn away from the name of Jesus as\n'Hebrew old clothes,' and from the name of Lord as antiquated\nsuperstition. But in all the lowliness and gentleness of Jesus there\nwere not wanting lofty claims to be the Christ of whom prophets and\nrighteous men of old spake, and whose coming many a generation desired\nto see and died without the sight, and still loftier and more absolute\nclaims to be invested with 'all power in heaven and earth,' and to sit\ndown with the Father on His throne. It is dangerous work to venture to\ntoss aside two of these three names, and to hope that if we pronounce\nthe third of them, Jesus, with appreciation, it will not matter if we do\nnot name Him either Christ or Lord.\n\nIf it is true that the manhood of Jesus is thus exalted, how wondrous\nmust be the kindred between the human and the divine, that it should be\ncapable of this, that it should dwell in the everlasting burnings of the\nDivine Glory and not be consumed! How blessed for us the belief that our\nBrother wields all the forces of the universe, that the human love which\nJesus had when He bent over the sick and comforted the sorrowful, is at\nthe centre. Jesus is Lord, the Lord is Jesus!\n\nThe Psalmist was moved to a rapture of thanksgiving when he thought of\nman as 'made a little lower than the angels, and crowned with glory and\nhonour,' but when we think of the Man Jesus 'sitting at the right hand\nof God,' the Psalmist's words seem pale and poor, and we can repeat them\nwith a deeper meaning and a fuller emphasis, 'Thou madest Him to have\ndominion over the works of Thy hands, Thou hast put all things under His\nfeet.'\n\nIII. The universal glory of the name.\n\nBy the three classes into which the Apostle divides creation, 'things in\nheaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth,' he simply\nintends to declare, that Jesus is the object of all worship, and the\nwords are not to be pressed as containing dogmatic assertions as to the\ndifferent classes mentioned. But guided by other words of Scripture, we\nmay permissibly think that the 'things in heaven' tell us that the\nangels who do not need His mediation learn more of God by His work and\nbow before His throne. We cannot be wrong in believing that the glory of\nHis work stretches far beyond the limits of humanity, and that His\nkingdom numbers other subjects than those who draw human breath. Other\nlips than ours say with a great voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb that hath\nbeen slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honour\nand glory and blessing.'\n\nThe things on earth are of course men, and the words encourage us to dim\nhopes about which we cannot dogmatise of a time when all the wayward\nself-seeking and self-tormenting children of men shall have learned to\nknow and love their best friend, and 'there shall be one flock and one\nshepherd.'\n\n'Things under the earth' seems to point to the old thought of 'Sheol' or\n'Hades' or a separate state of the dead. The words certainly suggest\nthat those who have gone from us are not unconscious nor cut off from\nthe true life, but are capable of adoration and confession. We cannot\nbut remember the old belief that Jesus in His death 'descended into\nHell,' and some of us will not forget Fra Angelico's picture of the open\ndoorway with a demon crushed beneath the fallen portal, and the crowd of\neager faces and outstretched hands swarming up the dark passage, to\nwelcome the entering Christ. Whatever we may think of that ancient\nrepresentation, we may at least be sure that, wherever they are, the\ndead in Christ praise and reverence and love.\n\nIV. The glory of the Father in the glory of the name of Jesus.\n\nKnees bent and tongues confessing the absolute dominion of Jesus Christ\ncould only be offence and sin if He were not one with the Father. But\nthe experience of all the thousands since Paul wrote, whose hearts have\nbeen drawn in reverent and worshipping trust to the Son, has verified\nthe assertion, that to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord diverts no\nworship from God, but swells and deepens the ocean of praise that breaks\nround the throne. If it is true, and only if it is true, that in the\nlife and death of Jesus all previous revelations of the Father's heart\nare surpassed, if it is true and only if it is true, as He Himself said,\nthat 'I and the Father are one,' can Paul's words here be anything but\nan incredible paradox. But unless these great words close and crown the\nApostle's glowing vision, it is maimed and imperfect, and Jesus\ninterposes between loving hearts and God. One could almost venture to\nbelieve that at the back of Paul's mind, when he wrote these words, was\nsome remembrance of the great prayer, 'I glorified Thee on the earth,\nhaving accomplished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.' When the Son\nis glorified we glorify the Father, and the words of our text may well\nbe remembered and laid to heart by any who will not recognise the deity\nof the Son, because it seems to them to dishonour the Father. Their\nhonour is inseparable and their glory one.\n\nThere is a sense in which Jesus is our example even in His ascent and\nexaltation, just as He was in His descent and humiliation. The mind\nwhich was in Him is for us the pattern for earthly life, though the\ndeeds in which that mind was expressed, and especially His 'obedience to\nthe death of the Cross,' are so far beyond any self-sacrifice of ours,\nand are inimitable, unique, and needing no repetition while the world\nlasts. And as we can imitate His unexampled sacrifice, so we may share\nHis divine glory, and, resting on His own faithful word, may follow the\ncalm motion of His Ascension, assured that where He is there we shall be\nalso, and that the manhood which is exalted in Him is the prophecy that\nall who love Him will share His glory. The question for us all is, have\nwe in us 'the mind that was in Christ'? and the other question is, what\nis that name to us? Can we say, 'Thy mighty name salvation is'? If in\nour deepest hearts we grasp that name, and with unfaltering lips can say\nthat 'there is none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we\nmust be saved but the name of Jesus,' then we shall know that\n\n 'To us with Thy dear name are given,\n Pardon, and holiness, and heaven.'\n\n\n\n\nWORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION\n\n 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,\n 13. For it is God which worketh in you both to\n will and to do of His good pleasure.'--PHIL. ii.\n 12, 13.\n\n\n'What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder!' Here are,\njoined together, in the compass of one practical exhortation, the truths\nwhich, put asunder, have been the war-cries and shibboleths of\ncontending sects ever since. _Faith_ in a finished salvation, and yet\n_work_; God working all _in_ me, and yet I able and bound to work\nlikewise; God upholding and sustaining His child to the very end;\n'perfecting that which concerns him,' making his salvation certain and\nsure, and yet the Christian working 'with fear and trembling,' lest he\nshould be a castaway and come short of the grace of God;--who does not\nrecognise in these phrases the mottoes that have been written on the\nopposing banners in many a fierce theological battle, waged with much\nharm to both sides, and ending in no clear victory for either? Yet here\nthey are blended in the words of one who was no less profound a thinker\nthan any that have come after, and who had the gift of a divine\ninspiration to boot.\n\nNot less remarkable than the fusion here of apparent antagonisms, the\nharmonising of apparent opposites, is the intensely practical character\nof the purpose for which they are adduced at all. Paul has no idea of\ngiving his disciples a lesson in abstract theology, or laying for them a\nfoundation of a philosophy of free will and divine sovereignty; he is\nnot merely communicating to these Philippians truths for their creed,\nbut precepts for their deeds. The Bible knows nothing of an unpractical\ntheology, but, on the other hand, the Bible knows still less of an\nuntheological morality. It digs deep, bottoming the simplest right\naction upon right thinking, and going down to the mountain bases on\nwhich the very pillars of the universe rest, in order to lay there, firm\nand immovable, the courses of the temple of a holy life. Just as little\nas Scripture gives countenance to the error that makes religion theology\nrather than life, just so little does it give countenance to the far\nmore contemptible and shallower error common in our day, which _says_,\nReligion is not theology, but life; and _means_, 'Therefore, it does\nnot matter what theology you have, you can work a good life out with any\ncreed!' The Bible never teaches unpractical speculations, and the Bible\nnever gives precepts which do not rest on the profoundest truths. Would\nGod, brethren, that we all had souls as wide as would take in the whole\nof the many-sided scriptural representation of the truths of the Gospel,\nand so avoid the narrowness of petty, partial views of God's infinite\ncounsel; and that we had as close, direct, and as free communication\nbetween head, and heart, and hand, as the Scripture has between precept\nand practice!\n\nBut in reference more especially to my text. Keeping in view these two\npoints I have already suggested, namely,--that it is the reconciling of\napparent opposites, and that it is intensely practical, I find in it\nthese three thoughts;--First, a Christian has his whole salvation\naccomplished for him, and yet he is to work it out. Secondly, a\nChristian has everything done in him by God, and yet he is to work.\nLastly, a Christian has his salvation certainly secured, and yet he is\nto fear and tremble.\n\nI. In the first place, A Christian man has his whole salvation already\naccomplished for him in Christ, and yet he is to work it out.\n\nThere are two points absolutely necessary to be kept in view in order to\na right understanding of the words before us, for the want of noticing\nwhich it has become the occasion of terrible mistakes. These are--the\npersons to whom it is addressed, and the force of the scriptural\nexpression 'salvation.' As to the first, this exhortation has been\nmisapplied by being addressed to those who have no claim to be\nChristians, and by having such teaching deduced from it as, You do your\npart, and God will do His; You work, and God will certainly help you;\nYou co-operate in the great work of your salvation, and you will get\ngrace and pardon through Jesus Christ. Now let us remember the very\nsimple thing, but very important to the right understanding of these\nwords, that none but Christian people have anything to do with them. To\nall others, to all who are not already resting on the finished salvation\nof Jesus Christ, this injunction is utterly inapplicable. It is\naddressed to the 'beloved, who have always obeyed'; to the 'saints in\nChrist Jesus, which are at Philippi.' The whole Epistle is addressed,\nand this injunction with the rest, to Christian men. That is the first\nthing to be remembered. If there be any of you, who have thought that\nthese words of Paul's to those who had believed on Christ contained a\nrule of action for you, though you have not rested your souls on Him,\nand exhorted you to try to win salvation by your own doings, let me\nremind you of what Christ said when the Jews came to Him in a similar\nspirit and asked Him, 'What shall we do that we may work the works of\nGod?' His answer to them was, and His answer to you, my brother, is,\n'_This_ is the work of God, that ye should _believe_ in Him whom He hath\nsent.' That is the first lesson: Not _work_, but _faith_; unless there\nbe faith, no work. Unless you are a Christian, the passage has nothing\nto do with you.\n\nBut now, if this injunction be addressed to those who are looking for\ntheir salvation only to the perfect work of Christ, how can they be\nexhorted to work it out themselves? Is not the oft-recurring burden of\nPaul's teaching 'not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but\nby His mercy He saved us'? How does this text harmonise with these\nconstantly repeated assertions that Christ has done all for us, and\nthat we have nothing to do, and can do nothing? To answer this question,\nwe have to remember that that scriptural expression, 'salvation,' is\nused with considerable width and complexity of signification. It\nsometimes means the whole of the process, from the beginning to the end,\nby which we are delivered from sin in all its aspects, and are set safe\nand stable at the right hand of God. It sometimes means one or other of\nthree different parts of that process--either deliverance from the\nguilt, punishment, condemnation of sin; or secondly, the gradual process\nof deliverance from its power in our own hearts; or thirdly, the\ncompletion of that process by the final and perfect deliverance from sin\nand sorrow, from death and the body, from earth and all its weariness\nand troubles, which is achieved when we are landed on the other side of\nthe river. Salvation, in one aspect, is a thing _past_ to the Christian;\nin another, it is a thing _present_; in a third, it is a thing _future_.\nBut all these three are one; all are elements of the one\ndeliverance--the one mighty and perfect act which includes them all.\n\nThese three all come equally from Christ Himself. These three all depend\nequally on His work and His power. These three are all given to a\nChristian man in the first act of faith. But the attitude in which he\nstands in reference to that _accomplished_ salvation which means\ndeliverance from sin as a penalty and a curse, and that in which he\nstands to the continuing and progressive salvation which means\ndeliverance from the power of evil in his own heart, are somewhat\ndifferent. In regard to the one, he has only to take the finished\nblessing. He has to exercise faith and faith alone. He has nothing to\ndo, nothing to add, in order to fit himself for it, but simply to\nreceive the gift of God, and to believe on Him whom He hath sent. But\nthen, though that reception involves what shall come after it, and\nthough every one who has and holds the first thing, the pardon of his\ntransgression, has and holds thereby and therein his growing sanctifying\nand his final glory, yet the salvation which means our being delivered\nfrom the evil that is in our hearts, and having our souls made like unto\nChrist, is one which--free gift though it be--is not ours on the sole\ncondition of an initial act of faith, but is ours on the condition of\ncontinuous faithful reception and daily effort, not in our own strength,\nbut in God's strength, to become like Him, and to make our own that\nwhich God has given us, and which Christ is continually bestowing upon\nus.\n\nThe two things, then, are not inconsistent--an accomplished salvation, a\nfull, free, perfect redemption, with which a man has nothing to do at\nall, but to take it;--and, on the other hand, the injunction to them who\nhave received this divine gift: 'Work out your own salvation.' Work, as\nwell as believe, and in the daily practice of faithful obedience, in the\ndaily subjugation of your own spirits to His divine power, in the daily\ncrucifixion of your flesh with its affections and lusts, in the daily\nstraining after loftier heights of godliness and purer atmospheres of\ndevotion and love--make more thoroughly your own that which you possess.\nWork into the substance of your souls that which you _have_. Apprehend\nthat for which you are apprehended of Christ. 'Give all diligence to\nmake your calling and election sure'; and remember that not a past act\nof faith, but a present and continuous life of loving, faithful work in\nChrist, which is His and yet yours, is the 'holding fast the beginning\nof your confidence firm unto the end.'\n\nII. In the second place, God works all in us, and yet we have to work.\n\nThere can be no mistake about the good faith and firm emphasis--as of a\nman who knows his own mind, and _knows_ that his word is true--with\nwhich the Apostle holds up here the two sides of what I venture to call\nthe one truth; 'Work out your own salvation--for God works in you.'\nCommand implies power. Command and power involve duty. The freedom of\nthe Christian's action, the responsibility of the believer for his\nChristian growth in grace, the committal to the Christian man's own\nhands of the means of sanctifying, lie in that injunction, 'Work out\nyour own salvation.' Is there any faltering, any paring down or cautious\nguarding of the words, in order that they may not seem to clash with the\nother side of the truth? No: Paul does not say, 'Work it out; _yet_ it\nis God that worketh in you'; not 'Work it out _although_ it is God that\nworketh in you'; not 'Work it out, but then it must always be remembered\nand taken as a caution that it is God that worketh in you!' He blends\nthe two things together in an altogether different connection, and\nsees--strangely to some people, no contradiction, nor limitation, nor\npuzzle, but a ground of encouragement to cheerful obedience. Do you\nwork, '_for_ it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His\ngood pleasure.' And does the Apostle limit the divine operation? Notice\nhow his words seem picked out on purpose to express most emphatically\nits all-pervading energy. Look how his words seem picked out on purpose\nto express with the utmost possible emphasis that all which a good man\nis, and does, is its fruit. It is God that _worketh in_ you. That\nexpresses more than bringing outward means to bear upon heart and will.\nIt speaks of an inward, real, and efficacious operation of the\nIndwelling Spirit of all energy on the spirit in which He dwells.\n'Worketh in you _to will_'; this expresses more than the presentation of\nmotives from without, it points to a direct action on the will, by which\nimpulses are originated within. God puts in you the first faint motions\nof a better will. 'Worketh in you, doing as well as willing'; this\npoints to all practical obedience, to all external acts as flowing from\nHis grace in us, no less than all inward good thoughts and holy desires.\n\nIt is not that God gives men the power, and then leaves them to make the\nuse of it. It is not that the desire and purpose come forth from Him,\nand that then we are left to ourselves to be faithful or unfaithful\nstewards in carrying it out. The whole process, from the first sowing of\nthe seed until its last blossoming and fruiting, in the shape of an\naccomplished act, of which God shall bless the springing--it is all\nGod's together! There is a thorough-going, absolute attribution of every\npower, every action, all the thoughts words, and deeds of a Christian\nsoul, to God. No words could be selected which would more thoroughly cut\naway the ground from every half-and-half system which attempts to deal\nthem out in two portions, part God's and part mine. With all emphasis\nPaul attributes all to God.\n\nAnd none the less strongly does he teach, by the implication contained\nin his earnest injunction, that human responsibility, that human control\nover the human will, and that reality of human agency which are often\nthought to be annihilated by these broad views of God as originating all\ngood in the soul and life. The Apostle thought that this doctrine did\nnot absorb all our individuality in one great divine Cause which made\nmen mere tools and puppets. He did not believe that the inference from\nit was, 'Therefore do you sit still, and feel yourselves the cyphers\nthat you are.' His practical conclusion is the very opposite. It is--God\ndoes all, therefore do you work. His belief in the power of God's grace\nwas the foundation of the most intense conviction of the reality and\nindispensableness of his own power, and was the motive which stimulated\nhim to vigorous action. Work, for God works in you.\n\nEach of these truths rests firmly on its own appropriate evidence. My\nown consciousness tells me that I am free, that I have power, that I am\ntherefore responsible and exposed to punishment for neglect of duty. I\nknow what I mean when I speak of the will of God, because I myself am\nconscious of a will. The power of God is an object of intelligent\nthought to me, because I myself am conscious of power. And on the other\nhand, that belief in a God which is one of the deep and universal\nbeliefs of men contains in it, when it comes to be thought about, the\nbelief in Him as the source of all power, as the great cause of all. If\nI believe in a God at all, I must believe that He whom I so call,\nworketh all things after the counsel of His own will. These two\nconvictions are both given to us in the primitive beliefs which belong\nto us all. The one rests on consciousness, and underlies all our moral\njudgments. The other rests on an original belief, which belongs to man\nas such. These two mighty pillars on which all morality and all\nreligion repose have their foundations down deep in our nature, and\ntower up beyond our sight. They seem to stand opposite to each other,\nbut it is only as the strong piers of some tall arch are opposed.\nBeneath they repose on one foundation, above they join together in the\ncompleting keystone and bear the whole steady structure.\n\nWise and good men have toiled to harmonise them, in vain. The task\ntranscends the limits of human faculties, as exercised here, at all\nevents. Perhaps the time may come when we shall be lifted high enough to\nsee the binding arch, but here on earth we can only behold the shafts on\neither side. The history of controversy on the matter surely proves\nabundantly what a hopeless task they undertake who attempt to reconcile\nthese truths. The attempt has usually consisted in speaking the one\nloudly and the other in a whisper, and then the opposite side has\nthundered what had been whispered, and has whispered very softly what\nhad been shouted very loudly. One party lays hold of the one pole of the\nark, and the other lays hold of that on the other side. The fancied\nreconciliation consists in paring down one half of the full-orbed truth\nto nothing, or in admitting it in words while every principle of the\nreconciler's system demands its denial. Each antagonist is strong in his\nassertions, and weak in his denials, victorious when he establishes his\nhalf of the whole, easily defeated when he tries to overthrow his\nopponent's.\n\nThis apparent incompatibility is no reason for rejecting truths each\ncommended to our acceptance on its own proper grounds. It may be a\nreason for not attempting to dogmatise about them. It may be a warning\nto us that we are on ground where our limited understandings have no\nfirm footing, but it is no ground for suspecting the evidence which\ncertifies the truths. The Bible admits and enforces them both. It never\ntones down the emphasis of its statement of the one for fear of clashing\nagainst the other, but points to us the true path for thought, in a firm\ngrasp of both, in the abandonment of all attempts to reconcile them, and\nfor practical conduct, in the peaceful trust in God who hath wrought all\nour works in us, and in strenuous working out of our own salvation. Let\nus, as we look back on that battlefield where much wiser men than we\nhave fought in vain, doing little but raising up 'a little dust that is\nlightly laid again,' and building trophies that are soon struck down,\nlearn the lesson it teaches, and be contented to say, The short cord of\nmy plummet does not quite go down to the bottom of the bottomless, and I\ndo not profess either to understand God or to understand man, both of\nwhich I should want to do before I understood the mystery of their\nconjoint action. Enough for me to believe that,\n\n 'If any force we have, it is to ill,\n And all the power is God's, to do and eke to will.'\n\nEnough for me to know that I have solemn duties laid upon me, a life's\ntask to be done, my deliverance from mine own evil to work out, and that\nI shall only accomplish that work when I can say with the Apostle, 'I\nlive, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.'\n\nGod is all, but _thou_ canst work! My brother, take this belief, that\nGod worketh all in you, for the ground of your confidence, and feel that\nunless He do all, you can do nothing. Take this conviction, that thou\ncanst work, for the spur and stimulus of thy life, and think, These\ndesires in my soul come from a far deeper source than the little cistern\nof my own individual life. They are God's gift. Let me cherish them with\nthe awful carefulness which their origin requires, lest I should seem to\nhave received the grace of God in vain. These two streams of truth are\nlike the rain-shower that falls upon the watershed of a country. The one\nhalf flows down the one side of the everlasting hills, and the other\ndown the other. Falling into rivers that water different continents,\nthey at length find the sea, separated by the distance of half the\nglobe. But the sea into which they fall is one, in every creek and\nchannel. And so, the truth into which these two apparent opposites\nconverge, is 'the depth of the wisdom and the knowledge of God,' whose\nways are past finding out--the Author of all goodness, who, if we have\nany holy thought, has given it us; if we have any true desire, has\nimplanted it; has given us the strength to do the right and to live in\nHis fear; and who yet, doing all the willing and the doing, says to us,\n'Because I do everything, therefore let not _thy_ will be paralysed, or\n_thy_ hand palsied; but because I do everything, therefore will _thou_\naccording to My will, and do _thou_ according to My commandments!'\n\nIII. Lastly: The Christian has his salvation secured, and yet he is to\nfear and tremble.\n\n'Fear and trembling.' 'But,' you may say, 'perfect love casts out fear.'\nSo it does. The fear which has torment it casts out. But there is\nanother fear in which there is no torment, brethren; a fear and\ntrembling which is but another shape of confidence and calm hope!\nScripture does tell us that the believing man's salvation is certain.\nScripture tells us it is certain since he believes. And your faith can\nbe worth nothing unless it have, bedded deep in it, that trembling\ndistrust of your own power which is the pre-requisite and the companion\nof all thankful and faithful reception of God's infinite mercy. Your\nhorizon ought to be full of fear, if your gaze be limited to yourself;\nbut oh! above our earthly horizon with its fogs, God's infinite blue\nstretches untroubled by the mist and cloud which are earth-born. I, as\nworking, have need to tremble and to fear, but I, as wrought upon, have\na right to confidence and hope, a hope that is full of immortality, and\nan assurance which is the pledge of its own fulfilment. The worker is\nnothing, the Worker in him is all. Fear and trembling, when the thoughts\nturn to mine own sins and weaknesses, hope and confidence when they turn\nto the happier vision of God! 'Not I'--there is the tremulous\nself-distrust; 'the grace of God in me'--there is the calm assurance of\nvictory. Forasmuch, then, as God worketh all things, be _you_ diligent,\nfaithful, prayerful, confident. Forasmuch as Christ has perfected the\nwork for you, do _you_ 'go on unto perfection.' Let all fear and\ntrembling be yours, as a man; let all confidence and calm trust be yours\nas a child of God. Turn your confidence and your fears alike into\nprayer. 'Perfect, O Lord, that which concerneth me; forsake not the work\nof Thine own hands!'--and the prayer will evoke the merciful answer, 'I\nwill never leave thee, nor forsake thee God is faithful, who hath called\nyou unto the Gospel of His Son; and _will_ keep you unto His everlasting\nkingdom of glory.'\n\n\n\n\nCOPIES OF JESUS\n\n 'Do all things without murmurings and disputings;\n 15. That ye may be blameless and harmless,\n children of God without blemish in the midst of a\n crooked and perverse generation, among whom ye are\n seen as lights in the world, 16. Holding forth the\n word of life.'--PHIL. ii. 14-16 (R.V.).\n\n\nWe are told by some superfine modern moralists, that to regard one's own\nsalvation as the great work of our lives is a kind of selfishness, and\nno doubt there may be a colour of truth in the charge. At least the\nmeaning of the injunction to work out our own salvation may have been\nsometimes so misunderstood, and there have been types of Christian\ncharacter, such as the ascetic and monastic, which have made the\nrepresentation plausible. I do not think that there is much danger of\nanybody so misunderstanding the precept now. But it is worthy of notice\nthat there stand here side by side two paragraphs, in the former of\nwhich the effort to work out one's own salvation is urged in the\nstrongest terms, and in the other of which the regard for others is\npredominant. We shall see that the connection between these two is not\naccidental, but that one great reason for working out our salvation is\nhere set forth as being the good we may thereby do to others.\n\nI. We note the one great duty of cheerful yielding to God's will.\n\nIt is clear, I think, that the precept to do 'all things without\nmurmurings and disputings' stands in the closest connection with what\ngoes before. It is, in fact, the explanation of how salvation is to be\nwrought out. It presents the human side which corresponds to the divine\nactivity, which has just been so earnestly insisted on. God works in us\n'willing and doing,' let us on our parts do with ready submission all\nthe things which He so inspires to will and to do.\n\nThe 'murmurings' are not against men but against God. The 'disputings'\nare not wrangling with others but the division of mind in one's\nself-questionings, hesitations, and the like. So the one are more moral,\nthe other more intellectual, and together they represent the ways in\nwhich Christian men may resist the action on their spirits of God's\nSpirit, 'willing,' or the action of God's providence on their\ncircumstances, 'doing.' Have we never known what it was to have some\ncourse manifestly prescribed to us as right, from which we have shrunk\nwith reluctance of will? If some course has all at once struck us as\nwrong which we had been long accustomed to do without hesitation, has\nthere been no 'murmuring' before we yielded? A voice has said to us,\n'Give up such and such a habit,' or 'such and such a pursuit is becoming\ntoo engrossing': do we not all know what it is not only to feel\nobedience an effort, but even to cherish reluctance, and to let it\nstifle the voice?\n\nThere are often 'disputings' which do not get the length of\n'murmurings.' The old word which tried to weaken the plain imperative of\nthe first command by the subtle suggestion, 'Yea, hath God said?' still\nis whispered into our ears. We know what it is to answer God's commands\nwith a 'But, Lord.' A reluctant will is clever to drape itself with more\nor less honest excuses, and the only safety is in cheerful obedience and\nglad submission. The will of God ought not only to receive obedience,\nbut prompt obedience, and such instantaneous and whole-souled submission\nis indispensable if we are to 'work out our own salvation,' and to\npresent an attitude of true, receptive correspondence to that of God,\nwho 'works in us both to will and to do of His own good pleasure.' Our\nsurrender of ourselves into the hands of God, in respect both to inward\nand outward things, should be complete. As has been profoundly said,\nthat surrender consists 'in a continual forsaking and losing all self in\nthe will of God, willing only what God from eternity has willed,\nforgetting what is past, giving up the time present to God, and leaving\nto His providence that which is to come, making ourselves content in the\nactual moment seeing it brings along with it the eternal order of God\nconcerning us' (Madame Guyon).\n\nII. The conscious aim in all our activity.\n\nWhat God works in us for is that for which we too are to yield ourselves\nto His working, 'without murmurings and disputings,' and to co-operate\nwith glad submission and cheerful obedience. We are to have as our\ndistinct aim the building up of a character 'blameless and harmless,\nchildren of God without rebuke.' The blamelessness is probably in\nreference to men's judgment rather than to God's, and the difficulty of\ncoming untarnished from contact with the actions and criticisms of a\ncrooked and perverse generation is emphasised by the very fact that such\nblamelessness is the first requirement for Christian conduct. It was a\nfeather in Daniel's cap that the president and princes were foiled in\ntheir attempt to pick holes in his conduct, and had to confess that they\nwould not 'find any occasion against him, except we find it concerning\nthe laws of his God.' God is working in us in order that our lives\nshould be such that malice is dumb in their presence. Are we\nco-operating with Him? We are bound to satisfy the world's requirements\nof Christian character. They are sharp critics and sometimes\nunreasonable, but on the whole it would not be a bad rule for Christian\npeople, 'Do what irreligious men expect you to do.' The worst man knows\nmore than the best man practises, and his conscience is quick to decide\nthe course for other people. Our weaknesses and compromises, and love of\nthe world, might receive a salutary rebuke if we would try to meet the\nexpectations which 'the man in the street' forms of us.\n\n'Harmless' is more correctly pure, all of a piece, homogeneous and\nentire. It expresses what the Christian life should be in itself, whilst\nthe former designation describes it more as it appears. The piece of\ncloth is to be so evenly and carefully woven that if held up against the\nlight it will show no flaws nor knots. Many a professing Christian life\nhas a veneer of godliness nailed thinly over a solid bulk of\nselfishness. There are many goods in the market finely dressed so as to\nhide that the warp is cotton and only the weft silk. No Christian man\nwho has memory and self-knowledge can for a moment claim to have reached\nthe height of his ideal; the best of us, at the best, are like\nNebuchadnezzar's image, whose feet were iron and clay, but we ought to\nstrain after it and to remember that a stain shows most on the whitest\nrobe. What made David's sin glaring and memorable was its contradiction\nof his habitual nobler self. One spot more matters little on a robe\nalready covered with many. The world is fully warranted in pointing\ngleefully or contemptuously at Christians' inconsistencies, and we have\nno right to find fault with their most pointed sarcasms, or their\nseverest judgments. It is those 'that bear the vessels of the Lord'\nwhose burden imposes on them the duty 'be ye clean,' and makes any\nuncleanness more foul in them than in any other.\n\nThe Apostle sets forth the place and function of Christians in the\nworld, by bringing together in the sharpest contrast the 'children of\nGod' and a 'crooked and perverse generation.' He is thinking of the old\ndescription in Deuteronomy, where the ancient Israel is charged with\nforgetting 'Thy Father that hath bought thee,' and as showing by their\ncorruption that they are a 'perverse and crooked generation.' The\nancient Israel had been the Son of God, and yet had corrupted itself;\nthe Christian Israel are 'sons of God' set among a world all deformed,\ntwisted, perverted. 'Perverse' is a stronger word than 'crooked,' which\nlatter may be a metaphor for moral obliquity, like our own right and\nwrong, or perhaps points to personal deformity. Be that as it may, the\nposition which the Apostle takes is plain enough. He regards the two\nclasses as broadly separated in antagonism in the very roots of their\nbeing. Because the 'sons of God' are set in the midst of that 'crooked\nand perverse generation' constant watchfulness is needed lest they\nshould conform, constant resort to their Father lest they should lose\nthe sense of sonship, and constant effort that they may witness of Him.\n\nIII. The solemn reason for this aim.\n\nThat is drawn from a consideration of the office and function of\nChristian men. Their position in the midst of a 'crooked and perverse\ngeneration' devolves on them a duty in relation to that generation. They\nare to 'appear as lights in the world.' The relation between them and it\nis not merely one of contrast, but on their parts one of witness and\nexample. The metaphor of light needs no explanation. We need only note\nthat the word, 'are seen' or 'appear,' is indicative, a statement of\nfact, not imperative, a command. As the stars lighten the darkness with\ntheir myriad lucid points, so in the divine ideal Christian men are to\nbe as twinkling lights in the abyss of darkness. Their light rays forth\nwithout effort, being an involuntary efflux. Possibly the old paradox of\nthe Psalmist was in the Apostle's mind, which speaks of the eloquent\nsilence, in which 'there is no speech nor language, and their voice is\nnot heard,' but yet 'their line has gone out through all the earth, and\ntheir words unto the end of the world.'\n\nChristian men appear as lights by 'holding forth the word of life.' In\nthemselves they have no brightness but that which comes from raying out\nthe light that is in them. The word of life must live, giving life in\nus, if we are ever to be seen as 'lights in the world.' As surely as the\nelectric light dies out of a lamp when the current is switched off, so\nsurely shall we be light only when we are 'in the Lord.' There are many\nso-called Christians in this day who stand tragically unaware that their\n'lamps are gone out.' When the sun rises and smites the mountain tops\nthey burn, when its light falls on Memnon's stony lips they breathe out\nmusic, 'Arise, shine, for thy light has come.'\n\nUndoubtedly one way of 'holding forth the word of life' must be to speak\nthe word, but silent living 'blameless and harmless' and leaving the\nsecret of the life very much to tell itself is perhaps the best way for\nmost Christian people to bear witness. Such a witness is constant,\ndiffused wherever the witness-bearer is seen, and free from the\ndifficulties that beset speech, and especially from the assumption of\nsuperiority which often gives offence. It was the sight of 'your good\ndeeds' to which Jesus pointed as the strongest reason for men's\n'glorifying your Father.' If we lived such lives there would be less\nneed for preachers. 'If any will not hear the word they may without the\nword be won.' And reasonably so, for Christianity is a life and cannot\nbe all told in words, and the Gospel is the proclamation of freedom from\nsin, and is best preached and proved by showing that we are free. The\nGospel was lived as well as spoken. Christ's life was Christ's mightiest\npreaching.\n\n 'The word was flesh and wrought\n With human hands the creed of creeds.'\n\nIf we keep near to Him we too shall witness, and if our faces shine like\nMoses' as he came down from the mountain, or like Stephen's in the\ncouncil chamber, men will 'take knowledge of us that we have been with\nJesus.'\n\n\n\n\nA WILLING SACRIFICE\n\n 'That I may have whereof to glory in the day of\n Christ, that I did not run in vain neither labour\n in vain. 17. Yea, and if I am offered upon the\n sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and\n rejoice with you all. 18. And in the same manner\n do ye also joy, and rejoice with me.'--PHIL. ii.\n 16-18 (R.V.).\n\n\nWe come here to another of the passages in which the Apostle pours out\nall his heart to his beloved Church. Perhaps there never was a Christian\nteacher (always excepting Christ) who spoke more about himself than\nPaul. His own experience was always at hand for illustration. His\npreaching was but the generalisation of his life. He had felt it all\nfirst, before he threw it into the form of doctrine. It is very hard to\nkeep such a style from becoming egotism.\n\nThis paragraph is remarkable, especially if we consider that this is\nintroduced as a motive to their faithfulness, that thereby they will\ncontribute to his joy at the last great testing. There must have been a\nvery deep love between Paul and the Philippians to make such words as\nthese true and appropriate. They open the very depths of his heart in a\nway from which a less noble and fervid nature would have shrunk, and\nexpress his absolute consecration in his work, and his eager desire for\ntheir spiritual good, with such force as would have been exaggeration in\nmost men.\n\nWe have here a wonderful picture of the relation between him and the\nchurch at Philippi which may well stand as a pattern for us all. I do\nnot mean to parallel our relations with that between him and them, but\nit is sufficiently analogous to make these words very weighty and solemn\nfor us.\n\nI. The Philippians' faithfulness Paul's glory in the day of Christ.\n\nThe Apostle strikes a solemn note, which was always sounding through his\nlife, when he points to that great Day of Christ as the time when his\nwork was to be tested. The thought of that gave earnestness to all his\nservice, and in conjunction with the joyful thought that, however his\nwork might be marred by failures and flaws, he himself was 'accepted in\nthe beloved,' was the impulse which carried him on through a life than\nwhich none of Christ's servants have dared, and done, and suffered more\nfor Him. Paul believed that, according to the results of that test, his\nposition would in some sort be determined. Of course he does not here\ncontradict the foundation principle of his whole Gospel, that salvation\nis not the result of our own works, or virtues, but is the free\nunmerited gift of Christ's grace. But while that is true, it is none the\nless true, that the degree in which believers receive that gift depends\non their Christian character, both in their life on earth and in the day\nof Christ. One element in that character is faithful work for Jesus.\nFaithful work indeed is not necessarily successful work, and many who\nare welcomed by Jesus, the judge, will have the memory of many\ndisappointments and few harvested grains. It was not a reaper, 'bringing\nhis sheaves with him,' who stayed himself against the experience of\nfailure, by the assurance, 'Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be\nglorious in the eyes of the Lord.' If our want of success, and others'\nlapse, and apostasy or coldness has not been occasioned by any fault of\nours, there will be no diminution of our reward. But we can so seldom be\nsure of that, and even then there will be an absence of what might have\nadded to gladness.\n\nWe need not do more than note that the text plainly implies, that at\nthat testing time men's knowledge of all that they did, and the results\nof it, will be complete. Marvellous as it seems to us, with our\nfragmentary memories, and the great tracts of our lives through which we\nhave passed mechanically, and which seem to have left no trace on the\nmirror of our consciousness, we still, all of us, have experiences which\nmake that all-recovering memory credible. Some passing association, a\nlook, a touch, an odour, a sun-set sky, a chord of music will bring\nbefore us some trivial long-forgotten incident or emotion, as the chance\nthrust of a boat-hook will draw to the surface by its hair, a\nlong-drowned corpse. If we are, as assuredly we are, writing with\ninvisible ink our whole life's history on the pages of our own minds,\nand if we shall have to read them all over again one day, is it not\ntragic that most of us scribble the pages so hastily and carelessly, and\nforget that, 'what I have written I have written,' and what I have\nwritten I must read.\n\nBut there is another way of looking at Paul's words as being an\nindication of his warm love for the Philippians. Even among the glories,\nhe would feel his heart filled with new gladness when he found them\nthere. The hunger for the good of others which cannot bear to think even\nof heaven without their presence has been a master note of all true\nChristian teachers, and without it there will be little of the toil, of\nwhich Paul speaks in the context, 'running and labouring.' He that would\nwin men's hearts for any great cause must give his heart to them.\n\nThat Paul should have felt warranted in using such a motive with the\nPhilippians tells how surely he reckoned on their true and deep love. He\nbelieves that they care enough for him to feel the power as a motive\nwith them, that their faithfulness will make Paul more blessed amidst\nthe blessings of heaven. Oh! if such love knit together all Christian\nteachers and their hearers in this time, and if the 'Day of Christ'\nburned before them, as it did before him, and if the vision stirred to\nsuch running and labouring as his, teachers and taught would oftener\nhave to say, 'We are your rejoicing, even as ye are also ours in the Day\nof our Lord Jesus.' The voice of the man who is in the true 'Apostolic\nSuccession' will dare to make the appeal, knowing that it will call\nforth an abundant answer, 'Look to yourselves that we lose not the\nthings which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.'\n\nII. Paul's death an aid to the Philippians' faith.\n\nThe general meaning of the Apostle's words is, 'If I have not only to\nrun and labour, but to die in the discharge of my Apostolic Mission, I\njoy and rejoice, and I bid you rejoice with me.' We need only note that\nthe Apostle here casts his language into the forms consecrated for\nsacrifice. He will not speak of death by its own ugly and threadbare\nname, but thinks of himself as a devoted victim, and of his death as\nmaking the sacrifice complete. In the figure there is a solemn scorn of\ndeath, and at the same time a joyful recognition that it is the means of\nbringing him more nearly to God, with whom he would fain be. It is\ninteresting, as showing the persistence of these thoughts in the\nApostle's mind, that the word rendered in our text 'offered,' which\nfully means 'poured out as a drink offering,' occurs again in the same\nconnection in the great words of the swan song in II. Timothy, 'I am\nalready being offered, and the time of my departure is come.' Death\nlooked to him, when he looked it in the eyes, and the block was close by\nhim, as it had done when he spoke of it to his Philippian friends.\n\nIt is to be noted, in order to bring out more vividly the force of the\nfigure, that Paul here speaks of the libation being poured '_on_' the\nsacrifice, as was the practice in heathen ritual. The sacrifice is the\nvictim, 'service' is the technical word for priestly ministration, and\nthe general meaning is, 'If my blood is poured out as a drink offering\non the sacrifice ministered by you, which is your faith, I joy with you\nall.' This man had no fear of death, and no shrinking from 'leaving the\nwarm precincts of the cheerful day.' He was equally ready to live or to\ndie as might best serve the name of Jesus, for to him 'to live was\nChrist,' and therefore to him it could be nothing but 'gain' to die.\nHere he seems to be treating his death as a possibility, but as a\npossibility only, for almost immediately afterwards he says, that he\n'trusts in the Lord that I myself will come shortly.' It is interesting\nto notice the contrast between his mood of mind here and that in the\nprevious chapter (i. 25) where the 'desire to depart and to be with\nChrist' is deliberately suppressed, because his continuous life is\nregarded as essential for the Philippians' 'progress and joy in faith.'\nHere he discerns that perhaps his death would do more for their faith\nthan would his life, and being ready for either alternative he welcomes\nthe possibility. May we not see in the calm heart, which is at leisure\nto think of death in such a fashion, a pattern for us all? Remember how\nnear and real his danger was. Nero was not in the habit of letting a\nman, whose head had been in the mouth of the lion, take it out unhurt.\nPaul is no eloquent writer or poet playing with the idea of death, and\ntrying to say pretty things about it, but a man who did not know when\nthe blow would come, but _did_ know that it would come before long.\n\nWe may point here to the two great thoughts in Paul's words, and notice\nthe priesthood and sacrifice of life, and the sacrifice and libation of\ndeath. The Philippians offered as their sacrifice their faith, and all\nthe works which flow therefrom. Is that our idea of life? Is it our idea\nof faith? We have no gifts to bring, we come empty-handed unless we\ncarry in our hands the offering of our faith, which includes the\nsurrender of our will, and the giving away of our hearts, and is\nessentially laying hold of Christ's sacrifice. When we come empty,\nneedy, sinful, but cleaving wholly to that perfect sacrifice of the\nGreat Priest, we too become priests and our poor gift is accepted.\n\nBut another possibility than that of a life of running and labour\npresented itself to Paul, and it is a revelation of the tranquillity of\nhis heart in the midst of impending danger, all the more pathetic\nbecause it is entirely unconscious, that he should be free to cast his\nanticipations into that calm metaphor of being, 'offered upon the\nsacrifice and service of your faith.' His heart beats no faster, nor\ndoes the faintest shadow of reluctance cross his will, when he thinks of\nhis death. All the repulsive accompaniments of a Roman execution fade\naway from his imagination. These are but negligible accidents; the\nsubstantial reality which obscures them all is that his blood will be\npoured out as a libation, and that by it his brethren's faith will be\nstrengthened. To this man death had finally and completely ceased to be\na terror, and had become what it should be to all Christians, a\nvoluntary surrender to God, an offering to Him, an act of worship, of\ntrust, and of thankful praise. Seneca, in his death, poured out a\nlibation to Jupiter the Liberator, and if we could only know beforehand\nwhat death delivers us from, and admits us to, we should not be so prone\nto call it 'the last enemy.' What Paul's death was for himself in the\nprocess of his perfecting called forth, and warranted, the 'joy' with\nwhich he anticipated it. It did no more for him than it will do for each\nof us, and if our vision were as clear, and our faith as firm as his, we\nshould be more ready than, alas! we too often are, to catch up the\nexulting note with which he hails the possibility of its coming.\n\nBut it is not the personal bearing only of his death that gives him joy.\nHe thinks of it mainly as contributing to the furtherance of the faith\nof others. For that end he was spending the effort and toil of an\neffortful and toilsome life, and was equally ready to meet a violent and\nshameful death. He knew that 'the blood of the martyrs is the seed of\nthe Church,' and rejoiced, and called upon his brethren also to 'joy\nand rejoice' with him in his shedding of his martyr's blood.\n\nThe Philippians might well have thought, as we all are tempted to think,\nthat the withdrawal of those round whom our hearts desperately cling,\nand who seem to us to bring love and trust nearer to us, can only be\nloss, but surely the example in our text may well speak to our hearts of\nthe way in which we should look at death for ourselves, and for our\ndearest. Their very withdrawal may send us nearer to Christ. The holy\nmemories which linger in the sky, like the radiance of a sunken sun, may\nclothe familiar truths with unfamiliar power and loveliness. The thought\nof where the departed have gone may lift our thoughts wistfully thither\nwith a new feeling of home. The path that they have trodden may become\nless strange to us, and the victory that they have won may prophesy that\nwe too shall be 'more than conquerors through Him that loveth us.' So\nthe mirror broken may turn us to the sun, and the passing of the dearest\nthat can die may draw us to the Dearer who lives.\n\nPaul, living, rejoiced in the prospect of death. We may be sure that he\nrejoiced in it no less dead than living. And we may permissibly think of\nthis text as suggesting how\n\n 'The saints on earth and all the dead\n But one communion make,'\n\nand are to be united in one joy. They rejoice for their own sakes, but\ntheir joy is not self-absorbed, and so putting them farther away from\nus. They look back upon earth, the runnings and labourings of the\nunforgotten life here; and are glad to bear in their hearts the\nindubitable token that they have 'not run in vain neither laboured in\nvain.' But surely the depth of their own repose will not make them\nindifferent to those who are still in the midst of struggle and toil,\nnor the fulness of their own felicity make them forget those whom they\nloved of old, and love now with the perfect love of Heaven. It is hard\nfor us to rise to complete sympathy with these serenely blessed spirits,\nbut yet we too should rejoice. Not indeed to the exclusion of sorrow,\nnor to the neglect of the great purpose to be effected in us by the\nwithdrawal, as by the presence of dear ones, the furtherance of our\nfaith, but having made sure that that purpose has been effected in us,\nwe should then give solemn thanksgivings if it has. It is sad and\nstrange to think of how opposite are the feelings about their departure,\nof those who have gone and of those who are left. Would it not be better\nthat we should try to share theirs and so bring about a true union? We\nmay be sure that their deepest desire is that we should. If some lips\nthat we shall never hear any more, till we come where they are, could\nspeak, would not they bring to us as their message from Heaven, Do 'ye\nalso joy and rejoice with me'?\n\n\n\n\nPAUL AND TIMOTHY\n\n 'But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy\n shortly unto you, that I also may be of good\n comfort, when I know your state. 20. For I have no\n man like-minded, who will care truly for your\n state. 21. For they all seek their own, not the\n things of Jesus Christ. 22. But ye know the proof\n of him, that, as a child serveth a father, so he\n served with me in furtherance of the gospel. 23.\n Him therefore I hope to send forthwith, so soon as\n I shall see how it will go with me: 24. But I\n trust in the Lord that I myself also shall come\n shortly.'--PHIL. ii. 19-24 (R.V.).\n\n\nLike all great men Paul had a wonderful power of attaching followers to\nhimself. The mass of the planet draws in small aerolites which catch\nfire as they pass through its atmosphere. There is no more beautiful\npage in the history of the early Church than the story of Paul and his\ncompanions. They gathered round him with such devotion, and followed him\nwith such love. They were not small men. Luke and Aquila were among\nthem, and they would have been prominent in most companies, but gladly\ntook a place second to Paul. He impressed his own personality and his\ntype of teaching on his followers as Luther did on his, and as many\nanother great teacher has done.\n\nAmong all these Timothy seems to have held a special place. Paul first\nfound him on his second journey either at Derbe or Lystra. His mother,\nEunice, was already a believer, his father a Greek. Timothy seems to\nhave been converted on Paul's first visit, for on his second he was\nalready a disciple well reported of, and Paul more than once calls him\nhis 'son in the faith.' He seems to have come in to take John Mark's\nplace as the Apostle's 'minister,' and from that time to have been\nusually Paul's trusted attendant. We hear of him as with the Apostle on\nhis first visit to Philippi, and to have gone with him to Thessalonica\nand Beroea, but then to have been parted until Corinth. Thence Paul\nwent quickly up to Jerusalem and back to Antioch, from which he set out\nagain to visit the churches, and made a special stay in Ephesus. While\nthere he planned a visit to Macedonia and Achaia, in preparation for one\nto Jerusalem, and finally to Rome. So he sent Timothy and Erastus on\nahead to Macedonia, which would of course include Philippi. After that\nvisit to Macedonia and Greece Paul returned to Philippi, from which he\nsailed with Timothy in his company. He was probably with him all the way\nto Rome, and we find him mentioned as sharer in the imprisonment both\nhere and in Colossians.\n\nThe references made to him point to a very sweet, good, pure and\ngracious character without much strength, needing to be stayed and\nstiffened by the stronger character, but full of sympathy, unselfish\ndisregard of self, and consecrated love to Christ. He had been\nsurrounded with a hallowed atmosphere from his youth, and 'from a child\nhad known the holy Scriptures,' and 'prophecies' like fluttering doves\nhad gone before on him. He had 'often infirmities' and 'tears.' He\nneeded to be roused to 'stir up the gift that was in him,' and braced up\n'not to be ashamed,' but to fight against the disabling 'spirit of\nfear,' and to be 'strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.'\n\nThe bond between these two was evidently very close, and the Apostle\nfelt something of a paternal interest in the very weakness of character\nwhich was in such contrast to his own strength, and which obviously\ndreaded the discouragement which was likely to be produced by his own\nmartyrdom. This favourite companion he will now send to his favourite\nchurch. The verses of our text express that intention, and give us a\nglimpse into the Apostle's thoughts and feelings in his imprisonment.\n\nI. The prisoner's longing and hope.\n\nThe first point which strikes us in this self-revelation of Paul's is\nhis conscious uncertainty as to his future. In the previous chapter\n(ver. 25) he is confident that he will live. In the verses immediately\npreceding our text he faces the possibility of death. Here he recognises\nthe uncertainty but still 'trusts' that he will be liberated, but yet he\ndoes not know 'how it may go with' him. We think of him in his lodging\nsometimes hoping and sometimes doubting. He had a tyrant's caprice to\ndepend on, and knew how a moment's whim might end all. Surely his way of\nbearing that suspense was very noteworthy and noble. It is difficult to\nkeep a calm heart, and still more difficult to keep on steadily at work,\nwhen any moment might bring the victor's axe. Suspense almost enforces\nidleness, but Paul crowded these moments of his prison time with\nletters, and Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon are the\nfruits for which we are indebted to a period which would have been to\nmany men a reason for throwing aside all work.\n\nHow calmly too he speaks of the uncertain issue! Surely never was the\npossibility of death more quietly spoken of than in 'so soon as I shall\nsee how it will go with me.' That means--'as soon as my fate is decided,\nbe it what it may, I will send Timothy to tell you.' What a calm pulse\nhe must have had! There is no attitudinising here, all is perfectly\nsimple and natural. Can we look, do we habitually look, into the\nuncertain future with such a temper--accepting all that may be in its\ngrey mists, and feeling that our task is to fill the present with\nstrenuous loving service, leaving tomorrow with all its alternatives,\neven that tremendous one of life and death, to Him who will shape it to\na perfect end?\n\nWe note, further, the purpose of Paul's love. It is beautiful to see how\nhe yearns over these Philippians and feels that his joy will be\nincreased when he hears from them. He is sure, as he believes, to hear\ngood, and news which will be a comfort. Among the souls whom he bore on\nhis heart were many in the Macedonian city, and a word from them would\nbe like 'cold water to a thirsty soul.'\n\nWhat a noble suppression of self; how deep and strong the tie that bound\nhim to them must have been! Is there not a lesson here for all Christian\nworkers, for all teachers, preachers, parents, that no good is to be\ndone without loving sympathy? Unless our hearts go out to people we\nshall never reach their hearts. We may talk to them for ever, but unless\nwe have this loving sympathy we might as well be silent. It is possible\nto pelt people with the Gospel, and to produce the effect of flinging\nstones at them. Much Christian work comes to nothing mainly for that\nreason.\n\nAnd how deep a love does he show in his depriving himself of Timothy for\ntheir sakes, and in his reason for sending him! Those reasons would have\nbeen for most of us the strongest reason for keeping him. It is not\neverybody who will denude himself of the help of one who serves him 'as\na child serveth a father,' and will part with the only like-minded\nfriend he has, because his loving eye will clearly see the state of\nothers.\n\nPaul's expression of his purpose to send Timothy is very much more than\na piece of emotional piety. He 'hopes in the Lord' to accomplish his\ndesign, and that hope so rooted and conditioned is but one instance of\nthe all-comprehending law of his life, that, to him, to 'live is\nChrist.' His whole being was so interpenetrated with Christ's that all\nhis thoughts and feelings were 'in the Lord Jesus.' So should our\npurposes be. Our hopes should be derived from union with Him. They\nshould not be the play of our own fancy or imagination. They should be\nheld in submission to him, and ever with the limitation, 'Not as I will,\nbut as Thou wilt.' We should be trusting to Him to fulfil them. If thus\nwe hope, our hopes may lead us nearer to Jesus instead of tempting us\naway from Him by delusive brightnesses. There is a religious use of hope\nnot only when it is directed to heavenly certainties, and 'enters within\nthe veil,' but even when occupied about earthly things. Spenser twice\npaints for us the figure of Hope, one has always something of dread in\nher blue eyes, the other, and the other only, leans on the anchor, and\n'maketh not ashamed'; and her name is 'Hope in the Lord.'\n\nII. The prisoner solitary among self-seeking men.\n\nWith wonderful self-surrender the Apostle thinks of his lack of\nlike-minded companions as being a reason for depriving himself of the\nonly like-minded one who was left with him. He felt that Timothy's\nsympathetic soul would truly care for the Philippians' condition, and\nwould minister to it lovingly. He could rely that Timothy would have no\nselfish by-ends to serve, but would seek the things of Jesus Christ. We\nknow too little of the circumstances of Paul's imprisonment to know how\nhe came to be thus lonely. In the other Epistles of the Captivity we\nhave mention of a considerable group of friends, many of whom would\ncertainly have been included in a list of the 'like-minded.' We hear,\nfor example, of Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, John Mark, Epaphras,\nand Luke. What had become of them all we do not know. They were\nevidently away on Christian service, somewhere or other, or some of them\nperhaps had not yet arrived. At all events for some reason Paul was for\nthe time left alone but for Timothy. Not that there were no Christian\nmen in Rome, but of those who could have been sent on such an errand\nthere were none in whom love to Christ and care for His cause and flock\nwere strong enough to mark them as fit for it.\n\nSo then we have to take account of Paul's loneliness in addition to his\nother sorrows, and we may well mark how calmly and uncomplainingly he\nbears it. We are perpetually hearing complaints of isolation and the\ndifficulty of finding sympathy, or 'people who understand me.' That is\noften the complaint of a morbid nature, or of one which has never given\nitself the trouble of trying to 'understand' others, or of showing the\nsympathy for which it says that it thirsts. And many of these\ncomplaining spirits might take a lesson from the lonely Apostle. There\nnever was a man, except Paul's Master and ours, who cared more for human\nsympathy, had his own heart fuller of it, and received less of it from\nothers than Paul. But he had discovered what it would be blessedness for\nus all to lay to heart, that a man who has Christ for his companion can\ndo without others, and that a heart in which there whispers, 'Lo, I am\nwith you always,' can never be utterly solitary.\n\nMay we not take the further lesson that the sympathy which we should\nchiefly desire is sympathy and fellow-service in Christian work? Paul\ndid not want like-minded people in order that he might have the luxury\nof enjoying their sympathy, but what he wanted was allies in his work\nfor Christ. It was sympathy in his care for the Philippians that he\nsought for in his messenger. And that is the noblest form of\nlike-mindedness that we can desire--some one to hold the ropes for us.\n\nNote, too, that Paul does not weakly complain because he had no helpers.\nGood and earnest men are very apt to say much about the half-hearted way\nin which their brethren take up some cause in which they are eagerly\ninterested, and sometimes to abandon it altogether for that reason. May\nnot such faint hearts learn a lesson from him who had 'no man\nlike-minded,' and yet never dreamt of whimpering because of it, or of\nflinging down his tools because of the indolence of his fellow-workers?\n\nThere is another point to be observed in the Apostle's words here. He\nfelt that their attitude to Christ determined his affinities with men.\nHe could have no deep and true fellowship with others, whatever their\nname to live, who were daily 'seeking their own,' and at the same time\nleaving unsought 'the things of Jesus Christ.' They who are not alike in\ntheir deepest aims can have no real kindred. Must we not say that hosts\nof so-called Christian people do not seem to feel, if one can judge by\nthe company they affect, that the deepest bond uniting men is that which\nbinds them to Jesus Christ? I would press the question, Do we feel that\nnothing draws us so close to men as common love to Jesus, and that if we\nare not alike on that cardinal point there is a deep gulf of separation\nbeneath a deceptive surface of union, an unfathomable gorge marked by a\nquaking film of earth?\n\nIt is a solemn estimate of some professing Christians which the Apostle\ngives here, if he is including the members of the Roman Church in his\njudgment that they are not 'like-minded' with him, and are 'seeking\ntheir own, not the things of Jesus Christ.' We may rather hope that he\nis speaking of others around him, and that for some reason unknown to us\nhe was at the time secluded from the Roman Christians. He brings out\nwith unflinching precision the choice which determines a life. There is\nalways that terrible 'either--or.' To live for Christ is the antagonist,\nand only antagonist of life for self. To live for self is death. To live\nfor Jesus is the only life. There are two centres, heliocentric and\ngeocentric as the scientists say. We can choose round which we shall\ndraw our orbit, and everything depends on the choice which we make. To\nseek 'the things of Jesus Christ' is sure to lead to, and is the only\nbasis of, care for men. Religion is the parent of compassion, and if we\nare looking for a man who will care truly for the state of others, we\nmust do as Paul did, look for him among those who 'seek the things of\nJesus Christ.'\n\nIII. The prisoner's joy in loving co-operation.\n\nThe Apostle's eulogium on Timothy points to his long and intimate\nassociation with Paul and to the Philippians' knowledge of him as well\nas to the Apostle's clinging to him. There is a piece of delicate beauty\nin the words which we may pause for a moment to point out. Paul writes\nas 'a child serveth a father,' and the natural sequence would have been\n'so he served me,' but he remembers that the service was not to him,\nPaul, but to another, and so he changes the words and says he 'served\n_with_ me in furtherance of the Gospel.' We are both servants\nalike--Christ's servants for the Gospel.\n\nPaul's joy in Timothy's loving co-operation was so deep because Paul's\nwhole heart was set on 'the furtherance of the Gospel.' Help towards\nthat end was help indeed. We may measure the ardour and intensity of\nPaul's devotion to his apostolic work by the warmth of gratitude which\nhe shows to his helper. They who contribute to our reaching our chief\ndesire win our warmest love, and the catalogue of our helpers follows\nthe order of the list of our aims. Timothy brought to Paul no assistance\nto procure any of the common objects of human desires. Wealth,\nreputation, success in any of the pursuits which attract most men might\nhave been held out to the Apostle and not been thought worth stooping to\ntake, nor would the offerer have been thanked, but any proffered service\nthat had the smallest bearing on that great work to which Paul's life\nwas given, and which his conscience told him there would be a curse on\nhimself if he did not fulfil, was welcomed as a priceless gift. Do we\narrange the lists of our helpers on the same fashion, and count that\nthey serve us best who help us to serve Christ? It should be as much the\npurpose of every Christian life as it was that of Paul to spread the\nsalvation and glory of the 'name that is above every name.' If we lived\nas continually under the influence of that truth as he did, we should\nconstrue the circumstances of our lives, whether helpful or hindering,\nvery differently, and we could shake the world.\n\nChristian unity is very good and infinitely to be desired, but the true\nfield on which it should display itself is that of united work for the\ncommon Lord. The men who have marched side by side through a campaign\nare knit together as nothing else would bind them. Even two horses\ndrawing one carriage will have ways and feelings and a common\nunderstanding, which they would never have attained in any other way.\nThere is nothing like common work for clearing away mists. Much\nso-called Christian sympathy and like-mindedness are something like the\npenal cranks that used to be in jails, which generated immense power on\nthis side of the wall but ground out nothing on the other.\n\nLet us not forget that in the field of Christian service there is room\nfor all manner of workers, and that they are associated, however\ndifferent their work. Paul often calls Timothy his 'fellow-labourer,'\nand once gives him the eulogium, 'he worketh the work of the Lord as I\nalso do.' Think of the difference between the two men in age, endowment,\nand sphere! Apparently Timothy at first had very subordinate work taking\nJohn Mark's place, and is described as being one of those who\n'ministered' to Paul. It is the cup of cold water over again. All work\ndone for the same Lord, and with the same motive is the same; 'he that\nreceiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's\nreward.' When Paul associates Timothy with himself he is copying from\nafar off his Lord, who lets us think of even our poor deeds as done by\nthose whom He does not disdain to call His fellow-workers. It would be\nworth living for if, at the last, He should acknowledge us, and say even\nof us, 'he hath served with Me in the Gospel.'\n\n\n\n\nPAUL AND EPAPHRODITUS\n\n 'But I counted it necessary to send to you\n Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-worker and\n fellow-soldier, and your messenger and minister to\n my need. 26. Since he longed after you all, and\n was sore troubled, because ye had heard that he\n was sick. 27. For indeed he was sick nigh unto\n death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him\n only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow\n upon sorrow. 28. I have sent him therefore the\n more diligently, that, when ye see him again, ye\n may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.\n 29. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all\n joy; and hold such in honour: 30. Because for the\n work of Christ he came nigh unto death, hazarding\n his life to supply that which was lacking in your\n service toward me.'--PHIL. ii. 25-30 (R.V.).\n\n\nEpaphroditus is one of the less known of Paul's friends. All our\ninformation about him is contained in this context, and in a brief\nreference in Chapter iv. His was a singular fate--to cross Paul's path,\nand for one short period of his life to be known to all the world, and\nfor all the rest before and after to be utterly unknown. The ship sails\nacross the track of the moonlight, and then vanishes ghost-like into\ndarkness. Of all the inhabitants of Philippi at that time we know the\nnames of but three, Euodias, Syntiche, and Epaphroditus, and we owe them\nall to Paul. The context gives us an interesting miniature of the last,\nand pathetic glimpses into the private life of the Apostle in his\nimprisonment, and it is worth our while to try to bring our historic\nimagination to bear on Epaphroditus, and to make him a living man.\n\nThe first fact about him is, that he was one of the Philippian\nChristians, and sent by them to Rome, with some pecuniary or material\nhelp, such as comforts for Paul's prison-house, food, clothing, or\nmoney. There was no reliable way of getting these to Paul but to take\nthem, and so Epaphroditus faced the long journey across Greece to\nBrindisi and Rome, and when arrived there threw himself with ardour into\nserving Paul. The Apostle's heartfelt eulogium upon him shows two phases\nof his work. He was in the first place Paul's helper in the Gospel, and\nhis faithfulness there is set forth in a glowing climax, 'My brother and\nfellow-worker and fellow-soldier.' He was in the second place the\nminister to Paul's needs. There would be many ways of serving the\ncaptive, looking after his comfort, doing his errands, procuring daily\nnecessaries, managing affairs, perhaps writing his letters, easing his\nchain, chafing his aching wrists, and ministering in a thousand ways\nwhich we cannot and need not specify. At all events he gladly undertook\neven servile work for love of Paul.\n\nHe had an illness which was probably the consequence of his toil.\nPerhaps over-exertion in travel, or perhaps his Macedonian constitution\ncould not bear the enervating air of Rome, or perhaps Paul's prison was\nunhealthy. At any rate he worked till he made himself ill. The news\nreached Philippi in some round-about way, and, as it appears, the news\nof his illness only, not of his recovery. The difficulty of\ncommunication would sufficiently account for the partial intelligence.\nThen the report found its way back to Rome, and Epaphroditus got\nhome-sick and was restless, uneasy, 'sore troubled,' as the Apostle\nsays, because they had heard he had been sick. In his low, nervous\nstate, barely convalescent, the thought of home and of his brethren's\nanxiety about him was too much for him. It is a pathetic little picture\nof the Macedonian stranger in the great city--pallid looks, recent\nillness, and pining for home and a breath of pure mountain air, and for\nthe friends he had left. So Paul with rare abnegation sent him away at\nonce, though Timothy was to follow shortly, and accompanied him with\nthis outpouring of love and praise in his long homeward journey. Let us\nhope he got safe back to his friends, and as Paul bade them, they\nreceived him in the Lord with all joy, the echoes of which we almost\nhear as he passes out of our knowledge.\n\nIn the remainder of this sermon we shall simply deal with the two\nfigures which the text sets before us, and we may look first at the\nglimpses of Paul's character which we get here.\n\nWe may note the generous heartiness of his praise in his associating\nEpaphroditus with himself as on full terms of equality, as worker and\nsoldier, and the warm generosity of the recognition of all that he had\ndone for the Apostle's comfort. Paul's first burst of gratitude and\npraise does not exhaust all that he has to say about Epaphroditus. He\ncomes back to the theme in the last words of the context, where he says\nthat the Philippian messenger had 'hazarded' his life, or, as we might\nput it with equal accuracy and more force, had 'gambled' his life, or\n'staked it on the die' for Paul's sake. No wonder that men were eager to\nrisk their lives for a leader who lavished such praise and such love\nupon them. A man who never opens his lips but to censure or criticise,\nwho fastens on faults as wasps do on blemished fruit, will never be\nsurrounded by loyal love. Faithful service is most surely bought by\nhearty praise. A caressing hand on a horse's neck is better than a whip.\n\nWe may further note the intensity of Paul's sympathy. He speaks of\nEpaphroditus' recovery as a mercy to himself 'lest he should have the\nsorrow of imprisonment increased by the sorrow of his friend's death.'\nThat attitude of mind stands in striking contrast to the heroism which\nsaid, 'To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain,' but the two are\nperfectly consistent, and it was a great soul which had room for them\nboth.\n\nWe must not leave unnoticed the beautiful self-abnegation which sends\noff Epaphroditus as soon as he was well enough to travel, as a gift of\nthe Apostle's love, in order to repay them for what they had done for\nhim. He says nothing of his own loss or of how much more lonely he would\nbe when the brother whom he had praised so warmly had left him alone.\nBut he suns himself in the thought of the Philippians' joy, and in the\nhope that some reflection of it will travel across the seas to him, and\nmake him, if not wholly glad, at any rate 'the less sorrowful.'\n\nWe have also to notice Paul's delicate recognition of all friendly help.\nHe says that Epaphroditus risked his life to 'supply that which was\nlacking in your service toward me.' That implies that all which the\nPhilippians' ministration lacked was their personal presence, and that\nEpaphroditus, in supplying that, made his work in a real sense theirs.\nAll the loving thoughts, and all the material expressions of them which\nEpaphroditus brought to Paul were fragrant with the perfume of the\nPhilippians' love, 'an odour of a sweet smell, acceptable' to Paul as to\nPaul's Lord.\n\nWe briefly note some general lessons which may be suggested by the\npicture of Epaphroditus as he stands by the side of Paul.\n\nThe first one suggested is the very familiar one of the great uniting\nprinciple which a common faith in Christ brought into action. Think of\nthe profound clefts of separation between the Macedonian and the Jew,\nthe antipathies of race, the differences of language, the\ndissimilarities of manner, and then think of what an unheard-of new\nthing it must have been that a Macedonian should 'serve' a Jew! We but\nfeebly echo Paul's rapture when he thought that there was 'neither\nBarbarian or Scythian, bond or free, but all were one in Christ Jesus,'\nand for all our talk about the unity of humanity and the like, we permit\nthe old gulfs of separation to gape as deeply as ever. Dreadnoughts are\na peculiar expression of the brotherhood of men after nineteen centuries\nof so-called Christianity.\n\nThe terms in which the work of Epaphroditus is spoken of by Paul are\nvery significant. He has no hesitation in describing the work done for\nhimself as 'the work of Christ,' nor in using, as the name for it, the\nword ('service'), which properly refers to the service rendered by\npriestly hands. Work done for Paul was done for Jesus, and that, not\nbecause of any special apostolic closeness of relation of Paul to Jesus,\nbut because, like all other Christians, he was one with his Lord. 'The\ncup of cold water' given 'in the name of a disciple' is grateful to the\nlips of the Master. We have no reason to suppose that Epaphroditus took\npart with Paul in his more properly apostolic work, and the fact that\nthe purely material help, and pecuniary service which most probably\ncomprised all his 'ministering,' is honoured by Paul with these lofty\ndesignations, carries with it large lessons as to the sanctity of common\nlife. All deeds done from the same motive are the same, however\ndifferent they may be in regard to the material on which they are\nwrought. If our hearts are set to 'hallow all we find,' the most secular\nduties will be acts of worship. It is possible for us in the ordering of\nour own lives to fulfil the great prophecy with which Zechariah crowned\nhis vision of the Future, 'In that day shall there be on the bells of\nthe horses Holiness unto the Lord'; and the 'pots in the Lord's house\nshall be like the bowls before the altar.'\n\nMay we not further draw from Paul's words here a lesson as to the honour\ndue to Christian workers? It was his brethren who were exhorted to\nreceive their own messenger back again 'in the Lord with all joy, and to\nhold him in honour.' Possibly there were in Philippi some sharp tongues\nand envious spirits, who needed the exhortation. Whether there were so\nor no, the exhortation itself traces lightly but surely the lines on\nwhich Christians should render, and their fellow-Christians can rightly\nreceive, even praise from men. If Epaphroditus were 'received in the\nLord,' there would be no foolish and hurtful adulation of him, nor\nprostration before him, but he would be recognised as but the instrument\nthrough which the true Helper worked, and not he, but the Grace of\nChrist in him would finally receive the praise. There are very many\nChristian workers who never get their due of recognition and welcome\nfrom their brethren, and there are many who get far more of both than\nbelongs to them, and both they and the crowds who bring them adulation\nwould be freed from dangers, which can scarcely be over-stated, if the\nspirit of Paul's warm-hearted praise of Epaphroditus were kept in view.\n\nEpaphroditus but passes across the illuminated disc of the lantern for a\nmoment, and we have scarcely time to catch a glimpse of his face before\nit is lost to us. He and all his brethren are gone, but his name lives\nfor ever, and Paul's praise of him and of his work outshines all else\nremembered of the city, where conquerors once reigned, and outside whose\nwalls was fought a battle that decided for a time the fate of the world.\n\n\n\n\nPREPARING TO END\n\n 'Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To\n write the same things to you, to me indeed is not\n irksome, but for you it is safe. 2. Beware of the\n dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the\n concision: 3. For we are the circumcision, who\n worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ\n Jesus, and have no confidence in the\n flesh.'--PHIL. iii. 1-3 (R.V.).\n\n\nThe first words of the text show that Paul was beginning to think of\nwinding up his letter, and the preceding context also suggests that. The\npersonal references to Timothy and Epaphroditus would be in their\nappropriate place near the close, and the exhortation with which our\ntext begins is also most fitting there, for it is really the key-note\nof the letter. How then does he come to desert his purpose? The answer\nis to be found in his next advice, the warning against the Judaising\nteachers who were his great antagonists all his life. A reference to\nthem always roused him, and here the vehement exhortation to mark them\nwell and avoid them opens the flood-gates. Forgetting all about his\npurpose to come to an end, he pours out his soul in the long and\nprecious passage which follows. Not till the next chapter does he get\nback to his theme in the reiterated exhortation (iv. 4), 'Rejoice in the\nLord alway; again I will say, rejoice.' This outburst is very\nremarkable, for its vehemence is so unlike the tone of the rest of the\nletter. That is calm, joyous, bright, but this is stormy and\nimpassioned, full of flashing and scathing words, the sudden\nthunder-storm breaks in on a mellow, autumn day, but it hurtles past and\nthe sun shines out again, and the air is clearer.\n\nAnother question suggested is the reference of the second half of verse\n1. What are 'the same things' to write which is 'safe' for the\nPhilippians? Are they the injunctions preceding to 'rejoice in the\nLord,' or that following, the warning against the Judaisers? The former\nexplanation may be recommended by the fact that 'Rejoice' is in a sense\nthe key-note of the Epistle, but on the other hand, the things where\nrepetition would be 'safe' would most probably be warnings against some\nevil that threatened the Philippians' Christian standing.\n\nThere is no attempt at unity in the words before us, and I shall not try\nto force them into apparent oneness, but follow the Apostle's thoughts\nas they lie. We note--\n\nI. The crowning injunction as to the duty of Christian gladness.\n\nA very slight glance over the Epistle will show how continually the note\nof gladness is struck in it. Whatever in Paul's circumstances was 'at\nenmity with joy' could not darken his sunny outlook. This bird could\nsing in a darkened cage. If we brought together the expressions of his\njoy in this letter, they would yield us some precious lessons as to what\nwere the sources of his, and what may be the sources of ours. There runs\nthrough all the instances in the Epistle the implication which comes out\nmost emphatically in his earnest exhortation, 'Rejoice in the Lord\nalways, and again I say rejoice.' The true source of true joy lies in\nour union with Jesus. To be in Him is the condition of every good, and,\njust as in the former verses 'trust _in the Lord_' is set forth, so the\njoy which comes from trust is traced to the same source. The joy that is\nworthy, real, permanent, and the ally of lofty endeavour and noble\nthoughts has its root in union with Jesus, is realised in communion with\nHim, has Him for its reason or motive, and Him for its safeguard or\nmeasure. As the passages in question in this Epistle show, such joy does\nnot shut out but hallows other sources of satisfaction. In our weakness\ncreatural love and kindness but too often draw us away from our joy in\nHim. But with Paul the sources which we too often find antagonistic were\nharmoniously blended, and flowed side by side in the same channel, so\nthat he could express them both in the one utterance, 'I rejoiced in the\nLord greatly that now at the last your care of me hath flourished\nagain.'\n\nWe do not sufficiently realise the Christian duty of Christian joy,\nsome of us even take mortified countenances and voices in a minor key as\nmarks of grace, and there is but little in any of us of 'the joy in the\nLord' which a saint of the Old Testament had learned was our 'strength.'\nThere is plenty of gladness amongst professing Christians, but a good\nmany of them would resent the question, is your gladness 'in the Lord'?\nNo doubt any deep experience in the Christian life makes us aware of\nmuch in ourselves that saddens, and may depress, and our joy in Him must\nalways be shaded by penitent sorrow for ourselves. But that necessary\nelement of sadness in the Christian life is not the cause why so many\nChristian lives have little of the buoyancy and hope and spontaneity\nwhich should mark them. The reason rather lies in the lack of true union\nwith Christ, and habitual keeping of ourselves 'in the love of God.'\n\nII. Paul's apology for reiteration.\n\nHe is going to give once more old and well-worn precepts which are often\nvery tedious to the hearer, and not much less so to the speaker. He can\nonly say that to him the repetition of familiar injunctions is not\n'irksome,' and that to them it is 'safe.' The diseased craving for\n'originality' in the present day tempts us all, hearers and speakers\nalike, and we ever need to be reminded that the staple of Christian\nteaching must be old truths reiterated, and that it is not time to stop\nproclaiming them until all men have begun to practise them. But a\nspeaker must try to make the thousandth repetition of a truth fresh to\nhimself, and not a wearisome form, or a dead commonplace, by freshening\nit to his own mind and by living on it in his own practice, and the\nhearers must remember that it is only the completeness of their\nobedience that antiquates the commandment. The most threadbare\ncommonplace becomes a novelty when occasions for its application arise\nin our own lives, just as a prescription may lie long unnoticed in a\ndrawer, but when a fever attacks its possessor it will be quickly drawn\nout and worth its weight in gold.\n\nIII. Paul's warning against teachers of a ceremonial religion.\n\nIt scarcely seems congruous with the tone of the rest of this letter\nthat the preachers whom Paul so scathingly points out here had obtained\nany firm footing in the Philippian Church, but no doubt there, as\neverywhere, they had dogged Paul's footsteps, and had tried as they\nalways did to mar his work. They had not missionary fervour or Christian\nenergy enough to initiate efforts amongst the Gentiles so as to make\nthem proselytes, but when Paul and his companions had made them\nChristians, they did their best, or their worst, to insist that they\ncould not be truly Christians, unless they submitted to the outward sign\nof being Jews. Paul points a scathing finger at them when he bids the\nPhilippians 'beware,' and he permits himself a bitter retort when he\nlays hold of the Jewish contemptuous word for Gentiles which stigmatised\nthem as 'dogs,' that is profane and unclean, and hurls it back at the\ngivers. But he is not indulging in mere bitter retorts when he brings\nagainst these teachers the definite charge that they are 'evil workers.'\nPeople who believed that an outward observance was the condition of\nsalvation would naturally be less careful to insist upon holy living. A\nreligion of ceremonies is not a religion of morality. Then the Apostle\nlets himself go in a contemptuous play of words, and refuses to\nrecognise that these sticklers for circumcision had themselves been\ncircumcised. 'I will not call them the circumcision, they have not been\ncircumcised, they have only been gashed and mutilated, it has been a\nmere fleshly maiming.' His reason for denying the name to them is his\nprofound belief that it belonged to true Christians. His contemptuous\nreference puts in a word, the principle which he definitely states in\nanother place, 'He is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is that\ncircumcision which is outward in the flesh.'\n\nThe Apostle here is not only telling us who are the truly circumcised,\nbut at the same time he is telling us what makes a Christian, and he\nstates three points in which, as I take it, he begins at the end and\nworks backwards to the beginning. 'We are the circumcision who worship\nin the Spirit of God'--that is the final result--'and glory in Christ\nJesus'--'and have no confidence in the flesh'--that is the\nstarting-point. The beginning of all true Christianity is distrust of\nself. What does Paul mean by 'flesh'? Body? Certainly not. Animal\nnature, or the passions rooted in it? Not only these, as may be seen by\nnoting the catalogue which follows of the things in the flesh, in which\nhe might have trusted. What are these? 'Circumcised the eighth day, of\nthe tribe of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the\nHebrews'--these belong to ritual and race; 'as touching the law a\nPharisee'--that belongs to ecclesiastical standing; 'concerning zeal\npersecuting the church'--that has nothing to do with the animal nature:\n'touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless'--that\nconcerns the moral nature. All these come under the category of the\n'flesh,' which, therefore, plainly includes all that belongs to\nhumanity apart from God. Paul's old-fashioned language translated into\nmodern English just comes to this--it is vain to trust in external\nconnection with the sacred community of the Church, or in participation\nin any of its ordinances and rites. To Paul, Christian rites and Jewish\nrites were equally rites and equally insufficient as bases of\nconfidence. Do not let us fancy that dependence on these is peculiar to\ncertain forms of Christian belief. It is a very subtle all-pervasive\ntendency, and there is no need to lift up Nonconformist hands in holy\nhorror at the corruptions of Romanism and the like. Their origin is not\nsolely priestly ambition, but also the desires of the so-called laity.\nDemand creates a supply, and if there were not people to think, 'Now it\nshall be well with me because I have a Levite for my priest,' there\nwould be no Levites to meet their wishes.\n\nNotice that Paul includes amongst the things belonging to the flesh this\n'touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless.' Many of us\ncan say the same. We do our duties so far as we know them, and are\nrespectable law-abiding people, but if we are trusting to that, we are\nof the 'flesh.' Have we estimated what God is, and what the real worth\nof our conduct is? Have we looked not at our actions but at our motives,\nand seen them as they are seen from above or from the inside? How many\n'blameless' lives are like the scenes in a theatre, effective and\npicturesque, when seen with the artificial glory of the footlights? But\ngo behind the scenes and what do we find? Dirty canvas and cobwebs. If\nwe know ourselves we know that a life may have a fair outside, and yet\nnot be a thing to trust to.\n\nThe beginning of our Christianity is the consciousness that we are\n'naked and poor, and blind, and in need of all things.' Men come to\nJesus Christ by many ways, thank God, and I care little by what road\nthey come so long as they get there, nor do I insist upon any\nstereotyped order of religious experience. But of this I am very sure:\nthat unless we abandon confidence in ourselves, because we have seen\nourselves in the light of God's law, we have not learned all that we\nneed nor laid hold of all that Christ gives. Let us measure ourselves in\nthe light of God, and we shall learn that we have to take our places\nbeside Job, when the vision of God silenced his protestations of\ninnocence. 'I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine\neye seeth Thee; wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.'\n\nThat self-distrust should pass into glorying in Christ Jesus. If a man\nhas learned his emptiness he will look about for something to fill it.\nUnless I know myself to be under condemnation because of my sin, and\nfevered, disturbed, and made wretched, by its inward consequences which\nforbid repose, the sweetest words of Gospel invitation will pass by me\nlike wind whistling through an archway. But if once I have been driven\nfrom self-confidence, then like music from heaven will come the word,\n'Trust in Jesus.' The seed dropped into the ground puts out a\ndownward-going shoot, which is the root, and an upward-growing one,\nwhich is the stalk. The downward-going shoot is 'no confidence in the\nflesh,' the upward-going is 'glorying in Christ Jesus.'\n\nBut that word suggests the blessed experience of triumph in the\npossession of the Person known and felt to be all, and to give all that\nlife needs. A true Christian should ever be triumphant in a felt\nexperience, in a Name proved to be sufficient, in a power which infuses\nstrength into his weakness, and enables him to do the will of God. It is\nfor want of utter self-distrust and absolute faith in Christ that\n'glorying' in Him is so far beyond the ordinary mood of the average\nChristian. You say, 'I hope, sometimes I doubt, sometimes I fear,\nsometimes I tremblingly trust.' Is that the kind of experience that\nthese words shadow? Why do we continue amidst the mist when we might\nrise into the clear blue above the obscuring pall? Only because we are\nstill in some measure clinging to self, and still in some measure\ndistrusting our Lord. If our faith were firm and full our 'glorying'\nwould be constant. Do not be contented with the prevailing sombre type\nof Christian life which is always endeavouring, and always foiled, which\nis often doubting and often indifferent, but seek to live in the\nsunshine, and expatiate in the light, and 'rejoice in the Lord always.'\n\n'Glorying' not only describes an attitude of mind, but an activity of\nlife. Many things to-day tempt Christian people to speak of their\nreligion and of their Lord in an apologetic tone, in the face of strong\nand educated unbelief; but if we have within us, as we all may have, and\nought to have, the triumphant assurance of His sufficiency, nearness,\nand power, it will not be with bated breath that we shall speak of our\nMaster, or apologise for our Christianity, but we shall obey the\ncommandment, 'Lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not\nafraid.' Ring out the name and be proud that you can ring it out, as the\nName of _your_ Lord, and _your_ Saviour, and _your_ all-sufficient\nFriend. Whatever other people say, you have the experience, if you are\na Christian, which more than answers all that they can say.\n\nWe have said that the final result set forth here by Paul is, 'We\nworship by the Spirit of God.' The expression translated worship is the\ntechnical word for rendering priestly service. Just as Paul has asserted\nthat uncircumcised Christians, not circumcised Jews, are the true\ncircumcision, so he asserts that they are the true priests, and that\nthese officials in the outward temple at Jerusalem have forfeited the\ntitle, and that it has passed over to the despised followers of the\ndespised Nazarene. If we have 'no confidence in the flesh,' and are\n'glorying in Christ Jesus,' we are all priests of the most high God.\n'Worship in the Spirit' is our function and privilege. The externals of\nceremonial worship dwindle into insignificance. They may be means of\nhelping, or they may be means of hindering, the 'worship in the Spirit,'\nwhich I venture to think all experience shows is the more likely to be\npure and real, the less it invokes the aid of flesh and sense. To make\nthe senses the ladder for the soul by which to climb to God is quite as\nlikely to end in the soul's going down the ladder as up it. Aesthetic\naids to worship are crutches which keep a lame soul lame all its days.\n\nSuch worship is the obligation as well as the prerogative of the\nChristian. We have no right to say that we have truly forsaken\nconfidence in ourselves, and are truly 'glorying' in Christ Jesus,\nunless our daily life is communion with God, and all your work\n'worshipping by the Spirit of God.' Such communion and worship are\npossible for those, and for those only, who have 'no confidence in the\nflesh' and who 'glory in Christ Jesus.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE LOSS OF ALL\n\n 'Though I myself might have confidence even in the\n flesh: if any other man thinketh to have\n confidence in the flesh, I yet more: circumcised\n the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the\n tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as\n touching the law, a Pharisee; as touching zeal,\n persecuting the church; as touching the\n righteousness which is in the law, found\n blameless. Howbeit what things were gain to me,\n these have I counted loss for Christ. Yea verily,\n and I count all things to be loss for the\n excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my\n Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things,\n and do count them but dung.'--PHIL. iii. 4-8\n (R.V.).\n\n\nWe have already noted that in the previous verses the Apostle is\nbeginning to prepare for closing his letter, but is carried away into\nthe long digression of which our text forms the beginning. The last\nwords of the former verse open a thought of which his mind is always\nfull. It is as when an excavator strikes his pickaxe unwittingly into a\nhidden reservoir and the blow is followed by a rush of water, which\ncarries away workmen and tools. Paul has struck into the very deepest\nthoughts which he has of the Gospel and out they pour. That one\nantithesis, 'the loss of all, the gain of Christ,' carried in it to him\nthe whole truth of the Christian message. We may well ask ourselves what\nare the subjects which lie so near our hearts, and so fill our thoughts,\nthat a chance word sets us off on them, and we cannot help talking of\nthem when once we begin.\n\nThe text exemplifies another characteristic of Paul's, his constant\nhabit of quoting his own experience as illustrating the truth. His\ntheology is the generalisation of his own experience, and yet that\ncontinual autobiographical reference is not egotism, for the light in\nwhich he delights to present himself is as the recipient of the great\ngrace of God in pardoning sinners. It is a result of the complete\nsaturation of himself with the Gospel. It was to him no mere body of\nprinciples or thoughts, it was the very food and life of his life. And\nso this characteristic reveals not only his natural fervour of\ncharacter, but the profound and penetrating hold which the Gospel had on\nhis whole being.\n\nIn our text he presents his own experience as the type to which ours\nmust on the whole be conformed. He had gone through an earthquake which\nhad shattered the very foundations of his life. He had come to despise\nall that he had counted most precious, and to clasp as the only true\ntreasures all that he had despised. With him the revolution had turned\nhis whole life upside down. Though the change cannot be so subversive\nand violent with us, the forsaking of self-confidence must be as real,\nand the clinging to Jesus must be as close, if our Christianity is to be\nfervid and dominant in our lives.\n\nI. The treasures that were discovered to be worthless.\n\nWe have already had occasion in the previous sermon to refer to Paul's\ncatalogue of 'things that were gain' to him, but we must consider it a\nlittle more closely here. We may repeat that it is important for\nunderstanding Paul's point of view to note that by 'flesh' he means the\nwhole self considered as independent of God. The antithesis to it is\n'spirit,' that is humanity regenerated and vitalised by Divine\ninfluence. 'Flesh,' then, is humanity not so vitalised. That is to say,\nit is 'self,' including both body and emotions, affections, thoughts,\nand will.\n\nAs to the points enumerated, they are those which made the ideal to a\nJew, including purity of race, punctilious orthodoxy, flaming zeal,\npugnacious antagonism, and blameless morality. With reference to race,\nthe Jewish pride was in 'circumcision on the eighth day,' which was the\nexclusive privilege of one of pure blood. Proselytes might be\ncircumcised in later life, but one of the 'stock of Israel' only on the\n'eighth day.' Saul of Tarsus had in earlier days been proud of his\ntribal genealogy, which had apparently been carefully preserved in the\nGentile home, and had shared ancestral pride in belonging to the once\nroyal tribe, and perhaps in thinking that the blood of the king after\nwhom he was named flowed in his veins. He was a 'Hebrew of the Hebrews,'\nwhich does not mean, as it is usually taken to do, intensely,\nsuperlatively Hebrew, but simply is equivalent to 'myself a Hebrew, and\ncome from pure Hebrew ancestors on both sides.' Possibly also the phrase\nmay have reference to purity of language and customs as well as blood.\nThese four items make the first group. Paul still remembers the time\nwhen, in the blindness which he shared with his race, he believed that\nthese wholly irrelevant points had to do with a man's acceptance before\nGod. He had once agreed with the Judaisers that 'circumcision' admitted\nGentiles into the Jewish community, and so gave them a right to\nparticipate in the blessings of the Covenant.\n\nThen follow the items of his more properly religious character, which\nseem in their three clauses to make a climax. 'As touching the law a\nPharisee,' he was of the 'straitest sect,' the champions and\nrepresentatives of the law. 'As touching zeal persecuting the Church,'\nit was not only in Judaism that the mark of zeal for a cause has been\nharassing its opponents. We can almost hear a tone of sad irony as Paul\nrecalls that past, remembering how eagerly he had taken charge of the\nclothes trusted to his care by the witnesses who stoned Stephen, and how\nhe had 'breathed threatening and slaughter' against the disciples. 'As\ntouching the righteousness which is in the law found blameless,' he is\nevidently speaking of the obedience of outward actions and of\nblamelessness in the judgment of men.\n\nSo we get a living picture of Paul and of his confidence before he was a\nChristian. All these grounds for pride and self-satisfaction were like\ntriple armour round the heart of the young Pharisee, who rode out of\nJerusalem on the road to Damascus. How little he thought that they would\nall have been pierced and have dropped from him before he got there! The\ngrounds of his confidence are antiquated in form, but in substance are\nmodern. At bottom the things in which Paul's 'flesh' trusted are exactly\nthe same as those in which many of us trust. Even his pride of race\ncontinues to influence some of us. We have got the length of separating\nbetween our nationality and our acceptance with God, but we have still a\nkind of feeling that 'God's Englishmen,' as Milton called them, have a\nplace of their own, which is, if not a ground of confidence before God,\nat any rate a ground for carrying ourselves with very considerable\ncomplacency before men. It is not unheard of that people should rely, if\nnot on 'circumcision on the eighth day,' on an outward rite which seems\nto connect them with a visible Church. Strict orthodoxy takes the place\namong us which Pharisaism held in Paul's mind before he was a Christian,\nand it is easier to prove our zeal by pugnacity against heretics, than\nby fervour of devotion. The modern analogue of Paul's, 'touching the\nrighteousness which is in the law blameless,' is 'I have done my best, I\nhave lived a decent life. My religion is to do good to other people.'\nAll such talk, which used to be a vague sentiment or excuse, is now put\nforward in definite theoretical substitution for the Christian Truth,\nand finds numerous teachers and acceptors. But how short a way all such\ngrounds of confidence go to satisfy a soul that has once seen the vision\nthat blazed in on Paul's mind on the road to Damascus!\n\nII. The discovery of their worthlessness.\n\n'These have I counted loss for Christ.' There is a possibility of\nexaggeration in interpreting Paul's words. The things that were 'gain'\nto him were in themselves better than their opposites. It is better to\nto be 'blameless' than to have a life all stained with foulness and\nreeking with sins. But these 'gains' were 'losses,' disadvantages, in so\nfar as they led him to build upon them, and trust in them as solid\nwealth. The earthquake that shattered his life had two shocks: the first\nturned upside down his estimate of the value of his gains, the second\nrobbed him of them. He first saw them to be worthless, and then, so far\nas others' judgment went, he was stripped of them. Actively he 'counted\nthem loss,' passively he 'suffered the loss of all things.' His estimate\ncame, and was followed by the practical outcome of his brethren's\nexcommunication.\n\nWhat changed his estimate? In our text he answers the question in two\nforms: first he gives the simple, all-sufficient monosyllabic reason for\nhis whole life--'for Christ,' and then he enlarges that motive into 'the\nexcellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.' The former carries\nus back straight to the vision which revolutionised Paul's life, and\nmade him abjure all which he had trusted, and adore what he had\nabhorred. The latter dwells a little more upon the subjective process\nwhich followed on the vision, but the two are substantially the same,\nand we need only note the solemn fulness of the name of 'Jesus Christ,'\nand the intense motion of submission and of personal appropriation\ncontained in the designation, 'my Lord.' It was not when he found his\nway blinded into Damascus that he had learned that knowledge, or could\napprehend its 'excellency.' The words are enriched and enlarged by later\nexperiences. The sacrifice of his earlier 'gains' had been made before\nthe 'excellency of the knowledge' had been discerned. It was no mere\nintellectual perception which could be imparted in words, or by\neyesight, but here as always Paul by 'knowledge' means experience which\ncomes from possession and acquaintance, and which therefore gleams ever\nbefore us as we move, and is capable of endless increase, in the measure\nin which we are true to the estimate of 'gains' and 'losses' to which\nour initial vision of Him has led us. At first we may not know that that\nknowledge excels all others, but as we grow in acquaintance with Jesus,\nand in experience of Him, we shall be sure that it transcends all\nothers, because He does and we possess Him.\n\nThe revolutionising motive may be conceived of in two ways. We have to\nabandon the lower 'gains' in order to gain Christ, or to abandon these\nbecause we have gained Him. Both are true. The discernment of Christ as\nthe one ground of confidence is ever followed by the casting away of all\nothers. Self-distrust is a part of faith. When we feel our feet upon the\nrock, the crumbling sands on which we stood are left to be broken up by\nthe sea. They who have seen the Apollo Belvedere will set little store\nby plaster of Paris casts. In all our lives there come times when the\nglimpse of some loftier ideal shows up our ordinary as hollow and poor\nand low. And when once Christ is seen, as Scripture shows Him, our\nformer self appears poor and crumbles away.\n\nWe are not to suppose that the act of renunciation must be completed\nbefore a second act of possession is begun. That is the error of many\nascetic books. The two go together, and abandonment in order to win\nmerges into abandonment because we have won. The strongest power to make\nrenunciation possible is 'the expulsive power of a new affection.' When\nthe heart is filled with love to Christ there is no sense of 'loss,' but\nonly of 'exceeding gain,' in casting away all things for Him.\n\nIII. The continuous repetition of the discovery.\n\nPaul compares his present self with his former Christian self, and with\na vehement 'Yea, verily,' affirms his former judgment, and reiterates it\nin still more emphatic terms. It is often easy to depreciate the\ntreasures which we possess. They sometimes grow in value as they slip\nfrom our hands. It is not usual for a man who has 'suffered the loss of\nall things' to follow their disappearance by counting them 'but dung.'\nThe constant repetition through the whole Christian course of the\ndepreciatory estimate of grounds of confidence is plainly necessary.\nThere are subtle temptations to the opposite course. It is hard to keep\nperfectly clear of all building on our own blamelessness or on our\nconnection with the Christian Church, and we have need ever to renew the\nestimate which was once so epoch-making, and which 'cast down all our\nimaginations and high things.' If we do not carefully watch ourselves,\nthe whispering tempter that was silenced will recover his breath again,\nand be once more ready to drop into our ears his poisonous suggestions.\nWe have to take pains and 'give earnest heed' to the initial,\nrevolutionary estimate, and to see that it is worked out habitually in\nour daily lives. It is a good exchange when we count 'all but loss for\nthe excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE GAIN OF CHRIST\n\n 'That I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not\n having a righteousness of my own, even that which\n is of the law, but that which is through faith in\n Christ, the righteousness which is of God by\n faith.'--PHIL. iii. 8, 9 (R.V.).\n\n\nIt is not everybody who _can_ say what is his aim in life. Many of us\nhave never thought enough about it to have one beyond keeping alive. We\nlose life in seeking for the means of living. Many of us have such a\nmultitude of aims, each in its turn drawing us, that no one of them is\npredominant and rules the crowd. There is no strong hand at the tiller,\nand so the ship washes about in the trough of the waves.\n\nIt is not everybody who _dares_ to say what is his aim in life. We are\nashamed to acknowledge even to ourselves what we are not at all ashamed\nto do. Paul knew his aim, and was not afraid to speak it. It was high\nand noble, and was passionately and persistently pursued. He tells us it\nhere, and we can see his soul kindling as he speaks. We may note how\nthere is here the same double reference as we found in the previous\nverses, gaining Christ corresponding to the previous loss for Christ,\nand the later words of our text being an expansion of the 'excellency of\nthe knowledge of Christ Jesus.' No man will ever succeed in any life's\npurpose, unless like Paul he is enthusiastic about it. If his aim does\nnot rouse his fervour when he speaks of it, he will never accomplish it.\nWe may just remark that Paul does not suppose his aim to be wholly\nunattained, even although he does not count himself to 'have\napprehended.' He knows that he has gained Christ, and is 'found in Him,'\nbut he knows also that there stretch before him the possibilities of\ninfinite increase.\n\nI. His life's aim was to have the closest possession of, and\nincorporation in, Christ.\n\nHis two expressions, 'that I may gain Christ and be found in Him,' are\nsubstantially identical in meaning, though they put the same truth from\ndifferent sides, and with some variety of metaphor. We may deal with\nthem separately.