{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_22189/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_22189","id":"gutenberg_22189","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22189","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Devotional literature","Holy Cross","Parables","Salvation"],"text":"Produced by Free Elf, and Bookworm (Bookworm.Librivox@gmail.com)\n\n\n\n\n\nParables of the Cross\nby I. Lilias Trotter\n\nTo A.C. & B.A.B.\nin memory of lessons\nlearnt together\n\nMarshall Brothers, Ltd.\nLondon & Edinburgh.\n\n\n\nDeath is the Gate of Life\n\nThere was deep insight in those old words. For man's natural thought\nof death is that of a dreary ending in decay and dissolution. And\nfrom his standpoint he is right: death as the punishment of sin is an\nending.\n\nBut far other is God's thought in the redemption of the world. He\ntakes the very thing that came in with the curse, and makes it the\npath of glory. Death becomes a beginning instead of an ending, for it\nbecomes the means of liberating a fresh life.\n\nAnd so the hope that lies in these parable lessons of death and life\nis meant for those only who are turning to Him for redemption. To\nthose who have not turned, death stands in all its old awful doom,\ninevitable, irrevocable. There is no gleam of light through it for\nthem.\n\n* * * * * * * *\n\n\"The death of the Cross\"--death's triumph hour--that was the point\nwhere God's gate opened; and to that gate we come again and again, as\nour lives unfold, and through it pass even on earth to our joyful\nresurrection, to a life each time more abundant, for each time the\ndying is a deeper dying. The Christian life is a process of\ndeliverance out of one world into another, and \"death,\" as has been\ntruly said, \"is the only way out of any world in which we are.\"\n\n\"Death is the gate of life.\" Does it look so to us? Have we learnt to\ngo down, once and again, into its gathering shadows in quietness and\nconfidence, knowing that there is always \"a better resurrection\"\nbeyond?\n\nIt is in the stages of a plant's growth, its budding and blossoming\nand seed-bearing, that this lesson has come to me: the lesson of\ndeath in its delivering power. It has come as no mere far-fetched\nimagery, but as one of the many voices in which God speaks, bringing\nstrength and gladness from His Holy Place.\n\nCan we not trace the sign of the Cross in the first hint of the new\nspring's dawning? In many cases, as in the chestnut, before a single\nold leaf has faded, next year's buds may be seen, at the summit of\nbranch and twig, formed into its very likeness: in others the\nleaf-buds seem to bear its mark by breaking through the stem\nblood-red. Back in the plant's first stages, the crimson touch is to\nbe found in seed-leaves and fresh shoots, and even in the hidden\nsprouts. Look at the acorn, for instance, as it breaks its shell, and\nsee how the baby tree bears its birthmark: it is the blood-red in\nwhich the prism ray dawns out of the darkness, and the sunrise out of\nthe night. The very stars, science now tells us, glow with this same\ncolour as they are born into the universe out of the dying of former\nstars.[Footnote*:Prof. Huggins. Brit. Asso. 1891.]\n\nBe it as it may in nature, it is true, at any rate in the world of\ngrace, that each soul that would enter into real life must bear at\nthe outset this crimson seal; there must be the individual\n\"sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ.\" It must go out through the\nGate of the Cross.\n\nAnd here is the needs-be. Death is the only way out of the world of\ncondemnation wherein we lie. Shut into that world, it is vain to try\nby any self-effort to battle out; nothing can revoke the decree \"the\nsoul that sinneth it shall die.\"\n\nThe only choice left is this. Shall it be, under the old headship of\nAdam, our own death, in all that God means by the word, or shall it\nbe, under the headship of Christ, the death of another in our place?\n\nIt is when we come to self-despair, when we feel ourselves locked in,\nwaiting our doom, that the glory and the beauty of God's way of\nescape dawns upon us, and we submit ourselves to Him in it. All\nresistance breaks down as faith closes on the fact: \"He loved me and\ngave Himself for me.\" We receive the atonement so hardly won, and we\ngo out into life not only pardoned, but cleared and justified.\n\n\nDeath to Sin's Penalty is the Way Out into a Life of Justification.\n\nAnd as we go out free, we find that on the other side of the Cross a\nnew existence has really begun: that the love of the Crucified has\ntouched the springs of our being--we are in another world, under an\nopen heaven. \"Christ hath suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust,\nthat He might bring us to God.\"\n\nDoes anyone read these words who is trying to struggle from the\nnatural life into the spiritual, by \"some other way\" than this way of\nthe Cross? It is as impossible as it would be to pass from to-day\ninto to-morrow except through the night. Your battling is a battling\nagainst God. Yield and come to His terms. Yield now.\n\n* * * * * * * *\n\nBut blessed as it is, this passage into a life of peace with Him, woe\nto the soul that stops there, thinking that the goal is reached, and\ndwindles, so to speak, into a stunted bud. Holiness, not safety, is\nthe end of our calling.\n\nAnd so it comes to pass that a fresh need for deliverance is soon\npressed upon him who is true to God's voice in his heart. The two\nlives are there together, one new-born and feeble, the other strong\nwith an earlier growth. \"The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the\nspirit against the flesh,\" and the will power is distracted between\nthe two, like the sap that flows partly into the old condemned\nleaves, partly into the fresh buds. Consequently there is the strife\nof a kingdom divided against itself: sometimes the one life grows and\nflourishes, sometimes the other; sometimes they struggle on side by\nside, till the cry is forced out--\"Oh, wretched man that I am; who\nshall deliver me?\"\n\nAnd here again, when the point of self-despair is reached, and we\ncome to see that our efforts after holiness are as vain as our\nefforts after acceptance with God, the door of escape opens afresh.\n\nFor there is glory be to God, a definite way out from the prison life\nof sruggling and failure, sinning and repenting, wherein many a soul\nbeats its wings for years after the question of pardon has been\nsettled. And that way is again the way of death.\n\nA stage of dying must come over the plant before the new leaves can\ngrow and thrive. There must be a deliberate choice between the former\ngrowth and the new; one must give way to the other; the acorn has to\ncome to the point where it ceases to keep its rag of former\nexistence, and lets everything go to the fresh shoot: the twig must\nwithdraw its sap from last year's leaf, and let it flow into this\nyear's bud.\n\nAnd before the soul can really enter upon a life of holiness, with\nall its blessed endless possibilities, a like choice must be made:\nall known sin must be deliberately given up, that the rising current\nmay have its full play.\n\n\"But,\" you say, \"I have tried again and again to give up sin: I have\nprayed, and I have resolved, but the will finds its way back into the\nold channels, and is keeping alive the past before I know it.\"\n\nLook at our parable. If you picked off one of the dead leaves and\nexamined the leaf-stalk through a microscope, you would find that the\nold channel is silted up by a barrier invisible to the naked eye. The\nplant has shut the door on the last year's leaf, condemning it to\ndecay, and soon without further effort the stalk loosens, the winds\nof God play around it, and it falls away.\n\n\nBut where is the barrier that we can place between ourselves and the\nold nature? Where is the sentence of death that we can pass upon it?\n\nBack to the Cross again! It is there, within our reach. \"Our old man\nis crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that\nhenceforth we should not serve sin; for he that is dead is freed from\nsin.\"\n\n\nDeath to Sin is the Way Out into a Life of Holiness.\n\nThe Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shuts off the life of sin; like\nthe silted-up channel, it stands a blessed invisible barrier between\nus and sinning, as we \"reckon\" it there: that is, hold it there by\nfaith and will. And His open grave is the open way into a life,\nwherein our rising powers can develop into all their spring vigour.\n\nThe sap--the will--the \"ego\"--is withdrawn from the former existence,\nits aims and desires, and is sent into the new. It is given over to\nthe other side: we hold to it that this is now our life, the only one\nthat has the right to be. We reckon ourselves dead to the old; we\nreckon ourselves alive to the new; \"putting off\" the former, \"putting\non\" the latter.\n\nTake a practical instance. An old habit of doubting and fearing\nasserts itself in your soul, alive and strong. You have two things to\ndo. Close the door upon the doubt: shut your eyes to it: reckon\nyourself dead to it.\n\nAnd then reckon into life the new-born growth of faith in your soul,\nand put all your force into believing: lift up your eyes to the God\nin Whom you believe: believe in the teeth of everything, as if the\ncause for doubt were not there. Then the sap, ceasing from feeding\nthe old shoot, will flow into the new.\n\nBut is it an act, or a gradual process, this \"putting off the old\nman?\" It is both. It is a resolve taken once for all, but carried out\nin detail day by day. The first hour that the sap begins to withdraw,\nand the leaf-stalk begins to silt up, the leaf's fate is sealed:\nthere is never a moment's reversal of the decision. Each day that\nfollows is a steady carrying out of the plant's purpose: \"this old\nleaf shall die, and the new leaf shall live.\" So with your soul. Come\nto the decision once for all: \"every known sin shall go--if there is\na deliverance to be had, I will have it.