\n\nThe 'gain' is of course the opposite of the 'loss.' His balance-sheet\nhas on one side 'all things lost,' on the other 'Christ gained,' and\nthat is profitable trading. But we have to go deeper than such a\nmetaphor, and to give full scope to the Scriptural truth, that Christ\nreally imparts Himself to the believing soul. There is a real\ncommunication of His own life to us, and thereby we live, as He Himself\ndeclared, 'He that hath the Son hath life.' The true deep sense in which\nwe possess Christ is not to be weakened down, as it, alas! so often is\nin our shallow Christianity, which is but the echo of a shallow\nexperience, and a feeble hold of that possession of the Son to which\nJesus called us, as the condition of our possession of life. Christ is\nthus Himself possessed by all our faculties, each after its kind; head\nand heart, passions and desires, hopes and longings, may each have Him\nabiding in them, guiding them with His strong and gentle hand, animating\nthem into nobler life, restraining and controlling, gradually\ntransforming and ultimately conforming them to His own likeness. Till\nthat Divine Indweller enters in, the shrine is empty, and unclean things\nlurk in its hidden corners. To be a man full summed in all his powers,\neach of us must 'gain Christ.'\n\nThe other expression in the text, 'be found in Him,' presents the same\ntruth from the completing point of view. We gain Christ in us when we\nare 'found in Him.' We are to be incorporated as members are in the\nbody, or imbedded as a stone in the foundation, or to go back to the\nsweetest words, which are the source of all these representations,\nincluded as 'a branch in the vine.' We are to be in Him for safety and\nshelter, as fugitives take refuge in a strong tower when an enemy swarms\nover the land.\n\n 'And lo! from sin and grief and shame,\n I hide me, Jesus, in Thy name.'\n\nWe are to be in Him that the life sap may freely flow through us. We are\nto be in Him that the Divine Love may fall on us, and that in Jesus we\nmay receive our portion of all which is His heritage.\n\nThis mutual possession and indwelling is possible if Jesus be the Son of\nGod, but the language is absurd in any other interpretation of His\nperson. It is clearly in its very nature capable of indefinite increase,\nand as containing in itself the supply of all which we need for life and\nblessedness, is fitted to be what nothing else can pretend to be,\nwithout wrecking the lives that are unwise enough to pursue it--the\nsovereign aim of a human life. In following it, and only in following\nit, the highest wisdom says Amen to the aspiration of the lowliest\nfaith. 'This one thing I do.'\n\nII. Paul's life's aim was righteousness to be received.\n\nHe goes on to present some of the consequences which follow on his\ngaining Christ and being 'found in Him,' and before all others he names\nas his aim the possession of 'righteousness.' We must remember that Paul\nbelieved that righteousness in the sense of 'justification' had been his\nfrom the moment when Ananias came to where he was sitting in darkness,\nand bid him be baptized and wash away his sins. The word here must be\ntaken in its full sense of moral perfectness; even if we included only\nthis in our thoughts of his life's aim, how high above most men would he\ntower! But his statement carries him still higher above, and farther\naway from, the common ideas of moral perfection, and what he means by\nrighteousness is widely separated from the world's conception, not only\nin regard to its elements, but still more in regard to its source.\n\nIt is possible to lose oneself in a dreamy mysticism which has had much\nto say of 'gaining Christ and being found in Him,' and has had too\nlittle to say about 'having righteousness,' and so has turned out to be\nan ally of indifference and sometimes of unrighteousness. Buddhism and\nsome forms of mystical Christianity have fallen into a pit of immorality\nfrom which Paul's sane combination here would have saved them. There is\nno danger in the most mystical interpretation of the former statement of\nhis aim, when it is as closely connected as it is here with the second\nform in which he states it. I have just said that Paul differed from men\nwho were seeking for righteousness, not only because his conceptions of\nwhat constituted it were not the same as theirs, though he in this very\nletter endorses the Greek ideals of 'virtue and praise,' but also and\nmore emphatically because he looked for it as a gift, and not as the\nresult of his own efforts. To him the only righteousness which availed\nwas one which was not 'my own,' but had its source in, and was imparted\nby, God. The world thought of righteousness as the general designation\nunder which were summed up a man's specific acts of conformity to law,\nthe sum total reached by the addition of many specific instances of\nconformity to a standard of duty. Paul had learned to think of it as\npreceding and producing the specific acts. The world therefore said, and\nsays, Do the deeds and win the character; Paul says, Receive the\ncharacter and do the deeds. The result of the one conception of\nrighteousness is in the average man spasmodic efforts after isolated\nachievements, with long periods between in which effort subsides into\ntorpor. The result in Paul's case was what we know: a continuous effort\nto keep his mind and heart open for the influx of the power which,\nentering into him, would make him able to do the specific acts which\nconstitute righteousness. The one road is a weary path, hard to tread,\nand, as a matter of fact, not often trodden. To pile up a righteousness\nby the accumulation of individual righteous acts is an endeavour less\nhopeful than that of the coral polypes slowly building up their reef out\nof the depths of the Pacific, till it rises above the waves. He who\nassumes to be righteous on the strength of a succession of righteous\nacts, not only needs a profounder idea of what makes his acts righteous,\nbut should also make a catalogue of his unrighteous ones and call\nhimself wicked. The other course is the final deliverance of a man from\ndependence upon his own struggles, and substitutes for the dreary\nalternations of effort and torpor, and for the imperfect harvest of\nimperfectly righteous acts, the attitude of receiving, which supersedes\npainful strife and weary endeavour. To seek after a righteousness which\nis 'my own,' is to seek what we shall never find, and what, if found,\nwould crumble beneath us. To seek the righteousness which is from God,\nis to seek what He is waiting to bestow, and what the blessed receivers\nblessedly know is more than they dreamed of.\n\nBut Paul looked for this great gift as a gift in Christ. It was when he\nwas 'found in Him' that it became his, and he was found 'blameless.'\nThat gift of an imparted life, which has a bias towards all goodness,\nand the natural operation of which is to incline all our faculties\ntowards conformity with the will of God, is bestowed when we 'win\nChrist.' Possessing Him, we possess it. It is not only 'imputed,' as our\nfathers delighted to say, but it is 'imparted.' And because it is the\ngift of God in Christ, it was in Paul's view received by faith. He\nexpresses that conviction in a double form in our text. It is 'through\nfaith' as the channel by which it passes into our happy hands. It is 'by\nfaith,' or, more accurately, 'upon faith,' as the foundation on which it\nrests, or the condition on which it depends. Our trust in Christ does\nbring His life to us to sanctify us, and the plain English of all this\nblessed teaching is--if we wish to be better let us trust Christ and get\nHim into the depths of our lives, and righteousness will be ours. That\ntransforming Presence laid up in 'the hidden man of the heart,' will be\nlike some pungent scent in a wardrobe which keeps away moths, and gives\nout a fragrance that perfumes all that hangs near it.\n\nBut all which we have been saying is not to be understood as if there\nwas no effort to be made, in order to receive, and to live manifesting,\nthe 'righteousness which is of God.' There must be the constant\nabandonment of self, and the constant utilising of the grace given. The\nrighteousness is bestowed whenever faith is exercised. The hand is never\nstretched out and the gift not lodged in it. But it is a life's aim to\npossess the 'righteousness which is of God by faith,' because that gift\nis capable of indefinite increase, and will reward the most strenuous\nefforts of a believing soul as long as life continues.\n\nIII. Paul's life's aim stretches beyond this life.\n\nShall we be chargeable with crowding too much meaning into his words, if\nwe fix on his remarkable expression, 'be found in Him,' as containing a\nclear reference to that great day of final judgment? We recall other\ninstances of the use of the same expression in connections which\nunmistakably point to that time. Such as 'being clothed we shall not be\nfound naked,' or 'the proof of your faith . . . might be found unto praise\nand glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ,' or 'found of\nHim in peace without spot, blameless.' In the light of these and similar\npassages, it does not seem unreasonable to suppose that this 'being\nfound' does include a reference to the Apostle's place after death,\nthough it is not confined to that. He thinks of the searching eye of the\nJudge taking keen account, piercing through all disguises, and wistfully\nas well as penetratingly scrutinising characters, till it finds that for\nwhich it seeks. They who are 'found in Him' in that day, are there and\nthus for ever. There is no further fear of falling out of union with\nHim, or of being, by either gradual and unconscious stages, or by sudden\nand overmastering assaults, carried out of the sacred enclosure of the\nCity of Refuge in which they dwell henceforth for ever. A dangerous\npresumptuousness has sometimes led to the over-confident assertion,\n'Once in Christ always in Christ.' But Paul teaches us that that\nsecurity of permanent dwelling in Him is to be for ever in this life the\naim of our efforts, rather than an accomplished fact. So long as we are\nhere, the possibility of falling away cannot be shut out, and there must\nalways rise before us the question, Am I in Christ? Hence there is need\nfor continual watchfulness, self-control, and self-distrust, and the\nlife's aim has to be perpetual, not only because it is capable of\nindefinite expansion, but because our weakness is capable of deserting\nit. It is only when at the last we are found by Him, in Him, that we are\nthere for ever, with all dangers of departure from Him at an end. In\nthat City of Refuge, and there only, 'the gates shall not be shut at\nall,' not solely because no enemies shall attempt to come in, but also\nbecause no citizens shall desire to go out.\n\nWe should ever have before us that hour, and our life's aim should ever\ndefinitely include the final scrutiny in which many a hidden thing will\ncome to light, many a long-lost thing be found, and each man's ultimate\nplace in relation to Jesus Christ will be freed from uncertainties,\nambiguities, hypocrisies, and disguises, and made plain to all\nbeholders. In that great day of 'finding,' some of us will have to ask\nwith sinking hearts, 'Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?' and others will\nbreak forth into the glad acclaim, 'I have found Him,' or rather 'been\nfound of Him.'\n\nSo we have before us the one reasonable aim for a man to have Christ, to\nbe found in Him, to have His righteousness. It is reasonable, it is\ngreat enough to absorb all our energies, and to reward them. It will\nlast a lifetime, and run on undisturbed beyond life. Following it, all\nother aims will fall into their places. Is this my aim?\n\n\n\n\nSAVING KNOWLEDGE\n\n 'That I may know Him, and the power of His\n resurrection, and the fellowship of His\n sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death; if\n by any means I may attain unto the resurrection\n from the dead.'--PHIL. iii. 10-11 (R.V.).\n\n\nWe have seen how the Apostle was prepared to close his letter at the\nbeginning of this chapter, and how that intention was swept away by the\nrush of new thoughts. His fervid faith caught fire when he turned to\nthink of what he had lost, and how infinitely more he had gained in\nChrist. His wealth is so great that it cannot be crowded into the narrow\nspace of one brief sentence, and after all the glowing words which\nprecede our text, he feels that he has not yet adequately set forth\neither his present possessions or his ultimate aims. So here he\ncontinues the theme which might have seemed most fully dealt with in the\ngreat thoughts that occupied us in the former sermon, but which still\nwait to be completed here. They are most closely connected with the\nformer, and the unity of the sentence is but a parallel to the oneness\nof the idea. The elements of our present text constitute a part of the\nApostle's aim in life, and may be dealt with as such.\n\nI. Paul's life's aim was the knowledge of Christ.\n\nThat sounds an anti-climax after 'Gain' and 'Be in Him.' These phrases\nseem to express a much more intimate relation than this, but we must\nnote that it is no mere theoretical or intellectual knowledge which is\nintended. Such knowledge would need no surrender or suffering 'the loss\nof all things.' We can only buy the knowledge of Christ at such a rate,\nbut we can buy knowledge about Him very much cheaper. Such knowledge\nwould not be worth the price; it lies on the surface of the soul, and\ndoes nothing. Many a man amongst us has it, and it is of no use to him.\nIf Paul had undergone all that he had undergone and sacrificed all that\nhe had given up, and for his reward had only gained accurate knowledge\nabout Christ, he had certainly wasted his life and made a bad bargain.\nBut as always, so here, to know means knowledge based upon experience.\nDid Christ mean that a correct creed was eternal life when He said,\n'This is life eternal to know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ\nwhom Thou has sent?' Did Paul mean the dry light of the understanding\nwhen he prayed that the Ephesians might know the love of Christ which\npasseth knowledge, in order to be filled with all the fulness of God?\nClearly we have to go much deeper down than that superficial\ninterpretation in order to reach the reality of the New Testament\nconception of knowledge. It is co-extensive with life, and is built upon\ninward experience. In a word, it is one aspect of winning Jesus. It is\nconsciousness contemplating its riches, counting its gains. As a man\nknows the bliss of parental or wedded love only by having it, or as he\nknows the taste of wine only by drinking it, or the glory of music only\nby hearing it, and the brightness of the day only by seeing it, so we\nknow Christ only by winning Him. There must first be the perception and\npossession by sense or emotion, and then the reflection on the\npossession by understanding. This applies to all religious truth. It\nmust be possessed ere it be fully known. Like the new name written upon\nthe Apocalyptic stone, 'No one knoweth but he that receiveth it.'\n\nThe knowledge which was Paul's life's aim was knowledge of a Person:\nthe object determines the nature of the knowledge. The mental act of\nknowing a proposition or a science or even of knowing about a person by\nhearing of him is different from that of knowing people when we have\nlived beside them. We need not be afraid of attaching too familiar a\nmeaning to this word of our text, if we say that it implies personal\nacquaintance with the Christ whom we know. Of course we come to know Him\nin the first instance through the medium of statements about Him, and we\ncannot too strongly insist, in these days of destructive criticism, on\nthe absolute necessity of accepting the Gospel statements as to the life\nof Jesus as the only possible method of knowing Him. But then, beyond\nthat acceptance of the record must come the application and\nappropriation of it, and the transmutation of a historical fact into a\npersonal experience. We may take an illustration from any of the\nScriptural truths about Jesus:--For instance, Scripture declares Him to\nbe our Redeemer. One man believes Him to be so, welcomes Him into his\nlife as such, and finds Him to be such. Another man believes Him to be\nso, but never puts His redeeming power to the proof. Is the knowledge of\nthese two rightly called by the same name? That which comes after\nexperience is surely not rightly designated by the same title as that\nwhich has no vivification nor verification of such a sort to build on,\nand is the mere product of the understanding. There is nothing which the\ngreat mass of so-called Christians need more than to have forced into\ntheir thoughts the difference between these two kinds of knowledge of\nChrist. There are thousands of them who, if asked, are ready to profess\nthat they know Jesus, but to whom He has never been anything more than\na partially understood article of an uncared for creed, and has never\nbeen in living contact with their needs, nor known for their strength in\nweakness, their comforter in sorrow, 'their life in death,' their all in\nall.\n\nTo deepen that experimental knowledge of Jesus is a worthy aim for the\nwhole life, and is a process that may go on indefinitely through it all.\nTo know Him more and more is to have more of heaven in us. To be\npenetrating ever deeper into His fulness, and finding every day new\ndepths to penetrate is to have a fountain of freshness in our dusty days\nthat will never fail or run dry. There is only one inexhaustible person,\nand that is Jesus Christ. We have all fulness in our Lord: we have\nalready received all when we received Him. Are we advancing in the\nexperience that is the parent of knowing Him? Do new discoveries meet us\nevery day as if we were explorers in a virgin land? To have this for our\naim is enough for satisfaction, for blessedness, and for growth. To know\nHim is a liberal education.\n\nII. That knowledge involves knowing the power of His Resurrection.\n\nThe power of His Resurrection is an expression which covers a wide\nground. There are several distinct and well-marked powers ascribed to it\nin Paul's writings. It has a demonstrative force in reference to our\nLord's person and work. For He is by it 'declared to be the Son of God\nwith power.' That rising again from the dead, taken in conjunction with\nthe fact that He dieth no more, but is ascended up on high, and in\nconjunction with His own words concerning Himself and His Resurrection,\nsets Him forth before the world as the Son of God, and is the solemn\ndivine approval and acceptance of His work.\n\nIt has a revealing power in regard to the condition of humanity in\ndeath. It is the one fact which establishes immortality, and which not\nonly establishes it, but casts some light on the manner of it. The\npossibility of personal life after, and therefore, in death, the\nunbroken continuity of being, the possibility of a resurrection, and a\nglorifying of this corporeal frame, with all the far-reaching\nconsequences of these truths in the triumph they give over death, in the\nsupport and substance they afford to the else-shadowy idea of\nimmortality, in the lofty place which they assign to the bodily frame,\nand the conception which they give of man's perfection as consisting of\nbody, soul, and spirit--these thoughts have flashed light into all the\ndarkness of the grave, have narrowed to a mere strip of coast-line the\nboundaries of the kingdom of death, have proclaimed love as the victor\nin her contest with that shrouded horror. The basis of them all is\nChrist's Resurrection; its power in this respect is the power to\nilluminate, to console, to certify, to wrench the sceptre from the hands\nof death, and to put it in the pierced hands of the Living One that was\ndead, and is Lord both of the dead and the living.\n\nFurther, the Resurrection is treated by Paul as having a power for our\njustification, in so far as the risen Lord bestows upon us by His risen\nlife the blessings of His righteousness. Paul also represents the\nResurrection of Christ as having the power of quickening our Spiritual\nlife. I need not spend time in quoting the many passages where His\nrising from the dead, and His life after the Resurrection, are treated\nas the type and pattern of our lives: and are not only regarded as\npattern, but are also regarded as the power by which that new life of\nours is brought about. It has the power of raising us from the death of\nsin, and bringing us into a new life of the Spirit. And finally, the\nResurrection of Christ is regarded as having the power of raising His\nservants from the grave to the full possession of His own glorious life,\nand so it is the power of our final victory over death.\n\nNow I do not know that we are entitled to exclude any of these powers\nfrom view. The broad words of the text include them all, but perhaps the\ntwo last are mainly meant, and of these chiefly the former.\n\nThe risen life of Christ quickens and raises us, and that not merely as\na pattern, but as a power. It is only if we are in Him that there is so\nreal a unity of life between Him and us that there enters into us some\nbreath of His own life.\n\nThat risen life of the Saviour which we share if we have Him, enters\ninto our nature as leaven into the three measures of meal; transforming\nand quickening it, gives new directions, tastes, motives, impulses, and\npower. It bids and inclines us to seek the things that are above, and\nits great exhortation to the hearts in which it dwells, to fix\nthemselves there, and to forsake the things that are on the earth, is\nbased upon the fact that they have died, and 'their life is hid with\nChrist in God.' Without that leaven the life that we live is a death,\nbecause it is lived in the 'lusts of the flesh,' doing the desires of\nthe flesh and of the mind. There is no real union with Jesus Christ, of\nwhich the direct issue is not a living experience of the power of His\nResurrection in bringing us to the likeness of itself in regard to our\nfreedom from the bondage to sin, and to our presenting ourselves unto\nGod as alive from the dead, and our members as instruments of\nrighteousness unto God. It is a solemn thought which we all need to\npress upon our consciences, that the only infallible sign that we have\nbeen in any measure quickened together with Christ and raised up with\nHim is that we have ceased to live in the lusts of our flesh, doing the\ndesires of the flesh and of the mind. The risen life of Jesus may\nindefinitely increase, and will do so in the measure in which we\nhonestly make it our life's aim to know Him and the power of His\nResurrection.\n\nIII. The experience of the power of Christ's Resurrection is inseparable\nfrom the fellowship of His sufferings.\n\nWe must not suppose that Paul's solemn and awful words here trench in\nthe smallest degree on the solitary unapproachableness of Christ's\ndeath. He would have answered, as in fact he does answer, the appeal of\nthe prophetic sufferer, 'Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto\nmy sorrow' with the strongest negative. No other human lips have ever\ntasted, or can ever taste, a cup of such bitterness as He drained for us\nall, and no other human lips have ever been so exquisitely sensitive to\nthe bitterness which they have drunk. The identification of Himself with\na sinful world, the depth and closeness of His community of feeling with\nall sorrow, the consciousness of the glory which He had left, and the\nperpetual sense of the hostility into which He had come, set Christ's\nsufferings by themselves as surely as the effects that flow from them\ndeclare that they need no repetition, and cannot be degraded by any\nparallel whilst the world lasts.\n\nBut yet His Death, like His Resurrection, is set forth in Scripture as\nbeing a type and power of ours. We have to die to the world by the power\nof the Cross. If we truly trust in His sacrifice there will operate\nupon us motives which separate and detach us from our old selves and the\nold world. A fundamental, ethical, and spiritual change is effected on\nus through faith. We were dead in sin, we are dead to sin. We have to\nblend the two thoughts of the Christian life as being a daily dying and\na continual resurrection in order to get the whole truth of the double\naspect of it.\n\nIt may be a question whether the Apostle is here referring to outward or\ninward and ethical sorrows, but perhaps we should not do justice to the\nthought unless we extend it to cover both of these. Certainly if his\ntheology was but the generalising of his experience, he had ample\nmaterial in his daily life for knowing the fellowship of Christ's\nsufferings. One of his most frequently recurring and most cherished\nthoughts is, that to suffer for Christ is to suffer with Christ, and in\nit he found and teaches us to find strength to endure, and patience to\noutlast any sorrows that may swoop upon us like birds of prey because we\nare Christians. Happy shall we be if Christ's sufferings are ours,\nbecause it is our union with Him and our likeness to Him, not to\nourselves, our sins, or our worldliness, that is their occasion. There\nis an old legend that Peter was crucified head downwards, because he\nfelt himself unworthy to be as his Master. We may well feel that nothing\nwhich we can ever bear for Him is worthy to be compared with what He has\nborne for us, and be the more overwhelmed with the greatness of the\ncondescension, and the humility of the love which reckon our light\naffliction, which is but for a moment, along with the heavy weight which\nHe bore, and the blessed issue of which outlasts time and enriches\neternity.\n\nBut there is another sense in which it is a worthy aim of our lives that\nour sufferings may be felt to be fellowship with His. That is a blessed\nsorrow which brings us closer to our Lord. That is a wholesome sorrow of\nwhich the issue is an intenser faith in Him, a fuller experience of His\nsufficiency. The storm blows us well when it blows us to His breast, and\nsorrow enriches us, whatever it may take away, which gives us fuller and\nmore assured possession of Jesus.\n\nBut when we are living in fellowship with Jesus, that union works in two\ndirections, and while on the one hand we may then humbly venture to feel\nthat our sufferings for Him are sufferings with Him, we may thankfully\nfeel, too, that in all our affliction He is afflicted. If His sufferings\nare ours we may be sure that ours are His. And how different they all\nbecome when we are certain of His sympathy! It is possible that we may\nhave a kind of common consciousness with our Lord, if our whole hearts\nand wills are kept in close touch with Him, so that in our experience\nthere may be a repetition in a higher form of that strange experience\nalleged to be familiar in hypnotism, where the bitter in one mouth is\ntasted in another.\n\nSo, what we ought to make our aim is that in our lives our growing\nknowledge of Christ should lead to the two results, so inexorably\nintertwined, of daily death and daily resurrection, and that we may be\nkept faithful to Him so that our outward sufferings may be caused by our\nunion with Him, and not by our own faithlessness, and may be discerned\nby us to be fellowship with His. Then we shall also feel that He bears\nours with us, and sorrow itself will be calmed and beautified into a\nsilent bliss, as the chill peaks when the morning strikes them glow with\ntender pink, and seem soft and warm, though they are grim rock and\nice-cold snow. Then some faint echo of His history 'who was acquainted\nwith grief' may be audible in our outward lives and we, too, may have\nour Gethsemane and our Calvary. It may not be presumption in us to say\n'We are able' when He asks 'Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of'?\nnor terror to hear Him prophesy 'Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I\ndrink of,' for we shall remember 'joint-heirs in Christ, if so be that\nwe suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.'\n\nIV. The end attained.\n\nThe Christian life as here manifested is even in its highest forms\nmanifestly incomplete. It is a reflected light, and like the reflected\nlight in the heavens, advances by imperceptible degrees to fill the\nwhole silver round. It may be 'e'en in its imperfections beautiful,' but\nit assuredly has 'a ragged edge.' The hypothetical form of the last\nwords of our text does not so much imply a doubt of the possibility of\nattaining the result as the recognition of the indispensable condition\nof effort on the part of him who attains it. That effort forthcoming,\nthe attainment is certain.\n\nThe Revised Version makes a slight correction which involves a great\nmatter, in reading 'the resurrection _from_ the dead.' It is necessary\nto insist on this change in rendering, not because it implies that only\nsaints are raised, but because Paul is thinking of that first\nresurrection of which the New Testament habitually speaks. 'The dead in\nChrist shall rise first' as he himself declared in his earliest epistle,\nand the seer in the Apocalypse shed a benediction on 'him that hath part\nin the first resurrection.' Our knowledge of that solemn future is so\nfragmentary that we cannot venture to draw dogmatic inferences from the\nlittle that has been declared to us, but we cannot forget the distinct\nwords of Jesus in which He not only plainly declares a universal\nresurrection, but as plainly proclaims that it falls into two parts, one\na 'resurrection of life,' and one a 'resurrection of judgment.' The\nformer may well be the final aim of a Christian life: the latter is a\nfate which one would think no sane man would deliberately provoke. Each\ncarries in its name its dominant characteristic, the one full of\nattractiveness, the other partially unveiling depths of shame and\npunitive retributions which might appal the stoutest heart.\n\nThis resurrection of life is the last result of the power of Christ's\nResurrection received into and working on the human spirit. It is plain\nenough that if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead\ndwell in us there is no term to its operations until our mortal bodies\nalso are quickened by His Spirit that dwelleth in us. The ethical and\nspiritual resurrection in the present life finds its completion in the\nbodily resurrection in the future. It cannot be that the transformation\nwrought in a human life shall be complete until it has flowed outwards\ninto and permeated the whole of manhood, body, soul, and spirit. The\nthree measures of meal have each to be influenced before 'the whole is\nleavened.' If we duly consider the elements necessary to a perfect\nrealisation of the divine ideal of humanity, we shall discern that\nredemption must have a gospel to bring to the body as well as to the\nspirit. Whatever has been devastated by sin must be healed by Jesus. It\nis not necessary to suppose that the body which dies is the body which\nrises again, rather the Apostle's far-reaching series of antitheses\nbetween that which is sown and that which is raised leads us to think\nthat the natural body, which has passed through corruption, and the\nparticles of which have been gathered into many different combinations,\ndoes not become the spiritual body. The person who dies is the person\nwho lives through death, and who assumes the body of the resurrection,\nand it is the person, not the elements which make up the personality,\nwho is spoken of as risen from the dead. The vesture may be different,\nbut the wearer is the same.\n\nSo that resurrection from the dead is the end of a supernatural life\nbegun here and destined to culminate hereafter. It is the last step in\nthe manifestation of our being in Christ, and so is being prepared for\nhere by every step in advance in gaining Jesus. It should ever be before\nevery Christian soul that participation in Christ hereafter is\nconditioned by its progress in likeness to Him here. The Resurrection\nfrom the dead is not a gift which can be bestowed apart from a man's\nmoral state. If he dies having had no knowledge by experience of the\npower of Christ's Resurrection, there is nothing in the fact of death to\ngive him that knowledge, and it is impossible to bring 'any means' to\nbear on him by which he will attain unto the 'resurrection from the\ndead.' If God could give that gift irrespective of a man's relations to\nJesus, He would give it to all. Let us ask ourselves, then, is it not\nworth making the dominant aim of our lives the same as that of Paul's?\nHow stands our account then? Are we not wise traders presenting a good\nbalance-sheet when we show entered on the one side the loss of all\nthings, and on the other the gaining of Christ, and the attaining the\nresurrection from the dead, the perfect transformation of body, soul,\nand spirit, into the perfect likeness of the perfect Lord? Does the\nother balance-sheet show the man as equally solvent who enters on one\nside the gain of a world, and on the other a Christless life, to be\nfollowed by a resurrection in which is no joy, no advance, no life, but\nwhich is a resurrection of judgment? May we all be found in Him, and\nattain to the resurrection from the dead!\n\n\n\n\nLAID HOLD OF AND LAYING HOLD\n\n 'I follow after if that I may apprehend that for\n which also I was apprehended of Christ\n Jesus.'--PHIL. iii. 12.\n\n\n'I was laid hold of by Jesus Christ.' That is how Paul thinks of what we\ncall his conversion. He would never have 'turned' unless a hand had been\nlaid upon him. A strong loving grasp had gripped him in the midst of his\ncareer of persecution, and all that he had done was to yield to the\ngrip, and not to wriggle out of it. The strong expression suggests, as\nit seems to me, the suddenness of the incident. Possibly impressions may\nhave been working underground, ever since the martyrdom of Stephen,\nwhich were undermining his convictions, and the very insanity of his\nzeal may have been due to an uneasy consciousness that the ground was\nyielding beneath his feet. That may have been so, but, whether it were\nso or not, the crisis came like a bolt out of the blue, and he was\nchecked in full career, as if a voice had spoken to the sea in its\nwildest storm, and frozen its waves into immobility.\n\nThere is suggested in the word, too, distinctly, our Lord's personal\naction in the matter. No doubt, the fact of His supernatural appearance\ngives emphasis to the phrase here. But every Christian man and woman has\nbeen, as truly as ever Paul was, laid hold of by the personal action of\nJesus Christ. He is present in His Word, and, by multitudes of inward\nimpulses and outward providences, He is putting out a gentle and a firm\nhand, and laying it upon the shoulders of all of us. Have we yielded?\nHave we resisted, when we were laid hold of? Did we try to get away? Did\nwe plant our feet and say, 'I will not be drawn,' or did we simply\nneglect the pressure? If we have yielded, my text tells us what we have\nto do next. For that hand is laid upon a man for a purpose, and that\npurpose is not secured by the hand being laid upon him, unless he, in\nhis turn, will put out a hand and grasp. Our activity is needed; that\nactivity will not be put forth without very distinct effort, and that\neffort has to be life-long, because our grasp at the best is incomplete.\nSo then, we have here, first of all, to consider--\n\nI. What Christ has laid His grip on us for.\n\nNow, the immediate result of that grasp, when it is yielded to, is the\nsense of the removal of guilt, forgiveness of sins, acceptance with God.\nBut these, the immediate results, are by no means the whole results,\nalthough a great many of us live as if we thought that the only thing\nthat Christianity is meant to do to us is that it bars the gates of some\nfuture hell, and brings to us the message of forgiveness. We cannot\nthink too nobly or too loftily of that gift of forgiveness, the initial\ngift that is laid in every Christian man's hands, but we may think too\nexclusively of it, and a great many of us do think of it as if it were\nall that was to be given. A painter has to clear away the old paint off\na door, or a wall, before he lays on the new. The initial gift that\ncomes from being laid hold of by Jesus Christ is the burning off of the\nold coat of paint. But that is only the preliminary to the laying on of\nthe new. A man away in the backwoods will spend a couple of years after\nhe has got his bit of land in felling and burning the trees, and rooting\nout and destroying the weeds. But is that what he got the clearing for?\nThat is only a preliminary to sowing the seed. My friend! If Jesus\nChrist has laid hold of you, and you have let Him keep hold of you, it\nis not only that you may be forgiven, not only that you may sun yourself\nin the light of God's countenance, and feel that a new blessed relation\nis set up between you and Him, but there are great purposes lying at the\nback of that, of which all that is only the preliminary and the\npreparation.\n\nConversion. Yes; but what is the good of turning a man round unless he\ngoes in the direction in which his face is turned? And so here the\nApostle having for years lived in the light of that great thought, that\nGod was reconciled in Jesus Christ, and that he was God's friend,\ndiscerns far beyond that, in dim perspective, towering high above the\nland in the front, the snowy sunlit summits of a great range to which he\nhas yet to climb, and says, 'I press on to lay hold of that for which I\nwas laid hold of by Jesus Christ.'\n\nAnd what was that? On the road to Damascus Paul was only told one thing,\nthat Christ had grasped him and drawn him to Himself in order that He\nmight make him a chosen vessel to bear the Word far hence amongst the\nGentiles. The bearing of His conversion upon Paul himself was never\nmentioned. The bearing of His conversion on the world was the only\nsubject that Jesus spoke of at first. But here Paul has nothing to say\nabout his world-wide mission. He does not think of himself as being\ncalled to be an Apostle, but as being summoned to be a Christian. And\nso, forgetting for the time all the glorious and yet burdensome\nobligations which were laid upon him, and the discharge of which was the\nvery life of his life, he thinks only of what affects his own character,\nthe perfecting of which he regards as being the one thing for which he\nwas 'laid hold of by Christ Jesus.' The purpose is twofold. No Christian\nman is made a Christian only in order that he may secure his own\nsalvation; there is the world to think of. No Christian man is made a\nChristian only in order that he may be Christ's instrument for carrying\nthe Word to other people; there is himself to think of. And these two\nphases of the purpose for which Jesus Christ lays hold upon us are very\nhard to unite in practice, giving to each its due place and prominence,\nand they are often separated, to the detriment of both the one that is\nattended to, and the one that is neglected. The monastic life has not\nproduced the noblest Christians; and there are pitfalls lying in the\npath of every man who, like me, has for his profession to preach the\nGospel, which, if they are fallen into, the inward life is utterly\nwrecked.\n\nThe two sides of Christ's purpose have, in our practice, to be held\ntogether, but for the present I only wish to say a word or two about\nthat which, as I have indicated, is but one hemisphere of the completed\norb, and that is our personal culture and growth in the divine life.\nWhat did Christ lay hold of me for? Paul answers the question very\nstrikingly and beautifully in a previous verse. Here is his conception\nof the purpose, 'that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection,\nand the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His\ndeath, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the\ndead.' That is what you were forgiven for; that is what you have 'passed\nfrom death unto life' for; that is what you have come into the sweet\nfellowship of God, and can think of Him as your Friend and Helper for.\n\nLet us take the clauses _seriatim_, and say a word about each of them.\n'That I may know Him.' Ah! there is a great deal more in Jesus Christ\nthan a man sees when he first sees Him through his tears and his fears,\nand apprehends Him as the Saviour of his soul, and the sacrifice on whom\nthe burden and the guilt of his sins were laid. We must begin there, as\nI believe. But woe to us if we stop there. There is far more in Christ\nthan that; although all that is in Him is included in that, yet you have\nto dig deep before you find all that is included in it. You have to live\nwith Him day by day, and year by year, and to learn to know Him as we\nlearn to know husbands and wives, by continual intercourse, by continual\nexperience of a sweet and unfailing love, by many a sacred hour of\ninterchange of affection and reception of gifts and counsels. It is only\nthus that we learn to know what Jesus Christ is. When He lays hold of\nus, He comes like the angel that came to Peter in the prison in the dark\nand awoke him out of his sleep and said 'Rise! and follow me.' It is\nonly when we get out into the street, and have been with Him for awhile,\nand the daylight begins to stream in, that we see clearly the face of\nour Deliverer, and know Him for all that He is. This knowledge is not\nthe sort of knowledge that you can get by thinking, or out of a book.\nIt is the knowledge of experience. It is the knowledge of love, it is\nthe knowledge of union, and it is in order that we may know Christ that\nHe lays his hand upon us.\n\n'The power of His Resurrection.' Now, by that I understand a similar\nknowledge, by experience, of the risen life of Jesus Christ flowing into\nus, and filling our hearts and minds with its own power. The risen life\nof Jesus is the nourishment and strengthening and blessing and life of a\nChristian. Our daily experience ought to be that there comes, wavelet by\nwavelet, that silent, gentle, and yet omnipotent influx into our empty\nhearts, the very life of Christ Himself.\n\nI know that this generation says that that is mysticism. I do not know\nwhether it is mysticism or not. I am sure it is truth; and I do not\nunderstand Christianity at all, unless there is that kind of mysticism,\nperfectly wholesome and good, in it. You will never know Jesus Christ\nuntil you know Him as pouring into your hearts the power of an endless\nlife, His own life. Christ for us by all means,--Christ's death the\nbasis of our hope, but Christ in us, and Christ's life as the true gift\nto His Church. Have you got that? Do you know the power of His\nResurrection?\n\n'The fellowship of His sufferings.' Has Paul made a mistake, and\ndeserted the chronological order? Why does he put the 'fellowship of the\nsufferings' after the 'power of the Resurrection'? For this plain\nreason, that if we get Christ's life into our hearts, in the measure in\nwhich we get it we shall bear a similar relation to the world which He\nbore to it, and in our measure will 'fill up that which is behind in the\nsufferings of Christ,' and will understand how true it is that 'if they\nhate Me they will hate you also.' Brethren, the test of us who have the\nlife of Christ in our hearts is that we shall, in some measure, suffer\nwith Him, because 'as He is, so are we, in this world,' and because we\nmust in that case look upon the world, its sins and its sorrows, with\nsomething of the sad gaze with which He looked across the valley to the\nTemple sparkling in the morning light, and wept over it. So if we know\nthe power of His Resurrection we shall know the fellowship of His\nsufferings.\n\nAnd then Paul goes on, in his definition of the purpose for which Christ\nlays hold upon men, apparently to say the same thing over again, only in\nthe opposite order, 'that I may be conformable to His death, if by any\nmeans I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.' Both of these\nclauses, I think, refer to the future, to the actual dying of the body,\nand the actual future resurrection of the same. And the thought is this,\nthat if here, through our earthly lives, we have been recipients of the\nrisen life of Jesus Christ, and so have stood to the world in our degree\nas He stood to it, then when the moment of death comes to us, we shall,\nin so far, have our departure shaped after His as that we shall be able\nto say, 'Into Thy hands I commit my spirit,' and die willingly, and at\nlast shall be partakers of that blessed Resurrection unto life eternal\nwhich closes the vista of our earthly history. Stephen's death was\nconformed to Christ's in outward fashion, in so far as it echoed the\nMaster's prayer, 'Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,'\nand in so far as it echoed the Master's last words, with the significant\nalteration that, whilst Jesus commended His spirit to the Father, the\nfirst martyr commended his to Jesus Christ.\n\nThese, then, are the purposes for which Christ laid His hand upon us,\nthat we might know Him, the power of His Resurrection, the fellowship of\nHis sufferings, being made conformable to His death yet by attaining the\nresurrection of the dead.\n\nII. Notice, again, our laying hold because we have been laid hold of.\n\nChrist's laying hold of me, blessed and powerful as it is, does not of\nitself secure that I shall reach the end which He had in view in His\narresting of me. What more is wanted? My effort. 'I follow after if I\nmay apprehend that for which also I am apprehended.' Now, notice, in the\none case, the Apostle speaks of himself, not as passive, but certainly\nnot as active. 'I was laid hold of.' What did he do? As I have said, he\nsimply yielded to the grasp. But 'I may lay hold of' conveys the idea of\npersonal effort; and so these two expressions, 'I was apprehended,' and\n'I apprehend,' suggest this consideration, that, for the initial\nblessings of the Christian life, forgiveness, acceptance, the sense of\nGod's favour, and of reconciliation with him, nothing is needed but the\nsimple faith that yields itself altogether to the grasp of Christ's\nhand, but that for my possessing what Christ means that I should possess\nwhen He lays His hand on me, there is needed not only faith but effort.\nI have to put out _my_ hand and tighten my fingers round the thing, if I\nwould make it my own, and keep it.\n\nSo--faith, to begin with, and work based on faith, to go on with. It is\nbecause a man is sure that Jesus Christ has laid His hand upon him, and\nmeant something when He did it, that he fights on with all his might to\nrealise Christ's purpose, and to get and keep the thing which Christ\nmeant him to have. There is stimulus in the thought, I was laid hold of\nby Him for a purpose. There is all the difference between striving,\nhowever eagerly, however nobly, however strenuously, however constantly,\nafter self-improvement, by one's own effort only, and striving after it\nbecause one knows that he is therein fulfilling the purpose for which\nJesus Christ drew him to Himself.\n\nAnd if that be so, then the nature of the thing to be laid hold of\ndetermines what we are to do to lay hold of it. And since to know\nChrist, and the power of His Resurrection, and the fellowship of His\nsufferings, is the aim and end of our conversion, the way to secure it\nmust be keeping in continual touch with Jesus by meditating upon Him, by\nholding many a moment of still, sacred, sweet communion with Him, by\ncarefully avoiding whatever might come between us and our knowledge of\nHim, and the influx of His life into us, and by yielding ourselves, day\nby day, to the continual influence of His divine grace upon us and by\nthe discipline which shall make our inward natures more and more capable\nof receiving more and more of that dear Lord. These being the things to\ndo, in regard to the inward life, there must be effort too, in regard to\nthe outward; for we must, if we are to lay hold of that for which we are\nlaid hold of by Jesus Christ, bring all the outward life under the\ndominion of this inward impulse, and when the flood pours into our\nhearts we must, by many a sluice and trench, guide it into every corner\nof the field, that all may be irrigated. The first thing they do when\nthey are going to sow rice in an Eastern field is to flood it, and then\nthey cast in the seed, and it germinates. Flood your lives with Christ,\nand then sow the seed and you will get a crop.\n\nIII. Lastly, the text suggests the incompleteness of our grasp.\n\n'I follow that,' says Paul, 'if that I may apprehend.' This letter was\nwritten far on in his career, in the time of his imprisonment in Rome,\nwhich all but ended his ministerial activity; and was many years after\nthat day on the road to Damascus. And yet, matured Christian and\nexercised Apostle as he was, with all that past behind him, he says, 'I\nfollow after, that I may apprehend.' Ah, brother, our experience must be\nincomplete, for we have an infinite aim set before us, and there is no\nend to the possibilities of plunging deeper and deeper and deeper into\nthe knowledge of Christ, and having larger and larger and larger\ndraughts of the fulness of His life. We have only been like goldseekers,\nwho have contented themselves as yet with washing the precious grains\nout of the gravel of the river. There are great reefs filled with the\nore that we have not touched. Thank God for the necessary incompleteness\nof our 'apprehending.' It is the very salt of life. To have realised our\naims, to have fulfilled our ideals, to have sucked dry the cluster of\nthe grapes is the death of aspiration, of hope, of blessedness; and to\nhave the distance beckoning, and all experience 'an arch, wherethro'\ngleams the untravelled world to which we move,' is the secret of\nperpetual youth and energy.\n\nBecause incomplete, our experience should be progressive; and that is a\ntruth that needs hammering into Christian people to-day. About how many\nof us can it be said that our light 'shineth more and more unto the\nnoonday.' Alas! about an enormous number of us it must be said, 'When\nfor the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you.'\nAll our churches have many grown babies, and cases of arrested\ndevelopment--people that ought to be living on strong meat, and are\nunable to masticate or digest it, and by their own fault have still need\nof the milk of infancy. There is an old fable about a strange animal\nthat fastened itself to the keel of sailing ships, and by some uncanny\npower was able to arrest them in mid-ocean, though the winds were\nfilling all their sails. There is a remora, as they called it, of that\nsort adhering to a great many Christian people, and keeping them fixed\non one spot, instead of 'following after, if that they may apprehend.'\n\nDear friends--and especially you younger Christians--Christ has laid\nhold of you. Well and good! that is the beginning. He has laid hold of\nyou for an end. That end will not be reached without your effort, and\nthat effort must be perpetual. It is a life-long task. Ay! and even up\nyonder the apprehending will be incomplete. Like those mathematical\nlines that ever approximate to a point which they never reach, we shall\nthrough Eternity be, as it were, rising, in ascending and ever-closer\ndrawing spirals, to that great Throne, and to Him that sits upon it. So\nthat, striking out the humble 'may' from our text, the rest of it\ndescribes the progressive blessedness of the endless life in the\nheavens, as truly as it does the progressive duty of the Christian life\nhere, and the glorified flock that follows the Lamb in the heavenly\npastures may each say: I follow after in order to apprehend that 'for\nwhich,' long ago and down amidst the dim shadows of earth, 'I was\napprehended of Christ Jesus.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE RACE AND THE GOAL\n\n 'This one thing I do, forgetting those things\n which are behind, and reaching forth unto those\n things which are before, I press toward the mark\n for the prize.'--PHIL. iii. 13, 14.\n\n\nThis buoyant energy and onward looking are marvellous in 'Paul the aged,\nand now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.' Forgetfulness of the past and\neager anticipation for the future are, we sometimes think, the child's\nprerogatives. They may be ignoble and puerile, or they may be worthy and\ngreat. All depends on the future to which we look. If it be the creation\nof our fancies, we are babies for trusting it. If it be, as Paul's was,\nthe revelation of God's purposes, we cannot do a wiser thing than look.\n\nThe Apostle here is letting us see the secret of his own life, and\ntelling us what made him the sort of Christian that he was. He counsels\nwise obliviousness, wise anticipation, strenuous concentration, and\nthese are the things that contribute to success in any field of life.\nChristianity is the perfection of common sense. Men become mature\nChristians by no other means than those by which they become good\nartisans, ripe scholars, or the like. But the misery is that, though\npeople know well enough that they cannot be good carpenters, or doctors,\nor fiddlers without certain habits and practices, they seem to fancy\nthat they can be good Christians without them.\n\nSo the words of my text may suggest appropriate thoughts on this first\nSunday of a new year. Let us listen, then, to Paul telling us how he\ncame to be the sort of Christian man he was.\n\nI. First, then, I would say, make God's aim your aim.\n\nPaul distinguishes here between the 'mark' and the 'prize.' He aims at\nthe one for the sake of the other. The one is the object of effort; the\nother is the sure result of successful effort. If I may so say, the\ncrown hangs on the winning post; and he who touches the goal clutches\nthe garland.\n\nThen, mark that he regards the aim towards which he strains as being the\naim which Christ had in view in his conversion. For he says in the\npreceding context, 'I labour if that I may lay hold of that for which\nalso I have been laid hold of by Jesus Christ.' In the words that follow\nthe text he speaks of the prize as being the result and purpose of the\nhigh calling of God 'in Christ Jesus.' So then he took God's purpose in\ncalling, and Christ's purpose in redeeming him, as being his great\nobject in life. God's aims and Paul's were identical.\n\nWhat, then, is the aim of God in all that He has done for us? The\nproduction in us of God-like and God-pleasing character. For this suns\nrise and set; for this seasons and times come and go; for this sorrows\nand joys are experienced; for this hopes and fears and loves are\nkindled. For this all the discipline of life is set in motion. For this\nwe were created; for this we have been redeemed. For this Jesus Christ\nlived and suffered and died. For this God's Spirit is poured out upon\nthe world. All else is scaffolding; this is the building which it\ncontemplates, and when the building is reared the scaffolding may be\ncleared away. God means to make us like Himself, and so pleasing to\nHimself, and has no other end in all the varieties of His gifts and\nbestowments but only this, the production of character.\n\nSuch is the aim that we should set before us. The acceptance of that aim\nas ours will give nobleness and blessedness to our lives as nothing else\nwill. How different all our estimates of the meaning and true nature of\nevents would be, if we kept clearly before us that their intention was\nnot merely to make us blessed and glad, or to make us sorrowful, but\nthat, through the blessedness, through the sorrow, through the gift,\nthrough the withdrawal, through all the variety of dealings, the\nintention was one and the same, to mould us to the likeness of our Lord\nand Saviour! There would be fewer mysteries in our lives, we should\nseldomer have to stand in astonishment, in vain regret, in miserable and\nweakening looking back upon vanished gifts, and saying to ourselves,\n'Why has this darkness stooped upon my path?' if we looked beyond the\ndarkness and the light to that for which both were sent. Some plants\nrequire frost to bring out their savour, and men need sorrow to test and\nto produce their highest qualities. There would be fewer knots in the\nthread of our lives, and fewer mysteries in our experience, if we made\nGod's aim ours, and strove through all variations of condition to\nrealise it.\n\nHow different all our estimate of nearer objects and aims would be, if\nonce we clearly recognised what we are here for! The prostitution of\npowers to obviously unworthy aims and ends is the saddest thing in\nhumanity. It is like elephants being set to pick up pins; it is like the\nlightning being harnessed to carry all the gossip and filth of one\ncapital of the world to the prurient readers in another. Men take these\ngreat powers which God has given them, and use them to make money, to\ncultivate their intellects, to secure the gratification of earthly\ndesires, to make a home for themselves here amidst the illusions of\ntime; and all the while the great aim which ought to stand out clear and\nsupreme is forgotten by them.\n\nThere is nothing that needs more careful examination by us than our\naccepted schemes of life for ourselves; the roots of our errors mostly\nlie in these things that we take to be axioms, and that we never examine\ninto. Let us begin this new year by an honest dealing with ourselves,\nasking ourselves this question, 'What am I living for?' And if the\nanswer, first of all, be, as, of course, it will be, the accomplishment\nof the nearer and necessary aims, such as the conduct of our business,\nthe cultivating of our understandings, the love and peace of our homes,\nthen let us press the investigation a little further, and say, What\nthen? Suppose I make a fortune, what then? Suppose I get the position I\nam striving for, what then? Suppose I cultivate my understanding and win\nthe knowledge that I am nobly striving after, what then? Let us not\ncease to ask the question until we can say, 'Thy aim, O Lord, is my aim,\nand I press toward the mark,' the only mark which will make life noble,\nelastic, stable, and blessed, that I 'may be found in Christ, not having\nmine own righteousness, but that which is of God by faith.' For this we\nhave all been made, guided, redeemed. If we carry this treasure out of\nlife we shall carry all that is worth carrying. If we fail in this we\nfail altogether, whatever be our so-called success. There is one mark,\none only, and every arrow that does not hit that target is wasted and\nspent in vain.\n\nII. Secondly, let me say, concentrate all effort on this one aim.\n\n'This one thing I do,' says the Apostle, 'I press toward the mark.' That\naim is the one which God has in view in all circumstances and\narrangements. Therefore, obviously, it is one which may be pursued in\nall of these, and may be sought whatsoever we are doing. All\noccupations of life except only sin are consistent with this highest\naim. It needs not that we should seek any remote or cloistered form of\nlife, nor sheer off any legitimate and common interests and occupations,\nbut in them all we may be seeking for the one thing, the moulding of our\ncharacters into the shapes that are pleasing to Him. 'One thing have I\ndesired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the\nhouse of the Lord all the days of my life'; wheresoever the outward days\nof my life may be passed. Whatsoever we are doing in business, in shop,\nat a study table, in the kitchen, in the nursery, by the road, in the\nhouse, we may still have the supreme aim in view, that from all\noccupations there may come growth in character and in likeness to Jesus\nChrist.\n\nOnly, to keep this supreme aim clear there will require far more\nfrequent and resolute effort of what the old mystics used to call\n'recollection' than we are accustomed to put forth. It is hard, amidst\nthe din of business, and whilst yielding to other lower, legitimate\nimpulses and motives, to set this supreme one high above them all. But\nit is possible if only we will do two things: keep ourselves close to\nGod, and be prepared to surrender much, laying our own wills, our own\nfancies, purposes, eager hopes and plans in His hands, and asking Him to\nhelp us, that we may never lose sight of the harbour light because of\nany tossing waves that rise between us and it, nor may ever be so\nswallowed up in ends, which are only means after all, as to lose sight\nof the only end which is an end in itself. But for the attainment of\nthis aim in any measure, the concentration of all our powers upon it is\nabsolutely needful. If you want to bore a hole you take a sharp point;\nyou can do nothing with a blunt one. Every flight of wild ducks in the\nsky will tell you the form that is most likely to secure the maximum of\nmotion with the minimum of effort. The wedge is that which pierces\nthrough all the loosely-compacted textures against which it is pressed.\nThe Roman strategy forced the way of the legion through the\nloose-ordered ranks of barbarian foes by arraying it in that wedge-like\nform. So we, if we are to advance, must gather ourselves together and\nput a point upon our lives by compaction and concentration of effort and\nenergy on the one purpose. The conquering word is, 'This one thing I\ndo.' The difference between the amateur and the artist is that the one\npursues an art at intervals by spurts, as a _parergon_--a thing that is\ndone in the intervals of other occupations--and that the other makes it\nhis life's business. There are a great many amateur Christians amongst\nus, who pursue the Christian life by spurts and starts. If you want to\nbe a Christian after God's pattern--and unless you are you are scarcely\na Christian at all--you have to make it your business, to give the same\nattention, the same concentration, the same unwavering energy to it\nwhich you do to your trade. The man of one book, the man of one idea,\nthe man of one aim is the formidable and the successful man. People will\ncall you a fanatic; never mind. Better be a fanatic and get what you aim\nat, which is the highest thing, than be so broad that, like a stream\nspreading itself out over miles of mud, there is no scour in it\nanywhere, no current, and therefore stagnation and death. Gather\nyourselves together, and amidst all the side issues and nearer aims keep\nthis in view as the aim to which all are to be subservient--that,\n'whether I eat or drink, or whatsoever I do, I may do all to the glory\nof God.' Let sorrow and joy, and trade and profession, and study and\nbusiness, and house and wife and children, and all home joys, be the\nmeans by which you may become like the Master who has died for this end,\nthat we may become partakers of His holiness.\n\nIII. Pursue this end with a wise forgetfulness.\n\n'Forgetting the things that are behind.' The art of forgetting has much\nto do with the blessedness and power of every life. Of course, when the\nApostle says 'Forgetting the things that are behind,' he is thinking of\nthe runner, who has no time to cast his eye over his shoulder to mark\nthe steps already trod. He does not mean, of course, either, to tell us\nthat we are so to cultivate obliviousness as to let God's mercies to us\n'lie forgotten in unthankfulness, or without praises die.' Nor does he\nmean to tell us that we are to deny ourselves the solace of remembering\nthe mercies which may, perhaps, have gone from us. Memory may be like\nthe calm radiance that fills the western sky from a sun that has set,\nsad and yet sweet, melancholy and lovely. But he means that we should so\nforget as, by the oblivion, to strengthen our concentration.\n\nSo I would say, let us remember, and yet forget, our past failures and\nfaults. Let us remember them in order that the remembrance may cultivate\nin us a wise chastening of our self-confidence. Let us remember where we\nwere foiled, in order that we may be the more careful of that place\nhereafter. If we know that upon any road we fell into ambushes, 'not\nonce nor twice,' like the old king of Israel, we should guard ourselves\nagainst passing by that road again. He who has not learned, by the\nmemory of his past failures, humility and wise government of his life,\nand wise avoidance of places where he is weak, is an incurable fool.\n\nBut let us forget our failures in so far as these might paralyse our\nhopes, or make us fancy that future success is impossible where past\nfailures frown. Ebenezer was a field of defeat before it rang with the\nhymns of victory. And there is no place in your past life where you have\nbeen shamefully baffled and beaten, but there, and in that, you may yet\nbe victorious. Never let the past limit your hopes of the possibilities\nand your confidence in the certainties and victories of the future. And\nif ever you are tempted to say to yourselves, 'I have tried it so often,\nand so often failed, that it is no use trying it any more. I am beaten\nand I throw up the sponge,' remember Paul's wise exhortation, and\n'forgetting the things that are behind . . . press toward the mark.'\n\nIn like manner I would say, remember and yet forget past successes and\nachievements. Remember them for thankfulness, remember them for hope,\nremember them for counsel and instruction, but forget them when they\ntend, as all that we accomplish does tend, to make us fancy that little\nmore remains to be done; and forget them when they tend, as all that we\naccomplish ever does tend, to make us think that such and such things\nare our line, and of other virtues and graces and achievements of\nculture and of character, that these are not our line, and not to be won\nby us.\n\n'Our line!' Astronomers take a thin thread from a spider's web and\nstretch it across their object glasses to measure stellar magnitudes.\nJust as is the spider's line in comparison with the whole shining\nsurface of the sun across which it is stretched, so is what we have\nalready attained to the boundless might and glory of that to which we\nmay come. Nothing short of the full measure of the likeness of Jesus\nChrist is the measure of our possibilities.\n\nThere is a mannerism in Christian life, as there is in everything else,\nwhich is to be avoided if we would grow into perfection. There was a\ngreat artist in the last century who never could paint a picture without\nsticking a brown tree in the foreground. We have all got our 'brown\ntrees,' which we think we can do well, and these limit our ambition to\nsecure other gifts which God is ready to bestow upon us. So 'forget the\nthings that are behind.' Cultivate a wise obliviousness of past sorrows,\npast joys, past failures, past gifts, past achievements, in so far as\nthese might limit the audacity of our hopes and the energy of our\nefforts.\n\nIV. So, lastly, pursue the aim with a wise, eager reaching forward.\n\nThe Apostle employs a very graphic word here, which is only very\npartially expressed by that 'reaching forth.' It contains a condensed\npicture which it is scarcely possible to put into any one expression.\n'Reaching out over' is the full though clumsy rendering of the word, and\nit gives us the picture of the runner with his whole body thrown\nforward, his hand extended, and his eye reaching even further than his\nhand, in eager anticipation of the mark and the prize. So we are to\nlive, with continual reaching out of confidence, clear recognition, and\neager desire to make our own the unattained.\n\nWhat is that which gives an element of nobleness to the lives of great\nidealists, whether they be poets, artists, students, thinkers, or what\nnot? Only this, that they see the unattained burning ever so clearly\nbefore them that all the attained seems as nothing in their eyes. And\nso life is saved from commonplace, is happily stung into fresh effort,\nis redeemed from flagging, monotony, and weariness.\n\nThe measure of our attainments may be fairly estimated by the extent to\nwhich the unattained is clear in our sight. A man down in the valley\nsees the nearer shoulder of the hill, and he thinks it the top. The man\nup on the shoulder sees all the heights that lie beyond rising above\nhim. Endeavour is better than success. It is more to see the Alpine\nheights unscaled than it is to have risen so far as we have done. They\nwho thus have a boundless future before them have an endless source of\ninspiration, of energy, of buoyancy granted to them.\n\nNo man has such an absolutely boundless vision of the future which may\nbe his as we have, if we are Christian people, as we ought to be. We\nonly can thus look forward. For all others a blank wall stretches at the\nend of life, against which hopes, when they strike, fall back stunned\nand dead. But for us the wall may be overleaped, and, living by the\nenergy of a boundless hope, we, and only we, can lay ourselves down to\ndie, and say then, 'Reaching forth unto the things that are before.'\n\nSo, dear friends, make God's aim your aim; concentrate your life's\nefforts upon it; pursue it with a wise forgetfulness; pursue it with an\neager confidence of anticipation that shall not be put to shame.\nRemember that God reaches His aim for you by giving to you Jesus Christ,\nand that you can only reach it by accepting the Christ who is given and\nbeing found in Him. Then the years will take away nothing from us which\nit is not gain to lose. They will neither weaken our energy nor flatten\nour hopes, nor dim our confidence, and, at the last we shall reach the\nmark, and, as we touch it, we shall find dropping on our surprised and\nhumble heads the crown of life which they receive who have so run, not\nas uncertainly, but doing this one thing, pressing towards the mark for\nthe prize.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SOUL'S PERFECTION\n\n 'Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus\n minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded,\n God shall reveal even this unto you.'--PHIL. iii.\n 15.\n\n\n'As many as be perfect'; and how many may they be? Surely a very short\nbede-roll would contain their names; or would there be any other but the\nName which is above every name upon it? Part of the answer to such a\nquestion may be found in observing that the New Testament very\nfrequently uses the word to express not so much the idea of moral\ncompleteness as that of physical maturity. For instance, when Paul says\nthat he would have his converts to be '_men_ in understanding,' and when\nthe Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of 'them that are of full age,' the\nsame word is used as this 'perfect' in our text. Clearly in such cases\nit means 'full grown,' as in contrast with 'babes,' and expresses not\nabsolute completeness, but what we may term a relative perfection, a\ncertain maturity of character and advanced stage of Christian\nattainment, far removed from the infantile epoch of the Christian life.\n\nAnother contribution to the answer may be found in observing that in\nthis very context these 'perfect' people are exhorted to cultivate the\nsense of not having 'already attained,' and to be constantly reaching\nforth to unattained heights, so that a sense of imperfection and a\ncontinual effort after higher life are parts of Paul's 'perfect man.'\nAnd it is to be still further noticed that on the same testimony\n'perfect' people may probably be 'otherwise minded'; by which we\nunderstand not divergently minded from one another, but 'otherwise' than\nthe true norm or law of life would prescribe, and so may stand in need\nof the hope that God will by degrees bring them into conformity with His\nwill, and show them 'this,' namely, their divergence from His Pattern\nfor them.\n\nIt is worth our while to look at these large thoughts thus involved in\nthe words before us.\n\nI. Then there are people whom without exaggeration the judgment of truth\ncalls _perfect_.\n\nThe language of the New Testament has no scruple in calling men 'saints'\nwho had many sins, and none in calling men perfect who had many\nimperfections; and it does so, not because it has any fantastic theory\nabout religious emotions being the measure of moral purity, but partly\nfor the reasons already referred to, and partly because it wisely\nconsiders the main thing about a character to be not the degree to which\nit has attained completeness in its ideal, but what that ideal is. The\ndistance a man has got on his journey is of less consequence than the\ndirection in which his face is turned. The arrow may fall short, but to\nwhat mark was it shot? In all regions of life a wise classification of\nmen arranges them according to their aims rather than their\nachievements. The visionary who attempts something high and accomplishes\nscarcely anything of it, is often a far nobler man, and his poor,\nbroken, foiled, resultless life far more perfect than his who aims at\nmarks on the low levels and hits them full. Such lives as these, full\nof yearning and aspiration, though it be for the most part vain, are\n\n 'Like the young moon with a ragged edge\n E'en in its imperfection beautiful.'\n\nIf then it be wise to rank men and their pursuits according to their\naims rather than their accomplishments, is there one class of aims so\nabsolutely corresponding to man's nature and relations that to take them\nfor one's own, and to reach some measure of approximation to them, may\nfairly be called the perfection of human nature? Is there one way of\nliving concerning which we may say that whosoever adopts it has, in so\nfar as he does adopt it, discerned and attained the purpose of his\nbeing? The literal force of the word in our text gives pertinence to\nthat question, for it distinctly means 'having reached the end.' And if\nthat be taken as the meaning, there need be no doubt about the answer.\nGrand old words have taught us long ago 'Man's chief end is to glorify\nGod and to enjoy Him for ever.' Yes, he who lives for God has taken that\nfor his aim which all his nature and all his relations prescribe, he is\ndoing what he was made and meant to do; and however incomplete may be\nits attainments, the lowest form of a God-fearing, God-obeying life is\nhigher and more nearly 'perfect' than the fairest career or character\nagainst which, as a blight on all its beauty, the damning accusation may\nbe brought, 'The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy\nways, thou hast not glorified.'\n\nPeople sneer at 'saints' and point at their failings. They remind us of\nthe foul stains in David's career, for instance, and mock as they ask,\n'Is this your man after God's own heart?' Yes, he is; not because\nreligion has a morality of its own different from that of the world\n(except as being higher), nor because 'saints' make up for adultery and\nmurder by making or singing psalms, but because the main set and current\nof the life was evidently towards God and goodness, and these hideous\nsins were glaring contradictions, eddies and backwaters, as it were,\nwept over with bitter self-abasement and conquered by strenuous effort.\nBetter a life of Godward aspiration and straining after purity, even if\nbroken by such a fall, so recovered, than one of habitual earthward\ngrubbing, undisturbed by gross sin.\n\nAnd another reason warrants the application of the word to men whose\npresent is full of incompleteness, namely, the fact that such men have\nin them the germ of a life which has no natural end but absolute\ncompleteness. The small seed may grow very slowly in the climate and\nsoil which it finds here, and be only a poor little bit of ragged green,\nvery shabby and inconspicuous by the side of the native flowers of earth\nflaunting around it, but it has a divine germinant virtue within, and\nwaits but being carried to its own clime and 'planted in the house of\nthe Lord' above, to 'flourish in the courts of our God,' when these\nothers with their glorious beauty have faded away and are flung out to\nrot.\n\nII. We have set forth here very distinctly two of the characteristics of\nthis perfection.\n\nThe Apostle in our text exhorts the perfect to be '_thus_ minded.' How\nis that? Evidently the word points back to the previous clauses, in\nwhich he has been describing his own temper and feeling in the Christian\nrace. He sets that before the Philippians as their pattern, or rather\ninvites them to fellowship with him in the estimate of themselves and in\ntheir efforts after higher attainments. 'Be thus minded' means, Think\nas I do of yourselves, and do as I do in your daily life.\n\nHow did he think of himself? He tells us in the sentence before, 'Not as\nthough I were already perfect. I count not myself to have apprehended.'\nSo then a leading characteristic of this true Christian perfection is a\nconstant consciousness of imperfection. In all fields of effort, whether\nintellectual, moral, or mechanical, as faculty grows, consciousness of\ninsufficiency grows with it. The farther we get up the hill, the more we\nsee how far it is to the horizon. The more we know, the more we know our\nignorance. The better we can do, the more we discern how much we cannot\ndo. Only people who never have done and never will do anything, or else\nraw apprentices with the mercifully granted self-confidence of youth,\nwhich gets beaten out of most of us soon enough, think that they can do\neverything.\n\nIn morals and in Christian life the same thing is true. The measure of\nour perfection will be the consciousness of our imperfection--a paradox,\nbut a great truth. It is plain enough that it will be so. Conscience\nbecomes more sensitive as we get nearer right. The worse a man is the\nless it speaks to him, and the less he hears it. When it ought to\nthunder it whispers; when we need it most it is least active. The thick\nskin of a savage will not be disturbed by lying on sharp stones, while a\ncrumpled rose-leaf robs the Sybarite of his sleep. So the practice of\nevil hardens the cuticle of conscience, and the practice of goodness\nrestores tenderness and sensibility; and many a man laden with crime\nknows less of its tingling than some fair soul that looks almost\nspotless to all eyes but its own. One little stain of rust will be\nconspicuous on a brightly polished blade, but if it be all dirty and\ndull, a dozen more or fewer will make little difference. As men grow\nbetter they become like that glycerine barometer recently introduced, on\nwhich a fall or a rise that would have been invisible with mercury to\nrecord it takes up inches, and is glaringly conspicuous. Good people\nsometimes wonder, and sometimes are made doubtful and sad about\nthemselves, by this abiding and even increased consciousness of sin.\nThere is no need to be so. The higher the temperature the more chilling\nwould it be to pass into an ice-house, and the more our lives are\nbrought into fellowship with the perfect life, the more shall we feel\nour own shortcomings. Let us be thankful if our consciences speak to us\nmore loudly than they used to do. It is a sign of growing holiness, as\nthe tingling in a frost-bitten limb is of returning life. Let us seek to\ncultivate and increase the sense of our own imperfection, and be sure\nthat the diminution of a consciousness of sin means not diminished power\nof sin, but lessened horror of it, lessened perception of right,\nlessened love of goodness, and is an omen of death, not a symptom of\nlife. Painter, scholar, craftsman all know that the condition of advance\nis the recognition of an ideal not attained. Whoever has not before him\na standard to which he has not reached will grow no more. If we see no\nfaults in our work we shall never do any better. The condition of all\nChristian, as of all other progress, is to be drawn by that fair vision\nbefore us, and to be stung into renewed effort to reach it, by the\nconsciousness of present imperfection.\n\nAnother characteristic to which these perfect men are exhorted is a\nconstant striving after a further advance. How vigorously, almost\nvehemently, that temper is put in the context--'I follow after'; 'I\npress toward the mark'; and that picturesque 'reaching forth,' or, as\nthe Revised Version gives it, 'stretching forward.' The full force of\nthe latter word cannot be given in any one English equivalent, but may\nbe clumsily hinted by some such phrase as 'stretching oneself out over,'\nas a runner might do with body thrown forward and arms extended in\nfront, and eagerness in every strained muscle, and eye outrunning foot,\nand hope clutching the goal already. So yearning forward, and setting\nall the current of his being, both faculty and desire, to the yet\nunreached mark, the Christian man is to live. His glances are not to be\nbent backwards, but forwards. He is not to be a 'praiser of the past,'\nbut a herald and expectant of a nobler future. He is the child of the\nday and of the morning, forgetting the things which are behind, and ever\nyearning towards the things which are before, and drawing them to\nhimself. To look back is to be stiffened into a living death; only with\nfaces set forward are we safe and well.\n\nThis buoyant energy of hope and effort is to be the result of the\nconsciousness of imperfection of which we have spoken. Strange to many\nof us, in some moods, that a thing so bright should spring up from a\nthing so dark, and that the more we feel our own shortcomings, the more\nhopeful should we be of a future unlike the past, and the more earnest\nin our effort to make that future the present! There is a type of\nChristian experience not uncommon among devout people, in which the\nconsciousness of imperfection paralyses effort instead of quickening it;\nmen lament their evil, their slow progress and so on, and remain the\nsame year after year. They are stirred to no effort. There is no\nstraining onwards. They almost seem to lose the faith that they can ever\nbe any better. How different this from the grand, wholesome completeness\nof Paul's view here, which embraces both elements, and even draws the\nundying brightness of his forward-looking confidence from the very\ndarkness of his sense of present imperfection!\n\nSo should it be with us, 'as many as be perfect.' Before us stretch\nindefinite possibilities of approximating to the unattainable fulness of\nthe divine life. We may grow in knowledge and in holiness through\nendless ages and grades of advance. In a most blessed sense we may have\nthat for our highest joy which in another meaning is a punishment of\nunfaithfulness and indocility, that we shall be 'ever learning, and\nnever coming to the full knowledge of the truth.' No limit can be put to\nwhat we may receive of God, nor to the closeness, the fulness of our\ncommunion with Him, nor to the beauty of holiness which may pass from\nHim into our poor characters, and irradiate our homely faces. Then,\nbrethren, let us cherish a noble discontent with all that we at present\nare. Let our spirits stretch out all their powers to the better things\nbeyond, as the plants grown in darkness will send out pale shoots that\nfeel blindly towards the light, or the seed sown on the top of a rock\nwill grope down the bare stone for the earth by which it must be fed.\nLet the sense of our own weakness ever lead to a buoyant confidence in\nwhat we, even we, may become if we will only take the grace we have. To\nthis touchstone let us bring all claims to higher holiness--they who are\nperfect are most conscious of imperfection, and most eager in their\nefforts after a further progress in the knowledge, love, and likeness of\nGod in Christ.\n\nIII. We have here also distinctly brought out the co-existence with\nthese characteristics of their opposites.\n\n'If in anything ye are otherwise minded,' says Paul. I have already\nsuggested that this expression evidently refers not to difference of\nopinion among themselves, but to a divergence of character from the\npattern of feeling and life which he has been proposing to them. If in\nany respects ye are unconscious of your imperfections, if there be any\n'witch's mark' of insensibility in some spot of your conscience to some\nplain transgressions of law, if in any of you there be some complacent\nillusion of your own stainlessness, if to any of you the bright vision\nbefore you seem faint and unsubstantial, God will show you what you do\nnot see. Plainly then he considers that there will be found among these\nperfect men states of feeling and estimates of themselves opposed to\nthose which he has been exhorting them to cherish. Plainly he supposes\nthat a good man may pass for a time under the dominion of impulses and\ntheories which are of another kind from those that rule his life.\n\nHe does not expect the complete and uninterrupted dominion of these\nhigher powers. He recognises the plain facts that the true self, the\ncentral life of the soul, the higher nature, 'the new man,' abides in a\nself which is but gradually renewed, and that there is a long distance,\nso to speak, from the centre to the circumference. That higher life is\nplanted, but its germination is a work of time. The leaven does not\nleaven the whole mass in a moment, but creeps on from particle to\nparticle. 'Make the tree good' and in due time its fruit will be good.\nBut the conditions of our human life are conflict, and these peaceful\nimages of growth and unimpeded natural development, 'first the blade,\nthen the ear, after that the full corn in the ear,' are not meant to\ntell all the truth. Interruptions from external circumstances, struggles\nof flesh with spirit, and of imagination and heart and will against the\nbetter life implanted in the spirit, are the lot of all, even the most\nadvanced here, and however a man may be perfect, there will always be\nthe possibility that in something he may be 'otherwise minded.'\n\nSuch an admission does not make such interruptions less blameworthy when\nthey occur. The doctrine of averages does not do away with the voluntary\ncharacter of each single act. The same number of letters are yearly\nposted without addresses. Does anybody dream of not scolding the errand\nboy who posted them, or the servant who did not address them, because he\nknows that? We are quite sure that we could have resisted each time that\nwe fell. That piece of sharp practice in business, or that burst of bad\ntemper in the household which we were last guilty of--could we have\nhelped it or not? Conscience must answer that question, which does not\ndepend at all on the law of averages. Guilt is not taken away by\nasserting that sin cleaves to men, 'perfect men.'\n\nBut the feelings with which we should regard sin and contradictions of\nmen's truest selves in ourselves and others should be so far altered by\nsuch thoughts that we should be very slow to pronounce that a man cannot\nbe a Christian because he has done so and so. Are there any sins which\nare clearly _incompatible_ with a Christian character? All sins are\n_inconsistent_ with it, but that is a very different matter. The uniform\ndirection of a man's life being godless, selfish, devoted to the objects\nand pursuits of time and sense, is incompatible with his being a\nChristian--but, thank God, no single act, however dark, is so, if it be\nin contradiction to the main tendency impressed upon the character and\nconduct. It is not for us to say that any single deed shows a man cannot\nbe Christ's, nor to fling ourselves down in despair saying, 'If I were a\nChristian, I could not have done that.' Let us remember that 'all\nunrighteousness is sin,' and the least sin is in flagrant opposition to\nour Christian profession; but let us also remember, and that not to\nblunt our consciences or weaken our efforts, that Paul thought it\npossible for perfect men to be 'otherwise minded' from their deepest\nselves and their highest pattern.\n\nIV. The crowning hope that lies in these words is the certainty of a\ngradual but complete attainment of all the Christian aspirations after\nGod and goodness.\n\nThe ground of that confidence lies in no natural tendencies in us, in no\neffort of ours, but solely in that great name which is the anchor of all\nour confidence, the name of God. Why is Paul certain that 'God will\nreveal even this unto you'? Because He is God. The Apostle has learned\nthe infinite depth of meaning that lies in that name. He has learned\nthat God is not in the way of leaving off His work before He has done\nHis work, and that none can say of Him, that 'He began to build, and was\nnot able to finish.' The assurances of an unchangeable purpose in\nredemption, and of inexhaustible resources to effect it; of a love that\ncan never fade, and of a grace that can never be exhausted--are all\ntreasured for us in that mighty name. And such confidence is confirmed\nby the manifest tendency of the principles and motives brought to bear\non us in Christianity to lead on to a condition of absolute perfection,\nas well as by the experience which we may have, if we will, of the\nsanctifying and renewing power of His Spirit in our Spirit.\n\nBy the discipline of daily life, by the ministry of sorrow and joy, by\nmerciful chastisements dogging our steps when we stray, by duties and\ncares, by the teaching of His word coming even closer to our hearts and\nquickening our consciences to discern evil where we had seen none, as\nwell as kindling in us desires after higher and rarer goodness, by the\nreward of enlarged perceptions of duty and greater love towards it, with\nwhich He recompenses lowly obedience to the duty as yet seen, by the\nsecret influences of His Spirit of Power and of Love and of a sound Mind\nbreathed into our waiting spirits, by the touch of His own sustaining\nhand and glance of His own guiding eye, He will reveal to the lowly soul\nall that is yet wanting in its knowledge, and communicate all that is\nlacking in character.\n\nSo for us, the true temper is confidence in His power and will, an\nearnest waiting on Him, a brave forward yearning hope blended with a\nlowly consciousness of imperfection, which is a spur not a clog, and\nvigorous increasing efforts to bring into life and character the fulness\nand beauty of God. Presumption should be as far from us as despair--the\none because we have not already attained, the other because 'God will\nreveal even this unto us.' Only let us keep in mind the caution which\nthe Apostle, knowing the possible abuses which might gather round His\nteaching, has here attached to it, 'Nevertheless'--though all which I\nhave been saying is true, it is only on this understanding--'Whereto we\nhave already attained, by the same let us walk.' God will perfect that\nwhich concerneth you if--and only if--you go on as you have begun, if\nyou make your creed a life, if you show what you are. If so, then all\nthe rest is a question of time. A has been said, and Z will come in its\nproper place. Begin with humble trust in Christ, and a process is\ncommenced which has no natural end short of that great hope with which\nthis chapter closes, that the change which begins in the deepest\nrecesses of our being, and struggles slowly and with many interruptions,\ninto partial visibility in our character, shall one day triumphantly\nirradiate our whole nature out to the very finger-tips, and 'even the\nbody of our humiliation shall be fashioned like unto the body of\nChrist's glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to\nsubdue all things to Himself.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE RULE OF THE ROAD\n\n 'Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained,\n let us walk by the same rule.'--PHIL. iii. 16.\n\n\nPaul has just been laying down a great principle--viz. that if the main\ndirection of a life be right, God will reveal to a man the points in\nwhich he is wrong. But that principle is untrue and dangerous, unless\ncarefully guarded. It may lead to a lazy tolerance of evil, and to\ndrawing such inferences as, 'Well! it does not much matter about\nstrenuous effort, if we are right at bottom it will all come right\nby-and-by,' and so it may become a pillow for indolence and a clog on\neffort. This possible abuse of a great truth seems to strike the\nApostle, and so he enters here, with this 'Nevertheless,' a _caveat_\nagainst that twist of his meaning. It is as if he said, 'Now mind! while\nall that is perfectly true, it is true on conditions; and if they be not\nattended to, it is not true.' God will reveal to a man the things in\nwhich he is wrong if, and only if, he steadfastly continues in the\ncourse which he knows and sees to be right. Present attainments, then,\nare in some sense a standard of duty, and if we honestly and\nconscientiously observe that standard we shall get light as we journey.\nIn this exhortation of the Apostle's there are many exhortations wrapped\nup; and in trying to draw them out I venture to adhere to the form of\nexhortation for the sake of impressiveness and point.\n\nI. First, then, I would say the Apostle means, 'Live up to your faith\nand your convictions.'\n\nIt may be a question whether 'that to which we have already attained'\nmeans the amount of knowledge which we have won or the amount of\npractical righteousness which we have made our own. But I think that,\ninstead of sharply dividing between these two, we shall follow more in\nthe course of the Apostle's thought if we unite them together, and\nremember that the Bible does not make the distinct separation which we\nsometimes incline to make between knowledge on the one side and practice\non the other, but regards the man as a living unity. And thus, both\naspects of our attainments come into consideration here.\n\nSo, then, there are two main thoughts--first, live out your creed, and\nsecond, live up to your convictions.\n\nLive out your creed. Men are meant to live, not by impulse, by accident,\nby inclination, but by principle. We are not intended to live by rule,\nbut we _are_ intended to live by law. And unless we know _why_ we do as\nwell as _what_ we do, and give a rational account of our conduct, we\nfall beneath the height on which God intends us to walk. Impulse is all\nvery well, but impulse is blind and needs a guide. The imitation of\nthose around us, or the acceptance of the apparent necessities of\ncircumstances, are, to some extent, inevitable and right. But to be\ndriven merely by the force of externals is to surrender the highest\nprerogative of manhood. The highest part of human nature is the reason\nguided by conscience, and a man's conscience is only then rightly\nilluminated when it is illuminated by his creed, which is founded on the\nacceptance of the revelation that God has made of Himself.\n\nAnd whilst we are clearly meant to be guided by the intelligent\nappropriation of God's truth, that truth is evidently all meant for\nguidance. We are not told anything in the Bible in order that we may\nknow as an ultimate object, but we are told it all in order that,\nknowing, we may be, and, being, we may do, according to His will.\n\nJust think of the intensely practical tendency of all the greatest\ntruths of Christianity. The Cross is the law of life. The revelation\nthat was made there was made, not merely that we might cling to it as a\nrefuge from our sins, but that we might accept it as the rule of our\nconduct. All our duties to mankind are summed up in the word 'Love one\nanother as I have loved you.' We say that we believe in the divinity of\nChrist; we say that we believe in the great incarnation and sacrificial\ndeath and eternal priesthood of the loving Son of God. We say that we\nbelieve in a judgment to come and a future life. Well, then, do these\ntruths produce any effect upon my life? have they shaped me in any\nmeasure into conformity with their great principles? Does there issue\nfrom them constraining power which grasps me and moulds me as a sculptor\nwould a bit of clay in his hands? Am I subject to the Gospel's\nauthority, and is the word in which God has revealed Himself to me the\nword which dominates and impels all my life? 'Whereunto we have already\nattained, by the same let us walk.'\n\nBut we shall not do that without a distinct effort. For it is a great\ndeal easier to live from hand to mouth than to live by principle. It is\na great deal easier to accept what seems forced upon us by circumstances\nthan to exercise control over the circumstances, and make them bend to\nGod's holy will. It is a great deal easier to take counsel of\ninclination, and to put the reins in the hands of impulses, passions,\ndesires, tastes, or even habits, than it is, at each fresh moment, to\nseek for fresh impulses from a fresh illumination from the ancient and\nyet ever fresh truth. The old kings of France used to be kept with all\nroyal state in the palace, but they were not allowed to do anything. And\nthere was a rough, unworshipped man that stood by their side, and who\nwas the real ruler of the realm. That is what a great many professing\nChristians do with their creeds. They instal them in some inner chamber\nthat they very seldom visit, and leave them there, in dignified\nidleness, and the real working ruler of their lives is found elsewhere.\nLet us see to it, brethren, that all our thoughts are incarnated in our\ndeeds, and that all our deeds are brought into immediate connection with\nthe great principles of God's word. Live by that law, and we live at\nliberty.\n\nAnd, then, remember that this translating of creed into conduct is the\nonly condition of growing illumination. When we act upon a belief, the\nbelief grows. That is the source of a great deal of stupid obstinacy in\nthis world, because men have been so long accustomed to go upon certain\nprinciples that it seems incredible to them but that these principles\nshould be true. But that, too, is at the bottom of a great deal of\nintelligent and noble firmness of adherence to the true. A man who has\ntested a principle because he has lived upon it has confidence in it\nthat nobody else can have.\n\nProjectors may have beautiful specifications with attractive pictures of\ntheir new inventions; they look very well upon paper, but we must see\nthem working before we are sure of their worth. And so, here is this\ngreat body of Divine truth, which assumes to be sufficient for guidance,\nfor conduct, for comfort, for life. Live upon it, and thereby your grasp\nof it and your confidence in it will be immensely increased. And no man\nhas a right to say 'I have rejected Christianity as untrue,' unless he\nhas put it to the test by living upon it; and if he has, he will never\nsay it. A Swiss traveller goes into a shop and buys a brand-new\nalpenstock. Does he lean upon it with as much confidence as another man\ndoes, who has one with the names of all the mountains that it has helped\nhim up branded on it from top to bottom? Take _this_ staff and lean on\nit. Live your creed, and you will believe your creed as you never will\nuntil you do. Obedience takes a man up to an elevation from which he\nsees further into the deep harmonies of truth. In all regions of life\nthe principle holds good: 'To him that hath shall be given.' And it\nholds eminently in reference to our grasp of Christian principles. Use\nthem and they grow; neglect them and they perish. Sometimes a man dies\nin a workhouse who has a store of guineas and notes wrapped up in rags\nsomewhere about him; and so they have been of no use to him. If you want\nyour capital to increase, trade with it. As the Lord said when He gave\nthe servants their talents: 'Trade with them till I come.' The creed\nthat is utilised is the creed that grows. And that is why so many of you\nChristian people have so little real intellectual grasp of the\nprinciples of Christianity, because you have not lived upon them, nor\ntried to do it.\n\nAnd, in like manner, another side of this thought is, be true to your\nconvictions. There is no such barrier to a larger and wholesomer view of\nour duty as the neglect of anything that plainly is our duty. It stands\nthere, an impassable cliff between us and all progress. Let us live and\nbe what we know we ought to be, and we shall know better what we ought\nto be at the next moment.\n\nII. Secondly, let me put the Apostle's meaning in another exhortation,\nGo on as you have begun.\n\n'Whereunto we have already attained, by the same let us walk.' The\nvarious points to which the men have reached are all points in one\nstraight line; and the injunction of my text is 'Keep the road.' There\nare a great many temptations to stray from it. There are nice smooth\ngrassy bits by the side of it where it is a great deal easier walking.\nThere are attractive things just a footstep or two out of the path--such\na little deviation that it can easily be recovered. And so, like\nchildren gathering daisies in the field, we stray away from the path;\nand, like men on a moor, we then look round for it, and it is gone. The\nangle of divergence may be the acutest possible; the deviation when we\nbegin may be scarcely visible, but if you draw a line at the sharpest\nangle and the least deviation from a straight line, and carry it out far\nenough, there will be space between it and the line from which it\nstarted ample to hold a universe. Then, let us take care of small\ndeviations from the plain straight path, and give no heed to the\nseductions that lie on either side, but 'whereunto we have already\nattained, by _the same_ let us walk.'\n\nThere are temptations, too, to slacken our speed. The river runs far\nmore slowly in its latter course than when it came babbling and leaping\ndown the hillside. And sometimes a Christian life seems as if it crept\nrather than ran, like those sluggish streams in the Fen country, which\nmove so slowly that you cannot tell which way the water is flowing. Are\nnot there all round us, are there not amongst ourselves instances of\nchecked growth, of arrested development? There are people listening to\nme now, calling themselves--and I do not say that they have not a right\nto do so--Christians, who have not grown a bit for years, but stand at\nthe very same point of attainment, both in knowledge and in purity and\nChristlikeness, as they were many, many days ago. I beseech you, listen\nto this exhortation of my text, 'Whereunto we have already attained, by\nthe same let us walk,' and continue patient and persistent in the course\nthat is set before us.\n\nIII. The Apostle's injunction may be cast into this form, Be yourselves.\n\nThe representation which underlies my text, and precedes it in the\ncontext, is that of the Christian community as a great body of\ntravellers all upon one road, all with their faces turned in one\ndirection, but at very different points on the path. The difference of\nposition necessarily involves a difference in outlook. They see their\nduties, and they see the Word of God, in some respects diversely. And\nthe Apostle's exhortation is: 'Let each man follow his own insight, and\nwhereunto he has attained, by that, and not by his brother's attainment,\nby that let him walk.' From the very fact of the diversity of\nadvancement there follows the plain duty for each of us to use our own\neyesight, and of independent faithfulness to our own measure of light,\nas the guide which we are bound to follow.\n\nThere is a dreadful want, in the ordinary Christian life, of any\nappearance of first-hand communication with Jesus Christ, and daring to\nbe myself, and to act on the insight into His will which Christ has\ngiven _me_.\n\nConventional Godliness, Christian people cut after one pattern, a little\nnarrow round of certain statutory duties and obligations, a parrot-like\nrepetition of certain words, a mechanical copying of certain methods of\nlife, an oppressive sameness, mark so much of modern religion. What a\nfreshening up there would come into all Christian communities if every\nman lived by his own perception of truth and duty! If a musician in an\norchestra is listening to his neighbour's note and time, he will lose\nmany an indication from the conductor that would have kept him far more\nright, if he had attended to it. And if, instead of taking our beliefs\nand our conduct from one another, or from the average of Christian men\nround us, we went straight to Jesus Christ and said to Him, 'What\nwouldst _Thou_ have _me_ to do?' there would be a different aspect over\nChristendom from what there is to-day. The fact of individual\nresponsibility, according to the measure of our individual light, and\nfaithful following of that, wheresoever it may lead us, are the grand\nand stirring principles that come from these words. 'Whereunto we have\nalready attained,' by that--and by no other man's attainment or\nrule--let us walk.\n\nBut do not let us forget that that same faithful independence and\nindependent faithfulness because Christ speaks to us, and we will not\nlet any other voice blend with His, are quite consistent with, and,\nindeed, demand, the frank recognition of our brother's equal right. If\nwe more often thought of all the great body of Christian people as an\narmy, united in its diversity, its line of march stretching for leagues,\nand some in the van, and some in the main body, and some in the rear,\nbut all one, we should be more tolerant of divergences, more charitable\nin our judgment of the laggards, more patient in waiting for them to\ncome up with us, and more wise and considerate in moderating our pace\nsometimes to meet theirs. All who love Jesus Christ are on the same road\nand bound for the same home. Let us be contented that they shall be at\ndifferent stages on the path, seeing that we know that they will all\nreach the Temple above.\n\nIV. Lastly, cherish the consciousness of imperfection and the confidence\nof success.\n\n'Whereunto we have attained' implies that that is only a partial\npossession of a far greater whole. The road is not finished at the stage\nwhere we stand. And, on the other hand, 'by the same let us walk,'\nimplies that beyond the present point the road runs on equally patent\nand pervious to our feet. These two convictions, of my own imperfection\nand of the certainty of my reaching the great perfectness beyond, are\nindispensable to all Christian progress. As soon as a man begins to\nthink that he has realised his ideal, Good-bye! to all advance. The\nartist, the student, the man of business, all must have gleaming before\nthem an unattained object, if they are ever to be stirred to energy and\nto run with patience the race that is set before them.\n\nThe more distinctly that a man is conscious of his own imperfection in\nthe Christian life, the more he will be stung and stirred into\nearnestness and energy of effort, if only, side by side with the\nconsciousness of imperfection, there springs triumphant the confidence\nof success. That will give strength to the feeble knees; that will lift\na man buoyant over difficulties; that will fire desire; that will\nstimulate and solidify effort; that will make the long, monotonous\nstretches of the road easy, the rough places plain, the crooked things\nstraight. Over all reluctant, repellent duties it will bear us, in all\nweariness it will re-invigorate us. We are saved by hope, and the more\nbrightly there burns before us, not as a tremulous hope, but as a future\ncertainty, the thought, 'I shall be like Him, for I shall see Him as He\nis,' the more shall I set my face to the loved goal and my feet to the\ndusty road, and 'press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling\nof God.' Christian progress comes out of the clash and collision of\nthese two things, like that of flint and steel--the consciousness of\nimperfection and the confidence of success. And they who thus are driven\nby the one and drawn by the other, in all their consciousness of failure\nare yet blessed, and are crowned at last with that which they believed\nbefore it came.\n\n'Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house'--the prize won is heaven. But\n'blessed are they in whose hearts are the ways'--the prize desired and\nstrained after is heaven upon earth. We may all live a life of continual\nadvancement, each step leading upwards, for the road always climbs, to\npurer air, grander scenery, and a wider view. And yonder, progress will\nstill be the law, for they who here have followed the Lamb, and sought\nto make Him their pattern and Commander, will there 'follow Him\nwhithersoever He goeth.' If here we walk according to that 'whereunto we\nhave attained,' there He shall say, 'They will walk with Me in white,\nfor they are worthy.'\n\n\n\n\nWARNINGS AND HOPES\n\n 'Brethren, be ye imitators together of me, and\n mark them which so walk even as ye have us for an\n ensample. For many walk, of whom I told you often,\n and now tell you even weeping, that they are the\n enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is\n perdition, whose God is the belly, and whose glory\n is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For\n our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we\n wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who\n shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation,\n that it may be conformed to the body of His glory,\n according to the working whereby he is able even\n to subject all things unto Himself.'--PHIL. iii.\n 17-21 (R.V.).\n\n\nThere is a remarkable contrast in tone between the sad warnings which\nbegin this section and the glowing hopes with which it closes, and that\ncontrast is made the more striking when we notice that the Apostle binds\nthe gloom of the one and the radiance of the other by 'For,' which makes\nthe latter the cause of the former.\n\nThe exhortation in which the Apostle begins by proposing himself as an\nexample sounds strange on any lips, and, most of all, on his, but we\nhave to note that the points in which he sets himself up as a pattern\nare obviously those on which he touched in the preceding outpouring of\nhis heart, and which he has already commended to the Philippians in\npleading with them to be 'thus minded.' What he desires them to copy is\nhis self-distrust, his willingness to sacrifice all things to win\nChrist, his clear sense of his own shortcomings, and his eager straining\ntowards as yet unreached perfection. His humility is not disproved by\nsuch words, but what is remarkable in them is the clear consciousness of\nthe main direction and set of his life. We may well hesitate to take\nthem for ours, but every Christian man and woman ought to be able to say\nthis much. If we cannot in some degree declare that we are so walking,\nwe have need to look to our foundations. Such words are really in sharp\ncontrast to those in which Jesus is held forth as an example. Notice,\ntoo, how quickly he passes to associate others with him, and to merge\nthe 'Me' into 'Us.' We need not ask who his companions were, since\nTimothy is associated with him at the beginning of the letter.\n\nThe exhortation is enforced by pointing to others who had gone far\nastray, and of whom he had warned the Philippians often, possibly by\nletter. Who these unworthy disciples were remains obscure. They were\nclearly not the Judaisers branded in verse 2, who were teachers seeking\nto draw away the Philippians, while these others seem to have been\n'enemies of the Cross of Christ,' not by open hostility nor by\ntheoretical errors, but by practical worldliness, and that in these\nways; they make sense their God, they are proud of what is really their\ndisgrace, namely, they are shaking off the restraints of morality; and,\nmost black though it may seem least so, they 'mind earthly things' on\nwhich thought, feeling, and interest are concentrated. Let us lay to\nheart the lesson that such direction of the current of a life to the\nthings of earth makes men 'enemies of the Cross of Christ,' whatever\ntheir professions, and will surely make their end perdition, whatever\ntheir apparent prosperity. Paul's life seemed loss and was gain; these\nmen's lives seemed gain and was loss.\n\nFrom this dark picture charged with gloom, and in one corner showing\nwhite waves breaking far out against an inky sky, and a vessel with torn\nsails driving on the rocks, the Apostle turns with relief to the\nbrighter words in which he sets forth the true affinities and hopes of a\nChristian. They all stand or fall with the belief in the Resurrection of\nChrist and His present life in His glorified corporeal manhood.\n\nI. Our true metropolis.\n\nThe Revised Version puts in the margin as an alternative rendering for\n'citizenship' commonwealth, and there appears to be a renewed allusion\nhere to the fact already noted that Philippi was a 'colony,' and that\nits inhabitants were Roman citizens. Paul uses a very emphatic word for\n'is' here which it is difficult to reproduce in English, but which\nsuggests essential reality.\n\nThe reason why that heavenly citizenship is ours in no mere play of the\nimagination but in most solid substance, is because He is there for whom\nwe look. Where Christ is, is our Mother-country, our Fatherland,\naccording to His own promise, 'I go to prepare a place for you.' His\nbeing there draws our thoughts and sets our affections on Heaven.\n\nII. The colonists looking for the King.\n\nThe Emperors sometimes made a tour of the provinces. Paul here thinks of\nChristians as waiting for their Emperor to come across the seas to this\noutlying corner of His dominions. The whole grand name is given here,\nall the royal titles to express solemnity and dignity, and the character\nin which we look for Him is that of Saviour. We still need salvation,\nand though in one sense it is past, in another it will not be ours until\nHe comes the second time without sin unto salvation. The eagerness of\nthe waiting which should characterise the expectant citizens is\nwonderfully described by the Apostle's expression for it, which\nliterally means to look away out--with emphasis on both\nprepositions--like a sentry on the walls of a besieged city whose eyes\nare ever fixed on the pass amongst the hills through which the relieving\nforces are to come.