\" Put the Cross of Christ, in\nits mysterious delivering power, irrevocably between you and sinning,\nand hold on there. That is your part, and you must do it. There is no\nfurther progress possible to you, till you make up your mind to part\ncompany with every sin in which you know you are indulging--every sin\nof thought, word, or deed, every link with the world, the flesh, or\nthe devil, everything on which the shadow of a question falls, as\nGod's light shines in: to part company, not by a series of gradual\nstruggles, but by an honest act of renouncing, maintained by faith\nand obedience. And as you make the decision up to your present\nknowledge, you must determine that this is henceforth your attitude\ntowards all that is \"not of the Father,\" as His growing light shall\nreveal it.\n\nFrom His side God will come in with a breath of His resurrection\npower; for the Cross and the empty tomb cannot be long divided. The\nlaw of the Spirit of Life can work now, as you deliberately loose\nhold of all clinging to sin; the expulsive power of His working\nwithin, and the play of His winds around, will make you \"free\nindeed,\" like these young shoots when last year's leaves have fallen.\n\n* * * * * * * *\n\nThis brings us to the positive side; for when the sentence of death\non the old nature is realised, the new nature can be manifested.\nSeparation from all known sin is the starting-point for\nsantification, not the goal: it is only the negative side of\nholiness; it is only reaching the place where God can develop His\nideal in us unhindered. It is when the death of winter has done its\nwork that the sun can draw out in each plant its own individuality,\nand make its existence full and fragrant. Holiness means something\nmore than the sweeping away of the old leaves of sin: it means the\nlife of Jesus developed in us.\n\nNo matter if we feel utterly helpless before that lovely life of His.\nGiven the conditions--the hidden power within, and the old outlets of\ngrowth shut off--the sun will do the rest; out of the midst of\napparent lifelessness, of barrenness, of difficulty, the blossoms\nwill be drawn forth. Do not let us \"limit the Holy One of Israel\" by\nputting off His power to work this miracle into a distant future. How\nhopeless the naked wood of a fruit tree would look to us in February\nif we had never seen the marvel of springtime! Yet the heavenly bloom\nbursts straight out, with hardly an intermediate step of new growth.\n\nLook again at a flowering rush. The crest breaks forth from\nnothingness--out of the lifeless-seeming pith come crowding the\ngolden brown blossoms, till there is hardly \"room to receive\" them.\nWhat more do we need for our souls than to have this God for our\nGod?\n\nOnce allow the manifestation of His grace in these poor hearts of\nours to be a miracle, and there is no need to defer it vaguely. How\nmany of the wonders wrought by Christ on earth lay in concentrating\nthe long processes of nature into a sudden act of power. The sick\nwould, many of them, have been healed by degrees in the ordinary\ncourse of things; the lapse of years would have brought about the\nwithering of the fig-tree; the storm would have spent itself in few\nhours. The miracle in each case consisted in the slow process being\nquickened by the Divine breath, and condensed into a moment.\n\nCannot we trust Him for like marvels in our souls? There, too, \"a day\nis with the Lord as a thousand years.\" There is no needs be on His\npart that He should prolong this first act of makings us holy over\nthe rest of our lives. A miracle--a wonder--is all that we need, and\n\"He is the God, that doeth wonders.\" Satan is quite content that we\nshould have faith for future sanctification, just as he was content\nthat we should have faith for future salvation. It is when the soul\nrises to \"here and now\" that he trembles.\n\nWhatever is the next grace for your soul, can you believe for its\nsupply at once, straight out from the dry, bare need? Christ's\nprocess is very simple and very swift: \"Whatsoever things ye desire,\nwhen ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.\"\n\nAnd not only with the barrenness of our souls can God deal with His\nquickening breath, but with our difficulties as well: with those\nthings in our surroundings that seem the most unfavourable.\n\nSee this bit of gorse-bush. The whole year round the thorn has been\nhardening and sharpening. Spring comes: the thorn does not drop off,\nand it does not soften; there it is, as uncompromising as ever; but\nhalf-way up appear two brown furry balls, mere specks at first, that\nbreak at last--straight out of last year's thorn--into a blaze of\nfragrant golden glory.\n\nSee this bit of gorse-bush. The whole year round the thorn has been\nhardening and sharpening. Spring comes: the thorn does not drop off,\nand it does not soften; there it is, as uncompromising as ever; but\nhalf-way up appear two brown furry balls, mere specks at first, that\nbreak at last--straight out of last year's thorn--into a blaze of\nfragrant golden glory.\n\n\"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but\ngrievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of\nrighteousness unto them that are exercised thereby.\" Never mind if\nthe trouble shews no sign of giving way: it is just when it seems\nmost hopelessly unyielding, holding on through the spring days, alive\nand strong, it is then that the tiny buds appear that soon will\nclothe it with glory. Take the very hardest thing in your life--the\nplace of difficulty, outward or inward, and expect God to triumph\ngloriously in that very spot. Just there He can bring your soul into\nblossom!\n\n* * * * * * * *\n\nAnd so the spring-time expands, till it passes once more into the\nshadow of Calvary. For the blessedness of receiving is not all that\nGod has for us: a new world lies beyond--a world of giving: a giving\nfirst to God in surrender, then to man in sacrifice.\n\nA flower that stops short at its flowering misses its purpose. We\nwere created for more than our own spiritual development;\nreproduction, not mere development, is the goal of matured\nbeing--reproduction in other lives. There is a tendency in some\ncharacters, running parallel to the high cultivation that spends its\nwhole energy on the production of bloom at the expense of seed. The\nflowers that are bent on perfecting themselves, by becoming double,\nend in barrenness, and a like barrenness comes to the soul whose\ninterests are all concentrated upon its own spiritual well-being,\nheedless of the needs around. The true, ideal flower is the one that\nuses its gifts as means to an end; the brightness and sweetness are\nnot for its own glory; they are but to attract the bees and\nbutterflies that will fertilise and make it fruitful. All may go when\nthe work is done--\"it is more blessed to give than to receive.\"\n\nAnd we ourselves are \"saved to save\"--we are made to give--to let\neverything go if only we may have more to give. The pebble takes in\nall the rays of light that fall on it, but the diamond flashes them\nout again: every little facet is a means, not simply of drinking more\nin, but of giving more out. The unearthly loveliness of the opal\narises from the same process, carried on within the stone: the\nmicroscope shows it to be shattered through and through with\nnumberless fissures that catch and refract and radiate every ray that\nthey can seize.\n\nYes, there lies before us a beautiful possible life--one that shall\nhave a passion for giving: that shall be poured forth to God--spent\nout for man: that shall be consecrated \"for the hardest work and the\ndarkest sinners.\" But how are we to enter in? How are we to escape\nfrom the self-life that holds us, even after the sin-life has loosed\nits grasp?\n\nBack to the Cross: not only from the world of condemnation and from\nthe world of sinning does it free us as we accept it, but from the\npower of outward things and from the thraldom of self: not only does\nit open the door into the world of acquittal, and again into that of\nholiness, but yet again into the new realm of surrender, and thence\ninto that of sacrifice. For the essential idea of the Cross is a life\nlost to be found again in those around.\n\nLet us look at God's picturing. As the plant develops there comes a\nfresh stage of yielding. At first it was only the dead, disfiguring\nleaves that had to go--now it is the fair new petals: they must fall,\nand for no visible reason--no one seems enriched by the stripping.\n\nAnd the first step into the realm of giving is a like surrender--not\nmanward, but Godward: an utter yielding of our best. So long as our\nidea of surrender is limited to the renouncing of unlawful things, we\nhave never grasped its true meaning: that is not worthy of the name\nfor \"no polluted thing\" can be offered.\n\nThe life lost on the Cross was not a sinful one--the treasure poured\nforth there was God-given, God-blessed treasure, lawful and right to\nbe kept: only that there was the life of the world at stake!\n\n\nDeath to Lawful Things is the Way Out into a Life of Surrender.\n\nLook at this buttercup as it begins to learn its new lesson. The\nlittle hands of the calyx clasp tightly in the bud, round the\nbeautiful petals; in the young flower their grasp grows more\nelastic--loosening somewhat in the daytime, but keeping the power of\ncontracting, able to close in again during a rainstorm, or when night\ncomes on. But see the central flower, which has reached its maturity.\nThe calyx hands have unclasped utterly now--they have folded\nthemselves back, past all power of closing again upon the petals,\nleaving the golden crown free to float away when God's time comes.\n\nHave we learned the buttercup's lesson yet? Are our hands off the\nvery blossom of our life? Are all things--even the treasures that He\nhas sanctified--held loosely, ready to be parted with, without a\nstruggle, when He asks for them?