\n\nIt may be said that Paul is here expressing an expectation which was\ndisappointed. No doubt the early Church looked for the speedy return of\nour Lord and were mistaken. We are distinctly told that in that point\nthere was no revelation of the future, and no doubt they, like the\nprophets of old, 'searched what manner of time the spirit of Christ\nwhich was in them did signify.' In this very letter Paul speaks of death\nas very probable for himself, so that he had precisely the same double\nattitude which has been the Church's ever since, in that he looked for\nChrist's coming as possible in his own time, and yet anticipated the\nother alternative. It is difficult, no doubt, to cherish the vivid\nanticipation of any future event, and not to have any certainty as to\nits date. But if we are sure that a given event will come sometime and\ndo not know when it may come, surely the wise man is he who thinks to\nhimself it may come any time, and not he who treats it as if it would\ncome at no time. The two possible alternatives which Paul had before him\nhave in common the same certainty as to the fact and uncertainty as to\nthe date, and Paul had them both before his mind with the same vivid\nanticipation.\n\nThe practical effect of this hope of the returning Lord on our 'walk'\nwill be all to bring it nearer Paul's. It will not suffer us to make\nsense our God, nor to fix our affections on things above; it will\nstimulate all energies in pressing towards the goal, and will turn away\nour eyes from the trivialities and transiencies that press upon us, away\nout toward the distance where 'far off His coming shone.'\n\nIII. The Christian sharing in Christ's glory.\n\nThe same precise distinction between 'fashion' and 'form,' which we have\nhad occasion to notice in Chapter II., recurs here. The 'fashion' of\nthe body of our humiliation is external and transient; the 'form' of the\nbody of His glory to which we are to be assimilated consists of\nessential characteristics or properties, and may be regarded as being\nalmost synonymous with 'Nature.' Observing the distinction which the\nApostle draws by the use of these two words, and remembering their force\nin the former instance of their occurrence, we shall not fail to give\nforce to the representation that in the Resurrection the fleeting\nfashion of the bodily frame will be altered, and the glorified bodies of\nthe saints made participant of the essential qualities of His.\n\nWe further note that there is no trace of false asceticism or of gnostic\ncontempt for the body in its designation as 'of our humiliation.' Its\nweaknesses, its limitations, its necessities, its corruption and its\ndeath, sufficiently manifest our lowliness, while, on the other hand,\nthe body in which Christ's glory is manifested, and which is the\ninstrument for His glory, is presented in fullest contrast to it.\n\nThe great truth of Christ's continual glorified manhood is the first\nwhich we draw from these words. The story of our Lord's Resurrection\nsuggests indeed that He brought the same body from the tomb as loving\nhands had laid there. The invitation to Thomas to thrust his hands into\nthe prints of the nails, the similar invitation to the assembled\ndisciples, and His partaking of food in their presence, seemed to forbid\nthe idea of His rising changed. Nor can we suppose that the body of His\nglory would be congruous with His presence on earth. But we have to\nthink of His ascension as gradual, and of Himself as 'changed by still\ndegrees' as He ascended, and so as returned to where the 'glory which He\nhad with the Father before the world was,' as the Shechinah cloud\nreceived Him out of the sight of the gazers below. If this be the true\nreading of His last moments on earth, He united in His own experience\nboth the ways of leaving it which His followers experience--the way of\nsleep which is death, and the way of 'being changed.'\n\nBut at whatever point the change came, He now wears, and for ever will\nwear, the body of a man. That is the dominant fact on which is built the\nChristian belief in a future life, and which gives to that belief all\nits solidity and force, and separates it from vague dreams of\nimmortality which are but a wish tremblingly turned into a hope, or a\ndread shudderingly turned into an expectation. The man Christ Jesus is\nthe pattern and realised ideal of human life on earth, the revelation of\nthe divine life through a human life, and in His glorified humanity is\nno less the pattern and realised ideal of what human nature may become.\nThe present state of the departed is incomplete in that they have not a\nbody by which they can act on, and be acted on by, an external universe.\nWe cannot indeed suppose them lapped in age-long unconsciousness, and it\nmay be that the 'dead in Christ' are through Him brought into some\nknowledge of externals, but for the full-summed perfection of their\nbeing, the souls under the altar have to wait for the resurrection of\nthe body. If resurrection is needful for completion of manhood, then\ncompleted manhood must necessarily be set in a locality, and the\nglorified manhood of Jesus must also now be in a place. To think thus of\nit and of Him is not to vulgarise the Christian conception of Heaven,\nbut to give it a definiteness and force which it sorely lacks in popular\nthinking. Nor is the continual manhood of our Lord less precious in its\ninfluence in helping our familiar approach to Him. It tells us that He\nis still and for ever the same as when on earth, glad to welcome all who\ncame and to help and heal all who need Him. It is one of ourselves who\n'sitteth at the right hand of God.' His manhood brings Him memories\nwhich bind Him to us sorrowing and struggling, and His glory clothes Him\nwith power to meet all our needs, to stanch all our wounds, to satisfy\nall our desires.\n\nOur text leads us to think of the wondrous transformation into Christ's\nlikeness. We know not what are the differences between the body of our\nhumiliation and the body of His glory, but we must not be led away by\nthe word Resurrection to fall into the mistake of supposing that in\ndeath we 'sow that body which shall be.' Paul's great chapter in I.\nCorinthians should have destroyed that error for ever, and it is a\nsingular instance of the persistency of the most unsupported mistakes\nthat there are still thousands of people who in spite of all that they\nknow of what befalls our mortal bodies, and of how their parts pass into\nother forms, still hold by that crude idea. We have no material by which\nto construct any, even the vaguest, outline of that body that shall be.\nWe can only run out the contrasts as suggested by Paul in 1st\nCorinthians, and let the dazzling greatness of the positive thought\nwhich he gives in the text lift our expectations. Weakness will become\npower, corruption incorruption, liability to death immortality,\ndishonour glory, and the frame which belonged and corresponded to 'that\nwhich was natural,' shall be transformed into a body which is the organ\nof that which is spiritual. These things tell us little, but they may\nbe all fused into the great light of likeness to the body of His glory;\nand though that tells us even less, it feeds hope more and satisfies our\nhearts even whilst it does not feed our curiosity. We may well be\ncontented to acknowledge that 'it doth not yet appear what we shall be,'\nwhen we can go on to say, 'We know that when He shall appear we shall be\nlike Him.' It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master.\n\nBut we must not forget that the Apostle regards even this overwhelming\nchange as but part of a mightier process, even the universal subjection\nof all things unto Christ Himself. The Emperor reduces the whole world\nto subjection, and the glorifying of the body as the climax of the\nuniversal subjugation represents it as the end of the process of\nassimilation begun in this mortal life. There is no possibility of a\nresurrection unto life unless that life has been begun before death.\nThat ultimate glorious body is needed to bring men into correspondence\nwith the external universe. As is the locality so is the body. Flesh and\nblood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. This whole series of thoughts\nmakes our glorious resurrection the result not of death, but of Christ's\nliving power on His people. It is only in the measure in which He lives\nin us and we in Him, and are partaking by daily participation in the\npower of His Resurrection, that we shall be made subjects of the working\nwhereby He is able even to subject all things unto Himself, and finally\nbe conformed to the body of His glory.\n\n\n\n\n_EXPOSITIONS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE_\n\nALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D.\n\n PHILIPPIANS, COLOSSIANS, FIRST\n AND SECOND THESSALONIANS\n AND FIRST TIMOTHY\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nPHILIPPIANS\n\nA TENDER EXHORTATION (Phil. iv. 1) 1\n\nNAMES IN THE BOOK OF LIFE (Phil. iv. 3) 11\n\nREJOICE EVERMORE (Phil. iv. 4) 21\n\nHOW TO OBEY AN IMPOSSIBLE INJUNCTION (Phil. iv. 6) 31\n\nTHE WARRIOR PEACE (Phil. iv. 7) 39\n\nTHINK ON THESE THINGS (Phil. iv. 8) 48\n\nHOW TO SAY 'THANK YOU' (Phil. iv. 10-14, R.V.) 58\n\nGIFTS GIVEN, SEED SOWN (Phil. iv. 15-19, R.V.) 66\n\nFAREWELL WORDS (Phil. iv. 20-23, R.V.) 74\n\n\nCOLOSSIANS\n\nSAINTS, BELIEVERS, BRETHREN (Col. i. 2) 82\n\nTHE GOSPEL-HOPE (Col. i. 5) 92\n\n'ALL POWER' (Col. i. 11, R.V.) 99\n\nTHANKFUL FOR INHERITANCE (Col. i. 12, R.V.) 106\n\nCHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR (Col. i. 29) 114\n\nCHRISTIAN PROGRESS (Col. ii. 6, 7, R.V.) 124\n\nRISEN WITH CHRIST (Col. iii. 1-15) 127\n\nRISEN WITH CHRIST (Col. iii. 1, 2) 134\n\nWITHOUT AND WITHIN (Col. iv. 5) 143\n\n\nI. THESSALONIANS\n\nFAITH, LOVE, HOPE, AND THEIR FRUITS (1 Thess. i. 3) 155\n\nGOD'S TRUMPET (1 Thess. i. 8) 164\n\nWALKING WORTHILY (1 Thess. ii. 12) 170\n\nSMALL DUTIES AND THE GREAT HOPE (1 Thess. iv. 9-18; v. 1, 2) 183\n\nSLEEPING THROUGH JESUS (1 Thess. iv. 14) 190\n\nTHE WORK AND ARMOUR OF THE CHILDREN OF THE DAY (1 Thess. v. 8) 198\n\nWAKING AND SLEEPING (1 Thess. v. 10) 210\n\nEDIFICATION (1 Thess. v. 11) 220\n\nCONTINUAL PRAYER AND ITS EFFECTS (1 Thess. v. 16-18) 229\n\nPAUL'S EARLIEST TEACHING (1 Thess. v. 27) 237\n\n\nII. THESSALONIANS\n\nCHRIST GLORIFIED IN GLORIFIED MEN (2 Thess. i. 10) 248\n\nWORTHY OF YOUR CALLING (2 Thess. i. 11, 12) 256\n\nEVERLASTING CONSOLATION AND GOOD HOPE (2 Thess. ii. 16, 17) 267\n\nTHE HEART'S HOME AND GUIDE (2 Thess. iii. 5) 277\n\nTHE LORD OF PEACE AND THE PEACE OF THE LORD (2 Thess. iii. 16) 288\n\n\nI. TIMOTHY\n\nTHE END OF THE COMMANDMENT (1 Tim. i. 5) 298\n\n'THE GOSPEL OF THE GLORY OF THE HAPPY GOD' (1 Tim. i. 11) 308\n\nTHE GOSPEL IN SMALL (1 Tim. i. 15) 316\n\nTHE CHIEF OF SINNERS (1 Tim. i. 15) 326\n\nA TEST CASE (1 Tim. i. 16) 335\n\nTHE GLORY OF THE KING (1 Tim. i. 17) 344\n\nWHERE AND HOW TO PRAY (1 Tim. ii. 8) 353\n\nSPIRITUAL ATHLETICS (1 Tim. iv. 7) 361\n\nTHE ONE WITNESS, THE MANY CONFESSORS (1 Tim. vi. 12-14) 370\n\nTHE CONDUCT THAT SECURES THE REAL LIFE (1 Tim. vi. 19) 379\n\n\n\n\nA TENDER EXHORTATION\n\n 'Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed\n for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord,\n my dearly beloved.'--PHIL. iv. 1.\n\n\nThe words I have chosen set forth very simply and beautifully the bond\nwhich knit Paul and these Philippian Christians together, and the chief\ndesire which his Apostolic love had for them. I venture to apply them to\nourselves, and I speak now especially to the members of my own church\nand congregation.\n\nI. Let us note, then, first, the personal bond which gives force to the\nteacher's words.\n\nThat Church at Philippi was, if Paul had any favourites amongst his\nchildren, his favourite child. The circumstances of its formation may\nhave had something to do with that. It was planted by himself; it was\nthe first Church in Europe; perhaps the Philippian gaoler and Lydia were\namongst the 'beloved' and 'longed for' ones who were 'his joy and\ncrown.' But be that as it may, all through the letter we can feel the\nthrobbing of a very loving heart, and the tenderness of a strong man,\nwhich is the most tender of all things.\n\nNote how he addresses them. There is no assumption of Apostolic\nauthority, but he puts himself on their level, and speaks to them as\nbrethren. Then he lets his heart out, and tells them how they lived in\nhis love, and how, of course, when he was parted from them, he had\ndesired to be with them. And then he touches a deeper and a sacreder\nchord when he contemplates the results of the relation between them, if\nhe on his side, and they on theirs, were faithful to it. It says much\nfor the teacher, and for the taught, if he can truly say 'My joy,'--'I\nhave no greater joy than to know that my children walk in the truth.'\nAnd not only were they his joy, but they who, by their faithfulness,\nhave become his joy, will on that one day in the far future, be his\n'crown.' That metaphor carries on the thoughts to the great Judgment\nDay, and introduces a solemn element, which is as truly present, dear\nfriends, in our relation to one another, little of an Apostle as I am,\nas it was in the relation between Paul and the Philippians. They who\n'turn many to righteousness shine as the brightness of the firmament,'\nbecause those whom they have turned, 'shine as lights in the world.' And\nat that last august and awful tribunal, where you will have to give an\naccount for your listening, as I for my speaking, the crown of victory\nlaid on the locks of a faithful teacher is the characters of those whom\nhe has taught. 'Who is my joy and hope, and crown of rejoicing?' Are not\neven ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming?\n\nNow, notice, further, how such mutual affection is needed to give force\nto the teacher's exhortation. Preaching from unloved lips never does any\ngood. It irritates, or leaves untouched. Affection melts and opens the\nheart to the entrance of the word. And preaching from unloving lips does\nvery little good either. So speaking, I condemn myself. There are men\nwho handle God's great, throbbing message of love so coldly as that they\nice even the Gospel. There are men who have a strange gift of taking all\nthe sap and the fervour out of the word that they proclaim, making the\nvery grapes of Eshcol into dried raisins. And I feel for myself that my\nministry may well have failed in this respect. For who is there that can\nmodulate his voice so as to reproduce the music of that great message,\nor who can soften and open his heart so as that it shall be a worthy\nvehicle of the infinite love of God?\n\nBut, dear brethren, though conscious of many failures in this respect, I\nyet thank God that here, at the end of nearly forty years of a ministry,\nI can look you in the face and believe that your look responds to mine,\nand that I can take these words as the feathers for my arrow, as that\nwhich will make words otherwise weak go further, and may help to write\nthe precepts upon hearts, and to bring them to bear in practice--'My\nbeloved and longed for'; 'my joy and my crown.'\n\nSuch feelings do not need to be always spoken. There is very little\nchance of us Northerners erring on the side of letting our hearts speak\ntoo fully and frequently. Perhaps we should be all the better if we were\na little less reticent, but at any rate you and I can surely trust each\nother after so many years, and now and then, as to-day, let our hearts\nspeak.\n\nII. Secondly, notice the all-sufficient precept which such love gives.\n'So stand fast in the Lord.'\n\nThat is a very favourite figure of Paul's, as those of you who have any\nreasonable degree of familiarity with his letters will know. Here it\ncarries with it, as it generally does, the idea of resistance against\nantagonistic force. But the main thought of it is that of continuous\nsteadfastness in our union with Jesus Christ. It applies, of course, to\nthe intellect, but not mainly, and certainly not exclusively to\nintellectual adherence to the truths spoken in the Gospel. It covers\nthe whole ground of the whole man; will, conscience, heart, practical\neffort, as well as understanding. And it is really Paul's version, with\na characteristic dash of pugnacity in it, of our Lord's yet deeper and\ncalmer words, 'Abide in Me and I in you.' It is the same exhortation as\nBarnabas gave to the infantile church at Antioch, when, to these men\njust rescued from heathenism and profoundly ignorant of much which we\nsuppose it absolutely necessary that Christians should know, he had only\none thing to say, exhorting them all, that 'with purpose of heart they\nshould cleave to the Lord.'\n\nSteadfast continuance of personal union with Jesus Christ, extending\nthrough all the faculties of our nature, and into every corner of our\nlives, is the kernel of this great exhortation. And he who fulfils it\nhas little left unfulfilled. Of course, as I said, there is a very\nstrong suggestion that such 'standing' is by no means an easy thing, or\naccomplished without much antagonism; and it may help us if, just for a\nmoment, we run over the various forms of resistance which they have to\novercome who stand fast. Nothing stands where it is without effort. That\nis true in the moral world, although in the physical world the law of\nmotion is that nothing moves without force being applied to it.\n\nWhat are the things that would shake our steadfastness, and sweep us\naway? Well, there are, first, the tiny, continuously acting, and\ntherefore all but omnipotent forces of daily life--duties, occupations,\ndistractions of various kinds--which tend to move us imperceptibly away,\nas by the slow sliding of a glacier, from the hope of the Gospel. There\nis nothing so strong as a gentle pressure, equably and unintermittently\napplied. It is far mightier than thrusts and hammerings and sudden\nassaults. I stood some time ago looking at the Sphinx. The hard\nstone--so hard that it turns the edge of a sculptor's chisel--has been\nworn away, and the solemn features all but obliterated. What by? The\ncontinual attrition of multitudinous grains of sand from the desert. The\nlittle things that are always at work upon us are the things that have\nmost power to sweep us away from our steadfastness in Jesus Christ.\n\nThen there are, besides, the sudden assaults of strong temptations, of\nsense and flesh, or of a more subtle and refined character. If a man is\nstanding loosely, in some careless _degage_ attitude, and a sudden\nimpact comes upon him, over he goes. The boat upon a mountain-locked\nlake encounters a sudden gust when opposite the opening of a glen, and\nunless there be a very strong hand and a watchful eye at the helm, is\nsure to be upset. Upon us there come, in addition to that silent\ncontinuity of imperceptible but most real pressure, sudden gusts of\ntemptation which are sure to throw us over, unless we are well and\nalways on our guard against them.\n\nIn addition to all these, there are ups and downs of our own nature, the\nfluctuations which are sure to occur in any human heart, when faith\nseems to ebb and falter, and love to die down almost into cold ashes.\nBut, dear brethren, whilst we shall always be liable to these\nfluctuations of feeling, it is possible for us to have, deep down below\nthese, a central core of our personality, in which unchanging continuity\nmay abide. The depths of the ocean know nothing of the tides on the\nsurface that are due to the mutable moon. We can have in our inmost\nhearts steadfastness, immovableness, even though the surface may be\nruffled. Make your spirits like one of those great cathedrals whose\nthick walls keep out the noises of the world, and in whose still\nequability there is neither excessive heat nor excessive cold, but an\napproximately uniform temperature, at midsummer and at midwinter. 'Stand\nfast in the Lord.'\n\nNow, my text not only gives an exhortation, but, in the very act of\ngiving it, suggests how it is to be fulfilled. For that phrase 'in the\nLord' not only indicates _where_ we are to stand, but also _how_. That\nis to say--it is only in proportion as we keep ourselves in union with\nChrist, in heart and mind, and will, and work, that we shall stand\nsteadfast. The lightest substances may be made stable, if they are glued\non to something stable. You can mortice a bit of thin stone into the\nliving rock, and then it will stand 'four-square to every wind that\nblows.' So it is only on condition of our keeping ourselves in Jesus\nChrist, that we are able to keep ourselves steadfast, and to present a\nfront of resistance that does not yield one foot, either to\nimperceptible continuous pressure, to sudden assaults, or to the\nfluctuations of our own changeful dispositions and tempers. The ground\non which a man stands has a great deal to do with the firmness of his\nfooting. You cannot stand fast upon a bed of slime, or upon a sand-bank\nwhich is being undermined by the tides. And if we, changeful creatures,\nare to be steadfast in any region, our surest way of being so is to knit\nourselves to Him 'who is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,'\nand from whose immortality will flow some copy and reflection of itself\ninto our else changeful natures.\n\nStill further, in regard to this commandment, I would pray you to notice\nthat very eloquent little word which stands at the beginning of it.\n'_So_ stand fast in the Lord.' 'So.' How? That throws us back to what\nthe Apostle has been saying in the previous context. And what has he\nbeen saying there? The keynote of the previous chapter is progress--'I\nfollow after; I press toward the mark, forgetting the things that are\nbehind, and reaching forth to the things that are before.' To these\nexhortations to progress he appends this remarkable exhortation:\n'So'--that is, by progress--'stand fast in the Lord,' which being turned\ninto other words is just this--if you stand still, you will not stand\nfast. There can be no steadfastness without advancement. If a man is not\ngoing forward, he is going backward. The only way to ensure stability is\n'pressing toward the mark.' Why, a child's top only stands straight up\nas long as it is revolving. If a man on a bicycle stops, he tumbles. And\nso, in the depths of a Christian life, as in all science, and all walks\nof human activity, the condition of steadfastness is advance. Therefore,\ndear brethren, let no man deceive himself with the notion that he can\nkeep at the same point of religious experience and of Christian\ncharacter. You are either more of a Christian, or less of one, than you\nwere at a past time. '_So_, stand fast,' and remember that to stand\n_still_ is _not_ to stand _fast_.\n\nNow, whilst all these things that I have been trying to say have\nreference to Christian people at all stages of their spiritual history,\nthey have a very especial reference to those in the earlier part of\nChristian life.\n\nAnd I want to say to those who have only just begun to run the Christian\nlife, very lovingly and very earnestly, that this is a text for them.\nFor, alas! there is nothing more frequent than that, after the first\ndawnings of a Christian life in a heart, there should come a period of\noverclouding; or that, as John Bunyan has taught us, when Christian has\ngone through the wicket-gate, he should fall very soon into the Slough\nof Despond. One looks round, and sees how many professing Christians\nthere are who, perhaps, were nearer Jesus Christ on the day of their\nconversion than they have ever been since, and how many cases of\narrested development there are amongst professing and real Christians;\nso that when for the 'time they ought to be teachers, they have need' to\nbe taught again; and when, after the number of years that have passed,\nthey ought to be full-grown men, they are but babes yet. And so I say to\nyou, dear young friends, stand fast. Do not let the world attract you\nagain. Keep near to Jesus. 'Hold fast that thou hast; let no man take\nthy crown.'\n\nIII. Lastly, we have here a great motive which encourages obedience to\nthis command.\n\nPeople generally pass over that 'Therefore' which begins my text, but it\nis full of significance and of importance. It links the precept which we\nhave been considering with the immediately preceding hope which the\nApostle has so triumphantly proclaimed, when he says that 'we look for\nthe Saviour from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change the\nbody of our humiliation that it may be fashioned like unto the body of\nHis glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue\nall things to Himself.'\n\nSo there rises before us that twofold great hope; that the Master\nHimself is coming to the succour of His servants, and that when He\ncomes, He will perfect the incomplete work which has been begun in them\nby their faith and steadfastness, and will change their whole humanity\nso that it shall become participant of, and conformed to, the glory of\nHis own triumphant manhood.\n\nThat hope is presented by the Apostle as having its natural sequel in\nthe 'steadfastness' of my text, and that 'steadfastness' is regarded by\nthe Apostle as drawing its most animating motives from the contemplation\nof that great hope. Blessed be God! The effort of the Christian life is\nnot one which is extorted by fear, or by the cold sense of duty. There\nare no taskmasters with whips to stand over the heart that responds to\nChrist and to His love. But hope and joy, as well as love, are the\nanimating motives which make sacrifices easy, soften the yoke that is\nlaid upon our shoulders, and turn labour into joy and delight.\n\nSo, dear brethren, we have to set before us this great hope, that Jesus\nChrist is coming, and that, therefore, our labour on ourselves is sure\nnot to be in vain. Work that is done hopelessly is not done long, and\nthere is no heart in it whilst it is being done. But if we know that\nChrist will appear, 'and that when He who is our life shall appear, we\nalso shall appear with Him in glory,' then we may go to work in keeping\nourselves steadfast in Him, with cheery hearts, and with full assurance\nthat what we have been doing will have a great result.\n\nYou have read, no doubt, about some little force in North-West India,\nhemmed in by enemies. They may well hold out resolutely and hopefully\nwhen they know that three relieving armies are converging upon their\nstronghold. And we, too, know that our Emperor is coming to raise the\nsiege. We may well stand fast with such a prospect. We may well work at\nour own sanctifying when we know that our Lord Himself--like some\nmaster-sculptor who comes to his pupil's imperfectly blocked-out work,\nand takes his chisel in his hand, and with a touch or two completes\nit--will come and finish what we, by His grace, imperfectly began. 'So\nstand fast in the Lord,' because you have hope that the Lord is about to\ncome, and that when He comes you will be like Him.\n\nOne last word. That steadfastness is the condition without which we have\nno right to entertain that hope.\n\nIf we keep ourselves near Christ, and if by keeping ourselves near Him,\nwe are becoming day by day liker Him, then we may have calm confidence\nthat He will perfect that which concerns us. But I, for my part, can\nfind nothing, either in Scripture or in the analogy of God's moral\ndealings with us in the world, to warrant the holding out of the\nexpectation to a man that, if he has kept himself apart from Jesus\nChrist and his quickening and cleansing power all his life long, Jesus\nChrist will take him in hand after he dies, and change him into His\nlikeness. Don't you risk it! Begin by 'standing fast in the Lord.' He\nwill do the rest then, not else. The cloth must be dipped into the\ndyer's vat, and lie there, if it is to be tinged with the colour. The\nsensitive plate must be patiently kept in position for many hours, if\ninvisible stars are to photograph themselves upon it. The vase must be\nheld with a steady hand beneath the fountain, if it is to be filled.\nKeep yourselves in Jesus Christ. Then here you will begin to be changed\ninto the same image, and when He comes He will come as your Saviour, and\ncomplete your uncompleted work, and make you altogether like Himself.\n\n'Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and\ncrown, so stand fast in the Lord, dearly beloved.'\n\n\n\n\nNAMES IN THE BOOK OF LIFE\n\n 'Other my fellow-labourers whose names are in the\n book of life.'--PHIL. iv. 3.\n\n\nPaul was as gentle as he was strong. Winsome courtesy and delicate\nconsiderateness lay in his character, in beautiful union with fiery\nimpetuosity and undaunted tenacity of conviction. We have here a\nremarkable instance of his quick apprehension of the possible effects of\nhis words, and of his nervous anxiety not to wound even unreasonable\nsusceptibilities.\n\nHe had had occasion to mention three of his fellow-workers, and he\nwishes to associate with them others whom he does not purpose to name.\nLest any of these should be offended by the omission, he soothes them\nwith this graceful, half-apologetic reminder that their names are\ninscribed on a better page than his. It is as if he had said, 'Do not\nmind though I do not mention you individually. You can well afford to be\nanonymous in my letter since your names are inscribed in the Book of\nLife.'\n\n_There_ is a consolation for obscure good people, who need not expect to\nlive except in two or three loving hearts; and whose names will only be\npreserved on mouldering tombstones that will convey no idea to the\nreader. We may well dispense with other commemoration if we have this.\n\nNow, this figure of the Book of Life appears in Scripture at intervals,\nalmost from the beginning to the very end. The first instance of its\noccurrence is in that self-sacrificing, intercessory prayer of Moses,\nwhen he expressed his willingness to be 'blotted out of Thy book' as an\natonement for the sin of Israel. Its last appearance is when the\nApocalyptic Seer is told that none enter into the City of God come down\nfrom Heaven 'save those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of\nLife.' Of course in plain English the expression is just equivalent to\nbeing a real disciple of Jesus Christ. But then it presents that general\nnotion under a metaphor which, in its various aspects, has a very\ndistinct and stringent bearing upon our duties as well as upon our\nblessings and our hopes. I, therefore, wish to work out, as well as I\ncan, the various thoughts suggested by this emblem.\n\nI. The first of them is Citizenship.\n\nThe figure is, of course, originally drawn from the registers of the\ntribes of Israel. In that use, though not without a glance at some\nhigher meaning, it appears in the Old Testament, where we read of 'those\nwho are written among them living in Jerusalem'; or 'are written in the\nwriting of the house of Israel.' The suggestion of being inscribed on\nthe burgess-rolls of a city is the first idea connected with the word.\nIn the New Testament, for instance, we find in the great passage in the\nEpistle to the Hebrews the two notions of the city and the census\nbrought into immediate connection, where the writer says, 'Ye are come\nunto the city of the living God . . . and to the church of the first-born\nwhose names are written in heaven.' In this very letter we have, only a\nverse or two before my text, the same idea of citizenship cropping up.\n'Our _citizenship_ is in Heaven, from whence also we look for the\nSaviour.' That, no doubt, helped to suggest to the Apostle the words of\nmy text. And there is another verse in the same letter where the same\nidea comes out. 'Only act the citizen as becometh the Gospel of Christ.'\nNow, you will remember, possibly, that Philippi was, as the Acts of the\nApostles tells us, a Roman colony. And the reference is exquisitely\nclose-fitting to the circumstances of the people of that city. For a\nRoman colony was a bit of Rome in another land, and the citizens of\nPhilippi had their names inscribed on the registers of the tribes of\nRome. The writer himself was another illustration of the same thing, of\nliving in a community to which he did not belong and of belonging to a\ncommunity in which he did not live. For Paul was a native of Tarsus; and\nPaul, the native of the Asiatic Tarsus, was a Roman.\n\nSo, then, the first thought that comes out of this great metaphor is\nthat all of us, if we are Christian people, belong to another polity,\nanother order of things than that in which our outward lives are spent.\nAnd the plain, practical conclusion that comes from it is, cultivate the\nsense of belonging to another order. Just as it swelled the heart of a\nMacedonian Philippian with pride, when he thought that he did not belong\nto the semi-barbarous people round about him, but that his name was\nwritten in the books that lay in the Capitol of Rome, so should we\ncultivate that sense of belonging to another order. It will make our\nwork here none the worse, but it will fill our lives with the sense of\nnobler affinities, and point our efforts to grander work than any that\nbelongs to 'the things that are seen and temporal.' Just as the little\ngroups of Englishmen in treaty-ports own no allegiance to the laws of\nthe country in which they live, but are governed by English statutes, so\nwe have to take our orders from headquarters to which we have to\nreport. Men in our colonies get their instructions from Downing Street.\nThe officials there, appointed by the Home Government, think more of\nwhat they will say about them at Westminster than of what they say about\nthem at Melbourne. So we are citizens of another country, and have to\nobey the laws of our own kingdom, and not those of the soil on which we\ndwell. Never mind about the opinions of men, the babblements of the\npeople in the land you live in. To us, the main thing is that we be\nacceptable, well-pleasing unto Him. Are you solitary? Cultivate the\nsense of, in your solitude, being a member of a great community that\nstretches through all the ages, and binds into one the inhabitants of\neternity and of time.\n\nRemember that this citizenship in the heavens is the highest honour that\ncan be conferred upon a man. The patricians of Venice used to have their\nnames inscribed upon what was called the 'golden book' that was kept in\nthe Doge's Palace. If our names are written in the book of gold in the\nheavens, then we have higher dignities than any that belong to the\nfleeting chronicles of this passing, vain world. So we can accept with\nequanimity evil report or good report, and can acquiesce in a wholesome\nobscurity, and be careless though our names appear on no human records,\nand fill no trumpet of fame blown by earthly cheeks. Intellectual power,\nwealth, gratified ambition, and all the other things that men set before\nthem, are small indeed compared with the honour, with the blessedness,\nwith the repose and satisfaction that attend the conscious possession of\ncitizenship in the heavens. Let us lay to heart the great words of the\nMaster which put a cooling hand on all the feverish ambitions of earth.\n'In this rejoice, not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather\nrejoice that your names are written in heaven.'\n\nII. Then the second idea suggested by these words is the possession of\nthe life which is life indeed.\n\nThe 'Book of Life,' it is called in the New Testament. Its designation\nin the Old might as well be translated 'the book of living' as 'the book\nof life.' It is a register of the men who are truly alive.\n\nNow, that is but an imaginative way of putting the commonplace of the\nNew Testament, that anything which is worth calling life comes to us,\nnot by creation or physical generation, but by being born again through\nfaith in Jesus Christ, and by receiving into our else dead spirits the\nlife which He bestows upon all them that trust Him.\n\nIn the New Testament 'life' is far more than 'being'; far more than\nphysical existence; removed by a whole world from these lower\nconceptions, and finding its complete explanation only in the fact that\nthe soul which is knit to God by conscious surrender, love, aspiration,\nand obedience, is the only soul that really lives. All else is\ndeath--death! He 'that liveth in pleasure is dead while he liveth.' The\nghastly imagination of one of our poets, of the dead man standing on the\ndeck pulling at the ropes by the side of the living, is true in a very\ndeep sense. In spite of all the feverish activities, the manifold\nvitalities of practical and intellectual life in the world, the deepest,\ntruest, life of every man who is parted from God by alienation of will,\nby indifference, and neglect of love, lies sheeted and sepulchred in the\ndepths of his own heart. Brethren, there is no life worth calling life,\nnone to which that august name can without degradation be applied,\nexcept the complete life of body, soul, and spirit, in lowly obedience\nto God in Christ. The deepest meaning of the work of the Saviour is that\nHe comes into a dead world, and breathes into the bones--very many and\nvery dry--the breath of His own life. Christ has died for us; Christ\nwill live in us if we will; and, unless He does, we are twice dead.\n\nDo not put away that thought as if it were a mere pulpit metaphor. It is\na metaphor, but yet in the metaphor there lies this deepest truth, which\nconcerns us all, that only he is truly himself, and lives the highest,\nbest, and noblest life that is possible for him, who is united to Jesus\nChrist, and drawing from Christ his own life. 'He that hath the Son hath\nlife; he that hath not the Son hath not life.' Either my name and yours\nare written in the Book of Life, or they are written in the register of\na cemetery. We have to make our choice which.\n\nIII. Another idea suggested by this emblem is experience of divine\nindividualising knowledge and care.\n\nIn the Old Testament the book is called 'Thy book,' in the New it is\ncalled 'the Lamb's book.' That is of a piece with the whole relation of\nthe New to the Old, and of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word and\nManifestor of God, to the Jehovah revealed in former ages. For,\nunconditionally, and without thought of irreverence or idolatry, the New\nTestament lifts over and confers upon Jesus Christ the attributes which\nthe Old jealously preserved as belonging only to Jehovah. And thus\nChrist the Manifestor of God, and the Mediator to us of all divine\npowers and blessings, takes the Book and makes the entries in it. Each\nman of us, as in your ledgers, has a page to himself. His account is\nopened, and is not confused with other entries. There is\nindividualising love and care, and as the basis of both, individualising\nknowledge. My name, the expression of my individual being, stands there.\nChrist does not deal with me as one of a crowd, nor fling out blessings\nbroadcast, that I may grasp them in the midst of a multitude, if I\nchoose to put out a hand, but He deals with each of us singly, as if\nthere were not any beings in the world but He and I, our two selves, all\nalone.\n\nIt is hard to realise the essentially individualising and isolating\ncharacter of our relation to Jesus Christ. But we shall never come to\nthe heart of the blessedness and the power of His Gospel unless we\ntranslate all 'us'-es and 'every ones' and 'worlds' in Scripture into\n'I' and 'me,' and can say not only He gives Himself to be 'the\npropitiation for the sins of the whole world,' but 'He loved _me_ and\ngave Himself for _me_.' The same individualising love which is\nmanifested in that mighty universal Atonement, if we rightly understand\nit, is manifested in all His dealings with us. One by one we come under\nHis notice; the Shepherd tells His sheep singly as they pass out through\nthe gate or into the fold. He knows them all by name. 'I have called\nthee by thy name; thou art Mine.'\n\nLift up your eyes and behold who made all these; the countless host of\nthe nightly stars. What are nebulae to our eyes are blazing suns to His.\n'He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all _by name_ by\nthe greatness of His power, for that He is strong in might not one\nfaileth.' So we may nestle in the protection of His hand, sure of a\nseparate place in His knowledge and His heart.\n\nDeliverance and security are the results of that individualising care.\nIn one of the Old Testament instances of the use of this metaphor, we\nread that in the great day of calamity and sorrow 'Thy people shall be\ndelivered, even every one that is written in Thy Book.' So we need not\ndread anything if our names are there. The sleepless King will read the\nBook, and will never forget, nor forget to help and succour His poor\nservants.\n\nBut there are two other variations of this thought in the Old Testament\neven more tenderly suggestive of that individualising care and strong\nsufficient love than the emblem of my text. We read that when, in the\nexercise of his official functions, the high priest passed into the\nTabernacle he wore, upon his _breast_, near the seat of personality, and\nthe home of love--the names of the tribes graven, and that the same\nnames were written on his shoulders, as if guiding the exercise of his\npower. So we may think of ourselves as lying near the beatings of His\nheart, and as individually the objects of the work of His almighty arm.\nNor is this all. For there is yet another, and still tenderer,\napplication of the figure, when we read of the Divine voice as saying to\nIsrael, 'I have graven thee on the palms of My hands.' The name of each\nwho loves and trusts and serves is written there; printed deep in the\nflesh of the Sovereign Christ. We bear in our bodies the marks, the\n_stigmata_ that tell whose slaves we are--'the marks of the Lord Jesus.'\nAnd He bears in His body the marks that tell who His servants are.\n\nIV. Lastly, there is suggested by this text the idea of future entrance\ninto the land of the living.\n\nThe metaphor occurs three times in the final book of Scripture, the book\nwhich deals with the future and with the last things. And it occurs in\nall these instances in very remarkable connection. First we read, in\nthe highly imaginative picture of the final judgment, that when the\nthrones are set two books are opened, one the Book of Life, the other\nthe book in which are written the deeds of men, and that by these two\nbooks men are judged. There is a judgment by conduct. There is also a\njudgment by the Book of Life. That is to say, the question at last comes\nto be, 'Is this man's name written in that book?' Is he a citizen of the\nkingdom, and therefore capable of entering into it? Has he the life from\nChrist in his heart? Or, in other words, the question is, first, has the\nman who stands at the bar faith in Jesus Christ; and, second, has he\nproved that his faith is genuine and real by the course of his earthly\nconduct? These are the books from which the judgment is made.\n\nFurther, we read, in that blessed vision which stands at the far-off end\nof all the knowledge of the future which is given to humanity, the\nvision of the City of God 'that came down from heaven as a bride adorned\nfor her husband,' that only they enter in there who are 'written in the\nLamb's Book of Life.' Only citizens are capable of entrance into the\ncity. Aliens are necessarily shut out. The Lord, when He writeth up His\npeople, shall count that this man was born there, though he never trod\nits streets while on earth, and, therefore, can enter into his native\nhome.\n\nFurther, in one of the letters to the seven churches our Lord gives as a\npromise to him that overcometh, 'I will not blot his name out of the\nBook of Life, but I will confess his name.'\n\nWhat need we care what other people may think about us, or whether the\n'hollow wraith of dying fame' that comes like a nimbus round some men\nmay fade wholly or no, so long as we may be sure of acknowledgment and\npraise from Him from whom acknowledgment and praise are precious indeed.\n\nI have but one or two more words to add. Remember that Paul had no\nhesitation in taking upon himself to declare that the names of these\nanonymous saints in Philippi were written in the Book of Life. What\nbusiness had he to do that? Had he looked over the pages, and marked the\nentries? He had simply the right of estimating their state by their\nconduct. He saw their works; he knew that these works were the fruit of\ntheir faith; and he knew that, therefore, their faith had united them to\nJesus Christ. So, Christian men and women, two things: show your faith\nby your works, and make it impossible for anybody that looks at you to\ndoubt what King you serve, and to what city you belong. Again, do not\nask, 'Is my name there?' Ask, 'Have I faith, and does my faith work the\nworks that belong to the Kingdom of Heaven?'\n\nRemember that names can be blotted out of the book. The metaphor has\noften been pressed into the service of a doctrine of unconditional and\nirreversible predestination. But rightly looked at, it points in the\nopposite direction. Remember Moses's agonised cry, 'Blot me out of Thy\nbook'; and the Divine answer, 'Him that sinneth against Me, his name\nwill I blot out of My book.' And remember that it is only to 'him that\novercometh' that the promise is made, 'I will not blot him out.' We are\nmade partakers of Christ if we 'hold fast the beginning of our\nconfidence firm unto the end.'\n\nRemember that it depends upon ourselves whether our names are there or\nnot. John Bunyan describes the armed man who came up to the table, where\nthe man with the book and the inkhorn was seated, and said: 'Set down\nmy name.' And you and I may do that. If we cast ourselves on Jesus\nChrist and yield our wills to be guided by Him, and give our lives for\nHis service, then He will write our names in His book. If we trust Him\nwe shall be citizens of the City of God; shall be filled with the life\nof Christ; shall be objects of an individualising love and care; shall\nbe accepted in that Day; and shall enter in through the gates into the\ncity. 'They that forsake me shall be written on the earth'; and there\nwiped out as are the children's scribbles on the sand when the ocean\ncome up. They that trust in Jesus Christ shall have their names written\nin the Book of Life; graven on the High Priest's breastplate, and\ninscribed on His mighty hand and His faithful heart.\n\n\n\n\nREJOICE EVERMORE\n\n 'Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say,\n rejoice!'--PHIL. iv. 4.\n\n\nIt has been well said that this whole epistle may be summed up in two\nshort sentences: 'I rejoice'; 'Rejoice ye!' The word and the thing crop\nup in every chapter, like some hidden brook, ever and anon sparkling out\ninto the sunshine from beneath the shadows. This continual refrain of\ngladness is all the more remarkable if we remember the Apostle's\ncircumstances. The letter shows him to us as a prisoner, dependent on\nChristian charity for a living, having no man like-minded to cheer his\nsolitude; uncertain as to 'how it shall be with me,' and obliged to\ncontemplate the possibility of being 'offered,' or poured out as a\nlibation, 'on the sacrifice and service of your faith.' Yet out of all\nthe darkness his clear notes ring jubilant; and this sunny epistle\ncomes from the pen of a prisoner who did not know but that to-morrow he\nmight be a martyr.\n\nThe exhortation of my text, with its urgent reiteration, picks up again\na dropped thread which the Apostle had first introduced in the\ncommencement of the previous chapter. He had there evidently been\nintending to close his letter, for he says: 'Finally, my brethren,\nrejoice in the Lord'; but he is drawn away into that precious personal\ndigression which we could so ill spare, in which he speaks of his\ncontinual aspiration and effort towards things not yet attained. And now\nhe comes back again, picks up the thread once more, and addresses\nhimself to his parting counsels. The reiteration in the text becomes the\nmore impressive if we remember that it is a repetition of a former\ninjunction. 'Rejoice in the Lord alway'; and then he seems to hear one\nof his Philippian readers saying: 'Why! you told us that once before!'\n'Yes,' he says, 'and you shall hear it once again; so important is my\ncommandment that it shall be repeated a third time. So I again say,\n\"rejoice!\"' Christian gladness is an important element in Christian\nduty; and the difficulty and necessity of it are indicated by the urgent\nrepetition of the injunction.\n\nI. So, then, the first thought that suggests itself to me from these\nwords is this, that close union with Jesus Christ is the foundation of\nreal gladness.\n\nPray note that 'the Lord' here, as is usually the case in Paul's\nEpistles, means, not the Divine Father, but Jesus Christ. And then\nobserve, again, that the phrase 'Rejoice in the Lord' has a deeper\nmeaning than we sometimes attach to it. We are accustomed to speak of\nrejoicing in a thing or a person, which, or who, is thereby represented\nas being the occasion or the object of our gladness. And though that is\ntrue, in reference to our Lord, it is not the whole sweep and depth of\nthe Apostle's meaning here. He is employing that phrase, 'in the Lord,'\nin the profound and comprehensive sense in which it generally appears in\nhis letters, and especially in those almost contemporaneous with this\nEpistle to the Philippians. I need only refer you, in passing, without\nquoting passages, to the continual use of that phrase in the nearly\ncontemporaneous letter to the Ephesians, in which you will find that 'in\nChrist Jesus' is the signature stamped upon all the gifts of God, and\nupon all the possible blessings of the Christian life. 'In Him' we have\nthe inheritance; in Him we obtain redemption through His blood, even the\nforgiveness of sins; in Him we are 'blessed with all spiritual\nblessings.' And the deepest description of the essential characteristic\nof a Christian life is, to Paul, that it is a life in Christ.\n\nIt is this close union which the Apostle here indicates as being the\nfoundation and the source of all that gladness which he desires to see\nspreading its light over the Christian life. 'Rejoice in the\nLord'--being in Him be glad.\n\nNow that great thought has two aspects, one deep and mysterious, one\nvery plain and practical. As to the former, I need not spend much time\nupon it. We believe, I suppose, in the superhuman character and nature\nof Jesus Christ. We believe in His divinity. We can therefore believe\nreasonably in the possibility of a union between Him and us,\ntranscending all the forms of human association, and being really like\nthat which the creature holds to its Creator in regard to its physical\nbeing. 'In him we live, and move, and have our being' is the very\nfoundation truth in regard to the constitution of the universe. 'In Him\nwe live, and move, and have our being' is the very foundation truth in\nregard to the relation of the Christian soul to Jesus Christ. All\nearthly unions are but poor adumbrations from afar of that deep,\ntranscendent, mysterious, but most real union, by which the Christian\nsoul is in Christ, as the branch is in the vine, the member in the body,\nthe planet in its atmosphere, and by which Christ is in the Christian\nsoul as the life sap is in every twig, as the mysterious vital power is\nin every member. Thus abiding in Him, in a manner which admits of no\nparallel nor of any doubt, we may, and we shall, be glad.\n\nBut then, passing from the mysterious, we come to the plain. To be 'in\nChrist' which is commended to us here as the basis of all true\nblessedness, means that the whole of our nature shall be occupied with,\nand fastened upon, Him; thought turning to Him, the tendrils of the\nheart clinging and creeping around Him, the will submitting itself in\nglad obedience to His beloved and supreme commandments, the aspirations,\nand desires feeling out after Him as the sufficient and eternal good,\nand all the current of our being setting towards Him in earnestness of\ndesire, and resting in Him in tranquillity of possession. Thus 'in\nChrist' we may all be.\n\nAnd, says Paul, in the great words of my text, such a union, reciprocal\nand close, is the secret of all blessedness. If thus we are wedded to\nthat Lord, and His life is in us and ours enclosed in Him, then there is\nsuch correspondence between our necessities and our supplies as that\nthere is no room for aching emptiness; no gnawing of unsatisfied\nlongings, but the blessedness that comes from having found that which we\nseek, and in the finding being stimulated to a still closer, happier,\nand not restless search after fuller possession. The man that knows\nwhere to get anything and everything that he needs, and to whom desires\nare but the prophets of instantaneous fruition; surely that man has in\nhis possession the talismanic secret of perpetual gladness. They who\nthus dwell in Christ by faith, love, obedience, imitation, aspiration,\nand enjoyment, are like men housed in some strong fortress, who can look\nout over all the fields alive with enemies, and feel that they are safe.\nThey who thus dwell in Christ gain command over themselves; and because\nthey can bridle passions, and subdue hot and impossible desires, and\nkeep themselves well in hand, have stanched one chief source of unrest\nand sadness, and have opened one pure and sparkling fountain of\nunfailing gladness. To rule myself because Christ rules me is no small\npart of the secret of blessedness. And they who thus dwell in Christ\nhave the purest joy, the joy of self-forgetfulness. He that is absorbed\nin a great cause; he whose pitiful, personal individuality has passed\nout of his sight; he who is swallowed up by devotion to another, by\naspiration after 'something afar from the sphere of our sorrow,' has\nfound the secret of gladness. And the man who thus can say, 'I live: yet\nnot I, but Christ liveth in me,' this is the man who will ever rejoice.\nThe world may not call such a temper gladness. It is as unlike the\nsputtering, flaring, foul-smelling joys which it prizes--like those\nfilthy but bright 'Lucigens' that they do night work by in great\nfactories--it is as unlike the joy of the world as these are to the\ncalm, pure moonlight which they insult. The one is of heaven, and the\nother is the foul product of earth, and smokes to extinction swiftly.\n\nII. So, secondly, notice that this joy is capable of being continuous.\n\n'Rejoice in the Lord _always_,' says Paul. That is a hard nut to crack.\nI can fancy a man saying, 'What is the use of giving me such\nexhortations as this? My gladness is largely a matter of temperament,\nand I cannot rule my moods. My gladness is largely a matter of\ncircumstances, and I do not determine these. How vain it is to tell me,\nwhen my heart is bleeding, or beating like a sledge-hammer, to be glad!'\nYes! Temperament has a great deal to do with joy; and circumstances have\na great deal to do with it; but is not the mission of the Gospel to make\nus masters of temperament, and independent of circumstances? Is not the\npossibility of living a life that has no dependence upon externals, and\nthat may persist permanently through all varieties of mood, the very\ngift that Christ Himself has come to bestow upon us--bringing us into\ncommunion with Himself, and so making us lords of our own inward nature\nand of externals: so that 'though the fig-tree shall not blossom, and\nthere be no fruit in the vine,' yet we may 'rejoice in the Lord, and be\nglad in the God of our salvation.' If a ship has plenty of water in its\ncasks or tanks in its hold, it does not matter whether it is sailing\nthrough fresh water or salt. And if you and I have that union with Jesus\nChrist of which my text speaks, then we shall be, not wholly, but with\nindefinite increase of approximation towards the ideal, independent of\ncircumstances and masters of our temperaments. And so it is possible, if\nnot absolutely to reach this fair achievement of an unbroken continuity\nof gladness, at least to bring the lucent points so close to one another\nas that the intervals of darkness between shall be scarcely visible,\nand the whole will seem to form one continuous ring of light.\n\nBrother, if you and I can keep near Jesus Christ always--and I suppose\nwe can do that in sorrow as in joy--He will take care that our keeping\nnear Him will not want its reward in that blessed continuity of felt\nrepose which is very near the sunniness of gladness. For, if we in the\nLord sorrow, we may, then, simultaneously, in the Lord rejoice. The two\nthings may go together, if in the one mood and the other we are in union\nwith Him. The bitterness of the bitterest calamity is taken away from it\nwhen it does not separate us from Jesus Christ. And just as the mother\nis specially tender with her sick child, and just as we have often found\nthat the sympathy of friends comes to us, when need and grief are upon\nus, in a fashion that would have been incredible beforehand, so it is\nsurely true that Jesus Christ can, and does, soften His tone, and select\nthe tokens of His presence with especial tenderness for a wounded heart;\nso as that sorrow in the Lord passes into joy in the Lord. And if that\nbe so, then the pillar which was cloud in the sunshine brightens into\nfire as night falls on the desert.\n\nBut it is not only that this divine gladness is consistent with the\nsorrow that is often necessary for us, but also that the continuity of\nsuch gladness is secured, because in Christ there are open for us\nsources of blessedness in what is else a dry and thirsty land. If you\nwould take this epistle at your leisure, and run over it in order to\nnote the various occasions of joy which the Apostle expresses for\nhimself, and commends to his brethren, you would see how beautifully\nthey reveal to us the power of communion with Jesus Christ, to find\nhoney in the rock, good in everything, and a reason for thankful\ngladness in all events.\n\nI have not time, at this stage of my sermon, to do more than just glance\nat these. We find, for instance, that a very large portion of the joy\nwhich he declares fills his own heart, and which he commends to these\nPhilippians, arises from the recognition of good in others. He speaks to\nthem of being his 'joy and crown.' He tells them that in his sorrows and\nimprisonment, their 'fellowship in the Gospel, from the first day until\nnow,' had brought a whiff of gladness into the close air of the prison\ncell. He begs them to be Christlike in order that they may 'fulfil his\njoy'; and he may lose himself in others' blessings, and therein find\ngladness. A large portion of his joy came from very common things. A\nlarge portion of the joy that he commends to them he contemplates as\ncoming to them from small matters. They were to be glad because Timothy\ncame with a message from the Apostle. He is glad because he hears of\ntheir well-being, and receives a little contribution from them for his\ndaily necessities. A large portion of his gladness came from the spread\nof Christ's kingdom. 'Christ is preached,' says he, with a flash of\ntriumph, 'and I therein do rejoice; yea, and will rejoice.' And, most\nbeautiful of all, no small portion of his gladness came from the\nprospect of martyrdom. 'If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service\nof your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all; and do ye joy and\nrejoice with me.'\n\nNow, put all these things together and they just come to this, that a\nheart in union with Jesus Christ can find streams in the desert, joys\nblossoming as the rose, in places that to the un-Christlike eye are\nwilderness and solitary, and out of common things it can bring the\npurest gladness and draw a tribute and revenue of blessedness even from\nthe prospect of God-sent sorrows. Dear brethren, if you and I have not\nlearned the secret of modest and unselfish delights, we shall vainly\nseek for joy in the vulgar excitements and coarse titillations of\nappetites and desires which the world offers. 'Calm pleasures there\nabide' in Christ. The northern lights are weird and bright, but they\nbelong to midwinter, and they come from electric disturbances, and\nportend rough weather afterwards. Sunshine is silent, steadfast, pure.\nBetter to walk in that light than to be led astray by fantastic and\nperishable splendours. 'Rejoice in the Lord always.'\n\nIII. Lastly, such gladness is an important part of Christian duty.\n\nAs I have said, the urgency of the command indicates both its importance\nand its difficulty. It is important that professing Christians should be\nglad Christians (with the joy that is drawn from Jesus Christ, of\ncourse, I mean), because they thereby become walking advertisements and\nliving witnesses for Him. A gloomy, melancholy, professing Christian is\na poor recommendation of his faith. If you want to 'adorn the doctrine\nof Christ' you will do it a great deal more by a bright face, that\nspeaks of a calm heart, calm because filled with Christ, than by many\nmore ambitious efforts. This gladness is important because, without it,\nthere will be little good work done, and little progress made. It is\nimportant, surely, for ourselves, for it can be no small matter that we\nshould be able to have travelling with us all through the desert that\nmystical rock which follows with its streams of water, and ever provides\nfor us the joys that we need. In every aspect, whether as regards men\nwho take their notions of Christ and of Christianity, a great deal more\nfrom the concrete examples of both in human lives than from books and\nsermons, or from the Bible itself--or as regards the work which we have\nto do, or as regards our own inward life, it is all-important that we\nshould have that close union with Jesus Christ which cannot but result\nin pure and holy gladness.\n\nBut the difficulty, as well as the importance, of the obligation, are\nexpressed by the stringent repetition of the commandment, 'And again I\nsay, Rejoice.' When objections arise, when difficulties present\nthemselves, I repeat the commandment again, in the teeth of them all;\nand I know what I mean when I am saying it. Thus, thought Paul, we need\nto make a definite effort to keep ourselves in touch with Jesus Christ,\nor else gladness, and a great deal besides, will fade away from our\ngrasp.\n\nAnd there are two things that you have to do if you would obey the\ncommandment. The one is the direct effort at fostering and making\ncontinuous your fellowship with Jesus Christ, through your life; and the\nother is looking out for the bright bits in your life, and making sure\nthat you do not sullenly and foolishly, perhaps with vain regrets after\nvanished blessings, or perhaps with vain murmurings about unattained\ngood, obscure to your sight the mercies that you have, and so cheat\nyourselves of the occasions for thankfulness and joy. There are people\nwho, if there be ever such a little bit of a fleecy film of cloud low\ndown on their horizon, can see nothing of the sparkling blue arch above\nthem for looking at that, and who behave as if the whole sky was one\nroof of doleful grey. Do not you do that! There is always enough to be\nthankful for. Lay hold of Christ, and be sure that you open your eyes\nto His gifts.\n\nSurely, dear friends, if there be offered to us, as there is, a gladness\nwhich is perfect in the two points in which all other gladness fails, it\nis wise for us to take it. The commonplace which all men believe, and\nmost men neglect, is that nothing short of an infinite Person can fill a\nfinite soul. And if we look for our joys anywhere but to Jesus Christ,\nthere will always be some bit of our nature which, like the sulky elder\nbrother in the parable, will scowl at the music and dancing, and refuse\nto come in. All earthly joys are transient as well as partial. Is it not\nbetter that we should have gladness that will last as long as we do,\nthat we can hold in our dying hands, like a flower clasped in some cold\npalm laid in the coffin, that we shall find again when we have crossed\nthe bar, that will grow and brighten and broaden for evermore? My joy\nshall remain . . . full.\n\n\n\n\nHOW TO OBEY AN IMPOSSIBLE INJUNCTION\n\n 'Be careful for nothing; but in everything by\n prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let\n your requests be made known unto God.'--PHIL. iv.\n 6.\n\n\nIt is easy for prosperous people, who have nothing to trouble them, to\ngive good advices to suffering hearts; and these are generally as futile\nas they are easy. But who was he who here said to the Church at\nPhilippi, 'Be careful for nothing?' A prisoner in a Roman prison; and\nwhen Rome fixed its claws it did not usually let go without drawing\nblood. He was expecting his trial, which might, so far as he knew, very\nprobably end in death. Everything in the future was entirely dark and\nuncertain. It was this man, with all the pressure of personal sorrows\nweighing upon him, who, in the very crisis of his life, turned to his\nbrethren in Philippi, who had far fewer causes of anxiety than he had,\nand cheerfully bade them 'be careful for nothing, but in everything by\nprayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make their requests known\nunto God.' Had not that bird learned to sing when his cage was darkened?\nAnd do you not think that advice of that sort, coming not from some one\nperched up on a safe hillock to the strugglers in the field below, but\nfrom a man in the thick of the fight, would be like a trumpet-call to\nthem who heard it?\n\nNow, here are two things. There is an apparently perfectly impossible\nadvice, and there is the only course that will make it possible.\n\nI. An apparently impossible advice.\n\n'Be careful for nothing.' I do not need to remind you--for I suppose\nthat we all know it--that that word 'careful,' in a great many places in\nthe New Testament, does not mean what, by the slow progress of change in\nthe significance of words, it has come to mean to-day; but it means what\nit _should_ still mean, 'full of care,' and 'care' meant, not prudent\nprovision, forethought, the occupation of a man's common-sense with his\nduty and his work and his circumstances, but it meant the thing which of\nall others unfits a man most for such prudent provision, and that is,\nthe nervous irritation of a gnawing anxiety which, as the word in the\noriginal means, tears the heart apart and makes a man quite incapable of\ndoing the wise thing, or seeing the wise thing to do, in the\ncircumstances. We all know that; so that I do not need to dwell upon it.\n'Careful' here means neither more nor less than 'anxious.'\n\nBut I may just remind you how harm has been done, and good has been lost\nand missed, by people reading that modern meaning into the word. It is\nthe same word which Christ employed in the exhortation 'Take no thought\nfor to-morrow.' It is a great pity that Christian people sometimes get\nit into their heads that Christ prohibited what common-sense demands,\nand what everybody practises. 'Taking thought for the morrow' is not\nonly our duty, but it is one of the distinctions which make us 'much\nbetter than' the fowls of the air, that have no barns in which to store\nagainst a day of need. But when our Lord said, 'Take no thought for the\nmorrow,' he did not mean 'Do not lay yourselves out to provide for\ncommon necessities and duties,' but 'Do not fling yourselves into a\nfever of anxiety, nor be too anxious to anticipate the \"fashion of\nuncertain evils.\"'\n\nBut even with that explanation, is it not like an unreachable ideal that\nPaul puts forward here? 'Be anxious about nothing'--how can a man who\nhas to face the possibilities that we all have to face, and who knows\nhimself to be as weak to deal with them as we all are: how can he help\nbeing anxious? There is no more complete waste of breath than those sage\nand reverend advices which people give us, not to do the things, nor to\nfeel the emotions, which our position make absolutely inevitable and\nalmost involuntary. Here, for instance, is a man surrounded by all\nmanner of calamity and misfortune; and some well-meaning but foolish\nfriend comes to him, and, without giving him a single reason for the\nadvice, says, 'Cheer up! my friend.' Why should he cheer up? What is\nthere in his circumstances to induce him to fall into any other mood? Or\nsome unquestionable peril is staring him full in the face, coming\nnearer and nearer to him, and some well-meaning, loose-tongued friend,\nsays to him, 'Do not be afraid!'--but he _ought_ to be afraid. That is\nabout all that worldly wisdom and morality have to say to us, when we\nare in trouble and anxiety. 'Shut your eyes very hard, and make believe\nvery much, and you will not fear.' An impossible exhortation! Just as\nwell bid a ship in the Bay of Biscay not to rise and fall upon the wave,\nbut to keep an even keel. Just as well tell the willows in the river-bed\nthat they are not to bend when the wind blows, as come to me, and say to\nme, 'Be careful about nothing.' Unless you have a great deal more than\nthat to say, I must be, and I ought to be, anxious, about a great many\nthings. Instead of anxiety being folly, it will be wisdom; and the folly\nwill consist in not opening our eyes to facts, and in not feeling\nemotions that are appropriate to the facts which force themselves\nagainst our eyeballs. Threadbare maxims, stale, musty old commonplaces\nof unavailing consolation and impotent encouragement say to us, 'Do not\nbe anxious.' We try to stiffen our nerves and muscles in order to bear\nthe blow; or some of us, more basely still, get into a habit of\nfeather-headed levity, making no forecasts, nor seeing even what is\nplainest before our eyes. But all that is of no use when once the hot\npincers of real trouble, impending or arrived, lay hold of our hearts.\nThen of all idle expenditures of breath in the world there is none to\nthe wrung heart more idle and more painful than the one that says, Be\nanxious about nothing.\n\nII. So we turn to the only course that makes the apparent impossibility\npossible.\n\nPaul goes on to direct to the mode of feeling and action which will\ngive exemption from the else inevitable gnawing of anxious forethought.\nHe introduces his positive counsel with an eloquent 'But,' which implies\nthat what follows is the sure preservative against the temper which he\ndeprecates; 'But in everything by prayer and supplication, with\nthanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.'\n\nThere are, then, these alternatives. If you do not like to take the one,\nyou are sure to have to take the other. There is only one way out of the\nwood, and it is this which Paul expands in these last words of my text.\nIf a man does not pray about everything, he will be worried about most\nthings. If he does pray about everything, he will not be troubled beyond\nwhat is good for him, about anything. So there are these alternatives;\nand we have to make up our minds which of the two we are going to take.\nThe heart is never empty. If not full of God, it will be full of the\nworld, and of worldly care. Luther says somewhere that a man's heart is\nlike a couple of millstones; if you don't put something between them to\ngrind, they will grind each other. It is because God is not in our\nhearts that the two stones rub the surface off one another. So the\nvictorious antagonist of anxiety is trust, and the only way to turn\ngnawing care out of my heart and life is to usher God into it, and to\nkeep him resolutely in it.\n\n'In everything.' If a thing is great enough to threaten to make me\nanxious, it is great enough for me to talk to God about. If He and I are\non a friendly footing, the instinct of friendship will make me speak. If\nso, how irrelevant and superficial seem to be discussions whether we\nought to pray about worldly things, or confine our prayers entirely to\nspiritual and religious matters. Why! if God and I are on terms of\nfriendship and intimacy of communication, there will be no question as\nto what I am to talk about to Him; I shall not be able to keep silent as\nto anything that interests me. And we are not right with God unless we\nhave come to the point that entire openness of speech marks our\ncommunications with Him, and that, as naturally as men, when they come\nhome from business, like to tell their wives and children what has\nhappened to them since they left home in the morning, so naturally we\ntalk to our Friend about everything that concerns us. 'In _everything_\nlet your requests be made known unto God.' That is the wise course,\nbecause a multitude of little pimples may be quite as painful and\ndangerous as a large ulcer. A cloud of gnats may put as much poison into\na man with their many stings as will a snake with its one bite. And if\nwe are not to get help from God by telling Him about little things,\nthere will be very little of our lives that we shall tell Him about at\nall. For life is a mountain made up of minute flakes. The years are only\na collection of seconds. Every man's life is an aggregate of trifles.\n'In _everything_ make your requests known.'\n\n'By prayer'--that does not mean, as a superficial experience of religion\nis apt to suppose it to mean, actual petition that follows. For a great\nmany of us, the only notion that we have of prayer is asking God to give\nus something that we want. But there is a far higher region of communion\nthan that, in which the soul seeks and finds, and sits and gazes, and\naspiring possesses, and possessing aspires. Where there is no spoken\npetition for anything affecting outward life, there may be the prayer of\ncontemplation such as the burning seraphs before the Throne do ever glow\nwith. The prayer of silent submission, in which the will bows itself\nbefore God; the prayer of quiet trust, in which we do not so much seek\nas cleave; the prayer of still fruition--these, in Paul's conception of\nthe true order, precede 'supplication.' And if we have such union with\nGod, by realising His presence, by aspiration after Himself, by trusting\nHim and submission to Him, then we have the victorious antagonist of all\nour anxieties, and the 'cares that infest the day shall fold their\ntents' and 'silently steal away.' For if a man has that union with God\nwhich is effected by such prayer as I have been speaking about, it gives\nhim a fixed point on which to rest amidst all perturbations. It is like\nbringing a light into a chamber when thunder is growling outside, which\nprevents the flashing of the lightning from being seen.\n\nYears ago an ingenious inventor tried to build a vessel in such a\nfashion as that the saloon for passengers should remain upon one level,\nhowsoever the hull might be tossed by waves. It was a failure, if I\nremember rightly. But if we are thus joined to God, He will do for our\ninmost hearts what the inventor tried to do with the chamber within his\nship. The hull may be buffeted, but the inmost chamber where the true\nself sits will be kept level and unmoved. Brethren! prayer in the\nhighest sense, by which I mean the exercise of aspiration, trust,\nsubmission--prayer will fight against and overcome all anxieties.\n\n'By prayer and supplication.' Actual petition for the supply of present\nwants is meant by 'supplication.' To ask for that supply will very often\nbe to get it. To tell God what I think I need goes a long way always to\nbringing me the gift that I do need. If I have an anxiety which I am\nashamed to speak to Him, that silence is a sign that I ought not to\nhave it; and if I have a desire that I do not feel I can put into a\nprayer, that feeling is a warning to me not to cherish such a desire.\n\nThere are many vague and oppressive anxieties that come and cast a\nshadow over our hearts, that if we could once define, and put into plain\nwords, we should find that we vaguely fancied them a great deal larger\nthan they were, and that the shadow they flung was immensely longer than\nthe thing that flung it. Put your anxieties into definite speech. It\nwill reduce their proportions to your own apprehension very often.\nSpeaking them, even to a man who may be able to do little to help, eases\nthem wonderfully. Put them into definite speech to God; and there are\nvery few of them that will survive.\n\n'By prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.' That thanksgiving is\nalways in place. If one only considers what he has from God, and\nrealises that whatever he has he has received from the hands of divine\nlove, thanksgiving is appropriate in any circumstances. Do you remember\nwhen Paul was in gaol at the very city to which this letter went, with\nhis back bloody with the rod, and his feet fast in the stocks, how then\nhe and Silas 'prayed and sang praises to God.' Therefore the obedient\nearthquake came and set them loose. Perhaps it was some reminiscence of\nthat night which moved him to say to the Church that knew the story--of\nwhich perhaps the gaoler was still a member--'By prayer and supplication\nwith thanksgiving make your requests known unto God.'\n\nOne aching nerve can monopolise our attention and make us unconscious of\nthe health of all the rest of the body. So, a single sorrow or loss\nobscures many mercies. We are like men who live in a narrow alley in\nsome city, with great buildings on either side, towering high above\ntheir heads, and only a strip of sky visible. If we see up in that strip\na cloud, we complain and behave as if the whole heavens, right away\nround the three hundred and sixty degrees of the horizon, were black\nwith tempest. But we see only a little strip, and there is a great deal\nof blue in the sky; however, there may be a cloud in the patch that we\nsee above our heads, from the alley where we live. Everything, rightly\nunderstood, that God sends to men is a cause of thanksgiving; therefore,\n'in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your\nrequests be made known unto God.'\n\n'Casting all your _anxieties_ upon him,' says Peter, 'for He'--not _is\nanxious_; that dark cloud does not rise much above the earth--but, 'He\ncareth for you.' And that loving guardianship and tender care is the one\nshield, armed with which we can smile at the poisoned darts of anxiety\nwhich would else fester in our hearts and, perhaps, kill. 'Be careful\nfor nothing'--an impossibility unless 'in everything' we make 'our\nrequests known unto God.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE WARRIOR PEACE\n\n 'The peace of God, which passeth all\n understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds\n through Christ Jesus.'--PHIL. iv. 7.\n\n\nThe great Mosque of Constantinople was once a Christian church,\ndedicated to the Holy Wisdom. Over its western portal may still be read,\ngraven on a brazen plate, the words, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labour\nand are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.' For four hundred years\nnoisy crowds have fought, and sorrowed, and fretted, beneath the dim\ninscription in an unknown tongue; and no eye has looked at it, nor any\nheart responded. It is but too sad a symbol of the reception which\nChrist's offers meet amongst men, and--blessed be His name!--its\nprominence there, though unread and unbelieved, is a symbol of the\npatient forbearance with which rejected blessings are once and again\npressed upon us, and He stretches out His hand though no man regards,\nand calls though none do hear. My text is Christ's offer of peace. The\nworld offers excitement, Christ promises repose.\n\nI. Mark, then, first, this peace of God.\n\nWhat is it? What are its elements? Whence does it come? It is of God, as\nbeing its Source, or Origin, or Author, or Giver, but it belongs to Him\nin a yet deeper sense, for Himself is Peace. And in some humble but yet\nreal fashion our restless and anxious hearts may partake in the divine\ntranquillity, and with a calm repose, kindred with that rest from which\nit is derived, may enter into His rest.\n\nIf that be too high a flight, at all events the peace that may be ours\nwas Christ's, in the perfect and unbroken tranquillity of His perfect\nManhood. What, then, are its elements? The peace of God must, first of\nall, be peace with God. Conscious friendship with Him is indispensable\nto all true tranquillity. Where that is absent there may be the ignoring\nof the disturbed relationship; but there will be no peace of heart. The\nindispensable requisite is 'a conscience like a sea at rest.' Unless we\nhave made sure work of our relationship with God, and know that He and\nwe are friends, there is no real repose possible for us. In the whirl of\nexcitement we may forget, and for a time turn away from, the realities\nof our relation to Him, and so get such gladness as is possible to a\nlife not rooted in conscious friendship with Him. But such lives will be\nlike some of those sunny islands in the Eastern Pacific, extinct\nvolcanoes, where nature smiles and all things are prodigal and life is\neasy and luxuriant; but some day the clouds gather, and the earth\nshakes, and fire pours forth, and the sea boils, and every living thing\ndies, and darkness and desolation come. You are living, brother, upon a\nvolcano's side, unless the roots of your being are fixed in a God who is\nyour friend.\n\nAgain, the peace of God is peace within ourselves. The unrest of human\nlife comes largely from our being torn asunder by contending impulses.\nConscience pulls this way, passion that. Desire says, 'Do this'; reason,\njudgment, prudence say, 'It is at your peril if you do!' One desire\nfights against another, and so the man is rent asunder. There must be\nthe harmonising of all the Being if there is to be real rest of spirit.\nNo longer must it be like the chaos ere the creative word was spoken,\nwhere, in gloom, contending elements strove.\n\nAgain, men have not peace, because in most of them everything is topmost\nthat ought to be undermost, and everything undermost that ought to be\nuppermost. 'Beggars are on horseback' (and we know where they ride),\n'and princes walking.' The more regal part of the man's nature is\nsuppressed, and trodden under foot; and the servile parts, which ought\nto be under firm restraint, and guided by a wise hand, are too often\nsupreme, and wild work comes of that. When you put the captain and the\nofficers, and everybody on board that knows anything about navigation,\ninto irons, and fasten down the hatches on them, and let the crew and\nthe cabin boys take the helm and direct the ship, it is not likely that\nthe voyage will end anywhere but on the rocks. Multitudes are living\nlives of unrestfulness, simply because they have set the lowest parts of\ntheir nature upon the throne, and subordinated the highest to these.\n\nOur unrest comes from yet another source. We have not peace, because we\nhave not found and grasped the true objects for any of our faculties.\nGod is the only possession that brings quiet. The heart hungers until it\nfeeds upon Him. The mind is satisfied with no truth until behind truth\nit finds a Person who is true. The will is enslaved and wretched until\nin God it recognises legitimate and absolute authority, which it is\nblessing to obey. Love puts out its yearnings, like the filaments that\ngossamer spiders send out into the air, seeking in vain for something to\nfasten upon, until it touches God, and clings there. There is no rest\nfor a man until he rests in God. The reason why this world is so full of\nexcitement is because it is so empty of peace, and the reason why it is\nso empty of peace is because it is so void of God. The peace of God\nbrings peace with Him, and peace within. It unites our hearts to fear\nHis name, and draws all the else turbulent and confusedly flowing\nimpulses of the great deep of the spirit after itself, in a tidal wave,\nas the moon draws the waters of the gathered ocean. The peace of God is\npeace with Him, and peace within.\n\nI need not, I suppose, do more than say one word about that descriptive\nclause in my text, It 'passeth understanding.' The understanding is not\nthe faculty by which men lay hold of the peace of God any more than you\ncan see a picture with your ears or hear music with your eyes. To\neverything its own organ; you cannot weigh truth in a tradesman's scales\nor measure thought with a yard-stick. Love is not the instrument for\napprehending Euclid, nor the brain the instrument for grasping these\ndivine and spiritual gifts. The peace of God transcends the\nunderstanding, as well as belongs to another order of things than that\nabout which the understanding is concerned. You must experience it to\nknow it; you must have it in order that you may feel its sweetness. It\neludes the grasp of the wisest, though it yields itself to the patient\nand loving heart.\n\nII. So notice, in the next place, what the peace of God does.\n\nIt 'shall keep your hearts and minds.' The Apostle here blends together,\nin a very remarkable manner, the conceptions of peace and of war, for he\nemploys a purely military word to express the office of this Divine\npeace. That word, 'shall keep,' is the same as is translated in another\nof his letters _kept with a garrison_--and, though, perhaps, it might be\ngoing too far to insist that the military idea is prominent in his mind,\nit will certainly not be unsafe to recognise its presence.\n\nSo, then, this Divine peace takes upon itself warlike functions, and\ngarrisons the heart and mind. What does he mean by 'the heart and mind'?\nNot, as the English reader might suppose, two different faculties, the\nemotional and the intellectual--which is what we usually roughly mean by\nour distinction between heart and mind--but, as is always the case in\nthe Bible, the 'heart' means the whole inner man, whether considered as\nthinking, willing, purposing, or doing any other inward act; and the\nword rendered 'mind' does not mean another part of human nature, but\nthe whole products of the operations of the heart. The Revised Version\nrenders it by 'thoughts,' and that is correct if it be given a wide\nenough application, so as to include emotions, affections, purposes, as\nwell as 'thoughts' in the narrower sense. The whole inner man, in all\nthe extent of its manifold operations, that indwelling peace of God will\ngarrison and guard.\n\nSo note, however profound and real that Divine peace is, it is to be\nenjoyed in the midst of warfare. Quiet is not quiescence. God's peace is\nnot torpor. The man that has it has still to wage continual conflict,\nand day by day to brace himself anew for the fight. The highest energy\nof action is the result of the deepest calm of heart; just as the motion\nof this solid, and, as we feel it to be, immovable world, is far more\nrapid through the abysses of space, and on its own axis, than any of the\nmotions of the things on its surface. So the quiet heart, 'which moveth\naltogether if it move at all,' rests whilst it moves, and moves the more\nswiftly because of its unbroken repose. That peace of God, which is\npeace militant, is unbroken amidst all conflicts. The wise old Greeks\nchose for the protectress of Athens the goddess of Wisdom, and whilst\nthey consecrated to her the olive branch, which is the symbol of peace,\nthey set her image on the Parthenon, helmed and spear-bearing, to defend\nthe peace, which she brought to earth. So this heavenly Virgin, whom the\nApostle personifies here, is the 'winged sentry, all skilful in the\nwars,' who enters into our hearts and fights for us to keep us in\nunbroken peace.\n\nIt is possible day by day to go out to toil and care and anxiety and\nchange and suffering and conflict, and yet to bear within our hearts\nthe unalterable rest of God. Deep in the bosom of the ocean, beneath the\nregion where winds howl and billows break, there is calm, but the calm\nis not stagnation. Each drop from these fathomless abysses may be raised\nto the surface by the power of the sunbeams, expanded there by their\nheat, and sent on some beneficent message across the world. So, deep in\nour hearts, beneath the storm, beneath the raving winds and the curling\nwaves, there may be a central repose, as unlike stagnation as it is\nunlike tumult; and the peace of God may, as a warrior, keep our hearts\nand minds in Christ Jesus.\n\nWhat is the plain English of that metaphor? Just this, that a man who\nhas that peace as his conscious possession is lifted above the\ntemptations that otherwise would drag him away. The full cup, filled\nwith precious wine, has no room in it for the poison that otherwise\nmight be poured in. As Jesus Christ has taught us, there is such a thing\nas cleansing a heart in some measure, and yet because it is 'empty,'\nthough it is 'swept and garnished,' the demons come back again. The best\nway to be made strong to resist temptation, is to be lifted above\nfeeling it to be a temptation, by reason of the sweetness of the peace\npossessed. Oh! if our hearts were filled, as they might be filled, with\nthat divine repose, do you think that the vulgar, coarse-tasting baits\nwhich make our mouths water now would have any power over us? Will a man\nwho bears in his hands jewels of priceless value, and knows them to be\nsuch, find much temptation when some imitation stone, made of coloured\nglass and a tinfoil backing, is presented to him? Will the world draw us\naway if we are rooted and grounded in the peace of God? Geologists tell\nus that climates are changed and creatures are killed by the slow\nvariation of level in the earth. If you and I can only heave our lives\nup high enough, the foul things that live down below will find the air\ntoo pure and keen for them, and will die and disappear; and all the\nvermin that stung and nestled down in the flats will be gone when we get\nup to the heights. The peace of God will keep our hearts and thoughts.\n\nIII. Now, lastly, notice how we get the peace of God.\n\nMy text is an exuberant promise, but it is knit on to something before,\nby that 'and' at the beginning of the verse. It is a promise, as all\nGod's promises are, on conditions. And here are the conditions. 'Be\ncareful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with\nthanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God.' That defines\nthe conditions in part; and the last words of the text itself complete\nthe definition. 'In Christ Jesus' describes, not so much where we are to\nbe kept, as a condition under which we shall be kept. How, then, can I\nget this peace into my turbulent, changeful life?\n\nI answer, first, trust is peace. It is always so; even when it is\nmisplaced we are at rest. The condition of repose for the human heart is\nthat we shall be 'in Christ,' who has said, 'In the world ye shall have\ntribulation, but in Me ye shall have peace.' And how may I be 'in Him'?\nSimply by trusting myself to Him. That brings peace with God.\n\nThe sinless Son of God has died on the Cross, a sacrifice for the sins\nof the whole world, for yours and for mine. Let us trust to that, and we\nshall have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. And 'in Him'\nwe have, by trust, inward peace, for He, through our faith, controls\nour whole natures, and Faith leads the lion in a silken leash, like\nSpenser's Una. Trust in Christ brings peace amid outward sorrows and\nconflicts. When the pilot comes on board the captain does not leave the\nbridge, but stands by the pilot's side. His responsibility is past, but\nhis duties are not over. And when Christ comes into my heart, my effort,\nmy judgment, are not made unnecessary, or put on one side. Let Him take\nthe command, and stand beside Him, and carry out His orders, and you\nwill find rest to your souls.\n\nAgain, submission is peace. What makes our troubles is not outward\ncircumstances, howsoever afflictive they may be, but the resistance of\nour spirits to the circumstances. And where a man's will bends and says,\n'Not mine but Thine be done,' there is calm. Submission is like the\nlotion that is applied to mosquito bites--it takes away the irritation,\nthough the puncture be left. Submission is peace, both as resignation\nand as obedience.\n\nCommunion is peace. You will get no quiet until you live with God. Until\nHe is at your side you will always be moved.\n\nSo, dear friend, fix this in your minds: a life without Christ is a life\nwithout peace. Without Him you may have excitement, pleasure, gratified\npassions, success, accomplished hopes, but peace never! You never have\nhad it, have you? If you live without Him, you may forget that you have\nnot Him, and you can plunge into the world, and so lose the\nconsciousness of the aching void, but it is there all the same. You\nnever will have peace until you go to Him. There is only one way to get\nit. The Christless heart is like the troubled sea that cannot rest.\nThere is no peace for it. But in Him you can get it for the asking.\n'The chastisement of our peace was laid upon Him.' For our sakes He died\non the Cross, so making peace. Trust Him as your only hope, Saviour and\nfriend, and the God of peace will 'fill you with all joy and peace in\nbelieving.' Then bow your wills to Him in acceptance of His providence,\nand in obedience to His commands, and so, 'your peace shall be as a\nriver, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea.' Then keep your\nhearts in union and communion with Him, and so His presence will keep\nyou in perfect peace whilst conflicts last, and, with Him at your side,\nyou will pass through the valley of the shadow of death undisturbed, and\ncome to the true Salem, the city of peace, where they beat their swords\ninto ploughshares, and learn and fear war no more.\n\n\n\n\nTHINK ON THESE THINGS\n\n ' . . . Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever\n things are honest, whatsoever things are just,\n whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are\n lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if\n there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,\n think on these things.'--PHIL. iv. 8.\n\n\nI am half afraid that some of you may think, as I have at times thought,\nthat I am too old to preach to the young. You would probably listen with\nmore attention to one less remote from you in years, and may be disposed\nto discount my advices as quite natural for an old man to give, and\nquite unnatural for a young man to take. But, dear friends, the message\nwhich I have to bring to you is meant for all ages, and for all sorts of\npeople. And, if I may venture a personal word, I proved it, when I stood\nwhere you stand, and it is fresher and mightier to me to-day than it\never was.\n\nYou are in the plastic period of your lives, with the world before you,\nand the mightier world within to mould as you will; and you can be\nalmost anything you like, I do not mean in regard to externals, or\nintellectual capacities, for these are only partially in our control,\nbut in regard to the far more important and real things--viz. elevation\nand purity of heart and mind. You are in the period of life to which\nfair dreams of the future are natural. It is, as the prophet tells us,\nfor 'the young man' to 'see visions,' and to ennoble his life thereafter\nby turning them into realities. Generous and noble ideas ought to belong\nto youth. But you are also in the period when there is a keen joy in\nmere living, and when some desires, which get weaker as years go on, are\nvery strong, and may mar youthful purity. So, taking all these into\naccount, I have thought that I could not do better than press home upon\nyou the counsels of this magnificent text, however inadequately my time\nmay permit of my dealing with them; for there are dozens of sermons in\nit, if one could expand it worthily.\n\nBut my purpose is distinctly practical, and so I wish just to cast what\nI have to say to you into the answer to three questions, the three\nquestions that may be asked about everything. What? Why? How?\n\nI. _What_, then, is the counsel here?\n\n'Think on these things.' To begin with, that advice implies that we can,\nand, therefore, that we should, exercise a very rigid control over that\npart of our lives which a great many of us never think of controlling at\nall. There are hosts of people whose thoughts are just hooked on to one\nanother by the slightest links of accidental connection, and who\nscarcely ever have put a strong hand upon them, or coerced them into\norder, or decided what they are going to let come into their minds, and\nwhat to keep out. Circumstances, the necessities of our daily\noccupations, the duties that we owe to one another, all these make\ncertain streams of thought very necessary, and to some of us very\nabsorbing. And for the rest--well! 'He that hath no rule over his own\nspirit is like a city broken down, without walls'; anybody can go in,\nand anybody can come out. I am sure that amongst young men and women\nthere are multitudes who have never realised how responsible they are\nfor the flow of the waves of that great river that is always coming from\nthe depths of their being, and have never asked whether the current is\nbringing down sand or gold. Exercise control, as becomes you, over the\nrun and drift of your thoughts. I said that many of us had minds like\ncities broken down. Put a guard at the gate, as they do in some\nContinental countries, and let in no vagrant that cannot show his\npassport, and a clear bill of health. Now, that is a lesson that some of\nyou very much want.\n\nBut, further, notice that company of fair guests that you may welcome\ninto the hospitalities of your heart and mind. 'Think on these\nthings'--and what are they? It would be absurd of me to try to exhaust\nthe great catalogue which the Apostle gives here, but let me say a word\nor two about it.\n\n'Whatsoever things are true . . . think on these things.' Let your minds\nbe exercised, breathed, braced, lifted, filled by bringing them into\ncontact with truth, especially with the highest of all truths, the\ntruths affecting God and your relations to Him. Why should you, like so\nmany of us, be living amidst the small things of daily life, the trifles\nthat are here, and never coming into vital contact with the greatest\nthings of all, the truths about God and Christ, and what you have to do\nwith them, and what they have to do with you? 'Whatsoever things are\ntrue . . . think on these things.'\n\n'Whatsoever things are honest,' or, as the word more properly and nobly\nmeans, 'Whatsoever things are _reverent_, or _venerable_'--let grave,\nserious, solemn thought be familiar to your minds, not frivolities, not\nmean things. There is an old story in Roman history about the barbarians\nbreaking into the Capitol, and their fury being awed into silence, and\nstruck into immobility, as they saw, round and round in the hall, the\naugust Senators, each in his seat. Let your minds be like that, with\nreverent thoughts clustering on every side; and when wild passions, and\nanimal desires, and low, mean contemplations dare to cross the\nthreshold, they will be awed into silence and stillness. 'Whatsoever\nthings are august . . . think on these things.'\n\n'Whatsoever things are just'--let the great, solemn thought of duty,\nobligation, what I ought to be and do, be very familiar to your\nconsideration and meditation. 'Whatsoever things are just . . . think on\nthese things.'\n\n'Whatsoever things are pure'--let white-robed angels haunt the place.\nLet there be in you a shuddering recoil from all the opposite; and\nentertain angels _not_ unawares. 'Whatsoever things are pure . . . think\non these things.'\n\nNow, these characteristics of thoughts which I have already touched upon\nall belong to a lofty region, but the Apostle is not contented with\nspeaking austere things. He goes now into a region tinged with emotion,\nand he says, 'whatsoever things are lovely'; for goodness is beautiful,\nand, in effect, is the only beautiful. 'Whatsoever things are lovely . . .\nthink on these things.' And 'whatsoever things are of good report'--all\nthe things that men speak well of, and speak good in the very naming of,\nlet thoughts of them be in your minds.\n\nAnd then he gathers all up into two words. 'If there be any\nvirtue'--which covers the ground of the first four, that he has already\nspoken about--viz. true, venerable, just, pure; and 'if there be any\npraise'--which resumes and sums up the two last: 'lovely and of good\nreport,' 'think on these things.'\n\nNow, if my purpose allowed it, one would like to point out here how the\nApostle accepts the non-Christian notions of the people in whose tongue\nhe was speaking; and here, for the only time in his letters, uses the\ngreat Pagan word 'virtue,' which was a spell amongst the Greeks, and\nsays, 'I accept the world's notion of what is virtuous and praiseworthy,\nand I bid you take it to your hearts.'\n\nDear brethren, Christianity covers all the ground that the noblest\nmorality has ever attempted to mark out and possess, and it covers a\ngreat deal more. 'If there be any virtue, as you Greeks are fond of\ntalking about, and if there be any praise, if there is anything in men\nwhich commends noble actions, think on these things.'\n\nNow, you will not obey this commandment unless you obey also the\nnegative side of it. That is to say, you will not think on these fair\nforms, and bring them into your hearts, unless you turn away, by\nresolute effort, from their opposites. There are some, and I am afraid\nthat in a congregation as large as this there must be some\nrepresentatives of the class, who seem to turn this apostolic precept\nright round about, and whatsoever things are illusory and vain,\nwhatsoever things are mean, and frivolous, and contemptible, whatsoever\nthings are unjust, and whatsoever things are impure, and whatsoever\nthings are ugly, and whatsoever things are branded with a stigma by all\nmen they think on _these_ things. Like the flies that are attracted to a\npiece of putrid meat, there are young men who are drawn by all the\nlustful, the lewd, the impure thoughts; and there are young women who\nare too idle and uncultivated to have any pleasure in anything higher\nthan gossip and trivial fiction. 'Whatsoever things are noble and\nlovely, think on these things,' and get rid of all the others.\n\nThere are plenty of occasions round about you to force the opposite upon\nyour notice; and, unless you shut your door fast, and double-lock it,\nthey will be sure to come in:--Popular literature, the scrappy\ntrivialities that are put into some periodicals, what they call\n'realistic fiction'; modern Art, which has come to be largely the\nservant of sense; the Stage, which has come--and more is the pity! for\nthere are enormous possibilities of good in it--to be largely a minister\nof corruption, or if not of corruption at least of frivolity--all these\nthings are appealing to you. And some of you young men, away from the\nrestraints of home, and in a city, where you think nobody could see you\nsowing your wild oats, have got entangled with them. I beseech you, cast\nout all this filth, and all this meanness and pettiness from your\nhabitual thinkings, and let the august and the lovely and the pure and\nthe true come in instead. You have the cup in your hand, you can either\npress into it clusters of ripe grapes, and make mellow wine, or you can\nsqueeze into it wormwood and gall and hemlock and poison-berries; and,\nas you brew, you have to drink. You have the canvas, and you are to\ncover it with the figures that you like best. You can either do as Fra\nAngelico did, who painted the white walls of every cell in his quiet\nconvent with Madonnas and angels and risen Christs, or you can do like\nsome of those low-toned Dutch painters, who never can get above a brass\npan and a carrot, and ugly boors and women, and fill the canvas with\nvulgarities and deformities. Choose which you will have to keep you\ncompany.\n\nII. Now, let me ask you to think for a moment _why_ this counsel is\npressed upon you.\n\nLet me put the reasons very briefly. They are, first, because thought\nmoulds action. 'As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.' One looks\nround the world, and all these solid-seeming realities of institutions,\nbuildings, governments, inventions and machines, steamships and electric\ntelegrams, laws and governments, palaces and fortresses, they are all\nbut embodied thoughts. There was a thought at the back of each of them\nwhich took shape. So, in another sense than the one in which the saying\nwas originally meant, but yet an august and solemn sense, 'the word is\nmade flesh,' and our thoughts became visible, and stand round us, a\nghastly company. Sooner or later what has been the drift and trend of a\nman's life comes out, flashes out sometimes, and dribbles out at other\ntimes, into visibility in his actions; and, just as the thunder follows\non the swift passage of the lightning, so my acts are neither more nor\nless than the reverberation and after-clap of my thoughts.\n\nSo if you are entertaining in your hearts and minds this august company\nof which my text speaks, your lives will be fair and beautiful. For what\ndoes the Apostle immediately go on to add to our text? 'These things\ndo'--as you certainly will if you think about them, and as you certainly\nwill not unless you do.\n\nAgain, thought and work make character. We come into the world with\ncertain dispositions and bias. But that is not character, it is only the\nraw material of character. It is all plastic, like the lava when it\ncomes out of the volcano. But it hardens, and whatever else my thought\nmay do, and whatever effects may follow upon any of my actions, the\nrecoil of them on myself is the most important effect to me. And there\nis not a thought that comes into, and is entertained by a man, or rolled\nas a sweet morsel under his tongue, but contributes its own little but\nappreciable something to the making of the man's character. I wonder if\nthere is anybody in this chapel now who has been so long accustomed to\nentertain these angels of whom my text speaks as that to entertain their\nopposites would be an impossibility. I hope there is. I wonder if there\nis anybody in this chapel to-night who has been so long accustomed to\nlive amidst the thoughts that are small and trivial and frivolous, if\nnot amongst those that are impure and abominable, as that to entertain\ntheir opposites seems almost an impossibility. I am afraid there are\nsome. I remember hearing about a Maori woman who had come to live in one\nof the cities in New Zealand, in a respectable station, and after a year\nor two of it she left husband and children, and civilisation, and\nhurried back to her tribe, flung off the European garb, and donned the\nblanket, and was happy crouching over the embers on the clay hearth.\nSome of you have become so accustomed to the low, the wicked, the\nlustful, the impure, the frivolous, the contemptible, that you cannot,\nor, at any rate, have lost all disposition to rise to the lofty, the\npure, and the true.\n\nOnce more; as thought makes deeds, and thought and deeds make character,\nso character makes destiny, here and hereafter. If you have these\nblessed thoughts in your hearts and minds, as your continual companions\nand your habitual guests, then, my friend, you will have a light within\nthat will burn all independent of externals; and whether the world\nsmiles or frowns on you, you will have the true wealth in yourselves; 'a\nbetter and enduring substance.' You will have peace, you will be lords\nof the world, and having nothing yet may have all. No harm can come to\nthe man who has laid up in his youth, as the best treasure of old age,\nthis possession of these thoughts enjoined in my text.\n\nAnd character makes destiny hereafter. What is a man whose whole life\nhas been one long thought about money-making, or about other objects of\nearthly ambition, or about the lusts of the flesh, and the lusts of the\neye, and the pride of life, to do in heaven? What would one of those\nfishes in the sunless caverns of America, which, by long living in the\ndark, have lost their eyes, do, if it were brought out into the\nsunshine? A man will go to his own place, the place for which he is\nfitted, the place for which he has fitted himself by his daily life, and\nespecially by the trend and the direction of his thoughts.\n\nSo do not be led away by talk about 'seeing both sides,' about 'seeing\nlife,' about 'knowing what is going on.' 'I would have you simple\nconcerning evil, and wise concerning good.' Do not be led away by talk\nabout having your fling, and sowing your wild oats. You may make an\nindelible stain on your conscience, which even forgiveness will not wipe\nout; and you may sow your wild oats, but what will the harvest be?\n'Whatsoever a man soweth that'--_that_--'shall he also reap.' Would you\nlike all your low thoughts, all your foul thoughts, to return and sit\ndown beside you, and say, 'We have come to keep you company for ever'?\n'If there be any virtue . . . think on these things.'\n\nIII. Now, lastly, _how_ is this precept best obeyed?\n\nI have been speaking to some extent about that, and saying that there\nmust be real, honest, continuous effort to keep out the opposite, as\nwell as to bring in the 'things that are lovely and of good report.' But\nthere is one more word that I must say in answer to the question how\nthis precept can be observed, and it is just this. All these things,\ntrue, venerable, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, are not things\nonly; they are embodied in a Person. For whatever things are fair meet\nin Jesus Christ, and He, in His living self, is the sum of all virtue\nand of all praise. So that if we link ourselves to Him by faith and\nlove, and take Him into our hearts and minds, and abide in Him, we have\nthem all gathered together into that One. Thinking on these things is\nnot merely a meditating upon abstractions, but it is clutching and\nliving in and with and by the living, loving Lord and Saviour of us all.\nIf Christ is in my thoughts, all good things are there.\n\nIf you trust Him, and make him your Companion, He will help you, He will\ngive you His own life, and in it will give you tastes and desires which\nwill make all these fair thoughts congenial to you, and will deliver you\nfrom the else hopeless bondage of subjection to their very opposites.\n\nBrethren, our souls cleave to the dust, and all our efforts will be\nfoiled, partially or entirely, to obey this precept, unless we remember\nthat it was spoken to people who had previously obeyed a previous\ncommandment, and had taken Christ for their Saviour. We gravitate\nearthwards, alas! after all our efforts, but if we will put ourselves in\nHis hands, then He will be as a Magnet drawing us upwards, or rather He\nwill give us wings of love and contemplation by which we can soar above\nthat dim spot that men call Earth, and walk in the heavenly places. The\nway by which this commandment can be obeyed is by obeying the other\nprecept of the same Apostle, 'Set your minds on things which are above,\nwhere Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.'\n\nI beseech you, take Christ and enthrone Him in the very sanctuary of\nyour minds. Then you will have all these venerable, pure, blessed\nthoughts as the very atmosphere in which you move. 'Think on these\nthings . . . these things do! . . . and the God of Peace shall be with\nyou.'\n\n\n\n\nHOW TO SAY 'THANK YOU'\n\n 'But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at\n length ye have revived your thought for me;\n wherein ye did indeed take thought, but ye lacked\n opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want:\n for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am,\n therein to be content. I know how to be abased,\n and I know also how to abound: in everything and\n in all things have I learned the secret both to be\n filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be\n in want. I can do all things in Him that\n strengtheneth me. Howbeit ye did well, that ye had\n fellowship with my affliction.'--PHIL. iv. 10-14\n (R.V.).\n\n\nIt is very difficult to give money without hurting the recipient. It is\nas difficult to receive it without embarrassment and sense of\ninferiority. Paul here shows us how he could handle a delicate subject\nwith a feminine fineness of instinct and a noble self-respect joined\nwith warmest gratitude. He carries the weight of obligation, is profuse\nin his thanks, and yet never crosses the thin line which separates the\nexpression of gratitude from self-abasing exaggeration, nor that other\nwhich distinguishes self-respect in the receiver of benefits from proud\nunwillingness to be obliged to anybody. Few words are more difficult to\nsay rightly than 'Thank you.' Some people speak them reluctantly and\nsome too fluently: some givers are too exacting in the acknowledgments\nthey expect, and do not so much give as barter so much help for so much\nrecognition of superiority.\n\nThe Philippians had sent to Paul some money help by Epaphroditus as we\nheard before in Chapter II., and this gift he now acknowledges in a\nparagraph full of autobiographical interest which may be taken as a very\nmodel of the money relations between teachers and taught in the church.\nIt is besides an exquisite illustration of the fineness and delicacy of\nPaul's nature, and it includes large spiritual lessons.\n\nThe stream of the Apostle's thoughts takes three turns here. There is\nfirst the exuberant and delicate expression of his thanks, then, as\nfearing that they might misunderstand his joy in their affection as if\nit were only selfish gladness that his wants had been met, he gives\nutterance to his triumphant and yet humble consciousness of his\nChrist-given independence in, and of, all circumstances, and then\nfeeling in a moment that such words, if they stood alone, might sound\nungrateful, he again returns to thanks, but not for their gift so much\nas for the sympathy expressed in it. We may follow these movements of\nfeeling now.\n\nI. The exuberant expression of thanks, 'I rejoice in the Lord greatly.'