\n\nIt is not in the partial relaxing of grasp, with power to take back\nagain, that this fresh victory of death is won: it is won when that\nvery power of taking back is yielded; when our hands, like the little\ncalyx hands of God's buttercups, are not only taken off, but folded\nbehind our back in utter abandonment. Death means a loosened\ngrasp--loosened beyond all power of grasping again.\n\nAnd it is no strange thing that happens to us, if God takes us at our\nword, and strips us for a while of all that made life beautiful. It\nmay be outward things--bodily comfort, leisure, culture, reputation,\nfriendships--that have to drift away as our hands refuse to clasp on\nanything but God's will for us. Or it may be on our inner life that\nthe stripping falls, and we have to leave the sunny lands of\nspiritual enjoyment for one after another of temptation's\nbattlefields, where every inch of our foothold has to be tested,\nwhere even, it may seem to give way--till no experience, no\nresting-place remains to us in heaven or earth but God Himself--till\nwe are \"wrecked upon God.\"\n\nHave faith, like the flowers, to let the old things go. Earn His\nbeatitude, His \"Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in\nMe\"--\"the beatitude of the trusting,\" as it has well been\ncalled--even if you have to earn it like John the Baptist in an hour\nof desolation. You have told Him that you want Him only. Are you\nready to ratify the words when His emptying begins to come? Is God\nenough? Is it still \"My God\" that you cry, even as Jesus cried when\nnothing else was left Him?\n\nYes, practical death with Him to lawful things is just letting go,\neven as He on the Cross let go all but God. It is not to be reached\nby struggling for it, but simply by yielding as the body yields at\nlast to the physical death that lays hold on it--as the dying calyx\nyields its flower. Only to no iron law with its merciless grasp do we\nlet ourselves go, but into the hands of the Father: it is there that\nour spirit falls, as we are made conformable unto the death of Jesus.\n\nDoes all this seem hard? Does any soul, young in this life and in\nthat to come, shrink back and say \"I would rather keep in the\nspringtime--I do not want to reach unto the things that are before if\nit must mean all this of pain.\"\n\nTo such comes the Master's voice: \"Fear none of those things which\nthou shalt suffer\": You are right to be glad in His April days while\nhe gives them. Every stage of the heavenly growth in us is lovely to\nHim; He is the God of the daisies and the lambs and the merry child\nhearts! It may be that no such path of loss lies before you; there\nare people like the lands where spring and summer weave the year\nbetween them, and the autumn processes are hardly noticed as they\ncome and go. The one thing is to keep obedient in spirit, then you\nwill be ready to let the flower-time pass if He bids you, when the\nsun of His love has worked some more ripening. You will feel by then\nthat to try to keep the withering blossoms would be to cramp and ruin\nyour soul. It is loss to keep when God says 'give'.\n\nFor here again death is the gate of life: it is an entering in, not a\ngoing forth only; it means a liberating of new powers as the former\ntreasures float away like the dying petals.\n\nWe cannot feel a consciousness of death: the words are a\ncontradiction in terms. If we had literally passed out of this world\ninto the next we should not feel dead, we should only be conscious of\na new wonderful life beating within us. Our consciousness of death\nwould be an entirely negative matter--the old pains would be unable\nto touch us, the old bonds would be unable to fetter us. Our actual\nconsciousness would have passed into the new existence: we should be\nindependent of the old.\n\nAnd a like independence is the characteristic of the new flood of\nresurrection life that comes to our souls as we learn this fresh\nlesson of dying--a grand independence of any earthly thing to satisfy\nour soul, the liberty of those who have nothing to lose, because they\nhave nothing to keep. We can do without anything while we have God.\nHallelujah!\n\nNor is this all. Look at the expression of abandonment about this\nwild-rose calyx as time goes on, and it begins to grow towards the\nend for which it has had to count all things but loss: the look of\ndumb emptiness has gone--it is flung back joyously now, for\nsimultaneously with the new dying a richer life has begun to work at\nits heart--so much death, so much life--for\n\n\"Ever with death it weaveth\nThe warp and woof of the world.\"\n\nThe lovely wild-rose petals that have drifted away are almost\nforgotten in the \"reaching forth unto the things that are before:\"\nthe seed-vessel has begun to form: it is \"yielded . . . to bring\nforth fruit.\"\n\nYes, there is another stage to be developed in us after the lesson of\nabsolute unquestioning surrender to God has been learnt. A life that\nhas been poured forth to Him must find its crown, its completion, in\nbeing poured forth for man: it must grow out of surrender into\nsacrifice. \"They first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us\nby the will of God.