\n\nThere is an instance of his following his own twice-given precept,\n'Rejoice in the Lord always.' The Philippians' care of him was the\nsource of the joy, and yet it was joy in the Lord. So we learn the\nperfect consistency of that joy in Christ with the full enjoyment of all\nother sources of joy, and especially of the joy that arises from\nChristian love and friendship. Union with Christ heightens and purifies\nall earthly relations. Nobody should be so tender and so sweet in these\nas a Christian. His faith should be like the sunshine blazing out over\nthe meadows making them greener. It should, and does in the measure of\nits power, destroy selfishness and guard us against the evils which sap\nlove and the anxieties which torment it, against the dread that it may\nend, and our hopeless desolation when it does. There is a false ascetic\nidea of Christian devotion as if it were a regard to Christ which made\nour hearts cold to others, which is clean against Paul's experience\nhere. His joy went out in fuller stream towards the Philippians because\nit was 'joy in the Lord.'\n\nWe may just note in passing the tender metaphor by which the\nPhilippians' renewed thought of him is likened to a tree's putting forth\nits buds in a gracious springtide, and may link with it the pretty fancy\nof an old commentator whom some people call prosaic and puritanical\n(Bengel), that the stormy winter had hindered communication, and that\nEpaphroditus and the gifts came with the opening spring.\n\nPaul's inborn delicacy and quick considerateness comes beautifully\nforward in his addition, to remove any suspicion of his thinking that\nhis friends in Philippi had been negligent or cold. Therefore he adds\nthat he knew that they had always had the will. What had hindered them\nwe do not know. Perhaps they had no one to send. Perhaps they had not\nheard that such help would be welcome, but whatever frost had kept the\ntree from budding, he knew that the sap was in it all the same.\n\nWe may note that trait of true friendship, confidence in a love that did\nnot express itself. Many of us are too exacting in always wanting\nmanifestations of our friend's affection. What cries out for these is\nnot love so much as self-importance which has not had the attention\nwhich it thinks its due. How often there have been breaches of intimacy\nwhich have no better reason than 'He didn't come to see me often\nenough'; 'He hasn't written to me for ever so long'; 'He does not pay me\nthe attention I expect.' It is a poor love which is always needing to be\nassured of another's. It is better to err in believing that there is a\nstore of goodwill in our friends' hearts to us which only needs occasion\nto be unfolded. One often hears people say that they were quite\nsurprised at the proofs of affection which came to them when they were\nin trouble. They would have been happier and more nearly right if they\nhad believed in them when there was no need to show them.\n\nII. Consciousness of Christ-given independence and of 'content' is\nscarcely Paul's whole idea here, though that, no doubt, is included. We\nhave no word which exactly expresses the meaning. 'Self-sufficient' is a\ntranslation, but then it has acquired a bad meaning as connoting a false\nestimate of one's own worth and wisdom. What Paul means is that whatever\nbe his condition he has in himself enough to meet it. He does not depend\non circumstances, and he does not depend on other people for strength to\nface them. Many words are not needed to insist that only the man of whom\nthese things are true is worth calling a man at all. It is a miserable\nthing to be hanging on externals and so to be always exposed to the\npossibility of having to say, 'They have taken away my Gods.' It is as\nwretched to be hanging on people. 'The good man shall be satisfied for\nhimself.' The fortress that has a deep well in the yard and plenty of\nprovisions within, is the only one that can hold out.\n\nThis independence teaches the true use of all changing circumstances.\nThe consequence of 'learning' therewith to be content is further stated\nby the Apostle in terms which perhaps bear some reference to the\nmysteries of Greek religion, since the word rendered 'I have learned the\nsecret' means I have been initiated. He can bear either of the two\nextremes of human experience, and can keep a calm and untroubled mind\nwhichever of them he has to front. He has the same equable spirit when\nabased and when abounding. He is like a compensation pendulum which\ncorrects expansions and contractions and keeps time anywhere. I remember\nhearing of a captain in an Arctic expedition who had been recalled from\nthe Tropics and sent straight away to the North Pole. Sometimes God\ngives His children a similar experience.\n\nIt is possible for us not only to bear with equal minds both extremes,\nbut to get the good out of both. It is a hard lesson and takes much\nconning, to learn to bear sorrow or suffering or want. They have great\nlessons to teach us all, and a character that has not been schooled by\none of these dwellers in the dark is imperfect as celery is not in\nseason till frost has touched it. But it is not less difficult to learn\nhow to bear prosperity and abundance, though we think it a pleasanter\nlesson. To carry a full cup without spilling is proverbially difficult,\nand one sees instances enough of men who were far better men when they\nwere poor than they have ever been since they were rich, to give a\nterrible significance to the assertion that it is still more difficult\nto live a Christian life in prosperity than in sorrow. But while both\nthreaten, both may minister to our growth. Sorrow will drive, and joy\nwill draw, us nearer to God. If we are not tempted by abundance to\nplunge our desires into it, nor tempted by sorrow to think ourselves\nhopelessly harmed by it, both will knit us more closely to our true and\nchangeless good. The centrifugal and centripetal forces both keep the\nearth in its orbit.\n\nIt is only when we are independent of circumstances that we are able to\nget the full good of them. When there is a strong hand at the helm, the\nwind, though it be almost blowing directly against us, helps us forward,\nbut otherwise the ship drifts and washes about in the trough. We all\nneed the exhortation to be their master, for we can do without them and\nthey serve us.\n\nPaul here lets us catch a glimpse of the inmost secret of his power\nwithout which all exhortations to independence are but waste words. He\nis conscious of a living power flowing through him and making him fit\nfor anything, and he is not afraid that any one who studies him will\naccuse him of exaggeration even when he makes the tremendous claim 'I\ncan do all things in Him that strengtheneth me.' That great word is even\nmore emphatic in the original, not only because, as the Revised Version\nshows, it literally is _in_ and not _through_, and so suggests again his\nfamiliar thought of a vital union with Jesus, but also because he uses a\ncompound word which literally means 'strengthening within,' so then the\npower communicated is breathed into the man, and in the most literal\nsense he is 'strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.' This\ninward impartation of strength is the true and only condition of that\nself-sufficingness which Paul has just been claiming. Stoicism breaks\ndown because it tries to make men apart from God sufficient for\nthemselves, which no man is. To stand alone without Him is to be weak.\nCircumstances will always be too strong for me, and sins will be too\nstrong. A Godless life has a weakness at the heart of its loneliness,\nbut Christ and I are always in the majority, and in the face of all\nfoes, be they ever so many and strong, we can confidently say, 'They\nthat be with us are more than they that be with them.' The old\nexperience will prove true in our lives, and though 'they compass us\nabout like bees,' the worst that they can do is only to buzz angrily\nround our heads, and their end is in the name of the Lord to be\ndestroyed. In ourselves we are weak, but if we are 'rooted, grounded,\nbuilt' on Jesus, we partake of the security of the rock of ages to which\nwe are united, and cannot be swept away by the storm, so long as it\nstands unmoved. I have seen a thin hair-stemmed flower growing on the\nedge of a cataract and resisting the force of its plunge, and of the\nwind that always lives in its depths, because its roots are in a cleft\nof the cliff. The secret of strength for all men is to hold fast by the\n'strong Son of God,' and they only are sufficient in whatsoever state\nthey are, to whom this loving and quickening voice has spoken the\ncharter 'My grace is sufficient for thee.'\n\nIII. The renewed thanks for the loving sympathy expressed in the gift.\n\nWe have here again an eager anxiety not to be misunderstood as\nundervaluing the Philippians' gift. How beautifully the sublimity of the\nprevious words lies side by side with the lowliness and gentleness of\nthese.\n\nWe note here the combination of that grand independence with loving\nthankfulness for brotherly help. The self-sufficingness of Stoicism is\nessentially inhuman and isolating. It is contrary to God's plan and to\nthe fellowship which is meant to knit men together. So we have always to\ntake heed to blend with it a loving welcome to sympathy, and not to\nfancy that human help and human kindness is useless. We should be able\nto do without it, but that need not make it the less sweet when it\ncomes. We may be carrying water for the march, but shall not the less\nprize a brook by the way. Our firm souls should be like the rocking\nstones in Cornwall, poised so truly that tempests cannot shake them, and\nyet vibrating at the touch of a little child's soft hand. That lofty\nindependence needs to be humanised by grateful acceptance of the\nrefreshment of human sympathy even though we can do without it.\n\nPaul shows us here what is the true thing in a brother's help for which\nto be thankful. The reason why he was glad of their help was because it\nspoke to his heart and told him that they were making themselves sharers\nwith him in his troubles. As he tells us in the beginning of the letter,\ntheir fellowship in his labours had been from the beginning a joy to\nhim. It was not so much their material help as their true sympathy that\nhe valued. The high level to which he lifts what was possibly a very\nmodest contribution, if measured by money standards, carries with it a\ngreat lesson for all receivers and for all givers of such gifts,\nteaching the one that they are purely selfish if they are glad of what\nthey get, and bidding the other remember that they may give so as to\nhurt by a gift more than by a blow, that they may give infinitely more\nby loving sympathy than by much gold, and that a L5 note does not\ndischarge all their obligations. We have to give after His pattern who\ndoes not toss us our alms from a height, but Himself comes to bestow\nthem, and whose gift, though it be the unspeakable gift of eternal life,\nis less than the love it speaks, in that He Himself has in wondrous\nmanner become partaker of our weakness. The pattern of all sympathy, the\ngiver of all our possessions, is God. Let us hold to Him in faith and\nlove, and all earthly love will be sweeter and sympathy more precious.\nOur own hearts will be refined and purified to a delicacy of\nconsideration and a tenderness beyond their own. Our souls will be made\nlords of all circumstances and strengthened according to our need. He\nwill say to us 'My grace is sufficient for thee,' and we, as we feel His\nstrength being made perfect in our weakness, shall be able to say with\nhumble confidence, 'I can do all things in Christ who strengtheneth me\nwithin.'\n\n\n\n\nGIFTS GIVEN, SEED SOWN\n\n 'And ye yourselves also know, ye Philippians, that\n in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed\n from Macedonia, no church had fellowship with me\n in the matter of giving and receiving, but ye\n only; for even in Thessalonica ye sent once and\n again unto my need. Not that I seek for the gift;\n but I seek for the fruit that increaseth to your\n account. But I have all things, and abound: I am\n filled, having received from Epaphroditus the\n things that came from you, an odour of a sweet\n smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to\n God. And my God shall fulfil every need of yours\n according to His riches in glory in Christ\n Jesus.'--PHIL. iv. 15-19 (R.V.).\n\n\nPaul loved the Philippians too well and was too sure of their love to be\nconscious of any embarrassment in expressing his thanks for money help.\nHis thanks are profuse and long drawn out. Our present text still\nstrikes the note of grateful acknowledgment. It gives us a little\nglimpse into earlier instances of their liberality, and beautifully\nsuggests that as they had done to him so God would do to them, and that\ntheir liberality was in a fashion a prophecy, because it was in some\nmeasure an imitation, of God's liberality. He had just said 'I am full,\nhaving received the things which were sent from you,' and now he says,\n'My God shall fill full all your needs.' The use of the same word in\nthese two connections is a piece of what one would call the very\ningenuity of graceful courtesy, if it were not something far deeper,\neven the utterance of a loving and self-forgetting heart.\n\nI. We may note here Paul's money relations with the churches.\n\nWe know that he habitually lived by his own labour. He could call to\nwitness the assembled elders at Ephesus, when he declared that 'these\nhands ministered unto my necessities,' and could propose himself as an\nillustration of the words of the Lord Jesus, 'It is more blessed to give\nthan to receive.' He firmly holds the right of Christian teachers to be\nsupported by the churches, and vehemently insists upon it in the First\nEpistle to the Corinthians. But he waives the right in his own case, and\npassionately insists that it were better for him rather to die than that\nany man should make his glorying void. He will not use to the full his\nright in the Gospel 'that he may make a Gospel without charge,' but when\nneeded he gladly accepted money gifts, as he did from the Philippians.\nIn our text he points back to an earlier instance of this. The history\nof that instance we may briefly recall. After his indignities and\nimprisonment in Philippi he went straight to Thessalonica, stayed there\na short time till a riot drove him to take refuge in Berea, whence again\nhe had to flee, and guided by brethren reached Athens. There he was\nleft alone, and his guides went back to Macedonia to send on Silas and\nTimothy. From Athens he went to Corinth, and there was rejoined by them.\nAccording to our text, 'in the beginning of the Gospel,' that is, of\ncourse, its beginning in Philippi, they relieved him twice in\nThessalonica, and if the words in our text which date the Philippians'\ngift may be read 'when I had departed from Macedonia,' we should have\nhere another reference to the same incident mentioned in 2 Corinthians,\nchap. xi. 8-9, where he speaks of being in want there, and having 'the\nmeasure of my want' supplied by the brethren who came from Macedonia.\nThe coincidence of these two incidental references hid away, as it were,\nconfirms the historical truthfulness of both Epistles. And if we take\ninto view the circumstances in which he was placed in Thessalonica and\nat the beginning of his stay in Corinth, his needing and receiving such\naid is amply accounted for. Once again, after a long interval, when he\nwas a prisoner in Rome, and probably unable to work for his maintenance,\ntheir care of him flourished again.\n\nIn the present circumstances of our churches, it seems necessary that\nthe right which Paul so strongly asserted should, for the most part, not\nbe waived, but the only true way of giving and receiving as between\nminister and people is when it is a matter not of payment but a gift.\nWhen it is an expression of sympathy and affection on both sides, the\nrelationship is pleasant and may be blessed. When it comes to be a\nbusiness transaction, and is to be measured by the rules applicable to\nsuch, it goes far to destroy some of the sweetest bonds, and to endanger\na preacher's best influence.\n\nII. The lofty view here taken of such service.\n\nIt is 'the fruit that increaseth to your account.' Fruit, which as it\nwere is put to their credit in the account-book of heaven, but it is\ncalled by Paul by a sacreder name as being an odour of a sweet smell, a\nsacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God, in which metaphor all the\nsacred ideas of yielding up precious things to God and of the sacred\nfire that consumed the offering or brought to bear on the prosaic\nmaterial gift.\n\nThe principle which the Apostle here lays down in reference to a money\ngift has, of course, a much wider application, and is as true about all\nChristian acts. We need not be staggered at the emphasis with which Paul\nstates the truths of their acceptableness and rewardableness, but in\norder fully to understand the ground of his assurance we must remember\nthat in his view the root of all such fruit increasing to our account,\nand of everything which can claim to be an odour of a sweet smell well\npleasing to God, is love to Christ, and the renewal of our nature by the\nspirit of God dwelling in us. In us there dwells no good thing. It is\nonly as we abide in Him and His words abide in us that we bear much\nfruit. Separate from Him we can do nothing. If our works are ever to\nsmell sweet to God, they must be done for Christ, and in a very profound\nand real sense, done by Him.\n\nThe essential character of all work which has the right to be called\ngood, and which is acceptable to God, is sacrifice. The one exhortation\nwhich takes the place and more than fills the place of all other\ncommandments, and is enforced by the motive which takes the place, and\nmore than takes the place of all other motives, is, 'I beseech you by\nthe mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice.' It is\nworks which in the intention of the doer are offered to Him, and in\nwhich therefore there is a surrender of our own wills, or tastes, or\ninclinations, or passions, or possessions, that yield to Him an odour of\na sweet smell. The old condition which touched the chivalrous heart of\nDavid has to be repeated by us in regard to any work which we can ever\nhope to make well pleasing to God; 'I will not offer burnt offerings\nunto the Lord my God which cost me nothing.'\n\nThere is a spurious humility which treats all the works of good men as\nfilthy rags, but such a false depreciation is contradicted by Christ's\n'Well done, good and faithful servant.' It is true that all our deeds\nare stained and imperfect, but if they are offered on the altar which He\nprovides, it will sanctify the giver and the gift. He is the great Aaron\nwho makes atonement for the iniquity of our holy things. And whilst we\nare stricken silent with thankfulness for the wonderful mercy of His\ngracious allowance, we may humbly hope that His 'Well done' will be\nspoken of us, and may labour, not without a foretaste that we do not\nlabour in vain, that 'whether present or absent we may be well pleasing\nto Him.'\n\nThe fruit is here supposed to be growing, that is, of course, in another\nlife. We need not insist that the service and sacrifice and work of\nearth, if the motive be right, tell in a man's condition after death. It\nis not all the same how Christian men live; some gain ten talents, some\nfive, and some two, and the difference between them is not always as the\nparable represents it, a difference in the original endowment. An\nentrance may be given into the eternal kingdom, and yet it may not be an\nabundant entrance.\n\nIII. The gift that supplies the givers.\n\nPaul has nothing to bestow, but he serves a great God who will see to it\nthat no man is the poorer by helping His servants. The king's honour is\nconcerned in not letting a poor man suffer by lodging and feeding his\nretainers. The words here suggest to us the source from which our need\nmay be filled full, as an empty vessel might be charged to the brim with\nsome precious liquid, the measure or limit of the fulness, and the\nchannel by which we receive it.\n\nPaul was so sure that the Philippians' needs would all be satisfied,\nbecause he knew that his own had been; he is generalising from his own\ncase, and that, I think, is at all events part of the reason why he says\nwith much emphasis, '_My_ God. As He has done to me He will do to you,'\nbut even without the 'my,' the great name contains in itself a promise\nand its seal. 'God will supply just because He is God'; that is what His\nname means--infinite fulness and infinite self-communicativeness and\ndelight in giving. But is not so absolutely unlimited a promise as this\nconvicted of complete unreality when contrasted with the facts of any\nlife, even of the most truly Christian or the most outwardly happy? Its\ncontradiction of the grim facts of experience is not to be slurred over\nby restricting it to religious needs only. The promise needs the eye of\nFaith to interpret the facts of experience, and to let nothing darken\nthe clear vision that if any seeming need is left by God unfilled, it is\nnot an indispensable need. If we do not get what we want we may be quite\nsure that we do not need it. The axiom of Christian faith is that\nwhatever we do not obtain we do not require. Very desirable things may\nstill not be necessary. Let us limit our notions of necessity by the\nfacts of God's giving, and then we, too, shall have learned, in\nwhatsoever state we are, therein to be content. When the Apostle says\nthat God shall fill all our need full up to the brim, was he\ncontemplating only such necessities as God could supply through outward\ngifts? Surely not. God Himself is the filler and the only filler of a\nhuman heart, and it is by this impartation of Himself and by nothing\nelse that He bestows upon us the supply of our needs.\n\nUnless we have been initiated into this deepest and yet simplest secret\nof life, it will be full of gnawing pain and unfulfilled longings.\nUnless we have learned that our needs are like the cracks in the parched\nground, cups to hold the rain from heaven, doors by which God Himself\ncan come to us, we shall dwell for ever in a dry and thirsty land. God\nHimself is the only satisfier of the soul. 'Whom have I in heaven but\nThee, and there is none upon earth that'--if I am not a fool--'I desire\nside by side with Thee?'\n\nBut Paul here sets forth in very bold words the measure or limits of the\ndivine supply of our need. It is 'according to His riches in glory.'\nThen, all of God belongs to me, and the whole wealth of His aggregated\nperfections is available for stopping the crannies of my heart and\nfilling its emptiness. My emptiness corresponds with His fulness as some\nconcavity does with the convexity that fits into it, and the whole that\nHe is waits to fill and to satisfy me. There is no limit really to what\na man may have of God except the limitless limit of the infinite divine\nnature, but on the other hand this great promise is not fulfilled all at\nonce, and whilst the actual limit is the boundlessness of God, there is\na working limit, so to speak, a variable one, but a very real one. The\nwhole riches of God's glory are available for us, but only so much of\nthe boundless store as we desire and are at present capable of taking\nin will belong to us now. What is the use of owning half a continent if\nthe owner lives on an acre of it and grows what he wants there, and has\nnever seen the broad lands that yet belong to him? Nothing hinders a man\nfrom indefinitely increased possession of a growing measure of God,\nexcept his own arbitrarily narrowed measure of desire and capacity.\nTherefore it becomes a solemn question for each of us, Am I day by day\nbecoming more and more fit to possess more of God, and enjoy more of the\nGod whom I possess? In Him we have each 'a potentiality of wealth beyond\nthe dreams of avarice.' Do we growingly realise that boundless\npossibility?\n\nThe channel by which that boundless supply is to reach us is distinctly\nset forth here. All these riches are stored up 'in Christ Jesus.' A deep\nlake may be hidden away in the bosom of the hills that would pour\nblessing and fertility over a barren land if it could find a channel\ndown into the plains, but unless there be a river flowing out of it, its\nland-locked waters might as well be dried up. When Paul says 'riches in\nglory,' he puts them up high above our reach, but when he adds 'in\nChrist Jesus,' he brings them all down amongst us. In Him is 'infinite\nriches in a narrow room.' If we are in Him then we are beside our\ntreasure, and have only to put out our hands and take the wealth that is\nlying there. All that we need is 'in Christ,' and if we are in Christ it\nis all close at our sides.\n\nThen the question comes to be, 'Am I thus near my wealth, and can I get\nat it whenever I want it, as I want it, and as much as I want of it?' We\ncan if we will. The path is easy to define, though our slothfulness\nfind it hard to tread. That man is in Christ who dwells with Him by\nfaith, whose heart is by love plunged in His love, who daily seeks to\nhold communion with Him amid the distractions of life, and who in\npractical submission obeys His will. If thus we trust, if thus we love,\nif thus we hold fast to Him, and if thus we link Him with all our\nactivities in the world, need will cease to grow, and will only be an\noccasion for God's gift. 'Delight thyself in the Lord,' and then the\nheart's desires being set upon Him, 'He will give thee the desire of thy\nheart.'\n\nPaul says to us 'My God shall supply all your need.' Let us answer, 'The\nLord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.'\n\n\n\n\nFAREWELL WORDS\n\n 'Now unto our God and Father be the glory for ever\n and ever, Amen. Salute every saint in Christ\n Jesus. The brethren which are with me salute you.\n All the saints salute you, especially they that\n are of Caesar's household. The grace of the Lord\n Jesus Christ be with your spirit.'--PHIL. iv.\n 20-23 (R.V.).\n\n\nThese closing words fall into three unconnected parts, a doxology,\ngreetings, and a benediction. As in all his letters, the Apostle follows\nthe natural instinct of making his last words loving words. Even when he\nhad to administer a bitter draught, the last drops in the cup were\nsweetened, and to the Philippians whom he loved so well, and in whose\nloyal love he confided so utterly, his parting was tender as an embrace.\nTaking together the three elements of this farewell, they present to us\na soul filled with desire for the glory of God and with loving yearning\nfor all His brethren. We shall best deal with them by simply taking them\nin order.\n\nI. The Doxology.\n\nIt is possibly evoked by the immediately preceding thought of God's\ninfinite supply of all human need 'according to his riches in _glory_';\nbut the glory which is so richly stored in Christ, and is the full\nstorehouse from which our emptiness is to be filled, is not the same as\nthe glory here ascribed to Him. The former is the sum of His divine\nperfections, the light of His own infinite being: the latter is the\npraise rendered to Him when we know Him for what He is, and exalt Him in\nour thankful thoughts and adoration. As this doxology is the last word\nof this whole letter, we may say that it gathers into one all that\nprecedes it. Our ascription of glory to God is the highest object of all\nHis self-manifestation, and should be the end of all our contemplations\nof Him and of His acts. The faith that God does 'all for His glory' may\nbe and often has been so interpreted as to make his character repellent\nand hideous, but in reality it is another way of saying that God is\nlove. He desires that all men should be gladdened and elevated by\nknowing Him as He is. His glory is to give. That to which He has\ncommitted the charge of interpreting Him to our dim eyes and disordered\nnatures is not the attributes of sovereign power, or creative wisdom, or\nadministrative providence, or any other elements which men lay hold of\nin their conceptions of deity. When men make gods they make them in\ntheir own image: when God reveals God, the emphasis is put on an\naltogether different aspect of His nature. It is His self-communicating\nand paternal love revealed to the heart of a son which will kindle the\nhighest aspiration of praise, and that fatherhood is not found in the\nfact that God has made us, but in the higher fact that He has redeemed\nus and has sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts. The doxology of\nour text is a distinctively Christian doxology which Paul conceives can\nonly be uttered by lips which have learned to say 'Abba, Father,' 'and\nhave received the adoption of sons' through the eternal Son.\n\nMark, too, that this glad ascription of glory to God is conceived of as\nsounded forth for ever and ever, or literally through 'ages and ages, as\nlong as successive epochs shall unfold.' It is not as if the revelation\nof the divine character were in the past, and the light of it continued\nto touch stony lips to music, but it fills in continuous forthcoming\nevery age, and in every age men receive the fulness of God, and in every\nage redeemed hearts bring back their tribute of praise and love to Him.\n\nII. The Greetings.\n\nThe Apostle's habit of closing all his letters with kindly messages is,\nof course, more than a habit. It is the natural instinct to which all\ntrue hearts have a hundred times yielded. It is remarkable that in this\nletter there are no individual greetings, but that instead of such there\nis the emphatic greeting to every saint in Christ Jesus. He will not\nsingle out any where all are so near His heart, and He will have no\njealousies to be fed by His selection of more favoured persons. It may\nbe too, that the omission of individual messages is partly occasioned by\nsome incipient tendencies to alienation and faction of which we see some\ntraces in His earnest exhortations to stand fast in one spirit, and to\nbe of the same mind, having the same love, and being of one accord, as\nwell as in his exhortation to two Philippian women to be of the same\nmind in the Lord. The all-embracing word at parting singularly links the\nend of the letter with its beginning, where we find a remarkable\nsequence of similar allusions to 'all' the Philippian Christians. He\nhas them all in His heart; they are all partakers with Him of grace; He\nlongs after them all.\n\nThe designation by which Paul describes the recipients of his greeting\ncarries in it a summons as well as a promise. They are saints, and they\nare so as being 'in Christ.' That name is often used as a clumsy\nsarcasm, but it goes to the very root of Christian character. The\ncentral idea contained in it is that of consecration to God, and that\nwhich is often taken to be its whole meaning is but a secondary one, a\nresult of that consecration. The true basis of all real purity of\nconduct lies in devotion of heart and life to God, and for want of\ndiscerning the connection of these two elements the world's ethics fail\nin theory and in practice. A 'saint' is not a faultless monster, and the\npersistence of failures and inconsistencies, whilst affording only too\nsad an occasion for penitence and struggle, afford no occasion for a\nman's shrinking from taking to himself the humble claim to be a saint.\nBoth the elements of consecration to God and of real and progressive,\nthough never complete perfection of personal character, are realised\nonly in Christ; in and only in fellowship with Him whose life was\nunbroken fellowship with the Father, and whose will was completely\naccordant with the Father's, do we rise to the height of belonging to\nGod. And only in Him who could challenge a world to convict Him of sin\nshall we make even a beginning of personal righteousness. If we are in\nChrist we should be saints to-day however imperfect our holiness, and\nshall be 'as the angels of God' in the day that is coming--nay, rather\nas the Lord of the Angels, 'not having spot or blemish or any such\nthing.'\n\nThe New Testament has other names for believers, each of which expresses\nsome great truth in regard to them; for example, the earliest name by\nwhich they knew themselves was the simple one of 'brethren,' which spoke\nof their common relation to a Father and pledged them to the sweetness\nand blessedness of a family. The sarcastic wits of Antioch called them\nChristians as seeing nothing in them other than what they had many a\ntime seen in the adherents of some founder of a school or a party. They\ncalled themselves disciples or believers, revealing by both names their\nhumble attitude and their Lord's authority, and by the latter disclosing\nto seeing eyes the central bond which bound them to Him. But the name of\nSaint declares something more than these in that it speaks of their\nrelation to God, the fulfilment of the Old Testament ideal, and carries\nin it a prophecy of personal character.\n\nThe sharers in Paul's salutation call for some notice. We do not know\nwho 'the brethren that are with me' were. We might have supposed from\nPaul's pathetic words that he had no man like-minded with him, that the\nfaithful band whom we find named in the other epistles of the captivity\nwere dispersed. But though there were none 'like-minded who will care\ntruly for your state,' there were some recognised as brethren who were\nclosely associated with him, and who, though they had no such warm\ninterest in the Philippians as he had, still had a real affection for\nthem, drawn no doubt from him. Distinct from these was the whole body of\nthe Roman Christians, from the mention of whom we may gather that his\nimprisonment did not prevent his intercourse with them. Again, distinct\nfrom these, though a part of them, were the saints of Caesar's\nhousehold. He had apparently special opportunities for intercourse with\nthem, and probably his imprisonment brought him through the praetorian\nguards into association with them, as Caesar's household included all the\nservants and retainers of Nero.\n\nMay we not see in this union of members of the most alien races a\nstriking illustration of the new bond which the Gospel had woven among\nmen? There was a Jew standing in the midst between Macedonian Greeks and\nproud Roman citizens, including members of that usually most heartless\nand arrogant of all classes, the lackeys of a profligate court, and they\nare all clasping one another's hands in true brotherly love. Society was\nfalling to pieces. We know the tragic spectacle that the empire\npresented then. Amidst universal decay of all that held men together,\nhere was a new uniting principle; everywhere else dissolution was at\nwork; here was again crystallising. A flower was opening its petals\nthough it grew on a dunghill. What was it that drew slaves and\npatricians, the Pharisee of Tarsus, rude Lycaonians, the 'barbarous'\npeople of Melita, the Areopagite of Athens, the citizens of Rome into\none loving family? How came Lydia and her slave girl, Onesimus and his\nmaster, the praetorian guard and his prisoner, the courtier in Nero's\ngolden house and the jailer at Philippi into one great fellowship of\nlove? They were all one in Christ Jesus.\n\nAnd what lessons the saints in Caesar's household may teach us! Think of\nthe abyss of lust and murder there, of the Emperor by turns a buffoon, a\nsensualist, and a murderer. A strange place to find saints in that sty\nof filth! Let no man say that it is impossible for a pure life to be\nlived in any circumstances, or try to bribe his conscience by insisting\non the difficulties of his environment. It may be our duty to stand at\nour post however foul may be our surroundings and however uncongenial\nour company, and if we are sure that He has set us there, we may be sure\nthat He is with us there, and that there we can live the life and\nwitness to His name.\n\nIII. The Parting Benediction.\n\nThe form of the benediction seems to be more correctly given in the\nRevised Version, which reads 'with your spirit' instead of 'with you\nall.' That form reappears in Galatians and in Philemon. What Paul\nespecially desires of his favourite church is that they may possess 'the\ngrace.' Grace is love exercising itself to inferiors, and to those who\ndeserve something sadder and darker. The gifts of that one grace are\nmanifold. They comprise all blessings that man can need or receive. This\nangel comes with her hands and her lap full of good. Her name is\nshorthand for all that God can bestow or man can ask or think.\n\nAnd it needs all the names by which Christ is known among men to\ndescribe the encyclopaediacal Person who can bestow the encyclopaediacal\ngift. Here we have them all gathered, as it were, into one great diadem,\nset on His head where once the crown of thorns was twined. He is Lord,\nthe name which implies at least absolute authority, and is most probably\nthe New Testament translation of the Old Testament name of Jehovah. He\nis our Lord as supreme over us, and wonderful as it is, as belonging to\nus. He holds the keys of the storehouse of grace. The river of the water\nof life flows where He turns it on. He is Jesus--the personal name which\nHe bore in the days of His flesh, and by which men who knew Him only as\none of themselves called Him. It is the token of His brotherhood and\nthe guarantee of the sympathy which will ever bestow 'grace for grace.'\nHe is the Christ, the Messiah, the name which points back to the Old\nTestament ideas and declares His office, realising all the rapturous\nanticipations of prophets, and the longings of psalmists, and more than\nfulfilling them all by giving Himself to men.\n\nThat great gift is to be the companion of every spirit which looks to\nthat Jesus in the reality of His humanity, in the greatness of His\noffice, in the loftiness of His divinity, and finds in each of His names\nan anchor for its faith and an authoritative claim for its obedience.\n\nSuch a wish as this benediction is the truest expression of human\nfriendship; it is the highest desire any of us can form for ourselves or\nfor those dearest to us. Do we keep it clear before us in our\nintercourse with them so that the end of that intercourse will naturally\nbe such a prayer?\n\nOur human love has its limitations. We can but wish for others the grace\nwhich Christ can give, but neither our wishes nor His giving can make\nthe grace ours unless for ourselves we take the great gift that is\nfreely given to us of God. It is no accident that all his letters close\nthus. This benediction is the last word of God's revelation to man, the\nbrightness in the clear west, the last strain of the great oratorio. The\nlast word or last book of Scripture is 'the grace of our Lord Jesus\nChrist be with you all.' Let us take up the solemn Amen in our lips and\nin our hearts.\n\n\n\n\nCOLOSSIANS\n\n\n\n\nSAINTS, BELIEVERS, BRETHREN\n\n ' . . . The saints and faithful brethren in\n Christ.'--COL. i. 2.\n\n\n'The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch,' says the Acts\nof the Apostles. It was a name given by outsiders, and like most of the\ninstances where a sect, or school, or party is labelled with the name of\nits founder, it was given in scorn. It hit and yet missed its mark. The\nearly believers were Christians, that is, Christ's men, but they were\nnot merely a group of followers of a man, like many other groups of whom\nthe Empire at that time was full. So they never used that name\nthemselves. It occurs twice only in Scripture, once when King Agrippa\nwas immensely amused at the audacity of Paul in thinking that he would\neasily make 'a Christian' of him; and once when Peter speaks of\n'suffering as a Christian,' where he is evidently quoting, as it were,\nthe indictment on which the early believers were tried and punished.\nWhat did they call themselves then?\n\nI have chosen this text not for the purpose of speaking about it only,\nbut because it gathers together in brief compass the three principal\ndesignations by which the early believers knew themselves.\n'Saints'--that tells their relation to God, as well as their character,\nfor it means 'consecrated,' set apart for Him, and therefore pure;\n'faithful'--that means 'full of faith' and is substantially equivalent\nto the usual 'believers,' which defines their relation to Jesus Christ\nas the Revealer of God; 'brethren'--that defines their relation and\nsentiment towards their fellows. These terms go a great deal deeper than\nthe nickname which the wits of Antioch invented. The members of the\nChurch were not content with the vague 'Christian,' but they called\nthemselves 'saints,' 'believers,' 'brethren.' One designation does not\nappear here, which we must take into account for completeness: the\nearliest of all--disciples. Now, I purpose to bring together these four\nnames, by which the early believers thought and spoke of themselves, in\norder to point the lessons as to our position and our duty, which are\nwrapped up in them. And I may just say that, perhaps, it is no sign of\nadvance that the Church, as years rolled on, accepted the world's name\nfor itself, and that people found it easier to call themselves\n'Christians'--which did not mean very much--than to call themselves\n'saints' or 'believers.'\n\nNow then, to begin with,\n\nI. They were 'Disciples' first of all.\n\nThe facts as to the use of that name are very plain, and as instructive\nas they are plain. It is a standing designation in the Gospels, both in\nthe mouths of friends and of outsiders; it is sometimes, though very\nsparingly, employed by Jesus Christ Himself. It persists on through the\nbook of the Acts of the Apostles, and then it stops dead, and we never\nhear it again.\n\nNow its existence at first, and its entire abandonment afterwards, both\nseem to me to carry very valuable lessons. Let me try to work them out.\nOf course, 'disciple' or 'scholar' has for its correlative--as the\nlogicians call it--'teacher.' And so we find that as the original\nadherents of Jesus called themselves 'disciples,' they addressed Him as\n'Master,' which is the equivalent of 'Rabbi.' That at once suggests the\nthought that to themselves, and to the people who saw the origination of\nthe little Christian community, the Lord and His handful of followers\nseemed just to be like John and his disciples, the Pharisees and their\ndisciples, and many another Rabbi and his knot of admiring adherents.\nTherefore whilst the name was in one view fitting, it was conspicuously\ninadequate, and as time went on, and the Church became more conscious of\nthe uniqueness of the bond that knit it to Jesus Christ, it\ninstinctively dropped the name 'disciple,' and substituted others more\nintimate and worthy.\n\nBut yet it remains permanently true, that Christ's followers are\nChrist's scholars, and that He is their Rabbi and Teacher. Only the\npeculiarity, the absolute uniqueness, of His attitude and action as a\nTeacher lies in two things: one, that His main subject was Himself, as\nHe said, 'I am the Truth,' and consequently His characteristic demand\nfrom His scholars was not, as with other teachers, 'Accept this, that,\nor the other doctrine which I propound,' but 'Believe in Me'; and the\nother, that He seldom if ever argues, or draws conclusions from previous\npremises, that He never speaks as if He Himself had learnt and fought\nHis way to what He is saying, or betrays uncertainty, limitation, or\ngrowth in His opinions, and that for all confirmation of His\ndeclarations, He appeals only to the light within and to His own\nauthority: 'Verily, verily, I say unto you.' No wonder that the common\npeople were astonished at His teaching, and felt that here was an\nauthority in which the wearisome citations of what Rabbi So-and-So had\nsaid, altogether lacked.\n\nThat teaching abides still, and, as I believe, opens out into, and is\nour source of, all that we know--in distinction and contrast from,\n'imagine,' 'hope,' 'fear'--of God, and of ourselves, and of the future.\nIt casts the clearest light on morals for the individual and on politics\nfor the community. Whatever men may say about Christianity being effete,\nit will not be effete till the world has learnt and absorbed the\nteaching of Jesus Christ; and we are a good long way from that yet!\n\nIf He is thus the Teacher, the perpetual Teacher, and the only Teacher,\nof mankind in regard to all these high things about God and man and the\nrelation between them, about life and death and the world, and about the\npractice and conduct of the individual and of the community, then we, if\nwe are His disciples, build houses on the rock, in the degree in which\nwe not only hear but do the things that He commands. For this Teacher is\nno theoretical handler of abstract propositions, but the authoritative\nimposer of the law of life, and all His words have a direct bearing upon\nconduct. Therefore it is vain for us to say: 'Lord, Lord, Thou hast\ntaught in our streets and we have accepted Thy teaching.' He looks down\nupon us from the Throne, as He looked upon the disciples in that upper\nroom, and He says to each of us: 'If ye know these things, happy are ye\nif ye do them.'\n\nBut the complete disappearance of the name as the development of the\nChurch advanced, brings with it another lesson, and that is, that\nprecious and great as are the gifts which Jesus Christ bestows as a\nTeacher, and unique as His act and attitude in that respect are, the\nname either of teacher or of disciple fails altogether to penetrate to\nthe essence of the relation which knits us together. It is not enough\nfor our needs that we shall be taught. The worst man in the world knows\na far nobler morality than the best man practises. And if it were true,\nas some people superficially say is the case, that evil-doing is the\nresult of ignorance, there would be far less evil-doing in the world\nthan, alas! there is. It is not for the want of knowing, that we go\nwrong, as our consciences tell us; but it is for want of something that\ncan conquer the evil tendencies within, and lift off the burden of a\nsinful past which weighs on us. As in the carboniferous strata what was\npliant vegetation has become heavy mineral, our evil deeds lie heavy on\nour souls. What we need is not to be told what we ought to be, but to be\nenabled to be it. Electricity can light the road, and it can drive the\ncar along it; and that is what we want, a dynamic as well as an\nilluminant, something that will make us able to do and to be what\nconscience has told us we ought to be and do.\n\nTeacher? Yes. But if _only_ teacher, then He is nothing more than one of\na multitude who in all generations have vainly witnessed to sinful men\nof the better path. There is no reformation for the individual, and\nlittle hope for humanity, in a Christ whom you degrade to the level of a\nRabbi, or in a Church which has not pressed nearer to Him than to feel\nitself His disciples.\n\nThere was a man who came to Jesus by night, and was in the dark about\nthe Jesus to whom he came, and he said, 'We know that Thou art a Teacher\ncome from God.' But Jesus did not accept the witness, though a young\nteacher fighting for recognition might have been glad to get it from an\nauthoritative member of the Sanhedrim. But He answered, 'Except a man be\nborn again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.' If we need to be born\nagain before we see it, it is not teachers of it that will serve our\nturn, but One who takes us by the hand, and translates us out of the\ntyranny of the darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of God's love. So\nmuch, then, for the first of these names and lessons.\n\nNow turn to the second--\n\nII. The Disciples must be Believers.\n\nThat name begins to appear almost immediately after Pentecost, and\ncontinues throughout. It comes in two forms, one which is in my text,\n'the faithful,' meaning thereby not the reliable, but the people that\nare full of faith; the other, meaning the same thing, they who believe,\nthe 'believers.' The Church found that 'disciple' was not enough. It\nwent deeper; and, with a true instinct, laid hold of the unique bond\nwhich knits men to their Lord and Saviour. That name indicates that\nJesus Christ appears to the man who has faith in a new character. He is\nnot any longer the Teacher who is to be listened to, but He is the\nObject of trust. And that implies the recognition, first, of His\nDivinity, which alone is strong enough to bear up the weight of millions\nof souls leaning hard upon it; and, second, of what He has done and not\nmerely of what He has said. We accept the Teacher's word; we trust the\nSaviour's Cross. And in the measure in which men learned that the centre\nof the work of the Rabbi Jesus was the death of the Incarnate Son of\nGod, their docility was sublimed into faith.\n\nThat faith is the real bond that knits men to Jesus Christ. We are\nunited to Him, and become recipient of the gifts that He has to bestow,\nby no sacraments, by no externals, by no reverential admiration of His\nsupreme wisdom and perfect beauty of character, not by assuming the\nattitude of the disciple, but by flinging our whole selves upon Him,\nbecause He is our Saviour. That unites us to Jesus Christ; nothing else\ndoes. Faith is the opening of the heart, by which all His power can be\npoured into us. It is the grasping of His hand, by which, even though\nthe cold waters be above our knees and be rising to our hearts, we are\nlifted above them and they are made a solid pavement for our feet. Faith\nis the door opened by ourselves, and through which will come all the\nGlory that dwelt between the cherubim, and will fill the secret place in\nour hearts. To be the disciple of a Rabbi is something; to be the\n'faithful' dependent on the Saviour is to be His indeed.\n\nAnd then there is to be remembered, further, that this bond, which is\nthe only vital link between a man and Christ, is therefore the basis of\nall virtue, of all nobility, of all beauty of conduct, and that\n'whatsoever things are lovely and of good report' are its natural\nefflorescence and fruit. And so that leads us to the third point--\n\nIII. The believing Disciple is a 'Saint.'\n\nThat name does not appear in the Gospels, but it begins to show in the\nActs of the Apostles, and it becomes extremely common throughout the\nEpistles of Paul. He had no hesitation in calling the very imperfect\ndisciples in Corinth by this great name. He was going to rebuke them for\nsome very great offences, not only against Christian elevation of\nconduct, but against common pagan morality; but he began by calling them\n'saints.'\n\nWhat is a saint? First and foremost, a man who has given himself to God,\nand is consecrated thereby. Whoever has cast himself on Christ, and has\ntaken Christ for his, therein and in the same degree as he is exercising\nfaith, has thus yielded himself to God. If your faith has not led you\nto such a consecration of will and heart and self, you had better look\nout and see whether it is faith at all. But then, because faith involves\nthe consecration of a man to God, and consecration necessarily implies\npurity, since nothing can be laid on God's altar which is not sanctified\nthereby, the name of saint comes to imply purity of character. Sanctity\nis the Christian word which means the very flower and fragrant aroma of\nwhat the world calls virtue.\n\nBut sanctity is not emotion, A man may luxuriate in devout feeling, and\nsing and praise and pray, and be very far from being a saint; and there\nis a great deal of the emotional Christianity of this day which has a\nstrange affinity for the opposite of saintship. Sanctity is not\naloofness. 'There were saints in Caesar's household'--a very unlikely\nplace; they were flowers on a dunghill, and perhaps their blossoms were\nall the brighter because of what they grew on, and which they could\ntransmute from corruption into beauty. So sanctity is no blue ribbon of\nthe Christian profession, to be given to a few select (and mostly\nascetic) specimens of consecration, but it is the designation of each of\nus, if we are disciples who are more than disciples, that is,\n'believers.' And thus, brethren, we have to see to it that, in our own\ncases, our faith leads to surrender, and our self-surrender to purity of\nlife and conduct. Faith, if real, brings sanctity; sanctity, if real, is\nprogressive. Sanctity, though imperfect, may be real.\n\nIV. The believing Saints are 'Brethren.'\n\nThat is the name that predominates over all others in the latter\nportions of the New Testament, and it is very natural that it should do\nso. It reposes upon and implies the three preceding. Its rapid adoption\nand universal use express touchingly the wonder of the early Church at\nits own unity. The then world was rent asunder by deep clefts of\nmisunderstanding, alienation, animosity, racial divisions of Jew and\nGreek, Parthian, Scythian; by sexual divisions which flung men and\nwomen, who ought to have been linked hand in hand, and united heart to\nheart, to opposite sides of a great gulf; by divisions of culture which\nmade wise men look down on the unlearned, and the unlearned hate the\nwise men; by clefts of social position, and mainly that diabolical one\nof slave and free. All these divisive and disintegrating forces were in\nactive operation. The only thing except Christianity, which produced\neven a semblance of union, was the iron ring of the Roman power which\ncompressed them all into one indeed, but crushed the life out of them in\nthe process. Into that disintegrating world, full of mutual repulsion,\ncame One who drew men to Himself and said, 'One is your Master, even\nChrist, and all ye are brethren.' And to their own astonishment, male\nand female, Greek and Jew, bond and free, philosopher and fool, found\nthemselves sitting at the same table as members of one family; and they\nlooked in each other's eyes and said, 'Brother!' There had never been\nanything like it in the world. The name is a memorial of the unifying\npower of the Christian faith.\n\nAnd it is a reminder to us of our own shortcomings. Of course, in the\nearly days, the little band were driven together, as sheep that stray\nover a pasture in the sunshine will huddle into a corner in a storm, or\nwhen the wolves are threatening. There are many reasons to-day which\nmake less criminal the alienation from one another of Christian\ncommunities and Christian individuals. I am not going to dwell on the\nevident signs in this day, for which God be thanked, that Christian men\nare beginning, more than they once did, to realise their unity in Jesus\nChrist, and to be content to think less of the things that separate than\nof the far greater things that unite. But I would lay upon your hearts,\nas individual parts of that great whole, this, that whatever may be the\ndifferences in culture, outlook, social position, or the like, between\ntwo Christian men, they each, the rich man and the poor, the educated\nman and the unlettered one, the master and the servant, ought to feel\nthat deep down in their true selves they are nearer one another than\nthey are to the men who, differing from them in regard to their faith in\nJesus Christ, are like them in all these superficial respects. Regulate\nyour conduct by that thought.\n\nThat name, too, speaks to us of the source from which Christian\nbrotherhood has come. We are brethren of each other because we have one\nFather, even God, and the Fatherhood which makes us brethren is not that\nwhich communicates the common life of humanity, but that which imparts\nthe new life of sonship through Jesus Christ. So the name points to the\nonly way by which the world's dream of a universal brotherhood can ever\nbe fulfilled. If there is to be fraternity there must be fatherhood, and\nthe life which, possessed by each, makes a family of all, is the life\nwhich He gives, who is 'the first-born among many brethren,' and who, to\nthem who believe on Him, gives power to become the sons of God, and the\nbrethren of all the other sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty.\n\nSo, dear friends, take these names, ponder their significance and the\nduties they impose. Let us make sure that they are true of us. Do not be\ncontent with the vague, often unmeaning name of Christian, but fill it\nwith meaning by being a believer on Christ, a saint devoted to God, and\na brother of all who, 'by like precious faith,' have become Sons of God.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GOSPEL-HOPE\n\n 'The hope of the Gospel.'--COL. i. 5.\n\n\n'God never sends mouths but He sends meat to feed them,' says the old\nproverb. And yet it seems as if that were scarcely true in regard to\nthat strange faculty called Hope. It may well be a question whether on\nthe whole it has given us more pleasure than pain. How seldom it has\nbeen a true prophet! How perpetually its pictures have been too highly\ncoloured! It has cast illusions over the future, colouring the far-off\nhills with glorious purple which, reached, are barren rocks and cold\nsnow. It has held out prizes never won. It has made us toil and struggle\nand aspire and fed us on empty husks. Either we have not got what we\nexpected or have found it to be less good than it appeared from afar.\n\nIf we think of all the lies that hope has told us, of all the vain\nexpenditure of effort to which it has tempted us, of the little that any\nof us have of what we began by thinking we should surely attain, hope\nseems a questionable good, and yet how obstinate it is, living on after\nall disappointments and drawing the oldest amongst us onwards. Surely\nsomewhere there must be a reason for this great and in some respects\nawful faculty, a vindication of its existence in an adequate object for\nits grasp.\n\nThe New Testament has much to say about hope. Christianity lays hold of\nit and professes to supply it with its true nourishment and support. Let\nus look at the characteristics of Christian hope, or, as our text calls\nit, the hope of the Gospel, that is, the hope which the Gospel creates\nand feeds in our souls.\n\nI. What does it hope for?\n\nThe weakness of our earthly hopes is that they are fixed on things which\nare contingent and are inadequate to make us blessed. Even when tinted\nwith the rainbow hues, which it lends them, they are poor and small. How\nmuch more so when seen in the plain colourless light of common day. In\ncontrast with these the objects of the Christian hope are certain and\nsufficient for all blessedness. In the most general terms they may be\nstated as 'That blessed hope, even the appearing of the Great God and\nour Saviour.' That is the specific Christian hope, precise and definite,\na real historical event, filling the future with a certain steadfast\nlight. Much is lost in the daily experience of all believers by the\nfailure to set that great and precise hope in its true place of\nprominence. It is often discredited by millenarian dreams, but\naltogether apart from these it has solidity and substance enough to bear\nthe whole weight of a world rested upon it.\n\nThat appearance of God brings with it the fulfilment of our highest\nhopes in the 'grace that is to be brought to us at His appearing.' All\nour blessedness of every kind is to be the result of the manifestation\nof God in His unobscured glory. The mirrors that are set round the\nfountain of light flash into hitherto undreamed-of brightness. It is but\na variation in terms when we describe the blessedness which is to be the\nresult of God's appearing as being the Hope of Salvation in its fullest\nsense, or, in still other words, as being the Hope of Eternal Life.\nNothing short of the great word of the Apostle John, that when He shall\nappear we shall be like Him, exhausts the greatness of the hope which\nthe humblest and weakest Christian is not only allowed but commanded to\ncherish. And that great future is certainly capable of, and in Scripture\nreceives, a still more detailed specification. We hear, for example, of\nthe hope of Resurrection, and it is most natural that the bodily\nredemption which Paul calls the adoption of the body should first emerge\ninto distinct consciousness as the principal object of hope in the\nearliest Christian experience, and that the mighty working whereby Jesus\nis able to subdue all things unto Himself, should first of all be\ndiscerned to operate in changing the body of our humiliation into the\nbody of His glory.\n\nBut equally natural was it that no merely corporeal transformation\nshould suffice to meet the deep longings of Christian souls which had\nlearned to entertain the wondrous thought of likeness to God as the\ncertain result of the vision of Him, and so believers 'wait for the hope\nof righteousness by faith.' The moral likeness to God, the perfecting of\nour nature into His image, will not always be the issue of struggle and\nrestraint, but in its highest form will follow on sight, even as here\nand now it is to be won by faith, and is more surely attained by waiting\nthan by effort.\n\nThe highest form which the object of our hope takes is, the Hope of the\nGlory of God. This goes furthest; there is nothing beyond this. The eyes\nthat have been wearied by looking at many fading gleams and seen them\ndie away, may look undazzled into the central brightness, and we may be\nsure that even we shall walk there like the men in the furnace,\nunconsumed, purging our sight at the fountain of radiance, and being\nourselves glorious with the image of God. This is the crown of glory\nwhich He has promised to them that love Him. Nothing less than this is\nwhat our hope has to entertain, and that not as a possibility, but as a\ncertainty. The language of Christian hope is not perhaps this may be,\nbut verily it shall be. To embrace its transcendent certainties with a\ntremulous faith broken by much unbelief, is sin.\n\nII. The grounds on which the hope of the Gospel rests.\n\nThe grounds of our earthly hopes are for the most part possibilities,\nor, at the best, probabilities turned by our wishes into certainties. We\nmoor our ships to floating islands which we resolve to think continents.\nSo our earthly hopes vary indefinitely in firmness and substance. They\nare sometimes but wishes turned confident, and can never rise higher\nthan their source, or be more certain than it is. At the best they are\nbuilding on sand. At the surest there is an element of risk in them. One\nsinger indeed may take for his theme 'The pleasures of Hope,' but\nanother answers by singing of 'The fallacies of Hope.' Earth-born hopes\ncarry no anchor and have always a latent dread looking out of their blue\neyes.\n\nBut it is possible for us to dig down to and build on rock, to have a\nfuture as certain as our past, to escape in our anticipations from the\nregion of the Contingent, and this we assuredly do when we take the hope\nof the Gospel for ours, and listen to Paul proclaiming to us 'Christ\nwhich is our Hope,' or 'Christ in you the Hope of glory.' If our faith\ngrasps Jesus Christ risen from the dead and for us entered into the\nheavenly state as our forerunner, our hope will see in Him the pattern\nand the pledge of our manhood, and will begin to experience even here\nand now the first real though faint accomplishments of itself. The\nGospel sets forth the facts concerning Christ which fully warrant and\nimperatively require our regarding Him as the perfect realised ideal of\nmanhood as God meant it to be, and as bearing in Himself the power to\nmake all men even as He is. He has entered into the fellowship of our\nhumiliation and become bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh that we\nmight become life of His Life and spirit of His Spirit. As certain as it\nis that 'we have borne the image of the earthy,' so certain is it that\n'we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.'\n\nWhat cruel waste of a divine faculty it is, then, of which we are all\nguilty when we allow our hopes to be frittered away and dissipated on\nuncertain and transient goods which they may never secure, and which,\neven if secured, would be ludicrously or rather tragically insufficient\nto make us blessed, instead of withdrawing them from all these and\nfixing them on Him who alone is able to satisfy our hungry souls in all\ntheir faculties for ever!\n\nThe hope of the Gospel is firm enough to rest our all upon because in\nit, by 'two immutable things in which it is impossible that God should\nlie,' His counsel and His oath, He has given strong encouragement to\nthem who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before them.\nWell may the hope for which God's own eternal character is the guarantee\nbe called 'sure and steadfast.' The hope of the Gospel rests at last on\nthe Being and Heart of God. It is that which God 'who cannot lie hath\npromised before the world was' is working towards whilst the world\nlasts, and will accomplish when the world is no more. He has made known\nHis purpose and has pledged all the energies and tendernesses of His\nBeing to its realisation. Surely on this rock-foundation we may rest\nsecure. The hopes that grow on other soils creep along the surface. The\nhope of the Gospel strikes its roots deep into the heart of God.\n\nIII. What the hope of the Gospel is and does for us.\n\nWe cannot do better than to lay hold of some of the New Testament\ndescriptions of it. We recall first that great designation 'A good hope\nthrough grace.' This hope is no illusion; it does not come from fumes of\nfancy or the play of imagination. The wish is not father to the thought.\nWe do not make bricks without straw nor spin ropes of sand on the shore\nof the great waste sea that waits to swallow us up. The cup of Tantalus\nhas had its leaks stopped; the sieve carries the treasure unspilled. The\nrock can be rolled to the hill-top. All the disappointments, fallacies,\nand torments of hope pass away. It never makes ashamed. We have a solid\ncertainty as solid as memory. The hope which is through grace is the\nfull assurance of hope, and that full assurance is just what every other\nhope lacks. In that region and in that region only we can either say I\nhope or I know.\n\nAnother designation is 'A lively hope.' It is no poor pale ghost\nbrightening and fading, fading and brightening, through which one can\nsee the stars shine, and of little power in practical life, but strong\nand vigorous and not the least active amongst the many forces that make\nup the sum of our lives.\n\nIt is most significantly designated as 'The blessed hope.' All others\nquickly pass into sorrows. This alone gives lasting joys, for this\nalone is blessed whilst it is only anticipation, and still more blessed\nwhen its blossoms ripen into full fruition. In all earthly hopes there\nis an element of unrest, but the hope of the Gospel is so remote, so\ncertain, and so satisfying, that it works stillness, and they who most\nfirmly grasp it 'do with patience wait for it.' Earthly hopes have\nlittle moral effect and often loosen the sinews of the soul, and are\ndistinctly unfavourable to all strenuous effort. But 'every man that\nhath this hope in Jesus purifieth himself even as He is pure,' and the\nApostle, whose keen insight most surely discerns the character-building\nvalue of the fundamental facts of Christian experience, was not wrong\nwhen he bid us find in the hope of the Gospel deeply rooted within us\nthe driving force of the most strenuous efforts after purity like His\nwhom it is our deepest desire and humble hope to become like.\n\nLet us remember the double account which Scripture gives of the\ndiscipline by which the hope of the Gospel is won for our very own. On\nthe one hand, we have 'joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in\nhope.' Our faith breeds hope because it grasps the divine facts\nconcerning Jesus from which hope springs. And faith further breeds hope\nbecause it kindles joy and peace, which are the foretastes and earnests\nof the future blessedness. On the other hand, the very opposite\nexperiences work to the same end, for 'tribulation worketh patience, and\npatience experience, and experience hope.' Sorrow rightly borne tests\nfor us the power of the Gospel and the reality of our faith, and so\ngives us a firmer grip of hope and of Him on whom in the last result it\nall depends. Out of this collision of flint and steel the spark springs.\nThe water churned into foam and tortured in the cataract has the fair\nbow bending above it.\n\nBut this discipline will not achieve its result, therefore comes the\nexhortation to us all, 'Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and\nhope to the end.' The hope of the Gospel is the one thing that we need.\nWithout it all else is futile and frail. God alone is worthy to have the\nwhole weight and burden of a creature's hope fixed on Him, and it is an\neverlasting truth that they who are 'without God in the world' also\n'have no hope.' Saints of old held fast by an assurance, which they must\noften have felt left many questions still to be asked, and because they\nwere sure that they were continually with Him, were also sure of His\nguidance through life and of His afterwards receiving them to glory. But\nfor us the twilight has broadened into day, and we shall be wise if,\nknowing our defencelessness, and forsaking all the lies and illusions of\nthis vain present, we flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before\nus in the Gospel.\n\n\n\n\n'ALL POWER'\n\n 'Strengthened with all power, according to the\n might of His glory, unto all patience and\n longsuffering with joy.'--COL. i. 11 (R.V.).\n\n\nThere is a wonderful rush and fervour in the prayers of Paul. No parts\nof his letters are so lofty, so impassioned, so full of his soul, as\nwhen he rises from speaking of God to men to speaking to God for men. We\nhave him here setting forth his loving desires for the Colossian\nChristians in a prayer of remarkable fulness and sweep. Broadly taken,\nit is for their perfecting in religious and moral excellence, and it is\nvery instructive to note the idea of what a good man is which is put\nforth here.\n\nThe main petition is for wisdom and spiritual understanding applied\nchiefly, as is to be carefully noted, to the knowledge of God's _will_.\nThe thought is that what it most imports us to know is the Will of God,\na knowledge not of merely speculative points in the mysteries of the\ndivine nature, but of that Will which it concerns us to know because it\nis our life to do it. The next element in Paul's desires, as set forth\nin the ideal here, is a worthy walk, a practical life, or course of\nconduct which is worthy of Jesus Christ, and in every respect pleases\nHim. The highest purpose of knowledge is a good life. The surest\nfoundation for a good life is a full and clear knowledge of the Will of\nGod.\n\nThen follow a series of clauses which seem to expand the idea of the\nworthy walk and to be co-ordinate or perhaps slightly causal, and to\nexpress the continuous condition of the soul which is walking worthily.\nLet us endeavour to gather from these words some hints as to what it is\nGod's purpose that we should become.\n\nI. The many-sided strength which may be ours.\n\nThe form of the word 'strengthened' here would be more fully represented\nby 'being strengthened,' and suggests an unintermitted process of\nbestowal and reception of God's might rendered necessary by our\ncontinuous human weakness, and by the tear and wear of life. As in the\nphysical life there must be constant renewal because there is constant\nwaste, and as every bodily action involves destruction of tissue so that\nliving is a continual dying, so is it in the mental and still more in\nthe spiritual life. Just as there must be a perpetual oxygenation of\nblood in the lungs, so there must be an uninterrupted renewal of\nspiritual strength for the highest life. It is demanded by the\nconditions of our human weakness. It is no less rendered necessary by\nthe nature of the divine strength imparted, which is ever communicating\nitself, and like the ocean cannot but pour so much of its fulness as can\nbe received into every creek and crack on its shore.\n\nThe Apostle not merely emphasises the continuousness of this\ncommunicated strength, but its many-sided variety, by designating it\n'all power.' In this whole context that word 'all' seems to have a charm\nfor him. We read in this prayer of '_all_ spiritual wisdom,' of 'walking\nworthily of the Lord unto _all_ pleasing,' of 'fruit in _every_ good\nwork,' and now of '_all_ power,' and lastly of '_all_ patience and\nlongsuffering.' These are not instances of being obsessed with a word,\nbut each of them has its own appropriate force, and here the\ncomprehensive completeness of the strength available for our many-sided\nweakness is marvellously revealed. There is 'infinite riches in a narrow\nroom.' All power means every kind of power, be it bodily or mental, for\nall variety of circumstances, and, Protean, to take the shape of all\nexigencies. Most of us are strong only at points, and weak in others. In\nall human experience there is a vulnerable spot on the heel. The most\nglorious image, though it has a head of gold, ends in feet, 'part of\niron and part of clay.'\n\nAnd if this ideal of many-sided power stands in contrast with the\nlimitations of human strength, how does it rebuke and condemn the very\npartial manifestations of a very narrow and one-sided power which we who\nprofess to have received it set forth! We have access to a source which\ncan fill our whole nature, can flower into all gracious forms, can cope\nwith all our exigencies, and make us all-round men, complete in Jesus\nChrist, and, having this, what do we make of it, what do we show for it?\nDoes not God say to us, 'Ye are not straitened in me, ye are straitened\nin yourselves; I beseech you be ye enlarged.'\n\nThe conditions on our part requisite for possessing 'all might' are\nplain enough. The earlier portion of the prayer plainly points to them.\nThe knowledge of God's Will and the 'walk worthy of the Lord' are the\nmeans whereby the power which is ever eager to make its dwelling in us,\ncan reach its end. If _we_ keep the channel unchoked, no doubt 'the\nriver of the water of life which proceedeth from the throne of God and\nthe Lamb' will rejoice to fill it to the brim with its flashing waters.\nIf we do not wrench away ourselves from contact with Him, He will\n'strengthen us with all might.' If we keep near Him we may have calm\nconfidence that power will be ours that shall equal our need and\noutstrip our desires.\n\nII. The measure of the strength.\n\nIt is 'according to the power of His glory.' The Authorised Version but\npoorly represents the fulness of the Apostle's thought, which is more\nadequately and accurately expressed in the Revised Version. 'His glory'\nis the flashing brightness of the divine self-manifestation, and in that\nLight resides the strength which is the standard or measure of the gift\nto us. The tremendous force of the sunbeam which still falls so gently\non a sleeper's face as not to disturb the closed eyes is but a parable\nof the strength which characterises the divine glory. And wonderful and\ncondemnatory as the thought is, that power is the unlimited limit of the\npossibilities of our possession. His gifts are proportioned to His\nresources. While He is rich, can I be poor? The only real limit to His\nbestowal is His own fulness. Of course, at each moment, our capacity of\nreceiving is for the time being the practical limit of our possession,\nbut that capacity varies indefinitely, and may be, and should be,\nindefinitely and continuously increasing. It is an elastic boundary, and\nhence we may go on making our own as much as we will, and progressively\nmore and more, of God's strength. He gives it all, but there is a\ntragical difference between the full cup put into our hands and the few\ndrops carried to our lips. The key of the treasure-chamber is in our\npossession, and on each of us His gracious face smiles the permission\nwhich His gracious lips utter in words, 'Be it unto thee even as thou\nwilt.' If we are conscious of defect, if our weakness is beaten by the\nassaults of temptation, or crushed by sorrows that ride it down in a\nfierce attack, the fault is our own. We have, if we choose to make it\nour own and to use it as ours, more than enough to make us 'more than\nconquerors' over all sins and all sorrows.\n\nBut when we contrast what we have by God's gift and what we have in our\npersonal experience and use in our daily life, the contrast may well\nbring shame, even though the contrast brings to us hope to lighten the\nshame. The average experience of present-day Christians reminds one of\nthe great tanks that may be seen in India, that have been suffered to go\nto ruin, and so an elaborate system of irrigation comes to nothing, and\nthe great river that should have been drawn off into them runs past\nthem, all but unused. Repair them and keep the sluices open, and all\nwill blossom again.\n\nIII. The great purpose of this strength.\n\n'Patience and longsuffering with joyfulness' seems at first but a poor\nresult of such a force, but it comes from a heart that was under no\nillusions as to the facts of human life, and it finds a response in us\nall. It may be difficult to discriminate 'patience' from\n'longsuffering,' but the general notion here is that one of the highest\nuses for which divine strength is given to us, is to make us able to\nmeet the antagonism of evil without its shaking our souls. He who\npatiently endures without despondency or the desire to 'recompense evil\nfor evil,' and to whom by faith even 'the night is light about him,' is\nfar on the way to perfection. God is always near us, but never nearer\nthan when our hearts are heavy and our way rough and dark. Our sorrows\nmake rents through which His strength flows. We can see more of heaven\nwhen the leaves are off the trees. It is a law of the Divine dealings\nthat His strength is 'made perfect in weakness.' God leads us in to a\ndarkened room to show us His wonders.\n\nThat strength is to be manifested by us in 'patience and longsuffering,'\nboth of which are to have blended with them a real though apparently\nantagonistic joy. True and profound grief is not opposed to such\npatience, but the excess of it, the hopeless and hysterical outbursts\ncertainly are. We are all like the figures in some old Greek temples\nwhich stand upright with their burdens on their heads. God's strength is\ngiven that we may bear ours calmly, and upright like these fair forms\nthat hold up the heavy architecture as if it were a feather, or like\nwomen with water-jars on their heads, which only make their carriage\nmore graceful and their step more firm.\n\nHow different the patience which God gives by His own imparted strength,\nfrom the sullen submission or hysterical abandonment to sorrow, or the\nangry rebellion characterising Godless grief! Many of us think that we\ncan get on very well in prosperity and fine weather without Him. We had\nbetter ask ourselves what we are going to do when the storm comes, which\ncomes to all some time or other.\n\nThe word here rendered 'patience' is more properly 'perseverance.' It is\nnot merely a passive but an active virtue. We do not receive that great\ngift of divine strength to bear only, but also to work, and such work is\none of the best ways of bearing and one of the best helps to doing so.\nSo in our sorrows and trials let us feel that God's strength is not all\ngiven us to be expended in our own consolation, but also to be used in\nour plain duties. These remain as imperative though our hearts are\nbeating like hammers, and there is no more unwise and cowardly surrender\nto trouble than to fling away our tools and fold our hands idly on our\nlaps.\n\nBut Paul lays a harder duty on us even in promising a great gift to us,\nwhen he puts before us an ideal of joy mingling with patience and\nlongsuffering. The command would be an impossible one if there were not\nthe assurance that we should be 'strengthened with all might.' We\nplainly need an infusion of diviner strength than our own, if that\nstrange marriage of joy and sorrow should take place, and they should at\nonce occupy our hearts. Yet if His strength be ours we shall be strong\nto submit and acquiesce, strong to look deep enough to see His will as\nthe foundation of all and as ever busy for our good, strong to hope,\nstrong to discern the love at work, strong to trust the Father even when\nHe chastens. And all this will make it possible to have the paradox\npractically realised in our own experience, 'As sorrowful yet always\nrejoicing.' One has seen potassium burning underwater. Our joy may burn\nunder waves of sorrow. Let us bring our weakness to Jesus Christ and\ngrasp Him as did the sinking Peter. He will breathe His own grace into\nus, and speak to our feeble and perchance sorrowful hearts, as He had\ndone long before Paul's words to the Colossians, 'My grace is sufficient\nfor thee, and my strength is made perfect in weakness.'\n\n\n\n\nTHANKFUL FOR INHERITANCE\n\n 'Giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet\n to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints\n in light.'--COL. i. 12 (R.V.)\n\n\nIt is interesting to notice how much the thought of inheritance seems to\nhave been filling the Apostle's mind during his writing of Ephesians and\nColossians. Its recurrence is one of the points of contact between them.\nFor example, in Ephesians, we read, 'In whom also were made a heritage'\n(i. 11); 'An earnest of our inheritance' (i. 14); 'His inheritance in\nthe saints' (i. 18); 'Inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ' (v. 5). We\nnotice too that in the address to the Elders of the Church at Ephesus,\nwe read of 'the inheritance among all them that are sanctified' (Acts\n20-32).\n\nIn the text the climax of the Apostle's prayer is presented as\nthankfulness, the perpetual recognition of the Divine hand in all that\nbefalls us, the perpetual confidence that all which befalls us is good,\nand the perpetual gushing out towards Him of love and praise. The\nhighest diligence, the most strenuous fruit-bearing, and the most\nsubmissive patience and longsuffering would be incomplete without the\nconsecration of a grateful heart, and the noblest beauty of a Christian\ncharacter would lack its rarest lustre. This crown of Christian\nperfectness the Apostle regards as being called into action mainly by\nthe contemplation of that great act and continuous work of God's\nFatherly love by which he makes us fit for our portion of the\ninheritance which the same love has prepared for us. That inheritance is\nthe great cause for Christian thankfulness; the more immediate cause is\nHis preparation of us for it. So we have three points here to consider;\nthe inheritance; God's Fatherly preparation of His children for it; the\ncontinual temper of thankfulness which these should evoke.\n\nI. The Inheritance.\n\nThe frequent recurrence of this idea in the Old Testament supplies Paul\nwith a thought which he uses to set forth the most characteristic\nblessings of the New. The promised land belonged to Israel, and each\nmember of each tribe had his own little holding in the tribal territory.\nChristians have in common the higher spiritual blessings which Christ\nbrings, and Himself is, and each individual has his own portion of, the\ngeneral good.\n\nWe must begin by dismissing from our minds the common idea, which a\nshallow experience tends to find confirmed by the associations\nordinarily attached to the word 'inheritance,' that it is entered upon\nby death. No doubt, that great change does effect an unspeakable change\nin our fitness for, and consequently in our possession of, the gifts\nwhich we receive from Christ's pierced hands, and, as the Apostle has\ntold us, the highest of these possessed on earth is but the 'earnest of\nthe inheritance'; but we must ever bear in mind that the distinction\nbetween a Christian life on earth and one in heaven is by no means so\nsharply drawn in Scripture as it generally is by us, and that death has\nby no means so great importance as we faithlessly attribute to it. The\nlife here and hereafter is like a road which passes the frontiers of two\nkingdoms divided by a bridged river, but runs on in the same direction\non both sides of the stream. The flood had to be forded until Jesus\nbridged it. The elements of the future and the present are the same, as\nthe apostolic metaphor of the 'earnest of the inheritance' teaches us.\nThe handful of soil which constitutes the 'arles' is part of the broad\nacres made over by it.\n\nWe should be saved from many unworthy conceptions of the future life, if\nwe held more steadfastly to the great truth that God Himself is the\nportion of the inheritance. The human spirit is too great and too\nexacting to be satisfied with anything less than Him, and the possession\nof Him opens out into every blessedness, and includes all the minor joys\nand privileges that can gladden and enrich the soul. We degrade the\nfuture if we think of it only, or even chiefly, as a state in which\nfaculties are enlarged, and sorrows and sins are for ever ended. Neither\nsuch negatives as 'no night there,' 'neither sorrow nor crime,' 'no more\npain,' nor such metaphors as 'white robes' and 'golden crowns' and\n'seats on thrones' are enough. We are 'heirs of God,' and only as we\npossess Him, and know that we are His, and He is ours, are we 'rich to\nall intents of bliss.' That inheritance is here set forth as being 'in\nlight' and as belonging to saints. Light is the element and atmosphere\nof God. He is in light. He is the fountain of all light. He is light;\nperfect in wisdom, perfect in purity. The sun has its spots, but in Him\nis no darkness at all. Moons wax and wane, shadows of eclipse fall,\nstars have their time to set, but 'He is the Father of lights with whom\ncan be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.' All that\nlight is focussed in Jesus the Light of the world. That Light fills the\nearth, but here it shineth in darkness that obstructs its rays. But\nthere must be a place and a time where the manifestation of God\ncorresponds with the reality of God, where His beams pour out and there\nis nothing hid from the heat thereof, nothing which they do not bless,\nnothing which does not flash them back rejoicing. There is a land\nwhereof the Lord God is the Light. In it is the inheritance of the\n'saints,' and in its light live the nations of the saved, and have God\nfor their companion. All darkness of ignorance, of sorrow, and of sin\nwill fade away as the night flees and ceases to be, before the rising\nsun.\n\nThe phrase 'to be partakers' is accurately rendered 'for the portion,'\nand carries a distinct allusion to the partition of the promised land to\nIsrael by which each man had his lot or share in the common inheritance.\nSo the one word inheritance brings with it blessed thoughts of a common\npossession of a happy society in which no man's gain is another's loss,\nand all envyings, rivalries, and jealousies have ceased to be, and the\nother word, 'the portion,' suggests the individual possession by each of\nhis own vision and experience. Each man's 'portion' is capable of\ngrowth; each has as much of God as he can hold. The measure of his\ndesire is the measure of his capacity. There are infinite differences in\nthe 'portions' of the saints on earth, and heaven is robbed of one of\nits chief charms unless we recognise that there are infinite differences\namong the saints there. For both states the charter by which the\nportion is held is 'Be it unto thee even as thou wilt,' and in both the\nlaw holds 'To him that hath shall be given.'\n\nII. The Fatherly preparation for the Inheritance.\n\nIt is obvious from all which we have been saying that without holiness\nno man shall see the Lord. The inheritance being what it is, the\npossession, the enjoyment of communion with a Holy God, it is absolutely\nincapable of being entered upon by any who are unholy. That is true\nabout both the partial possession of the earnest of it here and of its\nfulness hereafter. In the present life all tolerated sin bars us out\nfrom enjoying God, and in the future nothing can enter that defileth nor\nwhatsoever worketh or maketh a lie. There are many people who think that\nthey would like 'to go to heaven,' but who would find it difficult to\nanswer such questions as these: Do you like to think of God? Do you find\nany joy in holy thoughts? What do you feel about prayer? Does the name\nof Christ make your heart leap? Is righteousness your passion? If you\nhave to answer these questions with a silence which is the saddest\nnegative, what do you think you would do in heaven? I remember that the\nGreenlanders told the Moravian missionaries who were trying to move them\nby conventional pictures of its delights, that the heaven which these\npious souls had painted would not do for them, for there were no seals\nthere. There are thousands of us who, if we spoke the truth, would say\nthe same thing, with the necessary variations arising from our\nenvironment. There is not a spinning-mill in it all. How would some of\nus like that? There is not a ledger, nor a theatre, no novels, no\namusements. Would it not be intolerable ennui to be put down in such an\norder of things? You would be like the Israelites, loathing 'this light\nbread' and hungering for the strong-smelling and savoury-tasting leeks\nand garlic, even if in order to taste them you had to be slaves again.\n\nHeaven would be no heaven to you if you could go there and be thus\nminded. But you could not. God Himself cannot carry men thither but by\nfitting them for it. It is not a place so much as a state, and the\nmighty hand that works on one side of the thick curtain preparing the\ninheritance in light for the saints, is equally busy on this side making\nthe saints meet for the inheritance.\n\nI do not wish to enter here on grammatical niceties, but I must point\nout that the form of the word which the Apostle employs to express it\npoints to an act in the past which still runs on.\n\nThe Revised Version's rendering, 'made us meet,' is preferable to the\nAuthorised Version's, because of its omission of the 'hath' which\nrelegates the whole process of preparation to the past. And it is of\nimportance to recognise that the difference between these two\nrepresentations of the divine preparation is not a piece of pedantry,\nfor that preparation has indeed its beginnings in the past of every\nChristian soul, but is continuous throughout its whole earthly\nexperience. There is the great act of forgiveness and justifying which\nis cotemporaneous with the earliest and most imperfect faith, and there\nis the being born again, the implanting of a new life which is the life\nof Christ Himself, and has no spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing. That\nnew life is infantile, but it is there, the real man, and it will grow\nand conquer. Take an extreme case and suppose a man who has just\nreceived forgiveness for his past and the endowment of a new nature.\nThough he were to die at that moment he would still in the basis of his\nbeing and real self be meet for the inheritance. He who truly trusts in\nJesus is passed from death unto life, though the habits of sins which\nare forgiven still cling to him, and his new life has not yet exercised\na controlling power or begun to build up character. So Christians ought\nnot to think that, because they are conscious of much unholiness, they\nare not ready for the inheritance. The wild brigand through whose\nglazing eyeballs faith looked out to his fellow-sufferer on the central\ncross was adjudged meet to be with him in Paradise, and if all his deeds\nof violence and wild outrages on the laws of God and man did not make\nhim unmeet, who amongst us need write bitter things against himself? The\npreparation is further effected through all the future earthly life. The\nonly true way to regard everything that befalls us here is to see in it\nthe Fatherly discipline preparing us for a fuller possession of a richer\ninheritance. Gains and losses, joys and sorrows, and all the endless\nvariety of experiences through which we all have to pass, are an\nunintelligible mystery unless we apply to them this solution, 'He for\nour profit that we might be partakers of His holiness.' It is not a\nblind Fate or a still blinder Chance that hurtles sorrows and changes at\nus, but a loving Father; and we do not grasp the meaning of our lives\nunless we feel, even about their darkest moments, that the end of them\nall is to make us more capable of possessing more of Himself.\n\nIII. The thankfulness which these thoughts should evoke.\n\nThankfulness ought to be a sweet duty. It is a joy to cherish gratitude.\nGenerous hearts do not need to be told to be thankful, and they who are\nonly thankful to order are not thankful at all. In nothing is the\nordinary experience of the ordinary Christian more defective, and\nsignificant of the deficiencies of their faith, than in the tepidness\nand interruptedness of their gratitude. The blessings bestowed are\ncontinuous and unspeakable. The thanks returned are grudging and scanty.\nThe river that flows from God is 'full of water' and pours out\nunceasingly, and all that we return is a tiny trickle, often choked and\nsometimes lost in the sands.\n\nOur thankfulness ought to be constant. The fire on the altar should\nnever be quenched. The odour of the sweet-smelling incense should ever\nascend. Why is it that we have so little of this grace which the Apostle\nin our text regards as the precious stone that binds all Christian\ngraces together, the sparkling crest of the wave of a Christian life?\nMainly because we have so little of the habit of regarding all things as\nGod's Fatherly discipline and meditating on that for which they are\nmaking us meet. We need a far more habitual contemplation of our\ninheritance, of our experience as lovingly given by God to fit us for it\nand of the darkest hours which would otherwise try our faith and silence\nour praise as necessary parts of that preparation. If this be our\nhabitual attitude of mind, and these be ever present to us, our song\nwill be always of His mercy and our whole lives a thank-offering.\n\nThe text is a prophecy describing the inheritance in its perfect form.\nEarthly life must be ended before it is fully understood. Down in the\nvalleys we praised God, but tears and mysteries sometimes saddened our\nsongs; but now on the summit surveying all behind, and knowing by a\nblessed eternity of experience to what it has led, even an inheritance\nincorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, we shall praise\nHim with a new song for ever.\n\nThankfulness is the one element of worship common to earth and heaven,\nto angels and to us. Whilst they sing, 'Bless the Lord all ye His\nhosts,' redeemed men have still better reason to join in the chorus and\nanswer, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul.'\n\n\n\n\nCHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR\n\n 'I also labour, striving according to His working,\n which worketh in me mightily.'--COL. i. 29.\n\n\nI have chosen this text principally because it brings together the two\nsubjects which are naturally before us to-day. All 'Western\nChristendom,' as it is called, is to-day commemorating the Pentecostal\ngift. My text speaks about that power that 'worketh in us mightily.'\nTrue, the Apostle is speaking in reference to the fiery energy and\npersistent toil which characterised him in proclaiming Christ, that he\nmight present men perfect before Him. But the same energy which he\nexpended on his apostolic office he expended on his individual\npersonality. And he would not have discharged the one unless he had\nfirst laboured on the other. And although in a letter contemporary with\nthis one from which my text is taken he speaks of himself as no longer\nyoung, but 'such an one as Paul the aged, and likewise, also a prisoner\nof Jesus Christ,' the young spirit was in him, and the continual\npressing forward to unattained heights. And that is the spirit, not only\nof a section of the Church divided from the rest by youth and by special\neffort, but of the whole Church if it is worth calling a Church, and\nunless it is thus instinct, it is a mere dead organisation.\n\nSo I hope that what few things I have to say may apply to, and be felt\nto be suitable by all of us, whether we are nominally Christian\nEndeavourers or not. If we are Christian people, we are such. If we are\nnot endeavouring, shall I venture to say we are not Christians? At any\nrate, we are very poor ones.\n\nNow here, then, are two plain things, a great universal Christian duty\nand a sufficient universal Christian endowment. 'I work striving'; that\nis the description of every true Christian. 'I work striving, according\nto His working, who worketh in me mightily': there is the great gift\nwhich makes the work and the striving possible. Let me briefly deal,\nthen, with these two.\n\nI. The solemn universal Christian obligation.\n\nNow the two words which the Apostle employs here are both of them very\nemphatic. 'His words were half battles,' was said about Luther. It may\nbe as truly said about Paul. And that word 'work' which he employs,\nmeans, not work with one hand, or with a delicate forefinger, but it\nmeans toil up to the verge of weariness. The notion of fatigue is\nalmost, I might say, uppermost in the word as it is used in the New\nTestament. Some people like to 'labour' so as never to turn a hair, or\nbring a sweat-drop on to their foreheads. That is not Christian\nEndeavour. Work that does not 'take it out of you' is not worth doing.\nThe other word 'striving' brings up the picture of the arena with the\ncombatants' strain of muscle, their set teeth, their quick, short\nbreathing, their deadly struggle. That is Paul's notion of Endeavour.\nNow 'Endeavour,' like a great many other words, has a baser and a nobler\nside to it. Some people, when they say, 'I will endeavour,' mean that\nthey are going to try in a half-hearted way, with no prospect of\nsucceeding. That is not Christian Endeavour. The meaning of the\nword--for the expression in my text might just as well be rendered\n'endeavouring' as 'striving'--is that of a buoyant confident effort of\nall the concentrated powers, with the certainty of success. That is the\nendeavour that we have to cultivate as Christian men. And there is only\none field of human effort in which that absolute confidence that it\nshall not be in vain is anything but presumptuous arrogance; namely, in\nthe effort after making ourselves what God means us to be, what Jesus\nChrist longs for us to be, what the Spirit of God is given to us in\norder that we should be. 'We shall _not_ fail,' ought to be the word of\nevery man and woman when they set themselves to the great task of\nworking out, in their own characters and personalities, the Divine\nintention which is made a Divine possibility by the sacrifice of Jesus\nChrist and the gift of the Divine Spirit.\n\nSo then what we come to is just this, dear brethren, if we are\nChristians at all, we have to make a business of our religion; to go\nabout it as if we meant work. Ah! what a contrast there is between the\nlanguid way in which Christian men pursue what the Bible designates\ntheir 'calling' and that in which men with far paltrier aims pursue\ntheirs! And what a still sadder contrast there is between the way in\nwhich we Christians go about our daily business, and the way in which we\ngo about our Christian life! Why, a man will take more pains to learn\nsome ornamental art, or some game, than he will ever take to make\nhimself a better Christian. The one is work. What is the other? To a\nvery large extent dawdling and make-believe.\n\nYou remember the old story,--it may raise a smile, but there should be a\ndeep thought below the smile,--of the little child that said as to his\nfather that 'he was a Christian, but he had not been working much at it\nlately.' Do not laugh. It is a great deal too true of--I will not\nventure to say what percentage of--the professing Christians of this\nday. Work at your religion. That is the great lesson of my text.\nEndeavour with confidence of success. The Book of Proverbs says: 'He\nthat is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster,'\nand that is true. A man that does 'the work of the Lord negligently' is\nscarcely to be credited with doing it at all. Dear friends, young or\nold, if you name the name of Christ, be in earnest, and make earnest\nwork of your Christian character.\n\nAnd now may I venture two or three very plain exhortations? First, I\nwould say--if you mean to make your Christian life a piece of genuine\nwork and striving, the first thing that you have to do is to endeavour\nin the direction of keeping its aim very clear before you. There are\nmany ways in which we may state the goal of the Christian life, but let\nus put it now into the all-comprehensive form of likeness to Jesus\nChrist, by entire conformity to His Example and full interpretation of\nHis life. I do not say 'Heaven'; I say 'Christ.'\n\nThat is our aim, the loftiest idea of development that any human spirit\ncan grasp, and rising high above a great many others which are noble but\nincomplete. The Christian ideal is the greatest in the universe. There\nis no other system of thought that paints man as he is, so darkly; there\nis none that paints man as he is meant to be, in such radiant colours.\nThe blacks upon the palette of Christianity are blacker, and the whites\nare whiter, and the golden is more radiant, than any other painter has\never mixed. And so just because the aim which lies before the least and\nlowest of us, possessing the most imperfect and rudimentary\nChristianity, is so transcendent and lofty, it is hard to keep it clear\nbefore our eyes, especially when all the shabby little necessities of\ndaily life come in to clutter up the foreground, and hide the great\ndistance. Men may live up at Darjeeling there on the heights for weeks,\nand never see the Himalayas towering opposite. The lower hills are\nclear; the peaks are wreathed in cloud. So the little aims, the nearer\npurposes, stand out distinct and obtrusive, and force themselves, as it\nwere, upon our eyeballs, and the solemn white Throne of the Eternal away\nacross the marshy levels, is often hid, and it needs an effort for us to\nkeep it clear before us. One of the main reasons for much that is\nunsatisfactory in the spiritual condition of the average Christian of\nthis day is precisely that he has not burning ever before him there, the\ngreat aim to which he ought to be tending. So he gets loose and\ndiffused, and vague and uncertain. That is what Paul tells you when he\nproposes himself as an example: 'So run I, not as uncertainly,' The man\nwho knows where he is running makes a bee-line for the goal. If he is\nnot sure of his destination, of course he zigzags. 'So fight I, not as\none that beateth the air'--if I see my antagonist I can hit him. If I do\nnot see him clearly I strike like a swordsman in the dark, at random,\nand my sword comes back unstained. If you want to make the harbour, keep\nthe harbour lights always clear before you, or you will go yawing about,\nand washing here and there, in the trough of the wave, and the tempest\nwill be your master. If you do not know where you are going you will\nhave to say, like the men in the old story in the Old Book, 'Thy servant\nwent no whither.' If you are going to endeavour, endeavour first to keep\nthe goal clear before you.\n\nAnd endeavour next to keep up communion with Jesus Christ, which is the\nsecret of all peaceful and of all noble living. And endeavour next after\nconcentration. And what does that mean? It means that you have to detach\nyourself from hindrances. It means that you have to prosecute the\nChristian aim all through the common things of Christian life. If it\nwere not possible to be pursuing the great aim of likeness to Jesus\nChrist, in the veriest secularities of the most insignificant and\ntrivial occupations, then it would be no use talking about that being\nour aim. If we are not making ourselves more like Jesus Christ by the\nway in which we handle our books, or our pen, or our loom, or our\nscalpel, or our kitchen utensils, then there is little chance of our\never making ourselves like Jesus Christ. For it is these trifles that\nmake life, and to concentrate ourselves on the pursuit of the Christian\naim is, in other words, to carry that Christian aim into every\ntriviality of our daily lives.\n\nThere are three Scripture passages which set forth various aspects of\nthe aim that we have before us, and from each of these aspects deduce\nthe one same lesson. The Apostle says 'giving all diligence, add to your\nfaith virtue,' etc., 'for if ye do these things ye shall never fail.' He\nalso exhorts: 'Give diligence to make your calling and election sure.'\nAnd finally he says: 'Be diligent, that ye may be found of Him in peace,\nwithout spot, blameless.' _There_ are three aspects of the Christian\ncourse, and the Christian aim, the addition to our faith of all the\nclustering graces and virtues and powers that can be hung upon it, like\njewels on the neck of a queen; the making our calling and election sure,\nand the being found at last tranquil, spotless, stainless, and being\nfound so by Him. These great aims are incumbent on all Christians, they\nrequire diligence, and ennoble the diligence which they require.\n\nSo, brethren, we have all to be Endeavourers if we are Christians, and\nthat to the very end of our lives. For our path is the only path on\nwhich men tread that has for its goal an object so far off that it never\ncan be attained, so near that it can ever be approached. This infinite\ngoal of the Christian Endeavour means inspiration for youth, and\nfreshness for old age, and that man is happy who can say: 'Not as though\nI had already attained' at the end of a long life, and can say it, not\nbecause he has failed, but because in a measure he has succeeded. Other\ncourses of life are like the voyages of the old mariners which were\nconfined within the narrow limits of the Mediterranean, and steered from\nheadland to headland. But the Christian passes through the jaws of the\nstraits, and comes out on a boundless sunlit ocean where, though he sees\nno land ahead, he knows there is a peaceful shore, beyond the western\nwaves. 'I work striving.'\n\nNow one word as to the other thought that is here, and that is\n\nII. The all-sufficient Christian gift.\n\n'According to His working, which worketh in me mightily.' I need not\ndiscuss whether 'His' in my text refers to God or to Christ. The thing\nmeant is the operation upon the Christian spirit, of that Divine Spirit\nwhose descent the Church to-day commemorates. At this stage of my sermon\nI can only remind you in a word, first of all, that the Apostle here is\narrogating to himself no special or peculiar gift, is not egotistically\nsetting forth something which he possessed and other Christian people\ndid not--that power which, 'working in him mightily,' worked in all his\nbrethren as well. It was his conviction and his teaching--would that it\nwere more operatively and vitally the conviction of all professing\nChristians to-day, and would that it were more conspicuously, and in due\nproportion to the rest of Christian truth, the teaching of all Christian\nteachers to-day!--that that Divine power is in the very act of faith\nreceived and implanted in every believing soul. 'Know ye not,' the\nApostle could say to his hearers, 'that ye have the Spirit of God,\nexcept ye be reprobates.' I doubt whether the affirmative response would\nspring to the lips of all professing or real Christians to-day as\nswiftly as it would have done then. And I cannot help feeling, and\nfeeling with increasing gravity of pressure as the days go on, that the\nthing that our churches, and we as individuals, perhaps need most\nto-day, is the replacing of that great truth--I do not call it a\n'doctrine,' that is cold, it is experience--in its proper place. They\nwho believe on Him do receive a new life, a supernatural communication\nof the new Spirit, to be the very power that rules in their lives.\n\nIt is an inward gift. It is not like the help that men can render us,\ngiven from without and apprehended and incorporated with ourselves\nthrough the medium of the understanding or of the heart. There is an old\nstory in the history of Israel about a young king that was bid by the\nprophet to bend his bow against the enemies of Israel, as a symbol; and\nthe old prophet put his withered, skinny brown hand on the young man's\nfleshy one, and then said to him, 'Shoot.' But this Divine Spirit comes\nto strengthen us in a more intimate and blessed fashion than that, for\nit glides into our hearts and dwells in our spirits, and our work, as\nmy text says, is His working. This 'working within' is stated in the\noriginal of my text most emphatically, for it is literally 'the\ninworking which inworketh in me mightily.'\n\nSo, dear brethren, the first direct aim of all our endeavour ought to be\nto receive and to keep and to increase our gift of that Divine Spirit.\nThe work and the striving of which my text speaks would be sheer slavery\nunless we had that help. It would be impossible of accomplishment unless\nwe had it.\n\n 'If any power we have, it is to ill,\n And all the power is Thine, to do and eke to will.'\n\nLet us, then, begin our endeavour, not by working, but by receiving. Is\nnot that the very meaning of the doctrine that we are always talking\nabout, that men are saved, not by works but by faith? Does not that mean\nthat the first step is reception, and the first requisite is\nreceptiveness, and that then, and after that, second and not first, come\nworking and striving? To keep our hearts open by desire, to keep them\nopen by purity, are the essentials. The dove will not come into a fouled\nnest. It is said that they forsake polluted places. But also we have to\nuse the power which is inwrought. Use is the way to increase all gifts,\nfrom the muscle in your arm to the Christian life in your spirit. Use\nit, and it grows. Neglect it, and it vanishes, and like the old Jewish\nheroes, a man may go forth to exercise himself as of old time, and know\nnot that the Spirit of God hath departed from him. Dear friends, do not\nbind yourselves to the slavery of Endeavour, until you come into the\nliberty and wealth of receiving. He gives first, and then says to you,\n'Now go to work, and keep that good thing which is committed unto\nthee.'\n\nThere is but one thought more in this last part of my text, which I must\nnot leave untouched, and that is that this sufficient and universal gift\nis not only the means by which the great universal duty can be\ndischarged, but it ought to be the measure in which it is discharged. 'I\nwork according to the working in me.' That is, all the force that came\ninto Paul by that Divine Spirit, came out of Paul in his Christian\nconduct, and the gift was not only the source, but also the measure, of\nthis man's Christian Endeavour. Is that true about us? They say that the\nsteam-engine is a most wasteful application of power, that a great deal\nof the energy which is generated goes without ever doing any work. They\ntell us that one of the great difficulties in the way of economic\napplication of electricity is the loss which comes through using\naccumulators. Is not that like a great many of us? So much power poured\ninto us; so little coming out from us and translated into actual work!\nSuch a 'rushing mighty wind,' and the air about us so heavy and stagnant\nand corrupt! Such a blaze of fire, and we so cold! Such a cataract of\nthe river of the water of life, and our lips parched and our crops\nseared and worthless! Ah, brethren! when we look at ourselves, and when\nwe think of the condition of so many of the churches to which we belong,\nthe old rebuke of the prophet comes back to us in this generation, 'Thou\nthat art named the House of Israel, is the Spirit of the Lord\nstraitened? Are these His doings?' We have an all-sufficient power. May\nour working and striving be according to it, and may we work mightily,\nbeing 'strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might!'\n\n\n\n\nCHRISTIAN PROGRESS\n\n 'As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord,\n so walk in Him, rooted and builded up in\n Him.'--COL. ii. 6, 7 (R.V.).\n\n\nIt is characteristic of Paul that he should here use three figures\nincongruous with each other to express the same idea, the figures of\nwalking, being rooted, and built up. They, however, have in common that\nthey all suggest an initial act by which we are brought into connection\nwith Christ, and a subsequent process flowing from and following on it.\nReceiving Christ, being rooted in Him, being founded on Him, stand for\nthe first; walking in Him, growing up from the root in Him, being built\nup on Him as foundation, stand for the second. Fully expressed then, the\ntext would run, 'As ye have received Christ, so walk in Him; as ye have\nbeen rooted in Him, so grow up in Him; as ye have been founded on Him,\nso be builded up.' These three clauses present the one idea in slightly\ndifferent forms. The first expresses Christian progress as the\nmanifestation before the world of an inward possession, the exhibition\nin the outward life of a treasure hid in the heart. The second expresses\nthe same progress as the development by its own vital energy of the life\nof Christ in the soul. The third expresses the progress as the addition,\nby conscious efforts, of portion after portion to the character, which\nis manifestly incomplete until the headstone crowns the structure. We\nmay then take the passage before us as exhibiting the principles of\nChristian progress.\n\nI. The origin of all, or how Christian progress begins.