\"\n\nBack to the Cross once more: if there is any place where this fresh\nlesson can be learnt, it is there! \"Hereby perceive we the love of\nGod, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down\nour lives for the brethren.\" It is the very love of Calvary that must\ncome down into our souls, \"Yea, if I be poured forth upon the service\nof your faith I joy and rejoice with you all:\" so spoke the apostle\nwho drank most deeply into the Master's spirit: and again--\"Death\nworketh in us, but life in you.\" \"Neither count I my life dear unto\nmyself, that I may finish . . . the ministry.\"\n\nDeeper and deeper must be the dying, for wider and fuller is the\nlifetide that it is to liberate--no longer limited by the narrow\nrange of our own being, but with endless powers of multiplying in\nother souls. Death must reach the very springs of our nature to set\nit free: it is not this thing or that thing that must go now: it is\nblindly, helplessly, recklessly, our very selves. A dying must come\nupon all that would hinder God's working through us--all interests,\nall impulses, all energies that are \"born of the flesh\"--all that is\nmerely human and apart from His Spirit. Only thus can the Life of\nJesus, in its intensity of love for sinners, have its way in our\nsouls.\n\n\nDeath to Self is the Way Out into a Life of Sacrifice.\n\nThis dandelion has long ago surrendered its golden petals, and has\nreached its crowning stage of dying--the delicate seed-globe must\nbreak up now--it gives and gives till it has nothing left.\n\nWhat a revolution would come over the world--the world of starving\nbodies at home--the world of starving souls abroad, if something like\nthis were the standard of giving; if God's people ventured on \"making\nthemselves poor\" as Jesus did, for the sake of the need around; if\nthe \"I\"--\"me\"--\"mine\" were practically delivered up, no longer to be\nrecognised when they clash with those needs.\n\nThe hour of this new dying is clearly defined to the dandelion globe:\nit is marked by detachment. There is no sense of wrenching: it stands\nready, holding up its little life, not knowing when or where or how\nthe wind that bloweth where it listeth may carry it away. It holds\nitself no longer for its own keeping, only as something to be given:\na breath does the rest, turning the \"readiness to will\" into the\n\"performance.\" (2 Cor. 8. 11.) And to a soul that through \"deaths\noft\" has been brought to this point, even acts that look as if they\nmust involve an effort, become something natural, spontaneous, full\nof a \"heavenly involuntariness,\" so simply are they the outcome of\nthe indwelling love of Christ.\n\nShall we not ask God to convict us, as to where lies the hindrance to\nthis self-emptying? It is not alone mere selfishness, in its ordinary\nsense, that prevents it; long after this has been cleansed away by\nthe Precious Blood there may remain, unrecognised, the self-life in\nmore subtle forms. It may co-exist with much that looks like\nsacrifice; there may be much of usefulness and of outward\nself-denial, and yet below the surface may remain a clinging to our\nown judgment, a confidence in our own resources, an unconscious\ntaking of our own way, even in God's service. And these things hold\ndown, hold in our souls, and frustrate the Spirit in His working. The\nlatent self-life needs to be brought down into the place of death\nbefore His breath can carry us hither and thither as the wind wafts\nthe seeds. Are we ready for this last surrender?\n\nDo you ask \"Does God really mean the emptying to reach so far as\nthis?\" Study the inner life of Jesus. \"I speak not of Myself\" He\nsays. \"I can of Mine own self do nothing.\" \"I seek not Mine own will,\nbut the will of Him that sent Me.\" His human self-life, sinless\nthough it was, was laid down that He might live by the Father, and\nour self-life, defiled and worthless, shall we not lay it down that\nwe may live by Him?\n\nBut how? Again not by struggling and wrestling, but by dying to it in\nJesus. \"I am crucified with Christ\"--I myself in the very essence of\nmy being, I let myself go to that death, and by the mysterious power\nwith which God meets faith, I find that He has made it true: the\nbonds are loosed and He can have His way with me.\n\nSee in these wild iris-pods how the last tiny threads must be broken,\nand with that loosing, all that they have is free for God's use in\nHis world around. All reluctance, all calculating, all holding in is\ngone; the husks are opened wide, the seeds can shed themselves\nunhindered. Again and again has a breaking come:--the seed broke to\nlet go the shoot--the leaf-bud broke to let go the leaf, and the\nflower-bud to let go the flower--but all to no practical avail, if\nthere is a holding back now. \"Love is the fulfilling of the law,\" and\nsacrifice is the very life-breath of love. May God shew us every\nwitholding thread of self that needs breaking still, and may His own\ntouch shrivel it into death.