\n\nThese three figures, receiving, rooted, founded, all express a great\ndeal more than merely accepting certain truths about Him. The acceptance\nof truths is the means by which we come to what is more than any belief\nof truths. We possess Christ when we believe with a true faith in Him.\nWe are rooted in Him. His life flows into us. We draw nourishment from\nthat soil. We are built on Him, and in our compact union find a real\nsupport to a life which is otherwise baseless and blown about like\nthistledown by every breath. The union which all these metaphors\npresupposes is a vital connection; the possession which is the first\nstep in the Christian life is a real possession.\n\nThere is no progress without that initial step. Our own experience tells\nus but too plainly and loudly that we need the impartation of a new\nlife, and to be set on a new foundation, if we are ever to be anything\nelse than failures and blots.\n\nThere is sure to be progress if the initial step has been taken. If\nChrist has been received, the life possessed will certainly manifest\nitself. It will go on to perfection. The union effected will work on\nthrough the whole character and nature. It is the beginning of all; it\nis only the beginning.\n\nII. The manner of Christian progress or in what it consists.\n\nIt consists in a more complete possession of Him, in a more constant\napproximation to Him, and a more entire appropriation of Him. Christian\nprogress is not a growing up from Christ as starting-point, but into\nChrist as goal. All is contained in the first act by which He is first\nreceived; the remainder is but the working out of that. All our growth\nin knowledge and wisdom consists in our knowing what we have when we\nreceive Christ. We grow in proportion as we learn to see in Him the\ncentre of all truth, as the Revealer of God, as the Teacher of man, as\nthe Interpreter of nature, as the meaning and end of history, as the\nLord of life and death. Morals, politics, and philosophy flow from Him.\nHis lips and His life and death proclaim all truth, human and divine.\n\nAs in wisdom so in character, all progress consists in coming closer to\nJesus and receiving more and more of His many-sided grace. He is the\npattern of all excellence, the living ideal of whatsoever things are\npure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good\nreport, virtue incarnate, praise embodied. He is the power by which we\nbecome gradually and growingly moulded into His likeness. Every part of\nour nature finds its best stimulus in Jesus for individuals and for\nsocieties. Christ and growth into Him is progress, and the only way by\nwhich men can be presented perfect, is that they shall be presented\n'perfect in Christ,' whereunto every man must labour who would that his\nlabour should not be in vain. That progress must follow the threefold\ndirection in the text. There must first be the progressive manifestation\nin act and life of the Christ already possessed, 'As ye received Christ\nJesus the Lord, so walk in Him.' There must also be the completer growth\nin the soul of the new life already received. As the leaf grows green\nand broad, so a Christlike character must grow not altogether by effort.\nAnd there must be a continual being builded up in Him by constant\nadditions to the fabric of graces set on that foundation.\n\nIII. The means, or how it is accomplished.\n\nThe first words of our text tell us that 'Ye have received Christ Jesus\nas Lord,' and all depends on keeping the channels of communication open\nso that the reception may be continuous and progressive. We must live\nnear and ever nearer to the Lord, and seek that our communion with Him\nmay be strengthened. On the other hand, it is not only by the\nspontaneous development of the implanted life, but by conscious and\ncontinuous efforts which sometimes involve vigorous repression of the\nold self that progress is realised. The two metaphors of our text have\nto be united in our experience. Neither the effortless growth of the\ntree nor the toilsome work of the builder suffice to represent the whole\ntruth. The two sides of deep and still communion, and of strenuous\neffort based on that communion, must be found in the experience of every\nChristian who has received Christ, and is advancing through the\nimperfect manifestations of earth to the perfect union with, and perfect\nassimilation to, the Lord.\n\nTo all men who are ready to despair of themselves, here is the way to\nrealise the grandest hopes. Nothing is too great to be attained by one\nwho, having received Christ Jesus as Lord, walks in Him, rooted and\nbuilded up in Him, 'a holy temple to the Lord.'\n\n\n\n\nRISEN WITH CHRIST\n\n 'If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those\n things which are above, where Christ sitteth on\n the right hand of God. 2. Set your affection on\n things above, not on things on the earth. 3. For\n ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in\n God. 4. When Christ, who is our life, shall\n appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in\n glory. 5. Mortify therefore your members which are\n upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness,\n inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and\n covetousness, which is idolatry: 6. For which\n things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the\n children of disobedience. 7. In the which ye also\n walked sometime, when ye lived in them. 8. But now\n ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice,\n blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.\n 9. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put\n off the old man with his deeds; 10. And have put\n on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge\n after the image of Him that created him: 11. Where\n there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor\n uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor\n free: but Christ is all, and in all. 12. Put on\n therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved,\n bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind,\n meekness, longsuffering; 13. Forbearing one\n another, and forgiving one another, if any man\n have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave\n you, so also do ye. 14. And above all these things\n put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.\n 15. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts,\n to the which also ye are called in one body; and\n be ye thankful.'--COL. iii. 1-15.\n\n\nThe resurrection is regarded in Scripture in three aspects--as a fact\nestablishing our Lord's Messiahship, as a prophecy of our rising from\nthe dead, and as a symbol of the Christian life even now. The last is\nthe aspect under which Paul deals with it here.\n\nI. Verses 1-4 set forth the wonderful but most real union of the\nbeliever with the risen Christ. We have said that the Lord's\nresurrection is regarded as a symbol, but that is an incomplete\nrepresentation of the truth here taught, for Paul believed that the\nChristian is so joined to Jesus as that he has, not in symbol only, but\nin truth, risen with him. Mark the emphasis and depth of the expressions\nsetting forth the believer's unity with his Lord: 'Ye were raised\ntogether with Christ'; 'Ye died, and your life is hid with Christ.' And\nthese wonderful statements do not go to the bottom of the fact, for Paul\ngoes beyond even them, and does not scruple to say that Christ '_is_ our\nlife.'\n\nThe ground of these great declarations is found in the fact that faith\njoins us in most real and close union to Jesus Christ, so that in His\ndeath we die to sin and the world, and that, even while we live the\nbodily life of men here, we have in us another life, derived from Jesus.\nUnless our Christianity has grasped that great truth, it has not risen\nto the height of New Testament teaching and Christian privilege. We\ncannot make too much of 'Christ our sacrifice,' but some of us make too\nlittle of 'Christ our life,' and thereby fail to understand in all its\nfulness that other truth on which they fasten so exclusively. Union with\nChrist in the possession of His life in us, and the consequent rooting\nof our lives in Him, is a truth which much of the evangelical\nChristianity of this day needs to see more clearly.\n\nThe life is 'hid,' as being united with Jesus, and consequently\nwithdrawn from the world, which neither comprehends nor sustains it. A\nChristian man is bound to manifest to the utmost of his power what is\nthe motive and aim of his life; but the devout life is, like the divine\nlife, a mystery, unrevealed after all revelation.\n\nThe practical conclusion from this blessed union with Jesus is that we\nare, as Christians, bound to be true in our conduct to the facts of our\nspiritual life, and to turn away from the world, which is now not our\nhome, and set our mind (not only our 'affections') on things above.\nSurely the Christ, 'seated on the right hand of God,' will be as a\nmagnet to draw our conscious being upwards to Himself. Surely union with\nHim in His death will lead us to die to the world which is alien to us,\nand to live in aspiration, thought, desire, love, and obedience with Him\nin His calm abode, whence He rules and blesses the souls whom, through\ntheir faith, He has made to live the new life of heaven on earth.\n\nII. The first consequence of the risen life is negative, the death or\n'putting off' of the old nature, the life which belongs to and is ruled\nby earth. Verses 5-9 solemnly lay on the Christian the obligation to put\nthis to death. The 'therefore' in verse 5 teaches a great lesson, for it\nimplies that the union with Jesus by faith must precede all self-denial\nwhich is true to the spirit of the Gospel. Asceticism of any sort which\nis not built on the evangelical foundation is thereby condemned,\nwhether it is practised by Buddhist, or monk, or Protestant. First be\npartaker of the new life, and then put off the old man with his deeds.\nThe withered fronds of last year are pushed off the fern by the new ones\nas they uncurl. That doctrine of life in Christ is set down as mystical;\nbut it is mysticism of the wholesome sort, which is intensely practical,\nand comes down to the level of the lowest duties,--for observe what\nhomely virtues are enjoined, and how the things prohibited are no\nfantastic classifications of vices, but the things which all the world\nowns to be ugly and wrong.\n\nWe cannot here enlarge on Paul's grim catalogue, but only point out that\nit is in two parts, the former (verses 5, 6) being principally sins of\nimpurity and unregulated passion, to which is added 'covetousness,' as\nthe other great vice to which the old nature is exposed. Lust and greed\nbetween them are the occasions of most of the sins of men. Stop these\nfountains, and the streams of evil would shrink to very small trickles.\nThese twin vices attract the lightning of God's wrath, which 'cometh' on\ntheir perpetrators, not only in some final future judgment, but here and\nnow. If we were not blind, we should see that thundercloud steadily\ndrawing nearer, and ready to launch its terrors on impure and greedy\nmen. They have set it in motion, and they are right in the path of the\navalanche which they have loosened.\n\nThe possessors of the risen life are exhorted to put off these things,\nnot only because of the coming wrath, but because continuance in them is\ninconsistent with their present standing and life (v. 7). They do not\nnow 'live in them,' but in the heavenly places with the risen Lord,\ntherefore to walk in them is a contradiction. Our conduct should\ncorrespond to our real affinities, and the surface of our lives should\nbe true to their depths and roots.\n\nThe second class of vices are those which mar our intercourse with our\nfellows,--the more passionate anger and wrath and the more cold-blooded\nand deadly malice, with the many sins of speech.\n\nIII. In verse 9 Paul appends the great reason for all the preceding\ninjunctions; namely, the fact, already enlarged on in verses 1-4, of the\nChristian's death and new life by union with Jesus. He need only have\nstated the one-half of the fact here, but he never can touch one member\nof the antithesis without catching fire, as it were, and so he goes on\nto dwell on the new life in Christ, and thus to prepare for the\ntransition to the exhortation to 'put on' its characteristic\nexcellences. We note how true to fact, though apparently illogical, his\nrepresentation is. He bases the command to put off the old man on the\nfact that Christians have put it off. They are to be what they are, to\nwork out in daily acts what they did in its full ideal completeness when\nby faith they died to self and were made alive in and to Christ. A\nstrong motive for a continuous Christian life is the recollection of the\ninitial Christian act.\n\nBut Paul's fervent spirit blazes up as he thinks of that new nature\nwhich union with Jesus has brought, and he turns aside from his\nexhortations to gaze on that great sight. He condenses volumes into a\nsentence. That new man is not only new, but is perpetually being renewed\nwith a renovation penetrating more and more deeply, and extending more\nand more widely, in the Christian's nature. It is continually advancing\nin knowledge, and tending towards perfect knowledge of Christ. It is\nbeing fashioned, by a better creation than that of Adam, into a more\nperfect likeness of God than our first father bore in his sinless\nfreshness. The possession of it gathers all Christians into a unity in\nwhich all distinctions of nationality, religious privilege, culture, or\nsocial condition, are lost. Paul the Pharisee and the Colossian\nbrethren, Onesimus the slave and Philemon his master, are one in Jesus.\nThe new life is one in all its recipients, and makes them one. The\nphenomena of the lowest forms of life are almost repeated in the\nhighest, and, just as in a coral reef the myriads of workers are not\nindividuals so much as parts of one living whole, 'so also is Christ.'\nThe union is the closest possible without destruction of our\nindividuality.\n\nIV. The final, positive consequence of the risen life follows in verses\n12-15. Again the Apostle reminds Christians of what they are, as the\ngreat motive for putting on the new man. The contemplation of privileges\nmay tend to proud isolation and neglect of duty to our fellows, but the\ntrue effect of knowing that we are 'God's elect, holy and beloved,' is\nto soften our hearts, and to lead us to walk among men as mirrors and\nembodiments of God's mercy to us. The only virtues touched on here are\nthe various manifestations of love, such as quick susceptibility to\nothers' sorrows; readiness to help by act as well as to pity in word;\nlowliness in estimating one's own claims, which will lead to bearing\nevils without resentment or recompensing the like; and patient\nforgiveness, after the pattern and measure of the forgiveness we have\nreceived. All these graces, which would make earth an Eden, and our\nhearts temples, and our lives calm, are outcomes of love, and must\nnever be divorced from it. Paul uses a striking image to express this\nthought of their dependence on it. He likens them to the various\narticles of dress, and bids us hold them all in place with love as a\ngirdle, which keeps together all the various graces that make up\n'perfectness.'\n\nThus living in love, we shall be free from the tumult of spirit which\never attends a selfish life; for nothing is more certain to stuff a\nman's pillow with thorns, and to wreck his tranquillity, than to live in\nhate and suspicion, or self-absorbed. 'The peace of Christ' is ours in\nthe measure in which we live the risen life and put on the new man, and\nthat peace in our hearts will rule, that is, will sit there as umpire;\nfor it will instinctively draw itself into itself, as it were, like the\nleaves of a sensitive plant, at the approach of evil, and, if we will\ngive heed to its warnings, and have nothing to do with what disturbs it,\nwe shall be saved from falling into many a sin. That peace gathers all\nthe possessors of the new life into blessed harmony. It is peace with\nGod, with ourselves, and with all our brethren; and the fact that all\nChristians are, by their common life, members of the one body, lays on\nthem all the obligation to keep the unity in the bond of peace. And for\nall these great blessings, especially for that union with Jesus which\ngives us a share in his risen life, thankfulness should ever fill our\nhearts and make all our days and deeds the sacrifice of praise unto him\ncontinually.\n\n\n\n\nRISEN WITH CHRIST\n\n 'If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those\n things which are above, where Christ sitteth on\n the right hand of God. Set your affection on\n things above, not on things on the earth.'--COL.\n iii. 1, 2.\n\n\nThere are three aspects in which the New Testament treats the\nResurrection, and these three seem to have successively come into the\nconsciousness of the Church. First, as is natural, it was considered\nmainly in its bearing on the person and work of our Lord. We may point\nfor illustration to the way in which the Resurrection is treated in the\nearliest of the apostolic discourses, as recorded in the Acts of the\nApostles. Then it came, with further reflection and experience, to be\ndiscerned that it had a bearing on the hope of the immortality of man.\nAnd last of all, as the Christian life deepened, it came to be discerned\nthat the Resurrection was the pattern of the life of the Christian\ndisciples. It was regarded first as a witness, then as a prophecy, then\nas a symbol. Three fragments of Scripture express these three phases:\nfor the first, 'Declared to be the Son of God with power by the\nResurrection from the dead'; for the second, 'Now is Christ risen from\nthe dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept'; for the\nthird, 'God hath raised us up together with Him, and made us sit\ntogether in the heavenly places.' I have considered incidentally the two\nformer aspects in the course of previous sermons; I wish to turn at\npresent to that final third one.\n\nOne more observation I must make by way of introduction, and that is,\nthat the way in which the Apostle here glides from 'being risen with\nChrist' to where 'Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God,'\nconfirms what I have pointed out in former discourses, that the\nAscension of Jesus Christ is always considered in Scripture as being\nnothing more than the necessary outcome and issue of the process which\nbegan in the Resurrection. They are not separate facts, but they are two\nends of one process. And so with these thoughts, that Resurrection\ndevelops into Ascension, and that in both Jesus Christ is the pattern\nfor His followers, let us turn to the words before us.\n\nThen we have here\n\nI. The Christian life considered as a risen life.\n\nNow, we are all familiar with the great evangelical point of view from\nwhich the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ are usually\ncontemplated. To many of us Christ's sacrifice is nothing more or less\nthan the means by which the world is reconciled to God, and Christ's\nResurrection nothing more than the seal which was set by Divinity upon\nthat work. 'Crucified for our offences, and raised again for our\njustification,' as Paul has it--that is the point of view from which\nmost evangelical or orthodox Christian people are contented to regard\nthe solemn fact of the Death and the radiant fact of the Resurrection.\nYou cannot be too emphatic about these truths, but you may be too\nexclusive in your contemplation of them. You do well when you say that\nthey are the Gospel; you do not well when you say, as some of you do,\nthat they are the whole Gospel. For there is another stream of teaching\nin the New Testament, of which my text is an example, and a multitude of\nother passages that I cannot refer to now are equally conspicuous\ninstances, in which that death and that Resurrection are regarded, not\nso much in respect to the power which they exercise in the\nreconciliation of the world to God, as in their aspect as the type of\nall noble and true Christian life. You remember how, when our Lord\nHimself touched upon the fruitful issues of His death, and said: 'Except\na corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if\nit die it bringeth forth much fruit,' He at once went on to say that a\nman that loved his life would lose it; and that a man that lost his life\nwould find it, and proceeded to point, even then, and in that\nconnection, to His Cross as our pattern, declaring: 'If any man serve\nMe, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be.'\n\n 'Made like Him, like Him we rise;\n Ours the cross, the grave, the skies.'\n\nSo, then, a risen life is the type of all noble life, and before there\ncan be a risen life there must have been a death. True, we may say that\nthe spiritual facts in a man's experience, which are represented by\nthese two great symbols of a death and a rising, are but like the\nsegment of a circle which, seen from the one side is convex and from the\nother is concave. But however loosely we may feel that the metaphors\nrepresent the facts, this is plain, that unless a man dies to flesh, to\nself-will, to the world, he never will live a life that is worth calling\nlife. The condition of all nobleness and all growth upwards is that we\nshall die daily, and live a life that has sprung victorious from the\ndeath of self. All lofty ethics teach that; and Christianity teaches it,\nwith redoubled emphasis, because it says to us, that the Cross and the\nResurrection are not merely imaginative emblems of the noble and the\nChristian life, but are a great deal more than that. For, brethren, do\nnot forget--if you do, you will be hopelessly at sea as to large tracts\nof blessed Christian truth--that by faith in Jesus Christ we are brought\ninto such a true deep union with Him as that, in no mere metaphorical or\nanalogous sense, but in most blessed reality, there comes into the\nbelieving heart a spark of the life that is Christ's own, so that with\nHim we do live, and from Him we do live a life cognate with His, who,\nhaving risen from the dead, dieth no more, and over whom death hath no\ndominion. So it is not a metaphor only, but a spiritual truth, when we\nspeak of being risen with Christ, seeing that our faith, in the measure\nof its genuineness, its depth and its operative power upon our\ncharacters, will be the gate through which there shall pass into our\ndeadness the life that truly is, the life that has nought to do with\ndeath or sin. And this unity with Jesus, brought about by faith, brings\nabout that the depths of the Christian life are hid with Christ in God,\nand that we, risen with Him, do even now sit 'at the right hand in\nheavenly places,' whilst our feet, dusty and sometimes blood-stained,\nare journeying along the paths of life. This is the great teaching of my\ntext, and of a multitude of other places; and this is the teaching which\nmodern Christianity, in its exclusive, or all but exclusive,\ncontemplation of the Cross as the sacrifice for sin, has far too much\nforgotten. 'Ye are risen with Christ.'\n\nLet me remind you that this veritable death and rising again, which\nmarks the Christian life, is set forth before us in the initial rite of\nthe Christian Church. Some of you do not agree with me in my view,\neither of what is the mode or of who are the subjects of that ordinance,\nbut if you know anything about the question, you know that everybody\nthat has a right to give a judgment agrees with us Baptists in\nsaying--although they may not think that it carries anything obligatory\nupon the practice of to-day--that the primitive Church baptized by\nimmersion. Now, the meaning of baptism is to symbolise these two\ninseparable moments, dying to sin, to self, to the world, to the old\npast, and rising again to newness of life. Our sacramentarian friends\nsay that, in my text, it was in baptism that these Colossian Christians\nrose again with Christ. I, for my part, do not believe that, but that\nbaptism was the speaking sign of what lies at the gate of a true\nChristian life I have no manner of doubt.\n\nSo the first thought of our text is not only taught us in words, but it\nstands manifest in the ritual of the Church as it was from the\nbeginning. We die, and we rise again, through faith and by union through\nfaith, with Christ 'that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is\neven at the right hand of God.'\n\nLet me turn, secondly, to\n\nII. The consequent aims of the Christian life.\n\n'If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.'\n'To seek' implies the direction of the external life toward certain\nobjects. It is not to seek as if perhaps we might not find; it is not\neven to seek in the sense of searching for, but it is to seek in the\nsense of aiming at. And now do you not think that if we had burning in\nour hearts, and conscious to our experiences, the sense of union with\nJesus Christ the risen Saviour, that would shape the direction and\ndictate the aims of our earthly life? As surely as the elevation of the\nrocket tube determines the flight of the projectile that comes from it,\nso surely would the inward consciousness, if it were vivid as it ought\nto be in all Christian people, of that risen life throbbing within the\nheart, shape all the external conduct. It would give us wings and make\nus soar. It would make us buoyant, and lift us above the creeping aims\nthat constitute the objects of life for so many men.\n\nBut you say, 'Things above: that is an indefinite phrase. What do you\nmean by it?' I will tell you what the Bible means by it. It means Jesus\nChrist. All the nebulous splendours of that firmament are gathered\ntogether into one blazing sun. It is a vague direction to tell a man to\nshoot up, into an empty heaven. It is not a vague direction to tell him\nto seek the 'things above'; for they are all gathered into a person.\n'Where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God,'--that is the\nmeaning of 'things above,' which are to be the continual aim of the man\nwho is conscious of a risen life. And of course they will be, for if we\nfeel, as we ought to feel habitually, though with varying clearness,\nthat we do carry within us a spark, if I might use that phrase, of the\nvery life of Jesus Christ, so surely as fire will spring upwards, so\nsurely as water will rise to the height of its source, so surely will\nour outward lives be directed towards Him, who is the life of our inward\nlives, and the goal therefore of our outward actions?\n\nJesus Christ is the summing up of 'the things that are above'; therefore\nthere stands out clear this one great truth, that the only aim for a\nChristian soul, consistent with the facts of its Christian life, is to\nbe like Christ, to be with Christ, to please Christ.\n\nNow, how does that aim--'whether present or absent we labour that we may\nbe well pleasing to Him'--how does that aim bear upon the multitude of\ninferior and nearer aims which men pursue, and which Christians have to\npursue along with other men? How does it bear upon them?--Why thus--as\nthe culminating peak of a mountain-chain bears on the lower hills that\nfor miles and miles buttress it, and hold it up, and aspire towards it,\nand find their perfection in its calm summit that touches the skies. The\nmore we have in view, as our aim in life, Christ who is 'at the right\nhand of God,' and assimilation, communion with Him, approbation from\nHim, the more will all immediate aims be ennobled and delivered from the\nevils that else cleave to them. They are more when they are second than\nwhen they are first. 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God,' and all your\nother aims--as students, as thinkers, as scientists, as men of business,\nas parents, as lovers, or anything else--will be greatened by being\nsubordinated to the conscious aim of pleasing Him. That aim should\npersist, like a strain of melody, one long, holden-down, diapason note,\nthrough all our lives. Perfume can be diffused into the air, and\ndislodge no atom of that which it makes fragrant. This supreme aim can\nbe pursued through, and by means of, all nearer ones, and is\ninconsistent with nothing but sin. 'Seek the things that are above.'\n\nLastly, we have here--\n\nIII. The discipline which is needed to secure the right direction of the\nlife.\n\nThe Apostle does not content himself with pointing out the aims. He adds\npractical advice as to how these aims can be made dominant in our\nindividual cases, when he says, 'Set your affections on things above.'\nNow, many of you will know that 'affections' is not the full sense of\nthe word that is here employed, and that the Revised Version gives a\nmore adequate rendering when it says, 'Set your _minds_ on the things\nthat are above.' A man cannot do with his love according to his will. He\ncannot say: '_Resolved_, that I love So-and-So'; and then set himself to\ndo it. But though you cannot act on the emotions directly by the will,\nyou _can_ act directly on your understandings, on your thoughts, and\nyour thoughts will act on your affections. If a man wants to love Jesus\nChrist he must think about Him. That is plain English. It is vain for a\nman to try to coerce his wandering affections by any other course than\nby concentrating his thoughts. Set your minds on the things that are\nabove, and that will consolidate and direct the emotions; and the\nthoughts and the emotions together will shape the outward efforts.\nSeeking the things that are above will come, and will only come, when\nmind and heart and inward life are occupied with Him. There is no other\nway by which the externals can be made right than by setting a watch on\nthe door of our hearts and minds, and this inward discipline must be put\nin force before there will be any continuity or sureness in the outward\naim. We want, for that direction of the life of which I have been\nspeaking, a clear perception and a concentrated purpose, and we shall\nnot get either of these unless we fall back, by thought and meditation,\nupon the truths which will provide them both.\n\nBrethren, there is another aspect of the connection between these two\nparts of our text, which I can only touch. Not only is the setting of\nour thoughts on the things above, the way by which we can make these the\naim of our lives. They are not only aims to be reached at some future\nstage of our progress, but they are possessions to be enjoyed at the\npresent. We may have a present Christ and a present Heaven. The\nChristian life is not all aspiration; it is fruition as well. We have to\nseek, but even whilst we seek, we should be conscious that we possess\nwhat we are seeking, even whilst we seek it. Do you know anything of\nthat double experience of having the things that are above, here and\nnow, as well as reaching out towards them?\n\nI am afraid that the Christian life of this generation suffers at a\nthousand points, because it is more concerned with the ordering of the\noutward life, and the manifold activities which this busy generation has\nstruck out for itself, than it is with the quiet setting of the mind, in\nsilent sunken depths of contemplation, on the things that are above. Oh,\nif we would think more about them we should aim more at them; and if we\nwere sure that we possessed them to-day we should be more eager for a\nlarger possession to-morrow.\n\nDear brethren, we may all have the risen life for ours, if we will knit\nourselves, in humble dependence and utter self-surrender, to the Christ\nwho died for us that we might be dead to sin, and rose again that we\nmight rise to righteousness. And if we have Him, in any deep and real\nsense, as the life of our lives, then we shall be blessed, amid all the\ndivergent and sometimes conflicting nearer aims, which we have to\npursue, by seeing clear above them that to which they all may tend, the\none aim which corresponds to a man's nature, which meets his condition,\nwhich satisfies his needs, which can always be attained if it is\nfollowed, and which, when secured, never disappoints. God help us all to\nsay, 'This one thing I do, and all else I count but dung, that I may\nknow Him, and the power of His Resurrection, and the fellowship of His\nsufferings, being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I may\nattain unto the Resurrection from the dead!'\n\n\n\n\nWITHOUT AND WITHIN\n\n 'Them that are without.'--COL. iv. 5.\n\n\nThat is, of course, an expression for the non-Christian world; the\noutsiders who are beyond the pale of the Church. There was a very broad\nline of distinction between it and the surrounding world in the early\nChristian days, and the handful of Christians in a heathen country felt\na great gulf between them and the society in which they lived. That\ndistinction varies in form, and varies somewhat in apparent magnitude\naccording as Christianity has been rooted in a country for a longer or a\nshorter time, but it remains, and is as real to-day as it ever was, and\nthere is neither wisdom nor kindness in ignoring the distinction.\n\nThe phrase of our text may sound harsh, and might be used, as it was by\nthe Jews, from whom it was borrowed, in a very narrow and bitter spirit.\nClose corporations of any sort are apt to generate, not only a wholesome\n_esprit de corps_, but a hostile contempt for outsiders, and\nChristianity has too often been misrepresented by its professors, who\nhave looked down upon those that are without with supercilious and\nunchristian self-complacency.\n\nThere is nothing of that sort in the words themselves; the very opposite\nis in them. They sound to me like the expression of a man conscious of\nthe security and comfort and blessedness of the home where he sat, and\nwith his heart yearning for all the houseless wanderers that were\nabiding the pelting of the pitiless storm out in the darkness there. The\nspirit and attitude of Christianity to such is one of yearning pity and\nurgent entreaty to come in and share in the blessings. There is deep\npathos in the words, as well as solemn earnestness, and in such a spirit\nI wish to dwell upon them now for a short time.\n\nI. I begin with the question: Who are they that are outside? And what is\nit of which they are outside?\n\nAs I have already remarked, the phrase was apparently borrowed from\nJudaism, where it meant, 'outside the Jewish congregation,' and its\nprimary application, as used here, is no doubt to those who are outside\nthe Christian Church. But do not let us suppose that that explanation\ngets to the bottom of the meaning of the words. It may stand as a\npartial answer, but only as partial. The evil tendency which attends all\nexternalising of truth in the concrete form of institutions works in\nfull force on the Church, and ever tempts us to substitute outward\nconnection with the institution for real possession of the truth of\nwhich the institution is the outgrowth. Therefore I urge upon you very\nemphatically--and all the more earnestly because of the superstitious\noverestimate of outward connection with the outward institution of the\nChurch which is eagerly proclaimed all around us to-day--that connection\nwith any organised body of believing men is not 'being within,' and that\nisolation from all these is not necessarily 'being without.' Many a man\nwho is within the organisation is not 'in the truth,' and, blessed be\nGod, a man may be outside all churches, and yet be one of God's hidden\nones, and may dwell safe and instructed in the very innermost shrine of\nthe secret place of the Most High. We hear from priestly lips, both\nRoman Catholic and Anglican, that there is 'no safety outside the\nChurch.' The saying is true when rightly understood. If by the Church be\nmeant the whole company of those who are trusting to Jesus Christ, of\ncourse there is no safety outside, because to trust in Jesus is the one\ncondition of safety, and unless we belong to those who so trust we shall\nnot possess the blessing. So understood, the phrase may pass, and is\nonly objectionable as a round-about and easily misunderstood way of\nsaying what is much better expressed by 'Whosoever shall call on the\nname of the Lord shall be saved.'\n\nBut that is not the meaning of the phrase in the mouths of those who use\nit most frequently. To them the Church is a visible corporation, and not\nonly so, but as one of the many organisations into which believers are\nmoulded, it is distinguished from the others by certain offices and\nrites, bishops, priests, and sacraments, through whom and which certain\ngrace is supposed to flow, no drop of which can reach a community\notherwise shaped and officered!\n\nNor is it only Roman Catholics and Anglicans who are in danger of\nexternalising personal Christianity into a connection with a church. The\ntendency has its roots deep in human nature, and may be found\nflourishing quite as rankly in the least sacerdotal of the 'sects' as in\nthe Vatican itself. There is very special need at present for those who\nunderstand that Christianity is an immensely deeper thing than\nconnection with any organised body of Christians, to speak out the truth\nthat is in them, and to protest against the vulgar and fleshly notion\nwhich is forcing itself into prominence in this day when societies of\nall sorts are gaining such undue power, and religion, like much else, is\nbeing smothered under forms, as was the maiden in the old story, under\nthe weight of her ornaments. External relationships and rites cannot\ndetermine spiritual conditions. It does not follow because you have\npassed through certain forms, and stand in visible connection with any\nvisible community, that you are therefore within the pale and safe.\nChurches are appointed by Christ. Men who believe and love naturally\ndraw together. The life of Christ is in them. Many spiritual blessings\nare received through believing association with His people. Illumination\nand stimulus, succour and sympathy pass from one to another, each in\nturn experiencing the blessedness of receiving, and the greater\nblessedness of giving. No wise man who has learned of Christ will\nundervalue the blessings which come through union with the outward body\nwhich is a consequence of union with the unseen Head. But men may be in\nthe Church and out of Christ. Not connection with it, but connection\nwith Him, brings us 'within.' 'Those that are without' may be either in\nor out of the pale of any church.\n\nWe may put the answer to this question in another form, and going deeper\nthan the idea of being within a visible church, we may say, 'those that\nare without' are they who are outside the Kingdom of Christ.\n\nThe Kingdom of Christ is not a visible external community. The Kingdom\nof Christ, or of God, or of Heaven, is found wherever human wills obey\nthe Law of Christ, which is the will of God, the decrees of Heaven; as\nChrist himself put it, in profound words--profound in all their\nsimplicity--when He said, 'Not every man that saith unto Me Lord! Lord!\nshall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of My\nFather, which is in Heaven.' 'Them that are without' are they whose\nwills are not bent in loving obedience to the Lord of their spirit.\n\nBut we must go deeper than that. In the Church? Yes! In the Kingdom?\nYes! But I venture to take another Scripture phrase as being the one\nsatisfactory fundamental answer to the question: What is it that these\npeople are outside of? and I say Christ, Christ. If you will take your\nNew Testament as your guide, you will find that the one question upon\nwhich all is suspended is the, Am I, or Am I not, in Jesus Christ? Am I\nin Him, or Am I outside of Him? And the answer to that question is the\nanswer to this other: Who are they that are without?\n\nThey that are outside are not the 'non-Christian world' who are not\nchurch members; they that are inside are not the 'Christian world' who\nmake an outward profession of being in the Kingdom. It is not going down\nto the foundation to explain the antithesis so; but 'those that are\nwithin' are those who have simple trust upon Jesus Christ as the sole\nand all-sufficient Saviour of their sinful spirits and the life of their\nlife, and having entered into that great love, have plunged themselves,\nas it were, into the very heart of Jesus; have found in Him\nrighteousness and peace, forgiveness and love, joy and salvation. Are\nyou in Christ because you love Him and trust your soul to Him? If not,\nif not, you are amongst those 'that are without,' though you be ever so\nmuch joined to the visible Church of the living God.\n\nAnd then there is one more remark that I must drop in here before I go\non, namely, that whilst I thankfully admit, and joyfully preach, that\nthe most imperfect, rudimentary faith knits a man to Jesus Christ, even\nif in this life it may be found covered over with a great deal that is\ncontradictory and inconsistent; on the other hand there are some people\nwho stand like the angel in the Apocalypse, with one foot on the solid\nland and one upon the restless sea, half in and half out, undecided,\nhalting--that is, 'limping'--between two opinions. Some people of that\nsort are listening to me now, who have been like that for years. Now I\nwant them to remember this plain piece of common-sense--half in is\naltogether out! So that is my answer to the first question: Who are they\nthat are outside, and what is it that they are outside of?\n\nI cannot carry round these principles and lay them upon the conscience\nof each hearer, but I pray you to listen to your own inmost voice\nspeaking, and I am mistaken if many will not hear it saying: 'Thou art\nthe man!' Do not stop your ears to that voice!\n\nII. Notice next the force of this phrase as implying the woeful\ncondition of those without.\n\nI have said that it is full of pathos. It is the language of a man whose\nheart yearns as, in the midst of his own security, he thinks of the\nhouseless wanderers in the dark and the storm. He thinks pityingly of\nwhat they lose, and of that to which they are exposed.\n\nThere are two or three ways in which I may illustrate that condition,\nbut perhaps the most graphic and impressive may be just to recall for a\nmoment three or four of the Scripture metaphors that fit into this\nrepresentation: 'Those that are without'; and thus to gain some\ndifferent pictures of what the inside and the outside means in these\nvarying figures.\n\nFirst, then, there is a figure drawn from the Old Testament which is\noften applied, and correctly applied, to this subject--Noah's Ark.\n\nThink of that safe abode floating across the waters, whilst all without\nit was a dreary waste. Without were death and despair, but those that\nwere within sat warm and dry and safe and fed and living. The men that\nwere without, high as they might climb upon rocks and hills, strong as\nthey might be--when the dreary rainstorm wept itself dry, 'they were all\ndead corpses.' To be in was life, to be out was death.\n\nThat is the first metaphor. Take another. That singular institution of\nthe old Mosaic system, in which the man who inadvertently, and therefore\nwithout any guilt or crime of his own, had been the cause of death to\nhis brother, had provided for him, half on one side Jordan and half on\nthe other, and dotted over the land, so that it should not be too far to\nrun to one of them, Cities of Refuge. And when the wild vendetta of\nthose days stirred up the next of kin to pursue at his heels, if he\ncould get inside the nearest of these he was secure. They that were\nwithin could stand at the city gates and look out upon the plain, and\nsee the pursuer with his hate glaring from his eyes, and almost feel his\nhot breath on their cheeks, and know that though but a yard from him,\nhis arm durst not touch them. To be inside was to be safe, to be outside\nwas certain bloody death.\n\nThat is the second figure; take a third; one which our Lord Himself has\ngiven us. Here is the picture--a palace, a table abundantly spread,\nlights and music, delight and banqueting, gladness and fulness, society\nand sustenance. The guests sit close and all partake. To be within means\nfood, shelter, warmth, festivity, society; to be without, like Lear on\nthe moor, is to stand the pelting of the storm, weary, stumbling in the\ndark, starving, solitary, and sad. Within is brightness and good cheer;\nwithout is darkness, hunger, death.\n\nThat is the third figure. Take a fourth, another of our Master's.\nPicture a little rude, stone-built enclosure with the rough walls piled\nhigh, and a narrow aperture at one point, big enough for one creature to\npass through at a time. Within, huddled together, are the innocent\nsheep; without, the lion and the bear. Above, the vault of night with\nall its stars, and watching all, the shepherd, with unslumbering eye. In\nthe fold is rest for the weary limbs that have been plodding through\nvalleys of the shadow of death, and dusty ways; peace for the panting\nhearts that are trembling at every danger, real and imaginary. Inside\nthe fold is tranquillity, repose for the wearied frame, safety, and the\ncompanionship of the Shepherd; and without, ravening foes and a dreary\nwilderness, and flinty paths and sparse herbage and muddy pools. Inside\nis life; without is death. That is the fourth figure.\n\nIn the Ark no Deluge can touch; in the City of Refuge no avenger can\nsmite; in the banqueting-hall no thirst nor hunger but can be satisfied;\nin the fold no enemy can come and no terror can live.\n\nBrethren! are you amongst 'them that are without,' or are you within?\n\nIII. Lastly--why is anybody outside? Why? It is no one's fault but their\nown. It is not God's. He can appeal with clean hands and ask us to judge\nwhat more could have been done for His vineyard that He has not done for\nit. The great parable which represents Him as sending out His summons to\nthe feast in His palace puts the wonderful words in the mouth of the\nmaster of the house, after his call by his servants had been refused.\n'Go out into the highways and hedges,' beneath which the beggars squat,\n'and compel them to come in, that my house may be full.' 'Nature abhors\na vacuum,' the old natural philosophers used to say. So does grace; so\ndoes God's love. It hates to have His house empty and His provisions\nunconsumed. And so He has done all that He could do to bring you and me\ninside. He has sent His Son, He beckons us, He draws us by countless\nmercies day by day. He appeals to our hearts, and would have us gathered\ninto the fold. And if we are outside it is not because He has neglected\nto do anything which He can do in order to bring us in.\n\nBut why is it that any of us resist such drawing, and make the wretched\nchoice of perishing without, rather than find safety within? The deepest\nreason is an alienated heart, a rebellious will. But the reason for\nalienation and rebellion lie among the inscrutable mysteries of our\nawful being. All sin is irrational. The fact is plain, the temptations\nare obvious; excuses there are in plenty, but reasons there are none.\nStill we may touch for a moment on some of the causes which operate with\nmany hearers of God's merciful call to enter in, and keep them without.\n\nMany remain outside because they do not really believe in the danger. No\ndoubt there was a great deal of brilliant sarcasm launched at Noah for\nhis folly in thinking that there was anything coming that needed an ark.\nIt seemed, no doubt, food for much laughter, and altogether impossible\nto think of gravely, that this flood which he talked about should ever\ncome. So they had their laughter out as they saw him working away at his\nludicrous task 'until the day when the flood came and swept them all\naway,' and the laughter ended in gurgling sobs of despair.\n\nIf a manslayer does not believe that the next of kin is on his track, he\nwill not flee to the City of Refuge. If the sheep has no fear of wolves,\nit will choose to be outside the fold among the succulent herbage. Did\nyou ever see how, in a Welsh slate-quarry, before a blast, a horn is\nblown, and at its sound all along the face of the quarry the miners run\nto their shelters, where they stay until the explosion is over? What do\nyou suppose would become of one of them who stood there after the horn\nhad blown, and said: 'Nonsense! There is nothing coming! I will take my\nchance where I am!' Very likely a bit of slate would end him before he\nhad finished his speech. At any rate, do not you, dear friend, trifle\nwith the warning that says: 'Flee for refuge to Christ and shelter\nyourself in Him.'\n\nThere are some people, too, who stop outside because they do not much\ncare for the entertainment that they will get within. It does not strike\nthem as being very desirable. They have no appetite for it. We preachers\nseek to draw hearts to Jesus by many motives--and among others by\nsetting forth the blessings which he bestows. But if a man does not care\nabout pardon, does not fear judgment, does not want to be good, has no\ntaste for righteousness, is not attracted by the pure and calm pleasures\nwhich Christ offers, the invitation falls flat upon his ear. Wisdom\ncries aloud and invites the sons of men to her feast, but the fare she\nprovides is not coarse and high spiced enough, and her table is left\nunfilled, while the crowd runs to the strong-flavoured meats and foaming\ndrinks which her rival, Folly, offers. Many of us say, like the\nIsraelites 'Our souls loathe this light bread,' this manna, white and\nsweet, and Heaven-descended, and angels' food though it be, and we\nhanker after the reeking garlic and leeks and onions of Egypt.\n\nSome of us again, would like well enough to be inside, if that would\nkeep us from dangers which we believe to be real, but we do not like the\ndoorway. You may see in some remote parts of the country strange,\nhalf-subterranean structures which are supposed to have been the houses\nof a vanished race. They have a long, narrow, low passage, through which\na man has to creep with his face very near the ground. He has to go low\nand take to his knees to get through; and at the end the passage opens\nout into ampler, loftier space, where the dwellers could sit safe from\nwild weather and wilder beasts and wildest men. That is like the way\ninto the fortress home which we have in Jesus Christ. We must stoop very\nlow to enter there. And some of us do not like that. We do not like to\nfall on our knees and say, I am a sinful man, O Lord. We do not like to\nbow ourselves in penitence. And the passage is narrow as well as low. It\nis broad enough for you, but not for what some of you would fain carry\nin on your back. The pack which you bear, of earthly vanities and loves,\nand sinful habits, will be brushed off your shoulders in that narrow\nentrance, like the hay off a cart in a country lane bordered by high\nhedges. And some of us do not like that. So, because the way is narrow,\nand we have to stoop, our pride kicks at the idea of having to confess\nourselves sinners, and of having to owe all our hope and salvation to\nGod's undeserved mercy, therefore we stay outside. And because the way\nis narrow, and we have to put off some of our treasures, our\nearthward-looking desires shrink from laying these aside, and therefore\nwe stop outside. There was room in the boat for the last man who stood\non the deck, but he could not make up his mind to leave a bag of gold.\nThere was no room for that. Therefore he would not leap, and went down\nwith the ship.\n\nThe door is open. The Master calls. The feast is spread. Dangers\nthreaten. The flood comes. The avenger of blood makes haste. 'Why\nstandest thou without?' Enter in, before the door is shut. And if you\nask, How shall I pass within?--the answer is plain: 'They could not\nenter in because of unbelief. We which have believed do enter into\nrest.'\n\n\n\n\nI. THESSALONIANS\n\n\n\n\nFAITH, LOVE, HOPE, AND THEIR FRUITS\n\n 'Your work of faith, and labour of love, and\n patience of hope.'--1 THESS. i. 3.\n\n\nThis Epistle, as I suppose we all know, is Paul's first letter. He had\nbeen hunted out of Thessalonica by the mob, made the best of his way to\nAthens, stayed there for a very short time, then betook himself to\nCorinth, and at some point of his somewhat protracted residence there,\nthis letter was written. So that we have in it his first attempt, so far\nas we know, to preach the Gospel by the pen. It is interesting to notice\nhow, whatever changes and developments there may have been in him\nthereafter, all the substantial elements of his latest faith beam out in\nthis earliest letter, and how even in regard to trifles we see the germs\nof much that came afterwards. This same triad, you remember, 'faith,\nhope, charity,' recurs in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, though\nwith a very significant difference in the order, which I shall have to\ndwell upon presently.\n\nThe letter is interesting on another account. Remembering that it was\nonly a very short time since these Thessalonians had turned from idols\nto serve the living God, there is something very beautiful in the\noverflowing generosity of commendation, which never goes beyond\nveracity, with which he salutes them. Their Christian character, like\nseeds sown in some favoured tropical land, had sprung up swiftly; yet\nnot with the dangerous kind of swiftness which presages decay of the\ngrowth. It was only a few days since they had been grovelling before\nidols, but now he can speak of 'your work of faith, and labour of love,\nand patience of hope' . . . and declare that the Gospel 'sounded out' from\nthem--the word which he employs is that which is technically used for\nthe blast of a trumpet--'so that we need not to speak anything.' Rapid\ngrowth is possible for us all, and is not always superficial.\n\nI desire now to consider that pair of triads--the three\nfoundation-stones, and the three views of the fair building that is\nreared upon them.\n\nI. The three foundation-stones.\n\nThat is a natural metaphor to use, but it is not quite correct, for\nthese three--faith, love, hope--are not to be conceived of as lying side\nby side. Rather than three foundations we have three courses of the\nbuilding here; the lowest one, faith; the next one, love; and the top\none, hope. The order in 1 Corinthians is different, 'faith, hope,\ncharity,' and the alteration in the sequence is suggested by the\ndifference of purpose. The Apostle intended in 1 Corinthians to dwell at\nsome length thereafter on 'charity,' or 'love.' So he puts it last to\nmake the link of connection with what he is going to say. But here he is\ndealing with the order of production, the natural order in which these\nthree evolve themselves. And his thought is that they are like the\nshoots that successive springs bring upon the bough of a tree, where\neach year has its own growth, and the summit of last year's becomes the\nbasis of next. Thus we have, first, faith; then, shooting from that,\nlove; and then, sustained by both, hope. Now let us look at that order.\n\nIt is a well-worn commonplace, which you may think it not needful for me\nto dwell upon here, that in the Christian theory, both of salvation and\nof morals, the basis of everything is trust. And that is no arbitrary\ntheological arrangement, but it is the only means by which the life that\nis the basis both of salvation and of righteousness can be implanted in\nmen. There is no other way by which Jesus Christ can come into our\nhearts than by what the New Testament calls 'trust,' which we have\nturned into the hard, theological concept which too often glides over\npeople's minds without leaving any dint at all--'faith.' Distrust is\nunited with trust. There is no trust without, complementary to it,\nself-distrust. Just as the sprouting seed sends one little radicle\ndownwards, and that becomes the root, and at the same time sends up\nanother one, white till it reaches the light, and it becomes the stem,\nso the underside of faith is self-distrust, and you must empty\nyourselves before you can open your hearts to be filled by Jesus. That\nbeing so, this self-distrustful trust is the beginning of everything.\nThat is the _alpha_ of the whole alphabet, however glorious and manifold\nmay be the words into which its letters are afterwards combined. Faith\nis the hand that grasps. It is the means of communication, it is the\nchannel through which the grace which is the life, or, rather, I should\nsay, the life which is the grace, comes to us. It is the open door by\nwhich the angel of God comes in with his gifts. It is like the petals of\nthe flowers, opening when the sunshine kisses them, and, by opening,\nlaying bare the depths of their calyxes to be illuminated and coloured,\nand made to grow by the sunshine which itself has opened them, and\nwithout the presence of which, within the cup, there would have been\nneither life nor beauty. So faith is the basis of everything; the first\nshoot from which all the others ascend. Brethren, have you that initial\ngrace? I leave the question with you. If you have not that, you have\nnothing else.\n\nThen again, out of faith rises love. No man can love God unless he\nbelieves that God loves him. I, for my part, am old-fashioned and narrow\nenough not to believe that there is any deep, soul-cleansing or\nsoul-satisfying love of God which is not the answer to the love that\ndied on the Cross. But you must believe that, and more than believe it;\nyou must have trusted and cast yourselves on it, in the utter\nabandonment of self-distrust and Christ-confidence, before there will\nwell up in your heart the answering love to God. First faith, then love.\nMy love is the reverberation of the primeval voice, the echo of God's.\nThe angle at which the light falls on the mirror is the same as the\nangle at which it is reflected from it. And though my love at its\nhighest is low, at its strongest is weak: yet, like the echo that is\nfaint and far, feeble though it be, it is pitched on the same key, and\nis the prolongation of the same note as the mother-sound. So my love\nanswers God's love, and it will never answer it unless faith has brought\nme within the auditorium, the circle wherein the voice that proclaims 'I\nlove thee, my child,' can be heard.\n\nNow, we do not need to ask ourselves whether Paul is here speaking of\nlove to God or love to man. He is speaking of both, because the New\nTestament deals with the latter as being a part of the former, and sure\nto accompany it. But there is one lesson that I wish to draw. If it be\ntrue that love in us is thus the result of faith in the love of God, let\nus learn how we grow in love. You cannot say, 'Now I will make an effort\nto love.' The circulation of the blood, the pulsations of the heart, are\nnot within the power of the will. But you can say, 'Now I will make an\neffort to trust.' For faith is in the power of the will, and when the\nMaster said, 'Ye will not come unto me,' He taught us that unbelief is\nnot a mere intellectual deficiency or perversity, but that it is the\nresult, in the majority of cases--I might almost say in all-of an\nalienated will. Therefore, if you wish to love, do not try to work\nyourself into a hysteria of affection, but take into your hearts and\nminds the Christian facts, and mainly the fact of the Cross, which will\nset free the frozen and imprisoned fountains of your affections, and\ncause them to flow out abundantly in sweet water. First faith, then\nlove; and get at love through faith. That is a piece of practical wisdom\nthat it will do us all good to keep in mind.\n\nThen the third of the three, the topmost shoot, is hope. Hope is faith\ndirected to the future. So it is clear enough that, unless I have that\ntrust of which I have been speaking, I have none of the hope which the\nApostle regards as flowing from it. But love has to do with hope quite\nas much, though in a different way, as faith has to do with it. For in\nthe direct proportion in which we are taking into our hearts Christ and\nHis truth, and letting our hearts go out in love towards Him and\ncommunion with Him, will the glories beyond brighten and consolidate and\nmagnify themselves in our eyes. The hope of the Christian man is but the\ninference from his present faith, and the joy and sweetness of his\npresent love. For surely when we rise to the heights which are possible\nto us all, and on which I suppose most Christian people have been\nsometimes, though for far too brief seasons; when we rise to the heights\nof communion with God, anything seems more possible to us than that\ndeath, or anything that lies in the future, should have power over a tie\nso sweet, so strong, so independent of externals, and so all-sufficing\nin its sweetness. Thus we shall be sure that God is our portion for\never, in the precise degree in which, by faith and love, we feel that\n'He is the strength of our hearts,' to-day and now. So, then, we have\nthe three foundation-stones.\n\nAnd now a word or two, in the second place, about\n\nII. The fair building which rises on them.\n\nI have already half apologised for using the metaphor of a foundation\nand a building. I must repeat the confession that the symbol is an\ninadequate one. For the Apostle does not conceive of the work and labour\nand patience which are respectively allocated to these three graces as\nbeing superimposed upon them, as it were, by effort, so much as he\nthinks of them as growing out of them by their inherent nature. The work\nis 'the work of faith,' that which characterises faith, that which\nissues from it, that which is its garment, visible to the world, and the\ntoken of its reality and its presence. Faith works. It is the foundation\nof all true work; even in the lowest sense of the word we might almost\nsay that. But in the Christian scheme it is eminently the underlying\nrequisite for all work which God does not consider as busy idleness. I\nmight here make a general remark, which, however, I need not dwell upon,\nthat we have here the broad thought which Christian people in all\ngenerations need to have drummed into their heads over and over again,\nand that is that inward experiences and emotions, and states of mind and\nheart, however good and precious, are so mainly as being the necessary\nfoundations of conduct. What is the good of praying and feeling\ncomfortable within, and having 'a blessed assurance,' a 'happy\nexperience,' 'sweet communion,' and so on? What is the good of it all,\nif these things do not make us 'live soberly, righteously, and godly in\nthis present world'? What is the good of the sails of a windmill going\nwhirling round, if the machinery has been thrown out of gear, and the\ngreat stones which it ought to actuate are not revolving? What is the\ngood of the screw of a steamer revolving, when she pitches, clean above\nthe waves? It does nothing then to drive the vessel onwards, but will\nonly damage the machinery. And Christian emotions and experiences which\ndo not drive conduct are of as little use, often as perilous, and as\ninjurious. If you want to keep your 'faith, love, hope,' sound and\nbeneficial, set them to work. And do not be too sure that you have them,\nif they do not crave for work, whether you set them to it or not.\n\n'Your work of faith.' There is the whole of the thorny subject of the\nrelation of faith and works packed into a nutshell. It is exactly what\nJames said and it is exactly what a better than James said. When the\nJews came to Him with their externalism, and thought that God was to be\npleased by a whole rabble of separate good actions, and so said, 'What\nshall we do that we might work the works of God?' Jesus said, 'Never\nmind about _works_. This is _the work_ of God, that ye believe on Him\nwhom He hath sent,' and out of that will come all the rest. That is the\nmother-tincture; everything will flow from that. So Paul says, 'Your\nwork of faith.'\n\nDoes your faith work? Perhaps I should ask other people rather than you.\nDo men see that your faith works; that its output is different from the\noutput of men who are not possessors of a 'like precious faith'? Ask\nyourselves the question, and God help you to answer it.\n\nLove labours. Labour is more than work, for it includes the notion of\ntoil, fatigue, difficulty, persistence, antagonism. Ah! the work of\nfaith will never be done unless it is the toil of love. You remember how\nMilton talks about the immortal garland that is to be run for, 'not\nwithout dust and sweat.' The Christian life is not a leisurely\npromenade. The limit of our duty is not ease of work. There must be\ntoil. And love is the only principle that will carry us through the\nfatigues, and the difficulties, and the oppositions which rise against\nus from ourselves and from without. Love delights to have a hard task\nset it by the beloved, and the harder the task the more poignant the\nsatisfaction. Loss is gain when it brings us nearer the beloved. And\nwhether our love be love to God, or its consequence, love to man, it is\nthe only foundation on which toil for either God or man will ever\npermanently be rested. Do not believe in philanthropy which has not a\nbottom of faith, and do not believe in work for Christ which does not\ninvolve in toil. And be sure that you will do neither, unless you have\nboth these things: the faith and the love.\n\nAnd then comes the last. Faith works, love toils, hope is patient. Is\nthat all that 'hope' is? Not if you take the word in the narrow meaning\nwhich it has in modern English; but that was not what Paul meant. He\nmeant something a great deal more than passive endurance, great as that\nis. It is something to be able to say, in the pelting of a pitiless\nstorm, 'Pour on! I will endure.' But it is a great deal more to be able,\nin spite of all, not to bate one jot of heart or hope, but 'still bear\nup and steer right onward'; and that is involved in the true meaning of\nthe word inadequately rendered 'patience' in the New Testament. For it\nis no passive virtue only, but it is a virtue which, in the face of the\nstorm, holds its course; brave persistence, active perseverance, as well\nas meek endurance and submission.\n\n'Hope' helps us both to bear and to do. They tell us nowadays that it is\nselfish for a Christian man to animate himself, either for endurance or\nfor activity, by the contemplation of those great glories that lie\nyonder. If that is selfishness, God grant we may all become a great deal\nmore selfish than we are! No man labours in the Christian life, or\nsubmits to Christian difficulty, for the sake of going to heaven. At\nleast, if he does, he has got on the wrong tack altogether. But if the\nmotive for both endurance and activity be faith and love, then hope has\na perfect right to come in as a subsidiary motive, and to give strength\nto the faith and rapture to the love. We cannot afford to throw away\nthat hope, as so many of us do--not perhaps, intellectually, though I am\nafraid there is a very considerable dimming of the clearness, and a\nnarrowing of the place in our thoughts, of the hope of a future\nblessedness, in the average Christian of this day--but practically we\nare all apt to lose sight of the recompense of the reward. And if we do,\nthe faith and love, and the work and toil, and the patience will suffer.\nFaith will relax its grasp, love will cool down its fervour; and there\nwill come a film over Hope's blue eye, and she will not see the land\nthat is very far off. So, dear brethren, remember the sequence, 'faith,\nlove, hope,' and remember the issues, 'work, toil, patience.'\n\n\n\n\nGOD'S TRUMPET\n\n 'From you sounded out the word of God.'--1 THESS.\n i. 8.\n\n\nThis is Paul's first letter. It was written very shortly after his first\npreaching of the Gospel in the great commercial city of Thessalonica.\nBut though the period since the formation of the Thessalonian Church was\nso brief, their conversion had already become a matter of common\nnotoriety; and the consistency of their lives, and the marvellous change\nthat had taken place upon them, made them conspicuous in the midst of\nthe corrupt heathen community in which they dwelt. And so says Paul, in\nthe text, by reason of their work of faith and labour of love and\npatience of hope, they had become ensamples to all that believe, and\nloud proclaimers and witnesses of the Gospel which had produced this\nchange.\n\nThe Apostle employs a word never used anywhere else in the New Testament\nto describe the conspicuous and widespread nature of this testimony of\ntheirs. He says, 'The word of the Lord _sounded out_' from them. That\nphrase is one most naturally employed to describe the blast of a\ntrumpet. So clear and ringing, so loud, penetrating, melodious, rousing,\nand full was their proclamation, by the silent eloquence of their lives,\nof the Gospel which impelled and enabled them to lead such lives. A\ngrand ideal of a community of believers! If our churches to-day were\nnearer its realisation there would be less unbelief, and more attraction\nof wandering prodigals to the Father's house. Would that this saying\nwere true of every body of professing believers! Would that from each\nthere sounded out one clear accordant witness to Christ, in the purity\nand unworldliness of their Christlike lives!\n\nI. This metaphor suggests the great purpose of the Church.\n\nIt is God's trumpet, His means of making His voice heard through all the\nuproar of the world. As the captain upon the deck in the gale will use\nhis speaking-trumpet, so God's voice needs your voice. The Gospel needs\nto be passed through human lips in order that it may reach deaf ears.\nThe purpose for which we have been apprehended of Christ is not merely\nour own personal salvation, whether we understand that in a narrow and\nmore outward, or in a broader and more spiritual sense. No man is an end\nin himself, but every man, though he be partially and temporarily an\nend, is also a means. And just as, according to the other metaphor, the\nKingdom of Heaven is like leaven, each particle of the dead dough, as\nsoon as it is leavened and vitalised, becoming the medium for\ntransmitting the strange, transforming, and living influence to the\nparticle beyond, so all of us, if we are Christian people, have received\nthat grace into our hearts, for our own sakes indeed, but also that\nthrough us might be manifested to the darkened eyes beyond, and through\nus might drop persuasively on the dull, cold ears that are further away\nfrom the Divine Voice, the great message of God's mercy. The Church is\nGod's trumpet, and the purpose that He has in view in setting it in the\nworld is to make all men know the fellowship of the mystery, and that\nthrough it there may ring out, as by some artificial means a poor human\nvoice will be flung to a greater distance than it would otherwise reach,\nthe gentle entreaties, and the glorious proclamation, and the solemn\nthreatenings of the Word, the Incarnate as well as the written Word, of\nGod.\n\nOf course all this is true, not only about communities, but it is true\nof a community, just because it is true of each individual member of it.\nThe Church is worse than as 'sounding brass,' it is as _silent_ brass\nand an _untinkling_ cymbal, unless the individuals that belong to it\nrecognise God's meaning in making them His children, and do their best\nto fulfil it. 'Ye are my witnesses,' saith the Lord. You are put into\nthe witness-box; see that you speak out when you are there.\n\nII. Another point that this figure may suggest is, the _sort_ of sound\nthat should come from the trumpet.\n\nA trumpet note is, first of all, clear. There should be no hesitation in\nour witness; nothing uncertain in the sound that we give. There are\nplenty of so-called Christian people whose lives, if they bear any\nwitness for the Master at all, are like the notes that some bungling\nlearner will bring out of a musical instrument: hesitating, uncertain,\nso that you do not know exactly what note he wants to produce. How many\nof us, calling ourselves Christian people, testify on both sides;\nsometimes bearing witness for Christ; and alas! alas! oftener bearing\nwitness against Him. Will the trumpet, the instrument of clear, ringing,\nunmistakable sounds, be the emblem of your Christian testimony? Would\nnot some poor scrannel-pipe, ill-blown, be nearer the mark? The note\nshould be clear.\n\nThe note should be penetrating. There is no instrument, I suppose, that\ncarries further than the ringing clarion that is often heard on the\nfield of battle, above all the strife; and this little church at\nThessalonica, a mere handful of people, just converted, in the very\ncentre of a strong, compact, organised, self-confident, supercilious\nheathenism, insisted upon being heard, and got itself made audible,\nsimply by the purity and the consistency of the lives of its members. So\nthat Paul, a few weeks, or at most a few months, after the formation of\nthe church, could say, 'From you sounded out the word of the Lord, not\nonly in Macedonia and Achaia,' your own province and the one next door\nto it, 'but also in every place your faith to Godward is spread abroad.'\nNo man knows how far his influence will go. No man can tell how far his\nexample may penetrate. Thessalonica was a great commercial city. So is\nManchester. Hosts of people of all sorts came into it as they come here.\nThere were many different circles which would be intersected by the\nlives of this Christian church, and wherever its units went they carried\nalong with them the conviction that they had turned from idols to serve\nthe living God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.\n\nAnd so, dear brethren, if our witness is to be worth anything it must\nhave this penetrating quality. There is a difference in sounds as there\nis a difference in instruments. Some of them carry further than others.\nA clear voice will fling words to a distance that a thick, mumbling one\nnever can attain. One note will travel much further than another. Do you\nsee to it that your notes are of the penetrating sort.\n\nAnd then, again, the note should be a musical one. There is nothing to\nbe done for God by harshness; nothing to be done by discords and\ngangling; nothing to be done by scolding and rebuke. The ordered\nsequence of melodious sound will travel a great deal further than\nunmusical, plain speech. You can hear a song at a distance at which a\nsaying would be inaudible. Which thing is an allegory, and this is its\nlesson,--Music goes further than discord; and the witness that a\nChristian man bears will travel in direct proportion as it is\nharmonious, and gracious and gentle and beautiful.\n\nAnd then, again, the note should be rousing. You do not play on a\ntrumpet when you want to send people to sleep; dulcimers and the like\nare the things for that purpose. The trumpet means strung-up intensity,\nmeans a call to arms, or to rejoicing; means at any rate, vigour, and is\nintended to rouse. Let your witness have, for its utmost signification,\n'Awake! thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead; and Christ shall\ngive thee light.'\n\nIII. Then, still further, take another thought that may be suggested\nfrom this metaphor, the silence of the loudest note.\n\nIf you look at the context, you will see that all the ways in which the\nword of the Lord is represented as sounding out from the Thessalonian\nChurch were deeds, not words. The context supplies a number of them.\nSuch as the following are specified in it: their work; their toil, which\nis more than work; their patience; their assurance; their reception of\nthe word, in much affliction with joy in the Holy Ghost; their faith to\nGodward; their turning to God from idols, to serve and to wait.\n\nThat is all. So far as the context goes there might not have been a man\namongst them who ever opened his mouth for Jesus Christ. We know not, of\ncourse, how far they were a congregation of silent witnesses, but this\nwe know, that what Paul meant when he said, 'The whole world is ringing\nwith the voice of the word of God sounding from you,' was not their\ngoing up and down the world shouting about their Christianity, but their\nquiet living like Jesus Christ. That is a louder voice than any other.\n\nAh! dear friends! it is with God's Church as it is with God's heavens;\nthe 'stars in Christ's right hand' sparkle in the same fashion as the\nstars that He has set in the firmament. Of them we read: 'There is\nneither voice nor language, their speech is not heard'; and yet, as man\nstands with bared head and hushed heart beneath the violet abysses of\nthe heavens, 'their line' (or chord, the metaphor being that of a\nstringed instrument) 'is gone out through all the earth, and their words\nto the end of the world.' Silent as they shine, they declare the glory\nof God, and proclaim His handiwork. And so you may speak of Him without\nspeaking, and though you have no gift of tongues the night may be filled\nwith music, and your lives be eloquent of Christ.\n\nI do not mean to say that Christian men and women are at liberty to lock\ntheir lips from verbal proclamation of the Saviour they have found, but\nI do mean to say that if there was less talk and more living, the\nwitness of God's Church would be louder and not lower; 'and men would\ntake knowledge of us, that we had been with Jesus'; and of Jesus, that\nHe had made us like Himself.\n\nIV. And so, lastly, let me draw one other thought from this metaphor,\nwhich I hope you will not think fanciful playing with a figure; and that\nis the breath that makes the music.\n\nIf the Church is the trumpet, who blows it? God! It is by His Divine\nSpirit dwelling within us, and breathing through us, that the harsh\ndiscords of our natural lives become changed into melody of praise and\nthe music of witness for Him. Keep near Christ, live in communion with\nGod, let Him breathe through you, and when His Spirit passes through\nyour spirits their silence will become harmonious speech; and from you\n'will sound out the word of the Lord.'\n\nIn a tropical country, when the sun goes behind a cloud, all the insect\nlife that was cheerily chirping is hushed. In the Christian life, when\nthe Son of Righteousness is obscured by the clouds born of our own\ncarelessness and sin, all the music in our spirit ceases, and no more\ncan we witness for Him. A scentless substance lying in a drawer, with a\nbit of musk, will become perfumed by contact, and will bring the\nfragrance wherever it is carried. Live near God, and let Him speak to\nyou and in you; and then He will speak through you. And if He be the\nbreath of your spiritual lives, and the soul of your souls, then, and\nonly then, will your lives be music, the music witness, and the witness\nconviction. And only then will there be fulfilled what I pray there may\nbe more and more fulfilled in us as a Christian community, this great\nword of our text, 'from you sounded out,' clear, rousing, penetrating,\nmelodious, 'the word of the Lord,' so that we, with our poor preaching,\nneed not to speak anything.\n\n\n\n\nWALKING WORTHILY\n\n 'Walk worthy of God.'--1 THESS. ii. 12.\n\n\nHere we have the whole law of Christian conduct in a nutshell. There may\nbe many detailed commandments, but they can all be deduced from this\none. We are lifted up above the region of petty prescriptions, and\nbreathe a bracing mountain air. Instead of regulations, very many and\nvery dry, we have a principle which needs thought and sympathy in order\nto apply it, and is to be carried out by the free action of our own\njudgments.\n\nNow it is to be noticed that there are a good many other passages in the\nNew Testament in which, in similar fashion, the whole sum of Christian\nconduct is reduced to a 'walking worthy' of some certain thing or other,\nand I have thought that it might aid in appreciating the many-sidedness\nand all-sufficiency of the great principles into which Christianity\ncrystallises the law of our life, if we just gather these together and\nset them before you consecutively.\n\nThey are these: we are told in our text to 'walk worthy of God.' Then\nagain, we are enjoined, in other places, to 'walk worthy of the Lord,'\nwho is Christ. Or again, 'of the Gospel of Christ.' Or again, 'of the\ncalling wherewith we were called.' Or again, of the name of 'saints.'\nAnd if you put all these together, you will get many sides of one\nthought, the rule of Christian life as gathered into a single\nexpression--correspondence with, and conformity to, a certain standard.\n\nI. And first of all, we have this passage of my text, and the other one\nto which I have referred, 'Walking worthy of the Lord,' by whom we are\nto understand Christ. We may put these together and say that the whole\nsum of Christian duty lies in conformity to the character of a Divine\nPerson with whom we have loving relations.\n\nThe Old Testament says: 'Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.'\nThe New Testament says: 'Be ye imitators of God, and walk in love.' So\nthen, whatever of flashing brightness and infinite profundity in that\ndivine nature is far beyond our apprehension and grasp, there are in\nthat divine nature elements--and those the best and divinest in\nit--which it is perfectly within the power of every man to copy.\n\nIs there anything in God that is more Godlike than righteousness and\nlove? And is there any difference in essence between a man's\nrighteousness and God's;--between a man's love and God's? The same gases\nmake combustion in the sun and on the earth, and the spectroscope tells\nyou that it is so. The same radiant brightness that flames burning in\nthe love, and flashes white in the purity of God, even that may be\nreproduced in man.\n\nLove is one thing, all the universe over. Other elements of the bond\nthat unites us to God are rather correspondent in us to what we find in\nHim. Our concavity, so to speak, answers to His convexity; our\nhollowness to His fulness; our emptiness to His all-sufficiency. So our\nfaith, for instance, lays hold upon His faithfulness, and our obedience\ngrasps, and bows before, His commanding will. But the love with which I\nlay hold of Him is like the love with which He lays hold on me; and\nrighteousness and purity, howsoever different may be their\naccompaniments in an Infinite and uncreated Nature from what they have\nin our limited and bounded and progressive being, in essence are one.\nSo, 'Be ye holy, for I am holy'; 'Walk in the light as He is in the\nlight,' is the law available for all conduct; and the highest divine\nperfections, if I may speak of pre-eminence among them, are the imitable\nones, whereby He becomes our Example and our Pattern.\n\nLet no man say that such an injunction is vague or hopeless. You must\nhave a perfect ideal if you are to live at all by an ideal. There cannot\nbe any flaws in your pattern if the pattern is to be of any use. You aim\nat the stars, and if you do not hit them you may progressively approach\nthem. We need absolute perfection to strain after, and one day--blessed\nbe His name--we shall attain it. Try to walk worthy of God and you will\nfind out how tight that precept grips, and how close it fits.\n\nThe love and the righteousness which are to become the law of our lives,\nare revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Whatever may sound impracticable in\nthe injunction to imitate God assumes a more homely and possible shape\nwhen it becomes an injunction to follow Jesus. And just as that form of\nthe precept tends to make the law of conformity to the divine nature\nmore blessed and less hopelessly above us, so it makes the law of\nconformity to the ideal of goodness less cold and unsympathetic. It\nmakes all the difference to our joyfulness and freedom whether we are\ntrying to obey a law of duty, seen only too clearly to be binding, but\nalso above our reach, or whether we have the law in a living Person whom\nwe have learned to love. In the one case there stands upon a pedestal\nabove us a cold perfection, white, complete, marble; in the other case\nthere stands beside us a living law in pattern, a Brother, bone of our\nbone and flesh of our flesh; whose hand we can grasp; whose heart we can\ntrust, and of whose help we can be sure. To say to me: 'Follow the ideal\nof perfect righteousness,' is to relegate me to a dreary, endless\nstruggling; to say to me, 'Follow your Brother, and be like your\nFather,' is to bring warmth and hope and liberty into all my effort.\nThe word that says, 'Walk worthy of God,' is a royal law, the perfect\nlaw of perfect freedom.\n\nAgain, when we say, 'Walk worthy of God,' we mean two things--one, 'Do\nafter His example,' and the other, 'Render back to Him what He deserves\nfor what He has done to you.' And so this law bids us measure, by the\nside of that great love that died on the Cross for us all, our poor\nimperfect returns of gratitude and of service. He has lavished all His\ntreasure on you; what have you brought him back? He has given you the\nwhole wealth of His tender pity, of His forgiving mercy, of His infinite\ngoodness. Do you adequately repay such lavish love? Has He not 'sown\nmuch and reaped little' in all our hearts? Has He not poured out the\nfulness of His affection, and have we not answered Him with a few\ngrudging drops squeezed from our hearts? Oh! brethren! 'Walk worthy of\nthe Lord,' and neither dishonour Him by your conduct as professing\nchildren of His, nor affront Him by the wretched refuse and remnants of\nyour devotion and service that you bring back to Him in response to His\nlove to you.\n\nII. Now a word about the next form of this all-embracing precept. The\nwhole law of our Christian life may be gathered up in another\ncorrespondence, 'Walk worthy of the Gospel' (Phil. i. 27), in a manner\nconformed to that great message of God's love to us.\n\nThat covers substantially the same ground as we have already been going\nover, but it presents the same ideas in a different light. It presents\nthe Gospel as a rule of conduct. Now people have always been apt to\nthink of it more as a message of deliverance than as a practical guide,\nas we all need to make an effort to prevent our natural indolence and\nselfishness from making us forget that the Gospel is quite as much a\nrule of conduct as a message of pardon.\n\nIt is both by the same act. In the very facts on which our redemption\ndepends lies the law of our lives.\n\nWhat was Paul's Gospel? According to Paul's own definition of it, it was\nthis: 'How that Jesus Christ died for our sins, according to the\nScriptures.' And the message that I desire now to bring to all you\nprofessing Christians is this: Do not always be looking at Christ's\nCross only as your means of acceptance. Do not only be thinking of\nChrist's Passion as that which has barred for you the gates of\npunishment, and has opened for you the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven.\nIt has done all that; but if you are going to stop there you have only\ngot hold of a very maimed and imperfect edition of the Gospel. The Cross\nis your _pattern_, as well as the anchor of your hope and the ground of\nyour salvation, if it is anything at all to you. And it is not the\nground of your salvation and the anchor of your hope unless it is your\npattern. It is the one in exactly the same degree in which it is the\nother.\n\nSo all self-pleasing, all harsh insistence on your own claims, all\nneglect of suffering and sorrow and sin around you, comes under the lash\nof this condemnation: 'They are not worthy of the Gospel.' And all\nunforgivingness of spirit and of temper in individuals and in nations,\nin public and in private matters, that, too, is in flagrant\ncontradiction to the principles that are taught on the Cross to which\nyou say you look for your salvation. Have you got forgiveness, and are\nyou going out from the presence-chamber of the King to take your brother\nby the throat for the beggarly coppers that he owes you, and say: 'Pay\nme what thou owest!' when the Master has forgiven you all that great\nmountain of indebtedness which you owe Him? Oh, my brother! if Christian\nmen and women would only learn to take away the scales from their eyes\nand souls; not looking at Christ's Cross with less absolute\ntrustfulness, as that by which all their salvation comes, but also\nlearning to look at it as closely and habitually as yielding the pattern\nto which their lives should be conformed, and would let the\nheart-melting thankfulness which it evokes when gazed at as the ground\nof our hope prove itself true by its leading them to an effort at\nimitating that great love, and so walking worthy of the Gospel, how\ntheir lives would be transformed! It is far easier to fetter your life\nwith yards of red-tape prescriptions--do this, do not do that--far\neasier to out-pharisee the Pharisees in punctilious scrupulosities, than\nit is honestly, and for one hour, to take the Cross of Christ as the\npattern of your lives, and to shape yourselves by that.\n\nOne looks round upon a lethargic, a luxurious, a self-indulgent, a\nself-seeking, a world-besotted professing Church, and asks: 'Are these\nthe people on whose hearts a cross is stamped?' Do these men--or rather\nlet us say, do _we_ live as becometh the Gospel which proclaims the\ndivinity of self-sacrifice, and that the law of a perfect human life is\nperfect self-forgetfulness, even as the secret of the divine nature is\nperfect love? 'Walk worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.'\n\nIII. Then again, there is another form of this same general prescription\nwhich suggests to us a kindred and yet somewhat different standard. We\nare also bidden to bring our lives into conformity to, and\ncorrespondence with, or, as the Bible has it, 'to walk worthy of the\ncalling wherewith we are called' (Eph. iv. 1).\n\nGod summons or invites us, and summons us to what? The words which\nfollow our text answer, 'Who calleth you into His own kingdom and\nglory.' All you Christian people have been invited, and if you are\nChristians you have accepted the invitation; and all you men and women,\nwhether you are Christians or not, have been and are being invited and\nsummoned into a state and a world (for the reference is to the future\nlife), in which God's will is supreme, and all wills are moulded into\nconformity with that, and into a state and a world in which all\nshall--because they submit to His will--partake of His glory, the\nfulness of His uncreated light.\n\nThat being the aim of the summons, that being the destiny that is held\nout before us all, ought not that destiny and the prospect of what we\nmay be in the future, to fling some beams of guiding brightness on to\nthe present?\n\nMen that are called to high functions prepare themselves therefor. If\nyou knew that you were going away to Australia in six months, would you\nnot be beginning to get your outfit ready? You Christian men profess to\nbelieve that you have been called to a condition in which you will\nabsolutely obey God's will, and be the loyal subjects of His kingdom,\nand in which you will partake of God's glory. Well then, obey His will\nhere, and let some scattered sparklets of that uncreated light that is\none day going to flood your soul lie upon your face to-day. Do not go\nand cut your lives into two halves, one of them all contradictory to\nthat which you expect in the other, but bring a harmony between the\npresent, in all its weakness and sinfulness, and that great hope and\ncertain destiny that blazes on the horizon of your hope, as the joyful\nstate to which you have been invited. 'Walk worthy of the calling to\nwhich you are called.'\n\nAnd again, that same thought of the destiny should feed our hope, and\nmake us live under its continual inspiration. A walk worthy of such a\ncalling and such a caller should know no despondency, nor any weary,\nheartless lingering, as with tired feet on a hard road. Brave good\ncheer, undimmed energy, a noble contempt of obstacles, a confidence in\nour final attainment of that purity and glory which is not depressed by\nconsciousness of present failure--these are plainly the characteristics\nwhich ought to mark the advance of the men in whose ears such a summons\nfrom such lips rings as their marching orders.\n\nAnd a walk worthy of our calling will turn away from earthly things. If\nyou believe that God has summoned you to His kingdom and glory, surely,\nsurely, that should deaden in your heart the love and the care for the\ntrifles that lie by the wayside. Surely, surely, if that great voice is\ninviting, and that merciful hand is beckoning you into the light, and\nshowing you what you may possess there, it is not walking according to\nthat summons if you go with your eyes fixed upon the trifles at your\nfeet, and your whole heart absorbed in this present fleeting world.\nUnworldliness, in its best and purest fashion--by which I mean not only\na contempt for material wealth and all that it brings, but the sitting\nloose by everything that is beneath the stars--unworldliness is the only\nwalk that is 'worthy of the calling wherewith ye are called.'\n\nAnd if you hear that voice ringing like a trumpet call, or a commander's\nshout on the battlefield, into your ears, ever to stimulate you, to\nrebuke your lagging indifference; if you are ever conscious in your\ninmost hearts of the summons to His kingdom and glory, then, no doubt,\nby a walk worthy of it, you will make your calling sure; and there shall\n'an entrance be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting\nkingdom.'\n\nIV. And the last of the phases of this prescription which I have to deal\nwith is this. The whole Christian duty is further crystallised into the\none command, to walk in a manner conformed to, and corresponding with,\nthe character which is impressed upon us.\n\nIn the last chapter of the Epistle to the Romans (verse 2), we read\nabout a very small matter, that it is to be done 'worthily of the\nsaints.' It is only about the receiving of a good woman who was\ntravelling from Corinth to Rome, and extending hospitality to her in\nsuch a manner as became professing Christians; but the very minuteness\nof the details to which the great principle is applied points a lesson.\nThe biggest principle is not too big to be brought down to the narrowest\ndetails, and that is the beauty of principles as distinguished from\nregulations. Regulations try to be minute, and, however minute you make\nthem, some case always starts up that is not exactly provided for in\nthem, and so the regulations come to nothing. A principle does not try\nto be minute, but it casts its net wide and it gathers various cases\ninto its meshes. Like the fabled tent in the old legend that could\ncontract so as to have room for but one man, or expand wide enough to\nhold an army, so this great principle of Christian conduct can be\nbrought down to giving 'Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the\nchurch at Cenchrea,' good food and a comfortable lodging, and any other\nlittle kindnesses, when she comes to Rome. And the same principle may be\nwidened out to embrace and direct us in the largest tasks and most\ndifficult circumstances.\n\n'Worthily of saints'--the name is an omen, and carries in it rules of\nconduct. The root idea of 'saint' is 'one separated to God,' and the\nsecondary idea which flows from that is 'one who is pure.'\n\nAll Christians are 'saints.' They are consecrated and set apart for\nGod's service, and in the degree in which they are conscious of and live\nout that consecration, they are pure.\n\nSo their name, or rather the great fact which their name implies, should\nbe ever before them, a stimulus and a law. We are bound to remember that\nwe are consecrated, separated as God's possession, and that therefore\npurity is indispensable. The continual consciousness of this relation\nand its resulting obligations would make us recoil from impurity as\ninstinctively as the sensitive plant shuts up its little green fingers\nwhen anything touches it; or as the wearer of a white robe will draw it\nup high above the mud on a filthy pavement. Walk 'worthily of saints' is\nanother way of saying, Be true to your own best selves. Work up to the\nhighest ideal of your character. That is far more wholesome than to be\nalways looking at our faults and failures, which depress and tempt us to\nthink that the actual is the measure of the possible, and the past or\npresent of the future. There is no fear of self-conceit or of a mistaken\nestimate of ourselves. The more clearly we keep our best and deepest\nself before our consciousness, the more shall we learn a rigid judgment\nof the miserable contradictions to it in our daily outward life, and\neven in our thoughts and desires. It is a wholesome exhortation, when it\nfollows these others of which we have been speaking (and not else),\nwhich bids Christians remember that they are saints and live up to their\nname.\n\nA Christian's inward and deepest self is better than his outward life.\nWe have all convictions in our inmost hearts which we do not work out,\nand beliefs that do not influence us as we know they ought to do, and\nsometimes wish that they did. By our own fault our lives but imperfectly\nshow their real inmost principle. Friction always wastes power before\nmotion is produced.\n\nSo then, we may well gather together all our duties in this final form\nof the all-comprehensive law, and say to ourselves, 'Walk worthily of\nsaints.' Be true to your name, to your best selves, to your deepest\nselves. Be true to your separation for God's service, and to the purity\nwhich comes from it. Be true to the life which God has implanted in you.\nThat life may be very feeble and covered by a great deal of rubbish, but\nit is divine. Let it work, let it out. Do not disgrace your name.\n\nThese are the phases of the law of Christian conduct. They reach far,\nthey fit close, they penetrate deeper than the needle points of minute\nregulations. If you will live in a manner corresponding to the\ncharacter, and worthy of the love of God, as revealed in Christ, and in\nconformity with the principles that are enthroned upon His Cross, and in\nobedience to the destiny held forth in your high calling, and in\nfaithfulness to the name that He Himself has impressed upon you, then\nyour righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the painful and\npunctilious pharisaical obedience to outward commands, and all things\nlovely and of good report will spring to life in your hearts and bear\nfruit in your lives.\n\nOne last word--all these exhortations go on the understanding that you\nare a Christian, that you have taken Christ for your Saviour, and are\nresting upon Him, and recognising in Him the revelation of God, and in\nHis Cross the foundation of your hope; that you have listened to, and\nyielded to, the divine summons, and that you have a right to be called a\nsaint. Is that presumption true about you, my friend? If it is not,\nChristianity thinks that it is of no use wasting time talking to you\nabout conduct.\n\nIt has another word to speak to you first, and after you have heard and\naccepted it, there will be time enough to talk to you about rules for\nliving. The first message which Christ sends to you by my lips is, Trust\nyour sinful selves to Him as your only all-sufficient Saviour. When you\nhave accepted Him, and are leaning on Him with all your weight of sin\nand suffering, and loving Him with your ransomed heart, then, and not\ntill then, will you be in a position to hear His law for your life, and\nto obey it. Then, and not till then, will you appreciate the divine\nsimplicity and breadth of the great command to walk worthy of God, and\nthe divine tenderness and power of the motive which enforces it, and\nprints it on yielding and obedient hearts, even the dying love and Cross\nof His Son. Then, and not till then, will you know how the voice from\nheaven that calls you to His kingdom stirs the heart like the sound of a\ntrumpet, and how the name which you bear is a perpetual spur to heroic\nservice and priestly purity. Till then, the word which we would plead\nwith you to listen to and accept is that great answer of our Lord's to\nthose who came to Him for a rule of conduct, instead of for the gift of\nlife: 'This is the work of God, that ye should believe on Him whom He\nhath sent.'\n\n\n\n\nSMALL DUTIES AND THE GREAT HOPE\n\n 'But as touching brotherly love, ye need not that\n I write unto you; for ye yourselves are taught of\n God to love one another. 10. And indeed ye do it\n toward all the brethren which are in all\n Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye\n increase more and more; 11. And that ye study to\n be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work\n with your own hands, as we commanded you; 12. That\n ye may walk honestly toward them that are without,\n and that ye may have lack of nothing. 13. But I\n would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,\n concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow\n not, even as others which have no hope. 14. For if\n we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even\n so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring\n with Him. 15. For this we say unto you by the word\n of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain\n unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent\n them which are asleep. 16. For the Lord Himself\n shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the\n voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:\n and the dead in Christ shall rise first; 17. Then\n we which are alive and remain shall be caught up\n together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord\n in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.\n 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these\n words.'--1 THESS. iv. 9-18.\n\n 'But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye\n have no need that I write unto you. 2. For\n yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the\n Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.'--1 THESS.\n v. 1-2.\n\n\nThis letter was written immediately on the arrival of Silas and Timothy\nin Corinth (1 Thess. iii. 6, 'even now'), and is all flushed with the\ngladness of relieved anxiety, and throbs with love. It gains in pathetic\ninterest when we remember that, while writing it, the Apostle was in the\nthick of his conflict with the Corinthian synagogue. The thought of his\nThessalonian converts came to him like a waft of pure, cool air to a\nheated brow.\n\nThe apparent want of connection in the counsels of the two last chapters\nis probably accounted for by supposing that he takes up, as they\noccurred to him, the points reported by the two messengers. But we may\nnote that the plain, prosaic duties enjoined in verses 7-12 lead on to\nthe lofty revelations of the rest of the context without any sense of a\ngap, just because to Paul the greatest truths had a bearing on the\nsmallest duties, and the vision of future glory was meant to shape the\nhomely details of present work.\n\nI. We need to make an effort to realise the startling novelty of 'love\nof the brethren' when this letter was written. The ancient world was\nhoneycombed with rents and schisms, scarcely masked by political union.\nIn the midst of a world of selfishness this new faith started up, and by\nsome magic knit warring nationalities and hostile classes and wide\ndiversities of culture and position into a strange whole, transcending\nall limits of race and language. The conception of brotherhood was new,\nand the realisation of it in Christian love was still more astonishing.\nThe world wondered; but to the Christians the new affection was, we\nmight almost say, instinctive, so naturally and spontaneously did it\nfill their hearts.\n\nPaul's graceful way of enjoining it here is no mere pretty compliment.\nThe Thessalonians did not need to be bidden to love the brethren, for\nsuch love was a part of their new life, and breathed into their hearts\nby God Himself. They were drawn together by common relation to Jesus,\nand driven together by common alienation from the world. Occasions of\ndivergence had not yet risen. The world had not yet taken on a varnish\nof Christianity. The new bond was still strong in its newness. So, short\nas had been the time since Paul landed at Neapolis, the golden chain of\nlove bound all the Macedonian Christians together, and all that Paul had\nto exhort was the strengthening of its links and their tightening.\n\nThat fair picture faded soon, but it still remains true that the deeper\nour love to Jesus, the warmer will be our love to all His lovers. The\nmorning glow may not come back to the prosaic noonday, but love to the\nbrethren remains as an indispensable token of the Christian life. Let us\ntry ourselves thereby.\n\nII. What have exhortations to steady work to do with exhortations to\nincreasing love? Not much, apparently; but may not the link be, 'Do not\nsuppose that your Christianity is to show itself only in emotions,\nhowever sweet; the plain humdrum tasks of a working man's life are quite\nas noble a field as the exalted heights of brotherly love.' A loving\nheart is good, but a pair of diligent hands are as good. The\njuxtaposition of these two commands preaches a lesson which we need\nquite as much as the Thessalonians did. Possibly, too, as we see more\nfully in the second Epistle, the new truths, which had cut them from\ntheir old anchorage, had set some of them afloat on a sea of unquiet\nexpectation. So much of their old selves had been swept away, that it\nwould be hard for some to settle down to the old routine. That is a\ncommon enough experience in all 'revivals,' and at Thessalonica it was\nintensified by speculations about Christ's coming.\n\nThe 'quiet' which Paul would have us cultivate is not only external, but\nthe inward tranquillity of a spirit calm because fixed on God and filled\nwith love. The secret place of the Most High is ever still, and, if we\ndwell there, our hearts will not be disturbed by any tumults without. To\n'do our own business' is quite a different thing from selfish 'looking\non our own things,' for a great part of our business is to care for\nothers, and nothing dries up sympathy and practical help more surely\nthan a gossiping temper, which is perpetually buzzing about other\npeople's concerns, and knows everybody's circumstances and duties\nbetter than its own. This restless generation, whose mental food is so\nlargely the newspaper, with its floods of small-talk about people, be\nthey politicians, ministers, or murderers, sorely needs these precepts.\nWe are all so busy that we have no time for quiet meditation, and so\nmuch occupied with trivialities about others that we are strangers to\nourselves. Therefore religious life is low in many hearts.\n\nThe dignity of manual labour was a new doctrine to preach to Greeks, but\nPaul lays stress on it repeatedly in his letters to Thessalonica.\nApparently most of the converts there were of the labouring class, and\nsome of them needed the lesson of Paul's example as well as his precept.\nA Christian workman wielding chisel or trowel for Christ's sake will\nimpress 'them that are without.' Dignity depends, not on the nature, but\non the motive, of our work. 'A servant with this clause makes drudgery\ndivine.' It is permissible to take the opinion of those who are not\nChristians into account, and to try to show them what good workmen\nChrist can turn out. It is right, too, to cultivate a spirit of\nindependence, and to prefer a little earned to abundance given as a gift\nor alms. Perhaps some of the Thessalonians were trying to turn brotherly\nlove to profit, and to live on their richer brethren. Such people infest\nthe Church at all times.\n\nIII. With what ease, like a soaring song-bird, the letter rises to the\nlofty height of the next verses, and how the note becomes more musical,\nand the style richer, more sonorous and majestic, with the changed\nsubject! From the workshop to the descending Lord and the voice of the\ntrumpet and the rising saints, what a leap, and yet how easily it is\nmade! Happy we if we keep the future glory and the present duty thus\nside by side, and pass without jar from the one to the other!\n\nThe special point which Paul has in view must be kept well in mind. Some\nof the Thessalonians seem to have been troubled, not by questions about\nthe Resurrection, as the Corinthians afterwards were, but by a curious\ndifficulty, namely, whether the dead saints would not be worse off at\nChrist's coming than the living, and to that one point Paul addresses\nhimself. These verses are not a general revelation of the course of\nevents at that coming, or of the final condition of the glorified\nsaints, but an answer to the question, What is the relation between the\ntwo halves of the Church, the dead and the living, in regard to their\nparticipation in Christ's glory when He comes again? The question is\nanswered negatively in verse 15, positively in verses 16 and 17.\n\nBut, before considering them, note some other precious lessons taught\nhere. That sweet and consoling designation for the dead, 'them who sleep\nin Jesus,' is Christ's gift to sorrowing hearts. No doubt, the idea is\nfound in pagan thinkers, but always with the sad addition, 'an eternal\nsleep.' Men called death by that name in despair. The Christian calls it\nso because he knows that sleep implies continuous existence, repose,\nconsciousness, and awaking. The sleepers are not dead, they will be\nroused to refreshed activity one day.\n\nWe note how emphatically verse 14 brings out the thought that Jesus\ndied, since He suffered all the bitterness of death, not only in\nphysical torments, but in that awful sense of separation from God which\nis the true death in death, and that, because He did, the ugly thing\nwears a softened aspect to believers, and is but sleep. He died that we\nmight never know what the worst sting of death is.\n\nWe note further that, in order to bring out the truth of the gracious\nchange which has passed on death physical for His servants, the\nremarkable expression is used, in verse 14, 'fallen asleep through\nJesus'; His mediatorial work being the reason for their death becoming\nsleep. Similarly, it is only in verse 16 that the bare word 'dead' is\nused about them, and there it is needed for emphasis and clearness. When\nwe are thinking of Resurrection we can afford to look death in the face.\n\nWe note that Paul here claims to be giving a new revelation made to him\ndirectly by Christ. 'By (or, \"in\") the word of the Lord' cannot mean\nless than that. The question arises, in regard to verse 15, whether Paul\nexpected that the advent would come in his lifetime. It need not startle\nany if he were proved to have cherished such a mistaken expectation; for\nChrist Himself taught the disciples that the time of His second coming\nwas a truth reserved, and not included in His gifts to them. But two\nthings may be noted. First, that in the second Epistle, written very\nsoon after this, Paul sets himself to damp down the expectation of the\nnearness of the advent, and points to a long course of historical\ndevelopment of incipient tendencies which must precede it; and, second,\nthat his language here does not compel the conclusion that he expected\nto be alive at the second coming. For he is distinguishing between the\ntwo classes of the living and the dead, and he naturally puts himself in\nthe class to which, at that time, he and his hearers belonged, without\nthereby necessarily deciding, or even thinking about, the question\nwhether he and they would or would not belong to that class at the\nactual time of the advent.\n\nThe revelation here reveals much, and leaves much unrevealed. It is\nperfectly clear on the main point. Negatively, it declares that the\nsleeping saints lose nothing, and are not anticipated or hindered in any\nblessedness by the living. Positively, it declares that they precede the\nliving, inasmuch as they 'rise first'; that is, before the living\nsaints, who do not sleep, but are changed (1 Cor. xv. 51), are thus\ntransfigured. Then the two great companies shall unitedly rise to meet\nthe descending Lord; and their unity in Him, and, therefore, their\nfellowship with one another, shall be eternal.\n\nThat great hope helps us to bridge the dark gorge of present separation.\nIt leaves unanswered a host of questions which our lonely hearts would\nfain have cleared up; but it is enough for hope to hold by, and for\nsorrow to be changed into submission and anticipation. As to the many\nobscurities that still cling to the future, the meaning and the nature\nof the accompaniments, the shout, the trumpet, and the like, the way of\nharmonising the thought that the departed saints attend the descending\nLord, with whom they dwell now, with the declaration here that they rise\nfrom the earth to meet Him, the question whether these who are thus\ncaught up from earth to meet the Lord in the air come back again with\nHim to earth,--all these points of curious speculation we may leave. We\nknow enough for comfort, for assurance of the perfect reunion of the\nsaints who sleep in Jesus and of the living, and of the perfect\nblessedness of both wings of the great army. We may be content with what\nis clearly revealed, and be sure that, if what is unrevealed would have\nbeen helpful to us, He would have told us. We are to use the revelation\nfor comfort and for stimulus, and we are to remember that 'times and\nseasons' are not told us, nor would the knowledge of them profit us.\n\nPaul took for granted that the Thessalonians remembered the Lord's word,\nwhich he had, no doubt, told them, that He would come 'as a thief in the\nnight.' So he discourages a profitless curiosity, and exhorts to a\ncontinual vigilance. When He comes, it will be suddenly, and will wake\nsome who live from a sinful sleep with a shock of terror, and the dead\nfrom a sweet sleep in Him with a rush of gladness, as in body and spirit\nthey are filled with His life, and raised to share in His triumph.\n\n\n\n\nSLEEPING THROUGH JESUS\n\n ' . . . Them also which sleep in Jesus . . .'--1\n THESS. iv. 14.\n\n\nThat expression is not unusual, in various forms, in the Apostle's\nwritings. It suggests a very tender and wonderful thought of closeness\nand union between our Lord and the living dead, so close as that He is,\nas it were, the atmosphere in which they move, or the house in which\nthey dwell. But, tender and wonderful as the thought is, it is not\nexactly the Apostle's idea here. For, accurately rendered--and accuracy\nin regard to Scripture language is not pedantry--the words run, 'Them\nwhich sleep _through_ Jesus.'\n\nNow, that is a strange phrase, and, I suppose, its strangeness is the\nreason why our translators have softened it down to the more familiar\nand obvious 'in Jesus.' We can understand living through Christ, on\nbeing sacred through Christ, but what can _sleeping_ through Christ\nmean? I shall hope to answer the question presently, but, in the\nmeantime, I only wish to point out what the Apostle does say, and to\nplead for letting him say it, strange though it sounds. For the strange\nand the difficult phrases of Scripture are like the hard quartz reefs in\nwhich gold is, and if we slur them over we are likely to loose the\ntreasure. Let us try if we can find what the gold here may be.\n\nNow, there are only two thoughts that I wish to dwell upon as suggested\nby these words. One is the softened aspect of death, and of the state of\nthe Christian dead; and the other is the ground or cause of that\nsoftened aspect.\n\nI. First, then, the softened aspect of death, and of the state of the\nChristian dead.\n\nIt is to Jesus primarily that the New Testament writers owe their use of\nthis gracious emblem of sleep. For, as you remember, the word was twice\nupon our Lord's lips; once when, over the twelve-years-old maid from\nwhom life had barely ebbed away, He said, 'She is not dead, but\nsleepeth'; and once when in regard of the man Lazarus, from whom life\nhad removed further, He said, 'Our friend sleepeth, but I go that I may\nawake him out of sleep.' But Jesus was not the originator of the\nexpression. You find it in the Old Testament, where the prophet Daniel,\nspeaking of the end of the days and the bodily Resurrection, designates\nthose who share in it as 'them that sleep in the dust of the earth.' And\nthe Old Testament was not the sole origin of the phrase. For it is too\nnatural, too much in accordance with the visibilities of death, not to\nhave suggested itself to many hearts, and been shrined in many\nlanguages. Many an inscription of Greek and Roman date speaks of death\nunder this figure; but almost always it is with the added, deepened note\nof despair, that it is a sleep which knows no waking, but lasts through\neternal night.\n\nNow, the Christian thought associated with this emblem is the precise\nopposite of the pagan one. The pagan heart shrank from naming the ugly\nthing because it was so ugly. So dark and deep a dread coiled round the\nman, as he contemplated it, that he sought to drape the dreadfulness in\nsome kind of thin, transparent veil, and to put the buffer of a word\nbetween him and its hideousness. But the Christian's motive for the use\nof the word is the precise opposite. He uses the gentler expression\nbecause the thing has become gentler.\n\nIt is profoundly significant that throughout the whole of the New\nTestament the plain, naked word 'death' is usually applied, not to the\nphysical fact which we ordinarily designate by the name, but to the grim\nthing of which that physical fact is only the emblem and the parable,\nviz., the true death which lies in the separation of the soul from God;\nwhilst predominately the New Testament usage calls the physical fact by\nsome other gentler form of expression, because, as I say, the gentleness\nhas enfolded the thing to be designated.\n\nFor instance, you find one class of representations which speak of death\nas being a departing and a being with Christ; or which call it, as one\nof the apostles does, an 'exodus,' where it is softened down to be\nmerely a change of environment, a change of locality. Then another class\nof representations speak of it as 'putting off this my tabernacle,' or,\nthe dissolution of the 'earthly house'--where there is a broad, firm\nline of demarcation drawn between the inhabitant and the habitation, and\nthe thing is softened down to be a mere change of dwelling. Again,\nanother class of expressions speak of it as being an 'offering,' where\nthe main idea is that of a voluntary surrender, a sacrifice or libation\nof myself, and my life poured out upon the altar of God. But sweetest,\ndeepest, most appealing to all our hearts, is that emblem of my text,\n'them that sleep.' It is used, if I count rightly, some fourteen times\nin the New Testament, and it carries with it large and plain lessons, on\nwhich I touch but for a moment. What, then, does this metaphor say to\nus?\n\nWell, it speaks first of rest. That is not altogether an attractive\nconception to some of us. If it be taken exclusively it is by no means\nwholesome. I suppose that the young, and the strong, and the eager, and\nthe ambitious, and the prosperous rather shrink from the notion of their\nactivities being stiffened into slumber. But, dear friends, there are\nsome of us like tired children in a fair, who would fain have done with\nthe weariness, who have made experience of the distractions and\nbewildering changes, whose backs are stiffened with toil, whose hearts\nare heavy with loss. And to all of us, in some moods, the prospect of\nshuffling off this weary coil of responsibilities and duties and tasks\nand sorrows, and of passing into indisturbance and repose, appeals. I\nbelieve, for my part, that, after all, the deepest longing of\nmen--though they search for it through toil and effort--is for repose.\nAs the poet has taught us, 'there is no joy but calm.' Every heart is\nweary enough, and heavy laden, and labouring enough, to feel the\nsweetness of a promise of rest:--\n\n 'Sleep, full of rest from head to foot,\n Lie still, dry dust, secure of change.'\n\nYes! but the rest of which our emblem speaks is, as I believe, only\napplicable to the bodily frame. The word 'sleep' is a transcript of what\nsense enlightened by faith sees in that still form, with the folded\nhands and the quiet face and the closed eyes. But let us remember that\nthis repose, deep and blessed as it is, is not, as some would say, the\nrepose of unconsciousness. I do not believe, and I would have you not\nbelieve, that this emblem refers to the vigorous, spiritual life, or\nthat the passage from out of the toil and moil of earth into the calm of\nthe darkness beyond has any power in limiting or suspending the vital\nforce of the man.\n\nWhy, the very metaphor itself tells us that the sleeper is not\nunconscious. He is parted from the outer world, he is unaware of\nexternals. When Stephen knelt below the old wall, and was surrounded by\nhowling fanatics that slew him, one moment he was gashed with stones and\ntortured, and the next 'he fell on sleep.' They might howl, and the\nstones fly as they would, and he was all unaware of it. Like Jonah\nsleeping in the hold, what mattered the roaring of the storm to him? But\nseparation from externals does not mean suspense of life or of\nconsciousness, and the slumberer often dreams, and is aware of himself\npersistently throughout his slumber. Nay! some of his faculties are set\nat liberty to work more energetically, because his connection with the\nouter world is for the time suspended.\n\nAnd so I say that what on the hither side is sleep, on the further side\nis awaking, and that the complex whole of the condition of the sainted\ndead may be described with equal truth by either metaphor; 'they sleep\nin Jesus'; or, 'when I awake I shall be satisfied with Thy likeness.'\n\nScripture, as it seems to me, distinctly carries this limitation of the\nemblem. For what does it mean when the Apostle says that to depart and\nto be with Christ is far better? Surely he who thus spoke conceived that\nthese two things were contemporaneous, the departing and the being with\nHim. And surely he who thus spoke could not have conceived that a\nmillennium-long parenthesis of slumberous unconsciousness was to\nintervene between the moment of his decease and the moment of his\nfellowship with Jesus. How could a man prefer that dormant state to the\nstate here, of working for and living with the Lord? Surely, being with\nHim must mean that we know where we are, and who is our companion.\n\nAnd what does that text mean: 'Ye are come unto the spirits of just men\nmade perfect,' unless it means that of these two classes of persons who\nare thus regarded as brought into living fellowship, each is aware of\nthe other? Does perfecting of the spirit mean the smiting of the spirit\ninto unconsciousness? Surely not, and surely in view of such words as\nthese, we must recognise the fact that, however limited and imperfect\nmay be the present connection of the disembodied dead, who sleep in\nChrist, with external things, they know themselves, they know their home\nand their companion, and they know the blessedness in which they are\nlapped.\n\nBut another thought which is suggested by this emblem is, as I have\nalready said, most certainly the idea of awaking. The pagans said, as\nindeed one of their poets has it, 'Suns can sink and return, but for us,\nwhen our brief light sinks, there is but one perpetual night of\nslumber.' The Christian idea of death is, that it is transitory as a\nsleep in the morning, and sure to end. As St. Augustine says somewhere,\n'Wherefore are they called sleepers, but because in the day of the Lord\nthey will be reawakened?'\n\nAnd so these are the thoughts, very imperfectly spoken, I know, which\nspring like flowers from this gracious metaphor 'them that sleep'--rest\nand awaking; rest and consciousness.\n\nII. Note the ground of this softened aspect.\n\nThey 'sleep through Him.' It is by reason of Christ and His work, and by\nreason of that alone, that death's darkness is made beautiful, and\ndeath's grimness is softened down to this. Now, in order to grasp the\nfull meaning of such words as these of the Apostle, we must draw a broad\ndistinction between the physical fact of the ending of corporeal life\nand the mental condition which is associated with it by us. What we call\ndeath, if I may so say, is a complex thing--a bodily phenomenon _plus_\nconscience, the sense of sin, the certainty of retribution in the dim\nbeyond. And you have to take these elements apart. The former remains,\nbut if the others are removed, the whole has changed its character and\nis become another thing, and a very little thing.\n\nThe mere physical fact is a trifle. Look at it as you see it in the\nanimals; look at it as you see it in men when they actually come to it.\nIn ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it is painless and easy, and men\nsink into slumber. Strange, is it not, that so small a reality should\nhave power to cast over human life so immense and obscuring a shadow!\nWhy? Because, as the Apostle says, 'the sting of death is sin,' and if\nyou can take the sting out of it, then there is very little to fear, and\nit comes down to be an insignificant and transient element in our\nexperience.\n\nNow, the death of Jesus Christ takes away, if I may so say, the _nimbus_\nof apprehension and dread arising from conscience and sin, and the\nforecast of retribution. There is nothing left for us to face except the\nphysical fact, and any rough soldier, with a coarse, red coat upon him,\nwill face that for eighteenpence a day, and think himself well paid.\nJesus Christ has abolished death, leaving the mere shell, but taking all\nthe substance out of it. It has become a different thing to men, because\nin that death of His He has exhausted the bitterness, and has made it\npossible that we should pass into the shadow, and not fear either\nconscience or sin or judgment.\n\nIn this connection I cannot but notice with what a profound meaning the\nApostle, in this very verse, uses the bare, naked word in reference to\nHim, and the softened one in reference to us. 'If we believe that Jesus\nChrist _died_ and rose again, even so them also which sleep.' Ah! yes!\nHe died indeed, bearing all that terror with which men's consciences\nhave invested death. He died indeed, bearing on Himself the sins of the\nworld. He died that no man henceforward need ever die in that same\nfashion. His death makes our deaths sleep, and His Resurrection makes\nour sleep calmly certain of a waking.\n\nSo, dear 'brethren, I would not have you ignorant concerning them which\nare asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope.' And I\nwould have you to remember that, whilst Christ by His work has made it\npossible that the terror may pass away, and death may be softened and\nminimised into slumber, it will not be so with you--unless you are\njoined to Him, and by trust in the power of His death and the\noverflowing might of His Resurrection, have made sure that what He has\npassed through, you will pass through, and where He is, and what He is,\nyou will be also.\n\nTwo men die by one railway accident, sitting side by side upon one seat,\nsmashed in one collision. But though the outward fact is the same about\neach, the reality of their deaths is infinitely different. The one falls\nasleep through Jesus, in Jesus; the other dies indeed, and the death of\nhis body is only a feeble shadow of the death of his spirit. Do you knit\nyourself to the Life, which is Christ, and then 'he that believeth on Me\nshall never die.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE WORK AND ARMOUR OF THE CHILDREN OF THE DAY\n\n 'Let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on\n the breastplate of faith and love; and for a\n helmet the hope of salvation.'--1 THESS. v. 8.\n\n\nThis letter to the Thessalonians is the oldest book of the New\nTestament. It was probably written within something like twenty years of\nthe Crucifixion; long, therefore, before any of the Gospels were in\nexistence. It is, therefore, exceedingly interesting and instructive to\nnotice how this whole context is saturated with allusions to our Lord's\nteaching, as it is preserved in these Gospels; and how it takes for\ngranted that the Thessalonian Christians were familiar with the very\nwords.\n\nFor instance: 'Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so\ncometh as a thief in the night' (ver. 2). How did these people in\nThessalonica know that? They had been Christians for a year or so only;\nthey had been taught by Paul for a few weeks only, or a month or two at\nthe most. How did they know it? Because they had been told what the\nMaster had said: 'If the goodman of the house had known at what hour the\nthief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his\nhouse to be broken up.'\n\nAnd there are other allusions in the context almost as obvious: 'The\nchildren of the light.' Who said that? Christ, in His words: 'The\nchildren of this world are wiser than the children of light.' 'They that\nsleep, sleep in the night, and if they be drunken, are drunken in the\nnight.' Where does that metaphor come from? 'Take heed lest at any time\nye be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this\nlife, and so that day come upon you unawares.' 'Watch, lest coming\nsuddenly He find you sleeping!'\n\nSo you see all the context reposes upon, and presupposes the very words,\nwhich you find in our present existing Gospels, as the words of the Lord\nJesus. And this is all but contemporaneous, and quite independent,\nevidence of the existence in the Church, from the beginning, of a\ntraditional teaching which is now preserved for us in that fourfold\nrecord of His life.\n\nTake that remark for what it is worth; and now turn to the text itself\nwith which I have to deal in this sermon. The whole of the context may\nbe said to be a little dissertation upon the moral and religious uses of\nthe doctrine of our Lord's second coming. In my text these are summed\nup in one central injunction which has preceding it a motive that\nenforces it, and following it a method that ensures it. 'Let us be\nsober'; that is the centre thought; and it is buttressed upon either\nside by a motive and a means. 'Let us who are of the day,' or 'since we\nare of the day,--be sober.' And let us _be_ it by 'putting on the\nbreastplate and helmet of faith, love, and hope.' These, then, are the\nthree points which we have to consider.\n\nI. First, this central injunction, into which all the moral teaching\ndrawn from the second coming of Christ is gathered--'Let us be sober.'\nNow, I do not suppose we are altogether to omit any reference to the\nliteral meaning of this word. The context seems to show that, by its\nreference to night as the season for drunken orgies. Temperance is\nmoderation in regard not only to the evil and swinish sin of\ndrunkenness, which is so manifestly contrary to all Christian integrity\nand nobility of character, but in regard to the far more subtle\ntemptation of another form of sensual indulgence--gluttony. The\nChristian Church needed to be warned of that, and if these people in\nThessalonica needed the warning I am quite sure that we need it. There\nis not a nation on earth which needs it more than Englishmen. I am no\nascetic, I do not want to glorify any outward observance, but any doctor\nin England will tell you that the average Englishman eats and drinks a\ngreat deal more than is good for him. It is melancholy to think how many\nprofessing Christians have the edge and keenness of their intellectual\nand spiritual life blunted by the luxurious and senseless\ntable-abundance in which they habitually indulge. I am quite sure that\nwater from the spring and barley-bread would be a great deal better for\ntheir souls, and for their bodies too, in the case of many people who\ncall themselves Christians. Suffer a word of exhortation, and do not let\nit be neglected because it is brief and general. Sparta, after all, is\nthe best place for a man to live in, next to Jerusalem.\n\nBut, passing from that, let us turn to the higher subject with which the\nApostle is here evidently mainly concerned. What is the meaning of the\nexhortation 'Be sober'? Well, first let me tell you what I think is not\nthe meaning of it. It does not mean an unemotional absence of fervour in\nyour Christian character.\n\nThere is a kind of religious teachers who are always preaching down\nenthusiasm, and preaching up what they call a 'sober standard of\nfeeling' in matters of religion. By which, in nine cases out of ten,\nthey mean precisely such a tepid condition as is described in much less\npolite language, when the voice from heaven says, 'Because thou art\nneither cold nor hot I will spue thee out of My mouth.' That is the real\nmeaning of the 'sobriety' that some people are always desiring you to\ncultivate. I should have thought that the last piece of furniture which\nany Christian Church in the twentieth century needed was a refrigerator!\nA poker and a pair of bellows would be very much more needful for them.\nFor, dear brethren, the truths that you and I profess to believe are of\nsuch a nature, so tremendous either in their joyfulness and beauty, or\nin their solemnity and awfulness, that one would think that if they once\ngot into a man's head and heart, nothing but the most fervid and\ncontinuous glow of a radiant enthusiasm would correspond to their\nmajesty and overwhelming importance. I venture to say that the only\nconsistent Christian is the enthusiastic Christian; and that the only\nman who will ever do anything in this world for God or man worth doing\nis the man who is not _sober_, according to that cold-blooded definition\nwhich I have been speaking about, but who is all ablaze with an\nenkindled earnestness that knows no diminution and no cessation.\n\nPaul, the very man that is exhorting here to sobriety, was the very type\nof an enthusiast all his life. So Festus thought him mad, and even in\nthe Church at Corinth there were some to whom in his fervour, he seemed\nto be 'beside himself' (2 Cor. v. 13).\n\nOh! for more of that insanity! You may make up your minds to this; that\nany men or women that are in thorough earnest, either about Christianity\nor about any other great, noble, lofty, self-forgetting purpose, will\nhave to be content to have the old Pentecostal charge flung at\nthem:--'These men are full of new wine!' Well for the Church, and well\nfor the men who deserve the taunt; for it means that they have learned\nsomething of the emotion that corresponds to such magnificent and awful\nverities as Christian faith converses with.\n\nI did not intend to say so much about that; I turn now for a moment to\nthe consideration of what this exhortation really means. It means, as I\ntake it, mainly this: the prime Christian duty of self-restraint in the\nuse and the love of all earthly treasures and pleasures.\n\nI need not do more than remind you how, in the very make of a man's\nsoul, it is clear that unless there be exercised rigid self-control he\nwill go all to pieces. The make of human nature, if I may say so, shows\nthat it is not meant for a democracy but a monarchy.\n\nHere are within us many passions, tastes, desires, most of them rooted\nin the flesh, which are as blind as hunger and thirst are. If a man is\nhungry, the bread will satisfy him all the same whether he steals it or\nnot; and it will not necessarily be distasteful even if it be poisoned.\nAnd there are other blind impulses and appetites in our nature which ask\nnothing except this:--'Give me my appropriate gratification, though all\nthe laws of God and man be broken in order to get it!'\n\nAnd so there has to be something like an eye given to these blind\nbeasts, and something like a directing hand laid upon these instinctive\nimpulses. The true temple of the human spirit must be built in stages,\nthe broad base laid in these animal instincts; above them, and\ncontrolling them, the directing and restraining will; above it the\nunderstanding which enlightens it and them; and supreme over all the\nconscience with nothing between it and heaven. Where that is not the\norder of the inner man you get wild work. You have set 'beggars on\nhorseback,' and we all know where they go! The man who lets passion and\ninclination guide is like a steam-boat with all the furnaces banked up,\nwith the engines going full speed, and nobody at the wheel. It will\ndrive on to the rocks, or wherever the bow happens to point, no matter\nthough death and destruction lie beyond the next turn of the screw. That\nis what you will come to unless you live in the habitual exercise of\nrigid self-control.\n\nAnd that self-control is to be exercised mainly, or at least as one very\nimportant form of it, in regard to our use and estimate of the pleasures\nof this present life. Yes! it is not only from the study of a man's make\nthat the necessity for a very rigid self-government appears, but the\nobservation of the conditions and circumstances in which he is placed\npoints the same lesson. All round about him are hands reaching out to\nhim drugged cups. The world with all its fading sweet comes tempting\nhim, and the old fable fulfils itself--Whoever takes that Circe's cup\nand puts it to his lips and quaffs deep, turns into a swine, and sits\nthere imprisoned at the feet of the sorceress for evermore!\n\nThere is only one thing that will deliver you from that fate, my\nbrother. 'Be sober,' and in regard to the world and all that it offers\nto us--all joy, possession, gratification--'set a knife to thy throat if\nthou be a man given to appetite.' There is no noble life possible on any\nother terms--not to say there is no Christian life possible on any other\nterms--but suppression and mortification of the desires of the flesh and\nof the spirit. You cannot look upwards and downwards at the same moment.\nYour heart is only a tiny room after all, and if you cram it full of the\nworld, you relegate your Master to the stable outside. 'Ye cannot serve\nGod and Mammon.' 'Be sober,' says Paul, then, and cultivate the habit of\nrigid self-control in regard to this present. Oh! what a melancholy,\nsolemn thought it is that hundreds of professing Christians in England,\nlike vultures after a full meal, have so gorged themselves with the\ngarbage of this present life that they cannot fly, and have to be\ncontent with moving along the ground, heavy and languid. Christian men\nand women, are you keeping yourselves in spiritual health by a very\nsparing use of the dainties and delights of earth? Answer the question\nto your own souls and to your Judge.\n\nII. And now let me turn to the other thoughts that lie here. There is,\nsecondly, a motive which backs up and buttresses this exhortation. 'Let\nus who are of the day'--or as the Revised Version has it a little more\nemphatically and correctly, 'Let us, since we are of the day, be sober.'\n'The day'; what day? The temptation is to answer the question by\nsaying--'of course the specific day which was spoken about in the\nbeginning of the section, \"the day of the Lord,\" that coming judgment by\nthe coming Christ.' But I think that although, perhaps, there may be\nsome allusion here to that specific day, still, if you will look at the\nverses which immediately precede my text, you will see that in them the\nApostle has passed from the thought of 'the day of the Lord' to that of\nday in general. That is obvious, I think, from the contrast he draws\nbetween the 'day' and the 'night,' the darkness and the light. If so,\nthen, when he says 'the children of the day' he does not so much\nmean--though that is quite true--that we are, as it were, akin to that\nday of judgment, and may therefore look forward to it without fear, and\nin quiet confidence, lifting up our heads because our redemption draws\nnigh; but rather he means that Christians are the children of that which\nexpresses knowledge, and joy, and activity. Of these things the day is\nthe emblem, in every language and in every poetry. The day is the time\nwhen men see and hear, the symbol of gladness and cheer all the world\nover.\n\nAnd so, says Paul, you Christian men and women belong to a joyous realm,\na realm of light and knowledge, a realm of purity and righteousness. You\nare children of the light; a glad condition which involves many glad and\nnoble issues. Children of the light should be brave, children of the\nlight should not be afraid of the light, children of the light should be\ncheerful, children of the light should be buoyant, children of the\nlight should be transparent, children of the light should be hopeful,\nchildren of the light should be pure, and children of the light should\nwalk in this darkened world, bearing their radiance with them; and\nmaking things, else unseen, visible to many a dim eye.\n\nBut while these emblems of cheerfulness, hope, purity, and illumination\nare gathered together in that grand name--'Ye are the children of the\nday,' there is one direction especially in which the Apostle thinks that\nthat consideration ought to tell, and that is the direction of\nself-restraint. '_Noblesse oblige!_'--the aristocracy are bound to do\nnothing low or dishonourable. The children of the light are not to stain\ntheir hands with anything foul. Chambering and wantonness, slumber and\ndrunkenness, the indulgence in the appetites of the flesh,--all that may\nbe fitting for the night, it is clean incongruous with the day.\n\nWell, if you want that turned into pedestrian prose--which is no more\nclear, but a little less emotional--it is just this: You Christian men\nand women belong--if you are Christians--to another state of things from\nthat which is lying round about you; and, therefore, you ought to live\nin rigid abstinence from these things that are round about you.\n\nThat is plain enough surely, nor do I suppose that I need to dwell on\nthat thought at any length. We belong to another order of things, says\nPaul; we carry a day with us in the midst of the night. What follows\nfrom that? Do not let us pursue the wandering lights and treacherous\nwill-o'-the-wisps that lure men into bottomless bogs where they are\nlost. If we have light in our dwellings whilst Egypt lies in darkness,\nlet it teach us to eat our meat with our loins girded, and our staves\nin our hands, not without bitter herbs, and ready to go forth into the\nwilderness. You do not belong to the world in which you live, if you are\nChristian men and women; you are only camped here. Your purposes,\nthoughts, hopes, aspirations, treasures, desires, delights, go up\nhigher. And so, if you are children of the day, be self-restrained in\nyour dealings with the darkness.\n\nIII. And, last of all, my text points out for us a method by which this\ngreat precept may be fulfilled:--'Putting on the breastplate of faith\nand love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation.'\n\nThat, of course, is the first rough draft occurring in Paul's earliest\nEpistle, of an image which recurs at intervals, and in more or less\nexpanded form in other of his letters, and is so splendidly worked out\nin detail in the grand picture of the Christian armour in the Epistle to\nthe Ephesians.\n\nI need not do more than just remind you of the difference between that\nfinished picture and this outline sketch. Here we have only defensive\nand not offensive armour, here the Christian graces are somewhat\ndifferently allocated to the different parts of the armour. Here we have\nonly the great triad of Christian graces, so familiar on our\nlips--faith, hope, charity. Here we have faith and love in the closest\npossible juxtaposition, and hope somewhat more apart. The breastplate,\nlike some of the ancient hauberks, made of steel and gold, is framed and\nforged out of faith and love blended together, and faith and love are\nmore closely identified in fact than faith and hope, or than love and\nhope. For faith and love have the same object--and are all but\ncontemporaneous. Wherever a man lays hold of Jesus Christ by faith,\nthere cannot but spring up in his heart love to Christ; and there is no\nlove without faith. So that we may almost say that faith and love are\nbut the two throws of the shuttle, the one in the one direction and the\nother in the other; whereas hope comes somewhat later in a somewhat\nremoter connection with faith, and has a somewhat different object from\nthese other two. Therefore it is here slightly separated from its sister\ngraces. Faith, love, hope--these three form the defensive armour that\nguard the soul; and these three make self-control possible. Like a diver\nin his dress, who is let down to the bottom of the wild, far-weltering\nocean, a man whose heart is girt by faith and charity, and whose head is\ncovered with the helmet of hope, may be dropped down into the wildest\nsea of temptation and of worldliness, and yet will walk dry and unharmed\nthrough the midst of its depths, and breathe air that comes from a world\nabove the restless surges.\n\nAnd in like manner the cultivation of faith, charity, and hope is the\nbest means for securing the exercise of sober self-control.\n\nIt is an easy thing to say to a man, 'Govern yourself!' It is a very\nhard thing with the powers that any man has at his disposal to do it. As\nsomebody said about an army joining the rebels, 'It's a bad job when the\nextinguisher catches fire!' And that is exactly the condition of things\nin regard to our power of self-government. The powers that should\ncontrol are largely gone over to the enemy, and become traitors.\n\n'Who shall keep the very keepers?' is the old question, and here is the\nanswer:--You cannot execute the gymnastic feat of 'erecting yourself\nabove yourself' any more than a man can take himself by his own coat\ncollar and lift himself up from the ground with his own arms. But you\ncan cultivate faith, hope, and charity, and these three, well cultivated\nand brought to bear upon your daily life, will do the governing for you.\nFaith will bring you into communication with all the power of God. Love\nwill lead you into a region where all the temptations round you will be\ntouched as by an Ithuriel spear, and will show their foulness. And hope\nwill turn away your eyes from looking at the tempting splendours around,\nand fix them upon the glories that are above.\n\nAnd so the reins will come into your hands in an altogether new manner,\nand you will be able to be king over your own nature in a fashion that\nyou did not dream of before, if only you will trust in Christ, and love\nHim, and fix your desires on the things above.\n\nThen you will be able to govern yourself when you let Christ govern you.\nThe glories that are to be done away, that gleam round you like foul,\nflaring tallow-candles, will lose all their fascination and brightness,\nby reason of the glory that excelleth, the pure starlike splendour of\nthe white inextinguishable lights of heaven.\n\nAnd when by faith, charity, and hope you have drunk of the new wine of\nthe kingdom, the drugged and opiate cup which a sorceress world\npresents, jewelled though it be, will lose its charms, and it will not\nbe hard to turn from it and dash it to the ground.\n\nGod help you, brother, to be 'sober,' for unless you are 'you cannot see\nthe kingdom of God!'\n\n\n\n\nWAKING AND SLEEPING\n\n 'Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we\n wake or sleep, we should live together with\n Him.'--1 THESS. v. 10.\n\n\nIn these words the Apostle concludes a section of this, his earliest\nletter, in which he has been dealing with the aspect of death in\nreference to the Christian. There are two very significant usages of\nlanguage in the context which serve to elucidate the meaning of the\nwords of our text, and to which I refer for a moment by way of\nintroduction.\n\nThe one is that throughout this portion of his letter the Apostle\nemphatically reserves the word 'died' for Jesus Christ, and applies to\nChrist's followers only the word 'sleep.' Christ's death makes the\ndeaths of those who trust Him a quiet slumber. The other is that the\nantithesis of waking and sleep is employed in two different directions\nin this section, being first used to express, by the one term, simply\nphysical life, and by the other, physical death; and secondly, to\ndesignate respectively the moral attitude of Christian watchfulness and\nthat of worldly apathy to things unseen and drowsy engrossment with the\npresent.\n\nSo in the words immediately preceding my text, we read, 'let us not\nsleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober.' The use of the\nantithesis in our text is chiefly the former, but there cannot be\ndischarged from one of the expressions, 'wake,' the ideas which have\njust been associated with it, especially as the word which is translated\n'wake' is the same as that just translated in the sixth verse, 'let us\nwatch.' So that here there is meant by it, not merely the condition of\nlife but that of Christian life--sober-minded vigilance and\nwide-awakeness to the realities of being. With this explanation of the\nmeanings of the words before us, we may now proceed to consider them a\nlittle more minutely.\n\nI. Note the death which is the foundation of life.\n\nRecalling what I have said as to the precision and carefulness with\nwhich the Apostle varies his expressions in this context; speaking of\nChrist's death only by that grim name, and of the death of His servants\nas being merely a slumber, we have for the first thought suggested in\nreference to Christ's death, that it exhausted all the bitterness of\ndeath. Physically, the sufferings of our Lord were not greater, they\nwere even less, than that of many a man. His voluntary acceptance of\nthem was peculiar to Himself. But His death stands alone in this, that\non His head was concentrated the whole awfulness of the thing. So far as\nthe mere external facts go, there is nothing special about it. But I\nknow not how the shrinking of Jesus Christ from the Cross can be\nexplained without impugning His character, unless we see in His death\nsomething far more terrible than is the common lot of men. To me\nGethsemane is altogether mysterious, and that scene beneath the olives\nshatters to pieces the perfectness of His character, unless we recognise\nthat there it was the burden of the world's sin, beneath which, though\nHis will never faltered, His human power tottered. Except we understand\nthat, it seems to me that many who derived from Jesus Christ all their\ncourage, bore their martyrdom better than He did; and that the servant\nhas many a time been greater than his Lord. But if we take the Scripture\npoint of view, and say, 'The Lord has made to meet upon Him the iniquity\nof us all,' then we can understand the agony beneath the olives, and\nthe cry from the Cross, 'Why hast Thou forsaken Me?'\n\nFurther, I would notice that this death is by the Apostle set forth as\nbeing the main factor in man's redemption. This is the first of Paul's\nletters, dating long before the others with which we are familiar.\nWhatever may have been the spiritual development of St. Paul in certain\ndirections after his conversion--and I do not for a moment deny that\nthere was such--it is very important to notice that the fundamentals of\nhis Christology and doctrine of salvation were the same from the\nbeginning to the end, and that in this, his first utterance, he lays\ndown, as emphatically and clearly as ever afterwards he did, the great\ntruth that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died on the Cross, thereby\nsecured man's redemption. Here he isolates the death from the rest of\nthe history of Christ, and concentrates the whole light of his thought\nupon the Cross, and says, There! that is the power by which men have\nbeen redeemed. I beseech you to ask yourselves whether these\nrepresentations of Christian truth adhere to the perspective of\nScripture, which do not in like manner set forth in the foreground of\nthe whole the atoning death of Jesus Christ our Lord.\n\nThen note, further, that this death, the fountain of life, is a death\nfor us. Now I know, of course, that the language here does not\nnecessarily involve the idea of one dying instead of, but only of one\ndying on behalf of, another. But then I come to this question, In what\nconceivable sense, except the sense of bearing the world's sins, and,\ntherefore, mine, is the death of Jesus Christ of advantage to me? Take\nthe Scripture narratives. He died by the condemnation of the Jewish\ncourts as a blasphemer; by the condemnation of the supercilious Roman\ncourt--cowardly in the midst of its superciliousness--as a possible\nrebel, though the sentencer did not believe in the reality of the\ncharges. I want to know what good that is to me? He died, say some\npeople, as the victim of a clearer insight and a more loving heart than\nthe men around Him could understand. What advantage is that to me?\n\nOh, brethren! there is no meaning in the words 'He died for us' unless\nwe understand that the benefit of His death lies in the fact that it was\nthe sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world; and\nthat, therefore, He died for us.\n\nBut then remember, too, that in this expression is set forth, not only\nthe objective fact of Christ's death for us, but much in reference to\nthe subjective emotions and purposes of Him who died. Paul was writing\nto these Thessalonians, of whom none, I suppose, except possibly a few\nJews who might be amongst them, had ever seen Jesus Christ in the flesh,\nor known anything about Him. And yet he says to them, 'Away across the\nocean there, Jesus Christ died for you men, not one of whom had ever\nappealed to His heart through His eyes.'\n\nThe principle involved is capable of the widest possible expansion. When\nChrist went to the Cross there was in His heart, in His purposes, in His\ndesires, a separate place for every soul of man whom He embraced, not\nwith the dim vision of some philanthropist, who looks upon the masses of\nunborn generations as possibly beneficially affected by some of his\nfar-reaching plans, but with the individualising and separating\nknowledge of a divine eye, and the love of a divine heart. Jesus Christ\nbore the sins of the world because He bore in His sympathies and His\npurposes the sins of each single soul. Yours and mine and all our\nfellows' were there. Guilt and fear and loneliness, and all the other\nevils that beset men because they have departed from the living God, are\nfloated away\n\n 'By the water and the blood\n From Thy wounded side which flowed';\n\nand as the context teaches us, it is because He died for us that He is\nour Lord, and because He died for every man that He is every man's\nMaster and King.\n\nII. Note, secondly, the transformation of our lives and deaths affected\nthereby.\n\nYou may remember that, in my introductory remarks, I pointed out the\ndouble application of that antithesis of waking or sleeping in the\ncontext as referring in one case to the fact of physical life or death,\nand in the other to the fact of moral engrossment with the slumbering\ninfluences of the present, or of Christian vigilance. I carry some\nallusion to both of these ideas in the remarks that I have to make.\n\nThrough Jesus Christ life may be quickened into watchfulness. It is not\nenough to take waking as meaning living, for you may turn the metaphor\nround and say about a great many men that living means dreamy sleeping.\nPaul speaks in the preceding verses of 'others' than Christians as being\nasleep, and their lives as one long debauch and slumber in the night.\nWhilst, in contrast with physical death, physical life may be called\n'waking'; the condition of thousands of men, in regard to all the higher\nfaculties, activities, and realities of being, is that of\nsomnambulists--they are walking indeed, but they are walking in their\nsleep. Just as a man fast asleep knows nothing of the realities round\nhim; just as he is swallowed up in his own dreams, so many walk in a\nvain show. Their highest faculties are dormant; the only real things do\nnot touch them, and their eyes are closed to these. They live in a\nregion of illusions which will pass away at cock-crowing, and leave them\ndesolate. For some of us here living is only a distempered sleep,\ntroubled by dreams which, whether they be pleasant or bitter, equally\nlack roots in the permanent realities to which we shall wake some day.\nBut if we hold by Jesus Christ, who died for us, and let His love\nconstrain us, His Cross quicken us, and the might of His great sacrifice\ntouch us, and the blood of sprinkling be applied to our eyeballs as an\neye-salve, that we may see, we shall wake from our opiate sleep--though\nit may be as deep as if the sky rained soporifics upon us--and be\nconscious of the things that are, and have our dormant faculties roused,\nand be quickened into intense vigilance against our enemies, and brace\nourselves for our tasks, and be ever looking forward to that joyful\nhope, to that coming which shall bring the fulness of waking and of\nlife. So, you professing Christians, do you take the lessons of this\ntext? A sleeping Christian is on the high road to cease to be a\nChristian at all. If there be one thing more comprehensively imperative\nupon us than another, it is this, that, belonging, as we do by our very\nprofession, to the day, and being the children of the light, we shall\nneither sleep nor be drunken, but be sober, watching as they who expect\ntheir Lord. You walk amidst realities that will hide themselves unless\nyou gaze for them; therefore, watch. You walk amidst enemies that will\nsteal subtly upon you, like some gliding serpent through the grass, or\nsome painted savage in the forest; therefore, watch. You expect a Lord\nto come from heaven with a relieving army that is to raise the siege\nand free the hard-beset garrison from its fears and its toilsome work;\ntherefore, watch. 'They that sleep, sleep in the night.' They who are\nChrist's should be like the living creatures in the Revelation, all eyes\nround about, and every eye gazing on things unseen and looking for the\nMaster when He comes.\n\nOn the other hand, the death of Christ will soften our deaths into\nslumber. The Apostle will not call what the senses call death, by that\ndread name, which was warranted when applied to the facts of Christ's\ndeath. The physical fact remaining the same, all that is included under\nthe complex whole called death which makes its terrors, goes, for a man\nwho keeps fast hold of Christ who died and lives. For what makes the\nsting of death? Two or three things. It is like some poisonous insect's\nsting, it is a complex weapon. One side of it is the fear of\nretribution. Another side of it is the shrinking from loneliness.\nAnother side of it is the dread of the dim darkness of an unknown\nfuture. And all these are taken clean away. Is it guilt, dread of\nretribution? 'Thou shalt answer, Lord, for me.' Is it loneliness? In the\nvalley of darkness 'I will be with thee. My rod and My staff will\ncomfort thee.' Is it a shrinking from the dim unknown and all the\nfamiliar habitudes and occupations of the warm corner where we have\nlived? 'Jesus Christ has brought immortality to light by the Gospel.' We\ndo _not_, according to the sad words of one of the victims of modern\nadvanced thought, pass by the common road into the great darkness, but\nby the Christ-made living Way into the everlasting light. And so it is a\nmisnomer to apply the same term to the physical fact plus the\naccompaniment of dread and shrinking and fear of retribution and\nsolitude and darkness, and to the physical fact invested with the direct\nand bright opposites of all these.\n\nSleep is rest; sleep is consciousness; sleep is the prophecy of waking.\nWe know not what the condition of those who sleep in Jesus may be, but\nwe know that the child on its mother's breast, and conscious somehow, in\nits slumber, of the warm place where its head rests, is full of repose.\nAnd they that sleep in Jesus will be _so_. Then, whether we wake or\nsleep does not seem to matter so very much.\n\nIII. The united life of all who live with Christ.\n\nChrist's gift to men is the gift of life in all senses of that word,\nfrom the lowest to the highest. That life, as our text tells us, is\naltogether unaffected by death. We cannot see round the sharp angle\nwhere the valley turns, but we know that the path runs straight on\nthrough the gorge up to the throat of the pass--and so on to the\n'shining table-lands whereof our God Himself is Sun and Moon.' There are\nsome rivers that run through stagnant lakes, keeping the tinge of their\nwaters, and holding together the body of their stream undiverted from\nits course, and issuing undiminished and untarnished from the lower end\nof the lake. And so the stream of our lives may run through the Dead\nSea, and come out below none the worse for the black waters through\nwhich it has forced its way. The life that Christ gives is unaffected by\ndeath. Our creed is a risen Saviour, and the corollary of that creed is,\nthat death touches the circumference, but never gets near the man. It is\nhard to believe, in the face of the foolish senses; it is hard to\nbelieve, in the face of aching sorrow. It is hard to-day to believe, in\nthe face of passionate and ingenious denial, but it is true all the\nsame. Death is sleep, and sleep is life.\n\nAnd so, further, my text tells us that this life is life with Christ. We\nknow not details, we need not know them. Here we have the presence of\nJesus Christ, if we love Him, as really as when He walked the earth. Ay!\nmore really, for Jesus Christ is nearer to us who, having not seen Him,\nlove Him, and somewhat know His divinity and His sacrifice, than He was\nto the men who companied with Him all the time that He went in and out\namongst them, whilst they were ignorant of who dwelt with them, and\nentertained the Lord of angels and men unawares. He is with us, and it\nis the power and the privilege and the joy of our lives to realise His\npresence. That Lord who, whilst He was on earth, was the Son of Man\nwhich is in heaven, now that He is in heaven in His corporeal humanity\nis the Son of God who dwells with us. And as He dwells with us, if we\nlove Him and trust Him, so, but in fashion incapable of being revealed\nto us, now does He dwell with those of whose condition this is the only\nand all-sufficing positive knowledge which we have, that they are\n'absent from the body; present with the Lord.'\n\nFurther, that united life is a social life. The whole force of my text\nis often missed by English readers, who run into one idea the two words\n'together with.' But if you would put a comma after 'together,' you\nwould understand better what Paul meant. He refers to two forms of\nunion. Whether we wake or sleep we shall live all aggregated together,\nand all aggregated 'together' because each is 'with Him.' That is to\nsay, union with Jesus Christ makes all who partake of that union,\nwhether they belong to the one side of the river or the other, into a\nmighty whole. They are together because they are with the Lord.\n\nSuppose a great city, and a stream flowing through its centre. The\npalace and all pertaining to the court are on one side of the water;\nthere is an outlying suburb on the other, of meaner houses, inhabited by\npoor and humble people. But yet it is one city. 'Ye are come unto the\nheavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, and to the spirits of\njust men made perfect.' We are knit together by one life, one love, one\nthought; and the more we fix our hearts on the things which those above\nlive among and by, the more truly are we knit to them. As a quaint old\nEnglish writer says, 'They are gone but into another pew in the same\nchurch.'\n\nWe are one in Him, and so there will be a perfecting of union in\nreunion; and the inference so craved for by our hearts seems to be\nwarranted to our understandings, that that society above, which is the\nperfection of society, shall not be lacking in the elements of mutual\nrecognition and companionship, without which we cannot conceive of\nsociety at all. 'And so we shall ever be with the Lord.'\n\nDear friends, I beseech you to trust your sinful souls to that dear Lord\nwho bore you in His heart and mind when He bore His cross to Calvary and\ncompleted the work of your redemption. If you will accept Him as your\nsacrifice and Saviour, when He cried 'It is finished,' united to Him\nyour lives will be quickened into intense activity and joyful vigilance\nand expectation, and death will be smoothed into a quiet falling asleep.\n'The shadow feared of man,' that strikes threateningly across every\npath, will change as we approach it, if our hearts are anchored on Him\nwho died for us, into the Angel of Light to whom God has given charge\nconcerning us to bear up our feet upon His hands, and land us in the\npresence of the Lord and in the perfect society of those who love Him.\nAnd so shall we live together, and all together, with Him.\n\n\n\n\nEDIFICATION\n\n 'Edify one another.'--1 THESS. v. 11.\n\n\nI do not intend to preach about that clause only, but I take it as\ncontaining, in the simplest form, one of the Apostle's favourite\nmetaphors which runs through all his letters, and the significance of\nwhich, I think, is very little grasped by ordinary readers.\n\n'Edify one another.' All metaphorical words tend to lose their light and\ncolour, and the figure to get faint, in popular understanding. We all\nknow that 'edifice' means a building; we do not all realise that 'edify'\nmeans _to build up_. And it is a great misfortune that our Authorised\nVersion, in accordance with the somewhat doubtful principle on which its\ntranslators proceeded, varies the rendering of the one Greek word so as\nto hide the frequent recurrence of it in the apostolic teaching. The\nmetaphor that underlies it is the notion of building up a structure. The\nChristian idea of the structure to be built up is that it is a temple. I\nwish in this sermon to try to bring out some of the manifold lessons and\ntruths that lie in this great figure, as applied to the Christian life.\n\nNow, glancing over the various uses of the phrase in the New Testament,\nI find that the figure of 'building,' as the great duty of the Christian\nlife, is set forth under three aspects; self-edification, united\nedification, and divine edification. And I purpose to look at these in\norder.\n\nI. First, self-edification.\n\nAccording to the ideal of the Christian life that runs through the New\nTestament, each Christian man is a dwelling-place of God's, and his work\nis to build himself up into a temple worthy of the divine indwelling.\nNow, I suppose that the metaphor is such a natural and simple one that\nwe do not need to look for any Scriptural basis of it. But if we did, I\nshould be disposed to find it in the solemn antithesis with which the\nSermon on the Mount is closed, where there are the two houses pictured,\nthe one built upon the rock and standing firm, and the other built upon\nthe sand. But that is perhaps unnecessary.\n\nWe are all builders; building up--what? Character, ourselves. But what\nsort of a thing is it that we are building? Some of us pigsties, in\nwhich gross, swinish lusts wallow in filth; some of us shops; some of us\nlaboratories, studies, museums; some of us amorphous structures that\ncannot be described. But the Christian man is to be building himself up\ninto a temple of God. The aim which should ever burn clear before us,\nand preside over even our smallest actions, is that which lies in this\nmisused old word, 'edify' yourselves.\n\nThe first thing about a structure is the foundation. And Paul was narrow\nenough to believe that the one foundation upon which a human spirit\ncould be built up into a hallowed character is Jesus Christ. He is the\nbasis of all our certitude. He is the anchor for all our hopes. To Him\nshould be referred all our actions; for Him and by Him our lives should\nbe lived. On Him should rest, solid and inexpugnable, standing\nfour-square to all the winds that blow, the fabric of our characters.\nJesus Christ is the pattern, the motive which impels, and the power\nwhich enables, me to rear myself into a habitation of God through the\nSpirit. Whilst I gladly acknowledge that very lovely structures may be\nreared upon another foundation than Him, I would beseech you all to lay\nthis on your hearts and consciences, that for the loftiest, serenest\nbeauty of character there is but one basis upon which it can be rested.\n'Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus\nChrist.'\n\nThen there is another aspect of this same metaphor, not in Paul's\nwritings but in another part of the New Testament, where we read: 'Ye,\nbeloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith.' So that, in a\nsubordinate sense, a man's faith is the basis upon which he can build\nsuch a structure of character; or, to put it into other words--in regard\nto the man himself, the first requisite to the rearing of such a fabric\nas God will dwell in is that he, by his own personal act of faith,\nshould have allied himself to Jesus Christ, who is the foundation; and\nshould be in a position to draw from Him all the power, and to feel\nraying out from Him all the impulses, and lovingly to discern in Him all\nthe characteristics, which make Him a pattern for all men in their\nbuilding.\n\nThe first course of stone that we lay is Faith; and that course is, as\nit were, mortised into the foundation, the living Rock. He that builds\non Christ cannot build but by faith. The two representations are\ncomplementary to one another, the one, which represents Jesus Christ as\nthe foundation, stating the ultimate fact, and the other, which\nrepresents faith as the foundation, stating the condition on which we\ncome into vital contact with Christ Himself.\n\nThen, further, in this great thought of the Christian life being\nsubstantially a building up of oneself on Jesus is implied the need for\ncontinuous labour. You cannot build up a house in half an hour. You\ncannot do it, as the old fable told us that Orpheus did, by music, or by\nwishing. There must be dogged, hard, continuous, life-long effort if\nthere is to be this building up. No man becomes a saint _per saltum_. No\nman makes a character at a flash. The stones are actions; the mortar is\nthat mystical, awful thing, habit; and deeds cemented together by custom\nrise into that stately dwelling-place in which God abides. So, there is\nto be a life-long work in character, gradually rearing it into His\nlikeness.\n\nThe metaphor also carries with it the idea of orderly progression. There\nare a number of other New Testament emblems which set forth this notion\nof the true Christian ideal as being continual growth. For instance,\n'first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear,'\nrepresents it as resembling vegetable growth, while elsewhere it is\nlikened to the growth of the human body. Both of these are beautiful\nimages, in that they suggest that such progressive advancement is the\nnatural consequence of life; and is in one aspect effortless and\ninstinctive.\n\nBut then you have to supplement that emblem with others, and there comes\nin sharp contrast to it the metaphor which represents the Christian\nprogress as being warfare. There the element of resistance is\nemphasised, and the thought is brought out that progress is to be made\nin spite of strong antagonisms, partly to be found in external\ncircumstances, and partly to be found in our own treacherous selves. The\ngrowth of the corn or of the body does not cover the whole facts of the\ncase, but there must be warfare in order to growth.\n\nThere is also the other metaphor by which this Christian progress, which\nis indispensable to the Christian life, and is to be carried on,\nwhatever may oppose it, is regarded as a race. There the idea of the\ngreat, attractive, but far-off future reward comes into view, as well as\nthe strained muscles and the screwed-up energy with which the runner\npresses towards the mark. But we have not only to fling the result\nforward into the future, and to think of the Christian life as all\ntending towards an end, which end is not realised here; but we have to\nthink of it, in accordance with this metaphor of my text, as being\ncontinuously progressive, so as that, though unfinished, the building is\nthere; and much is done, though all is not accomplished, and the courses\nrise slowly, surely, partially realising the divine Architect's ideal,\nlong before the headstone is brought out with shoutings and tumult of\nacclaim. A continuous progress and approximation towards the perfect\nideal of the temple completed, consecrated, and inhabited by God, lies\nin this metaphor.\n\nIs that _you_, Christian man and woman? Is the notion of progress a part\nof _your_ working belief? Are _you_ growing, fighting, running, building\nup yourselves more and more in your holy faith? Alas! I cannot but\nbelieve that the very notion of progress has died out from a great many\nprofessing Christians.\n\nThere is one more idea in this metaphor of self-edification, viz., that\nour characters should be being modelled by us on a definite plan, and\ninto a harmonious whole. I wonder how many of us in this chapel this\nmorning have ever spent a quiet hour in trying to set clearly before\nourselves what we want to make of ourselves, and how we mean to go\nabout it. Most of us live by haphazard very largely, even in regard to\noutward things, and still more entirely in regard to our characters.\nMost of us have not consciously before us, as you put a pattern-line\nbefore a child learning to write, any ideal of ourselves to which we are\nreally seeking to approximate. Have you? And could you put it into\nwords? And are you making any kind of intelligent and habitual effort to\nget at it? I am afraid a great many of us, if we were honest, would have\nto say, No! If a man goes to work as his own architect, and has a very\nhazy idea of what it is that he means to build, he will not build\nanything worth the trouble. If your way of building up yourselves is, as\nAaron said his way of making the calf was, putting all into the fire,\nand letting chance settle what comes out, nothing will come out better\nthan a calf. Brother! if you are going to build, have a plan, and let\nthe plan be the likeness of Jesus Christ. And then, with continuous\nwork, and the exercise of continuous faith, which knits you to the\nfoundation, 'build up yourselves for an habitation of God.'\n\nII. We have to consider united edification.\n\nThere are two streams of representation about this matter in the Pauline\nEpistles, the one with which I have already been dealing, which does not\nso often appear, and the other which is the habitual form of the\nrepresentation, according to which the Christian community, as a whole,\nis a temple, and building up is a work to be done reciprocally and in\ncommon. We have that representation with special frequency and detail in\nthe Epistle to the Ephesians, where perhaps we may not be fanciful in\nsupposing that the great prominence given to it, and to the idea of the\nChurch as the temple of God, may have been in some degree due to the\nexistence, in that city, of one of the seven wonders of the world, the\nTemple of Diana of the Ephesians.\n\nBut, be that as it may, what I want to point out is that united building\nis inseparable from the individual building up of which I have been\nspeaking.\n\nNow, it is often very hard for good, conscientious people to determine\nhow much of their efforts ought to be given to the perfecting of their\nown characters in any department, and how much ought to be given to\ntrying to benefit and help other people. I wish you to notice that one\nof the most powerful ways of building up myself is to do my very best to\nbuild up others. Some, like men in my position, for instance, and others\nwhose office requires them to spend a great deal of time and energy in\nthe service of their fellows, are tempted to devote themselves too much\nto building up character in other people, and to neglect their own. It\nis a temptation that we need to fight against, and which can only be\novercome by much solitary meditation. Some of us, on the other hand, may\nbe tempted, for the sake of our own perfecting, intellectual\ncultivation, or improvement in other ways, to minimise the extent to\nwhich we are responsible for helping and blessing other people. But let\nus remember that the two things cannot be separated; and that there is\nnothing that will make a man more like Christ, which is the end of all\nour building, than casting himself into the service of his fellows with\nself-oblivion.\n\nPeter said, 'Master! let us make here three tabernacles.' Ay! But there\nwas a demoniac boy down below, and the disciples could not cast out the\ndemon. The Apostle did not know what he said when he preferred building\nup himself, by communion with God and His glorified servants, to\nhurrying down into the valley, where there were devils to fight and\nbroken hearts to heal. Build up yourselves, by all means; if you do you\nwill have to build up your brethren. 'The edifying of the body of\nChrist' is a plain duty which no Christian man can neglect without\nleaving a tremendous gap in the structure which he ought to rear.\n\nThe building resulting from united edification is represented in\nScripture, not as the agglomeration of a number of little shrines, the\nindividuals, but as one great temple. That temple grows in two respects,\nboth of which carry with them imperative duties to us Christian people.\nIt grows by the addition of new stones. And so every Christian is bound\nto seek to gather into the fold those that are wandering far away, and\nto lay some stone upon that sure foundation. It grows, also, by the\ncloser approximation of all the members one to another, and the\nindividual increase of each in Christlike characteristics. And we are\nbound to help one another therein, and to labour earnestly for the\nadvancement of our brethren, and for the unity of God's Church. Apart\nfrom such efforts our individual edifying of ourselves will become\nisolated, the results one-sided, and we ourselves shall lose much of\nwhat is essential to the rearing in ourselves of a holy character. 'What\nGod hath joined together let not man put asunder.' Neither seek to build\nup yourselves apart from the community, nor seek to build up the\ncommunity apart from yourselves.\n\nIII. Lastly, the Apostle, in his writings, sets forth another aspect of\nthis general thought, viz., divine edification.\n\nWhen he spoke to the elders of the church of Ephesus he said that Christ\nwas able 'to build them up.' When he wrote to the Corinthians he said,\n'Ye are _God's_ building.' To the Ephesians he wrote, 'Ye are built for\nan habitation of God _through the Spirit_.' And so high above all our\nindividual and all our united effort he carries up our thoughts to the\ndivine Master-builder, by whose work alone a Paul, when he lays the\nfoundation, and an Apollos, when he builds thereupon, are of any use at\nall.\n\nThus, dear brethren, we have to base all our efforts on this deeper\ntruth, that it is God who builds us into a temple meet for Himself, and\nthen comes to dwell in the temple that He has built.\n\nSo let us keep our hearts and minds expectant of, and open for, that\nSpirit's influences. Let us be sure that we are using all the power that\nGod does give us. His work does not supersede mine. My work is to avail\nmyself of His. The two thoughts are not contradictory. They correspond\nto, and fill out, each other, though warring schools of one-eyed\ntheologians and teachers have set them in antagonism. 'Work _out_ . . .\nfor it is God that worketh _in_.' That is the true reconciliation. 'Ye\nare God's building; build up yourselves in your most holy faith.'\n\nIf God is the builder, then boundless, indomitable hope should be ours.\nNo man can look at his own character, after all his efforts to mend it,\nwithout being smitten by a sense of despair, if he has only his own\nresources to fall back upon. Our experience is like that of the monkish\nbuilders, according to many an old legend, who found every morning that\nyesterday's work had been pulled down in the darkness by demon hands.\nThere is no man whose character is anything more than a torso, an\nincomplete attempt to build up the structure that was in his mind--like\nthe ruins of half-finished palaces and temples which travellers came\nacross sometimes in lands now desolate, reared by a forgotten race who\nwere swept away by some unknown calamity, and have left the stones\nhalf-lifted to their courses, half-hewed in their quarries, and the\nbuilding gaunt and incomplete. But men will never have to say about any\nof God's architecture, He 'began to build and was not able to finish.'\nAs the old prophecy has it, 'His hands have laid the foundation of the\nhouse, His hands shall also finish it.' Therefore, we are entitled to\ncherish endless hope and quiet confidence that we, even we, shall be\nreared up into an habitation of God through the Spirit.\n\nWhat are you building? 'Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone.'\nLet every man take heed _what_ and _how_ and _that_ he buildeth thereon.\n\n\n\n\nCONTINUAL PRAYER AND ITS EFFECTS\n\n 'Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In\n everything give thanks.'--1 THESS. v. 16-18.\n\n\nThe peculiarity and the stringency of these three precepts is the\nunbroken continuity which they require. To rejoice, to pray, to give\nthanks, are easy when circumstances favour, as a taper burns steadily in\na windless night; but to do these things always is as difficult as for\nthe taper's flame to keep upright when all the winds are eddying round\nit. 'Evermore'--'without ceasing'--'in everything'--these qualifying\nwords give the injunctions of this text their grip and urgency. The\nApostle meets the objections which he anticipates would spring to the\nlips of the Thessalonians, to the effect that he was requiring\nimpossibilities, by adding that, hard and impracticable as they might\nthink such a constant attitude of mind and heart, 'This is the will of\nGod in Christ Jesus concerning you.' So, then, a Christian life may be\nlived continuously on the high level; and more than that, it is our duty\nto try to live ours thus.\n\nWe need not fight with other Christian people about whether absolute\nobedience to these precepts is possible. It will be soon enough for us\nto discuss whether a completely unbroken uniformity of Christian\nexperience is attainable in this life, when we have come a good deal\nnearer to the attainable than we have yet reached. Let us mend our\nbreaches of continuity a good deal more, and then we may begin to\ndiscuss the question whether an absolute absence of any cessation of the\ncontinuity is consistent with the conditions of Christian life here.\n\nNow it seems to me that these three exhortations hold together in a very\nstriking way, and that Paul knew what he was about when he put in the\nmiddle, like the strong central pole that holds up a tent, that\nexhortation, 'Pray without ceasing.' For it is the primary precept, and\non its being obeyed the possibility of the fulfilment of the other two\ndepends. If we pray without ceasing, we shall rejoice evermore and in\neverything give thanks. So, then, the duty of continual prayer, and the\npromise, as well as the precept, that its results are to be continual\njoy and continual thanksgiving, are suggested by these words.\n\nI. The duty of continual prayer.\n\nRoman Catholics, with their fatal habit of turning the spiritual into\nmaterial, think that they obey that commandment when they set a priest\nor a nun on the steps of the altar to repeat _Ave Marias_ day and night.\nThat is a way of praying without ceasing which we can all see to be\nmechanical and unworthy. But have we ever realised what this commandment\nnecessarily reveals to us, as to what real prayer is? For if we are told\nto do a thing uninterruptedly, it must be something that can run\nunbroken through all the varieties of our legitimate duties and\nnecessary occupations and absorptions with the things seen and temporal.\nIs that your notion of prayer? Or do you fancy that it simply means\ndropping down on your knees, and asking God to give you some things that\nyou very much want? Petition is an element in prayer, and that it shall\nbe crystallised into words is necessary sometimes; but there are prayers\nthat never get themselves uttered, and I suppose that the deepest and\ntruest communion with God is voiceless and wordless. 'Things which it\nwas not possible for a man to utter,' was Paul's description of what he\nsaw and felt, when he was most completely absorbed in, and saturated\nwith, the divine glory. The more we understand what prayer is, the less\nwe shall feel that it depends upon utterance. For the essence of it is\nto have heart and mind filled with the consciousness of God's presence,\nand to have the habit of referring everything to Him, in the moment when\nwe are doing it, or when it meets us. That, as I take it, is prayer. The\nold mystics had a phrase, quaint, and in some sense unfortunate, but\nvery striking, when they spoke about 'the practice of the presence of\nGod.' God is here always, you will say; yes, He is, and to open the\nshutters, and to let the light always in, into every corner of my heart,\nand every detail of my life--that is what Paul means by 'Praying\nwithout ceasing.' Petitions? Yes; but something higher than\npetitions--the consciousness of being in touch with the Father, feeling\nthat He is all round us. It was said about one mystical thinker that he\nwas a 'God-intoxicated man.' It is an ugly word, but it expresses a very\ndeep thing; but let us rather say a _God-filled_ man. He who is such\n'prays always.'\n\nBut how may we maintain that state of continual devotion, even amidst\nthe various and necessary occupations of our daily lives? As I said, we\nneed not trouble ourselves about the possibility of complete attainment\nof that ideal. We know that we can each of us pray a great deal more\nthan we do, and if there are regions in our lives into which we feel\nthat God will not come, habits that we have dropped into which we feel\nto be a film between us and Him, the sooner we get rid of them the\nbetter. But into all our daily duties, dear friends, however absorbing,\nhowever secular, however small, however irritating they may be, however\nmonotonous, into all our daily duties it is possible to bring Him.\n\n 'A servant with this clause\n Makes drudgery divine,\n Who sweeps a room, as by Thy laws,\n Makes that and the calling fine.'\n\nBut if that is our aim, our conscious aim, our honest aim, we shall\nrecognise that a help to it is _words of_ prayer. I do not believe in\nsilent adoration, if there is nothing but silent; and I do not believe\nin a man going through life with the conscious presence of God with him,\nunless, often, in the midst of the stress of daily life, he shoots\nlittle arrows of two-worded prayers up into the heavens, 'Lord! be with\nme.' 'Lord! help me.' 'Lord! stand by me now'; and the like. 'They\ncried unto God in the battle,' when some people would have thought they\nwould have been better occupied in trying to keep their heads with their\nswords. It was not a time for very elaborate supplications when the\nfoemen's arrows were whizzing round them, but 'they cried unto the Lord,\nand He was entreated of them.' 'Pray without ceasing.'\n\nFurther, if we honestly try to obey this precept we shall more and more\nfind out, the more earnestly we do so, that set seasons of prayer are\nindispensable to realising it. I said that I do not believe in silent\nadoration unless it sometimes finds its tongue, nor do I believe in a\ndiffused worship that does not flow from seasons of prayer. There must\nbe, away up amongst the hills, a dam cast across the valley that the\nwater may be gathered behind it, if the great city is to be supplied\nwith the pure fluid. What would become of Manchester if it were not for\nthe reservoirs at Woodhead away among the hills? Your pipes would be\nempty. And that is what will become of you Christian professors in\nregard to your habitual consciousness of God's presence, if you do not\ntake care to have your hours of devotion sacred, never to be interfered\nwith, be they long or short, as may have to be determined by family\ncircumstances, domestic duties, daily avocations, and a thousand other\ncauses. But, unless we pray at set seasons, there is little likelihood\nof our praying without ceasing.\n\nII. The duty of continual rejoicing.\n\nIf we begin with the central duty of continual prayer, then these other\ntwo which, as it were, flow from it on either side, will be possible to\nus; and of these two the Apostle sets first, 'Rejoice evermore.' This\nprecept was given to the Thessalonians, in Paul's first letter, when\nthings were comparatively bright with him, and he was young and buoyant;\nand in one of his later letters, when he was a prisoner, and things were\nanything but rosy coloured, he struck the same note again, and in spite\nof his 'bonds in Christ' bade the Philippians 'Rejoice in the Lord\nalways, and again I say, Rejoice.' Indeed, that whole prison-letter\nmight be called the Epistle of Joy, so suffused with sunshine of\nChristian gladness is it. Now, no doubt, joy is largely a matter of\ntemperament. Some of us are constitutionally more buoyant and cheerful\nthan others. And it is also very largely a matter of circumstances.\n\nI admit all that, and yet I come back to Paul's command: 'Rejoice\nevermore.' For if we are Christian people, and have cultivated what I\nhave called 'the practice of the presence of God' in our lives, then\nthat will change the look of things, and events that otherwise would be\n'at enmity with joy' will cease to have a hostile influence over it.\nThere are two sources from which a man's gladness may come, the one his\ncircumstances of a pleasant and gladdening character; the other his\ncommunion with God. It is like some river that is composed of two\naffluents, one of which rises away up in the mountains, and is fed by\nthe eternal snows; the other springs on the plain somewhere, and is but\nthe drainage of the surface-water, and when hot weather comes, and\ndrought is over all the land, the one affluent is dry, and only a chaos\nof ghastly white stones litters the bed where the flashing water used to\nbe. What then? Is the stream gone because one of its affluents is dried\nup, and has perished or been lost in the sands? The gushing fountains\naway up among the peaks near the stars are bubbling up all the same,\nand the heat that dried the surface stream has only loosened the\ntreasures of the snows, and poured them more abundantly into the other's\nbed. So 'Rejoice in the Lord always'; and if earth grows dark, lift your\neyes to the sky, that is light. To one walking in the woods at nightfall\n'all the paths are dim,' but the strip of heaven above the trees is the\nbrighter for the green gloom around. The organist's one hand may be\nkeeping up one sustained note, while the other is wandering over the\nkeys; and one part of a man's nature may be steadfastly rejoicing in the\nLord, whilst the other is feeling the weight of sorrows that come from\nearth. The paradox of the Christian life may be realised as a blessed\nexperience of every one of us: a surface troubled, a central calm; an\nocean tossed with storm, and yet the crest of every wave flashing in the\nsunshine. 'Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice.'\n\nIII. Lastly, the duty of continual thankfulness.\n\nThat, too, is possible only on condition of continual communion with\nGod. As I said in reference to joy, so I say in reference to\nthankfulness; the look of things in this world depends very largely on\nthe colour of the spectacles through which you behold them.\n\n 'There's nothing either good or bad\n But thinking makes it so.'\n\nAnd if a man in communion with God looks at the events of his life as he\nmight put on a pair of coloured glasses to look at a landscape, it will\nbe tinted with a glory and a glow as he looks. The obligation to\ngratitude, often neglected by us, is singularly, earnestly, and\nfrequently enjoined in the New Testament. I am afraid that the average\nChristian man does not recognise its importance as an element in his\nChristian experience. As directed to the past it means that we do not\nforget, but that, as we look back, we see the meaning of these old days,\nand their possible blessings, and the loving purposes which sent them, a\ngreat deal more clearly than we did whilst we were passing through them.\nThe mountains that, when you are close to them, are barren rock and cold\nsnow, glow in the distance with royal purples. And so if we, from our\nstanding point in God, will look back on our lives, losses will disclose\nthemselves as gains, sorrows as harbingers of joy, conflict as a means\nof peace, the crooked things will be straight, and the rough places\nplain; and we may for every thing in the past give thanks, if only we\n'pray without ceasing.' The exhortation as applied to the present means\nthat we bow our wills, that we believe that all things are working\ntogether for our good, and that, like Job in his best moments, we shall\nsay, 'The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the Name of\nthe Lord.' Ah, that is hard. It is possible, but it is only possible if\nwe 'pray without ceasing,' and dwell beside God all the days of our\nlives, and all the hours of every day. Then, and only then, shall we be\nable to thank Him for all the way by which He hath led us these many\nyears in the wilderness, that has been brightened by the pillar of cloud\nby day, and the fire by night.\n\n\n\n\nPAUL'S EARLIEST TEACHING\n\n 'I charge you, by the Lord, that this epistle be\n read unto all the holy brethren,'--1 THESS. v. 27.\n\n\nIf the books of the New Testament were arranged according to the dates\nof their composition, this epistle would stand first. It was written\nsomewhere about twenty years after the Crucifixion, and long before any\nof the existing Gospels. It is, therefore, of peculiar interest, as\nbeing the most venerable extant Christian document, and as being a\nwitness to Christian truth quite independent of the Gospel narratives.\n\nThe little community at Thessalonica had been gathered together as the\nresult of a very brief period of ministration by Paul. He had spoken for\nthree successive Sabbaths in the synagogue, and had drawn together a\nChristian society, mostly consisting of heathens, though with a\nsprinkling of Jews amongst them. Driven from the city by a riot, he had\nleft it for Athens, with many anxious thoughts, of course, as to whether\nthe infant community would be able to stand alone after so few weeks of\nhis presence and instruction. Therefore he sent back one of his\ntravelling companions, Timothy by name, to watch over the young plant\nfor a little while. When Timothy returned with the intelligence of their\nsteadfastness, it was good news indeed, and with a sense of relieved\nanxiety, he sits down to write this letter, which, all through, throbs\nwith thankfulness, and reveals the strain which the news had taken off\nhis spirit.\n\nThere are no such definite doctrinal statements in it as in the most of\nPaul's longer letters; it is simply an outburst of confidence and love\nand tenderness, and a series of practical instructions. It has been\ncalled the least doctrinal of the Pauline Epistles. And in one sense,\nand under certain limitations, that is perfectly true. But the very fact\nthat it is so makes its indications and hints and allusions the more\nsignificant; and if this letter, not written for the purpose of\nenforcing any special doctrinal truth, be so saturated as it is with the\nfacts and principles of the Gospel, the stronger is the attestation\nwhich it gives to the importance of these. I have, therefore, thought it\nmight be worth our while now, and might, perhaps, set threadbare truth\nin something of a new light, if we put this--the most ancient Christian\nwriting extant, which is quite independent of the four Gospels--into the\nwitness-box, and see what it has to say about the great truths and\nprinciples which we call the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is my simple\ndesign, and I gather the phenomena into three or four divisions for the\nsake of accuracy and order.\n\nI. First of all, then, let us hear its witness to the divine Christ.\n\nLook how the letter begins. 'Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the\nchurch of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father, and in the Lord\nJesus Christ.' What is the meaning of that collocation, putting these\ntwo names side by side, unless it means that the Lord Jesus Christ sits\non the Father's throne, and is divine?\n\nThen there is another fact that I would have you notice, and that is\nthat more than twenty times in this short letter that great name is\napplied to Jesus, 'the Lord.' Now mark that that is something more than\na mere title of human authority. It is in reality the New Testament\nequivalent of the Old Testament Jehovah, and is the transference to Him\nof that incommunicable name.\n\nAnd then there is another fact which I would have you weigh, viz., that\nin this letter direct prayer is offered to our Lord Himself. In one\nplace we read the petition, 'May our God and Father Himself and our Lord\nJesus direct our way unto you,' where the petition is presented to both,\nand where both are supposed to be operative in the answer. And more than\nthat, the word 'direct,' following upon this _plural_ subject, is itself\na _singular_ verb. Could language more completely express than that\ngrammatical solecism does, the deep truth of the true and proper\ndivinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? There is nothing in any\npart of Scripture more emphatic and more lofty in its unfaltering\nproclamation of that fundamental truth of the Gospel than this\naltogether undoctrinal Epistle.\n\nThe Apostle does not conceive himself to be telling these men, though\nthey were such raw and recent Christians, anything new when he\npresupposes the truth that to Him desires and prayers may go. Thus the\nvery loftiest apex of revealed religion had been imparted to that\nhandful of heathens in the few weeks of the Apostle's stay amongst them.\nAnd nowhere upon the inspired pages of the fourth Evangelist, nor in\nthat great Epistle to the Colossians, which is the very citadel and\ncentral fort of that doctrine in Scripture, is there more emphatically\nstated this truth than here, in these incidental allusions.\n\nThis witness, at any rate, declares, apart altogether from any other\npart of Scripture, that so early in the development of the Church's\nhistory, and to people so recently dragged from idolatry, and having\nreceived but such necessarily partial instruction in revealed truth,\nthis had not been omitted, that the Christ in whom they trusted was the\nEverlasting Son of the Father. And it takes it for granted that, so\ndeeply was that truth embedded in their new consciousness that an\nallusion to it was all that was needed for their understanding and their\nfaith. That is the first part of the testimony.\n\nII. Now, secondly, let us ask what this witness has to say about the\ndying Christ.\n\nThere is no doctrinal theology in the Epistle to the Thessalonians, they\ntell us. Granted that there is no articulate argumentative setting forth\nof great doctrinal truths. But these are implied and involved in almost\nevery word of it; and are definitely stated thus incidentally in more\nplaces than one. Let us hear the witness about the dying Christ.\n\nFirst, as to the fact, 'The Jews killed the Lord Jesus.' The historical\nfact is here set forth distinctly. And then, beyond the fact, there is\nas distinctly, though in the same incidental fashion, set forth the\nmeaning of that fact--'God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain\nsalvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us.'\n\nHere are at least two things--one, the allusion, as to a well-known and\nreceived truth, proclaimed before now to them, that Jesus Christ in His\ndeath had died for them; and the other, that Jesus Christ was the medium\nthrough whom the Father had appointed that men should obtain all the\nblessings which are wrapped up in that sovereign word 'salvation.' I\nneed but mention in this connection another verse, from another part of\nthe letter, which speaks of Jesus as 'He that delivereth us from the\nwrath to come.' Remark that there our Authorised Version fails to give\nthe whole significance of the words, because it translates _delivered_,\ninstead of, as the Revised Version correctly does, _delivereth_. It is a\ncontinuous deliverance, running all through the life of the Christian\nman, and not merely to be realised away yonder at the far end; because\nby the mighty providence of God, and by the automatic working of the\nconsequences of every transgression and disobedience, that 'wrath' is\never coming, coming, coming towards men, and lighting on them, and a\ncontinual Deliverer, who delivers us by His death, is what the human\nheart needs. This witness is distinct that the death of Christ is a\nsacrifice, that the death of Christ is man's deliverance from wrath,\nthat the death of Christ is a present deliverance from the consequences\nof transgression.\n\nAnd was that Paul's peculiar doctrine? Is it conceivable that, in a\nletter in which he refers--once, at all events--to the churches in Judea\nas their 'brethren,' he was proclaiming any individual or schismatic\nreading of the facts of the life of Jesus Christ? I believe that there\nhas been a great deal too much made of the supposed divergencies of\ntypes of doctrine in the New Testament. There are such types, within\ncertain limits. Nobody would mistake a word of John's calm, mystical,\ncontemplative spirit for a word of Paul's fiery, dialectic spirit. And\nnobody would mistake either the one or the other for Peter's impulsive,\nwarm-hearted exhortations. But whilst there are diversities in the way\nof apprehending, there are no diversities in the declaration of what is\nthe central truth to be apprehended. These varyings of the types of\ndoctrine in the New Testament are one in this, that all point to the\nCross as the world's salvation, and declare that the death there was the\ndeath for all mankind.\n\nPaul comes to it with his reasoning; John comes to it with his adoring\ncontemplation; Peter comes to it with his mind saturated with Old\nTestament allusions. Paul declares that the 'Christ died for us'; John\ndeclares that He is 'the Lamb of God'; Peter declares that 'Christ bare\nour sins in His own body on the tree.' But all make one unbroken phalanx\nof witness in their proclamation, that the Cross, because it is a cross\nof sacrifice, is a cross of reconciliation and peace and hope. And this\nis the Gospel that they all proclaim, 'how that Jesus Christ died for\nour sins according to the Scriptures,' and Paul could venture to say,\n'Whether it were they or I, so we preach, and so ye believed.'\n\nThat was the Gospel that took these heathens, wallowing in the mire of\nsensuous idolatry, and lifted them up to the elevation and the\nblessedness of children of God.\n\nAnd if you will read this letter, and think that there had been only a\nfew weeks of acquaintance with the Gospel on the part of its readers,\nand then mark how the early and imperfect glimpse of it had transformed\nthem, you will see where the power lies in the proclamation of the\nGospel. A short time before they had been heathens; and now says Paul,\n'From you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and\nAchaia, but also in every place your faith to Godward is spread abroad;\nso that we need not to speak anything.' We do not need to talk to you\nabout 'love of the brethren,' for 'yourselves are taught of God to love\none another, and my heart is full of thankfulness when I think of your\nwork of faith and labour of love and patience of hope.' The men had been\ntransformed. What transformed them? The message of a divine and dying\nChrist, who had offered up Himself without spot unto God, and who was\ntheir peace and their righteousness and their power.\n\nIII. Thirdly, notice what this witness has to say about the risen and\nascended Christ. Here is what it has to say: 'Ye turned unto God . . . to\nwait for His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead.' And again:\n'The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.' The risen\nChrist, then, is in the heavens, and Paul assumes that these people,\njust brought out of heathenism, have received that truth into their\nhearts in the love of it, and know it so thoroughly that he can take for\ngranted their entire acquiescence in and acceptance of it.\n\nRemember, we have nothing to do with the four Gospels here. Remember,\nnot a line of them had yet been written. Remember, that we are dealing\nhere with an entirely independent witness. And then tell us what\nimportance is to be attached to this evidence of the Resurrection of\nJesus Christ. Twenty years after His death here is this man speaking\nabout that Resurrection as being not only something that he had to\nproclaim, and believed, but as being the recognised and notorious fact\nwhich all the churches accepted, and which underlay all their faith.\n\nI would have you remember that if, twenty years after this event, this\nwitness was borne, that necessarily carries us back a great deal nearer\nto the event than the hour of its utterance, for there is no mark of\nits being new testimony at that instant, but every mark of its being the\nhabitual and continuous witness that had been borne from the instant of\nthe alleged Resurrection to the present time. It at least takes us back\na good many years nearer the empty sepulchre than the twenty which mark\nits date. It at least takes us back to the conversion of the Apostle\nPaul; and that necessarily involves, as it seems to me, that if that\nman, believing in the Resurrection, went into the Church, there would\nhave been an end of his association with them, unless he had found there\nthe same faith. The fact of the matter is, there is not a place where\nyou can stick a pin in, between the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the\ndate of this letter, wide enough to admit of the rise of the faith in a\nResurrection. We are necessarily forced by the very fact of the\nexistence of the Church to the admission that the belief in the\nResurrection was contemporaneous with the alleged Resurrection itself.\n\nAnd so we are shut up--in spite of the wriggling of people that do not\naccept that great truth--we are shut up to the old alternative, as it\nseems to me, that either Jesus Christ rose from the dead, or the noblest\nlives that the world has ever seen, and the loftiest system of morality\nthat has ever been proclaimed, were built upon a lie. And we are called\nto believe that at the bidding of a mere unsupported, bare, dogmatic\nassertion that miracles are impossible. Believe it who will, I decline\nto be coerced into believing a blank, staring psychological\ncontradiction and impossibility, in order to be saved the necessity of\nadmitting the existence of the supernatural. I would rather believe in\nthe supernatural than the ridiculous. And to me it is unspeakably\nridiculous to suppose that anything but the fact of the Resurrection\naccounts for the existence of the Church, and for the faith of this\nwitness that we have before us.\n\nAnd so, dear friends, we come back to this, the Christianity that flings\naway the risen Christ is a mere mass of tatters with nothing in it to\ncover a man's nakedness, an illusion with no vitality in it to quicken,\nto comfort, to ennoble, to raise, to teach aspiration or hope or effort.\nThe human heart needs the '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 this independent witness confirms the Gospel\nstory: 'Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits\nof them that slept.'\n\nIV. Lastly, let us hear what this witness has to say about the returning\nChrist.\n\nThat is the characteristic doctrinal subject of the letter. We all know\nthat wonderful passage of unsurpassed tenderness and majesty, which has\nsoothed so many hearts and been like a gentle hand laid upon so many\naching spirits, about the returning Jesus 'coming in the clouds,' with\nthe dear ones that are asleep along with Him, and the reunion of them\nthat sleep and them that are alive and remain, in one indissoluble\nconcord and concourse, when we shall ever be with the Lord, and 'clasp\ninseparable hands with joy and bliss in over-measure for ever.' The\ncoming of the Master does not appear here with emphasis on its judicial\naspect. It is rather intended to bring hope to the mourners, and the\ncertainty that bands broken here may be re-knit in holier fashion\nhereafter. But the judicial aspect is not, as it could not be, left out,\nand the Apostle further tells us that 'that day cometh as a thief in the\nnight.' That is a quotation of the Master's own words, which we find in\nthe Gospels; and so again a confirmation, so far as it goes, from an\nindependent witness, of the Gospel story. And then he goes on, in\nterrible language, to speak of 'sudden destruction, as of travail upon a\nwoman with child; and they shall not escape.'\n\nThese, then, are the points of this witness's testimony as to the\nreturning Lord--a personal coming, a reunion of all believers in Him, in\norder to eternal felicity and mutual gladness, and the destruction that\nshall fall by His coming upon those who turn away from Him.\n\nWhat a revelation that would be to men who had known what it was to\ngrope in the darkness of heathendom, and to have new light upon the\nfuture!\n\nI remember once walking in the long galleries of the Vatican, on the one\nside of which there are Christian inscriptions from the catacombs, and\non the other heathen inscriptions from the tombs. One side is all dreamy\nand hopeless; one long sigh echoing along the line of white\nmarbles--'Vale! vale! in aeternum vale!' (Farewell, farewell, for ever\nfarewell.) On the other side--'In Christo, in pace, in spe.' (In Christ,\nin peace, in hope.) That is the witness that we have to lay to our\nhearts. And so death becomes a passage, and we let go the dear hands,\nbelieving that we shall clasp them again.\n\nMy brother! this witness is to a gospel that is the gospel for\nManchester as well as for Thessalonica. You and I want just the same as\nthese old heathens there wanted. We, too, need the divine Christ, the\ndying Christ, the risen Christ, the ascended Christ, the returning\nChrist. And I beseech you to take Him for _your_ Christ, in all the\nfulness of His offices, the manifoldness of His power, and the sweetness\nof His love, so that of you it may be said, as this Apostle says about\nthese Thessalonians, 'Ye received it not as the word of man, but, as it\nis in truth, as the word of God.'\n\n\n\n\nII. THESSALONIANS\n\n\n\n\nCHRIST GLORIFIED IN GLORIFIED MEN\n\n 'He shall come to be glorified in His saints; and\n to be admired in all them that believe.'--2 THESS.\n i. 10.\n\n\nThe two Epistles to the Thessalonians, which are the Apostle's earliest\nletters, both give very great prominence to the thought of the second\ncoming of our Lord to judgment. In the immediate context we have that\ncoming described, with circumstances of majesty and of terror. He 'shall\nbe revealed . . . with the angels of His power.' 'Flaming fire' shall\nherald His coming; vengeance shall be in His hands, punishment shall\nfollow His sentence; everlasting destruction shall be the issue of evil\nconfronted with 'the face of the Lord'--for so the words in the previous\nverse rendered 'the presence of the Lord' might more accurately be\ntranslated.\n\nAnd all these facts and images are, as it were, piled up in one half of\nthe Apostle's sky, as in thunderous lurid masses; and on the other side\nthere is the pure blue and the peaceful sunshine. For all this terror\nand destruction, and flashing fire, and punitive vengeance come to pass\nin the day when 'He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be\nwondered at in all them that believe.'\n\nThere be the two halves--the aspect of that day to those to whom it is\nthe revelation of a stranger, and the aspect of that day to those to\nwhom it is the glorifying of Him who is their life.\n\nI. The remarkable words which I have taken for my text suggest to us,\nfirst of all, some thoughts about that striking expression that Christ\nis glorified in the men who are glorified in Christ.\n\nIf you look on a couple of verses you will find that the Apostle returns\nto this thought, and expresses in the clearest fashion the reciprocal\ncharacter of that 'glorifying' of which he has been speaking. 'The name\nof our Lord Jesus Christ,' says he, 'may be glorified in you, and ye in\nHim.'\n\nSo, then, glorifying has a double meaning. There is a double process\ninvolved. It means either 'to make glorious' or 'to manifest as being\nglorious.' And men are glorified in the former sense in Christ, that\nChrist in them may, in the latter sense, be glorified. He makes them\nglorious by imparting to them of the lustrous light and flashing beauty\nof His own perfect character, in order that that light, received into\ntheir natures, and streaming out at last conspicuously manifest from\ntheir redeemed perfectness, may redound to the praise and the honour,\nbefore a whole universe, of Him who has thus endued their weakness with\nHis own strength, and transmuted their corruptibility into His own\nimmortality. We are glorified in Christ in some partial, and, alas!\nsinfully fragmentary, manner here; we shall be so perfectly in that day.\nAnd when we are thus glorified in Him, then--wondrous thought!--even we\nshall be able to manifest Him as glorious before some gazing eyes, which\nwithout us would have seen Him as less fair. Dim, and therefore great\nand blessed thoughts about what men may become are involved in such\nwords. The highest end, the great purpose of the Gospel and of all\nGod's dealings with us in Christ Jesus is to make us like our Lord. As\nwe have borne the image of the earthly we shall also bear the image of\nthe heavenly. 'We, beholding the glory, are changed into the glory.'\n\nAnd that glorifying of men in Christ, which is the goal and highest end\nof Christ's Cross and passion and of all God's dealings, is accomplished\nonly because Christ dwells in the men whom He glorifies. We read words\napplying to His relation to His Father which need but to be transferred\nto our relation to Him, in order to teach us high and blessed things\nabout this glorifying. The Father dwelt in Christ, therefore Christ was\nglorified by the indwelling divinity, in the sense that His humanity was\nmade partaker of the divine glory, and thereby He glorified the divinity\nthat dwelt in Him, in the sense that He conspicuously displayed it\nbefore the world as worthy of all admiration and love.\n\nAnd, in like manner, as is the Son with the Father, participant of\nmutual and reciprocal glorification, so is the Christian with Christ,\nglorified in Him and therefore glorifying Him.\n\nWhat may be involved therein of perfect moral purity, of enlarged\nfaculties and powers, of a bodily frame capable of manifesting all the\nfinest issues of a perfect spirit, it is not for us to say. These things\nare great, being hidden; and are hidden because they are great. But\nwhatever may be the lofty heights of Christlikeness to which we shall\nattain, all shall come from the indwelling Lord who fills us with His\nown Spirit.\n\nAnd, then, according to the great teaching here, this glorified\nhumanity, perfected and separated from all imperfection, and helped into\nall symmetrical unfolding of dormant possibilities, shall be the\nhighest glory of Christ even in that day when He comes in His glory and\nsits upon the throne of His glory with His holy angels with Him. One\nwould have thought that, if the Apostle wanted to speak of the\nglorifying of Jesus Christ, he would have pointed to the great white\nthrone, His majestic divinity, the solemnities of His judicial office;\nbut he passes by all these, and says, 'Nay! the highest glory of the\nChrist lies here, in the men whom He has made to share His own nature.'\n\nThe artist is known by his work. You stand in front of some great\npicture, or you listen to some great symphony, or you read some great\nbook, and you say, 'This is the glory of Raphael, Beethoven,\nShakespeare.' Christ points to His saints, and He says, 'Behold My\nhandiwork! Ye are my witnesses. This is what I can do.'\n\nBut the relation between Christ and His saints is far deeper and more\nintimate than simply the relation between the artist and his work, for\nall the flashing light of moral beauty, of intellectual perfectness\nwhich Christian men can hope to receive in the future is but the light\nof the Christ that dwells in them, 'and of whose fulness all they have\nreceived.' Like some poor vapour, in itself white and colourless, which\nlies in the eastern sky there, and as the sun rises is flushed up into a\nmiracle of rosy beauty, because it has caught the light amongst its\nflaming threads and vaporous substance, so we, in ourselves pale,\nghostly, colourless as the mountains when the Alpine snow passes off\nthem, being recipient of an indwelling Christ, shall blush and flame in\nbeauty. 'Then shall the righteous blaze forth like the sun in my\nFather's kingdom.' Or, rather they are not suns shining by their own\nlight, but moons reflecting the light of Christ, who is their light.\n\nAnd perchance some eyes, incapable of beholding the sun, may be able to\nlook undazzled upon the sunshine in the cloud, and some eyes that could\nnot discern the glory of Christ as it shines in His face as the sun\nshineth in its strength, may not be too weak to behold and delight in\nthe light as it is reflected from the face of His servants. At all\nevents, He shall come to be glorified in the saints whom He has made\nglorious.\n\nII. And now, notice again, out of these full and pregnant words the\nother thought, that this transformation of men is the great miracle and\nmarvel of Christ's power.\n\n'He shall come to be admired'--which word is employed in its old English\nsignification, 'to be wondered at'--'in all them that believe.' So fair\nand lovely is He that He needs but to be recognised for what He is in\norder to be glorified. So great and stupendous are His operations in\nredeeming love that they need but to be beheld to be the object of\nwonder. 'His name shall be called Wonderful,' and wonderfully the energy\nof His redeeming and sanctifying grace shall then have wrought itself\nout to its legitimate end. There you get the crowning marvel of marvels,\nand the highest of miracles. He did wonderful works upon earth which we\nrightly call miraculous,--things to be wondered at--but the highest of\nall His wonders is the wonder that takes such material as you and me,\nand by such a process, and on such conditions, simply because we trust\nHim, evolves such marvellous forms of beauty and perfectness from us.\n'He is to be wondered at in all them that believe.'\n\nSuch results from such material! Chemists tell us that the black bit of\ncoal in your grate and the diamond on your finger are varying forms of\nthe one substance. What about a power that shall take all the black\ncoals in the world and transmute them into flashing diamonds, prismatic\nwith the reflected light that comes from His face, and made gems on His\nstrong right hand? The universe will wonder at such results from such\nmaterial.\n\nAnd it will wonder, too, at the process by which they were accomplished,\nwondering at the depth of His pity revealed all the more pathetically\nnow from the great white throne which casts such a light on the Cross of\nCalvary; wondering at the long, weary path which He who is now declared\nto be the Judge humbled Himself to travel in the quest of these poor\nsinful souls whom He has redeemed and glorified. The miracle of miracles\nis redeeming love; and the high-water mark of Christ's wonders is\ntouched in this fact, that out of men He makes saints; and out of saints\nHe makes perfect likenesses of Himself.\n\nIII. And now a word about what is _not_ expressed, but is necessarily\nimplied in this verse, viz., the spectators of this glory.\n\nThe Apostle does not tell us what eyes they are before which Christ is\nthus to be glorified. He does not summon the spectators to look upon\nthis wonderful exhibition of divine judgment and divine glory; but we\nmay dwell for a moment on the thought that to whomsoever in the whole\nuniverse Christ at that great day shall be manifested, to them, whoever\nthey be, will His glory, in His glorified saints, be a revelation beyond\nwhat they have known before. 'Every eye shall see Him.' And whatsoever\neyes look upon Him, then on His throne, they shall behold the attendant\ncourtiers and the assessors of His judgment, and see in them the\nmanifestation of His own lustrous light.\n\nWe read that 'unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places\nshall be made known' in future days, 'by the Church, the manifold wisdom\nof God.' We hear that, after the burst of praise which comes from\nredeemed men standing around the throne, every creature in the earth and\nin the heavens, and in the sea and all that are therein were heard\nsaying, 'Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto Him that\nsitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.'\n\nWe need not speculate, it is better not to enter into details, but this,\nat least, is clear, that that solemn winding up of the long, mysterious,\nsad, blood and tear-stained history of man upon the earth is to be an\nobject of interest and a higher revelation of God to other creatures\nthan those that dwell upon the earth; and we may well believe that for\nthat moment, at all events, the centre of the universe, which draws the\nthoughts of all thinking, and the eyes of all seeing, creatures to it,\nshall be that valley of judgment wherein sits the Man Christ and judges\nmen, and round Him the flashing reflectors of His glory in the person of\nHis saints.\n\nIV. And lastly, look at men's path to this glorifying.\n\n'He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be wondered at in\nall them that _believed_'; as that word ought to be rendered. That is to\nsay, they who on earth were His, consecrated and devoted to Him, and in\nsome humble measure partaking even here of His reflected beauty and\nimparted righteousness--these are they in whom He shall be glorified.\nThey who 'believed'; poor, trembling, struggling, fainting souls, that\nhere on earth, in the midst of many doubts and temptations, clasped His\nhand; and howsoever tremulously, yet truly put their trust in Him, these\nare they in whom He shall 'be wondered at.'\n\nThe simple act of faith knits us to the Lord. If we trust Him He comes\ninto our hearts here, and begins to purify us, and to make us like\nHimself; and, if that be so, and we keep hold of Him, we shall finally\nshare in His glory.\n\nWhat a hope, what an encouragement, what a stimulus and exhortation to\nhumble and timorous souls there is in that great word, 'In _all_ them\nthat believed'! Howsoever imperfect, still they shall be kept by the\npower of God unto that final salvation. And when He comes in His glory,\nnot one shall be wanting that put their trust in Him.\n\nIt will take them all, each in his several way reflecting it, to set\nforth adequately the glory. As many diamonds round a central light,\nwhich from each facet give off a several ray and a definite colour; so\nall that circle round Christ and partaking of His glory, will each\nreceive it, transmit it, and so manifest it in a different fashion. And\nit needs the innumerable company of the redeemed, each a several\nperfectness, to set forth all the fulness of the Christ that dwells in\nus.\n\nSo, dear brethren, beginning with simple faith in Him, partially\nreceiving the beauty of His transforming spirit, seeking here on earth\nby assimilation to the Master in some humble measure to adorn the\ndoctrine and to glorify the Christ, we may hope that each blackness will\nbe changed into brightness, our limitations done away with, our weakness\nlifted into rejoicing strength; and that we shall be like Him, seeing\nHim as He is, and glorified in Him, shall glorify Him before the\nuniverse.\n\nYou and I will be there. Choose which of the two halves of that sky that\nI was speaking about in my introductory remarks will be your sky;\nwhether He shall be revealed, and the light of His face be to you like a\nsword whose flashing edge means destruction, or whether the light of His\nface shall fall upon your heart because you love Him and trust Him, like\nthe sunshine on the Alpine snow, lifting it to a more lustrous\nwhiteness, and tingeing it with an ethereal hue of more than earthly\nbeauty, which no other power but an indwelling Christ can give. He shall\ncome with 'everlasting destruction from the face'; and 'He shall come to\nbe glorified in His saints, and to be wondered at in all them that\nbelieved.' Do you choose which of the two shall be your portion in that\nday.\n\n\n\n\nWORTHY OF YOUR CALLING\n\n 'We pray always for you, that our God would count\n you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the\n good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of\n faith with power; 12. That the name of our Lord\n Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in\n Him.'--2 THESS. i. 11, 12.\n\n\nIn the former letter to the Church of Thessalonica, the Apostle had\ndwelt, in ever-memorable words--which sound like a prelude of the trump\nof God--on the coming of Christ at the end to judge the world, and to\ngather His servants into His rest. That great thought seems to have\nexcited some of the hotter heads in Thessalonica, and to have led to a\ngeneral feverishness of unwholesome expectancy of the near approach or\nactual dawn of the day. This letter is intended as a supplement to the\nformer Epistle, and to damp down the fire which had been kindled. It,\ntherefore, dwells with emphasis on the necessary preliminaries to the\ndawning of that day of the Lord, and throughout seeks to lead the\nexcited spirits to patience and persistent work, and to calm their\nfeverish expectations. This purpose colours the whole letter.\n\nAnother striking characteristic of it is the frequent gushes of short\nprayer for the Thessalonians with which the writer turns aside from the\nmain current of his thoughts. In its brief compass there are four of\nthese prayers, which, taken together, present many aspects of the\nChristian life, and hold out much for our hopes and much for our\nefforts. The prayer which I have read for our text is the first of\nthese. The others, the consideration of which will follow on subsequent\noccasions, are these:--'Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our\nFather, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation\nand good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and stablish you in\nevery good word and work.' And, again, 'The Lord direct your hearts into\nthe love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.' And, finally,\nsumming up all, 'The Lord of peace Himself give you peace always, by all\nmeans.' So full, so tender, so directed to the highest blessings, and to\nthose only, are the wishes of a true Christian teacher, and of a true\nChristian friend, for those to whom He ministers and whom He loves. It\nis a poor love that cannot express itself in prayer. It is an earthly\nlove which desires for its objects anything less than the highest of\nblessings.