\n\nSee how this bit of oat-grass is emptying itself out. Look at the\nwide-openness with which the seed-sheaths loose all that they have to\nyield, and then the patient content with which they fold their\nhands--the content of finished work. \"She hath done what she could.\"\nOh, the depth of rest that falls on the soul when the voice of the\nBeloved speaks those words! Will they be said to us?\n\nThe seed-vessel hopes for nothing again: it seeks only the chance of\nshedding itself: its purpose is fulfilled when the wind shakes forth\nthe last seed, and the flower-stalk is beaten low by the autumn\nstorms. It not only spends, but is \"spent out\" (R. V.) at last. It is\nthrough Christ's poverty that we are rich--\"as poor\" in their turn\n\"yet making many rich\" is the mark of those who follow His steps.\n\nAre we following His steps; are we? How the dark places of the earth\nare crying out for all the powers of giving and living and loving\nthat are locked up in hearts at home! How the waste places are\npleading dumbly for the treasure that lies there in abundance, stored\nas it were in the seedvessels of God's garden that have not been\nbroken, not emptied for His world, not freed for His use.\n\nShall we not free it all gladly.--It is not grudgingly or of\nnecessity that the little caskets break up and scatter the seed, but\nwith the cheerful giving that God loves. Have you ever noticed how\noften the emptied calyx grows into a diadem, and they stand crowned\nfor their ministry as if they gloried in their power to give as the\ntime draws near?\n\nEven here in measure the faithfulness unto death and the crown of\nlife go together: even here, if we suffer, we shall also reign with\nHim.\n\nIt is when the sun goes out from our horizon to light up the\ndayspring in far-away lands, that the glory of the day comes on: it\nis in the autumn, when the harvest is gathered and the fruit is\nstored for the use of man, that the glow of red and gold touches and\ntransfigures bush and tree with a beauty that the summer days never\nknew.\n\nSo with us--The clear pure dawn of cleansing through the Blood--the\nsunrise gladness of resurrection life; the mid-day light and warmth\nof growth and service, all are good in their own order: but he who\nstops short there misses the crown of glory, before which the\nbrightness of former days grows poor and cold. It is when the glow\nand radiance of a life delivered up to death begins to gather: a life\npoured forth to Jesus and for His sake to others--it is then that\neven the commonest things put on a new beauty, as in the sunset, for\nHis life becomes \"manifest in our mortal flesh;\" a bloom comes on the\nsoul like the bloom on the fruit as its hour of sacrifice arrives.\n\nOh, that we may learn to die to all that is of self with this royal\njoyfulness that swallows up death in victory in God's world around!\nHe can make every step of the path full of the triumph of gladness\nthat glows in the golden leaves. Glory be to His Name!\n\nAnd the outcome, like the outcome of the autumn, is this: there is, a\nnew power set free; a power of multiplying life around. The promise\nto Christ was that because He poured forth His soul unto death, He\nshould see His seed: and He leads His children in their little\nmeasure by the same road. Over and over the promise of seed is linked\nwith sacrifice, as with Abraham and Rebekah and Ruth; those who at\nHis bidding have forsaken all receive an hundred-fold more now in\nthis time, for sacrifice is God's factor in His work of multiplying.\n\"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth\nalone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.\"\n\nIt is the poured-out life that God blesses--the life that heeds not\nitself, if only other souls may be won. \"Ask and it shall be given\nunto you\" is one of God's nursery lessons to His children. \"Give, and\nit shall be given unto you\" comes further on.\n\nThe reason is this:--that into the being that is ready to let the\nself-life go, God the Holy Ghost can come and dwell and work\nunfettered; and by that indwelling He will manifest within us His\nwonderful Divine power of communicating vitality--of reproducing the\nimage of Jesus in souls around.\n\nIt is true that it is a rule that sometimes has exceptions: there are\nthose to whom a blessed life of fruitfulness to God comes in a simple\nway, with seemingly no hard process of dying involved, just as there\nare plants that reproduce themselves by bulb and tuber, sucker and\nshoot, without going through the stripping and scattering that we\nhave been watching. But the law of creation is \"the herb yielding\nseed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is\nin itself.\" And let us count it all joy if this law is carried out in\nus.\n\n\"If it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.\" Whether it is laid down in\ntoil among the lost, or in travail of soul among His children that\nChrist be formed in them, either way there will be life brought forth.