\n\nI. Notice, first, here, the divine test for Christian lives: 'We pray\nfor you, that God would count you worthy of your calling.'\n\nNow, it is to be observed that this 'counting worthy' refers mainly to a\nfuture estimate to be made by God of the completed career and permanent\ncharacter brought out of earth into another state by Christian souls.\nThat is obvious from the whole strain of the letter, which I have\nalready pointed out as mainly being concerned with the future coming to\njudgment of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is also, I think, made probable by\nthe fact that the same expression, 'counting worthy,' occurs in an\nearlier verse of this chapter, where the reference is exclusively to the\nfuture judgment.\n\nSo, then, we are brought face to face with this thought of an actual,\nstringent judgment which God will apply in the future to the lives and\ncharacters of professing Christians. Now, that is a great deal too much\nforgotten in our popular Christian teaching and in our average Christian\nfaith. It is perfectly true that he who trusts in Jesus Christ will 'not\ncome into condemnation, but has passed from death unto life.' But it is\njust as true that 'judgment shall begin at the house of God,' and that,\n'the Lord will judge His people.' And therefore, it becomes us to lay to\nheart this truth, that we, just because, if we are Christians, we stand\nnearest to God, are surest to be searched through and through by the\nlight that streams from Him, and to have every flaw and corrupt speck\nand black spot brought out into startling prominence. Let no Christian\nman fancy that he shall escape the righteous judgment of God. The great\ndoctrine of forgiveness does not mean that He suffers our sin to remain\nupon us unjudged, ay! or unavenged. But just as, day by day, there is an\nactual estimate in the divine mind, according to truth, of what we\nreally are, so, at the last, God's servants will be gathered before His\nthrone. 'They that have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice' shall be\nassembled there--as the Psalm has it--'that the Lord may judge His\npeople.'\n\nThen, if the actual passing of a divine judgment day by day, and a\nfuture solemn act of judgment after we have done with earth, and our\ncharacters are completed, and our careers rounded into a whole, is to be\nlooked for by Christians, what is the standard by which their worthiness\nis to be judged?\n\n'Your calling.' The 'this' of my text in the Authorised Version is a\nsupplement, and a better supplement is that of the Revised Version,\n'your calling.' Now _calling_ does not mean 'avocation' or 'employment,'\nas I perhaps need scarcely explain, but the divine fact of our having\nbeen summoned by Him to be His. Consider who calls. God Himself.\nConsider how He calls. By the Gospel, by Jesus Christ, or, as another\napostle has it, 'by His own glory and virtue' manifested in the world.\nThat great voice which is in Jesus Christ, so tender, so searching, so\nheart-melting, so vibrating with the invitation of love and the yearning\nof a longing heart, summons or calls us. Consider, also, what this\ncalling is to. 'God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness,'\nor, as this letter has it, in another part, 'unto salvation through\nsanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.' By all the\nsubduing and animating and restraining and impelling tones in the\nsacrifice and life of Jesus Christ we are summoned to a life of\nself-crucifixion, of subjection of the flesh, of aspiration after God,\nof holy living according to the pattern that was showed us in Him. We\nare summoned here and now to a life of purity and righteousness and\nself-sacrifice. But also 'He hath called us to His everlasting kingdom\nand glory.' That voice sounds from above now. From the Cross it said to\nus, 'I die that ye may live'; from the throne it says to us, 'Live\nbecause I live, and come to live where I live.' The same invitation,\nwhich calls us to a life of righteousness and self-suppression and\npurity, also calls us, with the sweet promise that is firm as the throne\nof God, to the everlasting felicities of that perfect kingdom in which,\nbecause the obedience is entire, the glory shall be untremulous and\nunstained. Therefore, considering who summons, by what He summons, and\nto what He calls us, do there not lie in the fact of that divine call to\nwhich we Christians say that we have yielded, the solemnest motives, the\nloftiest standard, the most stringent obligations for life? What sort of\na life will that be which is worthy of that voice? Is yours? Is mine?\nAre there not the most flagrant examples of professing Christians, whose\nlives are in the most outrageous discordance with the lofty obligations\nand mighty motives of the summons which they profess to have obeyed?\n'Worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called!' Have I made my own the\nthings which I am invited to possess? Have I yielded to the obligations\nwhich are enwrapped in that invitation? Does my life correspond to the\ndivine purpose in calling me to be His? Can I say, 'Lord, Thou art mine,\nand I am Thine, and here my life witnesses to it, because self is\nbanished from it, and I am full of God, and the life which I live in\nthe flesh I live not to myself, but to Him that died for me?'\n\nAn absolute correspondence, a complete worthiness or perfect desert, is\nimpossible for us all, but a worthiness which His merciful judgment who\nmakes allowance for us all may accept, as not too flagrantly\ncontradictory of what He meant us to be, is possible even for our poor\nattainments and our stained lives. If it were Paul's supreme prayer,\nshould it not be our supreme aim, that we may be worthy of Him that hath\ncalled us, and 'walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called'?\n\nII. Note, here, the divine help to meet the test.\n\nIf it were a matter of our own effort alone, who of us could pretend to\nreach to the height of conformity with the great design of the loving\nFather in summoning us, or with the mighty powers that are set in motion\nby the summons for the purifying of men's lives? But here is the great\ncharacteristic and blessing of God's Gospel, that it not only summons us\nto holiness and to heaven, but reaches out a hand to help us thither.\nTherein it contrasts with all other voices--and many of them are noble\nand pathetic in their insistence and vehemence--which call men to lofty\nlives. Whether it be the voice of conscience, or of human ethics, or of\nthe great ones, the elect of the race, who, in every age, have been as\nvoices crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare ye the way of the Lord'--all\nthese call us, but reach no hand out to draw us. They are all as voices\nfrom the heights and are of God, but they are voices only; they summon\nus to noble deeds, and leave us floundering in the mire.\n\nBut we have not a God who tells us to be good, and then watches to see\nif we will obey, but we have a God who, with all His summonses, brings\nto us the help to keep His commandments. Our God has more than a voice\nto enjoin, He has a hand to lift, 'Give what Thou commandest, and\ncommand what Thou wilt,' said Augustine. There is the blessing and glory\nof the Gospel, that its summons has in it an impelling power which makes\nmen able to be what it enjoins them to become. My text, therefore,\nfollows the prayer 'that God would count you worthy,' which contemplates\nGod simply as judging men's correspondence with the ideal revealed in\ntheir calling, and is the cry of faith to the giving God, who works in\nus, if we will let Him, that which He enjoins on us. There are two\ndirections of that divine working specified in the text. Paul asks that\nGod would fulfil 'every desire of goodness and every work of faith,' as\nthe Revised Version renders the words. Two things, then, we may hope\nthat God will do for us--He will fulfil every yearning after\nrighteousness and purity in our hearts, and will perfect the active\nenergy which faith puts forth in our lives.\n\nPaul says, in effect, first, that God will fulfil every desire that\nlongs for goodness. He is scarcely deserving of being called good who\ndoes not desire to be better. Aspiration must always be ahead of\nperformance in a growing life, such as every Christian life ought to be.\nTo long for any righteousness and beauty of goodness is, in some\nimperfect and incipient measure, to possess the good for which we long.\nThis is the very signature of a Christian life--yearning after\nunaccomplished perfection. If you know nothing of that desire that\nstings and impels you onwards; if you do not know what it is to say,\n'Oh! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this\ndeath?' if you do not know what it is to follow the fair ideal realised\nin Jesus Christ with infinite longing, what right have you to call\nyourself a Christian? The very essence of the Christian life is yearning\nfor completeness, and restlessness as long as sin has any power over us.\nWe live not only by admiration, faith, and love, but we live by hope;\nand he who does not hunger and thirst after righteousness has yet to\nlearn what are the first principles of the Gospel of Christ.\n\nIf there be not the desire after goodness, the restlessness and\ndissatisfaction with every present good, the brave ambition that says,\n'Forgetting the things that are behind, I reach forth unto the things\nthat are before,' there is nothing in a man to which God's grace can\nattach itself. God cannot make you better if you do not wish to be\nbetter. There is no point upon which His hallowing and ennobling grace\ncan lay hold in your hearts without such desire. 'Open thy mouth wide\nand I will fill it.' If, as is too often the case with hosts of\nprofessing Christians, you shut your mouths tight and lock your teeth,\nhow can God put any food between your lips? There must, first of all, be\nthe aspiration, and then there will be the satisfaction.\n\nI look out upon my congregation, or, better still, I look into my own\nheart, and I say, If I, if you, dear brethren, are not worthy of the\nvocation wherewith we are called, we have not because we ask not. If\nthere be no desire after goodness in our hearts, God cannot make us\ngood. Our wishes are the mould into which the molten metal from the\ngreat furnace of His love will run. If we bring but a little vessel we\ncannot get a large supply. The manna lies round our tents; it is for us\nto determine how much we will gather.\n\nAnd in like manner, says Paul, God will fulfil every work of faith. Our\nfaith in Jesus Christ will naturally tend to influence our lives, and to\nmanifest itself as a driving power which will set all the wheels of\nconduct in motion. Paul is quite sure that if we trust ourselves to God,\nall the beneficent and holy work that flows from such confidence will by\nHim be fully perfected.\n\nGod's fulfilment is to be done _with power_. That is to say, He will fit\nus to be worthy of our calling, He will answer our desires, He will give\nenergy to our faith, and complete in number and in quality its\noperations in our lives, by reason of His dwelling with us and in us by\nthat spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind which works all\nrighteousness in believing hearts, and sheds divine beauty and goodness\nover character and life.\n\nIII. Lastly, note the divine glory of the worthy.\n\nThis fulfilment of every desire of goodness and work of faith is in\norder 'that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you\nand ye in Him.'\n\nHere, again, as in the first clause of our text, I take, in accordance\nwith the prevailing tone of this letter, the reference to be mainly,\nthough perhaps not exclusively, to a future transcendent glorifying of\nthe name of Christ in perfected saints, and glorifying of perfected\nsaints in Jesus Christ.\n\nWe have, then, set forth, first, as the result of the fulfilling of\nChristian men's desires after goodness, and the work of their faith, the\nglory that accrues to Christ from perfected saints. They are His\nworkmanship. You remember the old story of the artist who went into a\nfellow-artist's studio and left upon the easel one complete circle,\nswept with one master-whirl of the brush. Jesus Christ presents\nperfected men to an admiring universe as specimens of what He can do.\nHis highest work is the redeeming of poor creatures like you and me, and\nthe making of us perfect in goodness and worthy of our calling. We are\nHis _chefs-d'oeuvre_, the master work of the great divine artist.\n\nThink, then, brethren, how, here and now, Christ's reputation is in our\nhands. Men judge of Him by us. The name of the Lord Jesus is glorified\nin you if you live 'worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,' and\npeople will think better of the Master if His disciples are faithful.\nDepend upon it, if we of this church, for instance, and the Christian\npeople within these walls now, lived the lives that they ought to do,\nand manifested the power of the Gospel as they might, there would be\nmany who would say, 'They have been with Jesus, and the Jesus that has\nmade them what they are must be mighty and great.' The best evidence of\nthe power of the Gospel is your consistent lives.\n\nThink, too, of that strange dignity that in the future, in manners and\nin regions all undiscernible by us, Christians, who have been made out\nof stones into children of God, will make known 'unto principalities and\npowers in heavenly places' the wisdom and the love and the energy of the\nredeeming God. Who knows to what regions the commission of the perfected\nsaints to make Christ known may carry them? Light travels far, and we\ncannot tell into what remote corners of the universe this may penetrate.\nThis only we know, that they who shall be counted worthy to attain that\nlife and the Resurrection from the dead shall bear the image of the\nheavenly, and perhaps to creations yet uncreated, and still to be\nevolved through the ages of eternity, it may be their part to carry the\nlustre of the light of the glory of God who redeemed and purified them.\n\nOn the other hand, there is glory accruing to perfected saints in\nChrist. 'And ye in Him.' There will be a union so close as that nothing\ncloser is possible, personality being preserved, between Christ and the\nsaints above, who trust Him and love Him and serve Him there. And that\nunion will lead to a participation in His glory which shall exalt their\nlimited, stained, and fragmentary humanity into 'the measure of the\nstature of the fulness of Christ.' Astronomers tell us that dead, cold\nmatter falls from all corners of the system into the sun, drawn by its\nmagic magnetism from farthest space, and, plunging into that great\nreservoir of fire, the deadest and coldest matter glows with fervid heat\nand dazzling light. So you and I, dead, cold, dull, opaque, heavy\nfragments, drawn into mysterious oneness with Christ, the Sun of our\nsouls, shall be transformed into His own image, and like Him be light\nand heat which shall radiate through the universe.\n\nBrethren, meditate on your calling, the fact, its method, its aim, its\nobligations, and its powers. Cherish hopes and desires after goodness,\nthe only hopes and desires that are certain to be fulfilled. Cultivate\nthe life of faith working by love, and let us all live in the light of\nthat solemn expectation that the Lord will judge His people. Then we may\nhope that the voice which summoned us will welcome us, and proclaim even\nof us, stained and undeserving as we rightly feel ourselves to be:\n'They have not defiled their garments, therefore they shall walk with Me\nin white, for they are worthy.'\n\n\n\n\nEVERLASTING CONSOLATION AND GOOD HOPE\n\n 'Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even\n our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us\n everlasting consolation, and good hope through\n grace. 17. Comfort your hearts, and stablish you\n in every good word and work.'--2 THESS. ii. 16,\n 17.\n\n\nThis is the second of the four brief prayers which, as I pointed out in\nmy last sermon, break the current of Paul's teaching in this letter, and\nwitness to the depth of his affection to his Thessalonian converts. We\ndo not know the special circumstances under which these then were, but\nthere are many allusions, both in the first and second epistles, which\nseem to indicate that they specially needed the gift of consolation.\n\nThey were a young Church, just delivered from paganism. Like lambs in\nthe midst of wolves, they stood amongst bitter enemies, their teacher\nhad left them alone, and their raw convictions needed to be consolidated\nand matured in the face of much opposition. No wonder then that over and\nover again, in both letters, we have references to the persecutions and\ntribulations which they endured, and to the consolations which would\nmuch more abound.\n\nBut whatever may have been their specific circumstances, the prayer\nwhich puts special emphasis on comfort is as much needed by each of us\nas it could ever have been by any of them. For there are no eyes that\nhave not wept, or will not weep; no breath that has not been, or will\nnot be, drawn in sighs; and no hearts that have not bled, or will not\nbleed. So, dear friends, the prayer that went up for these long since\ncomforted brothers, in their forgotten obscure sorrows, is as needful\nfor each of us--that the God who has given everlasting consolation may\napply the consolations which He has supplied, and 'comfort our hearts\nand stablish them in every good word and work.'\n\nThe prayer naturally falls, as all true prayer will, into three\nsections--the contemplation of Him to whom it is addressed, the grasping\nof the great act on which it is based, and the specification of the\ndesires which it includes. These three thoughts may guide us for a few\nmoments now.\n\nI. First of all, then, note the divine hearers of the prayer.\n\nThe first striking thing about this prayer is its emphatic recognition\nof the divinity of Jesus Christ as a truth familiar to these\nThessalonian converts. Note the solemn accumulation of His august\ntitles, 'Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.' Note, further, that\nextraordinary association of His name with the Father's. Note, still\nfurther, the most remarkable order in which these two names occur--Jesus\nfirst, God second. If we were not so familiar with the words, and with\ntheir order, which reappears in Paul's well-known and frequently-used\nBenediction, we should be startled to find that Jesus Christ was put\nbefore God in such a solemn address. The association and the order of\nmention of the names are equally outrageous, profane, and inexplicable,\nexcept upon one hypothesis, and that is that Jesus Christ is divine.\n\nThe reason for the order may be found partly in the context, which has\njust been naming Christ, but still more in the fact that whilst he\nwrites, the Apostle is realising the mediation of Christ, and that the\norder of mention is the order of our approach. The Father comes to us in\nthe Son; we come to the Father by the Son; and, therefore, it is no\nintercepting of our reverence, nor blasphemously lifting the creature to\nundue elevation, when in one act the Apostle appeals to 'our Lord Jesus\nChrist Himself, and God our Father.'\n\nNote, still further, the distinct address to Christ as the Hearer of\nPrayer. And, note, last of all, about this matter, the singular\ngrammatical irregularity in my text, which is something much more than a\nmere blunder or slip of the pen. The words which follow, viz., 'comfort'\nand 'stablish,' are in the singular, whilst these two mighty and august\nnames are their nominatives, and would therefore, by all regularity,\nrequire a plural to follow them. That this peculiarity is no mere\naccident, but intentional and deliberate, is made probable by the two\ninstances in our text, and is made certain, as it seems to me, by the\nfact that the same anomalous and eloquent construction occurs in the\nprevious epistle to the same church, where we have in exact parallelism\nwith our text, 'God Himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,'\nwith the singular verb, 'direct our way unto you.' The phraseology is\nthe expression, in grammatical form, of the great truth, 'Whatsoever\nthings the Father doeth, these also doth the Son likewise.' And from it\nthere gleam out unmistakably the great principles of the unity of action\nand the distinction of person between Father and Son, in the depths of\nthat infinite and mysterious Godhead.\n\nNow all this, which seems to me to be irrefragable, is made the more\nremarkable and the stronger as a witness of the truth, from the fact\nthat it occurs in this perfectly incidental fashion, and without a word\nof explanation or apology, as taking for granted that there was a\nbackground of teaching in the Thessalonian Church which had prepared the\nway for it, and rendered it intelligible, as well as a background of\nconviction which had previously accepted it.\n\nAnd, remember, these two letters, thus full-toned in their declaration,\nand taking for granted the previous acceptance of the great doctrine of\nthe divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, are the earliest\nportions of the New Testament, and are often spoken about as being\nsingularly undogmatic. So they are, and therefore all the more eloquent\nand all the more conclusive is such a testimony as this to the sort of\nteaching which from the beginning the Apostle addressed to his converts.\n\nNow is that your notion of Jesus Christ? Do you regard Him as the sharer\nin the divine attributes and in the divine throne? It was a living\nChrist that Paul was thinking about when he wrote these words, who could\nhear him praying in Corinth, and could reach a helping hand down to\nthese poor men in Thessalonica. It was a divine Christ that Paul was\nthinking about when he dared to say, 'Our Lord Jesus Christ, and God our\nFather.' And I beseech you to ask yourself the question whether your\nfaith accepts that great teaching, and whether to you He is far more\nthan 'the Man Christ Jesus'; and just because He is _the_ man, is\ntherefore the Son of God. Brethren! either Jesus lies in an unknown\ngrave, ignorant of all that is going on here, and the notion that He can\nhelp is a delusion and a dream, or else He is the ever-living because He\nis the divine Christ, to whom we poor men can speak with the certainty\nthat He hears us, and who wields the energies of Deity, and works the\nsame works as the Father, for the help and blessing of the souls that\ntrust Him.\n\nII. Secondly, note the great fact on which this prayer builds itself.\n\nThe form of words in the original, 'loved' and 'given,' all but\nnecessarily requires us to suppose that their reference is to some one\ndefinite historical act in which the love was manifested, and, as love\nalways does, found voice in giving. Love is the infinite desire to\nbestow, and its language is always a gift. Then, according to the\nApostle's thought, there is some one act in which all the fulness of the\ndivine love manifests itself; some one act in which all the treasures\nwhich God can bestow upon men are conveyed and handed over to a world.\n\nThe statement that there is such renders almost unnecessary the question\nwhat such an act is. For there can be but one in all the sweep of the\nmagnificent and beneficent divine deeds, so correspondent to His love,\nand so inclusive of all His giving, as that it shall be the ground of\nour confidence and the warrant for our prayers. The gift of Jesus Christ\nis that in which everlasting consolation and good hope are bestowed upon\nmen. When our desires are widened out to the widest they must be based\nupon the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ; and when we would think most\nconfidently and most desiringly of the benefits that we seek, for\nourselves or for our fellows, we must turn to the Cross. My prayer is\nthen acceptable and prevalent when it foots itself on the past divine\nact, and looking to the life and death of Jesus Christ, is widened out\nto long for, ask for, and in the very longing and asking for to begin\nto possess, the fulness of the gifts which then were brought to men in\nHim.\n\n'Everlasting consolation and good hope.' I suppose the Apostle's\nemphasis is to be placed quite as much on the adjectives as on the\nnouns; for there are consolations enough in the world, only none of them\nare permanent; and there are hopes enough that amuse and draw men, but\none of them only is 'good.' The gift of Christ, thinks Paul, is the gift\nof a comfort which will never fail amidst all the vicissitudes and\naccumulated and repeated and prolonged sorrows to which flesh is heir,\nand is likewise the gift of a hope which, in its basis and in its\nobjects, is equally noble and good.\n\nLook at these two things briefly. Paul thinks that in Jesus Christ you\nand I, and all the world, if it will have it, has received the gift of\nan everlasting comfort. Ah! sorrow is more persistent than consolation.\nThe bandaged wounds bleed again; the fire damped down for a moment\nsmoulders, even when damped, and bursts out again. But there is one\nsource of comfort which, because it comes from an unchangeable Christ,\nand because it communicates unfailing gifts of patience and insight, and\nbecause it leads forward to everlasting blessedness and recompenses, may\nwell be called 'eternal consolation.' Of course, consolation is not\nneeded when sorrow has ceased; and when the wiping away of all tears\nfrom off all faces, and the plunging of grief into the nethermost fires,\nthere to be consumed, have come about, there is no more need for\ncomfort. Yet that which made the comfort while sorrow lasts, makes the\ntriumph and the rapture when sorrow is dead, and is everlasting, though\nits office of consolation determines with earth.\n\n'Good hope through grace.' This is the weakness of all the hopes which\ndance like fireflies in the dark before men, and are often like\nwill-o'-the-wisps in the night tempting men into deep mire, where there\nis no standing--that they are uncertain in their basis and inadequate in\ntheir range. The prostitution of the great faculty of hope is one of the\nsaddest characteristics of our feeble and fallen manhood; for the bulk\nof our hopes are doubtful and akin to fears, and are mean and low, and\ndisproportioned to the possibilities, and therefore the obligations, of\nour spirits. But in that Cross which teaches us the meaning of sorrows,\nand in that Christ whose presence is light in darkness, and the very\nembodied consolation of all hearts, there lie at once the foundation and\nthe object of a hope which, in consideration both of object and\nfoundation, stands unique in its excellence and sufficient in its\nfirmness. 'A good hope'; good because well founded; and good because\ngrasping worthy objects; eternal consolation outlasting all\nsorrows--these things were given once for all, to the whole world when\nJesus Christ came and lived and died. The materials for a comfort that\nshall never fail me, and for the foundation and the object of a hope\nthat shall never be ashamed, are supplied in Jesus Christ our Lord. And\nso these gifts, already passed under the great seal of heaven, and\nconfirmed to us all, if we choose to take them for ours, are the ground\nupon which the largest prayers may be rested, and the most ardent\ndesires may be unblamably cherished, in the full confidence that no\npetitions of ours can reach to the greatness of the divine purpose, and\nthat the widest and otherwise wildest of our hopes and wishes are sober\nunder-estimates of what God has already given to us. For if He has\ngiven the material, He will apply what He has supplied. And if He has\nthus in the past bestowed the possibilities of comfort and hope upon the\nworld, He will not slack His hand, if we desire the possibility to be in\nour hearts turned into the actuality.\n\nGod has given, therefore God will give. That in heaven's logic, but it\ndoes not do for men. It presupposes inexhaustible resources,\nunchangeable purposes of kindness, patience that is not disgusted and\ncannot be turned away by our sin. These things being presupposed it is\ntrue; and the prayer of my text, that God would comfort, can have no\nfirmer foundation than the confidence of my text, that God has given\n'everlasting consolation and good hope through grace.' 'Thou hast helped\nus; leave us not, neither forsake us, O God of our salvation.'\n\nIII. The last thing here is the petitions based upon the contemplation\nof the divine hearers of the prayer, and of the gift already bestowed by\nGod.\n\nMay He 'comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and\nwork.' I have already said all that perhaps is necessary in regard to\nthe connection between the past gift of everlasting consolation and the\npresent and future comforting of hearts which is here desired. It seems\nto me that the Apostle has in his mind the distinction between the great\nwork of Christ, in which are supplied for us the materials for comfort\nand hope, and the present and continuous work of that Divine Spirit, by\nwhich God dwelling in our hearts in Jesus Christ makes real for each of\nus the universal gift of consolation and of hope. God has bestowed the\nmaterials for comfort; God will give the comfort for which He has\nsupplied the materials. It were a poor thing if all that we could\nexpect from our loving Father in the heavens were that He should\ncontribute to us what might make us peaceful and glad and calm in\nsorrow, if we chose to use it. Men comfort from without; God steals into\nthe heart, and there diffuses the aroma of His presence. Christ comes\ninto the ship before He says, 'Peace! be still!' It is not enough for\nour poor troubled heart that there should be calmness and consolation\ntwining round the Cross if we choose to pluck the fruit. We need, and\ntherefore we have, an indwelling God who, by that Spirit which is the\nComforter, will make for each of us the everlasting consolation which He\nhas bestowed upon the world our individual possession. God's husbandry\nis not merely broadcast sowing of the seed, but the planting in each\nindividual heart of the precious germ. And the God who has given\neverlasting consolation to a whole world will comfort _thy_ heart.\n\nThen, again, the comforted heart will be a stable heart. Our fixedness\nand stability are not natural immobility, but communicated\nsteadfastness. There must be, first, the consolation of Christ before\nthere can be the calmness of a settled heart. We all know how\nvacillating, how driven to and fro by gusts of passion and winds of\ndoctrine and forces of earth our resolutions and spirits are. But\nthistledown glued to a firm surface will be firm, and any light thing\nlashed to a solid one will be solid; and reeds shaken with the wind may\nbe turned into brazen pillars that cannot be moved. If we have Christ in\nour hearts, He will be our consolation first and our stability next. Why\nshould it be that we are spasmodic and fluctuating, and the slaves of\nups and downs, like some barometer in stormy weather; now at 'set\nfair,' and then away down where 'much rain' is written? There is no need\nfor it. Get Christ into your heart, and your mercury will always stand\nat one height. Why should it be that at one hour the flashing waters\nfill the harbour, and that six hours afterwards there is a waste of ooze\nand filth? It need not be. Our hearts may be like some landlocked lake\nthat knows no tide. 'His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.'\n\nThe comforted and stable heart will be a fruitful heart. 'In _every_\ngood word and work.' Ah! how fragmentary is our goodness, like the\nbroken torsos of the statues of fair gods dug up in some classic land.\nThere is no reason why each of us should not appropriate and make our\nown the forms of goodness to which we are least naturally inclined, and\ncultivate and possess a symmetrical, fully-developed, all-round\ngoodness, in some humble measure after the pattern of Jesus Christ our\nLord. Practical righteousness, 'in every good word and work,' is the\noutcome of all the sacred and secret consolations and blessings that\nJesus Christ imparts. There are many Christian people who are like those\nswallow-holes, as they call them, characteristic of limestone countries,\nwhere a great river plunges into a cave and is no more heard of. You do\nnot get your comforts and your blessing for that, brother, but in order\nthat all the joy and peace, all the calmness and the communion, which\nyou realise in the secret place of the Most High, may be translated into\ngoodness and manifest righteousness in the market-place and the street.\nWe get our goodness where we get our consolation, from Jesus Christ and\nHis Cross.\n\nAnd so, dear friends, all your comforts will die, and your sorrows will\nlive, unless you have Christ for your own. The former will be like some\napplication that is put on a poisoned bite, which will soothe it for a\nmoment, but as soon as the anodyne dries off the skin, the poison will\ntingle and burn again, and will be working in the blood, whilst the\nremedy only touched the surface of the flesh. All your hopes will be\nlike a child's castles on the sand, which the next tide will smooth out\nand obliterate, unless your hope is fixed on Him. You may have\neverlasting consolation, you may have a hope which will enable you to\nlook serenely on the ills of life, and on the darkness of death, and on\nwhat darkly looms beyond death. You may have a calmed and steadied\nheart; you may have an all-round, stable, comprehensive goodness. But\nthere is only one way to get these blessings, and that is to grasp and\nmake our own, by simple faith and constant clinging, that great gift,\ngiven once for all in Jesus Christ, the gift of comfort that never dies,\nand of hope that never deceives, and then to apply that gift day by day,\nthrough God's good Spirit, to sorrows and trials and duties as they\nemerge.\n\n\n\n\nTHE HEART'S HOME AND GUIDE\n\n 'The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God,\n and into the patient waiting for Christ.'--2\n THESS. iii. 5.\n\n\nA word or two of explanation of terms may preface our remarks on this,\nthe third of the Apostle's prayers for the Thessalonians in this letter.\nThe first point to be noticed is that by 'the Lord' here is meant, as\nusually in the New Testament, Jesus Christ. So that here again we have\nthe distinct recognition of His divinity, and the direct address of\nprayer to Him.\n\nThe next thing to notice is that by 'the love of God' is here meant, not\nGod's to us, but ours to Him; and that the petition, therefore, respects\nthe emotions and sentiments of the Thessalonians towards the Father in\nheaven.\n\nAnd the last point is that the rendering of the Authorised Version,\n'patient waiting for Christ,' is better exchanged for that of the\nRevised Version, 'the patience of Christ,' meaning thereby the same\npatience as He exhibited in His earthly life, and which He is ready to\nbestow upon us.\n\nIt is not usual in the New Testament to find Jesus Christ set forth as\nthe great Example of patient endurance; but still there are one or two\ninstances in which the same expression is applied to Him. For example,\nin two contiguous verses in the Epistle to the Hebrews, we read of His\n'enduring contradiction of sinners against Himself,' and 'enduring the\nCross, despising the shame,' in both of which cases we have the verb\nemployed of which the noun is here used. Then in the Apocalypse we have\nsuch expressions as 'the patience of Christ,' of which John says that he\nand his brethren whom he is addressing are 'participators,' and, again,\n'thou hast kept the word of my patience.'\n\nSo, though unusual, the thought of our text as presented in the amended\nversion is by no means singular. These things, then, being premised, we\nmay now look at this petition as a whole.\n\nI. The first thought that it suggests to me is, the home of the heart.\n\n'The Lord direct you _into_ the love of God and the patience of Christ.'\nThe prayers in this letter with which we have been occupied for some\nSundays present to us Christian perfection under various aspects. But\nthis we may, perhaps, say is the most comprehensive and condensed of\nthem all. The Apostle gathers up the whole sum of his desires for his\nfriends, and presents to us the whole aim of our efforts for ourselves,\nin these two things, a steadfast love to God, and a calm endurance of\nevil and persistence in duty, unaffected by suffering or by pain. If we\nhave these two we shall not be far from being what God wishes to see us.\n\nNow the Apostle's thought here, of 'leading us into' these two seems to\nsuggest the metaphor of a great home with two chambers in it, of which\nthe inner was entered from the outer. The first room is 'the love of\nGod,' and the second is 'the patience of Christ.' It comes to the same\nthing whether we speak of the heart as dwelling in love, or of love as\ndwelling in the heart. The metaphor varies, the substance of the thought\nis the same, and that thought is that the heart should be the sphere and\nsubject of a steadfast, habitual, all-pleasing love, which issues in\nunbroken calmness of endurance and persistence of service, in the face\nof evil.\n\nLet us look, then, for a moment at these two points. I need not dwell\nupon the bare idea of love to God as being the characteristic of the\nChristian attitude towards Him, or remind you of how strange and\nunexampled a thing it is that all religion should be reduced to this one\nfruitful germ, love to the Father in heaven. But it is more to the\npurpose for me to point to the constancy, the unbrokenness, the depth,\nwhich the Apostle here desires should be the characteristics of\nChristian love to God. We sometimes cherish such emotion; but, alas, how\nrare it is for us to dwell in that calm home all the days of our lives!\nWe visit that serene sanctuary at intervals, and then for the rest of\nour days we are hurried to and fro between contending affections, and\nwander homeless amidst inadequate loves. But what Paul asked, and what\nshould be the conscious aim of the Christian life, is, that we should\n'dwell all our days in the house of the Lord, to behold the beauty of\nthe Lord and to enquire in His temple.'\n\nAlas, when we think of our own experiences, how fair and far seems that\nother, contemplated as a possibility in my text, that our hearts should\n'abide in the love of God'!\n\nLet me remind you, too, that steadfastness of habitual love all round\nour hearts, as it were, is the source and germ of all perfectness of\nlife and conduct. 'Love and do as Thou wilt,' is a bold saying, but not\ntoo bold. For the very essence of love is the smelting of the will of\nthe lover into the will of the beloved. And there is nothing so certain\nas that, in regard to all human relations, and in regard to the\nrelations to God which in many respects follow, and are moulded after\nthe pattern of, our earthly relations of love, to have the heart fixed\nin pure affection is to have the whole life subordinated in glad\nobedience. Nothing is so sweet as to do the beloved's will. The germ of\nall righteousness, as well as the characteristic spirit of every\nrighteous deed, lies in love to God. This is the mother tincture which,\nvariously coloured and with various additions, makes all the different\nprecious liquids which we can pour as libations on His altar. The one\nsaving salt of all deeds in reference to Him is that they are the\noutcome and expression of a loving heart. He who loves is righteous,\nand doeth righteousness. So, 'love is the fulfilling of the law.'\n\nThat the heart should be fixed in its abode in love to God is the secret\nof all blessedness, as it is the source of all righteousness. Love is\nalways joy in itself; it is the one deliverance from self-bondage to\nwhich self is the one curse and misery of man. The emancipation from\ncare and sorrow and unrest lies in that going out of ourselves which we\ncall by the name of love. There be things masquerading about the world,\nand profaning the sacred name of love by taking it to themselves, which\nare only selfishness under a disguise. But true love is the\nannihilation, and therefore the apotheosis and glorifying, of self; and\nin that annihilation lies the secret charm which brings all blessedness\ninto a life.\n\nBut, then, though love in itself be always bliss, yet, by reason of the\nimperfections of its objects, it sometimes leads to sorrow. For\nlimitations and disappointments and inadequacies of all sorts haunt our\nearthly loves whilst they last; and we have all to see them fade, or to\nfade away from them. The thing you love may change, the thing you love\nmust die; and therefore love, which in itself is blessedness, hath\noften, like the little book that the prophet swallowed, a bitter taste\nremaining when the sweetness is gone. But if we set our hearts on God,\nwe set our hearts on that which knows no variableness, neither the\nshadow of turning. _There_ are no inadequate responses, no changes that\nwe need fear. On that love the scythe of death, which mows down all\nother products of the human heart, hath no power; and its stem stands\nuntouched by the keen edge that levels all the rest of the herbage. Love\nGod, and thou lovest eternity; and therefore the joy of the love is\neternal as its object. So he who loves God is building upon a rock, and\nwhosoever has this for his treasure carries his wealth with him\nwhithersoever he goes. Well may the Apostle gather into one potent word,\nand one mighty wish, the whole fulness of his desires for his friends.\nAnd wise shall we be if we make this the chiefest of our aims, that our\nhearts may have their home in the love of God.\n\nStill further, there is another chamber in this house of the soul. The\nouter room, where the heart inhabits that loves God, leads into another\ncompartment, 'the patience of Christ.'\n\nNow, I suppose I need not remind many of you that this great New\nTestament word 'patience' has a far wider area of meaning than that\nwhich is ordinarily covered by that expression. For _patience_, as we\nuse it, is simply a passive virtue. But the thing that is meant by the\nNew Testament word which is generally so rendered has an active as well\nas a passive side. On the passive side it is the calm, unmurmuring,\nunreluctant submission of the will to whatsoever evil may come upon us,\neither directly from God's hand, or through the ministration and\nmediation of men who are His sword. On the active side it is the\nsteadfast persistence in the path of duty, in spite of all that may\narray itself against us. So there are the two halves of the virtue which\nis here put before us--unmurmuring submission and bold continuance in\nwell-doing, whatsoever storms may hurtle in our faces.\n\nNow, in both of these aspects, the life of Jesus Christ is the great\npattern. As for the passive side, need I remind you how, 'as a sheep\nbefore her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth'? 'When He was\nreviled He reviled not again, but committed Himself unto Him that\njudgeth uprightly.' No anger ever flushed His cheek or contracted His\nbrow. He never repaid scorn with scorn, nor hate with hate. All men's\nmalice fell upon Him, like sparks upon wet timber, and kindled no\nconflagration.\n\nAs for the active side, I need not remind you how 'He set His face to go\nto Jerusalem'--how the great solemn '_must_' which ruled His life bore\nHim on, steadfast and without deflection in His course, through all\nobstacles. There never was such heroic force as the quiet force of the\nmeek and gentle Christ, which wasted no strength in displaying or\nboasting of itself, but simply, silently, unconquerably, like the\nsecular motions of the stars, dominated all opposition, and carried Him,\nunhasting and unresting, on His path. That life, with all its surface of\nweakness, had an iron tenacity of purpose beneath, which may well stand\nfor our example. Like some pure glacier from an Alpine peak, it comes\nsilently, slowly down into the valley; and though to the eye it seems\nnot to move, it presses on with a force sublime in its silence and\ngigantic in its gentleness, and buries beneath it the rocks that stand\nin its way. The patience of Christ is the very sublimity of persistence\nin well-doing. It is our example, and more than our example--it is His\ngift to us.\n\nSuch passive and active patience is the direct fruit of love to God. The\none chamber opens into the other. For they whose hearts dwell in the\nsweet sanctities of the love of God will ever be those who say, with a\ncalm smile, as they put out their hand to the bitterest draught, 'the\ncup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?'\n\nLove, and evil dwindles; love, and duty becomes supreme; and in the\nsubmission of the will, which is the true issue of love, lies the\nfoundation of indomitable and inexhaustible endurance and perseverance.\n\nNor need I remind you, I suppose, that in this resolve to do the will of\nGod, in spite of all antagonism and opposition, lies a condition at once\nof moral perfection and of blessedness. So, dear friends, if we would\nhave a home for our hearts, let us pass into that sweet, calm,\ninexpugnable fortress provided for us in the love of God and the\npatience of Christ.\n\nII. Now notice, secondly, the Guide of the heart to its home.\n\n'The Lord direct you.' I have already explained that we have here a\ndistinct address to Jesus Christ as divine, and the hearer of prayer.\nThe Apostle evidently expects a present, personal influence from Christ\nto be exerted upon men's hearts. And this is the point to which I desire\nto draw your attention in a word or two. We are far too oblivious of the\npresent influence of Jesus Christ, by His Spirit, upon the hearts of men\nthat trust Him. We have very imperfectly apprehended our privileges as\nChristians if our faith do not expect, and if our experience have not\nrealised, the inward guidance of Christ moment by moment in our daily\nlives. I believe that much of the present feebleness of the Christian\nlife amongst its professors is to be traced to the fact that their\nthoughts about Jesus Christ are predominantly thoughts of what He did\nnineteen centuries ago, and that the proportion of faith is not observed\nin their perspective of His work, and that they do not sufficiently\nrealise that to-day, here, in you and me, if we have faith in Him, He\nis verily and really putting forth His power.\n\nPaul's prayer is but an echo of Christ's promise. The Master said, 'He\nshall guide you into all truth.' The servant prays, 'The Lord direct\nyour hearts into the love of God.' And if we rightly know the whole\nblessedness that is ours in the gift of Jesus Christ, we shall recognise\nHis present guidance as a reality in our lives.\n\nThat guidance is given to us mainly by the Divine Spirit laying upon our\nhearts the great facts which evoke our answering love to God. 'We love\nHim because He first loved us'; and the way by which Jesus directs our\nhearts into the love of God is mainly by shedding abroad God's love to\nus in our spirits by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.\n\nBut, besides that, all these movements in our hearts so often neglected,\nso often resisted, by which we are impelled to a holier life, to a\ndeeper love, to a more unworldly consecration--all these, rightly\nunderstood, are Christ's directions. He leads us, though often we know\nnot the hand that guides; and every Christian may be sure of this--and\nhe is sinful if he does not live up to the height of his\nprivileges--that the ancient promises are more than fulfilled in his\nexperience, and that he has a present Christ, an indwelling Christ, who\nwill be his Shepherd, and lead him by green pastures and still waters\nsometimes and through valleys of darkness and rough defiles sometimes,\nbut always with the purpose of bringing him nearer and nearer to the\nfull possession of the love of God and the patience of Christ.\n\nThe vision which shone before the eyes of the father of the forerunner,\nwas that 'the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to guide our feet\ninto the way of peace.' It is fulfilled in Jesus who directs our hearts\ninto love and patience, which are the way of peace.\n\nWe are not to look for impressions and impulses distinguishable from the\noperations of our own inward man. We are not to fall into the error of\nsupposing that a conviction of duty or a conception of truth is of\ndivine origin because it is strong. But the true test of their divine\norigin is their correspondence with the written word, the standard of\ntruth and life. Jesus guides us to a fuller apprehension of the great\nfacts of the infinite love of God in the Cross. Shedding abroad a\nSaviour's love does kindle ours.\n\nIII. Lastly, notice the heart's yielding to its guide.\n\nIf this was Paul's prayer for his converts, it should be our aim for\nourselves. Christ is ready to direct our hearts, if we will let Him. All\ndepends on our yielding to that sweet direction, loving as that of a\nmother's hand on her child's shoulder.\n\nWhat is our duty and wisdom in view of these truths? The answer may be\nthrown into the shape of one or two brief counsels.\n\nFirst, desire it. Do you Christian people want to be led to love God\nmore? Are you ready to love the world less, which you will have to do if\nyou love God more? Do you wish Christ to lay His hand upon you, and\nwithdraw you from much, that He may draw you into the sanctities and\nsublimities of His own experienced love? I do not think the lives of\nsome of us look very like as if we should welcome that direction. And it\nis a sharp test, and a hard commandment to say to a Christian professor,\n'Desire to be led into the love of God.'\n\nAgain, expect it. Do not dismiss all that I have been saying about a\npresent Christ leading men by their own impulses, which are His\nmonitions, as fanatical and mystical and far away from daily experience.\nAh! it is not only the boy Samuel whose infancy was an excuse for his\nignorance, who takes God's voice to be only white-bearded Eli's. There\nare many of us who, when Christ speaks, think it is only a human voice.\nPerhaps His deep and gentle tones are thrilling through my harsh and\nfeeble voice; and He is now, even by the poor reed through which He\nbreathes His breath, saying to some of you, 'Come near to Me.' Expect\nthe guidance.\n\nStill your own wills that you may hear His voice. How can you be led if\nyou never look at the Guide? How can you hear that still small voice\namidst the clattering of spindles, and the roar of wagons, and the\nnoises in your own heart? Be still, and He will speak.\n\nFollow the guidance, and at once, for delay is fatal. Like a man walking\nbehind a guide across some morass, set your feet in the print of the\nMaster's and keep close at His heels, and then you will be safe. And so,\ndear friends, if we want to have anchorage for our love, let us set our\nlove on God, who alone is worthy of it, and who alone of all its objects\nwill neither fail us nor change. If we would have the temper which lifts\nus above the ills of life and enables us to keep our course unaffected\nby them all, as the gentle moon moves with the same silent, equable pace\nthrough piled masses of cloud and clear stretches of sky, we must attain\nsubmission through love, and gain unreluctant endurance and steadfast\nwills from the example and source of both, the gentle and strong\nChrist. If we would have our hearts calm, we must let Him guide them,\nsway them, curb their vagrancies, stimulate their desires, and satisfy\nthe desires which He has stimulated. We must abandon self, and say,\n'Lord, I cannot guide myself. Do Thou direct my wandering feet.' The\nprayer will not be in vain. He will guide us with His eye, and that\ndirecting of our hearts will issue in experiences of love and patience,\nwhose 'very sweetness yieldeth proof that they were born for\nimmortality.' The Guide and the road foreshadow the goal. The only\nnatural end to which such a path can lead and such guidance point is a\nheaven of perfect love, where patience has done its perfect work, and is\ncalled for no more. The experience of present direction strengthens the\nhope of future perfection. So we may take for our own the triumphant\nconfidence of the Psalmist, and embrace the nearest and the remotest\nfuture in one calm vision of faith that 'Thou wilt guide me with Thy\ncounsel, and afterwards receive me to glory.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE LORD OF PEACE AND THE PEACE OF THE LORD\n\n 'Now the Lord of Peace Himself give you peace\n always, by all means. The Lord be with you\n all.'--2 THESS. iii. 16.\n\n\nWe have reached here the last of the brief outbursts of prayer which\ncharacterise this letter, and bear witness to the Apostle's affection\nfor his Thessalonian converts. It is the deepening of the ordinary\nJewish formula of meeting and parting. We find that, in most of his\nletters, the Apostle begins with wishing 'grace and peace,' and closes\nwith an echo of the wish. 'Peace be unto you' was often a form which\nmeant nothing. But true religion turns conventional insincerities into\nreal, heartfelt desires. It was often a wish destined to remain\nunfulfilled. But loving wishes are potent when they are changed into\npetitions.\n\nThe relation between the two clauses of my text seems to be that the\nsecond, 'The Lord be with you all,' is not so much a separate,\nadditional supplication as rather the fuller statement, in the form of\nprayer, of the means by which the former supplication is to be\naccomplished. 'The Lord of Peace' gives peace by giving His own\npresence. This, then, is the supreme desire of the Apostle, that Christ\nmay be with them all, and in His presence they may find the secret of\ntranquillity.\n\nI. The deepest longing of every human soul is for peace.\n\nThere are many ways in which the supreme good may be represented, but\nperhaps none of them is so lovely, and exercises such universal\nfascination of attraction, as that which presents it in the form of\nrest. It is an eloquent testimony to the unrest which tortures every\nheart that the promise of peace should to all seem so fair. It may be\npresented and aimed at in very ignoble and selfish ways. It may be\nsought for in cowardly shirking of duty, in sluggish avoidance of\neffort, in selfish absorption, apart from all the miseries of mankind.\nIt may be sought for in the ignoble paths of mere pleasure, amidst the\nsanctities of human love, amidst the nobilities of intellectual effort\nand pursuit. But all men in their workings are aiming at rest of spirit,\nand only in such rest does blessedness lie. 'There is no joy but calm.'\nIt is better than all the excitements of conflict, and better than the\nflush of victory. Best which is not apathy, rest which is not\nindolence, rest which is contemporaneous with, and the consequence of,\nthe full wholesome activity of the whole nature in its legitimate\ndirections, that is the good that we are all longing for. The sea is not\nstagnant, though it be calm. There will be the slow heave of the calm\nbillow, and the wavelets may sparkle in the sunlight, though they be\nstill from all the winds that rave. Deep in every human heart, in yours\nand mine, brother, is this cry for rest and peace. Let us see to it that\nwe do not mistranslate the meaning of the longing, or fancy that it can\nbe found in the ignoble, the selfish, the worldly ways to which I have\nreferred. We want, most of all, peace in our inmost hearts.\n\nII. Then the second thing to be suggested here is that the Lord of Peace\nHimself is the only giver of peace.\n\nI suppose I may take for granted, on the part at least of the members of\nmy own congregation, some remembrance of a former discourse upon another\nof these petitions, in which I pointed out how, in phraseology analogous\nto that of my text, there were the distinct reference to the divinity of\nJesus Christ, the distinct presentation of prayer to Him, the\nimplication of His present activity upon Christian hearts.\n\nAnd here again we have the august and majestic 'Himself.' Here again we\nhave the distinct reference of the title 'Lord' to Jesus. And here again\nwe have plainly prayer to Him.\n\nBut the title by which He is addressed is profoundly significant, 'The\nLord of Peace.' Now we find, in another of Paul's letters, in immediate\nconjunction with His teaching, that casting all our care upon God is\nthe sure way to bring the peace of God into our hearts, the title 'the\nGod of Peace'; and he employs the same phraseology in another of his\nletters, when he prays that the 'God of Peace' would fill the Roman\nChristians 'with all joy and peace in believing.'\n\nSo, then, here is a title which is all but distinctively divine. 'The\n_Lord_ of Peace' is brought into parallelism and equality with 'the God\nof Peace'; which were blasphemy unless the underlying implication was\nthat Jesus Christ Himself was divine.\n\nHe is the 'Lord of Peace' because that tranquillity of heart and spirit,\nthat unruffled calm which we all see from afar, and long to possess, was\nverily His, in His manhood, during all the calamities and changes and\nactivities of His earthly life. I have said that 'peace' is not apathy,\nthat it is not indifference, that it is not self-absorption. Look at the\nlife of the 'Lord of Peace.' In Him there were wholesome human emotions.\nHe sorrowed, He wept, He wondered, He was angry, He pitied, He loved.\nAnd yet all these were perfectly consistent with the unruffled calm\nwhich marked His whole career. So peace is not stolid indifference, nor\nis it to be found in the avoidance of difficult duties, or the cowardly\nshirking of sacrifices and pains and struggles; but rather it is 'peace\nsubsisting at the heart of endless agitation,' of which the great\nexample stands in Him who was 'the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with\ngrief,' and who yet, in it all, was 'the Lord of Peace.'\n\nWhy was Christ's manhood so perfectly tranquil? The secret lies here. It\nwas a manhood in unbroken communion with the Father. And what was the\nsecret of that unbroken communion with the Father? It lies here, in the\nperfect submission of His will. Resignation is peace. The surrender of\nself-will is peace. Obedience is peace. Trust is peace, and fellowship\nwith the divine is peace. So Christ has taught us in His life--'The\nFather hath not left Me alone, because I do always the things that\nplease Him.' And therein He has marked out for us the path of\nrighteousness and communion, which is ever the path of peace. 'Thou wilt\nkeep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he\ntrusteth in Thee.' That is the secret of the tranquillity of the\never-calm Christ.\n\nBeing thus the Lord of Peace, inasmuch as it was His own constant and\nunbroken possession, He is the sole giver of it to others.\n\nAh! brethren, our hearts want far more, for their stable restfulness,\nthan we can find in any hand, or in any heart, except those of Jesus\nChrist Himself. For what do we need? We need, in order that we should\nknow the sweetness of repose, an adequate object for every part of our\nnature. If we find something that is good and sweet and satisfying for\nsome portion of this complex being of ours, all its other hungry desires\nare apt to be left unappeased. So we are shuttle-cocked from one wish to\nanother, and bandied about from one partial satisfaction to another, and\nin them all it is but segments of our being that are satisfied, whilst\nall the rest of the circumference remains disquieted. We need that, in\none attainable and single object, there shall be at once that which will\nsubjugate the will, that which will illuminate and appease the\nconscience, that which will satisfy the seeking intellect, and hold\nforth the promise of endless progress in insight and knowledge, that\nwhich will meet all the desires of our ravenous clamant nature, and\nthat which will fill every creek and cranny of our empty hearts as with\nthe flashing brightness of an inflowing tide.\n\nAnd where shall we find all these, but in one dear heart, and where\nshall we discern the one object, whom, possessing, we have enough; and\nwithout whom, possessing all beside, we are mendicants and starving?\nWhere, but in that dear Lord, who Himself will supply all our needs, and\nwill minister to us peace, because for will and conscience and intellect\nand affections and desires He supplies the pabulum that they require,\nand gives more than enough for their satisfaction?\n\nWe want, if we are to be at rest, that there shall be some absolute\ncontrol over our passions, lusts, desires, which torture us for ever, as\nlong as they are ungoverned. There is only one hand which will take the\nwild beasts of our nature, bind them in the silken leash of His love,\nand lead them along, tamed and obedient.\n\nWe want, for our peace, that all our relations with circumstances and\nmen around us shall be rectified. And who is there that can bring about\nsuch harmony between us and our surroundings that calamities shall not\npress upon us with their heaviest weight, nor opposing circumstances\nkindle angry resistance, but only patient perseverance and thankful\npersistence in the path of duty? It is only Christ that can regulate our\nrelations to the things and the men around us, and make all things work\ntogether to our consciousness for our good.\n\nFurther, if we are to be at rest, and possess any true, fundamental, and\nstable tranquillity, we want that our relations with God shall\nconsciously be rectified and made blessed. And I, for my part, do not\nbelieve that any man comes into the full sweetness of an assured\nfriendship with God, unless he comes to it by the road of faith in that\nSaviour in whom God draws near to us with tenderness in His heart, and\nblessings dropping from His open Hands. To be at peace with God is the\nbeginning of all true tranquillity, and that can be secured only by\nfaith in Jesus Christ.\n\nSo, because He brings the reconciliation between man and God, because He\nbrings the rectification of our relation to circumstances and men,\nbecause He brings the control of desires and passions and inclinations,\nand because He satisfies all the capacities of our natures, in Him, and\nin Him only, is there peace for us.\n\nIII. So note, thirdly, that the peace of the Lord of Peace is perfect.\n\n'Give you peace always,' that points to perpetual, unbroken duration in\ntime, and through all changing circumstances which might threaten a less\nstable and deeply-rooted tranquillity. And then, 'by all means,' as our\nAuthorised Version has it, or, better, 'in all ways,' as the Revised\nVersion reads, the reference being, not so much to the various manners\nin which the divine peace is to be bestowed, as to the various aspects\nwhich that peace is capable of assuming. Christ's peace, then, is\nperpetual and multiform, unbroken, and presenting itself in all the\naspects in which tranquillity is possible for a human spirit.\n\nIt is possible, then, thinks Paul, that there shall be in our hearts a\ndeep tranquillity, over which disasters, calamities, sorrows, losses,\nneed have no power. There is no necessity why, when my outward life is\ntroubled, my inward life should be perturbed. There may be light in the\ndwellings of Goshen, while darkness lies over all the land of Egypt. The\npeace which Christ gives is no exemption from warfare, but is realised\nin the midst of warfare. It is no immunity from sorrows, but is then\nmost felt when the storm of sorrow beating upon us is patiently\naccepted. The rainbow steadfastly stands spanning the tortured waters of\nthe cataract. The fire may burn, like that old Greek fire, beneath the\nwater. The surface may be agitated, but the centre may be calm. It is\nnot calamity that breaks our peace, but it is the resistance of our\nwills to calamity which troubles us. When we can bow and submit and say,\n'Thy will be done,' 'it seemeth good to Thee, do as Thou wilt,' then\nnothing can break the peace of God in our hearts. We seek in the wrong\nquarter for peace when we seek it in the disposition of outward things\naccording to our wills. We seek in the right way when we seek it in the\ndisposition of our wills according to the will of the Father manifest in\nour circumstances. There may be peace always, even whilst the storms,\nefforts, and calamities of life are in full operation around us and on\nus. That peace may be uninterrupted and uniform, extended on one high\nlevel, as it were through all our lives. It is not so with us, dear\nbrethren; there are ups and downs which are our own fault. The peace of\nGod may be permanent, but, in order that it should be, there must be\npermanent communion and permanent obedience.\n\nFurther, says the Apostle, Christ's peace will not manifest itself in\none form only, but in all the shapes in which peace is possible. There\nare many enemies that beset this calmness of spirit; for them all there\nis the appropriate armour and defence in the peace of God, I have\nalready enumerated in part some of the requirements for true and\npermanent tranquillity of soul. All these are met in the peace of\nChrist. Whatever it is that disturbs men, He has His anodyne that will\nsoothe. If circumstances threaten, if men array themselves against us,\nif our own evil hearts rise up in rebellion, if our passions disturb us,\nif our consciences accuse: for all these Christ brings tranquillity and\ncalm. In every way in which men can be disturbed, and in every way,\ntherefore, in which peace can be manifest, Christ's gift avails. 'Come\nunto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you\nrest.'\n\nIV. Lastly, 'the Lord of Peace' gives it by giving His own presence.\n\nThe Thessalonians, as they listened to Paul's first prayer, might think\nto themselves, 'Always, by all means.' That is a large petition! Can it\nbe fufilled? And so the Apostle adds, 'The Lord be with you all.' You\ncannot separate Christ's gifts from Christ. The only way to get anything\nthat He gives is to get Him. It is His presence that does everything. If\nHe is with me, the world's annoyances will seem very small. If I hold\nHis hand I shall not be much troubled. If I can only nestle close to His\nside, and come under His cloak, He will shield me from the cold blast,\nfrom whatever side it blows. If my heart is twined around Him it will\npartake of the stability and calm of the great heart on which it rests.\n\nThe secret of tranquillity is the presence of Christ. When He is in the\nvessel the waves calm themselves. So, Christian men and women, if you\nand I are conscious of breaches of our restfulness, interruptions of\nour tranquillity by reason of surging, impatient passions, and hot\ndesires within ourselves, or by reason of the pressure of outward\ncircumstances, or by reason of our having fallen beneath our\nconsciences, and done wrong things, let us understand that the breaches\nof our peace are not owing to Him, but only to our having let go His\nhand. It is our own faults if we are ever troubled; if we kept close to\nHim we should not be. It is our own faults if the world ever agitates us\nbeyond the measure that is compatible with central calm. Sorrow should\nnot have the power to touch the citadel of our lives. Effort should not\nhave the power to withdraw us from our trustful repose in Him. And\nnothing here would have the power, if we did not let our hand slip out\nof His, and break our communion with Him.\n\nSo, dear brethren, 'in the world ye shall have tribulation, in Me ye\nshall have peace.' Keep inside the fortress and nothing will disturb.\n'He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under\nthe shadow of the Almighty.' The only place where that hungry,\npassion-ridden heart of yours, conscious of alienation from God, can\nfind rest, is close by Jesus Christ. 'The Lord be with us all,' and then\nthe peace of that Lord shall clothe and fill our hearts in Christ\nJesus.\n\n\n\n\nI. TIMOTHY\n\n\n\n\nTHE END OF THE COMMANDMENT\n\n 'Now, the end of the commandment is love, out of a\n pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith\n unfeigned.'--1 TIM. 1. 6.\n\n\nThe Apostle has just said that he left Timothy in Ephesus, in order to\ncheck some tendencies there which were giving anxiety. Certain teachers\nhad appeared, the effect of whose activity was to create parties, to\nfoster useless speculations, and to turn the minds of the Ephesian\nChristians away from the practical and moral side of Christianity. In\nopposition to these, the Apostle here lays down the broad principle that\nGod has spoken, not in order to make acute theologians, or to provide\nmaterials for controversy, but in order to help us to love. The whole of\nthese latest letters of the Apostle breathe the mellow wisdom of old\nage, which has learned to rate brilliant intellectualism, agility,\nincontroversial fence and the like, far lower than homely goodness. And\nso, says Paul, 'the end of the commandment is love.'\n\nNow he here states, not only the purpose of the divine revelation, but\ngives us a summary, but yet sufficient, outline of the method by which\nGod works towards that purpose. The commandment is the beginning, love\nis the end or aim. And between these two there are inserted three\nthings, a 'pure heart,' a 'good conscience,' 'faith unfeigned.' Now of\nthese three the two former are closely connected, and the third is the\ncause, or condition, of both of them. It is, therefore, properly named\nlast as being first in order, and therefore last reached in analysis.\nWhen you track a stream from its mouth to its source, the fountain-head\nis the last thing that you come to. And here we have, as in these great\nlakes in Central Africa--out of which finally the Nile issues--the\nstages of the flow. There are the twin lakes, a 'good conscience' and a\n'pure heart.' These come from 'unfeigned faith,' which lies higher up in\nthe hills of God; and they run down into the love which is the 'end of\nthe commandment.' The faith lays hold on the commandment, and so the\nprocess is complete. Or, if you begin at the top, instead of at the\nbottom, God gives the word; faith grasps the word, and thereby nourishes\na 'pure heart' and a 'good conscience,' and thereby produces a universal\nlove. So, then, we have three steps to look at here.\n\nI. First of all, what God speaks to us for.\n\n'The end of the commandment is love.'\n\nNow, I take it that the word 'commandment' here means, not this or that\nspecific precept, but the whole body of Christian revelation, considered\nas containing laws for life. And to begin with, and only to mention, it\nis something to get that point of view, that all which God says, be it\npromise, be it self-manifestation, be it threatening, or be it anything\nelse, has a preceptive bearing, and is meant to influence life and\nconduct. I shall have a word or two more to say about that presently,\nbut note, just as we go on, how remarkable it is, and how full of\nlessons, if we will ponder it, that one name for the Gospel on the lips\nof the man who had most to say about the contrast between Gospel and\nLaw is 'commandment.' Try to feel the stringency of that aspect of\nevangelical truth and of Christian revelation.\n\nThen I need not remind you how here the indefinite expression 'love'\nmust be taken, as I think is generally the case in the New Testament,\nwhen the object on which the love rests is not defined, as including\nboth of the twin commandments, of which the second, our Master says, is\nlike unto the first, love to God and love to man. In the Christian idea\nthese two are one. They are shoots from the one root. The only\ndifference is that the one climbs and the other grows along the levels\nof earth. There is no gulf set in the New Testament teaching, and there\nought to be none in the practice and life of a Christian man, between\nthe love of God and the love of man. They are two aspects of one thing.\n\nThen, if so, mark how, according to the Apostle's teaching here, in this\none thought of a dual-sided love, one turned upwards, one turned\nearthwards, there lies the whole perfection of a human soul. You want\nnothing more if you are 'rooted and grounded in love.' That will secure\nall goodness, all morality, all religion, everything that is beautiful,\nand everything that is noble. And all this is meant to be the result of\nGod's speech to us.\n\nSo, then, two very plain practical principles may be deduced and\nenforced from this first thought. First, the purpose of all revelation\nand the test of all religion is--character and conduct.\n\nIt is all very well to know about God, to have our minds filled with\ntrue thoughts about Him, His nature, and dealings with us. Orthodoxy is\ngood, but orthodoxy is a means to an end. There should be nothing in a\nman's creed which does not act upon his life. Or, if I may put it into\ntechnical words, all a man's _credenda_ should be his _agenda_; and\nwhatsoever he believes should come straight into his life to influence\nit, and to shape character. Here, then, is the warning against a mere\nnotional orthodoxy, and against regarding Christian truth as being\nintended mainly to illuminate the understanding, or to be a subject of\nspeculation and discussion. There are people in all generations, and\nthere are plenty of them to-day, who seem to think that the great\nverities of the Gospel are mainly meant to provide material for\ncontroversy--\n\n 'As if religion were intended\n For nothing else but to be mended';\n\nand that they have done all that can be expected when they have tried to\napprehend the true bearing of this revelation, and to contend against\nmisinterpretations. This is the curse of religious controversy, that it\nblinds men to the practical importance of the truths for which they are\nfighting. It is as if one were to take some fertile wheat-land, and sand\nit all over, and roll it down, and make it smooth for a gymnasium, where\nnothing would grow. So the temper which finds in Christian truth simply\na 'ministration of questions,' as my text says, mars its purpose, and\nrobs itself of all the power and nourishment that it might find there.\n\nNo less to be guarded against is the other misconception which the clear\ngrasp of our text would dismiss at once, that the great purpose for\nwhich God speaks to us men, in the revelation of Jesus Christ, is that\nwe may, as we say, be 'forgiven,' and escape any of the temporal or\neternal consequences of our wrongdoing. That _is_ a purpose, no doubt,\nand men will never rise to the apprehension of the loftiest purposes,\nnor penetrate to a sympathetic perception of the inmost sweetness of the\nGospel, unless they begin with its redemptive aspect, even in the\nnarrowest sense of that word. But there are a miserable number of\nso-called and of real Christians in this world, and in our churches\nto-day, who have little conception that God has spoken to them for\nanything else than to deliver them from the fear of death, and from the\nincidence on them of future condemnation. He _has_ spoken for this\npurpose, but the ultimate end of all is that we may be helped to love\nHim, and so to be like Him. The aim of the commandment is love, and if\nyou ever are tempted to rest in intellectual apprehensions, or to\npervert the truth of God into a mere arena on which you can display your\nskill of fence and your intellectual agility, or if ever you are tempted\nto think that all is done when the sweet message of forgiveness is\nsealed upon a man's heart, remember the solemn and plain words of my\ntext--the final purpose of all is that we may love God and man.\n\nBut then, on the other side, note that no less distinctly is the sole\nfoundation of this love laid in God's speech. My text, in its elevation\nof sentiment and character and conduct above doctrine, falls in with the\nprevailing tendencies of this day; but it provides the safeguards which\nthese tendencies neglect. Notice that this favourite saying of the most\nadvanced school of broad thinkers, who are always talking about the\ndecay of dogma, and the unimportance of doctrine as compared with love,\nis here uttered by a man who was no sentimentalist, but to whom the\nChristian system was a most distinct and definite thing, bristling all\nover with the obnoxious doctrines which are by some of us so summarily\ndismissed as of no importance. My very text protests against the modern\nattempt to wrench away the sentiments and emotions produced in men, by\nthe reception of Christian truth, from the truth which it recognises as\nthe only basis on which they can be produced. It declares that the\n'commandment' must come first, before love can follow; and the rest of\nthe letter, although, as I say, it decisively places the end of\nrevelation as being the moral and religious perfecting of men into\nassimilation with the divine love, no less decisively demands that for\nsuch a perfecting there shall be laid the foundation of the truth as it\nis revealed in Jesus Christ.\n\nAnd that is what we want to-day in order to make breadth wholesome, and\nif only we will carry with us the two thoughts, the commandment and\nlove, we shall not go far wrong. But what would you think of a man that\nsaid, 'I do not want any foundations. I want a house to live in'? And\npray how are you going to get your house without the foundations? Or\nwould he be a wise man who said, 'Oh, never mind about putting grapes\ninto the vine vat, and producing fermentation; give me the wine!' Yes!\nBut you must have the fermentation first. The process is not the result,\nof course, but there is no result without the process. And according to\nNew Testament teaching, which, I am bold to say, is verified by\nexperience, there is no deep, all-swaying, sovereign, heart-uniting love\nto God which is not drawn from the acceptance of the truth as it is in\nJesus Christ.\n\nII. And so I come, secondly, to note the purifying which is needed prior\nto such love.\n\nOur text, as I said, divides the process into stages; or, if I may go\nback to a former illustration, into levels. And on the level\nimmediately above the love, down into which the waters of the twin lakes\nglide, are a pure heart and a good conscience. These are the requisites\nfor all real and operative love. Now they are closely connected, as it\nseems to me, more closely so than with either the stage which precedes\nor that which follows. They are, in fact, two twin thoughts, very\nclosely identified, though not quite identical.\n\nA pure heart is one that has been defecated and cleansed from the\nimpurities which naturally attach to human affections. A 'good\nconscience' is one which is void of offence towards God and man, and\nregisters the emotions of a pure heart. It is like a sheet of sensitive\npaper that, with a broken line, indicates how many hours of sunshine in\nthe day there have been. We need not discuss the question as to which of\nthese two great gifts and blessings which sweeten a whole life come\nfirst. In the initial stages of the Christian life I suppose the good\nconscience precedes the pure heart. For forgiveness which calms the\nconscience and purges it of the perilous stuff which has been injected\ninto it by our corruptions--forgiveness comes before cleansing, and the\nconscience is calm before the heart is purified. But in the later stages\nof the Christian life the order seems to be reversed, and there cannot\nbe in a man a conscience that is good unless there is a heart that is\npure.\n\nBut however that may be--and it does not affect the general question\nbefore us--mark how distinctly Paul lays down here the principle that\nyou will get no real love of God or man out of men whose hearts are\nfoul, and whose consciences are either torpid or stinging them. I need\nnot dwell upon that, for it is plain to anybody that will think for a\nmoment that all sin separates between a man and God; and that from a\nheart all seething and bubbling, like the crater of a volcano, with foul\nliquids, and giving forth foul odours, there can come no love worth\ncalling so to God, nor any benevolence worth calling so to man. Wherever\nthere is sin, unrecognised, unconfessed, unpardoned, there there is a\nblack barrier built up between a man's heart and the yearning heart of\nGod on the other side. And until that barrier is swept away, until the\nwhole nature receives a new set, until it is delivered from the love of\nevil, and from its self-centred absorption, and until conscience has\ntaken into grateful hands, if I might so say, the greatest of all gifts,\nthe assurance of the divine forgiveness, I, for one, do not believe that\ndeep, vital, and life-transforming love to God is possible. I know that\nit is very unfashionable, I know it is exceedingly narrow teaching, but\nit seems to me that it is Scriptural teaching; and it seems to me that\nif we will strip it of the exaggerations with which it has often been\nsurrounded, and recognise that there may be a kind of instinctive and\noccasional recognition of a divine love, there may be a yearning after a\nclear light, and fuller knowledge of it, and yet all the while no real\nlove to God, rooted in and lording over and moulding the life, we shall\nnot find much in the history of the world, or in the experience of\nourselves or of others, to contradict the affirmation that you need the\ncleansing of forgiveness, and the recognition of God's love in Jesus\nChrist, before you can get love worth calling so in return to Him in\nmen's hearts.\n\nBrethren, there is much to-day to shame Christian men in the singular\nfact which is becoming more obvious daily, of a divorce between human\nbenevolence and godliness. It is a scandal that there should be so many\nmen in the world who make no pretensions to any sympathy with your\nChristianity, and who set you an example of benevolence, self-sacrifice,\nenthusiasm for humanity, as it is called. I believe that the one basis\nupon which there can be solidly built benevolence to men is devotion to\nGod, because of God's great love to us in Jesus Christ. But I want to\nstir, if I might not say sting, you and myself into a recognition of our\nobligations to mankind, more stringent and compelling than we have ever\nfelt it, by this phenomenon of modern life, that a divorce has been\nproclaimed between philanthropy and religion. The end of the commandment\nis love, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience.\n\nIII. Lastly, notice the condition of such purifying.\n\nTo recur to my former illustration, we have to go up country to a still\nhigher level. What feeds the two reservoirs that feed the love? What\nmakes the heart pure and the conscience good? Paul answers, 'faith\nunfeigned'; not mere intellectual apprehension, not mere superficial or\nprofessed, but deep, genuine, and complete faith which has in it the\nelement of reliance as well as the element of credence. Belief is not\nall that goes to make faith. Trust is not all that goes to make faith.\nBelief and trust are indissolubly wedded in the conception of it. Such a\nfaith, which knows what it lays hold of--for it lays hold upon definite\ntruth, and lays hold on what it knows, for it trusts in Him whom the\ntruth reveals--such a faith makes the heart pure and the conscience\ngood.\n\nAnd how does it do so? By nothing in itself. There is no power in my\nfaith to make me one bit better than I am. There is no power in it to\nstill one accusation of conscience. It is only the condition on which\nthe one power that purges and that calms enters into my heart and works\nthere. The power of faith is the power of that which faith admits to\noperate in my life. If we open our hearts the fire will come in, and it\nwill thaw the ice, and melt out the foulness from my heart. It is\nimportant for practice that we should clearly understand that the great\nthings which the Bible says of faith it says of it only because it is\nthe channel, the medium, the condition, by and on which the real power,\nwhich is Jesus Christ Himself, acts upon us. It is not the window, but\nthe sunshine, that floods this building with light. It is not the opened\nhand, but the gift laid in it, that enriches the pauper. It is not the\npoor leaden pipe, but the water that flows through it, that fills the\ncistern, and cleanses it, whilst it fills. It is not your faith, but the\nChrist whom your faith brings into your heart and conscience, that\npurges the one, and makes the other void of offence towards God and man.\n\nSo, brethren, let us learn the secret of all nobility, of all power, of\nall righteousness of character and conduct. Put your foot on the lowest\nround of the ladder, and then aspire and climb, and you will reach the\nsummit. Take the first step, and be true to it after you have taken it,\nand the last will surely come. He that can say, 'We have known and\nbelieved the love that God hath to us,' will also be able to say, 'We\nlove Him because He first loved us.' 'And this commandment have we of\nGod, that he who loves God loves his brother also.'\n\n\n\n\n'THE GOSPEL OF THE GLORY OF THE HAPPY GOD'\n\n 'The glorious gospel of the blessed God.'--1 TIM.\n i. 11.\n\n\nTwo remarks of an expository character will prepare the way for our\nconsideration of this text. The first is, that the proper rendering is\nthat which is given in the Revised Version--'the gospel of the glory,'\nnot the 'glorious gospel.' The Apostle is not telling us what kind of\nthing the Gospel is, but what it is about. He is dealing not with its\nquality, but with its contents. It is a Gospel which reveals, has to do\nwith, is the manifestation of, the glory of God.\n\nThen the other remark is with reference to the meaning of the word\n'blessed.' There are two Greek words which are both translated 'blessed'\nin the New Testament. One of them, the more common, literally means\n'well spoken of,' and points to the action of praise or benediction;\ndescribes what a man is when men speak well of him, or what God is when\nmen praise and magnify His name. But the other word, which is used here,\nand is only applied to God once more in Scripture, has no reference to\nthe human attribution of blessing and praise to Him, but describes Him\naltogether apart from what men say of Him, as what He is in Himself, the\n'blessed,' or, as we might almost say, the 'happy' God. If the word\nhappy seems too trivial, suggesting ideas of levity, of turbulence, of\npossible change, then I do not know that we can find any better word\nthan that which is already employed in my text, if only we remember that\nit means the solemn, calm, restful, perpetual gladness that fills the\nheart of God.\n\nSo much, then, being premised, there are three points that seem to me to\ncome out of this remarkable expression of my text. First, the revelation\nof God in Christ, of which the Gospel is the record, is the glory of\nGod. Second, that revelation is, in a very profound sense, an element in\nthe blessedness of God. And, lastly, that revelation is the good news\nfor men. Let us look at these three points, then, in succession.\n\nI. Take, first, that striking thought that the revelation of God in\nJesus Christ is the glory of God.\n\nThe theme, or contents, or purpose of the whole Gospel, is to set forth\nand make manifest to men the glory of God.\n\nNow what do we mean by 'the glory'? I think, perhaps, that question may\nbe most simply answered by remembering the definite meaning of the word\nin the Old Testament. There it designates, usually, that supernatural\nand lustrous light which dwelt between the Cherubim, the symbol of the\npresence and of the self-manifestation of God. So that we may say, in\nbrief, that the glory of God is the sum-total of the light that streams\nfrom His self-revelation, considered as being the object of adoration\nand praise by a world that gazes upon Him.\n\nAnd if this be the notion of the glory of God, is it not a startling\ncontrast which is suggested between the apparent contents and the real\nsubstance of that Gospel? Suppose a man, for instance, who had no\nprevious knowledge of Christianity, being told that in it he would find\nthe highest revelation of the glory of God. He comes to the book, and\nfinds that the very heart of it is not about God, but about a man; that\nthis revelation of the glory of God is the biography of a man; and more\nthan that, that the larger portion of that biography is the story of\nthe humiliations, and the sufferings, and the death of the man. Would it\nnot strike him as a strange paradox that the history of a _man's_ life\nwas the shining apex of all revelations of the glory of _God_? And yet\nso it is, and the Apostle, just because to him the Gospel was the story\nof the Christ who lived and died, declares that in this story of a human\nlife, patient, meek, limited, despised, rejected, and at last crucified,\nlies, brighter than all other flashings of the divine light, the very\nheart of the lustre and palpitating centre and fontal source of all the\nradiance with which God has flooded the world. The history of Jesus\nChrist is the glory of God. And that involves two or three\nconsiderations on which I dwell briefly.\n\nOne of them is this: Christ, then, is the self-revelation of God. If,\nwhen we deal with the story of His life and death, we are dealing simply\nwith the biography of a man, however pure, lofty, inspired he may be,\nthen I ask what sort of connection there is between that biography which\nthe four Gospels gives us, and what my text says is the substance of the\nGospel? What force of logic is there in the Apostle's words: 'God\ncommendeth _His_ love toward us in that whilst we were yet sinners\n_Christ_ died for us,' unless there is some altogether different\nconnection between the God who commends His love and the Christ who dies\nto commend it, than exists between a mere man and God? Brethren! to\ndeliver my text, and a hundred other passages of Scripture, from the\ncharge of being extravagant nonsense, and clear, illogical _non\nsequiturs_, you must believe that in that man Christ Jesus 'we behold\nHis glory--the glory of the only begotten of the Father'; and that when\nwe look--haply not without some touch of tenderness and awed admiration\nin our hearts--upon His gentleness, we have to say, 'the patient God';\nwhen we look upon His tears we have to say, 'the pitying God'; when we\nlook upon His Cross we have to say, 'the redeeming God'; and gazing upon\nthe Man, to see in Him the manifest divinity. Oh! listen to that voice,\n'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,' and bow before the story of\nthe human life as being the revelation of the indwelling God.\n\nAnd then, still further, my text suggests that this self-revelation of\nGod in Jesus Christ is the very climax and highest point of all God's\nrevelations to men. I believe that the loftiest exhibition and\nconception of the divine character which is possible to us must be made\nto us in the form of a man. I believe that the law of humanity, for\never, in heaven as on earth, is this, that the Son is the revealer of\nGod; and that no loftier--yea, at bottom, no other--communication of the\ndivine nature can be made to man than is made in Jesus Christ.\n\nBut be that as it may, let me urge upon you this thought, that in that\nwondrous story of the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ the very\nhigh-water mark of divine self-communication has been touched and\nreached. All the energies of the divine nature are embodied there. The\n'riches, both of the _wisdom_ and of the _knowledge_ of God,' are in the\nCross and Passion of our Saviour. 'To declare at this time His\n_righteousness_' Jesus Christ came to die. The Cross is 'the _power_ of\nGod unto salvation.' Or, to put it into other words, and avail oneself\nof an illustration, we know the old story of the queen who, for the love\nof an unworthy human heart, dissolved pearls in the cup and gave them to\nhim to drink. We may say that God comes to us, and for the love of us,\nreprobate and unworthy, has melted all the jewels of His nature into\nthat cup of blessing which He offers to us, saying: 'Drink ye all of\nit.' The whole Godhead, so to speak, is smelted down to make that\nrushing river of molten love which flows from the Cross of Christ into\nthe hearts of men. Here is the highest point of God's revelation of\nHimself.\n\nAnd my text implies, still further, that the true living, flashing\ncentre of the glory of God is the love of God. Christendom is more than\nhalf heathen yet, and it betrays its heathenism not least in its vulgar\nconceptions of the divine nature and its glory. The majestic attributes\nwhich separate God from man, and make Him unlike His creatures, are the\nones which people too often fancy belong to the glorious side of His\ncharacter. They draw distinctions between 'grace' and 'glory,' and think\nthat the latter applies mainly to what I might call the physical and the\nmetaphysical, and less to the moral, attributes of the divine nature. We\nadore power, and when it is expanded to infinity we think that it is the\nglory of God. But my text delivers us from all such misconceptions. If\nwe rightly understand it, then we learn this, that the true heart of the\nglory is tenderness and love. Of power that weak man hanging on the\nCross is a strange embodiment; but if we learn that there is something\nmore godlike in God than power, then we can say, as we look upon Jesus\nChrist: 'Lo! this is our God. We have waited for Him, and He will save\nus.' Not in the wisdom that knows no growth, not in the knowledge which\nhas no border-land of ignorance ringing it round about, not in the\nunwearied might of His arm, not in the exhaustless energy of His being,\nnot in the unslumbering watchfulness of His all-seeing eye, not in that\nawful presence wheresoever creatures are; not in any or in all of these\nlies the glory of God, but in His love. These are the fringes of the\nbrightness; this is the central blaze. The Gospel is the Gospel of the\nglory of God, because it is all summed up in the one word--'God so loved\nthe world that He gave His only begotten Son.'\n\nII. Now, in the next place, the revelation of God in Christ is an\nelement in the blessedness of God.\n\nWe are come here into places where we see but very dimly, and it becomes\nus to speak very cautiously. Only as we are led by the divine teaching\nmay we affirm at all. But it cannot be unwise to accept in simple\nliterality utterances of Scripture, however they may seem to strike us\nas strange. And so I would say--the philosopher's God may be\nall-sufficient and unemotional, the Bible's God 'delighteth in mercy,'\nrejoiceth in His gifts, and is glad when men accept them. It is\nsomething, surely, amid all the griefs and sorrows of this\nsorrow-haunted and devil-hunted world, to rise to this lofty region and\nto feel that there is a living personal joy at the heart of the\nuniverse. If we went no further, to me there is infinite beauty and\nmighty consolation and strength in that one thought--the happy God. He\nis not, as some ways of representing Him figure Him to be, what the\nolder astronomers thought the sun was, a great cold orb, black and\nfrigid at the heart, though the source and centre of light and warmth to\nthe system. But He Himself is joy, or if we dare not venture on that\nword, which brings with it earthly associations, and suggests the\npossibility of alteration--He is the blessed God. And the Psalmist saw\ndeeply into the divine nature, who, not contented with hymning His\npraise as the possessor of the fountain of life, and the light whereby\nwe see light, exclaimed in an ecstasy of anticipation, 'Thou makest us\nto drink of the rivers of Thy pleasures.'\n\nBut there is a great deal more than that here, if not in the word\nitself, at least in its connection, which connection seems to suggest\nthat, howsoever the divine nature must be supposed to be blessed in its\nown absolute and boundless perfectness, an element in the blessedness of\nGod Himself arises from His self-communication through the Gospel to the\nworld. All love delights in imparting. Why should not God's? On the\nlower level of human affection we know that it is so, and on the highest\nlevel we may with all reverence venture to say, The quality of that\nmercy . . . 'is twice blest,' and that divine love 'blesseth Him that\ngives and them that take.'\n\nHe created a universe because He delights in His works, and in having\ncreatures on whom He can lavish Himself. He 'rests in His love, and\nrejoices over us with singing' when we open our hearts to the reception\nof His light, and learn to know Him as He has declared Himself in His\nChrist. The blessed God is blessed because He is God. But He is blessed\ntoo because He is the loving and, therefore, the giving God.\n\nWhat a rock-firmness such a thought as this gives to the mercy and the\nlove that He pours out upon us! If they were evoked by our worthiness we\nmight well tremble, but when we know, according to the grand words\nfamiliar to many of us, that it is His nature and property to be\nmerciful, and that He is far gladder in giving than we can be in\nreceiving, then we may be sure that His mercy endureth for ever, and\nthat it is the very necessity of His being--and He cannot turn His back\nupon Himself--to love, to pity, to succour, and to bless.\n\nIII. And so, lastly, the revelation of God in Christ is good news for us\nall.\n\n'The Gospel of the glory of the blessed God.' How that word 'Gospel' has\ngot tarnished and enfeebled by constant use and unreflective use, so\nthat it slips glibly off my tongue and falls without producing any\neffect upon your hearts! It needs to be freshened up by considering what\nreally it means. It means this: here are we like men shut up in a\nbeleaguered city, hopeless, helpless, with no power to break out or to\nraise the siege; provisions failing, death certain. Some of you older\nmen and women remember how that was the case in that awful siege of\nParis, in the Franco-German War, and what expedients were adopted in\norder to get some communication from without. And here to us, prisoned,\ncomes, as it did to them, a despatch borne under a dove's wing, and the\nmessage is this:--God is love; and that you may know that He is, He has\nsent you His Son who died on the Cross, the sacrifice for a world's sin.\nBelieve it, and trust it, and all your transgressions will pass away.\n\nMy brother, is not that good news? Is it not _the_ good news that you\nneed--the news of a Father, of pardon, of hope, of love, of strength, of\npurity, of heaven? Does it not meet our fears, our forebodings, our\nwants at every point? It comes to you. What do you do with it? Do you\nwelcome it eagerly, do you clutch it to your hearts, do you say, 'This\nis _my_ Gospel'? Oh! let me beseech you, welcome the message; do not\nturn away from the word from heaven, which will bring life and\nblessedness to all your hearts! Some of you have turned away long\nenough, some of you, perhaps, are fighting with the temptation to do so\nagain even now. Let me press that ancient Gospel upon your acceptance,\nthat Christ the Son of God has died for you, and lives to bless and help\nyou. Take it and live! So shall you find that, 'as cold water to a\nthirsty soul,' so is this best of all news from the far country.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GOSPEL IN SMALL\n\n 'This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all\n acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world\n to save sinners.'--1 TIM. i. 15.\n\n\nCondensation is a difficult art. There are few things drier and more\nunsatisfactory than small books on great subjects, abbreviated\nstatements of large systems. Error lurks in summaries, and yet here the\nwhole fulness of God's communication to men is gathered into a sentence;\ntiny as a diamond, and flashing like it. My text is the one precious\ndrop of essence, distilled from gardens full of fragrant flowers. There\nis an old legend of a magic tent, which could be expanded to shelter an\narmy, and contracted to cover a single man. That great Gospel which\nfills the Bible and overflows on the shelves of crowded libraries is\nhere, without harm to its power, folded up into one saying, which the\nsimplest can understand sufficiently to partake of the salvation which\nit offers.\n\nThere are five of these 'faithful sayings' in the letters of Paul,\nusually called 'the pastoral epistles.' It seems to have been a manner\nwith him, at that time of his life, to underscore anything which he felt\nto be especially important by attaching to it this label. They are all,\nwith one exception, references to the largest truths of the Gospel. I\nturn to this one, the first of them now, for the sake of gathering some\nlessons from it.\n\nI. Note, then, first, here the Gospel in a nutshell.\n\n'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.' Now, every word\nthere is weighty, and might be, not beaten out, but opened out into\nvolumes. Mark who it is that comes--the solemn double name of that great\nLord, 'Christ Jesus.' The former tells of His divine appointment and\npreparation, inasmuch as the Spirit of the Lord God is upon Him,\nanointing Him to proclaim good tidings to the poor, and to open the\nprison doors to all the captives, and asserts that it is He to whom\nprophets and ritual witnessed, and for whose coming prophets and kings\nlooked wearily through the ages, and died rejoicing even to see afar off\nthe glimmer of His day. The name of Jesus tells of the child born in\nBethlehem, who knows the experience of our lives by His own, and not\nonly bends over our griefs with the pity and omniscience of a God, but\nwith the experience and sympathy of a man.\n\n'Christ Jesus came.' Then He _was_ before He came. His own will impelled\nHis feet, and brought Him to earth.\n\n'Christ Jesus came to save.' Then there is disease, for saving is\nhealing; and there is danger, for saving is making secure.\n\n'Christ Jesus came to save sinners'--the universal condition,\nco-extensive with the 'world' into which, and for which, He came. And so\nthe essence of the Gospel, as it lay in Paul's mind, and had been\nverified in his experience, was this--that a divine person had left a\nlife of glory, and in wonderful fashion had taken upon Himself manhood\nin order to deliver men from the universal danger and disease. That is\nthe Gospel which Paul believed, and which he commends to us as 'a\nfaithful saying.'\n\nWell, then, if that be so, there are two or three things very important\nfor us to lay to heart. The first is the universality of sin. That is\nthe thing in which we are all alike, dear friends. That is the one thing\nabout which any man is safe in his estimate of another. We differ\nprofoundly. The members of this congregation, gathered accidentally\ntogether, and perhaps never to be all together again, may be at the\nantipodes of culture, of condition, of circumstances, of modes of life;\nbut, just as really below all the diversities there lies the common\npossession of the one human heart, so really and universally below all\ndiversities there lies the black drop in the heart, and 'we all have\nsinned and come short of the glory of God.' It is that truth which I\nwant to lay on your hearts as the first condition to understanding\nanything about the power, the meaning, the blessedness of the Gospel\nwhich we say we believe.\n\nAnd what does Paul mean by this universal indictment? If you take the\nvivid autobiographical sketch in the midst of which it is embedded, you\nwill understand. He goes on to say, 'of whom I am chief.' It was the\nsame man that said, without supposing that he was contradicting this\nutterance at all, 'touching the righteousness which is in the law' I was\n'blameless.' And yet, 'I am chief.' So all true men who have ever shown\nus their heart, in telling their Christian faith, have repeated Paul's\nstatement; from Augustine in his wonderful _Confessions_, to John Bunyan\nin his _Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners_. And then prosaic men\nhave said, 'What profligates they must have been, or what exaggerators\nthey are now!' No. Sewer gas of the worst sort has no smell; and the\nmost poisonous exhalations are only perceptible by their effects. What\nmade Paul think himself the chief of sinners was not that he had broken\nthe commandments, for he might have said, and in effect did say, 'All\nthese have I kept from my youth up,' but that, through all the\nrespectability and morality of his early life there ran this streak--an\nalienation of heart, in the pride of self-confidence, from God, and an\nignorance of his own wretchedness and need. Ah! brethren, I do not need\nto exaggerate, nor to talk about 'splendid vices,' in the untrue\nlanguage of one of the old saints, but this I seek to press on you: that\nthe deep, universal sin does not lie in the indulgence of passions, or\nthe breach of moralities, but it lies here--'thou hast left Me, the\nfountain of living water.' That is what I charge on myself, and on every\none of you, and I beseech you to recognise the existence of this\nsinfulness beneath all the surface of reputable and pure lives.\nBeautiful they may be; God forbid that I should deny it: beautiful with\nmany a strenuous effort after goodness, and charming in many respects,\nbut yet vitiated by this, 'The God in whose hand thy breath is, and\nwhose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified.' That is enough to make\na man brush away all the respectabilities and proprieties and graces,\nand look at the black reality beneath, and wail out 'of whom I am\nchief.'\n\nBut, further, Paul's condensed summary of the Gospel implies the fatal\ncharacter of this universal sin. 'He comes to save,' says he. Now what\nanswers to 'save' is either disease or danger. The word is employed in\nthe original in antithesis to both conditions. To save is to heal and to\nmake safe. And I need not remind you, I suppose, of how truly the\nalienation from God, and the substitution for Him of self or of\ncreature, is the sickness of the whole man. But the end of sickness\nuncured is death. We 'have no healing medicine,' and the 'wound is\nincurable' by the skill of any earthly chirurgeon. The notion of\nsickness passes, therefore, at once into that of danger: for unhealed\nsickness can only end in death. Oh! that my words could have the waking\npower that would startle some of my complacent hearers into the\nrecognition of the bare facts of their lives and character, and of the\nposition in which they stand on a slippery inclined plane that goes\nstraight down into darkness!\n\nYou do not hear much about the danger of sin from some modern pulpits.\nGod forbid that it should be the staple of any; but God forbid that it\nshould be excluded from any! Whilst fear is a low motive,\nself-preservation is not a low one; and it is to that that I now appeal.\nBrethren, the danger of every sin is, first, its rapid growth; second,\nits power of separating from God; third, the certainty of a future--ay!\nand _present_--retribution.\n\nTo me, the proof of the fatal effect of sin is what God had to do in\norder to stop it. Do you think that it would be a small, superficial cut\nwhich could be stanched by nothing else but the pierced hand of Jesus\nChrist? Measure the intensity of danger by the cost of deliverance, and\njudge how grave are the wounds for the healing of which stripes had to\nbe laid on Him. Ah! if you and I had not been in danger of death, Jesus\nChrist would not have died. And if it be true that the Son of God laid\naside His glory, and came into the world and died on the Cross for men,\nout of the very greatness of the gift, and the marvellousness of the\nmercy, there comes solemn teaching as to the intensity of the misery and\nthe reality and awfulness of the retribution from which we were\ndelivered by such a death. Sin, the universal condition, brings with it\nno slight disease and no small danger.\n\nFurther, we may gather from this condensed summary where the true heart\nand essence of the Christian revelation is. You will never understand it\nuntil you are contented to take the point of view which the New\nTestament takes, and give all weight and gravity to the fact of man's\ntransgression and the consequences thereof. We shall never know what the\npower and the glory of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ is until we\nrecognise that, first and foremost, it is the mighty means by which\nman's ruin is repaired, man's downrush is stopped, sin is forgiven and\ncapable of being cleansed. Only when we think of the Gospel of Jesus\nChrist as being, first and foremost, the redemption of the world by the\ngreat act of incarnation and sacrifice, do we come to be in a position\nin any measure to estimate its superlative worth.\n\nAnd, for my part, I believe that almost all the mistakes and errors and\nevaporations of Christianity into a mere dead nothing which have\ncharacterised the various ages of the Church come mainly from this, that\nmen fail to see how deep and how fatal are the wounds of sin, and so\nfail to apprehend the Gospel as being mainly and primarily a system of\nredemption. There are many other most beautiful aspects about it, much\nelse in it, that is lovely and of good report, and fitted to draw men's\nhearts and admiration; but all is rooted in this, the life and death of\nJesus Christ, the sacrifice by whom we are forgiven, and in whom we are\nhealed. And if you strike that out, you have a dead nothing left--an\neviscerated Gospel.\n\nI believe that we all need to be reminded of that to-day, as we always\ndo, but mainly to-day, when we hear from so many lips estimates,\nfavourable or unfavourable to Christianity and its mission in the world,\nwhich leave out of sight, or minimise into undue insignificance, or\nshove into a backward place, its essential characteristic, that it is\nthe power of God through Christ, His Son Incarnate, dying and rising\nagain for the salvation of individual souls from the penalty, the guilt,\nthe habit, and the love of their sins, and only secondarily is it a\nmorality, a philosophy, a social lever. I take for mine the quaint\nsaying of one of the old Puritans, 'When so many brethren are preaching\nto the times, it may be allowed one poor brother to preach for\neternity.'\n\n'This is a faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to\nsave sinners.'\n\nII. Now, secondly, note the reliableness of this condensed Gospel.\n\nWhen a man in the middle of some slight plank, thrown across a stream,\ntests it with a stamp of his foot, and calls to his comrades, 'It is\nquite firm,' there is reason for their venturing upon it too. That is\nexactly what Paul is doing here. How does he know that it is 'a faithful\nsaying'? Because he has proved it in his own experience, and found that\nin his case the salvation which Jesus Christ was said to effect has been\neffected. Now there are many other grounds of certitude besides this,\nbut, after all, it is worth men's while to consider how many millions\nthere have been from the beginning who would be ready to join chorus\nwith the Apostle here, and to say, 'One thing I know, that whereas I\nwas blind, now I see.' My experience cannot be your certitude; but if\nyou and I are suffering from precisely the same disease, and I have\ntested a cure, my experiences should have some weight with you. And so,\nbrethren, I point you to all the thousands who are ready to say, 'This\npoor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him.' Are there any\nwho give counter-evidence; that say, 'We have tried it. It is all a sham\nand imagination. We have asked this Christ of yours to forgive us, and\nHe has not. We have asked Him to cleanse us, and He has not. We have\ntried Him, and He is an impostor, and we will have no more to do with\nHim.' There are people, alas! who have gone back to their wallowing in\nthe mire, but it was not because Christ had failed in His promises, but\nbecause they did not care to have them fulfilled any more. Jesus Christ\ndoes not promise that His salvation shall work against the will of men\nwho submit themselves to it.\n\nBut it is not only because of that consentient chorus of many\nvoices--the testimony of which wise men will not reject--that the word\nis 'a faithful saying.' This is no place or time to enter upon anything\nlike a condensation of the Christian evidence; but, in lieu of\neverything else, I point to one proof. There is no fact in the history\nof the world better attested, and the unbelief of which is more\nunreasonable, than the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And if Christ rose\nfrom the dead--and you cannot understand the history of the world unless\nHe did, nor the existence of the Church either--if Jesus Christ rose\nfrom the dead, it seems to me that almost all the rest follows of\nnecessity: the influx of the supernatural, the unique character of His\ncareer, the correspondence of the end with the beginning, the broad seal\nof the divine confirmation stamped upon His claims to be the Son of God\nand the Redeemer of the world. All these things seem to me to come\nnecessarily from that fact. And I say, given the consentient witness of\nnineteen centuries, given the existence of the Church, given the effects\nof Christianity in the world, given that upon which they repose--the\nResurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead--the conclusion is sound,\n'This is a faithful saying . . . that He came into the world to save\nsinners.'\n\nMen talk, nowadays, very often as if the progress of science and new\nviews as to the evolution of creatures or of mankind had effected the\ncertitude of the Gospel. It does not seem to me that they have in the\nsmallest degree. 'The foundation of God standeth sure,' whatever may\nbecome of some of the superstructures which men have built upon it. They\nmay very probably be blown away. So much the better if we get the rock\nto build upon once more. A great deal is going, but not the Gospel. Do\nnot let us be afraid, or suppose that it will suffer. Do not let us\ndread every new speculation as if it was going to finish Christianity,\nbut recognise this--that the fact of man's sin and, blessed be God! the\nfact of man's redemption stands untouched by them all; and to-day, as of\nold, Jesus Christ is, and is firmly manifested to be, the world's\nSaviour. Whatsoever refuge may be swept away by any storms, 'Behold, I\nlay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried corner-stone, a sure\nfoundation: He that believeth shall not be confounded.'\n\nIII. Lastly, notice the consequent wisdom and duty of acceptance.\n\n'Worthy of all acceptation,' says Paul. Yes, of course, if it is\nreliable. That word of the Lord which is 'sure, making wise the simple,'\ndeserves to be received. Now this phrase, 'all acceptation,' may mean\neither of two things: it may either mean worthy of being welcomed by all\nmen, or by the whole of each man.\n\nThis Gospel deserves to be welcomed by every man, for it is fitted for\nevery man, since it deals with the primary human characteristic of\ntransgression. Brethren! we need different kinds of intellectual\nnutriment, according to education and culture. We need different kinds\nof treatment, according to condition and circumstance. The morality of\none age is not the morality of another. Much, even of right and wrong,\nis local and temporary; but black man and white, savage and civilised,\nphilosopher and fool, king and clown, all need the same air to breathe,\nthe same water to drink, the same sun for light and warmth, and all need\nthe same Christ for redemption from the same sin, for safety from the\nsame danger, for snatching from the same death. This Gospel is a Gospel\nfor the world, and for every man in it. Have you taken it for yours? If\nit is 'worthy of all acceptation,' it is worthy of _your_ acceptation.\nIf you have not, you are treating Him and it with indignity, as if it\nwas a worthless letter left in the post-office for you, which you knew\nwas there, but which you did not think valuable enough to take the\ntrouble to go for. The gift lies at your side. It is less than truth to\nsay that it is '_worthy_ of being accepted.' Oh! it is infinitely more\nthan that.\n\nIt is, also, 'worthy of all acceptation' in the sense of worthy of being\naccepted into all a man's nature, because it will fit it all and bless\nit all. Some of us give it a half welcome. We take it into our heads,\nand then we put a partition between them and our hearts, and keep our\nreligion on the other side, so that it does not influence us at all. It\nis worthy of being received by the understanding, to which it will bring\ntruth absolute; of being received by the will, to which it will bring\nthe freedom of submission; of being received by the conscience, to which\nit will bring quickening; of being received by the affections, to which\nit will bring pure and perfect love. For hope, it will bring a certainty\nto gaze upon; for passions, a curb; for effort, a spur and a power; for\ndesires, satisfaction; for the whole man, healing and light.\n\nBrother! take it. And, if you do, begin where it begins, with your sins;\nand be contented to be saved as a sinner in danger and sickness, who can\nneither defend nor heal yourself. And thus coming, you will test the\nrope and find it hold; you will take the medicine and know that it\ncures; and, by your own experience, you will be able to say, 'This _is_\na faithful saying, Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE CHIEF OF SINNERS\n\n 'Of whom I am chief.'--1 TIM. i. 15.\n\n\nThe less teachers of religion talk about themselves the better; and yet\nthere is a kind of personal reference, far removed from egotism and\noffensiveness. Few such men have ever spoken more of themselves than\nPaul did, and yet none have been truer to his motto: 'We preach not\nourselves, but Christ Jesus.' For the scope of almost all his personal\nreferences is the depreciation of self, and the magnifying of the\nwonderful mercy which drew him to Jesus Christ. Whenever he speaks of\nhis conversion it is with deep emotion and with burning cheeks. Here,\nfor instance, he adduces himself as the typical example of God's\nlong-suffering. If _he_ were saved none need despair.\n\nI take it that this saying of the Apostle's, 'Of whom I am chief,'\nparadoxical and exaggerated as it seems to many men, is in spirit that\nwhich all who know themselves ought to re-echo; and without which there\nis little strength in Christian life.\n\nI. And so I ask you to note, first, what this man thinks of himself.\n\n'Of whom I am chief.' Now, if we set what we know of the character of\nSaul of Tarsus before he was a Christian by the side of that of many who\nhave won a bad supremacy in wickedness, the words seem entirely strange\nand exaggerated. But, as I have often had to say, the principle of the\nApostle's estimate is to be found in his belief that, not the outward\nmanifestation of evil in specific acts of immorality, or flagrant\nbreaches of commandment, but the inward principle from which the deeds\nflowed, is the measure of a man's criminality, and that, according to\nthe uniform teaching of Scripture, the very root of sin, and that which\nis common to all the things that the world's conscience and ordinary\nmorality designate as wrong, is to be found here, that self has become\nthe centre, the aim, and the law instead of God. 'This is the\ncondemnation,' said Paul's Master--_not_ that men have done so-and-so\nand so-and-so, but--'that light is come into the world, and men love\ndarkness.' That is the root of evil. 'When the Comforter is come,' said\nPaul's Master, 'He will convince the world of sin.' Because they have\nbroken the commandments? Because they have been lustful, ambitious,\npassionate, murderous, profligate, and so on? No! 'Because they believe\nnot in Me.'\n\nThe common root of all sin is alienation of heart and will from God. And\nit is by the root, and not by the black clusters of poisonous berries\nthat have come from it, that men are to be judged. Here is the\nmother-tincture. You may colour it in different ways, and you may\nflavour it with different essences, and you will get a whole\n_pharmacopoeia_ of poisons out of it. But the mother-poison of them\nall is this, that men turn away from the light, which is God; and for\nyou and me is God in Christ.\n\nSo this man, looking back from the to-day of his present devotion and\nlove to the yesterdays of his hostility, avails himself indeed of the\npalliation, 'I did it ignorantly, in unbelief,' but yet is smitten with\nthe consciousness that whilst as touching the righteousness that is of\nthe law he was blameless, his attitude to that incarnate love was such\nas now, he thinks, stamps him as the worst of men.\n\nBrethren, _there_ is the standard by which we have to try ourselves. If\nwe get down below the mere surface of acts, and think, not of what we\ndo, but of what we are, we shall then, at any rate, have in our hands\nthe means by which we can truly estimate ourselves.\n\nBut what have we to say about that word 'chief'? Is not that\nexaggeration? Well, yes and no. For every man ought to know the weak and\nevil places of his own heart better than he does those of any besides.\nAnd if he does so know them, he will understand that the ordinary\nclassification of sin, according to the apparent blackness of the deed,\nis very superficial and misleading. Obviously, the worst of acts need\nnot be done by the worst of men, and it does not at all follow that the\nman who does the awful deed stands out from his fellows in the same bad\npre-eminence in which his deed stands out from theirs.\n\nTake a concrete case. Go into the slums of Manchester, and take some of\nthe people there, battered almost out of the semblance of humanity, and\nall crusted over and leprous with foul-smelling evils that you and I\nnever come within a thousand miles of thinking it possible that we\nshould do. Did you ever think that it is quite possible that the worst\nharlot, thief, drunkard, profligate in your back streets may be more\ninnocent in their profligacy than you are in your respectability; and\nthat we may even come to this paradox, that the worse the act, as a\nrule, the less guilty the doer? It is not such a paradox as it looks,\nbecause, on the one hand, the presence of temptation, and, on the other\nhand, the absence of light, make all the difference. And these people,\nwho could not have been anything else, are innocent in degradation as\ncompared with you, with all your education and culture, and\nopportunities of going straight, and knowledge of Christ and His love.\nThe little transgressions that you do are far greater than the gross\nones that they do. 'But for the grace of God, there goes John Bradford,'\nsaid the old preacher, when he saw a man going to the scaffold. And you\nand I, if we know ourselves, will not think that we have an instance of\nexaggeration, but only of the object nearest seeming the largest, when\nPaul said 'Of whom I am chief.'\n\nOnly go and look for your sin in the way they look for Guy Fawkes at the\nHouse of Commons before the session. Take a dark lantern, and go down\ninto the cellars. And If you do not find something there that will take\nall the conceit out of you, it must be because you are very\nshort-sighted, or phenomenally self-complacent.\n\nWhat does it matter though there be vineyards on the slopes of Vesuvius,\nand bright houses nestling at its base, and beauty lying all around like\nthe dream of a god, if, when a man cranes his neck over the top of the\ncrater, he sees that that cone, so graceful on the outside, is seething\nwith fire and sulphur? Let us look down into the crater of our own\nhearts, and what we see there may well make us feel as Paul did when he\nsaid, 'Of whom I am chief.'\n\nNow, such an estimate is perfectly consistent with a clear recognition\nof any good that may be in the character and manifest in life. For the\nsame Paul who says, 'Of whom I am chief,' says, in the almost\ncontemporaneous letter sent to the same person, 'I have fought a good\nfight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith'; and he is the\nsame man who asserted, 'In nothing am I behind the very chiefest\napostles, though I be nothing.' The true Christian estimate of one's own\nevil and sin does not in the least interfere with the recognition of\nwhat God strengthens one to do, or of the progress which, by God's\ngrace, may have been made in holiness and righteousness. The two things\nmay lie side by side with perfect harmony, and ought to do so, in every\nChristian heart.\n\nBut notice one more point. The Apostle does not say 'I _was_,' but 'I\n_am_ chief.' What! A man who could say, in another connection, 'If any\nman be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature; old things are passed\naway'--the man who could say, in another connection, 'I live, yet not\nI, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I\nlive by the faith of the Son of God'--does he also say, 'I _am_ chief'?\nIs he speaking about his present? Are old sins bound round a man's neck\nfor evermore? If they be, what is the meaning of the Gospel that Jesus\nChrist redeems us from our sins? Well, he means this. No lapse of time,\nnor any gift of divine pardon, nor any subsequent advancement in\nholiness and righteousness, can alter the fact that I, the very same I\nthat am now rejoicing in God's salvation, am the man that did all these\nthings; and, in a very profound sense, they remain mine through all\neternity. I may be a forgiven sinner, and a cleansed sinner, and a\nsanctified sinner, but I _am_ a sinner--not I _was_. The imperishable\nconnection between a man and his past, which may be so tragical, and,\nthank God, may be so blessed, even in the case of remembered and\nconfessed sin, is solemnly hinted at in the words before us. We carry\nwith us ever the fact of past transgression, and no forgiveness, nor any\nfuture 'perfecting of holiness in the fear' and by the grace 'of the\nLord' can alter that fact. Therefore, let us beware lest we bring upon\nour souls any more of the stains which, though they be in a blessed and\nsufficient sense blotted out, do yet leave the marks where they have\nfallen for ever.\n\nII. Note how this man comes to such an estimate of himself.\n\nHe did not think so deeply and penitently of his past at the beginning\nof his career, true and deep as his repentance, and valid and genuine as\nhis conversion were. But as he advanced in the love of Jesus Christ, his\nformer active hostility became more monstrous to him, and the higher he\nrose, the clearer was his vision of the depth from which he had\nstruggled; for growth in Christian holiness deepens the conviction of\nprior imperfection.\n\nIf God has forgiven my sin the more need for me to remember it. 'Thou\nshalt be ashamed and confounded, and never open thy mouth any more\nbecause of thy transgressions, when I am pacified towards thee for all\nthat thou hast done.' If you, my brother, have any real and genuine hold\nof God's pardoning mercy, it will bow you down the more completely on\nyour knees in the recognition of your own sin. The man who, as soon as\nthe pressure of guilt and danger which is laid upon him seems to him to\nbe lifted off, springs up like some elastic figure of indiarubber, and\ngoes on his way in jaunty forgetfulness of his past evil, needs to ask\nhimself whether he has ever passed from death unto life. Not to remember\nthe old sin is to be blind. The surest sign that we are pardoned is the\ndepth of our habitual penitence. Try yourselves, you Christian people\nwho are so sure of your forgiveness, try yourselves by that test, and if\nyou find that you are thinking less of your past evil, be doubtful\nwhether you have ever entered into the genuine possession of the\nforgiving mercy of your God.\n\nAnd then, still further, this penitent retrospect is the direct result\nof advancement in Christian characteristics. We are drawn to begin some\nstudy or enterprise by the illusion that there is but a little way to\ngo. 'Alps upon alps arise' when once we have climbed a short distance up\nthe hill, and it has become as difficult to go back as to go forward.\n\nSo it is in the Christian life--the sign of growing perfection is the\ngrowing consciousness of imperfection. A spot upon a clean palm is more\nconspicuous than a diffuse griminess over all the hand. One stain upon\na white robe spoils it which would not be noticed upon one less\nlustrously clean. And so the more we grow towards God in Christ, and the\nmore we appropriate and make our own His righteousness, the more we\nshall be conscious of our deficiencies, and the less we shall be\nprepared to assert virtues for ourselves.\n\nThus it comes to pass that conscience is least sensitive when it is most\nneeded, and most swift to act when it has least to do. So it comes to\npass, too, that no man's acquittal of himself can be accepted as\nsufficient; and that he is a fool in self-knowledge who says, 'I am not\nconscious of guilt, therefore I am innocent.' 'I know nothing against\nmyself, yet am I not hereby justified: but He that judgeth me is the\nLord.' The more you become like Christ the more you will find out your\nunlikeness to Him.\n\nIII. Lastly, note what this judgment of himself did for this man.\n\nI said in the beginning of my remarks that it seemed to me that without\nthe reproduction of this estimate of ourselves there would be little\nstrong Christian life in us. It seems to me that that continual\nremembrance which Paul carried with him of what he had been, and of\nChrist's marvellous love in drawing him to Himself, was the very spring\nof all that was noble and conspicuously Christian in his career. And I\nventure to say, in two or three words, what I think you and I will never\nhave unless we have this lowly self-estimate.\n\nWithout it there will be no intensity of cleaving to Jesus Christ. If\nyou do not know that you are ill, you will not take the medicine. If you\ndo not believe that the house is on fire, you will not mind the escape.\nThe life-buoy lies unnoticed on the shelf above the berth as long as the\nsea is calm and everything goes well. Unless you have been down into the\ndepths of your own heart, and seen the evil that is there, you will not\ncare for the redeeming Christ, nor will you grasp Him as a man does who\nknows that there is nothing between him and ruin except that strong\nhand. We must be driven to the Saviour as well as drawn to Him if there\nis to be any reality or tightness in the clutch with which we hold Him.\nAnd if you do not hold Him with a firm clutch you do not hold Him at\nall.\n\nFurther, without this lowly estimate there will be no fervour of\ngrateful love. That is the reason why so much both of orthodox and\nheterodox religion amongst us to-day is such a tepid thing as it is. It\nis because men have never felt either that they need a Redeemer, or that\nJesus Christ has redeemed them. I believe that there is only one power\nthat will strike the rock of a human heart, and make the water of\ngrateful devotion flow out, and that is the belief in Jesus Christ as\nthe Redeemer of mankind, and as my Saviour. Unless that be your faith,\nwhich it will not be except you have this conviction of my text in its\nspirit and essence, there will not be in your hearts the love which will\nglow there, an all-transforming power.\n\nAnd is there anything in the world more obnoxious, more insipid, than\nlukewarm religion? If, with marks of quotation, I might use the coarse,\nstrong expression of John Milton--'It gives a vomit to God Himself.'\n'Because thou art neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my\nmouth.'\n\nAnd without it there will be little pity of, and love for, our fellows.\nUnless we feel the common evil, and estimate by the intensity of its\nworking in ourselves how sad are its ravages in others, our charity to\nmen will be as tepid as our love to God. Did you ever notice that,\nhistorically, the widest benevolence to men goes along with what some\npeople call the 'narrowest' theology? People tell us, for instance, to\nmark the contrast between the theology which is usually called\nevangelical and the wide benevolence usually accompanying it, and ask\nhow the two things agree. The 'wide' benevolence comes directly from the\n'narrow' theology. He that knows the plague of his own heart, and how\nChrist has redeemed him, will go, with the pity of Christ in his heart,\nto help to redeem others.\n\nSo, dear friends, 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.'\n'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,\nand cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'\n\n\n\n\nA TEST CASE\n\n 'Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in\n me first Jesus Christ might show forth all\n long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should\n hereafter believe.'--1 TIM. i. 16.\n\n\nThe smallest of God's creatures, if it were only a gnat dancing in a\nsunbeam, has a right to have its well-being considered as an end of\nGod's dealings. But no creature is so isolated or great as that it has a\nright to have its well-being regarded as the sole end of God's dealings.\nThat is true about all His blessings and gifts; it is eminently true\nabout His gift of salvation. He saves men because He loves them\nindividually, and desires to make them blessed; but He also saves them\nbecause He desires that through them others shall be brought into the\nliving knowledge of His love. It is most especially true about great\nreligious teachers and guides.\n\nPaul's humility is as manifest as his self-consciousness when he says in\nmy text, 'This is what I was saved for. Not merely, not even\nprincipally, for the blessings that thereby accrue to myself, but that\nin me, as a crucial instance, there should be manifested the whole\nfulness of the divine love and saving power.' So he puts his own\nexperience as giving no kind of honour or glory to himself, but as\nsimply showing the grace and infinite love of Jesus Christ. Paul\ndisappears as but a passive recipient; and Christ strides into the front\nas the actor in his conversion and apostleship.\n\nSo we may take this point of view of my text, and look at the story of\nwhat befell the great Apostle as being in many different ways an\nexhibition of the great verities of the Gospel. I desire to signalise,\nespecially, three points here. We see in it the demonstration of the\nlife of Christ; an exhibition of the love of the living Christ; and a\nmarvellous proof of the power of that loving and living Lord.\n\nI. First, then, take the experience of this Apostle as a demonstration\nof the exalted life, and continuous energy in the world, of Jesus\nChrist.\n\nWhat was it that turned the brilliant young disciple of Gamaliel, the\nrising hope of the Pharisaic party, the hammer of the heretics, into one\nof themselves? The appearance of Jesus Christ. Paul rode out of\nJerusalem believing Him to be dead, and His Resurrection a lie. He\nstaggered into Damascus, blind but seeing, and knowing that Jesus\nChrist lived and reigned. Now if you will let the man tell you himself\nwhat he saw, or thought he saw, you will come to this, that it was a\nvisible, audible manifestation of a corporeal Christ. For it is\nextremely noteworthy that the Apostle ranks the appearance to himself,\non the road to Damascus, as in the same class with the appearances to\nthe other apostles which he enumerates in the great chapter in the\nEpistle to the Corinthians. He draws no distinction, as far as\nevidential force goes, between the appearance to Simon and to the five\nhundred brethren and to the others, and that which flashed upon him and\nmade a Christian of him. Other men that were with him saw the light. He\nsaw the Christ within the blaze. Other men heard a noise; he heard\naudible and intelligible words in his own speech. This is _his_ account\nof the phenomenon. What do _you_ think of his account?\n\nThere are but three possible answers! It was imposture; it was delusion;\nit was truth. The theory of imposture is out of court. 'Do men gather\ngrapes of thorns or figs of thistles?' Such a life as followed is\naltogether incongruous with the notion that the man who lived it was a\ndeceiver. A fanatic he may have been; self-deceived he may have been;\nbut transparently sincere he undeniably was. It is not given to\nimpostors to move the world, as Paul did and does.\n\nWas it delusion? Well it is a strange kind of hallucination which has\nsuch physical accompaniments and consequences as those in the story--not\nwanting confirmation from witnesses--which has come to us.\n\n'At midday, O king'--in no darkness; in no shut-up chamber, 'at midday,\nO king--I heard . . . I saw . . .' 'The men that were with me' partly\nshared in the vision. There was a lengthened conversation; two senses at\nleast were appealed to, vision and hearing, and in both vision and\nhearing there were partial participators. Physical consequences that\nlasted for three days accompanied the hallucination; and the man 'was\nblind, not seeing the sun, and neither did eat nor drink.' There must be\nsome soil beforehand in which delusions of such a sort can root\nthemselves. But, if we take the story in the Acts of the Apostles, there\nis not the smallest foothold for the fashionable notion, which is\nentirely due to men's dislike of the supernatural, that there was any\nkind of misgiving in the young Pharisee, springing from the influence of\nStephen's martyrdom, as he went forth breathing out threatenings and\nslaughter. The plain fact is that, at one moment he hated Jesus Christ\nas a bad man, and believed that the story of the Resurrection was a\ngross falsehood; and that at the next moment he knew Him to be living\nand reigning, and the Lord of his life and of the world. Hallucinations\ndo not come thus, like a thunderclap on unprepared minds. Nor is there\nanything in the subsequent history of the man that seems to confirm, but\neverything that contradicts, the idea that such a revolutionary change\nas upset all his mental furniture, and changed the whole current of his\nlife, and slammed in his face the door that was wide open to advancement\nand reputation, came from a delusion.\n\nI think the hallucination theory is out of court, too, and there is\nnothing left but the old-fashioned one, that what he said he saw, _he\nsaw_, and did not fancy; and that which he said he heard, _he heard_;\nand that it was not a buzzing of a diseased nerve in his own ears, but\nthe actual speech of the glorified Christ. Very well, then; if that be\ntrue, what then? The old-fashioned belief--Jesus who died on the Cross\nis living, Jesus who died on the Cross is glorified, Jesus who died on\nthe Cross is exalted to the throne of the universe, puts His hand into\nthe affairs of the world as a power amongst them. Paul's Christology is\nbut the _rationale_ of the vision that led to Paul's conversion. It was\nin part because he 'saw that Just One, and heard the words of His\nmouth,' that he declares, 'God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a\nname that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee\nshould bow.' I do not say that the vision to Paul is a demonstration of\nthe reality of the Resurrection, but I do say that it is a very strong\nconfirmatory evidence, which the opponents of that truth will have much\ndifficulty in legitimately putting aside.\n\nII. Secondly, let me ask you to consider how this man's experience is an\nexhibition of the love of the living Lord.\n\nThat is the main point on which the Apostle dwells in my text, in which\nhe says that in him Jesus Christ 'shows forth all long-suffering.' The\nwhole fulness of His patient, pitying grace was lavished upon him. He\nsays this because he puts side by side his hostility and Christ's love,\nwhat he had believed of Jesus, and how Jesus had borne with him and\nloved him through all, and had drawn him to Himself and received him. So\nhe established by his own experience this great truth, that the love of\nJesus Christ is never darkened by one single speck of anger, that He\n'suffereth long, and is kind'; that He meets hostility with patient\nlove, hatred with a larger outpouring of His affection, and that His\nonly answer to men's departures from Him in heart and feeling is more\nmightily to seek to draw them to Himself. 'Long-suffering' means, in its\ntrue and proper sense, the patient acceptance, without the smallest\nmovement of indignation, of unworthy treatment. And just as Christ on\nearth 'gave His back to the smiter, and His cheeks to them that pulled\noff the hair'; and let the lips of Judas touch His, nor withdrew His\nface from 'shame and spitting'; and was never stirred to one impatient\nor angry word by any opposition, so now, and to us all, with equal\nboundlessness of endurance, He lets men hate Him, and revile Him, and\nforget Him, and turn their backs upon Him; and for only answer has,\n'Come unto Me all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give\nyou rest.'\n\nOh, dear brethren, we can weary out all loves except one. By\ncarelessness, rebelliousness, the opposition of indifference, we can\nchill the affection of those to whom we are dearest. 'Can a mother\nforget? Yea, she may forget,' but you cannot provoke Jesus Christ to\ncease His love. Some of you have been trying it all your days, but you\nhave not done it yet. There does come a time when 'the wrath of the\nLamb'--which is a very terrible paradox--is kindled, and will fall, I\nfear, on some men and women who are listening now. But not yet. You\ncannot make Christ angry. 'For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me\nJesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, _for a pattern_'--for\nthe same long-suffering is extended to us all.\n\nAnd then, in like manner, I may remind you that out of Paul's\nexperience, as a cardinal instance and standing example of Christ's\nheart and dealings, comes the thought that that long-suffering is always\nwooing men to itself, and making efforts to draw them away from their\nown evil. In Paul's case there was a miracle. That difference is of\nsmall consequence. As truly as ever Christ spoke to Paul from the\nheavens, so truly, and so tenderly, does He speak to every one of us. He\nis drawing us all--you that yield and you that do not yield to His\nattractions, by the kindliest gifts of His love, by the revelations of\nHis grace, by the movements of His Spirit, by the providences of our\ndays, by even my poor lips addressing you now--for, if I be speaking His\ntruth, it is not I that speak, but He that speaks in me. I beseech you,\ndear friends, recognise in this old story of the persecutor turned\napostle nothing exceptional, though there be something miraculous, but\nonly an exceptional form of manifestation of the normal activity of the\nlove of Christ towards every soul. He loves, He draws, He welcomes all\nthat come to Him. His servant, who stood over the blind, penitent\npersecutor, and said to him, '_Brother_ Saul!' was only faintly echoing\nthe glad reception which the elder Brother of the family gives to this\nand to every prodigal who comes back; because He Himself has drawn Him.\n\nIf we will only recognise the undying truth for all of us that lies\nbeneath the individual experience of this apostle, we, too, may share in\nthe attraction of His love, in the constraining and blessed influences\nof that love received, and in the welcome with which He hails us when we\nturn. If this man were thus dealt with, no man need despair.\n\nIII. Lastly, we may notice how this experience is a manifestation of the\npower of the living, loving Lord.\n\nThe first and plainest thing that it teaches us about that power is that\nJesus Christ is able in one moment to revolutionise a life. There is\nnothing more striking than the suddenness and completeness of the\nchange which passed. 'One day is with the Lord as a thousand years'; and\nthere come moments in every life into which there is crammed and\ncondensed a whole world of experience, so as that a man looks back from\nthis instant to that before, and feels that a gulf, deep as infinity,\nseparates him from his old self.\n\nNow, it is very unfashionable in these days to talk about conversion at\nall. It is even more unfashionable to talk about sudden conversions. I\nventure to say that there are types of character and experience which\nwill never be turned to good, unless they are turned suddenly; while\nthere are others, no doubt, to whom the course is a gradual one, and you\ncannot tell where the dawn broadens into perfect day. But, in the case\nof men who have grown up to some degree of maturity of life, either in\nsensuous sin or crusted over with selfish worldliness, or in any other\nway, by reason of intellectual pursuits, or others have become forgetful\nof God and careless of religion--unless such men are in a moment\narrested and wheeled round at once, there is very little chance of their\never being so at all.\n\nI am sure I am speaking to some now who, unless the truth of Christ\ncomes into their minds with arresting flash, and unless they are in one\nmoment, into which an eternity is condensed, changed in their purposes,\nwill never be changed.\n\nDo not, my friend, listen to the talk that sudden conversion is\nimpossible or unlikely. It is the only kind of conversion that some of\nyou are capable of. I remember a man, one of the best Christian men in a\nhumble station in life that I ever knew--he did not live in\nManchester--he had been a drunkard up to his fortieth or fiftieth year.\nOne day he was walking across an open field, and a voice, as he\nthought, spoke to him and said, naming him, 'If you don't sign the\npledge to-day you will be damned!' He turned on his heel, and walked\nstraight down the street to the house of a temperance friend, and said,\n'I have come to sign the pledge.' He signed it, and from that day to the\nday of his death 'adorned the doctrine of Jesus Christ' his Saviour. If\nthat man had not been suddenly converted he would never have been\nconverted. So I say that this story of the text is a crucial instance of\nChrist's power to lay hold upon a man, and wheel him right round all in\na moment, and send him on a new path. He wants to do that with all of\nyou to whom He has not already done it. I beseech you, do not stick your\nheels into the ground in resistance, nor when He puts His hand on your\nshoulder stiffen your back that He may not do what He desires with you.\n\nMay we not see here, too, a demonstration of Christ's power to make a\nlife nobly and blessedly new, different from all its past, and adorned\nwith strange and unexpected fruits of beauty and wisdom and holiness?\nThis man's account of his future, from the moment of that incident on\nthe Damascus road to the headman's block outside the walls of Rome, is\nthis: 'If any man be in Christ he is a new creature'; 'I live, yet not\nI, but Christ liveth in me.' Christ will do that for us all; for\nlong-suffering was shown on the Apostle for a pattern to them who should\nhereafter believe.\n\nSo, you Christian people, it is as much your business as it was Paul's,\nto be visible rhetoric, manifest demonstrations in your lives of the\ntruth of the Gospel. Men ought to say about us, 'There must be something\nin the religion that has done that for these people.' We ought to be\nsuch that our characters shall induce the thought that the Christ who\nhas made men like us cannot be a figment. Do you show, Christian men,\nthat you are grafted upon the true Vine by the abundance of the fruit\nthat you bring forth? Can you venture to say, as Paul said, If you want\nto know what Jesus Christ's love and power are, look at me? Do not\nventure adducing yourself as a specimen of His power unless you have a\nlife like Paul's to look back upon.\n\nFor us all the fountain to which Paul had recourse is open. Why do we\ndraw so little from it? The fire which burned, refining and\nilluminating, in him may be kindled in all our hearts. Why are we so\nicy? His convictions are of some value, as subsidiary evidence to Gospel\nfacts; his experience is of still more value as an attestation and an\ninstance of Gospel blessings. Believe like Paul and you will be saved\nlike Paul. Jesus Christ will show to you all long-suffering. For though\nPaul received it all he did not exhaust it, and the same long-suffering\nwhich was lavished on him is available for each of us. Only you too must\nsay like him, 'I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE GLORY OF THE KING\n\n 'Now, unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible,\n the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever\n and ever. Amen.'--1 TIM. i. 17.\n\n\nWith this burst of irrepressible praise the Apostle ends his reference\nto his own conversion as a transcendent, standing instance of the\ninfinite love and transforming power of God. Similar doxologies\naccompany almost all his references to the same fact. This one comes\nfrom the lips of 'Paul the aged,' looking back from almost the close of\na life which owed many sorrows and troubles to that day on the road to\nDamascus. His heart fills with thankfulness that overflows into the\ngreat words of my text. He had little to be thankful for, judged\naccording to the rules of sense; but, though weighed down with care,\nhaving made but a poor thing of the world because of that vision which\nhe saw that day, and now near martyrdom, he turns with a full heart to\nGod, and breaks into this song of thanksgiving. There are lives which\nbear to be looked back upon. Are ours of that kind?\n\nBut my object is mainly to draw your attention to what seems to me a\nremarkable feature in this burst of thanksgiving. And perhaps I shall\nbest impress the thought which it has given to me if I ask you to look,\nfirst, at the character of the God who is glorified by Paul's salvation;\nsecond, at the facts which glorify such a God; and, last, at the praise\nwhich should fill the lives of those who know the facts.\n\nI. First, then, notice the God who is glorified by Paul's salvation.\n\nNow what strikes me as singular about this great doxology is the\ncharacteristics, or, to use a technical word, the attributes, of the\ndivine nature which the Apostle selects. They are all those which\nseparate God from man; all those which present Him as arrayed in\nmajesty, apart from human weaknesses, unapproachable by human sense, and\nfilling a solitary throne. These are the characteristics which the\nApostle thinks receive added lustre, and are lifted to a loftier height\nof 'honour and glory,' by the small fact that he, Paul, was saved from\nsins as he journeyed to Damascus.\n\nIt would be easy to roll out oratorical platitudes about these specific\ncharacteristics of the divine nature, but that would be as unprofitable\nas it would be easy. All that I want to do now is just to note the force\nof the epithets; and, if I can, to deepen the impression of the\nremarkableness of their selection.\n\nWith regard, then, to the first of them, we at once feel that the\ndesignation of 'the King' is unfamiliar to the New Testament. It brings\nwith it lofty ideas, no doubt; but it is not a name which the writers of\nthe New Testament, who had been taught in the school of love, and led by\na Son to the knowledge of God, are most fond of using. 'The King' has\nmelted into 'the Father.' But here Paul selects that more remote and\nless tender name for a specific purpose. He is 'the King'--not\n'_eternal_,' as our Bible renders it, but more correctly 'the King of\nthe Ages.' The idea intended is not so much that of unending existence\nas that He moulds the epochs of the world's history, and directs the\nevolution of its progress. It is the thought of an overruling\nProvidence, with the additional thought that all the moments are a\nlinked chain, through which He flashes the electric force of His will.\nHe is 'King of the Ages.'\n\nThe other epithets are more appropriately to be connected with the word\n'God' which follows than with the word 'King' which precedes. The\nApostle's meaning is this: 'The King of the ages, even the God who is,'\netc. And the epithets thus selected all tend in the same direction.\n'Incorruptible.' That at once parts that mystic and majestic Being from\nall of which the law is _decay_. There may be in it some hint of moral\npurity, but more probably it is simply what I may call a physical\nattribute, that that immortal nature not only _does_ not, but _cannot_,\npass into any less noble forms. Corruption has no share in His immortal\nbeing.\n\nAs to 'invisible,' no word need be said to illustrate that. It too\npoints solely to the separation of God from all approach by human sense.\n\nAnd then the last of the epithets, which, according to the more accurate\nreading of the text, should be, not as our Bible has it, 'the only\n_wise_ God,' but 'the _only_ God,' lifts Him still further above all\ncomparison and contact with other beings.\n\nSo the whole set forth the remote attributes which make a man feel, 'The\ngulf between Him and me is so great that thought cannot pass across it,\nand I doubt whether love can live half-way across that flight, or will\nnot rather, like some poor land bird with tiny wings, drop exhausted,\nand be drowned in the abyss before it reaches the other side.' We expect\nto find a hymn to the infinite love. Instead of that we get praise,\nwhich might be upon the lips of many a thinker of Paul's day and of\nours, who would laugh the idea of revelation, and especially of a\nrevelation such as Paul believed in, to absolute scorn. And yet he knew\nwhat he was saying when he did not lift up his praise to the God of\ntenderness, of pity, of forgiveness, of pardoning love, but to 'the King\nof the ages; the incorruptible, invisible, only God'; the God whose\nhonour and glory were magnified by the revelation of Himself in Jesus\nChrist.\n\nII. And so that brings me, in the second place, to ask you to look at\nthe facts which glorify even such a God.\n\nPaul was primarily thinking of his own individual experience; of what\npassed when the voice spoke to him, 'Why persecutest thou Me?' and of\nthe transforming power which had changed him, the wolf, with teeth red\nwith the blood of the saints, into a lamb. But, as he is careful to\npoint out, the personal allusion is lost in his contemplation of his own\nhistory, as being a specimen and test-case for the blessing and\nencouragement of all who 'should hereafter believe upon Him unto life\neverlasting.' So what we come to is this--that the work of Jesus Christ\nis that which paints the lily and gilds the refined gold of the divine\nloftinesses and magnificence, and which brings honour and glory even to\nthat remote and inaccessible majesty. For, in that revelation of God in\nJesus Christ, there is added to all these magnificent and all but\ninconceivable attributes and excellences, something that is far diviner\nand nobler than themselves.\n\nThere be two great conceptions smelted together in the revelation of God\nin Jesus Christ, of which neither attains its supremest beauty except by\nthe juxtaposition of the other. Power is harsh, and scarcely worthy to\nbe called divine, unless it be linked with love. Love is not glorious\nunless it be braced and energised by power. And, says Paul, these two\nare brought together in Jesus; and therefore each is heightened by the\nother. It is the love of God that lifts His power to its highest height;\nit is the revelation of Him as stooping that teaches us His loftiness.\nIt is because He has come within the grasp of our humanity in Jesus\nChrist that we can hymn our highest and noblest praises to 'the King\neternal, the invisible God.'\n\nThe sunshine falls upon the snow-clad peaks of the great mountains and\nflushes them with a tender pink that makes them nobler and fairer by far\nthan when they were veiled in clouds. And so all the divine majesty\ntowers higher when we believe in the divine condescension, and there is\nno god that men have ever dreamed of so great as the God who stoops to\nsinners and is manifest in the flesh and Cross of the Man of Sorrows.\n\nTake these characteristics of the divine nature as get forth in the text\none by one, and consider how the Revelation in Jesus Christ, and its\npower on sinful men, raises our conceptions of them. 'The King of the\nages'--and do we ever penetrate so deeply into the purpose which has\nguided His hand, as it moulded and moved the ages, as when we can say\nwith Paul that His 'good pleasure' is that, 'in the dispensation of the\nfulness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ.'\nThe intention of the epochs as they emerge, the purpose of all their\nlinked intricacies and apparently diverse movements, is this one thing,\nthat God in Christ may be manifest to men, a nd that humanity may be\ngathered, like sheep round the Shepherd, into the one fold of the one\nLord. For that the world stands; for that the ages roll, and He who is\nthe King of the epochs hath put into the hands of the Lamb that was\nslain the Book that contains all their events; and only His hand,\npierced upon Calvary, is able to open the seals, to read the Book. The\nKing of the ages is the Father of Christ.\n\nAnd in like manner, that incorruptible God, far away from us because He\nis so, and to whom we look up here doubtingly and despairingly and often\ncomplainingly and ask, 'Why hast Thou made us thus, to be weighed upon\nwith the decay of all things and of ourselves?' comes near to us all in\nthe Christ who knows the mystery of death, and thereby makes us\npartakers of an inheritance incorruptible. Brethren, we shall never\nadore, or even dimly understand, the blessedness of believing in a God\nwho cannot decay nor change, unless from the midst of graves and griefs\nwe lift our hearts to Him as revealed in the face of the dying Christ.\nHe, though He died, did not see corruption, and we through Him shall\npass into the same blessed immunity.\n\n'The King . . . the God invisible.' No man hath seen God 'at any time, nor\ncan see Him.' Who will honour and glorify that attribute which parts Him\nwholly from our sense, and so largely from our apprehension, as will he\nwho can go on to say, 'the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of\nthe Father, He hath declared Him.' We look up into a waste Heaven;\nthought and fear, and sometimes desire, travel into its tenantless\nspaces. We say the blue is an illusion; there is nothing there but\nblackness. But 'he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' And we can\nlift thankful praise to Him, the King invisible, when we hear Jesus\nsaying, 'thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee.'\n\n'The only God.' How that repels men from His throne! And yet, if we\napprehend the meaning of Christ's Cross and work, we understand that the\nsolitary God welcomes my solitary soul into such mysteries and sacred\nsweetnesses of fellowship with Himself that, the humanity remaining\nundisturbed, and the divinity remaining unintruded upon, we yet are one\nin Him, and partakers of a divine nature. Unless we come to God through\nJesus Christ, the awful attributes in the text spurn a man from His\nthrone, and make all true fellowship impossible.\n\nSo let me remind you that the religion which does not blend together in\nindissoluble union these two, the majesty and the lowliness, the power\nand the love, the God inaccessible and the God who has tabernacled with\nus in Jesus Christ, is sure to be almost an impotent religion. Deism in\nall its forms, the religion which admits a God and denies a revelation;\nthe religion which, in some vague sense, admits a revelation and denies\nan incarnation; the religion which admits an incarnation and denies a\nsacrifice; all these have little to say to man as a sinner; little to\nsay to man as a mourner; little power to move his heart, little power to\ninfuse strength into his weakness. If once you strike out the thought of\na redeeming Christ from your religion, the temperature will go down\nalarmingly, and all will soon be frost bound.\n\nBrethren, there is no real adoration of the loftiness of the King of the\nages, no true apprehension of the majesty of the God incorruptible,\ninvisible, eternal, until we see Him in the face and in the Cross of\nJesus Christ. The truths of this gospel of our salvation do not in the\nsmallest degree impinge upon or weaken, but rather heighten, the glory\nof God. The brightest glory streams from the Cross. It was when He was\nstanding within a few hours of it, and had it full in view, that Jesus\nChrist broke out into that strange strain of triumph, 'Now is God\nglorified.' 'The King of the ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only\nGod,' is more honoured and glorified in the forgiveness that comes\nthrough Jesus Christ, and in the transforming power which He puts forth\nin the Gospel, than in all besides.\n\nIII. Lastly, let me draw your attention to the praise which should fill\nthe lives of those who know these facts.\n\nI said that this Apostle seems always, when he refers to his own\nindividual conversion, to have been melted into fresh outpourings of\nthankfulness and of praise. And that is what ought to be the life of all\nof you who call yourselves Christians; a continual warmth of\nthankfulness welling up in the heart, and not seldom finding utterance\nin the words, but always filling the life.\n\nNot seldom, I say, finding utterance in the words. It is a delicate\nthing for a man to speak about himself, and his own religious\nexperience. Our English reticence, our social habits, and many other\neven less worthy hindrances rise in the way; and I should be the last\nman to urge Christian people to cast their pearls before swine, or too\nfully to\n\n 'Open wide the bridal chamber of the heart,'\n\nto let in the day. There is a wholesome fear of men who are always\ntalking about their own religious experiences. But there are times and\npeople to whom it is treason to the Master for us not to be frank in the\nconfession of what we have found in Him. And I think there would be less\ncomplaining of the want of power in the public preaching of the Word if\nmore professing Christians more frequently and more simply said to those\nto whom their words are weighty, 'Come and hear and I will tell you what\nGod hath done for my soul.' 'Ye are my witnesses,' saith the Lord. It is\na strange way that Christian people in this generation have of\ndischarging their obligations that they should go, as so many of them\ndo, from the cradle of their Christian lives to their graves, never\nhaving opened their lips for the Master who has done all for them.\n\nOnly remember, if you venture to speak you will have to live your\npreaching. 'There is no speech nor language, their voice is not heard,\ntheir sound is gone out through all the earth.' The silent witness of\nlife must always accompany the audible proclamation, and in many cases\nis far more eloquent than it. Your consistent thankfulness manifested in\nyour daily obedience, and in the transformation of your character, will\ndo far more than all my preaching, or the preaching of thousands like\nme, to commend the Gospel of Jesus Christ.\n\nOne last word, brethren. This revelation is made to us all. What is God\nto you, friend? Is He a remote, majestic, unsympathising, terrible\nDeity? Is He dim, shadowy, unwelcome; or is He God whose love softens\nHis power; Whose power magnifies his love? Oh! I beseech you, open your\neyes and your hearts to see that that remote Deity is of no use to you,\nwill do nothing for you, cannot help you, may probably judge you, but\nwill never heal you. And open your hearts to see that 'the only God'\nwhom men can love is God in Christ. If here we lift up grateful praise\n'unto Him that loveth us and hath loosed us from our sins in His blood,'\nwe, too, shall one day join in that great chorus which at last will be\nheard saying, 'Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto Him that\nsitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.'\n\n\n\n\nWHERE AND HOW TO PRAY\n\n 'I will therefore that men pray every where,\n lifting up holy hands without wrath and\n doubting.'--1 TIM. ii. 8.\n\n\nThe context shows that this is part of the Apostle's directory for\npublic worship, and that, therefore, the terms of the first clause are\nto be taken somewhat restrictedly. They teach the duty of the male\nmembers of the Church to take public, audible part in its worship.\n\nEverywhere, therefore, must here properly be taken in the restricted\nsignification of 'every place of Christian assembly.' And from the whole\npassage there comes a picture of what sort of thing a meeting of the\nprimitive Church for worship was, very different from anything that we\nsee nowadays. 'Every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath an\nexhortation.' I fancy that some of the eminently respectable and utterly\ndead congregations which call themselves Christian Churches would be\nvery much astonished if they could see what used to be the manner of\nChristian worship nineteen hundred years ago, and would get a new notion\nof what was meant by 'decently, and in order.'\n\nBut we may fairly, I suppose, if once we confess that this is so, widen\nsomewhat the scope of these words, and take them rather as expressive of\nthe Apostle's desire and injunction, for the word that he used here, 'I\nwill,' is a very strong one, to all Christian people, be they men or\nwomen, that they pray 'everywhere,' in the widest sense of that\nexpression, 'lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting.'\n\nI do not attempt anything more than just to go, step by step, through\nthe Apostle's words and gather up the duties which each enjoins.\n\n'I will that men pray everywhere.' That is the same in spirit as the\nApostle's other command: 'Pray without ceasing; in everything give\nthanks.' A very high ideal, but a very reasonable one, for unless we can\nfind some place where God is not, and where the telegraph between heaven\nand earth is beyond our reach, there is no place where we should not\npray. And unless we can find a place where we do not want God, nor need\nHim, there is no place where we should not pray. Because, then,\n'everywhere' is equally near Him, and the straight road to His throne is\nof the same length from every hole and corner of the world; therefore,\nwherever men are, they ought to be clinging to His skirts, and reaching\nout their open hands for His benefits; and because, wherever a man is,\nthere he utterly depends upon God, and needs the actual intervention of\nHis love, and the energising of His power for everything, even for his\nphysical life, so that he cannot wink his eyelashes without God's help,\ntherefore, 'In every place I will that men pray.'\n\nAnd how is that to be done? First of all, by keeping out of all places\nwhere it is impossible that we should pray; for although He is\neverywhere, and we want Him everywhere, there are places--and some of us\nknow the roads to them but too well, and are but too often in\nthem--where prayer would be a strange incongruity. A man will not pray\nover the counter of a public-house. A man will not pray over a sharp\nbargain. A man will not pray that God may bless his outbursts of anger,\nor sensuality and the like. A man will not pray when he feels that he is\ndeep down in some pit of self-caused alienation from God. The\npossibility of praying in given circumstances is a sharp test, although\na very rough and ready one, whether we ought to be in these\ncircumstances or not. Do not let us go where we cannot take God with us;\nand if we feel that it would be something like blasphemy to call to Him\nfrom such a place, do not let us trust ourselves there. Jonah could pray\nout of the belly of the fish, and there was no incongruity in that; but\nmany a professing Christian man gets swallowed up by monsters of the\ndeep, and durst not for very shame send up a prayer to God. Get out of\nall such false positions.\n\nBut if the Apostle wills 'that men pray alway,' it must be possible\nwhile going about business, study, daily work, work at home amongst the\nchildren, work in the factory amongst spindles, work in the\ncounting-house amongst ledgers, work in the study amongst lexicons, not\nonly to pray whilst we are working, but to make work prayer, which is\neven better. The old saying that is often quoted with admiration, 'work\nis worship,' is only half true. There is a great deal of work that is\nanything but worship. But it is true that if, in all that I do, I try to\nrealise my dependence on God for power; to look to Him for direction,\nand to trust to Him for issue, then, whether I eat, or drink, or pray,\nor study, or buy and sell, or marry or am given in marriage, all will be\nworship of God. 'I will that men pray everywhere.' What a noble ideal,\nand not an impossible or absurd one! This was not the false ideal of a\nman that had withdrawn himself from duty in order to cultivate his own\nsoul, but the true ideal of one of the hardest workers that ever lived.\nPaul could say 'I am pressed above measure, insomuch that I despair of\nlife, and that which cometh upon me daily is the care of all the\nchurches,' and yet driven, harassed beyond his strength with business\nand cares as he was, he did himself what he bids us do. His life was\nprayer, therefore his life was Christ, therefore he was equal to all\ndemands. None of us are as hard-worked, as heavily pressed, as much\nhunted by imperative and baying dogs of duties as Paul was. It is\npossible for us to obey this commandment and to pray everywhere. A\nservant girl down on her knees doing the doorsteps may do that task from\nsuch a motive, and with such accompaniments, as she dips her cloth into\nthe hot-water bucket, as to make even it prayer to God. We each can lift\nall the littlenesses of our lives into a lofty region, if only we will\nlink them on to the throne of God by prayer.\n\nThere is another way by which this ideal can be attained, and that is to\ncultivate the habit, which I think many Christian people do not\ncultivate, of little short swallow-flights of prayer in the midst of our\ndaily work. 'They cried unto God in the battle, and He was entreated of\nthem.' If a Philistine sword was hanging over the man's head, do you\nthink he would have much time to drop down upon his knees, to make a\npetition, divided into all the parts which divines tell us go to make up\nthe complete idea of prayer? I should think not; but he could say, 'Save\nme, O Lord!' 'They cried to God in the battle--little, sharp, short\nshrieks of prayer--and He was entreated of them.' If you would cast\nswift electric flashes of that kind more frequently up to heaven, you\nwould bring down the blessings that very often do not come after the\nmost elaborate and proper and formal petitions. 'Lord, save or I\nperish!' It did not take long to say that, but it made the difference\nbetween drowning and deliverance.\n\nStill further, notice the conditions of true prayer that are here\nrequired. I will that men pray everywhere 'lifting up _holy_ hands.'\nThat is a piece of symbolism, of course. Apparently the Jewish attitude\nof prayer was unlike ours. They seem to have stood during devotion and\nto have elevated their hands with open, empty, upturned palms to heaven.\nWe clasp ours in entreaty, or fold them as a symbol of resignation and\nsubmission. They lifted them, with the double idea, I suppose, of\noffering themselves to God thereby, and of asking Him to put something\ninto the empty hand, just as a beggar says nothing, but holds out a\nbattered hat, in order to get a copper from a passer-by. The psalmist\ndesired that the lifting up of his hands might be as the 'evening\nsacrifice.'\n\nIf a man stands with his open, empty palm held up to God, it is as much\nas to say 'I need, I desire, I expect.' And these elements are what we\nmust have in our prayers; the sense of want, the longing for supply, the\nanticipation of an answer. What do you hold out your hand for? Because\nyou expect me to drop something into it, because you want to get\nsomething. How do you hold out your hand? Empty. And if I am clasping my\nfive fingers round some earthly good it is of no use to hold up that\nhand to God. Nothing will come into it. How can it? He must first take\nthe imitation diamonds out of it or we must turn it round and shake them\nout before He can fill it with real jewels. As for him who continues to\nclutch worldly goods, 'let not that man think that he shall receive\nanything of the Lord.' Empty the palm before you lift it.\n\nStill further, says Paul, 'lifting up _holy_ hands.' That, of course,\nneeds no explanation. One of the psalms, you may remember, says 'I will\nwash mine hands in innocency, so will I compass Thine altar.' The\npsalmist felt that unless there was a previous lustration and cleansing,\nit was vain for him to go round the altar. And you may remember how\nsternly and eloquently the prophet Isaiah rebukes the hypocritical\nworshippers in Jerusalem when he says to them, 'Your hands are full of\nblood. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings,' and\n_then_ come and pray. A foul hand gets nothing from God. How can it?\nGod's best gift is of such a sort as cannot be laid upon a dirty palm. A\nlittle sin dams back the whole of God's grace, and there are too many\nmen that pray, pray, pray, and never get any of the things that we pray\nfor, because there is something stopping the pipe, and they do not know\nwhat it is, and perhaps would be very sorry to clear it out if they did.\nBut all the same, the channel of communication is blocked and stopped,\nand it is impossible that any blessing should come. Geographers tell us\nthat a microscopic vegetable grows rapidly in one of the upper affluents\nof the Nile, and makes a great dam across the river which keeps back the\nwater, and so makes one of the lakes which have recently been explored;\nand then, when the dam breaks, the rising of the Nile fertilises Egypt.\nSome of us have growing, unchecked, and unnoticed, in the innermost\nchannels of our hearts, little sins that mat themselves together and\nkeep increasing until the grace of God is utterly kept from permeating\nthe parched recesses of our spirits. 'I will that men pray, lifting up\nholy hands,' and unless we do, alas! for us.\n\nIf these are the requirements, you will say, 'How can I pray at all?'\nWell, do you remember what the Psalmist says? 'If I regard iniquity in\nmy heart, the Lord will not hear me,' but then he goes on, 'Blessed be\nGod, who hath not turned away my prayer nor His mercy from me.' It is\nalways true that if we regard iniquity in our hearts, if in our inmost\nnature we love the sin, that stops the prayer from being answered. But,\nblessed be God, it is not true that our having done the sin prevents our\npetitions being granted. For the sin that is not regarded in the heart,\nbut is turned away from with loathing hath no intercepting power. So,\nthough the uplifted hands art stained, He will cleanse them if, as we\nlift them to Him, we say, 'Lord, they are foul, if thou wilt Thou canst\nmake them clean.'\n\nBut the final requirement is: 'Without wrath or doubting.' I do not\nthink that Christian people generally recognise with sufficient\nclearness the close and inseparable connection which subsists between\ntheir right feelings towards their fellow-men and the acceptance of\ntheir prayers with God. It is very instructive that here, alongside of\nrequirements which apply to our relations to God, the Apostle should put\nso emphatically and plainly one which refers to our relations to our\nfellows. An angry man is a very unfit man to pray, and a man who\ncherishes in his heart any feelings of that nature towards anybody may\nbe quite sure that he is thereby shutting himself out from blessings\nwhich otherwise might be his. We do not sufficiently realise, or act on\nthe importance, in regard to our relations with God, of our living in\ncharity with all men. 'First, go and be reconciled to thy brother,' is\nas needful to-day as when the word was spoken.\n\n'Without . . . doubting.' Have I the right to be perfectly sure that my\nprayer will be answered? Yes and no. If my prayer is, as all true prayer\nought to be, the submission of my will to God's and not the forcing of\nmy will upon God, then I have the right to be perfectly sure. But if I\nam only asking in self-will, for things that my own heart craves, that\nis not prayer; that is dictation. That is sending instructions to\nheaven; that is telling God what He ought to do. That is not the kind of\nprayer that may be offered 'without doubting.' It might, indeed, be\noffered, if offered at all, with the certainty that it will not be\nanswered. For this is the assurance on which we are to rest--and some of\nus may think it is a very poor one--'we know that, if we ask anything\n_according to His will_, He heareth us.' To get what we want would often\nbe our ruin. God loves His children a great deal too well to give them\nserpents when they ask for them, thinking they are fish, or to give them\nstones when they beseech Him for them, believing them to be bread. He\nwill never hand you a scorpion when you ask Him to give it you, because,\nwith its legs and its sting tucked under its body, it is like an egg.\n\nWe make mistakes in our naming of things and in our desires after\nthings, and it is only when we have learned to say 'Not my will but\nThine be done,' that we have the right to pray, 'without doubting.' If\nwe do so pray, certainly we receive. But a tremulous faith brings little\nblessing, and small answer. An unsteady hand cannot hold the cup still\nfor Him to pour in the wine of His grace, but as the hand shakes, the\ncup moves, and the precious gift is spilled. The still, submissive soul\nwill be filled, and the answer to its prayer will be, 'Whatsoever things\nye desire believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.'\n\n\n\n\nSPIRITUAL ATHLETICS\n\n 'Exercise thyself unto Godliness.'--1 TIM. iv. 7.\n\n\nTimothy seems to have been not a very strong character: sensitive,\neasily discouraged, and perhaps with a constitutional tendency to\nindolence. At all events, it is very touching to notice how the old\nApostle--a prisoner, soon to be a martyr--forgot all about his own\nanxieties and burdens, and, through both of his letters to his young\nhelper, gives himself to the task of bracing him up. Thus he says to\nhim, in my text, amongst other trumpet-tongued exhortations, 'Exercise\nthyself unto godliness.'\n\nIf I were preaching to ministers, I should have a good deal to say about\nthe necessity of this precept for them, and to remind them that it was\nfirst spoken, not to a private member of the Church, as an injunction\nfor the Christian life in general, but as having a special bearing on\nthe temptations and necessities of those who stand in official positions\nin the Church. For there is nothing that is more likely to sap a man's\ndevotion, and to eat out the earnestness and sincerity of a Christian\nlife, than that he should be--as I, for instance, and every man in my\nposition has to be--constantly occupied with presenting God's Word to\nother people. We are apt to look upon it as, in some sense, our\nstock-in-trade, and to forget to apply it to ourselves. So it was with a\nvery special bearing on the particular occupation and temptation of his\ncorrespondent that Paul said 'Exercise thyself unto godliness' before\nyou begin to talk to other people.\n\nBut that would not be appropriate to my present audience. And I take\nthis injunction as one of universal application.\n\nI. Notice, then, here expressed the ever-present and universal aim of\nthe Christian life.\n\nPaul does not say 'be godly'; but 'exercise thyself unto'--with a view\ntowards--'godliness.' In other words, to him godliness is the great aim\nwhich every Christian man should set before him as the one supreme\npurpose of his life.\n\nNow I am not going to spend any time on mere verbal criticism, but I\nmust point to the somewhat unusual word which the Apostle here employs\nfor 'godliness.' It is all but exclusively confined to these last\nletters of the Apostle. It was evidently a word that had unfolded the\ndepth and fulness and comprehensiveness of its meaning to him in the\nlast stage of his religious experience. For it is only once employed in\nthe Acts of the Apostles, and some two or three times in the doubtful\nsecond Epistle of St. Peter. And all the other instances of its use lie\nin these three letters--the one to Titus and two to Timothy; and eight\nof them are in this first one. The old Apostle keeps perpetually\nrecurring to this one idea of 'godliness.' What does he mean by it? The\netymological meaning of the word is 'well-directed reverence,' but it is\nto be noticed that the context specifically points to one form of\nwell-directed reverence, viz. as shown in conduct. 'Active godliness' is\nthe meaning of the word; religion embodied in deeds, emotions, and\nsentiments, and creeds, put into fact.\n\nThis noble and pregnant word teaches us, first of all, that all true\nreligion finds its ultimate sphere and best manifestation in the conduct\nof daily life. That sounds like a platitude. I wish it were. If we\nbelieved that, and worked it out, we should be very different people\nfrom what the most of us are; and our chapels would be very different\nplaces, and the professing Church would have a new breath of life over\nit. Religion must have its foundation laid deep in the truths revealed\nby God for our acceptance. And does God tell us anything simply that we\nmay believe it, and there an end? What is the purpose of all the\nprinciples and facts which make up the body of the Christian revelation?\nTo enlighten us? Yes! To enlighten us only? A hundred times no! The\ndestination of a principle, of a truth, is to pass out from the\nunderstanding into the whole nature of man.\n\nAnd if, as I said, the foundation of religion is laid in truths,\nprinciples, facts, the second story of the building is certain emotions,\nsentiments, feelings, desires, and affections, and 'experiences'--as\npeople call them--which follow from the acceptance of these truths and\nprinciples. And is that all? A thousand times no! What do we get the\nemotions for? What does God give you a Revelation of Himself for, that\nkindles your love if you believe it? That you may love? Yes! Only that\nyou may love? Certainly not. And so the top story is conduct, based upon\nthe beliefs, and inspired by the emotions.\n\nIn former centuries, the period between the Reformation and our fathers'\ntime, the tendency of the Protestant Church was very largely to let the\nconception of religion as a body of truths overshadow everything else.\nAnd nowadays, amongst a great many people, the temptation is to take the\nsecond story for the main one, and to think that if a man loves, and has\nthe glow at his heart of the conscious reception of God's love, and has\nlongings and yearnings, and Christian hopes and desires, and passes into\nthe sweetnesses of communion with God, in his solitary moments, and\nplunges deep into the truths of God's Word, that is godliness. But the\ntrue exhortation to us is--Do not stop with putting in the foundations\nof a correct creed, nor at the second stage of an emotional religion.\nBoth are needful. Number one and number two are infinitely precious, but\nboth exist for number three. And true religion has its sphere in\nconduct. 'Exercise thyself unto godliness.' That does not mean\n_only_--for it does include that--cultivate devout emotions, or realise\nthe facts and the principles of the Gospel, but it means, take these\nalong with you into your daily life, and work them out there. Bring all\nthe facts and truths of your creed, and all the sweet and select, the\nsecret and sacred, emotions which you have felt, to bear upon your daily\nlife. The soil in which the tree grows, and the roots of the tree, its\nstem and its blossoms, are all means to the end--fruit. What is the use\nof the clearest conceptions, and of the most tender, delicate, holy\nemotions, if they do not drive the wheels of action? God does not give\nus the Gospel to make us wise, nor even to make us blessed, but He gives\nit to us to make us good men and women, working His work in our daily\ntasks. All true religion has its sphere in conduct.\n\nBut then there is another side to that. All true conduct must have its\nroot in religion, and I, for my part--though of course it is extremely\n'narrow' and 'antiquated' to profess it--I, for my part, do not believe\nthat in the long-run, and in general, you will get noble living apart\nfrom the emotions and sentiments which the truths of Christianity,\naccepted and fed upon, are sure to produce. And so this day, with its\nvery general depreciation of the importance of accurate conceptions of\nrevealed truth, and its exaltation of conduct, is on the verge of a very\nserious error. Godliness, well-directed reverence, is the parent of all\nnoble living, and the one infallible way to produce a noble life is\nfaith in Christ, and love which flows from the faith.\n\nIf all that is so, if godliness is, not singing psalms, not praying, not\nsaying 'How sweet it is to feel the love of God,' still less saying 'I\naccept the principles of Christianity as they are laid down in the\nBible'; but carrying out beliefs and emotions in deeds, then the true\naim which we should have continually before us as Christians is plain\nenough. We may not reach it completely, but we can approximate\nindefinitely towards it. Aim is more important than achievement.\nDirection is more vital in determining the character of a life than\nprogress actually made. Note the form of the exhortation, 'exercise\nthyself _towards_ godliness,' which involves the same thought as is\nexpressed in Paul's other utterance of irrepressible aspiration and\neffort, 'Not as if I had already attained, either were already perfect,\nbut I follow after,' or as he had just said, 'press towards the mark,'\nin continual approximation to the ideal. A complete penetration of all\nour actions by the principles and emotions of the Gospel is what is set\nbefore us here.\n\nAnd that is the only aim that corresponds to what and where I am and to\nwhat I need. I fall back upon the grandly simple old words, very dear to\nsome of us, perhaps, by boyish associations, 'Man's chief end is to\nglorify God, and (so) to enjoy Him for ever.' 'Unto Godliness' is to be\nthe aim of every true life, and it is the only aim which corresponds to\nour circumstances and our relations, our powers and possibilities.\n\nII. Notice the discipline which such an aim demands.\n\n'Exercise thyself.' Now, I have no doubt that the bulk of my hearers\nknow that the word here rendered 'exercise' is drawn from the athlete's\ntraining-ground, and is, in fact, akin to the word which is transported\ninto English under the form 'gymnasium.' The Apostle's notion is that,\njust as the athlete, racer, or boxer goes through a course of training,\nso there is a training as severe, necessary for the godliness which Paul\nregards as the one true aim of life.\n\nYou Christian people ought to train your spirits at least as carefully\nas the athlete does his muscles. There are plenty of people, calling\nthemselves Christians, who never give one-hundredth part as much\nsystematic and diligent pains to fulfil the ideal of their Christian\nlife as men will take to learn to ride a bicycle or to pull the stroke\noar in a college boat. The self-denial and persistence and concentration\nwhich are freely spent upon excellence in athletic pursuits might well\nput to shame the way in which Christians go about the task of 'doing'\ntheir religion.\n\nI suppose there never was a time, in England's history at any rate,\nwhatever it may have been in Greece, when modern instances might give\nmore point to an old saw than to-day does for this text, when athletic\nsports of all kinds are taking up so much of the time and the energy of\nour young men. I do not want to throw cold water on that, but I do say\nit is a miserable thing to think that so many professing Christians will\ngive a great deal more pains to learn to play lawn tennis than ever they\ndid to learn to be good, Christian people.\n\n'Exercise thyself unto godliness.' Make a business of living your\nChristianity. Be in earnest about it. A tragically large number of\nprofessing Christians never were in earnest about mending themselves.\nAnd that is why they are so far, far behind. 'Exercise thyself.' You\nsay, How?\n\n'Well, I say, first of all, concentration. 'This _one_ thing I do.' That\ndoes not mean narrowing, because this 'one thing' can be done by means\nof all the legitimate things that we have to do in the world. Next\nFriday, when you go on 'Change, you can be exercising yourself to\ngodliness there. Whatever may be the form of our daily occupation, it is\nthe _gymnasium_ where God has put us to exercise our muscles in, and so\nto gain 'the wrestling thews that throw the world.' 'Be strong in the\nLord, and in the power of His might.' The concentration for which I\nplead does not shut us out from any place but the devil's\nwrestling-ground. All that is legitimate, all that is innocent, may be\nmade a means for manifesting and for increasing our godliness. Only you\nhave to take God with you into your life, and to try, more and more\nconsciously, to make Him the motive-power of all that you do. Then the\nold saying which is profoundly true as it was originally meant, and has\nof late years been so misused as to become profoundly false, will be\ntrue again, '_Laborare est orare_.' Yes! it is; if worship underlies the\nwork, but not else.\n\nAgain I say, exercise yourselves by abstinence. How many things did the\nathlete at Corinth do without in his training? How many things do\nprizefighters and rowing men do without when in training to-day? How\nrigidly, for a while at any rate, they abstain--whether they recompense\nthemselves afterwards or not has nothing to do with my present purpose.\nAnd is it not a shame that some sensual man shall, for the sake of\nwinning a medal or a cup, be able gladly to abandon the delights of\nsense--eating, drinking, and the like--and content himself with a\nhermit's Spartan fare, and that Christian people so seldom, and so\nreluctantly, and so partially turn away from the poisoned cups and the\nindigestible dainties which the world provides for them? I think that\nany Christian man who complains of the things which he is shut out from\ndoing if he is to cultivate the godliness which should be his life need\nonly go to any place where horse-jockeys congregate to get a lesson that\nhe may well lay to heart. 'Exercise thyself,' for it is unto godliness.\n\nAnd then what I said in a former part of this sermon about the various\nstages of religion may suggest another view of the method of discipline\nproper to the Christian life. The strenuous exercise of all our powers\nis called for. But if it is true that the godliness of my text is the\nlast outcome of the emotions which spring from the reception of certain\ntruths, then if we work backwards, as it were, we shall get the best way\nof producing the godliness. That is to say, the main effort for all men\nwho are in earnest in regard to their own growth in Christlikeness is to\nkeep themselves in touch with the truths of the Gospel, and in the\nexercise of the sentiments and emotions which flow from these. Or, to\nput it into other words, the 'gymnastic' is to be, mainly, the man's\nclinging, with all his might of mind and heart, to Christ, and the\ntruths that are wrapped up in Him; and the cultivation of the habit of\ncontinual faith and love turned to that Lord. If I see to number\none--the creed, and to number two--the emotions, they will see to number\nthree--the conduct. Keep the truths of the Gospel well in your minds,\nand keep yourselves well in the attitude of contact with Jesus Christ,\nand power for life will come into you. But if the fountain is choked,\nthe bed of the stream will be dry. They tell us that away up in\nAbyssinia there form across the bed of one of the branches of the Nile\ngreat fields of weed. And as long as they continue unbroken the lower\nriver is shrunken. But when the stream at the back of them bursts its\nway through them, then come the inundations down in Egypt, and bring\nfertility. And there are hundreds of professing Christians whose fields\nlie barren and baked in the sunshine, because they have stopped with\nweeds, far away up amongst the hills, the stream that would water them.\nClear out the weeds, and the water will do the rest.\n\nAnd 'exercise thyself unto godliness' by keeping the crown and the prize\noften and clear in view. 'Paul the aged' in this very letter says: 'I\nhave finished my course, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of\nglory.' He had said, in the midst of the strife: 'Not as though I had\nalready attained--I press toward the mark for the prize.' And the prize\nwhich gleamed before him through all the dust of the arena now shone\nstill more brightly when his hand had all but clasped it. If we desire\nto 'run with perseverance the race that is set before us' we must keep\nour eyes fixed on Jesus, and see in Him, not only the Rewarder, but the\nReward, of the 'exercise unto godliness.'\n\n\n\n\nONE WITNESS, MANY CONFESSORS\n\n 'Thou . . . hast professed a good profession before\n many witnesses. 13. I give thee charge in the\n sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and\n before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate\n witnessed a good confession, 14. That thou keep\n this commandment. . . .'--1 TIM. vi. 12-14.\n\n\nYou will observe that 'a good confession,' or rather 'the good\nconfession,' is said here to have been made both by Timothy and by\nChrist. But you will observe also that whilst the subject-matter is the\nsame, the action of Timothy and Jesus respectively is different. The\nformer professes, or rather confesses, the good confession; the latter\nwitnesses. There must be some reason for the significant variation of\nterms to indicate that the relation of Timothy and Jesus to the good\nconfession which they both made was, in some way, a different one, and\nthat though what they said was identical, their actions in saying it\nwere different.\n\nThen there is another point of parallelism to be noticed. Timothy made\nhis profession 'before many witnesses,' but the Apostle calls to his\nremembrance, and summons up before the eye of his imagination, a more\naugust tribunal than that before which he had confessed his faith, and\nsays that he gives him charge 'before God' (for the same word is used in\nthe original in both verses), 'who quickeneth all things, and before\nChrist Jesus.' So the earthly witnesses of the man's confession dwindle\ninto insignificance when compared with the heavenly ones. And upon these\nthoughts is based the practical exhortation, 'Keep the commandment\nwithout spot.' So, then, we have three things: the great Witness and His\nconfession, the subordinate confessors who echo His witness, and the\npractical issue that comes out of both thoughts.\n\nI. We have the great Witness and His confession.\n\nNow, you will remember, perhaps, that if we turn to the Gospels, we find\nthat all of them give the subject-matter of Christ's confession before\nPilate, as being that He was the King of the Jews. But the Evangelist\nJohn expands that conversation, and gives us details which present a\nremarkable verbal correspondence with the words of the Apostle here, and\nmust suggest to us that, though John's Gospel was not written at the\ndate of this Epistle, the fact that is enshrined for us in it was\nindependently known by the Apostle Paul.\n\nFor, if I may for a moment recall the incident to you, you will remember\nthat when Pilate put to the Saviour the question, 'Art Thou a King?'\nour Lord, before He would answer, took pains to make quite clear the\nsense in which the judge asked Him of His royal state. For He said,\n'Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of Me? If\nit is your Roman idea of a king, the answer must be, \"No.\" If it is the\nJewish Messianic idea, the answer must be, \"Yes.\" I must know first what\nthe question means, in the mind of the questioner, before I answer it.'\nAnd when Pilate brushes aside Christ's question, with a sort of\nimpatient contempt, and returns to the charge, 'What hast Thou done?'\nour Lord, whilst He makes the claim of sovereignty, takes care to make\nit in such a way as to show that Rome need fear nothing from Him, and\nthat His dominion rested not upon force. 'My Kingdom is not of this\nworld.' And then, when Pilate, like a practical Roman, bewildered with\nall these fine-spun distinctions, sweeps them impatiently out of the\nfield, and comes back to 'Yes, or No; are you a King?' our Lord gives a\ndistinct affirmative answer, but at once soars up into the region where\nPilate had declined to follow Him: 'To this end was I born, and for this\ncause came I into the world, that I might bear witness to the truth.'\n'Before Pontius Pilate he witnessed the good confession.' And His\nconfession was His royalty, His relation to the truth, and His\npre-existence. 'To this end was I born,' and the next clause is no mere\ntautology, nor a non-significant parallelism, 'and for this cause came I\ninto the world.' Then He was before He came, and birth to Him was not\nthe beginning of being, but the beginning of a new relation.\n\nSo, then, out of this great word of our text, which falls into line with\na great many other words of the New Testament, we may gather important\nand significant truths with regard to two things, the matter and the\nmanner of Christ's witnessing. You remember how the same Apostle\nJohn--for whom that word 'witness' has a fascination in all its manifold\napplications--in that great vision of the Apocalypse, when to his\nblessed sight the vision of the Master was once given, extols Him as\n'the faithful witness, and the First-begotten from the dead, and the\nPrince of the kings of the earth.' And you may remember how our Lord\nHimself, after His conversation with Nicodemus, says, 'We speak that we\ndo know, and bear witness to that we have seen,' and how again, in\nanswer to the taunts of the Jews, He takes the taunt as the most\nintimate designation of the peculiarity of His person and of His work,\nwhen He says, 'I am one that bear witness of Myself.' So, then, we have\nto interpret his declaration before Pilate in the light of all these\nother sayings, and to remember that He who said that He came to bear\nwitness to the truth, said also, 'I am the truth,' and therefore that\nhis great declaration that He was the witness-bearer to the truth is\nabsolutely synonymous with His other declaration that He bears witness\nof Himself.\n\nNow, here we come upon one of the great peculiarities of Christ as a\nreligious teacher. The new thing, the distinctive peculiarity, the\ndifferentia between Him and all other teachers, lies just here, that His\ntheme is not so much moral or religious principles, as His own nature\nand person. He was the most egotistical man that ever lived on the face\nof the earth, with an egotism only to be accounted for, if we believe,\nas He Himself said, that in His person was the truth that He proclaimed,\nand that when He witnessed to Himself He revealed God. And thus He\nstands, separate from all other teachers, by this, that He is His own\ntheme and His own witness.\n\nSo much for the matter of the good confession to which we need only add\nhere its pendant in the confession before the High Priest. To the\nrepresentative of the civil government He said, 'I am a king,' and then,\nas I remarked, He soared up into regions where no Roman official could\nrise to follow Him, and to the representative of the Theocratic\ngovernment He said, 'Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at\nthe right hand of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven.' These two\ntruths, that He is the Son of God, who by His witness to the truth, that\nis, Himself, lays the foundations of a Monarchy which shall stretch far\nfurther than the pinions of the Roman eagles could ever fly, and that he\nis the Son of Man who, exalted to the right hand of God, is to be the\nJudge of mankind--these are the good confessions to which the Lord\nwitnessed.\n\nThen with regard to the manner of His witness. That brings us to another\nof the peculiarities of Christ's teaching. I have said that He was the\nmost egotistical of men. I would say, too, that there never was another\nwho clashed down in the front of humanity such tremendous assertions,\nwith not the faintest scintilla of an attempt to prove them to our\nunderstandings, or commend them by any other plea than this, 'Verily,\nverily, I say unto you!'\n\nA witness does not need to argue. A witness is a man who reports what he\nhas seen and heard. The whole question is as to his veracity and\ncompetency. Jesus Christ states it for the characteristic of His work,\n'We speak that we do know, and bear witness to that we have seen.' His\nrelation to the truth which He brings to us is not that of a man who has\nthought it out, who has been brought to it by experience, or by feeling,\nor by a long course of investigation; still less is it the relation\nwhich a man would bear to a truth that he had learnt from others\noriginally, however much he had made it his own thereafter: but it is\nthat of one who is not a thinker, or a learner, or a reasoner, but who\nis simply an attester, a witness. And so He stands before us, and says,\n'The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, they are life.\nBelieve Me, and believe the words, for no other reason, primarily, than\nbecause I speak them.' In these two respects, then, the matter and the\nmanner of His witness, He stands alone, and we have to bow before Him\nand say, 'Speak, Lord! for thy servant heareth.' 'Before Pontius Pilate\nHe witnessed a good confession.'\n\nII. We have here suggested to us the subordinate confessors who echo the\nLord's witness.\n\nIt is a matter of no consequence when, and before whom, this Timothy\nprofessed his good profession. It may have been at his baptism. It may\nhave been when he was installed in his office. It may have been before\nsome tribunal of which we know nothing. That does not matter. The point\nis that a Christian man is to be an echo of the Lord's good confession,\nand is to keep within the lines of it, and to be sure that all of it is\nechoed in his life. Christ has told us what to say, and we are here to\nsay it over again. Christ has witnessed; we are to confess. Our relation\nto that truth is different from His. We hear it; He speaks it. We accept\nit; He reveals it. We are influenced by it; He _is_ it. He brings it to\nthe world on His own authority; we are to carry it to the world on His.\n\nBe sure that you Christian men are echoes of your Master. Be sure that\nyou reverberate the note that He struck. Be sure that all its music is\nrepeated by you And take care that you neither fall short of it, nor go\nbeyond it, in your faith and in your profession. Echoes of Christ--that\nis the highest conception of a Christian life.\n\nBut though there is all the difference between the Witness and the\nconfessors, do not let us forget that, if we are truly Christian, there\nis a very deep and blessed sense in which we, too, may witness what we\nhave seen and heard. A Christian preacher of any sort--and by that I\nmean, not merely a man who stands in a pulpit, as I do, but all\nChristian people, in their measure and degree--will do nothing by\nprofessing the best profession, unless that profession sounds like the\nutterance of a man who speaks that he knows, and who can say, 'that\nwhich our eyes have beheld, that which we have handled, of the Word of\nlife, we make known unto you.' And so, by the power of personal\nexperience speaking out in our lives, and by the power of it alone, as I\nbelieve, will victories be won, and the witness of Jesus Christ be\nrepeated in the world. Christian men and women, the old saying which was\naddressed by a prophet to Israel is more true, more solemnly true of us,\nand presses on us with a heavier weight of obligation, as well as lifts\nus up into a position of greater blessedness: 'Ye are my witnesses,\nsaith the Lord.' That is what you and I are here for--to bear witness,\ndifferent and yet like to, the witness borne by the Lord. We have all to\ndo that, by words, though not only by them. That is the obligation that\na great many Christian people take very lightly. That yoke of Jesus\nChrist many of us slip our necks out of. If He has witnessed, you have\nto confess. But some of you carry your Christianity in secret, and\nbutton your coats over the cockade that should tell whose soldiers you\nare, and are ashamed, or too shy, or too nervous, or too afraid of\nridicule, or not sufficiently sure of your own grip of the Master, to\nconfess Him before men. I beseech you remember that a Christian man is\nno Christian unless 'with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,'\nas well as 'with the heart' belief is exercised unto righteousness.\n\nIII. Lastly, we have here the practical issue of all this.\n\n'I charge thee before God, who quickeneth all things, and before Jesus\nChrist, that thou keep the commandment without spot.' The 'commandment,'\nof course, may be used in a specific sense, referring to what has just\nbeen enjoined, but more probably we are to regard the same thing which,\nconsidered in its relation to Jesus Christ, is His testimony, as being,\nin its relation to us, His commandment. For all Christ's gospel of\nrevelation that He has made of Himself to the world, is meant to\ninfluence, not only belief and feeling, but conduct and character as\nwell. All the New Testament, in so far as it is a record of what Christ\nis, and thereby a declaration of what God is, is also for us an\ninjunction as to what we ought to be. The whole Gospel is law, and the\ntestimony is commandment, and we have to keep it, as well as to confess\nit. Let me put the few things that I have to say, under this last\ndivision of my subject, the practical issue, into the shape of three\nexhortations, not for the sake of seeming to arrogate any kind of\nsuperiority, but for the sake of point and emphasis.\n\nLet the life bear witness to the confession. What is the use of\nTimothy's standing there, and professing himself a Christian before many\nwitnesses if, when he goes out into the world, his conduct gives the lie\nto his creed, and he lives like the men that are not Christians? Back up\nyour confession by your conduct, and when you say 'I believe in Jesus\nChrist,' let your life be as true an echo of His life as your confession\nis of His testimony. Else we shall come under the condemnation, 'Nothing\nbut leaves,' and shall fall under the punishment of the continuance of\nunfruitfulness, which is our crime as well as our punishment. There is a\ngreat deal more done by consistent living for, and by inconsistent\nliving against, the truth of the Gospel, than by all the words of all\nthe preachers in the world. Your faults go further, and tell more, than\nmy sermons, and your Christian characters will go further than all the\neloquence of the most devoted preachers. 'There is no voice nor\nlanguage, where their sound is not heard. Their line is gone out into\nall the earth, and their words to the end of the world.'\n\nAgain, let the thought of the Great Witness stimulate us. He, too, took\nHis place by our sides, though with the differences that I have pointed\nout, yet with resemblances which bring Him very near us. He, too; knew\nwhat it was to stand amongst those who shrugged their shoulders, and\nknit their brows at His utterances, and turned away from Him, calling\nHim sometimes 'dreamer,' sometimes 'revolutionary,' sometimes\n'blasphemer,' and now and then a messenger of good tidings and a\npreacher of the gospel of peace. He knows all our hesitations, all our\nweaknesses, all our temptations. He was the first of the martyrs, in the\nnarrower sense of the word. He is the leader of the great band of\nwitnesses for God. Let us stand by His side, and be like Him in our\nbearing witness in this world.\n\nAgain, let the thought of the great tribunal stimulate us. 'I give thee\ncharge before God, who quickeneth all things--and who therefore will\nquicken you--and before Jesus Christ, that thou keep this commandment.'\nJesus, who witnessed to the truth, witnesses, in the sense of beholding\nand watching, us, knowing our weakness and ready to help us. 'The\nfaithful witness, and the first begotten from the dead, and the Prince\nof the kings of the earth,' is by us, as we witness for Him. And so,\nthough we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, the\nsaints in the past who have witnessed for God, and been witnessed to by\nHim, we have to turn away from them, and 'look off' from all others,\n'unto Jesus.' And we may, like the first of the noble army of martyrs,\nsee the heavens opened, and Jesus 'standing'--started to His feet, to\nsee and to help Stephen--'at the right hand of God.'\n\nBrethren, let us listen to His witness, let us accept it, setting to our\nseals that God is true. Then let us try to echo it back by word, and to\nattest our confession by our conduct, and then we may comfort ourselves\nwith the great word, 'He that confesseth Me before men, Him will I also\nconfess before My Father which is in Heaven.'\n\n\n\n\nTHE CONDUCT THAT SECURES THE REAL LIFE\n\n 'Laying up in store for themselves a good\n foundation against the time to come, that they may\n lay hold on eternal life.'--1 TIM. vi. 19.\n\n\nIn the first flush of the sense of brotherhood, the Church of Jerusalem\ntried the experiment of having all things in common. It was not a\nsuccess, it was soon abandoned, it never spread. In the later history of\nthe Church, and especially in these last Pauline letters, we see clearly\nthat distinctions of pecuniary position were very definitely marked\namongst the believers. There were 'rich men' in the churches of which\nTimothy had charge. No doubt they were rich after a very modest fashion,\nfor Paul's standard of opulence is not likely to have been a very high\none, seeing that he himself ministered with his own hands to his\nnecessities, and had only one cloak to keep him warm in winter time. But\ngreat or small as were the resources of these men, they were rich in\ncomparison with some of their brethren. The words of my text are the\nclose of the very plain things which Paul commands Timothy to tell them.\nHe assures them that if they will be rich in good works, and ready to\ndistribute, they will lay up for themselves a good 'foundation against\nthe time to come.'\n\nThe teaching in the text is, of course, a great deal wider than any\nspecific application of it. It is very remarkable, especially as coming\nfrom Paul. 'Lay up a good foundation'--has he not said, 'Other\nfoundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus\nChrist'? 'That they may lay hold on eternal life'--has he not said, 'The\n_gift_ of God is eternal life'? Is he not going dead in the teeth of his\nown teaching, 'Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by\nHis mercy He saved us'? I think not. Let us see what he does say.\n\nI. First, then, he says that the real life is the future life.\n\nThose of you who use the Revised Version will see that it makes an\nalteration in the last clause of our text, and instead of 'eternal\nlife' it reads 'the life which is life indeed,' the true life; not\nsimply designating it as eternal, but designating it as being the only\nthing that is worth calling by the august name of life.\n\nNow it is quite clear that Paul here is approximating very closely to\nthe language of his brother John, and using this great word 'life' as\nbeing, in substance, equivalent to his own favourite word of\n'salvation,' as including in one magnificent generalisation all that is\nnecessary for the satisfaction of man's needs, the perfection of his\nblessedness, and the glorifying of his nature. Paul's notion of life,\nlike John's, is that it is the one all-comprehensive good which men need\nand seek.\n\nAnd here he seems to relegate that 'life which is life indeed' to the\nregion of the future, because he contemplates it as being realised 'in\nthe time to come,' and as being the result of the conduct which is here\nenjoined. But you will find that substantially the same exhortation is\ngiven in the 12th verse of this chapter, 'Fight the good fight of faith;\nlay hold on the life eternal'--where the process of grasping this\n'life,' and therefore the possession of it, are evidently regarded as\npossible here, and the duty of every Christian man in this present\nworld. That is to say, there is a double aspect of this august\nconception of the 'life which is life indeed.' In one aspect it is\npresent, may be and ought to be ours, here and now; in another aspect it\nlies beyond the flood, and is the inheritance reserved in the heavens.\nThat double aspect is parallel with the way in which the New Testament\ndeals with the other cognate conception of salvation, which it sometimes\nregards as past, sometimes as present, sometimes as future. The complete\nidea is that the life of the Christian soul here and yonder, away out\ninto the furthest extremities of eternity, and up to the loftiest climax\nof perfectness, is in essence one, whilst yet the differences between\nthe degree in which its germinal possession here and its full-fruited\nenjoyment hereafter differ is so great as that, in comparison with the\ncompletion that is waiting the Christian soul beyond the grave, all of\nthe same life that is here enjoyed dwindles into nothingness. It appears\nto me that these two sides of the truth, the essential identity of the\nlife of the Christian soul beyond and here, and the all but infinite\ndifferences and progresses which separate the two, are both needful,\nvery needful, to be kept in view by us.\n\nThere is here on earth, amidst all our imperfections and weakness and\nsin, a root in the heart that trusts in Christ, which only needs to be\ntransplanted into its congenial soil to blossom and burgeon into\nundreamed of beauty, and to bear fruit the savour of which no mortal\nlips can ever taste. The dwarfed rhododendrons in our shrubberies have\nin them the same nature as the giants that adorn the slopes of the\nHimalayas. Transplant these exotics to their native soil, and you would\nsee what it was in them to be. Think of the life that is now at its\nbest; its weakness, its blighted hopes, its thwarted aims, its foiled\nendeavours; think of its partings, its losses, its conflicts. Think of\nits disorders, its sins, and consequent sufferings; think of the shadow\nat its close, which flings long trails of blackness over many preceding\nyears. Think of its swift disappearance, and then say if such a poor,\nfragmentary thing is worthy of the name of life, if that were all that\nthe man was for.\n\nBut it is not all. There is a 'life which is life indeed,' over which\nno shadow can pass, nor any sorrow darken the blessed faces or clog the\nhappy hearts of those who possess it. They 'have all and abound.' They\nknow all and are at rest. They dread nothing, and nothing do they\nregret. They leave nothing behind as they advance, and of their serenity\nand their growth there is no end. That is worth calling life. It lies\nbeyond this dim spot of earth. It is 'hid with Christ in God.'\n\nII. Secondly, notice that conduct here determines the possession of the\ntrue life.\n\nPaul never cares whether he commits the rhetorical blunder of mixing up\nmetaphors or not. That matters very little, except to a pedant and a\nrhetorician. In his impetuous way he blends three here, and has no time\nto stop to disentangle them. They all mean substantially the same thing\nwhich I have stated in the words that conduct here determines the\npossession of life hereafter; but they put it in three different\nfigurative fashions which we may separate and look at one by one.\n\nThe first of them is this, that by our actions here we accumulate\ntreasure hereafter. 'Laying up in store for themselves' is one word in\nthe original, and it contains even more than is expressed in our\nparaphrase, for it is really 'treasuring off.' And the idea is that the\nrich man is bade to take a portion of his worldly goods, and, by using\nthese for beneficent purposes, out of them to store a treasure beyond\nthe grave. What is employed thus, and from the right motives and in the\nright way, is not squandered, but laid up in store. You remember the old\nepitaph,\n\n 'What I spent I lost;\n What I gave I have.'\n\nNow that is Christ's teaching, for did He not say: 'Sell all that thou\nhast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven'? Did\nHe not say: 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, . . . but lay\nup treasures in heaven'? And if anybody's theology finds it difficult to\nincorporate these solemn teachings of our Lord with the rest of it, so\nmuch the worse for the theology.\n\nI have no doubt at all that Christianity has yet a great deal to teach\nthe Christian Church and the world about the acquisition of money and\nthe disposal of money; and, though I do not want to dwell now upon that\nspecific application of the general principle of my text, I cannot help\nreminding you, dear friends, that for a very large number of us, almost\nthe most important influence shaping our characters is the attitude that\nwe take in regard to these things--the getting and the distribution of\nworldly wealth. For the bulk of Christian people there are few things\nmore important as sharp tests of the reality of their religion, or more\neffective in either ennobling or degrading their whole character, than\nwhat they do about these two plain matters.\n\nBut then my text goes a great deal further than that; and whilst it\napplies unflinchingly this principle to the one specific case, it\ninvites us to apply it all round the circumference of our earthly\nconduct. What you are doing here is piling up for you, on the other side\nof the wall, what you will have to live with, and either get good or\nevil out of, through all eternity. A man who is going to Australia pays\nsome money into a bank here, and when he gets to Melbourne it is\npunctually paid out to him across the counter. That is what we are doing\nhere, lodging money on this side that we are going to draw on that. And\nit is this which gives to the present its mystical significance and\nsolemnity, that all our actions are piling up for us future possessions:\n'treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath'; or, contrariwise,\n'glory, immortality, honour, eternal life.' We are like men digging a\ntrench on one side of a hedge and flinging the spadefuls over to the\nother. They are all being piled up behind the barrier, and when we go\nround the end of it we shall find them all waiting for us.\n\nThen the Apostle superimposes upon this another metaphor. He does not\ncare to unravel it. 'Laying up in store for themselves a store,' he\nwould have said if he had been a pedant, 'which is also a good\nfoundation.' Now I take it that that does not mean a basis for hope, or\nanything of that sort, but that it conveys this thought, that our\nactions here are putting in the foundations on which the eternal\nbuilding of our future life shall be reared. When a man excavates and\nlays the first courses of the stones of his building, he thereby\ndetermines every successive stage of it, until the headstone is brought\nforth with rejoicing. We are laying foundations in that profound sense\nin this world. Our nature takes a set here, and I fail to see any reason\ncognisable by us why that ply of the nature should ever be taken out of\nit in any future. I do not dogmatise; but it seems to me that all that\nwe do know of life and of God's dealings in regard to man leads us to\nsuppose that the next world is a world of continuations, not of\nbeginnings; that it is the second volume of the book, and hangs\nlogically and necessarily upon the first that was finished when a man\ndied. Our lives here and hereafter appear to me to be like some\ngeometrical figure that wants two sheets of paper for its completion:\non the first the lines run up to the margin, and on the second they are\ncarried on in the direction which was manifest in the section that was\nvisible here.\n\nAnd so, dear friends, let us remember that this is the reason why our\nsmallest acts are so tremendous that by our actions we are making\ncharacter, and that character is destiny, here and hereafter. You are\nputting in the foundations of the building that you have to live in; see\nthat they are of such a sort as will support a house eternal in the\nheavens.\n\nThe last of the metaphors under which the Apostle suggests the one idea\nis that our conduct here determines our capacity to lay hold of the\nprize. It seems to me that the same allusion is lingering in his mind\nwhich is definitely stated in the previous verse to which I have already\nreferred, where the eternal life which Timothy is exhorted to lay hold\nof is regarded as being the prize of the good fight of faith, which he\nis exhorted to fight. And so the third metaphor here is that which is\nfamiliar in Paul's writings, where eternal life is regarded as a garland\nor prize, given to the victor in race or arena. It is exactly the same\nnotion as he otherwise expresses when he says that he follows after if\nthat he may 'lay hold of that for which also he is laid hold of by Jesus\nChrist.' This is the underlying thought, that according to a Christian\nman's acts here is his capacity of receiving the real life yonder.\n\nThat is not given arbitrarily. Each man gets as much of it when he goes\nhome as he can hold. The tiniest vessel is filled, the largest vessel is\nfilled. But the little vessel may, and will, grow bigger if that which\nis deposited in it be rightly employed. Let us lay this to heart, that\nChristian men dare not treat it as a matter of indifference whether to\nthe full they live lives consistent with their profession, and do the\nwill of their Master or no. It is not all the same, and it will not be\nall the same yonder, whether we have adorned the teaching, or whether\nour lives have habitually and criminally fallen beneath the level of our\nprofessions. Brethren, we are too apt to forget that there is such a\nthing as being 'saved, yet so as by fire'; and that there is such a\nthing as 'having an entrance ministered abundantly into the Kingdom.' Be\nyou sure of this, that if the hands of your spirits are ever to be\ncapable of grasping the prize, it must be as the result of conduct here\non earth, which has been treasuring up treasures yonder, and laying a\nfoundation on which the incorruptible house may solidly rest.\n\nIII. And now the last word that I have to say is that these principles\nare perfectly compatible with the great truth of salvation by faith.\n\nFor observe to whom the text is spoken. It is to men who have professed\nto be believers, and it is on the ground of their faith that these rich\nmen in Timothy's churches are exhorted to this conduct. There is no\nincompatibility between the doctrine that eternal life is the gift of\nGod, and the placing of those who have received that gift under a strict\nlaw of recompense.\n\nThat is the teaching of the whole New Testament. It was to _Christian_\nmen that it was said: 'Be not deceived; God is not mocked, whatsoever a\nman soweth that shall he also reap.' It is the teaching of Jesus Christ\nHimself.\n\nBut there is a dreadful danger that we, with our partial vision, shall\nsee one side of the truth so clearly that we do not see the other; and\nso you get two antagonistic schools of Christian teaching who have torn\nthe one word into halves. One of them says, 'Man is saved by faith\nonly,' and forgets 'faith without works is dead'; and the other says,\n'Do your duty, and never mind about your belief,' and forgets that the\nbelief--the trust--is the only sure foundation on which conduct can be\nbased, and the only source from which it is certain to flow.\n\nNow, if I should not be misunderstood by that same narrow and contracted\nvision of which I have been speaking, I would venture to say that\nsalvation by faith alone may be so held as to be a very dangerous\ndoctrine, and that there is a very real sense in which a man is saved by\nworks. And if you do not like that, go home and read the Epistle of\nJames, and see what you make of his teaching: 'Ye see, brethren, how\nthat by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.' 'Faith wrought\nwith his works, and by his works was his faith made perfect.'\n\nOnly let us understand where the exhortation of the text comes in. We\nhave to begin with absolute departure from all merit in work, and the\nabsolute casting of ourselves on Jesus Christ. If you have not done\nthat, my brother, the teaching 'Laying up in store for themselves a good\nfoundation' has no application to you, but this teaching has, 'Other\nfoundation can no man lay. Behold, I lay in Zion a tried corner-stone.\nWhosoever believeth in Him shall not make haste.' If you have not\ncommitted your souls and selves and lives and hopes to Jesus Christ, the\nteaching 'Lay hold on eternal life' has only a very modified application\nto you, because the only hand that can grasp that life is the hand of\nfaith that is content to receive it from His hands with the prints of\nthe nails in them. But if you have given yourselves to that Saviour, and\nreceived the germinal gift of eternal life from Him, then, take my text\nas absolutely imperative for you. Remember that it is for you, resting\non Christ, to treasure up eternal life; for you to build on that sure\nfoundation gold and silver and precious stones which may stand the fire;\nfor you, by faithful continuance in well-doing, to lay hold of that for\nwhich you have been laid hold of by Jesus Christ. May it be true of all\nof us that 'our works do follow us'!\n\n 'Thy works, thine alms, and all thy good endeavour\n Stayed not behind, nor in the grave were trod,\n But, as Faith pointed with her golden rod,\n Followed thee up to joy and bliss for ever.'\n\n * * * * *\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\nObvious punctuation errors repaired.\n\nPart I,\n\nPage 44, \"transcendant\" changed to \"transcendent\" (this one\ntranscendent)\n\nPage 59, \"entrace\" changed to \"entrance\" (a private entrance)\n\nPage 72, \"for for\" changed to \"for\" (day, for one)\n\nPage 150, \"roalties\" changed to \"royalties\" (symbols for royalties)\n\nPage 269, \"immoveable\" changed to \"immovable\" (firm and immovable)\n\nPart II,\n\nPage 52, \"whatsover\" changed to \"whatsoever\" (whatsoever things are\nlovely)\n\nPage 63, \"centifugal\" changed to \"centrifugal\" (centrifugal and\ncentripetal)\n\nPage 118, a bit of text was not inked in the original, the following\nwords have been presumed:\n\n clea clear\n an and\n kno know\n me men\n\n For: \"clear\n before you, or you will go yawing about, and washing\n here and there, in the trough of the wave, and\n the tempest will be your master. If you do not know\n where you are going you will have to say, like the men\"","title":"Expositions of Holy Scripture: Second Corinthians, Galatians, and Philippians Chapters; I to End. Colossians, Thessalonians, and First Timothy.","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":247694}