\n\nIt does not follow that every seed will spring up: it is not so in\nthe natural world. The plant's business is to scatter it, not\nwithholding, not knowing which shall prosper, either this or that, or\nwhether they both shall be alike good; once scattered, the\nresponsibility is transferred to the ground that receives it. But the\naim of the plant--the goal of all the budding and blossoming and\nripening--is that every seed should carry potential life.\n\nThus are we responsible, not for the tangible results of our ministry\nto others, but for its being a ministry in demonstration of the\nSpirit and of power, such a ministry as will make those around us\ndefinitely responsible to God for accepting or rejecting the fulness\nof His salvation. If so, the \"signs following\" will not be wanting.\nIt will be to the one the savour of death unto death, and to the\nother the savour of life unto life, but \"whether they will hear, or\nwhether they will forbear, they shall know that there hath been a\nprophet among them.\"\n\n* * * * * * * *\n\nBut even when the plant's goal is reached, it is not a finality.\n\"There is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning. Every\nultimate fact is only the beginning of a new series.\"[Footnote*:Emerson]\n\"While the earth remaineth seed-time and harvest . . . shall not cease.\"\nLife leads on to new death, and new death back to life again. Over and\nover when we think we know our lesson, we find ourselves beginning\nanother round of God's Divine spiral: \"in deaths oft\" is the measure\nof our growth, \"always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the\nlife also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.\"\n\nThis bit of sphagnum shows the process in miniature: stage after\nstage of dying has been gone through, and each has been all the while\ncrowned with life. Each time that the crown has sunk down again into\ndeath, that death has again been crowned in the act of dying: and the\nlife all the time is the apparent thing: the daily dying that\nunderlies it is out of sight to the passing glance.\n\nYes, life is the uppermost, resurrection life, radiant and joyful and\nstrong, for we represent down here Him who liveth and was dead and is\nalive for evermore. Stress had to be laid in these pages on the death\ngateway, but a gateway is never a dwelling-place; the death-stage is\nnever meant for our souls to stay and brood over, but to pass through\nwith a will into the light beyond. We may and must, like the plants,\nbear its marks, but they should be visible to God rather than to man,\nfor above all and through all is the inflowing, overflowing life of\nJesus: oh let us not dim it by a shadow of morbidness or of gloom: He\nis not a God of the dead, but a God of the living, and He would have\nus let the glory of His gladness shine out.\n\nThink of the wonder of it--the Fountain of Life Himself wells up\nwithin us, taking the place of all that we have delivered, bit by\nbit, into His grave. \"I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.\"\nLittle have we proved, any of us, the resources that lie in that\nmighty indwelling, little have we learnt what it is to have all our\nsoul-fibres penetrated by its power. May God lead us, no matter what\nthe cost, into all that can be known of it, here on earth.\n\nAnd the results need not end with our earthly days. Should Jesus\ntarry our works will follow us. The closing in of the signs around us\nmake it seem as if we should not taste of death, and as if the time\nleft us to work and suffer for Him were growing very short; but if\nthat last gate has to be passed before our spirits are sent free into\nthe land of perfect life, God may use, by reason of the wonderful\nsolidarity of His Church, the things that He has wrought in us, for\nthe blessing of souls unknown to us: as these twigs and leaves of\nbygone years, whose individuality is forgotten, pass on vitality\nstill to the new-born wood-sorrel. God only knows the endless\npossibilities that lie folded in each one of us!\n\nShall we not let Him have His way? Shall we not go all lengths with\nHim in His plans for us--not, as these \"green things upon the earth\"\nin their unconsciousness, but with the glory of free choice? Shall we\nnot translate the story of their little lives into our own?\n\nFor all their teaching of surrender and sacrifice is no fanciful\nmysticism; it is a simple reality that can be tested at every\nturn--nay, that must be so tested. If we are apprehending Christ's\ndeath in its delivering power, our homes will not be slow to find it\nout.\n\n* * * * * * * *\n\nO Jesus the Crucied I will follow Thee in thy path. Inspire me for\nthe next step, whether it leads down into the shadow of death or up\ninto the light. Surely in what place my Lord the King shall be,\nwhether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be.\n\nAmen.","title":"Parables of the Cross","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":7280}